Harefield Road's $12 brunch was the right amount of tea, juice and food for me last weekend.It's downright heresy that I'm unable to consume alcohol right now but I was able to switch out my free mimosa for a regular orange juice. I pretty much housed my salmon toast with cream cheese, hard boiled egg, capers,onion and salad. It was a surprisingly sunny day out on the patio last Sunday and I was soaking it up like a lizard. Things you need to know about Harefield Road: WILLIAMSBURG, PUB, FREE MIMOSA WITH BRUNCH, BACKYARD PATIO
What a funny brunch it was! When I sat down, my friend Cienna was at the next table. When she left, my ex-roommate Rachel sat down in her place. Oh, Williamsburg. I'd also like to note a funny little thing about who I was eating with. When my dear dear friend Steven said aloud that he worked at WNYC, the girl on the other side of our table interrupted and said how much of a fan she was. Our server was also a little star struck, too. I'd like to point out that Steven and I have known each other for a very long time and even shared an air mattress together when we first moved to New York. We've been through it all!
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Some time ago, I tried the brunch at El Amanacen. Before the sunlight disappears into the clouds, you should try out their lovely back patio. But if there isn't any room, the adorable Argentine interior is nice too. I was very disappointed by the "truffle fries." They were thick cut wedges that weren't fried all that much, more like baked and they had no trace of truffle essence. Our server didn't even offer ketchup outright, I thought was odd. But the beef tacos (usually an appetizer, but let's face it, I don't eat) were really great. They were piled with meat and super flavorful, balanced out with a sliver of avocado and squeeze of lime. Things you need to know about El Amanacen: ARGENTINIAN, BACKYARD PATIO, BEEF TACOS, WILLIAMSBURG
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You know who else loves brunch? Babes who Brunch! I met Emily at the Lamb Takedown at the beginning of the year. You can check out some awesome brunch suggestions as well as recipes for brunching in. Oh god, I have to try that bacon jam! I'm a fan!
I'm on a social media awareness jaunt and I googled myself to see what came up. It's astonishing that 1) photos pop up from image search and 2) public tweets are fed instantaneously. I remember exercising caution when I started a Livejournal account in high school. You forget the kind of impact you have when you hit send and post entries on your personal page as well as in communities. When I saw The Social Network, I laughed pretty loudly as Zuckerburg updated his LJ as he was programming. I've experienced (and inflicted) the same horror his ex-girlfriend experienced when she read negative things about her break up. It's all documented in front of everyone, online. It's funny that my social media experience has been sliced and diced since 2005. My friend Travis would scold me for posting 13 times in a day, most of them one-liners. Others would say "These aren't posts!" and I wouldn't know where else to put my random thoughts. With Twitter and Facebook, I have an endless stage to babble on. What's strange is that I keep logging in to Livejournal, it's been a habit of mine for the last 8 years. Not as many people post as energetically as we did back in 2005 but some friends are still there. We experienced a strange closeness writing about embarrassing things, our troubles and true opinions; simultaneously open and insular. You won't find me friending anyone new these days, I guess it was a very time-specific website for me.
While Livejournal was a group of people that were mentally close but may not have met in real life, LinkedIn was quite the opposite. I was accepting friend requests to people I met in person, but I didn't know them. I filled out the profile and edited it as I moved between jobs. But really, for most of the time -- the information's been sitting there, stagnant. I knew someone who used the messaging system as a tool to send mass messages and I was immediately turned off to wanting to work with her again. What is it about LinkedIn that grates on me and why do we all have an account?
It's a self-induced background check. I'm sure anyone who has an account has the self efficacy to Google themselves, too. In the current internet climate, it's mandatory to know where you stand online. What makes LinkedIn stand out? It's the connection process. On Facebook, you get friend requests from people you may or may not know, "Ehhh, I think we had a class together?" But on LinkedIn, you have to signal how you know someone and job position you were in when you met: a colleague, a business relation, from school or a friend. When you click on the "I don't know" button, the site asks you why you want to connect with that person. As you browse, people that you don't know yet are listed as degrees away from you; tracing a direct path for you to potentially know that person. I queried my friends on Twitter and Facebook about it and a majority of people were like me, we didn't actively use the site. The friends that did use it regularly were at large companies, in human resources jobs or recruiters. So, if it's not part of my job to use LinkedIn -- how it can useful to me? If you're into "business" meet ups and industry mixer type things, there are groups you can join to get notifications.
