a bit of the feast yesterday

The day after US Thanksgiving, and I'm a bit of a wreck.  In my younger days, even then it was tough working in the kitchen.  At my age, and in the terrible shape I am in, two days of being in the kitchen for hours leaves me worn out and achy.  Not fun, and I will take it very easy today (including a massage).  And maybe at some point I will actually want to eat.

The funny thing is, I took a plate yesterday with a little of everything (except cranberry, which I don't care for with a turkey dinner), and I couldn't eat it all. 

I started on the sides and didn't make it to my drumstick.  Oh, the leftovers we have!  Pot pies on Sunday, I think.

But it was a nice meal.  Five of us - Geoff and Kent came up from the desert with their dog.  Turkey, stuffing, squash, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, Brussels sprouts, pearl onions, glazed carrots and parsnips, cranberry relish, rolls - we had it all.

And sorry, but I will pat myself on the back:  look at that bird!

Maybe I should begin Christmas cards today....

restaurants I need to go to more often

If I maintained an actual list of places in Chicago I need to get back to or try dining at in the first place, well, I'd start feeling awfully discouraged. Not that it's a tough life dining at Yoshi's so often, but it is a nice thing to go elsewhere. And really, there are few other cities in North American that can boast the dining scene Chicago has. Once every so often, then, I make a small effort.

Ever watch Top Chef? The winner of season 4 was the immensely likable Stephanie Izard, and local chef. I didn't try her former restaurant over in Bucktown, Scylla. Apparently it was great for seafood. Her new place also features some good seafood items, but the key thing to eat there is goat. Of course. Girl and the Goat, a cute name for a restaurant that is hoppingly popular and housed in a terrific, industrialesque space. Conrad and I had been there once a couple of summers ago, celebrating CG, and we've not been back since. I have no idea why.

After Wednesday night, I'm even more mystified by our behaviour.

Conrad was working all week in California, so I got together with a few different friends during the week. Wednesday, sporting a brand new tie (and in need of a beard trim that I finally got around to today), I met up with MK right after work at the bar at Girl and the Goat. Easy to get seats right when it opened. I had a couple of YA novels to pass along to her, and since I got there first, I was enjoying a cocktail, 6th Borough, when she arrived. A beer for her (and, later, a second cocktail for me). On to food, including bread with cultured butter and beer and cheese spread, some green beans with cashews (compliments of the kitchen), crispy fried duck tongues, a sweet potato gratin. Best item, the thing I want to go back to enjoy again? Shisito peppers with sesame and parmesan. Seriously, I could go back happily every day this week ahead (if I weren't off to Vancouver) and sit at the bar, enjoying peppers and a 6th Borough.

It likely won't happen this week. It will happen one day. I'll get Conrad there (or another friend). And that will be one more place checked off the non-existent list, at least for the time being...

using up some leftovers

Sunday we stayed in. And ignored the Super Bowl (though, good gay that I am, I caught Madonna's performance online on Monday). I made us shrimp tacos, a dinner of several components. That left me with some things to play with for lunches and dinners later in the week.

Today I took leftover homemade tortillas layered with a tomato-green chile sauce and black beans and cheese in to work. A filling lunch. But this blog isn't about plastic containers of food reheated in a staff lounge at work, no. Instead, let's talk about dinner tonight.

Look, I love my husband absolutely. Totally. Adore him. A wonderful man, a wonderful husband. But not perfect - who is? Turn him loose in a grocery store, and, well, be prepared for a little improvisation. Even when he's equipped with a list. He did fine today, though, picking up some salmon for dinner (he LOVES salmon, and he knows my disdain for Atlantic salmon) and a few other things. I might have steered away from the chard if I'd seen it, but I asked him for it, and though it wasn't as tender as I prefer, it was fine. No, he did a good job, and the reward was a reasonable dinner.

The salmon I dusted with masa harina. The smell of the flour was really something. I told TK this morning in an e-mail that I'm on a Mexican kick with dining thanks to recently reviewing a book on the cuisine. That crept in to the dinner tonight. The coated salmon I pan-fried, simple as that.

