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Nov. 1st, 2008 05:34 pm
Man de muertos
Another Halloween come and gone! I even had plans to get out and party this year, but they were thwarted--or rather, one could say, transmogrified. At the eleventh hour, ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
monshu announced his desire to head over to the celebration at Uncommon Ground with the intention of possibly hooking up with some gay square dancers and dragging them to Jackhammer while I headed down to Lincoln Square for a Halloween housewarming.
So I met up with him there for dinner. The first time I dined at Uncommon Ground, I said, "This is a place with ambitions." Sadly, over time that's moved closer to "This is a place with pretensions." ( Why I don't trust would-be bistros to do country cooking. ) Seriously, guys, if you can't get cornbread right, just go out in the pasture with the six gauge and shoot yourselves. At least the pumpkin pie was tasty--if also served with the chill of the refrigerator on it--as was the Goose Island Bourbon County stout I had with dinner. Our 70s-hunky waiter was appealing in many ways and steered me right when it came to the after-dinner bourbon.
By this time, the pet costume contest had ended and we saw the square dancers milling about before their first set. Later, when we went over to greet and meet, I got swept into the beginner's round, which went swimmingly until I forgot that switching partners meant my corner changed, too, and blew the square apart. A bit after this,monshu, who had been watching with much amusement, felt the pull of home and I went back with him to change and head out again.
Except for one thing: He had planned to make pan de muertos for a friend's housewarming today and now that wasn't going to happen unless I made up the dough. Figuring I could knock it off before I had to leave, I broke out the butter and got started, but the little bugger took longer to rise than I'd anticipated, so by the time I'd punched it down and put it in the refrigerator it was after ten.
If not for our earlier outing, I would've resisted sinking into my usual Halloween ritual of searching for scary movies on television. But the thought of travelling forty-five minutes or more for a party when I was already pleasantly drunk didn't have much appeal and so I spent my night with such forgettable fodder as The Haunting of Hill House (with Geoffrey Rush taking the Vincent Price role of the original).
Was it worth it? The proof of the pudding will be when we slice into the bread at Mr Brown's in a few hours. Certainly the two satellite buns I made for our own consumption turned out very well (at least, I presume the second did, seeing as I gave it away to our painter to console him for breaking our dining room lamp). I'm a bit worried about the bread; as you can see, it rose and browned beautifully, but I'm worried that the guts are soggy. It was a choice between that and burning the extremities, so I figure I'll just tell our host to cut these away first and hope for the best.
monshu announced his desire to head over to the celebration at Uncommon Ground with the intention of possibly hooking up with some gay square dancers and dragging them to Jackhammer while I headed down to Lincoln Square for a Halloween housewarming.So I met up with him there for dinner. The first time I dined at Uncommon Ground, I said, "This is a place with ambitions." Sadly, over time that's moved closer to "This is a place with pretensions." ( Why I don't trust would-be bistros to do country cooking. ) Seriously, guys, if you can't get cornbread right, just go out in the pasture with the six gauge and shoot yourselves. At least the pumpkin pie was tasty--if also served with the chill of the refrigerator on it--as was the Goose Island Bourbon County stout I had with dinner. Our 70s-hunky waiter was appealing in many ways and steered me right when it came to the after-dinner bourbon.
By this time, the pet costume contest had ended and we saw the square dancers milling about before their first set. Later, when we went over to greet and meet, I got swept into the beginner's round, which went swimmingly until I forgot that switching partners meant my corner changed, too, and blew the square apart. A bit after this,
monshu, who had been watching with much amusement, felt the pull of home and I went back with him to change and head out again. Except for one thing: He had planned to make pan de muertos for a friend's housewarming today and now that wasn't going to happen unless I made up the dough. Figuring I could knock it off before I had to leave, I broke out the butter and got started, but the little bugger took longer to rise than I'd anticipated, so by the time I'd punched it down and put it in the refrigerator it was after ten.If not for our earlier outing, I would've resisted sinking into my usual Halloween ritual of searching for scary movies on television. But the thought of travelling forty-five minutes or more for a party when I was already pleasantly drunk didn't have much appeal and so I spent my night with such forgettable fodder as The Haunting of Hill House (with Geoffrey Rush taking the Vincent Price role of the original).
Was it worth it? The proof of the pudding will be when we slice into the bread at Mr Brown's in a few hours. Certainly the two satellite buns I made for our own consumption turned out very well (at least, I presume the second did, seeing as I gave it away to our painter to console him for breaking our dining room lamp). I'm a bit worried about the bread; as you can see, it rose and browned beautifully, but I'm worried that the guts are soggy. It was a choice between that and burning the extremities, so I figure I'll just tell our host to cut these away first and hope for the best.