Father’s Day Panna Cotta

Thankfully, this was a success. I’ve made successful egg custards in my life (mostly en route to making ice cream or custard pie), but I thought I’d try something new for Father’s Day. This was, in fact, incredibly easy and quick to prepare (not including chilling time).

Adapted from the one on David Lebovitz’s Site. Shameless, I am.

Father’s Day Panna Cotta (serves 6. We are but 3, but we have leftovers.)

– 4 cups organic heavy cream or coconut milk
– 1/4 cup honey (or 1/2 cup xylitol [powdered in a coffee grinder] + stevia to taste)
– 3 tsp of vanilla extract
– 1/2 tsp lemon oil (or replace the 6 tbsp of cold water with 6 tbsp cold lemon juice)
– 2 packets powdered gelatin (about 4 1/2 teaspoons)
– 6 tablespoons cold water (or lemon juice, if not using oil based flavoring)

1. Heat the heavy cream or coconut milk and honey or other sweeteners in a saucepan. Once the sweeteners are fully incorporated, remove from heat and stir in the vanilla extract and lemon oil (if using).

2. Get out your custard or serving cups. If you intend to unmold the panna cotta onto plates, oil your custard cups with a neutral tasting oil. I didn’t bother. I just chilled everything in the serving bowls and avoided unmolding at all costs. That’s a zero for presentation, but I covered with sliced strawberries and toasted pecans.

3. Sprinkle the gelatin over the cold water or lemon juice in a medium-sized bowl and let stand 5 to 10 minutes. (The gelatin must be sprinkled evenly over the entire surface area of the liquid to enusure that all the granules dissolve evenly.)

4. Pour the very warm cream mixture over the gelatin and stir until gelatin is completely dissolved.

5. Divide the mixture into the prepared cups and chill until firm (at least two hours)

6. Garnish as desired. I would have made a balsamic vinegar reduction for the strawberries, but dad is not a balsamic reduction man. Serve!

Argh! It’s humid.

Feel weak, though it may be just the weather, the humidity, the failed chocolate sauce for the panna cotta (it was an afterthought, thankfully, so I have strawberries, pecans, and honey ready to go). Every so often, I take a break and do some chest to floor push-ups and negatives on the pullup bar. Maybe I’ll do 6 minutes of planks when the sun goes down.

What I really mean is that I feel far too weak to want to do laundry, even though it means that I shall have to wear thongs for the rest of the week.

Addicted to reading tweets re: the Iran election. And yet, am being useless as usual.

Burma-shave!

Like Butter!

Butter is my favorite fat. I’ve tasted duck fat, extra virgin olive oil, coconut oil, organic red palm oil, and assorted others. (Sadly, I have yet to get my hands on lard.) I’m cool with ghee as a stable cooking fat, but something about the tasty milk solids just makes butter more satisfying to me. Butter (I go for butter from pastured cows and sometimes the cultured butter) is just so…delicious. I love how it froths in the frying pan before settling down so you can scramble an egg. Was ever a fat made so perfect for frying eggs?

I’m having a hard time getting into Joan D. Vinge’s “The Snow Queen.” Odd, because I loved “Psion.” Maybe I just prefer grittier dystopias. Fewer paragraphs overtly about trade politics and more about digging ore in lung destroying mines. More squalor. Um…

Turkish food last night. Such tender octopus! I need to learn how to quick-sautee squid. (Have recipe, no experience.) Was mildly mocked by ex-roommate for current diet.

If I don’t lose the weight, Salman Rushdie will never love me!

Celebrity sighting!

Saw Salman Rushdie at the Hudson Cafeteria (Hudson Hotel) last night. He sat with a beautiful, model-esque type woman. That sly, literary dog!

LOL!

It turns out that having a hyphenated or otherwise weirdly formatted first name can result in wackiness and refused invoices between your health care provider and your health insurance provider.

Silly progressive adoptive parents! If you could’ve predicted today’s byzantine health care/insurance industry, which desperately wants someone to pay precisely 0.5 a month’s (Manhattan) rent for inconclusive tests, you would have named me “Susan.”

I will never be able to afford to give you grandchildren, by the way. I’m too selfish to sacrifice, and there’s not enough love in my heart.

In other news: God, I’m fat. I need to lose at least 7 lbs. before Thanksgiving, so I don’t disappoint my nun aunt by being visibly more obese than the last time she saw me.

Convenience liver, brought to you by popcorn

Nuked some organic chicken livers for breakfast. Not “slow food” by any means, but I was running late, with no time for onions or pan frying in butter. Because chicken livers tend to “pop” and “spit,” whether cooked in a microwave or a hot pan, I pricked them all over with a fork, added salt and pepper, and then placed them in a brown paper bag and folded over the top (the same method I would use for making popcorn), and nuked them on high for 3 minutes. Quite good, for convenience liver!

Finished reading “How We Decide,” which was a pretty sweet read. Testing out the waters of Crossfit. Ate dinner at Landmarc last night with ex-roomie and friend. Oysters! Yum.