Month: June 2007

June 30, 2007

Chris and Sirkka had a long day coming back from his gig at the Montreal jazz festival, so I offered to make them dinner to make things easier. Christine is in the city for a couple of days, so I wasn’t able to shop, and thus made do with the garden, fridge, and pantry. Poppadums kept the kids happy while I made more summer rolls (from now on just assume I make them every time…

June 27, 2007

The lemon tarts were so well reviewed, especially by Christine, that I was pleased to have saved the unused pie dough in the fridge. We had some of the sweet potato salad left, and a few of the blue potatoes, and tofu that I didn’t throw in lunch’s fridge soup because I wanted to make more summer rolls. So I made a tart in the small pan, just the same as last night, and summer…

June 27, 2007

Phillipe and Lea hosted a party for John, and several people brought some food and wine. Phillipe made fantastic boeuf bourgignon and a sublime gratin of cauliflower; Liz curated the perfect salad from her garden and made her signature cashew cream to pour on gorgeous fresh berries for dessert (there was also cake.) I made the raw sweet potato salad, twice-baked tiny blue potatoes with fromage blanc, chives, and truffle oil mixed in and baby…

June 25, 2007

We went to Providence for a night for a wedding, where we saw some family, met some great people, and ate very well; the wedding was catered by Smoke & Pickles, and they did a bang-up job with giant striped bass and copious smoked chicken, plus smoked bluefish, ahi tuna and beef tenderloin as appetizers. I LOVE a well-catered wedding. Food is the music of love, so play loud and often. So we returned tired…

June 23, 2007

But this time back home, after thorough provisioning at Sahadi and in Chinatown; we’re set for exotic staples and condiments for quite a while. Chris, Sirkka, and Nissa came, so I had defrosted some short ribs, and combed through the garden for baby vegetables; this bowl is honestly one of the greatest things I’ve seen in quite a while. I blanched everything separately to perfect al dente tenderness, and rubbed the skin off beets and…

June 23, 2007

Another city trip, and finally we were able to schedule a dinner at Kris’ house. Mary came, and Sujit and James, and Sujit’s Mom, and Susan. Kris made many courses, most very high-end riffs on simple comfort food. The amuse bouche was a tiny bowl of puréed chard atop a dollop of parmesan cream- like creamed spinach but super refined. Next came ham and eggs- a poached egg with super fancy jamón and a red…

June 21, 2007

Somewhat presciently, last night after dinner I thought to make fridge soup for tonight since I suspected I’d be working late. This one was a continuation of last week’s, via another iteration we made in Vermont containing the leftover sausage and garden greens (yes, I brought the soup with us to Vermont.) This time around I browned 3 strips of chopped bacon with half an onion, deglazed with wine, and dumped in the earlier soup,…

June 19, 2007

As if by fate, no sooner had I extolled the many pleasures to be had during and after drinking Thackrey’s Andromeda but the email announcing the new release arrived in my inbox. Hooray! We’ve been waiting for the 2004 for a long time and are most excited to try it (and then leave the rest alone for as long as we can stand it.) Tonight, a really healthy vegan meal to get us centered after…

June 19, 2007

A de rigueur trip to the farmer’s market was different in one notable way this time around: we bought no vegetables. Our garden provided salad and cooking greens, plus herbs and radishes to last the weekend, so all we needed was cheese, jam, bread, snacks to get us through the market, and of course some of Pascal’s mighty sausages. He has recently reopened in a new location, and his charcuterie is as good as ever.…

June 18, 2007

We arrived later than planned, so a quick dinner was required. 4 chicken legs, only partially defrosted, went in the big enamel pan with oil and onion to caramelize a little bit. Then wine to deglaze, and Japanese yam, carrot, zucchini, grape tomato, a quartered lemon, and a mix of Moroccan spices followed by enough water to safely leave it alone to simmer for about 45 minutes. Normally I would have added everything at different…