Thanksgiving to Friendsgiving

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This year’s thanksgiving wasn’t really typical, but it sure was long. About half way through the almost week long celebration, my stomach just started hurting. Not upset, hurting, but more just hurting.  Like it was yelling at me, “No more!”.

Why, you ask?

Day One:
Actual thanksgiving. We started the festivities by FaceTiming the Bylsma/Shurtleff clan back east and even participating in the traditional shot or two of whiskey that comes along.  Thanksgiving with my family one of the things I miss most about being back east, so it was great to see their faces and to be in that kitchen, as confusing as it was, for just a little while.

Brad had to work so Steve, Sarah, Suzi and I went in to eat our feast with Brad at Fords. Ever been to a restaurant on Thanksgiving? It’s freaking weird. I was thinking about “The Christmas Story” scene the whole time when they are in the Chinese restaurant on Christmas. Although our food was absolutely Thanksgiving appropriate, it was stupid expensive. That, however, is an issue I’m not going to get started on… The food was delicious with good company and I’m really, really glad we could bring a little holiday cheer to Brad’s workday.

Day Two:
This was Black Friday. Feast at our apartment with Steve and Sarah. Espresso and Vanilla Bean rubbed rib roast, brussel sprouts, sweet potato spears, mashed potatoes, braised greens, cranberries… Amazing. And this is all after walking around Montana Ave on Black Friday and stopping in to R+D for appetizers and drinks. We had to all cook a feast together at least once while we were together. That’s just what the Mathews and the Toasts DO!

Day Three:
Ok, I worked Saturday, but I was training so I got a free meal. Ate way too much. Ugh. This was the first day my stomach started hurting…

Day Four:
Toasts get back from San Diego. I get out of work early. We make shredded chicken tacos. We all eat a disgusting number of burritos and of course, we have a bottle of wine or two.  Then we make “deconstructed apple pie” with pigs and crabs cut out of pie crust, a Jack Daniels Honey spiced sauce, and Jack Daniels whipped cream.  Um, AMAZING.  One of the best drunken desserts I have ever participated in.

Day Five:
I seriously couldn’t eat this day. The Toasts heated up leftovers before they left to drive back to San Fran, but I just ate a bite or two then had an orange. Stomach was painful this day.  Had to rest. Prepping for the next day’s feast.

Day Six:
Ok, picture this…

Three chefs, a turkey, a Guinness goose, lots of wine, thirteen friends, people in from Stockholm, three homemade pies, brûléed macaroni and cheese (That’s right, they took delicious Mac and cheese, added more cheese, then took out a torch and brûléed it. This really happened), Brad’s Brussel sprouts, my mom’s sweet potato banana casserole, and every other Thanksgiving side you could possibly imagine. “Friendsgiving”. Topped off with an impromptu piano serenade that just about made my night. It was swanky. It was fun.  And it was delicious.

Day Seven?
I feel disgusting. Full, happy, delicious, satisfied, jolly and disgusting.

I do not diet. I don’t really need to because I typically eat really healthy and I’m blessed with a good metabolism. Fruits, vegetables, yogurt, i love it. But after this past week of every type of fat and calorie and butter being pumped through my veins, I’m reminded of Padma from Top Chef. I read somewhere once that she enjoys every dish during the season, not caring about or counting the calories along the way, and then she goes on a crash diet as soon as filming stops to get her figure back.  No booze, no cheese, no junk.  Lots of exercise.

At this point I was considering fasting. I’d eaten enough food to feed a family for at least a month. Juice detox maybe? Too extreme? I’ll never get through it. I mean, I work in a restaurant. It’s not possible.

So I decided today that my compromise is that I will be eating super crazy healthy for the next week (or until I can’t stand it anymore). This meaning cutting out dairy and wheat as much as possible and sticking to lean meats, fruits, and veggies. And even in the twelve hours since I decided this, I’ve found it extremely hard. Especially with all of the leftovers we still have in the fridge. And a husband who loves ice cream and cookies…

Thanksgiving, why did you do this to me? Why did you last six days and four feasts?

