cook-crastination & other forms of delay

a suggested tight to wear to the opening of BLACK LACE BBQ

eva came up with a brilliant term for a phenomenon i've been undergoing for years, but didn't have a name for:

cook-crastination.

it's when you have a pressing deadline, so you decide

instead of working on, say, a job application, a grant proposal, a paper, or the laundry,

to plan and cook an elaborate meal.

today i decided to work on creating a barbecue sauce recipe. i don't know why, because i don't even like bbq that much.  it involved dark chocolate.  the sauce would be called:

L's  Sweet Silky Smoky Spice Sauce

and i planned in my head that i would bottle it up for holiday gifts

and wrap a black lace garter around the top.

because it would TOTALLY go with my new restaurant concept (also conceived today):

Black Lace BBQ

The sauces would involve dark chocolate and smoked chiles, kind of mole-esque, and the rubs would be made with cocoa and chile.

The mac n' cheese would be sexy.  Silky Golden Orr Mac.  The mashed potatoes rich and creamy.  Of course there would be lava cakes.

The servers would be sexy.  Of all shapes, ages, sizes and orientations.  In tight jeans and sexy aprons. Black lace.

As if in New Yorker's fantasy about eating BBQ in the country, lickin' sauce off a hot person's fingers.

Maybe in Texas.

Probably Texas.

And when they show up at Black Lace BBQ, they're like:

this is way better than my fantasy. 

Everyone's hot!  And wearing Black!  And sexy boots.

Everyone's feeding each other ribs and licking sauce off each other's fingers!

lemon ricotta crepes

***

and rather than finish my reading of romantic poets today (why are there so many romantic poets, and why do i have to read so many defences of poetry written by them? and why do they tire and annoy me so?  and fill me with such dread?  i've decided it's because they're so damned anxious about their reveries, reputations, and readers.)

i also:

-online shop-crastinated

-blog-crastinated

-wiki-crastinated

-envied-other-poets-by-checking-out-their-bios-and-websites-crastinated

-onlinechat-crastinated-with-julie

-plan-crastinated (this is my worst habit:  i thought about:: my new puppet opera, various grants i should write, a hand-made book series i want to write, starting a restaurant, a new screen play, and a radio show i would produce, create and host.  that's just for starters.)

now i'm off to cook-crastinate by making dessert crepes with lemon ricotta filling and fresh peaches. because it's the end of peach season.

so i have to do things with peaches now.

legwear:

my legwear of choice for fall '13

i only have one viable pair of tights from last season.  heather belnap jensen gave me a beautiful pair of sky blue tights i was saving to wear when it got cold enough, but they were kidnapped by lula.  i haven't seen them since.

it's time to find some fall tights.

i'm wondering if tights will even be a thing this year.

and dreading the day when, as in the early zeroes, bare legs, even in winter, were your only possible option.

also, i'm wearing a pair of wine-colored velvet cords from the gap a lot lately.  they're stretchy, skinny, and tights-esque.

p.s.  i'm so glad it's october.  my favorite month:

Autumn

by T.E. Hulme

A touch of cold in the Autumn night—
I walked abroad,
And saw the ruddy moon lean over a hedge
Like a red-faced farmer.
I did not stop to speak, but nodded,
And round about were the wistful stars
With white faces like town children.

coping by cooking

chilled coconut cucumber soup with dungeness crab

when i can't deal with existential uncertainty, i frequently take down my big bamboo chopping block and my messermeister chef's knife and start chopping.  i'm in love with vegetables, and prepping them floods me with a sense of well-being.

putting together a meal satisfies my need for something finite and contained when my head is going to the far ranging places i've tried to forbid it from wandering to.  when the mind is out of control, i can choose my pan, my high, low, or medium heat, my sliced, diced or minced onion, and so on.

grilled marinated mushrooms & zucchinni, deborah madison's pita bread

i've already (over)shared that the past couple of months have been dark and difficult.  my cooking has slowed down a bit. it's been that bad.  but i have managed to keep at least a couple of nice meals a week coming to the table.

sockeye salmon grilled with pernod & sage leaves

to reduce the stress during a hard period, i added rotisserie chicken night, inspired by my little brother who encouraged me to eat a rotisserie chicken with delicious rice, with my fingers, phillipines style,  once a week.  he told me it was the most comforting meal possible, and he might be right.  being my mother's daughter, i had to add a salad, or on the really bad nights, a sliced cucumber with lime and salt, inspired by my sister katie.

i was looking through old photos and found these shots of a dinner party i prepared with my friend alice in seattle one summer, using a beautiful book she gave me called good fish by becky selengut.  all recipes use sustainably sourced fish.  the salmon and grilled mushrooms are things we always eat with alice and jim in seattle.  the grilled mushrooms are the best food on the planet, and it doesn't matter how many i make, they're gone instantly.

i'm starting to feel my culinary energy returning.  what is everyone cooking these days?  does cooking help you cope?  if not cooking, then what?

final decisions

after much rumination, the super bowl menu for 2013 goes like this:

*homemade whitecastle-style burgers

*sweet potato fries & curried fry sauce

*apple walnut slaw

*chips & guacamole

*root beer floats

*salty chocolate chunk cookies


not that i care AT ALL about the super bowl, but it's an excuse for a party & some kitchen time.

anyone else cooking tomorrow?

i always miss emily this time of year.  one time she made the most delicious whoopie pies ever for the super bowl.  i can't recreate them.

celebrity crush

in a nod to the salty-sweet trend, i sprinkled a little coarse sea salt on top.  luckily, misshapen rusticity is part of the charm of this galette.

jacques pepin has the bearing of a true artist.  when he shows you you how to fold your dish towel just so and tuck it into your apron, or when he demonstrates a tomato rosette, or swans made from pate au choux floating in a pond of raspberry coulis, his loving brown eyes look straight into yours and he tells you:

i love you so much i have show you how to make this in your own kitchen.  how to caress your knife, how to supreme an orange, how to love the materials of my life's work as much as i do.

to me, a true artist is passionately in love with her materials--words, paper, bindings, brushes, knives, fabrics, water, pastels, needles--a true artist is obsessed with her materials, and so the final product and its reception is entirely secondary.

of course, the true artist loves her materials, and so she really, really wants them to be welcomed by an audience.  but, if the audience rejects the product, she loves the materials still, can't wait to get back to them, but work them again, to make them into a new form once again.

that is the true artist.

and that is why i think jacques is a true artist.  he has devoted a very long life to his materials, and he has a beautiful relationship with them.  you can see it.  even on the screen.

and that is why i must recommend this beautiful, simple recipe using spare ingredients and simple but perfect techniques.  it seems a perfect example of french cooking--elegant but practical and efficient with no waste.  and just a very few delicious ingredients.

this is what i'm taking to sunday dinner.  if you need to make a dessert in the near future, give this one a shot.  i have very few recipes i make over and over again, and i really hate following recipes, so this is one of only about a half-dozen that i actually follow repeatedly.

Makes 8 servings

1/2 recipe pate brisée (see recipe)
5 large apples
1/4-cup sugar
3 tablespoons butter, cut into small pieces
4 tablespoons apricot preserves
1 tablespoon Calvados or Cognac (optional)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees

1. Make pâte brisée. Roll out the dough 1/8 to 1/16 inch thick, in a shape that fits roughly on a cookie sheet—approximately 16 X 14 inches. (The best cookie sheets are made of heavy aluminum that is not too shiny.) If the dough is not thin enough after you lay it on the cookie sheet, roll it some more, directly on the sheet.

2. Peel and cut the apples in half, core them, and slice each half into 1/4-inch slices. Set aside the large center slices of the same size and chop the end slices coarsely. Sprinkle the chopped apple over the dough.

3. Arrange the large slices on the dough beginning at the outside, approximately 1 1/2 inches from the edge. Stagger and overlap the slices to imitate the petals of a flower. Cover the dough completely with a single layer of apples, except for the border. Place smaller slices in the center to resemble the heart of a flower. 

4. Bring up the border of the dough | and fold it over the apples.

5. Sprinkle the apples with the sugar and pieces of butter, and bake in a 400-degree oven for 65 to 75 minutes, until the galette is really well browned and crusty. Do not remove the galette from the oven too soon; it should be very well cooked. It should be very crusty, thin, and soft inside. Do not worry about the discoloration of the apples after you peel and arrange them on the dough. The discoloration will not be apparent after cooking. 

6. Slide it onto a board. Dilute the apricot preserves with the alcohol (or use 1 tablespoon of water if the jam is thick and you prefer not to use spirits) and spread it on top of the apples with the back of a spoon. Some can also be spread on the top edge of the crust. Follow the design so that you do not disturb the little pieces of apple.

Serve the galette lukewarm, cut into wedges. 

Pate Brisee
Recipe From: Jacques Pepin 
“Everyday Cooking”

Makes Enough for 2 Galettes

3 cups all-purpose flour (dip the measuring cup
into the flour, fill it, and level it with your hand)

1 cup (2 sticks) sweet butter, cold, and cut with a knife into thin slices or shavings

1/2 teaspoon salt

Approximately 3/4 cup very cold water


“In a well-made pâte brisée the pieces of butter are visible throughout the dough. If the pieces of butter get completely blended with the flour so that they melt during cooking, the pastry will be tough. The flour and butter must be worked and the water added as fast as possible to obtain a flaky pastry. If you work the dough too much after adding the water, it will be elastic and chewy. If you use too much butter and not enough water, it will resemble sweet pastry dough and will be hard to roll thin and pick up from the table; it will be very brittle before and after cooking, sandy, and with no flakiness.

This is deceptively simple dough. You may get excellent results one time and an ordinary pastry the next. Try it a few times to get a feel for it. Wrapped properly, it can be kept in the refrigerator for 2 or 3 days, or it can be frozen.”


1. Mix the flour, butter, and salt together very lightly, so that the pieces of butter remain visible throughout the flour.

2. Add the ice-cold water and mix very fast with your hand just enough that the dough coheres.

3. Cut the dough in half. The pieces of butter should still be visible. Refrigerate for 1 or 2 hours or use it right away. If you use it right away, the butter will be a bit soft, so you may need a little extra flour in the rolling process to absorb it.

For one galette, roll half the dough between 1/8 and 1/16 of an inch thick, using flour underneath and on top so that it doesn't stick to the table or the rolling pin. When the dough is the desired shape and thickness, roll it onto the rolling pin and unroll it on the pie plate, tart form, or cookie sheet that you plan to use. Repeat with the other half or reserve for later use. Bake according to the instructions for the particular recipe.

treat queen

every day is a surprise with ingy home.

one of the best things about christmas is having ingrid home.  she makes everything more fun, sparkly, festive, and happy.  she really seems to have a handle on happiness.

and on the fact that cake makes everything better.

i haven't been to seattle's icon grill for years, but i remember the towering texas sheet cake with the frosty little bottle of whole milk on the side.  now they have a new towering cake, the candy cane cake, and ingrid suggested we make it over the holidays.

so she put on her fluffy apron and baked it up for us & served it at the locust salon.  thanks ingy, for cake, ruffles, lipstick, hilarious quips, and helping me keep perspective through baking.

no plans for new year's eve?  bake up a towering cake to serve to someone you love.

icon grill's candy cane cake.

Icon Grill Candy Cane Cake

You will need to make each element of the cake before putting it all together.

White Chocolate Cake

2 oz white chocolate
2 egg whites
1/3 cup plus 2 tbsp milk
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup plus 2 tbsp sifted cake flour
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 tbsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
4 tbsp unsalted butter

Melt white chocolate in a small glass or metal bowl over a pan of slow boiling water. Set aside to cool. Whip butter with sugar until fluffy with an electric mixer. Add vanilla and mix thoroughly. Sift together flour, baking power and salt in another bowl. Mix egg and combine on slow speed. Add half the milk mixture and combine on slow speed. Scrape the bottom of the bowl with a spatula. Add the remaining dry and wet ingredients separately. Do not over mix. Slowly add in the melted white chocolate while the mixture is running. Place the batter into one 9" buttered and floured cake pan. Bake in a 300° oven for 25-35 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean. Place on a cooling rack.

