Walk On In

Okay, this new clinic I've been assigned to (and people worry about socialized medicine? we don't have doctor choice already, people! unless we're Donald Trump) takes walk-ins. I walked in and saw a physician's assistant. I generally prefer PAs to family practice docs anyway. So, I've had blood work and an abdominal sonogram already. (And an annual screening mammogram, too, while I was at it.) Maybe a cyst on the spleen??? Who knows. Anyway, it shot the whole day in the head. Should know more tomorrow.

Whining

Sick as a dog. A whole raft of weird symptoms and getting worse every day. Trying to get a doctor's appointment is like pulling teeth. (Yes, I've got one -- for the 20th!) I'm on the verge of heading to the ER, but fighting to resist the urge every inch of the way.

In the meantime, I gotta pay bills. If it isn't one thing, it's something else. I need a glass of whine.

And Yet More Tomatoes

Greek Salad - pg. 53

Well, as long as I'm at it, why not make Alice's version of the classic Greek Salad. In spite of the fact that I don't like raw tomatoes, I've eaten a yacht-sized load of Greek salads in the last few years. It all started when we were in Greece for a couple weeks not long ago. In the summer, in Greece, every restaurant serves endless quantities of Greek salad; and it's all delicious. Very simple. Tomatoes, cucumbers, olives and feta cheese with lots of herbs and vinegar & oil dressing. You can hide the taste of anything under plenty of olives and feta. Alice's version is a little more elaborate, adding thinly sliced red onion and red sweet pepper. It was good. I'd forgotten how much I like Greek salad, in spite of it being loaded with raw tomatoes. Of course, nearly anything tastes better on the plaza of a restaurant at the base of the Acropolis, in the evening, in the summer. Or on a sailboat at anchor along the Aegean, at noon, in the summer. Oh sigh. I'm so grateful that I've been there and have done that.

103 recipes completed; a mere 202 recipes to go

Tomatoes

pg. 241 - Sliced Tomatoes with Basil

As you know by now, I do not like raw tomatoes. I consider this to be a moral failure on my part, a personality defect, if you will. For decades I forced myself, off and on, to eat raw tomatoes, hoping in vain that eventually I'd "get it," that something would snap into place and I'd join the ranks of adult tomato lovers. I'm 62. It has never happened. I've pretty much accepted this personal defect and have admitted defeat. I do not like raw tomatoes.

As you also know, I chose my Alice Waters cooking project to actually learn to cook well. My goal is to make every recipe in TAOSF. I figured that would take me into uncharted territory and that I wouldn't necessary like everything I made. The cucumbers in cream and mint certainly wasn't my favorite thing, but today I tackled something I knew I wouldn't even be able to sample: Sliced Tomatoes with Basil. It's a very simple salad, easy to make. It's typical of Alice's celebration of fresh, local, seasonal ingredients. But, good grief, it's basically a plate of sliced raw tomatoes.

For his lunch today, I made Sliced Tomatoes with Basil for my husband. I didn't even have one little bite. Not a taste. Not a lick. Spread out on an antique yellow fiesta plate, all that glistening red and green was indeed gorgeous and glorious. He ate every last scrap of it, bless his heart. And I can now mark that particular recipe off my list.

102 recipes completed; 203 recipes to go -- I HAVE COMPLETED 1/3 OF MY PROJECT!!

"Screw Calm and Get Angry" (and Cucumbers)

pg. 247 - Cucumbers with Cream and Mint

"Screw Calm and Get Angry" is the title of a cool little book of quotations that I just got. Just in time for the facebook campaign I'm waging against the Tea Party and its attack on government. I'm so sick of the crap that's going on in Washington I could just scream. I can't understand for the life of me when -- or why -- or how -- the majority of people in this country became so self-absorbed that they've decided to engage, en mass, in cutting off their noses to get revenge of some sort against their own faces. How have we lost any sense of community, any sense of being all in this lifeboat together? I don't understand. And I'm pissed.

Meanwhile, back in the kitchen, it's that time of year when I become convinced, annually, that there is absolutely no need for us to have a garden since we are awash in a sea of vegetables gifted to us by our wonderful friends and neighbors. Eggplants, tomatoes, peppers, chili peppers, cucumbers of several types, summer squash. There's a great BIG bowl of the stuff in the kitchen. I'll be the first to admit that summer vegetables are still an acquired taste for me. I really love meat and fat and sugar. Beans, rice and pasta, yes. Cheese and dairy, yes. Fruit, yes. Spring, winter and fall vegetables, yes. Summer vegetables? Well......... I don't like raw tomatoes, for one thing. I've already had a lifetime quota of summer squash. Cucumbers? Not so much. It's these heat-of-summer things that mostly leave me cold.

So there they were, staring at me: FOUR lemon cucumbers. (It's not bad enough that we get the neighbors generous offerings, Randy brings yet more of this stuff home from Farmers Market! Two lemon cukes from the neighbors + 2 brought home by RDK. After saying to him: DON'T BUY VEGETABLES THIS WEEK! JUST FRUIT!) Yup, 2 people in this house. FOUR lemon cucumbers. Fortunately, I had cream in the frig. And lots of spearmint in the herb garden. So, I turned to page 247 for Cucumbers with Cream and Mint. Now, I suppose this really is one of the world's greatest salads, but it didn't do much for me. Nonetheless, it's another recipe completed. Nobody said I'd love 'em all.

On another front, I've purchased "Slow Cooker Revolution" from America's Test Kitchen, as well as their recommended slow cooker, the Crock-Pot Touchscreen Slow Cooker. Three reasons: (1) Randy will be teaching again come 2012 and it's often hard to time dinner when he's teaching late afternoon labs, (2) I want to be able to have some main courses stashed in the freezer for times when there just isn't time to cook, and (3) when we entertain, I prefer to have everything ready before guests arrive so I can be with them, not in the kitchen.

