Something must have gone wrong. They must have boiled it so vigorously to make it that tough. The big ones need longer braising time but the tiny ones don’t take long at all. I cook them almost like squid. This is another good reason to get only tiny sepia. Super tender and sweet.
Yes sir, I can bulgogi but I need a certain song,
I can bulgogi, bulgogi bulgogi all night long.
.
It’s supposed to be over in a couple of days.
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Both Trader Joe’s and Wegmans were visited today.
I bought absolutely NOTHING.
I’m lying. Like DUH.
I bought sea scallops for dinner tonight. Seasoned with s/p and pan-seared in hot butter for about 2-1/2 minutes, and served over mango rice, with asparagus on the side along with wine. It ended up a bit bland, but a decent, quick dinner after doing some work this afternoon. Dessert was a couple of Trader Joe’s Cookie Butter Cookies.
I did find out my CEO’s house was damaged in the nor’easter. He made it through the first two high tides, but the third ended up busting through his lower level, pretty much destroying the downstairs apartment in his island “cottage”. Tonight’s high tide won’t help much either. Going to be a lot of cleaning up and repairing for him to deal with. 
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My gosh it sounds like your area has been hit so hard by the storm! I hope it has passed now and you and your family are all safe and cozy
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Long overdue socializing last night with a coworker who became a friend- partly because she was my dinner buddy on our crazy asia trips since she’s vegan. It was very windy and rainy outside but we decided all the more reason to go!
We met at Ladybird which was charming and rather small but beautiful with large comfortable padded chairs at the bar that had a back (!! Almost unheard of, most bars are tall very hard stools, no back, to encourage leaving quickly i think)
I started with a lovely cocktail made with basil (strained out), cucumber, strawberry, reisling and a bit of a fortified wine i forget the name of. Very refreshing and interesting combo
We ordered a number of dishes to share-only got half decent photos of two the others were dark blobs. Avocado with black garlic ponzu and sesame seeds, garnish ontop was battered fried avocado (!)
Mushrooms dish had fried hen of the woods, plus pickled mushrooms and mushroom purée underneath- this was the showstopper, exactly right amount of maldon on the fried mushrooms too
Not pictured we also had the sweet potato with miso butter and the brussel sprouts. It was hard to make a decision!! I am not used to so many options available to me as my omni friends are twits and don’t like to go to vegan restaurants
Also a wonderful unique orange wine from Greece
Much less fabulousness this evening… i found a big bag of green beans on mark down in the produce section and they were not the best for just steaming so i made a long slow braise of them with lots of garlic, onion, olive oil, thyme, tomato paste, chopped tomatoes, v8, and plenty of black pepper. I made a bowl for dinner with a few meatless balls and wished for some crusty bread- made do with a fennel raisin roll from my freezer. Most the leftovers will go to the freezer, i’ll add in some beans and call it soup for lunch tomorrow
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Very upset. Discovered that my 2 citrus plants are destroyed by the cold, all the leaves turn yellow. My fault, I have a stupid belief that warmer snow and froze (32ºF/0ºC) does more damage than the sunny dry cold days(20ºF/-6ºC). I brought the plants indoor when snowing a few weeks ago but not last week. It will take some time to know if there is root damage or not. 
Made some classical veal in cream sauce (blanquette de veau), while we find it was good, we still felt a bit heavy (beef broth reduction with cream, butter and egg yolk as sauce). Recipe from Pierre Gagnaire, his book, la cuisine de 5 saisons.
Our reheated second meal, stripes of raw green apple, reduced grapefruit (juice and flesh) is added in the sauce, (actually it was the online version of Gagnaire’s veal recipe, I don’t know why his online version is more modern). It wasn’t so different from the first version, we sensed instantly the sauce was lighter.
The following day we had an English beef stew with Guinness. I remembered making one with a Jamie Oliver’s recipe some years ago, but found it very bitter and the beer was overwhelming. But this recipe from Felicity Cloake was really good, beer and broth was well balance, I even made the dumplings.
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that looks fabulous - a bright spicy respite from the weather I imagine!
Friday was Carbonara as planned it was a nice respite from the miserable weather along with some NY Times bread. Saturday the Jeep decided to start spewing steaming coolant so a wrench in all plans had to throw dinner together with what was on hand so half a head of cauliflower and some old potatoes became curry now the house is … well… fragrant. Tonight I think a beef stew - something that will make leftovers for lunches this week.
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I had steak on the menu last night until Coned cut our power right at sundown to fix some power lines down the street. Why they didn’t do it during daylight hours is beyond me, but we decided we didn’t feel like having dinner in the dark, so we went out for sushi. The steak will make an appearance tonight, simply grilled with some roasted cherry tomatoes and another vegetable side TBD.
I hope everyone in the Northeast is safe and sound and powered up. We were very lucky not to have sustained any damage to house or cars, and only a short power outage last night. A tree down the block crushed two cars and stopped traffic for two days!
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Slept in.
Boyz said NO!
Read.
Made a bunch of bacon for work sandwiches.
Laundry.
Phone calls with sister and Mom re: upcoming move.
Caramelized a shit ton of onions.
Dinner had to use said shit ton of caramelized onions.
B/S chicken thighs seasoned with s/p, garlic powder and minced rosemary, pan-seared, removed, and then a 1/2 cup of chicken stock added along with a sploosh of white wine and some caramelized onion. Reduced a bit, chicken thighs added back on, covered, cooked until done. A couple of Tbsp. of heavy cream added at the end to make a sauce.
Steamed green beans and white wine were the sides. Oscars Red Carpet and Award Show will be dessert. (Along with more of the Trader Joe’s Cookie Butter Cookies.)
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Winds finally died down. While not as severe as New England it still had me rattled. My hyacinths are bruised, battered and flat on the ground. Lady Banks Rose has begun to bloom - a rich golden yellow. Which made me think of egg yolks.
So dinner tonight was hash browns, easy over eggs, bacon and a quick sauté of tomato and spinach.
Nice and comforting after several days of constant wind.
Hope those of you who bore the brunt of this storm fared well
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While doing obnoxious necessary apartment projects and laundry today i cooked up a pot of beans- almost followed this recipe but swapped in some homemade veg stock, used odds and ends of beans instead of fancy heirloom ones, and swapped in cashew cream for the heavy cream.
https://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/brothy-heirloom-beans-with-cream
I had a big mug of the beans as a late lunch, for dinner i had more of the beans and some of the stewed greens beans from yesterday. I decided to open the port dad sent me home with on my last visit- it’s a long story but he makes wine in the garage with a few friends who work professionally in the wine industry (he’s just the guy with a garage!) and his friend from childhood is a graphic designer, he does the labels and gets paid in wine. This label has his vintage ‘66 MG in the image. They have made sparkling wine, port, pinot, chardonnay, etc.
This was a wonderful surprise, very complex and smooth
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Dinner at the parents’ house. Burmese Khao Swe — coconut chicken curry noodles. You add your own toppings. Tonight’s mood was egg whites, onion, a bit of cilantro, fish sauce, a squeeze of lime, and red chilli flakes fried in oil.
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That label is so cool - love the MG!
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Chateau garage ! haha!
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I adore the clever labels and cheeky wording (car port!) and they have a big party when the wine is ready to bottle to have lots of people helping and they bbq, everyone goes home with a few bottles!
You have to say it with a thick fake french accent! Kind of convincing that way 
It’s a port, can’t be from France! 
Is it a personal project? Or they sold some bottles?
1999 is vintage now, but only 1 bottle?!
full afternoon of cooking yesterday, which resulted in:
Kentucky Bourbon-Brown Butter Cake;
Harissa;
Shakshuka with said harissa;
Roast Turkey Thigh;
A NYT recipe for cabbage and sausage;
Tomato sauce
Cake was buttery and boozy. Martha Stewart recipe, turned out good. BF re-glazed it last night after i went to bed, with a chocolate glaze. for me it changed the whole yummy profile of the cake, but I did make it for him!
Homemade harissa. I used three different dried kinds of dried peppers: Guajillos, pasillas, and ñoras, and added sundried tomatoes and preserved lemon. This stuff is crack! had some on egg this morning.
Shakshuka - great! added thin slices of Spanish chorizo for the BF, a bit of feta, and thick greek yogurt.
Seasoned a turkey thigh with Slap Yo Mama, Old Bay, and lots of fresh thyme, and roasted it with butter and olive oil. That’ll be part of dinner some night this week.
NYT sausage & cabbage recipe - alternate layers of cabbage, sausage, and buttah. Cooked for 2.5 hours under parchment and foil. Melty yum - that’s for tonight’s dinner.
Tomato sauce was because i got a a bunch of very soft tomatoes for $.69, as I needed some for the shakshuka.
Probably all the cooking that will happen until Sunday. I am confident we shall not starve.
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Thanks, JTPhilly. Thankfully it’s all over today.
Would never starve at Maria and BF’s!
Breaded tempeh cooked in the same pan with seasoned fried eggs. Tempeh was first steamed to soften, marinated shortly in beetroot liquid (from peel I saved just for this kind of things). The rest was done like Schnitzel (but I can’t call it Schitzel because it’s not).
In the bowl: quinoa, minced cauliflower and red cabbage kimchi.
Dipping sauce is Gochuchang and sesame oil. And that’s my Korean knife bought in Busan (got 3).
At Busan fish market.
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