Holy Matrimony

If you get a chance, order the steak frites at the Federal.

Flat Iron steak (rare or at least medium rare) sliced into manageable chunks of deliciousness.
Upscale poutine -- Home cut fries with chunks of mushroom brie on top and then smothered in gravy.

I didn't order this meal. That makes me very sad. I'm sure it also made my dining partner sad, as I ended up barely restraining myself from hogging his meal. I might have to go to the Federal today or tomorrow to experience the goodness.

Oh, Happy New Year. I woke up ravenous, can you tell?

"I'm running out of things to say," or "Looks like I'm depressed again."

How It All Works:

1) Copy the list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.
3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating.
4) Optional: Post a comment at Very Good Taste, linking to your results

The 100

1. Venison

2. Nettle tea

3. Huevos rancheros

4. Steak tartare

5. Crocodile

6. Black pudding (I think. It was in Spain.)

7. Cheese fondue

8. Carp (Maybe?)

9. Borscht

10. Baba ghanoush

11. Calamari

12. Pho

13. PB&J sandwich

14. Aloo gobi

15. Hot dog from a street cart

16. Epoisses

17. Black truffle

18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes

19. Steamed pork buns

20. Pistachio ice cream

21. Heirloom tomatoes

22. Fresh wild berries

23. Foie gras

24. Rice and beans

25. Brawn or head cheese (Thanks to Jamie!)

26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper

27. Dulce de leche

28. Oysters

29. Baklava

30. Bagna cauda

31. Wasabi peas

32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl (I've had both, but not together)

33. Salted lassi

34. Sauerkraut

35. Root beer float

36. Cognac with a fat cigar

37. Clotted Cream Tea

38. Vodka Jelly/Jell-O

39. Gumbo

40. Oxtail

41. Curried goat

42. Whole insects

43. Phaal

44. Goat's milk

45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth $120 or more

46. Fugu

47. Chicken tikka masala

48. Eel

49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut

50. Sea urchin

51. Prickly pear

52. Umeboshi

53. Abalone

54. Paneer

55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal (HA HA HA HA! I've never had a Big Mac!)

56. Spaetzle

57. Dirty gin martini

58. Beer above 8% ABV

59. Poutine

60. Carob chips

61. S’mores

62. Sweetbreads

63. Kaolin (This one confuses me)

64. Currywurst

65. Durian

66. Frogs’ legs

67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake

68. Haggis

69. Fried plantain

70. Chitterlings or andouillette

71. Gazpacho

72. Caviar and blini

73. Louche absinthe

74. Gjetost or brunost

75. Roadkill

76. Baijiu

77. Hostess Fruit Pie

78. Snail

79. Lapsang Souchong

80. Bellini

81. Tom Yum

82. Eggs Benedict

83. Pocky

84. 3 Michelin Star Tasting Menu

85. Kobe beef

86. Hare (If they mean rabbit, consider this bolded)

87. Goulash

88. Flowers

89. Horse

90. Criollo chocolate

91. Spam

92. Soft shell crab

93. Rose harissa

94. Catfish

95. Mole poblano

96. Bagel and lox

97. Lobster Thermidor

98. Polenta

99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee

100. Snake

How many have you eaten?

Burro

Dude. Bubba and I are home alone tonight, and I just played the video for him. OK, well, not FOR him, but just to see him again. He BARKED! A LOT!

And earlier when I had my friend Suze over for dinner after a matinee, he nicked the half loaf of bread we'd left on the table when we went outside to enjoy the fresh air for a bit. BUBBA! You're not supposed to do that. You don't eat steak scraps from the trash, after all. I suspect you're as carbo-loving as I am. The only time you seem to beg is when I've got crackers or an english muffin in hand.

Speaking of carbs, my oh MY. You have to make this for your loved ones. Don't let tell them the ingredients. For that matter, you might want to blindfold yourself AND cover your ears and sing LA LA LA while you make it. I'm not that dexterous, so I just resigned myself that it had better taste DAMN good. Instead of canned tomatoes, I used sauce that I had made yesterday, boiling down fresh tomatoes until they were literally half the volume they were to begin. There was an unfortunate forgot-to-stir incident during the sauce making. Just for the record, burning tomatoes onto the bottom of a pan will not ruin your sauce so long as you don't try to scrape the crap while the sauce is still in there. Just dump the sauce into another pan and cry that you've perhaps ruined your stockpot. The sauce will even be better for the burning, though, because it will taste as though you've roasted and caramelized the tomatoes somewhere along the way. Crazy.

