Fresh Tart

Another quiet day (I'm feeling quiet lately, tired). Baby Cooper's doing great (I can hardly bear how adorable that red hair is!!) and so are Stacey and Bowen. Nathan and A are here, doing their homework, I'm about to make dinner. Steak (broiled flank), crispy oven roasted potatoes (unanimous request; how could I refuse?), and a Caesar salad. Just a nice, classic dinner. I'll have to track down a big red to complete the picture. Feel like I should have a gorgeous martini with olives beforehand - love they way they look, sadly don't like the way they taste - and Baked Alaska for dessert! I've never made it, by the way, although it would probably be fun to give it a go. Someday...

Here's a curious aside from our trip to the hospital to see Cooper. There's a painting of my old house - still my ex's house - that hung in the front entry of the hospital for a few years, but since the hospital's recent remodel, now hangs by the main elevator bank. I've known about it for quite awhile - my friend Polly first noticed it and told me about it when she was bringing her daughter Ellie home from the hospital. At the time, I contacted the hospital administration to get the scoop on how our house happened to be painted (it clearly represented the home during our ownership - our paint scheme, landscaping, even me standing at the base of the driveway and our now-deceased elderly neighbor Mary spying through her window at me, a very truthful rendering, hilarious). The hospital had commissioned paintings of local neighborhood scenes and somehow, some way, our little domestic scene was chosen. The painting is not for sale (darn), and the artist's sketches were already sold, so we'll just have to enjoy it at the hospital, hopefully on happy occasions like the birth of Baby Cooper!

So today...hoping for another little Cooper fix later on in the day. A run over to the store. Laundry. I'll be cooking something for dinner...still celebrating the miracle of electricity...not sure yet what it will be.

Nathan's having a blast in the snow and I'm glad for that (even if I'm not liking it much myself). Since John had a dinner meeting, Nathan and I decided to order in. So a relaxing night for me! Other than whipping over to register for little league, but that was easy. We didn't get our Cooper fix today, Stacey is understandably (!) wiped out, so perhaps tomorrow. She and Bowen report that Cooper's doing great! He hung out with them all day today and they were happy to have lots of quiet time to absorb his cuteness.

Baby Boom Boom is soon to have a new, real name, he's on his way! Stacey and Bowen are at the hospital as I write this. Oh, a baby, a beautiful little boy, everyone is so excited. A baby. Soon to be called, by his mommy, a Cuteness and a Fruitzer, two very Stacey words for little cutie pies. He's pretty much guaranteed, via both his mommy and daddy, big hazel-brown eyes, curly hair, and a wiry, athletic frame. Good cheek bones. Full lips. Smarts. Wit. An artistic eye. Iconoclast urgings. Ants in his pants. Gentleness. In other words, he'll be - is - awesome! Can't wait to meet him!

Update: Boom Boom is going to be delivered via cesarean at some point this afternoon, no word yet if he's arrived... I'm freaking out a little bit, which surprises me, so I went to the store and am making healthy food to freeze and take over to Stace when she goes home. Blueberry muffins, banana walnut bread, vegetable soup, empanadas (I'm making those for us for dinner, doubling the recipe, freezing some for her). I bought everything organic, I kept picturing that teeny little baby (since Stace will nurse him, he'll eat what she eats), no chemicals for Boom Boom! I'm so excited!!!

HE'S BORN! Cooper MeyerHoward, March 12, 2006, 12:25 pm, 5 lbs, 15 oz!!! He's healthy, adorable, blonde hair and eyebrows, and totally asleep right now (all this via Stace, I haven't seen him yet, of course). Welcome to the world, Cooper - a new little peanut! Stacey is doing well, resting, and so is Bowen. We have to wait until tomorrow to visit - darn. But I'll posts some pics of the little cuteness as soon as I can...