It's probably the archaic Myspace style interface and colors that make me queasy. Are you on LinkedIn? How do you use it?
The last bit of my Washington DC trip was a hungover brunch for my friends Victor and Kristen. I couldn't muster the energy to go shopping so I raided their pantry for supplies. I was able to cobble up toast with beer mustard gravy, fried eggs, kale chips and roasted garlic potatoes. I also was too tired to take a photo, so just use your brain machine. I intended the gravy to go with biscuits, but since we had a biscuit shortage it ended up being a dipping sauce for everything else. To make beer gravy, open a can of cheap beer and let it aerate on the counter for an hour. Pour it into a pot and boil it with 2 tablespoons of mustard. Reduce the mixture to a simmer and prepare a light roux with 1 tsp of butter and 1 tsp of flour in another pan over medium heat. After the paste bubbles and turns a light shade of tan-brown, whisk it into the simmering beer. Reduce and season until you've got a desirable gravy for yourself.
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I have a fascination with mustard these days. I've been making my own ever since Jeff bought us bags of mustard seed from Amazon. I've been putting my homemade brew on potatoes, into gravy, marinades and most recently: creams. The sound of mustard and cream co-mingling doesn't make sense at first. Mustard is acidic and cream is basic, wouldn't it coddle? Ah, my friends, young mustard seeds mature and spend most of that acid heat in the jar. I guess if you leave the mixture together unrefrigerated for a long time, I guess it will coddle. In my intense study of Escoffier, I stumbled upon recipe #299a Sauce Moutarde a la Creme or mustard sauce with cream. The suggested recipe calls for 3 tablespoons of prepared mustard with salt, pepper, a few drops of lemon juice with "the necessary quantity" of cream. I love Escoffier for his vaguery. Recipes are not prescriptive, but merely suggestions and are open to interpretation (aren't all recipes this way?). I've folded mustard into unsweetened whipped cream for an alternative to mayonnaise! The cream can be warm, cold, whipped, or infused ! I indulgently bought a bag of fritos and a regrettable tub of Utz ranch dip the other night. I demolished the chips and couldn't stand to eat the dip. How did I solve this problem? I added mustard.
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My roommate Dave brings random gifts from his grandma's house sometimes. First it was yogurt pretzels. Another time it was chocolate covered popcorn. This time, it was steaks. Dave deferred the duty of cooking our meat treasures to me and I didn't want to disappoint. I chopped up a bunch of peanuts with wasabi powder and a little salt to make a crust for the steaks. I attempted to make a version of Cathy Erway's Tuscan kale salad (without the pomegranate seeds) but the leaves I got were way too chewy and bitter to eat raw. I briefly steamed the batch in its dressing and it turned out amazing! To balance out our circus of flavor, I made some microwave minute rice (never done it before and I don't recommend it, you get mutant rice). I piled everything into a bowl and topped it with garlic and chive compound butter that I made last week. Mmmhrmmm! I sure hope Dave's grandma sends more meat soon!
Holy crap, how did this happen? My Monday and Tuesday explorations of City Sandwich have garnered me mayorship on Foursquare! I've been going in so often that they know my face. Unfortunately, they think my name is Jane. That's ok, I'll be back next week for my sandwich. On Monday, I wasn't that hungry so I opted for their morcela and cabbage soup. Again, it was sparse with probably a tablespoon's worth of blood sausage at the bottom. The chunks were well seasoned but clearly not enough to flavor the whole soup. MY office has a shelf of leftover condiments so I spiked my soup with a healthy pinch of red pepper flakes and Cholula. However, the experience does make me want to try the morcela sandwich. Yesterday, I tried the Jerry sandwich with tomato, onion, smoked salmon, greens and yogurt dill sauce. It was ok but it needed a pickly bite from capers or simple dash of acid. I tasted more tomato and onion than salmon. I discovered that the bread is Portuguese! Who knew?
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When I went to Washington DC 2 weeks ago, I had about $10 to my name. I traversed U street and the Mall with my friend Dauragon C. Mikado. We stopped off to pick up really cheap Caribbean meat patties and walked around with them. He took me to the free Smithsonian Air and Space museum as well as the Natural History Museum, sculpture gardens, The International Spy museum's store, and National portrait gallery. Because I'm still a child, I took photos of boobs and awkardly phrased exhibit signage. My stomach was gurgling after the 4th museum and we settled down for a well deserved dinner at Chinatown Express. Washington DC needs to get its act together, it's not so much of a China-"town" but more of a China-"block." The Chinese Starbucks and Chipotle don't count. I stared into the front window of Chinatown Express as we waited for a table, they were making dumplings; so many, so fast. In addition to dumplings, I spotted hand pulled noodles on the menu. I doused everything with this garlic, scallion and ginger oil puree and hot chili oil from our condiment caddy. To feed both of us, it was about $12 total with lot's of free hot tea !
