Cod In Spicy Tomato Sauce

My most recent version wasn't the typical version of this recipe, since the cauliflower we had turned out not to be usable, so we had to improvise with broccoli instead. (Which worked fine!) But this is a really good one. How does one go about making it, you might ask? Well:

• Cut enough cauliflower (or broccoli) for your party into florets, quickly blanch. 
• Season cod (or other whitefish filets) with salt and pepper.
• Heat a little olive oil in a 12 inch skillet over medium heat.
• OPTIONAL BUT REALLY GOOD: mince an anchovy or two and put into the oil at this stage.
• Add the cauliflower, sautee for a few minutes. 
• Add a minced shallot and a minced jalapeno pepper, saute for a couple more minutes.
• Add a clove or three (I would say the latter) of garlic, saute for 30 seconds of so.
• Add several fresh tomatoes (if in season) or a can (14 or 28 ox/ depending on the amount of fish) of high-quality canned tomatoes, diced either way.  Let them cook down for a couple minutes.
• Add the fish, cook on each side until done, which will depend on the thickness of the filets.  Don't overcook.  If you're cooking for 4 or more, you might have to remove the cauliflower with a slotted spoon before adding the fish; you don't want to crowd the pan.  

Simple, and really good.   Serve it with a green salad dressed with a lemony vinagrette.  

Spring!

You know it is spring around here when the Jim's Tastee Freez opens up again! We tend to think that the Kurver Kreme is a little overrated. We haven't been to all the places in the area (we still want to visit On the Farm in Latham), but we really like the Tastee Freez.

My husband loves the Boston Shake (see also Mr. Dave's post from three years ago - probably where Scott got the idea to try it to begin with), which is vanilla soft serve in a chocolate shake. On this particular day, they had pistachio soft serve. I can't be sure that any real pistachios were included in the concoction, but it was refreshing and delicious with a nice mild flavor. I'll never understand why pistachio flavored things have to be green. I was raised with green pistachio pudding, and then eventually went to Belgium where their amazing white pistachio ice cream sort of blew my mind. But this green stuff made into a marshmallow sundae - I also enjoy.

Working on a college campus means another thing for spring and that is lots of seniors graduating. There's a lot of anxiety and general unease in the air. By contrast, I've been feeling life is very simple lately. People shouldn't over think it. Just go with it. Your life is what you do while you do it. Like when you get married and say "I do" - you aren't just saying you will, you are saying you do - like an action - like go do it, like love and life are verbs. That isn't really an answer to a graduating college senior who asks "How do you know things will turn out ok?" You don't, but there is ice cream at least.

Talking about Troy

I'm feeling really hopeful about the future of Troy nowadays. Back last year when the Pioneer Co-op closed, I wasn't feeling as hopeful. I have a friend who used to shop there who now walks across the bridge to use the Watervliet Price Chopper (its not their best location). I really feel that things are looking up though, and not in a way like realtors have been saying that Long Island City in Queens has been looking up for the last ten years - where they build luxury condos assuming other businesses will follow, and they never seem to (unless you want to count the gentlemen's clubs under the subway tracks).

• The Troy Farmer's Market is great. Next week is the first week they are going to be outside, and as a bonus they are also going to keep things going an hour later (untill 2). They are also adding a twilight market on Friday nights. Some of our favorites at the market include: Danascara Cheese, Pika's Farm Table (I really like to throw a couple of their quiches in the freezer for times when we don't have anything for dinner), and The Berry Patch (this winter I was particularly fond of the blue hubbard squash). I do have to say I've gotten a little bored of the winter market and the focus on cheese, potatoes, and snacks, so I was really excited to see some vendors advertising fiddleheads for next week. 

• The Arts Center of the Capital Region seems like a really positive space for the community. I have a gift certificate there I have been waiting to cash in on Embroidery Basics taught by the proprietor of  Anchor 5 Boutique on a day when I'm not traveling for work. They have all sorts of classes though from memoir writing, to stained glass panel making, to Chinese cooking. My Yoko Ono Appreciator's group had a drawing we did in a show called "Text as Art". We had it set up so people could add to the drawing while it was installed in the show.

 We took the students down to do a Yoko instruction piece called "Walk on a Painting", in which we took our drawing down from the gallery, stomped on it, got the audience to stomp on it, and then hung it back up. It was a lot of fun. Also, St. Rose professor Kate Laity read some amazing poetry and talked about her piece in the show. It wasn't a huge turnout, but it was a great vibe, and the students had never been to Troy before and were really impressed.

