vrai-lean-uh

The Latest Bon Appetit

Mon, 20 May 2013 20:24:19 -0400

On the masthead page of many magazines there’s a general question and then different staff members’ answers are displayed by their names. In the June 2013 issue of Bon Appetit, the question is “What summertime dessert do you look forward to?”

Let’s all guess who would be most insufferable as a coworker:

1. “Fresh blueberry pie topped with vanilla bean Haagen-Dazs.” Also known as: I could be a normal and pleasant coworker.

2. “Humphry Slocombe’s recipe for Elvis (The Fat Years) ice cream. I love it partly for the brown sugar-banana combo, partly for the name.” Also known as: I’m going to show up to your morning meeting hungover.

3. “Just-picked strawberries in late June from Wickham’s Fruit Farm on the North Fork of Long Island. Hit ‘em with a dollop of whipped cream…and welcome summer!” Also known as: Let me tell you about how I summer on Long Island.

4. “I love getting yogurt gelato and walking through Tre Fontane when I visit Sicily in the summer.” Also known as: Let me tell you about how I summer in Sicily.

What’s this? My baby’s crib in his own room? And not...

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 19:12:44 -0400

What’s this? My baby’s crib in his own room? And not in our room where I can keep an eye on him and make sure he’s breathing and generally have him right there? Yes.

You would think I was packing him off to boarding school.

Saying Goodbye to Cow’s Milk (Or, Stripping the Joy from...

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 09:58:43 -0400

Saying Goodbye to Cow’s Milk

(Or, Stripping the Joy from My Diet)

After weeks of being sick, we finally got a diagnosis of asthma for the kiddo, and the advice that I might want to think about cutting cow’s milk from my diet until we have the chance to do some allergy testing. In hindsight, the fact that he was covered in an eczema rash might have been an indication of allergies.

And OF COURSE I am happy to do this if it means it will make my baby healthy. OF COURSE. His being sick has been horrible and heartbreaking.

On the other hand, I am a person who buys herself a birthday cheese. I came home from that particularly bad doctor’s appointment with every intention of eating my feelings, and there was actually nothing eating-feelings-appropriate that didn’t involve cow’s milk. Ice cream? Yogurt with strawberries? Strawberries with sour cream and brown sugar? Bagel with cream cheese and lox? Oatmeal (made with milk)? Hot chocolate? Even the leftover pasta had ricotta.

I can’t even speak about butter. Butter! You guys know how I feel about butter.

Happily, I ran into Shannon at Whole Foods the next day, and there is truly no one in the world better equipped to guide one in the way of alternative dairy products.

So we cracked open the above Old Chatham Sheepherding Company Maple-flavored Sheep’s Milk Yogurt* while still in the dairy aisle and it is delicious. So good! Not too maple-y, and very rich and creamy, and with a slight sheepy tang, which I enjoy.

* The hope is that even if he’s allergic to the proteins in cow’s milk, that the proteins in other milks are different enough that they don’t cause problems. Fingers crossed.

Dave got back from his work trip and brought me this from the...

Sun, 21 Apr 2013 18:09:07 -0400

Dave got back from his work trip and brought me this from the Asiana Airlines Business Lounge. Tagline reads “For all people’s Happiness / We are baking fresh custard cakes everyday.”

Obviously I am totally delighted by this.

My apologies for the radio silence, folks. I’ve been dealing with a sick baby and the...

Thu, 18 Apr 2013 11:31:33 -0400

My apologies for the radio silence, folks. I’ve been dealing with a sick baby and the surprising lack of downtime that comes with going back to work.

Don’t fret, though. I’ll be back soon with the catalog of things that irritate me, dinner recipes, links to weird articles, and pictures of my dog that you’ve come to expect from me.

Maine Public Broadcasting Network and Sandwiches

Wed, 10 Apr 2013 11:55:55 -0400

Surprising no one, I listen to a lot of public radio.

In my quest to be a responsible adult, I also donate to MPBN, because I listen to them and value the programming and it makes me feel good. When I donate, I get a member card, which sits on my kitchen counter in its envelope for a few months until I either recycle/throw away the whole shebang or I file it to away somewhere never to be seen again. I never actually looked at the member benefits until recently.

But guess what? There are really good member benefits! There’s a buy-one-get-one-free deal at Aurora Provisions* on Pine Street in downtown Portland for sandwiches (I keep meaning to write a post about Aurora Provisions and their sandwiches and brownies, which are both VERY VERY GOOD) and a similar deal for entrees at Local 188.

On the one hand, going into Aurora Provisions and getting a free sandwich using your public radio coupon is more or less the definition of nerdy yuppie things. On the other hand, free sandwiches!

I love their turkey/cranberry sandwich, and they often have a really good special panino with beef, and the marinated vegetables panino is also delicious. Their peanut butter brownies and their walnut brownies are just about the best you can find in Portland.** And the staff are very nice.

Moreover, tomorrow is the big MPBN member/fundraising drive, so it’s not a bad time to pony up some cash to support your public radio.

* As of writing this, their website is all janked. They’re at 64 Pine Street, Portland in the West End. I believe they open at 8 am. It’s next to Caiola’s. They have coffee, pre-made sandwiches (breakfast sandwiches in the morning, lunch sandwiches later on), lots of cookies and sweets, chocolates, prepared foods, wine, and other elegant and expensive foodstuffs. There’s some nice seating by the windows looking out onto the parking lot. It’s a pretty area, and you could always get sandwiches and walk to the Western Prom for a bit of a picnic.

** That’s right! GAUNTLET THROWN!

FEELINGS

Thu, 28 Mar 2013 20:09:28 -0400

Guys, today was the last day of my maternity leave.

I am having a lot of feelings.

It turns out that caring for an infant all day is really hard. Or maybe not for other people. Maybe it’s sunshine and roses for others? It was really hard for me. There were a few days when I spent almost the whole day trying to get the kiddo to nap. Other days (most days) when he would consent to nap, but only when physically on my person. Also days when he just wanted to nurse, except not really, which is so much worse than it sounds. Days when every trip to the bathroom was accompanied by the sound of crying. Or I’d finally get him down to nap and then the dog would bark. All of this while neither of us really had any clue what we were doing. Was he tired? Hungry? Wet? Is this the acid reflux? Or a growth spurt? Or just him being angry about not being in the womb anymore? I was only guessing, and frankly, I think half the time he didn’t really know, either.

I like my job. I am looking forward to going back to work. And I am a little bit relieved to have some time to be an adult again, and to operate in a world that I have a clearer sense of control over, and to talk to other adults. And to know that I’ll be able to eat lunch. And pee without anyone crying.

On the other hand, it turns out I’m kind of emotional about this whole thing. I did not think I was, but the evidence is mounting:

- I cried in the car this morning listening to an NPR story about Edie Windsor and Thea Spyer.

- And then thinking about Mary Bonauto and all her work for marriage equality.

- And then in the kitchen thinking about how you learn to love by loving the people in your life (which I could recognize as unbearably sappy even in the moment and yet I still teared up).

- And then when Leo McGarry almost died alone in the woods (DAMN YOU, AARON SORKIN)

- And then when the kid fell asleep while I was holding him in the afternoon.

And I’m not a huge crier normally.

I was under the weather yesterday so the kiddo and I spent a chunk of the day hanging out in bed, chatting about baby things and laughing. He laughs and it feels like all those ridiculous things parents say it feels like and you roll your eyes at them. It’s amazing. And then today he fell asleep on my arm and I typed part of this post on my phone with my thumb because I couldn’t bear to move him and because the precious little baby shoulder and arm were right there with the squishy arm fat and elbow dimples. And he will get bigger and I won’t be able to have him snuggled up next to me sleeping and the elbow dimples will go away and I think that was when I cried that last time.

I’m sad that this period when it was just the two of us all day is over, as hard as it was. I wouldn’t change things— I want to go back to work, and I feel good about his daycare, and I CERTAINLY do not want to go back to when he was six weeks old— but I will miss him tomorrow.

