Fresh Tart

Well.  Nothing will bring a days-long holiday celebration back 'round to moderation faster than a stomach virus.  BAM.  So long caviar, hello saltines.  So long fish soup with croute and rouille, hello baby sips of water.  So long comfy bed, hello toilet.  (Sorry.)

So long 2008, hello 2009.  Hmmm, a seemingly inauspicious start to the New Year, although I am on the mend.  Tired, but whole.  I predict fighting form by Wednesday night, in fact.  Although, a subdued start to 2009 isn't so bad, and is all I had planned anyhow.  I'm in the mood for a quiet year (aren't we all?).  This isn't exactly the quiet I'd planned, but I'm so grateful to not be miserable that I'll gladly hit the hay early and witness the end of 2008 from blissfully nausea-free dreams.  No problemo.

And then, when I wake up, I'll get cookin'.

Merry Christmas, Happy Hannukah, Happy Merry everyone!  (Sigmund, our beloved dog, is no longer with us, but we think about him a lot at Christmas, especiallly when we trim the tree.  He wasn't a cookie-stealer, but he was definitely a tree-hazard with his long tail.)

(Portrait by my sister Stacey E. Meyer.)  Hope you (and your dogs!) are having a great holiday. Roo!

I'm too fickle to cook very far ahead - I mean, I can eat most things for two days max, then I have to move on.  Not to mention many dishes taste pretty tired the next day (pastas, pizzas, lettuce salads, fish).  But beef works, and is often improved with a day or two of rest.  Particularly the braising cuts, like the three pounds of boneless beef short ribs I slow-simmered over the weekend.  Last night they saw their third iteration (first two below) as meat pies, and oh boy were they good.  This was leftover cookery at its most fun - a bit of this, a little of that.  Puff pastry sheets from the freezer.  One russet potato and one yellow onion from the pantry.  A green pepper from the cooler.  And a generous sprinkle of curry powder for some interest.  I diced everything quite small, sauteed the potato, onion, and green pepper together with the curry powder until tender.  Stirred in the diced beef, seasoned with salt and pepper, let it all cool a bit.

Then I rolled out the pastry, cut it into generous circles with a cereal bowl, filled and folded the pastry over, and sealed it up with an egg wash.  I finished with an allover brush of the egg wash (or an allover wash of the egg?), then baked the fat little crescents until crispy and golden brown, about 30 minutes at 350 degrees.

Result?  Rich, savory deliciousness, especially with braised kale alongside.  The lesson here is that pretty much anything, diced and sauteed into a savory hash, would taste fantastic inside puff pastry.  Doesn't everything taste fantastic inside puff pastry?  Next time you have a spot of roast - lamb, chicken beef, pork, or no roast at all, just vegetables - give it a go, see what you think.

And before that, for my lunch, I restored myself with the most hodgepodge of soups.  I conjured it up on my minus-four-degree walk, in fact, while my stomach rumbled and my face and hands stung from the cold.  Soup!

I started with chicken broth, stirred in a bit of leftover garlicky tomato sauce, then leftover orzo, a swirl of pesto, a handful of spinach, and a couple of tender turkey meatballs (which I make in batches and keep in the freezer).  Basically a healthy, flavorful Italian meatball soup to warm me through and hold me through the afternoon.  Until the meat pies.

Leftovers kind of...ROCK?

The tree is finally trimmed - it's a Christmas miracle!  I can't believe how slowly I'm warming to Christmas this year, it's bad for even me.  I'm getting there, I'm getting there, and even enjoying the process.  A little.  I'm trying my best to embrace the moment - the scent of the tree, the beauty of wrapped gifts.  But I can't quite escape the nagging feeling that this is just a whole lot of expensive work.  No!  Stop that!  OK.  I'll stop.  And count my many blessings and fully enjoy the holiday, as I (eventually) do every year.

