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December 30, 2006

Saturday Music Roundup

Our new favorite band is the peppy, poppy, very fun Los Abandoned. Their lyrics are a mix of Spanish and English, and song themes are wacky and fun, inciting us to (after some alcohol) jump around playing air guitar in the apartment. Sample lyrics: "en Van Nuys there's porno starts, and swap meets...Van Nuys es very nice, but it's not paradise..." and "¿donde esta mi pantalón" (can someone who speaks Spanish explain why that's singular?). There are songs about stalking, songs almost entirely in Spanish with a "be-atch" thrown in for fun, and songs mostly in English. Titles include "office xmas party", "nada mío es fake" and "panic-oh." It's very happy music. The lyrics are great, too. There are some videos on the site if you're interested.

Another favorite album for us this year has been Nic Armstrong's Greatest White Liar. Love that stuff. Also loving The Flaming Lips, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, The New Pornographers, and Franz Ferdinand

Posted by csageday at 09:16 PM | Comments (0)

YouTube Cooking School?

I knew there had to be good instructional cooking videos on YouTube. Last time I looked, though, I was looking for Spanish dishes and all that came up were lame videos about cooking done by high school students for their Spanish language class (my online searching skills are abysmal). They were mildly entertaining -- there were some silent bits and confusing bits when the kids didn't have the language skills to explain the recipe. Example of what this would sound like in English: "Here we chop tomatoes and onions. [Extended silence while vegetables are chopped.] The tomatoes and onions have been chopped. Here we add them to the stove. Done! Fantastic! Delicious!"

Anyway, I'm finally reading the book that emerged from The Julie/Julia Project (a very entertaining book, btw, especially since JP is a food-obsessed blogger living in the city), and one of the YouTube links on her newer blog led me to better cooking videos. I have just learned to cook a shoulder of lamb and sole "dore" and Lemon Caper Butter Sauce. Maybe this is how I will finally learn to be a decent cook? Without the Food Network to give me regular Lidia and Alton and Ina installments, I have to get my culinary education somewhere.

Posted by csageday at 01:32 AM | Comments (0)

December 29, 2006

Pickles and Pickling

Derek likes things with sharp flavors -- tart things, sour things, pickled things. Especially pickled things. He goes on about the kind that have that extra fizziness, and he always eats my pickles at Souen.

When I read this article about Wheelhouse Pickles in Gothamist, I dropped everything and ordered some (I was in my pre-Christmas panic buying stage). I started with pickled green beans (a fave of D's), but then I saw the beets (I LOVE beets) and the special-of-the-month mystery pickle, and I had to pick up the pears mentioned in the article, so I ended up with four jars.

They arrived, I hid them in the Christmas Pile, and then I forgot all about them. I discovered them later, when I was thinking I didn't really have an exciting gift for D, and something dawned on me. I should give D a picking KIT. Not just pickles, but tools to enable actual PICKLING, so D will never be without a jar of some odd preserved vegetable.

I spent the Friday before Christmas doing nearly all my shopping on 7th Ave in Park Slope (yay! I think it's the first year I've avoided a last-minute trip to a Jersey mall, or even a trip to Soho or Macy's -- very happy about this.). In B&N, I was very happy to find a book called The Joy of Pickling (especially since the whole gift idea would have fallen apart without it), and at Tarzian, a salesperson was actually HELPFUL and located two pickling Ball jars for me.

I spoiled the surprise a little by asking D if we had a relative who might be interested in pickled pears (we don't), but D was pleased anyway. We have since tried the beets and beans (I ate all of the beets in one sitting), and they're wonderful. No pickling yet, but D has been reading the book and I'm dying to borrow it for some pickled beets, and then pickled eggs in beet juice.

Posted by csageday at 08:18 PM | Comments (2)

December 23, 2006

A Prairie Home Christmas

Derek surprised me with a lovely Christmas present yesterday: tickets to last night's show of A Prairie Home Companion at The Town Hall. We were only a few rows back from the stage and it was a wonderful performance. Garrison Keillor is a gifted storyteller -- he doesn't use notes and stands right at the edge of the stage, gesticulating while elaborating on Lake Wobegone stories with his calm, measured tone and serious expression.

