In Honor of My Birthday . . . I make my favorite dish

My birthday is a funny thing. For some reason I always make a super big deal out of it, and yet at 28 I am probably the only person I know who thinks birthdays are a reason for any super special acknowledgement. Sure a card here and a small present or two from a good friend, but other than that . . . what is the big deal? Right?

Yeah right. So this year I felt kind of grown up. The current boyfriend, seemed to be fighting really hard to take me out on my birthday, but he had a work obligation, so I told him not to worry I would see him on another night . . . and I sure did feel grown up for doing it. Which is not to say I wasn't secretly expecting some surprise out of left field, but since this rarely if ever happens I wasn't all that suprised that is didn't. So, I came home and did one of my favorite things--went for a nice long run in Central Park, then showered, looked in the fridge, and saw that I had basil, parmesean, and garlic. I also have had pignoli nuts my cabinet (ever since my roomie pointed out that trader joes has 'em cheap and already toasted it seems silly not to have them as a staple), and the roommates always have olive oil. So why not my first attempt at pesto?

A word on pesto . . . it is one of my favorite wierd foods from growing up. That's right I said it one of my favorite wierd foods. I know this is hard to believe in a world where pesto is seemingly ubiquitous as both a condiment and a sauce in Italian restaurants, and even at the local pub, but at least when I was growing up it seemed that the only place to get it was home. And it was a special sauce that my mom made and put on funny shaped pasta, and she made it in the cuisinart. So, the cuisnart or food processor seemed to me to be a key ingredient. I don't have a food processor (okay technically I do but it is in a box in my room because there is just no good place to store it in my shared kitchen) so I can't make pesto.

Then a week and a half before my birthday I made this green sauce in the blender and it occured to me that I should probably try making pesto in the blender too. It would be unfair to say that I realized I could make pesto in a blender, because pretty much every cook I know has suggested to me using a blender in place of a food processor, but for some reason I didn't trust any of them, because my mom used a food processor so clearly one was needed to make pesto.

Making pesto wasn't easy. My first go, which I put over macaroni (not the right pasta but clearly better than my other option, spaghetti--the only two pasta shapes I had readily available), broccoli, fresh tomato, and asparagus. And it was way too smooth and way too garlicky. One of the things I like about pesto is the fresh taste of basil (my mom used to use basil from her garden, unfortunately not so easy to grow in my sunlight free apartment) and I just didn't put enough in--and I thought, I like garlic so why not use two cloves instead of one. I talked to my mom before I made the second attempt, the first wednesday folloing my actual birthday, and her suggestion, when in doubt just add more cheese was much appreciated. Unfortunately the second time I still put in too much garlic. And I didn't have enough basil to fix it, because most of it had wilted. And I didn't realize I had forgotten the pignoli nuts until after I had sauced the pasta. But I didn't over blend this time, so the pesto wasn't over smooth. And I was able to add more cheese and that helped. As did pignoli nuts in the garnish. And current boyfriend noted the excess garlic (even though he claims to love it too) and the missing pignoli nuts, but he still cleaned his plate and the remains out of the serving bowl. Mostly I am just excited to continue working on pesto and further expanding my cooking reptoire now that I realize that my lack of food processor (sort of) is not really a limitation afterall.

She likes to eat . . . But does she know how to cook?

If you ask me what I like to do, my first response won't be "eat." But if you spend any amount of time with me you will discover it to be so. Last week I met a friend I hadn't seen in six months for a drink, and somehow the conversation turned to food (well I guess it always does eventually with me). And for a moment, I was talking but I was also listening to myself talk, and I realized how much I actually do seem to know about restaurants and food.

I guess I also find the fact that I know so much sort of ridiculous considering that it was just two weeks ago that the man I have been calling my boyfriend for the last five monthsish said something to me along the lines of "You have all these cook books but do you ever cook?" Wow. It would seem we are past the stage where he simply adores me without question. Never mind the fact that I have cooked him at least 4 or 5 meals at this point, none of them elegant, but all of them satisfying in there own way . . . sigh. But then again, since much of my cooking seems to fall into one of two camps (vegetables sauteed in garlic and olive oil over pasta or red beans and corn spiced up with various whistles and gimcracks and wrapped in a tortilla), it also seems it is about time to expand my cooking repetoire.

I don't mean that I want to throw more fancy dinner parties (although that would be nice--at this point I have a few under my belt, two which really stand out, a smashing success featuring a delicious Italian flank steak roll, and a bit of a failure featuring a shrimp dish in which I did not realize that the shrimp was spoiled), I mean I want to be a better home cook. I want to be the kind of person who can come home and turn a few key ingredients into a satisfying meal. While the beau is a small part of the inspiration (there is just something about this one that makes me want to feed him), I think the true inspiration is Laurie Colwin.

Laurie Colwin is one of my favorite writers of fiction (novels and short stories)--she died suddenly, of a heart attack, at the age of 48. Though her books never made the best seller list while she was alive, they still remain in print 13 years after her untimely death. Yet somehow, it was only recently that I discovered the one that still sells the most copies, Home Cooking. It is a collection of columns she wrote for Gourmet Magazine, because as it turns out she was also quite a talented food writer. Home Cooking is a favorite among a certain group of cooks/food writers and it really is a lovely little book. It just makes me want to cook.

As of yet, I have been somewhat unsuccessful with the two recipes that I have tried. The first was an egg poached over vegetables sauteed in butter and garlic, and the second was veggies in a green sauce. But the good news is that the mistakes were both the result of my own error (I was nervous with the veggie and egg bit so I overcooked both, and I added too much lemon juice to the green sauce so it tasted kind of sour), and for some nutty reason I want to try each of them again. Sure they were not perfect, but they still somehow tasted better then the slice of pizza I would have eaten otherwise. And also, I realize the way I got good at the veggie olive oil bit, and the mexican bit, were years of practice. And right now I am looking forward to keeping notes of my failures (and hopefully a few successes too), as I struggle along the path of becoming a solid home cook.

My First Post

This is all an experiment that may never ever get seen. But that is still kind of fun right? I said I wanted to be a writer so I figured hey, I'll mess around with posting on this crazy interweb and see where it goes. Maybe no where maybe I am not supposed to be a writer, but I might as well give it a shot in a pretend public forum, right? And if I like what I am doing, maybe I will even tell people what the address is. Won't that be fun?