Bundt-ing

I would like to introduce you to my first Bundt cake in all its glory:

No icing. I kept it plain and buttery so that it could be tea cake, breakfast, or luscious dessert with cream.

Scrumptious.

Brought to You by the Color Yellow

Japanese Sweet Potato Fries

As you may recall, we are now the happy recipients of CSA veggies. One of my favorite new vegetables is the Japanese sweet potato. The first time we received them, I had no idea what to expect, and I threw them into my favorite, well-worn curry recipe thinking that they may be interchangeable for my regular bright orange potatoes.

Strangely enough, these potatoes in the coconut curry tasted like pieces of sweet butter cake. This may sound revolting, but in fact is a really interesting take on dinner because, boy, did it taste like a luscious dessert.

The second time around cooking with these rare, pale, and surprisingly sweet potatoes, I went with the tried and true vegetable roasting method - large strips, oodles of olive oil, and some cayenne to cut the sweetness. They caramelized beautifully. And still tasted like cake. Dessert-like vegetables are something I can really get behind.

(before pic)

Season's Greetings

Tea-drops on Rosy Teacups or My Favorite Thing

During the course of our move, we spent a few days in NY to say hi and bye to some dear friends. This gave me the opportunity to visit another dear friend, one of my favorite places on earth - Tea and Sympathy in the West Village.

I have been going to this restaurant for more than a decade and have watched the word-of-mouth popularity of the food, atmosphere, and community they establish turn it from a quiet place to a wait-outside-for-an-hour-at-the-weekends kind of place (I no longer go at the weekends) as well as a cultural touchstone.

Nicky's restaurant is one of those places that makes people see what it so wonderful about English food. English food is so frequently the butt of so many jokes, but her pies and sandwiches and cakes and scones are gorgeous, make no mistake, and validate the hearty flavors of standard English fare.

I've had everything from the full tea with finger sandwiches of salmon, cucumber and cream cheese, ham and butter, to sausage rolls and Cornish pasties with sides of delicious salad, bacon sandwiches (sometimes with the lovely American addition of a slice of avocado), Welsh rarebit, Shepherd's pie, baked beans on toast, scones with clotted cream, treacle or date puddings with custard...not one thing I've ever eaten there has left me disappointed (or anything but profoundly full - come with an appetite).

Maybe I should just say that I've had everything.

Rupert Everett named it one of his favorite places in New York on an MTV show, the owner, Nicky Perry, is a minor celebrity in her own right, and speaking of minor celebrities, I was there when Minnie Driver had a bit of a coughing fit over a baked bean from her beans on toast. "Oh great," said Nicky in her straightforward way, "Minnie Driver's choking to death in my restaurant."

When the place is empty (as above, an increasingly rare occurrence), they will refill your pot of tea until the cows come home.

Everybody I have ever brought here has loved it, and has proceeded to bring his or her own group of friends or parents, and from my own tree of word-of-mouth recommendations, I can see how it has grown.

It is a marvelous place. I urge you to go to 108 Greenwich Avenue and check it out your next chance! It's particularly cozy at this time of year when the windows steam up.

Tuber or not Tuber - well, that isn't really the question

This is a horrible picture. An astonishingly hideous representation of my hand (small and delicate usually, not enormous and Hagrid-like as they seem to be here) but at least it's a picture, which is more than I could manage last time.

I misplaced my camera during the move(s)(There were several stages) so this is, but of course, an eensy cell phone pic with unflattering lighting and proportions.

What I need is your help identifying the above.

Since moving to SF, we have done our civic duty and signed up for a CSA. They were available in MA; however, without a car, we were not able to arrange for one. Here, they deliver to both my and my husband's workplace, so we are never without our fresh bag of fruit and veg. Which is a marvelous thing.

And at times, as you can see above, also a modestly stupefying prospect. I have before me this enormous stripy tuber without the foggiest notion of what it could be. I will probably slice it up and roast it with olive oil and garlic and salt and pepper (because that never fails) but knowing that I could make creme brulee, or haggis, or something more exciting with it would be a bonus.

What are you making for Thanksgiving?

Wait, first of all, WOW, my blog is one year old. A whole year has gone by (and a little more). I don't know what I've learned...I haven't really had time to think about it, as it has snuck up on my completely (what with da move, new job, new city, etc)...except that I am so happy that my friends read it. I didn't realize it would be such a nice little extra way for us to keep in touch. So cheers to you.

Second, my relationship with J is almost TEN years old. Cheers to J:)

And third...what are you making for Thanksgiving? For the first time in my entire adulthood, I am NOT TRAVELING for Thanksgiving. The emphasis is sheer and utter wunderbarness. This means that I can make a meaningful contribution to the meal (instead of my mere but usually jet-lagged presence).

What to make??

As usual, Mark Bitmann has eight million fantastic ideas.

I may be leaning to a traditional side that's more like dessert than anything, sweet potatoes with marshmallow topping, but with a pillow of marshmallow and caramelized sweet potatoes, it may be one of my favorite dishes on the planet. It's really magnificent. Nigella has a recipe in her Feast cookbook.

Happy Thanksgiving!