Big Plans

This is always a big week for us: Valentine's Day, our birthdays, then this year throw in the Chinese New Year, Mardi Gras, and the beginning of Lent. There is epic culinary potential in it, and generally I plan out this corridor to staged perfection. However, this year, given several factors, planning consisted of more ad hoc arrangements. My dumplings were a day late for the New Year, Mardi Gras was celebrated over Claire's gumbo a couple days before the holiday, and I had no idea what to make on the morning of Valentine's Day.

Drawing on inspiration from a comment Peter made earlier in the week about wanting to take a beer tour of Belgium, I ended up creating a scenic, savory journey through Belgium on Thursday. I knew we weren't going to be able to fit international travel into our 2013 agenda, so I brought it to our dining room table instead.

The thing is, my spontaneity didn't ruin a thing. In fact, I think the meals tasted a little better, the conversation was more lively, and based on the success of the fried cod last night, we just might open up our own Western Suburban fish fry during Lent.  

It made me start to think about planning and the over and under of it. When I was young, it happened the week, maybe even the day of. Sure, there were certain things etched on the calendar - black out dates per se: birthdays, holidays, dance recitals, family vacations. But besides that, I had a wide open agenda; so did everyone else.

What was in store for the weekend was the topic of conversation late in the day on Thursday and the destination of Friday's sleepover might not be decided till the morning of. Menus, games, outfits, prank call lists, bedtimes (to my dismay) were flexible and fluid up until the hours that they were executed. No one stressed. No one cared. All that mattered was the guarantee of a good time in the decisions that were made. 

However, somewhere in between my first wedding season and the arrival of the first baby to my inner circle, planning became essential and extensive. This year in particular, some sort of subliminal memo went out, prompting everyone to get out their calendars and start blocking off dates, early. Within the first week of the year, a good third of my agenda was already chiseled in: weddings, work events, vacations, reunions, races, and of course the big birth date were entered into Outlook.

I capped it there though and ceased making arrangements. Mostly, because 2/3 of my little family couldn't commit at this time. The very idea of calendar-marking makes my husband cringe; he still prefers the week-of plan. And the little lady, who everyone keeps telling me will change my life, might have a totally different set of plans come March 6.

While growing up, I loved the thrill of the question mark attached to every weekend, and today, I love the spontaneity which Peter wants in our life, there is something very different about then and now. Sure, there's the fact that you are an adult - and you have a little one on the way - and you have all these grown-up priorities to balance - blah, blah, blah. But the biggest difference is that your best friends aren't a couple blocks or even the PA turnpike away. They aren't down the hall or across the quad. And you can't just be over in a sec. Instead, they are scattered, hundreds of miles apart - plane tickets, cab rides, hotel rooms away. And to see them at least on a yearly basis, you have to make some big plans. Sure, you can relive the memories of gossiping on the school's heaters, stealing erasers, jumping on the trampoline, watching romantic comedies, going stag to dances, Boat Clubbing, and tailgating on the phone or even over emails. But to make new memories, you have to be together.  

In thinking about this, I've been anxious to book tickets to New York, Boston, San Diego, Seattle, Denver, North Carolina, and DC - to lock in spending quality time with my girl friends who I miss so much. But plan-making is no longer just about me. And something tells me that under-planning this spring and summer, might just work better for Mary.

Like this week though, I believe there is a lot of potential in the last minute arrangement that in our household always seems to translate into the best kind of fun.  Now to plan my play-it-by-ear birthday ... GO!

Lo.

Frisee Salad with Poached Eggs
Serves 2  

Ingredients

Mixture of Frisee, Radicchio, and sweeter green lettuces
Green beans 
Two eggs
Honey vinaigrette (recipe below)

Honey Vinaigrette
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 tablespoons champagne vinegar
1/2 teaspoon diced shallot
Sprinkle of diced thyme 
1/2 teaspoon tarragon, chopped  
1 teaspoon honey
Salt, pepper

Directions: 
Blanche the green beans and let cool. In a medium bowl, combine lettuces and green beans. In a small bowl, mix together dressing ingredients. Toss over the salad mixture and divide onto two plates.

