Days 75 – 77 NYC

Sunday April 29 to Tuesday May 2, 2007: New York City

My in-laws agreed to take the kids for a few days so we cashed in some frequent flyer points and took off for New York City.

Sunday we went to the Yankees – BoSox game, so dinner was a large soft pretzel (with ballpark mustard) and a $9 beer.

On Monday, we picked up breakfast from Buttercup Bakery, which we ate in the park.  After walking (and shopping) for hours and hours, we stopped for lunch at Katz’s (if I could figure out how to make pastrami this good, I’d weigh 400 pounds and I would never leave the kitchen). We had dinner at Bistro Citron (nice salads – goat cheese, beets; steak frites for K. and a burger for me).

Tuesday, coffee and muffins from Zabar’s in the park; a morning at the Met and a quick visit to the Pierpoint Morgan, followed by lunch at R.U.B. BBQ in Chelsea. It was pretty solid BBQ and Tony Roberts (from Annie Hall among other films) ate lunch at the table next to us.

I have no idea what the children ate while we were away and that’s a-ok by me…NYC was surprisingly warm, green and lush – can’t wait for our next trip back.

Day 73 – Fajitas

Friday, April 27 2007: Chicken Fajitas

Before I left for work, while our nanny was getting breakfast into the kids, I marinated four boneless chicken thighs in a few tablespoons of grape seed oil, the juice of one lime, a teaspoon of chili powder, a teaspoon of cumin, a pinch of salt and half a clove of garlic pushed through a rasp. This all went in a tupperwear container, which I shook vigorously, before tucking it into the fridge for the rest of the day.

When I got home from work, I took the tupperwear out of the fridge and made some guacamole – 1 avocado, juice of half a lime, generous pinch salt and a good shake of Chipoltle Tabasco.

The gas grill gets lit and a tablespoon or so of vegetable oil gets warmed in a cast-iron skillet. While the grill heats up, I julienned a red pepper and a small onion.

The chicken cooks for about 7 minutes a side and the onions and red pepper cook down in the skillet – I try not to move the veggies too much as I’m looking for them to carmelize a bit..

Once the chicken is done, it too gets thinly sliced and added to a platter with the onions and red peppers. Some salsa and more hot sauce gets put out with the dishes and cutlery.

The Verdict

Our daughter proceeds to put almost the entire bowl of guacamole on her first tortilla, which makes her tremendously happy. Some chicken and maybe red pepper gets folded in.

The boy eats his components separately. He’s usually a pure carnivore, but tonight he’s really into the tortilla as well as the chicken. He’s a guacamole hound and he does manage to get his bib and eyebrows a nice shade of green…

Day 72 – Take-out

Thursday, April 26 2007: Take-out

My brother in-law called K. late in the day and offered to pick her up on the way home from work, he thought they could stop somewhere near her office to get take-out for dinner.

Hearing the good news, I set the table, put some beer and wine in the fridge and then chased the kids around the yard waiting for K. and her brother to come home.

They showed up with chicken, rice, salad, potatoes, and garlic bread and we all ate prison style – heads down, elbows in, not much conversation as we devoured the food in front of us.

Maybe it’s the sudden arrival of nice weather, but I’ve noticed we’ve been all business at the table – and everyone seems to be eating more and more…

Day 65 – Pizza

Thursday, April 19, 2007: Pizza

K. and I were both a little late getting home tonight so, much to the kids’ delight, we ordered a pizza. Was hoping for leftovers but the four of us polished the whole pie off.

Next time we’ll order the extra large.

Day 64 – Osso Bucco

Tuesday, April 17, 2007: Osso Bucco

It’s too freaking cold for April. Everyone is talking about how it’s going to get up into the 20s on the weekend, but it’s so cold and damp I’m not sure I believe any of the weathermen.

So it’s back to the slow cooker, more earthy warm meals until we can start eating out on the back deck…

On Monday night, after the kids were in bed, I seared off three veal shanks in some olive oil. Mirepoix went into the pan and cooked down. Then four or five crushed and minced cloves of garlic went into the skillet, followed by a few tablespoons of red wine to help scrape up all the crusty bits.

The veggies and veal went into the bowl of the slow cooker along with half a cup of red wine and a tin of whole tomatoes (which I smushed to cover the veal and veggies). This was wrapped in cling film and spent the night in the fridge

Tuesday Morning

The cling film comes off, a bay leaf and some salt and pepper go in with the veal and veggies, the slow cooker gets switched on and I stumble off to the office.

Tuesday Evening

We come home to a great smelling house and a nice warm dinner. The kids eat the meat and a bit of the veg (my daughter is rather put off by the cooked tomatoes). We round things out with some Greek potatoes picked up from one of the many Greek joints near the local subway stop (it’s the only potatoes my daughter will eat and she begged me to buy some when I left work for work in the morning. What’s a dad to do?).

 It’s a bit of an odd combination, but it’s tasty and it works.

For dessert we split up some of the easter booty. There’s enough milk chocolate in the house to keep Augustus Gloop happy.

Day 59 – Rubber Chicken

Thursday, April 12: Rubber chicken

I had to go to a retirement dinner last night (I didn’t have to go, it was very nice of the client to offer me a seat at one of their tables).

Rubber chicken in a rented tux with with 1600 people. I knew maybe 20 people in the room.

I’m told K. and the kids had pasta…

Day 57 – Chicken Souvlaki

April 10, 2007: Chicken Souvlaki, Rice and Asparagus

Having not really eaten food for some time, it’s hard to get back on the horse.

Easter dinner on Sunday at the in-laws was a very low-key affair. My mother in law is a great cook, but I just didn’t want to push things.

Monday night we all seemed to be bouncing back so I went to the butchers to pick up a chicken. Sadly, there were no chickens left and not much choice under his counter.

I picked up six chicken souvlakis and stopped at the green grocers to grab some Asparagus (even though it’s freezing here, I can still hope it’s Spring).

The aspargus was pretty woody and thick, I snapped it and let each stem break where it wanted.

The aspargus was blanched for three minutes in heavily salted water, whacked in an ice-bath and then finished on the grill with a bit of olive oil and lemon.

The Verdict
There were just enough leftovers for the kids lunch on Tuesday. It was very nice to sit down together at the table and have a meal together, hard to believe it’s been 10 days since we last managed to do so…

Day 48 to Day 56: No Food

I woke up on April 1st, convinced I was hung-over. I hadn’t had much to drink at the dinner party last night, so I couldn’t quite figure out why I felt so rough.

We took the kids to brunch with my sister, brother-in-law and my nephew and then took the three kids down to the park to hit the swings and slides.

We got home around 3PM and by 4 I was in bed.

All four of us have colds.

K. and I are sleeping in shifts, taking care of the kids. I haven’t slept this much since I was 17. She missed three days of work, I was getting out of bed to go to meetings, coming home and getting back under the covers. I’ll shoot myself if our nanny gets it.

For the past nine days all I’ve managed to eat was one grilled cheese sandwhich, three perogies, and the occassional bowl of soup.

This is not fun.

Day 47 – Dinner Party

March 30, 2007: Roast Beef Tenderloin, Potatoes with pancetta and thyme, roasted beets

We had a few friends over for dinner tonight. The kids were fed around 6 and our friends came over around 7:30.

Starters was a cheese tray brought by our pal Kate, along with some assorted olives. Andre and his wife brought a fantastic Kistler Chardonnay to go with the cheese.

For mains, I picked up two small beef tenderloins at St. Lawrence Market. The first was rolled in fresh rosemary and thyme (herbs left whole) and re-tied with butcher’s twine. The second was very lightly crusted with dried mushrooms (cepes put through a coffee grinder until they were the consistency of coffee).

I also cooked Slater’s potatoes in duck fat and pancetta and roasted red and gold beets (the gold standard: wrapped in foil and thrown in the oven).

Between courses we managed to get the kids to bed.

Just before the roast was done, I cooked down about 1.5 pounds of mushrooms with some butter and shallot. The pan was de-glazed with some Banyuls and mounted with a touch more butter for some shine.

Dessert was some delicious chocolate little chocolate concoction that K. whipped up. We had a 1974 Banyuls ($22 at LCBO – get it if you can find it) with the dessert, a perfect match with chocolate.

Day 40 – Pizza

March 23, 2007: Pizza

Both our kids are enamoured with basketball. I think the boy likes it because of all the scoring. At every basket, and it doesn’t matter which team scores, he likes to throw his arms over his head and shout “Yay!”

Not sure what my daughter sees in it, but it’s pretty much the only grown-up TV she’ll watch (other than a strange fascination with the Barefoot Contessa on the Food Channel. Whether it’s a commercial or the actual show, our daughter will excitedly scream “INA!” at any glimpse of Ms. Garten. One night she refused to come to the dinner table until she saw how Ina’s chocolate brownies turned out…they came out ok, but I think she put nuts in her brownies, which I just don’t get.)

I was offered Raptor tickets for Friday night’s game. They were first row of the upper bowl. Seeing as we have a budding basketball fan on our hands,  K. and I thought it would be fun if I took our daughter down to the ACC to see her first game.

The plan was to make home made pizza together and have it ready to eat as soon as K. got home, so that I could jump on the subway and get down to the game.

The Prep

I picked up a bag of whole wheat pizza dough from the local Italian grocer. I used to make my own dough from scratch, but this is such a cheaper, easier and cleaner option.

I floured the counter, cut the dough into two balls and then realized – there’s no way I can roll out pizza dough one-handed. What seemed like a great plan on Friday morning was a little lacking in the execution.

I pulled a chair into the kitchen and my daughter eagerly climbed up, grabbed the rolling pin and gave the dough a go.  Surprisngly, she did ok. I would turn and flour the dough and she’d do her best to roll it out.

The final dough was a little mangled and a little uneven, but it was far better than I would have done one-handed.

The dough went on to a cookie sheet that had been dusted with cornmeal, and each pie was topped with some tomato sauce, olives, sun dried tomatoes, mozzarella, Parmesan, and some cured chorizo sausages.

They baked for 12 minutes at 500F and then got a rest on a cutting board so none of us would burn our mouths (I always torch the roof of my mouth on pizza as I have no patience when it comes time to eat).

The Game

My daughter was so excited to be at the game. She loved the Raptor (she kept desperately waving to him no matter how far away we were), the Dance Pack withtheir glow-in-the-dark pom-poms (yikes) and the fire works that start off the pre-game show. She also fell asleep at the 7 minute mark of the first quarter. We stayed til the end of the third, when she finally woke up and suggested we go home.

On the subway ride home she had a huge smile on her face and she kept asking when we could go to another game. Maybe a matinee would be better pick for the next one…