Last night was the first of many Yellow Vic family dinners. An old roommate of mine, Sarah, has moved back into town after leaving for over half a year to travel through South America and spend some QT at home with her parents in Cincy (i.e. saving money to move back here). Though we were sad to see Sarah leave our beautiful Yellow Victorian home near the Alamo Square district of San Francisco (where the Full House houses are), it's wonderful to have her back in our old neighborhood, across the square and up the hill. Sarah graciously hosted me and my current roommates for a delicious, collaborative meal comprised of winter salad, butternut squash soup and Tahini coated cauliflower... the perfect vegetarian combination for any group of 6-8 people. These recipes can also be used for your upcoming Thanksgiving meal!
WINTER SALAD
I used to make this salad with baby pears, but I find the persimmons add more sweetness and color. Make sure to use butter lettuce over any other kind.
-2 heads of green leaf butter lettuce
-1 large pomegranate
-3 small, hard persimmons
-2 cups of walnuts, chopped
-a pint-size container of crumbled blue cheese
-olive oil
-champagne vinegar
-teaspoon of white pepper
For dressing:
Add a 1/3 cup Champagne vinegar to jar. Add teaspoon of white pepper. Add 1/4 cup olive oil. Shake well.
-Heat a large skillet with 2 teaspoons of olive oil. Toss walnuts at medium temp for about 5 minutes, or until toasted. Add salt to taste. Let cool.
-Chop and wash butter lettuce. Place in large bowl.
-Cut open pomegranate and remove seeds into salad bowl.
-Slice persimmons into bite size pieces (make sure you get the smaller, hard persimmons and not the soft ones)
-Add walnuts and blue cheese, toss with dressing and serve.
BUTTERNUT SQUASH SOUP
This was loosely based on this recipe from Vegetarian Times. I'm pretty sure we left out the first four ingredients. We used coconut milk instead of Butternut bisque, substituted leeks for onions, and used fresh thyme for garnish. We also used a blender to puree everything. I really wasn't part of this portion of the meal so I'm sorry I can't be more helpful.
TAHINI COATED CAULIFLOWER
This was concocted by my creative roommate, Maddie, who has her own food blog. She would like to give credit to her friend, Leif Hedendal who showed her the dish.
For the tahini dressing:
-Combine tahini with a couple tablespoons of olive oil and fresh lemon juice. This is also great for dipping sauce (we polished off a loaf of bread with it).
-Arrange cauliflower and sliced yellow pepper in a glass casserole dish, and coat with tahini dressing. Bake in the oven at 400 degrees for 30 minutes (I think...)
-The yellow peppers were experimental in this dish, but everything came out delicious! You will never think of cauliflower the same way after eating this.
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
OMFG: Menage a Trois
This post may be a little risque for some of you, but it's been something that has been coming up in my life recently - in social discussions that is - and last nights episode of Gossip Girl proved that their is an abundance of intrigue surrounding the sexual mystery of threesomes.
Personally, I think Gossip Girl could have pushed the envelope a little bit more. The OC already made waves when they had Marissa and Alex's girl on girl kiss in season three, which was well-received without a stir of controversy - probably because most of the viewers were college girls and their overly excited male friends, not the middle and high school students that watch Gossip Girl. But when the buzz started forming around the upcoming Gossip Girl threesome, parents associations were in uproar. Is that why creator Josh Schwartz (also the man behind my beloved OC) decided to tone it down a bit for prime time?
Here's how it goes down: after Dan admits he has never had a threesome, and his superstar girlfriend Olivia (played by none other than our all grown up Lizzie McGuire: Hillary Duff) coyly admits she's dabbled, Vanessa too says that she hasn't had the pleasure. Olivia proceeds to kiss Dan, then Vanessa, and then Vanessa and Dan kiss. That's it. Oh, and there is a flash of all three of them in Dan's bed in the closing musical montage. If Olivia wasn't being played by a former Disney star then would things have been a little more Hot and Heavy? Because when I hear the word "threesome" I think of three people having sex with each other, not the kind of girl on girl kissing that happens in a frat house after one too many cups of jungle juice.
From what I understand, most successful ADULT threesomes (not involving freshman in college on a fictional TV show) go down a little differently. There is consent, sex toys, and safety words. Alcohol and drugs are common, but not necessary. No sleepovers, no secret crushes, no lifelong childhood friends making out with each other. That's awkward. One thing Gossip Girl did get right is the gender combination: two girls and a guy. Straight men shudder at the idea of crossing swords, while curious females are more likely to try a threesome with a guy and another girl. Blame it on sexual evolution. Or porn.
To be fair, we don't know what happened after the kissing because Schwartz chose to leave it up to our imagination. Now I don't know about you, but I find it hard to imagine that it actually did go much beyond that. On the one hand, they're only eighteen. On the other hand, they're New Yorkers (one of whom is a celeb) so they "mature" faster than most teenagers. I guess I'll have to wait until next week's episode to suss out the level of awkward aftermath.
Personally, I think Gossip Girl could have pushed the envelope a little bit more. The OC already made waves when they had Marissa and Alex's girl on girl kiss in season three, which was well-received without a stir of controversy - probably because most of the viewers were college girls and their overly excited male friends, not the middle and high school students that watch Gossip Girl. But when the buzz started forming around the upcoming Gossip Girl threesome, parents associations were in uproar. Is that why creator Josh Schwartz (also the man behind my beloved OC) decided to tone it down a bit for prime time?
Here's how it goes down: after Dan admits he has never had a threesome, and his superstar girlfriend Olivia (played by none other than our all grown up Lizzie McGuire: Hillary Duff) coyly admits she's dabbled, Vanessa too says that she hasn't had the pleasure. Olivia proceeds to kiss Dan, then Vanessa, and then Vanessa and Dan kiss. That's it. Oh, and there is a flash of all three of them in Dan's bed in the closing musical montage. If Olivia wasn't being played by a former Disney star then would things have been a little more Hot and Heavy? Because when I hear the word "threesome" I think of three people having sex with each other, not the kind of girl on girl kissing that happens in a frat house after one too many cups of jungle juice.
From what I understand, most successful ADULT threesomes (not involving freshman in college on a fictional TV show) go down a little differently. There is consent, sex toys, and safety words. Alcohol and drugs are common, but not necessary. No sleepovers, no secret crushes, no lifelong childhood friends making out with each other. That's awkward. One thing Gossip Girl did get right is the gender combination: two girls and a guy. Straight men shudder at the idea of crossing swords, while curious females are more likely to try a threesome with a guy and another girl. Blame it on sexual evolution. Or porn.
To be fair, we don't know what happened after the kissing because Schwartz chose to leave it up to our imagination. Now I don't know about you, but I find it hard to imagine that it actually did go much beyond that. On the one hand, they're only eighteen. On the other hand, they're New Yorkers (one of whom is a celeb) so they "mature" faster than most teenagers. I guess I'll have to wait until next week's episode to suss out the level of awkward aftermath.
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