NY Times Puzzle – Thursday, June 28, 2012

Theme: 34A. Window of sorts or a hint to completing 10 answers in this puzzle. Answer: Time Frame

The answers to the clues around the perimeter (“frame”) of the puzzle can be completed with the word “time.”

1A. You might give this to someone you don’t like = Hard
5A. When to have a nosh = Snack
10A. Football break = Half
62A. Period of preparation = Lead
63A. Dark hours = Night
64A. School recess = Play
1D. Autumn, typically = Harvest
13D. When a zookeeper makes the rounds with a bucket = Feeding
37D. Flight board listing = Arrival
44D. Focused face-to-face contact = Quality

At EMP: Clambake 2.0

Our 44th anniversary found us, as usual, celebrating with a tasting dinner at EMP. And, as usual, the kitchen managed to find a way to surprise and thrill us.

After the parade of amuses, we were expecting the Homage to Jewish Appetizing. Instead, Chef de Cuisine James Kent sent out the Clambake. My first thought: “He’s giving us a change of pace, so it’s back to the Clambake.” We’d had it several times, though not recently, and always enjoyed it.  However, it turned out Chef Daniel Humm and his kitchen magicians had a new trick up their culinary sleeves….

Our captain, Kevin Browne, placed on the table the familiar black chowder pot perched on a bed of rocks and seaweed. As before, to add a touch of drama, he poured hot water over the rocks, producing a cloud of steam which rose towards EMP’s sky-high ceiling.

But gone were the four small plates containing two types of dressed clams, potato croquettes, and madeleine-shaped cornbread. (You can see photos of them in this set). Now, in addition to the small bowl for the chowder, a larger bowl and spoon were placed in front of each of us, and just one small plate on the table contained two midget corn husks tied at the top.

We unwrapped the corn husks to discover inside midget zucchini breads. The husks had been roasted so that the bread was warm. In a word: Yum!

Kevin enumerated the contents of the large bowl: clams, red pepper, radish, zucchini, corn, corn cream, and tomato snow. When combined, the corn cream and tomato snow formed a delicious cool broth, the clams provided a briny flavor, and the other components added a nice level of crunch. Delectable!

Before departing, Kevin told us to pour the contents of the pot into the smaller bowls at our leisure. I did the honors and… Surprise! It was not the clam chowder we were expecting. It was corn chowder — ultra-creamy with very intense corn flavor. Wow! While the original clam chowder was lovely, Michael and I agreed that this corn chowder had it beat.

Chef Humm and his team like to inject a bit of playfulness into the dining experience at EMP. It’s their way of saying, “We want our guests to have fun while enjoying seriously delicious cuisine.” With the original version of the Clambake and now the sensational Clambake 2.0, they’ve definitely succeeded.

To see all the photos of this anniversary dinner, click here.

NYT Sunday Puzzle – June 24, 2012

Title:  Element of Surprise

Determining the meaning of the title goes like this:

42D. Global warming calculation whose shape is suggested by connecting 14 squares in this puzzle in a closed loop based on the appropriate 23-Across.

Answer to 42D: Carbon Footprint
Answer to 23A: Atomic Symbol

So, the element is carbon. But what about the surprise? I figured it had something to do with accomplishing the second part of the clue. But I had no idea how to go about it. Fortunately, Rex Parker did:  “What is ‘surprising’ is that when you connect all the Cs in the grid, you get the rough outline of a human footprint.” Aha! “C” is carbon’s atomic symbol.

The rest of the theme clues are environmental terms and phrases.

40A. Worrisome Arctic and Antarctic developments = Ozone Holes
69A. Conservationist’s catchphrase = Save Water
94A. Arborits’s catchphrase = Plant a Tree
117A. Conservationist’s catchphrase = Conserve Fuel
14D. Atmospheric worries = Greenhouse Gases

A few interesting answers:

27A. “Tough-actin” medication.  Answer: Tinactin

46A. Sue Grafton’s “___ for Outlaw.”  Answer: O is.  I’m a huge Sue Grafton fan, she of the alphabetically titled mysteries. I’ve read them all in order.  Most recently finished V is for Vengeance.

51A. “___ 1138” (1971 sci-fi film).  Answer: THX. Not much into sci-fi. Never heard of this movie.

74A. Falls for married women?  Answer: Niagara.  Give me a break!!

48D. 1998 Alanis Morissette hit.  Answer: Thanku.  Though I’ve heard of her, I don’t know her music.

Happy Birthday, Jen!

Summer! My Favorite Season!

The Summer Solstice arrived at 7:09 p.m. Mother Nature jump-started the official start of the season with a heat wave that will continue through tomorrow.

NoMad: 3 Stars from The New York Times!

Congratulations to Will Guidara, Daniel Humm, Abram Bissell, Jeffrey Tascarella, and the entire NoMad staff! We knew you had a winner from the beginning and are thrilled to see this truly well-deserved recognition.

NYT Sunday Puzzle – June 17, 2012

Title: Playable

The trick to the theme answers: Adding the letters “BLE” to one of the words in a familiar phrase = wackiness.

22A. Falter while imitating Jay-Z? = BumBLE Rap
24A. Something thrown in “Wesst Side Story”? = RumBLE Punch
36A. Sing high notes? = WarBLE on Drugs
54A. Cry uupon arriving at an earthquake zoone? = There’s the RubBLE
77A. What the turnover-prone football player had? = Dropping TrouBLE
92A. Shenanigans at the royal court? = NoBLE Nonsense
110A. Nickname for a hard-to-understand monarch? = Queen MumBLE
114A. Lens cover for a giant gelescope? = HubBLE Cap

In the “learning something new” category:

30A. Trick-taking game. Answer: Belot. Acc. to Wiki, it’s also known as Bridge Belot, a French card game.

108A. He wrote, “Knowledge is the food of the soul.” Answer: Plato

3D. Source of the words “mulligatawny” and “catamaran.” Answer: Tamil

15D. “Giovanna d’____” (Verdi opera). Answer: Arco

53D. “The Magic Flute” protagonist. Answer: Tamino

76D. Burkina ____. Answer: Faso. Again via Wiki, a landlocked country in West Africa.

79D. Mythical elixir of forgetfulness. Answer: Nepenthe

Spring Clean-up 2012

We had our spring clean-up two weeks ago. For two days, our landscaper’s crew pruned, cleaned, edged, and mulched.

We loved the unusually warm winter. But so did the weeds. Flourishing, they took over the front beds and became taller than the smaller plants and shrubs.

If only the deer loved weeds. But, no! They preferred to by-pass them and munch, instead, on a plant we had put in last spring. We didn’t realize it had been feasted on because it was hidden by the weeds. Its replacement, a blue fescue, is not a deer favorite.

The front bed all prettied up:

Day lilies add a lovely splash of color.

On the left side of the house, two shrubs put in last year didn’t fare well despite the temperate winter.

Their replacements:

The backyard beds were a mess, but all the plants and shrubs we put in last year were in good shape. Older ones were fine as well. It all just needed to be spruced up.

Time to put up the umbrella and be ready for al fresco dining.

To see the entire set of spring clean-up photos, click here.

It’s Our 44th Anniversary!

Strawberry Picking 2012

I nearly missed it. I thought it would start toward late May and end mid-June. Usually, I receive a card from Battleview Orchards but none came. Good thing I checked their website before we left for Philly. Turns out strawberry picking started around May 8th and ends today. So, right after we came back, I headed over to Battleview and picked nearly four pounds.

My favorite thing to make with freshly picked strawberries is ice cream.

A “Black & White” Ice Cream Soda becomes a “Black & Pink.”