purplewiz
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Posts posted by purplewiz
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Eggplant rollatini:
I did the eggplant slices on the grill and it just makes a world of difference.
Marcia.
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Meatloaf. My version is a take on my mother's that replicates her flavors, and as far as I'm concerned, that's it. It's exactly as it should be and I don't add anything or subtract anything.
This isn't to say I don't make other meatloaves from other recipes from time to time. But they're not variants on the above theme, they're brand new dishes in my head. When I do what I think of as Meatloaf, it's the same all the time.
And that's just how I want it.
Marcia.
(it's pretty much the same with chili, too.)
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Maybe sometimes. There are times when I'm completely overwhelmed and cooking is a chore, and it would be SO nice if someone else could just pick up the reins and drive it for me. They'd have to cook to my specs and dietary needs, though (which is why I don't just go out to restaurants during those times - they're so STUCK to their own menu!
).But not all the time. I enjoy cooking most of the time and wouldn't want to give it up. I miss it when i don't cook after awhile.
Marcia.
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We're having unexpected houseguests tomorrow, so I didn't have too much time or energy to cook. Fortunately, we just returned from New Mexico, where a dear friend sent us home with some of her homemade green chile sauce. So I turned it into a deconstructed breakfast burrito.
Here's the dramatic shot:
And here's the documentary shot:
(The sun was setting and streaming on to the kitchen table so I thought I'd play around with it and see what I could get.)
From the bottom up:
Tortilla (Santa Fe Tortilla Company Carb Chopper, remarkably good for a low carb tortilla)
cheese
green chile sauce with cubed pork and sauteed onion
two fried eggs, over somewhere between medium and hard (oops)
more cheese for decoration
salsa
sour cream
Salad on the side (out of a bag: Fresh Express' Salsa salad kit which is tastier than it has any right to be)
Marcia.
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I love the voyeuristic thrill of hearing about other's food, but I don't shop everyday at exotic outdoor farmer's markets, or cook gourmet extravaganzas or host fantastic dinner parties with 37 courses. 360 days a year I probably eat cold cereal for breakfast. Typically one of us cooks something that lasts 2 or 3 days and we eat leftovers. I'm cooking every night for this just so you all don't get bored! (What, leftover curry again?) I guess I'm just worried that I won't measure up to the high bar set by all the previous bloggers.
This is what I love about the foodblogs - some people do, and some people don't, and it's all good. I eat exactly the same thing for breakfast at least 5 days out of every 7!
Your curry looked wonderful, and now has me jonesing for Thai food. (And leftover curry sounds good to me!)
Marcia.
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Re: shoes: do you tell people about your no shoe policy ahead of time and advise them to bring slippers, or do you provide slippers?
The only time I've been told to take my shoes off when visiting someone's house it was high summer, so I was wearing Birkenstocks. No socks. COLD marble floors. ICE COLD.
By the time the host noticed I was shivering he offered a pillow to tuck under my feet during the times I was seated, but by that time the damage was done. I was completely chilled to the bone. Needless to say, that was the end of that.
I admit I grew up in a house where going around without shoes was considered the heights of informality, and you absolutely kept your shoes on, even if they were new patent leather shoes and were giving you blisters, unless you were at a picnic or undressing for bed. My parents still look askance at me when I kick my shoes off at their house.
As for entertaining: my biggest problem is finding a menu that more than two people I know will/can eat. I finally started issuing invitations of the form "I'm making steak and sauteed spinach on Saturday. Would you guys like to join us?". This form of invitation also seems to help people commit.
As for the rest, we don't worry about the crumbs/spills (the brand new carpeting downstairs is made from recycled plastic bottles, it's not only soft it cleans up like a dream), we just stack the dishes until folks leave, we don't worry about what to do with gifts because we never get any.
Marcia.
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When you're standing still, STAND STILL.
Many people, when they're nervous, think they're standing still when they're really shifting their weight from foot to foot, weaving back and forth, and it doesn't play well on camera. A friend of mine just did an on-camera interview and between his weaving and the camera moving, I was getting seasick.
My rule of thumb for public speaking is that if you don't feel like your feet and legs are anchored in concrete, you're moving too much. (You're not in concrete and you don't look like it, but it FEELS like it.)
Marcia.
(edited to add: the other tip I was given was that if you don't feel like you're talking through molasses, you're talking too fast. I'm guilty of both of these, by the way.)
