yum.

Sorry about my lame post yesterday. I started it, then got busy, then was having connection problems, so I just gave up. Eh.

Things have been busy lately (when are they not?)--new job, pet-sitting, cleaning up my act at home (my apartment--now looking great!), out-of-town friends visiting, upcoming mini-break to NYC, etc, etc, etc. All good stuff, but I still have been feeling a little overwhelmed with everything. However, getting my apartment in shape is definitely helping with the mental clarity. And, I feel more like cooking when I have a clean place, for sure!

I've been really into sandwiches lately. For a long time I was sort of anti-sandwich. For no particular reason I can think of, but they never sounded good to me. But now, it's all sandwiches, all the time.

On Monday evening I used my brandy-new employee discount at Kaya to have dinner with my old pal Jen and her husband, Errol--here in town for a clay convention. Even before I mentioned that I was now part of the bB family, we were already getting amazingly friendly and fast service from our server, Chaz (who, incidentally, the next day had a new baby with his gf - welcome to the world, little Violet!). After I did mention that I was part of bB, the manager, the chef, and the chef from Soba all came over and introduced themselves to me. It was so nice! They made me look like rock star in front of my friends. And, the food was amazing. We started out with some Mango Mai Tais and tofu cracklins. I don't know what they do to the tofu cracklins, but they're the most amazingly fragrantly delicious little nibblets. Some kind of barbeque-peanut lightly sauced on perfectly pert and just a tiny bit crispy tofu cubes. They are awesome. And, then I had an avocado-egg sandwich, which was also fantastic. And, the chocolate-banana bread pudding is off the hook! I got home afterwards, sat on the couch, and was immediately asleep. Visions of delicious Carribean-inspired dishes dancing in my head. Yum.



I made a sandwich for dinner last night, too. I had some lovely fresh shittakes, so I sliced them thinly, and sauteed them with some onions in a little olive oil and salt for about...maybe 12-ish minutes? Until the onions were soft, translucent, and just starting to brown, and the mushrooms were golden. Then I set them to the side, and grilled some wheat bread with some smoked cheddar. Spread that with some roasted red pepper-eggplant tapenade-ish stuff. Had that with some Russian Banana fingerling potatoes that I roasted with a little olive oil, pepper, and a salt-spice blend I made with some herbs de Provence, tarragon and grey sea salt, served with a dollop of aioli. Washed down with a cold glass of cinnamon sweet tea. Yum.


Okay, now go home and make yourself a sandwich.

car, schmar

I have to say, for my first car-less weekend, and weather that was not necessarily ideal, I had a heck of a good time! Friday I went about my shopping with determination and ferocity. I hit the co-op first, then the Giant Eagle, and then...well, by then the room in my backseat and my patience were pretty much gone, so I headed home. I put all the groceries away, made some breakfast-for-dinner and retired to watch some netflixes and cable. Good times.

Breakfast-for-Dinner was roasted potatoes, fried eggs and toast. I got these beautiful little local fingerling potatoes at the co-op. They were gorgeous! The flesh was brilliantly golden and the skin was red, so while I was cutting them up I kept thinking that they looked so much like peaches that my mouth kept watering for juicy peachiness, and then I'd remember that they were potatoes. Seriously, look!


So, I heated up the oven to 350, tossed the potatoes with some herbs de Provence, red pepper flakes, olive oil, and salt and pepper, and put them in for about 15 minutes. At that time, I took them out, tossed them again with some onions, garlic and fresh parsley and rosemary, and stuck them back in for another 15 minutes. In the meantime, I chopped up more parsley, and mixed that with some lemon zest and coarse sea salt, and topped the potatoes with that when they came out of the oven.


So, here's my breakfast-for-dinner:


Saturday was a lovely day! E-dawg picked me up in the morning, and we hit the East Liberty Farmers Market, which operates indoor year-round. It was small, but fantastic! I got so much good stuff. Check it:

l-r, clockwise:
sweet potato gnocchi, sweet potatoes, black walnuts, garlic (two kinds, one regular, one that's little and supposedly stronger, but I forget the name), turnips, dried sweet corn, brussels sprouts. Now, that's a good haul from a wintertime farmers market in the 'Burgh, you know?

