The Gourmet Project

Cream of Lentil and Chestnut Soup with Foie Gras Custards (Page 105)

2012-01-12T17:07:00.000-08:00

RECIPE #1288

Date: Tuesday, December 20, 2011 -- 6pm
Location: East Lansing, MI
Kitchen: Our House
Dining Companions: Helen, Charles, Clara, and Matty
Recipe Rating: B

I would have made this recipe long ago, as I love soup and I particularly love lentil soup. But I had real difficulty finding the foie gras the recipe called for. Duck foie gras is easy to find. That's not to say that I know where to buy it in the Lansing area, but I do know dozens of places from which I can order it online. This recipe, however, called specifically for goose foie gras. It used to be that goose foie gras was also easy enough to order online, but right now that it just not the case. The Book has suggestions in it for where to buy hard-to-find ingredients, and even the purveyor they suggested didn't have it. In the end I spent quite a long time scouring the internet for goose foie gras. Finally (at last!) I found one place that sold it. I put it my order, delighted that I would finally be able to make this recipe. The delight didn't last long. I soon got an email saying that in fact the goose foie gras wasn't actually available. With the end of the project looming, I had to make a choice. I did the only thing I could think to do: I used duck foie gras instead. In this recipe the foie gras is pureed with eggs and cream and served in a soup. Would one really be able to tell the difference between goose and duck foie gras in this preparation? I don't know. But I bought some duck foie gras and went ahead with the recipe. Now, weeks later, I am apparently still feeling bad about this substitution. Just last night I had a a dream that one of my friends was secretly doing the same project as me. He was also almost done, and he had found the goose foie gras!

To make this recipe I started by making some croutons. I deep-fried small cubes of white bread in oil. I then cooked French green lentils with cooked chestnuts, thyme, parsley, chives, bay leaves and salt in water. Meanwhile, I pureed the foie gras with eggs, egg yolks, salt, and cream. I divided the foie gras custard mixture into ramekins and baked the custards until set. I then removed the bouquet garni of herbs and pureed the soup, then strained and seasoned it. I whipped cream, then whisked it into the soup. I poured the soup over the foie gras custards and sprinkled with the croutons and some toasted almond slices.

I had mixed feelings about this soup. On the one hand, it had great flavors. The combination of lentils and chestnuts was very interesting, and both flavors complemented the foie gras custards well. It was texturally interesting to have a custard on the bottom of the bowl, soup on top of it, and crunchy croutons and almonds on top of that. But for me, it was just too rich! Foie gras is already quite rich, and baking it with eggs and cream only enhanced its richness. The soup itself wouldn't have been terribly rich without the cream, but whisking in a bunch of whipped cream made it pretty intense. I enjoyed eating a few bites of the soup, but even the small serving size was too much for me.

The recipe is here.

Only 5 recipes left to go!

This is the last recipe from the Soups section of The Book! I love soup (indeed there are always at least 3 or 4 kinds of homemade soup in our freezer!) so it was a pleasure to cook through this section. In no particular order, my favorite five recipes from this sections were the following:

Chinese Egg Drop Soup with Noodles -- This was easily the best egg drop soup I have ever had. I made it with homemade chicken stock and that was definitely the way to go! I made this when I lived in Indiana, for a dinner with my friends Mike, Teresa, Tricia, and Cornelia, and everyone seemed to enjoy it!
Congee -- This Chinese chicken and rice porridge was AMAZING. This recipe took a long time to make, but it was so very, very tasty! If I knew of a restaurant where I could order this item, I would be going there at least a couple times a week. Yum!!!
Mushroom Barley Soup -- I made this one way back in the early days of the project. This was a wonderful, hearty soup, perfect for a cold winter day!
Yellow Split Pea Soup -- I have avoided split pea soup most of my life, after being forced to eat it as a kid at summer camp. But this recipe made me see the truth: split pea soup can be delicious! This simple recipe produced a very lovely soup.
Mango-Spacho -- This was definitely the best of the cold soups in The Book. I wouldn't necessarily have expected mango, chiles, cucumber, corn, scallion, garlic, red pepper, basil, cilantro, vinegar, orange juice, lemon juice, and lime juice to come together to form something delicious, but they did! It was a refreshing and surprising summer soup!

And just like that, another section is complete. That makes 17 completed sections and 4 left to finish! I can't believe how close I am to the end!

The semester started this week! We were in Boston all last week for a conference. It was great fun to be back in the city where my special gentleman and I met. We saw lots of math friends, and lots of non-math friends as well. I ate good food, went to good math talks, and hung out with good friends! It was a great trip! We flew back the day before classes started and life has been pretty hectic since then. So far the semester is going well, although I have been sick since before New Year's which has made the first few days back a little rough. I finally gave up today and went to the doctor. It's bronchitis. They gave me some antibiotics as well as cough syrup with codeine, and I am already feeling a little better! Maybe I shouldn't have waited two weeks to get myself checked out...

Matzo-Stuffed Breast of Veal (Page 452)

2011-12-29T15:19:00.000-08:00

RECIPE #1287

Date: Tuesday, November 15, 2011 -- 10pm
Location: East Lansing, MI
Kitchen: Our House
Dining Companion: Matty
Recipe Rating: B-

I would have made this recipe much earlier, but I had a very hard time finding veal breast. Finally I found a website I could order it from. I started the dish by making the stuffing. I cooked onion, carrot, and celery in oil until brown. I then ran some matzos under hot water until they were softened. I combined half of the cooked vegetables with the matzos, some parsley, egg, salt, and pepper. I reserved the rest of the vegetables. The veal breast I ordered already had a pocket cut in it, so luckily I got to bypass that step. I pureed together onion, garlic, vegetable oil, paprika, salt, and pepper, then rubbed the veal with the puree, including inside the pocket. I filled the pocket loosely with the matzo stuffing, then sewed the pocket closed using kitchen string and a huge needle. Sewing has never been my specialty. I certainly got by in Home Economics class and I even sewed some clothing for the county fair way back when I was in 4-H. But I wouldn't say that I am talented with a needle and thread. For me the hardest part of this recipe by far was sewing the veal pocket closed. My hands were slippery with raw veal and stuffing, and it took some strength and grip to get that needle through the veal. It was a challenge. My good friend Helen wrote a New York Times Op-Ed recently about how we should bring back Home Economics in schools. This dish would be an efficient addition to a Home Economics curriculum: cooking and sewing in the same project! Once my veal was successfully sewed shut I put it in a pot with the remaining vegetables, some thyme, and water. I braised the veal until it was tender, then sliced and served it with the sauce it braised in.

This dish was OK. The meat was indeed tender, as a good braised piece of meat should be. The meat didn't seem to pick up much flavor from the braising liquid though, which wasn't too surprising as it was braised just in water with a few veggies in it. My real complaint about the dish, though, was the stuffing. It's true, I am biased: I am not a fan of soggy bread (or in this case, soggy matzo). But even my special gentleman, who is a soggy bread eater, was not wowed by this stuffing. The flavor of it was fine, but the texture just wasn't appealing. The stuffing didn't add anything positive to the dish and I found myself wishing that I had just braised the meat unstuffed. Stuffing the veal breast certainly wasn't worth all the extra work of preparing the stuffing and sewing it in there. All that said, the meat was pretty tasty and tender and we ate it all despite our hesitations about the stuffing.

The recipe is here.

Only 6 recipes left to go!

Happy Holidays! We have had a crazy holiday season, full of food, travel, family, and good friends! My special gentleman and I ate 5 holiday meals this season, which was a lot! It all started last Tuesday:

Christmas Dinner #1 -- December 20th -- East Lansing, MI. It might be a stretch to call this a Christmas dinner, but it definitely felt like a holiday meal and we drank out of our glasses with Christmas trees on them, so I'll call it a Christmas dinner! Our good friends Helen and Charles and their daughter Clara are moving to France for a year. It's exciting for them but sad for us, as we spend a lot of time with them, and in particular, we eat with them often! Helen and I share a deep love of food. She is a history professor and one of her specialties is the history of food and nutrition! Plus, she is an excellent cook. In honor of their upcoming travels, we had them over for dinner for a French feast. I made cassoulet, lentil soup with foie gras custards, carrots Vichy, bread, and salad, and Helen made a French chocolate mousse cake. It was a lovely evening with yummy food and an excellent way to start the holiday season.

Christmas Dinner #2 -- December 23rd -- Fond du Lac, WI. Late last week we headed up to Wisconsin to celebrate Christmas with my parents and my extended family. We had a big Christmas dinner at my aunt and uncle's house. My aunt and uncle made turkey and mashed potatoes, I made roast asparagus, glazed carrots, and salad, and my cousins Anne and Sarah made dessert (Better than Sex cake and Apple Dapple cake). It was a feast! There are about 20 people on my mom's side of the family, and we all had a lovely day playing cards, cooking, drinking, eating, and opening gifts! It was a sad day too, as it was our first Christmas without my grandpa. But it was wonderful to gather together and we talked about him often throughout the day and felt his presence.

Christmas Dinner #3 -- December 24th -- East Lansing, MI. On Christmas Eve we drove from Wisconsin back home to Michigan (about 7 hours). In the evening, Helen, Charles, and Clara came over to celebrate Christmas Eve with us. I had made dinner ahead and put it in the freezer so that all I would have to do when we got home was reheat the food and throw together a salad. We had braised veal shoulder, potato and caramelized onion soup, focaccia, salad, and some Christmas cookies. Then we exchanged a couple gifts and sang Christmas carols. My special gentleman and I bought ourselves a piano for Christmas so my special gentleman and Charles took turns playing Christmas carols on the piano and we all sang along. It was a lovely. Later in the evening my special gentleman and I went to church (with more carols!). It was a great Christmas Eve.

Christmas Dinner #4 -- December 25th -- Westerville, OH. On Christmas morning we drove from Michigan down to my special gentleman's parents' house in Ohio. The drive isn't too long -- only about 4 hours -- but we had the kitties with us, and they do not like the car! Indiana has a good attitude about bad situations. He just laid in his carrier and looked pissed. But poor Michigan howled the entire time. Eventually we made it though, in time for Christmas dinner with my father-in-law's extended family. Twenty or so people descended upon my in-laws' house for a big holiday meal! I ate a lot of beef brisket and Uncle Phil's famous no-bake cookies. Merry Christmas!

Christmas Dinner #5 -- December 26th -- Gahanna, OH. The next day we celebrated Christmas with my mother-in-law's family. We all descended upon her brother and his wife's place and had a big meal with twnety or so members of the family, including ham and all the fixings. Yum!

We have been in Ohio since Christmas Day. It has been fun spending the holiday with my special gentleman's family. The are 7 adults, 2 dogs, 2 cats, and a baby all staying at my in-laws' house. It's a little chaotic! Our cats seem both overwhelmed and intrigued by all the activity in the house. It has been a fun trip though. My brother-in-law Wes lives in Cambodia so we don't see him too often, but he is here for the holidays. And the newest addition to our family, our niece Hannah, is always entertaining!

We still have one more holiday meal ahead of us. I am cooking for New Year's Eve! I am taking the opportunity to make one of the few recipes I have left from The Book -- a fresh ham. Exciting!

Happy Holidays!

Shrimp, Crab, and Oyster Gumbo (Page 120)

2011-12-21T15:13:00.000-08:00

RECIPE #1286

Date: Wednesday, November 9, 2011 -- 7pm
Location: Charlottesville, VA
Kitchen: Mike and Tim's House
Fellow Chefs: Mike and Matty
Dining Companion: Tim
Recipe Rating: C-

My special gentleman and I visited our friends Mike and Tim in November. Mike has been a part of this project since the very beginning, cooking and eating lots of recipes with me. Now that I am near the end, he wanted to cook something together again. It was fun to cook at Mike and Tim's house in Charlottesville. They just got married this summer so they had a bunch of never-been-used cookware that they got as wedding gifts. They took it out of the boxes, and we got cooking! To start, we peeled and deveined a bunch of shrimp. I cooked the shrimp shells with crab legs, onion, carrot, parsley, peppercorns, bay leaf, salt, and water. I removed the crab legs when they were cooked and continued to simmer the stock. I then strained the stock. Meanwhile, my special gentleman removed the crab meat from the crab legs. Mike, my special gentleman, and I then made the roux. We cooked a mixture of oil and flour for 45 minutes, stirring constantly (that's when it is useful to have a lot of people in the kitchen -- it's no fun to stir constantly for 45 minutes!), until a dark brown roux was formed. We added onions, bell pepper, and celery and cooked it for another 20 minutes. I then combined the roux with the stock and simmered. I added the shrimp, then the crabmeat from the legs, then some lump crabmeat, then oysters. I stirred in scallions, cayenne, and salt, and served the gumbo over white rice.

This recipe was very disappointing. There were lots of things wrong with it. For one thing, the roux barely thickened the stock, so the soup was runny with no body. The seafood flavor was intense, but the dish had no depth of flavor to it. It was somehow simultaneously pungent and bland, as the flavor of the dish was strong but incredibly one-note (and that note was: shellfish!). Tim and my special gentleman dutifully ate it (although neither enjoyed it), and Mike and I both gave up on it after a few bites. It was sad to see so much effort and nice seafood go into a dish that was so lackluster. Mike seemed particularly offended by this gumbo, as he is from Louisiana originally, and has consequently eaten a lot of gumbo in his life! The dish certainly disappointed, but we still had a fun evening, cooking and eating together!

The recipe is here.

Only 7 recipes left to go!

With my surgery and the end of the semester, the last couple weeks have been hectic, to say the least. But things are calmer now, so I have time for some blogging (and even some cooking!). The surgery went very smoothly. As I mentioned, I was quite nervous about it. Here is a picture of me in the hospital, a few hours before my surgery, clearly terrified:

I got up to pee one last time before they hooked me up to the IV and whatnot, and my special gentleman took a picture:

Those fancy legwarmers I am wearing are actually some device designed to prevent blood clots during surgery. They hooked up to a machine, and massaged my legs to get the blood moving. It was an odd sensation!

Shortly after this picture was taken then put my IV in and got me ready for surgery. I don't remember anything after I was wheeled into the operating room. Presumably they told me they were about to knock me out, but I have no memory of it. When I woke up in the post-anesthesia care unit apparently I said over and over again, "I don't remember anything." It's true -- I don't. The surgery went well though. The surgeon removed about 90% of the wall they were trying to get out. The last 10% was blocked by some blood vessels that he didn't want to cut through, for fear that it would cause excessive bleeding. So he left it, but it shouldn't be a problem. Here I am a while after the surgery:

My face says it all. I wasn't feeling too great! The pain was bad that first day, but rapidly got much more bearable. My recovery at home was very peaceful. Some friends made me chicken soup and goat cheese biscuits (thanks Helen!) and brownies (thanks Kendra!) and my special gentleman made me many batches of Jello and rice with cheese. I laid in bed and watched terrible movies and even worse reality TV shows. My kitties took their jobs as nurses very seriously. They kept close tabs on me during my recovery. Here they are, both lying on my legs in bed:

I spent several days in bed, and my littlest kitty, Michigan, spent most of that time in bed with me. He knew I couldn't move very well, so he would climb on top of me and settle in for a nice nap. He loved it:

A week after my surgery they removed a balloon which they had put in during the surgery. Since then, I have been feeling good! I gave my final exam the day after the balloon came out so last week was crazy with office hours, meetings, exam writing, proctoring, grading, assigning course grades, etc... It was a little rough because I still wasn't feeling great but now I am officially DONE with the semester! I submitted my grades late Sunday night. My students did really well, which was satisfying. They were a great group, and I am going to miss teaching them. But I am still happy the semester is over and I have a few weeks before I start teaching again. I am also very thankful to be feeling good again. I no longer have any pain, and the nausea from the medication they have me on is now minimal. I am up and around and the last few days I have even been doing some exercise!

And somehow, it is the nearly the end of December and Christmas is only a few days away. A few weeks ago I announced to my special gentleman, "I am going to do a shit job with Christmas this year." He said in response, "You don't need to do anything for Christmas this year if you don't feel up for it." It was exactly what I needed to hear. I gave myself a pass. I didn't do my usual Christmas baking (No biscotti this year! Only one batch of cranberry bars!), I barely Christmas shopped -- buying only a few things for a few people. I didn't really decorate the house. I didn't have the time or energy to invest in the season like I usually do. But I am definitely feeling the holiday spirit. I am loving this Christmas season, even if it has been unusual this year, and I am excited to spend the holidays with family and close friends! Happy holidays everyone!

Veal Stew with Lemon and Creme Fraiche (Page 460)

2011-12-06T16:27:00.000-08:00

RECIPE #1285

Date: Friday, November 4, 2011 -- 5:30pm
Location: East Lansing, MI
Kitchen: Our House
Dining Companions: Matty, Baldwin, Charles, and Clara
Recipe Rating: B

I have wanted to make this recipe for a long time, but I had a lot of trouble finding the veal breast and veal shoulder it required. None of the butchers in town could get them for me, and even my usual internet meat seller didn't have them. Eventually I found an internet source for the meat I needed for this and the one other veal recipe I have left (which also requires veal breast). It was an expensive purchase, but the meat arrived via overnight shipping, and I was glad to have it! I made this dish when our friend John was visiting. John, like my special gentleman, is fun to cook for because he loves to eat (and he eats a lot!) and he appreciates food. Charles and Clara joined us for a small feast which included this stew, some goat cheese biscuits, broccoli with caper brown butter, puff pastry cheese twists, and a caramelized pear tart.

To make this stew I started by cutting the veal breast off the bone and cutting the meat into pieces. I also cut the veal shoulder into pieces and stewed the meat with the bones, onions, parsley, thyme, bay leaf, and peppercorns in water. When the meat was tender I removed it and strained the broth. I cooked carrots and leeks in the strained broth, then removed the vegetables and reduced the broth. Meanwhile, I cooked some mushrooms in butter. I made a roux of flour and butter and whisked in the reduced broth, then simmered it. I carefully added a mixture of egg yolks and creme fraiche to the sauce, as well as lemon juice, and I cooked the sauce to 160 degrees. I seasoned the veal, the vegetables, and the sauce, then combined them to form the stew. This stew was pretty tasty. The vegetables and veal were nicely cooked but I didn't love the sauce. It had a nice consistency, but I didn't think the lemon flavor complemented the veal as well as a meatier, or wine based sauce would have. My personal preference would have been for the stew to have a higher ratio of vegetables to meat. As it was, it was very meat-heavy. All that said, it tasted good and certainly everyone seemed to enjoy it.

The recipe is here.

Only 8 recipes left to go!

I hate to fly. It's not the cramped seats, bad food, or near-certainty of delays that makes me dread it. I can easily cope with a lack of comfort. But I am terrified of plane crashes. I fly anyway, of course, but I genuinely hate it. And every time I get on an airplane, I wonder if I will make it alive to my destination. I prefer to have my feet on the ground, in an environment where I feel safe. I realize that the chances of the plane crashing are incredibly small. As a mathematician, I truly do appreciate how small the numbers are. But it doesn't really make me feel better. I am still terrified. It's not just flying. I dislike any situation where I feel a real chance of death, even when the actual likelihood of death is incredibly small. And I especially dislike situations where I have no control, like on an airplane. It's not logical, and it's not something that I appreciate about myself. Indeed, if I had the power to change any one thing about myself, I think that is what I would change: I would be less afraid.

I am having surgery tomorrow. As surgeries go, it isn't a particularly dangerous one. There is a wall in one of my organs that shouldn't be there, as well as a mass in there. The wall, in particular, is causing some problems. So they are going to remove the mass and cut out the wall. The risks are minimal, and the surgery will completely correct the problem. I think that if I could be awake for it, I would hardly be worried at all. But local anesthesia is apparently not an option. So I will be under general anesthesia. And although I fully understand that people are put under for surgery all the time, it still has me freaked out. I haven't been able to sleep the last couple nights, which for me is incredibly unusual. Sleeping is the one thing I do extremely well. But I have laid awake for hours. I keep picturing myself laying on a table, unconscious, with a breathing tube down my throat, and the surgeon lasering things inside my body. I had my pre-op appointment a few days ago. The surgeon went over the risks with me (pain, infection, accidental puncture of the organ, etc...). And as he talked about the increasingly unpleasant (and increasingly unlikely) things that could happen, I kept thinking to myself that the only side effect that I am actually worried about is death. Which wasn't even on his list since it is so tremendously unlikely. But just like sitting on an airplane, tomorrow I will have no control over what is happening. Indeed, I will be unconscious on a ventilator. And that has me very nervous.

I am trying to remind myself, as I do when I fly, that this is not a big deal. People have surgery every day. Indeed, people have much more dangerous surgeries all the time. My fear is not rational. I just need to relax, and it will be over soon. Twenty-four hours from now I will be recovering: watching movies, napping, and reading magazines. After a very busy semester, spending some time in bed recovering from surgery sounds delightful!

Poached Salmon with Truffles and Shrimp in Cream Sauce (Page 290)

2011-12-01T17:40:00.000-08:00

RECIPE #1284

Date: Saturday, October 15, 2011 -- 6pm
Location: East Lansing, MI
Kitchen: Our House
Dining Companion: Matty
Recipe Rating: B

I have been having trouble finding black winter truffles, and so I put off making this recipe for quite a while. The recipe indicates that fresh, jarred, or canned black winter truffles can be used, so against my better judgment I finally just ordered some jarred truffles online. I started preparing this dish by deveining shrimp, then cooking the shrimp (in their shells) in butter. I then shelled the shrimp. I put the shells and butter in a food processor, along with Cognac and water, and pureed until smooth. I then strained the mixture through a sieve. I sliced salmon fillets and curled them into circles, tying them with string to hold their shape. I cut slits in the salmon and put a strip of truffle in each slit. I seasoned the salmon and poached it in water and white wine. Meanwhile I started the sauce. I simmered white wine and shallots, then added cream and simmered longer. I strained the sauce through a sieve, then added minced truffles and the truffle juice from the jar and simmered. I whisked in some arrowroot and Cognac, then seasoned with salt and pepper. I added the shrimp to the sauce, as well as the shrimp butter (made from the shrimp shells). I seasoned the sauce then served it with the salmon.

This dish was OK. The sauce was very rich and flavorful. While the shrimp shells definitely added flavor to the sauce, the shrimp themselves didn't add much to the dish. Indeed I would have preferred the dish without them. The biggest disappointment, though, was with the truffles. The recipe indicated that jarred truffles were acceptable, and I purchased exactly what the recipe called for. However, the truffles weren't very flavorful and didn't contribute much to the dish. Incorporating fresh porcini mushrooms would have contributed a lot more flavor. I am sure that fresh truffles would have added tremendously to the dish, but my experience with jarred truffles wasn't positive. Overall the sauce was tasty and the dish as a whole was fine, but neither of us thought it was anything spectacular.

The recipe in The Book is very similar to this recipe.

Only 9 recipes left to go!

This was the last recipe I had left to make in the Fish and Shellfish section of The Book! Good seafood is one of the harder things to find in small towns in the Midwest (like those that I have lived in for the last four and a half years!), so there were many times when I thought I would never make it all the way through this section. But I did! I took every opportunity I could to buy and prepare seafood when we traveled to the coasts, and when we lived in Berkeley, California for four months in 2010 I instituted the All-Seafood-All-The-Time plan, which meant we basically ate nothing that didn't come from the sea! It all paid off because I made it through the 95 fish and shellfish recipes in this section. I didn't love them all, but there were definitely some wonderful stand-outs. In no particular order, my five favorite recipes from this section were:

Oven-Poached Halibut in Olive Oil -- I used to say, "I don't like seafood," but this recipe made me stop saying it. This halibut was amazing! It's true, seafood in general isn't my favorite, but there are few things in life I would rather eat than this dish. It was so good, in fact, that it motivated me to choose halibut as one of the two entree options at our wedding dinner. This recipe was easy, and extremely delicious!
Louisiana Crawfish Boil -- This recipe stands out in my mind both for being delicious and for being a wonderfully fun experience to make and serve. We ordered 20 pounds of live crawfish, boiled them up, and dumped them onto the porch table (along with potatoes, corn, etc...). We sat around the table with a dozen or so good friends and ate crawfish until the sun went down. The crawfish were tasty and the evening was absolutely lovely. My special gentleman has been asking ever since when our next crawfish boil will be!
Clam, Potato, and Bacon Potpie -- I am a sucker for any recipe with the word "potpie" in it! I do love pastry... Nonetheless I wasn't looking forward to this one, as I dread any recipe with the word "clam" in it. I have to admit, though, this was a tasty dish. The clams weren't overpowering. The filling was rich and flavorful and the pastry was perfect. My special gentleman ate this for breakfast, lunch, and dinner until it was gone. Yum!
Coulibiac -- This salmon wrapped in pastry was so very, very delicious. It will forever stand out in my mind as the ultimate comfort food. On a difficult day this fall my special gentleman pulled the leftovers of this dish out of the freezer and it was exactly what I needed. Warm, delicious, and supremely comforting! It was a time-consuming recipe to make, but worth it!
Bluefish with Lemon Caper-Brown Butter Sauce -- I made this recipe way back in 2006 with the Wednesday dinner crew. I was in graduate school at the time and a group of us would get together on Wednesday nights and make a big meal from The Book. Bluefish isn't a particularly well-reputed type of seafood, but in this recipe it really shone. The brown butter sauce with capers was delicious and the fish was perfectly cooked. Yum!

I must admit, I grew frustrated at times with the seemingly endless seafood recipes -- there are really many more than just the 95 in this section as there are seafood recipes in the Soups section, the Salads section, the Hors D'Oeuvres and First Courses section, etc... But now that I am done with them all, I value the experience of having made them. I can now throw a live lobster into a pot of boiling water without flinching. I can shuck a clam no problem. And most importantly, I think I can now appreciate seafood more than I ever did before.

I have now finished 16 sections of The Book, with only 5 sections left to finish off! Crazy!!

It has been a sad time for our family these past few days. My grandfather died late last week. It's impossible to put into words what an amazing man he was. He was so much to so many people: a father, a teacher, a coach, a mentor... a grandpa. He accepted people for who they were, without judgment. He was truly an amazing grandparent and I am shocked and deeply, deeply saddened by his death. We went to Wisconsin over the weekend for his funeral, yet it still doesn't seem real to me. It makes me sad to post this blog update as he was a faithful follower of my blog, but he won't be sitting at his computer reading this tomorrow. He won't be at Christmas this year. He won't be at the Sheepshead table with family ever again. And I am overwhelmed by a sense of loss and a feeling that everything is going to be different. It is a sad time.

Coulibiac (Page 308)

2011-11-14T17:05:00.000-08:00

RECIPE #1283

Date: Saturday, September 24, 2011 -- 6pm
Location: East Lansing, MI
Kitchen: Our House
Dining Companions: Matty, Helen, Charles, and Clara
Recipe Rating: A

The Book describes this recipe as perfect for "weekend hobbyists." The description scared me off a bit. Indeed, the recipe is a bit time consuming (the 3 and a half hour active time is no joke) but worth it! That golden brown pastry shell that you see above was filled with salmon and a delicious mixture of rice and mushrooms. It was a beautiful, delicious dish! But I am getting ahead of myself. I started preparing this dish by poaching salmon steaks in a mixture of water, white wine, and salt. I refrigerated the poached salmon and reserved the poaching liquid. I then made the dough. I proofed the yeast then added melted butter, warm milk, eggs, sour cream, flour, and salt. I kneaded the dough then let it rise until it doubled in size. I then cooked rice in the reserved fish poaching liquid. I cooked onions in vegetable oil and butter, then cooked finely chopped mushrooms in a similar manner. I mixed the mushrooms, onions, and rice along with dill, parsley, sour cream, lemon juice, salt, and pepper. I then divided the dough into two pieces and rolled out one of them. I sprinkled it with bread crumbs, then spread it with rice mixture and topped the rice with the salmon. I topped the salmon with chopped hard-boiled eggs, and topped the eggs with more of the rice mixture. I then rolled out the second piece of dough and draped it over the filling. I pressed the edges to seal, cut some steam vents, and decorated with some cut-outs. I brushed the whole thing with egg wash, and baked it until it was golden brown. I then served slices of the dish drizzled with melted butter.

This dish was fantastic! The bread exterior was flavorful and texturally perfect. The salmon was also nice. What made the dish for me though was the rice mixture, which simply tasted great. It was perfectly seasoned, and the ingredients came together in a wonderful way. The dill was pronounced without being too strong. The rice itself was flavorful from being cooked in the poaching liquid. It was a wonderful complement to the fish and hard-boiled eggs. This dish claimed to serve 6, but it would easily serve 8. We froze the leftovers, and when we ate the last slice I was terribly sad to see it go. This wasn't a quick and simple dish but the effort was worth it. Yum!

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Only 10 recipes left to go!

And suddenly, it is the middle of November. The semester is winding down (Only three and a half weeks of classes left!), the winter weather is slowly settling in, and I am left wondering, as always, where the time went! The last couple weeks, in particular, have flown by. Two weeks ago our friend John was visiting. He's a mathematician in my special gentleman's field, and he came here to give a couple talks. He stayed with us for most of a week and it was great fun. I like having mathematical visitors stay with us, but occasionally people come who are bad guests: high-maintenance, or unpleasant. John, on the other hand, is the best kind of guest: fun, easy-going, appreciative, self-sufficient, and willing to go with the flow. The three of us had a fun week: scary movies, hard work-outs, a basketball game, a dinner from The Book, etc...

This past week my special gentleman and I headed down to Virginia. We were each invited to give talks at the University of Virginia (in two different seminars) so we opted to go the same week and travel together. Our friends Mike and Tim live there, so we stayed with them, gave our talks, and worked with people in the department. I also had the opportunity to do a little cooking! Mike has participated in this project since the very beginning. The first recipe from The Book that I cooked with Mike was back in February 2006. We made Tomato Sauce. It wasn't very good, but we had a fun time making it. It was only the 39th recipe I made. Since then, the Project Index tells me that Mike has cooked and/or eaten 113 recipes from The Book with me! He has been a great supporter of this project all along, so it was wonderful to have the opportunity to cook and eat one of the last ten recipes from the project with him. As it turned out, the recipe wasn't so good. But that seemed only fitting. Mike is the only one of my friends who often says things like, "Let's cook something from The Book! Pick something that sounds gross!" It's true, he likes the culinary adventure of trying the questionable recipes. Some of them have turned out wonderfully and some of them have not (Fig Pudding comes to mind). We always have fun though! In this case, it was especially wonderful to be able to make the last seafood recipe while in a town where a variety of seafood is abundantly available (unlike here in East Lansing!). One trip to the Whole Foods a few miles from Mike's house and I found everything I needed! So my trip to Virginia was not only research productive but also productive for my project. Multi-tasking!

Now my special gentleman and I are back at home. No visitors this week. My special gentleman and I are each making short (separate) trips to Canada in the next week or so to give talks, but other than that we are in town until Thanksgiving! I'm not sure I am quite ready for the craziness of the holiday season yet, but I am starting to feel more prepared. One of my absolute favorite times of the year is the few days between when finals end and when we head to Wisconsin/Ohio for the holidays. I love going to see our families, of course, but in those few days we spend at home before we leave I work by the fireplace, bake cookies, write Christmas cards, drink hot chocolate. It is an absolutely lovely way to start the winter break. I look forward to that time every year. It's hard to believe it is only about a month away!

Scallop Mousse with Ginger-Infused Veloute (Page 74)

2011-11-05T13:48:00.000-07:00

RECIPE #1282

Date: Saturday, September 24, 2011 -- 6pm
Location: East Lansing, MI
Kitchen: Our House
Fellow Chef: Helen
Dining Companions: Matty, Charles, and Clara
Recipe Rating: B

I had a free Saturday in September and I decided to do some serious cooking. I picked two time-consuming recipes from The Book (this one and another) and invited Helen, Charles, and Clara over to share in the fruits of my labor. I started this recipe by cooking leeks, shallots, fennel bulb, carrot, celery, star anise, and ginger in butter. I added some white wine and reduced, then added fish stock and reduced again. I added heavy cream, salt, pepper, chives, parsley, cilantro, and tarragon, and let the herbs steep. I strained the sauce, then added ginger matchsticks and reduced it again. I seasoned the sauce with lemon juice, salt, and pepper. While all that was going on, I also made the scallop mousse. I pureed scallops, egg white, salt, and white pepper in the food processor, then added cream and processed it some more. I divided the mixture amongst ramekins, which had been buttered and lined with waxed paper. I put the ramekins in a baking pan with boiling water coming halfway up the sides of the ramekins. I baked them until a toothpick came out clean. I inverted each mousse onto paper towels, then a plate. Helen helped me sauce them, and sprinkle them with herbs before serving.

