The Ultimate Wisdom of the I Hate to Cook Book

For Christmas, knowing that I'm a sucker for cookbooks from the golden age of canned vegetables, Cooper's mom gave me the reissued version of the mid-century classic, The I Hate to Cook Book. A 50th anniversary edition of the book was issued in 2010, complete with a little perspective from the author's daughter, including this:

The I Hate to Cook Book was born from a group of professional women who would have been much happier sipping martinis with thier husbands than spending the cocktail hour in the kitchen, slaving over a hot stove. These friends decided to share their pain (and surefire recipes) with the hope that they could get back at least a portion of that cocktail hour (and keep their families from going on strike at the same time).

This simple little passage gave me a whole lot of new insight into my own cooking personality. I like to cook, of course, and I used to like nothing better than to spend hours in the kitchen, putting together elaborate meals for friends. As I get older, though, I realize that I'd, also, prefer not to miss any of that cocktail hour. If we've got friends over, I want to be with them, not confined to the kitchen, cooking for them.

It also gave me more than a little insight into my family's cooking tradition. My mom's a good cook, but I didn't exactly grow up making pasta from scratch in our kitchen. Neither did she. In fact, my grandmother is a perfect example of the ladies for whom the book was originally written. She loved to entertain, and she is great to go out to dinner with, but she has never understood why my mom or I might actually want to cook dinner. You should see the look on her face if she finds out one of us got a new kitchen tool for Christmas or a birthday. She doesn't even consider them actual gifts.

It's easy to see now, though, that she's just a product of her time. Like my mom, with her Julia Child books, were a product of hers, and I, with my combination of French Laundry and Barefoot Contessa, am a product of mine.

But back to the book. I'd be remiss if I didn't share at least one recipe because, though I can identify with the women the book was originally written for, I cannot identify with their taste buds. Consider the clam whiffle. No, really - think hard about whether you'd eat this:

CLAM WHIFFLE

3-4 servings

(A whiffle is a souffle that any fool can make. This is a dandy recipe for those days when you've just had your teeth pulled. It has a nice delicate flavor, too, and it doesn't call for anything you're not apt to have around, except the clams. You can even skip the green pepper.)

12 soda crackers (the ordinary 2-inch by 2-inch kind)
1 cup milk
1/4 cup melted butter
6.5-ounce can minced clams, drained
2 tablespoons chopped onion
1 tablespoon chopped green pepper
1/4 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
dash of salt, pepper
2 eggs, beaten together

Soak the crumbled crackers in the milk for a few minutes. Then add everything else, eggs last. Pour it all into a greased casserol, and bake it in a 350 degree oven for forty-five minutes, uncovered.

That's it. Is it simple? Yes. Quick? Totally. And does the mere thought of it turn my stomach? Absolutely. A good reminder that I'm glad I was born right when I was.

Old School Thursday: A Loaf of Bread, a Jug of Wine and Sardines Edition

Today is National Café au Lait Day – and I could totally use a café au lait right about now. I’m tired this week.


It’s also the Feast of Shesmu, the Egyptian god of the Wine Press and Fornacalia, which is the Old Roman Bread Festival, not a fornication feast. I can’t find much information about how the Egyptians or the Romans celebrated these days, but I’m comfortable with drinking some wine and eating some bread and calling it a party.

There’s not much regular historical news today – just that today in 1876 (or maybe it was 1873), canned sardines went on sale for the first time in the U.S. In the late 19th century, this was likely revolutionary and very exciting and it’s interesting still today, since canned fish remains popular as a snack. When I was a kid, my dad ate sardines (I thought they were gross, though I’d take down whole cans of smoked oysters). I’m not sure if my dad eats them anymore, but even now, Cooper eats sardines and other types of fish-in-cans, especially if they’re a little bit fancy.

So, today – wine and bread, of course, with a side of sardines. Preferably outside – it’s going to be 70 today! I’m sure Shesmu would be happy about that.

I Want This On My Wall

In case you can't tell, and I know the image is small, it's a wheel titled, "Les Bienfaits du Vin (The Benefits of Wine)". The little green words are ailments, from tuberculosis to significant obesity. For each, a healing wine is prescribed, along with an amount (TB, for example, will apparently be cured by a bottle of champagne sec).

I just ran across it in the March issue of Food & Wine, then found the image online at the Domaine Jessiaume blog - apparently it was created sometime during the mid-19th century by one of the founders of Domaine Jessiaume.

I am very serious when I say that I want it on my wall. It's perfect for the spot currently occupied by a "Keep Calm and Carry On" poster that is starting to wear out its welcome. The question is: how do I get it there?

Back from Chicago

Our travel day yesterday was a bit grueling, mostly because we weren't sure if we'd make it onto our standby flight, which would get us home at 4, or if we'd have to take our actual flight, which had a stop someplace and would get us home at 7 (we got home at 4). The uncertainty was worth it, though, because we had a fantastic weekend in Chicago with tons of old friends. It is amazing how people never really change - in a good way - and friendships can stay exactly the same, even across years and states.

But this is a food blog! We did exactly zero "cultural" things on our trip, but we did eat well. Highlights include: perfectly cooked steak, sweet lobster and incredibly rich lobster bisque at Gibson's (where our waiter was also just about perfect) and a lovely charcuterie platter (with a million choices) at Bin 36.

Also funny: since I live with Cooper, I don't notice his gradual changes, but this weekend, Sam and Kevin, who spent all their time with Cooper in those first post-college years, were more than a little shocked to discover that he's become a total wine snob. Or, not snob exactly, but specific in his tastes. I forget sometimes how funny it is that somebody like Cooper, with his dirty hands and rednecky hobbies, is so into wine.

That's about all I have to report, though. Two days really isn't enough time to spend a) in a city as great as Chicago and b) with old friends who are scattered all over the country. Such is life, though. Such is life.

Old School Thursday: Diet Coke for a Small Planet Edition

Welcome to National Cream Cheese Brownie Day, a day so narrow that it goes beyond the ridiculous and into the straight-up dumb. I mean, I like a cream cheese brownie as much as the next girl, but come on. Just…no.

Today in food history, otherwise, is pretty random (not that cream cheese brownies aren’t random. They are.) We’ve got three big birthdays: Ira Remsen (1846), Frances Moore Lappe (1944) and the styrofoam cool (1957). Of these three, styrofoam’s probably the most famous, but as it turns out, Remsen is the one who has probably impacted my life in the most positive, and huge, way.

So let’s start with Remsen. He was an American chemist and his claim to fame is that he co-discovered the artificial sweetener saccharin. Since without saccharin, there probably wouldn’t be Diet Coke, I am eternally grateful for Mr. Remsen’s contributions to science.

Frances Moore Lappe has had much less of an effect on my life, though I had heard of her, since her book, Diet for a Small Planet, was a favorite of Ruth Reichl’s when she was living in Berkeley in the ‘70s. The book encourages people to eat with the health of the planet in mind, including an emphasis on vegetables over meat. Needless to say, I haven’t really taken that to heart. I like meat.

And finally…the cooler. Friend to tailgaters everywhere, the Styrofoam cooler is one of the world’s more useful inventions, even if it’s not the most environmentally friendly. No doubt that Ms. Lappe would disapprove, and rightly so, but isn’t it nice to live in a world where we can buy a two dollar disposable cooler if we need one?

To celebrate today, I say we let the Diet for a Small Planet cancel out the cooler, and just keep it simple: crack open a Diet Coke to wash down your cream cheese brownie. Cheers.

So Blogging's Been Light Lately

That's because I'm busy. Partly with work, partly with a new personal project (details to come!) and partly because we're going to Chicago this weekend to visit a bunch of people, including this guy:

That's our friend, and Cooper's old roommate, Sam, who now lives in Michigan with his wife and kids. The cake is from his going away party, back in 2004. I'd just like to take this opportunity to mention how perfect those photo cakes can be for going away parties. This particular picture of Sam is kind of a classic - one of those pictures that is so ridiculous that people can't help but mock it mercilessly. It lent itself amazingly well to pastry, obviously.

Back to this weekend. We'll be eating here and here and doing a lot of talking about the old days, I'm guessing. Will the subject of the above cake come up? Seems entirely likely. Photo cakes: the gift that keeps on giving and giving and giving.

Dogwood Wine Dinner Recap: Viva Italia!

I'm a few weeks late with this again...apparently it takes me a while to recover from the Dogwood wine dinners! But here we go...

The first dinner of this year was more than just a regular dinner - it also kicked off a whole new region. In 2010, Dogwood's wine club focused on learning about the wine regions of France. With that wrapped up, the focus has shifted south to Italy for 2011. This was good news for Cooper and me, since we like Italian wines, and have a few of them in the cellar, but we really don't know a whole lot about them.

As it turns out, there's a lot to know. As our friend/favorite waiter Nick explained to the group at dinner, Italy's wine scene is highly regionalized and tribal. The laws and designations are more flexible than in France, and as a result, growers are willing to experiment with more non-traditional varietals. Overall, the Italian wine scene is complicated - there are more than 500 varietals grown and everybody's got their own favorite.

For this first wine dinner, we focused on wines from Trentino-Alto Adige and Valle d'Aosta - both regions in northern Italy. Trentino-Alto Adige borders Austria and Valle d'Aosta borders Switzerland, so the food is hearty and wintry and not really pasta-heavy. Perfect for January.

Speaking of food, this is what we ate and drank:

Mini "Grilled Cheese" Fonduta Spec Sandwich

Cavid Lunetta Prosecco NV

Poached Egg on Mushroom Risotto

Bottega Vinaia Pinot Grigio 2009

Duck Confit with Butternut Squash Gnocchi

Les Cretes Pinot Nero 2009

Charcuterie Pate with Brussels Sprouts and Carrot Salad, Pistachio Pommerey Mustard Vinaigrette

Joseph Hofstatter Pinot Bianco 2009

Lamb Stew with Root Vegetables

Joseph Hofstatter Lagrein 2009

Lemony Bread Pudding with Taharka Brothers Ice Cream

Fratelli Lunelli Ferrari Rose 2008

These dinners are always good, but this one was exceptional. So exceptional that by the time we hit the lamb stew, I couldn't finish it and I could only take a couple of bites of the bread pudding. Not that they weren't both delicious - it's just that dinner as a whole was very, very filling.

The highlights, for me, were the poached egg on the mushroom risotto, which was paired with a pinot grigio that totally defied everybody's expectation of that grape. Bridget told us that PG is the wine most frequently sold at Dogwood, and that was not really a surprise to anyone. It's so easy to drink and easy to agree on. This wine was also easy to drink, but it had an intense aroma and much more body than a typical pinot grigio. It paired beautifully with the risotto, which was, according to my notes, "really rich and awesome." It combined the earthy flavor of mushrooms with the stick-to-your-ribsiness of risotto - an excellent combination.

I also loved the butternut squash gnocchi, paired with the pinot nero, which looked light and felt soft in the mouth, but changed dramatically when paired with food. It took on much more structure and a spicier flavor - there were a lot of initial comparisons to Beaujolais (especially based on color). The gnocchi themselves were really lovely - a little sweet and a combination of sweet and crispy. I could've eaten them all night long.

The other big wine surprise of the night was the lagrein. It was a grape that everybody was unfamiliar with and while it wasn't the least challenging bottle of wine ever, it was super interesting and triggered a lot of debate at the table. Debate that I think Karen won, when she said, "It tastes like Texas." It was big and kind of complicated, but also tasty. Texas indeed.

The other exciting news we learned at dinner is that the restaurant is going to be open on Mondays from now on. Normally, when we go to the wine club, the restaurant is closed around us, so we're by ourselves. Starting next month, the restaurant will be open, though wine club will still be stuck together in a corner (or something like that). The details aren't all finalized yet, but it sounds like some version of the wine club menus (which are totally different from the regular menu) will be available.

This month: Lombardia. More food I'm not really familiar with, but which is sure to be amazing.

Old School Thursday: Cream Cheese Frosting & Moveable Type Edition

Well, happy National Carrot Cake Day. Carrot cake is kind of a delicious treat and healthy in theory, which is nice.

But on to the history. Today in 1468, Johannes Gutenberg, the father of modern printing, passed away. His invention, which allowed people to print from moveable type, was not at all food-related, but it was so important to literacy and communication, that it seems worthy of mention anyway.

But you know what is food-related? Cheese. And today in 1815, the first commercial cheese factor EVER was established in Switzerland. Is all commercial cheese good? No, no it’s not. But what would the world be like without those adorable little wedges of Laughing Cow? Not as happy a place, that’s what it would be like.

So today, celebrate with some processed Swiss cheese…then write about it. Because you can.

Reading Material

I've just done some renewing of magazines - Elle Decor and Food & Wine this month. As it turns out, a year's worth of F&W costs more than three times a year's worth of Elle Decor. When I first realized that, I thought, "Well, isn't that interesting? F&W thinks it's worth that  much more?"

Then I realized that F&W is right. Both magazines are priced just about correctly. They're similar in terms of production quality - ED is a little bit slicker maybe, with a larger format and slightly heavier paper - and I save them both. But I consume them in totally different ways. When you buy F&W, you're buying a short cookbook. When you buy ED, you're buying a glorified catalog.

Just a few random thoughts on periodicals...the kind I have on icy mornings when I have a cold.

Mango & Ginger Fizz

I'm a fan of Tesco. Not because I've actually been to one - I haven't - but mostly because I like how Lily Allen rhymes "Tesco" with "al fresco" in the song LDN. It's cute.

Also cute: this super simple drink. It's just mango juice and ginger beer, which sounds delicious, and is so, so appropriate for this blog.

Old School Thursday: Thundersnowpocalypse Edition

Today is National Chocolate Cake Day, which is pretty perfect, since I’m going to be spending it snowed in after last night’s crazy storm. Dixon and I usually do try to bake something on snow days – maybe today it’ll be a nice chocolate cake.

Beyond that, today is mostly notable because it is Lewis Carroll’s birthday (1832). Carroll was, of course, the author of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, which is food related because of all the “eat me’s” and “drink me’s.” Alice was a favorite childhood book of mine – I still have my copy.

Actually, a reread might be a nice way to spend a snow day. Anything, as long as I don’t have to go outside.

Inbred Grapes

DC Jason just sent me a link to the new food portal on Good, where this immediately caught my attention:

It's a diagram mapping the genetic closeness of  wine grapes, created by Cornell genetic researcher Sean Myles. Myles mapped the genetic makeup of 583 varietals and found that 75% of them are "close cousins who don't have a lot of sex." In other worse, our grapes are as inbred as 18th century royal families. Well, we do call them "noble."

This has some real implications for grape production - namely, that lack of genetic variation could make it easy for disease and pests to do their dirty work. But what I'm most interested in is the way the grapes relate to one another. Seeing the close proximity between Pinot Noir and Chardonnay is just as interesting as seeing how far those grapes are from Cab and Merlot. I think of Cab and Chardonnay as opposite sides of the same coin, but after looking at this diagram, I realize that's probably because of the way the two grapes are treated by winemakers, not because of the grapes themselves.

Also, check out Traminer. Who knew it was at the center of so much activity?!

Snow Day Food: Beef and Vegetable Potpie with Cheddar Biscuits

If I'd known it was going to snow overnight, I would've saved this recipe for today:

That's a half-version of this beef potpie, topped with cheddar biscuits, from the November 2010 issue of Food & Wine. I made it last Saturday night, when it had already been cold out for a few days and I was looking for some serious rib-sticking food.

And rib-sticking it was. It was also pretty easy to make (and cheap, too, since the beef in question is the ground sort). I was a little leery about the cheddar biscuit part, since I shy away from anything that even remotely seems like baking, but making them was easy. And even though it looked like a big old mess when I put it in the oven, after the potpie cooked and sat for 10 minutes out of the oven, it really did look like the photo in the magazine (the above picture was taken just after it came out, when it was still a little liquidy).

Nice flavor, very hearty, and well-rounded, if not strictly healthy. All in all, a good winter meal. Perfect for a day like...today.

Last Night's Dinner: Spiced Chicken and Braised Endive

I've been tearing up the Food & Wine recipes recently. Early last week, just after receiving the February issue (which is jam-packed with genuinely appealing recipes), I tackled not one, but two of the issue's offerings.

First up, crispy coriander-spiced and oven roasted chicken, served on a bed of couscous with pomegranate seeds and pepitas mixed with a tangy green hummus vinaigrette:

This recipe came from the "Fast" section, which was F&W's own version of "Semi-Homemade Meals" this month (but without the forced tablescapes and partially drunk first lady of New York). The article focused on using store-bought foods as a starting point for more involved recipes. This one was impressively simple, despite the number of ingredients, but not because of the pre-prepped ingredient. That was hummus which is something you can make at home, but as a vinaigrette ingredient? I don't think so. That said, the vinaigrette was very good and I'll use the leftovers to dress a salad.

To accompany the chicken, I turned to another article - one that I found particularly charming. It's about the staff at a Madison, WI restaurant and their wintry activities (including broomball). The whole article focused on white foods, including a dish of endive braised in gin and orange juice. We like gin and I had some endive cooling its heels in the fridge, so it seemed like a date with destiny.

And in theory, right up until I tasted it, destiny seemed kind indeed:

Texturally, I loved the endive - it's soft without being mushy - and I really like the idea of serving lettuce as a cooked vegetable. Unfortunately, the flavor of the gin was just a little too bitter for me. I used Tanqueray - it's what we have - and maybe I didn't reduce it quite enough, or maybe I'm just sensitive to bitter flavors, but each bite was a little unpleasant.

Which is too bad, because I before I ate the endive, when I was just gazing lovingly at it in the dish, I had big plans to make this one regularly.

Later this week: a report on the weekend's rib-sticking beef and cheddar biscuit potpie (F&W November 2010).

Old School Thursday: Coffee, Liquor & Cheese Edition

Today is National Buttercrunch Day (whatever that means), Reindeer Day (I thought that was Christmas Eve) and St. Sebastian Day (he’s the patron saint of gardeners, who are likely feeling otherwise neglected, since it’s not exactly gardening season). This year, it’s also National Coffee Break Day, which is the sort of thing I’d normally mock, but since it’s to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the National Coffee Association, I won’t. It’s perfectly appropriate.

Today has a few other notable distinctions, as well. On January 20, 1920, The 50-50 Club opened, ushering in the era of the speakeasy. Prohibition went into effect on January 17, 1920, so it’s obvious that nobody wasted any time getting the drink back out there.

Today in 1964, the Wisconsin Cheese Foundation created the world’s largest cheese as a display for the 1964-65 World’s Fair in New York. The cheese, a 34,000 pound cheddar, was eaten at the 1965 annual meeting of the Wisconsin Dairymen & Cheesemakers Association. I love cheese – I mean, I really love cheese – but that sounds gross even to me. A cheese that big…could it taste good?

So to celebrate, then, today? Well, coffee, certainly. But maybe pour a little booze in it, just because we can.

The "Culinary Capers" of Boys' Latin Parents

The other night, Cooper's mom handed me a little book she'd found someplace in her house. It's a compilation of recipes called "Culinary Capers," published by the Boys' Latin Parents' Association. It's one of those garden club-style cookbooks with plastic binding, awkward typewriter text and member-contributed recipes. The kind that get crumpled up pretty easily, but are total go-tos when you're looking for hors d'oeuvres to serve your grandmother.

The book is older than we are - it doesn't have a publishing date, but one of the ads proudly boasts, "In business 50 years in 1972," which I hope means the whole book wasn't published when Cooper was at BL in the '90s. It's so much better for having those extra 20 or so years, too.

Patsy thinks someone gave it to her as a gift when Cooper was in school, and she passed it on to me because she knows I can't resist old cookbooks, especially ones that are full of recipes contributed by actual housewives of the day. And this book delivers: on the very first page, there's a recipe for something optimistically called "Frisky Puppies." I won't name the contributor, but the recipe goes just like this:

FRISKY PUPPIES

1 lb. cocktail hot dogs or 1 pkg. hot dogs, cut into 1/2 inch lengths
1 c. brown sugar
1/2 c. catsup
2 Tbsp. prepared mustard
about 1/2 c. brandy

Melt sugar with a little water.  Add catsup and mustard, and the brandy to taste. Fry hot dogs in butter until brown; add to brown sugar sauce and simmer. Serve on toothpicks. These are very popular at a cocktail party; also, good ham glaze. Mix with bread crumbs and cover ham before baking.

