ADDENDA:
It's weirdly stressful being at the office, despite it being fun, cool peeps, and getting paid two weeks salary for 8 hours of work on top of my severance. There are things I will miss, though this being the beginning of the presentation season, I might get a few more cracks at bat by March.
BREAKFAST: 7:15am, organic wholegrain chex with good milk, hunger 3/5
BP 8:15am, 138/88
High, I wonder if this is because of the meal I just ate, because I'm tired and feeling weird about spending the day in the office today, or that maybe I'm a little dehydrated.
AM WATERING: 9:15am, 24 oz still
Brought my water bottle back, a comforting totem.
LUNCH: 11am, turkey & Swiss sandwich, bag of potato chips, hunger 4/5
Got really hungry. Limited options on a Saturday in Times Square. Went into McDonalds with the idea of a veggie burger and fries, but when I got to the counter, I just felt....repulsed.
PM SNACK: 12:30, piece of garlic bread, 1 french fry, hunger 3/5
Coworkers chowing down.
PM SNACK: 2:30, slice of pizza with all sorts of crap on it, hunger 3/5
Left over pizza, feeling nibbly. Not very good.
PM SNACK: 6pm, a few bits of homemade roasted potatoes, hunger 4/5
DINNER: 7:30pm, 100 year old duck egg & ginger, pork dumplings, weird bbq pork chops, beef with noodles, salt & pepper whole fried shrimp, odd sauteed Chinese greens, tea, chocolate pan dan ice cream, hunger 4/5
Went to Chinatown with my friend Yana, who is Chinese herself. Went to a random place with minimal English and no white people inside (myself excepted) and she spoke to the waiter to send us stuff off the menu. A few times during their conversation they glanced at me and pointed at me, afterwards she said he was suggesting stuff that white people don't like. The 100 year old egg was a stretch, it looked a bit gruesome, but was surprisingly pleasant in it's contrasting bitterness and smooth custardy texture. We went to the Ice Cream Factory, 2nd time this week for me, and I had Chocolate Pan Dan, which had a wonderfully pleasant tone of coconut and peanuts.
Saturday, January 12
Friday, January 11
Salty Sausage
ADDENDA:
Had a slow morning, raining out. Got a call from work for a quick & lucrative freelance project, so am going in this afternoon. Emotionally, feel good about it, though I have to postpone some home projects and making pizza dough for the first time...
BREAKFAST: 10:15am, good yogurt with honey, vanilla, raw cashews, hunger 3/5
LUNCH: 2pm, curry lamb sausage with brown jasmine rice, half of a seltzer bottle, hunger 4/5
The sausage was unexpectedly salty, unpleasantly so. Sweated onions and garlic properly for the first time, but it couldn't save the meat.
PM SNACK: 5:45m, street hot dog, grape soda, hunger 4/5
In a weird mood, just checked in at the office and locked in a small but lucrative freelance gig for tomorrow. Mixed emotions. On the way to B's cousin's house, snacked on food that reminded me very much of childhood. I was a FIEND for grape soda, and this brand, Boylans, uses sugar cane as opposed to corn syrup - tastes exactly as I remember it. The hot dog, from Grey's Papaya, was surprisingly off-putting in it's salty/fake smokey taste.
DINNER: 8pm, slices of delivery pizza, 2 glasses champagne, small green salad, handful of almonds, one odd gin drink, hunger 4/5
Nice to be sitting around a table eating the same food as 4 other people!
Had a slow morning, raining out. Got a call from work for a quick & lucrative freelance project, so am going in this afternoon. Emotionally, feel good about it, though I have to postpone some home projects and making pizza dough for the first time...
BREAKFAST: 10:15am, good yogurt with honey, vanilla, raw cashews, hunger 3/5
LUNCH: 2pm, curry lamb sausage with brown jasmine rice, half of a seltzer bottle, hunger 4/5
The sausage was unexpectedly salty, unpleasantly so. Sweated onions and garlic properly for the first time, but it couldn't save the meat.
PM SNACK: 5:45m, street hot dog, grape soda, hunger 4/5
In a weird mood, just checked in at the office and locked in a small but lucrative freelance gig for tomorrow. Mixed emotions. On the way to B's cousin's house, snacked on food that reminded me very much of childhood. I was a FIEND for grape soda, and this brand, Boylans, uses sugar cane as opposed to corn syrup - tastes exactly as I remember it. The hot dog, from Grey's Papaya, was surprisingly off-putting in it's salty/fake smokey taste.
