For the love of food
Posted on | July 26, 2008 | 17 Comments
I spent the day in the garden: discovering what weeks of rain and heat and neglect can do to leggy tomatoes and lettuces. Do you know that when a lettuce bolts, it shoots up four feet tall? I’ve learned so much from my garden this year—my first in this state, in this rocky soil and micro growing season. I planted too many lettuces at the same time, and now I’m stuck waiting for new seedlings to take hold and grow into big fat heads, while all the ones I previously planted were ready at exactly the same time and have now all grown bitter and bolted. I also planted far too many radishes and mustard greens, which grow wildly and rapidly bolted within a month. I left them in for a while, an invitation to the honey bees.
What I’ve loved and will repeat are the beautiful artichokes, the watermelons and pumpkins, the bush beans, tomatoes, and sweet peas. I used sticks from the woods to prop the peas up, and today harvested a colander full, which I shucked and had a lovely bowl full of jewel-green peas. Now the only question is how should I cook them?
The sad fact of the matter is that in addition to being a complete amateur gardener, I am even more of an amateur cook. I lack any and all ability to improvise in the kitchen, throwing a few ingredients together in a way that makes the flavors jostle and dance. And it’s something I’m not proud about at all. In fact, it makes me feel somehow very, oh, I don’t know, like a bad mother, to be honest.
DH cooks almost all of our food—he wooed me with oysters in white wine, polenta with chevre and sundried tomatoes, fried ravioli with sage, ridiculously tender steaks and new potatoes. But when push comes to shove his default foods tend to fall into two categories: meat and pasta, and after a while I feel like I should somehow be summoning the rich culinary tradition of my mother. She makes exquisite food using multiple grains and veggies and everything she makes is always exploding with flavor.
Her good food nourished me growing up, and gave me something I treasure: a truly healthy attitude towards food. I don’t eat for comfort; I can leave a half a cookie on my plate if I feel full; and I crave salad and fresh fruit over anything processed. But damn, for all that, I can’t cook anything. And it’s something that I want to change. I want to give Bean, and this new little Sprout the same kind of soul nourishment my mother’s food gave me.
Okay, so I can make practically anything if I follow a recipe, but I get daunted easily and NEVER know what to buy at the grocery store. Our refrigerator and pantry are always full and yet we never seem to have any ingredients to make anything. It’s a dire and sad state of affairs. How do I change this?
I’ve been thinking about food because my attitude towards it has been severely altered by this pregnancy: now everything is mostly unappealing. I have no cravings, and in fact have an aversion to almost every single food product you can think of. Truly, it feels like being cursed. I have perhaps never fully considered just how much I enjoy food. It’s both the ritual of eating together and the nourishment that I love about it, and I miss both with a vengeance. Bread products are the only non offenders.
So I have questions: how shall I cook my sweet peas? And also, how can I possibly go about learning to cook? Not crazy fancy stuff. Just simple wholesome meals using the foods I love: fresh local veggies and fruits, grains, nuts, etc.
If you love to cook, I want to know how you make meals? How do you plan? How do you purchase food for the week? How do you decide what to make for dinner—and make it without it taking two hours and using every pot in the kitchen?
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I am Christina Rosalie
Hello. I'm so happy you've stopped by!
I am a multimedia storyteller, digital strategist, idea starter, stalker of wonder, finder of four leaf clovers, MFA graduate student, and mama of boys. My first book,
will be published by SKIRT! Books in September, 2012.
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July 26th, 2008 @ 9:05 pm
Here’s one of the things I do…I watch The Food Network a lot. What’s great about the FN is that most of the cooks don’t have crazy, complicated Martha Stewart-like recipes. The more I watch, the more I notice that different flavor combinations and meal options sink in, so that when I’m staring into the fridge or pantry or aisle at the grocery store I can “see” a meal come together. I don’t like using recipes, unless I’m baking, so I find this method towards learning what goes well together really works great for me.
July 26th, 2008 @ 10:00 pm
I love to cook! One of the few creative endeavors I *have* to make time for, so usually the only one I am regularly doing.
About learning to cook: I like to recommend the website allrecipes.com. You can search by ingredient as well as browse by type of dish, meal, etc. The recipes are rated and reviewed by people so you can read about what people suggest doing differently and get an idea of whether or not the recipe will work for you. Epicurious.com is another good source of recipes. Cookbooks from the library are a good resource as well – though I read/browse through way more than I actually cook from!
