Menus, April 22, 2014

“April hath put a spirit of youth in everything.” 

William Shakespeare

Perhaps you thought that because we didn't eat our way around Easter last week that I'd forgotten all about it.
 Not a chance! Sweet memories pack this holiday like eggs fill an Easter basket. It's of deep significance historically, culturally, religiously, there's chocolate every where, excuses galore to buy cute things for the people you love,  and it's second only to Christmas

in its creepitude capacity.
(creepitude capacity is a real thing. It's the
ratio of time exposed to a spooky stimulus to
the duration and number of nightmares afterward.
I am not making this up.)

 Though individual traditions range from the quirky to the staid, Easter is the biggest holiday til the holidays, and I've always appreciated the fact that it falls, in the Northern Hemisphere (where most of the holidays significant to my own culture-of-origin originated) during Spring.  Passover, Easter, Persian New Year, May day- this week I learned that just as people all over the world celebrate harvest and midwinter, the whole globe, in one way or another, celebrates Spring. 
It's just that spring is a whole lot more fun. 
Because in many of the festivals of Spring, grown ups get to do what young people do, and young people get to do what young people do,

and nobody gets in trouble for it.

Case in point, the celebration pictured above- the amazing two day public water fight otherwise known as the Thai festival of Songkran, when the streets and everyone in them are awash with the cleansing waters of a fresh new year.  In India, Holi also celebrates the return of life and color to the world in a way that gets everyone covered.

Just not in water.

This week we'll be eating our way around this beautiful planet again, and in honor of Earth Day, we'll hanging around the bottom of the food chain, eating a whole lot of the good stuff that springs from the ground. 

Let's start in Bosnia! 

Wednesday: Scrambled Eggs, tomatoes and bacon

Eggs are a nearly universal symbol of  the life stored up and let loose in Spring, and you may have the spilled Easter egg stains on your floor to prove it. Boiled and colored eggs here, but in Bosnia, 1,500 eggs get cracking to celebrate the first day of spring. A whole town gathering by the edge of a river for a scrambled egg breakfast on the first day of Spring. 

We can't do that, but we can still have breakfast for dinner and wish for a river. We'll thrown in some nutrient rich tomatoes and probably a nice slice or two of bacon as well



Thursday: Navratan Korma

It's Holi, the Hindu festival of colors that is celebrated in India this time of year- friends, family and strangers alike pelting each other with handfuls of powdered colors. These super fun festivals are catching on in the U.S., and you might be able to find one near you.  If you can't, you can still have a nice curry for dinner, and Korma is one of the traditional varieties of the festival.  This recipe is for the real deal, and it's long and complicated and full of love. A jar of korma sauce can be full of love too, and I'll probably use that. And premixed garam masala.   Because it's Spring, and I'd rather be outside than in the kitchen, wouldn't you?







Friday: Pan fried white fish and Papaya salad

Along with eggs and vegetables, many Spring celebrations feature fish as a symbol of life and abundance. In a crazy cultural mash-up, we're going to try the sort of fried fish that sees in the Persian New Year together with a Thai salad. There is no deep symbolic meaning to the mash-up; the fish, with its hour long soak in an egg marinade really interests me, and the salad was enthusiastically recommended by a new friend who grew up loving the food of her Taiwanese mother. You'll notice in the fish recipe a step-by-step-by 19 more steps recipe for Persian rice with herbs. We love rice, and all things (well, most things) green, so I may try it. But probably not.


Saturday: Cob Salad 

Back to my beloved homeland, and the dozen or so leftover hard boiled eggs that most of us have loitering about in our refrigerators. We'll be slicing a few onto a simple Cobb salad, but if you've got baskets of em, Real Simple has a few more ideas on how to use them before they smell up the house. The recipe I've linked is a vegetarian version of this classic salad, but a slice of leftover Easter Ham or a grilled chicken breast would be great.



Sunday: Pad See Ew

I have confirmation from a reliable source (other than the always reliable, never nonfactual internet) that Songkran really is a thing. Thailand is one among many cultures that begins the year in Spring, and it really is true that for 2 days, the celebration of the New Year creates one big happy gigantic water fight. Water festivals are showing up in cities all over America, but we might have to settle for a homemade version of one of my all time Thai favorites. 

It's a funny thing that cooking through celebrations, even celebrations that are foreign to me, feels like a week long dinner party. 

And not the boring kind.

And whether or not you find a festival,
I hope your week refreshes you
like a water fight on a hot day.
I hope that as this old earth
grows young again
it drenches you in life and color.
and I hope you're able to catch that joy
throw it up into the air
and love whoever it lands on.
Even (especially) if some of it
lands again

on you.

