A birthday party, cooking club and a concert.

Annmarie and Jamie went to Owen’s 3rd birthday party and I had the house to myself for 4 and 1/2 hours! Amazing.

I was able to prepare for cooking club, relax and shower in peace. I also got to read Twilight for a bit.

Yes, I’m reading Twilight. I gave into the mainstream obsession. I think I may be hooked!

Annmarie was very excited for Owen’s party!

Cooking Club

As many of you know I belong to a cooking club. A cooking club blog is forthcoming, but I’ll go a ahead and post my recipe. The theme for this cooking club - Secret Ingredient: Ginger! As always CC was great fun. I made Indonesian Carrot Soup.

Recipe:

Ingredients

3 tablespoons olive oil
4 whole cloves garlic, peeled
1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger
1 large Spanish onion, peeled and diced
2 ribs celery, sliced
3 pounds carrots, peeled and sliced
2 teaspoons ground yellow curry powder
2 teaspoons ground coriander
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
8 cups vegetable stock
1/2 cup sherry
1/2 cup honey
2 cans coconut milk (16 oz each)
3 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
Kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper, to taste

-Heat a stockpot over medium heat-high heat. Add the olive oil, garlic, ginger, onion, celery, and carrots. Sauté for 10 minutes. Add the curry, coriander, cumin, red pepper flakes, stock, and sherry. Bring to boil. Reduce the heat to medium and simmer for 35 minutes. Remove from the heat and add the honey, coconut milk, cilantro, salt and pepper. Puree the soup in the pot using a hand blender or working in batches with a regular blender until smooth.

Makes 10 to 12 servings

A concert

After cooking club, Bonnie, Jamie and I headed to to see Michael Franti & Spearhead at the Fox Theater in Oakland. It was an interesting show. Let's just say it was half cool half wack.

Jamie's Notes:
This was only the second show at the newly remodeled Fox, after Another Planet Entertainment put in $80 million in improvements...and it shows. With lots of room to move around on the main floor, AC being pumped through the many floor vents, and plenty of beverage lines with bartenders who kept the drinks flowing quickly, APE went all out on this venue. This is now easily the premiere place in the Bay Area to see a show.

Anyway, back to the show. The opening act, ALO, put on a surprisingly entertaining set, and at 45 minutes did not overstay their welcome. During the short set change I ran into a friend from high school who I had not seen in 15 years (and took me a couple minutes to remember who she was). After heading back to the bar for a quick refill, the house lights dimmed, but instead of Michael Franti taking the stage, one of his backup singers came out and performed an atrocious 4 song set to a prerecorded dance beats. Oh dear God, it was so very bad. I don't think I heard one person clap between songs. Not sure why Michael Franti would allow for this to essentially ruin his show...I was probably about 5 minutes from walking out altogether...but finally she got lost and the band came on to rock the house. Opening with one of my favorite songs of his "Everybody Ona Move", the entire room started jumping up shaking the floor. Sure, now that I'm in my flippin' mid-30's, I haven't jumped up and down at a show in quite a while now, but have to admit it...I jumped and it was pretty damn fun. The band put on a pretty good set from then on out, despite that pretty large mistep that almost ruined the entire thing. Angela had to take a time-out from standing and posted up against the side wall away from all the people for awhile. I kept getting the "I'm tired, lets go home nudge", but managed to negotiate enough to stay through the rest of the set, and still managed to get home shortly after midnight.