Tuesday, February 14, 2006

Not Feelin' Romantic

I had planned to blog about a sexy dinner for two, where all the food was in shades of pink, white and red.
I had, in fact, already made three of the dishes on separate occasions, photographed them, and eaten them.
Well, one of them I didn't photograph or eat, and it is my civic duty as a food blogger to warn you solidly against ever trying to stain raw oysters with beet juice. They ended up looking like spleens. So creepy, we threw them out.
Beet juice is a good stain for other dishes, though, like the pork broth with tofu cubes and scallion slices. A pinch of hot pepper and a couple of minutes with a dried red jamaica (hibiscus) blossom for some tartness (I had hoped the jamaica would also tint the broth red, but it got a little purplish, so beet juice to the rescue). The soup was served with a salad of wild miners' lettuce, perfect little heart-shaped leaves...
Then there was the shrimp in a pink sauce, served over a melange of red and white rice. The rice needed some rethinking; probably should cook the two varieties separately. But I was thrilled with the sauce (I used coconut milk with the tomato sauce instead of cow cream).
However, no. Maybe later.
This whole cheese sandwich thing has got me into a state of less-than-thrilled-ness with food blogging.
Even so! It is Valentine's Day. And I do have cheese on the mind.
So. Feast your eyes on what we feasted on for lunch:
Cypress Grove Amour Chevre. We thought it was just a gimmick, but it turned out to be very, very good, with a mild rind, oozy-buttery interior, and a surprise of a tangy, cakey center (where it wasn't as ripe as the outer part). Three flavors in one. Recommended.
With bread.

20 comments:

rand said...

I am laughing hard over your header and I love the conversation hearts. Thanks for the smile.

cookiecrumb said...

Hey, you're Kalyn's brother! Hi!
xx

Mona said...

Nice! My romantic meal today involved barbecue with Swimster and A LOT OF IT!
Love that cheese, it looks delicious.
And how did you find those candy hearts? :)
Happy Valentine's Day Madeata' !!

cookiecrumb said...

Barbecue can be romantic! xxx
Candy hearts: I swiped the image from a Web site and smacked on some fake type. OK, I'm a pirate. Aarrgh!
HVD, you two!

Passionate Eater said...

Technically, because you added something new to the picture, you also added artistic value, and are thus not a pirate! Borrowing liberally from the web is totally justified.

Jennifer Maiser said...

Eewww - red oysters, change the subject! You may ask why I am blogging at 9.45 on V-Day eve. The BF left for a work trip at 6 this morning. And here's the secret: I kind of like being alone. :)

The hearts made me laugh because I have a visual of you working on that in photoshop ... pretty damn funny.

Kalyn Denny said...

Very clever. My brother asked me if I had seen it, so I had to visit! I'm starting "The Cheese Sandwich Chronicles" today. Just could not wait, the anticipation was killing me. Have you seen Kitchenmage? Every good protest needs a t-shirt and she has them.

(So inconvenient having to go teach school when all this fun is happening.)

rae said...

oh cookiecrumb, the image of beet-stained raw oysters makes me giggle for some reason. it's just so wrong! wish you'd snapped a pic...

cookiecrumb said...

PE: Thank you for easing my conscience! (It was a religious site I swiped it from, no less, so you can imagine my guilty tremors.) :P (not)

Jennifer: (I like being alone too.) My copy of Photoshop stopped working (and I never even got close to learning it), so I just used dopey ol' Print Shop. Very limited. But I had fun!

Kalyn: I know! I haven't had this much fun since the Eat Local Challenge!

Rae: Believe me, you DID NOT want to see them. I was hoping for a glorious maraschino red, and I got lung tissue instead. Very wrong. :D

Guy said...

MmMMmMm, lung.

When I was a boy of maybe around 11 or so, my father took me fishing up in the delta. We rented a boat and got ourselves some of those brackish clams for bait. See, the deal is, you take out the clammy meat and set it on the rail of your boat. After a while, the sun will toughen them up a bit and they'll stay on the hook longer.
As fishing trips usually go and this one was no different. You spend most of the day lolling about, day dreaming, relaxing and talking about basically nothing. The other thing you get to do is watch the clams bake in the sun, smell them rotting in the hot august delta sun.
When anyone remotely even mentions a mullusk I'm transported back and can clearly see the old, peeling forest green paint on the sides of the boat and the clams resting there for hours, cooking away.
Cain't do it, spleen color or no. I'm a freak. A tall red headed freak, but a freak nonetheless.
I NEED MORE COFFEE.

Biggles

Anonymous said...

Wonderful descriptions, Cooks --

And I love the comment from Biggles. Wonder if watching a clam cook on the side of a boat is the equivalent of watching paint dry?

Nevertheless, his fishing trip tale is evocative and funny.

Michelle said...

I made the mistake of drinking a glass of water while I started to read your blog...then promptly spit all over my computer imagining you looking disdainly at your little oyster spleens! Hopefully that cheese will sway you away from thinking about Mr. Awful Tasting Cheese Sandwich Guy and regain your muse!

Dagny said...

Cheese is always a good thing.

cookiecrumb said...

Poor Biggles! Forever ruined on bivalves. (I may be too, myself, now.)

Kevin said...

CC,

Why are you so bummed about the sandwich thing?

And I saw some of that Amour Chevre today and passed it by. Now I think I'll go back and see if they still have it.

cookiecrumb said...

Kevin: Good question. Actually, there's been a local food-blog tempest going on (read about it here), that, combined with the F&W article, just got me questioning the value of food blogs.
Then I made a goofy picture of Valentine's candy and cheered up.
Maybe I was bummed because the oysters were so appalling.

cookiecrumb said...

And let me know what you think of the cheese, if you find it. I'm amazed Cypress Grove found its way to your neck of the woods. (Oh god, what if I'm a terrible cheese judge and I'm misleading you? Blog anxiety! Again.)

MizD said...

Nonono, this whole week is about freeing yourself from Blog Anxiety!

Think of it as a sort of cheesy (get it?) Up With People thing.

I still love oysters, even if they look like bloodless spleens.

Guy said...

Neat, I'm evocative and funny.

I'VE MADE IT !!!

Now what? We've been thinking relocating to another state where the housing prices are lower. I really should be taking some cooking classes like what Sam has been talking about, I feel stale. I'd love to travel to another country, but don't feel ready (no money or time). I'd more than love to take some classes in carpentry, it's always been something I've been interested in. I'm one of those people that could measure 3 times and literally get it wrong each and every time. Besides, if I could do carpentry, I could do all kinds of fancy upgrades to the house fer cheap, makes sense.
While I recite my options, I believe I will retire to the child free living room and see what my eye lids look like from the backside.

Tootles!

cookiecrumb said...

Yeah, you're evocative, funny, and sleepin'.
If you do move, don't go before we get together again. I mean, y'know, not "together" an' stuff.
Feh. Spleen.
Night-night.