layers
beans, soups, and scenes from Italian restaurants
Hi everyone. Every week feels like Sisyphus pushing the boulder of ‘I just gotta get through this week’. What can you do but keep pushing? I’m trying to put my energy and thoughts and money where they’re needed, trying to remember that the human brain is not really equipped to know as much as we do these days about our world, so we all deserve a little grace and relaxation when we can get it. I hope you’re taking care of yourself, too.
Liang and I went to see Portrait of a Lady on Fire at the Rio Theatre as part of their Valentine’s day weekend lineup. It was a Sunday, so the show was in the afternoon. I’d picked up the tickets, and Liang got us a round of drinks and a huge bag of popcorn— something I often want at the movies, but rarely bother to get, so that was a fun indulgence. After the movie, we walked down the Drive and ended up at Bar Corso. They have crostini on the happy hour menu, and I really liked the tapenade and tonnato. We also ordered the mushroom risotto and stracciatella, which was definitely more than enough food, but we couldn’t resist having the orange cake for dessert, too. No regrets.
Jeff’s mom has been trying to arrange a dinner with us and my parents since before Christmas, and we finally were able to all meet up at Il Corvo in Deep Cove, which just opened in November. I’d known the old Raven pub was on the out— we visited there once after its previous sale a few years ago and were unimpressed— and was happy to hear that the good folks who operate the Arm’s Reach and InGrain would be taking over. So far it seems that the new restaurant is most popular for brunch, which makes sense for the area (Deep Cove is definitely a day spot, not a night spot, for most people), but we really loved the dinner. The pastas were perfectly cooked and everything was thoughtfully and beautifully served. A table of six is a great number for trying a variety of things, too, so I got to have a few bites of quite a few things on the menu. The arancini were perfect, and everyone who tried the radiatori alla vodka agreed that it was a star.
My only real beef (lol) is that the sole vegetarian pizzas were margherita and four cheese, which isn’t all that thrilling, but the vegetarian pasta options are good enough that I’m not ready to raise a stink about it. I also peeked at the brunch menu and it does look excellent, so I’ll have to check that out. It might be awhile, though, because Jeff doesn’t like to go anywhere before breakfast and I just straight up don’t like to leave the house in the morning at all if I can help it.
While thinking of things to do with the tortilla chips I’d opened for the buffalo cauliflower dip, I developed an insatiable craving for seven-layer dip— something I’ve purchased from the grocery store or eaten at parties but never actually made before. (I feel like this is a common experience to have had.) Jeff helped me, because I’ve been dealing with tendinitis or something similar in my right hand, and this was on one of the worst days. He seemed utterly baffled by the entire process.
“I don’t understand how this is a recipe,” he said, while mixing store-bought salsa, lime juice, and salt into canned refried black beans. “It’s assembly. One of the layers is literally just cilantro.”
“Not everything people make is cooking,” I reminded him. “Sometimes you’re just… making food.”
“But how can someone say, ‘oh, I make a great seven-layer dip’ when you never actually make anything?”
“I don’t know that people actually say that. But I bet you can make a bad one if you don’t understand basic cooking principles. Straight out of the can these refried beans had as much flavour as vacuum dust.”
Anyway, provided you’ve eaten this dip before at your cousin’s baby shower or whatever, you don’t really need a recipe, but allrecipes has you covered if you forget what you want to do for one of the layers. The perfectly ripe avocado we used for the guacamole really blessed this dish. We both ate too much of it, which I’m pretty sure is how you’re supposed to eat it. At least, that’s what always happens to me at parties.
I’ve had the recipe open for this cassoulet-inspired baked white bean dish since someone in the Tomato Tomato server mentioned it a few weeks ago (thank you, if you’re reading this!), and I finally got around to making it last week. I don’t think I’ve ever had a traditional cassoulet, which is like a meaty stew (as with many French dishes), so I don’t know how it compares in that respect. But as someone who makes various bean bakes fairly often, I really enjoyed this. I used thyme, brown mushrooms, shimeji mushrooms, and kale to vary the texture a bit. Both the hands-on time and cook time are a bit longer than the kinds I usually make, because the mushrooms take awhile to chop and brown, but it’s worth it— this had so much flavour! I personally would make this more saucy than the recipe calls for next time; 30 minutes in the oven dries this out a fair bit. I’d bought a loaf of sourdough from Tall Shadow Bakery to eat with this, and it’s some of the best bread I’ve had in awhile.
Also recently: because I’d bought that delicious loaf of bread and had thyme and potatoes, I made my favourite potato leek soup, from Isa Does It. (Someone has a slightly modified version of the recipe here.) I got to drizzle some of the olive oil we brought back from Greece on top— it hasn’t been getting used as much because it’s not for cooking, and it is not yet a season where I want to make salad.
I went to Liang’s after work the other night to meet her new kitties, brothers named Falstaff and Benvolio. Falstaff hid from me the whole time but Benny was a little more curious. Liang doesn’t cook much, but she’d found a cooking video she wanted to try, making little rice cup appetizers by baking sushi rice in muffin tins until it’s a bit crispy on the outside, and then when they’ve cooled a little you can fill them with stuff. We made tuna salad with kimchi, and they were actually really tasty. The vibe was a lot like onigiri, though we both agreed the work of shaping the sticky rice into the pan to bake it wasn’t necessarily worth the reward.
Thanks for reading— if you enjoyed this newsletter, please share it with someone new! I like providing this to you for free, but it does still involve time and effort, so donations I can use towards cookbooks or future treats are much appreciated. Lastly, for the locals: I’m going Star Trek on main and giving a talk on The Search for Spock as a romance at Nerd Nite, March 13th at the Space Centre! Come see me!