Fresh Tart

Beauty is in the contrast, as we all well know. But sometimes, we need a little reminder, especially at this rather dullest time of year. Sensory under-load is the name of the game in February-March in Minnesota. How to add a little zip? Beef up the contrast, baby! Steal some time to work out hard, outside, and make yourself good and tired and cold. Then come inside, take a warm, fragrant shower, bundle up in soft clothes and settle down to read a book (to yourself or to your kids) in front of the fireplace while sipping a glass of red wine or cup of hot tea. Ahhh...

I trick myself like that all the time. It's one thing to sneak in an unexpectedly lovely Saturday lunch (perhaps an over-easy egg alongside arugula salad?). But it's even better after cleaning up the kitchen, or a good (cold) workout, or running your kids all over town, or paying bills, or catching up on work, or some other productive-sacrifice that earns an appetite. Hey, if hunger is the best sauce (Miguel de Cervantes), winter is the best spice (the moderate epicurean)?

Heck, it's worth a try!

Oooh, we're heading into March, which marks the beginning of the holiday season. Huh? Well, spring and Christmas- Hanukkah require pretty much the same amount of planning 'round these parts, what with Cooper, Mom, Sasha, John, Tom, Marge, Mary, Stacey, and Nathan all celebrating birthdays within mere weeks of each other. Throw in a few friends, as well as Easter, Passover, and Mother's Day to boot, and hooeey - time to dust off the ol' pans and get cooking! (Or at the very least hit the greeting card stand and get signing!)

Until then, more simple, every-day fare. Like dinner tonight - sausage with white beans (one of my faves, I make it for myself often). Quick, filling, delicious. Add a salad, call it dinner - in less than 20 minutes.

Even though in this photo it appears that I just happened to whip up a little roasted chicken over risotto for lunch (ha), it's in fact (tasty!) leftovers from last night's...

...lovely Date Night meal at Cave Vin. No frites this time (no!), instead I had a delicious salad, lightly dressed greens (I very much appreciate that they know not to soak their salads in dressing, if only every restaurant would take their cue), plated with toasted hazelnuts and roasted grapes and topped with a bit of melty goat cheese. I've always liked - but not loved -goat cheese; but lately, I can't get enough of the stuff. That crisp-white, chalky, goaty-clean taste, especially warmed, especially against dark greens, is just heavenly to me. Crave-worthy. I crave goat cheese. What next? Good Lord.

Anyhow, for an entree, I sank my claws into chicken again, which sounds dullsville, but I couldn't help myself - the way they stuff herbs under the skin and roast it to crispy perfection just has me, it's ridiculously, simply good.

And oh, half-priced bottles of (seriously nice) wines on Mondays and Tuesdays do not suck either...

Snowman! (He's been named "Louis" by the kids, in honor of our dear Siggy Roo, whose middle name was Louis, sniff. We sure do miss him, although it was nice to not worry about rolling up dog doo in our snowballs...) Prrrrfect sticky-snow day for a snowman, thank you sun! And a vegetarian snowdude to boot - broccoli eyes, along with the ubiquitous carrot nose, rad. And so fun, in fact exhilarating (!), to finally be outside.

And nice inside too. I'm braising a pot roast today for...pot roast's sake. To have around for sandwiches, to turn into A Good Hash (if we're lucky), to add a few bites of protein to tonight's main course - and most requested both-kid favorite - Spicy Spaghetti. Not a saucy spaghetti, at all, really just a hint of tomato with lots of olive oil, garlic and enough red pepper flakes to add a kick. So simple, so good. Add broccoli, add shrimp, add anything that your kids (or you!) will like. I try to reduce the ratio of pasta to veg - in this case roasted broccoli - although no one around here uh, embraces the concept as enthusiastically as I...but that's OK, I'll keep trying... (Recipe posted in comments, below.)

Fresh air! Fresh vegetables! Fresh fruit! No combo makes me feel better, and I scored plenty of all three today, so I pronounce it a good day indeed: Lovely walk. Tasty pan of chicken hash (diced chicken, tomatoes, potatoes, green pepper, onion, and mushrooms) alongside an over-easy egg. And the most delicious Texas red grapefruit, tart-sweet and juicy-juicy. Hey, I realize it's not quite as sublime as a lunch of ripe garden tomatoes followed by a long walk and a swim...but for the end of February, it's not so bad. The days are noticeably longer, the sun's packing a bit of a punch - spring she is a'coming, my friends, slowly but surely.

And I am glad.

Friday night, the deepfreeze has abated, I had polenta for dinner, and life is goooood. Although, I hardly needed dinner, given I was full all day from our raclette dinner at the Shubert's last night. Oh, John and I went wild, broiling cheese over ham and potatoes, eating the melty goodness alongside sauteed veggies, coarse mustard, and cornichon pickles. After stuffing ourselves like French pigs rooting acorns, we still found room for chocolate fondue, merrily dipping grapes, bananas, pound cake, and strawberries into melted hazelnut Toblerone chocolate. Oy. So delicious. So full. So happy. Thanks Shuberts!

Yet despite my fullness...I still found room for the polenta, which I ate simply alongside mushrooms sauteed with a little garlic and a squeeze of fresh lemon juice. All on my own for din - therefore the polenta! - forget about it, beyond good. I guess my shopping trip to the Mall of America today did spark a bit of an appetite. Me, at The Mall? Those of you who know me well know that I really don't do malls. Especially MOA, Lord help me, I carefully avoid the place. Insta-headache. Insta-mallness. Ya know? But for Suz...I did it. And had a great time, of course - it was with Suz! And maaaybe I picked up a few little rewards for myself. (Woo hoo!)

And oh! I also received a case of extra-incredible olive oil, directly from Italy. I had ordered it from a woman named Ludovica, who my aunts and stepmom met on a recent stay in Umbria. This is seriousolive oil, lovingly made from the carefully picked fruit of hundred-year-old trees. Smooth, fruity-peppery taste (with quite an after-kick!), bright golden green color, fresh as fresh can be. I'll save it for bread and salads, when its delicious purity can be best savored. A delivery of Umbrian warmth, right to my wintry, grey doorstoop. Amazing. Grazie Ludovica!

So yep, Friday. Time to snuggle up in bed and watch a movie. Fall asleep early. Nothing exciting, which is damn fine by me. I'm over 40 you know. But it's all good.

An even better treat than going to a restaurant for dinner is heading to someone's home for dinner. Granted, I'm shockingly blessed with friends and family who are not just good cooks, but great cooks. (Thank you, Food Gods!) Seriously - some of the best tastes I've ever savored have been courtesy of none other than my parents, grandma, and aunts, not to mention in-laws and friends. Veal scallops a la danoise (my father-in-law), roasted goose with cabbage, lardons, and whipped potatoes (Dad & Susanna), fresh lemon-coconut cake (Suz), grilled tuna on Georgica Beach (Bartley), guacamole on Georgica Beach (Maud), grilled leg of lamb (Carol), Christmas prime rib roast (aunt Mary), apple pie (aunt Marge), crispy homemade pizzas (Kathie), Greek salad (Mary P), spanikopita (Mary P's mother-in-law), almond puff pastry (Mom), braised lamb (Stu & Debbie), heirloom tomato salad (Rudy & Ana), oyster stew (Andrew), fried fresh walleye with garden green beans (Grandma & Grandpa Meyer), Schaum torte (Polly), oven-roasted potatoes (Harry)... Oh my goodness, I could go on and on and on. It's unbelievable, really. From the simplest to the most involved, all completely memorable. So there you go, proof that I remember fondly damn near everything I've ever eaten. (Curse or blessing? Not sure...) Hey, if I am what I eat, I'm so jamming! As well as French, Greek, Mexican, Italian, Danish, German, British... NICE!

Also nice? In fact, where I'm going with all of this? (Sorry, I tend to get a little carried away with my reminiscing...) We're going to Suz& Cory's for dinner tonight - yays! For raclette - melted cheese served with all sorts of tasty Frenchy/Swissy accoutrements: potatoes, ham, pickles, vegetables. Little wine, little chat, little checking out Planet Earth in high def (The Coreman, like The Batman, has all the best toys). Aaaaahhh, Total Tasty Relaxation. Thank you in advance Shuberts! Wheee!

I'll hope for you that you're lucky enough to be heading to someone's home for dinner tonight too. If not, whip up a little somethin' somethin' for yourself (perhaps a simple pasta with broccolini with a nice glass of red) and...well...pretend? (Actually, it works, I do it all the time!)

Alrighty then. (Deep sigh.) Another night for soup, my friends, it's that special-kind-of-hell cold again. I'm doing my best to plumb the depths of warm, cozy, rib-stickin' recipes, what with the recent heat of chicken gumbo and shrimp curry (both quick, weeknight, healthy dishes), and the long-baked (kitchen warming!) Gallic drama of cheese souffle and pissaladiere (savory French tart) to lift my spirits.

But tonight, I'm going back to the basics, my friends, plain ol' (steaming hot!) soup. Simple, comforting avgolemono (Greek egg-lemon soup), in fact, on the table in thirty and just so unbelievably yummy. Warming and filling, yet light. Delicious with grilled pita, perhaps a Greek salad. Basically, that perfect winter food that takes your mind away to a warmer spot while warming one's oh-so-stuck-here body. I don't know about you, but that's exactly what I need. Practical Fantasizing. Soooo Minnesotan, yah. And, as such, rather moderate to boot! You betcha, baby!

(And before you leave, pause to bask in the sunshine Maud drew in Facebook and kindly shone around a few days ago - thanks Maud! It's so cheerful it almost makes me forgive her for kicking my butt up, down, and all around in Facebook Scrabulous!)

Uuuuuugh, huge computer headaches, my head hurts from thinking through all of the problems that keep cropping up. We're basically functioning - obv - but all the things that make online life pleasant (music, email, photos) are giving me fits. I'm so bummed about what a huge step down I've had to take with my email... One good thing - Moderate Epicurean emails (moderateepicurean@hotmail.com) will now be forwarded right into my regular account, so for those of you who've emailed me through the blog and waited, and waited, and waited some more for a response (sorry!) that will no longer happen. But in terms of making my life easier...that's about it. Blah.

But I still made dinner! I had to send my boys off to the Timberwolves' game with food in their tummies - if only to prevent the purchase of massive amounts of junk food at the game. We'll see if I succeeded, ha. As full as I am from quick Shrimp Curry (the recipe is technically for Chicken Curry, but I substituted 1/2 pound of uncooked shrimp, stirred in for a quick simmer a few minutes before serving) - a lovely, warm coconut curry chock full of veggies and shrimp, ladled over fragrant jasmine rice - I can't even bear the thought of adding a hot dog or popcorn or worse (egads) on top, blech! But, boys will be boys, with stomachs of lead, so who knows? It's outta my hands at this point...

Must. Get. Off. Computer. If only to preserve my sanity. I'd go for a quick walk, to burn off some stress and move my desk-butt after sitting here struggling all day, but you know... Yep, the same old, same old, cold as a witch's you know what, blah, blah, blah. Blah!

I'll be in a better mood tomorrow, I promise - Wild Wednesdays always cheer me up. Cooper Cuteness! What's not to love? G'night!

Happy President's Day!? Actually, very happy because Nathan is home from school, always fun. We celebrated more yesterday than today, first with brunch at Stacey's with my mom. We pulled it together pretty quickly (our original plan was to go out, which we bagged when we realized how much more fun little Cooper Cuteness would have at his own house). And as often occurs under those rushed circumstances, something rather delicious happened. Stace set out for Isles Buns for the most killerest cinnamon rolls on the planet - huge, soft and dangerously yeasty, studded with soft pockets of cinnamon and dripping with gooey, creamy icing. And that was brunch, all good. Oh wait! Nope, that was the end of brunch, right, although those lovely buns would have sufficed as the entire meal, quite handily. But heck no, this is me - and the family that made me who I am - we're talking about here, so there was plenty more, plenty!

Including a pissaladiere - basically a savory French tart, but not a quiche, since it doesn't contain eggs. How did I settle on a pissaladiere? Well, I started thinking quiche, and flipped through Mastering the Art of French Cooking for inspiration and a good short pastry recipe. Then I started thinking that Nathan does not enjoy eggs (to put it mildly), and that I had some delicious sausage that could make an interesting tart filling on its own, and so into pissaladiere the concept evolved. And what a treat! Buttery crust filled in this case with browned sausage, caramelized onions, and tomatoes. No cheese, no eggs. Really rather fabulous if I do say so myself (and apparently, I do)! The crust is quite rich, so needs a good chill before quickly rolling it out. But it's worth the wait. We had it alongside a simple salad, which kind of hilariously served as a palate cleanser before... Those damn buns! My goodness we were full, not very moderate (despite my silly Valentine's Day pledge), uff. (Recipe posted in comments, below.)

Then we rushed home to greet the Shubert family! Yay! As many of you already know, wherever the Shuberts go, fun follows... In this case, they were here as a huge favor to me - the Coreman sweetly agreed to help me set up my new Mac system. Yes, I have made The Leap, this is my first official post on a Mac, not a PC. (Pause and listen to the singing angels...) I have a bit of a learning curve ahead of me, since of course we have made things as complicated as possible with our music and photo libraries, network, incompatible email, and printing with a printer that doesn't much like Macs, but we're pretty well on our way. Hey, at least I'm posting this! Much faster, much prettier (gorgeous, in fact), much more fun. And blogging was already fun! So woo hoo for additional fun! (Now I just need a kickin' new camera to take better food pics with...but don't hold your breath on that one, awww shucks.)

Suz and the kids tagged along to make for a very fun afternoon! A little beer, a little buttery popcorn, some major video-game playing for the kids, some major Mac Magic for us adults, not our typical Sunday by a long shot - as in, very productive! Hopefully today will yield the same progress, and tasties (of course), stay tuned...