braised

catching a breath here, somewhat. the house is truly feeling like home and being here just makes me happy.

winter is wearing out its welcome with me, mostly because i'm tired of cleaning up salty melt tracks all over the house. and i'm tired of trying to keep a coat on ben. he's good with the hat thing, but he sees his coat as a mortal enemy of sorts.

the weather is lending itself to two things consistently: hearty food and saddish music.

good arms vs. bad arms. does it get any sadder than this song?

as for the food... braised beef ribs this afternoon. 750ml of cabernet started it off- in the pot, not our glasses. we enjoyed several hours of a delicious-smelling kitchen.

sous chef benny helped me roast fingerlings. i attempted to recreate an onion tart that matt likes, but i apparently missed the mark. still good, but not the recipe he remembered.

chocolate pie with the leftover crust.

all in all a lovely, homey day.

sargasso

tuesday evening mmm and i went to sargasso for dinner with myers and the guest professor. it was an absolutely perfect meal. i started off with the pear salad: bibb lettuce, light bleu cheese dressing, prosciutto, poached pear and toasted almonds. it was a surprisingly large portion and absolutely delicious. for my meal i opted for one of the specials: roast chicken breast with a morel, cream and chive sauce, wheat berry and wild rice on the side, and asparagus. then came dessert. omg dessert. chocolate hazelnut torte (which was thick and cakey, not souffle-ey like some are), hot chocolate sauce, a chocolate covered cherry, AND white house cherry ice cream with pistachios. white house cherry is one of my all time favorite ice creams and it is very hard to come by. so to have fresh, REAL white house cherry was a treat.

the food was only outdone by the company and lively conversation. it was a wonderful evening all around.

burger and fries

looking through a foodie magazine tonight and a tantalizing photo of a red, juicy burger and hand cut fries graced one of the pages.  drool.  i would say i contemplated that burger and fries for about five minutes and then i decided to write about it here.

real burgers, REAL BURGERS, are total comfort food for me.  a reliable choice (at least a more reliable choice) in most restaurants, i tend to order them when i'm traveling, especially for work. tew and i have a habit of this together, actually.  generic conference hotel.  nothing looks great. long day of travel.  what to get?  why the $20 burger and fries of course.  yum.  

i remember burgers.  like the one i had at the hard rock cafe in nyc my sophomore year of high school.  or the late night burgers tew and i ate in boston with oh-so-yummy fries.  falstaff's burgers, may they rest in peace.  the black and blue burger at the alamo.  so good i got it twice.  

how did a carnivore such as myself end up with a vegetarian for a child?  perhaps he must remain meatless to account for my own meat gluttony.  

winter food

cold rainy day, but thankfully not snow.  

relaxed in the morning at my mother's.   ran errands in the early afternoon, then read while ben napped.

craved a hearty roast and so that's what i made for supper.  let it simmer for hours and it made the house smell so wonderful i could hardly stand it.

so sleepy now.  watching mmm work on something he's writing.  papers piled all around him. this house is just full of paper.  books, magazines, articles, drawings.  all around.  

unrefined pitch of pines

music all day.  listen.  

sometimes i have so much on my mind i can't even get the words out.  hundreds of random thoughts today.  brought on by songs and pictures and conversations.  feeling very much me today.  very much myself and happy with the feeling.

made a tasty-tasty pasta dish this evening.  spicy, and i added rosemary because i like it even though you're not supposed to.

my mind is looking forward.  upcoming trips and concerts.  warmer climes calling my name.  

my first daring bakers entry

the challenge: hand tossing pizzas.

with lots of help from b and mmm i spent last friday and saturday making four handtossed pizzas. we had lots of fun filming, tossing, baking and eating. props to mmm for his stellar camera work. once i get the video trimmed i hope to post my terrible tossing to youtube. we'll see.

headed to the farmers market on a cold and rainy saturday to find some tasty toppings. this delicious cheese from firefly farms and some red and green tomatoes.

i've got to say i was fairly intimidated by the tossing process. also, my dough didn't really want to toss. it sort of just spread out all on his own. it all worked out, though.

