Fresh Tart

Nathan's home with me today, with a fever and feeling tired. I went to check in with him after posting last night and he was sound asleep, at 6:50 p.m. Had fallen asleep doing his homework! Definitely not usual 9-year-old-boy behavior. So today he's lyin' low, watching a little TV, and finishing up the homework he didn't finish last night. I can tell he's probably going to be OK, because he requested a home-made pizza for lunch (!). And I'm willing to make it for him because he hasn't eaten anything for 24 hours. And I can make it pretty healthy when I do it myself (throw a little whole-wheat flour into the crust, keep the sodium low in the tomato sauce, incorporate some fresh garlic, go easy on the cheese). Hopefully the pizza, some rest, and a little TLC will get him back on his feet.

For tonight, I'll be keeping things simple. Both kids here for dinner, I'm thinking crispy roasted chicken, rice, and a quick tomato gratin. As you can tell, we eat alot of chicken & rice in this house! Variations on a theme, it's all just variations on a theme...ha.

Well, made the pizza for Nathan, and he loved it. He's definitely on the mend. Since I'd messed up the mixer anyhow, I decided to bake some bread for tonight. At first I was thinking challah (or Rockin' Challah as Susie the Metal Jewtheran - Jewish Lutheran - was calling it today; just to use that cool name, I'll post the recipe, below) but I'm a bit low on eggs so just made a nice white loaf instead. I may end up revising the dinner menu, hmmm... As in, I think I'll skip the rice. And since I haven't bought chicken yet, I could skip that too. Soup would be nice with the fresh bread. Too bad no one would eat chili but me, that sounds great... Really the only soup that the whole family will eat is chicken noodle, so I guess that's what I'll shoot for. Fresh bread and chicken noodle soup! With a salad. That's pretty far from chicken & rice with tomato gratin, but so the day goes!

The soup is delicious, but that bread, hmmm...it's looking a little odd in the oven. I bake bread all the time, I'm not sure what I blew, perhaps not quite enough yeast. That's how it looks anyhow. And it looks hilarious! OK, now it's out of the oven, and I sliced the end off, and it tastes yummy, so I guess we'll go with it. Nice texture, chewy and soft interior, good flavor, didn't develop much of a crust though (as you can see) - nice top! Oh well! (If it had tasted like crap I would have baked popovers, which I almost love more than fresh yeast bread anyhow, thus my calm attitude.) Put a little Hope Creamery butter on the table, everyone will think it's fabulous (yes, I bought it again, damn I wish I didn't love it so much...). So, on to a salad, and dinner will be on the table. I have Caesar dressing from last night, and both kids LOVE Caesar, so I know they'll eat their veggies, at least tonight.

A nod to a few of my senses today.

Cookbooks, good ones, for me, fill all my senses. I love to page through them, look at the pictures, read the background stories, imagine how the food will look, taste and smell, and if I s.t.r.e.t.c.h this, how it will sound (?) OK, maybe not all my senses. But you get the idea. Here are my favorites right now (but honestly, I love many more than this, my moods change with the seasons...):

Bittersweet, Alice Medrich
Fast Food My Way, Jacques Pepin
Mexico One Plate at a Time, Rick Bayless
The Zuni Cafe Cookbook, Judy Rodgers
Savoring the Seasons of the Northern Heartland, Beth Dooley & Lucia Watson
Lidia's Italian-American Kitchen, Lidia Matticchio Bastianich
Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Julia Child
Casual Cooking, Michael Chiarello
The Gourmet Cookbook, Ruth Reichl
The NY Times Cookbook, Craig Claiborne


And two nods to my sense of smell, as I've said many times, I am a bath products fan (freak). Here are some of my favorite bath gels:

Molton Brown Invigorating Suma Ginseng
Kiehl's Cucumber
Naturopathica Bamboo Scrub
Agraria Lavender
Molton Brown Seamoss
Neutrogena Rainbath
Afface Almond
Naturopathica Zesty Lime
The Sea
Bulgari Au Te Vert


And fragrances, my favorites shift with the seasons here too:

Cartier Must de Cartier
Frederic Malle Parfum de Therese
Lanvin Arpege
Clinique Aromatics Elixir
Jean Paul Gaultier Classique
Serge Lutens Un Lys
DSH Bourbon Vanilla
Floris Cefiro
Chanel Bois Des Iles
Cacharel Eau D'Eden

I most definitely should go for a walk today, but blech, it's so dreary out there. I'm feeling lazy today. I'm more likely working up to a bath, therefore the musings on favorite scents. So predictable.

