I have a newfound love in my life.
Actually, it's really more of an old love....a former flame....a love reignited.
It is my gas stove....and with it, I have rediscovered my passion for cooking.
There once was a time in my life when cooking was not exactly my forte. I knew dinner was done when the smoke detector went off. I even dated a chef in the vain hope that I'd never have to cook again. Unfortunately, I didn't plan that one through too well. I mean, think about it; after spending all day in the kitchen, where's the last place YOU'D want to be at the end of the day?
(Man, did Domino's make a killing off of me during those years.)
But then one day I found this wonderful little thing called The Food Network and it changed my life. All of a sudden, food was somehow demystified. My stove top wasn't something to be feared, but embraced (albeit carefully). Cutlery became useful (and not just for opening the day's mail). And foods that I had never dared to try -- parsnips, anyone? -- suddenly found a place in my side dishes.
For a while I was cooking quite a bit. Any new recipes I could find, I would try. My kitchen cabinets were stocked with all kinds of gadgets and gizmos. And although I was no shoe-in for Top Chef; I have to say that the meals I prepared weren't half bad. At the very least, I never sent anyone to the Emergency Room because of them.
Now, I don't know if I just stopped having the time, the passion or the energy...but somewhere along the way, I just stopped cooking. I'd WANT to go cook...but it was just easier to get in the car and drive to a restaurant than to step 2 feet into my own kitchen and make it myself.
But while flipping channels the other day I found myself back on the Food Channel, and all of a sudden the urge to cook took over once again. And the best part is...I've remembered how much I not only enjoy putting different ingredients together, but also how therapeutic spending time in the kitchen can be at the end of a long day.
I think there is something absolutely magical about cooking. It amazes me how you can take tomatoes, some spices, a little garlic, onion, some of this and a bit of that; let it simmer for a while and all of a sudden you have this wonderful marinara sauce. Throw in some mild Italian sausage and you've just added in a whole new layer of flavor. Then, layer it between sheets of pasta, add cheese, bake...and POOF! You have a comfort food that you just want to curl up on the couch and eat while watching your favorite movie. Food has a magic power...and you control that magic every time you put a pot on the stove top and start cutting, stirring and blending ingredients. I feel even more lucky that my neighborhood hosts a fabulous farmer's market every Sunday. For the last several weeks, I've found almost everything I need to make an assortment of wonderful dishes just from wandering from booth to booth -- sampling and experimenting with a variety of vegetables, fruits, herbs, beef and seafood.
So if you've found yourself running through the drive-thru one too many times this week, have a farmer's market nearby that leaves you stumped, or have a pile of pots and pans in your cabinet that you'd really like to see get some use...drag 'em out...dust 'em off and see what kind of magic YOU can make with 'em.
Hey...if I can do it...you can do it.
Without having to even change the batteries in your smoke detector.
And to get you started, here's a slight variation from a recipe I pulled from Real Simple magazine. It uses something you probably have in your freezer (chicken), something you can pick up at a farmer's market (zucchini/squash), and maybe a little something you've never used before (prosciutto or olive oil--depending on how adventurous you've ever been in the kitchen).
Chicken, Zucchini and Prosciutto:
1 lb boneless skinless chicken breasts -- rinsed and chopped into bite sized pieces
Kosher Salt (a pinch or so)
Black Pepper (just a touch)
Olive Oil
1/4 pound (or about 6-8 slices) prosciutto
2 medium sized zucchini (yellow squash also work well) - sliced thinly
1-2 cloves garlic - chopped
Touch of white wine or chicken broth (if desired)
Heat about one to two tablespoons of Olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add the chicken and season with salt and pepper. Let the chicken cook through (you'll know it's done when the spoon or tongs you're using to stir the pan with can cruise through a piece easily and you don't see any pink inside). Remove from the skillet onto a plate. With the pan still warm, place in the slices of prosciutto and let them crisp up (like you would bacon). Remove from the pan and place onto the plate with the cooked chicken. Now add the zucchini and/or squash and garlic, and a touch more salt and pepper. At this point, you can splash in a touch of white wine* or chicken broth (used to "deglaze the pan") -- and scrape up the bits of chicken and prosciutto that remain in the pan (aka "fond") and cook together with the zucchini/garlic. After the zucchini mixture is cooked, add the chicken back to the pan, break up the prosciutto into the mixture and toss together. Let heat through just a few minutes more, remove from stove, plate, and eat.**
*If you use wine, the alcohol in it will cook off -- but what you do with the remainder of the bottle is up to you.
