Well really just MYself, I have no idea what you guys were up to. If it was also your birthday, however, I hope you managed to fit in at least some of the following:
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| Breakfast involving bacon and avocado. |
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| Champagne and a movie. |
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| Child who was very focused on your present. |
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| Child who considered herself present enough. |
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| Any of the main three categories of Indian food: 1) Crunchy; |
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| 2) Spicy; 3) Creamy. |
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| A cocktail ridiculously composed of both bourbon and champagne. |
Of course, that was just for my birthday and everyone knows that Friday birthday really equals birthweekend. (I'm pretty sure this is reasonable. My birthday twin Susie is currently holding her family hostage for cake and she's a scientist.) So I figured the ol' cook-em-book shelves must be holding some ridiculous indulgence in their depths and hey, what do you know! Cookbook #52: Pedaling Through Burgundy (Sarah Leah Chase, 1995) is Freeeeeeeeeeeeench! Provenance: Mom, I think? Previous recipes on this blog: none, which is a SHAME. Quel dommage!
You know how various cultures are always poaching eggs in a tomato sauce and I'm all, "Good on ya Italy and Spain and Israel, etc."? Well, Burgundians apparently gave it some consideration and decided "Tomato sauce is good, but what if we swap in an entire bottle of wine and a not-insignificant portion of butter? And then also serve it as a FIRST COURSE?" Nicely done, mes amis.
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| Oh, there's bacon in there too. |
Of course, this decadence comes at a price.
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| And that price is dirtying every pan in your possession. |
For dinner I decided to go with the Everyday French Vegetable Soup.
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| Recipe: butter, wine, every vegetable. |
Of course, this responsible eating comes at a price.
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| Sigh. |
Verdict: French food is exhausting if you are the one-pan type, but it is also delicious. I wanted to cook every recipe in this book and then buy her other cookbooks and cook every recipe in them. Two
Cookbook #53 is just called Pizza (Diane Morgan & Tony Gemignani, 1995), which is probably the best book title I have ever encountered. Provenance: Christmas gift from in-laws. Previous recipes on this blog: any time there has been a homemade pizza, it has come out of this book. This pesto-covered bad boy, off the top of my head. The New-York style dough is generally my go-to. A 12-inch pizza feeds the four of us, particularly when it is covered in half a pound of cheese, as in the case of this Spinach Ricotta Pizza.
Oh, sorry, that's half a pound of cheese not counting the titular ricotta.
It's actually a little unnerving.
Solution: pile of raw lettuce.
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| Balanced! |
Verdict: this book contains both my standard pizza dough and standard pizza sauce, which are two very important human staples. Excellent for treating yo' self.
Anyway. As of Sunday, Anna is all set up for summer.
