Grilled Lobster with Orange Chipotle Vinaigrette (Page 338)

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)

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)

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)

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:

1. There's no good food.
2. 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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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.

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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)

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)

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.

Only 68 recipes left to go!

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)

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.

Only 69 recipes left to go!

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)

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)

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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Grilled Cornish Hens with Basil Butter (Page 392)

RECIPE #1221

• Date: Tuesday, September 14, 2010 -- 6pm
• Location: East Lansing, MI
• Kitchen: Our House
• Fellow Chef: Matty
• Dining Companions: Vigleik, Shihchi, and Henrik
• Recipe Rating: B+
  

Now that we have a grill I can make some of the grilled dishes from The Book that I haven't had a chance to make! I started this recipe by making a compound butter -- I combined butter, basil, garlic, salt, and pepper. I then flattened some Cornish hens (by removing their backbones and sticking the drumsticks through a slit between the thigh and the breast). I spread the compound butter both under and over the skin. I sprinkled the birds with salt and pepper and my special gentleman grilled them to perfection. These were good. I offer as proof the fact that I forgot to take a picture of them before we started chowing down! It didn't occur to me that I had forgotten until the meal was almost over, so the picture above is of a partially eaten hen. Whoops! I got distracted by the food! I typically enjoy poultry on the grill and this recipe was no exception. The skin came out crispy and flavorful, and the basil butter complemented the meat nicely. The dish could have supported even more flavor though. Either more basil in the butter, or a separate sauce to serve the birds with would have been nice. That said, the meat was cooked nicely and the dish was quick and tasty! Yum!

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I dated a number of people in college but there is one guy who I think of as my "college boyfriend." He and I were involved on and off for a year or two (depending on how you count). Much more so than most people, he made me nervous. We came from hugely different backgrounds. I'm from Wisconsin, where I grew up attending public school and going to 4-H meetings. He grew up in a wealthy family in Los Angeles. He went to prestigious private schools his whole life and drove a BMW as a college student. We were from different worlds. And in many ways he was more worldly than me. He had been places I had never been, done things I had never done. He knew things I didn't know. In short, he intimidated me. And although we spent a lot of time together over the course of our relationship and friendship, I was never able to relax around him. I was never able to just be myself. He made me nervous. Looking back, I can see that he never even knew me. What he got was a silly, intimidated, careful version of who I am. It wasn't until years later that I realized the way to be happy in a relationship is to relax and be myself. Anything else is much too exhausting.

This all came flooding back to me last week. I was biking to work one morning and I just felt really odd. It took me a while to put my finger on what the feeling was, but eventually I pinpointed it -- I felt extremely anxious. But why? There was nothing particularly stressful on my agenda that day, nor was anything going particularly wrong. It was then that I realized that I hadn't relaxed into my new life here yet. It's hard being the new person, and it is easy to feel intimidated. I am new at work, new in the neighborhood, new at church... All the newness has made me really careful. It's hard not to worry about the impression that you make when you are new. But it is also tiring to worry all the time. So I decided that morning to relax and not feel intimidated. A couple days into this week I can already say that I feel better -- like a weight has been lifted. Nothing external has changed, only my perspective. But that's all it took. Everything here is great and it was only my anxiety that was keeping me from enjoying it. Sometimes all it takes is a little attitude adjustment!

Vitello Tonnato (Page 451)

RECIPE #1220

• Date: Tuesday, September 14, 2010 -- 6pm
• Location: East Lansing, MI
• Kitchen: Our House
• Dining Companion: Matty, Vigleik, Henrik, and Shihchi
• Recipe Rating: C+
  

I saw a veal loin roast at a nearby butcher shop and I grabbed it so I could make this recipe! I started by poaching the veal in chicken stock, white wine, carrot, celery, onion, parsley, bay leaf, and salt. Meanwhile I made the sauce for the dish by pureeing together canned tuna in oil, anchovy fillets, mayonnaise, olive oil, capers, and lemon juice. I carved the veal, sauced it, then refrigerated the dish for more than 8 hours to let the flavors mingle. My issue with this dish wasn't that it tasted bad -- the flavor actually wasn't terrible. My issue was that I just couldn't understand why you would do this with a perfectly lovely piece of veal. Serving veal cold (Cold!) with a sauce made of pureed tuna and anchovies just didn't seem like the right thing to do. I can imagine a version of this dish that would have been served warm, and although it might not have been my favorite, at least I would have understood it. As it was, pretty much anything I could have imagined making from that veal roast would have been better than this dish. My special gentleman called this dish a "travesty." I won't be making it again.

