eG Foodblog: JennyUptown - Fun with food

[JennyUptown]

What I will be cooking... ready for this? Aside from the name of this variant on the dish it's not exciting.

My dinner in progress

I'm part annoyed [by the title], part amused...but completely sure PLM must NOT see my printout.

Note to hillvalley: the meal will be sans fresh basil, of course.

[JennyUptown]

PS I'm taking suggestions and/or design help for a new avatar. Volunteers? Comedians?

[hillvalley]

What I will be cooking... ready for this? Aside from the name of this variant on the dish it's not exciting.

My dinner in progress

I'm part annoyed [by the title], part amused...but completely sure PLM must NOT see my printout.

Note to hillvalley: the meal will be sans fresh basil, of course.

Dinner sounds delish!

[maggiethecat]

I'm part annoyed [by the title], part amused...but completely sure PLM must NOT see my printout.

But what if he sees the leftovers in the fridge, tastes them, rushes to Tiffany's and returns only to fall on one knee and beg for your hand?

Engaging writing, great sports take, charming blogger...thanks, Jenny.

(If he really does propose, I'm telling Ms. Ray! )

[JennyUptown]

<<awaiting snide comment from Al_Dente>>

[ronnie_suburban]

I'm shocked, SHOCKED that the Jenny avatar is no more...

A new day is dawning...

=R=

[Al_Dente]

<<awaiting snide comment from Al_Dente>>

No snide comment here. Though I hope your SO sees the printout. Hehehehe.

Great blog, Uptown.

I totally agree with your food-memory connection. I think some scientists somewhere established a strong primal link between smells and memory, so it certainly stands to reason that food could trigger some powerful recollections.

First food memory-- I was a kid in Saugerties NY. Not sure which comes first-- ice cream from Stewart's (I still remember the design of the metal wire chair backs), or pizza from so-and-so's Hunting Lodge. Might have been Frank's. We rarely had take out food, so pizza from there was a real special treat. I think we usually just had cheese, and I can still remember the smell. I wonder if it's still there. I'd be curious to see what I think of their pie now, but my recollection is that I'd probably still consider it top notch. I also remember these big chocolate chip cookies my dad would bring back from a vending machine at IBM. They didn't seem mass produced and were wrapped in Saran Wrap.

Food I hated-- lima beans, lima beans, lima beans. I would gag when eating these mushy monstrosities. I can still feel that reflex start to kick in when I think of it. I still don't like that canned crap, but fresh they're pretty decent, and raw and straight out of the garden they're quite tasty.

A food I associate with a particular age-- when I was 7 or 8, my grandparents on my dad's side would take us to this Italian place in Kingston NY. Not that we were dirt poor or anything, but this was maybe a twice yearly event on par with me now going to one of the top restaurants in my area. "Real" Italian too-- checked table cloths, chianti bottles with candles stuck in the top, and waiters with distinctly Italian accents. Practically on a dare from my dad, I had linguini in white clam sauce. Sometimes I think this may have been the start of my interest in food. Once I tasted that buttery garlicky goodness, I was hooked. I think I ordered it everytime I went. It seemed like a sophisticated "grown up" dish unlike pizza or lasagna.

A food I associate with a favorite person growing up-- I spent a lot of time at my grandmother's on my mother's side because her back yard was practically the Catholic School I went to. Her kitchen usually had some great kinda generic baking smells, unlike my other grandmother's place that always had a kinda antiseptic pine smell. I used to hate the stuff, but she grew rhubarb all around her back porch. She'd cook with it pretty regularly, but I couldn't stomach it.

There you go, for what it's worth...

[Toliver]

PS  I'm taking suggestions and/or design help for a new avatar.  Volunteers?  Comedians?

Such a silly question:

[Al_Dente]

No Fish

[herbacidal]

PS I'm taking suggestions and/or design help for a new avatar. Volunteers? Comedians?

me, too. lemme join you there.

though the tang one fits.

one with the different kinds of seafood crossed out might not be understood, as it'd be too small.

