In grade school Twinkies were the trading gold of the school yard. Everyone would pull out the lunches lovingly packed by parents and then the elementary version of the stock exchange would begin. A Twinkie could get you anything from just about any school lunch. Chocolate puddings, followed by other flavor puddings and then chips were usually next in line. If you wanted a Twinkie for a Chocolate pudding usually there would need to be a sticker or a "best friendmanship" thrown in to sweeten the deal. Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches were sometimes good items to trade although in grade school I had an aversion to peanut butter and found that my cream cheese and jelly sandwiches held little trading value. It was okay with me since they were also usually made with my Dad's amazing homemade sourdough and to me that was worth way more than a Twinkie (but shh, don't tell those other kids with their Wonderbread (also made by Hostess) PB&J's). Most of my lunches held almost zero trade-ability. I begged my Mom for Lunchables to no avail but instead got carrots and celery, and cheese wrapped in ham. I actually liked the foods my Mom packed but it was a matter of status if you arrived with junk food in a cool lunch pail you were clearly superior to the kids with healthy things in paper bags. You could trade for fickle friends and ice cream bars how can that be unappealing to a kid? I don't recall eating a Twinkie or a Ho-Ho as a child but the allure was amazing. I probably managed to get one or two at summer camp but the having is not nearly as memorable as the wanting.
Last year I had a friend doing a performance piece that involved eating Twinkies on stage and once it was done he handed out the extras backstage. The smell of the yellow cake was intoxicating and somehow my grade school brain was activated to expect something spectacular. I opened the crinkled plastic and took a bite. I immediately had the most visceral response to the acridly sweet bite of sugar cake I think I've ever had. Grateful that I opened the package without anyone else in the room, I spit it out.
"Oh God! Why was this ever so popular?!" Clearly my tastes are still uncool...
Now Hostess sputters out of existence we will find just how long a Twinkie's shelf life is... shelves are being emptied and ebay is suddenly the coolest kid on the playground.
There may be 31 flavors at Baskin Robbins and yet to me there are only two; Orange sherbert (cake cone) and Mint Chocolate Chip (Sugar cone) I have tasted the others and sure I guess they are also ice cream... but they are just not the glory that is Mint Chocolate Chip or Orange sherbert... maybe if they ever had Pineapple sherbert I could be swayed... maybe.
I have another food establishment that has become a one choice menu. Erik's Deli. They're a chain mostly in the central coast and south bay area of Northern California and they have a huge menu of soups, salads and mostly sandwiches, but really all they serve is this; Light and Tasty salad with Raspberry vinaigrette and a cup of tomato bisque soup. Every time I come down here I become giddy that I can have a bloody Soup and Salad! It has got to be filled with salt or crack or something that makes this such an exciting meal.
Perhaps it speaks to my character that I am so devoted to the Light and Tasty in the way that I am devoted to Mint Choc Chip. There are plenty of places where I try new things all the time but somehow this is different...I'd like to think its a matter of knowing what I like and finding a joy in familiarity, but perhaps it's best to not read too much into food choices like this.
Do you have a staple order at a restaurant you cannot be swayed from?
The art of bread is a matter of alchemy. It is possible to use the exact same ingredients in exact proportions and have it turn out differently every time. It could be because the batter was too dry, the weather too humid, or the dough was not kneaded enough or possibly too much, baking with a little consistency is a skill that takes a good deal of practice. I'm so pleased when my baking goes well you must indulge me.
I made a new type of bread; Hungarian Split Farmhouse bread. It's from a recipe book I bought at Barnes & Noble for about $5 and despite the directions having been written poorly it has been a pretty useful book.
The ingredients called for a ton of yeast so the dough wound up being an unruly beast. I added a significant amount of water to the dough (it's supposed to be very sticky to start, I added a whole extra cup of water). I beat it back three times before I was happy with the texture. The book only suggested one good kneading before baking but I imagine the whole thing would have been full of air bubbles.