Menus and Grocery lists, February 11, 2014

It's time to try

defying gravity.

I think I'll try

defying gravity

And you can't pull me down.

Stephen Schwartz

Apologies to all sports haters- you may want to scroll on by, because (to lift a line from Romeo's bestie Mercutio) tonight finds me a grave woman. That is, I'm watching the Olympics and marveling at the fact that sometimes, with the right amount of raw talent and passion and hard work, some of us really can

defy gravity.

Every day for the next two weeks waiters will beam down from the U.S. Starship Enterprise

(seriously, this is a medal bearer. Or
a cosmonaut from deep spacestation nine. Or
the lead singer of a sixties band.)

and present medals to those humans who defy gravity the best.  That's what we do- we give our prizes and our admiration to those who can jump higher, fly farther, slide faster....

and we give our sympathies to those whom
gravity wallops in the end.

And the best of those who help us defy the other sort of gravity? 

we turn them into stars.

Gravity- what a great word! Succumbing to it can mean this:

or this:

but overcoming it is always a team sport. Just ask the writing team behind the comedian that you can always count on to lighten your mood. Or the parents and coaches of those high-flying athletes. 

Or the crew responsible for this gravity buster.

I'm no athlete or astronaut, but with a little help, I can still make dinner lighten up a little, and since I'm having more fun with gravity than a juggler with stock in a band-aid company...

no really, she's having a great time...

That is, since gravity rises to so many different puns, this week with the help of Cooking Light magazine (heh heh) there's a line up of yummy dinners- a few of them are one pot wonders that will make the work load lighter too.

Okay, that's enough punning around. 

some of these are falling flat.

No, really, that's enough...Let's launch into (or settle down to) dinner, shall we?

Wednesday: Oven fried rosemary walnut chicken and Roasted butternut squash

One unfortunate casualty of my computer's most recent virus has been the software that collages together photos of a two dish meal.

Which means that tonight, I can only give you a picture of this chicken, which looks yummy, and fire up your imagination about the Butternut squash. Coating the squash with more than just olive oil and salt was so fun last week, that the idea gets a replay tonight- a toss with rosemary and garlic should make the roasted squash a great companion for this chicken. 

Thursday and Friday night's dinners will need cooked chicken, so I'll be roasting 2 or three chicken breasts without the coating. 

Thursday: Chicken Curry

Here's the first chance to use leftover chicken- the leftover part isn't exactly in the recipe, but neither is the idea that if you want to, you could ignore this recipe entirely and still have a yummy chicken curry by using leftover chicken and a jar or packet of curry sauce. Which I very well may do.

Friday: Salmon and Cheese and Broccoli Souffle

Souffle! It's about time I tried a gravity defying souffle, and this one looks great, and the recipe says it's easy. The salmon recipe was chosen by Cooking Light as one of the 25 best recipes they've ever published- there's a barbecuey blend of spices rubbed on to the salmon fillet before baking that sort of melts and caramelizes in the oven. 

Saturday: Chicken pot pie

Here's a one-dish meal to hit every gravitational center, comforty if you're feeling down, reduced fat and calories if you're feeling heavy, and light on prep time if the work of the day is dragging on you. Any leftover cooked chicken snuggles in between the pastry sheets- or if you don't have cooked chicken leftover, take the advice of the recipe and shred the meat off of a rotisserie bird.

I may add a few more vegetables to this mix (if there's any butternut squash left from Wednesday, I'll start there) or serve it alongside an easy salad.

Sunday:  Eggplant Parmesan

I super duper love eggplant parmesan, and if this Cooking Light recipe can really deliver the taste without the heaviness, I will be very happy. Everything a body needs is in this pan- taste, tomatoey licopene goodness, and protein, but if it will hurt your brain to not serve meat, think about thawing out some frozen meatballs, or if you need a side, a little dark green salad would be terrific.

There's the line up- meals that are trying to go lighter and higher and faster than the week before. Time will tell whether they're winners or wipeouts.

For the rest of this week, I hope that you 

find yourself defying gravity.

I hope that this week

you feel yourself mastering

some of the invisible powers that 

shape our lives...

gravity, love, and time.

and  I hope that if

(and almost certainly when)

this week starts to get you down,

 you can find a way 

to spend some time with the loves

 that set your soul soaring.

Menus and grocery lists, September 17th, 2013

"Who is she, when she's at home?"

