Self Indulgence. I'm good at it.

Take a good look at that photo people. Oooh yeeeeah. See that box o'chocolate waiting to love ya? Is Babette's Feast making eyes? Oh I think it is. French eyes. Full of five star cuisine awesomeness. Is Eat, Memory trying to lure you in with tales of favorite food recollections?? Molly Wizenberg whispering her man scoring recipe for French-style Yogurt Cake with Lemon into your ear? Can it get any better?

Oh my god is that pasta?? With Sauce??? I love you.

Oh yes, I know how to treat a lady right. Even if that lady is me. Pure self indulgence of the best kind: good books, good movies, good chocolate and pasta. Oh and an incredible smelling candle I bought myself at Merz after lusting after it for two months. It was all delicious and made for a lovely late winters eve curled up on the couch.

But that was just one night! The next day I reached a new level of indulgence when I bought some crystalized ginger. Yup. I remembered, vaguely, that ginger could be expensive I just forgot until this Saturday. I'd decided, after some wavering, to make this bread over the weekend and ginger plays a major role so I went to get some at my local Jewel. Doobie doobie doo reading through jars of spices, find the 'g's, grab a jar, notice in passing the price tag. $13.55. $13.55???! Holy shit! Mental deliberations began. How much did I want the bread? A lot. Did it have to be crystalized? Yeah most likely. Did I have time to get to another store to do some price investigating? Not really. Buh. Fine. Found a jar that was a mere $11.20 and hoped it held the 1/3 of a cup I needed 'cause that was all it was getting. I'm still not sure whether to classify this moment as a fit of madness, denial or blind faith that if Molly says the bread is amazing I must make it. Whatever.

I found the recipe on her blog first, but ended up using the version she has in her book when it came time to make it. I also used up a bar of dark chocolate roughly chopped instead of chocolate chips since it was going dry. And my bananas could have been riper but I wanted the bread now. And I didn't have yogurt so just used milk. Hah. It turned out delicious, despite my ingredient inadequacy.

There was a panicky moment when I realized her note of "If the loaf seems to be browning too quickly, tent with aluminum foil." was something I needed to do. Tent? Ummm does that mean what I think it means? It does. The foil protects the top while allowing the innards to keep cooking. How brilliant is that? I've been having some "issues" with my oven lately. There was one baking fail that was so horrible I can't bring myself to tell you all about it, I'm still upset. But this tenting trick may just solve all my troubles! Or I could just buy an oven thermometer.

And I really liked this bread recipe, the ginger and chocolate is a winning combination and I want to make a gingerbread bread with the crystalized hunks and chocolate chunks. I have the sneaking suspicion it would be amazing. However that's not going to happen until I snag some cheaper ginger at TJ Maxx that's for sure!! It's like being back in Ancient Times when salt was more precious than gold. Except now it's ginger. Bastards.

I'm also going to try another recipe from Molly's Homemade Life book this week, her bouchons au thon, aka tuna corks. When Summer comes I begin to eat tuna on a bi-weekly basis, and as Spring is finally starting to show its face around these parts I'm wanting some tuna. But in a heavier form than my typical tuna salad on toast or crackers, so tuna corks it is! Of course I don't have a Flexipan muffin pan or access to creme fraiche as I live in AMERICA but hopefully a liberal application of Pam and 2% milk will do. Or I may just make a tuna-y mess. Quel dommage. I'll let you know.

But after the tuna corks I will have reached the end of my apparent four week food book/movie kick. I finished Eat, Memory and watched Babette's Feast so am now in search of my next reads/views. Any suggestions? There's a Japanese movie called Rinco's Restaurant I want to see but alas, it's not on Netflix yet! Someone likened it to Amelie so I think I may love it already...and the story about M.K.F. Fisher in Eat has me thinking I may read some of her work. Apparently she's a Big Deal.

As for Eat, Memory here are my Thoughts on that book:

-Not as good as Alone in the Kitchen with an Eggplant. Well, rather the ratio of good stories was higher in Egglplant, than Eat. Eggplant sets a high bar! And I most likely will be re-reading it soon, perhaps actually doing a recipe this time.

-There are some really good stories though, Chang-Rae Lee's 'Inward Bound', is heartbreakingly beautiful. It really touches on the therapeutic side of food, and how there are points in one's life where cooking can be the only thing that's holding you together. And he quotes from Babette's Feast at the end, how perfect is that timing?

-And Heidi Julavits's 'Turning Japanese', where she compares her craving for American style sweets while living in Japan to the quest for Contentment is hilarious. No Thought=No Appetite?? Dr K, with his love of Zen mind fucks and food needs to read this story!