My favorite part was a funny "commissioned work" for "out of work instruments," during which a gong, piccolo, baritone saxophone, contrabassoon, and other neglected instruments performed a medley of Christmas pieces (the gong and piccolo provided a rather exaggerated emphasis at the end of each stanza). The ragtag musical bunch was hysterical.

The whole cast generally seems to be having a good time, and I felt like Garrison might be my wise, funny, sometimes-distracted grandfather. Odetta sang several songs -- her voice is so complex and grounding and beautiful. I felt very lucky to hear her sing in person.

The whole audience sang O Holy Night in both French and English, and then Silent Night in both German and English (my two favorite Christmas songs, btw). We were exhorted to sing in Polish by Walter Bobbie, but didn't manage much. The regulars on the show were so fun to watch, too -- now I finally know what they look like (and how they simulate telephone conversation)!

Posted by csageday at 11:08 PM | Comments (2)

December 22, 2006

The Candy Cane Problem

I had a day off last week, so I went looking for candy canes. I like putting them on the tree and using them to spiff up my wrapping jobs (I use mostly fabric and yarn to wrap, so the candy cane is the one non-recycled flourish). I decided that I needed cheap, regular candy canes for decorating purposes, and D directed me to the many discount shops on fifth avenue.

The only problem was that the ones I found there all looked wildly different from each other. The companies that created them did the least possible amount of work to get them in the store. They also had that too-white look -- this means that if you bite into them, your teeth sink into the first slightly moist and gummy outer layer. I don't mind that so much myself (it's the year-old candy cane phenomenon) but it can clog up your teeth.

The only alternative in the string of 99 cent stores and chain pharmacies was the branded version: Starburst or Skittles or whatever. That seemed like cheating. I don't think Santa would approve. Also, there's something to be said for the peppermint candy cane tradition. But it was my only option, so that's what I got. Since then, I've seen a more normal-looking "natural" candy canes at Whole Foods, which I think I might use next year. Still, though, I don't get why our standard candy cane selections have to be so lame. Maybe I'm not looking in the right place?

I'm also lamenting the loss of neighborhood candy places. You know those candy sticks they sell in New England? I used to love those as a kid -- they come in many flavors. Cherry, watermelon, strawberry, lime, butterscotch, etc. (Why can't someone arrange for candy canes to be GOOD like that? There must be a candy cane monopoly. I see artisanal candy canes, but they're usually sold individually and they're too expensive.) There's Dylan's candy shop and the chains have candy selections, but the independent, well-stocked candy store seems to be hard to come by.

Posted by csageday at 01:07 PM | Comments (0)

December 19, 2006

Other Cookies and Datiles con Bacon

Since I wasn't able to point you toward a good cookie recipe this week, here's C&Z with many suggestions. I'm done. C'est fini with the baking.

If you are interested in bacon, however, I have useful information. Direct yourself to The Spotted Pig, where I hear the bar serves pears and prunes wrapped in bacon. Also, if you missed it in Flickr, we stumbled across bacon-wrapped dates in various SUPERMARKETS in Spain. So, I am not crazy, I was just experiencing some nostalgia last summer.

Supermarkets in Spain are really such wonderful places. Part of the reason we rented an apartment instead of a hotel room was so that I could let loose at the market and buy all of the perishable things -- meats, vegetables, fish, cheese, and bring it home. Since our many social activities got in the way, I ended up carrying most of it from place to place until I decided in Hondarribia that my bag wasn't masking the anchovy smell so well anymore. Next time, we need a month in Spain so I can buy more stuff -- like the cheap olive oil for cooking, or all of the different kinds of yogurt we don't have here, etc. I wanted so badly to buy the larger items during our last supermarket visit there... at least Despaña had a good sized tub of Cola Cao.

