sometimes wendy darling

2012-01-29T23:26:00.000-05:00

My little hyacinth only took two days to bloom, and my apartment smells like the one perfect Easter morning I spent in the Vondelpark in Amsterdam in 2007.

homework day playlist

2012-01-29T17:15:00.001-05:00

Homework Day by Esti Brennan on Grooveshark

Here's some music. I have no explanation for the song choices, and I haven't arranged the track order at all. But this is still better than doing work.

things you didn't ask to see: every shoe photo I've ever taken

2012-01-23T16:31:00.002-05:00

Every Shoe Photo I've Ever Taken

or, The Legacy of Black Chuck Taylor Low-tops

I've posted plenty of these before, so it was already obvious I have a tendency to take mysterious, hipstery photos of people's feet. And my own feet. Today in class I decided it would be a good idea to scroll through iPhoto and find all of them, and then post them in chronological order. You're welcome.

Photos by me unless otherwise noted.

2004

2005

(Photo by Mike, or... someone)

2006

(Photo by Mitch)

(Photo by Katelyn)

(Photo by Mitch)

2007

In 2008, everyone went barefoot.

2009

2010

2011

2012

the weirdest spinach barley soup

2012-01-07T16:44:00.001-05:00

This soup is the same sort of simple thing I make every time I get sick (I don't know what it is about Michigan, but I've been sick more times since I got here than in the two years prior to moving), but as of today I can taste things again, so I decided to do something interesting with it. By which I mean turn it into a fake Japanese dish, in a valiant effort to stop myself from going to the totally scrumptious ramen place across from my apartment every single day (I will fail because I cannot replicate their takoyaki at home).

Spinach Barley Soup

1/2 large onion, finely diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon sweet paprika
1 teaspoon curry powder
6 cups beef broth
1 1/2 cups uncooked, rinsed barley
1 pound fresh spinach (you can substitute frozen)
a few splashes of mirin or red wine

Heat the oil in a large pot and cook the onion and garlic over medium heat until they soften. Add the paprika and curry powder and a splash of the mirin or wine and cook for a minute or so. Pour in the broth and bring to a boil. Add the barley and cook over medium heat for 30-45 minutes until the grains are soft enough to eat, then adjust the spices and add more mirin/wine if necessary. Add salt if you want to, but most beef broth is salty enough on its own.

Meanwhile, chop the spinach into small strips by bunching up a handful and making narrow slices across the bunch (watch your fingers). When the barley is soft and the flavor is how you want it, stir in the spinach and cook for another five to ten minutes.

See? Boring soup. But if you add a splash of sriracha sauce, half a hard-boiled egg, some slices of pork loin, a handful of panko, and a bit more fresh spinach, you have some delicious fake ramen. And you can delay your trip across the street another day.

warm roasted beets and shallots with prosciutto and mint

2011-12-27T23:35:00.002-05:00

One of the many roasted vegetable dishes we made for Christmas Day dinner this year. Definitely my favorite (obviously, because it has beets). Leave out the prosciutto (which I honestly didn't find all that flavorful in the dish) and it's vegan! This recipe is from this year's Fine Cooking "Make-Ahead Holidays" issue, and you can also find it here. The recipe makes a side dish for about four people.

vegetables
1 pound small or medium beets, scrubbed but not peeled
5 large shallots, peeled
4 teaspoons olive oil
kosher salt to taste
5 small or 2 big sprigs fresh rosemary

dressing
4 tablespoons olive oil
2 ounces prosciutto, cut into strips
3 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
2 tablespoons sherry vinegar (or red wine vinegar)
kosher salt to taste
pinch (by which you know I mean "heap") of crushed red pepper
15-25 large mint leaves

Preheat the oven to 400ºF. Crisscross two large sheets of aluminum foil on a baking sheet.

Slice the stems and tails off of the beets, and quarter them (or cut into sixth or eighths if using large beets). Slice the shallots into quarters lengthwise. Toss beets and shallots with the olive oil and about 1/2 a teaspoon of salt, and place close together (but in one layer) on the foil. Try to put the shallots in surrounded by beets so they soak up the color. Place the rosemary sprigs on top, fold the foil over and scrunch the ends so it's secure. Roast in the oven for about 1 hour and 30 minutes.

Make the dressing by warming the olive oil over medium-high heat. Toss in the prosciutto and sauté until it's crispy, then remove it and place it on a paper towel to cool. Turn the heat down to medium-low and sauté the garlic until the slices are translucent and a little bit golden (about a minute, when I did it). Stir in the vinegar, red pepper, and salt, and remove from the heat.

When the beets and shallots are done, open the foil packet and let them cool for about twenty minutes. At this point we ended up peeling all of the beet slices, because the peels were bitter as hell, but if you like that/desperately want to follow the original recipe, leave them on. Toss the (peeled) beets and shallots with the dressing. Shred the mint leaves and mix through the dish along with the crispy prosciutto.

You can roast the beets and shallots a day ahead, if you're cooking on a tight schedule. Just roast them in an open pan on 400ºF for ten minutes or so while you make the dressing and prosciutto and shred the mint.

We made a lot of vegetables for this meal. There were only nine of us, but we had all of the ones above, plus two different kinds of Hungarian cabbage (stuffed and purple). And scalloped potatoes, which are sort of traditionally in the vegetable category, but probably more in dairy because of the amount of cream that goes into them. And a beef tenderloin that was wrapped in bacon and then covered with horseradish sauce. The meal was awesome, well-balanced, and rainbow-y.

I meant it before when I said you can make this vegan... the real star of the dish is the mint, which takes it from nice to fascinating. The prosciutto didn't taste like much besides salt. I highly recommend making the vegan version and then eating it with leftover ham from Christmas Eve, as seen in the first photo. Bonus: use extra mint to decorate/enhance your inevitable helping of dobos torte, which I swear is an amazing idea, however many eyebrows my family raised at it.

Why I'd Make the Worst Children's Librarian Ever (But It's Still a Great Profession)

2011-12-12T23:10:00.003-05:00

[photo source]

This was a reflection paper for a class on Children's and Young Adult Media that I took (and, in spite of my own general aversion to kids, totally loved) this semester. Don't let me near your children... but do take them to your local library, please.

Why I'd Make the Worst Children's Librarian Ever (But It's Still a Great Profession)

Having learned more about Children's and YA library services than I ever thought I'd know, I've concluded that I would be an absolutely disastrous children's librarian. And I could probably get teenagers to think I was a good librarian, but their parents would probably hate me.

I have to admit: I already knew both of those things.

But learning about these topics has been really eye-opening, partly in that I hadn't really considered before the kinds of constraints that are placed on the libraries and librarians who serve these groups. Personally, I think all kids should be given access to more or less whatever they're interested in—but it hadn't occurred to me until this semester that building a school collection depends on knowing what most kids are interested in, and what their curriculum demands, and what parents will be comfortable with. For this reason (and because I've recently started working at one after four years of working in academic libraries where the only babies I had to deal with were whiny freshmen), I've definitely gravitated towards public libraries, where the collection as a whole is more comprehensive, even if different departments are constrained by the interests of the local population (and of course the ever-present budget).

I was a library-obsessed child, but I'd learned to read so early that by the time I was old enough to sit still for story times and group reading activities I was thoroughly bored by the kinds of books that kids my own age were into. My mother, my aunt, and my grandfather, who are responsible for my all-consuming text addiction, were fast readers and willing to keep the story going at a good clip—librarians and my teachers always seemed to want to stop and show the book around or look at the pictures (not that I didn't like the pictures, but I wanted to look at them on my own time). In the end, I grabbed my tattered copy of Heidi and sat at the back of the class reading what I wanted to read. This basically continued up to and beyond the point in ninth grade when I sat in an English class with a teacher I despised (she taught out of a manual) and flaunted the bright yellow copy of Naked Lunch open on my desk. When I was ten, my mother took Scarlett, the extremely trashy pseudo-sequel to Gone With the Wind, out of my hands (the only book she ever refused to let me read), and I went to the library for a couple of afternoons and read it in a corner of the stacks (it was underwhelming).

So there's the background information... and I don't know that all that much has changed about how I would behave if put in charge of children. I'd probably refuse to stock Twilight because I find it frighteningly anti-feminist (okay so maybe the teens wouldn't like me after all), and send kids of any age into the wilds of the adult science fiction section as soon as they'd finished all of Orson Scott Card. I'm just not unbiased enough. I would fail at that tenet that a librarian has to serve her community and not her own interests. But I knew that coming in, and it's never been my intention to work in the field. Part of the reason I have so much trouble with it in this context (and not really in the context of academic libraries, which is where I'm hoping to end up) is because I really care about what children are reading. And I want them to try out whatever they think they're up to.

Despite my own inability to take on the task of being a librarian to young readers, learning about the actual practice of children's library services has given me a lot of respect for the people who are good at it. The people who take on the incredibly frustrating constraints because they feel fulfilled by the (not insubstantial, even to me) reward of helping children learn to read and enjoy books or any other kind of text, video, game, or resource (since our libraries are now full of so many cool new things) are wonderful to me. Children being skillfully and enthusiastically guided to the resources they need and are interested in is obviously completely vital to a functioning society, and I'm so glad there are librarians who do it so happily. And I love that those librarians bring their own love of the books they're sharing to the table—I feel like kids aren't given very many things that an adult actually loves to share with them, since most child-oriented media and activities are devoted more to taking up time and attention than actually fostering a love of whatever they are. And of course, sometimes the library is just a place to occupy the time and attention of a child while a parent sits down for a little bit, but that's sort of wonderful too.

autumn to winter

2011-11-22T15:23:00.000-05:00

autumn to winter by whiskeyinyrshoes featuring cotton socks

How much do I love brown and grey together? Must be a result of growing up in a city where winter lasts half the year.

sausage rolls and currywurst sauce

2011-11-18T21:49:00.002-05:00

I spent a rather unwise amount of money in New York this past weekend, so I'm behaving myself and using up the food that's stashed in my freezer. Most of this, it turns out, is frozen fruit and vegetables, but I'm also apparently in possession of a large quantity of meat that I'd more or less forgotten about. I'm not all that experienced with cooking fancy meats, but I'm pretty good at making peasant food with a lot of carbs. And so, behold... sausage rolls and currywurst sauce, combining my nostalgia for England with my love of weird German stuff and general fondness for food that's terrible for me.

The sausage roll recipe is pretty much the one from Sew, Cook, Create, and the currywurst sauce is loosely based on one from Saveur.

Sausage Rolls

1 pound ground meat (I used Italian sausage because I had some... use whatever you like)
1/2 small yellow onion, minced or grated
1 carrot, grated
1 egg
1 tablespoon dried basil or rosemary
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 cup breadcrumbs
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
2 tablespoons tomato paste
3 sheets puff pastry, 2/3 thawed
1 tablespoon milk or cream to brush the pastry with

Preheat the oven to 375ºF. Mix everything but the pastry and milk together in a large bowl. Using your hands is the easiest way to get everything even, and who doesn't enjoy squishing raw meat between their fingers?

Cut the sheets of puff pastry in half, and arrange the meat mixture in long cylinders along one edge of each piece. Roll up the pastry around the meat, tucking the edges under, and cut each roll into four to six pieces.

Brush the tops with milk and bake on parchment paper for 15-20 minutes, or until the tops have browned. I ended up with about 30 rolls. You can store them in the refrigerator for a day or two, or freeze wrapped in foil and sealed in a freezer bag. Reheat in the oven or microwave.

Currywurst Sauce

1 1/2 tablespoons canola oil
1/2 yellow onion, minced
2 tablespoons curry powder
1 tablespoon paprika
1 cup peeled whole canned tomatoes with juice
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon salt
sriracha sauce to taste (by which I mean lots of sriracha)

Cook the onion in the canola oil over medium-high heat until it softens. Add the curry powder and paprika and cook for another minute. Add the tomatoes and juice and crush them with your spoon. Add the sugar, vinegar, salt, and hot sauce and bring to a boil. Turn the heat down to low and simmer for about 30 minutes or until the sauce reduces a bit. Puree with an immersion blender or food processor. Serve on everything.

Sausage rolls are usually eaten as snacks and currywurst sauce is put on actual sausages (much better than chili on hotdogs, in my opinion), but obviously they go fabulously together. This would be a fantastic appetizer for a party, but you can always eat if for dinner like I did tonight. Just make sure you cook some broccoli or something with this meal so you don't die of scurvy. Not to mention broccoli = more things to dip in the sauce.

Bonus dessert: I ended up with an extra strip of puff pastry, so I sprinkled it with sugar, ginger, and cinnamon, rolled it up and cut it into little slices. Baked and served with some freshly-whipped cream (another thing I found languishing in the fridge). I'm not big on dessert but I adore real whipped cream and these little rolls are basically an even simpler version of those palmiers I fell in love with earlier this year. Lovely all around.

black and blue

2011-10-27T16:24:00.000-04:00

black and blue by whiskeyinyrshoes featuring a beret hat

It finally got cold enough to wear the awesome Prairie Underground tunic I picked up this summer, so I figured I'd celebrate by playing with Polyvore during class.

spaghetti (squash) and meatballs

2011-10-26T22:57:00.002-04:00

A few days ago I came across this recipe on one of my favorite cooking sites, and then almost immediately came across spaghetti squash at Trader Joe's. It was fate, I tell you.

1 large spaghetti squash
sea salt and black pepper to taste
1/2 - 2/3 cup fresh ricotta
1/2 - 2/3 cup spaghetti sauce of your choice
2-3 servings of meatballs, cooked (optional)

Preheat the oven to 375°F. Put the squash in a shallow baking dish (to prevent rolling) and pierce it on all sides with a knife (about twice on each quarter). Stick it in the oven for 45 minutes to an hour, or until it's a bit soft to the touch and a knife slides in easily. Your house will smell like brown sugar while it bakes, which is awesome.

Let the squash cool until you can handle it easily, then cut it in half lengthwise with a big, sharp knife. Scoop out the seeds and the mushy, dark orange bits from the middle, and discard them. Take a fork and carefully comb out the spaghetti threads, which is all that yellow flesh between the seeds and the rind, into a large baking dish (I used the one I baked the squash in) or oven-proof bowl. The amount of ricotta and sauce you need is based around how much 'spaghetti' you get--my squash wasn't very big but I got about four cups of threads, so I used more cheese and sauce.

