Meatless March

In our never-ending quest for Something Different to do during these dreary days, my family headed to Big Brook last week to find fossils. It was our first trip there, and the place sounded too good to be true: could any rather sad woman, months overdue for a haircut and sporting a face mask, just wade in to the stream and pluck out fossilized prehistoric creatures? The unlikely answer, my friends, was YES. Anyone else experimenting with unusual hair choices during quarantine? Note the pink streak. While New Jersey had plenty of dinosaurs and other prehistoric critters , the fossils you find at Big Brook originated elsewhere, and were ferried into what is now the stream bed and banks by long-ago glaciers. In the space of around an hour, we found a lot of remains of small prehistoric squid-like animals, and one triangular lump that we think is a prehistoric shark tooth, and a lot of triangular lumps that turned out to be just rocks. Triangular lumps are everywhere when you are looking f...

I made the most mouth-watering sandwich not too long ago, featuring--I kid you not--TOFU. No matter how enthusiastic I am about cutting down on meat consumption for the sake of the environment, I am not usually one to throw around terms like "mouth-watering" in connection with tofu. But even though I deprived it of some naughty deliciousness by pan-frying it instead of deep-frying it, I found this sandwich nonetheless exceptional: " Superiority Burger’s Crispy Fried Tofu Sandwich " (NYT Cooking; subscription required). Serving it, I held my breath: would my small backup dancer declare it too spicy? She did not, because it really wasn't spicy. I loved the sandwich more than the others, but all were pleased to some degree. I highly recommend brioche buns for this sandwich, and all sandwiches, for that matter. The new school year is looming, when my backup dancer will be entering third grade. I have been largely despairing these last few weeks with the approach of ...

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...

Like fried rice , omelettes, quiche , wraps, and grain bowls , "Paleo Sweet Potato Toasts" (Paleo Paparazzi)* are a great way to use up whatever leftover food is lurking in your fridge. And they're wonderful. You just slice up and cook some sweet potato, and load up the slices with whatever toppings you have handy. Yesterday, I cut up mushrooms and sun-dried tomatoes and a clove or two of garlic, and cut the kernels off an ear of corn. I fried these things briefly and then coated them in a layer of two beaten eggs, such that I made an ad hoc frittata. Then I slathered mayonnaise onto my toasted sweet potato, and added the cut-up frittata on top. It was a very satisfying meal. We're now two weeks into my backup dancer's "summer vacation" from "school." Given that COVID-19 is still rampaging across the country, we did not feel good about sending her to the approximately 86 summer camps we signed her up for waaaaay back...

A few weeks ago, I read about how pop-up drive-in movies are the new thin g in the pandemic era (see also this piece ), and I thought it would be the perfect first step back into the Real World. I did a search and found one about 30-40 minutes from our house , and while almost all dates were sold out, I got a spot for June 27, seeing The Karate Kid (original version, wax on, wax off). My initial excitement faded a little, some days later, when I had a terrifying thought: how would we use the toilet safely?! I also saw a photo of one of the showings, and the cars aren't THAT far apart. The wind left my sails. We considered selling our ticket. But then we reconsidered. This might be a relatively safe time to go out, since (some) people are still being cautious, and in our area, caseloads aren't sky-high anymore. And we cannot stay home forever, I guess. It might be good for our mental health to get out. So we did it. Without warning or explanation, they showed the 2010 ver...

Today was my backup dancer's last day of second grade. Back in March, I remember looking bleakly ahead to this day. We had a rough start to homeschooling, but then we found our groove. She worked hard, I worked hard, and I believe the kid is ready for third grade, whatever that's going to look like. My backup dancer can explain the molecular properties of water. Yeah that's right, I'm bragging. I was emotional this morning, impressed by how far we've come, but also despondent that this is where we are. We're all functioning just fine, but it's a lonely, vaguely fearful life. I remember in the beginning, I couldn't imagine school being closed for more than a couple weeks. Time went by, and it dawned on me that summer camps and vacations weren't going to happen. And now I wonder about Halloween, and Christmas. And that's as far ahead as I can bring myself to ponder right now. Sorry, you came here to read about food, didn't you? So let...

I'm not one of those people who loses interest in food in times of stress, like  Marissa Tomei . I never, EVER skip a meal. I start looking forward to lunch after I finish breakfast. And I have a problem with sugar, which has gotten worse in the current Dark Times. There. I said it. I read that data shows  people are consuming less sugar  since the pandemic started, and I am not proud to say that in this house we are bucking the trend. For example, my backup dancer was super eager to make a cherry upside down cake, so we tried it last week. Unfortunately a lot of the topping was left in the pan when I flipped it, plus the cake didn't really have a lot of chocolate or cherry flavor - it was just super sweet. These disappointments did not stop me from eating the cake, not in the slightest. I ate a lot of that cake, which is now gone. Perhaps to compensate, I am also committed to eating a lot of the healthy kale and lentil salad (Bon Appetit) that I made last night...

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.

"Today was just a day fading into another, and that can't be what a life is for," as voiced by Counting Crows. While accurate and sad, there are far worse problems a person could have, in these dark times. Is my family the only one still isolating, though? Tonight I made " Soba Noodles with Crispy Kale " (Bon Appetit), which no one liked but me. The sauce was the source of offense. So maybe use less of the sauce, if you make it. Or change the sauce in some way. Sometimes tahini is unwelcome. I would also say you could cut back a tad on the yeast. I left off the pepper flakes entirely. This dish is vegan! That's a win for Planet Earth. The only other thing to report is that my flower garden is fairly spectacular right now. In part, it has reached a state of fruition after I've been working on it for, what, four years? But also, the cool spring with its balanced sunshine and rain has benefited a lot of the plants.

I don't have profound thoughts about where we are after George Floyd's death and what's followed (grief, desperation, violence, destruction, more racism). I do have profound sadness. This hit just as I have started to feel distant from the initial horror of COVID-19. Our life of isolation has begun to feel normal, which is also depressing, even as it comes as a relief. I am sad that being human means having the capacity to adjust to the awfulness of things, from racism to disease to poverty to climate change. And don't forget that all those dots are connected, so being complacent about environmental degradation means you're comfortable with things like: The development of new patterns of disease Obstacles to upward mobility for people of color (for example,  lead-contaminated water  affecting children's brain development in places like Flint or Newark) The anticipated disproportionate impact of climate change on vulnerable communities Let's not ...

Just a quick one today - a friend had leeks that she didn't want, so she gave them to me. Meanwhile, I had baked bread a few days ago, and had a little left. I found this recipe for " Leek Bread Pudding " on NYT Cooking, but was missing a lot of ingredients - cream, herbs, etc - so I winged it, and it turned out remarkably well, especially for me! I had about two thick slices of bread left on the loaf, and three leeks - I used about two of those. I shredded some cheddar into the bottom of three mini-ramekins (a church sale find that I continue to treasure), then a layer of toast cubes and leeks, then more cheddar, more toast cubes, and then I poured one beaten egg and about 3/4 cup milk into them,* then more cheese. Baked it all for about 50 minutes in the ramekins. I LOVED it. It was so rich and elegant. My small backup dancer did not like the leeks, which was a pleasure for me, because I finished hers off in a heartbeat. Backup dancer's leftover...