Mad Men, Chicago Style

In suburban Chicago, we lived among a lot of advertising executives. Unlike Don Draper, most of them had ulra-modern houses.  Like Don Draper, they smoked and drank and were clever and witty.  I only knew of one who cheated on his wife.  Another had an unusual last name that he used a lot in his ads. 

Watching Mad Men's season premier tonight did bring back a lot of memories.  At a charity benefit for the University of Chicago Cancer Research, one of the sexy young matrons, wife #2, bid on and won belly dancing lessons.  "We'll throw a big party and I'll be the entertainment."  Don's wife did a sexy dance.  Suddenly, the hair looked right and the clothes looked right and the whole scene looked right, even Don's modern new apartment which went with his modern new wife. 

The last I ever saw of one of the ad men, he had passed out with his face in his plate.  Not too glamorous, nothing to show on television.

Before we left town to move to  the Boston area, we had a lunch on Chicago's North Side at a well-known French place called Chez Paul.  In those days, there were as many French restaurants as there are Italian ones now.  A bunch of ad men came in for lunch, just after we did.  Drinks all round. Long studying of the menu.  More drinks.  And yet more drinks.  Orders finally came.  More drinks.  We paid and left, me wondering how they could go back to work accomplish anything.  Mad Men.

My first job the boss said, "this department goes to lunch every Friday."   Cool.  This was an IT department.  No advertising involved.  The first Friday, the boss and the big boss both ordered "vodka gimlet, easy on the lime juice."  They ordered two.  I probably had white wine.  Later on I tried that gimlet and it came to be my regular drink, but I never specified "easy on the lime juice."  I learned to get all the important stuff done before noon on Friday, saving the afternoon for flow charts and documentation.  Hands off the mainframe. 


It's fun to relive the parties, the craziness, the smoking and drinking with the Mad Men.  Sometimes I even miss those bad old days. Not everything of course. 

I never burnt a bra but my friend and I marched in the Equal Rights parade down Michigan Avenue.  Thousands of women wearing white.  We also went to see Judy Chicago's Dinner Party, which I loved.  Attended a big peace rally in Civic Center in Chicago, right next to the new Picasso statue my little kids had nicknamed "lion bones."  The cast of the musical Hair sang.  We had tickets to go in a few weeks.  Life was exciting.  We smoked.  We drank.  We marched in parades and went to peace rallies. 

Thoughts before bedtime.

Rhubarb Rules

Rhubarb Upside Down Cake

Ohhhh Yum!  The supermarket had gorgeous rhubarb yesterday.  I have a collection of recipes from rhubarb bread to American Rote Gruetze, to plain old rhubarb sauce.  Anything with rhubarb and strawberries.
What is American Rote Gruetze you may ask.  In German speaking nations, in summer, restaurants serve, and one can also buy, this red treat.  It's normally a mixture of red currants, red raspberries and strawberries, sometime strained into a gelee, but to my mind better with the whole fruit.  It is thickened with cornstarch or tapioca and served room temp. or chilled.
In our New England neck of the woods, red currants, when available, are ungodly pricey.  I never see red currant juice, either.  I have come up with my own take on this delicious, healthful dessert.  For example, yesterday, I used 1 1/2 cups rhubarb (1 1/2 inches pieces), 1 cup frozen cranberries, 1 cup frozen strawberries, 1 cup frozen mixed berries, 1 teaspoon of lemon juice and about 1/4 rind from a lemon.  A couple teaspoons of cornstarch.  A bit of water for the cranberries and rhubarb, which I cooked together.  A judicious amount of sugar.  The dessert should remind slightly tart, but not set your teeth on edge.
We serve it with whipped cream, but heavy cream would also be good.  It is toothsome, and according to what I read, red fruits with their antioxidants are good for you.  Gee,  isn't it nice that something that tastes good is good for you, too?
I confess to a weariness at just reading (never mind cooking) all these meatless recipes with 18 ingredients and lots of work: chopping and slicing, heavy labor, and you just know by reading the ingredients that the mouthfeel will be lacking as well as the satisfaction of eating.  This is the eat to live rather than the live to eat philosophy, and to me, any life without occasional forays into bacon, heavy cream and steak, yes, fried chicken, too, is no life at all but a penance.  At least my vegetarian recipes taste good.  Wild mushroom lasagne anyone? 


Tonight I'm making a recipe  Rhubarb Upside Down Cake to take to a party.  Doesn't it look scrumptious?
Another rhubarb recipe is a crostata made with whole wheat flour, but alas, I have misplaced it.  Oh, for one's own lovely rhubarb patch!  Never had that. 