The fork should separate the threads enough that you can then toss them with the salt, pepper, and ricotta, which should be broken up but not totally mixed (two big forks will make this easy). At this point you can either mix in the spaghetti sauce (like the original recipe) or leave it to coat the meatballs (my version).

Either way, put the baking dish under the broiler for 5 to 10 minutes, depending on the depth of your squash. While it's broiling, heat up your meatballs (and sauce, if you've chosen to do this my way/forgotten to add the sauce to the main dish like I did).

When the dish is a little bit browned on top, take it out and serve with the meatballs. Garnish/spice with crushed red pepper.

This stuff was delicious. The texture is different from real spaghetti in that it crunches a bit and is too tangly for a Lady and the Tramp-style pasta-kiss, but it has a surprising amount of flavor, including some of that brown sugar it imitated while baking. I left the tomato sauce out of the original batch because I wasn't paying attention to the recipe and just plain forgot, but I liked the interplay of squash, ricotta, and crushed pepper enough that I'm not disappointed.

I used my beloved Ikea frozen meatballs and some Ikea spaghetti sauce that turned out to be pretty good, especially after a heavy infusion of sriracha sauce and garlic powder. If you're making a veggie version of this I'd either mix the sauce into the squash before broiling or toss it over some sauteed vegetables while you heat it.

marmalade bread and butter pudding

2011-10-19T11:38:00.000-04:00

Another hit from the party. Personally, I found this stuff overwhelmingly sweet, but a lot of people told me they loved it, so maybe you'd like to try it out! From Donna Hay. The photo is of the pudding pre-baking, and I probably won't make it again and take another one, so go to the original recipe to see what it's supposed to look like.

several sticks softened butter
8 thick slices of soft-crusted white bread
1 cup marmalade
2 cups milk
1 cup cream
3 eggs
1/2 cup caster sugar
1 vanilla bean, split and scraped (save seeds)
1/4 cup currants
2 tablespoons Demerara sugar

Preheat oven to 320ºF. Butter the bread slices, spread half with marmalade and combine to form sandwiches. Cut them in half and arrange crust-down in a small, deep baking dish.

Whisk the milk, cream, eggs, caster sugar, and vanilla bean seeds in a big bowl. Stir in the currants and pour over the bread until the dish is mostly full. Stick the vanilla bean into the middle, near the top but in the liquid. Let the pudding soak for a couple minutes. In the meantime, boil a pot of water.

Pour in more of the milk mixture if there's space/you have some left. Sprinkle the Demerara sugar over everything. Place the baking dish into a larger, similarly deep ovenproof pan, place on oven rack, and fill larger pan with the boiling water halfway up the side of the smaller dish. Bake for an hour or until the pudding has just set.

Make sure your baking dishes fit together okay before you make this! (Note: the ones shown are not ideal, there should be more space between the pans on the long sides.)

The 'broth.' The number of puddings we made for that party required about two gallons of it.

I'd like to see what happens if I make this with wheat bread and a less sweet jelly than the marmalade (maybe the lingonberry one from Ikea?) and some tweaks to the broth, because it's a cool idea but the flavor is just so sugary it's hard for me to enjoy.

brandied meatballs

2011-10-18T11:21:00.002-04:00

These were the biggest hit at that giant party back in August. It took me until now to retrieve the recipe from my mom's house, or I would've posted it ages ago. Hopefully I'll have a chance to make these soon and replace that photo (hastily taken during the party), because it absolutely does not do them justice. Not sure what magazine this came out of... we found it in my mom's endless binders of recipes.

4 cups beef broth
1 cup mango chutney
1/2 cup red pepper jelly
1/3 cup brandy (or, you know, whatever's left in the bottle)
1/4 cup cornstarch whisked with 1/4 cup cold water
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
1 bay leaf
black pepper to taste
1 1/2 pounds frozen meatballs

In a large pot, whisk together everything except for the meatballs and bring to a boil. Add the meatballs and simmer for 10 minutes. Keep warm on the stove or in a crock pot to serve.

When we made these we cooked the broth the day before and let it sit overnight... it tasted much more intense the next day, so I'd recommend letting it sit a while if you have the time. We tripled or quadrupled the batch for the party... the recipe says this normal amount serves 10 as an appetizer. When I remake this I'm planning on using the frozen Swedish meatballs from Ikea, but you could use homemade or any kind from the store.

spicy sweet potato mash

2011-10-18T01:15:00.001-04:00

This is the recipe that showed me just how messed up my oven was when I first moved into my apartment... so obviously I had to make up for that disaster by trying it again. And it was totally worth it. Original recipe from The Energy Chef, I upped the spices and the hot sauce. This would make about four big side dish portions.

4 large sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into large chunks (about 6 per potato)
1-1 1/2 tablespoon olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 stick butter
1/2 cup half and half
2-infinity tablespoons sriracha sauce*

* To taste. Original recipe called for 1, I used 1 1/2 and kept adding until it was spicy enough (ended up with about 3). But my standards for spicy are pretty high.

Preheat oven to 375ºF. Put the cut potatoes on a baking sheet (on top of parchment paper, if you have it--cleanup will be much easier), flat sides up. Drizzle with the olive oil and dust with salt, pepper, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Bake until they're soft, 40-50 minutes.

Place the potato chunks in a large mixing bowl. Peel off any burnt edges (or don't... they taste kind of caramel-y and I like them), add the butter in large chunks, half and half, and sriracha. Use an electric mixer to beat the potatoes until the butter is all melted. If you don't have a mixer, mash the potatoes a bit before adding the butter and stuff. Garnish with some hot paprika.

I had these with a honeycrisp apple and some leftover chunks of calabrese salami (not pictured, but delicious). The sriracha flavor really came through in the potatoes, and so did the nutmeg. Might leave out the cinnamon next time in favor of some sweet paprika. Overall, delicious and seriously easy. Make immediately.

Cozy in the Fall

2011-10-01T19:21:00.001-04:00

Cozy in the Fall by whiskeyinyrshoes featuring a zipper dress

It finally got cold enough to wear one of my Missoni x Target pieces! I'm really fond of this sweater, and I can't wait to wear it with the matching dress, but I figured I'd start out slowly. I love pieces that let me mix brown and black, because I love my brown Boden boots (they look pretty similar to the ones in the set, but are way too old to still be online) and I almost never get to wear them. Fall in Michigan is beautiful so far, but this outfit felt like a New York outfit, hence the Central Park background.

food day 2011

2011-09-28T11:11:00.000-04:00

Check it out.

beet and smoked sausage soup

2011-09-26T14:56:00.004-04:00

An excess of farmer's market beets in your fridge and a large quantity of Hungarian salami in your freezer? This recipe can help you out. Or am I the only person who every has that problem? It seems near constant.

This recipe is from the Canadian Living test kitchen, but it's definitely the kind of hearty, spicy food that pulls at my Eastern European heartstrings. It also appeals to my weird obsession with food that is not food-colored (in this case, dark magenta and bright orange). Unfortunately none of my photos turned out very well, but trust me when I say that this soup is as pretty as it is delicious. And completely capable of staining through three layers of clothing. So wear black when you make it. And eat it.

5-8 medium-sized beets
2 tablespoons butter
2 ribs celery, diced
1 cup carrots, peeled and diced
1 medium yellow onion, diced
1 teaspoon dried dill
6-8 ounces smoked spicy sausage, diced
2 medium potatoes, peeled and diced
5 cups vegetable or chicken broth
juice from one large lemon
1 stalk fresh rosemary, if you have it on hand
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 375ºF. Rinse and scrub the beets clean, and trim off any dangling ends. Drizzle very lightly with olive oil, and wrap in tinfoil. Place the packets on a baking sheet and roast for 30-45 minutes, or until they're tender enough for a dinner knife to sink in without much pressure. Cool for twenty minutes or so, then slide/cut off the skins (under running water is easiest and cleanest) and dice. Set aside.

Melt the butter over medium heat in the bottom of your thick-bottomed soup pot and cook the celery, onion, carrots, dill, salt, and pepper until softened (about seven or eight minutes). Add the sausage and cook for another three minutes or so. Add the potatoes and beets and cook for another minute.

Slowly pour in the broth and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat, add the rosemary (wrap it in cheesecloth if you don't want bits floating around in your soup) and simmer for 45 minutes.
Add the lemon juice and serve with rice, barley, or oyster crackers.

This stuff is delicious. You could probably even make it vegetarian, but you'd have to do something to compensate for the loss of spice from the sausage. I'd probably throw in some of the hot red peppers we use for paprikás, and add another tablespoon or two of butter for thickness.

spicy spinach pesto

2011-09-25T13:44:00.000-04:00

This recipe is entirely my own, and entirely the result of having a large bag of spinach that wasn't going to last much longer. It's also one of my 25 recipes, even though I've stopped pretending I'm actually going to finish that. Probably should have put more thought into the list, because some of it just isn't practical for me to make on my own.

I'd never had spinach pesto before, but I figured it was a logical switch, since spinach leaves are fairly similar to basil leaves in everything except for flavor. And I had a lot of spinach and not much basil (my one little plant grows bravely, but sadly there isn't enough sunlight in my apartment for it to really flourish). And it worked out really, really well. Especially once I added a handful of crushed pepper, because that makes everything better. As usual, all measurements below are approximate. Adjust according to your taste. This made enough pesto to fill a 14 ounce jar with a couple of tablespoons left over, so it would probably cover pasta for about four people.

2-3 cups loosely packed spinach leaves, rinsed and dried
handful of fresh basil leaves (as many as your plant can spare)
1/2 cup walnuts
1/3 cup olive oil
3-6 cloves garlic, peeled and halved
zest and juice of one small lemon
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
crushed red pepper to taste (I used about two tablespoons)
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese

Put a tablespoon or so of the olive oil and a small handful of the spinach into your food processor* and chop up. This is the starter for your pesto (it helps everything blend more smoothly). Add the spinach and olive oil a handful/tablespoon at a time and continue to process. After the first one, add another ingredient with the spinach. I did walnuts first, then garlic, then the lemon, and the crushed pepper last, but it depends on which things you want crushed up the most. Taste and adjust. Mix in the cheese last (my processor has a 'stir' setting that was helpful here). Store in a jar or tupperware in your fridge... I'm guessing it'll last about a week.

* Note: don't use a blender for this, or you will just get green liquid that looks like it's from a swamp. Or at least don't use my blender for this. Maybe yours can do it.

Serve tossed with pasta and sun-dried tomatoes, topped with a dollop of ricotta or more parmesan. Or, you know, on toast. Because it's that delicious.

rosemary brown sugar pork chops

2011-09-24T21:11:00.000-04:00

Aside from being one of the first real things I've cooked in my new apartment, these pork chops were the first things to be cooked in my brand new cast iron pan. I've wanted one for years but have always been denied the pleasure, either due to practical issues or because I was worried that a careless roommate would destroy my wonderful pan. But now I have one (three, actually--they came as a set), and I completely earned it by lugging it around a gigantic mall, onto a crowded bus, and then up a hill because I accidentally got off said bus about four stops early. Totally worth it. This recipe came from The Kitchn, and I only messed around with it a little bit (more of all the seasonings). My pork chops were very thin, since I was originally planning on using them in a stir-fry rather than whole, but they soaked up the flavors really nicely.

2 large or 4 small pork chops
1 - 2 teaspoons olive oil
1 tablespoon rosemary
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon sea salt
2 teaspoons pepper*
1/2 teaspoon cumin

Mix the rosemary, brown sugar, salt, pepper, and cumin together in a shallow dish, and coat the pork chops in it. If you have time, cover them and stick them in the fridge for a few hours so the flavors soak in (I highly recommend this). Take them out of the refrigerator and let them sit for ten minutes or so.

Heat the oil over medium high, and put in the pork chops. Cook a couple of minutes on each side (mine were super-thin, so they only took about two minutes per side, but a nice thick one would take more like five minutes on each), until the internal temperature is about 145ºF. Having a meat thermometer is helpful, but I ended up just cutting them open to see if they were cooked through. The brown sugar will caramelize a little on the outside, which is my favorite part of this dish.

Remove from the pan and cover with foil to finish cooking. Serve with something delicious (I had orzo with pesto and sundried tomatoes, which you'll see in the next post).

* I used this crazy flower pepper from Trader Joe's, which I've been putting on everything lately. Highly recommend it.

Coming soon: more recent stuff, plus some peeks into that epic dinner party my mother and I cooked back in August.

tumbling

2011-09-24T20:05:00.000-04:00

I've been seriously lazy about posting lately, but I'm blaming it on the fact that I've been busy with a new school and haven't cooked all that much. And my oven can't be set higher than 300ºF without shooting up to 500º. Since I haven't had time to actually type sentences or format posts, I've been tumbling (is that the proper verb?) over here. It's fashion show season, so I've been posting constantly. Go check it out.

Also, I cooked two awesome things for dinner tonight, so expect recipe posts soon.

Fashion's Night Out

2011-09-10T03:07:00.001-04:00

[credit]

Rather than trying to work it in subtly, I'll just give you the link that inspired this post: Jenna Sauers' take on why she wanted to hate Fashion's Night Out.

I did not attend Fashion's Night Out either year I was living in New York, even though the first time--when it seemed like a bright shiny new idea that might actually help connect the weird world of high fashion with the people who embrace the aesthetic dream that makes it appealing regardless of one's budget--I really did want to. Instead I ended up at Beauty Bar late in the evening, where a fifteen-year-old model spilled a Cosmopolitan on my feet and a middle aged supposedly-gay man tried to take me home. That was the first inkling that this was not something I'd actually enjoy, despite a decade's enthusiastic attention to the far-away world of pretty clothes. And in the end... I'm glad I never made it. But what I took away from Jenna's post and my reaction to remembering that the event just happened (as I sat in my Ann Arbor apartment cheerfully watching The Vicar of Dibley) is that, despite the fact that these sorts of nights have now been organized in several cities around the world, it's really a New York thing. Or at least a big city thing. On any given night in a big city, you can go out looking for celebrities and free champagne and probably find them. With shorter lines. And the other thing I took away was that I should just enjoy the pretty clothes and lovely photos and not worry too much about the people behind them. Which is a lesson I learned long ago about writers and artists, and so pretty painless. And now let's look at Tim Walker's photo of Lily Cole in Alexander McQueen's carousel dress, because that always makes everything perfect.

[from my 2005 hard drive...]

Miu Miu Glitter Love

2011-09-09T13:47:00.001-04:00

Miu Miu Glitter Love by whiskeyinyrshoes

I love this collection and I want to own every bit of it. Except I would never wear them, because I hate heels and peep-toes. But I could just sit there and look at them for years.

P.S. sorry if all my saved items are showing up in your RSS feed, I can't figure out how to make Polyvore not default to that and I forget to uncheck the box all the time.

coming home

2011-08-29T11:43:00.002-04:00

I think I promised this post yesterday, but I got distracted by the eighty people who showed up at my mother's house for a party. The amount of cooking we did was downright heroic. The lovely picture up above is not actually my work, unless you count the fact that I took a lazy iPhone photo of the original photo without even taking it out of its mylar sleeve. But it's gorgeous, isn't it? One of my favorites from the album chronicling the salon's wild younger days. I figured it was a good introduction to this Cleveland post.

A happy family. They're the best.

Roast beef pasty from Reilly's in the West Side Market. The best thing I've eaten all year.

Annoyingly cute couple being annoyingly cute. But they're my favorites so it's okay.

My mother has adopted some stray cats. They use her for food, but nobody minds.

The black one is my mom's favorite, but this little grey lady is mine.

Serenity.

Summer should always be like this.

Another beach, another day. In June I went to the Coney Island beach just to check it out, but in Ohio I go to beaches for fun, because it's not so hot and sunny. This adventure was with the lovely Bridget, who is now a real-life friend instead of mostly an internet one. Very exciting.

My records, my record player, and myself: never all in the same place at the same time. But we will be soon.

While I typed the last post and this one I cooked twelve pounds of spaghetti. There really was a party, see? I promise to post some recipes soon and stop the deluge of photos. And now I'm off to a new place, from which I shall refuse to budge for at least a year.

leaving the city

2011-08-27T17:57:00.002-04:00

So... July. I came back to Cleveland at the beginning of the month. My old roommate got married in what was probably the most gorgeous and lavish wedding I'll ever attend. She was beautiful, he was beautiful, everything was beautiful. She jumped in a fountain in her Vera Wang gown just to take a perfect photo. I love this girl.

She is Bengali, so the ceremony/party the night before the wedding included a lady doing mendhi. Here's my pretty sister getting hers.

And mine. We pretty much all got the same design after a certain point, because they turned down the lights and the woman couldn't see. She did this in about thirty seconds, though, hardly looking at it, so I'm still rather impressed. One nice thing about being very pale is that mendhi stains darker and lasts longer than it does on more sun-proof skin, so mine lasted most of the month.

Killing time between parts of the wedding. Been reading at this coffee place since 2004. Refuse to acknowledge that its name has changed.

The groom got to ride up in serious style.

I am a little obsessed with these submerged centerpieces. Have been for like two years. I have weird obsessions.

Elephant wedding. There was supposed to be a real one, but it was too expensive.

Fourth of July, still in Cleveland. Wells and Eric enjoying the sun.

Family.

Back to New York City. I took a lot of photos during my last trip to the Met, but I'll turn them into a whole post later. Maybe. Here are my favorites, for now. Above is a shot from the Astor Court.

Stained glass by Elmslie, from the J.G. Cross House.

Rodin's Burghers of Calais. I love how I never look for this piece, I always just stumble into that one narrow room and come face-to-face.

Anselm Kiefer, Böhmen liegt am Meer. Another of his best works, Lots frau, is one of the centerpieces at the Cleveland Museum of Art.

Rothko. I don't know which one. Just look at it. LOOK AT IT. Never stop looking at it.

I saw this girl on my way out. Immediately developed a crush on her/desire to copy her tattoo.

Some friends from college had a mini-reunion in New York. Ben somehow always looks photoshopped into pictures, but I swear he was really there.

I've wanted to climb on that thing (after getting a serious tetanus booster) since I first got to New York. It's a train winch.

Hot-weather-savior dress number two. See previous post for clarification.

The first five minutes of packing up my apartment... looked pretty much like my apartment did the rest of the time.

There is a logic to my packing. But I don't know what it is.

Heat gun injury. My souvenir from my (very beloved) job.

The couch I left behind. Reluctantly. Everything in my new place will be floral in honor of its departure.

Another dear departed staple. Bought them in London, explored Prague in them, graduated from university in them, wore through the toes walking around Manhattan.

I absolutely loved how these ominous posters stared down from every wall for most of the summer.

Upon learning that The Savoy had closed (don't worry, they're reopening), Chris and I found this guy. I gave him some money to feed his cat and then he insisted that I take his picture. I have to admit, it cheered me up about missing the spectacular Savoy cocktails.

In Shakespeare & Co. on Broadway. We spent a lot of time wandering through bookstores that weekend.

A smoothie made from mangoes, berries, and mint. And rum. We drank it on the fire escape and I finally felt okay about summer.

New York Time traveled over night. Unfortunately the train that came was not the train to 2046. A giant van did come to take me back to Cleveland shortly thereafter, and then it was August. Which it was not when I took this picture of the sign. More on that tomorrow.

last days of New York

2011-08-26T13:36:00.001-04:00

What with the impending hurricane-pocalypse (just not as ringing as snowpocalypse, please suggest alternatives), I figured it was time for another roll of photos from my last days in the big city. Which ended about a month ago, actually, but I have not yet actually moved on to the next place, so I figure it is still valid. So anyway, here's what I did in New York City in June.

Flowers, obviously.

Now that Schnitzel and Things has a stationary restaurant, this is the only truck I bother chasing around the city. The kimchi is actually a little on the bland side, but the dishes are interesting and edible on the go, and the concept is very cool.

The dress that saved my life by being the only thing I could stand to put on when the temperature topped 90ºF. Which it did, regularly, for weeks.

I also ate basically nothing but thawed edamame with sweet chili sauce, because it is the best summer food that isn't watermelon or a granita.

The view from a friend's fancy-pants roof deck. Far superior to the view of loitering teenagers and nannies pushing strollers from my apartment.

Kosher angel food cake. Not as good as the regular kind, but the top did look nice.

Takoyaki and Okonomiyaki covered in bonito flakes from Otafuku. They only serve those two things and yakisoba, but it's pretty much the best food ever to come out of a ten-foot-wide hole in a Manhattan wall.

Shoe pictures are as predictable as flower pictures around here.

My outfit for Sleep No More, which was the most wonderful piece of staged art I've ever seen. I'm sorry I couldn't get photos of the actual show, or just melt into it. It was Twin Peaks crossed with Macbeth crossed with a Howard Hawks noir.

These only lasted about two days, but they were beautiful.

I have really strong opinions on how to properly make a cucumber sandwich. Weirdly, I did not form them while living in England.

I miss my pretty cherry floors.

A bad photo of Ai Weiwei's Zodiac Heads, which opened while the artist was detained in his native China. Happily, he has since been released, but other Chinese artists continue to be arrested for their political views. I fell in love with his work after reading about this exhibit at the Tate Modern (my favorite museum in the world).

Stonewall Place during this year's Pride Parade, just days after gay marriage was legalized in New York. One of the happiest places I have ever been.

Staten Island Ferry. Another extremely happy place. The actual impetus for this ride was the realization that I'd been to four of five boroughs in one weekend, and needed to complete the set.

Then, as a bonus trip, I went to the beach. Coney Island Beach, in fact. It was weird, but mostly because I don't usually voluntarily go to beaches on hot, sunny days.

And then I went home to Cleveland.

Want to know what I did there? The July edition launches tomorrow!

la bicyclette

2011-08-21T23:24:00.000-04:00

Here is your mid-evening cocktail update, courtesy of Wells, the Mixologist iPhone app, and my directionless liquor shopping.

La Bicyclette

2 oz gin
3/4 oz sweet vermouth
1/2 oz elderflower liquer
2 dashes blood orange bitters*

Stir with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

*original recipe calls for peach bitters, but we improvised.

Delicious. Make one now.

rain/sun, old shoes/new purse

2011-08-21T19:24:00.000-04:00

rain/sun, old shoes/new purse by whiskeyinyrshoes featuring a floral tea dress

Today I got soaked, and then sunburned, all within three hours. And then I unwisely went to "browse" in a couple of shops, and ended up with a lovely new purse.

apple-stuffed pork chops with maple syrup and pancakes

2011-08-20T21:21:00.002-04:00

I've been wanting to make stuffed pork chops since I saw Giada make these on her show. I still want to try those out, but for my first attempt I decided to use apples and dried cranberries as the stuffing, because I adore apples and pork together and also that's what I had on hand. I worked basically from this recipe, but changed things up based on what was handy, since I'm borrowing someone else's kitchen at the moment. I don't know why I decided to serve these over pancakes, but I suspect it had to do with falling asleep watching the Food Network last night. The pancakes I grew up on were Hungarian palacsinta, which are thin crepes, so I've never been attached to any one recipe for the American-style kind. The one I used today is Nigella's, because she's the kind of lady who knows how to make a pancake, regardless of nationality. They were lovely, very light and fluffy. This meal serves two people, but is easy to increase.

Apple-stuffed Pork Chops

2 fairly thick, center-cut, boneless pork chops
1 crisp, semi-sweet apple, peeled, cored, and diced
1 large shallot
1/3 cup dried cranberries
3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons olive oil
salt and pepper

Heat one tablespoon of the olive oil in a large pan over medium heat. Cook the apple and onion for about five minutes, then add the vinegar and cranberries and cook for another few minutes, or until the apples and onions are soft. Season with a little pepper and stick in the fridge to chill for an hour or so.

Preheat your oven to 350ºF. Use a thin-bladed knife to cut pockets into the pork chops, getting as deep as you can without poking through sides of the meat. Spoon in the apple mixture, packing it as tightly as you can. Stick two toothpicks through the edges of the pork, forming an X shape, to hold the pockets closed. Season each side with salt (I used kosher salt) and pepper.

Heat the remaining tablespoon of oil on medium-high (you can use the same pan as before), and brown the pork chops for about three minutes on each side. Transfer to a lightly greased baking sheet and cover with foil. Bake for 35-45 minutes, until the pork is no longer pink inside.

Pancakes

3/4 cup flour
1 heaping teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon sugar
pinch of salt
1 large egg
2/3 cup milk
1 tablespoon melted butter
more butter for frying the pancakes
maple syrup to serve

Sift together the flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt. In a separate bowl, whisk together the milk, egg, and melted butter. Add to the dry ingredients and whisk until more or less smooth. Butter a skillet and heat on medium-high. Drop large spoonfuls of batter onto the skillet and cook until bubbles rise through the batter, then flip and cook for another minute or so on the other side. Serve with maple syrup and stuffed pork.

Okay, I guess the rationale behind stuffed-pork-and-pancakes is that the cooked fruit inside the pork reminds me of the pear compote my grandmother used to serve along with the palacsinta on Sundays, and maple syrup is one of the best things in the world. It's so good on bacon, how could it be bad on pork chops? And it wasn't bad at all, it was yummy as all hell. And the pork chops are really good on their own, so make them with or without the pancakes.

milk cake with strawberries

2011-08-19T16:22:00.003-04:00

The recipe for this cake came from a book called Farms and Foods of Ohio. I made it for what was meant to be a party to celebrate bottling her homemade wine... but turned into more of a bonfire night celebrating drinking the wine (which was awesome, by the way). The cake got a bit forgotten while we were down at the beach, but it made a fantastic breakfast for everyone over the next couple of days. It's a slightly sweet bread-cake, lighter than pound cake but denser and less chewy than angel food. Extremely easy to make and perfect for matching with fresh or cooked-up fruit. The book calls for roasted strawberries, but these were so perfect I couldn't bear to do anything to them.

10 tablespoons butter
1 1/4 cups whole milk
4 eggs
2 cups sugar
2 1/4 cups flour
2 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350ºF. Butter and flour a loaf pan or a large shallow baking dish.*

Heat the butter and milk on medium-low until all the butter has melted. Meanwhile, in a large mixing bowl, beat the eggs on high speed until they thicken (about five minutes). Gradually add the two cups of sugar, continuing to beat on medium speed for two more minutes.

Whisk together the flour and baking soda and add to the egg mixture. Beat on medium until smooth, about two minutes. Add the milk and butter mixture and the vanilla, and beat for another two minutes. Pour into the baking dish and bake for 35-60 minutes, depending on the depth of the dish. When a thin-bladed knife slides in and out cleanly, the cake is done. Let rest for ten minutes before turning out of the pan, and cool completely before slicing.

* The original recipe called for a loaf pan, and I am very fond of loaf-shaped cakes, but it took much longer to bake through than the recipe suggested, and burned a little on the bottom. Look how nice the top looked, though:

Overall, nice little cake. It lasted a whole four days, lazily wrapped in foil and left on the counter. Just as tasty the last day as it was on the first. You should also appreciate my lovely plate of wine-tasting snacks, because I rarely bother with/succeed at making something this nice-looking.

Go Sailor

2011-08-12T13:19:00.000-04:00

Go Sailor by whiskeyinyrshoes featuring wool scarves

I don't know why, but this outfit has been making me think of Rose Melberg all day. They're pretty happy thoughts.

Gumbo

2011-08-10T22:34:00.000-04:00

Hey look, I'm still alive! Unfortunately I haven't been near a reliable internet connection for much of the past couple of weeks. Nor have I been cooking much, as my mother usually whisks something amazing off the grill before I even have time to ask what's for dinner. Tonight, however, we managed the intricate process of cooking a meal together without crashing into each other other with knives or hot pans, and made gumbo. (Hopefully there's a better photo coming when I have some leftovers.)

I had a cup of very nice gumbo yesterday at the fantastic Salmon Dave's in River, but it's not really a dish best served in a small cup. Additionally, they add their rice on top instead of underneath the soup and don't chop up their meats and vegetables very thoroughly, so it's more like eating a stir-fry in a mildly spicy sauce. I prefer my mother's version, which has a more homogenous texture and a lot more spice. I should add that the salmon and risotto with peanut sauce that I had for my entrée was delicious and you should go eat there pronto.

Anyway, here's the recipe. No idea where it came from originally, our version is one my mom copied down from some cooking magazine she couldn't tear the page out of. It's somewhere between a Cajun and a Creole gumbo... not as dark as the former, but not as simple as the latter. We made a rather enormous amount, because it's going to feed us for a couple of days as well as my brother's prodigious appetite over the weekend. This recipe makes a more reasonable amount, but probably still enough for four or five people as a main course.