Well, adventures in empanada making tonight. (As I look at the empanadas in the oven, I'm giggling that I chose to make them - they not-so-subtly resemble a pregnant woman's round tummy; little Freudian action there, ha.) They're in the oven baking, and I think will taste fine, but there were definitely a few bumps (nice pun! What's my problem?) along the way. I clipped the recipe out of this past Thursday's StarTribune. First of all, the measurement for one of the seasonings, adobo, is way too much - 2 tablespoons. I foolishly did not taste the seasoning first - pure salt, I basically dumped 2 tablespoons of powdered salt into one pound of hamburger. Hey, no one likes salty tasties more than me, but this was inedible. I actually rinsed the cooked ground beef with hot water to try to remove some of the salt. I also quickly diced and boiled two potatoes and stirred them in, also to dilute the saltiness. The two steps helped, enough to make it edible, but oh my am I going to be a puff ball tomorrow. Damn. Then, it says to pull the dough into 20 tennis ball-size pieces (to make 20 empanadas). I could see pretty quickly that there wasn't nearly enough dough for 20 tennis-ball size pieces, in fact, the recipe made 11 large ping-pong ball size pieces. Which matched up pretty well to the filling, and made what I would call normal-size empanadas, so I guess it's just a mistake in the description. But irritating! So I'll post the heavily revised recipe, and check back in with a conclusion on their flavor...

OK: the crust is wrong, wrong, wrong. Too hard. Not enough fat in it (which made it incredibly easy to work with, I should have known), so very hard and brittle. I think I'll have to pass on posting this recipe - sorry! I'll work on it a bit more and post it at a later date. Damn! We'll eat them anyhow, they're tasty, they're just not quite right...

I guess for pure dramatic effect I begin with the spider legs, although they hardly represent the insane amount of fun I had last night. They did however, sort of kick off the night - I went downstairs to grab a bottle of wine for us to sip while recording Feminine Hijinx (we always have wine, and discuss it). Reached to turn out the light...and noticed these spider legs nastily poking out from under the plate cover. Good god, I hate spiders, and this is the second time this same switch plate has had a spider crouching under it. Same spot, last year, our friend Marty disposed of the alive one for me. This time, John got tagged. I ran out the door before I had to hear about how it would go. (And, if you're wondering, I got the whole story this a.m. - not one, not two, but three, albeit dead, spiders there, he took the plate cover off when he couldn't just tug the first one out. Shiver, shiver, cringe, shiver, UGH! John is a hero for spider hunting, thanks honey!)

So, onto MUCH more fun, hanging with Suz and Kim, and their hubbies Coreman and Brian, and our first Feminine Hijinx guest Kyle McNary, for our fourth recording. Kyle was a fabulous guest, what a seriously cool, smart, and hilarious guy, and author, check out his website. We made the mistake of not allowing him enough time to talk - gee, what a shocker. I actually got the giggles this time, the real deal, could not stop myself. An appetizer for what was to come - total, knock down, drag out hilarity. POST-recording hijinx, it turns out...

Kyle had left and the girls and their boys and I were eating chips, fabulous Suz-baked lemon bars (served with a classic 1950s apron, rooster, red checks and all...recipe in comments, below), and gabbing. I was playing with my hair and noticed this big chunk of loose hair - kinda freaked out, I pulled it and ended up with a huge clump of hair in my hand. I held it up, thinking, OMG, I'm going bald, when Cory said, the drill. Of course! The drill that I almost accidentally killed myself with, and had bragged just moments before on FH that I only lost two hairs to (oops), had ripped this ball of hair right out of my head. I don't know how the hell I didn't notice earlier, or maybe it came completely loose only just last night, but whatever, there we had a big clump of hair. Garbage to anyone else, but not to Kim and Suz, who seized the clump and began a process of devising various clever uses for it. First up, Suz, who declared it was a merkin, and placed it on me in its intended place, and that's all I'm going to say (if you listened to episode three of FH, you know what a merkin is). We died laughing, gasping, choking, crying laughter. From there, a mustache, armpit hair, toe hair (modeled by Suz over her lovely lemon bars, with an Elvis candle in the background and glass of St. Innocent Pinot Gris in the foreground), butt hair, and ear hair. By the time we were done, I was toast, absolutely spent and exhausted and hurting. And it was GREAT. Truly one of the most fun nights of my life. (And PS, even though it doesn't look or sound like it, these shenanigans had nothing to do with alcohol - Brian, Cory, Kyle had water, Suz her usual three sips of wine, Kim and I, well, OK Kim and I had wine. And a beer. But nothing over the top. No, my friends - and I! - are just plain crazy, all on our own. I heart my friends!)

