bookworm

i read a whole book today. and a good one. i am ready to marry percival everett. thank goodness he has a whole bunch of books for me to jump into.

i am feeling more and more uncomfortable about loafing around in a tiny bikini (but have i ever felt comfortable? does anyone?) and decided that i would feel much better about dinner if it was just a bunch of vegetables and health.

i made a nicoise salad. i have never officially had a nicoise salad, "in the style of nice, france". and i like to believe that this salad is open to interpretation.. and this is mine:

hard boiled eggs, boiled red potatoes, red pepper, red onion, cukes, green beans, olives, tomatoes. all tossed in a dressing of dijon mustard, parsley, red wine vinegar and oil. lots and lots of s & p. scooped onto some greens and with a big chunk of bread.

beach bums

i am already in full vacation mode after 24 hours of being in north carolina.

my mind is a nice mix of blank and spinning. blank from being tossed around in waves, sitting around in the sun and staring at birds and shells and sand. i also finished the sea, the sea- finally, and my mind is spinning with the processing of a wonderful story.

and so for dinner we had a nice pasta. roasted garlic. carmelized onions and leeks. sundried tomatoes, wilted spinach, lots of basil, goat cheese.

and tomatoes, carmelized onions and basil, some balsamic on toast.

i am excited for a week of cooking dinner. how nice to come inside around noon, for a break from the hot sun to do some food prep..

debby party

sorry for the fuzzy quality of the picture, but this dinner was so technicolor that the camera must have had trouble focusing..

dear friend debby is in town from brooklyn and we are apparently starting a wonderful tradition of having a dinner party each time this happens. we were joined by some other lovely, smart, beautiful ladies. the conversation was so stimulating, genuine and special. this dinner, full of color and freshness and health was so fitting.

where to start? i had the day off and my head was swimming with ideas for a summery, vegan meal. i usually browse epicurious.com when i am going to be cooking, sometimes there are some recipes that are inspiring, and this was the case today.. but of course, i had to add some special sierra touches.

i roasted portabello caps with some garlic oil, s & p at 450 for about 10 minutes. on top of the caps, i piled a bulgar wheat salad. i haven't ever used bulgar. ever. how weird. it is so easy and so yummy. easy to cook: poured 3 cups of boiling water over 2 cups of the grain. let it sit till absorbed. added a dice of bell peppers and red onion. some basil and parsley.

for a little saucy action, i made a chimichurri. this is my most favorite and staple summertime accompanist. in my little chopper: 1 jalapeno, four cloves garlic, juice of one lemon, a bunch of parsley, some vinegar, some oil, and from here you can go anywhere. i added basil, rosemary, lemon zest, some special caper and oregano seasoning. bright and green and full of fresh flavor. (i have started imagining this meal with a thick, grilled lamb chop on top.. next time when we're eating meat..)

the salad. roasted some zucchini because i cannot seem to make a meal without it lately. piled some rocket leaves on top, half of an avocado and a sweet and hot tomato salad dressing. in baby chopchop: a few garlic cloves, a bit of the liquid from my favorite jar: pepperdillos, about 2 cups of cherry tomatoes, a nice pinch of red flakes, some balsamic vinegar, a little oil, lots of s and some p.

i made some more spuds bravas. and the chimichurri is nice with em. also had a nice loaf of bread and some chevre for us dairy eaters.

for dessert we had the hempy dreamy stuff. i had macerated some blackberries in lime juice and sugar early in the day. the coconut lime flavor with the berries was the jam! i tried to lay off the chocolate, but i think that there is some left. breakfast...

leftovers

i really hate eating leftovers. i usually eat according to the food i am craving and it is hard for me to get excited about something i already wanted and got to have. i would love to be the type of cook and eater who uses leftovers and makes them into something new and exciting! i rarely do, but today i did it, and that's just because it was so obvious...

i woke up super early and went for a walk in the cemetery. it was nice and misty and foggy and green. while i was walking i started thinking like crazy about making a fried egg sandwich when i got home. and the craving began, and of course i didn't think of much else for the rest of the walk (except for the turtle that i picked up, flipped over and moved out of the road.. kinda thought about taking that guy home for about 10 minutes, eggs won).

