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Archive for the ‘Roots’ Category

Day 19 – Salads

Posted in 31 Days, Food, Home, Nostalgia, Roots on October 20, 2023| Leave a Comment »

As integral to our family life as food was, I didn’t really learn to cook a lot of things growing up. Mom had a system, and it seemed to stress her out to have us in there when she was cooking.

But it’s hard to mess up a salad. We didn’t need a lot of direction (other than the main one of chopping everything into small bits so that a long-ass piece of lettuce doesn’t get dressing all over your face when you’re trying to eat it), so once my sister and I got old enough to wield a knife with minimal risk of peril, making a salad was our job.

I don’t remember a time growing up when there wasn’t a salad in the fridge, and that faithful constant remains true today at the farm. We made one every night at supper with enough left over for lunch or for a snack the next day. To this day, I count salad among my snack food options.

To this day, I also feel compelled to visit the salad bar if it’s available wherever I eat. I don’t always give in, but I feel the tug.

I do not often make a salad at home, though. I have done that enough to last a lifetime. I will buy the bagged salads with the ingredients already chopped and the toppings already prepared (Taylor Farms kits are my faves, particularly the Everything, Asiago Kale, Sweet Kale, and Thai Chili Mango kits) and make a whole meal out of them, but I rarely buy the ingredients alone.

But occasionally, I get a nostalgic urge for a basic green salad and the compulsion to chop it up myself. When that happens, here are my favorite ingredients:

  • Leafy greens of some sort (usually some type of lettuce, but I also love arugula and kale)
  • Radishes
  • Snap peas
  • Carrots
  • Whole cherry or grape tomatoes (I do not like tomato juice dripping freely throughout my salad)
  • Black or Kalamata olives
  • Dried cranberries or apricots
  • Some kind of cheese (my typical preferences are a sharp, hard variety such as cheddar, feta, or goat cheese)
  • A little bit of dressing (specifically French, Russian, Catalina, honey mustard, or Caesar)

What’s in your favorite salad?

I’m talking about home and how it has influenced my food choices this month.

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Day 9 – Holiday Candies

Posted in 31 Days, Food, Home, Nostalgia, Roots on October 10, 2023| 3 Comments »

Besides pie, another treat that reminds me of holidays at home is homemade candy. My mom’s side of the family made candy from scratch every year. Aunt Gale liked making chocolate-covered cherries (meh – maybe another reason I thought I didn’t like cherries) and divinity (also meh and so, so sweet). As I grew up, I discovered that these candies weren’t gross, but they did require a slightly more sophisticated palate than I had as a child.

What did not require a mature palate? Chocolate.

The day after our big family gathering on Thanksgiving, everyone went home and we continued to graze on leftovers because there was no room for cooking in the kitchen. It was candy day. Well, for us it was putting-the-Christmas-decorations-up day. Mom ran the show in the kitchen. I always listened for the exasperated sighs that told me her hands were getting tired, though, because they also meant she was open to my help. So I helped make at least one of the candies each year.

We made (among the occasional others):

My favorite candy was (and still is) the Martha Washington. I do love coconut. And while we dipped all the ones that were coated in chocolate with milk chocolate, I prefer dark. Very dark. The darker, the better. Which is how I make them today if I’m making them at my house.

The millionaires are Mom’s favorite. Many recipes that you find will have you melt down caramel candies to make the nougat, and that’s fine. You can’t really mess it up. But if you want something truly delectable, make your own caramel as directed in the recipe I linked above. You won’t be sorry.

Well, you might be. Because you will probably burn your hand at least once, especially the first time you make caramel (or toffee flakes, which is what you get when you accidentally cook it a little past the soft ball stage. Sorry, not sorry). In fact, if you don’t burn your hand, drop the wooden spoon into the hot, boiling caramel (risking burning yourself again), and yell, “Shit!” at least twice during this process, are you even doing it right?

But if you make it past this stage with minimal injury, you will have the satisfaction of enjoying homemade caramel, one of the most delicious pleasures that exist in this life. And while many recipes, including my family’s, will advise you to simply add a bit of food-grade paraffin (canning aisle) to whatever meltable chocolate you have to make it smooth and shiny, you really should try tempering some good chocolate for the coating at least once.

