Monday, January 11, 2016.
Returning To The Marys' Habits.
Wife Mary Ann (MA, in case you're just joining us) and daughter Mary Leigh (ML) awaken in mid-morning after their thousand-mile drive from northern Virginia yesterday. Then they waste no time returning to their old routines. This means, first of all, lunch at La Carreta. I am invited, which works perfectly for me. I will get my Monday beans through the agency of La Carreta's marvelous bean soup, made with some kind of cowpea (black eyes, field peas, and crowders are in that family), spicy sliced chorizo and a great broth. I have the chicken salad with avocado, romaine, and tomatoes with the excellent cilantro vinaigrette--but no chicken.
I return home to deliver a radio show at three. It is very busy on the phones today. One of the most interesting subjects is what can be done with pureed cauliflower. It just hit me a few days ago that the stuff--disguised as mashed potatoes or perhaps bechamel--has made appearances on numerous plates before me lately. Today, we hear from a guy who makes his gumbo roux with pureed cauliflower and Kitchen Bouquet (brown food coloring), and from a pizza maker who actually constructs his crusts using cauliflower puree. Other callers confirm both these ideas as working well.
But wait! Seems that cooler-than-normal weather in California and the sudden vogue among chefs for making cauliflower puree has put a dent in the cauliflower supply, and the price is rising. Well, that about figures.
I think we ought to give this new demi-ingredient a name. Caulimash? Floweree? Anyone?
MA has all but decreed that ML and I have supper tonight, so Daughter can update me on her new life in the Washington D.C. area. She has a well-paying job as the manager of the pastry-and-cake decorating unit of a chic, almost swank bakery in the Virginia suburbs of D.C. Sha has had some tense moments, because her main job is to keep the production flowing, and because the people she is managing are not always fully cooperative. She says that learning how to keep everybody focused has brought forth a new firmness and organizational skill she didn't know she had. As good a cake creator as she is, this managerial ability will open doors for her, I think.
[caption id="attachment_36623" align="alignnone" width="400"]
Grilled oysters at Acme.[/caption]
We go over all this while we have a nostalgic supper at the Acme. Six raw oysters, six grilled, and a dozen fried and dunked in remoulade for me. ML has the rights to all the garlic butter in the oyster shells. And she gets her favorite blue-cheese wedge salad. It's like a time warp. Have we had this same meal a hundred times yet? We're getting close, if not.
But wait! Seems that cooler-than-normal weather in California and the sudden vogue among chefs for making cauliflower puree has put a dent in the cauliflower supply, and the price is rising. Well, that about figures.
I think we ought to give this new demi-ingredient a name. Caulimash? Floweree? Anyone?
MA has all but decreed that ML and I have supper tonight, so Daughter can update me on her new life in the Washington D.C. area. She has a well-paying job as the manager of the pastry-and-cake decorating unit of a chic, almost swank bakery in the Virginia suburbs of D.C. Sha has had some tense moments, because her main job is to keep the production flowing, and because the people she is managing are not always fully cooperative. She says that learning how to keep everybody focused has brought forth a new firmness and organizational skill she didn't know she had. As good a cake creator as she is, this managerial ability will open doors for her, I think.
[caption id="attachment_36623" align="alignnone" width="400"]
Grilled oysters at Acme.[/caption]
We go over all this while we have a nostalgic supper at the Acme. Six raw oysters, six grilled, and a dozen fried and dunked in remoulade for me. ML has the rights to all the garlic butter in the oyster shells. And she gets her favorite blue-cheese wedge salad. It's like a time warp. Have we had this same meal a hundred times yet? We're getting close, if not.
