Bonus... Bean Dip!

This hardly counts as a recipe, but in keeping with our cracker-based meals (10 Ritz crackers = well-balanced dinner for lil P.), I whipped up some white bean dip on Sunday. I got sick of hummus... too much lemon, too sharp tasting, when what I really want is smooth/creamy/garlicky/salty. (There was an exceptional hummus brand available at the Pittsburgh Whole Foods that was super-garlicky and delicious. I can't find it here in Rhode Island, and don't remember the brand name to ask them to order it--- anyone in PA know what I'm talking about???) The bean dip/spread was exactly what I wanted... and isn't that the beauty of home cooking?

Here's the "recipe": two cans of cannelinni beans (drained and rinsed) + 1 bulb roasted garlic + 3 T chopped fresh rosemary. Throw all ingredients into the food processor, pulse/puree while slowly adding olive oil til you get a creamy consistency. Add salt to taste.

August's Pickle of the Month: Red Onion

I love pickles. I ate so many pickles when I was pregnant with P. that I was afraid he was marinating-- in utero-- in brine rather than amniotic fluid. I still dream about a jar of Amish pickled green tomatoes that B. brought me back from Philly's Reading market. (I polished the whole thing off in about 2 days.) High time to explore the wide wonderful world of preserved vegetables...

Last night I made red onion pickles from a recipe posted on Orangette (originally based on a Zuni Cafe recipe). Lots of steps, but easy ones and relaxing in a repetitive, mindless kind of way. They smelled up the house a bit, but we opened the windows and ran the exhaust fan, so there were no lingering vinegary fumes this morning.

The pickles are a lovely hot pink color. I like the idea of making some pickled carrots and combining the two on a plate for a hot pink/bright orange color combo that would be pretty. They look especially nice in the turquoise Mason jars that P. gave me once.

The flavor is unusually complex for a pickle--- it's sweet, tart, smoky, hot/spicy, peppery. The vinegar is not the first thing you taste, but just heightens the mouth-watering sharpness.

The recipe says these pickles are super-versatile--- good on grilled meats, cheeses (esp. goat or cheddar), and straight-up on a cracker. It also says they're best after marinating together with the brine in the jar for about 48 hours, so I'm trying to restrain myself from eating them all before they reach their peak flavor.

Still I'm going to go out on a limb and based on my preliminary tastings, give the verdict: 9 out of 10. An excellent introductory pickling experience and a terrific addition to the refrigerator condiment crowd.

May's Cookie of the Month: Lemon Poppyseed Shortbread

One of the things I find most annoying about blogs is the incessantly recycled content.  Maybe I'm not diversified enough in the blogs I follow, but the same cute nursery designs and delicious-sounding pickled ramp recipes get posted on multiple blogs I follow, getting progressively less cute and delicious-sounding with each post.  [Now that a student explained it to me (thanks Pat!), I understand that "RT" in twitter parlance is a "re-tweet": essentially forwarding someone else's tweet like an email to your followers.]  

So it is now with some shame that I join the ranks of the lazy bloggers and re-hash a decent cookie recipe I found on Lottie + Doof.  Good blog (excellent food photography, solid recipe selection)... so-so cookie.  Not hard to make exactly, but lots of refrigeration time between mixing and baking, and I'm not sure shortbread is worth the wait.  They look pretty, though, and could be customized with your cookie cutter collection or you could go crazy with some freehand designs.  The verdict: 6 out of 10.  Eh.

Big Brother in Baltimore

Check out this article on Baltimore's network of surveillance cameras in Governing magazine. Comparisons to "The Wire" are too easy, but since I've been away from the blog for three months now, I'll swing at the softball: a real-life Lester Freamon, an "after hours club" called Lil's Place, a Lil' Wayne concert (one wonders if he partied after hours at Lil's Place...).  I hear the last line growled in Slim Charles' inimitable voice: "Well, it do's and it don't."

Anyone troubled by the civil liberties aspects of this?  I'm not sure you have a right to privacy if you shoot someone on a city sidewalk.  Should you shoot them in the comfort of your own home, now that's another story...

My Crafty Days of Yore...