I've got to say this is possibly the prettiest bread I've baked in a good long while. It's covered with Fennel and Poppy seeds (perhaps too much Fennel, I'm going to knock off a few). I am sitting here enjoying a fresh slice slathered in butter along with a licorice tea and I am in heaven! If you love licorice you need to experience this!
... And Papa, just to make you proud I took a photo of the inside... nearly perfect texture!
This is what Trader Joe's looks like after all surrounding non-Safeway grocery stores have been closed for two days. Somehow I scored the last two bell peppers in the store.
On a side note; Hey Mom & Dad, I can't find my little green camera, have you seen it? Now I've either got my phone (fine quality seen above) or my Nikon (a wee bit bulky to keep in my purse)... check my room?
Woke up this Sunday morning to the sounds of a jackhammer after only four? five? hours of sleep... opened up the ruby red grapefruit I was planning on eating this morning to find it all pith (and not vaguely ruby)... I've never seen such a sad grapefruit and I went to college in Ohio. Now I'm stumbling around trying to get my head straight... so much to do and yet no juice... so sad that my breakfast is looking like the metaphor for my week.
Berlin's specialty; Currywurst. It is like street food, very akin to the bacon wrapped hot dogs sold in San Francisco's Mission District. However most places are real establishments rather than hot dog carts... and they are all over the city. Some are more trust worthy than others.
First you get a bratwurst cooked in what is clearly very healthy grease;
Then they cut the bratwurst into smaller chunks, cover it in curry powder, serve with fries and your choice of ketsup or Mayo... the dish is to be eaten with a tiny plastic fork while standing up.
It was rather good, and I felt full for pretty much most of the day. I'm sure there was more than a full meal's worth of calories involved.
What exactly is Figgy pudding? It is prominently featured in the Christmas carol "We Wish you a Merry Christmas" and yet, it is a mystery. Until today I can't say I've ever seen one or heard anyone talk of eating one. I decided to do some investigation on the topic. First via Google search and then by Dad's cookbook collection I compiled a variety of Fig pudding recipes. As per my father's teachings I wound up taking the recipe I liked the most and altering it anyway. What follows is what I distorted from the 1951 edition of The Joy of Cooking...
Step 1; chop up about 2 cups of dried figs and let them soak in about 3/4 c Rum and 1 1/4 c. hot water (I left it for about an hour)
2. Beat together until "fluffy" (didn't look that fluffy to me)
1/2 c. butter
2 eggs
3/4c Molasses
1/4 c. brown sugar
3. Add, then mix
Chopped walnuts (I put in a fistfull, so I guess that's about 1/4c)
Figs with all the rum and water
1/2 c. milk
4. In a seperate bowl sift together;
2.5c flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
5. mix it all together
6. preheat oven to 325°F and grease your pan
7. bake for about 1 hour or until a skewer comes out clean
It was hard to find this pan in our cupbords... we're not much of a bunt cake family, apparently this one was my great grandmothers.
The dough tasted like molassas and rum...
Finally I made a frosting of butter, orange juice and confectioner's sugar. There are fancier/prettier pudding frostings, but this one was tasty.
Some recipes called for boiling the pudding or steaming it for four hours, some instruct to set it aflame before serving... so who knows how authentic this particular pudding is. It tasted like Fig Newtons and rum soaked gingerbread to me, but my friends Josh and Rosie claim that it does not taste like Fig Newtons at all (I did grow up on the organic hippie version of the Newton so perhaps I am biased). Either way, this stuff was fantastic and I intend to repeat it in the future.
I have a problem with Trader Joe’s.The more I shop at Berkeley Bowl and the Farmer’s Market, the more it bothers me.They ask you to bring in your own shopping bags but then almost everything in the store is severely overpackaged and nothing is local.
