the dinner studio tours san diego

gino and i spent the weekend with my parents in san diego. and as with all visits home, we packed our necessary cooking utensils, ingredients, and ideas. naturally, my parents don't put up a fight when they know something is brewing in the kitchen. they just sit back, let us take control of the meals, and enjoy.

but this weekend was different. the four of us put our heads together and planned a meal. together. then we assigned ourselves to a task and went to it.

during the preparation, gino and i looked at each other and both agreed this was like a dinner studio day...the planning, the shopping, the cooking, and of course, the feasting. only, we had four minds instead of two, eight hands instead of four, and a much bigger space to work. dinner studio, family edition. 


pre-preparation:


normally, g and i don' drink while we prepare for our dinner studio feasts. for one, it changes the flavor profile of what you're tasting. and second, who wants to take a risk with knives while nursing a nice little buzz?

but on a warm summer day, we couldn't resist a quenching elixir. a handmade watermelon-basil elixir, to be exact.

taking mental notes

the prep:

with a refreshing cocktail under our belts, we all got to it. daddy at the grill with me, gino, and mama at our respective stations in the kitchen. 

summertime feasting:

because this was a family-inspired meal, we invited my aunt and cousin to feast with us. and of course, everything was served family-style. sweet and simple. round two of drinks were served and the feasting began.

the spread:

fresh-squeezed oro blanco grapefruit rickey's

carne asada and grilled shrimp tacos

roasted tomatillo salsa verde

yogurt-cumin cabbage slaw

grilled spring onions

roasted corn-and-red pepper salad with basil and tomato

habanero marinated radishes

dinner studio in the motherland was tender and quite epic. although we had to navigate through a different kitchen, gino and i were thankful for the extra hands. and the meal itself was more than okay. it was de-li-cious! thanks, mama and daddy! and it was a pleasure having you over, heidi and kristen! 

this whole touring other cities (and kitchens) is fun...maybe we'll be coming to a city near you!

why, hello there summer

aaaand, we're back! nearly three months without hosting a dinner at the studio could only mean one thing: gino and i were ready to bring it! in a way, i'm secretly happy we didn't have to plan anything for june...what kind of month is that anyway? is it cold, warm, spring, summer? the stone fruits are hardly making an appearance at the market, and the tomatoes are subpar. let's just say thank goodness june came and went.

hello, sweet july with all of your pickings!

gino and i don't exactly have ideal schedules for hosting dinners. we usually work during the weekends, which makes it difficult to plan these dinners with the majority of our close friends. with no fridays or saturdays in sight this month, we took a risk and planned for a monday dinner. well i guess two people must have been hungry (or had free time) because we received their RSVPs. monday dinner at the studio...on!

a summer feast in july easily equated to a tapas-inspired menu. a variety of small plates, served family style, highlighting the freshest summer fare. and of course, what would a summer evening be without white sangria and a bottle of a cabernet franc rosé (thank you, brent)!? perfect.

the prep:


as usual, gino and i hit the ground running. we grabbed our bags, fastened our appetites, and went to work. and to keep us pumped (or nostalgic), we listened to the beach boys as we prepped away the afternoon. who said monday couldn't be the new funday?

note: this is the ONLY time two-buck chuck will be featured. ever. it was used for sangria.

...see? sangria.

break:

prepping for a multi-course dinner can be exhausting. the shopping, chopping, washing, stirring. and not to mention, bending here, reaching for that, and climbing over each other as we try to cook within fine spaces. exhausting. so by mid-prep, it's only natural we take a break. even if it's only for 10 minutes, lying on the ground outside, while the eggs are baking. 

the feast:

unfortunately, one of our guests had to cancel last minute. although we were a little shocked by how much food we were going to end up with, we decided to eliminate one of the courses. save for next time. gino and i kept moving forward as we anticipated our one prized guest - dear brent. dinner for three, you betcha!

by twilight, the three of us were ready to sit down and dig in. and for the first time, candlelight was not necessary. just the afterglow of the setting sun. pure delight.

