Perks Chapter 2!

This week's score : Taken Cabernet Sauvignon, 2008, Napa Valley
(already opened so we just had to drink it right away tonight)



First impressions? Deep deep bloody purple, it even looks heavy.

Smells awesome - perfume-y, woody, rich. herbal even? Stewed prunes and pine and simmering bing cherries.

Drinking it (immediately and asap) its texture is the most striking thing. Oily, almost chewy and very pleasantly tannic. Spicy finish, it's really winter-y but I'm very into it on this cool-for-New-York-in-August day.

Verdict : YUM!

And now we google it to see if I'd buy it ....

oooo ! It's a $30 bottle. Well yes, I'd buy it. Actually that sounds like a really fair price, it's a delicious, full wine, and very true to the varietal. Ok I'm sounding snobby and gross now so just I guess if you have $30 to spend on a bottle, this is not a bad way to spend it!

In other news, scenes from work!

The beer cart, coming around to 'get rid of all the beer because we have too much' in the booze room. Yes a beer placed on your desk at 5pm is just another perk. I'll take it!



And the way that our mail room looks at 6pm on a Friday night - it becomes a help-yourself prosecco tasting station. Not so pretty but a GREAT idea, no?



and a pretty scene from the walk home! spontaneous sand art in Washington Square Park! Excellent weekend treat.

Freebies. Chapter 1

Hello friends and loyal readership,

As some of you know I am currently working at a place where the pay is low but there are often decent freebies in the form of food (good) and bottles of wine (better) or even sometimes gin(best).

I am embracing the opportunity to taste lots of crazy and different wines and spirits for free by attempting to take as much of said wine/booze/beer/name-your-freebie as is socially acceptable (still figuring this out, still walking a bit of a line).

So! Today I begin with a bottle of Sawtooth Chardonnay from Idaho! See map below :




I think that what they're going for here is a "this wine must be good because I see Walla Walla and Willamette Valley here on the back" sort of trick. Trying to pull something over on East Coasters/ Midwesterners less familiar with the climate variations out West? Or maybe this little Idaho valley is in fact similar to Walla Walla or Willamette Valley. I don't actually know, the point I am making is that this map sketched me out and made me expect kind of a crappy wine. Also the fact that it sat on the freebie shelf for quite a while and I assume usually that the good stuff disappears fast. (I'm finding that is not really the case though as time goes by - its that social acceptability thing that stops people I think. I'm not letting it stop me!)



ANYWAY, I was pleasantly surprised to find that I actually quite enjoyed this wine! Now call me a child of the 80's but I like rich and creamy Chardonnays, and that's precisely what this was. Deep yellow in color, it even smells rich. That said, there is some lightness in the actual drinking, maybe something a little bit lime zesty? Regardless, there was enough of that zesty tang to make for some perfectly enjoyable sippage on this past Thursday, aka the HOTTEST DAY ON PLANET EARTH.


So for $10, I'd say this is not a bad buy if you happen to be in the mood for a rich and luscious cheapish white! But that's of course just my tongue's opinion so you could hate it. Can't possibly say.

Sad. Captivating. Kind of Beautiful.

http://www.lastdaysofgourmet.com/

yes I'm still sad about it.

Two Weeks Ago Today...

...We Moved!! To a de-luxe apartment on the Lower East Side!

By night; cozy and stuff :



With a little morning light!



my "closet", avec Buttercup :



Well, ok so it's a 350 square foot studio with a loft for the bed that doesn't fit and sort of sucky light. But it's on Clinton st, and its cozy and cute with lots of exposed brick, and it's ours ours ours ours ours! Our cats live here, and so do our books and it's home.

I've been exploring the neighborhood a lot, what with being half-employed and all. When I was working, I was walking to work, testing out the nicest routes. I found some decent ones, as you can see. New York might be the prettiest in the morning, with a surprising amount of perfection to be found, if you happen to be looking.



I don't mind the 'graffiti' in our new hood. This Royal Wedding-inspired specimen greets me as I turn off Clinton onto Houston. I believe it to be an unofficial work, but I am speculating here.



Washington Square Park is one of my favorite parts of my new morning commute.



We've been soaking up all this good NYC summer fun, around the hood, and all over!

Fourth of July Fireworks over the Hudson!



Bastille day celebrations in Carroll Gardens!



Lobster Benedict at Clinton St. Baking company (less than a block away!) The 1-2 hour wait isn't so bad when you have the option of going back to bed until your table is ready.



Shake shack in the park (I finished an entire 'shroom Burger!)



Worth the wait :



I finally broke in our kitchen yesterday, and baked a FRESH fresh fresh sour cherry pie completely from scratch.



It was a work of sheer force of will, as our apartment is quite tiny and totally ill-equipped for cooking of any sort. I pitted a million fiesty red jewels of summer,



...and even made the crust from absolute scratch.

By the by, I did completely everything you're not supposed to do with the crust, and it turned out just fine (don't you agree!?) :



so I'm going to share my recipe with you, and it is as follows.

SuperSummerSour Cherry Pie!

3 cups flour
16 oz cream cheese
2 sticks of butter (softened)

Pulverize the cheese and butter in a food processor. Enjoy how pasty and psychedelic it looks.



Slowly add the flour, pulsing between additions. I didn't end up using it all, but just watch for a work-able consistency. Divide into two balls and refrigerate while you make the cherry filling.

1 big thing of sour cherries ( 3-4 pints worth)
2/3 cup sugar
1-2 tblspoons cornstartch
1 lemon (the juice of it, you could throw in the zest too)

Pit the cherries



Pat yourself on the back and take a moment to enjoy their glistening luster! That was a lot of work! Now, put them in a pot with everything else. Gently bring to a boil and immediately turn down to a simmer. Cook until it reduces a little and looks like it will set to your liking when baked. Remove from heat.

Roll out the chilled dough and line a pie pan. Fill the pan with the cherry mixture and top with another rolled out round of dough! Snack on the extras. Save the rest (I had quite a bit left over). Bake at 350 for 45 minutes to an hour. Let it cool for a good hour before serving.

Enjoy yourself a slice of summers' finest! You've earned it - I certainly did!

anniversary

(us. a fab drawing by moi)

Anniversary Dinner on the Cheap - mussel bisque and stilton walnut crackers courtesy of Ina Garten, Clicquot and red red roses courtesy of one David Kluvers, a lovely salad to round it all out, and a playlist heavy on the cheesy love songs.

making a leisurely shopping list, never a bad way to start a day.



Asparagus, soon to be broiled and proscuitto-hugged.



Stilton and walnuts



On the way to cracker - dom



Whizzed-up stilton, softened with butter, sharpened with pepper.



flour + fat = Dough.



Dough is chilled. sliced, baked.



Luxurious salad of hearts of palm and avocado - more than you could ever eat.



Mussels, tomatoes, white wine, onions, carrots, leeks, heavy cream, half & half. + simmer...



Served!



After 6 years, he knows the true path to my heart - BUBBLES!

There are those who call me....

....Master...

Because I done GRADUATED to day!

I celebrated with a couple Levain Bakery Cookies IMMEDIATELY following the fab ceremony at the Beacon Theater. YUM YUM



Said cookies - said gooey and gigantic cookies - were quite quickly chased (as quickly as the C train ever is) by a glass of Billecart- Salmon 2000 at the Bubble Lounge. Don't mind if I do!



Cheers!

You can call me Miranda Rake, Food Studies MA.

OR as David and I decided upon over our SCRUMPTIOUS celebration dinner < PAUSE FOR PICTURES >

drool



drool



drool



drool



drool



at Locanda Verde I will also accept the following :

Miranda Rake, NFSPH* MA, NYU, NYC, U.S.A, P.E.**, SSMW***, U.****


Basically I'm the coolest ever and I am a lot like what you might think of as a Princess of the world now so that's neat and you should definitely think of me that way.



* NFSPH : Nutrition, Food Studies, Public Health
** PE : Planet Earth
***SSMW : solar system milky way
**** U : Universe

Final Finals

I should be writing my final finals - specifically an 8-pager that is due in less than 24 hours. However, if I can't crank out a meesley 8-pager in under 2 hours at this point, what on earth have I gotten out of graduate school really?

Which brings me here, to a rather philosophical place at the end of my time in school - possibly for ever and certainly for the foreseeable time being. Over these past few months I have found myself questioning (especially in the wee small hours) if Food Studies was my proper path, stretching to remember what brought me here in the first place, scrambling for a reassuring remembrance of my love of food. That one elusive thought that would make the vortex of debt into which I slip less like a spinning, tightening, opaquely doom-filled vortex and more like a big hammock of accomplishment, piled high with those fluffy pink clouds that Care Bears live on.

The fluffy pink pile of clouds to fall into came to me in the form of this book :



"Far Flung and Well Fed" is a collection of the food writing of the irreplaceable R.W. Apple, whose writing I found uniquely engrossing before I even realized exactly who he was. I stumbled into his work as a teenager, as a weekly browser of the New York Times Dining section. Over time, I came to know his name merely because when a piece would particularly strike me as special somehow the way that great writing does, it would invariably be his name in the byline.

I have missed the presence of his writing more than I realized. When I happened into this book on Amazon at the beginning of April, I ordered it on a whim - such a whim that it's arrival a week later took me by surprise. I shoved it in my purse for some rebellious non-school reading without a thought and went on my merry way. Later that day as I rode home in the dreary sleepiness of a 6pm subway car, I stood reading the introduction - R.W. Apple's reflections on a life of good food and great times - and my eyes welled up. Whatever assurance I was seeking I somehow found in the beauty of his words, a beauty that I can't bring myself to describe here because I could never do him justice. Buy the book, steal it, check it out, borrow it from me but GIVE IT BACK - do what you have to do, just read it. Your vortex will thank you.

Happy Easter!

Coffee, pink bubbly, Herbie Nichols pandora, and friends to dye eggs with! Is there a nicer way to spend a drizzly Saturday?













Happy Happy Easter!