Hot dogs and brandy. So perfectly Mad Men, right? Easy, boozy, repulsive. I love it. This is the kind of stuff I'm going to cook when I really get down to business wearing those caftans.

Last Night's Dinner: Saag Paneer

Cooper and I have a couple of delivery places in heavy rotation - just a couple. So you can imagine our dismay when we discovered, a year or so ago, that one of our favorites, an Indian place named Yeti, had closed. We don't have another Indian place in delivery range, so we resigned ourselves to a world woefully lacking in that creamy, spinachy sauce known as saag.

Fast forward to last weekend, when the weekly food52 newsletter arrived in my inbox. I usually skim and delete, but for some reason, this one was jam-packed with stuff I'd actually make (especially unusual, considering that it was a meat-free edition). Most notably, a fairly simple recipe for saag paneer.

I was especially excited to note the recipe's one tough point, the thing that in the past, would've kept me from making it: you have to make your own Indian spice blend, out of a combination of a handful of whole spices. Not so long ago, this would've kept me from even reading the recipe to the end, but since Cooper gave me a coffee/spice grinder for Christmas, not only could I grind the spices, I wanted to.

So this was step on:

About 10 seconds later, all of those spices (including those incredibly expensive cardamom pods), looked just like this:

Smooth and fabulous, no? And so satisfying.

A bit of frying and sauteeing later, and I had a perfectly serviceable, very delicious spinachy, cheesy dish on my hands:

Cooper agreed that it was successful all the way around and that it would be a good addition to my usual weeknight repertoire.

Speaking of new additions to the repertoire, as well as that food52 newsletter, last week I also made this easy recipe for fried eggs with spaghetti. I multiplied the recipe (which is ostensibly for one) by three, which made way more than Cooper and Dixon and I could all eat together. I forgot to take a picture, but believe me when I say it was a) really good and b) really easy.

I did a little doctoring, adding a squeeze of anchovy paste and if I had it to do over again, I'd add even more capers than recommended (but we like capers) and a lot of the suggested pasta water. It was great, though, even without those tweaks - perfect cold winter night comfort food.

Trendy: Moonshine

Yesterday, the LA Times. Today, Garden & Gun.

My one and only up close experience with moonshine came in college, when my friend Kim brought a bottle of something boozy her grandfather made at home to a vaguely sorority-related event. If I remember correctly - and believe me, I might not remember this correctly - it tasted exactly how I expected moonshine to taste: kind of like rubbing alcohol smells.

Somehow, I'm guessing that the fancy moonshine (oxymoron?) that's turning up at bars in LA these days is a bit more refined than the stuff Kim's granddad concocted in his backyard shed or his bathtub or wherever. Not to knock his distilling skills. He was just ahead of his time, I'm sure.

Old School Thursday: Famous & French Edition

Today is National Peach Melba Day, even though peaches are totally out of season. Of course, a few years ago, when all of these national days of were established, nobody cared about seasonality because everyone was so fascinated with the way everything was available all the time at the grocery store. Times change, though. We’re all about the seasonal and local now…and much less about old-fashioned desserts like the peach Melba (which was created by Escoffier in the 1890s to honor the Australian singer Dame Nellie Melba). So maybe it’s good that it has its own day, just to remind us.

Speaking of the Olde Guard, today is also the anniversary of the birth of Pierre Franey (1921). Franey was part of the wave of French chefs who came to New York too cook at the French pavilion at the 1939 World’s Fair, then stayed on to great success in following years. He was the chef of Le Pavillon, but was probably more famous for his collaboration with NYT restaurant critic Craig Claiborne on the column, “The 60 Minute Gourmet” and his work with Jacques Pepin creating the menus for Howard Johnsons.

So today, to celebrate, how about some classics? This Franey recipe for pasta with clams is as simple and sounds as fresh as anything you’d find on a menu today, but it’s also got that one hallmark of an old school French recipe: “1 cup (or more) heavy cream.” And for dessert, peach Melba, of course. Forget seasonality, just for today.

Some Things I Like Right Now

1. The idea of the Mexico City champagne cocktail, and most of the other drinks at Fashionably Bombed: 

2. This Kate Spade dress (sidenote: it would look terrible on me):

3. This Marc Jacobs clutch...I'd also like someplace to carry it. (via Mrs. Lilien):

4. Everything about this room, but especially the wallpaper and the cagey chair that looks a) like a pair of gladiator sandals and b) like it would immediately collapse if I tried sitting on it (via My Favorite and My Best):

Playoffs

Everybody in Baltimore should probably be eating a whole lot of this right now, huh?

Old School Thursday: The Science of Meat Edition

Welcome to the first Old School Thursday of 2011 – otherwise known as Apple Tree Day, National Shortbread Day and National Bean Day. (All at once! That would make quite a pie, no?)

In other news, today marks the anniversary of the deaths of Gregor Mendel (1884) and Philip Danforth Armour (1901). Mendel, as all high school biology students should know, was a botanist who was the father of the science of genetics. His work (mostly with garden peas) provided the basis for the laws of heredity that seem so simple and obvious today.

Armour, on the other hand, was an industrialist and early proponent of refrigeration and meat canning. His Chicago-based company, Armour & Co., was at one point the largest meatpacker in the world.

So, today, to celebrate these men and the new year? How about genetically modified meat, wrapped in a shortbread and bean pie? Or…maybe not?

Trendy: 2011

It's that time of year again: the time when my "food trends" Google alert goes crazy. Every large and small publication in the world publishes an article about "food trends to watch in 2011" - and links to all of them end up in my inbox.

Yesterday, I was on the receiving end of eight such links and I decided to visit all of them, to see what they have in common (and what they don't). Here's what I learned:

We are all going to eat a lot of pie this year.

Everybody agrees that pie - in all its shapes and sizes, from big to mini and savory to sweet - is the new trend to watch out for. It will supplant cupcakes, despite the fact that we can't eat it with one hand while driving. Actually, since it is the future, we probably will be able to eat it with one hand while driving.

Other notable trends (mentioned by more than one article) include:

• More focus on school lunches, with chefs in schools and everybody all abuzz
• Food trucks everywhere, except LA, where they will start closing
• Lots of social media use and food-related apps
• Artisanal hot dogs
• More canning and pickling
• Lots of fighting about what we should and shouldn't eat, and who gets to decide
• Pop-up restaurants and supper clubs
• Amped up convenience stores that compete with restaurants
• Mom and pop spots where a couple of people are responsible for everything
• On the other end of the spectrum, a "frugality backlash" with places that focus on luxury and indulgence
• More lamb and goat on menus
• Restaurants that focus on one item, like grilled cheese places

As it turns out, most of these have been mentioned here at some point over the past year and none of them are a huge surprise to me. Well, strike that. I am kind of surprised, actually, to see artisanal hot dogs back on this list - I thought we'd been through that last year. The canning and pickling trend is also starting to get long in the tooth, but it fits so neatly with the wider Etsy/handmade/artisanal trend that I'm not surprised it's sticking around.

That trend (Etsy, etc.) is also the basis for one of the more interesting predictions that only showed up once is "Local Somewhere" - it doesn't have to be local as long as it's handmade. I certainly see that.

Interesting, sure, but this list also leaves me wondering: what's next after all of this? What's really new?

[The links: The Daily Green: New Green Cuisine, Charleston (WV) Daily Mail: Food Guy, New York Daily News (summarizing Everyday with Rachael Ray), Small Business Trends, Canada TV, HTR News/Gannett, Philadelphia Inquirer: Restaurants & Food, LA Weekly blogs.]

New Year's Resolutions

1. Work less.

2. Get my hair cut more.

3. Start wearing caftans, especially for brunch and/or cocktail hour. Possibly starting with this one:

Seems possible, right? Numbers two and three at least. Well, number three at least.

Trendy Entertaining: Punch (and other drinks)

Punch is everywhere these days - in glasses and on the bookshelf. Earlier this year, I was inspired to buy myself a big, lovely punchbowl (vintage and a little beat up, since the real things are kind of scary expensive) and this week, I've been wishing that we were having a New Year's Eve party, just so I could experiment with a big batch of punch.

Yesterday's G&G newsletter (from which the top image is pulled) featured a bracing combination of tea, rum, brandy, bourbon and champagne called the Chatham Artillery Punch - named after the Georgia military unit that supposedly came up with the concoction (though I'm guessing the after-effects feel like artilerry, too).

Speaking of drinking, Social Primer is writing a social graces "bill of rites" and his most recent installment is called, "Handle Your Liquor." It's funny and useful, though it's admittedly geared towards men. Specifically, I think women everywhere should ignore the advice not to drink champagne cocktails, or cocktails at all, for that matter (SP prefers "drinks" over "cocktails" and while I see his point, "cocktail" is too fun a word to banish from my vocabulary.)

Whatever your libation, have fun celebrating tonight and have a happy New Year!

Old School Thursday: Heavily Caffeinated Edition

Today is not only the last “Old School Thursday” of 2010, it is also National Bicarbonate of Soda Day, which makes me want to buy one of these. (I thought about getting Cooper one for Christmas, but I guess we’ll wait until next summer, when we start trying to make our own summery cocktails again).

In other (semi-carbonated) news, today in 1817 the first coffee was planted in Hawaii. A generation later, in 1851, Asa Griggs Candler was born. While not a household name all over the place, Candler actually has quite a following. In 1887, the wholesale druggist purchased the formula for Coca-Cola from John S. Pemberton. He paid $2,300. In 1919, Candler sold the company for $25 million. Candler’s name is still batted around Coke HQ in Atlanta – he’s the man who made the company what it is today.

So to celebrate? A Coke and a smile, of course.

Easy to Buy For

Last week, I turned 35 - an age when it's way too late to expect a bunch of birthday presents. In a nice surprise, Alison and Alicia defied my expectations and each gave me a something small that they saw and thought I'd like. As it turns out, their gifts were a lot alike, and I'm pretty sure that says something about me.

Both notepads, both partly pink, both prominently featuring cocktails. Yep. Sounds about right.

How I Roll These Days

Super geometrically. No more scattered plates for me. Sharp angles are all the rage.

Old School Thursday: Cookies, Coffee & Skate Hash Edition

Today is National Pfeffernuesse Day (pfeffernuesse are these Danish/Dutch/German cookies) – which is fairly appropriate, I guess, since it is Christmas cookie season. Also, today in Mexico is the Night of the Radishes and in Iceland it’s St. Thorlak’s Day.

The radish thing involves carving oversized radishes into elaborate scenes for viewing (why? Not sure) – which might not sound totally appetizing, but at least it’s better than what’s going on in Iceland. For St. Thorak’s Day, people eat a traditional dish of skate hash, which is apparently so gross that it makes all subsequent meals taste great.

Today has some historical significance, too. In 1675, Charles II of England issued a short-lived proclamation suppressing coffee houses. The proclamation’s impetus was to keep people from wasting time (that otherwise might be spent working or doing something constructive) and to limit the potential for political unrest. The government’s perception was that coffee houses were hotbeds of civil unrest…so the king though that banning them would eliminate unrest?

Well, he was wrong. Public response was so negative that Charles II revoked the proclamation just a few weeks after it went into effect, on January 8, 1676. And coffee was had again.
So, to celebrate today? Pfeffernuesse and coffee sound good. Radishes and skate, on the other hand, not so much.

Artsy Wednesday: Christopher Niemann Lets It Dough

This is just one of about 20 images created by artist Christopher Niemann and featured on his NYT blog. Believe me when I say it's worth clicking through - it's one part funny and one part very sweet and all very Christmassy.

(Thanks to Joyce for posting this on Facebook!)

Merry Retro Christmas

My old friend Tracy (I've known her since I was little) shares my combined interest in the food of yesteryear - and by "yesteryear" I mean the mid-20th century. She's pointed me in the direction of several kind of kick-ass vintage cookbooks and a couple of days ago, she sent me a link to this fabulousness from Conan and Charles Phoenix:

Merry astro-weenie Christmas?

Last Month's Dinner: Dogwood Merry Monday in Languedoc

Tonight is Dogwood's last wine club dinner of 2010 and, unfortunately, Cooper and I won't be there (we had too busy of a weekend, including my annual birthday trip to McGarvey's on Saturday and my sister's architecture school graduation and dinner at Cafe Atlantico last night). The weekend capped off a busy month, too - so busy, in fact, that I realized I never even wrote about last month's wine club dinner. And it was an amazing one.

The region was the Languedoc, a region of southern France that has 15 separate terroirs. It's a great one because the wines are relatively inexpensive, so buying a lot of them isn't out of the question. Yes, they're a little more rustic than the wines of some other French regions, but they're also wines to drink every day, not just on special occasions.

This was last month's menu:

Spanish onion galette with bleu cheese and shaved pears, paired with Paul Mas Estate Picpoul de Pinet 2009 & Jean Marc Lafage Cote Est Catalan 2009

Roasted piquillo pepper soup with Spanish sherry and pan roasted scallop paired with Paul Mas Estate Carignan Vieilles Vignes 2009

Pan seared bronzini with corn cream, fennel and scallion paired with Bergerie de L'Hortus Pic Saint Loup 2008 & La Closerie des Lys Les Fruitiers 2009

Braised lamb with French lentils and baked ricotta polenta paired with Chateau Coupe Roses Minervois Las Bastide 2008 & Mas des Dames La Dame 2007

Chef Sampson was actually out of the kitchen at an event during the dinner (he joined us at the end), so everything was prepared by his sous chef Reid, who did an amazing job. I loved every course, but the pairing highlights were the spicy pepper soup, which surprised all of us by working perfectly with a red that almost smelled skunky to start with, and the bronzini and corn cream's match with both wines, including the Bergerie, which Cooper insisted smelled just a little bit of cat urine.

