PNO: Silo

Instead of blogging about a great meal I made this weekend, instead I'll share a great meal we enjoyed for Parents' Night Out.

This past Friday, Paul and I enjoyed the best perk of daycare: Parents' Night Out. One night a month, the daycare will keep the kids until 11:30 so we can go out on a date. Like grown-ups.

I like to take full advantage of PNO and go somewhere we can enjoy fancy grown up stuff like foie gras or pretty much anything that doesn't come with a side of fries (unless, of course, it's the delicious pommes frites at Bistro Vatel!).

This weekend, we decided to go to Silo. Their tag is "elevated cuisine," and their gimmick is that the restaurant is upstairs so you take an elevator from the bar and the hostess greets you by name at the top.

We arrived a few minutes before our reserved seating but declined to wait in the bar. (I think their bar is kinda creepy, and they allow smoking inside, which I think is disgusting.) Instead, we went up to our table and enjoyed a pre-dinner drink there. Paul had a Heineken, and I had their signature cosmo, which was so smooth it could be very dangerous if consumed in quantity.

We skipped appetizers since neither of us were extremely hungry and, instead, preordered the molten chocolate cake for dessert.

Paul had the surf-and-turf special with a petite filet and lobster tail. Both just melted in your mouth. The steak was beautifully rare and had the perfect amount of smoky flavor. (Wood-firing is big here in San Antonio.) The lobster tail was served split and was sublime.

I started with the spinach salad, which was perfection. It featured dried apricots and cranberries plus a dressing that I could bathe in. For my meal, I chose the foie gras special appetizer. It was Heaven on a plate! It was perfectly seared and served on toasted brioche with a rich demi glaze.

And, of course, that warm chocolate cake was the sweet ending to a great night out.

Sad to report that I was at the daycare to pick up the boys before 9 o'clock!

Burgers, Pasta and Play Dough (oh my!)

Okay, I've been a little lax about posting here. But, I haven't been lax about cooking.



Here are the highlights of the past week or so:

• Sun-Dried Tomato Burgers with Balsamic-Glazed Onions. Yum! We had these with sweet potato fries (complete with the garlic-mayo dipping sauce). These burgers are super flavorful and take no time at all to throw together. Pictured at right.

• Greek-Style Pasta with Shrimp. Heaven on a plate! I add a little of the pasta cooking water to make it into a svelte, creamy sauce.

• One-Pot Salmon with Snap Peas and Rice. I'm in love with this recipe. You put the rice on to cook, then add the salmon, a little later toss on the peas and then throw on the sauce. One dirty dish, dinner in less than 30 minutes - what's not to love! Even Mitchell will eat this one - and apparently so will Noah! He was loving the salmon. (I must say, something awesome happens to the salmon when this dish cooks. It comes out soft as butter - but not mushy or anything. It just melts in your mouth. Delish!)

And, food's not the only thing cookin' in our house. Mitchell's new preschool asks that parents bring homemade play dough to the parent orientation. Given my track record with strange stuff that I have to make, I thought I'd test drive the recipe. Lo and behold, I made play dough! The stuff is so smooth (though it is very salty smelling).

Cooked Play Dough

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup salt

4 teaspoons cream of tartar

2 cups cold water

2 tablespoons oil

Food coloring (Use WAAAAY more than you think you need! The few drops I added at first made something that looked like snot!)

Mix the dry ingredients in a large pot. Mix the wet ingredients (including the food coloring) in a measuring cup then add to the dry ingredients. Turn on the heat and stir like a mad woman - this required quite a bit of strength, as this is a thick mixture. Something strange happens and it magically becomes a ball of play dough!

Remove from heat and let cool then knead to make it smooth. Store in plastic bags.