"Cafe Q"-nundrum

First: Pictures of my favorite spot in Baltimore, the sculpture garden of the Baltimore Museum of Art. I wish I could say I come here all the time, but it's kind of my secret, stress-relieving place. I only come here a few times a semester, when I really need a break. It all started when my ecology teacher told me there was a hybrid tree there, a maple and an oak, and I naively thought I would find it and fall in love with it. I pictured a small treehouse even, or at least me sitting against its trunk, furiously scribbling in my little red moleskine brilliant new story ideas.

I took these with my Blackberry earlier this week, at the height of my finals madness.




**Needless to say, I never found the tree.**

This will be turning into a travel blog soon enough, so I'll hold onto my food-roots while I still can. In that spirit, I would like to describe to you a little place we call Cafe Q.

Picture a typical collegiate coffee stand. It's definitely outdoors, probably on a quad with benches and elm trees and arbitrary plots of grass, and its wheels have rusted into the asymmetrical cement slabs that pave the area. The umbrella (there has to be an umbrella) is some primary color, or generic green, and there are Styrofoam cups and a glass or plastic box full of greasy, brown-sugary baked goods... The coffee, you'd imagine, is bitter, thin, and a little bit metallic from the ancient carafes it comes out of. Taste it: bright and weak, it hurts your teeth, and if you leave it sitting for too long, sediment will settle on the bottom and grit across your tongue when you drain the last cold dregs--which will invariably come at the same time as a slamming shut of a book or laptop as you get up to leave. You're late for Frisbee or beer pong or something.

This is not Cafe Q. But somehow, the proprietors of the Milton S. Eisenhower Library have managed to take that most holy of finals traditions, the tooth-yellowing, cringe-inducing, legal stimulant we call coffee, and label it organic, and sell it for ten times its worth at our five story library.

We don't have an outdoor coffee stand or a paved quad with elm trees; we have Cafe Q, and the MSEL Terrace (tables, umbrellas, on an admittedly panoramic corner between the library and the language science building). The only Frisbee I've seen played is competitive Ultimate Frisbee on the practice fields or the freshman quad. And, well, we do have beer pong. We have lots of beer pong.

The logic of Cafe Q is simple: fake college coffee = fake college experience. Th eironic tip jars are a nice touch, and so are the hip baristas. They even have fake classy sandwiches and fake classy italian sodas. (The whole concept is a little thin-strung and confused; is it meant to be classy? is it meant to be pure fuel? why does it taste so bad if it's organic?) Disclaimer: the amaretto gelato is amazing.

But why, Johnny Hopkins, why torture us so? Is mammalian evolution or comparative politics not confusing enough? Now we have to decide between organic french roast and organic guatemalan? Between a waxy, dispoable cup and a $5 refillable mug? Between the man in dreads and the girl with the nose piercing and orgo books?

I maintain that the entire venture is a distraction. We want to have the egyptian salad and the turkey and brie sandwich, but we also want two dollars of coffee that tastes like pure caffeine, to get us through applied math or advanced french. So while we, students of Johns Hopkins University, are sitting inside the library at 4 pm (or am) on a Wednesday (or Friday), we can at least have a taste of our preconceived notions of college life, if we can't live it.

Sushi Sushi Sushi!

I have been meaning to post this for an obscenely long time, but as my blog description clearly disclaims, I post only during four times of the year; and this isn't one of those "I only drink wine on days that end in Y..." kinds of things. I actually only post when I have a kitchen, which--considering my life is currently packed into four boxes, a suitcase the size of a German shepherd, and my Gregory pack--is not now.

**disclaimer: I don't currently have a camera, either, so all pictures are from my Blackberry.**

I made candy sushi for an April Fool's joke for my Big. It was Rice Krispie treats wrapped around delicious candy bits like Swedish fish (only the red ones, obviously), Glo-Worms, and green Twizzler cucumbers. My friend Ali and I also made Fruit Roll-up nori, Fruit-by-the-foot ginger, and frosting wasabi. (Wow, that was a lot of licensing.)



The final product looked surprisingly real. We tucked it into a real sushi container and couldn't hand it to Helen before busting out laughing. In hindsight, it really wasn't that funny. But she was a good sport about it.


At the same time I was fooling around with my Rice Krispies, Ali was doing this:


Yeah, that's a basket weave... made with frosting. She is frightening with a pastry bag and nozzle. Girl can do anything with a little royal icing! (And yes, that's a recipe written on the back of her hand.)

We were making a cake for a charity competition for our sorority, and the theme was spring, so we made a strawberry cake with lemon buttercream filling, marzipan flowers, and crystallized lemon. I managed to lose the pictures of the cake itself, but it was BEAUTIFUL. Ali is really, really great at cake decorating.

And I maintain that the sushi wasn't so bad, either.

These are a few of my favorite things.

I cook a lot in my dorm. I used to cook a lot more, but now I'm busier. Anyway, this is the best thing I've cooked in my dorm. I wish I'd taken a picture of the appetizers, the mushroom tarts were delicious! The only thing I would change about them is the color, because they were a little bland looking--ok, they looked like beige mush. Using fresh mushrooms would probably improve that, but there weren't any around.

The farmer's market really sucks in Baltimore. I don't care how many people say Waverly is awesome (and apparently it's the best in the city): it sucks. Every vendor is selling the same thing. The only good thing I can say about it, is that it has nice cheeses and good cooked foods. But don't go there expecting good quality, reasonably priced fresh produce.

On to the best dorm meal. We started with brie cheese and granny smith apples (my friend didn't like apples so she brought crackers). I thought baked brie was overkill considering how much food was to come. I will post my mom's baked brie recipe later, though, because it is delicious.

After the cheese we moved onto...

Creamy Mushroom Tarts

You will need:

• Puff pastry cups
• Olive oil
  
• 2 cups mushrooms (I used canned)
• 4 cloves garlic
• 1 small shallot
• Salt and pepper
  
• 1 can condensed milk (I used low fat)
• fresh dill (sprinkling on top)

Thaw pastries and bake according to directions. Cook garlic and shallot over low heat, then add mushrooms and cook until soft. Salt and pepper. Add the milk and reduce, reduce, reduce.

I think adding cheese to this would be nice, or some kind of acid... It's very, very rich. Anyway, put in cups and sprinkle with dill.

THEN THE MAIN DISH. Steak with a rosemary cabernet sauce, green beans (from farmer's market) with caramelized onions, and garlic mashed potatoes (my friend brought them, from a box).


I won't say much about the steak, because honestly it's just a steak. The sauce is just carrots and more mushrooms (half-cooked in the microwave with four cloves of whole garlic tossed in the steamer, then soaked in wine with rosemary for about half an hour), then cooked in the pan after the steak. Add more wine, reduce, and voila! Sauce! It was done just as the steak was finished resting.

So, there it is! The best dormitory meal ever. Oh, and we had Dominion for dessert. I didn't have time to bake anything AND go shopping AND cook!