NOT MUCH COOKING

Not that much to report on the cooking front-but i have been doing a bit of eating out:
Went to Robertas in Bushwick a few weekends ago the "highlights" were the company I came with and a very cute but rather untrained dog named Meatball.
I know this place gets a lot of hype but maybe dinner is a better example of their prowess because brunch was no big deal-I had eggs with taleggio and hen of the wood mushrooms (which I have never had and were very good). The eggs arrived in a rather deep bowl which made the portion look even smaller, there were two small slices of grilled bread(no butter offered) no garnish. My friend Jannese had ricotta pancakes with apple slices( which since she is allergic to apples asked
if they could be left off) the waitress had to check with the kitchen since no substitutions are allowed. These two rather flat and lonely pancakes came on the plate, maybe with the aples it would have seemed not quite so lonely, but garnish people, it can go a long way. My friend Debora had pizza which they are known for and maybe that is the way to go.

Was lucky to have tried two delicious pastry's from Bouchon Bakery in the Time Warner Building-I got this cookie/whoopie pie type thingie that had cream between two chocolate scalloped cookies that was fabulous and a little chocolate cake with chocolate chips inside I think it was flourless and just perfect. That place is so lovely and I will try to stay away for the sake of my waistline-but I recommend it to anyone to try when they are in that neighborhood. We went after the Museum of Art and Design who's restaurant we were going to try but it got a really bad review-so.......

I should report back on my dead mussel problem it turns out that the mussels were in fact not dead,they were New Zealand green mussels and hence are different and being open and not closing does mean death-but I still think that my guys at Fish Tales should have mentioned that fact!!!!!

My re-pickleing of the McClure pickleing liquid worked out very well-next time I think I would use Kirby cukes instead of Persian-but actually I will not re-pickle a second time I will probably use my brother-in-laws pickle recipe when I do I will post the recipe and results.

One of the reasons I have not been cooking much is Lars(my husband) has as of late a more manic than usual schedule so we never know when we will eat so I have been preparing lots of quite pasta dishes and ordering in.

But since I just joined the Y to hopefully get some exercise and be healthier I will again start to cook and hopefully not find 5 million excuses not to show up and exercise the one bright hope is I love the sauna!!!

I am going to try again for a sour dough starter-maybe I will be three times lucky!