An Interesting Wine Event

A couple days ago I got a note from John Bojanowski at Clos du Gravillas. This native Louisvillian has been living in southern France for the last 11 years growing grapes and making organic wines alongside his French wife Nicole. This week John will return to Louisville, along with some wines that will be making their Louisville debut. It sounds like some good stuff is coming out of Clos du Gravillas and this might be worth checking out!

Clos du Gravillas Wine Pouring
Friday, November 6 5:00-7:00 pm
Liquor Barn Springhurst
4301 Towne Center Drive
Louisville, KY 40241

Ramsi's Sunday Brunch

People! Did you know about this? I've actually known about for quite some time, since Michelle over at Consuming Louisville blogged about it. But the fact is, despite her glowing review, I was reluctant to try it. I used to eat at Ramsi's a lot, but a combination of weird/bad service, irritating menu changes, and mediocre food added up over time and we stopped going there. But Neil's mom and her partner wanted to take us out today to celebrate my birthday, and there are only a handful of restaurants they really like, including Ramsi's. So we decided to try the brunch.

OMG! This is vegetarian/vegan paradise (although there's plenty for meat-eaters, too). I can't begin to tell you everything that I had, let alone everything that's on the buffet. Here's a sampling:

- Scrambled eggs
- Tofu scramble
- Bacon and sausage
- Spinach alfredo eggs benedict
- Vegan huevos rancheros
- Vegan biscuits and gravy (!!!)
- Black bean cakes (which I topped with vegan queso)
- Blackened grouper
- Some kind of pot roast-looking meat
- Tortellini salad
- Croissants
- Beignets
- Fresh fruit
- Banana pudding, carrot cake, vegan chocolate mousse, and other desserts

And that's probably not even half of it. And there's an omelet bar! Everything was fresh and hot, unlike the food on a lot of brunch buffets. This is definitely our new favorite brunch destination. (I'm also happy to say that we received great service from Neil's sister Rachel.)

I really highly recommend this brunch to everyone, and especially vegetarians and vegans. Delish!

Zen Tea House

A few weeks ago I lunched with a couple of my fellow freelancers at Zen Tea House. It was my first time there, and I was so impressed with it that I decided to take Neil there for my birthday lunch on Thursday. He loved it as much as I do. I could easily see this becoming one of my favorite restaurants.

Before we get to the food, let me say a bit about the experience. Because it does feel like an experience, rather than just a meal. The decor is soothing and sparse, tranquilly Asian. I understand that farther back in the restaurant there's pillow seating, which, in retrospect, we should have tried, since it was my birthday and that seems like a fun thing to do. But we opted to sit up front, next to the window, where we could watch the cool rainy day outside. It was quite cozy.

The other defining characteristic of the Zen Tea House experience is the service. It's definitely leisurely and not always quite as attentive as it maybe should be, but the folks who work there are extremely welcoming and knowledgeable. There's no need to be intimidated by the lengthy tea menu; they will be happy to help you choose, as well as enthusiastically answer any food questions. It's a pleasure to be served by these people.

So, the food! On both visits we started with the mushroom pate, "A delicate combination of fresh mushrooms, mixed nuts, spices, cream cheese and olive oil blended together and served with toasted bread." Oh. My. God. This stuff could almost pass for real pate. It reminds me a bit of liverwurst, and I mean that in the best way possible. Delish.

On my first visit I had the Roasted Portabella & Caramelized Onion Panini, "A creamy spread made from Boursin cheese, sun-dried tomato and garlic layered on our herb focaccia bread, topped with roasted portabella mushroom, caramelized onions, fresh Mozzarella cheese, mesclun greens and sliced tomatoes then pressed and grilled to perfection." That was really good, but good panini are pretty easy to come by. One of my dining companions that day had the Steamed Banana Leaf with Lotus Seeds & Vegetable Rice, "Vegetable rice cooked with tofu, veggie meats, and lotus seeds is wrapped in a banana leaf, steamed, and then topped with a drizzle of olive oil infused with roasted garlic and scallions." To be honest, on the menu I thought it sounded a little boring. And watching my friend eat it I thought it looked a bit bland. But she insisted that it was fantastic, so on my second trip I tried it for myself. And it was just as good as she had promised. I know a lot of people aren't huge fans of fake meat, but the way it was mixed in with the rice and other stuff made it very subtle and rather believably meat-like, which is something that this reluctant vegetarian appreciated very much. The garlic-and-scallion-infused olive oil added a real depth of flavor to the whole thing. When it arrived in front me I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to finish it, but I had no trouble with it.

Neil had a cup of the soup of the day, a compilation of veggies in a light ginger broth. It was a very simple, clean-tasting soup, and he slurped it right down. For his entree, he chose the Curry Tofu & Carrot Salad Sandwich, "Tofu and carrot salad seasoned with mayonnaise and curry spread on a toasted baguette and topped with green leaf lettuce, tomato, pickled carrot & daikon and fresh basil leaves." This was sort of a cross between a carrot salad and curried egg salad, both of which I love. I will have a hard time choosing between that and the banana leaf the next time we go. Both our entrees and the pate were served with crisp pickled vegetables, which were a nice complement to the meal.

To drink, I had the Keemun Imperial, a strong black tea that felt just right for a gross rainy day, while Neil chose the GenMai-Cha, a brown rice tea with a wonderful smoky flavor.

