Respite

Josie and Kees- of sambal oelek fame- and 2 of their 3 kids joined us for dinner. Kees brought a tortilla with sweet potatoes and chorizo, plus a spicy tomato sauce, and I smoked a side of salmon over our applewood since it was actually above freezing outside for the first time in what seems like ages. Other dishes included sweet potato "noodles" marinated in a Thai dressing (peanut butter, sesame oil, vinegars, sambal, soy sauce, nam pla, agave; the result is pretty close to green papaya salad) roasted fingerling potatoes and kale braised with a little salt pork. Those are turnip and black radish pickles near the top. Because they love Pleiades so much, we had another XV, and then a 2002 Aquila sangiovese so they could try something higher up the Thackrey spectrum. For dessert we had a stinky, sweet, crumbly, creamy Berkshire Blue.