A Sweater for the Spouse

At long last! My first-ever men's sweater. Here's what I've learned: men are *big*. I couldn't believe how many more stitches are involved in a man's sweater. It turned out well, though, and the husband is pleased.

Chicken and Bean Stew

with fresh turnip greens and whole wheat penne thrown in.

Roasted Butternut Squash with Sage and Shiitakes

and for once I didn't over-roast it. I can't tell you how delicious it was; sweet and sticky and savory and oily. We had it with sauteed bok choy, and scrambled eggs.

Chicken Sausage

with quinoa and roasted cauliflower.

Frankencarrot

Check out what the spouse dug out of the garden this evening!

Hello Kitty Waffles

For Sunday breakfast. Today's flour: equal parts whole wheat, kamut, and teff. I used to use the Hello Kitty waffle-maker for my daughter's sake, but now I don't know what I did without it: perfect portions for toddlers and adults alike. And cute!

Fried Chicken

with roasted brussels sprouts and brown rice. This turned, the next night, into a soup of chicken, white beans, squash, tomatoes, and peanut butter, heavily perfumed with ginger. Mmmm.

Frittata

of beet greens, mustard greens, and red peppers; with giant sweet potatoes.

Ribs and Rice

This never disappoints; I put together barbecued rib meat with leftover brown rice and whatever vegetable is to hand; we're having it again tonight because it can't be beat for ease and deliciousness.

Clam Chowder

Courtesy of Boston's Legal Seafood, via a good friend. Totally delicious; we had it with sauteed red peppers and fennel, and buttered sourdough toast.

Kenzo

I don't remember when I last even thought of the name Kenzo, but I loved everything in the collection. Show me a belt, a pattern, and some color, and I'm all yours.

Frittata

of potatoes and bok choi, with sauteed bok choi stems on the side.

Lamb

Those sort of steak-looking leg pieces; with brown rice and roasted cauliflower. On Saturday I made another chocolate-beet cake (from the Hot and Hot Fish Club cookbook) and this time I went whole hog tweaking it: lots more beets, whole wheat flour, 1 C instead of 1 and 3/4 C sugar, coconut oil instead of butter. Still delicious.

Field Peas

with sauteed escarole and bacon, with roasted yellow fingerling potatoes. I ate myself stupid on the latter.

Costello Tagliapietra

Boys, send me this dress. I will never, and I mean never, take it off.

On a related note, it is so interesting to read reviews of fashion shows one can only see online. It's clear that the difference between clothes in life and clothes in pictures is important; people who actually see them have such different reactions from mine, and the year that Viktor and Rolf made their show available as a Quicktime film was a real revelation to me. This year, the Lanvin show is getting worshipful reviews. I always love Lanvin, so I'm down with it, but I don't see the kind of paradigm-shifitng influence people who actually saw it describe. Partly, of course, I don't know fashion like the experts, but a lot of it, I think, is that clothes really have to be seen in person to be appreciated. Maybe they have to be worn to be appreciated.

Which reminds me: C/P! Send me that orange dress right now!

Pesto Meatballs

with yellow wax beans, and whole wheat penne with parmesan and butter. Noodles with parmesan and butter is one of my favorite things to eat; there were times in graduate school when it's more or less all I did eat.

Apple-Pear Tart

We had pizza for dinner, tart for dessert. It was a very simple affair: I rolled out the pie crust left over from the pumpkin pie into a tart pan, and threw in three peeled and sliced pears, and one peeled and sliced Fuji apple, all the fruit seasoned with a little lemon juice and sugar. (In retrospect I'd add a pinch of salt, too.) I baked the whole thing at 400 degrees for 35 minutes, and it was really delicious.

Rodarte

Someone seriously needs to explain the continued existence of Rodarte to me. I don't mean artistically; I loved the first show of theirs I ever saw and I only get hungier for more, season after season. But honest to Pete: they make clothes that cost thousands of dollars, that require endless complex handwork to make, that can only be worn to formal events of the most fashion-forward kind. Who is funding all of this?