What the hell do I do today that could possibly compare to all the hilarity? I guess I shouldn't try and will just enjoy a lovely, quiet Saturday at home. Fix a little din, ooh, maybe a little brunch, I didn't really eat breakfast and am feeling a bit hungry. Hmmm...we'll see what John's up for. He's working today, and doesn't like to eat while working because it makes him too tired, so I may be on my own for a light lunch instead. How can I think about food in the presence of all this hair? Pure class, that's what you'll find here at the moderate epicurean! I'm going for a high/low brow kind of contrast you know... Stay tuned...

Brunch! We did have brunch. And oh boy was it delicious. It was a what-do-I-have-available meal, love those. Over-easy eggs on whole-grain toast. Salad of chopped romaine, parsley, and tarragon. And the star, crispy potatoes. Started out with chopped bacon, sauteed, then removed from the pan (and added to the salad). Diced potatoes went into the hot fat until crisp on one side, then sliced mushrooms, diced green pepper, and sliced onions went on top. Few turns of the spatula, little more browning, sprinkle of salt and pepper, voila. Here's the dilemma: do you eat the salad with the egg/toast (that's my fav, I think greens cut the rich yolk beautifully) or with the crispy potatoes? Or, the crispy potatoes with the egg? You decide. I washed mine down with a light, crisp glass of Carpene Molvolti Prosecco di Conegliano. And now I'm done.

Hello Sunshine! There's most definitely a feeling of spring in the air, what with 50 degrees yesterday (s-weet!) and bright sunshine today. Add the blooming of my forced bulbs (smell so earthy and alive) and I have to admit - I'm in a truly good mood today. Woo hoo! I'll take a little walk, plan for an early dinner (I'm heading over to Suz's at 7 pm for Hijinx with my minxes!), run around a bit. And yes, at some point, I will retire to the lower level to continue drilling holes in my head - I mean the wall, the wall, drilling holes in the wall, to hang up hooks in the bathroom (see yesterday's idiocy). I'm working so hard on the bathroom down there because it's going to be the changing room for when friends come to swim in our new pool! Yes, we have a pool, took all summer and fall to get the fucker in the ground, but it's soon (well, sorta soon) going to be worth it because we'll hit the ground running. I mean hit the water swimming. My god, I hardly dare think about it, I have spring fever pretty badly, as you can tell. So no more thinking about the pool. But I will continue the focus on the bathroom and whipping it into shape. And my photo collage, damn me for coming up with this stupid idea. I know I will love it and appreciate it when it's done, I will. Right. Until then...

Could it be? Why yes, yes it could - that is raw sunlight shining on this plate of chopped herbs! I ate this charming little salad, tossed with a splash of good olive oil, sprinkle of vinegar, grind of pepper, and shake of coarse salt...outside! Al fresco dining in Minnesota in March? A record for me, I'm quite sure. The sun, on the deck, has the temp up over 60 degrees, thank goodness I glanced at the thermometer before I dug into my bunny snack. It's slightly breezy, just enough to make it a smidge on the chilly side, so I didn't linger. But I had to go for it, my god, to say and know and experience that I ate outside, at home, on March 10. It will get cold again, of course (I'm optimistic, not stupid), but this little window on spring has my spirits soaring. La, la, laaaa! (In case you're wondering Suz, yes, that is arugula! Chopped with basil, tarragon, parsley, scallions, and chervil - hey, I had them all in the fridge, and I don't want to waste them, and there's nothing more refreshing than a pile of chopped, fresh herbs as a salad on March 10! Except, perhaps, a beer...mmm...beer).

