paragiraffe (posts)

Gnocchi

maura@paragiraffe.com (Maura Chace) — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 23:06:15 -0400

Today was a rare and welcome off day from baseball. With our ample free time, of course we came right home and made gnocchi and tomato sauce, both from scratch, for dinner. This is the kind of crazy stuff you get to do when you don’t have kids or responsibilities.

For the tomato sauce, we had a white onion, a couple of ripe tomatoes and the ever-present garlic. I loosely followed the 15-Minute Tomato Sauce recipe from Chez Pim. I ended up having a lot of onion for the amount of tomato I had, which I really didn’t see as a problem.

Shaun has made gnocchi a few times, and I’d say this is still a work in progress for us. I followed the gnocchi recipe on 101 Cookbooks. I wouldn’t serve it to guests yet, but, you know, I’d eat it.

And the apartment smells like an Italian kitchen now. Score!

Alcatraz

maura@paragiraffe.com (Maura Chace) — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 21:18:38 -0400

So there’s just this one thing I wanted to tell you about Alcatraz, which I learned on my tour of the island.

In 1969, after the facilities had been closed as a federal penitentiary, a group of Native Americans decided to take a stand and attempt to live the island, in protest against the land taken from them by the government. They claimed rights under an old treaty allowing them to occupy abandoned federal property.

Alcatraz Island is not a very friendly place to live. All of the occupants later left the island, but the standoff brought a lot of attention to relations between Native Americans and the US government.

AT&T Park

maura@paragiraffe.com (Maura Chace) — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 23:01:54 -0400

In May, Shaun and I went to San Francisco for five days, and one of the big reasons we went was to see a Braves’ road game. I’ve seen AT&T Park on TV a bunch of times, so I knew it was pretty nice.

You probably already know that it’s on the water, about McCovey cove, “splash hits” and whatnot. AT&T park is a nice traditional baseball stadium, not unlike Turner Field. It has much better food that Turner Field (we have Aramark) and has a more intimate feel, seating about 10,000 fewer fans. We took a nice walk around the whole concourse level while the Braves were taking batting practice. On the other hand, the video scoreboard at Turner Field is about three times the size and our announcer is way better. We like hanging out on the concourse level behind home plate, but at AT&T park that whole area is blocked off with food stands.

I wasn’t sure how going to an away game would be. Atlanta being the transplant city that it is, we get plenty of away team fans, and that works out mostly okay except for Cubs fans who are obnoxious. One guy did say “SUCKS!” after every Braves player was announced in the starting lineup, although for Jeff Francoeur we had to agree. After the game starting going south for our guys (kind of surprising giving the pitching matchup at the time), I couldn’t help but start planning my retorts in the event I was heckled.

We walked the mile or so back to our hotel after the game, and a Giants fan did say something to Shaun about his Braves shirt. I feel bad about it now, but I unleashed. “Hey, at least we’re still above .500.” “How’s that division going for you?” (The Giants were/are quite a few games behind their division leader, the Dodgers, who did and still do have the best record in baseball.) Sorry, Giants. I like y’all fine, especially Tim Lincecum.

Sublime Doughnuts

maura@paragiraffe.com (Maura Chace) — Sun, 31 May 2009 14:32:10 -0400

Well over a week ago, Shaun had a birthday. Not as big a birthday as he’ll have next year, but that didn’t stop me from making fun of his age. As is now tradition, Shaun gets doughnuts on his birthday, because many of the other weekend mornings of the year start like this.

“Are we having doughnuts for breakfast?”
“No. You can have doughnuts on your birthday.”
…pause…
“Did you know today is my birthday?”

Usually I go for the quintessential Krispy Kremes (totally gross in comparison to Dunkin’ Donuts, but, hey, it’s not my birthday). However, having read John Kessler’s profile on Sublime Doughnuts and its proprietor, Kamal Grant, I decided to try something different.

Yowza. I’m not a doughnut fiend by any means, but I am still thinking about these. We had the peanut butter cup, orange dream star, Butterfinger, white chocolate, dulce de leche and a double chocolate one that has a cuter name I can’t remember at the moment.

Chipotle Chicken Rolls with Avocado Dipping Sauce

maura@paragiraffe.com (Maura Chace) — Sat, 23 May 2009 13:46:24 -0400

Food photography is a funny thing. Like all photography, good lighting is probably the most important thing. However, I find with food sometimes a delicious meal can look just blah and vice versa.

This recipe comes from Rachael Ray’s 365: No Repeats, which is, in fact, enough different recipes for an entire year. I’d been wanting to make this particular recipe because I already had phyllo dough in the freezer for the wraps, and it includes avocado. I am very into avocado right now.

Anyway, back to food photography. Doesn’t this look nice?

The funny thing is, while I thought the meal was alright, it photographed much better than it looked in real life. I thought the rolls looked a little pale and kind of sloppy. The avocado sauce was good, but it called for way too much lime juice. We ate these cold the next night at the baseball game, and they were fine that way, too.

Recipe: Chipotle Chicken Rolls with Avocado Dipping Sauce.

Bad news...

maura@paragiraffe.com (Maura Chace) — Sun, 17 May 2009 11:47:23 -0400

Here’s the latest on the robin’s nest from my Dad:

Check out the bits of blue shell. Nature is cruel!

Robin's egg blue

maura@paragiraffe.com (Maura Chace) — Wed, 13 May 2009 22:14:34 -0400

The last time I was at my parents’ house I noticed a bird had built a nest in a tree in their backyard.

What was interesting about this nest was that it is so close to the house and so low to the ground. Not exactly the safest place to leave your incubating children unattended.

I took some photos and made a really inappropriate comment like “I can’t wait to have a delicious robin’s egg omelet.” Just kidding. Anyway, the other day my Dad sent me this photo!

And that is why they call it robin’s egg blue. I’ll let you know if I get any more news from the nest.

How we plan a vacation

maura@paragiraffe.com (Maura Chace) — Sat, 02 May 2009 11:22:12 -0400

“We should go on vacation.”
“Okay.”

Weeks pass.

“Where should we go on vacation?”
“I want to go to Chicago.”
“I want to go to San Francisco.”

Weeks pass.

“I really think we should go to San Francisco.”
“Okay.”

Weeks pass.

“The Braves are playing in San Francisco on Memorial Day.”
“Okay.”

Weeks pass.

“I need to have activity on my SkyMiles account by the end of April.”
“Okay.”

Weeks pass, and we finally book airfare on April 30th, around 9:30 p.m.

Homemade Oreos

maura@paragiraffe.com (Maura Chace) — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 20:55:25 -0400

This past weekend we went to the home of my friend Stacey and her husband Jon for dinner. So grown up! Anyway, I was bringing dessert, and I couldn’t decide what to make. My initial thought was something with fruit to celebrate the warmer weather, but nothing in particular really struck my fancy. The plan was to have burgers for dinner, and I remembered these homemade Oreos on Smitten Kitchen, which I figured would go well with an Americana meal. Also, they’re not fussy.

I have to pause here and express pain at the culinary beating Nashville took in that post.

Anyway, they were just as advertised: delicious and really easy. A pair of simple chocolate cookies are filled with a buttercream frosting. Shaun’s still asking for them today. My cookies didn’t spread quite as much as they had for others, but I have some theories on that (maybe my butter was not warm enough, or my white whole wheat flour substitution was thirstier). The filling calls for half butter and half shortening, but I did all butter because I do not use the latter. (I imagine the shortening adds a bit of stability to the cream, but they seemed fine to me.)

Recipe: Homemade Oreos on Smitten Kitchen

Pozole!

maura@paragiraffe.com (Maura Chace) — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 12:00:31 -0400

The last time my Dad was in town, we decided to make our second visit to Bone Garden Cantina, a Mexican restaurant I’d written about before. I knew I wanted to try their pozole, which was The Blissful Glutton’s favorite dish on her first visit. Pozole is a Mexican stew or soup with hominy, some kind of meat and a variety of other ingredients and garnish, often including avocado. Avocado! In soup! Count me in.

So the pozole there was good, a bit heavy on the pepper for me, and I immediately started looking for recipes to make it at home. I checked Shaun’s Rick Bayless cookbook, but he had written about it in another book. On to the internets. Bobby Flay’s posole recipe included mushrooms (?) but no avocado. Then I found this Mexican Chicken Pozole Verde recipe from Food & Wine by Anya von Bremzen. This struck me as kind of funny because we have a von Bremzen cookbook, but it’s Spanish. Anyway, this was exactly what I was looking for.

This recipe takes a bit of time, but it’s pretty easy. The end result is a super-flavorful broth, which is a little sweet from the tomatillos. I think the avocados are indispensable, but I also think the world wouldn’t end if you shredded a rotisserie chicken into the soup, instead of cooking the split breasts, which would save some time. Some reviewers thought you should cook hominy for a bit longer than “just until heated through,” and I let the soup simmer for about 30 minutes before we dug in.