Meal planning: I make a list of everything in the pantry/fridge and come up with meals (from new recipes I’ve found or old favorites) based on those ingredients first. Then I make a grocery list of things I need to complete those meals, as well as any meals I don’t have ingredients for already. I try to go for ten days at a time… the fewer trips to the grocery store, the less money I spend! I chose what to make on which day by what fresh ingredients need to be used up, what ingredients I have precooked (like rice or legumes) and how much time I have that particulay day – I save the fancy stuff for the weekends or days when I don’t have a lot going on in the afternoon.
HTH!
July 26th, 2008 @ 11:03 pm
I like “How to Cook Without a Book.” It’s a uh, book. It has basic recipes and then it has different ways to change the basic recipe. I have memorized my favorites and can apply the principles to other dishes (especially veggies) to create my own. Check it out!
July 27th, 2008 @ 6:32 am
Sorry if this reply is too long!
I am on the same page as vespa rossa — Food Network! You really do tend to pick up techniques and approaches from watching them.
Another thing that helps me tremendously is to trust my culinary instincts — I know what *sounds* good together, and it’s amazing how frequently it does work together. That being said, I don’t do much “big piece of meat” cooking — I’m more of a “roast some veggies and toss with olive oil and pasta” kind of cook. I read recipes for ideas but rarely follow them. I use the same techniques and change up the ingredients or the sauce or the grain. I’m big on lemon juice and olive oil and balsamic glaze on pasta — and switch out the cheese and which veggies. Or make it with cous cous instead of pasta. Or brown rice.
Another thing that works for me (I work and Husband does NO cooking) — I keep my pantry stocked with the staples that I can put together to make any number of meals that I know all 4 of us will eat (even if the youngest will eat the pasta plain, without the sauce). Find your favorite meals and shop like Noah’s wife — buy TWO of everything. I buy 2 boxes of the shape pasta we like, 2 boxes of cous cous, 2 jars of olives, 2 cans of beans or tomatoes — all the things to make our favorite meals more than once. (Someone on the Food Network once recommended organzing your pantry more in clusters of meals than by type — so all of the ingredients to make my Olive Tapenade pasta would be on the same shelf — my refried bean soup ingredients would be all on the next shelf — rather than looking into the pantry and not “seeing” that I have what I need, I can see a meal ready to be cooked.)
Learning to cook is a process — and it’s very much akin to creative process of writing or painting — you learn techniques and what combinations work together — and you know what you like.
Me? I’m off to make Peach Grunt. Some awesome cook just shared her recipe for it on her blog!!
July 27th, 2008 @ 9:33 am
It should be fun. Truly. It is a creative process.
My approach is that I simply think about flavoring the object, be it fish, vegetable, or meat. For example, Friday night we had friends over for dinner. I had a beautiful piece of salmon (cook at 375-425 degrees depending on your oven for 20-25 minutes depending on how “done” you like it– check it’s doneness by pressing its top or slice into the middle if you don’t care about presentation) which normally I would just place ontop of two or three slices of lemon, schmear some horseradish across the top, squeeze a bit of lemon juice over that, then sprinkle lightly with breadcrumbs before tossing it in the over. That’s what I do with salmon, haddock, cod, etc.
But, Friday night I had no lemons. I did have fresh ginger and limes. So, I put the fish on a flat roasting pan that was covered in tinfoil(easier cleanup), squeezed some lime juice over top, grated some fresh ginger over top, tucked a bit underneath– then did my light schmear of horseradish, bread crumbs and tossed it in the oven.
It was fabulous and I say this not cause I got to taste it again the next day and go, damn, that WAS good, but because our friends are serious foodies from NYC and they thought it was really good.
Veggies are the easiest. Julienne carrots, toss into a skillet that’s been thinly greased in olive oil, toss in a tab of fresh butter, salt pepper– add some red pepper slices or onions or FRESH PEAS– and sautee up with the tiniest sprinkle of sugar at the end to carmelize– yum
or, slice up potatoes, red, white, sweet– doesn’t matter, toss into a roaster (you could any other root vegetables: cauliflower, carrot, beet, onion, etc) sprinkle with sea salt and olive oil and sprinkle with anything fresh you might have on hand, a bit of rosemary, or parsely or garlic– roast at high heat, turning once– about 15 minutes cook time.
I tend to learn one recipe until I have it cold. Then, I have it in my head anytime, and can do slight variations when needed. One such recipe comes from my personal bible, Julia Child’s The Art of Mastering French Cooking– her very first cookbook. It is superb.
I learned how to do scallopped potatoes from there which is ALWAYS a crowd pleaser and people think it is such a big deal, but once you know how, it is so easy peasy– okay, I’ll stop for now.
Have your mom come over and show you two recipes– and then keep doing those until you have it cold and then add– you will soon find you can improvise and dance in the kitchen with the best of them!!
