The 55th Circle Time: The Show and Tell Weekly Thread

Show and Tell is wasted on elementary schoolers. Join several dozen bloggers weekly to show off an item, tell a story, and get the attention of the class. In other words, this is Show and Tell 2.0. Everyone is welcome to join, even if you have never posted before and just found out about Show and Tell for the first time today. So yank out a photo of the worst bridesmaid’s dress you ever wore and tell us the story; show off the homemade soup you cooked last night; or tell us all about the scarf you made for your first knitting project. Details on how to participate are located at the bottom of this post.

Let’s begin.

First and foremost, a poll. I am considering moving Show and Tell to a different day of the week. Part of it is old school honesty–elementary school simply isn’t held on weekends. Part of it is the craziness of weekends and wanting the time to read posts at a more enjoyable pace rather than shoveling them in my eyes like I would, let’s say, attack a display of chocolate candy. But I do not want to move the day if the core participants like having it on the weekend.

Added: I probably should have stated this too, but since the vote is somewhat splitting down the center, it’s hard to get a read. Vote for Wednesday/Thursday/Friday if you’re willing to move (even if you like Saturday. I like Saturday too, but it makes it hard to read all the posts on the weekend). Vote for Saturday/Sunday/Monday if you’d be unwilling to move (meaning, you wouldn’t be able to participate anymore). The move is to enable me to hold Show & Tell every week and not have to skip it sometimes if we’re out of town for the weekend or to post it, but not get to read along. But I don’t want to move the date if everyone is really set on the weekend. So if you’ll still participate if it is held on Thursday, please vote for the move. If you plan to stop doing Show & Tell if it is on another day, vote to stay.

So I’ve embedded a poll below and please take a moment to vote on which set of days works best for you. If we vote to move it, we will hold a second Show and Tell this upcoming week on Thursday (I will open the list on Wednesday night, people can participate on Wednesday night/Thursday/or Friday). If we vote to keep it where it is, I’ll see everyone back here next Saturday night (the usual: I post on Saturday night and people can participate on Saturday night/Sunday/or Monday). I’ll post the results this Tuesday as to which day we’ll use.

I need to preface this story by telling you that while I often stray from recipes, if I’m making something from a restaurant cookbook, I will stick to the recipe exactly in order to taste what it would be like in the restaurant. So we’ve tried Bouchon or Les Halles or Morimoto through their cookbooks. I’m sure the dishes are much more incredible when prepared at the restaurant, but this is as close as we’re going to get to some of these places.

On Tuesday morning, I had a meeting that backed-up on Josh’s afternoon meeting. Lindsay came to meet me at the office building when I was finished and asked if I wanted to try Mario Batali’s restaurant, Otto, for lunch. I had not had success with Batali’s recipes when I tried them–and by a lack of success, I mean that the food was inedible and we ended up dumping the meal. But Lindsay promised that the food was good so I was willing to give it a try.

We shared a Margherita (D.O.P.) and a pasta alla Norma. The meal was incredible.

As we left the restaurant, we were musing on whether chefs purposefully make their recipes for shit in the cookbook so that you will still be inclined to get a meal at their restaurant. Because the pasta alla Norma I made from the cookbook was nothing like the meal I had in the restaurant. We laughed about asking chefs this question.

A few blocks later, we are about to cross into Washington Square when I see an explosion of colour beginning with the shoes. Orange crocs, bright socks, hairy legs, blue shorts, two shirts, red ponytail, and sunglasses. It was so surreal and I heard myself saying to him as he passed, “Mr. Batali?”

“Yes,” he responded, and we both started walking backwards.

“We just ate at Otto. The meal was incredible.”

“Thank you!”

And then we both turned back around and I walked into Washington Square Park with Lindsay and baby Fred and he walked down the street with his friend, and Lindsay and I spent the next three minutes saying, “that was so bizarre.”

The end of the story is that now that I could compare the red sauce in my mind, I tried to make it at home on Thursday night and here’s the secret part he left out–blend it. Stick the whole thing in a blender and it’s sort of the same consistency and sort of the same flavour as the sauce at the restaurant. And it also made for a lovely pizza sauce.

What are you showing today?

Click here or scroll down to the bottom of this post if this is your first time joining along (hint: link to the permalink for the post, not the main url for your blog and use your blog’s name, not your name). The list is open from now until late Tuesday night and a new one is posted every week.