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The first meal we had together was at Coopersmith's in Fort Collins, CO. We still go there any time we're nearby.
The first meal I cooked for him was lasagna, I think salad, and chocolate covered strawberries with champagne. He says that's when he fell in love with me
.Marcia.
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Since my last roast beef ended up on the Dinner II thread
, I thought I'd post pictures of tonight's just to prove that yes, I can really roast a beef:
Plated up, with a red wine reduction sauce and a piece of Eggplant Kuku (from the epicurious.com site, I think someone in this thread recommended it, or was it the eggplant thread? In either case, thank you, it was wonderful, we'll be making it again.)
Marcia.
Please, what cut of the cow was that?
Checking this week's Safeway ad... they call it Boneless Beef Round Rump Roast, on sale this week at $1.99/lb.... It was really tasty and quite tender (I sliced it thin).
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RIOJA
We went there for my birthday a couple weeks ago, and had an outstanding experience. The pork belly appetizer is, so far, the finest thing I've eaten this year and is in the running for the overall top ten.
We also ate at Red Square Euro Bistro - good meal, will eat there again, but not quite up to the level of Rioja.
Marcia.
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Since my last roast beef ended up on the Dinner II thread
, I thought I'd post pictures of tonight's just to prove that yes, I can really roast a beef:Plated up, with a red wine reduction sauce and a piece of Eggplant Kuku (from the epicurious.com site, I think someone in this thread recommended it, or was it the eggplant thread? In either case, thank you, it was wonderful, we'll be making it again.)
Marcia.
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I always thought this rule was for "cooking wine", and for the following situation:
"By all that's holy, this wine tastes like something that came out of a skunk's nether regions! I won't be drinking THAT!"
"Don't throw it out, we'll cook with it!"
By wine you wouldn't drink, I always thought it meant wine that wasn't drinkable. I've made plenty of fantastic dishes with "picnic" wine - I think this is table wine in other cultures? You know, an everyday wine, it's not what you open to impress a visiting friend who also happens to be a winemaker (I opened a well aged California Cabernet in that instance), it's what you'd drink if you were enjoying a sunny Saturday afternoon in the park - a wine that wouldn't be bad to drink, you probably wouldn't choose it if you were seriously tasting it and looking for nuances of flavor, but if the bottle was knocked over by an overly playful dog it wouldn't break your heart (or wallet). Plain old vin ordinaire.
Marcia.
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I still watch, but I don't have much to say about it that hasn't already been said.
Marcia.
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Meanwhile, a bunch of my favorite ingredients live up here:
Pearl River Bridge! It always warms my heart to see their products...I had to hunt for sources for them out here!
And let me add my congratulations on your weight loss. I know how the changes make many things different, but it's great that eating delicious food (and sharing it with us) is still the same!
Marcia.
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The cafeteria at the top of Mount Roberts, Alaska. There was a visitor center there and a ranger station and a nice trail, and a generic parks service cafeteria.
After hiking around, we decided to grab something at the cafeteria before taking the tram back down. Something told me to get the fish and chips. I don't know why, I don't order it often, especially not at cafeterias, it just sounded good.
It was among the best fish and chips I'd ever eaten. Huge chunks of white fish that I guessed at the time were halibut, lightly battered, freshly fried, crispy and flavorful. Fries cooked just right - crisp on the outside, soft on the inside. Never expected one of the best meals of the whole trip to be there, but we were darned glad it was.
Marcia.
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The creamed eggplant recipe from Smithy's foodblog is wonderful. Just wonderful, and a great base for any braised beef dish with lots of thick sauce.
My tip for eggplant is to grill them on an outdoor barbecue whenever possible, instead of frying or broiling or baking. The grill gives eggplant a smoky flavor that just adds another layer of flavor. I love the flavor of grilled eggplant and could it eat with just a sprinkling of a good sea salt and fresh ground pepper.
Marcia.
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Doddie, I've been lurking throughout the week, but I wanted to say thanks - so much of the food was so new to me, and yet almost all of it looked like something I want to try someday. (But I'm afraid my taste in scrambled eggs calls for cooking them a lot more!
) It's been a great trip with some fantastic meals, scenery, and writing!Marcia.
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Meatloaf with butter on white Wonder Bread. Doesn't get much better than that. It's just not the same on whole wheat.
Hamburgers on anything less squishy than a kaiser roll just don't work. The hamburger and any toppings just squirts out the back. In fact, I'm not all that fond on any sandwich on bread with a really hard crust for the same reason - filling loss.
