I love to cook. Be it alone, where I find an afternoon of solo chopping to be quite therapeutic, or tackling major menus with friends, there’s nothing better than wielding the knife with some music blasting (dub-step was a popular cooking choice of mine this year) and a cold beer next to the cutting board. I’ve learned much more, but have so far to go. I mean, I’ve never done a souffle! Or a standing rib roast! I want to learn Indian cuisine, and how to clean and filet fish, and charcuterie, and…the list goes on. For now, here are a few of my favorite cooking lessons from 2011.

Pasta dishes like aglio e olio, cacio e pepe, and carbonara made many appearances this year. Simple enough in design, to obtain the perfect texture and sauce consistency requires experiential timing and touch. I finally feel like I can make a proper pasta. Beautiful fresh pasta nests like these definitely help.

My favorite pasta all year was a quick pan sauce of salty pasta water and ‘nduja, a hot Calabrian spreadable salami I obtained from Jason at Cured Meats. I must have made that dish four times that week. I did spare a little to make a stunning grilled cheese with basil.

Cooler sous vide – I finally got my pastured pork at that exact right temperature.

Flannery beef. Still the reigning champ of steak in my book. So expensive. But so good. Look at the marbling on this strip!

Lasagna. My ultimate comfort food. I made many in 2011, including a few vegetarian versions so Katie could enjoy it along with me. But my heart belongs to Bologna. I made the bechamel (which I’ve finally nailed) and meat ragu version a couple of times, including once with calf livers, which made it extra funky and interesting. Lasagna for breakfast (with an espresso, in this one photo) is the best. Marone!

Soups. I’m making them quite regularly these days. They used to intimidate me for whatever silly reason, but now I know I can dig around my fridge and pantry and make SOME sort of soup. The Vitamix helps (understatement). This soup below is a mix of frozen peas and water and herbs. Nothing more.

Over the last week I’ve knocked out cheese sauces. I had a mac and cheese break (greasy, grainy) a few weeks ago, so I spent some time researching why this happens, then played around with a few variations of recipes. I wanted a cheese sauce that could take a real sharp cheese, melt smoothly, and hold up even when reheated. I’ve found my easy, no cream method – bechamel held with xantham gum. Mix in small quantities of grated cheese over very low heat.

The veggie plate. Chili oil marinated squash. Gently simmered pink eye peas. Yuzo kosho mashed cauliflower. Tomatoes with chives. No recipes, just preparing things simply and properly and seasoning in a way that makes sense.

Homemade biscuits. Buttery (but not soggy), flaky, crusty on the outside, made with buttermilk and frozen butter. Maybe not the prettiest, but I nailed the texture. It made my day.

Porchetta. Or a version thereof. This one was a picnic pork shoulder, with herbs, roasted for hours, the skin finished under the broiler.

2011 was the year I broke the oven in my kitchen. I began cooking my pizzas at 800F+ on the clean cycle, which is a process that requires some trial and error. I became a little more familiar with making, aging, and working with doughs, though I still need lots of practice there.

Moving on to other people’s food – my brother made some extremely impressive gougères. Better than the last time I tried the French Laundry recipe, and better than any I’ve tried outside of my meal at Per Se.

My friend Brad and I tackled a Momofuku meal. While I wasn’t overly impressed with the dishes, it was once again a great learning experience. This time we got to break down a whole pig’s head, debone chickens, and assemble this dish with meat glue.

And while I learn a lot by trying to follow complicated recipes word for word, my friend Rowdy continues to rock it in the kitchen and be an inspiration with his freewheeling style. I still can’t touch his hot chicken. How did he know that dish of cured, but uncooked bacon with a thyme dressing would be brilliant at 1:30 in the morning? I don’t think he did. But he just gets in the kitchen and experiments, and more and more I think that’s the way to do it.

First dish – homemade burgers

I do own a meat grinder, but it’s vintage and the blades aren’t sharp, so I opted to try a food processor method I read about on Serious Eats’ A Hamburger Today website. I cut short rib, sirloin tips, and chuck into 1-2” cubes and put them in the freezer for 20 minutes. This gets the fat cold and firm so the blade can deal with it.

Then I pulsed the meat a few times.

I formed a fairly loose burger and seasoned with salt and pepper. I seared it in a smoking hot cast iron skillet, then turned down the heat and continued to cook for a few minutes, adding cheese on top along the way.

