Hog Island Oysters

On the shores of beautiful, beautiful Tomales Bay.  Find out more here.

This Weekend

Here's what we made and ate.

Schiaccata all'uva.  You can't have late summer and champagne grapes without it.

Inspired by Jim Lahey of Sullivan St. Bakery in NYC.  We used to go there nearly every weekend for bread and pizzas year after year and the schiaccata was an annual must-have.  (Available only in late July and August.)  They have just finally opened a space on 9th Ave. in Chelsea. Here's the menu.  The recipe comes from this book:  My Bread.  

And here's a video of Jim Lahey (and another NY pizza maker) showing you how to get your pie into the oven properly. 

When you don't live in NYC and aren't able to get a good slice on every street corner, you start to obsess about pizza. So far L.A. is not measuring up except for Mozza.  That's coming from Mr. Paradis.  

WHAT DID YOU EAT?

(And p.s.:  what did I tell you about "Mootz-a-rell?!")

All I Want For Friday

When I lived in New York, about this time of year I would get a little crazy

and desperately need a little something just like this.

Now that I live in L.A. where we have lovely summers, I'm not so crazy.  But I still want one of these.  In FRANCE of course!

Is it asking soooooooooo much?

HAPPY WEEKEND!

(Pics via All The Mountains)

LACMA Looks

I'm probably infringing all kinds of copyrights here.  But.  I do it for you.  Wanna see what's up in the art world in L.A.?   Contemporary art has been much in the news over here lately.  A big deal has been made about this:  THE BIG ROCK.  

Otherwise known as.....Michael Heizer's Levitated Mass.  What do you think?  I'll tell you what I think at the bottom of the post.

You will find old friends at LACMA.  (Picasso.)

Some might be a BIG and very pleasant surprise: Matisse (!)

And then you will find the very unexpected.  As, for example, this quilt made of cigarette silks from the "Common Places: Printing, Embroidery and the Art of Global Mapping" show.  (You know what cigarette silks are?  Or you can guess, can't you?)

Go to the museum website here to see a better picture of Chris Burden's Metropolis II.

I know, I know, you could have done this when you were 10, with your erector set and Scale-X-trics.    And five of your favorite uncles and thirteen kids from school that you could actually stand. But you didn't.  And now it's too late. It's pointless to try to best this effort.  Just come and see it and be mesmerized.  Is it art???????  

Do you care, really?  It's just so cool to watch those little cars go round and round and round.

Barbara Krugers "Untitled (Shafted)" installed in an elevator shaft in the Broad building

Robert Therrien: it's not even "Untitled".  It has no title.  Accordingly, Mr. Paradis thinks Mr. Therrien is a very lazy artist.

("How hard is it to think up a title?!")

Richard Serra.  One of the most hated artists in NYC in the 1980's.  Now in the 21st century, it is hard not to be reverent once you've walked around one of these eternally awe-inspiring tilted arcs.  Maybe they actually really need to be experienced INSIDE a giant interior space.  vs. a windy public plaza where federal  employees are trying to eat their lunches.

Here's a  handy way to keep track of what's going on at LACMA.  I'm adding it to my blogroll.

Oh yeah and p.s., the big rock??????  Meh!

Too bad.  It was very expensive.  The installation:  looks like it was designed by someone who's usually building shopping malls.  Besides we have much bigger rocks than that all over L.A.  They're called the Sierras.  Go ahead, tell me what you really think!

For more on LACMA, start with this post from last month.

Food. Not Food.

It's a little what you might think.....

and a lot not.

Do you already know what this is?

Yup.  Paper.

From the Hiromi paper shop at Bergamot Station in Santa Monica  I haven't tried any yet.  Anybody out there?  How did you use it?

Wot a Weekend!

Did you watch the Olympics opening ceremony?  I thought it was sweet.  Especially the kiddies in their Cath Kidston pj's.  And what's not to like about 007?  And free universal healthcare!

Whatcha got lined up for the rest of the weekend?  Hope it's a good one!

Making Much of Mutz - Italian Food Week

You know it.  You love it?  But Whadayacallit?

OK yes, a caprese salad but what is that pillow-ey tender stuff in the middle?

At our house, we call it  "Mootz-A-Rell", and we made some the other weekend.

You may already know this cheese as "Motts-uh-rell-ah" (mozzarella) and indeed many do, but if you've eaten it most of your life in North Jersey (where the Paradis family used to) you don't pronounce it that way, and commonly, it is known as just "Mutz".   (If you need practice with any of this, just watch a couple of episodes of the Real Housewives of New Jersey.)  

So we were making this with friends and we started with:  Milk!  A couple of gallons of it and it was whole milk and raw.  Because we were making mutz in Petaluma, home to chicken farms of old and steps from the dairy farms of Tomales Bay just north of San Francisco.  (We have a very clever friend who wheedled this out of a couple of farmers).

I'm talkin' about loca-sourcing here!  In a very sweet part of the world.

We also needed a couple more packets and bottles of mystery ingredients.  (You could find them here if you thought that you might also try this at home.)  And yes, a large stein of beer for the Chief Cheese Maker never goes amiss!   

Mr. Paradis did all of the "heavy lifting" since he'd been looking forward to this weekend for so long

and he's the kind of guy who figures it all out really quick and gets stuck in.

But mostly because he LOVES fresh mozzarella.  Sometimes, more than life itself, it seems.

So you saw him pour the milk into a big stewpot, he added the mix of additives - rennet, citric acid    etc.   Heated the milk gently.  In a little time the milk separated into curds and whey and.....

after just a very brief period of pulling and shaping, Bob's yer uncle now!  Fresh mozzarella cheese on chewy bread.   (Yum, go back to the top picture and take a minute to savor it.)

We followed our nice appetizer with a couple of these:

They are called "Aviations" (no idea why but: recipe here.)  Ever had one?  You should try 'em.

*Here's a great online recipe.  Though I'm pretty sure the old guys making this in Italy or North Jersey never used a microwave!   This one is good too, a little easier to follow - no microwaving.