drinks with jam.

the double crown: home of the bar, madam geneva. so lovely and dark and classy.

yelena, dominic, and i first went to this place in early january. the food is magnificent: british and indian married together in a plate of lovely. after our meal, we ventured into the back bar. the bartenders make these wonderfully tart and ever-evolving cocktails of either vodka, gin, or whiskey mixed with lemon, simple syrup, and soda water. and each one has a spoonful of homemade jam! everytime you visit, they have different kinds of jam. it's yum yum yum. i think the one in the photograph is a vodka-based apple one, but last time, i had apricot and gin, and there was a blood orange option. yes.

(photograph compliments of yelena and her iphone.)

how long?

it was only going to be a bit before i started writing about eggs again. ladies and gentlemen, my breakfast-dinner was so tasty; i wish i was still eating it.

we still seem to only buy burrito-size tortillas, so i broke it in half and heated it over the stove. i cooked jalapeno, onion, bell pepper, and garlic in a little olive oil and butter. (yes, that IS insanity.) i then poured in the eggs and scrambled it all together. i placed some shredded jalapeno monterey jack in the tortilla and put the egg mixture on top with some salsa. i then cooked spinach in the pan where the eggs had been and put it in the tortilla, too.

oh my. incredible.

imagine.

imagine you are low on cash, but you want to eat well. organic, even. but when can you make that choice to buy conventional goods? are some foods better when they are organic? are some better for you?

the answer is yes.

if you can't have it all, but want organic something: lettuce, bell peppers, carrots, peaches, strawberries, nectarines, spinach, celery, cherries, apples, potatoes.
if you want buy conventional foods and feel ok about it: mangoes, kiwi, broccoli, onion, cabbage, asparagus, eggplant, pineapple, avocado.

think about the skin. the vegetables with the thicker skin are less likely to penetrated by pesticides, which are obviously not for eating.

mamasita.

one of the mornings that tina visited, i decided i would make us breakfast. we ate in a lot of restaurants, and a home-cooked breakfast just seemed appropriate. but, there are a surprise in the kitchen: a lack of food! so, i had to make do with what i had.

• whole-wheat grilled cheese (but i only had 3 slices of bread so we each had 3/4 of a sandwich!)
• half of a hard-boiled egg
• whole milk organic yogurt with cinnamon
• carrot and cucumber salad with green goddess dressing
  

it was a summery breakfast; it's too bad there was so much rain and grey sky during the visit.

yeah.

where have i been?
1. entertaining my visiting mama, tina.
2. not photographing my food.
3. making unexciting meals.
4. acting ornery.

it's unsure. all of the above?

export.

try this one on for size.

given the previous post, why would anyone want our foods anyhow?

oh my.

it's not good. america needs an overhaul. nytimes reports:

After decades of steady progress, the safety of the nation’s food supply has not improved over the past three years, the government reported Thursday. And, it said, in the case of salmonella, the dangerous bacteria recently found in peanuts and pistachios, infections may be creeping upward. The report, from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, demonstrates that the nation’s food safety system, created when most foods were grown, prepared and consumed locally, needs a thorough overhaul to regulate an increasingly global food industry, top government health officials said Thursday.

still not orange.

when i was living in oregon, i became obsessed with eating carrots. i thought it was a phase; tracy kept reminding me that i would turn orange, or at least my fingers.

i am still eating carrots. a lot. always organic, preferably a dark orange. they are usually sweeter that way. i used to put salt on them, but i now realize that they are perfect the way they are.

and i am still not orange. but i can't see in the dark.

you wish you were kim.

kim is the most regular recipient of my cooking. we have fallen into a ritual where she comes in my room on saturday mornings and we watch tv shows on my computer and then i make breakfast. my mother is visiting this weekend and we are off work today, so today was like saturday to us.

i was in the mood for breakfast tacos. i wanted them enough to go to the grocery store and buy jalapenos and monterey jack cheese. we only had burrito-size tortillas at home so they soon became breakfast burritos.

key parts to this breakfast:
1. eggs scrambled with garlic, onion, jalapeno, and spinach.
2. roasted potatoes with oregano, salt, and pepper. ( i boiled them first so the process would move along faster.)
3. black beans with garlic and red pepper.

we put all of the above in the tortilla (heated over the burner, never in the microwave) with much salsa and shredded cheese.

oh my. everything i ever wanted.
you know you wish were kim. you want it, too.

old-fashioned.

oh, mad men. i love how you smoke and drink and have sex like it is going out of style.

and "do laps." michelle and i love this expression, which we learned from the show. it's "having another round," really. but so classy. and perfect for when you are having an old-fashioned, it seems.

i had my first old-fashioned last weekend at prime meats in carroll gardens. i am not a huge fan of whiskey, ever since i drank jack daniels from the bottle when i was 15. anyhow, i have been trying to be a better drinker lately and try things that fall outside my comfort zone.

this was a tasty cocktail. rye whiskey. included one perfect piece of ice, muddled fruit, and PEAR bitters. i drank two. did a "lap." so grown up.

pistachio ii.

so far, there have been no reports of people being sickened by the pistachios. the blanket warning not to eat them was the first issued without any illness.

apparently, the obama administration is taking a "tough stance on safety." i have yet to see any proof of that notion, but here's what the nytimes reported:

As the nation’s second-largest processor of pistachios agreed Monday to recall its entire 2008 crop despite no confirmed illnesses, the Obama administration issued a tough warning to all food makers that sloppy manufacturing practices would no longer be tolerated. With the warning, the administration signaled that it was substantially changing the way the government oversees food safety. Food-handling practices that in the past would have resulted in mild warnings may now lead to wide-ranging and expensive recalls, even before anyone becomes ill from contaminated food. “The food industry needs to be on notice that F.D.A. is going to be much more proactive and move things far faster,” said Dr. David Acheson, associate commissioner for foods at the Food and Drug Administration. “We’re going to try to stop people from getting sick in the first place, as opposed to waiting until we have illness and death before we take action.”

i hope that america starts behaving like the first world nation it is and creates policies that protect us from ourselves. like labor laws.

iceland.

so i thought i might eat whale, or puffin heart, or some local fish. but it was expensive. and did not sound appealing. the icelanders do eat a lot of soup, and so i tried a traditional one, with lamb in it. it reminded me of tina's brisket. yes, i know brisket is cow, not lamb. but it did, i swear. i also ate a lot of yogurt. skyr. it's so tasty and cheap and it comes in a million flavors, it seems. i tried as many as i could, and i was never disappointed. and my favorite brand came with a collapsable spoon as well.
as predicted, after an afternoon at the blue lagoon, i drank a beer. a viking. that's what it is called; it's a cheap beer, like pbr or lone star. drinkable, but nothing to write home about.
it was really all about the scenery. the glaciers. geysers. mountains. fjords. it was spectacular. like i was on the moon.

pistachio.

what is wrong with the united states?
the pistachios have salmonella.
do not eat them.
ask your senator and congressman for a better food policy.
this is silly. and i am agitated.

here's the list of products to avoid.
and more.

i really just want to rant about this nonsense, but that's not good for anyone really.