Feeling more and more like a lame duck around here ... which is just fine by me. It's a good time to be alive, and also to eat fresh fish (editor's note: I've never been known for my segues).
Hailing from the Northeast, I didn't eat much fish growing up, only the occasional lake trout or cod, usually beer battered or bastardized in some other way. I went to Maine one recent summer and indulged in more than a few lobster rolls, but past that, I'm hardly a Mediterranean dieter, as they say.
My friend Martha, however, is a fishophile (pescaphile?) and is always cooking up some strange and delicious sea creature (it was at her house I first had squid, thrown with baby lettuces, red onion, cilantro and a lemon pepper dressing. To die for).
I've always wanted to master fish preparation, and salmon was on sale at the market so I snatched up a fillet for dinner. Per Martha's advice, I should have grilled it, but I am sans grill (the old Weber finally kicked the bucket) so into the broiler it went. Since preparing the fish didn't turn out to be much of an adventure, I placated my excited nerves by making tzatziki. It turned out to be so scrumptious I nearly ate it all with a spoon before my fillet was cooked.
I suppose I learned my lesson for next time: skip the fish, double the sauce.
Saturday, July 18, 2009
Friday, July 10, 2009
Day 66, cherries (what else is there?)
The mark of a good summer is when your weeks come to revolve around the cherry harvest. By nature I am not one to even approach gluttony in my daily habits; I enjoy indulging now and again in small ways (i.e., my predilection for pudding) but no food holds any power over me. Except cherries.
But I think there is more to cherries than the taste and the nutrition. Yesterday, while polishing off a 2 lb. bag of Bing cherries after dinner, as I am wont to do during July's dog days, I thought about how soothing the rhythm of cherry-eating is: Select a cherry, the firmer the better, de-stem it, putting the stems on my tea saucer or, if the environment suits, throwing them into nature, pop in mouth, chew the flesh, omit the pit (again, to tea saucer, off the balcony, out the kitchen/car/office window). Select, de-stem, pop, chew, omit, over and over again. Cherries are indeed some kind of poetry.
Do you like red cherries or white (Rainier) cherries? Either suits me, though I'm partial to the classic variety. At the market, I like to select each cherry by hand, weeding out the ones with imperfections. It can take me 20 minutes to assemble a bag, only to consume it in half that time. Such is life.
But I think there is more to cherries than the taste and the nutrition. Yesterday, while polishing off a 2 lb. bag of Bing cherries after dinner, as I am wont to do during July's dog days, I thought about how soothing the rhythm of cherry-eating is: Select a cherry, the firmer the better, de-stem it, putting the stems on my tea saucer or, if the environment suits, throwing them into nature, pop in mouth, chew the flesh, omit the pit (again, to tea saucer, off the balcony, out the kitchen/car/office window). Select, de-stem, pop, chew, omit, over and over again. Cherries are indeed some kind of poetry.
Do you like red cherries or white (Rainier) cherries? Either suits me, though I'm partial to the classic variety. At the market, I like to select each cherry by hand, weeding out the ones with imperfections. It can take me 20 minutes to assemble a bag, only to consume it in half that time. Such is life.
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Day 57, a link (and some eats)
I found this blog while scouring the Net today: http://obamafoodorama.blogspot.com/
Apparently I'm not the only D.C. food blogger!
I can't speak for the Obamas, but I like home cooking more than restaurant fare. Tonight I made a fantastic pan of buttermilk cornbread (recipe here) to go along with some chili I had stashed in the freezer for a rainy day. No rain today but still wanted the chili. It's a free country, after all.
Apparently I'm not the only D.C. food blogger!
I can't speak for the Obamas, but I like home cooking more than restaurant fare. Tonight I made a fantastic pan of buttermilk cornbread (recipe here) to go along with some chili I had stashed in the freezer for a rainy day. No rain today but still wanted the chili. It's a free country, after all.
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