Sunday is my brunch-prompt-day, and it’s still 3 weeks before “Marathon Prompts.” But it’s also a day to think about food for the coming week, a day on which to do some shopping, a day to clear those open browser tabs …
I. On Food and Cooking
Yes, I stole the section heading from Harold McGee’s famous book, my print copy of which is probably mildewing in a northwestern garage.
Last night I perused a few pages of M. Bitten’s if not encyclopedic at least thorough treatise, “How to Cook Everything: Vegetarian” (2007, see also: How to Cook Everything). It reminded me of why I like real cookbooks, not just collections of recipes: instructions and analysis, themes and variations, tools and techniques. I also liked that he provides what looks like a workable recipes for making seitan at home out of boxed or bagged ‘vital wheat gluten’ (rather than by washing flour or such).
Long ago in a college town far, far away we’d often get party platters from the local Whole Foods, and one of the items, along with all the fruit and veggie skewers, was their ‘Jamaican Jerk Seitan,’ which really was almost indistinguishable from beef in texture and flavor; unless you were told ahead of time that it was meatless, you’d think you were eating meat.
Around here Publix has been known to carry ‘Tofurkey,’ but more general or generic seitan products are rare (though I could stop by Manna).
I started watching bits and pieces of Gordon Ramsay’s ”
If you have a personal trainer at a gym or attend a class, you actually have to exercise; if you have a video you can watch on your computer or someone else’s testimonial on YouTube, you get to watch and observe from the comfort and safety of your home, and you ‘live’ vicariously through these other people. You do not necessarily get off your butt and actually do the exercises demonstrated. Of course, you can, you can be determined and disciplined; you can research the workouts or exercises, you can compare, you can find motivation, but it’s also easy to rationalize after the fact that that’s what you were doing, that’s why you’re watching. They’re your exercise surrogates. And Gordon Ramsay is our cooking surrogate.
He may or may not inspire me to try some new preparations or recipes; I enjoyed the episodes I watched, but I also felt afterward like I was coming off a sugary, candy-fueled high and left bereft of sustenance. I’m pretty sure, though, that I’ll put the recipes, techniques, and preparations in Bitten’s book to use, if not today then tomorrow.
II. The Daily Links, not Sausage
A. [Biology] Zombees! — “Who’s in Charge Inside Your Head?”
B. [History] Racist of the Day, or: Still Fighting the Civil War — “Ark. GOPer: Slavery a ‘blessing in disguise’ for black people”
C. [Pop Culture] On why the Girl Scouts are better than the Boy Scouts of America these days — “Teenage Boy Scout Denied Organization’s Top Rank Because He’s Gay”
III. Consumerism and Consumption
Sunday is my most common shopping day. Usually after my lunch-time writing session I head down the road a bit and detour through a parking lot to another parking lot in order to avoid a couple traffic lights and probably three minutes of waiting.
In order to aid in providing bite-size treats I splurged on a mini-muffin pan. Brownie-bites are one use, of course, as are little muffins and cupcakes. And I think I’ll use it tonight for little corn muffins; a whole muffin is a bit too filling as a dinner side, but the smaller version might be nice.
We’ve had this meal planned for a while, as Ms. S. wanted mac & cheese, so now we have the vegetable side, and cornbread or corn muffins will accompany.
The corn muffins will be based a bit on the Sunny “Blueberry-Corn Muffins” from Isa Chandra Moskowitz’s “Vegan with a Vengeance” (see also: the Post Punk Kitchen), page 50, but I cut the recipe in half to make a half dozen rather than a dozen. What makes them magical is the lemon zest, and it will transform the entire kitchen.