1/2 cup oil
1/2 cup flour
1 lb spicy sausage (andouille or other)
1 1/2 cups onion
1/2 cup red pepper
1 cup celery
3 tbsp butter + 1 more for the chicken
14.5 oz canned diced tomatoes
1 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp crushed pepper
2-4 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
2 tsp creole seasoning
1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp thyme
2 quarts chicken broth
2 cups chicken
white rice and water to cook it in

Dice the vegetables and put into a large pan with the butter. Heat the oil and stir in the flour, whisking constantly for 4-5 minutes to make a roux (this site tells you how to make a Creole-style roux... I've never used oil before and my mom did this part so I will leave the explanation to the experts).

Turn the heat up to medium on the vegetable pan and stir occasionally until the butter is melted. Meanwhile, squeeze the sausage out of its casings. Add to the pan and saute for 10 to 15 minutes, breaking up the sausage into the smallest pieces you can (Trying to stir the vegetables evenly through it, watching out for stubborn clumps, will accomplish this. I also recommend using a smallish wooden spoon, though my mother swears by a big spatula).

When the sausage is browned and the vegetables are softened, (carefully) transfer them to a big stock pot. Add the tomatoes, garlic, herbs, and spices and simmer for about ten minutes. Slowly stir in the chicken broth and let it simmer for 1 to 1 1/2 hours. At some point during this time, put some rice on to cook, about 1/2 a cup for each person who is eating. More if they're going to need it to cut the spice of the gumbo.

Chop up the chicken and sear it for a few minutes in the last tablespoon of butter, until the outsides of the pieces are white. Add to the gumbo for the last fifteen minutes of cooking. Serve over the rice. Lasts five or six days in the fridge... I recommend storing it with the rice in, so the grains soak up the spice and flavor.

There are plenty of ways to change this up based on your preferences. I'd really like to make a version of this with shrimp, either instead of or in addition to the chicken. Unfortunately not everyone on the homestead likes seafood as much as I do, so it'll have to wait until I get a chance to make it in Ann Arbor. I once had gumbo with a fried egg on top at a Cajun brunch, and it was pretty much the best thing ever. Will definitely try that again. If you're a vegetarian or vegan, substitute margarine and vegetable broth and whatever meat substitute you're into (maybe seitan or tempeh? something that holds up). You might have to add a little extra margarine to the saute pan to make up for the juices from the sausage. If you avoid carbs or unhealthy things like butter, double the vegetables and increase the meat as much as you like for a thicker stew. Or pour it over a healthy grain like quinoa.

green tea rice

2011-07-11T14:02:00.005-04:00

Another My 25 recipe! I originally wrote that I wanted to do something kind of fancy with this, by which I think I meant serve it as part of a meal to people besides myself. Unfortunately none of the other three people in this apartment seem at all interested in trying it, because they have no taste. I'm counting it anyway. It's a totally different version than that last one. It has jasmine in it (because I don't have any normal green tea)!

I have no idea where I came across the idea for green tea rice, but I've made it a couple of times over the last three or so years, usually when I'm ridiculously busy but sick of eating bland take-out. The rice doesn't taste exactly like green tea, but it definitely has an interesting flavor, and the nuts and fruit add a nice sweetness and texture.

2 cups white short-grain rice (I use sushi-type rice, but I imagine other kinds would work)
2 cups strong-brewed green tea, cooled
1/3 cup roughly chopped pistachios and almonds (or slivered almonds)
1/3 cup chopped dried cranberries (or dried currants, or raisins)

Cook the rice in the green tea, cool, and mix in the nuts and fruit. Serve at room-temperature.

I'm very fond of food that I can make in summer without turning on my stove or oven. The rice cooker radiates very little heat and can be left to its own devices while I sit in front of a fan in the next room. This rice works great for that, as well as being nice and light and better at room temperature. Unfortunately it doesn't reheat well after being refrigerated (at least when made with sushi rice), but it can be left out in tupperware overnight without spoiling.

granitas galore

2011-07-10T16:40:00.000-04:00

So, to get back to that list of things I'm supposed to be cooking... granitas! These are basically frozen fruit-ices that taste like crunchy sorbet, but (generally) less sweet. I adore them. I've made four so far, but the one in these photos is the first one I've gotten decent shots of.

Pomegranate Chai Granita

This one came out of a cookbook I was processing at work, but unfortunately I forgot to write down which one. If you've come across it let me know where.

1 cup water
1/3 cup sugar
1 cup pomegranate juice
1 tablespoon lime or lemon juice
1 bag chai tea

Bring the water to a boil and dissolve the sugar in it. Add juices and tea bag, and steep until cool. Pour into a shallow, flat dish (the bigger the better... I use a large pyrex baking dish with a lid) and place in the freezer, making sure the liquid is level. Freeze for 45 minutes, then stir with a fork, scraping ice crystals away from the sides of the pan and breaking up any chunks. Repeat every thirty minutes or so until the granita is all flakes and crystals.

Minty Green Tea Granita

This one is from Mark Bittman's Food Matters book. Mine came out more green-tea-and-honey than green-tea-and-mint, but it was still pretty delicious.

3 cups water
3 bags green tea
1/4 cup fresh mint
1/4 cup honey
juice of one lemon

Bring the water nearly to a boil, turn off the heat and add the tea bags and mint. Steep ten minutes, stir in the honey and lemon juice. Pour into the pan and stir periodically as above.

Blackberry-Orange and Raspberry-Mint Granitas

These were the first two I made, and were the result of a big sale on berries at Fairway. The measurements are kind of approximate because I don't remember exactly how I made them, but they turned out fabulously. These are one of the best desserts to make in hot weather because (assuming you keep simple syrup on hand) they don't require you to turn on the stove at all.

2 pints blackberries
zest of one orange
3/4 cup fresh-squeezed orange juice
1/3-1/2 cup simple syrup

or

2 pints raspberries
1/2 cup fresh mint
1/3-1/2 cup simple syrup
3/4 cup water or seltzer

Purée the berries and zest/mint, then force through a fine strainer or cheesecloth to extract as much liquid as possible while removing seeds. Mix with liquids, freeze and stir.

The blackberry-orange one was hands-down my favorite... blackberries just have a ton of flavor, and the orange was a nice complement. Despite the fact that it takes a couple of hours for a granita to freeze, they really take very little work, but look elegant and are extremely refreshing in yucky summer weather. Plus if you get sick of eating them you can turn them into fancy drinks like I did here.

beet salad

2011-07-09T19:20:00.003-04:00

This simple-but-delicious salad was inspired by the first idea on Mark Bittman's list of 101 picnic dishes, after a couple of friends and I decided to have an after-work meal on the Brooklyn Promenade. I wasn't sure about presenting people with raw beets (I like them, but they're a bit weird), so I decided to roast mine, and change up the ingredients a bit to match the sweetness of roasted beets. Sorry the photos aren't very clear, I didn't think about the effect of beet-colored bowls on my pictures.

2-3 large beets
about 1/4 cup olive oil + 1 tablespoon for drizzling
zest and juice of one medium orange
balsamic vinegar to taste
1/3 cup shelled pistachios
1/2 cup pea or clover sprouts, chopped
1/3-1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese

Preheat the oven to 375ºF. Rinse and scrub the beets clean, and trim off any dangling ends. Drizzle very lightly with olive oil, and wrap each one in tinfoil. Place the packets on a baking sheet and roast for 30-45 minutes, or until they're tender enough for a dinner knife to sink in without much pressure.

Remove from oven and let rest until they're cool enough to handle. Remove the skin with your fingers (I find that running the beet under water while I do this makes it easier and less messy), and use a knife to trim off any remaining rough patches.

Roughly chop the beets and toss with olive oil (be generous but don't drench them), balsamic vinegar, juice, and orange zest. Top with pistachios, sprouts, and feta, then serve. If you're not going to eat this right away, or have to transport it, I recommend keeping the toppings separate until the last minute, both because they get soggy and because the presentation is nicer before everything turns pink from the beets.

Here's a slightly blurry photo of the salad all mixed up in my lunchbox. I ate this stuff for four out of six meals over three days and didn't get bored.

Another shot of the salad, eaten with some "crab" cakes made from onigiri leftovers (topped with sriracha mayo). I think I'd basically run out of the pistachios and sprouts by this point.

peppermint mix

2011-07-09T14:15:00.000-04:00

I made this mix towards the end of 2003, during my senior year of high school, and I'm always surprised how well it's held up (at least in my ears). The only change was swapping in "Desperate Guys" for some earlier Faint song after my computer crashed and I briefly lost Danse Macabre. I keep almost taking the Anberlin song off, but I think I still like that song enough, despite how unappealing the band is. Anyway, enjoy this glimpse into my seventeen-year-old-brain.

purple punch

2011-06-10T00:28:00.000-04:00

Like the last time I made punch, this one was sort of an accident. I was drinking Campari & orange juice (cool-down cocktail of choice once I've run out of plain seltzer to mix with the Campari), and couldn't be bothered to finish or throw out the last inch of watered-down drink before pouring another into the same glass. I'm blaming it on the fact that my kitchen was sweltering at the time, but really I'm just not that classy when I'm at home. Or else I am absentmindedly classy like Holly Golightly. Yes. That must be it.

I recently re-stocked my bar, so it's no longer just bitters and syrups and liquers, which is a relief, although I still haven't come across an acceptable bar spoon (or any bar spoons, actually, that weren't sold as part of a whole set of tools I already own). Anyway, I decided to make a gin drink next, and remembered that I had something kind of special in the fridge. Something special and basically un-nameable.

A while back, in honor of a round of house guests and lingering compulsion to work on the 25 things challenge, I made a couple of granitas. They were delicious. Especially the blackberry-orange one, which I was tempted to hoard all for myself. Luckily, I forgot to take photos and therefore have to make another round in order to post the recipe. Anyway... my guests and I didn't finish the granitas, but they melted and re-froze enough to be more or less inedible in their state. I attempted, with the addition of some ice and gin and soda water, to make them into slushy drinks. The raspberry-mint one held up nicely, but the blackberry-orange got thin and unappealing. So I stuck the blended mess back in the freezer and forgot about it. Until now.

The first glass was an accident (what with the dregs of the previous drink providing half the flavors), but the second was an intentional recreation of that accident, and even better. This punch is so delicious (particularly because it's not very sweet, which is my usual complaint with these types of drinks) that it definitely needs a name. Any ideas?

2 oz. gin
1 oz. Campari
1 large scoop blackberry-orange-gin-re-frozen-granita
1 generous splash orange juice
ginger ale

Pour the first few ingredients into a highball glass (yes, I know mine is actually a stemless wine glass, but the capacity is the same) over a couple of ice cubes. Stir with the straw that's still in the glass from the last drink. Top with ginger ale, and garnish with a sprig of mint just for the sake of the photograph.

Because of the fortified-and-re-frozen granita, I'm not sure this punch will ever happen again after the next two glasses (I could probably just buy some blackberry sorbet, but that wouldn't be as special). Nevertheless, it is extremely tasty and still deserves a name. All ideas are welcome. Go.

Onigiri

2011-06-09T23:30:00.001-04:00

Onigiri are Japanese rice balls, which are traditionally filled with salty, preserved foods but have been adapted to all kinds of tastes. For a good run-down of the history and varieties of onigiri, check out Just Bento. My sister and I made these a couple years ago, inspired by a re-watching of our childhood favorite, Ranma 1/2 (hands down the funniest and best-dubbed anime I have ever seen), and they were fabulous. Much better than our similarly-inspired attempt at okonomiyaki. Please note that, at the time, neither of us had ever eaten (or seen in real life) onigiri or okonomiyaki.

I got inspired to try another round of rice balls when I ran across some nice-looking fake crab meat in the grocery store today. Is that a weird thing to be inspired by? It was pretty exciting, especially because it was just starting to storm and I was in a really good mood for the first time in this whole sweaty week. And for whatever reason, I really, really love fake crab meat (in a totally different way than I love the real stuff).

I made two kinds of onigiri, one filled with a pretty standard Asian-style crab salad (much like this one I made ages ago) and one with a carrot kinpira. Neither one is authentic, and I'm not sure the kinpira can actually rightly be called kinpira. But the first time I made it I used a real recipe and it tasted pretty much the same, so whatever. The measurements in the recipes below are VERY rough, as I was just sort of throwing things together, so change the proportions to your own taste.

The first step in making onigiri is to put some rice on to cook. It has to be sushi-type rice (Calrose or Japonica), and you have to rinse it well in cold water before you cook it. I highly recommend spending a few bucks on a small, single-button rice cooker (I have this one) because it makes life ever so much easier. I used two cups (the cup that comes with the cooker) of rice and got seven large-ish onigiri, which is enough for dinner tonight, lunch tomorrow, and a snack at three in the morning when I can't sleep.

Once the button on the rice cooker pops up, leave the lid on for ten minutes to finish cooking the rice. After that point, take the lid off, fluff the rice, and let it cool for fifteen minutes or so before you start putting together your onigiri. You want it to be quite warm, but not so hot you burn your hands. Ideally, anyway. Being me, I got impatient and burned myself a little. It was worth it, though.

While your rice is cooking, start the fillings. You want everything to be chopped up as small as possible, because it makes stuffing the rice balls much simpler. You can put virtually anything that isn't too wet into onigiri, but these are the two I've used both times.

Crab Salad

4-6 ounces imitation crab meat, roughly chopped or torn into small bits
2 tablespoons mayonnaise
1 teaspoon chili-infused sesame oil
1 1/2 teaspoons rice vinegar
1 teaspoon hot paprika
2 teaspoons sweet paprika

Whisk the mayo, oil, vinegar, and paprika together in the bottom of a small bowl. Dump in the shredded crab meat and stir through. Add more crab if there's too much sauce. Refrigerate for at least half an hour (it's really better if it sits overnight but I rarely have that sort of forethought).

Carrot Kinpira

3/4 cup julienned carrots, roughly chopped into shorter pieces
1/3 small red onion, diced small
1 large clove garlic, minced
1 teaspoon/splash sesame or vegetable oil
1 1/2 teaspoons/splashes mirin
1 1/2 teaspoons/splashes soy sauce
dry or fresh rosemary to taste
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper

Heat the oil over medium-high heat and put in the onions. When they start to soften, add the carrots, rosemary, and other wet ingredients. After a few minutes add the garlic, and stir-fry until everything is softened. Add the ginger and crushed pepper, and saute until the liquid is all absorbed and the carrots start sticking to the bottom of the pan. Transfer to a small dish.

