We've all had sour stomachs around here lately. Some gastrointestinal bug...our latest plague to strike. I went to pick up Vietnamese food for dinner tonight, because it sounded good. Fresh and savory, with veggies and noodles.

While I was looking at the menu, I decided to get one of their snow bubble teas. I like bubble teas. I dig the chewy tapioca balls at the bottom.

They have them in all kinds of strange flavors at our local Viet restaurant. Avocado sounds odd, although I suppose it might be OK.

Here's one that is NOT OK.
Durian

Oh lord.

I've heard that, while it smells quite bad, it tastes good. I wanted to see what it was like, so I ordered a Durian Snow Bubble. What I got was the smell of burning skunk. That acrid skunky smell, at its most nauseating, but with an even more acrid burning hair component thrown in.

It DID taste decent, before the smell hit me, but once the smell hit, that's all I could focus on. Travel and food writer Richard Sterling says:
“... its odor is best described as pig-shit, turpentine and onions, garnished with a gym sock. It can be smelled from yards away. Despite its great local popularity, the raw fruit is forbidden from some establishments such as hotels, subways and airports, including public transportation in Southeast Asia.”

Other comparisons have been made with the civet, sewage, stale vomit, skunk spray, and used surgical swabs.

Yep. I like trying new and odd foods, but this was beyond me. I gagged as I poured it out in the sink, and had to put a lemon down the garbage disposal afterwards to try to get rid of the smell.

Next time I might try that avocado. Or maybe just play it safe and stick with watermelon.

Posted by msLaura at 03:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Wedding Photographer, originally uploaded by mslaura.

Well, here's what's going on at the moment:

GRANDPARENT HELL
Bad news about Nanny. Fran called me and said that she is not eating, very agitated and upset in general. She won't allow Fran to do any vacuuming, laundry, or change the sheets on the bed, but she refuses to do any of it herself either. She refuses to pay Fran. She refuses to go anywhere, even to the bank to deposit checks.

My grandfather finally passed away on Dec. 2nd. The cremains STILL haven't arrived at Nanny's house. I guess that's what you get with discount prepaid cremations. Nanny doesn't want any kind of memorial service, which I understand. She says just wait until they're both gone and then hold a joint service, it won't be much longer.

So she's planning on dying. I guess that's what all the lack of eating and other stuff is about. Unfortunately, last time I heard, refusing to deposit checks in your bank account or change your sheets didn't make anyone DIE any faster. It just makes life a whole lot more of a pain in the ass for the rest of us.

I found two forged checks on Nanny's checking account, each for almost $400. She fell for another scam and gave out her checking information to someone who called up and pretended to be the bank. I had to get her account closed down and then open up yet ANOTHER new checking account.

Just a few days ago I found out that the bank is refusing to reimburse the fraud, since my grandmother "conducted business" with the scammers. Um no, she thought they were people from the bank calling. So now I have to go fight with the bank. Argh.

For now Fran and I are keeping her checks hidden away, and anything with her banking information on it. That way she won't have access to any account numbers, and can't give it out to scammers. I don't know what else to do. I thought about changing her phone number and having the old one forward to me, but haven't gotten around to investigating what hassles are involved in that.

BIRTHDAY
I turned 37 last Wednesday. For my birthday I went and got my legs waxed, then had a 90-minute prenatal massage that was absolute bliss. I was able to move my back and hips freely for the first time in ages.

The masseuse said that I was one wrong move away from total spasm. My entire lower back was in perma-clench, shoulders and neck completely rigid, she couldn't get my arms to go up over my head, etc. Pretty sad for someone who used to be a fairly flexible yoga aficionada. But then again, I haven't been taking care of myself, I haven't been stretching, I've just been stressing and getting more and more stiff and tight.

So OK, I promise to do cat/dog pelvic tilts, forward folds, bridge pose, and pigeon pose on a regular basis. Plus stretch my shoulders and do neck rolls.

That afternoon I had an OB appointment, and I set up my C-section for January 22nd. My doctor was not thrilled about that, since my due date is supposedly the 25th. I told him that I went 5 days over with Julian, and I'm from Scandinavian/Northern European ancestry, in which the women typically deliver bigger, later babies. I came late, my brother came late, etc.

He is still convinced that THIS time I'll deliver early and then it won't be a nice, relaxed, planned C-section. Well, whatever guy. I'll take my chances. I'm more excited than anyone to get this baby OUT of my body, but I don't really want him to come out before he's fully cooked.

SICK
This cold thing has gone far enough. While I was at the OB, I asked for a prescription for azithromycin, just *in case* this sinus infection took a turn for the worse. Well, Friday night I suddenly started getting intense tooth pain, and it felt like someone had slugged me in the cheek with a sledgehammer.

Ding! Time for those antibiotics, I'd say. As soon as I started them I immediately felt better and was able to breathe (and therefore sleep) at night. The tooth pain got worse at first, (yesterday I was seriously fantasizing about pulling out some teeth with pliers, even though I knew it was just referred pain and didn't really have anything to do with my teeth at all) but today it feels better. Still tender on the left side of my face, but not too bad.

HOLIDAY FUN
Yesterday we went up to Crest Ranch Farm to go cut down a Christmas tree. It was a lovely drive through the forest, and Julian even took a nap on the way. Once we got up there it was bitterly COLD, even with coats and hat on....maybe in the 30's. But we chose and cut down a lovely 6-foot tree and got it tied onto the roof of our car.

Then we headed to Boulder Creek afterwards and had lunch by the fire at Scopazzi's. I decorated the tree when we got home, and it looks beautiful. Last night was the second night of Hanukkah as well, so we lit the Hanukkah candles and did double holiday time.

COOKING COLLECTIVE
My Cooking Collective is going pretty well. We made 15 pans of lasagna over here last Tuesday, plus a gigantic batch of chocolate chip cookie dough. It was kind of hectic, we had eight moms and their kids, but everyone still had fun. I cut the per-session limit back to five moms though. That way it's more relaxed and not as crazy.

Next on our list is Chili Con Carne and Cornbread. I am trying to stock up my freezer so that I have plenty of food when the new baby arrives, but I keep pulling it out to eat when I'm too tired to cook. Plus I want to *try* these recipes after cooking them.

Last night we had Lemon Glazed Chicken Breasts out of the deep freeze from the first CC session. Delicious. I will definitely make that one again.

Enough updating for now. Julian and I are going to the Campbell Farmer's Market this morning to get some fruit and veggies, and take in the sunny weather and fresh air outside before it starts getting cold and dark.

Posted by msLaura at 11:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Today was by far the most depressing Thanksgiving I've ever had.

I woke up and made breakfast. Nanny cleaned her plate: eggs, toast, juice, banana, kiwi...the whole shebang. That part was good. I looked through the flyers in the morning paper over breakfast and found out that JC Penney, Macy's and Kohl's are all having huge sales on women's clothing, bras, etc. tomorrow morning until noon, so that was good too. I can get most of the stuff that I need for Nanny at big discounts. I guess I'll go to JC Penney's? It's a little bit cheaper, and it's not like I need to buy cashmere or anything fancy, just decent quality clothing. For crying out loud, she's wearing the same ratty old red acrylic sweater every day right now. At least I can get wool and cotton for her. I hope she wears it though. She's so old-fashioned about wearing hose and high heeled shoes and belts and all that crap. Yesterday it was a completely foreign idea to her that you could LAYER clothing...wear a sweater over a shirt! I don't get it. And yet she's freezing alllllll the time. I wonder if I can get her to wear socks and comfortable shoes instead of knee-high hose and pumps.

I think I'm just going to go to the store and buy a bunch of stuff while the sale is going on, then whatever she doesn't like I'll take back. I can't see fighting crowds with both Nanny and Julian and having to keep track of them both in JC Penney.

