Text 17700, 113 rader
Skriven 2007-07-05 11:30:00 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
Ärende: tastes of the 4th 779
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My friends Dirk and Jackie (conductor of one of my orchestras,
and the orchestra manager - not romantically involved) had a
cookout after the July 3 rehearsal. What Jackie didn't tell
him was that she had arranged for his two daughters to come
in for the orchestra's 10th anniverary celebration - one from
Honolulu and the other from New York; she enlisted various
friends in the circle of secrecy, and when Dirk showed up at
his house he greeted us sort of generically without seeing
exactly who was there, and then when it dawned on him, he was
really excited. I heard it but didn't really see it, as I was
in the kitchen making dinner (I have various duties in the
group, such as playing assorted solos on short notice and
fixing dinner on short notice and stuff like that).

Romaine, tomato, pimiento, and red onion salad
Tortellini alfredo
Seared tuna (rare)
Steak tips (medium rare)

Steak tip marinade
cat: marinade, vaguely oriental, found ingredients
yield: enough for 3 lb of meat

4 Tb jarred chopped garlic 
3 oz balsamic vinegar
3 oz ginger-flavored soy sauce
3 oz ouzo
2 oz corn syrup
pepper

Combine ingredients and pour over meat. Let marinate
at least 2 hr.

Tortellini alfredo
cat: copout, found ingredients
servings: 8 to 10 as a starch

1 lb premade tortellini
1/2 jar premade alfredo sauce

Boil tortellini. Heat sauce. Combine.

A spirited after-dinner conversation caused me to miss the last
bus, which caused me to have to stay on the couch for the night.

Dirk and I picked Carol up at 10:30 at the airport, where
security appeared to be negligible. He dropped us off at the
apartment, from whence we took a field trip to the beach,
with Richardson's ice cream afterward (Richardson's being a
dairy in Middleton that makes very good ice cream - a
friend of mine used to be the cow manager there - and that
is no stranger to the attendees of the Clam Crawls) - the
dairy having started distributing its stuff to select
parlors on the north shore, including one just a couple
blocks from the apartment. It was a bright sunny day, and
we got pleasantly wet in the ocean (Carol likes this better
than I do), and the ice cream was nice. I had death by
chocolate - chocolate with chocolate chunks and brownie, and
Carol had a two-scooper of coconut and mocha chip.

We decided we'd go to Salem a bit early and find a bite to
eat. The bus was reasonably quick, but the route was a little
different owing to rerouting around the concert site, so we
had a little hike to get to Pickering Wharf, where the
waterfront restaurants looked crowded and the menus expensive.
Carol suggested the Salem Beer Works, where she likes the
Caesar salad, but I pointed out that the chances were we'd
go there after the concert, so we ended up at Derby Fish,
which is an old standby. Turns out though the quality of the
food is still fine, the prices have gone up and the portions
down. We started with steamers, which the waitress sold as
"about 2 pounds" of shellfish - they came as maybe a pound
and a quarter, done in the same garlic-wine broth as the
mussels (in fact, the dipping broth tasted of mussels), quite
fresh, perfectly good, but not enough. Then Carol had a bowl
of clam chowder, which was rather like cream of chicken soup
with clams and potatoes thrown in - a strange thick substance.
A fried seafood sampler was a quarter pound of pollock, a
very large scallop trimmed into 4 pieces, two large shrimp,
and a dozen small clams, all very good, all very $12 for not
much food. I had a very malty grainy Wolaver's pale ale, and
Carol had a blueberry wheat from Shoal Something in Maine,
one of her summer favorite. For my second I had a blueberry.
We were in the front patio, separated from the public by
some flower boxes, and our friend Nan the horn player came
by, so she joined us for a brewski. It was eventually time
to get situated for the concert, and we walked down there
in a spitting little rain, hoping that the weather would
improve. We saw our opening act pack up early (they were out
in the open, in front of the stage, and their electronics
were getting rained on, which is a bad idea), and we started
setting up. I did my stuff (making sure the violins had their
music and stands and microphones and clothespins set up) and
then, still hungry, had a very mediocre cinnamon bun from one
of the concessions stands (no discount: the thing cost $3 for
some off-brand thing probably reheated from Sam's Club).

The Air Force flyover this year was performed at a very low
altitude because of the cloud ceiling - instead of having 4
fighters as usual, we had 2 trainers, but they were nice and
loud and gave the audience a thrill.

Fairly decent concert, but just as the fireworks were set to
go off, the heavens opened, and the winds and rain came, and
our performance was truncated just before the 1812. We took
refuge in the Beer Works, where a pepperoni pizza tasted very
good indeed, especially to Carol, who was soaked to the skin
despite her windbreaker and many layers of clothing. We sort
of dried out and just made the last bus back, which was free.

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