Let me start on a positive note. I have secured access to a camera! While this still does not imply that I have the ability to competently photograph things, it does mean I can create images that legally belong to me. That is exciting.
For instance, last Tuesday I took a series of photos of the dinner I was making.
For instance, last Tuesday I took a series of photos of the dinner I was making.
Unfortunately, it took me several more days to figure out how to upload them to my computer, and by then I'd kind of lost interest in the meal. If I remember correctly, I served the lima bean stew pictured above, with garlicky spinach piled on top, and some good sourdough bread I didn't bake myself. I did remember to buy butter for the first time in weeks, and we were all pleased about that. All in all it was an okay, not great, workaday dinner.
I try to cook new recipes three times a week at least; last week it was four, because I had two simple egg recipes I wanted to try. One night we had the "oaty-eggs" described at the link above, with honey and butter (I think some of us had jam instead), and a big fruit salad. They were a hit, and simple as anything- especially since my gas stove, with its stupidly tiny burners, is terrible for heating a pancake griddle, and these egg pancakes simply worked. They didn't stick at all and cooked evenly. They weren't terribly filling, though, and everybody wanted more. Next time I'll make more than two oaty-eggs apiece.
I also made the wasabi devilled eggs from the same page (am I really linking to Livestrong after watching The Armstrong Lie? I can't bring myself to fault the whole community, though). Conclusion: while wasabi might be a nice addition to classic devilled eggs, this particular recipe- which substitutes sour cream for mayonnaise, adds rice vinegar, and contains nothing remotely sweet- just didn't do it for us. We found them bland and slightly bitter, and- though we were a little embarrassed to admit it- we missed the usual added sugars.
The fourth thing I cooked last week was... another white bean stew. Cuban white-bean-and-pumpkin stew, as a matter of fact, which sadly was not as good as it sounded, perhaps because I couldn't find certain specialty Cuban ingredients (cachuchas, culantro), even at my nearby Caribbean grocery. We ate it over white rice, with some broccoli on the side, green salad, and manchego cheese. It was bland as all hell, and there were a ton of leftovers. Some extra salt, and the miracle of flavor-mingling while sitting in the fridge for days, improved these beans over time, but I would not make them again.
Why did I make two different white bean stews in three days? Well, we've finally arrived at my shameful secret. Some people, even ones I respect very highly, talk about "cooking their way through cookbooks." By which they seem to mean, "choosing a handful or two of recipes from a single cookbook, ones that happen to appeal to me, and cooking them one after another in a sort of mini-binge, then assessing the results."
I don't know anyone else who cooks their way through cookbooks the way I do. (If you do, and you happen to be reading this, please speak up!!) By which I mean, starting at the beginning and cooking every single recipe, in order, until I get to the end, even though at the pace of two recipes a week this is liable to take years. (I said I make three or more new recipes a week: the third is generally an internet recipe that I've bookmarked because it looked appealing. I keep a long list of these, and have a good year's worth in the queue.)
For instance. Right now I am cooking my way through Madhur Jaffrey's World Vegetarian (published in 1999- no trendy or timely cookbooks for me! Less than three years ago, I finished a New York Times cookbook from 1961. I did skip some aspics from that one).
I try to cook new recipes three times a week at least; last week it was four, because I had two simple egg recipes I wanted to try. One night we had the "oaty-eggs" described at the link above, with honey and butter (I think some of us had jam instead), and a big fruit salad. They were a hit, and simple as anything- especially since my gas stove, with its stupidly tiny burners, is terrible for heating a pancake griddle, and these egg pancakes simply worked. They didn't stick at all and cooked evenly. They weren't terribly filling, though, and everybody wanted more. Next time I'll make more than two oaty-eggs apiece.
I also made the wasabi devilled eggs from the same page (am I really linking to Livestrong after watching The Armstrong Lie? I can't bring myself to fault the whole community, though). Conclusion: while wasabi might be a nice addition to classic devilled eggs, this particular recipe- which substitutes sour cream for mayonnaise, adds rice vinegar, and contains nothing remotely sweet- just didn't do it for us. We found them bland and slightly bitter, and- though we were a little embarrassed to admit it- we missed the usual added sugars.
The fourth thing I cooked last week was... another white bean stew. Cuban white-bean-and-pumpkin stew, as a matter of fact, which sadly was not as good as it sounded, perhaps because I couldn't find certain specialty Cuban ingredients (cachuchas, culantro), even at my nearby Caribbean grocery. We ate it over white rice, with some broccoli on the side, green salad, and manchego cheese. It was bland as all hell, and there were a ton of leftovers. Some extra salt, and the miracle of flavor-mingling while sitting in the fridge for days, improved these beans over time, but I would not make them again.
Why did I make two different white bean stews in three days? Well, we've finally arrived at my shameful secret. Some people, even ones I respect very highly, talk about "cooking their way through cookbooks." By which they seem to mean, "choosing a handful or two of recipes from a single cookbook, ones that happen to appeal to me, and cooking them one after another in a sort of mini-binge, then assessing the results."
I don't know anyone else who cooks their way through cookbooks the way I do. (If you do, and you happen to be reading this, please speak up!!) By which I mean, starting at the beginning and cooking every single recipe, in order, until I get to the end, even though at the pace of two recipes a week this is liable to take years. (I said I make three or more new recipes a week: the third is generally an internet recipe that I've bookmarked because it looked appealing. I keep a long list of these, and have a good year's worth in the queue.)
For instance. Right now I am cooking my way through Madhur Jaffrey's World Vegetarian (published in 1999- no trendy or timely cookbooks for me! Less than three years ago, I finished a New York Times cookbook from 1961. I did skip some aspics from that one).
It's hard to read the fine print in the picture, but at the bottom of that book it reads, "More than 650 meatless recipes from around the globe." At two recipes per week, I will cook approximately 100 per year, so it will probably take me six years or more to finish this book. Don't get me wrong, I like the foods in here, though Jaffrey does have a tendency to put too much liquid in her beans, recipe after recipe (I'm in the bean section). But, I have a lot of cookbooks to get to.
Oh, wait, I just thought of someone who cooked through an entire cookbook- how could I have forgotten?- and she got ultrafamous for it. The Julie and Julia chick. I liked her book a lot, but more than anything it was because I couldn't believe there was a kindred spirit out there. ...And, just now, in the process of going back to find her book and her actual name and her blog and so forth, I've (re)discovered that she also had difficulty finishing the aspics. I swear I am not an (intentional) Julie Powell copycat!; I've been doing this since, I think, the year 2000 (maybe 2001?), well before I read her book, and it's not so much a project as an expression of a compulsive personality, I would guess. Which is why I view it as my dirty little secret instead of something that will make me rich.
Regardless, you should expect to hear a lot about beans over the next months.
Oh, wait, I just thought of someone who cooked through an entire cookbook- how could I have forgotten?- and she got ultrafamous for it. The Julie and Julia chick. I liked her book a lot, but more than anything it was because I couldn't believe there was a kindred spirit out there. ...And, just now, in the process of going back to find her book and her actual name and her blog and so forth, I've (re)discovered that she also had difficulty finishing the aspics. I swear I am not an (intentional) Julie Powell copycat!; I've been doing this since, I think, the year 2000 (maybe 2001?), well before I read her book, and it's not so much a project as an expression of a compulsive personality, I would guess. Which is why I view it as my dirty little secret instead of something that will make me rich.
Regardless, you should expect to hear a lot about beans over the next months.