The original plan was to throw my stuff in storage while evacuating a home of disbanding roommates, to buy the bare essentials from ikea, from east bay restaurant supply, from the dollar store–make do in the studio together for a couple of months, save some money, move out and back into the world of roommates.

But it didn’t make sense to, so a year later and a winter without the majority of my sweaters (I moved at the beginning of summer….) I’ve been working with a 3/4 size electric stove (a full gas range and plenty of counter space was always a priority in finding my own place), a kitchen full of abandoned laptops, computer fans, hooks that were never hung on the wall, and, after buying a new coffee pot as a gift for my (wonderful) boyfriend, inevitably two coffee pots next to each other on the very limited counter space. Thank the powers that be for our amazing back yard! Hello, sanctuary!

Well this has changed. My parents visited for the weekend, we took them up on an offer to help and grabbed what we thought was all of my kitchen boxes from a storage unit an hour from our place in SF, brought them back and I delightfully rummaged through them finding what I couldn’t wait any longer to have back. This means our space is even more impacted now, but I feel like I have my artillery back!

I mean, I unpacked reidel tumblers, nonstick pans, multiple whisks, a pasta machine (which I have mixed feelings about), a french press, the many many things I’ve missed. Now, I’m thinking I must have missed a box. Where is my Deruta pitcher & espresso cups??? Surely we missed one–so when I return the stuff I don’t have room for right now we can start the whole process again–I’m sure you’re really happy to read that, right, boyfriend?

Good things to come y’all.

Two Memories in my Berkeley Kitchen:

At a dinner party for six, I made a few quick courses that ended up with a fabulous “bang” on an easy, warm weeknight in the backyard.

- Pluot slices with seasoned Sheep’s ricotta and Prosciutto

- Grilled pork tenderloin with “5 spices” & rum braised peaches + rainbow chard

- Dark chocolate ice cream with bergamont olive oil & sea salt

The first and the last were partially stolen from a previous dinner and a local creamery, so aside from giving you a brief hint* on the first I’ll leave you to your own devices.

*mix your sheep’s milk ricotta with some orange or lemon zest, some bergamont olive oil, and vanilla salt, then drizzle the whole combo, once wrapped and held together by prosciutto, with balsamico.

1 pork tenderloin, rubbed generously with mixture of dried pepper & salt, and five spice powder. Allow to marinate as such for 30-1hr, then drizzle with high heat oil such as macadamia, and throw it on a medium grill, turning a little frequently to prevent charring.

1 bunch rainbow chard, stems removed and chopped 1 inch, cooked at medium heat in olive oil, with salt and pepper, the leaves added to wilt at the end.

Peaches into the chard pan once the chard is removed, brought to high heat with butter, get them golden on one side and douse in bacardi 151 or another rum (or calvados). Flip them, get them golden on the other side, add more rum. Cook it off and serve it all together!

I’ve been procrastinating on this one, which was probably not the best idea since it is painfully difficult to remember the details of 10 courses the same night, let alone weeks later, delightful as they were.

We had the opportunity to dine at Quince (Yelp) with a friend who once worked there making pasta and other duties. Because of this, we had a rather fantastic 10 course pasta meal with multiple desserts and interludes that took up our whole Tuesday evening.

As a normal denizen, I’d recommend going on Tuesday evening simply because the chef’s tasting menu IS a pasta tasting menu on Tuesdays…except, we had the expanded, customized version.

Frankly, I was so mesmerized by the food we were eating and the wine we were drinking that I didn’t manage to whip out my camera until we were nearly through; it was dark anyway.

We ate a little lobster salad with speck and watermelon to start with, a little amuse bouche. I will not be able to fully recall what we ate but I’ll try:

Francobolli (postage stamp style ravioli) filled with cipollini onion and with a frothy fresh english pea sauce–this was incredible, delightful, light

Spaghetti with clam, melon, espresso — surprisingly tasty

“Cannoli” (i think??) with ricotta

Little hat shaped pastas with a rim in an amazing broth i could not figure out with some orange, stock, etc

Tortelli of carbonara – filled with speck, egg, parsley in a carbonara type sauce (egg yolk)

A thick, northern noodle that was firm and dense made with farro and with a confit or braised meat and other rich, delicious things

Dessert included blackberry gelees and sorbettos, exploding honey domes, chocolate crunchies, peaches–there were several, followed with a plate of cookies and miniture cakes and verbena truffles.

(Officially, we had June Pride Peaches with Greek yogurt sorbet and poppy seed cake, Frozen blackberry tart with coconut sorbetto and buckwheat crumble, and provencal almond gelato with soft chocolate, lavender and honey.)

I’m doing a poor job of reconstructing this so I will consult with our ex-cook friend and see what we can remember.

And then, we snuck into the kitchen and had a peek. Apologies for the low light photography but I had to be a little discreet.