2.28.2005
i was cupcaked
on saturday night, i came home to the most wonderful treat. i was cupcaked by the cupcake fairies. maybe you're next!
2.13.2005
happy belated first blog birthday to me.
it's been quite a year. lots of ups and downs. lots of good food. lots of hijinx. lots of countries.
yay for more!
it's been quite a year. lots of ups and downs. lots of good food. lots of hijinx. lots of countries.
yay for more!
i am so excited about christo's and jeanne-claude's gates in central park. i wish i could go see them, but i'll just have to settle for pictures and stories from a friend who's visiting there this week.
lasassy, it was clare crespo i was talking about on friday.
i spotted a dude wearing a blogger sweatshirt in the mission. i can't decide if it was really lame or really cool.
even though i still haven't decided if i really love or really hate tartine, i think if i ever open up a little shop, i'd want it to have exactly the same atmosphere/design/vibe (but less snotty). i LOVE their pickles. i went there on friday for lunch with DR and little xiomara, and we had huge hot pastrami panini with lots of horseradish. the sandwiches were almost painful to eat, but in a wonderful way. my friend JA, who makes pastries there, was on eclair duty, so we had one of those, too.
this week, i experimented with homemade pizza. i started out with the recipe for regular pizza dough from baking illustrated, but, as always, i ended up adding so much salt, oil, and flour that my finished product didn't really resemble the initial recipe at all. at cp, we all had to know how to make pizza dough right, since we had do make two huge batches a day, so i relied a lot on the feel and look of the dough. i think it's mostly important to start out with enough oil and salt in the dough, to let the yeast come to life before you add most of the flour, and to let the dough proof enough. i think it's basically impossible for most home cooks to overknead or overproof dough like this. at any rate, the pizza was fantastic--i was craving deep-dish pizza, so i made it in a cast iron. it came out crispy and light, and thick and wonderful and saucy and cheesy. so good!
the cherry, plum, and apple trees are in blossom all around berkeley. each morning, i step from my apartment into a sea of pink and white flowers. i keep expecting another cold spell, but maybe spring is really here.
hopefully she won't get mad at me for saying this here, but i was really excited about the autographed copy of the garden state dvd that LS got from her boyfriend's sister's boyfriend, who plays poker each week with zach braff. HOW COOL IS THAT?
i spotted a dude wearing a blogger sweatshirt in the mission. i can't decide if it was really lame or really cool.
even though i still haven't decided if i really love or really hate tartine, i think if i ever open up a little shop, i'd want it to have exactly the same atmosphere/design/vibe (but less snotty). i LOVE their pickles. i went there on friday for lunch with DR and little xiomara, and we had huge hot pastrami panini with lots of horseradish. the sandwiches were almost painful to eat, but in a wonderful way. my friend JA, who makes pastries there, was on eclair duty, so we had one of those, too.
this week, i experimented with homemade pizza. i started out with the recipe for regular pizza dough from baking illustrated, but, as always, i ended up adding so much salt, oil, and flour that my finished product didn't really resemble the initial recipe at all. at cp, we all had to know how to make pizza dough right, since we had do make two huge batches a day, so i relied a lot on the feel and look of the dough. i think it's mostly important to start out with enough oil and salt in the dough, to let the yeast come to life before you add most of the flour, and to let the dough proof enough. i think it's basically impossible for most home cooks to overknead or overproof dough like this. at any rate, the pizza was fantastic--i was craving deep-dish pizza, so i made it in a cast iron. it came out crispy and light, and thick and wonderful and saucy and cheesy. so good!
the cherry, plum, and apple trees are in blossom all around berkeley. each morning, i step from my apartment into a sea of pink and white flowers. i keep expecting another cold spell, but maybe spring is really here.
hopefully she won't get mad at me for saying this here, but i was really excited about the autographed copy of the garden state dvd that LS got from her boyfriend's sister's boyfriend, who plays poker each week with zach braff. HOW COOL IS THAT?
2.02.2005
i got to go to the chez panisse party this past weekend, and it was lovely. it was held at foreign cinema, where i've never before been--the food was alright, and of course the pagnol films were playing overhead on the wall. mostly, though, it was wonderful to see all of the special people i never get to see anymore. oh, and the babies. there were so many babies. i've always thought that the chez panisse children are the most beautiful kids in the world (and healthiest!).
since it was a goodbye party for several people who've worked there for many, many years, practically everyone from over the years was there. i worried that i wouldn't know many people at the party, since there's been such great turnover since i left for italy, but pretty much everyone i hoped to see was there.
i'll always be indescribably grateful for my opportunities and experiences at chez panisse, and spending that evening with everyone just served to highlight that feeling for me.
the goodbye gifts for the retirees were pretty amazing, but by far, the best was the red kelly bag alice gave leeann, the parting floor manager. it was so dramatic, in the orange box and everything.
since it was a goodbye party for several people who've worked there for many, many years, practically everyone from over the years was there. i worried that i wouldn't know many people at the party, since there's been such great turnover since i left for italy, but pretty much everyone i hoped to see was there.
i'll always be indescribably grateful for my opportunities and experiences at chez panisse, and spending that evening with everyone just served to highlight that feeling for me.
the goodbye gifts for the retirees were pretty amazing, but by far, the best was the red kelly bag alice gave leeann, the parting floor manager. it was so dramatic, in the orange box and everything.
2.01.2005
a little more
so, here's a little blurb by nancy harmon jenkins (from the essential mediterranean) on garum:
The oddest product that Greeks and Romans produced from salt, at least to modern tastes, was the thick syrupy liquid called garum, made from various parts of fish (some author say the intestines, others from small whole fish, still others from a combination of the two--and probably all of these methods were used at one time or another). The fish, layered in terra-cotta jars with lots of salt, sometimes with aromatic herbs added, was left in the sun to fermenet to a rich and heady brew.
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