Hope

I am not usually an emotional person (although, I do cry at the sappiest movies). I was more overcome by paranoid worry than joy on Election Day. The insane McCain supporters who made the headlines (and who won't go away... Joe) had me worried about a loud, boorish portion of our country. The pomp of Inauguration Day went by in silence as I watched C-Span. Listening to CNN talk of 10-disk CD changers in the bullet-proof limos or to Fox News lionizing Bush one last time drove me to the preferable silence of the C-Span feed.

I have never been one of the Hope-filled Change-meisters marching to the beat of a charismatic leader, though I did campaign for the guy.

Instead, I was waiting for something besides inspirational words (and inspiring they are). I was waiting for an action.

As I read that President Obama signed an order to shut down Guantanamo and quit torture practices, I was overcome with emotion. I cried. That our country no longer stands for torture and illegal detention, that our country respects human life, that our country is moving to be better than its enemies... I was overcome. Finally, I felt relief, pride, and yes, even hope.

The start of beef broth

Roasted beef bones, veal bones, and pork bones.

Miso Catfish Sous Vide

I have to learn how to get the fish out of its sous vide package in a prettier fashion. In any case, here is a picture of the sous vide process:

Little Dumpling Squash

To mangle The Beatles:

Little dumpling, it's been a long cold lonely winter
Little dumpling, it feels like years since it's been here
Here comes the sun, here comes the sun
and I say it's all right

So cute:



Halved the little dumpling squash lengthwise and scooped out the seeds. A little olive oil, salt, peppper, crushed red pepper, cinnamon and into the oven for about 45 minutes.

Meanwhile, my sous chef browned some ground beef with salt, pepper, and soy sauce. Drained and reduced the juices and sauteed shallots and maitake mushrooms (also called "hen of the woods"... my "that looks weird, I want to eat it!" purchase at Ranch 99). It was pretty good... mild, a little nutty. Reintroduced the beef to the mixture with cooked rice and cilantro. This was the stuffing for the halved squash.

I finely chopped some cilantro leaves and stems and roughly chopped some mint. The cilantro went into the dressing my sous chef was putting together (olive oil, lime juice, red chili and garlic sauce). The dressing and mint dressed the stuffed squash. Sweet and spicy.

Pictures for Surfsister, but I think I need Soul Brother #1 to take the food photos. The little dumpling looked better than this photo and tasted way better, too:

Braised oxtail stew

I find Alton Brown entertaining and useful. He used short ribs for his stew episode, but I'm partial to oxtail... especially as I horde the small bits of vertebrae in preparation for another round of beef stock.

Seared oxtail and beef stew meat before coating it in a mixture of tomato paste, paprika, oregano, thyme, rosemary and braising it in the oven at low heat for 4 hours.

Two days later (because I didn't have time to finish on Sunday), I sauteed onion, carrots, potato, leeks, peas in beef fat before dumping the braised meat and liquid into a stock pot to soften the vegetables and serve.

Parsnips

Tried out the recipe in Gourmet magazine. Pureed Parsnips with sauteed brussel sprout leaves. The combination of textures was fun. The snap of the brussel sprout leaves and the mellow flavor was good with the aromatic puree.

I think, though, I like roasted parsnips better than boiled. I like how the parsnip caramelizes when it's roasted.

It's best not to reply

The best and worst thing about Facebook is that people from your past somehow come into your present. It's been a while since I checked in on Facebook, but this morning, while standing in line at the polls, I surfed the web on my phone and logged into Facebook to read some "status updates" - most people writing their support for Obama. One of my Facebook "friends" - a woman I knew in grade school and was in marching band with in high school, a girl who was my best friend for a couple years in junior high - was supporting McCain. Luckily, she lives in New Jersey, so her vote doesn't count (I say that jokingly as someone who has spent too many months playing with electoral maps).

Anyway, Pandora's box was open. After Obama's speech tonight, I couldn't resist getting online to check in on the status updates of my Facebook "friends." And there was her status update: "[Facebook friend] says the downfall will begin."

Seriously? I wanted to reply. Seriously? Do you think we're all going to become Communists? Or wear burkas? Or worst of all, become Communists wearing burkas?

It's best not to reply. It's late. I'm looking to pick a fight because I'm wired in such a way that I stand off from emotions and look ahead and worry. The McCain campaign revealed too many insane people who call themselves American. The crazy Halloween scrooge lady who wouldn't give candy to kids unless they supported McCain. Joe the Plumber who is voting against his interest and whose only reply to being questioned is, "Look it up yourself. Look it up and see why I believe what I do." "Terrorist"-shouting men calling to "kill him!" And not the least of all... Sarah Palin.

I live in the same country as these people. These radically religious, incurious, anti-science people share the same American citizenship as I do.

Tonight, it's best not to reply.

Roast duck and kabocha squash

I've been trying to overcome my fear of autumn/winter squashes. I've always loved how they looked, but feared that they tasted too much like a pumpkin which I've never really been fond.

So, inspired by a recent Jamie Oliver show, last night I did a riff on his warm Asian salad of roast duck and pumpkin with kabocha squash. I basically wandered the Santa Monica farmers' market after not surfing (because of fear of rainwater contamination from the first storm of the winter). I looked for interesting squash to try out. Besides the cool name, I liked how it looked like a pumpkin but wasn't.

Really lovely and sweet with a sweet potato texture after roasting in salt, pepper, and crushed red chili. The edges were nice and caramelized and it was a good counterpart to the duck. Threw it together with a spicy soy sauce lime vinaigrette, cilantro, and mint.

