Andouille Sausage, Bean and Kale Soup

Today looks like this:

So I'm glad I have this for lunch:

Andouille sausage, kale and bean soup that I made yesterday before breakfast. I had already soaked and cooked the dried beans a couple of days ago. I'd saved a good amount of the bean cooking liquid too so all of that was ready to go in the morning.

I just cut up the sausage and cooked it with olive oil in the pot (andouille isn't very greasy so I added extra oil) while that got started I chopped up some carrots, celery, onion and some boiled potatoes I had lying around and put them in the pot too.

When they were soft I added the beans and their liquid, some extra water and a few teaspoons of chicken "Better Than Bouillion." I let it all cook for a bit - 20 or 30 minutes. I wasn't paying attention. I decided it was cooked enough, turned the heat off and stirred in the prepped kale. Easy peasy.

When you make sausage soup the sausage does all the work. Get good sausage. Some barley, rice or other grain would probably be good in there too.

In Honor

In honor of our friend who passed today, I post (again?) the recipe I use for for Cincinnati Chili, to which he introduced us (my comments in parenthesis) I'll likely be cooking up a big batch tomorrow.

Cincinnati Empress Chili

For the chili:

2 lbs. ground beef 

1 qt.  water  (4 cups)

1  & 1/2 t. allspice

1 garlic clove (I used more of course)

2 bay leaves

2 diced onions

dash worcestershire

1  can (6oz) tomato paste

1 T. salt

1/2 t. cayenne

1 & 1/2 t.  black pepper

3 T. chili powder (though I used less than 1T because I ran out and it still came out well)

1 t. cinnamon

1/2 t. cumin

1 T. vinegar

spaghetti - make a pretty fair amount 

Toppings:

orange cheddar cheese grated

kidney beans

chopped onions

oyster crackers

Tabasco sauce

Put the water in a large pot or hotpot.  Crumble meat into the water (yes, raw)  and add all the other chili ingredients.  Bring to a boil then simmer at least one hour and for as long as three hours.  Remove garlic and bay leaves.  (or leave in the garlic and mash it if you’re me)  Serve over spaghetti with your choice of toppings.

Serves six or so

Godspeed, dear friend! We'll never forget you!

Recent Activity

Hi there folks! Here are some photos of stuff from the past several days:

Rhubarb Upside-down cake.

Recipe from marthastewart.com It makes a sweet, dense cake with a salty-ish crumb crust. I reduced the sugar in the cake (not the crumb) part of the recipe or the cake would have been salty too. The results were fine for the effort I put in but I think I'll keep looking for a recipe I like better.

Even dead peonies smell amazing. The three sad examples behind the fresh one made my entire house smell divine despite their crispy appearance. 

A dusty bug I spotted on a windowsill yesterday. It is the nymph of a Masked Hunter bug. They eat bedbugs and earwigs, among other things.

Garlic scapes! So pretty and delicious. I like to douse them with olive oil and salt and grill them. I'm growing much more garlic next year if I can.

My pal, Fay. She's doing great these days. Hope I didn't just jinx it. She'll be fourteen in three months.

I'd like to tell you more but I'm extra stupid from a head cold and I don't trust myself to make sense. 

In Making News

I did manage to make chocolate chip cookies with bacon in them today.  I cut about two tablespoons of butter and half the salt from the original recipe and added half a cup of cooked bacon in with the nuts and chocolate chips.  They came out good.  Pete approves and he wasn't so sure it would be a good idea.

I wish they were a little more bacon-y.  As you can see I broke the bacon up into chocolate-chip sized pieces.  Some of them broke down even more when they were incorporated into the batter.  I think they should be bigger so I'll use larger pieces next time (whenever that is - I don't usually buy bacon)

Also I'll try to use some solidified bacon fat in place of some butter for more bacon flavor. I'm not positive more bacon pieces is the way to go.  When you eat the cookie the bacon breaks down more slowly than the rest of the cookie and you can be left with, well, meat dregs in your mouth.  Kind of like the coconut when you eat a Mounds bar.  It's not a huge problem but I'm not sure I like that.

Whenever I use the oven Fay has to be banished to jail.

This is because she has a life-long hatred of ovens and will attack them if she knows they're in use.  Don't ask me why - I don't know of anything an oven ever did to her.  Except once she was able to bite an in-use oven and she got burned on her lip.  She was so busy beating up the oven though that she didn't notice until afterwards.  I'm sure she had no idea why her lip hurt.  So you see, it's jail for her.  She protests.

