Weekend update, June 15, 2014

"Once upon a time, man had a love affair with fire."

Robert McCammon

 'Man' being the most thought provoking and perhaps the most historically important word in that sentence. Although many of us, men and women, would love the chance to curl up with

a one of those and a one of those in front of a one of that,

Humanity's enduring relationship with fire is not exactly gender neutral. There are flames that are traditionally handled by women, and flames that are traditionally the domain of men. Here- let's see if we can arrange in in a sort of  lady flamage to macho flamage continuum:

lady flames start with scented candles,          then move to contained cooking fires                   on to kitchen blowtorches

moving into the manzone with barbecues,           to campfires                                   to large things that go BOOM.

Of course there's overlap- there are men who understand why scented candles are an imperative, and there are women firefighters. Most of the world's famous chefs have been men, and I myself can start a campfire with a single match. 

And  yet, one cannot deny that there is this funny and ancient division of fire-works:

while women tend any fire that can fit under a pot,

barbecuing is for the menfolk. 

Maybe this is because in olden times, women weren't taught how to manage a fire bigger than a stove burners, and in a panic

often tried to shield themselves from fiery destruction
with their own highly flammable barbecutie dresses.

 And maybe, men assumed dominion of the outdoor cooking fires because they just had a natural, you know,  knack for it.

most of the time.

Want a little more evidence of pyrosexism?  Consider this: When a man has a burning determination to accomplish a goal, he's said to have a "fire in the belly" while a woman with a fire in the belly has usually fallen victim of the sort heartburn that comes from rearranging the internal furniture to make room for a baby. An angry man? 

He's hot.

An angry woman? She's got a fiery temper.

and somehow this is not always a good thing.

Good or bad, gender-rule breaking or not, this little suburbanite was smokin' last week. 

I have begun to conquer the grill.

Begun. Not altogether mastered. For instance:

This Grilled Skirt Steak

Grilling means to cook something quickly over a hot fire, and barbecuing is cooking something slowly over a low fire. This is a thing I learned. What I did not learn was why this recipe, which I really did pay attention to, turned out so chewy. And slicing it even thinner and putting it on a skirt steak salad didn't magically make it more tender. Topping it with a green dressing made it a little more entertaining though-

but only because it made me think
"Who ya gonna call when a ghost leaves an
ectoplasmic trail on your salad?"

yep, these guys.

Here's what I did learn- a few things that give me hope for my future as a chick who grills. First, grilled salad is my new favorite thing. Second, grilled pizza is my new favorite thing.

no, really. Grilled pizza!!! amazing! 

Whole foods was nice enough to have to little balls of pizza dough in the freezer case. They got rolled out any old way, brushed with olive oil and thrown on the grill til the underside was dry. Then they were flipped over, and the cooked side spread with pizza toppings.

That's the magic "woodchips in a foil packet" trick.
Gave the pizza an unbelievable wood oven taste.

 back on the grill, lid closed for about 5 minutes, and:

pizza. and burning cheese. And a whole lot of smoke. 

 No kidding. I am never heating the kitchen to 500 degrees to bake a pizza ever again.
And. Guess What!?!?! I cooked a slab of animal protein, and it was awesome! Go ahead, gasp in astonishment. I was surprised too. 
Because I did that thing where you read a recipe at 5, thinking you have plenty of time to cook for dinner at 7, until you read "Your ribs should be done in 4 to 5 hours of cooking"

!!!!!!

But look what happened in an hour and a half!

Yes. The potatoes were on the grill for 20 minutes, and that turns out to be about 4 shades of brown too long. But that's an inexpensive mistake that's easy to correct. But tender, juicy, smoky ribs? That's a first for this fire starter. But not the last. From now on, ribs are my favorite thing.

I've wondered and wondered this week about our preoccupation with fire.
and I haven't even almost figured it out.
But there is this:
 The same fire that comforts can destroy.
Maybe it's that balance that holds us in fascination.
I hope this week
that balance works in your favor.
I hope you find a way to burn bright without burning out.
and that the passions that light you up
light your way through the week.
And if you don't go at it like a house on fire
That's okay. 
Houses on fire are usually a disaster anyway.
 I hope for you that single flame.
that steady, simple, loving fire
that will be all you need

to light your whole world.

Menus, June 11, 2014

"Fire and hope are connected, just so you know."

Jodi Picoult

Connected in a curving line of mythic causes and epic consequences, but still connected- pretty much. It happened like this: after an eon or two of trickery and subterfuge among the residents of Olympus, Prometheus noticed that mankind, for whom he had a special fondness, was shivering under mastodon blankets at night and stuck eating cold oatmeal and steak tartare and raw onions day in and day out. 