Set up your fillings, your pot of rice, some strips of roasted nori (optional), a roll of cling wrap, a couple of small spoons, and a medium-sized teacup on your work surface. Tear off about six to eight inches of the cling wrap, and drape over the top of the cup. Plop a scoop of rice (about half a cup, maybe) into the wrap. (Note: I got the idea to do this with cling wrap from the awesome proprietress over at Just Bento and Just Hungry, but she uses the cup to shape her onigiri, which didn't really work for me. Play around until you figure out what works for you.)

Gather up the edges of the wrap and use it to shape the rice into a round ball. Twist the top and squeeze the rice to pack it firmly, then open the film and use your fingers (you can drape an edge of the film over the rice to protect your hands from stickiness) to create a cup in the middle of the rice ball. I prefer a lot of filling, so I pretend I'm back in grade school art class making a pinch pot.

Scoop a tablespoon or so of filling into the hole, using the spoon to pack it together. Pull the edges of the wrap up again, using your other hand to squeeze the edges of the rice-cup back together, and pushing the filling inside the opening (this is when it's most useful to use an edge of the cling wrap). It's okay if a little still shows--that's what the nori is for. Stick a strip or a shape of it over the top of the rice ball, covering the hole where the filling shows. If you like your nori very crispy you should do this just prior to eating it, but I find that it is more pleasant (and better at holding things together) if it gets a little damp from the warm rice. I've found that it's easiest to let each ball sit in the cling wrap for a minute or two (I cut two pieces and just alternated fillings) to make sure the shape sets before you unwrap it and stick on the nori.

Obviously my onigiri are not nearly as pretty as most of the ones you find on Japanese food blogs (or in shops, for that matter), but they're pretty delicious. My sister is much better at making even-sized, aesthetically pleasing ones, but unfortunately she couldn't get the keys to the teleporter tonight. Also she doesn't like fake crab meat. I think next time I will mix some black sesame seeds into the rice, just to make them more interesting-looking. I also pulled out a packet of panko but didn't end up using it for anything. I've heard that in Japan people sometimes dye the rice fun colors, which seems appealing. Maybe I'll make crab-stuffed "easter eggs" next year.

I hope that wasn't too confusing. These things are great for traveling snacks (if you use fillers that don't need to be refrigerated), are a traditional component of bento box lunches (ridiculously pretty food + organization? I love bentos.) and can be stored overnight wrapped in cling film in the fridge. They're pretty filling, being mostly rice, but you can use them as an appetizer or side-dish for a more elaborate meal. Un-filled rice balls are called onigiri too, and look nice when served with a curry or stir-fry dish.

swear everything I say is true on a first edition copy of Peter Pan

2011-05-26T01:06:00.002-04:00

Oh look, more photos!

I went with some friends to a gorgeous old theater in Jersey City for a screening of both versions of The Thing From Another World.

If dark chocolate Raisinets had existed when I was a kid I might not have lost my sweet tooth. Plus, you know... antioxidants.

The whole place was very elegant and quite run-down. This was in the powder room.

The gallery.

Shoes again. They take me to my favorite neighborhood bar.

I get way too excited in antique stores. About andirons, apparently.

Flowers. Obviously.

I mean, really, if you saw someone selling lilacs in New York City in April you would buy them too.

Real/fake.

Priorities. I still haven't found a bar spoon.

On my last day of literature classes I panic-baked chocolate chip banana bread.

Remnants of a spectacular cook-out (all credit for the food to James).

Not pleased with this hat. Want a PhD hat, they look nicer.

Graduation involves a lot of waiting around.

Finally went to the Met for the first time since 2005, after living here for twenty-one months.

Definitely not the entrance to my building.

Above two are in the ladies' room of "our" new bar. I am sold.

I do not really like cherries or when Kelly leaves them lying around but they sure are pretty.

I made a resolution to stop leaving hair-styling things lying all over my room. Not sure this is an improvement. Sometimes I dream I am being suffocated by headbands.

Summer grocery shopping. Cold, nice things.

Best for last: I got to see Darren Hanlon play at NYC Popfest last weekend, and Rose Melberg came and sang with him! Totally made up for missing the Go Sailor show the night before. Especially because I talked to her and then also to him when I was buying tshirts. And David Dondero played drums for a little while. And it was basically a magical hour for all.

You can watch the video of the song my post title is from below. They also sang a brand new song I haven't been able to find video of, but it was about choosing a city to settle down in and involved Rose singing a line like "you may think I'm fussy/ but I need a good library" or something equally wonderful.

NYC Popfest 2011: Darren Hanlon performs "All These Things" w/ Rose Melberg at Santos, NYC from BlearyEyedBrooklyn.com on Vimeo.

my life looks oddly colorful

2011-05-25T23:17:00.000-04:00

It has been a while since I bombarded you with random photos and nonsense captions, right? Here you go.

My hyacinths bloomed. And they were beautiful.

Shopping for a dinner party in Manhattan takes about three hours and four grocery stores, plus the wine shop. I consider it an extreme sport, and I like it. Because I am strange.

Last year's official shoes of spring, out of the cupboard.

I think I was interested by the way my computer and hair clip share a sparkly quality.

Washington Square Park pavement.

I bought a dress with Little Red Riding Hood on it. Also it is yellow, a color I never ever wear.

Suddenly realized what attracted me to the fabric I made my laptop case out of.

Brunch at this place was not that tasty, but the patio is so pretty.

Easter (shoes) with my lovely Kelly.

We went to pretty places and enjoyed the sunshine (Easter magic: I didn't get burnt).

I did not think about all the floral when I put on those plaid shoes.

Later on we got rained in at one of our favorite spots.

Yes, I like taking photos of shoes. These ones have seen me through several countries and many rainstorms.

People at my coffee place also have great shoes.

Pretend-outline from the middle of thesis-delirium.

No idea what kind of drink this was, but I'd like another one.

Making rhubarb simple syrup. Weird smell, great taste.

Royal wedding made me jealous of British women and their great headwear.

One day I was too lazy to devil eggs so I just started eating them hard-boiled with honey mustard, salt, and pepper. It's pretty much amazing.

Pimm's Cup! It's summer!

steve and esti make a mixtape

2011-05-08T20:09:00.011-04:00

Last night I couldn't sleep, so my friend Steve (represented in the cover art above, and responsible for at least half of my completely awesome taste in music) and I made a playlist of all the cutest songs. It is pure sugar, and will probably rot your teeth, but then you can get them replaced with something shiny to go with the music.

Unfortunately Grooveshark is being difficult about some of the file qualities, so a couple things are left off of this version. Luckily, you can see the video for one of them below the playlist widget, because it would be absolutely wrong to leave off even one of the (several) Colin Clary songs, seeing as he is the prince of adorable music. Rose Melberg (also heavily represented) is the princess.

personal neutrals

2011-05-05T17:52:00.000-04:00

personal neutrals by whiskeyinyrshoes featuring a racer back dress

Indistinguishable from 90% of my other outfits, just the way I like it. I own more slips and lace trim than anybody's maiden aunt.

essential kitchen equipment 1.2

2011-04-30T02:24:00.002-04:00

[via]

small pot (preferably with lid)

big pot (with lid)

spatula-for-scraping-things

spatula-for-flipping-things

two baking sheets

deep baking pan (preferably glass)

measuring cups/spoons

big mixing bowl

small mixing bowl

two wooden spoons

serving spoon

toaster oven

large frying pan (non-stick)

colander/large mesh strainer

kettle (electric or regular)

pot holders/thick dish rags

whisk

2-cup glass measuring cup

cocktail shaker

2 foldable plastic cutting boards

citrus juicer

ice trays

egg beater

blender/food processor

cheese grater

chef's knife

paring knife

large chopping knife

bread knife

corkscrew

bottle opener

garlic press

wok (with lid)
assorted storage containers (preferably glass)

These are, offhand, the things I use all the time in my kitchen (not counting dishes and utensils, major appliances, or cleaning supplies). Did I miss anything that you consider essential? Is there anything there you think is redundant? We're making a list for my friend Steve who wants his kitchen to grow up.

matzo brittle

2011-04-30T00:15:00.000-04:00

As I mentioned in my last post, I decided to make this Passover-oriented recipe for an Easter party, because I do things like that. But it was really just a Doctor Who party (the best kind of party), and the Doctor is all for cultural sharing. I checked out a couple of different recipes, but based most of my brittle on this one.

3-4 sheets matzo (use the strongest, thickest, saltiest ones you can find)
2 sticks (one cup) unsalted butter
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1 cup chocolate chips or shards (semisweet or dark)
1/2 cup nuts (I used cashews), roughly chopped or crushed (plastic bag + ladle works wonders)

Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Line a baking sheet with foil, coat with cooking spray, and lay out the matzo (break up the pieces until they fit). Boil the sugar and butter in a small, heavy-bottomed pot over medium-high heat, stirring constantly. Boil for three minutes, continuing the stirring, to form caramel.

Pour the caramel over the matzos and stick the sheet in the oven for 12-15 minutes (let it bubble for a couple of minutes, but don't let it burn). Remove from the oven and let it cool for a minute, then sprinkle the chocolate evenly over the caramel. Return to the oven for another minute or two, then take it out and use a spatula to smoothly spread the melty chocolate over the whole sheet. Sprinkle on the nuts, cover with something solid (I used a plastic cutting board) and gently press down for a moment to make sure the nuts get embedded in the chocolate.

Let the brittle cool for thirty minutes on top of the stove, then stick it in the fridge for at least an hour. When it's firmed up, flip the whole thing over and peel off the foil. Use a knife to break up the brittle into bite-sized pieces (I went along the lines between the pieces of matzo and then chopped each one into about nine bits). The brittle should last about a week in a sealed container in the fridge.

I thought this stuff was waaaayyyyy too sweet, but two separate groups of people devoured it practically before I had a chance to apologize for that, so maybe it's just me. Kelly said it reminded her of dark chocolate HobNobs, which are the best cookies ever. So that's cool. My suggestion to use strong, salty matzo comes from the fact that I felt like all its flavor and texture was lost to the sweet components, but the matzo I was using is definitely of a thin, mild variety. You could also use less caramel/chocolate and add some salt between the layers. Like the other brittle I made, I'd like to try out different versions of this. Predictably, I want a spicy one. Crushed chilies mixed into the chocolate? Mmm.

This was pretty messy to break into pieces and I ended up with a lot of little crumbled bits that would probably make an awesome topping for a cake or a bowl of ice cream. Try it out and let me know.

tea dyeing

2011-04-21T23:54:00.001-04:00

I've been wanting to try this for ages, but it wasn't until today, when the stores were full of so much pretty white clothing, that I got up the energy. It was really H&M's spring collection, most of which is made of white, recycled cotton and is seriously pretty, that got me to do it. That, and the Jim Jarmusch t-shirts at Uniqlo.

So... tea dyeing. I looked up about a thousand tutorials, but most of them were contradictory or not very specific so I got fed up and just sort of did what I thought would work. I was a little worried because several sites mentioned that the tannic acids in tea break down cloth, but eventually realized they mean that happens over about fifty years, which is important if you're making heirloom quilts but not if you just want a pretty dress to wear for the next few summers. Tea makes fabric look nice and antique, and it's a good dye because tea stains everything. Even tea cups. But if you drink wine out of them the stains will break up.

Anyway, here's what you do:

Buy a really pretty white dress even though you look awful in white. It has to be cotton or another natural fiber, or this won't work.

Buy a big cheap stock pot. Or use your normal one, since nothing you couldn't consume anyway is going into this dye. Pour in about two gallons of water and boil it. Meanwhile, unwrap and tie together twenty Lipton tea bags. Boil those for a couple minutes or until the water turns... well, into tea. Pretty dark tea. Turn off the heat.

Soak the piece of clothing very thoroughly in warm water. This is important (or it has been every other time I've dyed anything). Stick it into the pot of tea, and use a wooden spoon to stir it around for a while so that it dyes evenly. Pretend you're in the laundry dungeon of a medieval castle. They show those in movies weirdly often. Didn't some people fall into vats of purple dye in one once? Use the spoon to pull out an edge every minute or so to see how dark it's getting.

When the cloth is a little bit darker than you ultimately want it to be, take the stock pot into the bathroom, put it in the tub, and carefully use the spoon to lift the dress out. It's going to be hot, so be careful. If you're lucky it'll have those little ribbons meant to keep it on the hanger, and you can grab those. Turn on the shower (try to move the pot of tea so it doesn't get more water in it) and rinse the dress with cold water, wringing it until the water coming out of it is clear. Your bathtub will look like someone with liver failure peed in it, but don't worry about that.

Wring out the dress and hang it up to dry. If it's too light, put it back in the pot for a few more minutes. Then start randomly chucking all the white things you own into the pot because you hate white/wish that cute nightshirt with the owl didn't have sweat stains on it (note: they are still visible, but now the shirt is prettier). Try putting a non-natural fiber dress in, just to see what happens. It can't hurt (but it won't do anything besides make the dress smell like tea). Don't forget to stir and check the clothes often. I left my dress in for about seven minutes and it got pretty brown. One of the shirts I dyed turned just as brown in about two minutes.

At some point you should do something to fix the color in the cloth. I'm told that white vinegar and alum can both do this. Several sites said to let the dress air dry and then use a hot iron to fix the color. I don't have an iron but I probably should, and I don't really want my dress to smell like vinegar, so I'll probably go get one tomorrow. And then I'll be careful when I put these things in the laundry, although if all the color washes out I can just dye them again.

I might wear the dress without using a fixative first, just to see how I feel about it. Right now it is soaking in a pot of that bright red Passion tea they have at Starbucks, because I'm trying to make it look like antique rose instead of just antique. I'm not that hopeful, though... the nice brownish color seems to be all gone and it's a pretty-but-not-me shade of blush. Might have to do a second Lipton bath. I kind of like the idea of just soaking it in various things until it suddenly turns exactly the color I want. I'll let you know how that goes.

maple syrup pasta

2011-04-21T21:45:00.001-04:00

Pasta made from leftover odds and ends normally wouldn't rate a post, but I have to tell you this: maple syrup is awesome. You probably already knew that. But have you ever put it on pasta? Because I did.

