Butter and Whiskey

Roasted Parsnip and Asparagus soup

Made this up tonight, and it was pretty interesting:

20 stalks asparagus

2 parsnips, peeled and cut into chunks

3 leeks, cleaned well, white and green parts only, sliced

extra virgin olive oil

kosher salt and fresh ground pepper

1 tablespoon butter

2 shallots, chopped

1 brown onion, chopped

4 cloves garlic, chopped

2 teaspoons curry powder

1 teaspoon ground coriander

1 teaspoon cumin

2 tablespoons flour

3 cups chicken or vegetable stock

2 whole cloves of peeled garlic

1/2 cup heavy cream or milk

Heat oven to 400˚. Toss leeks, asparagus, and (on a separate pan) parsnips with 1-2 tablespoons olive oil and sprinkle with kosher salt. Roast asparagus and leeks for 5-10 minutes or until bright green. Remove from oven. Roast parsnips for 30 minutes or until they pierce easily with a fork.

Heat stock over low-medium heat until simmering, then keep warm.

In the meantime, heat a deep pot or dutch oven over medium heat. Add 2 tablespoons olive oil. Add onions, shallots, and garlic to pan and toss a tablespoonful of kosher salt in the pan. Cook until translucent. Add curry, coriander, and cumin, and cook for a couple minutes. Add butter and stir until well combined.

Add flour and cook for a minute or so. Slowly ladle in warm stock, stirring well after each addition, and bring to a simmer - don't boil or you'll break your roux. Turn heat down to low.

Cut asparagus into chunks and add to soup along with the leeks. The parsnips should be ready; remove them from the oven.

Ladle soup and parsnips into your food processor. Be sure to cover the top with a kitchen towel, unless you want an enormous mess. Pulse a few times and then blitz it on full blast (you could also do this in chunks with a blender or hand blender). Blitz for a few minutes and taste. Add salt and pepper to your liking, plus two whole cloves of raw garlic. Blitz again until smooth.

Return to stove and stir in cream. Serve immediately with a dollop or créme fraîche or sour cream.

The leeks and parsnips are very sweet, so a good amount of salt really works. Great as a starter, although we had it for dinner and it was more than enough.

Crafting frenzy

I am very proud of myself these days. I can actually see myself getting better at this stuff: With all the babies being born in our enormous crowd, I have been knitting and crocheting like a dervish.

Firstly, for baby girl West:

I used about fifteen different yarns and did this very basic pattern:

Chain... I don't know how many, but long enough for a baby blanket (not martha, not at all), about 36"

Double Crochet in third chain from end, Double Crochet in each ch to end, turn.

Ch 3 (counts as first DC), DC in next DC stitch, DC in every DC stitch thereafter.

Change colors at your whim. I did a bunch of different greens and pinks and whites. Came out so pretty, non?

I don't have a pic, but I also made a hat for our friend Donovan, who just got a baby brother. We wanted him to know that he is still a VIP to us, even with all the attention the baby is getting. D loves Spiderman, so I made a Spiderman hat using this very Spidermanny red, black, and blue yarn. :

I cast on 60 stitches onto circular needles and did two rows of 1X1 ribbing. I worked in stockinette for about five inches.

Then I added the blue yarn into the mix for three rows.

I did a rapid decrease by knitting one stitch and knitting two together for a round, then knitting one round, and repeating the decrease. Then I just threaded through and pulled it tight. Adorable. And Donovan loved it.

Here's the big project: One Big Baby Block.

This is for the new Popeski baby, arriving in March. I made six blocks:

2 Solid green (cast on 30, work in stockinetter) with the parents' initials stitched in:

Two diamonds in stockinette and reverse stockinette (cast on 45 stitches and decrease at each end for each row, then stitch the two diamonds together to make a square):

One striped square in checkerboard, which is created thusly:

Cast on a multiple of 8 + 4

Row 1: K4, *p4, k4; rep from * to end

Row 2: P4, *k4, p4; rep from * to end

Repeat first two rows once more

Row 5: As 2nd Row

Row 6: As 1st Row

Repeat last two rows once more.

Rinse, repeat, etc.

Looks like this:

You can see Mols smiling teeth. She approves.

One striped square in divided boxes, made thusly:

Multiple of 5 stitches

Row 1: Knit

Row 2: P1, k4, repeat to end

Row 3: K3, p2, repeat to end

Row 4: As 3rd row

Row 5: As 2nd row

Row 6: Knit

Repeat, rinse, ta da

Looks like this, with a snuggly Mols:

Stitch together into a cube and stuff. And SCENE.

