ev-er-ry daaaay is like Friiiiiiiday!

Okay, so every day isn't really like Friday, but I am totally jazzed that today is!

TGIF!

Last night I met up with friends Beth and Alan who have volunteered to help me build a website for all the queer goodness stuff. It's gonna be so cool! I'm hoping it'll be ready to launch in a couple months, and then all my wildest dreams will come true. Totally. Also, Beth greeted us with a bowl of warm stew, perfect for a winters' night. She said it was an Anna Thomas recipe, but it's not in my (original) copy of The Vegetarian Epicure. But, it was delicious. Chock full of turnips and parsnips and mushrooms and brussels sprouts (my favorites!) and a lovely broth with a little sweetness from some wine and molasses. It was fantastic. I brought a loaf of really crusty, hearty multi-grain bread from Allegro Hearth and some grape leaves. Alan brought vegan chocolate chip cookies (also very yum!).

The weather outside is frightful, but I'm hoping that all will still be delightful for the weekend. Tonight is the Queer Songwriters Night, and I'm emceeing--MC SweetE in the house! I'm still trying to fine-tune (er, come up with some) funny banter, info about the performers, etc. If you have suggestions, send 'em. And, if you're in the 'Burgh, come on out! It's guaranteed to be a good time with Garrison Starr, Joey Murphy and Autumn Ayers performing.

Saturday morning I'll hit the Strip for a little Cafe Richard action, Saturday evening I will be getting my BINGO on (and winning One...Million...Dollars!!). Sunday morning I'm going to reprise my cornmeal biscuits-n-veggie sausage gravy for Barbara and her mom. Sunday evening I'll make some sort of dinner, but it is TBD at this point.

It's going to be a good weekend. I hope yours will be, too!

a mid-week holiday equals an extra "monday"

I know it's ungrateful to complain about a day off, but still. It feels like a second Monday today. I was emailing with E-dawg about it this morning, and we were both feeling cranky. I freakin' hate waking up by an alarm. It makes me want to throw a temper tantrum, even though I'm not normally prone to temper tantrums.

But. But! I had a great day yesterday! I got up early and headed down to Morgantown and met up with Nowlze and B-dub for breakfast, then had a brief visit with Nowlzie's family.

Then headed out to Cooper's Rock to meet up with my family. My mom, step-dad, brother and niece all drove up to meet me for a picnic/hike/hang-out. Good times. Here we are!


I made some picnic treats to take. A pesto pasta salad with the pesto I made on Monday. Just used some pasta, toasted pine nuts, yellow bell pepper, feta and grape tomatoes with the pesto. Yum.


And, a beet salad. Here's a recipe I winged. It was good, but I also made some notes for next time, following:

8 small-medium beets, peeled and sliced into rounds
3 small carrots, grated
1 small red onion, frenched
1 handful of cilantro and parsley
1-2 T. apple cider vinegar
1 T. sugar
1 t. salt
2 T. olive oil

Cook the beets, just covered with water, the vinegar, salt and sugar until tender (like, 20 minutes). Toss with the other ingredients, and chill.

NEXT TIME NOTES:
-use a mild white onion instead of red
-maybe dill instead of cilantro
-double the amount of carrot
-make a vinaigrette with the beet water, olive oil, apple cider vinegar, shallots and pomegranate molasses? honey? fresh horseradish?

This picture is right after I made it. The next morning it was all beet-colored. Both are pretty, but I loved all the bright colors when I first mixed it:


I also sorta made up a recipe for a strawberry tart after looking at recipes from a bunch of people. The crust is based on the Pastry Sucree Crust from Anna Thomas. It was very, very tasty, but I'd still change a few things for next time.

Crust:
1 c. unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 c. butter (oops! i meant this to be 1/4 c.!)
1/2 c. macadamia nuts
1/4 c. sugar
1 egg + 2 egg yolks
pinch of salt

Cut the flour, butter and macadamia nuts together until it resembles a coarse meal. Separately mix the sugar, salt and eggs. Then combine together, and chill in the refrigerator for about an hour. Then pat into buttered pan, and poke holes for steam to escape. Bake at 400 degrees for about 5-10 minutes.