The resulting medium-rare burger was fantastic. The griddled exterior was crispy and flavorful, and the burger was fatty, tender, and deliciously greasy. I’m fairly sure I won’t be buying ground beef for burgers anymore. The cost was roughly the same, the flavor was unquestionably better, I can control the fat content, and as I’m comfortable eating even Publix beef medium rare, there’s no reason I shouldn’t be comfortable eating a freshly ground burger that way.

Next meal up – panini. I started by making a coleslaw, with some homemade chile oil as the base. I’ve had this batch a few months, and just a spoonful can be added to any number of dishes for improved heat and color.

The sauce was: 2 Tbsp of chile oil, 1T soy sauce, 1 tsp sesame oil, 1t fish sauce, 1t Shaoxing rice wine.

For the panini filler – meats from Patak. Boston butt, salamis, and ham.

Stacked on ciabatta. Ciabatta is perfect for a panini.

See?

Next meal – 20 minute mac

Start by boiling your noodles per instructions. Meanwhile shred some cheese. Sauté chopped onions, garlic, and one small can of green chiles in a small amount of olive oil. Add 1-2T of flour, whisk rapidly. Slow pour in 1 cup milk, a bit at a time, whisking to create the roux. Add 1 cup cream after the milk, again, slow. Once all the liquid is incorporated, add the cheese. If it’s too runny, add more cheese. Too thick, add more cream.

Stir in noodles, place in oven safe serving dish, top with more cheese, broil.

Next dish – Ad Hoc Roasted Chicken

Let the chicken air dry in the refrigerator for up to 1 day, then rest on the counter for 1-2 hours before cooking. Truss. Set chicken on top of diced root vegetables. Rub butter or oil all over the skin. Season with salt and pepper.

Cook per recipe (linked it above)

Yum. Skin was the crispiest I’ve ever made. Slightly over cooked, but still acceptable.

Save the chicken fat/juices in the skillet with the leftover veggies. For a snack, reduce that liquid to create a pan gravy and pour over the vegetables.

Next – Muss and Turner’s small plates.

Squid, in a green olive based “salsa”. Sauce was rocking. Portion was huge.

Szechuan beef. Small portion, high quality, tender beef. Very nice.

Now I’m hungry.

From the recent sandwich special at South City Kitchen Midtown, Tuesday’s in Spain at Ecco, to the Tomato Feast at La Tavola that started yesterday, there is a creative option almost every day of the week, and they do a good job of maintaining top of mind presence.

Recently a friend of mine moved to the Vinings area and he mentioned that South City Kitchen Vinings sent him a $20 entree coupon as a welcome to the neighborhood gift, which I think is a very cool idea. I also read about the “Screw This” $5/glass wine deal at all Fifth Group Restaurants (which ends tonight by the way), and I was craving fried chicken, so we set up our impromptu man date and headed out to SCK-V.

I went with the Chateau St. Jean Fumé Blanc, their wines are often pretty solid for a such a high volume winemaker. I know a lot of non-wine people read this site, and I like throwing out some ka-naw-ledge, so in case you didn’t know, Fumé Blanc is the same grape as Sauvignon Blanc. The term Fumé Blanc is a marketing fabrication by the late Robert Mondavi, the name inspired by Pouilly-Fume, a famous Sauvignon Blanc producing appellation in the Loire Valley. In the 60’s, California was producing many sweet red & white wines, and the labeling of this Sauvignon Blanc wine as “Fumé Blanc” was intended to indicate that the style of the wine was more along the lines of the dry versions seen in France at the time. Mondavi opened up the term for anyone to use, and he was successful in his bid to promote California dry wines and sell more vino.

Anyways, a crisp white wine is always nice on a hot day, so I enjoyed a glass while I waited for our appetizers.

We started with the fried pimiento cheese balls. Fried pimiento cheese. That’s a combination of three words that sounds like it has to be good, and it was. Crunchy and well fried, the exterior gave way to plenty of warm gooey cheese. The cream sauce on the plating isn’t really necessary for this dish, they are enjoyable by themselves, but I guess the plating would look lonely without it.