Orechiette with broccolini made a lovely lunch, I'm always glad for leftovers like that. I have lamb chops in the refrigerator for tonight. I'm thinking of keeping them simple, probably broil them with salt and pepper, and serve them on top of a pile of arugula/romaine salad. Oh, maybe I'll do a killer Caesar dressing, hmmm, with a big toasted crouton to soak up all the juices. Get an anchovy/garlic/lamb thing going, definitely. Just don't tell Nathan - he's been requesting lamb chops, and he's pretty open to salads lately, but he'd balk at anchovies, as any kid (and plenty of adults) would. Oooh, I'll be giving that some more thought, see what I can come up with.

As a total aside, I just checked Susie's blog, and she had this awesome picture on it (Cory took

In the name of moderation, I have an appointment with this piece of equipment today. A Russian kettlebell. I was introduced to Russian kettlebells, or KBs, by my stepmom, Susanna, who I believe was introduced to them at her health club. She raved a bit about them, so I looked them up on the web, and came upon this Russian Kettlebells website (link also at right, under Health). It's a somewhat freaky website, but really fun too, and the information is fantastic. KBs are one-stop weight/flexibility/cardio shopping, and fun and challenging to use. They're also, it turns out, rather chic, according to an article in Vogue magazine featuring them that my sister-in-law Valerie pointed out to me a few months ago. My only problem with them is I don't use them often enough. Ha. I've travelled a few times with two small 4 kg KBs, one in each suitcase, but John's pretty much forbidden that now since one of my suitcases exceeded the airline's allowed weight limit and I had to repack my bags in front of the skycap. As you can tell from the photo, these things look like bombs, and the whole bomb-airline thing doesn't work so well. Also, they make my luggage too heavy for me to hoist into the car or off the luggage carousel, which means John has to do it, and he doesn't particularly appreciate tossing around my 60-lb. suitcase. Which is SO too bad, because they are the PERFECT hotel room exercise. Once you nail down the basic techniques, you can have yourself gasping for breath and pouring sweat in a short period of time. A very nice way to balance out the usual travel over-indulgences. But, I'll have to stick to using them here, in my own home, to balance out my every-day over-indulgences, and they work well for that too. For a cool-down, I've developed what I call my little Zen table. Lavender potpourri (Agraria, heavenly stuff), a fake orchid (I know, that's so not-Zen, a fake plant, but I had it around so I put it there until I buy a real plant), a photo of my Grandma Meyer with Nathan and me (because I loved my grandma and I miss her and think about her alot and that makes me feel good), and a sage-scented eye pillow. I lie down next to this little table, lay the eye pillow over my eyes, attempt a really brief meditation, feel nice and relaxed, and before I fall asleep (it's happened, right there, in the middle of the floor) I jump up and get on with my day. It's nice.

So. For dinner, we're going meatless, which I try to do once or twice per week. That moderation thing again, damn. Broccolini with orechiette pasta. Not sure exactly how I'm doing it, I think with garlic and a little red-pepper flake action for some heat. We'll see how it plays out.