Australian idiom

Actually, "Who is (he,she,it) when (insert grammatically correlative pronoun) is at home" is a British idiom too, but it never plays in through my mind in the tame tones of the British Isles- my inner audio department plays it in the wildly wonderful accents of the Aussie  vernacular.  The real definition is here, but for me, its meaning shifted today like luggage in an overhead compartment as I traveled from one airport to another on my way home, wherever that is. 

I was thinking of what home means- Is it the magnetic center of your childhood memories? Then I guess the adage "you can't go home again" is one of either grief or relief,

  depending on where those memories fall  in the
 spectrum of  squishy to sharp.

Or maybe home is where you live now, or the place you most recently moved from, or the place you were born.  Judging by the number of restaurants in Dallas alone that pride themselves on home cooking, for some cooks, home is a restaurant kitchen. 

I mean,really- 

What does "homemade" on a menu even mean?
Does the salad maker guy sleep and get his mail
at this restaurant?

We've all heard the old bromide that home is where the heart is, but I'm not exactly sure what that means either. Maybe it means that like it or not, your heart's permanent address is that of your childhood home, or maybe it means that home is a rapidly moving target that travels to whatever new spaces or new faces have claimed your heart. Or maybe it's a warning: there are, after all, chilling legends of those who laid their hearts down and forgot where they put them; the misplaced hearts  scoot themselves into a dim corner, gathering sinister little dust bunnies while they await the heartless wanderer's homecoming.

Tony Bennett once famously left his heart in San Francisco-
an event so traumatic that he couldn't stop singing about it
for the next 40 years.

The whole idea was stewing itself into a rather delicious mindmuddle. As the plane descended into Dallas, I was remembering this thought-provoking and oddly moving TED talk on the subject, and thinking of all the places I've called home, and as the plane landed, I was, quite naturally, thinking about dinner. 

Since I have the infinite pleasure of feeding one of my grown-up kids this weekend and the mercury has dipped to an autumnal 90 degrees, it'll home cooking (whatever that is) for this kitchen this week.

Wednesday: Black beans and rice with molho and farofa

Black beans were a staple of the home audience's Brazilian childhood,and they became a family standard for us both. They're cheap, easy, nutritious and satisfying. The molho and farofa are not essential, but they do provide fresh veggies, and make the whole dish more fun. Manioc flour requires a trip into the import stores in the city, so I'll be substituting white cornmeal. The leftover beans will round out Friday night's salad.

Thursday: Aussie Meat pie and Green salad

If your only experience with meat pie is the chicken pot variety, give yourself a treat and try a good old fashioned ground beef pie. I'll be browning extra ground beef for tomorrow night's salad.

Friday: Taco salad

The recipe I've linked uses chicken as the protein, but we'll be using ground beef and black beans from the past two night's dinners. Why link this recipe when ground beef taco salad recipes abound? Take a peek at the two dressing options in the recipe, and the answer will become clearer than the plastic bottle of  the Catalina dressing that the beef recipes recommend.

Saturday: Slow roast lamb and Greek Salad

Lamb is relatively inexpensive at our local Costco, and though the whole family loves it, my skills at preparing it are sort of hit and miss. I'll be trying this new roasting method, and if you have a never fail way of turning lamb into melt-in-your-mouth tenderness, I'd love to hear about it. This Greek salad!!! Look! the slice of feta is panfried! Awesome! Gotta try this. The leftover lamb goes into tomorrow night's curry.

Sunday: Lamb and Cauliflower curry

With last night's leftover lamb as a start, this should come together faster than you can click your heels together and say "there's no place like home". If you're lucky enough to have international food in your local grocery, grab some naan bread or papadums (and maybe some hummus, tzatziki and chutney) and turn this one-dish dinner into an exotic, home-made buffet.

Where ever you are this week, I hope it holds your heart,

and the welcome of home.

And I hope that you in turn

are a reckless homemaker,

making your home in a thousand spaces,

though your heart must break a little 

each time you leave a piece of it behind.

(your wild and sturdy heart will withstand the breaking)

True, you'll have made yourself

 forever homesick for one place or another,

on the other hand, 

you'll never be too far from home.

Menus May 1, 2013

I keep turning over new leaves, and spoiling them; I make so many beginnings there never will be an end.

Louisa May Alcott

Two and a half weeks. Two and a half weeks of new roads and new cities and new music and new ideas and new beginnings and new shops and new restaurants (new food!) and new books and new ideas....what an excellent series of adventures!

Adventures that led to adventures that have eventually led, as most adventures do, back home. 

And when I arrived back home, after having learned much- including the lesson that I can indeed live (mostly) without the internet for whole days at a time, I found that I had brought a virus home with me. 

