Fresh Tart

How gorgeous and springy are these wedding flowers? Sigh... My friend Kathie made these bouquets, for our friend Mary Heintz's son John's wedding. The talents of my friends just blow me away. Kathie is a fundraiser in her "real" job, but you can tell that her heart lies in the realm of plants, outside and in. If you're needing a gorgeous, affordable bouquet for a wedding or event, let me know (via comments, below). I know she'd do it for you. (And she's gonna kill me for putting this on here, but I can't help it, access to beautiful, affordable flowers is such a treat - one of life's small pleasures, and that's what we're all about here at the moderate epicurean - and she doesn't have a website. Yet. Ha.)

Speaking of Kathie, she, Mary Pappas, and I had lunch with Jim Toscano today. We took him to Lucia's, our favorite ladies' lunch spot, and it was fabulous, as always. We all four had polenta, and DAMN was it good. Soft interior, browned crusty top (I very much admire and appreciate that technique), garnished with olives and paired with a saute of the beautiful vegetables Lucia's does so well. It is always a pleasure to eat there.

And always a pleasure to see Kathie, Mary, and Jim. We presented him with a case of gorgeous, big, Italian red wines, a collective gift from several of his (now) former Park Nicollet Institute employees. I worked with Mark at I Nonni (therefore my trip over, yesterday) to select them and I know Jim and his wife Sharon, and their kids, will all enjoy them. Salute, Jim! (And sorry I made you all late getting back to the office! Put a quarter in me, I'll go for hours... Put a cup of caffeinated coffee in me, which I had this morning, and LOOK OUT! Flyin' arms, shrieking laugh, gab, gab, gab. Yeah. That's me. Thank god for the sake of Park Nicollet's productivity that none of you share an office with me anymore, woops!)

Hmmm...what should I have for dinner? Don't feel much like cooking, not starving but a little hungry...oh! I know! Polenta! Yes, I did make polenta, even after having a hearty portion for my Lucia's Lunch; turns out that lunch just whetted my Polenta Appetite. I'm basically dorkin' out on polenta - who knew it could be done? I had it straight - nothin' but polenta, baby, with a touch of Hope Creamery butter and a sprinkle of coarse salt. Oh, and a teeny little sprinkle of pecorino, parsley, and black pepper, but that was really just garnish. It was all about the polentahhhhh. Was I moderate in my consumption? Surprisingly, yes. Just enough to be 80% full - that's supposedly the trick. So that's my goal. It's not easy to achieve 80% full with polenta, but apparently it can be done. Even by me. How moderate!

Good night, friends. And Nathan. And Baby Cooper. And good-bye March, in like a lion, out like a...OMG, I should have made lamb for dinner! Rack of lamb... With polenta! Ah, well, lamb in April does not suck. Again, good. Night.

Buon Giorno! I've been there - to the restaurant, Buon Giorno, also home of I Nonni where we had our lovely dinner this past Saturday - and back, had a blast buying wine with the fabulous input of Mark, their wine buyer. Don't want to, but I'll have to wait until tonight to have a taste...

...because it would put me right out, ohhhhh, I stayed up far too late last night, yes, once again gabbing with the girls and recording a two-part episode of Feminine Hijinx. We had a fabulous guest, three-time women's hockey Olympian and medalist Tricia Dunn-Luoma. She's awesome! Funny, smart, beautiful and of course in amazing shape, she chatted with us about the Olympic experience but also participated in our all-out-naughty-talk-silliness and shared the story of her first kiss. Woo hoo for Tricia! (By the way, those medals are heavy! And gorgeous, she brought them to show us, all quite distinctive in shape, size, and weight. Can you imagine winning an Olympic medal? It blows my mind...)

Hey, I just realized I've chatted with an arctic explorer (Ann Bancroft) and Olympic medalist (Tricia) in the same week! What a week! Grrrrrrrls rule! And they're hip, fun and cool, on top of being amazing athletes, so grrrrrrrls rock too!

Grrrrrsputter...I'm a tired grrrrrl tonight, people (as Suz would say, I love that), not much inspired to cook dinner. There's a smidge of tonnato (tuna spread) in the fridge, and another smidge of leftover chicken from last night. Some cheese. Fresh fruit. Definitely enough to get us through... I'm so tired I'm not even hungry - NO! Not me. But yes, it appears to be true. I have to forego our neighborhood women's association meeting tonight, I just don't have it in me, and I almost always have it in me for chick-chat and wine. Need. Sleep. (I feel guilty writing that, knowing how tired my little sis Stacey is, with Baby Cooper; now THAT'S tired. My tired does not compare, poor Pooh.) Goodnight people!