I hope your holiday baking/shopping/wrapping is going well and smoothly!  I've already enjoyed the most fabulous Christmas cookies.  Not my own - I gave up baking cookies years ago - but Amy Brown's, the creme de la creme of Christmas cookies, beyond good.  Between Nathan, John, and me, those babies were gone in no time.  Thank you Amy and Jon!

I braised boneless beef shortribs over the weekend (from Whole Foods, highly recommend), almost three pounds of them so that I could stretch them for several meals.  Unctious, beefy, perhaps my favorite cut.  On Saturday night we had them with pan juices over orzo, topped with roasted peppers and onions.  Last night we had hot roast beef sandwiches.  And tomorrow night I think I'll turn what remains into empanadas.  Stay tuned...

Tonight, John and I are braving the cold - real, serious cold - and heading out to...we don't know yet.  Our emails so far include our Monday night staple Cave Vin, or perhaps Barbette or Salut.  Or maybe D'Amico Cucina or I Nonni.  Again, stay tuned...

And WARM!

For a lazy Sunday's browse, here's what's cooking/opening around the web...

Dear Dara reports that Turtle Bread's long awaited venture in Linden Hills, Tosca, is in the process of opening.

Sassy Radish fries lovely, crispy, perfect latkes - Holy Hannukah!

Smitten Kitchen concocts a crave-worthy, hearty cabbage soup that I can't wait to try.

Use Real Butter rolls out an elegant holiday appetizer - bite-sized beef tenderloin wraps.

The Kitchen Sink, while on a visit to Minnesota no less, simmers Albondigas (meatball soup) that looks insanely delicious.

And if you're looking for a good, foodie book, let me suggest what I'm going to be (re)reading today - MFK Fisher's How to Cook a Wolf.  If you've never read Ms. Fisher, you're in for such a treat.  Her most famous book, The Gastronimical Me, is a must-read for any food lover, it literally changed my life.  She wrote How to Cook a Wolf during the deprivations and foot-shortages of World War II.  It is a whip-smart, funny, and sophisticated guide to eating well on an extreme budget.  Timely given the current state of the economy, no doubt, but mostly just a fantastic book.  Dig in, you'll be glad.

And here at the moderate epicurean?  Aw, nothin' much to write about.  I had a fantastic bowl of leftover french onion soup for lunch.  For din, well, the plan is nothing more than good ol' spaghetti with meat sauce, a kid fave pretty perfect for Sunday night movie watching. I keep it on the lighter side by going easy on the pasta, heavy on the broccoli I saute with garlic to accompany.

Time to build a fire (Sasha took the cool pic - no, the flames are not really leaping out of the fireplace and into John's hair) and find that book...

Good on a cold Saturday night.  And not nearly as decadent as it looks - onion broth, dry croutons, and a slice or two of Gruyere cheese.  That's it.  Recipe here (the Julia Child version).

Enjoy.

John and I had plans to hit Grand Cafe for dinner last night, but a serendipitous end-of-day exchange in the copy room of Henson & Efron changed all that.  Instead we were invited to dine a la chez Williams, with Debbie and Stu the Wine Genius, and we gratefully accepted.  I threw together a quick tray of cheeses from our fridge (luckily some tasty things - roquefort, a firm, sweet goat's milk, and hand-dipped ricotta from Whole Foods), roasted red peppers, and crisp flatbread from the pantry, and we were out the door.

Once settled in Debbie and Stu's lovely, cozy kitchen, we dug into snacks (said cheeses plus olives and a delicious truffle mousse pâté Stu set out) and got around to sipping some serious wines.  We opened with the 2007 vintage of a memorable Gewurztraminer that Debbie, Stu, and I enjoyed at Bouchon in Napa Valley a few years ago - Lazy Creek Vineyards Anderson Valley.  We moved on to the most delicious Viognier I've ever had, a lush 2007 Melville Verna's Estate Santa Barbara that was selling for around $22/bottle until Robert Parker gave it 94 points and it basically disappeared, poof.  Of course Stu had purchased it before all the fuss, so I count myself lucky, once again, that I got to try a wine with Stu that I'd never try otherwise.

