Do you remember the first time you stood up to your mother?
Maybe it was “I am not going to vacuum” or
maybe it was “I am not going to lift that pencil and start writing” or
“I am not going to eat the rest of that egg”
and for 30 seconds that felt like somebody poured cement in your shoes and unplugged the television you were unsure
how it was going to turn out.
Without the trauma I said I wasn’t cooking last night. Jonathan laughed and Ferdinand said, “Yes!”
We went out for Vietnamese.
Sometimes you just don’t feel like cooking and it could be because you had no sleep or you’re down to your last can of beans or you just flat out do not want to cook. You want the Glenda the Good to shake up some fresh peas from the Spring earth and fly them up from North Carolina or wherever they are in bloom at the moment and toss them all together with a few snappy string beans and some baby green leaves of one thing or another and on the side sassy spicy potatoes and then some of those black beauty lentils with a citrusy vinaigrette that you can pick at when you feel like it and not have anybody say they hate it or ask why we have to always eat so many vegetables.
The biggest problem when it comes to feeling inspired is that inspiration comes from that feeling of
“YES! WHAT ELSE?! I LOVE IT! GIVE ME MORE! KEEP GOING!
When you have a 10 year old the scales are tipped and they are tipped heavily in the direction of,
“I don’t like it. I don’t need it. I wish you wouldn’t cook that. Why do have to cook that? Why would you do that to me?”
So sometimes I just dream of what I would make if Ferdinand magically loved all things green and zesty.
Yotam Ottolenghi wrote a whole book about it.

What I would pick:

Green bean salad, curried new potatoes and a side of spicy lentils (I changed them up a bit as I was feeling INSPIRED.)

Braise one pound of flageolet in salted simmering water w/a sprig of parsley and spill of olive oil until just tender. Drain. Do the same w/half a pound of fresh or frozen peas and a bunch of pencil thin asparagus (only 2-3 minutes in the water.) Toss everything together with whatever baby leaves you can find along with some cut fresh chive, fresh tarragon and flat leaf parsley. Toss it all with a dressing of a tiny spill of maple syrup, a half teaspoon of dijon, a teaspoon of minced shallot, a squeeze of lemon, a pour of red wine vinegar and double that amount of olive oil, all whisked together with salt and pepper.
Serve it w/a new potato salad with a toasted crushed cardamom, coriander, cumin, clove and turmeric, fresh ginger, shallot all stirred into a bit of melted butter and poured over with another squeeze of lemon and chopped fresh mint leaves.
and another little side of puy lentils marinated w/lemon, garlic, thyme, chile, and olive oil.

I think it would all go really well with a glass of fresh limeade.

Think how much time you saved if you didn’t have to get dressed every morning. I accept that it’s not a practical solution for everybody in particular me, who has trouble wearing pants that go higher than my ankles, but for ravioli it’s a miracle. You forget the wrapper all together and make only the tender tidbit on the inside. From Tuscany, where they are completely practical, heavily dressed on all occasions, and into stripping down their food to the bare essentials come the cutest little gnudi (noodie) you ever saw. Unembarrassed tiny melt in your mouth balls of fresh spinach, fresh ricotta, parmigiano reggiano, and egg to bind are boiled for about one minute then tossed into a browned butter sauce w/whole cloves of garlic and sage leaves. It doesn’t get better.

For a crowd of 10:

20 ounces of baby spinach leaves, boiled for one minute with a sprig of parsley, cooled and squeezed dry, chopped well
1 pint of fresh ricotta
handful of freshly grated parmigiano reggiano (or grana)
a few grates of fresh nutmeg, sea salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
2 eggs and 1 egg yolk, lightly beaten with your hand

