Dipping In to the Great American Melting Pot

It's funny how so many of our family memories, our ways of coping with stress, heartbreak and tragedy, and every single moment of celebration all revolve around food. At least at our house, whenever things go well or very, very awry, my response begins and ends in the kitchen, making something special for my family to bring us all back together again.  I feel like that is true for a lot of us.

Jonathan Gold got that fundamental truth: food is what knits the family together.

If you haven't watched the brilliant documentary -- City of Gold -- about Gold's work as a food critic at the LA Weekly and the LA Times, you should make the time to fix that right now.  Seriously, I'm not kidding, make time to watch it today.  His quirky, unapologetic love of good food is far away from the Anton Ego critic in Ratatouille, because he genuinely cares about the well-being of the people whose craft of food genius draws him into the restaurants he loves.

I've been thinking a lot about Jonathan Gold's work as I've made meal after meal for my family at home during this pandemic shut down, because I've been seriously contemplating how our food choices knit us together in a giant, patchwork tapestry here in America.

For example:  Why is there such a disconnect between people who love to eat out at a Mexican restaurant and those same people discriminating against hispanic folks in their neighborhood?  How much of our food tastes are cultural remnants, woven into the fibers of our DNA like some ancestral calling card, the nature outside of whatever food nurture you have built up from years of family meals?   How can our love of pure, ethnic goodness in our food choices not translate to a "love thy neighbor" feeling about people who are different from us -- if by "different" you mean skin tone or language, which we celebrate if it is our own or denigrate if it is not far too often these days.

One of the things that I love most about living in small town West Virginia is that because we are small in population but big in heart, we all begin to feel like family.  We care for one another, we reach out, and we check on those who are a little older and frail -- that's an important thing to do in a pandemic, and a lot easier when you already know and like your neighbors.

Thanksgiving Planning, Redux

It occurred to me this morning that planning for a Thanksgiving dinner can be overwhelming when you haven't had to plan things out before.  Especially when it is the first major holiday meal you've ever had to make for your family.

I remember that overwhelmed feeling very well the first year I cooked the bulk of the meal.

What I've learned through the years is that there is no substitute for planning.  And that dishes you can make in advance are your very best friends.

To that end, I thought I'd throw together some links and some information for folks, as well as an idea of how I line out my week on a day by day basis:

-- Here's my cooking schedule for the rest of the week:

Monday:  The Peanut and I will finish decorating and cleaning the house.  I've started cooking 3 days ahead, but that's really too early.  So use this day to get last minute groceries, get the rest of the house fairly clean for guests, and make certain you have plenty of extra napkins and such.  If you are going to the store this week, do it as early in the morning as possible, or as late at night as you can - fewer crowds means a saner shopping experience.

Tuesday:  This is where things start cooking this week.  I'll start by making my turkey stock as early as possible today, that way it can simmer in the crockpot for most of the day and all that glorious flavor develops.  It really and truly is the best turkey stock ever from your crockpot, and your stuffing recipe and gravy-making will thank you for the boost in amazing flavor.

I'll also make Granny's cranberry orange salad, so it has time for the flavors to really meld together (and so I can sneak bites of it for the next two days -- woot!).

I also make an herb butter that gets placed between the skin and the breast of the turkey to baste the meat as the turkey bakes.  To start, place a stick of butter into a ziploc freezer baggie, seal it completely and leave it out on the counter for a while to soften, usually this takes an hour or two.  Then, when the butter is softened, I finely chop the following:  some fresh parsley, thyme, chives, sage and a little but of rosemary.  I add some minced garlic and a little Penzey's poultry seasoning as well.   Open the baggie, pour in the herbs and garlic, then reseal completely; mush it altogether to combine well, then pop the butter baggie into the fridge.  As it cools a bit, try to get all the butter into a "log" so it's pretty much altogether in an easy-to-slice cylinder.  

Are You Ready For Some Football Tailgate Recipes?

At our house, we take our football seriously.  Even more so, as the chef de cuisine of Casa Smith, I take my game day food planning just as seriously.