Linguini with clam sauce

Here's the linguini with clams that I made for Sopranos finale, which I'll be making again tonight for Himself's birfffday:

2-3 T butter, plus 2-3 T butter later
2 T Olive Oil
4 cloves garlic, chopped
4-5 anchovies, chopped
2-3 T flour, plus another 2-3 T flour
1 C white wine
1 C clam juice
2 cans chopped clams, about half-way drained (sounds gross, but worked great)
Juice of one lemon
1 C whole milk
salt and pep to taste
handful of chopped Italian parsley
1 lb linguini, cooked al dente

Melt the butter and the oil together over med-high heat. Add garlic and anchovies and cook until the chovies are melted. Add 2-3 tablespoons of flour and cook for one minute. Turn down the heat a bit. Slowly pour in the white wine, whisking it into the pan, making sure it's not lumpy. Add the cup of clam juice and the clams. Stir often as it starts to thicken. Squeeze the juice of one lemon into the sauce.

In a separate saucepan, melt 2-3 tablespoons of butter, and add 2-3 tablespoons of flour. Cook for one minute. Slowly add the milk, whisking out any lumps. As it starts to thicken, whisk into the clam sauce*. Simmer for a few minutes, add salt and pepper to taste, and a handful of chopped parsley.

Toss with pasta.

*I made this little bechamel-y add in because it wasn't a really creamy sauce like my mans likes it. I'm sure there's a more traditional way to make a creamy white sauce, but this was my way. MY WAY!

Rad hat, with my first pattern

I've never written a pattern before, so please to forgive. I learned this technique from Jenny Wistrom (who taught me how to make hats and is a super crafty lady), when she stumbled upon it by mistake.

I made an awesome hat last week as a thank you to my producer. I'm going to try and write the pattern here for you guys. Never done this before, so it'll be rough.

I used Rowan Romance and size 10 needles.

Cast on 72 stitches in the round. Join and knit three rounds.

Fourth Round: K2Tog, k10, k2tog, k the rest of the round

Fifth: k2tog, k9, k2tog, k the rest of the round

Sixth: k2tog, k8, k2tog, k the rest of the round

Seventh: k2tog, k7, k2tog, k the rest of the round

Eighth: k2tog, k6, k2tog, k the rest of the round

Ninth: k2tog, k5, k2tog, k the rest of the round

You should now have sixty stitches. The decreasing has *hopefully* made a cute little bunchy uppy area, where you can put a crochet flower.

Bunchy uppy area can be seen on the right.

Anyway, knit to desired length, then decrease as follows:

*K10, K 2 tog, repeat from * for entire round.

*K 9, K 2 tog, repeat from * for entire round.

*K8, K 2 tog, repeat from * for entire round.

*K 7, k 2 tog, repeat from * for entire round.
*K 6, k 2 tog, " " " "
*K 5, k 2 tog, " " " "
*K 4, k 2 tog, " " " "
*K 3, k 2 tog, " " " "
*K 2, k 2 tog, " " " "
*K 1, k 2 tog, " " " "

You may have to transfer to double pointed needles at some point, or you can just thread the yarn through the top stitches and pull tight to close, around K4, k2tog or so.

I wish I could write a pattern for the flower, but I made it up as I went along, and don't really remember what I did. I know that I started a granny square and did one round of granny square HDCs, and then I guess I did a pattern of *SC, HDC, TC, TC, HDC, SC, Slip stitch*, in every "hole" of the granny square. If that makes sense. Which it doesn't.

Wearing the hat pulled down and the flower to the side, it's very Daisy Buchanan.

Whew! That kind of took me all morning.

Catching up on some recipes

You know, for posterity. I made this one up, based on all my hours of Food Network watching.

1 pork loin (3-4 lbs)
olive oil
three cloves garlic, chopped (or 1-2 tbls of the jar stuff)
three small brown yellow or brown onions, sliced thick - chunky
couple splashes of wine - I used a rosé

couple pads of butter
two fennel bulbs
two apples, chopped (I used Fiji)

about one tbls of freshly chopped sage and thyme

salt and pepper, obv
couple tbls flour

Okay.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Coat the pork loin in a little olive oil and the garlic. Salt and pepper very generously. Let the pork rest for about a half hour to get the chill off.

Meanwhile, heat the rest of your olive oil in a large dutch oven or other oven-safe pan. Add ONE of the brown onions and cook until a little soft. Add pork and sear on each side, 2-3 minutes. Add a few splashes of wine or chicken stock to get any brown bits. Simmer for about five minutes. Remove from stove and place in oven, covered, for about 45 minutes, or until a meat thermometer reads 160 degrees.

Remove from oven. Remove pork and onion from pan, and tent with tin foil to keep warm (I put it in my warming drawer, if you have one).

The pan should be full of yummerly juices.