I cooked the ends of three bags of pasta, cut up some garlic and sprouts and sun-dried tomatos (like every time I cook anything, pretty much) Then I chopped up one of the leftover mini-meatloafs. It's a good thing I didn't realize how tasty it is cold until after I'd started everything else, or I would have just stood there and eaten it out of the foil.

Anyway, I threw the tomatoes and garlic into the pot I'd emptied the pasta from, and cooked it a little with some olive oil. Put in the meatloaf. Then I opened the fridge, wondering if I had any pesto hidden away. I didn't. So I took out the maple syrup. I'm not sure what made me do that (it wasn't Elf, I forgot about that until now). Even as I was pouring it into the pan I was thinking "oh god I'm probably ruining my dinner." But I did it, added a little more oil so it wouldn't burn, tossed in the pasta and sprouts. And tentatively licked the spatula. Not much flavor. That was kind of a relief, actually. Hot paprika (obviously). A little cheese. Into a bowl.

And you know what? It's awesome. Just a little bit sweet and lots more flavor than I expected to get from a pasta dish with no real sauce. It tastes particularly awesome on the meatloaf, because that stuff is magic.

meatloaf and cornbread

2011-04-20T23:02:00.001-04:00

Meatloaf with cornbread shells, steamed edamame and harissa.

This is probably the most normal thing I've ever cooked, which makes it totally bizarre for me. I only remember eating meatloaf about three times as a kid, and I'm pretty sure my mom made it with turkey, which I don't really like. I ended up with this idea because I had ground beef left over from last night's (ridiculously rare) burger (with caramel corn on the side), and was originally going to make one half-sized loaf... but then I came across this recipe on YumSugar and decided that I'd make multiple mini-loaves and eat them for a couple days. Also I wanted an excuse to buy some lamb to add in, because I love lamb about twelve times more than beef. I ended up making four loaves, but they're definitely bigger than single portions... I'd made it through half of one meatloaf and only one of the cornbreads when I started to feel full, so I made myself finish the edamame and packed up the rest. My meatloaf wasn't really based on the YumSugar one except for the shape... you can sort of do whatever you want to this kind of dish. I meant to put some onions and garlic in mine but got distracted by the feeling of meat squishing between my fingers and totally forgot.

1/2 lb ground beef

1/2 lb ground lamb

4 tablespoons tomato paste

1 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp rosemary

1 large egg

3/4 cup panko or other breadcrumbs

3/4 cup shredded mozzarella

Preheat the oven to 450ºF and cover a baking sheet with foil. Use your hands or a spatula to mix the two meats together.

Mix the egg, tomato paste, olive oil (if you're using tomato sauce instead you can skip that, I just used it to thin out the paste a little), rosemary, and breadcrumbs together in a large bowl. I would've added some pressed garlic and minced onions at this point if I'd been paying attention.

Add the meat and cheese to the large bowl, and combine with the tomato paste mixture, making sure it's evenly distributed. Shape four to six small loaves and place them on the foil. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until the internal temperature is 160ºF (pro tip: locate your meat thermometer before sticking them in the oven, or you'll end up having to use your candy one). Let the loaves rest for ten minutes or so and then serve with harissa or some other delicious spicy thing (ketchup is gross, kids).

Mmm. It was really delicious. Lots of rosemary flavor, and the spicy harissa worked perfectly.

The meatloaf turned out way better than I expected, and I'll definitely make it again. I might leave the cheese out in the future, because it didn't really add any flavor and there are too many delicious cheeses out there to waste stomach space on tasteless ones. Maybe I'll use gruyère instead of mozzarella next time.

Although Steve tells me the only appropriate way to eat meatloaf is with mashed potatoes and gravy, I decided to make cornbread to go with mine and steam some shelled edamame for something green. I'm probably never going to come up with a real cornbread recipe because, honestly, the Jiffy kind is better than pretty much any fancy one I've ever had. Even when I forget to buy milk and have to make it with water. I remember calling my mother before a Thanksgiving-type dinner with my old roommates, dying to know how she made her fantastic cornbread, and being kind of shocked to find out it came from a box. But it's awesome. And she did come up with the idea for baking it in a madeleine pan, which makes the crunchiest little cornbread shells. Especially when you use bacon fat to grease the pan, because that's how people have been making cornbread ever since Laura Ingalls Wilder and all those other people who wrote ostensibly historical novels that are entirely about food.

I had a beet gin and tonic with my dinner, because beets are hearty and normal. Or something.

I've been cooking all this meat lately because the arrival of spring has somehow made me more anemic than usual, but I am looking forward to making some interesting veggie dishes now that fun things are coming into season. This weekend I'm going to play with desserts, though, and maybe take some matzo brittle to an Easter party, because having no religion means I can mix things up like that. Also, seriously... matzo brittle! Yum!

mushroom barley soup

2011-04-19T08:35:00.002-04:00

Unfortunately I don't remember much about making this, since it was months ago. The photos were trapped on my chargeless camera for quite a while. I do remember that it was quite nice, though, and Stef says the same. The recipe came from here. I didn't know at the time that I'd be going to University of Michigan for my next degree, but apparently this recipe is from a delicatessen in Ann Arbor. Can't wait to see if mine tasted anything like the original!

The only changes I remember making were using butter instead of margarine, vegetable instead of beef broth, and throwing out the dried mushrooms because they didn't soften properly (you could probably skip them, or just have better luck/mushrooms than me... you really just need some sort of mushroom broth). It was nice and thick and perfect on a winter evening, with some crusty bread to dip in. Anyway, it's recipe number two of my 25.

mojitos

2011-04-18T12:05:00.001-04:00

The summer after I graduated from college, my best friend came to stay with me for a couple weeks. Because we are wonderful, we basically turned the visit into a non-stop parade of delicious food and drinks. Oh, and we watched most of The OC. It was awesome (until the third season of the show). That's when we invented these stuffed shells.

During Laura's stay we had a couple of other visitors, including our friend Randall, who used his magical powers and talent for doing things properly to deposit two handles of Bacardi white rum on my liquor shelf. Needless to say, we invited lots of people over and drank mojitos for a solid week (and the second half of one of the bottles lasted me another year, until it randomly disappeared during a party). During that week we essentially bought three grocery stores out of mint, constantly sending boys with cars out to fetch it for us. Here, at last, is my infallible recipe. It's for a pitcher of cocktails, but you can use the same proportions to make single drinks.

1/2 cup loosely packed fresh mint leaves

6 ounces freshly squeezed lime juice

2/3 cup simple syrup

1 1/2 cups rum

3 1/2 cups seltzer water

ice

Muddle the mint in the bottom of the pitcher. Pour on the lime juice and simple syrup, and let it sit for a couple of minutes while it infuses. Add about twelve ice cubes, the rum and the seltzer. Stir it up and serve over more ice with a sprig of mint for garnish. You can strain out the mint leaves if you like, but they're pretty tasty. Adding strawberries or other fruit (you can even use frozen fruit among the ice cubes) is always an awesome idea.

This is basically the perfect refreshing summer drink, but it was quite nice after last night's spring dinner party as well. I'd meant to serve them with the bean burgers but we ended up having wine and champagne instead. I'd already put the mint, syrup, and lime juice together, though, so I obviously had to fill up the pitcher or else a lot of lime-squeezing (I bought a new, better juicer, though!) was going to waste.

bacon-wrapped goodies

2011-04-18T01:51:00.000-04:00

I posted this recipe after my birthday party last year, but it really deserves its own post (especially because I got an actual photo this time, albeit after we'd decimated my nicely laid-out plate). My mom's been making these for as long as I can remember, and they never last more than five minutes at one of our family's parties.

Bacon-Wrapped Water Chestnuts

3 cans whole water chestnuts (about 40-50 water chestnuts)

1 package bacon (I like the Trader Joe's apple-smoked type)

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup soy sauce

wooden toothpicks

Drain the water chestnuts. Cut the bacon strips into thirds (halves if they're short pieces), wrap around the water chestnus and secure with toothpicks. Mix the brown sugar and soy sauce together, adding tablespoons of water until it forms a thin paste. Roll the water chestnuts in the mixture and place close together on a shallow glass baking dish (I use a Pyrex pie pan, glass is easier to clean burnt sugar off of). Drizzle the remaining sauce over them. Bake at 350 degrees for about 30-40 minutes or until the bacon is crispy at the edges.

Put the pan in the sink to soak as soon as it's cool enough, or you will regret it when you go to clean! Let the water chestnuts cool on a plate for a few minutes and then serve.

Here's a variation on the water chestnuts that is officially the first of my 25 things (although another recipe is coming in the next couple days, now that I've been able to retrieve the photos from my camera), since I'm a big slacker. I used one package of unusually large slices of bacon to make about 35 water chestnuts and 18 apricots, cutting the bacon into fifths instead of thirds.

Bacon-Wrapped Apricots

24 dried apricots

8 slices of bacon

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup soy sauce

wooden toothpicks

As with the water chestnuts, cut the bacon into thirds and wrap one piece around each apricot. Put them close together in a glass pan and pour the sugar-soy mixture over them. Bake for 25-30 minutes at 350º. Cool on a plate and serve.

I didn't like these nearly as much as the water chestnuts, but they did soak up the sweetness of the sauce really well and Kelly was very fond of them.

Butternut Squash Fries, et cetera

2011-04-18T01:22:00.001-04:00

I finally took a photo of one of my black bean burgers! Isn't it delicious-looking? These have held the number one spot on the list of most-requested dishes in my repertoire since I first started feeding them to people. Anyway, I'm glad the recipe post now has a photo to tempt other people into making them. The one above is on a challah roll with havarti and sharp cheddar cheese, honey mustard, sriracha sauce, and clover sprouts. We ate them with bacon-wrapped goodies and butternut squash fries, which really don't quite evoke the name "fries" so much as "baked squash in little bits." Nonetheless, baked squash is pretty delicious in any size or shape. The idea came from a friend, but I found the recipe here.

2 pounds butternut squash, seeded and chopped into fry-shaped pieces

1/4 cup brown sugar

1 tbsp salt

Preheat oven to 425º. Toss the squash in the brown sugar and lightly cover a baking sheet with cooking spray. Lay the fries out and sprinkle with salt. Bake for 30-40 minutes, turning once. They should just be starting to burn when you take them out.

These were pretty good, but they got soggy very quickly when they cooled. They didn't look much like fries because I used pre-cut pieces of squash and just hacked them into small pieces however I could. Probably won't make them again unless someone specifically wants them, because sweet potato fries are just as easy and have a slightly more interesting flavor. Glad I tried them out, though.

spring planting

2011-04-17T14:55:00.002-04:00

spring planting by whiskeyinyrshoes featuring a style pencil skirt

I'd really like to go dig in the dirt today, but I'll have to content myself with smelling the hyacinths I bought and cleaning the apartment.

baked eggs in ham

2011-04-16T23:03:00.001-04:00

I came across this recipe on YumSugar the other day and bookmarked it, thinking I'd try it out for Easter (another one of those holidays I use as an excuse to cook rather than actually celebrating). I ended up having some leftover prosciutto from the Grand Central Market, though, so I figured I'd try it out a bit early. I changed up the recipe a bit, with prosciutto rather than regular sliced ham, sun-dried tomatoes rather than fresh (as always) and mozzarella cheese because it was what I had on hand. I also left out the milk, because I am just not the kind of person who keeps milk on hand.

Ingredients (per serving)

1-2 slices prosciutto (enough to double-line a ramekin or muffin cup)
1 tbsp chopped sun-dried tomatoes in oil
1 clove garlic, pressed or minced
1 tbsp grated cheese
1 egg
salt and pepper

Preheat your oven to 375º. Spray or grease a ramekin/muffin cup and line with prosciutto so that at least half an inch pokes up over the sides (much higher than mine do in the photo below).

Sauté the sun-dried tomatoes and garlic until they both soften up a little (the oil from the tomatoes should be enough), and spoon the mixture into the prosciutto. Sprinkle the cheese on top. Use a spoon to pat the contents down, and then crack the egg on top. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until the egg whites set. Salt and pepper to taste.

As you can see above, the eggs in mine sort of overflowed (needed bigger cups, smaller eggs, or more meat), but these little things tasted pretty wonderful. I had them with a salad of spinach, beets, and honey-roasted peanuts in a sesame-soy vinaigrette. They're self-contained and making a dozen would be just as easy as making two, so they'd be great for parties. I'd love to serve them at a breakfast-for-dinner potluck, stuck into cut-out pieces of toast like the best version of eggs-in-a-frame ever.

I also made a ton of seasoned breadcrumbs tonight, because I bought a baguette on Thursday but then ended up eating my dinner on a pretzel roll I found at Trader Joe's. Any ideas for what I can do with the breadcrumbs?

Brie, prosciutto, and spinach on a pretzel roll with pepper and honey.

cocktail kitchen

2011-04-14T21:48:00.002-04:00

Last year my sister's fantastic beau (and my second-favorite bartender in the world) invented a magical drink by infusing gin with roasted beets. He went on to win a national competition for the best Tanqueray and tonic, because he's awesome. You can find the recipe here.

My hand after peeling the beets. It's still a little pink.

New Container Store pitcher full of roasted beet gin. Mmm.

Along with the beet gin I decided to put together some homemade sour mix, since (as you can see above) it's definitely whiskey sour season and squeezing seven lemons in one go seemed like an easier prospect than having to squeeze one every time I wanted a drink (I really hate my juicer). Most recipes seem to use a 2:2:1 mixture of simple syrup, lemon juice, and lime juice, but I'm not really a fan of lime so I cut it down to 4:4:1, which turned out to be a cup of simple syrup, juice from seven lemons, and one lime.

What do you think I should do with the rest of the limes?

My fridge is full of mixers now.

I don't really recommend making both these things at once, especially if you're a klutz like me. If you do you will probably cut your finger while slicing the beets. It's kind of hard to tell you're bleeding when you have beet juice all over your hands, but you'll feel it. Later on, the pressure on your finger from squeezing the juicer will make the cut start gushing blood again, and you will get lemon juice in it while you're trying to staunch it. You will then spend the next few minutes being glad your roommate is not home to hear you swear and whimper.