With appetizer, two entrees, two cups of tea, and one (amazing) vegan chocolate cupcake, the bill came to a little over $40 with tip. A bit on the pricey side for lunch, maybe, but worth every penny. I can't wait to go back.

Sweet Potato Gratin... and more!

This entry will cover a lot of territory, so here's a quick overview:
1. Sweet potato gratin.
2. Tomato soup.
3. Vegetable bouillon and vegetarian gravy.

Ready, go!

Earlier today I Tweeted/Facebooked about the awesome sweet potato gratin I made last night. A ton of people requested the recipe, and I'm more than happy to share it. Alas, I can't take credit for this one; it's another tremendously successful selection from Vegetarian Suppers From Deborah Madison's Kitchen.

I don't know about you all, but the changing weather has had me craving warm, hearty comfort food. I went cruising through Ms. Madison's cookbook yesterday and landed on the following recipe. We served it as an entree with a side of kale, but it would be fantastic as a side dish, especially if you're getting sick of the ubiquitous sweet potato casserole that always shows up at Thanksgiving.

Sweet Potato Gratin with Onions and Sage

2 teaspoons oil, plus a little for the dish
1 large onion, chopped into 1/2-inch dice
2 tablespoons chopped sage or 2 teaspoons dried
3 medium sweet potatoes (about 1 1/2 pounds), thinly sliced
sea salt and freshly ground pepper
a large handful of parsley leaves, chopped with 1 plump garlic clove
3/4 cup grated Gruyere or smoked mozzarella cheese (Kroger actually had smoked Gruyere, so I used that!)
freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1 cup cream or half-and-half, warmed (I never told you this was healthy!)

1. Preheat the oven to 350° F. Lightly oil a 2-quart gratin dish and put a moderately large pot of water on to boil.
2. Put 2 teaspoons oil in a skillet over medium heat and add the onion and sage. Cook, giving them an occasional stir, until soft and golden, about 12 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, peel the sweet potatoes, then slice them as thinly as you can manage. Salt the water, then drop them in. Allow the water to return to a boil, which may take a few minutes. Boil for a minute or until the potatoes are partly tender when pierced with a knife, then drain. Toss them with the onions, chopped parsley, and garlic.
4. Scoop a third of the potatoes into the prepared dish and even them out. Season with salt and pepper, add half the Gruyere, and grate over a little Parmesan. Repeat, making two more layers and covering the last with a dusting of the Parmesan. Pour the warm cream over all, cover with foil, and bake in the center of the oven for 25 minutes. Remove the foil and continue baking until the potatoes are utterly soft and the gratin has browned, another 25 minutes or so. Let the gratin stand a few minutes before serving.

A few things I will do differently next time:
1. Add walnuts. Neil and I agree they would be great in this.
2. Drain the potatoes better and/or let it cook a little longer. It was a little watery on the bottom.
3. Add more cheese (maybe). It's perfectly good as it is, but if you want to make it really obnoxiously fattening and delicious, more cheese would be the way to go.

So today, after a heaping bowl of leftover gratin for lunch, I got to thinking about what I wanted to make for dinner. I couldn't stop thinking about that delicious smoked Gruyere. I started thinking grilled cheese and tomato soup. I spent some time looking for a tomato soup recipe that did not require a food processor or immersion blender, neither of which I own (yet - hello, wedding registry!). I found this recipe for Hot and Healing Tomato Soup. I was a little concerned that it would be weird in a New Agey, earnestly healthy kind of way, what with its six cloves of garlic and handful of celery leaves. But it was actually really good, quite chunky and thick. Neil suggested that it would be good over pasta as well. To go with it, I sliced some of the Moroccan olive bread that Kroger makes (which is way better than it has any right to be), sprinkled shredded Gruyere on top, and stuck them in a hot oven until the cheese was melty and golden. I've taken to calling this deconstructed grilled cheese, because I occasionally enjoy being a pretentious asshole. (You're welcome to call it cheese bread.)

If you looked at the soup recipe, you may have noticed that it involves a roux, to which vegetable broth is added. Let me first say that today, instead of buying a package of vegetable broth, using half a cup, and putting the rest in the fridge to sit until it went bad, I wised up and bought some bouillon cubes. Specifically, Edward & Sons Garden Veggie. I mixed up half of one with some hot water to make broth for the soup and it smelled really good, better than vegetable broth usually does. Once I mixed it into the roux it smelled fantastic, so I gave it a taste. Sacrebleu! It was like a delicious gravy! I cannot wait to make some mashed potatoes to put this on!

Erin's Vegetarian Gravy
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons flour
1/2 cup to 1 cup vegetable broth, depending on how thick you like it

Melt butter in a saucepan over low heat. Slowly add flour, stirring constantly. Continue to stir until mixture turns golden. Slowly stir in vegetable broth until gravy reaches the desired consistency. (Note: I can't vouch for the tastiness of this if you don't use Edward & Sons bouillon. Like I said, it's better than any vegetable broth I've ever used. I found it at Kroger in the organic/natural section, with the soups.)

So, that's been my two days of culinary excitement. Now that I sit down and think about it, there are multiple things that I meant to write about on Blog Tartare, like my visits to Dragon King's Daughter, Zen Tea House, and a much-improved Zeppelin Cafe (whose website is so abjectly bad and lacking in content that I won't even bother to link to it). Expect restaurant reviews soon!