Poor thing - the whole house has smelled like bacon all day.

Fried Eggs

Jose Andres ruined me for regular fried eggs.  A few years ago I picked up his cookbook, "Tapas: A Taste of Spain in America."  The photos caught my eye and I read the recipes and saw that they were easy to make.  There are a number of recipes in there that I make all the time, like the spinach and chickpea stew.  I bought the book when I was vegetarian so there are a lot of good veg recipes or recipes that you can easily make veg.

But I mentioned the fried eggs.  He shows a technique where you use a fairly high heat, a lot of olive oil and tilt the pan so the hot oil pools and you almost deep fry your egg in a regular frying pan.  If you do this your egg comes out rounded, crispy and browned on the outside but still has a runny yolk (if you like it that way - you can always cook it longer) Since I'm uncoordinated I couldn't figure out how to tip the pan with one hand and get the egg in there with the other.  You're also supposed to spoon the hot oil on top of the egg while it's cooking.  I'm way too uncoordinated to do that.  I just fry the eggs flat in the pan with a lot of olive oil and flip them.  It still works.  I'm now addicted to crispy fried eggs.  Regular fried eggs are disappointing.  Boo-hoo!

Bottom line, I highly recommend this cook book.  It has definitely added new techniques and ingredients to my cooking arsenal without a lot of labor and sweat.

I Heart Kimchi

For starters, let me just say that I was doing some serious weeding today and when I was done I thought an after-gardening martini would be a good idea.  At the moment I'm done with the martini and I could probably use some food.  So that's where my head is.

Speaking of food, I thought I'd relate my first experience with kimchi.  I <3 KIMCHI SOOOO MUCH!!!!!!!

It was back in 19 (yes, last century) 1989.  I was working at an animation company (why the HELL did I leave???  Oh yeah, they weren't paying me*) called Olive Jar.  Yes, it was super-fun.  It was also kinda freaky because I had just moved to Boston and I was unfamiliar with the Boston attitude.  Let's just say that some people could be moody and I thought it was me when it was really them.

At lunchtime this guy, A.J., the DP (Director of Photography, or cinematographer) had a jar of kimchi.  We ate family style at Olive Jar.  Isn't that cool?  I also had my first quinoa there.  Anyhoo, the smell of the kimchi really intrigued me.  A.J. was a friendly guy so he let me have some.

Holy crap!  All I wanted was more kimchi!!!!  It was really obvious and I think it amused him.  I probably could have eaten the whole jar but I held myself back.  It was difficult though.  I had kimchi in my soul.

Okay, now I'm going to track down some dinner for myself.  My martini thinks it would be a good idea if I had a hot dog with kimchi on it and some spicy mac 'n' cheese.

I made the mac 'n' cheese a few days ago.  It's KICK-ASS!!!!!  It reheats well too.  The recipe made something like five pounds of mac 'n' cheese.  For starters you make a pound of pasta and use two pounds of cheese.  Then there's the roux which requires five cups of milk/cream.  No wonder it's KICK-ASS!!!!!

Please be assured I will also make some nice, healthy vegetables too.  Probably steamed broccoli.

*And it's a good thing too - I was incompetent.

The Island Doesn't Want Me Back

I was so excited to get back up to Vermont.  The weather was perfect this week and I was going to spend it kicking ass in the garden.  Unfortunately I came down with a @#$%^&! cold.  I've felt so lousy and out-of-it that I've pretty much spent the last four days in bed.


It feels like I've been away from my life for nearly two months and I'm not allowed to get back to it yet.


Of course I could look at it that this is my life now.  Oy.


Today I worked up enough energy to make some soup which I'm pretty sure will cure me.  Here's the recipe:

Chicken Soup with Lemongrass and Dried Mushrooms

A generous handful of dried mushrooms
4 cups chicken stock
4 slices peeled fresh ginger
1 large lemongrass stalk, cut into 2" pieces and crushed (or 1 teaspoon fresh lemon zest)
16 fresh kaffir lime leaves or the grated zest of 1 large lime
1/4 cup lime or lemon juice, freshly squeezed
2 to 3 tablespoons Thai fish sauce
2 tablespoons light brown sugar
1 tablespoon red chili paste
1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite sized pieces
1/2 pound fresh white mushrooms, thinly sliced
5 small fresh green or red chilies, sliced crosswise, paper-thin
Fresh cilantro (coriander) leaves

