esprit de l'escalier

Polenta party

Midweek last week, I read this post on The Kitchn about a polenta party and I was completely inspired. I wanted to throw a party, or at the very least attend one. My current apartment is just not condusive to such a gathering, so I threw a gauntlet to my friends Cristina and Guilia (who are sisters and Italian and have a habit of throwing excellent parties at their parents' beautiful mid-century home). Little did I realize that Guilia would run with it and throw a party on Friday. Due to work, I couldn't help out ahead of time, but I feel like this was the dress rehearsal for many future polenta parties. We also didn't have a beautiful wooden polenta board, as they did on The Kitchen, but made due with using wax paper. It sounds like there are schemes of getting something more permanent, though. I look forward to more of these parties!

I don't have any of the recipes, but our toppings were a sliced beef in a tomato sauce, sauteed kale, sauteed mushrooms, and a gorgonzola sauce. We also had appetizers, a delicious cesar salad, and zabaglione for dessert. I  am now completely and totally obsessed with zabaglione. Cristina said that she'd have me over to her parents' sometime and her mom will teach us how to make it. It looks fairly straightforward (based on the recipes I've looked at online), but if this happens, I will document and share.

Here are other photos of our meal. The photo above is of my plate. I'm going to start with dessert below, because it is so damn good. (Also, I had brought my good camera with me to document our meal, only to get there and realize that the batteries were dead. Amateur hour. All photos are courtesy of my phone.)

Dinner and a song

I some how made it through last week with next to nothing in my kitchen. I had bread, eggs, and dwindling cheese, though no milk. I kept avoiding the store. I was busy most nights last week and just left groceries as the last priority. I made it, and actually packed lunch one day, which is a feat just shy of miraculous. (Okay, overstated a bit.) I am now fully shopped, even mostly ready for my hosting of book club on Thursday. (Minus the fact that my living room is covered in fuzz from a project for weaving class.)

Tonight I've got some Sweet Potato Soup with Miso and Ginger simmering on the stove. I am all ready to break out my new immersion blender. I've seen some headlines recently about how most people are now getting their recipes from the internet instead of cookbooks. I didn't bother reading the articles because that seemed pretty obvious to me. Both my mother and I get most of the recipes we use from the internet. What I want to add is how one goes about organizing said recipes. For a while I would email recipes I found interesting to a friend or my mother and copy myself and then move the email to a folder for recipes. This was not exceptionally efficient.

More recently my friend Esther suggested that I use Evernote for my recipes. Brilliant idea. Evernote is multi-platform, so you can use it on your desktop, the internet, and on your mobile devices. You can tag the things you save and save them in different folders. Plus most internet browsers have add-ons for Evernote, so you can quickly save content from websites. I just started keeping a second folder, "Current Recipes" for the recipes I'm interested in making soon. It's great because I can quickly call up recipes on my phone while I'm at the grocery store. I love it. And I keep trying to indoctrinate others into its greatness. (I use it for other things as well. I am an inveterate list maker and Evernote hits all the sweet spots.)

Apropos of nothing, here is a song, "Melody" by Kate Earl, that I have been rocking out to tonight. My friend Nickleen put it on a mix a couple of years ago and I love both the song and mix. Thanks again, lady! Enjoy! 

Thoughts on dinner

Quite often lately, I have been making myself an open-faced egg sandwich for dinner. It's my current favorite thing to eat. It's a riff on avocado toast with a fried egg, so tasty and easy. It's my current equivalent of a bachelor dinner, and a step up from my previous one, which was grilled cheese and baked beans. (Do not judge.)

This is what I do. I toast a piece of bread and heat up a small pan. Once the toast is ready, I butter it, because what is the point of toast if it does not have butter on it? (This rule does not apply if there is Nutella or peanut butter involved.) I check the pan, and if it's hot enough, in goes some oil and then an egg; salt, pepper, and a dash of cayenne on top. Lid goes on; egg cooks. I cut off about 1/3 of avocado and mash it on to the toast. Squeeze of lime. Flip the egg. I use my zester to grate some parm on top of the avocado. Once the egg is done, with the yolk still tender, I slide it on top, and give it a good healthy squeeze of Sriracha. Perfection. (I've also been known to switch out the avocado or the egg for sardines. I'm kind of crazy for sardines these days too. They usually call for some Dijon mustard, as well.)

The Oscars are this weekend and sometimes I wish I could muster the same level of enthusiasm for them that I used to. I never seem to see any movies these days, and haven't seen many of the contenders. I may not watch at all, except the opening to see the dresses. I did, however, see Hugo, and thought it was beautiful. The Self-Styled Siren has a *gorgeous* post up on it. Go read it.

