May Postmortum

So I thought having a baby would mean I cook less - but I guess that's stupid, less going out means more cooking at home.

I have made a routine of making pizza dough and pasta every week.  I guess I'm done for the most part with ridiculous techniques, and really just focus on doing things well; and that's what you need; cease-less practice.   Not sure if it matters - lately I've been either experiencing a blandness in lots of my cooking; other times I get only harsh flavors.

All of the sudden we're on a schedule - Pizza Monday, Pasta Thursday, Asian on Friday, Grill on Saturday....when did this place turn into a cafeteria?

Maybe the new routine will mean I stop keeping track of all this, I'm starting to not have the time anyway...same thing every week, seasonal ingredients; weak cooking skills....no need to mark it down.

April Postmortem

So Gretchen had the baby - and we'll see how that changes what I'm cooking.  Already I find myself using the weekends to prepare for faster weeknight dinners.  Pizza and pasta dough gets made on Sunday, bread already got made once every week or two, I'm doing a lot more cooking beans, grains and greens ahead of time; you know all of those stupid hints for busy moms....I'm using them.

Well - I'd like to think that I'm just working more like a restaurant - they have all of that stuff prepped before service too, don't they?  A lot of it is just assembly.

March Postmortem

My projects turned out okay (corned beef) and bad (all sausages), and by then end of the month my everyday cooking had become over-seasoned and repetitious.

Hopefully April is better - but I don't think I'll be doing much cooking.

Weekend Evaluation: 0 for 3

Everything from Buffalo were losers this weekend - the Bills, the Sabres, my wings.  

We haven't even gotten to Knick season and I'm sick of losing; maybe I can thank the Mets for that. At least the New York City doesn't really have a signature food I can screw up - maybe a knish? pizza?  I've definitely screwed up pizza before...

Weekend Evaluation: Summer's Greatest Hits

In my beer-centered calendar, once Oktoberfest starts, summer is officially over. We had Sauerbraten, choucroute garni, and speatzle for dinner, followed by beer and chocolates on Sunday night; safe to say summer is over.

It's ok - After this weekend I'm finally ready to move on - the corn is starting to look old, the eggplant are tasting a little bitter.

Weekend Wrap-Up (August 21-22)

Fried Bananas

The weather wasn't so great in NYC on Sunday, so Tom was a little more prolific in the kitchen. He made a lot of stuff, I took a lot of photos. So let's just get down to it, shall we?

Weekend Evaluation: I know I-tey food when I hear it - it's all them 'eenie' foods (aka 'His name's not Fellini, it's Jake')

I feel like I'm only cooking Italian food right now; kind of boring myself, but you don't want to get in the way of these ingredients.  In the summer I usually cook a lot of mexican too, but this year I'm in a Mediterranean rut - we need to have some sopes or something soon.    I guess I shouldn't complain, the next thing you know we'll only be potatoes, cabbage, and winter squash everyday.

Speaking of which - we did finally make it to the Red Hook carts this weekend, the papusa was pretty good and I got my hands on some chicharron and beef tendon tacos.  I do think I prefer Tortilleria Nixmatel.

Weekend Evaluation: An Unfortunate Turn of Events for the Home Team

I wasn't planning on being home to cook that much this weekend.  we were supposed to be out of town at a family party on Saturday.  Well, thanks to some squealing, grinding brakes we were unexpectedly home on Saturday, so I did some cooking but no real projects - and we went out to eat a lot.  Luckily with a bike you can still get to a lot of food.

Maybe I'll include a couple restaurants in the Weekend Evaluation.

Weekend Wrap-Up (May 27-31)

 Asparagus, Portabella Mushroom and Spring Garlic Pizza

This weekend was our anniversary (May 27th- 3 yrs already!), and Memorial Day weekend. Tom didn't cook much because we were out and about as much as possible. We also had plans to visit family out of town, but some bad brakes on the car kept us home. We probably should have been doing more productive things than eating, drinking and riding bikes, but the weather was awesome, and it was a holiday weekend. And we needed some fun!

Weekend Evaluation: In Theory and Practice

I'm not sure if I cook a lot on the weekend; it seems like it, but it's all about having a basic plan of when you're going to do things, and then sticking to it.

I just like to spend my time away from work doing what I enjoy, being productive, and swearing at inanimate objects.  Not that I'm above doing that at work too; I'm pretty sure I've told a computer, phone and copier all to f-off on company time.  Is that stealing time?

Here's a couple observations from this weekend's cooking.