Dept. of Getting Back on the Bike

[kaffy_r]

Snowmageddon? Or Snowpocalypse? Hmmm ....

Not compared to the mugging Mother Nature performed on the East Coast just a few days ago, but Chicago and the rest of Illinois are making a valiant come-from-behind effort. We've got 13" 16" on the ground, with more than five hours to go before the blizzard warning is lifted, and we just hit white-out conditions in sections of Cook County. Chicago's apparently the center of this weather system. And also the epicenter. Yay, us!

I'm enjoying the second true day of vacation (my first days of vacation, Friday and Saturday morning, were spent trying to get one last story into my boss on the new NewsGate editorial platform we're using. I shouldn't do that, but I have a new editor - again - and I felt bad not getting as much in to him as possible for while I was gone. So, yeah, real vacation didn't start until Saturday afternoon, although I did escape from the house on Friday.)

And what did I do on the second true day of vacation? I made a tomato, chicken and vegetable stew. I am ridiculously pleased that I was able to adjust my Japanese beef curry recipe, and the recipe for the curry roux, and make a non-curry based roux (not as thick as the curry roux, because there aren't as many spices in it; I used 1.5 T of paprika, plus about 1/2 t of granulated garlic, instead of 1T of curry and 1T of garam masala) and use the curry stew process to make the chicken stew. Carrots, onions, potatoes, mushrooms and cut-up baby egg plants, and it was all extremely yummy. A quick bunch of biscuits to go with (I cheated and used Bisquik), and we had a proper Sunday night winter supper.

People asked me where I was going on my vacation *snort* ... I'm a Pioneer Press reporter, "going on vacation" is a limited activity. I told them I was heading to the kitchen. And it was more than a joke. Spending time in the kitchen is one of the most relaxing things I can think of doing. It's creation that people can eat; and when you cook for people, you usually end up around a table with those people, (and during the cooking process, I love having people around to talk to), so there's a social aspect to it. It requires a little imagination, and a willingness to think quickly - I don't think you can do anything but think quickly, when you realize that you don't have this or that ingredient, and you need to figure out how to substitute for it right now.

I told BB that I think the three places I'm happiest these days are lying in bed with my head on his chest, mucking about with fic or journaling online, and cooking or baking. I think cooking and baking slot in right between BB and online activity. It gives me a great deal of joy to make food. I'm not a chef; I have no patience for that, and I take shortcuts, and I'm not particularly interested in trying to go for specific textures or subtle tastes; I just want it to taste pretty darned good. The fact that I like making large amounts of Japanese or Indian-influenced comfort food doesn't change my essentially workmanlike results, and I'm perfectly satisfied with that. I also told BB that I'd probably make a decent lumber camp cook; large amounts that don't suck. Heh.

We have gotten through the first two seasons of Korra and the ending of the second season left me worried for the entire little Avatar universe. I'm hoping we can do a mini-binge of three or four episodes tonight. And perhaps some more Durarara, which we started watching again; we'd watched about five episodes, and really liked it, but we'd stopped watching for some reason. Now we're right back into it, and I can see why people loved it when it came out a few years ago. I've also become an unashamed fan of Akatsuke no Yona, partly because of its music. It's silly, and kind of shallow, but I love it. Historical drama melodrama, very chambara like, except with pseudo-Korean history and dragons. Yes, I am a cheap date; why do you ask?

Comments

[shanghaied]

People asked me where I was going on my vacation *snort* ...

We always get that. I counter with blank looks, because that's the only possible counter, given that 'look, I never lowered myself to go on holidays when I had loadsamoney, I certainly couldn't now even if I wanted to because we can barely keep the mortgage going, and the very fact that you take going away on hols for granted only shows that you're offensively overpaid and spoilt rotten on it' would probably be considered rude :D

Also, cooks are far, far more useful to the world than chefs.

[kaffy_r]

and the very fact that you take going away on hols for granted only shows that you're offensively overpaid and spoilt rotten on it' would probably be considered rude :D

Heh. I'll admit to the occasional flash of that emotion, when people ask where I'm going.

It isn't that I don't love to travel - I even love sitting in airports, because it's so fascinating to watch other people walk by, and occasionally make up stories about where they might be going, and I even love the feeling of being in a limbo between worlds in airports (and I adore train travel). And getting to far places and seeing how they are, I love that, too; but it's been a long, long time since I did it, (back when I had a relatively large amount of money to burn in the mid to late seventies), and I find I don't miss it now.

Goodness, that was a structurally fraught sentence.

Also, cooks are far, far more useful to the world than chefs.

This made my day to read.

