These days, I have a Love/Hate relationship with Food. I'm sure so many of you do, too. It's become almost a Herculean task to plan dinner. How on earth am I supposed to figure out in the morning what I'll feel like eating later in the day? Most often, by the time dinner does roll around, I've spent so much time preparing it and smelling it, the last thing I feel like doing is eating it. Or, it's something I never wanted to make in the first place, but oh well! it's all I could think of at the time.
"Here!" I wish a magical someone would say. "I've brought you a dinner you love. And I'll be doing that for the forseeable future. You're welcome!"
I dream a dream. Sigh.
In the meantime, until that happens, here's a big list--in purely random, scattershot order, of some of
My Favourite Foods
1. Raw oysters
2. Seafood
3. Toast
4. Butter
5. Walkers Shortbread
6. Avocado
7. Pork belly
8. Lemon pie/lemon bars
9. Mango
10. Naan
11. Liver and onions
12. Lima beans
13. Haagen-Dazs Chocolate Peanut Butter ice cream
14. Duck
15. Tomatoes
Here's the thing: I do like food. All of these things, I enjoy very much. I could eat any one of them right now, and it occurs to me that I haven't had lunch today. I could also make dinner out of any one of them easily. Actually, I have made dinner out of a good many of them, but let's not get specific.
(For the record, I'm not just talking about the ice cream. Or pie.)
Anyway, I'm still not entirely sure about tonight's dinner yet, and since I missed lunch entirely, I probably should grab an apple or something. Meanwhile, why not tell me a few of your favourite foods? Will we be having a tug-of-war over any?
I'll flip you for the short bread and the lemon bars. You're on your own with the liver and onions.
ReplyDeleteWhen it comes to food, I'm pretty good about most things. NO fish (can't do it), except tuna from a can and no corned beef hash. That stuff gags me just thinking about it. And, wouldn't you know, Steve loves the stuff.
Dee--I detest fish as well. And I eat only white albacore tuna from the can. I'm good with Reuben sandwiches once in a while, but I'm not big on corned beef, period. Rick is a fan of fish and corned beef.
DeleteOpposites attract, I guess.
Don't you love shortbread? So buttery!
Yes, I would fight you for lemon meringue pie or lemon bars. I do love PB&J and eat that for lunch almost every day (half a sandwich please). I also enjoy sesame sticks for a crunchy snack and yogurt for a midday dessert. I am pretty flexible about most everything else, although, I am not a huge fan of fish and I have never eaten liver and onions (it was my Mom's favorite food but she would always cook something else for us kids!)
ReplyDeleteEllen D--You can have any and all meringue. I peel that stuff off and don't eat it.
DeleteIsn't PB&J the best? I like it a lot, but I have to be in the mood for it. Rick eats it a lot.
Those sesame sticks! I forgot about those. I haven't seen them for a long time at my grocery store. They're good!
I think you should clarify that you like shellfish, since you do not like fish, which is a seafood. Though maybe you like calamari and octopus, and those don’t have shells, so now I’ve talked myself out of that one.
ReplyDeleteI do hate figuring out what is for dinner every night. I’m in charge Mon - Fri, Ted is in charge on weekends. My recent solution is to cook Mon - Wed, Thursday is leftovers, and Friday is takeout. So I only have to come up with 3 meals. Much better! Our difficulty is with food restrictions. Ted watches carbs and sugar and red meat and dairy, for health reasons. Maya won’t eat meat, except the occasional sushi. I love pasta and lamb. Sigh. So we eat a lot of chicken and I buy fake chicken for Maya and somehow incorporate that. We don’t eat much pasta, though sometimes we do with zucchini noodles for Ted and a vegetarian sauce. It’s so complicated and I’ll admit to getting tired of it all. I enjoy cooking, but would like to do so without restrictions. A few of my favorite foods are: potatoes (baked, fried, chips, I love them all), raw oysters (I’ll happily share a dozen with you!), avocado, bacon, tomatoes (BLTA!), Baskin Robbins Cherries Jubilee ice cream, cheese in many forms, sourdough bread, rack of lamb, PASTA...raspberries, apples, grapes, spinach, peas...you are more than welcome to my share of the liver and onions. I’ve never managed to like that one.
