Some random thoughts on food

Big Mac Salad
What could be more American?

I’ve been thinking about food—well, when don’t I always? But I’ve come to some conclusions, and one is about the way even a brief illness changes your perspective particularly on food, but also on sleep and life in general. As you may know, I had some sort of stomach “thing” that had me down and out for about thirty-six hours. I couldn’t bear to think about food, I lay in bed but couldn’t sleep, and I had little interest in anything from writing projects to politics which is, as you know, an obsession of mine.

But when I began to come back to myself, I found I was incredibly grateful for a boiled potato with butter, for sleep, for my own imagination. It was as though I had developed a new appreciation for the things I took for granted. Oh, I well know this is a temporary feeling, a bounce-back if you will. But for now, it’s nice to see daily life through these tinted glasses.

Just before my system rebelled, Jordan, Christian, and I had a calendar conference. Result is they have a busy October ahead—isn’t fall always a busy time as we head toward the holidays? I will be eating a lot of dinners alone. At first, I was sort of disappointed, but once I was on top of things again, I began to make lists—I would invite close friends for happy hour, so I began to list appetizer ingredients to have on hand. Then I listed things I would fix myself for supper. Starting with tonight, which will be fresh spinach and scallops sauteed in butter with a squeeze of lemon and maybe half a tiny potato left from last night. I’m going to make a tuna casserole, and one night I’m going to try to do corned beef hash as good we my mom did (don’t judge—I love it, to the amusement of my children). I’ve gone from disappointed to excited. Oh, I do have some things on hand for a couple of dinners with the Burtons, and I did print a recipe for beef tips with gravy that sounded good. Jordan was not so enthusiastic about a marinated kale salad with salmon, and while I agree I dislike kale, I thought this might be good.

Maybe that planning made me realize that my culinary tastes are going in one direction while those of my usual recipe sources, like The New York Times and Bon Appetit, are headed in a totally different direction. This morning the NYT featured cumin and cashew rice and sticky harissa wings. The Bon Appetit I just leafed through had tuna carnitas—can you just imagine Christian’s face if I served that to him? There’s a recipe for pancit sotanghon—some kind of soup, I believe. Cộte de bœf au poivre or pork schnitzel would probably be delicious, but they’d take a lot of work and might be impractical in my tiny kitchen. I have no idea what butter pav bhaji is (just looked it up—street food from India consisting of vegetable curry and a soft bun).

I’m beginning to recognize three things that I unconsciously bring into play on choosing recipes. Two are fairly straightforward: time and space. Much as I love to cook and to feed people, I don’t want to spend all day cooking, nor do I want to take on such messy, complicated things as dredging chicken in egg and flour (I can buy good fried chicken). And my tiny kitchen and limited supply of pots and pans dictates that I avoid complicated recipes that dirty every pan in a normal kitchen. Been there, done that.

But the third things is that given an unfamiliar recipe from, say the African continent, and a familiar American dish, I’ll choose the latter every time. Maybe this is somehow related to the disinclination to travel widely that baffles my friends, but that’s a rabbit hole I’m not going down right now. Truth is I love chicken divan and meatloaf and tuna casserole and a good bowl of chicken soup. That’s why I’m working on a cookbook about food from the Fifties, with recipes from my mom and my contemporary adaptation of some, along with some text about the Fifties, including those ridiculous jellied salads. Southern Living is more my style.

I can hear Irene making a snide comment. Okay, Irene, I like French cooking too. Look at all those recipes in your books!