As it turns out, I stuck to the plan today and lazed out for a good five hours before getting out of the house. Right now I'm at the Coffee Tree, lazing out with clothes on. I've got a stew on at home; Tomoko-san from work gave me several pounds of venison her friend gave her, so I'm doing something nice for when Diane comes home from a Saturday night as a restaurant employee. I predict, using my own experience, she will want something that requires little effort to eat, served in a bowl.

I browned off some diced up hindquarter, and now it's simmering in some of the chicken stock I made last weekend (yielded three gallons! I love my big pot!) with some chili de arbol, bay, black pepper, and a cinnamon stick. I know, it's pretty wild. I'm an amateur as far as cooking is concerned, at least compared to most professionals I've met, but braised items and stews are something I feel like I've got under my belt. Sometimes, all I want is beef stew, simmered in brown stock with some mirepoix, a straight-up tribute to a single, perfect flavor. But I also love chili, curry, Indian stews with lemongrass, and sometimes complexity is a good thing. The point I'm trying to make is that once you master the basic cooking techniques such as stewing a piece of meat until it's tender, then you can start screwing around with exotic ingredients, finding out what compliments what, what's exotic and intriguing and what's really fucking awful. Yuzu, chipotles, wakame, and tobiko are all good things, but pretty awful if used by someone who's just amused at their rarity. Anyway, I'll probably finish this off with some vegetables, and maybe some Cambodian chili powder.

Speaking of exotics, we've got a new dish at work that's rather impressed me, a sauteed (!) monkfish, dusted in togarashi and set atop dashi with miso, containing udon noodles, tofu, shiitake mushrooms, and edamame. It's garnished with daikon radish and scallions, and red tobiko caviar. It's absolutely delicious. I complain a lot about doing the whole Asian fusion deal, food that sometimes comes across to me as tasteless, but every once in awhile Soba serves some honestly good cuisine. Tempura lobster tails with strawberry sauce aside, as well as the fact that most of our food is basically French with added ginger, we have some solid stuff, and higher than usual standards. It's just that I dislike the corporate feel of working there sometimes, and... I don't know. I want to do French. I want, badly, to make cassoulet and boeuf bourguignon, and to serve crafty charcuterie items to the people. And I would like to work with some mature people who respect food.

I've got to move out of my apartment by June 28th. Did I mention that? I'm trying to look for someplace cheaper, maybe or maybe not in the same area. I imagine I'll still be at Soba around then, but I'd be lying if I said I had a big commitment to the place. I definitely have no problem with staying in Pittsburgh. This city is absolutely beautiful, and as cheesy as it sounds, I feel like I'm a part of it when I walk around the Strip, or downtown, or when I sit in the Coffee Tree, listening to the espresso machines and coffee grinders, and grad students working feverishly on their laptops.

I'd better get moving so I can buy some turnips.

Seventh day in a row. I can't wait to have Saturday and Sunday off. That's all I can really say right now--I'm looking forward so much to sleeping for 14 hours straight, lazing around in my apartment, maybe doing venison chops with mashed potatoes, asparagus and a nice brown sauce, but otherwise shirking all possible responsibility for two full days. Next week is even better: I've got a Friday and Saturday off.

On the 20th of next month, I'm going to be in Austin, and staying until the 26th. I want to get down to Houston somehow to see people, but I'm not sure how that's going to work out yet. In any case, if you're in the area of, say, Texas in a month, give me a call.

So, not much is new. I've been doing a lot of cooking, that's all. I made empanadas last night. I don't really feel like writing about it now, but I'll do that and put up pictures later.

A band on Myspace asked if I wanted to audition as a vocalist, I think I'm going to do it. They're pretty good.

every drop of flame

So I'm sitting in Crazy Mocha, post-winter experience. The cold really is pretty wild--to witness the things that happen to the environment at -18 wind chill are pretty amazing--but it's not really that bad if you keep everything covered up. I suppose my eyelids feel pretty cold after walking around, since that's the only part of my body that was exposed.

I've been cutting back a bit on coffee. Yes, me. I've decided to continue drinking awful amounts of it in the morning, on my days off, et cetera, but I no longer drink at work. There's some clarity of mind to be had from avoiding overcaffeination on the line, and I enjoy the ability to cook a la carte for a 40-person party calmly, speaking the usual profanities sotto voce rather than shouting them.

So I've got to go and get a few groceries. The store is roughly half a mile--it's close to where I work, and I walk that far every day. But it's twelve degrees, and the wind chill is four below. I don't really know what that's going to feel like. It's colder than the walk-in freezer. Surely, at that temperature, your spit will bounce.

You know how, back in Texas, we'd get storm warnings for various counties every once in awhile? You know, during hurricane season? This is, I suppose, what happens up here:

BITTER ARCTIC AIR MOVING ACROSS THE OHIO VALLEY TODAY INTO TUESDAY COMBINED WITH BRISK WINDS WILL PRODUCE WIND CHILLS OF 10 BELOW TO 20 BELOW ZERO.

A WIND CHILL ADVISORY MEANS THAT VERY COLD AIR AND STRONG WINDS WILL COMBINE TO GENERATE LOW WIND CHILLS. THIS WILL RESULT IN FROST BITE AND LEAD TO HYPOTHERMIA IF PRECAUTIONS ARE NOT TAKEN. IF YOU MUST VENTURE OUTDOORS... MAKE SURE YOU WEAR LAYERS OF CLOTHING ALONG WITH A HAT AND GLOVES.

I mean, they even say "bitter". That's not even a reasonable adjective to use for describing the weather. Can the arctic air be, conversely, sweet or savory?

The only thing comparable to this back home is the warnings they would give about the air quality because of crops being burned in Mexico.