That's because being warm on a cold night
 and eating cooked food was a privilege of the gods.

So one night, while all the other divinities were sleeping off a bacchanalian binge, Prometheus stole a burning stick of something and high tailed it down to earth,

where he hosted the first barbecue.

After that things got heated. The gods, more than a little miffed about having to share yet another of their nice things, spread  vengeance around thicker than sauce on a pulled pork sandwich. Prometheus was chained to a rock where his perpetually regenerating liver was daily ripped out by an eagle,

or, what some of you would call just another day at the office.

And for the dual crimes of receiving stolen goods and enjoying a gift from the gods, man also was punished. Sarcastia, the goddess of passive-aggression, got even with him by presenting him with a woman. The beautiful Pandora was given to man, bringing with her a different sort of heat and a pretty little box that she had been sternly warned against opening. And so man was punished with the gift of a wife, who in turn had been cursed with the gift of curiosity. 

Residents of Olympus really struggle with the whole
presents are for making people happy thing, don't they?
The year after this, they invented the Christmas sweater.

Of course Pandora opened the box, and released into humanity all the ills and evils it didn't already have. In a panic of fear and remorse she slammed the box shut just before the last spirit, the spirit of Hope, could escape. Now. Here's a thing that has always puzzled me: if releasing the evils allowed them to multiply, why not release hope to multiply as well? Why did mankind and godkind heave a sigh of relief when hope was trapped in the box at the last second?

That's a ponder for another time...A time that is not dinner time.

At dinner time, it's enough to know that even though summer has descended on the Northern Hemisphere and no one wants to heat up a kitchen, we need not be reduced to eating microwave dinners and cereal. 

Because this week fire and hope will be inextricably linked- as they were when you were young, and on your way home smelled the smell of something on a grill and thought "gee, someone's having barbecue tonight. 

I sure hope it's me."

Because this week, where there's smoke, there just might be dinner. 

Wednesday: Grilled Skirt Steak and Grilled Vegetables

 It's no secret that up to this point, I have treated the grill as an outdoor stove. No longer. Curiosity impels me and the internet assists me, and I will learn this week how to cook with fire. I hope. 
We're going to start here, with a relatively simple dinner and a salad with its leftover's tomorrow, and use that confidence to do some hard-core barbecuing later in the week.






Skirt Steak salad

Leftover steak settles in nice and easy under a lime and cilantro dressing for a terrific main dish salad. Gotta have some carbs? Think of warming up some tortillas and wrapping your salad up like a burrito.







Maple Grilled Salmon and blackberry salad

Once more onto the flames for a poor piece of Salmon. Maybe this time I'll be able to fish it out before it over cooks. This salad is so good, that it's showing up for the second week in a row. This time though, the dressing will be a simple maple syrup/balsamic vinaigrette. 

Grilled Pizza and grilled eggplant with tomatoes and basil

What to grill when the vegetarians are with you? This. Well, I hope so. I've heard great things about grilled pizza, and I'm willing to try. Even if it burns to a cinder, we'll still have the veggies, and they look terrific.




Barbecued Ribs and Potato salad. 

Here's the week's next challenge: a long, slow, true barbecue- a thing I have never done. I've linked a step-by-step lots of pictures type recipe, and though it looks a little time consuming, it looks possible. Not even the potato salad heats up the kitchen- the potatoes are grilled along with the meat, then tossed along with the vegetables in a creamy Italian dressing.

Well, that's the line up- look again and you'll see that neither the stove or the oven get turned on all week!  New techniques that need learning, curiosity to satisfy, and a house that needs to keep its cool.  Wow. Put it all together and it seems a little daunting. Well. One dinner at a time, right?

I hope this week 
fans the flames of your passions
and yet keeps your cool.
And I hope that this week those passions
get their turn on the front burner.
Because it's true, you know-
the things that light you up,
that set your heart on fire,
they are connected to 
your most ardent hopes.
So this week, when sadder parts of being human assail you,
Dig deep.
Look again at things you thought were empty.
And maybe, just maybe, 
 in the bottom of the box,
you'll find everything you need to kindle one more

Menus, April 30, 2014

You better pay attention,

 cause this world we love so much

 might just kill you

 Randy Newman

Fans of  Randy Newman or of the defective detective Adrian Monk.will recognize his theme song. and those who are pollen prey will recognize the message. Spring is beautiful, spring is lovely spring is...

