What Happened in Vegas

It all started, really, with a black-and-white floral print bar chair. Anne Marie ducked into Restaurant Charlie at the Palazzo in Vegas and bestowed upon it a 5-star decor rating. Lorri and I, both of us eager to check out a beautiful eating space and Lo eager to find a bathroom, popped in for a look-see. What we were not expecting was a personal greeting from the genteel GM, Nicholas, who offered us a tour of the restaurant and kitchen. I had never seen a professional kitchen before, off-screen anyway, and we were ushered through the etherially white and suprisingly congenial space and then up the stairs to the exclusive "loft" table for 8, which I understand goes for $350 a head. Back in Bar Charlie, Nicholas continued to tell us about the creative pairings of food and beverage offered at RC and introduced us to the expert mixologist, Kerri (whose name I am probably mispelling). I really enjoyed learning that new word: mixologist. Two steps up from bartender, and with good reason as we were about to find out.

This is when things got really fun. Nicholas asks if we're free for the next 15 minutes. Oh, yes! How about a signature coctail? A sparkling melange of champagne, lychee, and something delightfully floral. Might be my favorite drink ever. Eventually we are seated in those floral bar stools for a parade of appetizers and complementary drinks that lasts well over an hour and 15 minutes. Our new best friends Nicholas and Kerri serve us the following (to the best of my memory, plus a little online consultation of the RC menu):

1. Some sort of fish... wish I could remember. Accompanied by a carrot coctail that included something lightly fruity and a saltwater soda.
2. Warm salad of heirloom beets with pickled egg and chrysanthemum, with a tasty, pretty, beety beverage.
3. Cucumber water to cleanse the palate.
4. Dungeness crab salad with sake and rice milk (the sake was in a sorbet) perfectly paired with sweetened rice milk served in a nut-rimmed shot glass.
5. Tuna tartar, imported daily from Japan. No kidding. Framed beautifully by a green pepper puree, mango puree, and yellow puree. (That's the best I can do. Don't remember what the yellow stuff was.) It was salty and rich and complex, and a tango to the tastebuds. Accompanied by a watermelon and basil coctail, refreshingly mellow and a perfect counterpoint to the tuna.
6. Steamed cacao nib cake (translation: chocolate) with sour candied kumquats plus cacao ice cream and tangerine sorbet. Rounded out with a delectable chocolate liqueur. Never again will I pair chocolate with raspberry. Citrus is definitely the fruity queen to chocolate's king.

And this, dear reader, is how three 40-year-old, food-loving, bargain-hunting, non-gambling women hit the jackpot in Vegas. Geeks that we are, we sat at the bar eating, drinking, giggling like schoolgirls, and taking pictures of our food. Photos below. Did I mention that we each received "Spa Cuisine" cookbooks as parting gifts? Viva Las Vegas.

Beet coctail, sweet rice milk, cucumber water, carrot coctail

Anne Mo, Kerri, Nicholas, Lo, Me

Tuna tartar, a feast for the eyes

Lush

Chocolate and citrus, my new fave

Oh y'all, this was so good...

I'm taking a tip from Charlotte tonight and blogging about my cooking adventures. For dinner, we had a tomato tart, fontina grits, and short-cut sweet collards. I'll start by giving props to Martha Stewart for the tart recipe and Paula Deen for the collards, although I modified both recipes a bit.

For the tart, I used a ready made pie crust - shame on me! I did not cut corners with the actual roasting of the garlic, though, because the guy on the TV show said that the coating of garlic paste would form a barrier between the juicy tomatoes and the crust, preventing it from getting soggy. However, I only used three cloves rather than the whole head. I also baked the tart only about 40 minutes, which I found to be sufficient, and added a little basil as well. Needless to say, all this served to reduce the time and effort of the exercise by quite a bit. Who has time for the full Martha Stewart treatment, anyway? It was delicious. My husband and I kept eating even after we were quite full.

The perfect side dishes for the tart are grits and collards. I used the remainder of the chunk of fontina and dumped it in the grits (prepared according to 4-serving box directions). The collards I made last week, and to my delight, the experiment in freezing/defrosting them turned out great. I don't know how many pounds of collards I started out with - one bunch of 'em from the grocery store, however much that is - so I'll have to admit to guestimating all the other quantities, too. Paula's microwave strategy is ingenious, and I love the bacon-vinegar-syrup-pepper seasoning. I subbed turkey bacon for the Canadian version and added quite a bit more vinegar and syrup than the recipe called for, partly because my collards were extra bitter. But the end result was fantastic. Oh, I am so delightfully full! Did I already say that?

Finding Angel

When I was a kid growing up in Montgomery, Alabama, my best friend was Angel Sanders. She's the one on the far left, and then there's me, with a flower growing out of my head, at my 10th birthday party. We lived two blocks away from each other and spent countless afternoons at each others' houses. There were spend-the-night parties, attempted girls' club formations (one named after Fonzie's girlfriend Pinky) and of course the endless chatter about which boys were cute. Specifically, Angel was always infatuated with Damon Summers, and I never quite got over Scott Marks, even though he never "liked me back." Once, Angel and I got caught looking up sex in the encyclopedia, and when Angel's mom walked in, we quickly turned the page over to sewing. What ensued was a lengthy sewing tutorial that Angel and I endured with guilt and excruciating boredom. After all, it was the 70's. We wanted to macrame! With boys!

