Eating on Jitneys

I have a variety of things to discuss in this blog entry. Eating on Jitneys is going downhill fast. I’m sorry. This blog has turned into a mess with no direction whatever. Eating on Jitneys my ass! I spent $8 on two bags of flour today. But am I really to blame? We have no bread at home that is not in the form of bagels and after looking at the weather forecast (gloomy) I felt it might be appropriate to bake some this weekend. And I am not really making much at home since I spend my entire day baking. So I am guessing that until post-June 20th (my graduation) this blog will kind of suck.

So what do I have to report? Well, first things first. I tried. I tried to like meat. I really did. I wanted to like it and I wanted to get my protein from something other than soy and wheat. But check out these photographs of my refrigerator. It isn’t working:


…and the only meat in there that is mine is salmon. Smoked salmon. Come on. But I have no shame. BBQ is upon us and this year, rather than concentrating on trying to love meat I will concentrate on actually perfecting the grilled pizza.

Hey, speaking of pizza. Ellen and I are making some tomorrow, and here is the dough proofing in the refrigerator:

Next thing of note: I have been eating enough sugar lately to make me puke. I obviously can’t get away from the world of sugar and sugar candies. I spent 6 years in high school and college vacations working at the coolest candy store on the face of the planet. Now I make these:

What would my old boss at the candy store think of this? He’d probably be very confused, as I was. Oh those French….
But here we go. Hard candies, Nougat, Lollipops, and Pate a Fruit. We get closer to penny candy:

Here is what happens when your dessert crumbles:

Like I said, I had many different things to report. One of these days I will get back on track. Spring is here.

A couple of weeks ago I sat in during a Continuing Education Class at school taught by….dumdumdum…Christophe Michalak. Yes, the one and only. When I signed up for the class one of the chefs at my school told me that he is “totally hot in France right now.”

True. He also seemed to have an enormous prejudice against all-things-American. I mean, the guy knows what he’s doing. He also knew how to really style his hair. Here is a picture of his “pastry buffet”: it’s everything that the people in the class made during 3 days. I didn’t get to make anything. I washed dishes. But I did get to sit in on the class for free, get his recipes, and take notes…and pictures:

Here’s a good one. Chef Michalak told us to throw these marshmellow bears away because he was done with them. We took one look at them and knew we would not throw them away. We would, at the very least, take them to our class…and maybe take a little bite. Yes, here is Eva taking a little bite.

…buuuuut he needed them back the next day. And we accidentally left the bitten bear on the tray.  He already apparently hates Americans.  I’m guessing this didn’t help.

It was really cool to see his demos (even if he did have to use “shitty American pectin” and “no fresh raspberries??”).  I learned some things, and got a lot of cool pictures.

I really didn’t want this to turn into a pastry school blog photo show-off…but honestly, that is all i have been doing lately. That and scrounging for food. So here are pictures of pastry school, and explainations of what it’s like to be someone that loves grocery shopping that hasn’t had time or means to go grocery shopping in three weeks.

First, the sad stuff. Literally, I haven’t been grocery shopping in three weeks. I accidentally went to Costco with FVD two Saturdays ago which was probably the biggest mistake of the New Year. Costco…sucks if you don’t have at least 4 people in your household. I bought some Diet Coke because yes, I like Diet Coke. I am no longer ashamed. I also bought Orange Juice. Everything else just seemed like a rip-off. Also, driving to Costco on a Saturday is definitely the worst possible idea that could ever happen.

On to other topics. Since I have been working and in school I have had about 1-3 hours of personal time a day. I usually like to spend those hours showering, checking email, having some red wine, and watching TV. That sounds lame but when you only have a very small amount of free time in your day and it is 1 degree outside, please try and tell me that that is not what you would do too. Come on. Because of this lack of time, you might wonder…Eating on Jitneys…what are you eating? Well, I ask myself that every night while I’m walking back from the train. I have realized that it’s all about stocking up and hiding food from yourself. If I hadn’t bought that sweet potato 3 weeks ago or hidden those toasted (whole!) almonds from myself this summer I would be starving tonight. Being busy leaves to to make small egg sandwiches (scrambled eggs inside toasted bread, spread with mustard and cream cheese and sprinkled with diced artichoke hearts) and have boiled sweet potatoes for dessert.

Speaking of dessert…here are some pastry school pictures. I tried not to include these, but I am so proud:

This is long overdue, but things have been busy. I made these Christmas cookies last weekend, but, despite the fact that I keep eating them as a dessert to my breakfast, there are still a ton of them left so I really don’t think it’s too late.