It is not easy being a chefs wife. Not easy at all.

So now that it’s late and the salad I made for dinner obviously didn’t fill up my stretched stomach, I raided the pantry for healthy foods and found the goods to make myself a snack that I haven’t had in years.

Have you had ants on a log recently? Delicious!! And peanut butter and raisins are usually my go to snack on a piece of bread. On celery, they’re delicious and even more healthy. And I felt like I was four years old again.

I couldn’t quite tell, but I think even Gibson was jealous.

So I gave her a little bit of peanut butter. She’s too cute to resist.

We will see how long this lasts…

The Worst Day For Garbage Disposals

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So back in October when I was in Maryland visiting my family and I attempted to write a blog a day for ten days, I was taking notes on anything that could possibly become a blog idea. If you sneezed and I thought it was interesting, I probably wrote that down. My mom at one point said she had to watch herself because anything she did could become “Key of Kels” material. It was true. I was often heard saying, “I might blog about that.”

One of these said notes was probably a piggy back conversation to our dish washing OCD conversation (see Bylsma Dishwasher Rules). We got to talking about garbage disposals. My dad had the quote that kicked it off.

“You know what the worst day for garbage disposals is? Thanksgiving.”

Genius.

Other disposal words of wisdom?

  • Never put celery down there. It seems harmless, but it acts like string and just ties the blades in a big knot.
  • Always run water when it’s on. Cold water is best.
  • Sometimes I just fill up the sink after I use it a lot and let it drain through.

Yep. I think we had been drinking.

Now Brad did not grow up in a house with a garbage disposal. He is only starting to know the wonders of the machine. He told me that once, in Orlando, he was talking to one of his housemates about what was ok to put down there. His housemate started listing foods that were ok. Leftovers, egg shells (I don’t know if I agree with this one), cereal, even a whole pizza.

“Why would you want to put a whole pizza down the drain?” Brad said. Obviously, he would much rather EAT a whole pizza than pulverize it and flush it down the drain.

“I don’t know, but if you ever wanted to, you could definitely do it.”

Sigh.

I, however, have always had a garbage disposal. The only time I scrape my plate before rinsing it is if there are bones on it. Pretty much everything else is fair game.

Brad and I are still recovering from a really bad garbage disposal experience recently. In our old apartment, nothing worked all that well. Especially the garbage disposal. One night I was cleaning out the refrigerator and getting rid of food that had been sitting just a bit too long. I had some leftover homemade chicken noodle soup. Nothing in there can’t be ground up pretty easily, especially after sitting for a week or so.

But all of a sudden the water stopped draining. The disposal just whirred and hummed. The sink filled up with murky leftovers water. Then the other sink started to fill. Oh and THEN the dishwasher started to fill. And overflow.

Awesome.

We will just call this the Great Flood of Kansas Avenue, 2011. Not only was this disgusting, but it actually took two days for someone to come out and even attempt a repair. Imagine living with a chef for two days with dirty water coming out of your kitchen sinks and dishes you can’t easily wash.

To make matters worse, the guy the landlord sent over to snake the drain snaked right on through into the neighbors apartment and busted a hole through their pipes. This is when our property manager informed us that we shouldn’t even be putting lettuce down the drain. What were we thinking?  This was also when I informed Brad that I would be looking for new apartments ASAP.

Wtf.

So after all of that, you would have think we had learned. Our new apartment is amazing, but its still old. It was built in the 1940s. The piping wasn’t then what it is now. You just have to treat it with a little respect.

Which is why we should have known, last night, on our version of the “worst day for garbage disposals”, that it was not a good idea to put the potato peels down there. We should have known that the red reset button just wasn’t going to do the trick. And I should have known when I Googled clogged garbage disposal (trying to fix it before Brad came back in the kitchen and freaked out. He DID tell us not to put the peels down there…) it would come back and tell me that potato peels are the WORST thing to put into a disposal.

Well of course.

