Oh, friends. What a week it's been.
I'm on day 5 of my current 6 day week, and I am definitely feeling it in my old lady bones. Well, more in my old lady lower back muscles. Yowza.
The recent weather developments have helped a lot though---I've been soldiering on quite happily instead of spiraling into despair which would be more likely if it was still all grey and snowy. Today was colder, but still some sunshine. The last few days have been glorious sunny warm and I have spent them in the kitchen. I'm afraid to look to see what the forecast is for Wednesday.....if it's anything but freezing I'm gonna be out in it, somehow.
So, let me work backwards. Right now I have my first ice cream of the new year going...Chocolate Chip Baileys. Yum. I'll let you know how that turns out. This evening I made a really stellar chicken stir fry for dinner over buckwheat noodles...I gotta tell ya, it rarely occurs to me to do a stir fry and then when it does I am all "why don't I do this ALL THE TIME!?!?!" and then months go by and the cycle repeats. In any case, this stir fry had gorgeous broccoli and carrots and red onions and ginger and little yellow and orange peppers and some chili garlic sauce and soy sauce and sesame oil and a little hoisin for good measure. Boy was that good. Before the stir fry I did some Whole Foods shopping (I seriously need to stop going to Whole Foods every other day. Mostly this week it's been work related but of course I can't help getting stuff for home too and really---we've got plenty of food. Argh.) and also I restocked my wine rack. I've been trying to become a wine snob(wait, no. wine connoisseur) just by randomly picking bottles under $20 to take home. For the most part, I only do red, but this week I got a bottle of white to try. I'll report back on that as well. I am always happy with a dark sludgy Malbec or Syrah, but my new favorite is Tempranillo from Spain. It's really pretty and both light and heavy at the same time. Just trust me, I know that doesn't really make sense.
So anyhoo, life in the kitchen this week has been pretty nice. The weekend, though BUSY, was not crushing like some recent weekends have been. Our International Women's Day Brunch celebrating Women Chefs was fantastic! We made a Red Onion and Mozzarella Frittata with Marinated Mushroom Salad from Anna Thomas' Vegetarian Epicure (book II) Anna Thomas is sort of the godmother of gourmet vegetarian, and also a very successful filmmaker. She wrote and produced El Norte and My Family, Ma famiglia, as well as cowriting the screenplay to Frida by Julie Taymor.
Next up was the Revolutionary Spanish Omelet with Garlicky Kale and Tahini Dressing from Vegan With a Vengeance by Isa Chandra Moskowitz. I was REALLY skeptical about that thing but it turned out fantastic. Her tahini dressing recipe is also really good, and tahini on top of roasted garlic kale=genius. Then Sarah Kramer (How It All Vegan)'s Apple Cinnamon Cornmeal Hotcakes....excellent. I am almost always skeptical of Sarah's recipes because they seem TOO simple, but these hotcakes (once I adjusted up the griddle to the correct temperature) were fantastic. There are oats in the recipe in addition to cornmeal and wheat flour and the oats just kind of melted into the batter and gave a nice chewiness without being really oaty. yum.
I really wanted to represent Yamuna Devi, because her enormous 700+page Lord Krishna's Cuisine is one of my favorite ever cookbooks. I made Pounded Rice Uppma with Potatoes and Peas, and we served it with a Minted Strawberry Cucumber Salad. I really thought folks would be scared of such a weird combo, but it was a popular seller. And SO GOOD! I'm definitely thinking about bringing back the Indian night at least once a month. There are still hundreds of recipes in that book I have yet to make!
Ok...the last entree plate we did was from Judy Wicks' White Dog Cafe Cookbook--Provencal Egg Salad with Spiced Lentil Tomato Soup. Oh my goodness. This egg salad has basil, red onion, capers, nicoise olives and AIOLI. It's over the top! So good.
The soup is lightly Indian spiced with cumin and fennel and mustard and then has little french lentils and tomatoes and spinach. I did the egg salad on toast points which look very chichi and made for a beautiful plate.
