Gobble Gobble 2013

This holiday never gets old to me.  I get the warm fuzzies just thinking about all the tradition.  And as is tradition in my family, I am in charge of the appetizers.  Since the caramelized onion dip I made for book club was devoured, I decided that would be my backup.  I've learned to always have a backup.  Plus, the Konters are big eaters who warrant two appetizers.

For my second appetizer, I made a Brussels sprouts and parmesan crostini.  I used this recipe and it came out perfectly.  Four heads of garlic may sound like a lot, but you'll need every bit of it and it's sweet once it's all roasted.  Yes, there's parmesan in this but it's not a ton and that doesn't really count as a real cheese anyway so this is a great way to lighten up the regularly heavy, cheese-laden appetizer spread.  It was also super easy to put together.  The only thing that takes time is roasting the garlic, but that's not anything that takes any effort - you just stick it in the oven and forget about it.  I actually recommend doing it the night before so you really don't have to worry about it.  Once you've cut the sprouts into slaw, the whole thing takes about 15 minutes to cook and assemble.

My father, who complained all day while I was cooking that he hates Brussels sprouts and I should have prepared something that he would eat, actually said this was "actually pretty good."  It may not sound like a rave review to you but considering his extreme detestation, it was a pretty high compliment.

We had a smaller crowd for Thanksgiving this year, but we didn't really know how to cook any less than we always do.  In Konter fashion, we took that as a challenge to still go through just as much food with fewer people and this appetizer was no exception.

3 on Thursday

Happy Turkey Day, bloggies!  I am thankful for so much; even my daily subway ride makes me smile.

This week's background is the heavy door to Quality Meats restaurant.

1. This guy was just DJ'ing away in the middle of the Times Square subway station.  Street performers make the commute far more entertaining.
2. I've been attempting to do NaNoWriMo.  Since November happens to be an incredibly busy month at work, it's not going so hot, but the writing always seems to flow better when I'm sitting in my neighborhood coffee house with my favorite Stumptown coffee.
3. I recently took [another] Murray's Cheese classes.  I learned a lot about wine and cheese so the inner nerd in me was happy.  And since I got to try a bunch of new cheeses, the inner mouse in me was happy.  Everybody's happy!  Don't you just love when that happens?

Alpine Grilled Cheese

Experimenting with grilled cheese is fun.  I'm a purist so I don't believe you can add more than one non-cheese ingredient and still call it a grilled cheese.  However, that doesn't mean you can't play around with different cheese varieties.  This time, I wanted a cow's milk Alpine cheese and went with Appenzeller Kaserei Tufertsch.  I have no idea how to pronounce it, but I do know how to say "yum" so after tasting this cheesemonger suggestion, I told her to wrap it up.  It tastes like a nuttier version of Swiss and melts well - perfect for grilled cheese.  I thought it went well with the rye bread I had at home and then threw in some sopressata for good measure.  I think speck would have been a better match, but the sopressata was still quite tasty.  Swiss cheeses are pretty sturdy so they can handle a flavorful meat.

Piccolo Cafe

Italian food is not usually quick service.  If you go to an Italian restaurant, you know you'll likely be sitting there for a while, eating family style, sipping wine, and having good conversation.  That's why, when it comes to take-out, it's usually forgotten.  Piccolo Cafe is more of a coffee house that serves Italian food.  That means it's small and intimate - prime for grab and go.

Coffee house fare is usually in the pastry castegory and there is plenty of that here, but because Italians just want to feed you and then feed you again, they is a full list of salads, paninis, and pastas.  I ordered the mozzarella and tomato salad as a starter.  The mozz was perfect in texture but the salad needed a bit more salt (maybe in the oil and/or balsamic?).  The fettuccine was cooked nicely but stuck together a bit.  The bolognese sauce only had tiny pieces of meat, not the larger chunks I was hoping for.  Was it amazing?  No, but it was good in a pinch, pretty inexpensive, and came with good bread.  Those are three things I look for when it comes to take out so I was satisfied.