I've never ever made a pasta dish that was so simple and so delicious. Actually, I may have never eaten a pasta dish that was that good, period. I tossed a handful of fresh basil in at the end, which made it even better. Suze and I both had two gigantic helpings, and I'm barely restraining myself from going into the fridge for a snack.

Do it. Seriously.

p.s. Suze never comments, but she does lurk. Just for that, here's a bit of dirt on her--she cried during the matinée of Mamma Mia we watched today. Somehow I did not, though I got a bit misty. Really, though, I think I may have just been lusting after Pierce Brosnan. Twentyish years older seems less of an issue than it did in the Remington Steele days. It left me so overcome that I spilled an entire HUGE Diet Coke on a young girl as we walked back to the car. Then I knocked my glass of wine onto the tablecloth. Thank god the wine was white, because so was antique linen table covering. More about Suze: she loves Bubba, too, and commented that he was rather catlike, for a dog. This as he lolled on her lap, paws up.

Excellent. Twenty minutes to write this means I still haven't gone back to the fridge for that leftover pasta. I might have to make that sauce for the next 12 meals in a row. I'll put the cardiologist on speed dial, don't worry.

Not supposed to be doing this.

At this moment my mom, Pedro, Annie, her three boys and my Grandma are all up at Lake Michigan, enjoying a temperate, sunny day, cool breezes, hammocks, hugs and snuggles, fresh cherries, wildlife, sand, outdoor showers, cold waves, and a new spa. Look at the weather up there. Sigh. 

I'm inside at my mother's computer, doing research on public health issues, catching up on the time sensitive tasks I didn't get done before heading out of Cackalack. I was hoping to finish up before lunch, stop for a wet burrito to go and be on my way. 

This is taking longer than I expected, likely due to my perfectionist tendencies. Luckily, I came across sustenance in the form of Diet Vernors and a wild rice, almond and morel pilaf from the freezer. Two of the three main components of the pilaf are local, I suspect.  Little by little I've ingested about 3 cups of this manna so far, which is keeping me sane as I bemoan my delayed gratification. 

Get me out of here!

Thinking out loud

I went to the grocery store yesterday and the farmer's market this morning. My goal today and tomorrow is to transform the raw ingredients into meals that require little to no cooking at all. It's too damn hot already.

Probably because of the heat, the only things that appealed to me were meant to be served cold. Lots of fruit, veggies, eggs and cheese.

Here's the list:
1 pineapple
2 mangos
6 limes
1 lemon
2 cans chick peas
5 peaches
6 small tomatoes
1 bunch green onions
2 peppers, one green and the other green and yellow all at once.
5 mini cucumbers
2 mini yellow squash
1 mini zucchini
1 gallon skim milk
2 1/2 gallons "light" ice cream (chocolate and vanilla)
1 jar Ovaltine, chocolate malt
2 avocados
1 bag of store-brand fritos
1 block cheddar cheese
1 round smoked mozzarella
1 head red cabbage
4 multi-colored carrots
1 package whole wheat pita
store brand honey nut cheerios
1 dozen farm eggs
Chard
Basil

So.

Hummus--chickpeas, lemon, tahini, garlic
Serve with pita and/or crudite (carrots, cukes, zucchini, squash, peppers)
Guacamole--avocados, lime, cilantro, onions, tomatoes
Serve with corn chips
Pineapple Mango salad with mint and honey
Caipirinhas, because YUM. Alternately: Mojitos made with cachaça.
Cabbage salad with onions, carrots, dressing
Milkshakes
Peach/vanilla
Chocolate malt
Cheese, straight up.
Cereal with milk

Time for a breakfast milkshake.

First Loaf

Somebody needs a baking rack. Ah, well, knives on top of paper towel on a cutting board will do for now.

It's pretty though, isn't it?

I would have to pick the first day of using AC to bake no-knead bread, wouldn't I? I'm woefully sweating, as we keep the airco at 80º just to take the humidity out of the air. A 450º oven isn't very helpful on a day like today.

The process of making this bread didn't go smoothly. Sure, whomping the ingredients together and leaving them overnight was just fine. But when I turned the dough out this morning it was so wet as to be more like batter than dough. Is that what's supposed to happen?

I had to work in probably another whole cup of flour just to make it workable, and in the process of doing so ended up kneading anyway. Not much. Maybe 10 passes or so. But still. I was (and still am) concerned I messed something way up.

