June 2007 Archives
I've just finished reading a collection of essays about what we feed ourselves when there's no one around, Alone in the Kitchen with an Eggplant. I admit I devoured it once I got my hands on it; it's almost voyeuristic to read about these private dining moments (in front of the TV? At the kitchen or dining room table? With some reading material or the computer?) It's so stripped-down; I feel like you could extrapolate a lot about a person by how he or she eats when alone. For instance, Todd orders takeout or forgets to eat altogether if I'm not around to feed him. It's just not that important to him; he is far too passionate about other things to bother much with food.
I, on the other hand, relish the free reign I have when the only one I have to please is myself. Every once and a while August is so exhausted, or so full from a big snack, that he takes his nap before we have a chance to eat lunch (we usually eat together). Then I make mushrooms or greens, combine Cheddar and apple butter, goat cheese and fig jam. A pumpkin muffin loaded with sunflower seeds, raisins and cream cheese. A baked egg sprinkled with fresh herbs. It's usually very easy to prepare, because that's one gift I give myself, rarely includes meat or fish, almost always has cheese and some kind of bread. Todd would never consider it a meal; I guess it's girly food. This picture is a perfect example. Sauteed beet greens on toast with thin slices of cheese broiled over the top. I usually do have a magazine, book or the computer to read. Lately I watch old episodes of The Office or Grey's Anatomy on iTunes.
I'm curious. What do you do when you have no one to feed but yourself?
I've just finished reading a collection of essays about what we feed ourselves when there's no one around, Alone in the Kitchen with an Eggplant. I admit I devoured it once I got my hands on it; it's almost voyeuristic to read about these private dining moments (in front of the TV? At the kitchen or dining room table? With some reading material or the computer?) It's so stripped-down; I feel like you could extrapolate a lot about a person by how he or she eats when alone. For instance, Todd orders takeout or forgets to eat altogether if I'm not around to feed him. It's just not that important to him; he is far too passionate about other things to bother much with food.
I, on the other hand, relish the free reign I have when the only one I have to please is myself. Every once and a while August is so exhausted, or so full from a big snack, that he takes his nap before we have a chance to eat lunch (we usually eat together). Then I make mushrooms or greens, combine Cheddar and apple butter, goat cheese and fig jam. A pumpkin muffin loaded with sunflower seeds, raisins and cream cheese. A baked egg sprinkled with fresh herbs. It's usually very easy to prepare, because that's one gift I give myself, rarely includes meat or fish, almost always has cheese and some kind of bread. Todd would never consider it a meal; I guess it's girly food. This picture is a perfect example. Sauteed beet greens on toast with thin slices of cheese broiled over the top. I usually do have a magazine, book or the computer to read. Lately I watch old episodes of The Office or Grey's Anatomy on iTunes.
I'm curious. What do you do when you have no one to feed but yourself?
I got kind of depressed this week as I wrote my Dinner Diary entries. There's just not much there. I know we can't eat exciting food all the time, but now I feel some obligation to make things that someone might have one little inkling of desire to replicate. By the end of the week I gave up and ordered a pizza. Here's the rundown:
Daddy Wins
Noodle and Carrot Soup (with Chicken)
An Ambivalent Fish
Pasta Even My Husband Can Love
Break Out the Takeout
So now I'm trying to plan menus for next week and I'm experiencing performance anxiety. I guess also because I'm working in a vacuum, with little idea of who's reading and what they want.
Well, on to Week 4. Wish me luck.
I've been reading Andrea's Recipes for only a couple of months, but I find so much of interest on it that I'm already a fan. She's a mom of young ones, too, so I love to read those little hints about what life's like for her. She was recently part of kind of a backward meme; it's an "interview," and if you read the meme on someone else's blog you can request that they "interview" you. So I asked her. And here's what she wanted to know:
1. You've been blogging for several years now. Have you ever had trouble finding your muse and what do you do to keep things fresh on your blog?
The time I had the most trouble finding the impetus to write was when I was pregnant and terribly nauseated basically all the time. Then I had a baby, so I felt like I never cooked. But now that he eats what we eat, it's kind of brand new. I'm cooking a lot more now, but it's kind of mundane stuff. I feel challenged to not fall into a rut, to try to maintain some of my standards about how we eat.
2. How did you get started writing the Dinner Diary for Women's Day?
I worked there as a copy editor for almost 5 years, and during that time I always gravitated toward the food department. My experience in the kitchen (which is not extensive, but is more than a lot of my Manhattan-living coworkers) helped me to mentally walk through the recipes, which I think made me better at that aspect of my job. So I've been doing a little freelance for them since I left to stay home with my son. The editor of the web site has been reading my personal blog all along, so she approached me with the idea of a daily dinner blog. It's still a little daunting. I feel like I have to edit what I make for dinner even more now. For example, I'd like to make a big pot of chicken soup with some leftover chicken tonight, but it's not really chicken soup weather. Do I do it anyway? I think I might, but there's more to the angst now than just serving my family hot soup on a hot day.
