Klosekraft

Vegetable soup

No recipe for this one — it was a real clean-out-Liz's-fridge soup, with bits and bobs of the following:
onion
garlic
leek
carrots
celery
turnip
winter squash
white potatoes
purple potatoes
frozen spinach
homemade chicken or turkey stock
fresh dill, parsley and thyme
tomato paste
lemon juice
bay leaf

Everything just got chopped up and simmered together until the vegetables were tender. Then we hunkered down with Russian grey bread and cheese in one hand and soup spoons in the other, listening to some David Lee Roth a cappella rarities on FMU, and my little peasant heart sang to have  been party to making this feast from the scrapings of, if not a literal barrel, then the closest modern, urban approximation thereof.

Kitty's not too sure about David Lee Roth though.

I forgot about the Oscars, but have cauliflower!

I really did mean to track down somewhere to go watch the Oscars tonight, but I was still hiding out at my friend's place until early afternoon, then had an appointment to see an apartment in Brooklyn Heights and then had to scoot home and get over to yoga, which included an interesting meditation on the phrase "come to your senses" and how often we're separated from our senses and don't listen to our body wisdom and how to be more mindful of that. So I was mulling that all over and listening to Tom Waits as I walked home and I didn't even think about the Oscars until my shoes were off and I was chopping vegetables. And then I weighed the pleasures of an evening at home after a night away — taking a shower, putting on pajamas and eating a delicious bowl of curried cauliflower — against inviting myself somewhere to watch the Oscars, knowing that it would come with the non-pleasures of putting on real clothes and rushing and then having to get home again, probably later than I'd really like. And obviously, I chose the more leisurely, cauliflowered route.

I ended up undersalting this because I cooked the rice in some beef broth that I had left over from making carbonnade and figured that would make the whole dish salty enough, forgetting that I used some groovy low-salt organic broth and the rice isn't salty at all. Nor is it particularly beefy. It is darker than it started out though, so that's something. The original recipe is here, though I played with it a little, adding peas and some additional spices. I had meant to get a sweet potato to add too, but my blood sugar was kind of low when I went into the grocery store and I was a little confounded by the layout — it's on my way home from class and not one I go to very often — and it took me so long to find the cauliflower and coconut milk that I totally forgot to get anything else. I had peas in the freezer at home though and they were really good in this. This is a great quick dinner that could incorporate a lot of different vegetables and proteins. Even though I was pretty ravenous, I was satisfied after one bowl, so I have plenty of leftovers for lunches this week.

("I have plenty of leftovers for lunches this week" is one of happiest-making sentences in my vocabulary.)

Curried Cauliflower
adapted from A Veggie Venture

1 medium onion, chopped
olive oil
1 t. curry powder
1 t. cumin
1/2 t. turmeric
1/2 t. cardamom
pinch of allspice
pinch of cayenne
1 15-oz. can low-fat coconut milk
1 t. kosher salt
1 head cauliflower, chopped
1 c. frozen peas

Saute the onion in olive oil until soft and slightly browned. Add spices and cook for 1 minute. Add coconut milk and salt and stir to incorporate spice/onion mixture. Add cauliflower and simmer over med-low heat until tender, 15-20 min. Add peas and simmer for a minute or two, until they're warm. Serve over rice.

And now, a little stillness

I have 24 unscheduled hours ahead of me, access to a friend's very quiet apartment while she's out of town and a bag packed with books and knitting and dvds (will this finally be the weekend I watch Volver? kind of looks like it...). I've been out pretty much every night for, I don't know, two weeks or so, and I'm craving vegetables and quiet and wearing my pajamas all day long.

I was SO HAPPY to get some real snow this week. I had crashed at a friend's place Thursday night after being out late seeing another friend's boyfriend's band and got to walk through a gorgeous, transformed Brooklyn on my way to work.

I really loved all the shades of gray making up the whole landscape here. In the photo, though, I think it comes across a little more dreary Soviet-bloc than it did in person.

In which I learn about squirrels and am horrified

I found the following note in my Moleskine this morning:

"Do squirrels drink blood?
Are they at all carnivorous?"

This came out of a conversation I had with Brian and Liz over cocktails last night where he claimed to have seen, on more than one occasion, a live squirrel drinking the blood of a roadkilled squirrel and that one of his friends had seen a squirrel drag a dead squirrel into its lair.

I was borderline apoplectic with denial and disbelief and bourbon. Obviously, if he had seen a squirrel fussing over a dead one, it was because it loved it and was sad and was probably kissing it goodbye. And if one squirrel had dragged a dead one into its nest/lair/den (home!) — and I'm not buying that it did — it was either because it wanted to try to resuscitate it or to give it a proper burial with a wee bouquet of flowers clutched between its paws. 

