The country mice were off to see the city mice again, this weekend. We dust ourselves off and leave the chewing straw behind so as not to embarrass them too much...
We collected Dylan from the shop Saturday evening, eventually ending up at Rachel and Mike's place for dinner, where Emi joined us a bit later. We had given R & M a raclette set for Christmas and we were all going to test it as a way for a small group to have a nice slow meal together. Verdict: all thumbs up!
Here's the gist, in case this is a new cooking word for you, as it was for us. There's a two-level rectangular electric appliance--grill or griddle on the top (it's reversible)--while underneath, there are places for up to 8 little square pans to sit (four on each side).
The element is situated under the grill, , on which people can cook meats, veggies, or whatever. The same element broils the contents of the little pans below which contain, traditionally, cheese. We cooked some veggies down there, as well.
The idea is to cook the stuff on top (veggies and shrimp for us), put it on the plate, and slide the melted cheese on top. Each pan comes with a little spatula for the purpose of helping the cheese out onto the other food. It's fondue meets teppanyaki. It worked great for the six of us--eight might be crowded.
It would be fun for breakfast, too. And lunch, as well, maybe--open faced sandwiches?
I made a lemon meringue pie for dessert--a nod to Dylan's birthday which had occurred the Monday before. He and Emi had been visiting her folks in Boulder over Memorial Day weekend, where they also squeezed in a 10k race.
We spent the night at Rachel and Mike's. I got up in the morning for a walk up the hill to Bernal Heights Park, which covers the entire top of the hill. The edge of the park is only a block up from their place.
The views are amazing from everywhere up there--a 360 degree panorama of the city. One can see the Golden Gate and the Bay Bridges simultaneously. Also, AT&T Park and Candlestick. The storm system hadn't yet moved on, so there was some restriction as to the visibility--still, not bad, eh? By the by, these pics are taken with my new, ahem, Android.Dylan rejoined us again next morning. There was eating and tennis-watching.
...After which we gleefully skipped out on the mess we left for Mike and Rachel to clean up in order that we could spend a bit of time over at the shop gaping at Dylan's new creations and doing a little business-strategizing.
The photos of his new pieces follow in the next entry--
The photos: Mike and Rachel (that red thing in the center of the table is the raclette), then, the next four photos are of the city from the Golden Gate (click to mag), to downtown, to the Bay Bridge, to the Bay (due east).