I put off making this recipe for a long time because pureed seafood products really don't appeal to me. So the word "scallop" next to the word "mousse" set off red flags for me. However, this dish wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be. The sauce had an excellent flavor. There was a lot of depth to it, which wasn't terribly surprising given all the additions and reductions that went into it. The flavor of the mousse was ok too -- a little bit too much like scallop-flavored whipped cream for my taste, but it wasn't bad. No one had any major complaints about this dish. My special gentleman said he would have rather just eaten a seared scallop with the yummy sauce rather than the scallop mousse, but there was not consensus at the table on that point. Although the dish exceeded expectations, I won't be making it again. No one was terribly wowed by it.

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Only 11 recipes left to go!

This was the last recipe in the Hors D'oeuvres and First Courses section of The Book! This is one of the longest sections of The Book, with 110 recipes in it. There were definitely times when I felt like I would never make it through this section. But here I am! The section is complete. Below, in no particular order, are my favorite five recipes from this part of The Book:

Sweet Potato Chips with Lime Salt -- It's hard to go wrong with deep-fried potato products, but these chips were exceptionally delicious even within that genre. The lime salt was a wonderful complement to these ultra-thin chips. So very, very delicious!
Parmesan Walnut Salad in Endive Leaves -- Despite what my dear friend Mike says, I am happy to admit when my grading of a recipe was wrong. In this case, I clearly made a mistake by giving this recipe an A- when it truly deserved an A. This is a beautiful, delicious hors d'oeurve which I come back to again and again. I have made this dish for several baby showers, bridal luncheons, Easter dinners, department parties, etc. I passed this recipe on to my mother-in-law, and now she makes it for special events too. It is super simple to throw together and super delicious. Definitely worthy of an A!
Arepas with Yucatecan Pulled Pork and Pickled Onions - These little cheesy corn cakes topped with pulled pork and pickled onions were out of this world! I made these and another appetizer when we had our crawfish boil last year and these just flew off the plate. Absolutely delicious!
Coconut Shrimp with Tamarind Ginger Sauce -- Seafood is not my favorite, and shrimp is certainly not something I usually crave. But these coconut shrimp were amazing! The breading was awesome, they were perfectly fried, and the dipping sauce complemented them wonderfully. Easily the best coconut shrimp I have ever eaten. I made these for New Year's Eve at my in-laws house, and everyone loved them!
Candied Walnuts -- I made these walnuts for a Tuesday dinner back in graduate school. They were fantastic! I love the sweetness and crunch of good candied nuts. The combination of powdered sugar, cayenne, and salt really worked well with the walnuts. And deep-frying made them extra crispy. Yum!

There have been sections of The Book where it has been difficult to identify five truly outstanding recipes. In this section, however, I had the opposite problem. There are so many delicious recipes in this section that several things I make frequently (like Pita Toasts and Cheese Straws) didn't even make my top five list! It was tremendous fun to make the wide variety of hors d'oeuvres and first courses in this section. And although some didn't turn out so well (the Scallion, Mushroom, and Shrimp Custards come to mind), for the most part they were very tasty!

And now I am one step closer to finishing the project! I have now completed 15 sections of The Book, with only 6 left to finish! And truth be told, I am a little behind in my blogging but I have already finished another section. So really I only have 5 sections left to go! I can hardly believe it.

Lobster Newburg (Page 340)

2011-10-31T20:07:00.000-07:00

RECIPE #1281

Date: Monday, September 5, 2011 -- 12pm
Location: East Lansing, MI
Kitchen: Our House
Fellow Chef: Matty
Dining Companion: Helen
Recipe Rating: A-

I put off making this recipe for a long time because it just didn't sound good to me. Lobster is already so rich that lobster plus heavy cream plus butter plus egg yolks just sounded excessive. But we figured that we would be decadent on Labor Day and eat super-rich lobster for lunch. As it turned out, I was wrong about this recipe. This was by FAR the best lobster recipe in The Book. And although I am not, in general, a huge lobster fan, even I agreed that it was tasty. I started by boiling some live lobsters. Then my special gentleman split them and removed the meat. I simmered some cream, then cooked sliced mushrooms in butter. I added the lobster meat, paprika, salt, pepper, sherry, and hot cream to the mushrooms. I then slowly cooked a mixture of egg yolks, more sherry, and more hot cream to 160 degrees. I added the custard sauce to the lobster mixture and spooned it into the cleaned lobster shells. I broiled the the dish until golden. In a word: Yum! Yes, it was rich, but it didn't feel as excessive as I had imagined it would. The mushrooms were excellent with the lobster, and the cream sauce had a lovely consistency and flavor. The sherry and paprika complemented one another nicely. My special gentleman always applies the Better-Than-Butter test to lobster recipes and generally they fail. Most preparations he finds to be inferior to just serving the lobster with melted butter. In the case of this recipe though, it passed his test with flying colors. He admitted that yes, this dish was Better-Than-Butter!

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Only 12 recipes left to go!

Happy Halloween! Life has been so crazy lately that this holiday seriously snuck up on me. I did manage to get my shit together enough to buy candy, but that was about the extent of my Halloween effort this year. It's a shame because I love pumpkin carving and toasting pumpkin seeds, but alas, I didn't get around to it.

The busyness of late has mostly been fun stuff though. My mom was visiting last week, which was great. Then yesterday my special gentleman and I hosted what the university calls a Fireside Chat. It's a program where faculty host some college freshman from the honors college at their home for dinner. We hadn't hosted one before, and we weren't exactly sure how it would go, but it was fun. We had eight undergraduates for dinner, one of whom is in my Calc 3 class, but the other 7 I had never met before. My special gentleman and I made beef braised in red wine, mashed sweet potatoes with caramelized onions, green beans with almonds, goat cheese biscuits, salad, puff pastry cheese straws, and flourless chocolate cake with raspberry sauce. The students seemed appreciative to have some home cooked food and an evening away from campus.

It was interesting to listen to them talk about college life. I talk to undergraduates all the time of course, but I don't often get to listen to them talk to one another for several hours. After they left my special gentleman turned to me and said, "That made me feel old." I understood the sentiment. They used a lot of vocabulary I had never heard before (blinky cup?). And at one point a student said in disbelief, "Who does homework on the weekend?" I thought to myself, "Your professors," as it is rare that a weekend day goes by when I don't work. But that was true in college too. I did tons of work on the weekends. Everyone did. Apparently that is not the case any more (at least not here anyway).

College seems different now than it used to be. As an undergrad, I rarely knew anything about the professor before the first day of class, unless I happened to have had a course with him or her before. Now students are extremely well-informed. They have easy access to not only student reviews of faculty members, but often also to past exams and grade distributions from previous semesters. Some consequently have very strong opinions about which professors they want for which courses, and who they are certain to avoid. In general access to information is a good thing, but it's amazing the sort of personal attacks students will make against professors on the internet. I have been fortunate enough to never have read anything particularly offensive about myself, but I have friends who have been really affected by nasty student comments. And once those comments are out there on the internet, they are there for anyone to read.

It seems more and more that university education is viewed as a service industry. Students pay a lot of money and they expect excellent teaching, which seems reasonable enough. Some also expect high grades in exchange for their tuition. That seems less reasonable. It's very different than the way I thought of college when I was in school.

All that said, the students we had over for dinner last night were lovely, and certainly none of them were trash talking their professors (at least in front of us!). Spending time with them just got me thinking about how the culture of college has changed in the 10 years or so since I graduated. I guess I am getting old!

Happy Halloween!

Boiled Lobster with Tarragon Vermouth Sauce (Page 337)

2011-10-15T18:21:00.000-07:00

RECIPE #1280

Date: Friday, August 26, 2011 -- 6pm
Location: East Lansing, MI
Kitchen: Our House
Fellow Chef: Matty
Dining Companions: Dave and Karen H.
Recipe Rating: B

My in-laws came to visit in August, and since they enjoy lobster I took the opportunity to make this recipe! This lobster preparation was pretty simple. I boiled some live lobsters in salted water. Meanwhile, I made the sauce. I whisked together vermouth, tarragon white wine vinegar, and egg yolks. Then I set the bowl over a saucepan of boiling water and cooked the sauce, whisking. I added melted butter, salt, and pepper, and my special gentleman continued to cook and whisk the mixture until it reached 160 degrees. I stirred lemon juice and chopped fresh tarragon into the sauce. My special gentleman then halved the lobsters. We drizzled some sauce over the lobster halves and served the rest of the sauce on the side. This dish was pretty tasty. The sauce had a good flavor. The tarragon came through clearly and the vermouth added a nice note to it. My special gentleman always says that the problem with lobster dishes is that it is hard to create anything that is better than butter. Indeed, this dish failed his Better-Than-Butter test. It was good, but the lobster would have been even better just served with some melted butter. So would I make this again? Well, no. But I also don't really have any complaints about it. It tasted fine. It just wasn't better than butter.

The recipe is here.

Only 13 recipes left to go!

I haven't written in ages. This semester is absolutely flying by. I can hardly believe that this coming week is week 8 of classes. I am only teaching one course this term: Calculus 3. I like teaching. Occasionally I have had classes that were unpleasant, but for the most part teaching is very enjoyable. This semester, though, my students are an absolute delight. There are 41 of them, and I can honestly say that not one of them has been difficult to deal with, or unpleasant, or unreasonable. On the contrary, they are friendly, hard-working, and respectful. Hands down the best classroom of students I have ever had. Seven of them are also doing an honors option for the course, which means that in addition to the usual coursework, they also do projects outside of class on mathematical topics that may or may not be related to calculus. This semester I have students doing projects on Knot Theory, Game Theory, The Life and Work of Euler, Financial Mathematics, The Calculus of Tumors, and Proofs from Calculus. So I see those seven students frequently in my office, and we talk about a wide variety of mathematical topics. It's fun. There is also a group of 3 students who do their homework in my office during my office hours every week, so I have gotten to know them pretty well too. A lot of other students come by for occasional help as well, so I know quite a few of the students outside of class.

I really just enjoy this classroom of students. I am sure they have no sense of what it is like to be a professor, and what a big difference the attitude of the class can make in the professor's enjoyment of their job. So they likely have no idea how delightful they are. Yet I often feel like they are giving me a gift by being so diligent and easy to teach. I am very thankful for this class.

I have had a few health issues this term, and I need to have minor surgery in a couple months. None of it is dangerous or related to my brain tumor, and I feeling fine now, but for a while I was going in for a lot of early morning doctor's appointments and lab tests. And under those circumstances, I would have imagined that teaching my 9am class would have been stressful and unpleasant. But it has been quite the contrary. My interactions with my students have cheered me up on some personally challenging days. That is the sign of an excellent classroom of undergraduates.

Other aspects of this semester have been good too. I have been traveling to give talks, and will continue to do so in the upcoming months. Research is going smoothly. And now that I am feeling better my special gentleman and I recently started a serious exercise regime to kick our butts back into shape (Well, my butt really. He's always in shape.). We are doing intense 60-90 minute work-outs 6-7 days a week. It's insane. We are usually pretty busy, so on several occasions already this has resulted in us working out at midnight, drenched in sweat. It has been great though. I am feeling stronger and healthier than I have in a long time.

Fall is here in full force now and it is hard not to think that Thanksgiving and Christmas are right around the corner. And before I know what happened, I will be back from Christmas break and it will be a new semester, with different classes and new students. I wish that this term would slow down a bit though. It's a nice semester.

Salmon with Horseradish Crust, Cucumbers, and Salmon Caviar (Page 307)

2011-09-28T19:14:00.000-07:00

RECIPE #1279

Date: Thursday, August 25, 2011 -- 7pm
Location: East Lansing, MI
Kitchen: Our House
Dining Companions: Matty, Karen H, and Dave
Recipe Rating: B+

My in-laws came to visit last month, and I took the opportunity to make a couple recipes from The Book. This was one of them! I started by making a horseradish paste. I pureed horseradish and smoked salmon in the food processor. I added butter, mustard, cayenne, and fresh bread crumbs and blended. I seasoned the mixture with sea salt, then refrigerated it for a couple hours to allow the flavors to develop. Meanwhile, I peeled, halved, seeded, and sliced some seedless cucumbers (why they are called seedless when they still have seeds is beyond me!). I tossed the cucumbers with sea salt and drained them in a sieve for a couple hours. I seasoned pieces of salmon fillet with sea salt and pepper, then seared them on one side. I transferred them, seared side down, to a baking pan, then spread the horseradish mixture over each fillet. I sprinkled toasted bread crumbs on top. I then broiled the salmon until just cooked through. I warmed the cucumbers in creme fraiche. I served the salmon on top of the cucumber mixture. To garnish I sprinkled the dish with parsley, dill, chives, and celery leaves and placed some salmon caviar around the plate. This dish was quite good. The salmon was nicely cooked, and the horseradish spread had a lot of flavor to it. It had the bite of the horseradish of course, but also a nice kick from the cayenne. And the smoked salmon that was pureed into it gave it a subtle smokiness that went well with the dish. I had two minor complaints about this dish. One was textural. I didn't care so much for the pasty texture of the horseradish topping. Also, the breadcrumbs on top didn't get as crispy and delicious as one might have hoped. The ratio of horseradish paste to crispy breadcrumbs was too high. My other complaint was that I didn't love the cucumbers. Heating a mixture of cucumbers and creme fraiche sounded like a bad idea to me. While it turned out to be more appealing than I had imagined, I still think the dish would have been better without warm, creamy cucumbers. All that said, the salmon was very tasty, and everyone seemed to enjoy it.

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Only 14 recipes left to go!

The last few weeks have been a blur. The semester is in full swing, which means life is hectic (in a good way!). Two weekends ago I flew out to Rhode Island for a couple days to give a talk at a conference at Brown University. It was a large conference (300+ registered participants) with 18 different special sessions, including one in Homotopy Theory (my field!). The unusual thing about this conference was that all of the many speakers were women! It was a celebration of women in math, marking the 40th anniversary of the Association for Women in Mathematics. There were a few men in the audience, but the vast majority of participants were women. It was an amazing sight. I had an absolutely wonderful time hanging out with the women in my field and also seeing women I know from graduate school, etc that are in other fields. There were 8 women speaking in the special session that I was a part of: 4 who are tenure-track Assistant Professors, and 4 post-docs. I really like all of them and it was wonderful to talk to the other tenure-track women about their experiences, and to pass on whatever wisdom we had gathered to the post-docs! We gave talks. We drank beer. We talked about math, and work, and other things. It was the most fun I have had at a conference in a long time. It was also the first time I have ever waited in line to use the ladies restroom at a math conference!

I heard a lot of beautiful talks over those two days, both in special sessions and plenary talks. But as I was listening to them, I noticed a disturbing pattern. A huge percentage of the speakers made a number of apologies or other self-deprecating comments throughout their talks. These negative comments (about their work, or their talk...) seemed crazy to me, as the people making the comments were accomplished women giving beautiful expositions of their work. For instance, one woman, in explaining her important research, said several times, "Sorry, these results might not be very interesting to anyone except me." It got me wondering, why do women tend to apologize for themselves? Someone advised me early on that I should never apologize. (Note: This was a piece of professional advice. It does not apply so well to say, one's marriage!) I wish I remember who said that to me, because it is a piece of advice that I carry with me every time I give a talk, or teach a class. I try not to ever say anything self-deprecating while giving a talk. I don't apologize for myself. This is not a gender-specific piece of advice. I think it is important for everyone to not put themselves down while making professional presentations. It seems, however, that women are more likely to do it. I have been thinking about this a lot lately, and I was delighted to find that I am not the only one, when I read this blog post this morning.

The conference was thought-provoking and inspiring in may ways. I certainly have never been in a room with so many female mathematicians! There was even singing (no, I am not in the video!). I hope that I get to participate in such a gathering again!

Spiced Roast Goose with Dried Fruit (Page 398)

2011-09-13T18:08:00.000-07:00

RECIPE #1278

Date: Tuesday, July 26, 2011 -- 2pm
Location: East Lansing, MI
Kitchen: Our House
Dining Companion: Matty
Recipe Rating: B-

One Tuesday this summer I stayed home to help my special gentleman with something, so I figured I would do a little multi-tasking and also make this goose as long as I was home all day! I started by simmering some dried figs, dried apricots, and pitted prunes in water. Then I threaded some of the fruit on skewers and reserved the rest. I pricked the skin of the goose all over, then seasoned the bird inside and out with salt. I stuffed the bird with onions and the reserved fruit, then rubbed the skin with a mixture of melted butter, cracked allspice berries, and mixed cracked peppercorns. I roasted the goose on a rack in a roasting pan. I started it in a hot oven, then later lowered the oven temperature and roasted it more, basting and removing excess fat with a bulb baster ever half hour. Part way through the cooking I added the skewered fruit to the rack. I cooked the bird until the thigh registered 170 degrees, then removed the bird from the oven and let it rest for 30 minutes. I made a pan sauce using the bird drippings, shallots, Armagnac, veal demi-glace, and apricot jam. Then I carved the bird and served it with the fruit and the sauce. I was excited about this bird and it looked beautiful but it only tasted OK. The real problem was that it was overcooked. I monitored the temperature of the meat very closely, and took it out when the thigh reached 170, just as the recipe instructed. But by that point, the breast was pretty dry. I don't know what could really have been done about that. Perhaps it would have been better to take it out of the oven when the thigh read 165. The temperature would have risen to at least 170 as the bird rested, and that is a plenty safe temperature for poultry. As it was, the breast was overcooked. The skin, however, was perfectly crispy and delicious -- yum! The sauce was also pretty tasty. I liked the bit of sweetness that the jam and fruit contributed to the sauce, but I didn't find the cooked fruit terribly appetizing to eat. Overall, this goose was OK, but the next time I need to cook a goose, I will look for a different recipe.

The recipe is here.

Only 15 recipes left to go!

My special gentleman has been out of town the last few days. I don't particularly love it when he travels. When he is in town I love making dinner for the two of us, and I look forward to cooking and eating a variety of things. When he is away I lose all motivation to invest effort in what I eat. It's pathetic really. Knowing this about myself, the night before he left I made four pizzas, stocking the refrigerator and freezer with pizza slices. Last Friday on my walk home from work I stopped at a convenience store and bought a box of Cheerios. And in the six days he has been gone so far I have alternated meals of Cheerios with meals of pizza. Today, pizza for lunch, Cheerios for dinner. Besides a few meals eaten at friends' houses, that pretty much summarizes my diet for the last week. It's not so good.

Believe it or not I am actually not the most pathetic member of the household when my special gentleman is away. Michigan, our littlest kitty, takes it very hard. He wanders through the house every morning, looking for my special gentleman and crying. And at night he walks over and over across my special gentleman's side of the bed, furiously digging into the covers as though my special gentleman might be under there and he is going to dig down to find him. Indiana, our bigger kitty, doesn't mind his absence so much, but he did spend the first two days of this trip convinced that my special gentleman was in the bathroom. He would sit outside the bathroom door and cry to be let in, even though no one was inside. Crazy kitties.

Like my kitties, I miss my special gentleman a lot when he is away. He is excellent company, and nothing is as fun without him around. Plus, it seems like every time he leaves town, strange things happen. Case in point, last Thursday night. I went to bed early as I had to teach at 9am the next day. I was sound asleep at 3:30am (as I usually am!) when the doorbell rang. It was scary to wake up to the doorbell in the middle of the night, but scarier still when the next thing I heard was someone jostling the doorknob, trying to get in. My bedroom overlooks the side door to the house, so I jumped out of bed and ran to the window to see what was happening. I was quite surprised to find a drunken undergraduate on my doorstep. I opened the window and had what turned out to be quite a lengthy chat with her:

Me: Hello?
Her: Hi.
Me: What are you doing here?
Her: I just need a place to crash.
Me: Who are you?
Her: (says name)
Me: Who are you looking for?
Her: You.
Me: Whose house are you looking for?
Her: Yours. I just need a place to crash for the night. I'll take off first thing in the morning.
Me: I can't let you stay here.
Her: What? Why?
Me: I don't know you.
Her: Yeah, yeah I know the people who live here.
Me: I am the people who live here.
Her: No, I know, but I totally know people.
Me: I don't know you.
Her: Just open the door. I just need to crash.
Me: Who do you think lives here?
Her: You.
Me: You need to leave.
Her: No, just let me in. I'll leave first thing in the morning.

It went on and on like this. She told me at length about where she worked, which she somehow thought was relevant. She was very annoyed with me that I wouldn't let her in, and she wouldn't leave. Finally I found the magic words:

Me: The only people that live in this house are two professors.
Her: What? Professors? OK, I've got to go.

And just like that, she wandered off into the night. It's true that we live pretty close to campus, but we have never had a student show up at our house, and certainly not in the middle of the night. Our house is not between where the students live and anything of interest, so it's rare to even see students in our part of the neighborhood. But as soon as my special gentleman left town, I had a special middle of the night visitor! Fun times.

Thankfully no one else has showed up in the wee hours. And my special gentleman will be home soon. It's a good thing too, because today I ate the last of the pizza! Luckily, I still have some Cheerios left.

Tricolor Pickled Peppers (Page 911)

2011-09-04T17:41:00.000-07:00

RECIPE #1277

Date: Saturday, July 23, 2011 -- 4pm
Location: East Lansing, MI
Kitchen: Our House
Dining Companion: Matty
Recipe Rating: B

Since I already had all my canning supplies out to make Raspberry Jam a few weeks back, I decided to go ahead and make these pickled peppers as well. I started by roasting 9 pounds of red, yellow, and orange peppers in batches under the broiler. I let them steam in a covered bowl until they were cool, and then peeled the peppers. Note: peeling 9 pounds of roasted peppers is not that fun. I then sterilized canning jars in my boiling water canner. I boiled white balsamic vinegar, water, sugar, canning salt, garlic cloves, and black peppercorns. I layered peppers in the sterilized jars, then put in garlic cloves and rosemary sprigs. I filled the jars with the vinegar mixture, then sealed and processed the jars in the boiling water canner. I let the peppers stand for a week so the flavors could develop. These pickled peppers were pretty tasty. They had the texture and background flavor of typical canned roasted peppers, but the white balsamic vinegar added a unique flavor to them. We have lots of jars of these peppers -- they will make a fun sandwich topping for months to come!

The recipe in The Book is almost the same as this one, but the one in The Book calls for half as much canning salt.

Only 16 recipes left to go!

This was the last recipe in the Relishes, Chutneys, Pickles, and Preserves section of The Book! I had never really done any canning before I started this project, so this section was a great adventure for me. It turns out I love canning! And even more than that, I love having homemade jams, pickles, preserves, etc... I will definitely continue to put my canning supplies to good use after this project is over!

In no particular order, my five favorite recipes from this section were as follows:

Concord Grape Jam -- This recipe required peeling a lot of grapes, but it was worth it. Yum! This was by far the best grape jam I have ever eaten. We flew through the jars of jam that this recipe produced, and I have been missing the grape jam ever since.
Plum Butter -- These plum preserves were silky smooth and delicious! The addition of vanilla complemented the plum flavor wonderfully. One jar of this got pushed to the back of the cupboard and I didn't discover it until a year later. What a wonderful surprise, finding a jar of delicious preserves!
Strawberry Jam -- This was the very first thing I ever canned! It was a couple years after I started this project when I finally purchased a boiling water canner, and braved this recipe. I distinctly remember making this jam in my special gentleman's Boston apartment on a warm spring day. I couldn't have been more delighted with myself when I tasted the fruits of my labor. I had learned to can!
Apple Butter -- This recipe claimed it would make four jars of apple butter, but it only made one. It was a sad, sad thing since this apple butter was very tasty! A perfect fall recipe.
Bread-and-Butter Pickles -- I hadn't really realized before starting this project how easy it is to pickle things. The Book has lots of pickled recipes though, so now pickling has become second nature. Of all the pickled items in The Book, this recipe was my favorite. These pickles came out flavorful and crunchy, with just the right amount of sweetness.

And just like that, another section is finished! It's hard for me to believe how close I am to the end: 14 sections complete, 7 sections left to finish! It's crazy!!

Raspberry Jam (Page 924)

2011-08-30T17:54:00.000-07:00

RECIPE #1276

Date: Saturday, July 23, 2011 -- 3pm
Location: East Lansing, MI
Kitchen: Our House
Dining Companions: Matty, Helen, Charles, Clara, Karen H, Dave, Georgina, PJ, and Georgia
Recipe Rating: B+

There were raspberries in abundance at the Farmer's Market in late July, so it seemed like the right time to make this recipe. I tossed a lot of raspberries with a lot of sugar and some lemon juice and let the berry mixture sit for an hour and a half. Meanwhile, I sterilized canning jars in my boiling water canner. I chilled a couple small plates in the fridge, for testing the jam. I then brought the raspberry mixture to a boil, and boiled until it was done (i.e. until a spoonful of the jam placed on a chilled plate and refrigerated for 1 minute remained in a mound when the plate was tilted). I then whisked together some pectin and sugar, and added it to the jam. I boiled it for a minute longer, then ladled the hot jam into the sterilized jars. I sealed the jars, then processed them in the boiling water canner. This jam came out very nicely. The raspberry flavor came through well, and despite all the sugar, the jam didn't taste overly sweet. The consistency of the jam was also just right. We have already been through several jars of it -- it was definitely tastier than what you can buy at the store. My one complaint about this recipe was that the jam had too many seeds in it. I would prefer that the seeds (or at least some of the seeds) had been strained out. As it was, the jam was a little too crunchy for my taste! Aside from that, it is delicious, and I am quite happy that we still have a few jars of it left!

This recipe isn't online.

Only 17 recipes left to go!

Somehow it is that time of year again: classes start tomorrow. I lecture at 9am tomorrow morning and I am prepared. My lecture is written, my syllabi are photocopied. I even went to a faculty lunch seminar this week all about the first day of class. So I am prepared. Yet I don't feel ready. It's always a stressful time, the transition from summer back into the academic year. Honestly, summer is glorious. I worked hard this summer, but I also had time to eat some leisurely dinners on the porch. I swam in lakes, and pools, and seas. I ran along the river trail and canoed down the river. I traveled in Europe and the US, seeing friends and going to conferences. I ate corn on the cob and blue raspberry snow cones. It was awesome. And although in some ways I prefer the academic year to the summer months, I am always sad to see the summer go. Summer really ended more than a week ago, when faculty meetings began. But I held onto it as tightly as I could nonetheless, choosing to view the meetings, learning assistant training, etc, as blips in my summer, rather than the start of a new year. Tonight, though, my denial has ended. Ready or not, bright and early tomorrow morning the school year will be upon me. At 9am I will have 41 Calculus 3 students in front of me. We'll talk about multivariable calculus. I will struggle to draw 3-dimensional pictures on a 2-dimensional chalkboard. It will be fun. Indeed, it is silly to mourn the passing of the summer, as I have ahead of me what is bound to be a great semester. I only have the one class, and generally speaking Calculus 3 students are a good bunch: smart, motivated, reasonably interested in math. Plus, I have never taught Calc 3 before, which will make it an interesting new adventure. The math in Calc 3 is a piece of cake, but the drawing is a real challenge. Will I make a fool of myself trying to draw hyperbolic paraboloids? Only time will tell!

I am also starting various other new career adventures this term. I am on a faculty search committee for the first time, which will involve a lot of application-reading and candidate-interviewing. I am also serving for the first time as a faculty advisor to a Women in Science student group, which I am excited about. As always I'm traveling some fun places to give talks (Brown, University of Virginia, etc...). Add to that a long list of research goals and it will no doubt be a jam-packed and challenging semester. Before I know it there will be snow on the ground and I will be grading final exams and baking Christmas cookies. That's how it goes -- the semesters fly by. I love the fast-paced rhythm of the academic year almost as much as a I love the leisurely meander of the summer. I feel almost ready to trade in the hot summer months for a cool fall breeze. But I wish I could have just one more week of summer...

Fragrant Crispy Duck (Page 394)

2011-08-22T14:45:00.000-07:00

RECIPE #1275

Date: Saturday, July 23, 2011 -- 5pm
Location: East Lansing, MI
Kitchen: Our House
Fellow Chef: Matty
Recipe Rating: A-

My special gentleman and I both love duck, so I would have made this recipe sooner, but it had a pretty intimidating look about it. The Ingredients list was short, but the Special Equipment list was long, and the recipe took up two pages. This recipe involved first marinating the duck, then steaming the duck in a wok, then blow-drying the duck with a fan, then deep-frying the duck (twice!). Madness! One Saturday in July, though, I decided it was time for a cooking extravaganza. I cooked all day, making this duck and finishing off the canning I had left to do for the project. It was fun! To make this duck I started by making the Toasted Sichuan Peppercorn Salt, which I had already made once before as a component for a different dish. Then I broke the breastbone of the duck (Truth be told, my special gentleman broke the breastbone. I tried and failed. I don't have a lot of upper body strength.). I heated the Sichuan peppercorn salt with some Chinese five spice powder. I reserved some of the spice mixture, and rubbed the rest on the inside and outside of the duck. I marinated the duck in the spice rub, refrigerated, overnight. I then put the duck in a glass pie plate and rubbed it with rice wine. I put ginger and scallions in the cavity and on the duck, then steamed the duck for 2 hours in a covered wok by putting the pie plate on a metal rack in the wok with boiling water below it. While it was steaming, I siphoned off the fat with a turkey baster every 30 minutes, and replenished the water below the rack as necessary. I then slid the duck onto a wire rack to cool, setting it in front of a fan to blow dry for two hours:

Once the duck was very dry, I brushed it with mushroom soy sauce, then dusted it with flour. I very, very carefully deep-fried it, turning once, in a wok full of oil. I increased the temperature of the oil, then deep-fried it again. I served the duck with the reserved spiced salt.

This recipe was definitely fussy, but the result may have been worth it. This duck was DELICIOUS. The meat was tender, moist, and incredibly flavorful, while the skin was crispy and seasoned perfectly. My special gentleman declared it the best duck he had ever eaten, and I couldn't really argue. It was incredibly tasty. I would have liked it even better with a sauce to accompany it, but it was pretty fantastic as it was. However, I doubt I will be making this recipe again soon -- it was a lot of hassle for a recipe which serves only a few people and is basically impossible to double (without another wok at least). But it was very, very tasty, so if you have an afternoon set aside for cooking and are looking for something to try, I would recommend this one.

The recipe is here.

Only 18 recipes left to go!

What a crazy week! We returned from Denmark a little over a week ago now. After a long 22 hours of travel to get from Aarhus, Denmark back to East Lansing, Michigan, we were pretty happy to be home. We arrived home late Saturday night, and enjoyed a couple days at home, catching up on work and sleep. On Wednesday, it was time to leave for another trip! We started by driving to Chicago to meet our adorable niece Hannah. Unfortunately we got a flat tire somewhere outside of Michigan City, Indiana, and ended up spending a decent chunk of our day at Wal-Mart getting a new one. Eventually we made it though, and Hannah is super cute! We spent the afternoon with Brad, Deniz, and Hannah, and the evening with our friends PJ and Georgia who also live in Chicago. We stayed the night in Chicago, and after a swim in Lake Michigan Thursday morning we hit the road again. Next stop: Upstate New York! We drove the 14+ hours to New York over two days, stopping for the night in the middle of a crazy storm near Ashtabula, Ohio. We arrived in Lake George, New York on Friday afternoon. The trip to Lake George was to attend our friends Mike and Tim's wedding. On Friday evening we went to a pre-wedding cocktail party before the Saturday wedding.

The wedding wasn't until Saturday evening, so on Saturday morning we went to visit our friends Paps and Katie, who happen to own a vacation home about 20 minutes from where we were staying. They just had a baby, and it was great to get a chance to meet little Peter. Later in the day we met up with Vero and Philippe (also in town for the wedding) for some lunch and shuffleboard. It was a beautiful day, and definitely one of the most vacation-like days I have had all summer. The wedding was Saturday evening. It was held right on Lake George and the setting was unbelievably beautiful. I have known Mike for almost a decade now and Tim for only slightly less. They are such a fantastic couple, and it was a great privilege to celebrate with them on their special day. The wedding was black tie, which was fun, and they served barbeque, which was delicious! There was plenty of drinking and dancing. It was a good time!

We couldn't stick around long in Lake George because I had to be back at work for a retreat on Monday. So Sunday we drove straight back home. We went through Canada on the way back, and it ended up being about a 12 hour drive. It was long, but definitely worth it for such a special weekend. Now we are home! My special gentleman announced with excitement this morning that he isn't traveling again for another two and a half weeks. Two and a half weeks at home!! He was so excited. It is exciting to be home. The semester starts soon, and I have a lot to do before I will feel ready. I should get to it! I can't believe summer is over.