As I type this I am watching the first episode of The Borgias and a man just squeezed lemon juice into someone's whip wounds. I wish this show were much better than it is, but that was a pretty coincidence. And I'll probably keep watching for a while anyway, because I'm a sucker for fancy costumes and long curly hair.

admitting to springtime

2011-04-14T20:28:00.001-04:00

So, if you follow me on Twitter or are friends with me on Facebook or are psychically keeping tabs on all my mental twitches, you know that my MA thesis has pretty well taken over my life lately, as such things tend to do. Fortunately I am not the type to buckle under the pressure of such a task. Instead, during the last week before my draft was due I spent lots of time chirping away on the aforementioned sites, went to a dance in a dress that I tore apart and remade an hour and a half before the party, ran into a friend I haven't seen since high school, drank an elderflower version of a French 75, accidentally stayed out all night before the day I was going to finish writing, started reading an enormous book that is totally unrelated to my topic, met an Australian with a fantastic Leonard Cohen impression, re-watched the last few David Tennant Doctor Who episodes, did homework for my literature class, speculated about the upcoming premier of Game of Thrones, cleared the piles of Beckett books off my bed, was quoted in the NYU newspaper, did some laundry, and eventually spent a couple of evenings typing away in various libraries and coffee shops. The draft went in on time and in good shape, because I'm just that good at life.

As a reward for finishing, I decided to finally admit that it's spring and kind of beautiful out.

Hyacinths for Miss Emily. My apartment is going to smell so wonderful in a couple of days!

from Beckett's Murphy

2011-04-12T15:16:00.000-04:00

Cooper did not know what had happened to set him free of those feelings that for so many years had forbidden him to take a seat or uncover his head, nor did he pause to inquire. He placed his ancient bowler crown upward on the step, squatted high above it, took careful aim through his crutch, closed his eye, set his teeth, flung his feet forward into space and came down on his buttocks with the force of a pile ram. No second blow was necessary.

- Samuel Beckett, Murphy

Thesis draft is due tomorrow. Turning it in had better feel as awesome as Cooper squashing his hat.

John Barrowman concert DVD

2011-03-04T21:20:00.000-05:00

Oh, ~~John Barrowman~~ Captain Jack, I wish you were singing those cheesy love songs to me.

Seriously, this exists. And isn't the world better for it?

palmiers (elephant ears)

2011-02-24T14:55:00.001-05:00

These are literally the easiest cookies I have ever made, and they are elegant enough to work for any occasion. I don't remember where we originally found the recipe, but my mom and I made them for one of last year's holiday dinners and I couldn't stop eating them. I made them again for a friend's housewarming party this past weekend and had about a dozen of them (just the burnt and broken ones, you know) before I left for her place. The recipe makes about four dozen cookies total and could be modified in a million ways.

2 sheets puff pastry

2/3 cup white sugar

2 tsp cinnamon

Thaw the puff pastry for about half an hour or until you can unfold the sheets without breaking them. Mix the cinnamon and sugar together in a small dish. Preheat the oven to 400ºF. Roll out one sheet a little (it should only get about 1" bigger all around) on a surface sprinkled with cinnamon sugar.

Sprinkle more cinnamon sugar onto the sheet, and start folding each side of the dough inwards until the two rolls meet in the middle. Repeat the process with the other sheet. The tighter the roll, the smaller the cookies will be, but the easier it will be to cut them.

If the dough is getting too soft to hold its shape, stick the rolls back in the freezer for a few minutes. Place on a cutting board with the smooth side up (the place the two rolls meet should be facing down), and use a sharp knife to cut 1/4" slices. Place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and sprinkle with more cinnamon sugar.

Bake for about 10 minutes, adding more cinnamon sugar halfway through and rotating the baking sheet if one edge starts to burn. Cool on the baking sheets. If you make them the night before you can re-toast them for a few minutes before serving.

shepherd's pie

2011-02-19T21:05:00.001-05:00

Shepherd's Pie

My beloved Tante Gerda, who was a second mother to me and my siblings and is probably singlehandedly responsible for most of my academic achievements, used to make Shepherd's Pie for us some of the nights we had dinner at her house before attending German School. I hadn't had it since high school, but I was thrilled when mine turned out very nearly as awesome as hers.

I am pretty sure I originally made this the same week as the butternut squash pasta, but I totally forgot to take finished photographs. I fed it to a couple of guys from Ohio, it was good. Decided to make it for myself tonight, as the temperature has dropped thirty degrees since yesterday and wintry-type food seems in order. Original recipe is from Epicurious, and I didn't do much besides add some more meat and some spices. I made a half-batch, since I'm the only one eating it (for the next three meals), but this recipe serves about six people.

1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 large onion, peeled and chopped
1 large carrot, peeled and chopped
1 1/2 lbs ground lamb (you can substitute half with another meat)
1 cup broth (I prefer vegetable)
1 heaping tbsp tomato paste
1 tsp dried rosemary
1 tbsp dried parsley
1 tbsp paprika
1 tbsp garlic powder
1 cup frozen peas
2 lbs potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks
6 tbsp butter
1/2 cup milk
salt to taste
grated cheese (optional)

Preheat the oven to 375ºF. Put the potatoes in a pot of boiling water and set a timer for 20 minutes. Heat the oil in a wok or large skillet, and sauté the meat, onion, and carrot until the meat browns (about 10 minutes).

Drain the fat (if there's a significant amount) and add the tomato paste, broth, and herbs. Simmer for 10 minutes or until the juices thicken. Add the peas (they can still be frozen). Pour into a large baking dish (mine is a 14"x8" Pyrex pan).

Mash the potatoes, which should be done by now, with the milk and butter. Add as much salt as you like. Spread the potatoes over the meat mixture. This is best accomplished by gently dropping most of it down the middle of the pan and using a spatula to smooth it toward the edges. Draw some designs in the top with a fork.

Bake for 30-40 minutes, or until the potatoes are golden brown. Serve with grated cheese on top.

My only photo from the first round of this--lamb mixture in the pan. I forgot the peas that time, though.

My potatoes didn't brown very much this time (I mis-measured when I was reducing the recipe and made them too thin), but lots of juice crept up to the top.

Yum.

photos from Christmas break

2011-02-18T11:06:00.002-05:00

More photos! This one is How I Spent My Christmas Vacation.

My mom always has the prettiest tree.

Christmas boots.

My sister was bunny-sitting over the holiday. This is Jasper.

He is the most gluttonous bunny ever.

I decorated my sister's (gorgeous) apartment for our brother's surprise 21st birthday party.

Josh and I stayed at the beautiful Glidden House hotel for a couple days after Christmas. It's right on Case campus and I'd been pining for a night there for years. Worth the money.

Josh makes funny faces when confronted with cameras.

My dentist is one of those people who wishes it were Christmas all year. She's awesome.

Freshly dyed hair, funny face.

I took a couple of walks on frozen Lake Erie while I was home.

My aunt's darling dog, Cooper.

Vintage cigarette ads from some awesome old magazines Josh gave me.

Betty Draper.

photos from last fall

2011-02-17T11:06:00.003-05:00

Lots of photos (I warned you about this, right?), some from my phone and some from my camera. All from Fall 2010, through Thanksgiving.

I don't really like that the NYU library re-binds all its books with blank covers, but the shelves do look very pretty.

Wells visited New York the same week I bought the hipstamatic iPhone app.

Sometimes I eat appetizer plates for dinner.

My Halloween costume: the 1992 Perry Ellis "Grunge" collection that got Marc Jacobs fired and made him famous.

New York City Halloween parade

Wells and Henry, who is the best dog. They should both move to New York immediately.

Cleveland colors.

I made a headband for the 11/11 meeting of the Corduroy Appreciation Club.

Corduroy cape

Eric and Riley made turducken for Thanksgiving Part II.

Josh and Wells bonded with guitars.

Mulled wine and paprikás. That was a good evening.

Nerd wine brought by a friend from nerd school. It was tasty.

Chocolate-Orange Madeleines

2011-02-16T21:05:00.000-05:00

Here's a wonderful variation on the madeleine recipe: chocolate orange. Just replace the lemon zest with zest from an orange, and stir in some miniature chocolate chips or shavings of dark chocolate before spooning the batter into the pan. Even without the chocolate, orange madeleines are delicious. I made these for the same party as yesterday's cashew brittle, and again for a birthday party this past weekend. It wasn't until I took the first batch out of the oven that I thought about how silly it was to bring madeleines to a party full of students from the French department, but they went over pretty well anyway.

darling things

2011-02-15T21:11:00.003-05:00

As you may recall, I really, really like buying flowers. And the day after Valentine's, when everyone else is buying half-price chocolate, is an excellent time to pick up a bouquet (I refrained from buying three). In honor of my glorious bouquet, here are some other things I've been loving lately:

Eucalyptus

Okay, so this is sort of related to the flower-love. Eucalyptus smells incredible, comes in lots of shapes, is a fascinating color, and you never have to refresh the water in a vase of it because it automatically dries out while continuing to be pretty and smell nice for ages. There's some in my bouquet, too. I saw the dahlia and eucalyptus bouquets last night, actually, and nearly went straight back into the grocery store to buy one. I'm glad I waited--the one I found today has lilies as well. It looks very nice in the room with the dried eucalyptus bouquet I used to freshen up my apartment after coming home from the holidays. And these eucalyptus earrings are just adorable.

Funny Stories About Upper-Class Brits in the 1920s and 30s

Muriel Spark, Evelyn Waugh, P.G. Wodehouse... I'm sort of in love. Although this period produced and inspired plenty of immortal literature (Gatsby, anyone?), I have a particular soft spot for the lighter social satires British writers produced after the fact. Especially because England did not have Prohibition and these narratives tend not to focus as much on the effects of the Depression. The combination of booze and idle aristocrats is always a good plan. Also the Fry and Laurie television version of Wodehouse's Jeeves and Wooster, which is what prompted this declaration of love. I came across Waugh's Decline and Fall in high school and promptly bullied three other people into reading it, and then discovered Muriel Spark in college when my wonderful fiction professor mentioned her extremely minimalist style. I highly recommend The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie and The Ballad of Peckham Rye. None of the film versions of Brideshead Revisited are that amazing (my roommate will kill me for so insulting Ben Whishaw), but they're very, very pretty to look at. And there's always Bright Young Things or Robert Altman's Gosford Park. Oh, and did I mention the clothes? (photo)

Wrought Iron Fences

A few weeks ago I was wandering around a part of New York I'd never really paid attention to before, the East 30s around 5th Avenue, near the Morgan Library, and found it completely full of rather lovely buildings, many of which are adorned with beautiful fences or gates. I'm not particularly interested in the cultural offerings of midtown or Murray Hill, but I definitely swooned over the architecture. I'm pretty sure I inherited this fascination from my mother, with whom I share a desire to uproot and steal a certain elaborate fence from a particular house in Cleveland Heights.

Cashew Brittle

2011-02-15T10:19:00.006-05:00

I made this for my birthday party last year, but I don't think I ever posted the recipe (or the one for vegan chocolate-raspberry-whiskey cake... massive oversight). I made it again for a party at my friend James' place a few weeks ago, and remembered to take photos this time. Recipe from here. I recommend using a candy thermometer, but you can also keep a bowl of ice water next to the stove to check for various stages of cracking (I've never had much luck with that method).

Ingredients

2 cups granulated sugar
1 cup light corn syrup
1/2 cup water
1 cup butter
3 cups roughly chopped cashews
1 teaspoon baking soda

Smear a thin layer of butter onto a large baking sheet, preferably one with edges.

Combine the sugar, corn syrup, and water in a large, heavy pot. Stir over medium heat until the sugar dissolves. Bring to a boil, add butter. Start stirring frequently when the mixture gets to 230ºF (thread stage). Add the cashews at 280º (soft crack stage) and stir constantly until 300º (hard crack stage). Remove from the heat and quickly stir in baking soda.

Spread out on the baking sheet, pulling the edges so the mixture gets as thin as possible. Cool for ten minutes and then flip over. After half an hour or so the brittle should be cool enough to crack into pieces. I broke mine up by sticking the tip of a big knife into weak spots to make random-sized chunks, but you could also heat the knife and cut more even pieces.

You can store this stuff in tupperware or a ziploc bag for a month or so, but you'll probably eat all of it well before then. You can make it with whatever nuts you like. I'd like to make a version with hot crushed pepper next time, because sweets are always better when they are also spicy.

Chocolate Lava Cake

2011-02-14T11:06:00.003-05:00

Every Valentine's Day I pretty much ignore the holiday (and the sight of everyone wearing too much pink and red), but get tempted into participating at the last minute by a recipe. That's how those red velvet cupcakes happened.

This year my eye was caught by another Budget Bytes recipe, a chocolate lava cake that only takes twenty minutes and five ingredients. I've tried to make lava cake in the past, but ended up with slightly burnt cake floating in a pool of liquid chocolate, so I figured this was a good time for another go. I think a smaller ramekin than I used would be preferable, as my cakes came out rather flat, but they were pretty delicious as well. I used my hex to make powdered sugar polka dots on top. You can see the original recipe here.

Butternut Squash Pasta

2011-02-13T21:57:00.001-05:00

I'm terrible at remembering to import photos from my camera, so this is actually something I made way back in November. Expect a bunch of photo posts in the next couple days.

I'm a big fan of the blog Budget Bytes, which is one of the only frugal cooking blogs I've ever come across that actually features interesting recipes. This one has the consistency of a cheesy, creamy pasta dish, but the "sauce" is made of squash. The bleu cheese adds a nice tangy flavor, but the friend to whom I gave the leftovers didn't put any in and still enjoyed it very much. I changed the pasta shape and added some bacon (obviously optional, this could easily be made into a great vegan dish), but otherwise followed the original recipe, which you can find here.

Another photo:

Beans and Rice and some other stuff

2011-02-04T22:29:00.000-05:00

The other day I was craving Mexican food... and ended up involved in a slightly convoluted plan to go to a restaurant my roommate and I both love, El Centro. The mahi-mahi tacos were yummy. However, before that plan got started I'd already gone to the store and picked up ingredients to make rice and beans, which is much simpler than mahi-mahi tacos but also pretty delicious. It's also one of those delicious-on-a-shoestring budget foods, but I sort of ruined that by going to Whole Foods for the veggies and rice just because I happened to be near there (and wanted an excuse to get a smoothie from the Jamba Juice inside). Regardless, I bought stuff, and tonight I made beans and rice. Which are in no way authentic to Mexican or any other cuisine or culture, because I basically made them by guesswork and vague memories of having watched someone make beans and rice in the past, but it was a nice meal. This makes dinner for two or lunch for three.