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One of the many nice things about owning a house with plenty of room is that lots of people come visit us! Last weekend our friend Grant came from Milwaukee for a night, this weekend my parents are here, on Thursday our friend Josh arrives for a week, the weekend after that my special gentleman's parents will visit, and a couple weeks after that my brother-in-law and sister-in-law Brad and Deniz are coming! My special gentleman and I both love having company, so it is exciting to have so many people coming to visit!

We have had a really fun weekend with my parents. They arrived Friday afternoon and on Friday evening we had a dinner party with food from The Book. There is a recipe for buffalo standing rib roast in The Book, which I decided to make for this occasion. It's a big cut of meat and not so easy to find, but I was able to order it from Wyoming. We made a huge meal -- even with 10 people eating we had plenty of leftovers! It was fun, and my parents got to meet a few of the people we know here in East Lansing. On Saturday we made a nice breakfast and lunch, and I showed my parents my two offices on campus. In the afternoon my special gentleman and my dad went to the MSU/Wisconsin football game. My mom and I went shopping instead! We all met up for some yummy Mexican food and margaritas after the game. Today we had a nice relaxing day: church, followed by a huge brunch in Lansing. In the afternoon my dad watched the Packers on TV while my mom and I did a bit more shopping. This evening we ate popcorn for dinner and watched the documentary "Babies," which was pretty cute.

It was a fun weekend! My parents are heading back to Wisconsin tomorrow morning. But in just a few days Josh will arrive! What fun (and busy!) times!

Arepas with Yucatecan Pulled Pork and Pickled Onions (Page 62)

RECIPE #1219

• Date: Friday, September 10, 2010 -- 6pm
• Location: East Lansing, MI
• Kitchen: Our House
• Fellow Chef: Matty
• Dining Companion: Helen, Charles, Clara, Corbett, Mary, Allison, Ron, Esther, Ben S, and Bob
• Recipe Rating: A
  

I would have made this recipe sooner, as anything with the words "pulled pork" in it sounds awesome to me, but I had trouble tracking down arepa flour. Finally I ordered it online and I was ready to make this dish. The dish had three components: pickled onions, pulled pork, and the arepas (little fried cakes of arepa flour and cheese). I started by pickling the red onions with chiles, white vinegar, oregano, and salt. I then marinated some pork shoulder chops in cumin, allspice, pepper, achiote, garlic, salt, oregano, oragnge juice, and white vinegar. I marinated the pork overnight, then braised it and shredded it. Finally I made a dough of milk, butter, arepa flour, sugar, salt, and mozzarella. I formed the dough into little disks and fried them in oil. I topped the cakes with pork and onions and served. In a word: Yum! Oh my gosh were these good. The warm, cheesy arepas were delicious and the pulled pork complemented them beautifully. The pickled onions provided both a nice textural contrast and a lovely burst of flavor. All of the components tasted great individually and they were even better all together. This recipe was definitely a winner. I wish I had a plate of these right now!

The recipe is here.

Only 74 recipes left to go!

What a terrible day. A lot of less-than-ideal things happened today, but my evening really captures the flavor of the day best. Those of you who know me know that I am more than a little crazy when it comes to food safety. I am extremely careful to make sure that the food I produce is safe. For instance, while I will personally eat raw eggs, I hesitate to serve them to company, and I would certainly never serve them to children (who are both the most susceptible to salmonella and suffer the worst consequences from it). We are having a few people over for dinner this weekend, including some kids, and I want to make the tiramisu from The Book, which contains raw eggs. So I went to great lengths to find a place nearby that sells pasteurized eggs in the shell. They are hard to find in Michigan. In the end my special gentleman bought them in Indiana, when he went to South Bend on Saturday for the Notre Dame game.