For me, ease of preparation and taste are the big concerns when I'm planning the weekend sports-watching menu.  That generally ends up meaning two little words:  slow cooker.  Through the years, I have managed to put together some yummy game day munchies that can be mostly done in the crockpot and that frees me up to do what I really want to do -- watch the game.

Pre-made salads, pasta salads and sandwiches can also be great for the same reasons:  ease of preparation and hands-off self-serving during the game for everyone you happen to be feeding.

This weekend, for the kick-off of the Mountaineer football season, I'm thinking a taco bar may be in our future.  I'll brown some ground turkey and onions in a skillet, spice it up, add a bit of salsa and pop it in the slow cooker to allow the flavors to meld together for an hour or two.  While that is cooking, I'll get the toppings and fixings together:  tortilla chips, taco shells, shredded lettuce, shredded cheese, sliced olives, sliced jalapeños, salad fixings, guacamole and salsa.  Then we can decide if we want nachos (chips, cheese, taco meat, fixings), taco salad (large pile of lettuce, meat, cheese and some crushed tortilla chips), or tacos (shredded lettuce, meat and cheese with salsa and guac).

There are a lot of other options, though, several of which can be made healthier with just a few simple substitutions -- lower fat cheeses, more veggies and less bread, leaner meat choices.   Here are some recipes ideas and my tweaks on making them healthier in parenthases beside the links and ideas:

Vegging Out

Eat yer veggies.  How many times has that refrain come out of someone's mouth in your general vicinity over a lifetime?   Especially when you were younger, and veggies seemed like an enormous hardship at every meal (unless you were me, who loved veggies so much growing up that I would have second and third helpings of broccoli...I know!). 

For some reason, as life has gotten busier and busier for me, I have found it tougher to work a variety of veggies into our day to day diet. 

I do try, truly I do.  I buy a lovely rainbow variety of tasty veggies at the store, but then they languish in the fridge because I can't get time or energy to do prep after a long day at school, and then I end up wasting way too much veg that gets thrown out of the produce bins, looking soggy and sad at being forgotten.

So, I'm trying an experiment this week to see if I can't do a bit better.

Today, my plan is to clean out the fridge and to cut up a number of veggies that I can toss into my lunch or into dinner menu possibilities the front part of the week.  Not so much that they will go bad before they get eaten, but enough that it will be easier for my lunch-packing rush in the mornings.

Two weeks to go in school, and I still feel like I am running out the door every day.  It is wearing me out, and I need summer to recharge.  But in the meantime, I'd like to plug more veggies into the daily mix so the antioxidants and vitamins can help me gut my way through the end of the year with a little more pep.

How do you incorporate more healthy produce into your day to day?  Do tell.  I'd love some new hints and tips on making this work a little better at our house.

Easy Tailgating, Pot Luck And Super Bowl Recipes For Your Slow Cooker

This year's Super Bowl is fast approaching.  No matter what team you may cheer for, one thing is certain:  good food makes for a great game.

Especially when that good food can be easy to make and left for your slow cooker to do all the work.  Because we are so busy but want to eat healthfully, our slow cookers get a work-out every single week at our house.

Using your crock-pot for a giant part of the meal or for snacks makes a huge difference in stress and time for the cook.  If you want to be able to enjoy the game, not miss it entirely because you are chained to the stove, then a slow cooker meal can be a huge help.

Especially if you plan on feeding a crowd at a party or a big tailgate.

Here are some of my favorite ideas from easy tailgating and slow cooker meals from your crockpot that are perfect for a big game day feast:

Thanksgiving Basics: Turkey Stock, Cranberry Salad and More

Every year at our house, I go into a bit of a frenzy trying to wrangle the entire house into shape, get Christmas decorations up and prep for the holiday food-palooza that is Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Part of that prep time generally gets eaten up in cookie planning, but not this year:  we are going to be out of town and on a desperately needed vacation during part of December, and so no cookies will be made in giant abundance for gift trays or otherwise.  While I will miss their deliciousness, I have to say that it is incredibly freeing to think about life as being free from the insanity of cookie-o-rama this year.