As usual, the food and wine were only one good part of the meal. By the end of the night, everyone was squeezed around one table, telling stories and laughing - it felt like a house party, not a night at a restaurant. We sat with a bunch of people we've met over the past few months - all great and full of great advice and stories. I learned about the Wine Source's amazing Wednesday wine events for women and we all got to hear a very interesting story about the way Woodfire Grill has changed since Kevin appeared on Top Chef (not for the better, apparently, since Kevin doesn't have as much time to spend with customers as he used to, even if the food is still good - though it sounds like the changes have more to do with the owners than with Kevin himself).

Just like every month, we came home very full and we woke up very tired on Tuesday morning. I'm so sorry to be missing this month's dinner, but we'll be back next month. Oh, we'll be back.

Just Purchased

From Mrs. Lilien. Because we like a nice cocktail. After all, what's not to like?

Old School Thursday: Let Freedom Ring Edition

Today is National Chocolate Covered Anything Day AND Eat What You Want Day (the second of those pretty much covers the first, no?). Because we can all do what we want, when we want to do it.

Because...today in 1773, when a bunch of men dressed as Native Americans dumped some tea in Boston harbor. The Boston Tea Party, as it became known, jumpstarted the American Revolution and we all know how that turned out.

Nearly 100 years later, in 1863, Gerard Adriaan Heineken bought “The Haystack,” an Amsterdam brewering dating back to the 16th century, and Heineken beer was born. And that is also freedom-related, in that we have choices about which beer to drink.

Finally, thirty years ago today, Harland Sanders died in Shelbyville, Kentucky. Though it didn’t happen in his lifetime, Colonel Sanders, as he is better known, is also a great example of freedom: Kentucky Fried Chicken might be trans-fat-free these days, but we still have the freedom to Double Down.

So start today with a little tea, then finish it with some beer and KFC. Or don’t. It is, after all, your choice.

Want

The Oscar de la Renta dress Lake Bell is wearing on the cover of January's Town & Country. It is the prettiest color ever:
Also want: someplace to wear it.

Old School Thursday: Really Cold Pastries Edition

Today is National Pastry Day, so you can start celebrating right away, with breakfast. I do like a nice pastry.

The rest of today is dominated by the inventors. Today in 1814, British inventor Joseph Bramah passed away. One of his inventions was the “beer engine” – a contraption of extremely specific use that allows beer to flow from keg to glass without the addition of artificial carbonation. Pretty sure it didn’t make him rich.

But you know who did get rich? Clarence Birdseye, who was born today in 1886. Birdseye is the father of modern frozen food and his name lives on, all over the frozen veg aisle.

Theoretically, celebration today should include pastries, frozen peas and flat beer. I just can’t, in good conscience, recommend that, though. Just eat some pastries and stop there.

Thanksgiving Recap: In Which Kit & Cail Throw Down, Cocktail-Style

Yes, Thanksgiving was several weeks ago. I'm running a bit late with this post, but better late than never - especially when it comes to shellfish and cocktails, right?

For Thanksgiving, Cooper and Dixon and I alternate years with the Waskoms and the Pollards - one year we go to one house, the next we go to the other house. This year was a Waskom year, which means it was also an Oysters Waskom year. The family masterpiece: Oysters Waskom are my mom's recipe - the oysters are topped with a sauteed spinach and Monterey jack mixture then put on the grill for a few minutes. The recipe mainly lives inside my mom's head (when I've tried to make it, the results have varied) and it's one of my favorite things about "R" month dinners at my parents.

This year, my parents added another shellfish to the mix, making stuffies: This recipe also exists inside my mom's head - but I know that it involves chorizo, which is responsible for all the grease you can see in the pictures.

The stuffies were a new addition and a welcome one. The spicy and savory flavor of the clams was offered a fantastic counterpoint to the lemony, spinachy oysters.

Of course, while we were busy with our shellfish, we were also busy with something else: the first ever Waskom Fall Cocktail Throwdown. I was inspired by Alicia and Mike's family throwdown (it involved cranberries), so I suggested that we do something similar, but with cocktails, not food. In the end, only Cail and I participated, which was probably for the best, since both of us created cocktails that were, um, a little boozy.

My sister took on the tough task of judging. Here she is, holding Cail's cocktail:
Cail's drink was vodka-based and combined cranberry puree (fall!) with a New Orleansy vibe (Creole Shrubb). The menu - topped with a homemeade cranberry and orange scone:

The drink was good - refreshing, interesting and seasonal. It was also totally different from my drink, which was a combination of bourbon, honey bourbon, pear liqueur, a pear cider and rosemary reduction, and ginger beer:

Bourbon was an admittedly risky choice for me, since most of my family doesn't drink much of it (as an aside, there's not much major mixology in the Waskom house anyway - most drink mixing involves little more than adding tonic to gin). Fortunately, I was able to browbeat Erin into judging the cocktails not on what she personally liked, but on what "people like."

In the end, that browbeating worked and I was the big winner, though everybody also agreed that Cail's drink is the one they'd order in a restaurant.

And then we went inside and ate way too much fried turkey, oyster stuffing, butternut squash casserole, mashed potatoes and Brussels sprouts with bacon, followed by a rousing rendition of kids vs. parents Trivial Pursuit. I'm sorry to say that this year, the parents won (even though there are only two of them and at this point, with Cail and Cooper, there are five of us).

Oysters to start, then competition. Then turkey and more oysters, then more competition. A truly Waskom Thanksgiving all around.

I Like the Kitchen

This makes me smile:

Via James Lileks.

Recommended: Dorie Greenspan's Short Ribs in Red Wine and Port with Tangerine Gremolata

Last week, I made these for dinner:
In the December issue of Bon Appetit, Dorie Greenspan shared a recipe for short ribs she sometimes serves for Christmas dinner. They're cooked slowly in a sauce of red wine and port and served with a tangerine and parsley topper that cuts the richness of the sauce just enough.

I didn't mess with the short ribs recipe at all, but I did add mashed potatoes, made with horseradish and creme fraiche, to accompany. The dinner takes a while to prepare - several hours of cooking and at least another hour of prep - but if you've got the time, it's worth it (and it smells fantastic as it cooks). It's just about perfect for an early Sunday dinner in the winter.

Old School Thursday: Can You Make Batter & Fry Alcohol? Edition

I just discovered that last Thursday, which I skipped because it was Thanksgiving, was also temperance activist Carrie Nation’s birthday (1846). I hope she doesn’t mind that the Waskoms celebrated her birth with a cocktail throwdown and several bottles of wine (more on that later).

In that vein, today is St. Bibiana’s Day. She is the patron against hangovers and thus, I am a fan. It is also National Fritters Day – no specific type of fritters. Just fritters. Since I also like fried things, I’m a fan of this, too.