Now let's suspend reality here for a minute. I was pretty content with my day and it got 10x more ridiculous when I met up with my friend Victor. He said he'd buy me a drink but over the course of the evening it turned into an innumerable amount along 14th / U Street. Thanks to the magic of Foursquare and Google Streetview, I know where the night started and ended. We started with whiskey at Dodge City. Victor ate a pepperoni roll, if I hadn't just finished dinner in Chinatown I would have ordered one! We rounded the corner to a hidden speakeasy called The Gibson. It reminded me of Pegu Club here in NYC, except that they stirred instead of shook the drinks (something of a trend lately). I don't remember what cocktail(s)I ordered but they probably had apple jack and bourbon in them. Took a mini-break to look at vegan cookbooks, obviously already tipsy, at Busboys and Poets because Victor needed to steal wifi for a work related emergency. This is where it gets hazy. We met some friends at Cafe Saint Ex for more whiskey, neat if you don't know me by now. It was very crowded and a Friday night so we were wall to wall surrounded by dudes. I felt very out of place. We flooded out outside and walked into Masa 14, where it was calmer. It was after midnight and I was a hungry little mogwai. As soon as I saw the yucca fries with chimichurri and lime aioli on the menu, I ordered them and quickly destroyed any evidence of their existence. I remember getting into a cab and making snarky commentary as Victor shoved his bike into the trunk. I missed out on Ben's Chili Bowl, but I'll hit that up next time! Save the wild night of whiskey, it's totally possible to hang out in Washington DC with just $10, if you don't mind walking everywhere. May I say though, the train system is so beautiful and easy to navigate! Nether a station smelling of urine!
Alright you apple jerks, you can try Oliver Witchow's Nanoloop Lite from the app store. I'm going to sit here and scowl until I get Nanoloop for Android. Speaking of the N.loop, Devil's Night Pulsewave is this weekend. I'm pretty excited, it will be a world of awesome. Coova is flying from across the world, Sabrepulse from across the pond, Saskotch from across the country and Chipocrite + Cosmic Morning, well uh, they're coming from across the state border. Are you dressing up? WHAT SHOULD MY COSTUME BE?
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So. Pokemon League. I finally got to Cynthia and just didn't level up enough despite my iron-clad foe for foe strategy against her ghost and fighting pokemon. I swallowed my pride and flew off to level up my party a little more. It's hilariously meta playing through the grass in Sendoff Spring while Cynthia is still standing there from when we exited the Distortion world. I don't have any solid playing time this week, so it'll just be subway play until I check in again. I WILL CATCH THEM ALL, I swurr.
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WHY DON'T I HAVE A WII?? WHY? The homies at Gaijin Games have birthed another bit of magic from their Santa Cruz, CA based studio: BIT.TRIP FATE. There are so many good things going for this game. You tussle with cameos from Super Meat Boy and Mr. Robotube while groovin' to da wubbbbbbbb bass of Minusbaby (where u livin'? Come back to NY!). You know, this calls for another Commander Video appearance on Bytejacker. Amirite, Carbs?
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Good buddies Kris Keyser and Notendo were on the Engadget show this weekend during CMJ. You can catch the stream here if you missed it. Kris Keyser debuted a new song and needs help naming it. Tweet your suggestions at him (@achkris)!
Handmade Music, organized by the savvy Peter Kirn of CreateDigitalMusic, has come returned with a vengeance this year! Come hang out at CultureFix gallery on November 14th. The fun is FREE and starts at 7pm. Who knows, there might be more surprises!
THE WORKSHOP, 4pm – FREE A hack-a-thon / workshop for using game controllers for music. Learn how to connect game controllers as musical controllers. Bring controllers you want to use (class-compliant USB, Wii, and Xbox controllers recommended) and try them out with music software, plus get a look at how you can turn the new Rock Band 3 keyboard controller into a cheap keyboard controller. (Not endorsed by Harmonix! We just think it’s cute…)
THE PARTY, 7pm – FREE
* MODAL KOMBAT – real classic guitarists use real guitars to play video games like Tetris, Mario Kart, Mortal Kombat
* MANO FICO – surf rock meets speed metal, with drums, glockenspiel, and three Casio VL-Tones, featuring world-famous glock and Casio artist Glockabelle! (Her hand, pictured below, armed with thimbles and ready to do battle with the glock.)