DINNER: 8pm, slices of delivery pizza, 2 glasses champagne, small green salad, handful of almonds, one odd gin drink, hunger 4/5
Nice to be sitting around a table eating the same food as 4 other people!
Thursday, January 10
I have always thought, Cheese & Onions
ADDENDA:
Woke up and got on the bike up to 57th Street to meet Katya at a gallery for an performance installation. Basically you walk into a bare room with white walls with a bunch of people sitting around on the floor. When someone walks in, they chant in unison, "ooooooOOOMMM WELCOOOOOMMMME" then recite a few quotes and start conversing. It was all very collegiate, until they unnerved us by asking, "What do YOU think?" I felt like I was back in college in a sociology graduate class, caught once again not fully paying attention.
But I had brought a small sack o' donuts and had a nice walk into Central Park sharing them. Katya works freelance and has a flexible schedule.
BREAKFAST: 8:15am, bowl of organic cheerios with good milk, hunger 3/5
AM SNACK: 10:30am, 2 halves of 2 really good donuts, hunger 4/5
LUNCH: 2pm, 2 glorious grilled superhippy cheese & onion
sandwiches, 24 oz still water, hunger 4/5
I went to Brooklyn with Katya and we walked around a bit. After she split, I realized I was close to home and would be foolish to pass up the chance to cook, as I'm already obliged to eat Chinese tonight. Katya said she had packed a cheese sandwich for lunch, which inspired me.
So when I got home, I looked on line for a grilled cheese recipe, which made me feel silly in it's simplicity. But they say ya can throw on tomato, you can throw on bacon, you can throw on...ONIONS!!.....
What a great song....anyway, I ended up using all greenmarket ingredients, superhippy bread and raw milk funky cheese (with caraway seeds in it), on a grill pan wedding gift with top-shelf grass-fed butter.
I've never been a fan of grilled cheese, my mom would make it with crappy crumbly white bread, American cheese and margarine. Restaurant versions are usually unpleasantly greasy and overly cheesy. My sandwiches, my lord, the dense bread took the butter and grill marks perfectly, the onions added a pleasant sweet note and the cheese (which I only had a little left) was more than enough with it's bold flavor.
Feel good but still finding my footing. Consulting with Ilsa tonight, she's my nutritionist but only source of any sort of therapy. I guess if I'm serious about culinary passions, it makes sense to consult my nutritionist for perspective!
DINNER: 8pm, roast pork & broc, beef in oyster sauce, shrimp with cashews, sauteed string beans, veg fried rice, water, a little tea, 1 fortune cookie, cup of almond ice cream, hunger 4/5
Went to a traditional Chinese restaurant with B and my cousin Iddo, Mandarin Court. The last time I ate there was with my parents and brother. Today was the 2nd anniversary of my mother's passing. Fortunately, with recent goings on in my professional life, I haven't dwelled on it too much.
Food was kinda crappy, but a fitting meal with lots of memories associated with it. I miss my parents.
Woke up and got on the bike up to 57th Street to meet Katya at a gallery for an performance installation. Basically you walk into a bare room with white walls with a bunch of people sitting around on the floor. When someone walks in, they chant in unison, "ooooooOOOMMM WELCOOOOOMMMME" then recite a few quotes and start conversing. It was all very collegiate, until they unnerved us by asking, "What do YOU think?" I felt like I was back in college in a sociology graduate class, caught once again not fully paying attention.
But I had brought a small sack o' donuts and had a nice walk into Central Park sharing them. Katya works freelance and has a flexible schedule.
BREAKFAST: 8:15am, bowl of organic cheerios with good milk, hunger 3/5
AM SNACK: 10:30am, 2 halves of 2 really good donuts, hunger 4/5
LUNCH: 2pm, 2 glorious grilled superhippy cheese & onion
sandwiches, 24 oz still water, hunger 4/5I went to Brooklyn with Katya and we walked around a bit. After she split, I realized I was close to home and would be foolish to pass up the chance to cook, as I'm already obliged to eat Chinese tonight. Katya said she had packed a cheese sandwich for lunch, which inspired me.