Roma tomatoes come in hard plastic boxes, zuccinis come shrink wrapped on styrofoam trays, Carrots that have been pre-peeled and sliced come in plastic tubs and cost three times more than a 2 pound bag of unprocessed carrots. You can buy delicious Indian lunches that come in sealed bags that have been packed in boxes and portioned just enough for one person. All manner of frozen veggies are available with little globs of seasoned butter included, also in serving sizes for one or two people… because throwing a handful of greenbeans in a sauce pan with water, rosemary and butter is too hard!
This brings me to the second problem I have with Trader Joe’s… everything that has been pre-packaged three times over is all ready to heat and eat.So much of it is little more than a glorified and improved TV dinner.It is helping to perpetuate the helplessness of the urban dweller.It encourages shoppers to think “I don’t have time to cook” “I don’t know how to cook, it’s too hard”.Seriously!I am not a gormet chef but from the need to eat economically I’ve learned how to make a few really good meals.Salads are not difficult but you can still buy those in a bag. Is it because it’s too time consuming to wash lettuce, and chop up a few veggies?
There are so many Americans who just don’t cook for themselves, they have no idea about what they are shoveling into their mouths, there is too little thought about food and nutrition.There is too much thought about calories and suppliments.TJ’s also has an amazing array of cheap vitamins by the way, because after all eating a balanced diet is just too hard… you will need to be ‘healthy’ and add these pills to your diet.Despite the good things about TJ’s I just can’t deal with how much of it is fully pre-packaged and designed to allow consumers to feel good about their ignorance.
I’m torn. On the one hand they do sell a lot of tasty things that I enjoy, but when I went in yesterday I wound up leaving with my bottle of cheap wine, a pint of sherbet and a seltzer water. All of the overpackaged produce in number 5 plastic containers (my city only recycles numbers 1 and 2 plastic) just made me ill.
Be sure to bring back your canvas bag to carry home all of the small plastic bags that your food comes in… you don’t want to kill the earth do you?
This is the wonderland. This is my grocery store. This is a fantasy of plenty that my ancestors could never have imagined for me. This is an Organic produce section larger than my apartment. This is a "standard" Produce section three times larger than the organic produce section. This is eight types of potatoes, eight types of orange, every type of fancy exotic fruit and green thing available in North America... I shop here every week and it still leaves me in awe... someday I'll show you the beer selection. Oh Berkeley Bowl, you are an unnatural dreamland and I love you!
I have to get up early tomorrow... as I was prepping for the morning I realized that this...
...is the perfect illustration of how useless I am in the morning.
I cannot make oatmeal.
If I don't do this prep, I don't eat breakfast because it's too complicated. So here it is, my preparation for the morning; 1 cup of water in a saucepan on the stove, one half cup pre-measured oatmeal with one quarter cup rasins, fruit to grab, sugar to sprinkle... the coffee pot is ready to be turned on and the coffee cup is directly next to it. At least I've learned to live with my disability.
Ok enough fun, I need to go lay out my outfit for tomorrow and try to get to sleep early (sigh)
Our artistic director picked our new season of plays. The hope in choosing a season is that you can pick works that are relevant to everyday life; plays that make you think (or that help you escape if that's your direction). The unofficial theme that he had in choosing them was "Plays for the New Depression" with the quick caveat "but we can't publicize that because it's too negative."
Its such an odd time right now. We've got the bank system collapsing. I've had my phone service sold out twice over, my car insurance was Century 21, then it was AIG (for about 4 months), then it was very quickly "Century 21" again, and this week that was sold by AIG to yet another company. My bank turned into another bank... my credit card got sold to another credit bank... it's all getting so frustrating. I hardly know who I owe money to anymore. The News is quick to tell us to run and hide in a cave because of the deadly swine flue that has thus far killed far less than the regular flu and is "responsive to tamaflu and other flu medications". If they're not telling us that we're all going to die from the flu or terrorists they are telling us about how bad the economy is. They tell us this with fingers in the air pointing this way and that, sparse bits of true analysis and nobody is really ready to say the "D" word.
We're in a "slump" a "resession" a "tough time"... whatever. For what it's worth I'm starting to truly understand the abstractions of the Great Depression. The songs are making more sense, the plays... and also my grandparents. In some ways we are becoming them. Now we can understand why they knew 50 ways to re-use a coffee can. We're going to get old and give everybody a hard time about "all that waste"... We're becoming coupon clippers, mold scrapers, and "it's not totally rotten just cut out the bad bits" ... as an environmentalist it's not such a bad thing, but still it's a shift that is not to be ignored.
This week I cut up a full bag of apples to use in pies, apple sauce and cobbler. At the end of it all I held my sticky hands over what amounted to a huge pile of apple leavings. So many cores and peels that would normally go to the compost heap were too multitudinous to just "throw out". So I carefully seperated out all the cores from the peels and put them in seperate compartments of the steamer. I steamed them until the juices dripped down to the bottom pan making a weak apple juice. Then I took the top steamer of peels. When I baked my cobbler I laid them all out on the baking pan... apple chips.
There was hardly anything left for the worms outside. I felt better but also melancholy from realizing the luxury I used to have; being able to just toss old peels without a second thought.
Even hotels with "kitchens" have continental breakfasts. Today I wanted a hole-in-one egg (which is an egg cooked in a cut out piece of toast) and beans (something I've been fond of since leaving England). The free breakfast buffet does involve eggs but the eggs are those disgusting powdered variety you get from cafeterias. The eggs I eat, always have to be fancy expensive laid by cage-free vegetarian hens, because those are the only ones that taste good (plus the ethical concerns)... anyway I fired up the electric range included at my hotel and found that there is no way to determine how hot the stove is getting and there's no way to make anything cook evenly. I managed to fill the room with smoke but through some miracle I avoided setting off the smoke alarms. This is the tasty dish I managed to scorch half of and leave the other half just barely cooked... Ugh!
Why are there no poems about rhubarb? Or Rhubarb pie? Why is it just Garrison Keelior? To me it is the most rare treat. It is tart, it is sweet, it takes over your mouth and tells you "summer is here" It is ruby red and when it is fresh you can eat it raw (sliced into sugar water) ... Rhubarb is not for everyone, but so many fine things can only be appreciated by a select amount of people... mmm. Rhubarb is so fresh this year I bought some for this pie that my mom made me last week... and this week I'm going to make another for my birthday....
That's right, Sea Urchin swimming in Saki, drink it as a shot...
It has a unique mixture of flavors that fall in succession, from the sweet of the Saki, to the Salt and umami of the fish... it changes the flavor of both and is oddly good.
The Brit's seem to be frequently criticised for their "bad food" but after my brief journey there I found little evidence to support the reputation. They do seem to like a few flavors that I love and your typical American does not. There is more black licorice, rhubarb is considered a treat and their "mint" gum tastes like anise (yummy!)... while there I took shots of a few of the meals we had. To start, what kind of suckers do you think you're going to lure into your restaurant by naming it "The Walrus and the Carpenter" and having a "Lewis Caroll dining room"? Yes. THIS kind of fool is who... This was the first pub we tried.
