Salmon and Celebrities

All right, so, yesterday Jenni and I had a date to make a delicious dinner. It was going to be a leisurely process--cosy little grocery shopping trip, a few glasses of wine, perhaps some romantic music to cook by--but my school day ended up three hours longer than it was supposed to have been, so we had to expedite the process. It's a long story, so I'll just skip to the food.

HA HA HA HA. Yeah right--it's not that long a story, and it's by FAR the most blog-worthy topic (sorry, Jenni). So recipes, just shut up and wait your freakin' turn--I have CELEB GUSHING to do here.
Okay, so remember Nick from last season's Project Runway? The super nice sweet one who never said anything (terribly) bitchy except sometimes in the solo confessional-style parts? With the snappy wardrobe and little faux-hawk? The one who teaches at my school? Oh right, that one. Whether you remember him or not--though you SHOULD, since anyone worth anything should have been watching P.R. and commiting every detail to memory since Episode One--the point is that as I was sitting in Mrs. Something-or-other's Fundamentals of Sketching class yesterday afternoon, I realized that if I did a little scheduling magic, I COULD BE IN NICK'S CLASS INSTEAD. And that, kids, is what I did. So three short hours later I found myself making big eyes at Nick himself, asking for permission to join his roster (success!), and listening to him call everyone "honey" in the most flamboyant possible way (it seems that, since P.R., he's turned up the volume on the flamitude.). He also managed to name-drop more substances that he'd like to ingest in the name of relaxation (Xanax, Jager--since when is that relaxing?--, margaritas, and at least a few others) than I'd have imagined possible in one three-hour class. Anyway, despite all the show, he looks to be a really effective teacher. He guided us through making our own croquis (sketching model) and assigned an armload of homework (never mind the armload of actual materials for the class...I'll definitely be in serious need of a chiropractor soon).

And for the other celeb, or something: I was so absorbed in Nick and his spiel that I didn't even notice that the (in)famous Lauren from "The Hills"was sitting in the seat across from mine, overly tan, tapping away at her sidekick. Woo. We all had to sign release forms saying that we don't mind if MTV uses our images, words, "and any lyrics we may sing on tape" for their own skeezy purposes. I can't decide whether having a chance appearance on "The Hills" will be funny or just bad. Oh, as for LC--hard to tell What She's Really Like. The only glimmer I saw was when, standing in line, another girl introduced herself to me and LC as Valentine. LC's reaction: "That's a neat name." Silence. Ooookay.

ANYWAY! On to the food! After class, I jumped on the bus, picked up salmon and spinach at Trader Joe's, and then got Jenni (with neato oyster mushrooms and Japanese eggplants in hand). We made a delish vegetable sautee:
-ginger, onions & garlic sauteed in oil
-oyster mushrooms & normal mushrooms added
-soy sauce and fresh spinach added & cooked just until spinach wilted.
All of the above served over sauteed eggplant rounds, next to:
-salmon fillets, sauteed in sesame oil with a black pepper & sesame-seed crust. SO YUM.

Speaking of salmon, I just read a neat tip in Russ Parsons's book: to cook salmon so that the skin is crispy and good instead of slimy, "use the back of a knife to 'squeegee' the skin of the salmon until you see moisture come out and collect on the knife. Wipe the knife and the salmon dry with paper towels. Repeat until moisture no longer appears. Cook skin side down, and flip over only at end." Huh. Neat.

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