Julian started to flip out an hour or so after we woke up. He was all riled up. It's so hard on me. I don't know how people in small apartments have kids. I couldn't wait to get him out to the playground, but then I knew I couldn't stay there all day long or anything, so I tried to stretch things out a bit. I scrubbed the toilet and sink, which were filthy. For some reason the toilet tank was full of sandy grit and some sort of black substance...iron? I don't know. The um, flushing hole or whatever it's called...the place where the toilet contents exit the bowl...is all discolored brown. It's some kind of mineral deposit I think, because I scrubbed it and bleached it and nothing helped. I'd have to chip it off with a chisel or something. Not going there.

Doesn't exactly help ease my mind about drinking tap water here. Ugh, it tastes awful too. I should buy bottled water, but I hate all the plastic bottles. I wish I had the extra Brita water pitcher that's sitting in my attic storage right now.

Right as we were getting ready to go I left the room for a minute and came back to a giant crash. Julian knocked over the living room table lamp and broke it. I was ready to kill him by that point. I was able to fix it with glue, but it was more than I could take. I got him in the car as fast as I could and we spent two hours at the playground. He played his brains out...luckily there were a bunch of other kids there for him to play with, so he got to chase and be chased and run and climb and everything.

My pelvis is on FIRE today though. I can only just barely walk, and each step is really painful. Unfortunately I had to keep getting up at the park...Julian was grabbing at this older boy trying to get a tennis ball that they were playing with, then he was running around the swings, where big kids were swinging really high and fast (little kids are notorious for not being able to track the path of someone swinging, wandering into the line of fire, then getting totally whacked when the swinger bashes into them). He just started getting all crazy. He fell into a big mud puddle too, and got totally dirty. I didn't care about that so much, but it was bothering him and he kept trying to clean off his muddy butt.

I put clean pants and shoes on him before we got inthe car, and we went back to Nanny's. Amazingly, he was still full of energy, but I had him help me cook dinner (he cut sausage with a butter knife) and I managed to distract him for a while with an old deck of cards.

I made turkey breast cutlets, pan-seared and then simmered in butter, salt and pepper, and chicken broth. Mashed potatoes, peas and corn, stuffing...I think that was it. I had cranberry-orange sauce, but I forgot to put it on the table. Ugh. It wasn't fancy, but it wasn't a bad Thanksgiving, considering. Except that when I served it up, I said, "Time for our Thanksgiving feast!" and Nanny said, "Oh, is it Thanksgiving today?" and then five minutes later I had to remind her again.

She was getting all fretful and obsessive and driving me nuts. I wanted to eat our dinner before going to see my grandfather, thinking we could take him some food afterwards. He wasn't responsive at all yesterday, so I figured it wouldn't matter so much. Plus my Auntie Doris called and said that the worst thing for me to do was to let her sit by his bedside for a few hours at a time by herself.

I don't know, she says she *wants* to. I give her a choice of coming with me to the playground, staying home, or spending a few hours with Bopah on her own, and so far she picks option #3 every time. Today I saw how she was much more upset by NOT spending time with him, and when I go with Julian we just can't stay that long at the hospice, so I think it's fine. I mean, it's better than dragging her off after a 15 minute visit.

Anyway, she just kept putzing around the house today, compulsively picking things up and putting them away. Julian was playing with a deck of cards and she came over and started putting them back in the box and put them away in the drawer, which naturally he was upset about. Me too, since he had finally been quietly playing on his own! I had set up his chair at the table with a pillow as a booster and put a towel over it before we ate, and she took the pillows away and put the towel in his suitcase. Between the two of them I find it nearly impossible to get anything done, I swear.

The final straw was when she closed all the curtains and made the room dark as night at 3:45pm...when it was ALREADY stuffy as hell, all windows closed tight and the heater blasting at 83F.

I said, "Nanny, it's a beautiful sunny afternoon, what are you doing? Don't you want to see the sunshine and the trees and birds and people going by? It's only 3:45pm. Let's enjoy the daylight while we have it."
"Oh," she said, "I thought it was 5:00pm already."
She's all worried about keeping the curtains closed. I don't get it.

After dinner I cleaned up the bathroom some more while she did dishes. This time I removed three brown paper grocery bags full of junk from the cupboards under the sink. Old shriveled bars of unwrapped soap, used disposable razors, bottles of after-sun lotion from back when we lived in Florida TWENTY-FIVE years ago. Random cheap knick-knacky boxes full of dusty paper clips, a foam heart from a prescription drug company, all kinds of weird icky stuff.

Plus seven unopened bottles of hydrogen peroxide. Three full cans of shaving cream. EIGHT curling irons, all the same size. I kept the H2O2, put the shaving cream out by the garbage bins for someone to take, and I'm still not sure what to do with the eight curling irons. I'll keep the best one and get rid of the other seven.

I still have to go through three more big cupboards in the bathroom. Man. But now at least the counter is cleared off, so all that's on it is her jewelry box, her glasses and her prescription medicine. I watched her get ready for bed tonight and what little she used and needed was still right there where she looked for it, so I guess I did OK. She even put her glasses into the case that I unearthed from the pile on the counter behind her makeup mirror, so that was cool.

I can't believe that I used to be a pack rat too at one point. It's so awful. I'm just grossed out by pointless junky clutter now. It makes it so hard to find anything. It's impossible to be well-organized when you have crap bursting out of every cupboard. How can you even tell what you have?

Tomorrow I have to go through the supplements as well. They are literally FALLING out of every cupboard in the kitchen. Most of them are unopened or almost full. There are hundreds and hundreds of them. I shudder to think how much money was wasted on this crap, thousands of dollars I suppose. I buy supplements too, but not nearly this many, and I do actually take them!

I am going to trash all of these and leave her with a new bottle of Trader Joe's Senior Multivitamins, some milk chocolate calcium balls, and her precription meds. That's it. She will never take them on her own, it's all my grandfather's obsession, He always was raving over some new supplement du jour that was going to return him to youth, health and virility.

We finally went to go visit my grandfather at around 6:00pm. This time he was alert and we could actually understand him fairly well. Completely different from yesterday. I don't get it. He swings from near-death to not-near-death at the drop of a hat. But he's not going to be able to come home. I still don't understand how my grandmother took care of him by herself for as long as she did.

Julian was past his bedtime so we had to go pretty quickly, plus the smell of shit and pee was pretty strong in the halls at the hospice today and it was making me sick to my stomach. Julian melted down on the way out and I had to limp along carrying his kicking, screaming 30-pound body to the car, then he continued to scream in the car all the way home, and that was the final straw for my nerves.

I grabbed his pajamas when we got home, threw him on the bed, closed the door, and burst into tears. He got all quiet and asked me what was wrong. I told him that I was very sad, that I missed Daddy and Doggie and I wanted to go home. My sweet boy came over and petted my hair, patted my back, and then he took the little wooden massager on the table and said, "Mommy like a rub?" and gave me a little backrub with it. Little sweetheart.

I gave him a big hug and a kiss and said that we were both having a hard time, but that I loved him very much and we would go home soon and see Daddy, and our house, and our friends, and Puppy, and his toys, and everything. And my god, I am banning TV for at least a month when we get home, it's on all the time here just out of desperation, plus it's at his level so he can turn it on and off at will.

After that I read him three stories and we cuddled and kissed some more and he fell asleep pretty quickly.

Sigh. I hope tomorrow is a better day. I really do.

Posted by msLaura at 09:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Quiche is great. I'm not fond of the quiche that you get in restaurants or delis though. The restaurant quiches are almost always refrigerated and then reheated, so they are all dried out and nasty and weepy by the time you get them. I don't mind quiche leftovers after I've already had some *fresh* quiche, but I don't like to pay for reheated quiche, you know? Plus it's almost always spinach quiche, which I like, but there are so many other kinds of quiche to make. Why not branch out a little?

