Grilled Vegetables, Beer, and Dragons

Today began with a journey to the market for our weekly shop. This is incredible boring except for the fact that in our nine year relationship we've probably only been shopping for groceries together about a dozen time. This is probably for the best seeing that our strategies for grocery shopping are wildly different. I like to think that my style is extremely efficient and organized. Jen, on the other hand, is content to spend 60% of the time shopping pondering the various merits of one laundry detergent versus another. This one is more expensive but does more loads. That one smells better than this one. This fabric softener has bergamot root while this one has eucalyptus.

Luckily we're compatible on many other levels because grocery shopping is not the area where we are most in sync. It's like I'm MC Skat Kat and she is Paula Abdul.



Later that day I started up the grill and grilled up a mess of vegetables including these beautiful spring onion that I served over mixed greens. I drizzled them with a little balsamic glaze and served with some grilled ciabatta with olive oil, salt, and pepper. I then rubbed the ciabatta with a garlic clove.

The onions were beautifully cooked. One unexpected delight was that the mixed greens had a little dill and cilantro tossed in with them and this was a surprisingly tasty match with the onions and balsamic glaze, going against all culinary logic.

Don't believe what they teach you in culinary school, ladies and gentlemen.



While the grill was going I also grilled some fennel, red pepper, yellow pepper, asparagus, graffiti eggplant, and zucchini. Jen made the pasta dish, throwing the freshly grilled vegetables into a pan with olive oil and garlic, then tossing it all together with cooked spaghetti, fresh basil, kalamata olives, some butter, and a little lemon.

We served it up with the remaining grilled ciabatta and some grated Parmigiano-Reggiano.



For beer I enjoyed this beer called Super Baladin we picked up last weekend at Eataly.. I imagined this was like some sort of Dungeons & Dragons inspired beer. I guess that's only because I thought "baladin" was Italian for paladin. I was disappointed to learn that this was not the case. However, when I learned that it was sort of Italian for Belgian Ale all was forgiven.

However, if we are forced to fight a chromatic dragon this beer is going to come in less handy than I'd originally thought.

Yellow Carrots, Purple Potatoes, and Dudley Moore

The theme of this blog was originally to highlight our farm share. When we lived in New York City we had a great deal with
Windflower Farm whereby we got an surprise assortment of vegetables and fruits every week. This was great because it was fun and cost about the same as what we'd spend at the grocery store if not less.

When we moved out of the city (and closer to farms) our options for CSAs changed. We seemed to have more options but the cost of these farm shares tripled and it became obvious that we'd probably be better served to buy a farm and staff it with highly paid farmers rather than opt into one of these shares.

So it was that we turned to an infrequent trip to farmer's markets to scratch out pretentious food snob itch.



I started off tonight's meal by slicing some thin slice of a yellow carrot and the watermelon radish from the Union Square Greenmarket. I tossed these together with some mixed greens, thin sliced red onion, croutons, and buttermilk ranch dressing.



For the main course I heated a little butter and olive oil in a pan then tossed in some boiled purple majesty potatoes which I'd sliced into thick chunks. I would have toasted some garlic except, much to my dismay, we appeared to be completely out. In lieu of garlic I threw in some finely diced red onion then wilted some baby spinach. We bought the purple majesty potatoes mostly because of their name and because we felt it made us patriotic.

Finally I tossed in cooked some gnocchi and tossed it all together with a little shredded Gruyere over the top.



For dessert I put together these lazy sundaes out of some vanilla ice cream, leftover bourbon caramel sauce, and stroopwafels.

It's Friday night but we didn't feel like getting really drunk then taking a prostitute to dinner in the city so instead we did the next best thing and watched Arthur.

Ethnically American

I had absolutely no intention of writing a blog entry tonight. Then it occurred to me: If you have a mediocre meal and don't take pictures of it, did it actually happen?

Well, I wasn't about to find out!



I decided that tonight I would try some ethnic cuisine. The ethnicity I was trying: American!