Well, it played out quite nicely. Deliciously, in fact. I haven't cooked much with broccolini which is an oversight on my part. Easy to handle and quite good all on its own (I sampled several pieces of it in the saute pan before I tossed it with the pasta. Just checking seasoning, of course, that's always my excuse...). I just chopped it, sauteed it with olive oil for a few minutes, tossed in sliced garlic and red pepper flakes, and finished it with the cooked orechiette and a good amount of pasta cooking liquid and coarse salt to make a nice sauce. Grated a pungent Pecorino Romano over it all. Mmmm... Perhaps heady stuff for a first date (the garlic, the heat), but otherwise, go for it! You could back off on the red pepper flakes for kids, if you've convinced them that broccoli (and thus broccolini) is just baby trees and they happily eat it. All good - yummy, pretty, healthy. We opened a Sanford Pinot, oh...yeah...to have with it. Just check out how content John is, post-dinner, reading his Rolling Stone magazine, finishing a glass of Pinot. Happy Monday. (Recipe in comments, below.)

Used my herb butter to make myself a little brunch - nothing new here, I've written this before - egg over-easy on toast (cooked the egg in a little herb butter, put a little on the toast) with chopped arugula and scallions. Salt and pepper. Glass of champagne. Delicious. Aaaah, Sunday morning. Love it. With that reinforcement, I can now head out for groceries and back here to prepare some version of chicken & rice for dinner. Sort of Saltimbocca-ish, with crispy prosciutto and sage? Hmmm...that sounds good. Or with a Marsala pan sauce? (That's John's true fav.) I could be in the mood for a Piccata-like dish, do a lemon and caper sauce. But I doubt the kids would dig that. And I can't blame them, I don't think I was a big caper fan when I was a kid either, ha. I think I may go the prosciutto/sage route, with a RED wine pan sauce, oooh, yeah, a nice Pinot, have the rest of the bottle with our dinner. That's it. OK, with that settled, I'm off, out into the snow! Almost odd to see snow, since it's been so warm for so many days. But it's good to see. It's still January - when the weather doesn't act its age, I get all out-of-sorts.

Well, I did indeed go with the Saltimbocca-like chicken, quite tasty, if I do say so myself (recipe posted in comments, below). I honestly didn't feel much like pinning prosciutto and sage leaves onto pounded chicken breasts with toothpicks. So I didn't. I did pound the chicken breasts flat, and dredge them in flour, and saute them quickly in olive oil. THEN I sauteed, separately, the prosciutto and sage leaves, until both were crispy. Took them out of the pan, then added and reduced chicken broth and wine (the Pinot), and whisked in some butter to finish the sauce. Served the chicken on top of sauteed spinach and caramelized onions (recipe in comments), with rice on the side. The only problem with making chicken & rice for John is that he eats WAY too much of it, and regrets it, and moans the rest of the night. Other than that, it worked out well. Nathan, and visiting friends Oliver (also 9) and Benjamin (8), happily ate lots of chicken & rice. And Oliver and Benjamin's mom, Bridget, and my sister Stacey, were happy to have the spinach, along with everything else (unlike the boys, ha). So a great night, the boys had a blast playing outside on the hockey rink, no skates needed, just running around in the snow. Nice way to end the weekend! (And here's a picture of Baby Boom Boom, already adorable, I can just tell...)

And P.S., Andrew, we all really miss you. You left us all too soon. Damn you. Every time I cook something over-the-top, I think of you.

Andrew Cohen (toasting us at our wedding), March 3, 1958 to January 27, 2003.

Whew. Home from Willmar (not fun driving on Highway 12, in the dark, in the rain). Amanda's shower was fun and cozy at LuLu Bean's coffee house, if you happen to be in Willmar looking for a cup of coffee, go there, it's adorable. Amanda (pictured here with her future mother-in-law, my aunt Mary) got lots of cool presents. The collection of various coffee cakes and fruit came together beautifully and we all had plenty of sweets! The Norwegian Wedding Cake (in pic), crafted by my aunt Mary's friend Rachel Wilcox, was not just gorgeous, but delicious. None of us could keep our hands off of it. Almond pastry, sigh, I'm such a sucker for almond pastry. And then afterward - before and after my call in to Chowhounds at 1:45 p.m. - we had lunch at Green Mill. Which is pretty funny, since we had dinner there last night, too. And I ordered the same thing both days, it was so good. A Killian's Red beer with a side of Pub Steak Sandwich. Naughty thing, but quite delicious, obviously, or I wouldn't have ordered it two days in a row.

