Crepes

My intention for this blog was never a "how to" or a compilation of recipes. However, a family visit and an old pear led to the creation of this crepe video. This one is for you Aunt Joan. Plus I got to try out the video feature on my new camera, which by the way isn't easy to use and cook at the same time by yourself.

Standard crepe batter recipes can be found in a variety of places so I won't repeat one here. Most tell you to let the batter sit before cooking. it keeps in the fridge for several days. If it separates just stir it back together.

At a recent family visit we were discussing how to make crepes. The way I was taught is that you want a lightly greased pan, i.e. I only butter it for the first crepe (which usually isn't the best one) and that's enough to get you through a batch. It is also really important to swirl the pan, so you get good coverage, and pour out the excess  batter so that you get the desired thinness of a crepe. You can tell when it is time to flip, similar to pancakes, when the edges are just lightly brown or beginning to cook.  It is easier to show, hence the video, although I haven't quite mastered flipping one-handed.

 Perhaps I will learn to edit the video next time...


A pear that had been hanging around a little too long was calling out to me to be sauteed in butter, so on a recent Saturday morning I made crepes.  Cooking crepes can be done so quickly they should definitely be made more often. As I slid the buttery browned pears, their over-ripeness only adding to the carmelization, into the crepes a second wave of inspiration struck. I am such a lucky girl to have beautiful homemade marmalade waiting in my cupboard. Thanks Rich! Adding a spread of of this amber deliciousness brought just the right balance of tartness to the sweetness of the pear and a little bit of texture. I guess if everyday started this way it wouldn't be appreciated as much, at least that's what I am telling myself. Plus I get to feel good about using up an old pear.

Lessons from dogsitting

1. Kasmir is too scared of dogs to come out from under the bed to remind me how hungry he is at 5am.*
2. If you get up and out early and enough on a Saturday you might just see people finishing a marathon.
3. naps and treats are to be enjoyed by everyone
4. It is easier to fit in at the dog park if you actually have a dog

Fozzie makes new friends

5. A great thing about living in DC is that you don't have to fight the hoards of tourists to see beautiful cherry blossoms, just go for a walk with a companion that must sniff every spot a dog before him has marked.

6. It takes good timing if you must first intently smell the lamp post and then sit before crossing the street and make the cross walk light.
7. Even though every pet I have ever had, has been untrained and spoiled perhaps I do have the discipline it takes if I can make Fozzie sit every time before crossing the street.
8. Homemade broth heartens the appetite homesick dogs and people alike.

*At least for one night.


Another reason to love Lincoln Park in the spring is that you never know what you will see including a girl in braids and a skirt playing catch with her dad, a man simultaneously rollerblading and smoking a cigar, kids hiding in a tree just like I did. Although pretending you are a spy in a tree I imagine is much easier to do in a city park than in a suburban neighborhood with no one else around to spy on.

If spring has sprung, can someone please remind March it's supposed to exit like a lamb? In my mind that does not mean more snow.

A Perfect Day

cafe au lait

tuna melt tartine

With the first hints of spring, I pulled out my bike and spent this Saturday having a perfect day. I treated myself to brunch out.  One of my attempts at being frugal means brining my cup of coffee with me to work every day so lingering over a café au lait is a special treat.  Next I toodled around Eastern Market equally enjoying browsing the fresh produce, art, and people watching. This is when the perfect day really starts to kick in. As I select ingredients ideas for dinner start to swirl n my head. Inside I buy some andouille sausage. Oranges are bought to make freshly squeezed juice to linger with over the Sunday paper. 

I shop in style thanks to my Aunt B!

Thanks to my parents I can now carry a
 lot more than a pork butt on my bike!

