piym: happy? groundhog day

scrapple, by jess. photo © anita aguilar for phoebeworks productions/piym.

the first time i had scrapple was at a no-name diner in philadelphia about 15 years ago. a molded slab of quasi-meat composite that had been burned to nearly black on the griddle, presented on a lonely, off-white ceramic plate. if i closed my eyes, i could imagine i was eating a shingle.

which made jess' version unrecognizable. her take on it thrills me---eggy, sausage-y, akin to a frittata, but with terrific fried bits and an interesting juiciness from...apples. yes! apples. i would have loved to eat "my" whole piece, but cute, hungry cat, john brown, got to it when i wasn't looking.

anyway, 6 more weeks of winter is not at all inspiring, but on the bright side, it's a good reason to stay in and cook. jess, in her inimitable sassy way, will give you the scoop on scrapple. it sounds sort of labor-intensive, but the cooking will keep you warm, and in the end it will be worth it.

piym: aussie aussie aussie, oi oi OY

party in your mouth goes international this week, with the celebration of australia day.

have you ever had lamingtons? if you like cake and chocolate and coconut, come on over. you're in for a treat.



***

there's been serious tennis happening down under, and i regret waiting this long to bring it up because as of today my favorite player is out, retiring after trailing 2 sets and a few games, with a knee injury. my "maximum" favorite writer called this--not the gimpy knee part, but the murray win, coming out of that quarter.

who do i root for now?

jo-wilfried tsonga, photographed by ryan pierse/getty images via the nytimes photo replay, jan 25.

after the bad knees news, i was on the verge of tuning out the rest of the tournament but the other quarterfinal matchups are actually kind of irresistible...fed v. davydenko, djokovic v. tsonga. so i'm in for at least the next day or two.

if you need it, here's the tv schedule for the rest of the tournament.

if you've been watching from the start and are growing weary of the commentators and their talktalktalk, read stock truths. you may find yourself better engaged during the broadcast and satisfied in a different (smarter) way when it's over.

piym: oh my cherry pie

i confess--i made this cherry pie.
i am guessing that if jess made it, it would be a little less brown around the edges.

but the truth in advertising is, from crust to fruit filling, it's all made lovingly from scratch.
and at a dinner party/taste test it received high marks. not bad for a first pass.
sweet, even.

check out jess in this week's episode, she's got fun facts and a few important tips for preparing the pastry crust...

***

all photos © anita aguilar for phoebeworks/piym

read a good poem: we real cool

gin and sin martini. photo © anita aguilar for piym/phoebeworks.

this week's episode of party in your mouth celebrates prohibition remembrance day, with a recipe for a gin and sin martini. i'm not a gin girl, but i like this drink.

you can view the episode and print the recipe (party in your apt!) here.

i thought it would be easy to find a nifty, boozy verse--maybe a little dorothy parker--to suit the theme. but of all the "gin" poems i read tonight, this is the only one i was truly interested in. it has nothing to do with what we, at piym, were celebrating. but i hope you like it.

***

We Real Cool

The Pool Players.
Seven at the Golden Shovel.

We real cool. We

Left school. We

Lurk late. We

Strike straight. We

Sing sin. We

Thin gin. We

Jazz June. We

Die soon.

--by gwendolyn brooks
via the poetry foundation.org

***

if you'd like to hear gwendolyn brooks herself recite the poem (and offer a little backstory), here's an audio clip, recorded at the guggenheim museum in 1983, courtesy of the academy of american poets.

c'mon everybody (it's elvis' birthday tomorrow)

i'm not working tomorrow (not as of yet) and people have been carping about snow that's on the way (?). so my plan for the king's would- be 75th is to enjoy a little of tcm's programming (girl happy, that's the way it is--which will be new to me, blue hawaii, and of course...viva las vegas). and i'll be making the elvis special--a peanut butter, banana, and bacon sandwich--for lunch.

photo of "the elvis sandwich" © anita aguilar, for phoebeworks/piym.

i think you should give it a try, too. it's creamy, sweet, salty, crunchy...bacon-y. it's got all the complexity and contrast that you want in a "dish."

here's a link to jess' recipe and the elvis' birthday episode of PIYM:

last week's party: hangover soup

hangover soup...

my short break from blogging between christmas and the new year meant that i wasn't, in timely fashion, able to post jess' recipe for hangover soup. did you need this?

i actually did not. i learned my lesson a few years ago (don't volunteer to drink all the leftover champagne, and definitely don't do it at a party at your parents' house) and drank a happy, but respectable amount of red and white wine and champagne.