From Julia Child's "The Way to Cook"
Julia says:

The quiche -- that cheesy open-faced custard pie much in vogue starting in the mid-1960's, became so ubiquitous, and often so badly made, that its popularity waned. I vote it back in again because it is wonderfully good eating. And when you have ready-made dough inthe freezer, or a read-baked shell, it is fast to prepare as an easy first course or supper or luncheon dish.

As usual, she's right. Here are two of my favorites, from "The Way to Cook".

Quiche Lorraine
The mother of all quiches, shown above. I never see this offered in restaurants in its classic form, and I can't understand why. It's utterly delicious, easy to make, wonderful in every way. There's no cheese, but none is needed.

For a 9-inch quiche, serving 6 as a first course, or 3 as a lunch/dinner main course.

* 6 crisp strips of cooked bacon (I often use more)
* A 9-inch prebaked pie shell
* Seasonings: salt, freshly ground pepper, and nutmeg
* 3 large eggs, blended with enough cream to make 1.5 cups

Yes, that's it. That's all you need.
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
Break up the pieces of bacon and strew them in the bottom of the shell.
Season the egg and cream mixture, and pour it to within 1/8 inch of the rim.
Bake 30-35 minutes in the preheated oven, until puffed and browned.

Provencal Tomato Quiche

This didn't sound all that special from the recipe, but it came out incredibly well. Dan and I almost ate the entire thing by ourselves. Just be sure to spread the anchovy paste really evenly and thinly on the bottom of your prebaked pie shell. Last night I left some thicker areas of anchovy puree and they were too strong/salty in some bites of quiche. It should just provide a delicious hint of savory background flavor, not be overpowering or even identifiable.

This quiche is, of course, best at the height of the season, when fresh tomatoes are ripe and bursting with flavor. I used ripe heirloom tomatoes from my garden. Use the best that you can find.

* 2 cups sliced onions
* 1/4 cup olive oil
* 1 large clove of garlic, pureed or pressed
* 5 medium fine fresh ripe tomatoes, pureed or chopped
* Seasonings: salt, freshly ground pepper, oregano, and cayenne pepper; tomato paste is optional
* 3 eggs
* 1/4 cup lightly pressed-down, chopped fresh parsley
* 8 anchovy filets packed in oil, drained and mashed to a puree with 1 Tablespoon olive oil
* A 9-inch prebaked pie shell
* 1/4 cup grated Parmesan or other hard cheese
* 1 or 2 large fine ripe tomatoes, sliced

The tomato base:
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. In a 10-inch frying pan, saute the onions with 2 tablespoons of olive oil for 8-10 minutes, until tender but not browned. Stir inthe garlic, then the chopped/pureed tomatoes, and simmer 10 minutes, stirring frequently, until a thick puree. Stir in seasonings to taste, including a little tomato paste if you think it needed; let cool to tepid. Then beat in the eggs and parsley.

Filling the shell and baking:
Spread the anchovy puree in the shell evenly and thinly and cover with the tomato base; strew on the cheese, arrange the tomato slices tastefully on top without overlapping too much. Salt lightly, and drizzle a little olive oil on top.

Bake 30-35 minutes in the preheated oven, until lightly puffed and an agreeable patchy brown.

Posted by msLaura at 08:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I've been in a complete cooking rut lately, utterly uninspired and unable to think of a single thing that sounds good to eat. Then I got the latest issue of Sunset Magazine (always a fantastic recipe resource) made several of the recipes, and suddenly I'm back in action. These two in particular have been huge hits:

The Tortilla Espanola is my very favorite Spanish bar food, so I was thrilled to see a recipe for it. This recipe is easier than most, since it doesn't require you to try to flip a large half-cooked omelette full of potatoes halfway through, which has always been a disaster in the past.

Contrary to how it sounds, there aren't any tortillas involved. In Spain, a tortilla is a type of omelette. This is the classic Spanish tapas recipe. It keeps very well, and is delicious hot or cold.
---------------------------------------------------
TORTILLA ESPANOLA

Prep and cook time: About 35 minutes
Makes: 6 to 8 servings
Notes: You can make this omelette up to 6 hours ahead; cover and store at room temperature up to 2 hours or chill up to 6 hours (let come to room temperature before serving)

Ingredients:
* 3 russet potatoes (1.5 pounds total...check your weight, you may need many more than 3 potatoes if they are smallish)
* 1 medium onion
* 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
* 6 large eggs
* 1 tsp coarse salt

1) Peel potatoes and onion. Quarter each lengthwise, then cut crosswise into 1/4 inch thick slices.

2) Heat a 10-inch ovenproof nonstick frying pan (cast-iron is great) over high heat and add all but 1 tsp olive oil. When oil just starts to smoke, add potatoes and onion. Stir, turning vegetables to coat with oil. Reduce heat to medium-low and gently turn vegetables often until potatoes are tender when pierced, 15 to 20 minutes.

3) Preheat broiler. In a large bowl, beat eggs with salt and stir in potato mixture.

4) Drizzle remaining 1 tsp (I use at least several tablespoons to avoid sticking) of olive oil over bottom of frying pan (no need to wash) and return to medium-low heat. When pan is hot, add potato-egg mixture, spreading evenly. Cook until bottom is set and golden brown,
4-6 minutes.

5) Set pan under broiler about 4 inches from heat and broil, rotating pan as needed to cook evenly, until egg sets and lightly browns, about 3 minutes. Cover pan with large plate, holding the two tightly together, invert. Lift pan off. Serve omelette warm or at room temperature, cut into wedges.
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PROSCUITTO-WRAPPED ASPARAGUS WITH CITRUS DIP

This can be made fancier with scallion ties and strips of lemon zest tucked underneath, but I like the plain version just fine. A very quick and easy recipe that is lip-smackingly delicious. The citrus dip is fantastic and can be used on its own as salad dressing or a dip for pretty much any vegetable.

Prep and cook time: 30 minutes
Makes: 18 hors d'oeuvres

Ingredients:
* 18 asparagus spears
* 3 ounces thinly sliced prosciutto (you can get nitrate-free brands if you look, Trader Joe's and Whole Foods have them), cut crosswise into 2-inch-wide strips. Or just take a regular sized piece and tear it in half.
* 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
* 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
* 3/4 teaspoon grated orange zest (I just took a veggie peeler and peeled off a few thin layers of zest)
* 1/2 teaspoon lemon zest (same thing)
* Salt and freshly ground pepper

1) Rinse asparagus and cut off tough stem ends. Bring a 4-6 quart pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. Add asparagus and cook until crisp-tender, 3-4 minutes; rinse under cool water afterwards.

2) Wrap a strip of prosciutto around each spear 3-4 inches from the top. Arrange spears on a platter.

3) In a bowl or in a blender/food processor, mix together olive oil, balsamic vinegar, grated zests. BLEND this mixture in a blender, food processor, or with a hand blender until it no longer separates into oil and vinegar and becomes a nice thickened emulsion.
Don't skip this step, it makes the dip! Add salt and pepper to taste and blend again.

4) Dip asparagus spears into the sauce and eat with fingers. Yummy!
----------------------------------------------------------

Enjoy!

Posted by msLaura at 03:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

OK, so I've already laid up some sauerkraut (Latino-style, with oregano, grated carrots, and chile flakes) some gingered carrots and some pickled beets. I feel like Pioneer Woman, storing up vegetables in my root cellar for the long winter ahead. Except that it's California, it's late January, and...well, let's just not destroy my fantasy here, shall we?

I also made yogurt, from whole non-homogenized milk with some added cream that I had left over. It's decadent delicious rich stuff, like semi-melted ice cream. I'm going to make cream cheese out of it.

Julian is over his cold, the teeth have broken through (I think?) and he has been in a charming and happy mood all day, in spite of no nap. The weather was so pretty today, we all went out to the backyard to play and do little chores, thrilled to be out in the sunshine and balmy weather.