Then we hit the Strip for oodles of more delights. I didn't photo them, but I got a bunch of cheese from Penn Mac (brie de meux, beemster, Black Diamond sharp white cheddar), some almonds, some baguette, some beautiful fluffy tortillas from Reyna's, and some treats from Cafe Richard. I got a spinach-feta-sundried tomato quiche, a couple croissant and a coconut tart. All fantastic. And, when I got home, I got a call from a WV friend, Jeffron, who was in Pittsburgh for a few hours, so he came over and shared my quiche and some of my leftover roasted potatoes, and we sat around drinking coffee and playing cards for a few hours.

Then Hurd and I hit the town early-evening, old lady-style. We went to Verdetto's 'cause Hurd had a hankering for their delectable mac-n-cheese triangles, but alas, they're not serving food on the weekends (whack). But some old guys bought us shots of some Slovokian liquor that tasted a little like Jaegermeister. Then, we continued our downward spiral by hitting up Donny's for dinner. Yes, you read that correctly: Donny's for dinner. (Thankfully) their kitchen was also not open. Then we rolled up to my 'hood, and went to Billy's. Now, it's only a mere five-ish blocks from my house, but I don't frequent it. But, we had a really nice time! We got some pretty good pub grub, cheap beer, and friendly service. I have decided that this will be our gang's new hang-out since I can walk to it. Pass it on. Billy's is where it's at.


Sunday was an inside day. The weather was cruddy, but I had cable to keep me warm. And, I've been craving a veggie version of biscuits and gravy for a while. Leslie told me about some gravy a friend of hers makes, and gave me an outline of how to make it. So, I made a recipe of Heidi's cornmeal biscuits from Cook 1.0. They are tender and delicious!

Cornmeal Biscuts [ek: this is not a "light" recipe by any stretch, but good enough to splurge!]
(from Heidi Swanson's Cook 1.0: A Fresh Approach to the Vegetarian Kitchen)

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Into a large bowl or food processor, sift:
3 1/2 c. unbleached all-purpose flour
1 1/2 t. salt
2 T. baking powder
1/2 c. finely ground cornmeal

To dry ingredients add:
1 c. chilled butter, cut into 1/4" chunks.
Using a pastry cutter or 25 quick pulses of a food processor, blend until mixture resembles tiny, sandy pebbles.

With a fork, stir in the following until just combined:
2 c. milk (lowfat is fine)

Drop by heaping tablespoonfuls onto an ungreased nonstick baking sheet. Brush the biscuit tops with a bit of egg white and sprinkle with a dusting of cornmeal.
Bake on the middle rack of the oven until the tops and bottoms are golden, roughly 12 minutes. [ek - I got about 2 dozen biscuits out of this]

Yummers.

And, for the gravy, Leslie said that her friend Mary makes it by:

(from Leslie's email description)
First sauté some onion, garlic, mushrooms and chopped up frozen veggie sausage links (don't thaw) until nice and browned. Remove from pan. Then make a roux with butter and flour. Toast your roux for a few minutes over medium heat, then toss in a good sized handful of brewers' yeast. Toast in pan for a few minutes until fragrant.

Slowly add milk (maybe ½ - 1 cup…see how it looks in the pan, depending on how much brewers yeast you use), cayenne pepper (if you like a nice kick), black pepper and white pepper (I like a spicy gravy). Get crazy and add a little sage or thyme, if you like.

