Fresh Tart

A little chipmunk tartare, that's what I believe this huge raptor (hawk? falcon?) chilling on our deck this morning had a hankering for. WOW. He (or she) was very carefully looking under the table, around the herb pots, perhaps hoping for a bit of tarragon as seasoning? I've often seen the birds circling overhead, but never before perched on our deck! Sent a little chill down my spine to watch it so clearly hunting. Pretty intense. Eek. Good thing Sigs is a big dog, I would be mighty nervous to let a little guy out with this dude flying around...

Tom, Cam, and Allegra arrived on time this evening, it's sooooo good to have them here. Valerie arrives tomorrow, she's overseeing this day's beginning of their rather complicated move in NYC. Nathan, Allegra, and Cameron immediately took off together, into the park, back into the house, up and downstairs, playing and playing. I made veal for dinner tonight, scallopini with sauteed arugula, basil, garlic, and capers. Green beans sauteed with tomatoes and herbs. Pasta with oil and garlic. For an appetizer, little toasted sandwiches of tomato and fresh mozzarella. For dessert, John and Tom totally dug into Blue Sky Creamery double chocolate ice cream, laughing the entire time. John's so happy with his Boogles here... (Me too!)

Here's the dream end to my evening...wash up, climb full and content into my cool, softy bed, and read a bit of Anna Karenina, which I am absolutely buried in, I'm so enjoying it. Good night!

Very quiet, low-key day. Not feeling top-notch, I must say, it's a, well, hormonal-type thing. 'Nough said. But definitely knocked me down for the day, damn. Good pick-me-up in the form of...Feminine Hinjinx, at Suz's house, back to our normal routine. Woo hoo! Laughter is the best medicine, for whatever ails you, without a doubt. And laugh I did, as usual, until I cried. Suz came up with a new food-writing concept, at the end of the night, based on the Children's Bible sitting near her front entry. We brainstormed recipes centered around the gruesome stories of the Old Testament, like Esau's Goat Stew, and Rotten Fig Honey Cake. In terribly bad taste, of course, which made it all the funnier. Kim and I walked away, at 11:00-something, wiping our eyes. Damn, girlfriends!

Dinner...I had...potato chips and wine. Yep! I had zero appetite today (see above-mentioned hormonal thing), hit the wine at Suz's, and when she set out some good ol' Lay's potato chips, dinner they became. Tasty little mothers, I enjoyed them thoroughly. NICE!

So now, off my (my!) computer so John can do some work and I can go to bed. Tomorrow, John's brother Tom and his kids arrive, Valerie on Saturday. We can't wait! I love 4th of July weekend. Looking forward to some grillin', chillin', and fireworks. Weather's lookin' good, yeah baby, I'm ready...

We had a visit from Beth Martinez and her adorable daughters Gabrielle and Sydney today. Beth was my neighbor and walking partner for years, and it was great to catch up with her. Man, we were so good about walking (because Beth is really disciplined), we walked 5 miles several mornings per week, at insanely early hours. Whew. As soon as I moved, I of course totally fell out of that habit. We (pretty much) walked rain or shine, one time in a flat-out blizzard, that was craziness and probably more than a bit dangerous. But mostly we had alot of fun. And I was certainly in the best shape of my life in those days, without question. Damn!

They were here for lunch which was particularly fun because Gabrielle, age 9, is quite the epicurean. She happily ate broccoli soup, as well as the garlic toast I made to dip in tomato sauce topped with ham. The girls and Nathan swam their brains out - Nathan and I had so much fun we damn near forgot that Nathan had a baseball game tonight! Luckily John said, as I was casually making dinner, doesn't Nathan have a game? Nathan and I just stared blankly at each other, and the clock, thinking OMG, then he ran one way and I ran the other, pulling together his uniform and getting our butts out the door. I dropped him just in time, whew, then hoofed it back here to finish making dinner for John and A - fettucine alfredo, a Nathan request. I set some aside when I was done to make sure he would have access when he got home. Then I rushed back to the game, for no good reason, because it was a three-hour (!) endeavor, ack, those bleachers are hard. Luckily it's a gorgeous night, the Floridians won, Nathan has polished off his fettucine, and this family is going to BED. Wiped.

Happy Birthday Etta!