So when I got home, I looked on line for a grilled cheese recipe, which made me feel silly in it's simplicity. But they say ya can throw on tomato, you can throw on bacon, you can throw on...ONIONS!!.....
I have always thought
In the back of my mind, Cheese and Onions
I have always thought
That the world was unkind, Cheese and Onions
Do I have to spell it out?
C-H-E-E-S-E-A-N-D-O-N-I-O-N-S-Oh no
My machine
Keep yourself clean
I'll be a has-been
Like a dinosaur
My device
For everything nice
You better think twice
At least once more
What a great song....anyway, I ended up using all greenmarket ingredients, superhippy bread and raw milk funky cheese (with caraway seeds in it), on a grill pan wedding gift with top-shelf grass-fed butter.
I've never been a fan of grilled cheese, my mom would make it with crappy crumbly white bread, American cheese and margarine. Restaurant versions are usually unpleasantly greasy and overly cheesy. My sandwiches, my lord, the dense bread took the butter and grill marks perfectly, the onions added a pleasant sweet note and the cheese (which I only had a little left) was more than enough with it's bold flavor.
Feel good but still finding my footing. Consulting with Ilsa tonight, she's my nutritionist but only source of any sort of therapy. I guess if I'm serious about culinary passions, it makes sense to consult my nutritionist for perspective!
DINNER: 8pm, roast pork & broc, beef in oyster sauce, shrimp with cashews, sauteed string beans, veg fried rice, water, a little tea, 1 fortune cookie, cup of almond ice cream, hunger 4/5
Went to a traditional Chinese restaurant with B and my cousin Iddo, Mandarin Court. The last time I ate there was with my parents and brother. Today was the 2nd anniversary of my mother's passing. Fortunately, with recent goings on in my professional life, I haven't dwelled on it too much.
Food was kinda crappy, but a fitting meal with lots of memories associated with it. I miss my parents.
Wednesday, January 9
Onwards
ADDENDA:
The weather was too nice yesterday to sit like a lump and get into a deep depression. Today, not so nice! Slept pretty well, wondering when the other shoe is going to drop. Perhaps after going through the loss of my parents, going through the loss of a job isn't nearly as daunting as it could be for some...
BREAKFAST: 8:30am, good pancakes with good bacon, hunger 4/5
Cut back on the milk to make 'em fluffy.
BP 10:15am, 130/84
AM WATERING: 11am, 24 oz still
Thirsty. Busted out my ex-work sippy bottle. Weird drinking from it at home.
LUNCH: 2:30pm, small green salad, homemade shrimp in garlic sauce, homemade roasted potatoes, 2 tofutti cuties, hunger 4/5
Spent the morning cleaning up, doing laundry. When I got hungry, read through a few cook books, found a recipe for shrimp in the NY Times seafood cookbook, a simple recipe for potatoes in the Batali cookbook. When I left the house to pedal over to Wholefoods, I was shocked by how warm it still is out - damn, I should of spent another day on the bike avoiding depression!
I've basically made both of these recipes before by winging it. I must say, both came out 2x better this time. The shrimp would of been acceptable in a good restaurant. The potatoes had an extra step of blanching which made all the difference.
PM WATERING: 3:15pm, 24 oz still
DINNER: 8pm, carrot sticks & homemade hummus, 2 twoboots slices, 2 twoboots cookies, hunger 4/5
Felt restless, but didn't feel like cooking (oddly enough.) To order from Twoboots, there is a $10 minimum, guaranteeing too much food for one person. So I hopped on the bike, and was back with hot slices before 20 minutes passed. B mooched a small piece of pizza and a quarter of a cookie.
EVENING SNACK: 10pm, 4 vanilla lemon goyisha macaroon-like vegan thingies, hunger 4/5
Snacking with wifey.
The weather was too nice yesterday to sit like a lump and get into a deep depression. Today, not so nice! Slept pretty well, wondering when the other shoe is going to drop. Perhaps after going through the loss of my parents, going through the loss of a job isn't nearly as daunting as it could be for some...
BREAKFAST: 8:30am, good pancakes with good bacon, hunger 4/5
Cut back on the milk to make 'em fluffy.
BP 10:15am, 130/84
AM WATERING: 11am, 24 oz still
Thirsty. Busted out my ex-work sippy bottle. Weird drinking from it at home.