i got home and started rooting around in the fridge for some eggs. and guess what?! there were about 4 of those potatoes done bravas in a little tub, with some of the sauce! so i had some eggs over easy on a pile of those potatoes. best breakfast ever. so good that i didn't even get a picture cause i was already eating it all.

and speaking of leftovers, i can't decide if this is the worst idea ever or the best: using the cup and a half of the french press that i usually have leftover the next day for iced coffee in the morning.. its already cooled off and the overextraction gets tons of ice and milk...

feastival - antipasto

tonight was mama llama's bday and i managed to keep this big dinner party a secret from her until it was dinner eating time! i am so impressed with myself. and impressed with her, all i said this morning was "happy birthday!" and "could you please not hang out at home at all today?" and without knowing what was up my sleeves, she stayed away all day, letting me make a most extraordinary dinner for her, her four besties and my sisters.

when folks got here we busted into some cremant. love it. cheap sparkling = summer. cremant just can't be called champagne because it is not from the region of champagne. stupid wine rules. it also has a way more fun cork pop! because it tends to be a little more fun and excited to get outta the bottle than its snotty relative.

then we sat down to the antipasto. i had made some toasts. bought some nice things in jars: cornichons, roasted peppers. had some stuff laying around from all these cheese plates i have been tiding myself over with.. roasted some garlic. olives. salami, prosciutto, calabrese.

i think that i may have mentioned before that this is one of my favorite ways to eat? well, it is. making little toasts with cured meats and a choose-your-own-adventure flavor combination, depending on what you are piling on the bread.. yum. salad is coming.. 2006 shirley mays chardonnay open and ready...

feastival - salad

this salad is a signature from the good old days at jgb. kimi would bring us lettuces from stones throw farm, and one night she came in with this beautiful butter lettuce. aesthetically, i loved the way it looked! and we didn't have a plan, but i was eating the lettuce raw. it was that good (i don't normally do that, i love salad dressing like mayo). so we ran with it. butter lettuce, mmm.

i like to cut it this way, as it looks pretty for presentation.. used my potato peeler on some manchego cheese. a nice mild, nutty, hardish cheese. salted marcona almonds. way better than regular and they've got em at trader joes. what do you know? and they are cheap! vinaigrette of zydeco mustard from the mustard king at findlay market - about 3 tbsp. 3 cloves raw garlic. about 1/4 c. red wine vinegar. about 3/4 c. olive oil. s & p. a little sugar or something to cut the vinegar. run it through the little cuisie. a perfectly balanced salad. if i do say so myself.

feastival - ice

nothing makes a dinner party feel fancier than a silly little touch like making an ice. this "palate cleanser" was of the watermelon variety. pureed about 2 cups of watermelon and strained the chunks. stirred in about 4 tbsp. sugar, 2 tbsp. lime juice and about 1 c. sparkling water. put it in the freezer and every time i thought about it during the day, i pulled it out, stirred it, or chopped at it with a knife, in general just trying to get it to look slushy.

feastival - main

main course was so wonderful. opened 2004 lewis vineyards syrah by eric dunham. guys, this was my last serious walla walla bottle. and its gone. but it was so perfect with this plate, i am glad i did it.

marinated filet mignon in balsamic vinegar, olive oil, s & p. grilled. mouth melting. i don't usually eat meat that good. i don't usually spend that kind of money on meat and then have to cook it. had a little anxiety at that point, but it was perfect!

grilled zucchini and asparagus. both in olive oil with s & p.

and the crowd pleaser: sierra's patatas bravas.
boiled a bunch of small new potatoes early in the day, till slightly soft, in salt water. near serving time, i roasted them at 450 with a little olive oil till the skins looked like all the wrinkled old ladies out shopping with me at that krogers in kenwood mall at about 11 am today. wrinkle fest. then threw them in a bowl with the bravas salt-
about 3 tbsp. smoked paprika
about 1 tbsp. hot hungarian paprika
about 1 tbsp. crushed red flakies
about 2 tbsp. kosher salt

these little bundles of joy got a nice little sauce- used some of the leftover roasted garlic and oil from the antipasto course and mashed up about 6 cloves in about a cup of mayo. use the real stuff people. you know how i feel about mayo. shook in about 1 tbsp. of that bravas salt in there too. i could eat the potato portion of this plate every night. with a bottle of 2004 lewis syrah. ha.