Squab Salmi (Page 406)

2011-08-09T05:06:00.000-07:00

RECIPE #1274

Date: Thursday, June 30, 2011 -- 7pm
Location: East Lansing, MI
Kitchen: Our House
Dining Companion: Matty
Recipe Rating: C+

I put off making this recipe because it looked insanely fussy. Indeed, it was. I started by cutting off the necks and wing tips from four squabs. (Aside: Does that look wrong to you? The internet tells me that the plural of squab is squabs, but I always thought it was just squab. Four squabs? Four squab? I don't know.) I then cut out their backbones and cut the backbones into pieces. I cut one of the squabs up into 2-inch pieces. I put the remaining three whole squabs in the fridge, while I browned all the cut-up squab pieces and their giblets (minus the livers) in butter with some carrot, celery, and onion. I added water and boiled to form a stock. I strained the stock, then seasoned the whole squabs with salt, pepper, and thyme. I poured melted butter over them and roasted them. Meanwhile, I cooked some carrots, celery, onion, and thyme in butter. I sprinkled flour over the vegetables, then added the stock and simmered. In a different pan I cooked mushrooms in butter. I pureed the vegetable and stock mixture, then added the mushrooms. I halved the squabs and added them too. I set up a double boiler and cooked the squabs further in the sauce on the double boiler. Meanwhile, I cut some rounds from slices of brioche. I browned the livers in butter and mashed them with Cognac, butter, salt, and pepper. I toasted the brioche rounds in butter, then spread them with the liver puree. I served the toasts with the squabs and sauce.

I never appreciate when a recipe seems especially designed to use up as many dishes as possible, and this was that kind of recipe. It took a roasting pan, three pots, two skillets, four cooking bowls, two cutting boards, etc. I am more than willing to engage in that kind of culinary fussiness if the results are outstanding, but that was just not the case here. The squab meat was pretty nicely cooked but the skin wasn't crispy, due to the moist heat cooking after the roasting (Why, oh why, does The Book like to do that?). The sauce was reasonably flavorful but thin. The toast got soggy as soon as the bird went on top of it. Soggy toast is always a sad thing. Overall the dish was a lot of fuss without a lot of reward. It was ok, but certainly not something I would make again, and not even something I particularly enjoyed eating.

This recipe isn't online.

Only 19 recipes left to go!

We have two freezers at home: the one attached to our refrigerator, and a medium size standing freezer which we keep in the basement. On a typical day both of our freezers are bursting at the seams. I hate for food to go to waste, and I love the convenience of frozen food, so I freeze everything. We don't buy any frozen prepared foods, but given the variety of foods that we make, there is still a wide selection of frozen dinners at our house. Right now if you rummaged through our freezers you would find brisket a la carbonnade, beef wellington, salt cod chowder, lentil dal, miso soup, turkey chili, potato leek soup, several mystery soups (which somehow escaped my labeling system), tapioca pudding, three kinds of cake, four kinds of cookies, etc... It's a little out of control. I also stock the freezers with various cooking ingredients: chicken stock, veal stock, leftover white wine, leftover red wine, chopped onions, chopped green peppers, tomato paste, chipotle chiles in adobo, various homemade spice blends, frozen berries, frozen vegetables, homemade sauces, etc. And throughout this year when I found meat I needed for the project, I bought it and threw that in the freezers too! So up until recently I also had a turkey, tripe, a goose, and 10 squabs in my freezers. Needless to say, the freezers were getting a bit packed.

To top it all off, the top tier of our wedding cake was also in the freezer! We had planned to eat it on our one-year anniversary, but when the anniversary rolled around we were in Japan. On our two-year anniversary we were in France. So the cake remained in the freezer. One evening this summer my special gentleman commented, "I could go for some wedding cake." So we unwrapped it after 25 months of marriage, and cut ourselves some cake! It was still tasty! Now only one piece remains in the freezer, and it will surely get eaten as soon as we get back from this trip. Eating the cake inspired me to clear out the freezers a bit. So I prepared the turkey. And the tripe. This recipe took care of the last of the squab, and soon after I made this one I made the goose as well. Now, although the freezers are far from empty, there is a bit of space in them. It has inspired me! When we get home I plan to eat through some of the old frozen food, clearing out some space for a freezer reorganization. I would like to tame the freezer chaos once and for all with some sort of system. My usual system, throw things in wherever once can find space, is not ideal. Once the freezers are organized, I am going to cook, cook, cook to fill up the freezers with yummy prepared food before the chaos of the school year starts!

My non-Book cooking style often involves making things in enormous batches. I make enough chili to serve 25, for instance, then freeze it in many small containers. It makes for a very easy weeknight dinner: throw something from the freezer into the microwave or the toaster oven, make a green salad, and serve both with some homemade bread. Yum! It also makes it easy when we have house guests. I just thaw a variety of things from the freezer before their arrival and then there are plenty of options for eating! My special gentleman and I have cut way, way back on processed foods in the last year or so. Cooking in bulk and freezing the results has definitely been key in this cut back.

Thinking about the food in freezer is making me hungry. It might be about time to hunt down a snack.

Tripe Roman Style (Page 464)

2011-08-08T05:10:00.000-07:00

RECIPE #1273

Date: Saturday, June 25, 2011 -- 6pm
Location: East Lansing, MI
Kitchen: Our House
Dining Companions: Matty, Helen, Charles, Clara, Chris C., and Whitney
Recipe Rating: C+

I put off making this recipe for a long time because cow stomach just didn't sound super delicious to me. But I am nearing the end of this project, and there is no sense in putting off recipes any longer. So I invited some friends over and I made the tripe! I started by putting the tripe in cold water, bringing it to a boil, then draining and rinsing it. I put it in new cold water and brought it to a boil again. I simmered the tripe for four hours. The Book warned that the "tripe will have a pungent aroma while simmering." No kidding! Indeed the smell even drove away our kitties. Normally they love to be where the action is, but they were hiding in the basement while this was cooking. When the tripe had finished simmering it looked like this:

Mmm... delicious. I then cooked some onion, carrots, celery, and garlic, then added salt, pepper, white wine, tomato juice, chopped canned tomatoes, water, and mint. I simmered the sauce. I cut the tripe into strips and added the strips to the sauce and simmered until the tripe was tender but still slightly chewy. Then I seasoned the sauce and sprinkled the dish with some mint. I was supposed to also sprinkle with some pecorino Romano, but I forgot. Whoops!

This dish was just not that delicious. The tripe was actually inoffensive enough. After having seen it and dealt with it through the preparation I wasn't super eager to eat it, but I think if I had just been served the dish without witnessing all that I would have thought the tripe was neither here nor there. It didn't have a lot of flavor to it. I didn't love the chewy texture, but it didn't bother me too much. I was actually more disappointed with the sauce. I had hoped the tripe would be in a sauce so delicious that it would convince me to enjoy tripe. Rather, this sauce was just blah. It didn't taste bad, but it didn't have much flavor to it, and it was very thin. In the end no one hated this dish, but no one was gobbling it up either. This was not one that I will make again.

The recipe is here.

Only 20 recipes left to go!

Hello from Denmark! My special gentleman and I are back in Europe. Last weekend we flew from Detroit to Copenhagen, where the two of us parted ways and headed to two different conferences. My special gentleman made his way to Aarhus, Denmark, while I traveled to Hamburg, Germany. When I booked my train ticket to Hamburg I didn't give much thought to how the train was going to cross the Baltic Sea. Much to my surprise, my train boarded a ferry for the crossing. It was so strange -- the train just drove right on board of the ferry, we all got out of the train for the 45 minute crossing, then we piled back on and the train kept going. Crazy! It was wonderful though. I was exhausted after a super-long "day" of travel involving an overnight flight, and the sea breeze was a fantastic pick-me-up. Here's a photo from my "train" ride:

I traveled to Hamburg to attend and speak at a conference. There were 80 or so mathematicians there from around the world. My dear friend Mike was there, and he and I shared a room. We went to graduate school together and are in the same field in addition to being good friends, so we have a long history of traveling to conferences together. It is always fun to spend time with Mike! Here's a picture of Mike at dinner on one of our first nights in Hamburg. He ordered Wurstsalat (aka sausage salad):

Those things that look a bit like noodles in the picture are actually strips of sausage. It was a crazy dish, which Mike described as a deconstructed hot dog. The conference was busy, but we had a bit of time to see the sights of Hamburg. Math conferences are often Monday-Friday with a Wednesday afternoon excursion, and this was no exception. It was brought to my attention recently that many other academic fields do not have this tradition of excursions. In math we do, and more often than not, they involve a boat ride. The talks ended early on Wednesday afternoon and we all piled onto a boat for a tour of Hamburg:

Hamburg is a very pretty city. There is water everywhere, and lots of parks scattered throughout. This photo is from a very beautiful park a few blocks from our hotel:

What the picture fails to capture is that I almost fell into that little lagoon. There were some stepping stones you could walk on to cross it and somehow I tripped. I screamed and all the German onlookers gasped. It was pretty funny. Luckily I didn't end up in the water. I think Mike was disappointed!

Weeks before this trip Mike sent me an email with the one thing he really wanted to see in Hamburg: the Miniatur Wunderland. It is the world's biggest model railroad exhibition, but saying just that doesn't do it justice. There was room after room after room full of miniature version of various cities and regions of the world. There was an airport with planes that take off and land. The cars and trucks move as well as the trains, and if you stood in one place for a while you could watch miniature drama unfold: a small forest fire would start, then the police cars and fire engines would arrive. They would slowly put out the fire, and once it was extinguished the fire trucks would drive away. The place was crazy! Here is Mike in front of a miniature concert. There must have been thousands of miniature people in that one small piece of the exhibit alone, and each one with incredible detail.

Every 15 minutes or so it would become night inside the Miniatur Wunderland and the lights would go down. Here is a picture of miniature Las Vegas at night:

It was a crazy experience. If you ever find yourself in Hamburg, it is worth a stop.

Mathematically the conference was really good. It was great to hear the talks, and talk to people. Unfortunately my talk was late in the week, so I had lots of time to stress about it. It's always better to talk on the first or second day of a conference because then you can relax. I talked on Thursday. My talk went fine though and I was quite glad once it was over! I had a big beer and some yummy Vietnamese food to celebrate. The conference ended Friday and on Saturday I headed up to Denmark to meet my special gentleman. Unfortunately, the 4 and a half hour train ride to Aarhus didn't go on a ferry, but it was still very pleasant! On Saturday we took a long walk through a park. Here's my special gentleman:

We also walked along the beach, eating ice cream bars. It was great! Here we are on the beach:

Yesterday we did some work, and also walked around town. We visited the botanical garden:

My special gentleman's conference started back up today. I don't have any responsibilities this week so I am taking the opportunity to get a lot of work done. I have already made great progress on my ever-growing To-Do list and I hope to have a very productive week. On Saturday we are headed back home, where we will be for three days or so before heading off on our next trip. Summer craziness!

In totally unrelated news, I am an aunt! My special gentleman's brother Brad and his wife Deniz welcomed their daughter Hannah into the world this weekend! We are so happy for them, and super-excited to meet Hannah, so we will be heading to Chicago for a visit in the middle of next week. So exciting!!

Roast Turkey with Herbed Bread Stuffing and Giblet Gravy (Page 376)

2011-07-29T17:41:00.000-07:00

RECIPE #1272

Date: Saturday, June 25, 2011 -- 6pm
Location: East Lansing, MI
Kitchen: Our House
Fellow Chef: Matty
Dining Companions: Helen, Charles, Clara, Whitney, and Chris C.
Recipe Rating: B

This recipe called for a kosher turkey, which Helen and Charles kindly bought for me in Ann Arbor a few months back. The bird had been sitting in my basement freezer for a while, so I decided it was about time we thawed it and celebrated Thanksgiving in June! I started by seasoning the bird with salt and pepper. The recipe gives you the option of either stuffing the bird with the Herbed Bread Stuffing, or baking the stuffing separately. I chose the latter, as I am a nut about food safety. I had already made the stuffing part of this recipe once, but I went ahead and made it again so that we could have the full experience of the turkey plus stuffing.

I roasted the bird for half an hour in a hot oven, then reduced the temperature of the oven and poured some butter over the bird. I roasted it until it was done, basting every 20 minutes. While the turkey was resting I baked the stuffing. Then I made the gravy. I deglazed the roasting pan with the Turkey Giblet Stock then added defatted pan juices. I whisked some of the turkey fat with flour to form a roux, then added the stock mixture and whisked until the gravy was slightly thickened. This was a solid turkey recipe, with a tasty stuffing and gravy. Everyone enjoyed it, but I probably won't make it again. There is such potential with turkey to make the bird really flavorful, and/or the gravy really flavorful, and/or the stuffing really flavorful, and this recipe had none of that. It was classic: turkey seasoned only with salt, pepper, and butter. Gravy made from only the pan juices and turkey stock. Stuffing with only a few vegetables and herbs. I prefer turkey recipes which are a little more exciting. My old standby roast turkey involves a flavorful brine and a gingersnap gravy. Yum! Or my recent favorite, the Grilled Turkey with Cranberry Gravy is bursting with flavor. This recipe just couldn't hold a candle to either of those. That said, there was nothing wrong with it. If you are looking for a truly simple and classic turkey dinner, this is the recipe for you.

The recipe is here.

Only 21 recipes left to go!

After a few glorious weeks at home, we are hitting the road again. Tomorrow my special gentleman and I are headed back to Europe. I am speaking at a conference next week in Germany. My special gentleman is speaking the following week at a conference in Denmark. His thing in Denmark is two weeks long, starting Monday, while my conference is only a week (also starting Monday). So we are flying from Detroit to Copenhagen together, then we will get on trains headed two different directions. I will head down to Hamburg, Germany, and he will head off to Aarhus, Denmark. I will meet him in Aarhus once my conference is over, and once his conference is done we will fly back together. It should be a fun trip, although given my love of being at home, and my hatred/fear of flying, it's always hard for me to rally for such a thing.

On the upside, this trip is much less logistically complicated than the last Europe trip. There are many fewer destinations, the destinations are easier to get to, and the trip is just shorter. So in comparison, planning for this one has been a piece of cake. That said, I am still scrambling today to get the house ready for the housesitter, get my talk ready, get the things done I had hoped to finish before I left, etc.

I am also wondering where my summer has gone. We are returning from this trip in mid-August. The weekend following our return our good friends Mike and Tim are getting married, so we are headed to upstate New York for their wedding. The weekend after that my in-laws are coming to visit us in Michigan. And a few days after they leave, the semester starts again. The summer is rapidly winding down, I am sad to say. I started the summer with an ambitious list of fun things I wanted to do in the summer months, in addition to an ambitious list of work things I wanted to do. I am disappointed to say that I haven't finished either list. I have made particularly poor progress on my list of fun activities (e.g. I haven't made it to a Lansing Lugnuts baseball game, or to the zoo, or to the Sleeping Bear Dunes...). There's still some time I suppose. This evening, though, there are no fun activities in store for me (except perhaps a trip to Tasty Twist). Instead I will be packing, cleaning, and desperately attempting to get my life in order. And tomorrow, it's back to Europe!

Turkey Giblet Stock (Page 377)

2011-07-21T19:27:00.000-07:00

RECIPE #1271

Date: Saturday, June 25, 2011 -- 6pm
Location: East Lansing, MI
Kitchen: Our House
Dining Companions: Matty, Helen, Charles, Clara, Whitney, and Chris C.
Recipe Rating: B+

This was a component for a turkey dish I made a few weeks back. This recipe is for a quick stock made from the turkey neck and giblets. The turkey I had said on the package, "Some giblets may be missing." This was no joke. Indeed, nearly all of my giblets were missing. And our local butcher doesn't sell giblets without the bird this time of year. So for me this was more of a turkey neck stock than a turkey giblet stock. Oh well. I started by browning the neck and giblets, then added celery, carrot, onion, water, chicken stock, bay leaf, black peppercorn, and thyme. I simmered it for almost an hour, strained it, and skimmed off the fat. This stock was fine. It didn't have the depth of flavor that you get from a stock that simmers for hours, but it was pretty flavorful. The gravy that I made from it was tasty, although not remarkable in any way. If I need a quick poultry stock in the future, this is a decent recipe.

The recipe is here.

Only 22 recipes left!

I have been in a bit of a funk lately. There are reasons, and they are legitimate, but I don't want to go into them here, nor would I even know where to start if I did. For the most part the summer has been lovely, but there have been some bad days, and quite a few of those days were consolidated into last week. By the time the weekend rolled around I felt defeated. I had planned to work all weekend, but I couldn't find the presence of mind to do it. On Saturday, the only thing I wanted to do was cook. So I did. I made a wheat berry salad, some cookies, a batch of brownies, a couple pizzas, etc. For the first time all week I felt as though a weight had been lifted. I love to cook.

I have always, ALWAYS, been good about finding space in my life for cooking. Even before I started this project I made it a priority to spend time in the kitchen. My busiest semesters in graduate school, I still baked cakes and hosted dinner parties. It was excellent stress-relief. And up until recently this project kept me very disciplined about finding time to cook. Lately, though, I have barely been cooking. I can't explain it. I have been busy, but not remarkably so. Usually I am wonderfully excited to cook from The Book. Lately, that has not been the case. In part I think it is because I am so close to the end, and the idea of finishing this project, which has come to be a part of me, makes me sad. And I haven't decided what, if anything, I will do next. Will I take on another cooking project? Will I continue to blog? I just don't know. So I am dragging my feet on the project. And not cooking from The Book has somehow morphed into not cooking much at all. Luckily my special gentleman has been making some delicious things (mmmm... porcini risotto) to supplement my minimal cooking. But it is time for me to prioritize my kitchen time again. Tonight I made more pizza, with toppings piled high on whole wheat crust: tomato sauce, onions, garlic, green peppers, pimientos, black olives, bacon, and a variety of cheeses. This weekend I have big plans for cooking from The Book. Duck? Salmon? Scallop mousse? So hard to decide. Perhaps I will make them all!

In difficult times especially, it is important to remember to hold on to the things one loves, rather than letting them fall by the wayside. I think it is time for me to spend some time in the kitchen again.

Italian Fried Salt Cod (Page 50)

2011-07-11T19:54:00.000-07:00

RECIPE #1270

Date: Saturday, June 25, 2011 -- 6pm
Location: East Lansing, MI
Kitchen: Our House
Dining Companions: Matty, Helen, Charles, Clara, Whitney, and Chris C.
Recipe Rating: B

The last time I tried to make this recipe there was no salt cod at the store. They told me it was "out of season," which cracked me up since it is dried and salted and therefore hardly something I think of as seasonal. Nonetheless I couldn't find it. Apparently it is salt cod season now though, because a couple weeks ago I stumbled upon some and snatched it up to make this recipe. This dish was quite simple. I soaked the salt cod for two days, changing the water often. Then I cut it into strips. I dipped the strips in a mixture of flour, salt, olive oil, water, and parsley, then deep-fried them until they were golden. I sprinkled them with sea salt and served! The result was... just OK. I prefer the texture of fried fresh fish to the texture of fried salt cod. The flavor of the salt cod was nice though. The ratio of ingredients for the batter seemed a bit off. As it was the batter was extremely thick, and consequently didn't coat the fish at all evenly. In the end, fish that has been battered and fried tastes good -- so this tasted pretty good. But there are certainly better recipes out there in that genre.

The recipe is here.

Only 23 recipes left to go!

I was running with Helen last Friday and we ran along a portion of a trail I used to frequent when I was marathon training almost two years ago. It brought back memories -- mostly bad ones. Marathon training was hard, and for the most part I do not remember it fondly. But there is one aspect of the training that I do really miss. I always did my long run of the week on either Saturday or Sunday morning. My special gentleman and I would often head out at the same time. We didn't run together (he is much faster than me!) but we would run the same trails and occasionally pass one another as we made loops around. As the runs got longer the training got more miserable, and I certainly have some bad memories of 16-20 mile runs that didn't feel too good. But the hours following the runs were so wonderful! I was exhausted. After a relaxing shower I would climb in bed and eat either Taco Bell, or macaroni and cheese from a box (salty, craveable food!). Then I would fall asleep in the middle of the day while my special gentleman watched terrible zombie movies next to me in bed. I was so physically spent that I felt not-at-all bad about sleeping away the early afternoon. There was no way I could have possibly done anything productive with that time. It was luxurious and I loved it. The exhaustion following a truly difficult workout is one of my favorite feelings.

I haven't felt that way in a while. It's not that don't exercise. I do. We have a treadmill in the basement and that thing gets a lot of use. I exercise, I just don't push myself very hard. So this summer I am adopting a new strategy: exercising with friends. I have been lifting weights and biking around town with my special gentleman, running with Helen, and yesterday I played in an ultimate frisbee game with a mix of undergrads, graduate students, and faculty. It's more fun to work out with other people and I push myself harder. It's a win-win! For the first time in a long time I am starting to feel like I am in pretty good shape. And I am sore. Constantly. I like the feeling of sore muscles, because then I know that I have indeed pushed myself. My return to fitness has definitely given me back some of that post-workout exhaustion that I enjoy. And there is nothing nicer than taking a little summer cat nap after a workout with two very sweet kitty cats to keep you company:

Now that I have successfully integrated exercise into my summer life, the next challenge is figuring out how to stick with it once the academic year starts again and I am much, much busier! For now, though, I won't worry about that.

Garlic and Rosemary Jelly (Page 915)

2011-06-29T18:16:00.000-07:00

RECIPE #1269

Date: Sunday, April 24, 2011 -- 1pm
Location: East Lansing, MI
Kitchen: Our House
Dining Companions: Matty, Helen, Charles, Clara, Emilee, Brian, Sam, Georgina, Bob M, Teri, Terry, Corbett, Mary, Allison, Kendra, Jubin, Watson, and Mark W
Recipe Rating: C-

The Book suggests this jelly as an accompaniment for lamb, so when I made lamb as part of our Easter dinner, I figured I would take the opportunity to make this jelly as well. The ingredients for this jelly: 2 cups total of liquid (white wine plus white wine vinegar), 15 garlic cloves, 4 rosemary sprigs, a pouch of pectin, and 3 and a half cups of sugar. That's a lot of sugar. I started by sterilizing some jars. Then I chopped the garlic and combined all the ingredients except the pectin. I boiled the mixture, then stirred in the pectin and boiled some more. I strained the jelly to separate the rosemary and garlic from the rest. I divided the rosemary and garlic between jars, then poured in the jelly. I sealed and processed the jars in a boiling water canner. This jelly was not delicious. Generally speaking I am a huge fan of sweet and savory combinations, but in this case it just did not work for me. The jelly was extremely sweet, jet garlicky. It also had a very non-uniform consistency, with the chopped garlic sinking to the bottom. I tried the jelly on its own. I also tried it with lamb. And I concluded that I couldn't think of one possible use for it. We still have several jars of it sitting in the cupboard, but I think they are going to find their way into the trash soon. This recipe was not good.

The recipe is here.

Only 24 recipes left to go!

I don't think I have ever in my life been quite so enamored with summer as I am this year. It is 9pm on a Wednesday evening. I worked hard today, and now I am sitting at the dining room table eating a raspberry truffle chocolate bar that Georgina gave me for my birthday in April. I am drinking white wine left over from Monday evening when some of my girlfriends came over. I have squab stock simmering on the stove and Lori McKenna playing loudly in the kitchen. The little kitty is curled up on the chair next to me and the big kitty is looking out the screen door. And I feel completely relaxed. I. Love. Summer.

This past weekend I had what may have been the perfect summer weekend. On Friday evening, after I got home from work, I took a two hour bath. I lounged in the bath tub, reading magazines and luxuriating. After my bath my special gentleman and I watched a terrible movie. It was great. Saturday I spent the day cooking from The Book. I made four recipes (which at this point is a pretty decent percentage of what I have left to make!). I cooked all day in a leisurely, no-stress fashion. In the evening we had a bunch of friends over to eat the results. We sat on the porch, eating turkey and not-eating tripe. The weather was perfect. After dinner we ate the best strawberry shortcake I have ever had (made by Helen!) and played board games. It was a lovely summer day. On Sunday we spent most of the day in the yard, weeding, pruning, talking to the neighbors. In the evening we walked over to the stadium on campus to see U2 in concert. The concert was great and the atmosphere was great. I ate concession stand food and danced through the whole concert. It was awesome. I didn't work at all this weekend. And more importantly, I didn't feel guilty about it. I worked very hard all through the academic year. I worked seven days a week nearly every week. So this summer if I take some weekends off I am choosing to do so without guilt!

The fantastic thing about summer is that without teaching there is a little more time in the day. Time to cook. Time to exercise. Time to take care of administrative things. Yesterday we had someone come out to the house to give us an estimate on the cost of putting on a roof deck. This morning before work we went to the bank to start the paperwork for refinancing from a 30-year to a 15-year mortgage. I am checking things off my To-Do list that have been there for months and it feels good! We are spending nearly all of July at home in Michigan and I have high hopes for the month. I am going to plow through both my work To-Do list and my non-work To-Do list. I am going to cook from The Book like a crazy person. I am going to exercise every day. And most importantly, in the evening if I feel like sitting around, sipping white wine and eating chocolate, that is what I am going to do. I love summer!

Classic Foie Gras Terrine (Page 24)

2011-06-24T18:55:00.000-07:00

RECIPE #1268

Date: Sunday, April 24, 2011 -- 1pm
Location: East Lansing, MI
Kitchen: Our House
Dining Companions: Matty, Emilee, Brian, Sam, Terry, Teri, Helen, Charles, Clara, Kendra, Jubin, Watson, Mary, Corbett, Allison, and Mark W
Recipe Rating: B

I considered saving this recipe to make as the very final recipe of my project since it is so very, very indulgent. But when Easter rolled around this year and we were not only celebrating Easter, my birthday, and my baptism, but Em and Brian were also in town to celebrate with us, it seemed like the appropriate occasion for a terrine of foie gras! I started by deveining the foie gras, which I did with the assistance of a youtube video, as I had never done it before, nor even seen it done. I wouldn't call myself a deveining expert now, but it went pretty well. I sprinkled the lobes of duck liver with salt and white pepper. I put some Armagnac in the bottom of a small terrine, then put the larger lobe of foie gras in. I sprinkled with some more Armagnac, then put the smaller lobe in. I sprinkled with more Armagnac, covered the surface of the terrine with plastic wrap, then put the lid on the terrine. I put the terrine on a towel in a roasting pan, then filled the roasting pan with hot water to reach halfway up the sides of the terrine. I baked the terrine (Plastic wrap and all! Definitely my first time putting plastic wrap in the oven.) in a very low oven: 120 degrees. When the terrine was done baking I took it out and weighted it. After a while I removed the weight and refrigerated the terrine for a day. To serve, I unmolded the terrine and served it with toasted slices of baguette.

As you can see above, this terrine looked very scary. That large yellow layer was just pure fat. The yellow fat layer is typical for foie gras terrines, but my fat layer seemed thicker than most. We all eyed this dish quite suspiciously. Truth be told, though, it tasted really good. That yellow fat layer was quite scrumptious, and although I am typically not really a liver person, I very much enjoyed this liver. Most people who dared to taste it seemed to like it, but I think its appearance drove a few people away from it! Plus, we had so many other food options that weren't so scary looking. I didn't want to fill up on the foie gras when I had a plate of other food waiting for me that looked like this:

Indeed it was quite a spread. Here's one table of food:

And another:

And a table just for the asparagus, which wouldn't fit anywhere else. (Note: if you think those potholders are cute that the asparagus is sitting on, you should visit my friend Mel's online store. She makes incredibly beautiful kitchen things.)

It was a big and tasty meal, and I am glad that this was the occasion for which I made the foie gras terrine. It did seem appropriately celebratory!

The recipe is here.

Only 25 recipes left to go!

This week was our Boot Camp summer retreat. It sounds military, or athletic, but this was a different kind of boot camp: Writing Boot Camp. I'm not sure where this idea came from, but in our group I think it was a colleague named Cheryl who started it. Our Boot Camp group typically meets on Fridays throughout the school year. On a typical Friday anywhere from 4-10 people might show up. We meet in a conference room somewhere on campus, and at the beginning of the day (typically around 8:45am) everyone announces what they hope to accomplish that day. There are several different departments represented in the group: Fisheries and Wildlife, History, Mathematics, etc, so people tend to be working on many different things (e.g. writing grants, writing books, writing papers, writing referee reports, writing talks, writing book reviews, writing manuscript reviews... there is a theme: writing!). Everyone in the group is both a researcher and a teacher, but Boot Camp is a time when we DO NOT work on teaching-related activities. We don't prep lectures, or grade. We work on research.

One of the lovely things about life in academia is its lack of structure. It is very freeing. On the other hand, especially during the semester, it can be difficult to get the research writing done that you would like to, simply because it is hard to carve out the time. Boot Camp, unlike most of academic life, is very structured. We work on a schedule. A typical Boot Camp day is something like:

8:45 - 9: Settle in, chat, eat snacks
9 - 10:45: Work cycle
10:45 - 11: Break -- read email, eat snacks, chat
11 - 12:30: Work cycle
12:30 - 1:15: Lunch
1:15 - 2:45: Work cycle
2:45 - 3: Break - read email, eat snacks, chat
3 - 4:30: Work cycle
4:30 - 5:30: Some continue working, while others leave.

If you have to leave to teach, you leave to teach. But otherwise, you follow the schedule. The work cycles are very focused and very quiet. We don't chat. We don't write social emails or play around on Facebook. We sit and we write. If you have to pee you are allowed to go pee. Maybe it sounds silly, and for those who are outside academia it might sound completely ridiculous. But it is amazing. It is a great work environment. When you reach that point in the day when normally you might say to yourself, "I have done enough of this difficult writing today, I am going to work on ______ instead," you look around the room and see everyone else working hard: Helen working on her book, Georgina writing a grant, Kendra analyzing data for a paper, Mark revising a paper, Cheryl writing a review, Matt writing a paper, etc, and you feel motivated to keep working on whatever mentally challenging work you were doing.

This week was our Boot Camp retreat. We had Boot Camp every day Monday through Friday from 9-5. Not every single person was there all day every day, but there was a nice size crowd the whole week. It was intense. We spent the week locked in a conference room, writing. It was productive for me and I think for many other people as well. And although this week was the official retreat, our Boot Camp is continuing throughout the summer. We have a sign-up sheet, and it seems that at least a couple people will be in that conference room each day throughout the next two months. I am sure I will be spending many days in there myself. It's a particularly great place to go on days when you are feeling unmotivated. There is nothing like a room full of hard-working assistant professors to inspire you to work! In fact, I think I am headed back to Boot Camp on Monday!

Blini with Three Caviars (Page 39)

2011-06-14T18:50:00.000-07:00

RECIPE #1267

Date: Sunday, April 24, 2011 -- 1pm
Location: East Lansing, MI
Kitchen: Our House
Fellow Chef: Emilee
Dining Companions: Brian, Sam, Matty, Teri, Terry, Helen, Charles, Clara, Georgina, Bob M, Kendra, Jubin, Watson, Mary, Corbett, Allison, and Mark W
Recipe Rating: B-

I hadn't made this recipe yet because it calls for three kinds of caviar (which is a little extreme, no?), but we had a big party on Easter/my birthday, and it seemed like just the occasion for such extravagance! To make the buckwheat pancakes, I proofed some yeast, then added buckwheat flour, sugar, heated milk, and butter. I let the mixture rise overnight in the fridge. (Note: The Book gives the option of letting it rise on the counter for 2 hours or overnight in the fridge. For logistical reasons I chose the latter. The Book also notes that the overnight option will produce tangier batter, and I can confirm that the pancakes were extremely tangy. If I were to make them again, I would let the batter rise on the counter instead -- my pancakes had too much tang!) I then added more warm milk, flour, salt, and egg yolk to the batter. I let it rise for an hour. I beat heavy cream until soft peaks formed, then folded the whipped cream into the batter. I beat egg whites to stiff peaks and folded them in as well. I cooked the blinis in a heavy skillet brushed with melted butter. Emilee helped me top them with sour cream and three different types of caviar (golden caviar, black caviar, and salmon roe). We had several vegetarians and people with fish allergies in attendance, so we also topped some of them with sour cream and chopped black olives. These blinis were met with mixed reviews. I thought the pancakes alone didn't have a very good flavor (too tangy/yeasty, as previously mentioned, and they tasted a bit like dirt), but when topped with the sour cream and caviar (or olives) the flavors balanced well and I kind of liked them. Emilee, on the other hand, almost puked on our family room floor after tasting one of these. To be fair, she is pregnant, so perhaps her stomach is a little off, but she maintains that it wasn't pregnancy related. She says the blini was just so disgusting that it was a struggle to keep it down. So, they weren't an overwhelming hit. Indeed, although some of them did get eaten, many of them remained untouched. I doubt I will be making this recipe again.

