formative food feelings and recent recipes

Katie told me she's going to do a sort of kitchen survey post soon, which I am excited to see and read, and am planning on piggybacking afterwards, but until then, I just downloaded some recent pictures off my camera and thought I should post them. I know I posted several already from my time cooking here in Bulgaria - vanilla roasted pears, braided lemon bread, tomato and corn pie (what a hit!), homemade pop tarts... I think that's it. Anyway, here at Pink House, the four ladies each have assigned dinner nights so that Sunday through Wednesday, we only cook dinner one night a week and get to have a nice sit down family dinner. It's fun to cook for four people and I quite enjoy the family ambiance - we all sit and discuss our days, funny stories, enjoy eating together, etc. I also am a big fan of tradition in general.

Another thing I wanted to mention after reading Katie's backstory is that my family also was always really insistent upon family dinners. I don't remember them as distinctly before the separation/divorce (I was in 5th grade), but I know they happened every night. After the divorce, they became a really important part of the time spent with whatever parent - Monday nights were always with dad and on a school night, dinner is the main activity, so that became a really big deal with him. Then, when we had weekends with dad - Fri, Sat, Sun - we were pretty much only allowed out one night a weekend (I say we, but I am pretty sure things loosened up a lot for my sister once I moved away to college, but this is all from my perspective, of course) and family dinners were a major thing to be planned in advance. With my mom, while we still alternated weekends, I think more about the regular Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday dinners and having our habitual places at the dinner table, mom next to me, pinching my arm fat or forking my elbows when I talked with my mouth full or put my elbows on the table; Ebe across from mom, facing the kitchen so I could sneak faces at her when I went in for more milk or water. I can't really remember what we ate or too many details other than a few specific nights (once I tried to cook and made a sundried tomato pasta that tasted good but I was miscalculated the portions, so we had a ton of food, and it looked weird and brown and I was eternally teased in my household until I started cooking impressive food recently) and that I definitely argued with my mom a fair amount and thought she was just such an idiot. Now, though, I look back and even though it is all very fuzzy, I appreciate having had spent so much regular time with my family. Even if they aren't spectacular memories, they clearly have made an impression on me because communal dining and having regular dinners with my team in college and friends since has been one of my daily joys.

I also have been thinking quite frequently lately, though I don't think I will go too deeply into it now, that there are a few somewhat negative side effects to this strong family connection to meals and dining. I don't remember really thinking about food or focusing on food much before the divorce - of course, I can't say how much of that is because elementary school kids probably don't think about food much in general as far as nutrition - other than liking Mexican food and queso and ice cream a lot. But after the divorce with mealtime becoming such a major familial act, I feel like I started fixating more on when and what I would eat. On vacations, it is one of the most important aspects -  meal plans, special treats, local cuisine, etc. Sometimes I wish that food wasn't something I loved as much as I do because I think I fixate and depend too much on it for pleasure and fellowship. In college, I thought much less about food than I did in high school or postgraduate life because I was so engaged with crew, classes, and boyfriends that I didn't need food in the same way - I found camaraderie with my team in boats and on the bus, I was intellectually stimulated by professors and in class, I was generally loved and cared for by my boyfriend. But in high school, struggling with dramatic relationships and friendships, not naturally fitting into the social world, denying the difficulties of a divorced household, assuming the roles of head of household well beyond my age and maturity, food was a comfort and a consistent joy. After college, I moved to another country, had a difficult and frustrating job, lived in a narrow and limited social circle, and discovered food as both entertainment and sustenance, as well as one of the few things I could exert any control over in my life. On a more promising note, though, I have found that cooking and interfacing with the sight, smell, and texture of the food throughout the process has heightened the pleasure that I attain from the dining experience and I don't feel the need to keep eating beyond satiation. Also, as I am overall quite happy with my job, living situation, and daily life here in Bulgaria, I am hoping to depend less on food. I do think, though, that I still struggle not having the relationship bonds that I had in college, so I think that is why cooking is something I still really enjoy - even though it's a manual task, it somehow fulfills that absence in my life.

I guess I digressed a lot. My apologies, it's very much a part of my personality to sidetrack, but I am able to assert that I generally am able to get myself back on subject and wrap things up. To prove myself a reliable source, I now give you some pictures:

making granola bars in Pink House kitchen, wearing my roommate's adorable apron

 braided lemon bread

 homemade pop tarts

 zucchini ricotta galette

 chopped garlic, parsley, and romaine and grated parmesan for romaine pesto

 romaine pesto in gutted raw tomato

 tomatoes with romaine pesto

 romaine pesto and egg stuffed tomatoes, ready for baking

 romaine pesto, tomato, and parmesan bruschetta

 romaine pesto and egg stuff tomatoes, bruschetta, and broccoli on a bed of lettuce 

(my monday dinner: sept 27)

 homemade granola muffins - no available baking dishes, so why not?

 homemade pizza dough with improvised romaine and basil pesto

 my Italian host mom's tomato sauce recipe

 pesto and mozzarella pizza, pasta with tomato sauce, and granola muffins

(my monday night dinner: oct 4)

My Italian host mom's tomato sauce recipe, told to me in so many vague words and gestures at our kitchen table in Siena, translated by me from Italian to English:

cover bottom of pan with olive oil 

add 2 chunks of garlic, smushed, and ¼ onion, chopped

add canned tomatoes, with liquid (400 grams), smush into pan (use fork or other utensil to smash tomatoes up in pan)

boil/cook for 15 minutes

add oregano and basil, salt and pepper to taste

Sometimes I add fresh basil with the tomatoes, caramelize the onions first, or add mushrooms with the onions. I have also made this when I didn't have canned tomatoes by boiling fresh tomatoes in a little water and adding some regular tomato paste if available. This takes a little longer, but it still makes a decent tomato sauce. I have read other recipes for making tomato sauce using fresh tomatoes that you blanch and then peel and deseed, so that is another option. I find that the longer and slower you cook the sauce, especially with fresh basil and well cooked onions, the better it tastes. Regardless, it is generally a crowd pleaser.