Slow-cooked BBQ Brisket and friends

Before I get on to topics in the new year, I need to disgorge some old year items that have been waiting around.

Christmas itself was quiet, and we stuck to our go-to-the-movies/eat-Asian-food tradition. We got ourselves a couple of new Wii games (Sports Resort and Super Mario Brothers). Sports is more enjoyable, and my favorite game is Frisbee golf right now. I would like to appreciate table tennis more, but our TV is too small to handle the split screen in 2 player mode.

Being the Golden Globe nomination season, we saw a bunch of movies toward the end of the year. Among them were Precious, Up in the Air, and Avatar 3D. Precious was bleak but uplifting, and had a realness about it that gave it its power, rather than being emotionally manipulative. Up in the Air was a hope tease but had a great script and great acting. Avatar was visually stunning but sort of dumb (what would you expect from James Cameron).

Before leaving for our NYE vacation we got to cat sit a couple of new furry friends for a few days. They are very cute and friendly, but they move much too fast for photos. However we have many photos of our own guys enjoying the holidays here:

For NYE we met up with my parents and Texas relatives for a couple of days in colonial Williamsburg. I LOVED this place as a kid and I was very excited to see it again. Of course everything seemed much smaller this time, and being winter it was pretty cold and the gardens were not pretty. But with the gray skies and fog you felt like you were transported back in time in a Brigadoon kind of way. Plus, this time around I appreciated the history lectures from the tour guides much more. I'm looking for a fun to read American Revolution history book if anyone has recommendations.

(these swords and hundreds more, and LOADS of guns, decorate the walls in the governor's palace-more pics)

After Williamsburg, Dave and I spent the weekend in Charlottesville, trying our best to be tourists in the bitter cold. Dave was very excited about finding items with my name on them everywhere. Fortunately we had a very nice hotel room, because the morning of our departure I became violently ill and we had to stay an extra day.

On that note, here is some excellent food I made earlier last month:

Slow-cooker BBQ Brisket

1 whole brisket, trimmed of fat
1 cup chicken or beef broth
bay leaf

BBQ sauce ingredients:
1 small onion, finely chopped
1/2 cup ketchup
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
2-3 cloves garlic minced
1 tsp dried basil
fresh ground pepper (about 1/4 tsp)
(liquid smoke and cayenne pepper would be nice additions that were not available to me at the time)

1. Brown the meat on all sides.

2. Pour the broth in the cooker and place the bay leaf and brisket in it (you might have to cut your meat in 1/2 if you have a small cooker).

3. Mix the sauce ingredients and pour on top of the meat, leaving a nice thick coating.

4. Add some cut up potatoes on top if desired (they absorb sauce and taste rather yummy).

5. Cook for 6-8 hours on Low until the smell is driving you mad with desire, and the meat is pull-apart tender.

6. Bribe your mate with BBQ to get him eating sauteed kale on the side.

Tea For One

Since I inherited a few proper tea things from Grannie's estate, I've been enjoying a little fancy tea party in the afternoons. Give me a break, it's not like I have a buddy to go on coffee runs with, so I have to entertain myself. :)

Last Saturday, I bullied Dave into driving across town with me to a community outreach center in a sketchy neighborhood to pick up some locally produced meat and eggs I ordered through Laptop Butcher Shop, a conduit through which city folk like us can buy the freshest, cleanest, meat, dairy, and produce Western PA has to offer.

I made him some kabab last night from Rose Ridge Farm grass-fed beef, which made it a bit easier to swallow.


Lately I've been obsessed with eggs from pasture-raised organic chickens (see Breakfast of Champions), so I jumped at the chance to grab a couple dozen from Wolf Lake Farm for only $4/dozen!

On a completely unrelated topic, we finally captured an invader on camera. This cat stalks through our backyard nearly every afternoon to sneak up on the massive bird feeder our neighbors set up last fall.

Aha!

Yin and Yawn

Jackie and Mr. M are curled up on the futon behind me while I work this morning. The mornings are still pretty cold so this may last a few more weeks.

Dave and I had a pretty standard weekend. We went to check out JoJo's in the Strip for breakfast Saturday. The prices were dirt cheap, but the food was not very exciting, and they don't heat the place. It was freezing! People rave about this place, maybe they were drunk?

Later in the day we stopped in at Games Unlimited on Murry Ave, and picked up a jigsaw puzzle of San Francisco.

Dave is so proud!

I started clearing the garden bed on the south side of the garage yesterday. This was a bed I let run wild last summer because I just didn't have the energy to tackle a jungle of morning glory.

Before (last summer):

Watch it bring you to your
shun n,n,n,n,n,n,n knees, knees!

I didn't even get very far because there are so many weeds to root out, but it's a start.

After-ish:

I'm digging in the dirt
Stay with me I need support

The weather got fair again over the weekend, and another crocus came up.

I love purple!

The neighbor's cats are back outside on their tethers on a daily basis. They're much friendlier now that they know I have the power to give them treats.

Oden begs for a tummy rub

Catchup

For my birthday on November 7th we really hadn't settled on anything special to do, so I proposed going to the monthly Friday evening gallery hop, called Unblurred here in Pittsburgh. Dave ended up working late and I was tired, so instead we decided to go to Ma Provence, a romantic-looking French bistro right in our neighborhood.

The restaurant is very cozy and the service was nice, the food was good if a little uneven in flavor. Dave's Mignons de Porc au Raisin et Bacon was wonderful but the weekly special steak dish was nothing special. We also had butternut squash soup which was also very yummy, and the charcuteries plate which was so-so as the pate was very cold and stiff. For dessert we had a slice of apple tart which was nicely presented but nothing special.

The bread service was unusual. The server would come by and offer you a slice every now and then. The bread was awesome, but it was a bit odd to serve it in this way. I suppose it was to make sure that the fresh and warm bread would come straight out of the oven and onto your plate.

Since the 7th was very quiet, I decided that we had to go down to the Strip on Saturday morning to breakfast at the locally famous greasy spoon, DeLuca's, shop with the crowds at the various shops, and check out the farmer's market.

DeLuca's was jammed at 8:15am so we breakfasted in another cafe just a block up the street that had yummy French toast. I wish I could remember the name of the place. Just a few doors down was a chocolate shop with novelty chocolates and chocolates from around the world. I settled on a bacon-chocolate bar, and a 100% cocoa bar.

Mmmmmm, choclate and bacon together at last!

We also stopped a lot of other stores, but there was only so much shopping I could handle and it was very cold out. On the way back to the car we stopped by the farmer's market, which was a sad little affair in a tiny parking lot next to a bar, and no one was shopping there--nothing like the crowded overflowing bounty of the Mountain View farmers market, but I suppose this is how it goes in late fall around here.

Here are some pictures of the cats acting cute:



It's been snowing off and on all week. Here's the view from our front porch:

The Cats Are Always Furrier

I was cat sitting for the neighbors this week. They have two adorable kitties named Puck (the orange one) and Oden (the grey one). Whenever I tried taking a pic of Puck he(?) would get all up in my face with curiosity.

Puck always greeted me at the door, followed me everywhere, and loved to be scratched on the head and play with toys. Oden was often nowhere to be found, but after the first 2 days he would come out and play when he heard the tinkling bells of cat toys.

Faux Hawk

The flea stuff I put on the cats makes them look like they've been gelled and spiked.

Things have been pretty quiet around here for awhile. I guess that means we're all settled in. Here are some more Mr M pics from the last few days:


The best thing about Mr M is that he loves to snuggle. He doesn't care if your arm or leg is in the spot where he wants to be, he'll just sit on top of it.


Or if you want to share more of his space he's happy to oblige.


Last week I started my regular volunteer work at the East End Food Co-op. I shelved boxes of cereal and milk substitutes for 2 hours Wednesday morning. I've never heard of most of the cereals, and I was stunned by the array of soy, almond, and even hemp milks available. It earns me a 10% discount on my purchases there, and it gets me out of the house in the morning.

Saturday morning Dave and I went down to the South Side for breakfast at Tom's Diner. My frittata was awesome, but the hash browns were barely warmed, and Dave's "super cinnamon" French toast platter was cold and disappointing. The service was brusque, and the prices make it hard to justify a return visit.

Pittsburgh's South Side neighborhood reminds me of the Short North in Columbus, OH. Bars, cafes, restaurants, tattoo shops, music stores, imports, arts and antiques line both sides of the street for several blocks.

We're also cat sitting for the next-door neighbors this week. Contrary to their personalities when they're tethered outside, Puck is very friendly and greets us at the door, but Oden is shy and nervous.

We've been to see Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist, and while the music was good the movie was completely forgettable. We also saw Ghost Town, and yeah the ads looked incredibly stupid, but this is actually a good movie because Ricky Gervais is hilarious and the plot takes some interesting turns.

Puck, Porcinis, Pumpkin, and (Damned) Phlebotomists

Dave thinks the neighbors' cats are much cuter than ours. They are pretty cute! Most mornings they are tethered to a big tree in the backyard next to ours. This is Puck:


Last week a foodie friend from California sent me the amazing cookbook, The Art of Simple Food, by Alice Waters of Chez Panisse fame. It's a beautiful book that gets my creative juices flowing.

Sunday was a grilling night cause it was too hot in the house to use the stove. The gas grill came with the house, and I'm so thankful for it on these hot days. Here we have a grass-fed porterhouse steak and skewers of porcini mushrooms marinated, using Alice Waters' recommended method, in fresh oregano and rosemary on the grill:


The little pumpkin flower that I reported on last time died and fell off, but I found a little pumpkin under another leaf that was apparently pollinated when I wasn't paying attention. GROW GROW!


And for the morbidly curious, here is the giant bruise on my arm from the brutal treatment I received at the hands of the phlebotomist and the emergency room nurse last Thursday. It's more green than purple now but it still hurts!