Livia N – Page 86 – no counterspace

*a little background*
So you all know Lord of the Rings, right? And you know that gatherings of Ents were called ent moots, of course. Well, so, some friends of mine (all fans of the movies (books too, but we met on account of the movies) made by Peter Jackson. Those sure were some beautiful movies) used to have monthly gatherings so that they could cook for friends and have lively fannish dinner conversations. This is a post about one of those gatherings.

~*~

I love moot so much. I ended up sneaking into this month’s moot just because I couldn’t stay away (and needed to procrastinate a paper, but we won’t talk about that). And I love the hosts: [redacted], [redacted], and Molly (Cause, hah!, you live there, now!).

Okay… so the decision making process involved in going down there was a wee bit insane, but the great part of being there Friday night was going to the Farmer’s Market on Saturday. I tell yah – next time I might bring a cooler. I have butter! Butter that has flavour and taste and infinite sexiness. I was lusting over the heavy cream, but it would never have survived the 2 1/2 hour drive in the baking sun. I did almost leave my butter behind, but I remembered before I got on the highway and before the other evil people stole it and turned it into sammiches.

So here’s where I brag about the awesome cookliness of [redacted-host] –

Lunch was around 2:30ish. Two kinds of pasta – carbonara and an awesome meaty & mushroomy sauce. OMG, I need the carbonara recipe – so good. With bread! A huge loaf of bread! And some of the butter of joy – and butter of garlic – and oil. but not all at the same time.

Canapes:
The ever-excellent mushroom schtuff in a pastry thingy
dill pancakes with lemon creme fraiche and lox
Savoury shortbread with feta and pesto
Shrimps on skewers (kinda scampi-ish)

MMmmmmm

And then there was dinner – which we all kind of looked at with only marginal interest because we had been slightly indiscreet at lunch, but still – so good!

Lil nut crusted goat cheese circles, salad-ish goodness, and more bread!

Poached salmon with an incredibly rich and orgasmic sauce (orange and saffron sabayon).

Then we voted to skip the chicken course.

Ices – it was a lemon ginger ice that started to burn after about four spoonfuls.

Dessert was mostly the marvelous fresh strawberries from the farmers market with fresh whipped cream and chocolate sauce (which [redacted-living with hosts] made to just the perfect consistency. But there was also bread pudding with caramelly nut sauce and a raisin sauce.

Wow… so full.

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And then I came home and called up [redacted-ex] so that I could twist her arm into trying the “rabbit” I had thawed. Turns out that it most likely really is rabbit… an easier guess to make when I realized that the meat still had bones (argh!). The back legs were longer and more muscled than the front legs. If it were a dog, it would have had to be some kind of wee little thing like a Maltese or some such. Instead of trying to do anything civilized like cutting all the meat off, I just took it apart, grabbed the meat off the ribcage and then pitched those bones because they looked like they would have been awkward, and then split the spine in a couple points to make for smaller pieces. Then I made this recipe, Rabbit with Mustard Sauce, and I think it turned out quite well. My food aesthetics tell me that I probably should have made rice to put it on, but otherwise, all went well.

Cooking tip of the day: When you have to mix cornstarch with water, don’t fiddle around with a bowl and a whisk – just put the water and cornstarch in a small jar and shake.

So I saved the extra sauce because it was so tasty. What am I going to do with this rich mustard sauce (rich, wow, it tasted like there were egg yolks in it!)? My only idea so far is putting it over/in a mushroom rissotto.

~*~

Food for people in the area –

There is a dinner with speakers on Darfur

Will We Let Darfur Be the Next Rwanda?

The White Dog Cafe
June 20, 2005
Table Talk Dinner 6 PM

3420 Sansom Street
Call 215-386-9224 for Reservations

Honor U.N. World Refugee Day
Presenting speakers from The Darfur Alert! Coalition:

Dr. Jerry Ehrlich, a local pediatrician, who treated children in refugee camps in Darfur, Sudan with Doctors Without Borders will show slides and discuss life in the camps and children’s drawings depicting the brutality they survived.