It also leaves a bit more mental thought process for Thanksgiving planning, and I'm finding that wonderful.  A couple of years ago, I posted a scheduling routine that I've been using for years to prep for Thanksgiving dinner.

Last year, I finally tried a fresh turkey instead of getting a frozen one that had to thaw for an eternity, and you know what?  It was awesome.  Especially only having to pick it up the day before Thanksgiving, so I had time and room in my fridge for a couple of days prior to prep everything else.  That completely rocked and I am doing it again this year as a result.  You can order a fresh turkey at the butcher counter at most nicer grocery stores -- I managed to get a free range, no hormones or antibiotics one just like last year, and I won't have to pick it up until Wednesday afternoon.  Boo yah!

By then, I'll already have the cranberry salad made, the stuffing put together up to the baking time, the mashed potatoes and sweet potatoes mostly ready to go, the cranberry salad chilling, and at least one loaf of bread already made.

The joy really is in advance planning with this.  I learned that lesson the hard way the year I had melanoma surgery, but it has served me so well ever since:  plan ahead and Thanksgiving morning is so much better for it.

Here are some tips on turkey prep and baking.  One thing that I tried last year and loved was a dry brine from Williams-Sonoma:  I put it on my turkey the night before, rinsed it off a bit the next morning, placed sliced compound butter under the skin of the breast really gently and then stuffed it with cut-up lemons and onions and herbs just like I always do.  I use a covered roaster and I swear last year's turkey was the best one I have ever tasted.

I'll be repeating that again this year.  Yummy.

Make-ahead recipes are also a life saver.  I do my stuffing ahead, so all I have to do is pop it in the over to bake along with the turkey.

An essential part of that stuffing?  Rich turkey stock:  I make mine in my crockpot a day ahead, and it is delicious and perfect for stuffing and gravy.  Make enough for both and you'll be hooked, too.

My Granny's cranberry salad recipe?  An absolute must.  No holiday meal is complete without it.

That's a start on Thanksgiving help anyway.  There will be more to come.

Cutting The Crapola

The last couple of days, I have been re-reading a lot of my healthier cookbooks, trying to revamp our eating habits to clear out the unhealthy bits and add in more healthy ones.  For the most part, we eat far more healthfully than we did for years, but my recent bout with breast cancer has made eating even more fruits and veggies a priority.

Not just for me, but for The Peanut as well, for obvious reasons.

As I'm trying to plan a menu for all of us for the week, I find myself making excuses and trying to come up with ways to continue serving the same old easy stuff, because we can all agree on it and I know it will be mostly eaten, even by the pickiest among us.  But that is ridiculous, because if the same old, same old was acceptable, I wouldn't be trying to revamp things, now would I?

It's time to cut the crapola when it comes to diet and exercise and be honest with myself:  we can, and must, do better.

Some of the cookbooks I've been perusing are:

-- The Eat-Clean Diet Recharged: Lasting Fat Loss That's Better than Ever!

-- The Eat-Clean Diet Cookbook: Great-Tasting Recipes That Keep You Lean

-- Eating for Life: Your Guide to Great Health, Fat Loss and Increased Energy

-- The New Sonoma Cookbook: Simple Recipes for a Healthy, More Delicious Way to Live

-- The South Beach Diet Quick and Easy Cookbook: 200 Delicious Recipes Ready in 30 Minutes or Less

-- The South Beach Diet Super Quick Cookbook: 200 Easy Solutions for Everyday Meals

For me, though, it really isn't about knowledge.  I know what I ought to be eating and doing.  What I lack is actually DOING things properly, instead of just halfway and hoping it is enough.  It isn't.  And I know it.  Which means it is time to get off my rear end and do something about it.

So, henceforth, the following will apply:

The Search For Spring

The lingering cold is messing with my internal compass this year.  And with my perennials.

Usually, my daffodils are out in full bloom by this point in the year, but they are holding back:  a few are looming, but not all at once, as if they are still fearful of showing off their Spring bonnets because of the cold and frost.  The same is true for my tulips.

