"I grew up thinking of snow as a luxury you visit." ~ John Landis

Saturday, October 29, 2011. It snowed today. It snowed. In October. All day. I was incredulous. All the weathermen forewarned us of the coming storm, but I dismissed them outright as mouthpieces for the insidious and unending stream of propaganda coming out of Washington, probably a ploy to get the Occupy Wall Streeters out of Zuccotti Park.

Who's laughing now?

Like a boob, I shot off to Target this morning, blithely confident in the knowledge that I could outrun any snow that would drop later in the afternoon. In the checkout line I stared aghast at the freakishly large snowflakes falling outside the wall of picture windows at the entrance. Suddenly, my self-satisfaction at the purchase of a shiny new immersion blender waned. By the time I reached the parking lot it was simply dumping snow, and I still had to get to Trader Joe's. I had a decision to make, I could chuck it all and turn tail for home, or I could ride it out. But my truck has four-wheel drive. The choice was taken out of my hands.

I was already planning on cooking. I picked up veal chops from the butcher on Friday, when the skies were blue, and the temps in the upper 50's. That seemed like ages ago. So it wasn't any stretch to come up with a Marsala sauce on a wintery night in October, it just seemed incongruous, some how. But that was before the four inches of slush I had to trudge through this afternoon.

Marsala Sauce - as seen in every cookbook known to mankind

4 Tbsp olive oil 1 large shallot, finely chopped 1 Tbsp garlic, minced ¼ lb portabella mushrooms, de-stemmed and sliced 2 Tbsp flour ½ cup Marsala wine 1 cup chicken stock Salt & pepper to taste

Add two tablespoons of olive oil to a large skillet set over medium-high heat. Make sure your pan is very hot before adding the oil. Once the oil just starts to smoke, sear the chops on both sides, 2-3 minutes per side. Remove the meat from the pan, and set aside, covered.

Add the remaining oil. Introduce the onions, garlic and mushrooms to the pan and cook until the mushrooms are tender and have given off most of their moisture.

Sprinkle the flour over the mushroom mixture and continue to cook for an additional minute or two, stirring constantly. Deglaze the pan with the Marsala wine over high heat, scraping up the browned bits on the bottom of the skillet with a wooden spoon. Stir in the stock and adjust the seasonings. Nestle the veal chops in the sauce. Reduce the heat and allow the sauce to reduce and thicken, roughly 10 minutes.

I'm on one of my ridiculous health kicks and have given up starchy foods for the time being, at least until Thanksgiving (I've already lost 20 pounds!), but had I a mind to, I would have served these chops over spätzle, then drown them in sauce. Yeah, that's what I would have done. Instead, I had my second favorite vegetable, asparagus roasted in a hot, hot oven and simply dressed with olive oil and a little sea salt.

I spent the entire morning pissed off at the weather and the moronically timid drivers who decided to clog the streets of NYC, always in front of me. But it was a silly and nugatory exercise. It wasn't until my first taste of the Marsala sauce that I finally remembered how good life actually is. And what makes it so good? The little things, naturally. It took all of 20 minutes to prepare this meal, yet it tasted like a team of chefs slaved over a hot stove for hours. I'm just sayin'...

Thanks for taking the time - Blog O. Food