A Change Has Come and It Comes with Pie

Tomorrow I have the honor of doing something absurd- leaving a job I love while grinning to Cheshire proportions. Friday is my last day at Edelman after three and a half fantastic years.

All of this because Monday will be my first day on the digital team at Obama for America.

I’m joining the team to do whatever I can to ensure Barack Obama is reelected, as I believe him to be one of the single greatest agents for positive change my generation will know. I’m doing it because it absolutely qualifies as a once-in-a-lifetime-opportunity to be part of something *big*, on behalf of something I so wholeheartedly believe in.

And because this is still a food blog and this is how we celebrate… I baked a pie. I will save you from any self-assigned deep metaphorical meaning and just tell you it’s an apple pie topped with half blueberries and half cranberries and it was delicious.

Baked goods aside (for now), I have every reason to believe this could be the single hardest thing I’ve ever taken on. I’m on the brink of being fully absorbed into a challenge so rich that it will swallow me whole for the next year by every account, including that of my new colleagues. And yet I can feel myself humming in anticipation, ready to dig in, understand, and be useful. There is a very real chance that everything I've done to date has led me straight to this whether I was aware of it or not.

For the last few years I have had the supreme good fortune of filling a role at Edelman that more often than not felt tailored to me like a glove, and definitely the kind with the nerdy tip points for texting. I've spent the last three years reading stories and meeting the women and men behind them. I've watched voices from the depths of the Internet become credible and recognized voices of “the people.” There are days when I even feel like I had a bit part in setting up the loudspeakers.

Not to mention the adventures. One after the other after the next and I came home breathless and chattering nonstop. I met her! We ate there! We had the best idea! From Portland to Asheville to Austin to San Diego and New York, New Jersey and New Orleans, I was buzzing. And I was pinching myself all the while for being the one that got to connect the dots. For getting to do it in such fine company.

I work with a bunch of nerds and it’s the highest compliment I can think to give in this context. People with the wanton ability to geek out over feed readers, measurement theories and platform coding but it goes beyond that.

I’m talking about food policy wonks, letterpress junkies, women in waders in search of a quiet spot with all the fish. People who run marathons with hip fractures because you cannot stop them from moving and try at your own peril. Star Wars junkies, chorus girls, music nuts, a fascinating breed of style curators and even a NASCAR fan. There may even have been a few fellow kitchen witches, Gryffindors, cat ladies and bourbon lovers. Just maybe. They are the kind of people who rave rave rave on about that thing you must try because it’s spectacular.

I can’t underline the importance of working with people who are passionate. Who are excited and eager and, above everything else, they are curious.

How does that work? Can I take it apart and will there be something simple and true at the center of it? Yes? Then let’s go there.

Yes. Let’s. I have a good feeling that I’m not done with the nerds. If anything, the stakes may have just been raised. Now that the secret is out, you know where to find me in 2012. There’s work to be done and if you feel like helping, I will gladly take you up on that.

Be advised, I'll be asking for your vote as well.

Dayplating: Midday Joy in a Salad Plate

We've been doing strength-finder tests at work for the last couple weeks. Many of you in corporate America and otherwise will have encountered some kind of personality test in the process but what I love about this one was the lack of a downside. No wrong answers, as it were, just a different forte, another niche. I love finding out what combination my coworkers fall into and I've even started thinking about the people outside these walls in similar terms. We all have our little tics and tells and it's fun to sort them out. Embrace the naval gazing for bit, as it were. Agreed?

Even though the strengths themselves are positive, there were a few that have never been assigned to me that I'm working at. Consistency, for one, is notable by its absence. I do not know what it is about the way I'm wired that fights process and routine. It can be maddening. Even my body has a hard time doing something the same way twice- I have no muscle memory for sports. I can't swing a club or a racket or a bat the same way twice. That said, when someone gives me a process that shuts off my internal chatter (or at least channels it for a few minutes), I'm blissed.

Hence the love of cooking. It's flexible enough that I don't have to do everything the exact same way. I am not a professional and have never had the desire to go to cooking school. Cooking comes with it's own set of hard and soft rules and you can celebrate the differences while relying on the process, the benchmarks. I love that. There are others who would say that cooking is highly specific, mathematical even. It's glorious that one umbrella term can incorporate so many different kinds of practitioners because man alive, I'm still not a math person so that can't be how I cook.

I'm quiet when I'm prepping. Chopping and stirring and placing and saucing. I'm processing, sure. The way I suspect many career runners do (only often to opposite effects). So in an effort to find some middle ground, I'm bringing my tried and true quiet time to the office with me a couple days a week. It's unrealistic to think I can do it every day but it's helpful when I do.

Today was one of those days. I had all my ingredients partially prepped and brought to the office where I keep a real plate for just such an occasion. Then the hour struck and I took 10-15 minutes to quietly cut up the last of my Black Cherokee tomatoes, a roasted golden beet, an apple from my CSA box. I'd brought green and purple kale shredded with some leftover romaine and the remnants of some cranberry walnut dressing. The topper was walnuts as well- stored in a baggy with fresh pepper and sea salt from home.

It was nice. Really nice to have something beautiful and healthy to put together in the middle of the day. I loved the process. I feel more focused thanks to a salad. Again, I hesitate to put too many rules on it- don't want to draw the ire of my own nature- but from one side of my brain to the other? I'm hoping a few things start to stick- salad plates and beyond.

I Am Ready for (Farmer's Market) Love

If you follow me on Twitter, I'm afraid you're already aware (to a painful degree), how hard I fell for Portland while I was in town last week "for work." I have work in quotes because sometimes I need to pinch myself that this is part of what I do for a living.

I was there from Wednesday through Sunday attending the International Association of Culinary Professionals Conference. I feel like it's going to take a few posts to get through the ways my mind was a little blown but it's Saturday morning and this feels like the best place to start.

A week ago today, I fell for a farmer's market. Mushrooms of every shape and variety, chard that actually looked like a rainbow piled high on a folding table, flowers in every fattened form. I have two weeks more to wait until Chicago is in its proper market season. It was just enough time for my eye to wander. My appetite clearly followed and thus two early AM hours in the market became a pretty good representation of the full trip. All the photos in this post were shot at the Portland Farmer's Market and this post was inspired in part by a fellow attendee's post yesterday.
To be surrounded for five days by people who so profoundly love food the way I do... I slept for maybe 4-5 hours a night. I did not want to miss a single minute. It's not even that they simply love food, it's that they love the craft, love the energy that truly good food brings. And man alive...they have taken the time to get educated and are so excited to pass along the good word. I drank it in. I ate it up.My hotel (The Ace Hotel-highly recommend) had bikes for lending and every morning I got up with my own timezone to tool around a two-wheel friendly town. The Ace also housed two establishments that anchored my days- Stumptown Coffee as the sun came up, Clyde Common cocktails as the sun went down. I was a regular. I even shared my Voodoo Doughnut treasures with the bartenders. That's affection.

Everyone was so sweet. Not in a saccharine, "what can you do for me" way, but a genuine, earthy interest. Adventurers, idealists, authors, editors, idols- many times a combination therein. You know me- I talk so much. I talk so fast. Yet for so much of the trip, I just wanted to listen.

The mistresses of ceremonies were two of the most prolific women in the edible world- Ruth Reichl and Kim Severson. They were hilarious. And smart. And I'm gushing. I can't even bother being embarrassed.
We ate some of the best food that Portland has to offer. From end to end, street cart to white tablecloth. The conference itself was a string of long days but from an organization perspective, they did the best job I've seen weaving the stunning location into the daily activities. Bakery tours, brewery tours, biodynamic vineyard tours (I did this one)... memories of the conference are inseparable from the host city in the best way.
It still wasn't enough time. I could go back for a week and still leave wanting. My last night was spent with dive bars, diners and a belly dancer thanks to Doniree, in town by a serendipitous fluke. We're in the same boat, she and I. Both living in great places but easily enamored of this new one. Everything was so lush, so clean. It was an extra large village and the folks living there were proud stewards. Farm to table is actually being implemented as the norm by a city. Two separate cab drivers gave me the sales pitch.
I managed an evening with some old friends, caught in town by a small miracle before they head out for a summer on the road. As though I needed another layer to love the city through, seeing it with the folks actually living there took it just a little bit further. Streets lined with pregnant rhododendrons, bungalows with wide front porches and the outline of Mt Hood in the distance.

When I was a freshman in college I listened to India Arie's "Ready for Love" more times that could possibly have been mentally healthy. Particularly absent any sense of irony. The angst, the impatience all sitting, legs dangling at the cusp. I wanted so badly for my life to start. Its a time that's been front of mind lately because I recently unearthed my journal from that summer. The one where I lost any sense of gravity and fell in love for the first time. I'm starting to realize that its the exact sense of romantic possibility that drives my travel habit.
When I manage to have a strange, new city opened up in front of me, I get that same rush. More than two days in a new place and I can imagine what my life looks like there. Do you do that too? Do you fall for places like you fall for people? I want to know what a place tastes like, what its extremes are. I want to know the corners only its closest friends care to patronize.
I've fallen for this place. I saw a snapshot of what my life looked like there and I savored it. For now it's not an affair that requires a commitment. For a few days at a time I can return to bury my face in its lush greens and lean back on a wind that smells like snow and moss and dark soil.

So yes, this is my infatuation and the beautiful thing is that I can go back. But for the time being, I walk through my front gate into Wicked Park and I can feel that warmth swell up inside me all over again. I'll keep traveling and I'll fall in love from time to time. But after what feels like a month away, I'm happy to be home.

This is a Reggie sandwich from Pine State Biscuits. After all that sentimental produce, this is an appropriate end note because once you take down half this beautiful beast-buttermilk biscuits with fried chicken, bacon and mushroom gravy-you can't do a whole lot else. Pure romance.

Town and Country: A Farmer's Market Maven

I think it probably occurs to me that I am both city and country mouse a few times per day. Blame it on my birthday, blame it on my attention span or just nod it off to personal chemistry. I love both. I need both.

I love the neighborhoods of a city. I love the restaurants and the history and the music. I love to be surrounded by so many different kinds of people (particularly making up stories about them while traveling via public transit). I like that I can spend a whole day sans companion but never actually be alone. Just skipping from one shop or park to the next.

But even in my own private pasture in the city, with my best friend across the hall and a benevolent wood nymph for a landlord, I still get the shakes for the smell of wet trees and fallen leaves. I want to hear water rushing and buy vegetables from the hands that took them out of dark soil. I like that my time with people in the quiet feels like real time. I love that I can spend the whole day sans companion and really be alone in my superstitions and delusional grandeur.

Meeting Janine was a practice in never having to choose a camp. I met her on my first visit to current office. I was brought expressly to her by someone who is perhaps kindred in this town/country sense, knowing we would like each other. I was figuring out where I might fit into agency life and here was this completely lovely woman who was a trained chef, an enthused adventurer and a lover of windows with cats sitting in them. She has a place in the city and a farmhouse in rural Michigan. I liked her instantly.

And while we're no longer colleagues, you see her referenced here from time to time as she writes one of my favorite pieces of Internet, lovingly tended at Rustic Kitchen. Beautiful photos, recipes and just an air of calm and curiosity that is so pleasant in a person.

Janine happens to be an expert in one of my favorite topics- farmer's markets. She has a few of her own fruits trees and a vegetable garden but more often than not, she likes her veggies and her farmers to wear matching dirt. I am excited to say that someone has taken notice of this and now she is writing a book on Midwestern Farmer's Markets. While I may not expect strangers to supplement the process (though I was happy to), I encourage anyone to read through her list of pledge gifts. A perfect Friday process. I wanted them all.

And for anyone else, consider this fair warning. Jason and I had a fantastic weekend getaway to Michigan over the summer when Janine more than proved her prowess "in the field." We visited one of my favorite orchards because she's friends with the farmer. We gobbled alongside turkeys and the hens that lay market fresh eggs. We were pointed toward the farm stands with ice cream. She's a city/country mouse who knows exactly where to be.

Shooting Sparks: Fall-ing Into BlogHer Food

In full cooking regalia for a Clandestino event last week.

Does anyone else ever get into a funk at the end of seasons? I think I can personally trace it back to impatience at a molecular level. The sensation is city-wide in Chicago in March but I suspect I may be on my own in August. My greatest summer weekend pushed the funk off by a week but by mid-month I’m done with heat and inevitably stained white jeans. I want to make changes but don’t know where to start. I itch for an adventure, for a new project (or six). That back-to-school bug has never subsided for me.

Fall is my season. I wake up to fresh air and a nip on my knees as I stumble out of bed in the mornings. Oversize band t-shirt clutched to my sides doing an awkward dance into the kitchen with bare legs, a hungry HoneyCat weaving between my ankles. I wake up earlier, I leave for work earlier just to catch that morning light and take deep breaths on my street. And when I walk out of work and the light is gold, I feel like I could shoot sparks out of my fingers.
I’m getting all my wishes. I’ve already reorganized my apartment and this morning I head west to San Francisco.

It’s a big weekend for me professionally but, as has been discussed before, that makes it a big weekend for me personally as well. I’m heading to BlogHer Food as the face of The Mushroom Channel, my professional alter ego of sorts(The Mushroom Council is an Edelman client). If you’ve read it, my voice becomes apparent pretty quickly and I’m lucky that everyone seems to be okay with that. I write a food blog as part of my day job. Now I’m going to hang out with 300 like-tummied souls in one of my favorite fall cities. That's a little bit of A Okay.

What my camera was balancing on during above photo session. Go figure.

I’ll be headed to Seattle to see my favorite gent in the coming weeks and to Ojai, CA with Mom, Dad and Brother for Thanksgiving. Funk is officially over, I’m in my element now. Now bring on the harvest parties, apple-picking and Halloween ideas.

True Blue Trial and Error

Sometimes I wonder if I talk about my mistakes enough here.

Ok, I don't really talk about anything enough here lately but this is something I've been thinking about.

When I say "mistakes," I'm not talking about an extra glass of wine or three, an extra snooze button pounce or the odd typo when I've rushed something out. I mean the cook-and-eat variety. I mean that as someone who loves to cook and rarely repeats a recipe, it is inevitable that there be some doozies that I manage to just glaze over with a nutty brown butter. One time I think I mentioned the hand pie FAIL that brought me to midnight kitchen tears but that's been about it. I'm really flattered that some of you seem to think I'm mana-producing MENSA material...mais non.

I just love food.

I'm not terribly exact with measurements, my grandfather cannot even stand to watch the ugly way in which I peel potatoes, I still have a hard time getting all of a meal's components to finish at the same time and holy-dreams-of-sheba I am a MESS. A mess who HATES dishes and then becomes a mess with fruit flies.

A couple exceptions for your TKTC-deprecating pleasure:

Jacob Have I Loved Peppermint Bark

I was in a rush. I didn't let the dark chocolate cool in a thick enough layer and it made this unholy mess. Esau on the left and younger brother Jacob on the right, wherein I corrected my mistake. Only in this case vs the Biblical one, they both got the inheritance. If by "inheritance" you mean they were brought to a Christmas Cookie Exchange and eaten greedily. As mom says, "It all goes to the same place."

Banana Bread Canyon

Brand new loaf pans. A gift from Brother for Christmas. They are the nice ones. Insulated. Heavy. But my oven? It has an inferiority complex. It is an old and crusty oven that only likes other old and crusty things. Luckily many a phoenix has risen from those flames but this loaf of Bourbon Spiked Banana Bread? With the 70% bittersweet chocolate nibs? Not one of them. And since I couldn't gift this loaf as a gift and was out of flour? I ate the cooked bits around the corners with a JUMBO glass of milk. Sometimes mistakes are delicious and require a combination of sweat therapy and lettuce-mongering in penance.

Fully Dressed

Sometimes cooking mistakes are as simple as making sure the lid is on tight. The blender lid...the splash guard...the salad dressing tupperware top. That said, I wear it well, no?

Birthday Bubbly

Not all slip-ups happen in the privacy of Wicked Park. No, some are public. And almost fatal. On my 26th birthday I had the good fortune of being taken on a field trip for my birthday dinner. Molly and I headed to Avondale to try Urban Belly- a most buzzed about Korean haunt with communal seating, duck/foie gras dumplings and a generous BYO policy. It's my birthday and I get to drink whatever I want?! Kir Royale. That's what I want. So Mols pulls out a bottle of kirsch and I pull out a bottle of warm bubbly because my birthday doesn't mean I wasn't too busy to chill the champers. No matter- they gave us ice and the equivalent of juice glasses.

I've opened champagne. I've even opened champagne with some grace. I have lovely flutes to drink it out of. I'm a class act and it comes with the territory. Nothing says class like warm champagne cocktails over ice in plastic juice cups, n'est ce pas?

So I go to open the champagne and I wrap napkins around the top about seven layers deep. Then I twist and eaaasssyyyy....KABOOOOOOM! Shreds of paper napkin fly like confetti. Cork narrowly misses the head of an adolescent boy in the exact opposite corner of the restaurant. Opa.

Everyone was a wonderful sport. Even got some "Happy Birthday" salutations out of it. And the boy bestowed the cork on me with a pride not dissimilar to what I see in HoneyCat's eyes when she brings me one of my earrings.

Butter Blitzen

I know this looks like a nice enough picture. This is from my coworker Lauren's June baby shower with the lady herself and the divine Suzanne in the middle. Lauren is my first friend who I've seen regularly all the way through a pregnancy. In my hand you will see the item I make that is the single most requested recipe/contribution/bounty that I've produced. The brie cup.

Astoundingly simple, addictive to a fault and inciting riots at cocktail parties if you don't plan for double what you're currently thinking. I do wonder if this photo could somehow have been cuter. I'd worn a floor-length green cotton dress ot work with my cardigan that day and was feeling very sassy. Having prepped a pie and half of the cups the night before, I just needed to run home quickly to make the sauce before heading to the shower pictured above. I've done it easily a hundred times, this one was no different. Until, in my rush, I set the saucepan of honey-butter-garlic-parsley-walnut goodness on the kitchen table. Halfway. And it slowly but surely tumbled to the ground leaving me speechlessly COVERED in the glory. Whoops.

What brought this on?
The whole reason I started thinking about this was actually thanks to Lauren. Rather Lauren and Barrett, her now 5 day old golden boy of 8.5 pound perfection whom she brought into this world most heroically in my opinion. This is her first baby and it's got me thinking about the whole mom thing- I was fascinated by her entire pregnancy.

I know lots of moms. In fact, that number appears to increase by the hour these days. From what I understand, the first time is pretty much trial and error. Maybe the whole thing is that way but particularly the first one. I'm the oldest and I can confirm this at least from a reared perspective- first children are screamy little guinea pigs.

Bodily fluids will be places that organized society discourages, the undulations of simple breathing amplified to 11. What sounds like screaming to most of us, turns a new mom into a living, breathing Rosetta Stone capable of discerning every whimper into a communicated want or need. The blogosphere is loaded with tales of desperate times and desperate measures (OMG we are out of diapers and are left with nothing but trashbags and dried spaghetti). It's make it up as you go a lot of the time but mistakes are expected and often hilarious after the fact. I think it sounds like fun. I'm pretty content to keep to my side of the metaphor* for the moment but I'm excited for their little family. For the stories and the laughing...with Lauren in charge I know there will be both.

Commuter Patterns

As my most consistent topic of online conversation lately has been cats rather than creme brulees and cacciatore, I thought I could at least explain the latest. If you're looking for love triangles, you'll have to look elsewhere because today we're talking about our commute. And by our, I mean the cat and I.

HoneyCat and I have been together for a little more than three years. She's been an indoor/outdoor (read:garden) cat for two of those years. In the winter, her primary purpose is to make getting out of bed as hard as possible for me. She burrows all the way into the blankets, creating sprawling warm spots that I must pass through to get both legs on the floor. She is sleepy and soft and I am too. I ask her if she wants to go out but I'm really just being a smartass because, lo and behold, it's -10. She looks at me bemused, demands a treat, casually mentions that she'll be working from home today and I get on my way to the office in yesterday's fleece socks, 2 scarves and the Monster jacket that I wear to look most like a black hole.

Come Spring, our commute changes. Suddenly, little miss has *ohsomuchSpringinherstep* at 4:45 in the AM. And she has a breakfast date so I better put some pants on and let her get about her business or she is going to get loud with me, sir. Now, lest you've somehow been deceived, know that I'm not terribly graceful when I'm wide awake and hydrated. At 4:45, I'm walking something like Lucy and talking something like Nell (story for another day). I started noticing she was having her boyfriends meet her downstairs and then returning to the house to have coffee with me before I left, kind've cute. At this point it was still too chilly to leave her out during the day so I bid her adieu by sidestepping her quick little gerbil tail into the fake ficus tree in the living room and sneaking out the front door.

Now that it's warm, however, we have a new pattern emerging. One that makes me look/feel crazier than any assessment you dear readers have already subjected me to personally. Now it's warm and she's single for the moment. And she wants to do everything together. She wants to wrap herself around my shins while I make coffee. Lays on top of whatever I put out to wear for the day. She squeezes into the bathroom while I shower and, frankly, my bathroom is just not big enough for both of us. She ends up sitting in the sink. Not optimal.

The major thing she wants to do together is go to work. As soon as I'm out the door, she sneaks out behind me (or she's been biding her time outside, knowing I would leave soon) and races in front of me toward the front gate. And it goes like this:

Me: Could you not? I know you're trying to beat me to the gate and you're not allowed on the train.
HC: WTF? Don't start with the attitude this early...you're the one right on my heels. You can't even handle it when I read over your shoulder and you're totally on my tail right now.
Me: Read over my shoulder? You mean when you sit on my hands WHILE I'M TYPING? I don't have time for this. Just stay here please.
HC: You're making us late.
Me: You forgot your blackberry.
HC: I fell for that yesterday, try again.

We are now outside the gate and I'm clearly trying to outpace my cat. Neighbors are watching me run away from my cat. I pause. Neighbor's nanny is taking her time buckling the kids into strollers and not-so-subtly cracking up.

Me: GO HOME
HC: I'm rolling around on sun-drench sidewalk (pictured at top). Walk around me.
Me: If I walk around you, you will find a way to be underfoot...you forgot your badge.
HC: I'm significantly more agile than you are and I have a meeting at 9:30 so you're going to need to stop harassing me...I went out of my way not to get fur in your coffee today.
Me: Yeah cause you stuck your FULLY EXTENDED PAW in my water glass last night. If it were still cold enough, I'd make a hat out of you.
HC: *Purring and writhing on sidewalk
Me: (Long overdramatic sigh) Fine.

I rub her belly, scratch her chin and put her back inside the garden. She is momentarily distracted by a bug and I am left to jog to the train before she comes out of bliss mode. Most passerbys seem to think it's charming that my cat does what many dogs do. By day four they'll be telling reporters how it was really so sad that I needed to be committed because I had a lot of fabulous hats and seemed quite friendly.

Will Work for Food

I'm pointing you elsewhere today. To a lovely place in a darling other corner of the internet where I'm talking about the same things I usually talk about here, only I actually got to do it as part of my job with Edelman, blogging for the Mushroom Council over at The Mushroom Channel.

I know I've mentioned it before because Scoop about made my day yesterday when she said she'd been reading it. It's like starting TKTC all over again with the wondering and all the excitement of a new project!

That's me talking over there today. It's not always me- sometimes it's people considerably more famous than I am like The Wednesday Chef, Kath Eats, Eat Live Run, the founder of TASTESPOTTING or We Are Not Martha. I'm obviously in good company. If it were tennis, I would be "playing up" so to speak. And you would be ducking... luckily I'm somewhat safer in the kitchen.

As for this post in particular, I bought a pound of mushrooms, sauteed them in a lot of goodness and then scattered them into meals throughout the week as an experiment for work. Pasta Yia Yia, omelets for dinner and the ultimate dinner party dish are all included. I need to find a really cute T-shirt that says "Will Work for Food," it's true on every level.

Seriously, I'd probably come wash your car if you made me lemon squares and a BLT. We should talk about that when it gets a little warmer out.

In the meantime, please go find out how to make weeknight dinners a little easier and a little healthier.

Happy weekending to all and to all a good afternoon!

PS If you want to win one of these (below), let me know when you post a mushroom recipe!

After Awhile Crocodile

Kids, I'm tired. We're all tired. It's like there is absolutely no point in even complaining because every single one of us is working our asses off because that's what we do. And if you're lucky (*I am very lucky) at least you get to do something you love on those 10-11 hour days.

And the thing is, I won't compromise. Yes, we're busy. And thank God for that. I have interesting projects (some of which I've more than hinted at) and I still laugh at work (cannot be undervalued). But I need my friends and I need nourishment and I need sleep. So tonight was one of those nights. A night when I could have gotten home at 8 and just sat there listening to NPR or watching Hulu but I didn't.

Instead, one of my college roommates and current neighbors came over for a meal that took all of 15 minutes to prepare and didn't require a trip to the store. She brought salad and wine and it tasted better for the company. Because you need that.

Sugar Shack Penne with Vodka Sauce

1/2 box penne pasta
1/2 jar of vodka sauce (I like Classico or Newman's Own)
2 diced tomatoes or 1 can tomatoes if you don't have fresh
1 package frozen spinach
1/2 cup cremini mushrooms
1/3 cup vodka
2 TB olive oil
1/4 tsp white truffle oil (2-3 drops...it's powerful stuff!)

1. Defrost spinach according to package instructions and start boiling your pasta.
2. Sautee mushrooms in olive oil and season with S&P in separate sautee pan
3. Heat sauce in saucepan, adding tomatoes. Once warmed through, add extra vodka. Stir regularly.
   
4. Drain spinach and add to sauce, keep on low to warm through without burning.
5. Drain pasta, add sauce mixture to the pot and toss the coat evenly.
6. Add your droplets of truffle oil to the mushrooms and stir through.
   
7. Serve pasta with shaved parm and truffled mushrooms on top.

Served with Salad a la Mag- arugula, toasted "pignoles", toasted pancetta, shaved parm and lemon vinaigrette. YUM.
I can't have anyone over for dinner without dessert but I was too tired to make anything and too stubborn to forgo= good night for Bananas Foster. This was one of the first things I remember being taught to cook. Standing in my Cajun neighbor's kitchen on New Year's Day and being allowed to light it on fire from the time I was 7 or 8. I think I picked up a little bit of my passion for food or entertaining from every kitchen on my block growing up!

Bananas Foster is fantastically easy- I bought two bananas at a Starbucks on my way home for $1.86, then a pint of Hagen Daz Dulce de Leche at 7/11. Seriously, melt a 1/4 stick of butter with 1/4 cup of brown sugar in a wide sautee pan. Once mixed together, add 1/3 cup of brandy and add the banana, cut lengthwise and then in half.

Stir over med- low heat turning every minuted or so to let the bananas caramelize (5 min). If you have it on hand, Add 2TB of 151 at this point and light the mixture with a long match. I had no 151 and am confident that I would have lit my house on fire so I skipped it, sorry Mag. Serve over ice cream with extra sauce drizzled over the top. Easy, elegant and completely heavenly.

After dinner we headed to a new Wicker Park spot, Crocodile, for a beer with B&C. And Jon who tells me he reads my blog, which still surprises me. But thanks Jon, kinda narcissistic to say but it made my night a bit!

I like Crocodile and I liked the company. Even on these long days, I do need company. Jaimeson is in Greece this week and I didn't expect to feel his absence like I do. But I leave for Nashville on Friday (0ne of my favorite cities). He comes home Saturday and when I get back Sunday, he'll still likely be in bed with HoneyCat. It's a nice thought.

In closing, I've been posting in depth infrequently but I do post short and sweet more frequently at tktc.tumblr.com. You might have known that already but just in case you didn't... Cheers to thoughts of Spring.

Black Opps Scallops

I know I've mentioned my Monday dinners before but the most recent one went over particularly well and was particularly easy so I figured I'd share. We're calling this recipe...Black Opps Scallop Salad in honor of a particularly amazing line uttered by Blair Waldorf in last week's Gossip Girl (the reason we gather).

And actually, while we're on the topic, I've decided to stop apologizing for watching it. I don't know why I'm so compelled to do so but goodNIGHT it is light and the clothes are pretty and it's kinda funny and on a Monday with my girlfriends with a long week ahead? Not bad. Plus the music's pretty good. And I need my girlfriends. All of them. At every opportunity and especially on Mondays.

*Did you know I don't have cable? I'm not alone in that either, I think I have three other friends who looked at their cable bills sometime in the last year and said "$50 a month for BASIC cable?" No thanks. I miss Check, Please but I can watch everything else online when so compelled.

What this means for Gossip Girl though is that when it's my turn to host/cook, I either need to take a re-run week or take over someone else's kitchen. This week, my thanks to Gina who's kitchen is just as stocked with "the good olive oil" and cheeses and great knives as mine is. So since Monday was a holiday I actually had time to cook all day (we'll get to my banana bread fail another time).

I brought the entire dinner, all ingredients and even some servingware, to Gina's place in Gold Coast and got to work while the ladies got started munching on David Leibowitz's Baba Ganoush with homemade pita chips (spiced with salt, pepper and paprika). That was another big hit as it is really quite healthy with just 3 roasted eggplants and I used two full heads of roasted garlic, some olive oil and lemon juice. I'd show you a picture but to be frank, the stuff tastes fabulous but doesn't photograph terrible well.

Black Opps Scallop Salad
Serves 6

Scallops
2 pounds bay scallops (on sale for $8 at Dominicks!)
3/4 cup of flour
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon fresh ground pepper
1 teaspoon sea salt
3 tablespoons butter (unsalted)

1. Rinse scallops in a colander under cool water then dry them in a bowl lined with paper towels.
2. Combine dry ingredients (everything left other than the butter) in a small tupperware container and shake shake shake (with the lid on) to make sure it's well-combined.
3. In batches, toss scallops in the flour mixture, shaking excess flour of each scallop before adding to a frying pan with 2 TB butter melted of medium heat.
4. Scallops should be left for about a minute and a half without turning then tossed until golden brown on all sides. Repeat process till all scallops are fried. Replenish butter when necessary to prevent burning.
   

Salad
Large box of spring mix or 1/2 spring and 1/2 baby spinach
1 large grapefruit, halved and then supremed
1 avocado, halved, pitted and sliced into fifths on each half
3/4 cup walnut pieces
1/2 cup dried cherries
Loads of goat cheese

Toss it all together with dressing (recipe follows), adding scallops only at the very end of the toss process to evenly distribute.

Dressing
Juice of 1 whole grapefruit
1TB champagne vinegar
1/3 cup good extra virgin olive oil
Salt and Pepper to taste

Shake Shake Shake or Whisk Whisk Whisk then toss with salad and scallops above.

It's a great girls night because it takes no time to put it together and there are opportunities for helping hands when it comes to the avocado, grapefruit and scallop prep. Also- it's good filling, not I-wish-I'd-brought-sweatpants filling.

A Moment in the Edible Career Corner

Served on the side, I made stuffed mushrooms. This is a very special recipe because it's one that I finally perfected thanks to worklife. I never talk about the office but we're all foodies here so if you make the jump to check out the Stuffed Mushroom recipe, you may find a very familiar voice on The Mushroom Channel. And @MushroomChannel for that matter. Yes, I really do read food blogs, write food blogs and Twitter for a living. It's not bad work if you can get it:)

Remember when I was 25...

Photo Credit: Jaimeson while at the Mark II Lounge

...And I was working my ass off in a job that lit me up like stained glass? And I lived in a tiny, quirky apartment where the bathroom was an afterthought but the ceilings were high and light poured in?

I remember that.

And I remember a night that started as a company holiday party, all rushed to finish projects in time, and ended with two of my favorite colleagues and I closing down a favorite restaurant (Hot Chocolate) and sitting with the chef who'd hand-picked every item we ate. Along with paired dessert wines and something rich and red that I was sipping on first.

I remember coming home and thinking this is good. Life is really busy and fast but good right now. And after 36 hours of torturing myself about it, I capped it off by getting online to reserve a plane ticket to Los Angeles with miles. For this weekend. To attend a Christmas brunch I just didn't want to miss.

I've been going back and forth for days about the practicality of this plan and the thing is: it's not practical. But I'm 25 and I'm not missing a single bit of work and if I want to totally abuse 36 hours with a romantic little jettison to the West Coast? This is the time to do it.

So I arrive in LA on Saturday morning and I leave LA on Sunday eve. It will not be the last time I'm in SoCal but it will be the first. I am breaking the seal so to speak. Now I need to decide what I can contribute to brunch/ maybe do some laundry.

Sugar Penalty for The Sweet Life

Molly's birthday cake, Barefoot Contessa Coconut Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting, served with Raspberry Sauce and Camille's homemade Coconut Ice Cream

Dear Lovely Friends d'Internet,
How are you? I am fine. No, seriously....I know I keep disappearing on you but I'm still kickin and in some areas, kickin some ass. We'll blame the pain meds for the crass language.

Yes, pain meds. I think we've discussed my tendency toward dental dilemma before. I have to have a root canal tomorrow and at this point I'm just excited for the novacaine- the last 36 hours have really been a new level of discomfort. As you can see, I'm a fan of getting the bad news out of the way first.

The good news? Can't keep a good woman down (ok, maybe not 110% good woman but definitely trying and the rest is really just little bits of mischief here and there). Because I had a great weekend- wine at Bin Wine Cafe, Palomas at Salud, lil Dyl in my 826 Chi class "Happily Ever After?", the girls over for cake and wine for Molly's birthday(see top), GREAT SEASONAL BEER at the Map Room with artisan salami flown in from Pike's Place....all in the midst of 7 inches of rain. Not too shabby!!

And work is rocking. I'm busy. I'm working really hard and it's not slowing down anytime soon. Which is fine by me...things are heating up in the kitchen and I like it that way. Most of all- I'm a month and a half in and knowing it was the right move. I'm working on the things I want to work on, I'm working with people (on all sides) that I want to work with and this is why you go to the big leagues...you learn something new every damn day. There go those gauche pain meds again- back to your proper-ish southern belle tomorrow:)

Odds and Ends:
Late dinner at La Madia in River North last night. Even on my soft things/soup only diet, P and I had a GREAT dinner- house-cured olives (not as good as Bin's but still pretty awesome), "pizza fondue," chicken-spinach-ricotta ravioli in brown butter sauce, scallops with late summer corn salad and a bottle of Delta Pinot Noir.

Taco Soup recipe from Mom. Jaimeson and I ate two meals of this on the Cape over Labor Day and with mom dancing around going "it's just so easy!!" I knew I was going to need to make some. She's not kidding. Brown a pound or two of ground turkey in some PAM then add the following:
- 1 packet taco seasoning
- 1 packet dried Ranch seasoning
1 can diced tomatoes (I used one with onion and garlic)
1 can black beans
1 can red beans
1 can white beans
1 can corn
2 cans chicken broth
2 small cans V8
TKTC Note: + pinch of Ground Ancho Pepper and a pinch of cinnamon

I hope you recycle cause that's a lot of cans. And seriously- just dump the cans in once the meat has browned and let it heat through. Ta-DA! Serve with a little low fat sour cream/Mexican crema and the cheddar of your choosing. It makes a lot. I had a bowl that night, a tupperware for lunch today and still had this left over...Two single serving Tupperware containers and probably three servings in the big guy. Or just two if we fast forward two weeks and Jaimeson and I are up late watching True Blood, drinking wine and being hungry.

What I'm listening to:
Good Arms Vs. Bad Arms by Frightened Rabbit (another spot ON request from Brother)
I'll Find a Way by Rachael Yamagata (tour starts Saturday)
Paper Planes by M.I.A. (from Lex- you should see me listening to this on the train...so street)

Mountains in the Distance

It was a long day. Much to be done and much still to do but I'm working toward some pretty cool things in the short and long of it all.

I'm going to the mountains tomorrow. I'm staying with my adopted "grandlittle," (yes, that would be sororspeak) who remains one of my all time favorite people despite having not seen each other for... almost three years. Wow- it's been that long?!

Partner in Crime

I have never been to Colorado. I have never seen the Rockies. I get to see a favorite person. I get to meet some interesting new people. I get to talk about the role of social media in a comprehensive PR plan. I get to be part of the bigger picture.

Bottom line: 24 hours of adventure up ahead and this time tomorrow night I'll already be living it. Even if it means 13 hour days, going places I've never been lights me up inside!!

Are you ready Denver? You're getting one Leftie a full week early...

Bite Size (Another Helping of TKTC)

Hi Loves,
As you've likely gathered, life is moving at a deliciously insane pace at the moment. I love it. Full of fun dinners and cocktails and friends and, well, work. And I'm still writing...in fact I have a pretty exciting project going on at the moment that I will tell you ALL ABOUT when I can. It involves this guy and just about everything I love = thrilled kitten.

The new job is officially fabulous. I know we seldom discuss these things but I'm having a blast and feeling useful. Several of my new co-workers are also bloggers (Foodmomiac, Everyday Adventures of Me in the City, Homemaker's Habitat, A Mom Thing, More lbs).

And did I mention that one of my best friends from high school, my international partner in crime and confidante has just moved to Chicago? Or that tour season has arrived again? Or that weddings are on the horizon?

It's a good time right now... all of it. That said, I don't want to be neglectful and I have a good number of recipes to share. Tonight. Promise. It may be late but I'm looking forward to talking through the Lavender Vanilla Creme Brulee, new music, new adventures and a very special blogger brunch on Saturday.

While I haven't had much time to post in entrees, I continue to post the bite-size fun on my Tumblr. Just in case you needed another way to lose 5 minutes of your day. Or 36 seconds because I like pictures.

Talk to you tonight et Bisous,
TKTC

Dance Dance Dance

First- a Sesame Street-sized thank you for the sweetness this week. On and Off-line!

Second- I can't believe it's Friday. Thank God I'm allowed to come back on Monday because I'm just starting to feel like I'm getting the hang of things around the office. For instance:

• I learned how to open a New Document in the new Microsoft Word. Seriously...I was so confused. This from a writer...I thought I knew you, Word. I really thought we had something special going. You're a whole different animal with your Office voice on.
  
• I am an appointment-setting fool on Outlook. And those appointments are amazing. No joke...people come in and they tell me everything I could've hoped to know and then show me how to do things on my computer. For a social media person, I have a surprising amount to learn about Windows shortcuts and the mystery know as "intranet."
  
• I actually don't mind making my own lunch. Or getting up with enough time to make and take my coffee the way I like it. I didn't eat till late in the day but the tuna salad with cherry tomatoes halved and making a smiley face and romaine lettuce bangs? Made me laugh and reminded me to schedule a hair appt.
  
• I love brainstorms. That's the kind of thing that people respond with, "Yeah...you say that now but just wait." I don't think so this time. It's energizing. It's invigorating. It's inspiring to be at a table with a bunch of smart cookies. And the fact that I'm allowed to sit in on these my first week and contribute is just plain rad.
  
• The rest of my days have been spent reading cases, reading blogs (one dedicated to artisan cured meats- wow) and listening to various covers by the Vitamin String Quartet. Hallelujah (from the So You Think You Can Dance finale) is getting me incredibly jazzed and isn't distracting. And speaking of Dance Dance Dance...CONGRATULATIONS!
  

TKTC Note: Whenever I use the word "rad," I think of Tumblr. Anyone want to back me up there? Did I just test positive for hipster jargon? I've not forsaken you, Blogger. It's Twitter with pictures.

TKTC Note: Also, dinner tonight was whole wheat pasta with sauteed sliced courgettes and two cubes of pesto. Have half for lunch tomorrow. Freezing that pesto is one of the nicest things I've done for myself in awhile. If I go to bed now, we may have a very pleasant trend on our hands.

Final thing that made me do a jig before bed? May have been compared to a particularly fabled writer but with food (curly hair, great shoes). Those are some mighty big stilettos to fill but here's to big feet and a lot of subjugating till Labor Day!

Confession: I was kind've a wuss today.

I didn't know anyone, a good portion of my new team is out of town and man, it's really different from anyplace I've been recently. On top of having my umbrella reverse directions on me on my way into work and getting soaked, I had forgotten my cell phone which means I was EXTRA disconnected. No computer till a little after 5 and I missed a meeting because of it. How very new kid. It's scary starting over. It's scary being one of a lot instead of one of a few. Even for little miss never-met-a-stranger...it's daunting! Do you know how long it's been since I used a PC?!

When I got home (after taking the El in the wrong direction around the Loop for a stop), I poured a healthy glass of wine and just wallowed in my exhaustion while a massive summer storm started washing over Wicker Park. The sky turned an all too familiar gangrene color, introduced by a childhood spent living on a Mississippi floodplain. And the wind picked up and the sirens went off. Then the hail came and again, I was a little scared.

Then there were some big cracks of thunder and something changed. I didn't start singing about raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens. Instead I turned off every light in my apartment and watched the whole thing go down with my own whiskered scaredy-kitten hiding in my lap. It was exhilarating and with the lights off, it felt a little easier to take some deep breaths in my dark and flashing living room.

I haven't been scared of anything in a very long time but I'm scared of all sorts of shit at the moment. I'm scared of the change, I'm scared of being out on a limb in every sense and I'm scared of all the chances I've been taking. As of right this second, it feels pretty good. Things were fine the way they were for a long time but the only thing scarier than the risks is not taking them and missing out on the best of it.

If I'm just now getting scared, I must be getting to the good part.

Day Two tomorrow and I'm bringing homemade chocolate chip cookies with two kinds of chocolate chips (dark and semi-sweet). I'm not above bribery and cookies are a sometimes food. As in, sometimes you need to bring out the big guns:)

Cookies is sometimes food from Cookie Monster's guest appearance on Colbert.

New BIG-innings

A big, amazing sandwich via the newly reinstated
Tastespotting...in honor of TKTC Big News!

Remember when I said it was going to be a big week? If I were playing Scrabble right now (and really, who's to say I'm not...?), I think the approproriate knell of a word would be "prescient."

At the time I was thinking multiple deadlines to meet, lots of dinners to attend, a good bit of copy to write and of course the laborious process of waiting for Jaimeson to arrive. Busy? Yes. Hectic? Maybe a little. But big? Hadn't exactly occurred to me...

On Monday, the woman who, in no uncertain terms inspired me to start blogging, asked if I would think about coming to work for her. Not only is that big but it's flattering as all get-out.

On Tuesday, she had already submitted the big idea for this job to be created on her team.

On Tuesday night, we stayed up after the kids were in bed (I am the occasional sitter after all), had one big beer and talked through the possibilities.

On Thursday morning (yeah...today), I accepted an incredible offer to join her and THIS cool chick in the big leagues. Via text. While my new boss and co-worker were on their way to BlogHer. I would be jealous but I'm too excited.

Still on Thursday morning, I put my two weeks notice in with the beauty PR firm that has been my professional home (and in some ways home home) for the bulk of my adult life. This will likely be its own post once I've had time to process the big change.

On Thursday night (so...now), I am filling out my big stack of HR forms and doing my Homework so I can hit the ground sprinting come August.

To Do:
I want to leave my current company, which has made a big impact on me personally, in the best possible position they/it can be in.

I want to thoroughly enjoy my few sunny days with the big, Greek man in my life. It could be a awhile before things slow down in the slightest and I'm glad he was already going to be here. I talk so fast that it's good to be reminded to take a deep breath sometimes.

I want to get myself organized enough that I walk into that big, beautiful new building with a head full of ideas and my paperwork filled out neatly (so...typed).

I want to walk home to my spotlessly clean apartment at the end of Day 1 with the contented knowledge that it is no longer accounting for the big half of my income.

Oh I'm sorry, did I forget to tell you what I was doing? Social Media team; primarily in the Food division. Social Foodies... think I'll fit in?

Yes, this is going to be big and I am ecstatic:)

The New York Minutes Pt. 1

I started writing play-by-play posts taking you through the four identifiable quarters of my adventure.

* The V-time, resplendent in expense accounts, “big, important” meetings and lots of FABULOUS product☺
* The She-time with a divine little corner all to myself in Brooklyn, an ultra chic hostess and even dabbling in the XX power of the Upper East side with Red and Abby!
* The Me-time with my MetroCard, my Vive La Pride button and my sunhat ducking into shops and bakeries and petting dogs without asking first.
* The We-time of wee small hours of the morning, foraging for food in bars, laughing so hard someone snorts and the very specific art of being held perfectly in place by one strong arm as the 6 train lurches forward and back all the way uptown from Soho.

But once I was writing it out, it was too much. Too much for you to possibly be interested in. Too much for me to say without talking it straight out of context and distorting what was just right exactly the way it happened. So instead I will give you the minutes. The minutes that have raised themselves above the surface of an already-memorable week like the Braille next to elevator buttons.

Let’s get started, it’s been established now that time is and is of the essence. We'll start with V-time with a late-night lead-in to She-Time.

Tuesday, 6:18-6:20am: Security lines at OHare are silly long. My bag is checked, I have 40 minutes till take-off and am looking at a line an hour long. At a thoroughly off-putting hour of the morning, might I add. But then I remember the far security line. Technically run by Delta, would they let my little AA ticket in if I started taking my shoes off while approaching? With a very wide smile on? Yes. In and out in 12 minutes. She's getting good.

Tuesday, 12:54pm: Lobby of client's building, waiting in front of guard desk to check in. Running behind for a 1pm start. Waiting. Guards are pre-occupied by a tall young man who might have been handsome had I not been getting agitated and I am tapping my foot now. Boss calls our new brand manager Charlie to see if he can get us through any faster. I am now peeking around trying to make eye contact with a disinterested second guard. Boss says "Charlie?" and man in line says "Yes?" into his cell phone. Here's to e-business...may we never actually know who we're working for!

Tuesday, 11:12pm: Plaza Hotel. Wanting the baby blue crushed velvet wingbacks in the lobby then flitting off to look in the windows at Bergdorfs. 5th Ave is so quiet that for several seconds of this minute I am convinced that I am all that's left of New York. It's exhilarating and a little lonely until I look back to see Boss and Colleague deciding who lays claim to a royal violet pair of pumps in the window. There are tassels.

Wednesday, 9:15am: Coffee shop on 45th. Phone is buzzing while I am adding my Splenda into a big "regular" coffee, wondering what it would take to get Chicago to automatically put milk in the java. Jaimeson is being cute but I'm aware of the time difference. His night is ending in its whiskeykiss, Laurel Canyon glory and my day is starting in Midtown Manhattan with big girl pumps on. Counting down days till we can synchronize our cell phones.

Wednesday, 11:57am: Frantically calling Brasserie because our reservations are for noon and Boss decided on a rather generous whim to treat the team to some Guerlain inside the Waldorf. T-shirt says "Will work for niiiice-smelling make-up"? Will work for rent is unfortunately the priority- good thing my new favorite mascara (obsessed actually) is CHEAP!!

Wednesday, 6:45pm: Banchet Flowers in the Meat-Packing District at a different PR firm's event for our client. The venue is gorgeous. We are relaxed because for once it is not our show. All the beauty editors are sipping cocktails and I am shopping their outfits, landing on a belt that looks very TKTC. I tell her so. We start chatting. 10 minutes in I look at her nametag to remind myself of her moniker. _____, Beauty Director, VOGUE. Go figure.

Wednesday, 8:57pm: In a towncar with a wine and beauty buzz, crossing the Brooklyn Bridge. I am ecstatic on the phone with Mom looking out the back window at the city going "I'm on the bridge, I'm looking at the city, I'm in a 'car'...UNbelievable." My driver is laughing in the front seat.

Wednesday, 10:12pm: Patio of Habana Outpost with Jess and talking life, deal-breakers and deal-makers. The same stuff we cover bi-weekly on the telephone as I sit on my kitchen table to get service. I spend as much time ON that kitchen table lately as I do sitting AT it! I have a brain freeze from taking down my frozen mojito. So much better than a slurpy. So much better than a telephone.

Part Two: She-Time & Me-Time
Part Three: We-Time and Home