I don't know if you caught my little interview with Chef Andrew Zimmern on Chowhounds FM107, but it sure was fun to do. I was insanely nervous (and giggly as a result, irritating) which is silly given how cool and easy to talk to Andrew is. He's awesome. And so sweet for having me on. If you listened today, thank you! That makes me feel great! And thank you for reading my blog. And checking out the recipes. And cooking them and telling me about it. I'm truly honored and excited. And lucky. Wow.

So, I promised a picture of and recipe from my aunt Marge, and I acquired both (recipe for Cranberry Cream Coffee Cake is in comments, below; it is incredible). I stayed at her, and her husband, my uncle Jim's, house last night. Marge is the tidiest person I know and you know what? It is a pleasure to stay in someone else's tidy home. Beautiful room, super-comfy bed, pile of soft pillows, with sheets that smelled clean and fresh. I slept like a rock, which I don't often do in someone else's home. She also has the BEST collection of scented soaps and lotions of anyone I know. I sampled Thymes Ginger Milk and Crabtree & Evelyn Lavender lotions, both fab. Most people think, oh, that's too bad, you're going to Willmar (and then they think, wherever that is...). But not me. Between my two beautiful, awesome aunts, and their beautiful awesome homes (and my cool uncles too, of course!), I LOVE going out to Willmar.

It feels like Sunday night, but I'm so glad it's not! A day to chill out a bit tomorrow, make a plan for dinner, hit Byerly's, get back in my swing. We're having friends for dinner, and Stacey too. Can't wait to see how much soon-to-be-born Baby Boom Boom has grown!

OK, I'm tired today - too much partying! Awww, isn't that sad? This really is not my usual routine, at all. Which is probably why I'm so tired! Last night's neighborhood women's association meeting was as fun as always. Hosted in the beautiful home of my neighbor Marie, everything was lovely. Great food, wine, and seriously cool women. I walked over with one of those cool women, my neighbor Kasey - Marie lives on our block, so we walked instead of driving. Usually Kasey backs her car down her driveway and straight up mine, and off we drive, not more than just a few blocks, because I'm sorry, it's too damn COLD and difficult to walk in heels while carrying a tray of appetizers or dessert or a bottle of wine for more than a block. And there are always plenty of other cars there too, which makes me feel less guilty. But last night we walked. And I of course got rained on, during the walk home, freezing cold rain, no jacket, it really sucked. (I hope it quit raining before Kasey walked home!) So other than the getting rained on part, I had a blast. And even made it home in time to get to bed by 11:00. Ahhh, I love my bed, especially when I'm that tired. Good, soft sheets. Great pillows. Definitely one of life's little (major) pleasures...

And I needed that sleep, because I was up and at 'em this morning, baking for my cousin's fiancee Amanda's shower tomorrow. A few of us are bringing coffee cakes, so I baked two, both my mom's recipes. I think they're both my sister Stacey's top two favorite foods in the whole world, and I love them too. One is the classic cinnamon streusel coffee cake (top picture). Baked in a Bundt pan (I love that word, Bundt). The other is basically almond-flavored cream puff (choux) pastry on a crisp crust, with icing (pictured above and below). It is decadent and fab-u-lous. Mmmm... (Both recipes posted in comments, below).

I'm staying with my aunt Marge tonight, in Willmar, I'll see if she'll let me take her picture for a post. Marge is THE BEST, hands down, baker that I know, but she doesn't look like it, not one bit. She's thin, buff, and totally healthy. It would be nauseating if she weren't so awesome. I'll try to remember to get one of her recipes as well, they're all yummy.

So! I'm off to walk off some of the calories I'm sure I consumed with a little taste here and there as I prepared the coffee cakes. And then a drive out to the sticks...nah, not really. Willmar has a McDonald's. That's a little inside joke, I used to think any town with a McDonald's was BIG. I clearly lived in a town that was NOT.

