This (Past) Week: DRP Turns Nine

It's been a big week at our house. A big, long, exhausting week full of celebrating Dixon turning nine. Nine! Those years have flown by.

His actual birthday was on Tuesday. At his request, we headed down to Fells to have dinner at Papi's Tacos. It's his favorite queso in the city. It was raining, but Papi's little back patio is covered, so we could sit out there anyway. It was kind of a steamy hotbox, but none of us really minded. The queso and tacos and - for me - boozy jalapeno limeade made it easy to forget about the humidity.

Wednesday and Thursday were standard-busy with work and work dinners - and birthday party prep. Dixon's party was on Friday afternoon and the theme this year was Sharks and Zombies. He didn't want to have any set games, so instead we (I) created two photo booth type areas - one shark-related and one zombie, related. 

I found a lot of pretty sweet zombie and shark attack accessories - and I was especially pleased with the blood spattered shower curtain I got from Amazon. Seven dollars seriously well spent.

For the sixth year in a row, Dixon and Alicia collaborated on his birthday cake. This year, unfortunately, I made the wrong size cake, so the decorations were a little oversized. But they were still pretty pleased with their work.

What the picture can't show: how insanely good Alicia's buttercream is.

We have had Dixon's parties at our house every year since he was born. There is, frequently, a chance of rain during the party. But the weather always comes through for us, so the kids can run around the yard. 

Always, that is, until this year. Instead, we had a couple dozen nearly-tween boys wreaking havoc on our basement while they beat each other with Nerf weapons. It was...loud. Fortunately, in the end, no one required stitches or a trip to the hospital or anything. 

Still, I have learned my lesson. That was the last year for that kind of party. Dixon agrees. Cooper really agrees.

When they had cake to focus on, though, they almost look angelic.

And then the night ended.

Just kidding. I really didn't close it out with wine coolers. I closed it out with red wine. But Bill brought me this awesome four-pack of Black Cherry Fizz as a "good luck with the party" gift. He's a good friend like that. I will be saving these for a rainy day.

So now Dixon is nine - and my basement is still a wreck. But he's happy. (Until tomorrow, when I make him start writing his thank you notes.)

This Week: Summer's Not Over Yet

Dixon went back to school this week...but summer's not completely over just yet! Here's a quick report on this week's exploits, starting from the top left and moving clockwise:

• Blog Candy: Last week, Cail texted me about these Chimes mango and ginger chews. For obvious reasons. I ordered some right away and am happy to say that I think they are delicious - all chewy and spicy with just a little sweet mango. However, all my friends think they're gross. Which is fine. More for me.
• Spice & Smoke: On Sunday, we had some friends over and Cooper smoked a batch of bacon-wrapped, cheese-stuffed jalapenos. We have a lot of jalapenos. Our garden is pepper central. And these...well, they were the best he's ever made. Not overly spicy and just really smoky and nice.
• Fancy French Poulet: Last night, I made this House Beautiful recipe for Chicken Veronique. It was super quick and easy and I would definitely do it again. However, I don't think it's necessary to open a bottle of sparkling wine, unless you're going to drink the rest with the meal. Regular old white would do just fine.
• Salsa!: We have more tomatoes than we know what to do with...so I have made several batches of fresh tomato salsa (it's also a good way to use some of our overabundance of jalapenos). I started with this Alton Brown recipe, tweaking and subbing - I didn't do any roasting, for example, and instead of anchos, I used dried cayennes left over from our garden last year.
• Shoo-Fly: We had such a good, spontaneous dinner at Shoo-fly on Saturday night. It was just the three of us and we sat downstairs in the diner space. Dixon drank tons of birch beer, I had killer fried chicken, and Cooper had a really solid pork barbecue entree. Plus, a couple great drinks (the one pictured above had bourbon and bitters...but it wasn't overly bourbony or bitter). It's settled into itself, I think, in a way that's really smart for the neighborhood. Which is nice.

This weekend...summer's swan song at the beach. There will be softshells. Among other things...

April

I blink and all of a sudden, it's Spring. Or, more accurately, after months of staring at my laptop, I look up and see the sun shining.

A few highlights, starting at the top left corner:

• We had friends over for pork and festivities last weekend. A salad of grapefruit, orange, radishes and apple (which was supposed to be jicama) was a big hit with the ladies. Less so with some of the guys...but I thought it was great.
• Mario Batali's version of chicken saltimbocca is not the healthiest weeknight dinner I've ever made but it was both delicious and easy (even if it did involve a trip to the liquor store for vin santo...for which I subbed a Washington state dessert wine).
• Instead of pork on sandwiches, our smoking season kicked off with pulled pork tacos topped with cilantro cream, cheese, guacamole and sauteed onions. Plus, a few apples and radishes from that salad. The tacos were good.
• Dixon and I spent yesterday in DC, at the Museum of Natural History and the Air and Space Museum (and also at lunch with Erin). We got on a MARC train at 9 am and didn't arrive back in Baltimore until almost 5. It was exhausting but totally fun.
• I have written a ton of articles about oysters this spring (none of which have appeared in print just yet). I've learned a lot and had a great time doing it. The highlight was a photo shoot with in the Sun studio, featuring oysters from Ryleigh's and Thames Street Oyster House. Afterwards, I got to take home some of the leftovers, which Cooper and I demolished on a sunny Friday afternoon.
• It is crush season again. Finally. (That's what we drank with the pork.)

Not pictured: the fun and surprisingly good lunch I had with my friend/former Canton roommate at MaGerk's in Bel Air (a spicy shrimp wrap that was really nicely cooked and served with a side of edamame) or the amount of time I spent considering the Sun's 50 best restaurants list (I didn't help with it but after much thought, I don't disagree with any of it...and it reminded me that I really need to get to Bottega).

And no Easter is upon us, which means Dixon and I have some egg-dying to do today. Considering how long it took to arrive, this spring certainly is flying by.

This Week: March 15th to March 21st

This week has mostly been about work, work and more work - but before all that, we had a super fun weekend. Friday night, my high school friends Pete and Liz, who live in Maine, were in Annapolis, so a bunch of us - several of the "known since kindergarten" crew - got together at McGarvey's:

Pete & Liz are the ones making out. So gross.

Crab dip, crab cakes, burgers, oysters. Beer. There are so many things McGarvey's does right. I have been there a zillion times and I never get sick of it. It's the setting of so many of my favorite memories.

On Sunday, we hosted a small St. Patrick's Day brunch at our house ("brunch" means people come over from 12 p.m. to 9 p.m.). We had smoked salmon and radishes and shamrock cookies from my sister and Alicia's cabbage noodles and Jen' reuben dip and lots of Irish bread and bangers (thank you, Trader Joe's) and mash and - the centerpiece - homemade corned beef hash (this recipe), which is not pictured because I was too busy cooking the hash and eggs to stop and photograph anything.

It was so festive and fun:

Everyone was in the spirit and ready to have such a good time - from the little kids to the grandparents.

On Monday, it was back to the grind again. But at least we have the memories of the weekend.

Those Weeks: March 4th to March 14th

It's been busy times around here - and not just because of Fake St. Patrick's Day (though that was the most notable event going on during the past week and a half - and where the oysters, in the shot above, came from).

Last weekend, we followed Fake St. Pat's with brunch at Petit Louis with my parents and grandmother. The restaurant's consistency, both in food and service, never ceases to amaze me. As a group, we were unadventurous - quiche and salad for the ladies and croque monsieurs for the men. Pasta for Dixon (talk about unadventurous). But it was all just right.

