birthday & belgian frites

Lz is 29 and got carded for booze at her birthday dinner! yay!

surprisingly i am not at all freaked out about being so close to 30. i have 2 great cats and a fiance i love. the business is much better now that it is more focused and i get to spend most of my time in the studio actually making stuff, which has always been my goal. i found out that i adore cooking and playing ukulele, and i don't suck at either of those things. we're closer than ever to finally moving and i have so many plans for when we do (decorating! vegetable garden! dinner parties!)we're getting married in less than 5 months! sometimes we talk about what we'll name a kid someday, so yeah, i'm pretty optimistic about the future right now.

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i wasn't really all excited about gifts this year, which made getting stuff even more awesome. ej made me feel pretty special with flowers, a fancier bag than i would ever buy myself, the new mario wii game, random craft supplies - but my favorite thing from him is the big, cozy alpaca wool rainbow phish hoodie sweater from davi's store.
my parents gave me a cute little deep fryer, and as soon as ej got home last night we recreated our favorite san francisco restaurant experience - belgian frites with garlic mayo.

here is the (as always, relatively quick and easy) recipe:

garlic mayo (aioli) - skin a clove of garlic, chop into teeny bits. sprinkle minced garlic with kosher salt, smash around with side of knife. add to a big glob of mayo (2-3 tbsp) and add a few drops of lemon juice. stir, cover, leave in fridge for 20-30 min for max flavor.


frites - cut potatoes (we used yukon gold) into fries 1cm x 1cm x length of potato. rinse thoroughly in cold water. dry well on paper towel. heat vegetable oil in fryer to 325F. cook potato slices in small batches for about 3-5 minutes, until they are soft and very light yellow. remove from fryer, drain on paper towels, cool. heat oil in fryer to 375F. cook fries again in small batches for about 2 minutes, until golden brown. drain on paper towels, sprinkle with salt, dip in garlic mayo, stuff in face.