Adventures in Culinary Art

This tickled me exceedingly.

A snippet:

"Artists were also invited weekly to serve as guest chefs, and the whole dinner was considered a performance art piece. One of the most fabled, costing $4, was Matta-Clark’s 'bone dinner,' which featured oxtail soup, roasted marrow bones and frogs’ legs, among other bony entrees. After the plates were cleared, the bones were scrubbed and strung together so that diners could wear their leftovers home."

Warm weather eatin'

Finished,
originally uploaded by gaffentine.

Yesterday being as warm and sunny as it was, I made an unscheduled trip to the store to stock up on the key ingredients for our favorite warm-weather food: Gazpacho. There are a number of different ways to make it, and hundreds of recipes to choose from, but we kind of tend to do our own thing with this. For example, one recipe called for 4 cups of tomato juice. I had never, before yesterday, put more than a half cup of (spicy) tomato juice, aka Bloody Mary Mix, into my gazpacho. I like it to more chunky than soupy. Another recipe told me to put *everything* into the blender until it was all pulverized. I see this as a form of cheating: instead of forty-five minutes of peeling, seeding, chopping, dicing and mincing, you have five minutes of blender action! I did cheat this time and put about a fifth of the ingredients into the blender, but the result was...BROWN, and so I am glad I didn't do it with the whole thing!! Without further ado:

Slice two stalks of celery extra thin.
Seed and dice two yellow bell peppers (I used three mini ones that were on sale!)
Dice one purple onion
Dice one shallot
Quarter eight tomatoes. Remove the seed beds, and reserve for the blender action.
Peel, seed and dice one large cucumber.
Throw about a fifth of these ingredients into the blender with 1 cup spicy tomato juice.
Slice and dice the remaining tomato parts into 1/8 inch pieces. (See?! Time-consuming!)
Chop two green onions into 1/4 inch chunks.
Mince four cloves of garlic.
Take a handful of cilantro, wash thoroughly, pat dry and mince fine.
Add all ingredients to pulpy stuff in a non-metal bowl, stir VERY well.
Grind salt and pepper over top, squeeze the juice of one lime over it, and drizzle a bit of olive oil over all, and stir again.
Refrigerate overnight to let the flavors absorb.
Serve with slices of lemon as garnish, and make Tapatio available for the more adventurous!

The first time I made gazpacho, I was doing it mostly from memory, having had an excellent serving of it the night before at a now-closed restaurant downtown. (It's always the good ones...) I also did not know about the overnight-absorbing thing, so I kept tasting it and adding garlic! I could not figure out why it tasted so mild!!! When I took it out to serve the next night at dinner, though, boy howdy. I had quickly chopped up several more tomatoes and added regular tomato juice to try and cut the GARLIC MONSTER rearing out of the bowl!! Thankfully, all of our guests were garlic-fiends, so it wasn't so bad...

Amuse bouche? Not hardly. Update.

Another food-related non-recipe post. Matt and I went out with some friends last night, to a local wine shop that has tastings on Friday nights. They usually have a local winery pour their latest and/or greatest, with the winemaker there to talk about it etc. Last night, though they had a tasting of South American wines. They were pouring Montes Cabernet, with which we are familiar, and a Viognier that was absolutely to DIE for, called Tupungato Mendoza. (What does that mean in English? Am intriqued.) It's from Argentina. The evening ambled on, and suddenly we were all hungry, so we decided to go to a nearby Italian Bistro, a place that I have heard a lot about, and where Matt goes for lunch quite often. We were kind of excited to try this place for the first time. It's a family restaurant, and quite pretty. The menu looked amazing, and we ordered our pasta dishes and opened a bottle of Pinot that Hangover brought (what, did you think we ever go anywhere without him? Psh.) and settled in for a long, warm evening of fun and relaxation.

Except.

We were kind of a big group (about ten), so the restaurant had set up a table in the middle of the room, rather than along the wall, which was fine. The only problem was the table I was facing, a four-cover table with two young men sitting at it, obviously at the tail end of their meal. Obviously at the tail end of their bottle of wine, as well. They were talking rather loudly, which normally isn't a problem for anyone, especially in a crowded restaurant, but their volume made it impossible to ignore their language. If I closed my eyes I could almost convince myself I was in a truck stop, it was *that* bad. Literally (and I don't use that word lightly!) every. other. word. started with F. It was incredbile.

Can you believe I actually lost my appetite?

Reconnoitering in the ladies' room, we (the girls, not Hangover and Matt and I) just hoped that they would pay their check and go. They ended up not leaving until just before we did, and we took our sweet time, too.