It's even true for the johnny jump-ups that The Peanut talked me into planting ages ago, and which have seeded themselves so prolifically around our yard ever since.  I didn't think anything could slow those little, aggressive bloomers down, but I was wrong.

Ended up not planting anything yesterday, as much due to being too tired to deal with lugging compost around to enrich the raised bed soil as anything. 

Today, though?  Cold be damned, I'm finding a way to at least get the planting bed ready and popping some onion sets into the earth if nothing else.

I am in desperate need of some springtime. 

Easy Super Bowl Food And Mardi Gras Recipes

On February 3rd, this year's Super Bowl will be played in New Orleans which is also the home of some seriously awesome food.

Mr. ReddHedd and I have enjoyed eating our way around the Big Easy on any number of trips, and there are some easy ways to bring home the taste of New Orleans for an easy and delicious Super Bowl party buffet spread as well.

The more I thought about it, the more I realized that there are so many iconic and fabulous New Orleans foods that would work so well as an easy buffet or nibbles spread for the Super Bowl or even just a small Mardi Gras party.  It occurred to me that folks might enjoy some ideas of things they could make easily -- especially foods that could be made in the slow cooker that wouldn't require a lot of constant watching or stuff that could be easily made ahead before the big game.

Anything that allows you to actually enjoy watching the crazy commercials between downs is a plus in my book.  That's especially true when what you want is to enjoy the whole game rather than feel like you have to constantly cook and serve and never get to sit and enjoy.

An easy New Orleans-style nosh could really make the whole experience easy and fun for someone hosting a Super Bowl party.

In terms of sources, you can't go wrong with Cooking Up a Storm: Recipes Lost and Found from The Times-Picayune of New Orleans. This compilation of great recipes from locals, restaurants and the recipe section of the Times-Picayune is essential reading, and was put together after Katrina to help folks recover favorite family recipes lost in the flood waters. It is wonderful stuff, and full of fun stories about Cajun and Creole traditions, too. Marcelle Bienvenue is a treasure all by herself.  And don't overlook the recipe section of the Times-Picayune -- some wonderful recipes in their searchable database, too.

Here are a few ideas for your easy and yummy New Orleans style super bowl feast:

Quick, Cool Breakfast

It is hot here lately.  Scorching hot.

The kind of hot that makes you want to crawl in the freezer for a coupla hours after the humidity sets in about 7:30 in the morning hawwwwwwwt.

So what's a girl to do for breakfast?

Something cool, that's what.

Lately, I've been having some yogurt (vanilla, key lime, whatever is handy in the fridge) mixed with some cottage cheese and sprinkled with cut up, assorted berries.  I top with a few chopped walnuts or pecans and...voila!  Instant refreshing breakfast!

It's a decent mix of protein and healthy carbs, antioxidants from the berries and some omega-3s when I use walnuts.  All in all, a fairly healthy way to start my day.

If I'm feeling adventurous, I sprinkle in a little ground flaxseed for extra fiber and things seem to move right along for the day, if you know what I mean.

Easy Dinner: Chicken Taco Salad

The rain is pouring down outside.  We got home late after going to see Young Frankenstein last night, and my rear end is dragging this morning.

It's one of those "not enough coffee in the whole world to wake me up" sorts of mornings.

Despite the running around like crazy people frenzy in which we've been living our lives these days, we've managed to stay on the healthy eating train for the most part for the last three weeks.  I can feel it, and not just in the loosening of my waistbands on my jeans.

On a day like this when I'm tired, though?  Eating healthy can be a challenge.  Who has the energy to plan something super healthy or cook everything from scratch to serve up for dinner?

What I do is keep a few easier to prepare meal ideas on hand for just such an occasion, so there are no excuses when dinner time rolls around to call for a fatty, processed food pizza or nasty drive-thru crapola.  Thinking some of you may be trying to make healthier choices as well, I'm going to share my new favorite quickie dinner idea.

Super Bowl Food Ideas

The Super Bowl approacheth.

This year's teams leave me absolutely flat, frankly.  So, for me?  The excitement this year will be generated by what I'm making to munch on while waiting for the next round of commercials.