**Meanwhile, although I have used this recipe often and vouch for it's tastiness, I can't be held responsible in the event your smoke detector does go off, your house burns down or any other mishaps occur during the process of cooking and/or eating this meal. But I have the utmost faith that you will do a fabulous job!!
Monday, January 17, 2011
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Are Freedoms really free?
I love this country.
I love all of the freedoms this country has to offer: life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness. That we can learn what we want to learn, work at a jobs that provide us with the foundation to support ourselves and our families. That we have the ability to worship in a house of religion, pray quietly in our own home, or do neither without repercussions. I love that we live in a democratic society--that we have a say in our government. I love that we have a military strong enough to defend these freedoms. I love the variety of cultures that make up this great nation and the people that represent them. I love that this country has so many great citizens, and yet there are people out there whose dream is nothing more than to be a part of it. I love The Star Spangled Banner, Old Glory, fireworks on the 4th of July, turkey at Thanksgiving and mom's apple pie.
OK...I don't know that my mother ever made apple pie, but I know that Marie Callender's bakes a pretty vicious version.
I think it's wonderful that I can speak my mind about issues, that someone else can stand directly across from me expressing the exact opposite view, and that neither of us can be thrown in jail for speaking our words aloud.
But I also have to say that there is something in the air in this country that is starting to scare me just a little bit.
I don't know if I'm the only person who's noticed this, but there seems to be a lot of anger and resentment in this country these days. I don't have a "Pollyanna" personality by any means, and don't believe that the world is all sunshine, flowers and rainbows; but I also just don't recall there being so many "mean-ness" as there seems to be now. Maybe it's that there never used to be so many ways for people to express themselves that I just never noticed how many harsh words are spoken or written on a daily basis. But turn on the TV, open to the editorial page in a newspaper or just read comments left on an article on line, and there just seems to be such cruelty in people's words towards each other.
Are we breeding and feeding a nation of haters?
I am a native Tucsonan. And though I don't live in Tucson any longer, I have family, friends and memories there. Like many, I was crushed to see the events of Saturday, January 8th unfolding at a grocery store I used to stop at, in a shopping center I used to visit. I could not believe that something like that could occur in my own hometown. And yet, with as much anger as there seems to be floating around in the political arenas these days, somehow it shouldn't have surprised me either. And maybe that's part of the problem.
I know people who harbor so much resentment towards our political system and figures these days that it verges on the brink of obsessive. And these are normal, everyday types of people--coworkers, friends, colleagues; definitely not the type that you could envision picking up a weapon or blowing up a building. And yet, the people that cause political acts of violence all started with just one unhappy thought or one angry word too.
I don't know if the young man who picked up that gun last Saturday was politically motivated or not. Maybe he was simply just angry at the world. And maybe it just happened to be a misfortune that his path crossed those of a political figure; a congresswoman who simply wanted to do nothing more than go out and meet with her constituents. But in the end, all she was doing was just her job. No different than a father who went off to work on April 19th, 1995 at the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building--a father with no other thought on his mind that day than that he needed to earn a paycheck in order to pay for the roof over his family's head. No different than a janitor who picked up an extra shift at his job in Lower Manhattan on September 11th, 2001 because he was trying to earn a few extra dollars for a classes at night school. We're all just trying to make our way through our daily lives; we're all just trying to earn a dollar to make those lives better, to provide for ourselves and our families. I'd like to think I'm a big believer in "live and let live".
I just don't understand where all of this anger seems to be coming from.
Don't get me wrong....I am all for being able to express one's thoughts...but I'm wondering if there just comes a point when too much is too much. Too much anger. Too much discontent. Maybe if we stopped being so angry at all the things that have happened recently, stopped looking for someone to blame, and maybe tried to constructively do something to make things better, maybe the general attitude in the air would improve and things could at least start to feel a little more positive. I'm not saying that the world has to break out in song or that we have to "buy the world a Coke"...but despite all of the ways that we can express our opinions, I'm wondering if it's time to resort back to what we all learned in kindergarten....that if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say it at all. Maybe it's even time to update that thought a bit. If you don't have anything nice to say or write...don't say or write it. Maybe it's not even about having something "nice"...maybe that needs to be changed to "constructive"...."helpful"..."reasonable". I'm not saying that it has to be the death of free speech...but does it have to always come out so hateful sounding?
