It's your friendly neighborhood AIRPORT BLOGPOST!

Rather than pay $249 for seven hours in a hotel at the Vancouver Airport, H and I have opted to drink coffee instead and DO ALL THE THINGS! ALL NIGHT! until we fly home at 6am tomorrow.

Peoplefriends, I just crossed off an item that had been on my to do list for 228 days.

I'm pretty manic about my to do list on a normal day, but when christmas rolls around and the new year approaches I get MANIC. I really really really really like to cross things off my list. Or, alternatively, delete things from my list. Like, "post radish recipe."

Were more than two of you actually hoping for a radish update?*

I've also been toying with a list of new year's resolutions, but I'm not sure I'm prepared to share them with you. Mostly because they are incredibly boring. I can't get past "Write every morning" and "Exercise every afternoon." If I could find the discipline to do those two things, I'd be the happiest clam in the world. Fuck the to do list.

Olga Khristolyubova by Sergey Rogov via Amores Peros via Kylea Borges via LINA HITOMI

______________________________

*If so, here it is: David Lebovitz's recipe is terrific. Use rice vinegar and toss in a whole (unsliced) habenero pepper. Done.

FUNTERNETS

a few things i've neglected to post/tweet while i've had my head up my own asshole for the past week or so:

- Rad + In Love. Two rad lady photographers I happen to know personally are joining forces and giving away a free wedding package. JUMP ON THAT.

- Elizabeth Dye's new dresses for 2012

- Digby + Iona's latest collection, Me + My Arrow (also avail at Catbird)

- "Second Chance" Herve Leger (via little winter bride)

- soup club. need i say more??

- oop! and i almost forgot: Design Tonic (the design blog/online mag that H + cevd designed together) is finally up and running. it's pretty great.

Photo of Jesse Jo Stark via Soph Mueller

Merry Merry, you guys.

I plan to stay off the blogs until the new year, but I'll be tweeting now and then (and thinking of you fondly).

Photo by you fail via @TeenAngster

p.s. Should you care to eat chocolate chip cookies until you feel ill, I highly recommend this recipe from Gluten-Free Girl. My dad keeps saying, "They're just as good as any regular chocolate chip cookie." And he takes his chocolate chip cookies very seriously.

Celia's Gluten-Free Mac N' Cheese

(a wee guest post from our chef-in-residence)

Hi all,

So, I'm sure that those of you who've been reading ESB for a while know that she isn't exactly best friends with Mr. Gluten. I gave her a modified recipe for my mac n' cheese, and since she has some gluten intolerant readers out there, she asked me to share it with you as well. I'm usually not a fan of switching up recipes because you lose so much of what the dish is really about, but this one is definitely a winner in my book. (On that note, if you're lactose intolerant, you should probably skip the whole mac n' cheese pipe dream all together and go make yourself some tacos or something.)

Gluten-Free Mac N' Cheese

16 oz. pasta
4 cups heavy cream
(roughly) 1 1/2 cups cheese

First, cook your pasta to al dente, drain and set aside. Yes, I know you can't eat regular pasta... BUT you can use rice pasta which they sell at every Trader Joe's across the country. I also came across this corn pasta at a local gourmet shop the other day, and although I have not tried it, I think it's safe to say it would work just as well. Don't feel restricted to just elbows either. Rotelli, ribbed penne and shells are all lovely choices for mac n' cheese too. As far as portions go, I would say that one 16 oz. package of pasta is enough for four healthy servings.

Next up is making the bechamel. Traditional bechamel requires flour, but I came across a cream sauce by Ina Garten a few years ago that only uses cream. Keep in mind that you MUST use heavy cream for this technique, or it will not work. No cutting corners with half & half, or SOY MILK for fuck's sake. You're making mac n' cheese here, which in no way goes hand in hand with counting calories, mkay? As I was saying, put 4 cups of heavy cream in a sauce pan and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Keep the cream at a boil for about 45 minutes, stirring occasionally. You will see that it will slowly start to thicken and become the consistency of a very smooth and silky cream sauce.