I'm sensing a pattern...

What I've had to eat today:

Breakfast: Cottage cheese and apple sauce
Lunch: Grilled cheese sandwich and a cup of apple cider (mmmm, fall)
Snack: A Babybel and an apple

This is totally unintentional, I swear! At least tonight's dinner of chili will introduce a little bit of variety. :)

Crepes for a good cause!

My fellow foodie and writer Dana McMahan has landed a two-week writing residency at Kitchen-at-Camont. I had never heard of Kitchen-at-Camont, but after reading about it I think it's one of the coolest things ever. I'm so happy for (and envious of) Dana!

In order finance her trip to France, she's throwing a crepe brunch fundraiser for herself. Is that not the best idea ever? Come eat crepes, donate what you can, and send a fellow foodie off to two weeks in paradise. Here's the invitation.

I've never actually met Dana, but I'm a fan of her blog and her joie de vivre. I'm looking forward to eating crepes for her benefit!

Toward more compassionate eating, one bite at a time

Wherever you fall on the animal products-eating continuum, I think we can all agree that animal agriculture in this country is Fucked (with a capital F). I mean, just take a look at the video of male chicks being ground up alive that's been making its way around the Internet. No, really, go take a look. If you eat eggs, you should see where they come from.

Late last year I got into a tremendously ugly online dispute with a vegan acquaintance. I called her out for saying that by going vegan she "became civilized," suggesting that her arrogance was probably doing her cause more harm than good. She, not surprisingly, did not take kindly to that comment, replying in part "The ridicule that I face for exercising compassion, care and responsibility in a very real, tangible way, is a small price to pay for having the opportunity to make the truth more visible. I realize that it turns you off. But I'm not here to turn people like you on."

You can imagine where it went from there.

I have wrestled with this issue a lot. Unlike a lot of people, I don't think that veganism is ridiculous or extreme; I think it's a perfectly reasonable way to excuse oneself from participating in an unnecessarily cruel and harmful (in a variety of ways) system of food production. I am totally sympathetic toward veganism. The problem, of course, is that my sympathy is misplaced; it belongs with the animals who are the victims of this whole fucked-up system. And I sure do continue to eat animal products.

Because I really do try to understand other people's points of view, I tried to think about the fight for animal rights as I think about feminism. Would I say it would be enough if women achieved mostly equal rights? No, of course not. Would I say that feminists can live their lives however they want but that they should shut up about sexism and not point out oppression and privilege to other people? Hell no. Then why should I expect any different from animal rights activists?

In fall 2007, I taught Women's & Gender Studies 201, Women in American Culture. Now, you will never, ever hear me say anything along the lines of "I'm a feminist, but I'm not one of those feminists." I most certainly am one of "those" feminists, plenty pissed and plenty radical. It probably goes without saying that I want to get the feminist word out to as many folks as possible. However, I knew that in a classroom full of young college students, most of whom knew nothing of feminism but stereotypes, my righteous indignation was not going to do anything but turn people off. I made it clear from the start that we were going to be discussing controversial issues and that they were going be introduced to ideas that were totally new them, and that, by virtue of the fact that I was in the process of getting a master's degree in Women's & Gender Studies, I had certain opinions on these matters. But I had no interest in converting my students into feminists; setting out with that goal would have either turned the entire semester into a futile ideological battle or resulted in a class full of students parroting my own opinions back to me. Rather, I wanted them to take each new idea and think about it. Argue with each other about it. Critique it. Assess how it applied - or didn't apply - to their own lives.

At the end of the semester, did I have a class full of feminists? Of course not. But did I have a class with more feminist tendencies and better critical thinking skills who were more likely to look favorably on women's rights issues? Absolutely.

This approach is sorely lacking when it comes to vegetarianism and veganism. It's almost always presented as an all-or-nothing proposition; you either eschew all animal products or you are a barbaric asshole. Yes, if everyone became vegan, that would eliminate food-related animal cruelty and environmental problems, and that would be great. But that's not going to happen. What realistically could happen is that people could reduce their intake of animal products, which would not eliminate food-related animal cruelty and environmental problems, but could reduce them drastically. Do animal rights advocates want to be righteously indignant and dismissed as ridiculous extremists, or do they want to moderate their views - or at least their rhetoric - and spur people to move in the right direction?

Here are my suggestions for people who are bothered by the way food animals are treated and the environmental ramifications of animal-eating but who aren't ready to take the vegetarian/vegan plunge:

