This weekend I made a lemon curd tart, using both the pastry and the lemon curd recipes from A New Way to Cook. The pastry was ridiculously simple and delicious (and reason #374 why, if you don't own this cookbook, you should buy it now), but the lemon curd didn't really set. The recipe said to cook for 5 minutes on a double boiler, whisking continuously, and after 10 minutes in a regular saucepan on low, it still hadn't thickened up like I thought it should, but I was terrified of curdling the eggs.

So the tart ran off when sliced and I just poured it into a bowl and my friend Christina and I tore off pieces of the shell and dipped it into the curd, which was delicious, if not aesthetic. (I put fresh mint on the top, which looked impressive.) Next time I make a tart I'm going with apple.

Also, I've added comments. Try it out. Especially if you have any lemon curd advice.

This weekend I potted a bunch of herbs and put them out on the balcony. Mint, flat leaf parsley, cilantro, rosemary, tarragon, and chives. I'll probably add dill soon, and was oddly tempted by the savory, too, though I've never used savory in my life.

Hopefully I won't kill them. It was so nice to add some of my own mint to my freshly brewed ginger peach iced tea, and Sunday I spent five minutes trying to decide if I wanted chives or tarragon in my goat cheese omelet (I chose chives.) Tonight I'm even grinding my own fresh coriander. If anyone has any potted herb growing tips, I'm all ears. Like, how regularly is water regularly? Once a day? Twice a day? Morning? Night? Both?

I also roasted a chicken (last entry) recently. I am always futzing with things when I roast chickens. This time I used the Harold Mcgee baste frequently method, and I crushed the garlic before shoving it under the skin. I also skipped the tarragon.

Basting didn't seem to do much, really, besides use up a lot of butter. Crushing the garlic, though, was genius. I don't think I'll ever again roast a chicken without doing that.

I also, of course, forgot once again that Jeff's oven (now my oven, too) is not as hot as it should be, and I couldn't find his old I don't quite trust it anyway meat thermometer. But it cooked eventually and was delicious. I have a new, fancy meat thermometer in the mail soon, from Amazon, among other gadgets. I want to try frying my own chicken, but not until that meat thermometer arrives.

Last night I made mac and cheese. I have always used in the past the Amanda Hesser recipe I tore from the NYT Magazine, so last night I used the same recipe from Cooking For Mr. Latte figuring it would be the same recipe. The sauce came out runny and thin (which Jeff liked) and lacked the full cheese flavor I remembered, and I cursed her for changing it for the book. Then I dug up the magazine clipping, to figure out the original recipe, and noticed my notes- I had made some alterations to thicken the sauce, and had used a cheddar-Jack blend instead of all Jack. I should note that in my copy of the book now, I guess.

I also use Ro-Tel instead of Italian tomatoes, because I am from Texas, but I didn't need any notes to remind me of that.

Also, if you ever need fresh breadcrumbs, and have no stale bread? Put it in the oven or toaster oven at 200 for a while, until it feels stale. Then grate it through a cheese grater. A little tip from me to you.

I haven't posted much lately. I've cooked quite a bit, but nothing I felt like writing about, I guess. After last Thursday, when I tried to make Amanda Hesser's Single Girl Salmon for two, and failed to a) make sure the flash-frozen wild salmon Jeff picked up at Trader Joe's was fully defrosted and b)tried to cook both pieces of salmon in a pan that barely fit both, resulting in- well, it wasn't a pretty sight- I was ashamed. I don't take kitchen failure in the strides that I should. I can laugh now about the time I rubbed habanero peppers in my eyes and thought I had blinded myself, but I didn't ruin any food doing that. For years, I'd almost cry just hearing the word manicotti and avoided making any and all stuffed pastas. I even skittled away from lasagna.

I've gotten better, though, and fortunately this is not 1950, so it's not like Jeff says "I slaved away all day and wanted to come home to some lovely salmon, not you stomping your feet and cursing yourself." Instead he took me to Astroburger for a grilled cheese with bacon and knew I'd try again. Sunday I tried the salmon again, and it was perfect. That's progress- instead of abandoning recipes I flub, I keep at them until I get them right. And I'm finding more and more often that the first time I make something, it's great, and then I get lazy and don't pay as much attention the second time, leading to disaster. The third time, though, I get that recipe down. Salmon, I am the boss of you.

Does anyone have any suggestions for what I can do with radishes? I know I don't like them cold in a salad. Email me any ideas. I may try them with butter on bread.

Oh, the ribs. So delicious. First you roast them in foil, which renders almost all of the fat. Then you brush with marinade, then you baste, and you wind up with crispy yumminess. I served them with rice, though I didn't have room in my oven for my usual foolproof rice. I tried Christopher Kimball's master stovetop recipe, which was similar- coat the rice with oil first, simmer, covered, on the stovetop for 15 minutes, then let sit for 10- and it was even better than my normal rice. Moister. Jeff and I had a 10 minute conversation about whether or not moister was a word, and it probably isn't.

Tonight I'm making the lacquered spareribs from A New Way To Cook . I made the marinade early this morning before going to the gym. They better be good- my hands reeked of soy sauce and rum the whole time I was working out.

Last night I made a pea and radish salad and slow roasted balsamic zucchini from The Cook and The Gardener . I also picked up some La Brea bakery rosemary and olive oil bread, and spread some Trader Joe's sundried tomato pesto and some freshly grated Pecorino-Romano on top, tossing it in the oven for the last few minutes with the zucchini.

It was delicious- light and summery- but I secretly hate salads that are anything more than lettuce, some nuts or croutons, maybe some sliced white mushrooms, and a good vinaigrette. Much more than that and I lose my desire to eat it. I think I need to come to terms with this and stop making salads that are delicious, but will go uneaten. Although I'll eat most of the TJ's salads. I don't know what my problem is.

Sunday morning we had banana pancakes. I felt bad infringing upon Jeff's pancake making, since that's the thing he cooks, but I didn't want pancakes from a mix. I used Mark Bittman's basic recipe, with buttermilk instead of milk, and an overripe banana. They were fabulous, and I think I've converted Jeff from the mix for good.

Saturday night I cooked tuna steaks. I marinated them in soy sauce and lime juice, seared them on a grill pan, sliced thickly, and served with sliced scallions and grated ginger on the side and drizzled leftover marinade on top. The big adventure was hunting down yellowfin tuna, which was nowhere to be found. Our neighbor and friend who works at TJ's says there is a mercury warning afoot. We settled for ahi.

The meal was simple and delicious. As I said, that's why I love Jamie Oliver. All you have to do is watch, and then recreate. It's not fussy food. Though I have started calling things rubbish, lately. I love watching Nigella, but too often her food seems better in theory than it is in practice. Emeril gives me a headache. Martha, I love, though I spend entire episodes wondering if you really do pronounce it marin-AHD. I don't think I've ever made a Martha recipe, but I love watching her. Bobby Flay makes me happy, with his enthusiasm, despite his disrespectful ways in Kitchen Stadium. And I secretly can't stand Alton Brown, though Jeff loves his glasses and thinks he handles his balding-ness admirably. I find him obnoxious and often disagree with his methods.

My name is Hannah, and apparently I watch a lot of Food TV.

Friday night we went out for my old roommate's going away party. Jeff was all excited to get fish and chips at the Cat and Fiddle- Jeff is always excited about fish and chips. Tragically, the meal was more peas than fish. He's still bitter.

I'm trying to figure out where to eat for my birthday- I can't decide. I've gone over the list of places I want to try and just can't decide.. Email me what you think, please. I'm at a loss.

The list:

A.O.C.

Campanile

Jar

Lucques

Pastis

Patina

Pinot Hollywood

R-23

Sona

Vermont

Man, there are a lot of restaurants I haven't been to in this town.

Last night I made shrimp cakes with lime-cilantro mayonnaise from Nigella's How to Eat. I saw her make them on an old episode of Nigella Bites and always wanted to try them, and now that I have a blender, I could.

Nigella makes me crazy sometimes. Her recipes can be annoyingly vague- "add enough water to make a thick batter" is fine, except how are you supposed to know how much water will make a thick batter before you blend it? And it's hard to blend shrimp without liquid. And you let it sit covered in plastic wrap for an hour- I assume in the refrigerator, but she didn't bother to say.

And don't get me started on her mayonnaise. I tried her version, which starts with just egg yolk and salt- dijon mustard is optional, and you add the lemon (or in this case lime) juice after emulsifying, and there's no vinegar at all. If you can make mayonnaise that way, more power to you, but I could not. I scrapped it and went back to my old version (scroll to the very bottom), minus the garlic and with lime and chopped cilantro added at the end.

The deep frying was interesting, too- I don't have a lot of deep frying experience, and though I knew the oil had to be hot hot hot, I still tried to fry the first cake before the oil was hot enough. Also, I suspect olive oil is not the best suited oil for deep frying. The cakes came out quite tasty, but not as crisp as I'd hoped.

I've learned more from watching Nigella- I use a mezzaluna to chop almost all my herbs- it's easier and quicker, especially when you have minimal knife skills, like me- than I have from her cookbook, which has been hit and miss. I do love watching her, though. We don't get Style Network, so I haven't been watching Forever Summer. I'm making up for it with Oliver's Twist, which is one of my favorite food tv shows of all time, because you can watch it, and without taking notes or anything, you can then go do whatever Jamie Oliver just did. I'm trying his seared tuna this weekend- sear some tuna, slice thickly, serve with chopped scallions on one side, grated ginger on the other, and soy sauce drizzled over. Simple, yes, but what I think TV cooking should be- pretty to look at and immediately replicable.

Last night I spent an inordinate amount of time trying to figure out what to cook for dinner tonight. Everything that felt appealing required an inordinate amount of marination or other prep- and I don't have time to do the shopping myself and get home in time to cook, so I can't just go rummage through what looks good. Next week I'm making Jeff help me plan the week ahead. I wish I was a lady of leisure and had all day to plan dinner, that's for sure.

The Ensalada Ya! is genius. Genius. You should all run out and get one.

I didn't bring enough food for dinner, even though I had a thing near campus at 6 and knew I would be hungry before it ended. I got a slice of pizza from the food court across the street- next time, for real, I am sticking to my guns and not eating from the food court. Everytime I do I regret it- it's all gross. The pizza looked good and tasted like- nothing. I swear it's like that Simpson's episode where all the food court food comes from the same bin- nothing at the University Village is ever even good, much less great. Next week I'm packing a sandwich.

Last night we went to Pink's. A friend's ex-boyfriend once suggested that the lines at Pink's are actually just actors, hired to stand there, but I suspect he never actually HAD a Pink's chili cheese dog. If you must have a chili cheese dog, go to Pink's.

I also got this salad thingy at Bed Bath & Beyond- it's a plastic salad go cup, with a separate container on the top for the dressing. When you're ready to actually eat the salad, you just squeeze the top and it's dispensed. No more soggy lunch salad for me. I made a red wine walnut oil vinaigrette with tarragon and am having some for lunch. I like that they include the Spanish and English product names on the label- Salad Blaster is not as fun to say as Ensalada Ya!

I did make the charred onion salsa, after all. It seemed silly not too, since I had the onion and lime on hand, and it's so simple. And it was the perfect condiment- I don't mind having duck quesadillas two nights in a row if the second batch is vastly superior to the first.

Sunday morning we had a lazy morning. I made the rosemary buttermilk biscuits from A New Way to Cook . I had made them before, omitting the rosemary, because I thought rosemary was a weird thing to put in a biscuit. It's not, really- it's quite tasty. I made extra, which we thought about bringing over to our neighbors, but Jeff insisted on keeping them. I toasted one for breakfast this morning and don't regret his selfishness.

For dinner I made duck quesadillas,with the leftover duck. I was tempted to try to recreate a duck tamale pie I had at Star Canyon in Vegas, but didn't feel like going out to the store for Maseca, especially when we had tortillas at home. Flour tortillas, sliced duck, jack and cheddar cheese, Ro-Tel and Pickapeppa sauce, tossed on the Foreman. Tonight I may make the charred onion salsa (again from A New Way to Cook) to go with them, since we have more leftover duck, but I suspect I won't. The Pickapeppa is perfect.

Saturday night I made the sauteed duck and artichoke from The Cook and the Gardener . The biggest mishap was the guy at Puritan Poultry selling me four duck breasts instead of two, but that wasn't a big deal- leftover duck is pretty easy to use. I was mainly worried about trimming the artichoke. I turned to The Cook's Bible ,which I always turn to for advice on tasks like this, because it has pictures. The trimming was fairly straightforward, though, and despite the recipe's appearance of complexity- sauteeing the duck and then finishing it in the oven, boiling the artichoke and then sauteeing it in rendered duck fat- it was a snap. And delicious.

Friday night we went out; dinner was simple- pizza dough I'd had in the freezer, sundried tomato pesto, ricotta, and chicken apple sausage (also from the freezer). It's another Bertucci's pizza recreation- the sundried tomato pesto was my own addition, and I do love it, though it turns the pizza orange. I miss Bertucci's and Boston in general, as always. I can't believe I've been away for almost 2 years, the longest I've gone since I started college there in 1995. Sunday's NYT Travel section had an article on Boston restaurants, including Oleana, where I had a birthday dinner right before leaving? The year before that? I can't remember now, but I do remember liking it but being disappointed Ana Sortun's scallops which I loved at Casablanca weren't on the menu. I miss those scallops.

Roast chicken is my cooking waterloo. Don't laugh. I know, I know, it's so simple, and so easy, and yada yada. I made some perfectly okay roast chickens at my old apartment, but in Jeff's (and now my) apartment, with the crazy irregular temperature oven- I have had nothing but problems.

Last night, using tips culled from reviews of The Zuni Cafe Cookbook (which I still totally covet, for the details on the chicken alone) and from every other ('perfect', 'easy,' 'anyone can do it') roast chicken recipe on hand. Christopher Kimball, Nigella Lawson, Mark Bittman, Sally Schneider, Jeffrey Steingarten- they all rolled around in my head. I went with a small chicken and high heat (450, though probably closer to 425 in a regular, normal oven). 24 hours before I salted the chicken, and shoved garlic and thyme under its skin. I used my new roasting pan, with a rack. (And I think the rack made a HUGE difference.) I cooked it for 20 minutes breast side down, 20 minutes breast side up, and 10 more breast side up at 375. I let it sit for 10 minutes-on the countertop- hard, since we were hungry and the chicken was golden and smelled beautiful. I also turned the oven off but left the potatoes, which I had carved up and tossed with a little olive oil and kosher salt and cooked under the chicken, in the oven to keep warm.

Y'all. This was the closest to chicken nirvana I've gotten. Next time I'm going to bump the temperature up a bit more, but I'm almost there. And the potatoes. All the chicken juice draining off the rack onto the potatoes below made for potato perfection. (I also roasted a shallot in with them because I had one lying around- next time, I'll roast a few more.)

Mmmm.

Barbeque Brisket

For the marinade:
1/2 cup Worcestershire
1/2 cup vinegar
1/2 bottle liquid smoke
1/4 cup cooking oil
1 tsp dried minced onions
1 tsp garlic powder
pepper

For the sauce:
1 cup juice/broth from cooked brisket
1 cup barbeque sauce
1/4 cup brown sugar

And a brisket. For a very, very large brisket, you can double the recipe. I don't know how many pounds- I always just tell the butcher how many people I need to serve and let him decide.

Combine all the marinade ingredients and marinate overnight in the refrigerator. In the morning, cook the brisket in the marinade fat side up either in a crock pot or in a 275 degree oven. Cook for 6-8 hours. Take the brisket out, drain the juice (saving 1 cup for the sauce) and make the sauce. Slice the meat, pour the sauce over it, and return to the crockpot or oven for another 1/2 hour.

Sunday was moving day. To bribe as many people as possible to help (which is the only way to move- have too many people) I had offered beer, brisket, and mashed potatoes.

We picked up the brisket Saturday from Huntington Meats in the Farmer's Market (my favorite butcher, incidentally) and all they had in were giant, huge, enormous briskets. They cut one into an 8 person brisket, and we got the second 2 person brisket to freeze. I marinated the brisket overnight and put it in the crockpot first thing in the morning. For the first time, I was glad I got the large crockpot- it barely fit. But it was delicious. The brisket recipe I use is from my mother, who got it from a family friend, who made it on a waterskiing vacation in Arkansas. It's delicious.

Saturday, we went and picked up Zankou Chicken, which I have wanted to try since moving to Los Angeles. It's famous, and legendary, and all that. Jonathan Gold referenced it in a review of the Zuni Cafe cookbook (he actually said that the Zuni Cafe roast chicken was so good it was all he made and ate now, and that he didn't even pick up Zankou, but still) and it was the last straw.

It was okay. The skin was delicious, and the garlic sauce (more of a spread, really) was very tasty. But it didn't blow me away, and it gave Jeff some gastrointestinal distress.

More on chicken later.

Last Friday, I decided to try the mussels with fines herbs (which I don't ever pronounce aloud. In my head it is feen-es herbs, which I am sure is wrong. After the embarassment of realizing I was pronouncing chic wrong in my head for 10 years or so, I just leave French alone) from The Cook and The Gardener. I don't know what I did wrong, or if I did anything wrong, but they were gritty and I got all panicked about mussels at home and Jeff and I tossed them. I made prosciutto sandwiches instead, and they were tasty. Mussels. Do I try again, with a more buttery sauce, or do I let that be an eat out thing?