So we ate our incredible day after Thanksgiving feast with the Toasts (coffee rubbed rib roast, cranberries, sweet potato skewers, stuffing, braised greens…) and then made a few trips down to Walgreens for Drano and when that didn’t work, to Rite Aid for a plunger.

Brad said the girl in front of him in line was also buying a plunger.

Turns out Dad was right. Thanksgiving really is the worst day for garbage disposals. And I bet Rite Aid sold a lot of plungers yesterday.

Drinking and Recycling, Folks

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Do you remember Anthropologie’s Earth day window displays? They used over 2.5 million wine corks and created some incredible art in all of their stores throughout the United States. They made designs, planters, streamers, animals… You name it. And it was fantastic. Especially for a wino like myself.  I can’t get enough.

Seriously, check out this video…

I’ve been thinking about those displays ever since April, and when we moved into our new place and were deciding on how to decorate I decided to give it a try. We needed a cork board.  And I love this idea.

Lucky for me, I work at a bar in a restaurant where we sell a lot of wine. And I saved a ton of corks last April for decorations at our wedding. But I felt very Green when I decided to put all that drinking to use. Because I believe in drinking and recycling, folks. California has obviously made me very environmentally conscious. I recycle the wine bottle and save the cork. And I always bring my reusable bags to the grocery store. Anything I can do to help, Mother Nature. Anything I can do to help…

Here’s how I created my own little version of the Anthro display. Part cork board and part art!

Brad and I headed over to the hardware store and picked up a few things. Three round wooden table tops, chalkboard spray paint (originally I want these to be multi-purpose chalkboard/cork boards, but things changed a bit), hanging fixtures, and wood glue.

First things first, I spray painted the table tops black. Primer then another coat.

Then, once the paint dried, I got to messing around with a design. I tried to separate the corks stained purple by red wines and use the colors in the designs. Here’s what I came up with.  No Anthropologie amazingness, but pretty freaking cool.

Using the wood glue, I glued on the corks, section by section, going back and putting pressure on the corks to make sure they were on tight.

I even added a few more corks in after dinner (and a few glasses of wine.. More corks, mnore cork crafts!). I feel like drunk craft inspiration is dangerous, but always adds character.

Then I started on the smaller boards. I went for a little different design here…

End result? We have homemade awesome wino art and our Shy Cherry has a nice little centerpiece. I probably won’t want to hang anything on them – at least for now – because they’re just so awesome to look at. But the corks are sturdy and can absolutely hold a few thumbtacks.

Now off to start saving corks again… Cheers!

Make Your Own Grapefruit Bitters

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The same night that I dragged Brad out to the paint store and we painted our dining room Shy Cherry, I was feeling ambitious.  In addition to wearing a ridiculous painting outfit, I felt like throwing together another infusion for my Mixology Monday collection. I had a few grapefruit lying around, so I decided to get back to what really got me started me on this infusion kick. Cocktail Bitters.

Cocktail Bitters are what bartenders call the salt and pepper of the cocktail world. You can make a Manhattan or an Old Fashioned without it, but it would be like eating a steak that hadn’t been seasoned at all. You can maybe tell it’s a good piece of steak, but there could be so much more flavor if the chef hadn’t skipped that one step. Bartenders, learn how to use your bitters!!

They were most popular in cocktails before Prohibition, when many different varieties were widely available. It was a main ingredient in the popular cocktail of the time, which was simply liquor, bitters, sugar and a very little amount of water.  Sounds pretty good, right?  But in the second half of the 20th century, fruitier and sweeter drinks became more popular and that white Angostura bottle behind most bars was rarely used.

Enter Sex and the City and the Cosmopolitan. See you later, Pink Gin.

Bitters were once considered medicinal, but are now well known as digestifs and a mixologists’ secret weapon. In the 1800s, they were often given to sailors to cure seasickness. Some of my other favorite uses for bitters?

Hiccups
Take a lemon wedge and cover it in sugar. Top with a few drops of bitters. Suck on that for a minute and your hiccups should disappear. Trust me, it works.