1/2 cup long grain white rice (uncooked)

about 3/4 cup water or broth to cook rice

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 small red bell pepper, diced

1 small red onion, diced

2-4 cloves of garlic, crushed or minced

3 tablespoons tomato paste*

1/3 cup water

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

1/4 teaspoon ground coriander

1/2 teaspoon hot paprika

1 can black beans, drained and rinsed**

shredded cheese of your choice, in quantities to your liking (I used sharp cheddar in rather large quantities)***

Put the rice on to cook in a pot or rice cooker. Heat the olive oil in a pan or wok over medium-high heat. Throw in the peppers and onions and cook for six or seven minutes until they're soft. Add the garlic and cook for another minute or so, stirring a lot.

Add the tomato paste, water, and spices and stir until things even out. Add the black beans and bring everything to a boil. Reduce the heat, put a cover on the pan, and simmer for ten minutes or so. If you're lucky like me, the timer will go off just when the rice cooker pops and you finish grating cheese. Serve hot so the cheese melts when you mix it in.

* You could probably also use crushed tomatoes and skip the water, but I hate tomatoes in most solid forms so I always look for an alternative.

** Using two cans might make this a significantly larger dish without having to increase anything else very much. I only had one can on hand, so the onion and pepper definitely made up the bulk of the mix.

*** Or don't use cheese because you are vegan. Or you just don't like cheese, which possibly makes you a bad person but I'll forgive you if you like the recipe anyway.

I also made a beer bread tonight but I didn't love it so I probably won't post it. Like the dumplings I've failed at making twice now (need direct grandmother input, apparently), it was an attempt at one of the things on my list of things I want to cook. That project is not going very well... but I've been cooking quite a bit and that was kind of the point, so I'm not too worried.

That photo above is a lie, by the way. I definitely ate twice that much cheese. It looked more like this when I ate it:

Madeleines

2011-01-17T20:05:00.000-05:00

These delicate little shells are basically my favorite cookies (besides my grandmother's pastries), so it's long past time I made them. I bought myself a madeleine pan before Thanksgiving, but hadn't gotten to use it until now. I also got to use the completely amazing zester I got for Christmas. It did such a good job with so little effort that I seriously considered taking a photo of the pile of zest. I used this recipe, because it was the first one I found that used whole eggs instead of just the whites (I never know what to do with leftover yolks, and I hate to waste them). It was very easy and the madeleines turned out beautifully. They even posed prettily for my Martha-Stewart-esque-except-for-crappy-camera-quality photo.

- 1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter (plus another tbsp or two for greasing the pan)
- 3/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour (plus a bit to dust the pan)
- 4 large eggs
- pinch of fine-grain sea salt
- 2/3 cup sugar
- zest of one large lemon
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- powdered sugar

Brown the butter by cooking it over medium heat until the milk solids and salt turn brown on the bottom of the pan and the butter gives off a nutty smell. Whisk or swirl the pan every so often to make sure it cooks evenly. Strain well (through a very fine sieve or cheesecloth) and set aside to cool. I ended up with a little under a cup full.

Preheat the oven to 350 Fahrenheit. Butter each hollow in the pan (it's easiest to put the pat of butter on the end of a fork) and dust with flour. Shake off excess flour and wipe off the edges of the pan.

Crack the eggs and use an electric mixer on high speed to beat them with the salt until they've doubled or tripled in volume (three or four minutes). Continue beating and add the sugar in a continuous stream. Continue beating until the mixture thickens a bit and the ripples following the beater last for a second or two.

Gently fold in the lemon zest and vanilla. Sift flour onto the top of the mixture and fold in until just mixed. Follow by folding in the butter mixture and stirring carefully until the batter is even. Use a tablespoon or soup spoon to drop batter into the pan, filling each mold about 3/4 full. Bake for about 12 minutes or until the edges are crispy, remove from the pan immediately (they should come out easily). Cool and sprinkle with powdered sugar.

The recipe made 32 cookies in my pan. I'm going to take most of them in to work tomorrow, and give the rest to some neighbors who keep bringing Kelly and me delicious baked goods. I can't wait to try making these in some other flavors. I also recommend using the madeleine pan to make corn muffins (my mom used to do this) or anything else that needs crispy edges to be perfect.

Mushroom and Marsala Pappardelle

2011-01-04T22:23:00.000-05:00

This is a Rachael Ray recipe from the February 2011 issue of her magazine that my mother and I made for dinner this evening. We used a mushroom mix along with the portobellos, and it came out very savory and delicious, the kind of vegetarian food you can serve to die-hard carnivores without complaint. Nice and light for something with a creamy sauce, too. There's a similar one on her site, but I think this slightly more complicated one from the print magazine is worth the effort. I've retyped it more or less true to the original.

Mushroom and Marsala Pappardelle

2 cups chicken or vegetable broth
~3/4 cup dried mushrooms (such as porcini)
salt and pepper to taste
1 lb pappardelle or other wide, long-cut pasta (we used some Mrs Weiss egg noodles)
6 tbsp butter (recipe called for 4 but there are a ton of mushrooms so we added some more)
3/4 lb portobello (or cremini) mushrooms, thinly sliced
1 large bay leaf
1 bunch swiss chard (the recipe suggest kale as an alternative, but I don't really like kale), stemmed and thinly chopped
4 shallots, finely chopped
2 large cloves garlic, minced or pressed
freshly grated nutmeg to taste
3/4 cups marsala wine
1 cup heavy cream
a few sprigs fresh sage (we toasted ours so we could crumble it into the dish)
grated parmesan

Place the stock and dried mushrooms in a small saucepan and bring to a low boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer until the mushrooms are reconstituted. Remove them with a slotted spoon and chop, reserving the broth.

Boil a large pot of water and cook the pasta, reserving a cup or so of the cooking water (we didn't end up needing this, but it can't hurt to save it until the end).

Heat the butter in a large skillet over medium heat, and add the fresh mushrooms and bay leaf. Cook, stirring frequently, until the mushrooms darken (about 7 minutes).

Add the chard, shallots, and garlic. Season with salt, pepper, and nutmeg, and cook another 7 minutes, then stir in the wine. Add the reconstituted mushrooms and most of the broth (leave out the last 1/4, which has the grit from the mushrooms in it, according to Rachael). Stir in the cream and cook until the sauce reduces and thickens (took about 10 minutes). Add some of the pasta water if it accidentally gets too thick.

Toss the pasta with the sauce, serve with parmesan and sage as garnish.

This recipe serves about four people if there's a salad on the side, three if you're all very hungry. I think in the future I'd add some sun-dried tomatoes (reconstituted with the mushrooms?) to it for a bit of sweetness, but I add sun-dried tomatoes to everything. This is one of the first pasta dishes I've had in ages that didn't bore me, so I will definitely be making it again. Hopefully I'll be doing plenty of cooking in the near future, as next week I get back to New York and start working on that cooking project I mentioned a few entries ago. I also still need to add the shepherd's pie I made a month ago, so someone please hold me to that.

what i wore: making paprikas

2010-12-18T19:12:00.000-05:00

dinner party by whiskeyinyrshoes featuring gray boots

Hard-to-stain clothes, embroidered apron, bag for endless grocery store-hopping, hex for making nokedli, hot paprika, wine. I made so much food today.

what I wore: still finals time

2010-12-13T14:13:00.000-05:00

Actually, still working on the same paper. Hence the panicked procrastination that leads me inevitably to Polyvore.

still finals by whiskeyinyrshoes featuring black jewelry

The note for this one reads "sometimes I go and spoil perfectly nice dresses by wearing them with sneakers, because at heart I'm still fifteen." Also pretend the "slip dress" is just a slip, because apparently not enough computer-savvy ladies wear slips for there to be any on Polyvore and I couldn't find a good picture elsewhere.

what I wore: finals time

2010-12-09T19:09:00.000-05:00

finals time by whiskeyinyrshoes featuring flat heel boots

I'm writing a paper today, and we all know Polyvore is the best form of procrastination. I only wish my mood were as calm and soothing as the colors I'm wearing. A man asked to take my picture for an art project at the New York Public Library, and then got to listen to me talk about Samuel Johnson and James Boswell and their unbelievable memories for about five minutes as I waited for the elevator. He was either unexpectedly interested or trying to hit on me, I'm not certain. I do know that I need to find my green scarf, though.

bands to love: Allo Darlin'

2010-12-08T18:35:00.001-05:00

Apparently it is snowing like mad back home in Ohio, which I'm taking as an opportunity to curl up inside with some music and pretend it wasn't painfully sunny in New York today. This band goes best with warm spiked cider, a cozy fair isle sweater, and silk slippers with sequin hearts on them. Or at least that's what I'm matching them with right now. They will probably match spiked lemonade and messy hair and sundresses just as well in six months. To me Allo Darlin' is like like a British girl-voiced version of Jens Lekman (complete with a reference to Sweden in the song below), which is pretty much everything I've ever wanted in life. Thanks to my dear Steve for sending me their cuddly tunes. Photo from their myspace.

For comparison, here's a Jens Lekman song about Sweden that's been one of my favorites for years (also thanks to Steve).

25 things I want to cook

2010-12-06T21:32:00.004-05:00

I'm taking part in my friend Cookbook's cooking bloject, starting in January. Having very few people to cook for has made me a real slacker about trying new recipes (and posting them... I have two good ones sitting around right now that I haven't written about), so I'm looking forward to having a reason to keep cooking. A lot of these are Hungarian recipes from my childhood that I've never made and would like to learn while my grandmother is still able to teach me. Others are things I've wanted to make for ages, while still others are random recipes I came across today while attempting to round out this list.

1. lángos (Hungarian fried dough, i.e. the best thing ever. I might wait until I go home in the summer and cook this with my grandmother, because I don't really need my tiny apartment to smell like deep frying for a week.)

2. rakott krumpli (More Hungarian comfort food.)*

3. spaghetti sauce (My mom used to give me a huge tupperware full once a month, so I never bothered to make it. I haven't had it since I moved out of Cleveland.)*

4. biscuits (They just never come out right for me. Somebody give me a foolproof recipe?)

5. chowder (Of some sort.)

6. senegalese chicken peanut soup (My favorite soup place serves this sometimes but I want it all the time.)

7. forgasc fank (Fancy Hungarian pastries I haven't had since I was a kid.)

8. soufflé (I've never tried.)

9. whiskey punch (My friend Meaghen served some once that I still dream of.)

10. calzones (Mostly I want to make the dough from scratch.)

11. saag paneer (or similar) with naan (I did this once with my beloved Saira, but I've never tried on my own, and I've never made naan.)

12. butter (I have a friend who does this and I really, really want to try it.)

13. poached pears in red wine (I've come across these twice today, it's a sign.)

14. ~~granita (I'll save this for July when the heat makes me suicidal.)~~

15. falafel (Because apparently it's not hard to make at home, and who doesn't want falafel all the time?)

16. challah bread (I like braiding things?)

~~17. pesto (I love it too much to keep buying it in jars.)~~

18. ~~some fancier variation on bacon-wrapped water chestnuts, TBD (They are one of my party staples, I need to mix things up. I also need a tasty vegetarian version... thinking sun-dried tomatoes.)~~

19. ~~something involving green tea rice that is not just green tea rice in a bowl with some almonds and currants when I'm in the middle of finals (It's too good to always be a last-minute meal.)~~

20. ~~mushroom barley soup (I've been meaning to do this for months. I want it to be like the UC Arabica one.)~~

21. farina dumplings (One of my grandmother's old weekly dishes, usually eaten in her chicken soup. I haven't had them since I was fourteen, I miss them.)*

22. egg drop soup (It's a little gross, but I'm fascinated by the way it looks. And convinced it could be much less greasy than the restaurant versions.)

23. pumpkin soup with chili cran-apple relish (Just found this. Want it.)

24. a good whole-grain sandwich bread (I need to stop making soda bread, it is too crumbly.)

25. citromos szelet (Hungarian lemon pastries. True story: one time when I was four years old and had just gotten out of the hospital I ate nothing but my grandmother's lemon pastries for two weeks. Laura and I tried making them once but they didn't turn out at all.)

*made but not posted

what I wore: visiting Cleveland

2010-11-30T10:50:00.000-05:00

visiting Cleveland by whiskeyinyrshoes featuring black gloves

The cozy feeling I get from going home is always enhanced by wearing lots of soft layers. Back in New York, wearing this dress again today isn't getting my paper written, but it's making me happy.

what I wore: jewel tones

2010-11-22T19:44:00.000-05:00

jewel tones by whiskeyinyrshoes featuring a jersey skirt

Sometimes all it takes to remind me that I like colors is a pair of purple velvet sneakers and fabulous new glasses.

stoicism

2010-10-27T18:09:00.001-04:00

I came across William B. Irvine's essay on adhering to Stoic philosophy in the twenty-first century while scrolling through my blog reader. I admit, I usually skim even personally interesting articles, but this one had me riveted. It reminded me that my Ancient Philosophy class (sophomore year of college, with the incredibly brilliant and charmingly odd Doctor Kim, who wrote on the board using his whole arm and destroyed a marker every fifteen minutes) changed my life. As with so many things about which we proclaim that distinction, I'd completely forgotten that it had done so. But Stoicism--whatever the modern use of the term--was a revelation for me, because it was so in line with how my brain seemed to work naturally. It also had, as Irving points out, a great deal in common with the Buddhist concepts that really attracted me as a teenager, but lacks the teleological component that ultimately lead me to give up on Buddha.
Stoicism doesn't reject emotions, but it does ask you to consider them. Negative emotions are part of life, but by examining them it's easier to dismiss them as unimportant and destructive and to concentrate on things within your control. I'm not a hugely emotive person by nature--something I've generally considered an asset, but have been frustratingly (however understandably) criticized for a number of times in my life--and the idea of releasing the bad feelings in order to maintain a baseline of positive or neutral ("tranquil" seems to me to be pretty positive, but it's still a middle road) emotion. There's a certain passiveness involved that doesn't mesh with the go-get-it mentality I was taught is part of being smart, modern, and liberated, but it suits me better than the constant ambitious drive that works well for many other people. The emphasis on living in the moment and appreciating the small delights in life (against the certainty of mortality) is something I imagine everyone can appreciate. I'm not terribly concerned with choosing and naming a philosophy by which to live my life (growing up a confirmed atheist makes one rather resistant to dogma), but I'm definitely picking up Irving's book.