[KarenS]

I'm curious if the people who dislike seafood grew up in inland areas? I have frequently met midwesterners and Minnesotans that would not eat fish or seafood. I grew up in Northern CA where most people seem to like fish and seafood. I also feel that Californians seem to eat a lot more vegetables and salad.

[maggiethecat]

For what it's worth, I think that al_dente should volunteer to blog PDQ!

And you know, I might make the vodka pasta for dinner tonight---I have leftover turkey and ham (thank you ronnie! ) but could use a break from the smoky flavour.

[Squeat Mungry]

I'm curious if the people who dislike seafood grew up in inland areas? I have frequently met midwesterners and Minnesotans that would not eat fish or seafood. I grew up in Northern CA where most people seem to like fish and seafood. I also feel that Californians seem to eat a lot more vegetables and salad.

Not in my case. My extended family on both sides is from the North Carolina coast -- and my dad was a Coast Guard officer, so we always lived on one coast or another -- and a lot of my early food memories are of (the rest of) my family eating seafood!

We'd often go to oyster shacks where buckets of raw oysters on ice would be plonked down in the middle of long picnic tables. Since I wasn't eating them, guess who was shucking them? I've probably shucked more oysters than anyone else who has never eaten one!

Cheers,

Squeat

[jsolomon]

What I will be cooking... ready for this? Aside from the name of this variant on the dish it's not exciting.

My dinner in progress

I'm part annoyed [by the title], part amused...but completely sure PLM must NOT see my printout.

Note to hillvalley: the meal will be sans fresh basil, of course.

Sounds like a candidate for flambe-ing...

It's really a wonderful technique if you're feeling brave... especially with fresh sweet corn cut raw from the cob...

yum....

However, never, ever EVERflambe brussels sprouts in tequila. Voice of experience.

[Pan]

However, never, ever EVERflambe brussels sprouts in tequila.

Why? What happens?

[herbacidal]

I'm curious if the people who dislike seafood grew up in inland areas? I have frequently met midwesterners and Minnesotans that would not eat fish or seafood. I grew up in Northern CA where most people seem to like fish and seafood. I also feel that Californians seem to eat a lot more vegetables and salad.

that's an interesting theory.

i would speculate that a lot of people inland may have grown up with freshwater fishermen so i would say that may be contributory, but can't account for all of them. although i wonder how many of "them" there are.

[morela]

Jenny,

I love seafood enough for the both of us. You're still cool.

Especially raw!

Edited January 14, 2004 by morela (log)

[babka]

there might be something to that inland theory. Growing up in Iowa, I _hated_ fish.

Fish, of course, consisted of my aunt's fishballs, frozen breaded whitefish, or mushymealy fish shipped in.

Now you can get (farm-raised but fresh) salmon in the grocery stores there.

and I'm living in D.C. and eating it almost every chance I get.

[jsolomon]

However, never, ever EVERflambe brussels sprouts in tequila.

Why? What happens?

Brussels shots are the outcome. And the flavor of brussels sprouts does not seem to compliment tequila

[JennyUptown]

Many responses whilst cooking!!

I love seafood enough for the both of us. You're still cool.

Thank you my DC friend. Be careful about being too sweet to me though because next weekend it'll be my turn to tab someone for the next blog. You have a great writing style so... watch out.

For what it's worth, I think that al_dente should volunteer to blog PDQ!

Another option.

I'm curious if the people who dislike seafood grew up in inland areas? I have frequently met midwesterners and Minnesotans that would not eat fish or seafood. I grew up in Northern CA where most people seem to like fish and seafood. I also feel that Californians seem to eat a lot more vegetables and salad.

I did grow up inland (PA), however both parents are seafood lovers. Old-school seafood, not sushi or sashimi. Never crudo and forget anything fancier than a chowder. Whenever we'd travel, Mom and Dad would go crazy over whatever the local seafood dish was. Not me. No way. Uh-uh.

My post re: tonight's meal is forthcoming.

[JennyUptown]

The dinner. *sigh* I was suddenly reminded of why I usually prefer NOT cooking. All I have now is a splattered stove, dirty dishes and... a headache. More on that later.

If you would be kind enough to visit the recipe link and have that handy as you read this commentary, I'll go pretty much line by line.