[shanghaied]

Likewise on the loving of travel, but as you know I spent many years travelling for work purposes. As I loved my job and loved where it took me, it was total win. Oh, and I've also always loved unplanned, spur-of-moment day trips, e.g. 'No gigs this week? Who's got the emergency tent and is it in a usable condition? - right then, fire up the bikes, let's hit Scotland' or 'Hey, if we go camp on the beach tonight at Porthcawl we can be back in London in time for recording' or a favourite in Hollyweird, 'Session's cancelled, who wants to go to San Francisco for dinner?' :-)

This made my day to read.

I wonder if telly cookery shows have given chefs an exaggerated importance in the public's perception of late...? Not that I can comment knowledgeably, never having seen a telly cookery show. Thoughts?

[kaffy_r]

Oh, and I've also always loved unplanned, spur-of-moment day trips, e.g. 'No gigs this week? Who's got the emergency tent and is it in a usable condition? - right then, fire up the bikes, let's hit Scotland'

Whereas my trips are usually planned days and weeks out, with all the liturgy of a church service because Trips Are Important. I think I would have loved to do impromptu things - at least, now I'm old enough to understand that I could do them.

I wonder if telly cookery shows have given chefs an exaggerated importance in the public's perception of late...?

I think you've got a point here, although it probably goes back further than a few years, at least the roots of it. Then, as people started hearing about important chefs, and more people started hearing about Michelin-starred restaurants, and chefs started talking more about what they did, the greater public was exposed to the arcane neepery that has always been inherent in the world of haute cuisine.

Some chefs take even the extreme of haute cuisine to extremes (we have one world class chef in Chicago - well, we have several, but Grant Achat's restaurants generally tend to be the only two or three star restaurants in Chicago, and he was one of the original architects of chemistry-gastronome cooking (I can't remember what the actual name is.))

There are other chefs who eschew that kind of stuff, at least they try to, but they've been in the world of gastronomy so long it's hard to shake the habits of thinking that things must be done just so ... and actually, now that I think about it, there has always been a history, in cooking and cuisine, of The Old Guard sniffing at the new habits of The Latest Fine Eating. European cooking, with heavy sauces and creams, ditched for Nouvelle Cuisine and small platings (see, I even know some of the language!)

But there are a few chefs, bless their souls, who understand that good cooks are good cooks. The problem is, they tend to be outshouted, and out-glamored, by the ones who ascribe great importance to the shavings of white truffles over meat as the One True Gate to the Sublime Taste Experience of ... eating.

[shanghaied]

Ah, and now it's your turn to take credit for giving someone a great big goopy grin, because this reply is so excellent and so lovingly considered that it happifies me! Happinates? Happificates? Happs? Thingummy.

The phrase you want there AFAIK is 'molecular gastronomy'. I know this because I've read articles about a chef called Heston Blumenthal. At least he claims to be a chef. The name Heston Blumenthal sounds more like a legal firm to me :P

the arcane neepery that has always been inherent in the world of haute cuisine

Right, I am nominating arcane neepery as phrase of the week, and it's only Tuesday morning here!

Let us not forget that haute cuisine, like haute couture, has always been the purview of pointless galaxy-class wankery embraced batshit-crazy 'ar-TIS-tes' whose true goal lies in outdoing and usually out-daft-ing whatever the other darlings-of-the-moment have done. Fashion (of the fa-fa-fa-fa kind) was never meant to be practical or long-lasting - which, in couture at least, is possibly the only good point. Though fashions in restaurant food - usually driven by telly cookery programmes, I'm told - can be soooo irritating. At the moment down here, pork belly has invaded every menu, rocket (the lovely salad herb your lot calls 'arugula') is So Last Decade, and chocolate is creeping into foods that are plainly not meant, in terms of taste and texture, to have chocolate anywhere in the vicinity. I know some of this is a chimp-see-chimp-do thing, but food fashions were vastly longer-lasting in Ago!

[bibliofile]

cooks are far, far more useful to the world than chefs.

Another one for the cross-stitched embroidery mills….

ETA: Though maybe Kaffyr's "I just want it to taste pretty darned good." captures the sensibility in a more neutral-positive way. Hmmm.

[heliopausa]

"during the cooking process, I love having people around to talk to" -yes, especially for cheerful relaxed meals where you can chat while chopping onions or whatever.

[kaffy_r]

especially for cheerful relaxed meals where you can chat while chopping onions or whatever.

Oh, aye! Sometimes it makes even the harder recipes easier, because you can chat about what you have to do next, and you're not just talking to yourself.

Although I'll admit that BB has to leave the vicinity when I start to cook the onions. He stays away until they're well cooked and then comes back, since the sulfur in the raw juice, which gets sprayed around the kitchen no matter what you do, hits him and immediately gives him headaches. We've minimized the sulfur spray with a couple of neat chopping devices, but once they're in the pan and caramelized, it's much better.

