Socially Distant Cuisine

I don't know about you, but today was hard.  Technology didn't cooperate, people were crabby, and, in DC at least, it was hot and humid, portending the summer haze to come.  This evening, though, the 9000th Zoom of the day was my niece, Emily's, 4th birthday party!  I didn't have time to bake, so I walked to a treat shop a few blocks over and picked up a couple of cupcakes.  Alice (our bulldog) even wore a party hat.  It added a little cheer to the day, and now Wednesday is a wrap.  Onward! Elote, Beans, and Carne Asada Tonight's dinner brought to you, courtesy of Trader Joe's.  I put the marinaded carne asada in to the immersion circulator, and it cooked at 129 for an hour, and finished with a pat dry and a quick sear.  I also seared some sliced green onions in a bit of vegetable oil, salt and pepper.  Frozen corn was dressed up with a bit of mayo, TJ's Everything but the Elote seasoning, a squeeze of lime, and some of our very persistent jar of grat

Happy Memorial Day, everyone.  I hope you got some time to remember the sacrifices of others, and to kick off the summer in a safe and enjoyable way.  This weekend was a mix of puttering around the house doing errands and relaxation, as a long weekend should be.  Yesterday, we had socially distant cocktails in the back yard, 6+ feet away from friends Lindsay and Jay.  Baby steps into this new social world.  And we cooked and ate some delicious things. MONDAY My dad makes delicious lemon blueberry muffins. Blueberries from his backyard garden keep the freezer at the ready all year round. These days, I usually get them around Christmastime, with our annual holiday visit.  Today? I just felt like a muffin, and they came together nice and quickly.  I followed the cookbook's recipe with just one modification: adding the zest of one lemon and rubbing in to the sugar until the oils are released. Our oven is split into two parts, with a removable divider. The top is basically a glor

If one could get in the groove of this whole pandemic thing, this week would've counted.  Work was a busy buzz for both Jeff and myself, and the days flew by. Luckily, our food was taken care of and pretty low-key.  If previous weeks are any clue, there is unevenness sure to come. But I focused on enjoying feeling busy and engaged, and thoroughly did. Today, I decided to sit a couple of sessions of an online meditation retreat with Alexis Santos ,  It was really nice!  His teaching is calm and focused, and I found that I brought extra mindfulness to the chores I squeezed in between.  Pantry:  reorganized and mopped. Yard: weeded and vines trimmed.  Downstairs bathroom: cleaned and I repainted the baseboards (they look much better!).  Tonight?  I'm pooped.  We're settling in for a Movie Night and an early bedtime. I also squeezed in some kitchen adventures today around all the chores. Dim Sum The first time I had dim sum was the summer after junior year of high school

This weekend, my sister Erin texted me that they tried something new: Afghan takeout.  My nephew was pleased to report that he didn't like it... he LOVED it.  It's always fun to discover new foods.  In a small world coincidence, we had its near neighbor, Pakistan, on the menu this week.   We were looking forward to this meal, so reserved it as an end to Monday. Lentil tacos for lunch, avocado on sourdough for breakfast. Seekh Kebab and Afghan Sabzi Oven  Seekh Kebab is in regular rotation here; we love the spicy and herb-filled meat and the tangy yogurt sauce, spiked with chili, cilantro, and mint.  I follow the recipe as written for ingredients, but with a few process changes that we think makes it perfect. I like these best after the flavors have melded for a day or even two.  Yesterday, we mixed everything together and set it in the fridge for easy going tonight.   The second note is about texture.  I ignore the instruction to not overwork the meat, and suggest t

Oof, friends.  I have a real backlog of meals here!  This weekend, we ate really well.  We did very little new cooking to make it happen. In this point, if it's from our kitchen, you've seen it all before. Sunday: Southwest Salad with Taco Lentils, Shrimp & Grits I had a different lentil recipe (Padma Lakshmi's wonderful Pondicherry Lentil Salad ) in mind for this week, but it turned out that I didn't have nearly enough beluga lentils to make it a reality.  So back to the pantry favorite, Post-Punk Kitchen Ancho Lentil Tacos .  Dinner was the warm lentils over TJ's Southwestern Chopped Salad.  The rest of the lentils will make delicious tacos for lunch this week. Jeff took care of brunch, punching up Thursday's Shrimp & Grits , and putting an egg on it.  A stellar start to the day. Saturday: Lobstah Roll! Our once-weekly takeout reflected the 80 degree weather and our desire to have a little adventure.  Defined here, while we're stil

