What am I eating?

Help! I'm shrinking!!

Okay, that was cheesy but what else is one supposed to do with a super giant paperclip?! The bizarre giant cardboard I got in some Ikea kit sealed the deal. Isn't the paperclip awesome? I found it in the bottom drawer of my desk and absolutely love it.

I know the first question in your mind everyday is, "What has D been eating???" Oh, I'll get to that. But first, some administratia:

1) We welcome to the world another member of the Skinn-MMS family! Oct 22 is a particularly auspicious day to be born on because it was my grandmother's birthday and my grandmother was made of awesome so the non-Skinn elements of EMW will be made of awesome too! I am excited. And I hope that Ali doesn't harbor the memories of deep-seated resentment and confusion that I do re: when my parents brought my sister home from the hospital. Just kidding, I have no memory of those events. heh. :/

2) In the past weeks, many have pointed out to me that the heart and soul of the blog is Montoya and I should post more pics of him. Thus I bring you "MF-K PhotoDiary, Oct 22":

[PillowPetz courtesy of Auntie Sae - I just put the unicorn down for one second and he was on it. Have kept Pillowpet in safe place ever since. Excessive humpage means little boy is underwalked so attempted to remedy with late afternoon Central Park excursion:]

It was a full day.

So on to the main question: what have I been eating? Well, here's what I've learned: while weekly organic veg delivery is AWESOME (see photo below), it still requires some discipline to properly manage.
Rule 1) Do not go out and purchase other things (esp vegetables) so that delivered vegetables can be used in new and exciting recipes! I made this rookie error several times before realizing I was caught in a downward spiral of buying things to use up the things I had bought, which almost always meant I was searching for new and expensive ways to cook celery, instead of concentrating on the weekly basket. Who wants to live their life like that? This cooking fallacy is called Recipe Chasing and I will commit it no longer: the challenge is not to find recipes that use the ingredients, the challenge is to use the ingredients in recipes. A subtle but crucial distinction.

Rule 2) Don't be OCD about Rule 1. If a promising recipe calls for cream, get off the fucking couch and get some cream. Skim milk is not going to cut it. I learned this the hard way while making corn chowder. Certain substitutions and too many substitutions effectively kill a recipe so I can't be one of those assholes who comments on epicurious that they didn't follow 75% of a recipe and are either disappointed or ecstatic with the results, as if their comment has any bearing at all on the recipe at hand. Either way, the fallacy is called Not Following Directions. If I'm going to go dramatically off-script, I must realize that's what I'm doing, take responsibility for it, and have the humility to recognize that perhaps the original recipe-writer knew what they were talking about.

Sharp reader, I imagine you've spotted the river of tension between Rules 1 and 2, a river I like to call Knowing How to Cook. I could make all kinds of metaphors about river current, canoes, drowning, bridges, etc, but suffice it to say so far my meals have been all edible (yay! nothing in the garbage!) but also pretty hit-and-miss, a solid string of 6s and 7s. I'm getting better! But I'm not there yet. Specifically, I've tried various renditions of Corn Chowder (it grows on you! but that's because of the bacon, methinks), Beef with Leeks (meh, also substituting balsamic vinegar for red wine vinegar was a false step), Beet and Goats Cheese Risotto (more goat's cheese seems to always be the answer), Irish Stew (maybe I shouldn't have substituted chicken broth for beef broth but it's kind of comforting), and root vegetable latkes with Greek yogurt as a binder instead of egg (the first three were divine, it was around the 9th or 10th one that I lost my taste for them). Also, I've learned how to poach eggs! Which I can do to perfection about 60% of the time (I blame changing barometric pressure).

Two reliable recipes I'd like to share are:

1) Carrot muffins that absolutely cannot be good for you. I didn't put in the nuts and substituted apple chunks for raisins. I think the recipe could be improved with a more adventurous combination of spices other than just cinnamon (tarragon maybe?). Also, E gives the recipe a solid meh.

2) Apple waffles - they freeze really well and are very light! And I think the filling could be futzed with to positive results. Yes, I have a waffle iron. E hasn't tried these yet.

Also, from Serious Cheese I bought a very precious 6 ounces of sheep's milk heaven called Lemon Fetish which couldn't be more aptly named. I *love* it. I should buy other things from that store just to try stuff, but I keep buying this. Another solid meh from E on this one too, but what does she know about cheese?

I will write at length about Canadian chocolate bars in a future post. Though I've been eating them in impressive quantity since moving here, the overall issue of the Canadian choc bar fills me with disappointment and outrage - a topic that deserves more attention than I can give it today. I've become despondent thinking about it.