Happy St. Patricks Day!

Although I'm the fraud at the Irish Arts Center who despite going undercover and dying my head red(dish) have no known Irish descent, I do enjoy Irish culture a great deal. I have some Guinness chilling in the fridge and spent part of today jamming on my penny whistle. I haven't been practicing much lately (to my detriment), so it was fun to get back to it. I hadn't been planning to record a song again, but then the teacher gave us a set dance (although I play it like a jig) called "St. Patrick's Day." It seemed inappropriate to not at least attempt it.

You can see my attempt here. I screwed up a few times, but I was loathe to do a second take because unlike when I usually practice (on my lunch break when most neighbors are working), I could hear people walking around overhead. It always makes me feel a bit self conscious, added to which the tin whistle is a fairly squeaky instrument when played in the upper register. As a good neighbor, I could really only subject them to the same song so many times, St. Patrick's Day, or no.

Dinah was a popular addition to the first video, so I wanted to include her a second time. Unfortunately, being a cat, this really required me to go to her. Which, in this case, was the floor. Another reason to not do a second take was because shortly after I finished recording, she was reduced to a melancholic stupor on the floor. It was all very cute (see Exhibit A, below), but impossible to record on my laptop with me in the shot, unless I played the whistle while resting on my elbows. I took it as a sign to move on with my day. Of course, now, as I'm writing this, she's peacefully meatloaf-ed next to me on the couch in a perfect pose. She's likely not destined to be one of the animal acting greats anymore than I am destined to be a tin whistle virtuoso. She's sure cute though.

Exhibit A. A common response to tin whistling.

Anyway, I should probably get back to lazing though the remainder of my weekend, but I just wanted to stop in and wish you a happy St. Patrick's Day from Dinah and I!

Wedding writing

I know, I said I would make this into a wedding planning blog, but that hasn't stopped me from reading a bunch of wedding planning blogs. One of my favorites is A Practical Wedding, a tip from an old roommate who got married. It has some great wedding planning tips for low maintenance wedding planners, but also just interesting stories and ideas about what it means to get married or to be a wife. I wrote a post to submit to them for this month's theme "Decided," but I think I screwed up the submission process and didn't actually get it in for consideration. Well anyway, waste not, want not. I thought I might as well post it here. It does tend to break my promise about not making this blog about wedding planning, but this is more a general discussion of the process and less about the specifics we're dealing with. Plus, I think I'm the only one who actually cares if I make this blog about wedding planning or not.

Because I was writing for a different audience it's a bit more on-the-nose and tied up at the end with a nice message than my usual posts. Fair warning.

I get about five of these emails each day. This one had the subject line: "10 New Wedding Etiquette Rules You Should Know." Reading them is never a good idea.

Sometimes I think I’m not qualified to have a wedding. I know, logically, that aside from the potential issues of legality, the only qualification a couple needs to have a wedding is to want one. However, when someone is holding twelve forks in front of me, each with subtle differences and surprisingly varied price points, while suggesting I should have an opinion on them, I start to feel like a fraud.
I approached wedding planning going on instinct. Hoping that I would “just know” the right choice. This started out well enough. My fiance and I made a number of different appointments at venues around our city in our price range. Then we went to the first one--a working farm just twenty minutes from our city apartment--loved it, and decided the search was over. Even as I was emailing the other venues to cancel the appointments, I didn’t have any concerns about loft galleries and event spaces left un-seen. After all, the farm felt so right and fit nicely in our budget, why waste our time with more options?

This trend continued with a few other decisions...choosing the cake, hiring a caterer (this one was probably helped by the fact that the venue had a preferred caterer), a photographer, and an officiant. All of these decisions were made after copious online research, several emails, but ultimately only one meeting. We liked what we saw, and we went for it. After some marathon planning and booking vendors, I took a short break (okay, more like a month) from wedding planning. During that time, the only decision I made was on my dress, which is the first decision I made by committee. Or at least I had the opinions of several friends and my mother as opposed to just that of my fiance to go on. Since I’ve jumped back on the planning train, I’ve found I’ve lost some of my planning mojo. I think it might be because I’m now looking at the more decorative aspects--the flowers, the reception decor (which apparently is supposed to have a theme?), colors that supposedly have to match other colors, and a host of other things that seem out of my skill set. 