Egg McMuffins and the Economy

Thu, 28 Mar 2013 15:07:30 -0400

Egg McMuffins and the Economy:

Two relevant points on this blog post that I found via fritesandfries:

1. McDonald’s breakfast orders as an economic indicator!

2. “Dayparts”!

A few kitchen experiments, with varying levels of success: Very...

Thu, 28 Mar 2013 10:42:15 -0400

A few kitchen experiments, with varying levels of success:

Very Successful

Steel cut oats with mango and coconut and brown sugar, inspired by a Real Simple oatmeal recipe (picture above). This was fantastic. I had it two days in a row. I skipped the cashews, but they’d probably be great, too. I also didn’t toast the coconut, because I have a very limited amount of time to prepare and eat breakfast while the kid is sitting happily in his bouncy chair and I didn’t want to waste it on toasting coconut. Priorities!

Pretty Successful

A Weight Watchers recipe for salmon in a tomato/coconut sauce. It’s sort of like a stew? I didn’t cut up the salmon first because that seemed like a hassle, so it wasn’t super evenly cooked. It was very good. Also amusing: Weight Watchers called for 12 cherry tomatoes, cut in half. Seriously? 12, not 13? I just used a handful.

Not Successful

High on the success of the coconut-in-oatmeal, I added coconut to a hot chocolate. It did not add a nice coconut flavor. It just tasted like hot chocolate with pulp.

newyorker: Today is the ninetieth birthday of Bob Elliott, of...

Wed, 27 Mar 2013 10:49:54 -0400

newyorker:

Today is the ninetieth birthday of Bob Elliott, of the classic American comedy duo Bob and Ray. Here, Joshua Rothman looks back at the duo’s work: http://nyr.kr/14lZRKQ

We used to listen to Bob and Ray tapes in the car with my dad. They had one bit from a company selling limited-edition chocolate bunnies but due to some unfortunate storage were now selling limited edition chocolate wobblies with a surprise hidden purple ribbon. I just remember laughing so hard I couldn’t breathe.

“I was going to finish a post about granola bars.” Aren’t you guys psyched...

Thu, 21 Mar 2013 16:55:40 -0400

“I was going to finish a post about granola bars.”

Aren’t you guys psyched you’re still reading this tumblr? I’ve got some really great content on deck here.

emilygould: describedbycooksillustrated: Everyone loves the...

Thu, 21 Mar 2013 16:46:20 -0400

emilygould:

describedbycooksillustrated:

Everyone loves the idea of turning a page while reading, but the reality is often very different: inconsistent paper quality, unhygienic saliva, and the frustration of inefficient turnover. The challenge: to find an easy, efficient means of turning a page while maintaining the classic reading experience. The solution: as it turned out, the secret to pleasurable page-turning lies in Swiss-milled oak-pulp paper - and a judicious application of gelatin.

Today my cookbook club created a novelty tumblr celebrating our inside joke about what if everything in life was described in the highly specific manner of a Cook’s Illustrated recipe headnote.

Submissions welcome.

This is everything that is great about the Internet. I was going to finish a post about granola bars but now I feel like I need to go work on a submission.

good: This Vending Machine Serves Up Fresh-Squeezed...

Tue, 19 Mar 2013 14:09:21 -0400

good:

This Vending Machine Serves Up Fresh-Squeezed Juice
- Adele Peters posted in Food, Health and Juice

Step aside, candy bars. LA’s newest vending machine—technically, a “juice ATM,” serves fresh juices 24/7. Like the Sprinkles Cupcake ATM, but quite a bit healthier.

Continue to designtaxi.com

L.A. is just the fucking worst. L.A. Is that friend from high school on Facebook who is constantly talking about how energized she feels during her juice cleanses and hot yoga and is so glad she’s above all that drama and you just have to get rid of people who are toxic and they know who they are.

God. I live in Maine. I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve left the house in footwear that wasn’t snow boots in the last three months. I don’t need that juice vending machine shit. I have coffee and shoveling.

