Tuesday, January 13, 2009

The girl with one left shoe


Hello and happy Tuesday! I'm currently blogging from the bathroom (hooray for WiFi) while I wait for my shower water to heat up. Yesterday was wonderful in terms of eats and movies, which makes it an A+ day in my book.

Last night before dinner, I had a glass of white wine as I caught up on the blogs. I wasn't a huge fan of it, so I sipped one glass throughout the course of a few hours.


My parents prepared a wonderful meal, starting out with a loaf of the first bread that my dad and I ever made together (way back when): Anadama bread.


In case you're not familiar with Anadama bread, the history is as follows (courtesy of The Food Timeline):

"Anadama bread. A bread made from cornmeal and molasses. The term dates in print to 1915, but is probably somewhat older. If it were not for the frequency of their citation, it would be difficult to believe the story most often cited is of a Gloucester, Massachusetts, fisherman's wife named Anna, who gave her husband nothing but cornmeal and molasses to eat every day. One night the fisherman got so angry, he tossed the ingredients in with some yeast and flour and made a bread in the oven while muttering to himself, "Anna, damn her!" A more affectionate story has a New England sea captain referring to his wife with the same name expletive as a phrase of endearment. This Anna was apparently adept at bread-baking, and she became well known for her cornmeal-and-molasses loaf among the fishing crews who appreciated this long-lasting, hearty bread. There was, supposedly, a gravestone to this legendary woman that read, Anna wes a lovely bride, but Anna, Damn'er, up and died. One source contends that a commerical bakery called ist product "Annadammer" or "Annadama bread."
---Encyclopedia of American Food & Drink, John F. Mariani [Lebhar-Friedman:New York] 1999 (p. 6)

The meal was a joint effort on my parents part (my role being happy recipient). My mom made a delicious risotto using seven different kinds of mushrooms, with a shaved parmesan garnish. My dad made a lovely spinach curried with Greek yogurt and supplemented with tofu to make a complete protein.



We all split an avocado, which was drizzled with tangerine vinegar, salt & pepper:


The house is being painted, so we had a cozy TV dinner while we watched Midnight. Oh, go see this now... Claudette Colbert is lovely and funny (and plays a girl from Indiana!), and it takes place in Paris.


And then came the desserts. There's a small bakery in the West Village, Patisserie Claude, that my dad sometimes stops at to pick up tasty treats for us. "Tasty treats" is the understatement of understatements, by the way.

Chocolate chestnut cake:


Cappuccino mousse with brulée topping:


Apple tarte tatin:


Heaven, pure and simple. We split each dessert three ways.


When I got home, Ari was finished with work so we decided to make it a movie night (part II, for me). We watched Atlantic City, with Burt Lancaster and Susan Sarandon (and Wally Shawn in a cameo as a waiter). It's gritty, grimy, and wonderful.


This morning I had another PB&J breakfast cookie. It started off as a peace sign but ended up looking more like a flower...


1/2 cup oats
1/2 scoop protein powder
1 tbsp peanut butter
1/4 cup skim milk
1/2 sunkist orange
1 tsp + extra strawberry jam for garnish
dried fruit (craisins, currants, apricot, dates)

I also ripped off a hunk of Anadama bread.


I had a large coffee with skim on the subway; it was too much liquid for me so early in the morning (well... at 11 AM) so I only had half.


I got all the way to the gym (about a 45 minute subway ride in the opposite direction from both of my apartments) only to discover I had left one sneaker at home. Whoops! I went chez maman et papa to do a 20 minute detox flow from Yoga Downloads so at least I could do something active.

Picked up some staples at the grocery store...


This was my first experiment with butternut squash fries. TASTY.


I made a very voluminous salad for lunch.


baby arugula
1 chopped apple
chik'n strips (Morningstar Farms)
cherry tomatoes
raw green beans
dressing (fig infused vinegar, EVOO, grey poupon mustard)


I'm off to go play with Greg, then hopefully cook something scrumptious. I'm on my own for dinner tonight (movies! empty kitchen! debauchery!), so I'll try to think up something fun.

Have a lovely evening!

8 comments:

Unknown said...

those desserts look scrumptious! I hope you enjoyed them :)
I love your lunch of butternut squash fries and a pretty salad!!! Which had some amazing ingredients by the way, missy.
Yay for YogaDownloads! You know how I feel about that site and yoga :)
Have a great afternoon, doll.

LizNoVeggieGirl said...

Fabulous desserts, bread - lovely!!

Hope your day is going well!!


I sent you an email a little bit ago; but in case you don't receive it, here's basically what it said, haha:


**Just as a heads up: I will not be able to comment on blogs as often now, during this semester, due to work overload (I'm stressed already) - PLEASE know that I'm still loyally reading, but just won't have time to comment. I hope you understand!!

Anonymous said...

What a wonderful evening and delicious meal! Right up my alley!

Sorry, but I had to laugh that you showed up at the gym with only one shoe. I would have been so exasperated!

Have a fun night flying solo!

Anonymous said...

everything looks so good, especially those desserts. holy cow!

haha sorry about your missing shoe, that is totally something i would do.

Anonymous said...

What a funnn night with your parents....seriously, eating dinner on a tray in front of a tv or movie is one of my FAVORITE things :D

Laura said...

Cute story about the bread!

Those do look like tasty treats! I feel like I need to make another trip to NYC sometime soon.

Anonymous said...

Wow, yummy desserts! Hope you had a wonderful day!

K from ksgoodeats said...

Um, yes so any leftovers from that dinner feel free to send to MI ;)

Glad you like the bnut squash fries!!