Dear Megs,

Tonight I used my crock pot for the first time! Bubby gave it to me a few years back, after I met Alex, when, having decided that since I'd caught myself a man I was now worthy of real womanhood, she started giving me all kinds of kitchen gifts. Crock pot, meat grinder (for good Jewish chopped liver), garlic press, etc. I am astonished by how easy and marvelous it was. I have never made a roast before, and now I shall never stop making them. Lovely. I took a picture but it sucked. I need a big light. Anyway, I made drop biscuits to go with the roast and Alex whipped up a gravy while I poured myself some wine and finished my chapter in Disruptive Acts: The New Woman in Fin-de-Siècle France, by Mary Louise Roberts. She's a great cultural historian, and her books are really interesting.

Speaking of astonished, I can't imagine how you have refrained from commenting on the SHOES.

Loves,

L

The Shoes

I told you they were ridiculous:

Dear Megs,

Hm. Impressive baked goods for a family of foodies. Well, maybe a dessert that looks pretty and has to be built, like these FAB shortbread cookies I made once, maybe topped with lemon curd and fresh raspberries? With lavender, somehow? Or the lemon loves? Or, Sugar Plum Blog (she is great) has lots of recipes for truffles. They seem easy but they're really beautiful. And then again, nothing beats PIE. Or flourless chocolate cake with sour mash whipped cream...

So, today I was thinking about how if we are going to be real food bloggers, we have to make our own recipes, as you said. I never have done this with baked goods; I'm a recipe follower. So I decided to see if I could make banana bread - good banana bread - with no recipe. It worked, and it's good! Banana bread is not something I ever make, so I feel this means I have some fundamental grasp of what baking is all about. Next I will try cake, but I realize now that making up a recipe maybe doesn't mean much, because there are only so many different ways to make a cake. The basic kind, I mean.

I won't bother posting the recipe I wrote, because, as a New York Times columnist who was trashing Gwyneth Paltrow's blog put it, who needs another recipe for banana bread? But here's the pic; if it seems to be floating it's because apparently you can't photograph food at night and I had to stick it right under a lamp.

Loves!

L

Dear Linds,

Of course you must unpack immediately.  I've always given my apartments a good cleaning during finals week, so it seems perfectly reasonable that you should have to unpack a house in anticipation of your orals.  If you need any home organization ideas, you might want to check out Ikea Hacker.  There are a number of why-would-you-waste-your-time-on-that projects, but there are some real gems as well.

I'm eager to try out Martha's recipe - with salt.  But I'm still on the fence about recipes that call for a sprinkling prior to baking.  Although the crystalline bits enhance the flavor and make you feel just the right amount of pretentious, I don't know if I like it.  Last week, for instance, I made some crisp oatmeal cookies and sprinkled half the batch with sea salt before putting them in the oven.  While the shiny little crystals were pretty appealing (I mean, who doesn't like sparkles?), I forgot to pay attention to the butter and oats.   That is, I was eating the cookies for the salt. . .  

Now I need a bit of advice.  I am going to a friend/former boss/current co-worker's home for dinner this week, and I'd like to bring something.  He's a bit of a wine aficionado, so I'd prefer to bake instead.  What is a safe, but impressive crowd pleaser for a family of foodies??

I miss you.

Love,

Meg

New shoes

PS I surpassed myself in shoe ridiculousness today, which is really saying something. I'll post a pic when I can dig my camera out of the wreckage.

xo

L

Dear Megs,

Unpacking is proceeding apace. I know I said I was basically going to leave it unfinished until after the orals, but I just can't. Alex and I are both working during the day and house-ing at night. We've totally rearranged and GOD! how many books we have! I mean, I knew this, but still. That all said, once we're done it'll really look like grownups live here; I'm very excited. However, unpacking all the bejillions of books makes me realize how well read I actually am - and feel all the stupider for it because I don't seem to remember shit.

As for coffee cake, I thought your cake was delicious. I think you're right that they are usually less cake-y, but that was a really good go at it as far as I'm concerned. I recently made a lemon coffee cake from a Martha Stewart recipe, but I didn't use Meyer lemons, and there was something weird about it. I detected a chemical-y aftertaste that my mom didn't notice until I mentioned it, but then did. Also, Martha (yes, we're on a first name basis since she went to the slammer) calls for coarse salt in the topping but I found that that produced these strange pockets of saltiness that were mildly unpleasant. It is not impossible that I simply did it wrong; advice would be appreciated. I would add a picture, but, despite the weird aftertaste, the cake did not last long.

One good thing about moving: I saw a lot of you last week. I miss you.

Loves!

Linz

Dear Linds,

Today is your first official day in Maine.  I hope that you and Alex take a break from unpacking and do something special to mark the occasion.

Here's a picture of the coffee cake I made for moving day:

It was good, but, as I said yesterday, a little too dry and cake-y for my taste.  Do you have a fave coffee cake recipe?  I suspect I'll be trying this again in the near future. 

Loves,

Meg