created by a chatty kathy and a guy who cooks while intoxicated, the dinner studio is just that - a 400-sq ft hole-in-the-wall where seasonal food is served and paired with esoteric wines; where you can eat, drink, and relax. join us as we celebrate friendships, new and old, over candlelight, food, music, and so much wine we might as well serve it through an iv. may this blog document the process of our monthly dinners, from preparation to face-stuffing with close friends. here's to a hearty appetite and good times!

4.03.2012

springtime feasting

dinner number one at the studio...check. it was a long day of shopping, prepping, eating, and drinking. there were highs, a handful of lows, but all in all, it was worth every second.

shopping

the day started early for gino, as he is one to lounge the morning away. thanks to my type-A scheduling, we were out and about by 11 am, with market totes and lists in hand.







the highs: unexpected drizzle at the farmer's market...less people! changing our menu based on the market's best. tasting, smelling, collecting our ingredients. 

the low: dodging the soccer moms at costco. 

prepping

once we got the goods, we set up our work stations and went to it. five hours to prep, music playing, and more tasting...couldn't have had a more relaxing afternoon.












the highs: working in silence, with music in the background, watching each other focus on our dishes. tasting as we went. the smell of onions being caramelized, fresh rosemary being torn apart.

the lows: being around all the cooking food on an empty stomach.

the dinner

by 7 pm, our first guests arrived. it started to pour outside, which clearly meant we would have dinner indoors. cell phones were placed in a box, the first glass of wine was poured, and dinner was underway...for the next five hours. the final menu included:

flatbread with roasted broccolini, sundried tomato and mozzarella
golden and red beet salad with arugula, avocado and blood orange
roasted carrot-and-ginger soup with goat cheese crostini
lamb ragu with shaved pecorino
blackberry and rosemary crumble

and for the wine...
bugey cerdon from burgundy
riesling from oregon
pinot gris from alsace
a rhone blend of grenache, syrah, and mourvedre











the highs: the cozy feeling of eating while it's pouring outside. bringing people together. the food and wine. eating until the wee hours of morning. not being interrupted/distracted with phones.

the lows: ending. 

we would say our first dinner at the dinner studio was a success. a yummy success. we already have our minds in motion, planning for april. and at the rate we're going, i have a feeling we might have to include a dress code: wear elastic pants.




























3 comments:

  1. Jessica McLeodApril 3, 2012 at 11:23 AM

    May I encourage you to post your recipes too? That menu sounds divine! :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. erica April 3, 2012 at 12:40 PM

    next time, we would love to post any recipes we use...it may be difficult since gino tends to make things without recipes, but maybe we could make up recipes as we go :)for this menu, the only recipe i used was for the blackberry crumble, which can be found in tyler florence's cookbook titled Tyler Florence's Real Kitchen.

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  3. AnonymousApril 3, 2012 at 2:25 PM

    Too cute! We recently started a dinner club with a few friends and we love it. Your dinner rules are the best! Looking forward to future posts. Miss you.

    ReplyDelete

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