1. Educate yourself. Will you think twice about eating eggs after watching that video? Maybe, maybe not, but you ought to at least know the truth about where your food comes from. There's a ton of information out there about all aspects of animal agriculture.
2. Choose meat alternatives when possible. If you're craving a steak, no portobello mushroom cap is going to satisfy that craving. But if you're craving chili, could you use a meat substitute or more beans and veggies instead? When mixed with other stuff, Quorn Crumbles are almost indistinguishable from ground beef.
3. Similarly, choose dairy alternatives when possible. I can't image life without cheese, but I find that Silk creamer in my coffee instead of half-and-half is just fine. Any little change you can make like this is a step in the right direction.
4. If you are going to buy animal products, try to buy them locally. Animal products from small local farms are generally more humanely produced, better for the environment, and good for the local economy. Depending on where you live, your farmers markets and/or grocery stores may carry locally-produced meat, eggs, and dairy products. In Louisville, ValuMarket is a good source for this stuff.
5. When dining out, try a meatless option. Do you find yourself dismissing meatless entrees because you're afraid they won't be filling, or just because you're in the habit of ordering meat? Why not give one a try? Vegetarian/vegan entrees are very often high in creativity and flavor, and filling too.
6. When choosing seafood, do it responsibly. Check the Monterey Bay Aquarium's Seafood Watch or the Blue Ocean Institute's FishPhone to make sure the seafood you choose is sustainable. (I mean, seriously, FishPhone. Don't you want to use it based on its name alone?)
7. Beware of organics. The organic label has been co-opted by industrial agriculture and means almost nothing. Do your research before you pluck an organic animal product off the shelf and assume you've made a good choice. The Cornucopia Institute's Organic Dairy Report will give you the low-down on your favorite organic dairy products. It turns out that Horizon, which is always on prominent display in the Kroger natural foods cooler, is one of the most ethically deficient dairy brands on the market.
8. Experiment with vegetarian/vegan foods. Be adventurous. Try some seitan or tempeh or tofu. Find a tasty-sounding recipe and give it a try. You may hate it, but then again, you may be very pleasantly surprised.
9. Commit to several vegetarian/vegan meals a week. Can you make a meatless meal a couple times a week? Maybe even a meal with no animal products at all? Try it; I bet it will be easier than you think.

Changing your eating habits is hard. Food is primal and necessary. Most of us grow up eating animal products and not questioning it, and I would be a liar if I said I didn't miss meat. I miss my mama's pot roast, meat loaf, and chicken and dumplings. I miss hamburgers and pulled pork sandwiches and the turkey-artichoke panini from Panera. And I am far from perfect; I have meat slip-ups from time to time. Most often at parties (because food is social) and when I'm sick (because food is comforting). I also have a lot of work to do on my dairy consumption; I happen to like soy ice cream quite a lot, but it doesn't replace frozen custard. Still, I'm trying. I'm trying to eat with more compassion toward animals and the environment. Do you want to, too?

Eggplant Boursin Panini

We stopped frequenting Ramsi's some time ago, after a few too many experiences of mediocre food and bad service. But that doesn't mean I don't still love their Eggplant Boursin Panini:

Lightly breaded eggplant, tomato sauce, and a trio of cheeses, served on homemade Cuban bread.

When we brought home some eggplants from the farmers market last week, Neil suggested eggplant Parmesan, but that felt like too much work and too much time with the oven on. So I decided to try my hand at recreating my beloved panini instead. The results were pretty amazing, if I do say so myself. Anyone looking for ways to use up their eggplant harvest should give this one a try!

1 eggplant (depending on size, of course, but one average eggplant provided enough for four sandwiches and a few snack slices for us)
Italian breadcrumbs
2 eggs, beaten
1 package Boursin (it won't require nearly the whole package, but use however much you want)
1 ball mozzarella, sliced thickly (ours yielded four slices and a chunk for snacking)
Shredded Parmesan to taste
Some sort of chunky tomato sauce business (we used Kroger brand bruschetta topping and it was pretty good)
Whatever bread/bun/roll you fancy (no Cuban bread to be found at Kroger, so we went with their sub rolls, which worked surprisingly well)

Skin and slice eggplant, then dip slices into egg and dredge in breadcrumbs. Fry in oil (or bake, if you want to be healthier about it) until golden. Spread a layer of tomato sauce on the bottom of the roll, and follow with mozzarella slices, eggplant, and a sprinkling of Parmesan. Spread a layer of Boursin on the top of the roll (the inside of the top of the roll, that is). Stick the whole thing in your panini press press or George Foreman (what we used), or, if you don't have any such thing, just pop it in the oven until the cheese is melty and the bread is toasty.

I wish I had a photo of this for you, but unfortunately, the ones we took did not really do the deliciousness justice. Just trust me when I promise you that it is fantastic.

Notes:
1. Depending on what kind of bread you use, the quantities might vary a little bit. Since we used oblong sub rolls, each sandwich used four slices of eggplant stacked two high, and a slice of mozzarella on each eggplant stack. But that's just how it worked out for us. This is bound to turn out delicious no matter how you do it, so don't worry too much about the details.
2. I think I've more or less given up on sweating eggplant. The only difference I can tell is that when I do it, even though I rinse it off afterward, the eggplant ends up way too salty. It's also a pain in the ass. The hell with it, I say!
3. Boursin is freaking expensive, around $6 for 5.2 oz at Kroger. Although it's kind of central to the Eggplant Boursin Panini, feel free to skip it or mess around with other cheeses if you don't want to spend that much. (Or, if you happen to be going up to Jungle Jim's, get it there. It's always much cheaper even at regular price, and we once found it on sale there for $1.99.)

Enjoy!

All I Really Need to Know I Learned from Sesame Street

Yesterday I told Neil that I'd like to learn to make cheese. And I would. In fact, I think becoming an artisanal cheesemaker would be a pretty swell career move. Unfortunately, neither of us know much of anything about making cheese, and we realized that what we do know is what we gleaned years and years ago from this video:




Oh man, I used to love that video. (Though not as much as I loved the one about how crayons are made.) But does anyone else find it a little troubling that those dudes have such large and unrestrained beards and hair styles and are bending over the cheese like that? You can't tell me they didn't get hair in that cheese. Ick.