feastival - dessert

i am going to try to be real slick and upload all these posts so that they show in order of the meal. so i am starting with dessert, hopefully you'll be reading about dessert last. this was a good one. strawberry shortcake with some twists...

buttermilk biscuits. i am not sharing the recipe, cause it was super hard to work with. wishing i would have "stolen" the one from whoop em up cafe, but instead i found myself using one off epicurious.com.. and it was tricky and messy. but the biscuits were alright...

i macerated strawberries in a bit of sugar, some lime juice, and chiffonade of basil. in the chiffonade of basil there is a bit of my fingernail, which i chopped off and didn't tell you guys. it hurts real bad. delish!

made that fennel whipped cream from the coffee drink post a while back. soaked half a bulb of chopped fennel in a quart of heavy whipping cream with some powdered sugar (about 1/4 c.) and some vanilla. before serving, i channeled my inner 12 year old boy and whipped it by hand.

assembly: sliced a biscuit in half, scoop of strawberries, plop of whipped cream. serve. sing happy birthday. eat. yum. the herbs give some nice flavor making it possible to keep eating after that whole meal.

tuck

tucker is doing ok. i just took him outside and he was following bugs around the yard and rolling in the grass (an attempt to remove the neck brace? i think yes) i have been sitting in the basement on the floor for the past few hours, reading and watching him lay around. he is uncomfortable, kinda dopey and lazy. being here to watch makes me feel better about him. knowing that he is breathing and looking at me every now and then is good.

it is hard to be thinking all day long about why all this shit is coming my way. i am trying not to feel victimized and just trying to get the "lesson" from it. but that gets me into way too much thinking. i feel stressed by all the pulls on my heart. it is affecting my sleep, i woke up this morning, my bottom lip almost chewed thru, i think that i was chomping on it in my sleep, my jaw hurts from clenching.

tonight was the first night of SHORTS, and i thought it was fun, trying to write, when maybe we all were there to just be distracted by matilda, deep friend mac and cheese and beer. it was good to know that other people wanted to be there, writing, having some creativity flow out of a pen, having something to show for it. but it was hard to be there too.. my thoughts being so disjointed, trying to connect what is happening in my life to any positive flow. and wanting to be sitting with tuck or with jenna or cooking, its been days since i have made anything.

i think i need to cook, i think that will help get this jaw loose and these shoulders loose and this brain too.

split yellow peas

had a lovely dinner at claire's tonight. split yellow peas with tumeric and dill on basmati rice and gussied up with yogurt. kale done up with garlic, ginger, sesame oil and soy. then some rediculous chocolate hemp ice dream.

the dinner was spectacular because i was sitting next to (gasp!) a semi-famous person. who also accompanied us to the show after. my goodness. i tried all day to get a handle on how excited i was to have this plan for tonight. but in the end, with the dinner and how nice he was, i just gushed about his band and asked lots of questions and was in general just very much myself. gah! how embarrassing...

the show tonight: some bands i have never heard of. ssion opened. i still feel very overstimulated from the entire evening, but this show/act was just really amazing. i don't know if i liked it, but it was quite entertaining. highlight of their set was the second song in, i would imagine that it is called "bullshit". the projector screen had a photo image of a turd that was being stepped on by a cartoon shoe and there was lots of yelling and dancing about not taking bullshit. they were loud and a lot of folks were dancing, and the lead singer had house keys sewn all around the hem of his shirt. i might be stealing that look for tomorrow.

the main event was fischerspooner. no prior knowledge of these guys, except knowing that claire loves them and claire loves dancing. this was really a top knotch production with lots of outfit changes, choreographed dances, mirrors, the whole nine yards. i was so taken with watching these folks, that i forgot for parts of the show that i was in the company of you-know-who. at the encore, while standing next to this semi-famous, talented, percussionist- he started clapping along with what was going on the stage and i think that was probably the most special moment for me. i wanted more of that, a very real moment coinciding with this over-the-top, dramatic, synthetic parade. why? is touring US in the fall with the release of eskimo snow!

call me lady googoogaga.