The salmon went atop some of the leftover tomato-green chile sauce. I wish the sauce had more heat, but as I usually do, I found the chiles fairly mild. I swear the chiles we got at the store back home in NORTHERN CANADA had more bite to them. Ah well. It was a fine sauce under the salmon.

The other leftover was a bit of lightly pickled vegetable around the plate. A different sweet-tangy taste from the sauce, and a welcome bit of crunch.

The chard went on the side, and then atop it all was some guacamole. Maybe not traditional, but heck, salmon really isn't Mexican either. Plus, the avocadoes needed using up!

A filling meal, a decent one. Not my best effort, but good for a Tuesday, to be sure.

concert night

Conrad
and I have been making more of an effort lately to actually take advantage of living in a big city. We get complacent, we know. We like holing up at home with a nice bit of wine and our lake/urban views from the balcony. Oh yes, pity us.

But we have been making efforts. I just renewed my membership to the Art Institute, and we make it there at least a few times a year now. I've been to a couple of concerts, big and small, this year and dragged Conrad to one. We've tried restaurants outside of our neighbourhood (with Nightwood being the most noteworthy). And last night, after too many years since our last go-round, we headed on down to Grant Park with a picnic in tow, taking in a concert and dining on the lawn on a summer evening.

We really need to do that more often.

First off, let me not hide my light under a bushel. I made some good food for us, specifically a torta rustica.
We'll be enjoying that big pie for days, but it really is an excellent dish. Swap out the chicken breast slices in it for some sort of roasted vegetable and you can have a delightfully satisfying vegetarian dish. We opted for the chicken, however. I had lightly cooked some asparagus, chilled it, and then dressed it with a simple vinaigrette when I plated it. We had cherries, chocolate, and nuts to snack on. Fizzy water. Wine. Ah, Felton Road - a snotty person running your wine room when we visited, but delicious wine, undeniably.

The music? I can't comment too intelligently on it. I rather liked the opening piece, a Mexican composition and a Mexican conductor. The rest? It was lovely background as I began re-reading The Rebel Angels (every few years I return to The Cornish Trilogy and The Deptford Trilogy). The skies darkened, and the skyline lit up.



It was a lovely evening, and we even caught a cab home without difficulty! As Conrad and I remarked to each other, we've had a very urban weekend, and one that we've enjoyed immensely!

best things I ate in NOLA

I'm going to say this: I dined well in New Orleans, but I was not blown away.

A case of going to the wrong restaurants? A case of choosing the wrong items? A case of needing to eat pork products to fully appreciate the cuisine here? I don't know. But I don't write this blog to disparage things (not often, at least). I prefer very much to celebrate instead. As I sit here watching Federer-Tsonga, a list of the ten things I ate while in NOLA that I would happily eat again. Oh wait, some of them I did go back for!

;-)

Grilled marinated artichokes at Rambla. I really wish I knew more about this restaurant. It's a hotel restaurant, it has vegetarian options, the food is quite good, the space is great for groups to gather. Why was it so very empty both times we went there? Ah well. We dined there twice, and this was a winner.

Even better at Rambla? The special: butternut squash gnudi. Fried crisp on the outside, creamy smooth inside. Only $5. Just yum.

And before we leave Rambla, the spiced Marcona almonds. Yes, I could see sitting around with these and some fino some lazy evening.

The first dinner in NOLA, TK and I wandered nearby to Capdeville. A loud little place, but possibly the friendliest service we had in NOLA (and I have to echo something I read on Twitter - for a town that thrives on tourism, NOLA does not have particularly good or polished restaurant service). Anyway, Capdeville proved to be excellent for two items, one of which I didn't get a good photo of in the dim light, the bread pudding. Topped with brûléed bananas and served with a rum caramel sauce, it was good enough that TK and I joked half-seriously about nightcapping with it on at least one other evening. The other item was our entree, crispy-skin salmon on a salad of curried lentils. $15? A steal, a delicious steal.

