It’s been a foodish time for me lately. Partially it is because it is hot. We stay home more, so we cook more. Our new refrigerator is part of it, too. I just love having crisper drawers I can actually open! And of course my new kitchen shelf adds to the kitchen appeal.
We had friends over the other evening and I made minestrone soup. The recipe said it would be good cold and especially good if it was made the day before so that’s what I did. It was excellent, along with a loaf of homemade sourdough bread, roasted garlic to smush on top, and a tossed salad. I also made couscous with mint and peas. It was a refreshing meal, and Paul and I enjoyed it the next day as well.
I’ve gotten in the habit (thanks to Leslie Limon’s food blog) of making a pot of beans on the weekend, just plain beans. My favorites are Peruano and Flor de Mayo. I am making them based on her recipe and we have been adding them to everything throughout the week. One of my favorite lunches is some onion, red pepper and zuchinni kind of charred/fried and then some beans added. A cut up tomato and some seasonings at the end. Sprinkle with a little parmesan, and enjoy…
I’ve been reading about food lately, too. I just finished reading Michael Pollan’s In Defense of Food. I have been a vegetarian for about 25 years and I didn’t think I could be surprised by a book about food, but I was. Having been an avid nutrition label reader I didn’t think about how I had been suckered in by the food industry. (yes, INDUSTRY) They want you to think that a food is only a sum of its nutritional parts. But it isn’t! Food is just that, food. Or it should be. So much of it is engineered and adulterated. He was preaching to the choir with the book’s punch line – Eat Food. Not too much. Mostly Plants. I highly recommend the book, or at least check out his website where there is a synopsis.
I am almost done with the book Julie & Julia. I usually am repulsed by books that show the movie actors on the cover. But I had read about the movie, and the premise – a young woman decides to make all the recipes in Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking in one year. To add to the book’s appeal, she started a blog to track The Project. So I bought the book at the airport while we were waiting for Jess to arrive a couple of weeks ago.
It is a pretty fun book, and I am enjoying it in a chick-lit meets cooking geek kind of way. I doubt I have ever made anything out of MTAOFC but you don’t have to to enjoy the book. I will go see the movie whenever it comes along. By the way, for the best food oriented books in the world, read M.F.K. Fisher. I wish there was some way I could erase my memory and read them all for the first time again.
So what am I making tonight? Well I made a huge salad for lunch (what I call my Big-Ass Salad because it has everything in it) and the calabacitas (zuchinni) were beautiful when I shopped yesterday, so I am roasting calabacitas with olive oil and then drizzling them with sea salt and balsamic vinegar when they come out of the oven. Buen provecho!
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October 10th, 2009 at 8:29 pm
Nancy, you are truly beginning to live as the Mexicans. The great thing about cooking beans with just water and salt, is that you can add the beans to just about any recipe. I’m definitely going to try your onion, red pepper and zucchini saute! Saludos y abrazos!
October 10th, 2009 at 9:37 pm
Nancy, I think at one point you mentioned a passing interest in the Amazon Kindle reader. Amazon just announced this week a reduced price AND an international version…you’d be able to purchase and download books right there in Mazatlan. I think the price for that version is $279. As an owner of a first gen Kindle, I suggest that you consider this.
Regards,
Neil in Olympia
October 11th, 2009 at 6:17 am
Nancy – How funny that you wrote about what you did! Ger and I were just discussing our Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow night. We’re having his parents, my mom, her housekeeper and husband and my son’s girlfriend Simone for dinner. Although I love to cook, and love Thanksgiving turkey dinner, we were just saying how nice it would be to just have a simple meal with just him and I and the kids, no muss, no fuss. Then go for a walk on the beach and find a little beach bar to have a cold drink and just enjoy the simpleness of life.
LOL Instead I’m cooking this big elaborate meal, cramming more people than comfortably fit into our dining room and spending a ridiculous amount of money on it.
Maybe next year…….
October 11th, 2009 at 6:44 am
The premise for Julia & Julia is not so far off, that’s the way Husband learned to cook, except he used James Beard not Julia Child.
