2021 has started out as a cracker of a year for many personal reasons upon which I won’t lament, but I would like the world to give us all a break.
In real news, I have two (2!!) new short stories in the works about Jacob Orange, and work on Freewoman is going ahead a little more slowly than I’d like. But I wanted to assure the world amidst all the chaos that I’m still writing. There’s an Amazon promotion for my first novel going on right now, so check it out with your Kindle or other smart devices. Especially my MFA crew!! Here’s a link: Librarian at Amazon.com.
IN OTHER NEWS, I went hatchet-throwing and landed a bullseye. Pim would be proud (those who get the reference, get it; get the book!). Chris and I have been baking LOTS of bread and making kimchi for days.
Class Italian Loaf
Monday night will be my first role as dungeon master in about 6 years. I hope I don’t kill all my players (you know who you are…)! There will be lots of kobolds and other nasties to get ’em.
Anyway. It’s just a brief update for now but expect more to come!!
I love my curries. Thai curries, Japanese curries, Indian curries… but “My Curry” from April Bloomfield is the bestest. I never expected my mother to eat so boldly, but let’s rock and roll, Karen! You’re getting leftovers.
First, some pics:
Shallots and garlic.Cooking down the tomatoes!!Adding citrus peel, pineapple juice!Brown the pork.Cook for a bajillion hours.Chop up some cilantro……and garnish with a raita and basmati rice!
Look delicious? Here’s the recipe, courtesy of April Bloomfield, with some added touches of my own.
MY CURRY!!
1 tbsp fennel seeds, toasted
2 tbsp cumin seeds, toasted
1 tbsp fenugreek seeds, toasted
10 cloves
2 star anise
3 cardamom pods
3 kaffir lime leaves (or the zest of two limes, if you can’t find kaffir lime leaves)
1 tbsp red pepper flakes
1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
2 tsp turmeric
1/3 cup EVOO
2 cups shallots, thinly sliced
4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
1/2 small cinnamon stick
1/2 cup finely chopped ginger
3 cups drained and chopped up whole tomatoes (San Marzano is best)
2 tbsp flaky sea salt
8 cilantro roots with 2 inches attached finely chopped
5-inch strip of orange
5-inch strip of lemon
1/4 cup freshly-squeezed orange juice
2 tbsp freshly-squeezed lemon juice
1 tbsp freshly-squeezed lime juice
1 and 1/2 cups pineapple juice
That’s for the curry base. For the meat:
2 tbsp EVOO
4 pounds boneless pork butt (April uses lamb shoulder, but I find it’s harder to get)
2 tbsp flaky sea salt
Method:
Combine everything up to (including) the turmeric in a spice grinder or mortar and pestle until you have a fine powder. Trust me, this is the best curry powder you will have in the world.
Cook the shallots and garlic for ten minutes (stirring frequently) in a Dutch oven until nice and brown. Add the spices, cinnamon, ginger, and cook for 3 minutes. STIR STIR STIR. Add tomatoes and salt and cook, stirring until it’s almost dry — April recommends 15 minutes.
Pour in the juices, peels, and cilantro. Set aside off heat.
Season the pork with salt and brown it in batches with the EVOO. As Anne Burrell says, BROWN FOOD TASTES GOOD. So take your time and don’t crowd the pan.
Transfer to the Dutch oven and cook at 350 F for 1 1/2 hours; then lower the temp to 250 degrees and let it go for another hour or until the pork is fork tender and falling apart. ABSOLUTE YUM.
MY RAITA!
Easy-peasy. One cup of Greek yogurt, one cucumber (diced), and salt to taste.
…and recipe done! Just add rice or some good naan. It looks intimidating, but it’s very easy once you collect the ingredients.
On a separate note, my mother turned seventy today! Happy birthday, Mom! You’re the strongest person I know and gave me a special “Karen Power” that lets me get things done that need to get done.
It’s hard, sometimes, though for me to interact with my siblings. They seem to take no interest in anything I do: be it writing, ballroom dancing, or cookery (though they’re very keen on talking about themselves). All and all it makes me quite sad, but I’m glad my mother had a good day surrounded by those she loves. It makes me happy to see her happy, despite it being somewhat bittersweet.
I once wrote a haiku:
Love stains my shirt / like apple mixed with honey / in the curry you made me.