Oh! OMG! I must take down the Christmas wreath hanging on the front of the house! I just ate outside, but have a wreath still out there - great, big no-no, oh my, Kim will write me a citation for sure. I'm running out there right now...

Whew. Wreath is gone. Good thing I finally got around to it, that was a tough project - took, and I counted, less than 5 seconds to carry the wreath into the garage. Why? Why? Why do I procrastinate so? Anyhow, I snapped a quick pic of it, Christmas Wreath 2005, you were a lovely one. And I also snapped a pic of the beer (power of suggestion, above) that I stole from my friend Cory - Cory, I'm bringing you a six-er of Stella tonight, to attempt to recharge the supply of all the Stellas you've so generously served me at your house - but it's now a five-er. I'm such a bad friend! All I did was think about spring and beer, and I remembered it in the fridge, and just as John predicted when he saw that I'd bought it a few days ago, I drank one. Damn me again! Oooh, maybe I'll stop on the way to your house and buy another one...that's the trick. So I need never have posted this...hmmm... I'll bring you a six-er AND a five-er and get 'er the hell out my house so I don't drink 'er. Except at your house.

OK, Stephanie, today you are re-tackling the downstairs. I did such a good job for awhile! Hung pictures, cleaned, moved furniture, planned. And then in typical fashion, I slowly.. lost... my.... steam. Yeah, I got sick, but before that I had to pause to wait for more picture frames (photo collage project), and to purchase a drill (bathroom), and then I was toast. I don't do the pause. Pause = done. Until the sight of the project, lying there undone, taunting me, judging, judging (sorry, that's one of my favorite lines from Old School) finally pisses me off enough to take it up again. That's about where I'm at right now. Pissed off. I bought a drill yesterday, oooh.

As a reward for working on unfinished projects, I get to take in Wolfgang Puck's 20.21 at the Walker for dinner tonight! Woo hoo! With friends we haven't seen in ages, Jeff and Susan, it will be great to catch up with them and enjoy the delicious food and gorgeous setting. Better bust some KBs as well, it will not be a low-calorie evening, ha.

Here's a new way to curl your hair - wind it up in a drill, which is what I just terrifyingly did while installing a towel rack downstairs. I actually am pretty good at this repair stuff, but woops! Drilled the hole in the wall, pulled the drill back still pressing the trigger, got it too close to my hair - BAM, the thing was up to my nape in a flash. Luckily, the bit wasn't pointed toward my neck or skin, good lord. I paused, eyeing myself in the mirror, and considered what a complete fucking idiot I looked like at that moment. And even though it hurt, I did laugh. Sort of. I switched the drill to reverse and gently pulled the trigger, voila, hair unwound. I can just hear my mom say, "Stephanie! " Yes, I will pull my hair back next time I work with power tools. Eeeek.

Fab-u-lous to see Susan and Jeff for dinner at 20.21, they're great, and what a meal we had. A blur of courses and tasties, I made the mistake of not writing things down, or taking a menu with me, so this will be but an overview. Everything at 20.21 is meant to share, so share we did. First courses were a lovely seared foie gras (and you know how I feel about foie gras, rrrrarrrrrrr, John traded me his bite for a bite of my tandoori salmon - done!), hamachi tartare, crispy quail (delicate and perfect) and chicken curry spring rolls. For main courses we shared a crackly, crispy duck (bring it on, it was incredible), fried whole striped sea bass (mmm...), seafood curry, and pad thai. All outstanding, really, just a lot of different tastes to take in. Washed down with an Alsace Gewurztraminer, I also didn't write it down (sorry!), but it was rich and just-sweet and perfect with our melange of Asian flavors, from sweet to spicy and everything in between. For dessert we sampled ice-cold creme brulee with the requisite warm, broiled, crunchy crust - vanilla and chocolate versions, both delicious, and the now-ubiquitous (which is fine by me!) warm chocolate cake, also yummy. So here I am, stuffed, tired, content, happy. I'll be puffy as hell tomorrow (salt) and that's fine, totally worth it. What's puff on a Friday? Bah, puff! Love 20.21, definitely want to return. And the view...Minneapolis, you're a fine city, really, you are.

