🍴:
Mon – braised chicken, fennel, and artichokes — loosely based on this — over cauliflower mash.
Tues – shrimp Caesar cabbage. Charred then lightly braised some dewdrop cabbage and did a quick shrimp sauté. It made sense in my head and worked out pretty well — even though I should have cut the dewdrop into wedges to start and we would have been done much sooner. Thanks, Savory Spice Shop.
Wed – a dueling somms dinner at Machete. After not being able to attend a special event there for years, this the the second in few months that fit both our schedules and my weird food things. Well, ok, the hamachi crudo dish changed to include both celery and cilantro, but the orange/jalapeño granita and the fish itself were a delight.
I think my favorite was the Napa cabbage cooked in duck fat with duck prosciutto and a stracciatella fondue and thyme leaves on top. We are definitely going to try to recreate the lamb chop with za’atar and a rich tomato jus-y sauce. No idea how they made that roasted tomato something we both really enjoyed, though.
Thurs – my hair appointment got changed, so afterward, and before rehearsal, I enjoyed a mocktail at the Dutch Light down the block and then went downstairs to Barcelona Burger. Hampton met up with theater friends at Easy Tiger and brought Slappy’s home with one of them to watch the Fever lose.
Fri – portobello caps marinated with Old Bay and TJ’s pickle seasoning stuffed with a lima bean purée with TJ’s sriracha powder and topped with crab mixed with Old Bay, crème fraîche, and some havarti, with more havarti melted on top under the broiler. I had the shroom/bean idea and Hampton bumped it up a level. Sounds weird, tasted wonderfullllll.
Sat – grilled mortadella with burrata, grilled octopus, roasted potatoes, and sautéed zucchini and red bell pepper. While I was finishing up errands, Hampton — for the first time — started our go-to octopus recipe…. and made the whole marinade amount instead of less for just two people. So we used the reduced wine/garlic deliciousness for the veg and also in the vinaigrette for the mortadella.
Sun – NY strips from SCM topped with a horseradish butter and served with a super spring-y sugar snap pea/petit French pea/cucumber/radish salad with a goat cheese vinaigrette.
🥃: Surprisingly, we *both* preferred *all* of the wines at the Machete dinner from the sommelier with Oxford Street Merchants. Lots of brightness and acidity to cut through the rich food, present without being overwhelming. We ordered a bottle of the Delas Frères Crozes-Hermitage Rhône to pick up later, because it’s one of Hampton’s favorite types of wine and this one was an excellent example.
🐶:
📚: This week I finished one surprisingly mediocre NetGalley white lady thriller from which I expected more and this surprisingly compelling book about a Catholic prophet from the time when Henry VII was breaking from Rome and creating his own church just to annul his marriage with Catherine of Aragon so he could marry Anne Boleyn.
The Lost Book of Elizabeth Barton is told in dual-timelines along with the story of the academic who found a copy of said book. Much more a thriller than expected and I learned a surprising amout of things about the mid-1500s for someone obsessed with Shakespeare in Love and Six.
🎭: things I never wanted to do again — multiple shows in a row.
things I am now doing — my third show in a row.
Beyond stoked to be doing Disaster: the Musical with Triad Pride Acting Company. I realized they were doing this very silly show when I proofed my bio in the Fantasticks program earlier this spring and was so excited to play any of the principle women but also would have been fine with ensemble, just to play in a fun ‘70s jukebox musical.
I’ll be playing an aging lounge singer with one of my dearest friends, Brandon, as my terrible boyfriend, and his husband, another dearest, my Hedwig and my Roger, as the romantic lead (another Adam Pascal role). The rest of the cast is likewise stellar and I can’t wait to fully dive in.
Ann Davis-Rowe 
Leave a comment