Bechamel: my ode to hibernation mode

Alas no photo for you, dear reader, of either the snow or of our bechamel + cheddar and leeks coated ravioli and broccoli.  On days like today, when my toes are nearly frost bitten all day, sometimes I just want to pop some store bought (£1! package for 2 raviolis) in a pot of boiling water with some broccoli, cook, sauce, bake and eat. And that is exactly what I did. May I suggest it?

Every once and awhile, I wish we lived in LA

 
Not only would it take this dear writer back to her native state, but there would be sunshine and we would have gone here.

It is so cold and dark and windy and bone chillingly damp in London. Luckily, I have a German mother in law and a German grandmother in law. These two wise women are knit extraordinare and have made me these exquisite striped wool socks. See how they fit my feet PERFECTLY. So, we are wearing our wool socks, and eating auflaufs to get through the cold, dark winter while dreaming of Deauville.

help, im drowning in polenta

Ok, I'm no longer drowning in polenta. In fact, Xoph and I have crawled out of the polenta flooding pretty much unscathed. By far the best thing to do with left over polenta is to slice it into french fries, and roast them with olive oil, salt and pepper in a hot oven (200Cish) until all crispy. Then toss the fries with minced parsley, garlic, more salt and pepper and a tiny bit of finely grated Parmesan. Eat at once.

Toaster Oven? I say Most-er Oven!

Dear Reader,

As a person who does international moves to and from places with diffent voltages and plugs with alarming frequency I have very few electrical kitchen devices. But let me tell you about this rare and ingenius device that is a miracle worker on a hot day: yes the humble toaster oven! The high points of my culinary history have all been toaster oven concoctions- from my earliest experiments with mixing butter and sugar together (mmm!) and spreading the resulting caloric spread on toast and baking it until it caramelizes to the raisin bread with cheddar cheese melt (!!!) to my latest achievment: toasted veggies. Instead of cranking up the oven to a ridiculous temperature to roast my veggies (usually for an omelet or to toss with my farro pasta) I simply arrange the vegetables cut to pinky finger thickness, toss with salt, pepper and olive oil and toast twice. Amazing. But this story is a bitter sweet story. Toaster ovens are unavailable in the UK. Not even at John Lewis! the sadness! and they are a rare beast in France.

Nightgowns: all day! everyday!

Dear Reader,

I love pajamas. I think sweatpants are the greatest invention ever, after cheese and cashmere. One day, I plan on being that successful eccentric that wears cashmere sweaters and sweatpants to work and listens to Radio 4 all day long, kind of like the creative anachronists at IBM in the olden days. Recently, I was listening to my Radio 4 Women's Hour podcast about these women that wear pajamas to pick up their kids from school. (I'll add a link once I'm no longer at a computer that blocks such dangerous sites) Genius, albeit sloppy! So, what I'm doing is wearing glorified nightgowns to work, with some cashmere cardigans.

Soon, I'm going to write about the dress and how I don't think it gets enough credit. But that post will require some thinking.

My dream

I recently dreamt that Christoph and I decided to move away from our busy city lives and start a cashmere goat farm. It was like reading a very exciting article in Vogue. Christoph and I were rosy cheeked and lean from our labors with cute farm kittens and chicks were running at our feet and (human and goat) kids in our arms. We'd eat our meals, hello goat cheese!, in the farmhouse at the big wooden table. From the house, we could see our goats, swaddled to keep their hair clean, gamboling in the fields. The fibers would be harvested, spun into yarns, and dyed with herbs from the garden. Then in our surprisingly high tech work room, cardigans would be whipped up on our Stoll machines (These machines are basically knit printers. You input your design, and a sweater prints out. Amazing!) These cardigan were available at Barneys and Takashimaya. And then, we'd make sure the goats were butchered halal and their hides were turned into gloves, available at Dover Street Market. It would be this magical slow food/fashion existence.