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WND – Is It Spring Yet?

March 12, 2009

garlic-rosemary

At least half the time I find the wives of the presidential candidates more interesting than the actual candidates. I thought that Theresa Heinz Kerry and Elizabeth Dole were much more dynamic personalities than John Kerry or Bob Dole, which possibly has something to do with why neither of them won an election. While I don’t think that Michelle Obama is more interesting than her husband, I do think she’s at least as interesting as the President. Given the amount of media attention on her, I don’t think I’m the only person who feels this way. And just to say, if I had biceps that looked like hers I would wear sleeveless dresses too, even in March.

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WND – Oscars 2009

February 25, 2009

This all started a couple of years ago when I was watching the first season of “Feasting on Asphalt”.  In the course of their voyage across the United States Alton Brown and his crew ate a wide and weird variety of things, including koolicles at one stop somewhere in the deep deep South.  Koolicles are dill pickles that have been removed from their brine and then marinated in Kool-Aid for several weeks to give them a nice unnatural fluorescent glow and a sweet sour flavor.

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WND – Making it up as I go along

February 19, 2009

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An infinite number of lists exist detailing what the absolutely essential pieces of cooking equipment are.  When it comes right down to it I think the only things you absolutely have to have are a frying pan, a pot, a cutting board and a knife.  However, for those of us who aren’t living like minimalists there are a number of other things that feel essential.

I feel the need for at least two large pots, one smaller pot, two frying pans, a pie plate, an uncounted number of small sharp knives made by Victorinox, a large chef’s knife, a zester and at least 5 bowls in a range of sizes.  Pretty much everything else in my kitchen is a nice bonus, but I could live without it*. Read the rest of this entry ?

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WND – Birthday Month Part 4 (belated)

January 15, 2009

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When I plan meals sometimes I start with a side dish that I really want to have and then work outwards.  Sometimes I start with a protein that I’m craving and then figure out what else goes with it.  Sometimes I figure out what I have the energy to make and discard all recipes that involve a lot of work.  Sometimes, I get lucky like this week and someone makes a specific request (birthday Dinner).  Somewhere along the line though it all comes down to what it will look like on the plate.

A plate should always have at least three things on it – not more than five and never less than three.  More than five separate dishes and your plate is chaotic and too full.  Less than three things and the food looks lonely.  This breaks down usefully to protein + starch + vegetable.  Salad for these purposes does not count as a vegetable.  Currently this is because I almost always serve salad in a side bowl, and growing up it was because salad was eaten after the rest of the meal.  Either way it doesn’t contribute to the balance of the plate. Read the rest of this entry ?

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WND – Cleaning Up the Fridge

December 18, 2008

lemon-juicer

My roommate and I have a deal.  She doesn’t ask me to buy boxed macaroni & cheese, and I pretend not to notice that she’s snuck PAM cooking spray into the pantry while I’m out of town.  She watches Disney movies when I go away, and I watch ridiculously cheesy romantic comedies when she’s away.  It works well for us.

This was the last Dinner before I go to my parents for Christmas.  It was therefore the last chance I had to use up the various things in my fridge that I know my roommate won’t eat while I’m gone, and that will have gone bad by the time I get back.  There’s some unfathomable number of mushrooms in the fridge.  I clearly bought them to make something, but I can’t remember for the life of me what it was.  Possibly it was the same dinner for which I bought an enormous quantity of green beans.  Then there’s the 4+ lb of butternut squash that I bought a month or so ago with the intention of making soup.  I never got around to roasting the squash, and while it’s not going to go bad in the 10 days I’ll be gone I’m of a mind to clean up the kitchen before I leave. Read the rest of this entry ?

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WND – Pre-Thanksgiving Dinner

November 27, 2008

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Going to someone else’s house for Thanksgiving is like voyaging into the unknown.  You never know what strange customs may prevail in this foreign land.  They may serve olives and pickles with dinner (my roommate’s family).  They may serve salad (why?).  They may not make gravy (my cousin’s husband’s family – my entire family stared at him in horror when he admitted this).

I’m actually not all that picky about my Thanksgiving Dinner.  This is mostly because I know that Christmas dinner will be exactly the same as what I would have served for Thanksgiving if I was making it.  So, if I miss my chance at Bacon & Chestnut Stuffing in November, I know that I’ll be eating it in December.  However, Thanksgiving is at our house this year, and I keep feeling like I’ve forgotten some vital Thanksgiving dish, I just can’t remember what it is.
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WND – Arroz con Pollo or the Benefits of Speaking in Tongues

November 20, 2008

debris

My roommate and I were down in Miami this past weekend, and I love Boston, I really do, but there’s something to be said for standing on the beach at midnight drinking mojitos in mid-November.  Frankly there’s something to be said for drinking mojitos at midnight no matter what the setting, but the beach was a nice touch.  While I was there it occurred to me, as it does periodically, that high school Spanish might have been more useful to my life than German (although German does have the dubious merit of making Latin seem easier by comparison).
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WND – If you serve it . . . .

November 13, 2008

mandoline

There is a general truth that if you feed them, they will come.

In college they always had problems achieving quorum at Plenary* until they closed all the dining halls that day and only served food at Plenary. This doesn’t necessarily say much about the student investment in the democratic process of student government. It does however say a lot about how to get 1200 college students to turn up for something.

So far the most successful program my roommate has ever run for teens in her library is the one where she brought in cupcakes for them to decorate. College students will show up for food in general. Teenagers will show up for sugar.

I don’t have a problem getting people to come to Dinner. I do have a small problem getting them to turn up on time. However, the universal truth of Dinner is that if you serve it, they will arrive. It’s like magic. As soon as you put food on the table, the door will open and the missing guests will appear. This works so often, that on the rare occasion that it doesn’t work, I’m always surprised. Read the rest of this entry ?

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WND – Election Night Dinner

November 5, 2008

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Dear Stop-n-Shop:

It is November 2nd.  That’s two days after Halloween, twenty-four days before Thanksgiving and fifty-one days to Christmas.  In other words, it’s way too early for me to be seeing Christmas ornaments and snowmen peeps on the shelves (anyone else remember when peeps were a seasonal treat?)  The leftover Halloween candy has barely made it to the sale racks, and you’re pushing Christmas knick-knacks already?  Have you forgotten that there’s an entire other holiday in between Halloween and Christmas for which you could be selling tacky and unnecessary kitsch?

Also, wherefore your sudden and mysterious aversion to beans?  What used to be a plentiful variety and stock of beans – red beans, black beans, kidney beans, great northern beans, garbanzo beans – has shrunk to a paltry and elusive collection.  I think I bought the last two cans of black beans in the store.

To say nothing of the butter shortage.  I kind of (but not really) understand having a run on butter around Thanksgiving or Christmas what with all of the baking, but Halloween?  Who runs out of unsalted butter on November 2nd?

Je vous prie, Monsieur/Madame, d’accepter l’expression de mes sentiments les plus exaspérées.*
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WND – Becoming My Mother & the Promised Lamb

October 23, 2008

I had a mildly horrifying realization the other day.  I’m becoming my mother.

No offense to my mother, who is a charming and lovely lady of whom I’m quite fond, but I feel emphatically that I’m too young to turn into her.  Not the least of which because it means I’m that much closer to an unhealthy obsession with the temperature of my freezer.
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