If you don't have plans tonight....

Tonight there will be no cooking because my short play goes up at The Flea Theater with 4 other short plays. Read about it here. It's a part of "Two Evenings of Pataplays" (one of which was last night).

Patty Montesi directed it (as always) and she's great. This is our fifth collaboration as director and playwright (which seems a little crazy to me). It features Miyoko Conley, Elizabeth Romanski, Eva Visco, Kelvin Ortega and Mark Turetsky.

The Flea Theater
41 White St
Friday, July 18 at 7 p.m.

Oh sweet summer ice cream

This is a good one, my friends. Even Meredith, who doesn't like store bought mint ice cream, liked this. The fresh mint is delicious and who doesn't love chocolate? Or ice cream? Try it.

Fresh Mint Ice Cream with Chocolate Chunks - adapted from Serious Eats

6 large egg yolks
3/4 cup sugar
2 cups whole milk
2 cups fresh mint leaves, loosely packed
1 cup heavy cream
4 ounces semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped

Before I start, look at how yellow these egg yolks are - cage free organic eggs, you are my long lost friend.


1. Whisk egg yolks with 1/2 cup sugar.


2. Heat whole milk, 1/4 cup sugar and mint over low heat. Here it is.


3. Ladle 1/2 cup of the milk mixture into the egg yolks, whisking constantly. You don't want your eggs to scramble. That would not be right. Mix it slowly into the pan and cook over low heat, stirring a lot. Here it is again.


4. Strain the solids out. Here are the solids.


And here's the mixture! Cool it in the fridge until it's completely chilled. Cover it with plastic wrap - I like to press it down into the mixture so that it doesn't make a weird skin.


5. Freeze in your ice cream maker! Mix in the chocolate right at the end of the freezing process. Put in the freezer for about 3 hours and eat it. Here's Meredith enjoying it with cake - don't worry, my friends. The cake recipe is coming. And it's good!

Who's Got the Pain When They Do the Mambo?

I would suspect Bob Fosse and Gwen Verdon have got the pain when Jane Krakowski does the mambo in City Center's production of Damn Yankees. Don't get me wrong - she's not horrible in any way. She gets through all the singing and dancing just fine, her leg extending not quite as high as her dancing partners, her voice tiring just a smidge, but she just can't shake the ghost of Gwen Verdon - especially when she's stuck slavishly recreating the show's original choreography. I'm getting a little ahead of myself though - let's back it up.

Damn Yankees, for those of you who don't know, is one of those "classic" musicals from the 1950's. The basic plot is an old (and by old, I mean 50) guy trades his soul to the Devil so that he can be a great baseball player and save his team, the Washington Senators (who eventually went the way of the Brooklyn Dodgers and disappeared), so that they can win the pennant and beat the Yankees. However, he has an "escape clause" that allows him to trade back one day before the season ends. It is just as silly as it sounds.

As far as the current version goes, it's not bad. The dancing shines in numbers like "Shoeless Joe from Hannibal, Mo" and "Two Lost Souls." Basically, any group number looks great. I felt sorry for poor Jane Krakowski though. She's immensely talented (I love her on 30 Rock), but she just can't quite inhabit the character of Lola - particularly when she's dancing. The movement seems inorganic in her body - which makes sense, since it was modeled after Gwen Verdon's specific mannerisms.

Sean Hayes makes an entertaining Devil. He can't quite separate himself from "Jack" on Will & Grace, but I didn't really expect him to, so I wasn't let down. His big number "Those Were the Good Old Days," broke away from the mold and showed off his piano playing, which was a nice surprise.

One thing that really turned me off from the production was the tongue in cheek, wink-wink-nudge-nudge attitude of the whole thing. Yes, the book is silly. Yes, the material is dated. But if that's what you're working with, respect it and try to take it as seriously as it was taken when it was first written. Hey, it worked for South Pacific.

If you enjoy classic musicals and Fosse dancing, by all means, go get a ticket. If not, this is one for you to skip.

and the food continues....

I'm moving on to Parmesan and Prosciutto Stuffed Mushrooms today, folks. Don't they look nice?

I've always been a big fan of stuffed mushrooms, and you could tell, because I always had the same kind out as appetizers at my house. Finally, I think people got a little bored with them (and by people, I mean Meredith), so armed with my trusty Gourmet Cookbook (which I will never have to check out of the library again, I've got a brand spanking new copy of my own, courtesy of Meredith again), I tried this new recipe.

Parmesan and Prosciutto Stuffed Mushrooms, adapted from the Gourmet Cookbook

24 large mushrooms (or so - I bought two packs of baby bellas and called it a day)
4 Tbs Olive Oil
1 large garlic clove, minced)
1/2 cup finely chopped onion
1/2 cup finely chopped prosciutto
1/4 cup fine dry bread crumbs
3 Tbs minced flat leaf parsley
3/4 cup finely grated Parmesan
1 large egg
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper

A note before I start - I took these measurements fairly loosely - which you are welcome to do - or not.

