Meatless March

I can't blame people for assuming that I like to cook. No doubt it's true of most food bloggers. But me? I like to eat, not cook. Cooking is just a means to an end. I needed some inspiration for my wearying daily march into the kitchen to make dinner, so last week I went to hear a speaker, Vanessa Young of Thirsty Radish , talk about plant-based eating. She was very engaging, and urged us to let our cooking engage all our five senses. Coupled with tantalizing photos of fresh, summery produce, these words gave me some needed energy to remember that there is joy to be found in cooking, if you look for it. Vanessa spoke at a meeting of the  Maplewood Garden Club Since then, I've been reminding myself to appreciate the taste, smell, sight, feel, and sound of food as I prepare it. That does help to make cooking less tedious, but to truly enjoy the exercise, I find that there's another required ingredient: a co-chef to make silly conversation and share the labor. My young bac...

In 2009, I became a dual citizen, adding Britizenship to my US citizenship. It involved swearing my allegiance to the Queen of England and all her heirs and successors, so let's hope my two countries never go to war (again) and make me choose. Meanwhile, God save the King, who was coronated today. Taking my oath of UK citizenship In honor of the occasion, I made " Coronation Quiche ", using a recipe from the British Royal Family (yes, seriously). When I first read of the Coronation Quiche, I was not aware that it has been widely scorned and mocked . I find the criticism pretty unfair. If you don't want to make the quiche, then DON'T MAKE THE QUICHE, and stop whinging. As the New York Times' Melissa Clark pointed out, the quiche's flavor is a vegetarian* take on quiche Lorraine, and that is why it appealed to me. A plant-based diet contributes less to global warming than a diet heavy in animal products. I used, as always, my simple pastry recipe for the cr...

What's one more voice condemning the violence and lunacy at the U.S. Capitol yesterday? But we can't not talk about it, even if we just came here for a review of a vegetarian recipe as a way of addressing climate change. So this is my voice, condemning this place that America has become, where there is hatred, sociopathy, racism, denial of science, sedition, delusion, deadly political charade. It sickens and depresses me. And while we are all reeling from that, our other problems aren't going away. I guess that is why I talked myself into writing a post today about a darned farro salad.  Climate change is real . Climate change is caused by people . Climate change is already changing some of our lives for the worse, and far worse still is coming . It is within our power to address climate change, as a civilization and as individuals. One way that you can address climate change as an individual is to reduce your consumption of animal products . " Best-Ever Farro Salad ...

I just read a New Yorker piece that perfectly captured my current feelings about cooking. Helen Rosner wrote so beautifully about something I will put very bluntly: I am SICK OF COOKING. I would just give up altogether right now and eat cheese and crackers for every meal, if I wasn't responsible for nourishing a growing backup dancer. And a (mostly) vegetarian diet is limiting for a cook like me. It used to be so easy to plan delicious dishes when I was wasn't giving a second thought to meat as an ingredient. Obviously there are wonderful vegetarian dishes, but I have cut myself off to half the food options by reducing my meat consumption for the sake of the environment. I am committed to it, but it makes planning meals more fatiguing. We get takeout a couple days a week, and that's a relief, but I'm conscious that the takeout options that appeal to us aren't particularly healthy, and I also feel guilty about the billion plastic containers piling up in my cupboard....

Still spending almost all our time at home with each other, my family planned a Not-Christmas celebration for last Saturday to break up the monotony of most of our days since March. We have taken to giving our real holidays themes over the past couple of years, and so we came up with one for Not-Christmas too: the theme was British Christmas. We applied this theme to decorations, outfits, activities, and the food. A neighbor kindly lent us an artificial Christmas tree and a couple of wooden reindeer, and my backup dancer and I created some bunting. We staged it all in the basement, both because it's cool and we'd be in winter garb, but also because we don't spend much time down there, so if we used our imagination and squinted a bit, it felt like going somewhere different. The day began, of course, with opening presents in our pajamas. This we did with Christmas carols playing and a roaring fire playing on the TV. It was very festive, and there was much delight with gifts l...