We also did up some desserts: Vegan Gingerbread from Louise Hagler, the soy expert from The Farm in Tennessee (again...reading the recipe we were all like "huh?" but it turned out fantastic! especially with a little Soy Whip on top ;) and Nigella's Ginger Bread and Butter Pudding with dark rum and sultanas and all that English excess; and my favorite, Gabrielle Hamilton(from Prune restaurant NYC)'s Cornmeal Poundcake with Candied Rosemary. Amazing. We didn't sell a whole lot of desserts but luckily the cakes freeze well so we can sell them by the slice in the pastry case. The ladies out front had an all female soundtrack going and we handed out Women Chef Trading Cards (which some people, unfortunately, thought were coasters....;(
and had a good time. I have tons of trading cards left, though,,,if you want some, just let me know!
I don't think I ever mentioned how we had a big two page story in the Edible Allegheny Magazine, did I?
They haven't updated the website for this issue yet, but I'll let you know if the story goes online. There is a picture of me and Leslie and a few pics of Jilly and one of Hayden at the pass, and in the story I am referred to as "hardcore locavore." Ha! I love it. Anyway, I think we've been getting some attention from the story and lots of new people are coming in to the restaurant. It really makes me want to ramp up my local sourcing and recycling/composting projects for the new year, in addition to special dinners and more baking and maybe getting some grab and go stuff together so that we are not completely overwhelmed when the hospital opens. In May. Yikes!
Lots of projects, both at work and at home. Currently I am dealing with just keeping the back up fridges stocked. We've got some new folks coming in, though, so once we get them trained up hopefully I can move out of constant prep and back into planning and organizing. Wish me luck.
What else? Oh, D@24 practice day two was better because Steve was there, but also kind of lackluster because the rest of us were all hung over. Next time we will keep the vodka to a minimum. ;) It was really fun though, and I think the best way to get over the nerves of getting together again after ten years. Now that we've got that out of the way, the next practice weekend should be more relaxed. I think we've got the songs down for the most part. Apparently we have to learn "Whipping Post" by the Allman Bros now. Ha.
So around the homestead rebby built a nice big raised bed frame. I am having a hard time trusting that we're all done with snow and frost, but it does seem to have shifted into mighty temperate weather. I haven't really gotten out there at all myself to see what's going on....I hope my lavender, mint, oregano, marjoram and thyme survived. They were all super mulched with a lot of dead leaves, just like in the forest. I'm curious to see if we get any volunteers in last year's garden patch. I know a lot of cilantro seeds dropped and I was sort of tamping them down and letting them be. I've got my Territorial Seed Catalog all marked up...it's time to get that order in! I'm psyched to grow some corn. Just a little bit. And this year I think I'm gonna put morning glories in the front planter along the porch. It should keep them contained and I think they'll look nice vining around the porch rails.
I'm also thinking of ways that we can employ our friends doing some work around the house. I'm always on the verge of giving to charity, but recently I've realized that a lot of people I personally know need some help and if I can bring it home and keep it local....hardcore locavore that I am, I want to do it. So hopefully we can get on the painting soon and get my bike fixed up and get some garden furniture made and help our friends through tough spots at the same time. Mother Earth News would approve, I think.
It's a different day now (Wednesday, the coveted DAY OFF!) and last night rebby and I went to The Fajita Grill for dinner. I have heard all sorts of lackluster reviews of the place, but our meals were pretty good. I had chicken mole enchiladas and she had chipotle chicken burrito. The really awesome thing about the place though is that a)they have pictures of Frida Kahlo and Diego everywhere and b)they had walls painted in the same colors I want for my kitchen, so I got to see what it looks like in action, so to speak. I'm even more excited to do it now. That's a LOT of color, but my kitchen is big enough to take it. I can't wait.
OK, time to get my day going. PS...the Bailey's ice cream is off the chain good!
PPS I'm on the twitter now! look for me at alienspice. I joined it exclusively because Russell Brand asked me to. :)