I'm off to cat/house sit for the weekend. Three friendly kitties, one extra large tv, walking distance of lots of fun things. I'm looking forward to it.

A busy Sunday

Given that I didn't really get out of bed today until after noon, I have been very productive. Part of the reason I stayed in bed so long was because I didn't turn on my heat last night and really should have. I woke up and read in bed for awhile. Then fetched tea and toast and returned to my bed, books, and warmth. Besides finishing a Diana Wynne Jones book that I had already read before, I also found myself flipping through Joe Yonan's book Serve Yourself, which my friend Sara had alerted me to several months ago. I think I'm going to buy it - I have a lot of sticky-note flags in the libary's copy already. Tonight I made two recipes from it - a sweet potato-based soup with chorizo, chickpeas, and kale, and some cardamom snickerdoodles. The soup was great. I think I screwed up the snickerdoodles, because I accidentally doubled the amount of cardamom. I do think they'd be good with ice cream, though. I was hoping to bring them to a dinner tomorrow night where I promised dessert, but I might have to make something else on the fly.

My friend Beth came over to hang out and chat while I cooked, which was nice. I am currently using my computer in my kitchen, because another thing I did was get my new wireless router set-up. No more stealing spotty wi-fi from the restaurant kitty-corner from me! I am feeling more at home in my apartment. Today I also spent a couple of hours at work finishing something that I should have finished this week. Blarg. I'm very much looking for this particular project being over. Now it's almost 11. I need to start thinking about bed. I hope you all have a good week!

I should be packing

Oh man, I know it's only Tuesday, but this week I feel like I've been sprinting since Monday morning. Tomorrow my friend Amy & I are throwing a joint birthday wine tasting. I dropped by her house after work today to work out some final arrangements. Then I went home and baked a cake (a strawberry riff on Smitten Kitchen's raspberry buttermilk cake). (Actually, it ended up being 2 cakes. I didn't think through the cake til it was in the pan, when I realized it was way too small for my needs. So I made it again and doubled it. Dessert for us!) I also opened up a bottle of Riesling I bought in Chicago. (For some reason I was compelled to cart 2 bottles of wine home with me on the Megabus, but it was good.)

I'm packing for a trip to San Francisco. I leave Thursday from work, but since I've got plans tomorrow, I really need to get a leg up on packing. I usually try and list out what I think I'll bring, if not, my packing tends to the horribly haphazard. I am decidedly worried about what I'll end up wearing out there, but I am super excited to get there. So much to do in the meanwhile. Pack, sleep, work, etc. It will be here quicker than I am ready!

Oh dear, Frank just jumped up on my lap. He was in his first fight of the season the other night and has been limping, cuddly, and generally pathetic, not to mention extremely demanding of attention. I know I sound hard-hearted, but he's both fine and getting plenty of attention.

Brief thoughts on cravings

Today I was hungry all day; craving something specific but seemingly unattainable. Part of this craving came from general unhappiness at my packed lunch. I had eaten it the day before and was underwhelmed. What I really wanted was an everything bagel from the nearby Jewish deli, smothered in cream cheese and topped with lox. Oh, and at least two pickles from their giant barrels of pickles (one dill, one garlic). But I had a perfectly good lunch in the refrigerator and I thought it might be uncouth to order bagels during Passover. I ate my lunch, which actually was a little better today than the day before, but still felt uncomplete. (Wearing tights that ended up being ill-fitting really didn't help things.)

I finally found what I was looking for. I made myself a German pancake for dessert. It's something my mother likes to make because it's easy, tasty, and hits the spot.

2 tbsp. butter
2 eggs
1/2 c. flour
1/2 c. milk
Powdered sugar
Lemon juice

Heat oven to 400 degrees (must be hot). Melt 2 tablespoons butter in pan in oven (we usually use a cast iron pan). Beat eggs, add flour. Mix well (use wire whip) until smooth. Add milk and beat again. Pour into hot melted butter in pan. Bake 15 minutes or until golden brown on edges (like a large popover). Remove from pan onto plate. Sprinkle with lemon juice (2 tablespoons) and powdered sugar. Cut and eat

Friday winding down

The smoky smell of extinguished candles lingers in the air, with the hum of a very full dishwasher buzzing in the background. I just ushered some friends out of the house after a little dinner party, and am tired and a little fuzzy from the wine and cake. The dinner was for my friends Mary and Grace, who besides also being twins, share my birthday month and turned 30 yesterday. Our friends Andy and Emily came too, and we cooked together, and shared wine and stories. The cake I made yesterday, Smitten Kitchen's Grapefruit Yogurt Cake, was a success, even if I messed up the recipe. (I accidentally added juice to the batter and cut the oil in half to compensate. It made a dense, moist cake. Very good.) It wasn't the fanciest of cakes, but they are having an actual party next weekend, and their mother is a killer baker of cakes. I had wanted to make a yogurt cake for a while and needed the excuse to make it. (I need to start baking because I want to, and just bring goodies to work. I know people would like it.)