So, today I did a quick Google for "do squirrels drink blood?" and didn't turn up anything and was feeling a bit smug about my body of squirrel knowledge and justified in my tendency toward sweetness-and-light anthropomorphization. Then I tried "cannibal squirrel" and holy crap, people! There are videos. I will never be the same. I need to go scrub my eyes out with soap.

I finished the second sleeve for Demi — did I mention that?

And now I'm 31.

I took a day off on either side of the weekend, including yesterday, a federal holiday on which our office was open. (My boss hates the Founding Fathers.) I saw friends, made stuff, watched movies, hung out with my mom for a day and basically ignored the computer, as anyone who's emailed me recently is well aware (sorry!).

I made a batch of this butternut squash and hazelnut lasagne yesterday, which is an old favorite of mine and very handy for feeding vegetarians something that makes them feel special. I'm not going to lie — it's kind of fussy and fiddly to prepare, but in a good way if you're in the right mood.

This:

is the only picture I took on my birthday, despite a full day that included dim sum, the Pricked exhibition at MAD (eh, not so good) and a night out dancing.

Even though I didn't take any pictures while we were out, these, from another party I went to recently, showed up in my inbox this morning, so they'll fill the party-picture quota that I just randomly decided I had to meet in this post.
Happy Stephanie:

Shocked and appalled Stephanie:

Gosh, Bridgette's hair is pretty.

Last night was a good night.

Exhibit A: a post-work walk on the Promenade

Exhibit B: a post-walk visit to the Grand Central Oyster Bar, where I sat at the counter and watched the shuckers

Exhibit C: I got a check from a company I used to do a lot of freelance work for, with a note that the original, sent last May, must have been lost in the mail because their records indicate it was never cashed. I'm surprised — I tend to keep pretty close track of my invoices — but, regardless, yay! Found money ought to be spent frivolously and what better time to do that than one's birthday week?

demi-Demi

Since my burn is all scar tissue now, I was able to do some knitting last night without feeling like the hounds of hell had been released on my fingertip. I've reached the halfway point on Demi: back done, one sleeve done. Gee whiz, she's pretty.

New guiding life principle: What Would Tilda Swinton do? I'd always liked her, but now I'm more than a little in awe. After reading this article, I feel terribly dull and bourgeois — but inspired!

Carbonnade

I'm moving a little slowly this morning. (Or afternoon. Whichever.) A friend took me to a benefit for the Women's Expressive Theater last night for my birthday (great plays! great venue! great food! great people-watching! great music! great gift bags!) and I went to bed late.

I don't want to wait any longer to post this recipe though, because it was so fantastically delicious that any beef-eaters out there should make it immediately, if not sooner. Imagine: a panful of jammy caramelized onions cooked for hours with beef, broth, beer and herbs...

I followed Elise's recipe here, a printout of which has been on my fridge for months now. The only things I changed were to to use all beef broth instead of half beef/half chicken and only make about 2/3 of the stated amount. I don't know, three and a half pounds seemed like an awful lot of meat so I only bought two pounds. Whole Foods didn't have anything called blade steaks, so I got boneless chuck roast. And I didn't tie my thyme sprigs together. That kind of behavior smacks of fussiness. I don't cook a lot of meat, but I've been feeling like pushing myself lately and it's a challenge that I'm interested in playing with more.

Before:

After:

To go with it, I boiled two sweet potatoes and three regular potatoes and mashed them together.

Carbonnade
adapted from Simply Recipes

2 lbs boneless chuck roast, trimmed of fat and cut into 1" cubes
salt and pepper
olive oil
2 lbs yellow onions, halved and sliced
1 T. tomato paste
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 T. flour
1 c. beef broth
1 c. dark beer (I used Ommegang)
4 sprigs fresh thyme
2 bay leaves
1 T. cider vinegar

Adjust oven rack to lower middle postion; preheat oven to 300°F. Dry beef thoroughly with paper towels, then season generously with salt and pepper. On the stove top, heat 2 teaspoons of olive oil in a large heavy bottomed dutch oven over medium-high heat until beginning to smoke; add 1/3 of the beef to the pot. Cook without moving the pieces until well browned, 2 to 3 minutes; using tongs, turn each piece and continue cooking until second side is well browned, about 5 minutes longer. Transfer browned beef to a separate bowl. Repeat with second third of the beef and an additional 2 teaspoons of oil. (If the drippings in the bottom of the pot are very dark, add half a cup of the chicken or beef broth and scrape the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon to loosen the browned bits; pour liquid into the bowl with the browned beef and continue.) Repeat again with 2 more teaspoons of oil and the remaining beef. Remove beef from the dutch oven.