Rochas

It's fashion week in Paris! My heart is singing. Rochas, once the home of supernova Olivier Theyskens, has a new designer and this is his first runway showing. I loved it—it's full of gorgeous color and shiny fabric and flattering silhouettes I'd wear tomorrow if I could; in all it pleases the "make me look pretty!" part of my brain the way Comme des Garcons satisfies the "make me look brave and interesting!" part. I also notice that if there is one runway trend that dominated in all four fashion week cities (NY, London, Milan, and looks to be Paris too), it's socks with everything.

West African Okra Stew

Found a recipe on the internet and followed it loosely. The stew involved:

6 chicken thighs
1 can of tomatoes
a whole lotta okra
one small pumpkin
one onion
four cloves of garlic
one half cup peanut butter
chicken stock
tomato paste
cilantro

We had it over rice, and it was delicious.

Comme des Garcons

In my head, this is how I dress. (I would not go for the wig and face veil; I'd probably opt for a ponytail).

Grilled Buffalo Filet

with brown rice and roasted brussels sprouts and red peppers. Much pie for dessert.

A Great Pumpkin Pie

For dinner we had scrambled eggs and green beans, but tonight was about dessert. I'm a big pumkin pie fan, and have made versions using just about every quash I know. This latest used a lovely hubbard squash we got from our CSA. I made the Cook's Illustrated Foolproof Pie Crust, which is in all ways as advertised, and tried one of their recipes for the filling. It has various fancy touches (fresh ginger instead of ground, e.g.) but the real innovation is in method: after combining the squash pulp, spices, and sugar, one then simmers them on the stove for about fifteen minutes to concentrate the flavors and let the spices bloom. It was a pain to do (I mean, not that big a pain) but I had to agree, halfway through my third slice, that it was totally worth it.

Mustard Greens

Blanched, served with whole wheat penne, garlic, and bacon.

Frittata

of leftover roasted everything, leftover ribs, and leftover quinoa. It was scrumptious, as leftover-based meals tend to be, in my experience.

Duro Olowu

I once tried on a Duro Olowu sheath dress (at Barney's, where it was on deep sale, which is the only reason I'd even torment myself by getting that close to such covetable merchandise) and I'll never stop regretting that it was a size too small. I get near his prints and I go ape.

Roasted Everything

Delicata squash, eggplant, red onions, elephant garlic, red peppers, and shiitake mushrooms, all served over barley.

Buffalo Meatballs

made with an egg, some garlic, and lots of fresh oregano. We had them with roasted yellow potatoes and the first turnips of the fall from our CSA.

Hot n' Hot Devil's Food Cake

My favorite restaurant, Hot and Hot Fish Club, has published a cookbook. I don't actually like restaurant cookbooks, which I find to be heavy on artsy pictures of food and filled with finicky recipes involving tiny quantities of too many ingredients. This one is no exception, but it is lovely, and has already given me my new favorite chocolate cake. I understand the difference between devil's food and regular chocolate cake to be the use of cocoa, rather than baking chocolate, in the former. It makes a satisfyingly black cake with a light texture; I often find baking-chocolate cakes to be heavy and bland. The Hot 'n Hot version calls for things like homemade creme fraiche, so I admit to some free substituting, but I followed the basics of their recipe and it is delicious. It has two secret ingredients: a quarter teaspoon cardamom, which perfumes the whole thing, and shredded raw beets. You'd never guess the latter—they melt undetectably into the texture—but they make it moist and rich. A winner.

Dinner Party!

We had cheese (Irish Cashel bleu, Manchego, and something French) first. Then crab cakes with cheesy polenta and salad. I make baked polenta: you just stir for five minutes and then bake in the oven. For dessert, a cake I am very proud of: two layers of Nigella Lawson's Victoria sponge (you make the batter in the food processor! takes like five minutes) with layers of lemon curd and unsweetened whipped cream between and on top. Chopped pistachios scattered on top. Oh my goodness is it good; but then, most anything with lemon curd is out of sight. Why did I have lemon curd on hand? Because when you make an angel food cake and have a dozen egg yolks staring you in the face, lemon curd is the perfect answer.