But I digress. Cheesemaking. I'm going to try it! Though I'm not sure how or when. I'll keep you posted!

Local goodies

I have been frustrated the last couple of weeks that Neil has had to teach on Saturday mornings, preventing us from going to the Bardstown Road Farmers Market. Yesterday I did some research and found that there's one on Sunday afternoons at Rainbow Blossom! (Just right for Lisa Lazybones. ;) It's open from 12:00 to 4:00 and they even take debit/credit. Hooray!

This market isn't as big as the one on Bardstown Road, but the selection is still ample. Pictured above is our booty. Why yes, this pescatarian will eat beef, if it's locally produced! Those patties were from Dutch Creek Farm, the same place we get our eggs from, which is not even an hour outside Louisville.

Dinner tonight was cheeseburgers made with that meat and topped (of course) with slices of tomato. We also had corn on the cob and a peach for dessert. And it was fantastic, all of it. Good god. Everything was so much more flavorful than it would have been if we had gotten from Kroger, and we got the added satisfaction of knowing that we supported local farmers and did something environmentally sound.

As a (suburban) child of the 1980s, even though I grew up knowing intellectually that produce comes from farms, in practice I didn't really think much about it coming from anywhere besides the grocery store. I also never had any concept of seasonality, since at the grocery store most things are available year-round, whether they should be or not. Produce was just one more static grocery item to buy, like cereal and soap and canned goods. Having spent most of my life feeling so utterly divorced from the origins of my food, every time I eat something local, it feels a little magical. This stuff was grown in the soil of the state I live in. It was not produced in some huge industrial operation across the country or across the world and shipped hundreds or thousands of miles to reach me, cosmetically perfect and perfectly flavorless. (I can't lie; the peach we ate tonight was ugly. I never would have bought it at the store. But it was also the best peach I've eaten in years.) No, this food is part of my geography, and, by virtue of the fact that it grows here, is meant for me to eat it. Not to get too precious or self-righteous or ridiculous, but it kind of makes my soul happy to eat this way.

So go! To the farmers markets, and to the restaurants that serve local food! Enjoy the bounty of these waning days of summer. Re-remember or discover for the first time what produce is supposed to taste like. You won't be sorry.

A Few From the Archives

Just because I haven't been blogging at Blog Tartare, that doesn't mean I haven't been writing about food. Here are a few entries from elsewhere:

Gratin!
The Best Cheese Ever
Fake Meat Lessons Learned
Kalamity Katie's Border Benedict (sort of)

Hopefully those will tide you over until my next entry. :)

Here a blog, there a blog

Over a delicious dinner at the Dragon King's Daughter tonight, Neil and I discussed how we had each become as sophisticated as we are (which admittedly is not all that sophisticated) about food and beverage. Since I grew up in Shelbyville (which has a real lack of good restaurants, a few exceptions notwithstanding) and was raised by people who aren't particularly adventurous eaters or enthusiastic drinkers, I didn't really start learning about this stuff until I was around 22. We talked about the friends who turned us on to different ethnic cuisines, to beer, to wine. In the midst of this conversation, Neil expressed his disappointment that I had more or less discontinued Blog Tartare. "You really had something with that," he said.

"I did?"

"Yeah. You love to write, and you love to eat and cook."

These things are true. I recently started blogging over at Squarespace and have been using a Blog Tartare category there for my food entries. And that's nice. But I do sort of miss Blog Tartare. I miss its cute background. And I think it has a lot of potential as a food blog, as opposed to mixing my food entries in with other stuff in a regular blog. And Neil and I have certain projects in mind (finding the best banana split in the Louisville area, eating our way up and down Bardstown Road, etc.) that really deserve to be done on Blog Tartare. Now that I'm a full-time freelance writer (whoa!) I have more time for blogging, which also helps.

So... here I am again. Hopefully for the foreseeable future. Welcome back!

Oops.

I kind of forgot to update you on the end of our 30 Days of Not Dining Out, didn't I? We made it through most of the month, but things kind of fell apart during the last week or so. Still, two very important lessons were learned, and I feel that periodic restaurant bans will continue to serve us well in the future.

Lesson 1: Cooking is fun, especially when I do weekly grocery shopping and have food and recipes ready to go. I found it surprisingly relaxing to come home from work and cook dinner.

Lesson 2: I really prefer taking my lunch. A little bit of extra effort in the morning means I get to spend more of my lunch hour relaxing instead of fighting traffic on Bardstown Road. And it is of course cheaper and generally healthier. I even enjoy taking PB&J. How nice to open my desk drawer and have lunch ready for me whenever I'm ready for it!

In other news, I'm not sure what to do with Blog Tartare at this point. I love it (especially its background). But I don't keep up with updating it as well as I should, and I have too many other things going on elsewhere on the Interwebs. So I've started blogging about food - and everything else - over at volvita.com. You may wish to check me out there. One thing I might do is just cross-post the food-related entries over here. We shall see. But in the meantime you should come see me over there!

Days 6-13

Tis true, I have not been updating regularly. But rest assured, I have been continuing to observe the challenge and have cooked several delicious dishes since the last entry.

