WND is on hiatus until the New Year.
Archive for the ‘*Petra’ Category
WND – Shepherd’s Pie
December 13, 2007In fairness to British cuisine, there’s a lot of it that I like – Toad in the Hole, Ploughman’s Lunch, Bangers ‘n’ Mash. I even genuinely like Haggis* as long as I don’t think too hard about what’s in it. By the same token, however, there’s a lot of British food that’s fairly inexplicable – Bubble ‘n’ Squeak, kippers, kedgeree (for breakfast? really?), blood pudding.
One of the many moves of my childhood was to Hong Kong where I acquired a pristine British accent (it didn’t last, much to my parents’ disappointment) and a somewhat curious fondness for baked beans on toast (from a can, on the whitest bread you can find – I make very good homemade baked beans; they don’t taste right on toast). I did not, however, pick up a fondness for Shepherd’s Pie because the filling is usually watery, the mashed potatoes are gluey, and the whole thing is a festival of blandness.
About 10 years ago Britain got tired of its reputation as a land of lamentable food, and there was a rash of bistro pubs that opened making gourmet versions of traditional pub food. This Shepherd’s Pie would be right at home on one of those menus. Mind you, the recipe comes from an Italian chef who lives in California, so it’s probably about as far from a traditional English Shepherd’s Pie as you can get and still have it be recognizable.
* Yes I know it’s Scottish, but I used to eat it at a pub in Edinburgh so in my mind it’s pub food.
WND – Birthday Related Baking
December 6, 2007Baking : Chemistry as Cooking : ____________
(a) Rhetoric
(b) Postmodernism
(c) Mathematics
(d) Alchemy
It’s worth noting that this is an entirely self serving analogy since I cook all the time but only bake sporadically.
. . . . . possibly it’s also worth noting that I was a medieval history major who got there via fantasy novels and gothic churches.
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WND – Not Leftover Turkey
November 30, 2007I was going to write a post this week about how my biggest pet peeve with cooking shows and cooking magazines is that they always devote the month of November to how to build a new and better Thanksgiving. Nobody really wants a new and better Thanksgiving, they want the Thanksgiving they grew up eating. What I want is for one cooking magazine to be a rebel and say:
“You know what? If the public wants to know how to brine/grill/fry a turkey they can read one of the 8000 other cooking magazines. We’re going to be daring and help our readers out with what to do with the leftovers.”
Then I was going to talk about Turkey Tettrazini which is what my family traditionally does with leftover turkey. But sometimes Dinner throws you for a loop, and this was one of those weeks.
WND – Baked Ziti
November 23, 2007I started Monday Night Dinner when I moved up to Boston after college, which is an astonishing eight years ago now. I fortunately had roommates who more or less shrugged and said, ‘sure, if you want to invite all our friends over and cook for them every week, go ahead’.
In eight years we’ve adopted people who got brought to Dinner as a guest of a guest, and acted as the most terrifying review committee for prospective wives, girlfriends and husbands. We’ve also lost members as people do such unconscionable things as move away to go to grad school, or swear that they love us but just can’t take the weather in Boston. As a side note, it’s a lot harder to convince someone that winter in Boston isn’t all that bad if they’ve actually lived through three of them.
This is a holiday weekend, and one of the best things about holidays is that sometimes you get people back. We get to hear about their new boyfriends, and their exciting thesis topics, and reassure ourselves the scary roommate who thought fabric softener was a high ticket luxury item is no longer in the picture.
The thing about Dinner is that once you’ve been a regular part of Dinner, you’re always a part of Dinner no matter where you live. We’re kind of like the mafia that way. We’re also like a family that way and we like it when our far flung members come on home even if it’s just for a visit.
WND – Chili & The Perils of Pottery
November 15, 2007A gentleman I used to work with had a rant about women and shopping. It ran something along the lines of – women buy things they don’t need and can’t really afford just because they’re on sale and they can’t resist the lure of the bargain. I feel that this isn’t something that’s limited to women. Advertising campaigns from Home Depot, Lowes, Sears and any other DIY store you can think of suggest that men are just as guilty of the, “but honey, it was on sale,” buy as women. Men just buy power tools instead of coats (at least according to television – I personally know a lot of women who’d be thrilled to buy power tools on sale).
WND – Curry Dinner
November 9, 2007Have you been thinking about repainting your kitchen? Wondering what color would look best with your counter? I highly recommend making Indian food as a way to test out new color schemes for your kitchen. Some people just think it’s spices staining the counter, but you know that it’s multi-tasking at it’s finest. Would pomegranate pink look good on your walls? What about turmeric yellow?
I love Indian food, and I have a beautiful Indian cook book filled with pretty pictures and recipes. This meal does not come from there. It comes from Nigella Lawson courtesy of the Food Network and is probably about as authentically Indian as Coronation Chicken. Mind you, I like Coronation Chicken so this is not actually an issue for me, and it uses quasi-obscure spices like cardamom pods and cumin seeds so I get to feel like I’m making an ethnic effort.
Mughlai Chicken
Muttar Paneer
Roasted Curried Cauliflower
Rice Pilaf
Pomegranate Raita
WND – Corn Pudding & Other Gateway Drugs
November 1, 2007The weather has finally turned for good. The trees are glorious with crimson and gold. There’s comfort food on the menu for Dinner. I’d say all is right with the world, but the Red Sox just won the World Series for the second time in four years and that might actually be a sign of the apocalypse.
Corn Pudding
Chicken Fingers
Apple Sauce
Broccoli
WND – Cajun Chicken Salad
October 25, 2007Firstly. Go Sox!
I live in Boston, I’m pretty sure I’m legally obligated to be excited that the Red Sox made it to the World Series (and won last night’s game 13-1).
Okay, moving on.
A remuda is a herd of horses. Did you know this? Why do I know this?
WND – Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness
October 18, 2007Pasta with Pumpkin Sauce
Salad
The Food Network is my default TV choice. It’s what I watch when I just want something on in the background. It’s what I watch when I’ve just gotten up on weekend mornings and I’m not coherent enough for anything with a plot. It’s what I watch when it’s 11:30 pm and I don’t quite want to go to bed yet but there’s nothing on TV.
The other night my roommate called out to me from the living room, “Hey, look! I’m watching the Food Network of my own volition.” This, I think, says more about the appeal of Ace of Cakes and the limited number of things on at 10:30 on a Tuesday night than about my ability to convert her to an obsession with the Food Network. Although, she doesn’t usually complain when I watch the Food Network for hours on Saturday morning so maybe my subtle plan for world domination is moving along on schedule.
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Monday Night Dinner 