We’ve had a busy, busy, busy few weeks. Between traveling to St. Louis for Passover, catching up at work, and puttering around the house, I haven’t been doing a lot of cooking by my standards, though there has been some. More updates coming soon, but for now a picture from today’s birthday brunch at Double Crown — Chip Delany (the guest of honor) posing with his picture from last week’s New York Magazine.
Happy birthday, Chip. Here’s to many, many more.
Hello, and welcome to Spring!
We had CRAZYGOOD weather this weekend, which finally gave me the kick in the pants I needed to cook/take pictures again. Those winter doldrums are no joke, and my whole existence turned into a daily grind just to make it through. But here I am on the other side, and no worse for wear!
So here you go — a little spring cleaning from the past month or so, and a wrap-up of recent goings-on in our neck of the woods.
Pasta e ceci from Rachael Eats. We had this weekly for a spell and while I love it beyond any other soup I made over the winter, I’m looking forward to something less filling.
Shirley Corriher’s Touch of Grace biscuits with butter & fig jam. Made a damned fine breakfast, but not as good as scrambled eggs and morels will be in a few weeks.
French “peasant” beets from Food52.
He really wanted my attention.
More pictures after the jump.
The day started with this:
Which was followed by this:
Mushroom ragu with no-stir polenta.
While all around, this was happening:
All of that, combined with Monday’s personal day makes this the best work week ever.
Apologies to my neighbors for the noise pollution, but I’ve waited 40 years for this.
I think we’ll all be sleeping in tomorrow.
Bless you, Boys!!!
The past two days were less about vacationing (as intended) than about taking a break from my routine and working from home. Still, it was pleasant enough to sleep in a little and not deal with a hellish commute.
Ugh, I sound like such a Pollyanna.
On Day 2 of my “vacation,” I decided a little cooking was in order and gave the Feisty Green Beans from 101 Cookbooks a whirl — with substitutions, of course. Since the main ingredient is out of season, I swapped in a head of cauliflower. Tofu was nixed because I just don’t keep it in the house if I’m not planning to make a specific recipe (usually from Simple Chinese Cooking).
Made according to the recipe otherwise, this dish was spicy enough for me to take notice, which was a very pleasant surprise. But the flavors reminded me enough of my chickpea and spinach curry to realize I’d probably prefer the more aggressive tang of the greek yogurt in that dish to the creme fraiche in this one. (Can’t say I’m anything less than thrilled to have a container of creme fraiche in the fridge now for snacking or dessert purposes, though. We’ll just see what the weekend brings on that front.)
Spring is right around the corner.
It really is.
You gotta have faith.
The Saints game is about to start. As such, I have no time nor the presence of mind to write a real post, so I’ll leave you with a few pictures and a promise to do better next weekend. I’ve been creatively moribund since the holidays, but hope it’ll pass soon.
Got my gris-gris going first thing this morning with shrimp & grits. I hope the spirits aren’t too upset that my coffee lacked chicory.
And since it’s old home day, why not have a little old-fashioned banana pudding with Nilla Wafers? (I’ve been playing with the recipe I got from my mom, who got it at her wedding shower, but it’s not quiiiiite there yet. Will post it once it is.)
And on the topic of comfort foods, all I wanted last weekend was graham crackers and milk.
OK, that’s not entirely true. These Szechuan noodles with shrimp really hit the spot.
How could they not?
Time for a beer, maybe some wings. Geaux Saints! No matter what happens tonight, nothing will ever beat this fan video or the run that inspired it:
It’s been a pretty low-key weekend around here. I treated Gil to a birthday dinner at Marea Saturday night, but apart from that wonderful (fantastic! amazing! delightful!) experience, we’ve done a lot of lounging. (Which has been wonderful, etc. in itself, only in sweats, and with football.)
Ordinarily, we don’t let the guys on the furniture, but Otis adopted the fainting couch early on and really…how could we say no?
Ru, on the other hand, wouldn’t dream of setting paw to furniture (while we’re home), but prefers to use Otis as a pillow.
So…food. After such an exceptional dinner, I could barely consider cooking today and didn’t have the heart to attempt anything challenging. What would be the point? But still in need of sustenance as lunchtime rolled around, I made a vegetarian chili loosely based on Heidi’s Pierce Street Chili, adapting it to use ingredients already in my pantry. This turned out to be the perfect dish for our loungey weekend. I highly recommend the original recipe; it was probably the best vegetarian chili I’ve ever made.
Hope you all had a great weekend and managed to stay warm!
