Bouncing Back

So it's been a while... indeed!! I fantasize that my readers (all maybe 1 of them if I'm lucky) remain on the edge of their seat until I post. In reality I'm just filling my day with something other than changing diapers, breast feeding, and maybe cleaning something. But I'm here!! HuzZZAaah!! And I am genuinely excited to have a moment to blog :)

So yeah!! Not so pregnant anymore... Thank God! Baby J is just about the most amazing thing I ever have or ever will cook up. And what a recipe it was, just a dash of self sacrifice here a little overwhelming pain there, some constant nausea and taDAAAAAA a baby. Being a Mom is amazing and feels sooooo much more organic then the process through which he arrived.

Lets talk briefly about the birth. Well, it didn't pan out the way I expected. Big D and I changed mid pregnancy to a practice of Mid-wives in hopes of a totally natural birth. No drugs, very little intervention. What we ended up with was every possible intervention in the book and 36 hours of Labor that ended in a c-section anyway. At the end of the day I'm still glad I went with the mid-wives. They let me try every possible tool to try and get the baby out the good old fashioned way. But Baby J despite being almost 9 1/2 lbs he just wouldn't drop into a deliverable position. I never even had the option to push, never dilated, nada, zilch despite all the contractions. Luckily this isn't the 1800's so I didn't you know.... die or anything. The recovery is really hard from surgery, harder than labor but thankfully easier than the pain I was experiencing during the pregnancy. And the outcome??? Amazing little baby monster to call my own!!! And now you are all like, "post a picture bitch!!" Ok! Ok... here you go...

Shortbread and Babyland

So you may have noticed my conspicuous amount of absent time. A roughly 9 month absence. Without fail as soon as you indulge yourself by venting in a public space about personal problems life will invariably prove you wrong. Not that I'm complaining btw!!! So yes after all that tear jerking and terribleness I got pregnant. Scott free, no drugs involved, totally pregnant; News that I was waiting originally to share with you after the alls safe yet totally arbitrary 12 week mark. What I did not expect was to be slammed with the pregnancy stick so hard. I was sick people... nausea like I have never experienced in my life. It was intense. So week after week went by not posting, not cooking, not even standing vertical so much and I just lost my blogging mojo. Which is a theme if you haven't noticed.

So now I'm about a week away from my due date, as big as a blimp, and more uncomfortable than I ever imagined possible. FYI I was not one of those graceful pregnant people. Those people that make it look so goddamn easy.. "Hi I'm growing an eight pound person off of my uterus and I'm going to run the NY marathon." By about 5 months pregnant I was having intense pelvic pain which has pretty much been the theme for the past 4 months. I would have loved to keep working until the end of the pregnancy. Mostly just to keep my mind from turning into total mush by watching nothing but Bravo and E all day. But it's kinda hard to help people find a good vitamin for themselves when all you can do is lean over a little rolling cart and moan.

I don't want to sound like I'm complaining. I am totally trilled and feel so lucky to be having a healthy pregnancy. We had no major complications, our little guy seems healthy and other than discomfort I haven't had any problems medically. I just can't get over how different this experience has been from what I envisioned. I guess I had some pipe dream of what an organicgranolaearthmother journey pregnancy would be. That since it is such a natural process that it would feel natural. But honestly it has seemed like freakshowalienland right from the get go. Just the whole metamorphosis from normal to extremely pregnant has felt sooooo weird. I just hope the transition from woman/wife to mother feels a little less jarring.

At some point I may post about all the pregnancy craziness. The things that happen to your body, the loss of autonomy, general pregnancy ickyness that people don't talk about. But I have a sneaking suspicion that once I meet this little guy he will be waaaaaaay more interesting than revisiting all the good times of the last few months. In the mean time I'm making shortbread on a snowy day and waiting for baby...

Simple Shortbread

1/2 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups all purpose flour

Blend sugar and salt in processor. Cut in butter using on/off turns until blended and smooth. Blend in vanilla. Add flour and process until blended but still slightly crumbly, occasionally scraping down sides of bowl. Gather dough into ball; flatten into disk. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate 30 minutes.
Position rack in top third of oven and preheat to 250°F. Divide dough in half. Press each half onto bottom of 8-inch-diameter cake pan or 9-inch-diameter pie dish. Bake shortbread 30 minutes. Rotate pans and continue baking until cooked through and very pale golden, about 30 minutes longer. Cool in pans on racks 10 minutes. Cut each warm shortbread while still in pan into 12 wedges. Cool completely. Using thin spatula, carefully transfer wedges to platter. (Shortbread can be prepared up to 4 days ahead. Store in airtight container at room temperature.)

Yeah... Hi, it's me

Sorry for the blatant absenteeism. I didn't have any intention of disappearing this last month but disappear I did. I'm not going into gory details but I'm going through some serious shit. Life shit, sucky shit, shit that I don't want to share on this blog. I even did my Charcutapalooza challenge this month, which despite being an epic fail, would have made a great story. But I just didn't have the heart to write about it. I didn't want to disappear into the ether without an explanation. And if your one of the two people who read this blog I'm sorry to the one of you who doesn't know what is going on. Maybe someday I'll feel like sharing openly about this experience but I can't make any promises. I will promise to be back to posting as soon as I feel OK enough. I love this space and writing about my adventures.

xoxo
Fast Alice

Curry in a not so Hurry...

At first when I was craving crazy varieties of food I though it was due to the bland restaurant scape here. Now with the tease of warm weather, I'm thinking it may just be spring that is making me want crazy spicy food. I LOVE Indian food people.... LOVE!! Yes, with many exclamations. And I always wanted to know how to cook it. But with cheap Indian right off our old subway stop it was hard to get motivated to learn. So now is the time. I had never attempted to make this kind of food before and although it came out great it took my like aaaaalllll day to make everything. However, I did make the paneer and Nann from scratch and the bread takes 4hours to rise...

As I scoured the Internet for recipes I found the most adorable woman on youtube named Manjula. She has a ton of amazing videos and I totally imagine her to be my Indian Grandmother or Great Aunt or something. We laugh and make Nann bread and she teaches me all about reincarnation and where to buy the best Hing. Or at least that is what I pretend when I'm alone in my kitchen puttering around on Saturday. Seriously people... I need to make some friends here and not like the kind you find on youtube and make friends with in your brain.

The first dish I made was Palek Paneer. I made the paneer myself and it came out amazing. Here is a tip to all you amateur cheese makers out there. I bought pasteurised grass fed milk at the health food store and it worked great!! I have had some terrible experiences making cheese from regular pasteurised (Not UHT) milk that failed to make a curd do to heat damage and what not. This milk made the BEST curd. It was very firm and I can't WAIT to make Mozzarella out of it.


The next dish I made was Chicken Tikka Masala. But Ooooooppss I only had one breast of chicken. So I improvised and use the remainder of my paneer and some string beans to fill out the meal. It was actually really tasty. I might make it this way next time weather I have the chicken or not.


The next and last thing was the Naan. Which I had started of course, many MANY hours before. I of course did a garlic Naan which Big D loves. The naan proofed up more than I expected and I'm sure I didn't roll it out thin enough. But by then we were about to to faint with hunger so I just threw it in the oven. Still tasted great.

Even now I'm looking at these pictures and hoping I did Auntie Manjula proud... Sigh.. Hopefully I will meet some real people soon even if they can't cook.

xoxo
Fast Alice

On the table...

So it occurs to me that I have been doing a lot of cooking and not a lot of blog posting.  I feel guilty about eating all this amazing food and not sharing it with others.  One of the things I loved about the city was the diversity of the food.  Feel like Greek.. No Problem!! Indian?  Just one stop away on the N. Thai?  Order from Thai Elephant anytime until mid-night.  

Up here in the sticks we just don't have as many options.  There is a pretty good Pizza place, a cute Italian restaurant in town that makes great fish dishes and we just discovered "The Horse and Hound Inn & Pub."  Which is the closest to our house and made hands down the best fried oyster sandwich I have ever had... and I've been to New Orleans people, a few times so that is saying a LOT!!  The oysters were perfectly fried with a corn meal crust and they literally would squirt briny delicious oystery heaven in your mouth when you bit one.  A little too much info but it was just as orgasmic as it sounds.  Big D and I have dreams of taking the canoe across the lake in the summer and walking to get beers and oyster sandwiches which is needless to say... Awesome. 

What was I saying?? Oh yeah.. Despite the good eats.  There is a distinct lack of diversity up here.  At least in our limited wanderings from Fort Fraley.  I totally admit perhaps all the Indian, Thai, Chinese, and Greek places are here but yet to be discovered.  So in lieu of fast food I pulled together this dish with satisfied my craving for Thai and ramen at the same time a big win in my book....

Fast Alice's Thai Soba Soup

Please note that each bowl is made individually to taste like a taco or something.  Feel free to add or subtract what you will.  Some nice additions would be shitake mushrooms which I totally forgot to buy that night.  I also wanted to put some chili paste in for a little more heat but the store didn't have it. 

Needed:

4 soft boiled eggs

1lb box of soba noodles

1 small onion

5 leaves lacinatto Khale

2 cloves garlic minced

Hot Sesame Chili oil

Sesame oil

Sesame Seeds

1 bunch scallions

1 bunch Cilantro

1 lime

1tsp red pepper flakes

fish sauce

tamari

1 container miso paste

6-8 cups boiled water

Chop the Khale and onions and saute over med/high heat in sesame oil.  Once the onions start to brown add the garlic.  When the garlic is brown turn off the heat and let pan sit on the warm burner.  Boil off the soba as per the directions on the box and toss gently with a little sesame oil to keep from sticking.  Take a teaspoon of miso and put in a soup bowl.  Add a little of the boiled water (make sure that the water is no longer boiling to preserve the cultures in the miso).  Mix until the miso is dissolved then add 1-2 cups of water to taste, depending on how strong you would like the broth.  Add 1Tbs of tamari and 1tsp of fish sauce (taste and make sure it is salty enough for you).  Put a heaping pile of soba noodles in the center of the bowl.  Add the sauteed greens to one side of the noodles and the soft boiled egg.  Sprinkle chopped scallions, cilantro, and crushed red pepper over the top.  Finish with a drizzle of the hot chili sesame oil and a squeeze of fresh lime. 

Enjoy guys!! On to making Indian food :)

xoxo

Fast Alice

I am the GREAT Cornholio!!! Charcutapalooza 3!

I had to wait all month just to use that title... Whfeewwww. Glad to get that out of my system. So the Ides of March has finally arrived. Which means two things, it is my parents aniversary today and I can blog about insane corn beefy goodness. I have a nasty habit of doing my Charcutapalooza projects waaaaaay ahead of schedule and the corn beef was no exception. The corn beef was made and consumed in its entirtly like three weeks ago.. whooops!! But it was soooo good people there was no way it was gonna last until St. Patty's day. The good news is with the corned beef out of the way I don't feel guilty making shepheard's pie and soda bread on St. Patrick's day. I also had ample time to experiment with different corn beef masterpieces. But back to the BEEF!!
This was hands down the easiest cure yet. Five days in a fridge brine... no problem. I have a confession to make however. I did not make my own pickling spice... GASP!!! I know.. I know. I REALLY wanted to people. But it was a question of economy. I could either buy all natural Beef for $40, from happy cows not pumped full of hormones or spend $40 on the spices I lacked from my shelf to make the pickling spice. I couldn't afford both that week. So the beef won for humanitarian reasons and I chose a pickling spice made by Ancona's Market, a family run grocery store down here. It was totally satisfactory and I got a HUGE container of it for 1/2 the price of the McCormick spices. The outcome was divine, as you can see above. Big D and I could hardly wait and we started nibbling on the beef as soon as it was done simmering...
Later that evening we had a splendid meal of Corn beef and cabbage. Although the cabbage was a little camera shy in this photo. I assure you it was fabulous. I will never buy a corned beef from the store again. The meat was juicy and delicious, perfectly seasoned. Didn't have any of that rubbery bloated quality that some corned beef has.

The next morning we wanted more!!! I had used two, 2 and 1/2 lb pieces of brisket for our beef so I took the remainder of one piece and made the most amazing hash. See the recipe below which includes my secret trick :) You would think we had had enough of eating the same thing meal after meal but NOPE.. later that night we broke out the Reubens.

To make the Reubens we decided to use the slicer to cut the beef.. and holy Hell it was probably the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. The meat was very cold when I sliced it which kept it together. My only regret was that this was the last of it and I couldn't fry up just one or two more slices for breakfast the next day. But with a tear in my eye I continued on with sandwich making.

Big D prefers a more traditional open faced Reuben. All the better to cram more meat and cheese on my dear. This was also made with our homemade saurkraut. Which I helped along with a little vineger (if you saw my earlier post).

This is my personal idea of perfection. With tosty crunch on both sides. If I died and this sandwich floated up to meet me I would be completely confident that I was headed directly to heaven and a world of white truffels, pancetta, risotto, and more crispy sandwiches.

This months challenge was awesome and it gave us enough food for days. For people who are non-pigs I'm sure these goodies would have fed you for at least a week instead of (errr.. two days). With a minimum of effort to boot. Can't wait to see what is next!!

xoxo
Fast Alice


Easy Corned Beef Hash

After making the corned beef reserve about 2 cups worth of the potatoes that have been boiled with the beef. (This recipe if specifically for people who like the dogfoody goodness of canned hash. Not appealing, I know, but lets not lie it totally looks and smells like that.) Mince a small onion and add to a skillet over med heat. Once slightly brown add about 2 cups minced corned beef and brown with the onions. Now the secret.... rough chop the already boiled potatoes. Add a tiny bit more oil to the skillet then add the potatoes. Use a wooden spoon to smush up the potatoes and mix in the meat and onions. Continue to fry until you start to see little brown bits on the potatoes. (It was basically start to look like the outside of a potato pancake). Once it is brown enough to your taste season with pepper (salt too if you like) and serve with a fried or poached egg on top.

Burrrrrrrrrr Blanc...

So winter seems to have finally let up on us and instead of massive amounts of snow it is now drenching us in rain. So much rain in fact that there has been a ton of flooding up here in the country. Not to mention that the ground is so soggy the trees have little to hold on too and are toppling over... good times. Especially when they topple over on.. um... your house!!! Don't worry folks everything is just fine. The tree wasn't one of the huge ones in our yard thank GOD.. just one of the skinny yet extremely tall ones right next to the house and power lines. Big D, using his superhuman strength, managed to get it off the house without hitting the power lines, fence, or himself. I wish I had taken a picture but I was off to work in a hurry and he had it down before I got back. So we have muddled through another trial of home ownership relatively unscathed (we have a bent gutter but hey..)

In honor of the season passing I wanted to celebrate with a farewell to winter meal. I was in the middle of reading "My Life in France," the Julia Child memoir and Beurre Blanc sounded like just the ticket.

Poached Tilapia with Beurre Blanc and Sauteed Green Beans

Click here for the Beurre Blanc recipe. I modified it a little bit. I added capers in addition to the shallots in the recipe. I also only used 1 1/2 sticks of butter. I like very tart butter sauces, Beurre Blanc or Hollandaise, and also prefer to keep my girlish figure so I add just enough butter to satisfy. In terms of keeping the sauce from separating I basically held the sauce pan above the gas heat. Despite being on super-Super low if I left the pan on the stove itself I could tell it would be too hot. The Tilapia, I simply poached in simmering water with 1/4 cup vinegar, a few pepper corns, and bay leaves for 7 minutes until cooked through. The beans are sauteed in olive oil with garlic and fresh frozen basil. Overall a very tasty meal.

xoxo
Fast Alice