In Our Kitchen in May

The kitchen used to be "my" kitchen, but in the last few months, Len has taken over all the innovative cooking, so it's now our kitchen, not just mine. This is a wonderful change and I'm delighted with his commitment to using new recipes, especially recipes from a number of Asian cuisines. I've mentioned the cookbook authors Fuchsia Dunlop and Andrea Nguyen, whose books he has been going through, and I've mentioned the number of interesting condiments we have obtained for the variety of recipes he has tried.

I’m sharing this with Sherry and the other participants in the blog event titled In My Kitchen. It’s great to see what new gadgets, condiments, packaged food, cookbooks, and recipes everyone has tried each month. Other than trying new recipes, there's nothing new in our kitchen, as we haven't bought any new gadgets or cookbooks. Next month may be different!

Asian Recipes: All New to Us

Szechuan Smoked Tofu, among the many recipes Len tried.
He made the smoked tofu using liquid smoke. 

Grilled salmon with crispy skin, flavored with lemongrass.

Mushroom curry from the special mushrooms at Argus Farm Stop.

Spring rolls in rice paper wrappers and stir-fry snow peas.

Black Pepper Tofu with eggs and a side of bok-choi, recipes by Andrea Nguyen.

Cooking!

A few other meals

Roast cauliflower with parmesan and a big salad for a vegetarian dinner.
Cauliflower recipe from the New York Times.

Israeli Mezze: grape leaves, eggplant salad, olives, spiced chickpeas, and other vegetables and fruits.

Another dish made from the special mushrooms at Argus: a mushroom stir-fry.

Len baked some rye rolls for a Memorial Day Picnic. 
He’s been baking bread for several years, and this is a recipe from a Zingerman’s class he took.

Can Our Food Choices Make A Difference?

Much of the world is experiencing a huge drought, while a few regions have too much rain or very unpredictable rain. Food production suffers globally as a result of the changes. These food shortages affect our prices in the supermarket, but for people in the third world, a result is frequently famine and desperation, with many refugee situations caused by the impact of food scarcity. The consequences are many and of great concern, as I’m sure you know.

One undisputed cause of climate change is human-created Greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. While there’s little an individual can do about climate change, at least I think we can be mindful of choices we make, and one choice we make all the time is our selection of food. Here’s a graph of how various food choices impact the atmosphere. How much difference can an individual’s actions make? I don’t know, but I think we can contemplate what our little bit might mean.

Click on the graph to see it full size in your browser.

NOTE: Even if you compare the carbon production per calorie of nutrition in these foods, beef and lamb are still much more polluting than vegetables or grains.

For more discussion of global food issues, see In My Kitchen Part 2.

Blog post and photos © 2023 mae sander