I used to like to cook
it may be something I could enjoy again some day
for now, Jeff does most of the cooking, with some cameo appearances by myself
I did teach him most of what I once knew and I still do soups and stews better
the thing is that he's vegetarian and doesn't like many vegetables; and Mikhaila doesn't eat any dairy (other than yoghurt and ice cream), no tomatoes, not many vegetables; after all that sleep deprivation I just really no longer had the mental capacity to figure out what there was left to eat
I am craving a red bean chili with beef and it really all needs to cook together - it's like an alchemical process
there's not much need to prepare italian food around here
we live in Brooklyn where I can choose from four italian restaurants within two blocks from my house - and it's not an italian neighbourhood
i'm using the term restaurant loosely here, as these are small places with two to four tables
for some reason I don't cook german food either, even though my mother was a fantastic cook
but christmas dinner is something I have done in the past years - just in order to escape the dratted turkey
for some reason nobody in Jeff's family can cook, and that's the only part of christmas I care about enough to put work into, because the eating together is what makes it a family thing (it's strange doing the jewish version of christmas)
so I make the goose, with the apple and chestnut stuffing, but the vegetable selection is quite different from my mother's
her's was red cabbage simmered slowly for two days with onions, apple pieces and goose fat; cauliflower cooked to death in a white sauce; boiled potatoes, salad
I do salad also and I do make my mother's fantastic cream sauce from the goose drippings and that does goes really well with the boiled potatoes, but we part in terms of the other veggies
I go for dark leafy greens, sauteed with garlic and a dash of mirin, ginger baked squash, the traditional american baked yams, and perhaps a fairly plain string bean or broccoli dish
gosh - I must be having an appetite or something . . .
sorry - none of it is italian
recipes available upon request