use real butter

Finally, finally I went into town today to buy groceries. It’s not as if we’re ever in dire need of food for fear of starvation. *snort* I mean, we have enough food to live off of for months. Lately I have moved into the mode of “what can we scrape together here?” from the mode of “I have this meal in mind and I need the following ingredients…” Planning is good and I love it and I do it a lot, but mastering spontaneity in the kitchen is bringing my creative cooking juices to a nice simmer. Shocking, I know! Next I’ll be sleeping in past sunrise…

Tonight was a twist on the old steak and potatoes. Something beautiful and delicious in all its simplicity of preparation and flavors. Took less than 30 minutes to prep it all and serve. I tend to eat less when things are chopped up. Does that make any sense?

slice it thin

pairing a nice salad takes the edge off the heavy

rare, the way i like it

It was overcast and rainy for much of the day yesterday. Didn’t look good for eclipse viewing that evening/next morning. When we went to bed around 11:30 pm it was raining. The total lunar eclipse was to start at 2:51 am. I checked satellite imagery which revealed a lot of clouds, and then I set my alarm for 2:40 am. But I never heard the alarm.

I got up at 2:00, the way you do when you anticipate something like getting up to catch a flight or getting up to see… a lunar eclipse! I padded out to the perch and peered out our picture windows - the moon! The blanket of clouds that pissed on us all night had moved on and instead we had mostly clear skies with a few menacing blobs of cloud here and there. I went back to bed to try and get some more sleep.

But by 2:30 I got my camera gear together and threw on my trusted capilene and fleece and set myself up outside. Jeremy had an exhausting day before, so he asked me to wake him when it was approaching totality. Sure thing.

The moon was bright and big and fat and beautiful. I love it. I love the night sky and all of those brilliant bodies doing their orbital dynamics dances around us. My lens wasn’t good enough for getting really nice sharp images of the moon as a giant grapefruit, but it was good enough for playing around and getting some detail and capturing this most lovely phenomenon.

When I started, I could see maybe a couple dozen stars glimmering in the night. Lots of turbulence aloft. When the eclipse started, it was ever so subtle and I thought it would take forever to reach totality (it took an hour). But as I snapped away, I noticed that more and more stars began to pop out. Wisps of clouds flirted past the moon, but that was okay - I wasn’t shooting a basketball game… As the moon began to resemble a sliver, I went inside from the deck and woke Jeremy.

We sat and watched the Earth’s umbra slowly engulf the moon. In it’s wake was a reddish, sometimes orangish moon. Freaking awesome. I had never seen a total lunar eclipse before. Neither had Jeremy. Meanwhile, we spotted about a dozen shooting stars during our viewing. The Milky Way emerged in the darkness and it just felt amazing. The winds began to pick up and more clouds ushered toward our piece of sky from the Continental Divide. I asked Jeremy if there was a disconnect between what he studies - astrophysics - and what he sees standing there on the deck. I don’t remember his answer because I was feeling really tired.

It started to get cold, dropping into the lower 40s and gusting winds to boot. Jeremy retired to the couch inside and eventually had to turn in so he would be lucid at work in a few hours. I stayed. I wanted, if I could, to catch the unveiling too. At 5:23 am, the moon was to come out of totality and at 5:22 am (I kid you not), an enormous bank of clouds that stretched from James Peak across to Wyoming marched across the sky and in front of the moon. I felt some sadness and some relief. Tired, cold, and tired some more, I packed up my equipment and went to bed.

Here is what I managed to capture for the 2.5 hours I was out there:

my first total lunar eclipse - spectacular

Last night I made eggplant parmigiana (or Pecorino Romano is more like it). I hadn’t ever made this before, but I had eggplants, bread crumbs, mozzarella, some leftover sauce… I sort of wung it and it turned out different from what I had expected, but wasn’t bad at all. I have thoughts for improvement the next go around which will be soon because I have another eggplant waiting in the wings. These should improve on texture and the reduce the “vomit-like” appearance of the sauce.

eggplant parmigiana

I peeled the eggplant completely, then sliced into thin (thinner than 1/4 inch) discs. I dipped the eggplant slices in two beaten eggs and then dredged in bread crumbs. Then I fried the slices in a few tablespoons of olive oil until browned on each side and set them to drain on paper towels. In a baking dish, I layered eggplant, mozzarella slice, some shaved romano, eggplant, mozzarella… and baked in a 350F oven for 45 minutes. Serve with some warm tomato base sauce.

Here’s what I’d do differently:
1) cover the baking dish with foil or lid and remove for the last 10 minutes
2) make my own sauce (garlic and tomato)

Also - I ran out of breadcrumbs and tried frying up a few slices sans crumbs. Don’t do that.

i like the layered effect

Actually, the best part was the salad. I haven’t made Caesar salad in an age. I used to make it in high school because my parents loved it, but… It’s quite easy to do although I never have anchovies on hand. Ah well, I’m fine without it really.

Caesar Salad
serves 4

2 heads of romaine lettuce, washed, dried, torn
1-2 cups croutons
1 egg
1 clove garlic, crushed to paste
salt
pepper
1/3 cup olive oil
1/3 cup lemon juice
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1/3 cup Parmesan cheese, grated (or I used flakes of Pecorino Romano to dress on top)

Boil water in a small saucepan and put the whole egg (shell and all) in for 45 seconds and remove. Let cool. Break egg into bowl and mix with garlic, salt, pepper, lemon juice, and Worcestershire. Whisk the olive oil in by thin steady stream to ensure good emulsion. Mix in the cheese if grated (otherwise dress the salad with it last). Toss dressing with greens and croutons. Sprinkle shaved cheese on top.

perfectly crisp caesar salad

I didn’t have croutons on hand, but that is never a problem because I love to make my own. It’s really easy. Mince a clove or two of garlic. Cube some bread like french bread. Heat a few tablespoons of olive oil in a frying pan and stir the garlic around until fragrant. Add the bread cubes and a dash of salt and fry it up. If it’s not crisp enough, you can chuck them into an oven and bake to harden the croutons. I learned to do this in camp in Chile with their brick bread which I wasn’t a huge fan of unless it was fried like this with garlic.

fresh croutons really make it