I tucked the drooping vines of our bocce ball court arbor back up into the overhanding trellis, where they belong. Dan mowed the lawn, and worked up enough heat to take his shirt off...yeah! Julian was trying to climb up the lower steps of my step ladder while I was standing on the top rung, a less than safe circumstance. Then I got out the nesting bamboo tables and put them up near a support beam for him to hang onto, and he was quite happy climbing up and down on those instead. He still wanted to climb on MY stepstool with me once the novelty wore off, but I was able to distract him and redirect back to his nesting tables.

Julian has started calling himself "Baby" lately.
"Baby jump!'
"Baby eat!"
"Baby an-a Daddy an-a Mommy an-a Puppy an-a WALK!"
It's very cute.

Our friends the Knapps were back in town for a visit (they moved to Chicago last July), so it was great to visit, and Julian loved hanging out with his little friend Langston. We went to Scott Creek Beach one afternoon and played. It was beautiful, as it always is, overcast but warm and calm. There is a rushing river that meets the ocean there, and carves a shallow canal in the sand on its way across the beach, that was gorgeous. Julian had fun throwing pebbles in the stream and watching birds and waves. We found some lovely striped and speckled rocks, all polished from being turned over in the sand a billion times by the waves.

I took photos and videos with our new digital camera, but haven't figured out yet how to format the DVD inside so that I can then open it on my laptop and view/upload the pics. Soon.

We went on a lovely hike in San Pedro Valley near Pacifica last Saturday. Gorgeous green cliffs with waterfalls cascading down, it looked exactly like Kauai. It rained while we were hiking, but we were well-prepared with rain jackets and umbrellas, and it wasn't too muddy. Julian and Langston got down from their Ergos on a non-muddy section of trail and did some hiking, which they both greatly enjoyed. Julian is getting really good at hiking, he can go quite a distance now, even over rocks and uphill. Such a big boy!

Well, time to get this boy down for his nap and then do some work. I have a bunch of wraps to make for customers, and I want to make that cream cheese today, plus some kefir. Kefir is nasty when plain, but if you add some sugar it suddenly becomes delicious. Amazing stuff, that sugar. Yep.

I'm going to try a new spicy beef stew recipe today too. The weather is perfect for it, overcast and chilly. But spring is coming soon...I saw leaves starting to bud on our hike Sunday. Hooray! My absolute favorite season of the year.

Posted by msLaura at 04:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

So I'm making sauerkraut because well, I like it, especially the Latino kind you get at taquerias, with carrots and chile flakes in it. Yum.

But also because I've been insprired by my new cookbook, Nourishing Traditions. Very interesting reading, and full of great recipes. It has really changed the way I look at food, and encouraged me to stop being lazy and make more of my own food...and I mean really MAKE it, not just buy some delectable but processed Trader Joe's stuff and slap it together.

I'm taking it with a grain of salt (I certainly won't be getting rid of my microwave anytime soon) but plenty of what Sally Fallon says makes perfect sense. It boils down to this...stop eating processed crap made from artificial ingredients, sick factory-farmed animals and chemical-intensive agriculture.

Eat organic, unprocessed foods that reflect the heritage of our human evolution. Enjoy eggs, drink milk, eat meat from grass-fed free-range animals, soak your grains overnight before eating for better digestion, and eat some fermented foods every day to replenish your healthy bacteria levels. Butter is good. Transfats and highly processed vegetable oils are bad. Eat like humans have eaten for thousands of years, except with the benefit of refrigeration and Whole Foods Markets.

So tonight I started some sauerkraut, yogurt, and gingered carrots a-fermenting. I've already made a pot of chicken broth from a whole organic chicken. Easy as pie, and now I have the chicken meat to use in another recipe. Most of them are not weird at all, just chicken casseroles and rice dishes and some tasty-sounding vegetable recipes. Kind of standard stuff. But none of it starts with processed foods or unhealthy ingredients. No "add a can of cream-of-mushroom soup" type instructions.

I've already saved money on my groceries, in spite of buying organic, Whole Foods-level stuff. A head of organic cabbage and a whole free-range chicken and a gallon of organic milk still cost much less and do more than prepackaged entrees that serve two people. So far, I like it. But moderation in all things. This is the way I've wanted to eat for a long time, but I'll still indulge in some packaged goodies too.

Posted by msLaura at 11:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

So I've been doing the wheat-free thing for several days now.

I haven't really noticed any major changes in the wheat vs. non-wheat by *itself*, but I have lost some accumulated holiday poundage and tumnmy bloat from not automatically reaching for morning toast, midday crackers, evening cookies, etc.

The attention I've been paying to my diet has definitely paid off though. After a meal of pork with a sauce of figs and carmelized onions I had a sudden resurgence of Angry Bunghole aka "Burning Ring of Fire". My head itched like CRAZY too. I could not stop scratching it, it was like I had
poison oak all over my scalp. Intolerable. But thinking back, when I had chicken pox at age 30, that appeared on my scalp first too. So it's not too crazy an idea.

No more onions after that. My bum's been slowly recovering, and my head doesn't itch any more. Overall, rashiness is subsiding.

I think, rather than any wheat or dairy or whatever allergy, that I just have sensitive skin *all over* my body, inside and out, and anything that tends to generally be an irritant to my outside, sets my insides aflame too.

The list so far includes citrus and other acidic fruits, coffee, hot peppers, and now onions and garlic. It makes sense. I wouldn't rub any of those foods on my face without expecting stinging or watering eyes or rashiness, why should I expect to ingest them without effect?

I'm not certain about any of this yet, but that's my hunch so far. I'll test it out more thoroughly in the weeks to come. In the meantime, I gave away all my onions and garlic on Freecycle. Leeks, I forgot the leeks. Dang. I LOVE leeks.

The other big factor that makes me suspect onion-ish things is Massive Onion Odor. If a normal person eats some onions or garlic, they stink for a few hours. If I eat onions or garlic, every pore of my being and every drop of bodily fluid reeks *profusely* for at least 2-3 days afterwards. Dan teases me about it frequently. That just doesn't seem normal, at lest it clues me in that I might not be too far off-case in thinking that I have a sensitivity of some sort. Not that I WANT one, let's just get that clear right now.

A random link I followed online clued me in that extra-virgin olive oil might be a problem for me too. Someone was talking about how both onions and EV olive oil cause them to rash out. Well, I always get EV olive oil, the greener and more pungent the better, because of the supposed health benefits, right? Although sometimes it can be definitely "spicy".

An olive oil expert says:
--------------------------------------------------
Spiciness "...comes from the polyphenols in the oil, present at higher levels when the oil is fresh. They're the healthful antioxidants in olive oil, and they also keep the oil form oxidizing and becoming rancid.

In offical olive oil tasting parlance, this 'flavor' is called pungency. I say 'flavor' because it is actually a chemical irritant, similar to the capsascin burn of chiles. While pungency is desirable, it must be balanced with fruitiness and bitterness, the other two of the big three in olive oil
organoleptics.

Since neither 'pungent' nor 'chemical irritant' resonate as marketing concepts, we often resort the euphemism 'peppery.'"
----------------------------------------------------
Interesting! So I think I've basically been irritating the hell out of my system for many years now, thinking that I'm eating healthy. I mean, it IS healthy food, just maybe too irritating for me.

Huh. More research is needed, as all good research articles say at the close.

I'm digging wheat-free primarily because it's totally gotten me out of my food rut and back into Cooking as Adventure again.

Quinoa Sour Cream Fudge Cupcakes...my project with Julian last night after he resolutely refused to sleep.

They taste a *leetle* bit weird, but still chocolatey and tasty.

And tomorrow I'm making Injera, those Ethiopian pancakes made of teff, the World's Smallest Grain. Pretty easy, you just toss it in a bowl with warm water and let it ferment for a day or two, then pour it on a griddle and cook it. Yum. I love injera. I hope it turns out.