The recipe in the book calls for twice as much yeast (in proportion to other ingredients) as the recipe online, which is here.

Only 26 recipes left to go!

I am home, and so very, very happy to be home! Our trip was really wonderful, but five weeks was a long time to be gone, and by the end I was definitely feeling ready to go home. Plus, summer in Michigan is spectacularly beautiful. I can't get over how lush, and green, and gorgeous everything is right now. And the weather the last few days has been spectacular. I have lived in California, Boston, South Carolina, Southern Indiana, Wisconsin, and Michigan, and I can honestly say that I think summer in the upper Midwest is the nicest summer in the country. Yes, we suffer in the winter, but the summer is so fantastic! While walking to work yesterday I was just overcome with joy. I love summer. During the semester I always feel behind. I work long hours and never feel caught up. This school year was insanely busy and as soon as the school year ended we left for our trip. And the trip was fabulous, but it was logistically complicated and involved a lot of work obligations. I wouldn't call it a vacation. But now, back at home, I feel as though I can exhale. I am still working hard, but I also have time. I have time to work out. Time to cook. Time to sit around with my kitties. Time to see friends. Today was my friend Helen's birthday, and we went together to get facials to celebrate. I have time for a facial! And it feels amazing. For the first time in a long time, I feel genuinely relaxed. I love summer. And the fantastic thing about our schedule this summer is that we consolidated a lot of the travel. So we were gone for a long time, but now I don't have to get on another airplane for seven weeks! I can't even put into words how delighted I am about seven weeks of Michigan summer, in the comfort of my own home. I can't remember the last time I felt as happy as I do today. Ah, Michigan summer.

Fried Perch Fillets with Fresh Cucumber Relish (Page 297)

2011-06-09T21:03:00.000-07:00

RECIPE #1266

Date: Saturday, April 16, 2011 -- 6pm
Location: East Lansing, MI
Kitchen: Our House
Fellow Chef: Matty
Recipe Rating: A

I hadn't made this recipe yet, although it sounded delicious, because I hadn't seen lake perch at the store. So when I spotted some a few weeks back I was very excited, and I took the opportunity to make this dish. My special gentleman prepared the relish by whisking together lemon juice and vinegar, then adding olive oil, cucumber, red bell pepper, red onion, celery, and salt. Meanwhile, I skinned the fillets, then dipped them in a mixture of egg and milk followed by a dip in a mixture of fresh bread crumbs, flour, Parmesan cheese, dill, thyme, salt, and pepper. I then dipped each fillet in the egg mixture again, followed by the crumb mixture for a second time. Then I deep fried the breaded fish until the breading was golden brown. In a word: Yum! Oh my gosh was this dish good! I don't typically get too excited about fish, but this fried fish was delicious. The double dipping gave the fish a hearty layer of breading, which was flavorful and crispy. The cucumber relish was delicious, and the fresh, acidic flavors of the relish offset the heaviness of the fried fish very nicely. The dish was simple to prepare, and extremely tasty. This will definitely be my go-to recipe for fried fish in the future.

This recipe isn't online.

Only 27 recipes left to go!

Hello from California! After four weeks in Europe, last Friday I headed back to the States. My 11-hour flight from Paris to San Francisco was long, but otherwise uneventful. I spent last weekend hanging out with my dear friends Emilee, Brian, and Sam. On Monday my mini-workshop started. There is a math institute in Palo Alto which funds collaborative research. So they paid for me and three of my collaborators from around the country to fly out here for a week and work together on some projects. They provide lodging, workspace, and never-ending snacks and wine -- it's a very nice arrangement! It is an intense experience, but also quite fun as the three guys I am here working with (Mike, V, and Andrew) are also friends of mine. We have had a productive and exhausting week.

It's always strange coming back to the Bay Area. I went to college at Stanford, and the place where I am staying now is just a couple miles down the street from the campus where I lived for four years. So I do feel a bit nostalgic. I have been realizing though that many of the memories that I have of this place are from my post-college experiences here. I graduated 9 years ago, and in the time since I moved away I have made at least 20 trips back to the Bay Area, including some that lasted for more than a month. I have lots of mathematical reasons to visit here, and also personal reasons, so I come back often. I went for a long walk tonight. I wandered around for a couple hours, thinking about all the experiences I have had here, the people I have spent time with, the things I have learned... I thought about college, and also my visits since then. There are several areas of the country that hold special places in my heart: Madison, Boston, Bloomington, East Lansing... but the Bay Area remains especially dear to me. So I am happy to be here. At the same time, I am also anxious to go home. Our mini-workshop ends tomorrow, and on Saturday I am headed back to Michigan! After more than a month on the road, including travel to five different countries, nothing sounds nicer to me than going home. I can't wait to see the kitties, sleep in my own bed, eat homemade food, see my friends... It sounds insanely wonderful. Even better: I am not making another long trip until August! Once I get home on Saturday, I don't have to get on an airplane again for seven weeks! In August I am headed to Europe again, for a week in Germany. But between now and then my plan is to enjoy a beautiful Michigan summer at home. I can't wait!

Hamburgers (Page 447)

2011-05-30T06:36:00.000-07:00

RECIPE #1265

Date: Saturday, April 9, 2011 -- 6pm
Location: East Lansing, MI
Kitchen: Our House
Fellow Chef: Matty
Dining Companions: Helen, Charles, Clara, Chris C., Whitney, and Tom
Recipe Rating: B+

I would have made this recipe long ago since hamburgers are super delicious, but the recipe calls for a meat grinder, which I didn't own. As it turns out, the meat grinder attachment for my KitchenAid wasn't nearly as expensive as I thought it would be, so I bought myself one and made this recipe! I started by salting some boneless chuck steak and refrigerating it for 24 hours. I then rinsed the steak, cubed it, and put it through the meat grinder. Once it was all ground up, the beef looked like this:

It's very exciting to now have the equipment to transform steak into ground beef at home! I formed the beef into patties, seasoned them with salt and pepper, and my special gentleman grilled them. The result: delicious! I was skeptical about whether or not grinding your own meat would really make any difference, but indeed I would say that these burgers were juicier and more flavorful than what you end up with when you buy ground beef at the store. I would have given them a higher grade, but there was one little problem: my home-ground meat did not hold together as well as typical ground beef does, so it was hard to turn the burgers on the grill without them breaking apart. My special gentleman did the grilling and he got a little frustrated with them. We pieced together the broken ones though and they were still delicious. We set up a selection of burger toppings so everyone could customize their burger. I had pepper jack, caramelized onions, bacon, avocado, and barbecue sauce on my burger. It was good!

This recipe isn't online.

Only 28 recipes left to go!

Our European adventure continues to be absolutely lovely. The week-end before last we spent in Strasbourg, France. All of the other destinations on this trip were chosen for mathematical reasons -- destinations where conferences are taking place, or a collaborator lives. Strasbourg, however, we chose just for fun. We had a weekend between conferences -- the one in the Black Forest in Germany, and another one in Switzerland -- and we chose to spend the weekend in Strasbourg. The city was fantastically beautiful, and we had a wonderful time there. We wandered through the city, both by foot and by boat, and took in beautiful buildings such as this enormous cathedral:

We also did a lot of eating! One of the culinary stars of our trip so far has been the sandwich. It's hard to really explain why sandwiches are so much better in France than they are in the United States. I suppose the answer is simple enough: the bread in France is better. But I think there is more to it than that. In any event, we have eaten a lot of sandwiches -- many of them while sitting on the edge of a fountain, watching people wander by:

While we were in Strasbourg my special gentleman made it his personal mission to eat as many croissants as he could in two days. I have never met anyone who loves croissants as much as he does. They were especially good at our hotel. In the photo below, my special gentleman is enjoying his fourth croissant during one meal! (He also had eggs, bacon, yogurt, pastries, bread, prosciutto, and a variety of cheeses during that breakfast -- we aren't exactly dieting on this trip!).

After an awesome weekend in Strasbourg we headed back to Switzerland. During our first stint in Switzerland, at the beginning of the trip, we were in the French-speaking part of the country. This time we headed to a small town in German-speaking Swtizerland. My special gentleman had a conference there, at a resort hotel on a lake. Here's the view from just outside the building we stayed in. In the other direction the view was of the alps. It was pretty spectacular.

My special gentleman's conference lasted all week, but I only stayed there for a couple days. On Tuesday I headed to England! My good friend Chris, who I am working on a research project with, lives in Oxford. So I flew up there for 5 days to work and hang out with him. I had never been to Oxford before, and it is a beautiful city, with lots of views like this one:

A friend from high school, Anna, also lives in Oxford. She and I spent an afternoon together and she gave me a great tour of the city. We walked up to the top of a tower for some spectacular views. Here's Anna, looking out over Oxford:

As we were walking around, Anna and I also caught a brief glimpse of Michelle Obama, who happened to be in Oxford that day. That was pretty exciting!

My time in England was both fun and productive. I had a nice time hanging out with Chris and we got some work done, which is always a good thing! On Saturday I flew back to Switzerland, where my special gentleman and a different friend also named Chris picked me up at the airport. The three of us drove from Basel, Switzerland to Nantes, France, with an overnight stop in Dijon. It was about an 8-9 hour drive in total, and it was a very enjoyable European road trip experience. Chris had brought along a choose-your-own-adventure book where one attempts to survive a zombie apocalypse. He read it aloud in the car and we made choices together as a group. Our first 3 or 4 attempts ended in horrible, gruesome deaths, but eventually we managed to survive! I would recommend it for a long drive!

We arrived in Nantes yesterday afternoon. Last night my special gentleman and I went to a movie. We hadn't gone out to a movie since January (it was a busy semester!) so it felt like a great luxury. This week my special gentleman has a conference and I have no obligations! I have lots of work I need to do, but I don't have any conference activities or collaborators here in Nantes, so his week will be a little more relaxing for me. And at the end of the week I am headed back to the States. I'm not on my way home just yet though -- I am going to a workshop in California first. My special gentleman will stay in France for another week at his conference. It's hard to believe we have already been in Europe for three weeks. Time flies I guess!

Speaking of time flying, today is me and my special gentleman's two year wedding anniversary! I feel blessed every day by a fantastic marriage, and this trip has only made me appreciate my special gentleman even more. I am not a traveler by nature -- I like being at home! But travel is very fun with my special gentleman. On our one-year wedding anniversary we were in the mountains in Japan. For our two-year anniversary we are in the Loire Valley in France. I am beginning to wonder if we will ever be home on our anniversary to eat the top tier of our wedding cake, which is still in our freezer! It might be a little freezer burnt by the time we get to it. It's a small price to pay for some lovely travel adventures!

Shellfish Watermelon Ceviche (Page 154)

2011-05-27T02:33:00.000-07:00

RECIPE #1264

Date: Saturday, April 9, 2011 -- 6pm
Location: East Lansing, MI
Kitchen: Our House
Fellow Chef: Tom
Dining Companions: Matty, Helen, Charles, Clara, Chris C., and Whitney
Recipe Rating: B-

This was the last recipe I had left to make from the Salads section of The Book! We had this at a a dinner party when my special gentleman's friend Tom was staying with us, and in fact, Tom helped to prepare this dish (the best kind of houseguest -- one who helps in the kitchen!). I started by boiling a live lobster, then removing the meat and cutting it into pieces. I then cut some shrimp and scallops into pieces. I cooked the scallop pieces and then the shrimp pieces in simmering water. Tom combined chopped orange segments, fresh orange juice, fresh lime juice, diced watermelon, grated ginger, diced red onion, chopped jalapeno, and salt. We then added the seafood and some chopped mint and refrigerated it for an hour. This ceviche was OK. Given the title I was expecting a bit more watermelon, and I think the dish would have been better had there been more watermelon in it. The combination of flavors was pretty good though. Nobody had anything particularly negative to say about this dish, but nobody was very taken with it either. This recipe didn't make a very large quantity of ceviche, but at the end of the meal at least half of it was left. Compared to the other things we had to eat that night (e.g. hamburgers!) this just wasn't very compelling.

The recipe is here.

Only 29 recipes left to go!

This was the last recipe left in the Salads section of The Book! That means that it is time to revisit the section and pick my all-star team. In no particular order, my favorite five recipes from the section:

Fava Bean, Asparagus, and Arugula Salad with Shaved Pecorino -- This was a very fussy dish that was absolutely delicious. In the years when my special gentleman worked in Boston and I worked in Indiana I would live with him in Boston during the summer. I have lovely memories of those summers in Boston at his apartment. We would work during the day, run in the evening, and eat late dinners of delicious food from The Book. This was one of the dishes we ate during that time.
Frisee Salad with Lardons and Poached Eggs -- My special gentleman and I were both a little skeptical of this dish. I am not generally a fan of frisee and he doesn't like runny egg yolks. But somehow, with the addition of some bacon and a vinegary dressing, the combination was magical and we both loved it!
Sushi-Roll Rice Salad -- I made this dish last year in Berkeley as part of a birthday dinner for Chris. In retrospect, I have no idea why I didn't make it sooner. This dish is SO DELICIOUS. My special gentleman and I added this dish to our rotation, and this past semester we made this dish almost every week. It is simple, delicious, and easy to modify depending on the contents of one's refrigerator. Also, it is the kind of food that you feel good after eating. Yum!
Green Apple Salad with Grilled Beef -- My friend Alex and I made this dish not long after I started this crazy project. Alex had a roof deck attached to his apartment in Boston, and he had a grill on the deck! This was a rare thing in Boston, so whenever we cooked together at his place we would pick something grilled from The Book. This dish was refreshing, light, and delicious! In fact, I think I will make it again when I get back to the States after my travels. It is perfect summer food!
Taco Salad with Salsa Vinaigrette -- In retrospect I have no idea why I gave this recipe a B+. It deserves a better grade. I made this towards the beginning of the project, so perhaps I didn't have the perspective on grading that I do now. I think perhaps it got a lower grade because it wasn't particularly fancy, or impressive in appearance. But it was delicious, and of course that is what should count! Paul and I both enjoyed this dish and I have made it several times since we first made it back in 2006.

I am of glad to be making progress, but this is a section that I am sad to see go. I love salad of all sorts, and this section really was a joy to cook through. There were very few truly bad recipes (the Parsley, Fennel, and Celery Root Salad comes to mind, as does the Coleslaw with Hot Caraway Vinaigrette... weird coincidence that I made both of those terrible salads at Emilee and Brian's place. They sometimes complain that I save the worst recipes for them. Perhaps it is true!) Most of the recipes in this section were very tasty though.

This makes 13 sections completed and only 8 left to finish! Almost there!!

Smoked Salmon Mousse with Salmon Roe and Crudites (Page 19)

2011-05-23T08:07:00.000-07:00

RECIPE #1263

Date: Saturday, April 9th, 2011 -- 6pm
Location: East Lansing, MI
Kitchen: Our House
Dining Companions: Matty, Tom, Helen, Charles, Clara, Chris C., and Whitney
Recipe Rating: C+

I put off making this recipe for a long time because, well, pureed canned salmon set with gelatin just didn't sound good. But now that I am nearing the end of this project it is time to make even the less appetizing dishes! We had a little dinner party last month when my special gentleman's friend Tom was visiting. I made this dish for the party. I started by oiling a charlotte mold and lining the bottom with waxed paper. I then oiled the bottom again and decoratively arranged some cilantro leaves. I combined water, lemon juice, and gelatin, then added some boiling water. In a food processor I ground together smoked salmon, canned salmon, sour cream, and Tabasco. I added the gelatin mixture and some scallions, salt, and pepper. I beat some heavy cream in a mixer then added it to the salmon mixture. I poured the mousse into a mold and refrigerated. To serve, I inverted it onto a platter and spooned salmon roe around it. I served it with sliced cucumbers. To be fair, this wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. It also wasn't good though. I had never in my life cooked with salmon from a can before. I don't know why canned tuna seems perfectly reasonable to me and canned salmon seems absurd, but it does. This dish tasted much like you would expect pureed preserved salmon mixed with whipped cream and set with gelatin to taste. The one thing that did surprise me about it was that the salmon flavor was quite mild. I think I would have liked the dish better if it had a stronger flavor. For instance, more smoked salmon and less canned salmon would have made the dish more to my liking. I also would add less heavy cream were I to make this again. As it was there was a ton of cream and a very mild salmon flavor, and I didn't love it. The salmon eggs did add bursts of salty flavor, which was nice. I can imagine a version of this dish that would be pretty tasty (or as tasty as a fish mousse is ever really going to get), but as written I wasn't loving this recipe.

The recipe is here.

Only 30 recipes left to go!

I was at a conference last week at a math institute in the Black Forest in Germany. At this particular institute, conferences are fairly small, and invitation-only. It is a fantastic place. The setting is beautiful and the food and lodging are completely paid for by the institute, which is amazing. This was my fourth trip there and I look forward to traveling there again in the future. The conference that I was a part of last week had 25-30 participants. Throughout the week people kept saying to me, "You are the only woman here," as though somehow that fact had escaped me. For reasons that aren't entirely clear to me, different fields of mathematics have different proportions of women. Women are certainly the minority in every mathematical field, but some fields are worse than others. I think of myself as an algebraic topologist and an algebraic K-theorist. Algebraic topology is a field with few women. In writing a proposal recently I needed to list all female algebraic topologists in the United States who are on the tenure-track at a research university. After much brainstorming, I couldn't even come up with five, including myself. There are another handful that already have tenure, but that's it for senior women in my field in the Unites States. Algebraic K-theory is even worse. There are very few female K-theorists around the world. The conference I went to last week was a K-theory conference.

So it was not the fault of the organizers that I was the only woman. Indeed, one other woman had agreed to come and didn't show up. And at this point in my career I am quite accustomed to being the only woman, or one of a few women, in a large group of men, so it didn't particularly bother me. It did get me thinking, though, about why it is that there are so few women in math that being the only woman in a group of 25 mathematicians seems normal to me. This is, obviously, a very complicated question, and one that I have many thoughts about, and few concrete answers. The numbers get worse at every career stage. The percentage of math graduate students that are female is higher than the percentage of math post-docs that are female, which is again higher than the percentage of tenure-track professors that are female. And the percentage of tenured math faculty that are female is lowest of all.

At every stage, a lot of women leave. In algebraic topology at least three very talented women have left academic math in the last year. These are women with PhDs from places like Stanford or MIT. There are people of both genders who leave math every year -- many of them forced out because they can't get a job. But that was not the case with these three. They chose to leave. And while I would like to say that I can't understand why they left, I do understand it. In a lot of ways being an academic is a fantastic life. But it also has some significant downsides. It seems that many people who leave are happier for it. It makes me sad though -- not because I think they made the wrong choice, or they should have done something differently -- I definitely don't think that. It just makes me sad because I miss them.

I hope that during my career I will see more women in my field. Honestly, though, I don't know if it will happen or not...

Salt Cod Fritters (Page 49)

2011-05-18T09:20:00.000-07:00

RECIPE #1262

Date: Thursday, March 3, 2011 -- 7pm
Location: East Lansing, MI
Kitchen: Our House
Dining Companions: Matty, Adam, Chris C., Tom J., Ron, and a bunch of other mathematicians...
Recipe Rating: B

My special gentleman's friend and collaborator Adam stayed at our house for a couple weeks this winter. Normally when visitors come I try to make a nice meal from The Book. Adam has some dietary restrictions though that made that difficult. So instead we had an appetizers and desserts reception for him at our house, with a bunch of topologists/geometers from our department. I made a bunch of food (mostly not from The Book), but also this recipe from The Book, which Adam could eat. I started by soaking salt cod for 2 days, changing the water occasionally. I ground the cod in a food processor, then added flour, milk, egg, baking powder, allspice, and garlic, and blended it some more. I stirred in some green chiles, scallions, and cilantro, then deep fried the mixture by the spoonful. These little fritters had the potential to be amazing, but as it turned out they were just OK. Strangely, the problem was that the cod mixture desperately needed more salt. Salt cod is extremely salty, but the point of soaking it (and changing the water) is to draw out much of that salt. I soaked it as directed, but apparently it was too long. My Portuguese friend Ana told me afterward that salt cod in the US is not nearly as salty as the salt cod in Portugal, and that often if you soak it for the recommended time it ends up bland. Live and learn! So, the fritters were pretty bland, but what little flavor they had was appealing. I think that if the batter had been properly seasoned this recipe would have been a winner!

This recipe isn't online.

Only 31 recipe left to go!

Hello from Germany! We are having a wonderful time in Europe so far. Our first destination was Lausanne, Switzerland, where I attended a conference in my field. It had been years since I attended a conference where I was neither giving a talk, nor organizing the conference. It was gloriously relaxing to just be a conference participant again! Neither me nor my special gentleman had ever spent any significant time in Switzerland before, and we discovered that the country definitely lives up to its reputation for being gorgeous. Lausanne is a beautiful city. Here is one view:

One of the mathematicians in my field, Christian, is from that area originally and he was kind enough to give me and my special gentleman a tour of the city. Here is my special gentleman with Christian, enjoying the view:

Our friend (and my former post-doc advisor) Mike was also at the conference. Here's a picture of Mike and my special gentleman wandering back through the city after dinner one evening:

I didn't get as much time to see Lausanne as I would have liked. The conference schedule was busy and I was pretty jet-lagged. My special gentleman had a great time wandering around though, and he declared Lausanne possibly the nicest city he has ever been to (and he has been a lot of places!). I tried to take a picture of the two of us together, walking near Lake Geneva, but it didn't quite come out right...

On Sunday we drove from Switzerland to Germany. (Note: When I say that "we" drove, I really mean that my special gentleman drove, seeing as how I still haven't learned to drive our stick shift rental car.) We are at a conference center in the Black Forest now, where I am attending a workshop in my field. I gave a talk on Monday, which was a little stressful. I am the only woman at the conference, and one of only a handful of people under the age of 35. The audience contained quite a few very famous mathematicians, some of whom basically invented the field I do research in. Not exactly an easy audience to lecture in front of for an hour. My talk went fine though, and the nice thing about talking on the first day is that it makes the rest of the week a lot less stressful. Here is a picture of where we are staying. Those buildings are the conference center, where we eat, work, attend talks, and sleep.
This is my fourth trip to this particular conference center, and it never ceases to amaze me how beautiful it is. Here is my special gentleman on one of the trails leading into the forest:

In addition to the natural beauty of the surroundings, I have also been very much enjoying the mathematics this week. This workshop has been particularly interesting/inspiring. It ends on Friday and over the weekend we are headed back to Switzerland, this time for a conference in my special gentleman's field. I will only spend a few days there with him before flying to England to visit my friend Chris. Fun times!

Caribbean Spicy Dipping Sauce (Page 49)

2011-05-13T14:20:00.000-07:00

RECIPE #1261

Date: Thursday, March 3, 2011 -- 7pm
Location: East Lansing, MI
Kitchen: Our House
Dining Companions: Matty, Adam, Chris C., Tom J., Ron, and a bunch of other mathematicians...
Recipe Rating: B

This was, I think, the last very quick recipe that I had left in The Book. It was the dipping sauce for some hors d'oeuvres I made a couple months back. I stirred together minced onion, minced scallions, minced red bell pepper, minced garlic, minced habanero, salt, and dried thyme. I added some boiling water and white wine vinegar to the vegetables, then I let the mixture cool. Then I added lime juice, vegetable oil, and cilantro. That was it! This dipping sauce went with some fish fritters (which I will blog about next). The sauce was a perfectly fine accompaniment for the fritters. The one odd thing about it was that there was too much liquid for it to be like a salsa, yet too many chopped vegetables for it to really seem like a sauce. If you just dipped your fritter in the sauce the minced veggies didn't stick to it. And if you spooned the sauce over your fritter it mostly just ran onto the plate, as it was very thin. It was difficult to get any delicious minced bits on the fritter. The flavor was fine though. I didn't dislike the sauce but I also wasn't tremendously wowed by it.

This recipe isn't online.

Only 32 recipes left to go!

My apologies for the insanely long blog silence. Life has been crazy busy lately, and I have done little except work and sleep. Last week was finals week, which meant I had to write, administer, and grade two final exams. Foolishly, I also agreed to give two talks during the week. So after a weekend of doing nothing but writing exams and talks, I gave a calculus exam Monday afternoon, then immediately drove to Chicago to give a talk at the University of Chicago on Tuesday. I stayed in Chicago on Wednesday to work with one of my collaborators, V. I drove home Wednesday night so I could get up early Thursday morning, hold office hours, and then give a final exam (add in there a grant meeting and a disciplinary group meeting and it was a busy day!). Thursday evening I worked on preparing the second talk of the week, on a very different topic, for a very different audience. My Chicago talk was on some recent research results of mine, and was aimed at specialists in Algebraic Topology. The Saturday talk on the other hand was more of a fun, popular math talk. It was very introductory, given at a meeting of mathematicians from throughout the state of Michigan, including some undergraduate math majors. The conference that it was a part of took place in Kalamazoo, about an hour and a half from where we live. Friday I spent the day at the conference in Kalamazoo, and the evening working on my talk for Saturday. Saturday was another crazy day. I went to Kalamazoo to give my talk then rushed back to East Lansing in order to attend the university graduation. It was my first time on the faculty side of a graduation ceremony, and my first time wearing my official MIT doctoral regalia (which I didn't buy back when I got my PhD, but rather acquired recently). After the ceremony I went to a reception for the graduates followed by a retirement dinner for one of my colleagues. Busy! Sunday I frantically graded the final exams I had given during the week, and calculated course grades. My special gentleman and I also ran around like crazy people trying to prepare ourselves for a long time away from home. Monday I packed and tied up loose ends during the day and in the evening, we left for Europe. Phew! It makes me tired again just thinking about it.

We are away for five weeks now. It is a long time to be gone. We have someone living in our house to take care of our kitties though, so they won't be lonely! Monday/Tuesday we flew to Paris, then drove to Lausanne, Switzerland. We decided to rent a car for our time in Europe, as we have to go to many different places, and several of them are a bit remote. The downside is that one of the items we didn't get to on the to-do list before we left was for me to learn to drive with manual transmission. So I actually don't know how to drive our rental car. That meant that after coming off an 8-hour overnight flight, Matt had to drive the 6 hours between Paris and Lausanne without anyone to switch off with him. He managed amazingly well. This week I am attending a conference in Lausanne. Next week I am attending one in the Black Forest in Germany. The following week we are headed back to Switzerland where my special gentleman will attend a conference in his field. I will only spend a few days at his conference, then fly to England to visit Chris, a good friend who I am also working on a research project with. The following week my special gentleman and I are headed to Nantes, France, where my special gentleman will be attending a workshop. Then I am flying from Paris to San Francisco to spend a week out in Palo Alto working with some of my collaborators. Then I will return home! My special gentleman has a few extra stops on his trip (Italy, and Stony Brook, New York, for instance). It is a crazy agenda!

I am quite backlogged in my blogging, so I will continue to update throughout my time in Europe. My jet-lag is wearing off, and I think I will have a bit of relaxation time between conferences, so hopefully I will have time to post! I have to admit, I wasn't too excited about the idea of being away from home for so long, especially when I was already so tired from the end of the semester. But now that we are here, it's awesome (as one might expect). Yummy food, beautiful scenery, friends/colleagues from around the world who I don't often get to see... I can't complain! Yay for summer "vacation!"

Crispy Sweetbreads with Parsnip Potato Puree, Braised Endives, and Port Sauce (Page 462)

2011-04-28T20:27:00.000-07:00

RECIPE #1260

Date: Saturday, February 19, 2011 -- 6pm
Location: East Lansing, MI
Kitchen: Our House
Fellow Chef: Mike
Dining Companions: Matty, Charles, Helen, Clara, Tim, and Mark
Recipe Rating: C

I remember one particular occasion as a kid when I was out for a fancy dinner with my parents. There was a whole menu full of words I didn't know and foods that didn't sound tasty to my young palate. One thing, however, did catch my eye: sweetbreads! I like breads. I like sweets. It sounded perfect! Luckily before I had a chance to order the sweetbreads my parents cautioned me against it. "It's not actually bread," they warned me. Indeed it is not. In the years immediately following that incident I remembered that sweetbreads were some sort of organ meat, but I didn't remember entirely accurately what they were. So for quite a while when I was a kid I thought sweetbreads were monkey brains. I was close... sort of. Sweetbreads are the thymus gland of calves. I still refer to them occasionally as brains. In fact I did so all throughout this dinner, mostly because it drove Mike crazy! He corrected me several times.

I put off making this dish for a long time because it sounded pretty disgusting. Mike requested a dinner with several disgusting dishes when he visited, though, so I figured it was time for the sweetbreads! This dish was labor-intensive. I soaked the sweetbreads in ice water for 8 hours. I then poached them very briefly. After they had been poached I cut away the membrane and connective tissue. This was not a glamorous job, or one that I would care to repeat. The sweetbreads would later look relatively appetizing, but they certainly did not at that stage. It's a shame I didn't take a picture. I weighted the sweetbreads and refrigerated them for another few hours. I then sliced the sweetbreads. While all that was going on, I made a puree of parsnips and potato using a potato ricer. I cooked endives in butter. When all the veggies were ready, I seasoned the sweetbreads and dredged them in flour. Mike and I fried them in clarified butter until they were golden. Mike then made a pan sauce with shallots, veal demi-glace, tawny port, and butter.

So how were the fried brains... err... thymus gland? Truth be told, in this three component dish, the sweetbreads were definitely the best part. They had a very mild flavor. If you take anything without an offensive flavor, bread it, and fry it in butter, it will taste pretty good. This was no exception. It was hard for me to shake the image of how gross the sweetbreads had looked earlier in their preparation, but the diners who had missed that stage found them to be not gross at all. The vegetables in this dish, however, were pretty disgusting. The Book said that the endives could be cooked up to a day ahead and reheated. I cooked mine just a bit ahead, but it was a bad idea. They took on a disturbing gray color, and were very wilty. Mike said they looked like something his cat threw up and it was hard to disagree with that. We all agreed that the dish would have been better without the endives at all. The parsnip puree was just OK. It tasted decent but the texture left something to be desired. I would have rather eaten my sweetbreads on a bed of tasty mashed potatoes. I certainly won't be making this dish again. That said, the preparation of the sweetbreads themselves was perfectly fine. It was the accompaniments that made this dish unappealing.

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Only 33 recipes left to go!

This past Sunday was my 31st birthday. It was also Easter. And on Saturday night I was baptized at the Easter Vigil. To say that the weekend was memorable would be an enormous understatement. Emilee, Brian, and Sam flew all the way from California to be here for the festivities. Indeed, Em and Brian were my baptism sponsors. Poor Emilee flew in on a red eye, landing around 5am Saturday morning. She flew out on Sunday evening, just over 36 hours after arriving. I was honored that she made the trip despite her insane work schedule as a medical resident. I thought that Em, Brian, and Sam were going to be our only out-of-town visitors for the weekend, but my parents surprised me by flying in as well!

On Saturday we enjoyed a nice spring Michigan day. We took Sam to the children's garden and butterfly house on campus, and had some ice cream at the Dairy Store. Emilee and Brian had never been to Michigan before and I was so happy to have them here. We grilled brats on Saturday evening and made a big batch of mashed potatoes. It was perfect. The baptism was Saturday night. The Easter Vigil service was beautiful. Most of the service is in the dark, with everyone holding candles. In the Episcopal church there are four services a year when baptisms are done. Several people advised me that the Easter Vigil is the most magical, and I am indeed glad I waited for Easter to be baptized. It was very special.

On Sunday we celebrated Easter and my birthday by throwing a party! We had a brunch with 20 people at our house. It was fun, and festive, and a little bit chaotic. I loved it! We had two Easter egg hunts: one for the kids, and one for the adults. Here's a cute picture of Sam in our backyard, not seeing the two Easter eggs right behind him in the bush!

We had a ton of food, including a few new things from The Book (a foie gras terrine, blinis with three kinds of caviar, and a garlic rosemary jam). Most of the food was not from new recipes in The Book though: braised lamb shanks, cornmeal waffles, warm lentil salad, fruit salad, green salad, parmesan walnut salad in endive leaves, grilled asparagus, spicy potatoes and cauliflower (made by Helen!), baked leeks with cheese (also made by Helen!) and some gorgeous baguettes made by Bob. There may have been more... I can't remember! It was a big spread. We managed to set up a long table seating 20 in our living room (Well, 19 really. We didn't give baby Olly her own seat!). It was crowded in exactly the way I like. For dessert we had birthday cake (my favorite: red velvet with white chocolate cream cheese buttercream). When I was a kid every Easter I would make a cake in the shape of a bunny rabbit. I decided to make my childhood bunny cake this year for my birthday! I made the cake and Emilee gave the bunny a face using jelly beans and licorice rope. Isn't it cute?