Now that I'm employed, I miss the radical freedom of unemployment and all of the fun artsy-craftsy projects that I was able to do.  Some turned out better than others (Peter's pillow), some are yet to be fully implemented (my scissor lino block printing, destined for t-shirts large and small), and some just turned out wonky (the sweater dog).  Hopefully it's wonky in a "I love my mom for trying" sort-of way... see for yourself above.

In other art news, my nifty Brown ID got me in to the RISD Museum (for free!) at lunchtime yesterday to catch the Harry Callahan show before it closes tomorrow.  The Museum is 3 blocks form my office and will be a regular stop on my lunch hour as I explore their collection.  Callahan actually established the photo department at RISD, but there were not too many pictures in the exhibit from their time in Providence.  Chicago is featured prominently, to the point that the city is almost like a family member in the photos.  Callahan's photos of his wife Eleanor (and later, daughter Barbara) are so technically brilliant and tender/intimate at the same time.  A remarkable talent to combine those two aspects.  You may have seen the one where Eleanor is emerging from the water of Lake Michigan looking like something out of a Botticelli painting.

Clear Eyes, Full Hearts, Warm House

Know what I love more than our new best friends at After Dark, LLC?  (No it's not some skeevy 1-800 number "for singles"--- it's the HVAC repair people who show up within 60 minutes of calling them on a Friday evening when your house is freezing cold, expertly disassemble your furnace and get it back to tip-top shape in short order, all with good humor and quiet voices and at a reasonable price.)  So, back to what I love more than them...

Friday Night Lights.  Best Show on TV.*  I was searching for an image to poach and couldn't find much beyond the cheesecake/beefcake pics of Lyla (Minka Kelly) and Riggins (Taylor Kitsch). Admittedly, there are some VERY attractive people on this show, but that's just the tip of the iceberg.  To say the show is authentic is to use a word that has been cheapened beyond acceptability.  Let's just say good.  Damn good.  [The Landry-Tyra storyline of last season was the only one that seemed to go beyond the pale.]  The two adult anchors of the show are Coach Eric Taylor (Kyle Chandler), who's married to new Principal Tami Taylor (Connie Britton), whose new principal-ness adds a powerful dimension to their already complex, fiery yet solid-as-a-rock marriage.  My favorite exchange between them thus far this season, right after Tami took the principal's job (she was a guidance counselor before):

 

Eric: "You know who I miss?  The coach's wife."

Tami: "Huh.  Well, you know who I can't wait to meet?"

Eric: "Who?"

Tami: "The principal's husband."

This show reliably makes me tear up every Friday night, in a good life affirming way.  Not like the tearing-up caused by the abrupt shuttering of Domino magazine, about which I remain too sad to blog coherently.  I think my friend JK summed everything up nicely here.

*[My friend PD recommended "FNL" ages ago.  Come to think of it, she also recommended "The Wire," for which I take some credit because I loved "Homicide" and read all the David Simon books.  But back to my point... how does someone who DOESN'T WATCH TV get the inside scoop on all the best shows???]

Furry Red Menace to Society

I am a big Sesame Street fan... watched it religiously as a kid.  I am also one of those people who thinks that Sesame Street has gone WAY downhill since the good old days when only Big Bird could see Snuffalupagus, when Roosevelt Franklin was a regular character, and when Mr. Hooper was still alive.  Before P. came around, I especially hated the new Muppets-- Zoe, Abby Cadabby and most hated of all was Elmo.  So syrupy with that voice-- no edge to him at all.  None of the slightly scary menace of Herry Monster, the endearing screw ups of Grover, the grouchiness of Oscar the Grouch.  And suddenly Elmo was the alpha Muppet, appearing on all the toys and getting a disproportionate amount of air time on the show.  An egomaniac media hog, like A-Rod or Paris Hilton, and clearly a Muppet created by the corporate powers that be, instead of lovingly and creatively dreamed up by Jim Henson.  

But I have to say, Elmo is growing on me, mainly because P. LOVES him.  I watch P. light up and laugh hysterically when we watch Elmo's Alphabet Rap and I just melt.  Parenthood is complicated.