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| Dinner tonight |
Admittedly, my eating
habits today were a bit weird. I started the day with a biscuit with butter and
honey—good wild honey, straight from the hive. Good but not nutritious, nor the
balanced breakfast nutritionists recommend.
For lunch today I
met two friends—how we know each other is complicated, but one is the mother of
kids my kids went to school with and the other is the aunt of yet another
schoolmate. We met at Carshon’s deli, and I ordered something I’ve been wanting—pickled
herring with sour cream. Turns out I was eating with a picky eater who said it
almost turned her stomach to watch me eat herring. Surely, she was joking—you think?
Then she mentioned sweetbreads, which I’ve never tried and apparently, she
thought were revolting. She even made a face at the server’s suggestion of
butterscotch pie. I must learn to be more sensitive to other people’s finicky tastes.
Often at the deli, I have a tongue sandwich, and I know that’s hard for some people
to watch me eat it.
Today my friend
said, “Who taught you to eat like this?” and I said, “A little bit my folks. We
had tongue when I was growing up”—though I think of it as British and not
Jewish. But the real culprit or benefactor, interpret it as you will, was my Jewish
ex-husband. From him I learned to eat herring, and lox and bagels, and chopped
liver, and other delicacies. I’ve always said he gave me two wonderful gifts:
four beautiful children and a taste for Jewish food. But a balanced meal, my
lunch was not.
I did better at dinner,
with hamburger Stroganoff (the recipe is in Gourmet
on a Hot Plate) and a green salad with leaf lettuce, avocado, croutons,
blue cheese, and Paul Newman’s Own Vinaigrette, because making the Stroganoff
took a while, and I was too lazy to make my own dressing. If you want to talk
about Jewish food, Stroganoff would not be on the list. I have known adults
who, having put their religion aside, still cannot eat Stroganoff because it
violates the old kosher law against mixing meat and dairy. Fortunately, I have
no such baggage and love it. Tonight, I had a half pound of ground sirloin
left, for a recipe that requires two pounds, so I kind of guessed at the
amounts, but it came out fine.
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| Avocado toast |
I am loving
avocados lately. I’m not sure if they’re in season or I have just happened on
good ones and finally learned how to treat them—refrigerate at the first sign
of softening. But I fix them every which way. Jordan’s version of avocado toast
is more elaborate, but I simply butter a piece of toast, done medium, and put
chunks of avocado on it, mushing them with a fork until they turn into a lumpy
mess. Then I sprinkle lemon or lime over them and enjoy. Sometimes, as in this picture, I put a little smoked salmon under the avocado. Or try scrambled eggs on top of it.
My favorite avocado
salad is so easy: chunk up a half or whole avocado, depending on how piggy you
feel, in a bowl with a sliced scallion, some halved cherry tomatoes, and a
generous crumble of blue cheese. Dress with lemon juice. With the oil in the
avocado, you don’t need oil in the dressing.
Finally I saw a
thing on the internet tonight about foods some celebrities won’t eat. To my
delight, bell peppers were on the list for two chefs, and one said, “They ruin
everything they touch.” That’s what I’ve been preaching for years. Mayo made
the list for Rachel Ray because the idea of eggs in shelf-stable mayo bothers
her (that’s a mild translation of what she said), Ina Garten doesn’t like
cilantro (a lot of folks don’t, and some are allergic—it was an acquired taste
for me), Martha Stewart and Alton Brown are united in opposing truffle oil
which they say is nothing but chemicals and has nothing of truffles about it. Anne
Burrell—remember her from America’s worst cooks—can’t eat salmon or blue cheese
but wishes she could. I don’t blame her—they’re both favorites of mine. And finally
there was a man I didn’t recognize who said he can’t eat okra because of the
slime factor. Now there’s a man after my own heart.
Happy cooking
everyone!
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