Here's how Ina says to cut the fennel: Remove the stems of the fennel and slice the bulb in half lengthwise. With the cut side down, slice the bulb vertically into 1/2-inch-thick slices, cutting right through the core.

Melt two pads of butter in the pan juices.

Add the fennel, apple, two remaining onions, and some salt and pepper to the pan and cook until just soft, about 10-15 minutes. Remove from pan and tent to keep warm.

Add a bit more wine or stock to the pan, plus any juices that have collected under the pork loin. Season to taste. Add a couple spoonfuls of flour and whisk until a nice gravy forms. At the last moment, throw in the sage and thyme.

Slice pork loin and serve over the fennel mixture with the gravy.

You might want to have a green salad or make another green vegetable, as the whole meal, while delicious, is a bit beige.

Also, the first meal I ever cooked for my now most certainly future in-laws, the Pittseseses:

Lamb Daube and an attempt at Coco's green salad, approximate recipe follows:

Mixed Spring greens
4-5 Green onions, chopped
2-3 Tablespoons of capers
2 avocados, chopped
juice of two lemons
handful of basil

Combine, toss, enjoy!

Couple great recipes

Very exciting news: I made my first from-scratch curry. Lots of spice, lots of ingredients, but pretty hard to eff up. It's a Nigella recipe, and it came out beautifully. Lucky/poor Scottie has to eat it every day for lunch because it made a SHITLOAD.

Then last night, still trying to break out of my comfort zone, I decided to try and find the recipe for a favorite of mine and my pal Jill Benjamin's. We get it every time we eat at a particular Japanese restaurant in Santa Monica, even though it always gives us tummy gurgles that never materialize into anything nearly as dramatic as the gurgles would have you believe. So what is this gurlgy dish? Miso black cod. Wow. So rich, but just as good as the restaurant, if I do say so. Jill is coming for dinner on Wednesday and wants to try it, but honestly, the dish was so rich I don't know if I could have it two days in a week.

Here's the recipe from Epicurious: For Nobu-style Saikyo Miso saké 3/4 cup (150 ml) mirin 2 cups (450 g) white miso paste 1 1/4 cups (225 g) granulated sugar For cod 4 black cod fillets, about 1/2 pound (230 g) each 3 cups (800 g) Nobu-style Saikyo Miso 1 stalk hajikami per serving preparation Make Nobu-style Saikyo Miso: 1.Bring the saké and the mirin to a boil in a medium saucepan over high heat. Boil for 20 seconds to evaporate the alcohol. 2. Turn the heat down to low and add the miso paste, mixing with a wooden spoon. When the miso has dissolved completely, turn the heat up to high again and add the sugar, stirring constantly with the wooden spoon to ensure that the bottom of the pan doesn’t burn. Remove from heat once the sugar is fully dissolved. Cool to room temperature. Yield: 3 cups (800 g). Make cod: 1. Pat fillets thoroughly dry with paper towels. Slather the fish with Nobu-style Saikyo Miso and place in a non-reactive dish or bowl and cover tightly with plastic wrap. Leave to steep in refrigerator for 2 to 3 days. 2 Preheat oven to 400°F (200°C, gas 6). Preheat a grill or broiler. Lightly wipe off any excess miso clinging to the fillets but don't rinse it off. Place the fish on the grill, or in a broiler pan, and grill or broil until the surface of the fish turns brown. Then bake for 10 to 15 minutes. 3. Arrange the black cod fillets on individual plates and garnish with hajikami. Add a few extra drops of Nobu-style Saikyo Miso to each plate. Makes 4 servings.

I visited Nikki's beautiful baby boy, Dash. Mrrrrrrppphhhh. I'm in love. Nik had me run upstairs to check out his bassinet - and there was his beautiful baby blanket, hand crafted by moi! I was really touched. The whole time I was making it, I was thinking of his little tiny self snuggling up with it. Aww.

Ah mah gah

I finally finished Nikki Sullivan's baby blanket. Don't tell her if you read this - obviously it's a gift.

I started this beast in January, and then spent all day yesterday finishing it, breaking only to take a master class in Speech Level Singing with the lovely Rachael Lawrence. When I say all day, I mean I started at 9am, worked straight through until 6pm, learned how to sing with Rachael until 9:30, and then worked again until 11pm. Wah wah wee wah.

I can't wait to give it to her, but I do think it'll be a long time before I attempt another baby blanket. I was like a mad woman yesterday, sweating, cramping, tucking in A MILLION loose threads, crying, cursing, rocking gently with an arm full of crocheted yarn.

But worth it now. It's beautiful. Will post a pic, along with a pic of Julie's wedded bliss scarf...at some point...

Man cannot live by starch alone

Scott and I have given up bread, potatoes, rice, and pasta for Lent. It's Scott's first time giving something up for Lent, being Presbyterian and all (??), so there's been a lot of confusion and explaining.