That’s about it for today, though. Not that it’s not enough – and not that it doesn’t give us some real room to celebrate. Fritters + booze? Yes please.

Restaurant Review: Blue Hill Tavern

As in most cases, this review is based on only one visit to the restaurant, so please keep that in mind as you read it.

Blue Hill Tavern has been on my "must visit" list ever since it opened during the summer of 2009. Over and over again, I heard great things from other food bloggers about the place - usually about it's amazing happy hour and completely un-Baltimore decor. All the praise made me anxious to get there, so when Mike announced that he wanted to go for his birthday, I was all over it.

I had, however, heard a couple of criticisms along with the praise. Jeff and Christine live nearby and have been to Blue Hill a bunch of times. Last spring, Jeff confirmed for me that the decor and the appetizers are fantastic, but sometimes the entrees falter. I find that's the case at a lot of places - that the appetizers are better than the entrees - and (spoiler!) Blue Hill was one of them. Jeff was right.

The night started out in a super promising way. We arrived at the restaurant en masse - Cooper and I piled into Kyle's car along with Kyle, Mary, Mike and Alicia. When we walked in, we really were impressed with the decor. It's open and modern and feels legitimately fresh - it's unlike any other restaurant in Baltimore (don't let their boring website fool you - it is a great space). Much of the seating is upstairs, but the hostess offered us a big round table in the window, just next to the front door. She was almost apologetic, but for no reason. Since we all love a round table and we also love watching the action, we were pretty happy about it.

We started dinner with a round of drinks and a couple of snacks, including the Buffalo style nuts and the crostini with spreads. The Buffalo nuts were warm and spicy with small chunks of bleu cheese - I liked them, but not everyone at the table was a fan of the warm nut + cheese format. The feta butter that came with the crostini was more generally well-received, though I actually thought it could be more feta-y. They were a nice starter, though, as were our cocktails (a mix of the standard glasses of wine and martinis, plus a New Old-Fashioned for Mike, which was just subtle enough to be delicious).

Jeff was dead on when he said that the appetizers were excellent. Cooper had a sweetbreads special, which everyone liked (even though not everyone likes sweetbreads) and Kyle and Mary shared the ahi tuna, which was really nice, though it didn't include any big surprises. Alicia was impressed with her tomato soup and grilled cheese wedges - cute and tasty.

My starter was the hit of the course (actually, of the whole meal): a salad of greens and very lightly crusted calamari, dressed in a spicy chili dressing with peanuts. The calamari was cooked perfectly - not over or underdone - and was crusted with just enough seasoned cornmeal. The dressing, though, really made the dish. It's balance of spice and peanut had an obvious Thai influence, but tasted thoroughly modern.

I could've been completely satisfied with just my salad, but we still had an entree to tackle. I ordered against type - there was veal on the menu, and I almost always order veal when I can, but instead I chose the miso-glazed black cod, served with shrimp and peanutty soba noodles. The fish and the shrimp were nicely seasoned and cooked correctly - I enjoyed them both. The noodles were good, too, but there were just way, way too many of them. There had to have been close to a pound of noodles on my plate, when the dish required about an eighth of a pound. I don't usually feel badly about not finishing my dinner, but I felt the need to apologize when my plate was taken away. There were that many noodles left.

Mike and Mary both got the surf and turf - a small filet paired with a crab cake. A safe order, yes, but they were both very happy with the selection. Their meat was cooked properly and the crab cake was a good one. Kyle made everyone laugh by ordering the cowboy steak, which was bigger than his head and came with about a pound of sweet potato fries. It was ridiculous and half of it went home with him. He enjoyed the flavor, but still - laughably large.

Unfortunately, Alicia wasn't as happy with her order of cobia topped with a blue crab remoulade. She hadn't imagined the remoulade as so cold and creamy, and that's really not her style. I think she wished she'd gotten the shrimp and grits or one of the specials.

Cooper ordered the bison osso bucco, which gives me an opportunity to make an overall critique of the menu. His meal was good - the bison was from Gunpowder Bison and a nice, well-seasoned piece of meat - but like much of the menu, it was prepared sous vide. I'm not sure that's the best preparation for a lean meat like bison when it's being served as osso bucco, and after reviewing the menu, I couldn't help but feel like the sous vide option was a little gratuitous. Most restaurants in Baltimore do not prepare anything sous vide, so it's understandable that Blue Hill would want to set itself apart with the preparation. But they might go too far. Since we didn't order everything on the menu, I can't comment across the board, but if Cooper's bison is any indication, sous vide might not add to every dish.

So overall, our entrees were good, though not quite as delicious as our appetizers.

With both the apps and the entrees, we drank a $30 bottle of Malbec that was completely agreeable. While the wine list isn't exhaustive, it's interesting enough and is fairly reasonable overall (and I'd have more to say about it if the wine list link on the website weren't broken).

After dinner, we kept things going, with a pretzely, chocolatey birthday dessert for Mike (sans clapping, singing waitresses) and a collection of post-dinner drinks for the rest of us. Jeff and Christine left their new baby at home with Christine's mom and walked down to have a drink with us, and we ran into Cooper's cousin Fleur and her husband Scott on their way out (the table next to the door was a good one for spotting people we knew).

Finally, a quick note on the service: our waitress was friendly and on top of things and willing to laugh gamely at even the worst of our jokes. And believe me, Kyle made some bad jokes (he thinks he's charming).

Overall, it was a good experience, if not absolutely, perfectly, perfect. But what is? The restaurant never felt over or under-crowded, which was nice. It definitely had a grown up, but not stuffy, bar vibe, and if I lived in the city, I'd certainly head there for happy hour on a regular basis.

Trendy: Angular Food Shots

Has the age of the sloppy food photograph already passed us by? I think we might be in for a new wave of photos designed with more precision, less slop and here's why - I saw this on Hollister Hovey today:

And doesn't it remind you of this shot, which made the blog rounds a couple of months ago, courtesy of IKEA?


If the Hollister Hovey photo is a sign of things to come - and I think it is - I'll be happy. I've been over messy food porn pics since before Bon Appetit's covers started oozing. I'll take my food magazines photography carefully styled, thank you. I see enough messy food at home.

Pretty House for the Post-Holiday Funk

Thanksgiving is over, which means it's time to a) worry about eating too much and b) get serious about Christmas shopping. To take your mind off all that, here are some pictures, from The Selby, of where Kate and Andy Spade live, with their cute daughter, in NYC.

Pretty mirror, gallery-style framing that doesn't looked ripped from Domino's headlines, circa 2007:

I love the one green frame:

This makes me want a yellow headboard. And gray walls:


Is it just me, or does their living space actually look livable?

I have to be honest: the books get to be a little much even for me in this apartment. But I do love this wallpaper. And it makes me smile to see their daughter's bike in the hallway:

Plus, more stripes. And all that modern art, scattered throughout. It reminds me of how I'd imagine the Glass family lived.

