liamsaunt

For plane travel I usually have a bottle of water, an orange, a few crackers, and a small piece of good chocolate. We're soon leaving for a vacation on an island where everything is shipped in and therefore expensive. We will have a kitchen in our rental house, so I am packing into our checked luggage an assortment of spices, repacked into labeled .5 oz. tins, a pepper grinder, salt, olive oil, the tea we like, a few bottles of wine, a sharp knife, and a corkscrew.

No mashed potatoes in the summer! Hot soups are also out.

I like curried chicken salad best. My usual recipe has mayo, curry powder, mango chutney, scallions, cashews, a mix of golden and regular raisins, leftover roast chicken, both white and dark meat, and salt and pepper.

Yesterday, I was using the french fry attachment on my trusty mandoline to make sweet potato fries. Because the sweet potatoes were too large to use the hand guard as it was intended, I had the "brilliant" idea to use the guard as a pusher, guiding the sweet potato along the blades while steadying it with my other hand. 7 year old nephew, observing, states: "I do not think you are using that correctly." Two swipes of the sweet potato later, my hand slips, and jams into the blade. I am now missing a sweet potato fry sized chunk of the tip of my thumb. Nephew's response to the kitchen carnage: a big sigh, a roll of the eyes, and an "I TOLD you that you were not using that correctly!" And, after all that, the stupid fries did not even crisp up properly.

Everyone in my office is a work muncher. Our office takes up an entire floor of a building, and we have three kitchens, all with toasters, microwaves, fridges, and coffee makers (no ovens--fire hazard). I am lucky in that due to my location on the floor I only have to share my kitchen with five other people. The other two kitchen fridges get pretty nasty, but ours stays clean since so few people use it. Of the six total, in the morning we have three toasters, two oatmeal eaters, and one fruit muncher. At lunch, things are usually reheated in the microwave--we have three daily "smart ones" eaters (blech), two bring leftovers from home, and there's one sandwich eater. The only rule is to never, ever microwave fish. Curry, on the other hand, is acceptable. We are lucky that our suite has good ventilation so odors don't linger.

Toast, every morning, or I get very grouchy. It does not matter what kind of toast, as long as it is hot and has butter on it.

I have a young nephew who is life-threateningly allergic to crustaceans, so much so that his allergist asked that no one that is dining at the same table with him consume any (I think the reasoning is that he could touch one of our faces or forks). He also cannot eat food that would have been cooked on the same grill or in the same oil as crustaceans. We deal with it by mostly feeding him at home. If we do go out, we call first to be sure they can accomodate his allergy, and reconfirm when we arrive. The epi-pen is always on hand also. He has another allergy, to egg, which is actually more time-consuming to deal with in terms of researching ingredients in food. However, this allergy is not life threatening--it manifests as hives, so the stakes are not nearly as high. Interestingly, he is the only person in the entire extended family that has a food allergy. Well, kiwis make my tounge swell up, but I am not sure that counts as an allergy per se, since I have no reaction to strawberries, and I was told that I would if I was truly allergic to kiwi.

I have that same tool, and it scraped my knuckles too. I really should throw it out. I also have a large collection of splintery wooden spoons that are destined for the trash heap...one of these days.

I make my popcorn in a whirley pop. My favorite topping is lots of butter, fresh grated parmesean, salt, and cracked pepper.

For me it is the Joy of Cooking. My copy is falling apart, split seams in a few places, some pages have come completely detached, but it has all the basinc information I need if I am cooking something new or if I just need to check a basic temperature for something. Plus, my Joy of Cooking is also stuffed with photographs and homemade cards, so I get to relive happy life memories along with food memories when I open it.

What he calls "the dreaded hot mushrooms on toast." sauteed wild mushrooms and shallots on top of crusty bread topped with a gruyere white wine sauce. He hates it, I love it. Second choice is an omelet, or spaghetti carbonara.

Yum, wahoo! This is my favorite fish. Of course, I can only get it when on vacation. My favorite thing to do with it is just to marinate for an hour or so in olive oil, then grill it and serve with a compound butter. I've poached it before too, but I like it best grilled. I never thought to brine it before. I'll try that next trip.

When we do a big antipasti, we have (in addition to the things already mentioned) A couple of different fritatta, cut into small wedges Roasted onions Arancini Crostini with various toppings Marinated mozzarella Shrimp poached with garlic, lemon, and olive oil Marinated artichokes Eggplant rounds, breaded and topped with mozzarella and tomato slices Sometimes white anchovies And we line all the serving plates with arugula, so people can get their salad fix. Hope this helps.

Last night we had butternut squash lasagna and a spinach salad. Very comforting and good.

Assorted serving platters and a big soup tureen. I am short and need a stepladder to get things down from on top of the fridge. There are cabinets up there too but I keep them empty because I cannot reach them without getting on the top of the stepladder and really reaching..

On my kitchen (or, as I like to call it, closet) counters: just a microwave (aka fancy butter melter) and a toaster oven. My food processor is in a cabinet above my work space. My coffee pot, coffee grinder, knife sharpener, blender and stick blender live on the shelf behind the door to the basement. Those are my only appliances--I am appliance deprived!

Last night: Rack of lamb with mushroom risotto and broccoli:

Last night's dinner, from the you can never have too much butter club: Butternut squash ravioli with a sage-brown butter sauce, with pine nuts and fried shallots.

Last night we had chicken parts whacked thin and stuffed with broccoli and cheddar, rolled and crumbed. With the roasted cauliflower from recipe gullet, some seared spinach, and mashed potatoes.

My family always wants the same things at Thanksgiving, no substitutions, so the stuffing is bread cubes, tossed with a mix celery, sage, thyme, and onion sauteed in lots of butter, seasoned with salt and pepper, and then moistened with a bit of stock. There is always lots of stuffing, so some goes in the bird and some in a seperate casserole dish. Some years I make a second stuffing for variety, but most people won't try it on principle. No changes on Thanksgiving, don't you know. One year I made a cornbread-sausage-cranberry-pecan stuffing that my Dad really liked. I think if I made an oyster stuffing I would have a full-out mutiny on my hands.

Saturday dinner: linguini with clam sauce: There is lots of extra sauce because my mom was there--she loves clam sauce but hates pasta, so I make lots of sauce for her to eat with bread. Sunday, baked haddock with roesti potatoes and asparagus. Monday, pre-Monday night football: spaghetti and meatballs. No pictures for that, hungry football obsessed men ate it all too quickly! And, despite my carb loading for the dudes, they skipped going to the game and are instead lolling in front of the TV. Losers! (granted they only had standing rooms seats, but still... )

The picture is too dark but it tasted good: chicken stew with puff pastry crust.

I love fritters! My two favorites are salt cod and corn fritters topped with maple syrup.

Great minds, Jason. Great minds. ← I feel so much better. I had thought Campbell's tomato was MY dirty little secret. ← Campbell's tomato soup kept me alive in college. My senior year I had no money and used to eat half a can almost every day for dinner with one slice of day old bread. I don't eat it any more, but I still have a fond spot in my heart for it. I almost never eat canned soup these days, but if it's lunch in a pinch, I fnd that most flavors are enhanced by lots and lots of pepper, and a knob of butter.

A roast turkey sandwich, made from the leftovers of yesterday's pre-Thanksgiving meal.