How funny that being a bartender has changed my view of alcohol for the better. I used to walk around with my bottle of Guilty Pleasure tucked inside my overcoat. As I learn more, however, I see a history of drink as healer, reviver, and important social symbol, and I am proud to be a lover of liquor.
Our society sees alcohol as Bad. You will really be looked down upon for drinking during the day, for example. Drinking around kids? Terrible influence. Drink everyday? Alcoholic. Yet, it has not always been this way. There was a time when people went to monks for their healing "waters": beers, liqeurs, and wines, and when a day without wine was considered unhealthy. Does the modern sorority girl think about health as she does her shot of Jagermeister? Probably not, but when taken appropriately (apertifs before meal, digestifs after, restoratives when the energy sags)alcohol plays a very key part in human health. Sure, a big part of this is not drinking to excess, but, oh well.
Monday, November 29, 2010
Monday, November 1, 2010
Can I change this blog?
Gosh! Ever since I started working 4 nights a week, I don't cook much. I really miss dinner! Now, my non-cook husband is in charge, and I think the kids are healthier for it. It's beans and rice every night. Sometimes I go all out and prepare dinner before I leave, but not often. The night life ain't no good life, but it's my life!
In light of this, I think I'll change this blog to talk about my new position as bartender! I really enjoy the work. It's not so far removed from cooking. You follow a recipe, taste the result, and make people happy (hopefully!). Cocktails have been in my periphery more and more, with a renaissance underway in the food world, and several of my foody friends "going over" to the bar. I am still very much a novice, but I love mixing the drinks at CLN.
Right now, I'm at work to memorize drinks, but keep your eyes peeled for my style to arise! Rose champagne cocktail anyone?
In light of this, I think I'll change this blog to talk about my new position as bartender! I really enjoy the work. It's not so far removed from cooking. You follow a recipe, taste the result, and make people happy (hopefully!). Cocktails have been in my periphery more and more, with a renaissance underway in the food world, and several of my foody friends "going over" to the bar. I am still very much a novice, but I love mixing the drinks at CLN.
Right now, I'm at work to memorize drinks, but keep your eyes peeled for my style to arise! Rose champagne cocktail anyone?
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
La Batterie de Cuisine
La batterie; all of the implements used in the battle against food: pots, pans, whisks, knives,cutting boards, and scales. A good one can make everything more smooth, and a lousy one can be the death knell for your dish.I have an adequate collection of pots and pans, but my knives are terrible. I sometimes think that if I had a good knife, I would be a much better prep cook than I ever dreamed possible. There are some things that I would like to get like a meat mallet, a fat separator, a bread machine, a turkey rack, etc., but they are so fluffy that I continue to make do without them. It would be nice, but in the end, you don't need all that.
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
The Death of the Dinner Party
My best friends and I love to get together and have dinner parties. It's an intimate way to be with the people you love; spoiled by fine libations, intelligent conversations, and beautiful foods. It's the best way I know to show someone that I care about them. You come over to my house, I clean it, and light candles. I spend the day in the kitchen for you, I can't really call it work, since I'm thoroughly and happily immersed in my favorite art and craft. We get to spend quality time and learn more about each other. After the party is over, we've strengthened our reciprocal social bonds, and hopefully, we're better off for it. So why is this wonderful tradition on the decline?
Society seems to be more superficial these days. The concepts of speed and convenience are so embedded in our culture, that hardly anyone takes the time to really cook anymore. Ironically, it can cost more to make a nice dinner at home than it would have to eat out, or buy prepared meals. It also takes a lot of time. Still, I always feel it's time and money well spent.
Hopefully, more people will learn to Cook, and throw dinner parties for me. People really worship you when you feed them and give them a moment of luxury.
Society seems to be more superficial these days. The concepts of speed and convenience are so embedded in our culture, that hardly anyone takes the time to really cook anymore. Ironically, it can cost more to make a nice dinner at home than it would have to eat out, or buy prepared meals. It also takes a lot of time. Still, I always feel it's time and money well spent.
Hopefully, more people will learn to Cook, and throw dinner parties for me. People really worship you when you feed them and give them a moment of luxury.
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Lamb Love
I've made magic with lamb lately.
I cooked spezzatino agnello con gremolata (lamb ragout) and roasted potatoes for the Randoms. What a lovely dish! I love the way ragouts happen. They just flow. I really feel the love radiate into the food. This one had lamb, onions, garlic, ginger, citrus zest, and fresh parsley, green beans, zucchini and carrots. So nice.
