Purging

When AB & I moved to San Francisco from the Midwest, we were thrilled by the amount of space in our apartment. We weren't expecting to find a place we could afford that was bigger than a shoebox, let alone a 2-bedroom apartment with four large closets! And yet, there we were, with more room than we knew what to do with.

Oh, how times have changed... Like most people, we have an amazing ability to fill up any space we're given. Three years after moving into our spacious apartment, our closet doors will barely close, every last inch of cabinet space is filled, and now our collection of junk has spread to most of the flat surfaces in our house. As I write this, my desk is covered with stacks of paper, and the dining room table is covered with an assortment of Christmas gifts that we haven't yet found a place for.

Up until recently, we still had enough storage space to hide the clutter for the rare occasions when we would have guests over, but we recently moved AB's drum kit back into the house (he recently gave up a shared practice space), and we took a bunch of stuff from a friend when he moved out of his apartment a couple of weeks ago. We literally have no place to put this new stuff, and for me, that turned out to be the last straw.

So, last weekend AB & I started a major de-cluttering project. Unfortunately, the job was even bigger than we first thought... We only managed to clean one room in our house that weekend, mostly because we discovered three boxes (that hadn't been opened since we lived in Illinois) filled with random junk that needed to be sorted through to decide what to keep.

But even that small bit of progress was extremely satisfying. We were able to throw out and give away a TON of crap, and now we have at least one spot in our house that's organized. Only five more rooms and three more closets to go!

Here's a photo of all the junk we're getting rid of:

NYE at the Monk's Kettle

AB and I hadn't really made plans for New Year's Eve, so when friends suggested going to the Monk's Kettle with them, we jumped at the chance. We were lucky enough to score the last two seats for dinner, and even luckier that we got to sit with our friends at the bar, instead of at two separate tables.

The four-course dinner featured Malheur beers -- each course included a Malheur beer as an ingredient, and the dish was paired with a glass of the same beer. The menu can be found here.

First Course - Portobello Mushroom Soup
For me, this was an amazing start to the night. The presentation was lovely, with a gruyere-covered crostini floating in the middle of the bowl, the way you get a crouton on top of your french onion soup. The mushroom soup was creamy and rich with truffle oil, and the crostini was delicious (although a little awkward to eat, since it was larger than bite-size, and difficult to cut while it was floating in the soup). Unfortunately, it was so good, that the second course was a little bit of a letdown.




Second Course - Parmesan Risotto Crusted Loch Duart Salmon
Although it was good, this course didn't really stand out for me -- it wasn't especially flavorful or unique, and it reminded me of something that I might make at home for dinner. The salmon was cooked well, and the lemon flavors were nice, but predictable. Although I've never had a crispy scoop of risotto on top of my fish, that part wasn't especially exciting either. The salmon was also served with some sauteed broccolini, which again, I felt like I could have made at home.













Third Course - Pork Tenderloin
The chef definitely got back on track with the pork tenderloin, which was tender and delicious. The cheddar potato cake on the side was also amazing, with a breadcrumb crust and warm cheesy goodness inside. When I first saw the menu a few days ago, I was really looking forward to the caramelized parsnips and brussels sprouts, and they lived up to my expectations -- perfectly browned and buttery.






Fourth Course - Chocolate Fondant Cake
Dessert was also wonderful, although at this point I was far too full of beer and food to finish. :-) The cake was moist, with a melted chocolate filling, and the vanilla sauce surrounding the cake was garnished with just a little bit of raspberry sauce. Yum....

Overall, it was a wonderful dinner. They were also extremely generous with the beer all night long -- although I was expecting small tastes of each beer, they kept refilling our glasses the whole evening. The beers were interesting and delicious, and we toasted at midnight with the Malheur Brut, which was as close to champagne as any beer I've ever tasted -- they carbonate the beer in a similar style, and the flavor was light and fresh.

Christmas in Illinois

Going home for Christmas is always an adventure - we fly across the country, then drive all over Central Illinois and Chicagoland visiting three sets of family and two sets of friends, we eat too much and drink too much, stay up late, and finally we fly back to San Francisco exhausted, but so happy that we went.

On top of the usual excitement, we had stranger-than-usual Illinois weather to contend with. In the time that we were there, the temperature swung from 3 degrees below zero to 65 degrees above. We experienced rain, sleet, snow, ice storms, thunderstorms, tornado warnings, and flash flood warnings... I'd practically forgotten what real weather is like, coming from a city where the temperature is always between 40-70 degrees, and the only precipitation we get is a light drizzle once in a while.

Here are some pictures of the snow, which was especially nice: