Stinque Recipe Challenge

Oooh, where can I get one of those lemon thingies?
Are you all sitting down? I made dinner tonight. Pasta with asparagus and morels from the farmers’ market, in a white wine cream sauce with shallots, garlic, and fresh herb–thyme, sage, and oregano. Salad of baby greens, French breakfast radishes and scallions (also from farmers’ market) with a walnut oil and sherry vinaigrette. And Mr Cyn only had to do a little coaching, like what order to put in ingredients, how long to cook them, minor stuff like that.

@Mistress Cynica: YUM!

And did he pick out the faboo wine to go with it?

And is the Dishwasher Fairy doing dishes? We don’t have one of those new-fangled electric dishwashers, so a big calculation into who is cooking dinner (or who has cooked more than 50%) is the rule that the non-cooker has to do the dishes. Lemme tell you, it has motivated me to be a cook, more than I ever thought possible. Arguing over who loads the dishwasher doesn’t carry the same weight as who is doing dishes by hand. (Plus, I’m so OCD, that anytime I’m at a house with a dishwasher I have to rearrange the utensil and porcelain placement until it soothes my nerdiness).

@Mistress Cynica: Fantabulous! I just have a question about the radishes: who eats them for breakfast? Other than the Franch and moi, I mean?

My dinner tonight is a salad of spring greens, avocado, olives, red peppers (out of season I know, but I got them in my local organic farm box), and zucchini with a basic truffle-honey dijon dill vinagrette. Plus pumpernickel toast spread with a mushroom/white truffle thing I picked up at the market, and a sprinkle of parmesan.

@SanFranLefty: Sundays and Mondays are the big gourmet days chez PedoUSA. Those are the two nights we have together as a family. We have a dishwashing appliance, but usually when I cook, I get things cleaned as I go (mostly). Mr. Pedo on the other hand, seems compelled to use every single pot and pan in the house (and there are way too many), but it’s good for me because he usually cooks on Monday night and I leave him to deal with the dirty work as I go off to work the next morning.

@SanFranLefty: I have had to get over the dishwasher OCD. I realized that if it meant I didn’t have to do it, any arrangement was fine.
Having a dishwasher is such a luxury. I was without one for almost 20 years, which made me the queen of the one-dish meal.

I just told Mrs RML that the cook does not clean the kitchen and do the dishes (and empty the diswasher) in a civilized household. Man, I got the stinkeye over the top of the book she was reading in bed.

Got back from the gym and Son of RML called grandma for dinner, which started the clock running. He got on the treadmill and watched animae on my laptop while Mrs RML ran out for another couple of placemats – “get Iron Man if you see it” I called after her.

Cleared the work area and the left sink. Lit the grill outside, trimmed and seasoned the steaks (salt, pepper, garlic) – some NY strips Mrs RML’s mom got for us – heated the oven for the bread. Opened and took the Tempranillo for a test drive. Peppery, just like Mrs RML likes it. Made garlic bread, tossed in the oven. Flopped the steaks on the hot grill. Pulled the cold penne and organic Romaine out of the fridge. Made a salad with the pasta, lettuce – flip steaks, check time – kalamatas, mozzarella, ‘maters, artichoke hearts. Made coffee for my mother in law. Cleaned and wiped work area. Checked the steaks, flipped ’em for a minute and pulled them off. Put in warm oven with bread. Salad to fridge. Wasa cracker and Happy Cow lite for the cook.

Pulled four settings, got drinks together. Mrs RML comes home, grandma pulls up, got kid off treadmill. Elapsed time since coming home from gym: 30 mins – a personal best for this dinner. We served ourselves in the kitchen took it to the dining room, said grace as I lit the candles and noticed something missing – no tunes! No tv remote = no Sirius satellite (we later found it on top of the microwave). Opened CD tray, selected something classical looking that I thought was Yo Yo Ma playing Bach but was actually Copeland’s Appliachian Spring. OK, we’ll roll with that.

The absolute best part of dinner wasn’t the steak or salad, but the hour long discussion we had on religion, destiny, karma, racism, skinheads, anti-Semitsm, tolerance, “Fanfare for the Common Man,” and acceptance that had us busting out the Bible and reading from Exodus and Ezekiel during the sorbet. Killed that bottle of wine. Read the parable of the dry bones and other passages with smiting in a dramatic voice. Love the OT God.

Then there was the dishes. My kitchen looked like crackheads had taken it over. It was one of those Jesse Jackson moments – if not me, who? If not now, when? I dug into it.

So here I am with my pathetic half-martini, something having happened to the rest of the gin recently, happy, tired, in need of a shower and bed. We have a winter storm warning tonight, and Son of RML and I are going to the ancestral land tomorrow for our ceremonial May 3 young men’s footrace that signifies the coming of spring. The young guys run, we dance and sing a race song and bathe in the river to wash the red and white mineral paint off. Makes you feel alive and part of something a thousand years old, then off to my parents’ house for mom’s chile.

Meals are more than just food.