LUNCH: 2:30pm, small green salad, homemade shrimp in garlic sauce, homemade roasted potatoes, 2 tofutti cuties, hunger 4/5
Spent the morning cleaning up, doing laundry. When I got hungry, read through a few cook books, found a recipe for shrimp in the NY Times seafood cookbook, a simple recipe for potatoes in the Batali cookbook. When I left the house to pedal over to Wholefoods, I was shocked by how warm it still is out - damn, I should of spent another day on the bike avoiding depression!
I've basically made both of these recipes before by winging it. I must say, both came out 2x better this time. The shrimp would of been acceptable in a good restaurant. The potatoes had an extra step of blanching which made all the difference.
PM WATERING: 3:15pm, 24 oz still
DINNER: 8pm, carrot sticks & homemade hummus, 2 twoboots slices, 2 twoboots cookies, hunger 4/5
Felt restless, but didn't feel like cooking (oddly enough.) To order from Twoboots, there is a $10 minimum, guaranteeing too much food for one person. So I hopped on the bike, and was back with hot slices before 20 minutes passed. B mooched a small piece of pizza and a quarter of a cookie.
EVENING SNACK: 10pm, 4 vanilla lemon goyisha macaroon-like vegan thingies, hunger 4/5
Snacking with wifey.
Tuesday, January 8
Out of Work Work
ADDENDA:
I got laid off yesterday, it was both unexpected and expected. Due to political upheaval that started months and months ago, my work load was dwindling and the department contracting. On coming back from vacation, I found myself with no new work and nothing being set up, so I asked for a meeting with my direct supervisor to discuss it - sitting around feeling uneasy for a day is quite enough - if I didn't ask for the meeting, how long would I of lingered?
To cut a boring cliched story short, the story of the political shifts explained, promises of recommendation letters were made, severance through February given (good, as I've only been there a year) and a card and a firm handshake.
Going back today briefly to tie up loose ends and clear out the desk, then uptown to a friend for dinner who has been abroad for the last 6 months and came back to find she got laid off from the job she was promised to return to.
Too early to think too much of the future, but I know it wants to involve food. Chef's school? Project management for food TV? Manage a kitchen? Start my own company? I think I need to go through the stages of grief before I really get into it.
BP 10:30am, 136/102
First time I've taken BP on an empty stomach.
BREAKFAST: 11am, organic wholegrain chex with good milk, hunger 4/5
PM SNACK: 12:30pm, 24 oz still water, 2 saltless wholewheat pretzels, hunger 3/5
Got on the bike, caught the 11:30 ferry to SI, went passed the house I grew up and other places that were rich with associations with my parents. Went to Silver Lake, where my dad would take me after preschool and let me run wild with a Big Wheel that he kept in the trunk. Sat on a bench where I sat with him once and read together, sat alone and read and talked to peeps and things. It was nice communing with memories of a much simpler, happier time. As much as I knock it, I had a mostly happy childhood.
LUNCH: 4pm, 1 slice of streetza, hunger 4/5
Road from the ferry to Times Square to take the corpse-walk at the office. As I was heading over, felt both really hunger and really not. I asked myself, as much as I really need to eat less and lose weight blah blah blah, would Ilsa really think positively of this? Of course not! So I stopped at the closest pizza place and grabbed a slice. Despite being hungry, it tasted bleah. The sauce was tangy and bland at the same time, the dough was crisp but too thick so it had a mushy layer.
Took care of my loose ends quickly, said good bye, surprised by people's emotionality. The work itself wasn't horrendously captivating and I won't miss it, but the people were cool as hell. If not professional contacts, I've gained a few social friends out of the matter.
DINNER: 6:30pm, small green salad, rigatoni with homemade sauce, chocolate sorbet, 2 glasses red wine, 1 pint water, hunger 4/5
Road up to Washington Heights to visit an old friend who was in Helsinki for 6 months on a Fulbright, and just got back a few days ago to find herself laid off. It was nice meeting someone who wanted to talk about themselves (not because she's self centered, it's just that she had a lot to say - she met and got engaged to a dude there!!) AND could commiserate about the work thing (though she has lots of options and interests, I'm more of going back to the soil to grow something new altogether...)