Poach the eggs, Peter style: In a medium pot, bring water to a boil. Reduce heat, so not at a rolling boil anymore. Using a spoon swirl water, so its churning around the pot. Let it slow to a gently swirl. Crack one egg into a very small bowl and gently release the egg into the water. It should sink to the bottom and the water's motion should keep it together in a beautiful rounded form with the white on the outside, and the yellow on the inside. Cook for 3-4 minutes, remove and repeat the process with the other egg. Serve warm over the salad.

Food Week

I have decided that from this year forward, the corridor from Valentine's Day to Peter's birthday on the 20th, will officially be Winter Food Week chez nous. (There will also be a Summer Food Week. But more to come on that.)

From a very young age, say birth, meals and their sweet birthday cake finales within a seven-day window of February 16 were a plenty and they were epic. Basically, I used to have three and a half birthday parties on and around the big day. One with my immediate family, usually at one of my two favorite restaurants, Pasta Piatta or Juno Trattoria. One with the extended Barry family at my parents house. One with my friends ... at Ardmore Rolling Rink, in the Factory's computer room, on Hidden Valley ski slopes, at the back booth of Mad Mex, or in the step aerobics room at the River's Club. And the half party, over a cupcake snack with all of my classmates, those invited to my party and those not, a quarter of the class cheering me, the remaining majority talking behind my back, while methodically licking their icing.

A couple nights ago, as we plotted the courses or lack there of for our Valentine's dinner, and as I thought about the rest of the week and its celebratory meals - at the Ranch, at Vie in Western Springs, at Schloss 440, in Chicago, and perhaps over the table behind Vicky's desk at work - I saw an opportunity. While it is no longer appropriate to have three birthday parties for myself, it is appropriate to celebrate two people's age increase, two national holidays, and potentially Mardi Gras all within one week ... aha! While New York celebrates Fashion Week, we will have celebrate Food Week, Brewer and the Bee style.

It kicked off last night - A private dinner off the Small Plates menu: Bacon wrapped stuffed dates, shrimp cocktail, seared beef crostini, mushroom ragout, oysters, and a wintry chopped salad. Served with Chandon Champagne, which tasted just like our wedding. An excellent fifth Valentine's Day accompanied by a Valentine. 

Tonight - the Pre-30th. 

Lo. 

And some recipes from the first night of Food Week.

Wild Mushroom Bruschetta
1/2 pound wild mushrooms, sliced
2 cloves garlic
1 tablespoon butter
1 teaspoon flour
1/2 cup sherry
1/2 cup chicken stock
1 teaspoon chopped tarragon
Dash of salt 
Crostini (I usually toast baguette slices with a little olive oil and salt)
1/4 cup shredded Parmesano Reggiano

Melt butter in medium saute pan over medium heat. Add garlic and mushrooms, season with salt. Saute until tender, about 7 minutes over medium to medium low heat. Add flour. Stir to incorporate and cook for 1 minute. Add sherry, slowly, stirring to make sure there are no lumps. Let simmer for two minutes until it starts to thicken. Add chicken stock. Simmer for about ten minutes until sauce is thick and rich. Add tarragon and Parmesan cheese.  Serve with Crostini.

Oysters with a Classic Mignonette 
Oysters on the half shell
1/4 cup Red Wine Vinegar
1 teaspoon Sugar
1/2 teaspoon shallots, minced
Juice from half a lemon
Salt, Pepper

In a small bowl, mix vinegar, lemon juice, sugar and shallots together. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve alongside oysters.

Seared Beef Crostini with Spicy Mustard
6 ounce Filet, about 1 inch thick.
Salt, pepper
1 Tablespoon butter
Watercress
Crostini
Mustard bar (mix and match a variety of mustard with beef crostini) - - we liked dijon, mixed with Saracha, Hoisin, and Soy Sauce.

Season Filet with salt and pepper. Melt butter in small saute pan over medium high heat. Add filet. Sear on one side for 2 minutes, flip and do the same on the other side. Remove, thinly slice. It should be pretty rare in the middle. Lay watercress on crostini. Add beef. Top with mustards.