After brunch, we had a quiet afternoon then hit Ridley Field for the Loyola vs. Duke lacrosse game, which Loyola won, handily. It was packed, cold and very exciting, especially for Dixon, who is about to start his third season tearing up the field for Kelly Post. This year, he told me this morning, he's planning to stick with defense but maybe also give goalie a try. "I like defending things that are important," he explained. "Like the goal. Or against zombies." Noted.

I've been too busy to cook much but I have given a couple recipes a try. The first, pictured on the top right of the photo above, was a roasted shrimp and gremolata dish from Bon Appetit.  I thought it was great - easy to make and super flavorful. Cooper, however, did not love it - too much parsley for his parsley-averse taste buds.

Food and Wine's spinach carbonara also received somewhat mixed reviews. It was quick and certainly healthier than regular carbonara but it didn't really wow me. Still, not a bad dinner and there's something to be said for putting a bunch of antioxidants on the plate.

This weekend, our annual celebration of all things Irish continues. Tonight, we go out in Annapolis with my high school friends - not for St. Pat's but because my friends Pete and Liz are in town from Maine. Tomorrow, rest and then Sunday, Irishy brunch here with family and friends.

I am celebrating already, by eating soda bread for breakfast (pictured bottom left). No, I didn't make it. I imagine I might make it through my whole life without ever making bread from scratch. I bought it at Trader Joe's. And it's good!

I hope everyone celebrating this weekend has a wonderful (and safe) time. Slainte!

Those Weeks: February 14th to March 3rd

Mary bagged all the wines so we tasted blind.

I am so far behind! We've been busy, too, so I have a lot to report.

First up, when I last left off with my "this week" posts, we were gearing up for a Valentine's Day wine tasting party (Malbecs only) at the Barger's house. It was super fun - of course - and Alicia's combination of aphrodisiac inspired foods (oysters!) was a success.

The winning wine - Tamari - belonged to our friends Kerry and Larry...who were both at home with the flu. At least they won?

Later that weekend, we celebrated our friend Will's 40th birthday with an afternoon at the Greene Turtle in Hunt Valley. As a general rule, I don't think of any Greene Turtle as a culinary hotspot - I associate them more with lacrosse and Natural Light. (Which is not a bad thing!)

But the food that Karen, Will's wife, organized for the party was totally good - especially the soft pretzels with queso and the Buffalo chicken dip. I ate way too much that day.

CJ, me and Rob...ginger friends since 1980.

Weekend before last, while Cooper was in South Carolina, fruitlessly hunting for boar with his dad and our friend Bert, I celebrated another birthday - my friend Rasim's 39th. (This month has also reminded me how busy we're going to be over the next couple years, as we all turn forty.)

Rasim pulled together a big group, including his childhood friends (that's me) plus good friends from college and his residency. We started with a surprisingly good dinner at John Stevens in Fells, where not only was our waitress incredibly patient with our ever-changing group of twelve-ish people, the food was also really great. I had scallops and they were lovely.

After dinner, we had drinks at Willow then Bertha's before heading back home (it was late). I'd forgotten, actually, how fun Bertha's can be. There was a band and a good crowd...good times.

Fast-forward one not-complete school week. On Thursday, we celebrated Scarlett - Audrey and George's baby - as she turned one. George made burgers and we watched Scarlett smear cake all over the place. That never gets old.

And on Saturday, we had dinner with Cooper's parents to celebrate his dad's birthday (so many birthdays - it's crazy). Dinner was a big oyster fest at the Country Club of Maryland, where we ate fried oysters, raw oysters, oyster stew, gumbo with oysters, oysters Rockefeller...you name it. Oysters are so great.

This week is another busy one...capped off by Fake St. Patrick's Day on Saturday! So busy but so fun!

This Week: February 8th to February 14th

This week is pretty much the last straw, weather-wise. If Facebook has taught me anything, it's that everyone on the East Coast is about to crack. Happy Valentine's Day?

Snow days aside, we have actually had a couple of great food experiences this week. First up, last Saturday. Dixon went to a birthday party at The Rotunda (the Lego Movie) and instead of Cooper and I going home for a couple hours, we went to Hampden - shopping at Trohv, eating at The Other Corner and then a final drink at 13.5% Wine Bar.

