Aaaaaaaaaand it's Winter. 9 degrees today and careers and hobbies seem like a lifetime away in the struggle to not be found in an ice floe in Central Park.
Temping away, catering and then huddling inside a cinema to watch Young Victoria. Life becomes a chapter in a Jane Austen novel midway through January until around March. And I'm not complaining.
It appeals to the maiden aunt in my soul. Which is down there lurking with swashbucklers, archaeologists, medieval royalty, chefs and mystics...
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Monday, December 28, 2009
Christmas Eve
Just returned from five days in Woodstock where I was the chef for Christmas Eve dinner.
Sea Scallop Rumaki, Moules Marnieres, Prime Rib, Leg of Lamb marinated with Olive Oil, Dijon mustard, shallots and Rosmary, Goose stuffed with Braised Dates filled with foie gras and port wine reduction, Tarte Tatin, Tarte Fraise and Tangerine Flan.... and every wine under the sun.
Very successful and would do it again in a heartbeat. Great friends, food and drink in an idyllic setting. Certainly beat last Chrissy when I was by myself on my couch with a busted dvd of Sex & the City/The Movie. I was determined NOT to have to go through that again, thus--Gooseapalooza '09.
Next day was lamb stew and lamb sandwiches with Bearnaise sauce which does NOT keep well.
Have realized that my new favourite colour is egg yolk and sugar whipped into gold ribbons. :)
The hostess gave me her Breadmaker and three All-Clad pans which I hope to be buried with!
Five days of this was enough, because I swear... gout is imminent! I don't understand how the gourmets do it. Living like Louis XIV would kill me after a month. Anne Rice said, "The days of Wine and Roses are fabulous... but they're BRIEF!".
Got home last night and baked a loaf of bread. Didn't rise all the way, so will get to the bottom of that--and watched Sam Raimi's Drag Me to Hell, which was just the most awful movie. You'd like to think that if you're gonna commit to a character that there might be SOME chance of redemption for him/her... Feh.
Anyway... tonight, it's supposed to drop into the single digits and we're gonna freeze our tuchii off.
Happy New Year everybody...
OH--if anyone knows anything about the complimentary technique classes at Williams/Sonoma, please fill me in. I want to go, but not if it's just a chance for them to hawk merchandise for an hour.
Sea Scallop Rumaki, Moules Marnieres, Prime Rib, Leg of Lamb marinated with Olive Oil, Dijon mustard, shallots and Rosmary, Goose stuffed with Braised Dates filled with foie gras and port wine reduction, Tarte Tatin, Tarte Fraise and Tangerine Flan.... and every wine under the sun.
Very successful and would do it again in a heartbeat. Great friends, food and drink in an idyllic setting. Certainly beat last Chrissy when I was by myself on my couch with a busted dvd of Sex & the City/The Movie. I was determined NOT to have to go through that again, thus--Gooseapalooza '09.
Next day was lamb stew and lamb sandwiches with Bearnaise sauce which does NOT keep well.
Have realized that my new favourite colour is egg yolk and sugar whipped into gold ribbons. :)
The hostess gave me her Breadmaker and three All-Clad pans which I hope to be buried with!
Five days of this was enough, because I swear... gout is imminent! I don't understand how the gourmets do it. Living like Louis XIV would kill me after a month. Anne Rice said, "The days of Wine and Roses are fabulous... but they're BRIEF!".
Got home last night and baked a loaf of bread. Didn't rise all the way, so will get to the bottom of that--and watched Sam Raimi's Drag Me to Hell, which was just the most awful movie. You'd like to think that if you're gonna commit to a character that there might be SOME chance of redemption for him/her... Feh.
Anyway... tonight, it's supposed to drop into the single digits and we're gonna freeze our tuchii off.
Happy New Year everybody...
OH--if anyone knows anything about the complimentary technique classes at Williams/Sonoma, please fill me in. I want to go, but not if it's just a chance for them to hawk merchandise for an hour.
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Went to meet an old friend last evening, her daughter (also an old friend!) and HER daughters who were taking David Howard's evening class at Steps on Broadway and 75th. I hadn't set foot in the studio in almost fifteen years, and it was nice to see that not very much has changed.
Scholarship kids still running the register (I used to do this), same antique wood furniture everywhere and the same social life going on outside the studios on the floor. The dancers look younger than ever and I stared into the same mirrors I stared in long ago.... Only a VERY different face looked back at me. Time... she's a bitch of a mistress...
David is a legend in the dance world and the dancers and artists he has created populate every major company in the world. Was lovely to see this icon and my old friend relive memories. He is rather physically feeble now, but his voice is still powerful and he demonstrates with his hands. He lost his studio in NYC as the rent skyrocketed to an unbelievable rate--as so many rents have done, and now teaches at Steps.
Getting to the studio was chaotic as some idiot on the subway slammed a box into my back and we got into a screaming match. The whole time I am cursing this cretin out, I am thinking, "Jesus man, lighten up, it's Christmas!", but yet my mouth kept going and god knows there was an audience. I was so embarassed I got out of the subway at 66th street and walked the rest of the way. Ho, ho, NO. Light a candle for my short, temper someone won't you please?!?!?
Heading up to Woodstock tomorrow to begin this cookfest.
Merry Hols, everyone.
Scholarship kids still running the register (I used to do this), same antique wood furniture everywhere and the same social life going on outside the studios on the floor. The dancers look younger than ever and I stared into the same mirrors I stared in long ago.... Only a VERY different face looked back at me. Time... she's a bitch of a mistress...
David is a legend in the dance world and the dancers and artists he has created populate every major company in the world. Was lovely to see this icon and my old friend relive memories. He is rather physically feeble now, but his voice is still powerful and he demonstrates with his hands. He lost his studio in NYC as the rent skyrocketed to an unbelievable rate--as so many rents have done, and now teaches at Steps.
Getting to the studio was chaotic as some idiot on the subway slammed a box into my back and we got into a screaming match. The whole time I am cursing this cretin out, I am thinking, "Jesus man, lighten up, it's Christmas!", but yet my mouth kept going and god knows there was an audience. I was so embarassed I got out of the subway at 66th street and walked the rest of the way. Ho, ho, NO. Light a candle for my short, temper someone won't you please?!?!?
Heading up to Woodstock tomorrow to begin this cookfest.
Merry Hols, everyone.
Monday, December 21, 2009
The Winter Solstice
December 21.
The Winter Solstice.
CLEARLY the first day of Winter as the snow from the Northeastern Blizzard has backed up and it takes double the time to walk anywhere. Still sort of white.
It's insanely cold and time for the I Don't Care coat. The Ugly Betty coat. AKA the vomit-taupe, Michelin Man coat I bought at Daffy's for 7 bucks when I first arrived to counteract the elements in the bleak Midwinter. The coat I wore when I was meeting my roommate at The Color Purple on Broadway and while standing on 52nd St, he could see my approach from 47th Street. And had to check or buy another seat for.
The I DON'T GIVE A DAMN HOW I LOOK IT'S FREEZING SO GET OFF MY DRESS coat.
Sitting at my temp desk laden with Mucinex, Airborne, Advil and enough coffee to jump start Lazarus.
No auditions this week that I can go to due to this gig and the resounding cold that is pummeling my pulmonaries... and a HUGE case of the Mean Reds. Getting ready to abscond Upstate and start the process of Christmas Eve Dinner.
Definitely need to get out of the city for a bit, even if the entire time will be spent in front of a stove. Worse places to be!
The Winter Solstice.
CLEARLY the first day of Winter as the snow from the Northeastern Blizzard has backed up and it takes double the time to walk anywhere. Still sort of white.
It's insanely cold and time for the I Don't Care coat. The Ugly Betty coat. AKA the vomit-taupe, Michelin Man coat I bought at Daffy's for 7 bucks when I first arrived to counteract the elements in the bleak Midwinter. The coat I wore when I was meeting my roommate at The Color Purple on Broadway and while standing on 52nd St, he could see my approach from 47th Street. And had to check or buy another seat for.
The I DON'T GIVE A DAMN HOW I LOOK IT'S FREEZING SO GET OFF MY DRESS coat.
Sitting at my temp desk laden with Mucinex, Airborne, Advil and enough coffee to jump start Lazarus.
No auditions this week that I can go to due to this gig and the resounding cold that is pummeling my pulmonaries... and a HUGE case of the Mean Reds. Getting ready to abscond Upstate and start the process of Christmas Eve Dinner.
Definitely need to get out of the city for a bit, even if the entire time will be spent in front of a stove. Worse places to be!