The Baseball Moms, and my friend Karen, have mentioned interest in 1) easy, family-friendly recipes that 2) don't waste ingredients (either don't require you to buy some special ingredient that you'll never use again, or a series of coordinated recipes that use up all of the special ingredient). I'm going to think about that, and be a little more purposeful in talking about the ease of the recipes and the expense of the ingredients.

To me, most of the recipes that I post are pretty quick and easy, because I'm a mom cooking with limited time too. And for limited tastes and appetites (at least 5 nights/week, when we have kids; two nights, it's just John and me, and I can be more experimental). Many of the pasta dishes I've posted are almost entirely from the pantry with the exception of fresh onion and/or garlic and/or herbs - canned tuna, tomatoes, and beans, and dried pasta and rice, are high quality, low cost, convenient ingredients that can be reached for in a pinch.

I realize that I count a lot on my food processor and the most important tool - a super-sharp chef's knife. Working with a dull knife makes food prep take f..o..r..e..v..e..r. You only need two high quality knives - an 8-inch chef's knife and a paring knife. Make the investment (Target even has nice knives now, buy the best you can afford), buy a sharpening steel also so you can keep a good edge on it, and make your life 50 times easier. And regarding the food processor - people are understandably intimidated by all the attachments, bowls, and blades and therefore stash the thing in an incovenient cupboard, never to be used. Which is too bad, because the basic bowl and blade are all you really need, they're easy to clean, and with them you can make so many delicious and quick recipes - soups, sauces, desserts, spreads, it's pretty endless.

With a sharp knife, a food processor, and Jacques Pepin Fast Food My Way, one of my very favorite cookbooks, you can put a delicious, healthy dinner on the table in less than an hour, without a lot of extra dishes or fussing. Oh, and with a few of my recipes! Some of them sound fancy - like the lamb chops with mustard and tarragon - but that's a great example of an unbelievably easy recipe. Mustard, dried tarragon, garlic, olive oil. Smear it on chops with your hands. Broil. Voila, dinner. If you don't like lamb, try it on pork chops. Crushed potatoes with herbs? Literally, crush boiled potatoes with some chopped herbs and butter. Done.

Write to me in comments if you have questions - I LOVE talking about food (obviously), on every level. Love to dish about high end meals I have in restaurants. Love to dish about the perfect meatloaf recipe. Love it all! And I read all the comments and respond. If you're embarassed by asking a basic question, post it anonymously, I don't care! If I can't answer it, I'll ask my friend Chef Andrew or one of my other great-cook friends or family members! Bon apetit!

Nice dinner, nothing fancy, I did put some effort into homemade tortillas, we just ate them with chicken and sliced avocado. Simple and delicious.

Thank you to everyone who is listening to Feminine Hijinx! The response has been overwhelming! I'm blown away and so honored and excited! Keep in mind - it's raunchy, and not for everyone, which we say on the website. And it has an explicit rating on the podcast sites like iTunes. But if you don't mind a bit of bawdy (it's not THAT bad, ha), have a listen! Hey, I've got a multifaceted personality - mostly straightlaced, but I like to cut loose once in awhile. That's who I am, naughty AND nice (and a pretty major bitch sometimes - look out!). And it's no big surprise - I am a Badger! It takes a certain kind of person to thrive in Madtown, and a goody-two-shoes wouldn't last a Fuck 'Em Bucky day... Gotta like to talk (yell!) drinks, sex, vomit, and all things evil and nasty...with a big sweet smile, sorority letters, and a bag full of books. I loved it for good reason, heh, heh, heh...I AM it. AND I'm all proper and happily married and a good mommy and volunteer and I baked cookies, would you like one? (For a hilarious perspective on FH, check out what Kim's bro published on his blog about us...woo hoo for women keepin' it real!)

