winning recipe

Credit where credit is due. I've only modestly dipped into the fantastic cookbook TK got me for Christmas (Vancouver Cooks 2), but ladies and gentlemen, we have a proven winner that I will return to time and again in years ahead:

curry salt-crusted halibut with pea puree

The downside to this recipe (and there is one, sorry), is that it is so magnificently fragrant that even with a homemade air freshener of orange peel, clove, and cinnamon sticks simmering on the stove, the apartment was still a little redolent of curry Monday morning. Curry is not necessarily a scent one wants to wake up to on a Sunday morning, I have to say.

Still, it is a winner. Conrad and I had a nice date night in planned for Saturday. Oh, not hugely, sickeningly romantic. No. Just the two of us, though, spending time together quietly and conversationally. Holding hands, watching some AbFab. Enjoying a bottle of a Cedar Creek Chardonnay, the fish, and each other.





Really, can anyone ask for more?

size matters

Bigger is better. Or perhaps I should say that more is better. Quantity and quality. I'm insatiable. I have... cookbook envy.



Actually, I think I mostly feel jealous of Jeph that he has so darn many and that he has dedicated shelving for it in his kitchen.

I assure you, I gave Conrad many not-so-subtle hints about how many more cookbooks I would want to fit into our kitchen in place of the vintage Fiestaware there right now.

Gifts of "porn"

How's that for a title that will ensure this blog turns up in searches?

Jeph takes his NBF duties very seriously, and so it was that some "porn" turned up in the mail today, fresh from Amazon. I perhaps shouldn't jokes so incorrectly. Let me explain: one of my classmates in library school, Rich, made what I thought was an apt comparison between cookbooks and porn. He suggested that in each case, people read (or is that "read"?) them and admire the photos and fantasize about emulating all the things between the covers, but they never do. I think he made a good point, and I've delighted in using his comparison since.

Jeph sent me what looks like a very useful book that I'll delight in skimming while I eat breakfast. I will, however, attempt a variety of the sauces it offers. And I'll photograph them and post them here, you will no doubt know by now. Aside from the cookbook, he sent along a graphic novel, a classic storyline from my comic book days of the 80's. I can read and re-read these things many times, so that, too, was greatly appreciated.

Jeph, in other words, a public thank you!

An otherwise mild day. Conrad was busy with work when I got home at about six. I would have started on dinner, but the ground turkey meat wasn't thawed yet. Rather than use the microwave, we opted to go to Yoshi's. I first baked two more of the apple buttermilk tortes and got some basic sweet buttermilk pastry dough into the fridge. Yes, I have to use up more buttermilk. Scones are likely tomorrow, I think.

Dinner was a pleasant time sitting outside, enjoying the evening watching the Halsted Street foot traffic, enjoying our salmon and grilled chicken breast. The photo of me is a little fuzzy, sorry. I had hoped Yoshi would have something on the menu to mark the last hurrah of foie gras in Chicago. What an idiotic undertaking by the City Council, banning the sale or serving of foie gras in Chicago! Doubtless someone will flame me for that in the comments. I still think it's a slippery slope, and they may as well ban carbonated soft drinks from the city because of how they contribute to obesity. Protect the ducks or geese, but let our children get obese? Madness! Feh!


And on that note, time to search for some potential travel ideas and get to bed....