Praise be to the web. Found that crostata recipe.  With raspberries, too!  My pie plate runneth over.  Here 'tis:
Rhubarb and raspberry crostata with whole wheat flour

I bought parsley and cilantro for the garden, and also some rosemary which I'll grow in a good-looking pot.  Garden is groomed and ready to plant.  Put in mesclun lettuces and spinach yesterday.  The sage looks all right and the oregano is coming back.  Mint, too.  You can't kill mint.   Once I pulled some up and threw it into the woods and guess what?  The following year I had a patch of mint in the woods. 


Buy a bunch of rhubarb and get out your cookbook.  The season is short.  The kitchen is still cool.  Yes! 

Sunbeams are Wonderful

Dogwood has found a sunbeam. She's been confined to the house because of foxes in the yard. Hungry foxes. When she sees one, she's lays her ears back. Getting spayed this weekend. Won't much like that.

Third Dinner Party Menu

Sour Cream Streusel Strawberry Cake

A friend from out of town is here, celebrating her birthday. She likes traditional food.

We ate a bit of brie, but just a bit for appetizers

Roast pork with lemon, garlic and thyme from the old New York Times Cookbook - the is the best roast pork recipe ever.

Creamed spinach with bacon and shallot

Mashed root vegetables (potatoes, carrot, turnip and parsnips)

Sour Cream Gravy

Applesauce (Motts without sugar)

Strawberry Sour Cream Streusel Cake (another New York Times Recipe) This is a moist flavorful cake that is not overly sweet. Hooray! Keeps well. Sour-Cream-Streusel-Cake

I made the cake a day early and it was toothsome both fresh and a bit aged. The gravy is made in the traditional way with the pork fat, flour. juices from the roast and chicken broth. Salt and pepper generous. Add a dollop of sour cream at the end. This simple menu could make your reputation as a cook.

Pork Tenderloing with Shallots and Prunes

Yum!  Prunes are a natural complement to pork, and the sauce for this tenderloin  tasted delicious.  The whole business (except for brining) can be cooked in less than an hour, but you will need two timers, one for the sauce and a second for the pork.  Nothing complicated, but there are several steps involved.
This is company worthy.  I didn't serve with sweet potatos but rather asparagus, broccoli and cauliflower, as we are watching our carbs.  I definitely used some Madiera and fresh thyme.  We didn't have any potato starch so I used cornstarch in the same proportions without noticing any difference. I also used lemon instead of orange rind, as I had half a lemon that had already been partially grated.
 Here is the link to the recipe.  Pork Tenderloin with Shallots and Prunes 
Tonight I'm cooking a few noodles to mop up the sauce with.   The sauce is definitely worthy of being mopped up.  This recipe is low in fat and high in fiber and nutrition, esp. with extra veggies.  Our supermarket has great deals on pork tenderloin, so I try to keep some in the freezer.  It is a high-quality protein.  Tasty, too.  Great on the grill in the summer.  Takes well to a variety of toppings.
What's not to like?   

March Dinner Party Menu

March Entrance and Exit

Menu for 3/3/2012

Mushroom Crostini

Endive with Red Bell Pepper Salsa

Olives

Boeuf Bourguignon

Buttered Noodles

Green Beans with Walnuts

Mocha Rum Cake

Vanilla Ice Cream

Wine

Beer

Coffee

etc.

Free e-book copies of The Shadow Warriors end Saturday

Smashwords Free e-book Week Ends Saturday.  If you haven't grabbed a copy (every reader except Kindle), this is the time to act.    The Shadow Warriors free e-book

Emma Lee Davis must delve deep into the past to find a weapon to end the Infowar that threatens to de-stabilize a computer-dependent global economy.  Project manager of a  tiny firm of cyber-sleuths, Emma scrambles to make the connections between a body washing up on a beach in Singapore, and the technical derring-do at a German university.

She tracks a desperate hacker planning a unique software auction, a determined entrepreneur who will stop at nothing to acquire  ‘bleeding edge’ software and  tumbles onto a new generation of terrorists with their own agenda. 

Emma and her colleagues are sucked into a vortex of lies, spies, and betrayals and ultimately into the sleaze and paranoia of Berlin in the months before the wall comes down. Not quite glamorous, sometimes nerdy, always nosy, irreverent and intuitive, Emma becomes the reluctant sleuth. She narrates the story as she scrambles to manage a software project and her complicated love life, while puzzling over the paradox, “if our mission is to stop computer crime, why are we abetting it?” 

Get your read e-copy now:
The Shadow Warriors

Day Four of SmashWords E-Book Giveaway

The Shadow Warriors is NOT a romance, but the novel contains definite elements of Romantic Suspense.   I like just a soupcon of "him and her" stuff, don't you?   It always adds another dimension to the reading experience.   Happens in all my books, always messy,  usually with a bad outcome, but still . . .

Here is the link to the free book.  You will have to key in a code which the page will provide.  Nothing tricky.

Get The Shadow Warriors as a free e-book on Smashwords!

Speaking of e-books. last night I began reading Steve Ulfelder's Edgar nominated book (best first novel), Purgatory Chasm.  Promises to be a good read.   Loved the beginning.  Lots of unanswered questions, too.  I like it when an author doesn't try to explain everything on the first page.  He tells us just enough.                                   

Day Three of the Smashwords Giveaway

Women's Fiction Has Many Insights.  

 

 

Have you  got your free e-book copy of The Shadow Warriors yet?  Lucky readers have been plucking them off the cyber-shelves, so to speak.  E-books never run out of copies, but the sale won't last forever.  Get  yours now and read about the technical derring-do at a German University.  Eat pizza with the hackers, enjoy a night on the town with Emma and tool along with her and Peter to East Berlin and Brussels.  You won't even have to pay airfare. 
Smashwords free copy of The Shadow Warriors

Read an E-Book Week

You can definitely read more than one!

Here is the link to my e-book, free this week on Smashwords for all except the Kindle.  The Shadow Warriors Free on Smashwords  Of course if  you insist on the Kindle, the book costs a whopping   $2.99.  Affordable.  Here is the Kindle link: Find the Shadow Warriors on Amazon's Kindle

Free e-book from Smashwords. This week only!

Like a fast-paced international thriller?  The Shadow Warriors has scenes set in Singapore, Hong Kong, Boston, Göttingen, Frankfurt, Baden-Baden, Berlin, Brussels, and Bremen.  Follow sometimes-unheroic Emma as she travels the world, doggedly piecing together the crossing plotlines of computer crime, murder and romantic entanglements.  The Shadow Warriors by Judith Copek is available for free from Smashwords on all devices except the Kindle. Party with the Geeks, sleuth with the Suits, and visit Berlin at its sleaziest as Emma stalks the Shadow Warriors.                                               

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Smashwords Giveaway

Now is your once-in-a-lifetime chance to get your ebook copy of The Shadow Warriors  free,  Such a deal. Holy freakin' crap!   Expires in a week so don't delay.  This is not good for Amazon Kindle, only Smashwords.

Here is the link.  The Shadow Warriors Free!

Photos of the food preparations

Prepping ingredients 

Close up of ingredients waiting on the counter. Fresh thyme and dried rosemary stand in readiness.

Browned vegetables are a thing of beauty

Browning the carrots and the pearl onions. Pearl onions are a pain, even with the boiling water and then the ice bath. But so tasty. Good organic carrots.

Sometimes a watched pot does boil

Waiting for the pot to simmer. Took a long time to brown all the meat.

No such thing as too much counter space

I started getting out ingredients and slicing and chopping at 10:00 this morning. Finished up around three p.m. At left are the ingredients for the wild mushroom puree for the crostini (in the red container on the counter).










The mocha rum cake is wrapped up under the cake pan on the counter. We dug into it tonight (two thin slices) to determine if it was fit to serve guests. Died and gone to heaven! It was. Waiting for S.O. to go to bed so I can sneak another thin slice. Chocolate Nirvana.

The homemade vanilla ice cream isn't bad either. We licked the beater and the freezer container. I inherited a vanilla bean from my mom, and once used, I didn't replace until yesterday. $4 a pop. Who knew? I only used 1/2 because it seemed so strong. Plenty vanilla-y. Oh yum. Who is this crazy person who can't leave the kitchen?

Moi? How could this be? Moi

Another Saturday Night Dinner Party Menu

Am I a sucker for punishment or not? Nope. Like to cook and like to repay social occasions and nice things others have done for us. For the first time since late October, some fairly serious snow lies on the ground. What could beat a hearty meal?

Mushroom Crostini  Epicurious Recipe
Endive with red pepper salsa Yet another Epicurious recipe

Boeuf Bourgignon Similiar to my recipe, but not identical
Buttered Noodles
Green Beans with walnuts

Mocha Rum Cake  Epicurious yet again
Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream Food Network's Alton Brown

I used to take the mushroom crostini to summer parties in Easthampton. We had such fun doing communal cooking at our friends' summer place. Times sadly long past.

The endive is a new recipe, with its many veggies a substitution for salad. I am making the beef burgundy today, because it will be better warmed up. The cake contains no milk or cream but copious quantities of chocolate and butter. Needs to "age" a couple days.

When you select recipes for a party, by all means pick entrees, desserts and appetizers that can (and should) be made ahead of time. All I have to do tomorrow is cook the beans and noodles and assemble the appetizers. More time for table setting and last minute cleaning.

The home office is starting to look almost orderly. Well, it should with hundreds of pounds of paper sent off to the dump.

Back to the kitchen for a spell with the Boeuf Bourgignon. Maybe a few swigs of the burgundy while I cook? Nope, too early. Besides I have to make the ice cream and cook the mushroom part of the mushroom crostini. The ice cream came from the food channel web site a couple days ago. It helps to read the thoughtful recipe comments. And look at the stars. 
Happy cooking to me.

Grapeshot