List 75

Love: This ad for Lurpak Lighest butter, which is as colorful as it is fun.  What a lovely (and democratic feeling) celebration of cooking.

http://www.zillamag.com/advertising/lurpak-lightest-commercial-by-wieden-and-kennedy/

Like: The "subway" map of food culture, which floated around last year.  I'm in New York this week for work and am planning stops on the Elevated Basics line (Locanda Verde) and the Education + Global transfer station (Momofuku.)

http://www.hartmansalt.com/food-culture-analyzed/greater-food-culture/228


Discovery:  The best way to salvage a recipe disaster is to turn it into a pasta sauce.  Case in point: I tried a Tom Colicchio short rib recipe from Epicurious.  Braising the short ribs uncovered, as the recipe called for, yielded ribs that were fall-off-the-bone tender underneath the braising liquid, but brown and tough on top.  With less than an hour before guests descended for a dinner party, Erich had the brilliant suggestion of somehow transforming this mess into a pasta sauce.  By shredding the meat and putting it into a reduced, defatted version of the braising liquid (which had sherry vinegar, raisins, onions, carrots, garlic, celery, chicken broth, and herbs), and tossing it with herb pappardelle, a potential disaster became a home run.

Obsession: Diner, one of my all-time favorite movies.  This month's Vanity Fair has a piece proclaiming it "the most influential movie of the past 30 years."  I'm not sure I'd go that far, but the article has made me take a step back to appreciate just how important Diner's naturalistic banter about "nothing" has seeped into so much of pop culture.

Complaint: Top Chef is something we look forward to each week, even more so now that we've roped Stella into watching it with us.  But Pee Wee Herman as a judge?  And lame-o challenges like having to bike around town and crash a strange restaurant's kitchen?  Please, go back to it being a showcase for individual, inspired creativity and not an obstacle course.

List 74

Love: 1970s station wagons - big wood-paneled land boats with a third seat that flips up in the way back, facing out the back.  A pristine, beautiful black Ford Country Squire made an appearance in the parking garage by my office, and I couldn't resist taking its photograph, and then looking for more images online.  I kind of wish I had one of these babies to take out for weekend trips to Sonoma, complete with a Pendleton blanket in back.

 

Like:  This recipe for salmon burgers with a bright accent of tarragon, from Epicurious. If you make it with a lower fat mayonnaise and whole-wheat bread crumbs, it's as healthy as it is delicious.

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Fresh-Salmon-Burgers-with-Tarragon-Mayonnaise-1542


Discovery: It's super Portlandia, but this French press cozy actually works surprisingly well to keep your coffee warm.

http://www.etsy.com/shop/quiltymcquilterson?section_id=7646512


Obsession: The trailer for Wes Anderson's Moonrise Kingdom has me longing for May 25th.





Complaint: The announcement of this year's Oscar nominations this morning drove home that I could not be more behind on award season movie viewing.  There are so many I need to fit in before February 26th.  Number one for me, without a doubt, is Hugo.

List 73

Love: "What Are You Doing New Year's Eve," one of the great old standards. Zooey Deschanel's version, with Joseph Gordon-Levitt, has been plastered all over Facebook these past couple of days, no doubt introducing it to many people.  But to me, the peerless Ella Fitzgerald's version remains the definitive one.  

Like: Giant ice cube trays, for perfect rocks drinks.  

Discovery: Salon ran a feature on cocktail culture over the decades, which included this painting from the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, by Larry Salk, done in 1961.  I can't decide what I like better: the actual painting or its title "Summer Cocktail Party with English Butler."  Either way, it's making me even more antsy for Mad Men to return in the new year.

Obsession: My mother brought home some of this Kerry Gold Garlic and Herb butter to use on the beef tenderloin roast we had Christmas Eve.  Today, I had to make mashed potatoes for 20 - my contribution to a New Year's Eve dinner party.  I followed the Cooks Illustrated-tested-up-the-wazoo-in-advance method, with this butter in place of the plain variety.  It made the best mashed potatoes ever.

Complaint: Are the Iowa caucuses really three days away?  I don't know if I'm quite ready for the election year.

List 72

Love: Christmas in general.  I'm a softie for it - the lights and decorations, the songs, all the social get togethers, the decadent once-a-year food and drinks, the Rankin-Bass Christmas shows, etc.  We are looking forward to hosting rather than traveling for the first time ever, with visions of a cozy fireplace, Christmas vinyl, holiday dessert trays (homemade cookies but also See's peanut brittle and Williams Sonoma's peppermint bark) and our family's traditional Midwest potato casserole for Christmas Eve dinner dancing in our heads.

Like: Zone One, my final apocalypse and/or zombie read of the year.  Author Colson Whitehead, as expected based on his past books, brings a depth and thoughtfulness to the genre, and in character Mark Spitz's ruminations of the world that ended, comments on contemporary culture.