Posted by csageday at 11:42 PM | Comments (1)

December 18, 2006

Holiday Baking, Take 2

We had a very small gathering to show off our tree last night. To make the occasion properly festive, I figured some homemade holiday cookies should be present. I should know better than to find recipes at the last minute and expect to emerge from the kitchen with a gorgeous holiday platter of baked goods, but last year's fudge fiasco did little to deter me. I found a recipe online for spiced sugar cookies, and the reviews were good, so I charged ahead. (Note: Normal recipe sources, like Epicurious, also have this recipe, but they all use vegetable shortening).

I made the dough early because, uncharacteristically, I read the recipe ahead of time and saw the note about refrigerating the dough for "a few hours." (Why is this necessary, anyway?) This represents considerable progress in my recipe-reading skills -- not only did I pick up ingredients ahead of time because I read the ingredients list, but I read the directions as well. Only I didn't exactly read the whole thing because I didn't realize a cookie cutter was required until I had already rolled out the dough (you'd think the rolling of the dough would have been a good clue, no? I suppose I was expecting to be told to slice it into squares with dental floss, or some such ingenious non-cookie-cutter-requiring solution).

So, at about the time that someone was buzzing our buzzer, I was rolling little balls of dough, smashing them into discs (which probably negated the chilling effects of the refrigerator), and madly shaking sugar crystals all over the counter. I made two batches, and I managed to forget completely, each time, that I was baking cookies at all until they were rather brown (mostly dark brown). We ate them anyway, but I knew I could probably coax a better cookie out of the dough. And finally, tonight, I did. I used a knife to make rounds and then popped them in the oven for 6 minutes (during which time I forbade myself the use of the internet, for fear of overbaking whilst reading bloggish drivel). The cookies are good -- not as spicy as hoped (the recipe calls for cinnamon, ground cloves, and allspice), but very good anyway. I am curious to know if I can skip the whole regfrigeration and rolling and shaping steps ... might have to try that. Or not. They taste similar to the snickerdoodles I made from my chilren's cookbook as a kid, and I don't remember any rolling for them...

Update: Nevermind. The cookies were good right out of the oven, but they're sort of blah today. Anyone have a great cookie recipe?

I actually got one for ginger cookies from the pastry chef at Stone Park Cafe a while back -- I would make them, but the measurements are all metric (argh).

Posted by csageday at 11:27 PM | Comments (3)

Plain Vanilla

Well, I was going to write a post extolling the merits of the Orlando vanilla pictured below, but the damned Internet has me all confused on the subject now. Is it real vanilla, or some sort of yummy synthetic? I don't know, but it's really, really good.

We bought the below vanilla in Mexico last winter (Derek's aunt had given it rave reviews) and have been enjoying it ever since -- it doesn't have the harsh flavor that our regular vanilla does, and it has been fabulous in baking and on ice cream. It says "Pure Natural Blended Vanilla" and refers to aged vanilla, soaking in rum, etc. Perhaps this means it's authentic? Either way, our bottle just ran out, so I'm on a mission (that will most likely involve grocers in Sunset Park) to find some more.

Posted by csageday at 10:38 PM | Comments (0)

December 12, 2006

Thanksgiving

I'm not so much into photography these days, but here's a shot from Thanksgiving weekend.

Posted by csageday at 12:11 AM | Comments (1)

Sahadi's, Stinky, and Despaña

Mom put us in charge of hors d'oeuvres for Thanksgiving, so we got to visit Sahadi's and Stinky and buy our hearts out. We stuck to the usual olives, feta, hummus and babaganoush at Sahadi's, but I'm new to Stinky so I asked for suggestions. We took home a wonderfully, powerfully stinky hard cheese and I'm sorry to say I didn't write down what it was. I do, however, have the label for another cheese we loved -- a soft cheese that comes in a plastic bag since there's no rind -- crescenza (ours was from Bellwether Farms in CA). You expect it to have a standard camembert flavor, but it's got an extra kick. We were also surprised to find many Spanish food items at Stinky, including jamon serrano still on the bone and ready to be sliced.