First, I must admit to a restaurant meal. Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I had no choice. On Wednesday I had to go to Lexington for work stuff. Traditionally, one of my colleagues in our Lexington office would have taken me out to lunch, which is also technically against the rules, but I would have let it slide for the sake of professional relations. However, this did not come to pass, and I was stranded in Lexington without my trusty lunch bag. So I went to a nearby Indian buffet and had a plate of food, a couple gulab jamun, and an iced tea. Is that so wrong?

Highlights from the last week or so of the challenge:

- We made this chili recipe on the recommendation of one of my coworkers. It was good. I enjoyed the vegetables.

- My mom tried to get me to meet her for lunch last Saturday, but I talked her into coming over for breakfast instead. I made this spinach quiche (an old standby) and these raspberry muffins. Delish.

- We had a picnic in Cherokee Park consisting of pimento cheese sandwiches, chips and salsa, and grapes. Not very exciting or exotic, but it was the first warm day of the year, and after lunch we both read for a while and fell asleep in the sun. Perfect.

- Neil and I have this joke about him hating lentils. He doesn't, really; it's more that he hates the idea of lentils because they sound like dirty hippie food to him. I was determined to show him how yummy lentils can be, so I made this red lentil curry recipe. It didn't have quite the complexity of flavor that it seemed like it should, but it was still really, really good.

- Thursday night we made this recipe for ginger scallops. Neil wanted to invite our friend Devon over for dinner, and I wasn't too enthusiastic about this, because the other times I've cooked scallops they've turned out quite mediocre. And Devon is a really good cook, so I didn't want to embarrass myself. But we ended up getting good scallop-cooking advice from Devon, and dinner was fantastic. The secret to searing scallops: use an oil with a high smoke point, or if you don't have any such oil (we didn't), use a combination of olive oil and butter. Turn it up high and cook the scallops one minute per side. We did that and then added the scallops to the ginger sauce. Mmmmm. I love scallops and now I know how to cook them properly. Hooray!

- Last night we made panang curry using this recipe, another favorite I've made before. I also used these instructions for dry frying the tofu. The tofu turned out great. The curry was both delicious and inedible. Life lesson learned: do not let Neil measure the curry paste. The recipe calls for 2-3 tablespoons. Every time I've made this recipe I've used 2, and it's been just right. But Neil is a heat junkie and added a third. We also used a different brand of curry paste than we usually do, so that may have accounted for some of the heat as well. At any rate, I can't eat any more of it. I only made it through dinner by drinking two big glasses of milk with it. And I never drink milk. I probably haven't had a glass of milk with dinner since I was 12. Anyway, I think I might make this again this week with much less curry paste, because it's soooooo good.

We're just about halfway through our 30 days. It's still fun. I somehow magically have energy to come home and cook dinner; I guess knowing that I have no choice is enough to get me started, and once I start doing it I realize I'm having a really good time. One thing I'm not sure we're doing though is saving a whole lot of money. I mean, surely we are. There is no way that $100 at restaurants could go as far as $100 at the grocery store. But last month we spent $406 on groceries, and this month we've already spent $412. So we are on track to spend over $800 this month on groceries. And we don't even eat meat! Since we've never really done regular grocery shopping, we're not in the habit of shopping with an eye toward value. We save coupons but never remember to take them to the store with us. And I really have no idea what foods are more expensive than others or how much things are supposed to cost. I guess as we continue to shop we'll get better at this.

I have photos of several of the meals we've made lately, but it's Saturday morning and the camera is in the other room and I'm lazy right now. I'll do a photo post soon!

Day 5

You don't really care about breakfast and lunch, do you? Blah blah, yogurt and cereal, blah blah, sandwich and salad and grapes, etc. etc. You're here for dinner, aren't you?

Tonight's dinner goes on record as one of the better things I've ever cooked. This was serious, restaurant-quality tastiness. Which is doubly impressive considering that I'd never before cooked the two main ingredients, greens and polenta.

I give you...


Polenta squares with gorgonzola cream, braised greens, and cannellini beans

Not only had I never cooked greens, I wasn't even sure if I liked them. I don't recall my mom ever making them when I was a kid. I do remember her cooking kale for herself when I was a teenager and it stinking up the whole house. (I remember this so clearly: I walked in the back door with my friend Jamie and said "God, what's that smell?!" Years later Jamie I still talk about this.)

Anyway. The recipe said I could use whatever greens I fancied, so I chose mustard, totally at random. Basically how this all worked is that I cooked the greens down in a skillet with some onion and garlic, and then added a can of cannellini beans. The sauce consisted of half-and-half, gorgonzola, garlic, and rosemary; all it needed to do was come to a simmer and get properly melty. The polenta that I cooked last night was cut into triangles, dredged in flour, and fried. The whole thing was a little time-consuming, but fairly easy.

Neil observed that the gorgonzola sauce was a little overwhelming and might work better with a milder blue cheese. I did think that it drowned out the other flavors in the dish a bit, but it was still awfully good (I'm a sucker for overbearing cheese). It turns out that I do like greens, quite a bit, and the beans were a nice complement. The fried polenta was awesome. In fact, there's quite a bit leftover that hasn't been fried yet, and I think it's going to be a cornbread-esqe side dish when I make chili in a few days. I am now quite interested in polenta and excited to see what else I can do with it.