Thus far, I'm planning on the following:

-- A nacho bar with chili in the crockpot, shredded cheddar and monterey jack cheese, shredded lettuce, chopped tomato, salsa, guacamole, and jalapeno slices.  And the chips?  The chips will stay dry and fresh on the side until they are topped with chili and fixings for each, personally topped portion.  Last year I made a huge pan of nachos -- they were super tasty, but by the time you went back for seconds, the chips were soggy.  Yuck!  So this year, I'm keeping everything separate so we can build our own plate and the chips will be crispy every time.  Boo yah!

-- Some boneless buffalo chicken bites of some sort -- either ones I'll make or will get.  Haven't decided yet.

-- A veggie and dip platter, so I can fool myself into pretending I'm eating healthy.

-- Pepperoni rolls.  (It's WV, you have to have some of those, don't you?)

And here are the alternative possibilities that may get added in as I feel like it:

My Abbreviated, Mostly Homemade-ish Thanksgiving Countdown

Thanksgiving requires a bit of planning to juggle all the things that need attention in order to pull off a yummy and timely meal.  Last year, I put together a timeline that is still a great idea for folks who are planning the full magilla of a meal.  You can find that here., complete with links to recipes for really good turkey stock,my Granny's seriously yummy and fresh cranberry salad (it isn't a holiday without it at our house!), fresh herb stuffing and assorted other goodies.

This year, though?

Given the very recent surgery and my limited energy supply and mobility limitations as I'm healing, I'm going for a semi-homemade approach.

Prior to the surgery, we picked up some refrigerated mashed potatoes from Sam's Club.  To perk them up more like my homemade ones, I'll boil some diced redskin potatoes on the day before Thanksgiving, perhaps throwing in some well-chopped kale as well for a little more of a good nutritional hit (post-cancer diagnosis, that is way, way up on my list of things to be certain to do as often as possible -- so it might be a bit more like the Irish boxty or champ than the usual creamy mash this year.  If I do this, I'll throw the kale into the potato water the last 4 minutes of the boiling time for potatoes to soften it before mixing it into the mashed potatoes.).  If I'm feeling especially decadent, I'll add in a bit of diced reduced-fat neufchatel cream cheese and some reduced-fat, 2% finely grated sharp cheddar into the potatoes -- this is lovely when reheated and so amazingly creamy.

The potatoes then go into an aluminum foil pan and then into the fridge to be reheated and served on Thursday and can be made up to 2 days beforehand.

I'll make homemade gravy as usual on Thanksgiving day from pan drippings and my easy but seriously tasty crockpot stock (which I usually make the day before), but I've got some refrigerated extra gravy just in case I need to fill it out.

Instead of a more complicated caramelized shallots, green beans and gremolata dish, I'll do some sheet pan-roasted green beans, halved cherry tomatoes and quartered and chopped zucchini, tossed with a little extra virgin olive oil, sea salt, freshly ground black pepper and a few sprigs of fresh thyme and rosemary.  Toss, bake along with the turkey and serve.  Yummy!  Those I'll make Thanksgiving day as well -- you can't get that crisp-tender bean when you make it the day before.

It's not the usual fussy Thanksgiving, but it will definitely do.  You do what you can, right?

The one thing I refuse to scrimp on is the turkey.  On Wednesday, we'll be making the pilgrimage to the local Kroger grocery store to pick up fresh herbs, shallots and my pre-ordered 12 pound fresh organic turkey.

What I'll do on Wednesday afternoon is whiz some fresh herbs (thyme, flat-leaf parsley, rosemary, sage and/or chives) and shallots in the food processor along with a stick or two of butter (depending on the size of your turkey, it can take one or two sticks).  Once everything is chopped and well-blended so that the butter is fully seasoned all through, I'll scrape this seasoned, compound butter onto a sheet of plastic wrap and get it formed into a sort of log.  That will go into the fridge to firm up for the night.

Hot Soup: The Antidote to Fall's Chill

There is definitely a chill in the air here this morning. We woke up to a light frost, with a possibility of snow tomorrow.

Yikes!  I am not ready for that yet.

So what's a girl to do?  Make a big pot of hot soup for dinner, that's what.