My sister Etta is 22 today, celebrating not in NYC but in Buenos Aires. I'm not sure what her specific party plans are, but I know she'll be eating very well! She's staying for five weeks with friends of her aunt Anne, the Deane family, and they are caterers! How seriously perfect! Here are excerpts from her recent food update:

...am going to gain 10 pounds because the food is so good. They eat veal cutlets like it ain't no thang. Hmm fried meat...who knew? I have had no bacon but did have something called ¨matahombre,¨ which directly translates to ¨kill hunger.¨ It is a strip of fat from the pig's back that is served sort of like bacon. It came at the end of a dinner. Darn good. Will put meat on your bones! Mrs. Deane chases me with cheese puffs and something like Marge´s bars around the catering office. There is at least a lot of salad, arugula mixed with regular lettuce - a perfect balance in my mind, tomatoes, and whatever else you want. (And fresh parmesan.) Frickin´ polenta, veal ravioli, cheese ravioli with spinach and beef on the outside, tenderloin, red chilean salmon, vegetable soup, chicken. I believe thin slices of breast sauteed in oil. Breakfast is very small, tea and cereal. Tea time snacks in this house are these 2 x 4-inch rice crackers that we toast and then put on cream cheese (light) as well as sprinkle some sesame seeds over. So good. Apparently the seeds are good for digestion? After lunch I am usually offered a "lagrima" which directly translated means "tear drop" but is actually warm milk with a drop of coffee...

Oh my goodness, she goes on from there about all the fabulousness, it made me starving when I read it last night - after dinner - and starving again this morning - after breakfast. Now that is MY kind of trip, ha. And hers too. This family loves good food, thank god. I laughed out loud about the fried veal - while Etta has been eating veal in Argentina, I was doing the same in NYC and here - I say three times in one week qualifies as like it ain't no thang! The best way of all - ah, sweet abandon. Not moderate, but that's OK...in moderation. And I'm frying veal yet again this weekend, for John and my brother-in-law Tom... Great stomachs crave alike (!?)

Come lunchtime, I'll most definitely be eyeing leftover eggplant crisps. And I'm pondering a small toasted sandwich comprised of thin slices of baguette, a smear of the spicy tomato sauce from last night, and a slice of fresh mozzarella. If it's as tasty as I imagine, it may reappear this weekend as an appetizer. Stay tuned...

Well, the little sandwich, pictured, was two bites of crispy, spicy, cheesy delish. Perhaps I'll work it into a tapas-sort of dinner for this weekend, it would fit quite nicely. Hmmm...I'll think about that a bit. Crispy potatoes with tuna. Bits of steak with cabreles cheese. Skewers of garlicky shrimps. Roasted vegetables. A frittata. Lots of options, that could be fun. Then again, I may completely run out of steam/time and we'll just have the little sandwiches for a quick lunch. Again, stay tuned...(oooh, all this drama!)

I made a few more little sandwiches for John for dinner, with some broccoli soup (I don't even need to post a recipe, literally, its chopped broccoli, shallots, and garlic, cooked in some olive oil for a few minutes, then simmered until tender in chicken broth to cover, pureed in a blender with some cream, seasoned with salt and pepper to taste, good to go. Mmm...) Then Nathan and John shot some baskets outside, and now it's time to get ready for bed. 'Night!

A sweaty, dirty morning, and I loved it. I weeded parts of the yard and then planted several planters of white flowers, as well as a few more pots of lettuces and herbs. Whew! I truly need my daily shower, ha. Nathan took one look at my dirt-encrusted hands and said, you are NOT making my lunch, then proceeded to prepare for himself a hot dog and a green apple (he's on his way to cooking, it's happening, slowly, and I'm so excited...)


For dinner I'm trying a new recipe, from the gorgeous La Cucina Italianamagazine (to which I have a subscription thanks to my fabulous-cook-father-in-law, John), for galette di melanzane, aka eggplant crisps. Basically, eggplant croquettes, served with a quick and spicy tomato sauce. If they're tasty, I'll post the recipe. With the galette, we'll have a big salad with all the lovely greens I have from my pots and my CSA share. I think I'll keep it pretty simple, since the crisps look to be a bit rich. Perhaps a small amount of cheese and/or egg since we're not having meat. It turns out that we're eating salad every single day. And I couldn't be happier about it!

Now for that shower...

Ohhh, shower was lovely, nothing better than taking a long, cool shower when you're hot, seriously smelly, and covered in dirt. Beats the just-out-bed variety by a million miles, I think.

And ohhh, the crispy eggplant, incredible, wow. Wow. Good recipe. Simple too. And absolutely delicious with a salad alongside. Prrr... John appreciated it all mightily, since he didn't eat one other thing the entire day - crazy, I know, but he's an eat-at-the-end-of-the-day kind of guy. Luckily, his wife likes to make dinner... (Recipe posted in comments, below.)

I talked Nathan into letting me make him pancakes for breakfast...I can't believe a son of mine, or Carter's (we're both famous pancake eaters), doesn't like pancakes, but there it is. He indulged me if I agreed to also make bacon - deal! So I made Susanna's sister-in-law Anne's Orange Yogurt Pancakes. I've had a little hankering for them since Stace said she'd polished off quite a few while in Montana a few weeks back. They really are the best, mmm... (Recipe posted in comments, below.)

