food, and other musings

words of wisdom

Jeff has been out of town all week and so I've been playing a little game. That I find this game so incredibly fascinating and so much fun gives you some small glimpse into my twisted mind. Essentially, I decided that once he left the house Monday morning, I was not allowed to go grocery shopping. I had to survive on whatever we already had in the house, for 4 days, for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. The two exceptions were Tuesday morning breakfast, which our office provides each week, and Tuesday night for dinner, when I'd already agreed to meet a friend for sushi.

Oh, and I decided this as I was driving back from taking him to the airport, so it's not like I'd stocked the fridge with food. In fact, you'd have sworn the cupboard was just about bare if you had peeked inside.

I'm almost at the end of the game and I'm pretty much batting a thousand. One night's dinner was bacon and eggs and a small green salad; another night I made rice and beans with hell-quenching amounts of hot sauce, and tonight I'm contemplating veggie burgers (frozen, not homemade) or Indian food.

To be honest, I thought my little game would provide nothing more than a bit of amusement, a dash of intellectual and creative stimulation, and, it must be said, an excellent way to coddle my own laziness.

But when I wrote to my little brother about the experiment, he said something that was so rooted in truth, on so many levels, that it stopped me in my tracks. And I've been thinking about it a lot ever since.

"It is funny how much food we have in our house when we say we have none."

Word. 

Memorial Day BBQ Recipes

From the archives...

All-American hamburgers

Potato-sweet potato salad

Summer salad with corn, green beans, and cherry tomatoes

Old-fashioned chocolate cake

Fish Tacos

Fish tacos are all about two things: the slaw and the hot sauce. Besides being crisp, a good slaw should be a little tart and definitely creamy. As for hot sauce, if it hasn't burned my lips off yet, what good is it?

These fish tacos are a go-to on weary winter summer nights. Since I don't deep-fry the fish, they're low-fat to boot. You know, so I can look good in my bikini as I run screaming through the DENSE GRAY FOG that cloaks the San Francisco streets right now.



Fish Tacos
Makes 4 tacos

1 bag pre-shredded cabbage, or half a head cabbage shredded by you
4 scallions, chopped
1/3 large cucumber, peeled
3 TBSP mayo
2 TBSP apple cider vinegar
1 TBSP Dijon mustard
3/4 pound white fish fillets, such as red snapper
8 corn tortillas
1 avocado, thinly sliced
1 lime, cut into 4 wedges
salt and pepper to taste

To make the slaw, combine the cabbage and scallions. Prepare the cucumber by cutting it in half lengthwise, and then cutting each half in half lengthwise again. Slice thinly, giving you small "wedges" of cucumber. Add to the cabbage. Add mayo, vinegar, and mustard to the cabbage and mix well. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Preheat the oven to broil, or prepare your grill. Season the fish with salt and pepper to taste. Broil until crisp and cooked through. Time will vary depending on the thickness of your fish; check after 4-5 minutes. Flake fish with a fork into small pieces.

Meanwhile, heat the tortillas. I prefer to heat them one by one in a cast iron skillet; you can also use a non-stick pan, or put them in the oven on the bottom rack.

To assemble, mound 3/4 cup of slaw on each tortilla. Top with 1/4 each of the fish and avocado. Season with hot sauce -- these days, I am loving Bone Suckin' Sauce Hiccupin' Hot Habanero Hot Sauce. (Say that three times fast...) Give it a squirt of lime juice and you're in business.

p.s. I know. An actual post. And a recipe. Could you DIE???

Love and marriage, love and marriage...

Thank God! I hope it lasts.

favorite song

Love remains the same by my other boyfriend. (sigh)

The only recent example of cooking in my kitchen

Blog Shmog. Perhaps pithy observations are like eggs; you're born with a certain number and once you're out, you're out. At any rate, the only thing I've done recently that might merit a food post (or any post at all) was to make chocolate chip cookies. Here's the recipe I use, but you can use anyone you want as long as you do two things: make the cookies BIG and add several graceful flourishes of hot fudge or chocolate sauce to the batter. Trust me.

Now back to the regularly scheduled programming...[crickets]

The World's Best Giant Chocolate Chip Cookies
Yield: approx. 15-20 giant cookies

This is the a pretty standard recipe -- I think I was using the one from See's semi-sweets -- but anyone will do AS LONG AS YOU DO THE TWO SECRET THINGS.

1/2 lb. unsalted butter
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
2 1/4 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
4-5 TBSP chocolate syrup or hot fudge sauce
2 cups See's Semi Sweet Chocolate Chips

1. Preheat oven to 375.
2. In a large bowl, cream butter and sugars. Add eggs, then vanilla, beating till smooth.
3. In a small bowl, mix flour, salt and baking soda. Gradually stir into butter mixture, blending well. Squirt chocolate syrup over dough (I usually make 4-5 turns around the bowl) and mix well. Add chocolate chips and stir.
4. Drop in huge spoonfuls slighter larger than an extra-large egg onto cookie sheet. You should be able to fit about 5-6 spoonfuls per cookie sheet.
5. Bake 10-12 minutes, checking after 10 to see how they're coming along. If you have to bake in batches, remember that the laTter batches will need less time to cook since the oven and cookie sheets will be hotter.