Aside from changing diapers and (finally) checking my email for the first time in 2 months, one of my big goals for my leave is to learn how to cook better and expand my own recipe book. I don't have a recipe book right now--just a few meals that I can throw together reasonably well given the right ingredients. But I enjoy cooking, and I think it's important, so I've made that a goal for the next 10 (ugh...only 9 now) weeks.
This past week featured 3 home-cooked meals (leaving leftovers for the other 4 nights):
Monday: my world-famous chicken parm, steamed zucchini, couscous
Tuesday: cod with artichokes, steamed squash
Thursday: black bean soup, garden salad
I batted 2 for 3 this week. The cod was a bit disappointing, but I'm not sure if that is because cod, by it's nature, is a bit disappointing, or if the other two meals were just much better. I do love making chicken parm and have a good recipe memorized (based on an Italian cookbook given to me by Natalia), and the black bean soup recipe was courtesy of Cooking Light. That was fantastic...spicy and hearty, which may not have made a whole lot of sense for such a warm week, but it was a great choice nonetheless. I love my slowcooker and am going to try to get in the habit of using it once a week.
My parents came over last night for dinner, so it was chicken leftovers tonight. I made some sweet potato fries and stuffed tomatoes as side dishes, and those worked out well too. Andres even ate a few fries, though it took some mild persuasion! Both recipes were taken out of the--gulp--South Beach Diet Quick and Easy Cookbook, and took less than 10 minutes to prep, which was ideal. Though I hate to endorse anything so faddish as the South Beach Diet, I do find their recipes to include a number of ingredients that I would otherwise ignore. And the food does taste good, which is the ultimate goal of cooking.
Related to cooking: I finished reading Michael Pollan's In Defense of Food a few weeks back, and, if I can find it in the Waltham library, I'm going to read Janet Poppendieck's Free for All next. I think I heard her on NPR this weekend; the book talk about the sorry state of school lunches (and beyond) in public school. While the quality of school food rates pretty low in public discussions of public schools, it shouldn't be overlooked--and if we are serious about teaching healthy habits in K-12, then you would think that would extend to what we feed our kids.
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I find that cod, or similar white fish, needs a pretty tasty sauce because the fish itself is fairly bland (probably why people eat it a lot, since many of us still don't love very fishy tastes); I've done recipes with spice rubs or with lime that have worked out pretty well.
ReplyDeleteThe other thing that we've been doing more and more often is taking two or three ingredients that we already have at home and putting them in a google search to see what comes up. Last night, Sarah found a recipe that helped us use up sausage, kale, potatoes - all lingering in the house - and which was extremely tasty. That's been a real impetus to go outside the comfort zone, too: you just deal with whatever the recipe says. Most of the time, the recipes are very easy, too; I think once you get fast at chopping stuff that's a huge chunk of the time!
Jamie Oliver has done a fair bit of consciousness-raising work on school meals in Britain, and I think in a few more localized areas in the US; I must look at that book you mentioned.
Thanks for those tips--I have done cod "almandine" (sp?) before, which is lemon juice, paprika, and almonds...I like that a lot and may go back to variations on it for future adventures with white fish. (Though Natalia wants to try Tilapia next week; I'm looking forward to that.)
ReplyDeleteGreat hint about Google searching ingredients. I can see that coming in handy when you have just a little of a few ingredients left and don't want to waste anything; seems like it would make for a great iPhone app too! Enter random ingredients and get a recipe out. Though sausage, kale, and potatoes sounds like a tough task!
I saw a Jamie Oliver talk on TED a few weeks ago that was really interesting (and related to the book I want to read); check it out if you have a few minutes.
Hey Burt! Tonight is the premier of Jamie Oliver's show on ABC at 8:00.
ReplyDeleteI've tivo'd the Jamie Oliver show and will watch it this week! Thanks for the heads-up; I had forgotten that it was starting.
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