Sniffles and Salmon

Today is Valentine's Day, and it is also Chinese New Year.

Dinner tonight pays homage to neither of those occasions.

Dinner tonight pays homage to an oft-neglected category: sick food.

Sick food is an art form -- and a personal one, at that.

Tea and toast, sometimes with peanut butter? That's a mainstay, no matter what ails you. For the flu, maybe some crackers. For a bad head cold, chicken noodle soup and other broths and soups can help clear the sinuses, and almost no one would disagree. But after that, it's to taste. My dad has said he thinks eggnog is a great sickbed drink. I disagree, but if it makes him feel better, more power to it. Some friends swear by eye-poppingly spicy curries to clear the sinuses. I happen to think that for that first meal post-sickness -- the one where you're not fully better yet but you definitely can't stomach yet another bowl of chicken noodle and you have some appetite back -- nothing can beat takeout Moo Shu pork, sweet and sour chicken AND wonton soup, but I realize I might be alone in that.



Something else I am often alone in? My love for what I made for tonight's repast: creamed salmon on toast. It's my favorite for a very specific circumstance: when you're hungry, sick enough to feel like dung but not so sick that you can't bear the thought of really making anything. (In that case, your best option: beans on toast.) Anyhow, I've spent four of the 11 hours I've been awake lying in bed, and the bulk of the remaining seven hours lying on the couch surrounded by a constantly growing mountain of used Kleenex, so I had built up enough strength to stand in front of the stove and stir the white sauce that makes up the base of the meal. I added some Old Bay seasoning this time in addition to cayenne, Worchester sauce, mustard powder and salt and pepper -- my nose is super stuffed, so I was looking for something I could taste. And with some frozen peas and canned sockeye, dinner was complete.

This is something Nate (who is working the overnight inventory shift on this Valentine's Day) will always make for me, but every roommate I have ever had has looked at its preparation with suspicion, if not downright horror. However, I feel markedly better having had it for dinner, so who's the winner now? Now, for yet another pot of tea and some more of the Olympics, and I plan to be well on the path to healing -- just in time for a seasonally appropriate Chinese feast tomorrow, is my devout hope.

Four Continents, One Meal

Okay, so remember all that local food I've been eating lately? Well, tonight's meal was not exactly keeping in that theme. Some greenies out there may run out of calculator tape if they try to measure this meal's carbon footprint. Hey, the farm share starts in a few short weeks, I'll make up for it then.



I found these wonderful zucchini blossoms at the store. While they were astronomically expensive (and from Holland!) I couldn't pass them up as the window for procuring them is extremely short.



For the zucchini blossoms I made a filling out of leftover ricotta, lemon zest, chopped thyme, salt, pepper, Parmeggiano-Reggiano, and Uniekaas Reserve Gouda. I wasn't sure what to do for a batter so I modified my pancake batter recipe and did a batter with one cup flour, 2 teaspoons baking powder, a large pinch of salt, and some of the remaining White Truck wine. I then dipped the courgettes with their flowers into the batter and fried them in a mixture of olive and canola oil, and sprinkled them with some sea salt.

Continents so far: (1) Europe.



I trimmed some beautiful New Zealand lamb top round steaks and marinated in a little olive oil, lemon, salt, pepper, garlic, sage, rosemary, and thyme. Simon and Garfunkel would have been 75% proud of me.

The lamb smelled extremely gamy in its raw form but after being cooked it was delightful. I carmelized some shallots in the pan then tossed in some chanterelle and morel mushrooms.

I generally don't make garbanzo beans as a rule but I made an exception tonight. I tossed these with some lemon, shallot, olive oil, cumin, cayenne, salt, and pepper and served them room temperature.

Continents so far: (2) Europe, Oceania.



For a wine I used this lovely Argentinian Malbec. I was a little disappointed because I'd hoped it was going to be from Texas and that the back label was a Dan Brown-esque conspiracy about how there were two Alamos and the Illuminati and/or the Masons were involved. The wine was delicious but the plot was rather boring (it just involved the eastern slopes of the pre-Andean mountains of Mendoza). So, overall, that was disappointing.

Continents so far: (3) Europe, Oceania, South America.



For dessert I made S'mores with these delicious marshmallows, chocolate, and honey graham crackers. All ingredients from the U.S. of A.

Continents so far: (4) Europe, Oceania, South America, North America.

Technically the black pepper I use is from India so I guess I could say this meal was from five separate continents. I'm actually pretty surprised that I don't have anything in my pantry from China. Surprised but relieved. I guess I could have also ground up some plastic and sprinkled it on the lamb for an additional Chinese ingredient.

Sadly nothing from Africa at all.

One day I hope to make a greenhouse in Antarctica, grow some tomatoes, ship them back home, and then make a meal from all seven continents. On that day Al Gore's fury will erupt in a violent explosion that will destroy us all.

Bon Appetite!

Spring (onion) into spring

With the temperature scheduled to stay in the 50s for the next 10 days (or so Weather.com would have me believe), I think it's almost safe to call it spring? In that spirit is tonight's dinner. Nate unexpectedly worked tonight, so the call was for something easy, that didn't require too much moving around and, of course, paid tribute to the approaching, long-desired season of green and sunlight.

The answer, please, internet search of ingredients found in our fridge? White pizza with spring onions. With dough already in the fridge, the hardest thing about it was slicing the onions and stretching the dough. Actually, scratch that: the hardest thing was transferring the raw dough with all its toppings from the sheet pan to the heated pizza stone, but in the end it all came together. The aforementioned onions, some mozzarella and parmesan, and the basic trio of olive oil, salt and pepper and dinner was done. A small salad and voila -- spring-like dinner in name, spring-like dinner in taste.



