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I'll Take Manhattan

Last week when I posted about my husband's perfect Manhattan - what I didn't post was the recipe for it.

I'm still apologizing to so many people for that -

So, to redeem myself, here goes:

This is for one drink - double everything for two.

First, you need 2 oz of Rye.  We are fans of Bulleit.  If you don't have, or can't find Rye, Bourbon will do.  (Personally, I'm a fan of a Rye Bourbon combo - but I'm not a purist like my husband...)

Then you need sweet Vermouth - 1 oz:

I just realized that in these pictures my husband is making 2 drinks.  I'm going to stick with my recipe for one though - mK?

Next - the all important Maraschino Cherry.  Drop one in the bottom of your glass along with a smidge of cherry marinating liquid.

Get yourself some ice in your shaker

And shake that puppy up.

That's all there is to it.  

Now, excuse me, I need to drink it while it's still ice cold.  

It's Good to Go Retro

You wanna know what that is?

THAT, my friend, is a perfect manhattan.  She's a beauty, isn't she?  This is what my husband had waiting for me when I got home after a long weekend of talking about writing at the Philadelphia Stories Conference.  Yes, I had a glass of wine at the final cocktail party, which was cold and good - but coming home to a super icy one of these babies is exactly what the doctor ordered.  (Mixed cocktails = mixed metaphors - everyone knows that)

It's so perfectly shaken you can't even see the lovely little maraschino cherry nestled at the bottom. 

Do you want to know what goes great with a perfectly shaken manhattan with a lovely little maraschino cherry nestled at the bottom?

This:

That's right - Jane's Krazy Mixed-Up Salt.  You know what I love about this stuff?  They got the apostrophe right, yet still went with the "K" instead of the "C" in "KRAZY" If that doesn't scream 1970s I don't know what does. 

That's because it's retro man!  Just like my perfect little manhattan served in my wee cocktail glass I bought last year at the flea market.

Right now we are having a Jane's renaissance in our household.  I didn't realized how much I missed this seasoning until I started using it again.  Mixed-up salt was our go-to seasoning in the 1970s when I was a (extremely little, seriously, very young) kid.  We called it Krazy-Janes and it had pride of place on the avocado green lazy-Susan in the middle of the dinner table.  I have no idea why we stopped using it.  There's nothing at all in it that offends: salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder and "herbs".  Recently I found it on the spice shelf at Acme - and now we put it on everything.  Forget that $14 jar of fleur- de - sel!  Krazy-Jane's is about $1.99 and lasts forever!

And can I tell you something else about Krazy-Jane's?  It hales from Overbrook PA - Is that the same Overbrook that is less than a mile from my home?  I don't know, but I hope so.  Click on "Overbrook" to see the most charming picture of Krazy-Jane's creator Jane Semans.  

Jane's is good on everything - scrambled eggs, lasagne, roasted chicken, bacon.  (Of course, bacon!) - but this is what I consumed when I got home, a little parched, a little peckish from a weekend talking about writing:

Perfect manhattan, heirloom tomato, goat cheese, water cracker and a sprinkling of Krazy Jane's.  Comfort, man, that's what it's all about.

Vegan! (except for the bacon)

I feel like I've written posts like this before.  I so want to be vegan - I do! Really! It seems so virtuous - so healthy - like all my past sins will be atoned for if I could just eat kale and tumeric not much else...

Then I open the freezer and I find the Wegman's bacon I stashed there in July just before our European Vacation and I loose all control.  Before I know it, I'm defrosting it in the microwave and heating the cast iron skillet in a 400 degree oven...

It was a beautiful evening at the farmer's market.  The organic veggie farmer and I discussed the stunning Swiss chard, with it's emerald city leaves and citron stem.  He had garlic too - and an heirloom style tomato, and oh-my-god: Swiss chard pesto spaghetti with a fresh tomato sliced on top.  I couldn't get home fast enough.

Roughly chopped chard, dropped into the Cuisinart, along with a small handful of cilantro I happened to have.  3 cloves of rough chopped fresh garlic.  Half a lemon squeezed in, half a lime, 1/4 cup of olive oil, pinch of sea salt, two or three grinds of pepper and a pinch of sugar to cut the bitterness.  Whirred it all up.

I thought it was great.

Smith took a taste - and he was - polite- but not enthusiastic.

That's when I heard the call of the bacon.