[Aside: Expect cursing during this step, too, especially if even one molecule of water gets near the melting chocolate.]

We haven’t made candy in the last few years. It makes a lot, and it ties up the kitchen for a long time. As we’ve all gotten older, it just seems to add unnecessary angst to our time together.

I miss it, though. Even the stressful parts. It was one of my favorite holiday rituals.

I’m talking about food, family, nostalgia, and all sorts of related things this month.

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Day 5 – Dad and His Grill

Posted in 31 Days, Food, Nostalgia, Roots on October 5, 2023| Leave a Comment »

I realize the picture above may not automatically match the post’s title in everyone’s mind.

But in our family, you can use the grill for just about anything. Never one to waste an opportunity to plan ahead or cook in bulk, Dad cooks a lot when he goes to the trouble of firing up the grill. He will grill lots of meat that we will eat at the upcoming meal, and that will be the priority, of course. He may also grill some vegetables for the meal or make veggie packets to place on it that will steam perfectly in the residual heat.

He also cooks the bacon and sausage that he uses for breakfast almost every day in bulk. Taking the pre-cooked bacon out of the freezer and just warming up what the two of them need gets the everyday breakfast he makes for himself and Mom on the table without a lot of fuss. He “accidentally” (thinly veiled fib) makes extra when he knows I’m coming for a visit so that he can sneak a bucket of bacon or sausage in the to-go cooler when I leave.

I use these particular reserves in different ways, though.

For supper at the farm, meat is the star of the show. It’s the main course. There are usually 2-3 veggies or other sides, plus a salad, to go with it. This is what constitutes a proper meal there.

When I’m at home, however, most of the meals I cook don’t have meat at all. And when a meal does contain meat, it may be part of the main dish, but it’s rarely the centerpiece. Sometimes, it’s little more than seasoning.

When I returned from my visit to the farm on Labor Day weekend, I brought about as much meat back with me as Mom and Dad eat in a week. I, on the other hand, spent the next couple of days using it to cook big-batch meals so that I could freeze portions of them to eat throughout the month. A month later, I still have a couple of portions left in my freezer.

The meals I cooked included:

  • Spaghetti with spicy marinara and bacon
  • Steak, sweet potato, and kale stir fry
  • Orecchiette with bacon alfredo
  • Ginger fried rice with steak, bacon, scallions, and carrots
  • Warm corn, green bean, carrot salad with steak
  • Sausage and broccoli stir fry

Most stir-fry meals are pretty straightforward – you can tell most of the ingredients by just looking at them. And almost all of mine start with a saute of garlic, onion, and ginger. Here’s how I made the sausage and broccoli stir-fry pictured above (6 servings).

Ingredients:

  • 1 onion, chopped
  • 1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger
  • Several cloves of garlic, minced
  • Sesame oil
  • Olive oil
  • Red pepper flakes (to taste and optional…ish)
  • Soy sauce (optional but recommended)
  • Salt (especially if you don’t use soy sauce) and pepper
  • Large bag of frozen, chopped broccoli (of course, you can also use fresh, and admittedly the texture is better, but frozen is sooo easy)
  • 1 quart (or about 1 1/2 pound) ground sausage, browned
  • 2 cups rice
  1. Steam rice according to package directions or according to how Woks of Life does it. Or if you want leftover rice you can freeze for up to 3 months so that it’s ready next time you want to make fried rice, bake a big batch of it (a winter freezer staple of mine, because I do not turn on the oven in the summer).
  2. If using frozen broccoli, microwave in a bowl for 4 minutes (or steam in the bag according to package directions, if that’s what you bought) and pour off the excess water.
  3. Generously coat the bottom of a large skillet or wok with equal parts sesame oil and olive oil. Warm oil on medium-high heat and add onion, garlic, and ginger. Cook until soft. Add red pepper flakes and stir to mix.
  4. Add sausage to skillet to brown (or if pre-browned and frozen, to thaw and warm throughout).
  5. Add broccoli and stir together with sausage, allowing everything to finish heating evenly (shouldn’t take more than 2-3 minutes).
  6. Remove from heat. Add pepper and either soy sauce or salt to taste.
  7. Serve sausage/broccoli on top of rice.