Terrubul, Dus Terrubul

Or, as a well beloved allergy victim explained to me today-

In the past, I considered myself exempt from this sort of suffering. I wandered blithely along, the last Texan standing at the end of an allergy apocalypse, breathing through my nose, without a tear in my eye. Well, not counting the sort of tears prompted by genuine emotion. I mean, even if she doesn't have allergies, 

a girl still has her feelings.
A girl has ALL the feelings.

But seasonal allergies may be responsible for more woes than we imagine. Those two or three of you who thought yourself allergy-free simply because you don't spend  April and most of May accessorizing your look with crumpled tissues may not have escaped as cleanly as you had supposed.
Did you know, for instance, that migraines can be triggered by seasonal allergies?

That  ice pick in your eye?
it might have been thrown in there by a cedar tree.

Here's a funny thing about headaches. Have you ever noticed that sometimes just thinking about a headache can start that sort of tightness behind the eyeball, and if you start talking about them, that little throb in the temple can...

Ok.  Time to change the subject.
And find the Excedrin.

Instead of talking about allergies, let's talk about what may make them if not better, then maybe not-so-bad.  Let's talk about dinner. Because there are foods that can actually help you block the histamines that send you into a full-body revolt against invading allergens.  One of those may or may not be local honey (Web M.D. lands on the not side) but it's hard to make a meal of honey, isn't it?  It's no big surprise that the foods that help you fight allergies are foods that keep you healthy in other ways too- foods full of vitamins and antioxidants, like tomatoes, citrus and leafy greens.

That's what we'll be eating this week, unless we have an allergy-induced week of takeout. Here's how I hope it will work:

Wednesday: Slow cooker Lasagna

Tomatoes are weapons against all kinds of sniffles- the kind cause by germs, and the kind caused by allergens. That's because they're packed with all sorts of goodness, including vitamin C. Really! And what's extra nice is that when you smash them and combine them with cheese and pasta, you get lasagna.
I love the inclusion of dark leafy greens in this recipe, and I'll be experimenting with using wonton skins as the pasta. Lasagna and experimentation in one slow cooker meal! 

Thursday: Grilled Chicken and Broccoli and Brown rice

Not a big surprise to find broccoli on the list of allergy-fighters, is it? I'll be firing up our new grill to do both the chicken and the broccoli, and cooking up a batch of brown rice. Any leftover chicken can go into Saturday's main dish salad, and leftover broccoli and rice may make it into this chickpea, broccoli and brown rice salad next Monday.

Friday: Lemon Salmon and Greek Summer Pizza

Onions, lemon, spinach, salmon- I dare any feelings of unwellness to stick around for seconds of this meal. Both the pizza (which you can easily make on pita bread rounds if you don't want to bother with pizza crust) and the salmon bake at about the same temperature, for about the same time. 

Saturday: Chicken and apple salad

Combine allergy-fighting apples and onions with the first warm days of early summer, and what do you get? Main dish salads like these. The leftover chicken from Thursday will be great in here, but so would the meat from a rotisserie chicken or roasted turkey breast. To boost the nutrition power, we may  have this over shredded kale or baby spinach instead of leaf lettuce.

Sunday: Tomato Pie and Kale Salad

Notice that the first tomato pie of the summer comes at the end of the week. That gives me lots and lots of time to get to a farmer's market for some real tomatoes. If you can't find fresh, about-to-pop-their-tender-skins-with-flavor tomatoes, try something else with this great kale salad. Because a tomato pie is not fast food; it's only the huge fresh tomato flavor payoff that makes it worth the work (and the cheese and pastry calories). If you don't like the tough chew of a raw kale salad, try giving it a little salt massage first. This link  will give you the how and why. It will also give you an irritating and unasked for ad and video, you can mute the ad, and click to stop the video.


Wherever you are and whatever you're doing,
I hope this week gives you some breathing space
between the blues of winter
and the sneezes of spring.
And I hope you know it matters-
the things you do to stay strong.
I hope you know that everything you do
to put more life in
 your life matters.
And I hope this week those efforts are met
and rewarded with  strengths
that let you embrace every day

exactly the way you want to.

  

Weekend Update, April 13, 2014

“Kids think with their brains cracked wide open;

 becoming an adult, I've decided,

 is only a slow sewing shut.” 

Jodi Picoult

It's been nearly a week since the boys from the University of Connecticut left Dallas with a shiny new trophy, and the boys from the University of Kentucky left Dallas to go home. It's been nearly a week of spinning the Final Four as inspiration, as week ate our way through iconic meals from Connecticut, Florida, Kentucky and Wisconsin. And you know what? Even though I was cheering for Kentucky, it's not an entirely bad thing that they left the stadium empty handed; the boys from Kentucky were going home to the Final Four's best comfort food. 
Thoughts of youth and beauty and basketball dribbled around the mental court all week- and by dribbled,

I do not mean drooled.

