There’ll be no sadness / There’ll be no sorrow

Last night I tried two new things. I drank a “Flirtini” and I painted my nails a fairly bold shade of pink. (Nars’ nail polish in “Schiap.”) The Flirtini was okay but I love how glossy and smooth and shockingly pink my nails are. I keep running my fingertips over them and it feels so lovely.

It looks like this month is going to end on Bruce Springsteen / Einstürzende Neubauten notes. The highest, most shining ones being “Drive All Night” and “Steh auf Berlin,” the latter of which sounds absolutely delightful but the construction sounds across the hall from my office—I could do without that noise.

Recent feed reads include Who Are We? Coming of Age on Antidepressants which seemed especially relevant because I accidentally went cold turkey on my meds. I was still okay on day four but I’ve been feeling my condition slowly deteriorate since then. It’s been an interesting experience but I’m finally picking up my refill tomorrow.

Anyway, I’ve just finished gorging myself on Santitas tortilla chips, Gefen Coconut Flavored Macaroons and cranberry juice. (Last night I had duck with almond-encrusted brie!) I amend my previous report on music month-end because today I was also Live Seeds obsessed. Go into a little space, shut the door and play “The Weeping Song,” “Jack The Ripper” and “New Morning” as loud as your poor ear drums can handle.

Finally: food worth writing about.

I’m feeling marginally better and I’m determined to go to work tomorrow because I can’t take another day of sitting at home. To commemorate this, I made dinner! Pork chops with roasted sweet potatoes and roasted zucchini. It was the perfect meal to make because it was so simple and tasted great (especially compared to the canned soup and tea diet I’ve been subsisting on).

Major thanks to Simply Recipes and Smitten Kitchen for always being such reliable sources. Those are absolutely my two favorite food blogs, simply because I use them so much!

Meat and potatoes.

I usually make quick(er) meals on weeknights but I’ve been waiting to do this since last week: meatloaf with parmesan mashed potatoes and garlic green beans. It took an hour and a half but damn, it was good. We’re going to have amazing leftovers.

S is for Diff.

Last night we threw a surprise birthday party (balloons and streamers-style) for our good friend Diff. I made Chickpea Potato Curry Recipe (Simply Recipes), which is one of my go-to dishes for when friends come over. It’s incredibly easy, extremely tasty and vegetarian. Even after I ate cake, I was still craving curry. No kidding. At 2:30 AM, I very nearly zapped a serving in the microwave because I kept thinking about it.

For dessert, I made Double Chocolate Torte (via Smitten Kitchen) which was also fabulously easy and absolutely decadent. A layer of almost-flourless chocolate cake, followed by a layer of chocolate mousse, followed by a layer of unsweetened whipped cream. The whipped cream does wonders for taming the rich chocolate. It tasted wonderful and I’ve honestly never been happier with a dessert I’ve made, both in terms of taste and presentation.

Food Firsts

Last night was my first time having the sausage-peppers-onions combination. It wasn’t a dinner I ever had growing up and then I was veg*an for ten years. But I made it for dinner last night and goddamn, that’s good. (If you could hear the excitement in my voice and see the wild hand gesturing, you’d understand exactly how excited this makes me.) I used hot Italian sausage, two red bell peppers and served it over polenta—an idea I got from the February 2008 issue of Real Simple. Next time I’m going to make it with the moose sausage (another first!) Momhen gave us last year.

Past Firsts Ice cream (age: 1), Beets (age: 14), Tofurkey (age: 18)

For the love of cream cheese.

This weekend’s sweet treats are both from Bake or Break, a dessert blog I’ve been reading lately.

Chocolate Cream Cheese Pound Cake I made this last night. It came together very quickly and it tastes great so it’s a pretty rewarding recipe. It also has six eggs, a cup of butter and an eight-ounce package of cream cheese so you can feel really good about yourself while stuffing your face.

Almond Pear Cream Cheese Tart This is so ridiculously easy and tastes so unbelievably good (especially for something easy!) that you’re a fool not to try this recipe out. I ended up adding a half-teaspoon of almond extract to the cream cheese mixture and I have no regrets.

Cook something groovy!

I never had any desire to write a single word about Rachael Ray. Unfortunately, I was given one of her cookbooks for Christmas and now that I’ve tried two of the recipes, I figured I’d write about it. Especially since the recipes came together easily and actually tasted good. (I was surprised.)

Smoky Black Bean and Rice Stoup I used six bacon slices to her two, more celery, soy sauce instead of Worcestershire, brown rice instead of white and no hot sauce. I probably used more garlic, too. It was a really hearty soup with a thick, smoky flavor. I would definitely do this again.

Road to Morocco Lamb with Pine Nut Couscous This was my first time cooking lamb and I definitely want to learn more about preparing lamb. I’ve had some phenomenally tender lamb—I want that! Since I apparently have trouble following directions, I made a few tweaks on this recipe, too. I prepped my meat and spices last night. I added another onion, way more garlic and substituted half a cup of golden raisins for her one cup of dates. For the couscous I used more pine nuts than called for, added slivered almonds and threw a cup of frozen peas in after the couscous. (Cover, don’t mix—keeps them “fresher.”) I’ll make this again (maybe with chicken) but further tweak for more flavor, thicker sauce and tenderer meat.

Lime Shortbread + Pear Frangipane Tart

Over coffee this morning, I decided I had to do some baking today. I couldn’t even remember the last time I’d baked. (Oh wait, then I remembered—less than two weeks ago.) Lately I think about pear tarts a lot so I opened up Williams-Sonoma’s Essentials of Baking to their “Plum and Almond Frangipane Tart.” I did the pear variation, substituting two Bartlett pears for the plums. My pâte sucrée needs work and the tart wasn’t as flawless as I hoped it would be but it’s delicious. Definitely doing this again, maybe with a different recipe.

Over the same cup of coffee and while paging through the same cookbook, I got a little distracted and pretty soon I was planning to make shortbread, too. No—lime shortbread. I used at least two teaspoons of lime zest to the one they call for. It could still be limeyer but that’s just my 2¢. There was a fleeting moment in which I thought of also adding a dash of white pepper but something convinced me otherwise or I forgot—it didn’t happen. Maybe next time.

From Bialystok With Love

I don’t remember literally eating my first bialy, but I remember eating my first bialy. It was an overcast morning. I was in elementary school—maybe it was third grade—and I was at a sleepover. Let’s call the birthday girl “Mesah Hardware.” Mesah had a single dad and her brother was the same age as mine. They also had a big fish tank in the living room. I think I could still pick her apartment building. The only thing I remember about the party was that Mesah offered me a bialy in the morning.

It was so good.

I love bialys.

2♥♥8

Squeezed a few last things into 2007—cranberry white chocolate cupcakes (Cupcake Bakeshop), Chicken and Corn Chowder with Sweet Potatoes (Cook’s Country), White Beans with Tomatoes, Garlic and Sage (The New Best Recipe) and an orange bundt cake (Cook’s Country). Stork also made cod fish cakes for dinner last night!

For 2008, I hope to eat more good food.