Do you like to grill? If so, what do you make?

I’m writing about the food I grew up with this month. Click to see the whole list!

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Day 4 – The Family Coolers

Posted in 31 Days, Food, Fun, Home, Nostalgia, Roots on October 4, 2023| Leave a Comment »

This cooler is currently sitting in my apartment. Actually, there are two of them. They’re identical – right down to the Terry name written on them in permanent marker right under the handle – and neither of them is technically mine. I’m usually pretty good about taking the one I have with me to the farm every time I go, but I guess I missed one of them at some point. No worries. Dad knows they’ll eventually show back up. They always do.

They’re the family coolers.

These coolers have gotten a lot of use over the years. When Tammy and I were growing up, they were mostly used for transporting food that needed to stay cool from the house to a potluck through the Texas summer heat. They were also useful when we had to drive anywhere and wanted to have sandwiches or snacks along the way.

My first memory of using the coolers was on our trip to Colorado to see my Aunt Vicki. The cooler sat in the middle of the backseat, and I was tasked with keeping it from falling to the floor or shifting around too much (why this was important is less clear to me – I suspect it may have just been something to occupy my attention during the long drive). It was probably filled with a mix of our go-to favorite sandwiches and snacks:

  • Bologna and cheese on Mrs. Baird’s white bread (with Miracle Whip)
  • Tuna or chicken salad sandwiches (also with Miracle Whip…usually on white bread but sometimes on wheat for the grownups)
  • Carrot sticks
  • Celery sticks
  • Cucumber slices
  • Cherry tomatoes
  • Vienna sausages (still in the can but also in the cooler because they’re “better cold”)

Eating the same type of food anywhere except our kitchen table always elevated it to something special. It made it seem like a treat to us but also must have saved our parents a lot of money on food while we were away from home. Double win.

Now the main thing we use these coolers for is transferring food from the farm to our own homes. Every time I visit, for example, Dad takes the opportunity to make steak, and he always grills more than we can possibly eat while I’m there. We also make extravagantly larger portions of sides, even though there are really just 1-3 more people for each meal.

When we were growing up, this simply would have meant we had lots of leftovers for later in the week. What it means now that there are just two of them there most of the time is that the leftovers come home with us.

I mean, I will take leftover steak (or potatoes…or green beans…or bacon…) that I neither had to cook nor buy. I will take that every single time.

Thus, there is usually one of our coolers in my apartment, a constant reminder of one of the specific ways our parents show us that we are loved.

I’m writing about food and home and how those two concepts intertwine this month.

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Day 3 – Weekly Cooking Rhythms

Posted in 31 Days, Food, Home, Lush, Roots on October 3, 2023| Leave a Comment »

When we were young, and Mom and Dad were both working, we did the three-meals-a-day thing. Mornings started early, so we would typically eat a bowl of cereal or toast – something that could be prepared quickly. Once they both retired and could get up whenever they wanted, their eating schedule quickly morphed into what it is today – two meals a day and snacking whenever they feel peckish. 

I also go by this routine most days. I get up too early to eat a real breakfast during the week, as eating too early tends to nauseate me. So does eating a regular meal too late in the day. It’s a delicate balancing act and the main reason I’m a big fan of snacking throughout the day rather than eating a lot all at once. Lunch is usually my biggest meal during the work week, though, and it often consists of warming up leftovers or eating somewhere on or around campus. 

Weekday dinners are typically salads, sandwiches, or snacks. Popcorn and a glass of wine, a handful of nuts and crackers with a piece of fruit – anything that’s quick, easy, and on the lighter side. The other night I had a carrot cake cupcake (sans icing because it was super sweet and cream cheese is not a friend to the lactose-averse) and a mug filled with dry Cheerios. Not my finest culinary moment, but sometimes you just do whatever gets the job done.

When I am working and going to various meetings during the week, it doesn’t make sense to add cooking to the to-do list on those days. But I do like to cook. That’s what Saturday and Sunday are for, which is one of many reasons that I guard my weekends so carefully. A good weekend at home yields food for the whole week to come.