Even just a year ago I thought that Russian Teacakes were something that just my extended family made. Same with Thumbprint cookies. I don’t know where I was. I mean, how did I somehow miss the cookie tin in every single childhood friends’ house that probably was filled to the brim with every American childs’ favorite fucking Christmas cookies: Russian Tea Cakes? It’s not that it ruins the cookies, knowing they weren’t especially special to my family, but it does make me realize there might be more than just one recipe for them. However, Christmas makes me crave tradition like nothing else. And what’s more traditional than a Betty Crocker recipe? For Christmas cookies that your mom made? Right?? So I used that one, and here’s a picture:

Next came the Thumbprint Cookies: also a mistaken family secret. As a kid, I used to only like these without jam in the middle. I would eat them before my mom had put the jam in the center for…I have no idea what reason. Jam in cookies is so good!

Thumbprint Cookies
(adapted from Betty Crocker by my mom)

1/4 cup butter or margarine, softened
1/4 cup shortening
1/4 cup brown sugar (packed)
1 egg, separated
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 cup flour
1/4 tsp. salt
3/4 cup finely chopped nuts
jelly or jam

heat over to 350 degrees.
mix thoroughly butter, shortening, sugar, egg york and vanilla. work in flour and salt until dough hold together. shape dough by teaspoonfuls into 1-inch balls.

beat egg white slightly.
dip each ball into egg white; roll in nuts.
place 1 inch apart on ungreased baking sheet; press thumb deeply into center of each.

bake about 10 minutes or until light brown. immediately removed from baking sheet. cool.
fill thumbprints with jelly or jam (raspberry is best)

I also made these Swedish Christmas Cookies because I wanted to make something I had never tried before, in addition to the two family staples.

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My friend Emily sent me this cool link that I thought I should share…

Foodpairing

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November 11, 2007 will forever have a special place in my heart. On November 12 I felt sadder than I have felt in at least a year, because November 11th was over. Last Sunday, Ellen and I completed the semi-impossible: a hitch-free elaborate dinner party for 12 people. Despite the fact that there was serious drama the day before (involving a hit-and-run) and a late start, literally nothing went wrong.

While I have had dinner parties before, they have been more centered around the party rather than the dinner. This one required…ok maybe not required but at least took a month of planning. The planning was so fun! Luckily we agree on just about everything (like having lavender and chocolate for dessert, ditching the idea of making terrines at the last minute, infusing vodka for some signature cocktails, etc) which made the process stress-free. We even got together and made some invitations using some polaroid transfers, paper, a printer, and a sewing machine. I know, right??

I have been hestitating to write about the dinner party because, well, it has become so special to me. So perfect. I’m not joking. I’m already looking up pretty matching cloth napkins on etsy that I might want to purchase for the next dinner party (with the theme of “Gourmet Mexican”).

This dinner party did not have a Mexican theme. This was a fancy French dinner. Here was the basic menu (picture me crying while I type this, because I might as well be):

to start
-French Cocktail with two kinds of personally infused vodkas (vanilla and raspberry)

-Amuse-bouche de mer: Scallop seared in butter, atop cucumber spread with beet horseradish
-Amuse-bouche de courgettes: Zucchini fritters with oil, lemon, and egg sauce
-Olives

upon seating

1. cream of cauliflower and brie soup
2. salad of green apples and arugala with parmesan-thyme crisp and toasted pumpkin seeds.

main course

1. a variety of miniature quiche
2. potato tower
3. brussel sprouts and bacon

cheese course


(only a taste of the 6 types of delicious cheeses, paired with Chicago Co-op honey and Conchord grapes)

dessert

1. lavender cookies

2. 2 kinds of truffles, dipped in cocoa and almond

coffee

We both agreed this was the most fun we had had in a long time. Unfortunately we couldn’t invite everyone we wanted, because this wasn’t a rager. It was a serious dinner party because we are serious about food.

I had my first dinner party at the new place on Saturday and was able to test out a few new recipes and devices. This made me a little nervous, since I knew that at least 12 people were coming, but then I realized that I am the only person that probably cared, especially since the estimated eating time was about 11pm and I think most people were considering this a party, rather than a dinner party. So then I just had fun with it. I kind of got in over my head, but it was worth it when I realized that it had all been eaten by about 3am. The menu consisted of things I like, not really things that go well together. But do I really need to explain myself? I made samosas, spinach and pine nut ravioli (with olive, butter, pine nut and roasted red pepper topping), and pistacchio ice cream. The ice cream was the best by far, but I didn’t get any pictures of it. I did some research on the Cooks Illustrated website and finally settled on a Kreps ice cream maker. It is basically the most exciting purchase I have made in months, and it was very affordable on Amazon.

Ellen brought over some Mushroom Loaf which I didn’t get a good picture of either. I kind of documented us plating our food while everyone else was drinking/not caring behind us. Priceless. Here is one picture of a plate. It actually looks kind of gross, now that I look at it, but both were delicious. I used won ton wrappers this time around, rather than making my own pasta. I was super skeptical at first because I don’t normally like cutting corners like that, but they saved so much time and tasted nice and light. Until I get a pasta maker I will probably keep using won ton wrappers.

Take a look. It tasted way better than it looks: