Boring Salads, Sci-Fi, and Flatiron Steaks!

Tonight was a night for beef. Not pork. Beef. But before we get around the the beef and the specific cut thereof, we must discuss another boring salad.



The remainder of the Campari tomatoes accompanied some mixed greens, goat cheese, and pecans. I'm wondering if I should even bother mentioning the salads anymore. Maybe instead I could use the beginning portion of each blog entry to run an entry from my new Sci-Fi Serial: Space Phalanx: The Human-Zzintar Wars.

It was the year 3519. Mankind's reach into the stars had grown to encompass the Milky Way and several adjoining galaxies. Baron Tzar-liki, the Kin-Taru warlord, had sent a massive amount of insectazoid combatants to meet the humans in fierce interstellar battle.

Space conflict, initiated by the evil Mentarillian insectazoids, ran rampant throughout the entire known universe. Many starships set off from the Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies to fight against the evil insectazoids. Fewer than many returned back from battle (because they had been killed by the insectazoids).

It was said that a human would be born that could finally give the insectazoids a proper thumpin'. That man was named Kintaur Rosenbaum, and this is his story . . .

Stay tuned for more of Space Phalanx: The Human-Zzintar Wars, coming soon!

For dinner I made some flatiron steaks. Why flatiron steaks? Two reasons: 1.) they were cheap. 2.) That's the building where the Daily Bugle is. That's where Peter Parker works, dog!

I was initially tempted to shape the steaks like the Flatiron building and cook them that way. After further consideration I thought that maybe that might be a little tacky. Maybe!

I boiled up some of the farm potato and turnips with some carrot, steamed some broccoli, carmelized some shallots and garlic in a pan, and barely seared the steaks on both sides.

Overall the steaks were delicious and surprisingly tender for the low price. It's all about value in this new economy!

For dessert we had some caramel macadamia popcorn I received from Jen's mother for Christmas. The first three ingredients in the popcorn: brown sugar, corn syrup, and sugar. That's right. Popcorn is the fourth ingredient by weight in this popcorn. That's how you know it's going to be good.

Rising From Mediocrity (with Campari!)

Last night I wanted to go to bed at 7:30PM but instead I was a trooper, made an extremely mediocre salmon dish for dinner when Jen got home late, then went to bed at 10:00PM.

Tonight I had a bit more energy so dinner was moderately more inspired! With our last farm share yet to come my inspiration has been noticeably lacking in the weeks past.



For the salad I bought some Campari Tomatoes because they looked good. That got me thinking, What if I made a salad dressing using Campari? So I cut up a Honeybell Tangerine, mixed it with some Campari, olive oil, salt, pepper, and a drizzle of agave nectar. I poured that over the sliced Campari Tomatoes and and greens. I wouldn't call this dressing a triumph. Jen enjoyed it quite a bit but I thought it was an experiment that turned out okay at best.



For dinner I made some sweet potato gnocchi with garlic, shallots, white wine, turkey stock, tomato, and broccoli. This dish had the opposite effect as the salad being more popular with me than with Jen.

Given that we're all done with dinner at the super early hour of 9:00PM we are looking forward to picking up our Rock Band game which we've been ignoring for the past week and a half.

Intrepid Bunyips is about to melt your face with intense rhythyms and tasty guitar bass licks.

All-Star Dinner

This week Jen had the pleasure of going to everyone's favorite state: Utah! While she was off hanging out with her peeps in Salt Lake City I was living the bachelor life back in New York. I spent the majority of this time blowing my nose as I was was suddenly hit with a terrific cold. Luckily it was quick-moving enough that I was still able to function, go to work, and make uninspired meals.



One such uninspired meal began with leftover tofu, the remaining basil pesto from the fridge, greens, and some toasted naan bread. I rolled it up and ate it like a sandwich. A vegan salad sandwich.

But cleaning out the fridge was not the only thing I did while Jen was away. I also tended to my crops.



As you can see, the thyme in our AeroGarden is practically taking over the apartment. Just look at how tiny it makes FDR's head look!