This pub had a full sausage menu that had you pick your variety of sausage and it's delivery method. I chose "Toad in the Hole" mostly because I'd heard it mentioned on the BBC and it's a funny name. The dish consisted of three sausages served in Yorkshire Pudding (the bread bowl thing they're sitting in), surrounded by mashed potatoes, gravy and some unidentifiable (Kale?) greens. I had a pint of London's Pride Ale with it, that was NOT served warm as legend says English beer is, but rather cool (it's just not the icy temperature of the Rockies). The ale was creamy and flavorful (delish!) Conclusion about this dish; the pudding wasn't so exciting, the sausage, gravy, and veggies were heavenly although I wished that they had a half order available, I thought it enough for two meals. At another pub (this one was in Scotland) I had the Irish version of Toad in the Hole; Colcannon. When we ordered, I asked the waitress what kinds of ales they had, she said "We've only got Caffrey's" I had an impulse to jump up and hug her that I fought off and merely said "yes yes, please, I'll have that" Caffrey's is only my favorite ale that stopped being imported to the states 6 months after my 21st birthday... it was almost better than I remembered. The Caffrey's was also served cool not icy (perfect). The Colcannon was pretty good too. Mia had a goat cheese salad with pears and apples (I think she said it was good but I was too preoccupied with meat and beer to pay attention, sorry Mia). The Albert and Victoria Museum was amazing and free and has a palatial dining room with chandeliers, stained glass windows and a hallway of mouth watering cuisine... feeling a bit poor however with the dollar being so weak I opted for the ₤3 lunch of pumpkin soup... it was a little like Trader Joe's butternut squash soup, only it was obviously fresh, served with a dollop of butter and a roll and in this fetching tureen (how stylish). It was required of me to try Fish and Chips in England. This pub is a block away from the Old Globe. Here you see my order of Fish and Chips and in the back You see Mia getting ready to try her "Ploughman's Cheese Sandwich". The fish was Real fish. It wasn't mushy fish goo like we get from the freezer section here (although I must admit, I love that fish goo). It was alright but I thought that the fish was a little bland for my taste. The chips were rather fantastic and tasted like homemade. They also offered me "garden peas" or "mushy peas". I should have had the mushy peas for the true English experience, but I couldn't... and the woman at the counter assured me that they're "disgusting"... unfortunatley the "garden peas" were equally disgusting. They tasted Grey, in the way that Otter Pops or Gummy Bears can taste Green and Red... ick. The Fish and Chips were good, but I thought I have had them equally good in the States. The Beer; more London's Pride. A Ploughman's Cheese sandwich on the menu says that the ingredients are "cheese,lettuce,tomato,and pickle served on rye bread". What Mia recieved was bread with some purple chutney inside it... we asked the waitress if this was the correct order showing at the very least the missing cheese in a "Cheese sandwich". "Oh I'm so sorry" she exclaimed, she took it away and brought it back all improved; the exact same purple chutney but now with some shreds of cheese on top of it. It tasted salty, sour, sweet and rotting all at once. It smelled of brine... "Pickle" in Britain does not mean pickled cucumber as it usually does in the States but it is actually a bizarre mixture of wrong and barely edible. Ok I guess it's actually onion, rutabega, coliflower and spices... this dish I think is evidence for "bad English food"... My only complaint (other than the pickle) was about their coffee. The English like really weak coffee. In fact after trying two different places I discovered that they actually drink a lot of Nescafe. I actually stood staring at the coffee crystals agape... when my dry mouth managed to make a sound all I could say was "Soylent Green is made of people". I mostly managed to give up on the coffee and live off of the black tea which is good everywhere, while poor Mia became a sort of American Arthur Dent in search of a decent cup of Joe... all for naught. Even Starbucks serves their English coffee extra weak.
English Tea; We ordered "Tea for two" and got this Tower of food. For ₤10 we got all of this food plus tea. The bottom plate had sandwiches (we had the option of tuna or pickle and I quickly chose the tuna). The middle plate had two large slices of carrot cake, and the top plate had scones and clotted cream. The sandwiches and cake were just like what you can get at home but the scones and cream were devine. The scones were buttery and light with a faint berry taste, and clotted cream is somewhere between heavy whipped cream and butter. I noticed that other patrons were heaping it on their scones but I was happy with only a thin layer of it on my scone. Tea for two involved food for four... very satisfying. Finally I end this post with the most simple and yet brilliant food improvement courtesy of my people (The Scots). It's just porridge (which tastes just like Quaker quick oats made with water) served with some brown sugar, fruit and a shot of Drambuie. Treat yourself. Try this.