I had dinner alone last night, sitting at the bar at Sylvain in the French Quarter. It was on my radar thanks to a friend, Adam, who works for ACRL. Parked with The Rites of Spring, I sat a couple of hours, waiting out a mighty rainstorm, talking a bit with the bartender. Good food, but the thing I want more of? Fried eggplant. This was an appetizer. I am, evidently, a pig. But so very tasty!

We used to make the smoked salmon cheesecake from Emeril's first cookbook at the restaurant years back. It was a hit and miss thing - some people loving it and some people finding it weird. I actually thought it was best while still warm. Emeril serves it cold at his namesake restaurant, and his is better. Silky smooth, napped with a green onion coulis. it made sense on a hot day with a glass of chilled rosé. My favourite part of my splurge lunch there with CG, other than CG, of course!

I had never heard of John Besh before recent seasons of Top Chef, but now I've been to three restaurants that carry his name. I liked them all, but the one that I went to twice was Domenica in the Roosevelt Hotel. The second time, four of us had a very late meal of pizza to make up for a night of poor grazing on meager selections of finger foods. It was the first time, lunch with TK and Martin, that was most memorable. Two items for me. First, a chilled heirloom tomato soup with lump crabmeat. Cold, tart, some sweetness, a bit of zip. Good. After that came fried squash blossoms out of which oozed a goat cheese filling that was not at all too heavy for the blossoms themselves. I think, in fact, these may have been the best things all week here. The batter was impossibly delicate. I never imagined in a town that features to much fried food I would find something that was fried and ethereal. But I did, and I recommend it highly, and I wouldn't mind a last order before I leave town.

Oh yes, I dined elsewhere, and I will be sure to have another post with at least photos of some of the other foods. But ah, some things that I would encourage friends to try if they're down here. And if you feel a little jealous of me for this dining, well, that just makes me savour the memory of them all the more. ;-)

chilled dinner

Temperatures well into the 90s? Look, I love Chicago and all, but this is stupid. It's not yet the middle of June. Honestly? Bring on the winter weather - I can just pile on a nice thick sweater.

Jeepers!

I did not want to cook tonight, but I had some vegetables and fruit to use, and I dislike wasting them. I stopped at Whole Foods for a few more items, then came home and put this simple meal together:



Shrimp, barely poached, cooled, chopped. Toss them with chopped mango and red onion and red pepper and cilantro and jalapeno. Add lime juice, salt, and pepper. Let sit in the fridge while enjoying a bit of rose wine. Plate atop a bit of arugula, take photos, then toss it together to make a juice, messy salad. A nice chilled meal for a warm evening.

It was either that or pick up sushi again for a second night in a row!

rare achievement

Friends will know this: I am very critical of my own cooking. Badly and even unnecessarily so, but I think that's not unusual for people who enjoy cooking. I'm hard on myself, I know. Sorry.

Conrad is out of town for a handful of days, and rather than do my usual thing of putting together a selection of things I can nibble on idly while I sip wine and watch old episodes of Top Chef on my iTunes, I actually cooked and plated a real dinner for myself.

And you know what? It wasn't exactly refined, but by gosh did it taste good.

A nice piece of sockeye salmon, seasoned with kosher salt and ground cumin, sauteed in a pan. Asparagus cooked crispy-tender. A fresh salsa made with corn cut from the cob, tomato, cilantro, jalapeno, red onion, lime juice, salt, and pepper.



And there I sat, a bit of Pinot Noir, Top Chef on iTunes, a dish of fresh cherries (rushing the season - oh! I can't wait until the cherries are in the thick of their season) awaiting me for dessert. And a nod to myself, a silent mental pat on the back for a job well done.

balcony dinner (Vancouver)

As I sit here watching Roger and Rafa play, it's a good opportunity to catch up on some blogging. Vancouver isn't that far behind us, and there are a few posts I'd like to write in the next few days. And first up? Cooking, of course!





Brian left us earlier this spring, heading from Chicago and the Smelts to Vancouver. A big loss to us, though a great gain for Giuseppe, who was already living up in Vancouver. At least we can invite him over for dinner when we're in town.