-The best moment with the book however was my utter HORROR of realizing that the NY Times food editor who compiled all the stories for Eat was the same Amanda Hesser of Cooking for Mr. Latte shame!! What?!! Nooooooo!!! Well at least she didn't have anything written by herself in it. And to be honest the author's forward in Eggplant was a bit silly too. I just can't believe that woman has found her way into my life a second time! Well a third time actually since I was just browsing one of my new foodblogs, Have Cake Will Travel, and the link to toasts with chocolate, olive oil and sea salt was a recipe from that Hesser woman's new recipe book. Damnit! That woman's attitude really got under my skin but I may have to get over it. Unfortunately. Especially if she's going to put chocolate on bread and make me eat it. I just won't trust her like I do Miss Molly. If the Hesser woman told me to buy fancy crystalized ginger I'd most likely tell her exactly where she could put that ginger. And it wouldn't be in a bread.

Oh well. I'm off to make tuna corks and then go to a Deer Tick concert tonight. Gotta get my holler ready, let's get rowdy!!

Pasta Sauce.

As someone who works 4 days a week there is something I'd like to explain to you about days off. There are two kinds. The first are those fantastically productive days when you wake up refreshed and ready to go. Chores are done, lists crossed off and at the end of the day you feel satisfied as you proved yourself to be a productive member of society.

Then there are the other kind. The kind when you wake up at 1 pm and never feel like putting clothes on. I feel television marathons were designed for just such a day. Then at least you feel like you've accomplished something.

Well I had the day off yesterday and let me tell ya, my name is Alexandra Sandin and I am a productive member of society. Not only did I sleep in and had a relaxing breakfast, but I was dressed by 1, out of the house by 2 and didn't walk back in until 6. Take that To Do List!! And I made a delicious dinner, typed up this post, did three loads of laundry and watched Mostly Martha. All before midnight.

Due to most of my past week feeling like a Day Off Type 2 it has been a while since my last grocery run and my cupboards are bare. A quick pop into the W-greens on the way home furnished me with a box of spaghetti and Ragu. Yes. You read that right. Ragu. I buy Ragu because I know the secret of Pasta Sauce.

Many years ago I found myself living in Boulder Colorado for a summer and rooming with a girl that would become my Best Friend, the lovely Moshkana. At this time I was already a devotee of Pasta and ate it at least once a week in a variety of forms. Communal living often leads to shared meals, which was the case here, so you can imagine my shock and consternation when Moshka told me that she did not like tomato sauce. What the f*ck was I going to cook?? Pasta without tomato sauce is not the end of the world, there are lots of white sauces and vegetable dishes, but for three months?? Something had to be done. I began analyze her. "Is this a tomato issue or a sauce issue?""Tomato. I don't like them.""....okaaaay. Ummm. Have you ever had a tomato sauce you've liked?" "Not really, they're usually too thin.""Would you be open to trying a thick one?""Possibly."

And so began my quest to made an acceptable pasta sauce for Moshka.

Seeing as pasta with tomato sauce is usually a weeknight meal I almost never make sauce from scratch. And there are so many good quality pasta sauces on the market it's never bothered me. But in this case I needed to do something to bought sauce other than just heat it up. I started with olive oil and smashed garlic cloves. Always a good thing to start with! Then some chopped red onion to sautee a little. Then came the sauce with a dash of basil, parsley, S&P and a hit of lemon juice. And then I let it simmer for a looong while. Because that ladies and gents is the Secret of Pasta Sauce. Reduction. In the words of a faux-Christopher Walken: "Reduce that fat mother f*cker as long as it takes I dont' care! Reduce! Reduce! Reduce 'till you're down to the essence, the bare truth, exposed to the elements!"

Reducing the sauce brings all that lovely tomato flavor into a sharper (and thicker!) focus. It's a clingy sauce now with bits of onion (which I think are key though if you have none the world will not end) to punch it up. It was such a hit with Moshka that Wednesday became an official Pasta Nite where we would grab a bottle (each) of cheap champagne on the way home and eat huge bowls of penne with Sauce while watching a movie. The night we watched Gigi is still legendary due to an incident of couch dancing. And at the end of the summer I wrote out the above Sauce recipe so that she could continue to eat pasta in my absence.

It is now impossible for me to like sauce straight out of the jar without it being Sauced now. It just doesn't taste right. Or maybe its just that I know it can taste better. And the best thing is that any jar of sauce will turn into deliciousness if all you do is reduce it. Even Ragu. Perhaps especially Ragu since it is such a simple sauce, as if it was intended to be a starting point all along. And I personally get a kick out of using convenience store ingredients to make something fantastic, don't you! Who says living on a young adult budget can't taste good?? In college I made peanut noodles with Ramen, added amoretto creamer to my cocoa when I was out of milk, and made Johnny cakes when I was down to nothing but cornmeal. Budgets (andy laziness) are a challenge I adore. At this moment I'm sipping a cocktail of Andre and Squirt. What can I say, I'm pinkies up fancy ;-)

And just a note on Mostly Martha: it's wonderful. My Auntie D was right, it is good enough to now ignore the American remake! I did miss Mr. Eckhart and Puccini but as the makers of No Reservations basically just copied oh...everything there's not much of a difference other than the original being (duh) more fabulous. Why is Hollywood so lazy? I often wonder this while watching Americanized versions of Euro movies (The Dinner Game, Death at a Funeral, Coupling etc etc). But that is a discussion/rant for another day. See if your library has it, just remember to switch on subtitles, unless you're Cait who speaks German!