Six weeks (give or take) until the farm share starts again. Begin the countdown!

Miso Allergic To Spiders

A series of events have lead to this blog being sadly under-updated recently, not the least of which was me getting a weird allergic reaction from potential spider bites. Seriously. At least that's my doctor's official take on it.



Jen made this delicious little ditty the other day with some shrimp, orcchiette, and feta cheese. I must have been at work that day because I didn't get a chance to sample any of it.



One thing I did get to sample was the delicious cookies made by Jen and Caolan while I was at work. They went fabulously with a hot cup of chai after lunch. I may have had more cookies than are visible in this picture. I may have also gotten a little sick by eating too many cookies. I may also be a five year old.



Jen also purchased some mistletoe at the store which she suspects may have just been some old, wilted sage that they tied a red ribbon around and marked up to $3.99.



Last night we went with Paul & Caolan to see The McGarrigle Christmas Hour at Carnegie Hall where I took the above picture before getting in trouble and being asked not to take any more pictures.

The "hour" was actually three hours which in which the stage was populated by some of the most incredible singers I've ever heard, and Lou Reed.



However, this morning I left work early after a strange dizzy spell (spider bites?) and returned home to make myself some miso soup with a little green chili paste, spinach, tofu, edamame, and boiled noodles. It seemed to do the trick because my extreme fatigue and dizziness were replaced by mild fatigue and dizziness which is far more preferable.



I continued the miso theme through dinner by making a salad with clementines and tofu which I marinated in a miso wasabi dressing with sesame oil, wasabi, tamari, and rice wine vinegar.



The miso theme concluded with some miso-glazed tuna that I made with spinach, edamame, and boiled potatoes (I just wasn't in the mood for rice).

And with that it is time to relax and watch Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and potentially one other Rankin-Bass special (time permitting).

Wish us luck! We don't need luck for the specials, just to avoid the potentially poisonous spiders!

'Tis The Seasoning

Today we drove into New Jersey to go food shopping and to make our semi-annual giant shopping expedition to Target which hurts the wallet, but not quite as much as the soul. After about twenty minutes the Target fatigue hit me pretty hard and we had to make our exit quickly, running through the last few items on our shopping list as if we'd suddenly been the winners of a shopping spree.



Our travels brought us through many of the "fields" in New Jersey. Let's just call this little dandy of a town Sketchfield.



After dropping off all of our purchases we ran up to 181st street to pick out this year's Christmas tree. 181st was all doctored up for the event. Apparently the UPS store wasn't feeling the cheer as they were closed at 5:15PM. More support to launch into one of my venomous City-That-Never-Sleeps-My-Ass tirades.



For dinner we started with an arugula, crab, sunchoke, and shallot salad.



We also had this olive bread that we preferred to call "fougasse" after a similar bread we'd had in France. It's my favorite because it sounds like an Italian insult. "Hey, get away from my marinara, you fougasse!"



For dinner I made a Bologenese(ish) sauce with garlic, onion, carrot, celery, thyme, basil, ground beef, and a little skim milk. I also cooked some tri-colored linguine while Jen began stringing up the tree. Jen and I are all about smashing down the restraints of typical gender roles.

Just about the only thing we used from the farm was some of the leftover garlic since that's all we have left.

We watched both The Muppet Family Christmas and The Muppet Christmas Carol which gave us an adequate dose of The Muppets, though I could still go for a little more Michael Caine. If only Hannah and Her Sisters was a Christmas movie.



I also made one of the best batches of hot chocolate I've ever made. I just melted some semi-sweet chips and then added in some skim milk and a touch of cinnamon. I also put a small scoop of chestnut ice cream in mine.



After Jen strung up the lights (we opted for the large, old-school, painted lights for the first time this year), we both hung all of our ornaments, and topped the tree with our traditional stuffed reindeer (not a read dead reindeer, a fake one). This is one of the first years that we seemed to have a semi-adequate number of ornaments for the tree. Still, I must remember to loot some of the ornaments from my parents in a few weeks when we visit for Christmas.

It's a little late but we're toying with the idea of watching another Christmas movie before we turn in. White Christmas may be on deck next, though we could easily polish off How The Grinch Stole Christmas since the DVD with no commercials is about twenty minutes long.

$19.99 for a twenty minute DVD. Now that's what Christmas is all about.

Desk Dinner

As I've had a bit of a busy stretch at work I have had quite a bit of computer work to catch up on. Also, last night's dinner (and excessive post dinner snacking) left me feeling a little queasy all night and into the morning. So I decided on two things: 1.) Tonight's dinner was going to be a little more tummy-friendly, and 2.) I would eat my dinner at my desk. Jen was having dinner at a work function so the desk dinner would be something she would not have to witness which was good because it would cause her infinite sadness (and not of the Mellon Collie variety).



I made myself a salad again with clementines, chiles, shallots from Holland (isn't that weird?), olive oil, salt, pepper, and some toasted naan bread. I also made some miso soup with a touch of green chile paste, a dash of tamari, some noodles, chopped spinach, and poached chicken breast. Aside from the chicken breast this would have been the perfect vegan meal!



For dessert I responsibly ate a single chocolate marshmallow. That was it. I was being responsible. The marshmallow was all I ate. Except for the slice of pumpkin pie. And the yogurt.

And maybe some chestnut ice cream later.