Meatless March

2024 has been a year for trying new things --some voluntary, like learning French, and some involuntary, like removing dairy from my cooking and baking repertoire for a while. If I may say so myself, I rose to the occasion and made some great dairy-free food, but mon Dieu! I missed le fromage. I missed it a LOT. So when a doctor gave us the green light to resume eating dairy, boy, did we! I gleefully added five different kinds of cheeses to my first grocery list after the lifting of the dairy restriction. One of those cheeses was gruyere, because in honor of the Paris Olympics and my French studies, I decided to make " Galettes Complètes (Buckwheat Crepes) " (NYT Cooking). Despite its name, buckwheat contains no wheat, making it a good choice if you can't have gluten.  But the recipe includes ham, and for environmental reasons, I try to keep my meat consumption to a minimum.  Our World In Data notes that the agriculture sector is the world's "leading driver of ...

"What's new?" People ask me this all the time these days, because I frequently call or Zoom them to feel some connection to the Before Times and the larger world, but has there ever been so little that is new for most of us now, on a day-to-day basis? Almost all the days seem the same, and many are colored by rage or apathy or despair. I guess what's new is compromised mental health. I did something last weekend, though, that was new: I scheduled a vacation day. On my vacation day, Sunday, no one could ask or expect anything of me. Oh, it was heavenly! I slept in, I worked on some writing, I read half of a very good book (The Wonder Spot, by Melissa Bank), and I weeded and planted seeds in my garden. I ate cheese and crackers for dinner, which made me so happy. Next it will be my husband's turn for a vacation day. I think I will schedule one for me about once a month. Don't tell me YOU can't do this because "that would last about 5 minutes in my ho...

For brunch this morning I gave " Huevos Rotos (Broken Eggs) " (NYT Cooking; subscription required) a whirl, and it turned out great. I did need to cook the potatoes a little longer than recommended to get them soft, and I cooked the eggs all the way through per my backup dancers' preferences. I used red pepper flakes and the spiciness was subtle and delicious. I recommend them with English muffins (yep, I made them for the 2nd weekend brunch in a row) to mop up the juices. Sharp-eyed readers will spot a cinnamon roll on Pat's plate. After making them last weekend , I froze a bunch to reheat today. I have to say they were inferior when reheated, but still good. You may recall that thanks to my compost, we accidentally grew a small melon in our front garden this year. It finally ripened and was ready for harvest on Friday! You can tell it's ready to harvest when it smells fragrant and comes easily off the vine, I learned from Google. Yesterday we s...

Fried rice needs no recipe. You cook some rice, and then heat up some oil (medium-low heat) and throw it in. Add whatever vegetables you have on hand--in my case, fresh corn, peas, and bok choy--and you make a hole in the pile of rice and veggies, into which you pour some beaten eggs, and let them scramble. You squirt in some soy sauce and you mix it together and serve it piping hot. It is a thing of simple beauty. Tonight I watched the end of Octopussy, and now I'm on GoldenEye. How does a person watch these movies as anything other than comedy? They're hilarious! Still, one admires that Bond is inevitably stylish. We should all be so stylish on a daily basis. Something to work on, unquestionably. "Jennie, you're incorrigible." Here's an interesting and practical article on recycling. I'm pleased to report that nothing here took me by surprise. Often I throw my containers into the dishwasher to clean them before recycling. https://www...

I treated myself and the fam this morning to French toast slathered in kaya, a custardy spread. I had brought a jar of the stuff back from Singapore, after savoring it in the mornings at the Good Good Eating House with a cup of kopi (coffee). Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. Come dinnertime, I was ready to try something from the "Pinch of Yum" blog, to which I was pointed by a friend who had received a cryptic message about it from her mother, referencing meatless meatballs. I seized the day, and gave " 30-minute Vegetarian Meatballs " a shot. My back-up dancer Emma is getting fairly good at beating eggs. First note about this recipe: 30 minutes? Bwaaaa ha ha ha ha ha! No. I mean, maybe it takes closer to 30 minutes if you have cooked rice/quinoa already on hand, and if you don't cook what turns out to be two cups of quinoa when the recipe calls for three such that you have to go back into your cupboard and also cook a cup of brown rice to make up the difference...