It’s Furious Balancing

One of my co-workers is an excellent cook, and she doesn’t skimp on the butter and cheese.  When I decided to do a rib roast for Christmas dinner, I knew I wanted a calorie-laden, decadent potato recipe to go along with the (pretty basic) roast meat.   She says she’s prepared this several times and that it’s a 5-star recipe.

I believe this comes from Cook’s Country magazine.  The photocopied recipe I have doesn’t say, but I’m pretty sure that’s the source.

Delmonico Potato Casserole

• 3 Tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 onion, chopped fine
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 2½ cups heavy cream
• 1½ cups low sodium chicken broth
• 2½ pounds Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and cut into ½-inch cubes
• ⅛ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
• Salt and pepper
• 1 teaspoon grated zest and 2 teaspoons juice from 1 lemon
• 5 cups frozen shredded hash brown potatoes, thawed and patted dry with paper towels
• ¾ cup grated Parmesan cheese
• ¼ cup finely chopped fresh chives

1. Adjust oven rack to upper-middle position and heat oven to 450 degrees.  Melt 1 Tablespoon butter in Dutch Oven over medium-high heat.  Cook onion until softened, about 3 minutes.  Stir in garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds.  Stir in 2 cups cream, 1 cup broth, Yukon Golds, nutmeg, 2 teaspoons salt, and 1 teaspoon pepper.  Bring to boil, then reduce heat to medium and simmer until potatoes are translucent at edges and mixture is slightly thickened, about 10 minutes.  Off heat, stir in lemon zest and juice.
2. Transfer potato mixture to 13 x 9 inch baking dish and bake until bubbling around edges and surface is just golden, about 20 minutes.  Meanwhile, melt remaining butter (2 Tablespoons) in large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat.  Cook shredded potatoes until beginning to brown, about 2 minutes.  Add remaining cream (½ cup), remaining broth (½ cup) and ½ teaspoon pepper to skillet and cook, stirring occasionally, until liquid has evaporated, about 3 minutes.  Off heat, stir in ½ cup cheese and 2 Tablespoons chives.
3. Remove baking dish from oven and top with shredded potato mixture.  Sprinkle with remaining cheese (¼ cup) and continue to bake until top is golden brown, about 20 minutes.  Let cool 15 minutes.  Sprinkle with remaining chives. Serve.

The recipe also states that this can be made ahead through Step 1, cooled completely, transferred to baking dish and refrigerated (covered with plastic wrap) for 1 day.  To serve, proceed as directed in Step 2, increasing baking time to 25 – 30 minutes.

One of my favorite poems, holiday season or not.

————————————————————

A cold coming we had of it,
Just the worst time of the year
For a journey, and such a long journey:
The ways deep and the weather sharp,
The very dead of winter.
And the camels galled, sore-footed, refractory,
Lying down in the melting snow.
There were times when we regretted
The summer palaces on slopes, the terraces,
And the silken girls bringing sherbet.
Then the camel men cursing and grumbling
And running away, and wanting their liquor and women,
And the night-fires going out, and the lack of shelters,
And the cities dirty and the towns unfriendly
And the villages dirty and charging high prices:
A hard time we had of it.
At the end we preferred to travel all night,
Sleeping in snatches,
With the voices singing in our ears, saying
That this was all folly.

Then at dawn we came down to a temperate valley,
Wet, below the snow line, smelling of vegetation;
With a running stream and a water mill beating the darkness,
And three trees on the low sky,
And an old white horse galloped away in the meadow.
Then we came to a tavern with vine-leaves over the lintel,
Six hands at an open door dicing for pieces of silver,
And feet kicking the empty wineskins.
But there was no information, and so we continued
And arrived at evening, not a moment too soon
Finding the place; it was (you may say) satisfactory.

All this was a long time ago, I remember,
And I would do it again, but set down
This set down
This: were we led all that way for
Birth or Death? There was a Birth, certainly,
We had evidence and no doubt. I had seen birth and death,
But had thought they were different; this Birth was
Hard and bitter agony for us, like Death, our death.
We returned to our places, these Kingdoms,
But no longer at ease here, in the old dispensation,
With an alien people clutching their gods.
I should be glad of another death.

While my absence from blogging primarily is due to a heavy work load at the office, knitting under a deadline, and not a few problems with my home computer, I am, for the most part, Doing Quite Well — at least as far as my depression is concerned.  I enjoy the dark, cold winter nights.   I crawl into my den with my books, cats, yarn, and computer games, and I am Very Content Indeed — happily and cozily cocooned.

There’s a passage in Moby Dick, when Ishmael and Queequeg are under the covers at the boarding house, prior to their sailing on The Pequod, which describes this comforting warmth and well-being perfectly:

We felt very nice and snug, the more so since it was chilly out of doors; indeed out of bedclothes too, seeing that there was no fire in the room.  The more so, I say, because truly to enjoy bodily warmth, some small part of you must be cold, for there is no quality in this world that is not what it is merely by contrast….[I]f like Queequeg and me in the bed, the tip of you nose or the crown of your head be slightly chilled, why then, indeed, in general consciousness you feel most delightfully and unmistakably warm….[T]he height of this sort of deliciousness is to have nothing but the blanket between you and your snugness and the cold of the outer air.  Then there you lie like the one warm spark in the heart of an arctic crystal.

No Seasonal Affective Disorder here, thankyouverymuch, at least not the “normal” kind.

We have a Christmas tree up for the first time in two years.  Two Christmases ago, I lost Gregor and I had new kittens to care for.  Last Christmas, a combination of Teh Husband’s work and mine (and a few bouts with head colds) kept us from doing much.  This year I finally have the energy for a little celebration and relaxation.

I am officially off work until Monday, December 29th.  I know it might not seem like much to some of you, but to me, I have four consecutive days of freedom and pleasure.  No traveling.  No relatives.  No must-attend parties.  No Christmas shopping.  No craziness.  I have four days to call my own and I have no intention of doing anything I don’t feel like doing.  I think the most stressful activity will be doing the grocery shopping tomorrow to get the missing odds and ends for our Christmas Day Feast.

Le Menu (so far)

Foolproof Rib Roast. Teh Husband and I are going out in the morning to pick up a 6-pound standing rib roast at Knight’s Market.

Steamed Asparagus with Real Hollandaise Sauce. This involves whisking egg yolks and lemon juice over a double boiler as you incrementally add melted butter, whisking, whisking, whisking all the way.  There is no comparison between Real Hollandaise and That Blender Crap.

Delmonico Potato Casserole. If you’re nice to me, I’ll type out the recipe.  The recipes I found online for Delmonico Potatoes left a lot to be desired.  One even called for — I kid you not — cubed processed cheese food. I’m certain there is a time and a place for cubed processed cheese food, but my Christmas Day Feast is not it.

An As-Yet-to-Be-Determined Dessert. Maybe.  Teh Husband picked up the Williams-Sonoma Peppermint Bark for me today, and I’m satisfied to call that our dessert.  This is assuming I don’t eat it all in the next 36 hours.

More later, cats and kittens.

More in a little while…

These are screenshots of Laiane, Elven Ranger, in Dragon Age: Origins.    I’ll do a longer post when I’ve played a bit more and have a better feel for the game.

I’ve been chewing on two ideas for blog posts.

One post would be a righteously indignant screed concerning the utter stupidity of the public and the media in their interpretations of the latest recommendations on mammograms for women between the ages of 40 and 49.  Honestly, people; get a grip.

I threw that idea out because I really don’t have the energy for righteous indignation right now.

The other idea for a post was how I find myself thinking more and more about my own mortality.

I have to point out — here and now — that this has nothing to do with my chronic depression or chronic pain, nor is it anything suicidal.  I’m not getting all emo-gothy-weird — I don’t have the wardrobe for it.  I’ve just been thinking thinking, and I feel myself Running Out of Time.

I have seen the moment of my greatness flicker,
And I have seen the eternal Footman hold my coat, and snicker

There is so much I want to see and do and experience; it’s really not so much of a memento mori thing as it is a sic transit gloria mundi thing.

