A quick Thursday supper. Yawn.

From top: Trio of caviar blinis (the middle one was the best); Salad of hearts of palm, Bairdi crab, mango, and vanilla bean—lime vinaigrette (my date had to crack one of my crab legs open because it poked me in the hand and hurt me, and also it was messy and I had to go wash my hands. Eric M was equally pansyish); Romesco-crusted haddock over smoked mashed potatoes (yes, Virginia, there is a Jesus), and saffron butter sauce; Seared duck breast with braised greens, fried grits cake, Laughing Bird shrimp, and truffled cream (I am dedicating my life to the pursuit of fried grit cakes); Tres leches cake with mexican chocolate meringue and pineapple; His Royal Hotness, Chef Kyle.

This was an Oceanaire wine dinner, featuring J Wines. The food and wine pairings were great, but just let me say, J Wines, you got lucky. Your wines would have been nothing beyond above average without these plates elevating them. The food seriously outclassed the drink.

Also, isn't it amazing that I can eat like this on a weeknight and still maintain my 29-inch waist and gymnast form?

One downer: it was unfortunate that this dinner came the same day that we talked about marine ecosystems and fish sustainability in conservation biology class. Farmed, local, organic, not endangered, it doesn't really matter: bad, bad humans.

A Higher Calling

This is why we bake.

The Best of 2008, Going40 Style

It seems impossible to believe that already it is time for my much-anticipated list. As I reread last year's list in preparation for this year's Wisdom, I was struck by my unerring good taste, my concise distillation of 2007's highs and lows, and my uncanny ability to know what would be most important to my dear readers. A blogger with a less developed sense of occasion might simply copy and paste and title the post, "Ditto." But never fear, dear readers. I know all too well that you are counting on me to share even more about me that made 2008 so special to all of you.

1. Best television show (a category complicated by the fact that we don't own a TV): The Colbert Report; Runner-up: Mad Men
2. Best day of my life: January 4, 2008
3. Party of the year: My 40th birthday party (see number 2)
4. Best technological addition to my life (tie): iPhone, MacBook
5. Worst grade in school: B+ for J-term's hideous Language and Society; Runner-up: A- for fall semester Piano (really)
6. Best grade in school: A in Biology of Human Function
7. Biggest athletic accomplishment: Training for the Twin Cities Marathon; Runner-up: Finishing the Twin Cities Marathon
8. Given 7, most dubious distinction of December 2008: Weighing the most I ever have ever ever.
9. Given 8, best meal: Thanksgiving II with Eric M, Burt, Kyle, and Erin; Runner-up: Brunch at Chef Kyle and Erin's
10. As long as we're on the subject, best dressed: Chef Kyle
11. Best newly rediscovered spice: Cardamom
12. Best breakup: Me from Business Ownership
13. Best time-waster: Facebook; Runner-up: iPhone apps
14. Best yarn, two years running: Malabrigo
15. Best blogger I wish wrote twice as often (and yes, I know she has perfectly good reasons not to): Snarky Squab
16. Best book because I had to: A Continent for the Taking, Howard French
17. Best book because I wanted to: Out Stealing Horses, Per Petterson; Runner-up (so far; I'm only on page 84): In Defense of Food, Michael Pollan 
18. Best place to spend time, inclement weather: The desk in our newly reconfigured space
19. Best place to spend time, decent weather: The porch (next to The Perfect Planter)
20. Best thing that no longer freaks me out: getting a massage (but only from Scott at Quantum Massage Works)
21. Speaking of Scott, best act of friendship: Scott roller skiing next to me during all my long training runs, keeping me hydrated and more importantly, motivated; Runner-up (though no less important): Sous Blogger Deb for countless High Quality Conversations
22. Best reason to wake up in the morning: Eric, of course and still; Runner-up: Eric having made coffee

That's my 2008, incomplete but in a nutshell. I hope yours was equally quirky and satisfying. 

Blog poaching

Modern Craft is showing off these cork and felt spiral stools. I love them so much. I would be perfectly happy to have a home filled with beautiful stools. You all would come over and sit on them, and I would stand in the middle of the room and orate.

Okay, back to studying. Bio final tomorrow.

On your marks

Ladies and gentlemen, start your ovens. It's holiday baking time.

Once those godforsaken finals are over next week, I will turn to seasonal pursuits with a vengeance. I am going to do much baking for gifts this year. Here's my list, so far:

1. Belgian Waffle Cookies: a speciality requiring my custom-made waffle iron. I'll make about 100 dozen. That. Is. Not. An. Exaggeration.

2. Double Chocolate-Cherry Espresso Bites. This year's StarTrib winning cookie. I think they look supernum, but not as fabulous as . . .

3. Frosted Cardamom Cookies, another StarTrib cookie finalist. Screw tradition, me wants new things.

4. Deformed Gingerbread People. That's right, the cookie cutters arrived!

5. Lefse: friends Mindy and Jud will be coming down from Glenwood, lefse-making expertise in tow, and we'll crank out some rounds.

6. Eric has a couple varieties of cookies he always makes, as well as his Norwegian Christmas bread. You can check out eWAC sometime soon for the proper spellings of all that.

7. Something new that YOU suggest. What cookie can I not do without this year? Of course, ideally you're baking them and giving me some, but alternatively, share a recipe or reference?

You think you've had pie

Trust me, you've never had pie. Clockwise from top: pumpkin and sweet potato, the smoothest creamiest puree you've ever had. Apple and cranberry, the cranberry component a homemade jam spread over the bottom of the crust. Finally, homemade mincemeat: raisins, currants, apples, spices, suet, brandy. And all with Eric's unbelievable vodka pie crust.

