My mother used to start making slow cooked ribs at about 6pm every Halloween. Other kids were dancing down the street at the crack of dusk and we were sitting at the table sweating under lion and hobo suits, waiting for the ribs to be done.“Don’t worry Mom, we don’t need to eat.”“Yes you do.”“We don’t care if they’re cooked. We’ll just chew them really well. Please, Mom. We love chewy meat.”The bell at this point was ringing like... Read full post

Some things just can’t be improved on. This is the only chili for me; I posted it way back when:
December 16, 2006
The Best Chili I ever made (or how to make the people happy)
I ‘m going to give you a chili recipe for your Saturday night crowd to beat the band and make whomever happens to walk in your door tonight and ask for a beer or dinner happier than they have been with just any old chili for a long, long time. I know what I say about not worrying about what other people... Read full post

Recipe: lasagna, word for word
Filed under: Food — fayehess @ 4:20 am Edit This
Lasagna

Lasagna starts with a meat sauce, gently cooked for a few hours, and if you get this part right, it’s hard to go wrong. Layered with a white sauce, grated Parmesan (try to find Parmigiana Reggiano) and a good noodle, it is up there with the best of baked pastas. Lasagna can be refrigerated or frozen; follow the directions to the end, and bake the day of, or stick it in the freezer before baking it, and... Read full post

It,s always a question, how thin to roll out the pasta for the lasagna. I like it one setting away from the last option–but how can you not try to go for see through? We did both and had loads of noodles still hanging on the chairs after the lasagna went into the oven. Thing is, if you make your sauce with a Tuscan soffritto that takes half an hour, another twenty mintues to brown the beef, another twenty to ladle by ladle add the chicken stock u made that morning, and the Chianti from the... Read full post

Same old song over and over. Me and a glass of water 1 o’clock in the morning my head on the table because I can’t sleep. It never gets easier leaving my boy. And two hours before that–two hours of trying to get him to go to sleep, dinner of warm hard boiled eggs, string beans with a drizzle of olive oil and salt, his favorite mashed potatoes, a shower, reading his new favorite book, rubbing his back, promising him school’s going to be okay and I’ll be back in just... Read full post

I spend a majority of my life looking for things I have lost.Hair clip, patience, phone number, social security card, a skirt, notes, language..Ferdinand lost the leg of his 1 inch lego skeleton twice today and the mirror that the Sherlock version of the same height/weight carries. 15 minutes. Couldn’t find my yellow mixing bowl. 5 minutes active looking, 10 minutes thinking about it at breakfast. Where does a mixing bowl go?I could use ropes to tie it all to me.Or let it go.A few years... Read full post

The beauty of working for an A Number 1 Outfit, is that the butcher does everything for you. “Could you please bone out 10 chickens” is nothing. It’s like asking for a match. I almost cried when they were delivered to the job this morning. I was holding up raw chickens in one piece–looking like they had born without bones–for anyone who wanted to see. I’m the only kitchen staff when I work this job; I had to curb my enthusiasm. Normal people don’t want... Read full post

I live in Queens. I love Queens. But I walk my dog in Brooklyn. As beautiful as the waterfront is at the bottom of my street, they don’t let you down there with four legs, and the rest of Long Island City just isn’t pretty. It’s a bunch of has been housing (like what I live in) and ugly uprights. My dog and I brave the steps of the Polaski bridge, covered in all things nasty and make our way to the beacon of the Other Borough. We land on Ash street, all full of life and... Read full post

Croissant and coffee are my revivalists. They renewed and restored. They also reminded me how absolutely ridiculous it is that I don’t speak one word of French. Except for “un cafe e un croissant.”. And a lyric from a song I learned in the 70′s which could be considered over sharing that early in the morning. I moved on to the meat market where they have a good selection of fruit and vegetables to keep the revival going. I bought cherries, apples, red leaf lettuce,... Read full post

When you go to buy wine at any of the wineries that I have been to in jogging, skipping or driving distance from Chateau des Sablons, they always offer you a taste. Mr. Jerome Godefroy of the same named wine, kissed me good morning and handed me a glass. Luscious little rose and a fruity red were on offer, and that,s what I bought.