Alone In The Kitchen With An Eggplant

I have just finished this book and frankly, I was quite miffed.

The book is a series of short stories written by people sharing their experiences of eating alone.  I had purchased this book because quite frankly, I enjoy hearing about the weird things people eat when their alone.  I'll admit, I'm guilty of calling a handful of tortilla chips, a piece of cheese, some jelly beans and a glass of wine dinner, whose not?  But I think I was expecting more humor, more outlandish concoctions and personal culinary discoveries like realizing you enjoy eating grilled peanut butter and banana sandwiches every night for  5 nights straight.  We're all human and let's be honest, peanut butter and banana sandwiches are delicious.

To some extent, the book did cover some go-to made for one creations but then, there was a dark and cynical side.  There were many that admitted hating eating alone and not understanding why anyone would make such a fuss over creating an intricate meal for just themselves.  And I found myself, almost shouting on the T, in the middle of my morning commute, "Whhhhhy?!?!"  Since when did we have to bear the scarlet letter, only in this case to have it stand for "Alone"?  When did it become so wrong to love yourself and to want to treat yourself to something special?  I guess the mark of a good book is one that causes you to think, maybe even get angry at the author(s) and that it did.  After reading this book, I found myself with a stronger sense and understanding of my foodie morals and values.

I love to eat alone, but that certainly doesn't mean that I am a lonely soul.  I consider myself to be surrounded by family and a good number of fantastic friends that I consider to be close and yet, I still find utter contentment in treating myself to a good dinner out...solo.  Book in hand, I love to grab a seat by the window and switch between reading and people watching.  I linger over my food and enjoy getting lost in my own thoughts.  I am always floored by the amount of people that are totally appalled by the thought of diner alone or worse yet, making an extravagant meal for themselves.  And that, is where they are missing it out.  Food is one of the only honest to God pleasures in life.  Why wouldn't you want to savor it?

So the SBK is dishing out some homework: do one exceptionally great culinary thing this week...solo.  Whether it be making a nicer than normal dinner for just you or *gasp* going out for a meal alone, just do it.  You might actually find that you like it.

You're Not Cool Unless You Eat Your Vegetables

I must admit I was pretty proud of my city this morning when I logged onto Boston.com and saw this headline "Boston area becoming a mecca for vegetarian, vegan, and raw food restaurants". Boston? A mecca for vegetables?! Sure, we do a bang up job when it comes to corned beef and hash, the whole family of heavy cheesy pastas, and of course, bacon drenched baked beans. And I dare anyone to walk past a sausage guy cart in Copley, the Public Gardens, or after a game and not get weak in the knees, but vegetables being cool in Boston? This is news to me.

Now don't get me wrong, I am by no means a vegetarian, vegan, raw food follower, etc. I am just happy to see the people of the city of Boston provided with a plethora of alternative dining selections. I think we (myself included) are a little afraid to come out of our comfort zones when it comes those pesky vegetables. Is it a childhood thing? Maybe it's simply a matter of poor publicity. Have all the commercials where Jimmy hides his broccoli in his milk in favor of eating meat and carbs gone to our heads?

Again, I ask you to not misunderstand me, I am not proposing that people give up their cheeseburgers (lord knows I would dream of it!) I am just happy that the under appreciated vegetable is being dressed up, cool as a cucumber with a chic new image so that maybe people will give them a second chance and maybe (gasp!) even like them. I was talking to my very pregnant friend Sara the other day about how in the winter it seems harder for one to incorporate a lot of veggies into one's diet. In summer it's easy. Salads are refreshing on a smoldering summer day. But in the in the winter? It's the heavy comfort food we reach for. Now, this conversation that I was having with my friend got me thinking and I took it as a personal challenge to develop some delicious recipes that incorporate a lot of vegetables that are currently in season. This evening, I'm accepting my own mission and am headed over to her place to make up a batch of winter vegetable enchiladas. With a mix of sweet seasonal veggies balanced by a smoky and spicy chipotle sauce, I think we're in for a good meal.

Stay tuned until tomorrow when I can post tonight's recipe creation along with some pictures.

Until then, happy eating!

Laying Down the Foundation

A question that I’ve been wrestling with and mulling over for quite some time is, what is my cooking philosophy? Or as it is sometimes referred to, what is my cooking perspective? What’s that constant thread that runs through my culinary creations; a thesis, my objective, what my cooking means and stands for? I think you get the point and I think it is important for me to spell it out and capture it on paper (or I guess in this case, capture this foundation out there in the blogasphere). I think it has taken me so long to make this important declaration because I grappled with that very question: What does all this mean?

And I think I found my answer.

There are many things that I think describe my cooking and provide me with the blueprints for any creation. My cooking is honest. It’s fresh and it’s all homemade and original. It is designed to make you want to slow down and put any stresses aside so that you can savor it. Simply put, it invokes that feeling of “Oh my God, this is good”.

Not to get political on you, but I think that our nation really is in the midst of a food crisis. With fast food intake on the rise and fewer people spending money on what they eat and even less time enjoying it, it is evident that changes must be made. And that is what I am setting out to do, create fresh and easy recipes that can impress as well as nourish the soul and body. Now, before you mistake me for a “health nut” (I’m not) please understand that I am simply out to make good food taste great. While it’s true that you won’t see mounds of butter, oils, sugars, and salts in my creations as that’s a sure-fire way to loose the actual flavor of what’s on your plate. You also won’t find the use of a microwave or any prepackaged, chemically enhanced anything. What you will see is honest food, creatively combined and artistically positioned so that it pleases all of the senses and makes your soul smile. While my cooking naturally leans a little heavily on the Mediterranean side (drawing on inspiration from Italy , Greece and Spain ), I will also infuse these influences into other cuisines found globally as well as pull from ideas that originated domestically, creating a hodgepodge of yummyness.

My cooking is meant to excite and my blog is meant to inspire and to encourage you to stay in for a night, dust of those pots and pans and to create.. I encourage you to try my ideas and to tweak them to align with your tastes. Take it all in. The smells, the colors the sounds of sizzle, and enjoy the journey to the end product.

And it starts..

Hello and welcome to my blog. I have been meaning to start a food blog for quite some time now and on this unassuming Thursday, I decided today was the day. To start, I think it only fair for me to provide a little background on myself and what this blog is all about. I am a twenty-something living in Boston (which I tend to refer to as the greatest city on earth, by the way..) and have recently discovered an undeniable passion and ever so *slight* obsession with cooking and all things food related. Seriously, I'm embarrassed to tell you how often I think about food and how I read cookbooks every night before I go to bed. (Seriously. True story.) The science of it simply fascinates me. The passion of pairings, the slicing and dicing, the whirring and stirring, and all love that goes into creating that one dish...oh the art of it all!

I think the main factor that kept the start to my blogging on the back burner (my apologies for the terrible cooking pun) was my apparent inability to choose a focus. Should this be a resource for new recipes? Can I write a restaurant reviews? What about products and new finds that I find particularly useful to me in my tiny city apt, can I write about those? Or maybe I just want to rant and rave about my current fascination with various cheeses and their melting capabilities. Can I do that? I asked myself all these questions and I think today, my answer was staring me in the face. "YES, Of Course!" Why limit myself to one topic when there is so much ground that I'd like to cover? So I ask you, dear reader, to stick with my varying subjects and to just know that the foundation of every posting will be based upon an unconditional and simply undeniable love for cooking and all things food related.