Oh, this week I made your delicious pasta dish with fake sausage, (fauxsage, I call it, though that is not it’s name), butternut squash, and spinach. So good. Maya and I had it on bow tie pasta, and Ted had it on zoodles. It was delicious!
DeleteJ--I do like calamari. I always thought Seafood meant stuff that wasn't fish.
DeleteI don't have any of the challenges you have when coming up with dinner, so now I feel lazy and spoiled. Rick is so amenable and easy to cook for. He's happy no matter what dinner turns out to be, never complains, and thanks me after every meal.
I adore potatoes in every form, but hate peeling. I also love lamb, which is a very traditional Croatian food. I, too, love pasta and could eat it every night, especially vegetable versions, but Rick needs meat. Oh, and raspberries. They're so, so good.
I had forgotten I gave you the butternut squash and sausage pasta recipe. I'm making it this weekend. So glad you like it and that it works with fauxsage.
I miss the days when Ted could eat anything and everything, and SO DOES HE. His genetics are catching up with him, so dairy (unless it is A2) makes him sick, and he is pre-diabetic and has blood pressure issues, which takes care of the sugar and the starch. So sad, because he takes SUCH good care of himself, and it doesn’t help. I am happy to say that, like Rick, he thanks me for whatever I make, and never complains.
DeletePeeling is not my favorite thing either. The worst is peeling the shells off of shrimp. Yuck. Just did that the other night, and the only shrimp they had at the store were small, so there were SO MANY TO PEEL. Blah.
You may have all the liver and onions Nance lol. Some of my favorites are salads, shellfish of any kind, good NY style pizza, all kinds of appetizers and dips, soups and chowders, bacon and eggs, watermelon, and coffee ice cream.
ReplyDeleteNot sure how I forgot eggs, I love eggs. Also chowders. And coffee ice cream, esp with some crumbled up Heath Bar. Yum.
DeleteMartha--I'll happily take the liver and onions! I do love good salads with fresh, fresh ingredients, as long as it's not too crowded and crazy. Some salads are ridiculous.
DeleteI love making an entire meal of small plates, like appetizers and dips. I'm not a fan of deep-fried appetizers, but creative ones and light ones are terrific. You may have all the bacon and watermelon. I do like Haagen-Dazs coffee ice cream very much.
Not a fan of raw oysters, pork bellies, or liver & onions, but the other foods I could eat. I share you irritation with the idea that you can plan dinner earlier in the day or week. How in the world can you know what you'll be hungry for tonight? Piffle, I say to that idea.
ReplyDeleteAlly Bean--Oh, I do love pork belly when it's crisp and glazed, like with an Asian teriyaki or hoisin sauce. So good.
DeleteSometimes I wonder if it's partly my belligerence about planning in general. I have developed a real attitude about it.
10 of 15 items are the same although the oysters would be smoked, not fresh. It would be easier for me to make a list of foods I don't like. My all-time favorites - mango, watermelon, root vegetables, green foods (broccoli, swiss chard, beet greens, kale, zucchini, celery). Seldom does a day go by that tomatoes and cheese haven't been ingested. I usually have 3 things on the menu prompted by what's on hand and what needs to be used up. It's not written in stone though. I love to cook and I love to eat; I'm not sure what comes first.
ReplyDeleteMona--I've never had smoked oysters, but I'm not fond of smoky-tasting foods. I find them too strong. I even dislike bacon in most circumstances. I do love a good tomato, and thank goodness for Canada, who has been supplying me with those ping pong ball-sized tomatoes for years now. They are often better than what I can find at roadside stands. If my grocery store stops carrying them, I will be grief-stricken.
DeleteYou may have all of the kale, chard, and watermelon usually reserved for me. Not a fan.
WELL YOU ARE funny!!! Every since the pandemic hit, I'm eating comfort kid foods for the most part. With a glass of wine at times. I was on a peanut butter and jelly run for a month or so mid summer. .Now I'm only wanting cereal. Current favorite Panda peanut Puffs.
