Did you know you can pickle apples? Well, I went to The Publican a couple weeks ago and had pickled apples with MUSTARD ice cream and it blew my mind, so I tried to replicate at least the apple part over here in Santa’s workshop. The texture is crazy: soft like an apple in an apple pie on the outside, but crispy like a fresh apple on the inside. It’s sweet and sour and it makes my face all twisty.
And now, an interview with my husband, who is totally obsessed with pork, but also obsessed with finding ways to bring all forms of pork together in one fatty dish. I bring you: the hard-hitting rillettes interview. Brace yourself.
Everyone else is doing their gift guides, so I might as well put my two cents in. And by “two cents” I mean that I am cheap frugal so I made all my gifts this year. Many bloggers suggest you buy interesting presents from interesting websites. Martha endorses homemade presents, and hell, so do I. Martha also says that industry is the enemy of melancholy, well, actually William F. Buckley said that, but I’m not going to go that far. Because I’m still melancholy on account of the weather, even though Santa’s workshop is in full sweatshop mode.
I’ve been making stuff without you. I’m sorry. I just got carried away and forgot about what we have going here. I mean, just know that it didn’t mean anything at all. They were just meals. Delicious meals, but really, just meals. Sure, I made fried tofu triangles with peanut sauce, and then I made a monkfish stew. But now let’s talk about them together, baby. We’ll get through this together.
I guess those biscuits bisCUTEs aren’t angels or anything, nor are they homemade, but they’re shaped sort of like ghosts or people, and that’s pretty cute, right? You know what? I used bisquick. They don’t make the best biscuits, but they cut down on time and are suitable for sitting under a warm blanket of delicious gravy.
Last night The Hubs informed me that he needed some cookies to take to school work for his homeroom work Christmas party. So luckily I have these easy cookies that you can make even if you’re drunk, or a child, or a drunk child, because there’s just a few ingredients and only one part where you have to use a sharp object. They are kind of expensive to make, but if you have to come up with something fast and you don’t want to think about it very hard, these are the way to go.
The Hubs’ plane was delayed the other night until a-billion-o-clock a.m., so I had to occupy myself somehow, keep moving, try not to fall asleep, so I made some pumpkin bread. Duh. I found this super great Chicago-based blog Lottie + Doof, and they’re doing “the 12 days of cookies,” so if you’re into cookie porn head over there and check them out. That’s where I got this recipe for pumpkin bread, which they got out of The Craft of Baking by Karen DeMasco. God bless the internet. Information spreads like a delicious ingredient-driven std. All you have to do is click around some dark corners to get it.
I decided to see if I could make meals out of leftovers and whatever else I had on hand so that I wouldn’t have to go out in this stupid weather to the grocery store, and you know what? I survived. I am triumphant. I got creative and actually enjoyed two meals that I made out of random stuff. The first: a sort of salmon/grain stir fry type thing with capers? There’s probably a name for something like this, like, I don’t know, “reheating in a skillet,” but I’m pretty sure I invented a new technique. Basically, PBS owes me a show now. Read the rest of this entry »
Well, there’s still some apples left, but I didn’t buy any. Really, the kinda hot acoustic guitar guy, bakeries and meat folks have the run of the place. I’m happy to see the knife sharpening guy because I need to cut things better. I walked away with: sharp knives, tofu, cookies, kielbasa, breakfast sausage and cabbage sprouts, which are a purpley green color, which explains easily to me why I got the purple and green mixed up from kindergarten through most of high school. What?
In my quest to eat everything The Hubs hates while he’s out of town, I created a delicious ricotta and mushroom ravioli last night, except that instead of sealing the edges of the raviolis, I made a sort of tower of ravioli ingredients. Just as delicious with less work. Wait, is “decontruction” totally 90s? My Top Chef chances are RUINED.