Crazy-fun night, oh my god how I laughed, ouch. Kim and Susie (here with Nathan), two of the funniest people on the planet, came for dinner. Our goal was to actually do some work - ha! - on Feminine Hijinx... Our soon-to-be podcast! Of the three of us raving various subjects together - the concept and name of which Susie brainstormed. And, she wrote the theme song, and of course it's fantastic! The plan was to meet here, eat a quick bowl of soup (tortilla) with the family, then retire to the newly fabulous (ha) downstairs to nail down a format. W..e..l..l...we talked and laughed in the dining room for a couple of hours, keeping Nathan from his homework, since he loves to hang with Susie and Kim too. We then ended up in our bedroom, looking at family photos, and naturally (?) posing for photos of our own. Finally, we made it downstairs, and did talk about the podcast, and everything else under the sun, and when the yawns were more than the laughs, we called the evening over. I rolled into bed (this time, with John) at some point after midnight, still laughing. I don't know what it is about the three of us that makes us dork out like silly, giggling (actually, shrieking) schoolgirls, but I'll take it!

So, tortilla soup. One of my favorites, and in my mind a healthy way to tame that craving for Mexican food that was born in, of all places, Grand Forks, North Dakota, at what was then La Campana restaurant. They put some drug in those beef burritos, because I still crave them, powerfully. Stephanie Sanford, Kim Borgen, and I still email each other about LaCampana, and whenever we're together in GF, which isn't often enough, we head there (or actually, to its heir, Paradiso) right away and chow down. And now we can also have a beer (woo hoo!), which we couldn't in highschool of course. Since there's no equal to Paradiso here in the Twin Cities (and most people would be glad about that, especially John!), I whipped up some tortilla soup. Simple, healthy, little spicy, little salty, full of chicken, avocado, a few tortilla chips, and topped with a sprinkle of cheese and a dab of sour cream. Delicious, and on the table in less than thirty. Yes! Recipe is in comments, below. (I have to confess, I didn't have the soup hot enough when we ate it last night - sorry about that guys, I was too busy talking; when it's hot, it's truly a fantastic meal-in-a-bowl...)

Today I'm preparing a little appetizer for our neighborhood women's association meeting. The group gets together every-other month throughout the year at a different home each time. SO fun. Lots of gabbing, laughing, and drinking wine - my kind of get-together. Such a girlie week! Which will continue right on into the weekend, as I mentioned yesterday, at a family bridal shower on Saturday. The only drawback is I'm hardly seeing John this week - Thursday night is usually our "date night," since both kids are always with their other parent on Thursday nights. Next week (or Sunday night?) I'll have to come up with something fun for dinner, maybe John's favorite, some/any version of chicken & rice (and make up for the triple-pork and polenta I put him through this week).

I'm bringing two spreads, one a Spuma di Tonno, from Michael Chiarello's Casual Cooking (lovely book), a smooth tuna spread that is salty and delicious with something crisp. The other, just a simple herb butter, made with what I think is the holy grail of butter, Hope Creamery. John just laughs at me that I can't even buy this stuff and keep it in the house because I can't stay away from it. And I can't. Thin, cold slices of this on anything - bread, a cracker, or nothing at all (sick, I know, but I think of it as cheese to make it seem OK)...sublime. So I really don't buy it unless I know I'm going to use it up real fast. I figure I'll use half today for the herb butter, half tomorrow for one of the two coffeecakes I'm baking. I'll get my one (small) taste of it, and then get it the hell out of here. I'll post recipes for both the Spuma di Tonno and herb butter in comments (below).

Wake up! Turns out, not much of a problem today. That coffee - the real deal - that I happily drank at Susie's yesterday? Vrooom, powered me through damn near the entire night. I've mentioned before that I'm off caffeine, for exactly this reason, but once in awhile I indulge. Usually, it's fine. But usually I don't drink more than two cups. And yesterday? I don't know. Many more than two. Talk, sip, laugh, sip, pretty soon hours had gone by and the whole pot was gone. Oops. Yet one more little window into why I subtitled this blog "a quest for measured pleasure..." I keep forgetting...