Today was full of food shared with friends. I tagged along with my friend Esther to a mini tweet-up lunch with some nice new people. It's nice to meet new people. The work day ended with my boss and I chatting about everything from polka music to politics to books. (I like my boss.) It was a good day. And one that started with an hour extra of sleep. I think that helped. Off to sleep now.

Tired thoughts on cake

I have been staying up too late recently, with no good reasons, up late with the tv on and mindless internet or Free Cell in front of me. This has made me tired. Tired and grumpy upon waking, and foggy when thinking. All of this is not good. Tonight I'm going to try for a more reasonable hour.

Right now, I am waiting on a cake that is baking. I'm having some friends over for dinner tomorrow and promised cake. I am also pretty sure I screwed it up, as I added a liquid to the batter that was supposed to be ON TOP of the finished cake, not IN IT. Oops. I didn't have enough ingredients to start over, so I thought I'd see what happens. Not a very exciting adventure. In fact, kind of a sad one, since I'll need a cake tomorrow and will have less time to do so. Sigh.

Actually, I just checked the cake, and it may pull through after all! Since I had erroneously added juice, I cut back on the oil it called for... fingers crossed it's not pudding inside! This is why I really need to slowly read through instructions before I start dumping things into bowls. I have been making problems for myself baking and taking math tests forever.

Okay, I'm taking my book upstairs to sit and watch the cake to make sure the sides don't burn while the inside cooks.

A Valentine's Day brunch

I had a bit of a late night last night. I went to see Langhorne Slim with my friend Julie. We got there way too early and ended up standing around longer than either of us were prepared to do. But Langhorne and his band were as rollicking as I had heard. They were high energy and charming and played for an hour and a half. It was great, even if we were tired. (Though I still feel sorry for having us stand around for so long.) This morning was rough though. I thought that some pancakes were in order, banana pecan pancakes to be precise. And coffee, which was a gift from a Flickr friend. Along with some magazines, I listened to the Valentine's Day mix I made. You can listen to it here.

PFR: Shapiro's Deli

On the way back from Chicago, from our quickie road trip from the beginning of the month, it was getting to be dinner time. We were nearing Indianapolis when I had an idea. I gave my friend Sharon a quick call, to get the location and directions to her favorite place to eat in Indiana, Shapiro's Deli. (If she is within 100 miles of this place, she makes a detour to stop.)

Shapiro's has been around since 1905. The location we went to, at 808 S. Meridian, is a large space, with plate glass windows all around, a cafeteria-style line to go through, and lots of tables to sit in. We were there around 5pm on a Sunday, and there was a decent sized crowd for an early dinner. When I saw the desserts, I knew we had to do an impromptu Pie Field Research expedition.

My fellow PFR investigator this time was my friend Tina. She is a bit of an old hat when it comes to PFRs, as she's done a couple with me, and her birthday is Pi Day. Even though we decided to split the very large and very wonderful corned beef sandwich (see below), we both managed to over order. We decided on two slices: rhubarb for her, and cherry for me.

Tina chose the rhubarb because she loves it and "that pink that rhubarb gets." I decided on cherry, because I couldn't decide and chose to stick with the classics. Tina later informed me that cherry is just not her type of pie, but I enjoyed my slice. We found both slices to have a nice tartness. She thought the crust was okay and I think I had more positive thoughts on the crust. We both gave our pies 4.5 stars. (As you can see, the nonexistent metric by which the oh-so-scientific research being done gets vaguer the longer I go between PFRs.)

The real star of the show was the corned beef sandwich. Oh dear lord. For about $10 we got a lot of meat piled high on delicious homemade rye. Oh that rye. It had a wonderfully (but not overly) chewy crust. Why didn't I buy a loaf? The sandwich needs to be shared. Sharon had suggested some sort of lemon bread or muffin, which I forgot, but will get at my next stop at Shapiro's. It's hard to pass up their sweets.