I was careful not to over-consume them, as tempting as it was, because nothing is worse than being stuffed with pancakes. Bricksville. Ack. And I have things to do today that involve something more than digesting a load of pancakes, ha. Like a KBs workout! And a baseball game! And John and A returning from NYC! (We basically traded places - Suz, Kim and I got back on Sunday, John and A took off on Wednesday...and at first report had a total blast. Hit a few of the same food highlights as we did. A realized, for the first time, that Madison Avenue has some kickass stores, you know, like Louis Vuitton...here we go! And they spent a chunk of time with the Bryt Family - Natalie, Catherine, and A have known, played, and giggled with each other since they were babies. From what I hear, they're still going strong...) And had a lovely hang at the Kimmel's, at their pool, with the whole family, Barbara, David, Molly, Max, and Levi. (We're hoping the Kimmels are making their way to Minnesota soon, they're the most fun house guests EVAR...)

I finally tasted the radish soup today, chilled, with a dollop of creme fraiche, for a light lunch. Delicious. Very beet-esque, actually, I suppose beets and radishes aren't so dissimilar when you think about it (I'll post the recipe in comments, below). I'd say if you're a beet soup fan, and find yourself with excess radishes, or are looking for a pretty, tasty, very easy chilled summer soup, give it a go. As I said, with a bit of creme fraiche, and perhaps a few thin slices of toasted baguette, you've got yourself a lovely light lunch. Or dinner first course.

Grrrreat baseball game, much better than yesterday on a couple of levels: 1) they won, big time, and 2) the weather was gorgeous. An extraordinary day to be outside. We came home to discover John, back from NYC, sitting by the pool! We joined him, eventually made a simple taco salad for dinner (greens, spicy beef, onions, tomatoes, sprinkle of crushed tortilla chips, jack cheese, and taco sauce - fab), and sat outside for a couple of hours, taking in the happiness of being back together and yet another gorgeous summer evening. Aaahhh... Damn NICE.

Well. What a difference a day makes. Yesterday's sweetly sunny breezes have been so rudely shoved aside by the meanest of bullies (for those of us with curly hair) - humidity, ack, in the form of dark, heavy stillness. Dank. Oppressive. It brings, I'll admit, much-needed rain. OK. Then rain already and move on outta here, I hate you. (Apparently my sweetly sunny mood has gotten a bit humid as well, grrrr... Grrrls don't like bad-hair days...)

Guess I'll be wearing a hat to Nathan's baseball game later today, not to keep the sun off my face, oh no, but to hold my frizzing, puffing hair down. I'm whining, I know. It's just hair. I'll stop now. (Fuck humidity.)

BIG salad for lunch, that's the plan, what with all my yummy La Finca CSA veggies. Hmmm...perhaps a soup of some sort as well. I'll ponder that awhile and check back...

(Um, the sun just came out. BUT, it's still humid...)

A sort of Gotham Salad, a la Bergdorf Goodman, is what I made for lunch. Diced (quite small) chicken, bacon, ham, gruyere, tomato, beets, egg, iceberg lettuce, tossed with Thousand Island dressing. I substituted leaf lettuce and pickled beets, happily. And I used only a small amount of chicken, ham, bacon, and cheese, about 1 Tbsp. of each, to keep things, you know, moderate. Delicious!

I also made a radish soup, which is now cooling and eventually will chill in the fridge before I eat it. It's quite light - and pink! Yes, it's pink, in an attractive way, with flecks of green from sliced scallion. When I get around to eating it, later, perhaps for a snack, I'll let you know how it actually tastes...

Well, I won't be reporting on its taste this evening, I'm already too full. After Nathan's hot, sticky baseball game, he and I came home and jumped in the pool. Which by the way turns out to be a great solution for frizzy hair, ha, pull it back soaking wet and walk out the door. Not ideal, but it works. We then had a delicious "linner" (lunch/dinner) at Bacio, followed by a shower (of pouring rain) and a showing of Nacho Libre. It's an odd, funny, sweet little movie, which we both really enjoyed. Now here it is, 7 p.m., and we've already put away dinner and a movie! NICE!

My aunt Mary, Stace, Bowen, and Coop are coming for dinner tonight - woo hoo! Mary's here for a two-day conference so is spending the night. We're all heading over to Nathan's baseball game for a bit, then back here for sauteed artichokes with grilled bread, and cold, crispy radishes with smoked salt, followed by pan-fried walleye, green beans with herbs, and a salad of arugula, chicory, lettuces, and basil with roasted onions and grated pecorino. For dessert, I sliced strawberries and sprinkled them with a bit of sugar - we'll eat them topped with a dab of creme fraiche. Simple, summer food. Mmmm...

