A seething mass of turgid drama.

Thanksgiving with my dad went well. He is doing much better, although he still can't have alcohol or spicy food while he is on blood thinners. The traditional dishes tasted like my childhood ones. The Marlborough Pudding (apple custard pie) was good and fully set, despite some crust failure. I used a bit too much butter/lard and the sides slumped, so the slightly over-full filling covered the crust completely. And of course that meant a soggy bottom. But making a day ahead meant that it removed from the pie pan easily, at least, and I am looking forward to leftovers with tea today.

Last night the wife and I met at Left Door, a speakeasy on the other side of town. We went there once before last-minute with some friends when our intended bar was booked for a corporate event, and everyone liked it - so we thought we'd go again with a reservation so we could sit instead of standing at the bar.

Sadly it wasn't impressive this time. None of the house cocktails spoke to either of us. I ordered a Blood & Sand because it's thematically appropriate for a '20s bar and I wanted something I generally can't make at home. Our waiter didn't seem to understand what I was ordering... and then came back saying they didn't have the ingredients. (For the record: Scotch, vermouth, Cherry Heering, and orange juice. Nothing outrageous.) I am pretty sure that he didn't communicate it and/or the lone bartender didn't know how to make it. So we both had sidecars, which were okay but nothing more than that.

We ordered a round of oysters, which were fine, and a set of other appetizers, which were okay but tried a bit too hard. We decided not to order anything more and walked up and down the street a bit before getting a decent gelato.

Oh well. Date Night itself was fine, but I don't think we'll go back to the bar. There are plenty of other high-end bars that can make classic cocktails on demand.

We went to Mists Coronet yesterday. Overall, I am glad we did and we had a good time.

We probably wouldn't have gone if it weren't for my SCA job - which is one major reason I took it. Once we're there we typically enjoy ourselves, but getting over the donwannas has been difficult. Anyway, slight car foo getting there due to the interchanges not being the same as the last umpty-hundredth time we went to the site, but no big deal.

Geoffrey and Crystal camped and have a new sunshade, so I hung out with them as part of St. Teresa. The wife spent the day next door with Morgan & Greg and more people. I wandered around a bit, chatted with people both job-related and not, and generally had a good low-key day. Due to a miscommunication we didn't bring any sunscreen, so my shoulders are a little burned but not too bad - my peasant bucket hat did its job.

We had dinner onsite with the rest of the Company. I brought a quick-pickle cucumber dish from Platina, which went well with the warm and dusty day, and creme bastarde (fake whipping cream) which is a sweetened milk and egg white dish. Kind of like rice pudding in being sweet and bland. We also had a lovely chicken in verjuice, mushrooms and chestnuts, aged cheese, and a chicken fritter that would have been very good direct from the fryer but was cool by the time it was served.

We made it home around 8:30 and I went straight to bed as soon as our stuff was out of the car. I am still tired today, from peopling and also from walking around on gopher-caused uneven ground.

Gravenstein apple butter is burbling away. I don't really need more jam, although my jam spreadsheet shows that I am down to my last couple jars of apple butter that I made in 2021. It's also about buying Gravenstein apples so the trees aren't ripped out.

Sunday was my dad's birthday. We spent the day with him and went out to one of his two favorite restaurants - he doesn't get out much. The one he requested is a local pizza place we've been to before. I did like my artichoke, feta, and green olive pizza. I made a standard lemon cheesecake topped with apricot jam and sliced fresh apricots, which came out pretty well.

His balance is still bad and he has arthritis in his feet, but is too stubborn to use walking sticks because he thinks "they would slow him down" (or, I think, he'd have to admit he needs them). We keep trying to nudge him in that direction by pointing out that runners use them without slowing down...

Last night we met our friends Ken and CJ for drinks and dinner in the city. They were happy to leave the East Bay heat for SF coolth. We tried a vaguely-potted-plant tiki bar we hadn't been to before. It's called Pacific Cocktail Haven and it doesn't hit you over the head with the theme. Everyone else really liked their drinks; CJ adored hers, which was a highball using root beer and absinthe so it tasted like alcoholic licorice. My two were interesting but were not in my happy place enough to get again. I suspect we'll go there again.

We had dinner a couple doors down at a Mediterranean restaurant. It was decent although a bit on the expensive end for its quality, being close-ish to Union Square. The baklava was quite nice - not too sweet for us.

