Thorsday, liver, squash, in no particular order.
I.
Ms. S. owns more computers than I do. This is an accident of fate. I used to have a dozen or so at one point, though it was rare for me to have them all plugged in and running at once. My favorite was probably the Quadra 660av, a wonderful, pizza-box work station from the early 90s or so. I had an old Gateway 486 into which I plugged four NICs so I could use it as a home router. I had far too many monitors.
I wisely disposed of all of them years ago, though I do miss them from time to time. Now I just have my laptop, and the old, barely functional laptop it replaced.
But Ms. S. has her old desktop, out of which I’ve been meaning to make a file server or such, along with her tiny netbook that she used to take to campus and drag around for taking notes in class. She uses neither anymore, and since we moved in to this apartment I do not think the netbook has even been booted, as she uses her larger laptop exclusively.
And the lack of use of the desktop is why I’ve coopted its monitor as my laptop’s second screen, primarily of use for watching TV or movies while I work. It’s a common enough setup, but convenient.
Which is just background for mentioning that I used it this afternoon for rewatching ‘The Avengers’ while working. On what I do not recall. What I do recall is, as always, getting a chuckle from watching the Hulk grab Loki and smack him around like a rag doll before grunting ‘puny god.’
Good times.
II.
The liver and onions last night? Very tasty. But could they have been better? Yes. So this afternoon for lunch I went with a simpler and more delicate but full-flavored preparation. I used my regular rather than cast iron skillet, sauteed the sliced onion in olive oil until appropriately done, added vegetable stock, then the collard greens and paprika, covered and simmered, added a splash of cider vinegar, and went about my work. When the greens and onions were done on the one hand and on the other the bulgur and the lentils were finishing up, I plated the veg, lightly buttered the pan, and fried up the liver.
This time I did not give it a lemon water bath, but just a quick rinse before cutting and thoroughly drying. I used a large metal bowl for the flour (with salt, pepper), which made it easier and less messay to dredge the meat. I raised the heat a bit and got a better, crispier exterior. A slightly stronger liver flavor, which was nice.
III.
At Whole Foods last weekend I saw a bunch of squash and bought a delicata for the first time in years.
Growing up we always had spaghetti, acorn, and occasionally butternut, but not things like delicata. Then a few years ago I started going through the winter squash and the like, and while I love the versatility of butternut (cubed, just roasted, great in a soup, make a pie of it …), I quickly came to love delicata, which, as its name indicates, is delicate. Its skin is tender and thin enough to be eaten. In any case, most of the local stores have had an at best so-so squash selection this fall, but after tonight I’m reminded I should look for more.
Oven to 375F, which is what I was using for the 230g of mushrooms of I was cooking (olive oil, salt, pepper, hint of balsamic). Squash cut in half length-wise. Cinnamon and paprika shaken over it, about a teaspoon or so of brown sugar rubbed into the flesh, and then a good rub with olive oil. Cooked flesh-side up half an hour or so, then turned over. About an hour or so. Plus I got a batch of seeds to dry and roast.
In any case, the mushrooms and squash with a side of lentils were a delicious, fiber-filled dinner. The delicata is subtly sweet, tender but not mushy, and the sugar and spices provided some complexity.
IV.
Ms. S. prepares for work. I roast squash seeds. I serve myself a bottle for bubbly homebrew. John Woo’s unimpressive but still interesting ‘Paycheck’ (2003) plays in the background. It’s overly long, but relatively smart. The problem is that it won’t commit … it doesn’t want to be really smart sci-fi, it doesn’t want to be a full-on John Woo film, it doesn’t let its leads go over-the-top, and while it hints at a Rube Goldberg type plot it doesn’t follow through but instead resorts to the broad symbolic actions of standard action flicks. That is, the problem is the ‘third act’, which devolves into a series of action set pieces that resolve more or less as expected; by this point we need neither to think nor pay attention, but only go through the motions of watching the movie, as it, too, is only going through the motions.