On a whim when I was pregnant I started sewing a quilt for my...

Mon, 18 Mar 2013 12:39:50 -0400

On a whim when I was pregnant I started sewing a quilt for my kiddo. I thought it was going to be a really simple baby blanket/mat, the kind you put on the floor for them to play on. I made little squares out of scraps of old fabric and odds and ends— an old button-down shirt of Dave’s, leftovers from a dress I made. And then as I was working on it it slowly got bigger and more elaborate. And I thought I would just tie it instead of quilting it, or at the very least machine quilt it, but that seemed not as nice so I hand-quilted it. And then because it was nicely hand-quilted, I decided to do the nicer hand-finished binding. In this way I have been working on the super simple baby quilt for months.

It’s almost done, though, and I’m really, really excited.

Life/Work Balance (ha!)

Wed, 13 Mar 2013 14:00:55 -0400

I didn’t post about this with my whole you-should-go-to-Bresca-for-lunch post, because I think it’s more about me than it is about Bresca or its chef/owner, but I keep thinking about the shift in Bresca’s hours (they reduced the number days they’re open for dinner to Friday and Saturday and added lunch service Wednesday through Saturday).

I love to eat out, but I eat out casually, so you can take this with however many grains of salt you want, but in my opinion Bresca’s chef, Krista Kern Desjarlais, is making some of the best food in Portland. You can see and taste the level of care in her food. And she has fancy accolades up the wazoo.

And when you eat at Bresca, you are eating food that she cooked. When I was there on Saturday, it was Desjarlais at the opposite counter putting together my desert. According to an interview with the Portland Press Herald, Desjarlais has been on the line in her kitchen every night that Bresca has been open.

It sure seems like working at that level as a chef must be incredibly intense work. And probably doesn’t leave a ton of room for a personal life, or a family. I imagine, if those are things that you prioritize, you don’t have a lot of good options as a chef. The work isn’t going to get less intense. You can’t really decide that dinner will end at 8 pm. And there are certain costs (like rent) that you pay whether you’re open two days or seven days. You can decide to delegate, but that’s another salary to pay, and I’ve certainly eaten at restaurants that have suffered as their chef phases back.

I can’t speak to Desjarlais’ motivations, and to think that her priorities are the same as mine would be unbelievably presumptuous. But I personally think about the challenges of balancing a family, or a non-work life, with my work life a fair amount.* I like my job, and I like doing my job well. But I also really like the other things I do, like this blog, and my sewing projects, and my relationship with Dave, and having a kid, and walking the dog. At some level, advancement in my career generally involves graduate school while working, and regular travel to conferences and meetings, and grant proposals in the evenings and on weekends. I want to keep my job, and I want to do my job well. And I ALSO don’t want to give up eating dinner with my family, or reading for pleasure, or those things that make me feel like a real and complete person outside of my work.

So what I think is really fantastic is seeing what looks a lot like a person working at a really high level in their career navigating how to make that career work with the rest of their life. And you better believe that I will go out of my way to support their businesses.

* I would also like to say that this is something that Dave also struggles with, and while it often gets labeled as a woman’s issue, I really strongly feel that it is a universal career issue.

Lunch at Bresca I want to apologize to Krista Kern Desjarlais...

Tue, 12 Mar 2013 11:39:35 -0400

Lunch at Bresca

I want to apologize to Krista Kern Desjarlais and the good folks at Bresca for my crappy iPhone photo of their magnificent burger.

It’s the best burger I’ve had in a long, long time. It has bacon and cheddar cheese and mayo and mustard and ketchup and the juices run down your hand and it’s just really, really fantastic.

I mean, they have other great stuff. When I went last Friday with Kate, she got the Brussels sprout salad, which was better than a Brussels sprout salad has any business being, and a soup that I didn’t try because I was too laser-focused on my burger at that point but that looked wonderful. And then I went again Saturday and got the Bresca “Madame” sandwich, their version of the croque madame, which involved a perfectly cooked egg, gruyere, and speck. And then I got a chocolate Napoleon for desert (see also: living your best life). I know lunch is not a meal that generally involves desert, but I just felt that if you have an opportunity to eat one of Desjarlais’ deserts, you have an obligation to take advantage of that opportunity. I regret nothing.

