Twitter Stew

That is what I shall always call this meal: Twitter Stew. I am just learning about Twitter. It is somewhat scary. I have to face that, despite my job as a writer and my Communication degree, I am falling into a generational divide, slightly unable to keep up with internet trends, and I'm just 27 years old. JUST. To the tiny twittering tweens, that's OLD.

Back to the point: I found this recipe on Twitter from @amandahesser, who for some reason or another was posting recipes involving citrus and olives. It was cold and rainy (and continues to be) here in my new home of SF, so a lamb stew with pre-cut butternut squash that I had sitting in my fridge, along with those ingredients, sounded spot-on perfect.

The whole delicious thing took 10 minutes to prepare, then cooked for 30 more, and I'd barely finished catching up with my friend Janelle, who was over for dinner, before dinner was ready. Then, we paired it with an awesome little find from Bi-Rite's frankly very impressive wine selection: 2008 Musar Jeune--a fresh, unoaked red from the culty Chateau Musar made of Cab, Cinsault and Carignan grown on limestone soils. Hearts and stars, and all that.

We don't really have furniture in our new home, just flowery plates and rugs borrowed from the 'rents, so there we are on the floor. See? Moving is fun! SEE??!

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Note: This MAY soon appear on a new and exciting blog called SameBrightStar Cooks! If my East Coast partner in crime gets on it and cooks this sucker up on Sunday. Here's hoping!

When a Vegetable is No Longer a Vegetable

Today: a lesson in turning vegetables into treats. The following are in no way original recipes--a thousand slight variations on both can easily be found online, but damn if they aren't insanely delicious ways to "eat your vegetables." It's always nice when a slice of cake covers a quarter of your recommended daily intake of veggies.

Here sit the keys to Stevie's happy heart! Zucchini and baby Yukon gold latkes spiked with parsley, basil and lemon zest, crisping up in olive oil before being smothered in mascarpone cheese and devoured. I am not sure if fried zucchini and sweet cheese count as dinner, or just a first-course dessert.

Then, of course, I made zucchini bread. I had just made a fresh batch of walnut butter, so I was fresh out of walnuts to add to the batter... but why not smear walnut butter all over a fat piece? Yes, yes that is good.

My Clafoutis Brings All the Boys to the Yard

Yiii, that sounds suggestive. Oh, but the clafoutis was so, so good! And I must send sincere to thanks to my darling Cynthia in Belgium for introducing me to clafoutis years ago in our little catering trailer in West Hollywood. Thank you, Cynthia! "It's like a whole stack of crepes piled on top of each other!"

Free pound o' cherries at the Whole Foods plus the requisite eggs, flour, sugar and vanilla extract all on hand meant clafoutis was so easy (that's a nice rhyme).

Ms. J. Child's recipe, to be honest, was a bit overly sweet for my tastes, so I ended up squeezing some lemon juice over the whole show. Next time, less sugar. Oh, and pitting those damn cherries was seriously tedious. Next time, I leave the pits in.

Hey and here's the yummy cous we munched prior! Cleaned the fridge out of kalamatas, arugula, lemon and some parmesan.

The 22.5LB Wild Striped Bass: Part II

Here's the second meal from our friend, now affectionately known as Albert, the giant striped bass. I will admit to having turned up my nose to fish tacos almost all my life, but this was a game changer. Honestly, the fish wasn't remotely fishy or stinky, even when it got dredged in flour and some seasoning and then lightly fried. Fried fish! Under my own roof! Well, I never...

Then we splashed copious amounts of fresh lemon juice on the succulent little fish bits, and lots of lime on the avocado and cilantro and salted, julienned radishes and chopped onion (very, very conveniently, I had all of these on hand except for the avocado--in fact, having all these ingredients was my impetus for actually giving fried fish a go). Rounding out the lovely little color spectrum was a deep blue-gray tortilla and a chilly, pale pink Chinon rosé.

 

Hangover Pizza

2/14/10
The creation:
Homemade pizza with eggplant and mushrooms

So, what's in the fridge (items listed newest/most recent additions to oldest):
fingerling potatoes
Twice-baked sweet potato
1 slice guanciale
small hunk of Stilton
1/2 tub cream cheese
pizza dough (enough for one small pie)
San Marzano tomatoes (3/4 can)
1/2 white onion
1/3 red onion
1/2 lemon
1/2 lime
3 eggs
Sugo (Mama's homemade, pork-based tomato sauce)
fresh parsley
chicken stock
rabbit stock
3 stalks celery
frozen peas
Maple syrup

What's always there:
milk
butter
flour
rice
dry pasta
peanut butter
grape jelly
Parmesan or Asiago
salt and pepper
nuts (usually almonds and pecans)

Key ingredients consumed:
pizza dough
San Marzano tomatoes
lemon

Ingredients purchased:
fresh Mozzarella
eggplant
mushrooms

The creative process:
Okay, so today wasn't *all* that creative. Last night was a raucous one of vintage Champagne followed by fried chicken and karaoke in K-Town that wrapped up at 6am, so after putting in a full day at work, I wanted nothing but hangover food and my bed. Pizza dough and San Marzano tomatoes were just the siren song I craved. And eggplant and mushrooms are, like, in my category of pretty-much-vegetables, so I didn't feel so bad when I loaded extra mozzarella onto the thing.

The verdict:
San Marzano tomatoes plus a squeeze of lemon, some salt and a dash of EVOO equals perfect pizza sauce. However, four-day-old pizza dough apparently doesn't hold its shape as well as it did on day one. The thing stretched too thinly in the middle, and my excessive toppings made it all soggy and leaky through the bottom. I was hungover and couldn't have cared less: I folded the thing in half, cranked up the heat in the oven so the crust would get somewhat crisp, and called it a calzone. The flavor was spot on, even if it looked utterly miserable.