The coating on the bottom is ground up flax seeds. I fear that may have been a bad choice, because the house smells more like burned fish oil than bread. Thankfully, there was enough flour on the outside of the loaf as to shield the loaf from the flax seeds.

I don't have high hopes with this loaf, but I'll survive. I know that part of my pessimism is due to being spoiled by others' no-knead breads. Like the olive loaf Maria's sweet David made for her party yesterday.

Oh my, I'm hungry.

Whew!

Hi! I have had a great day so far, despite it being 80º inside and rising. I started out at the farmer's market, because I have (count them!) two different potlucks to go to this weekend.

So I've spent the morning so far all about food. I used my new immersion blender to make my first mayonnaise, ruining two batches along the way. Apparently it can fall out of suspension if you look at it cross-eyed. I'm now just about out of oil, which is fine. I don't use it all that often anyway.

The mayo is going into a fab potato salad I've whomped up, containing radishes, green onions, garlic scapes, carrots, dill, hard boiled eggs, salt and pepper. And potatoes. The second dish is another of my faves, curtido. Cabbage, onions, garlic scapes, carrots, cumin seeds, jalapeños, adobo seasoning and vinegar. I'm glad I made the curtido a day ahead of time. It takes a bit for it to infuse with the goodness. Wish I'd done that with the potato salad; as it is I'm afraid it won't cool!

If you didn't get this part, all ingredients minus the oil and vinegar are local; I only contributed the dill from my own garden.

I have a bunch of dishes to do now, and then it's time to mix up a batch of dough. I'm going to try out my new dutch oven with the no-knead bread tomorrow. I'm quite excited about that!

Annoying the Mockers

It was raining lightly this morning, and I needed a break from work. So I went to score some hallucinogens. Well, not that I knew that or anything--jeeze, my mom used to encourage me to take them when we'd find the pushers at the farmer's market in good ol' GR.

After all, they were free. Typical marketing; get you good and hooked for free and then raise the price.

Wait. They don't raise the price on this one. What's that about? Maybe they weighed the drug against its beneficial component, Resveratrol. It extends your life! Prevents cancer! Increases your athletic performance! It increases the potency of your HIV antiretroviral drugs! It blocks the flu!*

*NB: I make no claims to the veracity of these statements, other than that I read it on Wikipedia.

Grown up Mac and Cheese

Wow. I have this morning off because of a late meeting tonight, so I had time to make brunch. Sometimes the simplest fare is the best.

Asparagus from Maria, pasta, butter, romano and pepper. Yowsa.

(Yes, that's a paper plate. Drought not over as far as I'm concerned. I shall, however, try to get some decomposable plates rather than these plastic-coated ones. Then I can compost them.)

(Also, someone's going to have stinky pee today)

not. hungry.

Dude.

I have been eating like a queen recently.

Thursday:
Dinner at Q-Shack
Friday:
Lunch at Watt's. I already talked about that.
Dinner at home. Also already discussed.
Many provisions purchased at Whole Paycheck.
Saturday:
Breakfast at home--an almond croissant from WP with coffee
Farmer's market--strawberries, cheese from the CH Creamery, lettuce and radishes.
Lunch at El Corral over on Hillandale. It was SO cold and we apparently needed some major sustenance.
Dinner at Piedmont. This deserves some talking about. I'll do that after I'm done cataloging.
Sunday:
Breakfast at home--Fage full-fat yogurt with honey.
Pre-brunch at home--salad with my romaine! Yay, garden!
Brunch with My Sweet Emily at Guglhupf. I had an entire bread basket, complete with 2 packets of Nutella.
Snacks at home: I ate the leftovers from both Piedmont and El Corral. YUM.
Monday:
Breakfast at home--bread from Guglhupf with butter and chocolate chips (What!?)
Lunch: salad made with Farmer's market lettuce and radishes, garnished with green onions from my garden. More bread. A pound (yes) of local (yes) strawberries (you heard me right)
Dinner: Tentative, but likely, a feast at Angus Barn on someone else's dime. Rowr.

***********
OK, so Piedmont: Cheese was smoked blue from Oregon with candied pecans. Yum. However, the candy on the pecans wasn't quite at hard crack stage, and so was that "pull out the fillings" texture. Eesh. Tomato and Fennel soup: fabulous. Mom and Pete both had the NC striped bass. Mom's wasn't cooked. We sent it back and it returned gorgeously prepared. I had the orecchiette with broccoli rabe, roasted garlic, red pepper and Parmesan. The combination was good but OH MY GOD was it overly salted. None of the desserts appealed, so Mom got a nice port comped for her fish being raw-ish the first time around.

