nawl

At 1 am, I am alone in the kitchen.

I'm listening to the "Norse pop" mix cd that Marissa made me a few years ago. It's stylish, mellow, the kind of music that makes you feel sophisticated while you cook.

I'm waiting for the bowl of melted white chocolate (five pounds) and cream (five cups) to cool in the fridge. It is to become white chocolate mousse with raspberry sauce, if I can find the food processor bowl to blend the raspberries.

The vat of vegetables is finally coming to a boil, after more than three hours on the stove. The thing is huge, probably a foot and a half in diameter and two feet tall. It contains 12 leeks, 15 onions, 20 carrots, 3 turnips, and 8 heads (heads, not cloves) of garlic. My "bouquet garni" was two bunches of fresh thyme that I just tossed in, a bunch of parsley, and a handful of bay leaves. I'm beginning to doubt the wisdom of making vegetable stock from scratch, mainly for logistical reasons: there is *no way* that thing is fitting in the fridge. I could leave it out all night, but it might grow bacteria. I could leave it out all night over the fire, but that might 1. burn or 2. overcook.

Special dinner is when the co-ops go all out on food. Our fridge contains a wheel of brie, a wheel of stilton, a log of goat cheese (3" diameter x 12" long), and a 4 lb block of parmesan. Not to mention the six kinds (white, brown, portobello, maitake, button, and porcini) mushrooms I got from Berkeley Bowl. In total, I visited three supermarkets and spent a total of $270 just on food that central kitchen couldn't get for us, though in all fairness that includes a jug of wine for the risotto, some Cointreau for the chocolate fondue, a jug of rum for the real egg nog, and a bottle of Marsala for the veal-lunchmeat-cheese-asparagus rolls that Israel is making.

When I wake up in the morning, I will resume cooking. The chocolate cake will probably come first, followed by a test run for the baked goat cheese, the vichysoisse, the chopping of the onions, potatoes, and beets that will be roasted in the late afternoon, and really the risotto should be started no later than 6.

My legs are tired already.