Month: February 2006

Easy Pork Chops

(Cook’s Illustrated)

4 bone-in pork rib chops or center-cut chops, about 7 ounces each and 1/2 to 3/4 inch thick, patted dry with paper towels
1 tsp vegetable oil
Table salt and ground black pepper
1/2 tsp granulated sugar

If using electric stove, turn burner to medium heat. Rub both sides of each chop with 1/8 teaspoon oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Sprinkle one side of each chop evenly with 1/8 teaspoon sugar, avoiding the bone.

Place chops, sugared-side down, in 12-inch nonstick skillet. Using hands, press meat of each chop into pan. Set skillet with chops over medium heat; cook until lightly browned, 4 to 9 minutes. (Chops should be sizziling after 2 minutes, if not, turn the heat up a bit.) Using tongs, flip chops, positioning them in same manner. Cover skillet, reduce heat to low, and cook until center of each chop registers 140 degrees on instant-read thermometer, 3 to 6 minutes (begin checking temperature after 2 minutes); chops will barely brown on second side. Transfer chops to platter, tent with foil, and let rest 5 minutes; do not discard liquid in skillet. Turn the burner off.

Add any juices accumulated on platter to skillet. Set skillet over high heat and simmer vigorously until reduced to about 3 tablespoons, 30 seconds to 90 seconds; adjust seasonings with salt and pepper to taste. Off heat, return pork chops to skillet, turning chops to coat with reduced juices. Serve chops immediately, browned-side up, pouring any remaining juices over.

Why did I choose to be the rogue? Damn! I got sprayed with acid (ACID’D!) so many times last night trying to open/disable this trapped door. And then I kept walking into enemies. I need to roll higher on my spot checks. I need to roll higher on everything. We all do. Combats lasted forever because all of our characters kept rolling below tens on all attack rolls. It was wearisome.

I need to cook something.

I don’t think sweetbreads are my thing. I went to Left Bank with my parents last night and decided to try them. They were… a little strange. The texture was kind of like scallops, strangely enough. The flavor was mild. They were served with mashed potatoes, which wasn’t a great idea, in my opinion. The textures were similar but just different enough to be really strange. Nevertheless, I’m glad I tried them.

I had some challah left over in the freezer, so I made French toast on Saturday. I froze most of it and have been eating it for breakfast. It’s tasty. I’m glad I had some real maple syrup! I bought it for the apple-rutabaga soup and haven’t used it since.

Yesterday was the Ghostwalk session of the D&D ‘minicon’ that my friends have been holding. I dusted off Mynnyd and brought him to the adventure. I nearly killed him straightaway- it was pretty funny. R☆ (and by extension, Cooper) was away at Stitches West, so Summer and Mynnyd were the only frontline fighters. Summer’s the awakened bear companion of the druid Berg. A marilith did about 100 points of damage in a round against both of us, plus constitution damage. (It took Mynnyd from 110 to 12 hit points!) Thankfully, we were both able to get healed so we could try to kill her again, but she teleported away, and we lost our chance. Oh, well. We were able to stop her evil plot, so all was well in the end. We’ll get her next time.

French Toast

(The Best Recipe)

1 large egg
2 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted, plus extra for frying
3/4 cup milk
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 Tbsp granulated sugar
1/3 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp table salt
4 – 5 slices day-old challah bread (3/4-inch-thick) or 6 to 8 slices day-old sandwich bread

Heat 10- to 12-inch skillet (preferably cast-iron) over medium heat for 5 minutes. Meanwhile, beat egg lightly in shallow pan or pie plate; whisk in butter, then milk and vanilla, and finally sugar, flour, and salt, continuing to whisk until smooth. Soak bread without oversaturating, about 40 seconds per side for challah or 30 seconds per side for sandwich bread. Pick up bread and allow excess batter to drip off; repeat with remaining slices.

Swirl 1 tablespoon butter in hot skillet. Transfer prepared bread to skillet; cook until golden brown, about 1 minute 45 seconds on first side and 1 minute on the second. Serve immediately. Continue, adding 1 tablespoon butter to skillet for each new batch.

This month’s “Cake Day” at work is not cake, but soups. I was a BAD FOODIE and decided not to bring one in. The apple-rutabaga soup is too much prep hassle to make for my coworkers (plus there’s the bitch step of sieving it, since my blender is not as awesome at pulverizing as Barbara May’s is). Potato-leek is an unattractive grey color and basically an unexciting soup (as is chicken noodle). The chicken tortilla soup separates into layers (plus, I think it’s a little too spicy for general consumption). My attempts at pasta e fagioli have either had mediocre flavor or set up into an un-soup-like consistency (no links for the first time I tried it, I never posted it). Let us not speak of the time I attempted ribollita. Matzoh ball soup is… well, I make it from a mix, there’s no challenge there. Cream of roasted cauliflower, also unattractive. I was unimpressed with my attempt at making cream of mushroom soup, although I should really try that again, since I screwed it up the first time. Hm, what other soups have I made? The creamy scallion-mushroom soup isn’t great (although a pretty color). Oh! The lentil soup! That was GOOD. I could have made that.

I wonder if the sweet potato gratin dish could be made into a good soup. Sweet potatoes, cream, maple, chipotle… sounds promising to me.

Also, I was too busy to make soup- we started our new campaign last night! My new character is a rogue named Kaya Marquette. (Terrible name, isn’t it?) I came up with a pretty decent backstory for her, but I can’t divulge it here. I want to keep it a secret from the other players until it comes up in story. (Just in case they read my blog- long shot, I know).

Did you know about this? I certainly didn’t know about this.

I went over to Sara’s yesterday for sewing fun, and we stopped by this Indian grocery near her house to get samosas (which were ridiculously good- I ate three). Anyway, I found all these Pillsbury products in the freezer cases. I bought one Pillsbury product (Indian bread stuffed with peas and paneer) and two Deep products (malai kofta and a spiced layered bread). Very intriguing stuff. I was going to eat one of them for dinner last night, but then I didn’t (good story). I’ll probably eat one tonight unless I go out with the MV crew.

Oh, speaking of my Mountain View peeps, R☆ and Jer finished the table yesterday. Now we can be slightly less paranoid about spilling stuff on it. Pictures! Unfinished and finished. It is very big and awesome. We have lots of space for mapping. No, it’s nothing like the over-the-top gaming table I linked to before (nor do we have anything as high-tech crazy as this one), but it makes gaming much more comfortable now that we’re not crammed around a rectangular table.

I went to Wondercon yesterday in San Francisco. I met up with some friends and we traipsed around the dealers’ room in search of merchandise. I was looking for Pinky:st dolls (which I found), and TeapotGirl was looking for a Booster Gold action figure (which she didn’t find). We also ended up buying some Voodoo Baby dolls– I got this one for Barbara May.

The four of us (TeapotGirl, John, Barbequed, and I) had lunch over in the Metreon at a restaurant called LJ’s Martini Club and Grill. Apparently it’s moving locations soon. John and TeapotGirl got pizzas, Barbequed had salmon, and I had duck ravioli (with roasted garlic cream sauce and forest mushrooms). The sauce was fabulous, and the mushrooms very tasty. The ravioli were slightly less impressive. I found a small bone in one; that kind of sucked. I think the sauce would have been better on maybe a more basic cheese tortellini or something. Ooh, or make a soup out of the sauce and mushrooms. Nah, that’s be too rich and gross after about three bites. It was really good, though.

We got dessert, too. Creme brulee and a flourless chocolate cake. Debbie got a lovely tawny port.

LJ’s was overpriced but good. Since it’s moving to (I’m guessing) a less convenient location, I can’t see myself going back. That garlic cream sauce was just magnificent, though. Mm!