@redmanlaw: That was beautiful. Hope you and Son of RML win the race tomorrow. And if not, sounds like you’ll have a great time anyway.

ok first. bloggie, you need one of those lucite cookbook holders. in a small kitchen, it’s brilliant for saving counter space and makes it easier to read too! i also love the lemon thingy. don’t forget! roll your lemons around first to burst the membranes and extract all the juice. yes, i cook.
we also have a “cooks don’t clean” rule, and take turns. but i’m so OCD that i consider his cleanup a start. why don’t men wash the sink. never knew one. wtf is up with that?

i’d like to share a recipe, a simple one, a spectacular one. handed down by my great great grandmother who made this in russia while being raped by cossacks. i have perfected it in simplicity and taste and promise you will love it. serve as a sweet side in place of rice or potatoes. then pick at it all night. standing inside open fridge with fork.
or breakfast. it’s good warm, it’s good cold.
this can be interpreted in a thousand ways to taste, but here is the basic one, the one that i deny to the legions of beggars for the recipe.
and it’s sooo easy!

baked’s Famous Noodle Pudding, or “kugal”
ingredients:
8 ounces wide egg noodles.
4 eggs
16 ounces cottage cheese
16 ounces sour cream
3/4 cup sugar, or a tad more if you like it sweet. i do.
teaspoon vanilla
cinnamon
white raisins

boil the noodles very al dente. meanwhile, in one large bowl, whisk sugar, eggs, and vanilla. spatula in sour cream, cottage cheese, and raisins. mix well. dump in cooked drained noodles. mix together, then put in an 8×13 baking dish. sprinkle the top heavily with cinnamon.
pop in a 350 degree oven from 45 minutes to an hour, depending on the oven, exact size of pan..there is wiggle room here.
when the toothpick comes out clean, it’s done. let cool til you can cut it into squares, ENJOY!

ajax won’t let me edit, as usual. want to add amount of raisins–small handful.

@redmanlaw:
awesome. the soundtrack to my dish is fiddler on the roof, btw. and discussions are required to end up loud and disagreeable.
maybe because that OT god was awfully pissy.

@Mistress Cynica: Everyone who has seen the lemon thingy wants one, but the GF couldn’t find any last time she went to Japan, and we haven’t seen them in the US. I’ll keep you posted.

@baked: My grandmother made that kugel and my mother after her – the only difference was that they added apple chunks. Yum.

@baked: why don’t men wash the sink.
Have you ever dated anyone who worked in a restaurant kitchen? Mr Cyn cleans the sink with bleach. When he’s done cleaning the kitchen, it could pass a health inspection. I, on the other hand, mostly miss having a dog because they’re so handy for eliminating the need for scrubbing by licking plates clean and for eliminating the need to sweep by hoovering up anything that falls on the floor. Cats are so damn picky.

@Mistress Cynica:
ooh…i clean the sink with bleach! 3 times a day.
i can’t wait to discuss light switch and remote control cleaning techniques with mr.cyn!
and yes, the ratbastard worked as a dishwasher in high school, his first job. he obviously took it literally. he’s not a sinkwasher.

@baked: An OCD romance! Baked – you can come over here anytime and clean up after a Julia Child marathon. I’d feed you and give you the best French wine in the rack.

@blogenfreude:
i’ll be in new york this summer bloggie…YOU’RE ON !!!

@baked: And bring RB if you want … we’ll make him scrub the pots.

@blogenfreude: I want one!

@baked: I want some!

Here is my recipe for chocolate chip cookies, developed over 40 years to perfection — you’re never going to find better :

CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

Preheat Oven: 375 degrees

INGREDIENTS:

* 1 cup butter (2 sticks), softened
* 1 cup brown sugar (preferably dark brown), packed
* 2/3 cup white sugar
* 1 -1/2 tsps pure vanilla extract
* 2 cups flour
* 1 tsp salt
* 1 tsp baking soda
* 2 large eggs
* 2 cups semisweet chocolate morsels
* 3 cups chopped pecans

Cream butter with sugar and vanilla.

Beat in eggs.

Mix flour, baking soda and salt, then gradually (1/3 at a time) combine into wet ingredients.

Stir in morsels and nuts.

Bake 9-11 minutes,

If you do not like nuts in your cookies (gods forfend!), increase flour by 1/4 cup.

If you like to make only half the recipe, divide all ingredients in half except sugars which should be modified to 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1/3 cup white sugar.

If you insist on making these without the nuts (sacrilege, if you ask me), increase the flour by 1/4 cup.

The quality of the vanilla extract is key. The best stuff comes from Mexico. Bottom line, if it has any kind of sweetener in it, it’s no good. The stuff I currently use is from the Atlantic Spice Co. in North Truro, Mass. Ingredients: Bourbon vanilla beans, alcohol (40%) and purified water.

@karen marie: We can’t find the plastic one, but you can order one of these: http://www.amazon.com/Norpro-Stainless-Steel-Citrus-Juicer/dp/B000PB16TI

probably better than the plastic one …