1. Rinse the dried mushrooms and remove their stems.  Place the mushrooms in a small bowl with enough hot water to cover them.  Soak them while you're prepping the other ingredients.  Take the mushrooms out of the water,  reserving the mushroom broth.  Slice mushrooms. 
2. In a large saucepan, combine the stock, mushroom broth, ginger, lemongrasss and lime leaves or lime zest. Place over medium heat and slowly bring to a boil. Boil for 1 minute.
3. Reduce heat to low and bring to a simmer. Add the lime or lemon juice, fish sauce, brown sugar, dried mushrooms and chile paste. Mix well and simmer for 5 minutes. Add the chicken pieces and simmer until tender 4 to 5 minutes, add the fresh mushrooms and simmer until tender, about 1 minute.
4. To serve ladle soup into warmed bowls. Float the chili slices and cilantro leaves on top.

Serves 4 to 6.


I got this recipe somewhere.  I may even have blogged about it before - I don't remember.  I added the bits about the dried mushrooms - I'm addicted to them.  I've also never used kaffir lime leaves.  The markets I usually go to don't have them.  In fact, the best I could do with the lemongrass at our nearest grocery store (in Walpole, NH) was a tube of lemongrass purée.  It worked okay I guess.


The main thing is the combination of the chicken broth, citrus, sugar and spicy/garlicky chili paste.  I'm convinced that this combo is very healing for colds and flus.  I had some soup for lunch and for dinner and I'm feeling a lot better now.  Really.


I think I made it vegetarian once, with tofu and vegetable broth, and it was really good - even healing.  I wasn't sick then though.  Another variation is to add 28 oz. (2 cans) of unsweetened coconut milk at step 3.  That makes a good soup but I think it's too heavy to help with a cold/flu.


Oh man, that reminds me - I read a recipe for home made Nyquil ages ago and I've never tried it out.  I'm not gonna start now either - way too labor intensive for a sick person.

This Is Ready Though

Rhubarb!

Rhubarb Crisp!

At least, what's left of it.

The Joy Of Food-ish Substances

It has come out on Facebook that I make marshmallows.

I've been making them for years because I found a recipe for them in Martha Stewart's Christmas: Entertaining Decorating and Giving,
a book I bought a million years ago when it was new.  I probably bought it because of the marshmallow recipe (who ever heard of making them yourself?  They're not food.  It's amazing they're edible at all and not just playthings) but the book also contains an AMAZING recipe for egg nog.  Serve that egg nog once and people will beg you to make it at every other occasion.  They'll invite you over just so you'll bring the egg nog. As I recall there's an error in the marshmallow recipe (something like it doesn't say when to add the vanilla) but you can fake it.

These days I've been using recipes from this book:
Marshmallows: Homemade Gourmet Treats.  This book is a comprehensive marshmallow manual.  It has recipes for dozens of flavors, different marshmallow consistencies and - best of all - none of the recipes call for corn syrup.

You need a strong stand mixer if you're going to make 'shmallers (as I like to call them - obviously)  You're not going to be able to whip up the searing-hot sugar batter with your hand-held.  Other than that they are no harder to make than cake.

Then you can have yourself a good time decorating them as you wish:

Or you can spread the batter in a pan to cure then cut out shapes with a cookie cutter or knife.  I wanted to play with a pastry bag.

Then you can foist them on unsuspecting visitors and their gluten-sensitive children.  Or just whip them at people.  Marshmallows make such a wonderful, soft smacking sound when they come in sharp contact with human skin.

Oh yes, and since you made them yourself and they couldn't be fresher they also taste really good.

Kale Salad And A Secret

I made some pretty decent kale salad for a potluck the other night.

I cooked two bunches of prepped* kale in 4T olive oil and a half-cup of water with three lightly crushed garlic cloves and salt and pepper in a covered sauté pan for probably less than ten minutes.

The kale was drained then put in a salad bowl. I added a bit more olive oil, one of the garlic cloves, minced, some grapefruit, feta cheese, toasted pecans and some passionfruit vinegar (a gift from a friend). Salad-wise that's a fail-safe recipe. I had never made kale before though. I will make it again.

Also, the secret ingredient in spicy asian soup is chili paste. Or else it's ginger or kaffir lime leaves or lemongrass. One of those. Or dried mushrooms.

*You know - ribs and stems removed, lightly chopped and washed but not dried.