    

 Every Saturday Chat’s has a free wine tasting.  This was why I first started shopping there but I continue to go back because Bernie the owner always has time for a chat, answers my questions with enthusiasms and interest even though my price point stays in the $8-$15 range. He has intimate knowledge of every bottle in his store and the most radiant smile that draws you in making you feel a part of the community.   I picked up a Portuguese red blend because the Cork Boat is one of my favorite books and I have had Portuguese white wine but hadn’t yet tried a red.

In my mind I was imagining a twist on a Spanish tortilla. I love the simplicity of eggs and potatoes but this is not a recipe I have mastered so every once in a while I give it another go.  I sautéed the potatoes in a little olive oil with some sliver of garlic tossed in. When the potatoes were almost cooked through with a lovely browning, I added some asparagus and a spring onion, and pat of butter just to give it extra richness. I set this mixture aside and cooked some of the andouille. I tossed the potato mixture with a couple of beaten eggs. All of this was added back into the pan with the sausage and cooked over very low heat.  The result was nothing like a Spanish tortilla. Too much stuff and not enough egg, but it still tasted really good.  I grated a little pecorino on top and just because they had been so beautiful at the market I sautéed a few shitake mushrooms in butter.

At first I thought the wine might be too dry to go with the dish. But as it opened up and the butteriness of the potatoes, saltiness of the cheese, and spiciness of the sausage melded together the flavors all came together in harmony. The asparagus added just the right crunch and freshness.  Not to mentioned I spotted the first daffodils of the season today.

Sometimes a day on your own is just the thing, but it’s also nice to think ahead, the days will grow warmer and longer and my perfect day will be repeated with the increased bounty at the market and shared in the backyard with friends, Saturday Night jazz playing through the window.

Found Treasures

I am finding that trying a new thing a month and trying to tighten up my budget is a tricky thing to accomplish.  Plus the lingering cold decreases my motivation to push myself out of my comfort zone and into tango class. But I stumbled onto a solution of sorts. One of the benefits of living in close proximity to the more affluent neighbors at the other end of Capitol Hill is that often enough people purge by just leaving perfectly good household items on the sidewalk. Recently, on a fluke warm enough-to-ride-my -bike day, I scored a suitcase, food processor, and lamp. The former two I plan to give to friends who need them, the lamp I recently discovered fulfilled my new thing for February. The lamp was just a base. Feeling empowered and organized getting a lamp harp (also learned a new term) made it not only onto my to do list but quickly crossed off with a trip to Target. Of course it couldn’t be that easy; the first buy didn’t have the base thingy (apparently some terms remain a mystery) needed to attach the harp to the lamp base.  After a trip to Frager’s, I thought I had learned my lesson to remember to shop there first. Next I had to disassemble the inside parts of a lamp, easy enough, but the wires that wrap around the light bulb socket made me nervous enough that one wrong move could prove to be disastrous.  I embraced my inner MacGyver and persevered.

new to me lamp

Lamp harp, base thingy, and other random part

Of course now that I have the thing disassembled, I realize the base part thingy that came with the second lamp harp doesn’t actually fit in the lamp base. I figure at this point it’s best to just leave the pieces in the bowl on the coffee table for a couple of weeks. Frager’s comes to the rescue again and I find the kind of lamp thing that just fits on the bulb and attaches to the shade. Now if I had taken the easy way to put a lamp shade on my free lamp I might not have spent an extra $10 on lamp harps but I also wouldn’t have learned how to take a part and put back together a lamp.

fixing snaps

Darning socks

The whole exercise inspired me to fix the snaps I had sewn on to give extra security to a couple of wrap skirts and while I was at it darn a pair of socks. Living frugally may take some practice and patience but you do gain a greater sense of accomplishment and feel good about recycling stuff to boot. Maybe with my pennies  I can feel ok about doing two new things in February  and buy for the first time ever a brand new piece of furniture. I have my eye on this chair.  

But then I found this stray part that didn't make it back into the assembled lamp. 

What is it and is it necessary?

Spring will come

This was actually from a colder day in January.