Posted by msLaura at 02:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I've been following the story on DuPont and the findings that the chemical used to make Teflon (C8) is causing all sorts of health problems, is found in the bloodstream of pretty much everyone in the US, including in the umbilical cord blood of unborn babies, has been shown to be toxic in animal studies, and has a half-life of thousands of years. 3M phased out production of C8 in 2000. DuPont recently paid a record multi-million dollar settlement on this issue, but it's still not appearing in the media,and their Teflon-coated items are still in stores.

I've been following the story in bits and pieces as it's come out, and I've been exclusively using my cast iron and ceramic-coated pans ever since.

NPR had a big story on this yesterday, and so I've decided to get rid of ALL my Teflon non-stick cookware once and for all. I don't even want it in my house.

I don't eat microwave popcorn, or fast food (it's in lots of processed food packaging), I only own one pair of stain-resistant pants, and our house is fairly carpet-free (except for the master bedroom), so hopefully our exposure is minimal now. But I cooked daily on Teflon-coated pans for YEARS. I did definitely notice noxious odors coming off them when cooking at high temperatures.

Apparently thousands of pet birds have been killed by those same Teflon off-gases after being exposed to them through hot cooking pans, or carpet installation, or Scotchgarding (aka fabric "Teflon-izing") applications. They are more sensitive to the toxic by-products than we are, but it's a literal "canary in the coal mine" situation.

I was feeling conflicted about throwing so much cookware in the trash, so I sent out a Freecycle email stating the health risks and offering it to anyone who didn't care. I got tons of responses! Some were from people who just said, "I don't care, I need cookware." Which is frankly sad. Others said that they lived alone, and so at least they would be the only ones exposed...or that they were already smokers, so Teflon exposure couldn't be any worse than that. One guy wrote that he had no pans at home to cook with, so if he could cook his own food it would be healthier than eating fast-food all the time, and that had to be a health benefit that would offset Teflon exposure. Can't really argue with that, but dude...how about investing in some cheap second-hand NON-Teflon pans at the Goodwill or something?

A few people thanked me for the info and vowed to get rid of their Teflon-coated pans too. But overwhelmingly, people just wanted to take my toxic pans and use them. I don't know how I feel about that. Maybe they'd just be better off in a landfill. Gah.

I've been surprised by my cast-iron pans. I've had two of them for ages, a small frying pan and a large one. Now that I use them almost daily, they've become properly seasoned, and they are incredibly easy to clean. They are more non-stick than my Teflon pans ever were. I really love them. As long as I remember to spray a little oil on them after cleaning and wipe with a paper towel, they stay perfectly seasoned. They'll last forever too. Half my Teflon pans are scratched up (nice to know we've been EATING that scratched-off Teflon this whole time) and the handles are coming off already...in most cases I've had those pans for only about five years) Cast iron, on the other hand, will last for a hundred years if properly cared for.

My mom bought me some nice stainless-steel Farberware pans a long time ago (thanks Mom!), and those are still in perfect condition as well. They aren't very non-stick, but they last and last and don't react with anything. My grandmother still has her All-Clad stainless-steel pans from a zillion years ago. Perfect condition. So again, the lesson is...buy something that will last, even if it's more expensive up front. You will always save money, time and resources in the long run. Buy one good cast-iron or enameled pan instead of five cheap aluminum pans.

I got a set of Le Creuset enameled cast-iron cookware off eBay a long time ago and it's still in perfect condition. It's normally PAINFULLY expensive, but there's a Canadian store named Caplan-Duval that sells Le Creuset online at bargain prices. That was where I got mine, through one of their eBay auctions. I got a 5-piece set (including two large kettles, two medium saucepans and a frying pan) for the same price as the regular cost of one large Dutch Oven.

Anyway, there are plenty of good alternatives. If you have non-stick cookware, get rid of it. If you eat processed food that is meant to be microwaved in the package, don't. If you have stain-resistant khakis, get rid of them. I can't tell you to lose your carpets, that's not so easy. But if you have the choice between carpet and wood or laminate floors, go for the bare floors and use throw rugs. Think before you apply ANY chemical to your environment that hasn't been around in constant use for hundreds of years. Salt is good. Baking soda is good. Vinegar works great. Perfluorinated compounds? Parabens? Think twice.

Oh sweet, I also just read that heated Teflon gas by-products may also be as destructive to the ozone layer as CFCs. Nice.

Posted by msLaura at 12:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (1)

We're having a huge storm here this morning. The trees are groaning and shaking and the bamboo is blowing completely sideways. I planted two redwood trees out by the street a few days ago, I hope they are doing OK. It's a nice day to stay inside cozy by the fire and relax, maybe make some Black-eyed Pea Soup with Ham.

Last night we went to a party up in San Francisco thrown by my friend/bridesmaid Brad Noble. He lives in Manhattan now, but comes back to San Francisco for the holidays every year. He has a friend, Mark, who started a company and sold it right at the peak of the tech boom. He cashed out at EXACTLY the right time. More power to him. Anyway, he bought a lovely house on Twim Peaks with a beautiful view of the city. It's something straight out of Dwell Magazine. That's where the party was held.

It was nice to see Brad, and Baby Chic was there too, and a bunch of other people who I remembered from the old wild days in SF. Brad's ex-boyfriend John was there, mixing up Cosmopolitans, and we dished and had a cocktail and watched the fireworks over the Bay at midnight, which very much impressed Julian.

Julian was a big hit, by the way. Everyone was fawning over him, and he was so good and polite and sweet and friendly. He stayed on my back in his Ergo most of the time, with a few forays down onto the floor to pet the cute Jack Russell terrier who lived there (and who would NOT stop jumping up on my new snake tattoo tights)! He took a nap in the car on the way up, so he was pretty fresh when we got there, but he stayed sweet and social all the way up until 1:30am, when we finally left. The party was winding down, Brad was in the hot tub, the stragglers were getting sloppy-drunk, and I was pooped. Waaaaay past my bedtime. We all slept late this morning.

OK, time to go make my famous whole-wheat pancakes for breakfast, and get that bean and ham soup going too.

Wow, after the intense storm we just had, right now there is not even a breath of air stirring. It's like we're in the eye of a hurricane or something. Bizarre.

Here's to health and happiness in 2006!

Posted by msLaura at 10:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Well, Santa's Elf worked fast and furious last night and got the LikeABike assembled and placed under the tree along with various and sundry other small gifts, including a wooden Thomas the Tank Engine train set with three cars and a cute little figure 8 track.

Julian woke up at 6:15am. I went in and coaxed him back to sleep for a few more hours, then we went in together to wake up Daddy and Puppy. Dan distracted Julian while I snuck out to set up the video camera on a tripod and turned on the Chrismukkah tree lights.

Julian was duly awed by the new LikeABike, but the train was the big hit of the day. I shouldn't be surprised, given his recent obsession with vehicle taxonomy. Trains have been an especially big hit of late. We saw several Cal-trains go rushing by in a single afternoon, got a teapot that whistles like a train whistle, rode the monorail at the Dallas airport AND saw the Light Rail system go through downtown Cambell right in front of our car last night. It's been nonstop trains for the last few weeks. Oh, and I never realized how many toy trains people have lit up out on their lawns for Chistmas. Until this year, that is, when I was notified of each train spotting with a loud cry of "DA TWAIN!" followed by vigorous signing of the word "train" over and over.

I really can't complain, because I have a thing for trains myself. When Julian calls out "Mommy! Twain!", I'm always like, "Really? Where??"

So we played with the train set, and with the new LikeABike, which will be a huge hit once Julian grows another inch. We also got a mini badminton set, since Julian was dragging around the badminton racquets all summer. Instead of a birdie, there is a ball made out of that same netty material, but with it coiled into springs to make a ball shape. So it's like badminton, but easier to hit and retrieve. And the racquets are much shorter. Julian loves it.