More Photos From Last Week And Cookies

My mom and I are reflected in the convex mirror in my aunt's apartment while enjoying our breakfasts.

Here are the ladies before lunch. My mom's the light-haired one.

Both my mom and my aunt changed their shoes before we went. Mom wore real shoes and my cousin made my aunt wear shoes with a bit of red in them. It was a good choice. None of us were bumpkins.

My cousin is a wonderful photographer of people because she says truly funny things just before taking the photo.

And here are my shoes.

Cue the harp music and imagine clouds of red hearts and rose petals flying around. I love these shoes. I'm going to have to think of other places to wear them. They put me over six feet too, which I love. I'd happily be taller if I could be.

Here I am towering over my cousin's adorable daughter, Ryan.

She is so awesome.

Today I made the Chocolate Snowstorms from the Food Network pull-out booklet (actually, I got the recipe here because the booklet is in Cambridge and I'm not) and I have to say that they are de-friggin-licious and easy to make. I think I've already eaten six of them. The recipe made me about 50 cookies.

Cookie Photos

I was just looking at my browsing history so I could find the link to the cookie recipe I used for this year's cookie exchange. Not only did it contain cookie recipes, it also contained my attempt at researching a new hand mixer. It made me chuckle to remember that day.

Below are the un-baked Chocolate Cherry Gooeys I made from the December Food Network magazine special pull-out booklet. Yields are not mentioned anywhere in the booklet. I had to make four dozen cookies. Fortunately the recipe produced almost sixty cookies so I was all set.

Here they are baked and dusted with powdered sugar for the sake of festivity:

On the left in the photo is the red bag of Lust Blanket yarn.

Finally, here's a shot of all the cookies I came home with:

Four dozen cookies seems like a lot to make when you're looking down the barrel of the Christmas gun. When I get the cookie plate home at the end of the night I always wish there were more than two of each kind though.

The Chocolate Cherry Gooeys were very easy to make (go for the drop cookie recipe - it takes fewer motions to make them) and very tasty. I wish I had some with me right now, come to think of it. I'll definitely try a few of the other recipes in that booklet too.

Thanksgiving '09 Rundown

Spencer looking like a homicidal elf.

Fay's not vomiting (fingers crossed), the laundry is in the washing machine, Pete's gone up to Vermont, there are still some Thanksgiving left overs in the fridge. Things are winding down. Probably. So I have a little time to list the things I/we made for Thanksgiving.

In the photo above you can see the turkey breast and stuffing, the brussels sprouts (chopped and pan fried in butter and garlic), the maple-tangerine cranberry sauce and cauliflower with brown butter, pears, sage and nuts (almonds and pecans). Not yet at the table are the sweet potatoes (just roasted and mashed with butter), the pan-fried crushed potatoes, the gravy, Pete, Lisa and I.

The turkey was brined then had ginger herb butter stuffed under its skin and was roasted. The recipe called for juniper berries which I couldn't find so I just left them out. It was fine. The stuffing contained cranberries, nuts and oyster mushrooms. It (and any other of the above courses which contained nuts) was supposed to have hazelnuts in it but I didn't want to spend all day shelling them so I substituted a mixture of toasted almonds and pecans. Also fine.

I bought a pecan pie and a pumpkin pie.

The only preparation I did ahead was brine the turkey (which I highly recommend) make the herb butter and stuff the butter under the turkey skin. Everything else was done on the day. It was a full day of cooking but at a leisurely pace. The only snafu was that the turkey finished maybe half an hour before we thought it would.

Except for the brussels sprouts and sweet potatoes which we wung (wow, that looks funny written out) and crushed potatoes (Martha Stewart) all the recipes were from the 2008 November issue of Fine Cooking magazine.

Thinking about it all is making me hungry. Since there were only four of us I halved the amounts in the recipes. Now I kinda wish I had more left overs. Oh well. Maybe I'll remember that for next year.

Pancake News

I made pumpkin pancakes this morning. Above is a shot of the stack I made for Fay.

Because I made them before I had even one sip of coffee I forgot to add the one egg that the recipe calls for. The pancakes are still good. They're a bit gluey and you don't get as many of them but they're not by any means a disappointment.

The reason I'm telling you this is that if you're out of eggs one morning but you still want a hearty breakfast you can still make these tasty pancakes.

Ghosties

Spooky Ghostie cupcakes!