Dr. Ibrahim Imam, a medical doctor, an immigrant from northern Darfur and a member of the Western Sudanese Association will provide historical context for understanding the genocide in Darfur and also discuss his experience as a medical examiner of massacre sites in Darfur .

Stephanie Nyombayire, a Rwandan and a student at Swarthmore College and an active member of Swarthmore Sudan and the Genocide Intervention Fund, recently traveled to the eastern border of Chad where 200,000 Darfurians have taken refuge. She will speak about genocide in Rwanda, what she witnessed in the refugee camps in Chad and Swarthmore’s 100 Days of Action Campaign. www.genocideinterventionfund.org

Rev. Isaac Miller, the rector of The Church of the Advocate and a founding member of The Darfur Alert! Coalition will describe the necessity of taking action now and specify what we can do to stop the killing in Darfur and get relief for the refugees.

Table Talks at 6 PM include a three course dinner, followed by the speakers and discussion from 7:30 – 9 PM. $38/person includes tax and gratuity. Reservations with advance payment required by giving a credit card number over the phone or by sending a check.
Senior citizens (over 65) and full time students: $30 with advanced notification. Student stand-by: Call between 4 – 5:30pm the day of the event for $20 dinner at 6pm.

Call 215-386-9224 for Reservations

Darfur Alert! a Philadelphia area coalition, focuses on the tragedy of the Darfur people, and alerts the community to act on their behalf.

~*~

Anyone want to join me for the University City Dining Days? There are several places on the $20 and $25 lists that appeal:

University City restaurants will participate in a special dining extravaganza Wednesday, June 23- Thursday, June 30, 2005. The promotion will offer three-course special dinners at the lower-than-usual prix-fixe prices of $20, $25 and $30 at various University City restaurants. Participating restaurants include:

$20
Dahlak
Marathon
Smokey Joes
Cavanaugh’s

$25
Abbraccio
Bubble House
Rx
Ecco Qui
Vientiane Cafe
World Cafe Live
Restaurant School
Zocalo Restaurant

$30
LaTerrasse
Marigold
Nan
New Deck (two dine)
Penne Restaurant and Wine Bar
Strikes Bowling Lounge (two dine)
White Dog Cafe

Prices are for dinner only and do not include tax, gratuity or alcohol. Reservations are recommended and should be made directly through the participating restaurant. For more information, visit http://www.ucityphila.org.

Nestle Signature Treasures – Creamy Caramel:
If you bite off the two ends, then you can suck out the caramel center with a *pop* and then eat the hollow chocolate repository.

Kit Kats:
So you snap off a single strip. Again, bite off the thick chocolate at the two narrow ends. Then, bite gently from the top, and you can lift off each crispy wafer individually and nibble on it one layer at a time.

Bananas:
So there’s the sexy way to eat bananas… and the straightfoward way… and then there is my way. y’see bananas come in (6) sections. If you break of a half or a third of the banana, you can persuade the sections to separate. It is almost impossible, however, to separate out an individual section, instead you have to eat them three by three or two by two by two.

M&Ms:
To the best of my knowledge, every librarian has an anal retentive system for eating M&Ms, so this isn’t that strange… but I eat them in color order, in sets of twos (one for each side of my mouth)… if I have an odd number for a color, the last one gets bitten in half… dark brown, orange, yellow, red, blue, green. And I am all excited about the dark M&Ms.

Oreos:
Again, everyone has a routine for eating oreos… but I don’t know anyone outside my family who tries for a naked middle. Seriously. We were doing this back when we were three. You need to start with a double stuff, because the regular ones just don’t have enough middle to support the proceedure. Then… twist off one cookie. Eat it. Then you try to eat all the rest of the other cookie off of the stuffing until you have a naked middle — this is very difficult and requires much practice. Now you try it.