redfox

This week it's been pretty darn hot and sticky for May. I work at home and my air conditioner's busted -- oof! The result is that I crave foods that will make me feel all sprightly and tonic-ed up. Summer foods aren't in season yet, and I don't want to live on nothing soda water and sprigs of mint. What to do? Aside from the obvious frozen treats, what do you like to cook that shakes off that sticky, sluggish feeling? I'll kick off: I made a vegetable broth that I'm hoping will be good in a sort of Bloody Mary variant, but also zingy with a little freshly squeezed lemon juice as a first course. It's not unlike V8, but I think much tastier. Vegetables: (organic canned) tomatoes, spinach, parsley, red pepper, carrots, basil, onion, garlic; Spices: coriander, cumin, peppercorns, fennel seeds, cayenne, tamarind paste, salt Simmered till all the goodness goes out of the vegetables and into the broth, then strained.

Is ume-su something you would plan to drink normally, or to use in more normal vinegar applications?

Wow! "Cow's butter," indeed. That reminds me -- in reverse, I guess -- of the time we were driving cross-country and stopped at a place in Oklahoma, I think, and ordered grilled cheese sandwiches. They arrived and lo and behold, they were grilled cheese and HAM sandwiches. We told the waitress there seemed to have been a mistake -- we just ordered the ordinary grilled cheese. "Why, that IS the grilled cheese!" she said and looked at us very clearly as if to say, "Who on God's green earth doesn't know that grilled cheese always has a big hunk of ham in it?!" We had to very sweetly explain that we didn't eat pork and could we please just have a cheese sandwich, please? And then we did.

Even in an outdoor setting? I can understand people not wanting dogs inside a restaurant, but what about out on a patio or sidewalk? Obviously, I'm a dog lover, but I don't see the harm in that. Think about all the hygeine issues with outdoor dining anyway- pigeons, leaves, cicadas.... Of course, inside the restaurant is just what the original poster was asking about. Another issue that occurs to me is what happens when you get multiple dogs inside the same restaurant. Recipe for disaster (or just major pain in the ass)? Also: shedding.

But it works great for me, because I love their dorky little cruets, and if I ever lose or break the one I have, I can always get a new one for cheap! Of course I have to throw or give away the packets of Good Seasons, but that's a small price to pay.

Was feeling odds'n'ends-y today, so whipped up - eggplant agrodulce - garlicky bean puree - pan-fried olives with lemon - a plate of fresh mozzarella with olive oil, salt, and pepper Then I improvised a slew of thin, flexible little (3 inch, maybe) golden pancakes with cabbage and chickpea flour, which served as the base for everything else. These were great, and I think I'll be making them a lot in the future. All was consumed with Yuengling black and tan, and it left us filled with a sense of splendid well-being. I do love it when I manage to make a dinner that is completely satisfying without making me feel over-stuffed. This was a definite success in that department.

Darn! I had the same experience. Oh well, I will drown my sorrows in a perfect Manhattan. (Was there ever a drink descriptor more accurate?)

Before tonight, we'd been subsisting mainly on leftovers from a recent party -- eggplant agrodulce, roasted red peppers, white bean puree, that sort of thing. The best was a sandwich of the aforementioned eggplant with chipotle mayonnaise, mozzarella cheese, and plenty of fresh basil on toasted whole wheat pita bread. It was a Good Combination, but now the ingredients are all eaten away. Today's dinner: Olives and pre-dinner drinks Ragout of canary beans and broccoli rabe with seeded crackers Blackberries and quark for dessert

Sparky's is between R and S. I love it because the coffee is utterly acceptable, the people who work there are great, the music playing is almost always good, it's unpretentious, and it's open (relatively) late. Also, they have a liquor license. What more could you ask? Meanwhile, I know lots of people like Savory, here in Takoma Park. I find it pretty much uniformly disappointing. It's a nice clean open space, and near my apartment, but the coffee is wretched (espresso drinks, at least). The food, which I don't particularly care about in a cafe, gets a lot of the billing, but it's not especially great. And it closes very very early -- and I don't think it opens particularly early in the morning, either, though I could be mistaken on that one.

Yeah, I think that's what I like. I'm a weirdo.