Fret not- it was not I who fell victim to the nasty bug.

it was my computer

I was distraught! Inconsolable! My poor faithful laptop, still, quiet, and a deathly blue.
All was not lost. For long ago, I had demonstrated a great deal of foresight and good sense by asking the only man of my acquaintance who can resurrect a dead computer to marry me. He knew precisely the words with which to offer comfort:

"Don't worry sweetie. I think I can salvage
most of your pictures. And maybe even
your itunes library."

However, any patience and any sympathies I had extended to this anthropomorphised collection of keys and circuitry were frayed ragged, when less than 48 hours after it had been pulled back from the brink of death, my computer had succumbed again. 

I was quite close to trying a rather energetic reboot.

Although, to be fair, it was I who opened the door to the Trojan Horse, and I who failed to protect it against that near fatal virus. I imagine my computer may be more exasperated with me than I am with it. I imagine that if I could open it quickly enough, I'd find it giving me, you know, a look:

"work my keypad to the bone for you, play
your boring music and your stupid Netflix all day,
and it's MY fault when I break down?! I'd like to show you
a hard reboot or two, I would."

Anyway, we've reached an uncertain truce. A sort of not-quite-mutual agreement.

I will offer my laptop electricity, allow it to spend a little more time on reddit, and do my best to avoid clicking  any deceptively innocuous looking buttons that might as well be labeled "kill me".

The computer, in return, has agreed to help me plan dinner.

Wednesday: Stir fry with Teriyaki sauce 

The home audience is in a less than carnivorous mood this week, so I'll be making this a veggie stir fry, but a stirfry is  perfect for leftover meat, or thickly sliced deli roast beef, or shredded rotisserie chicken.

 The recipe I've linked is America's test kitchen teriyaki sauce- if you have time, try it. Five ingredients, and almost five minutes, and you've got a great sauce for grilling, broiling, dipping, glazing, or topping a plateful of ramen noodles and vegetables. And don't let a lack of mirin stop you. If you can't easily find or afford it, substitute beer, white wine, water with a little rice or apple cider vinegar, pineapple juice....you get the idea. 

And. Here's an all time awesome stir fry tip. 

Go to Tuesday Morning, or Big Lots, or anywhere, and get yourself one of these:

an electric kettle.
It'll change your life a little.
In a good way.

I know, I know. My electric kettle is crazy cool looking. Don't let yourself or your countertop appliances be put off by the cooler-than-thou attitude my kettle sometimes assumes.

  This trick works no matter how cute or cool your kettle may be.

Cut into bite size pieces any veggies that are harder than, oh, snow peas. Broccoli, carrots, maybe onions, and toss them in a bowl and cover them with that water that your oh-so-awesome kettle just boiled up for you, and let them sit in that hot bath while you prep the rest of the veggies.

When you're ready, drain them and throw them in the pan- you'll find that the hot water cooked them just enough so that they're done in the same amount of time that it takes the softer veggies to cook.  

Thursday: Linguine with zucchini and chickpeas

Fast, cheap and easy. Put this together with sausage or pork chops or chicken if your audience is clamoring for some non vegetable protein.

Friday: cauliflower and lentil curry

Record low temps are predicted here on Friday night; a great opportunity for a warm, nicey, spicy curry. And I'm going to believe that when the home audience said he wanted to eat more vegetables, he meant that he's okay with eating less meat.  

I may throw a little spinach in here, and if there's a zucchini leftover from last night, I'll put that in as well.

(note to self) we are currently out of chutney. Do not forget the chutney.

Saturday: Tilapia with Pecan butter and tomato, cucumber and quinoa salad

The most effortvescent meal of the week here, and it's really not that hard. The wild rice and green beans have been voted off the plate- this salad is easier, faster, and looks tastier. I'll be cooking extra fish for tomorrow.

Sunday: Tilapia tacos 

This'll come together in less time than you can say "I think I've had it with yard work for the day, what's on TV?"  And I'm super interested in this cucumber relish idea. If it's good, there could be a wide range of applications.....

I wonder if for you too these last weeks have been full of the finding and facing of new things.

I wonder if for you too these weeks have been full of re-wording-

You know- replace, reassess, rearrange, reassemble, refresh, reboot, resume....

Words about beginning.

or beginning again.

And new beginnings can be a little....exey. You know-

exhilarating. or exhausting.

but if you look out your window, I'll bet you'll see the whole springtime world is re-working.

and I hope this week, once or twice, the whole reawakening world will find a way to give you courage, peace, and all the energy you need to, you know,

Restart.