Okay, so I don't remember the punch line for that one. I just looked it up and found a rather racy site involving a duck puppet and a cute young girl....Why?
I only know one joke by heart, but I only save it for the most perfect occasions.
Greg and I are trying not to be spendy, especially when it comes to food. You can really run up a tab at the restaurants here. We're already spending large sums of money storing our possessions at Manhattan Mini-Storage (which charges Manhattan prices, but also runs really cool political ads...if you're a liberal, and let's face it, 90% of the people in my neighborhood are). Trips to the grocery store are at least $20 in Manhattan, even if you're using your D'Ag card and buying milk and bread.
So, how have we gone budget? As only a true Manhattanites can---we are eating duck. By my math, our meal tonight only cost $5 per person, which is very budgetary indeed.
I had never cooked duck before, but I did know one rule: don't over cook it.
The duck breast was $7. I thought it was a good deal, since most of the duck meat is in the breast. The whole duck was over $25. I already had a potato, 1/2 cup rice (which I ruined by oversalting), Cassis (for Kir Royales, of course), 2 shallots, red wine vinegar, and Aunt Hanna's peach jam (for the Cassis compote).
I ran into a snag with the recipe I used from the Food Network (The Surreal Gourmet if anyone is judging). It called for boneless duck breasts, but honestly, is that a regular thing in the world of duck eating? I ignored that part of the recipe, which caused some stress, but I was able to work through it.
I sauteed them fat side down for six minutes, then took them out of the pan. I drained the pan of duck fat, made the compote, diced the potato and put it in to par boil, rested the duck (which wasn't part of the recipe, but I was stalling because Greg said he wasn't hungry).
Suddenly, Greg appeared in the kitchen claiming ravenousness. He rummaged around in the fridge and found a block of cheese from Murray's Cheese Shop in the Village.
Meanwhile, I was wrestling with the duck, having realized that it must be deboned before I could slice it properly. It was mostly raw, even though I had baked in the oven for the requisite 6 minutes. I hacked and sliced and pulled the meat off of the bone, and threw it on our baking stone for another couple of minutes. Crisis averted.
It all cooked up to a fine and elegant meal, which we ate standing up in the kitchen since we have no sit-down dining options at the moment.
We ate on 2 pieces of fine Bernardaud china because last Saturday I finally tired of eating out of plastic to-go boxes and added two bowls to my china collection. That wasn't in budget, but it sure made me feel good.
I only know one joke by heart, but I only save it for the most perfect occasions.
Greg and I are trying not to be spendy, especially when it comes to food. You can really run up a tab at the restaurants here. We're already spending large sums of money storing our possessions at Manhattan Mini-Storage (which charges Manhattan prices, but also runs really cool political ads...if you're a liberal, and let's face it, 90% of the people in my neighborhood are). Trips to the grocery store are at least $20 in Manhattan, even if you're using your D'Ag card and buying milk and bread.
So, how have we gone budget? As only a true Manhattanites can---we are eating duck. By my math, our meal tonight only cost $5 per person, which is very budgetary indeed.
I had never cooked duck before, but I did know one rule: don't over cook it.
The duck breast was $7. I thought it was a good deal, since most of the duck meat is in the breast. The whole duck was over $25. I already had a potato, 1/2 cup rice (which I ruined by oversalting), Cassis (for Kir Royales, of course), 2 shallots, red wine vinegar, and Aunt Hanna's peach jam (for the Cassis compote).
I ran into a snag with the recipe I used from the Food Network (The Surreal Gourmet if anyone is judging). It called for boneless duck breasts, but honestly, is that a regular thing in the world of duck eating? I ignored that part of the recipe, which caused some stress, but I was able to work through it.
I sauteed them fat side down for six minutes, then took them out of the pan. I drained the pan of duck fat, made the compote, diced the potato and put it in to par boil, rested the duck (which wasn't part of the recipe, but I was stalling because Greg said he wasn't hungry).
Suddenly, Greg appeared in the kitchen claiming ravenousness. He rummaged around in the fridge and found a block of cheese from Murray's Cheese Shop in the Village.
Meanwhile, I was wrestling with the duck, having realized that it must be deboned before I could slice it properly. It was mostly raw, even though I had baked in the oven for the requisite 6 minutes. I hacked and sliced and pulled the meat off of the bone, and threw it on our baking stone for another couple of minutes. Crisis averted.
It all cooked up to a fine and elegant meal, which we ate standing up in the kitchen since we have no sit-down dining options at the moment.
We ate on 2 pieces of fine Bernardaud china because last Saturday I finally tired of eating out of plastic to-go boxes and added two bowls to my china collection. That wasn't in budget, but it sure made me feel good.
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