tariqata's Profile

It's too nice to be inside cooking this weekend! Last night we grilled some chorizo and served it on a big green salad with fresh cherry tomatoes (hydroponically grown, but local!) and quick-pickled wild leeks and shallots. Tonight I'm going to be grilling pizza with asparagus and zucchini with another big salad on the side, and I've made a bunch of marinated vegetables (mushrooms, peppers and kale) to be eaten with flatbread and olives for lunch.

If I can bear to turn the oven on, I might make some chocolate chip cookies to bring to a barbecue tomorrow, too.

If I can make a suggestion - instead of doing homemade edible wedding favours, would you consider putting together a dessert tray of things that could be made ahead of time? For my wedding last summer, I really, really wanted to either make macarons as wedding favours (so pretty!) or do little jars of jam (I do a lot of canning) but I really didn't have time, especially right before the wedding (which was, of course, when all the tastiest fruits were coming ripe). Instead, because we had already decided to use thrift store teacups to float tea lights in, I got some really good loose-leaf tea and packaged them up in single servings and my bridesmaids and I spent a an afternoon about a month ahead of time making cute envelopes for them. Then, so that there would be something I had cooked at the wedding, I baked a bunch of little tarts and squares for our guests to graze on, but I was able to make a lot of the components ahead of time and freeze them, and I didn't have to worry about packaging them so people could take them away.

However, if you're set on homemade edible favours, I think something like shortbread could be delicious (maybe a couple different flavours?), less fussy to wrap than caramels, and could be made ahead of time and kept frozen.

Yep, a scraped vanilla bean or two in a mason jar of (inexpensive) bourbon is my preferred 'brand'. I replace the vanilla beans periodically and top up the alcohol when it gets low.

@Alann: I have to ask: was raw vs. pasteurized milk the only difference between your diet and your mother's and grandfather's?

If we're going to throw out anecdotes, I'll simply note that I haven't had a cavity since I stopped drinking milk altogether, began eating much more spinach, and started getting my teeth cleaned regularly. As has been noted, correlation is not causation, and anecdotes are not data.

Indeed, industrial dairy would be making us sick without pasteurization - but people were getting sick and dying from contaminated milk long before industrial dairy farming was possible. Industrial dairy farming has its own problems, but it's not the root cause of potentially unsafe cow's milk.

My take on this issue? If people want to risk their own safety by drinking raw milk, I don't have a problem with it. I eat raw fish and the occasional steak tartare, after all. But I'm really disturbed by the amount of misinformation that holds up raw milk as a better, more nutritious product than pasteurized milk - particularly the nutrition benefits, which are contested to say the least - and fails to acknowledge that while good farming practices can reduce the risk of infection, they can't eliminate it. For me, any potential benefits associated with raw milk are too negligible to be worth that risk.

I'm making risotto with lemon, leeks and mushrooms tonight, and a raspberry buttermilk cake for dessert (and a couple nice bottles of wine - in an effort to train our palates, my husband and I are trying to make a habit of taste-testing two different versions of the same varietals when we have the chance). This weekend, I'll be making tempeh sambal with green beans and brown jasmine rice, and spicy stir-fried bok choy, potatoes with tamarind sauce, and some leftover dal I found in the freezer.

@KATO12: I've got friends with serious (pea)nut allergies. They've come into contact with peanuts before and survived the experience, so they don't go through life feeling terrified, but if I invite them over for dinner, I make sure that I cook nut-free because it really puts a damper on things when one of your guests needs to rush to the hospital or use her epipen when her throat starts to swell up.

Also - I do understand that it can be frustrating to cook for multiple people with different food preferences/allergies/intolerances, but personally, it makes me feel pretty good when I invite someone over who often has to be very cautious when eating out and can tell them that I've taken the time to find out what they can eat and made sure to cook with their needs in mind.

Most of these, I could take or leave, but that staircase? I LOVE.

My basics are a wok, a cast iron skillet, a big stock pot, and a 1-quart and 2-quart saucepan, and a stoneware casserole dish: the skillet and the stockpot were my mom's, and the saucepans and casserole belonged to her, my grandmother and my great-grandmother (I've actually also got a smaller saucepan and a second 2-quart from their various sets), and the wok I bought at Ikea when I moved out on my own. We got a Dutch oven and a really nice sautee pan as wedding gifts, and they're awesome, but I am still very happy with the pre-existing pot collection!

I riff endlessly on the combination of a tofu or tempeh-based stir fry or a dal, bok choy, and rice. Also lots of soups and stews. Sandwiches or tortillas filled with roasted veggies. Lots of quinoa bowls (try tossing quinoa, roasted brussels sprouts, and kabocha squash, it's a great winter combination!). I've been using barley in risottos more, when I really want to be carb-centric.