Hurricane Sandy’s outside, and she’s turning out to be a hot mess. The rain started a few hours ago and there’s going to be a lot of wind and water. And apparently no power. For quite a few days. I felt like a kid when I got the e-mail letting me know my office is closed tomorrow [HURRICANE DAY!], but it’s only as awesome as the amount of power we’ll have. We shall see, Sandy. We shall see.
We have done our best not to waste the Last Weekend on this side of stormpocalypse. Tomorrow is reserved for assembling Ikea furniture, teaching Grady how to use the toilet, watching horror movies and learning the art of “working remotely,” but today was spent repeating intervals of “doing some work” and “recovering from Hallowine.” Hallowine, my friends, was quite possibly the most appropriate use of the Last Weekend Ever.
pinot tasting.
Our dear friend went through a ton of trouble to decorate his apartment and make these labels to disguise five bottles of pinot noir for a wine tasting extravaganza. There were a variety of price points and countries represented, and we tried to see if we could guess the most expensive or the French one or the youngest. I’ll give you a hint: I didn’t get anything right. I would share my notes with you [because at some point I decided taking a picture of my scorecard was something normal people do] but let’s be honest, by sample #5 my notes got weird. I described one wine with simply a sad face and a dollar sign. This means I was either sad that it was expensive because I liked it so much or sad because I hated it and it was expensive. It’s not clear.
What’s clear is that I have great friends, and halloween snacks are awesome.
This is the snack mix I brought to the festivities. It’s really simple: popcorn, salted almonds, Reese’s Pieces and candy corn. Then you melt white chocolate, pour it on, stir it, and let it dry. This is the unhealthiest dish I’ve ever made. It’s actually really hard to eat and not feel bad. But when it’s Hallowine?
So in short, today is recovery day. I have been meaning to re-create a salad I had at the vegetarian/vegan restaurant Maitrea in Prague for some time, and figured I should get on it on the Last Weekend. Or else. It’s a parmesan-crusted tempeh salad – so simple, but one of the most memorable dishes I ate during Eurotrip 2K12.
Start with a bag of mixed greens from the farmer’s market, and place it in a large bowl with red onion. In a small bowl, pour in a generous amount of salsa, add juice from one lime and two tablespoons of guacamole [or fresh avocado]. Whisk the dressing, and pour it onto the greens and onion. I used my hands to mix it up.
This goes onto a plate with parmesan crusted tempeh and what I remember as one of the best breads in the world. I got pecorino instead, so the flavor was a little different, but I was able to match the crunch. Pre-heat the oven to 400 degrees, cut a block of tempeh into four triangles, and make an egg wash with two egg whites. Dip the tempeh into the eggs, cover it in grated cheese, and bake for about 15-20 minutes, until the cheese starts to brown.
Plate the salad with slices of the awesome bread [I used a cranberry ancient grain slice], and snack away.
It wasn’t as good as Maitrea’s version. The tempeh wasn’t as dense, and the bread wasn’t the same. I think it’s hard to do anything as good as they did. But I’d recommend giving it a try if you’re in need of a hearty weekend salad. It certainly was a good use of the few extra moments not having to go into the office tomorrow gave me. Bring it, Sandy.
