Boeuf Bourguignon, or, The True Tale of How I Ate Cow: Part I

Posted on January 21, 2010 by admin_admin

I. Cooked. Beef.

And ate it.

This is a very big deal.

Growing up with a vegetarian mama, I literally never ate beef in my life until a few years ago when I finally (lamely) rebelled by eating a bite of my then-boyfriend’s McDonald’s Quarter Pounder with Cheese. And it was really good. Clearly McDonald’s puts crack in their food because actual quality bites of beef that I occasionally stole from friends’ plates didn’t do it for me in the same way, and as a result I figured I just didn’t like beef that much.

Until I did a three day juice fast this December to recover from Thanksgiving and for three days I craved beef. THREE DAYS. Beef! What?!

Yeah, this stuff.

www.aimmeats.com/

From these cuties.

http://worthyourweight.files.wordpress.com/2008/08/cows.jpg

So after several days of resisting this craving with extremely incredible willpower, I went to the Spotted Pig for dinner, which is a fantastic gastropub in NYC, and as the fates would have it their special that night was a 13 ounce New York Strip steak with bone marrow sauce. Screw it, I said. I’m at the Spotted Pig and I’m going to try steak, and the bone marrow sauce will be an meat-eating bonus for my bona fides. I figured I would eat half and take the rest home; no no – I ate THE WHOLE THING. And could have eaten more. It was incredible. I highly highly highly recommend bone marrow on anything, especially steak after finishing a juice fast, and I highly highly highly recommend steak from the Spotted Pig any time.

http://weblogs.cltv.com/entertainment/tv/metromix/grilled_steak.jpg

I will say, though, I’ve lived in New York almost three years and can’t think of a single time I’ve encountered the “mean/rude New Yorker” stereotype. At the Spotted Pig, I discovered why: they’re ALL there! From girls at the bar who were rude for no reason to asshole investment bankers who seem to think everyone eating dinner around them wants to loudly hear about how many shots they took last night and how many hours they worked last week, it was pretty striking how an expensive/trendy pub atmosphere attracts the jerks.

Anyway, despite the clientele, I loved the food at the Spotted Pig and the next night I got steak in my Chipotle burrito bowl and promptly OD’d on beef for a while. Until I cooked Boeuf Bourguignon….Julia Child’s Boeuf Bourguignon. Part II to come….

Email or Share This Post

Aaaaaahhh….

Posted on January 20, 2010 by admin_admin

I found two bunches of tulips on sale at Whole Foods today.

Flowers make everything better.

Semi-related: I’m back in New York and as I dourly predicted to everyone I know, it started snowing in Jackson Hole in a major way yesterday – i.e. the day I left. Of course, right?! So I’m throwing my hands up and committing myself to major leg workouts and cardio in preparation for heli-skiing in February, as well as ignoring all this wintery stuff and getting back to cooking and dinner parties! I do have a good dinner party story to tell – one that was so unlike me, I’ve had to take the time to process what it really means. I also have a recipe for a shot that will either make you fall in love or gross you out. I think there’s no halfway with that one.

In the meantime, while I’m writing all this for you, flowers will keep a bit of spring in my apartment and add accent colors to each room, and unlike plants, I can change them whenever I like. These make me ridiculously happy :)

Email or Share This Post

Art of Après-Ski

Posted on January 15, 2010 by admin_admin

I’m still in Jackson Hole for meetings – back to New York next week. But wouldn’t it be great if the ski hill looked like this (with me on it)?

www.powdertravel.com/ ski_st_anton.htm

It doesn’t. Our poor mountain is a sheet of ice with only little taunts of an inch or two here and there to pretend like the snow gods have remembered us. A friend said to me he thinks we need the kind of snow that will shut the entire mountain down for a day or two just to get back to where we should be in the middle of January.

Soooo….we’ve been driven to focusing on what some consider the real point of a ski vacation anyway: the fun afterwards. It’s not such a bad thing to start the apres-ski revelry at lunchtime instead of when the lifts close! So here is my recipe for a good apres-ski party:

hot tub (optional)
a gorgeous view
locally brewed beer
really good tequila for shots between beers
jam band and/or bluegrass tunes
a guy who calls people “brah” and brags about hucking it off a sick lip into the gnar
an expert skier who won’t talk about the crazy things he’s done unless you ask
extreme skiing/snowboarding videos on the tv
a big fire in the fireplace
comfortable shoes
a ride home

Mix. Repeat.

Email or Share This Post

Brunch and Pub Crawling on Vacation

Posted on December 31, 2009 by admin_admin

Things happen later when you’re on vacation. Like brunch that my sister and her boyfriend meant to start 11:30am yesterday actually started at 1:30pm. No matter – I’m a lover of breakfast foods any time of the day. Pancakes, scrambled eggs, fruit salad and turkey sausage taste just as amazing after noon.

I threw together my mom’s various placemats and accoutrements – it’s fun setting the table with someone else’s stuff; like I got to go shopping and come up with all new color schemes. Ridiculous things such as this make me happy ;)

Anita, our octogenarian dog, wore her Christmas sweater – which seriously has the ugliest color scheme, like whoever knitted it just used all the leftover yarn and threw it together in a haphazard pattern. But they were being sold to support the humane society and was the last one left, so what can you do. Plus, she is a dog. She doesn’t care.

And the food was classic.

mosaic5eb5c6e70095d55e75097e19f3bc2d7ac5ebdfc6

We got going late because the night before we inaugurated the first annual Griswold Family Christmas Vacation Pub Crawl, themed after the paradigmatic movie National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, which is possibly the funniest Christmas movie ever made.

Xmasvac

There were two standout costumes that deserve publicity:

Continue reading →

Email or Share This Post

Santa-Con in NYC

Posted on December 24, 2009 by admin_admin

I walked down to Washington Square Park last week to get a book for school and saw one Santa…then another…then ten and twenty more, all filled with both adult beverages and the holiday spirit, and dressed in varying degrees of Santa gear. I eventually saw someone selling t-shirts that said “SantaCon 2009” and realized it was another great New York meetup for no reason at all except the awesomeness of a thousand people all dressed like Santa. It was like walking into an alternate universe of Santas and I loved every second of it! I had been so annoyed with myself for not getting this stupid book earlier, but instead I spent the whole walk blessing my lazy geniusness.

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

Email or Share This Post

Slowdown

Posted on December 11, 2009 by admin_admin

With friends visiting, finals and the recent passing of my grandmother, it’s been a roller coaster around here and I’ve had to slow down my posts a little bit. I’ll be in California next week without steady internet access, so I’m lining up some great posts for you guys, including a few guest posts from a great friend and better writer that you’ll love. I’ll be back to daily posting the week after – when I’ll be on vacation in Jackson Hole with nothing to do but cook, snowboard, après-ski, and dream up yummy menus and gorgeous decor inspirations! I’m really looking forward to that.

Dad and I in Jackson on a bluebird day

I also want to say welcome to all the visitors who came over from my dad’s investing blog, Phil Town. Rule #1 is Don’t Lose Money, and I hope my ideas for inexpensive entertaining and cooking at home help you keep a little more of your money to invest.

Email or Share This Post