For longest time, Easter has meant an excuse for a nice eggy breakfast (ideally in bed), complete with mimosas. Yes, Easter, at least for me, means a.m. drinking.
I am not religious. I should be, coming from a large and largely devout Dutch Catholic family, especially considering my oddly and obviously close relationship with my grandma, the most Dutch and most Catholic (though certainly not the most preachy) of them all. Atheism would blacksheep me I suppose, if my family cared to talk to me about it. Or if they knew i was drinking on such a sabbath day, and at such an early hour...
Despite its religiousity and my not, i love Easter for more than just mimosas. Its springs official holiday, though Earth day, thinking of it just now, seems almost more suiting. It is a celebration of new life; a fresh holiday bright with color--think of those eggs you decorated, and pastel colored jellybeans...and the inside of these cookies:
Around this time every year, more a marking of spring than easter, i make birdsnest cookies, the pefect sweet bowl catalyst for my abundance of jam. Put that way, and they will be my toast this easter brunch, to have with my eggs and mimosas.
happy holiday
easter candies
birdsnest cookies
Thursday, April 1, 2010
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Will you take me seriously if i eat meat?
So i am not really a vegetarian. i mean, what kind of vegetarian willingly eats prosciutto, openly loves lamb, and proclaims after a great inhale, the amazing smell of the butcher/deli when entering? What kind of vegetarian enters a butcher/deli? The kind of vegetarian who works at the fish shop across the parking lot and has to enter the butcher/deli to freezer- vac fillets of fish that she regularly eats (veg-aquarian??); the kind of vegetarian who is not a vegetarian by principle or in association to the stigmatic assumptions surrounding such a lable, but by sheer dislike, or rather, other preference.
If i sound as though i am trying to be diplomatic and as precisely definitive as i would be in some sort of academic debate, it is because i am. i was reprimended, offended, and now am defensive.
lunch time at work:
Chef: whats that?
Me: my lunch.
C:what exactly are you making?
M: scrambled eggs.
C: jesus girl, you gotta eat something, if you are going to be biking and working and all that shit you gotta eat something-- i mean cmon let me cook you up a nice, thick big steak.
M: (GAG) im a vegetarian. (shit, did i just say that, i take it back i take it back...too late)
Chefs instant reaction, and i am talking no pause to think of the assault he was about to perform was to insist that "you people" should not even be allowed in the kitchen. to summarize his rant: i should choose a different career if i wasnt a meat-eater because i could never possibly know or understand the workings of cooking and flavouring animals and would therefore fail miserably at pleasing any "normal" omnivourous customer.
Slightly taken aback, i tried to explain what i meant, what i believe, what i am not about to repeat now, because really, i never needed to say it in the first place. And though now i realize it was him who should have felt as embarrassed as I did, at that moment i felt like i lost what little respect and trust as a talented cook he had for me--and that is as important to me as my moral choices regarding animal consumption. And though he apologized just moments later, and did actually listen to my reasons for eating eggs not steak for lunch, i know that me as a vegetarian is slated iin his mind and it will come up again.
Just another way i have to prove myself, i guess...
ps. i bought lamb at the farmers market in protest. i love lamb. i bought kale and mustard greens too...
If i sound as though i am trying to be diplomatic and as precisely definitive as i would be in some sort of academic debate, it is because i am. i was reprimended, offended, and now am defensive.
lunch time at work:
Chef: whats that?
Me: my lunch.
C:what exactly are you making?
M: scrambled eggs.
C: jesus girl, you gotta eat something, if you are going to be biking and working and all that shit you gotta eat something-- i mean cmon let me cook you up a nice, thick big steak.
M: (GAG) im a vegetarian. (shit, did i just say that, i take it back i take it back...too late)
Chefs instant reaction, and i am talking no pause to think of the assault he was about to perform was to insist that "you people" should not even be allowed in the kitchen. to summarize his rant: i should choose a different career if i wasnt a meat-eater because i could never possibly know or understand the workings of cooking and flavouring animals and would therefore fail miserably at pleasing any "normal" omnivourous customer.
Slightly taken aback, i tried to explain what i meant, what i believe, what i am not about to repeat now, because really, i never needed to say it in the first place. And though now i realize it was him who should have felt as embarrassed as I did, at that moment i felt like i lost what little respect and trust as a talented cook he had for me--and that is as important to me as my moral choices regarding animal consumption. And though he apologized just moments later, and did actually listen to my reasons for eating eggs not steak for lunch, i know that me as a vegetarian is slated iin his mind and it will come up again.