Now it's time to add the cheese (hooray!). Once your sauce has come to the perfect consistency, take it off of the heat. I've found that mixing the cheese in while it's still on the burner often leads to the sauce separating. Which is totally fine, it's just doesn't make for an attractive looking sauce. I like to use a combination of cheddar, parmesan and chevre* for my mac, and honestly, I do this completely to taste. I find the cheddar makes the sauce rich, the parmesan adds flavor, and the chevre gives it an unexpected kick. You can use whichever cheeses you'd like, but I think three different ones is best. I would use about 1/2-3/4 of a cup of all the cheeses combined for each cup of cream sauce (you want it cheesy, don't you?). Slowly whisk them in until melted and fully incorporated. If the sauce starts to cool and it's not melting the cheese very well, put it back on the burner for a minute just to bring the heat back up. Taste your sauce and season to taste.

Toss the sauce with your pasta over low-medium heat to bring it all back up to temperature. You can serve it like this or put it in a baking dish, top with gluten-free bread crumbs, and bake until golden and bubbly.

OPTIONAL: I toss in roasted garlic, halved grape tomatoes and baby arugula to my mac. For some reason, it makes me feel better about eating something that is VERY bad for me. I've also come across versions that incorporate peas, mushrooms, or chopped up bacon... all of which are so good!

(Photo by Peonies and Polaroids, our food-photographer-in-residence)
_____________________________

*Editor's Note: Don't be intimidated by the fancy chef lingo. Chevre = goat cheese, which you can also find at Trader Joe's.

H-town's Favorite Lentil Salad

One of my best meatspace friends emailed me recently with this dilemma:  

I'm trying not to eat bread because I think it's making me fat (and sugar for that matter). What do I eat? I'm tired of eggs, and I'm tired of almonds, and I don't and won't eat meat unless it came from an un-endangered fish. What do I do?

I think you have some answers.

I don't really know what I eat. Let's be honest, half the time we eat CRACKERS AND CHEESE for dinner because we're too lazy or too caught up to cook. BAD BAD BAD.

But. Quinoa, we eat a lot of quinoa. With stir fry or roast chicken (not helpful) or whatever. It's also good cold and salad-y with greens and goat cheese and maybe some pine nuts. Lots of soft polenta. (Often with eggs, though. You said you're sick of eggs.) Lots of risotto.

I really like this lentil dal recipe. I serve it with rice since I can't eat naan.

And then there's H's very favorite lentil salad:

Mediterranean Lentil Salad with Lemon-Thyme Vinaigrette (adapted from a San Francisco Examiner Magazine recipe by Jim Wood my mom clipped for me a kajillion years ago)
1 cup lentils
5 cups water
1 tomato, cored and chopped
Sparse 1/2 cup oil-cured black olives, pitted and coarsely chopped (kalamata olives work in a pinch, but they're not as good)
1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese
2 stalks celery, trimmed and thinly sliced
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Vinaigrette
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
2 large cloves garlic, minced
2 teaspoons minced fresh thyme leaves (Thyme gives me hives, so I skip it. But maybe you like thyme.)
2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons olive oil
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
Freshly ground pepper to taste
1 tablespoon chopped cilantro or Italian parsley (I prefer cilantro)

1. Combine lentils and water in a large saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until tender but not mushy, about 20 minutes. Drain, transfer to a large bowl, and let cool. Add tomato, olives, feta and celery and toss.

2. Whisk together lemon juice, garlic, and thyme in a medium bowl. Slowly whisk in olive oil. Whisk in salt and pepper. I find that the dressing is tastier if you let it sit for a little while. Gives the garlic time to marinate.

3. Pour vinaigrette over salad, toss and season to taste. Garnish with chopped cilantro and serve. (Or, if you decide to skip the thyme, add the cilantro to the dressing instead.)

This was intended as a first course but we eat it as a main. If you're feeling crazy, serve it over quinoa.* Delish! I usually double the recipe so we can have leftovers. It's even better the next day.

(Image by Julia Randall)

*I told you we eat a lot of quinoa. You can make it in the rice cooker, b/t/w. Same ratio as brown rice: 1 1/2 cups water to 1 cup quinoa. And I like to add a dash of olive oil.