A Slow Week at Home and Thoughts of War

This week, we are recovering from our long trip to various places in Virginia, Washington D.C, Maryland, and New Jersey, which I covered in several blog posts while traveling. I finished my endless read of Palo Alto and wrote a review of how much I didn’t like it. A few other things I did:

I read the EXCELLENT novel Yelllowface by R.F.Kuang.
How did she make such an unlovely narrator so interesting?

We started watching the seven-episode new season of Lupin.

We continue watching the Great British Baking Show as episodes are released.
Chocolate week was especially delicious looking.

I have been cooking very simple meals, such as this tuna salad made mainly from pantry items,
and an apple-dried cherry salad dressed with lemon juice.

And then there’s the war

Obviously, on my mind all week, and in my repeated checking of the news, is awareness of the war in Israel and its meaning for Jews throughout the world. I am thinking of the barbaric murders of unarmed families on October 7, the hostages held by Hamas, and the continuing situation in Israel and Gaza. At the moment, I feel as if we are holding our breath and waiting for the actual war to begin. 

Since the Hamas atrocities of October 7, the reaction of many people in our country, especially leftists, has been depressing and revealing: verbal attacks on Israel, enthusiasm for the killings of Israeli civilians and even of babies, and wishing an evil fate to all Jews. From the New York Times:

"Progressive Jews who have spent years supporting racial equity, gay and transgender rights, abortion rights and other causes on the American left — including opposing Israeli policies in Gaza and the West Bank — are suddenly feeling abandoned by those who they long thought of as allies. This wartime shift represents a fundamental break within a liberal coalition that has long powered the Democratic Party." (source)

The support for Israel of President Biden is gratifying — I have always been enthusiastic about our President and his leadership. I quote his speech:

"The terrorist group Hamas unleashed pure unadulterated evil in the world, but sadly, the Jewish people know, perhaps better than anyone, that there is no limit to the depravity of people when they want to inflict pain on others."

Leftist enthusiasm for antisemitic violence comes as a shock, as does international violence like the firebombing of a synagogue in Berlin (source), bomb threats to French museums and monuments (source), and a reported 1200% increase in online threats to Jews worldwide (source).

My fears are shared. For example, an opinion piece for the Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz by writer Anshel Pfeffer stated:

"The past two weeks have brought home the realization, for anyone who still hadn’t got it, that there is no safe place for Jews. This is a chilling but absolutely crucial matter for us to understand. From the devastated communities living in southern Israel to Sydney, Australia – where hundreds of Hamas supporters chanted 'Gas the Jews!' – that is our reality.

"It is not only the Israeli government and military that has so woefully failed in safeguarding the lives of Israeli citizens. We are seeing right now multiple governments, local authorities, religious and academic institutions around the world failing to keep their Jewish citizens safe." (source)

 

Tel Aviv, Israel. (From the Guardian.)

Kitchen Wrap-Up for February

Our Kitchen Witch has a new spot in the kitchen.

In my kitchen in February: simple food. Not much new. 

We were traveling for around half the days in February, and thus not in our kitchen. When we come back, in around a week, we expect to see some changes which I’ll write about. We missed the 3-day power failure which would have meant no stove! Here are some of the not-at-all ambitious things I did in the kitchen when we were at home. I’ll be sharing with the In My Kitchen blog party at Sherry’s blog.

Toasted sandwiches: an easy dinner.

Salad with leftover lamb roast on a Valentine platter.

Lightly-cooked snap peas with a few other vegetables.

Tofu with bok choi.

Broccolini with shiitake mushrooms and hot-sweet chicken legs.

Things we got done in the kitchen: preparing for the installation of a new cabinet. Moving a bookcase and reorganizing the cookbooks. Getting a new garbage disposal because the old one was making more and more painful noise. Not cooking much! Not worth a photo!

In other kitchens

Visiting our friends Phyllis and Ed in Del Mar, California, after the Birding Festival.

Chicken mole served at a ranch near La Paz, Baja California.

You can see the Mexican Diet Coke. Some of our fellow passengers were enthusiastic about the Mexican
regular Coke because it’s sugar sweetened, but I am into Diet Coke, which I show for Elizabeth!

We were surprised by a very good meal at an airport hotel
on the way to our trip in Baja California.

Fresh local seabass at The Fish Market in Solano Beach near San Diego where we visited later in February.

Cheesecake at the Artifact Cafe in the Mingei Museum, San Diego.

Finally: A Note on Ethics and Choosing Food

Eating meat: a habit I find very desirable because I like the taste and find it satisfying, and also because it’s easy to prepare. A few years ago the news stories on horrific cruelty to meat-packing and slaughter-house workers caused me to greatly reduce my meat consumption. I am also aware of the issues of cruelty to animals and of damage to the environment caused by raising cattle and many other species, as well as the wastefulness of growing cattle feed, and many other negative consequences of meat production and consumption. 

Recently, I’ve been backsliding on my determination to eat a more plant-based diet. But here’s the latest news:

“More than 100 children have been discovered to be illegally employed by a slaughterhouse cleaning firm across the country, federal authorities said. …[For example] a 14-year-old child who worked at a Nebraska facility from 11pm to 5am five to six days a week from December 2021 to April 2022, cleaned machines ‘used to cut meat’” (from the Guardian)

Time to think about all this again! But on our trips, I wasn’t very restrained.

In N Out Burger: wrong for so many reasons.
But so much fun on the rare visit to California!

Blog post and photos © 2023 mae sander

Patagonia Kitchen

My temporary kitchen for 5 days in Patagonia, Arizona. I cooked or prepared quite a few meals here.
Since I’ve been away from my home kitchen almost all month, this will be my entry for Sherry’s Blog Event.

Brought from Trader Joe’s in Ann Arbor: 
shelf-stable gnocchi with a jar of basil pesto.
New-to-me products which I might use again.

It was good, and we saved the rest for lunch.

Salad with leftover gnocchi with pesto and lots of vegetables.
The apartment kitchen lacked a serving bowl so I used a cooking pot.

Not much in the refrigerator, but it was good to have some choices. And great to have a full-size fridge.

In the freezer: ice cream, P.F.Chang’s chicken, ice cans for the picnic cooler.
Our host supplied a large can of coffee for the Mr.Coffee machine.

Breakfast: cereal, milk, juice, fruit, coffee.

From Safeway: P.F.Chang’s chicken in Korean BBQ sauce.
Another new choice. I would use it again in a temporary kitchen.

I didn’t have standard side dishes for Korean barbecue chicken so we ate it with white bread and fruit salad.
For other dinners and lunches we ate sandwiches -- but photos of them would be boring. 
Cooking with limited ingredients in a temporary kitchen is an adventure!

Kitchen on the Road

Hotel kitchens on the road: tiny fridge, microwave, coffee maker.
This is very convenient, as we have an icebox with food for lunch each day.
It saves a lot of time, especially when the only place to stop is a roadside rest area!

Blog post © 2022 mae sander

Shared with Sherry’s In My Kitchen blog event.

What I did while the snow was falling or not falling

My cart at Trader Joe's: note the delicious jelly candy along with healthy lettuce and tofu.

Monday of this week the weather reports threatened us with a terrible storm, expected Wednesday. I decided to go to Trader Joe's and stock up my kitchen before the crowds that always descend on all shopping venues one day in advance of a big snowfall. There were plenty of other shoppers (almost all masked) but not overwhelming numbers, and the shelves had everything I wanted. 

The quite well-stocked produce and dairy shelves at TJ's.

I think the markets really did get crowded on Tuesday, but as the weather was still clear, we finally (after many months) went to the appliance store and ordered a replacement for our over-the-range microwave oven, which stopped working exactly a year ago. As soon as I had shopped, we started eating the goodies from TJ's.

Lunch Tuesday: strawberries and yogurt from Trader Joe's.

Dinner Tuesday: mushroom pancakes testing out my new griddle.
It works perfectly!

Wednesday was the scheduled storm. Indeed, in its wake the the snow and wind left many people across the South and the Midwest stranded and without electricity, but we had only a modest amount of snow and it was no big deal. 

Frost on our window: it's really rather cold outside!

Thursday we acted as if we were shut in, but that was in fact our own choice. All week, I spent most of the time reading, and writing blog reviews of the books I read: Tucci's Taste was the most exciting. Friday, I started reading Nose Dive by Harold McGee. It's a challenging book full of chemistry diagrams, but I'm persisting.

Friday the new microwave installation took place. In our house, any installation is fraught with uncertainty, but this time there were no obstacles. (We hired our favorite contractor, not the installer sent by the appliance store!)

The new microwave oven, installed.

Saturday morning we tested the new microwave by making oatmeal. Yay! It works. A year ago, when we bought a countertop microwave oven as a temporary replacement for the over-the-range one that stopped working, we did the same thing. The countertop oven was a space hog!

The space-hog countertop oven one year ago.

Back to normal: here's the freed-up space in use by the crock pot, making stock from a TJ's chicken.
The countertop oven occupied the space for a year. Today is a good day!

Blog post and all photos © 2021,2022,  mae sander.

What’s Cooking?

The new surge in the pandemic combined with winter cold weather has us staying inside. Our coping strategy is to try some new or newish recipes. 

Home made granola.

From the first covid wave in March 2020, we remember the terrible shortages and challenges for shopping; also for the early months of the pandemic, until we were immunized, we stayed in and ordered all food and other things for delivery or curb-side pickup. We aren’t as fearful this time, so I’m still doing in-person grocery shopping. 

This week at Whole Foods, the shelves were just as bare as I remember them when everyone was hoarding. The current problem, however, is different: so many store employees are out sick that they can’t stock the shelves. Yesterday a dedicated produce clerk wrote down what I was looking for and went to the stock room  — she came out with boxes that had just been unloaded from a delivery truck, and I therefore bought very fresh mushrooms for a raw mushroom and celery dish, cucumbers for salad, eggplant (see below), and more. In short: I managed to get everything on my list, despite the empty shelves and bins, thanks to a willing employee. I told her that she was a hero. 

Here are some examples of this week’s menu items —

Roasted eggplant with lemon and browned onions.
Recipe from Ottolenghi’s book Jerusalem.

Slicing vegetables for the eggplant garnish.

Prep for another Ottolenghi recipe for squash with oranges. I used delicata squash and satsuma mandarins.

The finished dish. Recipe from the Guardian (link).

Len cooked a red snapper using a recipe from the very old Time-Life Fish Cookbook.

The origin of the recipe:
The Complete Book of Caribbean Cooking
by Elizabeth Lambert Ortiz.

The delicious result: whole fish garnished with parsley and bell pepper.
On the side we had a garlic sauce called Salsa Esmeralda.

Simple lunch: avocado and tomato sandwich with green bean salad.

The situation for all businesses right now is very challenging — my observations at Whole Fooods are obviously just one small example. The Washington Post, in an article “Mounting omicron infections force businesses to scramble, threatening economic recovery” writes:

“The growing toll of sick workers — Capital Economics says more than 5 million Americans are in quarantine — is hammering employers that already were struggling to secure enough labor. Yet even as pandemic fatigue deepens, there are hopes that omicron will prove to be a punishing but short-lived squall.”

Blog post and all photos © 2022 mae sander.