Another low profile weekend

To spice things up in the kitchen, and to free up my Sunday for the hours I unfortunately knew that I'd be spending at work, I decided to prepare both of my weekend Plated dishes on Saturday. But then naptime called. It's amazing what working at a start-up will do to your energy levels come the weekend. To be fair, I had had an awesome Saturday morning silks class for once, where I really felt like I was crushing it.

I'm chilling down in Level 1 classes and finally getting some of the form that I'd breezed past without mastering while doing silks in the UK last year.

I kicked things off post-circus-training with a Provençal Salmon, a French dish, in honor of the fourth anniversary of Nicolas and my first date. It was excellent overall, but the white wine and butter pan sauce really took this meal over the top. Can you swoon for food?

In progress: Provençal Salmon with crispy summer home fries

As usual, I reached out to a friend or two to catch up but didn't push too hard once the ball got dropped. I'm trying to stay on the radar but generally lie low for the next few months while I recover from the double-whammy of options exercising and discovering that Nicolas will likely be coming to the US sooner than anticipated. The latter, while amazing, means that 1. I need to find a bigger space when my lease runs out in July, since married couples shouldn't really live in other peoples' living rooms, and 2. Nicolas needed two round-trip tickets from SF to Paris if I still plan to use my own trans-Atlantics for the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays. And you best believe I still plan to. A girl has to have her priorities.

But what self-respecting Parisian-explant's priorities don't include the proper accessories? So says the siren call tempting me back to that site whose acquaintance I've recently made: poshmark. It's where the penny-pinching fashionista's savings account goes to die. (Fashionista, you ask? It's all about context. When your context is the tech-bro world of Silicon Valley, then damn straight, call me fashionista.)

In between the browser-window shopping for sun hats and Mary Janes, I did pull off a second weekend dish. Today's specialty: Roasted Squash and Snap Pea Bowls with Quinoa and Tahini Sauce. The principal ingredients weren't much to get excited over, but the mint, cilantro, harissa, and cashews paired magnificently together. Thanks to Plated, I am one class act in the kitchen.

In progress: Roasted Squash and Snap Pea Bowls with Quinoa and Tahini Sauce

And the winner... well, it seems rather anticlimactic to outline another weekend's menu for my reader. Food was hardly meant to be the topic for this blog. While there is a certain charm to becoming a master chef and circus artist in the few spare moments I escape from my laser cave, I find it rather lacking on the social and cultural side. Here's to hoping my next update will extend beyond the confines of my (delightful) home and that circus studio a few blocks away. And speaking of places far away, the count until I see my husband again is now a mere 61 days. This upcoming Wednesday, we'll be hitting the half way point between our last goodbye and next hello!

(For those of you with bated breath, the winner was the Provençal salmon. Bien sûr.)

My weekend eats.

Plated x3

My photography projects/culinary edification continued this weekend under a most glorious sun. It almost felt criminal to stay inside in the kitchen. But kitchen- and computer-based projects, and the hope that I could cut down on San Francisco-style spending (I feel like I bleed money each time I walk around this town), I hunkered down for the weekend, and with some tasty results! Saturday was all about soy-lime shiitakes and sweet potatoes. For those of you that know that my tastes, yes, you did read that correctly: I voluntarily chose to prepare and consume a mushroom-based dish. But with the promise of cilantro and sweet potatoes, I really couldn't hold myself back. And while I would probably swap the mushrooms for some protein source if I were to repeat the meal, the flavor blend was really appealing.

Soy lime shiitakes and sweet potatoes à la Plated

I'd saved the decadence for Sunday afternoon: a creamy, fatty broccoli-cheddar mac and cheese casserole. There really wasn't anything to argue about in this dish, though I did cut down to just half that onion. I wasn't going out and socialising, but even I wouldn't want to be around my own onion-breath after that much onion in one go.

Broccoli-cheddar mac and cheese

The winner for best dish this weekend was far from obvious. The broccoli-cheddar mac and cheese was at a disadvantage since it's hardly a warm weather dish. Give me that and a hot chocolate when I'm chilling in sweats on a snowy Sunday anytime. But given the San Francisco weather, the health benefits, and the more complex flavor profile, I'd probably hand a conditional win to Saturday's recipe, if you could just swap the mushrooms. But no clear winner is a good thing: I'm eating quite well at a fraction of the San Francisco costs. Just six more months of this rhythm and I'll have paid off that options exercise loan!

Plated Week 3. Yummy eats without the city price tags. :)