Out and About

Posted by Stephanie Meyer on Sep 21, 2009 at 4:50pm

Disjointed food preparation this last week, although not completely unsuccessful.  I don’t think I planned one meal ahead, which is not my usual, and actually makes me feel completely whacked out.  Even if I take two minutes with my calendar before I head to bed, it makes me feel like I know where the next day is going.  For some reason, I completely lost my groove last week, and we ate all over the board.  And much less healthfully, no surprise there – healthy eating requires planning.  There are only so many egg-with-salad dinners (my last-minute, go-to healthy din) that I can eat in one week!

The week’s hightlight was, once again, the lounge at La Belle Vie, this time with Suz to celebrate her birthday.  Perfection, as always, sigh.  Those damn lamb burgers, I truly crave them.  Juicy/greasy, thankfully small, with yogurt sauce and a slice of spicy pepper, piled on a pillowy little homemade bun, argh.  So good.  But equally as good is the mache/artichoke salad, the greens served atop a pool of Moroccan-seasoned yogurt, studded with salty olives, and perhaps crispy lemon rind (?) – it’s to die for.  Suz and I even had a couple of gentlemen send us a drink.  Do I have to admit that the dudes were portly and 70-something?  Fine, the dudes were portly and 70-something.  To their credit, one also sent his card, which simply said, “Just Say Maybe.”  I laughed, it was very good, and they didn’t bug us, so it all worked out just fine.  Except, as my sister noted, there used to be a day when dudes of that age wouldn’t bother sending a drink, cuz they didn’t think they had a chance.  Right.

Last night, after chuckling at this article in the Sunday NYTimes, and given the frozen pork tenderloin in my freezer, and given my no-dinner-plan dinner plan, I made these Restaurant-Style Chops (albeit with, er, pork tenderloin).  I didn’t do the polenta, since no one else in the house likes polenta (ugh), but made risotto instead.  The pork was tasty – a little over-the-top perhaps, with maple-glazed pork AND maple-glazed nuts AND maple-glazed apples AND candied ginger (OK, that’s very over-the-top), but the maple glaze is actually rather subtle, so it works.  But honestly, the risotto stole the show.  I just made a basic version, with a bit of cream stirred in with the cheese and butter, and please.  I remembered quite quickly why I never make risotto – moderate it is not.  But it sure is tasty…

Tonight, we’re off to Brasa (my first trip) for Andrew Zimmern’s book launch party.  Stay tuned

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