Recipe for love

Here's how to have a perfect Sunday afternoon:

1. Gather with some of your favorite people in the universe, so that the six of you laugh a lot and enjoy each other's company insanely much.

2. Make sure the hosts are Kyle and Erin, who are impossibly generous, stylish, beautiful, and humble, all at once.

3. Enjoy champagne and oysters to begin. Really good champagne. Really, really good oysters.

4. Move to the dining room, where the sun of an unseasonably beautiful November day falls on a table laden with glazed ham, glistening pomegranate and citrus salad, eggs baked with cream and herbs and mashed potatoes, and simply insane pastries of caramelized sugar, butter, and just enough flour to hold them together. O. M. G.

5. Watch Eric M fall asleep on the couch while the rest of us are still at the table, Burt shaking his head, saying, "Every. Time."

6. Return home and make German flashcards, and have that be pleasant, too, because you're sitting outside on the porch in November, and it's 72 degrees out. Wave to the bikers going by.

7. In the first early dark evening hours of standard time, hard cider in hand, Vaughan Williams on the radio, remember the perfect afternoon, just past. 

A winner in every way

So the Orioles of Saint Louis Park wearing orange and black lost to the Orioles of Osseo wearing orange and black (memo to self: take charge of school colors and nicknames). But our friend Andrew played his heart out in this state championship match. I am not kidding: for every step his teammates ran, he ran two. With two minutes left, and it fairly obvious that his team couldn't make up a three-goal deficit, Andrew played as though the match had just gotten underway. Eric and I were so proud of him and his family, and thrilled to have been there. This is one smart, kind, talented, well-adjusted kid (ditto his twin sister; we'll get to write about her when ski season comes around). The future of America is just fine, my friends.

Congratulations, eWAC

When I started blogging, I quickly discovered that the many blogs in our world (about 62,337,568,695,325,921,694+ of them) arrange themselves in little cross-pollinating, convivial communities. My own blog world was greatly enhanced when my partner joined in with his own excellent effort, Eric with a C. Eric's blog is a year old today, and just like him it is charming, funny, cute, and more often than not, sexy. Stop by and wish him well. I do.

I'll take the chicken

At last night's reading, the always excellent David Sedaris shared a piece to be published in today's New Yorker. It has now been posted online, and is the most concise argument yet about the choice we face in two short weeks. You must read.

Productivity: commence!

I have nothing to say of value right now (some of you think that's true most of the time), but damn, it's such a pleasure just to TYPE on this machine! I can't really explain it, but I now realize how hard I was working to produce on my old laptop, and how many workarounds I was coming up with just to make things happen. This is a dream and a half, and I know, it's just a computer, and I'm a sucker for a brand, blah, blah, blah. But this computer is going to make what I do and what I care about a whole hell of a lot easier. And no, I am not going to throw the HP off a tall building. My environmental conscience won't allow it.

A remembrance

I've been meaning to note the death of a favorite writer of mine, David Foster Wallace. He ended a long bout with depression on September 12, 2008. His style was quirky but readable, and he had a frightfully honest, funny take on his subjects. I particularly loved his essays; it didn't hurt that he wrote beautifully and often about tennis, and I'm a rabid fan. I am particularly reminded today, for no particular reason, of my favorite book of his, A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again. Totally random that I would think of that title today.

A spoonful of Chenoweth

I love Mary Poppins almost as much as Annie. And I love Kristin Chenoweth more than Julie Andrews. I've watched this short clip maybe a hundred times? She is perfect: every seemingly casual gesture, her voice, everything.

Only the good dye yarn

One of my favorite yarns is handpainted Mountain Colors. Handily, the yarn is dyed and produced in Corvallis, MT, about ten minutes from Hamilton. So mom and I stopped by and the good folks took us on a tour. They weren't dyeing that day, but we got to see where it all happens. And I bought a lot of great yarn, mill ends, that I had to box up and ship home. I'm surrounded by it now.

And what's more, baby, I can cook

We already know that everyone here at Going40 has foodie street cred. So here's the question: what three kitchen items (gadgets, ingredients, whatever) do you reach for over and over, things you just can't live without? And I'm not talking about the basics: we all need sharp knives and a perfectly diced mirepoix (in case Chef Kyle is reading). Share some things a bit unusual, maybe that someone else would think, "Why the hell do they need those?" Limit yourself to only those things that you consider truly essential to your kitchen. I'll start. Mine include an offset icing spatula, a citrus zester, and Penzey's sweet curry powder. And you?

Like Christmas, only way better

This Wednesday, July 16, Jesus or someone has arranged for a very special day: the premiere of Project Runway, Season 5, at 8pm (NOTE THE NEW TIME, PEOPLE), followed by Magic Cookie Bar as the flavor of the day at Liberty Frozen Custard. Be there at 9:15pm. We will have much to discuss. If you are a total loser and don't get Bravo, you can watch PR at our place (though fair warning: we don't have a plasma, high-def, flatscreen TV. We are simple country folk).

In Defense of Liberty

Ladies and gentlemen, we here at Going40 are a tolerant bunch. Live and let live, mind your own business, go with the flow, and all that jazz. But, our pleasant existence has been jarred by this spurious, mean-spirited review of something we hold in very high esteem: Liberty Frozen Custard. I urge you to visit the link only if you are prepared to defend Liberty to the ends of the earth (no sense in artificially increasing the site's traffic). But I should warn you: not only do they trample Liberty, they (and I have trouble typing these words) say unkind things (and stupid things, really) about Magic Cookie Bar. That's right. Why not just shoot Bambi while you're at it?

I'm so worked up; if Liberty didn't close in ten minutes I'd get in my car and drive there just to reassure myself the world is still turning on its axis.

And you Twin Cities Meanies? It's ice cream, people. Niceness!