ReplyDeletekathy b--How great is peanut butter and jelly? I'm a big fan of peanut butter in general, so much so that I don't even consider it a Favourite Food anymore. It's more like a Necessity, like olive oil and salt and pepper.
DeleteYou may have all the cereal. I never understood its appeal. We didn't have it as kids, so that might be the reason.
Well, heck... I wrote a comment and clicked on 'preview' to edit if necessary and ... it all disappeared! Anyway... I like everything on your list except for... lima beans. Love most other vegetables, though. My favorite dishes are soups, stews and... anything with a sauce. I really got into cooking when I lived in Spain because I love the food so much and wanted to be able to make it myself. When people invited me over for a meal, I used to sneak into the kitchen and get tips from their moms and grannies, lol. I was amazed at how they could take simple ingredients and make them so tasty. It was a far cry from the watery canned vegetables and over-cooked meat that my mom served. (Although, in all fairness, I credit my mom with teaching me how to bake bread, which I never make any more from scratch, but I least I know how.) (BTW: "Preview" still isn't working, but this time I cleverly copied the text before clicking on it.)
ReplyDeleteOrtizzle--This is a phenomenon happening on Blogger. I thought it was my sidebar loading too slowly, causing people to click away before their comment published, but it's not that. It's definitely some glitch either in Chrome or on the platform itself. I'm reading it in Comments on other Blogger blogs where it's happening. I'm sorry. It's not in my control.
DeleteDon't Preview. Just publish and Let It Go. We don't care.
I like soups and stews, but Rick doesn't get filled up, and afterward he's rooting in the snack cupboard for junk. I like sauces and adore gravies. Jared is the sauce chef. He loves creating sauces and is a very intuitive cook.
I remember you and I discussing in Comments before the Spanish term for cooking for a long time to develop flavour. It's something Old World cooks know about, for sure. Your mom and my husband's mom were victims of the times. My mother learned to cook on a farm, using home grown and home canned/home butchered ingredients. Later, she learned how to cook in the Old World style (Croatian) because she wanted to make things my father loved. Rick always says that he never ate real food until he met me and ate at my house.
I love homebaked bread, but not enough to try making it. I'm just not interested. But oh, how I do love bread.
I’ll never forget the first time I tried to make a simple white sauce. My dad gave me the ingredients (my mom was useless for sauces). I dumped it all in the pan at once and wondered why it was a horrid lumpy mess, lol. After that I learned “the rule of 3” for thickness and also… how to add the flour or whatever thickener I was using. Julia Child’s classic cookbook was what actually taught me about reduction sauces which are used a lot in Spanish dishes. I don’t remember which term I used in Spanish for cooking/stewing slowly but it was probably “guisar.” Sometimes “guisos” (stews) are served with all the broth part as a first dish (usually with ‘fideo’ noodles) and the various meats, sausage variations and vegetables as the main dish with a drizzle of olive oil. Very filling, for sure!
DeleteSince being married to Mr. O., I have learned to make a few basics in Mexican cuisine and have mastered my own version of chicken enchiladas (made with the ‘green tomatillo’ sauce.) One of my favorite dishes I had never heard of was chiles en nogada (bell peppers stuffed with ground beef & pork, diced pieces of apples & pears and with walnut cream sauce and pomegranate seeds on top.) Now I’m getting hungry, haha.
I have spent precious little time in the kitchen since the pandemic hit; all the hours of prep for teaching online leave me little energy for anything else. And now that I am in a long recovery phase for my neck fracture, I am much more into sandwich wraps and loaded salads. *sigh* Soup season is coming, though…
"apples" = sorry, meant "peaches". But apples would be equally good.
DeleteOrtizzle--Yes, "guisar" was the word. I knew it started with a g.
DeleteThe stuffed pepper dish sounds very different from what most of us think of as Mexican food.
I hope you are having a decent recovery and are able to take it easy, so to speak. I know you're working, and I know all that comes with that. I hate like hell that you have to be so busy and can't focus solely on your recovery.
Honestly, if it weren't for Rick, I could live a good long while on wraps, salads, and vegetable pasta dishes. Not that he'd complain, but he needs meat, or he fills up on junk.
