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Apr. 17th, 2006 08:32 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
aslantthis weekend was lovely. did i mention that i cracked open an egg with a double yolk on saturday? i felt very lucky.
sunday we sat down to our fabulous easter(ish) feast. until the last moment we thought![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
aboutlooking might be joining us, but it didn't work out. sometime soon, though! whenever we next go to western massachusetts, hopefully :)
the maple pecan muffins were very tasty, but for some reason i am bad at making fluffy muffins. why is that? they never really puff up above the muffin cup like they do in the pictures.
also, because for some reason it's only sold in big quart containers, we now have a ton of buttermilk leftover. i remembernevers was in the same spot a while back -- now we have to search out recipes involving buttermilk! so i guess we'll be making biscuits sometime later this week.
lots of marathoners on the T this morning, all with their numbered, race-issued red addidas bags, looking overly healthy and scrawny and excited. (also looking rather white.) i guess much of boston has the day off, but not harvard. walking to my building i pass the cambridge common and it is full of blooming trees and (finally!) visible leaves. a beautiful morning.
sunday we sat down to our fabulous easter(ish) feast. until the last moment we thought
aboutlooking might be joining us, but it didn't work out. sometime soon, though! whenever we next go to western massachusetts, hopefully :)the maple pecan muffins were very tasty, but for some reason i am bad at making fluffy muffins. why is that? they never really puff up above the muffin cup like they do in the pictures.
also, because for some reason it's only sold in big quart containers, we now have a ton of buttermilk leftover. i remember
nevers was in the same spot a while back -- now we have to search out recipes involving buttermilk! so i guess we'll be making biscuits sometime later this week.lots of marathoners on the T this morning, all with their numbered, race-issued red addidas bags, looking overly healthy and scrawny and excited. (also looking rather white.) i guess much of boston has the day off, but not harvard. walking to my building i pass the cambridge common and it is full of blooming trees and (finally!) visible leaves. a beautiful morning.
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Date: 2006-04-17 12:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-04-17 12:47 pm (UTC)(i am now extra excited about making things from scratch from now on, because after reading michael pollan's book i am eager to get away from the Evil Corn Empire that rules the food industry & dumps its chemical nastiness into prepared mixes.)
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Date: 2006-04-17 12:54 pm (UTC)i am intrigued by that book but i feel like any attempt to change the way we eat at home would just be doomed so it might just leave me frustrated.
this is really long but i'm posting it anyway :)
Date: 2006-04-17 01:16 pm (UTC)he does talk about how, for him, not eating meat also sets him apart in very human ways, such as inconveniencing a dinner party host, etc etc. ultimately he goes back to eating meat only once he's shot and killed his own wild boar in california. i haven't yet gotten to whether he eats grocery store meat, though.
the biggest idea i've come away with from this is to spend more money on good food. buying lots of whole foods (i mean, things like whole grains and fruit & veg, though also i guess from whole foods, the store) and not skimping on spendy organic meats. americans now spend a lot less, comparatively, on food, and we have come to believe that food should be cheap. so although this book is not meant to make me a vegetarian, it is at least making me think about how i prioritize good food, and how i spend my money. i no longer believe in the pastoral vision peddled by industrial organic (which comprises nearly every product available at whole foods), but that doesn't mean i want to give my money to the corn empire, either. so industrial organic it is!
Re: this is really long but i'm posting it anyway :)
Date: 2006-04-17 01:32 pm (UTC)the biggest change i'm wanting to make to my diet right now is to eat fruits and vegetables, in whole form. i hardly eat any and it can't be good. but i'm having a lot of trouble changing that.
Re: this is really long but i'm posting it anyway :)
Date: 2006-04-17 01:48 pm (UTC)what are your favorite fruits? veggies?
Re: this is really long but i'm posting it anyway :)
Date: 2006-04-17 01:57 pm (UTC)it's been hard to motivate myself because my digestion is fine with the amt of fiber i'm getting and i take a multivitamin so it's hard to believe i'm really lacking in vitamins. but i recently read something about how the lactobacilli population in your intestines thrive on fruit pulp and having the right healthy bacteria there can make possibly make a different to your mental/emotional health... so it seems like a good idea.
i like a lot of fruits (apples, bananas, pears, kiwi, berries, oranges, peaches, cherries, grapes, pineapple).
but the're all so difficult and i have an excuse for every single one. apples: they aren't in season, right? shouldn't i wait and eat them in september. bananes: they have to be perfectly yellow! i don't like them green and i don't like the mushy. pears: i can never tell when they're ripe and they're so disappointing when they're crunchy. also i have no idea when they're in season. kiwi: we have some in our fridge right now but i keep forgetting about them. berries, cherries, peaches: not in season yet and overpriced and/or not good for now, right? oranges: i hate peeling them. pineapple: a whole pineapple is totally overwhelming but they're overpriced if bought precut. grapes: hmm, i dunno, i just never buy them.
oof.
i don't like veggies a whole lot. i like broccoli but if we buy it we only manage to eat half before it goes bad. i like sauted greens but we never think to buy and make them. i like asparagus and it will be in season soon i think but again we just never buy and make it. i don't like raw vegetables at all.
no subject
Date: 2006-04-17 02:10 pm (UTC)* apples may not be technically in season, but they're in the stores and they're tasty! we got some fabulous pink lady apples this weekend -- just go for whatever looks firm.
* bananas: if i were you, i would buy a bunch while green and keep them at work to ripen on a hook so they don't bruise. then you can eat them when they're perfect! on a hook they will avoid bruising for a long time. but then, i'm a banana fanatic, so perhaps that's an extreme solution if you're not that into them!
* oranges: peel them at home, or ask heather to help, so you can just bring the prepared sections to eat!
veggies are harder, if you don't like them raw. my friend liz used to roast big bunches of asparagus and then eat it cold for lunch from a baggie. very good, if you're a big asparagus fan. we buy it almost year-round because we like it so much, same with artichokes.
i recently found small pop-top canned veggies and bought some to try for lunches. like peas and carrots mixed, or green beans. they're canned, so less healthy, but not raw, either -- it's one way to get green fiber during the day, though!
i'm not necessarily concerned about fiber for vitamins or for my digestive health (i'm no longer in intestinal distress as i was earlier this year!) as much as i'm concerned about how it is digested much slower and will make me feel full for a lot longer. i love a pbj for lunch but it stays in my stomach for precisely 5 seconds before it turns into sugar and then disappears and makes me hungry right at 5 when i need to go to the gym.
no subject
Date: 2006-04-17 02:14 pm (UTC)so the hook really does make a difference for bananas? i always worry they'll still get bruised where they press against each other and it won't make that much of a differnce.
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Date: 2006-04-17 02:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-04-17 02:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-04-17 02:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-04-17 02:31 pm (UTC)avocadoes are also so tasty just eaten solo, with a little bit of salt. my dad eats like one a day to boost healthy fats and calories -- he is perpetually not eating enough.
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Date: 2006-04-18 06:26 am (UTC)1 1/2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (2 lemons)
4 to 5 tablespoons good olive oil
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
4 heads of endive
4 ripe Haas avocados, peeled and seeded
Whisk together the mustard, lemon juice, olive oil, salt, and pepper to make a vinaigrette.
Remove a half inch from the stem end of each endive, discard the core, and cut the rest across into 1-inch chunks. Cut the avocados into large dice or wedges. Toss the avocados and endive with the vinaigrette. Season to taste and serve at room temperature.
no subject
Date: 2006-04-17 02:19 pm (UTC)you are so lucky you can walk to the union sq farmer's market! wow. that sounds so idyllic, a nice walk in good weather, with good food at the end. farmer's markets are so lovely. my cousin's boyfriend is a food buyer for one of mario battali's restaurants and he goes there every week, i think, and to a few others in the city -- sounds like a job i would LOVE, if i could just skip over the 10 years of manning buffet tables he put up with to get there...