• We went to the Illium Cafe this weekend and really enjoyed it. They have unusual things on their menu like scallops quesadillas and pork belly and crab omelets. I also thought this high protein salad sounded really interesting: "gigante white bean salad, peppers, capers, carrots, romaine lettuce, arugula, locally produced black truffle infused cows milk cheese and crispy onions topped with a fried egg and lavender-balsamic vinaigrette". I got a breakfast sandwich with ham and swiss on a croissant, and Scott got the Parisian Omelet ("shaved ham, gruyere cheese, sauteed spinach and chevre"). We both really enjoyed what we got and couldn't believe we hadn't come sooner. Some of our friends are huge fans and others have mixed reviews, so it was great to finally try it ourselves. Jen is Green went there recently too. 

• The Charles F. Lucas Confectionery & Wine Bar is fabulous. Everyone loves it. It is a fabulous space, they have Finger Lakes Riesling on tap - what more could you want? Oh great cheese and some venison on the side? They have that too. I can't wait to see the positive influence I know they are going to have on Troy in general.

•  Some Girls is my new favorite clothing store. It is so, so well curated, and it isn't like you are going to want to buy everything in the store (although I bought quite a bit this weekend)- but you can look at pieces and imagine that there would be a person or event right for them. We talked to the owner quite a bit this weekend, and she said "Why can't Troy be as cool as Hudson?" That doesn't seem to be that high of a bar actually, but I took my friends from out of town to Hudson as a day trip and they loved it, so maybe she means something like that - a cool place with great restaurants and a happening arts scene that you can take out of town visitors for an afternoon and they won't be bored or let down or feel unsafe. 

So, I think things are looking up for Troy. There is something for me especially about loving the Confectionery so much and hearing that more and more people love it too, that makes me feel especially optimistic. I sort of like all those Uncle Sam statues too.

Tara Kitchen: "Pure Joy"

Cheryl Clark definitely speaks the truth about the Tara Kitchen here. The tagines there are remarkably flavorful, and I also love the atmosphere. One one the best food values in the Capital Region. The chicken with preserved lemon and olives pictured in the photo is what I had, and it was remarkably good.

Business Trips and Housewives

I was in Michigan last week on my way to a work errand in Chicago, and my grandfather said to me at his 90th birthday party "How can you stand to live in a place you aren't from?"

It was an interesting question. He was asking me about my new-ish job and Saratoga, and I said to him "I think you can like many places".  I've taken to this new theory nowadays that there can be several happy endings to everyone's stories, instead of only one. Perhaps life is less fated, and more "Choose Your Own Adventure". 

I went to Chicago where I met up with some friends of ours who are originally from the San Francisco area and moved to Albany around the same time we did. We went to a Starbucks that serves wine (what? what? see for yourself below! It was great fun actually!)

They talked about the difficulty of moving to a new area, the difficulty of making friends, finding work, and fostering a sense of community. They didn't seem to like Chicago as much as they thought they would. I actually ate at three Rick Bayless restaurants on my entire trip (including Xoco which was fabulous). Mexican food seems to be taking over. An art handler I met from San Francisco said the tacos have been better in the Windy City in recent years than in the Bay Area.

I sat on the shores of Lake Michigan my final day there and called my dad. Great Lakes vacations were an important aspect of my childhood, so much that I wanted to have "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" as our father/daughter dance (to my surprise no one else got the charm of it!).

It was interesting to sit on the side of a lake opposite my home state, with my grandfather's question still pinging around in the back of my mind.

Upon coming back, my boss and I had an interesting discussion about my friends' lack of friends in Chicago, and we came to the conclusion that you can't force true friendship anywhere - it just happens. I wonder that with places too - you either feel like you fit or you don't, and you can in fact fit into multiple places. I've heard people make arguments about this area, and say there is more of a sense of community in Brooklyn, or more tight knit neighborhoods in Manhattan (neither of which I agree with). I will say that so much about how you fit in somewhere has to do with you - making an effort, being yourself - but sometimes there are factors you can't control. Sometimes it works or it doesn't.

With that, I'll leave you with some trashy and awesome things. When I lived in NYC, and the second "Sex and the City" movie came out I didn't really want to see it, but I secretly wished I had a gaggle of tackily dressed women to go see it with. What I can say to my grandfather is that I might not be from Albany, but I have people willing to come watch Season 8 Premiere of the "Real Housewives of Orange County" with me and eat these awesome high heeled cupcakes I made. I think in some convoluted way, that is the answer to his question.  For fun, you can check out my feelings about having moved here that I wrote around this time last year. And check out my cupcakes!

31st Birthday Celebration

I know you are dying to hear about what I did for my birthday. Like any good birthday, I dragged it out to a birthday week and a half.

First, it turns out that I share my birthday with Yoko Ono. I have, funny enough, been attending a Yoko Appreciators Group, Air Talk and they instructed all the members to bring in anything they could imagine to decorate a cake with. I bake a tie-dyed chiffon cake with cream cheese icing. The whole thing became way more riduculous than you could ever imagine.