Happy Thanksgiving!

And as a pre-turkey treat: ten pretty celebrity kitchens. Well, pretty-ish. Most of them look kind of boring to me, though I do like Winona Ryder's.

Lady Gaga, though? WOW it disappoints.

Petit Louis at Ten

Earlier this year, Petit Louis Bistro celebrated its tenth anniversary. My first visit to the restaurant, now an established part of the Roland Park community, was during the summer of 2001, only a year after it opened its doors. I'd just come back from my first trip to Europe (as a part of a business school class) and my friend Dave and I spent the summer eating at French places all around Baltimore, trying to recreate our three days in Paris.

We'd already been to Crepe du Jour, where the crowded deck and simple food (especially the green salads) were perfect. Petit Louis was perfect, too, but in a different way. Also crowded and sometimes loud, but more polished than Crepe du Jour, PL impressed us with its food, its wine, its service, and its decor, down to the black and gold walls and the marble-topped tables.

Over the past nine years, I've probably made fifteen trips to the restaurant. I've been for brunch, lunch and dinner. With friends, with both of our families, with Dixon, and just with Cooper on my own. One of my visits was "official" - I wrote last year's review for the Best Restaurants issue of Baltimore magazine. I've at least tried most of the items on the menu at this point, and more than a few of the wines.

Petit Louis has held a solid place in my own restaurant repertoire for a while, but after a Friday night visit a few weeks ago, I started thinking more about how it fits into Baltimore's food scene as a while.

It started with a last minute Friday morning call from Cooper's mom, offering to watch Dixon for the night. We never say no to that sort of offer. After a five minute consultation with Cooper, we decided I'd try to get a reservation at Petit Louis - we hadn't been since last summer - and if that didn't work out, we'd eat at the bar at Crush.

Unlike some spots (cough-Woodberry Kitchen-cough), an 8 PM Friday night reservation at Petit Louis is still doable without months of advance notice. For us, that's huge. But that doesn' tmean the restaurant is hurting for customers. When we arrived, 20 minutes early, with plans to have a pre-dinner drink at the bar, the place was packed. As it turns out, we didn't even sit down until close to 8:30.

As usual, the customers were fun to watch. Petit Louis draws a great crowd of fancy/preppy Roland Park locals, fabulous older ladies, and the occasional young family. That Friday was no different.

And actually "no different" is just about the perfect description for the overall Petit Louis dining experience. It is remarkably consistent. This time, I ordered the butternut squash soup and I know - without a doubt - that it would be creamy and rich and full of layered flavors (the pureed soups always are). Cooper started with sweetbreads and had steak frites (for the first time, somehow), while I went for my new PL standard, the steak bearnaise. The sauces are good, the frites are crispy and perfect (better than McDonald's!) and the wine (Cuvee de Louis aka "Louis Rouge") is inexpensive and and a reliably great partner to the steak.

Service is prompt but not fawning and if the dining room is a little loud and a little cramped, that's OK - it adds to the authenticity.

And, most importantly, the food, the service, and the atmosphere all remain unchanged. Just like a favorite bistro in Paris, Petit Louis at ten is a whole lot like Petit Louis at one: solid.

Quick Trendy

Based on my reading of the December issue of Food & Wine, I've got two observations:

1. Hand pies are the new whoopie pies, suggesting that the small pie trend is here to stay. What's next, Little Debbie Oatmeal Cream Pies? (Not that I am complaining, mind you. I love LD Oatmeal Cream Pies.)

2. At some point over the last few years, people stopped smoking cigarettes and started smoking...everything else. Smoking's not a new cooking technique, but these days it is absolutely everywhere. The December F&W includes a recipe asking for smoked butter - something that I'm sure would've sounded odd even a few years ago. Now, it's just standard.

My Final Ideabook: Former Trends That Should Rise Again

It's no secret that I've been super, super busy this year. Lately, I've missed an awful lot of days of blogging as a result of a) my job and b) my kid. Unfortunately, being so busy means that I've had to make some kind of painful choices about work. It's nice to have the luxury of choice, but it also sucks to have to stop doing something enjoyable simply because it takes too much time.

Which is why I'm very sorry to say that I've just written my last ideabook for Houzz. I've been writing there for two years - since before the site went live - and have really enjoyed seeing the company's growth. But all good things must come to an end, and for Houzz and me, that end is today.

This is my last ideabook - written about five trends that have disappeared, but should come back:

5 Former Design Trends That Should Rise Again

Houzz- Kitchen Design, Bathroom Design and More»

Find Home Improvement Professionals- For Example:

New York Architect · Los Angeles Interior Designer · Chicago Contractor · San Francisco Landscaping ·

Old School Thursday: Things Past Edition

Today is random, random, random. First, it’s National Vichyssoise Day – a food that does not need a day of recognition in America if there ever was one (I am biased – I don’t like vichyssoise, but my mom does, so I used to have to eat it sometimes). But also, if you’re going to recognize a cold soup, is November really the right time to do it?

On the Church front, today is St. Odo of Cluny day – he’s the patron for rain (fair enough) – and also St. Peter the Apostle day – he’s the patron of bakers, butchers, fishermen, harvesters and, obviously, foot problems. I suppose because people in those professions have a lot of foot problems. Now, I know that they’re saints, so they’re not prone to jealousy, but if I were St. Odo, I’d be a little annoyed that I had to share my day with one of the big guns. Patron for rain is pretty good, but it does get lost in that laundry list of St. Peter’s. Plus, he’s St. Peter.

In other Churchy news, today in 1966, American Catholics are finally allowed to start eating meat on Fridays. All of this happened well before I was born, which explains why I have always eaten meat on Fridays (and most other days).

But we’re getting ahead of ourselves – a couple of interesting things also happened today. First, in 1307, William Tell used a bow and arrow to shoot an apple from his son’s head – one of the more widely used cultural-historical visuals.

Several centuries later, in 1922, French writer Marcel Proust died. Proust wrote Remembrance of Things Past, the novel that begins with a single, oh-so-meaningful bite of a madeleine. That madeleine is probably the most famous (and referenced) cookie in literary history. In recent years, “madeleine moment” has become shorthand for a small action that triggers a flood of memories and versions of that moment have been depicted in media of all kinds.

So, to celebrate today, have a cookie that reminds you of your childhood and maybe wash it down with a glass of apple juice in honor of Mr. Tell. And, of course, if you like it, a bowl of vichyssoise. Or maybe just some meat (even if it isn't Friday).

You Know How I Know Food's Trendy?

It makes the holiday window at Barney's. Which makes my heart feel even more warmly toward one Simon Doonan. I can't get enough of that man. Who could? Look at this:

In case you couldn't tell, that's Barefoot, with a knife in her teeth. How hot is that?

Even better, there's drama. I love food drama. Especially when it involves Gael Greene and her massive collection of hats.