A Timely Dosage of Rufus

Rufus Wainwright's new album, Out of the Game, is utterly beautiful.

Fool's Gold - The Dive

From now on, I'd like my nature excursions to be like this:

The Last Warm Winter Salad Before Summer

I know its spring now, but we're in that awkward stage before the real growth happens and still stuck with an abundance of winter veggies. So I'm doing it one more time, making my roasted vegetable kale salad. 

Inspired by my dear friend and food comrade, Mariana Cotlear (whose amazing food blog you can follow at Epicuriosa), I have officially established this as my favorite winter vegetable dish. I believe the trick to surviving the winter (especially in cold, drafty NYC apartments) is onions, garlic, root veggies and your oven.

Give the kale nice rub down with olive oil (literally, massage it with your hands as my sista Joanna has taught me), and chop your veggies into pieces that are relatively uniform in size (unless you want to leave some small pieces for yummy charring).

Toss all the veggies in oil, salt and pepper, and roast in the oven at 400-425 for about 30-40 minutes.

For this dish, I chose:
Beets
Fennel
Red Onions
Sweet Potatoes
Yams
Carrots
Garlic

Serve your veggies over the kale with a sprinkle of balsamic vinegar or lemon juice and voila: warm winter salad.

Ever Need Some Blogging Inspiration?

Read David Byrne's Journal.

For me, right now, he's like the Carl Sagan of my music world. I keep going back to learn more from him. Oh so wise, so full of integrity, a man of pure ingenious. Now I just need to find him riding your bike around the streets of New York. Eyes are peeled for sexy, tall, slightly awkward, white-haired man.

Green Onion Regeneration

My dear friend, food science champion and taster extraordinaire, Patricia Peters, let me in on a little secret about green onions: you never have to buy them again! Use the green portion, leave about 3-4 inches of white stem + root, stick 'em in a glass of water, place them on a windowsill and reap the benefits of plant regeneration! This batch lasted a few months before the roots were exhausted of nutrients.

Bright Moments

Once I read that Kelly Pratt, the visionary behind Bright Moments, had but the co-conspirator of Beirut, LCD Soundsystem and Arcade Fire, my deeply ingrained itch for mainstream Indie rock started tickling. I love this music. The heavy beats interplayed with the light touches of clapping and multi-instrumentality of it makes it feel somewhat transnational (I think). I can't help it, YES I do proscribe to the prototypical sounds of mainstream Indie rock. Bring on that electronica infused accordion knee slappin' toonage!

What my Grandpa Burd taught me

Soft Boiled Eggs: a yummy, healthy alternative to frying. Just place them in boiling water for 5 minutes, and voila, a cooked white, a soft yolk, a great way to add some protein to your salad, sandwich or sauteed veggies.

My Special Sauce

Due to popular demand, I am revealing my special-power-sauce-that-makes-everything-taste-amazing to the cyber world. I grew up in America, so yes, I'm a big junkie for sauces and despite my shameless food snobbery, I am willing to admit that sometimes I do engage in the blasphemous treatment of vegetables as solely a vehicle for sauce.

There are several variations of this sauce, but the basic ingredients are as follows:

Peanut Butter
Rice Vinegar, Lime Juice, or both
Soy Sauce
Cilantro, or Green Onions, or both
Ginger, Garlic, or both
Tahini (optional)
Sesame Seeds (optional)
Splash of water

The key is to not add too much soy sauce rice vinegar, but also to tame the peanut butter and/or tahini by adding a little water. Chop your fresh herbs, garlic and ginger finely. Tastes best over buckwheat noodles, rice noodles, with of course, a bountiful array of sauteed veggies.