The Slits were one of the riotous non-bubble-pop grrl bands that I got into when I was in high school. Letters to Cleo, No Doubt and Save Ferris' mainstream brand of rebellion wasn't cutting it anymore. I needed music that caused trouble. The Slits led me out of my teenage years by introducing me to The Raincoats, Siouxsie and the Banshees as well as the The New Age Steppers. I met Ari Up and Tessa way back in 2005 in Austin, TX when the Slits were re-uniting after 25 years in support of Revenge of the Killer Slits. It wasn't anything star striking, the ladies asked me for bottles of water and I gladly handed them over. Founding member of The Slits, Ari Up, passed away last week at the age of 48. That is far too young for leavin' this world! Photo from Culturebully.
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Who am I kidding? I'm so out of touch. I don't even know who the cool bands are these days. I only managed to see very few artists during CMJ this year on account of a crippling medical issue that prevented me from drinking all of your promo company's sweet sweet free alcohol. Last Thursday, I stopped by The Cake Shop and saw a little bit of Kyle Andrews whose last song was pretty catchy. High fived lot's of friends outside on Ludlow street, apparently it's the place to meet people during CMJ. Most notably, my boo Luke from Anamanaguchi and one of my new favs of 2010, Baths. I hopped on over to the Delancey and caught the tail end of Australia's Cassette Kids. Jukebox the Ghost closed the party and unfortunately, I started to fall ill. I spent all of last Friday in bed and minorly recovered Saturday afternoon to catch Diamond Rings at the Knitting Factory. He wore gold American Apparel stretchy pants and had a lot of synths. Dude has a new album out tomorrow, check it out. I lamely closed out my CMJ weekend with an early performance from Boston quartet Pretty and Nice at Spike Hill. The set was far too short but debuted a wealth of new material that I'm excited about. Hopefully next year I won't be taken with illness!
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I'm a happy little duck when worlds collide. And you couldn't get a more appropriate Hadron collider of information than finding out that the god of power chip, RAINBOWDRAGONEYES, is bringing the "Creatures ov Deception" to the Rock Band Network.
All of this brutality reminds me of my favorite string metal band, Judgment Day, who came out with a video parodying Rock Band. Their music video for "Cobra Strike" introduces an inaginary gaming system called Violin Hero. Hey Harmonix, think about that one!
I had a pretty fantastic brunch on a Sunday morning in Washington D.C. At the very last minute, my friend Jesse suggested Matchbox in DC's Chinatown. I immediately jumped on Open Table on my phone and made a reservation for the morning. It was about 70 degrees out when I woke up, perfect brunchin' weather. I got to try a lot of different dishes and I'm curious about dinner at this place, it seemed to have awesome woodfired ovens for pizza! Firstly, a large cast iron pan of cinnamon rolls with cream cheese frosting arrived for the table (top right). They were very soft and I was impressed that the bottoms weren't burnt. I was a little surprised that the vegetable frittata didn't have more potato in it, but it was fluffy and lovely with good chunks of shitake mushroom (properly sweated, top left). There was also a breakfast roll, akin to a calzone, that had chorizo, goat cheese, egg and asparagus in crispy pastry (bottom right). I couldn't have eaten the whole thing at all, it reminded me of those giant baked chicken parm rolls you can get at Costco. The banana bread french toast was very filling and came with caramelized bananas (bottom left). Now, the crowning glory: I ordered the waffle sandwich with melted gruyere, proscuitto and dijon syrup. I hated the syrup but the sandwich was amazing on its own. The waffles were far to big for such little filling but I was satiated. I took half of it to go for the ride home! Holy crap, I'm probably just going to make sandwiches with frozen waffles from now on. Brunch was capped off with a walk to the mall and to the sculptural gardens. I had a blast!
Earlier in the week, I visited the Farmer's Market in DC by the mall. It was closing up, but next time I'll show up well before 2pm on Fridays to see what they've got. Check out this list of markets in the area! The trip wasn't all-for-naught, though. The department of agriculture has a cute garden to check out! Look at those little public peppers! So long DC, that was fun!
Anddddd you thought we were done grilling because Summer was over? Think again, bub! Project Parlor is lighting the fires every Sunday this Fall for featured chefs that didn't get to compete in the BBQ competition. Because Megyn knows that I'm always itching to cook, she asked Team Tall Guy(s), Tiny Girl to return to the grates. As we were setting up the 2nd grill, Dylan accidentally took this video with my camera:
The advantage here is that you get TWO bbq grills to work with instead of one! More food, faster turnover and a veggie friendly grill (for you...picky... people). Here's Jeff getting some prep work done for our menu. Check out the ridiculous amount of condiments we brought!
Our bratwurst patties were a hit! If you want to see how we did it, check out my previous post! Despite their lack of casing, they tasted great with the beer mustard gravy, grilled onions, homemade ketchup and rustic bread. We also served up Guatemalan choripan (chorizo and bread), chive butter popcorn and kale chips. Since we didn't make that many, Dylan treated himself to one of our handmade brats (left). Jeff and I, you know, were on "beer duty." Christian Lemp (right) and homeboys, the Two Bloody Tampons provided the jams as usual. Check out what Project Parlor has to offer every Sunday this Fall at 4pm!
My two tall partners in kitchen adventure, Dylan and Jeff (pictured left), declared that making our own bratwurst was the best and worst idea I've ever had. Did I mention that we had only a couple of hours to do it before we were to appear as the featured chefs at Project Parlor's Fall Food & Fire series that day? Starting with the ingredients, it's pretty hard to find ground pork. I filled my basket at Food Bazaar and asked the butcher counter to grind up more for me! I biked out to Bed Stuy to deliver 10 pounds of ground pork and 6 pounds of back up bratwurst in case this didn't go well. Next, I sent Dylan on a ridiculous mission to find pig intestine for the sausage casing. He scored about 30 feet of material for 5 dollars from a butcher on Graham avenue in Williamsburg. We mixed up the ground pork with lot's of diced fatback, marjoram, garlic and beer--loosely following the spice advice of The Paupered Chef. Now that we had a mix, we somehow had to stuff the bratwurst without a meat grinder or stuffer.
The photo to the left has been cropped to shield the identity of the "sausage stuffers." We first cut off the bottom of a plastic bottle and threaded the intestine onto its mouth. Using pressure from a cup, the guys attempted to work together. This was very slow. I tried to make a pastry bag with a funnel and a ziplock bag but that was also very slow and troublesome. You need 2 sets of hands if you're going to go DIY on sausage-making! The most productive method was a modification to my ziplock baggie: instead of a funnel, I used the top half of a soda bottle that had a bigger nozzle. I used my fingers to push all of the forcemeat into the sausage. After we finished a good amount of sausages, Dylan tied them off and popped all of the air bubbles with a needle. Since we didn't have enough time to finish casing them, we made longish patties out of the meat mixture. They sort of resembled the McRib (which is coming back, btw). While we cleaned up, we set up the sausages on a rack to dry under a fan so the casings would tighten up.
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The night before, I made a ton of condiments. I made a batch of mustard akin to Alton Brown's but I replaced the turmeric with coriander, the water with beer and didn't blend it as much. I like my mustard to have some crunch. We let it cook on the counter in a jar overnight. Next, we made Jamie Oliver's basil ginger ketchup. It took a long time to cook down but it was well worth it! The mixture wasn't as dark like regular ketchup but it was sweet and full of flavor.
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Kale chips are really easy to make and disappear very quickly. Jeff kept yelling at me to stop tasting each batch that came out of the oven.
The key to crisp kale chips is to wash out all of the sand and to dry them completely. Jeff kept dreaming of ways to invent a salad spinner with plastic bags and towels. We didn't have the energy or enough paper towels to soak up the water, so we set up an oven grate over cloth towels, laid out the leaves and turned a fan onto them. It sort of worked. 5 pounds of kale quickly evaporated into a single hotel pan (above left). The leaves become spicy as if you added cayenne pepper when they were merely salted and tossed in a little olive oil. Advice for next time, do not cover the kale if they are not completely cool. In the morning, they were a little steamed. All we did to revive them was throwing the entire pan onto a hot grill to dry the leaves out. As we cooked all night, the scraps and vegetable refuse went into a crock pot that simmered overnight (above right). I can't wait to try the broth!
