Seabee Ball 2013

This past weekend we celebrated the Seabees at the Seabee Ball.

 Mike and I before the ball.  Not my favorite dress, but I was ordering online, so it is the best I could do (espeically since I started the search late)

 This is me and Shelley before leaving.  The fact that we are both standing is incredible considering we did a brutal 11 mile run that morning.  It was my longest ever run without walking, although at the end, most people could have walked the pace I was running!  We are prepping for the base 2 base run which is coming up in a couple of weeks.  The options are a 7.6 mile run or a half marathon.  Shelley is going for the half.  I am still deciding.

 The location was a castle not too far away from base and although we were there just as it was getting dark and we didn't get a good look at the grounds, it was beautiful.

 Sorry for the reflection.  This is a poster advertisement for the location.

Before dinner there were some appetizers set up with some decorative food displays on the table.

 This would be a chocolate horse.  It was really tempting to break off that one hoof!

 This looks like a ship that is sinking.  Maybe not the best motivation for the Navy ;)

After a little mingling, we sat down for dinner and the ceremony.

 This is the centerpiece that one lucky person at the table won, not me, and some wine.

At the top right, Joe and Shelley.  Middle left, John and Sarah.  And finally me and Mike.  Notice the bright red face.  That is actually not make-up.  I put on no blush that night.  My face was either sun or wind burned, or both.  It was a beautiful day for a run, but we were running into some pretty hefty wind for a lot of it.

After dinner, there were traditional Italian desserts set out, but also the Seabee cake.

The tradition is that the cake is cut by the youngest and the oldest Seabee at the ball.  The youngest was a girl who is just 4 years older than Tommy.  After she was identified they started calling out birth years for the oldest.  They started with 65, no taker....66, no taker....67?  There would be one Seabee there born in 67, Mike!

 So he had the honor to cut the cake with Rear Admiral Gregory.

Mike had served with RADM Gregory back in 2007, and I have seen a lot of pictures and heard a lot of stories about her over the years.  She always looked and sounded like an intimidating, no nonsense kind of person.  And I guess in her work she is.  I was fortunate to have an opportunity to talk to her.  She had Mike introduce us and then sent Mike away so she could talk about him.  She had nothing put praise for him, but was concerned that he is a little too serious and told me to get him to loosen up.  Not only was she not intimidating, she was about 6 inches shorter than me, and really petite.  Totally not what I had expected.  And after the ceremony was complete, we headed to a building out back for dancing.....

where Joe tried his best to get Mike to loosen up ;)

Cooking - November, January and February

I know  you are all wondering why I haven't been to cooking class, because all you think about is what I am doing ;)  Well, I have been going, I just haven't been good about blogging them.  I am going to do my best to quickly post about the last 3 I have done.  I was looking at the pictures today, and am not sure I remember all that we did.  The good thing about blogging about them is that I have the "recipe" written down and might be able to replicate what we made at home.

In November, we went to a really nice restaurant in Ramaca for lessons on artichokes.

We prepped for stuffed artichokes, artichoke salad and artichoke risotto.

Once we did prep work, we got to go back to the kitchen and watch the chef at work.

 Lunch was delicious, and as always included all that we made plus more.  I wish I could find all the pictures, I had some on my phone and some on my camera, but trust me, It was wonderful and more food than we could eat!

In January, we returned to a restaurant I had already been to, but we mixed it up a little and made mussels and salted fish.  The mussels I had done at the first class, but the fish was new and fun!

 Andrea and the chef

You start with a whole fish, which is gutted, thankfully, and you mix up some seasonings.

If I remember, it was salt, pepper, basil and lemon rind, and you stuff that into the belly of the fish.

 Then you get a bunch of salt and lay it down and use water to create a bed for your fish

 Then you cover the fish up with more wet salt, and the chef takes it away and cooks it.

 Then you mix up dressing with lemon, olive oil, oregano, and probably salt and or pepper.  That is saved for when you eat your fish.

Here is some of the lunch we got before we had the fish.

 Here is the fish.  Andrea had to show us how to eat it.  Basically, you peel back the skin and carefully remove the meat from the bones.  Then you pull out the skeleton and pull out the rest of the meat and add your dressing.  It was soooo tender and yummy!

Finally, tiramisu, yum!

Yesterday, we went to Donna Fortunada, a local pizza place/restaurant.  Here we got to learn how to make bread, bruschetta, and orange salad.  And the chef demonstrated how to make pasta.

The basics of what we used....flour, basil, tomato.  Add in salt, yeast, oregano, olive oil, oranges, scallions and I think that covers most of what we needed.

 So bread is bread, but this is what we made.  Basically poke a whole through the dough and make it a circle, allow to rise and then bake.

I was more interested in the bruschetta and orange salad.

                                                        Cut up tomatoes, scallions, salt, basil, and oregano mixed up with olive oil.

At the last minute grill up some fresh bread and put the tomato mixture on.  OOH SO GOOD!

 Finally, we made a Sicilian specialty that I have heard a lot about but hadn't had a chance to try yet, orange salad.

 Start by cubing up a fresh orange, or more for more than 1 person, then comes the crazy....

 add  pepper and salt, to taste (start with a little and taste and add)

 Then you add scallions or purple onions

Finish it up with, what else, olive oil.

I know that this sounds really odd, but it is surprisingly good!

We got to eat our bruschetta and orange salad right after we fixed it, and that was plenty for lunch, but there was more.

 I am not sure what all this is called, but it was all so yummy.  The top left was eggplant parmesan, but it is not anything like American eggplant parmesan! I am going to have to look for the recipe because it was my favorite thing on the plate.  In the cracker boat, was something that tasted like a type of barbeque, but with veggies.  I can't remember what it was called, but also very good.  On the right was a slice of deli meat that was filled with some sort of ricotta cheese pistachio mixture.

 Of course that was followed by pasta.....

 And then the stuffed sausage, with cheese, tomato and pepper inside, along with a small salad...

and finally dessert which was an almond flavored cake rolled around a pistachio cream.

I love these cooking classes.  They are a fun day out with a nice bunch of people, and I while I may not always come home ready to make the recipes at home, it helps me when we go out to eat!