i made two base sauces: a white sauce sans garlic and a nice tomato coulis.

my first attempt was traditional pepperoni and cheese- the coulis, firefly cabra la mancha and mozzarella. next came white sauce with prosciutto wrapped asparagus and cheese. by far my favorite. third, red and green tomato with coulis and cheese. and finally, my big experiment. spaghetti squash, white sauce and sage. yeah, that one? not so much.

as soon as each pizza came out of the oven we chowed down, anxious to taste our creations. delish! thin, crunchy crust and fresh flavorful ingredients. props to the folks at firefly farms for making such delicious cheese so close to my home.

food

from a conversation i just had with tew:

ktm:

I read somewhere this weekend that the more pleasure you get from food the
less you eat. So that people who LOVE food end up eating less b/c they
become more easily satisfied. This answers a lot of questions for me because I
don’t just love food, I obsess over it. Read about it. Drool over
it. Photograph it in compromising positions. Yet, you know, I’m not
really fat.

I should post that on my blog.

tew:

Uh, you’re not fat at all, goof!

Go post it, go post it!

just peachy

ben has become quite a good little eater. his current favs are porridge (which to him means oatmeal and brown suger) and alphabet vegetable soup which he calls stew. it's like he channels oliver twist when he eats. especially when he finishes his plate, does the sign language motion for "more" with this little paws and frantically repeats "more, more, more".

he's been eating lots of yogurt as well. i've never been one for peach yogurt, but he likes it. i tried his the other day and now i'm on a full blown peach yogurt kick. yum.

m is for manchego

enjoyed a self indulgent dinner this evening.  a tartine of fig jam, manchego, prosciutto, blood orange olive oil and cracked black, red and green pepper.  it was incredibly tasty.  layered.  sourdough bread- yum. then the sweetness of figs and butter meet salty creamy manchego.  indulgent prosciutto followed by the KAPOW of strong pepper.  then back to sweet with the blood orange olive oil.  i done good tonight, folks.

listening still to justin townes earle.  my god is he good.  nothing at all like his father (who i love), something different altogether.

another night of baking ahead- sugar cookies and a pear tart.  pears from luellen's tree.  nice to have someone to share and trade with.  

food is love

        

really i do believe that food is love.  food is wrapped up in grandmas and grandpas and moms and dads. first dates and holidays.  family. comfort. adventure, too.

some of my happiest memories revolve around saturday mornings at the outlook road house.  one or two girlfriends would have slept over friday night.  we'd wake up late and find that my dad had hit every junk food hot spot in town.  donuts from the place on fairmont avenue.  what was that place called?  pepperoni rolls from country club bakery.  yann's hot dogs.  coca cola in tiny glass bottles.  chocolate milk.  all of that, that was pure love.  a love i hope to recreate for my family.  those sounds and smells and tastes.  the conversations generated around the dining room table.  easy-going saturdays that seemed so mundane at the time, mean the world to me now.  

food for me, in the form of cooking and baking especially, is experimentation.  i've never been afraid in the kitchen.  i have good instincts in the kitchen.  i feel free to be creative.  i have the guts to be ambitious.  granted, there have been some failures.  but truly, not many.  unlike, say grad school projects, half-finished knit sweaters, and a thousand failed attempts at the perfect short story. 

tonight i made apple dumplings and a plum crisp.  the apple dumpling recipe was something random i found online.  really thought i was going to hate the dough, but i see now that it needed to be that mild to stand up to all the spices.  should have left it in longer b/c the apples are a little bit too raw.  tasty though.  haven't tried the plum crisp yet, but it is another of gale gand's recipes.  simple enough; it should be good. the plums came from luellen's tree.  pics are posted above.  

applesauce making went well.  ruth's food mill worked nicely.

baby b is psyched that it's finally time to pick and consume apples.  he's been waiting all summer.

not that i've paid much attention to apple trees in my life, but i have never seen a tree with this many apples on it.  they're quite tasty.  need to make some pies.

sleepy tonight.  finally.  been waiting for it.  i've been wired this past week.

off to work on steph's baby blanket.