pretentious is my middle name

in high school, my 4 best friends and i often referred to ourselves as the "pretentious party," wearing our popped collars, polka dots, pearls, and hair ribbons. we went to a public school in allentown, pa. we were so elitist.

some things do not change. just took the "food snob" quiz on time out new york, and after answering 30 questions about my cooking, dining habits, and pop-culinary cultural knowledge, i scored this:

Your Score: 57
Sorry to break it to you, but you’re a Bona Fide Foodie Elitist. Looks like your love of fancy foods has given you a bit of a tude, hasn’t it? Go sit in the corner with your shad roe.

i've never had shad roe, but i do know what it is. i also wouldn't have been happy with anything less than that result. =)

and to continue the theme of pretentiousness, i'm going to remind you that i made the most exquisite dessert this weekend. 

i used the recipe straight from molly wizenberg's new book, a homemade life, as reprinted on deelish dish. it's long, so i'm not going to repost it. i will note, however, that i only had 4 eggs, so i used a little less of all of the ingredients and only drizzled my chocolate on top (using a tablespoon or so of lactaid instead of heavy cream), and they turned out perfectly fine. i'm basically in love with them. i'm planning on making them for easter with a twist, so look for that.

last night i made polenta for the first time, and though it turned out quite differently than i had intended, i was pleasantly surprised with the result. i cooked up a single serving in a sauce pan with some water, salt, pepper, and dried rosemary and refrigerated it in a little ramekin for a few hours. i then popped it in the oven at 350* for like 30 minutes, expecting to be able to remove it from the ramekin as a little, solid hockey-puck. but when i opened the oven, bubbles and oozes were trying to pop through the crispy top layer, and running a spoon around the outside revealed that it was still pretty much goopey on the bottom. when i inverted it onto my plate, it held its shape for a few seconds and then kind of glopped into a blob. it was thicker than when in the pan, but by no means a solid.

i topped it with the frozen leftover sauce from the tilapia with pimentos (from elise at simply recipes) that i made over spring break. since i had orginally cooked the fish in the sauce, it still had some of that flavor left over, which added a great element to the dish. i love leftovers.

tonight i'll be working on the next barefoot recipe. it'll be posted on thursday, so get excited!

ciao,

J