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Dec
29
Girl, hold my hair.
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So, it’s that time of year. All this closeness is getting to you and you need to vent. You want to barf it all up and you need a friend who will hold your hair back while you do - not offer you Pepto, not chastise you for drinking too much in the first place - just hold your hair, stroke your forehead and offer soothing words or indignant agreement. Yesterday afternoon, the Shop Tart was making cabbage soup…screeerrrch*…
Can we talk about cabbage soup for a second? It was early in the morning and the Shop Tart wanted some. She had a cabbage from the All-Local Farmers’ Market and had been meaning to make the soup for days, but she wanted some right that second. She chopped some cabbage, put it in a bowl and poured her favorite boxed stock over it. (Shop Tart Tip: If you are very industrious, make your own stock. It’s easy and a great way to use up a chicken or turkey carcass and/or vegetables that are less than fresh. The Shop Tart will happily tell you how so you can make a ton and freeze it in small containers. If you are less industrious - like the Shop Tart - always have a box on hand. Low sodium and organic, natch.) She likes this one by Pacific Natural Foods, available at Rosewood Market.
She microwaved the stock and cabbage, because she was too impatient to do it on the stove. The soup was okay, but a bit bland, like something in the hospital. She added salt and pepper. Eh. Tout d’un coup, she remembered the small container of sausage gravy from Spotted Salamander. Although it was only about a third of a cup and she was out of biscuits, she hadn’t been able to bear throwing it in the garbage. A tablespoon of the gravy added to the soup transformed it. Heaven. Anyhow, that afternoon, she was using the rest of the gravy to make a larger pot of stew for dinner when she got a text from a dear friend who also happens to have three sons and a pretty cool husband.
The friend wanted to meet at Cock and Bull. How could the Shop Tart say no? Mr. Shop Tart wasn’t home yet, so she would have to go it alone. She grabbed a quick post-workout shower and gave silent thanks for Klorane dry shampoo
The shrimp burger was calling her name. After her quick shower, she put the smallest child in his stroller and walked to the restaurant with her boys. (Ah, the joys of living in Shandon.) The burger - as always - was perfect. In fact, it was even better than usual because it seemed to be just a little bit smaller. In the past, it has been big enough that the Shop Tart felt obligated to take half of it home (or eat it all and roll home). The company was divine and the Shop Tart was happy to have her friend hold back her hair while she vented. The best friends for that sort of thing, by the way, are the ones who won’t spew more negativity. The point of venting should not be to make everyone hate another person - that is so middle school - but to make the subject easier to tolerate. After all, none of our friends are perfect, n’est-ce pas? Do we really want to dismiss every friend who has ever irritated us? Unless you are on serious meds, someone you love has irritated you, probably more than once. And the Shop Tart is sure she has been the subject of a loving vent or two. (As have you, dear, as have you.) Vent on, lady, just don’t let it get in your hair. Dry shampoo can’t fix that. Has this metaphor gone on too long? Probably.
So, the friend with whom she had dinner shared a secret. Those of you who have been to Smoke recently may have enjoyed the bread pudding served at their recent dinner with Chef Chris Hastings of Hot and Hot Fish Club fame. This is the recipe, a riff on Chris and Idie Hastings’ raspberry and white chocolate bread pudding from their book
Best Bread Pudding The Shop Tart Has Ever Had
- Combine 2 cups cream and 1/2 cup sugar over medium heat with a teaspoon of vanilla, bring to simmer and remove from heat to cool.
- Mix 3 beaten eggs into the cooled cream and sugar mix and let it cool completely.
- Add about half a baguette (16 ounces), pulled or cut into half-inch pieces, one and a half cups dried cranberries and four ounces chopped white chocolate to cooled cream mixture and stir together. Let stand for about 30 minutes.
- Pour the mixture into an 8×8 greased baking dish and top it with another half cup dried cranberries.
- Cover the pan with aluminum foil and set it inside larger dish filled halfway up with water.
- Cook at 350° for 35 minutes.
- Remove foil, raise the heat a little and cook the pudding for another 25 minutes to brown the top.
- Serve it with ice cream and the white chocolate sauce from the Hot and Hot Fish Club Cookbook
Maybe, if you like, you could add a little of this lemon jam from the Gourmet Shop to the sauce. Because the Shop Tart likes lemon.
Happy Cooking and don’t forget to tell them you read it on the Shop Tart!
P.S. There are even more sales and New Year’s Eve events on the calendar. So go look. Please contact individual stores about their hours. If a sale lasts more than a week, the sale may be listed on a Sunday when the store is closed. Also, many places have special holiday hours.
* That was the sound of a needle scratching a record. It was meant to indicate a sudden pause in the dialogue. Did it work? Anyhow.
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3 Responses to “Girl, hold my hair.”
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It worked. I thought perhaps it was brakes which I found equally effective.
Ha! Thank you! I once agonized over how to spell “Pbrrtt” which is what my mother in law calls a stick blender. I didn’t have much time to think about this one.
I thought it was brakes, too, until I contemplated the second batch of Rs…then I knew it was the ancient sound of a record-player..well put.