Month: May 2008

May 14, 2008

It was a perfect day today: warm, gently breezy, cloudless. I of course had to spend the bulk of it hunched over this wretched appliance, but I did break out this afternoon to do some gardening and then hit the store for a couple of things. On the way back up out of the valley, there are some particularly nice views of the mountains North of town from a couple of places. Down here, all…

May 13, 2008

After a great dinner party Sunday nearby- where I didn’t have to make a damn thing- I got another break last night in the city as I dropped in on Kris and Ken following a very productive day. David joined us, and later Mary, and we had simple food and excellent wine: curried chicken with okra and mashed potatoes (Kris makes incredible curries) followed by chili and rice, then 5 cheeses, then possibly the best…

May 10, 2008

I let Milo choose dinners this weekend, since I’m tired, and tired of fancy cooking after the exertions of the past week or so. My Dad is English, and when I was growing up he was allowed to make breakfast on Sunday in the full-blown tradition of his people: bacon, eggs, sausage, tomatoes, potatoes, and bread, all fried in the bacon grease. When I was an impoverished grad student in Chicago I would often make…

May 8, 2008

The New Yorker came today, and in it is a profile of Grant Achatz, molecular gastronomy wunderkind and chef at Alinea in Chicago, and his work and dramatic struggle with tongue cancer. Christine and her Mom go to the city tomorrow, so I wanted to make something a little fancy to send them off. And there were some nice new ingredients that she bought; when somebody else does the shopping there can often be unexpected…

May 6, 2008

In an effort to make this evening’s meal easier on me, Christine and her Mom bought some fresh porcini ravioli at a local place. I was partly relieved, and partly sort of wished that I could have made them myself. Having said that, it’s a busy week for me and was grateful to put the extra time to good use. For a sauce, I took the rest of the crème fraîche and poured in about…

May 5, 2008

Today it was sunny again. Today I felt normal again. And today, Christine’s Mom joined us for the week. So to celebrate a new chapter, and to move away from the heavy party food of the last few days, a super-clean meal tonight. We got some more of the incredible local 10-grain mix (millet, rye, winter wheat, oats, triticale, barley, spelt, corn, flax and vetch) so I made a broth from the smoked chicken carcasses…

May 5, 2008

One of the great things about curing an entire side of wild king salmon to make a bunch of teeny appetizers is having a lot left over for Sunday brunch. Here seen on an everything bagel with crème fraiche and wasabi tobiko. I added capers too. The fish has such an intense, wonderful flavor from the unorthodox cure. And since it’s been ages, and I’ve got cured meat on the brain, I decided to pull…

May 4, 2008

I woke up feeling like garbage; the cold had migrated to me. Fortunately, I had gotten enough done ahead of time so that I was able to go back to sleep for three hours and felt much better. I got the smoker going, and put in four chickens. After an hour, the chickens repaired to a 200˚ oven while 5 slabs of well-rubbed spare ribs took their place on the grill. I kept the fire…

May 2, 2008

So in the midst of preparing all the things for tomorrow’s party (curing a side of salmon, beet-ricotta gnocchi, sauerkraut, etc. I also made some Stilton gnocchi with a bit of leftover tofu, figuring tonight I would use them with a sauce idea that’s been bugging me for a while. But they failed. Completely. Now normally, that would be OK; since they melted when I tried to sautée them I would have let them melt…

May 1, 2008

We were supposed to go out for dinner tonight, then come home for her favorite dessert (see Valentine’s day.) But she has a cold, and Milo is getting it, so I scrambled to finish the preparations for Saturday’s big party (and tonight’s intended dessert, which is in the fridge for baking tomorrow) so I could run out and get something. Since she loves her a burger, I got some buffalo burgers at a specialty place…