So, Big Byerly's Run later today. I'm making tortilla soup tonight for Susie and Kim (more on that in a bit) and John, Nathan, and A. And am also thinking ahead to my neighborhood women's association meeting Thursday night (appetizer) and the bridal shower I'm co-hosting for my cousin Michael's fiancee Amanda (coffee cakes) on Saturday (before the Chowhounds call-in, see below). Lots of cooking/baking coming up - yay! (And how 1950s house-wifey does this all sound? I just reread what I wrote, hilarious. And a little scary too. Hmmm...)

So I'm off. Quick, tasty lunch, just a few slices of hard salami on crackers, topped with sliced raw onion (you can tell I'm not sharing work space right now - fragrant), few olives, few slices of pickled beet. I guess I was in a salty/sour mood - I'm sure that list of foods could make more than a few people cringe! I'm not pregnant, so that means...PMS. Look out!

Here's Suz, cooking chili today, she invited me over for lunch. Woo hoo! It was delicious and so cozy. With biscuits, and lots of coffee (of course). A little chat for dessert. I had - what else? - polenta (!) to contribute, so we had that too, and it was nice with the chili, even day-old polenta. Susie and I have a few items in common that we love that no one else in our families can/will eat - beans, squash, beets, bread pudding. This chili was full of beans and it and they were perfect on a cloudy, blustery day (recipe in comments, below). Sullivan came home from preschool and had a biscuit - and chat - too. He's sooo cute! Cory came home for a bite to eat too (no chili, he doesn't do the beans...), but I forgot to take his picture! How ironic, I forgot to take the photographer's picture. Next time, in a few weeks, when he and I collaborate on a few food photos (I'll cook, he'll take the pics, I'll post them here; and, they'll be WAY better than the food pics I've been posting, which will be fun). I flew out of their house - I can't stop talking, of course, and time just flies by - to pick up Nathan at school. We stopped at Carter's on the way home to let out puppy McCoy, Nathan's other dog, 8 months old, adorable, and full of LOTS of energy (below).

And now I'm home, preparing a few recipes to send to Chef Andrew Zimmern, host of Chowhounds on FM107. Why? Because I'm going to be ON his radio show this coming Saturday, January 28, around 1:45 p.m. I'm so excited! I'll be talking about starting a food blog. I hope you’ll listen, either on the radio here in the Twin Cities, or at Chowhounds FM107 (to listen online, click the “listen online” button at the upper left; there’s a quick form to fill out).

Tonight, Nathan has requested pizza for dinner. Since he doesn't have a basketball game, I think I'll take the time to make the real deal. A good, homemade, chewy crust. He can have pepperoni, his fav, I'll try to come up with something a little veggier for John and me. I'll check back in when I figure out what the hell I'm doing.

Well, pizza turned out nicely. We ate a bit late (!), but it was worth it. I'll post the recipe for a basic crust (in comments), not a big mystery, it produces a thin, crispy crust (which is my favorite). Trick is to line the baking sheet with parchment, bake for half the time on the sheet, then slide the pizza-on-parchment directly onto the rack. Works like a charm without fussing with a pizza stone. For a topping I caramelized some onion slices, stirred in a few sliced mushrooms, some chopped orange bell pepper, a few minced Kalamata olives, some chopped fresh tomato, and off heat, chopped scallions. Because that's what I had around - like pasta, I tend to make pizza up as I go, using what's available. I did top with some mozzarella, but not much. I just don't need tons of cheese on pizza. Oh, I'll happily eat pizza with tons of cheese. Bring it on! But on a regular basis, I want to enjoy pizza without feeling SO incredibly guilty when I'm done - a super-thin crust, lots of veggies, and just a bit of cheese do the trick. Bit of good olive oil, sprinkle of coarse salt and freshly ground pepper, sooooo good! And moderate-yet-decadent-seeming, way to go! I also made a simple salad, just chopped romaine and sweet onion tossed with good olive oil, little vinegar, salt, and pepper. I like easy little salads like that, tasty, and don't require loads of chopping. As long as the greens are good and fresh, a simple salad can really hit the spot. (The best? Fresh-from-the-garden greens, but whatever, that's a long time off, not worth thinking about right now...)