Another blog post to come soon; this time… not so long! xoxo
So, I dyed my hair pink because… why not? We’re in a pandemic and (1) there’s nowhere to go and (2) if someone says, “Hey, bro! Your hair is pink!” I’m going respond with deuces and quip, “No shite, Sherlock.”
I told you so.
MOVING ON. During the quarantine we wanted something hearty, so we decided on pasta with a bolognese. There’s the traditional method that takes four hours (Anne Burrell, I’m looking at you and still love my Littlepon plushie nested in your cleavage); there’s also Giada’s recipe that only takes a half of an hour. I combined bits from both and made m’own; the next day, I added heavy cream to reconstitute it, and got pink bolognese. Recipe follows!
TO MAKE THE GREAT BAO’S BOLOGNESE:
1 carrot
1 stalk celery
1 onion
2 cloves garlic
1 pound ground beef (I used 80/20, if anybody cares)
1/2 cup tomato paste
1 cup (as much as you drink in a cup…) hearty red wine
1, 28-oz can crushed tomatoes
8 fresh basil leaves, julienned
1/4 cup parsley, chopped
Kosher salt
1/4 cup Pecorino Romano cheese
8 ounces fresh pasta (or dry, but yes, fresh is best)
A good dousing of heavy cream (for tomorrow’s leftovers, and hence the pink)
(1) In a food processor, pulse the carrot, celery, onion, and garlic into a paste. In a pan over medium-high heat, cook the concoction for 15-20 minutes, liberally seasoning with salt. Stir frequently and scrape up the brown bits — as Anne would say, “Brown food tastes good!”
(2) And the ground beef and season (again) liberally with salt. Cook for another 15 minutes, scraping it frequently to work up a fond.
(3) Add the tomato paste and cook for five minutes, stirring frequently until it’s nice and browned. You want the rawness to go away.
(4) DEGLAZE! Pour in the wine and scrape up all the goodness, then let it reduce to almost nothing, about five minutes.
(5) Add the crushed tomatoes, herbs, and a generous amount of salt — they take a lot of it, like a hooker in Atlantic City. Simmer for thirty minutes until the sauce is nice and thick. Add the cheese.
(6) Meanwhile, boil your pasta. I don’t need to tell you how to do that. When it’s al dente, toss it in the sauce. Serve it with more cheese sprinkled on top and a drizzle of olive oil. You’re welcome.
THE NEXT DAY:
Half and half or heavy cream
(1) Reconstitute the pasta in a skillet over medium heat and, once it’s properly hot, add the cream. Cook at a nice simmer until everything looks nice and glossy.
The end.
PS — I’m still in writing mode! Another Jacob Orange story is coming soon!
Happy 2020, everyone! I hope everyone rang in the New Year with something fun and delicious.
Speaking of deliciousness, hubby (who is obsessed with all types of bao, including me — my nickname happens to be Bao-Bao) made David Chang’s pork buns today from scratch. How amazing is that?
Steam away.Bao buns!So many bao…
And then, of course, we have the final product: a bao with pork, pickled radish and cucumber, hoisin sauce, and a little sriracha for good measure:
Steamed bao with pork, pickled cucumber, and radish; tomato salad garnish.
What is everyone eating to pick up their spirits? It had better involve wine!
JP’s pony is well on its way to completion; he’s even got his soul patch going on! We just have to do the eyes and Cutie Mark. (The pony’s name is Critical Roller, by the by.) If any Bronies out there want a custom poneh, let me know! We paint them for free. It’s very cathartic, seeing how the end of MLP: Friendship is Magic wrecked me like Geena Davis in A League of Their Own.
As an aside, on Monday we’re stopping by the local Keyport library to talk about my books. Exciting! It’ll be nice to see my work stocked in my go-to book purveyor.
It’s also freezing today, which makes it the perfect time to make Ina Garten’s lentil sausage soup, although it serves about 300 people and we’re only two (the cats don’t eat lentils).
Pumpkin spice be damned, pears and apples are in season, so it’s the perfect time for Wine Quill to make… kimchi! Here’s my recipe. Prepare for fermentation. Recipe after the cut!
I have not blogged in ages.
I haven’t written in ages.
Poor Lenna!