Saturday mornings start with a hearty breakfast (after I have nursed my first cup of coffee or two and eased into the day…maybe started a load of laundry or read for an hour…). Sometimes there are multiple courses. I would make a great hobbit. Lunch is typically a big-batch meal. I eat one portion and divide the rest into containers that I can just grab for lunch as I head out the door the following week. If it’s a recipe that especially makes a lot (like 7-8 servings) I package half of them up and freeze them for a later date. This comes in handy when I have busy weekends when the cooking doesn’t happen. Supper on Saturday is often spent with friends, but if I’m at home I’ll cook another meal that I know will leave me with more leftovers (this is often when I make soup) so that I can enjoy a little variety during the week. 

On Sundays, I usually eat breakfast for lunch after church. It’s my favorite meal to make and I’m hardly ever home to do it at the traditional time, so I take full advantage of my days off. If it happens to be a time of the year when it’s not 10,473 degrees outside, I may bake something in the afternoon. Sunday supper is usually eaten early (around 4-4:30) so that it has plenty of time to digest before I try to go to sleep. Because Sunday is comfort food night. For me this usually means carbs. Big bowl of pasta and sauce, creamy risotto, pizza. If I haven’t had my fill of breakfast yet, I’ll eat biscuits and gravy or oatmeal, or I’ll bust out the waffle iron for a real treat. It’s my favorite meal of the week.

When I make waffles, I always make extras, because I know I will want more at a slightly later date (i.e., the next night). Here is my current go-to recipe, which serves 3 people (or me, 3-4 times).

Dry ingredients:

  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 3 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1 hearty pinch of salt
  • Coconut flakes (technically optional, but I don’t understand why you would want to leave them out)

Wet ingredients:

  • 1 stick (i.e., 8 tablespoons or ½ cup) of butter (unsalted, or if you only have salted, leave salt out of dry ingredients), melted and cooled, plus a little more for the waffle iron
  • 1 tablespoon sugar (not technically a wet ingredient, but it just works better if you mix it with the butter early on)
  • 1 ¾ cup unsweetened coconut milk (you can use the full-fat canned coconut milk if that’s what you have – and you really should try it in this recipe at least once – but I usually have the less intense stuff in the carton on hand, so that’s what I use most often)
  • 1 healthy dose (about 2 tablespoons, probably) vanilla extract
  • 1 large egg (optional – see note at the end)

Toppings:

  • Maple, chocolate, or caramel syrup
  • Peanut or sunflower butter
  • Jam or preserves
  1. Preheat waffle iron.
  2. Mix (sift, if you’re fancy) dry ingredients.
  3. Mix wet ingredients in a second bowl.
  4. Pour those two bowls together and stir/whisk thoroughly.
  5. Brush waffle iron with butter.
  6. Pour batter into iron, releasing when it stops steaming. Repeat until you’re out of batter.
  7. Serve with your topping(s) of choice.

I like my waffles on the crispy side, but if you want more fluff, try adding up to ¼ cup more coconut milk, adding an egg to the wet ingredients, or whipping the batter a little longer right before pouring it into the iron.

This month, I’m writing about the food I grew up with as well as the food I make today.

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We Have Food at Home: 31 Days of Exploring the Tastes I Grew Up With

Posted in 31 Days, Epic Meal Planning, Feast, Food, Home, Joy, Nostalgia, Resolutions, Roots on October 1, 2023| Leave a Comment »

Food tells the story of place. As I’ve been reflecting on the concept of home this year, I have been delighted to discover how many memories and experiences that mean home to me come with a menu. I (and a lot of the important people in my life) echo Julia Child’s sentiment – “People who love to eat are always the best people.” The scents, the tastes, the ambiance created around a table full of friends and/or family – I’m not sure I could really explore what it means to be at home without talking about these things.

While the bulk of the actual writing for this series will all happen this month, I’ve been outlining these posts since June. I’ve had a lot of fun revisiting old recipes and seeing if they taste the same as I remember. I’ve also found a lot of joy in reading cookbooks, food memoirs, and foodie fiction to find new things to try (my favorites of which I will showcase during Friday Fives).

Full disclosure – this may read like a food blog this month. I am pretty stoked about that myself, as I looove food blogs. When a person generously shares the food they love with the internet, I don’t just want the recipe. I do want to hear the story behind their favorite soup and the beloved person it reminds them of. Or, at the very least, I want to hear what makes their particular spin on lasagne noteworthy. I want to know the special place this dish holds in their life. If you want that, too, then you’re going to love this series. 