1. Stem your mushrooms - I just rip them out with my hands. I find it very relaxing. Here they are, all separated.


2. Chop up your mushroom stems - here are mine with my onion and garlic.


3. Heat 2 Tbs of oil over medium heat - cook until stems are tender, about 8 minutes. Transfer to a bowl, add the remaining ingredients and mix it up good. Here's mine:


4. Fill your mushrooms and put them on a greased (or tin foil lined) baking sheet (or two as the case may be).


5. Drizzle with remaining oil and sprinkle more cheese on top. Bake for about 20 minutes at 400 degrees. Plate nicely on your new platter from Ikea and enjoy!

And we're back!

Hey guys. Sorry I didn't post this weekend. I was busy cooking up all this:


Looks good, right? That's not even all of it. There's cake and ice cream and appetizers, but one thing at a time, yes? (Plus, I saw Damn Yankees at City Center - we'll get there) I'm starting with the Zucchini Polenta Tart - otherwise known as the thing in the lower right corner of the picture above. I got the recipe here. Love that Clotilde! Oh the French. They are such great cooks.

I also got this handy little gadget from Whole Foods this weekend:


I couldn't find my mandolin and I had my heart set on being able to slice things really thin. And evenly. And I don't have great knife skills, so there was just no way of being able to do this all by myself. Plus, I read this thing about ceramic knifes and I've been obsessed with getting one (I know that this isn't a ceramic knife - but it's close). Plus, it was about $40 cheaper than the mandolin at Whole Foods. Now that I've got that out of the way, here we go:

Zucchini Polenta Tart - adapted from Chocolate and Zucchini

1 cup cornmeal
3 cups chicken broth
as much zucchini as your CSA gave you this week (although honestly, not really because I still had some leftover. Crazy!)
herbs de provence
salt
pepper
olive oil
parmesan cheese

1. Make the polenta! You've seen me do that. Boil your broth, slowly add the polenta, whisk it a lot and let it simmer but not stick. Keep whisking. When it tastes good to you, eat it. Or continue with this recipe. Add some salt and pepper so that it's not too bland.

2. Pour your polenta into a greased 10 inch springform pan. Or just line a regular pan with parchment paper so that the polenta pops out easier. Stick it in an oven heated to 430 degrees for about 15 minutes or until the top turns golden and crusty.


3. Take off the springform sides of the pan and let it bake until the sides get crispy - maybe 5-10 minutes. Then flip it over onto a cookie sheet, take the bottom part of the pan off and bake it until it's crispy and pretty all over. Here's mine, pre-flip.


4. Slice your zucchini super thin with your cool new ceramic gadget.


5. Put the zucchini over low heat with some olive oil, salt, pepper and herbs de provence. Cover and let it cook until the zucchini is cooked through, but not falling apart mush.

5. Put the zucchini on top of the polenta crust and bake it again! Give it ten minutes or so. Then grate some cheese on top and enjoy.

I've been ignoring you...

Sorry, my friends. It's been a big weekend - tons of cooking, I saw Damn Yankees and - the return of my camera cord (plus the loan of Meredith's better camera and cord). So get ready for reviews, recipes and lots of pictures starting tomorrow! I promise.

I love birthday meals

Oh my friends, Blue Hill is amazing. I've never liked vegetables so much.

For those who don't know, Blue Hill is a restaurant that gets all their food from a farm slightly upstate from here - all their veggies, meat, etc - it's grown especially for the restaurant and seasonal and local (and delicious). It goes very well with my local food eating, CSA subscribing, hippie green self of late.

Zack and I headed over to Washington Place in Greenwich Village. We decided to get the tasting menu with wine pairings (the less decisions, the better. Just bring on the food, man). They started with some roasted kale and fresh sugar snap peas. The kale had a tremendous depth of flavor, considering it was one roasted leaf. It was savory and reminded me of dried seaweed. The sugar snap peas were garnished simply with olive oil, salt and mint, and they were so good - I could eat them like candy. Then they brought out some crazy tiny "peaburgers," burgers made of peas instead of meat. They came with fresh butter and arugula salt. They were amazing! Here's a picture that I did not take.


Then the food really started coming. We got "Today's Farm Fresh Egg" poached over some fava beans. I don't know if there is anything better than a really fresh egg, with the yolk all golden and running everywhere and yummy bread to dip in it. It was really good.

Next we got poached hake with fennel and seafood. The seafood ended up being lump crabmeat - best non-Maryland crabmeat ever. The fish was nice and tender, and had the remarkable trick of smelling nice and fishy, but not tasting overly fishy.

Then came three cuts of Berkshire Pork over cracked wheat with peas. Fresh peas? Amazing. Pork? Amazing. Everyone was happy.

We moved on to "cherry soup" with mint ice. The ice was very refreshing and the cherries were not too sweet - it was all texture.

Our final dessert was Blueberries and Lemon Gratin with yogurt sorbet. Take a second to think about the concept of yogurt sorbet. It was very humorous to me. But it tasted great! The lemon gratin was excellent as well - crumbly pastry and creamy lemon.

I'd go back to Blue Hill in a heartbeat. I highly recommend it.