Here I am with my special gentleman, Emilee, and Sam, right before I blew out my candles:

And a few moments later:

I had such a fun time celebrating both Easter and my birthday. It was really special having Em and Brian there, and my parents, and new friends I have made since we moved to East Lansing. I think it was my best birthday ever! Plus, as a birthday present to me my special gentleman did all the cleaning after the party. There were a considerable number of dishes generated by cooking and serving a big meal to 20 people, and he did them all! Late in the evening, after all our guests had left, my special gentleman and I ate some party leftovers and went for a nice walk on a beautiful spring day. It was a perfect birthday!

Beef Tenderloin with Bordelaise Sauce (Page 417)

2011-04-20T20:38:00.000-07:00

RECIPE #1259

Date: Saturday, February 19, 2011 -- 6pm
Location: East Lansing, MI
Kitchen: Our House
Fellow Chefs: Matty and Charles
Dining Companions: Mike, Tim, Mark, Helen, and Clara
Recipe Rating: B+

Beef tenderloin is the hunk of meat that filet mignon steaks are cut from. Basically, it is delicious. So I have been saving this recipe for a special occasion that merits extra deliciousness. Mike and Tim came to visit a couple months ago and that was just the occasion I needed. To make this I started by preparing the beef marrow bones. I soaked them in warm water for 10 minutes, them my special gentleman helped me push the marrow out of the bones. I cut the marrow into rounds, covered it with cold water, and refrigerated it for a day, changing the water several times. To make the sauce I boiled red wine with shallots, mushrooms, carrot, thyme, bay leaf, and black peppercorns. I added veal stock and boiled some more. I strained the sauce, then returned it to a boil and added arrowroot and Madeira. I seasoned it with salt and pepper. I browned the meat then roasted it to 120 degrees (letting it rest to 130). While the meat rested I poached the marrow in stock, water, and salt. Then I transferred the marrow to the sauce. Charles sliced the meat, and poured some sauce over it. We served it with more sauce on the side.

As expected, this dish was very tasty. Indeed as we went around the room and graded the recipes after dinner, everyone gave this dish an A or A-. Mike joked that I would ignore them all and give it a lower grade, and I suppose I did. Don't get me wrong, it was good. The beef was nicely cooked, and it was a beautiful cut of meat. The sauce had a lovely flavor to it too. What really made this a B+ recipe rather than an A- recipe for me though was the consistency of the sauce. It was just too thin. I reduced it as instructed, and actually I even reduced longer because I was worried about the consistency. But still, the sauce was too thin. Almost anything you do with a beef tenderloin is going to taste delicious. Would I eat this dish again? Definitely. I would be happy to. Was it the best beef tenderloin recipe out there? No. With a better bordelaise this could have been fantastic though!

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Only 34 recipes left!

Throughout the last year or so, people have been asking me what I am going to do once this project is over. For a while, whenever someone would ask me that, the first thing I would think was, "Celebrate!" As I was getting down to fewer and fewer recipes last year, keeping up my usual pace was exhausting. The recipes towards the end have been more time consuming with many hard-to-find ingredients and I began to feel like my life was dominated by the project. Plus, when we first moved here we didn't have anyone to share the project fun with. Not being able to eat big project dinners with friends took some of the joy out of it for me. Basically I felt ready to be done.

At some point in the fall I decided to relax my pace, and not attempt to finish the project in 2010. It was a fantastic decision, as it has let me enjoy making the dishes again. In the meantime we have made friends here in East Lansing who enjoy eating the crazy project food. (Well, I suppose I am not sure they always enjoy it, but they keep coming over!) The project has become fun again. And suddenly it makes me really sad to think about it being over. Although this post claims I have 34 recipes left, that number is really more like 27 (I am behind in my blogging!) and I am making another 2-3 this weekend so soon I will have fewer than 25 to go. It's hard for me to even believe that I started this thing with 1293 recipes to make, and now I am only 25 from the end.

So what will I do next? I don't know. A while back the publishers of The Book asked me if I would be interested in blogging about the second book they published: Gourmet Today. At the time, I thought, "No way!" The idea of taking on another long project seemed insane. They sent me a couple signed copies of the new book though. I flip through them often and think how fantastic it would be to be at the beginning of such a project again -- to have so many choices, to be able to construct entire meals, to not be done with the desserts... I still don't think I will do it, but it does sound appealing.

Slowing down the pace lately has been a nice transition to post-project life. I have been cooking my way through The Book for a long time now! I started this project before I even met my husband! I think it will be very weird for me when the project is done, and it becomes a thing-I-once-did rather than a thing-I-am-doing. So truth be told, I am dragging my heels a little bit. Could I cook faster than I have been these past few months? Sure. But I made a decision to savor these last few recipes -- to eat them with friends whenever possible and to celebrate the food and these last few months of the project. Plus, I no longer feel ready to be done.

This weekend I am making the Foie Gras Terrine, which is a recipe that I thought I might save for the very end. It is definitely a special occasion recipe. This weekend is going to be very special though: my baptism, Easter, and my birthday are all happening, and Emilee, Brian, and Sam are coming from California to be here. We are having a big Easter/birthday lunch at our house with braised lamb, and cornmeal waffles, and birthday cake in the shape of a bunny rabbit (and lots of other things...). So I am making the foie gras. Also the blini with three kinds of caviar.

Yes, the end of the project is near. And I am more than a little sad about that.

Escargots a la Bourguignonne (Page 75)

2011-04-13T20:31:00.000-07:00

RECIPE #1258

Date: Saturday, February 19, 2011 -- 6pm
Location: East Lansing, MI
Kitchen: Our House
Fellow Chef: Helen
Dining Companions: Charles, Clara, Matty, Mike, Tim, and Mark
Recipe Rating: B

When Mike and Tim came to visit a couple months ago I put together a special menu for them. These snails were part of it. I started by making a compound butter with shallots, garlic, parsley, salt, pepper, and white wine. Helen sterilized the snail shells, then stuffed some of the butter mixture in each one. She put a snail in each shell, then topped them with the remaining butter. She stabilized the shells on a baking sheet by nestling them in kosher salt. Then we baked the snails until the butter sizzled, about 3 minutes. These snails were perfectly fine. The butter mixture was buttery, as it should have been. It had a nice garlic-shallot flavor to it, and the white wine was a good addition. No one had anything terribly negative to say about this dish, but no one was really raving about it either. Mark commented that he prefers his escargots piping hot, which these were not. That was mostly my fault -- the timing of the meal was a bit off so these sat for a couple minutes before we ate them. But even when they were straight out of the oven -- after only 3 minutes in the oven (as The Book indicates) -- they weren't terribly hot all the way through. They could have cooked longer. Mike complained a lot about how the snails came in a can, which I agree was a little creepy. But that's what the recipe called for! Other than that everyone seemed relatively neutral on this dish. Wasn't great. Wasn't terrible. I probably won't make it again.

The recipe is here.

Only 35 recipes left!

One of my students started crying today. This happens more often than you might think. Math is hard, and many students feel very frustrated by it. This particular student is in my 300-level math course. It's not an easy course. She already failed it once with a different instructor, and is concerned (with good reason) that she might fail it again this semester.

I have been teaching for a number of years now, so I am accustomed to teary-eyed students in my office. It is pretty rare that students start all out crying, and only once have I had a student start sobbing. (That was a unique situation. The student had cheated on a quiz and was so remorseful that she couldn't stop sobbing through the entire meeting. She was crying so hard she was gasping to catch her breath. It was a difficult meeting for the both of us.) I am no longer surprised by the teary eyes. This afternoon, though, my student started to cry in a more serious way. After class we were standing outside the building where the class is held. It was a beautiful afternoon. What started as a discussion about what she needed to do to pass the course devolved into her crying out of frustration and anger. We stood on the steps for 25 minutes: her crying, me trying to be sympathetic, constructive, and motivational all at the same time. The reality is, there are less than two and a half weeks left in the semester, and much of her grade has already been determined. She should have done many things differently from the start. Can she still pass? Definitely. Will it require some hard work? Yes. I tried to pass along what wisdom I could.

As I stood there, I thought back on my own life as a student. To my recollection, I cried in front of my professors twice: once in college, once in graduate school. They were very different situations than the one today. I certainly never cried about a grade. In college I cried out of frustration at the feeling that I was doing a bad job at something that mattered to me. In retrospect I wish I could take back that whole conversation. I shouldn't have cried, and to this day I feel embarrassed when I think about the possibility of running into that professor. In graduate school I cried, also out of frustration, about the stress of the job application process. It wasn't my thesis advisor that I cried in front of, but rather another professor who I was close to. I don't feel bad about it actually. Applying for jobs is incredibly stressful. If I had to do it again now I am sure I would cry again. The professor took it in stride, and it didn't affect our relationship at all. I got the feeling that I was not the first person to cry in his office from job application stress. He told me horror stories about his own experiences on the job market, and it was tremendously reassuring.

This afternoon, standing in the sunshine with my crying student, I understood how she felt. I never failed a class, but I could relate to her frustration. And I wanted to help her. The problem is, there aren't always easy solutions. Her situation is difficult in a lot of ways. I do hope she passes. And from her tears I could tell, she genuinely hopes for that too.

Rumaki (Page 53)

2011-04-06T19:31:00.000-07:00

RECIPE #1257

Date: Saturday, February 19, 2011 -- 6pm
Location: East Lansing, MI
Kitchen: Our House
Dining Companions: Matty, Mike, Tim, Helen, Charles, Clara, and Mark
Recipe Rating: C+

Mike and Tim came to Michigan back in February for a visit, and Mike requested a dinner from The Book full of dishes likely to be gross. This one seemed sure to be foul so I added it to the menu. I started by cutting some chicken livers into pieces. I added the liver pieces and some halved water chestnuts to a mixture of soy sauce, ginger, brown sugar, and curry powder. I marinated the livers for an hour. I removed the water chestnuts and liver pieces from the marinade, and wrapped them together in small pieces of bacon. I used toothpicks which had been soaked in water to secure the little bacon wrapped packages. I broiled the rumaki until the bacon was crisp and the livers were cooked but still slightly pink. I thought this dish left a lot to be desired. I am not a huge liver fan, so that was part of my objection to the dish. But even setting that bias aside as best I could, I found this dish to be odd -- and not in a good way. It had both flavor and textural issues. The water chestnuts seemed out of place, and most of us agreed that the dish would have been better without them. The marinade left the liver and water chestnuts with a canned curry powder taste that I didn't appreciate. And when the liver was cooked properly, the bacon wasn't yet cooked as much as I would have wanted. I didn't care for this dish at all. However, several of my dining companions defended the dish. No one was willing to say it was fantastic, but several people found it enjoyable enough. The one thing we did agree on though was that in the wrap-something-tasty-in-bacon genre of food, this is not the best recipe out there.

The recipe is here.

Only 36 recipes left!

Almost four years ago I was talking to a friend and he was asking me about my job. At the time I was a post-doc. One of the first things he asked was, "So, is it a five-days-a-week kind of job?" I was surprised by the question, so much so that I remember it still. I answered honestly, "Well, no."

It is very rare that I only work on five days of the week. During a semester when I am teaching, it never happens. That said, on the weekends I do try to take it easy. My usual policy is that on Saturdays I only do work that I want to do. If a particular task sounds unappealing (grading comes to mind) I don't force myself to do it on Saturday. Indeed I often take most of the day off to do something fun, and squeeze in a few hours of enjoyable work when I feel like it. On Sundays after church I try to get ready for the week ahead, which often involves lecture writing, grading, etc... in addition to research-related work. Sundays don't have the same leisurely feel as Saturdays, but I still work from home and enjoy the company of my special gentleman and my kitties. So while my weekends aren't exactly work-free, they are still relaxing and rejuvenating.

When I don't have them, I miss them. Weekend conferences are a common thing in math, and the last few weeks, said conferences have robbed me of my precious weekends. This past weekend, our university was hosting a graduate student conference in my field. Two hundred graduate students from around the world descended on East Lansing for a two-day extravaganza. The conference was organized by graduate students, for graduate students, so I had no organizing responsibilities. I did however have a speaking responsibility. The conference mostly consisted of talks by graduate students, but they also had three senior faculty speakers and four junior faculty speakers from around the country. My special gentleman and I were both asked to give young faculty talks, not about our own research results, but rather about open problems in our respective fields. The point was to be inspirational! So on Saturday afternoon, when normally I would be sipping hot cocoa on the couch, I was attempting to inspire a big room full of graduate students. My special gentleman and I also did some entertaining of people in town for the event so it was a busy weekend.

The weekend before that, my special gentleman was speaking at a conference somewhere in Illinois. He had been in Canada for another conference, and flew straight from one conference to the next. I drove down to Illinois to pick him up, and went to the conference with him. The conference wasn't in my field so I did get some work done while I was there, but it wasn't a relaxing weekend at home.

The weekend before that I co-organized a special session of a conference in Iowa City. It was really fun! One benefit of organizing is that you get to pick the speakers -- so not only were the talks super-interesting to me, but I enjoy all the people who were there! The conference went smoothly, but I arrived home late that Sunday night, exhausted.

The weekend before that my special gentleman and I were driving back from our Spring Break "vacation" to the East Coast, where we both spoke at MIT and he also spoke at Princeton. The weekend before that we were headed to MIT for our talks.

It feels like a long time since I have had a real weekend. I really enjoy conferences, and I have heard some great talks and seen a lot of good friends over the last few weeks. But I am tired. Luckily, I will be home for the next FOUR weekends! I don't have to give any weekend talks. I am not going anywhere. It will be awesome! Five weekends from now I have to give another Saturday talk, and for the following five weekends after that I will be traveling. But right now I am not thinking about any of that. I am only thinking about my upcoming weekends at home and how lovely it will be! Maybe I will even have some time to do some cooking...

Mortadella and Truffle-Stuffed Pork Loin with Rosemary Roast Potatoes (Page 470)

2011-03-30T19:11:00.000-07:00

RECIPE #1256

Date: Wednesday, February 2, 2011 -- 6pm
Location: East Lansing, MI
Kitchen: Our House
Fellow Chef: Matty
Dining Companions: Helen, Charles, and Clara
Recipe Rating: B

I had my eye on this recipe for quite a while. When a blizzard hit East Lansing last month, it seemed like the perfect time to make it. I managed to go to the grocery store on a Tuesday evening before the snow started. The university canceled classes that Wednesday, so it was the perfect day to stay home and stuff a pork loin! Our friends Helen and Charles live only a short walk away from us, so they braved the snow to join us for dinner. To prepare this pork I started by making a mixture of crushed black peppercorns, salt, garlic, and butter. I butterflied the pork loin, then my special gentleman helped me pound it to an even thickness. I spread some black truffle butter evenly over the pork, then topped the butter with thinly sliced mortadella. I repeated with another layer of truffle butter, a layer of mortadella, and a final layer of truffle butter. Then I carefully rolled up the loin, tied it, and rubbed it with the peppercorn butter mixture. I roasted the pork for a while, and simultaneously parboiled some peeled yellow potatoes. I tossed the potatoes with olive oil, rosemary, salt, and pepper, then added them to the roasting pan with the pork. I roasted it all until the pork reached 150 degrees. I made a pan sauce by deglazing with chicken stock, then adding cornstarch and truffle butter. I served the pork with the potatoes and sauce. This dish was pretty good. The potatoes had a lovely pork and rosemary flavor to them and the meat was nicely cooked. My only complaint was that the dish didn't have enough flavor. The truffle flavor was present in the pork, but not bold enough. And the mortadella didn't contribute much in terms of flavor. I think I would have liked the dish better had the pork been stuffed with something more strongly flavored, like prosciutto, rather than the mortadella. With prosciutto and more truffle butter, this dish could have been crazy delicious. As it was, it was just tasty. I liked it, but I doubt I will make it again. There are much better pork loin preparations out there.

The recipe is here.

Only 37 recipes left!

For the last three weeks or so I have given up eating anything between meals. This is the season of Lent, and I am choosing to fast for Lent by eating a small breakfast and lunch each day, a normal size dinner, and nothing between meals. The first couple weeks of Lent were a little rough. I think many people probably eat this way normally, but it is just not the way I eat. I am a grazer. I eat when I am hungry. I don't eat when I am not hungry. I don't like the feeling of being overfull, so I never eat so much at a meal that I won't be hungry before the next one. Consequently, I always carry food with me. At the first sign of hunger, I have a snack. It is rare that any 2 hour waking period goes by during which I don't eat. I eat so frequently that I rarely experience the feeling of being very hungry. All of this has changed.

The first few days of Lent I was astonished by how hungry I could feel. I got used to the hunger quite quickly though. Once I learned to expect the hunger, I grew much less frustrated by it. This morning I had a piece of toast for breakfast. By 11am or so I was hungry again, but luckily I was distracted by a half dozen students in my office hours. I had some yogurt with granola for lunch at noon. After I taught both my classes and ran around for a while trying to get things done, I got really hungry again around 3:30pm. Dinner time finally rolled around at 6:30pm. I had a bowl of chili, a salad, and some french fries. The food tasted incredibly good, probably in no small part because by then I was extremely hungry! Now it is almost 10pm and I am hungry again. But I'll go to bed soon, and actually wake up feeling less hungry in the morning.

I never diet, mostly because I feel fine about the way that I eat, but also because I just don't think I would have the willpower to do it. I would get hungry, and I am sure that I would rationalize having something to eat. This is very different. I don't consider it an option to cheat on my Lenten fast. I use the hunger as a reminder that this is a period of reflection and prayer. In past years I have given up various things for Lent: meat, candy, etc... This is definitely the most challenging Lenten fast I have done. It has also been the most rewarding. This is a special Lent season for me, as I am being baptized this year at the Easter Vigil. I have thought about baptism for many years. This year it finally feels like the right time. Easter is just over three weeks away and I am very excited!

Green Apple Sorbet (Page 860)

2011-03-23T19:02:00.000-07:00

RECIPE #1255

Date: Tuesday, January 25, 2011 -- 5pm
Location: East Lansing, MI
Kitchen: Our House
Dining Companion: Matty, Helen, and Charles
Recipe Rating: B-

This was the LAST DESSERT I had left in The Book. That's right. There are NO MORE DESSERTS! It is a moment both for celebration and mourning. I am delighted to have made them all, but I am sad to see them go. I would have made this recipe much sooner, as I love sorbet and it only had a 15 minute active time. But the recipe requires a juicer strong enough to juice an apple and I don't have one. Luckily, it recently came to my attention that my friend Helen does have such a juicer and she was willing to lend it to me! This recipe was super simple. I boiled sugar and water to form a syrup. Then I crushed a vitamin C tablet into powder. I juiced the apples (skins, seeds, and all!) and added both the vitamin C powder and the sugar syrup to the juice. I chilled the juice until it was very cold, then froze it in an ice cream maker. That was it! This sorbet was OK. It definitely had a strong green apple flavor, but it had a bit of a weird flavor too. I couldn't tell if it came from the vitamin C tablet, or if it was from the skins of the apples. I'm not sure. But there was an off flavor that I couldn't get past. Unfortunately, omitting the vitamin C isn't really an option, as it is there to preserve the color of the sorbet. I enjoyed trying this sorbet, but ultimately it sat in our freezer for a while and then got thrown away. Definitely not a recipe I would make again.

The recipe is here.

Only 38 recipes left!

This was the last recipe in the Frozen Desserts and Sweet Sauces section of The Book that I had left to make. So, it is time to reminisce about some of the delicious recipes in that section! In no particular order, my top five recipes from Frozen Desserts and Sweet Sauces:

Cream Cheese Ice Cream -- I was suprised by how much I liked this cream cheese flavored ice cream. It was tangy and rich, and the texture was perfect. I made this for a bunch of friends in Boston not long after I started this project. Good times!
Kir Royale Sorbet -- Raspberry sorbet with champagne and creme de cassis! How can you go wrong? As it turns out, you can't. This sorbet was awesome. We brought this to Paul and Beth's house, and I was a little worried that we were getting underage Lauren drunk on boozy sorbet. She had a few servings! It was irresistably good.
Dark Chocolate-Caramel Ice Cream Sandwiches -- Emilee bought me animal shaped ice cream sandwich molds for my birthday one year, and this was the first recipe I made with them! Chris and I brought these very cute pig and cow shaped ice cream sandwiches to a Halloween dinner at Mike and Teresa's house. Both the chocolate cookies and the caramel ice cream were delicious on their own. They were even better together. Yum!
Raspberry Sauce -- This very simple sauce had a fantastic raspberry flavor. I made it back in the days when I cooked for the Talbot math conference every year. We ate it with molten chocolate cake, but it would be delicious on ice cream, or with a variety of other desserts.
Vanilla Creme Anglaise -- Creme Anglaise is always delicious and this was no exception. It had a great vanilla flavor. I made this one for the Talbot conference too, and it was enjoyed by all!

I can't believe I am not only done with this section, but also with all of the other dessert sections in The Book. Crazy!! The end of the project is in sight!

Now I have 12 sections completed and 9 sections left to finish. I am almost there!!

Roasted Squab (Page 406)

2011-03-17T21:29:00.000-07:00

RECIPE #1254

Date: Tuesday, January 11, 2011 -- 7pm
Location: East Lansing, MI
Kitchen: Our House
Dining Companion: Matty
Recipe Rating: C

A while back I ordered all the squab I need for the rest of this project and they have been sitting in my basement freezer. I decided it was about time to pull some out and make another squab recipe. I prepared a mixture of butter, shallots, thyme, lemon zest, salt, and pepper, and worked it between the skin and the flesh of the squabs. I seasoned the birds, then browned them in butter. I roasted the squabs in a hot oven. As it turns out, I just don't like squab. This is the second squab recipe I have made from The Book and the second squab recipe from The Book that I have not liked. Fortunately there is only one more squab recipe left, and my plan is to put that one off for a while. It's odd because in general I very much enjoy eating poultry. But pigeon just isn't my thing. It is incredibly different in color, flavor, and texture than other poultry. The dark, livery meat doesn't appeal to me. My special gentleman is a bit more neutral about squab than I am, but even he couldn't get on board with this recipe. There was no sauce or other components to this dish, so it was the meat that was meant to shine. Unfortunately instead of shining it just tasted kind of bad. I certainly won't make this dish again.

This recipe isn't online.

Only 39 recipes left to go!

I ate dinner tonight at an establishment claiming to be the World's Largest Truckstop. I couldn't possibly verify the accuracy of their claim, but I will say that it was one of the largest truckstops I have been to. This particular stop was out of desperation -- about 6 hours into the 7 hour drive from East Lansing to Iowa City, I became extremely hungry. The World's Largest Truck Stop was the best option available.

I am in Iowa City now. This week was a whirlwind. We got home from our East Coast trip on Saturday night. Sunday I went to church and then spent the rest of the day desperately trying to prepare for the week ahead of me (grading, writing lectures, writing exams, working on my annual review documentation, etc...). I never did end up feeling prepared for the week. Indeed, I would say that this week kicked my butt. Being home for four days between trips is a little rough. It's long enough that you try to settle back into a routine. But it's not long enough that you can really buy groceries and unpack your suitcase. The contents of my suitcase were dumped in the washing machine, then folded and put right back into the suitcase. I am giving exams in both my classes tomorrow since I won't be there to teach. So this week included a lot of exam writing and meeting with students who were worried about said exams. That, on top of the usual stuff, plus some fun stuff (e.g. a Sarah McLachlan concert), and getting ready for another trip, made for a busy week. But I think that everything that needed to be done got done. I finished writing the second exam at about 1:30am last night. This morning I edited it, photocopied it, and handed it off to the friend who is administering it tomorrow. Then I did several related rates problems with a student before running home to get the house ready for the pet-sitter will be living there this weekend with our kitties. My special gentleman and I hit the road in the early afternoon. I dropped him off in Chicago, where he is staying overnight before catching a flight to Canada tomorrow. I continued on to Iowa City.

Now I am sitting in my hotel room, a little bit exhausted, but looking forward to what should be a fun weekend. There is a meeting of the American Mathematical Society happening here this weekend, and I am co-organizing a special session in the meeting. Some good friends of mine will be here, and we have a great line-up of speakers. It should be fun! And for the moment I am trying not to think about the fact that when I arrive home Sunday night I will have two sets of exams waiting to be graded, and a couple lectures to prepare for Monday! I have a feeling there might be another busy week ahead of me...

Tarragon Lobster Salad (Page 157)

2011-03-13T21:00:00.000-07:00

RECIPE #1253

Date: Sunday, January 9, 2011 -- 2pm
Location: East Lansing, MI
Kitchen: Our House
Dining Companion: Matty
Recipe Rating: B

I put off making the lobster recipes in The Book because I wasn't too excited about the boiling of live lobsters. Now that I have done it a few times though it has become old hat and I am making rapid progress through the lobster dishes. For this dish I boiled some live lobsters then removed the meat and cut it into pieces. I stirred together chopped shallots, lemon juice, and salt and let the mixture sit for a bit. Then I whisked in mayonnaise, tarragon, and pepper. I added the lobster meat and tossed. I served the salad on toasted hot dog buns. It was as easy as that! My reaction to this dish wasn't terribly negative but my special gentleman had some pretty nasty things to say about it. He exclaimed more than once: "Why would you ever do this to a beautiful lobster?" He isn't a huge mayonnaise fan and the idea of adding mayo to lobster really bothered him. Apparently he had never experienced a lobster roll before and the existence of the dish made him very angry. In the end he scooped his salad off the bun, put the salad in a sieve and rinsed it under running water until all he had left was the lobster meat. Then he ate the lobster dipped in melted butter. No, I am not kidding. I, on the other hand, have eaten lobster rolls before, and do not find them to be particularly offensive. This, I thought, was a perfectly reasonable lobster roll recipe. The balance of ingredients was fine. The salad wasn't drowned in too much mayonnaise and the tarragon gave it flavor without being overpowering. Are there better ways to eat lobster? Yeah, sure. But if you are craving a lobster roll, this version is not bad at all.

The recipe is here.

Only 40 recipes left to go!

Our Spring Break adventures took us back to Boston this year (amongst other places) as my special gentleman and I were both invited to give talks at MIT. I lived in the Boston area for five years when I was doing my PhD. I have many fond memories of my years living in Boston, and also some not-so-fond memories. On the fond memories side, my special gentleman and I met in Boston. I was in my last year of graduate school at MIT and he was in his first year of a post-doc there. We have a lot of Boston memories so it was nice to make this trip back there together.

We arrived in Boston on Sunday. Our whole vacation was full of meals with friends, which was fantastic, but on Sunday night we took the opportunity to have a special dinner, just the two of us, at a restaurant we went to very frequently during the first year of our relationship. It was special being back there. After dinner we walked by his old apartment, and the apartment I lived in when we met. It was a very nostalgic and sweet evening.

On Monday my special gentleman and I both gave talks at MIT. I go back to Boston pretty frequently -- indeed I was there this summer -- but it had been a while since I had been back at MIT while school was in session. My good friend Mike was also back in town. He and I went to graduate school together and to say that we spent a lot of time together would be an enormous understatement. Mike was very much a part of my MIT experience. On Monday he and I met for lunch, at one of the places we frequented as students. Eating burritos together and walking the halls with him felt just like old times, but so many things had changed. It was tremendously unsettling. It was weird to be there but not be a member of the department any more. It was strange to speak in front of a seminar that I attended every week for many years. It was bizarre to be standing at the chalkboard, looking out at the audience and thinking about all the times I sat in those same seats, and listened to someone give a talk on those same sliding boards. It was in that room that I once fainted during seminar, at a time when I was having some medical problems. It was in that room that Mike dropped his notes for his talk behind the sliding boards and couldn't reach to get them because his pants were baggy enough that they would have fallen off. It was in that room that a particularly famous speaker threw a piece of chalk at a very famous faculty member's head. It was in that room that I taught linear algebra recitations. It was in that room that a screeching squirrel slid down the window pane, having been forced out the window of the room above it. I also have dozens of mathematical memories of that room: things I learned there, pictures people drew on the board, concepts that I understood for the first time while sitting in the audience in that room... All of those thoughts went through my head as I was giving my talk. I have been in that room so many times, but this time it was incredibly different. So many of the people I associate with my years at MIT have since moved on: Mike, V, Chris, Lars, Vero, Andre, Tyler, Ricky, John, Matt, Michael, Angelica, Jenny, Nora, Peter, Francesca, etc... And new people have moved in. And while a few audience members were the same: Mark, Jacob, Big Mike, etc... mostly it was different. Of course our field is small so the new faces weren't unfamiliar. I knew almost everyone in the audience. But Kyle or David or Clark or Kirsten, they weren't part of my MIT experience and it was just weird to see them there. The whole thing was very unsettling.

My talk went perfectly fine, but right afterward, and still now, I had a terrible feeling about it. I can't explain why. It just felt so weird.

Even now, a few days removed from the experience of being back there, I am having a hard time sorting out how I felt about the trip. Did it make me miss MIT and the community of topologists there, or did it make me glad to have moved on to somewhere else? I am genuinely not sure. Maybe the real answer is, both. The visit reminded me of all the fantastic things about being at MIT and also all of the not-so-fantastic things about it. It was a weird and emotional few days in Boston. I am glad to be back home now.

More on the rest of our trip another time...

Hunan-Style Tea-Smoked Chicken (Page 355)

2011-03-04T17:49:00.000-08:00

RECIPE #1252

Date: Wednesday, January 5, 2011 -- 6pm
Location: East Lansing, MI
Kitchen: Our House
Dining Companion: Matty
Recipe Rating: B-

I put off making this recipe because I had heard from a couple other people that it resulted in a house full of smoke and a not-very-tasty chicken. The warnings about the smoke discouraged me from making this during the many years that I was living in an apartment. Now that we own a house, and excessive smoke and a sounding smoke alarm are inconveniences only for us and not for other people living in the same building, I decided to make this dish. I marinated the chicken in a mixture of rice wine, salt, Sichuan peppercorns, scallions, and ginger. Then I put the chicken on a steamer rack in a wok and steamed it over boiling water until it was cooked through. I dried out the wok and lined it with foil. I put black tea leaves and dark brown sugar at the bottom of the wok and set the chicken on a rack above the mixture. I covered the wok and heated it over high heat until smoke started to pour out. I continued to smoke the chicken for 6 minutes, flipped it, then smoked it for 6 minutes more. I took the wok off the heat and let the chicken stand, covered, for a bit longer. I had never smoked poultry before and it was pretty amazing. Yes, the kitchen filled with smoke. Yes, our eyes burned and it smelled for days. But the smoking process was amazingly effective. Perhaps a little too effective. The chicken was incredibly smoky. It was one of those dishes where the first bite was fantastic. The second bite was a little overpowering. By the third bite it was barely edible. It was just too much smoke. It's a shame because the meat was beautifully cooked. It came out moist and tender. Although it was hard to eat, I am glad I made the dish -- it was a fascinating experience. I never would have guessed that I had the equipment at home to infuse that much smoky flavor into anything. There was a lot of chicken leftover, since we could really only eat a few bites. The next day I mixed the meat with lots of rice and some soy sauce, which diluted and balanced out the intense smokiness a bit. It still wasn't a mildly flavored meal, but it was pretty tasty that way, and in the end we ate it all.

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Only 41 recipes left to go!

I made the mistake of looking at my calendar today. As I flipped through the weeks I got more and more scared. I thought the last few months had been busy, but by the looks of it, it is only going to get worse! From now to the middle of June, between me and my special gentleman we are traveling to Boston, Princeton, Iowa, Banff, small-town Illinois, Las Vegas, Chicago, Switzerland, Germany, Switzerland (again), France, Italy, and California. Of those destinations, I myself am only going to 10 of them, but it still feels like a lot! Add to that 8+ more house guests spread out across the between-trips periods that we are home, and I think it is going to be hectic! That said, I am looking forward to seeing our visitors and I think all of the trips will be fun. In addition to containing work (in the form of giving talks, working with collaborators, and attending conferences) we will also see lots of good friends and visit some nice places during our travels.

First up: Boston. Today was the last day of classes before Spring Break and tomorrow morning we are hitting the road. My special gentleman and I are both giving talks at MIT on Monday, so we are headed first to Boston. We decided to drive and stop at Niagara Falls on the way, to make it feel a little more like a vacation. Later in the week we are headed down to Princeton where my special gentleman will give another talk. It won't be the warm weather Spring Break on the beach that I have always dreamed of, but it is sure to be fun! We have lots of great friends on the East Coast and I am excited to see some of them! We are leaving the cats at home, under the careful watch of some friends of ours. After the rat poison incident, I am a little nervous about leaving them. But they are in good hands!

I suppose it is about time for me to start packing for our trip!

Lobster Bisque (Page 103)

2011-02-26T07:29:00.000-08:00

RECIPE #1251

Date: Saturday, November 6, 2010 -- 7pm
Location: East Lansing, MI
Kitchen: Our House
Fellow Chef: Matty
Dining Companions: Brad and Deniz
Recipe Rating: B+

This recipe is slightly out of order. I made this dish months ago, when Brad and Deniz came to visit us in Michigan. At the time I was really sick from my new medication, and when it came time for dinner I was so ill I barely ate. Indeed, I was so ill that I forgot to even take pictures of the food! Immediately after dinner we froze the leftovers of this dish, to be enjoyed later. But it was a while before my special gentleman stumbled across the leftovers in the freezer one evening and decided to have lobster bisque for dinner. When he did, I took a picture. So now I am able to blog about this dish!

I began by boiling two live lobsters in a mixture of water, white wine, tarragon, bay leaf, and salt. When the lobsters were cool my special gentleman removed all the meat from the claws, joints, and tails, reserving the shells but discarding the bodies. I cut the meat into pieces. We pounded the reserved shells with a mallet to break them up. I finely chopped carrots, celery, onions, and garlic, then cooked the vegetables in butter. I added the lobster shells then Cognac, tomato paste, cayenne, the lobster cooking liquid, and reserved lobster juices and tomalley. I simmered it all for an hour and a half, then discarded the bay leaf. I transferred the solids to a food processor and pureed them as much as possible, then forced them through a fine mesh sieve. I returned the pureed solids to the cooking liquid and brought it to a boil. I thickened with cornstarch, then added cream, lemon juice, the lobster meat, and salt and just heated it through.

This bisque was pretty good. As I said, I was pretty ill that day, so I didn't eat much. But the general reaction around the table was positive. It had a lovely lobster flavor, and the chunks of lobster meat were well-received. There were two complaints that kept this out of the A- category. One, it was a little bit thin for a bisque. The other complaint came from my special gentleman was just said that it, "wasn't amazing." His standards for lobster bisque are high, and this didn't quite meet them.

This recipe isn't online.

Only 42 recipes left to go!

My apologies for the long blog silence. We have had a lot of visitors lately so I have been trying to spend my free time being a decent hostess rather than writing in my blog. Last Thursday our friend Chuck drove up from Bloomington. He stayed with us for a couple nights and gave a seminar in the math department on Friday. It was really fun to hang out with him! He left Saturday morning and on Saturday evening Mike and Tim arrived from Virginia. They stayed with us for two nights and we jammed in lots of fun things during their weekend visit! On Saturday night Helen, Charles, Clara, and Mark joined us for a dinner from The Book. The eight of us ate veal sweetbreads (i.e. the thymus gland of baby cows) with parsnip and potato puree, snails, chicken livers wrapped in bacon, beef with marrow, mushroom risotto, beets, salad, and a white chocolate and grapefruit cake that Helen made... It was quite a meal! It was really two meals in one. Mike always enjoys eating nasty things from The Book, so I was aiming to have a full meal of dishes that would likely be gross (i.e. the veal thymus, snails, and chicken livers), but then also a meal of dishes that would be good so we would have something enjoyable to eat (i.e. everything else on the menu). As it turned out, nothing was as gross as expected so there was a ton of food!

The next day we walked around Lansing for a while, visited the fish ladder, and strolled along the river trail. In the afternoon we went to the rodeo! It seems that I work at a university which holds an annual rodeo on campus. Crazy! Mike was as enthusiastic about going to the rodeo as I was, so on Sunday afternoon we braved a blizzard to see some professional cowboys in action. Needless to say, it was pretty awesome. I hadn't been to a rodeo in years. As I remembered it was a little bit terrifying, and super fun. Mike and Tim left Monday morning, and on Monday evening another house guest arrived. This guest, Adam, is a mathematician in my special gentleman's field. He is giving several lectures in the math department and working with my special gentleman during his visit. He is staying with us for almost two weeks!

So, it has been a hectic time with people coming and going. All the chaos has left me way behind on my blogging, so one of my many goals for the upcoming week is to make a little progress on my backlog!

Bouillabaisse (Page 346)

2011-02-12T18:44:00.000-08:00

RECIPE #1250

Date: Friday, December 31, 2010 -- 7pm
Location: Westerville, OH
Kitchen: Karen and Dave's House
Fellow Chef: Matty
Dining Companions: Dave, Karen H, Brad, and Deniz
Recipe Rating: B

My special gentleman's family likes seafood more than most people in my life, so I made this fish stew as part of New Year's Eve dinner at their house. I started by making some croutons by slicing a baguette, brushing the slices with oil, and toasting them in the oven. Once they were toasted I rubbed them with garlic cloves and set them aside. I then cooked a live lobster by plunging it into boiling water. My special gentleman cracked the boiled lobster into pieces. I cooked tomatoes, onion, and garlic in oil, then added peeled, cubed potatoes, fennel fronds, bay leaf, saffron, sea salt, and pepper. I added fish stock and brought it all to a boil. I reduced the heat and simmered until the potatoes were almost cooked, then added 2-inch pieces of halibut and cod. I stirred in the lobster and cooked the stew for a few minutes. I stirred some of the broth into the rouille (see post below). I then put croutons in each bowl and ladled some soup on top. I served the soup with the rouille on the side. I was a pretty indifferent about this soup. It did have halibut in it. I love halibut. There aren't too many types of seafood that I get seriously excited about, but halibut is one of them. We served halibut as one of the entree choices at our wedding. That's how much I love it. So the halibut was delicious. The rest of it? Eh. I could take it or leave it. I hate, hate, hate putting toasted bread on the bottom of a soup bowl and pouring soup on top of it. The bread instantly becomes soggy, and hence disgusting. The Book is very big on the soggy-bread-in-the-soup method and I just don't get it. Plus, this soup was already served with soggy bread sauce (aka rouille), so why did we need more soggy bread? We really didn't. The flavor of the soup was fishy (as one would expect). The fish flavor from the fish stock drowned out some of the other things I was hoping to taste, like the fennel. But it wasn't bad. Nobody had anything terrible to say about this dish, nor any particularly high praise for it. It was a decent fish soup, which I am unlikely to make again.

The recipe in The Book is similar to this one, but the one in The Book doesn't call for clams or mussels.

Only 43 recipes left to go!

Nothing makes you realize how much you work like having someone visit that you want to spend time with. My mom was here this week, and at the end of every day I thought, "I wish I had had more time to spend with my mom." That's not to say that we didn't do anything fun -- we did. We watched the Super Bowl, we had some of my friends over one night, we went to the MSU/Penn State basketball game, we went out to eat a couple times, we did some shopping, we watched a movie... But most days I left for work before my mom woke up and there were several nights when I was still working (although at least from home) at midnight. And I did a lot of multi-tasking -- when I was "watching" the Super Bowl, I was simultaneously writing midterm exams. It was a busy week. On top of the usual stuff, I was giving exams in both my classes. Between writing the exams, grading the exams, and helping nervous students prepare for the exams, it adds up. With just one class (or several sections of the same course) it is pretty manageable, but this term I am teaching two classes that are very different from one another so it was a significant amount of work. I also had research-related deadlines/meetings/goals for the week that contributed to the busyness.

This coming week, I think, is going to be significantly less busy. Looking at my calendar, it seems like it will be a piece of cake! I am hoping to have a productive week and not put off a long list of tasks for the weekend (like I usually do!) because Mike and Tim are coming to visit. They will be here next weekend and I am already scheming about what kind of crazy Book dinner we will make... Sweetbreads are definitely on the menu, and I have been thinking about making some snails too (plus some beef, so that we have something to eat if everything else is too unappetizing!). Fun! Speaking of Mike, it's his birthday today. Happy Birthday to Mike, who is always willing to cook and eat crazy shit from The Book with me! That's a sign of a good friend!

Rouille (Page 347)

2011-02-07T21:24:00.000-08:00

RECIPE #1249

Date: Friday, December 31, 2010 -- 7pm
Location: Westerville, OH
Kitchen: Karen and Dave's House
Dining Companions: Matty, Karen H, Dave, Brad, and Deniz
Recipe Rating: B-

This recipe was a component of a fish stew I made for New Year's Eve at my special gentleman's parents' house. I am not a huge fan of soggy bread, so rouille is never my favorite. This soggy bread and garlic based sauce was simple to make. I poured water over some fresh bread crumbs that I made from a baguette. Then I mashed together garlic, sea salt, and cayenne. I mashed the wet bread crumbs into the garlic mixture, then added olive oil. That was it. The result was exactly how it sounds: soggy bread with garlic, cayenne, salt, and oil. To be fair, while it certainly wasn't something I would be interested in eating by the spoonful, it did add flavor to the stew that it was served with. In the past I have made rouille in the food processor and the texture came out better. My mashing by hand didn't incorporate the bread crumbs well enough to make this really feel like a sauce.

The recipe is here.

Only 44 recipes left to go!

My special gentleman is traveling a lot this semester. He has been away since Friday, and is arriving home late tonight (or very early tomorrow morning, depending on how you look at it). He will teach his class tomorrow afternoon, then fly out again tomorrow evening for another trip, which will last almost a week. I have to admit it, I don't like it when he is away. We basically have the same job, and I also travel a lot, so of course I understand why it is necessary and I never try to stop him from traveling. But that doesn't mean I enjoy it when he travels. You would think that after years of living in different states I would be accustomed to being apart. These short trips are nothing compared to the amount of time we spent apart when he lived in Boston and I lived in Indiana, for instance. But I think those years apart made me more sensitive to distance rather than less. When he calls me at night from some faraway state or country, I can't help but think of the hundreds of times we had similar good-night phone calls when we lived apart. At least for that second I feel as though we are living apart again, and it is a terrible feeling. Plus, for reasons I can't explain, I am less productive when he is away. I am less focused, less motivated... So when he is traveling I count down the days. And I look forward to the summer, when we can travel together rather than separately.

Luckily, this week my mom is visiting, so my attitude about my special gentleman being away isn't nearly as bad as it otherwise would be. We have been having a really fun time!

Crown Roast of Lamb (Page 499)

2011-02-01T19:59:00.000-08:00

RECIPE #1248

Date: Friday, December 31, 2010 -- 7pm
Location: Westerville, OH
Kitchen: Karen and Dave's House
Dining Companions: Matty, Dave, Karen H, Brad, and Deniz
Recipe Rating: B+

My parents and my special gentleman's parents both do not like lamb. My special gentleman and I have long been puzzled by this fact, as lamb is delicious. It's true that lamb prepared badly can be really bad, much more so than with beef, for instance. But lamb prepared nicely is absolutely divine. This was the last lamb recipe I had left to make for my project, and I would have made it long ago, but crown roast of lamb isn't so easy to find. When I saw it at the Whole Foods near my in-laws' house, I was desperate to buy it. But first, we had to talk them into letting us make lamb for dinner! Luckily, they are very open-minded about trying things, and were willing to consider the possibility that the lamb they had in the past just hadn't been cooked well. Plus, we promised to make another dish to go with this one that they were certain to like: Bouillabaisse! So, a New Year's Eve feast was born. We had crown roast of lamb. We had fish stew with lobster in it. We had porcini risotto, and a big salad. We had a caramelized pear tart. It was a feast fit for New Year's Eve!

This recipe was super-simple to make. I rubbed the crown roast with a mixture of garlic, thyme, rosemary, salt, and pepper. I put a ball of foil in the center to help it hold its shape. I also covered the bone ends with foil. I roasted it in the oven until it reached an internal temperature of 135 degrees. While it rested I deglazed the pan with beef stock. I added thyme, rosemary, arrowroot, cream, and port, and boiled until it was thick. I seasoned with salt and pepper. I served the crown roast with the pan sauce. That was it! This lamb was tasty. It was cooked nicely and the herb rub contributed a good flavor to the meat. The pan sauce was delicious. I gave this one a B+ rather than an A- only because there are much better lamb recipes out there. In particular there are more than a few lamb recipes in The Book which are more interesting and delicious than this dish. I liked this dish a lot, but it wasn't spectacular, and I doubt I will make it again. That said, it did convince my in-laws that not all lamb is bad! They seemed to like it a lot actually. That's an outcome of the meal that I can feel good about: convincing a couple people that lamb can be tasty!

This recipe isn't online.

Only 45 recipes left to go!

I grew up in Wisconsin, and we occasionally had snow days when I was a kid (or sometimes, cold days). I definitely remember being excited when school would get canceled for snow. But I certainly don't remember ever being as excited as I was this evening when I found out that classes at MSU are canceled tomorrow! I did a dance. I sang a song about it. More than once. My special gentleman thought it was so funny that periodically throughout the evening he asked, "Hey, did you hear tomorrow is a snow day?" just so that he could see my song and dance again. Don't get me wrong, I love my job. But I have been very busy lately. And while I planned to take some time to relax this weekend, I ended up working a lot. Plus, Wednesdays are long days for me. I have two and half hours of office hours in the morning, which are usually quite populated with students as both my classes have homework assignments due Wednesday afternoons. I have 15-20 minutes scheduled to eat lunch between my office hours and when I teach, but often that amounts to eating granola at my desk while helping someone finish their assignment. Then I lecture an hour of calculus and an hour of "Foundations of Higher Mathematics," which is an introduction to proofs class, mostly populated by future elementary school teachers who are majoring in math. My two hours of lecture are followed almost immediately by two hours of seminars (first the algebra seminar, then the topology seminar), and often we go out to dinner with the speaker after the latter seminar. By the time I get home I am tired, and I haven't yet had any time in the day to work on my own research. So, if there is one day of the week when a snow day really helps me out, it's Wednesday. Tomorrow I am going to stay in my pajamas all day. I am going to drink hot chocolate while working in front of the fire. Thursday I don't have to teach and I don't have any appointments, so if it's still snowing I will stay home then too. That gives me two days to do some intensive work, without any distractions. Just thinking about it makes me want to do my snow day dance again! Supposedly they haven't called off classes at MSU because of snow in more than 20 years. But I am pretty delighted that they did now!

Oysters Rockefeller (Page 52)

2011-01-29T17:34:00.000-08:00

RECIPE #1247

Date: Tuesday, December 28, 2010 -- 6pm
Location: Westerville, OH
Kitchen: Karen and Dave's House
Fellow Chef: Matty
Dining Companions: Karen H, Dave, Wes, Brad, and Deniz
Recipe Rating: B

I hadn't made this recipe yet, as oysters aren't so easy to come by in Lansing. There is a huge Whole Foods near my in-laws' house in Ohio though, so when we were visiting them over the holidays I seized the opportunity to make this hors d'oeuvre. My special gentleman graciously agreed to shuck the oysters for me (not my favorite job!). He also cleaned the shells once the oysters had been shucked. Meanwhile, I stirred together finely chopped Boston lettuce, spinach, scallions, dried bread crumbs, parsley, celery, and garlic. I cooked the mixture in butter, then added some Pernod, anchovy paste, cayenne, salt, and pepper. While the mixture cooled I cooked some bacon, then crumbled it. I stabilized the bottom halves of the oyster shells on a baking sheet using kosher salt. I placed an oyster in each shell and moistened them with some of the oyster liquor. I put some of the vegetable mixture on top of each oyster, then piled on some crumbled bacon and more dried bread crumbs. I baked them until the edges of the oysters curled, then we served them. These oysters were pretty good. The flavor of the vegetable mixture was nice and the bacon was, of course, a delicious addition. I didn't care so much for the extra bread crumbs on top. I can imagine bread crumbs that would have achieved a delicious crunchy texture. But the recipe called for fine dried bread crumbs which instead of giving the oysters a nice crunch, gave them a doughiness that I didn't like. The ratio of topping to oyster also seemed a bit high. So while they were tasty, they weren't amazing, and I probably won't make them again.

The recipe in The Book is very similar to this one.

Only 46 recipes left to go!

I did laundry today. As I was putting the second load into the washing machine, I realized that I hadn't done laundry in over a month. Yet somehow my underwear drawer was never empty and there were always clean pants in my closet. I haven't been to the grocery store in three weeks, yet there is food in the fridge. And while I have only loaded the dishwasher once or twice this month, all the dishes are clean. Basically my special gentleman is amazing. This month was tremendously hectic, and in the little free time that I had, I opted to get some sleep rather than help around the house. Not once this month did my special gentleman complain. Now, the tables are turning. The big things that were making this month crazy for me are now all off my plate, and my responsibilities are back to just the usual ones. My special gentleman, on the other hand, is entering a month full of travel, visitors, and extra time-consuming responsibilities. He is working even harder than usual. So today I did the laundry and made dinner. Tomorrow I will go to the grocery store. I will likely be doing most of the dishes this month. There is a rhythm to our marriage that I appreciate more and more with each passing month. When one of us is exceptionally busy the other person always manages to pick up the slack, without discussion. When we are both extremely busy, we work together to get the things done that absolutely need to be done. What I appreciate about it the most is that it's easy. I always imagined marriage as a partnership that would be empowering. And indeed it is. As a month of craziness comes to a close I am especially thankful for my special gentleman, and hopeful that as his crazy month begins I can be as supportive to him as he was to me these past four weeks.

Minced Squab and Pork with Rice Stick Noodles (Page 408)

2011-01-23T19:00:00.000-08:00

RECIPE #1246

Date: Tuesday, November 30, 2010 -- 7pm
Location: East Lansing, MI
Kitchen: Our House
Fellow Chef: Matty
Recipe Rating: C+

There are three squab recipes in The Book, which I hadn't made because it turns out squab isn't so easy to fine. I finally got my hands on some though, so my special gentleman and I made this recipe. We started by soaking dried shitakes in water, then mincing them. I also minced some squab and pork tenderloin, then marinated the meat in a mixture of soy sauce, rice wine, and sesame oil. While that was marinating, we deep-fried rice stick noodles. I made a sauce of water, soy sauce, sesame oil, sugar, salt, and cornstarch. Then I heated some peanut oil in a wok and stir-fried the squab mixture with the mushrooms, scallions, ginger, water chestnuts, and the sauce. We served the meat on the rice noodles, with Boston lettuce leaves for wrapping. My special gentleman and I both had similar reactions to this dish. It looked and smelled like something we would really want to eat. But it didn't taste that way. Both components of this dish were disappointing. The deep-fried rice noodles were cool in a way. I had never fried rice noodles before and the way they puffed up was really interesting. But they were terribly bland, and as soon as the meat mixture sat of them for a few seconds they were soggy and gross. Ick. As for the minced pork and squab mixture, it just didn't taste very good. Squab has a distinct flavor which didn't go well with the Asian flavors in the dish. I would have liked the dish better with just pork. The pigeon definitely didn't help it. My special gentleman and I wanted to like this dish, but just didn't particularly.

This recipe isn't online.

Only 47 recipes left to go!

I haven't blogged in ages. I have been swamped this month. I had a bunch of work that needed to get done before the semester started, so I was working very long days during the first week of the new year. The second week of January was the first week of classes, which is always a bit of a mad house. And this past week, I was traveling for work from Sunday to Saturday. Missing the second week of classes was obviously not ideal, and it took some real work to get ready to go away. But some kind souls covered my classes for me, my trip went well, and now I am home. Being home again means catching up on all the things I got behind on while I was away. That includes not just work, but also things like running, cooking, and blogging! Also, relaxing. My flight got in yesterday afternoon, and I will admit that I spent the rest of the day napping, eating, and just hanging out with my special gentleman. It was delightful. Today, confronted with all the work I could have started catching up on yesterday, I regretted it a bit. But I needed a day off. It is looking like this is going to be another very busy week, but I am hoping things will settle down pretty soon. I knew that the month of January would be rough, but I am not traveling at all in February, so likely things we feel a little less hectic then!

Chocolate Prune Pave with Armagnac Creme Anglaise and Candied Orange Zest (Page 820)

2011-01-08T18:17:00.000-08:00

RECIPE #1245

Date: Saturday, November 20, 2010 -- 6pm
Location: East Lansing, MI
Kitchen: Our House
Dining Companions: Matty, Helen, Charles, Clara, Corbett, Mary, Allison, Ben S., Marcie, Kendra, Jubin, Watson, Linda, and Bob K.
Recipe Rating: B

When we hosted our pre-Thanksgiving dinner in November, I only had two desserts left to make for my project. I chose this one to serve with dinner. I had put this off for a long time because chocolate and prunes just didn't sound that good together to me. But the time had come to finally make this dish! I started by pureeing prunes with Armagnac in a food processor. I then forced the puree through a medium-mesh sieve. When I first read this recipe I noticed it had an Active Time of one and a half hours. But reading the recipe it just didn't seem like it could possibly take that long. In fact, that steps all sounded very quick, and they weren't very many of them. Well, I quickly solved the mystery of the hour and a half. The step that took forever: forcing that puree through a sieve. Prune puree is very, very thick and gloppy. It did NOT want to go through a sieve. That step took a nice long while. Once that was done I melted some chocolate with cream then added it to the prune mixture and blended it all in the food processor. I poured it into a loaf pan that was oiled and lined with plastic wrap. I chilled it overnight, then inverted it out of the pan, topped it with Candied Orange Zest, and served it with Armagnac Creme Anglaise.

This dessert was much tastier than I expected it to be. I was worried about the prunes, but they were very subtle. Knowing they were there, it was easy to detect their flavor, but if I hadn't known I probably wouldn't have guessed. They actually contributed a fantastic sweetness and fruitiness to the dish. The predominant flavor, though, was that of the chocolate. The texture was very smooth. The dessert was quite rich -- in fact it was so rich and chocolatey that I found it hard to eat more than a few bites. Eating a slice of this was like eating a giant prune and Armagnac flavored truffle. I would have preferred a chocolate cake to this pave, but it certainly exceeded expectations!

This recipe isn't online.

Only 48 recipes left to go!

This was the last recipe I had left to make in the Fruit Desserts section of The Book! This section had some odd things in it (the Broiled Grapes in Mascarpone come to mind), but overall I enjoyed making these fruit recipes. In no particular order, my top 5 recipes from this section:

Fruit Crumble -- I have to include this one because this has become my go-to peach crumble. I have made this at least 10 times since first making it in 2006. It is super-fast, super-tasty, and easy to make for a huge crowd. If you need to throw together dessert for 50 people in a flash, this is the recipe for you!
Strawberry Shortcake -- My special gentleman still talks about this recipe, which we made back in 2006, shortly after he and I met. It was indeed memorable!
Baked Apples -- I made this one at the very beginning of my project, before I even started taking pictures of the dishes! These are the best baked apples I have ever had, and the recipe is so, so simple. The baked apples are filled with creme fraiche at the end and the result is superb!
Chilled Sour Cherry Soup -- Soup cherry soup is one of my special gentleman's all-time favorite foods and I still remember the shocked look he gave me when he realized that we could make it ourselves! This is a good version of the dish, and we make it often in our household.
Blackberry Cobbler -- Nothing says summer like a good fruit cobbler, and this one was indeed good! The biscuit topping was delicious and moist and the berry mixture was not too sweet. A winner!

Another section complete! Yay! I have so far completed 11 sections of The Book with only 10 sections left to finish. More than half the sections are complete -- I can hardly believe it! Plus, three of the sections I have left only have one recipe remaining, so hopefully I will finish them off soon!

Candied Orange Zest (Page 820)

2011-01-04T16:51:00.000-08:00

RECIPE #1244

Date: Saturday, November 20, 2010 -- 6pm
Location: East Lansing, MI
Kitchen: Our House
Dining Companions: Matty, Helen, Charles, Clara, Corbett, Mary, Allison, Ben S., Marcie, Kendra, Jubin, Watson, Linda, and Bob K.
Recipe Rating: B+

This recipe was a component of a dessert I made for our pre-Thanksgiving dinner a while back. This was super simple to make. I peeled some navel oranges and cut the zest into thin strips. Then I combined the zest with Cointreau and simmered until the liquid had evaporated and the zest was translucent. I spread the zest out on waxed paper to dry. That was it! This sort of thing is difficult to grade. Candied orange peel basically tastes like candied orange peel. There isn't a huge amount of variance. This peel was less sweet and more boozy than some though, which was an interesting change. It was pretty, and worked nicely as a garnish for the dessert that it was served with (which I will blog about next).

Only 49 recipes left to go!

I have been thinking the last few days about what my resolutions for the new year should be. Here are some that I have come up with:

Run every day that I am not traveling -- Over the last few years I have learned something about myself. If I resolve to run three days a week, I won't run at all. If I resolve to run every day, I will do it. Apparently, having the option of not doing it some days leads to me not doing it every day. The one exception I am giving myself: when I am traveling. Often when I travel I have little control over my schedule, and trying to fit in a run becomes very stressful.
Finish the Gourmet Project! -- Yes, I said that last year, and didn't quite make it, but this year I am going to do it! I have less than 50 recipes left, which is very manageable. I will finish in 2011!!
Eat some fruit every day -- Every year I say I am going to eat more fruits and vegetables. The reality is, I already eat a lot of vegetables, but I am just not a huge fruit person. It's not that I don't like it, but I never crave it, and hence don't eat it as much as I should.
Get eight hours of sleep every night -- I know, that sounds totally ridiculous. Who actually gets eight hours of sleep every night? Certainly not me. But I realized recently that when I do sleep a full eight hours I feel happier, more motivated, and I can think more clearly and hence get more work done. My special gentleman and I don't have kids so we still have the luxury of setting our own sleep schedule, and in 2011 I am going to take advantage of that. I am aiming for eight hours a night!
Bike to work every day -- I did a good job of this in the fall semester, but I would like to be sure to continue biking in 2011!
Stick to my work schedule -- I am more productive if my schedule has some structure to it, so I have a system that I use to self-impose some structure. In the fall, though, with the craziness of starting my new job, I got off schedule early in the term and never completely got back on it. In 2011 I am going to try to stick to my schedule a little better! I have LOTS of other work resolutions, but I won't list them all here.
Answer emails more quickly -- This one is in the front of my mind, as I have many, many emails awaiting response in my Inbox.
Explore the Lansing area and the rest of Michigan -- The fall was so busy that I didn't have time to do much exploration of the area we now live in. In fact, I haven't even gone hiking once since I moved here! In 2011 I would like to see more of Michigan: the sand dunes, the upper peninsula, etc... I want to go to a Lansing Lugnuts game, visit the zoo, canoe on the river... I have a long list!
Continue to build relationships in the math department, in the residential college, at church, in our neighborhood, etc...
Be a good wife, family member, and friend.

That's plenty to start off the year with! Looking at the list it seems to me that everything is very achievable (well, maybe with the exception of sleeping eight hours a night!). Hopefully a year from now I will be reflecting back on the success I had with my resolutions!

Grilled Turkey with Cranberry Gravy (Page 381)

2010-12-31T13:05:00.000-08:00

RECIPE #1243

Date: Saturday, November 20, 2010 -- 5pm
Location: East Lansing, MI
Kitchen: Our House
Fellow Chef: Matty
Dining Companions: Helen, Charles, Clara, Corbett, Mary, Allison, Ben S., Kendra, Jubin, Watson, Linda, and Bob K.
Recipe Rating: A

Part of the reason we threw our pre-Thanksgiving dinner party last month was because I still have several turkey recipes left to make from The Book. We selected this one for our party. I started by prepping the turkey. I stuffed the cavities with some lemon halves and herb sprigs. Then I seasoned the bird with salt and pepper and rubbed it with butter. I put it on a rack in a roasting pan and put some water in the pan. My special gentleman was in charge of grilling the bird. He turned off the middle burner on our gas grill and balanced two disposable loaf pans on the burner tents of the middle burner, under the grill rack. One loaf pan had water in it. We punched holes in the bottom of the other loaf pan and filled it with some apple wood chips which had been soaked in water. My special gentleman put the rack back on the grill and put the roasting pan with the turkey over the turned-off burner. He grilled the turkey over indirect heat for about three and a half hours. Meanwhile, I cooked some cranberries and sugar in a saucepan, then pureed them in the blender. When the turkey was done we took it off the grill and let it rest while we made the gravy. We reserved some turkey fat and discarded the rest of the fat off the pan juices. Then we deglazed the roasting pan. We made a roux from the reserved turkey fat and some flour, then added the pan juices, some chicken stock, and the pureed cranberries. We cooked the gravy until it had reduced appropriately, then we strained it and served it with the turkey.

In a word: Yum! It was easily the best turkey I have ever eaten. The flavor from the grill was amazing, and the meat came out fantastically moist and delicious. On top of that, the cranberry gravy was incredible. I will be making cranberry gravy for years to come. It was so, so good. Everyone raved about this turkey. In fact my special gentleman raved about it so much to his parents on the phone after our party that they requested that we make it again for them -- which we did this week! It turned out great again! We did learn one thing from the repeat preparation though. The Book says to keep the grill between 350 and 375. At home we couldn't get it up to 375 with one burner off, so we cooked it right around 350. Here at Dave and Karen's their grill easily got up to 375, so we cooked it at that temperature. Both turkeys had the same great flavor, but the one at our house was moister, so I would aim for 350 degrees in the future. I don't know how well this method would work for a huge turkey, but if you are looking to cook a 12-14 pound bird I highly recommend this recipe. Yum!!!!

The recipe is here, although the recipe online only gives instructions for a charcoal grill, whereas the one in The Book gives instructions for a gas grill too.

Only 50 recipes left to go!

Well it is that time of year again -- time to reflect on the resolutions I made for 2010 and see how I did:

Be a good homeowner and neighbor -- This one has gone pretty well. The house hasn't fallen down and to our knowledge we haven't pissed off any neighbors. So I will call this one a success.
Eat more fruits and vegetables -- I did pretty well with this one too. I have been stocking the fridge with fresh produce and we have definitely been consuming more fruits and vegetables than in the past!
Eat less processed food -- I would call this one a definite success. I stopped buying ramen, boxed mac and cheese, microwave popcorn, crackers, cookies, cereal, etc... more than six months ago now, and it has been great! We never ate a ton of processed food, but now we eat even less and I feel good about it. We make all our own bread, cereal, etc... and it has been great!
Finish the Gourmet Project! -- Well, clearly that didn't happen. But I have only got 50 recipes left to go (actually less as I am a little behind in my blogging), and I definitely WILL finish in 2011.
Run five 8-minute miles -- Ugh, this also didn't happen. I have no excuse.
Do 20 consecutive real push-ups -- Again, didn't happen. I've got no excuse other than laziness.
Get a lot of research done in my semester of not teaching -- I feel like I used my time pretty well last spring. I didn't accomplish as much as I would have hoped, but I never do.
Bring a lot of energy to my new job in the fall -- I think I did pretty well at this one. I am more or less happy with how my first semester went.
Be a good wife and friend -- I hope I did well at this!
Put effort into meeting people and making friends in East Lansing -- This went better than expected. I definitely put in a lot of effort trying to meet people, throw dinner parties, etc... and it paid off in a big way. Six months ago I barely knew anyone in East Lansing and now I feel like I have some friends there!

Overall, I feel pretty good about the last year. Certainly I didn't achieve my fitness goals, and that is something I would like to improve upon in 2011. But overall, I accomplished many of the things that I wanted to in 2010. Today I need to do a little reflection and think about what my resolutions should be for 2011!

Happy New Year's Eve!!

Fresh Corn Madeleines with Sour Cream and Caviar (Page 40)

2010-12-29T15:36:00.000-08:00

RECIPE #1242

Date: Saturday, November 20, 2010 -- 5pm
Location: East Lansing, MI
Kitchen: Our House
Fellow Chef: Matty
Dining Companions: Helen, Charles, Clara, Corbett, Mary, Allison, Ben S., Marcie, Kendra, Jubin, Watson, Linda, and Bob K.
Recipe Rating: B

I made these tiny madeleines as an hors d'oeuvre for our pre-Thanksgiving dinner party last month. I started by making the madeleine batter. I whisked together cornmeal, flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, and pepper. I added egg, buttermilk, melted butter and chopped corn kernels. I brushed mini-madeleine molds with butter, then spooned some batter into the molds and baked them off. Once the madeleines had cooled I piped sour cream on top of them, and topped some of them with caviar. I left a few of them without caviar, as not everyone loves to eat fish eggs. These madeleines were pretty tasty. I liked the texture of the madeleines themselves -- the corn kernels in them added nice contrast. The caviar gave each bite-sized treat a burst of flavor, but even without the caviar they were good. While I liked this dish and had no serious objections to it, I didn't find myself wanting to eat a lot of these little madeleines. I apparently wasn't alone in this sentiment -- with many other tasty food options, this was one dish that didn't get completely eaten at our party.

The recipe is here.