My first course was a poor attempt. While I did use ranch dressing (major points there) I lost some cred by making it from scratch and by pairing it up with kale. I did, however use croutons out of a bag, so I still had a net gain for this course.

Ranch Dressing: + 5 Points
Kale: -3 Points
Croutons From a Bag: +1 Point
Cumulative American Cuisine Points Total For Course: 3 Points
Total: 3 Points


For the main course I made nachos. I've been wanting to do this for a while since there has been a package of ground beef in the freezer for a while calling out to be used up. Jen has long been opposed to this idea since she feel strongly that nachos cannot be considered a meal. Tonight I was able to momentarily able to convince her that nachos could work as a meal long enough to get through dinner.

I sauteed some garlic, onion, and yellow bell pepper in some olive oil then tossed in the ground beef with a little cumin, chili powder, smoked paprika, salt, pepper, and hot sauce. I laid out some tortilla chips, shredded some cheddar cheese on them, topped with the beef mixture, then a little more cheese and red onion before baking in the oven.

When they came out I topped them with chives, salsa, sour cream, and guacamole in that annoying way that restaurants do where you get most of the salsa or guacamole on one chip.

Authentic American (Wanting So Badly to be Mexican) Cuisine: +5 Points
Using non-GMO Corn Chips: -5 Points
Using Beef Not From Factory-Farmed Cattle: -8 Points
Annoying Placement of Condiments on Top of Nachos: +5 Points
Cumulative American Cuisine Points Total For Course: -3 Points
Total: 0 Points

It's right down to the wire! Will I be able to save this meal for American authenticity?



I didn't really have any authentic American beer in the fridge. I figured the best way to emulate an American meal would be to pick the beer that I was the least excited to drink. I did this by selecting the Irish Black Lager from McSorley's. It was actually pretty good except for the part where I remembered about how much I dislike McSorley's schtick as a drinking establishment. Their regular Irish lager brags on the label about how they didn't allow women to drink there until the 1980's. Aside from tasting better the black lager is also better in that they choose not to brag about being a bunch of old world chauvinists. Instead they tell some sort of story about how some doughboys in World War I hung wishbones in hopes that they'd return home from the war safely. They also talk about how they still hang at McSorley's to bring luck to the Irish.

I think it has more to do with McSorley's being a vile den of filth and disorder. Perhaps one day I'll start my own brewery where I can tell that story.

Not Having a Beer Brewed by Anheuser-Busch: -10 Points
Having a Beer Brewed in Latrobe, PA: +5 Points
Having a Beer With a Phony International Vibe: +6 Points
Cumulative American Cuisine Points Total For Course: +1 Point
Total: 1 Point:

I did it! I created an authentic American meal! I win!

Vegetables From The Big City!

This morning we woke up and left the house by 6:30 AM to go into the city. I got to test out my telephoto lens for the first time and give my 50mm lens another shot outdoors. Just when I start to think my photography is approaching passable I try it in a different scenario (read: anywhere other than my dinner table) and learn that I still know next to nothing.



I did take a pretty cool picture of the view from Central Park West looking north from Columbus Circle. That and a lot of shots of the tops of buildings.



If you love gargoyles I suggest you come to New York City. You will not be disappointed.



At the farmer's market in Union Square we picked up a few things. Jen insisted that we pick up these watermelon radishes early even though we were planning on walking uptown and coming back. There were only three left at 10:00 AM and we purchased two of them.



At home we sliced them thin and served them on baguette slices with butter, dill, salt, and pepper. These radishes were much less bitter than normal radishes and quite tasty. Besides, they look like a watermelon and who can't get behind that?



I opened this bottle of white wine for Jen that we purchased in Michigan in 2009 at Karma Vista Winery and Vineyard. I'm not one for knowing (or caring) about wine-pairing but if you are ever looking for a wine to pair with radishes I'd recommend this particular riesling. I'm not sure if any other riesling would work. A sweet one certainly would not but this one was delightful.

That's a Nate Wine Tip!