 

Did my coworker find a picture of me on the internet and glue it into John and Yoko's bed-in? Yes, yes she did! That seems like some kind of love right there. 

On my birthday, I went to work. My boss handed me some delicious homemade triple chocolate cookies at lunch, which was way sweet of her. I was feeling very contemplative and tried to imagine what I could say I learned in 31 years. I think most of all, things change in life. You might define who you think you are based on which group of friends you feel a part of, which hobbies you are spending your time pursuing, where you are from, or where you live. There's a million things I could have done or thought about doing. When I say to my boss that I once wanted to become a history professor or a computer animator, she says "It is never too late". And that is true, but in another way naturally in life you close doors as you choose things. Who you are becomes what is possible for you, or what is right in front of you at the moment. For me, weirdly enough, what always feels the most real are things I did when I was a teenager. That must at least partially account for my obsession with all things Beverly Hills, 90210 and Forever 21. But I wasn't just an average kid from Midwestern affluent suburbs - I had plaid Doc Martens and shoes with flames on them. I was voted "Next Picasso", was vegan for a year, and I would spend days tracking down spiked bracelets. I dyed my hair blue with food coloring and pierced my ears with unsterilized safety pins (ah!). When I watched "10 Things I Hate About You" (1999) I was most decidedly the Julia Stiles character. What can we get from that? Well partially since that was a time when the internet held a lesser role in everyone's lives - that the internet is not real life, and just as when you were a teenager you could call someone on the phone and ask them to go to the mall with you, direct communication is still the best. My boss said this week "I always wondered if I would forget what it felt like to be 25, and I never did". I found that interesting. We get cars, houses, careers, yet somehow we are just the previous versions of ourselves added together. In some way, I'm still the 9 year old with a roller skating birthday party at Bonaventure with an awesome black and white polka dotted outfit, the 14 year old with plaid pants meant for an 80 year old man who read books about reggae and made crazy art projects, and the 25 year old with the mattress directly on the floor of my NYC apartment who loved equally documentaries about major historical figures and Britney Spears. In some way, I've left bits of my heart in every place I've spent time (including Williamstown). My goal for my 31st year is to be most authentically me. I'm not exactly sure what that means, but perhaps to feel free to be equal parts slightly goofy, creative, not overly stressed, and my own type of intellectual. I am sure you are wondering what else I did for my birthday.

 My husband and I had a completely low key, cozy and delicious birthday dinner at Cafe Cappriccio. We had the beans and greens. I had a mushroom pizza. The server was totally adorable and put a candle in my coconut chocolate gelato. I got some great presents and felt really lucky.

Then for the real celebration! Two of my most beloved friends from Michigan took the train out. Really, people are like works on art in that they are all truly unique and what you like about one person isn't necessarily replicated by anyone else in the entire world. I think this is something most people think about their most favorite friends.

I showed them all around and then we went to the Bears steakhouse with Deanna Fox and my friend Julie and her husband. This place was great all around. It wasn't easy to find (both Google and OnStar were wrong), but that just added to the suspense.

We got the Chateaubriand for three and the prime rib for four, but the seven of us didn't come close to finishing everything.

It was all fabulous, and I couldn't have imagined a better birthday celebration. To top it all off, Deanna baked us a lovely spice cake with cream cheese frosting.

Most Ridiculous Bear Cake Decorating Party

I sometimes have ridiculous ideas that I talk about doing forever and sometimes they actually make their way into reality. I totally think my friend Sandy is a genius, a butter and sugar genius that is - which is of course the best kind. She has a business called Chaos and Buttercream, where she manages to make cakes that are delicious, creative, and beautiful. Ever since I bought my bear cake pan, Sandy and I have said "Do you know what would be awesome? If we made a whole army of bear cakes and invited everyone we knew to decorate them!" Who knew we would actually do it! I'll also mention that I am going to the Bear's Steakhouse for my birthday in a couple weeks, so this is all a way of building bear related excitement for me.

Here are the bare bears starting out:

What was awesome about it was how different everyone's was from each other and how creative everyone was. This is mine:

Hello Kitty bear:

psychedelic bear:

coy bear:

gender confused hipster bear:

And here they are altogether:

So much fun! My new coworkers and I are totally obsessed with the Saratoga Paint and Sip Studio (and it's $900 price tag for a Saturday night private party!). So Sandy and I imagine we could charge a fortune to teach Saratoga socialites how to make bear cakes. Or maybe even horse cakes! Isn't that what this picture in missing?

 

 

We thought cake decorating parties could be tons of fun for office retreats too as a team building exercise. Or at least just future get togethers with our same friends, every weekend all different types of awesome cakes!