Every Way Wrap

The pattern is named for its versatility, a quality you'll have to take on faith because I've only loaded two images, both of the wrap being worn the same way. It is a lovely thing, though, and I am mighty pleased with it.

Whole Wheat Penne

with broccoli rappini, elephant garlic, and leftover ribs. This was the extremely rare dinner about which the spouse was a mite less enthusiastic than I. He tactfully suggested that it would be delicious with, say, roasted cauliflower in place of the rappini. Unluckily for him, I am a rappini freak: nothing says hard-earned delicious dinner to me like a big plateful of its mouth-filling bitterness.

Broiled Salmon

with delicious greens and brown rice.

For dessert: the best dang banana bread I've ever had. I followed Nigella Lawson's recipe in How to be a Domestic Goddess, deviating only to sub in whole wheat flour. Really, this stuff is unbelievably good. The secret? Brandy-soaked raisins.

The (un)Enthusiast

It's a sad day when I look at the new Marc Jacobs collection and don't immediately want to go shopping.

Squash Pudding

My second try at squash pudding involved grating four crookneck squash and combining them with leftover brown rice, four eggs, a little cream, a little cheese, a bit of nutmeg, salt, and pepper. I baked it in a water bath for about an hour, and it was really delicious. We had it with sauteed okra. For dessert, angel food cake. I am a *fool* for angel food cake, and always have been. It's not hard to make, but it amazes me every time with its beautiful color and unique texture. I could eat a whole cake at one go, but manage not to.

Roasted Yellow Potatoes

with roasted cauliflower, sauteed okra, and fresh bell peppers.

More Groundnut Stew

with a salad of some dark, succulent, crisp, small cabbage-y stuff, and a whole bunch of fresh red peppers.

Coho Salmon

with roasted purple potatoes and sauteed okra. In my opinion, the key to okra is freshness, even more so than for most vegetables. There's something about our CSA okra on the first day we get it that just can't be beat.

African Groundnut Stew

with brown rice.

Meatballs

of buffalo, with eggs, brown rice, and pesto. With sauteed okra.

Red Snapper

grilled, with rappini and brown rice. Very delicious, ridiculously virtuous. Afterwards I scarfed two ice cream sandwiches, so intense was my need for fat.

Buffalo

steak, grilled, with a salad of quinoa, red peppers, scallions, and feta.

The Happening

Seriously. What happened to M. Night Shamylan? If that is how one spells it? This movie is laughably bad. Bad at every level. Badly conceived. Badly plotted. Bad to the point of embarrassing badly written. How does he keep getting terrific actors to work with him?

Crab Cakes

with roasted brussels sprouts and quinoa.

Meatloaf

and okra was what we had for dinner, technically speaking. However, we also had stomach flu, so after about midnight it was, let's say, a moot point.

Little Legwarmers

After mine were done there was a household request for another pair, so, voila. These flew by, as all knitting for children does; the only catch is that you can never be certain things will get worn. I'm trying to give up on that as a criterion of success.

Frittata

with potatoes, roasted red peppers, chives, and basil. With broccoli rapinni.

Mahi

Grilled, with a salad of roasted beets, toasted walnuts, and ricotta insalata. Also some oat groats.

Meatloaf

I compounded 1 lb. ground buffalo, 2 eggs, some very old, very stale sourdough bread that I soaked in milk and mushed up, about a cup and a half of leftover rye berries, a big squeeze of ketchup, two cloves of garlic, and some salt. Baked the whole thing at 350 for...45 minutes? and served it with broccoli rappini. Will have the same meal for lunch today (cold), which is my favorite way in the world to arrange lunch.