Only 51 recipes left to go!

A few weeks ago we were driving down the highway and we saw a horrible accident happen. It was snowing and the road was slippery. One car spun 360 degrees and another car slammed into it at highway speed. We were so focused on not hitting anyone or getting hit ourselves by the spinning cars that it didn't occur to us that we should stop until we were well past the accident and couldn't get back to it. So I called 911. They asked for the location of the accident and I described which interstate we were on and the mile marker at which the accident had happened. The dispatcher asked me, "Near (insert some city name I can't remember here)?" I answered, "I don't know. I'm not from around here." He took my name, thanked me for calling, and that was the end of the call. As soon as I hung up I realized I hadn't said which state I was in. Presumably cell phone 911 calls are routed to a dispatcher somewhere close to your current location, but the accident was near the Indiana/Michigan border and the interstate in question goes through both states. I hadn't mentioned that the accident was in Indiana. I felt terrible. I am sure a half a dozen people called 911 and reported that accident, so no doubt the rescue personnel arrived quickly. My concern was that because of my call rescue personnel were also dispatched to that mile marker on the interstate in Michigan, to find nothing there. Who knows what happened, and even if my call had gotten dispatched to Michigan rather than Indiana it would have been an honest mistake on my part. I certainly wasn't trying to send anyone on a wild goose chase. Yet I felt terrible. I spent the remaining hours of the car trip obsessing about how badly I felt. I have been wondering lately if I beat myself up too much about that kind of thing: situations where I have good intentions but end up making a mistake.

More than a decade ago now I dated a really sweet guy. At the time I tried to treat him well, but in retrospect I don't think I was always the best girlfriend. I feel badly about the way things ended between us, and about my half of the relationship in general. And although he has never complained to me about anything that I did, I have long felt like it wasn't my best showing. He and I exchange emails on occasion, maybe once every year or two, but we aren't close any more. A few days ago, though, I got a very nice email from him. The message was a thank-you for the love and support I gave him back then, which he said made his life better. He mentioned some general things he appreciated, but also some specific little things (e.g. I made oyster soup for his grandfather after his grandmother died years ago) which of course I had forgotten. When I read his email my first thought was, "This is really sweet of him. If I were a better person I would send more emails to the people from my past who made my life better." My second thought was, "Maybe I am too hard on myself." And maybe I am. The reality is, I did try hard to be good to him in that relationship, and although I made a lot of mistakes, what he remembers is that I tried hard. Perhaps that is what I should remember too. One of my goals for the new year is to try to cut myself a little slack.

Twenty-First-Century Beef Wellington (Page 418)

2010-12-26T10:22:00.000-08:00

RECIPE #1241

Date: Saturday, November 20, 2010 -- 5pm
Location: East Lansing, MI
Kitchen: Our House
Dining Companions: Matty, Helen, Charles, Clara, Corbett, Mary, Allison, Ben S., Kendra, Jubin, Watson, Linda, and Bob K.
Recipe Rating: B+

I made this Beef Wellington to serve at our Pre-Thanksgiving dinner last month. Calling this Beef Wellington (even with the Twenty-First-Century added on the front) feels like a bit of a misnomer. Traditional Beef Wellington involves coating beef tenderloin with pate de fois gras and mushroom duxelles, and then wrapping the whole thing in puff pastry and baking it. This recipe called for beef tenderloin to be coated with a cilantro walnut filling, and then wrapped in a sour cream dough that was closer to a pate brisee than a puff. Indeed while The Book calls this Twenty-First-Century Beef Wellington, online the recipe is called Beef en Croute with Coriander Walnut Filling, which seems like a much more appropriate name. The above might seem like a silly discussion, having little to do with the actual success of the recipe, but in this case it did influence my perspective on the dish. If you are expecting Beef Wellington, it's hard to eat this and not think, "This isn't Beef Wellington," and feel a little disappointed. If you were expecting Beef en Croute with Coriander Walnut Filling, this dish wouldn't have been at all disappointing.

To make the dish I started by preparing the filling and dough (see posts below). I seasoned and seared the beef tenderloin. I put some of the filling on the dough, then set the beef on top of the filling and spread the remaining filling on the beef. I carefully wrapped the dough around the beef and decorated with some dough cut-outs. I brushed everything with egg wash, then chilled it for an hour. I baked the beef wrapped in dough until the beef reached 115 degrees. After it rested it was ready to serve! The dish was pretty tasty. It's hard to go too wrong with beef tenderloin, and wrapping meat in pastry is almost always a good idea. I wasn't super-crazy about the cilantro walnut filling though. It was neither great nor terrible. It certainly wasn't mushroom duxelles and pate de fois gras -- Yum!! If I were going to make this type of beef en croute again, I would definitely replace the cilantro filling with duxelles. But even as it was, it was quite tasty. It made for an elegant addition to our Pre-Thanksgiving dinner.

The recipe is here.

Only 52 recipes left to go!

Merry Christmas! My special gentleman and I have had a lovely holiday, full of celebrations! On the 22nd my immediate family went out for a very nice dinner then the six of us opened presents at my parents' place in Madison. The next day we headed to Oshkosh, Wisconsin where my extended family lives. The whole family gathered at a local bar for hours of card playing and catching up. On Christmas Eve we went to my aunt's house, where the 24 people on my mom's side of the family gathered to eat turkey, open gifts, play cards, and take the annual family Christmas photo:

It is always fun celebrating with my mom's family, and this year was no exception. The highlight: my cousin Alex doing the Double Dream Hands dance along with the instructional video. Apparently he memorized it during finals week. Ah, to be an undergraduate!

Early in the evening on Christmas Eve we left Wisconsin and headed for my special gentleman's family in Ohio. The upside of driving through the night on Christmas was that there was no traffic. The downside was that the weather was really rotten for the first 4 or so hours of the drive, and nothing was open along the way, save for one McDonald's. In total it took about 9 hours, but we made it and got a few hours of sleep before it was time to open gifts on Christmas morning. After present-opening my mother-in-law's extended family came over for dinner. The 24 of us ate beef tenderloin and exchanged gifts. We ended the evening with a round of Kill Doctor Lucky, followed by a game of Risk that lasted until 2am. Today we are preparing for another celebration as my father-in-law's family is coming over to celebrate Christmas. We are expecting 26 people for dinner. Speaking of, I should go help with the preparations.

Merry Christmas! I hoping everyone is having a fantastic holiday season filled with loved ones!

Sour Cream Pastry Dough (Page 419)

2010-12-19T19:07:00.000-08:00

RECIPE #1240

Date: Saturday, November 20, 2010 -- 5pm
Location: East Lansing, MI
Kitchen: Our House
Dining Companions: Matty, Helen, Charles, Clara, Corbett, Mary, Allison, Ben S., Kendra, Jubin, Watson, Linda, and Bob K.
Recipe Rating: A-

This dough was a component of a beef wellington recipe that I made for our pre-Thanksgiving dinner last month. This was a standard pastry dough recipe, made with flour, butter, salt, sour cream, and water. The dough was lovely -- it rolled out beautifully and was generally easy to work with. And once baked it came out very flaky and delicious. It was the perfect dough for encasing a big piece of beef.

The recipe is here.

Only 53 recipes left to go!

Whew -- the last few days have been a mad rush to finish up the semester and get ready for Christmas! On Wednesday I administered my final exam, so the latter half of the week included a lot of grading! It also included some more enjoyable activities: lunches and dinners with friends, a Christmas cookie party, Happy Hour with colleagues, an MSU basketball game, and of course: Christmas shopping! It was a hectic few days. Now I am happy to say that most of the Christmas cards are written, the presents have been purchased and wrapped, and my course grades have been submitted. So I am ready for the holiday! This morning I drove from our house to my parents' place in Madison, WI. The six hour drive was very easy -- nice weather and no traffic (even in Chicago!). My special gentleman is dropping off the kittens at his parents' house and spending a couple days there before meeting me in Madison. We will stay in Wisconsin through Christmas Eve, then drive through the night to be in Ohio with my special gentleman's family on Christmas Day. All of our siblings are coming home for Christmas this year, and we are very excited to see everyone! This is one of my favorite times of year!

Cilantro Walnut Filling (Page 420)

2010-12-14T19:39:00.000-08:00

RECIPE #1239

Date: Saturday, November 20, 2010 -- 5pm
Location: East Lansing, MI
Kitchen: Our House
Dining Companions: Matty, Helen, Charles, Clara, Corbett, Mary, Allison, Ben S., Kendra, Jubin, Watson, Linda, and Bob K.
Recipe Rating: B

This was a component of a beef dish that I made for our pre-Thanksgiving dinner a few weeks ago. I started by blanching some spinach, cilantro, and parsley. Then I drained the greens and squeezed out as much liquid as possible. I toasted some walnuts and ground them in a food processor. I added the greens, garlic, fresh bread crumbs, honey, egg whites, salt, cumin, coriander, and pepper and pulsed until smooth. I thought this filling was pretty good. It begged to be compared with pesto -- nuts, herbs, and garlic ground up together. But I think the basil-pine nut combination in pesto works better than the spinach-cilantro-parsley-walnut combination did here. That's not to say that it was bad. It wasn't. It just wasn't as good as an excellent pesto. And although I liked it pretty well in the beef dish, I couldn't shake the feeling that it wasn't the best filling for the job. This recipe was perfectly satisfactory, but I wouldn't make it again.

Only 54 recipes left to go!

The recipe is here.

And just like that, the semester is ending. Tomorrow morning at 7:45am I give my final exam. Once the exams are graded and the course grades are computed and submitted, I will be done for the term! I am ready for the semester to be over, but nonetheless I feel like the end snuck up on me. On the one hand I feel as though the semester flew by. On the other hand, if I think about how much more comfortable I feel in my new job now than I did at the beginning of the semester, it makes September seem like ages ago. New situations make me nervous. And in starting this new job there were a lot of new situations, and hence a lot of anxiety. As the semester went on I could feel my stress level dropping each week though, as fewer and fewer things were new. I got into a routine. I learned the basics about how things work in both units in which I am appointed. I made friends. And slowly I became more and more comfortable. Indeed I think next semester will go much more smoothly than this one, if for no other reason than that I will be so much less anxious. In the meantime, I am in the midst of finals week. Hopefully my students do well tomorrow morning!

Foolproof Grilled Chicken (Page 363)

2010-12-08T17:59:00.000-08:00

RECIPE #1238

Date: Saturday, November 6, 2010 -- 7pm
Location: East Lansing, MI
Kitchen: Our House
Fellow Chef: Matty
Dining Companion: Brad and Deniz
Recipe Rating: A-

My special gentleman and I made this recipe when his brother and sister-in-law came to visit last month. I started by brining the chicken overnight in a mixture of water, salt, and sugar. Then we made a vinaigrette of lime juice, fish sauce, minced garlic, cilantro, mint, red pepper flakes, salt, and vegetable oil. My special gentleman seared the chicken pieces on the grill, then moved them to a part of the grill where they got only indirect heat and continued to cook them. When the chicken pieces were cooked through he tossed them with the vinaigrette and served them with grilled limes. This grilled chicken was quite tasty. I am always a fan of brining and this recipe didn't disappoint. The meat came out moist and flavorful. The vinaigrette added nicely to the dish. The bold flavors in it stood up well against the char on the chicken from the grill. Everyone seemed to enjoy this dish quite a bit -- Deniz noted how much she liked it at least five times during the meal! It was definitely one of the better grilled chicken dishes I have had.

The recipe is here.

Only 55 recipes left to go!

My apologies for the blog silence. We had a bit of drama in our household this week. Over the weekend my special gentleman and I went down to Bloomington, Indiana. As we were only gone for two nights, we left the cats home alone and had our friends come and feed them on Saturday. We arrived home Sunday evening, excited to see our little kittens after a weekend without them! Little did we know the unpleasant surprise awaiting us. Apparently the kitties had gotten hungry between when they were fed on Saturday and when we got home on Sunday. So they went looking for something to eat. What did they find? Rat poison! We obviously had no idea it was there -- apparently it was left somewhere in the basement by the previous owners. We still don't know exactly where the cats found it. We had scoured the basement, removing hazards, before letting them down there. But the basement has crawlspaces, and vents, etc... and obviously we missed something. Somewhere they found a package of rat poison. They had chewed the package open and eaten the poison!

We went immediately to the veterinary hospital where the kitties were given activated charcoal. We were assured again and again that unlike dogs, cats don't actually eat rat poison. They may play around with it, but cats never eat it. The activated charcoal was a precaution, they said. An hour later the cats started pooping out pellets of poison. Apparently our cats aren't typical cats! They had indeed eaten it. Rat poison is scary stuff. It works by blocking production of Vitamin K, which causes the animal to internally bleed to death. There is a delay of 2-3 days before symptoms appear, so if you didn't know that your cat had eaten it, it would probably look fine for a few days and then just die. The treatment, after getting as much of the poison out of their system as possible, is Vitamin K therapy. After many terrifying hours at the veterinary hospital we were able to take the kittens back home. They were horribly sick all night on Sunday (from the charcoal and sorbitol that they got at the hospital) -- they cried and cried and we felt terrible for them. Each day since then they have gotten better though, and today they are acting like their usual selves. We need to give them Vitamin K twice a day for the next month, but it looks like they will be fine.

It was a horrible and scary few days. We love our little kitties so much and the idea of losing them was terrifying. And on top of the fear of course we both felt terrible that we had let them in the basement when there was rat poison down there. Now I feel hugely relieved and tremendously lucky that they are going to be OK. Poor little kitties.

Apricot Souffles with Vanilla Rum Creme Anglaise (Page 843)

2010-12-02T19:32:00.000-08:00

RECIPE #1237

Date: Friday, October 15, 2010 -- 7pm
Location: East Lansing, MI
Kitchen: Our House
Fellow Chefs: Clara and Helen
Dining Companions: Matty, Charles, Karen H, and Dave
Recipe Rating: A-

I would have made this dish earlier but it specified that it needed to be made with dried California apricots. Most dried apricots you find in stores are from Turkey, not California. Eventually I gave up finding California apricots in the store and ordered them online. To prepare this dish I started by boiling the apricots in water and sugar and then pureeing the mixture until it was smooth. I stirred in some lemon juice, rum, vanilla, and salt. I beat egg whites with salt and cream of tartar. Little Clara helped me add sugar to the whites and I continued to beat them until they reached stiff peaks. I folded the whites into the apricots then ladled the mixture into buttered and sugared ramekins. I baked them until they were puffed and golden. Helen helped me pour some of the Vanilla Rum Creme Anglaise into each souffle and then they were ready to be served! These souffles were quite good. I could actually taste the difference in flavor between California apricots and Turkish apricots in this dish, and I think it was worth it to go out of my way to find the apricots from California. The texture of the souffles came out absolutely perfect. They rose well and were cooked nicely. The creme anglaise gave the dish some richness and contrast, which was lovely. Would I have preferred to have a chocolate souffle? Probably. But if you are going to make an apricot souffle, this is about as good as it is going to get.

Only 56 recipes left to go!

This was the last recipe in the Puddings, Custards, Mousses, and Souffles section of The Book! In no particular order, my five favorite recipes from this section:

Almond Flan with Summer Fruit -- I usually don't particularly like flan. It can be gelatinous and eggy. But this flan was awesome. It had a fabulous almond flavor and a wonderful smooth texture. We ate this in Charlottesville with Tom and Ashley after a lovely meal of fish tacos. Good memories!
Sticky Toffee Pudding with Toffee Sauce -- I made this one with Mike and we were deeply, deeply skeptical. The dish was largely baked pureed dates, which we weren't so sure we would like. And it looked... well... not so appealing. But one bite and we changed our minds! Oh my gosh -- Yum!! Mike and I still reminisce about this dish frequently.
Warm Tapioca Pudding with Rhubarb -- I love, Love, LOVE pudding, and particularly tapioca pudding, so I was super-excited about this recipe. It was great with the rhubarb, but the pudding would be delicious even without the rhubarb topping! I made this back in graduate school for a Wednesday dinner -- a tradition where a bunch of friends would get together on Wednesday nights and cook from The Book. That night I got so wrapped up in the dinner conversation that I neglected this pudding and it burnt to the bottom of the pot. It was still tasty though!
Sticky Rice with Mango -- Although I love sticky rice, I had never made it myself before making this dish. The coconut sauce was out-of-this-world, and the rice came out appropriately sticky and moist. I made this for dinner with my special gentleman's family. My brother-in-law Brad made an awesome Indian dinner and I made this dessert. Teamwork!
Classic Creme Brulee -- It's hard to go wrong with a classic like creme brulee. This wasn't the best creme brulee I have ever had, but it was still super tasty. I made this for dinner with Mike, Teresa, Cornelia, and Tricia in Bloomington and we were all scraping every last bit out of our creme brulee dishes.

These dishes bring back such great memories -- not just of the food but also of the good friends that I ate them with! now I have 10 sections completed and 11 left to complete! Almost done!!

Vanilla Rum Creme Anglaise (Page 844)

2010-12-01T13:24:00.000-08:00

RECIPE #1236

Date: Friday, October 15, 2010 -- 7pm
Location: East Lansing, MI
Kitchen: Our House
Dining Companions: Matty, Helen, Charles, Clara, Dave, and Karen H
Recipe Rating: A-

This recipe was a component of a souffle dish I made when my in-laws came to visit last month. I forgot to take a picture of the creme anglaise alone, but you can see a bit of it dripping out of the souffle above. I started by boiling half-and-half with a vanilla bean. Then I scraped the seeds of the vanilla bean into the half-and-half and discarded the pod. I whisked egg yolks, salt, and sugar, and added the hot half-and-half. I cooked the mixture on the stovetop, stirring, until it reached 170 degrees. Then I strained it and cooled. I stirred some rum into the sauce and refrigerated it until it was very cold. As expected, this sauce was delicious! It's hard to go wrong with creme anglaise. It is rich and flavorful and wonderful. The balance of vanilla and rum was great in this sauce and it complemented the souffles very well!

The recipe is here.

Only 57 recipes left to go!

When I was in culinary school I was instructed by several excellent chefs. Chef Stephan was the one who made the largest impact. I was mildly terrified of him. He had a way of shouting my name across the kitchen that could stop me in my tracks. His standards were extremely high and he wasn't particularly flexible about them. I remember more than one occasion when it was 1am and everyone was exhausted and ready to go home but Chef Stephan would make someone re-plate their dish because he or she had violated some rule for proper plating. We all had to wait for this re-plating to occur before the food could be critiqued and the kitchen cleaned. Not infrequently we were still in the kitchen at 2am and everyone was cursing Chef Stephan under their breath. Secretly, everyone loved him. I think often of the lessons I learned from him. He taught me a lesson one night about seasoning that honestly changed my life. It involved a vat of pureed vegetable soup, a dozen small dishes, and a box of salt. It was simple enough, but an absolutely brilliant example of what my colleagues would call "active learning."

Chef Stephan wasn't a particularly warm and fuzzy kind of guy. He was more scary than cuddly. But he had a soft spot for at least one thing: creme anglaise. Every time we were in the kitchen he would instruct the person making the dessert to make some creme anglaise to go with it. Chef Stephan thought everything went well with creme anglaise. Cheesecake and creme anglaise? Sure. Ice cream with creme anglaise? Why not. He would drink the leftover creme anglaise out of a mug at the end of class. Creme anglaise is incredibly rich (being mostly egg yolks with heavy cream or half-and-half)-- every time I saw him drink it by the cupful my stomach would turn a little. Chef Stephan lived near the culinary school and rumor had it that late at night he would raid the school walk-ins for leftover creme anglaise from other classes and drink that too.

While I was in school, Chef Stephan's partner died of cancer. Everyone felt terrible, and helpless. I did the only thing I could think to do: I made creme anglaise for him. I carefully labeled my container of creme anglaise, "For Chef Stephan." When I opened the walk-in to leave it inside, I was greeted by container after container of creme anglaise, each labeled "For Chef Stephan" with a different handwriting. It was really moving.

I think of Chef Stephan every time I make creme anglaise. Remembering his class always brings a smile to his face. Now that I am a teacher myself I think often about the examples of excellent instruction that I have experienced in my own life. Chef Stephan's course certainly stands out as an amazing learning experience.

Grilled Lobster with Orange Chipotle Vinaigrette (Page 338)

2010-11-28T18:18:00.000-08:00

RECIPE #1235

Date: Friday, October 15, 2010 -- 6pm
Location: East Lansing, MI
Kitchen: Our House
Fellow Chef: Matty
Dining Companions: Dave, Karen H, Helen, Charles, and Clara
Recipe Rating: B

My in-laws, Karen and Dave, like lobster, so we made this dish for them when they came to visit last month. I started by plunging live lobsters into boiling water and partially cooking them. I then took the tails and claws off the bodies, discarded the bodies, and halved the tails lengthwise. I prepared a vinaigrette of orange zest, orange juice, white wine vinegar, chopped canned chipotle chiles in adobo, sea salt, brown sugar, olive oil, and basil. I reserved some of the vinaigrette in a pitcher and brushed the lobster tails with some of the remaining vinaigrette. My special gentleman grilled the claws and the tails, brushing the tails with more vinaigrette as necessary. We served the lobster with the pitcher of reserved vinaigrette. The tails are pictured above and the claws are pictured below:

I admit, I am not really a lobster person. I can understand why people enjoy it, but I just don't get too excited about lobster. That said, this preparation seemed perfectly fine. Preparing the dish was very easy, but the end result was plenty flavorful. Everyone seemed to like it well enough, but no one was wowed by it. Although I liked the flavor of the orange chipotle vinaigrette, I couldn't help but wonder if the dish would have been more successful had the grilled lobster just been served with melted butter. As it was the vinaigrette was tasty, but it didn't complement the lobster as well as one might have hoped. I would have preferred to dip my lobster in butter!

The recipe is here.

Only 58 recipes left to go!

What a lovely holiday weekend! On Wednesday after I taught my class (yes, I am the kind of professor who doesn't cancel class the day before Thanksgiving!) we drove down to Columbus, Ohio, where my in-laws live. This was our first road trip with our cats, and I was a little nervous about that aspect of it. The drive is only about 4 hours though, and they did really well. They whined in their crate for a long while, but they didn't have any accidents or get carsick so I will call it a success! On Thursday we had a big Thanksgiving dinner at my special gentleman's aunt and uncle's house. It was a bit dramatic: there was a fire in the kitchen. The house filled with smoke. Thankfully the food survived -- although everything had a slightly smoky flavor! Regardless, it was a lovely meal.

On Friday we cut down a Christmas tree then put it up in Dave and Karen's house -- a day-after-Thanksgiving tradition in their family! Yesterday we watched a lot of college football. With Wisconsin, Michigan State, Ohio State, and Stanford all good this year, there were a number of games yesterday that someone felt invested in. We spent the rest of the weekend eating wonderful meals, playing cards, catching up, playing with the kitties... it was extremely restful. Indeed it was just the break I needed before these last couple weeks of the semester! This morning we left Ohio early so we could make it back to East Lansing in time to go to the basketball game. We cheered the Spartans on to another victory! And now I am working, trying to catch up on some of the work I had planned to do over the holiday, but didn't. Whoops! I don't feel too guilty about it. I needed a break!

Roasted Guinea Hens with Whole-Grain Mustard and Herbs (Page 404)

2010-11-23T15:20:00.000-08:00

RECIPE #1234

Date: Friday, October 15, 2010 -- 6pm
Location: East Lansing, MI
Kitchen: Our House
Dining Companions: Matty, Karen H, Dave, Helen, Charles, and Clara
Recipe Rating: B+

I have a lot of recipes left in the Poultry section of The Book, so I ordered some guinea hens a few weeks ago and made this recipe. I started by boiling some heads of garlic and fingerling potatoes. Then I made a compound butter with mustard and chives. I pushed some of the butter between the skin and flesh of the birds, put some herb stems in the cavities, and then brushed the birds with melted butter. I put the hens in a hot roasting pan, along with the potatoes and some shallots. I basted the hens frequently, eventually adding the garlic and some fresh thyme. When the birds were cooked to 170 degrees, I removed them from the oven and made a pan sauce. I deglazed the pan with chicken stock, strained the liquid, and added some reserved mustard butter, salt, and pepper. I scattered chopped herbs over the birds and served them with the sauce. This dish was pretty good, but apparently rather forgettable. I asked my special gentleman about it just now and he said, "We had guinea hens?" Followed by, "Did we grill them?" And my favorite of all: "Did we have people over that night?" Ah, the middle of the semester is always a blur I suppose. Indeed we had guinea hens, we did not grill them, and yes, we had people over. With that prompting he finally remembered the dish and said, "Oh, those guinea hens. Yeah, those were tasty." They were pretty tasty. The skin was crispy and the meat was nicely cooked. My main issue with the dish was that the potatoes didn't come out very well. Something about their preparation made them rather gummy. I love potatoes and I didn't want to eat these. Indeed, without the potatoes it would have been a much more successful dish.

The recipe is here.

Only 59 recipes left to go!

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays and I always jump at any chance I get to cook Thanksgiving food. A few times in my life I have had the opportunity to host Thanksgiving. My first year in graduate school my parents came to Boston for the holiday. My friend Bridget and I hosted Thanksgiving for my parents and 15 or so of our fellow graduate students in my tiny apartment. I don't remember much about the food. Mostly I remember that it was so crowded that once everyone sat down there was no longer space to open the refrigerator or the oven!

A couple years later my parents came to Boston again for the holiday, and my brother came too. I made Thanksgiving dinner for the four of us, plus Mike. The food came out really well that year, and we had a nice, quiet family holiday.

My last year in graduate school my parents came to Boston again for Thanksgiving. We ate Thanksgiving dinner at Richard and Anita's house, but Chris and I were in charge of the cooking! Ana and Michael cooked with us too, and the four of us put out a Thanksgiving dinner to be proud of! At that time Michael didn't know that she had cancer, and we certainly had no idea that it would be her last Thanksgiving. It was a beautiful holiday and I feel very lucky to have celebrated it with Michael and the rest of the Douglas/Hanau family.

That was the last year that I was in charge of Thanksgiving dinner. Since then we have celebrated with my special gentleman's family every year, and they have their own family traditions. I usually get assigned a few things to make (last year I was in charge of hors d'oeurvres and stuffings), but I am never in charge of, say, the turkey. It makes for a low-stress holiday, which is nice, but I have grown to miss cooking Thanksgiving dinner. So this year my special gentleman and I hosted a pre-Thanksgiving at our house on Saturday. It was a chance to cook one of the turkeys left in The Book (and a bunch of other book recipes), and to celebrate a wonderful holiday with some of our new East Lansing friends!

We had 15 people for dinner. Our dining room fits 10 or 12, but 15 would be a stretch. So we took the furniture out of the living room and set up some tables in there:

Near the dining tables we also set up some tables to put the food on:

We had quite a Thanksgiving spread. People kept offering to bring things, which was fantastic. In the end, I felt like I didn't do much at all! For hors d'oeuvres I made some shrimp balls and some corn madeleines topped with caviar. For the dinner spread my special gentleman and I made a grilled turkey, cranberry gravy, beef wellington, applesauce, cranberry-cherry sauce, and jello salad (!). Helen and Charles brought green beans. Kendra and Jubin brought mashed potatoes and stuffed pumpkin. Corbett and Mary brought salad, and Ben and Marcie brought wine. It was a feast! Here's one table of food:

And another table of food:

I forgot to take a picture of the dessert spread, which was beautiful! I made some cookies and a chocolate prune pave with candied orange zest and Armagnac creme anglaise. Helen and Charles brought an apple spice cake. And Bob and Linda brought an apple pie (and a bottle of Goldschlager!).

The food was all delicious, and we were in great company. When we moved here I didn't really know anyone, and I was nervous about starting over in a new place, trying to meet people. Now I feel tremendously thankful for the friends we have made. My one regret about the dinner was that I forgot (again!) to take a picture of everyone around the table. It was great to host a Thanksgiving meal in our new house for the first time. And tomorrow after I teach we will head to Ohio for another wonderful Thanksgiving meal with my special gentleman's extended family on Thursday! I love the holiday season!

Ecuadorean Lenten Chowder (Page 115)

2010-11-22T12:26:00.000-08:00

RECIPE #1233

Date: Sunday, October 10, 2010 -- 7pm
Location: East Lansing, MI
Kitchen: Our House
Dining Companions: Matty and Josh G
Recipe Rating: C+

Our friend Josh came to visit and I wanted to make him at least one dinner while he was staying with us. Josh is mostly vegetarian, but he does eat fish. I chose this salt cod chowder because salt cod is one kind of fish that it is easy to find in East Lansing. I started by soaking the salt cod in water for several days, changing the water a few times each day. Then I made this chowder, which basically involved assembling all the ingredients and cooking them for different amounts of time. I won't go through it in excruciating detail. Rather, I will just list for you all the many, many ingredients that went into this: salt cod, anchiote seeds, oil, garlic, scallions, cumin, water, queso fresco, lentils, carrots, ears of corn, zucchini, butternut squash, green cabbage, lima beans, baby peas, green beans, whole milk, butter, kidney beans, chickpeas, pinto beans, hominy, hearts of palm, avocado, and hard-boiled eggs. Whew! Needless to say, this one took a while to prep. I found this recipe to be completely ridiculous. There were SO many ingredients, and so little of each one, that it was just a big incoherent mess. For instance, in this huge vat of chowder there was a quarter of a cup of lentils. Why even have the lentils in there then? I was convinced for a while that my serving didn't have a single lentil in it. Eventually I found one, but I couldn't get past how silly it was. I love every ingredient that went into this thing, but it was just such a mess that I didn't enjoy it. If you edited out at least half the ingredients there might be a tasty dish in there. My other issue was that the broth had a bad texture and a bland flavor. The queso fresco never quite melted all the way, so there were weird strands of cheese in the broth. And somehow despite the huge list of ingredients, the broth wasn't too flavorful. I had high hopes for this dish but I was disappointed by the result.

The recipe is here.

Only 60 recipes left to go!

When we moved to Michigan my husband felt strongly that we should fight the Midwestern tendency to drive everywhere. He's right, of course, that it would be better for the environment, our health, and our finances if we didn't drive all the time. So I agreed that I would try. We made efforts to increase our chance of success: We bought a house in a very walkable area. Our house is close to where we work. I bought a bike. I didn't promise to bike every day to work though. I just promised I would give it a try, and see how it went. Honestly, I thought I wouldn't like life as a bike commuter. I figured I would make it through September, and maybe October, but after a few cold rainy days I would call it quits and buy a campus parking permit. I am happy to say, I was wrong.

It was raining this morning when I biked to work, and unseasonably warm. I was so delighted to not be wearing my usual scarf, warm hat under my helmet, and mittens, that the rain bothered me not-at-all. This is week 13 of the semester, and I have biked to work every day so far [minus a week or so when I was sick from my new meds and my special gentleman had to drive me]. I have biked through pouring rain, cold temperatures, and falling snow. I am a little nervous to face the day when I wake up and there is substantial snow on the ground -- that hasn't happened yet this season! But I am optimistic that not only will I make it through the rest of this semester as a bike commuter, but that I will make it through many years to come. What I hadn't expected is that I love biking to work! And more and more the idea that I could drive to work seems completely ridiculous.

In the last week I have driven a total of 9 miles in the car -- and we did a lot of things in the past seven days! I am feeling really good about our efforts to bike and walk whenever we reasonably can. But the toughest weather of the year is ahead of us. My plan is to buy some serious cold-weather gear and strengthen my resolve to keep biking!

Tiramisu (Page 837)

2010-11-21T17:44:00.000-08:00

RECIPE #1232

Date: Friday, October 1, 2010 -- 7pm
Location: East Lansing, MI
Kitchen: Our House
Dining Companions: Matty, Teri, Terry, Helen, Charles, Clara, Kendra, Jubin, and Watson
Recipe Rating: B

I hadn't made this dessert yet because it makes me nervous serving raw eggs to company. I decided to make this though, and I found some pasteurized eggs in the shell. Unfortunately, my pasteurized eggs suffered a sad fate, but since I had already mentally committed to making the recipe, I did the unthinkable and adjusted the recipe just a tad to make it a little safer (adjustment to be explained later). I started by beating together egg yolks and sugar until thick and pale. The recipe called for this mixture to be left raw. But I went ahead and put the bowl on a double boiler and carefully cooked the mixture, whisking vigorously, until it was past 165 degrees (to kill salmonella). Then I proceeded with the recipe as written. I beat mascarpone into the yolk mixture. The I reconstituted some dried pasteurized egg whites (which I always have around the house because they are great for baking!) and beat them to stiff peaks with some salt and sugar. In a different bowl I beat heavy cream to soft peaks and then folded the cream and the whites into the yolk mixture. I combined very strong coffee with Marsala, then dipped savoiardi (crisp ladyfingers) into the mixture. I layered the soaked cookies with the mascarpone mixture, then refrigerated the tiramisu for several hours. Before serving I dusted it with cocoa.