Now, time to wash some dishes. That's the only part of cooking I do NOT enjoy. Can't have it all...damn!

Good start to the week. Got Nathan to school on time, stopped for gas and a car wash on the way home - in my pajamas no less, I am amazed by how crazy-daring I've gotten about running errands in my pajamas. With a winter coat over them, of course, but still, there are my pink clearly-pajama pants hanging out the bottom. And there I am, pumping gas, dropping Nathan at school, or running into the post office for stamps. I haven't braved Byerly's in pajamas yet, and probably never will. I would have to be seriously hungry or otherwise desperate to face 1) the employees who totally know me because I'm there every other day, 2) my former Park Nicollet colleagues who quite easily bop down to Byerly's (secret back staircase) for lunch, snacks, postage, a newspaper, you name it, and 3) everyone else that I know because they all shop there, it's pretty rare to go and not see someone familiar. I'll go sweaty and makeup-less post-workout. But not in my pajamas. Yet.

As I mentioned yesterday, John does not love polenta (or he thinks he doesn't), but after wishing I could have pork roast with polenta...I can't get it out of my mind. So, sorry honey, we're having polenta tonight. Crispy polenta, however, which everyone has to like - what is NOT to like???? Topped with (yet again, one can't accuse me of not using my leftovers!) - pulled pieces of warm pork roast, and a pile of chopped tomato, raw onion, and arugula (yes, arugula again, its peppery, nutty taste is great with almost everything). I'll think about a wine and write later what I come up with. For now, off to run errands (with street clothes on!) and continue working on the overly huge photo project I've created downstairs (hanging more than 50 pictures from our wedding on one wall - it will be spectacular when it's done, but oh, what a pain in the ass).

OK, dinner worked out fabulously AND John liked it. As he said, "You're expanding my horizons." In terms of the polenta, and he thinks, pork, even though he happily eats lots of bacon and ham. But as a Jew, he feels guilty and/or thinks he doesn't like eating (uncured) pork. Somehow. It's not a logic thing. He's been a good sport about eating this pork roast, in three different iterations now. Time for me to freeze the rest (as I noted below, it was a 5 lb. roast!) So, I prepared the polenta this afternoon, smoothed it into a loaf pan, and let it cool at room temp, covered with plastic. When it was time for dinner, I sliced the polenta into 1/2" slices for crisping. I tried two different methods - the first batch I just sauteed in oil. You know, don't try that. Despite high heat on the preheat and during cooking, it soaked up too much oil to be considered moderate. Don't get me wrong, it tasted fucking amazing, but John said, "Is this moderate?" And I had to admit, not so much, not with the amount of oil that soaked up. A better method, which I tested after we ate, was to pour a little oil in a bowl, and just brush each slice of polenta, both sides, with a smear of oil, then brown a bit in a hot skillet. Much better, less messy, and MUCH more moderate. And frankly, just as delicious. So do that. I topped with chopped arugula, thinly sliced sweet onion, and quartered Santa Sweet cherry tomatoes (good through the winter, when most other tomatoes are inedible). Dressed with - don't panic, it's not too fattening - a warm bacon/balsamic dressing. Super easy to do, just one slice (!) of diced bacon sauteed until crispy, add one teaspoon of good balsamic to the pan while hot. Then pour the warm dressing over chopped greens - mmmm, so good, but really not TOO naughty. I crisped pieces of pulled pork in the same skillet I'd made the bacon/balsamic dressing in (after a quick wipe with a paper towel), no additional fat needed. So in the end, hot, crispy polenta, topped with chopped greens, tomatoes, and onion tossed in a warm bacon/balsamic dressing, topped yet again with pieces of warm, crispy pork. TELL ME, how good does that sound? It was great. We poured a 2004 Volnay-Santenots Premier Cru with it, had a good smoky element that was a nice complement to all that pork-y yumminess. Let me also say, if you don't have leftover roast pork lying around (ha), the crispy polenta with the salad on top would be FAB all on its own. I'll post recipes in comments, below. Sleep tight.