Word on the street is that Xie Xie is actually closed and not renovating. Commenters raised the issue that Angelo Sosa didn't have a choice about closing the space for renovation. I have to say that the quality and consistency of the sandwiches went downhill after I found out Angelo Sosa was on Top Chef, seems like he likes the camera more than his own sandwich shop. Not to dig too much on the guy, but I wasn't surprised by his attitude on Top Chef. He's the kind of person that will embarrass employees or complain about something in front of customers. You could tell things weren't looking good when the shop ran out of sauce lids for my salad dressing. I opened my to-go bag and found a dressing cup wrapped tightly in a lot of plastic wrap. A flavorful tub of fresh cilantro, dill and mixed greens downshifted to rather plain greens that sunk to the bottom of the bowl. The fancy chips on display turned into bright yellow bags of Lays, it was over. Just because I've knocked the guy a bunch doesn't mean I won't try out his newest place. The man can cook, it's why I'm so upset about Xie Xie's closing in the first place. I'll be looking out!
Let's jump over to City Sandwich, 2 doors down. I'm determined to try the entire menu and give you the low down on what to get and what to avoid. Last week, I tried the Gary & Phil, which had watercress, honey dijon yogurt, ham, turkey, onion and tomato. Definitely my favorite sandwich so far. This week, I tried the Todd sandwich with smoked pancetta, tomato, honey dijon yogurt with lettuce (pictured above) and a cup of chick pea soup with porcini mushrooms and parmesan cheese (pictured left(. The sandwich wasn't evenly sauced, so I thought it was pretty bland until I got to the end where the sauce had been gathering. My soup was a $2 addition to the sandwich. I had high hopes for it because of the dazzling words "porcini mushrooms." Alas, I was slightly disappointed. I stirred around hoping that I'd fine more dimension by scraping the bottom of the cup. The bits of melted cheese were really good but I wish there was more of it, akin to a French onion soup. Because of the heavy handed Italian-Portugese influences on the menu, I was expecting a chunky soup. It was blended with a couple bite sized pieces of mushroom; not very hearty.
Don't get me wrong. I don't hate this place, in fact I think it's a godsend! It's way better than Lenny's and all the other delis on this strip in Hell's Kitchen. I'd try to get freshly sliced cured meat sandwiches down the block but they're 9 or 10 dollars. May as well get our money's worth at City Sandwich, right?
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My meal at M Noodle Shop two nights ago was packed with salt and I loved it. My friend Dannel tweeted at me "You go there like it's your job!" after he saw me check in on Foursquare. It's open late, it's not one of those Chinese places with the bulletproof glass or the 20 year old soy sauce packets. I also happen to hang out in Williamsburg more often these days because I haven't found my groove in Ridgewood yet.I made a group of my friends try it one evening (when it was still warm). We sat outside on the nice patio and feasted on noodles, soups and dumplings. I'm a huge fan of the double pan fried noodles with beef or pork, they remind me of home. Well, not exactly. My father loved taking us to a Chinese place called Sam Woo's BBQ and he'd insist that everyone tried the pan fried noodles. Another recommendation are the stuffed sesame pancakes. Instead of thin, crispy scallion pancakes a different kind of dough is puffed up on the flat top, caked with sesame seeds. It is sliced open sideways and stuffed with your choice of meat. The price is right, too. Everything is reasonably less than 15 dollars for the stir fried dishes and the sesame pancakes are $7, equivalent to a sub sandwich in the city. I can't even eat the whole thing, so it's great to bring to work for lunch. Have you been?
from Amazon. I've been putting my homemade brew on potatoes, into gravy, marinades and most recently: creams. The sound of mustard and cream co-mingling doesn't make sense at first. Mustard is acidic and cream is basic, wouldn't it coddle? Ah, my friends, young mustard seeds mature and spend most of that acid heat in the jar. I guess if you leave the mixture together unrefrigerated for a long time, I guess it will coddle. In my intense study of Escoffier, I stumbled upon recipe #299a Sauce Moutarde a la Creme or mustard sauce with cream. The suggested recipe calls for 3 tablespoons of prepared mustard with salt, pepper, a few drops of lemon juice with "the necessary quantity" of cream. I love Escoffier for his vaguery. Recipes are not prescriptive, but merely suggestions and are open to interpretation (aren't all recipes this way?). I've folded mustard into unsweetened whipped cream for an alternative to mayonnaise! The cream can be warm, cold, whipped, or infused ! I indulgently bought a bag of fritos and a regrettable tub of Utz ranch dip the other night. I demolished the chips and couldn't stand to eat the dip. How did I solve this problem? I added mustard. 
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