The best part of Lent is the Sunday gimme - on Sundays, you can have the thing you've given up! Now, I've never seen this in any official church literature, but enough of my Catholic friends adhere to this rule that I think it's okay. Right? It's okay? Okay. Right, God?

Were it not for this possibly made-up rule, Oscar night would have been a very different night indeed, but we did fine. I made Ina's roasted shrimp and orzo and - gasp! - a slightly altered version of Rachel Ray's green bean and asparagus salad. I just eliminated the asparagus because Scottie really hates smelly pee.

Shrimp and orzo thingy was really, really tasty. Feta makes everything tastes good. If I hadn't made the horrible decision to give up pasta, bread, potatoes, and rice, I would have eaten it for forty days and forty nights.

I am one-third of the way done with baby Finn's crocheted* St. Patrick's Day blanket. It's an Irish flag baby blanket, because I'm fucking proood like that. Since I don't do recipes**, here's a brief explanation:

It's three large squares, green, orange, and white, which have been made by doing a granny square that, well, goes and goes and goes. Til it's blanket length. Here is the clearest online explanation of a granny square that I've found. I just kept going round and round and round until it was huge.

Will post a picture once it's done!

*pronounced croh-shayd, not crotch-i-tid, as funny as that would be.
**That's what Jen Thompson Wistrom calls patterns and I love her for it.

Because I'm endlessly fascinating

I have decided to start keeping this journal to write about the following:

1) Cooking
2) Knitting
3) Crocheting
4) Everything else that makes me tick, like progressive politics and music I like and hating on celebutards and all that jazz

Because I'm endlessly fascinating.

This past Saturday, I co-hosted a baby shower for the lovely Shannon and Eli. My friend Wendy hosted, and it ended up being one of those sweet, cozy nights when I realize that I have created a family out here. I never in a million years thought that, after my nightmarish first few months here, when I knew no one and could barely shower much less leave the house, I would ever sit at a party and look around and see my boyfriend and all our friends and feel so at home. In Los Angeles? No way. Never saw it coming.

Anyway, on to the food. The baked goat cheese dip is quickly surpassing the Whole Foods spinach artichoke dip as the most popular thing I cook. People go nuts for it. Couple adjustments to the recipe: I don't use rosemary, and I pour the sherry sauce right into the onion mixture. That will make sense if you click the link.

I also made a baked ziti, except I used vodka sauce. We were going for a pink theme. Vodka sauce was made thusly:

One or two swirls of Extra Virgin Olive Oil
One white onion, chopped
couple cloves of garlic, chopped
two cans of plain tomato sauce
several glugs (like a two count) of vodka
one pint of heavy cream
two or three handfuls of grated parmesan cheese
salt and dried oregano to taste

Heat up the oil in a large saucepan. Add onions and cook til translucent. Add garlic, cook gently, careful not to burn or brown either the garlic or the onions. Add both cans of tomato sauce and cook 5-10 minutes. Add vodka, and cook 5-10 minutes. Add cream, salt, parm, and oregano, and let simmer, stirring frequently.

Voila! I made two batches. I cooked off some penne (2lbs), drained it, and poured it into a baking dish. I added about three handfuls of mozzarella cheese and one batch of the vodka sauce. Topped with more mozarella and some parm, then topped with about half of the second batch. Baked it at 375˚ for about twenty minutes, and Bob's your uncle.

And finally, I marinated two tri-tips for twenty-four hours in this nummy numnums marinade. I also made the the cherry tomato relish, but used Cuban Mojo sauce instead of plain olive oil, and sprinkled some cumin into the relish so it would, um, like, match? the taste of the tri-tips. Y'all, so good. I say y'all as if anyone is reading this. I'd do ten-fifteen minutes on each side on the grill, then let it rest for ten minutes. DO NOT cut into the meat to test it. Makes it dry and ookie.

Very excited about all the crochet and knitting. I've started a black and white scarf for my pal Julie (our men are roommates and BFFs since sixth or seventh grade). She's getting married this summer, hence the white, and she wears an awful lot of black, hence the black.

I'm using Rowan Romance yarn in white, but don't know what the black border will be. I don't do or know or understand knitting patterns (or "recipes" as the darling Jen Wistrom calls them), so here it is, basically:

I'm using size 15 needles, and I cast on either 14 or 16, can't remember. See? I'm not Martha. Anyways, I'm just doing knit one, purl one, all the way across, for every row. Once I finish the length, I'm going to crochet a black border all the way around. Don't know how, but I'll figure it out and let you. You, the no one who is reading this. Except me. And Scottie. Hi Scottie!

Will post a pic of the scarf if I ever find Scott's old camera.