Lame

So I have been absent for some months, and I can honestly say I'm not sure I was missed. I will try to better in the future and I might just be changing the direction of this little blog. Not exactly sure where it will go but the food thing seemed like a bit of a dead end. I think I have a lot to say about a lot of differnt things . . . and I might write about food, but I also might right about other things. We will see. If anyone is out there, just wanted to let you know I am still here just a little blocked.

What I do best . . . eat . . .

Over the last few weeks I have been doing a bit of cooking and eating. Tried a lot of new restaurants, continued to make my absorption pasta with all mixtures of butter sauteed meats and veggies, become a bit of regular at the Union Square Greenmarket, and in one week made a delicious carrot soup that I was tipped off to by the Wednesday Chef, and a perfect fall apple walnut cake courtesy of Orangette. If the Mets can continue to hold on for the World Series this could be the perfect month.

September is for Birthdays

So I have been jonesing to make a birthday cake. Seriously. There was an article in the New York Times Magazine last March which went through a number of different birthday cake recipes, and since then I have been dying to make a classic yellow cake with chocolate icing. Christmas 2004 I celebrated Christmas, with the then beau's family and he felt we should bring a homemade cake. Of course his feeling translated to me baking a cake. A Jewess backing a Christmas cake. I had no idea what to do. So I made my idea of a Christmas cake: red velvet with a green cream cheese icing and red hot decorations. How did I make the cream cheese icing green? With almost a bottle of food coloring. Can you guess what happened to beau's family's tongues? The cake was delicious, but I was a bit horrified (why did he ask his Jewish girlfriend to make a Christmas cake? of course she went kitsch to somewhat disasterous results).

Not to say that kitsch is bad. Back to my classic birthday cake. I thought I might make one in May but it didn't happen . . . and then I had to wait until September for the next rush of birthdays. Since Tara and Geordie both celebrated on the 1st I decided they wpuld be my victims. I made a yellow cake with sour cream chocolate icing from the better homes cook book. I thought the cake was dry (my cooking buddy said that it wasn't that it was dry but rather my use of that all purpose flour that gave it too large a "crumb" he suggested cake flour). Icing I will make again and again, pretty simple and delicious . . . stick and a little bit of butter, 12 ounces of bittersweet chocolate, mixed over heat. Then cooled. 8 ounces of sour cream added, and a pound of sifted powdered sugar combined in. It was so yummy. Next time I might use higher quality choclate. But I will definately still let Geordie decorate his cake.

August Snapshots

Things in Maine get serious.

See Bridal Party in its natural habitat.


Matt and Megan: cute couple.

Megan coolest Bride ever, recovers from having red wine spilled all over her dress and shows up at the after party for a beer.
I would like to say I remember a lot of wonderful cooking opportunities in August, but instead I traveled quite a bit--three weddings in four weeks--goodness me. So here I display some of the lovely snapshots of August.

The One Pot Problem

The other day I receiveded a tortured email from a very close fried, subject "GROSS." It was addressed to her sister and me, and essentially detailed a tale of woe in which she tried to throw a bunch of ingredients from her fridge together in one pot in order to create one delicious dish. In her case the ingrediants were beets, heirloom tomatoes, baby spinach, and wild rice. In her sad sad emailed she told a story abouthow she had been gaining confidence inthe kitchen and assumed this meal would be a great success, because this methodology of throwing delicious ingredients together had worked so well in the past. In the email she described how she tried to rescue her meal using salt and taragon and how it just kept getting worse.

I tell this story not to call out my friend, not because I think she is a mediocre chef, but rather because I think she is a better chef than she gives herself credit for, and because I have suffered from the same type of kitchen disaster. There I am, on a Tuesday night, with the fridge door open, one hand on the door, one hand on the oposite thigh, head in the fridge, upper lip scrunched into my nose, trying to figure out what to do with the delicious ingrediants I have purchased earlier in the week. Lindsay noted that all of her ingrediants were delicious on their own so she just assumed (based on her past experience of mixing together what was in the fridge) that they would be good mixed together.