Traveling Stitch Legwarmers

Legwarmers! Seriously, I last wore them in fifth grade. I've had these on my mind, however, ever since seeing the pattern a year and a half ago, and I'm mightily pleased with them. Once the weather cooperates (in about five months) I'll unleash them on the public.

Rye Salad

Rye berries with cherry tomatoes, red peppers, scallions, ricotta insalata cheese, olive oil, salt, and pepper. We had it with sauteed okra. All of the vegetables came from our CSA and were beautiful and delicious.

Squash Pudding

Or, as I think of it, ersatz gratin. My daughter came up with "squash pudding" to describe what I threw together last night: one layer of leftover brown rice, topped with sliced squash, all of it baked for about an hour in a mixture of 4 eggs, a dollop of ricotta, a handful of grated gruyere, a little milk, salt, and pepper. It was delicious; we had it with roasted cauliflower.

Succotash Supreme

I would have called it fish curry, but the plentiful harvest of field peas and corn that went into it probably makes the spouse's title, shown above, the right one.

Broccoli Rappini

With roasted potatoes and canadian bacon. O Canada!

Back from Vacation

I'm sorry I left without saying goodbye! On our first full night back we had: broiled salmon, oat groats, and roasted brussels sprouts.

Vegetable City

In the last two days: field peas with onions, carrots, and bacon, oats, roasted cauliflower, corn on the cob. Also some orange roughy.

Watermelon

and brownies. That's what we had for dinner, because for lunch we went to Miss Melissa's and ate like wolves from their buffet of primo southern cooking.

Grilled Salmon

with brown rice and roasted brussels sprouts.

Stewed Tomatoes and Eggplant

that I served over toasted sourdough bread with pesto.

Fish Curry

This is the best thing we've eaten in a long time. I put together:

1/2 onion
1 red pepper
1 green pepper
ginger
garlic
curry powder
coconut milk
3 ears worth of cut corn
2 haddock filets, cut up into little pieces
juice from two lemons
salt

I served it with cut up fresh tomatoes and cilantro as garnishes, and ladled it over brown rice. Honestly, I can't remember a better meal at home, and I used up all the nagging bits of this and that vegetable matter in my fridge.

A note on coconut milk: naturally, I made mine from the coconut concentrate I buy in quantity from the same supplier (tropicaltraditions.com) from which I get my coconut oil. What, you still buy yours in cans? Don't be a chump; concentrate is the way to live.

Scrambled Eggs with Herbs

and roasted potatoes and carrots, and bacon.

Corn Pudding

From Frank Stitt's Southern Table. I'm afraid the list of ingredients (eight ears of corn, one cup of cream, two eggs, salt, white pepper, and nutmeg) won't convey the incredible layered deliciousness of this dish. It's rich, it's sweet, it's savory. It was great even though I badly underestimated the time it would need to set in the oven and served it as more of a thickened creamed corn rather than a true pudding. I later baked it to the right consistency, and it was perfect both ways. We had it with sauteed okra and roasted red peppers.

Zucchini Gratin

from Richard Olney's Simple French Food, with fresh tomatoes. I love Olney because he is a terrific writer and his recipes always work and taste wonderful, and because he is so pleasingly strict. In the introduction to his section on zucchini he notes that "large fruit with well-formed seeds are uninteresting fare, and should on no account be considered as a substitute for small ones in the recipes that follow." I ignored this stricture, but probably wouldn't have dared if he'd said it to me in person.

I've noted here before that I don't like zucchini, and that's still true, but there are few things I don't like gratineed: add eggs, milk, and cheese and I'll eat just about anything.

Orange Roughy

with rye berries and roasted brussels sprouts.

Blueberry Cornbread

with sauteed Napa cabbage and bacon. Truly delicious.