Tonight I made " Baked Tofu With Peanut Sauce and Coconut-Lime Rice " (NYT Cooking). I enjoyed the contrasts in flavors, textures, and even temperatures - room-temperature greens under hot rice and tofu. Everyone liked it. I left out the pepper flakes, of course, for the sake of my small backup dancer. And I served it on spinach. I have not had a proper haircut since....wow...DECEMBER?!!! I just looked it up on my calendar. December fifth. Twenty-NINETEEN. I am a little gobsmacked, but I remember telling my hairdresser when she trimmed my bangs in February that I'd see her in March for a full cut. And needless to say, that did not happen. I am starting to look like Rapunzel.

Spring weather, a flexible schedule, and few cars on the road as everyone is hunkered down at home...when you're eight years old, these things set the stage for learning to ride a bike. Teaching a kid to ride a bike is not a fun parenting duty. Let's just say that after one learning session, I was compelled to do a shot of tequila. But now I have accomplished it, and the results are dazzling, if I do say so myself. Emma has also picked up some woodworking skills, after participating in a cool trial online learning program of local organization Maplewoodshop . And the kid has learned the multiplication table up to the sixes! I am sharing these achievements to illustrate that we are trying not to waste our life in social isolation, and we are so privileged in all sorts of ways. I am grateful for our privilege, and I feel guilty for nonetheless being gloomy, and weary of everything, and frustrated that even though I'm moving my backup dancer forward with...

At this point in the pandemic, even February feels like a great many years ago, but it truly was a great many years ago when I copied this spinach pesto recipe out of one of my mom's 37 cookbooks. It was during a period of my life so distant that I had extremely neat handwriting, and the leisure to consider how much monounsaturated fat vs. polyunsaturated fat was in my food, rather than whether the ingredients had been packaged by someone in whom a deadly virus might be incubating. Ah, those were the days. Side note: I sometimes use the number 37 when I am exaggerating, as in "there were like 37 grammatical errors in that email," or "I drank 37 cups of coffee, give or take," but in this case I once counted the cookbooks, and there really were 37. This recipe has at least three advantages over my standard basil pesto recipe : The spinach makes it healthier, and yet it does not taste spinachy One of my backup dancers is not wild about the al...

We are minimizing the frequency of getting groceries, to avoid person-to-person interaction and touching things as much as possible, to slow the spread of coronavirus. Presumably, you are doing the same. If not, please start doing it, for the sake of humanity. I used to shop for groceries in a variety of haphazard ways, multiple times a week - a FreshDirect delivery on a Tuesday, say, with a stop by Trader Joe's for my favorite peanut butter on my way home from a Wednesday appointment, followed by a Friday trip to Stop-and-Shop after I decided what I'd cook for the weekend. I almost never planned more than a few days ahead. Now it's just FreshDirect, once a week. I think about groceries constantly, and update my order multiple times a day, as new things become available (lots of stuff is sold out) and as I work out what my family going to eat for an entire week. The whole process makes me very anxious, but it is working as planned. Another way to minimize grocery pro...

A very "happy" St. Patrick's Day to you. Remember last year , when fun was had on this holiday? This morning, in contrast, I didn't even remember to put on green when I stared at my closet and chose an outfit based on its potential to make me feel most human during another absurdly abnormal day (bright red pants; off-white sweater with bell sleeves). I'm holding on to my March Meatlessness, but at some point I imagine I will relax my vegetarian intent. A person needs comfort where she can find it in these dark days. Sometimes, that's smoked salmon, or a burger. We'll see. Tonight, meanwhile, I jazzed up " Quiche With Herbs and Goat Cheese " (NYT Cooking) with about half a bunch of fresh spinach, steamed then squeezed then chopped, to make it both healthy and green . The quiche turned out perfectly. How often do you read THAT in this blog?! I almost always screw up SOMETHING! I'm taking my victories where I can get them. I used ...