"Sunday Dinner" written by Jbeatty on estrip.org

10/14/07 05:45 - 56ºF - ID#41650

Sunday Dinner

For the past couple of weeks I have been drooling over Rue Franklin's fall menu. It all sounds so delicious, but considering they aren't open on Sunday and I wanted to cook it myself, I decided to make an Autumn French meal. I was going to do a three course, but I thought that sounded a bit extravagant for just me. Plus I didn't really have the time to make an Apple Galette on top of the other two things I was cooking. I took both of the recipes from Anthony Bourdain's Les Halles Cookbook. Which I highly recommend for anyone who likes classic French Bistro cooking with a bit of unrefined commentary from the writer.

For the first course I made a pot of Onion Soup. This recipe includes lots of onions obviously, port, balsamic vinegar, a heart attack inducing amount of butter, slab bacon (which Wegmans does not have freaking have!), bouquet garni, crouton, and a mound of Gruyere. I find any dish that requires me to use a butane torch is all that much more pleasurable to make. I have a really shitty gas broiler in my dwelling and the torch is necessary to get that nice brown on the cheese.

Second course was Coquilles St Jacques. Basically this dish is dry scallops, again a ton of butter (this is French food after all), more heavy cream than a human should consume in one sitting, Fumet, shallots, chives and some champagne.

Both of these dishes are quite simple to make. The hardest part really is getting my crummy equipment to cooperate. It's a real PTA to get that nice brown color on my scallops with a beat up sauté pan and gas range that just doesn't put out the required amount of Btu's for the job.

john writes at 10:47:52 10/28/07 - Comment #27113: I love that cookbook. I haven't made anything out of it in ages, though.

Hmmm... Didn't I make those scallops last Thanksgiving? I'm having a hard time remembering because I was really sick that whole week. That sucked. Hopefully this year will be better. I need to remember to dig out the real cold weather clothes before we fly up...

joshua writes at 12:58:33 10/16/07 - Comment #26357: Damn. I want that cookbook - Bourdain is a hero of mine.

lauren writes at 11:43:26 10/15/07 - Comment #26291: jbeatty who ARE you and why aren't you at MY house on sunday night cooking me dinner!?

imk2 writes at 11:00:30 10/14/07 - Comment #26278: jbeatty, please, pleeeeease invite me over for dinner?????

james writes at 09:34:30 10/14/07 - Comment #26272: calamari rings and okra

tinypliny writes at 07:59:00 10/14/07 - Comment #26269: It looks pretty delicious. You are a true chef. :)

Fake chef that I am, I am sure I would die of guilt eating so much butter. I really envy you, because I often shortchange all my dishes. I bend and hammer recipés so that I can get the butter out. In fact, my kitchen often does not have butter or sugar. In spite of the many exhortations from my mum/dad to cook "true", I wander all along the substitute path and innovate with not-so-great results. But I am good at pretending that all that butter-cutting has resulted in an awesome dinner and ooh and ah over things which have barely a tsp of oil and would taste like crap to normal people. :)

Oh well. Maybe I should change my substituting ways...

jbeatty writes at 07:48:10 10/14/07 - Comment #26267: (e:paul) Thank you! it turned out well.

(e:jim) Sounds like a plan, except for the fact that I live in a shoebox that could only accommodate maybe five people if we crammed in.

(e:james) What does a typical post briss dinner menu consist of?

james writes at 06:48:43 10/14/07 - Comment #26260: Will you cater our dog's briss?

paul writes at 06:27:25 10/14/07 - Comment #26257: Damn, that looks so yummy, fantastico.

jim writes at 05:55:54 10/14/07 - Comment #26252: I think the next (e:strip) dinner will be at your house. You don't mind cooking for 20 people do you?

Permalink: Sunday_Dinner.html
Words: 307
Location: Buffalo, NY

10/13/07 12:49 - 54ºF - ID#41626

Sportsmanlike hockey fight

Whoever said fighting in hockey was unsportsmanlike?

Permalink: Sportsmanlike_hockey_fight.html
Words: 9
Location: Buffalo, NY

10/11/07 04:08 - 58ºF - ID#41601

College makes me laugh

As a whole college students are smart enough to learn and understand advanced concepts in numerous subjects...