One of the things that I love most abut soups and stews is that they are so forgiving and easy to change up according to whatever you may have in your pantry or your fridge.   No potatoes?  Try sweet potatoes, turnips or chunks of carrot instead.  No sweet potatoes?  Try butternut squash or pumpkin.  No dried beans?  Use canned, just rinse well and cook a lot less.  Or vice versa, with dried just cook a lot longer.

Even better, you can clean out your veggie drawers and make a fantastic soup full of nutritious yumminess that keeps you from being wasteful.

I do this just about once a week nearer the end of the week so we don't end up throwing out produce.  I can still hear my Granny's "waste not, want not" admonition -- being a child of the Depression and then having to work three jobs at one point to put food on the table for her own children made a huge impression on her frugal inner self, and she passed that on to me.

Slow Cooker Pork Carnitas

I found a recipe for slow cooker carnitas on the Times-Picayune website when I was looking for some Cajun slow cooker recipe conversions.

While carnitas is decidedly not Cajun food, it is a bit of an obsession of mine.  Scratch that -- it is a big obsession of mine.  But I wasn't quite satisfied with the initial recipe from the newspaper, so I tweaked it a little.

It was awesome.  And just what I wanted.

After having a fresh pork carnitas burrito from Chipotle when I was pregnant with The Peanut years ago, my cravings were insane.  The problem?  The Chipotle restaurant in question was in Tucson, AZ, and I was clear across the country in WV.

Since then, I've tried a lot of recipes for carnitas, but none have measured up.

Until now.

It was so good that I'm sharing it with everyone.  We had pork carnitas soft tacos with corn tortillas last night for dinner, and they were heaven.  And the pork leftovers taste even better today -- so much so that I can't wait for dinner and have been in the fridge nibbling at least three times already today.

Here's the recipe:

Dwindling Diversity In The World's Food Supply?

An article from National Geographic magazine's July 2011 issue has been haunting me for the last few days.

As I also did when I was a kid, I read the magazine front to back, cover to cover the moment it hit our mailbox.

The difference these days?  We get the magazine every month, but sometimes -- due to schedule insanity, a lengthy "to do" list that won't leave me alone and other diversions -- I don't get around to reading the entire magazine until a month or two after the fact.

The science, though, is fascinating.  Still.  Every single issue.  Especially when an article highlights something in a way I'd never, ever considered before.

And in the July 2011 issue?  There was an article about the ever-dwindling amount of diversity in the world's food supply that was seriously scary and incredibly thought-provoking.  Here's just a glimpse:

But the green revolution was a mixed blessing. Over time farmers came to rely heavily on broadly adapted, high-yield crops to the exclusion of varieties adapted to local conditions. Monocropping vast fields with the same genetically uniform seeds helps boost yield and meet immediate hunger needs. Yet high-yield varieties are also genetically weaker crops that require expensive chemical fertilizers and toxic pesticides. The same holds true for high-yield livestock breeds, which often require expensive feed and medicinal care to survive in foreign climates. The drive to increase production is pushing out local varieties, diluting livestock's genetic diversity in the process. As a result, the world's food supply has become largely dependent on a shrinking list of breeds designed for maximum yield: the Rhode Island Red chicken, the Large White pig, the Holstein cow. In short, in our focus on increasing the amount of food we produce today, we have accidentally put ourselves at risk for food shortages in the future.

Read the entire article -- it's an eye-opener, even for someone who has spent her whole life growing veggies with her family and having an always well-stocked pantry "just in case" being drummed into her obsessively by relatives who survived the Depression.

Back to School Breakfast Ideas

Anyone who knows me well is aware that mornings are not my favorite time of day.

It isn't that I don't love a good sunrise -- I do -- but getting me up to see it is a task and a half.  And had better include a serious cup of coffee.

With the back to school season fast approaching at our house, I find myself thinking about how to better manage a nutritious breakfast for The Peanut.  Because it occurs in the early morning hours -- she has to be to school well before 8 am every day -- I always feel like we are scrambling to get anything decent into her before we go running out our door.