Conrad and I had a bunch of running around to do up in Vancouver on Sunday, though given the slow pace of our stroll to Granville Island (a blog posting in itself for another time), running around doesn't accurate describe our day. Dinner prep, though, was confined to a narrow window after our meeting with our wedding planner. No worries - we'd purchased smoked sablefish and cheese to snack on, we had wine chilling, and we had a pie from the Market for dessert.

Spot prawns are in season, and I couldn't resist. Spring in BC, an emphasis on local products. Conrad set up the balcony for us to sit out there as long as possible, and I set to work on a wild mushroom risotto with fiddleheads. The prawns needed only light cooking right before serving. Brian came by, we sat with wine and snacks, catching up and enjoying the fine weather. A bottle of a Seresin Sauvignon Blanc to start with, then on to a Joie Noble Blend with dinner.

Dinner was nice. The risotto wasn't as creamy as I'd like, and it ended up seeming a bit too salty against the sweetness of the prawns, though it did introduce Brian to fiddleheads. But ah, the prawns. Yes, a bit of a mess to get into (and we all decided against sucking out the heads), but cooked nicely, and delightfully tasty. Also, they look kind of cool on the plate!





We moved on to a BC Merlot and dessert, and Giuseppe was able to join us for a nightcap (and egg balls that Conrad picked up from the Night Market on a quick mission in search of dark chocolate)(though given the size of the martinis Marie was pouring for Giuseppe and Brian, I am glad I stuck with sparkling water as my nightcap). Two good friends originally from Chicago now very much part of our Vancouver life, and a meal to share. A fine Sunday evening indeed.

salmon, midweek

I haven't been cooking too many great dishes lately. It feels like I've made dinner and nothing more. It's food, it's nourishing, it's not especially noteworthy or even pretty enough to be photographed. This past Wednesday, however, I took a little time and made a little effort, and the result was a fairly decent little meal for us.
Three components:

1. Salmon, coated with a bit of oil and seasoned with salt, pepper, and thyme. I seared it to a nice medium.
2. Corn and leek puree, made with vegetable broth and no dairy, sieved to a better smoothness.
3. Fava bean and tomato salad, tossed with a simple garlic and sherry vinegar dressing and mixed with some diced red pepper and sliced shallot.

Plated, it looked attractive enough, and I thought the meatiness of the fish, the sweetness of the puree, and the sharpness of the salad made for a balanced plate. A good meal, and one worth photographing at last.

cleanse, day 26

Oh so close to the end of this self-imposed diet, and funnily enough, I don't crave things. Oh, I wouldn't mind being able to have a sweet treat, and I think a glass of wine would be good, definitely. On the other hand, I doubt that, come Wednesday, I'll settle down to a big piece of red meat topped with cheese and served with a big wedge of cake for dessert and a martini to wash it all down.

Oh, wait, maybe I should give that a try...

Yesterday was a simple meal as usual, a one pan dish. Sort of a black bean chili, but I decided on a milder approach. I sauteed some cumin, oregano, salt, and chipotle powder to take some of the rawness out of the spices, then added chopped onion and carrot. Once I'd sweated that a little, I added two cans of black beans (mostly drained of their liquid), stirred, then added in some leftover roasted tomatillo sauce from the night before when I'd had our neighbour Jeff up for dinner. After letting this simmer a while, I added some chopped yellow squash and corn cut from a cob. Some water to thin it, some salt to season it, and I let it simmer until the vegetables were tender.

And then Conrad and I went for a walk to enjoy a fine (and finally!) spring late afternoon.




Once home, I set to work setting up dinner. Bowls heated. A simple salad of arugula tossed together with a dressing of olive oil, gently browned garlic, salt, and sherry vinegar. I chopped an avocado up for garnish on the stew, and we were soon eating. Best of all? Leftovers that will be great for lunch on Monday!

cleanse, day 6

A day on which I allowed myself fish.

All along I'd said that I would permit fish in the cleanse. I suppose I could be more rigorous, but I'm giving up quite enough, and really, how on earth do vegetarians not tire of the beaniness of it all? I'd had some fish as part of my meal earlier in the week at a benefit dinner at Yoshi's anyway, so last night wasn't a step too far.