Apparently we haven't quite figured out how to use a fucking microwave.

john writes at 10:30:00 10/28/07 - Comment #27111: Everyone has their "duh" moments. I started a fire in the microwave once. I walked down the street in the middle of winter to buy a couple slices of pizza, and instead of doing the intelligent thing and eating them there, I carried them home in the cold and then tossed the bag in the microwave, forgetting that the slices were wrapped in foil. The foil sparked and the bag caught on fire. Luckily I was standing there so I could stop the thing, pull the slices out and stick them on a plate before they burned up.

metalpeter writes at 07:55:19 10/12/07 - Comment #26193: I think the reason that sign is there is cause you allways here that so it kinda sounds like an urban legend. I'm sure people have gone to reheat chinesse food or something with a twist tie and not known it metal and sparks fly everywhere or forget and leave a fork on there plate. If the sign is there then something like that must have happened at least a couple times.

janelle writes at 11:21:52 10/11/07 - Comment #26145: They probably had one too many students learn that lesson the hard way.

lauren writes at 07:31:22 10/11/07 - Comment #26134: But but but...I though microwaves were kinda like duct tape, they can fix anything!

james writes at 06:20:14 10/11/07 - Comment #26131: I love that about college.

1) you study the most useless, academic stuff.

2) you are in an environment with people with no real obligations and no supervision.

a real formula for learning the intimate details of cellular biology while simultaneously getting a meth addiction.

carolinian writes at 05:12:22 10/11/07 - Comment #26125: Nor have they figured out that aluminum is a metal.

ladycroft writes at 04:52:34 10/11/07 - Comment #26124: oh oh oh!!! i just bought a new phone here a few weeks ago. as i was trying to find the page on where to load my sim card, i came across the following warning:

"do not dry phone in microwave"

Permalink: College_makes_me_laugh.html
Words: 30
Location: Buffalo, NY

10/09/07 11:22 - 73ºF - ID#41558

Video Games Live

I just found this today on youtube. It's pretty cool, somebody has orchestrated a bunch of old games and set it to a video. Apparently the Buffalo Philharmonic will be performing it this Sunday

. Selections include Mario Brothers, Zelda, Tron and Final Fantasy. I would like to go but not certain I want to cough up $29 to see it especially since Rollins is tonight, the New Pornographers are next week Pat Metheny Trio is coming to Buffalo in two weeks. Sorry the video is kinda crappy but you get the idea.

Permalink: Video_Games_Live.html
Words: 100
Location: Buffalo, NY

10/07/07 06:55 - 74ºF - ID#41543

The Fruits of Southeat Asia

mangosteens on the left, rambutans on the right

I don't recall what these were called, but I needed lots of water after eating one

One of two Durians I devoured

You can almost smell the goodness

Permalink: The_Fruits_of_Southeat_Asia.html
Words: 44
Location: Buffalo, NY

10/07/07 03:26 - 65ºF - ID#41536

Sunday Afternoon

After yesterday's fungi adventure I had a craving for some mushrooms in my dinner. This morning I found this recipe

from Lidia Bastianich for Bucatini with Chantrelles, Spring Peas, and Prosciutto. I watched her make it a couple years ago on PBS and it looked fantastic. I hit a few obstacles along the way however, apparently Wegmans pasta selection sucks and they don't have Bucatini, so I reluctantly substituted it with Spagettini. Chantrelles are also quite expensive, although not the same price point as Iranian Caviar, but the recipe called for a pound of them and at $20/lb I opted for oyster mushrooms instead. Despite my flagrant butchering of the original recipe it turned out pretty good, although next time I will use regular peas instead of sugar snap peas. I have no idea if this recipe is Tuscan but I had it with a cheap bottle of Chianti and some Tuscan bread. Allegedly this serves 6 people but I would guess more like 8. This was much better than the typical lunches I had this week, which was pretty much just olives, havarti and apple cider.

I love Sundays because I actually have time to cook. It's probably one of the most relaxing things in the world. Taking a couple hours to buy the ingredients and tackle the prep list is therapeutic really. It has to be awesome to be a chef in some great restaurant and have some of the rarest, most delicious ingredients at your disposal. I suppose if this whole school thing at UB doesn't work out I will just move to NY and go to culinary school like I should have 10 years ago.

Permalink: Sunday_Afternoon.html
Words: 287
Location: Buffalo, NY

10/06/07 01:40 - 70ºF - ID#41520

Mushroom Hunting

I went to Delaware Park today to complete a Bio assignment. Actually it was for extra credit, but I could certainly use an extra 10 points averaged into my lab grade. I had to collect different species of Fungi for 1 point each. I found eleven that seemed to be different species, but I suppose I will find out Thursday. It was a pretty nice out when I got there about 11:30am. By the time I left around 1pm, I was soaked head to toe and had dirt halfway up my shins. But I still had fun, it's a nice park but really disappointing to find trash all over the place. It always seems to be shit like empty steel reserve bottles, lottery tickets, and McDonald's bags. I guess it tells you the kind of scum that don't really care to keep the park looking nice. I also found someone's drivers license and state benefit card lying on the ground. I did my good deed for the day and mailed it to him when I got home. I left my return address off though in case he thinks I nicked his wallet.