Then it got cold and started raining, so we came back inside. Amazing, beause yesterday was like springtime. I went for a two hour walk in a T-shirt and flip-flops, and I was afraid that I was going to get sunburned. Today is back to dreary and chilly and wet. Which is fine, I mean it IS December. There's still a bit of novelty to the chilliness. It's in January and February that the cold and wet gets so tedious. And no, I have no right to complain about cold living in California, I fully realize that. Hey, Florida felt cold in the wintertime when I lived there too, and now I could easily be one of those crazy snowbirds charging headlong into the frigid 72-degree surf. It's all relative.

Anyway, I made Cioppino this afternoon and it was fantastic. A cornucopia of spicy saucy crab, clams and shrimp...Dan and I devoured it like shipwreck survivors, with plenty of crusty bread. I made a Pear Pie too, from some random recipe off the internet and it came out delicious, with a sort of sugar cookie crust on top of it, if you can imagine that. So we're stuffed like little pigs right now, but feasting is good at this time of year.

I'm just sad that I didn't get any more of that Organic Eggnog from Trader Joe's, because that stuff is the best ever. Blows regular eggnog right out of the water. A little cognac at the bottom of a glass, pour in the TJ's Organic Eggnog...heaven. Forget that crappy supermarket eggnog, it's all high fructose corn syrup and crappy fillers. The TJ's Organic is IT.

So we ate, played and played and played, and then watched back-to-back episodes of Arrested Development on DVD from Netflix. Family dysfunction was a good theme for the day, since Dan and I are both wishing that our familes could be a bit more...well, functional, I guess. Well, what can you do? You can choose your friends, but not your family.

We lit the first candles of Hanukkah tonight. Julian INSISTED on wearing the yarmulke, which is hysterical because he is so otherwise resolutely anti-hat. Yet he kept putting the yarmulke back on all night long. He would bend over and it would fall off, then he complained until I helped him put it back on.

The funniest moment came while reading the three verses of traditional Hanukkah prayers. Dan read the first one, I read the second one, then Dan said as a joke, "Julian, you read the third verse."

Julian leaned forward, looked at the page, and started solemnly intoning nonsense syllables. Our kid definitely has a wicked sense of humor. Totally cracked us up. We caught it on video, which makes for an amazing day just full of video catches, which we never, ever get. Thus far my video of Julian consists of endless shots of him grabbing for the lens and whining. Oh, except for the many video moments I captured where he is falling off steps or toddling off his truck onto his head or something equally charming. Ugh. Today was full of amazing video captures. I'm sure it will never ever happen again.

I am extra thankful, since my digital camera is on the fritz. It ran out of juice and then never charged back up. Right before Chrismukkah too. I dug out my lovely Canon Rebel film camera today. I really sort of missed it. It's just maddening to have to both pay AND drive to get your film developed, wait forever, and in the meantime you have no idea whether the photos you took are total crap or actually good. But it's almost worth it just for the sheer pleasure of hearing the shutter click the very MOMENT that I press the button, instead of 5 seconds later. And when the film photos are good, they're really good, not blurry or fuzzy or leaving you wishing that you had bumped up the resolution a little.

Off to bed. Our day of sloth and gluttony has left me happy but pooped.

Posted by msLaura at 10:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Well, we just had a festive Christmas Eve over with our friend Lisa and her family. Lisa's mom and dad throw a big dinner party every year, and this year we're in town, so we joined in the fun. Lots of kids and Dungeness crab and ravioli and Tom and Jerrys. Mmmmmm!

Well, I got the tree up this year, but I didn't progress much past that. I never got cards sent out, and I didn't get stockings sewn, and I never made a yarn star for the top of our tree, nor those handmade decorations. Sigh. But that's OK. There's always next year.

The party was very exciting, so I'm having a hard time getting Julian to bed. And he NEEDS to go to bed soon. because Santa's Elf needs to put together Julian's new LikeABike and wrap it up and put it under the tree for tomorrow morning. Santa's Elf also needs to clear out Julian's old babyish toys to make room for the new toys, like the mini train set and the baby badminton. Santa's Elf has a loy of work ahead of her, and is somewhat pissed that Mr. J is not sleeping right now. Methinks Mr. J might get passed off to Daddy very soon.

Santa's Elf is incredibly bummed that Dan's present was unaccountably DELAYED by UPS, aka Spawn of Satan Evil Shitty Company That ALWAYS loses or delays my packages. His present, which I paid $26 in excess shipping charges for, was supposed to be here several days ago, but suddenly was RESCHEDULED for Dec. 27th. Bitches! I HATE UPS. Can you tell?

Tomorrow I'm making Crab Cioppino for our Christmas meal. I'm over turkey and ham. We'll have a nice seafood feast with crusty bread and a nice wine and play with toys and relax all day. Next year I'll be more organized for Christmas, but what the hell. This year doesn't suck, you know?

The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of
those who have much, it is whether we provide enough for those who have too
little.
- Franklin D. Roosevelt, 32nd US President (1882-1945)

Posted by msLaura at 10:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I had quite a pleasant 36th birthday today.

We just came back from a weeklong trip to North Carolina last night, so today was all about relaxing close to home. Julian and I had breakfast together (oatmeal and tea), then we kicked the ball back and forth and played in the backyard. It felt warm and balmy in the late morning, very nice to be outside.

We have a patch of wet swampy grass over at the far end of the yard, and you have to cross it to get to the hot tub. We also have a lot of lovely large tiles left over from redoing the patio, so I tried out various geometric arrangements of the tiles in the grass to see which were the most comfortable to step across as well as being aesthetically pleasing. I figured out the pattern, but didn't finish arranging the tiles. Still, it was a fun task for a sunny winter morning.

Julian finally took a nap and I sewed up some Wraps for customers and dealt with my Inbox. Over 900 emails....yikes. I have customers waiting for Ergo carriers to be shipped out, and no word on my giant 120+ Ergo carrier order, so I 've been freaking out, sending emails to the Ergo rep, trying to figure out where they are. Aaargh. The perils of running a business. Stressful. Once they get here I'll be set, but what the hell...how can it take more than NINE DAYS to transport a few boxes from Southern CA to Northern CA? Pain in my freakin' ASS.

I had a great phone conversation with a guy at an ad firm in NYC, a friend of a friend. He needs someone to do some basic HTML and Flash development part-time, on an hourly project basis. It sounds like easy work, and all the details will have been hammered out and nailed down ahead of time, so no changes and no haggling and no wanting to strangle the client for me. So looks like I got a sweet new low-stress job for a birthday present!

Last night Dan took me to a restaurant we've been eyeing for some time...Arcadia in downtown San Jose. Our meal was absolutely flawless, one of the best I've had in a very long time. Our waiter was a true professional as well and smooth as silk, which is fairly rare these days, but always appreciated. We were actually goofing on him at first, because he was just so polished and practiced and letter-perfect...almost a *caricature* of a waiter, but after about five minutes our goofing turned to pure admiration.

Our menu, which was fantastic and all went together beautifully:

Cocktails:
Cucumber Martini (me)
Delicious and refreshing. I'm not a gin drinker, but I could be if all gin drinks tasted like this. Good gin with cucumber essence, whatever that is. Nice.
Negroni (Dan)
Dan was impressed that they got the orange peel curl exactly perfect, just as as the true and original Negroni should be. Actually, we're not sure if they flamed the burst of orange peel oils over the glass first according to the Completely Anal Negroni Cocktail Instructions, but apparently it was damned impressive anyways.

Small Tasting Plate
Ice Cold Oysters, Littleneck Clams, Local Dungeness Crab, Spiced Gulf Prawns, and Marinated Scallop Ceviche. Amazing champagne mignonette, tiny little bottles of Tabasco, and cocktail sauce.

