Eating is Remembering

I love having dinner parties. It is always so satisfying when people really like the food you cook them. I also think it makes me happier to eat with a big group. When I was growing up, and still when I go visit my family, we had dinner together at the table every day. Then in college, I lived in our campus's co-op house, where it was pretty much the same way. Meal times have always been very lively for me, full of interesting conversations, stories, laughter and joking. After cooking, shopping, eating, cleaning, and planning our lives together, for years, my housemates at the co-op become my dearest friends in all the world.

It is a bit sad that in graduate school this has changed very much. As this blog documents, I've shared some very special meals with David. But just as it has gotten harder to make friends in general, it has become rarer to share dinner with the group of friends I do have. It has taken much longer to get to this point than in earlier episodes of my life, but the friends I have made in my two years in grad school do mean very much to me. So it was a wonderful to share such a delicious evening with them yesterday. We had an arugula salad with almonds and lemon vinagrette, the homemade pumpkin tortellini I mentioned earlier with petite peas, pancetta, and lemon cream, and we finished it off with another cheese board from Capone's. This time we had an excellent semi-hard peccorino toscano, a very affordable, but just o.k., goats-milk brie, and a truly excellent italian cowsmilk that I just can't remember the name of. It was really creamy with a soft rind and pronounced flavor.

I remember good meals for a very long time, what we ate, who was there, what the occasion was. Eating (and drinking) with people is how relationships get built and my memories of these relationships are embedded in the memories of the meals we shared. I think this meal will stick with me.

Eureka!

I have recently become obsessed with pho, or Vietnamese beef noodle soup. I could eat it every day, I think. But I have been trying in vain to recreate at home. I have tried three times, and decided I should probably just give up, because each time it is just plain disappointing compared to the restaurant version. This is a distressing experience, because I have a lot of faith in my ability to improve on things in the adaptation to homemade. However, today I was vindicated. I went to Le's Vietnamese restaurant in Harvard square a few day's ago, and had the seafood noodle soup for the first time. This proved much easier and more satisfying in the translation to the home kitchen. I used sliced cuttlefish and Japanese steamed fish cake, which is nice for presentation. I'm glad it worked out, because I've nearly killed our Thai basil plant trying to make this soup. It grew really big over the summer, but all that's left now is a few twigs.

Home at Last

I finished everything on Thursday and am officially on break! It has been such a long semester. Handing in my second year paper, studying and passing generals, immediately jumping into classes and projects, trying to make progress on a dissertation, and trying to take care of myself and figure out what kind of person I want to be all at the same time has been really exhausting. It has been a productive semester, but I am glad that it is over and really optimistic about what is ahead. David finished his work for the semester the same day, and we celebrated that night with a very convenient (no labor-necessary) but very indulgent dinner of wine and french cheese. We had a soft sheeps' milk coated with rosemary, and a cows-milk brie. Also, homemade bread, olives, cherry preserves, and porchetta, a pretty amazing cold sliced pork tenderloin from Italy. I've heard people rave about this, and now that we tried it I know why. The vittles were all courtesy of Capone's Italian market in my very own union square. This place is fantastic. I'm planning on going tomorrow, so maybe I'll take my camera and do a whole feature.

I meant to post this on Thursday night, but there was a camera mix up. David has been taking all the pictures on his camera (and I've passed along all the compliments, by the way), and I made him use the newer nicer camera that I got for Christmas from my parents last year. Turns out, I only have the cord to connect the camera to the T.V. and not to the computer, so they are stranded on the card. Luckily David took a few on his camera first.

A day not entirely wasted

I was pathetic today. I had enough time to finish my obligations for the semester today, but couldn't muster enough initiative to do it, meaning I will have to do it tomorrow. I ended up wasting time on the internet because I was too unmotivated to get any work done. At least I was able to cook again, and dinner was great tonight. Spinach Fettuccine with citrus rosemary cream. It was a perfect combination, and once again totally improvised. I think in the end, my disorganization and inability to plan anything has served me in at least this one way. I am a master of combining whatever I have in the fridge/pantry. So when I do my shopping I make sure I've got staples at home, pick up whatever vegetables look good, and then whatever random things inspire me that day. I try and keep a variety of non perishable, frozen, slower-spoiling , and fresh goods around, but besides that I don't have a grocery list or planned menu. When I am going to cook, I take inventory and make up the combinations to use up things before they spoil. It works really well. Someday I'll take the camera shopping with me.

99 Percent Inspiration

I would normally only post dinner pictures, but today's breakfast was a real surprise. I opened the fridge wanting to make something quick and start the day. I was just going to make some eggs, but I saw the half-used bag of beet greens from last night and thought they would rot if I didn't use them. So I wilted them in a pan with some onions and mushrooms, a clove of garlic for an omelet filling along with the left over fontina cheese from the pizza the other night. I've got to say, they were phenomenal, and they took no time or planning at all.

The fudon tonight's table . . .

The end of the semester is at hand. I am cherishing the moments I take to took and eat even more. But really it's going to be a lot of pizza and takeout chinese most likely for the next two weeks. That can be fun too I guess, but usually when lots of pitchers of beer are involved. I used up more of the Japanese goods I bought last week tonight to make yellow curry udon noodles with tofu and baby beat greens. It was pretty good, but there was no cans of yellow curry paste at the store the other day, so I improvised my own based on a dubious recipe from the internet and without some of the ingredients that should have gone it. It definitely tasted like it was missing something, but was still very good. I've never seen beet greens in the super market before, but we love to eat the greens along with the beet roots we buy in the farmers market, so I picked them up. It was a good move. They wilted more slowly and were sweeter than spinach.

