Text 14284, 110 rader
Skriven 2007-04-19 12:23:00 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
Ärende: 390 end of trip
=======================
Somehow, I don't think the end of the Arkansas trip got
posted. In case it did, I'll post a recipe along with it.

Sweet pistachio twists
Cat: dessert
Makes 10 large, 20 small twists.

2 egg yolks
1 Tb water
1/3 c sugar
1/2 ts ground cinnamon
1/2 ts ground cardamom
17 1/4 oz pk frozen puff pastry sheets, thawed
3/4 c finely chopped roasted pistachios
2 Tb butter, melted

Whisk together yolks and water in a small bowl. Combine
sugar, cinnamon, and cardamom. Carefully flatten each
sheet of puff pastry. Brush each sheet with egg wash
and sprinkle with 2 Tb of the sugar mixture. Sprinkle
pistachios over 1 sheet, leaving 1/4" border. Top with
remaining sheet, sugared side down. Firmly press edges
to seal. Brush top with melted butter and sprinkle with
remaining sugar mixture. Cut pastry into 3/4" strips
using a pizza cutter. Twist each strip 3 times and
place 2" apart on lightly greased sheets.

Bake at 400F for 20 min or until golden. Remove
from pans immediately and cool on wire racks.

James Schend, Rogers Morning News, 11/16/05


Next day, instead of our concert (which had been cancelled),
we took Puppa out for lunch. An initial suggestion of the
Outback (Ella just loves chain restaurants, and this love is
of all loves easiest to satisfy here) was vetoed, and we
ended up at Oscar's, an upscale steakhouse approximately 1
block north of Walnut St. by the freeway (the Outback is
approximately 1 block south of Walnut St. by the freeway).
An enthusiastically chatty hostess seated us at a table for
six right by the door, which turned out well as Puppa and
Fay between them know everyone in town, so there was a fair
amount of socializing and chatter during the meal.

I started off with a Shiner, which was flat, so I sent it
back and had a slightly less flat Bass instead. Everyone
else had soft drinks or coffee.

Kenneth's pork chop lunch was a 6-ozer, grilled, with rice
and zucchini on the side. For a few bucks more he could have
had the early bird dinner, which added a salad and another
chop, but he's eating modestly these days. Fay had grilled
chicken over salad greens and ate only half of it, taking
the rest home frugally. Both of these got good reports.

I had a 12-oz top sirloin off the early bird. A pretty good
green salad (unfortunately topped with shredded cheese a la
Outback) and a good though partially prebaked loaf of crusty
bread started me off. The meat was cut pretty exactly, it
looks like, and had been marinated in what tasted like A-1
sauce mixed with artificial sweetener. This was acceptable,
but I wouldn't order it again. I had garlic smash with this,
quite garlicky, fairly chunky (i.e., real), and shot full of
sour cream: I couldn't eat much of it.

Ella ordered the 10-oz early bird prime rib, medium rare; it
came as ordered only at least 14 oz. I had a taste - quite
good. Her rice pilaf was nasty salty, though.

We let it slip that it had been Kenneth's birthday the day
before, so he was brought a slice of strawberry cheesecake
on the house: first rate for a dense cheesecake. We all had
tastes.

Of course, that meant that Ella felt obligated to join him:
she had skillet apple cobbler, which was pretty good
although dead sweet.

A Cognac for me, which came as an impossibly large pour
in a big snifter: it was identified as Courvoisier VS on
the bill but tasted more like XO. I left a fairly big tip.

=

Ella Lou got up early to drop me at the airport, but as soon
as she left I discovered that the departures monitors were
crammed full of "delayed" signs.

0404 UA6851 XNA ORD 1015 1156 CRJ 2A

Darn flight was delayed an hour and half - wind in Chicago
or something. Made up half an hour or so en route, though,
so I had time for an e-mail and an unhealthy snack (Walker's
chocolate chip shortbread, Piroulines, Ruffles) before the
next leg. Service was reasonably attentive.

UA1236 ORD BWI 1412 1705 733 2D

Pretty good crew. We took off a little late but landed a
little early. There was no meal on this flight, and in fact
they had not recatered beverages since the origin of the
flight in Los Angeles, so the cart was full of flat half
cans of soda! Luckily, there were two Courvoisiers left,
which I had. Also a little snack basket a la US Air was
passed around: Biscoffs and Gourmet Supreme mix.

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