Coconut Curried Prawns on a Crepe filled with Parsnip Puree
We thought the prawns were good, but then we soaked up some of the sauce and that was even better, and then the crepe with parsnip puree WITH the sauce and some prawn....heaven.

Make-your-own-salad
This sounds like a pain, but basically they present you with a list of really good salad ingredients and you check off what you want with a pencil. Ours turned out great. I don't even remember what we had in it, but it was incredible, best salad I think I've ever had.

Maine Lobster Pot Pie
A signature Arcadia dish, they cook a 2.5 pound Maine Lobster in a ceramic pot with a delicious lobster cream sauce and all different kinds of amazing baby veggies and chanterelle muchrooms. There is a slightly cripsy biscuity thin perfect crust over the whole thing. Oh my word. It did not disappoint. No work or picking required. Our waiter took the lobster out of the pot already cracked, then elegantly reassembled it in the original lobster shape on the serving dish. Nice touch.

Dessert was some kind of butterscotch bread pudding, which I can't remember the exact description of, but which was as flawless as the rest of the meal, and Dan had an exquisite chocolate patisserie with multiple layers of ganache in it, and cherry granita in a tiny crispy edible ice cream cone cup.

Oh, and a perfect Napa Sauvignon Blanc from Rudd (I think?) to accompany everything. Nott too dry or too sweet.

Honestly, I wish that I were a ruminant and had 4-5 stomachs so that I could have tried more dishes. If I am ever stuck on a desert island, that Arcadia meal will be the one that I'll dream about.

We were hoping that Ashley the SuperSitter would have Julian fast asleep by the time we got home, but alas, it was not to be. He was still wide awake, so then I spent another hour and a half getting him to sleep. After that I was so tired that I went to bed and passed out almost immediately. Not exactly the perfect end to the day, but oh well. That's life.

Posted by msLaura at 07:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

My Pâté de Porc en Brioche
Originally uploaded by mslaura.

Posted by msLaura at 04:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I'm sitting on a giant bouncy ball in front of my computer right now, wearing a pair of ankle socks, a sundress I bought in Kauai, and a flannel pajama top. I have a cold, and I haven't really slept all that well for the past few days, except for the night before last, when I fell asleep curled up in front of the fireplace in the dog's bed at 9:15pm. Hey, it was available, it was soft, it was warm, and I couldn't keep my eyes open any longer. Besides, he's been sleeping in *my* bed for many years now, so it's payback time.

Julian is in my arms semi-asleep. He woke up a few minutes ago screaming his lungs out...apparently he slept on his arm and it got pins-and-needles and freaked him out. So here I am in my crazy get-up, rocking him back to sleep (maybe) while I manually copy and paste each of my 180+ posts into the new blog system. Tiresome. My index finger is killing me from clicking so much, and now one-handed hunting and pecking on the keyboard.

I am brokenhearted. My pate en brioche bit the dust yesterday. Two bad things happened.

ONE: I used salted butter when I should have used unsalted butter. I would blame Julia for this, because she just said "butter" in the recipe. I should have known better, but it would have helped if she had specified. Maybe they only had unsalted butter back in the day when she wrote "Mastering the Art of French Cooking", I don't know. This made the brioche part a tad salty, which would have been OK, except then...

TWO: I added the aspic into the hole in the top of the brioche, to fill the space between that and the settled pate inside. I stirred it over a bowl of cracked ice, as specified, but I didn't boil it first to dissolve the gelatin powder. Julia didn't say anything about that! I'm guessing that's where I went wrong though.

Anyway, the gelatin liquid was nice and savory with beef broth and port, and it looked and felt syrupy, so I poured it in, but then it didn't gell up. Instead, it soaked my entire brioche base, and made a sodden mess. Ugh. It still looked nice, but tasted icky and wet. I saw that it wasn't gelling, so I added in some super-gelatiny aspic on top (that I had boiled and chilled first), but by that point it was too late. The damage was done.

This all happened about 45 minutes before I was supposed to be at the party with my creation. Luckily I decided to cut it open and test it first, which was when I discovered the soddenness of the brioche base. Taste test revealed that cold, mushy, broth-soaked brioche is not tasty at all.

Panicked and already late for the party, I decided to go to Trader Joe's and get some baguettes and pate there. No go, they were completely out of baguettes! So I picked up 5 of their new Tartes d'Alsace, which are spectacular, and three bottles of beaujolais nouveau, parce qu'il est arrive! Still panicky, I headed off to my party.

Well, the francais there couldn't have been more kind. This American woman shows up 30 minutes late to the dinner party, a complete stranger, all flustered, without the food that she was supposed to bring, and they were absolutely welcoming, courteous, and friendly. Complimented me on my excellent French (*blush*), offered me the tray of appetizers, mixed me up a kir, and put me at my ease right away. Anyone with derision for the French, you can kiss my ass. They are NICE PEOPLE. So put away those snide remarks, at least around me.

There were about 5 kids there, playing quietly in the next room. They were big fans of the TJ Tartes, which were as delicious as I anticipated, so at least that wasn't a bust. We had excellent food, wine and conversation around the dinner table on a range of interesting topics until midnight, when the party finally broke up.

Shockingly, the common American conversational topics of shopping, TV shows and recent movies did not come up once. I didn't even realize it until I was on my way home. Instead, we talked about cultural differences, food, travel , parenting, and politics (French, mostly). The usual (and yet quite unusual) conversational courtesies were extended...people posed questions about interesting subjects, listened intently to the answers, and refrained from prattling on ad nauseum about their own opinions and experiences unasked.

I must say, it was very refreshing to be in that company. It was a slight strain on my brain to comprehend everything after not really speaking French for 7+ years, but I did OK, considering. I'm always amazed at how it comes back so quickly.

Well, my butt and back are killing me, and I should wake this baby up, put on some non-pajama clothing, and eat some lunch. No more geeking for now. Oh, new pics are up, check 'em out.

Posted by msLaura at 01:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

OK, I've switched over from Blogger to Moveable Type, and it looks like MT is going to work much better. It's even free! BUT I still have to transfer over all 180+ of my old posts, and get my template back looking like it was before.

I've been troubleshooting for Julian's entire nap today, and I finally got a few old posts to show up, but I will have to manually open and change code in each one to get it to transfer. Haven't even started working on the look and feel stuff yet. I'm still publishing with the lame, generic Moveable Type template, which is why this page looks like this, if you're looking at a drab, blue, semi-ugly page right now.

This would be a fun challenge, if I weren't a busy mom with nearly zero free time for geeking out. And now that Julian's up from his nap, my geek time today is over. Sigh.

Now on to finishing up the VERY last step in my Pate en brioche....adding the port-and-beef-flavored aspic to fill in the space between the pate and the brioche. I have to chill it to almost solid, then pour it in through the tiny hole in the top of my creation. So far so good, I think. I hope I don't blow it at this point. Yikes.

Posted by msLaura at 01:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (1)

So I completed Phase 2 of my "Pâté de Foie et de Porc en Brioche" last night....ground the meat and made the pâté. Today I'll take the chilled brioche dough, and the partially cooked pâté, and bake them together for the final step. Then chill for 24 hours and taste-test.

I'm concerned that the meat is not ground finely enough. Julia said to grind it on the medium blade of the meat grinder. I only have two blades, big and small. I used big. Hmmmm. Well, I'm only doing one batch first, so if it doesn't turn out I'll do it all finely ground next time.

Let me tell you, that meat grinding process was not pretty. I'm not squeamish or anything, but grinding pork liver was freakin' nasty. It turned into a foul-smelling purplish gooey pulp when I put it through the grinder. I was actually kind of grossed out during the whole rest of the pâté-making process, until I sauteed a spoonful of the mixture to taste and adjust the seasonings at the end. Then it was like, "Oh....yummy!"

