Week 4: The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul

You know how Arthur Dent just couldn't get the hang of Thursdays?  Well, I'm just not really getting the hang of this week.  I passed out dead Monday evening when I got back from nothing too strenuous and woke up the next morning not even feeling that great.  Not that this is any excuse for not cooking anything much this week, or for not writing about what I have made.  Julie would be ashamed of me, Patrick would tell me the show must go on, and Julia, I think, would probably understand.

Last Thursday, after baking my oat, honey, cashew, flour, wheat germ, oil, almond mixture spread on a sesame seed pan; I set it out to cool for the night and woke up Friday morning to a deliciously sweet-smelling apartment.  I mean really, it smelled awesome.  Tremendously better than the smoky cloud that likes to develop when I make something normally.

Anyway, I covered the baking pans because I didn't have a plan to deal with them before work, then when I got back, I quickly scraped the slightly browned granola into several Tupperware and have been enjoying the nuggets for the whole week since.  I think the granola clumped together well, but it ended up a little softer than I expected.  I think I can make it crispier by leaving it in the oven a little longer, but my other panful seemed to burn a little even with the same cook-time, so I'm not exactly sure what to do differently next time to find the balance.  Maybe it's just supposed to be a little chewy.  Patrick didn't mention anything about the consistency it should be, and it's certainly good enough right now for me to keep a Tupperware on my desk at work and to not really advertise sharing it with everyone else (though the recipe did make plenty to go around...of course).

Also on Friday, I received a package from my dear, sweet mother with eight Mexican vanilla beans in it.  They will come into play in the near future.

Then, it was off to "the Burgh" (Pittsburgh, Western PA, homeland of Mister Rogers), where I went to Coley/O'Connellize the G-8 household.  I went with G-8 Alpha to the strip district Saturday morning which was the absolute antithesis of where I am currently living and shopping.  There were grocer's markets everywhere with all kinds of fresh produce, a place to buy fresh made pastas, a great meat and fish market, and even a spice store.  A spice store!  That's all they had...just spices!  And, it wasn't even cheesily decorated to be a Persian market like I halfway expected.  Even if I didn't buy anything for myself, it was a breath of fresh air to know that there is a place in the world to have all your cooking needs taken care of, and it doesn't involve driving to four different crappy supermarkets all over SoMD.

G-8 Momma isn't a huge fan of seafood (and many other things, apparently), so I was looking for something to make that night that would appeal to all in the crowd.  It turned out that she wasn't going to be there for dinner due to a prior commitment, but I still like to make things that families will like when I visit so that maybe they'll be inspired to keep the idea in their hip-pockets for a family meal later (plug for Grace Before Meals).

All this consideration went out the window when I saw rabbit at the meat market.  I've been waiting for a moment to make Patrick's Apple-Braised Rabbit, and this was it.  We also picked up some lamb for the other carpaccio in the book.  We didn't end up making the rabbit exactly according to directions, but the apple juice (couldn't find cider this time of year) infused the rabbit loin and the bacon in the dish.  It was a nice sweetness added to the meat, and I could see braising rabbit or chicken in apple juice fairly easily in the future.  Also, bacon adds to any dish.  It's like butter in meat form.

The highlight for me, though, was our Carpaccio of Baby Lamb on Arugula with Mustard-Rosemary Sauce and Tabouli.  Wow, that's a bit of a mouthful now, but this was a very easy dish to make that turned out really well and for some reason wasn't nearly as scary as the Tuna Carpaccio.  If you want to make it yourself, cover lamb loin or rack of lamb in herbs, sear the outside, wrap in plastic, and stick in the freezer till you're ready to use.  The mustard-rosemary sauce was just another mustard-mayo combination with some rosemary-infused oil, and the tabouli was tabouli-ish.  Again, though (I know I keep saying this), the arugula pulled it all together and added the needed crunch.  That's a theme I'm going to have to keep in mind once I finally start cooking independently of the project.  A little crunch from a veggie makes a dish pop!