Feminine Hijinx is the featured podcast on Digital Podcast this week - woo hoo! We knew they had asked us to be featured, and filled out the interview form they sent, but didn't know when/if they'd put us up. But there we are! Very exciting, I'll be curious to see what it does for our numbers. We just reached 1,000 subscribers a couple of days ago (also reason to celebrate!) so we'll have a good benchmark to start from! Now if we could be featured on iTunes... (Vote for us on iTunes if you're so inclined, it helps grab their attention...)

Soooo good to see the sun today! Should make short work of the remaining snow and, just perhaps, this will be the end of snow for the season. I'm ready to throw open the windows, eat on the deck, wake to birdsong. I'm ready.

I have a no-brainer lunch today - quiche and a salad. Nice, huh? The quiche was delicious and I would say didn't even need cheese (I didn't put much in anyhow). The leeks, tomatoes, and herbs were rich and flavorful on their own. I'm going to make note of how good they were, in fact, and serve sauteed leeks and tomatoes as a vegetable dish to stand on its own one of these nights. With fish, it would be a knockout.

Oooh, just had a scary thing happen. Had a doctor's appointment today, and a four-vial blood draw. Came home, decided to do a pilates video tape, half-way through the workout, major, sudden headache and nausea. My first thought was, oh no, aneurysm, here I go, good-bye world. And then I remembered the blood draw. Woops! (Dramatic? Not me!)

For dinner tonight, one of Nathan's favorites. Basically, a collection of little Greek-inspired tasties from Byerly's. Toasted pita, eggplant spread, lemon-pepper rotisserie chicken, olives. I make a Greek salad to complete the meal, and it's really the only prep work I do, other than toast pita.

Mmmmm...this wasn't even real Greek food, but I loved it anyhow, especially the seriously goat-y imported feta I bought. I'm such a sucker for big cheeses, prrrr... I used to share an office with my Greek friend Mary Pappas and we used to joke about how I was really Greek somewhere in my family. She had her Yaya D and mother-in-law Kathy make all the food for the (Nathan) baby shower she hosted for me. Total blast and OMG, so delicious. Spanikopita, meatballs, Greek salad, rice pudding, baklava. I was in heaven, we all were. John and I had our groom's dinner at Gardens of Salonica, a feast of platter upon platter of gyro meat, spanikopita, moussaka, pita, Greek fries, salad, eggplant/tsatsiki/tirima spreads, marinated vegetables, olives, and cheeses... Greek wine a-flowin'. Ice-cold Greek beer a-pourin'. On and on and on and on. It was incredible. We were like over-stuffed, plump little dolmades when we rolled out across the Hennepin Avenue Bridge toward home. Opa!

Just got this pic from this past Friday, Jim Toscano's retirement open house. Here we are, the former ranks of PNI Admin, together again, in Dwan B/C no less. (L-R seated: Jim Toscano, Mary Heitz. L-R standing: Laura Olevitch, Ruth Spellmon-Hayes, Kathie Radcliffe, Mary Pappas, moi, Sonya Painschab. Not pictured, but we wish they had been: Stu Hanson, Sherry Ruh, and Rebecca Swanson). Woo hoo for PNI Admin!

Whew, busy day, I've been running around all over the place. I've decided we're having quiche tonight, and a spinach salad. I think a little tomato-leek-gruyere action, mmm... I have lots of fresh herbs in the fridge and want to use them up. I threw a chopped handful into a simple pasta dish last night (just angel hair tossed with olive oil, sliced garlic, and red pepper). Tonight, the quiche (recipe posted in comments, below).

My boys are home! Both John and Nathan made their way back to me yesterday, it was so nice to sleep with them under the same roof again. Everyone right where they belong, safe and sound.

Guanciale! My cheeky way of saying good morning in Italian. Guanciale was an ingredient in two of my (delicious!) courses at I Nonni last evening and I hadn't a clue what it was. Neither did Stu or Debbie, but we floated several interesting possibilities. None of us guessed cured pig cheeks, although I was thisclose by thinking it was perhaps some sort of green. Woops! More like a sort of pink. It's used the way pancetta, bacon, or other cured pork is used to flavor a dish, as in, delightfully. I'm on for more guanciale next trip to I Nonni.