She originally told me she was going to serve berries for dessert, and on the ride up I decided I was going to bite the bullet and eat berries for the first time since I was 5 or 6 years old. She said they didn't look that great at the market, so went the chocolate route....phew!
EVENING SNACK: 11pm, bowl of veggie booty, hunger 4/5
After spending an hour of intense/emotional/good conversation with the wifey, feel better about things. She went to bed, and my appetite returned a little.
I got laid off yesterday, it was both unexpected and expected. Due to political upheaval that started months and months ago, my work load was dwindling and the department contracting. On coming back from vacation, I found myself with no new work and nothing being set up, so I asked for a meeting with my direct supervisor to discuss it - sitting around feeling uneasy for a day is quite enough - if I didn't ask for the meeting, how long would I of lingered?
To cut a boring cliched story short, the story of the political shifts explained, promises of recommendation letters were made, severance through February given (good, as I've only been there a year) and a card and a firm handshake.
Going back today briefly to tie up loose ends and clear out the desk, then uptown to a friend for dinner who has been abroad for the last 6 months and came back to find she got laid off from the job she was promised to return to.
Too early to think too much of the future, but I know it wants to involve food. Chef's school? Project management for food TV? Manage a kitchen? Start my own company? I think I need to go through the stages of grief before I really get into it.
BP 10:30am, 136/102
First time I've taken BP on an empty stomach.
BREAKFAST: 11am, organic wholegrain chex with good milk, hunger 4/5
PM SNACK: 12:30pm, 24 oz still water, 2 saltless wholewheat pretzels, hunger 3/5
Got on the bike, caught the 11:30 ferry to SI, went passed the house I grew up and other places that were rich with associations with my parents. Went to Silver Lake, where my dad would take me after preschool and let me run wild with a Big Wheel that he kept in the trunk. Sat on a bench where I sat with him once and read together, sat alone and read and talked to peeps and things. It was nice communing with memories of a much simpler, happier time. As much as I knock it, I had a mostly happy childhood.
LUNCH: 4pm, 1 slice of streetza, hunger 4/5
Road from the ferry to Times Square to take the corpse-walk at the office. As I was heading over, felt both really hunger and really not. I asked myself, as much as I really need to eat less and lose weight blah blah blah, would Ilsa really think positively of this? Of course not! So I stopped at the closest pizza place and grabbed a slice. Despite being hungry, it tasted bleah. The sauce was tangy and bland at the same time, the dough was crisp but too thick so it had a mushy layer.
Took care of my loose ends quickly, said good bye, surprised by people's emotionality. The work itself wasn't horrendously captivating and I won't miss it, but the people were cool as hell. If not professional contacts, I've gained a few social friends out of the matter.
DINNER: 6:30pm, small green salad, rigatoni with homemade sauce, chocolate sorbet, 2 glasses red wine, 1 pint water, hunger 4/5
Road up to Washington Heights to visit an old friend who was in Helsinki for 6 months on a Fulbright, and just got back a few days ago to find herself laid off. It was nice meeting someone who wanted to talk about themselves (not because she's self centered, it's just that she had a lot to say - she met and got engaged to a dude there!!) AND could commiserate about the work thing (though she has lots of options and interests, I'm more of going back to the soil to grow something new altogether...)
She originally told me she was going to serve berries for dessert, and on the ride up I decided I was going to bite the bullet and eat berries for the first time since I was 5 or 6 years old. She said they didn't look that great at the market, so went the chocolate route....phew!
EVENING SNACK: 11pm, bowl of veggie booty, hunger 4/5
After spending an hour of intense/emotional/good conversation with the wifey, feel better about things. She went to bed, and my appetite returned a little.
Monday, January 7
Back at Work Work
ADDENDA:
Feels weird to be back at work. Unnatural. Just had a nice conversation with a coworker who is starting to make her own pasta, I enjoyed being able to tell her the best recipe for a beginner, which was just me a few months ago!
BREAKFAST: 8:45am, good yogurt with honey, vanilla, raw nuts, hunger 3/5
BP: 9:45am, 120/99
I took my BP after reading my work email. oy - mistake, I got several crazy readings, including this one.
AM WATERING: 10am, 24 oz still
LUNCH: 1:45pm, Indian lunch combo with spinach, chickpeas, lentils, rice & nan, hunger 3.5/5
Didn't feel hungry due to work stress until I started eating and realized I actually really was ready for a meal. B.B.T. (Before Blogging & Thinking), I'd of probably just not eaten till I all of a sudden couldn't function and realized I was hungry, then binge on cookies...