In fact, it was a light meal, and one to revisit with some tweaking. I marinated halibut with miso, and it was the addition of a scant amount of sesame oil to the marinade that accounted for most of the added fat to the meal beyond what the ingredients might have. Come time to cook the fish, I lined a steamer basket with some Napa cabbage leaves and placed the fish atop the leaves with some broccoli and sliced shitake mushrooms alongside. I thought that sauteing or roasting the mushrooms might make them too strong, hence the steaming.

While those steamed I was reducing balsamic vinegar. Here's the other thing I miss on this cleanse - sweetness. It's a tough thing to incorporate sometimes, especially if I don't want the other flavours of fruits or things that might lend food the sugars I seek. Reducing the vinegar to syrup, I smeared each plate with a streak, then plated the fish atop along the with the broccoli, the mushrooms, and some crispy onion bits. A simple meal.



If I do this again - I should - I think I'd do two things differently. First, I'd start the broccoli before the fish. It was still a little crunchy. Healthier that way, perhaps, but some greater tenderness would have been good. I also might have poached the mushrooms in a miso broth for evennness of cooking. The fish, though, flaked apart delightfully yet wasn't overcooked. A reasonably successful idea, and one to revisit for sure.

dinner in honour of Brian

Sad, but true: our friend/neighbour/teammate Brian is leaving Chicago. His partner, Giuseppe, will be in Chicago next weekend to help Brian finish off the last bits that need finishing and then export him out of the country. No more Project Runway nights or other casual dinners out. A nice piece of our social lives here in Chicago, gone.

Happily for us, though, Brian is moving to Vancouver. Last night's dinner in honour of him promises not to be the last dinner I make for him.

I think it may only have been once that I made us food for a Project Runway night at Brian's place, and it was a bunch of baby back ribs. When Brian, Daniel, Conrad and I were together recently - was it at Nightwood or a team brunch - the recollection of those ribs came up, and we decided that I would make us more on the evening of the team going-away party. Food first, then off to a gay bar. I rather enjoy ribs, so I was up for it.

Four of us became five with the addition of Rudy, and Conrad and I shifted plans for dining from the kitchen to the dining table. Cooking and set-up was not too difficult, and by the time the guys arrived (and nope, no photos of them, sorry), we were relaxing. A bottle of Champagne chilled, a few things to nibble on. Conversation started.

As for the food, well, it was fine enough. A rundown:

When I make ribs, I season them with salt and pepper, wrap them in foil, and bake in a low oven for 2+ hours. I don't have a standard sauce recipe. I usually mix up some sweet, some sour, some salty, and taste as I go along. The sauce yesterday had a mixture of garlic, ginger, sriracha, ketchup brown sugar, oyster sauce, soy sauce, and white wine vinegar. I usually unwrap the ribs then brush on the sauce a few times as they cook a while longer.

I don't make rice or pasta or potatoes for me and Conrad when we're alone, but I made up rice yesterday, returning in spirit to something we used to do at the restaurant, firecracker rice. I cooked basmati then tossed it with green onion, pine nuts, currants, diced red pepper, and a sauce mix. I reheated the rice before serving and placed mounds on each plate.

I'm a brassica fan - the vegetable sides give me away. Broccoli unadorned to add some green to the plate. A red cabbage slaw to add some purple. The slaw used a vinaigrette with a bit of sesame oil to tie it to the vaguely Asian flavours of the ribs and rice.

It all made for a satisfying plate of food, I think, I hope. And I didn't stop there, of course. A simple dessert of a ginger cake plated with a thin, quick creme anglaise and dried sour cherries soaked twice in brandy.
Best part of that is that there is a nice, big piece of extra cake leftover, and I'm mildly tempted this morning, before Conrad gets up, to slice a bit and toast it up for my breakfast.

A good meal, and as I noted, not the last meal I make for Brian, I am sure. As for Daniel and Rudy, well, they both liked the food AND cleaned their plates, thereby meeting the the conditions for being invited back.