I also invite you to share any stories in the comments that come to mind when you read the posts. I want to hear which foods have impacted your life. And if you have some recipe (restaurant, cookbook, etc.) that you think I really must try, I am all ears!

[Aside: if you’re one of those food blog haters who just want the recipes without having to endure the arduous struggle of scrolling to the end to get to them, this may not be your favorite month on my blog. See you in November.]

If you’ve been here a while, you know how my 31-days projects work. I’ll post something new every day and index the links here. Enjoy!

Day 2 – Foodie TBR
Day 3 – Weekly Cooking Rhythms
Day 4 – The Family Coolers
Day 5 – Dad and His Grill
Day 6 – The First Friday Five
Day 7 – On Telling MeMaw Your Favorite
Day 8 – Holidays With the Family
Day 9 – Holiday Candies
Day 10 – My Love of Cranberry Sauce
Day 11 – Breakfast and Brunch
Day 12 – What I Want in a Restaurant
Day 13 – Friday Five – In Praise of Perfect Evenings
Day 14 – Sauces
Day 15 – Baking Season
Day 16 – Soup Season
Day 17 – Spice of Life
Day 18 – Cereal and Snack Cakes
Day 19 – Salads
Day 20 – Free Friday Five
Day 21 – My Charcuterie Journey
Day 22 – Potlucks
Days 23 & 24 – A Warm Beverage
Day 25 – Sandwiches
Day 26 – Gross Things That Make Me Happy
Day 27 – The Last Friday Five of the Series
Days 28 & 29 – Favorite Takeout
(Day 30 – skipped)
Day 31 – The Paprikash (Month in Review)




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To Sarah on Her Birthday

Posted in Books, Bookshops, Denton, Home, Joy, Lucky, Music, Nostalgia, Roots, Spiderweb on September 30, 2023| 2 Comments »

Besides my sister, there is only one friend I grew up with about whom I can say we are even closer today than we were back then.

That friend is Sarah.

We went to school together in Childress, and we hung out at school (and outside of it, too, when I was allowed). Even then, she was perpetually cool and always up for an adventure. We had very different experiences growing up, but Sarah has always been someone who can be trusted with my hopes and dreams (even when those dreams are a romance novel I wrote in 6th grade).

(Photo credit – ? Did Stephen take this picture?)

Years went by, and we saw each other around Denton occasionally, but then she invited me to a book club at her house. A chance to reconnect – and over books?! Of course, I’m in! I’m so glad she thought to include me, because the book club is wonderful, but even more than that, because she reached out, today I get to count her among my closest friends.

One of my favorite things about Sarah is her encyclopedic knowledge of so many fascinating people and things. I loooove learning new things, and I always learn something new around her. Without Sarah, I would not know…

…what deep listening is.

…that Booked Up (RIP) ever existed or half as much about Larry McMurtry (also RIP) as I know now.

…about Julia Louis-Dreyfus’s podcast Wiser Than Me. I’ve only listened to her interviews with Jane Fonda, Isabel Allende, and Ruth Reichl (three people, by the way, who would be in my top ten most coveted interviewees if I were to host such a podcast), and I’m hooked.

…and so much more. Sarah has a way of recommending things to me that she knows I’ll love. She’s an incredible listener and has an amazing memory. I can listen to her for hours.

(Photo credit – Kara Dry)

She is the first person I performed with at a Spiderweb event. In fact, she’s the first person I performed with (outside of church, if you count that) since grad school. I love collaborating with her; I think we work together pretty well.

Sarah is generous with her knowledge, her time, her home, and her coffee.

And her pets.

She’s one of the only people who has a standing invitation to my parents’ farm “whether I come with her or not,” according to Dad.

Sarah, I love you, and I’m so proud of you and all you have accomplished. You inspire me and feed me and love me so well, and I’m lucky we’re friends.

Also – shameless plug – everyone go to Molten Plains Fest in December. This is the second year Sarah and Ernesto have organized it, and it’s going to be AMAZING.

I love you, friend, and I hope your birthday (and every day) is fantastic.