It was one of those bitterly cold Mondays, where just the air hurts your face and work makes you want to stick your face into a bag of potato chips. Luckily I had chicken stew in the crock pot to come home to and a roommate to cook the rice and sesame greens I had pulled out of the freezer; so I was able to feed my salt craving in time to catch the bus to meditation.

The session was on fear, stopping the loop of thoughts that we pile onto this emotion creating hindrances.  The preferable alternative is to pause, relax, and be open to what is. But first during the meditative sit, I took a huge pause and fell asleep. I don’t mean just a little slip into a deeper relaxation, I am talking about head jerking, starting to drool sleep, the kind that would get you a sharp nudge from your mother during church kind of sleep. Apparently my path to enlightenment must start with going to bed a lot earlier so I can be open to all my fears of the future. And apparently learning to let go of the mental composition of flavors in the vinaigrette I want to make for tomorrow’s nicoise salad so I can pay attention to the discussion.

On the way home I am still struggling to pass up my craving for potato chips. In the front door to the warmth, I heat a cup of milk.  And I am struck with brilliance, toast! I can usually pass on toast but I spy a fresh loaf of white bread my house mate has recently bought on top of the refrigerator. For all intensive purposes white bread has become a pleasant memory of the past skipped over for more virtuous whole grain bread. But there it is and memories of breakfast or a late night snack at my Grandmother’s wash over me. She lightly toasted the bread in a toaster oven so that the butter pats could melt into the bread as it toasted and then thick cool think homemade blackberry jam picked in the heat of summer from the brambles spreads over making the most perfect piece of happiness. And tonight I treat myself to white bread toast complete with butter, and my own homemade jam, this time from sour cherries a new adaptation to my more northern clime and one that reminds me there are some benefits to living farther north and spring will come.

Returning Home

This past weekend, I went down to Alabama to visit my Grandmother and extended family. Now a lot of people may mock the Deep South but there are some very lovely places, wonderful people, and the places where family is and memories made are the nicest ones.

My family loves to eat in a way that might make more disciplined people cringe. We ate unapologetically ham sandwiches on white bread, homemade pound cake before lunch, and cheesy broccoli casserole made with Campbell’s cream of mushroom soup. Not at all the way I eat normally; but the foods of childhood help melt away the anxiety that can sometimes come with seeing far-away family because of the intensity of emotions squeezed into short visits.

The combination of a backdrop of mountains and lake and leaving behind my hectic life, a life that I love, was very restorative. I returned to DC feeling more grounded.  But leaving behind the side of my family that is loud and boisterous, clamoring over one another at the dinner table can make my present life feel a bit lonely. That is until a dear friend surprised me with a piece of truffle cheese, the perfect way to end a Monday Valentine’s Day. We shared it over a round of Peronis, breaking it into little pieces until it was all gone but we were not.

Hump Day

This has been one of those hump days when Friday seems further away than it did yesterday.  The day started off fine with happy greetings from metro workers. Nine hours later emerging from a government cube into a sleety jam-packed metro ride home, my mood had definitely shifted. I will never understand the compunction other's have about leaning their entire body against a pole and flinging their hair about during rush hour!

Between doing laundry and preparing for tomorrow's meetings, there wasn't much time or desire to cook something. My normal stand-by for nights like these is pasta. The powers of slowly sauteed garlic in olive oil are not to be dismissed. Plus you can toss in  whatever else you are in the mood for or have on hand and easily make a balanced meal. I opted instead for the gumbo which had been defrosting in the fridge just long enough to be at the eat it or toss it stage. While this was the responsible choice and did feed my need for the comfort of carbs it wasn't quite the same remedy. Luckily, I have some great kimchi. The resulting combo is not appealing enough to many nor picturesque to anyone that it should be shared in picture form here.But it did sated my near constant vinegary spicy craving.  So instead I will leave this post tonight with a couple of pictures from a happier day, spent at Shenandoah Valley National Park and the thought that days like to day make the others ones even nicer.