DINNER: 7pm, large green salad with organic Italian dressing, small frozen pizza, half bottle of seltzer, hunger 4/5
Weird end of the day at work, messing with my hunger. Frozen pizza been in the freezer for months, ate it before it went bad.
Feels weird to be back at work. Unnatural. Just had a nice conversation with a coworker who is starting to make her own pasta, I enjoyed being able to tell her the best recipe for a beginner, which was just me a few months ago!
BREAKFAST: 8:45am, good yogurt with honey, vanilla, raw nuts, hunger 3/5
BP: 9:45am, 120/99
I took my BP after reading my work email. oy - mistake, I got several crazy readings, including this one.
AM WATERING: 10am, 24 oz still
LUNCH: 1:45pm, Indian lunch combo with spinach, chickpeas, lentils, rice & nan, hunger 3.5/5
Didn't feel hungry due to work stress until I started eating and realized I actually really was ready for a meal. B.B.T. (Before Blogging & Thinking), I'd of probably just not eaten till I all of a sudden couldn't function and realized I was hungry, then binge on cookies...
DINNER: 7pm, large green salad with organic Italian dressing, small frozen pizza, half bottle of seltzer, hunger 4/5
Weird end of the day at work, messing with my hunger. Frozen pizza been in the freezer for months, ate it before it went bad.
Sunday, January 6
An Interesting Development
ADDENDA:
Woke up at 7 feeling crappy. Was going to ride bike today, but after being up for an hour, thought it best to stay in doors and be quiet and still. Tomorrow, the grind starts again. A nap around 12-1:30 on the couch made me feel a whole mess better.
BREAKFAST: 8:30am, bowl of organic cornflakes with good milk, hunger 4/5
AM SNACK: 11am, 4 chocolate vegan macaroon-like sweet things, hunger 4/5
LUNCH: 1:30pm, homemade squash soup, homemade chocolate soy ice cream, hunger 4/5
I woke up from my nap to an interesting, somewhat delicious smell. Something unexpected and totally invited happened: Betsy cooked something!! And it was GOOD! She made a fresh squash soup with a recipe from her momma's. Up to this point, for the 2+ years I've been with her, she's made....let's see, our first date at her home in Brooklyn, she made salad and a stilted pizza-like item by putting cheese and veg on a Mediterranean flat bred. She's prepared salad again over the years, presented fruit and cheese, prepared, reheated, encouraged ME to cook, but hasn't actually cooked a thing.
In the fall out of my mother's generation of progressive feminism, we left cooking in the hands of industry, and they have not treated us like a parent who loves a child by nourishing them - they've treated us a like a mark to be lightened of the cash in their wallets. Betsy took a small but crucial step in righting some wrongs and guaranteeing the good health of our future children - imagine, BOTH parents liking to cook real food!
My mother was a horrible cook, who treated it like an annoying obligation meant to tie her to a history of servitude, my father didn't have enough time to enjoy it more creatively, letting that creative muscle atrophy over the years until in the end he ended up just making monster batches of hummus twice a year, a monster batch of spaghetti sauce once a year. I don't blame them, they were products of their time, as I hope to be of mine.
As a response to her call, I immediately made some chocolate soy ice cream in return, only takes about 10 minutes. However, this is the third time I made it and the 2nd time it didn't turn out as good as the first. Though it'll add a few hours to prep time, I think I'm going to cook the mix then chill it, I think that'll eliminate the slightly powdery consistency that's created when the hot melted chocolate hits the cool soy blend.
DINNER: 6pm, homemade pizza, hunger 4/5
Talked about going out for dinner, but neither of us felt like leaving the house, and ordering in didn't really appeal either, so I busted out the freezer for dough and sauce, sliced up some veg and sauteed in white wine. No mozz, just some freshly grated parm. One pizza I used the pan method and came out the roundest and thinnest of all the pizzas I've done, the other the dough didn't cooperate so I made myself a very doughy, calzone, probably the crappiest pizza thing I've made.
Upon reading the lunch entry, Betsy said, "Add that I'm a feminist!" Like actually cooking is somehow a repudiation or questioning of her feminist credentials. There in lies a problem. Has anyone written a book about resolving the socio-economic-environmental problems created by cooking becoming first gender-specific, then abandoned?
