Two local recommendations

With the flurry of activities over the past several days, we've turned to some experts for sustenance on two occasions with great success:

Silver Sake (sushi)
Marconi & Walnut, in the same shopping center as Eve's Market -- next to Round Table

Silver Sake has a fun neighborhood vibe, kind of like a nice mix of Sushi-Ya's "local" feel with Tokyo Fro's high energy. It's a decidedly casual and kick-back place with few tables. The list of rolls on the menu is LOOONG, so it's not the most traditional of sushi joints, but it was exactly what our mood dictated following holiday fare the day before.

Fortuitously, just as we sat down, a work friend of mine with whom we've socialized on occasion popped in and was meeting up with two friends of his. The five of us split some large Kirins, a few rolls, and some sashimi.

Toward the end of the meal, one of John's friends and I discovered that we're both trail runners, and she's interested in running AR50 (one I've done a few times), and we're about the same speed, so hopefully she'll want to meet up with us for some training in the future.

Carniceria Familia Lopez
On El Camino near Howe (several other locations too)

Thus far, we've only tried Lopez's seasoned chicken fajita mix (raw chicken prepared with spices & fresh veggies), their fresh ceviche, and some ripe produce and dried spices.

All I can say is, where is my bumper sticker that reads:
"Yo (heart) a Carniceria Familia Lopez"

Yum.

Last night, it was our turn to host our dinner group, and our menu steered far away from anything remotely holiday-ish, hence the trips to the Carniceria. Greg made an apple salsa and offered it with some of Eve's fresh salsa to go with the flour tortilla chips he made. The other appetizer was a sweet potato quesadilla -- we'd experimented with these earlier in the week and came up with a flavorful blend. Next up was the ceviche, followed by braised pork over hominy and with black beans. For dessert, I made a tequila lime pie -- using a recipe from the Southern Living cookbook but adding my own twists to it.

A back-up dessert we had on hand in case anyone wanted it was a choice of sorbets to be paired with freshly baked crisp ginger cookies. There was a slight problem with the cookies, however. It's an old family recipe of Greg's, and his instructions said to cream together 3/4 pound of butter with the sugar. I questioned this, having been raised a baker and having worked in a bakery for years in high school and summers in college. I thought it was probably 3/4 cup, but no, he said "They have a lot of butter in them."

So, with some online sleuthing of similar recipes, we found that yes, it is only 3/4 cup of butter. This was a test run of these for when we go to Garrett's cookie party next week.