I'm also on for more beef carpaccio showered with chopped arugula, shaved Parmigiano Reggiano, and lemon. More warm, crusty, fragrant bread. More mache salad with paper thin slices of potato. More pasta with fennel sausage, black truffle, and a hint of cream. More rosy, crispy roast duck breast, accompanied by delicious caramelized Brussels sprouts that I could only just taste (my body stopped digesting Brussels sometime in 2004; very disappointing, I love Brussels). And definitely more of any of the wines that I Nonni's Mark suggests, the wine selection is fabulous and his recommendations were lovely. We opened with a glass of a delicious and moderately priced Falanghina, a white grape I confess I'd not heard of before. We then shared a bottle of a 2003 Gallina Barbera D'Alba, mmmm... I am most certainly heading back to I Nonni this week to purchase both wines, and others, as well as thoroughly raid the Buon Giorno deli...can't wait!

From I Nonni we raced over to The Fitzgerald Theater for the Survival of the Fittestpresentation with explorer Ann Bancroft, one of the Stage Session series presented by Minnesota Public Radio and hosted by the hilarious and irrepressible Heather McElhatton. Heather is a force of a personality and presence, with her curtain of red hair and clear voice and humor that sneaks up on you. Ann shared a couple of riveting stories and chatted with Heather and together they "received" other performers and essayists, including our friend Rudy Maxa, who has an incredible stage presence. He's got a golden voice, which any of you who've heard him on the radio already know. But he's also very relaxed and engaging in front of a crowd, comfortably chatting about a wide variety of subjects ranging from travel, of course, to Britney Spears, and it was hilarious. Ann and Rudy were but two of a large and eclectic mix of incredibly talented musicians, writers, and speakers, whose performances loosely hung on the theme of "survival." As a moderate epicurean, check out explorer Dan Buettner's concept of Blue Zones. And have a listen to the whole show tonight on MPR, from 6-8 p.m.

And then...there's more!...after the show, we chatted in the lobby with Rudy and Ana, and met Ana's parents. And Stu and I introduced ourselves to Ann Bancroft, and greeted her for John (who was in Vail for the last several days skiing, hi John! See you tonight!), who has proudly done some legal work for Ann, he thinks of the world of her. It's not hard to see why. Not only is she obviously bright and brave, she is delightful. Tough and tiny, funny, engaging, I suppose you're not supposed to say this about an explorer, but she is adorable! And she's a fantastic storyteller, with a great voice, it's fun to listen to her. So, at around oh, 12:30ish, we made our way home. Still full from our 6 p.m. dinner, sleepy from the wine, and laughed and entertained out, I rolled into my bed sometime after 1 a.m. No insomnia last night, I don't think even caffeine could have hampered my slumber (although I'm glad I didn't test it).

So Nathan and John come home today, my little mini-vacation at home alone is just about over. I think I'll sneak in a little nap, the last hurrahhhh... Before I snap back to it and figure out what I'm making for dinner. Until then!

Big night tonight! I am so excited! I'll open with dinner at I Nonni with Debbie and Stu Williams...that means great wine! Great food! And a guaranteed good time! Woo hoo! From there we head over to the Fitzgerald Theater for Minnesota Public Radio's A Stage Session with Ann Bancroft: Survival of the Fittest. We were invited to attend by Rudy Maxa, "who will recount his harrowing tales from the Pacific Rim" as part of the presentation. Afterward we plan on having a chance to catch up with Rudy and Ana Scofield. Should be a lovely evening.

So today, today, hmmm... A walk. Party planning. Perhaps I'll pick up the drill, oooh. Never a dull moment in this household! (And honestly, I'll most likely end up reading for awhile, I'm just in that frame of mind lately. Productive procrastination, reading. Love it.)

Such fun today, seeing all my friends from Park Nicollet at Jim Toscano's retirement open house. It was like a family reunion, lots of hugs and laughs and insanely trying to catch up with everyone in not nearly enough time. Everything has changed and yet nothing has changed, it was great to reconnect. I loved my job at PNI, and everyone that I worked with - how I got so lucky to land there, at age 24, I have no idea. It is an honor to say I've worked for Jim Toscano, he's just...awesome.

From PN, I dashed home, whipped together a quick lasagna (I'll post the recipe tomorrow; too tired tonight!), and headed for Stacey's to have dinner with her and to visit Baby Cooper Cuteness. He napped through dinner, which was nice for Stace, as in she got to eat! Kitty Co even got a tasty - I brought the white bean/tuna mixture (from yesterday) and prepared a little toast for Stace. Forgot to cover it up, left the room, came back to find Co playing with a bean on the floor (licked quite clean of tuna). Hilarious!