Winter Pizza

Tonight's meal was improvised after we discovered an unidentifiable frozen chunk in the freezer when looking for the fishbroth we used in the seafood noodles. It turned out to be pizza dough we froze months ago. We also had two frozen duck sausages left over from some other long-past meal. So I put my imagination to work and came up with this:

Duck sausage pizza with caramelized leeks, fontina cheese, and rosemary.

The dough didn't rise hardly after we defrosted it, so I was worried. But it baked perfectly, with a thin crispy crust that bubbled up on the edges. I think it's the best pizza we've made yet, and it paired really well with the last pumpkin ale in the fridge too.

Knudelsuppe

Here's me trying to figure out if these little octopuses are too big to leave uncleaned. I ended up cutting out the beaks and removing whatever weird nasty stuff is inside the head. The final Result was noodles in black bean chili sauce with octopus and shrimp. It was excellent.

Posh Squash: Part I

Here are some action shots of tonight's dinner: squash soup. I love squash and I love this soup. We bought a bunch of squashes at the last farmers market, so we have a lot to use up. Stay tuned for squash tortellini, squash lasagna, squash tart, roast squash, maybe another stew. If you are nice, maybe you'll get a dinner invitation.

Vive la Révolution Boulanger!

So . . . I think I have ruined two kitchen towels making the aforementioned NY times bread recipe. So I just did a google search for the terms 'cleaning tip how to get flour out of a towell [sic.]' and clicked on the the fifth link that google gave me. It turned out to be a topic on a food message board that was dedicated to this very same bread recipe! Mind you, I didn't include the words 'bread,' 'recipe,' 'new york times,' etc. in the search, and, out of the whole world wide web, google came up with this!

It's insane, there have been 231 postings on it (including mine) since November 10. The recipe is as close to a revolution in the food world as I have ever witnessed in my life. I finally feel like I am part of something again!

Sisyphus Cleans Up

So I cleaned my kitchen today. Hardly spotless, but it is a lot better than it was. My house becomes a hell-hole rediculously fast. I feel like I spend my life cleaning and nagging david to clean and its all thankless. But I thought I would post up pictures of the kitchen to show you where it all happens. David and I spent the better part of the last year getting the kitchen into workable shape. We added the hanging baskets, the hooks by the stove to hold utensiles, the hooks and magnet strip above the counter for the knives and measuring spoons, and the shelves to hold cooking oil, spices, etc. I've put my staples, like dried beans, rice, pasta, oats, in plastic containers on the bottom shelf. It was david's idea to hang the pots and pans on hooks from the top shelf. We've really made the very best of the kitchen's absolute lack of storage and work space. The cast iron griddle is a fantastic investment, by the way. We make pancakes on it very often, but also homemade tortillas, and grilled sandwiches, and we flip it over to grill vegetables or meats. I also love how it just sits directly on the burners and I don't have to get it out and put it away every time I want to use it.

I went to the Japanese store today, so there'll be some meals on here soon enough, don't worry. I bought a few types of noodles, and some frozen molluscks. I think I am going to put my camera in my school bag, so I can document when I randomly do my shopping. And now, to work, unfortunately.

Welcome

Welcome to my new blog, dinner bell. I really don't have time to spend doing this, but I was inspired by my sister's blog, documenting the travails of new motherhood and the life and times of my very sweet nephew domingo. For now, I'll be posting pictures of my daily meals here and you all can keep updated on my life by seeing what I am eating. We'll see how this goes, but potentially in the future you can get recipes, cooking, and shopping tips too. Here was tonight's dinner. Winter vegetable stew with the very awesome bread which had its recipe featured in the new york times. (but hurry and print it out, those bastards will probably restrict it to 'timeselect' subscribers soon enough). The stew was adapted from Debora Madison's excellent cookbook vegetarian cooking for everyone. Though to quote Mrs. Swan, my version had "a leetle beet of bacon."

A Somerville Thanksgiving

The thanksgiving dinner I made for David before leaving for South Bend. Pan-grilled shrimp with safron pasta and tomato sauce. It was really, really good, the seafood, safron, tomato combination made it taste like a reconceptualized paella. I'm glad it turned out too, because I picked up the package of frozen shrimp on an impulse at market basket. They looked really big and nice so I dropped them in the cart. But when they actually got scanned at the check out, the bag was $25.00; it was too late to send them back for the smaller ones, so I decided they would have to be for a special occasion. It worked out, and David gave many thanks.

'Happy Birthday to Me'

David's Birthday cake. I didn't make this one (that's right, david made his own birthday cake), but I did provide the flower garnish.

Old Pictures, Fresh Sushi

Here is some sushi me and david made some time ago. I believe it was swordfish, which has now become but a fond memory. The near collapse of fisheries seriously keeps me up at night. We are headed for a bleak deliciousless world if somethings not done. I can't immagine a world without the fish that have brought me and my belly such joy. So starting this fall I've been really careful about what fish I'll eat. Check out http://www.mbayaq.org/cr/SeafoodWatch/web/sfw_regional.aspx?region_id=2 for a list of safe purchases.

David and I are a great sushi team. I prepare the fish, sushi rice, and the filling ingredients. I also come up with the concepts for the combinations. David provides the crucial technical skills such as rolling, pressing, and presentation, which I am not so good at.