About 20 minutes ago I realized that good cookbooks don't need pictures. I've now decided that Bittman's How to Cook Everything Vegetarian will be my launch pad. The first 10 pages walk through the essential foods you need, followed by another 10 pages of what tools you need. Why did I pick a vegetarian cook book?
Two reasons:
1. I was vegan from somewhere in 2005 to the beginning of 2009. I'm now a meat minimalist and deal very little with dairy.
2. I don't want to focus on single dishes, which is what most meat meals do... veggie meals require several smaller dishes, which yield more experience. I'm many years behind the curve on cooking and need a shitload of practice. Also, if one dish doesn't work out, I'll let the squirrels eat it out of my compost... lucky squirrels.
I found an acorn squash recipe in my scant food supply (see Figure 1). I typically would never have such a luxury as 'raw food', except that it was right up front at Whole Foods about 2 weeks ago when I bought it; in a 'what the hell, maybe' moment, I plopped it in the cart and there it sat on my shelf for a fortnight... but I digress.
Figure 1: Scant food supply
The first half didn't work well because I glossed over the 'boil the squash by itself for 20 minutes' part, resulting in a very hard shell and burned innards. On the second round, I got a pretty soft half, but next time I'll cook it longer. I only had black beans and cinnamon, so the innards were meh, but I was mainly looking to get the shell down.
Bland yumminess!
Next time I'll do the cranberries, long grain rice, lentils, etc...
In other news, I recently raced the 24 Hours of Rocky Hill, which took a whole lot out of me. I had a personal and friend-influenced goal/bet to kick ass, so I was really feeling it for the next few days. This race is one of my favorite things; I look forward to it all year. I need to rebuild my mountain bike (chain, rear hub binding, broken rear shifter cable, spongy hydraulic brakes, etc)... parts list to follow.
Now that the dust has settled, I'm eager to get back into shape; I've taken the last... uh... three years off, except for climbing and biking everywhere. My roommate Lee just got a recumbent bike, so we're gonna tear up the streets
Lee and I went to Octopus Project last Thursday at Waterloo Records... their new album (Hexadecagon) is stunning; a slightly introverted reflection - times ten in fullness - on all their previous work.
For all the Agricola nerds out there, here's my starting hand from the other day:
I almost beat Walt. I've known Walt for 20 years and I've never beat him at any game that involves clicking a button (note: a trigger does not qualify as a 'button' in this sense) or thinking really hard. He caught onto my plan and bought the Well after I put it back with Village Well. He also bought the pottery and the reedery, which sucks cause I ended up with a bunch of both. Traveling Salesman and Braggart go real well together.
So yeah, I decided I'll write whatever I want to. Stick around for more cooking, biking, etc.