Sunday, December 20, 2009
Snow-dendum
Clearly I blogged too soon. The storm raged on for about 14 hours. a good foot of snow on the ground and traffic lunacy for all to see.
A bus went diagonally down Lefferts in front of the Kew Gardens Cinema as I was coming out of Me and Orson Wells. Cute movie. Zac Efron is ... well, he's just pretty as hell. You can't mince words there. And it was a good film about being an actor. How you must do it because there is nothing else you CAN or WANT to do. It's in your soul. You're a "God-created" actor.
And you take the good with the bad.
Would love to see a bit more good, but that's why we struggle. And hope.
As I am still besieged by weather, it's time to make those Bananna muffins and rehearse the Goose. I only get one shot at that.
A bus went diagonally down Lefferts in front of the Kew Gardens Cinema as I was coming out of Me and Orson Wells. Cute movie. Zac Efron is ... well, he's just pretty as hell. You can't mince words there. And it was a good film about being an actor. How you must do it because there is nothing else you CAN or WANT to do. It's in your soul. You're a "God-created" actor.
And you take the good with the bad.
Would love to see a bit more good, but that's why we struggle. And hope.
As I am still besieged by weather, it's time to make those Bananna muffins and rehearse the Goose. I only get one shot at that.
Saturday, December 19, 2009
Snow?
Well... the BIGGIE was a smallie. So much for THE STORM OF 2010~!
I went to Tradefair to buy the goose and you would have thought the war had ended with the cashier lines to Long Island and the extremely freaked out, non English-speaking cashiers.
65 bucks later, goose in hand, we drove back through the snow to the house, made the Rosemary Bread (where DID Tim learn to knead dough????? Is this some Midwestern rite of passages we in the Northeast don't know about???), mulled the wine, popped on the fake fireplace and are waiting for ...THE BLIZZARD. If Winter's on the wing, then it's a pigeon, not a condor, that's carrying it.
I went to Tradefair to buy the goose and you would have thought the war had ended with the cashier lines to Long Island and the extremely freaked out, non English-speaking cashiers.
65 bucks later, goose in hand, we drove back through the snow to the house, made the Rosemary Bread (where DID Tim learn to knead dough????? Is this some Midwestern rite of passages we in the Northeast don't know about???), mulled the wine, popped on the fake fireplace and are waiting for ...THE BLIZZARD. If Winter's on the wing, then it's a pigeon, not a condor, that's carrying it.
Snow Day
Snowstorm moving up and over from the South and the Midwest.
This means, while the expected 12 inches accumulates, I will be baking bread.
Trying to, at any rate as yesterday's aborted attempt forced me out into the cold for two bottles of Malbec and an evening in front of Four Weddings and a Funeral because the "knead" attachment on the five dollar Sears Food Processor from 1983 (5 dollars at a yard sale) liiiiiies....
It was not bread, so much as Yeast Soup.
So, not to be thwarted, here we go again.
My housemate lectured that bread making is a process of love... the kneading and all. That might explain why I am not so into it. Perhaps my intimacy issues extend to carbohydrates as well.
Paging Dr. Freud to the kitchen... STAT!
Made Bananna muffins yesterday that were damned good. Added ground cloves, allspice and dusted the tops with brown sugar (oh--substituted two thirds of the called for sugar in the recipe with brown sugar as well). Damned good!
Trying to buy the goose today. May have to head out to Long Island with an axe if this doesn't work.
This means, while the expected 12 inches accumulates, I will be baking bread.
Trying to, at any rate as yesterday's aborted attempt forced me out into the cold for two bottles of Malbec and an evening in front of Four Weddings and a Funeral because the "knead" attachment on the five dollar Sears Food Processor from 1983 (5 dollars at a yard sale) liiiiiies....
It was not bread, so much as Yeast Soup.
So, not to be thwarted, here we go again.
My housemate lectured that bread making is a process of love... the kneading and all. That might explain why I am not so into it. Perhaps my intimacy issues extend to carbohydrates as well.
Paging Dr. Freud to the kitchen... STAT!
Made Bananna muffins yesterday that were damned good. Added ground cloves, allspice and dusted the tops with brown sugar (oh--substituted two thirds of the called for sugar in the recipe with brown sugar as well). Damned good!
Trying to buy the goose today. May have to head out to Long Island with an axe if this doesn't work.
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