Dinner at Julie Slick's house

So when Julie moved to her new, gorgeous bi-level apartment, she told me she wanted it to be an oasis where anyone could drop by even unannounced and always be treated to a spur of the moment excellent Julie meal, watch her 1,000 foot plasma tv (ha), drink some great wine/beer, etc.



In other words, she's the exact opposite of her curmudgeon mother.



Oh, I'm kidding. As Julie and Eric will be the first to tell you, our house was the party house 24/7 and all of their friends knew they could always hang out here and not only be fed something fantastic but they had Gary's collection of 30 or so vintage guitars and basses at their disposal and Eric's drums, keyboards, synths etc. were right in the living room for any and all to jam. So I am thrilled that she wanted to duplicate the experience at her own place.

Anyway, the above pics were taken this past Monday night when she invited her father, brother Eric, Eric's significant other, Katy, and yours truly to dinner and too funny, I love that shot of my princess, striking a pose after serving us one of the more memorable meals I've had at her place though truth to tell, she ups the bar with every dinner so I'll probably always be typing "best meal ever" and at the time, will mean it...until the next one.

The photo of me is just so typical.

Anyway, I know you are all dying to know the menu...and if you will check Julie's blog later today or tomorrow, she'll have all the recipes up.

First course:

Arugula Salad with Marinated Artichokes, Curried Olives, and Toasted
Walnuts in a Lemon-Agave Vinaigrette.



Second course:

Roasted Corn, Shallot, Mascarpone, and Cashew Agnolotti in a Blood
Orange-Parmesan Broth topped with Roasted Cashews and Shaved Beemster.



Ze bread:

French-style Baguette served with Sweet Cream Butter.



A healthy dessert (kind of):

Zucchini-Walnut Bread - Cinnamon Scented with Butter and Applesauce.



Words cannot describe how amazing a culinary experience that was, but as you can see, Gary and Monty dog, who also came to visit, are both quite happy...I am ecstatic as well, but of course I'm in my usual pose:



Here are some art shots Katy took of Julie's apartment:



This one cracks me up because it's kind of a multi-generational collection of art. As mentioned previously in this blog, Julie painted the portrait of Stravinsky on the far left, but the middle painting of Beethoven..well, pretty funny story that. I painted it when I was sixteen years old and when Julie moved out, she "borrowed it"...to be honest, I didn't even know it was still around but all these years, she had it up in her bedroom at my house and really loved it, which made me just about burst with joy and love because she's so much more talented as an artist than I ever was and it really touched me that she "filched" this when she got a place of her own and hung it up in her living room, in between her beautiful painting and the painting on the right, which was done by her significant other Matt's cousin Jordan del Rosario.



By the way, Jordan is also lead guitar player in Matt's band, Cheers Elephant, and they have a huge gig coming up on April 20, 2009 downstairs at World Cafe Live. You can get your tickets right here.

Speaking of upcoming shows, the family and I are very stoked that we are going to see Jeff Beck, along with Julie's nemesis, Tal Wilkenfeld on bass when they visit the Electric Factory on April 8, 2009. We're gonna stare Tal down.

Oh, I am so kidding. First of all, we've been Jeff Beck fans since...forever...and Tal is wonderful but it's mind boggling how often she and Julie are confused with each other...I guess it's because they both play bass and have curly hair? But they really look nothing alike.

Tal:



Julie:



So yeah, we're really excited about this and Eric is of course thrilled to be able to catch Vinnie Colaiuta on drums with Jeff Beck and Tal - he's been a Vinnie fan since he was like four years old. Here's Eric and Vinnie a few years ago when they met up at NAMM in California...sigh...I miss Eric's long hair:



Something tells me I'm forgetting huge things to report here but it's 7:00 a.m., the dog needs to be walked and fed, and I've got a ton of things to do today so I've got to get my sorry ass out of here early...but rest assured if I do remember what it is I wanted to say, I'll be back.

Later,
xo