It's Official!

Spring has officially sprung. I went this Saturday (very early, thankyouverymuch) to the greenmarket in hopes that the ramps had come in. There is usually one farm that has the best ramps (they also sell delectable potatoes), so I made haste to go hover by the truck. By 7:30 there were a few more people waiting with me, and by 8, there was a full-on ramp riot. In some parts of the country, I guess, there are actually celebrations of the first ramp harvest. I don't blame them- it really makes one believe that there will be other produce at the market besides rutabegas and mealy apples once again.
I scored 3 bunches, and dreamed all day of all of the ramp-y fettucine and scrambled egg goodness that I would be whipping up that evening and the following morning. Here is a recipe for ramp fettucine, inspired by the one over at tiny banquet committee. She seems to have it together enough to prep while she cooks, but over in this kitchen, that tends to lead to a lot of swearing and getting burned.
This is one of those recipes where I would recommend practicing the fine art of mis en place not only because it makes cooking less stressful, but also because you can use that extra hand that's not furiously chopping to sip your wine.
Fresh pasta with ramps
Serves 3-4.

3-4 bundles of clean ramps (you've got to get in there and scrub- take off the roots and any slimy outer layer, and rinse thoroughly and then rinse thoroughly again)
10-16oz. pound fresh pasta, any flat ribbon shape (tagliatelle, linguine, fettucine), depending on how you like your veggie-pasta ratio.
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 to 3 tablespoons butter
salt and freshly ground pepper
1 egg, lightly beaten
the best parmesan you can buy, grated on a microplane or the small holes of a box grater — at least 1 cup

Fill a large stock pot with cold water, salt it generously, and bring it to a furious boil. The most energy-efficient way to do this is to heat your water in a kettle and then pour it into a pot. I don't know why I can remember that but not where I put my shoes.

Chop off the root ends of the ramps and slice the green leaves in half lengthwise and (and again crosswise if they are long). Sauté the root ends in the olive oil over medium heat until they soften, 1 to 3 minutes. Season them with salt and freshly ground pepper. Add the leaves to the pan, along with the butter, and cook, stirring, until they are thoroughly wilted. Remove from the heat and set aside.

Cook the pasta as directed, reserving about 1/2 cup of the water before you drain it. You will want to keep the pasta slightly undercooked, as if it gets mushy, you and your ramps will be sad, sad, sad.

Return the pasta to the pot and stir in the ramp mixture, the beaten egg, and approximately 1/2 cup of grated cheese. Toss everything together (silicone tongs are great for this). Add a bit of the pasta water, a tablespoon or two at a time, if the egg and cheese mixture is clumping. Taste for seasoning (and to get some of the rampy goodness all for yourself before you have to serve it to other people), and serve with additional grated cheese at the table.

Enjoy!
Next up... what to do with all of that leftover pasta and extra bundle of ramps that you have hidden away...

Menus

My friend Dana is getting married in a few weeks and I was super excited when she asked me to help out with the paper goods- these have been in the works for a while, but I just printed them this weekend... Dana made a last-minute call on the gold (we were going to go with black and grey), and predictably, because I love all things sparkly, I'm pretty stoked about it. More pictures to come- I am finishing the program printing today.

Moving

The camera is a little wonky today, but here are some images of the moving announcements that I goccoed this morning. It was just a little doodle that I cooked up while watching an episode of Weeds (Best. Show. EVER!). I had some issues with the blue ink (namely, it was old and had separated, so it ended up being all oozy all over the place in some places and clogging up the screen in others). No matter; it's a sunny Saturday, and we all need a weekly exercise in letting imperfections go. They're shown along with the narcissus that I got at the green market from a man in a plaid hat with a bushy beard, the inside of whose van looked like the Dutch countryside.

boo!

Gee, this is gorgeous. It would have been perfect for a friend's housewarming gift, but it's sold out. It's a 60/40 print from rose and radish- they invite an artist to create a limited edition print, and the profits from selling that print go 60/40 (get it?) to the artist and a non-profit. It's things like this that make me itch to get back to the Bay Area.

turning my back on the digital revolution

This may not exactly the next biggest thing, but it might be the next old biggest thing. I have been using film, yes, the old fashioned kind that you can't even buy at the drugstore anymore, to take some pictures since I bought myself a lomography supersampler for my birthday. I just got back some rolls of film (one that had been in my camera FOREVER, one from this past Christmas, and one from this past Easter at Jordy's aunt's house) I gotta say, there is something about film that is just so freaking hot. It's all about the graininess and the way that light is captured - it reminds me of photos from when I was a kid, or that my parents took when they were my age. Film just reeks of long hair and salt water and late sunsets and eating outside. We shot our wedding with some vintage Super 8 film cameras (think the opening sequence of "The Wonder Years") for our video- seeing these rolls makes me want to get those rolls developed stat.
Here are some shots that I think were much better captured on film than they would have looked had I taken them with a digital camera.
This is from Greece (I can't remember where):
Here's Dexie on a beach in San Francisco:
Jack showing off his Easter eggs (taken with my supersampler):
Here's a shot of Berkeley, also taken with the supersampler (in December).
This photo might be the favorite that I've ever taken- I took it on a whim in a fish market in Istanbul: