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Saturday Night Football - Lamb with Mustard Sauce, Gratinee Potatoes, Peas

Last night was great.  Paul's team completely dominated the Granville Horde on the Horde home turf, and Jill jumped into the Julia Child world with a perfectly execute three-course meal: Lamb with Mustard-Tomato sauce, Potatoes Gratinee, and Peas.  The potatoes were irresitible, as they were sauced with stock and topped with, yumm, grated cheese.  The lamb was absolutely delicious, and the mustard sauce was subtle and flavorful. We were dipping in the sauce bowl it was so good.  The peas were fantastic in their own right, but you'd all recognize it as the conventional pea treatment (for frozen peas).

As for the football game, the three of us (driver, player, and gad-fly Jack) made the back-road drive to Granville (Slate capital of northeast Washington County).  Driver/navigator me steered us through the many small towns to arrive ahead of schedule at the ball field, hidden behind the Granville elementary-middle school-high school an across the street from Telescope Casual Furniture. 

Innovation capital that it is, Granville chose to eschew conventional bleachers in favor of tiering the rise that separates the field from the school.  Seating was plentiful, though the crowds continued to stream in as the evening wore on.  Our Junior Colts opened the night under clear skies with two quick scores, leaving the Horde somewhat, scattered.  Paul, starting left guard and defensive tackle, was instrumental throughout, springing the running back for at least 1 TD, and placing great pressure on the Horde throughout.

Jack enjoyed the opportunity to run wild on the knoll behind the field. He arrived at home with hands coated in black "coal" dust.

2 more wins and we may find ourselves in the playoffs.

Tonight, more to come.

Pfalz Point Trail Challenge

Errol and I had a great run in the Pfalz Point Trail Challenge.  This 10 mile trail run through the Shawagunks, west of New Paltz, NY, was a big challenge that both of us took on with an air of confidence tinged with trepidation.  The race featured 600+ feet of altitude gains, including some short steep sections.

Fortunately, we had a game plan.  For the first 5 miles, I kept the pace slow, so that in the last 5 miles, Errol could pace us to the finish.  The plan worked to perfection.  While we dropped back in the back of the pack through the predominantly uphill first half, Errol pushed the pace up on the second half, where we bombed past many runners on the long downhills.

The race was held in the Mohonk preserve, with million dollar views....of misty clouds, today.  Oh, well, there was plenty to see of the trails and the other runners. 

Our final time of 2:02:01 was a tad longer than the 2:00:00 target we had set.  I was pleased, though, as I gave a good accounting.  Errol says he was pleased, too, and I believe him, though left to his own he would have shaved 30 minutes off.  Thanks for being a good running partner, buddy.

Next up for me, the Harry Gorilla Half at Thacher Park.  Errol? This was his season finale.  He's headed to the pool for the winter. 

The Dave/Julie/Julia project

The fad is fading.  Mastering the Art of French Cooking is no longer the #1 best seller at Amazon.com.  But to me the big revelation was that there was such a thing as Mastering the Art of French Cooking, being written 50 years ago for people like me, people who want to be better cooks, who are willing to dip a toe in one of the world's great cuisines, but who speak crappy French, have no formal grounding in kitchen arts, and don't have the time or money to jet off to L'Escoffier or the CIA.  Who knew that Julia's book was written as a guide for me.  Who knew that there on the shelf was a roadmap to a whole new world of really good food, of really excellent food, food that you would never ever enjoy if you didn't do it yourself?  

Julie Powell knew.  At least I guess she knew. She at least knew there was enough in that old cookbook to take off on a year-long performance art project.  And thanks to that, and all the press years later, now I know.  And, now I'm cooking things I never knew I even wanted to eat.

The Dave/Julie/Julia project is nothing as elaborate as Julie Powell took on.  If her effort was a reflection of Julia Child's act of genius, then mine will be at best a reflection of a reflection; muted colors, dim outlines merging together, ghost images emerging from the distorted shapes of the originals.  For one, I'm not even contemplating cooking every recipe in the book.  There's a whole chapter on cold buffet that brings along way too much aspic and gelee.  For the other, my goals are entirely different.  Where Julia was a teacher, and Julie a performer, I just want the challenge of doing things I didn't know I could do, to the delight of my family and friends, and to the satisfaction of myself.

This project will be an unstructured ramble through the MtAoFC, and like Julie's blog on her efforts, this will be as much personal as infotational.  And like Julie, I'll share the failures with the successes.  For, like Julie, I've found that cooking French food a la Julia is wicked hard, and when you mess up, you mess up but good.