Tweets about Quacks

Terry and I visited Terry Lee at Outside on 12th street in Over the Rhine on Saturday. You see, both Terrys are from Alabama-- within an hour or two of each other-- and spent a good amount of time talking about stuff from home. By then end of an hour, Terry Lee got invited to my Thanksgiving dinner, we all got a hankering for barbecue, and Terry was sent home with some maple chips for his smoker.

After a big lunch at Pit to Plate, we drove up to Jungle Jim's and picked up a duck. They had frozen ducks, completely prepared, but since we wanted to smoke the duck tomorrow, we went with a non-frozen duck: a Confucian duck.

That means it was a whole duck, just defeathered and, you know, dead. I had the butcher chop off the head (sorry, I'm not too squeamish but the head is a little much) and we took it back to Terry's to become a yummy smoked duck, as he's the one with the smoker and I didn't want to find the cats playing with duck guts. You think they wouldn't.

I decided to tweet about the experience, because it was pretty darn amusing.

Smoking a duck today. Only wine to touch my lips will be the stuff the duck is marinated in. I SWEAR. about 2 hours ago from TweetDeck

I have to eviscerate a duck today. Maybe I will be drinking wine. about 1 hour ago from TweetDeck

Google "eviscerate duck" No. "prepare duck". No. "gut duck". Hot damn! about 1 hour ago from TweetDeck

I can't get my hand up this duck's ass. Dammit. 38 minutes ago from TweetDeck


Duck frozen inside. While up to my wrist in duck guts, BF hands me garbage can: "For the duck's guts or yours, whichever come up first." 29 minutes ago from web

Duck update: Bought duck because it was not frozen. LIARS. Finishing up gutting once upper duck anatomy is thawed. Drinking wine now. 13 minutes ago from TweetDeck

Back to the duck gutting. 01:41 PM September 07, 2008 from TweetDeck


OK. Backbone removed, heart and lungs removed (lungs HARD. really.). Soaking in milk. Relax time! 02:06 PM September 07, 2008 from TweetDeck


@YatPundit If you check back in my tweets, you'll see today's Duck Saga. Julie 1, Duck 0. 02:11 PM September 07, 2008 from TweetDeck in reply to YatPundit

@ChasingPolly Jungle Jim's has nothing on duck guts. It was this or watch the Bengals lose. I choose duck guts. 03:10 PM September 07, 2008 from TweetDeck in reply to ChasingPolly

Duck nearly finished with its milk bath. Big bowl of milk and blood. Call me Elizabeth Bathory. 03:10 PM September 07, 2008 from TweetDeck

Duck now drying. Preparing rub. 03:22 PM September 07, 2008 from TweetDeck

In my excitement to take out the backbone, I did it backwards. It was a very skilled de-breast-boning, because the breasts are intact. Whew 03:30 PM September 07, 2008 from TweetDeck

Duck now on smoker with maple chips, apple juice and beer. Happy duck. 03:32 PM September 07, 2008 from TweetDeck



naptime while smoking happens. 04:14 PM September 07, 2008 from TweetDeck

Great. Water in the smoker is boiling, but temp gauge only says 200. We'll see how this works out. 06:19 PM September 07, 2008 from TweetDeck

Hands still smell like duck blood, despite loads of washing. Or is it my guilty conscience making me imagine things? Out, damn spot! 06:52 PM September 07, 2008 from TweetDeck

Duck is out of the smoker, about to go into the oven for a few minutes to crisp the skin. 07:03 PM September 07, 2008 from TweetDeck



Currently eating duck. Slightly overdone (will tweak times next time) but OH so great. Worth the duck guts. 08:35 PM September 07, 2008 from TweetDeck



As you can see, yes, it was overdone and yes, it was boned incorrectly, but it was good all the same. The sauce is apple cider and granacha (the smoking liquid), reduced and thickened with a bit of flour. Terry deemed it a bit too sweet upon first tasting, but it went well with the duck. The maple in the smoker added a nice complexity that was subtle and not overwhelming.

I'll definitely be smoking duck again, but I think next time I'll leave the gutting to the professionals. I'm sure that my Twitter friends will appreciate it.

From the Garden

I finally had some tomatoes on my tomato plant, and I had plenty of basil, so last Wednesday night, I made a simple meal for Terry and myself: caprese! It's pretty simple-- fresh mozzarella layered with fresh tomatoes and basil, drizzled with balsamic reduction. Salt and pepper to taste and, I swear, it tastes like summer. I need more tomato plants next year-- this year only yielded about four tomatoes, but the plants are young. Just have to figure out what to do with them during the winter...

Recipe: Bon Appetit's Cheddar Burgers with Balsamic Onions and Chipotle Ketchup

It's fairly rare for me to see something in my blog reader and immediately say, "I must make this tonight." Well, I didn't say this, it was more like, "Terry! You must make this tonight!" And he did.

I had actually seen this recipe at B&N when I browsed through Bon Appetit magazine's July issue, which had this baby right on the front cover. Terry did make a few changes.

Here's a link to the recipe. He used soft, cornmeal-dusted burger buns instead of the English muffin (though looking at their pictures, I've never seen an English muffin that looked like that). I'm not a huge fan of raw tomatoes on burgers, so I skipped those, and no spinach graced them either (I'm not sure why).

The burger itself was good and juicy, but the toppings of balsamic onions and the chipotle ketchup were the real winners. The onions were incredibly easy to do, and really flavorful-- I love balsamic with caramelized onions. The ketchup was spicy and needed just a bit more balsamic to be "wow", but was really good on the fries Terry made to go with the burgers.

In all? Great recipe. Man, do I love Bon Appetit.

Recipe: Lazy Pasta

There's so much truth in the saying that simple is better. Terry had rehearsal last night, and so did I (but in separate places-- like, 30 miles apart separate!), so I only had to cook for myself and the cats last night*. So I threw together something right out of the pantry. It's super simple.

Grab your favorite pasta-- last night, I used whole wheat rotini-- and cook according to the package directions. Terry likes it when I use angel hair, and it's also good with some premade tortellini or ravioli.

In a saute pan, melt some butter. We'll be cooking it to the browned stage, per Michael Ruhlman's easy directions. If you've never had beurre noir before, you'll be amazed-- it's nutty and rich and delicious. Unsalted butter, please, if you have it.

Toss the pasta in the pan with your browned butter and toss to coat. Then, get out a hand grater or a vegetable peeler and grate some parmigiano reggiano into the saute pan. Don't use the pre-grated stuff unless it's an emergency (we had to slum it with the pre-grated stuff during the Blizzard of 2008. Trust me. Use the good stuff). There's enough saltiness in the parm that you don't really have to season it much more. Use as much as you like. Toss some more. If you like, add some other seasonings-- I use black pepper and lemon for a sort of light alfredo flavor. It's also nice with fresh sage.

You can use other cheeses as well-- crumbled feta, crumbled Roquefort. It's an impromptu sauce that is quick, easy, tasty, has no weird , unpronounceable chemicals, and is very filling.

What are your favorite "go-to" pantry meals? What do you always have in your pantry?
*Note: I don't cook for the cats, but they seem to think I do, the way that they watch me cook. I may sneak them chicken or tuna sometimes, but I will never admit it.

I'm back!

You know, I can't do anything simply.

As you read on Tuesday, my MacBook Pro (yes, I'm one of those people, about which Terry good-naturedly teases me) needed to go in for a broken hinge. Considering it's a first generation (yes, I was on the waiting list, I'm a dork) and just a little over 2 years old at this point and the only other thing that has gone wrong with it in those two years is a broken key and a battery recall, I'm pretty okay with this. I got it back yesterday, all shiny and pretty and... hey, what's this? Why is my memory out of my laptop?

Apparently, Apple doesn't like 3rd party products, so they said it failed the diagnostics, so they had to take out my extra gig of memory. Ugh. So, until I get to a hardware store for a 00 Phillips head screwdriver, it's running a little slow. So no pictures for now. Okay, fine, I also forgot my camera adapter and can't upload at work, either. Oy! However! I will tantalize you with the menu for my first Cincinnati Supper Club dinner!

Unlike Chris S's menu, which is elegantly paired with wines, mine is a bit more informal. I've decided that spring is here, and spring means lamb, so that's what I'm going for.

First course:
Homemade Hummus and pita chips
Goat cheese and pesto dip with pretzel crackers
Salt and Pepper Peanuts
Wasabi Peas

Second course:
Roasted leg of lamb served Gyros-style, with onions, tomatoes, cucumbers, pita and homemade tzatziki
Spring greens salad with feta, onions, tomatoes, cucumbers, red peppers, almonds and homemade vinaigrette

Third course:
A selection of gelato from Madisono's
Lemon stilton and Strawberry stilton

Terry and I had pizza and watched Top Chef (okay, I watched Top Chef, I'm fairly confident he didn't enjoy it as much as I did. I'm totally rooting for Stephanie and Richard.) and after he left, I did a bunch of prep, so all I have to do when I get home tonight is pick up the lamb at Eckerlin's, the gelato (notice "selection"? It's whatever pops out at me after work), grab a couple of things I forgot, throw the lamb in the oven and assemble everything else. I should have taken pictures of all of my prep bowls-- I was pretty proud of myself. Also, no fingers were harmed during this episode of Cooking with Julie.

I'm sure I'll post pictures (and if I don't, I'm sure 5chw4r7z will) and recipes tomorrow!

Review: Shadeau Bread's Lunch and Recipe: Pineapple Upside-Down Cake

Like most everyone else in Ohio, it seems, I've been stuck inside since Friday afternoon, when I left work in Mason to make the (hour-long, this time; the last storm, two-hour-long) trek back downtown. I knew I didn't have a whole lot prepared, and didn't want a frozen dinner, so I stopped by Shadeau bread to pick up some pastries and bread and noticed that they did a sandwich service. Yum! And they had soup-- perfect for a snowy day.


So I ended up with a chicken salad sandwich with lettuce, onion, and Swiss on multi-grain bread and a cup of tomato soup with raviolini. Yum.

We headed to Bockfest (that's another post) and wanted something for dinner-- of course, all of the restaurants were closed. Sigh. So we went back to my place and I made some of my favorite comfort food-- pasta with browned butter and parmigiano reggiano. No recipe needed, really-- simply take a stick of butter, cook it until the solids have turned golden brown and nutty, mix in some cooked pasta or egg noodles, add some freshly cracked pepper and some parmigiano reggiano to taste. Simple, delicious, and easy. Throw in some bacon and you have an eggless almost-carbonara (which is what we did on Friday night). Delish.

Saturday, we almost went to Lavomatic with 5chw4r7z and his lovely Mrs. 5, but they were closed, so I whipped up, due to popular demand, more of the chicken and gravy and mashed potatoes from last Sunday. It was enjoyed by both of us, though Terry had to remind me to remind him not to eat too much-- we had dessert!

We both had a craving for Pineapple Upside-Down cake, so we trekked out in the middle of the afternoon to Vine Street Kroger's. It gets a bad rap, but I found everything I needed for my meal, and despite being crowded, it was quick and everyone was friendly. Kroger's really does need to improve the produce section, but they did have some organics and they had fresh vegetables and fruits-- just not enough. I might go there more often in the future.

I went through my grandma's recipes, but they called for shortening (which I didn't have, and didn't want to substitute for). I went through my America's Test Kitchen cookbook, which called for fresh pineapple-- and that was something I definitely wouldn't find at Vine Street Kroger's. I settled on adapting this recipe from Simply Recipes, which I found via a google search. I made a couple of changes: first, I had no sour cream (and by that time, I wasn't going out again), so I substituted yogurt. I also cut out the almonds, and found that the cake just wasn't quite as dense as described. I also threw in some maraschino cherries, as that's a sort of "tradition" both Terry and I agreed on.

The pre-caramelizing of the brown sugar made for a really superior topping. Most recipes just call for brown sugar and melted butter in the bottom of the pan, which is good but not quite this good. If I had a cast iron skillet (or I was at Terry's; he has one), I would make the caramel in the pan and use that for baking as well-- fewer pots.

Oh, and the batter? Delish.

Balsamic Chicken and other Sunday delights

This Sunday, I decided it was a nice day for a chicken dinner. I didn't want to roast one-- I just didn't feel like a whole chicken that day-- so I decided to fall back on one of my favorite recipes: Chicken in Balsamic Vinaigrette.

Roasted Chicken with Balsamic Vinaigrette, courtesy Giada di Laurentiis.
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 garlic cloves, chopped
2 tablespoons olive oil
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 (4-pound) whole chicken, cut into pieces (giblets, neck and backbone reserved for another use)
1/2 cup low-salt chicken broth
1 teaspoon lemon zest
1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley leaves

Whisk the vinegar, mustard, lemon juice, garlic, olive oil, salt, and pepper in small bowl to blend. Combine the vinaigrette and chicken pieces in a large resealable plastic bag; seal the bag and toss to coat. Refrigerate, turning the chicken pieces occasionally, for at least 2 hours and up to 1 day.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Remove chicken from the bag and arrange the chicken pieces on a large greased baking dish. Roast until the chicken is just cooked through, about 1 hour. If your chicken browns too quickly, cover it with foil for the remaining cooking time. Transfer the chicken to a serving platter. Place the baking dish on a burner over medium-low heat. Whisk the chicken broth into the pan drippings, scraping up any browned bits on the bottom of the baking sheet with a wooden spoon and mixing them into the broth and pan drippings. Drizzle the pan drippings over the chicken. Sprinkle the lemon zest and parsley over the chicken, and serve.

Seriously. Yum. And really good cold, too. I just did the thighs-- I think the flavor is perfect with thigh meat-- but it works well with any chicken part. Maybe not feet.


Instead of doing the pan dripping sauce as called for in the recipe, Terry requested actual gravy. So I threw together a slurry, popped it in the pan, thinned it with some chicken stock and voila: gravy.

He also wanted mashed potatoes, so I cut up some potatoes, boiled and mashed, added cream and butter and parmesan cheese. Delish. Too bad I was an idiot and used my chef's knife when my paring knife would do. This was the result:

However, the food turned out great. The mashed potatoes-- skin on-- went well with the gravy, which went well with the chicken. The conversation went something like this:

Me: "So how is it?"
Him: "Mmmm. Oooh. Mmmm."
Me: "Is that a good 'mmm'?"
Him: "Mmmph. Ohm nohm nohm."

He's normally far more loquacious. He had earlier complained about the portion I gave him (for photographic purposes, of course) but he only left about two spoonfuls of potatoes. He said, and I quote, "This is the best gravy I've ever had." This man is from Alabama. He knows gravy. I am pleased as punch.
My organic co-op delivery came (thus the potatoes and broccoli), and it also delivered green peppers. Due to a pizza-and-drinking binge in college, I don't eat a whole lot of green peppers anymore, and definitely not stuffed ones, so I used them to make stuffed peppers for Terry's lunch. I followed a recipe out of the America's Test Kitchen cookbook, which I don't have here to copy. They're stuffed peppers. Not that complicated.

This is pre-baking; I popped them into the oven when we ate and sent them home with him for lunch this week. I had borrowed his loaf pan, so it worked out quite swimmingly. Yesterday, he reported that they were pretty darn good.

The finger, by the way, is recovering nicely, though I now realize that I use my left thumb far more than I thought...

A few food photos from the weekend.

A warning: I am not a food photographer. I would really like to learn to be better, and I did just buy a (non-DSLR) new camera, but I know that these are not Gourmet magazine pretty. However, I'm learning and I hope you'll take that into consideration.

Enough with the apologies!

I found some lamb shanks for a decent price at Kroeger Meats in Findlay Market. I decided braising them would be a good idea, so I turned to How To Cook Everything: Simple Recipes for Great Food by Mark Bittman, and found a recipe for Lamb Shanks with Apricots and Onions. Sounds right up my alley. The flavors were great, but I did make a few changes to the given recipe:

I used Chinese 5-Spice powder in place of the cinnamon and clove, as 5-spice complements lamb well.

I used a LOT more chicken stock than it called for-- around 2 cups; Bittman suggested a half-cup-- as I had to rescue the onions from nearly burning. The original recipe (the apricot and onion is a variant) calls for a can of tomatoes, but removes them in the variation without accounting for the lost liquid. I've heard from others who have had mixed successes with Bittman's recipes, and I can see some of their frustration, particularly for a beginning cook.

Overall, the sauce was delicious and the lamb turned out tender.

I just started participating in an organic food co-op (which I'll write about in a future post), and this week's shipment had fennel. I'd never cooked with fennel before, so I checked with Bittman, and he suggested boiling them until nearly tender, then shocking them in ice water, slicing thinly, and baking with butter, chicken stock and Parmesan cheese until bubbly and golden. So, I did. No pictures of this one (honestly, it's not a terribly attractive dish), and in this, Bittman suggested that the fennel would absorb most of the chicken broth-- instead, it was almost soup-like with the two cups of chicken broth. Halving the chicken broth would have produced a superior product. However, nothing tastes bad with parmesan cheese on top, and fennel was delicate (like an herb-scented leek) and delicious.

For Valentine's Day, I picked up some chocolate from the Greenup Cafe. It was pretty and delicious, but I forgot my camera on V-Day (I purchased a new, smaller one so I wouldn't be tempted to forget it anymore, and could carry it around with me everywhere) so I only have a picture of the box, and not the truffles that came inside it. At this point, only the top of the box remains (and I'm not sure how long that will last).





And speaking of Greenup, we went there for breakfast on Monday, and picked up a lemon tart for dessert that evening. So cute and so delicious!

Happy Valentine's Day!

So what is everyone doing (or not doing) for Valentine's? In an earlier post, I revealed that I'm not a huge fan of Valentine's day-- it's over commercialized and too high-pressure. Me, I'd rather have a guy who treats me well every day of the year, not just when he has to. I'm very lucky that way. So, because I feel like cooking a meal, I'm doing a Valentine's dinner myself tonight. I'll be heading over to his place with groceries later this evening.

First, I'll be going out with some work associates to Twist for happy hour. I'll report back.

As far as dinner is concerned, I wanted a few things that were tasty, appeared fancy, and didn't need a lot of prep time. My appetizer was inspired by my friend Deb, who needed a dairy meal for Shabbos that wasn't a quiche. I suggested a veggie-based tarte fine, and together we came up with the idea of topping the tarte (for her, made out of kosher Pepperidge Farm puff pastry; for me, made out of TJ's butter puff pastry, which we weren't sure was kosher or not) with caramelized onions, roasted red peppers and topped with slices of goat cheese.

I'll probably slide in a salad of some sort. Inspiration hasn't hit, but I'll probably do a basic vinaigrette, maybe with some shallot, using muscat-citrus vinegar.

Entree? Seared scallops, fresh asparagus (or spinach, haven't decided, depends on how the asparagus look at the store) and mushroom risotto. Terry loves my mushroom risotto, so I'm happy to make it.

Dessert? Chocolates from Greenup Cafe, which I need to remember to pick up. I am not much of a dessert baker (though friends who attended my housewarming will remember my angel food cupcakes filled with raspberry, and the fact that I had about four dozen of them, and I hand-filled them all post-baking), so I'd rather buy something.

Pictures will follow, as well as a post about bacon brittle!

Eating occasions-- Super Bowl and Valentine's Day

Two of the biggest food days (excluding Thanksgiving and the December holidays) of the year are coming up-- Super Bowl Sunday and Valentine's Day. I've read that the big national pizza chains (Papa John's and Domino's) do their biggest business on this day (followed by Halloween-- interesting!) and I know that La Rosa's is always super busy, too. This is about the time of year when magazines are covered in chips, dips, "manly" food (who deems a food manly or feminine, really?) and crowd pleasers. I am not having a Super Bowl party this year, but I'll be attending one. We're each supposed to bring a snack, and since the hostess always teases me about things like, "Gee, Julie, did you raise the chicken on your fire escape? Churn the butter yourself?" I can't just buy some salsa and chips and call it a day. Terry suggested chicken wings, but I think that might be a little difficult to transport-- I don't want them to get mushy or greasy or over-sauced in the 20 or so minute drive to the party. This is sad, because I do make decent wings.

Right now, I'm considering a couple of recipes. Googling "super bowl recipes" is sort of frightening: it seems like everything involves Velveeta, Cheez-Whiz, bottled barbecue sauce or a really obnoxious football theme. I'm leaning towards a dip-- maybe a Reuben dip (very simple: fresh sauerkraut from Kroeger's at Findlay, some good corned beef, some cream cheese, shredded Swiss, warmed and served with rye crisps. Very New York (most of us will be rooting for the Giants) and pretty tasty. I was also thinking about doing chicken satay-- easy to eat, tasty, and different. Do any of you have any suggestions?

Then, of course, there's Valentine's day. I've enjoyed working on a friend's ad campaign for a restaurant that is doing an "anti-Valentine's", playing great break-up songs and lots of drink specials. I'm sort of anti-Valentine's myself: in past relationships, V-day has been forgotten, plus I've been stood up with, broken up with, and had a close family member die on Valentine's. Terry (being a guy) isn't terribly fond of it either, so we're boycotting things like chocolate and flowers (why buy them at twice normal retail?) and restaurants that double their prices and... well, we're not sure what we're doing. I think I'm going to make sure we both enjoy it and it will probably involve cooking, but I can't spoil the surprise because Terry reads this (hiya, Sweetie!). I'd definitely appreciate meal suggestions for this one, too!

The Project.

I'm a pretty good home cook. I have dinner parties, I know my way around the kitchen. I can chop things without cutting my fingers off, know enough about flavors and ingredients to create things from my pantry with no recipe, and everything tastes good and looks pretty. I can follow a recipe. I have a well-stocked pantry. I'm single, and unless I'm having a party, I usually cook for two people at the max, so I don't keep a lot of fresh ingredients in my refrigerator, but I know how to shop for a meal. I try not to buy a lot of processed food.

I learned to cook from my grandmother. My mother, whose idea of cooking generally involves calling for pizza or putting it on Amex, insists that the cooking gene skips a generation. This is funnier than it initially sounds, because we're both adopted. My mother is great at cleaning. Thankfully, I have a little bit of that in me, too.

Grandma was known for her baked goods: our extended family looked forward to holiday gifts of almond-scented tea rings with candied cherries on top, Mexican wedding cookies, and hand-decorated sugar cookies. She cooked nearly every meal in my house until I was 14 and she had a stroke, after which I took over cooking duties. Her cooking was standard 40s-50s housewife: jello salads, spaghetti and meatballs, overcooked roast beef, tuna casserole.

I fell deeper into a love of cooking when I discovered The Frugal Gourmet. Say what you will about him, he taught me the basics. My Christmas present for my 13th birthday was a KitchenAid Mixer (which I still have and use). I remember writing an obituary for tuna salad in the sixth grade, and The Frug was one of its survivors (because it had a lot of "gaaah-lic"). I remember David Rosengarten's Taste, Justin Wilson, and Food TV before it was overrun with Rachael Ray.

So now I'm trying to apply what I've learned to this blog, and Cincinnati dining. In talking with my friend Drew, I realized that I probably need to do some more in-depth exploration of food beyond "I like X" and "This tastes like Y". He gave me a list of books that might help me, and helped him in his forays into gastronomy. Unlike Drew, I don't have the time (nor the money!) to go to culinary school. I also don't want to be a chef. I don't really have any desire to work in a restaurant, but I do want to have a firm foundation in what goes on behind the doors of the restaurants I frequent.

And everyone needs to know how to make good stock.

So, as I read Michael Ruhlman's The Making of a Chef: Mastering Heat at the Culinary Institute, I've gotten a little inspired. Ruhlman, a food writer, spent time at the Culinary Institute of America learning, essentially, how to be a chef. Again, I don't have those resources, so I've come up with Julie's At-Home Plan to Be a Better Cook and Food Writer.

(I know. It's catchy.)

I ordered a copy of the The Professional Chef, 8th Edition from Amazon and I've decided to use it. I won't report back on stuff like sanitation, but once I start practicing my mise en place, knife skills, all of that good stuff, I'll document it here. It should be a learning experience for both of us (meaning you, the reader, and me) and I'm sure Terry won't mind eating my experiments.

So I won't become a chef, but I think I'll have some good practice. I'll see if I can supplement it with a few cooking classes, and I have a ton of other books and cookbooks to read. I hope you'll follow along!

(And don't worry. I'll continue the reviews. I hope to have another one this weekend!)

Cooking up a storm...

There wasn't a whole lot of dining out going on at Chez Julie-- sort of strange, considering most weekends I dine out at least twice. I seem to have gotten a domestic bug, and inspired by my recent week in Europe, wanted something I had in Paris: boeuf Bourguignon I combed through my fairly extensive cookbook collection (I collect them, it's a bit of a sickness) and settled on the recipe from Anthony Bourdain's Les Halles Cookbook. I didn't have a whole lot of time to go to the grocery store, so I swung by Findlay Market, where I did all of my shopping in 15 minutes. I first stopped by Eckerlin's for some flat iron steak (a substitute for the paleron called for in the book, which is a cut not readily available in the US), then ran across the street to Angelina's, where I picked up some really great Roquefort and Gruyere for a cheese plate (and a sample of their homemade rhum baba, which were awesome-- highly recommended!). I rounded out my trip at Madison's for produce, some Mango-Ginger Stilton (an impulse purchase, but such a tasty dessert cheese) and some Findlay Market blend coffee. It took me less than ten minutes (including banter with the clerks) and the meal was one of the best I've made in a while. Since I had friends over, I didn't want to subject them to my food-photography weirdness, but I did get a couple of shots of the Findlay Market haul.



My only complaint? There is no wine shop at Findlay-- the closest wine shops to downtown being The Party Source and the Wine Shop on Ludlow. I hear a rumor that a wine shop is opening at Findlay-- anyone have any insight on that?

Terry and I went back on Sunday to buy groceries for Sunday night's dinner, which was an old-fashioned meat loaf and mashed potatoes. The meat loaf recipe is from The New Best Recipe, which is my go-to cookbook for classics that I want to turn out perfectly. It's produced by the Cook's Illustrated folks, and I've never cooked a bad dish out of that book. Again, everything-- including the ground veal and peppered bacon-- were from various stands at Findlay. Too bad it's so quiet on Sundays-- I really wish I'd see Findlay open and vibrant every day-- but we still got great service and, of course, great food. I think meatloaf sandwiches are in my future for dinner tonight.

I also finally joined the food blog bandwagon and made Mark Bittman's No-Knead Bread. I don't know why I haven't made this before-- it's simple (though it involves patience, which, when it comes to cooking, I often don't have) and unbelievably delicious-- soft on the inside, crackly-crusted on the outside-- it'll become part of my new weekend repertoire, I think. Who doesn't like fresh bread? And who doesn't like easy fresh bread? I hear that Cook's Illustrated has "perfected" the recipe, so I may try that one next, but for now, Mark Bittman's will do quite well.

And one last note-- major thanks to Michelle over at My Wine Education for her warm welcome to the Cincinnati blogging community. So far I've put my toe in over at Cincinnati Blog, and this is my first foray into a blog that encompasses two things I love: Cincinnati and food. I hope you'll enjoy it as much as I do!