Filling:
8 oz cream cheese (I only had Tofutti Better Than Cream Cheese, so used that, and it was good, but I'd probably use cream cheese or marscapone next time)
1/4 c. sugar
1/4 t. almond extract (couldn't really taste this, so either omit or add 1/2 t. instead)
zest of 1 orange
1 T. freshly squeezed orange juice
1 large basket of strawberries (and I used a small basket of cherries to make two individual tarts)

Cream first five ingredients together and chill for about an hour. Then, spread into the cooled crust and bake for about 40 minutes (put foil around edges of pan so the edges of the crust don't get too browned).

Now, in this version I actually placed the fruit and glaze onto the pie before baking, but next time I'm going to put the fruit and glaze on afterwords so the berries stay beautiful.

Glaze:
3 T. orange marmalade
1 T. freshly squeezed orange juice

Before baking:


After baking (still pretty, but would be so good with the unbaked berries--actually, probably would still bake the cherries, but not the strawberries):


My mom brought her famous butternut pound cake (my favorite!), deviled eggs and a bunch of stuff from KFC. I took some cake and eggs home with me. Here was my leftovers plate.


I'm actually having more beet salad and pasta today for lunch. Right now. Right as I'm typing this. Like magic!

why do mondays always come so quick?

Okay. I have realized that this blog is turning into a 10% celebration of weekends and a 90% bitchfest about the weekdays. I would like to say that this will stop, but I cannot. Weekends are where it's at and way too short, and it makes me wanna squeeze someone's face in anger when they're over. I just read on Wikipedia that Mondayitis is a real disease! Well, something like that:

Many people claim that the "condition" is in fact a diagnosable illness based on the human circadian rhythm being incompatible with a 40-hour work week. However, the medical credibility of the condition is a matter of debate.

Anyway. Yeah. Boo for Monday.

But, the weekend was freakin' lovely, wasn't it? Friday evening I was finishing up dog-sitting with Zeke. I got off work early to go pick up my car (now with all four windows functional!), and shopped at the co-op--which took forever because I was on the phone with the Hurd, and her scintillating conversation was distracting. And, then went to the Citiparks farmers market and got some cherries, a slice of raspberry pie (dear lord. delicious. Sand Hill Berry Farms.), some basil, and potatoes. Then, I got Zeke, and we met Sandra and her little doggie-gal Talulah in the park for a nice little stroll and dogstravaganza. Good times. Then, I went home and watched Music and Lyrics. Whoa. Real bad. My uterus has horrible taste in films. But, a lazy night in with some bean-n-cheese-n-avocado soft tacos was a good time (and, I like a good time).

Saturday morning Ellen and I walked over to the Strip to hit up the Firehouse Farmers Market, Reyna, Penn Mac and La Prima. Now, that is totally my idea of a good time! At the farmers market I got some mushrooms (1/4 lb. of shittakes and 1 lb of criminis), some mint and cilantro, and some fresh horseradish. Those fluffy, beautiful flour tortillas and some mango salsa from Reyna. Some Breemster cheese, saffron, fresh pasta and dried fava beans from Penn Mac. A latte from La Prima.

I did the same baking of the mushrooms that I did last week, but this time I had what Ellen called a "mushroom off". I wanted to see if I could use other (less expensive) mushrooms and still achieve the deliciousness that the shittakes gave me. So, I went with 1/4 lb. of shittakes and 1/2 lb. of criminis. Brushed off any dirt, removed and discarded the stems, sliced them thinly, tossed with a little olive oil, salt and pepper, and ready, set, go'ed them at 325 degrees for about 20 minutes (flipping/shaking after ten minutes, then every 3-5 minutes after that) and tasting along the way, as per Doggie's instructions.

before (criminis on the left, shittakes on the right):


after:


I declare the winner to be....shittakes! Yes, they were just smokier, saltier, crispier and just had more depth of flavor. However, that said, the criminis were good, too. Just not as good.