It's another stunner of a day, wow, which should lead into a beautiful evening. Perfect for baseball and al fresco dining, we really got lucky. OK! Back to it! I have to admit, I'm still doing laundry and putting things away from the trip...I'm slow on the return, ack. Plus I'm making as much of dinner ahead of time as I can...pretty much everything but grilling bread and frying walleye. In butter. Hope Creamery Butter. Yeah, baby!

Oooh, walleye was delish, we decided walleye is just made for frying in butter. Soaks up all the salty, buttery goodness in the most fabulously decadent of ways. Lurve it. Cooper was all buttery goodness as well - OK, not really, but he's as soft and dreamy and yummy as they come. Everyone loves Coop because he's so happy to have different people hold him, what fun. (How beautifully, glowingly happy is Mommy Poohsticks Stacey? Gorgeous.) He made the rounds, in Baby Nathan's ladybug outfit, all evening.

Including into the lap of Nathan's Grammy Barb (all babies love Grammy Barb, with good reason), at the ball game, of which we caught only a bit. It was going well, the Floridians had a strong lead, so we bowed out early to get a head start on making dinner. At last report, the Floridians won, woo hoo! So a good night for everyone.

OK, I'm back, I'm here, I'm my normal self. Except I did need a 15-minute nap today (and yesterday). And now I feel extra great. Yes, it's amazing (or not) what two good nights of sleep in a row can do for a grrrl, rrrarrrr, I'm ready to go. Sheesh. Two and 1/2 days to recover? Good thing I don't travel for work. Pa-the-tic. It's not like Kim, Suz, and I were out dancing all night! Clearly we expended lots of energy in un-obvious ways - walking, sweating, talking, laughing. Oh, and eating. Right. And drinking (Kim and I, anyhow; Suz, two sips of alcohol per day is her max...). It's like we were on a big Manhattan high the whole trip and then crashed as soon as the plane took off (and luckily not after - oooh, bad joke, sorry). Because I know my girls were tired like me. And missing NYC and our "hang" a bit too. Awww. A New York State of Mind + Home in Minnesota = The New York Minxes Blues.

As a nod to my personal NYC food theme, I'm making...yes...veal scallopini tonight. Shall I do Milanese as at Elio's? Piccata as at Il Riccio? Hmmm...not sure yet. I'll let you know when I know. Stay tuned...

Here's what I did - veal with tomatoes, lemon, capers, garlic, arugula, and basil. It was...incredible. Incredible. (I'll post the recipe below, in comments.) The same concept as piccata (tangy to cut the richness of sauteed veal), but a bit more nutritious and substantial (I had nothing else with it, happily), what with greens and tomato and garlic.

Now, since it's 75 and sunny, with a nice breeze and low humidity (in other words, perfect) outside, I'm planning to head out to the deck with a cool glass of white, and my book, and take in this evening, the first official night of summer. Minnes-weet. It is indeed good to be home.

Experiencing some post-Manhattan, post-Minxing blues... Gosh, we had so much fun, and as great as it is to be home, it's just not...vacation. You know? It's pretty wonderful to be in the company of amazing women, who clean up as they go along, actively listen to anything you have to say, make you laugh constantly, check in to see how you feel, offer support for every wildass, dumbass thought you express (and then laugh with you at your idiocy), compliment your every outfit and body part, hand you a cup of coffee in the morning and glass of wine at night (before you even express wanting it - isn't that what every woman wants, someone to read her mind? It's NICE.). Damn, now THAT is luxury.

This blue feeling is not helped by my total and utter exhaustion, although I do feel more myself today. Yesterday, I was nothing, a zero. Bloated, bloaty (they're different, the former is bloated, the latter is the tendency to continue to bloat; they both suck), foggy-headed, listless. In effect, I have jet lag. I know, I know, a one-hour time difference does not jet lag make, but that's exactly how I feel. I guess I'm Vacation Lagged. Girlie Withdrawal. Sigh. John insisted upon an early bedtime last night, which we achieved, and I am (more) back on track today, I can tell. Which is good, I have alot to accomplish today, so it's time to snap to it, Stephanie. Stephanie!

Well, time to make a grocery list. Wash clothes. Do dishes. Exercise. Woo. Hoo.

Got through my day, quite nicely in fact. Good KBs workout (which I really needed), trip to visit Stace and Cooper (they're great), groceries, I even made dinner. Steaks on the grill. Green beans sauteed with olive oil, chopped tomato, and garlic until tender. And, using up some of my first load of CSA-share veggies, a salad of crispy roasted kale, with chopped arugula and basil (from my own pot), a drizzle of syrupy balsamic (to counter the bitterness in the kale), and a grating of salty pecorino. Delicious. Would have been even tastier if someone had been here to eat with me - Nathan's at baseball practice and John has to work late. Ah, well, good thing I enjoy dining alone...sniff... Just kidding! I do enjoy dining alone, quite alot (because no one enjoys my cooking as much as I)!