Monday, October 13, 2003

Extracurricular Meditation   Ah, life.  Food, wine, work, and all the other stuff.  There has been so much of the former and enough of the latter all around to keep me from writing lately.  The enduring crunch time of my job has crashed about the ears with a rather resounding bang this year (it was about time, after all) and what with all the eating and drinking and other major extracurricular projects (wedding planning, or is it just worrying about wedding planning?) combined with the ups and downs of home ownership, a weekend house at that (yep, more worrying) and some side projects (stay tuned for news of those, any day now). . .  writing has fallen a bit by the wayside.  Apologies for that.   But a few highlights – I’ve discovered the joys of canning!!  Props to Marsha for that.  I have 3 cans of tomato sauce and 4 of plain stewed tomatoes that I hope aren’t too vinegary (better that than botulism, I suppose) but the seals popped down in a nice dramatic fashion for all so I think we’re safe.  Also four jars of applesauce, made from the “deer apples” that we could save from under the old tree at the bottom of our yard plus a big basket of my favorite Macouns.  (I love these apples so much – this is the only time of year I ever eat apples, but I make up for it by crunching 3 a day!  So sweet, so tart, so crisp.  And they make great applesauce. . .  which in turn makes a great applesauce fruitcake come Christmastime. . . .) The Sekel pears have been wonderful, as always.  Tiny sweet little things.  I’m so glad to see them every year. . . I think this week will be the last of them for sure.    Anyhow, this weekend past was a glorious fall weekend, with soft warm Indian summer on Saturday and a gorgeous crisp afternoon yesterday, and today, well, perfect.  I’ve finally gotten over grieving for summer, with apples and leaves in full swing and being so busy that I’m so grateful to the house for being a long quiet refuge on the weekends.  Soon the real cold will come and then we’ll be sad for these last beautiful days until we can enjoy a good fresh snowfall and an evening by a roaring fire.  Then the Cahors drinking will start in earnest (Fall is best for cru Beaujolais and some of the better, more elegant wines of the Languedoc.  Also Alsace whites. . . .)   Culinary triumphs of late include several tomato tarts of note and also a <ta-da> summer squash soufflé.  Okay, I only have one bowl up at the house so it was comical as I switched the base from the pot to the bowl to a bigger pot so I could whip egg whites (by hand, what a chore) but in the end – it worked!! Glorious.  May not be repeated for a while, but since I had an uninterrupted afternoon to myself in the kitchen – why NOT make soufflé?   This morning we cut a big chunk of our parsley plant to take home to the City since the poor thing will frost soon anyhow, despite its cute little nest of mulch.  A bit sprinkled over our winter veggies (fresh-fresh Brussels sprouts and carrots cooked with some bacon) tonight was so fresh, so green . . .  how will we go back to supermarket produce once the garden gets going?  More props to Deb for her wonderful list of gardening weblogs (look for them on the sidebar once you’ve read a few entries, because once you get there you won’t be able to resist the guiness stout ginger cake, I know.)  I can’t wait to have enough time to do more reading! Just in case that time comes sooner than I think, I got a great book called Near a Thousand Tables, a History of Food by Felipe Fernandez-Armnesto last week.  I started the first chapter at some point last week (long subway ride) and so far it's wonderful (!) Of course Philippe just stole it, and as I've had it lying temptingly lying on my bedside table all week, who can blame him.  Maybe I'll get it back someday soon and let you know how the rest is. . . .     9:49:45 PM    comment []