Sea Silk Sweater

This sweater is knit in a yarn that is a blend of silk and something called sea cell, a fiber made from seaweed. It's a beautiful yarn, but mainly I'm just a sucker for the idea of odd fibers. The sweater itself is a triumph (for me) of experience over impulse: I knit it at a deliberately wrong size because I thought I knew something about how the yarn would behave (and thus, the garment would change size) after washing and wearing. And I was right! Awesome.

Field Peas

One of the many best things about a southern summer. I poached them in chicken stock, then served them over oat groats with sauteed cabbage and onions. I also sauteed (until mahogany brown) a bunch of beautiful okra; it was a feast.

Crab Cakes

with roasted potatoes (yellow, pink, and purple) and carrots, and orange cherry tomatoes.

Omlette

with herbed ricotta, and tabouli salad. I used to have a vague idea about fresh herbs that you had to use the right ones at the right times and that it was kind of complicated. That may well be true, but having a few Aerogardens-worth to deal with has liberated me from caring; now I grab big handfuls of whatever (mint and rosemary excepted), chop them up and throw them in. This method has not yet failed me.

NYT Beans and Rice

In a nice confluence of consumer energies I was this morning wondering what to do with the pound of tepary beans I had been soaking over night, beans I bought from ranchogordo.com because the NYT magazine told me to, when I opened this morning's NYT magazine to a recipe for Nuyorican beans and rice. For those who didn't see it, the recipe involves onions, peppers, spices, and orange juice. It was that last ingredient that got me, since I'm a sucker for citrus and had never thought of it in connection to beans. I made it, and it is sublime. We had it over brown rice, with pan-fried mahi.

Blueberry Johnnie Cakes

This is my new favorite breakfast. I wish the photo showed the warm, appetizing yellow they actually were. I was inspired by a recent meal I had at a wonderful restaurant called Hot & Hot Fish Club. Everything was delectable, but dessert was the best: johnnie cakes with honey and homemade yogurt. I ordered it without knowing what johnnie cakes were; they appeared to be skillet-fried cornbread, and were outrageously good. So this morning I gave it a whirl myself, using the following recipe (freely adapted from Frank Stitt):

2C white cornmeal
1/2C quinoa flour
1t baking powder
1t baking soda
1t salt
1T sugar
1 1/2C milk
1T greek yogurt (full fat)
2 eggs
5T melted unsalted butter
2C fresh blueberries

I mixed it all up and cooked as for pancakes, then made a total pig of myself. Spouse had syrup, I had nada, delicious both ways.

Crab Cakes

with brown rice, corn on the cob, and "coleslaw." My version of that last is dicing up cabbage and dressing it with lemon juice, olive oil, and salt. If the cabbage is sweet, it's great.

Buffalo Meatballs

with oat groats and pesto, and broccoli rappini.

Rye and Ribs

I love leftover ribs: I chop up the meat and serve it with whatever grain I have on hand; it's always delicious. We had it with corn on the cob, sliced tomatoes, and lemon cucumbers.

Orange Roughy

with corn on the cob and tomatoes. Yum! I've discovered flash-frozen fish at the grocery store; it's going to change a lot for me in terms of dinner planning.

Fresh Tomato Sauce

One of my favorite things about summer. I chop up tomatoes, sautee them in olive oil until they've reduced a good bit, add garlic, salt, and basil, and serve. Simple, and so good. we had it on whole wheat noodles, with a salad.

Omlette

with herbed ricotta cheese. Also green beans and blueberry cornbread.

Pork Steak

with roasted brussels sprouts and blueberry cornbread. I ate myself silly on that last; incredibly good. I used the recipe for cornbread in Chez Panisse vegetables and threw in lots of fresh blueberries.

Sandalwood Socks

I posted these halfway through, but here's the finished pair. The photoshoot was no fun; wool + summer = itch.

Foxglove Tank

Knitting in the summer is so wonderful; it's amazing how fast projects go when one doesn't have to make sleeves! This is made of bamboo, a slinky and light fiber just right for upcoming dog days.