The point is, I care about food safety, and I am very careful, especially with poultry. A few weeks ago I found some frozen jumbo quail. I knew I was going to need them so I bought them and threw them in my freezer at home. Yesterday I decided to defrost them, so I left them to thaw on the bottom shelf of my fridge. Today, at the end of an otherwise crappy day, I needed to make a quail dish from The Book. I started by making the accompaniments and everything was going smoothly enough for a while. Eventually though, I opened the fridge. The quail had been packaged on a styrofoam tray and wrapped in plastic. I had wrapped it in an additional plastic grocery bag before putting it in the fridge. Much to my horror, there were apparently holes in BOTH the original wrapping and the bag that I wrapped it in. The entire bottom shelf of the fridge was drenched in raw quail juice. Worse than that, we have two produce drawers below the lowest shelf of the fridge and they were dripping with quail blood as well. I'll admit, I sat on the floor of my kitchen and cried. The drawers were jam packed full of food, all of which had been purchased because I needed it for a recipe. And everything, absolutely everything, was ruined. The most ironic part: one of the items drenched in salmonella-containing quail blood? My pasteurized eggs. Crap.

It will all be fine. My special gentleman and I disinfected the fridge like crazy people, and then went to the store and replaced all the produce (the new produce is currently being stored safely on the top two shelves of the fridge!). As for the eggs... my special gentleman was planning a trip to Ann Arbor to go to a seminar later this week anyway, and I think he can get some there. And despite how angry I was about the quail, the quail dish was quite good.

But man, what a shit day.

Stuffed Grape Leaves with Merguez Sausage (Page 58)

RECIPE #1218

• Date: Friday, September 10, 2010 -- 6pm
• Location: East Lansing, MI
• Kitchen: Our House
• Dining Companions: Matty, Helen, Charles, Clara, Ron, Esther, Ben S, Corbett, Mary, Allison, and Bob.
  
• Recipe Rating: B-
  

I wanted to make some non-seafood hors d'oeuvres to serve at our crawfish boil. The fish-free choices in the Hors D'Oeuvres and First Courses section in The Book have become quite limited -- this is one of the few recipes I had left. This recipe was extremely labor-intensive. I started by blanching stacks of grape leaves in boiling water, in several batches. Then I prepared the filling. I cooked some rice, then added lemon zest, lemon juice, toasted pine nuts, dill, parsley, currants, cooked crumbled sausage, red onions cooked in oil, salt, and pepper. I then filled and rolled the grape leaves. It sounded harmless enough, but it took forever. Grape leaves tear easily, and vary tremendously in size. Plus, I had 75 of them to fill. Eventually I finished filling them. Then I layered them with salt and oil in a pot, weighted them down, and filled the pot with chicken stock. I simmered the rolls until the leaves were soft. I brushed them with oil, chilled them until they were cold, and served them. These stuffed grape leaves were fine, but they weren't nearly worth the effort. The filling was flavorful and the wide variety of ingredients went well together. They certainly weren't bad. I just didn't find them to be exceptionally delicious, which is what it would have taken to make all the work worth it. I wasn't the only one who was indifferent about these -- they were the only item at the crawfish boil that didn't get finished. At the end of the party there wasn't even a crumb left from the other hors d'oeuvre I made, but there were dozens of these still on the plate. They just weren't inspiring.

The recipe in The Book is almost the same as this one.

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Last weekend on Friday after work I drove to Ann Arbor to get some seafood at Whole Foods. The traffic was bad and there was a terrible accident on the highway. The whole ordeal ended up taking more than four hours. I returned home late, exhausted and hungry, and way too tired to cook any of the seafood I had purchased. As seafood doesn't keep for long, on Saturday I had a lot of cooking to do. I made clam soup, fried oyster sandwiches, a clam pot pie, and deep-fried shrimp balls. At the end of the day I crawled into bed, exhausted and overwhelmed by the feeling that I had gotten nothing done since I left work on Friday except work on my project. The laundry was still in the shoot, the bills were still in a stack in my office. My grading wasn't done. My calculus exam wasn't written. The research to-do pile on my desk was growing rather than shrinking. In short: I felt overwhelmed. I turned to my special gentleman and asked, "Remind me why I am trying so hard to finish this project in 2010." His response: "I have no idea."

