WhimsyLand

Two interesting facts:  1) Wonkette gets something like half a million visits a week.  2) Jimmy's Kreepy Kats was featured last week.

I went to Cath's house to see her (and my) old friend Jodie, who lives in LA, and Ky and Eileen.  Jodie (and for that matter, Cath) is a terrific cook.  The first course was potato-leek soup pretty much cut of the same cloth as this one, but without the red peppers.  I oven-roasted two RedBird chickens stuffed with garlic, fresh Italian parsley bunches, tarragon and thyme.  Appetizers included Red Pepper Hummus and a new variety (Caribbean Hummus) that had two garlic cloves, one can of black beans, one-half can of garbanzos, two Big T of tahini, a big squirt of lime juice from one of those lime-shaped bottle in the produce department, a big bunch of nicely washed and de-stemmed cilantro, and a couple of splashes of Tabasco.  Safeway artisan Como bread, a salad made from mixed greens and spinach with lemon dressing, and Jodie made dessert:  homemade chocolate sauce poured over bananas and high-end, high-fat vanilla ice cream.  The wine for the night was the delicious and reasonable Red Bicyclette chardonnay.  OK, does this sound like a Spenser mystery or what?  All we need is Hawk to arrive in black leather carrying a bottle of Dom Perignon.

Cook's Illustrated showed up on schedule.  The back cover is replete with Holiday Breads, whatever they are (I wouldn't know, I don't bake worth a damn).  They, however, included St. Lucia Buns, Stollen, Pulla, Potica, Babka, Challah, and Panettone, to name a few.  Kimball must be running out of root vegetables to feature is all I can figure.  Notes from the Readers included:  a question about "high-quality white bread", which apparently means in CI-speak something like Pepperidge Farm Hearty White;  Are the less expensive Reggianito or Grana Padano as good as Parmigiano-Reggiano?  No;  Can you freeze holiday pies?  Deep-dish apple and pecan, yes.  Pumpkin?  No;  What is rose water?  It's made from the condensed steam of boiling rose petals and used in Indian and Middle Eastern desserts. Quick Tips includes:   Keep pizza dough from shrinking by spreading it over a floured, overturned mixing bowl;  clean microplane graters with a toothbrush under running water;  dried vanilla beans?  microwave them in cream or half-and-half;  if you need blanched almonds and can't find them, take whole almonds and pour boiling water over them.  After a couple of minutes, run them under cold water, slip off the skins and toast them in a dry pan or 350 degree oven until the color you want them.  I actually was going to make the recipe from Modernizing French-Style Pot Roast for Cath, Jodie and the kids.  Even though they cut the recipe down from two days to four hours, I relented.  Sounds pretty good, though.  You can buy chuck-eye roast and then all you need is a bottle of good wine (I'd suggest Guigal Côtes-du-Rhône, about $10 if you look around), which is reduced before adding to the pot.  The meat is brined with an hour's worth of kosher salt rub, and then cooked in a dutch oven.  Along the way you add frozen pearl onions, fresh parsley, 4 ounces of bacon, garlic and onion, carrots and mushrooms.  One interesting ingredient is a Big T of powdered gelatin, which replaces the traditional pork trotters and lardons (this is derived from a 17th century recipe).  The results of Improving Mashed Potatoes and Root Vegetables would be perfect with pot roast.  They suggest doing everything possible to reduce the starch which turns most mashed veggies to glue, including cutting the potatoes into thin slices and running under cold water.  Mashed Potatoes and Root Vegetables with Paprika and Thyme sounded particularly good.  The potatoes are Yukon Gold if you can get them.  The root vegetables are carrots, parsnips and celery.  Saute the root vegetables, add the cooked well-rinsed potatoes and gently mash, then folding in a quarter-cup of half-and-half, third-cup of chicken stock, chopped parsley, and paprika that you have toasted for a few minutes in a dry hot pan.  There seem to be quite a number of other holiday-oriented recipes, which seems odd for this early in the season:  Holiday Ham 101 (Cook's Spiral Sliced Hickory Smoked Bone-In Ham is there clear favorite), and Easy Roast Turkey Breast (brine, of course).  I wasn't that interested in Beef and Vegetable Stir-Fries.  Ditto, Stocking a Baking Pantry, The Best Drop Biscuits, and Foolproof Pie Dough, since I don't bake worth a damn and probably never will.  Seeking Pear Salad Perfection was pretty good, including pan-roasted and caramelized pears , some shallots, balsamic vinegar, green leaf lettuce, watercress, Parmesan, and pecans (how could that not be good?).  The turkey analysis ended up suggesting that you pay just $1.99 for Rubashkins' Aaron's Best or Butterball if you can find it, instead of the gourmet turkeys at $8 a pound and up. 

See you tomorrow.