Which reminds me -- we finally made it to Despaña -- the Spanish food importer at Lafayette and Broome. When we got back from Spain, we headed over there as soon as we could to see how closely we could replicate Spanish meals we'd had. I was very happy with what we found -- Cola Cao (like Quik, but Spanish), white anchovies, lomo, good cheeses, blood sausage (morcilla), and good roasted peppers. What made my day, though, was that at some point, my conversation with the sales people switched to Spanish -- it was just easier to talk about Spanish food that way. It felt so good -- like we went back to Spain for ten minutes.

As far as replicating Spanish dishes, some worked and some didn't, but I think Derek should get some sort of prize for the clams he made. They tasted just like the ones with had over there.

The recipe is simple. You soak the clams in salt water for half an hour to get the sand out. Then you cook them, covered, until they open. In another pan, you sautee a few minced cloves of garlic, then add the clam broth with a teaspoon of flour to thicken it, and a bunch of chopped parsley, and then add the clams back in and mix it all together. Derek made this all one evening before I got home, so I might be forgetting something, but that's the basic idea. It makes for a great communal bowl of finger food.

Posted by csageday at 12:10 AM | Comments (0)

Still Here

The problem with blogs and blogging is that you can't exactly drop it like a cable-knitting or sardine-eating phase. You can feel like dropping it for a while in favor of, say, going outside on nice weekend days or getting sleep of weeknights, and this may seem like the right thing to do, but there is this nagging GUILT. Guilt which really shouldn't be all too terrible given that few people read this and I, in turn, guilt them into doing so.

So, there are blog-worthy topics, I suppose. We've been eating lots of good things. For no apparent reason, we went to Al Di La Friday night (beet ricotta ravioli, calves liver, dessert wine), the very good, newish Fifth Ave. BBQ place Saturday afternoon(fabulous biscuit with sausage gravy, an egg, and cheddar grits), and Rosewater Sunday afternoon (sweet pork ribs over grits topped with a poached egg, side of kale, pear ginger juice). I think we did this to avoid real Christmas shopping.

Derek is, as usual, ordering gifts well in advance from various websites. I, on the other hand, feel like it should still be October, or January. I'm not ready for this gift-giving business. WHY do we have to do this, anyway? For a the past couple of years, I've gotten an early start, and I've had some sort of new Christmas theme to keep me interested. One year, I exchanged stockings with a friend so we'd both have an excuse to buy lots of cute pointless things. Then, I started doing a stocking for D because we spend Christmas morning together. And then there was the whole find-gifts-that-don't-create-more-trash thing, where I stopped buying things people won't wear and bought museum memberships instead. So this year I'm out of ideas. I'm pretending it's not a big deal and hoping that my Christmas spirit/consumerist panic sets in soon.

We did manage to find a nice tree and decorate it, and we've been moving through the collection of holiday CDs (does Jesus Christ Superstar count?). Hopefully this will induce me to get my gifting in order.

On the food front, I made that no-knead bread all of the food bloggers were making back when they were blogging and I was, ahem, not. It is the recipe "a six year old could make," so I figured I couldn't mess it up too much. I only let it rise 12 or so hours (not the recommended 19), but it seemed ready, so I went ahead with the rest of the recipe. I folded it and let it rest while I went with my family to see the Ron Mueck and Annie Leibovitz shows at the Brooklyn Museum (and visited the cafe there for the first time -- good stuff), then baked it when I got home. I messed something up, but I'm not sure what, because it was a little too moist for my taste (took it out too soon, maybe? bottom was pretty dark, though), but Mom and Derek loved it and ate it all up, so it wasn't too bad. Will have to try again. I was happy to have kept some leftover cornmeal around for ages -- it was perfect for the crust.

Also on the food front -- you know how you have a few things that you know how to make well? I think I have a new thing (which brings my total up to something like a lofty four). It's another Lidia Bastianich recipe, and it involves broccoli rabe, bacon or pancetta, and chic peas. The bacon makes a mostly vegetable dish taste nice and meaty, and the beans and greens are comforting. It needs some tweaking (I think I'll try kale), but it's getting there.

Posted by csageday at 12:09 AM | Comments (1)