Anyway...like so many other people, last Saturday made me stop and think a bit. It's not the first tragedy we've endured and sadly I'm sure it won't be the last. But if we all did our part to not encourage the hate, maybe we can at least keep the next event from happening for a long, long, long time.
I love all of the freedoms this country has to offer: life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness. That we can learn what we want to learn, work at a jobs that provide us with the foundation to support ourselves and our families. That we have the ability to worship in a house of religion, pray quietly in our own home, or do neither without repercussions. I love that we live in a democratic society--that we have a say in our government. I love that we have a military strong enough to defend these freedoms. I love the variety of cultures that make up this great nation and the people that represent them. I love that this country has so many great citizens, and yet there are people out there whose dream is nothing more than to be a part of it. I love The Star Spangled Banner, Old Glory, fireworks on the 4th of July, turkey at Thanksgiving and mom's apple pie.
OK...I don't know that my mother ever made apple pie, but I know that Marie Callender's bakes a pretty vicious version.
I think it's wonderful that I can speak my mind about issues, that someone else can stand directly across from me expressing the exact opposite view, and that neither of us can be thrown in jail for speaking our words aloud.
But I also have to say that there is something in the air in this country that is starting to scare me just a little bit.
I don't know if I'm the only person who's noticed this, but there seems to be a lot of anger and resentment in this country these days. I don't have a "Pollyanna" personality by any means, and don't believe that the world is all sunshine, flowers and rainbows; but I also just don't recall there being so many "mean-ness" as there seems to be now. Maybe it's that there never used to be so many ways for people to express themselves that I just never noticed how many harsh words are spoken or written on a daily basis. But turn on the TV, open to the editorial page in a newspaper or just read comments left on an article on line, and there just seems to be such cruelty in people's words towards each other.
Are we breeding and feeding a nation of haters?
I am a native Tucsonan. And though I don't live in Tucson any longer, I have family, friends and memories there. Like many, I was crushed to see the events of Saturday, January 8th unfolding at a grocery store I used to stop at, in a shopping center I used to visit. I could not believe that something like that could occur in my own hometown. And yet, with as much anger as there seems to be floating around in the political arenas these days, somehow it shouldn't have surprised me either. And maybe that's part of the problem.
I know people who harbor so much resentment towards our political system and figures these days that it verges on the brink of obsessive. And these are normal, everyday types of people--coworkers, friends, colleagues; definitely not the type that you could envision picking up a weapon or blowing up a building. And yet, the people that cause political acts of violence all started with just one unhappy thought or one angry word too.
I don't know if the young man who picked up that gun last Saturday was politically motivated or not. Maybe he was simply just angry at the world. And maybe it just happened to be a misfortune that his path crossed those of a political figure; a congresswoman who simply wanted to do nothing more than go out and meet with her constituents. But in the end, all she was doing was just her job. No different than a father who went off to work on April 19th, 1995 at the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building--a father with no other thought on his mind that day than that he needed to earn a paycheck in order to pay for the roof over his family's head. No different than a janitor who picked up an extra shift at his job in Lower Manhattan on September 11th, 2001 because he was trying to earn a few extra dollars for a classes at night school. We're all just trying to make our way through our daily lives; we're all just trying to earn a dollar to make those lives better, to provide for ourselves and our families. I'd like to think I'm a big believer in "live and let live".
I just don't understand where all of this anger seems to be coming from.
Don't get me wrong....I am all for being able to express one's thoughts...but I'm wondering if there just comes a point when too much is too much. Too much anger. Too much discontent. Maybe if we stopped being so angry at all the things that have happened recently, stopped looking for someone to blame, and maybe tried to constructively do something to make things better, maybe the general attitude in the air would improve and things could at least start to feel a little more positive. I'm not saying that the world has to break out in song or that we have to "buy the world a Coke"...but despite all of the ways that we can express our opinions, I'm wondering if it's time to resort back to what we all learned in kindergarten....that if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say it at all. Maybe it's even time to update that thought a bit. If you don't have anything nice to say or write...don't say or write it. Maybe it's not even about having something "nice"...maybe that needs to be changed to "constructive"...."helpful"..."reasonable". I'm not saying that it has to be the death of free speech...but does it have to always come out so hateful sounding?
Anyway...like so many other people, last Saturday made me stop and think a bit. It's not the first tragedy we've endured and sadly I'm sure it won't be the last. But if we all did our part to not encourage the hate, maybe we can at least keep the next event from happening for a long, long, long time.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)