Sat, Nov 8

8.34am - fresh persimmon and kiwiberries, which are a mix of gooseberries and kiwis, at home

8.55am - almond milk w/ Ezekiel cereal, at home

1.03pm - leftover Indian eggplant (Ritesh's home made), w/ brown rice and omelette, at home, with Ritesh

1.24pm - apple w/ hazelnut-coconut-chocolate spread, at home, with Ritesh

7.34pm - Ritesh's fabulous guacamole w/ roasted chilies, tortilla chips, at home, w/ Nady and David and little Mingus, who was already fast asleep when they got here :)

8.2pm - toasting to Obama's victory, and the Change That Has Come To America

8.31pm - under Ritesh's delicious gravy is his fantastic, spicy buffalo meatloaf. Next to it my attempt at Hasselback potatoes that I wasn't so pleased with today. I'd made them before using fingerling potatoes, and they turned out great, buttery and smooth with a crunchy edge. These red potatoes got too dry on the top and were not entirely done at the bottom. Which may have to do with the fact that they had to share the oven with the meatloaf, who was on the bottom rack and hogged the intense heat coming up. The potates on the top rack just got the hot air gathering there. Ah well. I recommend using fingerlings.

9.54pm - a piece of my attempt at a Tarte Tatin, a French caramelized upside-down apple cake, from a traditional French recipe in Ginette Mathiot's "La cuisine pour tous", which means as much as "Cooking for Everyone". This, I hasten to add, does not strike me as an altogether apt title. Ginette starts the recipe by saying "put sugar in a pork pie dish and make a nice caramel" and ends with "put the cake in a hot oven". Like, how hot? And how do I know the caramel is right? This is not the level of detail one might have hoped for, although presumably, with a French readership, one can take a lot for granted. This is a book that Laurence's mom recommended - she gave a copy to each of her children when they moved out, and she had gotten one herself from her mom when she got married. The book has been in print, in many editions, since 1932, which may explain something... I just looked Ginette up on wikipedia, and guess what - she was awarded the medal of the French Legion of Honor for her merits as a food writer and teacher, wrote over 30 books and was the Inspector General overseeing the teaching of home economics in French schools.
In other words, she's an institution, and I'm a nincompoop.

And oh yes, I remember I'm not supposed to be having any of this, from the meat and the champagne, to the cake and the icecream. But hey, it's for Obama...