Starvacious

We had some people over last weekend to sample our first three home brews, and I got characteristically overexcited about cooking a bunch of appetizers for our friends to snack on. Amazingly, every recipe turned out smashingly, thereby exceeding my expectations by a lot.

The poor suckers who arrived late didn’t get much of a chance to eat pretzel bites (from the Kitchn, using a pretzel recipe from Smitten Kitchen, adapted from Martha Stewart. That’s a lot of genealogy for some pretzels). These were amazingly easy to make (make dough. Let it rise. Roll out and cut into bite size pieces. Boil. Bake.) and super delicious with the Sierra Nevada Stout and Stoneground mustard we happened to have handy. They also disappeared in the blink of an eye.

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If you like to look at a bunch of super cute dogs, eat really yummy calamari, and drink delicious beer, you should get yourself to Sea Salt.

I had the crab cake basket, which included a very yummy crab cake, a corn and red onion salsa and some pretty tasty coleslaw (I only started eating coleslaw recently, so I am no aficionado, but I thought it was tasty). I also had a Surly Furious, which was delicious, as per usual.

Ian had a fried oyster po-boy and a Ommegang Hennepin. I was not lying about the delicious beer. And we shared the aforementioned calamari, which came with a delicious dipping sauce that I was too busy eating to think too much about.

In addition to eating yummy seafood and drinking yummy beer, we saw many adorable dogs, including what appeared to be a wheaten terrier puppy, poodles in two sizes (miniature and standard) and an English pointer (?). It was dogtastic. Awesome!

All of which means that I foresee future bike trips ending with a beer and seafood at Sea Salt.

Back in November, I saw an awesome looking recipe for quinoa maki on Two Blue Lemons – http://www.twobluelemons.com/2009/10/quinoa-sushi.html. Delicious, right?

The recipe was from the Conscious Cook, by Tal Ronnen. Although I eagerly requested it from the library, adding myself to the very long waiting list. So, I was pretty psyched when I got it. But then I skimmed the book, and found a few recipes that sounded pretty decent, but also found a lot of aspirational-seeming recipes for people who aspire to different things than I do.

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The fact that I’ve flagged 3 sweet potato fry recipes in the last 3 months might be an indicator that I have a slight problem.

• Sweet Potato Fries with Thyme, Parsley, and Garlic from the Atlantic
• Baked Sweet Potato Fries from Annie’s Eats (via the Kitchn)
• Baked Sweet Potato “Fries” from Serious Eats

At least the first one is a bit of a different spin. The second two are largely identical. Maybe I am on a secret quest, one so secret it is a secret from myself, to find as many redundant sweet potato recipes as humanly possible.

What I learned about myself pulling together this list is that I love reading dessert recipes even if I very rarely make desserts. They just look so yummy!

• Roasted butternut squash quesadillas from Two Blue Lemons make me wish it was still butternut squash season. I might have to substitute another vegetable so I can make this with some of the Rancho Gordo black beans that are currently in my cupboard. http://www.twobluelemons.com/2010/04/roasted-butternut-squash-quesadillas.html
• I would like to come home to Southwest Mac and Cheese With a Cornbread Crust after a long-ass bike ride – http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2010/04/seriously-meatless-southwest-mac-and-cheese-with-a-cornbread-crust-recipe.html
• This Provencal Calamari Salad with Tarragon and Mint from Serious Eas might actually get me to overcome my making calamari fear – http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2010/04/french-in-a-flash-provencal-calamari-salad-with-tarragon-and-mint-recipe.html
• Will someone please make me some fluffy ricotta pancakes from the Kitchn? http://www.thekitchn.com/thekitchn/breakfast/recipe-fluffy-ricotta-pancakes-048085
• Quinoa crackers with seeds from Gluten Free Girl are an aspirational baking recipe I might actually make someday – http://glutenfreegirl.blogspot.com/2010/04/qunioa-crackers-with-seeds.html
• Strawberry shortcake sliders from Simply Recipes are a dessert I will dream of until the mother lode of strawberries hits Minneapolis later this spring – http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/strawberry_shortcake_sliders/
• Mmm… brown butter. Caramelized Brown Butter Rice Crisp Treats from Shelterrific – http://www.shelterrific.com/2010/03/31/real-life-test-kitchen-caramelized-brown-butter-rice-crisp-treats/
• With all of the delicious bread Ian has been banking, I could see us winding up with some stale bread, which would be delightful in this Tortino di Cioccolato from Serious Eats – http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2010/03/tortino-di-cioccolato-how-to-use-stale-bread-recipe.html

Oh lord, I just realized it’s the time of year when Ina Garten’s Spring Green Risotto develops a Jupiter-like gravitational pull over me. Because it’s goooood.

And, not incidentally, this recipe rekindles my addiction to mascarpone. Because you only use a little in the recipe, and that leaves a bunch leftover, which must be consumed on toast with raspberry preserves.

The brand they stock at the Co-op is Crave Brothers, and it’s gooood. Still, I am pretty glad the Co-op doesn’t stock the 5# food service tub. I would be in some trouble then.

Toast, preserves and mascarpone is delicious, but not really a balanced diet if you eat it breakfast, lunch, dinner, dessert and snacks.

As a fan of the scientific method, I enjoy things that are, strictly or tangentially, food science related (Harold McGee, How to Read a French Fry, etc). So the Food Lab series on Serious Eats is right up my alley.

I also enjoy daydreaming about making my own dairy-based, especially after reading Milk. The Surprising Story of Milk Through the Ages by Ann Mendelson last year. That is the only book that has ever made me miss my bus stop on the way home, and it doesn’t really even have what you could call a plot.This book, and the fact that Minneapolis doesn’t recycle yogurt containers, inspired us (mostly Ian) to start making our own yogurt. The other good thing about library books is that they can only inspire modest heights of insanity with new dairy-based hobbies, because they have to go back to the library before things can get too crazy. Usually, the crazy wears off before I spend money on a book.

Anyway, I was interested to try making the ricotta recipe that is a key part of a larger Capellini with Fresh Ricotta meal idea, also from Serious Eats. A meal idea which I rounded out with caesar dressing, making for a yummy dinner and a Serious Eats grand slam. Weird.

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I have been a reader since long before I was ever interested in food, and realistically, since long before I could cook most food without running a severe risk of burning myself due to being a young child. Now I just run a moderate risk of burning myself due to being moderately inattentive or distracted.

I am also cheap. I don’t like to spend money on things that I will not get a lot of use out of (I will drop lots of money on things like shoes, glasses, and le Creuset cookware that I will use a majillion times, but not on things like books, which I will read once). So, I have also been a library maniac for ever. That’s right. Libraries. They were green and frugal before people started getting all het up about that stuff.

I check a LOT of books out of the library. Some, I succeed in reading. Some, I start but do not succeed in finishing.

I failed to finish a Paradise Built in Hell: the Extraordinary Communities that Arise in Disasters by Rebecca Solnit.

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