I would share the full recipe with you - from Vegetarian Suppers from Deborah Madison's Kitchen - but the recipe actually contains two other recipes from the book, Polenta Cooked in the Double Boiler and Braised Mixed Greens and Garlicky Beans, so it would be a huge pain to transcribe. If anyone is really interested let me know and I'll get Neil to scan it and then just send it to you.

Now we're approaching the worst part of the week for eating at home: the weekend. I've already turned down lunch with my mother, even though she offered to buy. The buying is not the point, at least not all of it. It's the thought and the effort that goes into preparing my own food, even if it's just making a sandwich or heating up some soup.

So far I am really, really enjoying this project. Toward the end of February we had two very good dinners - one at Osaka, and one at Cafe LouLou - that totaled $129. We spent less than that at the store last night and got enough food to last a week. Don't get me wrong; I think Cafe LouLou and Osaka both serve great food that is worth the price we paid. But from a budget standpoint, Neil and I need to learn that meals like that should not be an everyday occurrence. Or at least not until one of us has a substantial increase in income.

I feel like I'm really having a major shift in my perspective on food as a result of all of this, but I'm tired and I want to go read. I will save that to blather about in another entry.

Day 4

Breakfast
Neil had his usual yogurt and cereal. I skipped it, as I often do.

Lunch
Soup and tuna sandwich for me, Caesar salad and tuna sandwich for Neil

Dinner
Taco salad:



I admit that it doesn't get a lot of points for presentation, but it's so quick and tasty. Brown up some ground whatever (in our case Quorn), add some taco seasoning (at which point the Quorn becomes virtually indistinguishable from ground beef), and put it in a bowl with some tortilla chips, refried black beans, shredded cheese, lettuce, sour cream, guacamole, and salsa (or whatever you like - you know how this faux Mexican thing works). This satisfies my guilt-riddled love of the Taco Bell taco salad without being so disgusting and bad for me.

In other news, yesterday we finally went to the grocery store. Two grocery stores, actually, because Kroger was out of zuccinni (the produce clerk blamed Senior Citizen Day) and didn't have the corn meal I was looking for. So we went to ValuMarket as well. We spent a little over $100 and got enough food for three dinner recipes (that will each feed us at least twice), some sandwich fixings for lunch (PB&J and pimento cheese), and some snacky things like fruit, carrots, crackers, etc. It's kind of neat to know that if I get hungry, I can just go into the kitchen and get something to eat!

I'm excited about tonight's dinner, and I can't wait to blog about it. It's polenta squares with gorgonzola cream, braised greens, and cannellini beans. I have never cooked polenta, greens, or cannellini beans before. The polenta has to be cooked in a double boiler, allowed to cool in a rectangular pan, sliced up, and fried. In the interest of not eating at midnight tonight, I made the polenta last night. It was reeeeally good just by itself, and I can't wait to fry it up and slather it in gorgonzola cream sauce!

30 Days of Home Cookin'

The past few months have seen me grow extraordinarily lazy. Part of it is just winter, and part of it is, I think, an economy-induced case of the blahs. Whatever the reason, I've been putting very little thought into my food lately. Oh, I've still been enjoying it, but only to the extent that I go somewhere else to eat it (or pick it up and bring it home). I've hardly been cooking at all.

Toward the end of February, I had an idea. I posted the following on LiveJournal (and Facebook):

Neil and I are trying an experiment in which we will not go out to eat during the entire month of March. Occasionally we add up the amount of money we spend dining out and it's always a totally ridiculous number. I know the local restaurant community is hurting right now, but we really want to try this and see how much money we save in a month.

If anyone else out there in LJ Land feels that they are also burning through way too much money going out to eat, feel free to join us!

Local friends, we need your help. Yes, we want to see you, but no, we cannot go out to eat with you. Expect to be invited over for dinner in the coming month. Or invite us over for dinner. Or, when the weather gets better, lets go on a picnic.

I'm actually really excited about this. I've been so lazy about cooking lately. It feels pleasantly challenging knowing that I have to plan meals, grocery shop, and cook. Of course not every meal is going to be some big production, especially not the nights I work late, and I imagine there will be a frozen pizza in the mix at least once. But I'm excited that this will force me to get back in the cooking habit. I know we're going to save a ton of money, and I wouldn't be surprised if we lost weight too.

This is going to be quite a challenge, because we go out to eat all the time. And I also have mixed feelings about a month of not supporting Louisville's wonderful local restaurants, since so many of them are hurting right now. But I think I can justify this to myself by thinking about how over the last several months, we've spent way more than our fair share dining out. It's only 30 days. And come April, we're going to go have a really nice dinner somewhere (and resume restaurant dining in general, though hopefully a bit scaled back).

Blog Tartare hasn't been getting much love from me lately, and I thought this would be a fun project to blog about. I'm sure I won't get to it every day, but hopefully I can keep a pretty good record of what we've been eating instead of eating out constantly. For a baseline, let me share this with you. Last month, according to the checking account (so there's a few days' margin of error), we ate at:

La Rosita
Sol Azteca
Cafe LouLou
Red Robin
Sitar
KenTex
New Albanian
Shapiro's
Hing Wang (I've never heard of this; must be something of Neil's)
Panera
Moe's
Double Dragon
Lunch Today
City Cafe
Cracker Barrel
Vietnam Kitchen
Lynn's Paradise Cafe
Big Boy
Papa John's
McDonald's
Pizza Hut
Dairy Queen
Qdoba
Osaka
Applebee's (I will own the other crappy chains on this list, but not this one; my coworkers forced me to go there.)