I hope you all have a lovely weekend and if your weather is like mine, enjoy this last bit of Winter! Tonight I'm going to watch the snow, make meatloaf and drink hot chocolate to make the most of it!

"Yes, Mrs Castorini, I would LOVE some oatmeal."

Italy is still happening in my life it seems.

First off one of my favorite blogs used lines from Moonstruck for their Valentines post. I love that movie. It's like Breakfast at Tiffanys. The movie was not what you expected but has those wonderful moments of real truth that in my opinion are what art is all about. Moonstruck also led me to the conclusion that Italians are crazy and I have yet to be proved wrong. And of course that feeding people is good. You can even be bossy about it like Loretta to Johnny because, after all, she's feeding him steak which is true love (see previous post). And that life is made better with opera in it. And Cher. Basically Moonstruck is a good movie to live your life by if you ask me.

And I would very much like to say that after watching Moonstruck (bootlegged on Youtube) that I put on some Puccini and fixed up a feast of toad in the hole or steak or oily fish but alas I did not. I did not because I have no appetite. I have no appetite because I've had a cold all week and it's horrible. I have drunk lots of tea though, and used up half a loaf of bread on buttered toast and am feeling much better, even hungry now! And just in time to brighten my snot filled week was the goodies my parents got me while in Rome!! Don't you just adore a well put together care package? Brown paper packages tied up with string are indeed one of my favorite things:

This one contained a gorgeous scarf, a notebook, a cookbook devoted entirely to olive oil and solid peony perfume! My parents know me so well it's ridiculous. Mummsie even flattened and included the box the perfume came in!

There will be more to come on the olive oil cook book I promise you, it's just fantastic. And olive oil is a very Serious thing, even though I don't go crazy gourmet on it. Dr Karl likes olive oils that are "gnarly" and I tend to agree with him. I like to taste where my oil is coming from, if you like vague oils just use vegetable or canola you wimps! (Though, on a total side note the rapeseed/canola flowers make for a glorious field! A bright yellow carpet that I fell in love with in the UK)

So in honor of Italy, olive oil and soup (which is mostly what I've been eating) I'm going to share this lovely rustic stew with you:

Fagioli on Toast, from Epicurious, though I don't put the beans on the toast, just eat it straight so it's really more Fagioli (Stew) with Toast...

Ingredients:

4 thick slices country bread or rolls, ciabatta is perfect

4 tbs olive oil, gnarly

2 garlic cloves, peeled and sliced

a few fresh sage leaves

1 28 oz can diced tomatoes, tasty quality

1 15 oz can cannellini beans, again tasty quality

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper

Douse the bread with 2 tbs olive oil and toast until deliciously golden and crusty.

Put the rest of the olive oil in a skillet with the garlic and sage for about 1 min for the garlic to brown and get aromatic.

Add the tomatoes, beans, S&P and stir to combine. Cook until the liquid thickens and reduces a bit. Then pour into hefty bowls, perch the toasts on top and go to it.

Well now it's ten thirty on Sunday, I'm tired and hungry (yay!) so I'm going to close and leave you with what is the best possible response to your finance's brother (who you're in love with by the way) telling you he loves you. Classic.

Nothing Says 'I Love You' Like Red Meat

Happy Valentines Day to You!

I suppose this is kind of a cheat post, but it was just too good to pass up!

You see the quickest way to a Sandin's heart is steak and today I have a present for you: Dr K's Steak Tutorial:

The simplest, most foolproof cut to work with is a 'ribeye' (this is what we usually do at home for steaks, indoor or out). A ribeye is by definition boneless, which keeps cooking times across the dimension of each steak consistent, and it's a fairly small, compact cut, roughly rectangular. Makes it easy to arrange a few across the small dimensions of an indoor stove broiler pan. (Sometimes a ribeye is also called a 'Delmonico' steak; whatever, just make sure it's boneless.) Bone-in cuts like T-bone and Porterhouse are good too; just larger, more unwieldy in an oven, and slightly less consistent in cooking times because of the bone and broad dimensions in relation to line of broiler flame.