They are Pumpkin Chocolate Chip cupcakes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World topped with seven-minute (more like twenty-minute) frosting from Epicurious.com. Seven-minute frosting contains egg whites so these are not vegan cupcakes.

The eyes are mini chocolate chips. It took me a minute to figure out that I should put the chips on point-side in.

Also, I was wearing my pumpkin-head wig for a time while making these. I don't have photographic proof. I ended up taking the wig off however because the hair would fall in my face and I couldn't see very well. I don't know how you people with hair can get anything done.

This was my first batch of seven-minute frosting. Like I said, it took more than seven minutes for the egg whites to whip to stiff peak stage. That's really not a deal-breaker for me though. This frosting is fun to play with - very fluffy. It's exactly what you want to use to fill a cupcake or layer cake. I definitely prefer it to buttercream. At our house the frosting hardened by the end of the night, the ghosts formed a crust of meringue but were still soft inside.

Chilaquiles

Based on the chilaquiles we used to get at The Golden Egg in Saxton's River before it closed.

Tortilla chips cooked in salsa with egg and cheese on top. I threw in some spinach too for ha ha's (or maybe to assuage my vegetable guilt). I think they're the best way to use up the really broken tortilla chips at the bottom of the bag.

Later today Michaela's coming over for gardening. For lunch we'll be having my new addiction, toasted onigiri.

Non-Traditional Korean Scallion-Free Pancake

Ah, leftovers. So many possibilities...

Tonight the fridge contained left over Indian rice and some somen noodles which I thought we should work on. I also had broccoli, zucchini and some Chinese cabbage (the one the looks like a pretty, green and white football, not bok choy) So naturally I thought "scallion pancake!"

No, I didn't have scallions. I don't especially like scallions. I like scallion pancakes though. I figured, why discriminate against other vegetables just because I don't have scallions?

So I sliced up some regular onion, pared down some broccoli florets, grated the zucchini, took out my bag of cabbage that I'd shredded two nights ago (for that night's soup - more left overs) and got out my handy dandy jar of kimchee.

I mixed up some Korean pancake batter (2 cups flour, 1.5 cups water, two eggs, one teaspoon salt - beat it all together) and sautéed the vegetables. Then I added the kimchee, the Indian rice and the somen. Pour some batter into the pan on top of the fillings, shake it around to distribute, cook and flip. I made three large pancakes. Easy!

Except the flipping part. I love pan-fliping things. It's risky but so satisfying when it works. It adds a little excitement too. I made these pancakes in my largest frying pan so they were too big to flip with a spatula.

For my first attempt at flipping I was too wimpy and merely folded the pancake in half like an omelette. Disappointing. I had to unfold the thing because if I didn't it would have become a thick, gobby mass of oily glue with slimy vegetables.

Pancake number two's flip got more muscle and flipped nicely. A few loose noodles and vegetables went flying all over the kitchen but Fay took care of that. (Thanks Fay!) Pancake number two is pictured above.

For the last pancake I tried to use a large plate for flipping. You know, you put the inverted plate on over the pancake in the pan then turn the whole mess over then slide the flipped pancake back into the pan? Utter failure. I don't know why but half the pancake didn't make it onto the plate. I salvaged it all (except for the section that Pete ate off the stove) and put it back in the pan.

The process was messy but tasty. We used a dipping sauce made of 1/3 cup soy sauce, 1/3 cup rice vinegar, 1 Tablespoon sesame oil and a clove of minced garlic.

So there it is, mostly vegetables with a bit of egg for protein and I used up some of our leftovers. My favorite parts were the Indian rice for the unusual seasoning and the kimchee - just because I love kimchee.

And, of course, now we have exciting new leftovers!

Poor Sap Vermont Vegetarian Travesty Of Jambalaya.

I was talking to Michaela today and we were discussing how nice it would be to go to New Orleans.  She pointed me to the Mardi Gras section of epicurious.com. 

First I made myself a Sazerac cocktail because I happened to have a little Sazerac Rye and some Absente hanging around.  Highly recommended.  