If you haven’t been, the restaurant is pretty and tiny, with warm brown walls, a chalkboard menu, fresh flowers, and a huge butcher block counter. The dishes are in the range of $12 (desert was $10).

And you should go. It’s a pretty fantastic way to eat at one of Portland’s best restaurants for very little money. They’re open Weds - Sat from 11:30 am to 2:30 pm (as well as dinner on Friday and Saturday).

Which means you can be eating this burger as soon as tomorrow.*

* If you live in Portland.

America's Test Kitchen: How Did Grapes Get So Fat?: Americans are into big food (hello, Super...

Tue, 12 Mar 2013 10:52:55 -0400

America's Test Kitchen: How Did Grapes Get So Fat?: Americans are into big food (hello, Super...:

americastestkitchen:

How Did Grapes Get So Fat?: Americans are into big food (hello, Super Size Me). But when we think of oversized portions, it’s usually fast food or large restaurant plates. Turns out that our fruit is also ballooning up, specifically grapes. Thompson seedless grapes are, when grown naturally,…

Grape girdles!

Willpower and Sleep Deprivation

Mon, 11 Mar 2013 19:18:28 -0400

My ability to make healthy decisions is just not worth shit when I haven’t slept.

Turns out the researchers were right. Huh.

(Relevant quote: “Studies show that the effects of sleep deprivation on your brain are equivalent to being a little bit drunk!”)

Eat Oatmeal or The Terrorists Win

Sat, 09 Mar 2013 17:05:43 -0500

Eat Oatmeal or The Terrorists Win:

I feel very strongly about oatmeal.

I was at a breastfeeding group a few weeks ago* and someone brought up steel cut oats** and not being sure how to cook them and not really liking them. I had a reaction akin to when a missionary knocks on a door and the person who answers says “you know, I HAVE felt spiritually unfulfilled lately…” So I started going into the multiple ways to cook them and how you can cook them the day of or the night before or even a big batch on the weekend and then microwave smaller portions or I’ve even heard of people using their slow cookers and I like the big-batch-then-microwave method and I just add some milk and then nuke it for a minute and then stir and then 30 seconds more and I can add chocolate chips and walnuts and banana or brown sugar and almonds and currants or raspberries and brown sugar and almonds and a bit of cream but really the possibilities are ENDLESS. And then I realized I had said too much and maybe the woman really just wanted some commiseration about the grossness of oatmeal anyway.

And then a day or two later a friend sent me a link to the above article and it really summed up everything I feel about oatmeal:

People who do not eat oatmeal belong on the “You Are What’s Wrong With Everything” list. This is America. And these are the rules. Don’t like them? Take your stuffed-brioche-french-toast ass back to Aix-en-Provençe (Proper pronunciation “Axe Un Province.”)

Also, it directs readers Flour Bakery in Boston, which you may recall as one of my favorite bakeries ever and the makers of my carrot cake wedding cake, which I order every time I go as a mini-celebration of my marriage and life in general.

* Hand to God, it is all I can do to not make this a breastfeeding tumblr at times. I strongly suspect that it is a topic more interesting to me than any of my followers, so I’ve been sparing you. But it’s basically every other day thatI think to myself “but it’s totally food-related!”

** Oatmeal is supposed to be a galactagogue, to increase your milk supply. Now you know.

bobbydoherty: Openers I shot for New York Magazine’s Best of...

Wed, 06 Mar 2013 11:12:26 -0500

bobbydoherty:

Openers I shot for New York Magazine’s Best of New York Issue

This is the week that I just reblog shit, apparently. But look at the oysters! Guess who is stuffing her face with as much raw seafood and egg and cheese as possible now that she’s not pregnant? THIS LADY.