What do you all think? Should we have said something to the manager? (There were only two other tables in that room, so it might have been obvious who had complained, and that kind of drama is not the kind we like, so...)

Updated to ask: What do they do about this in China?

Bummer

In an attempt to de-clutter and streamline our lives, we are cleaning out the freezer, and so, no interesting dinner last night. Just Trader Joe's Frozen Pork Potstickers, which, according to someone who ought to know, have been DIS.CON.TIN.UED since the last time we bought them. Which was a couple of months ago.

Saaaaavooooooor the potstickers!!!

(Also a green salad.)

Today is a baking day

On the recipe clip board:

Applesauce Cookies, from California Herb Cookery.

Cream together 1/2 lb room temperature butter and 2 c. sugar.

Add, and beat in well, 1 egg.
Mix together, then beat in,
3 c. flour,
1 tsp. cinnamon,
1/2 tsp powdered/ground cloves,
1/8 tsp. salt,
1 tsp. baking soda.

Add and stir in well
1 c. unsweetened applesauce and
1 c. chopped walnuts (optional).

Drop onto greased cookie sheet, flatten slightly (I've found this goes faster if you keep your fingers wet) and bake at 425 until brown. (My gas oven does it best between 350-375 for 10-12 minutes).

Makes about 36 biggish cookies.

Housekeeping meme

Fortunately, I already had it drafted!! Tagged by Nutmeg.

Aprons – Y/N?
Always. I am also always looking for “frilly” ones. The only ones we can find in the “big box” stores are those standard (aka BORING) bar-b-q style aprons.

Baking – Favorite thing to bake:
Muffins, cupcakes, cookies. I once made an angelfood cake from scratch that turned out very well.

Clothesline – Y/N?
Yes. It needs to be re-strung, though.

Donuts – Have you ever made them?
No.

Every day – One homemaking thing you do every day:
Wash Dishes.

Freezer – Do you have a separate deep freeze?
Not yet.

Garbage Disposal – Y/N?
No. We're working on a compost pile.

Handbook?
California Herb Cookery

Ironing – Love it or hate it?
Love it. Taking a page from my MIL's book, I let it pile up, and then watch a movie while I iron. The only downside: no foreign films while ironing!!

Junk drawer – Y/N? Where is it?
Sort of. It's more a “batteries/scissors/allergy medicine for our allergic-to-cats-friends” drawer.

Kitchen: Design & Decorating?
This Is A Baking Kitchen. Lots of cabinets and drawers, nasty old linoleum, butcher block island. All white, except for the nasty linoleum, which will never be white again!

Love: What is your favorite part of homemaking?
Making it look like a magazine, whether it's the food ro the room.

Mop - Y/N?
Oh yes. Every week, sometimes more.

Nylons - Wash by hand or in the washing machine?
Washing machine. That is, if they make it through one wearing without snagging or running! (I don't wear nylons very often...)

Oven - Do you use the window, or open the door to check?
Ours doesn't have a window. :( I try to wait until the minimum suggested baking time before opening the door, though.

Pizza - What do you put on yours?
Cheese, bacon, pepperoni, peppers, mushrooms, GARLIC, vodka sauce.

Quiet- What do you do during the day when you get a quiet moment?

Read a book. Surprise!


Recipe card box- Y/N?
No, I have a filing system.


Style of house-
1930's "ranch", aka "slapped together with no foundation, can't believe it's still standing, are you sure we're supposed to be living here" style.


Tablecloths and napkins- Y/N?

Placemats and napkins.

Under the kitchen sink- Organized or toxic wasteland?

Compost bin, cleaning rags and white vinager


Vacuum- How many times a week?

2, sometimes more, right kitty?


Wash- How many loads do you do a week?

On average, about four or five. Depends on how many home-improvement projects we've done.

X's - Do you keep a daily list of things to do and cross them off?
No, unfortunately. With FlyLady's help, though, I am hoping to get out of my ADD cleaning style...

Yard - Who does what?
Matt mows. He also carts the heavy stuff around, and the patio is his project. I do weeding and planting, but I can't bring myself to even go out there right now...all our plants froze and died. :(

Zzz's - What is your last homemaking task for the day before going to bed?
Clean the kitchen.

A little affirmation never hurt anyone

You Are an Excellent Cook

You're a top cook, but you weren't born that way. It's taken a lot of practice, a lot of experimenting, and a lot of learning. It's likely that you have what it takes to be a top chef, should you have the desire...

Are You A Good Cook?