Monday, February 17, 2003

Ah, the little joys of Presidents’ Day.  So cozy to curl up under a down blanket to keep from freezing to death.  So exciting to waste a gallon of precious bottled water trying to get the toilet to flush.  So nice to know that even snowed in and freezing and waterless, it’s better than being at work.  Last night, seeing as how we’d exhausted ourselves going to Hold Everything in Manhattan and buying three bookcases and carrying them back home on the subway, and seeing as how we were poor after the purchase of said bookcases, and seeing as how it had begun to snow like a son of a bitch, we did not, after all, go out for Czech food.  Instead, I made up a little something with duck.  Which, generally speaking, I’m not very good at, but I think this turned out pretty well. I cut the rest of the duck off the carcass, then chopped up some schmancy organic tomatoes I’d bought at Whole Foods and never used, which were getting ready to go bad. Then I chopped some bacon and sautéed it.  When it was beginning to get crisp I took it out of the pan, and sauteed some minced garlic, rosemary and sage in the fat.  Then I threw in some sliced onions and let that cook until tender.  Next, the chopped-up duck.  All this I was doing over kind of high heat.  I let the duck sizzle around in there for a minute, then poured in some port.  When that had nearly evaporated, I poured in some of the left-over gravy from the duck, and let that evaporate.  Then more port.  Then more gravy.  By the end of all that evaporating, the duck had gotten a dark purply-mahogany color.  I threw in the tomatoes and bacon, and some more or the gravy, and a bit of my precious water, and let that simmer, on low heat, for twenty minutes or so.  I tasted, and it was good, but a little, I don’t know – shallow, somehow.  I threw in a bit more rosemary and sage, and that brightened it up a bit.  If I had had celery and/ or carrots, and could have included them with the onions at the beginning, that would have been better.  But it was pretty good as it was.  I served it with rice, and felt very proud of myself.  I improvised!  That’s got to be a good sign. So our pipes have been frozen for more than twenty-four hours now – and yes, mom, I DID call the landlady, who said basically what I thought she’d say – tough luck.  And it’s still snowing like fucker.  Some lady just cross-country skied past our window.  We had to go get more water, and find a bathroom.  And tonight I will try to move forward with the Project.  Skipping ahead a bit, because I don’t want to deal with finding/buying/carrying home a leg of lamb today.  Navarin Printanier, then – Lamb Stew with Spring Vegetables. How’s that for irony? 11:51:36 AM    comment []