Best Lunch Ever

Sometimes, when I go to Kelly's bakery on the Westside, I see a fellow I know, basking in the sun at the seat by the door and reading the morning paper over coffee. Last time it was a guy I worked with at a local winery; this time it was a guy I worked with at the radio station. Must be the best seat in the house, I thought. Then I thought, these guys know how to savor a languid morning. I do something similar, on lightly scheduled days, reading the New Yorker over breakfast and tea in my sunny coastal shack; but afterwards I often feel guilty for having squandered my time. Both these fellows were in a happy lounging reverie. Now that I think about it, when I showed up & said howdy, one started mumbling sheepishly about being caught reading reputation-bruising material, and the other gathered up his things to leave while he talked with me. At the time I thought I had smudged up their privacy, thereby ruining their groove, but now I wonder if they don't suffer the same guilt I do at morning-basking.

I was there to get a baguette for lunch at my friend Rita's. We made it together--a mussel and chard soup (chard from the farm where I work), a side dish of my own devising, and baguette. For side dish I had prepped ahead peeled, boiled sunchokes lightly tossed with lemon, olive oil, S&P, and fresh minced parsley. It turned out to be just the thing with the soup, mussels & chard in a clam-wine-tomato broth, a pinch of fennel seeds....well here, here's the recipe, which she'd clipped out of some magazine or other:

for the broth:
2c. white wine (we used cheap champagne)
2 8oz jars clam juice
for the beurre manie:
1T butter
2T flour
for the persillade:
2T minced garlic
1/4 c fresh minced parsley
also:
2# fresh mussels, scrubbed & debearded
1 bunch swiss chard, thinly ribboned (about 4c.)
3 tomatoes (about 2c.) peeled and chopped (--and deseeded, but eh.)
1c. (about half a decent-sized) finely chopped red (or other sweet) onion
1/4 t. fennel seeds (the recipe dubbed these optional, but if you ask me it makes the whole dish)
s&p to taste

*Okay so you knead the flour into the softened butter into a beurre manie (Julia Child explains that this is just an uncooked roux) & set it aside. You'll add it at the end.
*Same with the garlic & parsley. Mince em, mix em together, set aside.

*In a soup pot with a lid, pour in the wine & clam juice & heat it up.
*Add 1/2 the chard, mussels, tomotoes and onion; then add the other half plus the fennel seeds.
*Shake the pot vigorously, or stir with a wooden spoon to mix this stuff up.
*Lid it for 5-6 minutes so the mussels can steam & open up.
*Remove the mussels, take them off the shell, and put the meat back into the pot. Ones that won't open=dead. Don't use 'em.
*Add the beurre manie, add the persillade.
*Stir & simmer a minute, S&P to taste (ours needed none).
*Serve in warm bowls & garnish with a drizzle of olive oil (another step we skipped).

A quick soup, perfect for lunch.

Oh, and since the milk I was going to put in my tea was sour, Rita took the opportunity to make sour milk cake. A use for off-milk! She says it's like mild buttermilk, totally useable. The resulting cake is like a super light, moist brownie:

1c, sour milk
1/3 c. melted butter
1 1/2c. flour
1 c. sugar
1/2 c. powdered chocolate (or more, if you ask me)
1t. baking soda
1 egg
3/4c. nuts

Mix wets. Add dries. Put in greased 9 x 13 pan. Bake at an amenable temperature (her oven only has one) till you start to smell it, then check every 5 minutes till done. If it's not a total fucking cake emergency, you could even frost it after it cools. I'm thinking a cream cheese frosting could work, maybe with vanilla and some grated orange zest. We, however, snarfed ours warm & untopped, which was just fine.

Pip