The other night I was dangerously close to mixing smoked salmon, avocado, and horse radish cream cheese over pasta. Luckily my work/cooking friend suggested this was a very bad idea. I ended up buying a nice multigrain crusty bread and making toasts with horse radish cream cheese and salmon, and horse radish cream cheese and avocado ( figuring out how to incorporate the ingredients I had into separate dishes that worked together as opposed to just one dish using all of the ingrediants). The toasts were delicious. And I was glad to be warned off mixing all my ingredients together. And I think I learned a cooking lesson. The first sign of your confidence as a cook could be that you are able to create something lovely out of whatever you happen to have in the kitchen. The second sign of your confidence might be the knowlege that when throwing together a dish off the cuff, you don't have to add every special ingredient you have to make a delicious dish. Sometimes a chef can demonstrate his or her confidence and skill based on what he or she chooses not to add.

My Obsession with Absorption

I can't stop making absorption pasta (Alice and my work friend call it "your self-absorption pasta"). It started one night in the beginning of June, and maybe it was because it was THAT night in June, but ever since that first time, I just can't get enough. After a week away from home, it was the dish I most wanted to return to--for a change it wasn't something I could buy at a restaurant, or something someone else could make for me--nope this dish is all mine.

It started with the recipe from chocolate and zucchini. And then it progressed. It is the first really good recipe in what I hope becomes a large repetoire of dishes that I love (no I have not made it for anyone yet, but I will as soon as I find someone deserving). I started with penne and water. Then I moved to penne with chicken stock, then penne cooked with the water that was leftover after reconstituting morrells for the pasta. First I added sauteed mushrooms and onions or shallots, and tomatoes and I sauteed the extras in olive oil, then in butter, and I always topped the pasta with sea salt and parmesan.

Finally, I have perfected recipe. I use my new favorite pasta shape, Percatelli, I sautee it in a little olive oil, then add just enough chicken stock to cover the pasta (Swanson organic), and then put the lid on the pot and cook it over a low heat. While this is going on I heat up some butter (okay a lot of butter) and sautee whatever fresh veggies I have on hand (currently, given the season, zucchini, tomato, and always onion). When I have decided that the pasta is fully cooked I make sure that there is still at least a half an inch of broth in the pan and stir in the sauteed veggies (if I am using tomato, I don't saute them in the butter I add them at this stage). Once everything is heated through, and there is enough liquid, I crack an egg into the pot and stir it in. The liquid is hot enough to cook the egg, but there is enough liquid so that when combined with the egg it creates a sauce (instead of a cooked egg). Then the pasta goes into the dish, I grate fresh parmesan over the pasta and it combines with the egg broth sauce, and the result is so satisfying.

So simple so good. I feel like cooking this dish for others will be like bestowing a special gift. I just hope they realize how lucky they are (imagine me giggling devilishly here).

Introducing You to My Favorite Characters

Night photos are fun.

What a weekend . . . .

Another weekend full of action and no cooking . . . sigh. Friday night I went out to Tides Seafood. Earlier in the week the special of the day at the work cafeteria was lobster roll and not unsurprisingly, it tasted pretty much exactly like what you would expect an $8 dollar work cafeteria lobster roll to taste like. So I was quite excited to have an opportunity to try a new and yummy lobster roll.

Tides is a tiny restaurant on the Lower East Side. To give you a sense, as I walked up to the restaurant, I saw the kitchen staff hanging out outside, and later when a group ordered, the waitress put her head out the door and said "they ordered," to bring the staff back into the kitchen. What the restaurant lacks in size in more than makes up for in design. The ceiling looks like a see anemone or coral, the sink in the bathroom features a tub full of rocks and when you turn on the sink the water flows down the mirror--definitely the best bathroom I have been in (and this says a lot since when I was little pretty much the highlight of any restaurant visit was a trip to check out the bathroom--yep she was an odd one).

On to the roll--it was good (though not great). There was a bit too much mayo (and I love mayo so that says a lot), and it was served on a split-top brioche roll. The use brioche was just gilding the lily, I think the sandwich just tastes better on a split top white bread roll--especially with all that mayo, the brioche was a little too much. I'm not saying I wouldn't be happy to eat it again, but I don't think it is going to replace Pearl's as my favorite.

Saturday included a trip to Six Point Craft Ales Brewery for a tour and tasting, which I highly recommend (see pictures of yummy beer, Geordie running towards an empty factory, and what beer is made from above).