After dinner it appeared that she and Coop were going to catch some sleep as I left (I hope, I hope! She's pretty wiped...). Bowen was on his way in as I left, hopefully it's a restful night for everyone...

Including me! I'm off! Until tomorrow...

I'm messing around with a few recipes in preparation for the cocktail party we're having at the beginning of April. I adapted a white bean/sardine toast recipe from Jacques Pepin Fast Food my Way and made it a white bean and tuna toast recipe. Absolutely delicious, pretty, and nutritious too (although at a cocktail party, that's not sooo important. Recipe is posted in comments, below.) Would make a lovely dinner alongside a bowl of soup or a salad, with a nice glass of red. Yummy and oh-so-moderate! Woo hoo!

Spent 2.5 hours at the car dealership this morning waiting for a few minor repairs. Not a good use of time, sigh. Luckily I was prepared and brought a book, so the time passed relatively quickly. This afternoon I worked briefly at the book fair at school and of course took the opportunity to pick up some cool books for Nathan and Cooper.

So I have two leftover pork chops and two leftover lamb chops...hmmm...had a pork chop for lunch, so I'm not in for chops for dinner, too. I'm thinking perhaps I'll create a hash of sorts, chop the chops and saute with diced potatoes and mushrooms until it's all crispy. Not a bad idea, right? Would make a nice meal with a simple salad. Rustic. Warm. And most important, delicious!

Oops, I did it again - threw caution to the wind...and drank caffeinated coffee yesterday at Susie's. That's why I'm posting before 7:00 a.m., definitely not my usual. I figure I've been up since around 2:30 a.m., perhaps I dozed a bit in there before I finallly just got up around 5:00. Oh lord, will I regret it today. Damn me! I got some good desk work done, however, and before I got up I did lots of planning for the big party on April 8. At least I was productive.

In my tired punchiness, I realized that Stacey now has two Mini Coopers - a car, and a son. Hilarious! At least to me, this morning. I'll probably delete that thought at some future date because it's so dorky. (Sorry Stace...although I know she'll forgive me tired punchiness, some of our best dork-out moments have been fueled by tired punchiness...)

Happy Birthday Mary Pappas!

Well, I achieved a lovely nap this afternoon since Nathan is in Florida. After a long, hot, late-afternoon shower, I feel refreshed and ready-to-cook. I've poured myself a glass of St. Innocent Pinot Gris and am about to saute pork chops (I actually prefer the thinner, bone-in cut) and create a pan sauce (using some of the 50 lbs. of caramelized onions I have in my fridge, ha), to serve with polenta (yay! Polenta! Haven't visited this particular friend for awhile...) and quickly braised baby bok choy (darling little cabbages I bought on a whim at Byerly's yesterday, they were too cute to resist; I'm thinking of keeping them simple with a bit of olive oil and a shower of fresh herbs). I realize it's a little weird to have chops two nights in a row - lamb last night, pork tonight. Guess I was feeling choppy at the store yesterday? I shopped completely creatively, sans list, which I do like to do occasionally. I end up with things like baby bok choy.

And like this marvelously delicious cheese I also picked up, called Abondance, a "mellow raw cow's milk" cheese. Prrrrr, it is lovely. Kinda sexy. Earthy, a little buttery, a little nutty. Very French. Firm, but soft (semi-hard, I guess, ha), with a few air holes. Not bitter like gruyere. Damn.

Oh. My. Ohmyohmyohmy. The polenta, with the wild mushroom/caramelized onion pan sauce. Man, screw the pork chops and bok choy (which I did thoroughly enjoy, quite a bit), give me polenta with a meat-y pan sauce and I am done. DONE! Lordy it's good stuff, ahhhhh. I am so full, I'm not moderate in my polenta consumption. (I'll post recipes below, in comments, so you too can founder yourself - my dad's line - on po..len..tahhhhh...) And yes, I am aware of how similar this photo, and dinner, are to last night's creation. Like I said, I guess I was in a choppy mood. As well as a dark leafy greens and soft, warm, slightly-decadent side mood. I'll bust out tomorrow with something totally different (or not, because as usual, I do have quite a bit of leftover food). Perhaps Friday night. Stay tuned! Always something new - or shockingly similar - at the moderate epicurean...

OK, my polenta-filled stomach and I are bed-bound. Good night Nathan Cutestuff Tinskers in Florida! Good night Super Duper Peanut Cooper in St. Paul!

(And, a nice little article about spring veggies - you can't eat too many delicious, nutritious veggies...)