Currently: April 28, 2003
This weekend I made a really great blue cheese dressing. When I was young I HATED blue cheese dressing with passion, so I think my taste buds decided to grow up and get with the plan. I used a recipe from Sunset as a base, and unfortunately I cannot link to it since they have decided only subscribers or aol users can access it. I am a subscriber, of course, but not everyone is so here is my rendition of this dressing:
A dollop of sour cream
A minced/pressed clove of garlic
A splash of Worcestershire
A squeeze of lemon
A healthy crumbling of blue cheese
Enough milk to make it all runny, but not too runny
salt
pepper
There it is. So easy....the first time I made this I used a creamy blue cheese, which was a little challenging. I didn't read the label when I picked it up at the cheese counter. It had the consistency of brie. I opened up the package and dug my fingers into the cheese to crumble it and was like "What the hell is this?" Gooey. My special little vinaigrette whisk got clogged with a gummy mass of cheese. It was good cheese though, and it made a great dressing. I may as well tell you about the croutons I made to go with this. I was so proud of myself. You see, I am not one of those cooks who can just pull stuff out the air and mix it all together and make something great. I need a recipe, guidelines, a map, if you will. I know that the more one cooks, the more knowledge one gains, and someday one will be able to perform such culinary magic, but I am not quite at that point. So here are the croutons:Cubed bread, like leftover baguette
Room temp butter, enough to smear over all of your croutons
A minced/pressed clove of garlic
lots of freshly ground pepper
finely grated Parmesan
Preheat your oven to 350. Since it's just the two of us, I only made about 10 croutons. They were pretty hefty croutons, however. I mixed the butter and the garlic in a little bowl, and added a ton of ground pepper. (I had pepper croutons once and I loved them.) The parmesan was grated very finely and put on a plate. I smeared the butter/pepper/garlic on several sides of the croutons and then rolled them in the parmesan. They were then placed on a baking sheet and baked in the 350 degree oven for about 10 minutes or until they were crispy and brown.
The dressing and the croutons made a pretty great salad. I added sliced pears since it seems that blue cheese and pears are a happy couple. More crumbled blue cheese and a healthy dose of pepper completed the feast. We enjoyed this salad while watching Six Feet Under, which I gotta say...I thought this season started out a little ho-hum, but damn...it's getting REALLY good. I love Ruth and Arthur.
Are we there yet?
FINALLY...we are FINALLY home. Things went okay...our poor kitty Booger G did not survive the move, which has made us very sad, but all and all things are starting to settle down. We are in our house, mostly unpacked, we bought a washer and dryer yesterday and we have walked to the awesome farmer's market 3 of the 5 days we have been here. This place is home. It's great.
Seems like so much has happened, but most of it is uninteresting moving crap. I did, however, decide to throw away my old skillet and buy a brand spanking new All-Clad. It's so shiny and pretty..
Green garlic has been on my brain after reading Malika's recipe. It was one of the first things I saw at the farmer's market and I snatched some up right away. I had never seen/used it before..it looks like regular green onions, or scallions, and there was a sign saying to use it the same way. So I did. Great stuff...my only complaint is after running the stalks down the garbage disposal, our sink decided to plug. Perhaps it's not as enamored with the stuff as I am.
Before I forget, I want to thank Julie, Leontine, and Christine for their awesome pink bathtub solutions. We have:
1) Various shades of pink polka dots
2) The NYC pink sofa inspired look: very dark turquoise-y blue walls and a pink tub
3) Pink, Black and White (which I had actually been thinking about)I am going to add another suggestion,...something I saw in the latest issue of Lucky (page 182). It's a pillow that is pink, white, and brown striped. Almost like Neapolitan ice cream.
I am currently packing like a mad person. I (we, rather) are making decent headway. Some things I have found out about myself during this process are:
• I had 4 bottles of Balsamic vinegar in various stages of use.
• I had 2 bottles of Red Wine vinegar that were mostly full.
• I had 3 jars of mostly full peanut butter.
• I had 8 different varieties of light bulbs that fit NOTHING I OWN.
• I need to stop going to Costco to buy toilet paper. We packed 2 enormous boxes that have contain nothing but toilet paper. At least they will be easy to carry.Posting will be more sporadic than usual until around the week of April 21st when we reach our final destination and I am hooked up and back online.
For those of you who are interested...I finished His Dark Materials Trilogy a couple of days ago and I LOVED IT! I totally cried at the end, and I have NEVER cried while reading a book. I would highly recommend it and thank you to all of you who wrote me about it. Next up is a trilogy Romona suggested by Garth Nix. Sabriel, Lirael, and Abhorsen.
Megan's Pink Sparkly Ring from The Carrot Box has lead to my next item to covet: The Deep Red Murano Glass Ring. Fabulous.
Check out the most AMAZING photo albums from Posie:Rosy Little Things. These are so well done..I absolutely love them. French Girl is my favorite. The handbags are great also.
Yesterday, March 31, 2003 was my birthday and I am now 29 years old. Happy March 31st birthdays to Julie and Lucy as well.
I also came back from a very productive weekend house hunting up in Olympia. I am happy to report we have bagged and tagged a 2 bedroom close to downtown in a very nice neighborhood that will very conducive for taking evening walks with our soon-to-get-if-I-have-my-way doggie. This place we are going to rent needs some aesthetic work done to it so it will be great fodder for new up and coming projects. Painting butt ugly linoleum anyone? The only thing I do not like about this place that I see no way of fixing is the pink toilet and tub. A pox on whoever made that color decision. I suppose I will learn to live with it.