Marcia.
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My laptop.
Illustrative example: during my trip to LA last September I decided that I really didn't want to eat where I'd planned, and wanted something more "interesting". In a matter of 15 minutes I had:
- pulled up eGullet and gone to the California forum
- searched the post for the town where I was
- found 3-4 reasonable candidates
- checked out their websites, menus, and hours online
- picked one
- plugged the address into Google maps and got driving directions
And then proceeded to have a fantastic meal about 2 hours later.
I've started to consider it an essential tool for discovering new places to eat and how to find them when I'm on the road. (I'm quite good when it comes to maps, so I haven't gone to GPS yet.)
Marcia.
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someone arrived with a glorious basket of mixed breads (the goat cheese biscuits are to die for). I had the pork belly , which has got to be one of the top five things I have EVER eaten, followed
I probably should find one of the Rioja threads to post this in, but it's the above quote that tipped the scales in favor of Rioja for my birthday dinner last night. We'd missed it during restaurant week, and looking over menus it's the pork belly that caught my eye - I've read about its wonders on this site and had never had it.
BekkiM is right....the fresh bacon has got to be the best thing I've eaten this year. Oh, my, it was GOOD. Not that the rest of the meal had any issues...but oh my god the pork belly.
I want to go back there for more soon.
Thanks for the review!
Marcia.
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Two examples, that may serve to illustrate different sides, or just provide a moment's worth of reading:
As I've posted before, my mother in law is a self-admitted lousy cook. She's admitted that she gets no joy out of it, and while she's taught herself to be a competent cook, her meals reflect her lack of interest in the subject. Yet she still does it, almost nightly, apparently because she feels it's a woman's job in the marriage to do so, even though there are many other options available.
My stepfather in law always voices his appreciation for the meal and does the cleaning up work. Maybe that's enough for her to keep doing something she really doesn't like doing.
Then there's me.
I was proud of the fact that when I left home for college I was barely competent at "women's work", yet I could use power tools rather handily. I never learned to cook because my mother, somewhat like my mother in law, didn't seem to enjoy cooking. My mother always seemed unhappy to me, and since I didn't want to be that unhappy, I rejected pretty much everything she did - which were all the traditional women's chores.
(Side note: I did, however, learn to bake chocolate chip cookies to the point where I'd memorized the recipe because I discovered guys liked them. REALLY liked them. But I digress.)
It wasn't until college that I learned any decent cooking at all, and that was through the patience of a male friend of mine. He taught me really basic stuff like grilling hamburgers and baking chicken....and I found out I LIKED cooking. I liked it to the point where I asked for a good general cookbook for Christmas that year.
And when I moved out on my own, I STILL cooked for myself. For one. People looked at me like I was nuts, but how could I explain that I liked making the food and I liked eating the food I made? I just said that it was a lot cheaper than eating out all the time.
I've continued to do the lion's share of the cooking since I was married - not because I feel it's the woman's role, not because I'm trying to please my husband, but because I like cooking. I'm very pleased when he likes what I make (he says he eats like a king!), but even that wouldn't be enough for me to put the time and effort into doing something I truly despised. At the risk of being risque', there are other ways I could make him happy.
And yes, I could see myself putting it all aside if the day came where I no longer enjoyed it, when it became a continual burdensome chore. But boy, that's really hard to imagine.
Marcia.
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Albondigas Soup from "The Border Cookbook".
I posted about it in the Dinner thread, but thought it would also go nicely here since it was really easy and absolutely delicious.
Marcia.
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Another recipe from "The Border Cookbook": albondigas soup. Never have I bought a cookbook before and cooked so much from it in the first couple of weeks I had it. It's probably because I have most of the ingredients around, and the rest are easy to find.
The meatballs in this soup have both ground beef and chorizo and some grated zucchini in them. I was thinking that if I beefed up the beef in the mixture they'd make absolutely outstanding hamburgers. The soup was sneakily hot and really deliciousl
Marcia.
Culinary Heresies
in Food Traditions & Culture
Posted
Not only do I use a garlic press, I use that chopped garlic that comes in jars. I can't taste the difference when it's simmered for a long time in a sauce. I only use the fresh when I know I can taste a difference.
I make my chicken stock with leftover ends of vegetables despite the exhortations of many cookbook writers to use only fresh vegetables. I get spectacular results with my bags of frozen garbage.
Marcia.