these days of leiderhosen

... makes me very nervous. Should you want to know how I spend my time on the web: Ravelry Epicurious NYT.com and now: FiveThirtyEight.com The Steven and I went out to Caesar's on Piedmon t last night and ordered a big plate of chacuteria to share and some spiffy drinks in fancy glasses. I had a martini made with fennel which immediately washed two weeks worth of coffee out of my soul. Nothing says happiness like munching dry cured meats from your fingers in very dim light. There was a pate with rabbit, garlic and nutmeg that was like baloney from heaven.

Golden Chanterelle mushrooms at Berkeley Bowl, 9.50 per pound. Score! I forget where I found this recipe originally, but this is the copy I've been passing around for years so it's irreverently worded but so good. Chanterelle Pasta Serves 2 exceptionally greedy people or 4 people with some sense of dignity 30 minutes tops, incl. prep Ingredients 1 T. butter 1 T. olive oil ½ pound chanterelle mushrooms, cleaned and cut into formidable but bite-sized pieces 1 shallot, minced 1 T. fresh sage, v. finely chopped ½ C. chicken stock 1 T. tomato paste* 2 T. cream salt & pepper cooked pasta for two people, (fusilli or similarly curly bite-sized pasta works well) Melt butter over medium heat and add olive oil, increase heat to medium-high. Sauté minced shallots until translucent. Add chanterelles & sage and cook for 3-5 minutes, until mushrooms are al’dente. Add chicken stock and tomato paste (can be pitched in frozen) and reduce to chicken ½...

NYT editorial page has a lovely piece by his colleague Verlyn Klinkenborg.

The rare Cook's Illustrated tiny hardback How to Make Ice Cream , currently and mysteriously out of print and going for $75 and up. Pretty steep for a book less than 100 pages. I scored a copy Saturday afternoon for a $5.00 donation to the San Francisco Public Library. The happy dance was as contained as possible in the Tenderloin district. Hazelnut gelato, maple custard... Now that I have a copy this would be the time for a reissue. Most if not all of the information should be available on the Cooksillustrated.com website. The annual membership is dead cheap and really worth it should you need to take their fantastic stroganoff recipe on the road. In the meantime, if you are looking for a recipe and need a scan and email of an entry, I'd be glad to. I'll even include a couple vanilla beans. (I have a cache of 3/4 a pound in the freezer. Juicy, sexy things.)

Guava bush on the Embarcadero, San Francisco 9/10 5:15 PM at eye-level. Yes. Parrots. Preening, scawking, squabbling, showboating parrots. They were very aware that the bush they lit on was surrounded by two dozen tourists and locals all with cameras and cellphones. The flock did everything but grant interviews. They were so close you could stroke them. Listening to: Carla Bruni's new album: Comme Si de Rien N'Etait. Very good. Craving: A bear claw or anything with toasted almonds Knitting: the Cookie A's Katrina sweater, take two ( increase issue on previous edition) Spinning: Fat Cats superwash, sky blue and a rich light tan. Finished: Plying Fat Cat's Oscar. It's wet and dripping from a doorknob Thinking: I need more Pilot Precise Pens, blue. Tonight: Jessica and Knitting/Drinking Group Hoping: to fiscally make it through the month. Reading: Spin Off Magazine Dreading: A proposed dinking with of funding (yep, it's my job) Lost: ?? Found: Five quarters. I lo...

Melinda June, you are a superhero . Knit your own battle bonnet . Miss S. from previous posting came for mid-day coffee & gossip today. She is just splendid.

Darling Franklin. He has such great ideas . And if you want a good laugh, move onto reading the comments of the woolly and overheated. Miss Violet of the hysterical Lime and Violet podcast may be ready to discard Sideshow Husband for a sexy bald guy with Wollmeise . And if it's Wollmeise, what's not to love? Something breathtaking off of Etsy. I swear I am going to get y'all hooked and make you promise to buy all your Christmas Gifts from craftsy peoples. Okay, One more Etsy item to admire. Who doesn't need sweater taxidermy? This week's " Wait,Wait Don't Tell Me " me was recorded in a downpour in Chicago's Millennium Park. You can hear the splattering on the podcast edition. I felt parched just listening to it.