Just another way i have to prove myself, i guess...
ps. i bought lamb at the farmers market in protest. i love lamb. i bought kale and mustard greens too...
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Back to reality
We are back in action at the Grapevine--if action means three tables and taking my time doing hardly anything. And as i run out of hardly anything it can only get worse, if by worse i mean actually, unfathomly busy as it will but a month or so from now. So i will enjoy the days of cookbook perusing and playing in the bakeshop--my list of accomplishments thus far includes three types of cookies, the macaroons a work in progress and repeated on tomorrows agenda--of laughing and having time for something that resembles a lunch.
"Real life" again also means less time for bike rides and more time in the car, and a fear that the calm contentedness i have achieved lately might simply evaporate once that kitchen hits full force. Still, even though i spent the winter thinking i wouldnt be, i am glad to be back; home.
"Real life" again also means less time for bike rides and more time in the car, and a fear that the calm contentedness i have achieved lately might simply evaporate once that kitchen hits full force. Still, even though i spent the winter thinking i wouldnt be, i am glad to be back; home.
Friday, March 19, 2010
so long winter
as i right this i am drinking a stout float. That's right, not a root beer float, but a beer beer float. My last Granville Island Winter Ale, vanilla gelato, and blackberries from my freezer. Its a cocktail--well, dessert actually--to say goodbye to the awful season that is winter. And what a great way for it to go.
I said goodbye with dinner too, making a pasta of both my stored leeks and ones bought fresh at the market last saturday. The latter, falls crop, were left through the frost of winter, and when the ground was finally warm enough to harvest them, they had gone and sprouted new shoots. They were then, ironically and quite suitingly, both spring and winter leeks. Goodbye and hello...I'll make it again this spring.
Leek Linguine with Walnut Pesto and Purple Dwarf Basil
Last summer I made walnut, hazlenut, and classic basil pesto and froze them in icecube trays to pop into pastas such as this all winter long. The walnut is simply walnuts, parsley, and garlic--i dont season them when freezing, so that i am free to do so with the final product. If you dont have purple dwarf basil, substitute regular, thought he delicate sweet flavour of this pretty little leaf is hard to replace. This pasta would also be good with the addition of other spring veg such as peas and favas, or zuchinni in the summer. Would haev been great with ricotta salata, but i was craving a schwonkety-schwonk of parm, and thats what i got!
To boiling water, add your linguine. In a large pan, gently soften:
leeks,sliced in half lengthwise (and widthwise if particularly long) and immersed in water to rinse away dirt
garlic, smashed and chopped
When pasta is finished, add to pan with leeks, walnut pesto, and basil. Season with salt and pepper and top with a schwonkety schwonk of parm. So simple, so satistfying, so springtime... so long winter
I said goodbye with dinner too, making a pasta of both my stored leeks and ones bought fresh at the market last saturday. The latter, falls crop, were left through the frost of winter, and when the ground was finally warm enough to harvest them, they had gone and sprouted new shoots. They were then, ironically and quite suitingly, both spring and winter leeks. Goodbye and hello...I'll make it again this spring.
Leek Linguine with Walnut Pesto and Purple Dwarf Basil
Last summer I made walnut, hazlenut, and classic basil pesto and froze them in icecube trays to pop into pastas such as this all winter long. The walnut is simply walnuts, parsley, and garlic--i dont season them when freezing, so that i am free to do so with the final product. If you dont have purple dwarf basil, substitute regular, thought he delicate sweet flavour of this pretty little leaf is hard to replace. This pasta would also be good with the addition of other spring veg such as peas and favas, or zuchinni in the summer. Would haev been great with ricotta salata, but i was craving a schwonkety-schwonk of parm, and thats what i got!
To boiling water, add your linguine. In a large pan, gently soften:
leeks,sliced in half lengthwise (and widthwise if particularly long) and immersed in water to rinse away dirt
garlic, smashed and chopped
When pasta is finished, add to pan with leeks, walnut pesto, and basil. Season with salt and pepper and top with a schwonkety schwonk of parm. So simple, so satistfying, so springtime... so long winter
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