I got hungry while I was sipping it and checking out the jambalya recipe.  I decided to make some "Poor Sap Vermont Vegetarian Travesty Of Jambalaya."  I didn't have all the ingredients for Jambalya but what I made turned out to be surprisingly good.  So here's the recipe.  You're going to have to fudge the amounts for yourself depending on what you have on hand and how many people you're feeding:

olive oil (plenty)

vegetarian hot dogs, sliced into rounds

onion, chopped

garlic, chopped

celery, chopped (if you have it - I didn't)

bell pepper, chopped

left-over (cooked) rice

Green Mountain Gringo Salsa (I don't like it as salsa - it's not very Mexican tasting - but it's good for this) or some other wet canned (JJ would vote for jarred) tomato product 

vegetable broth

ground cayenne pepper

ground black pepper

hot sauce like Crystal, Frank's Red Hot or Tabasco

fresh parsley, chopped

Heat up a frying pan and pour in a mess of olive oil.  You're going to need a lot of olive oil to make up for the fact that you're not using nice, fatty sausages.  But keep in mind you can always add more in the end if you need to.

Saute hot dog slices, onions, garlic, celery, and peppers until they are soft and as browned as you like them.  Add rice and enough vegetable broth and wet tomato product (chopped, stewed, salsa, anything but paste) to make the mixture loose but not quite soupy (if it's soupy you just have to cook it longer - but no harm done really)  When in doubt use more broth, less tomato.

Season to taste with the cayenne and black peppers and hot sauce.  I recommend being generous with these, as you like of course.  Spicy heat mitigates the disappointing flavor of the fake hot dogs.  I found I didn't want extra salt but to each her own.  Taste to see if you need to add more olive oil.  Cook until the mixture is heated through and as firm as you like it.

Remove from the heat and stir in chopped parsley.  Serve.  

Obviously it's not authentic New Orleans  food but considering the ingredients it's darned good.

Holiday Party 2008

We had our holiday party on Monday night. It was supposed to be on Sunday afternoon but the weather didn't permit it. If I didn't think to invite you please accept my apology. It wasn't exclusive and I didn't mean to leave anyone out. I'm a great, big space case. Send me an e-mail and I'll invite you next time, hopefully before 2019.

I got the grocery shopping done in between snow storms and cooked and cleaned for a couple of days ahead of time. The weather report early on Sunday morning called for a mere four inch snow accumulation. Foolishly I believed them and made a HUGE white chocolate raspberry trifle. The party was supposed to start at two in the afternoon. I had all the preparations finished by 2:30. It didn't matter though because no one was coming. We told everyone we could reach to come the next day after six if they could.

Naturally not everyone could come on Monday. I almost didn't make it myself. At around four I noticed I was getting a migraine. "We're having this damned party," I thought to myself as I stuffed a banana into my face to cushion my stomach for the heaps of Advil I was about to take.

Pete's brother, Chris, and his family arrived first. That was great because my sister-in-law, Kristen, is the Party Queen and helped me put the finishing touches on the food. Then we were off.

It was an interesting mix of people (hi Alex M. and Liz K! I'm pretty sure they're reading) Most of the guests came solo and without knowing anyone there besides me or Pete. I am very impressed with their pluck. It seemed to me that everyone mixed very well. All conversations appeared to be moving smoothly while I passed by doing hostessy things. I'm proud that we know so many amiable people. It made me want to have another party just to see how other combinations of different friends would go.

Other things on the menu included Piquillo Pepper Cheese Crostini, which I found to be better the second day and perfectly fine but not all that compelling, and Spanish Olive and Cream Cheese Canapés, which I will make again at home but not bring to someone else's house since they need to be broiled (I did them little by little in the toaster oven as people came and went) There were chips 'n' dip, crudités, two kinds of cupcakes, The Devil In A Bag (Trader Joe's kettle corn) and the reason we had to have the party in the first place: the eight different kinds of gourmet cheese that my mom and dad sent us for Christmas.

I believe a good time was had by all and our last guests left at 2 AM.  Not bad.

When I have a migraine I can usually manage it with Advil. Advil takes the pain away but doesn't alleviate some of the other migraine affects. For example I find it very hard to focus and my language skills are diminished. I feel like I did a decent job of keeping up with the party even so. I suppose it could be equated with drinking alcohol. I did just as well hostessing with a migraine as I would have done if I'd had a martini or two. Unfortunately the migraine affects are lingering. For the last couple of days I've found myself forgetting what I'm doing in the middle of doing it.  I'm working really hard on these blog posts and hoping you can't tell that I'm still stupider than usual.

A Bit Of Catch Up

I've been a bad blogger. One post (besides this) for the month of October. I don't know what to tell you. Maybe I'll make up for it next month with NaBloPoMo, or as I'll be referring to it, I-NaBlaPoMo. Really, it is international. Unless they're referring to "Blogger Nation" which would be ridiculous.