Add 1 T oil to dutch oven; reduce heat to medium low. Add the onions, 1/2 t of salt, and tomato paste; cook, scraping the bottom of the pot with a wooden spoon, until onions have released some moisture, about 5 minutes. Increase heat to medium and continue to cook, stirring occasionally, until onions are lightly browned, 12 to 14 minutes. Stir in garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add flour and stir until onions are evenly coated and flour is lightly browned, about 2 minutes. Stir in broths, scraping pan bottom to loosen browned bits; stir in beer, thyme, bay, vinegar, browned beef with any of the accumulated juices, and salt and pepper to taste. Increase heat to medium-high and bring to a full simmer, stirring occasionally; cover partially, then place pot in oven. Cook until fork inserted into beef meets little resistance, about 2 hours.

Discard thyme and bay. Adjust seasonings with salt and pepper to taste and serve. Can serve plain or over egg noodles, rice or potatoes.

Commence birthday week!

This weekend was a good start to the maelstrom of excellence that I'm planning for my birthday week. The day itself is this Saturday, 2/16, a day I share with John McEnroe, Ice-T, Sonny Bono and the novelist Richard Ford.

I went to see this show, which was great. I would highly recommend it: whimsical, warm and playful; both smart and accessible (photos from the Deitch site).

(those are bananas.)

Delicious yogurt:

I made a trip to Metalliferous on Saturday to get chain and treasure-hunt through the bins of vintage Japanese beads. And I got the rest of my supplies out and spent several happy hours on Sunday playing with it all and making stuff. I am FOR SERIOUS about getting this etsy thing off the ground in 2008. I should be ready to launch it in the next couple of weeks.

I made carbonnade for dinner Saturday night, which was one of the best things I've ever made and deserves its own post.

I won a contest.

There was absolutely fantastic wild weather yesterday — I heard this morning about 50 mph winds. I'm sure I've mentioned before how good I feel right before a big storm blows through. I don't know what it is (the barometric pressure? something to do with ions?), but it makes me positively euphoric. I was walking over to yoga, a little less than two miles,  while the storm was gathering. There was clear sky and bright sun behind me and a wall of honest-to-god navy blue clouds in front of me. I've never seen clouds that color before. The light was incredible and the wind just kept getting stronger and stronger. Then it started spitting snow, and by the time I got to the studio, it was a full-on snowstorm. The class was on the top floor of the building, so we had a couple walls of windows, plus skylights, and it felt like actually being part of the storm. Then apparently the Egyptian soccer team won a game and the streets were suddenly full of people running around with flags and screaming and waving them out car windows and honking madly. It was before class actually started and we were all gathered around the windows and at the risk of sounding all woo-woo, it was an incredible feeling to be surrounded by so much powerful energy, between the storm and the victory celebrations. I felt like if I wanted to, I could fly. And class was great, a lot of work on opening the intercostal muscles: all the better to breathe while flying.

Then I went home and burned the pad of my left index finger pretty badly while I was making crepes. I actually heard the skin sizzle and had a split second to register confusion because there was nothing in the pan at the time before the pain set in. It's not really that bad, just an ouch-y hassle really. Still, it was pretty painful last night, even with plenty of cold running water and ibuprofen. It turns out that you use your non-dominant index finger all the time. I had a moment though, after it happened, where I was looking at my finger and the way it was rapidly changing colors and gaining new textures and trying to figure out what percentage of my body the burned portion represented. Definitely less than 1%, maybe just a fraction of that. Chalk it to up to residual blissed-out yoga-ness if you like — I hadn't even changed out of my workout clothes, just walked in and started mixing batter — but I had this moment where I had to say sternly and lovingly to myself, Stephanie Karin, you have to pay as much attention to the 99% of you that isn't in pain as you do to trying to heal the 1% that is causing you throbbing and fiery agony. Self, I said, that's good advice.

So, that's the plan for birthday week and beyond. Celebrate the good. Ignore the throbbing and fiery agony.  Eat more oysters. See more art. Make more stuff. Etc.

"Extremely simple and eccentric": That's me!

Hey, I won the Most Likely to Be Copied category in the contest over at Apartment Therapy!

I have to admit, I've been getting a kick out of reading the outraged comments. I'm the Marisa Tomei of the January Jumpstart contest!