July 27th, 2008 @ 10:25 am
I use a recipe as a guide. Or I am often inspired simply by the picture and the I have my own way of coming up with it. Like yesterday I made fresh apricot scones I looked up what is typically in scones in Joy of cooking and then ignored it put in yogart, some whole wheat flour a little sugar etc…and they turned out. Sometimes the things I make don’t turn out. Peas in pasta with parmesan are wonderful. I loved they way mom used to put veggies with pasta a little butter and parmesan. Yum so good and easy on the stomach too. You have to make easy things to start, but you also just need to try, if something doesn’t turn out be easy on your self. Most people have a few staples they make well. Like I can make a really good chicken parmesan, and a really good gold cake with fresh fruit, I also love breakfast…Have Mom over and cook together see how she just throws things in…it will come. Miss you.
July 27th, 2008 @ 11:23 am
If you aren’t familiar with her already, check out 101cookbooks.com – she also has two printed cookbooks, and I highly recommend Super Natural Cooking. She cooks seasonally, healthy, straightforward dishes. I’ve tried many of her recipes and all have been amazing (and quite simple). I also really like Eric Gower, who writes The Breakaway Cook (blog and books). He has a more asian style, but he’s all about having a base set of ingredients and spices and then experimenting from there.
I recently bought a book off a remainders table called The Improvisational Cook, but I admit that I have not really looked through it yet. Might be a good one to look for at the library, though. Actually, that’s a good suggestion – find some cookbooks at the library and try a few recipes to see what you *like* to cook.
I keep a little notebook with my favorite recipes in it, the ones I cook over and over, so they are always easy to find.
July 27th, 2008 @ 12:31 pm
OMG Christina!! Exactly how I feel!! I have that same feeling about being a bad mother. I have very limited knowledge and experience having come from a home with a single mom who worked to keep food in the house, but not usually cooked all that creatively. I am so glad you brought this up – I can learn from your readers!
As for the peas – I learned from my stepmother to simmer them gently in milk, butter, salt and pepper – until just tender.
yum.
July 27th, 2008 @ 2:57 pm
I am exhausted when I get home from school and the thought of preparing a meal during the witching hour of my equally exhausted three kids is not something I look forward to. I like http://www.savingdinner.com and LeeAnn Ely’s books. She has a subscription list that will send you your week’s menu and a shopping list of everything you need to buy. My family likes most of the recipes in the book though many were things we had never tried. I need to get back to using it.
I found that Pringles (yes, the potato chips) were something that I craved and could tolerate when I was pregnant. The other thing was lemon drops and having a fresh lemon available to smell when other odors made me sick.
July 27th, 2008 @ 3:50 pm
Hooray, I have lots of suggestions!
First, here’s my favorite recipe for fresh peas. It’s very simple and absolutely delicious: http://teach77.wordpress.com/2007/07/17/peas-rosie-thunder-and-me/
As far as cooking on the fly, my advices is to choose a few good base recipes that you can master, and then vary them. For instance, a quiche with corn and red pepper would also be great with mushroom and onion, or kale and green garlic, or whatever you happen to have in the refrigerator.
I’ll also say from experience that when I’m improvising in the kitchen, the results are not always stunning; in fact they are sometimes failures. That might not always be a risk you want to take when you have a hungry man over your shoulder and a picky toddler at your ankles. In those cases, stick with a cookbook or food blogger you trust!
By the way, I’m incredibly envious of your garden.
July 27th, 2008 @ 9:04 pm
This summer I joined a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) and every Friday I pick up a delivery from the farm. I never know what will be in there, so once I see, I plan our meals around that. Mostly I think about meals that I have had before that I liked. When I saw the big bunch of fresh beets I instantly craved a salad of roasted beets, arugula, carmelized walnuts and goat cheese that I had once. If I don’t have all the ingredients, I go get them, if I can’t imagine how to make something, I look it up on allrecipes and use that as a guide. I used the kale and potatoes I got to make the soup that I had once, I used the chard to make a frittata – those are just the tastes that appealed to me when I saw the produce. I do the same thing in the grocery store in the winter – I just think about what sounds good and what looks good to me, and then come up with some simple way of making it, usually based on something I have had or a recipe I have seen. Sometimes I have to have a side dish of something processed because my 7 yr old is extremely picky, but I just try to put good food out there every day and hope that eventually he will see the rest of us enjoying it and want to try it. Not every meal is a success, and inspiration does not always strike, and we waste more leftovers than I care to think about, but I just keep plugging away – because I love food, and appreciate it and want my kids to do the same.