Recipe: Mexican Chicken Pozole Verde Recipe — Anya von Bremzen.

Coney dog

maura@paragiraffe.com (Maura Chace) — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 22:46:33 -0400

This afternoon Shaun and I were at Turner field, watching the Braves take on the Detroit Tigers in a spring training exhibition game. The weather was nice, but we were getting pummeled, in contrast to last night when it was cold and we were the ones doing the pummeling.

While discussing what we should make for dinner, Shaun came up with the idea of a Detroit theme, not only for the baseball game, but also for the Final Four, which we would be watching later. The conversation went something like this:

Shaun: “What do they eat in Detroit?”
Maura: “Oil?”
Shaun: “Oh, I see, you’re making a political statement.”
Maura: “Tax dollars?”

I’ve never been to Detroit (okay, I had a layover there once), so I have no idea about the local delicacies. The internets revealed the popular Greektown neighborhood and also the Coney dog.

What?

Indeed, it turns out the chili-topped hot dog originated in Michigan, not, you know, Coney Island. (It was so named for the generic hot dog’s supposed origins on Coney Island.) So that’s what we had. We topped beef hot dogs with beanless chili, diced yellow onion and yellow mustard, just like Wikipedia said.

Tangy Tomatillo-sauced Fish Enchiladas

maura@paragiraffe.com (Maura Chace) — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 21:46:14 -0400

Previously I’ve mentioned Rick Bayless’s Mexican Kitchen as a book we cook out of frequently. I love Mexican food, in all forms, but we really like Bayless’s authentic approach.

Anyway, we’ve tried out several different recipes from the book, and I’ve photographed many of them, but I never post them here. They are just too long and involved to type out, and I’m lazy. You’re probably not going to cook them, anyway.

Last weekend we made tangy tomatillo-sauced fish enchiladas. We made these once before, and, being a sucker for tomatillos, I’ve wanted them again since. They’re simple but satisfying.

Anyway, back to my dislike of typing. I Googled the recipe to see if anyone was less lazy than I, and I found the recipe for the enchiladas on Google Book Search! So there it is in case you want to make it.

Meat lite

maura@paragiraffe.com (Maura Chace) — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 22:17:44 -0400

Eating less meat is very popular these days. Meat is expensive (relatively), meat is bad for the environment and Americans generally get much more meat/protein than we actually need. You could say we’re meat obsessed.

Michael Pollan says we should think of meat as a side dish, when we do have it. We’ve been trying to have one dinner a week that’s meatless, usually rice and beans.

On the subject of less meat, Serious Eats has a Meat Lite tag on their website, featuring recipes that “celebrate meat in moderation.”

Plant killer

maura@paragiraffe.com (Maura Chace) — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 22:41:04 -0400

This weekend I embarked on a new, exciting journey. One with ups and downs, good times and bad. There’s now a plant in the house.

I have killed a few plants in my time. I have killed a few fish in my time. Not entirely unrelated, I rarely follow through on Amish friendship bread starters I am given.

And Shaun’s not much better.

And my Dad grew up on a farm and is quite good at growing things.

A few apartments ago, my Dad bought me a umbrella tree. We were at Home Depot, shopping for a dimmer switch or a ceiling fan or something, and I believe his exact words were, “You want a plant you can’t kill?” In my defense, I kept that tree alive for a long time. (You can see it in my Knoxville apartment on Flickr.) Nonetheless, it wasn’t meant to be, and it was gone by the time I moved to Georgia.

So, when I was thinking about getting another plant, I went for the umbrella tree again. This one is lovely and has some nice variegated leaves. I even set myself up a reminder to water it.

We’ll see how it goes.

Hair cut

maura@paragiraffe.com (Maura Chace) — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 12:09:53 -0400

A little over a week ago, I got my hair cut. Before I went, my hair looked like this.

I have no idea why I wait so long between cuts. The last time I got my hair cut was right before DjangoCon, which was in September 2008.

Even though I left it longer than I have in the past (collarbone-length is my new go-to), there was still a ton of hair on the floor. This is always a bit upsetting, but of course the outcome is worth it.

If you’re in the Atlanta area, the place I go to is Adore Hair Studio in Inman Park Village. (Whenever I am over in this area, I get obsessed with moving there.) My stylist is Shay McCord, but all of their employees seem really excellent. In fact, their business is booming — they had removed waiting area and added more chairs since I had been there in September.