I'd been dying to get to The Other Corner and it did not disappoint me in the slightest. It's cute and cozy and friendly - and while we were there, the music was very Monsters of Classic Rock. Think Ratt, "Round and Round." It was great.

We started with drinks - something like a Pisco Sour for me and a Corpse Reviver for Cooper. Then we switched to wine - The Other Corner's house red is St. Cosmes Cote du Rhone, which used to be a particular favorite around here (I bought the very last case at Wells on two separate occasions).

We ate our way through much of the menu, starting with the house charcuterie board:

And escargots:

And bone marrow - ridiculous as always (plus, they sent our scraped bones home with a couple who has a dog - so nice):

Dishes not pictured include a cold smoked trout salad and blood sausage in a warm tomato sauce. They were great. All of it was.

After a couple hours, we decided to walk down the street for one more drink at 13.5%, which is as cool and mid-century inspired as The Other Corner was charming and rustic.

Our drinks - a floral prosecco drink for me and a lemon and honey drink for Cooper:

It was, truly, the best use of a birthday party ever.

I've done some snowy and cold cooking, too - including a big batch of tomato sauce we ate on Sunday with pasta and venison sausage (the Bargers and Swartses helped). I was flustered while I was cooking - the weather took a turn for the worse and Cooper ended up having to go out to help a bunch of people get their cars unstuck. As a result, I forgot to take a picture - and I really wanted to photograph the huge spiral of venison sausage. It triggered a lot of jokes.

We got our venison on last night, too, with a stroganoff:

I've made this a couple of times and am pretty pleased with it. I use this recipe as a starting point but tinker with it here and there - last night I subbed tarragon for the dill. It's hearty and has fantastic flavor.

Tonight, our big Valentine's Day plans include a Malbec Throwdown at the Bargers' house. Should be interesting. And then it's going to snow again. Woohoo?

This Week: January 31st to February 6th

This week's "This Week" is really the story of my weekend. Which means it's really the story of my Saturday, since I've already posted about our Sunday Super Bowl festivities.

Sunday might have belonged to queso but Saturday was just as delicious. After dropping Dixon at my parents' house, Cooper and I stopped for a spontaneous lunch at Midtown BBQ & Brew in Mount Vernon. We hadn't been there since it was Midtown Yacht Club and I'm sorry we didn't get there sooner.

I had pulled pork and Cooper had a ginormous beef rib - plus we ordered the sauce sampler. And I do love a tray of sauces. The sampler included the usual varieties - mustardy and tomatoey BBQ sauces plus less typical options like a bacon jam and Thai peanut. We liked them all, though admittedly, what they call crazy spicy is not really that hot. Which is fine by me.

Overall, we were so happy with our lunches. Both of our meats were excellent, as were the french fries. It's a fun place, too. I love a dive bar that's not really that divey.

Saturday night, we went out for our friend Sean's fortieth birthday. The night started at The Waterfront Hotel and ended at The Point in Fells; both were a good time.

In between, I decided that I absolutely had to eat something, or the night was going to end badly, so with Alicia and Mike, we hopped into Thames Street Oyster House. Our plan was to grab some oysters and an appetizer or two at the bar but we ended up sitting down upstairs, where Teresa (our neighbor and Baltimore mag's Best of Baltimore waitress in 2013) was working.

A few oysters turned into mixed dozen on the half shell plus calamari (it's so tender!), a lobster roll for Mike, clam sandwich for Cooper and a shared entree for Alicia and me. The entree - a special that day - was spectacular both to look at and to eat. An entire porgy, breaded and quickly fried, was served standing up with a salad of avocado and peppers.

My description doesn't do it justice and neither does Alicia's photo (at the top right). Texturally, flavor-wise and visually, it was remarkable. One of my favorite meals for a long time.

In fact, this was one of the best eating weekends I've had in a while. Fun and delicious, all the way around.

This Week: January 24 to January 30

This week, when I wasn't busy making a big pot of beer for dinner, I actually ate pretty well. On Saturday night, we just ordered pizza from Toss with a couple friends (the Toss special + Greek salad is our go-to order and I continue to be thankful they opened in our delivery area.).

But before the pizza arrived, we polished off most of a jar of Mary's parents' neighbor's jalapeno jelly. That stuff never gets old - I could eat piles of it. In fact, before coming over, Kyle and Mary had dinner at Cunningham's...and they still ate a bunch of jelly at our house. The guy who makes it, Doug (aka Frito), is one of the nicest, funniest guys around, too. Though I'd eat the jelly even if he was a jerk. It's so good.

On Sunday, Audrey and George and their kids and Audrey's mom all came over for a big, fun dinner. Audrey and I had just been reminiscing about a long-ago dinner we had with another family, the Pennells, who have since moved to Charleston. That night, the stars aligned, the kids (who were four and under at the time) were amazing and we had so much fun. We remembered the meal as delicious, too, though I couldn't be sure how much the memory was influenced by the night being fun all around. (And by the wine.)

I tracked down the recipe I made that night - Martha Stewart's conchiglie with shrimp, roasted tomatoes and zucchini - and discovered that it was, in fact, as good as we remembered. I doctored it a bit, using orrechiette instead of conchiglie and going half crab, half shrimp for the seafood. But it was great. Highly recommended, though it does involve last-minute cooking, which isn't always easy.

On Wednesday afternoon, I hit Belvedere Square for some ravioli (standard cold weather meal around here) and, while I was there, decided to check out Tako Woko, the pop-up taco and dumpling shop that's opened in Ikan's old space. I am super sorry to see Ikan go - I ate the hell out of their sushi bento boxes - but I also completely enjoyed both the dumplings (shrimp and pork) and tacos (shrimp and fish - both fried).

Tako Woko also offers a pretty great condiment selection for the tacos - radish salsa? Yes, yes I will.

Finally, last night, Tommy came over with his ladyfriend, Sarah, and they cooked us dinner. That, obviously, is always welcome - and it was great. Grilled swordfish, roasted asparagus and a crispy rice dish with pine nuts and dill and a bunch of other things. Both the fish marinade and rice were Barefoot Contessa recipes and both were fantastic.

I can't tell you when I last ate swordfish, either. We started talking about it and everyone remembered their parents eating it - mine ate it all the time. But I don't see it on nearly as many menus as, say, 25 years ago.

I wonder if that will change, though. It's very sustainable and really hearty and can stand up to strong flavors. I bet now that I've eaten it once, I'll see it everywhere.

Up next for us: a big night out in Fells for our friend Sean's 40th and, of course, the Super Bowl. Lots to do this weekend!

This Week: January 18 to 24

This is where it gets hard. 

Between the snow (So much snow. So many snow days.) and my unrelenting

work schedule, I have not done much blog-worthy stuff this week.

Yes, last Friday I made Rick Bayless's enchiladas suizas - one of my 

favorite ways to use rotisserie chicken and also really good 

wow-it-is-cold-out-there food. But not that exciting.

And on Saturday, we went to my sister and Clark's cute house in Alexandria for the 

first time. They fed us flank steak and scalloped potatoes and green beans and 

everything was great. (Also, my mom noted that she rarely gets

blog mentions. So...there's one!)

Sunday, some friends came over and we had burgers. Nothing special

but it was the kind of low-key night we all obviously needed.

Then we entered the black hole of an an additional three days tacked

onto the weekend. By the time I dropped Dixon off at school yesterday - 

two hours late - I could practically hear the streets of Stoneleigh

echoing with mothers' glee at finally having their homes back.

Seriously. It's a mess around here.

So that's all I have to report. It's not much. 

But I will leave you with this photo, from Southern Living:

Not too much longer until that's once again a possibility.

This Week: January 11 to January 17

This week must be our manliest on record. And, let's face it, things are often pretty manly around here.

Most of the action took place last weekend, when we hit the trifecta. First, our friend Adam took second place in the Swallow at the Hollow's annual chili cook-off. And how does this relate to us? OK, we weren't actually even there (a combination of DRP stomach flu and bad weather and work kept us housebound) but we did contribute a pound of ground venison to his mix. Which sounded awesome. I'm pretty sure the winning ingredient was a puree of spicy pepper and tomato that went into the broth. Also: three meats. You always win when you go mixed media on the meat.

Same day, I made these burgers - straight from Papa Hemingway's recipe. I can't resist anything Hemingway - he's one of my favorites. Between the Paris years, the Key West house (with its Picasso), his all-around bad-assery - and his killer, straightforward writing - I cannot get enough of the man (further appreciation documented here). As a bonus: his burgers are great. I didn't even use any condiments and they rocked.

Plus, when you make Hemingway's burgers, you talk about Hemingway at dinner. He is someone Cooper and I can agree on, though we've read completely different books and stories.

Finally, on Sunday, Cooper made a big batch of jerky, turning our kitchen into a, well, jerky-scented jerky room. The dehydrator I got him for his birthday last year has come in handy on more than one occasion - and thanks to his jerky-making prowess, we've been much been really good about using all of the venison we have packed away (he's had a good year, too, on the hunting front).

Turns out, we're also on trend with that whole jerky thing. I even got a Food and Wine email about jerky-making, just this morning! I probably should've realized when my brother told me he went to a jerky superstore while he was in LA on business. I mean, if it's happening in Los Angeles...it must be a thing.

Up this week: More manliness on the cooking front, with goose breast in the fridge, ready for smoking. Oh, and a long weekend for Dixon, who has Monday and Tuesday off. Me, I'm just ready for him to go to school for a full week, with no snow days or sick days or holidays. Gah.

This Week Around Here: January 4th to 10th

The big news around here this week - besides the polar vortex and Dixon's current stomachache - was Kyle's birthday. Last Saturday was the big day, so we rounded up babysitters and headed out to Nickel Taphouse to celebrate:

Or, at least, most of us did. Alicia ended up staying home with the stomach flu, which makes me wonder if she and Dixon have been secretly hanging out. (Seriously, he's home from school and completely miserable right now.)

We chose Nickel Taphouse for a few reasons. 1. It's new. 2. We all like Birroteca and they share an owner. 3. It's ostensibly Buffalo-themed and Kyle is from Buffalo.

The Buffalo theme is not actually as strong as I'd imagine it would be. Really, it just boils down to the availability of beef on weck and a few cutesy drink names. There aren't even any wings on the menu, which seems like an interesting choice for a bar/restaurant with Buffalo roots.

So how was it? Ups and downs. The beer list is good, I had a great fig cocktail, and our waitress was super personable. There's a short but decent list of oysters available raw and a couple interesting roasted preparations (though some of them are underseasoned - but try the Carolina mustard). My beef on weck was good - the meat was lovely - but I wish it had come with fries, not chips, and I'm not sure the bun was actually soaked in au jus.

But the downs...the big one was the kitchen timing. Our entrees arrived over the course of 45 minutes - and I'm not even exaggerating. Many of the entrees are billed as "big enough for two" - you're meant to share - so my best guess is that the kitchen goes for a tapas-style, send it out when it's ready approach.

Which works at tapas places but I don't think it's a great fit for the Nickel Taphouse menu. Also, we weren't expecting everything to be so staggered and no one explained that we should expect it. It threw us off, greatly.

After dinner, we headed over to the Mt. Washington Tavern. I hadn't been back since the remodel and half the people with us - Kyle, Mary, Lindsay and Chad - aren't from Baltimore, so they'd never been at all.