Mix all that together and give it a taste. It should be delicious. You might have to add a bit more salt or a teeny weeny bit more nutmeg. Pour a good layer of flour onto 2 sheet pans. Spoon little balls of the mixture, about one inch across, onto the sheet pan.
Spoon flour over from the flour that is already on the sheet pan. Leave them like this until you’re done with the rest. Bring a pan of water to the boil and get a bowl of ice water to shock them. (or you can serve them right away)
Melt a stick of butter (remember this is for 10 people) and add three whole cloves of garlic that have been cut in half along with 4 or 5 whole sage leaves. Allow to simmer until the butter is beginning to brown a bit.
Gently shake each ball in a sieve to remove excess flour. Drop them about 10 at a time into the boiling water; as soon as they rise to the top they are done. Remove them onto a sieve and then into the ice bath, then onto paper towel and onto a buttered plate. You can hold them like this for a few hours to a day. When ready to serve, heat the butter in two saute pans and add the gnudi to heat through. Sprinkle extra parm on a platter, tip the gnudi over with all the butter and sprinkle extra parm on top.

Here is the menu I served them with:

First: I gnudi (handmade ricotta/spinach dumplings) w/browned butter, garlic and sage

Main: Roast scottish salmon w/seared scallop served on soffritto (slow cooked celery, carrot, onion, garlic, herbs ) and lemon aioli sides of leek risotto and spears of sauteed asparagus

Salad: Baby spinach, endive, bibb, braised beet, avocado, shallot and lemon zest

Dessert: Orange cake w/berries and cream

Easter is potluck. I have loosened my white knuckled grip on the control over all food.

Jonathan was worried that I didn’t know who was bringing what and we would end up with 7 taboulis like we did at Carl Henry’s funeral.

“Don’t worry” I said to Jonathan. “It will be relaxed; if we end up with all desserts, we’ll have a dessert party.”

So far I have made the start for individual chicken pies stuffed with soffritto, eggplant parm and I’m thinking about a risotto salad w/fresh mozzrella, cherry tomatoes and basil.

And I made cookies.

And tomorrow I think I might make brownies.

On the job last night for an intimate party of four.

The trick with the fish: cut the bone and skin from the sea bass (unless you love the skin) and salt lightly with sea salt. Sear in a hot pan on one side only with a drizzle of olive oil. Roast in the oven until nearly done. When ready for service, heat butter in a saute pan w/clove of garlic and sprig of thyme and allow it to go just a teeny weeny bit brown spotted. Add a little ladle of homemade vegetable stock and a good squeeze of lemon. Set the pieces of fish into the pan and spoon the hot butter over and over, just to heat through.

Appetizers:

dates stuffed w/bouchon (semi firm goat’s cheese), orange zest and chive

fresh fennel topped w/pickled rhubarb compote (rhubarb, vinegar, whole clove, coriander seed, lemon zest, lemon juice, salt, peppercorn, sugar)

raw radish, cumber, braised string beans w/sea salt

First Course:

Borscht w/finely diced beet, potato, crushed fennel seed and bouquet garni w/horseradish lemon yogurt cream

Roasted Spring root vegetables (radish, turnip, onion and carrot) on seared polenta w/garnish of slow cooked fennel and beet chip

Main Course:

Roasted Sea bass w/vignole (sauteed asparagus, peas, leeks, artichokes, and mint)

Salad:

Baby arugula w/sauteed shitake and button mushrooms and capers

Dessert:

Mixed berries

Found half a head of fennel, the inside stalks of head of celery, two carrots, two parts of two separate onions, one leek, wilting parsley, and some broccoli. I decided to forget about the broccoli and keep that on the side. I sauteed all of the above, chopped finely (u can use the food processor for everything but the onion and leek) and tossed it with olive oil, salt, freshly ground pepper, bay leaf, thyme sprigs, fresh tarragon leaves (you can keep fresh thyme and tarragon in the freezer if you don’t use them often enough), parsley and sauteed over medium heat until the vegetables were absolutely collapsing, about 15 to 20 minutes. Added 1 peeled potato and after 1 stir, let it sit until the potato stuck to the pan. Added 1 small can of well rinsed garbanzos (ceci).

It is now simmering away until everything is tender and fragrant and ready.