A few minutes later we received the fried green tomatoes, which had been coated with goat cheese and the same panko (guessing) breadcrumbs, served in a sweet red pepper sauce with basil. I’ve had this a few times and this is an interesting dish to me. It’s always well executed, but I could really go either way on marinara and the goat cheese. I almost want it to be a bit simpler, allowing me to taste the sour green tomato in its best form. But the goat cheese is light, its creamy texture complementing the fried tomato, and the acid in the red pepper sauce cuts through the creamy cheese between bites.

On an somewhat related note, I ordered fried green tomatoes at an unnamed restaurant near Grant Park a few weeks ago and they served us fried, ripe, red tomatoes. It was gross and it amazes me they wouldn’t just take it off the menu when they don’t have green tomatoes.

Two devoured appetizers and another glass wine later and the chicken arrived. I’m not exactly sure what type of breading they use for the chicken, but it’s very similar to the fried tomato and pimiento cheese appetizer breading, as it has a very dense, crunchy, panko-like texture, with lots of tiny sharp ridges.

One thing that surprised me was the way they cut the chicken across the breast. I’m not exactly sure why they do this, perhaps to make it more manageable with fork and knife? Well, at least one benefit is that you get to see exactly how well it was cooked through. This bird was cooked exactly right, it wasn’t the slightest bit dry, and tender all the way through. I enjoyed South City Kitchen’s fried chicken enough, but I do like it a bit more traditional on the exterior and I’m not a fan of the way it was cut. The green beans and mashed potatoes that came with the chicken weren’t very memorable either.

My buddy got the crab cake entree with fried okra and mac and cheese. The crab cakes were substantial in size, with plenty of lump crab meat. They were some of the better crab cakes I’ve had out in a while actually. Not much description needed, other than to say there was enough juicy crab, and not too much breading. The mustard aioli was a bit too pungent and overpowered the sweet crab, I would suggest eating them on their own.

I really like having South City Kitchen close by, it’s consistent, with satisfying food, and I look forward to trying more dishes. On another visit I had the pork tenderloin, and that’s probably been my favorite dish so far. My biggest gripe is that the sides come up short compared to Carver’s, as does the fried chicken, and their entree menu seems to throw themselves in that meat-and-three arena. I think that’s a tough nut to crack at SCK’s price point, so I would like to see a little more creativity and differentiation on their menu. Soby’s in South Carolina is the baseline from my youth for progressive Southern dining, and every time I go there, there is always something enticing that really pops out at me. Right now they are featuring a Cherry Smoked Beef Short Ribs in Cheerwine BBQ Sauce. How cool does that sound? C’mon SCK, I want some badass Southern food near me!

Fiordizucca – Tiramisu al pistacchio

Saveur: Potato Puree

Serious eats: Stuffed poblanos with black beans and cheese

the kitchn: stuffed artichoke

Food Network: Lady’s Fried Mac

Not anymore! I may be a bit behind (my last BA post was from the February issue), but with the help of Microsoft Outlook Tasks I am committed to this charge to which I have assigned myself. I finally got around to picking a recipe from the March issue this past weekend, did some much needed grocery shopping, and got into the kitchen.

The recipe I chose is called Baked Penne with Farmhouse Cheddar and Leeks, but let’s call it what it really is: Macaroni and Cheese. I love me some mac ‘n cheese, any way I can get it, and this was a slight variation from the mac that I’ve cooked the last few times. For one, the recipe uses leeks, which have been high on my veggie list as of late. The smell of leeks sautéing in butter is outrageously good. Dare I say, better than shallots in butter. Secondly, the last few times I’ve created a classic roux as the base of the cheese sauce, using butter/flour/cream as the base then adding the cheese. This recipe starts off in a similar fashion, but we incorporate egg, resulting in a texture that is somewhere between the lush, creamy roux-based version and the classic Southern mac ‘n cheese that is somewhat casserole-like.

These two differences were enough reason for me to justify making more mac ‘n cheese – it’s only for the sake of experimentation and experience, I swear!

Here are your leeks – we are only using the part between the bottom of the leaves and about 1 inch from the root. No sense in washing them until after you cut off the top and bottom.

I cut newly trimmed and washed leeks into 1/2” rounds, then cut each round in half creating a semi-circle of sorts.

Then I shredded 1/2lb of sharp white cheddar cheese in my box grater. I called it the leaning tower of cheeza. Literally, I said it out loud while I was cooking by myself. Yes, I realize how lame I am.

