Here Comes the Rain Again

It's springtime!! Trees are budding, crocuses are blooming, and daffodils too! And it's raining. But hey, it's not snowing! The trees and hedges have tiny bright green leaves that from a distance make the trees and hedges look as if they have a haze sitting in their branches.
So, I've been reading a lot lately. Still recovering from the cough from hell, sorta. Have you ever read a book, an essay, an article- anything really where every so often you have to put it down and contemplate the sentence or passage you just read? Not just because there were about ten commas and you have to try to figure out what the writer just said. But rather because that sentence or passage was so well crafted that you need to stop and take moment to marvel at it in wonder. The book I just finished reading is "Housekeeping" and some years ago was adapted into a movie. The movie was really very good, but like most movies doesn't hold a candle to the book. The entire book is written so well, in that "I must stop and think about what I just read" sort of way. The author's name is something like Maryieleen Robertson, or Robinson (the book is at my place and I am currently sitting in my mother's living room). I highly recommend the book. It's about two young girls and is written from the perspective of one of them.
Last night my mother and I watched the ultimate in mother-daughter movies. "Grey Gardens". We're both still a little bit in shock I think. Sometimes a movie can hit a little too close to home. Not that she and I are like to end up living in a ramshackle house feeding raccoons and wearing skirts on our heads. But the way they sort of depended on each other, and the manner in which they spoke to each other is very much like Mama Bird and myself. Although, if I start calling her "Mother Darling" she may have me committed. Not that I could blame her.
To go with this movie Mama Bird and I attempted to have a "meal" that was fitting with the movie (It was on cable). We got truffle mouse (we couldn't find pate or foie gras), capers, and white bread. We also got cream cheese and put caviar over it along with some red onions. The type of caviar used was red lumpfish, found on the shelf next to the canned tuna. This is the type that you're SUPPOSED to use. Now I had had this before and liked it. Apparently my tastes have changed somewhat, because it was awful. All of it. We got a bag of ruffles and called it even.
Speaking of food, today being Sunday, it is a cooking day for me. And spring having sprung, we're having morel mushrooms. This will be the only meal where we buy morels. Because morels are insanely expensive. So for dinner tonight we are having pasta (hand made earlier this afternoon) in a light cream sauce with sauteed morels.
To make the pasta one needs a pasta roller. And cutter. Then it's just a pound of flour (about 4ish cups) and 5 eggs.
Mix, roll, cut, and allow to dry for a few hours. Then just cook the same way you would any pasta.
The morels and the sauce are likewise easy. Sauté the morels in butter. You might want to do that last, because it doesn't take long at all. For the sauce you take a small amount of butter, melt it in a sauce pan, add grated parmesan and heavy cream. Not very much of either, you don't want to overpower the mushrooms, but enough to sort of lightly coat you pasta when you serve it. I add a little (tiny) bit of garlic to the sauce and this time will be adding the barest of pinches of white truffle salt. For those of you who really like cooking, and who like really fancy food, white truffle salt will be your new best friend. It's about $15 for a 2 oz jar, but you literally only need to use a teeny tiny pinch to give whatever dish you're making a very rich flavor. That 2 oz jar should last me about 2 or 3 YEARS. Even if I used it more often, I don't think I could use it all by then! Check with your local specialty spice shop to see if you can find it, otherwise google it. I got mine from The Spice House in Chicago (a place that smells like I imagine heaven does).


--Little Bird is contemplative