Food and music

Last night, I played the keys for youth group worship at People's Church. It's fun for me to play and give time to my church. 

At the Sandals Select dinner, we had quite the feast. Starting out with pot stickers. 

I think this was asparagus soup. 

Salmon and those potatoes were on point!

And dessert was sweet. Everyone at the dinner received a bottle of rum. 

Appropriate. I think I'll share more food in another post. I also plan to share the boat trip and Mount Gay rum. Plus, I'm keeping up with my daily life posts in the mix. I still plan on recapping April. 

All Saints vegetarian dinner courtesy of Picasso Cafe, OKC

This dinner is hosted by the Chef's at Picasso Cafe every third Tuesday of the month. It's inspired by saints this month in honor of St. Patrick's Day. We opted for the wine pairings as well.

Starting out with a nice wine from California. I love the layout app that Instagram came out with! 

This salad was light, refreshing and I got hubby's tomatoes (good for me because I love them and he doesn't.)

Very often the dinner doesn't have any red wines. It must be the dishes the chef makes. It was great to have a pink noir from New Zealand. I like to imagine visiting the winery while I sip.

The succotash was fantastic and I loved those little potato strings. You can guess that those took some time to prep.

Another California Chardonnay, you can see that I took a photo of the description. It was yummy!

This dish was rather difficult to break into. That cabbage did not want to budge with my knife. Inside was a sweet savory combination. I enjoyed it, especially with the wine.

This was a fun Zinfandel from California. I remember it was easy on the palate.

This was the main course. It had a very light sauce and mushrooms with capers. Hubby loves capers and I know he enjoyed the dish. I think he wanted a second helping because he was noshing on chips after we got home. I felt the servings were appropriately sized.

My favorite wine of the night was the bubbly. I have had the taste for divine champagne from France. Now all I want to drink is champagne. I just love bubbles in my drink! This was from Italy.

The dessert was great but I couldn't get my cookie to break. It was chewy, very ultra chewy. The caramel sauce had some chili in it for a little kick. Not too much though.

We enjoyed the dinner immensely, which is why I'm sharing it with you. 

Beer watch day 3, the yeast is continuing its job of eating all the sugars. I still have the fun bubbles coming up from the airlock. On the running front, I was able to defer my Bentonville half marathon until next year. Thank goodness! I was looking forward to rolling hills and beautiful scenery. I can't wait!

A Vegetarian Thanksgiving at Picasso Cafe

The dinner always starts out with a pre dinner drink. This is Avery Brewing's Ellie Brown Ale. It's a good brown ale with some caramel notes and I still get a little hoppiness on the backend. 

This was a fantastic dinner and there were three courses in particular that had my taste bud's attention. 

These are crimin mushrooms stuffed with sweet potatoe and pine nuts. The pesto is amazing and has a garlic that grabs your taste buds. I loved this dish but sadly, it took me all of 60 seconds to devour it.

This was the main dish which was a shepherd's pot pie with spaghetti squash and goat cheese. Some how the broth tasted like chicken to me. Clearly it must not have been but my taste buds were thinking chicken. 

Dessert was a butternut squash cheese cake with white chocolate, anise biscotti, and two kinds of heavenly sauce creating a criss cross pattern on the plate. The presentation was spot on. The flavor was out of this world. I wanted to lick the plate but since I was in public, I just made do with the fork. 

I had a really quick photo op with Johnny Walker, the beverage director. He did all the wine pairings. 

Then I had a photo opp with the chef. His other dishes were good as well. 

And of course we must end with a group shot of all of us. Thank you Tom!

 

The Ides of March vegetarian dinner...

...at Picasso Cafe in the Paseo Arts District of Oklahoma City. No compensation was received. I enjoyed this dinner and you can too through the following photos. 

Menu

Bruschetta 

Tomato soup with eggplant frites, yum!

Lots of white wine. 

Entree had some kick to it!

This liquer kicked my butt!

Dessert was amazing! Dear Picasso Cafe, I will be back!

Beer brewing stalled

My large collection of Rogue beer bottles nearly line the entire second outdoor patio. They've all faded in the sun. (Sad face.) Thursday is the monthly meeting of Red Earth Brewers and I will request everyone to drink a Rogue Voodoo Doughnut beer. I currently have 6 bottles and I estimate that 26 to 30 will be necessary for the kit I've purchased. 

Tomorrow, I have big dinner plans at Picasso cafe. I expect to blog about it tomorrow night. I hope to also make a batch of chocolate stout brownies for Thursday's meeting. That may not happen after a good dinner. 

The look Chomps gives when he's looking for a head massage. He was a purring machine tonight!

Thankful Thursday

Welcome to Thankful Thursday.Today, I am thankful for the little things. A warm cup of tea.A sweet photo of my kitties.Facetiming my mom and sister.A successful dinner.Heat.Hugs.What are you thankful for?Please share!I am sending a big thank you to Sara at Life in a Break Down for allowing me to guest post yesterday.Thank you and stay tuned for High Five for Friday!