what i made

damn, i wanted to post about my trip to colorado as soon as i got back, but i don't have the hardware i need to download the pictures onto my computer yet! coincidentally, after all my hinting here, my dad has up and loaned me his digital camera. theoretically, he doesn't even know i have a blog. anyway, i'm not going to say anything about colorado until i get back from circuit city tomorrow and can post pictures to go along with it, except to say that it was very relaxing, and that it was in the seventies and sunny the whole time.

instead i'll tell you what i've cooked since i got back on wednesday:

1. last night, all tossed together in a big bowl as a wilted green salad: mâche, which is a wonderful buttery, yet dark, green; gnocchi, sauteed in olive oil so they were slightly crispy and golden on the outside; zucchini also sauteed in olive oil, till just brown around the edges; fresh basil; alfalfa sprouts and a grated mixture of italian hard cheeses in a homemade dressing of olive oil, mustard and lime juice. (picture of newly acquired from ebay antique jadite reamer to come.) oh, and slivered almonds, which i sauteed till brown, in the zucchini oil, that, now that i'm talking about it, i'll go ahead and say, briefly had a mushed clove of garlic in it.

2. just now--it took me all day--i made stuffing. i went to the union square greenmarket and got celery root, pears and purple cipollini onions (i also got a pumpkin, a butternut squash, tiny roasting potatoes, and apples, but they didn't go into the stuffing. i'll let you know what becomes of them later in the week.) i got, elsewhere, a whole loaf of--i think portuguese--bread, mushrooms, milk, prunes, pecans. i diced and soaked the prunes in vermouth. i chopped the celery root and pears into thin slivers so they would cook quickly. i chopped the mushrooms real tiny so my boyfriend wouldn't complain about them. while i was drying out the bread i had cubed pretty small, with no bread knife, mind you, on a cookie sheet in a 350 degree oven for twenty minutes, i sauteed in olive oil and kate's homemade butter everything else with some sage, rosemary and thyme (no parsley! ha! my boyfriend made me throw it away before we left for colorado.) i tossed everything together in my huge stainless steel mixing bowl--which is my current favorite kitchen thing, i think--added milk (boyfriend is vegetarian so i can't use stock--i've found substituting milk instead of vegetable stock--ew--is generally successful) and a beaten egg. then i packed it loosely--i probably should have added a little more milk and packed more tightly, i see now that i've eaten some--and baked it for an hour at 350 degrees. yum.

now i am going to make my dog mimi's costume for the halloween parade at the tompkins square dog run tomorrow. someone just kidnap me, slap a kid on my hip and transplant me to the suburbs! i am becoming more and more domestic every year. watch out! i might offer you a homemade muffin or mend your underwear the next time i see you.