As I move towards the end of this project, it is more like having 75 projects left than 75 recipes. The dishes that are left are left for a reason. Many of them involve ordering ingredients, or trekking to Ann Arbor to buy things I can't find in East Lansing. Some of them are extremely labor-intensive. There is nothing left that is quick and easy. The payoff is that we are eating lots of interesting things (crawfish, octopus, goose, buffalo...) and I am making lots of dishes I have never made before. It's fun. But time-consuming. Last weekend, in my overwhelmed state, I had a revelation: there is no reason to rush. So I am pushing back my finish date. Instead of trying to finish this year, I am going to take an additional few months and aim for a finish date in March. As soon as I made the decision a huge wave of relief rushed through me. And this weekend I got much more done. I did a lot of cooking, some from The Book and some not from The Book. I paid the bills. I worked. I graded. I spent time with my special gentleman and our friend Grant who stayed with us Friday night. I went to church. I ran. I went on a home tour with Mary. I took a bath. It was awesome.

So it will take me a little longer to finish than I had planned. But I will finish. And I will cherish these last few months of the project!

Horseradish Cocktail Sauce (Page 343)

RECIPE #1217

• Date: Friday, September 10, 2010 -- 6pm
• Location: East Lansing, MI
• Kitchen: Our House
• Dining Companions: Matty, Corbett, Mary, Allison, Helen, Charles, Clara, Ron, Esther, Bob, Ben S, and Marcy
• Recipe Rating: A-
  

This was the dipping sauce that accompanied the Louisiana Crawfish Boil. In all the crawfish boiling confusion I forgot to take a picture of the sauce by itself, but this sauce is what you see in the white bowls in the picture above. This recipe was super simple. I just whisked together some ketchup, mayonnaise, horseradish, lemon juice, and salt. That was it! And although it wasn't obvious to me that all those things would be tasty together, they were! This sauce was quite flavorful, and was a wonderful accompaniment to the crawfish, potatoes, and corn. When we have our next crawfish boil I will be making this cocktail sauce again!

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When I was in seventh or eighth grade my friend Melanie asked me if I wanted to be her model for Style Revue. I had no idea what she was talking about. She explained that she would sew me something to wear and then I would model it for judges and they would judge her on it. In retrospect it was like Project Runway for kids. Except that Mel let me pick what kind of outfit I wanted. And she didn't make me wear stilettos. And Tim Gunn wasn't there. OK, so it was nothing like Project Runway, but it was the only time in my life that I have ever walked the runway. Mel made me an awesome outfit -- a sweatsuit of sorts -- and she got a blue ribbon for it despite my terrible modeling. This was all part of our county 4-H program. The next year I joined 4-H and was a very active 4-H member until I graduated from high school. It was when I tried to learn to sew myself that I realized how crazy talented Melanie is. My first year in 4-H I made pajamas -- chosen in part because PJs don't have to fit too well to look right! Melanie helped guide me, but basically I was hopeless. I am stubborn though, so the next year I tried again, making some plaid shorts with suspenders. I still have them. I don't wear them, of course, but I keep them around for a good laugh. It was after I made those shorts that I decided cooking, acting, and public speaking were better 4-H activities for me than sewing!

Now, almost 20 years since that Style Revue, Mel and I both have finished graduate school and earned PhDs. Yet we are both still drawn to those creative outlets we loved even as children. I went to culinary school and now have almost completed this crazy project. Mel has won a bunch of awards as a seamstress. And she just launched a business using her amazing sewing skills! She is rescuing wool sweater that are bound for the trash (because of snags, shrinking, etc...) and turning them into beautiful wool mittens! I have a pair (and just ordered another!) and they are awesome. If you are interested, she has just started selling part of her collection online. Her website is here!

