A Rampalicious Vegetarian Dinner

On Saturday night, Wright and I hosted friends for dinner.  We played the usual "anything you don't eat?" game, and one friend was a vegetarian, which we aren't.  Here, a tale of the meal. 

Colleen and Phil were bringing wine and cheese, leaving Wright and I on our own for the main meal (which I think tends to be preferable when you're hosting, rather than trying to combine aspects or make them cook in your kitchen or deal with tupperware, etc.). Since the signs of Spring have been coming to New York in full swing the past few weeks, we spent the morning at the Farmer's market to prepare supplies.  Wright was really disappointed when I told him that no, we could not get a leg of lamb and make Phil starve. We'd do vegetarian, and I reminded him that even we have vegetarian meals sometimes without doing so on purpose.  It would be a healthy, fresh dinner. 

Since I've become creepily obsessed with Wright's immersion blender, I immediately thought to make soup.  Pasta would be an easy go-to, but I thought soup would be more creative.  Plus, it can be made in advance, so we could enjoy the wine and cheese without spending time in the kitchen (I say this as if the kitchen is separate from the living room, but of course it's not.  We ended up having cocktails on Wright's roof, which was perfect).  Anyway, we settled on a simple potato leek soup, and to promote eating [non-greenhouse] local foods, we grabbed some garlic chives to put on top.  I threw together a simple arugula salad, and Wright picked out a fresh baguette to do a roasted garlic bread.  

As I said, it was difficult to find anything actually grown locally and outdoors this time of year (not that I'm particularly picky about this, but when you go to the Farmer's Market, you might as well attempt to ride the wave of locavorism).  It being May 2, the only thing we could find (other than the garlic chives) that was in season for the area were ramps.  Now I've been perusing a few articles about ramps on various local-eating blogs (see post below), and they didn't sound all that exciting for the hype, but since they were the first crop of the season, we figured why not, and grabbed a bunch. 

Everything went swimmingly, and Phil and Colleen were excited to try cooking ramps.  [By the way, ramps are wild baby leeks, and they look kind of like scallions but leafier and with more of a bulb]. Since we were already being so brave with our decision to throw the ramps into the mix, we decided to hold back on the fancy preparation, so we (Phil) just sauteed them in butter and oil, holding the pan at an angle (like a Ramp!) so that the leaves didn't overcook while we waited for the bulbs to get tender.  

The verdict?  They were sweet, soft, and delicious.  The stems were a little chewy, but the flavor overall was great, and they were a lovely side dish for our soup and salad meal.  The crusty bread, fresh and simple salad, and creamy soup all made for a wonderful and surprisingly filling meal.  I'm sure Wright is grilling a steak for dinner tonight to offset the vegetable overload, but I for one felt great eating vegetarian - a light dinner was the perfect way to usher in Spring.  Almost as perfect as the buckets of rain we'll be getting all week, but that's a whole different story.  

Let me know if you want more info on what we made and how.  I'm sure I'll do a full post on the immersion blender soon, as it's my favorite toy. 

Blogs

So, during these four months without writing my blog, I began to read some more blogs. I've gone through a few phases where I stick to certain kinds of blogs, or have become overwhelmed with too many blogs, but at this point I've tried to hone down my reading to a few highlights, and occasionally doing a big re-vamp/exploration where I go through blog lists and hunt for new ones. It's kind of fun. It's 2009.

So, for your perusing pleasure during your last few hours of the work week, here are some blogs that I've gotten into. Not a particularly secretive list or anything, but I hope there are at least one or two that you've yet to discover.

Food blogs: This is where I began my blog-reading habits a few years ago, and still my favorite kind of blog.
Smitten Kitchen
I recently discovered this blog and couldn't believe that I hadn't found it before. I love it.
Bitten
Really great, simple recipes.
Foodstuff
My cousin is a wonderful cook and currently in culinary school. She writes a wonderful blog about all of her adventures with food.
Big Girls, Small Kitchen
This blog is a great break from the prettypicturesandrecipes hole that many food blogs fall into. The "quarter-life-cooks," who are friends of a friend of mine, share their recipes and experiences with entertaining in New York.
Grub Street
I love New York Magazine.
Orangette
I recently read Molly Wizenberg's book and couldn't put it down. Thus, I realized I needed to catch up on her blog, which launched the book. Backwards, I know, but the blog is great.
United Taste With Richard Reuben
Richard Reuben was a cooking instructor I had at ICE last summer. His blog focuses on fresh, local ingredients, providing recipes and whimsical writing. Great for keeping up with what is growing locally.

Art/Fashion/Culture blogs: I used to read these a lot more, but have recently trimmed my selection down to a few necessary highlights.
Style File
The best.
The Cut
The funniest.
Vulture
I read it for the Lost episode recaps every Thursday morning. Hilarious.
Artlog
A friend of Wright's started this website, which is somewhat New York focused, but provides great info on exhibitions, shows, and parties.
The Sartorialist
As I said, I used to read a lot of these types of blogs, but really have cut down to only Scott's. I find him to be the most timeless, since a lot of these are too trend-driven for me.
The Moment
A great combination of things, this is the blog for the Times' "T" magazine. They could work on the formatting, as its not my favorite, but still interesting.

Home/Lifestyle blogs: Is it dorky that I love these? Well, I do.
Design*Sponge
I love the sneak peeks into various homes and apartments. Some people are so creative! This blog makes me really excited to move.
The Pioneer Woman
This blog has won countless awards. At first I didn't really understand why anyone would want to read the random musings of a woman who lives on a ranch in the middle of nowhere, but I've grown to absolutely love it. Ree is a transplanted city girl, now raising four kids and running a cattle ranch with her "Marlboro Man" cowboy husband. Its quite funny, and she takes beautiful pictures.

OK that's all for now. have a great weekend!

PS. How many times do you think I used the word "blog" in this post? It's really difficult because there are no other words for it. It sounds so funny when read aloud.

Rayuela

Last night I met friends for dinner at Rayuela, down on Allen St., and had such a great experience I have to share it with you. I'd never been before, but looking at the menu, reviews, website, etc., beforehand, I expected a crowded, hectic LES restaurant with an intimidating and overwhelming menu. Not so. The restaurant was beautiful, service outstanding, and food melt-in-your-mouth.

I think my friend Charlie summed it up when he described our waitress as the greatest waitress he's ever met in his entire life. It was true. She was bizarrely perfect in her friendly but not too friendly demeanor, back-of-her-own-hand knowledge of the menu, and instinct on what we should order. It was really quite odd how perfect she was. She ordered everything for us and it couldn't have been better. We were literally stunned! If you are an aspiring waitress, definitely seek her out for training. I don't even know how to describe it - we could not stop talking about her unparalleled skill.

Anyway, beyond that, the restaurant was perfect for what we needed. As a group of 7, we were whisked upstairs to a central table that was still quiet enough for us to hear each other (very important when half the group doesn't speak English as their first language). The restaurant was described by our waitress as a fusion of flavors from all spanish-speaking countries, thus blending fruits from the Carribbean with spices from Mexico with heartier meat dishes from Spain and so on. We went with it.

We started off with the appetizer special (upon waitress-of-the-year's recommendation), fresh guacamole with jumbo shrimp and lump crab. It was so good I considered ordering a solo portion for my main. The seafood was scrumptious and subtle - a perfect ratio of meat to avocado - and guac a perfect mix of everything that makes guac my favorite food in the world. I'll let you all know what happens when I attempt to put shrimp into my next guac. (Ahoy, disaster!)

Next we had three of their ceviches. Being solely a shellfish eater, I can only speak to the Langostina ceviche, which was lobster done in a spicy pineapple ceviche. Again, out of this world. The other two - a tuna/watermelon and "seven powers of the sea" were spoken of highly by my tablemates. After that, all seven of us licked our plates for the main course; choices ranged from beef to duck to paella. I had the duck breast marinated in a sugarcane sauce atop a corn bread. I am still dreaming about it.

After three courses and three bottles of wine, we knew better than to let our waitress even start talking about dessert. Of course, it was wonderful company - a reunion of friends from the art fair in Holland that we all worked at - which will always make a good meal better, but in this case, it made an already excellent meal just plain outstanding.

For menu, info, etc. www.rayuelanyc.com

Swine Flu: Am I really posting about this?

Now I don't mean to make light of the recent havoc that swine flu has wreaked, but I just have to post this slideshow for your enjoyment. Be sure to read the comments on the upper right. Happy Thursday and keep knocking on wood!

http://nymag.com/daily/fashion/2009/04/masks_slideshow.html

We've got some catching up to do...

I am aware that I have not posted anything in four months, but this has been a big transition period, so to be honest, I just wasn't sure what to write about. I couldn't focus on Charlottesville anymore (I moved) or teaching (I stopped teaching) or even cooking (my spare time has really gone downhill...I also don't have a steady kitchen). It felt like a daunting task to become a reviewer of my new life in New York. It's a much bigger city than Charlottesville.

So here's a brief run-down of what I've been up to:

I graduated from my master's program in December, and decided I was ready to go home and leave college behind. My semester of student teaching ended, I quit my job at the Museum (did I even mention that I worked at the Museum? maybe not...) and put my apartment back on the market. I packed everything up (saying goodbye to my herb garden, sadly) and moved back into my old room at my parent's house, jobless and excited. I spent the holidays with my family and relaxed for about 2 days before going insane and desperately seeking a job/internship/hobby/anything to do.

As luck turned out, I ended up finding a fantastic gallery that totally aligned with my interests (prints! prints! prints!) and have been working there since January. It has been a dream, introducing me to many facets of the art world, including a 3 week trip to the Netherlands in March. On the home front, I'm currently splitting my time between Wright's apartment in the city and my parents' house in Rye, which is a great money-saver, but isn't all that great for settling in to any sort of routine. I miss having my own refrigerator.

Alas, I'm hoping that this blog will now transform into a commentary on my life in the city, with various recommendations, reviews, etc., as well as tracking my progress as I attempt to settle into working, find an apartment, and truly enjoy everything that New York has to offer.