Chinese New Year begins tomorrow, so Guy and I had a party to commemorate the year of the dragon, and, let’s face it, eat a lot of yummy Chinese food! We spent the weekend preparing and cooking and were lucky to have lots of friends to help us celebrate! I will admit that the food I made wasn’t new year-specific, but it was what is in my repertoire. Here are some highlights:
Tea eggs soaking in a brine of soy sauce, scallions, garlic, ginger and special spices
Mini lion's head meatballs, made from ground pork, water chestnuts, ginger and spices
The menu
The table
Guy with Pat and Sarah
The scene
Anne and me
Us!
For several wonderful years, my dear friend Robyn and I would spend a quiet new year’s eve in New York, usually going to a movie and ordering takeout, watching the ball drop in our pj’s. That was late high school and most of college. Somewhere along the way, Robyn moved to France, I met Guy and our standing holiday plans had to change. Guy and I now have standing holiday plans with our dear friends Pat and Sarah:
Our new year's hosts.
Meanwhile, Robyn has returned from France (hooray!) and now lives in Boston. She was able to come and spend the holiday with the four of us in a great combination of old and new.
People often think Guy and Pat are brothers, which is untrue but very sweet. You can see why:
We really had a great start to 2012. Over the years we’ve shifted from takeout and pj’s to home cooked, multi-course affairs and cocktail dresses. It’s really the people that make the holiday special though, isn’t it?
PS, Thanks to Pat for these great pictures!
I thought I would share a few of my favorite shots from our Christmas visit to Seattle:
Contrary to popular belief, Guy DOES love Brady!
It's not Christmas without Christmas cracker hats!
Mmm pacific northwest coffee culture.
Guy being manly
Bourbon break
Ornaments ready to be hung!
Our stockings were hung by the chimney with care
The tree is all decorated!!
We go to see the balloons get blown up Wednesday evening before the parade!
Anne, me and Carey are dressed for Thanksgiving!
Obligatory “camera smiles.” (Sorry Guy!)
The cook!
Annual visit to Santa!
For more thanksgiving pictures, check me out on Flickr!
After all the running around of yesterday, it was kind of refreshing to stay closer to home today. We had our friends Mike and Laura over for dinner tonight, and I actually spent most of the day getting the house, the meal and myself ready for the evening. I really love cooking and entertaining, so it was a pleasure for me to have a day to make everything just so.
On the menu: brined pork tenderloin with butternut squash risotto and green beans. (Please note, if you can, how the color of the flowers matches the napkins.)
For dessert, apple pie! (Please note how there is an A for Alex carved into the top.)
Tomorrow: lunch with my friend Nicole, flu shot, yoga, class, hopefully switching my fall and summer clothes.
Let me tell you what, Mondays are awesome when you don’t have to go to work! (What, you knew that already?)
We started the morning off well with coffee and toast (from yesterday’s homemade sandwich loaf) for breakfast, then I headed downtown to yoga for class from 10 to 11:30. Morning yoga is really a glorious thing, and I very much appreciate the fact that I have the physical ability, leisure time and resources available to practice.
After class I psyched myself up for some serious shopping – and I don’t mean psyched as in, was excited and looking forward to shopping. I mean mentally preparing myself to try on lots of clothes which may or may not fit, be the size that I think/wish I am, be the right style/cut/price… etc. Ladies, I know you know what I’m talking about. Shopping for clothes is not as easy as it was when we were cute teenagers and fit into everything. Actually, as it happens, once you get into your 20s you find that (or, I have found, at any rate) that stores, sizes, styles are all a new game, and you really just need to ditch your expectations and find things that you feel confident and happy in – regardless of the size on the tag. I’ve been trying to follow Guy’s advice to think of jeans as size “balloons” or “coffee cups” – vanity sizing means that the number is basically arbitrary, even when pants are listed as waist size. That’s right, I’m saying it. Go ahead and measure your waist and/or your hips, and see if the number you find is the same as what’s on your jeans. For me, once I found that they really did not correspond in any way, I just thought, hell with it, I’ll buy whatever I like and try not to waste my energy on size anxiety.
Phew! Even with all this self-reassurance, it was a tiring hour or so in Ann Taylor. But I got some nice pieces that I’m happy with, and I’m satisfied to leave it at that. I rewarded my efforts with a nice, relaxed lunch at 71 Irving with a turkey sandwich, iced tea and my New Yorker magazine.
After a few more blissful hours wandering through the Village, I headed to class, and eventually back home to make lion’s head meatballs for dinner. For the uninitiated, they are giant, pork meatballs that have tasty asian flavors built in (water chestnuts, sesame oil scallions, ginger, among other goodies) lightly pan friend, then finished in a broth with bok choy and rice noodles. Yum.
And I managed to reorganize behind the bathroom mirrors, because let’s face it, it’s all my crap back there anyway. (Sorry Guy!) It seems like with the seasons changing, a week off and a new job in the immediate future, now is a good time to reassess and get myself organized. Tomorrow’s project, among others, is to switch my summer and fall clothes. Oh, and a small dinner gathering with friends. Get ready for some fun food pictures!
Our typical Sunday consists of cooking, homework, outdoor time if possible, and exercise if we’re really lucky. On this Sunday I managed to get in all of the above! After another lovely day of sleeping in, we had a quick trip to the farmer’s market for milk, eggs and bread. As you know, we prefer to make our own bread (and we did… keep reading to see today’s homemade bread adventure) but I had a craving for poached eggs on toast, and alas, homemade bread isn’t exactly instantaneous. So we picked up a loaf as a stopgap.
Brunch from our own kitchen was easy, cheap, delicious and wholesome. I know the merits of going out for brunch are many, but eating in has its benefits too!
After we ate, it was time to get down to business. And by business, I mean schoolwork. I am taking Marion Nestle’s course on the Farm Bill and this week’s assignment was to reallocate the Farm Bill budget as we see fit, without regard to politics (!) or other annoying obstacles. After several hours in, I needed a snack. Enter, PB&J on toast!
By the time I had finished exercising my brain, I had been sitting stationary at my desk for several hours and was looking forward to moving about. One can never exactly tell the weather just by looking out the window, but from our living room it looked like sunshine on a crisp fall day. I got ready, grabbed some music and headed out for a jog. Naturally, about halfway in it began to drizzle… and then full on rain. I did manage to make it home with sense of humour intact, if a bit damp, and at least I got some exercise.
Good thing, because about 30 seconds after I got home I was ravenous. Guy never feels hungry right after exercise, but somehow I always do. Well, as promised, I tested out my new pasta extruder (shoutout to my communications team at Hess for the best going away gift ever!) and made rigatoni from scratch! Guy made a fabulous bolognese with red wine, and we had a great dinner, complete with a salad with simple vinaigrette, made from CSA vegetables, and bread with fresh mozzarella and camembert as an appetizer.
Also, I mentioned earlier that we made bread today also, right? Well, by we, I actually mean Guy – and how exciting is that?! He made his first loaf of bread from scratch using Mark Bittman’s recipe for sandwich bread from How to Cook Everything. Someone looks proud (and he should be)!
Stay tuned for Monday’s adventures, in which I will have a Downtown Day!
Today was relaxed and pretty great, I have to say! After sleeping in completely guilt-free, we made a fall-themed brunch of steel cut oats with a bit of brown sugar, cinnamon, pecans and apples:
This afternoon I successfully made a traditional boule from my never-fail online cooking school, Rouxbe. I had intended on using the new KitchenAid stand mixer that Guy gave me for my birthday, but Rouxbe informed me that if I used a mixer I would never learn to “communicate” with the dough. Imagine!
Well, I am pleased to report that I kneaded the dough by hand and the end result was well worth it:
We took the bread, along with some champagne leftover from my birthday party last week, over to our friends’ place for dinner. The fall-themed eating continued with a delicious dinner: duck breast, mashed potatoes and brussels sprouts. Yum!
Tomorrow: I bust out the pasta extruder.
Behold the new KitchenAid stand mixer and food processor! The pasta extruder attachment will make its debut hopefully tomorrow!
