I started this post a month ago, and it is one of those I just can't seem to get done and out the door. May tends to be one of those whirlwind months. This weekend is a brief lull- another school year is in the books. My oldest has survived middle school, as have we. All the year-end recitals are done, teacher thank-yous handed out, report cards are in, and summer is underway.
Several times in the last few weeks, I caught myself thinking- I'm so grateful that I like to cook. It is one of the most enjoyable life-skills, and one of the most useful hobbies. It ends up being my default and most-appreciated contribution to the world around me, the one thing I do that enriches my life in countless ways.
* * *
For one thing, cooking is my love language and food is my default gift for most occasions. Most people I know complain of owning too much stuff, so a consumable gift is best.
Our (adult) nephew was visiting recently. He's never here during the holidays, so I made him a "holidays in spring" cookie box so he could taste some of our favorite cookies.
 |
| Cookie box |
Last month, my Aussie colleague moved back to her home country after finishing up her training. I thought of getting her a small going-away gift, but she is a minimalist, has exacting taste, and had no extra room for "stuff". So my parting gift to her was a box of homemade lunch on her last day. She was absolutely stressed out, as one would be, cleaning out her apartment and tying up all the loose ends before an international move. She loved having a readymade hot lunch- vegetable and paneer korma, and jeera rice- to fill her belly before she ran off to the airport for a 36 hour journey.
A few days later, I assembled another gift lunch. This time it was a bereavement gift for my friend and former coworker who lost a close family member. I thought a meaningful gift would be to spend some time with her, let her talk about whatever was on her mind, and eat lunch together. This time it again was tried and true recipes that I know to be crowd-pleasing- chana masala and jeera rice. A simple salad on the side, and cilantro lassi packed in mason jars completed the meal. Curry and rice always hits the spot. It isn't as traditional as flowers for a bereaved friend, but I could see it made her happy.
 |
| Packed lunch for two |
This is the joy of standardized and streamlined recipes. You know how to make your keeper recipes quickly, almost without thinking, and you know they will always turn out. This is how I make jeera rice in the rice cooker.
 |
Jeera rice
|
Cooking comes in handy on some of our vacations. Much as I would like to take a full cooking break on vacations, sometimes that just isn't practical. When we vacationed in NYC, sure, it was great to stay in a hotel and eat out for every meal. When we go on driving vacations closer to home, often the destination is a state park or a smaller town without great eat-out options, and vacation cooking is inevitable.
The kids had a week off from school for spring break in April. Close friends of ours (the parents of my son's best friend) invited us to their mother's beach house on Tybee Island, a barrier island very close to Savannah on Georgia's coast. We had a fun 4-day trip with them. There were 11 of us in all- grandma (the home owner), two couples, two teen boys, our teen girl, two 9 yr old boys, and the family dog!
Before the vacation, my friend and I sat down and drew up a rough meal plan so we could share cooking duties. We designated ourselves the vacation cooks since we both enjoy it.
Over the years, I have collected a few favorite vacation meals and strategies, like my standard arrival meal. I make and freeze a main dish and bring it along in a cooler. That way we can settle in and dinner only needs warming up. That week I made and froze chana masala, and we carried it in a cooler on the 4 hour car ride. The other thing I packed in the cooler was a box of paneer and veggies in tandoori marinade. I took along my instant pot and made a fresh pot of basmati rice. We pan-fried the paneer and veggies just before eating, and warmed the chickpea curry. With some cucumbers and baby carrots, it was a full meal and a good start to the vacation as everyone unpacked and settled into the beach house.
The kids woke up the next morning to baskets overflowing with candy and toys- how generous of the Easter bunny (or his assistant, grandma). She also kept the kids busy for hours dyeing eggs.
My friend and I collaborated on the Easter meal. It was great fun to cook together in the little galley kitchen. I made caramelized onion and spinach quiche and roasted potatoes. My friend made a few other dishes and dessert. She is an excellent baker. Lately she has been baking from Christina Tosi’s book All About Cake. For the festive lunch, she made the raspberry bundt cake with a tangy pink grapefruit glaze. What a simple yet beautiful cake!
 |
| fancy raspberry cake |
What made the vacation fun was that everyone contributed whole-heartedly in their way, doing what they do best. My contribution (and preference) was to do half of the cooking. The things I don't much like doing, such as driving around and wrangling kids, I was happy to leave to the other adults.
 |
| quiche |
At some point when you've been cooking for decades, you can cook many things without a recipe, which comes in handy. The quiche I made was the "impossible" type where you just add a bit of flour to form a crust. It is one of those adaptable recipes and I was able to use whatever we had in the fridge to make it. Later in the vacation, when we had a surplus of boiled eggs (see dyeing activities above), I quickly peeled them and made some deviled eggs for snacking on during board game night. Again, assorted condiments from the fridge door came in handy, and I found some paprika in the spice drawer, for that final touch on deviled eggs.
 |
| Taco soup |
Another tried-and-true vacation meal: taco soup. This big pot fed everyone a hearty lunch. (My friend made quesadillas on the side.) It had black beans that I cooked in the instant pot, many vegetables, some other canned beans and corn, soy curls, and taco seasoning from a packet.
* * *
 |
| Tofu salad |
With the weather getting warmer, I'm making a lot of hearty veg-based bowls. This week's favorite was an Asian-inspired salad with a chili crisp dressing and some pan-fried tofu. I've posted a version of this before here. This time, the chili crisp dressing was made in a few seconds in the blender- chili crisp, peanut butter, soyaki sauce, ginger, rice wine vinegar.
 |
| Black bean bowl |
By a lucky chance, someone on the neighborhood email list serve was giving away a stack of Fork Over Knives magazines and I gratefully picked them up from her porch. This publication (now defunct, I think) specialized in whole food plant-based cooking, which fits what we are trying to eat more of these days. I'm flipping through these mags for some fresh ideas.
* * *
Reading and watching--
- My college friend Natasha Sharma has recently published two novels and also writes wonderful essays on a variety of topics. I'll link a small selection here.
- A scathing essay on inconvenient women: "A dead woman is finally manageable."
- Abnormal people: A hilarious essay about those freakish people who seem unaffected by life's little frictions.
- The last page of her notebook: A funny, nostalgic, and, for me, spot-on look back at school days and doodling on the last page of the notebook.
- Talk to Uncle: A poignant account of her mother's battle with frontotemporal dementia, a devastating form of early-onset dementia.
- This poem on Bluesky
- A very short and very funny story- My Financial Career by Stephen Leacock
- Watched this 1959 episode from the TV show The Twilight Zone: Time enough at last. A bank teller is desperately looking for more time to read. Then he gets it- sort of!
