I support the Military. Not only do I respect and appreciate what they do, but my brother proudly serves in the USAF. “For those who serve,” is always a real and heartfelt assignment.
Romance is needed
Recently, I cooked dinners for two wonderful military couples during their anniversaries. In addition to a first anniversary dinner. There was an equally important fifth anniversary dinner that doubled as a belated honeymoon. With me being married with children, I get fired up when parents get away for a couple days with just each other. It gives them time to let go of some of those daily peripherals. Furthermore, what made the belated honeymoon extra cool, was they had rented a beach bungalow on a private beach.
Being a native; this was enlightening to find out about. Camp Pendleton has a beach for the exclusive use of military members. Moreover, it’s really nice and very reasonably priced. Next summer would be relaxing to have my brother come down and spend a weekend there. Maybe he can babysit the kids.
Here are the menus I specifically created those two nights. As per usual, most of the ingredients are procured at local farmers markets and butcher shops. Whatever looks in season, cute, ripe and glowingly fresh, makes the menu. Thankfully, the review up on Yelp for this one :-)
The first menu
Asian Caesar salad
Truffle, garlic parmesan and herb potato skins
Seared pork with French gnocchi, fava beans and squash blossoms
De-boned and stuffed chicken wing filled with sunchoke mash and served over black lentils and sherry butter sauce
Lamb stuffed carrots with purple snow peas and chermoula
Asian marinated skirt steak with Chinese broccoli, caramelized shallots and pickled Persian cucumber
Vanilla mascarpone stuffed strawberries with maple lemon glaze and honey tuile
A second menu
Finally, some pics below to go along with this menu.
Grand Cru Original crostini with thyme, sherry gastrique red onion
Garlic, herb, parmesan and black truffle potato skins
Chicken fat hollandaise smothered roasted orange cauliflower
English pea soup with granny smith apple, soft boiled duck egg and togarashi tempura squash blossom
Honey roasted salmon with roasted pickled baby turnips, egg yolk gnocchi over lemon, truffle chicken broth
Sea bass ceviche with avocado and granny smith apple
Grilled ribeye, beef fat/thyme roasted carrots, chile/garlic/dark soy gai lan
Chocolate torte with roasted almond whipped cream and Justin port wine
