Best-Ever Birthday

We just returned from a long weekend to So Cal and I’m still feeling a "high" from three days of Good Eats and Good Times.  The original purpose of the trip was to celebrate my birthday at Mozza Osteria, an elite Michelin-starred restaurant in LA started by well-known chefs Mario Batalia and Nancy Silverton in 2010.  Jana told me of her plan to take us there last December. We originally had no other reason to make the trip mid-March other than to have dinner with her.  But, over the past couple of weeks several “reasons” developed resulting in a very busy three days. Jana will be moving from her Santa Monica apartment at the end of the month, so there was packing to be done, and one of her kittens needed to visit the vet…both things we could do to help our daughter. Also, Verne ordered new computers from his tech guru in Brea and they were made ready this weekend, so we were able to pick them up and save shipping costs. We then planned to complete our trip by driving up the coast to visit our friend Sally and make bagels, as well as deliver quilts for a mutual friend and a pet portrait I’d been commissioned to paint for a Santa Barbara woman I’d met last summer. It was a full weekend!

We drove Thursday arriving early evening and met Jana and Bashir at one of our favorite restaurants, Musha’s. We were able to have seating in the “closet”, a small, private room in the back separated by curtains from another private, but much larger, room to one side and a hallway leading to the kitchen on the other. It was  quiet and it was perfect! The noise level in the main dining/bar area is not hearing-impaired friendly. In fact, I don’t think there’s a single restaurant in LA with acoustics designed for the hearing-impaired. Jana is beginning to also suffer hearing loss, so she is especially sensitive to my needs for a “quiet” table. We have a favorite corner table at Musha’s, but the closet turned out to be even better. Food was amazing as always. We tried several favorites and a few new items from the menu. If I had to name a single favorite LA restaurant, it would be Musha’s! We had a fabulous time and would have been very content to get up the next morning and drive home feeling like we had very successfully celebrated my big day.

Friday was busy with the vet in the morning, a drive to Brea to pick up computers mid-day, and packing the balance of the afternoon. Jana and Bashir picked us up around 7 p.m. and we drove to Mozza Osteria in Hollywood. Have I mentioned that traffic in So Cal is CRAZY?! A weekend dealing with it gives a person a better understanding of the cause and effects of Road Rage! The mileage between Jana’s Santa Monica apartment and Hollywood is probably less than 10 miles. Of course, in So Cal, people never talk in terms of “miles”, but instead minutes. It’s a minimum of  45 minutes to an hour, depending on the time of day, and can be as much as two hours with bad traffic. We managed to arrive fashionably late, but, thankfully, before losing our reservation. The noise level when we entered Mozza Osteria was like having a dozen radios and televisions on at the same time tuned to different channels and set at the highest volume. Even at my prime I don’t think I would have been able to hear. It was deafening. Literally! Thank goodness, Jana’s assistant had made the reservation and arranged for a room in the back used for hearing-impaired patrons. It was beautifully quiet…probably not considered “hip” as the average age was above 50, unlike the bar area and middle dining room, but it was perfect for my birthday dinner. I cannot begin to describe the food and do it any kind of justice. A few of our favorites included burrata with horseradished beets, walnuts and beet greens vinaigrette; steamed mussels in a sauce of chilies and herbs; grilled octopus; braised beef short rib with porcini mushrooms. We drank three bottles of wine, ate until we could eat no more, talked and laughed until we cried, and had one of the best dining experiences we’ll ever have.

The next morning began with a Flake breakfast with Jana and Bashir. We cannot go to Santa Monica and not have at least one breakfast or lunch at Flake. It’s become another of our favorites. 

We said our good-byes and headed for Santa Barbara to spend the day with Sally. We’d asked that she teach us to make her wonderful bagels. When we arrived, she was already mixing the dough. On went the aprons and the three of us made everything-bagels. Sadly, the mystique is gone and we now know how easy they are to make! Forming the bagels is probably the most challenging part. After the dough has risen and is ready to shape, it may either be formed in a small ball and the center hole punched with a finger or thumb; or, rolled into a rope, cut into small pieces, and formed into a circle. After the second rise, they are boiled in water with a non-diastatic malt powder, which adds the shine to the bagel’s surface; brushed with egg and dipped in a topping (we used a combination of sesame seeds, poppy seeds, caraway, and onion flakes) then baked for about 30 minutes until nicely browned. Couldn’t be easier!

About a year ago, I started painting animal portraits on fabric and then making them into pillows. It turns out my idea is not exactly “original” as pet pillows can be found on Etsy. However, most of them are reproductions from photographs. Mine are original paintings. My first pet portrait was of a Boston Terrier named Molly. I painted it as a gift for Sally a short-time after Molly died. My second painting was Maria’s beagle, named Betty, which I made into a large tote bag. This was actually only my third pet portrait (a Silky Yorkie)! My anxiety level peaked on Saturday when I got the call to arrange our meeting. My client arrived about an hour later, took one look at the pillow and exclaimed OMG! OMG! OMG!  There were more OMG’s, but that gives you the idea. She loved it! Thank goodness! 

All I can say is OMG! This was a turning point for me, as she was a real, live, paying customer! There’s no better confirmation that your work is Worthy than to have someone pay to own it. It was a wonderful way to conclude a wonderful weekend spent with people I love and enjoying one of my favorite pastimes…eating! Another Moser Good Eats and Good Time!

