Holiday TV Goodness Part 1

No time for a real recap but the Food Network has holiday specials coming out of its ears. The first one I saw was the Barefoot Contessa Holiday. It's essentially four episodes in one with a section on holiday cocktail parties, a section on cookies, a section on breakfast and a section on a big holiday meal. In the cocktail party, she makes spike apple cider, proscuitto with melon, and potato pancakes with caviar and creme fraiche. It's her usual assortment of Hamptons dowagers and the gay men they love. She's even deigned to invite Michael the florist. Usually Michael just comes to arrange flowers and leaves before the REAL guests come. Ina could use his help because as a cetnerpiece she decided to use dead branches from her yard and decorate it with rings of dessicated fruit. If anyone watch King of the Hill, think of Peggy's yard waste Thanksgiving centerpiece. Unlike 99% of the things Ina makes, this looks like hot buttered ass. The next section is her making jam thumbprints which she then delivers to her friends all over Easthampton. We get a lot of arty shots of the Easthampton country roads where the houses are worth the GDP of a small developing nation. She gets invited in by her trusty sidekick Barbara. All of this goodwill makes her think of her husband Jeffrey who will be missing out on her big dinner party so she will be making a special breakfast with large obnoxious table arrangements of fruit and holiday greenery. The only thing special about this breakfast of scrambled eggs and toast is the caviar on the eggs and the mimosas. Then again, you can forgive a lot with a mimosa in your hand. Finally she makes a big holiday dinner with a roast turkey, a spinach gratin, green beans, caramelized butternut squash, and raspberry cheesecake. The four children at the dinner look incredibly bored and don't join in on the traditional cooing over the meal.

BTW, J is insistent I post the recipe for the Meyer lemon vinaigrette. It's simply equal parts Reisling vinegar, Cilantro citrus oil, olive oil and Meyer lemon juice with salt and white pepper.

Pauline's Tree Trimming Party

The holiday got into full swing with Pauline's tree trimming party. We had Christmas coming out of our ass with caroling (hint, do not have Pauline set the pitch), tree trimming, and hot spiked cider. We alternated singing secular (Jingle Bells) and sacred (Away in a Manger) ending in an off key but lusty version of Santa Baby. Somehow she was able to fit 25 people into a her apartment. Good conversation abounded. On the menu was a cheese platter with grapes, chevre, maytag blue cheese, and pepper jack; a salad with mixed greens (one of the best innovvations for home cooks), more bleu cheese, candied walnuts, and pears with a meyer lemon vinaigrette I made with the Riesling Vinegar and the Cilantro Grapeseed oil. The centerpiece of the meal is a lasagna that's legendary. She has never worked off of a recipe so this year J and I decided to play sous chef while writing down the measurements of ingredients. This makes two lasagnas, one vegetarian, one sausage. The vegetarian is for the those who don't eat meat and those who require their ground meat in patty form. It can easily be halved to make one or the other.

The sauce:

1 large onion, chopped
6 cloves of garlic, chopped
1/4 cup of olive oil
1 pound of sliced button mushrooms
1 16oz can of sliced black olives
2 32 oz cans of tomato sauce
2 32 oz cans of chopped tomatoes
1 8 oz can of tomato paste
1 1/2 teaspoons each of dried oregano, tarragon, sage, and thyme
1 tablespoon of dried rosemary, crushed
1 long medium heat pepper (Anaheim, cubanelle etc)
1 cup of red wine
Salt and pepper to taste

The rest of the ingredients:

2 pounds of lasagna noodles
4 links of hot Italian sausage
1 1/2 bags of spinach, chiffonaded (is that a word)
2 large containers of ricotta cheese
1 pound of aged provolone, grated
1 pound of pecorino romano, grated (best done ina food processor)

It all starts with the homemade sauce. Tip to the cook - make this ahead of time because this takes the bulk of the evening.

It starts with sauteeing a large chopped onion and 4 cloves of chopped garlic in a quarter cup of olive oil (use a large stock pot for this) for about 10 minutes until translucent. Add about a pound of sliced button mushrooms (if you want to go all gourmet you can add portobellos, creminis and shitake) and a 16 oz can of sliced black olives and saute for another 15 minutes. Add the rest of the ingredients and simmer for 20 minutes, adding salt and pepper as needed.

