Socially Distant Cuisine

I just got off happy hour with a group of friends I have been checking in with every couple of weeks.  We laugh a lot, and we also compare what things are like in our various corners of the pandemic.  Everyone agreed this week was hard-- it doesn't mean there weren't good moments.  There were.  But it's almost as if folks were running on all gears, being good soldiers, powering through what we thought was going to be a short-term situation. That took a lot, and now that it's clear this is definitely not short-term... the tired is showing. It's extra practice.  Practice being kind to ourselves, and to others.  Practice feeling our feelings but letting go of things we have no control over.  Practice is work.  No wonder it shows. WEDNESDAY I didn't blog yesterday, partly because I spent the late afternoon doing yard work, and then enjoying a glass of wine on the patio with Jeff as a reward.  And partly because my camera deleted breakfast and dinner.  Breakfas

Well, Italian eggplant.  But cooked in a Chinese-style preparation.  Eggplant fusion! Spicy Black Bean Eggplant with Tofu This was an improv dinner to use up some onions and eggplant cubes left over from prep, and a brick of tofu that was in its last week. If you've not tried it before, freezing tofu is magic.  It completely changes the texture, opening up holes and making the marinade soak right in. Read more about the technique  here !  I mixed up a little bit of low sodium soy, garlic, ginger, a squeeze of honey, and toasted sesame oil.  I scooped it over the pieces of tofu on a sheet, and baked for about 30 minutes at 400 degrees.   The sauce on the eggplant was seriously rich and delicious.  While the tofu cooked, I riffed a spicy black bean sauce with low sodium soy, fermented black beans, chili oil, and some water. First, I fried up the eggplant in some vegetable oil until soft and slightly scorched, then removed it to the plate.  Then I fried diced white onion

And, just like that, another work week begins.  The day flew by, and Alice got several long walks.  Several passes by the neighborhood cat's stoop, and even one sighting.  Lucky dog. Return of the Toast Avocado toast is back, friends.  I bought these several days ago, but only now are they finally ripe. With Everything Bagel seasoning.  Yum.  I thought the banana made a nice parallel composition on the plate, and I had TWO giant cups of coffee. Taco Lentils and Southwest Salad A beautiful thing about the ancho taco lentils is they last a good long time in the fridge-- since Day 35 , in fact.  I squeezed this in between several hours of web meetings today.  Paired again with the TJ's Southwest Salad, it made for a satisfying lunch. Moroccan Chicken on Couscous Today was another New Recipe Monday.  This one used several items that were priorities: chicken thighs with a use-by date of this week, the juice from a can of plum tomatoes (left from ratatouille), and a lot of

Today was a low key end to the weekend.  It was grey and drizzly much of the day.  Brunch (at home).  A longish walk with the dog.  Some cleaning and, of course, Sunday meal prep. Croque Madame We are both missing our favorite weekend brunch, Montmartre.  And not just the food, though the food is indeed wonderful.  But also the ritual of going there, saying hello--with recognition--to the staff.  Our routine beverages and food orders. The low-key neighborhood cafe feeling of it all.  Sadly, we can't create the social atmosphere of brunch at home. But it turns out that I can  make a darn good Croque Madame, with a few additions and substitutions.  Sourdough instead of a country white bread.  I added a few tablespoons of leftover caramelized onions and a dash of nutmeg to the bechemel (a win!).  And the ham on hand was rosemary flavored, which actually was quite wonderful in this application.  Loosely following this NYT recipe ,  I made and seasoned the bechemel, stirred in the

When we don't need to limit ourselves to one store a week, I usually rarely go to the supermarket.  We tend to get meat, dairy, and produce at Whole Foods and supplement from Trader Joe's for some prepared or frozen items and wine.  Occasionally, we'll visit a specialty store or international market for harder-to-find ingredients.  And for things like soap, foil and sandwich baggies, etc, Target is the go-to.  With our restricted range of motion, we seem to need a trip to the supermarket essentially every other week for some of those household-type things. It makes me realize how much more processed food we've added to the grocery haul (though that is offset by eating less junk food during the work day).  The goal of food prep this weekend is to return us to a more typical (for us) way of eating.  Dinner last night was an indulgent return to normal, using up the ends of several things in the fridge. SATURDAY Carnitas Tacos, Beans, and Slaw Pork carnitas is an o

Happy Thursday evening!  We are almost to another Friday, which seems amazing.  I don't know about you, but yesterday was tough.  Over the past couple of weeks, I had settled in to a pretty pleasant present, where things were definitely not normal, but felt okay.  And then, yesterday, I started thinking about how we don't know when or how this will end, and what things will be like when it's over.  The idea of 18+ months of uncertainty, until there's a vaccine, started to weigh on me.  And by that time, how many of the places and people we love will have fundamentally changed, or be gone?  It's impossible to know.  That is Fact, even in more normal times.  But the pandemic makes this truth painfully clear.  It felt like... a lot, and not a particularly welcome connection made. But I felt those feelings, talked them out, meditated some, and today was another day.  I'm busy at work with a COVID-related project.  It feels good to be doing something to help, and

Today we're on Day 40.  I realized in my collapsed posts that I had mis-numbered, and was selling us one day short.  Each day is a smaller amount of the Time Since, so it makes sense that the count isn't nearly as important as it once was.  And yet, here we are.  Day 40.  I went back and fixed those other post titles to reflect it. Ramen Egg on Toast I had the sense that the marinaded eggs from last night's dinner would be delicious, so I made a few extra.  This morning, I had one (cold from the fridge) on a buttered slice of whole wheat toast.  With yogurt and apricot preserves.  And a new variety of coffee-- Stumptown Holler Mountain .  I knew the rest of my day was going to be a little busy and harried--on top of a couple of important meetings and my favorite yoga class, it was Grocery Day.  So I brought one of the first garden roses into view while I ate.   Green Rice and Chorizo with Zucchini When I first got it, back in grad school, Rick Bayless's M