For the (composed=not tossed) salad: steamed green beans, slices of avocado, capers, green olives, radish on a plate sprinkled w/sea salt and spritzed with lemon.

Plain greens in a bowl with salad dressing on the side because Ferdinand prefers salad items separate w/no dressing. That way he can hold his nose to eat each leaf without the added stress of anything touching. I figure pretty soon, he’ll get bored holding his nose and clearing so many individual dishes from the table.

For dessert: strawberry shortcake with a cake I made to use up extra egg yolks.

Still have to figure out something to do with the broccoli. I might just eat it on my own.

Crazy that the best thing in an Italian restaurant was the butterscotch budino (pudding) but it was. other stuff was delicious-brussel sprouts with pancetta and bread crumbs and tarragon, a mozzarella and fontina pizza with garlic, tender as cake meatballs all delivered that appreciation for small plates because it would be hard not to keep on keepin’ on.
But the pudding.
Smooth, creamy via heavy cream vanilla bean flecked butterscotch pudding topped with a not too sweet butterscotch sauce that was whispering scotch whiskey and a dollop of more cream was in the big leagues.
I,ve never seen anything like that signed up in an Italian league, but who cares where you’re from if you’re
delicious?
The recipes I,m going to try to get it working here:

http://southernfood.about.com/od/puddingrecipes/r/butterscotch-pudding.htm

http://www.davidlebovitz.com/2012/08/butterscotch-sauce-recipe/

last night from take a bao: Chinese chicken and rice, edemame beans with sesame and a chicken soup with bok choy, mushrooms and fat noodles

Before and after: Jeannie has some of the best snacks in the nation. Barbecue kettle chips and bananas and clementines, dried pear, dried mango, rhubarb yogurt, crispy deep fried vegetables, smoked nuts, chocolate with caramel and salt.

found a big box of jelly beans and Madeline gave me fruity gummy bears. along with the misty mornings that fade to bright blue skies and sunshine it,s a snackers paradise in LA.

In the air and on my way to LA. Cramps from eating a turkey and cheese stuffed croissant in less time tha it takes to unsnap Velcro.
Looking forward to a week of green machine.
memorizing the handbook on food safety for NYC.
New rule: all equipment must be installed and functioning 21 days before you open so that you can call ahead for a pre inspection.
whoa.

Old friends came to dinner last night and I was all ready to roast a beef and braise some veg with a side of roasted potatoes and a side of mash with a trifle for the pudding except they don’t eat the beef bit anymore.
Why is it that even for those of us who could own the Eat More Vegetable Soap Box if squatters’ rights had anything to do with it, are mowed down like a weak blade of fresh grass the minute somebody says “I’m only eating plant based foods right now.”
What is so difficult about that? They eat wheat for goodness sake. When people found out that my mother stopped buying meat they would look at me for a long time, the way you look at weird things in a fish tank and then would ask me “what do you eat?”
Surely we are beyond that now.
I am not.
If I am feeding other people, I Admit It. I am completely dependent on meat, poultry fish or cheese to feel like confident in preparing a meal.
Thank goodness I love them and couldn’t ask them to eat before they came.

We started with borscht. The color alone is enough to wake up the table.
I made pasta with fresh artichokes, mushrooms and leeks.
For the main: slowly simmered cannellini tossed with garlicky sauteed escarole.
I had no idea whatsoever about the dessert; I served grapes.

has been done on a handshake. As a back up the lawyer is drawing one up on paper. When we sign it, I can tell you where it is.

I’ll give you a hint: Queens

The landlord asked me “So, what kind of food you going to make?”

I said “2 things every night. One no meat, and one meat/fish/poultry. Only 2 choices and different every night. Fresh. Good. Like home. Who goes home and gets a menu with 142 items? They can have this or they can have that. That’s it.”

“You know” he said “I don’t go out. But when I go out I don’t even want the menu. I just say bring me the chicken. That’s it. The waiter says, you don’t even want the sauce? And I say, you want to bring the sauce on the side, you can bring it.”

“That’s it.”