Perfect Pasta

Until recently, our only experience making pasta from scratch ended on a bad note and, I am embarrassed to say, we put away our pasta machine for a decade. We were members of a gourmet dinner group and it was our turn to host a meal. The entree was to be raviolis filled with a crab mixture and topped with a delicate creamy tomato sauce. As usual, we practiced by making the meal a few weeks before the dinner date. All went well. The day of the event, I decided to use Martha Stewart’s butter pasta recipe rather than the one we’d tried. Big mistake! It was a warm day and I didn’t allow the pasta to chill long enough and ended up with a mess.

After that experience, the only raviolis we’ve made are from a John Ash recipe, which specifically calls for prepared wonton skins, and is filled with a chunky asparagus mixture. Delicious! Last month when we had an abundance of butternut squash, one of the recipes we tried was squash raviolis made with a homemade pasta. Because we’d had good results with the wonton skins, we decided to use them rather than making fresh pasta. It had been over ten years, but my failure making fresh pasta was still clear in my mind. Well, our raviolis last month were a disappointment. They were edible, but certainly not something we’d make again. This time, I decided we would not be beat by a little failure in the kitchen.

Out came the pasta machine (after we found it buried behind other gadgets in the pantry we rarely use) along with a new recipe for butternut squash raviolis and two additional recipes, one filled with an Italian sausage mixture and another filled with a spinach mixture. A few hours in the kitchen and we’d perfected the process of making the dough and had made over 150 raviolis. That evening we sat down to a progressive meal of the three different kinds of raviolis, each topped with it’s own unique sauce. Today we made more raviolis to take as a gift to our daughter. They are a perfect make-ahead appetizer or meal as they may be cooked from the frozen state by adding just a couple of minutes to the cooking time.

We had another failure last month when we made butternut squash gnocchi. It was our first time making gnocchi. In hindsight, it would have been better if we’d started with traditional potato gnocchi to have a better feel for the desired consistency of the dough. Butternut squash adds much more moisture to the dough than a dried, baked potato, and our dough was much too soft to roll and shape. However, we managed to make and eat sixty (not in one sitting) almond-shaped nuggets embellished with the tine marks of a fork. Like the raviolis, they were also edible, but we knew we could do better.

If you want to make gnocchi, my suggestion is to take a lesson from the expert…Chef Fabio Viviani of the Yahoo show Chow Caio. We watched his show on making gnocchi twice, went into the kitchen excited and confident, and made a 100+ potato gnocchi. No special tools required and we even skipped the tedious markings we made on our earlier attempt.

Just a day in the kitchen and we’d filled the freezer with our tasty efforts. We’re already talking about our next pasta experience and our pasta machine is now in an easy-to-get-to, prominent place in the pantry.

Note: The backside of our pasta machine has two cutters – one for spaghetti and the other for linguine. Rather than discard the trimmings of dough (in our case, we gave them to the chickens) run them through one of these cutters, boil them in salted water for a few minutes until el dente, toss in olive oil and garlic, top with Parmesan cheese and fresh basil, and enjoy! After making raviolis this morning we did just that and enjoyed a tasty lunch of fresh pasta. 

Butternut Squash Challenge

This story begins with eggs. The 35+ chickens we bought as hatchlings this time last year are mature and laying on average 18 eggs a day. Not bad for this time of year, but not near what we’ll be getting once the weather warms. Thanks to Vera, we’ve picked up three new egg customers in the last month. One of them is a farmer who provides produce to local restaurants and sells at our farmers’ markets. We’ve agreed to exchange eggs for his fresh produce. For now, that consists of butternut squash. Thus, the challenge…what does one do with ten butternut squash?

I’ve always read that the most effective way to experiment and create art is to work in a series by taking one subject or a single technique and exploring it to the point of exhaustion. Over the past month we’ve done just that with butternut squash… eating it two or three times a week. Sound excessive? Not really. It turns out that this health-packed veggie (considered a “power food” rich in antioxidants) is very versatile. It may be used in its purest form, as a mash or as the basis for a soup, or in any number of casseroles, soups, or salads. We browsed our cookbooks and magazines and searched the internet for butternut squash recipes and found several we felt were worth making. A few examples of some of the better recipes we tried…

  o Penne with cubed squash, fresh sage, toasted walnuts, and Parmesan cheese

  o Risotto with diced squash that has been sautéed in butter until golden brown

  o Mac and Cheese with pureed squash

  o Raviolis filled with squash, ricotta, and Parmesan cheese

  o Butternut squash gnocchi

  o Mixed greens topped with roasted squash
  o Squash pie 

A few things we've learned about butternut squash - (1) it's harvested in the fall and may be stored in a cool, dark pantry for several months; (2) from its raw state, it’s best peeled with a potato peeler; (3) its flavor is enhanced by roasting it in the oven, which only takes 20-25 minutes; (4) a companion ingredient found in almost every (savory) recipe is fresh sage; and (5) it may be substituted for pumpkin...I ate all but one slice of the squash pie and found it to be almost identical to pumpkin in taste, texture and color. After eating almost an entire pie, I'm beginning to resemble a butternut squash!

Although a bit obsessive, this has been a good experience and brought us closer to our new friend, butternut squash. No longer will it be limited to a side at Thanksgiving. We've had fun scouting and trying new recipes. Not all are keepers, but even those less-than-perfect recipes have led to more experimenting and fun in the kitchen.