WE DID IT.

Your three not-so-faithful contributors--Vegetable Medley, En[dre]e, and Hungry4Esq--passed the July 2009 California Bar Exam.

That means the end of this blog since we'll all be working too hard to have time to cook and write about it. I appreciated the ability to document the bar prep process through food, and I just want to say thank you for joining us on this truly satisfying journey.

Substantial gnocchi performance

Last night I tried two things I've been meaning to attempt for a while, but figured they would be too difficult/labor intensive/easy to mess up - gnocchi and homemade tomato sauce. I finally took the plunge on the gnocchi due to a basket of potatoes I saw on sale at the Ypsi Depot Town Farmer's Market for $1 in combination with my roommate's enthusiastic offer to help. The tomato sauce was inspired by observing a friend make fantastic sauce in his kitchen in the course of about thirty minutes - the taste made me want to cease and desist (geez, the legalese has taken over) eating inferior sauces from jars forever.

The tomato sauce was pretty successful, if a little thin. I tossed two tomatoes and four cloves of garlic into my food processor and chopped them up. (Note on the food processor - I bought it shortly after Christmas and when May came around and I still hadn't taken it out of the box, I attempted to return it with no receipt for the sake of not moving it 2,000 miles. I paid $40 for it, and then it was apparently marked down sometime between January and May to $11, because that was all they would give me for it. So, I took it back home, thinking I would sell it on craigslist, and thought, "No! I must try it out! Perhaps I will think it is the greatest thing ever!" So far I'm pretty impressed.) I sauteed chopped mushrooms and a couple more cloves of garlic in some olive oil, then added the pulvarized tomatoes, olive oil wine, salt and pepper. I let it simmer and added some other herbs and things until it tasted delicious. I left it on low heat to simmer and started on the gnocchi.

I peeled the already-boiled potatoes and handed them off to my faithful assistant to be mashed. I had seen some recipes that called for an egg to be added at that point, but this one only involved potatoes and flour. I decided to go with it so that my other roommate, the vegan, could have some. We added the flour, mixed it all up, and kneaded it. Then I rolled the dough into half-inch thick ropes and my roommate sliced them into inch long pieces. I rolled them against the tines of a fork to make the little impressions on them (for aesthetic and sauce-catching purposes) and we dropped them into the boiling water on the stove. When they bobbed up to the top we took them out with a slotted spoon. They turned out more or less gnocchi-like, but they were not light and fluffy like gnocchi should be. Instead they were kind of gummy and potatoey - not a disaster, but not exactly the desired result either. In any case, they did end up being a good vehicle for the yummy sauce.

BBQ Tofu

And... in stark contrast to Dre's delicious looking steak (hey, I've only been veggie for a few months, I remember steak being delicious) I grilled and barbecued some tofu last night. I've never actually done much grilling - grilling is the one part of my relationship with my boyfriend where we maintain traditional gender roles - but my roommate was firing up the grill, so I thought I'd give it a try. After consulting my favorite cookbook, I sliced aome tofu into slices that wouldn't fall through the grill and tossed them on. I let them get slightly brown before slathering on some cherry barbecue sauce that I bought on my last trip to Traverse City. I let them cook a bit more on each side and voila.


Had I been thinking ahead I would have tossed some zucchini on the grill as well, but fortunately my roommate was grilling some eggplant which she shared so my dinner was pretty much complete.

Simple Seisin-ing for a Simple Dre

Today Mom went down to L.A., so I was left fending for myself. It was a productive day -- I outlined Crim, Crim Pro, and Torts and did a bunch of property MBE questions -- so I decided a treat was in order. Bride Wars arrived from Netflix today, so I had entertainment down. For food, special naturally means a grilled steak. Fortunately, I had one on hand, so I just needed to sort out the rest of the menu.

I tend to have a tough time getting myself to eat veggies, particularly salad. Fortunately, I am also a simple guy who can be tricked easily. So, I tossed together a quick salad with balsamic vinaigrette and took it outside along with a leftover ear of corn, the steak, and the four little things you need to grill the perfect steak: salt, pepper, olive oil, and tin foil. The salt and pepper are all the seasoning you need. And the olive oil helps to sear the steak and grill the corn.

Follow the 4x2 rule -- cook the steak for 4 minutes on the the first side and 2 minutes on the other -- and Barefoot's magic rule -- let the steak rest for ten minutes under tin foil after grilling -- and you'll have a juicy medium-rare steak with perfect sear marks. I sliced up the steak, cut the grilled corn from the cob, and layered them with a little A1 on top of the salad. Delish!

(If you're not on a low-carb diet, you can also add a couple slices of toast so you actually get full.)

Dream Job: Menu Description Writer

Studying for the bar makes me wonder why I ever chose this troublesome profession in the first place. There are so many hurdles--preserving that college GPA, the LSAT, 1L year, the MPRE, and now the CBE (I know, no one refers to it as the CBE, but I wanted to keep up with the acronyms).

A friend recently told me that his dream job would be to be the person who writes the menu descriptions at a fancy restaurant. Now, why didn't I do that instead??

Tonight's dinner would be: "Fresh summer cod with a delicate Asian flavor, lightly breaded, and broiled to perfection. Topped with cilantro and paired with a side of white rice."


Read: "Freshly thawed from the freezer, drenched in soy sauce, smothered in breadcrumbs and broiled until it looks like a fat fish stick. Cilantro is your vegetable for the evening and eat enough rice so you don't have to get up for a midnight snack."

I could totally do this job.

July has arrived and the countdown has begun

You know things are getting bad when this is your dinner:


Mac and cheese, meatloaf, and cabbage. It's faster than eating out, which is a big plus when it seems like there is so much more to cover and so little time left to absorb all the material.

To celebrate making it to this final stretch--the month of the bar!--I made almond float for dessert, which is almond jello and fruit cocktail. I consider it my reward for suffering through the lousy corporations lecturer who couldn't enunciate:


As expected, the posts are becoming more erratic, but it's all part of the process of documenting this experience.

French Toast

Saturdays are the best because I get to sleep in and eat something other than cereal for breakfast. A loaf of bread is a lot to go through for one person (I usually freeze half), but french toast with maple syrup and powered sugar is my preferred method of gobbling up those extra carbs:


Too bad I finished up the strawberries earlier this week.