Monday Reads

1. Online dating may be a viable solution for people on the Autism spectrum.
2. If you're Hunger Games obsessed like I am, you'll probably like to know a little about what's in store for the next installment, Mockingjay.
3. Do you care where your filet mignon grew up?
4. How does your Thanksgiving meal compare to that of the pilgrims?  I think I prefer our current overindulgent celebration.

Perry St.

If you were Jean-Georges, you would build a gorgeous restaurant in the bottom of your apartment building, wouldn't you?  And then you would make your son the head chef, right?  I certainly would.  It's the epitome of convenience.  Well, it is for him.  For me, it was less than easy to get a cab all the way over on the West Side Highway.  I didn't really care, though.  I was hoping that while waiting for a cab I would spot one of the building's other famous residents, like Hugh Jackman, Calvin Klein, or Nicole Kidman.

I need to stop talking about celebrities.  Onto more important things: the food.  I loved the amuse bouche - a mini french onion soup.  It warmed us right up on the first really cold and windy night of the year.  Everyone at the table started with the burrata...except me.  Dare to be different.  I got the grilled octopus with hibiscus romesco, potatoes, and pickled peppers.  The spice came from the sauce and since that was sort of off to the side, you could dial the heat up or down to your liking.  Sauce is something they do very well at Perry St.   I went splitskies on two entrees with a fellow diner and both had amazing sauces that really made the dish.  The first was grilled lamb chops with olive crumbs, black olive oil, and artichokes.  I am not sure what the brushstroke of sauce was, but it was delicious.  Brushstroke of genius.  It toned down the saltiness of the olive crust so you could really appreciate how the chef had turned them into crumbs.  The fried chicken was served with Brussels sprouts and a Brussels sprout puree.  It was not too much sprouts for one plate.  It was just enough.  The chicken had a honey chipotle glaze, something I'm sure most diners will think is nouveau but that I recognize as a nod to how Southerners like to eat their fried chicken, with a drizzle of honey.

Perry St. is a fancy place.  One look at the menu, which features an entire section for truffles and you would figure that out on your own.  Not a ton of young people, but I don't need to see young faces to enjoy my food.  This is the kinda place you take your parents or work colleagues (if you have an expense account).  With so many restaurants under his belt, you would think Jean-Georges' food would start to become tired, but it's almost the opposite here.  There are still many components to each dish so I wouldn't call any of it simple, but both the flavors and ambiance of Perry St. have calmed down from some of his other restaurants, like Spice Market, and the simplicity is refreshing.

  

Book Review: The Paris Wife

"The Paris Wife" is a work of historical fiction that brings Ernest Hemingway's first marriage to life in Jazz age Paris.  It paints the picture of Hemingway as a rabble-rouser and charming as hell.  Hadley Richardson, his first wife, is a quiet girl about eight years his senior whose previous life was incredibly different from the one she led with Hemingway.  After being bedridden for a year as a child, she was sheltered, first by her mother and then by herself after her father's suicide.  Meeting Hemingway was a breath of fresh air and she was swept away clear to Europe.

Their life in Paris was consumed by hard partying among literary geniuses like Gertrude Stein and F. Scott Fitzgerald.  Hadley and Ernest seem to be the only ones among the group who value monogamy and family, but their bond can only remain strong for so long before someone breaks.

I know this book was on the best seller list for a while, but I just didn't fall in love with it like the rest of America.  It sells this picture of their marriage as perfect until it's not.  That though brief, it was incredibly romantic.  I have to think that was the more fictionalized part of historical fiction.  Based on the way Hemingway tore through women after Hadley, I doubt he was ever really faithful.  There were also plenty of times where Hadley and Ernest are corresponding, but none of the content was taken from their actual letters.  I wish there could have been some primary sources utilized to add some validity to the story.

As a story of a whirlwind romance in the 20s, it's lovely...but it loses something when I'm wondering how much is accurate.

2.5 out of 5 stars.