Thoughts in the stadium of this particular mind may bounce around, and may take a time out, but more often than not, this brain is one of the answers to the riddle "what's fuzzy, red and gray and goes nowhere really fast" 

The other answer is moldy strawberries in a blender.

Case in point: if youth is beautiful, and one mark of youth is the ability to see beauty,  then  people who age and retain that ability are extra beautiful, right? And if, to some of us, certain forms of basketball are beautiful, then ancient things playing basketball ought to be one of the most sublime sights on the planet.

And yet, it's really only a little creepy.
Go figure.

So the brain stopped spinning on that one, and pondered instead another knack possessed by the youthful- the ability to accumulate approvals.

No, not the ability to accumulate people who approve of you, 

although I'm sure that's nice.

Accumulating approvals as in watching the list of things you approve of grow longer. While the list of things you disapprove of grows smaller. It runs counter to the usual assumption that age, in the acquisition of dignity, must also acquire an ever-expanding list of disapprovals. Consider this personage- a legendary in both dignity and disapproval:

 Absolutely Victorian- even when
she was a little girl.

 As parents of selective eaters know, the very young can be less open minded than people twice their age,  so the ability to gather approvals can't be a measure of chronology, but of youthful openess, and a good test of this line of thought turns out to be a week of the unfamiliar for dinner.Let's take as a start one of the nicest discoveries of the week- the Kentucky Hot Brown.  In it's parts (which are definitely NOT greater than the whole) the Kentucky Hot Brown is an open faced sandwich with a base of french toast, a layer of roast turkey, topped with cheese sauce, then bacon and tomato. Now, here's a test of youthfulness. Does the idea of a Kentucky Hot Brown lead you to say-

"Cheese sauce on a bacon turkey sandwich,?!?
And I can use leftover French Toast?!? Brilliant!!!

or, are you more prone to say:

"Oh no you did NOT just put that mess on my french toast.
You totally found a way to ruin bacon.
This is just wrong."

Well, if you've tried one, you would probably say, as I did, 

"How soon can I have another one?"

And here are the other winners and not-so-winners of the week:

Kentucky was the hands-down winner this week. Before the Hot Browns could have roast turkey, there was a turkey to roast. Sure, I could have used deli roast turkey breast. In fact, if you want to impress your friends in a flash, you could make the Hot Brown with a quick slice of french toast, some thick sliced deli turkey, some melted Velveeta and bacon. 

But I was paying my respects to a hard-fighting team that came in second. So I did things the Bobby Flay way. I roasted the turkey exactly the way the recipe said to, except (there's always an except) I brined the turkey in maple syrup, salt and water for a few hours before baking. Here's the juicy beast on a plate:

It was a cheap and very easy alternative to chicken.
From now on, this bird is coming for dinner
more than once a year.

No, that's not cranberry sauce on top, that's the week's other big find, blackberry salsa

so much sweet hot yummy goin on in one bowl!

this is a terrific alternative to the usual salsas of summer. I kept the heat pretty low (maybe too low) but there was still plenty of flavor. And plenty of color too, at least in the first few hours. If you're serving this for guests (and it is totally company worthy, with pork or fish or fowl or salad) make it the day of serving, and you'll still have the bright purple and white of the onions, the red of the pepper and the green of the cilantro. The next day, the beautiful garnet color of the berries will have taken over everything, though it will still taste great.

Connecticut scored a surprising goal with White Clam Pizza- here it is on a gluten-free crust:

Turns out that a thin-crust, sauceless
pizza with parmesan instead of mozarella is
really light. And the clams are not exactly bad either.

And has a miss with the miso marinated cod from the New Haven newspaper. 

The hour spent hunting Miso was a very bad investment- almost zero return of flavor for effort. The pineapple relish was great, and could stand alone as a side; the sesame oil adds an unusual and interesting twist to a simple two ingredient salad.

Still, the cod was a nice reminder that salmon is not the only fish in the sea, and though its meaty texture deserves a different treatment, that does not mean I disapprove. 
On the contrary- 
A new approval may be waiting right around the corner.
And I hope that for your week.
I hope that inside and out
the positives outnumber the negatives.
And that the different is a source of delight.
 Maybe we can get lucky.
Maybe we can be among those whose lives are 
lived free from suspicions and disparagements. 
Maybe we can resolve 
to do our best to die young-

no matter how old they are.