Ditto for the two reds we tasted, both Saxum 2004 Syrah blends, one a James Berry Paso Robles, the other a Broken Stones Paso Robles.  It was so fun to taste these wines side-by-side and note their (to me, pretty subtle) differences - as Stu pointed out, if we'd had them on separate occasions we'd think they were quite similar.  Both were incredibly delicious, a huge treat.  (Note in the pic that Saxum, like Stu-Fave Sine Qua Non, changes their label with every vintage - Stu pulled some bottles to illustrate.  The two we tried are on the left.  And speaking of Sine Qua Non - the papers lying in front of the glasses are Sine Qua Non catalogue pages for an upcoming wine auction.)

In case you were wondering, yes, we did eat something other than cheese, olives, and pâté.  We had a delicious dinner of crusty, rosy pork tenderloin, roasted potatoes, and steamed broccoli.  We finished with slices of pear and blue cheese, along with a glass of champagne that hooooey! put me right on over the top. Yeah, baby, it may have been cold outside, but I was plenty warm and toasty.

Thank you to Debbie and Stu for another lovely evening!

OK, so this latest assigment (for the online food styling class I'm taking) was to prepare a meal, then plate it/prop it three different ways.  I seared a few pieces of salmon, made a quick couscous, and used sauteed red onion rings, chopped raw red onion, and dill for garnish.  I'm hitting myself that I didn't put the beautifully rosy salmon on a blue plate - duh - but I was in a big rush and just grabbed red, patterned, and white plates.  This class thankfully isn't about the photography, since I am pathetic at "seeing" the shot through my camera.  I tend to line 'er up and shoot, then when it's on my computer...ding, ding, ding!  I see right away which angles worked and which didn't.  When it's too late to go back.  Ah well, that's why I'm taking a class.

The overall best-looking shot ended up being on the patterned china.

I really like how the rare salmon itself looks in the next shot, but it is lost on the red plate (sigh).

The third attempt was completely weak - I was rushing for an 11:30 appointment.  I added extra food, and didn't deconstruct it (for contrast with the previous two shots) - as a result it looks like a slab of salmon with tired, wormy peppers and beige couscous, all lined up like nervous soldiers, ha.

I'm learning quite a bit and really enjoying the process.  My biggest hurdle right now - lack of daylight hours.  Pictures I take in low light or artificial light are just...yuck.  Learning to use my equipment will help - I just haven't had time what with Thanksgiving et al.  Over the next couple of weeks, that will be my goal - to be able to take the occasional flash photo and have it turn out appealing.  Especially in Minnesota, in December, when daylight hours are a seriously scarce commodity.  (Today's count - less than 9 hours.  Ouch.)

Anyhow, for dinner tonight (no, we didn't have salmon, I pretty much trashed it for the photo shoot), I made shrimp saltimbocca.  With wild caught shrimps from Whole Foods, so sweet and you know, shrimpy. The way they're supposed to be.  Even for those picky about fish (aka my family), a real crowd pleaser.

I don't know about you, but I feel basically rotten if I'm not regularly exercising outdoors.  Inside is fine for certain activities (a pilates class, for instance) and for crummy-weather days. But on a weekly basis, if I don't get out at least 2-3 times, my energy and mood suffer (just ask my family, eek).

And so I ventured forth this chilly afternoon, into the sunny (!) air for a brisk walk around beautiful Cedar Lake.  You can see the cold in that pale blue, watery sky, brrr. But it felt great anyhow.

Back indoors, I pulled together the simplest of dinners (I'm a bit cooked/fooded out).  Just egg salad, open-faced on toasted rye bread, with a warm roasted pepper, onion, and caper salad alongside.

To me, the best egg salad is easy on the mayo, generous with shallots, lemon juice, and dill.  Yum.  With hot tea for "dessert," I'm properly fortified to head back out later for Nathan's basketball game.

Just give me a seriously warm coat and heated car seats - oh yeah...  Warm Bum, Happy Mum!