In any event, that’s where my head is — for what its’ worth — and I’ve just reminded myself that I really need to get around to reading the annotated The Waste Land that’s been sitting on my to-be-read bookshelf for the past twelve months.

Damn.

I better get up on that.

“But I don’t want to go among mad people,” Alice remarked.

“Oh, you can’t help that,” said the Cat. “We’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad.”

“How do you know I’m mad?” said Alice.

“You must be,” said the Cat, “otherwise you wouldn’t have come here.”

I’ve been working on a stealth knitting project for the past week, and I finally get to write the FO post since it was given to the Birthday Girl  this morning. She loves it.

Pattern: Scrunchable Scarf by Susan McCone (KnitList)

Yarn: Rowan Kidsilk Aura, Color 750 (Ivory), 2 balls

Needles: U.S. Size 8/5.0mm

Size: After blocking, approximately 4″ by 48″

A very easy pattern, and it’s the yarn that really sets the scarf apart as special.  Unfortunately, it doesn’t photograph that well.  The silk gives it a lovely sheen and the mohair has wonderful loft.

The thought I had as I was knitting this was that it would be a perfect scarf to wear for a “special occasion” evening.

It was graciously received.  It was given to a co-worker who has watched me knit for a few years; she knows how happy it makes me to work with high-quality yarn.

I hope I got all the cat hair out of it before I gave it to her…

One of my cousins is a veterinary student at Virginia Tech.  She had a Facebook status update yesterday about the dedication of the Law Enforcement K-9 Memorial at the campus.  She was surprised, as was I, at the number of dogs killed by “friendly fire” in the line of duty.  One commenter then mentioned bullet-proof vests and I found  a non-profit organization dedicated to providing vests to these dogs.

Vest ‘N P.D.P. is able to use 97% to 99% of the donations to purchase vests since the head of the organization pays her own travel expenses.  All donations are tax-deductible and you can donate via PayPal. 

I can easily pass on  buying that next skein of yarn I think I “absolutely have to have” and send in a few bucks.  I not a “dog person,” but these dogs deserve to be protected.

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

I feel like that wet cat at the moment, but I’ll spare you all the whining. Enjoy your Caturday, cats and kittens!

There was an interesting news blurb today.  Broadband Internet access, as of July 2010, will become a legal right in Finland.

I was going to say that I would smooch Suvi Lindén, the Minister of Communications, but I discovered that Suvi is a lady and I’m hopelessly heterosexual.

Hell, I would smooch her anyway.

Teh Husband and I occasionally fantasize about where we would retire.  I have several non-negotiable requirements:

1. Urban.
2. Decent lattes.  Please note that Starbucks is not “decent” by any stretch of the imagination. I’m talking independently-owned local cafés, cats and kittens.
3. High-speed Internet access.
4. It can’t be anyplace that has 10 months of summer a year, or unbearable heat in general, or insufferable amounts of sunlight.
5. It has to be in a Blue State.  I encourage you to follow that link.  Not only does it show a “regular” map of the US, it also shows cartogram versions rescaled by population.

Well, I think Helsinki might trump Paris now. French coffee is simply not for me, and I’m hearing grumbles and rumbles about their Internet “three strikes” policy.

Finland!  Beautiful Finland! The Fish Slapping Dance!  The Majestic Moose!  No, wait, that was Sweden…

If anyone knows about the quality of lattes in Finland, please let me know.

As I was walking to my usual Wednesday evening manicure appointment, a young woman passed me on the street and said, “I like your Noro Striped Scarf.”

I stopped and we had a quick chit-chat about how we love Noro Silk Garden and how addictive those Noro scarves are to make, and then she mentioned she worked at the LYS and how they had just gotten in a new shipment of Silk Garden and how I wish she hadn’t had mentioned that since it’s payday tomorrow and how she understood that feeling since that’s where her own paycheck went and how she had enough yarn to last her a solid year of knitting but, hey, it was good insulation for the upcoming winter, right?

You never know when you will run into another knitter.