The only beer I've had from Menabrea before was their lager. I was very excited to find their amber ale this afternoon at Eataly. I drank this while I prepared dinner. I was expecting dinner to have an Italian theme to it but apart from some garlic and olive oil it really didn't end up working out that way.



Tonight's salad was extremely bizarre. Normally I try to make good use of leftovers but I think I may have flown a little too close to the sun with this one. I used up the remaining radish tops, capers, anchovies, avocado, orange bell pepper, and kalamata olives. Basically I got rid of all the stuff I was tired of seeing in the fridge along with a little lemon juice and olive oil.

The salad wasn't terrible but it didn't really make much sense either. It's kind of like if James Joyce put together a salad out of pure annoyance.



The main course was pretty tasty. I used the same technique as used for the salad but the results just ended up being far better. We'd picked up these crab and lobster raviolis last weekend on sale for $2.99. Anything with the word lobster on it for $2.99 is probably worth buying even if it says, "Contains NO lobster."

I browned some crushed garlic in olive oil and butter with some julienned vidalia onion then added some frozen shrimp and scallops to the pan. After a minute I used some white wine, the remaining seafood broth from last night's chowder, tossed in the cooked raviolis and then threw in a little butter and fresh dill.

Leaving the house before 7:00 AM is a really good way to feel like you accomplished a lot in a day. We were able spend about six hours in the city and be home sipping tea by 2:30 PM. I had forgotten how great the Union Square Farmer's Market is. Perhaps this is the start of something new! Maybe we'll wake up early every weekend and trek into the city for such an adventure!

Or maybe we'll continue to sleep in and do absolutely nothing before noon. That's quite a bit of fun too.

Chowder Heads

I've been wanting to make a seafood chowder ever since we had a really good one on our trip to Portland last summer. Apparently I'm not very good at putting my wants into action since it has taken me nine full months to make this happen. Today, however, was the perfect storm of leftovers that would make this possible.



I started by making this salad which used up the remaining mixed greens, radish tops, golden beets, and marcona almonds along with some lemon, olive oil, salt, and pepper.



I don't like to brag but I'm pretty awesome at making soup. The rest of my cooking, in my opinion, I can take or leave. My soup making skills, on the other hand, are top notch. I'm not afraid to admit. I used to work in a restaurant where I was required to come up with four soups a day (made primarily out of leftovers) in five gallon batches. Perhaps, if I follow Malcolm Gladwell's 10,000 hour rule this would make sense that soup making is my specialty. I estimate that in a year and a half I made approximately 469 different varieties of soup, 2,346 gallons in total. According to my calculations that's only about 1,407 hours but I guess that was enough for me to get pretty good at soup-making.

For tonight's soup I cooked some onion, red pepper, and celery in a little butter. I also threw in some leftover tasso from the other night. After that cooked for a bit I tossed in some celeriac, potato, and a bay leaf. After the vegetables were tender I put in a little seafood stock from the pantry and thickened it up with a small amount of roux. I then added a small piece of cooked salmon and some shrimp from the freezer. At the end I added some chopped scallion, dill, and parsley.

The result was pretty good. A little spicy from the tasso but, again, a top 5 soup in my humble opinion.



Speaking of humble: more beer brewed by monks! I picked this one up this afternoon on a visit to a local wine and beer shop.

All you need to do for me to buy your beer is put any number of works on the label. Belgian works, Trappist is another. Since this beer mentioned Trappistes (a multiple of one of my keywords) I figured I couldn't go wrong.

I looked at their official website and I couldn't really tell if it was for a monastery or maybe some sort of Belgian real estate company.

Later I found an unofficial fan site where I learned that the particular one I'd chosen was an extremely hard to find and rare version that represents about 1% of their total production. More reading on their Wikipedia page and Facebook page confirmed that I'd picked a very rare beer indeed.

I also picked up two other beers but the reason I chose this one was the fact that the others are well over 10% alcohol. My nickname of "One Beer Beaudry" may be in jeopardy if I drink anything higher than 8%.

I'm the world's most adventurous drinker.