[eaweek.livejournal.com]

If Boston were closer to Chicago, I would be inviting myself to your house for dinner. I love making friends with people who like to cook. ;)

I feel your pain on Snowpocalypse. We're in for another foot tomorrow.

[kaffy_r]

I feel your pain on Snowpocalypse. We're in for another foot tomorrow.

Yeah, from what I understand the weather system that hit us was barreling toward you post midnight our time, Sunday-Monday. Are you in the midst of it yet?

The best part about food is eating it with people, so if you were closer, you'd definitely get an invite!

[eaweek.livejournal.com]

Yes, we're in the midst of another storm, though nothing like last week's corker. Work is closed again! :)

[kaffy_r]

Hope you enjoyed your day off!

[eve11]

I love all of your reasons for loving cooking, and I agree! Cooking is creative and social and giving and fun; it's also great to be able to make something physical and functional (esp. when you do stuff like write code for a living).


ETA: I stopped at the same spot at Korra, and will wait to see if books 3 and 4 show up on the free Prime streaming list anytime soon. I think I'm gonna try Orphan Black next. :)

[a-phoenixdragon.livejournal.com]

I really recommend Orphan Black. Love that show! TM rocks...

[kaffy_r]

(esp. when you do stuff like write code for a living).

Heh. Or if you write about zoning board meetings and municipal budgets. Although, when you actually consider it, what we do in our day jobs is creative. It's just that it isn't as sensual a form of creation; we have taste, touch, sight and smell going for us in cooking, but not in creating code or stories.

I stopped at the same spot at Korra, and will wait to see if books 3 and 4 show up on the free Prime streaming list anytime soon.

Since we acquired the entirety of Korra via less than savory means, I have it all there, calling to me. BB and I watched the first three of the third season, but I think BB wants to ration it out so that it lasts longer than a pure binge-watch would let us.

I've seen a couple of Orphan Black episodes, and I think it's a very good show; I'm not yet moved enough to try to find all of them and catch up.

[maruad.livejournal.com]

Nothing wrong with cheap dates.

[kaffy_r]

Not in the least. *grins*

[a-phoenixdragon.livejournal.com]

I love your food!! And I remember being encouraged to hang out and talk, lol!! Impossible to do in my kitchen. :D

*HUGS*

[kaffy_r]

And I remember being encouraged to hang out and talk, lol!!

Despite its size, it works out well for people chatting, because the dining room table is right there, so folks can sit there and yak at me as I cook. It was fun having you there!

*hugs back*

[thisbluespirit]

Aw, sounds nice so far, and you'd be making me hungry if I hadn't just eaten lunch myself. :-)

I hope you have a nice restful time off! ♥

[kaffy_r]

And my time cooking is not yet over, since FB and Miss Emily are coming over tomorrow night for roast goose. (It's the goose I didn't cook at Christmas time; don't worry, it's been frozen solid in the back of my freezer, so it's still perfectly edible.)

The only problem is that I now have to dig my car out from under somewhere between 14" and 17.9" of snow, to get to the grocery store for some needed ingredients. Augh. I should actually be suiting up to take the shovel over to the car ow, but I'm in my jammies and somehow, mysteriously, can't bring myself to gt ready for the cold. Heh.

[thisbluespirit]

Well, good luck with that! :-)

[kaffy_r]

With some help, I eventually got the car three quarters of the way dug out. I think I can get it actually out of the parking space maybe tomorrow, or the next day. I eventually walked to the grocery store, and cut back on what I was going to buy so that it wasn't such an awful trek back. Everyone was friendly, in that "we've just had a big old snowstorm and we're all dealing with the fallout!" way that happens, so it was surprisingly pleasant to make the journey on foot.

[flowsoffire.livejournal.com]

Stay safe and warm despite the terrible weather! And I love everything you said about cooking. I can't cook at all myself, but it's a wonderful activity and so much of it is about sharing :)

Enjoy your vacation! Nothing like merry times at home with your loved ones, doing the things you love.

[kaffy_r]

I can't cook at all myself, but it's a wonderful activity and so much of it is about sharing.

My cooking skills were less that optimal when I was in my twenties. I had far too heavy a hand with the spices, and I didn't understand a lot of the way foods and the materials that make them up act under heat. I think that came with practice. So you may find yourself, much to your surprise, quite a decent cook a few years down the line!

[flowsoffire.livejournal.com]

Indeed :) It's all because I haven't learned, pretty much. I could be interested if I had somebody to teach me. My mother cannot cook at all, and we have a bit of family history with eating disorders, so it just never came naturally but I'd like to get past that if I got the chance.