Sassy Radish

Hi, folks, I believe I owe you some recipes. It’s been awhile and I’m sorry. I’ve had my hands full lately and we took a quick trip to Florida to visit Andrew’s grandmother so there’s been little in the way of experimenting. The weather, too, has been uncoorperative as of late. Officially, it’s spring, but if you didn’t have a calendar, you would’ve thought we were right smack in the middle of winter.

I, too, have been uncooperative with my kitchen. For one, I’ve been poring over new cookbooks and looking for inspiration. Sometimes I need to do just that: step away from looking to put new material out and just cook our old favorites with abandon. And so I’ve been cooking old favorites over and over. Trying a few things too, but not loving them either (I’ve learned, for example that I don’t much like black cod or halibut); so why write about something I found just so so.

Cooking the same things over and over is actually quite revelatory: I always walk away with having learned something new. One of my favorite quotes about cooking is from Judy Rogers’ much beloved Zuni Cafe Cookbook. There, she writes about how cooking the same thing over and over is just the thing to really learn a dish. Repetition begets education.

There’s this very out of season salad that I’ve been making several nights a week (to accompany our dinner), and it’s been fun swapping this for that and just using what’s in the fridge. I figure this is my in-between time, before I get back to the kitchen inspired again. I don’t feel like sharing the new spring frittata, because well, if you’ve made the frittata from this site, you don’t need me to tell you what you can swap out unless I show you a new revolutionary way to do it. I’ll leave it to you to make up your mind on what, if anything, you want in it. I don’t want to put up a “new” recipe when it’s just a blatant variation on a theme. I know, I’m getting into the weeds here and it can get pretty circular with reasoning here. I just want to give my brain a slight break from the constant need to come up with new things. Sometimes I just want to go back to the kitchen and just make some simple pasta.

And it’s not that I’m uninspired per se, but that I’m taking the time to be alone with my thoughts in the kitchen. Not in the context of this site, but in the context of my relationship with the process of cooking. You know, how we felt about our kitchens before blogs came around?

I won’t bore you more. I promise some more recipes soon. Or maybe recipes interspersed with some writing – as I’ve been feeling a bit more that way too. But, here are this week’s links; I hope you like them, and I hope you all have wonderful weekend plans (even if it’s just reading on your couch, which is wonderful too) ahead.

Continue reading friday link love.

Hi from Florida. Andrew and I escaped the frigid temperatures of NYC for a few days to visit Andrew’s grandmother. I’d say it’s been nice to be, mostly, unplugged. I don’t remember last time I did that. Maybe over our minimoon in June. Still, I amassed quite a few links this week and didn’t want to not share them. So here they are. And I hope that wherever you are, you’re keeping warm and cozy, and that your weekends hold comfort and relaxation.

The case against feeding every hungry child.

Getting married later is great for college-educated women. However, the reverse is true for men: getting married earlier seems to be better for their income level. Curious.

Public surprisingly okay with government policies that push healthy eating.

Slaughter of the African elephants. This had me in tears (as well as Andrew). Devastating and I feel like something has to (must) be done.

Brilliant “Shouts & Murmurs”: Rob Portman opens door, GOP follows.

Wisconsin in the news again: a state lawmaker wants to restrict food stamp users to only be able to buy healthy food. Needless to say, this is a sensitive issue as much of the processed food just happens to be cheaper than whole foods (and for the record, I’m not making an argument for processed food, far from it.) It would also be helpful to understand if the economically depressed areas that are more reliant on government food assistance, have fewer grocery stores with whole foods options (aka food deserts).

In case you didn’t see Justin Timberlake (is there anything he can’t do?) and Jimmy Fallon do the History of Rap IV, here you go.

A propos Justin Timberlake, the Atlantic refers to him as our generation’s Sammy Davis Jr. while the New York Times thinks he’s our generation’s Cary Grant. What do you all think: Sammy or Cary? Or someone else?

First Google announced it was killing Reader (huge mistake, I think); and this piece raises another glaring issue for Google: Alerts. Formerly a useful tool, it’s now sluggish at best.

While it’s easy to get all theoretical about the food stamps, here’s a piece that delves into the actual nuts and bolts of how the program affects not only recipients but the businesses as well.

Translating Shakespeare into DNA.