The coffee shop where I have been going for approximately weekly coffee was closed last week until further notice for health code violations. Specifically, rodent droppings - including around their bags of coffee beans.

Trying to look on the brighter side - like "American Wagyu beef", they could have called it "American kopi luwak" coffee.

Yesterday was our 25^th anniversary. We spent it like an old married couple - mostly not doing anything together during the day, because the recent rain nixed our tentative plan to go for a hike.

We used my dad's restaurant gift certificate Xmas present for dinner. We went to Acquerello, a two-Michelin-star Italian restaurant in a former chapel that still has its wood eaves overhead. They are defiantly old-school, with a dress code and the male staff in suit and ties. It wasn't fully packed, but I imagine that even when full it's possible to have a conversation without yelling. We had their four-course meal (they also offer a seven-course, but even as small bites that's usually too much food for us). Everything was impeccably plated and served. My second course was pasta with mock foie gras, and I wanted to faceplant into a large bowl of it.

Also a "budget for this" dinner, but worth it. We have a 25-year-old bottle of port that we will open this weekend as well.

The wife's birthday was Saturday and I took Friday off. Our friends M&C came up for Friday lunch, because she loves making lasagna (and is really good at it) and we have a local lasagneria that we like. They enjoyed it and it's always good spending non-SCA time with them.

Saturday she did some shopping, and then we went out for dinner. I had read good reviews of a small restaurant called 7 Adams and the wife thought it sounded good. With some careful planning, I booked seats at their 6-person "chef's counter" - it's a short bar in front of their wine fridge, with a small prep station for some basic plating. Unlike Mijoté you don't get the full "cooks prepping in front of you" experience, but one of the cooks/ sommelier/ owner-chef each took turns explaining each course as it was presented. The chef's counter is a 10-course meal - thankfully all the courses are a few bites, so it isn't way too much food.

The abbreviated menu:
a soft-boiled egg and caviar, in an extremely cute egg dish with chicken feet
sea urchin roe and cauliflower mousse
scallop crudo
tagliolini (pasta) with black trumpet mushroom and shaved black truffle
black cod with rice porridge
a buffalo wing
roast duck
a rhubarb tartlet
cheesecake and shortbread

The pasta was a particular standout - I wanted to faceplant in a much-larger bowl of it. The buffalo wing was a gourmet (deboned) homage, as the chef/owner is from Buffalo NY. The roast duck was just as good as the pasta.

The whole thing took nearly 3 hours but didn't feel like it. I didn't sleep as well as I would have liked, predictably due to rich food and wine. Worth it though.

We spent some time Saturday with my dad. It's always good to see him. Sadly, we left the cheesecake we had specifically made for him in our fridge. Yes, we'll enjoy it with tea this week, but the point was for him to enjoy it as that's his favorite dessert.

After getting decent chile rellenos for dinner, we decided to get ice cream instead. Yelp suggested a nearby gelateria - which turned out to be at an address that didn't exist. We ended up at a local Mexican ice cream (and torta) place for okay ice cream made in-house. (I had nutella and peanut, which was pretty good.)

Our friend Trish came up from San Jose for the evening. She really likes a bar in SF, and it's always good to spend time with her. The bar is on the other side of the city from us so we don't tend to go there otherwise. We drove over... and found out it was rented out for a corporate event.

After some Yelp searching for nearby cocktail bars (no, we weren't interested in the Harry Potter-themed bar) we settled on a speakeasy-style bar. The entrance is one of two residential doors (hence the bar's name, "Left Door") and we buzzed in. It's a nice, restrained, art deco-style decoration rather than Prohibition-era. Without a reservation we sat at the short bar. Decent drinks, good food menu, and I'd go back with a reservation so we could sit in one of the rooms on couches and have a nice dress-up evening.

We then drove to a nearby Fronch bistro (where we did have reservations) for dinner. We all opted for the two-course meal and had either Fronch onion soup or calamari, then a lamb shank or scallops. Quite good but filling and no one really wanted dessert.

Home by 8 but I still slept more poorly than I would have liked due to the food and wine. Also I think we're having salad for dinner tonight to compensate for yesterday's calories. Still, it was a nice evening with a friend we don't see as often as we'd like since she's no longer active in the SCA.