EVOO

No problem

Butter

Got plenty of that

Garlic

Will use a combination of fresh sliced cloves and some garlic I minced in my food processor

Shallots

Uh-oh. Looking in the fridge, I realized that PLM used the last of my shallots on Sunday's dinner. Shoot. Shallots inadvertently caused my headache. More on that later.

Vodka

Duh. I have that. I need more though because I'm down to the end of this bottle of Belvedere. Seems like I should get some of the cheaper stuff for cooking, perhaps.

Chicken Stock

I had just enough of that.

Crushed Tomatoes

Hmm...what to do. I don't have crushed - I do have diced (yuck, why did I buy those?), whole and sauce. None of the cans are the suggested 32 oz. I guess I'll have to adapt the recipe. That's nothing new for me.

The rest...piece of cake. Throw in my usuals: prosciutto and peas (can you see where this is going?)

But the few improvisations I did make were resulted in a too-watery, too-salty vodka sauce. For that reason, I declined to take photos.

The headache. After digging around my refrigerator to make absolutely certain that I didn't have any shallots, I banged my head on the open freezer door.

Cooking stinks. The worst part? I made enough for leftovers so I'm stuck eating the stuff for lunch tomorrow. If only I'd had volunteers to cook for me.

[Al_Dente]

sounds like you didn't reduce enough?

did you use any fresh tomatoes? if so, I usually de-seed them to keep the water content down.

rat bastard freezer doors...

[JennyUptown]

I let the sauce simmer longer than I thought I would have to, hoping for some reduction and thickening. But then the pasta was ready so I said "whatever!! I'm eating."

Fresh tomatoes? What are those? Have you learned nothing about me and my inability to keep ingredients, especially fresh ones, on-hand?

[Cusina]

Hmmm.... food childhood memories. The first thing that comes to mind is popovers. Hands down the most anticipated dinner side dish of my childhood. The second item is whiskey soaked cherries ala Dad's Manhattan.

I think my first clear childhood food memory is of watching a distant cousin make a fruit salad "basket" out of a yellow fleshed watermelon at a family reunion. I must have been about 4 and was completely mezmerized by the task. She let me eat the scraps while she worked and I ended up being really sticky. Yellow watermelon tastes exactly like the pink stuff in my memory, only yellower.

My worst childhood taste though was soymilk. Blergh. For some reason my mother decided I was milk sensitive and I spent a few months of my fifth year trying to argue my way out of drinking the stuff. I still gag when I smell it.

Childhood summertime is all about kool aid and public pool concession stand ice cream and candy. Push-ups, twix bars, ice cream sandwiches, dip it sugar sticks, 1000 grand bars, dreamcicles, frozen snickers bars. 10 cents for the small stuff, 25 for the big candy bars out of the little red plastic squeeze change purse pinned to my pink panther towel with my season pass.

______________________

Back to here and now. I wonder how much the pro athlete's diet is determined by their age?? I ate like crap at 19 and 21 also, just didn't really know not eat what they told me to on the TV. I'm impressed when I read eGullet posts by people in their late teens and early 20s. I was so un-gourmet at that point in time. Eating was just kind of secondary to living (and drinking). I did it, but I wasn't good at it yet. By the time they are old enough to know better, the athletes' professional careers are probably almost over. I suppose though, unlike me, these are guys who are looking for peak performance from their bodies. They really should take in better stuff. Does a professional team do nutritional education?

[Al_Dente]

I let the sauce simmer longer than I thought I would have to, hoping for some reduction and thickening. But then the pasta was ready so I said "whatever!! I'm eating."

Fresh tomatoes? What are those? Have you learned nothing about me and my inability to keep ingredients, especially fresh ones, on-hand?

Okay, so no fresh ones-- tomatoes suck this time of the year anyway. Usually the pasta can wait (while draining if you keep a cup of the water that you boiled it in) for a few minutes while you reduce further. Live and learn-- this is how it works. You'll have to do the equivalent of kissing a few frogs first before dishes turn out how you want. Try it again-- soon, so you remember what you did last time. EGulllet will make a gourmand out of you yet.