But, the criminis still had a chance to redeem themselves, and they did! I'd been wanting to bake something since the weather had cooled down to a manageable temperature for having the oven on. I wanted to do some kind of savory tart. So, I dug around through some recipes, and found a recipe for Onion Tarte Lyonnaise with pastry brisee crust in The Vegetarian Epicure by Anna Thomas, the old skool edition. I added potatoes and mushrooms and forgot the cheese (d'oh!), cut down the amount of cream and increased the milk, but otherwise stuck closely to the original. It was simple and rustic and freakin' delicious (even without the cheese). It made enough for a 9" pie pan and two individual tarts in small ramekins. So, here's what I did:

2 medium red onions, thinly sliced
4 medium potatoes, thinly sliced
1/2 lb. mushrooms, thinly sliced
butter and olive oil
4 eggs
1/2 c. heavy cream
1 c. milk
nutmeg, salt, pepper

pastry brisee:
2 c. flour
2/3 c. butter
salt
1 T. sugar

Okay. So, first I made the pastry crust. She describes it as the "shortest of the short crusts", and it is. It's very flaky and crumbly. I put everything in the food processor and cut it until it resembled a coarse meal. She suggested forming it into a ball and chilling in the fridge for about an hour, but I just pressed it into the pans, poked it with a fork, then chilled it in the pans for about a half-hour. It's too crumbly to roll out, you just have to work it with your fingers to press it into your pans. Easy, peasy.

For the tart filling, I sauteed the onions until translucent with a little butter and olive oil and s+p, then added the potatoes, and cooked on low with a cover for about 10-15 minutes. In the meantime, I sauteed the mushrooms in a separate pan with a little butter and olive oil and s+p for about 5 minutes. Then tossed them all together, and spread them out over the bottom of the crust (it filled most of the pan). While they'd been cooking down, I combined the eggs, cream, milk, nutmeg (maybe 1/2 t.?), salt and pepper. After the potato/onion/mushroom mixture was in the crust, then I poured the egg mixture over them to fill them up. Sprinkled with a little more nutmeg and s+p. Anna also had called for some grated gruyere (3 oz?) in with the eggs. I had planned to add an equal amount of chevre in little dollops, but just spaced it. Luckily, it was still tasty without.

Next time I think I will cook the potatoes a little longer over higher heat to get them a little crispy, and add the cheese, of course.

before:


after:


Saturday night I went to Cattivo. Someone (I think it was Lisa Campbell) put an idea out on the queer events mailing list to have a meet-up there for "The List", so I had to go, right? It ended up being a heck of a good time! Tons of ladies there! I'm bad with guessing how many jelly beans are in a jar, but maybe 150? maybe more? I don't know. Lots. And, I wore my fancy new dress that I'd gotten at the beach and was unsure if I'd ever wear. I liked it. This is how cool I looked. So cool that I had to pose with my sunglasses on.


Sunday I slept in, then got a call from Ellen for a coffee quest. We tried to hit up Beleza and Amani, but both were closed. And, right after we'd been talking about how righteous it is to have two coffeehouses in the North Side! Dang.

Actually, it ended up being a-okay. We went over to La Prima again in the Strip (and Ellen suggested that we pick a place each weekend to make it our hangout, and hang out there a lot, but only for that weekend. This was La Prima's big chance!). We ran into another local lesbian and had some coffee and chatted and eased gently into our Sundays. Good times. Then I went by Bobcat's new digs (super cute!) briefly to drop off some tart for her moving-in sustenance, then on to the Quiet Storm to meet up with my pal The Gooch for a Scrabble Smackdown. Unfortunately, I was the one smacked down. D'oh! But, it was still relatively respectable. 307 (The Gooch) to 301 (The Me). Still, dang. I was even wearing a Scrabble-themed outfit to inspire fear and intimidation. I was imagining myself to be some exotically plumed bird of paradise and was planning to freak her freak with my mere Scrabble-esque presence. So much for that. Then I was just left being a nerd. Ah well.

Then I got a call from The Hurd who suggested that I come over and join she and Ellen for yardening (sans yardening). Now, Hurd recently posed a question in the comments asking why our joint adventures rarely show up in the blog. And, the answer was that our shared adventures are seldom fit to print. This is not an exception, but here goes. We had a little wine, smoked cigarettes on the deck (I have to start the freakin' Chantix and quit again), had a kitchen dance party, smoked more, had an upstairs dance party to "Dick In A Box", may have engaged in some borderline illegal activities, then wrapped it up with a trip to Giant Eagle for Ben & Jerry's ice cream. We both wanted Willie Nelson's peach pie thingy, and there were two pints left. However, one of those pints was shoved all the way to the back. Hurd's solution? Have me climb into the freezer case with a package or Pringles to use as a reaching aid. Classy. (You like that Hurd?)