Home Cooking

I didn't start out loving to cook. I didn't start out noticing the many different cuisines in the world. 

I started out hungry.

For the first seventeen years, I was just plain hungry all the time.

Then, I became hungry for food that tasted like home.

Finally, food that nourished, felt like home, and fulfilled more than one hunger.

I'm in a good place at this time, exposed to many cuisines; able to download and learn how to cook many different dishes; rich enough to travel and taste authentic foods in their  native states.

Yet, I feel that most of us are just getting acquainted with local, sustainable food and its value.

During a marathon cooking session with my daughter in law and her sisters a couple of years ago, women in the kitchen, each making sure that the food we prepared could be eaten by all of our loved ones, those with stomach problems, those with heart issues, those with tastes that hadn't changed since childhood. On this day, if I can decipher the food in front of us, there was an eggplant parmigiana, accompanied by an eggplant without parmigiana for the relative who couldn't eat cheese, accompanied by a vegetable strudel for those folks that couldn't eat tomatoes or cheese or eggplant. Not on display was a roast, for those of us who still crave meat and potatoes. My cooking companions were most surprised not by the fact that I could change a dish to accommodate a special diet, but by the fact that an older cook like me still makes a backward time schedule, so everything gets on the table close to the same time.

 Ah, the life of the cook!

When I was a child, and until I moved to the United States, I had not tasted any other food outside of my house without a bit of skepticism. I remember the spaghetti e vongole in Naples, where my big brother and I visited often the last few years before my emigration. The American Consulate was studying my application and finding one thing or another was amiss every time we visited. The spaghetti was the best tasting thing I had ever eaten, and consoled us after each visit that was not successful.

When I told my mother how good the food was in Naples,  she dismissed the thought entirely. "It's good because you didn't have to do any work to get it to the table!"

Not really, I thought then.

Something is either good or not, and our spaghetti at home was made the way my father liked it, without seafood. He liked seafood fresh, he kept saying, and nothing else. If you are going to eat something that has been gathered the day before, has traveled miles, has sat around, even on ice, for hours before it was bought or delivered to the cook, that something had lost its very soul.

I stored that in my future drawers, for those times when I would be responsible for my own food, and my own preparation of such food.

Lately, I don't even attempt to order seafood inland. Not that I don't understand the fact that most fish is caught and iced and transported to shore and sold and shipped in refrigerated or frozen containers until they reach their destination. If you have ever tasted fresh seafood, from a fisherman that has caught and filleted that fish, you know the difference. You will not ask for your favorite; you will ask for what was caught that day.

Freshly caught trumps everything else.

Eating Choices--(Eating for Living Well)

Those of you who want to eat more thoughtfully might start with these premises:

1. know the source of your food, where  and how is it raised. Visit your local farmer's market more often.


2. select the freshest, nutritionally rich elements, the darkest vegetables, the richest in minerals and trace nutrients and prepare them simply: sautee in good oils, add salt sparingly, try simple seasonings such as orange or lemon juices.

3. go for variety, of color, texture, taste, smell.

4. add new grains, new foods, the less processed, the better.
5. get to know your providers. Support local farms and ranches. If you do, they can make a living, and your community thrives together.

The toughest element in preparing healthy meals is striving for variety. I had made a list of ingredients I wanted to have at hand for impromptu assembly-this is the way I cook-plus ingredients called for in recipes. By Wednesday, I was running out of ideas. So, for dinner, last night, I opened a frozen vegan meal to serve,called Orange Chicken. I had brown rice I cooked to go with the split pea soup at lunch, I had chick-pea salad for dinner. I wanted something else.

Bad idea. The Thing was awful; I threw it away; I didn't even feed it to the dog.



Today, asian slaw with peanuts and sesame seeds,  a tortilla wrap with avocado, carrot slivers,veggie burger patty and pico de gallo with lots of fresh cilantro. Bananas and peanut butter for dessert.

For dinner, parsley noodles with mushrooms, green salad with pine nuts and pesto dressing.  For dessert, cranberry walnut muffins, made with no butter and no eggs, but with flax seed whipped up with water to resemble and act as a binder. Clever, these vegans!

Do I need a recipe book? Yes, if I am new, inexperienced and need ideas.I needed to follow the recipe to bake without eggs and butter and white flour.

Go ahead, do one thing today.
Check the egg carton. How far do those eggs travel?

Now, if you hate planning and cooking your food, you better be rich and smart. Rich, so you can choose the establishments that will whip up your meals to your liking; and smart, to research and eliminate those establishments that do not care to feed you in a healthy way.

Sure, you have your preferences.
You love certain foods and will not give them up.
Ask yourself, how am I treating this machine-body of mine?



Tomorrow, I have no clue. I'm running out of ideas. Amy sent me an edemame recipe that I tried and loved! Thanks Amy. I am looking for variety here. I cook Italian most of the time. I need inspiration from other places.

Thanks in advance!

New Tricks: Eating Vegan

I'm three hours from the blustery coast, where two coats, a hat, and gloves are de rigeur. I'm in Eugene, inland, staying at my daughter's while she is recouperating.  (BTW Thank you for asking, she is doing great!). It was 80 degrees on Sunday. You would not have recognized me in short sleeves.

I'm cooking for her and her husband: both vegans. Most people in Oregon accept and embrace this way of life without animal products.

When I think of eating vegan, I panic. Literally.  How does one cook without animal products? How does one get flavors one is used to? How does one get all the nutritional balanced meals on the table with such restrictions?

My first thought is always this: I will starve under these conditions.

The truth is, five days into this experiment, I do not miss anything. I am feeling great; I'm not hungry between meals and I'm not missing my burger fix.  My plan had been to run off in the evenings to a drive-in and fill up on animal protein. I have abandoned that thought completely.

So far, our meals have been complete with a variety of food, flavor, texture and eye appeal.  It took a bit of research and thoughtful planning; but, I'm happy to report, everyone is happy.

At lunch, yesterday we had shitaki mushrooms/vegetable soup with pita chips, a garden fresh salad with boiled and marinated edemame, and melon for dessert.

For dinner, couscous salad with broccoli, red onion, cucumber, green onions, parsley and dried cherries, followed by a garden burger with sauteed peppers. Apples for dessert.

I could list the meals we had on previous days. My point is to admit that this experiment is going very well; I'm sleeping well; I feel full of energy.

More importantly, my  daughter is loving that someone is cooking for her.  

On today's menu:

Lunch--leftover shitake soup and chickpea salad.

Dinner-Baked shells, stuffed with tofu, parsley, olive oil, garlic, topped with a marinara sauce and toasted bread crumbs. Avocado and arugula salad.
For dessert, whole wheat walnut muffins made with apple sauce and a product called egg substitute from Red Mills.

To make my job easier, I shopped at Whole Foods, a gourmet specialty shop that caters to localvores and vegetarians.  The place has an entire section of bulk foods, including a product I never knew existed, flaked nutritional yeast, something my daughter swears by. I got lost in the produce section; looked in awe at all the choices of products available to this lifestyle.

The best part of all this? I'm now convinced that this is not a fad; it is a thoughtful lifestyle, where eveything that is ingested is carefully selected for its wholesomeness and nutritional boost.

This old dog needs to shed a few pounds and learn some new tricks.

We are never too old to try something new.

New Tricks: Part Two

This is my stove top. I have everything at my fingertip here, including all sizes of Le Cruset cookware, an anniversary gift from Hubby.

But I'm not home cooking for me and hubby. I'm at my daughter's,  and she and her husband are vegans. She is recuperating and I am here to help.

Yesterday was my first attempt at creating delicious dishes by studying recipes and adapting to whatever was in the fridge. Here is the menu I came up with:

Breakfast: cereal and soy milk
Lunch: Salad, garden fresh arugula and assorted greens; eggplant terrine, apple crisp.
Dinner: Farro with a sauce of caramellized onions, pinto beans, hot salsa; strawberry smoothie

The remarkable thing is not that I came up with this menu; the remarkable thing was the way I invented the eggplant terrine. Here is my version of the recipe, with ingredients I had at hand.

Ingredients: eggplant, tofu, onions, minced garlic, breadcrumbs, mushrooms, olives, tomato sauce, olive oil, basil.

Preheat overn at 375F.
1.  cut the eggplant in half and scoop out its interior. Chop tofu and marinate in salad dressing.
2.  saute the onions, garlic, mushrooms and eggplant interior in olive oil.  I set the concoction aside and added olives, breadcrumbs, tofu. Salt and pepper.
3. In the same pan that I sauteed the onion mixture, I added another tablespoon of oil and sauteed the eggplant boats, gently, turning them often, side to side to get tender but not brown.
4. Stuff the boats with the mixture of onions, mushrooms, etc.  Spoon tomato sauce lightly to cover the mixture. Add an additional T of olive oil.

Bake for 20'

Serve with slivers of fresh basil, alongside the green salad and crusty bread.
I want to rename it Eggplant Surprise.
It was most delicious!

I did not miss my parmesan cheese or my mozzarella either.


          

A culinary experience in Menerbes

Menerbes is a village in the heart of Provence, in the picturesque Luberon area, now on every tour guide, after Peter Mayle wrote his New York Times bestseller, "A Year in Provence".

We prepared for the experience by learning a few French culinary terms. The plan was to take a cooking lesson from the chef at Cafe Verona, and then eat the results. We were hungry and curious when we arrived at nine in the morning, the town barely waking.

We were divided in groups of twelve. A few just sat and watched. One group went shopping for the ingredients, another toured the town, and a third began chopping and prepping with the chef. Each group participated in every activity.

Menerbes is one of the prettiest villages in France,on a promontory with stunning views of the Luberon and Monts de Vaucluse. Vineyards and farms surround the town; one main road winds up all the way to the top.

Before Peter Mayle changed it forever as a tourist destination, Menerbes was famous for having remained staunchly protestant.

Back at the restaurant, Chef Maurice showed us how to prepare and assemble the various dishes. He made sure every one of us knew how to chop, roll, cut and assemble. We learned to make gaspacho, croustillant de volaile aux herbes, and clafoutis aux figues. I had made gaspacho, but the chicken rolled in phillo dough with herbs and tapenade was new to me. And clafouti? I thought it was too hard to make.

I learned more in one hour with him than all the hours of watching cooking shows on television, even from Julia Child's. I learned how to choose the brightest, freshest and most ripe tomatoes for the gaspacho.Nothing else will do.

There is something quite uplifting about being in a bright kitchen, neatly organized, with sous chefs all around promptly responding to requests. Three-four hours after we arrived,everyone had been exposed to France's patrimony of growing the best, harvesting the best, and constantly looking at ways to improve a product. In the middle of town was the Museum of Gastronomy,with a whole room dedicated to the Truffle, what it is, where to find it, how to identify its many forms, and how to cook with it. We could have spent the equivalent of a child's college fund bringing back a jar of this product.

When the forty of us sat down for lunch, the experience was enhanced by the beautiful surroundings and the knowledge that the food was prepared through a cooperative of farmers, winemakers, purveyors and restaurateurs, all dedicated to eating well and living well.

At the end of our meal, we were all appreciative as we thanked the chef and left clutching the recipes.

Now, I just have to sit down with a dictionary and translate.