Monday, August 03, 2009

Culinary Therapy, Week 2

Week 2

This is a difficult week for me.

I don't really have a dish that I used to make all the time. Matter of fact, I never make the same dish twice. Home cooked food is something that I have a huge novelty factor with--when eating out, I will generally pick the same thing in the same place over and over, or at least a variation or version of something that is familiar. But when I cook for myself or others, I make new things all the time, every time. I have thrown dinner parties where I am just trying out new recipes but not trying out new techniques or ingredients.

Unlike my sister, who is a slavish recreator of childhood dishes (for which I am grateful, don't get me wrong--last summer's obsession with Chicken Portugese was fabulous) and eschews "fancy food," I am all about fancy new food. All the time. As long as I prepare it. I also don't make many childhood favorites, because I don't have many.

So my old favorite I've fallen away from is...salad, maybe? I certainly go through cycles with my allegience to it at home.

It strikes me that this is because of/tied to the way I shop. Since I don't have set dishes I prepare, I buy what's on sale or looks good, or items that are needed because I read a recipe that looked particularly interesting. So therefore I have rotting and Odd Food Items.

As for calcium, I am sure I am at least a bit down on that so I will share with you my secret for remaining hopped up on caffiene and building strong bones.

Too Frugal For Starbucks Iced Latte

Which honestly, I'm not.

1) Make a 8 cup pot of coffee.
2) Pour 7 cups into a glass pitcher. Add 1/2 cup sugar, stir.
3) Before leaving for work, pour 1/2 -1 cup coffee into thermos or plastic bottle. Top with milk. Take with.

I am so clever.

I don't have any "how to eat" material around. Unfortunately, my nagging sense of "not enough vegetables," "too much fat," and impulse control issues are all in my brain. Not even followed through into behavior modification, damn it.

Sorry. This sounds more snarky and depressing than I really feel about the whole issue.

2 comments:

drwende said...

Aha! I also found it quite difficult to write about not being a recipe or consistency person without sounding snarky, defensive, or critical of people who make a mean meatloaf using a recipe from a well-spattered cookbook.

What we need -- very seriously -- is a mental template for bringing home an appropriate variety and quantity of food while still cruising for sale items and being able to throw together a little something on impulse. Kind of "X amount of meat #1, Y amount of meat #2, always have a fresh onion on hand, keep the pasta in stock, Z amount of veg #1, ZZ amount of veg #2, and assume a midweek farmer's market run for veg after that to get them fresh."

Anne At Large said...

The Kitchn actually had a template something like that a while back, I'll have to look for it. It was for something Italian, and it had a list of recommended Italian-ish ingredients and some recommended basic combos from which you could swap in/out different vegetables or meats. It actually looked very useful.