I feel like a dealer

Permalink: Mushroom_Hunting.html
Words: 197
Location: Buffalo, NY

10/05/07 11:24 - 62ºF - ID#41504

For your viewing pleasure

I blame my brother for my love of older British TV, except for Doctor Who, I really don't like that show much. But I love this show the Young Ones and particularly like this episode that Madness was on.

Permalink: For_your_viewing_pleasure.html
Words: 40
Location: Buffalo, NY

09/29/07 08:03 - 49ºF - ID#41395

Love my neighbors

This morning at about 1am I was awakened to obnoxiously loud forced laughing and screaming. It was the neighbors children and their friends being slightly too loud. I thought whatever...all part of living in this neighborhood I suppose. At about 1:30 one of the drunk assholes decided to chase one of the girls around my parking lot. I watched most of this unfold, I went back to bed and heard several bottles breaking. A few minutes later the guy in my building was screaming at them about how he called the cops, which I doubt ever showed up.

When I awoke at 7am I decided to clean part of the mess that was nearest my and my fellow tenants vehicles. I bagged the shards of alcho-pop bottle, wrote a note and left if on said neighbors porch. Now that I think about it I should have scattered it behind their car.

Permalink: Love_my_neighbors.html
Words: 153
Location: Buffalo, NY

09/28/07 08:44 - 60ºF - ID#41388

UB: 2 - James: nil

Today is a day I would like to forget. I had one quiz and two exams. I know that I really did shitty on all of them. I was banking on the calc exam sucking, but the bio exam was much harder than I was prepared for. I have the feeling of defeat right now. I almost want to curl up into a ball and buy a lotto ticket. I'm not accustomed to doing poorly on exams, so I suppose that I need to get my ass in gear and start studying harder. I have been blaming UB for my lack of understanding in my classes. I still think my calc prof sucks. But in another sense I feel like I'm being a pussy. I suppose this is one of those moments where I really need a god, a dog, or a girlfriend. Tomorrow is my physics exam. I feel somewhat ready for it, but after today I have no preconceived notions of how easy it will be. If I fuck this exam up tomorrow I am going to be so pissed at myself for being a lazy piece of shit.

jbeatty writes at 09:26:39 09/30/07 - Comment #25538: Terry would should definitely do that. I am so bad at calc. I will do my best with O-chem for you, but don't ask me about molecular orbital theory, because it has never made sense to me.

metalpeter writes at 02:20:00 09/29/07 - Comment #25462: I have never been to UB , but I have heard that it isn't really a good learning school, that they are a great research school and even teaching school, again not sure if this is true. What I will say is that you learn in different ways in a class 1) The teacher and in class stuff 2) Reading the book 3) Projects, homework or even research for those. The key is know how you remember things the best is sounds to me like you might remember things that are said the best. That is why having a bad teacher effects you. The point I'm making is that how ever you remember stuff the best is the form you should use to study your information. I admit I have no idea how to find out you learning style. Calculus and physics I only took at the Regents High School level and cant remember much of it. The only thing that I do remember is that you had to have Calculus to take Physics, I guess because if you didn't have the math skills to do the work in physics but I don't remember there being that much math in it. On a side note maybe you did better on the tests then you thought that does happen some times.

fellyconnelly writes at 07:41:14 09/29/07 - Comment #25440: calculus. biochemistry. physics. three things in life that are so beyond me i'm suprised i spelled them correctly.

drew writes at 10:06:21 09/28/07 - Comment #25426: You can borrow my God or my dog. I'm no help with the girlfriend.

jenks writes at 09:58:32 09/28/07 - Comment #25422: yuck, there's not much worse than that 'fuck. I just bombed that test' feeling. The only good thing, is that often I find it didn't go as badly as I thought it did. I have ONE test a year. The same test every year, no less. You would think I could study decently for it.

Apparently I can't.

Good luck tomorrow.

terry writes at 09:10:27 09/28/07 - Comment #25412: we should have a study date or something. I took the Bio you're in and you took the Chem I'm in... Can't say as I'd be awful helpful at Calculus, since it departed my brain eons ago...but who knows...