Red Velvet Cake
1 cup buttermilk
1-1/4 cup sifted cake flour
3 tbsp red food coloring
1 tsp cocoa powder
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp salt
2 eggs
1-1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp white vinegar

Mix vinegar and baking soda and let settle. Cream together butter and sugar until fluffy, scraping down the sides of the bowl thoroughly. Add one egg at a time, allowing each addition to mix completely before adding the next. Add cocoa, salt and vanilla and beat until fluffy. Alternately beat in flour and buttermilk. Fold in vinegar mixture at the end. Pour batter into one 9" buttered and floured cake pan and bake at 300° for 40-45 minutes. Rotate cake as necessary, cooking until a cake tester can be removed clean.

Peppermint Cream Cheese Frosting
1 lb cream cheese
1/2 lb unsalted butter
2 lb powdered sugar

Beat butter and cream cheese in an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Scrape the sides of the bowl well. Begin adding the powered sugar on low speed, mixing thoroughly before the next addition. Finish by adding the peppermint extract and whipping for 10 minutes on high speed.

Peppermint Simple Syrup
1/2 cup boiling water
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup peppermint schnapps

Pour boiling water over sugar and schnapps and mix until sugar is dissolved. Cool completely.

Putting it all together
1/2 cup crushed peppermint candies
Mint leaves
Maraschino cherries

Cool both cake layers thoroughly and cut each horizontally into 3 equal sized plates, for a total of six layers. (If this seems daunting, try cutting each layer in half to make two equal-sized plates for a total of four. A finished four-layer cake will still look great.) Place a layer on a serving platter and lightly brush with the peppermint simple syrup. Frost, repeat for all layers and frost the outside of the cake. Garnish with mint leaf and stemmed maraschino cherries for a holly-like effect.

vintage

two rad 92 year-olds, grandma beth and grandpa woody on christmas day 2012.

a strand of thought that emerged over the holidays:

why are the 90-ish year-olds so cool?

i had the good fortune of spending time with a handful of ninety-plus year-olds in the past week, including my amazing grandma beth, and i always marvel at the special-ness of this particular demographic.  i don't think it's just generic wisdom obtained by a long life.  i do think there is something unique about that generation, and the economic hardships, the wars, the sea-change in technology, medicine, and nature that these people have witnessed.

there's a humanity, and a privileging of people over things, that seems especially present in my 90 year-old-ish family members and friends.

one of my aspirations this holiday season was to learn how to make the plum pudding i've heard so much about from my grandma beth's recipe box.  last night, aunt bonnie dug out her recipe box and found the crumbling newspaper clipping with the recipe.

i vow to make it before new year's, (i need to find citron and suet--will probably have to go to salt lake for it) and i vow, in 2013, to spend a lot more time with my favorite generation of people.

vintage plum pudding recipe:  cannon plum pudding

when served mrs. lewis telle cannon's famous plum pudding for dessert, guests are happy.  santa claus could do no more.  this is how:

4 lbs. raisins
3/4 lbs. citron
2 lbs. pecan meats
2 pints light molasses
2 pints ground suet
10 c. flour
2 level t. soda dissolved in 1/4 c. boiling water
1 T. salt
1 1/2 t. each of cloves, cinnamon, and nutmeg

add soda water to molasses.  gradually mix in suet, milk, flour, spices, and lastly fruit dredged in part of the flour.  steam 3 1/2 hours.  serve with lemon sauce.

many utah recipes stem from foreign lands, handed down from mother to daughter.  take sparkling mrs. effie evans of  665 e. 1st s., whose home is seventen miles north of edinburgh, in the village of kelty, over here on the exchange-teacher program.  

"i'm amazed," she said, "at the amount of salads americans eat and the size of the steaks.  and we have chicken only on very special occasions."

non-election related

to calm the nerves, some photos of recent cooking projects:

fried green tomatoes, the mise-en-place

fried green tomatoes, southwestern style:  flour with chimayo chile & salt, buttermilk, and blue corn & parm mixture.

the blue corn fried green tomatoes, with a squeeze of lemon

halloween:  "brain" for dinner

halloween supper:  same velvety cheese sauce for both the cauliflower & the mac n' cheese

i always try to fill my kids up on a hearty meal before trick-or-treating, to help them avoid a complete melt-down.  sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

baked mac n' cheese

after church lunch--latkes

i think i went a little overboard on the comfort food last week.  is that even possible?

looking forward: first week of spring

forsythia inside

 crazy how one day i looked outside and there a was a forsythia bush causing all kinds of bright yellow drama.  a flaming bush, the head of a troll doll--flourescence surrounded by brown. 

forsythia outside

here's what i'm looking foward to for my first week of spring:

1)  a renewed commitment to my daily poetic practice.  i'm gonna devise something cool, enjoyable, and new.  i always want to know what kinds of daily practices other people have in their lives--artistic, spiritual, or simply hedonistic.  so if anyone wants to share, you'll make my day.

2)  cooking dutch.  the sunday ny times was irritating the crap out of me today with its full page feature on evita and its devotion to mid-cult literature by annoying white dudes the book review (could anything be less aesthetically or culturally relevant than a revival of evita?), but there are two white dudes at the times who never fail to NOT disappoint.  bill cunningham and mark bittman.  i think it's because they are interested in the people, not merely the elite.  of course, being situated in ny means you have to take into account the elite, but those two dudes don't forget that ny is made up of mostly non-elite, and most trends are formed by people on the street.  bittman's article today on dutch comfort food, a people's food if ever there was such a cuisine, is an example of this.  i want to make the caramelized endive soup and the buttermilk pudding.  okay.  you might say that caramelized endive is a little elitist, but the preparation and ingredients remain basic and pretty inexpensive, and a buttermilk pudding with raisins is pure dutch milkmaid.

3) tights giveaway!  i can't be clever, you might say.  or i can't wear holey tights, you might say.  but let me ask:  are you sure?  or, let me ask this:  who in your life would think you were the raddest uncle, mother, friend, sister, piano teacher, etc, etc. if you gave them a pair of holey tights? who?  i'm sure there's someone.  so leave GITP a comment!  we heart you and your comments.

4) going to the shoulder doctor to figure out how to fix it.  i hope.

5)  catching up on all my work so i can take spring break with my kids by a pool in arizona, surrounded by cousins, tamales, spring desert flowers, cacti, and mostly just a lot of sun.

6) our first guest boy blogger tomorrow.  he's uber-rad.  can't wait.

7)  the premiere of c's piece, how to be spring for tenor and chamber orch.  i wrote the text and will read sections of the poem during each movement.  okay, i'm not a soprano soloist in front of an orchestra, but  this is probably the closest i'll ever get.  pretend diva for a day. & plus it's a piece about spring.

8)  reading my poetry students' first poems of the term.

9)  hanging out with my boise nephews and my parents.

10) watching rude boy with c.  it came in the mail from netflix and we haven't had a chance to watch it yet.  hoping to get some rad inspiration from the clash.

 i heart lucille clifton a lot.  don't you?

spring song

the green of Jesus

is breaking the ground

and the sweet

smell of delicious Jesus

is opening the house and

the dance of Jesus music

has hold of the air and

the world is turning

in the body of Jesus and

the future is possible

looking forward: sunday night simpson's watching with the fam

legwear:  not sure yet

inspiration: bright yellow blossoms

home cookin' with lara--lesson 1

my friend asked if she could come learn to cook in my kitchen.  that's very flattering, but i'm far from chefdom, rather i'm a home cook on a budget who loves to eat as deliciously as possible.  so she's coming over this afternoon, and we're making dinner for sixteen, and it's gonna go down like this:

1) artisinal mac n' cheese
2) bammy's garlic bread
3) arugala, blood orange, and avacado salad with dijon vinaigrette
4) garlic seared cauliflower
5) hot fudge sundaes with grandma eva's hot fudge sauce and toasted almonds
6) giant chocolate chip cookies

it's all very simple comfort food, but it incorporates some of my favorite and most often used cooking techniques, mostly from martha and alice, goddesses of the hearth and simple foods.

here are the basic tools that you can spin off in a bunch of different ways:

1) bechamel sauce--this is the sauce you can do a hundred things with:  a vegetable gratin, a lasagne, macaroni and cheese, a tomato cream sauce, and so on.  change up the cheese, the pasta, the vegetable, and you have a new twist on this old favorite.  and, for girls in tight places *, you can always substitute, for example, a sharp cheddar for the gruyere in the artisinal mac n' cheese.  it's a different flavor, but still good and about a third the price.

in regards to gratins, one year at thanksgiving, emily made a bok choy gratin that changed my world forever.

