Archive for the ‘*Petra’ Category
May 14, 2012
I have a confession. I need my cookbooks to have pictures. This makes me feel like a little kid, but when I’m faced with a cookbook that’s just text I get lost and overwhelmed. I need pretty pictures of the food to go with the recipes. Partially this is for the simple reason that I believe in white space on the page like some people believe in the power of a good martini at 5pm on a Friday*. Partially it is because, like many people, I eat with my eyes first and I need/like to be enticed by what something looks like as well as by the description of the ingredients. And partially, it’s because I’m shallow and I just like the glossy food porn quality of the current cookbook market. Read the rest of this entry ?
Posted in *Petra | Tagged Chicken, Meat and Seafood, Side Dish, Starch | Leave a Comment »
April 19, 2012
In the late ‘90s there was a show on HBO called Oz which was all about life inside a maximum security prison (it was a lot better than I just made it sound – the writing was fantastic). Anyway, it was the quintessential ‘don’t get too attached to this character’ show. On the one hand, this was terrible because sometimes your favorite characters ended up getting shived out of nowhere. And, on the other hand, when there was a really irritating character you could shout ‘just die already’ at your TV with a fair chance that it might actually happen. The downside is that after watching eight seasons of Oz some of that attitude spilled over into other areas of our life – some of it TV related, and some of it really not. Case in point, there are some food trends I would like to just die already . . . . Read the rest of this entry ?
Posted in *Petra | 5 Comments »
April 13, 2012
Dear Everyone in the Food Industry:
Please stop tormenting me with exciting recipes for Spring produce. Yes, we’re having an early Spring (the fact that we’re having Spring at all is kind of remarkable) here in the Northeast, but it’s not that early. It’s not that I begrudge you your access to fresh produce after a long winter (except for how I totally do). It’s not that I don’t want you to post recipes for Spring sandwiches filled with hard boiled eggs, pickled onions and seared asparagus, and gorgeous appetizers of crostini with strawberries and peashoots, and noodles with kale & spicy rhubarb sauce (just so you know, y’all, this is getting made the instant I see rhubarb at the store); I can (and do) bookmark them for later experimentation and consumption. It’s just that, well, I’m positively green-eyed with jealousy of your Spring bounty. Read the rest of this entry ?
Posted in *Petra | Tagged Side Dish, Starch | Leave a Comment »
March 28, 2012
Dinner table discussions at MND run a gamut of topics. Sometimes we discuss why the local theater company’s production of “The Lady’s Not for Burning” is a travesty that completely misses the point of the play. Sometimes we fulminate helplessly at the latest shenanigans from the political establishment. Sometimes we explain why we (I) have a crush on Henry II, and expound on why the next historical series Showtime or HBO makes should be The Plantagenets!* Sometimes we data mine our collective reading experience to help one of the (many) librarians around the table create a recommended reading list. Sometimes we negotiate the delicate task of coordinating eight schedules to find a time for everyone to go see the latest movie based on a YA novel (in this case “The Hunger Games” and it was actually creepily easy). And sometimes, sometimes we just get silly. Read the rest of this entry ?
Posted in *Petra | Tagged Chicken | 1 Comment »
March 28, 2012
Massachusetts isn’t just flirting coyly over the top of its fan with Spring this year. This year Massachusetts is conducting an indiscreet rambunctious affair with Spring the likes of which haven’t been seen since Charles II took up with Nell Gwyn. I didn’t know this was going to be true when I picked March 23rd for a day at the spa with my roommate, followed by treating ourselves to dinner at 80 Thoreau, but it worked out very nicely as I moseyed down Newbury Street on Friday afternoon in a sundress (and daringly, no stockings!). Read the rest of this entry ?
Posted in *Petra | Tagged Chicken | 2 Comments »
March 28, 2012
My not particularly secret vice (?) passion (?) weakness (?) is soup. I eat soup almost every day for lunch, and if I didn’t strictly edit myself we’d eat it probably twice a week for dinner as well. As it is, I’d guess that we eat some form of soup for dinner about every 10 days. Read the rest of this entry ?
Posted in *Petra | Tagged bread, Chicken, soup | 1 Comment »
February 29, 2012
My office runs a Super Bowl pool every year, and every year I get asked multiple times if I want to participate. I get tired of finding clever non-offensive ways to say no (in my office an unexplained ‘no’ is not an acceptable answer). Most years I don’t even know who’s playing – although this year I did because it’s impossible to live in Boston and not know that the Patriots have made it to the Superbowl. This year my standard response was that I didn’t care about the Super Bowl, but if someone wanted to handicap the Oscars I’d be in like Flynn. Nobody too me up on my suggestion. Read the rest of this entry ?
Posted in *Petra | Tagged Meat and Seafood, pork, Salad, Side Dish, soup, Starch, Vegetables | 6 Comments »
Monday Night Dinner 