Wednesday, February 14, 2007

The End of (Snow) Days

So D.C. is once again in the grip of a killer storm that brought about 2" of snow and sleet overnight. Work is an absolute tomb, all the schools are closed, and the Federales are opening two hours late. It's not exclusively because no one here knows how to drive in snow. In their defense, I just now saw my first city plow clearing and salting. The roads are not at all good. I think I was spoiled in Vermont, where even my small town owned multiple plow trucks and a Cat with a huge snowblower attachment to do the sidewalks. I guess the cities here have made the smart choice, though. Spending the money to provide a similar level of snow-clearing capacity would be an irresponsible waste of funds. Plus: Snow Day! Always fun.

I could not wait any longer, so last night I made two batches of green apple curry and prepared to eat the custard cake Mom ordered for me last week. I made one regular batch of curry, and one vegetarian, and invited whoever felt like having a free dinner over to chow down. Steph & Aaron were able to make it for dinner, and Jane joined us for dessert. It's a good thing I made two batches - we made very short work of almost all of it. I was surprised how hungry we all were. Just enough leftovers for a lunch or two.

The custard cake was fantastic, too. After consultation with an expert (Jane), I went with vanilla cake, chocolate custard with chocolate chunks, topped with caramel. I had been picturing a vanilla cake with chocolate custard in place of icing filling. NOT SO. It was mostly custard, with thin layers of cake at the top, middle, and bottom. Plenty of caramel topping, and a kind of white icing shell. It was delicious. A cross-section is shown at right - just enough to deliver a promised slice to Sarah, and some to go with my lunch today. Nothing goes so well with a Snow Day as frozen custard cake.

In more momentous news, Ryan &Magda are the proud parents of a new baby girl, Sophia Magdalena. Ryan likes it when you call him Big Poppa. AND Mere & Matt found out they are expecting a girl in June. Apparently the name "Morac" is being debated. Not as good as "Scorpiona," but not bad.

Susan's Green Apple Curry

Ingredients:

2 tbsp. butter
1 1/2 cup peeled & chopped Granny Smith apple
1 clove minced garlic
2 tbsp. flour
2-3 tsp. curry powder
1 tsp. salt (optional)
2 cups milk
2 cups cooked & cubed chicken (or tofu)
Onion powder (to taste)

Instructions:

Melt butter - sauté apples, onion powder, and garlic. Stir in flour, curry powder, and salt (if desired). Blend in milk with wire whisk and stir until thick. Add more flour to thicken if necessary. Add chicken. Serve over rice. Garnish with crumbled bacon, coconut, raisins, cashews or peanuts, dried cranberries, etc.

4 comments:

kelly said...

Curry recipe looks amazing! As for the cake, did you save me piece? It might ship well...just overnight it, would ya?!

Christopher said...

I'm assuming that picture at the top of this post is of you (and the snow) at work...?

Dan said...

Yes, that is a picture to prove my attendance at work despite Snowpocalypse 2007.

And I don't think I can ship custard cake across state borders. That's the price of moving away from DC - you move away from custard.

Christopher said...

Yeah, I've heard that about DC before as well.

THE MIND IS NOT A VESSEL TO BE FILLED BUT A FIRE TO BE KINDLED