The Lower East Side in the 40′s archival film. Mesmerizing.

For those of you who are devotees of Moleskine notebooks, an excellent piece on what the company sells: identity and culture – not just the notebook itself.

Jacob Lew goes to China, eats humble dumplings, makes a splash with the Chinese press. And all they probably had to do is research Jewish affinity for Chinese food, especially dumplings and they would’ve understood why. :) This, of course, stands in stark contrast to the opulent banquets of the Chinese communist party members.

The average wealthy person gives 1.3% of their income to charity; the average low-income one — 3.2%. Why?

Also, this.

And with that, I’m out. I hope your weekend is slammin’. xo

It’s Friday again, and also, the ides of March. Quick, someone, pull out your Julius Caesar and recite the “Friends, Romans, Countrymen” speech. And with April right around the corner, we’ve got the prologue to the Canterbury Tales to consider as well. It’s been a fairly frenetic week on my end, but I managed to cull some links that I found to be compelling. I hope you enjoy them, and I sincerely hope that your weekend holds more thrills and excitement than mine: taxes, taxes, taxes (Forrest, our resident feline CPA, is ready to help me though). But, as a treat, we get to see some out of town friends on Sunday, and I cannot wait.

Here are the links. Enjoy. And happy weekend.

Continue reading friday link love.

This here makes a perfectly respectable lunch despite what you might think. You can try and reason as to why you shouldn’t have potatoes bathed in duck fat, but all of your thinking will fall short of one germane truth against which you will have no argument: they are delicious. These are humble ingredients, potatoes, mushrooms. The whole thing will run you about six dollars, excluding the duck fat. How’s that for economy eating?

You can purchase duck fat a nicer stores or your butcher, or if you cook duck, and you should, you should absolutely save the fat that renders out. Not doing so results in a great culinary tragedy. I actually like cooking duck precisely for the duck fat, because, to me, it’s the best part of the duck.

Continue reading duck fat potatoes with mushrooms.

It’s Friday here again, which means a round of links for your reading pleasure (though some of these links won’t bring you joy). A quick note of housekeeping: I’ve been receiving a slew of email asking me to link to this product or that service on Friday’s Link Love. Please email me, by all means, and if it’s appropriate, I’ll help in any way I can, but Friday’s links aren’t to promote a good or a service, generally speaking. It’s more a collection of things I’ve been reading through the week, that I’ve wanted to share with you all.

And without further ado… the links…

Continue reading friday link love.

Here’s what a typical morning here is like these days.

6:30 AM wake up. Look at the clock, realize it’s very early still but finally, alas, it’s light out. Decide to get up and go to the gym and get back in time to have breakfast with Andrew only to realize your phone is at 15% power and will not make it through the workout.

Turn over and try to fall asleep. Realize you’re too anxious to sleep. That suddenly there is a tidal wave of all these to do’s in your head, the fact that you don’t have any meetings or “set” work to do, that you have no idea where you next paycheck is coming from, that you just put a check in the mail for rent neither you nor your husband can afford.

Toss and turn until the cat wanders over for his morning cuddle. Cuddle with the cat for ten minutes. His purrs only moderately calm you down, but mostly, what you feel is jealousy. Jealousy that you can’t ever feel this inner calm and bliss. You think to yourself, I’d do anything to feel this way if only for a day, but you know it’s not going to happen.

Check your phone once more; no new emails, no new job offers, no new job listings. The phone is now at 14%. Scratch the cat’s chin and hear him purr. Look over to your left where you husband is sleeping. Notice how he is the world’s most peaceful-looking sleeper.

Check the Instagram feed, see what dinner/cocktail/dessert everyone’s had last night. Look at cute sleeping children photos, wonder how parents do it all. Notice the phone is now at 13%. Go to Twitter, check the feed. Find a few interesting articles, but because you hate reading them on your phone, email them to yourself. Notice the phone is now at 12%. Go to Facebook and see everyone’s updates. Realize that you’re finding Facebook to be more and more of a bore, and it’s not that you don’t care about your friends updates, but that somehow Facebook has become a virtual world you don’t really feel like inhabiting. You want, simultaneously, peace and quiet and catch up with everyone, and I mean everyone, in person.

Continue reading it’s all in your head.