When you add the fact that I'll be teaching library this year on Wednesdays, which will require that I get my own rear end ready and out the door all the earlier?  You see where I'm going, here, right?

So I'm trying to put together some ideas on healthy, yet quick-ish and easy, breakfast ideas.  No one wants to be sitting in class with a rumbly in their tumbly -- especially if they are the teacher and supposed to be the grown-up in the room.

So, in no particular order, here are some of the ideas I've used in the past.  Some of these The Peanut is not so happy to eat, some she loves, so YMMV with your own kids.  But I wasn't just making a "kid-friendly" list because moms and dads have to eat, too.  In any case, here are a few ideas that have worked well in our house:

Heat Wave? "No Cook" Recipes to the Rescue!

The humidity is so bad here this morning that our windows are fogged up.  The condensation is beading thickly across all of the double-paned windows in our sunroom, but on the outside.  It looks like we are living in a greenhouse at the moment.

Outside, the air is thick.

So much so that you can instantly feel the moisture in it when you walk out the door.  Taking our westie, Roxie, out to the lawn was like stepping out into a sauna this morning.

Ugh.

So what's a girl to do for meals when she doesn't want to get anywhere near the stove?  Figure out a "no cook" meal strategy until the heat breaks.

Yesterday, I got a rotisserie chicken for dinner because I was just too tired to deal with cooking a full meal.  (Travel wears me out these days.  I'm feeling old and decrepit, because I love travel but I see myself having to schedule in more rest days on both ends of any vacation as the years go by and that's annoying.)  We had a baked potato (microwaved) and some steamed broccoli (also microwaved) along with the chicken and it was easy and delish.

But not entirely no cook.

Today, I'm going to try and make the "no cook" thing happen for me.  I'm thinking about salads, but haven't settled on which one as yet.  As I was perusing recipes, it occurred to me that you all might enjoy a "no cook" option if it is this hot where you are.

Simply Divine: At Elizabeth David's Table

Is there anything better than heading out to the mailbox only to find that a book you've been anticipating with near fervent glee has arrived?

That happened to me this morning.

I swear, I walked outside to get the mail, opened the mailbox and let out a loud squeal of joy.  An embarrassingly loud squeal, too, the sort that is usually reserved for 4 year olds who have heard the ice cream man coming from three blocks away and have watched and watched and watched until his truck is finally coming down their block, sweaty dollar clutched in their excited little hand.  That kind of out loud squeal of joy.

The neighbors probably think I've pulled a nutter, but it couldn't be helped.  It flew out of me when I saw the box.

It is all I can do today to get anything else accomplished, I've been holed up every spare second I could find, pouring through the pages of At Elizabeth David's Table: Classic Recipes and Timeless Kitchen Wisdom.

It is heaven.

Am I the only person who reads cookbooks as though they are page-turning thrillers?  I am consumed by reading the recipes and the background travel notes or family anecdotes, and then trying to imagine the taste just by reading the recipe again and "tasting" it in my imagination.

I can lose myself in a good cookbook as surely as I can in good fiction, and I have had a long attachment to Elizabeth David thanks to Laurie Colwin.

Which is kind of a coincidence, actually.  For the last week or so, I've been re-reading through Laurie Colwin's  Home Cooking: A Writer in the Kitchen, mostly because it is comfort in a book for me.

Artist's Way Seminar: After The Second Day

Let me tell you, digging through all the artistic blocks and censors you have built up through the years is hard, exhausting work.

It has been well worth it, absolutely.  But I crashed hard last night and slept so soundly the alarm was startling this morning.  This seminar has been incredibly energizing in so many ways for me, but my body needed down time in the worst way last night -- funny how when I need to process heavy information, my refuge has always been and still is a lot of sleep.

Woke up and did my seminar homework morning pages first thing. 

It's funny to think about them as homework, because I do them regularly these days and love them.  But it's been fun doing them here because I'm in such a creative frame of mind that I'm digging at some really useful stuff that has helped unlock so many things for me.  It's really been a wonderful tool for meditation and creativity while I've been here.

Meals yesterday were also wonderful.  Again.