Herbed Buffalo Meatballs

with corn on the cob and buttered wax beans.

Hash

Two nights running now we've had hash of bacon and vegetables over rye berries; mighty satisfying.

Chicken Thighs

With quinoa and roasted broccoli.

Herbed Buffalo Burgers

I trimmed the Aerogardens and diced everything up (dill, thyme, oregano, basil, chives) and added it to the ground buffalo. I made patties, fried them, and served them on sourdough toast with cheddar cheese and sauteed turnip greens. On the side we had the turnips (tiny, delicious) and a salad of romaine lettuce.

Farmer's Market Bonanza

Roasted new potatoes, yellow (wax?) beans, crookneck squash, and salad.

Feta and Spinach Chicken Sausage

with fried potatoes and salad. My salt tolerance seems really to have changed; I love it, but the sausages were like little salt-bombs in my mouth.

Chicken Thighs

with roasted brussels sprouts and oat groats with parmesan and olive oil.

Clapotis Two

This is the second iteration of this pattern I've made, and the only time I've ever made a pattern twice. I ran out of yarn before it was done, but, since it's a scarf, it didn't matter too much. I love the colors (which, as always, are much more vivid in real life), and only regret that it's not going to be cold enough to wear it here for a long time.

Soup

A very nice vegetable soup, with kale, kohlrabi, mushrooms, onions, tomatoes, and whole wheat egg noodles. Also another meal of buffalo meatballs, escarole, and oats with pesto.

Brah Brah Sweater

Voila, the latest, made up as I went along, of a bamboo/silk blend. The title of the post allows me to introduce an issue I have so far kept off the blog: my devotion to (obsession with) the HBO show "Flight of the Conchords." Have you not seen it? You must; you'll laugh like a lunatic. Are you a straight woman? Then be warned that it is extremely likely you'll fall painfully in love. "Brah Brah" is a reference to an episode in the second series; a sweater is involved, but no one but a knitter would notice.

Pasta

with pesto and tomatoes, with salad. *Two* ice cream sandwiches for dessert; I went hog wild.

Lamb Chops

with quinoa, corn on the cobb, and salad.

Pork Chops

with shredded and sauteed brussels sprouts, and quinoa. All tasty. None measuring up the meals I had on a recent visit to Philadelphia, the delights of which included: lamb spareribs, brussels sprouts with truffles and almonds, rapini with hot pepper, dim sum, a lychee mojito, avocado gelato, and more.

Pasta with Pesto

and salad. Can't beat it.

Out of Season Sweater

Here a winter sweater, finished just in time for summer. I'll get to use it next week though, in the chill of the library archive where I'll be for a few days.

Teff

A loyal reader (thanks Naunihal!) informs me that teff is the grain used to make Injera. Google informs me that injera is that delicious fermented pancake-like bread one gets at Ethiopian restaurants. Google also says that it is the smallest known grain, and fairly bursting with good-for-you things. I may be trying my hand at some injera-making; stay tuned.

Skirt Steak

with brown rice and roasted cauliflower.

Meatballs

Made of ground buffalo, seasoned with ketchup and an egg. I sauteed them with turnips, carorts, and spring onions, and we ate them with pasta and pesto.

Hello Kitty Waffles

Daycare is closed today (!), so I am home with The Three. Eldest Child wanted waffles in her new Hello Kitty waffle maker, so that's what we did. Today's improvised recipe:

1 1/2C whole wheat flour (King Arthur's new "white whole wheat")
1/4 C teff flour (don't know what teff is; but if my local organic grocer sells it, I buy it)
1T sugar
1/2 t salt
2t baking powder
2 eggs
6T (more or less) coconut oil
1 3/4C milk

I have to say, Hello Kitty makes a nicely portioned, tasty waffle.

New Scarf

Voila, my latest, knit in a bamboo/silk blend suited to the heat of a southern summer. As ever, the colors (of both, thank goodness, my skin and the scarf) are not true, and are more vivid in real life.