all's well that end's well with dessert
Jan. 25th, 2007 11:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
verbicideSo, today. Today was Jeff's birthday! (HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JEFF!!)
Chris had another commitment, so I got custody of Jeff for the evening. We had decided to eat in, because eating out without completely blowing our diets ...not so possible. (Jeff's good angel also has custody of him.) So I wanted to make a fabulous but healthy and low-cal dinner. Also, vegetarian (as he is one). This is something I'd never attempted before. I also apparently wanted to bend time and space and make it all happen flawlessly in an hour after work. I felt like I was a contestant on Top Chef. The one that gets eliminated.
Normally, I maintain pretty decent control over the kitchen, but tonight... I was all over the friggin' place. No room to work because I kept making a mess. Just, gah! And the food... Well. It wasn't my best night. I couldn't get my act together to make some veggie shu mai, so at the last minute, went with some bruschetta. Not peak-of-season summer tomatoes, but they weren't bad. And fresh mozzarella makes everything better. And then poor Jeff had to wait for a million hours while I tried to finish the goddamn tofu-veggie-peanut-curry. Everything just took so damn long! Well, the damn potatoes took so long. Also, note to self: when adding forty pounds of veggies to a dish that normally only has a pound of chicken --add more salt!
The salad was okay. Simple butter lettuce with some yellow bell peppers and homemade vinaigrette. Not bad, but nothing to write home about. I wish I'd done something more exciting to it, but with the spicy curry, wanted to keep the salad course light. Should have tossed the lettuce back into the fridge to chill longer, though.
The tofu-veggie-peanut-curry was...okay, if unattractive. I wish I'd sauteed the tofu and then removed it, done everything else, and re-added the tofu at the end. It was not a pretty dish. But Jeff liked it enough to have three servings, and we're good enough friends so I know he wouldn't lie to me. (How can you improve a dish if no one tells you it sucks, after all.) It did really lack salt, which was easy enough to add in the end. And Jeff took all the leftovers home. So, that was at least nice, because I sure didn't want to eat it.
And then we lit a fire and watched the re-airing of Top Chef together, because somehow mine didn't record the first time (which was probably through some bone-headed mistake on my part). We always talk about Top Chef the day after, so it was really fun to get to watch it together. I wish it weren't on so damn late, so we could watch it together more often.
For dessert I made the yogurt gelato and champagne grapes. That came out fine, but the gelato was so soft. I really wish I'd made it first and let it firm up more in the freezer. I also didn't end up liking the champagne-marinated grapes with the gelato. But they were fine spaced apart a bit.
I was also really excited to give Jeff his presents. This was the year of giving him all the things I'd meant to give him before or things he needed (a crisp white shirt from Banana, a new tea kettle --since his is possessed by the devil, and a Vermilion plant-- which he always lingers over at plant stores but never buys). He was so very cute in his excitement over the tea kettle. He's really hated his for about as long as I've know him.
It was also fun to surprise him with ...his parent's present. His mom got in touch last week and asked if I would pick up a GC to Palermo, since if she sent him a check, he'd never cash it (the woman obviously knows him). And inside the card was an unexpected present for me! A baby picture of Jeff. Which I can't post because he'd kill me, but I about died from the cuteness. He looks pretty much the same, except now he has a beard. So cute!!
So, even though it felt like an off night for my cooking skills, it was so glorious to hang out with Jeff on his birthday.
Chris had another commitment, so I got custody of Jeff for the evening. We had decided to eat in, because eating out without completely blowing our diets ...not so possible. (Jeff's good angel also has custody of him.) So I wanted to make a fabulous but healthy and low-cal dinner. Also, vegetarian (as he is one). This is something I'd never attempted before. I also apparently wanted to bend time and space and make it all happen flawlessly in an hour after work. I felt like I was a contestant on Top Chef. The one that gets eliminated.
Normally, I maintain pretty decent control over the kitchen, but tonight... I was all over the friggin' place. No room to work because I kept making a mess. Just, gah! And the food... Well. It wasn't my best night. I couldn't get my act together to make some veggie shu mai, so at the last minute, went with some bruschetta. Not peak-of-season summer tomatoes, but they weren't bad. And fresh mozzarella makes everything better. And then poor Jeff had to wait for a million hours while I tried to finish the goddamn tofu-veggie-peanut-curry. Everything just took so damn long! Well, the damn potatoes took so long. Also, note to self: when adding forty pounds of veggies to a dish that normally only has a pound of chicken --add more salt!
The salad was okay. Simple butter lettuce with some yellow bell peppers and homemade vinaigrette. Not bad, but nothing to write home about. I wish I'd done something more exciting to it, but with the spicy curry, wanted to keep the salad course light. Should have tossed the lettuce back into the fridge to chill longer, though.
The tofu-veggie-peanut-curry was...okay, if unattractive. I wish I'd sauteed the tofu and then removed it, done everything else, and re-added the tofu at the end. It was not a pretty dish. But Jeff liked it enough to have three servings, and we're good enough friends so I know he wouldn't lie to me. (How can you improve a dish if no one tells you it sucks, after all.) It did really lack salt, which was easy enough to add in the end. And Jeff took all the leftovers home. So, that was at least nice, because I sure didn't want to eat it.
And then we lit a fire and watched the re-airing of Top Chef together, because somehow mine didn't record the first time (which was probably through some bone-headed mistake on my part). We always talk about Top Chef the day after, so it was really fun to get to watch it together. I wish it weren't on so damn late, so we could watch it together more often.
For dessert I made the yogurt gelato and champagne grapes. That came out fine, but the gelato was so soft. I really wish I'd made it first and let it firm up more in the freezer. I also didn't end up liking the champagne-marinated grapes with the gelato. But they were fine spaced apart a bit.
I was also really excited to give Jeff his presents. This was the year of giving him all the things I'd meant to give him before or things he needed (a crisp white shirt from Banana, a new tea kettle --since his is possessed by the devil, and a Vermilion plant-- which he always lingers over at plant stores but never buys). He was so very cute in his excitement over the tea kettle. He's really hated his for about as long as I've know him.
It was also fun to surprise him with ...his parent's present. His mom got in touch last week and asked if I would pick up a GC to Palermo, since if she sent him a check, he'd never cash it (the woman obviously knows him). And inside the card was an unexpected present for me! A baby picture of Jeff. Which I can't post because he'd kill me, but I about died from the cuteness. He looks pretty much the same, except now he has a beard. So cute!!
So, even though it felt like an off night for my cooking skills, it was so glorious to hang out with Jeff on his birthday.
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no subject
Date: 2007-01-26 12:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-01-26 04:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-01-26 12:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-01-26 04:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-01-26 04:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-01-26 04:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-01-26 02:26 pm (UTC)I might have to steal the grapes-marinated-in-champagne idea.
no subject
Date: 2007-01-26 04:34 pm (UTC)3 cups champagne, room temp
2lbs red, seedless grapes
1 T lemon zest + extra for garnish
1/4 cup sugar
2 T superfine sugar
Mix champagne and sugar and zest, let sugar dissolve. Add in grapes, marinate 8-hours. Take out grapes, pat dry. Dust with superfine sugar and extra lemon zest.
Bon Apetit!