While the sauce is simmering, take the sausage meat out of the casing and sautee in a little bit of olive oil, making sure to break the meat apart as much as possible. Saute for about 5 minutes. In the meantime, boil lasange noodle in salted water with about 1/4 cup of olive oil until VERY al dente (take 5 minutes off the cooking time on the box). I will make a note and say that chiffonading the spinach is key to the integrity of this dish. It ensure the spinach can be easily distributed. When noodles are done, toss them in olive oil to keep them from sticking.

Now it's time to layer. For all lasagnas, start with a layer of sauce to keep the lasagna from sticking to the pan. Then layer in the following order: noodles/ricotta/provolone/romano/spinach/sauce/sausage. Repeat until you are out of ingredients, making sure to have enough sauce and cheese for the top layer. It's best to cover the lasagnas with plastic wrap and let them sit overnight but if you have to, bake for 45 minutes at 350 degrees. If it is coming straight out of the fridge, bake for an hour.

Crashing and Burning

I am banned from entering any nightclub in New York. DAMN YOU DUVET AND YOUR SOFT SHEETS AND YOUR HYPNOTIC JELLYFISH!!!! DAMN YOU!!!!! It's not my fault I was operating on 4 hours of sleep.

My whole trip to New York has felt very NEW YORK. The staff holiday party was at our Eexcutive Director's immaculate apartment. White walls, enormous kitchen, tasteful artwork. The half the servers looked like they walked out of an Abecrombie and Fitch catalog (clean cut with messy hair), the other half looked like they stepped off of an Armani catalog (long, greasy hair with a tan). They were all wearing tight black t-shirts that made the old gay men a-twitter. One of my co-workers is dating a puppeteer who made my night by bring his Madam puppet(as in Wayland Jennings) to regale the party.

It gets even more New York when we hit Duvet. We're a fabulous group of gays, straights, and trans folks. We stake out the biggest bed near the dance floor, and I order the Goose Down drink - gooseberries with vodka and other stuff. We're all talking and I start staring at their jellyfish aquarium and thinking to myself, "these sheets are so soft." Next thing I know, a server is poking me and telling me that we're not allowed to nap in the club. My co-workers are busting up for all the obvious reasons. I angrily demand that whoever slipped me the roofie come forward. It only makes them laugh harder. Apparently, I was napping for about 20 minutes. Many Sleeping Beauty Jokes ensue. I go to the bathroom and realize that I gave myself bedhead at a bar. So classy I am.

P.S. I was staying with a co-worker in Jersey City. It was astounding to take the PATH train to the World Trade Center stop and realize you are in the big hole that used to be the Twin Towers.

My Sex in the City Moment

Where am I going to be at midnight? At a bar, lounging around in bed. These are not mutually exclusive activities as I will be at the oh-so-hip Duvet nightclub that is 3500 square feet of king sized beds. I'm in New York for my work's holiday party and the promoters are extending a special invitation to the staff at my oh-so-hip nonprofit. With all of the nice 500 thread count linens and New York's smokefree laws, we've just hit upon the one nightclub I will feel at home in. I wonder what the etiquette is for taking naps in nightclubs? Thank god my sexy librarian glasses came in.

From my childhood - Ca Kho

I was whisked back to my childhood when I read the Chowhound post that Alice Patis did on her mother's claypot fish. This was one of the staples growing up and one of the few dishes from my childhood that I have committed to memory. In contrast to my vast love of this dish, I rarely cook it.

