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

back at it

it's that time again...well, six days from now. next saturday, we will be hosting our second dinner at the studio. don't even bother asking what the menu will be like. and please refrain from guessing a theme or harboring up a list of wines. "why?" you may ask. well, the answer is quite simple: we have no idea!

now don't get us wrong, we have been thinking about it. in fact, we have been thinking and brainstorming and listing and crossing off lists and repeating these exercises for the past month. it's just that we have too many ideas. and it doesn't help being overwhelmed by the glories that prevail at the farmer's market. i think we just care a little bit too much (and have appetites like horses).

however uncertain we are at this point, we can guarantee a few things:

1. there will be multiple courses...it will all just depend on what tickles our fancies that morning.
2. wine glasses will be filled. again and again.
3. cell phones will be absent.
4. we will make a decent effort at showering before dinner. (time goes by fast when you're cooking).
5. chocolate will be present somewhere, somehow, in the dessert. oh, you betcha it will.

so until next saturday, wish us luck as we prepare for our good ol' april dinner!

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.