Our family moved to South Carolina when I was 16, and Angel and I kept in touch with letters. Of course, those thinned out through the years. One, though, I remember clearly: I was 18, a freshman in college, and I received a brief note from Angel, accompanied by a photo of her in a hospital bed holding a baby. She had gotten married. My heart fell into my stomach. And thus our two worlds diverged, Angel embarking on an adventure that was far beyond my comprehension. I did have the pleasure of seeing her one more time, when we were 21 (I think). I met her lovely son Josh and had ice cream with her and her mom at the mall where we had had so many childhood adventures (that mall had an ice skating rink in the center and also housed a Mexican restaurant which had been the scene of our first independent eating-out experience... ah, the memories!).

It just occurs to me that it sounds like I'm writing Angel's memorial. On the contrary! I just talked to Angel this afternoon. After nearly 20 years of silence and regular attempts to Google her name -- Angel Sanders, Angela Gay Sanders, Angel Davis, Angela Sanders Davis, Angel G. Davis, etc. -- I managed to track down my old friend. Last night, it finally occured to me that I still remember her mom's name. Betty Sanders. Googled that. Found her. Payed $2.95 for her address and phone number. Bingo. Dailed it this afternoon and it felt eerily familiar -- indeed, the very same number I dialed countless times 30 years ago. Angel currently lives 3 blocks from her mom, remarried two years ago, and has four kids including an infant. I can't wait till we get a chance to fill in the gaps.

Spring What?

Tonight after dinner, my husband bemoaned the fact that we had never gotten around to Spring Cleaning this year. This year? I asked. I have never once cleaned anything in honor of a season. What a quaint idea. What is spring cleaning anyway? I have these images of 50's June Cleaver housewives wearing peddle pushers, with bandanas over their hair, standing on stools and wiping areas where no human eye ever ventures to look on a normal day-to-day basis. Does anyone spring clean in this millennium? Comments welcome.

The Shack

Finally read it. Not sure how much I liked it, though. I'll start with its good points: It's one of the most imaginative and accessible treatments of God as Trinity I've ever read. I especially liked that neither God the Father (a "large beaming African-American woman") nor the Holy Spirit (Asian) nor Jesus (thankfully Middle Eastern, as opposed to the blond Jesus in my childhood picture Bible) were white. Some of it was hokey and over-played, but it had a richness of mood that I found contagious. These images will impact my prayer life in weeks to come, most certainly.

I also liked much of the theology. There was so much of it, in fact, that I imagine each individual reader will zero in on a different morsel. For me, it was the parts about love versus rules. One of my favorite lines: "'Remember, the people who know me are the ones who are free to live and love without any agenda' [Jesus]." And: "'Rules cannot bring freedom; they only have the power to accuse' [Sarayu, the Holy Spirit]." This book is highly quotable.

What I didn't like was its cheese. I disagreed with all the liner comments about how literary it was. The writing was not BAD, not at all, but it did not reach any artistic heights. I found it far too heavy-handed for that. It was clever and engaging, but in large part it was a narrative scheme invented to frame apologetic conversations. I'd rather get my narrative theology from the narration. This novel was just far too expository. I skimmed a lot and skipped numerous paragraphs, sometimes entire pages that were mere framing devices or superfluous preaching. For that reason, I couldn't recommend it to too many of my friends -- it had no literary or spiritual subtlety. I give it a C+. For what my opinion is worth.

Dear Mommy

Harper spent the past week and a half at her grandmother's (my mom, "Mimi," in Denver) and we enjoyed, for the first time ever, keeping in touch via email. Here's the summary:

We LOVE you MOMMY! We hope you are having a good time without me. What haveyou been doing lately? + I got a mereinet on Monday. And I went bowling yesterday and I go swimming today! Oh and me anda girl named Braelyn are going to teeny town together! And cookies tonight!
JUNE 24, 2008Your little Harper

Dear Little Harper,
I know you are having a wonderful time!! I sure miss you! While you are gone, I am doing boring stuff like errands, balancing my checkbook, and going to meetings at church. I hope you have a terrific day at Tiny Town! I will be in regular size town. I will see you soon! LOVE YOU!!!
Mommy Wommy Bo Bommy Banana Fana Fo Fommy Fee Fi Mo Mommy -- Mommy!

Harper Warper bo barper Banana fana fo farper Fe Fi Mo Marper. Harper!I hope you are having fun! LOVE YOU!!!
Harper June 25, 2008

Dear Little H,
Today I am going to get the car oil changed (boring!!), return some stuff to Home Depot and the tile store (boring!!), get the car washed (boring!!), and then go see two movies downtown (fun!!). Hope your day is wonderful. Be a good girl. Is this your day of beauty? I know you will be gorgeous! You can have Mimi send me a picture of your new hairdo, or you can surprise me at the airport next week! I will look exactly the same. See you then! Mommy

Dear Caryn,
Harper has had the royal treatment today: painted nails, lunch at Wendy's, hair cut, shopping at Macy's (2 outfits), dollar store (hair barrettes and coloring book). The End. My rest time now after heating leftovers fordinner. Love, Mom

So that was about it. I flew to Denver on Monday to retrieve her, and we got back earlier this evening. We were welcomed by Daddy, who provided pizza and a new Xbox for our homecoming. I think Mimi is exhausted.