zirconium

I'm winding down from a weekend with a fair amount of socializing and cooking. The socializing was in small groups, via paddleboard yoga (photos on IG and Twitter (x2)), a neighbor's birthday party (involving Ethiopian and Indian food and quite a bit of red wine and unbridled nerdiness), and a brunch I hosted in honor of another friend's birthday. I made brownies spiked with red pepper flakes for the neighbors, tested two recipes for a friend of a friend, and prepared the following for brunch:

horchata experimentation bar:
* pitcher of sesame milk (1 cup sesame seeds soaked and then blended with around 1500 mL water, then strained and chilled)
* brown sugar simple syrup
* an array of other sweeteners and spices, with a pestle and mortar, a beaker, and a row of shot glasses. The resulting blends included saffron, red pepper, lemon peel, turmeric, cardamom, nutmeg sugar, and other mayhem.

deviled eggs

cherry tomatoes (harvested from the garden yesterday)

boiled artichokes with melted butter

roasted cauliflower with capers, salted lemon peel, and king oyster mushrooms sautéed with ginger (the mushroom component adapted from a Cathy Erway Food of Taiwan recipe)

rice sticks stir-fried with king oyster and shiitake mushrooms, cabbage, and carrots

s'mores cake (devil's food with marshmallow fluff and crushed cinnamon graham crackers)