Saturday was spent gardening in Brian’s back yard, which I’m afraid my cracked and blistered hands will never forgive me for. But it was indescribably nice to be outside and active after such a long winter.

Saturday night we went out to celebrate a friend’s birthday. Dinner at Filomena’s, very good and expensive food. I had the calamari, pork chops and mushroom risotto and triple chocolate mousse pie. Happily, Brian schlepped along the doggy bag to the various bars afterwards and I’m able to revisit the amazing pork chops and risotto for lunch today. I’m usually not a huge pork chop eater but the veal reduction, olive, and sweet pepper sauce was just too good to pass up.

Sunday morning was spent having brunch with the parents and Gianluca (whose surprise visit got my parents out of a day of boat cleaning). Afterwards, we relaxed and then tackled the peach tree which is threatening a less than impressive yield this year, sigh, and my bike which was still rusting away from the salt and grime it accrued during the drive from Denver to Virginia. Then, I went back to Brian’s for potato planting and Sea Bass cooking. The mustard sauce came out very good and I recommend it if you like that sort of thing, but by all means DO NOT put wax paper in your 450-degree oven! Whoever wrote this recipe must have some terrible practical joking streak. There was fire and wax paper ash everywhere adding much to the excitement of cooking and possibly a little to the taste of the fish and sauce. So if you’re adventurous (and you have a sink within flaming paper tossing range of your oven) perhaps you would like to try the wax paper.

Labels: cooking, garden, weekend