The recipe doesn’t call for it, but I decided to add some chopped fresh oregano. Fresh oregano imparts a much different flavor than its dried counterpart, and it’s not nearly as intense.

I didn’t add the oregano until the leeks were almost done cooking in the butter.

Then in goes the flour, whisk continuously, add the milk, add the hot sauce, then the cheese. I only had plain soy milk on-hand, so that’s what I used. I wasn’t sure how it would work, but it seemed to be just fine. The sauce was probably a bit sweeter than intended, but no biggie as far as I could tell.

The recipe doesn’t go into much detail, but this is the point at which you add the eggs. You don’t want to take an egg out of the refrigerator, beat it, and add it directly to this sauce. The egg is cold, the sauce is hot, and you end up with scrambled eggs. So what you do is called tempering. First of all, you will want to have already have your eggs out and beaten before you start the recipe to help bring them to room temperature.

Then, what you want to do is take roughly a cup of the cheese sauce, and add it bit by bit to the eggs, whisking all the while. Once you have introduced the sauce to the eggs, and you have confirmed that you don’t have scrambled eggs, you add the tempered eggs/cheese sauce to the rest of the sauce and whisk it in. Done!

Now mix your cooked pasta with the cheese sauce and pour everything into a greased baking dish. The recipe calls for penne, but I used the Cavatappi that I had on hand (via Your Dekalb Farmer’s Market).

I guess I can take some photos while I wait for this bad boy to cool.

The mac had a slightly creamy texture, but the egg structure definitely shone through without giving off too much of that egg flavor. The leeks were great, but I was glad I added the oregano to give it a slightly more complexity.

The recipe doesn’t call for any salt or pepper, so if you’re like me, be sure to hit it up generously when you eat it.

It didn’t reheat as well as some mac ‘n cheese, which perhaps is due to the egg, but it was still pretty damn good.

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Jumbo Empanadas: Baby TKO’s (Thomas Keller Oreos)

Bon Appétit, Fast, Easy, Fresh: Potato, Greens, and Goat Cheese Quesadillas

The Kitchn: Ad Hoc Buttermilk Fried Chicken

The Luna Cafe: World Famous Green Chile Mac & Cheese

Eat, Drink, Man…A Food Journal: Chili Con Carne

Aaron was on-board and kicked things off by preparing a corn soufflé while I put together the rest of the menu. I had just purchased two whole chickens at Costco and knew I wanted to do something with one of those. Amazingly I’ve never cooked a whole chicken so I had to look up how to cut one up here. Then I found a chicken recipe that I could loosely use – Chicken in Riesling. I planned on roasting the carrots, but not roasting potatoes as I was doing mashed Yukon potatoes with cream, baked and topped with fontina.

I also planned a mac ‘n cheese, using both white and yellow sharp cheddar, a lima beans side dish, and vegetarian gravy.

The great thing about the potatoes, the corn soufflé, and the mac was that they could be prepared ahead of time, as they all get finished in the oven. They went in around the same time as the chicken, then we whipped up the beans and the gravy, and served. It was all relatively low stress and easy considering how much there was going on. I gots plenty of pics for ya.

Starting with the mac ‘n cheese. First I sautéed some onions in butter, then added flour and heavy cream to create a roux, added a few drops of hot sauce, then whisked in the cheese. It smelled awesome.

Then we just poured the cheese over the pasta in the baking dish and set it aside. Try not to taste-test too many pieces.

Steamed some Yukon cubes, skin on, then added some milk and heavy cream and whipped them up. We set it aside with the shredded fontina.

Chopped leeks for the chicken dish. I didn’t realize how much I like leeks. They look nice too.

Once you sauté the leeks in butter, you then pan cook the chicken in batches to try to give it a crispy outside before you bake. I didn’t crisp up the chicken well enough so there isn’t great color going on. Once the chicken is done baking, you whisk the cream and lemon into the sauce, which at this point was quite thin. I should have set the pan on top of my stove and cooked it on low heat for a couple of minutes to let it reduce.

The vegetarian gravy looked, well, like gravy. There was too much flour and soy sauce in my opinion, and I had to keep thinning it out with vegetable stock, but it was decent considering it was meatless gravy.

Above is the corn soufflé after baking…

… and the mac n’ cheese too.

Final plating. Quite ridiculous and it satisfied my craving perfectly. The mac was pretty awesome, the slight touch of hot sauce really shone through. I recommend giving this recipe a shot.

The chicken turned out good, but not great, though the flavor of the leeks was awesome. The sauce was much better when reheated the next day. Aaron was worried he had messed up the corn my adding too much sour cream, but it was super sweet and tasted great to me. The potatoes were fairly standard (but good), and the limas were a welcome touch of non-starch to this monstrosity of a dinner.

I paired this meal with the fairvalley chenin blanc and the ever-popular Pine Ridge chenin blanc/viognier blend.

The fairvalley was my first Chenin Blanc from South Africa, where the grape is quite popular. It was fairly dry, not too floral, a ton of stone, and quite hot on the finish, with some unpleasant plastic. It’s an unoaked, easy drinker, at a good price. It actually paired pretty well with the creamy chicken and leek sauce. Available at Green’s for $9.26.

I’ve had the Pine Ridge before, but not this vintage. Compared to the Chenin Blanc, this nose was bangin’, very floral with tropical fruits galore, melon, it showed a lot of the viognier characteristics with some minerality from the chenin blanc. There wasn’t as much acid as the fairvalley, but I enjoyed this one more overall. Available at Costco for $10.49

For dessert, Emily was kind of nice to fly in and head to directly to our house with a few tubs of Graeter’s ice cream from Cincinnati. I’ve never had this before, but apparently it’s an institution up there, and it did not disappoint. They have a featured selection of “Signature Chip flavors”, including their all-time best seller Black Raspberry Chip. There’s a reason this is their best seller, it’s absolutely outrageous. Thick, flavorful, with the largest/tastiest hunks of chocolate I’ve ever seen in ice cream.

I’m slightly comatose just thinking about this meal right now.

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If you have lobster shells, shame on you if you don’t make the stock. You spent too much money on the lobster to not get the added bonus of the stock. Even if your dish doesn’t need lobster stock, whip up a batch and freeze it for use down the road. Risotto prepared with lobster stock is absolutely fantastic. As I only used the shells of one lobster for the mac, I saved the other shells and prepared more stock the next day. 

Garlic, bay leaf, celery, onion, carrots (the mirepoix), tomato paste, olive oil, brandy, and the shells of one lobster (you can definitely use more lobster shells if you have them). 

Cook the lobster in just a bit of oil for a few minutes to release the flavors. Don’t burn the shells. 

Add all the veggies, give the pan a good shake. I use a ragoût pan which works perfectly for this purpose. 

Add the brandy once the veggies are a bit softer.

Add three cups of water and now the lobster is taking a nice little soak. Bring it to a boil, reduce heat to low, cover & simmer for 20-30 minutes. 

Now we have a brief interlude for lunch. Fresh bread and arugula from YDFM, some leftover fontina from the mac, country ham, and creole mustard. 

A few minutes on the panini press, served with a side of leftover lobster mac. Not too shabby of a lunch.

Back to the stock. Now we have more depth of color, and a fantastic smell resonating throughout the house. 

Drain the stock through some cheese cloth if you have it. 

A regular colander will do, but the cheese cloth has the added benefit that it becomes very easy to squeeze out the extra flavorful stock from the vegetables. 

Use the stock immediately, or freeze for up to 2 months. It’s not quite enough stock for 1 cup of risotto, but you can dilute it with water and there will still be plenty of fantastic seafood/lobster flavor to go around.

Valentine’s Day is one of the worst holidays ever. It’s an awkward, commercial Hallmark event designed to sell cards, and restaurants quickly jumped on this money train offering high margin prix fixe meals and overbooking their seatings. I prefer to have a nice meal out just for the hell of it on a random night. Why on Earth would I decide to celebrate a special occasion out on the town when everyone else has the same idea? My meal at Rathbun’s steak last year to celebrate a larger than expected tax return was a heck of a lot more memorable/awesome than my abomination of a dining experience at Antica Posta on Valentine’s Day a few years ago. Especially when it comes to dining out, celebrating without a commercial reason can be a lot more fun. Less pressure. Less crowds. More spontaneity. 