Last weekend I tested goal #3 with Moroccan Chicken Stew, served with an old favorite of mine, Ina Garten's Curried Cous Cous which is made ahead of time and served at room temperature. One of the guests brought a green salad. I did go a little overboard on dessert, but it was all made ahead of time. Randy took care of beverages. I got to hang out with our guests. Afterwards clean up was fast and easy. And we still had dinner twice more from the leftovers!

Earlier this week I made Fancy Pork Stew with Fennel and Prunes. I have 3 meals worth in the freezer right now. Yeah for goal #2! This weekend I'll make marinara sauce or maybe some chili. After a dinner or two, the rest will go into the freezer.

Who would ever have guessed that food and cooking would become a new passion for me? Although, Randy is making dinner tonight at my request. I just can't face that big bowl of vegetables on the kitchen counter. And he'll be making fried okra for himself, too. Oh well.

101 recipes completed; 204 yet to conquer!

Stuff I Hate. Stuff I Love.

Hate. Right-wing fundamentalists who can't think. You know: do research, analyze the information, and come up with a slightly original thought (perhaps a thought of their own?).

Love. Crab cakes.

Hate. Frying crab cakes. ("Frying" is not my forte in the kitchen.)

Love. Cheese-stuffed roasted peppers.

Hate. Myself when I spend too much time on the computer.

Love. My car.

Hate. When husband takes my car for the day.

Love. Cats.

Hate. Cleaning litter boxes (well, who doesn't?).

Love. Modern medicine.

Hate. Going to the doctor.

Love. Our recent trip to LA.

Tuesday: Check in to the Ambrose

Walk the 3rd Street Promenade in Santa Monica

Watch filming of "Private Practice"

(Tim Daly from "Wings"!)

Dinner at Josie's

Wednesday: Breakfast at the hotel

Warner Brothers VIP Tour

New Dinosaur Hall at the Museum of Natural History

Dinner at The Bazaar at SLS

Thursday: Breakfast at the hotel

The Getty Center

Hollywood Bowl (LA Symphony: Beethoven's 9th)

Dinner at the Bowl (take-out picnic)

Friday: Breakfast at the hotel

Huntington Gardens

Lunch at Celestino's

Hate. Oh, snap. I guess I'm fresh out of hate for the day.

Recipe #100

Lemon Curd - pg. 199

Yeah, yeah. I know. It's been awhile. Travel (his and ours). Sick cat. Garage cleaning (a major project, but part of moving into the not-so-new-anymore house). Ya da, ya da, ya da. You know the drill.

So, I declared today to be cooking day. First, I had 2 test recipes from America's Test Kitchen (home of _Cook's Illustrated_ magazine, a favorite of mine) to make: Simple Almond Granola, and Kale and Sunflower Pesto. Both were delicious and lots of fun to make. Since we're awash in the stuff, I'm also looking forward to making Mark Bittman's Mint "Pesto". (I've recently bought his great cookbook, _How to Cook Everything_, which is billed as a hipper version of _The Joy of Cooking_. It looks to be a more useful cookbook, too. I've never been a fan of _Joy_.)

And I made Lemon Curd! Man, I could eat this stuff straight up. Turns out to be easy to make (since I'm actually a whiz at separating eggs, as well as "stirring constantly") and totally delicious made from Meyer lemons. In the homemade stuff, you add a good bit of lemon zest which really "ups" the flavor. Alice says you can also make fruit curd from any citrus! Oranges! Grapefruit! Limes! Tangerines! Considering that you can also make candied citrus from any citrus, this is an area for further exploration that I'm pretty sure will be made in heaven. Okay, actually made in my kitchen. And -- you can make fruit curd from any berry puree. Who knew!?

Here's where we stand. It's a milestone of sorts.

100 recipes down; 205 recipes yet to make

Lemons and Spiders

Candied Citrus Peel -- pg. 382

Good lord, what a week. Couple of weeks. Month.

Did I mention our pet spiders? Two orb web spiders have set up shop on the outside of our kitchen windows. They are Big Girls who have lived there for at least a month now. (We've had to instruct our cleaning ladies to leave their webs alone.) Absolutely fascinating to watch. They're nocturnal, coming out about 8:30 in the evening. They're back in the sack before I get up in the morning. I'm not normally a big fan of spiders, although I'm not an arachnaphobe either. I mean, I'm willing to go mano a mano with the snarliest of black widow spiders. But these 2 are pretty cool. I was cheering for one last night as she caught and ate a small cricket. What a woman!

Did I mention that we were essentially stood up for a dinner date a couple weeks ago? I mean, a dinner I was making? After buying $120 worth of groceries, developing a menu, and planning a day of cooking? (Who does something like that?!) Soooooo, we've been eating endless homemade tomato soup and pork loin chops and potato salad. And then there's that 4 pounds of Meyer lemons. Well, when life gives me lemons, I check the index in TAOS.

Ta-da! Candied Citrus Peel! In this case, Candied Lemon Peel. Sometimes I read these recipes in TAOS and wonder what the heck Alice is thinking. Who wants to make candied citrus peel, for heaven's sake? Then I actually make the recipe and all is revealed. Here's a great way to use (instead of throw away) the peels left over after juicing citrus. Candying the peel is a two-day process, but is simple. Honestly. Then you put the candied peel in a glass jar in the frig and there you have it! Free candy! Dessert. Toppings for pudding, fruit, ice cream, cupcakes, and so on and so forth. Or just a little treat right out of the jar. Oh yum. I think I finally have a reason to squeeze fresh orange juice. I'll never throw away a citrus peel again.

99 recipes down; 206 recipes to go