Wow. Having typed all that out, I'm rather embarrassed. When did we become incapable of buying raw food and preparing it ourselves?! Do you see now why we need this project??

Here's how it's gone so far:

March 1
Breakfast: Scrambled eggs with cheese and bits of leftover fake peperoni, toast, grapefruit.
Lunch: We skipped it, but had some cottage cheese and apple sauce as a snack.
Dinner: Cooked for my parents and Neil's mom and step-dad. A somewhat bland blue cheese fettuccine, Caesar salad, bread with olive oil. (My mom brought a delicious cake for dessert.)

March 2
Breakfast: Cottage cheese and apple sauce for me, yogurt and granola for Neil.
Lunch: Oh crap! I forgot to bring lunch. I went to Kroger and got soup from their soup bar, which is perilously close to going out to eat. But I got the 16 oz cup so I'd have two days' worth. I think Neil had a fake turkey sandwich.
Dinner: Quorn Cranberry & Goat Cheese Chik'n Cutlet, half a baked potato each (we only had one potato in the house), salad, leftover cake.

March 3
Breakfast: Same as the day before.
Lunch: For me, leftover soup and salad I brought from home. I know Neil also took salad but I don't know what else he had.
Dinner: Plans to cook a real meal were foiled by the fact that I got a ticket Saturday night for driving around with tags that expired in October. After working an hour and a half late, I had to go to the county clerk and deal with that. Then Neil had band practice at 8:00. So we squeezed in some soup (Pacific Natural Foods Cashew Carrot Ginger) and grilled cheese.

And that brings us to right now, when I just had some more leftover cake and another cup of tea.

What's really making this whole thing interesting is that while I've made a grocery list, I haven't actually been shopping yet. And as I'm sure you can imagine from the above list of restaurants, we don't keep a lot of food in the house (when would we eat it?). I hate grocery shopping and I have decided to put it off until tomorrow night (unless Neil comes home from practice and somehow motivates me to go now, even though I'm already in my PJs), so I will have to come up with something for lunch tomorrow based on our limited supply of consumables. I'm thinking tuna sandwiches. I'm sure my co-workers will love me tomorrow.

Baby's First Espresso Maker

I've been drinking coffee since I was a kid. It all started at my grandparents' table with a cup of half Folger's, half milk, and lots of sugar. As a teenager I drank it with reasonable amounts of half and half and sugar. In my early 20s I eschewed grocery store brands for Heine Brothers. When not ordering a basic cup of coffee, my brew of choice was a mocha.

At some point not so very long ago - within the last year, maybe - I stopped taking sugar in my coffee. I don't know why, but I do know that the idea of putting sugar in my coffee now makes my taste buds recoil. And I soon found that I loved unsweetened cappuccinos and lattes. In fact, I've been drinking quite a few lattes lately, and that's not a cheap habit to have. When I got a craving for one this morning, I quite impulsively said to Neil, "Let's get an espresso maker." So we did.

I know nothing about making coffee beyond filling my red KitchenAid automatic drip with water and freshly-ground beans. Unlike many of my friends, I've never worked as a barista or taken it upon myself to become particularly conversant with more than the very basics of coffee making. Given this fact, I was not about to drop several hundred dollars on an espresso maker more sophisticated than I am. I went to Target and bought this Mr. Coffee. And just now I served my very first two cappuccinos.

It was messy. I spilled coffee. I spilled milk. (I didn't cry.) The most baffling part of the whole experience was that there were no means of measuring anything. The water reservoir was marked with only minimum and maximum fill lines. The brew basket had two filters, one for one one-ounce shot and one for two one-ounce shots, but there was no indication as to how much coffee I needed to grind; I was just to fill the filter I wanted to use to the top. The most confusing thing was figuring out how to measure the espresso as it came out. The instruction manual informed me that cappuccinos are one part espresso, one part steamed milk, and one part foam. My machine has two spouts, which means I can place two cups under it, but how to know when each one contained a one-ounce shot? I'm terrible at eyeballing quantities, so I ended up just using a measuring cup, turning the machine off once it had spit out two ounces.

The milk quantity was similarly unclear. I was to fill a "small" pitcher halfway with milk. That part actually went pretty well for my first time steaming milk, although the manual cautioned me to be patient because doing it well takes practice.

I suppose all of this means that espresso making is more of an art than a science, so I imagine I will have to just keep messing around with it until I get good at it. My first two cappuccinos were pretty tasty, though. I'm sure it helped that I used Jackson's Organic.

Oh, and yeah, I realize it's been exactly two months since my last entry here. And there were so many things I've wanted to blog about since then. Our Thanksgiving potluck, making Christmas stollen with my mom, cooking Christmas breakfast for my parents and Neil's mom and stepdad, getting re-engaged at L&N (!!!), my first meal at August Moon, my second (much better) meal at Le Gallo Rosso, making persimmon pudding, going pescatarian again... It's been a busy several months food-wise. It's been a busy several months period, which explains my lack of blogging. But I have missed Blog Tartare, and I'm going to try to start updating again more frequently. Stay tuned!