This tiramisu was pretty good. The flavor was great. My one complaint was that the texture was too liquidy. The recipe directed you to soak the ladyfingers for 4 seconds on each side, which was WAY too long. Indeed they absorbed so much liquid that I ran out and had to brew more coffee. This recipe could have been great had the ladyfingers just been soaked for less time. As it was, it was still good!

The recipe is here.

Only 61 recipes left to go!

There are two complaints about Lansing/East Lansing that you hear relatively frequently from people who either live, or have lived, in the area:

There's no good food.
There's nothing to do.

There is certainly some truth to criticism number 1. Was it easier to find amazing restaurant food when we lived in Boston? Well, sure. But the reality is, we mostly eat at home. And although I would cry out of happiness if a Whole Foods came to East Lansing, the ingredient selection here really isn't too bad. We eat restaurant food at most one or two meals a week. There are a handful of restaurants here that we genuinely like, and since we don't go out too often, a handful is enough! Plus, we have friends that can cook! The best food we have eaten "out" by far was at our friends Helen and Charles' house. Eating there suffers from the disadvantage that you can't just show up on a random night and demand dinner (although, truth be told, we have never tried!), but the food they serve way exceeds what you would get even in a good restaurant.

As for criticism number 2, I just don't see it. There is SO much to do here, and it is SO easy to do things because there's no traffic, everything is close, everything is cheap... We actually do much more here than we ever did in Boston, where things were expensive, or took a lot of energy to get to. This past week, for example, we did a lot of really fun things.

Monday: David Sedaris was doing a free reading/book signing at a local bookstore. We went there after work and listened to him talk. Hysterical.
Tuesday: We have season basketball tickets, and MSU played South Carolina on Tuesday night. We walked from our house to the basketball arena, I ate lots of yummy concession stand food, and we cheered our Spartans on to victory!
Wednesday: The theater department put on As You Like It. After work we biked from the office to our favorite Indian restaurant, then biked over the the theater. The dinner was good. The play was good. It was a fun evening!
Thursday: My special gentleman went to his master's swim team practice. I stayed home and worked.
Friday: After work a group of mathematicians met up at a bar near our house for beer. Later in the evening we went out to hear some live music.
Saturday: Yesterday we hosted a pre-Thanksgiving dinner from The Book for 15 of our friends here! It was so fun hosting a holiday dinner, and all the food turned out really well!

In summary: It was a busy week. Add to that the demands of our jobs, and I certainly never once had the thought, "Man, there is nothing to do here!" Honestly, there is way too much to do! Each week there are way more things that we want to do than we realistically can. What a wonderful problem to have!

Rabbit Terrine with Green Olives and Pistachios (Page 23)

2010-11-16T18:08:00.000-08:00

RECIPE #1231

Date: Friday, October 1, 2010 -- 6pm
Location: East Lansing, MI
Kitchen: Our House
Fellow Chef: Matty
Dining Companions: Terry, Teri, Helen, Charles, Clara, Kendra, Jubin, and Watson
Recipe Rating: C-

I am running out of recipes that sound appealing in the Hors D'Oeuvres and First Courses section of The Book. The situation is already pretty dire, but when you factor in that my mother is severely allergic to seafood, I didn't have a lot of hors d'oeuvres options for my parents' visit. In the end I settled on this recipe, for better or for worse. I started by cutting a rabbit into pieces and simmering it in water with shallots, carrots, parsley, thyme, leek, garlic, salt, and black peppercorns. Once the rabbit was tender I removed the meat from the bones and shredded it. The meat itself was very tasty, and I ate a few pieces as I worked. I then clarified the rabbit broth by first straining it and then whisking in a mixture of egg whites and crushed egg shells. I simmered the broth until the impurities rose to the top and formed a crust with the egg and shell bits. Then I carefully strained the broth again, resulting in a completely clear rabbit broth. I dissolved some gelatin into the broth and added Madeira and salt. I then prepared the rabbit mixture, with the help of my special gentleman. We ground fennel seeds and tossed them with the rabbit meat, along with chopped green olives, chopped pistachios, chives, thyme, salt, and pepper. Up until that point my special gentleman had been insisting that this dish would definitely be delicious. When he saw the green olives and pistachios he quickly changed his tune. When it was time to assemble the terrine, I lined my mold with plastic wrap, put the rabbit mixture in, then poured in the rabbit broth. I weighted the terrine and refrigerated it for several hours. Once the terrine set I filled the mold a bit more with the leftover broth, then chilled again. My special gentleman made some buttered toasts to serve with the terrine.

On the one hand, this labor-intensive dish was very impressive looking. I'm not sure it looked appetizing exactly, but the appearance definitely left an impression. On the other hand, it tasted bad. The rabbit meat was delicious, and I am sure that had I just served the shredded rabbit on the buttered toast it would have all been eaten. The tasty meat, however, became much less tasty when mixed with green olives and pistachios and suspended in rabbit jello. It wasn't just the gelatinous texture of the rabbit jello that made it unappealing -- it had a bad flavor. The combination of the Madeira with everything else just wasn't good. Indeed, the day after we served this Matt kept saying that he thought something in the fridge was rotting. After a thorough inspection it turned out that the "rotting" smell he noticed was just the smell of this terrine! Out of the ten people eating dinner the night I served this, there was only one fan of this dish: Clara, the 18 month old daughter of our friends Helen and Charles. It totally cracked me up that she was chowing down on it! Definitely not a fussy child! I certainly wouldn't make this terrine again. It took a long time, and ultimately ended up in the trash. Not a good use of tasty, tasty rabbit.

The recipe is here.

Only 62 recipes left to go!

Yesterday morning I was walking down the hallway outside my office. When I turned the corner I found one of my colleagues waiting for me. "I thought I heard you coming." he said. I had been walking alone, not talking to anyone or making any sort of verbal expression, so what he had heard that identified me was the sound of high-heeled shoes.

When I first started graduate school I got mistaken for a new administrative assistant several times. Others mistook me for the wife of a new graduate student. I was baffled. I certainly wasn't the only woman in the math department at MIT -- indeed the gender ration in math at MIT is about as good as it is anywhere. I was speculating one day about why it was that people assumed I wasn't a mathematician, when an older graduate student offered: "You are breaking the rules. The way people distinguish between the secretaries and the math women is that the secretaries wear heels." I laughed, but he wasn't actually joking. The idea that a female mathematician would wear heels was, apparently, crazy.

I often wore heels and dresses my first few years in graduate school. I was convinced that there was no reason not to. I certainly wasn't wearing anything trashy. Indeed it seemed to me that I looked more professional than most people, and hence should be taken just as seriously as anyone else on judgments made by attire alone. Only later did I realize that the idea of looking "professional" depends strongly on one's profession. My last year in graduate school, another female mathematician who had been at MIT when I arrived said to me, "Teena, you have done really well. When I first met you I noticed one day that you were wearing make-up and I had a hard time taking you seriously after that. But I was wrong about you." I didn't know how to respond to that. In retrospect it is obvious to me that other mathematicians will take me less seriously if I wear a tasteful dress and heels to work rather than torn jeans and t-shirt (which is my special gentleman's standard attire). But often I do it anyway. I suppose it is defiant. I believe I shouldn't have to try to blend in with a sea of men in order to be taken seriously, and so I don't attempt to do so.

So if you hear the click of high-heeled shoes coming at you down the hall of a math building somewhere, someday, don't assume it is an administrative assistant. It might be me.

Buffalo Prime Rib with Orange Balsamic Glaze (Page 415)

2010-11-13T17:00:00.000-08:00

RECIPE #1230

Date: Friday, October 1, 2010 -- 6pm
Location: East Lansing, MI
Kitchen: Our House
Dining Companions: Matty, Terry, Teri, Helen, Charles, Clara, Kendra, Jubin, and Watson
Recipe Rating: B+

Buffalo standing rib roast isn't so easy to come by. I have watched for it in butcher shops for years, but have never seen it. So when I decided to make this for my parents' visit, I had to order it online. There is one online meat purveyor that I use for most of my hard-to-find meats. They are great in the sense that the selection is huge, the meat is high quality, and everything always arrives in perfect condition. However, their prices are a little high. Their website was the first place I looked for my 8-pound buffalo standing rib roast. And indeed they had it -- for the bargain price of $369. So I did a bit more searching! I found it for considerably less at a place out of Wyoming, but it still wasn't cheap!

To prepare the meat I roasted it, basting it occasionally with the Orange Balsamic Glaze (see post below). I roasted it to 125 degrees, then let it rest to 135. While it rested I made a pan sauce by deglazing the roasting pan with red wine and Madeira, then adding beef stock and reducing. I strained and seasoned the jus and served it with the carved meat:

This dish was good but not amazing. I like buffalo quite a lot, but in my opinion the additional benefit of using buffalo rather than beef in this recipe was not worth the additional cost. It was novel having a standing rib roast of buffalo, but I think it would have tasted just as good (although, of course, different) with beef, so if I made it again I would likely substitute a beef standing rib roast. The orange glaze was tasty, but I found myself wishing that the glaze could have been incorporated into a sauce somehow, or alternately that the pan sauce could have picked up those citrus and balsamic flavors more. The glaze was very tasty on the exterior of the roast, but each slice of meat only had a few bites really permeated by the flavors of the glaze. All that said, the meat was very tasty, and certainly I enjoyed eating it.

The recipe is here.

Only 63 recipes left to go!

After weeks of traveling, giving talks, changing medications, etc, I am delighted to say that my semester is calming down a bit. I am already starting to feel a lot better as my body adjusts to the medication changes. I made it through the entire day at work yesterday without any serious bouts of nausea or vertigo. I didn't even need a nap in the middle of the day! So I would say I am practically back to full strength! This weekend I am catching up on a few of the many things on my ever-growing To-Do list. These past few weeks have been out-of-the-ordinary in many ways, and now I am hoping to get back into my usual routine. Amazingly there are only four weeks of classes left this term (including Thanksgiving week, which is shorter!). It's crazy to think that in no time it will be winter break! In the meantime, my goal is to make the most of these next few weeks. Nothing motivates me quite like feeling better after a period of really feeling rotten! In the past few weeks I had to prioritize only the most important/necessary tasks in my life and focus on those, so many of the things I love (e.g. exercising and cooking) fell by the wayside. But if I feel well enough on Monday I am going to start up my routine of running daily again. And I am mulling over some cooking/party plans for next weekend! For the first time in a little while, I feel excited about what lies ahead.

Orange Balsamic Glaze (Page 416)

2010-11-08T18:38:00.000-08:00

RECIPE #1229

Date: Friday, October 1, 2010 -- 6pm
Location: East Lansing, MI
Kitchen: Our House
Dining Companions: Matty, Teri, Terry, Helen, Charles, Clara, Kendra, Jubin, and Watson
Recipe Rating: B+

This recipe was a component of a bison dish that I made when my parents visited. Making this glaze was quite simple. I cooked some shallots in butter, then stirred in frozen orange juice concentrate, water, sweet orange preserves, balsamic vinegar, salt, black peppercorns, and orange zest. I then simmered the glaze until it was thick. I liked this glaze quite a bit, and I thought it worked well in the bison dish (which I will blog about next). However, I think I would have liked it even better had the ingredients been balanced a little differently. I found that the balsamic was a little strong, and almost overpowered the nice orange flavors. Were I to make this again I would cut back on the balsamic just a bit.

The recipe is here.

Only 64 recipes left to go!

Well, I had hoped that the transition to my new medication would be relatively painless. Unfortunately it hasn't gone as smoothly as I had hoped. The first few days were OK, but the last few have been pretty miserable, as I have been pretty sick from the meds. Luckily for me, my special gentleman has been amazing. I can't drive (due to the dizziness) and I can't bike (due to the nausea), so when I absolutely need to leave my perch on the couch at home (e.g. to get blood drawn, or to teach my class this morning) he has been driving me door to door. Counterintuitively, it is essential to my battle with the nausea that I keep eating, and my special gentleman has been lovingly preparing me small meals every four hours. And when my brother-in-law and his wife, Brad and Deniz came to visit this weekend, my special gentleman cooked beautiful meals for them all weekend while I laid on the sofa. He has made more than one grocery trip for emergency supplies (Sprite, saltines, etc...). He has taken care of the cats, cleaned the house, done the laundry, etc, etc... Basically he has been awesome. And I have been lying on the couch. So although I have been feeling shitty, I have also been feeling extremely fortunate. Thank goodness for my special gentleman!

And hopefully my body will start adjusting to the new medicine soon and I will start feeling better!

Grits with Tasso (Page 656)

2010-11-03T18:44:00.000-07:00

RECIPE #1228

Date: Friday, October 1, 2010 -- 6pm
Location: East Lansing, MI
Kitchen: Our House
Dining Companions: Matty, Teri, Terry, Helen, Charles, Clara, Kendra, Jubin, and Watson
Recipe Rating: B

I love grits. Love them. So I have been wanting to make this recipe for years. I had trouble, however, finding tasso, a Cajun smoked pork product. My parents visited about a month ago, and as my mother is also a fan of grits I decided to put more effort into locating the tasso. I gave up finding it in a store and just ordered it online. Locating the tasso was by far the most difficult aspect of making this dish. To prepare it I cooked some stone-ground grits in salted water for quite a while, then added tasso, butter, salt, and pepper, and served. This dish wasn't bad, but I also wasn't super-excited about it. The texture of the grits was very nice, but I didn't enjoy having the chunks of tasso mixed in with them. I found that the tasso detracted from both the texture and the flavor of the dish. It overpowered the subtle flavor of the grits, and the very chewy little chunks didn't go well with the otherwise creamy texture. That said, the dish was still rather tasty. It just wasn't my favorite grits preparation.

The recipe is here.

Three weeks ago now one of my doctors determined that I should switch to a different tumor medication. I have been on the same drug for almost seven years now, so I admit I wasn't super-excited about the change. But the new drug is better -- more effective, fewer side effects. Overall, better. So I agreed to do it. These transitions can be rough though, and in order to start the new drug I wanted to find a window of at least 36 hours when I could lie in bed if I was too sick to do anything else. Turns out, finding that window wasn't so easy.

The last few weeks have been crazy. Last week I was in California to give a talk, and before that I was busy preparing to be gone for a week (and preparing my talk!). I started this week by having my annual teaching observation/evaluation, then today I gave a research seminar. I am giving another seminar on Tuesday. Add to that the usual research, teaching, and other obligations and things have been crazy. Plus, a couple weeks ago I started a second new drug and I couldn't bring myself to start two new medications in the same week. Add to the mix a scattering of house guests and there was just no good time to switch drugs.

But tomorrow I don't absolutely NEED to be at work. I don't have to teach, I don't have any meetings. I have a shitload to do, but nothing that I can't do from home, lying in bed if need be. So this evening, after I gave my seminar, I started my new meds. And tonight I am relaxing like it's my job. I've been watching trashy TV and reading trashy magazines. I took a bath. Right now I am lying on the sofa in front of the fire, snuggled up under two blankets, with a kitten at my feet. And so far, I feel pretty OK. Hopefully the transition will continue to go smoothly, and I will tolerate these meds better than my old one. And in a couple weeks I think my semester will calm down a bit. For now I am just doing the things that need to get done, both professionally and medically, and trying to stay as relaxed as possible. Busy, busy times.

Panfried Quail with Creamed Corn and Bacon (Page 403)

2010-10-27T22:07:00.000-07:00

RECIPE #1227

Date: Tuesday, September 28, 2010 -- 7pm
Location: East Lansing, MI
Kitchen: Our House
Fellow Chef: Matty
Recipe Rating: B+

I spotted some quail at our local Asian grocery store, so I grabbed them to make this recipe! It was these little quail which caused the Quail Versus Produce Refrigerator Disaster, so there is still a slightly bitter taste in my mouth about this recipe. But I will try to put that aside! When preparing this dish I first made the creamed corn. I cooked corn in boiling water, then cooked bacon in a skillet until browned. I combined heavy cream, water, lemon juice, the bacon, sliced scallions, and butter and simmered. Then I added the corn, plus some salt and pepper and cooked for a few more minutes. Then I attacked the quail. I cut each quail into four pieces. I dipped each piece in whole milk, then dredged them in a mixture of flour, salt, pepper, and cayenne. I deep-fried the quail until golden and cooked though, then I served the quail with the creamed corn. I had mixed feelings about this dish. On the one hand, the fried quail were delicious! Think fried chicken, but with a higher fried to chicken ratio. Yum! The coating was just the right thickness and crispiness and the meat came out tender and moist. On the other hand, the creamed corn was pretty disappointing. Corn and bacon are two of my favorite things so I figured it couldn't be bad. Somehow though, it was. Mostly it was a textural issue. Rather than being creamy, as creamed corn should be, it was quite watery. And because it was watery the bacon got soggy even though it had been browned. The flavor wasn't bad but the texture was unappealing enough that I didn't want to eat it. I would definitely make the fried quail again, but without the creamed corn.

The recipe is here.

Only 66 recipes left to go!

When I was still in graduate school I went to a workshop in Germany. It wasn't in my field exactly, but I had been invited because I knew one of the organizers. It was a good experience, and I enjoyed the workshop a lot. Now, years later, the thing I remember most vividly from that week is that there was an amazing talk given by a young female mathematician. The workshop was focused on the work of a couple people. So in her talk she was explaining someone else's work. She did so with amazing organization, clarity, and confidence. Her talk was well thought-out, well-delivered, and easy to learn from. Although I think she was younger than most of the other speakers, she blew everyone else away. In a week full of talks, she was one of only a couple female speakers. I don't know who she was -- it was a long time ago, and the people there weren't really in my field, so I didn't know who most of them were. I don't even know for sure that this woman is still in math. But when I think back now on the moments throughout my career when I felt most empowered and most confident that it is possible to succeed as a woman in math, watching that talk stands out in my mind.

I am older now, and giving a lot of talks of my own. This week I am at a workshop, not in Germany this time, but rather in Berkeley. This workshop, like the one I went to years ago, is based around some specific work of a few mathematicians. I was asked to speak at the workshop, giving a talk explaining the proof of one component of their main theorem. I give a lot of talks, and in general I don't worry so much about them any more. This time, though, I felt a great sense of pressure. In part it was because I wanted to do justice to the great work that I was talking about. When I talk about my own work, if I do a less than stellar job it only reflects badly on me. In this case, talking about other people's work, it was important to me to represent them well. But more than that, I found myself really wanting to be an example for younger people, in the way that the woman I saw in Germany years ago was an empowering example to me. There are 18 talks at the conference this week, 2 of which are being given by women. The way the gender break-down is in my field, having 2 women speak at a conference is the most you would expect to see. I have always thought of myself more as a mathematician than as a female mathematician, but as I get further along in my career it seems more important to me that I recognize that I am a woman in math, and as such, an example for other women.

My talk was yesterday, and I think it went pretty well. And maybe someone in the audience will remember it as a nice talk, and feel empowered by it the way that I did years ago. That's my hope anyway.

Grilled Octopus with Oregano (Page 345)

2010-10-21T21:00:00.000-07:00

RECIPE #1226

Date: Sunday, September 26, 2010 -- 6pm
Location: East Lansing, MI
Kitchen: Our House
Fellow Chef: Matty
Recipe Rating: B+

I found some octopus at our local Asian grocery store, so I took the opportunity to make this recipe. I simmered the octopus in water seasoned with sea salt and black peppercorns. Then I rubbed off the skin and marinated the octopus in a mixture of olive oil, red wine vinegar, oregano, sea salt, and pepper for 24 hours. My special gentleman then grilled the octopus until browned. We cut the octopus into pieces, tossed it with the marinade and served. This dish was pretty good. Indeed my special gentleman declared it the best octopus he has ever eaten. Texturally the dish was very nice. The octopus was tender from being simmered, but also slightly crispy from the heat of the grill. It wasn't at all tough, like octopus often can be. The vinaigrette had a subtle but nice flavor. It complemented the octopus without overpowering it. If I need to prepare octopus again someday, this is probably what I will do with it.

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I received a request from a friend for more pictures of our kittens! They are super cute (and more importantly, super sweet!) so we have lots of pictures of them! Michigan, the little kitty, will sleep pretty much anywhere you set him down. But he especially likes napping with my special gentleman:

The kittens also like to nap with one another. They have their daily routine. Around 5pm said routine involves curling up together on the sofa and sleeping in a big ball. If he's home from work my special gentleman likes to join them for a little rest:

Indiana, the big kitty, will eventually get up to wander around, but Michigan will lay there with you as long as you want:

The kittens are very interested in mathematics. For instance, tonight I was practicing a talk I am giving at a conference next week (yes, we have a chalkboard in our house!), and both the cats purred all the way through my talk. True, Indiana fell asleep for a bit of it, but I can't blame him -- it's not really his field of mathematics! The cats further demonstrate their love of math by laying on top of math papers:

One of our favorite attributes about our cats is that they love to be held. Surprisingly, they even like to be held together:

What sweet little kittens! I'm leaving town tomorrow for almost a week -- I am going to miss them!

Clam, Potato, and Bacon Potpie (Page 328)

2010-10-19T19:42:00.000-07:00

RECIPE #1225

Date: Saturday, September 18, 2010 -- 7pm
Location: East Lansing, MI
Kitchen: Our House
Fellow Chef: Matty
Recipe Rating: A

I made a trip to Ann Arbor for seafood a while back and this was one of the recipes I made with the shellfish I acquired on that trip. I started by making pastry dough for a pie crust. While my dough chilled I peeled, cubed, and boiled some potatoes. I cooked and crumbled some bacon, then cooked onion in the bacon fat plus some butter. I added flour to make a roux, then whisked in some heavy cream, whole milk, clam liquor, and Worcestershire sauce. I simmered for a few minutes, then stirred in the potatoes, chopped clams (which my special gentleman shucked for me!), parsley, thyme, lemon juice, the bacon, salt, and pepper. I rolled out the bottom crust and fit it into a pie plate. Then I poured the cooled filling in the crust and placed the top crust on. I brushed the crust with egg wash and slit it then baked the potpie until it was golden. I'm not particularly a fan of clams, but this was delicious! The filling was perfect -- rich and flavorful. The clams definitely had a presence, but without being overpowering. The flaky and golden crust was a wonderful complement to the creamy filling. Yum! I liked it a lot, but my special gentleman was totally blown away by this recipe. He ate this potpie for every meal (including breakfast!) until it was gone. This was serious stick-to-your-bones comfort food. The recipe could easily be modified to make a chicken potpie if you don't care for clams (and I imagine I will do that at some point!). Definitely a keeper!

The recipe is here.

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I haven't blogged much lately. Partly it is because I have been busy: lots of house guests, lots of work, etc... My To-Do list has reached a length where it is depressing rather than motivating. I've been busy. But more than that, I have just been too crabby to blog. I have been a bucket of bad mood the last couple weeks. I felt justified in my bad mood so instead of trying to snap out of it I embraced it, which is never a great plan. This evening, at the peak of my bad mood, I said to my special gentleman, "My life sucks." His response: "No it doesn't. Your life is awesome." I admit, it wasn't the response I was looking for. But I realized in that moment, he was right. My life is awesome. I have the world's greatest husband, a great job, a house I love in a place I enjoy living, two incredibly sweet kittens, wonderful friends -- really a multitude of blessings. So I decided to just snap out of it. And I did. And while nothing external changed, I feel a million times better. I am lying in bed now, under several layers of down comforter, drinking a glass of Chardonnay and listening to a recording of Amazing Grace. And everything seems great. Sometimes a little change in perspective goes a long way.

Hundred-Corner Shrimp Balls (Page 44)

2010-10-14T18:16:00.000-07:00

RECIPE #1224

Date: Saturday, September 18, 2010 -- 7pm
Location: East Lansing, MI
Kitchen: Our House
Fellow Chef: Matty
Recipe Rating: B

We had a seafood-intensive day a few weekends ago, so I figured while I was at it I might as well make these shrimp balls. I started by dicing white bread and letting the tiny cubes dry for several hours. Then I pureed some shrimp and stirred in blanched, chopped water chestnuts, egg white, lard, rice wine, minced ginger, minced scallion, salt, and cornstarch. I formed the pureed shrimp mixture into balls and rolled the balls in the bread cubes. I then deep-fried them until they were golden. I was supposed to twice-fry them, but somehow when I read the recipe I missed that. So I only fried them once. They were plenty fried though, so I can't imagine that the second fry would have made much difference. I served them with salt and crushed, toasted Sichuan peppercorns for dipping. These shrimp balls were pretty good. Personally, I am never going to get super excited about pureed shrimp. That's just me. But as far as pureed shrimp recipes go, this may be the best I have had. They came out very pretty, and the fried bread coating was quite tasty. I kept thinking that I would have liked them better with something different in the middle -- for instance: cheese! But as they were, they certainly weren't bad. The shrimp paste had some nice flavors in it and was well-seasoned. Overall these were pretty good.

The recipe in The Book is similar to this one, but the one in The Book has you make your own bread cubes, whereas the one online calls for panko. The ingredient ratios are also slightly different in the two recipes.

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I have fallen desperately behind in my blogging. Things lately have been busy, busy! Our friend Josh, who we lived with in Berkeley last spring, has been staying with us for the last week. He was visiting to give some talks in the math department and to work with my special gentleman. It was really fun to have him visit! Last weekend Josh and my special gentleman went camping at Sleeping Bear Dunes. I had too much to do to go camping, so I stayed in East Lansing and spent the weekend working, working, working! I was happy to see them come back unharmed -- we had a few freak accidents in the past week (one involving Josh flying over the handlebars of a bike, and another involving a shattered bottle of wine and me standing in a pool of my own blood at the grocery store!), so them going camping made me nervous! But they had a safe and uneventful trip.

Last night my special gentleman and I hosted a reception in Josh's honor at our house. About 20 of the people in our topology/geometry group came over and we served drinks and dessert. I went with the low-key approach instead of fancy desserts, in the interest of saving time. I made chocolate chip cookies, molasses cookies, brownies, apple crisp, and baklava. It was nice. I certainly enjoyed sitting in front of the fire with our colleagues, eating a bowl of apple crisp a la mode and drinking a cup of hot apple cider!

This morning Josh headed back to New York City, where he lives. And tonight my special gentleman's parents are arriving! They are visiting for a few days and we have fun things planned. Tomorrow night we are grilling some lobsters and Saturday night we are going to a musical theater version of Evil Dead. Should be interesting! I am looking forward to their visit!

Next week I am giving a midterm, which always makes for a crazy week! Vigleik is also visiting for a couple days to work. And a week from tomorrow I am headed to California for a conference. Between exam writing and grading, talk writing, usual work stuff, etc... I think things won't calm down any time soon! The middle of the semester is always crazy, and this term is no exception!

Oyster Po'Boys (Page 187)

2010-10-12T20:53:00.000-07:00

RECIPE #1223

Date: Saturday, September 18, 2010 -- 1pm
Location: East Lansing, MI
Kitchen: Our House
Fellow Chef: Matty
Recipe Rating: A-

My special gentleman has been requesting these sandwiches for a while, but oysters aren't so easy to come by in East Lansing. A trip to Ann Arbor solved that problem, and I made these sandwiches as part of a Saturday lunch several weeks ago. My special gentleman shucked the oysters. I dipped them in a mixture of milk, egg, and salt, then dredged them in a mixture of cornmeal, salt, and pepper. I deep-fried them until just cooked through. Then I put the oysters on bread, along with shredded iceberg lettuce, and a chipotle mayonnaise that I made by whisking together mayo, minced canned chipotle chiles in adobo, and lemon juice. That was it! I am not a big oyster fan, but even I will admit that these sandwiches were tasty! The cornmeal coating on the oysters gave them a wonderful crunch and they were fried to perfection. It would have been more traditional to have Tabasco rather than chipotle chiles in a Po'Boy, but I liked how the smokiness of the chipotles complemented the oysters. I thought this recipe was quite nice and my special gentleman was more than thrilled with his sandwich!

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This was the last recipe from the Sandwiches and Pizzas section of The Book! That means it is time to reflect back on that section and name my top five recipes. In no particular order, they are:

Muffuletta -- I made this sandwich for my special gentleman and his friend Russ as a midnight snack after they returned home from a trip to Las Vegas. It was so good! Provolone, salami, ham, and olive salad, all on delicious bread. All of the ingredients were tasty but this sandwich was so much better than the sum of its parts!
Falafel Pitas -- Way back in 2006 we made the falafel pitas as part of one of our weekly Wednesday dinners. These were so good that we very carefully packaged the leftovers and all met up the next day at lunchtime in the MIT math department to have another round of sandwiches. I have made this recipe several times since then and it never disappoints!
Chicken Salad Tea Sandwiches with Smoked Almonds -- If you asked me to name the 10 recipes in The Book that I will probably make the most often for the rest of my life, this recipe might well make the list. I made these tea sandwiches for the first time for Emilee's baby shower. I made them again for Melanie's pre-wedding bridal luncheon. I made them yet again for Teresa's baby shower. And I can imagine making them again and again for many celebrations in the years to come. These sandwiches are tastier than I ever imagined chicken salad could be!
Grilled Portobello Sandwiches with Sweet Peppers and Onion Relish -- My dominant memory of these sandwiches is my brother-in-law Wes's reaction. He just kept saying over and over, "This is amazing." Indeed, they were good.
Eggplant Pizza -- Of all the pizzas in The Book this was by far my favorite. Surprising, really, as I am generally not a huge fan of eggplant. In this case, though, the eggplant really added to the dish and the result was an awesome pizza!

One more section complete! That makes for 9 sections done, and 12 sections left to complete! I'm getting close!!

Bongo-Bongo (Page 104)

2010-10-07T14:31:00.000-07:00

RECIPE # 1222

Date: Saturday, September 18, 2010 -- 1pm
Location: East Lansing, MI
Kitchen: Our House
Fellow Chef: Matty
Recipe Rating: C

I started this project more than four years ago now. Early in the project I would flip through The Book and think, "Oh my gosh, that one sounds amazing! No, that one sounds amazing!" It was an exciting time. But occasionally I would come across a recipe and think instead, "I can't believe I have to actually make and eat that!" Some recipes sounded so foul that they became long-standing jokes (e.g. the fish jello). Those that sounded even worse became threats. To my friends who would complain about dinner: "Be nice, or next time I will make braised octopus." Or, "Watch out, or there will be some beef tongue coming your way." The standing joke/threat between me and my special gentleman became the Bongo-Bongo. What is Bongo-Bongo you might ask. It is pureed oyster and spinach soup. The ingredients: oysters, frozen creamed spinach, half-and-half, butter, garlic, A1 steak sauce, salt, pepper, cayenne, cornstarch, and heavy cream. Yummy! This recipe was tricky because most self-respecting grocery stores don't sell frozen creamed spinach these days. In Berkeley, where oysters were easy to find, frozen creamed spinach was nowhere to be found. And here in East Lansing, where I did find a store that carried frozen creamed spinach, oysters are not so easy to come by. But I picked up the creamed spinach at a somewhat questionable local supermarket, then got the oysters from Whole Foods in Ann Arbor, and I was ready to go!

My special gentleman graciously shucked the oysters. OK, truth be told he wasn't too excited about it -- especially because that day he shucked enough oysters for two recipes and enough clams for another one. But he sucked it up and shucked them, which I appreciated. I cooked the oysters with their liquor for a few minutes. Then I put them in a blender along with the creamed spinach and pureed. I simmered some half-and-half and added the oyster-spinach mixture, butter, garlic, steak sauce, salt, pepper, and cayenne. I stirred in some cornstarch to thicken, then distributed the soup into bowls. I beat heavy cream to soft peaks, then spread the cream over the soup. I put the bowls under the boiler until the cream was lightly browned.

Truth be told this wasn't quite as foul as I expected it to be. Given how low my expectations were, though, that wasn't saying much. If Starbucks created a new beverage called "Oyster-Spinach Latte" this would be it. It had the consistency of a coffee drink, and mostly tasted like cream, with an oyster kick. The layer of broiled whipped cream on top was very thick and a little odd. I wasn't particularly a fan of the soup and neither was my special gentleman. In the end we both pushed our servings of soup aside in favor of the other part of the meal: fried oyster sandwiches. In a way I am sad to check off this recipe. There goes a perfectly good threat: "Be nice or we're having pureed oyster and spinach soup for dinner!" It's OK though, I've got some decent threats left,"Complain about this meal and tomorrow I will prepare the stomach lining of a cow sprinkled with mint!" Yummy!

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