Stir until thickened, serve on sweet potato biscuits! (my favorite)

So, here's what I did:
Sauteed 1/2 an onion with a clove of garlic and about 8oz of white mushrooms (stems removed), diced, with a little butter. I added some (about half the package) Gimme Lean (sausage-style) and browned/chunked it up. And some fresh thyme. In another pan, I made a roux with some butter and flour, then stirred in some Brewer's yeast. You may remember that I am afraid of making roux, and with good reason. It always turns too thick and pasty and floury. This time was no exception. When I started adding in the milk, it just turned into a thick paste. Hmmm....so, I got a larger skillet, and warmed the milk in there, then slowly added little bits of the butter/flour mixture (the roux, sorta), and just whisked until there were no lumps and it was a nice thickness/viscosity. Then added in the brewers yeast, cayenne and black/pink pepper. Oh, and some freshly ground nutmeg! I love nutmeg in cream sauces. Then, added in my sausage-mushroom mixture (with a splash of marsala), and cooked it a little longer. It was still a little too thick, so I added a little water until it was the right consistency. Salt to taste. It is sooooooooo good! Exactly what I'd been wanting! And, I felt like a champ for rescuing the roux.


Seriously, it is so good that my stomach just growled writing about it, and I have more (yay!), and I'm really excited to have it for dinner tonight. The biscuit recipe made enough biscuits to share, and put a few up in the freezer for another time. When you heat up the gravy, you'll have to thin it a bit again with a little water or milk.

Expect more lovin' from the oven this week as I bought enough groceries on Friday to last me though the winter!

speed of light vs. speed of heat (duh).

I’ve still been in a state of feeding frenzy over the veggie reubens—specifically the Keenan/Kramer Hybrid Model. And, it seems that my post about said veggie reubens created a small stir amongst my loyal readers. Since the potluck-slash-Reuben-Off was canceled last weekend, we’d left everyone high-n-dry with no access to the melty, gooey, tangy-golden goodness that is the Veggie Reuben (hallelujah!).

I’m pet-sitting Zeke for a few days, and I adore his house. Like, not just like it as friends, I like-like, no love-love, this pad. And, it’s way more spacious and accommodating than my lil’ apartment, so I tend to have a friend (or five) over when I’m there. Zeke loves the extra attention (and the higher probability of people-food scraps). Plus, E-dawg just lives about a block away and Sandra and Jessica are just a couple blocks the other. Beleza is two doors down. The park is two blocks away. I LOVE it there. I love Zeke, I love the house, I love the neighborhood, I love the neighbors. I want to either become Zeke’s live-in nanny or make a serious bid in taking this place (and this dog) by way of coup. Squatters Rights!

Anyhow, the perfect locale intersected with the perfect sandwich last night. Zeke and I entertained Sandra, E-dawg, Kara, Kramer and Mags (and Jessica for a few minutes, right at the end). I made up a big ol’ batch of Veggie Reubens and an even bigger batch of roasted potatoes and carrots (yellow fingerlings from the co-op and some redskins and carrots from my CSA). And, we complimented that with some fantastic sparkling pear cider and sparkling spiced apple cider (thanks, Kara!). And, followed that up with some brownies (from Allegro Hearth Bakery) and cupcakes (new flavors from Dozen just released—check the new menu here; we had Bananas Foster and Dark Chocolate). All in all, a lovely autumn dinner with pals. In fact, it was so good that I completely forgot to take pictures for this-here blog. I guess you’ll just have to get in on the next dinner to see it for your only self.

One of the highlights was when Mags explained how she is able to use her bare hands to adjust logs in an open fire, remove items from the oven, pass her fingers through a flame, and cut hot sandwiches in half right out of the skillet. This special skill has earned her the titles of “She-Who-Touches-Fire” and “Asbestos Hands”. When asked to explain How She Does It, she looked at us frankly, and gave us her scientific explanation: speed of light versus speed of heat (with an implied “duh”). This explanation included the indisputable fact of how you can watch your fingers pass through the flame of a candle before you feel it. After being subjected to loud guffaws and merciless ridicule, Mags decided that we just don’t have a firm grasp of thermal dynamics. Like, it’s sorta a World Is Round vs. a World Is Flat debate. We just don’t have the vision to grasp Speed Of Light vs. Speed of Heat.

