The Woodsy Type

A couple weeks ago I went to the Dupont Farmers' Market with a couple friends in the early morning. This was not usual because one of the friends (Nina) is NOT a morning person. But the other friend (Sarah) was, so Nina sacrificed for her visit to town. They are good friends.

At the market that day I saw something I had only seen in a blog post before: hen of the woods, also known as maitake mushrooms. They were going for $8 a paltry pint, which sounded like a deal because it was less than the $10 every other pint cost. Plus, they were just so interesting! Then Sarah got one, so I had to follow suit, no excuses.

La mise en scene

Then the poor thing waited in my fridge in its paper bag for a whole week. I felt like a bad mother! I had to do something by the following Sunday, and act I did. After some searching (never being one to go into battle unarmed), I found a likely candidate recipe, but it didn't knock my socks off in terms of a meal, so I embellished. You know, like I never do usually.

I tried to take the methods from that recipe and amp it up with another recipe, from one of my favorite cookbooks by Judith Jones, for a mushroom risotto. It is not unlike most risotto recipes, so I won't go into the tweaking, just to say I didn't embellish it too much because I wanted the special mushroom flavor to shine brightest.

It was pretty good. I think I may not have risotto down, because the rice seemed a bit overblown, maybe overcooked? Does it ever get so full of moisture it just explodes? Like that.

Mushroom, olive oil, salt = yum

I made enough for 3 tidy servings, bringing some to work, and the aroma in the office made it seem like I had it better than I did. I guess I'm just one for that woodsy type!

Anaesthetic Bread

I have a friend from college who called the ends of the bread "the butt," whereas I grew up calling it "the heel." No matter, we still managed to be friends.

And while this picture of my last loaf of bread purports all-American friendliness......really, it's got a bit of a problem. Some issues under the surface, you might say. I don't think I did anything too unusual, but it was a first recipe from a new book. Apparently I didn't tuck the edges up underneath as neatly as I needed to in order for this NOT to be called the "butt" of the bread.

You've heard of anaerobic, right? Well, this was ... anaesthetic!

It came out looking like a butt. I ask you, what is a girl to do in this case but slice the ends quickly off and laugh herself a silly fit? ;-)

Girl at Work

Here is a short post about food at work. Well, food is always at work while we're noshing on it, but I mean food which I consume at work. Here is Case #1:

Le Grilled Cheese avec Cornichons

'But how,' I can hear you saying, 'does she manage this gourmet fare at the office, with neither grill pan nor George Foreman at the ready?'
Well, dear Reader, I will tell you, I have never used a George Foreman grill, and my grill pan has only been used to spectacular disappointment thus far. We have a toaster over at work, which I bribed into both melting the cheese and crisping the bread slices. And the cornichons were carried in a jar from home to give the meal a 'je ne sais quoi' of specialness. Ah, les francais...

Case #2: Ye Ol' Irish-American Celebration Midday Dinner
As I get older, I am forced to reflect on many things. One of them is how much effort and of which type I feel like putting forth for certain celebrations. This year, while I had planned to trot down to the Dubliner, a fine neighborhood-in-a-stretch establishment, to partake in Irish music and food and frolic for that day when the Irish Snake-Charmer went out of business, I came home and decided that what was really calling my name was the corned beef stewing in my pot for 3 1/2 hours. So I went with that instead. :)
But at least here's the proof that the next day at work I did honor the ancestors. With corned beef, potato, and kale salad.
More to come on butt bread, chocolate fudge espresso cookies, the secret to delicious instant polenta, and springtime. Stay tuned!

And special note for Ginny: thank you soooo much! You turned around my evening :)