Make sure each ribeye steak is between 1"-1 1/2" thick. Avoid anything thicker than about an 1 3/4", makes it difficult to cook indoors. Make sure each is bright red-fresh (absolutely not frozen) and nicely marbled with fat; cut off excess fat around the perimeter of each steak. Rinse each steak with cold water out of the pack, pat dry, let sit to arrive at room temperature. Generously salt and pepper each side; do not apply any extra butter, oil, or other shortening. A well-marbled cut of steak has all the tasty fats it needs.

Lightly grease your broiling pan (I apply a layer of aluminum foil with slots cut on top, greased, makes things easier to clean but is not necessary). Place steaks on top with at least a little space in between each steak. Put oven on broil. Let oven warm up a minute or two. Place steaks in oven on an upper rack; make sure there's enough room between broiler flame and upper surfaces of steaks for heat to circulate and little fat spittings to not flame up directly into the broiler flame (3-4"). Let steaks broil 3-4 minutes, open oven and rotate broiler pan 90 degrees CW or CCW to let steaks cook evenly. After a few more minutes, once you've got some browning going on top of the steaks, open oven and turn over. Repeat process. Once you get a bit of browning you simply need to take a really sharp small knife, open oven door and move rack and pan out all the way, and make a little cut on one of the steaks to actually *see* how done it is. Continue to broil, checking every minute or two, turning steaks over again if needed, to achieve degree of doneness throughout each steak. A few cuts in the side of the steaks is a small price to pay for that perfect degree of doneness. Don't be scared of browning and bark on the exterior. That's needed and the key is interior doneness. Once you hit medium-rare (a little pink in between gray-brown and some exterior browning) it doesn't take much more time for the steaks to cook to medium and then medium-well. Constant vigilance. There is no strict *time* frame for this. The flame is what it is, the meat is what it is, and it's done when it's done. I recommend side dishes and salads to be types that don't need any prep right before the meal, gotta focus on the steak. Doing a salad and then a potato or other dish *in the oven* right before broiling is good. You take that out, shift the oven to broil and the oven is all warmed up and good to go! Potato dish sits covered while doing steaks and voila--all is hot or cold as it should be upon serving.

Serve immediately, and enjoy!

I love my Dad. And my Mom too because she makes sides like this to accompany the steak (these are so good I actually finished them before my steak last time!!). And I love my roommate Moshka who made me steak for my dinner tonight. And Miss Cait who shared her pre-Valentines chocolates with me over episodes of Gossip Girl. And I most likely love you too! A happy Valentines day to you!! Go feed somebody ;-)

"You just want to stay home and cook!"

Ironically on my Blizzard of 2011 Snow Days I've been slightly pathetic where it came to cooking! Not at all what I expected, or my aunt suggested, when she commented on my status.

We left work at 3 yesterday, I crammed myself onto a sardine tight bus and stood for 1hr and 40 minutes on my commute home. Picked up milk and bread at the Walgreens and settled down in my favorite window-side chair to watch the chaos happen. Made tea and buttered toast and chatted with Moshka before she headed out into the snow. Watched the chaos in Egypt and Chicago for the next few hours. Made more tea and ate scrambled egg toast and some pickled beets. Watched The Bourne Ultimatum and the snow which by this point had turned into a Pollock painting on my window (by midnight it was more like a late Monet):

Noticed snow blowing in under the door when making tea so stuffed up the door with plastic bags (finally a use for them!!) and hung a sheet over the door to keep in the heat. See, growing up in an old house in the country comes in handy even in the city!

Around 10 pm I got hungry again, after all toast can only go so far! Feeling lazy I made a fish stick sammitch: cook 5 fish sticks in the toaster oven with two slices of bread. Slice up some red onion and lettuce. When toast and fish are done slather some tartar sauce on the bread, add fish, onion and lettuce. Now your sammitches will be inferior to this one because I have a magical tartar sauce from this place in Louisville, KY. Moshka's family has been eating fried fish here for years and so did I on my Derby Trip of 2010. But your plain average tartar sauce will be fine. Just fine.

This morning though I roused myself to put a little more effort into my feeding. French toast. Below you see my handiwork both in door sealing and brekkie making:

I was never very fond of French Toast and I still will only eat it if I make it myself, it's usually too sweet and custardy for me. I typically only make it when I have fruit to keep it lighter. Of course this morning I had no fruit just stale bread to use up. After staring at my fridge for a while I noticed a bag of Moshka's frozen raspberries. I'll buy her more later. Nuke a handful in the microwave for a minute, add some maple syrup and you have a tasty topping!

The winds had died down by noon and 24 hrs after it started the streets were clear and mountains of snow were the only evidence of the Blizzard.

Of course it's only 6 o'clock. Culinary feats could still be in store. But I kind of doubt it.

Happy Snow Day everyone!