Heh.

The party broke up early since Kramer just wouldn’t stop talking about needing to leave. Sheesh!

Tonight I’m heading out to dinner with my good buddy Dan (who’s visiting from L.A. ooh la la!). I’m not sure where we’ll go, but I’m lobbying for Piccolo Fornosince E-dawg gave it a rave review last week. She talked about some kind of ravioli or gnocchi or something in a sage brown butter. I love sage brown butter. I don’t know if it gets much better than sage brown butter. Will report back!

better (sorta).

Okay. Back from the depths of despair.

The last couple weeks, er months, have been tough. I've been pretty depressed, and just sorta let everything go--the healthquest, my apartment, etc. Sometimes I have bouts of depression that just sort of take over my life for a while, and this has been one of those times. I even had a panic attack last week (or week before?), that totally freaked me out. So, I took off work on Thursday and Friday, and just stewed in my shit, slept, watched bad movies, avoided interaction. Saturday and Sunday I still hibernated, but did a huge cleaning of my apartment. It's not perfect, but now I wouldn't be horrified if someone stopped by. That feels good.

I'm always so embarrassed to tell anyone about feeling bad. Even though every other commercial on television is for some antidepressant, and everybody and her brother has a therapist, there's still a stigma. And, it's not really acceptable to call off work for mental illness, so then you have to lie and pretend you have the flu or whatever. Blah. Anyway. The fog seems like it may start lifting. Baby steps, right?

But, since I haven't checked in with you peeps for a while, I have done some cooking. E-dawg stopped by Zeke's house for dinner last Wednesday (it was his birthday!). I just made some pasta with marinara (I must confess, I used a jar of tomato sauce from WF, that I doctored up with some sauteed garlic and onions and spices), some roasted green beans, some crispy mushrooms and some baguette toast with brie. Tasty.


This weekend I had a huge craving for veggie reubens. Kramer and I were planning our reuben-off-slash-potluck this weekend, but then she, Mags and I just weren't feeling up to a party, so we called it off. But, my stomach was having none of that. So, I stocked up on supplies to make a master version of the reuben, fusing the Kramer/Keenan styles into The Best Veggie Reuben On Earth.

The fixin's:


The goods:


That's rye bread, Minerva swiss lace cheese (oh my god, this is good; got it at the co-op), fakin' bacon, sauteed green peppers and onions (I like to use mushrooms, too, but didn't have any on hand), sauerkraut and russian dressing. That is some good comfort food.

And, my favorite veggie is now officially in season! I stopped by the farmers market on Friday, and was delighted to find brussels sprouts! They are the pinnacle of the intersection between adorable and delicious.

First, I trimmed them, made a little X in the bottom, and put them in boiling water for about three minutes (then a plunge into some ice water after and drained), then sliced them in half, and roasted them in the oven at 375 for about 25 minutes (stirring twice) with a little olive oil and sea salt, then grated some parmesan cheese over them when they came out of the oven. And, while I was doing that, I roasted some potatoes (the "confetti" baby potatoes from Trader Joe's with yellow, redskin and purple babies) with some parsley, olive oil, salt and pepper.

before (the sprouts had been boiled, but not baked at this point):


after:


It was a comfort food bonanza. In fact, I even had grilled cheese with Campbell's tomato soup yesterday.


Tonight is the "Queers: They're What's For Dinner!" dinner at the Gypsy Cafe. They always have tasty grub.

In other news, one of my bestest friends, Dan, is visiting this week from LA. I could definitely use the pick-me-up. He is one hilarious mofo. Good times. (and, thank goodness my apartment is clean-ish!)

monday, monday

This seems like the kind of day that would be really good spent under an afghan (the blanket kind, not the person kind), reading, eating soup and grilled cheese sandwiches and intermittently napping. At least that's what I was thinking when my alarm went off this morning (and I snoozed it for over an hour). But, the weekend was swell, so the alarm on Monday is the price you pay, it seems.