Thankfully, the Internet exists to supply me with the paralyzing fear of turning my wedding into a goat rodeo by failing to choose wedding colors. Pinterest, facebook, and the wedding websites currently infiltrating my inbox with daily advice, giveaways, and “Top Ten Mistakes You’re Probably Making Right Now!!” lists. The problem is this doesn’t just lead to agonizing over future decisions and staring longingly at one guestbook, then another on Etsy. That alone would be an inevitable slowing down of the overall wedding planning process, but what’s worse is that it’s causing me to re-think all the decisions I’ve already made.

Well, not re-think exactly. But I continue to waste my time perusing options for things I cannot change. I look at the websites for other venues and daydream about my wedding there despite loving my chosen site (in addition to being a working farm, they also have alpacas!). I haunt the website for the store where I bought my wedding dress and imagine what I would look like in their newly released spring styles. It isn’t even that I think any of the options out there are better or that they invalidate any of my choices. It’s just that each decision that is made takes a field of endless possibilities and closes it to just one. Or, I guess, sometimes more than one, as we did choose three cake flavors when we couldn’t decide.

When we got engaged back in August, the decisions came fast and easy. We knew we wanted to spend the rest of our lives together. We also knew we wanted to share that with our friends and family. These are the decisions that matter long after the playlist winds down and the last Instagram is taken. There isn’t some better option; there is only what is. I know that on our wedding day, our guests won’t be surreptitiously using their iPhones to compare our centerpiece choices to other even more rustic chic options. And I know I won’t be either. While it can be hard to keep things in perspective while the Internet is constantly reminding me of all the things I could be doing differently, it’s nice to know that the most important decision has already been made.

For all your savory waffle needs

Last night it was doing that worst-of-both-worlds snow rain business that the weather channel describes as "wintery mix" for lack of a better term. I was in the mood for some comfort food. Another qualification was that this comfort food needed to use cilantro, as I had some cilantro that was badly in need of using. In my search for cilantro recipes, I came across a chana masala waffle topped with samosa filling and a cilantro chutney. The recipe was vegan, but I could see there was a lot to work with. While kind of out there, it nicely fit into two of my comfort foods categories: breakfast for dinner and Indian food. Although my cabinets now resemble a pretty robust spice market now, I realized I was still short chickpea flour and chana masala, so as an added bonus this trip necessitated a trip to Kalustyan's. That place is amazing. Despite being a pretty small store, they have every weird, speciality ingredient I've ever gone looking for. It was definitely worth the 10-block slog through blinding mix to get what I needed and try to avoid too many impulse buys (came out with some black lava salt, but that's really more a necessity than anything else).

For the meal itself, it had three components, all pretty simple: the cilantro chutney, the beef samosa filling (although in this case it was used as more of a topping and less of a filling), and the chana masala waffles. For the cilantro chutney, I don't really have a recipe because I basically just made it the way I would make a pesto (throwing stuff in a food processor until it seems about right). I will say it involved the following in some form or another: cilantro, lime juice, onions, garlic, green chilis, and coconut oil.  Unfortunately, it never got quite the right consistency. I think my food processor isn't what it used to be. It was more of a paste than a sauce. It made me regret not just buying some chutney at Kalystyans. The only thing that stopped me was remembering that having borderline cilantro was the original impetus for the dish.  

For the beef topping, I did the following.

Boiled some water in a saucepan and added:

1 cup peas

2 peeled potatoes

Allowed to boil until the potatoes were soft, then drained and mashed them together. Meanwhile, I 

heated some oil in a skillet on high heat. Threw in:

1 diced onion

4 chopped garlic cloves (if you aren't obsessed with garlic, you could probably get away with 2)

Heated until the onions started to get limp, then added:

1 lb of ground beef

Stirred until beef was all browned. Then time to add pretty much all the spices in my cabinet. I added:

1 T minced ginger (so from the fridge, not cabinet)

1/2 tsp pepper

1 1/2 tsp salt 

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp coriander

1 tsp turmeric 

1 tsp chili powder

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

green chilies (the rest of the little can I had opened to make the chutney)

Once that was all heated and mixed. I add the potato mixture to it. The result: 

Mush! But tasty, mush. 