2) pan-seared vegetables--this technique comes from alice waters' the art of simple food.  i don' t know why everyone doesn't use it all the time.  you heat some olive oil to just before its smoking point, throw in cauliflower broken into fairly small bite-sized pieces, grate some garlic or throw in some minced garlic, season with s&p, and cook until the cauliflower is a little caramelized and brown on one side (don't stir it around much), give it one or two stirs until the vegetable is tender but still has a little bite to it, and you're done.  in the winter, i do this technique with either cauliflower, frozen green beans (the skinny ones, and i add some red chile flakes if my kids are okay with it), or frozen corn (add some canned green chiles).  in the summer, zucchini, fresh corn with fresh chiles, swiss chard, or any other summer squash all work great.  i haven't found even a resistant vegetable eater who doesn't like this.  and of course you can mix it up with some lemon juice, vinegars, shallots, capers, anchovies, whatever you like to change the flavors from time to time.  i generally like it as simple as possible, and stick to olive oil, garlic, and s & p.

3) an orange supreme--i'm insanely crazy about this technique, and use it constantly during citrus season.  in case you haven't noticed, this is a banner year for citrus.

4) vinaigrette--i had a hard time always getting my acid levels right in my vinaigrettes (i don't buy bottled dressings.  first, they're disgusting, and second, they're expensive.  take note, girls in tight places.) until i learned from martha that you first season your vinegar with salt to get the right acidity, then you add in the oil, garlic, herbs, mustards, etc.  i use a basic vinaigrette and add mayonaise for a creamy dressing, or avacado, different herbs, shallots, chiles, mustards, vinegars, etc. to customize for the particular salad.  but again, you can't go wrong with oil, vinegar, and salt.


5) toasted nuts--i've botched countless batches of toasted nuts until i learned alice w's foolproof technique: toast nuts on a baking sheet at 375 for six minutes.  i used to use smell, or taste test, or whatever, and almost always got it wrong.  this one always works.

6) cookies--i hate baking.  but now i have lula to make batches of cookie dough for us (she likes the chocolate chip cookie recipe on the ghiradelli's bag--other cooks i trust swear by the new york times recipe if you wanna get all fancy).  emily taught me that cookies turn out really well after the dough has been in the fridge for three days.  i like my chocolate chip cookies a little salty, so i add an extra 1/8th t. of salt.  oh, and always buy unsalted butter.  salted butter is lower quality because you can hide rancidity with salt.

7) hot fudge sauce--this comes from my outrageous grandma eva, who's been gone for almost 20 years now.  use her sauce as a base, and you can add chocolate or liquers to fancy it up.  of course in times of hardship, the basic recipe is fantastic.  oh, and again, i add a pinch of salt.  oh, yeah, and an extra quarter cup of cocoa and a chopped up lindt bar of 70% or higher cocoa content.  but that's only when i'm flush or can't leave well enough alone.

grandma eva's hot fudge sauce:

1 c. sugar
2 T. cocoa
2 T. butter
7/8 can of canned milk
1 T. vanilla
pinch of salt

boil for 7 or 8 minutes at a low boil until the sauce reaches the requisite thickness.

tights:  charcoal

inspiration:  alice and martha

looking forward to:  cooking with friends

* girls in tight places:  this is anyone who wants to feel like a girl, but is, shall we say, past the age of girlhood, or perhaps has a "y" chromosome, but thinks that girls get cooler tights and clothes, or whatever.  or, if, like julie said about whitney houston yesterday, you're really beautiful and talented and rich, but that's not enough to keep you out of a tight place.