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Date: 2006-04-17 02:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-04-17 02:23 pm (UTC)there is a discount store (like a 99 cent store) a few blocks north of here --i wonder if they have cheapo banana hooks.
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Date: 2006-04-17 02:29 pm (UTC)whole foods sells these weird light-green plastic bags for keeping fruit & veg in -- they have special airholes or something, and the inside is treated with something -- i don't know what it is, but it makes things keep so long and so well! bananas will keep from spotting for a much longer time! it's like $5 for a pack of 5 special green bags, and we reuse ours over and over again. if you see them for sale anywhere, they're very much worth it.
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Date: 2006-04-17 02:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-04-17 02:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-04-17 02:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-04-17 02:25 pm (UTC)sorry to hijack your conversation ....
Date: 2006-04-17 02:16 pm (UTC)Re: sorry to hijack your conversation ....
Date: 2006-04-17 02:24 pm (UTC)whenever i am overwhelmed with all the tasteless/bruisey fruit, i always gravitate to bananas and grapes, which can be bought unripe and ripened so easily, so i at least feel i have a measure of control over the quality! but yes, sometimes it's hard to pick and choose among the seductive but sneakily tasteless displays.
Re: sorry to hijack your conversation ....
Date: 2006-04-17 02:29 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-04-17 02:36 pm (UTC)Re: sorry to hijack your conversation ....
Date: 2006-04-17 02:30 pm (UTC)Re: sorry to hijack your conversation ....
Date: 2006-04-17 02:34 pm (UTC)Re: sorry to hijack your conversation ....
Date: 2006-04-17 02:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-04-17 01:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-04-17 01:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-04-17 02:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-04-17 02:14 pm (UTC)maybe we will have breakfast for dinner this week, finish up the muffins and have pancakes as well. kirk will think he's died & gone to heaven.
no subject
Date: 2006-04-17 02:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-04-17 02:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-04-17 02:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-04-17 02:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-04-17 02:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-04-17 02:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-04-17 02:35 pm (UTC)not related to buttermilk
Date: 2006-04-17 03:48 pm (UTC)Re: not related to buttermilk
Date: 2006-04-17 04:21 pm (UTC)y que
grannuevo vocabolario!Hope you don't mind, I added you. I come bearing a chicken recipe!
Date: 2006-04-18 06:23 am (UTC)2 pounds chicken pieces (breasts, legs, and thighs)
3 cups buttermilk
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
4 eggs, beaten
3 cups all-purpose flour
4 cups vegetable shortening, for frying
With a cleaver or heavy knife, split the chicken breasts, then cut each breast 1/2 in 1/2 again.
Place the chicken pieces in a shallow container skin side down and pour the buttermilk over them. Cover with plastic wrap and marinate in the refrigerator for at least 6 hours or overnight, if possible.
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
Remove the chicken from the buttermilk and season both sides with salt and pepper.
Place the beaten eggs and flour in separate shallow bowls. Dredge the chicken pieces first in the flour, then the egg, and then the flour again.
In a 12-inch saute pan with deep sides, melt enough shortening so that it is 2 inches deep and heat the pan until the oil begins to smoke.
Fry the chicken for 2 minutes on each side, until the skin is golden brown. Transfer to a baking sheet and bake the chicken for 15 minutes, or until cooked through.
Serve warm immediately, or store in the refrigerator for the next day's picnic.
Re: Hope you don't mind, I added you. I come bearing a chicken recipe!
Date: 2006-04-18 01:01 pm (UTC)i am adding you back :)
Re: Hope you don't mind, I added you. I come bearing a chicken recipe!
Date: 2006-04-21 02:54 pm (UTC)Re: Hope you don't mind, I added you. I come bearing a chicken recipe!
Date: 2006-04-21 05:21 pm (UTC)