3. I think everyone has an emergency meal, that meal that you can whip on a busy weeknight knowing that you'll almost always have all the ingredients on hand. What's yours?
Pasta with broccoli florets from the freezer (always Cascadian Farms; they're the right size and cook up just mushy enough for August to eat), good olive oil and grated Parmesan or locatelli.
4. Describe your favorite comfort food.
Toast, but always with some kind of topping and some kind of cheese. So any variation on an open-faced grilled cheese; for example, today it was sauteed beet greens and Cheddar (because that's what I had on hand). Or, of course, ice cream. I'll only eat one serving at a time, but I'll keep a whole pint to myself and finish it in exactly four days.
5. Name three of your favorite restaurants.
This is so pathetic, but things change when you have a kid, if you let them.
Nick's Pizza in Forest Hills: charred, thin crust, fresh mozzarella, gruff familiarity that makes every regular feel special.
Market Cafe near Port Authority: looks like a diner, but the food's a couple notches up. Cucumber slices in the water carafe they leave at your table, small dishes like one fat seared scallop on mashed potatoes, terrific (really) chocolate cake.
I might have to stop there. No other places are quite so obvious to me as favorites. Oh, maybe Eddie's Ice Cream Shoppe. Maybe.
So if you'd like me to send you some interview questions, send me an e-mail with your name and blog url.
Here's what we ate at the Walker's this week:
A Super-Quick Microwave Fish
Seeing Green (Braised Greens and Beans)
At Least Everyone's Happy (Roasted Chicken Caprese)
Kitchen Sink Minestrone
Antipasto 3 Ways
Here's what we ate at the Walker's this week:
A Super-Quick Microwave Fish
Seeing Green (Braised Greens and Beans)
At Least Everyone's Happy (Roasted Chicken Caprese)
Kitchen Sink Minestrone
Antipasto 3 Ways
I made one of my favorites, a cornmeal cake from an Epicurious recipe, to take to a friend's on Sunday night. But instead of the rosemary syrup, which is really good, I used some peaches and apricots on my counter to make what ended up being kind of a homemade "peaches canned in light syrup." (Forgive the quote marks.) This grainy cake is a wonderful sponge that soaked up all that peachy syrup.
I started with a simple syrup: 1 cup water and 1 cup sugar boiled and stirred until the sugar dissolved. Then I added peeled, diced peaches, which hadn't gotten very ripe, and tried to cook them into submission for a few minutes. Then I added the apricots, which had ripened, and set the whole mixture in my fridge overnight.
The next day I made the cake: 1/2 cup butter and 1 cup sugar beaten until fluffy (although it just got kind of fluffy-clumpy). Add 1 cup cornmeal, 3/4 cup flour, 2/3 cup milk, 1 teaspoon baking powder, 2 eggs, 1 egg yolk, 3/4 teaspoon salt, and mix it all together. Bake in a 8-inch pan in a 350 degree oven for 40 minutes (mine took 50). Let it cool a bit, then brush on about 1/3 cup of the peach syrup. Serve the rest, including the fruit, with the cake at the table.
I know I've been neglecting this blog (for years, probably). I am planning to make a dessert to take to a friend's on Sunday and I'll write it up if it's good.
But I have been writing daily on The Daily WD. Here's what we've eaten this week:
Smoked Turkey Salad
Chicken Cutlets with Zucchini and Couscous
Orzo with Spinach and Pine Nuts
Avocado, Corn and Tomato Salsa
Potato and Arugula Frittata
While Todd's out of town, I hate to make a whole pot of coffee in the morning for myself. And one of the best things I picked up the last time I was at Whole Foods was a recipe for cold-brewed iced coffee. It takes 8 hours of sitting around, so plan ahead. But then you just have coffee in the fridge all the time.
I ground 1/4 pound coffee in my little coffee grinder in a few batches, very course grind, then put it in a big bowl with a quart of cold, filtered water. Let it sit on the counter 8 to 12 hours, then strain through a coffee filter set in a strainer. Pretty potent stuff. I like mine half coffee, half milk, with a little bit of sugar.
I've started writing a DAILY blog for The Daily WD . So I'm going to be posting there every weekday at 4, and I'm going to need some good ideas. The blog will be pretty similar to this one, except it's almost exclusively what I've cooked for dinner the night before (or the weekend before) and I'll have to include more pictures (which for me, besides coming up with something to make for dinner every night, is going to be the hardest part).
I hope you'll stop by.