I'm pretty impressed with what we've been able to make without any trips to specialty stores.  We haven't been to anything other than a regular grocery or Trader Joe's in probably 2 months.  Sometime soon, enough of our Asian condiments will run low that a special trip may be justified.  Typically, produce is beautiful there too, so that will be nice when we get there. Pork Ramen Tonight's kitchen adventure was pork ramen.  Believe it or not, we had everything necessary for this in our pantry, except for the noodles, seaweed snacks, and pork belly.  Jeff was craving ramen a couple of weeks ago, and we had never made it before.  I wasn't about to boil bones for hours to make the broth, so I did a bit of research and found a recipe for a miso-style ramen that was delicious using boxed broth.  I did spring for a fancy bone broth, but I'm not sure how much difference it actually made.  It certainly was delicious! Alice was very interested in the delic

This weekend, our food decisions mostly revolved around a question, "How do I use this up?"  There were a few new additions to the lineup, but by-and-large, we were developing a backlog of leftovers and one-off things that I purchased weeks ago that needed some creative attention.  Challenge: accepted! DINNERS Jazzed up Frozen Pizza and Kale Salad The Eat Pizzas that you've heard me rave about are all vegetarian.  Jeff dressed up the Three Cheese variety with pepperoni left from the subs on Tuesday and caramelized onions left from the burgers on Friday .  This kale salad is easy and tasty.  I'll often add some toasted bread crumbs for crunch, but they're definitely not necessary, though they do give it more of a Caesar salad vibe. Thickly chiffonade several big leaves of kale  (starting at 2 min in that video).  Mince a clove of garlic, add 1/4 tsp of salt, and use the back of your knife to mash it into a paste (this takes some of the pungency out of

It's Friday.  We arrived! Ode to Russell House Burger Right in Harvard Square, there's a gastro-pub restaurant called Russell House .  It was Single Jeff's brunch place of choice.  And they had a mean burger.  Cheddar, caramelized onions, bacon, and a big patty, on an English Muffin.  Tonight, we made a homage to the Russell House burger.  I whipped up a sauce of mayo, Dijon, sweet relish, balsamic vinaigrette.  While the bacon cooked, the onions caramelized.  The patty was seasoned with Worcestershire sauce, garlic powder, mushroom powder, s&p.  And I threw some frozen fries onto a sheet pan, with some Cajun seasoning.  One of my favorite things about eating a fries at a restaurant is the little ramekin of ketchup.  It's so satisfying to dip.  We don't have any, but we do have these sweet little teacups that were a gift from our friend Peri.  They did the job! I'm a burger purist.  I usually don't even do cheese.... just patty, sauce, lettuce an

Hi all!  Wednesday and Thursday of this week, as we move from week four to week five, are going to be a combo post.  Last night I had a delightful extended family Zoom, including with folks who are avid readers of the blog.  My Aunt Marge used the honey Dijon marinade from Day 31 for her pork last night, and it received rave reviews (I added proportions to the post at her request :).  And my cousin Barb tried the Shawarma from Day 12 to good success .  I would love to be cooking and eating in person with them, but meanwhile it's fun to be connected across the country in this way. This is the first week in Distance that has really felt like a Work Week.  It seems like we all are starting to adjust to the expectation that it may be quite awhile, indeed, before we return to business without regular interruptions, and we'd better settle in to new patterns of working that fit with the long haul.  I appreciated the lull while I had it, and I do hope to keep up some of the good hab

Today was a good day in Distance.  I felt cheerful and productive.   I did a quick grocery shop for us, and also picked some up for a friend who has been avoiding stores for health reasons.  At the same time, I dropped her a mask, which she exclaimed was "quite chic, actually!" That felt good.  It's still pretty surreal to drive around the city, streets almost completely empty. Italian Sub and Two Bean Salad A couple of weeks ago, we watched a delightful Bon Appetit test kitchen episode where chefs made their favorite sandwiches .  Ever since, I've been craving an Italian sub.  Rather than just step out to the deli, it required accumulation of the right ingredients over a couple of weeks. Tonight--after my yoga and Jeff's guitar lesson--was the night! I found this take-and-bake Italian loaf last week at the little neighborhood organic market, and its "pantry ready" vacuum packaging got my attention. Apparently it's a Seattle company, and I'

Today was one of those stormy days where the sky was by turns menacing and shining brightly.  I appreciated the calm between, and also the clearing.  And watched the driving rain with interest, but not attachment.  Sometimes, it's helpful to be at a Distance. Soba Noodles with Crispy Kale The ingredients that needed using tonight were the remainder of that giant head of kale, extra rehydrated coconut from the birthday cake, and limes.  I entered the search terms into the Google machine, and out came this gem of a recipe from Bon Appetit .  It's rare that I make a recipe with no garlic or onions, but here we were. The fact that the coconut was sweetened wasn't a problem; I just reduced the amount of honey in the dressing.  If you don't have nutritional yeast, I'm not sure you need it.  And I went nowhere near 1/2 cup of olive oil... probably more like two tablespoons, with a few more of warm water for emulsion.  The lime zest was a nice punch at the end, and I