Jen returned late last night, too late for dinner. This morning we wasted several hours on Sporcle and were suddenly hungry. I quickly whipped up some miso soup for lunch and then we watched Ghost Town and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, a fantastic afternoon double feature!



For dinner was Jen's favorite: roast chicken, an official welcome home after her journey to everyone's favorite state.

After dinner we started watching the NHL All-Star Game. The commentators on Versus talked about how Montreal is synonymous with hockey. I do not think that word means what they think it means. They're also talking a lot about how the ghosts of the old Montreal Forum have somehow traveled to the new arena and they're all watching the game. It's unclear exactly how they accomplished this. Perhaps it was via some sort of supernatural bus line. Undead Greyhound, perhaps?

I can't wait until the intermission tarot card reading!

Something's Fishy (Maybe It's The Fish Soup!)

Saturday we were invited to an impromptu dinner at Joe & Ryan's. It was a pretty cold night. I think they ran out of degrees that night. The walk from the car to the apartment was a brutal, tooth-clattering affair but when we walked in the view of the crackling Duraflame Log and the smell of the tomato soup filled the air.



The dinner was fantastic. We had little truffle-buttered grilled cheeses, herbed white beans, roasted carrots and parsnips and carrots, and a hearty tomato soup with goat cheese. Their new apartment is great. I'm not sure what I enjoyed more, the fireplace or Independence Day playing in the background just low enought that you couldn't quite make out the dialogue. Strangely, I've never actually seen Independence Day but I think I understood the plot pretty well. I can't believe that Will Smith was one of the aliens! And Bill Pullman couldn't possible have been the president. They wouldn't let the president fly a fighter jet in active combat against aliens! The president must have been that little girl that Bill Pullman was holding and comforting through 50% of the movies.



Leftover osso bucco makes one of my favorite dishes, Veal Ragout. I simply reheated the leftover osso bucco, gently removed the meat from the bones and served the sauce over some egg noodles with a little truffle oil and grated Parmesan. It made a great snowy afternoon lunch.



Tonight, on a snowy evening, Jen made some fish stew. Mediterranean fish stew to be precise. What makes it Mediterranean? I don't know. The tomatoes, maybe? The tomatoes that are in no way native to the Mediterranean. Yeah, that must be it.

I also had a glass of pastis and we both shared salads made with a drizzle of fresh orange juice (the rest going into the soup).

Sadly we opened one of our olive tapenade jars from France and it had gone bad. We both had a little on some baguette before determining that it had gone well past its prime. Hopefully we don't die from eating ancient tapenade.

However, if we do, you will know the reason why this was our last blog entry. See you later on in the week! We hope!

Cold Night, Hot Stew, New Words!

With temperatures dipping down into the single digit numbers, today was thought by many to be the coldest of the year. At least in New York City. Our radiator which we've only used twice in four-and-a-half years, was very slow to start this afternoon so it was a great day to make something which required the oven to be on for many hours. That something was Osso Bucco.



First off we had a salad with the remainder of our farm greens, some red onion, and some pecans. For dressing I used the remainder of the yogurt dressing that Jen had made the other day. There were about two tablespoons in a gigantic bowl in the fridge so it served a dual purpose of being delicious and getting that damn bowl out of the fridge.



I cooked the Osso Bucco for about three hours using some remaining turkey stock and turnips, carrots, onion, and parsnips from the farm. When it's eight degrees out there is nothing quite as delicious as some steaming hot stewed meat. I just wish I had cooked it some sort of cast iron cauldron. Sort of like the one Yoda had on Dagobah, except the stew would invoke a more positive from the Luke character (i.e. Jen).

Somehow I feel like I lost control of that last paragraph. Let's continue!



The wine I used in cooking the Osso Bucco (and in drinking with dinner) was a wine called Archetype. It even said on the front of the bottle: "Archetype: the quintessence of shiraz." This wine thought of everything! It even had a dictionary definition of the word archetype on the back label just in case I didn't know what that word meant! If I hadn't read the back label I would have assumed that archetype meant: a poor example of shiraz that is actually 51% cabernet. I think I may keep the bottle for this one so I have a reference in case I forget what the word archetype means.

I like a wine that teaches you vocabulary.