Here's the upside of being sick for awhile - you get mighty grateful for your health. Now that I'm feeling better, I am appreciating how good it feels to feel good. I am so very lucky, of course, to be in overall good health, it gives me pause (and because I'm from the Midwest, a hearty dose of guilt) to have such luck. I look at the bounty of my life, at this moment at least, and am overwhelmed. It motivates me anew to take good care of myself, and my family, which I enjoy doing anyhow. Today when I go to the store I will be buying even more vegetables and fruits, whole grains, and thinking about recipes that incorporate fabulously healthy (and delicious) ingredients like olive oil, almonds, berries, dark leafy greens, beans, soy, avocadoes, fish, yogurt, citrus. The world's healthiest foods. I use them pretty often anyhow, but I could use a boost, a challenge to incorporate them even more often. This quest for moderation includes making every calorie count, nutrition-wise. Within moderation, of course! Thank goodness (small amounts of) red wine and dark chocolate are also good for you... Woo hoo for red wine and chocolate!

Baseball Moms tonight! I'm going early so I can get back to spend the rest of the evening with John. Not a bad way to spend a Monday evening - beer & chat with the girls, dinner & chat with my husband. I'm going to try a new recipe tonight (as you can tell, I cook most of the time from my own head, but I also appreciate fabulous recipes and trying new things), from Jacques Pepin Fast Food My Way - oven-baked salmon with sun-dried tomato and salsa mayonnaise. The salmon, topped with bread crumbs and hazelnuts, is baked at 200 degrees for 45 minutes, a nice slow bake, until just done. Mayonnaise garnish is a simple stir-together of just a few ingredients. Finished with a showering of chopped fresh herbs. Of course, it all depends upon the quality of the salmon. I'm not always pleased with the fish that I buy, no matter where I buy it. That's living in Minnesota... Here's the deal. I'll post the recipe if I like the dish...later tonight. I think I'll accompany it with a veg that will also taste yummy with the mayonnaise, perhaps broccoli. Yes, broccoli sauteed in a little olive oil with sliced garlic. Alright! Baseball Moms, salmon, broccoli, and John. S-weet!

Had a blast, and a beer, with the Baseball Moms, at McCoy's. Woo hoo for the Baseball Moms - tonight Bobbi, Beth, and Sonya! Good, raunchy conversation, always fun. And then home to make the Jacques salmon - and oh my, what a salmon (recipe, definitely worthy of posting, is in comments, below). I bought - and smelled first, I don't care if it's obnoxious, I wanted fresh - wild Atlantic salmon, had the butcher trim the skin off. It's a lovely recipe, the slow bake yields tender fish, and the hazelnut (filbert)/bread crumb topping is a nice complement. And the salsa mayo, yum! I made the whole recipe, knowing it would yield much more mayo than needed, thinking I can use it with chicken and on sandwiches. Good stuff. I did not do broccoli, instead had a hankering for artichokes (I was thinking of that mayo, love mayo with artichokes). Bought frozen artichoke hearts, steamed them for a few minutes (per package directions), just perfect with the salmon. Spring on a plate. And oh, how I am craving spring. Ouch, it hurts. John and I ate our Jacques salmon while listening to Feminine Hijinxepisode 3. I have to say, it makes me really happy watching him laugh while he listens to me talk shit with the girls. Makes me want to kiss him, ha. Woo hoo for FH!

John's home from a ski trip and we're so glad! We really missed him, we love having John home. I made broiled lamb loin chops smeared with mustard, tarragon, and olive oil, potatoes crushed with herbs and Hope Creamery butter (inspired by a potato recipe Marge was telling me about; recipes posted in comments below), and crispy roasted asparagus. Little Champagne, little chocolate. All good. Perfect Sunday/Academy Awards dinner. Nighty 'night.