It's strange to realize how much the activities we did as a child affected who we became as adults. And amazing to realize that friendships can thrive over decades of time, mostly spent living far apart. I am very thankful for Mel's friendship, and that she invited me to be her model all those years ago. It occurs to me, though, that she hasn't asked me to walk down any runways wearing her mittens -- maybe she wasn't too impressed with my runway walk! :)

Louisiana Crawfish Boil (Page 342)

RECIPE #1216

• Date: Friday, September 10, 2010 -- 6pm
• Location: East Lansing, MI
• Kitchen: Our House
• Fellow Chef: Matty
• Dining Companions: Helen, Charles, Clara, Corbett, Mary, Allison, Ron, Esther, Bob, Ben S, and Marcie.
• Recipe Rating: A
  

My special gentleman loves crawfish and has been suggesting that we make the crawfish boil from The Book for quite some time. Live crawfish are difficult to come by in most places, but certainly there was no way we were going to find them in Michigan when they were out of season to begin with. So, we needed to have them shipped to us live from another part of the country. We ordered them from Louisiana, but they actually arrived from Oregon. The minimum quantity we could have shipped was 20 pounds, so we approximately tripled the recipe in The Book and threw a party! I have mail-ordered live seafood before (e.g. steamers), but when the 20 pound box of crawfish arrived I was a little startled by how alive they were. They were moving around in the box quite a lot, causing the box to shift back and forth a bit on the counter. Our kitties were mesmerized. I was disturbed. Eventually I built up the courage to take them out of the box and clean them in the sink. We had about 250 crawfish, and only 4 of them died in transit. Pretty impressive! I got them into the sink:

Then I gave them a good rinse. My gloves were not so protective -- I got pinched many times. I think I swore more times while rinsing those crawfish than I usually do in a month!

While I was in the process of purging the crawfish, I was also preparing the boiling liquid. I combined water, seafood-boil spices, salt, cayenne (15 tablespoons of cayenne! Yes, 15 tablespoons!), some onions, lemons, and whole heads of garlic in a HUGE canning pot and I brought it all to a boil over two burners. When it was boiling I added some red potatoes and boiled them until they were cooked through. I also boiled ears of corn. By that point all of our guests had arrived and were wandering in and out of the kitchen to see the spectacle that was 250 live crawfish in the sink! The unfortunate thing was that with so much cayenne boiling away on the stove, there was cayenne in the air. It was impossible not to cough. It quickly permeated the whole first floor of the house, and everyone was coughing and coughing. I felt bad for everyone, but particularly for little Clara and Allison, who are both about a year and a half old. Their little coughs were so pathetic!

After I removed the potatoes and the corn from the boiling liquid, I added the 20 pounds of crawfish:

I boiled them for a few minutes, then let them stand in the liquid for a while to absorb the seasoning. We covered a table on the porch with newspaper (in true Louisiana crawfish boil style) and dumped the potatoes, corn, and crawfish on the table. We served the boil with some saltines and horseradish cocktail sauce (which I will post about next). It was a lot of food:


We crowded all 13 of us around the table and everyone just dug in with their hands, discarding shells in piles on the table or into pots and trash cans. About 20 minutes into the meal I thought there was no way we would even come close to finishing all those crawfish. But two hours later, as the last few people got up from the table and came inside for dessert, the only thing from the boil left uneaten was one potato (which we saved and ate the next day). The only other things on the table were piles of corn cobs and shells:


I was amazed that everything got eaten! So how was it? I think my special gentleman summarized it best. He declared this meal in the top 20 from The Book for quality of food and the top 10 for fun. It was really fun! We had a great crowd of people eating with us and it was just a wonderful experience. I am not a huge seafood person, but I liked the crawfish more than I thought I would. And I loved the potatoes and corn, which both picked up great seasoning from the boiling liquid. It was very liberating to hold a potato in my hand and take bites from it like an apple. It was that kind of meal! I don't know much about crawfish boils, but we had several former New Orleans residents at the table and they gave this boil their seal of approval. In retrospect I wish I had taken a picture of everyone around the table eating. I always get so wrapped up in eating the food that I forget to take a picture of the people who were there. It was a lovely evening, and what made it great was not just the food but the friends we had there to share it with us! The A grade I gave this recipe was not just about the taste of the food, but also about the experience of preparing and eating the meal. My special gentleman is already talking about having a crawfish boil again next year!

(Thanks to Helen for some of the pictures!)

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