A few nights ago, it was potato gratin, Jack Monaco's green bean salad, and broiled lamb leg steaks. It was one of those meals that falls together perfectly, is not difficult to execute, and which positively dances on the palate. That's how dinner should be! Too often I get mired down in menus; trying to find foods that are seasonal and that will harmonize with each other. Other times, the menu is easy enough, but the prep time is monumental, and even a full day in the kitchen doesn't feel like enough. Then, of course, there's the meal that just tastes lousy.
An easy, delicious dinner is the prize. Sit down, relax, and toast your blessings! Thanks lambies!
I cooked spezzatino agnello con gremolata (lamb ragout) and roasted potatoes for the Randoms. What a lovely dish! I love the way ragouts happen. They just flow. I really feel the love radiate into the food. This one had lamb, onions, garlic, ginger, citrus zest, and fresh parsley, green beans, zucchini and carrots. So nice.
A few nights ago, it was potato gratin, Jack Monaco's green bean salad, and broiled lamb leg steaks. It was one of those meals that falls together perfectly, is not difficult to execute, and which positively dances on the palate. That's how dinner should be! Too often I get mired down in menus; trying to find foods that are seasonal and that will harmonize with each other. Other times, the menu is easy enough, but the prep time is monumental, and even a full day in the kitchen doesn't feel like enough. Then, of course, there's the meal that just tastes lousy.
An easy, delicious dinner is the prize. Sit down, relax, and toast your blessings! Thanks lambies!
Monday, August 16, 2010
delicious risotto
I made a tasty mushroom risotto for dinner. I love risotto, but I always walk away from it, and she's a very jealous mistress. You have to stir that pot constantly for 20 minutes, no messing around. I am a butterfly in the kitchen. A little bit of this, a little bit of that- turn, drink wine, dance, chop parsley, sing, saute. So risotto and I don't work that well with each other. It came out well anyway.
Ed and Louis harvested about a pound of our green beans, too. I made one of my favorite's, a green bean salad with marinated onions and tarragon.
That was it. It's been nice to recover from a meat heavy vacation by being mainly vegetarian.
Ed and Louis harvested about a pound of our green beans, too. I made one of my favorite's, a green bean salad with marinated onions and tarragon.
That was it. It's been nice to recover from a meat heavy vacation by being mainly vegetarian.
Thursday, August 12, 2010
food my great grandma used to cook
It's funny. I barely remember my Nonni, but the memories I do have are all wrapped around food, like prosciutto around a melon.
She was Italian, and spoke no english, after 75 years here. Our shared language was food. Cheerios with banana sliced painstakingly into the bowl by her wizened old hands. A soup of beef broth with pastina, egg and parmesan. Homemade marinara gravy with roasted sausages simmered in it all day long.
This woman never left the kitchen. God forbid she should set foot in the pristine parlor, or rest her haunches for a minute on the living room couch in front of the t.v. No, her t.v. was a smaller one she watched in the kitchen while cooking. I think that Italian females of this and successive generations felt like less of a woman if they were not constantly and steadily supplying nutrition in the form of bread with plenty of butter, tiny handmade pastas, endless vinegary anti-pastas with peppers and onions, canoli, wine(yes, even as children, we would get wine with ice cubes), and cake from the excellent bakery down the street. I can't help but to love this form of attention. It is pure heaven to sit at a formica table and watch your flesh and blood bustle about as they prepare a meal for you. Even better to sit in a noisy swirl of family at the table; women constantly flowing back and forth from kitchen to table, menfolk drinking liquor between courses, grandma hiding the bottles, eating, talking, and being together. I should have been born an Italian man.
She was Italian, and spoke no english, after 75 years here. Our shared language was food. Cheerios with banana sliced painstakingly into the bowl by her wizened old hands. A soup of beef broth with pastina, egg and parmesan. Homemade marinara gravy with roasted sausages simmered in it all day long.
This woman never left the kitchen. God forbid she should set foot in the pristine parlor, or rest her haunches for a minute on the living room couch in front of the t.v. No, her t.v. was a smaller one she watched in the kitchen while cooking. I think that Italian females of this and successive generations felt like less of a woman if they were not constantly and steadily supplying nutrition in the form of bread with plenty of butter, tiny handmade pastas, endless vinegary anti-pastas with peppers and onions, canoli, wine(yes, even as children, we would get wine with ice cubes), and cake from the excellent bakery down the street. I can't help but to love this form of attention. It is pure heaven to sit at a formica table and watch your flesh and blood bustle about as they prepare a meal for you. Even better to sit in a noisy swirl of family at the table; women constantly flowing back and forth from kitchen to table, menfolk drinking liquor between courses, grandma hiding the bottles, eating, talking, and being together. I should have been born an Italian man.
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