Everyone was right to say that it looks great in there. It's gorgeous. But kind of weird, too. I loved MWT the way it was - I have so many really funny memories there from my twenties. It was kind of jarring to see it all polished and grown up. But they were busy, which is great.

In other news...really, the only other news I have is that my Facebook feed has been blowing up with links to this Buzzfeed list of disgusting vintage food. I hear you, everyone. It's gross. But so entertaining!

Happy weekend!

This Week Around Here: December 27th to January 3rd

As promised, I am ringing in 2014 with weekly updates about what we've been up to on the food, drink and party front. I am hoping, desperately, that this will make it easier for me to actually blog about all the things I eat and do. So here we go.

First, it's oyster season both in terms of "R" months and also because it's birthday-and-Christmastime chez Pollard. Between our house and my parents' house, we eat a ton of oysters during the winter, especially in December.

The bivalves pictured at the left are actually from last week - my annual birthday trip to McGarvey's. You know what I like about McGarvey's? Well, a lot of things, actually, but one of my favorite things is that it is so amazingly consistent. The food, the drinks, even the people don't change. And they shouldn't. Ever.

Speaking of old faithfuls, I've been reading a lot about classic steakhouses lately - including Peter Lugar, the Brooklyn restaurant that many consider the gold standard.

For Christmas, my mom gave Cooper a bottle of Peter Lugar steak sauce (her friend Debbie found it at Wegman's - it doesn't actually involve a trip to New York to buy). As much as I love condiments, I'm not big on steak sauces; as a general rule, I think steak can stand on its own (and if it can't...there's always bearnaise). But this sauce, which is tomatoey and tangy, is really good.

It's also obviously fresher than most other steak sauces - it has to be refrigerated even before opening and it only has a shelf life of a few months.

After Christmas, we spent a fun afternoon with my high school friends at the Severna Park Taphouse. I'd heard a lot about the new bar that took over Snyder's (a divey-divey-dive). And it was nice! Not like crazy nice or anything, but the space was cute and they have a great selection of craft beers. We also tried the Buffalo chicken dip (good, not too spicy), crab dip tots (overwhelmingly crab dippy - they were good but heavy) and rockfish tacos (really nice...and spicy, thanks to a squiggle of Sriracha).

The big story this week, of course, was New Year's Eve. Like last year, we opted to stay home, having a big fancy dinner with our friends...and their kids.

It's a bold move to try to have a sit-down with eleven adults and eleven kids. The oldest, Maddy, just turned eight, so she was a huge help at the kids' table, serving the littler girls and making sure no one got hurt.

The kids ate first (chicken nuggets and mac and cheese) then everyone old enough went downstairs to play, leaving us to actually enjoy our dinner. And enjoy we did. It was tight - the table is really built for ten - but that's okay.

The food was good, too. We had a handful of appetizers (including carrot jam with ricotta - I can't get enough of that stuff), oysters (obvs), grilled ribeyes, crab imperial (using the very spicy recipe from my old school crab recipes article from last spring) and pureed cauliflower.

The original plan involved tenderloin but BJ's was fresh out on the morning of New Year's Eve, so I improvised, buying a gigantic slab of ribeyes then trimming and cutting the whole thing into steaks. It was a) time-consuming and b) nerve-wracking. I didn't want to screw it up and be wasteful - but I also didn't really know what I was doing. In the end, I think everything turned out okay.

Overall, good times. Nearly everyone made it to midnight - the only stragglers were Scarlett and Charlotte, who are both under one, Hadley, who conked out on the sofa around eleven, and Will, who fell asleep at about 11:55. Oh, and Kyle and Mary and Evie, who had to leave before ten because Evie is too much of a party girl to go to sleep but, at not quite two, really not old enough to stay up late.

So it's been a good week...and next week we have even more festivities planned. Kyle's birthday, Charlotte's birthday and - hopefully - a full week back at school and work. Fingers crossed.