Visit visit

Mumma and Pedro are here. We're eating really well. Watt's* for lunch, grilled steak and salad at home for dinner (I had just cheese, apple and bread.), almond croissants for breakfast, Piedmont for dinner tonight....

Yum.


*I had a slightly bizarre experience with the burger at Watt's. It came bloody rare (as in exploded onto me at first bite and then bled copiously onto the bun), so I sent it back, asking for medium. In what may have been a fit of pique, the kitchen brought it back to me entirely gray throughout, dry and hard to swallow. On the one hand, how marvelous to have a restaurant able to cook their burgers rare for those that want it that way (they didn't ask me how I wanted it). On the other hand, WTF? Medium is NOT rock hard.

Tulips

Quizzes bring out even the least-commenty of commenters!

Last night I actually interacted with someone! A friend of mine I hadn't spent much time with recently asked if I wanted to do something this weekend. I've been being pretty introverted/self-absorbed/hermit-like outside of work, preferring my own company to that of others. My inclination when asked to do something (especially at night) is to say no. I don't much like going out to bars, and I don't much like having people over these days. The tendency of my friends to have cats also pretty much rules out visiting them, also. If I want to breathe, that is.

My plans for the evening had been to stay in and cook up a storm for my sweet Pinky, her husband, and the peanut. I still haven't met him, but that's on the horizon for Sunday. So despite really not wanting to interact with others, I invited my friend over for dinner, since I was already planning a slew of food.

He brought a couple of types of fantastic IPAs and some flowers for me!! The flowers really touched me. I haven't gotten flowers from anyone in a few years. And that was from my mom.

I was extremely surprised to find myself having fun. Imagine that.

Today is a book-swap, then a sweet 16 party, and then hanging with my friend Suze, who's back in town after a month in Michigan.

By numbers

Oh my, have I been productive today!!

It's noon. So far I've fully completed two loads of laundry, with one left in the dryer, one in the washer, and likely two more to go. WHAT? I counted 65 pairs of underpants, so it's not like I've been being too gross. (Except for that "can't see the floor of my bedroom" part).

I've also cleared most surfaces in the bedroom and bathroom, which had become overloaded with things that have no home, or who'd been separated from their families, like 36 hair bands* (btw, I don't know when I stopped calling them by their normal name)

While doing all of this, I kept coming up with things I want to do: felt something, get a chest freezer, go on a woodcock walk, buy an iPod charger, see Toby and Janet. The list so far is up to 40.

Somehow while getting all of these things accomplished, I also managed to whomp up some kick-ass lentils and onions from the Indian volume of the Foods of the World series. I substituted jalapeño from last summer for the red pepper it called for, upped the cumin seeds, and hoped for the best. Y'all? I even made ghee. Basmati rice to accompany, and I've eaten very well today.

I wonder what else I'll do today? Any ideas?


*Not to be confused with Hair Bands.

Overload? Yeah.

So, I don't mean to encourage gluttony, or anything, but I'm a fan of the cheap.

Go get those donuts!!

From my love Mir at Want Not.

Weekend ups and downs

It's just after noon on Sunday and I just got up. Wait. That's not entirely true. I got up at 6 when the grow lights went off, but soon hopped back in bed as though I needed a nap. Six hours later, here I am. feeling gross as hell. Woozy and cloudy and all muzzy inside. I went to bed at 9, so that's a full 15 hours of sleep last night. Bedtime's gonna be a bitch.

The good thing, though, is that my sweet Emily and I met up yesterday morning for a snack/walk/feed the ducks outing, and she had gotten me a valentine. So sweet! She's a very thoughtful friend, that one.

And even better? It was a Mo's Bacon Bar. It never would have occurred to me just how tasty these two of the world's favorite foods could be together.




Behind the bacon bar mask I have raccoon eyes from not taking off makeup before bed and then sleeping 15 hours.

One last thing. HAPPY BIRTHDAY LAURIE!!!!!

BTW? Tasty.

I just whomped up a meal of pasta with blue cheese, capers and copious amounts of black pepper. It's surprisingly good. I wasn't sure if it would be or not.

