a little ketchup

So, here's the lowdown on memorable food experiences over my winter break:

I guess I'll start with Christmas when Mom and I fed 13 of our peops full of a Martha Stewart Ham bought at Costco (hormone free, organic, etc. go Martha) with an apricot/ mustard seed glaze, the never fail potato fennel gratin (includes 2+ cups heavy cream and a pound of gruyere), maple brandy sweet potatoes, green beans (the blah dish of the evening) and DESSERT. Here it should be noted that, in our fambly, dessert dishes ofttimes outnumber dishes served at dinner and that Christmas was no exception to the rule. For my part, I contributed a pumpkin cake with caramel cream cheese frosting--delish but super sweet--and a peach pie special for Ole Tex (my Texan Grandfather). Sister pulled through with three-layer chocolate, hazelnut, mousse cake and a simple fruit tart and mom delivered with the finishing touch of a double batch (read: > 4 lbs) of fudge. Oh decadence.

Two days later the Flocke and Coleman Ladies celebrated Mama Coleman's Birthday with Dim Sum brunch at Jasmine in Kearny Mesa. Truth be told, dim sum is always simultaneously over and underwhelming for me as the amount of choice is confounding and I always end up saying yes to things I don't want and don't like. Somehow we were barraged in the early stages by carts serving all things shrimp and outdid ourselves on crustaceans without getting a chance to sample the pork buns or the bok choy with the delicious mystery sauce. The Highlight of the day, however, was dessert (notice a trend). After dim sum, Mrs. Flocke drove the kiddies across the street to Yogurt World where we helped ourself to the self serve machines (numbering more than 10)featuring flavors such as green tea coconut and tart mango, and the plethora of unusual toppings. The yogurt here is reminiscent of pinkberry and its spinoffs but the texture is undoubtedly less crystalline and delightfully creamy.

New Years featured the grandparentals, Fran and Tex, back at the Coleman Cabana for texas-style cornbread (read: dense and without sugar, oven baked in a griddle and topped with a healthy amount of butter and honey. mmmm), blacked eyed peas cooked with onions and the the leftover Christmas ham hock, and stewed greens of course. (we gussied up the greens a bit with some balsamic vinegar)

About a week ago, I convinced my parents to take me to Clay's atop Hotel La Jolla. I ordered cassis braised duck breast lain across sautéed vinegary spinach and flanked with butternut squash ravioli. The bechemel-type sauce on the ravioli needed salt, the cassis flavoring on the duck was nice, but as I'm not a huge fan of soggy, thick, gelatenous duck skin, this flavoring was mostly lost on me. Everything we ate was cooked to perfect doneness and my mom's ceder plank smoked salmon also suffered from a lack of seasoning. By far the highlight of my meal was the SCRUMPTIOUS Chilean Pinot I ordered. It is worth noting that Clay's has an awesome and bustling bar attached that serves more affordable food such as decked out, thick burgers and features live music nightly.