Oh dear, I am afraid we must part ways on liver and onions. Even when I used to eat meat, the smell alone of liver cooking used to make me feel sick. We had a restaurant near us where they had monthly specials, and during the time it would be liver and onions my mom and I would go once a week. She would get the liver and onions, and I would get whatever else I wanted. It was an excellent compromise!
ReplyDeleteBTW, I am really really enjoying your posts this month, thank you for doing them.
Bridget--Oh, dear friend. I part ways with so many people on liver and onions. Not a big deal.
DeleteI don't cook liver and onions because I'm the only one who likes it. My mother used to make it because my father liked it (her only reason for making anything, ever). I was probably the only kid who really, really liked it. The smell used to bother my brother, too, just like you. I once asked my mother, not too many years ago, if she would make it for me as a birthday gift. She was startled and said she didn't remember how. Ah, well. Too late.
So, I get it at a little restaurant when we go on vacation in Canada. They do it perfectly.
Oh, you're so welcome! I'm so glad you're enjoying these posts. I always enjoy reading you as well, and I'm glad you're posting every day this month, too.
Well steak & fried Gulf shrimp would top my list. Not home cooked either (I have two favorite restaurants for both). Cheeseburgers are right up there too.
ReplyDeleteWatermelon, apples, black raspberries and bananas.
Baked potato (what,I call a super spud)...topped with butter, cheddar cheese, sour cream, guacamole, lettuce, tomato & cilantro Pico sauce. (Sometimes I add browned taco beef.)
Oh and PIZZA
Anni--That is one loaded baked potato! We have those for dinner sometimes, but not quite that loaded. I do adore guacamole; I make a lot of it in the summer and we have it for dinner.
DeleteI used to love a good, very rare steak (rib cut) and cheeseburgers, too. Rick still prefers cheeseburgers over any other entree. But I have problems with beef in my advanced age (61) now, so I eat it sparingly. But once in a while, you can't beat a good steak.
I also love apples, especially around here, where they are grown in abundance. My fave is Granny Smith. An apple with peanut butter is my go-to lunch.
Pizza is a fave for so many! And its variations are endless, with some people advocating so strongly for certain crust thicknesses and toppings. I'm ambivalent about it. We have terrible offerings for it around here, so we make flatbread pizzas ourselves. I like those.
Chocolate. Repeat any number of times.
ReplyDeleteMary--I care a great deal for chocolate. I've noticed, however, that if I eat too much, my stomach will rebel. It's that way with any sweet. I suppose I should be grateful.
DeleteAnd I don't turn my nose up at good old Hershey's or Cadbury chocolate, either. And Reese's peanut butter cups are still to die for, in my book.
I used to say that pizza was a favorite food. I still like it, but I don't think it's a favorite anymore. I wonder why? I love Ben & Jerry's Phish Food, pecan pie, most chocolate things, bakery cake (white or yellow with lard icing)... For actual FOOD, I'll say stoup (what we call the soup/stew that Mike just throws together with whatever is on hand), stuffed flounder, salad with lots more stuff on it than you would tolerate, and my almost daily steel cut oats. Today's had mushrooms, spinach, cherry tomatoes, two fried eggs, half an avocado, and parm. Delicious!
ReplyDeleteBug--Your actual food faves sound very healthy and not at all indulgent. Your Bad Girl foods make me laugh. I get the bakery cake distinction. I used to like pizza more in my youth, but now it sort of bores me.
DeleteMy Mom loved liver and onions and it makes my stomach turn. I'll not fight you for that, but I love mango, avocado and tomatoes and could live on fresh produce.
ReplyDeleteI recently found at my Publix fresh made crunchy almond butter; the best version of peanut butter I've found and since it is one thing that I can enjoy in moderation.
Suz--I love avocado and tomato together in a salad with a light vinaigrette. Toss a few cucumbers and thinly sliced onion in there, too. Yum.
DeleteI wish we had Publix here in NEO. I got acquainted with that chain while in FLA and GA with my late friend, Ann. They have terrific store-made food!