I loved the Omnivore’s dilemma so I would love to read In Defense of Food. The kindle is still a little pricey for me. I don’t want one bad enough since a lot of the books that I would want to read aren’t available yet.
regard,
Theresa
October 11th, 2009 at 6:59 am
YUM, Nancy! You ladies – you and Leslie – have inspired me once again. Cooking for one is about the most un-inspirational task and I need all the kickin’-in-the-butt I can get to make healthy and time consuming meals on a regular basis. Or, maybe it was the 22 years in the restaurant business that burned me out. . .
Anyway, thanks for the good posts on food, keep ‘em coming.
-MT
October 11th, 2009 at 7:22 am
yummy, I love peruanos. Mine dont make it past Tuesday. Maybe once we get down there.
October 11th, 2009 at 8:03 am
Leslie, You are right, I am starting to live more Mexican. Even with the siesta and the bigger lunch, smaller dinner. Love your recipes, thank you!
Neil, So funny since daughter Jess had her Kindle when she was here for a week so we got to really get to know it. My only reservation is that the Google book project is in a different format. I need to decide today though since my son is going to be in the US and said he’d bring it back if I sent it to his home office. But I wouldn’t buy the International one since there will be lots fewer books available for it and I don’t mind using a USB cord to download them to the Kindle from my computer.
Beth, Thanksgiving is about the getting together and sharing a meal, maybe you can save some kitchen work for everyone to do together?
Theresa, I am already downloading books for whichever format reader I decide on. Lots of books are available in pdf or txt files. Any classic is probably available no problem.
Mexican Trailrunner, The zuchinni was so awesome last night, I am going to make it again tonight. Really delicious.
Chrissy, Peruanos are so creamy and delicious, I agree!
October 11th, 2009 at 1:24 pm
If I can make just one more book recommendation – The Thrive Diet. The book is amazing, and me and my family try and live by it…. Learned a lot as well!
October 11th, 2009 at 7:51 pm
Thanks, Lauren. But for me the thing I love about food in general and this book in particular is that it is about eating real food. Cooking it in your own kitchen using the best ingredients you can afford. Sharing it with people you love. Not worrying about nutritional supplements and all that jazz. JUst eating good food, whole food, real food. That is it for me. NOt eating crap, drive through, supplements, etc. I have to admit I only read the Amazon info on the book but from that I don’t think it is what I’m about.
October 13th, 2009 at 6:24 am
Hey Nancy, just a heads up for your bit torrents – a show called 100 miles premiered last night on the Food Network. Its all about trying to eat food from no more than 100 miles from home. I bet you find it interesting
October 13th, 2009 at 10:04 am
Nancy, Love the idea of cooking up a pot of beans and using them in all kinds of stuff during the week. The peruano beans has become my favorite….so creamy. I’ll have to try the flor de mayo. I’ve read both Omnivore and in Defense of Food. Love both of them. And it does make you stop and think about what you are eating and where it comes from.
October 13th, 2009 at 3:54 pm
Nancy, I am inspired by your blog always. Bruce and I are on a diet; a serious diet; he really has to be in top shape to fight his ataxia, and I’m basically cutting out a lot of carbs and using more fresh vegetables. Beans are really good too and I will try the ones you recommend. I love using the olla but I’ve always used black or red beans – no particular reason. You and Leslie are both such good cooks and just the way you write about it is enticing! Thanks.
October 14th, 2009 at 5:02 pm
Picked up Julie & Julia last week for the plane ride back, and kept trying to hide that hideous movie cover!
So you substitute peruanos for cannellinis in the minestrone soup? I’ll give it a try!
October 16th, 2009 at 1:34 pm
Jennifer, thanks for the heads up, I haven’t found the show yet but will keep looking.
Billie, I love having beans so handy, plus when you feel like it you can make your own refritos! And it is just another thing that we can do to make the food we eat higher quality and no preservatives.
Jan, I think any diet that feels like deprivation isn’t going to work for long. That’s why I rave about food so much I think, as I make meals that make my taste buds happy! Right now I am dying for some sweet potatoes to make some oven roasted french fries. MMMMMMM
Alice, I have substituted peruanos for cannellinis but sometimes I find the cannellinis in the “gringo” section of the grocery store.