Step 1: Make Muffins. Step 2: Eat Muffins. Step 3: Run Off Muffin Top.

Rhubarb is one of my favorite foods. It’s tragically under-utilized, and even on the chichi epicurean websites I frequent, there are too few recipes devoted to this wonderful edible. I am always thrilled when I see rhubarb on a restaurant menu (my last visit to Marseille was selfishly timed to coincide with the reappearance of rhubarb and pistachio panna cotta on their dessert list), and even more excited when it shows up unannounced (as at Les Halles with Mom last week, when I was delighted to find chopped rhubarb in our appetizer, Vol-au-vent aux champignons sauvages et salsifis).

I Am, Like, So Totally California

Disclaimer: I STILL have never been to California.  (This may be remedied as soon as July or August, when I am tentatively planning a trip out to the Left Coast.  In my dreams, I fly out to Seattle to visit Jess #1, and then spend an awesome week on a rented motorcycle, driving down the coast towards LA–via Portland and the Northern California redwood forests and the San Francisco Zoo–to visit Jess #2.)  In any case, though, you came here for a quality story based on actual real-life events, not a list of my vague summer plans.  So, onward.

I first read about the existence of date shakes in National Geographic.  They had an illustrated sidebar about regional American food specialties, and I noticed that in addition to a variety of foodstuffs I was intimately familiar with (Beef on Weck, Coffeemilk, Kringle), there were some peculiar delights I had not tried.  One of those was a California treat, the date shake.

I’m not really sure what else besides sitting in front of this pinned-up article for more than eight hours a day inspired me to actually make my own date shake this week, but I decided I had a craving for one.  In fact, I’d never actually eaten a date prior to this week.  Mom would occasionally bake date bread for Grandpa on Father’s Day or his birthday, but I am pretty sure I never ate any of that.*

Based on some half-hearted Googling and a quick search on Seamless Web, I determined that there were really no reliable date shake vendors in NYC (kind of surprising, actually, given how many other California trends seem to get imported).  Instead, the minute I finished up at work, I booked it to Whole Foods to pick up vanilla protein powder (thick and frothy without the saturated fat of ice cream) and dates, which were not available fresh, to my chagrin.  (Not that I would really appreciate the difference at this point… I just heard the fresh ones were good.)  I settled for the dried, pitted variety, billed on the plastic container as “Nature’s Candy.”  This was a promising slogan.

All This And It’s Not Even Sunset

Following my long tradition of not observing federal or religious holidays in the least, I spent today tying up various loose ends and being generally productive.

I made whole-grain waffles with red raspberry compote for breakfast, and then got started on the mostaccioli recipe from this month’s issue of Gourmet, in anticipation of tomorrow’s Green & Black’s inter-agency bake-off.  Making those little cookies was more of a task than it needed to be, since I neglected to get the Frangelico yesterday, and had to dart out to buy it.  Appropriately, the end result tastes a lot like the Green & Black’s Maya Gold bar.

I properly installed last.fm on my computer, which is something I wanted to tinker with years ago, but never got around to, especially after I couldn’t get it to work on my Mac.  Now I can share my esoteric music interests with the whole internet.  As well as the fact that yes, repeated playback of “Valerie” by Amy Winehouse accounts for a solid 40% of this week’s iTunes activity.

I also swept, scrubbed, and dusted the entire apartment, filed a drawerful of paperwork, and washed massive amounts of dishes.  Certain pots/pans/containers were used and washed up to three times over the course of the day.  (My desire for a dishwasher only grows.)

Unlike The Union Square Cafe, The Union Square Whole Foods Has A Crappy Selection Of Beer And Nuts

Dear Whole Foods,

I am concerned about my inability to locate organic hazelnuts at your Union Square location today. In fact, you didn’t have ANY hazelnuts, not even a container of conventionally-grown ones. Why do you not stock such a delicious nut product? I look to you as the leader in providing me with high-end and organic grocery products, and hazelnuts certainly qualify as a higher-end food.

Moreover, I was not the only other person yesterday who was upset about your lack of hazelnuts. In fact, my two other aislemates scoured the shelves with me, refusing to believe that you stocked two brands of organic goji berries, but NO hazelnuts, in any form. WE LEFT THE STORE UNHAPPY, AND IN NEED OF HAZELNUTS.

My disappointment is such that I may sulk for the next six days and refuse to visit you until the next time I get a craving for raw-milk havarti.

Lick my unsatisfactory Diamond-brand nuts,

Sara

I Wash My Face With Rosemary More Often Than I Cook With It

Lush had a sale today.  Sara likes Lush sales.  Sometimes they are strange (impossible combinations of limited edition items that the staff can hardly keep straight), gross (you must buy at least one patchouli-based item), or lame (free leftover bath bomb with $75 purchase), but today’s was good.  Essentially, most everything in the store was buy-one-get-one-free or buy-one-get-TWO-free.  Much was purchased.  Plus, I finally remembered to bring in my empty packaging, and got additional free bath bombs for each container I turned in.  Excellent. 

It dawned on me later this evening while taking a bath with one of my newly-acquired French Kiss bombs that I use more rosemary (and herbs in general) in my bath and face care products than I ever have on my food.  Not that this is consequential… just wanted to share a random fact.

Also, after a very successful practice run with Kevin about a week ago, today I made as many dumplings as I could squeeze out of a pound and a half of ground pork.  The recipe is simple and very satisfying: blend ground pork with chopped fresh ginger, sesame oil, green onions and sugar (all to taste, but I will recommend that use don’t skimp too much on the fresh ginger–you’ll enjoy it in end).  In the process of crimping and folding the rice flour dumpling skins around small portions of meat, I figured out how to fold them the “real” way, and turned out several dozen very authentic-looking gyoza.  I’m saving the prettiest ones for when I have company later this month.