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Sunday, July 29, 2007

Sixty Hours Without Email

It’s been a few weeks since I actually took a weekend off--out of necessity or compulsion, I’ve logged time. And while we all do it and it’s become part of the new reality of professional life, it also means making deliberate choices to unplug. And for me, the greatest tether to the office is email. My chronicle, then, of an extended weekend a stretch of time without “you’ve got mail.”

Friday, 1:00 p.m.
Massage. I envision an hour of blissful relaxation. I was wrong. My massage therapist works through my tight and tired muscles with unrelenting, methodological zeal. Better for me, I know, but I bruise like a peach.

Friday, 2:00 p.m.
Start the chowder. Tasty goodness. Mmm, bacon.

Friday, 4:00 p.m.
Haircut. Catch up on Hollywood gossip. Use the iPhone to search for my hairdresser’s nephew on YouTube--he’s just won a battle of bands in Chicago and is heading for Germany. Deustchland!

Friday, 7:00 p.m.
Martinis and Gray Matters.

Saturday, 8:00 a.m.
Gym--chest and triceps day.

Saturday, 9:30 a.m.
Local butcher and then farmer’s market. Greg and Stewart have a trove of fresh veggies, and Paula has freshly processed chickens from a local farm.

Saturday, 11:00 a.m.
Guitar lesson.

Saturday, noon
First pass at Alan Richman’s manly meatballs, a recipe that made the cut of The 150 Best American Recipes. I substitute mushroom soy for the original soy called for in the recipe. Yummy, but perhaps a little overpowering.

Saturday, 1:00 p.m.
Harry Potter, Book Seven, Chapter One: The Dark Lord Ascending

Saturday, 4:00 p.m.
I look up from page 337. The sun’s peaked out, and it’s a glorious summer day. Up to the kitchen for more meatballs and a bottle of Pere Jacques. Back to Harry, and life is good.

Saturday, 6:00 p.m.
Manly meatballs, part II: a kinder gentler soy. I make the recipe again, this time with reduced sodium soy. Honey P. and I compare and contrast and have more of last night’s yummy chowder. Mmm, bacon.

Saturday, 7:00 p.m.
Still no email and, strangely, no guilt. Martinis and Venus.

Sunday, 6:00 a.m.
The Times and breakfast. Back to Harry Potter.

Sunday, 10:00 a.m.
The End. I want a cigarette and a shower and a brandy, all at once. What a satisfying and wonderful way to end the series. I’m still in my robe, and somewhere, there’s laundry to be done.

Sunday, 1:00 p.m.
Minty clean and fresh, and four loads of Downey-scented laundry done.

Sunday, 3:00 p.m.
Early dinner party.

Sunday, 9:30 p.m.
Home, robes, martinis, reruns.

Monday morning. Not missing email at all. Somewhat resenting the beginning of the week. Maybe I should let the coffee kick in before I launch MacMail ...

Friday, July 27, 2007

My Honey Digs My Chili

Actually, Honey P. digs my chowder. Actually, it’s not really my chowder, it’s Patti Marsh’s. Actually, it’s her recipe for Plum Sound Clam Chowder, originally published in Cooking Light. Actually, it’s from the magazine, but with my bacon and sourdough baguette. Well, actually, it’s Nueske’s applewood smoked bacon from Bornhofen’s butcher (which, sadly, won’t be Bornhofen’s much longer, the boys have just sold, and I’m heartbroken). And the bread is actually from Red Hen Bakery, But I paid for it, so it’s all mine. Well, it’s actually Chase’s, until I pay the credit card bill. But wherever it originated, dinner was really darn good! 

Sunday, July 22, 2007

Walden Pondominium

Honey P. and I hadn’t been back to North Pond Cafe in a very long time, but we’d always enjoyed our meals there. So it wasn’t hard to convince us to go back last night. And what a perfect night it was to return--Chicago’s been so temperate this year, and a cloudless, warm, and breezy Saturday is the perfect setting to enjoy the restaurant’s location and Midwestern art nouveau design. Perfect, and yet not quite. The host and hostess were a trifle insincere (they did manage to smile when they realized you were looking at the them). The bartender was a touch indifferent. The menu had become, in a word, precious. And our server for the evening (who was, for the record, quite wonderful) began his introductions with the caution that they could not--by nature of the size of their kitchen--accommodate requests or substitutions. I had the fowl.

Honestly, the meal was delicious. Overpriced, but delicious. And the company more than wonderful enough to push aside the lapses in experience. But I can’t help but be a little sad. We know through friends Mary Ellen Diaz, the chef who opened the restaurant many years ago. She told us once that she wanted the place to be warm, inviting, unpretentious, and a truly honest experience. I remember that it was. 

Saturday, July 21, 2007

Alton, I Wish I Could Quit You

I love Alton Brown, but I don’t think I’ve ever had total success with his recipes on a first pass, by the letter. There was his Raymond Buerre Blanc, for instance, that proved there’s such as thing as too much of a tart. And last night, his Swedish meatball recipe, courtesy of the Food Network (and copied below). Which is not to say that it wasn’t a total flop, but here’s what I’d do differently:

1. Use some veal instead of just pork and and chuck.
2. Cook the meatballs in a non-stick saute pan or skillet, in which they’ll remain more intact and brown more evenly.
3. Once the stock has been added, reduce by at least one cup. The gravy reaches a nice consistency fairly quickly, but the beef flavor could have been taken up a notch. Or, perhaps a tablespoon of beef demi-glace.

2 slices fresh white bread
1/4 cup milk
3 tablespoons clarified butter, divided
1/2 cup finely chopped onion
A pinch plus 1 teaspoon kosher salt
3/4 pound ground chuck
3/4 pound ground pork
2 large egg yolks
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
3 cups beef broth
1/4 cup heavy cream

Preheat oven to 200 degrees F.
Tear the bread into pieces and place in a small mixing bowl along with the milk. Set aside.
In a 12-inch straight sided saute pan over medium heat, melt 1 tablespoon of the butter. Add the onion and a pinch of salt and sweat until the onions are soft. Remove from the heat and set aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the bread and milk mixture, ground chuck, pork, egg yolks, 1 teaspoon of kosher salt, black pepper, allspice, nutmeg, and onions. Beat on medium speed for 1 to 2 minutes.

Using a scale, weigh meatballs into 1-ounce portions and place on a sheet pan. Using your hands, shape the meatballs into rounds.

Heat the remaining butter in the saute pan over medium-low heat, or in an electric skillet set to 250 degrees F. Add the meatballs and saute until golden brown on all sides, about 7 to 10 minutes. Remove the meatballs to an ovenproof dish using a slotted spoon and place in the warmed oven.

Once all of the meatballs are cooked, decrease the heat to low and add the flour to the pan or skillet. Whisk until lightly browned, approximately 1 to 2 minutes. Gradually add the beef stock and whisk until sauce begins to thicken. Add the cream and continue to cook until the gravy reaches the desired consistency. Remove the meatballs from the oven, cover with the gravy and serve.

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

EPILOGUE: Dinner, Conference Call Style

Fortune favors the bold, and the hapless. This was the best gratin I’ve ever made, and that’s not just the beer talking!