F*ck Frisée

I'm on a venting bender, I warn you.

Evil Roughage Trying To Take Over The World

I am so f*cking tired of being served Frisée. WHY is this a good thing to serve everywhere from frou-frou restaurants to Green Market rustic joints? Because it's "interesting to look at" as I read on one site discussing its use?

The Pretty To Look At Diet must work wonders.
Right up until you starve to death.

If it's pretty to look at, just plant it in your damned garden and let the deer eat it.

(Betcha they don't, tho!)

Even deer won't eat me!

I don't want to waste my time or calories on food that does not taste great. I do not eat so that I live. I live to eat. I am ALWAYS thinking about my next meal. And sometimes even the one after that.
I try to eat balanced meals whenever possible. In fact I do most of the time, but the idea of eating just so you have the energy to get through your day/life is just sad to me.
Which is why I do not understand the overabundance of Frisée on restaurant plates.
- It's bitter
- It's hard to stab with a fork
- It does not have a pleasant mouth feel
- It is difficult and costly to produce
- It doesn't even have nutritional value as a vegetable!!!

GET IT OFF MY DAMNED PLATE!!!!!


Serve me ANY of the following in ANY combination:
Spinach
Arugula
Butter Lettuce
Boston Lettuce
Bibb
Swiss Chard
Red Leaf
Green Leaf
Kale
Mâche
Romaine
Hell even ICEBERG is better than Frisée.

Endive survives solely to be stuffed full of things that distract from the bitterness so you just enjoy the crunch and its handy boat-like shape.

But I say BAN THE FRISEE!!!!!

P.S. - raw Radicchio can go f*ck itself too. Everyone picks that shit out of their salad anyway.

End rant.

Mushroom & Asparagus Pasta

I've been on a bit of a mushroom-craving kick lately, which is hard to satisfy since mushrooms are one of the things the hubs won't eat. But for lunch the other day I made myself a delicious little mushroom pasta which you may recognize as being quite similar to the mushroom crostini recipe from back around Mother's Day.

I started with a combination of shiitake mushrooms and baby bella mushrooms, and decided to throw in some tender asparagus as well.

I sautéed the mushrooms in a little olive oil and butter, trying not to crowd the pan too much. (Slightly failed at that. Eyes bigger than my pan...) 

I let the mushrooms go for about five minutes before adding anything else to the pan, and then added about a teaspoon of dried thyme to the pan, which, as always, I crushed in my fingers before adding. (I had just run out of fresh thyme, much to my consternation.)

At this point I added the finely sliced asparagus and tossed it all together.

At this point I seasoned the veggies with some salt, and grated one large garlic clove into the mix.

Next I added a splash (maybe 2 tablespoons) of cognac, and let that cook off (we're talking seconds here.)

I finished what would become the pasta sauce with a splash of chicken stock and about 2 tablespoons of half and half (or cream or whatever you have) and let it all come together. Check for seasoning.

I then added the cooked pasta to the pan and let the flavors meld for another minute.

I finished the dish with a little good olive oil and some grated pecorino cheese.

Very satisfying.

Oh, and the HEAT went on in my building last night. August 1st and my radiators began hissing and suddenly I smelled that smell that old radiators emit when the heat starts up. It's a smell that I love come October, because it has just started to be regularly cold and it means fuzzy sweater and socks season has begun and thoughts of hot chocolate drift through my head.

I was denied that happy feeling as it was August 1st and instead I flew into a heat-stroke panic, checking with neighbors to see if it was just me, or just my "line" of apartments, and then called my less than stellar Super who reported "boiler trouble but fixed now." 

Yeah, 30 minutes and 90º later it turned off.

To top off the night, the hubs forgot his wallet while visiting a friend (UPS to the rescue) and lost his iPod on the plane back.

Not an auspicious start to the month.

Fingers crossed that yesterday is the worst day that we have.

Awake During the Not-Awake Hours

It is after 4 in the morning, and while I am clearly awake, I am not just getting home from something fun.
Neither am I awake in order to catch a flight to a lovely location (one of the other Only Reasons It Is OK To Be Up Before Dawn).
Rather, this is the 4th night/morning in a row in which I have woken up between 2 & 3 AM and struggled to get back to sleep.
This time, around 3:30, I just got up.

(FYI - my cats are loving that I am awake and are chasing each other pell-mell around my living room. Nocturnal animals are just nutty.
Also, I don't think you can really consider a cat to be nocturnal, considering they sleep about 18 out of every 24 hours. They are more of a "selectively awake" creature.)

First, I made a list of what I was thinking about, in the hopes that I would be able to stop thinking and actually fall back asleep.
No such luck.

Next, I decided to make myself a snack, but as the hubs is sleeping (like a sane human) I could not do anything that involved clattering, pots or pans, etc. So I decided on a sandwich.
But of course, being me, I couldn't just make a PB&J.
I had to do something that took more effort. So:
Whole wheat bread, spread with some fromage blanc (don't have cream cheese at the moment, so went with the yogurt-y tang instead), thinly sliced cucumber, fresh dill, smoked salmon, and a squeeze of lemon juice.

Not half bad.
Not as good as still being asleep in my comfy bed, but not bad.

And no pictures because I am not setting off a flash at 4AM.

I shall now try to read more of a truly sub-par book in the hopes that it will put me to sleep from sheer boredom. It's called "Savage Lands" about French settlers in 1704 Louisiana. The book jacket made it sound interesting while I was at the library with a two-sided plot that eventually joins together.

 The book jacket LIED!!! 

But I am extremely stubborn when it comes to books, and for some reason, unless it is truly the worst dreck ever published, I feel the need to finish the book and see how it ends.

Finally: Aw Crud. The birdies have just begun their morning chirping. Daylight is on its way. Something tells me I shall have a very lazy Saturday...

Marketing Fail

Ok, this is seriously F*cked Up.

As previously mentioned, I have two cats. Byron, who is extremely lovable, but in no way smart. He will also eat just about anything you feed him. Unfortunately, he is allergic to all things seafood, so I have to be very careful about what I buy or else we end up with Spastic Colon Kitty, which is in NO WAY cute or fun.

On the other hand we have Keats, who can eat anything she wants. Unfortunately, she doesn't want much. She's incredibly fussy, and additionally she sometimes will not eat if you are in the room with her. I think that stems from the crazy house we got her out of - something to do with Alpha Females and her definitely not being one of them. But there is one thing she will eat:

She freaking loves these things. They are like kitty-crack for her, and if I let her, they would be all she ever ate. If I leave a bag on the counter she will eat right through the bag so she can get the treats. She's obsessed, and lets me know about it at Treat O'Clock every day.
The only down side for her is that she has to stick to the beef and chicken flavors because of Dippy.

But that's not the point.

Look at the label. It's a silly cat laying on its back, dreaming of the crunchy treats it loves. Harmless. What you would expect.

Well, I got a new shipment of treats the other day, and they have changed the design on the bag.

How twisted is this?!?! "Whoohoo, got your tail feathers! Next I'm gonna eatcha!" And the bird looks happy! Like it's a game!

And the Beef ones are just as bad!

(*More exclamation points!!!!!!!!)

Yum! I am SITTING ON MY UNWITTING DINNER! Look at how vacant the cow looks! I'm just chewing my cud, unaware that there is a cat with full bib & silverware sitting on my back. (Last I checked, cats didn't have thumbs, so can't use silverware. In fact, if they DID have thumbs, they wouldn't need us at all because they could open their own cans of food.)

I'm just saying, marketing people at Whiskas: You are F*CKED UP!!!