With that being said, we did decide to make a nice meal at home the other Saturday night. Katie said she was willing to try lobster (bad vegetarian!), and when a friend sent me the link to the Epicurious Lobster Mac & Cheese, I knew this was the perfect choice.  I love mac n cheese, and actually I’ve had this dish before (thanks Mom) so I knew it was worthy. It’s also not too difficult. The ingredients are a bit costly, but the amount I spent is definitely less than a 3 course meal + booze in any Atlanta restaurant that night. 

We got some creme brulee going before we started everything else. We used vanilla and brandy as the flavoring, it was stupidly easy. They immediately went into the oven then into the fridge once they were set. 

The first course was a vegan Caesar salad, from the great website 101 Cookbooks. You use silken/soft tofu in the place of the egg, and almonds are added for texture. While it wasn’t my favorite Caesar dressing, it was quite acceptable. I didn’t have the capers or caper brine so that could have helped kick it up a bit and add some of the funk you lose by not using anchovies. I added some Worcestershire to try to help it out. If you’re vegan, or if you’re just not into mayo/egg then give this a shot. 

Note – you may have to blend the tofu for quite a while in your food processor to get a creamy, smooth texture. 

Here we have one of the two little guys ready to face death. All the other lobsters called this one “hammer claw”, in regards to his misshaped right claw. Obsessively depressed over his disfigurement and wilted by the jeering of his peers, he was ready to depart to a better place. He told me. 

Speaking of lobster:

Gorgeously sweet carrots from YDFM. 

This photo is getting ready for the preparation of the the lobster stock, an integral part of the flavor of this dish. This dish simply consists of the meat, the stock, cream, and a relatively small amount of fontina cheese. The complex flavor of the dish comes from the stock. 

You cook the shells, add some oil, add the vegetables, add brandy, then add water, cover and simmer for 30 minutes or so. Then you strain/squeeze out the liquid and you are left with lobster stock that is worth its weight in gold. I may do a post just focusing on this part as I made more stock the next day using the other lobster shells. 

As I said, once the stock is ready, it’s just a matter of assembling the pieces. We used gemelli pasta, which I think lends itself well to macaroni and cheese. The pasta is bite size and the texture picks up the sauce well. 

The mac is thinner than most, with great silky texture, and a powerful yet not over the top seafood flavor. It really is sort of like a dense bisque with lots of meat. The whole process of this meal does take some time, but I wouldn’t call it difficult. Just plan ahead, get your mise en place going, and give yourself plenty of time so you don’t feel rushed. I also recommend a glass of wine while cooking. Cava or prosecco is a good choice for inexpensive bubbles. 

Speaking of wine, the Taittinger Champagne Brut we had with the mac was pretty decent. Not as much complexity or depth of flavor as I was looking for, but for the price it’s not a bad buy for real Champagne. It had an above average amount of tiny bubbles, it was quite crisp, lots of acidity, but the finish of tart citrus/granny smith apple wasn’t largely appealing to me. Something with a little more cream would have been nice with the pasta. Still, not a bad buy, $34.99 at YDFM.

The creme brulee was fantastic but we screwed up the topping. We couldn’t find fuel for the torch so I found a method online where you melt the sugar and cook it until it appears slightly yellow, then you pour it on top of the dessert and let it harden. It failed miserably. That’s ok, I like the custard the best anyways. 

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Some of the bubbles. 

The beef tenderloin roast, with the balsamic glazed brussel sprouts with pancetta. 

Trespass ’01 Cab. Delicious. 

Belvedere Winery 1986 Rally Cab. It was fun to check this out. It still had a bunch of fruit, but wasn’t too complex. The tannins were surprisingly present though. 

Guess we missed that by a bit. 

Decanting. The cork fell apart. 

The warm fried goat cheese round salad from the other night. Yum.

Another Christmas dinner photo. The mac ‘n cheese (recipe viewable here) was very memorable. Do it. 

We went to Zorba’s Lounge in Greenville for lunch on the 26th. This place could totally be on “Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives”. The steak sandwich is fantastic. Two of us split a small Greek salad, and split a steak sandwich with fries. Neither of us could finish our half. 

Zorba’s Bar. Very old school, with a slight hint of danger.  

Half a salad. Get the dressing on the side. They drench it. 

As usual, my photo doesn’t do it justice. A fresh, warm onion roll, with grilled onions and thin sliced steak, topped with swiss cheese. Add in a pickle and the still-hot-and-super-crispy steak fries and a single tear fell from my eye.