Our two vegetarians were out of the office today, so lunch became a celebration of meat.

Ellen made Carne Adovada with blue and red corn pozole with avocado salad.  This all was accompanied by warm tortillas.  We had the option of eating it as a taco or a stew but the taco was out of control messy, and the stew made for a much better picture.

Ellen picked up this gem while taking classes at the Sante Fe School of Cooking while she and some girlfriends were vacationing in the area a few years back.

BTW, food photography tip: did you know that plating in a shallower bowl makes for better pictures?  Neither did I until Ellen told me.

I’ve used “delicious”, “deliciosity”, “yummy” and “scrumdiliumptious”.  I don’t know how to continue expressing the quality of these meals without consulting a thesaurus, being redundant or sounding blasé.

I was a very, very picky eater growing up.  Over the last few years of living with a chef and having gourmet meals cooked at the office I have greatly expanded my culinary horizons.

When I first started working at Table XI, I didn’t eat seafood.  It’s a taste I just never acquired.  Over the last year Ellen has worked in a steady rotation of fish and shrimp and though I sometimes do so reluctantly, I now eat seafood on almost a weekly basis.

I say all this to illustrate the significance of the following statement: I have never devoured fish as quickly as I ate the salmon Ellen cooked for us today.  It was (insert adjective describing immensely pleasurable taste). The fish itself was (another adjective) but the Korean bulgogi glaze pushed it over the top.  Accompanying the salmon was white rice and boc choy with mushrooms.

Just say no.

This afternoon around 4:00pm, a seven-year old girl walked into the Table XI office and took all of our cash.

The culprit, Ellen’s daughter Ingrid, came offering promises of the rare American delicacy known as Girl Scout Cookies. Apparently supplying delectable culinary treats runs in the family.

Though many offices are rife with Girl Scout competition, Ellen and Samantha are the only TXI staffers with children.  I’d go further to say that most of us don’t even have friends in Chicago with children.

Needless to say, Ingrid cleaned house.  Her sweet, innocent pitch coupled with the temptation of sugar-crack were no match for our New Years’ weight-loss resolutions.  Many of us were separated from our not-really-hard-earned hour-entry bounties and Katie Gore, John’s wife, placed an order for what looks to be the entire city of Toronto (only weak imitation Girl Scout Cookies can be procured in Canada).

In fact, Ingrid was so effective at selling that the idea was floated of offering her a job (mine), but fortunately child labor laws precluded it.

Wanna know how dedicated Ellen is to feeding us gourmet food?  In the sub-freezing temperatures of this January morning, Ellen fired up her Webber (at home, before she came into the office) and grilled off some honey-soy-marinated skirt steak. That’s how much she loves us.

She served that steak over a spicy noodle salad consisting of cucumber, carrots, green onions, chili peppers, cilantro and basil.

For some extra spice she provided sambal oelek on the side (similar to Sriracha but less “ketchupy”.)

It was, of course, delicious.

Today we were joined by Judith, Steve and Jenny from the YMCA of Metro Chicago.  We’re overhauling their online program registration and have a big release coming up.  The development teams have been running around like mad the last few weeks trying to get this huge project out the door.

Judith and Steve always seem to schedule their meetings to coincide with the lunch hour.  And it sounds like they invented some reason to come back tomorrow.  Something about “finding bugs”.  Sounds sketchy to me.

For our non-profit friends, Ellen prepared a salad featuring avocado, tarragon and spinach with a balsamic-orange-shallot reduction.

Ellen served the salad with scallops purchased from Isaacson and Sons, about the closest thing Chicago’s got to Seattle’s world-famous Pike Place Market (subject of the popular business management book When Fish Fly).

Chicken Bahn Mi

Today for lunch Ellen prepared Chicken Banh Mi sandwiches.  As the recipe states, it is a seemingly exotic sandwich with ingredients that can be purchased at the local supermarket (though Jewel doesn’t carry daikon so traditional radishes were substituted instead.)

There are several good spots in Chicago to get Banh Mi sandwiches. We contend that the ones made by Ellen today can stand up to them all.