Tuesday, October 29, 2002

Mein Gott im Heimel, Hallelujah and Holy Frijoles!  I got a gift – and what a gift!  When I got home from my day at the salt mines, what should be awaiting me but not one, not two, but four jars of that greatest of all foodstuffs, Religious Experience Hot Sauce, from my faithful reader and new best friend Tim.  Glorioski!  Sadly, I had no chips in the house, but this is a technicality that will soon be rectified.  Wowzers!  I get to eat like a pig and write about it, and people give me free shit.  This is the kind of job I could learn to like!  Tim’s incomprehensible generosity has gotten me thinking.  I want to apologize to everybody.  All you people have blogs and other accomplishments that entertain and amaze on a daily basis, and I almost never refer to them.  It isn’t because I hate you.  It’s because a) I’m a techno-loser, and things like navigation bars seem to be out of my reach; b) I basically am only able to work on this thing from 6:45 to 7:45 every morning, and c) I’m a self-centered asshole.  But that’s gonna change.  You’ll have to bear with me cuz of the aforementioned point a), but every day I’m going to list a few lovely deserving super-talented friends and neighbors.  So, today: For a daily dose of zesty zen (I should be in advertising!!) check out the haiku-a-day on the beautiful Bekkah’s boggling blog … Everyone should read Using Bees To Effect Vengeance, and I’m saying that not because Alex oh-so-generously mentioned me on it, but because this guy is so much smarter and savvier than me that I bow my little head… See, now, I got distracted catching up on folks’ blogs and now don’t have time to list anymore… More tomorrow guys.  For now, on to the food…. After the dietetic horror show that was Tournedos Rossini, even mayonnaise-addict “Skinny Boy” Eric was ready for a rest.  Next in line in the Soups chapter is Soupe au Pistou.  JC refers to this as the ultimate early summer dish, but then in the next sentence she says you can make it any time with canned and frozen ingredients.  What the hell, say I, let’s see how Julias claims stand up.  Can you make a good Pistou with frozen green beans?  Were going to find out.  To make up for the frozen beans, instead of using canned navy beans I cooked some in the crockpot while I was at work.  I tell you what, I do love crockpot cooking.  I almost never do it, but it always leaves me with such a nostalgic, down-home feeling when I come home to the smell of beans simmering and the steam clouding up the pyrex top on the crockpot on the counter.  Memories of Christmas Eves past, red beans and rice for dinner.  (Except, who the hell am I kidding?  When I was a kid I wouldnt touch beans, I just ate the ground beef component of the red beans, which was yummery and crimson-colored, over rice.  But still, the beans in the crockpot remain an essential part of the memory.) So anyway, this soup is a piece of cake.  Just dice two cups each of carrots, potatoes and leeks and throw them in a pot with some water, and let them simmer forty minutes or so.  About twenty minutes before eating, dump in the frozen beans, the navy beans out of the crockpot, some broken-up spaghetti and a pinch of saffron (okay, Julie, be honest – I forgot to buy saffron.  But you should really do it, if you can….) This is where it gets fun.  Mash four cloves of garlic in a bowl, and mix with 4 tablespoons tomato paste (I’m still using the shit out of the cans, guys, but it was five cans for a dollar at Western Beef, so I’m not going to fret…), ¼ cup basil (or a little more, cuz I do love basil), and ½ cup parmesan until it’s sort of a (very thick) paste.  Then beat in some olive oil, about ½ cup.  JC says “fruity” olive oil, but I’m not one for all this schmancy adjectival nonsense, so Filippo Berio it is.  Still some of the soup into it to loosen it up.  Actually, you’re supposed to make this pesto-ish paste in a soup tureen and pour all of the soup into it, but I got not soup tureen, so once the paste is loosened up, I pour it back in bowl.  (“Edwina, back in bowl.”  Whoever can name that quote can get something or other.  I’m full of movie quotes today, I guess it’s reading back on pinkything’s blog about the quote competition, which was so Breakfast Club, I’d have totally won that one if I’d read it in time….) Eric and I ate this soup wide-eyed with gratitude.  “This is different,” was all Eric could say.  What he meant was not that it was indescribably bizarre, but that it didn’t taste “French” the way we’ve come to expect in the past few months.  It tasted fresh, light, green.  It tasted Italian.  And not a tablespoon of butter to be seen!  This was our first Provençale dish, and boy what a relief!  I highly recommend eating Soupe au Pistou after eating nothing but JC’s French cooking for two months.  Now, we’ll have to make it again in early summer, when all the fresh ingredients will theoretically be at their best, and see what kind of difference it will make. Oh, and hey, here's one more link -- an article explicating the fascism of French food... 7:55:55 AM    comment []