So Vietnamese caramel fish or Ca Kho, remains a delicacy that I cook for J and the Asians in my life. I'm insecure about whether someone initiated into tradtional Asian cooking will get this dish. It's the essence of northern Vietnamese cooking. The sweet-salty intense sauced flavors make this dish perfect for a cold night. I made this for a Filipino friend of ours and she said it reminded her of HER childhood. Another reason I don't cook this dish as much as I should, is that I love to serve it with sticky rice. Sticky rice is a dish that requires forethought. First of all, the sticky rice I like is Laotian long grain as opposed to the short grained sushi rice. It needs to be soaked at least four hours and then steamed in a woven basket for 45 minutes. The result is a rice that is sticky without being gooey. There will be a trip to the Eden center in the near future where I replenish my store of long grain sticky rice and Ca Kho will be made. As a side note, it appears my technique (which I learned from my mother) is vastly different from the traditional Caramel Fish which calls for a separate caramel sauce. This is not the definitive version but it's the one in my family.

Ca Kho
2 pounds of catfish cut into 2 inch chunks
1/2 cup of nuoc mam
2 tablespoons regular cooking oil
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 medium yellow onion, sliced
2 cloves of garlic, sliced
4 "coins" of slices ginger (ginger sliced into disks)
1 teaspoon Sambal olek
1/4 cup of sugar plus 2 tablespoons of sugar
Liberal amounts of pepper

Marinate the catfish in 1/4 cup of nuoc mam and about a teaspoon of black pepper for at least 15 minutes. In a small pot, sautee the onion, garlic and ginger in the oil and sesame oil until translucent (5 minutes). Add the marinated catfish, sambal, 1/4 cup of nuoc mam and 2 tablespoons of sugar and stir, trying not to break up the fish. Reduce heat to a simmer and cover. In the meantime melt 1/4 cup of sugar and 2 tablespoons of water until the sugar melts and is the color of an old penny. Once the sugar gets to that point, pour it immediately on top of the fish mixture. Deglaze the sugar pan with a few tablespoons of water and pour on top of the ismmering fish. Give the fish a stir and then cover and simmer for about ten minutes. By then the caramel would have melted into the sauce and made the sauce a golden brown color. Simmer for another five minutes to reduce the sauce. Serve with sticky rice. Another good accompaniment is sauteed spinach with lots of garlic.

Meyer Lemons

I can't stop sniffing my hands. You see, Meyer lemons are in season and I decided to make limoncello for a gift exchange. For those of you who haven't encountered the joys of this California lemon (all good things come from California - i.e. ME), the Meyer lemon is all about aroma. You just keep sniffing and sniffing for that lovely citrus fragrance that tickles your nose and perks your senses. Meyer lemons have the lightness of citrus but a lovely wafting floral scent I can't completely describe. It smells like citrus bouquet. The taste almost lives up to the scent. Somehow this have the flavor of lemon without the face smooshing sourness. Because limoncello only requires the zest of a lemon, we used the juice for lemonade, a wierd but wonderful treat in the middle of snowy evening. I just zested 15 of those suckers and their scent lingers on my hands. I am hold off on giving you the limoncello recipe because I have no idea if it will turn out. If it does, I'll let you all know. In the meantime I an sniffing my hands.

French Toast

French toast is a staple of my brunches. Unlike things like omelettes, waffles, and pancakes, French toast can be made ahead and reheated. In fact, I prefer my Frnech toast baked in the oven a bit. I don't want soggy bread. Also, the inherent breadiness of French toast makes it an ideal vehicle not just for maple syrup, but things like macerated strawberries. The difficult thing about writing a recipe for French toast you can add more egg-milk mixture if you run short so you never really think of how much of anything you need. Here's my attempt. Please let me know if I am off on any amounts.

1 loaf of challah bread or a good thick baguette
3 eggs
1 cup of milk
2 tablespoons of sugar
1 pinch of cinnamon
1 teaspoon of vanilla
1 pinch of salt
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoon cooking oil

Slice challah crosswise into 1/2 inch to 1 inch slices. The trick here is how far ahead you want to make these. If you are serving immediately, slice closer to 1/2 inch to reduce time in the oven. If you are reheating later, make it thicker to reheat without drying out. Melt the butter in the microwave and add the cooking oil. In a separate bowl, whisk together the rest of the ingredients. In a baking dish, arrange the slices in one layer and pour the egg-milk mixture on top. Let soak anywhere between two and five minutes. Dribble some of the butter-oil mixture into a skillet and spread around. Fry slices of soaked bread for about a minute on each side. Bake for about five minutes on a greased cookie sheet in a 350 degree oven to firm up the middle. If reheated later, bake for about 10 minutes. Maple syrup is good, but macerated strawberries rocks my world. Just hull and slice a pint of strawberries, add a teaspoon of sugar and a tablespoon of balsamic vinegar (I kid you not) and mash them a little to make the strawberries release some juice.

