Sunday Supper and saddest movie of the year

Sometimes I hate Sundays. Even the really great ones, as this past Sunday proved to be. Brunch with an LA friend in town, north bay friends over for coffee and conversation, lounging with NYTimes Sunday crossword, popcorn and a matinee...all the elements of a perfect Sunday still can't fight the simple fact the weekend is over. DH and I were both feeling the Sunday blues so decided to make a home-cooked meal to cheer us up a bit.

Dover sole fillets, lemons, garlic, rosemary oil, kale, seeded baguette

 We picked up some Dover sole fillets and kale at the nearby market. DH prepared the kale while I handled the fillets.

lemon garlic rosemary fillets

flaky, smooth consistency with subtle lemon-garlic-rosemary flavor

Sole fillets are my favorite type of fish and a quick pan fry is my personal favorite preparation. I used rosemary infused olive oil, garlic slivers, lemon slices and a splash of acidic white wine to saute the fillets. This is the simplest, quickest and most delicious fish dish in my book. 

Bulgarian sheep's milk feta, goat gouda & cowgirl creamery Pierce Pt cheese

one of the better designed labels around

DH assembled a quick cheese plate from what we had in the fridge and opened a bottle of white. Sarapo is the brainchild of Kent Humphrey of Eric Kent wines who was DH's first boss in the wine industry and now good friend. The label itself is simple, graphic and recognizable, as all good labels should be, yet few are. The wine inside the bottle stands up to its well designed label. Crisp and acidic, the chardonnay complimented everything, including our bad attitudes!

Part of our melancholy stemmed from seeing the new Inarritu film, Biutiful. A film about a man who is dying is probably not the best film to see when you are already a little blue. Javier Bardem's capacity for sadness is astounding, as is Inarritu's, though both actor and director alike make one feel completely a part of the sadness and the humanity of the story they are telling. The film is nominated for best foreign film and Bardem is nominated for best actor but if the academy had a 'saddest film of the year' category there would be no contest. It is a beautiful, compelling movie, not for the faint of heart.

One particularly beautiful scene as Uxbal walks across a bridge at dusk and observes the migrating formation of birds in the sky reminded me of our move up here New Year's day. We witnessed those very same formations and attempted to capture it on video, albeit not as successfully as Inarritu. Regardless, it was breathtaking scene in the film and in real life.