A couple of things I did yesterday

Many thanks to all the well-wishers who called/emailed/texted/IMed/posted blog entries/sent cards/gifts and/or wrote on my Facebook wall yesterday!

Despite the unexpected inability to spa myself (to repeat a coined phrase), I made do and had a beautiful day. I spent most of it outside (68ºF anyone? And sunny? With late-day showers? Bliss) prepping one of my garden beds and planting peas and lettuce. There was lots of digging and a surprising amount of sweat. According to Next Door Neighdog's dad, there's a bunny around that's likely the cause of all my remaining swiss chard and some of my broccoli leaves getting eaten down to nubs. Hence the fencing attempt. Here's hoping!

Then I made a sour-cherry and rum sorbet, because who doesn't need that?

The last part of the day was going out to eat with my sweet Emily and snarfing a goodly amount of sirloin, baked potato and salad. She also made me my cake--a gorgeous lemon pound cake that I will begin to eat now. It freezes really well. Heh.

Note: Art is doing well and is at home. He called me yesterday while I was digging, and sang me an inpromptu version of Happy Birthday he made up on the fly. He's got a great voice. Also sangs: Mumma, Annie, the nephews, and probably others as well. :-)

Tawk Amongst Yourselves

The perfect banana for eating straight:

Me? All yellow, no green, no brown spots at all. It's the perfect combination of sweet and slimy and not yet mushy.

Approximate window of opportunity: 3 hours.

I have 2.2 left to consume. Now.

Discuss.

Art

At this moment, my father is about 40 minutes into a bariatric surgery. He's worried, naturally, and so am I. It's a major surgery, which has its risks, but perhaps the bigger concern is how to cope afterwards.

He's opted for this surgery after a long adulthood of being overweight, nay, obese, which has led to no end of physical health problems. Type II diabetes, high blood pressure--the works. There will be a lot of tough lifestyle changes that HAVE to happen post surgery, and I worry about the aftermath. As does he, and rightfully so. There will be both physical and psychological changes, and I hope he hangs tough emotionally. He and my stepmother's social life revolves a lot around having dinner with friends (doesn't everyone's?), so that will be a particular stress.

A really scary part about this morning is that going in, they weren't sure just what kind of surgery they were going to do. Dad has a lot of scar tissue in his abdomen. He had his gallbladder out back when they slit your tummy a foot across rather than pluck it out through the belly button using a laparoscope and three small incisions like they did with me. He's also had one (or maybe multiple?) hernia repair in the navel region. So they're not sure they can do the typical gastric bypass. I'm not entirely sure what the second option is, but from what he explained about it, I'm thinking it's a sleeve gastrectomy.

At any rate, help me think good thoughts for him.

Update: He's having the sleeve gastrectomy, which actually worries me a little more than the regular gastric bypass does. I guess it's because it's a newer surgery. They had a bad storm last night, so things actually didn't begin until about an hour ago (it's 12:15 currently) rather than at 8 as expected. Stepmom is keeping me in the loop.


Update #2: He's out of surgery, will be in the hospital for a couple of days and seems to be doing fine. Whew.

*************

Out of respect for my Dad's surgery I'll leave aside the entry about the restaurant I went to last night for another time. Suffice to say it was really good, and I used to be somewhat of a regular when it first opened. The owner (who's hot) sent out an appetizer for us, so glad was he to see us back. "Stew! Where have you been?" Ok, maybe I'm not so respectful, because that's basically the whole story. But my lord is he hot. And the Osh is fantastic. They need beer on tap, though, and it's a little cold in there. Let me make myself feel a bit better by mentioning that the food there is really, really healthy.

Real quick

Marc has moved back to the USA, so he can comment now. I'm heading out to the Piedmont to meet him for dinner with another of his friends in just a bit now.

I plan to have:
smoked mackerel with hard boiled eggs, capers, shallots & créme fraîche
farmer’s lettuce salad with picked herbs & roasted shallott vinaigrette
and
pommes frîtes with aïoli

I've never eaten there before, so we'll see how it is!

A big bonus: they didn't have the menu on the blog when I was looking at it, so I emailed them. They emailed me back when it was posted and apologized for it being late.

Update: the results.
I'm very, very full. I ended up switching out the salad with a cheese plate:
mountaineer with pistachios, raw cow’s milk, va
carolina moon with honeycomb, cow’s milk, nc

The carolina moon was the best part of the dinner. Honeycomb made it more fabulous than normal.

OK I have to fall asleep now. G'nite.