Under the weather? Your tips?

Unfortunately, I am sick as a dog. Yesterday, T was taking care of me (he is sweet like that and I was not functional) and ran out to Pacific Cafe and picked up some Pho Ga, which was delicious and helpful. The salty broth was soothing to my icky throat and the heat helped with the congestion.

Pho is on the top of my list, but help me out here. What are the foods that make you feel better?

-J

My Solemn Vow to You

OH MY GOD. I just found out that Lifetime has a tv movie coming out called "Recipe for a Perfect Christmas." The plot is that "bookish" food writer Carly Pope (who is like an even more trashy Lynda Lopez) bribes restaurant owner Bobby Cannavale to date her sexuallly voracious mother Christine "was the paycheck worth it?" Baranski. Obviously people learn the value of family. I'm disappointed that noone has as eating disorder, is chasing the dragon, or has to stand alone to bring a serial rapist to justice. Nevertheless, I am so gonna recap. That's my solemn vow to you.

Tales of New Year's Brunch

I always find brunch to be the most civilized meal of the day. The whole idea of having breakfast at a time that allows to you get over your hangover is brilliant. In the past years we've hosted a New year's brunch that's capped off our holiday season with our friends. With the hubbub of the holidays and the endless gatherings, we've found we never find time to do a proper gift exchange before people leave town. So we just dispense with even trying and chose to do it New Year's Day. The principle being, if you were to nurse your hangover, you would want to do it with those nearest and dearest to you. We did have one brunch where Pauline slept through the whole thing because she had a REALLY good time the night before.

Our first brunch in 2003 was a fairly low key affair. We made the mistake of giving a 12:30 pm start time. The earliest anyone came was 1:30 pm. We served what would become New Year's staples of French toast, Morningstar farms vegetarian sausage patties, and a citrus salad that was inspired by Mr. Henry's. This was before I became a religious watcher of Barefoot Contessa and sliced my segments widthwise instead of cutting between the pithy segments to only have the juicy fruit (ok I know that doesn't make sense). From then on there would additions to the menu, but no subtractions. Rootbeer brought the traditional black eyed peas.

Our second brunch in 2004 was a bittersweet affair that we ended up reminiscing about the good times with Rebecca 1.0 as she only recently had moved out the west coast. Auntie Ang rounded us up to make scrapbook pages for Rebecca 1.0. Much sighing ensued. This was the fateful event that Pauline may have STILL BEEN DRUNK FROM THE NIGHT BEFORE and therefore slept through. The Librarian provided the entertainment by downloading The Darkness songs and serenade the group. Menu additions included crepes with lemon curd and Nutella (not together) and Stinkle's New Year's cabbage. Apparently, there's some tradition that if you eat cabbage in the New Year, you'll find your true love.

With the hung over Pauline incident of 2004, and New Year's occurring on a Saturday, we decided to have New Year's brunch at dinnertime. This made for a saner prep and guests arriving without hangovers. This also was the introduction of Playstation karaoke to the New Year's festivities. Apparently, Writergirl has nursed a secret love of karaoke and the Librarian bought her Playstation karaoke for Christmas. I got wind of this hours before the "brunch" and asked (read: demanded) them to bring it over. I must say that that shit is effing addictive. Even when half the party was sequestered in our office because they couldn't stand it, those of us singing COULD NOT STOP. I was vindicated this summer when we had a party for J's co-workers and the karaoke MADE the party. Menu additions this year were Barefoot Contessa's orange yogurt and the introduction of Kir Royales to the beverage list.

This year Rootbeer's taking the reins but happy memories help us to nurse hangovers. I'll be posting recipes from the brunch through the month of December.