Hangovers
Bitters have long been known for easing nausea. Next time you’ve had a few too many the night before and your stomach isn’t feeling too hot the next morning, add a few drops of bitters to soda water. Works like a dream.

My infusion curiosity was sparked by an article in Food & Wine magazine a few months ago about how Bitters were making a comeback and how you could make them at home. The recipes they gave were incredible mixes of cherry root and herbs and spices I’d never heard of and have no idea where to find, but my interest was piqued.

While I was brainstorming Pumpkin Spice Rum and Peppercorn Vodka, I was also on a quest to find a great bitters recipe. Bitters were something that maybe even Brad could enjoy a splash of in his soda water, so it would be an experiment I could actually share with him…

Using a recipe found on Chow, Brad and I got cooking.

Grapefruit Bitters:

You will need
1 medium grapefruit
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
1 cup vodka
1 cup Campari
3/4 cup Sweet Vermouth

And an awesome Shy Cherry wall to take pictures against.  So. Much. Red.

Halve the grapefruit. Juice one half, keep the juice and throw away the rind. Coarsely chop the remaining half and save.

Combine sugar and water in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Stir until sugar dissolves, and let syrup simmer until it thickens slightly, about 2 minutes.


Add chopped grapefruit and cook until the grapefruit releases all its juice, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool to room temperature.

Combine cooled grapefruit syrup (including chopped fruit), saved grapefruit juice, Campari, vodka, and sweet vermouth in a large container with a tightfitting lid. Stir well, cover, and refrigerate at least 1 hour before using.

And always let the dog feel like she’s helping….

Now Brad most definitely can’t drink this because it’s about 99.9% alcohol, but I’ve been sampling it on my own.  Best part about bitters?  You don’t have to wait a month to try them.

I am impatient when it comes to my booze.

All weekend I have been making myself Sparkling Grapefruit Cocktails and I’m looking forward to trying out a few news recipes tonight over at Mixology Monday at R+D. I feel like bitters are this simple little hidden gem that so many bartenders don’t take advantage of.  I’ll give you the scoop on what worked and what flopped tomorrow along with a couple of delicious recipes!

Pop Up Restaurant Anyone?

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Earlier this week I came across a post on Eater LA about a Pop-Up restaurant this weekend only on Abbot Kinney.  Two chefs, one from Joe’s Restaurant and one from Axe (pronounced Ah-shay), were taking over some place called Capri for the weekend and hosting a $65, eight course tasting menu.  I forwarded it on to Brad.  Sounded like our kinda thing.

I sort of forgot about it because Brad never read the article and basically just said, “Yeah, ok.  Sure.”  We both had off Friday.  We love Abbott Kinney.  We love new restaurants.  We would probably end up going.  Sure.

And then Wednesday, as we were cranking what was probably an illegal U-turn on Electric Avenue (yep, that’s a real street name and every time we drive on it I sing the song) trying to find parking for our favorite coffee shop Intelligentsia, a black SUV pulled up next to us and rolled down the window.

Kris Tominaga, who Brad knows from Joe’s Restaurant, leaned out of the car and handed Brad a flyer.  We were obviously blocking traffic in so many directions, so we just exchanged a quick hello and “of course we’ll be there” before waiving our apologies to other angry drivers, completing our illegal maneuver and parking.  But the flyer put two and two together.  Kris was the chef from Joe’s who was hosting this pop-up this weekend, Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing.  One example of how sometimes illegal U-turns have beautiful endings.

We called and made a reservation while waiting in line at Intelligentsia (because there is ALWAYS a line – this is part of the Intelligentsia experience), and checked out the menu. And then I rubbed it in that I was one step ahead of Brad in something having to do with restaurants for once.  Boo-ya.

**Brad didn’t care.  He still knew both the chefs AND the guy who answered the phone to take the reservations, so he is still exponentially cooler than me.  And always will be.  Damn.**

 

So yesterday, Brad and I had a fantastic and crafty Brad and Kelly day off (I’ll update you on the crafty projects soon!), and after a two hour long Skype call with my parents, we headed over to Venice.