(Photo credit – Ellie Alonzo)

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Tribute

Posted in Books, Roots on August 10, 2023| 3 Comments »

There are quite a few musicians who had a formative impact on me in my teen years/young adulthood. Some blew me away with their talent, their stage presence, their personality, or all of the above. Tori Amos, Fiona Apple, the Cranberries. And Sinéad O’Connor. 

When everyone in the sheltered social pocket where I lived in my small town was scandalized by her ripping the picture of the Pope, I wondered why (I didn’t really have access to why because that was pre-internet and so my information was limited to what I could glean from the library and the news. It was…slanted…to put it mildly). Friends threw away their singles of “Nothing Compares to You,” and leaders at church seemed to agree it was a clear attack on all Christianity. It wasn’t, of course, and it was odd to hear so many of the Baptists I grew up with come to the Pope’s defense. After all, they usually enjoyed a nice rousing dose of judgment for anyone who wasn’t at least Protestant, dismissing all others as heretics of varying degrees. But Christians have a hard time passing up any opportunity to play martyr, don’t we? Even if we have to join forces with those we usually look down our noses at and completely fabricate our entire point.

But Sinéad didn’t look unhinged to me. She didn’t look hysterical. Or demonic. Or anything I heard people calling her. She did look mad. And she was right to be. 

It’s possible that I have Sinéad O’Connor to thank for my religious deconstruction tendencies. 

I just finished the audio of her memoir Rememberings. She read it herself, and it was particularly moving to hear her story in her own voice.

It’s a weird kind of grief when someone I love – but don’t actually know – dies. It’s like the lingering fog of a cold I’m just beginning to get over. Everything moves a little more slowly and the brightness of the world she no longer inhabits is just a little dimmer. I’m sad to see her go.

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Day 23 – A Thousand Words

Posted in 31 Days, Beauty, Home, Lush, Roots on October 25, 2022| Leave a Comment »

I am spending time with my parents at the farm for a few days. The pictures speak for themselves.

I’m musing about the lush life this month.

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Day 16 – Food

Posted in 31 Days, Church, Food, Lush, Nostalgia, Nourish, Roots on October 17, 2022| Leave a Comment »

“If hygge was a person, I think it would be Alice Waters.”
Meik Wiking – The Little Book of Hygge

From the moment I heard about Alice Waters and her connection to the Slow Food movement, I’ve been hooked. Maybe it’s because I grew up on a farm where we grew our own peaches and pecans and enjoyed the bounty of MeMaw’s robust garden. Perhaps it’s because I’ve always harbored secret fantasies of building my own version of Chez Panisse. It could just be the simple fact that good food, especially food grown or produced within driving distance and/or cooked with love, gives me a solid sense of place like nothing else can.

The fastest way to my affection is to cook for me. One of my favorite birthdays was one of the years I was vegan. I was having a hard time coming up with a restaurant that all my friends would enjoy and where I also could get food I loved and would eat. I was about to give up when my sister offered her house to host a potluck. My friends brought over such a feast of all my favorite vegan things. It was so kind and generous and the best gift I could have asked for. Another favorite birthday was the year I invited everyone over to my apartment and served three kinds of lasagne.

I don’t always love cooking, but I love sharing food. I doubt I’ll ever actually own a restaurant, but I love feeding people. For me, there’s no such thing as a lush life without shared meals.

I go through phases of different favorite things to make. Bread. Pie. Cookies. Risotto. A couple of times, Maggie and I put aside a whole weekend to bake and invite people over to enjoy what we made. Cookie weekend was epic. Pie weekend was pretty good, too. Maybe July wasn’t the best time to bake pies all weekend, but it was delicious.

I’m on a real soup kick right now. Yesterday, I did not want to go to the grocery store, so I did a pantry sweep to see what I could make for the week without running that particular errand. Imagine my delight at finding a goldmine of yellow split peas. With some onions and bell peppers and a few herbs, I now have a vat of one of my favorite soups to indulge in all week. Bliss.

Saturday, our church is hosting its annual Empty Bowls luncheon, and I’m looking forward to sampling soups from several restaurants in the area. Maybe I’ll even host a soup party of my own someday.

I am writing about all the things that make life lush this month.

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