Sous vide

Last night, I was feeing a little like autumn, so I rigged up my own sous vide apparatus for a catfish with brussel sprout leaves. I dressed it with olive oil, shallots, thyme sprigs, and a couple cloves of crushed garlic (removed when served).

Instead of using a crazy expensive silicone wrap, I realized that I had bought Reynolds oven bags when I had a coupon and was curious as to what it was. It's been forgotten in the back of my bottom drawer until I learned about sous vide preparation. Worked beautifully.

Accompanying the fish were roasted parsnips and sauteed chanterelle and brown mushrooms.

Molecular Gastronomy: a foody masturbates

Sunday, I learned a few of the basic processes that makes up this movement of Molecular Gastronomy.

Mostly, I find it wanking off about food... more so than usual, that is. I appreciate it on an esoteric, aesthetic level, but I find that when I want to eat a mushroom, I actually want to eat a mushroom and not just breathe the flavor in a foam. I like texture and chewing. I don't necessarily want essence of pea puree to explode in my mouth like stale baby food.

The most successful dish, I thought, was the seared duck breast (because it was cooked conventionally) which was topped with pineapple caviar. I did like these little bursts of fruity flavor and will probably be taking this technique home with me. The sweet and acid flavors of the caviar worked nicely to offset the fattiness of the duck.

In order to make this "caviar," combine juice with sodium alginate (a thickener) and then dribble drops into a calcium chloride bath. Osmosis sucks the water out of the juice drop and creates a cell wall around the drop. An example from Youtube:

Cooking for Gordon

I had a dream last night that I was cooking for Gordon Ramsay. Unlike my dream of Anthony Bourdain, this was not a sex dream.

Instead, it was about learning, gaining knowledge, and earning approval.

TV Review: Presidential Campaign

I realized that these debates are really bad television. In good serial TV, each episode builds on what the viewer knows from past episodes and rewards the repeat viewer. Finely crafted TV is good enough to suck in new viewers without being boring to repeat viewers. These debates -- and probably presidential campaigns in general -- are REALLY BAD TV.

They just repeat the same things over and over... "he voted present," "he's going to raise your taxes," "use a scapel instead of a hatchet," "he started his campaign in a terrorist's living room," etc.

This does not reward the repeat viewer AT ALL.

Tony Soprano for President!

Stoked

This weekend, I volunteered as a surfer to help mentors and their students in the ocean.

http://www.stoked.org/

It was a great experience and the kids' enthusiasm reminded me that it doesn't matter if the conditions are bad, you can get stoked by just being in the water.

Outta the way, kook! Woof.

3rd Annual Surf Dog Surf-A-Thon is Sunday, September 7.

This year's doggie surf clinic photos have really got me in stitches. From this weekend's photos I found my soulmate in a grumpy bulldog. These two pictures in a series tell it all:

Photos by Michael Schrager

Rocco

Rocco DiSpirito is one of the contestants of DANCING WITH THE STARS this coming season?

I guess he likes being on TV better than being in the kitchen.

The Wire

I just got the email telling me that my pre-order of the final season of THE WIRE has been shipped. Woo!

I can't wait to watch some really good serial TeeVee again. I've been catching up on EUREKA, but it's no BUFFY.

Maybe McNutty and Bunk will be inspiration for me.

writer's block

since 2002

Wotta Cock-up!

Usually, I'm quite a mellow restaurant patron. I've never sent anything back and I always tip the waiter (percentage depending on service). But Saturday, I sat with my husband's work friends at a Mediterranean restaurant -- which was my off-the-cuff choice because no one could decide. There, I realized I have been watching too much Gordon Ramsay.

After the owner/host/waiter seated us in the small restaurant, no menus came after many many minutes, so I got up and muddled around the wait area to find only two menus available. I brought them back to my table and people perused. A busboy came by with water and asked us if we wanted soda or tea. G wanted wine, but the busboy didn't understand, so I said, "vino?" and he seemed to understand. He came with an Asahi beer. Everybody had a good laugh and G started drinking it anyway.

More minutes went by. I saw the owner/host/waiter take the orders from the tables against the other wall of this 10 table place, but he didn't come to take our order. Oh, well. No matter. We were talking. More minutes and no service. Finally, I got up to make myself a nuisance. I wandered back into the wait area. I also hovered around the kitchen to see the busboy and another Spanish-speaking employee diligently working. No sign of the white-haired owner/host/waiter. I wandered back to my table, but I could sense G's work friends getting restless.

I dug around the wait station and found the wine list to get the price of the beer. I threw down some bills for the beer and told my party we were going.

Still no service in the dining area.

The only question I got was from the couple sitting next to me. The man had been speaking French with the owner/host/waiter and he asked, "Are you going?"

I said, "Yes. I was here before and the food was good, but..."

"The food is good, but it is very long. I have told him he needs more help."

His American date then said, "Where will you go? The Italian place next door is very good."

I felt weird about the recommendation from the date of the friend of the owner, so I tried to thank her and leave quickly.

She continued, "Or if you want really good Mediterranean food, there's this place--"

"Don't say that. We are here. It is not appropriate."

I laughed and said, "Yes, I feel bad. Don't tell me."

I could hear the couple arguing as we walked out the door.

This was the first time I'd ever walked out of a restaurant. If I were more like Gordon Ramsay, I might have waited for the owner and told him "wotta cock-up!"

Baby steps.

Earthquake

That was panic-inducing. It was the biggest one I've felt in my short 7 years in Los Angeles.

Wasn't sure what to do, and now I know.

Engagement Ring

Cooperfish Hornet 9'7"