Recipes, Redux

I've tried my hand at a few new recipes, courtesy of Epicurious.

Grilled Eggplant Parmigiana

Ingredients (4 servings):

• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 1/4 teaspoon dried hot red-pepper flakes
• 1 (15-ounce) can crushed tomatoes
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup coarsely chopped fresh basil
• 1/2 ounce finely grated Parmigiano-Reggiano (1/4 cup)
• 4 small Italian eggplants (1/2 pound each)
• 16 thin slices whole-milk mozzarella (from a 1-lb block; not fresh)

Recipe:
Heat 2 tablespoons oil in a 12-inch heavy skillet over moderate heat until hot but not smoking, then cook garlic and red-pepper flakes, stirring, 30 seconds. Add tomatoes and salt and cook, stirring, until thickened, about 6 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in basil and parmesan.

Recipe Roundup

Although I have not hosted any dinner parties lately, I have, with the help of my trusty Epicurious app, tried my hand at a few new recipes over the past few months. It's been fun to broaden my horizons, and test out some new flavors and techniques.

Here is a sample of what I've been cooking lately, in chronological order:

Museum-Going Through a Child's Eyes

Growing up, I have a number of memories of visiting museums and galleries, both on family outings and on school field trips. And, I am grateful that I have continued to seek out museums on my own, both in my local community and during trips outside Southern California.

Unsurprisingly, my attitude going into a museum visit has changed dramatically since my elementary school days. I have studied history and art history, allowing me to place a museum's collection in context and making the pieces more immediately interesting. And, naturally, I have more patience and a greater attention span, allowing me to more fully contemplate a museum before I've had enough.

However, even if my understanding or interest was more limited during childhood, the interest had to start somewhere, and my first exposures to history and culture through museums (and even more lowbrow sources such as television) gave me something to hang on to when these subjects were formally introduced in school.

Yesterday, I met up with my friend Amanda, her mom, and her 5-year-old son Matteo in order to visit the Getty Villa, and got to relive the experience of visiting a museum as a child. Naturally, he dictated the itinerary and the pace of the visit, flitting from room to room, running around the courtyards, and directing us to parts of the Villa that were sometimes surprising. And, naturally, this visit included a long sojourn in the kids' activity area, where there were urns to draw on and foam weapons to handle.

So, while this visit to the Villa was very different, and much less thorough, than the one I made last year (accompanied by my grown-up friend Nick), it was nonetheless a valuable learning experience. It is always exciting to see a small kid become engaged with something new (even if the thing he or she focuses on is a tad unexpected), and, over the course of the visit, there were many moments where Matteo became genuinely excited about the centuries-old statues, vases, and decorative items on display. I hope those moments of engagement, and the memories of the visit, stick with Matteo as he grows.

The Anatomy of a Surprise Party

In addition to having a creative side, I am fond of putting together puzzles and crafting things in general. Likewise, I have a tendency to throw myself into various elaborate projects. So, naturally, when I realized that Andy's birthday was coming up, the idea of putting together a special surprise was irresistible.

When I had settled on the basic idea for a surprise party, I gradually started pulling things together: approaching friends, figuring out a good party date (May 4), and doing my best to secure Andy for the party without giving up the game. Matt and Chrissie provided invaluable assistance in figuring out the logistics and streamlining the party plans when things became a little convoluted.

Of course, I wanted to add my special touch to the surprise party. So, before the party even started, I set the tone by putting together a scavenger hunt, complete with rhyming clues and even a couple of fakeouts. I worked on an introductory collage and poem, found a bunch of postcards, figured appropriate hiding places for the clues, and wrote little poems (including a sonnet and a poem in terza rima) to serve as clues.

Roughin' It, Reading Readily, and R-Twork

One of the pleasures of a close relationship, romantic or otherwise, is that you get to open yourself up to a whole new set of experiences that you wouldn't necessarily seek out on your own. Friends and family have left their mark by introducing me to some great artists or works of art (I learned a whole lot about Alfred Hitchcock when I tagged along for Chrissie's classes at USC), fun activities (I was introduced to wine tasting by my good friend Tiffany), and interesting places (I first encountered Barnsdall Art Park when I accompanied my sister to a play there).

So, it is no surprise that I have picked up a few new hobbies from Andy. Most obviously, I have been camping regularly over the past three months, visiting sites all around the Los Angeles area.

Until this year, I had not gone camping since I was a student at Marlborough and the school took us on field trips to Catalina, Joshua Tree, Sequoia, Marin, and Yosemite. I didn't get the "camping bug" at that point, possibly because, in my high school days, I was more averse to the outdoors, less willing to put up with the unexpected, and a bit more easily winded by outdoor activities. Plus, camping with ninety other students and a handful of chaperones is a fundamentally different experience from going in a small group, where a person is more likely to set her own pace and follow her own agenda.

2012 is a Year of Change

After a bit of a journaling hiatus, I figured that I would jump back in and return to writing about my life.

2012 is already shaping up to be a memorable year, in ways that are both exciting and challenging. Though it is unclear where I will be by December, it'll be fairly different than where I was this January, which is not true of many, or most, years.

Cookies Aplenty

I hosted my third annual cookie party on December 3. The past two years, I made Snickerdoodles, but this year, I upped the ante with two new and very different recipes: Chocolate Mint and Anise Sesame. The recipes were fun to make, and turned out well. Still, I am always surprised by how much butter and sugar goes into these things.

I found both of these recipes using the Epicurious iPhone App, which I find to be an invaluable tool when I want to try and make something to eat.