02/14/2007, Home.
Valentines Dinner
My first published dinner panorama from 2007, obviously running a bit behind! Lo and behold, it's Valentines Day already, which means a great excuse to pull out all the stops to make Julia melt!

This years dinner was a subset of my original plans... I steamed, marinated, and then grilled some garden vegetable tempeh, which was served with a roasted tomato and onion quinoa pilaf, and topped with a thick, tangy sauce of pineapple, garlic and ginger, garnished with red pepper strips, and accompanied by a perfect little pile of roasted golden beet rounds. Alongside, we had a plate of greens with marinated mixed beans, jicama, and cherry tomatoes, topped with a homemade avocado-lime "Caesar" dressing. And, as you can see in the picture, it wasn't complete without the heart-shaped red bell pepper pieces!

For dessert I made fresh fruit tarts, with Anjou pear, raspberry, and lime juice, baked in ramekins lined with a light flaky pastry, and served hot topped with yogurt.

My original plans called for 3 more courses, but it seemed excessive once I got into the process!
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11/13/2006, The Gaytonia.
OMFG, There's Dessert?
I think we all had forgotten that the evening - and therefore the gorging - hadn't yet peaked! Dessert was something to behold. Cathy brought homemade almond rocha, an almond cake, a nutmeg bunt cake, and a double chocolate raspberry cake, not to mention my mom's lemon tart, that were all beyond decadent.
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11/13/2006, The Gaytonia.
Packing Up
As the evening winds down, we gather for the traditional packaging festivities. Ingrid, Hannah and Julia do their best to unload as much food on as many guests as possible, so we don't have to take it home (and eat it) ourselves!
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11/21/2006, The Gaytonia.
Doing Dishes
In some families dishes are a thing to dread. For some reason, in ours there's usually a competition for who *gets* to do the dishes, somewhat like who gets to pay the check at a restaurant (an inevitable fight that typically leads to threats and intimidation between me and my grandmother). The Gaytonia is pretty old, so its kitchens are small - just perfect for one or two people, but no more, so it gives my mother perfectly defensible territory. No automatic dishwasher either (I just got my first last year!), so mom is preparing to do the stacks of dishes as soon as she can get rid of all the guests :)
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11/21/2006, The Gaytonia.
Outdoors Gaytonia Thanksgiving
A nice recent addition to the Gaytonia's outdoor space are the fire pits on each of the decks. Of course, being SoCal, it was warm enough at Thanksgiving that I don't think a single person was huddling around the fire the entire night.
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11/21/2006, The Gaytonia.
Outdoors Gaytonia Thanksgiving
My mother has lived in the same building since I was in 7th grade, and it's a place I knew as a landmark even further back. Four stories of apartments in a castle sitting on top of a little hill overlooking much of Belmont Shores, a nice coastal neighborhood of Long Beach. The building is U-shaped, leaving a nice deck on the first floor, and another smaller one up on the forth. Mom was the resident manager of the building for the past decade or so. It's a neat old place, as cool on the inside too.
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11/21/2006, The Gaytonia.
A Growing Concern
Thanksgiving dinner is starting to shape up in this pano. Julia is watching my mother toss a salad as my dad chats with Graham. On the table we've got a big tray of roasted yams (mom), two different tofurkys (me), grandma's own cranberries, grandma'ss roasted potatoes (always reminds me of grandpa), several kinds of stuffing (mom and Boyd-o), roasted veggies (mom), brussel sprouts (mom), turkey (mom), and kale (me). Keep in mind, we were feeding 20+ people here, so this is just the tip of the iceberg.
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11/21/2006, The Gaytonia.
Chatting Around
We had a great mix of people show up from all corners of our extended family. My grandmother's sister, and her daughter and grandchildren, my first cousin, dad, stepmom, and stepbrother, Julia's parents and sister, my sister and her stud muffin, my mom's virtual son/masseur, and on and on.
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11/21/2006, The Gaytonia.
The Supplies are Assembling
Here we have Julia and my mother working in her kitchen to get ready for the onslaught of guests - over twenty in all. Of course I wasn't without my contributions, even beyond the photography. On the table in front of the camera we have two trays of mashed potatos I made with gingered onions and roasted apples, formed with pastry bags by Julia. When it's time to serve these go into a very hot oven for a quick browning that creates a perfect light crust! Next up is a huge turkey, courtesy of mom, just waiting for someone to eat it. There's a large bowl of a kale dish I made, with lots of carmelized onion, garlic and carrots - I think I slightly overcooked the kale, but tough shit. The large roasting pan next to the bowl is hiding two fully cooked Tofurky roasts - one had a jalapeno/pineapple braise, and the other a bit more savory with soy sauce, olive oil, and seasonings, both smothered and roasted with lots of veggies - onions and shallots, mini summer squash, carrot and more.
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