Friday I had a swim-date with E-dawg and Kramer. After some hectic running around and changing of locales, we met up at the Bloomfield pool, but it was kinda cold! So, we just pooled it for a while, then made a beeline to the wine store and back to Zeke's house for a little mezze-style feast. We included the leftovers from Kara's delicious cookin' the other night--the arabian stew and carrot hummus, and added in some cheese (extra aged beemster gouda - it has these amazing little crispy crystals that give it an awesome texture) and crackers, this Tomate Salade that Ellen riffed from The Splendid Table (big, thick slices of yellow and red tomatoes with a vanilla-citrus dressing), some nicoise olives (I think?), oven baked carrot fries and roasted potatoes and shallots with a chipotle dipping sauce based on this recipe from Heidi's site, and some banana chips dipped in a honeyed version of the chipotle sauce, washed down with some white wine in the courtyard, escorted by our speckledy friend Zeke. It was delicious, and just looking at these pictures made me wish I had a vat of the potatoes and chipotle sauce Right Now.





Yum.

Saturday morning E-dawg and I hit the Firehouse Farmers Market in the Strip, where I got more (more!more!) tomatoes, a piece of organic raw chocolate, and ran into the Davidson-Wagner clan out a-shopping. Sadly, Mushrooms For Life weren't there, 'cause I was craving some baked shittakes. But, we also hit Reyna for some fresh tortillas (where E-dawg was several people behind me in line and I overheard her on a phone call with Baby Boo where she was saying, "Oh, just read it on the blog". When I asked her about it, she said, "I didn't feel like listing everything we ate last night, so I told her just to read about it." heh.).

We also stopped in to Cafe Richard for lunch of spinach quiche, and it was fantastic--perfect crust, creamy filling. I love this place! I've walked past it a billion times, but had never gone in. It's really French, and really cute. I did not do well on the diet, but did do well on taste by ordering a coconut cream tart to go for later. It was uh-MAY-zing. The flakiest, butteriest crust, the silkiest custard, the fluffiest whipped cream. My god. In fact, I think I saw god. Perfect.

I made one more stop at Penn Mac for some grueyere where E-dawg's nimbleness and petite stature allowed us to spot and snag a number that was fifteen spots ahead of the one I'd grabbed--and, then we also got to help out someone else by giving them our number. Nice.

Saturday evening we rolled out to Sewickley to celebrate our dear pal Susie's graduation and going-away. She's heading out West to join up with her fabu gf (who surprised her by flying in for the party/weekend!) in Monterey, CA soon. The party was at her parents' house, and everything was planned perfectly. I *wish* I could be this organized! And, there was lots of consideration given to the vegetarians in the house--including that we got to eat first (they grilled the meatless meat first) and several delicious dishes were pointed out to us as specifically veg. We ate ourselves silly and ended the evening swinging in a hammock by the fire and making s'mores while belting out 80s style television theme songs. Good times.

Sunday I had a little work to-do at Dave and Busters. I'd never been to Dave and Busters, but had heard it described many times as "the grown-ups' Chuck E. Cheese". And, it was! Kramer went along as my plus one, and we had some snacks with my coworkers, then hit the game floor for some serious game-tastic delights. The event was an appreciation type shindig, and they gave us a card with $50 in game credits! Sweet! I could see where D-n-B could get really pricey if one were paying for it outta pocket, but the extent of my expense was $3.25 for a bottle of rootbeer (it just seemed to fit) and tip to the bartender. My favorite games were air hockey, the shooting of the basketballs game, and Ms. Pacman/Galaga. My least favorite were this bowling game that ate up a billion credits, hurt our hands, and wasn't even fun, and Qix, some old-skool game bundled with Space Invaders (what I meant to play) that we couldn't figure out. All in all, I felt real appreciated, and it was a perfect activity for a rainy day.

This was the boxing game. Notice how cool and tough I look.

No, seriously. Why does Kramer look like a normal person, and I looked like a freak?


ps. China-Bear paws.