December 2006 Archives

I was completely correct. With enough butter, cream, and cheese, anything can be made edible (I'm still sticking with hot poo, in that assumption). Case in point, last night the side I served along Nigella's one-pan of sage-onion chicken and sausages (which will serve 27 large, fat lumberjacks, just FYI) was cauliflower which I've never made before and don't ever eat. But Ina's Cauliflower Gratin sounded good so I bought a head and doused it with enough cream, butter, cheese, and pepper to actually make it palatable.

Tonight's fare for one: Pork Chops done in the slow-cooker with onions and dressing. Of course this recipe serves 6 also but as I was informed several weeks ago at someone's dinner party, "well, you can't ever serve pork at a dinner party, it's just not polite.", I'll be eating alone since I don't want to appear impolite and offend anyone with pork.

OK. J.Go and Max both dissuaded me off fennel last year. But the power of Food TV and specifically, Ina Garten, have over the last year persuaded me that I should give it a whirl. I trust the boys implicitly, but I can't argue with an amazing white dish filled with creamy something or other and what the hell, if it was inedible, they they were right as rain and all is ok.

So I got the fennel this weekend, found some Gruyere and whipped out a dish of potato-fennel gratin tonight.

OMG. I know what was in the dish because I shredded the cheese and sliced up the potatoes, onions, and fennel, but seriously, it was like CRACK. I skipped everything else for dinner and just ate the gratin. And when I tell you I was eating it out of the dish, standing over the stove, that is not a lie. It was just that good.

So of course I realize that with enough cream, butter, and cheese, one could make a steaming turd into dinner party fare, but this gratin just flipped me into something else all together.

Because I know everyone cares, this is my current list of things I can check off my list of "to-do's" while on vacation...which doesn't really officially start until the 26th since that would be when I'm suppose to report back to work. So, like, I'm WAY ahead of myself already:

Watched:
Another Gay Movie
The Mostly Unfabulous Social Life of Ethan Green
Pieces of April
LOTR: Fellowship of the Ring (Extended Version)
LOTR: Two Towers (Disc 1 of Extended Version)
Various HGTV and FoodNetwork shows

Cooked:
Nigella's Mughlai Chicken

Bought:
Enough baking supplies to make several cheesecakes and at least four other unspecified cakes ala "The Cake Mix Doctor".
Two large fennel bulbs to make Ina's Potato Fennel Gratin (but forgot the Gruyeres cheese so I'm fucked right now)
Scallions for something I saw on Nigella Feasts but for which now I can't remember what.
Four books on creating altered books and art journals plus two other novels.
Three pairs of shoes I found at 80% off on Amazon.com while sitting up surfing the internet because I couldn't sleep.

Cleaned:
Both my spice cupboard and the cabinet next to it. I have WAY too many wok oils and wok-related stuff along with several boxes of light brown sugar, 11 packs of taco seasoning, two bottles of fajitas marinade, and a tin of loose Russian black tea.
Clutter on the kitchen table, twice. Still cluttered, tho.

Photographed:
The outside of the house to start sketching the kitchen addition remodeling project that I think we'll be able to afford in seven years.
Myself, making Nigella's Mughlai Chicken

Read:
Various sections of Schott's Almanac 2007
World War Z (M.Jones recommendation)
Sunday NYTimes, Sullivan Co. Record, and NYPost
Country Living, Jan 2007
Better Homes and Gardens, Jan 2007
The Earthly Treasure of Charles and Louisa - Family compendium of addresses and contact info, for accuracy.

Planned:
To clean and organize the rest of the kitchen cabinets as well as the pantry, including refolding all the bath towels.
Finish watching the LOTR trilogy
Ride the bike every day while watching TV or movies. (Jeff believes this is folly and wants to bet money it won't happen)
Unplanned calligraphy project (need to check out all my pens and ink supplies)
Watercolor from the picture on the front of today's Sunday NYTimes

Ooooh, shiny.

I'm sure many are interested, riveted even, at the what I might be doing with the two weeks of vacation I start this weekend. I'm as riveted as everyone else because I simply don't know. The world of two weeks away from the city, sequestered up at the house is ripe with possibilities. I have so many things I want to do, I don't know how I'll pack them all in, quite frankly. But, knowing myself like I do, I suspect that with an unlimited constellation of possibilities, I'll end up on the couch, a LOT, doing nothing. Much like last year when I not only had a week of vacation to use up but also a week off from school, I ended up on the couch watching the entire series of "Sex In The City" from start to finish in three days straight. I didn't shower or shave or answer the phone, but I did eat a lot of ice-cream and contemplated menstrual cycles, the emotional wasteland of the male species, vaginal orgasms compared to clitoral orgasms (there is a difference!), and bad fashion passed off as hot, hot, hot.

This year could be no different except that now Jeff and I are members of Netflix the universe of possible couch time expands exponentially. I adjusted our membership to start just sending infinite movies so I always have five different things to choose from. Knowing how most hang on my every move and decision, I thought I'd clue everyone to my rental queue over the last breaths of 06 and the first, virginal blush of 07. Don't judge my lack of taste or cultural leanings, haters.

Pieces of April
Another Gay Movie
Love! Valor! Compassion!
Unfabulous Social Life of Ethan Green
Things You Can Tell Just By Looking At Her
Happy Endings
Lost: Season 1: Disc 1-7
Lost: Season 2: Disc 1-7
Weeds: Season 1: Disc 1-2
Battlestar Galactica: Season 1: Disc 1-4
Battlestar Galactica: Season 2.0: Disc 1-3
Battlestar Galactica: Season 2.5: Disc 1-3

And then I might actually cook, paint, quilt, and take a shower.

Jeff and I were invited to catch one of the limited engagement pre-national release showings of "Dreamgirls" being held that Ziegfeld Theater in mid-town last night. For the $25 ticket we each bought, we got to see the movie in reserved seats (which RAWKS!), collected a limited edition, signed and numbered official movie lithograph (to be sold on eBay shortly), and a commemorative program that was all glossy. Also, I was seated in front of some Dreamgirl fanboys who literally "Woof, woof, woofed" through several acts as if we were at some beer-soaked, tailgating sporting event in New Jersey. For God's sake, we're homo's and it's DREAMGIRLS...in a movie theater. Who the hell are you asking to let the dogs out?

All that being said and only being eleven and in the wilds of Ohio at the time of its Broadway debut, I was pleasantly, thoroughly entertained through the whole movie. Everything they say about Jennifer Hudson's performance was pretty right-on for me. The girl can sing. I had gone into the movie expecting Beyonce's role to be a throw-away, something they offered to her just to get her name in the headlines, but again, was surprised at the work she did to carry out her part. She by no means deserves the top billing she's contractually getting, but I feel justified because Jennifer is blowing everyone away, whether she's top billed or not.

Between savage Mayan cannibals or snazzy divas in glittery, shiny dresses, go for the girls, boys.

All my cooking endeavors, certainly those in the past year, have been noble attempts but yet I felt I was missing something essential. I'd watch the shows on TV and then make them dutifully using the recipes as supplied but still, I was left with a, "this could be better?" feeling.

Enter the Rachael Ray 5-quart Oval Saute pan. I know that everyone who cooks needs their own correct pans and skillets for whatever they do and I'm enough of a worrier that I'm particularly high strung if I'm using a pan that might not be the right one. I also know that most people who cook have too much cookware they never use, me included. But I've watched RR enough to know that she can just about do anything in this oval pan and now that I found one, I'm gettin' it.

It isn't right to be this excited about a pan. Not at all.