Discovery: A few weeks ago the New York Times featured in article on old school supper clubs in Northern Wisconsin.  The article made me nostalgic for our summer trips to a cabin on Lake Julia, which was in the same area, and eager to plan a trip like that for the coming summer, with a stop at The Al-Gen, which looks straight out of Twin Peaks.

Obsession:  That same Times article also, perhaps even more importantly, reminded me of the greatness of ice cream cocktails for dessert, something that's never gone out of style around Rhinelander, and something I remember my parents drinking (and giving us little tastes of) when we were kids.  There will be many a Grasshopper whipped up in my blender and served in a coupe glass this coming Christmas weekend. Ice Cream + equal parts creme de menthe and creme de cocoa.

Complaint:  In the spirit of Tiny Tim, not Ebenezer Scrooge...none.

List 71

Love:  Richard Harrow on Boardwalk Empire. It's been a stellar second season for the show overall, and one of the big reasons is this fascinating, poignant character, a World War I vet who's as wounded inside as he is outside. 

Like: Parmesan Walnut Salad in Endive Spears - the hors d'ourvres I brought for Thanksgiving.  It was able to walk that line of being refreshing and light, yet rich and a bit decadent at the same time. 
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Parmesan-Walnut-Salad-in-Endive-Leaves-13042

Discovery:  Barrel-aged cocktails. At home!  Our friends made up a batch of Negronis and aged them in a small barrel for a month. They were delicious - a bit mellower than the usual Negroni - and are a perfect winter-month house project.  This is a link to Clyde Common bartender Jeffrey Morgenthaler's blog with more information, including a good source for barrels.

http://www.jeffreymorgenthaler.com/2010/barrel-aged-cocktails

Obsession: I've already written about mine with World War II in a past list.  Now I'm happy to find that Alwyn Collinson has taken it to an epic new level with his RealTimeWWII's "live" tweeting of World War II events as they would have unfolded, day by day, starting with the German invasion of Poland in 1939. I hope he manages to keep it up for the next six years, going through the bombing of Britain to D-Day to V-J Day and everything in between.

Complaint:  Why didn't we have sing-a-long movies when I was young?  I took Stella to Sing-A-Long Sound of Music at The Castro Theater and it was truly The Rocky Horror Picture Show for kids (at the matinee at least - no doubt it gets way raunchier in the evening).  They passed out prop bags (a bit of edelweiss,etc.) and instructed the crowd on things to shout.  It's playing through this coming weekend.

List 70

Love:  Areaware's Alarm Dock. You lay your iPhone down on the ledge (the power chord threads through the back so it can recharge at night) and with the Flip Clock app you have a readable clock during the night which will wake you in the morning. It's a beautifully simple design that's beyond genius.(I got mine at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art Store.)

Like:  A twist on the classic panzanella salad. Oakland's Pasta Shop is now featuring an Autumn Panzenella, with shallots, butternut squash and brussels sprouts and shaved parmesan.  It's so lovely, I could have it for lunch every single day.

Discovery: I still remember clearly the first time I saw Blue Velvet and how strange and amazing it was. The newly issued 25th Anniversary BluRay DVD, with its 50 minutes of found extra footage, will surely be on my Christmas list.

Obsession: Downton Abbey, the PBS Masterpiece Classics series, which will start its second season in January. I'm watching the first season now and can't get enough. It can get me through 30 minutes on the treadmill with nary a glance at the clock.  Gosford Park intertwined the perspectives and stories of those residing both upstairs and downstairs in a grand English estate, and this show, also written by Julian Fellowes, picks up where that left off, with the drama of a family whose estate will be entailed away from its daughters to a distant male cousin, and everything that subsequently ensues. The house and the period clothes could not be more stunning.

Complaint: Working on Haagen-Dazs' advertising is starting to get dangerous, what with all the free ice cream tastings. During a meeting today I was forced to try the Caramel Cone flavor. With its crunchy bits of chocolate-covered cone and burnt caramel chunks, it's ridiculously good. Which is bad.

List 69

Love: My new winter coat.  Now if only Indian Summer would give way to Fall and Winter. 

 Like: The Charlie Brown holiday specials - from Halloween and Thanksgiving to Christmas to Easter. I forgot what a cool cat Snoopy is and am glad to be rewatching these (over and over again) via Stella. The Mayflower Voyages bonus feature on the Thanksgiving DVD is a nice Cliff Notes on the story behind turkey day.

Discovery: Zombies are giving vampires a run for their money as the monster du jour, and I really enjoyed Isaac Marion's smart, breezy book Warm Bodies.  It imagines a zombie named R who has a rich inner life, longs for more than an existence of shuffling around and brain-eating, and lives in an old Boeing 747, listening to Frank Sinatra records.  It's being made into a movie right now, with John Malkovich, Nicholas Hoult (from About a Boy and A Single Man) and Rob Corddry.

Obsession:  Making meatballs at home that are as tasty and amazing as Pizzaiolo's.  The Williams-Sonoma Catalog and Esquire magazine both recently published meatball recipes that look, at least, like they are in the ballpark.

Complaint: Why is it that framing a poster costs 2-3 times the poster itself?