One salad I love is mixed herbs -- parsley, cilantro, basil, sorrel, thyme, what have you -- dressed with equal parts rice wine vinegar and sugar heated together with a sprinkling of red pepper flakes. Crispy noodles or very very thinly sliced white onion are nice on top of this one. Otherwise, I like a mixture of fresh greens ("spring mix" at the local co-op is a favorite) with odds and ends of what I think of as "salad stuff" -- carrots, red peppers, radishes, red onion -- and then something sweet and something toothsome. For sweet, a favorite is currants. Toothsome might be toasted walnuts, or crisped stale pita, or even hard-boiled egg. Dressing: very mustardy vinaigrette.

Gosh, to me that kind of defeats the purpose of baking cookies -- having a nice full cookie jar so you can reach in and have one when the mood strikes you! I wouldn't like to have to thaw my cookies every time I wanted to eat any. I do think that chocolate chip cookies, once they're no longer warm, are best kept refrigerated (in a tin). Maybe peanut butter cookies would benefit from the same treatment?

Spaghetti squash, previously baked and saved in the fridge, now fluffed and removed from rind and sauteed quickly with butter, garlic, and salt. Frittata containing caramelized onions and braised cabbage. You might think that cabbage would be awfully weird in a frittata, but in fact it is very tasty. Green salad dressed in vinaigrette containing minced preserved lemon. The salad was cool, the frittata room temperature, and the squash hot.

I don't think Giant is bad at all for a middle-market supermarket. Maybe my standards are just terribly low (or maybe it's because I'm not trying to buy meat from them), but I find my local Giant to be surprisingly clean, well-stocked, and diverse in its offerings. Also, the employees are pleasant. I get a lot of stuff elsewhere because I'm picky and I like to support the co-op, but whenever I have to run out quickly for something, I'm quite happy to have Giant there. Safeway, on the other hand, is dire.

I hope you don't have your tomatoes lolling about in the fridge. Refrigeration is the enemy of the tomato!

Hear, hear!

Fresh pasta? Really? I very very much think of this as a dried pasta dish.

Having some right now! Linguine with minced garlic, red pepper flakes, olive oil, a little pinch of fried onions (the kind you can get at the Thai market) and ground black pepper. Dam' good.

I am pretty sure I would be anything but charmed, regardless of where the pieces had been published -- the main factor that being published in the Times has played in my dislike of the Mr. Latte articles is that this way I was exposed to them, while otherwise I might not have been. I certainly remember finding them incredibly irritating when they first ran. But I will say that somewhere in her columns, she provided a recipe for pasta with drained yogurt and caramelized onions that remains a favorite of mine, and for that I will be always grateful.

Ooh, gotta try the spring vegetables addition. Mm! Why is matzo brei so dang good?

I think matzo brei is dandy with either olive oil or butter as the fat, personally. I like to make it with onion, garlic, or everything matzo, or I'll mince garlic or a shallot and saute it briefly in the fat before I add the egg-matzo mixture. My method is 1 piece of matzo and 2 eggs per person; first break up the matzo into the bottom of the mixing bowl and slowly, slowly add very hot water, turning and gently pressing the matzo and letting the water soak in as I go until the matzo is thoroughly moistened but not falling apart. Then in go the lightly beaten eggs, salt, and pepper. Let sit a moment more. Cook, turning the eggs in large, broken pieces, until dry. Matzo brei absolutely must be dry, in my book. If you keep cooking too long after any surface moisture or shininess is gone, it's true, it will go from appropriately dry to actually dried out, which is of course undesirable. But the degree of wetness or creaminess that is usual with good scrambled eggs is too wet for matzo brei.

Red red red red red. Because (a) I like cheap reds better than cheap whites, overall, and I'm poor/cheap; and (b) it's good with the food, yo.

American Flatbread frozen pizza (very good for frozen pizza, but I should have had my head on straight and just started some pizza dough at the appropriate time) and a really wonderful salad with lots of red peppers, baby spring greens, and my wonderful newly ready preserved lemons. Boy, just one finely chopped little quarter made that salad taste amazing. I am a CONVERT, and started a whole new batch this afternoon, for fear that I should ever run out (probably why I didn't think to start pizza dough). Susan: Glad I could be inspiring, though I feel I can hardly take credit for the inherent glory of the artichoke -- the honor belongs to the veggie, not to me!

Oh yeah, half a lemon rubbed and squeezed over each one. (Sounds dirty!)

(ma'am)