Restorative.

That’s what this weekend has been for me, and I couldn’t be more grateful. It began Friday with an afternoon spent wandering Tribeca searching out lonely cobblestone streets for a portrait session next weekend. I found a couple of candidates that will work wonderfully, but the best part of the afternoon was simply being alone with my thoughts, not working, not stressing, just being. 13+ hours of working and commuting each day is draining during good weeks, but has been especially brutal for the past few months with no hope of vacation between April and Christmas and deadlines upon deadlines. It really got to me.

So that simple half day meant more to me than I can say. I returned home that evening practically dancing and ready to greet the weekend. We paid our weekly visit to the farmers’ market Saturday morning where I loaded up on produce, fresh cheese and grass-fed beef, then spent the rest of the day out and about. So there was no cooking until today, really, unless you count the white chili I made last night with the remnants of our mid-week roasted chicken. It was nothing out of the ordinary — just the usual suspects with cannellini beans and some Rancho Gordo hominy (and cooking liquid) thrown in for good measure. Oh, and topped with farmer cheese and some of that green salsa from a couple of weeks ago. Yum.

I skipped the greyhound hike today to spend a little extra time cooking, so as soon as the boys left, I cranked up some bluegrass and got to work on this pear tart. I went savory instead of sweet, and finally got to try Clotilde’s olive oil tart crust (which deserves every rave review it got). It featured the goodness of caramelized onions, fresh herbs, gorgonzola, walnuts and fig vinegar. Again, nothing too out of the ordinary, but why reinvent the wheel when this combo is so very, very good?

But the first bite proved it was still missing a little something, so I sprinkled it with a little fleur de sel and grated a little Balinese long pepper over it. Yes, I sound like a brat, but this pepper is amazing stuff and went perfectly with the tart. Per-fect-l-y. It’s been sitting in my pantry since Memorial Day, and I can’t believe all the time I wasted not using it.

Bosc pears channeling Rosalind Russell

recipe after the jump

(more…)

Thanks to everyone for their submissions in the Name My New Refrigerator contest! We have a winner!

If the sheer number of entries was the deciding factor, Marcella (or Marcilla) would’ve won hands-down. Your persistence is admirable, Claudia, but…

Frigid Moynahan held the lead for most of the day, and I just didn’t see how anyone could top that, but…

Nothing made me laugh as hard as Colda Meir. It won with a combination of timeliness (the high holidays are approaching) and visual accuracy (let’s face it, for all her charms, Ms. Meir was a bit, erm, boxy).

So let’s hear it for Kate! You get to select your prize now. What’ll it be? Cookies? A baby portrait session? Babysitting (and any day now)?

As (almost) always, click on the images to view larger in flickr. Unless they’re shots of, I dunno, appliances (foreshadowing!), then you’re SOL.

For the past few months, I’ve been keeping a list of things I’ve finally gotten around to trying this year. For what purpose, I couldn’t say because planning an end-of-the-year wrap-up post in May would show remarkable foresight on my part, but the list has been steadily growing nonetheless. On the exotic end of the spectrum, sea cucumber found its way on the list in 2009 (in phenomenal dim sum at Lai Wah Heen in Toronto), but it got much more mundane with red currants (in the “never cooked with” column… also in the “not gonna cook with again” column, if I’m being honest) and gooseberries (also a “never cooked with,” but much more to my liking than the red currants).

Despite my love of trying whatever new thing occurs to me and having a spice cabinet that long ago overflowed to the hall closet, I have lacunae that are downright embarrassing. Which brings us to the tomatillo. Of course, I’ve eaten tomatillos in restaurants many times, but I’ve never gotten around to inviting them into my kitchen before this weekend. When I saw a basket of them at the market being passed over in favor of corn and tomatoes, I decided to remedy the situation without a recipe in mind, and thus bought way too many.

I grilled them along with some jalapeno peppers and blended both with cumin, loads of lime juice, salt & pepper…and some sofrito I had in my freezer. If you’re thinking that sofrito sounds odd in a salsa, I can’t argue, you’re right (at least from my online recipe searches). But I was out of fresh cilantro and thought, “Hey! I always have sofrito in the freezer, thanks to Daisy. And sofrito has cilantro in it. Also onion and garlic. What could go wrong?” And that’s usually where things go pear-shaped — one of my favorite sayings from the old Brit roomies, so forgive the pretense — around here, but not this time. It was a little bit sweeter than a regular tomatillo salsa because of the sweet peppers and tomatoes that hitched a ride with cilantro and the gang, but still great with chips and even better on migas the next morning. And because I made so much, we still have half of the batch in the freezer for the next time I get a craving.

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In the “Where have you been all my life?” column, you’ll find St-Germain elderflower liqueur. Though I’ve been curious about it for a while, picking up a bottle never was a big priority because I’m more of a wine drinker these days, but I finally got around to it after Gil’s boss recommended a martini starring a gin on Gil’s short list supplemented with St-Germain. Now, everyone has words that make them cringe and “ambrosial” is right up there for me along with “tender” (emotional sense only), but I can’t think of a better word to describe this. It’s even stunning paired with nothing more than seltzer and a few cubes of ice. If only I’d known about it earlier in the summer…

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I’m not sure where this would fall on the list exactly — somewhere between acting my age and putting down roots? — but we got a new refrigerator this weekend! Our old one had been in this house since my first year of college and was getting downright menopausal with its temperature swings, so we took advantage of the Labor Day sales to bring home this beauty. It’s got tons more room, no more side-by-side nonsense, and a functioning water dispenser and ice maker. I’m in heaven. We haven’t named it yet, though — any suggestions?

Summer’s almost over before it really started and I’m missing it in advance — fresh corn and herbs in just about everything, sun tea, baby radishes with anchovy butter, blueberries and peaches, grilling… Aaaahh, soak it up while you can.

Have a wonderful Labor Day weekend, everyone! I plan to relax and work on getting my mojo back. Oh, and geaux Tigers!