I really miss hosting elaborate dinner parties: planning something ambitious and delicious, and sharing it with others, taking joy in their pleasure, and in our togetherness. Dinner parties were one of my favorite things in graduate school.  Not infrequently, I would get inspired on a Friday afternoon send a blanket invitation for Saturday.  It was not unusual to get 10 RSVPs on 24 hours notice.  Folks came for the food, of course, but graduate school could be grindingly lonely.  Much of the work was solitary, with payoff far in the future.  I know I wasn't alone in hunger for camaraderie as much as for dinner.  In another strange parallel to aspects of life in the pandemic, days could be largely unscheduled; time was interchangeable.  It was a perfect storm for long, lingering evenings filled with good conversation and raucous laughter.  Sunday night "family dinner" with roommates and good friends was an even lower-key version; usually potluck, sharing food and company

Happy Monday, everyone.  Day 60.  Can you believe it?  It was cold and breezy here, and the day flew by. It feels like I've been listening to a lot of podcasts and talks here in the Pandemic, and one person who's really been making the rounds is the psychologist Rick Hanson, who has a new book called Neurodharma .  He is making the rounds on both the Buddhist and clinical psychology circuits, so I think I've heard book-related talks from him four or five times now. I found this talk , where he is joined by my favorite meditation teacher, Sharon Salzberg. They had a really interesting discussion about lessons from psychology and meditation that can help us keep connected and well in these difficult times.  Food for thought, and I thought I would share. In addition to thinking about the meaning of life, we are also eating good food. Red Curry Noodles New Recipe Monday was a clean-the-pantry meal.  I had a very old can of Panang red curry paste , that was a few months e

Happy weekend, everybody.  I hope that you're finding a way to make it feel special.  Today, we met our friend Kathleen for a masks-on walk at the Marine Corps Memorial.  We walked down the hill, past Arlington Cemetery, and then halfway across Memorial Bridge. I suspect that the "opening up" part of this pandemic (which we are not to yet, here, at all) is going to be more challenging, emotionally, than the lockdown part.   We are comfortable here, but things like visiting old places and seeing important people are not going to be the same as Before.  I'm trying to keep a balanced perspective: we will build different relationships and habits, and those will feel normal and fun and comforting at some point.  But this week, I'm really feeling the losses, of all the little interactions across the day that make me feel like I'm a part of a community, and of the ease of being social. But we cooked and ate some good food. New England Greek-Style Pizza T

I don't know about you, but Wednesdays in quarantine have been hard!  I can keep a good attitude for the first few days of work, and by Wednesday, it seems the technology challenges and inefficiencies and frustrations of remote life just stack up.  This week, Wednesday was just fine.  I'm glad for that! I'm also glad for successful kitchen experiments!  Tonight, I adventured through a combo of Pad See Ew and Drunken Noodles, using sticky rice cakes that I found at the Vietnamese Grocery.  I was looking for the flat, chewy rice noodles that are more traditional for those dishes, but didn't come across any.  So for technique, I had to do a little research on how to cook the sticky rice cakes. It turned out really well--sweet, spicy, and chewy, with Thai basil--and definitely hit the spot! Sticky Rice Cakes with Beef and Thai Basil The two recipes I drew from were from the wonderful Woks of Life:  Pad See Ew and Nian Gao .  The Drunken Noodle inspiration came in t

Happy Cinco de Mayo! Soft Tacos and Margaritas After our normal Tuesday activities (Me: yoga. Jeff: guitar lesson), we had Tex-Mex style ground beef tacos, refried beans, and some really nice margaritas.  Turns out we used up the last of the Cointreau, so these had 1800 Reposado, lime juice, some orange juice concentrate, and simple syrup that was part of a housewarming gift from our friends Erica and Harold several years ago.  Good thing we didn't Kondo the syrup out our lives in the move!  It made things just right. Bánh Xèo When I decided to go to the Vietnamese grocery, one of the dishes on my mind was savory Vietnamese crepes, or  Bánh Xèo .  I came across Hungry Huy's website when I was searching for a recipe, and I loved the depth of the explanations.  I entered the ingredients in to my shopping list and resolved to give it a try. Despite what Huy says ("You don't make this dish for just one or two people"), we soldiered on.  We still had lef

Hi all!  I hope that you had a good weekend. And, in honor of Day 50, I decided to change my strategy here at Socially Distant Cuisine.  Cooking every meal is no longer a novelty, and we're starting to recoup some of our more regular eating habits. From here on out, I'll post a couple of times a week, sharing links to recipes and photos of things we've actually whipped up.  I'll add recommendations for prepared food when we have them, but you don't need every piece of avocado toast that crosses our lips.  Deal? Breakfast Hash and Mason Dixie Biscuits Saturday morning, we added some diced onion to the leftover potatoes and Brussels sprouts from last Sunday's Sheet Pan Sausages.  With a sprinkle of hot smoked paprika, it was perfectly crispy and delicious.  Add bacon, a fried egg, and a sweet potato biscuit from DC's Mason Dixie Biscuits , available in the freezer section around here.  It was a hearty, Southern-style brunch, and lasted us until dinner.