Once that was done, I got to work on the waffles. Mixed the following wet ingredients:

3/4 c milk
2 eggs
1/4 oil
1 T minced ginger
1 T tomato paste
a couple of cloves of minced garlic (honestly, goes in pretty much everything I make)

In a separate bowl, I mixed the following dry ingredients (you will note some familiar faces):

1 1/4 chickpea flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp cumin
2 tsp chana masala
1/2 tsp smoked paprika (Side note: my favorite spice right now--have been putting it on everything from salmon burgers to popcorn)
1/2 tsp coriander
1/2 tsp tumeric
1/2 tsp salt (I used black lava salt, but I suppose you could use the boring table stuff)

Add the wet to the dry and mix to incorporate. Cook in waffle iron. Which should look like this (provided your waffle iron is as awesome as mine is):

Once that's done, just pile some of your beefy mush on top of a spicy waffle (which smells amazing while cooking, I must say). Throw some cilantro chutney on top (or really, the chutney of your choice), and you've got yourself a tasty dinner. Or breakfast, as honestly that's when I ate the leftovers. Verdict: delicious.

Better than it looks. If that's even possible. 

Marching fourth

So that was kind of a pitiable showing last month. Will try to do better in March. Right now I keep making the mistake of being busy, but not with anything worth writing in depth about. This weekend, I

• Went to celebrate a friend's marriage by recreating a brunch at the place we actually wanted to go but couldn't get reservations to (our version was probably superior anyway).
• Attended the birthday party of a good friend and discovered I have a natural talent for bocce ball, provided the indoor court rules are almost completely ignored.
• Helped a friend paint her apartment (well 1 1/2 rooms of it anyway) a beautiful red that looked rich and wine-colored on the wall, but rather looked like dried blood on my skin (that's how I paint: messily). Possibly disturbed a few people on the subway ride home.
• Overcooked a skirt steak
• Wandered around the local salvage yard for not-too-junky window shutters for a potentially poorly conceived wedding project.

There are all well and good pastimes, but not terribly interesting to elaborate on (both as a writer, and no doubt as a reader). I guess I finally understand why people tweet. Not to be deterred; however, I fully intend to write more regardless of how boring I'm actually being. After all, originally I used to write about things other than what I'm currently doing, and I do actually miss those times. For March, I'd like to try to expand on a few ideas not grounded in current events (although naturally that will change if I actually do something cool in March...). Since I just came up with this idea now, and it was kind of taxing, I won't actually start on this free form writing project today, but the promise is still there. Instead, I leave you with this: 

I call it "The Reluctant Handyman." It will serve the March spot should I ever get my 12-month Dinah photo calendar off the ground. 

Rigoletto and the Rat Pack

Whoa, it's been a while. Generally, when I know I'm not going to make a substantive update for a while, I at least throw in a picture of my cat to tide things over. These last couple of weeks, I didn't have time for even that. It's been a mess of writing and procrastinating around here, but I just met a deadline today, so things are looking up. It's a shame though, because my cat has been especially photogenic lately.

This weekend I went to see a production of Rigoletto at the Met. I actually saw the same opera there when I first moved to New York and thought it would be a good idea to buy tickets to eight operas all on weeknights. I saw some good things that year. I also skipped out on the second intermission of several shows because weeknight operas are tough. Anyway, I was up for seeing it again because it's a show I really enjoy. I also was curious to see this new production which is set in 1960s Vegas. One of my favorite things about opera is the methods they take to keep trying to make classics that have been around for a couple hundred years feeling fresh. It's also a testament to the universal themes that they can really be transplanted (with reasonable success) to any time and place and be just about as ridiculous as the original storyline.

Granted some settings are more ridiculous than others. There was apparently a version of Rigoletto put on in Munich that was Planet of the Apes themed. So that's where we are innovation-wise.

I admit, I kind of wish I'd seen this one. 

 The Met version was somewhat less eccentric. I actually thought the staging worked very well. There was some wonderful Overlook Hotel style casino carpeting and plenty of flashing neon lights. The Duke had a playboy/lounge singer thing going which seemed appropriate. The last act also involved a car on stage which even given the 30 minute intermission that preceded it was fairly impressive.

Perfectly encapsulates all the things I don't like about Vegas.

I don't have too much else to say about this show. Mostly, I think I don't feel too much like writing after finally getting that book turned in. I took an awesome picture of Dinah laying down next to a power drill, but sadly it's on Sam's phone. That probably would have helped make this post better.

Astoria, blanketed

The good thing about most of my readership being far afield, even if it does limit how much I can get away with talking about local eats, is that hopefully you aren't sick of snow pictures at this point. If you are for whatever reason sick of snow pictures though, feel free to stop reading, because this post is pretty much just that. I'm really a fan of snow for the first day or so after it falls (ie before it transforms into a dirty, trash-studded, slush pile), so after the blizzard we got Friday, I spent some of Saturday frolicking in it down at Astoria Park. Now that it's a rainy Monday, the snow is either in dirty heaps or forming large puddles at street corners that must be waded through, but at least I have the memories (and photographic documentation) of the powdery white times.

Walking home from a party with a friend during the blizzard Friday night. This was a bit after midnight, but the sky looks like dusk, which I'm attributing to the city lights reflecting off the snow. 

Astoria Park on a beautiful, sunny Saturday morning.

I realize all of my pictures of the park make it look like I was the only one there. In reality, there were a ton of kids sledding or building snowmen (something I would have attempted had I thought to bring gloves), but I opted for thoughtful empty snow pictures instead.

Me, after a nice snow frolic. 

And again, after Sam had caught up with me (his frolicking was more contained due to lack of proper snow boots)

 Hope those to the north and those who actually own things like cars and houses that must be dug out aren't having too many headaches with this one!

David Burke Kitchen: A review

Normally, I don't really do restaurant reviews on here. And reviews of restaurants no where near Astoria no less! While I like talking about food in great detail (who doesn't?), it seems a little silly to pass judgement on a restaurant in NYC when so much of my readership doesn't live here. However, I'm making an exception because this place had some really fun, innovative food. So even if you're not planning a New York food trip anytime soon, it's still interesting to read about. No? Well, at the very least, it's interesting for me to write about, so there's that.

I went to David Burke Kitchen in the Jane Hotel last night as part of the third week of restaurant "week." It was chosen, as all of my restaurant week selections in the past have been chosen, based on two criteria:
a) Restaurants I can't (or won't) afford when it's not restaurant week.
b) Any place where I can get a reservation after 5:30 and before 10.
After I narrow it down based on these items, I just look through the menu until I find the most exciting one. This year's winner: David Burke Kitchen.

DBK (the only thing I don't really like about it is the name. We get it. You're a celebrity chef, but can't you be a bit more creative?) is a farm-to-table restaurant. In addition to having locally sourced food, they also really play up the farm theme with cute little red gingham napkins and photos of farmers hugging animals on the walls (which is somewhat less weird than it sounds). The menu is extensive, and even better the restaurant week menu covers almost all of the options (usually they limit you to about three). For the first course, I had the pretzel crab cake served with beer foam and frisse. I didn't taste the pretzel too much, but it made an interesting presentation. Sam got the smoked pastrami salmon served with bagel fritters and garlic cream. It was essentially an elegant, deconstructed lox bagel. There was one starter that wasn't on the restaurant week menu that intrigued us both (and Sam said he would have tried had it been an option). It was a playful take on the children's snack "ants on a log" but the log is bone marrow, the ants are snails, and the peanut butter stand-in is pickled onions. Not exactly my favorite things, but I do admire it conceptually.

Not your average crab cake! You'll note this is a promotional photo from David Burke Kitchen. I avoided taking any photos last night for fear of being fodder for this blog. 

The main courses were a bit more traditional, but still very well done. Sam had some short ribs with cavatelli (which was creamy and amazing), and I had the pork chop with mango chutney and cumin bacon. The pork chop was perfectly fine, but the bacon was quite possibly the best bacon I've ever had. I don't know what farm they get it from, but I need to go there.

For dessert I had an oatmeal sundae with rum soaked raisins and sour cream ice cream that was delicious and surprisingly better (to me) than Sam's malted chocolate cake. It was warm and comforting and perfect for a very cold day. Much like this one, only now we also have snow to contend with.

I guess that's all I have to say about food for now, or at least the food served at David Burke Kitchen. If anyone is planning a trip up in August, you should definitely take advantage of it during the next restaurant week. Or I guess you could pull out all the stops and pay full price, but that's never as much fun.