Been away! 12 days of road trip in which we (four couples) cooked in rented homes and ate on the road getting to and from. We were Covid-cautious so mostly avoided restaurants. Some highlights:
On our third night in Sonoma it was Annabelle's and my turn to cook. The proteins by others had been beef and pork so we went with chicken and shrimp. We marinated two 5 pound chickens overnight and then halved them, oven-roasting three of the halves and freezing the fourth for later. We served the roast chicken with grilled shrimp marinated with calabrian chiles, a bibb lettuce salad drenched in a warm mushroom dressing, and some amazing seeded sourdough bread from a local (Sebastopol) bakery.
After Sonoma we and John and Annabelle left the group and headed upcoast to Fort Bragg, which is north of California's excellent cool-climate Anderson Valley wine region, where we had rented a gorgeous home on a bluff. Days were spent roaming about and dinners were back at our home paired with the conquests of our wine tasting endeavors and things we'd brought from home (like a magnum of '91 Georges LaTour, and a 2001 Dugat-Py from Burgundy).
The first night we thawed the marinated chicken half, cut it into six pieces and braised it with yukon golds, wine, leftover marinade and fennel which we browned the cut side of and placed atop the chicken and potatoes to steam. We garnished each portion with blanched fresh fava beans. EXCELLENT flavors, beautiful on the plate. Another night, inspired by a canister of Slap Yo Mama Cajun Seasoning that had been left behind by a previous renter, we made up our own Cajun Shrimp dish wherein we sauteed a lot of 'holy trinity' (green bell pepper, celery and onion) in a lot of butter then finished the shrimp in that, and had meanwhile boiled off the shells to make a tasty stock for cooking rice. The SYM seasoning was distributed lavishly. OUTSTANDING, the kind of dish that had us both scratching our heads going, "Why have we never thought of doing this before?"
Another outstanding dish was something we ordered in a restaurant in a tiny town in Humboldt county on the edge of the Redwoods. Desiring a French dip sandwich to share, we chose a place called the Humboldt Bar and Grill where a version of that would usually be a slam-dunk. But lo and behold, once inside? There was 'futbol' on the TVs and the menu was Mexican. But it was empty, so we felt safe and stayed, and ordered something called Chipotle Steak Mexicana, the daily special. Had no idea what to expect. OMG. It was a typical Mexican combo plate, rice in the middle, the best refried beans ever to one side, and this mass of thick stir-fried steak pieces that had been simmered in a fantastic smoky chipotle-tomato sauce on the other. House-made flour tortillas were provided. We didn't leave a speck. Not even one kernel of rice. It was SOOOOOOOOOO good. I will, MUST, re-create this dish.
Another unique experience on this trip: our first-ever experience ordering pizza delivered to our hotel. Nothing notable about what we got, just that we did this. Never thought I'd see the day.
And now we're home. Dinner tonight: cowboy steak, using chuck eye steaks we found at a small market on the coast yesterday morning (I had a Playmate cooler in which to keep them along with two bags of frozen peas for extra cooling). I put all three packages they had in my cart and as we swung out of that department two guys in aprons (the meat dept guys) pointed at my cart and said, "She got the butchers cut! She knows!!!!" Indeed, so we had a real fun conversation about this precious cut and how we never brag about it to friends because we don't want any more competition getting to the few that surface locally.