The Miracle of Pricey Eats
Posted by Jill | January 26, 2011 | Filed under: Home, Ingredients
I pay about $8/gallon for milk. I pay around $15 for a roasting chicken. I buy NY strip steaks that cost $16 each. I can see you getting all bug-eyed as you read this. There was a woman who used to stop by when Steve, my Hinsdale hook-up for farm-fresh meat, sold meat from my driveway in the off-season. She came by on occasion just to look. Her husband “wouldn’t let” her buy such expensive meat. “A pig is a pig is a pig,” he insisted.
I know that I pay a helluva lot more for the dairy, meat and produce we eat than other families with similar family incomes. No matter. My food budget is probably the same my neighbor’s.
How can that be?
Whole Wheat Pretzels
Adapted from King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking
They’re threatening another snow day for tomorrow. I don’t know if I can take it anymore! I’m a hardy Midwestern girl. When it snows in Chicago, you just drive slower. You slog through it. Why does the world stop for New Yorkers every time it flurries? Seriously people!!? You are KILLING me with the snow day silliness. Trapped again in the house with four bored kids, it takes a spurt of creativity to break up the day.
These pretzels are a very satisfying way to make the best of the day. Their flavor and texture are fantastic. They’re minimally time-consuming. The dough is incredibly forgiving of the kind of torture young kids inflict. If your preschooler just decides to stretch his piece into an oddly-shaped clump and insists that’s how he wants it, it’ll bake just fine. Read more
Playing with the Recipe
I love publishing readyprepgo.com. I love helping other families with something significant. I love the candor that comes from connecting with people through their intimate relationships with food. I love exploring food with my camera. I love unraveling my own relationship with food and family by committing it to words.
I hate publishing recipes.
It’s not that I dislike writing or shooting them. The problem is that, once published, they torment me. In my own world, I rarely ever make a dish the same way twice. I’m always playing and tweaking or just exploring my mood through the dish. To commit in print to the world “This is how I make meatloaf!”– well, I’m filled with ambivalence and regret from the moment I click “Publish.”
During my hiatus, I’ve been playing with the recipe for readyprepgo.com. I’m feeling pretty happy now. Two things have been tormenting me about this site since the first few weeks after I started publishing. It lacked the community feeling that I so loved about the classes. And it was a bit too chicky. Read more
Honey, I’m hooOoome!
Posted by Jill | January 12, 2011 | Filed under: Food Foibles, Foodlife, Home, Organization
A successful move is a lot like a successful birth: everyone’s delighted to simply report the healthy existence of all the participants at the end. No one expects that its not gonna be painful.
We are loving Larchmont. The kids are happy and have been embraced by their new schools. The house is really comfortable. We have fantastic neighbors. It is all just so good.
…but it hurts like hell. Even today. Read more
Pan-seared Porterhouse
I know. I said I’d be on hiatus ‘till the New Year. I’m cheating just a little for a good purpose. Bill and I decided to send a custom-cut porterhouse steak and some Campeche shrimp from Gourmet’s Choice as Holiday gifts to some of his closest work colleagues. While I was working out the details of the order with Jim, I realized that there are probably a lot of folks in the world who might feel a bit daunted by this gorgeous slab of meat.
The truth is that just a few years ago, I myself would have been intimidated. Should I make a sauce to go with it? It’s too cold to grill, so how can I cook it in a skillet? How do I know when it’s done? Read more
Cranberry Maple Syrup
The color of this breakfast condiment is brilliant magenta. It looks amazing on top of vivid orange pumpkin pancakes but is also quite fetching on a simple slice of french toast. The cranberry flavor melds perfectly with the maple. Each mellows out and balances the other- like my marriage. Read more
The Foodlife Journey: Savoring With My Eyes
I shot this my first time out with my camera at the Farmer's Market- mere days after my first conversation with Gil. This shot will always be dear to me because it demonstrated to me that maybe I could actually pull this whole photography thing off.
I want to share some of my favorite unpublished food photos with you before I sign off for the next 8 weeks. Though I’m not a professional photographer, I’m proud of these. They make me happy. When I look at them, I think, “Wow. I shot that.” These photos are an important part of my own foodlife journey. Read more
The Modern Nomads: Update
Note to readers: I apologize for the formatting of this post. I’ve spent two days trying to fix the problem. Wordpress adds strange spacing everytime I save the post and I can’t seem to solve the problem.
Our new home is quirky. Because the home was originally built on a large lot, the architectural front of the house is now the side and the side of the house faces the street. Its a bit like trying to talk to someone who is looking at something else. You just kinda feel like the house isn't paying attention to you.
We’ll be calling Larchmont, New York home in the beginning of December. After first putting offers on two other houses, we ended up in a “project” house. It was built in 1925 and retains many of the original charms of the era, such as single pane windows, poor insulation and a teensy, boxy little kitchen in a back corner of the house. The upside is that I can pretend that the tradesmen are my friends until I actually make real new friends. The location is fantastic. The community seems warm, relaxed and friendly. And we’re only 30 minutes from Manhattan! Read more
Pumpkin Pancakes
Adapted from Bon Appetit magazine November 2008
The snappy, cool breezes of fall put me in the mood for all things made with pumpkin. Pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving just isn’t enough for me. It took me two years to find a pumpkin pancake recipe that had the right texture and flavor. Read more
The Foodlife Journey: The Intimate Weekday Breakfast
It usually only lasts about ten minutes. If you put just a little effort into it, it is a wonderful experience that reinforces your relationship, makes you feel better about yourself, and punctuates your life. If you rush through it, it leaves you unsatisfied- hungrier for the real thing than you were before.
I’m talkin’ about breakfast, of course. How satisfied are you with foisting a cold bagel at your children as you launch them into the day? Could I get you to believe that offering yourself and your family 10-minutes together to nourish yourselves and reconnect is very important? Could buttermilk pancakes make the sun shine brighter and pour joy into your life? Read more
