Cucina Testa Rossa

Dog Days of Summer...

Woof!

8th Grade Reunion...

29 years later! When I told people I was going to my 8th grade reunion, they looked at me like I was crazy but there was no way I was going to miss it. Two friends (above) who were boarding students flew from Mexico City for the reunion so I was going to be there come hell or high water. Fortunately it didn't take that :) I'd post a "before" picture of us but I had acne, braces - those big ugly silver ones that went all the way around your teeth - and a Dorothy Hammill haircut.... enough said!

Baby got back....

don't watch this while eating thanksgiving dinner or you'll have cranberry coming out your nose :)

Thanksgiving Recipe Round-up

Hi Everyone! Grab your apron (or cocktail as the case may be!) and let's get cooking! Putting together a menu is always the hardest part for me - I struggle and agonize and moan and questions my existence - so if you don't want to suffer the same fate, here are some ideas from the Ghosts of Thanksgiving Past...

How *Not* to Cook a Turkey 12/2/06
Thanksgiving in Paris, Trois Fois (Three Times) 11/27/05
Thanksgiving Recipes v4.0 ~ Stuffed! 11/20/06
Thanksgiving Recipes v3.0 ~ Michael Chiarello 11/19/06
Thanksgiving Recipes v2.0 ~ Deja Vu 11/18/06
Thanksgiving Recipes v1.0 ~ Williams-Sonoma 11/17/06

And this year, I'm back in San Francisco cooking with my Paris flatmates, my absolutely favorite thing to do in the whole world. Here's the menu below... Whether it actually ends up being this will be wholely determined by home much champagne we consume while cooking and if certain people went out the night before and decided to clean the over at 4am...but I digress... We decided on a capon since I torqued the turkey last year. Cross your fingers and toes and wings and thighs for me!

thanksgiving 2008
chez john et pierre
----
rose champagne
smoked salmon on brioche with lemon creme fraiche
toasts with arugula, proscuitto, chevre
----
burgundy pinot noir
chapon stuffed with foie gras, sauteed trumpet mushrooms, cognac
cornbread stuffing with dried cranberries, apricots
roasted asparagus sliced fennel, beets, oranges with a raspberry vinaigrette
----
sauterne (or maybe back to champagne?)
pears poached in red wine on creme anglaise drizzled with chocolate

Bon appetit! L

Heureux Mercis Donnant ~ Happy Thanksgiving!

May your stuffing be tasty
May your turkey plump,
May your potatoes and gravy
Have never a lump.
May your yams be delicious
And your pies take the prize,
And may your Thanksgiving dinner
Stay off your thighs!

La Vue de Ma Fenêtre ~ Police on Rollerblades

Policemen on Rollerblades in front of l'Opera, Paris ~ February 2007

Can't outmaneuver these guys! And given the traffic jams and transportation strikes in Paris, this is probably faster than the metro. Maybe it's time to dust off my big purple pair that I used for all of a week back in 1994 when I was determined to make those Friday Night Rides across San Francisco that were so hugely popular back then. Determined that is, until I fell directly on my tailbone (less padding than now) right in front of the Chestnut Street morning express bus headed downtown filled with handsome men in double-breasted suits and wingtips. The searing pain was outmatched only by the sheer embarassment made doubly so because I fell trying to do a fancy little jump turn onto the sidewalk in front of above mentioned bus. That'll teach me to try to show off!

Cocktails and Art at enviedart

I flew in last Thursday afternoon - with a few hours of deep REMs thanks to Ambien under my belt to get me through the night - headed home, showered, changed, and was in a cab within an hour careening to a cocktail party at enviedart, a tres chic, hip, hyper (pronounced: ee-per) cool art gallery in the 8th. Featuring all young and upcoming artists, it was a great place to have a reception rather than the staid, and now Michelin-spanked, George V. A local restaurant and favorite of the fashion houses, Lemoni Cafe, catered all natural, organic brightly colored combinations of sweet and savory in cute little plastic cups for an almost Pierre Herme-ish effect. I was waiting for someone to set their cocktail on the small table top canvases or knock over a statue but nary a spill... Here are some pics...

Planes, Trains and Automobiles....

Flying into Frankfurt...

Thank you for all your notes wondering where in the world (literally!) I was the past few weeks. Well planes, trains, and automobiles just about sums it up. I flew to San Francisco a few days after returning from Dayton and I just returned to Paris yesterday. I thought I'd spare you the pictures of the very bad airplane food (even in business class!) but here are a few more pictures of clouds, mountains and lakes. Last ones, I promise! :)

Bonne Année 2007 de Paris!

pork loin stuffed with dried apricots and cranberries in Sauterne and tied (not very well) with dental floss...

No culinary disasters to speak of occurred this holiday however it was not without its hair-raising, stress-inducing, blood-vessel-bursting, screaming-for-wine moments. Bare with me here....

Freak-out #1: 4:30pm Start cooking for 11 people who are arriving at 8:00pm. Yes, start. Luckily, we had already shopped...well sort of. Two more people joined the festivities at the last minute so that morning I ran to the market for more veggies, to Pascal the baker for the baguettes and brioche, and to my blue-eyed butcher Serge for another pork loin. We were all tres jetlagged so an afternoon nap was a must to get through the night. I re-woke up around 4:15pm, and began chopping and blanching and peeling and melting and whisking and grating like a mad woman.

Pierre arrived back around 6pm and I immediately started barking orders. "Toast the brioche, juice and zest the lemon, mix the blue cheese, assemble the endive, help me tie up the pork, turn off the carrots, make the potatoes, oh and by the way we are out of olive oil, butter and Roquefort and it’s Sunday night and no stores are open. AAAAAK!" Click here to read how we ate our way into the in the new year....

Epiphany & Gallettes des Rois

Epiphany is tomorrow but tomorrow is my day to post at KQED's Bay Area Bites so I thought I'd post this a day early. It is actually a repeat from two years ago. Sorry, I'm still jetlagged :) Click here to have a delicious epiphany...