July 2013
Andy has long been a fan of the beet. Me, not so much. But better late than never, and the past year has seen a beet boon in my kitchen, and on my restaurant plates. (I still get giddy at the thought of a certain phenomenal beet salad I had at Five-O earlier this year.) For their taste, consistency, and most especially that gorgeous color, it’s hard to beat the beet.
~ F. Scott Fitzgerald
The title of the post says it all: naked men.
Nothing but nude male models.
Sometimes simple is just better.
Vestiges of its power and pull both pre-announce and linger long after its arrival. All that talk of moonlight madness isn’t just talk, it has an effect, I’m sure of it.
It’s pretty too, and mesmerizing, as it moves slowly across the sky, momentarily nestling among the pine trees, dancing with the hawks, diddling behind the clouds. (Yes, I said ‘diddling’.)
For a seafood lover like myself, it’s slightly strange that scallops and shrimp don’t rank that high, but for whatever reason I don’t usually choose them. I’ll go to town on shrimp cocktail if it’s on hand at a party, but for the most part I keep my seafood selections to fish and lobster and oysters, with some occasional calamari. Every once in while though, I get a hankering for scallops, so if we find some decent ones (even at $19.99 a pound) I’ll indulge. Such was the case the other day, and the timing was fortuitous as there was a great recipe for grilled scallops in the New York Times magazine that week.
The ingredients are simple (I only had to locate the miso and the scallops):
* 1 pound scallops (but at that exorbitant price point, I went for eight large ones as it was a meal for one)
* 2 Tbsp. miso
* 2 Tbsp. mirin
* Vegetable oil
* Black pepper
* Toasted sesame seeds and scallions (for garnish)
The recipe:
Grilled Scallops with Miso Glaze
Whisk together 2 tablespoons miso, 2 tablespoons mirin, and some black pepper. Thread scallops onto skewers. Brush with vegetable oil, and grill until almost done.
Brush miso mixture on both side and continue to cook, turning once or twice until glaze caramelizes a bit and scallops are done.
Garnish with toasted sesame seeds and thinly-sliced scallions.
Here are the grilling instructions for scallops – the main secret to success is to err on the underside of cooking:
Heat gas grill until very hot. Rub grill with oil and set 3 to 4 inches from heat. Grill scallops until brown on bottom and release easily from grill (2 to 3 minutes). Turn and brown other side; total cooking time should be 3 to 5 minutes. You want to take scallops off before interior becomes completely opaque.
My first brush with the lychee was, thankfully, at the Mandarin Oriental in Boston. Sitting at their elegant bar, with impeccably attired and equally-fine-mannered bartending staff, I indulged in their lychee cocktail. Every now and then, especially during the summer, I’ll veer into the sweet territory, but the Mandarin did it right by not going the sugary route. I can’t recall what exactly was in it, but it was heavenly. Give me a fine hotel bar in Boston and I’m generally a happy camper.
On a recent afternoon, while gazing out the window through the falls of a fountain bamboo, I remembered that lychee drink, and when I saw some lychees on sale I bought a can and concocted this ridiculously simple drink. Mine is far from the fancy libation that the Mandarin so expertly prepared – in fact, it’s almost primitive in its simplicity. I used only gin and a small splash of lychee juice, shook it up with some ice, then strained it into a cocktail glass. On paper, I wasn’t sure about the gin and the sweetness, but in a glass it was sublime. The garnish of lychees is what really adds the fanciness here – and as we all know, the garnish is what makes the drink.
The best way I’ve found to beat the traffic heading to Cape Cod is simply to depart very early in the day, preferably from a place close by, such as Boston. To that end, I spent Friday night in my favorite city, laying low so as to avoid any FaceBook revelations regarding my location (to insure this surprise). I departed Boston by 7 AM, and I thought I was in the clear. It flowed pretty smoothly until we reached the Sagamore Bridge, where it was already lined up, down to a single lane thanks to some flooding, but the early hour made it less than what must have followed.
While waiting for JoAnn to get up and get ready, I stopped at the Beach Plum Bakery, because a place that advertises fresh muffin tops is speaking my language. I opted for the banana walnut, and a cup of green tea. The talk of the cafe was the storm from the night before. It came through at 5 AM, someone said, woke all the households, shook windows and rattled doors, finishing with a deluge that resulted in such flooding. This wild tempest was an unlikely beacon for my arrival, but after a few hours of rain, the sun came out and the rest of the weekend was stellar.
There’s something about being close to the sea that sets the mind at ease. Now that my friend JoAnn has returned to Monument Beach, I’m hoping to get down to the Cape more often, but maybe not until fall. For now, this Mo has left Mo Beach. Next sandy destination is Ogunquit… in a few weeks.
One of the first dishes I learned to make for my husband (first and few) was this easy Penne a la Vodka. It sounds more grown-up than it actually is (and everyone knows most of the liquor burns off before anyone can get the remotest bit of a buzz going). I forget where I saw the recipe – something on the Food Network probably. It calls for chopped onion, but the chef who prepared it said her kids didn’t like onions in their food, so she would simply cut one in half, let it cook with the sauce for a bit to give it flavor, then take it out and they never noticed the difference. The same trick could be used to fool my grandma, who swore she couldn’t eat onions. (She loved Andy’s sauce so much she never noticed how much garlic and onion was actually in it.) If you didn’t tell her something had onions in it, she would eat it happily and not notice a thing except how nicely flavored it might be. But if she saw an onion, all bets were off.
Penne a la Vodka
Ingredients
1 Tbsp. olive oil
1 small white onion or two shallots, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 16 oz can crushed tomatoes
2/3 cup heavy cream
2/3 cup finely grated parmesan or romano cheese
1/2 cup vodka
4 to 6 sprigs fresh basil, roughly chopped or torn
Salt & pepper
On medium heat, in a medium sized pan, saute the onions and garlic in olive oil until translucent. Add the tomatoes and cook down for about ten minutes. Add the vodka, let simmer for a few more minutes. Add the cream and cheese, let simmer again, then add the basil and salt and pepper to taste. Total cooking time should be about half an hour. Serve with penne pasta, garnish with fresh basil. I added some shaved parmesan cheese on top as well, because one can never get enough cheese.
(Please note that the measurements listed are approximations, as the original recipe has been lost, so if you think they should be adjusted, don’t hesitate to do so. This is a pretty fool-proof recipe and can take some fluctuations.)
June ended on a wild and tempestuous note, with a rash of flash-floods and thunderstorms that shook much of New England up. More on this past weekend’s sojourn to Boston and Cape Cod later, for now let’s put the past in the past, so we can get on with July. Summer needs to turn to high…
It wouldn’t be summer without a Super Speedo post, so that’s how we began.
The pool went and grabbed my iPhone, pulling it to a wet death at the bottom of the shallow end, and despite my quick efforts at retrieval, bag after bag of rice, and a hair-dryer, it was all for naught. $300 later I have a new one (whose battery drains just as quickly as the original) and a new Apple coverage plan to cover two more dips.
Is this the saddest song ever written? I don’t know…
The twins – Emi and Noah – dropped by a for a swim and a cook-out, and they are as cute as ever.
The kitchen was put into use – summer use (which means we grilled, saving the stove and oven for cooler days) – and the results were this quinoa dish and a simple grilled chicken meal.
Shamelessly-shirtless (and pants-less) poses were posted here, here, and here.
Far better bodies were displayed by the Hunks of the Day, Victor Ross and Soren Gear.
Why I don’t need a vacation (but want and will take one, or several, nonetheless).
High-blooming escapades by the likes of lychnis, a variegated dogwood, and some hydrangeas heralded the arrival of summer proper.