I've been doing a lot of cooking this month. Lot's of recipes from Harumi's Japanese Home Cooking. Behold, for example, the lurid pile below which I produced this evening:

This is a simple, traditional Japanese potato salad. I thought I'd bought red potatoes at the farm stand but in fact they are pink. Throughout. I think the pink gives my potato salad a certain Hello Kitty-ish air. Serendipity! This is the second batch I've made.

My favorite recipe from the book so far is Eggplant "Dengaku" Style. I also like the Tsukemono (Japanese Pickles) recipe which ends up being like a really tasty salad that will keep for a few days. What's not to love about a salad you make once and eat three or four times?

Speaking of salad, here's tonight's dinner:

Mixed greens, cucumber, raw golden beets, feta cheese, pecans and dried cherries. I don't know if eating a whole raw beet by oneself is allowed. If I have any problems with it I'll let you know.

Earlier today I also tried to make Kabocha Nimono from Let's Cook Japanese Food, by Amy kaneko. I'm not sure the item I cooked was a kabocha, a.k.a. Japanese pumpkin. I've never actually seen one that I know of. I bought a giant chunk of orange-fleshed, green-and-yellow-speckle-skinned pumpkin-like vegetable at the Super 88 market in Allston last week. It might have been kabocha. The dish didn't come out exactly as described but it's fine. It's not especially photogenic so just imagine rectangular orange chunks. That's about what it looks like. I've really got to work on my food styling.

Below is a photo of what happened to the last of the pears:

This is the Brown Sugar Pear Cake from Dorrie Greenspan's Baking, From My Home To Yours. This was another example of how things take longer to cook for me than they do in the book. While the cake looks well browned on the outside it could have cooked longer. I even tested it as directed with a long bamboo skewer poked to exactly half the depth of the pan and it came out clean. It wouldn't have if I'd poked it to a three-quarter depth. Think of that the next time you make a bundt cake. It's a very good cake though. You can really taste the brown sugar and the flavor goes well with the pear flavor.

That's not my kitchen by the way. That's the kitchen at my parents' beach house. Just if you care. And why would you?

Whoa, I've also been gardening my heinus off (that was a "Your Highness" pun - see, I'm clever and not very annoying) I ordered seven peonies and thirty-six lily bulbs this spring when I must have been smoking crack. It took me three days but I got most of them into the ground in locations I think they'll like. Never mind that I had a plague of lily leaf beetles this year. Well, really I do mind a lot. Along the way I learned that even when you have to make a really small hole (like for a bulb) it's much easier to use a full sized shovel rather than a trowel. A shovel can make a perfectly good, deep but thin slit in the ground between plants. It doesn't have to dig a trench.

Later in the week Michaela came by to help me with the garden's master plan, plotting which shrubs to buy and put in next and where they should go. While we were wandering around the jungle that was a vegetable garden about ten years ago (before I lived here) we stumbled on two more peonies. Michaela decided we should dig up, divide and move them. Well she dug them up and I was so glad it wasn't me that I told her so. One was normal sized and easy to split into three new baby peonies. The other was a mass of intertwined sweet potato-like roots bigger than a basketball. She said, "do you have a hatchet?" We need to go buy a hatchet but we do have an axe.

She was giving me all these directions like "Soak the root ball to remove the dirt until you can see where you want to make the divisions" and "when you divide the root ball make sure you wipe the blade with alcohol before each cut" and "don't worry if you lose a bud or two." She could tell I was getting scared about doing it myself. I gave her the axe and asked her to show me.

Then she took the axe and started CHOPPING AT THE THING like it was her ex's (or a certain politician's) HEAD! Now I was really scared. That's not peaceful, cool-headed "dividing," that's a massacre! And what happened to the alcohol? When she was done there were seven more viable baby peonies. She axe murdered that peony into a grand total of TEN MORE PEONIES that I had to find a place for! And then she left. She'd done the hard part after all. I gave her nine lily bulbs to take along. They'll be happier with her anyway. I don't think she has lily leaf beetles. She's my hero.

Somehow or other I found decent places to plant the ten new peonies (plus an armload of rooty things that might someday become peonies) by sunset the next day. With luck I'll have fifteen new peonies next spring (counting two divisions as old plants) Good thing I like peonies. They have beautiful foliage in the fall.

And now I will end with two photos of Fay that Pete took.