Directly across the street from one of the best restaurants in the WORLD (Tasting Kitchen) and one of the best restaurants in Los Angeles, if not the United States (Gjelina), Capri has never been successful.  I had never heard of it, but people tell me it was over priced and always empty.  Last night, as WISC, it was bustling, bright, and lively.

All white with white Christmas lights and brilliant, simply framed celebrity photographs lining the walls, it was a clean and classic atmosphere.  The brown craft paper laid on top of classic white table cloths was set with mismatched china (borrowing from their neighbors across the street?) and simple kitchen towels for napkins.  Mismatched chairs made it feel like a big family gathering where all the seating in the house was pulled together.

I love the feel of the ‘fancy mixed with simple’ trend going on now in restaurants.  Beautiful food served on amazing dishes in an environment that feels comfortable. People want the quality of fine dining food without the air of snobbery that can come along with it.  People want to feel like you are a chef inviting them into your house for a home cooked meal, not like they have to worry about which fork goes with which course.  This all goes double in Venice.

Also, I love white Christmas lights.  If Brad would let me, I’d have them up all around the house all year long.  When we have a restaurant, believe me I will sneak in Christmas lights some way.  Last night, I believe it was the Christmas lights that did me in.  I knew this place was going to be awesome.

I was right.  The menu was phenomenal.  The food was fantastic.  Our server was amazing and she told us the story behind every taste of wine and every dish she put in front of us.  The wine parings were out of this world and complemented both of the dishes each taste was meant for in big, bold and different ways.  Even the china was fun – we got the plate voted “Most Likely to Be Stolen By The End of the Weekend”.

Look at that ‘STACHE!!!

And then we made sure they saw that we gave it back.

For dessert, we had our second amazing biscuit of the day on Abbot Kinney (the first was a buttered quince paste biscuit for breakfast at Gjelina Take Away), and Brad said WISC’s beat out Gjelina’s hands down.  I ranked them neck and neck.  Buttery heaven.

As we drove back down Abbot Kinney on our way home last night, stuffed full and a little tipsy (just me), we passed the Otherroom and reminisced about my first birthday here in LA, just three days after we moved from NY to LA.  A friend of mine from college met us out at the Otherroom (her suggestion, I had no idea where to go), and we began our Abbot Kinney love affair with the Mick Jagger painting that was hanging right at the entrance.  That night we thought AK was a crazy little street with amazing window displays and such cool people.  Almost two years later (!!!), we are still finding new and amazing places on the street and still marveling at how cool all the people are.

WISC will only be around this weekend and will reopen to occupy the Capri space again for all of December.  I know for sure that Brad and I will be back as many times as we can afford to make sure that this new addition to AK sticks around into 2012.

Wolf In Sheep’s Clothing, thank you for the great time and for the delicious meal and best of luck to you!  We can’t wait to see you again in December!

The Pumpkin Pie Martini

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Wondering how Mixology Monday went?

 

Well, it was delicious.  And I still have some Pumpkin Spice Rum left.  So come on by if you want one of these…

Pumpkin Pie Martini:

2 oz Pumpkin Spice Rum

1 1/2 oz Bailey’s Irish Cream

1/2 oz Domaine Canton Ginger Liqueur

Shake all ingredients over ice to chill.  Strain into martini glass.  Garnish with freshly grated nutmeg.  Yum.

 

I am also offering a Pumpkin Spice coffee if you’re chilly out here by the beach.  It will warm you up and put you in the holiday spirit!  If you’re making this at home, I would halve all of the above measurements and then fill with hot coffee.

A tip for coffee drinks.  Heat up the mug first with hot water for at least 30 seconds before pouring it out and mixing your drink.  It just helps keep the drink hot when adding the room temperature liquors.  Every degree counts on a wintery cold evening!

 

 

Deciding between Coffee Vodka and Peppercorn Vodka for next Monday…  Stay tuned!