As I mentioned in my last post, I did scribe the ending to Freewoman, the final book in Lenna Faircloth’s trilogy. Of course, all that did was garner a surfeit of queries as to when the book was coming out…
Well. My urge to kill Lenna is only mild at the moment, so 2016 is still looking ever so rosy. Mainly, though, I’ve been preoccupied with numerous Big To-Dos, like moving, the holidays, and getting the kittens to stop trying to maim each other. (See above: a rare moment of peace.)
I have set aside some “staycation” time so that (1) we can unpack the kitchen and pretend to bake like Mary Berry, and (2) I can stop fretting myself prematurely grey.
TL;DR version:
Freewoman is on its way; I am turning silver; I go to the gym a lot; I do not dance nearly as much as I should; three cats is a bit much for two people.
Yikes! It’s been forever. I did not exactly fall off the planet, but I got quite close to the Moon. More on that — and the poems that resulted from it — to be covered another time.
Apprentice (hardcover) went live back in December, though due to a panoply of ponderous circumstances, I didn’t get to promote it much (or at all). Don’t worry: that’ll change very soon, starting with some giveaways that I’ll announce in a few days. 🙂
On a fanciful note, MasterChef Australia is currently my snuggly lifeline to sanity; even the cat — more on him another time, too — knows not to eat the houseplants during my nightly voyage into the world of Ozzie home cookery.
And while we’re on the topic of food, I just got back from my St Cross reunion in Boston. (It was a complete blast to reunite with Oxford peeps and then faff about Harvard Square in an awesome hat.)
Anyway, because I’m compelled to go to dive bars with scrumptastic reputations, yours truly found himself at a biker bar in Derby, Connecticut eating food (in a completely INAPPROPRIATE HAT) that could drop an elephant at 20 paces.
Behold the gloriousness of the Parmesan Butter Bacon Garlic Burger, courtesy of the Dew Drop Inn:
…this probably explains my lack of appetite for the last few days. Burp. Keep it classy, kids, keep it classy.
A lot of people hate the commercialization of the holiday — or the fact that it’s a holiday at all — but I still like the idea that there’s a day where we’re forced to stop and think about the people we love, even if those people aren’t necessarily romantic interests, but friends, family, and woofers too (though romantic interests are wonderful for obvious reasons).
Somekitteh lurves me!
My scent du jour is BACON, as in BACON BROWNIES, which I’ll be happily distributing to the super friendly staff at my dance studio, Fred Astaire Manasquan. Sorry for anyone who isn’t in close physical proximity to taste these curious nibbles, but I do have another treat in store!
FIVE CODES THAT ARE REDEEMABLE AT AUDIBLE.COM FOR A DIGITAL EDITION OF THE AUDIOBOOK OF LIBRARIAN!
First-come, first-serve basis, so snatch ’em up and please leave a review/share with a friend!
1. Visit http://www.audible.com/at/redeem
2. Enter the download code into the “Redeem Your Promotional Code” field and click “Redeem”.
3. If you’re not an Audible customer you’ll need to create a new Audible.com account. Don’t worry, you can use your Amazon account to do this.
4. Follow the instructions. You’ll have 1 credit applied to your account.
5. Go to Librarian‘s Audible page.
6. Add it to your cart. When you check out you’ll see an option to apply the free credit.
And, without further ado, here are the five codes. If one of them doesn’t work, it means someone beat you to it (so read my blog earlier). 😉
Happy Thanksgiving! I’ve a lot to be thankful for this year: I’ve learned how amazing and strong my support network can be; it is through the caring and kindness of my loved ones that I’ve been able to pull off a lot of things I never thought myself capable of doing. Hell, I published a book! 😀
I’ve managed to reconnect with some people whom I’d thought were lost to me, and I’ve met and made a huge collection of new friends. For these things, I’m truly thankful. I certainly know I wouldn’t be as inspired to keep writing/cooking/waking up without you guys.
All lubed and tied up. Sexy.
On that note, cheers to everyone, wherever (or whenever, if you happen to be a time traveler or dead), you happen to be! It’s time to tie one on, nom some good food, and appreciate the love of those around you.
By the way, yesterday, I found out I was out of eggs, and had to make an emergency trip to the grocery store. Unshowered. Still in PJs. >:( UNHAPPINESS WAS EVERYWHERE.
