Wednesday, December 24, 2003

I've finally been reading through James Beard's "How To Eat Better For Less Money," a 25 cent Farmer's Market used book sale purchase. It cracks me up. I'm never going to make tuna pate with canned tuna, I know, but I like knowing it exists. His suggestion that you make calf's head your specialite de la maison (accents schmaccents) made me laugh and laugh and laugh. I horrified Jeff by reading him the complete directions.

He mentions a gourmet store, Jurgenson's in Beverly Hills, which no longer exists, but sounds like it was nice when it did. I had to go to three different stores yesterday to find a ham, and then spent ten minutes at Gelson's staring at the selection, trying to remember which was better, "in natural juices" or "water added." "In natural juices" was what I chose, and I was right.

Last night I made a cheese quiche. I still need practice rolling out the pastry dough and shaping it nicely, but I think I'm abandoning my quiche project. The difficult part- the pastry- isn't that difficult, even by hand, and I will soon have an ""electric super-blender-food-processor" and it'll be a breeze. The filling is a snap to make. I've memorized the proportions, even. It's not difficult enough to merit long term project status.

Also? Even every other week is too much quiche for me. It's just too rich.

I probably won't post again until I get back to work on January 5. Tonight we're having shrimp etouffe. Tomorrow, ham, glazed carrots, mashed potatoes and a spinach artichoke casserole. (My grandmother emailed me her menu after I'd planned mine- her holiday meal with her widow friends includes pork and a spinach and artichoke casserole as well. Freaky. Also, widow friends is her term, not mine. That would be a horribly rude nickname for me to come up with but is sweet when she says it.) We're having a small party tomorrow night, too. We'll have leftover ham with cheddar and rosemary biscuits, tiny puff pastry tarts with goat cheese and tomato, olive walnut spread and leftover asparagus and spinach casserole with cocktail toast and breads from TJ's (little tiny loaves of pumpernickel. They make me happy, they're so wee), Christmas cookies, leftover quiche, lemon meringue pie... and a screening of Neil Diamond's Jazz Singer. That says Christmas, no?

I saw a Hanukah CAR this morning. It was parked. Does it feel inferior to the Hanukah truck?

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