I just watched 'The Nanny Diaries' on cable, a crappy movie based on a crappy novel. The uptight Upper East Side mom insists that her son eat only organic and soy, the nanny bonds with the kid by feeding him corn-syrup laden peanut butter pre-mixed with jam straight out of the jar. At the end of the movie, where it's tied up all nicey-nicey, the formerly uptight mom eats the jar mess with her kid and admits it's good. Urgh, anality in any form is unpleasant, but dismissing eating well and non-industrially as somehow elitist, untastey and ultimately alienating is such a shitty message. But I guess the masses that eat up that Hollywood crap like to have their world-views confirmed! Rage rage rage! :)
Woke up at 7 feeling crappy. Was going to ride bike today, but after being up for an hour, thought it best to stay in doors and be quiet and still. Tomorrow, the grind starts again. A nap around 12-1:30 on the couch made me feel a whole mess better.
BREAKFAST: 8:30am, bowl of organic cornflakes with good milk, hunger 4/5
AM SNACK: 11am, 4 chocolate vegan macaroon-like sweet things, hunger 4/5
LUNCH: 1:30pm, homemade squash soup, homemade chocolate soy ice cream, hunger 4/5
I woke up from my nap to an interesting, somewhat delicious smell. Something unexpected and totally invited happened: Betsy cooked something!! And it was GOOD! She made a fresh squash soup with a recipe from her momma's. Up to this point, for the 2+ years I've been with her, she's made....let's see, our first date at her home in Brooklyn, she made salad and a stilted pizza-like item by putting cheese and veg on a Mediterranean flat bred. She's prepared salad again over the years, presented fruit and cheese, prepared, reheated, encouraged ME to cook, but hasn't actually cooked a thing.
In the fall out of my mother's generation of progressive feminism, we left cooking in the hands of industry, and they have not treated us like a parent who loves a child by nourishing them - they've treated us a like a mark to be lightened of the cash in their wallets. Betsy took a small but crucial step in righting some wrongs and guaranteeing the good health of our future children - imagine, BOTH parents liking to cook real food!
My mother was a horrible cook, who treated it like an annoying obligation meant to tie her to a history of servitude, my father didn't have enough time to enjoy it more creatively, letting that creative muscle atrophy over the years until in the end he ended up just making monster batches of hummus twice a year, a monster batch of spaghetti sauce once a year. I don't blame them, they were products of their time, as I hope to be of mine.
As a response to her call, I immediately made some chocolate soy ice cream in return, only takes about 10 minutes. However, this is the third time I made it and the 2nd time it didn't turn out as good as the first. Though it'll add a few hours to prep time, I think I'm going to cook the mix then chill it, I think that'll eliminate the slightly powdery consistency that's created when the hot melted chocolate hits the cool soy blend.
DINNER: 6pm, homemade pizza, hunger 4/5
Talked about going out for dinner, but neither of us felt like leaving the house, and ordering in didn't really appeal either, so I busted out the freezer for dough and sauce, sliced up some veg and sauteed in white wine. No mozz, just some freshly grated parm. One pizza I used the pan method and came out the roundest and thinnest of all the pizzas I've done, the other the dough didn't cooperate so I made myself a very doughy, calzone, probably the crappiest pizza thing I've made.
Upon reading the lunch entry, Betsy said, "Add that I'm a feminist!" Like actually cooking is somehow a repudiation or questioning of her feminist credentials. There in lies a problem. Has anyone written a book about resolving the socio-economic-environmental problems created by cooking becoming first gender-specific, then abandoned?
I just watched 'The Nanny Diaries' on cable, a crappy movie based on a crappy novel. The uptight Upper East Side mom insists that her son eat only organic and soy, the nanny bonds with the kid by feeding him corn-syrup laden peanut butter pre-mixed with jam straight out of the jar. At the end of the movie, where it's tied up all nicey-nicey, the formerly uptight mom eats the jar mess with her kid and admits it's good. Urgh, anality in any form is unpleasant, but dismissing eating well and non-industrially as somehow elitist, untastey and ultimately alienating is such a shitty message. But I guess the masses that eat up that Hollywood crap like to have their world-views confirmed! Rage rage rage! :)
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