use real butter

If you will recall, Jen’s First Rule of Entertaining is: Never try a new recipe on guests for the first time. I broke the first rule, but I more than made up for it with Jen’s Second Rule of Entertaining: Never run out of food and beverages. We had a great showing of guests with good appetites. Afterall, my theme was: Come ruin your dinner with us. They put a big dent in the food, but we’ll still be noshing party food for the next few days. I learned that my neighbor likes the same gin that I do (Bombay Sapphire), and that my other neighbors are total non-cook foodies who volunteered to be my taste testers, and that all of our neighbors are chocolate junkies. I am not a beer drinker, but I try to provide good beer when I have folks over. I picked up some Boulder Beer Copper Ale and a six of this Ft. Collins Chocolate Stout. I didn’t try the stout, but everyone who drank it liked it. I have two leftover and I must say I am excited by this fact – because stout and chocolate are two kick ass ingredients in Good Chili.

I now have five new recipes to add to my photo recipe collection.

**Jump for more butter**

I enjoyed chilling out with folks last night. It was a small turnout, which means lots of leftovers, but also a more relaxed atmosphere to hang out and chat. Some of the goods…

I noticed while cleaning up last night that the mousse looks a lot like brown vomit. A good thing not to tell people you’re serving it to, but who on earth came up with this recipe, I wonder? I didn’t like the CIA mousse recipe that much, mostly because it required 4 separate bowls and 3 whippings. Jeremy and I had an interesting discussion about organic coffee and how the flavor quickly falls off with elapsed time since brewing. Regular coffee doesn’t have this problem (he tells me – I don’t drink coffee). I wonder what sort of junk goes into non-organic coffee? Cooking for engineers has a great list of additives to foods. It’s interesting, and gross, and scary.Making chocolate shells because no one in Pasadena carried them pre-made. I actually liked playing with the balloons more than making the shells.



I guess that chocolate mousse isn’t so bad once you get over the mental image of brown vomit. I tasted some tonight and it’s very smooth with a good buttery mouthfeel, but not the bad buttery where it coats your tongue and you feel like you’re eating wax paper.

Okay, I’ll admit it. I don’t want to deal with the backed up kitchen sink anymore. Why can’t we call our landlord, who is the coolest landlord on earth, and have him come fix it? He was a professional plumber in communist Poland for crying out loud! Now he’s an optical engineer working on secret stuff. He could fix it in no time, I’m sure. But we must let Jeremy try his hand at the solution. Meanwhile, I feel like my OCD-self is going to have a meltdown shortly. My kitchen is MY domain. I do my best work THERE. When it is piled with dirty dishes, a sink with nasty dried crap all over it, and this goes on for 4 days, I start to get disturbed. It bothers me. groan…

Lydia invited us over for dinner this weekend, except we’re going to be in Atlanta. The Trud said she was preparing a special meal and everything just because it was us and that Lydia was stressing over it. Now, I need to make something very very clear here. Just because I like to cook and entertain, doesn’t mean other people should feel compelled to cook (especially if they don’t cook) for me. My pal, squid, she doesn’t cook. She tells me so all the time. She and Shahen always say, “come over to our place, we’ll order out – we don’t cook.” And that is fine. They have a lovely flat, and better than that, they are so much fun to talk to and be with. A while back I was talking about reciprocation from friends. It doesn’t have to be in kind, it need only be in friendship. Cooking a meal for friends should not stress a person out. What the hell would you do if your friend was a professional chef? Get a degree in cooking just so you can invite them over? nooooo.

In fact, I recall inviting Ro, E, the Trud, and Lydia over for my bday (and Ro’s – same day!) and I BOUGHT the cake, BOUGHT the pizza, made simple pesto pasta and we drank wine and knitted. That was a lot of fun. Sheesh, the last thing I want is for friends to feel this sort of obligation. Lydia, I love you no matter what. Trud, you don’t have to make pavlova (but it seriously kicked ass last night) to be my friend. You are awesome in your wacky way as is. Are we clear on this now? I would never try to write a lithospheric compensation model for you :)