Many San Franciscans claim that there are more seats in our restaurants than there are residents in the city. Weather that is true or not is not something I cannot verify. I can confirm that there are many great places to eat here. I have mostly been restricted to restaurants within my finances and near places I've lived or worked so those are the places I am suggesting here.
#1 Chin's Sushi Bar 4406 California St. (near 6th Avenue) This is my very favorite Sushi bar. The fish selection is seasonal. In general everything is toothsome and well balanced. The rice, the miso, the maki, and the prepared fish dishes are all delicate and flavorful. I recommend the stuffed shrimp. **near Green Apple Books
#2Nagano Sushi 3727 Geary Blvd. (near Arguello and 2nd Ave)
The rice and the miso at this place are very commonplace. If you want maki, this is not the best place. However if you want to cut to the chase and just eat fish this sushi bar has the most variety of fresh sashimi I have found. They have a variety of Japanese beers and several desserts (I usually don't order dessert at sushi bars but they are on the menu). The atmosphere is pretty good, the customers are usually mostly Japanese and Koreans and the music is usually top 40 hits.
#3 Gordo's (Mexican) 1239 9th Ave. Between Lincoln and Judah This is a local chain. Very popular. I love the Chicken Quesadillas. The menu is only; burritos, tacos, and quesadillas. Basic and well done.
#4 Taqueria San Jose 2830 Mission St (between Valencia and 16th st, a quick walk from the Mission and 16th st BART station) I find I get better service if I order in Spanish... it's all good, I heap a lot of their green salsa on everything.
#5 The Stinking Rose 325 Columbus Ave. (between Vallejo and Broadway) This place is expensive, I've been here twice. The first time my bill was covered and the second time I spent about $35 on my plate including wine, it's easy to spend more if you order appetizers and dessert (or lobster). Like the name implies, Everything in the restaurant has garlic in it. It is heavenly Italian-American fare that should be enjoyed with a dry glass of red wine. You can order a garlic martini, a garlic-vodka shooter and garlic ice cream but really the main dishes and appetizers had plenty of garlic for me, I found no need to venture into novelty. **near City Lights Books
#6 My final reccomendation I don't know the name of the place It's a Korean Hot Pot Restaurant On the corner of 10th Ave and Clement St.
Here you pay a buffet price for a huge bowl that you fill with meat,vegetables, noodles and sauces... then you take it all back to your table and cook it there either on a sautee surface or in a big hot pot of broth. It is very filling, a great place to sate a large appetite. **also near Green Apple Books
I have found that downtown by the courthouse and opera food choices are poor except for on days when the farmer's market is in the plaza. Also Japan town has good sushi but generally it is priced more than it is worth.
This blog is especially for the Blaschkos who are celebrating Sarah's marriage this week. Congrats to the happy family. If any of you need anything while you're in town give me a call.
When I embarked on this no-dairy experiment I did so with a great internal sigh. Picky eaters are so terrible. When I worked at a restaurant I was always irritated by the people who would order something like penne primavera; "but could you take out the zucchini, and use manicotti instead of penne?". Even worse are the people who go to some place like McDonalds and ask for "a hamburger happy meal, but make one of the hamburgers a cheeseburger,only three pickle slices, and give me extra fries with no salt and an extra toy". I'm not exaggerating, I've met these people, they are the ones who hold up the line in the grocery store telling the baggers how to bag their milk "in plastic and then in paper but not with the ice cream!". That is a little how I imagined a diet with a major restriction to turn out. Not eating dairy for a month (and still going) has reinforced the fact that Those People are just difficult and disagreeable and it has nothing to do with any kind of dietary restriction. It's pretty easy to just say "hold the cheese" and not make it into a theatrical production. What is hard, but will probably get easier, is grocery shopping. Shopping is slowed significantly because of the necessity of reading through ingredients trying to spot "whey" "casiene" "vanilin" and other code words for "Milk". Today I finally just went to the Berkeley Bowl (a mega-hippie supermarket with the most amazing produce section ever). I bought soy milk, soy butter, soy creamer, a few products labeled "vegan" and a ton of veggies. The new diet has forced me to think harder about my food choices. Just look at how many veggies I ate tonight; I also bought a book called "The Joy of Vegan Baking" which I love. The recipes are fairly simple and explain how to "veganize" any baking recipe. I tried using these recipes with eggs instead of egg substitutes but they weren't as good. The most surprising egg substitute that I loved was in the muffins I made today. Instead of two eggs you whip together 2 tablespoons of ground flax seed with 6 tablespoons of water, e voila! For a dozen muffins I used a half cup of sugar and a third cup oil. Those were the only not-so-good-for-you ingredients, everything else was flour, flax, seasoning, fruit and nuts... actually they're really tasty. You'd never know that they're made with twigs and dirt. So I'm accepting that I'm not becoming a terrible picky eater, I'm just being a more conscientious eater. Thank God I don't have to do this in Ohio.