That's the thing about French food. If you think about some dishes, they seem somewhat disgusting (not really though, if you compare to McDonald's), but then you taste them and they taste so amazingly good. Snails? Every time I've made snails I've been slightly skeezed out, but then they taste so delicious with all the herbs and butter and garlic, slightly crusty on top in their pretty shells...mmmm.

When I was grinding the pork fat and liver and tenderloin with my fine Czech-made Porkert meat grinder (which broke a world record for meat grinding I'll have you know), I kept imagining that scene from The Wall where the English schoolboys march in a line and fall into a big meat grinder, to be turned into sausages, I suppose.

One interesting thing about grinding the meat...when I put the pork tenderloin through the large blade, it came out with a gross-looking consistency. But then I re-ran it through with the fine blade, and it came out magically transformed, looking exactly like the high-quality ground pork or beef that you buy at the supermarket. Because it looked familiar again, it became appetizing. It's all about your cultural frame of reference, I suppose.

Posted by msLaura at 01:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I made the best salsa ever yesterday. Except for the garlic and cilantro, everything was from my garden. That's a picture of it at left. I served it up in a lovely Humuhumunukunukuapua'a (aka Picasso Triggerfish) plate from my Aunt Polly, who sadly just moved from Honolulu to North Carolina. Sad for me, not for her, because we only got over to visit once.

This was Round 2 for my homemade salsa efforts. Round 1 was pretty good, but too watery, and not quite spicy enough. This time I found perfection. Don't know if I can replicate it though...my recent garden recipes are so good because of the ingredients, and if I don't have those anymore, it's not quite the same.


SALSA FRESCA DEL JARDIN
* 2 heirloom tomatoes (sliced and sauteed in saucepan on high, just to evaporate some of the juice out of them)
* 1 heirloom tomato (raw)
* 12 jalapeno peppers, ripened to deep red flavorful mildness, cut in half and seared in a hot cast-iron pan
* a handful of Thai basil leaves, chopped
* a handful of cilantro, chopped
* one big garlic clove, slivered
* salt and pepper

So freakin' good, I couldn't believe it. We had it with chips for lunch, and then with Trader Joe's mini-tacos (most highly recommended) for dinner last night, and then I polished it off by adding the last few spoonfuls to the Tuscan White Bean & Tuna Salad that I made for lunch today (which was great as well, and no cooking required!) I substituted some tins of Trader Joe's smoked trout for the tuna. It was tastier, and trout has much less mercury than tuna.

The summer garden is finishing up. We've still got some zucchini, eggplant, melons, tomatoes and cucumbers, but production has slowed waaaaay down. It's time to start planting fall/winter crops. I'm kind of behind on that. Today is an incredibly beautiful Indian Summer day, and would be a great day to dig in the garden, but I have too many other things to do. Maybe tomorrow.

Posted by msLaura at 09:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Ahhhh, Julian went down for his nap so easily today, it was fantastic. Of course, since I have plans to update this journal while he's sleeping, it will probably only be a 30 minute nap or something horrible like that. When we have to be somewhere at a specific time, well *that's* when the 2.5 hour nap happens.

Lately it takes forever to get this baby to sleep. He's *tired* all right, but playing and exploring is just sooo much fun that he finds it difficult to stop. I'm really glad that he's an incredibly funny and cute baby, because if he weren't so funny and cute I would be seriously, seriously annoyed by these bedtime antics.

Typical bedtime scene....baby is SOOOOOOO tired he's ready to drop. Crying/whining/fussing nonstop, eyes closing, the works. He has been playing like mad all day long and is exhausted. He's clean, he's warm, he's got his jammies on...totally ready for a good long sleep. I lay him down in bed and get ready to nurse him. Ah, nursing...he snuggles into me, puts his feet on my bell, and his baby body is totally still except for the little suck-suck-suck. Perfect, won't be long now until he's totally out.

Except that suddenly...a flurry of activity! Chubby legs start pumping and twisting in order to get underneath him at the right angle to get up on his knees. The arm spins around and there he is in prime crawling position, with a huge grin on his face. Hey! Look what I did! Bet you thought I was sleeping, right?

Then he tears off out of bed (the mattress is on the floor and he can climb in and out perfectly well) to go flip through one of his books, or beat his hands on top of his little bedside table, etc. He even knows how to turn the bedside lamp on and off, which is hysterical. It's basically a sliding dimmer switch, so now when he gets out of bed he turns on the light and everything. What a little man. One he even turned the light *out* before coming back to bed, which was quite talented of him, I must say.

After maybe five minutes of playing, he's back. Time for another quick nurse. Then he's off again. This scenario repeats 2-5 times until he is so tired that he can no longer crawl off the bed. Now he stays on the bed and just crawl-staggers around like a little drunk. I grab him and pull him down next to me in sleeping-nursing position, but he struggles to get up again, just one more time. Weaving around, he collapses back down. Will he stay down this time? NO! He's back up! He lurches around in a one-foot radius, dropping down, then struggling mightily to get back up. Now? Yes now...I grab him and pull him back in next to me, and this time he stays down. He might de-latch and roll away a half-turn (which is good, because it's easier for me to sneak away), but that's it. I quietly and carefully crawl out of bed and exit the room.

Glancing at the clock, I see that this whole production has taken an hour and twenty minutes. Jesus Christ! Now I'm a little bit envious of parents who just put their kid in the crib and let them go through all the playing/standing up/laying down/finally passing out by themselves. But then again, I wouldn't really want to miss it. Every time he comes back to nurse he is full of loving slobbery kisses and hugs and pats and snuggles for me, and we laugh and giggle together as he tries to bite my nose, then I pretend to bite his. I wouldn't want to miss his happy little sighs when we cuddle before he gets up to play again. It just takes so damn long sometimes, and I have so much CHORING to do. Then I get stressed out and start thinking, "Damn it, would you just SLEEP! Enough already! Aaaargh!" But if I'm not too stressed and I can relax about it, then I really enjoy that time spent watching him cruise around the room playing and then happily coming back to his Mama full of love and kisses.

Yes, I need to remind myself that it's a sweet, precious thing that won't last more than the blink of an eye, because all last week I was a Total Wreck, overwhelmed by motherhood and wifehood and
sick of being the lowest (wo)man on the totem pole all the fucking time. I lost my cool. Everything pissed me off. Goddamn stupid dog, whiny baby, and helpless husband...all sucking up every last ounce of my energy. My whole life morphed into an endless Give-a-Thon, with zero return. How had this happened? Didn't I used to be a fairly bad-ass, smart, independent woman with an interesting whirlwind life, frequent travels, intelligent conversations, loads of free time? How did I get to the point where the dog is wearing a clean fleece coat and has his teeth brushed, but I have on ill-fitting black sweatpants with baby snot on the leg and I haven't brushed my teeth or washed my face all day?

If the baby's sleeping, the dog needs to be fed. If the dog and baby are taken care of, then Dan needs something. I feel somewhat bitchy telling him to make his own damn coffee or put peanut butter on his own toast, but I haven't had a break for myself in months. Emailing during baby naps is as much as I get. I'm blessed with so much, but the whole 24/7 care thing does indeed get me down.

I also seem to have lost any and all power that I ever had, which is hard to
get used to. No one takes me seriously in my wife/mom role. My baby-on-hip is like a big sign that says, "Disrespect me! Don't even think about taking me seriously, I'm just a wife and mom!" And to think that people used to find me intimidating!

I am having a murderous time
with repairmen and the like, because no matter how authoritative I try to
sound, they all seem to want to jerk me around and rip me off. Then Dan
calls and they're out here in a flash apologizing all over themselves and
kissing ass. It's unbelievable. That has been happening over and over and
over again.

Julian probably picked up on my bad mood. He was so uncharacteristically fussy and troublesome for a few days, he drove me absolutely bonkers. Let's see, our fun activities of those two days included: