Spaghetti for Victor's Birthday

The official birthday is tomorrow, but I have to work late, so the birthday dinner was tonight. Spaghetti with meat sauce and a big ol' white wine sausage. The sausages came from Reading Terminal Market. I made the sauce.

Tomorrow is the big day. And it's election day here in Pennsylvania. If you want to give Victor a nice birthday present, vote for Bernie. A big win would be a really nice gift!

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And back to the birthday boy...

We did a fun-filled weekend in New York. Stayed at The Grand Hyatt, met up with great friends, saw Kinky Boots, a great dinner in Little Italy, bought lots of new clothes, and, in general, just had a grand time.

I worked for Hyatt for 8 years and came close to opening the Grand Hyatt back circa 1980. I had put in 2 transfer requests - one to NYC and one to Boston. NYC was still under construction and Boston came through, first. When we checked in, I turned on the ol' charm at the front desk and for 15 minutes had the agent in hysterics. We talked old Hyatt, fun, birthdays, marriage, sleazy Times Square back in the day... we had a blast! She upgraded us to a Grand Club Over-sized King, sent up wine and cheese, we got early check-in and late check-out...

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It's difficult to say how different my life would have been had I moved to New York City in 1980. I'm rather pleased things turned out the way they did.

Friday night we saw Kinky Boots. I had heard of the show and figured it would be pretty good. I had no idea just how much fun it was going to be! No photos of the actual show - that's just not done - but what an excellent Drag Show! There was some definite talent on that stage.

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After the show, the actors did a collection for BC/EFA - Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. We have been supporters for years, so I dropped a twenty into the bucket and got a new apron for work!

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Too much fun!

Saturday was spent downtown, for the most part. We started off at Eataly, walked the Highline Park, went to Chelsea Market, had lunch at Park, and ended back at the hotel with time to change and head to Pete & Jenni's room for the birthday bash pre-party.

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Festive! Wines and cheeses and crackers and meats...

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And wine...

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Quite a bit of wine, in fact...

And then we were off to Little Italy for dinner...

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We've eaten in almost every restaurant on Mulberry Street at one time or another and have never had a bad meal. We've just gravitated to whichever looked promising that night. This time had a great dinner at Da Nico. We played the Birthday Boy card, again - it was easy since Victor was wearing a huge "It's My Birthday" button - and got a great table for six outside in the back patio.

Victor ordered the special - a seafood linguine with a spicy red sauce...

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That bowl is the size of a family pasta bowl you get with the four bowls for eating. It was freaking huge. It easily had a pound of linguine underneath the whole lobster, shrimp, clams, mussels, squid...

Mine was paltry by comparison - a breaded veal cutlet with arugula, tomatoes, and onions. Damn, it was good! Even the flippin' mashed potatoes were perfect! Every meal was good, the wine was good, the service was good, the prices were good. Dinner for six with bottles of wine, appetizers, coffees and espressos and after dinner drinks was under $400.00.

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We had freebie appetizers and desserts  - the staff came out and sang Happy Birthday - it was fun. The waiter was a hoot - typical flirting Italian - it was a good time, indeed.

But all good things must come to an end... It was back to the hotel, up early, a bit more shopping, and then on to Amtrak...

Home, Blanche, and Nonna awaited us.

I thought we needed to keep the Italian theme going, so Spaghetti was called for! We actually don't have spaghetti very often, anymore, because Nonna no longer likes it. Go figure. So she got her pasta and we had ours.

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But we all had dessert - Cannoli Cake to keep with the theme...

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I bought it. Every now and again we need a bakery cake, ya know?!?

So Victor's now on Medicare and I have another year to go. We're having fun and that's really all that matters...

Here's to more adventures - culinary and otherwise...


Malloreddus and Meatballs

A gloriously-sunny day and homemade pasta for dinner. Who could ask for anything more?!?

The day started off by my putting together a potting bench we bought last fall. The weather wasn't conducive for keeping it outside over the winter, so the box went down into the basement. Today was the perfect day to bring it up.

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It was pretty easy to put together - the hardest part was aligning all the pieces for the drawer. But in less than 30 minutes we had a bench. All it needs now is a coat of water-sealer and we're ready for planting!

My reward for being a handy husband was fresh malloreddus - a Sardinian pasta similar to a gnocchi. I think the first time Victor made this was from one of the La Cucina Italiana magazine's Pasta Issue. It's been in the repertoire for quite a few years, now. It's pretty awesome stuff.

It's heavier than the gnocchi he makes but it has a great bite and a great flavor - for being of such simple ingredients.

Malloreddus

  • Sea Salt
  • 1 ¼ cups semolina flour
  • ¾ cup tipa "00" flour or all-purpose flour
  • Extra virgin olive oil

Gnocchi board or a table fork

Dissolve 1 tsp salt in ¾ cup warm water. In a large bowl whisk together semolina and all purpose flour; mound and form a well in the center.

Add water mixture and 2 tsp olive oil to the well. Using your hand or a fork, slowly incorporate flour from inside the rim of the well. Continue until liquid is absorbed, then knead in bowl until dough forms a complete mass (dough will be slightly sticky).

Transfer dough to a well floured work surface and knead, dusting with a bit more flour as needed just to keep dough from sticking to your hands, for 5 minutes. Wrap dough tightly in plastic wrap and let rest for 30 minutes.

Break off about 1/8 of the dough; tightly rewrap remaining dough. Roll dough into ½ inch cylinder, and cut into ¼ inch thick pieces. Pressing with your thumb, roll each piece on a gnocchi board (or down the back of a fork) to give it the characteristic ridges, and put on a floured baking sheet. Repeat with the remaining dough.

To cook fresh Malloreddus, bring a large pot of salted water to a bill. Add pasta and cook until tender, about 6 minutes after water returns to a boil. Drain, transfer to a large serving bowl and immediately toss with sauce and serve.

Of course, both our semolina and our flour come from Italy - and the olive oil is from a friend in Sicily. Hell - even the salt is Mediterranean. The pasta sauce is homemade as are the meatballs...

One of these days I'm going to be accused of being a food snob. Your results may vary.

But it is Spring and that also means bringing out my most-favorite wind chimes. My sister, Arlene, gave these to me for Christmas years ago and I love them. I've put them back together several times and have water-sealed them many times, as well. They still have lots of life left in them!

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The windows in the background are our office and it's great to listen to them while working...

So... time to relax and think about dessert... I made lemon almond semolina cupcakes last night... ::burp::

 


Lemon Almond Semolina Cupcakes

The concept for these comes from Bon Appetit magazine. I think I'm finally making a bit of peace with them after Conde Nast cancelled La Cucina Italiana magazine - my most-favorite cooking magazine ever. My subscription to La Cucina Italiana converted to Bon Appetit when they ceased publication - and I was not a happy camper.

But that was then and this is now. They don't seem to take themselves as seriously as they once did and there's a levity to the magazine, lately, that's actually kind of refreshing.

And speaking of refreshing... here is some great lemon flavor!

Lemon Almond Semolina Cupcakes

adapted from Bon Appetit

Cupcakes

  • cups almond meal
  • ½ cup semolina flour
  • ¾ teaspoon baking powder
  • ½ teaspoon kosher salt
  • ¾ cup unsalted butter, room temperature
  • 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
  • 1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
  • 3 large eggs
  • 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

Syrup

  • 1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
  • 6 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
  • cup sugar

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350°F 180°C. Line a 12-cup muffin pan with paper liners. Whisk dry ingredients together.

Beat butter, sugar, and lemon zest until very light and fluffy - at least 5 minutes. Gradually add eggs and beat another minute. Add lemon juice and dry ingredients and beat about 1 minute more.
Divide batter among muffin cups and bake about 25-35 minutes or until tester comes out clean.

Syrup

While cakes are baking, make the syrup. Bring lemon zest, lemon juice, and sugar to a boil in a small saucepan. Reduce heat and simmer 3 minutes. As soon as cakes are done, brush syrup liberally over top. Cool completely.

These really did come out good.


Steaks on the Grill

A couple of days ago it was snowing and I was making soup. Today it's sunshine and blue skies - and I'm grilling steaks. Gotta love Spring in the Mid-Atlantic States.

Today really was perfect weather. Sunny and 70°F - give or take. Warm in the sun and cool in the shade. Great for a bit of yard work. I didn't do any, but if I had, it would have been the perfect weather to do it. As it was, it was pretty much the perfect weather not to do anything - something I'm very good at.

Dinner was a rough one... I hit the steaks with salt and pepper and put them on the grill. When they were perfectly rare, I pulled them off and drizzled olive oil on them - just like they did with the Bistecca alla Fiorentina we had in Florence a few years ago.

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Our waiter was a cutie and after dinner for 7 people with drinks and desserts all around, I think we tipped him something like €75. He was shocked, said, no, it was too much... It was our last night in Italy - we didn't care. It was a great dinner and he was a lot of fun.

Speaking of a lot of fun... we really do need to get back over there.

Next year, for sure!

In the meantime, we'll keep cooking up memories and keep making plans for more...

 


Soup and Snow

April 9th... It's snowing. Oh joy, oh rapture unforeseen.

It's pretty fun to see the snow covering the garden and Nonna burrowing into her electric throw.  I think it snowed one other time in April since we moved here, but it was a long time ago.

A long time ago when I lived up at Tahoe, April snow was the norm - and wanted. I definitely wanted to push the ski season as late as possible. I could ski for free at Northstar right up the road from our house and get in a few runs before work or a few night runs after. It beat driving all the way down to Squaw - especially since they had raised their day tickets to the outrageous sum of $20.00! We actually skied Squaw one year on July 4th. I think only one run way up on top was still open and it was pretty poor snow - but we did it, anyway. Youth and drugs... what can I say?!?

Ah... Tahoe... I had a great time living there. Too great. But it was fun for almost 5 years...

The house where we used to live is now a VRBO rental... We paid $425/mo back in the day.

The bridge wasn't there when we lived there... It was a walk down the hill and then up stairs to the door.

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And new floors... We had indoor/outdoor carpet wall-to-wall.

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Four bedrooms, 2 baths, and a loft... It was a great house. The first two years it was me, Steve, Dusty, and Keith. The second 2 years was me, Michael, Clare, and Susan. Thank the gods those walls can't talk. Really.

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Fast-forward almost 40 years and here's what it looks like 3000 miles east... And this is a color picture...

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Oh well...  It will be gone in a day. I just want it to warm up.

So back to soup...

This was a definite clean-out-the-refrigerator soup... Chicken broth, chicken, leeks, pinto beans, garlic, celery, carrots, peas, green beans, barley, black lentils, corn, potatoes... And cheesy garlic bread. Nonna passed on the bread but cleaned her bowl. It really was pretty good.

I'm really more in the mood for salads at this point, so c'mon, Mother Nature... Cooperate!