Think about all of the yummiest and quickest meals you love. There are grilled cheese sandwiches, Mac and Cheese, Enchiladas, quesadillas, cheesy mashed potatoes, cheddar perogies, nachos, fettucini alfredo and how about cream of broccoli soup. It's an easy list to make. I can't eat any of them. Since I read about how dairy intolerance can cause acne, depression, lethargy and insomnia (all problems I've had) I've decided to try living "dairy free". So far my "before" and "after" photos aren't exactly a miraculous transformation, but I do have more energy and have been sleeping better, so those are good signs. Going without milk and butter was a surprisingly easy transition because of good soy substitutes. Unfortunately there is no good non-dairy cheese (Vegans claim that there is but that's only because they have forgotten what cheese is supposed to taste like). Even if this dairy experiment proves to be inconclusive I have at least learned how dependent on cheese my snacks and dinners have been. I am guaranteed to cut calories from my lack of cheese and butter. Breakfast has been fine. I've used soy milk and soy butter and even found an Amazing vegan pancake recipe. Lunch is ok, mostly I have sandwiches,or soups or rice with vegetables anyway, so that wasn't a big adjustment. Dinner is the hard part of the day. I have to think really hard to avoid the entire list from the start of this post, plus a rather shocking amount of other dairy filled foods. I am fortunate to live in Berkeley where we have at least seventeen restaurants (that I counted) that are vegetarian and four of those are exclusively vegan. Since I cannot afford to dine out every night, I find myself staring at my veggie bin thinking "these would all taste great covered with cheddar cheese." Despite the cheesy longing in my heart, I must admit this is much easier than trying to give up bread. When the Low-carb craze hit I tried to cut out pasta and bread for three miserable days. Every single day I thought about bread all day. By the third day I could smell it everywhere, that was torture. This lack of cheese is sad but really only distressing when I have no idea of what I should eat. The no bread thing was a diet (which I haven't done before or since) if this no dairy thing works out it will be a lifestyle change which I think will be much better for me.
Still, right now cheese would be the Easy thing to make for dinner. I need to add more recipes to my repertoire.
cheese and crackers... quiche... cheesecake... baked brie... Limburger on Rye... cheddarwurst... patty melts... ranch dressing... Oh sigh.
I took myself out to breakfast today. As I was glancing over the menu I thought, "I could make most of this at home myself, why did I want to come here?". What's more is why haven't I felt like cooking anything in a month? Why is it I've been eating nothing but cereal at breakfast? As I sat there stirring cream into my coffee I realized that I've been spending way too much time catering to everyone else's needs. At work I'm making sure that twenty two people are dressed, pressed and polished for the stage. At home it's just me and the dog, since my roommate's out of town, and I'm busy making sure that he's fed and walked and happy. I think it's been too long since someone asked me what I need, so really just going to the cafe and having somebody check on me to ask if I had all the correct condiments or enough coffee was exactly what I needed. Someday I'll find a balance for all of this... I hope someday soon.
