the payoff for my cramped shoulder/neck muscles

What I've been doing all weekend: learning how to create weather in Photoshop.
And the same place, in winter:

eye candy

Various cookies in the window of Junior's in Brooklyn. I left nose marks.

Cakes in the window of Junior's (+ reflections of Flatbush Ave.)

Evening shadows stretch across the Long Meadow in Prospect Park.
Notice the artist with easel on the left side.

a dumpling day, and later, chestnuts

Saturday was the beginning of fall break, and it started out gray and chilly--a dumpling sort of day. Anyone who knows me pretty well knows that I love gyoza--Japanese potsticker dumplings. They are very easy to make, and great party food. Plus, they are not so bad for you, as you use only 2 tblsp oil and can use a lean cut of pork, or substitute ground turkey, chicken, or tofu (though the taste will not be the same). I thought the Bradburys (my family-away-from-family) would like dumplings, so I decided to make them for lunch. I went out and bought round dumpling wrappers from the local asian-food shop.

Pork Gyoza
Equipment: 1 large non-stick pan with lid
Ingredients:
-round rice-flour dumpling wrappers
-filling: 1 bunch scallions, 1 knob ginger root, 1 peeled carrot, ~2 lbs pork (I usually use ground pork, but that was not available so I used two packages of "stir fry pork" and cut it into 1/4" dice), and the leafy part of the Napa cabbage.
-sauce: 1/2 cup soy sauce, 1 tblsp hot sauce, 2 tblsp sweet/sour duck sauce.
Instructions: Finely chop the cabbage and scallion (white part and as most of the tender green part), grate the ginger (peel it first w/a vegetable peeler), shave the carrot into thin strips, dice the pork (or not if using ground pork), and mix it all well in a large bowl. Season with salt and pepper (not too much salt as there will be salt in your sauce).
Prepare your dumpling wrapping station: 1 small bowl of water. Dumpling wrappers. Plate. Get another person to help you. Put a dumpling wrapper on the plate. Dip your finger in the water. Run your wet finger around the inside edge of the dumpling wrapper to make a 1/2" wide damp area. Put a small amount (~tblsp) of filling in the center of the dumpling wrapper. Fold the wrapper in half and pick it up, holding and pressing the wet edges together. Crimp the edges of the wrapper together, pressing firming (to make a fan-like shape, see photo). Add a touch more water if the edges are not sticking. Don't worry if your first efforts are ugly. The important thing is that the filling be contained (no holes). Cover the wrappers if you take a break--they dry out quickly. There will be enough filling to use the whole package of wrappers, plus a little left over.
Mix sauce ingredients in a small bowl.
Cooking: This is easier with a non-stick pan, or better yet, a multi-tiered bamboo steamer. I will assume you do not have a steamer (since if you do you probably know how to make dumplings already). Heat 2 tblsp canola or peanut oil in a large non-stick pan. Adjust heat to medium-high. Add as many dumplings as will fit, leaving 1" of space between dumplings. Immediately jiggle pan and loosen dumplings with a spatula to prevent sticking. Continue jiggling pan frequently for 2 min. to heat dumplings through and coat with oil. Add 1 cup water and cover pan. Steam for 4 minutes, or until dumpling skin is translucent and dumplings have puffed slightly.
Transfer to plate/serve to hungry person(s) and make another batch.
These really are easiest to eat using chopsticks, as forks tear the dumpling skin and the filling spills out.
When I had finished making the dumplings, and had managed to snag a few for myself (they disappeared very quickly), the sun came out. Cindy and I went to the Cornell Orchards and bought apples, paw-paws, and cider (Cornell cider is THE BEST I have ever tasted). I bought some cider and apples for my parents, whose arrival was expected that afternoon. On the way back, we decided to stop at the Plantations Arboretum to see if the chestnuts had dropped. A few weeks ago we saw a woman poking in the leaf litter under these trees, and we asked her what she was doing. She seemed shy and a bit reluctant, but admitted that these were indeed the edible type of chestnuts. "Are they good?" we asked. She paused. "Yes. They are good to eat." She was looking for nuts very earnestly in the pouring rain. We resolved to come back when more nuts were ripe.
Many more nuts had fallen when we went back, but it looked as though a few other people had hunted for them. The husks are too spiny to handle (you'd need thick leather gloves), but the shiny brown nuts easily popped out when we prodded and squished the husks with our feet. Most of the husks on the ground had been similarly squished. The nuts were pretty small, but we gathered about 3 cups of them. Back at the house, I scored the shell of each nut at its pointy end and graded them into larger and smaller batches. Last night we roasted them on a cookie sheet, for 10 minutes in a 400 degree oven. They were delicious. Because they were small, the skin was thin and peeled off easily. They were sweet and had a flavor reminiscent of pistachio nut and winter squash. The flesh was somewhat mealy, but in my experience with chestnuts the flesh is always somewhat mealy.
Note: I should point out that these are chestnuts from the Chinese Chestnut tree (Castanea mollissima). Horse chestnuts (Aesculus hippocastanum) are not for human consumption. Always be SURE of the identity of the tree (if possible verify with an expert) before eating any of its fruit.
The rest of the weekend was really nice. Parents finally arrived after taking "the scenic route" (i.e. getting impressively lost) and we had a late dinner at Moosewood (mmmm dark chocolate ricotta mousse). Sunday I woke them up early, plied them with coffee, tea, and fresh pastries from Ithaca bakery, and whisked them off to Taughannock Falls for a morning hike on the gorge trail. We stopped at the farmers market for a good while, and then to the Bradburys for a luxurious brunch. Peter is the consumate brunch chef. We had pancakes, sausage, bacon, eggs, fruit, coffee, tea, cake, and leftover dumplings. Then everyone digested as I drove to Watkins Glen. My father and Becky took hundreds of photos. It was a brilliant day.

traffic patterns and urban stress

The title of this post could be a metaphor for my current grad school life. Currently in the landscape of Liz, there are

traffic jams (when there is too much work at once and nothing seems to get done fast enough)
flat tires (when I run out of steam and have to take an evening off from work to do nothing more than sleep)
and a few confusing detours to the freeway (changing and then finally settling on my concept two and a half weeks into the studio project).









(click on image to enlarge) I started off the semester with a whirlwind tour through the traffic of Brooklyn, en route to a site visit (see Flatbush Avenue and Grand Army Plaza in Brooklyn, above), and then a wedding. This was appropriate, as it turns out, because traffic is such a huge issue in and around this site. After fighting with the problem of traffic for a couple of weeks (see above), I finally (ah Liz, always learning the hard way) decided to make traffic patterns a key part of my concept, and in fact base my design around traffic flow. This has been really challenging and also exciting, as I previously had not thought about traffic much, aside from it being an annoyance of the first order.
So now I'm all set up to put together a project I'll be proud of... I just need to pull all my current maps, graphs, and plans together for the Midterm Critique next Wednesday. And in between drive to Boston and back for a wedding this weekend. I hope I don't run into that much traffic...

fruitful foraging

Four years ago, before my parents had bought the land where they are now building a new home, I went bushwacking on that property with my dad and my new boyfriend. Unexpectedly, but wonderfully, we found over a pound of black trumpet mushrooms on that outing.
This past weekend, I went with my parents as they met, on the land, with the contractor who is working on the first phase of the house. While they talked with him, I wandered into the woods, curious to see if the mushrooms were growing where they had before. After about 40 mosquito bites and an incident with a blackberry bush, I emerged from the trees with a nice handful of the fragrant brown beauties.

These are not the most attractive mushrooms. They are the exact color of dead leaves, when the leaves are almost to the point of becoming soil. But they smell nutty, wine-y, and richly fungal (in the best sense)--definitely an umami-rich scent. They also retail for $18 a pound, so I am proud to find them in the woods, enough to contribute to a luxurious pasta dish for my mother's birthday dinner.
We also found, given directions by the contractor, a patch of big white polyphore mushrooms, but as we have not eaten these before, we are wary. My parents plan to consult the local mushroom expert.
Aside from foraging for mushrooms, it was a pleasant short visit. It was so nice to wake up on the screened porch and be surrounded by a golden-green forest morning.
As I did not have time to check out the blueberries (aside from the bush next to the dock, see photo), I plan to go back up this coming weekend.



[Note: I have been picking black trumpets and chanterelles since I was about 9 years old. Use caution with wild mushrooms and consult a mushroom book.]

Summer wayfaring

This has not been the best summer.

But.

I am trying to extract from it the best that can be had.

Since mid-June I have been working two jobs, at an outdoor outfitters and a garden center. This is all well and good. I am employed, I have a small amount of money, and I've been able to support myself and help Mike with his grocery bill. The trade-off has been time. Time--I mean having it--is pretty much the essence of summer to me. Summer Time is the special time when one is able to work on random indulgent projects. Not this summer. I've had to scrim and save my time, hoard it and even then there is not enough of it, for my one day off a week is spent on business-type affairs.

BUT.

There have been some good outings.
Over the 4th of July weekend, Mike and I were very unpatriotic. We ran away to Quebec and had a fine time exploring in the botanic garden, attempting to photograph monkeys in the Biodome, and hiking on Mt. Tremblant (a mountain in the Laurentian range home to a swanky ski resort, the "Vail of the East"). Then the following Friday we went to a baseball game. Herewith, some highlights:



Chung, Ellen, & Mike reflected in the windows of the Biodome











A tiny stream with a minuature dock in the Japanese garden area of the Jardin Botanique
















Toadlily














On the main roadway within the Jardin Botanique






















Roseate spoonbill


















Les Ruisseaux/The Streams, Mont Tremblant






















July 10, Red Sox v. Kansas City Royals

















Dear old Fenway.










We got frozen custard and cotton candy. It was a swell time. And our team won!

Adventures in domesticity

Mike and I have been trying to make meals at home more often, to try and save money. It is hard to save money when your nearest grocery store is a Whole Paycheck, but we've been doing our best. Yesterday I upped the ante a little bit, with a smoked salmon, leek, and goat cheese tart, accompanied by caesar salad with caesar dressing made from scratch. I swear, despite the fancy-sounding-ness, this meal was not time-consuming or difficult (or expensive). It would have been even easier, but Whole Paycheck does not carry unsweetened pie dough. I thought a quiche with sugar in the crust would be odd, so I fell back on my time-saving trick of using phyllo pastry. I used my rectangular tart pan. Recipe to follow.
Another food adventure occurred last week, when I was having dinner with my family. My dad requested that I bring up a bottle of white wine from the basement fridge, but there was only one bottle in the fridge. This one:

As you may have guessed from the label, this was a rosé wine. But what a rosé! It tasted like the magic elixir that Mary Poppins gave to Jane and Michael. It tasted like clouds of strawberries and mists of crème de cassis. We all pondered where this mystery wine could have come from, when my dad realized that the village of Chaux was home to our friend Maryléne's late aunt. We had all visited them on our family trip to France in 1999, and on that occasion we sat on their back patio and drank their homemade rosé. This must be their wine! Here is a close-up of its beauty.
For that dinner party my mother and I made a chocolate-strawberry tart, and I made cilantro-lime composed butter, for the swordfish my dad grilled. A perfect summertime dinner, all told.



Here is the recipe for Smoked Salmon, Leek, and Goat Cheese Quiche, followed by the recipe for Caesar Dressing.


Smoked Salmon, Leek, and Goat Cheese Quiche

Crust:
12 sheets or so of phyllo pastry, thawed and kept under a damp napkin
cooking spray (i.e. PAM)

Filling:
3-4 ounces smoked salmon (I used 3 and this was plenty)
1 leek, white part only
olive oil
100 grams soft goat cheese
1 cup milk
3 extra large eggs
2 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp tarragon, minced
1 tsp salt
freshly ground black pepper

Process:
Preheat oven to 375.
Spray tart pan with cooking spray. Fit one layer of phyllo gently into the tart pan, taking care not to rip corners. A good technique is to gently lift the pastry with one hand while with the other nestling it into the geometry of the tart pan. Repeat spraying and pastry-fitting process for the next 11 layers, overlapping the pastry where necessary to prevent holes. Give the pastry a final spray of oil, trim overhanging pastry with a knife, and cover it with a damp napkin for the moment.
Slice the leek in half. Flush all grit from between the layers of the leek with cold water. Remove outer layer of leek. Slice into small pieces. Sauté leek in olive oil until tender but not brown.
Tear the salmon into small pieces. Put in a bowl with the leek.
Beat eggs and milk together. Crumble goat cheese into this mixture. Add tarragon, lemon juice, salt, and a few grinds of pepper.
Arrange leek and salmon evenly in the tart pan. Add egg mixture. Bake for 30-35 minutes. Turn off oven and let quiche rest in oven until serving.
Thanks to forthebodyandsoul.blogspot.com for recipe source (recipe slightly altered as is my wont).

Note: In the original recipe, the author notes that one must use milk with 2% or greater milkfat, or the quiche will not set. I used 1% milk, and had no problem. The fat in the goat cheese probably helps.

Caesar Salad Dressing
(From Emeril Lagasse. We chose this recipe because we had an exquisite Caesar salad at Lagasse's Delmonico restaurant in Las Vegas. This tastes just as good as at the restaurant.)
Serve over fresh, cold Romaine lettuce, with warm garlic croutons.

1 large, very fresh egg yolk
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon garlic, finely minced
1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1/4 teaspoon anchovies, finely minced (about 1/2 a fillet)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
1/2 cup olive oil
1/4 cup Parmesan, roughly grated

In a medium bowl combine all ingredients except olive oil and parmesan. Whisk together. Continue whisking briskly, while pouring a very thin stream of olive oil into the bowl (it helps to have a sous-chef at this stage). Whisk until the mixture is emulsified (thickened and opaque), and all olive oil is encorporated. Fold in the Parmesan and adjust seasoning to taste.
Dressing keeps 24 hours. Refrigerate until use.