***
during this shoot, i peeked over jess' shoulder while she was sprinkling the cilantro on the hangover soup and cooed, "oooh, that looks good."

her terse response: "it's tripe."

"oh," i said. i might also have said "ew," but on a positive note, i mentioned that it looked pretty, very festive, all red and white and green...

i think we made this look like the best damn tripe soup in the world...

***

and what of hangover cures? standard is the bacon, egg, and cheese, yes?

handsome writer friend informed me recently that blood sausage is the way to go. i trust him on this, of course, but thinking back to the last time i was hungover...
thinking... thinking...thinking...
i'm pretty sure all i could manage were saltines and 32 oz lemon-lime gatorade.
thinking...thinking...thinking some more: a lightly buttered, toasted, plain bagel sounds like it would do the trick nicely.

anyway, if you're braver than me, try the recipe.

and, if you're not, at least watch the episode. jess is cute, as ever.

photo of hangover soup © anita aguilar

piym: "it's britney, b*tch!"

britney spears chicken cheetos casserole (alleged). it's not pretty, but it's entertaining.

jess in a favorite shirt.

why do i love jess?

because she completely un-ironically loves britney spears.

and she made a chicken cheetos casserole in her honor.

it's "disgusting and repulsive and delicious and addictive."

(i'm not gonna lie--it's one of the weirdest dishes i've ever had. but it smells outrageously good.)

anyway--i love this episode, jess just makes me giggle.

need an is-it-really-only-tuesday-pick-me-up?

watch this...

piym: in need of a fresh take?

photographing this fresh green bean casserole was a little challenging. obviously, i was to make it look pretty and delicious...but it's a melange of cooked vegetables. it's very brown. even at the time, i was thinking, i'm not doing this justice. i covered it from various angles, but how many different ways can you photograph a cooked casserole in the casserole dish?

after the shoot was over, i thought of different ways we could have approached it--which seems to happen after every shoot. but there is formula at PIYM, sort of dictated by time and space and the script. maybe in the new year, we'll try something different? i suppose it's fine, my little disappointments with the photos, because it's a reminder of things that i need to work on.

***

what's great about piym shoots, is 90% of the time, jess makes real food--food that's ready to eat as soon as it's shot. i wouldn't advise this at most food shoots when the beauty of the shot supersedes all notions of clean food prep. even if the food is fresh and fully cooked through and free of the additives that make it more photogenic (glycerine, glue, soap suds...), it's been seriously manhandled, violated even.

but when jess says that what she's prepared for the shoot is good for the eating (and if there is some left), i'll have at least a bite or two. i went a little bananas with this fresh green bean casserole, though. it's just so everything i'd want with my turkey. in fact, i'd make the turkey the vehicle for this creamy, onion-y affair.

i don't have a very long history with green bean casserole (it's relatively new to our family's thanksgiving table--we only started having turkey in the last 15 years or so, and only in the last five have one or two "traditional" sides, involving the beans or sweet potatoes or cranberries, made their unremarkable way into the buffet) so i never really understood its enduring appeal, other than the novelty of the store-bought fried onions? this fresh stuff, to me, was a revelation.

if you don't have a recipe that you're married to, try jess'. it's pretty simple. just don't skimp on the real heavy cream, and maybe approach the little bit of extra prep time, trimming and halving the beans, slicing the mushrooms and onions, as meditative act rather than a mandated chore. when it's served, people will talk.

and then they will eat. and then they will talk more and eat more. until pretty soon they will be harassing you for the recipe, while battling for the last bites.

and if you are inclined to share, send them here.

piym: national sandwich day...

did you know that today is national sandwich day?

i actually did, but only because mike, jess and i shot this episode a couple of weeks ago (with a new show open, new photos--a knife-wielding, but not at all menacing, jess). for this holiday, she is offering a recipe for a mediterranean lamb burger, with a yogurt-mint sauce. i wish i could tell you exactly how good it is. i can't, but only because the team ravaged it on the set before i could get to it. rumor is it's very good.

i do LOVE lamb burgers (a bar near-ish to my apartment, the perfect pint, has a nice one. i basically can't bring myself to order anything else when i'm there). jess' version has cinnamon and cloves, which intrigues me. once i figure out where i can find ground lamb in my neighborhood, i'll be making these at home.

check out this and other PIYM episodes and recipes on the phoebeworks site...let me know what you think.