The thing to do is to cook the bacon in your big cast iron skillet then take the bacon out, let it drain on a paper towel, and when your pasta's ready, drain it and drop it into the skillet to soak up all that beautiful bacon fat.  Then stir in the pesto, slice the tomato and throw it on top.  Almost vegan!  Seriously! Almost!

Finish it with another pinch of fleur de sel and a dash of really good balsamic vinegar.  You won't regret the bacon.  Chard and bacon kind of cancel each other out - don't they?  I think they do.

Dairy and Tree Nut Free PESTO with cauliflower and roasted Cauliflower (or, the best meal I've made this week...)

It's difficult to convey how high this is -
however, this is the highest shelf in my
kitchen.  I also feel I need to let you know
I am 5'2"

A Cuisinart food processor is a very large appliance when you have a smallish kitchen.  I've seen people who have actual "sheds" for this appliance - little cubbies with roll-down fronts kind of like old fashioned roll-top desks.  Others have fancy-pants lower cabinets with a little lift that magically glides the heavy Cuisinart from the lower shelf to a spot that's counter level.  But I do not have such a kitchen.  I have a simple apple green kitchen with butcher block counters and my Cuisinart stays out on said counters for weeks at a time until I get sick of looking at it at which point I take it apart and stick it in an upper cabinet because clearly if I haven't used it in weeks, I'm not going to use it for more weeks.  The damn thing is heavy and the only free cabinet space for it is way up high and involves a step stool.  Yesterday, I put it away.  Today, I thought of a recipe and needed to use it.

Isn't that always the way it is?

Sigh.

One of the more difficult thing about being a dairy and tree nut/seed free home is proper basil pesto.  I do make basil/olive oil/garlic pesto - and it's fine - but I miss that wonderful grittiness that parmesan and pine nuts add.  Without them, well, it's just sauce.

So I was thinking about it this afternoon when I should have been grading papers.  And it suddenly occurred to me that I could get that grittiness if I used uncooked cauliflower or broccoli.  Not a lot - but you know how when you chop cauliflower up for roasting and there's always these little bits left, too small for the roasting pan, but it kills you to throw them away, because it's horrible to waste that much food but unless you let the dog eat it, how else are you going to use it?

Well, I propose that you scrap all that yumminess up and deposit it right into that Cuisinart you just struggled to get down from that upper shelf.

Then add some garlic and basil, maybe a little cilantro and some lemon juice and spin it up  and throw it on top of some pasta and you will have some pesto that is a lot like the traditional kind - but without all the things that gives your 16 year old daughter violent stomach aches and hives.

YUM - but - I know what you're thinking - what about the rest of that large head of cauliflower?  You toss it with olive oil and sea salt and a turn or two of pepper and roast it of course.  While it's roasting, prepare your pesto, cook your pasta, put it all together in a bowl and


 ta-da!

One of my most favorite meals this month:

Here's the recipe:

1 clove of garlic
1 large bunch of basil (about 2 cups of leaves)
1/2 a bunch of cilantro (about 1 cup - stems removed)
1 large head of cauliflower chopped into large pieces except for 1/4 cup of florets chopped very small and all the little crumbly bits left on your cutting board
juice from 1/2 large lemon or 1 small lemon
1 tsp of sea salt (or to taste)
black pepper to taste

1/3 cup  + 2 TBLSP of extra virgin olive oil

1 lb of spaghetti or angel hair pasta

Preheat your oven to 450 degrees.

Put a very large pot of salted water on the stove to boil for the pasta.

Toss cut cauliflower (except for the 1/4 cup of small pieces) with 2 TBLSP of olive oil and a pinch of sea salt and a turn or two of pepper from a pepper mill and put them on a jelly roll pan lined with parchment, or into a large cast iron skillet and put into the oven for 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, place the cauliflower bits, garlic clove, basil, cilantro, lemon juice, salt and pepper in the Cuisinart and whir it all up until it is smooth.  (Stop and scrape down the sides if need be.)  When the pasta is cooked, drain it reserving about 1/4 cup of pasta water.  Return pasta to pot, add the pesto and the pasta water and stir until everything is all incorporated.  Put the pasta and pesto in a bowl and top with your roasted cauliflower.  Season to taste - and squeeze a little lemon on top if you like.

Everyone loved it tonight - and it was truly one of the best dinners we had in a long while.  (It's been a tough semester...)