I also think that when it comes to vegetables, simplier is better. I like to just roast or grill or saute with just a little seasoning – right now in my garden I have zucchini and tomatoes, so I will often just saute the two up together with a little garlic and maybe add to pasta with fresh curls of parmesan, or maybe I will scramble some eggs with it and call that dinner. Right now we might make dinner out of fresh corn from the farmers market and with a side of peaches and raspberries. And I would eat the peas raw right out of the bowl!
On another note, I would second Kerri regarding the morning sickness when pregnant – I would put a drop or two of lemon oil (directly from a lemon) or wintergreen or something that smelled good to me on my hand and when I felt nausous, I would breathe it in and it would make me feel better. I also ate half of a grapefruit every day – it was one of the few things that tasted good to me.
July 28th, 2008 @ 1:22 am
Moosewood Restaurant Simple Suppers for the Weeknight Table is a life-saver around here. Just about everything in there can be made in 30 minutes. The recipes are designed to be easy, so it might call for “a bag of coleslaw mix” but on those days you’ve got the time the instant versions can be replaced with “carrots and cabbage from the local market that you shred yourself.” Same with “a can of black beans” versus soaking your own beans. Which is one reason I like it so much – it works for busy and slow days.
July 28th, 2008 @ 3:37 am
Google is a great resource – just type in the key ingredients you have at hand and see what comes up. I prefer Google even over Epicurious because Epi can be a little fussy at times, and with Google your top hit recipes tend to be simple and popular.
I’ve also recently fallen in love with a Nigella Lawson cookbook called Nigella Express. It’s full of simple recipes that are brief enough to make memorization a snap, but are also amazingly tasty and healthy. I’m using it as a cooking class syllabus for the summer.
I hope the food thing gets better soon, I know it will be a relief to be able to walk into a grocery store again with impunity!
July 28th, 2008 @ 7:55 am
I would highly recommend “The Joy of Cooking”. Between that and Food Network my husband and I really learned the basics of how to cook. It’s amazing how just knowing what ingredients are out there and how to prepare them individually will do for your meals. Once you see the logic of cooking you’ll find that it’s a pretty basic set of rules and you can begin to see the possibilities of an ingredient.
If you’re interested in the ability to improvise, I would highly recommend Iron Chef America. They are usually preparing some pretty off the wall stuff, but the concept of taking an ingredient and preparing it 5 different ways really exemplifies what cooking is all about. Plus as an added bonus, they spend half the show talking about why they did what they did and how they choose to blend certain things. It really gives you great insight into how to pair flavors and make really fabulous food.
My last tip is that you should learn from your husband. Mine took up this whole cooking thing before I did and I started to pick it up just by watching him and asking him questions. I’d make the same dishes he made to get the techniques down and then I started adding my own flair. He still does most of the actual preparing of food, but I plan all the meals for the week and go to the grocery store. It’s really a team effort and it doesn’t feel like work when we’re doing it together.
July 28th, 2008 @ 11:33 am
For cooking ideas and FAST, easy and good for you recipes…The magazine Real Simple. Every month there are a few dinner ideas that use lots of vegetables in new ways I wouldn’t have thought of… Also Jacques Pepin has a cookbook called Fast Food My Way, which is full of great fast meals. Fast meals have become a necessity for us as parents. Bon Appetit! (p.s. you certainly don’t sound like an amateur gardener to me. I love reading about your garden endeavors… i’m living vicariously thru you!)
July 29th, 2008 @ 5:03 am
I am slowly breaking new ground in cooking, too … I used to pick the most complicated recipes and get all frustrated because they took me so long and I was hungry, hungry when starting in the first place. I don’t have a garden, but I go to the Farmers’ Market every Saturday and sometimes on Wednesdays, too, I buy all the fruit that looks good and vegetables for recipes I picked out beforehand. I am no good at planning for a week – even planning for three days is often more than I can cope with. So this means I can’t buy all the vegetables for all meals I might come up with during the week but I am getting better, slowly but surely. I am craving simple meals with fresh vegetables. Often, recipes I try aren’t what I hoped for so I simply don’t make them again. The yummy ones sink in – just like everyone else here has said
Good luck!
July 29th, 2008 @ 5:47 am
Surely you mean peas, not sweet peas, which is a decorative plant with poisonous seeds?
If you are able to tolerate garlic, try my favourite pea subzi – put some garlic cut very fine in some oil and let it heat up till soft, then add peas and salt. Cover and let it cook till it reaches the level of tenderness you desire, stirring occasionally. Actually, being a subzi, it is a part of a full Indian meal, but you may add some lemon, or vinegar, and try it as a side dish