the final tapas-inspired menu included:

homemade hummus with sundried tomatoes and feta

farmer's market figs and shishito peppers

tortilla espanola with chili-marinated red onions

balsamic watermelon-and-heirloom-tomato salad

spiced lamb meatballs with yogurt dill sauce

black plum clafoutis

all washed down with:

white sangria (with every fruit we could fit in)

a cabernet franc rosé (courtesy of brent)

our july dinner minus one turned out to be a big whopping (and tasty) success. gino and i learned that you've just got to adapt when something doesn't go as expected, whether that be the guest list, weather, ingredients. needless to say, our table of three ate, drank, and laughed as if we were a table of six on a saturday night. 

see you next month!

hiatus

we regret to announce that we will not be hosting a may dinner. now don't get us wrong, we love our monthly dinners. it's just that i'll be traveling in europe for the better part of the month, and although gino could very well host a dinner on his own, he'd rather have his sous chef by his side. or at least another dish-washer.

but be not afraid, dear readers and future guests. our thinking caps are still on, and our appetites are still hearty. who knows, the next dinners may have an added hint of italy or a splash of france. trust you me, i will be doing my "homework" while i'm gone, even if that means indulging here and there. again and again. hopefully this commitment to food will translate to more inspired dishes for you. and don't you fret about the studio. gino will be holding the fort down, keeping track of the latest goods at the markets.

you better believe that we are excited about june's dinner...it will be a new season! just consider this break the perfect time to empty your tummies so we can replenish them yet again. until then, ciao!

table for four, please

april dinner at the studio...we'd say it was a grand success. we decided to keep it small this time, so we were a happy table of four. simply said, it was intimate and comfortable, making it easy to figure out with whom you were playing footsies.

as we wrote in an earlier post, we had no idea what our plan of attack would be, as far as the menu went. naturally, i felt a little on edge as a type-A person would feel, while gino shrugged his ever-easy shoulder assuring me we would find the perfect ingredients for a nice meal. and boy, was he right.

the goods and the prep


we woke up early and made our way straight to the market. gino had ideas brewing in his head the day before, surprising me with a beautifully eclectic menu. you can imagine my sigh of relief when i tossed out the confusing list i was struggling to complete. with a rough plan in mind, we went to it and collected the goods.

tellings of the fresh fare

because we knew saturday would be busy prepping for the courses, i decided to make the dessert friday night. and between you and me, it was perfect timing...a long day at work, ending with a chocolate truffle tart baking in the oven. oh, and the national playing in the background. genius.

once we got going, we got going. we had six hours to prep and not once felt the pressure from the clock. shoot, gino even had time to make kombucha. and i had time to shake it a bit to our bossa nova playlist. by the way, we've decided that bossa nova is our preferred soundtrack for all things related to food. sultry. sensual.

feasting

when our two guests arrived, we were immediately stunned/pleased by their instinctive hand-off of their cell phones. with that kind of commitment, i had a hunch it would be a great night. of course, we started off with some bubbly to set the tone, and by 7 pm, we were feasting like kings. or starved pigs. 

with a table of only four, we noticed how easy the conversation flowed. in fact, it flowed just as easy as the wine. i couldn't even tell you what we talked about because it just happened so naturally. and that's what it's all about: beautiful food, luscious wines, and pure merriment. if i could be so bold, i'd say the evening was the equivalent to sinking your teeth into the ripest, juiciest, most succulent peach imaginable. yeah, it was that good. (queue the eye-rolling from gino).

our six-hour dinner was composed of the following:

cucumber crab rolls atop an avocado-apple coulis

burrata and beet salad with dandelion and aged balsamic

roasted mushroom soup with goat cheese crostini

saffron shrimp risotto with a fennel-scallion salad

chocolate truffle tart

happy belated birthday, brent!

in the end, this dinner accomplished a handful of things. it turned beet non-believers into beet lovers; it turned dessert skeptics into chocoholics; it proved to people that, yes, you really can eat that much food; and it brought out the lightest in us (if i'm not mistaken, gino gave our guests a glimpse of his nipple. classy man, i tell you). 

we learned that a table of four can be just as lively as a table of six or eight. it all just depends on what we make of it. 

note: for the recipe to the saffron shrimp risotto, click here . and for the chocolate truffle tart recipe, click here