With all this madness going on in our house, you'd think I'd be knitting like crazy. Au contraire! For some reason, knitting, my main go-to comfort source, has not been appealing to me at all lately. Sad, considering I've got at least a dozen in-progress projects (that I'll admit to, at least) I need to finish. Maybe it's the heat. It's so blisteringly hot here that I can't really get excited about a lapful of alpaca.
Luscious though it is.
But I don't think it's the heat. I think I've been craving something more immediately gratifying. So, instead, I've been cooking. I love cooking, I really do. I slowed waaaaay down on cooking for a long time due to a combination of our ridiculously tiny kitchen, a schedule that had me working evenings, and sheer laziness. Instead of cooking 4 or more times a week, I was cooking once a week. And sometimes not even that often. I know. It's totally embarrassing. There was a lot of take-out. And a lot of frozen food. It was bad.
I'm trying to get in the habit of cooking again. I want to be able to put a good, healthy meal on the table for Hubby and me on a regular basis. I know law school is going to make this a serious challenge, but I'm going to try. And I have a secret weapon. A weapon that has provided me with a treasure trove of delicious, simple (in the a-few-fresh-ingredients-put-together-beautifully sense, not in the open-a-box-and-add-water sense), and, most importantly for my (very) soon to be cramped schedule, often very quick. "Maximum reward for minimum effort." This weapon's name? Nigella.
Photo courtesy The Sydney Morning Herald
Yes, Nigella Lawson. The British culinary maven who makes foodies worldwide drool over her food and her figure. Seriously, I so wish I knew how she makes her cardigans nip in so fetchingly under her bust. If I could figure that out, I'd probably knit and wear a lot more cardigans. I could use the extra definition in the bust department, if you know what I mean. I totally dig Nigella. She loves food, whether it's trendy or trashy (as long as it's good) and she's totally unashamed of it. And that quote above? Yeah, that's from her. She gets that a bowl of crusty bread topped with a bit of sugar and warm milk can be just as fulfilling and delicious as a Michelin-starred meal. I am totally behind this philosophy.
I've had Nigella's cookbooks for years, and remember watching "Nigella Feasts" when it first aired on Food Network back in the day, but I had never actually made anything out of them for some reason. When the Cooking Channel started airing "Nigella Feasts" and "Nigella Express" again recently, I remembered why I had bought those books in the first place, and why I want to be Nigella when I grow up. I remembered why I love cooking, too. Although I didn't need any reminding about why I love food.
I've made two of Nigella's recipes so far this week, but it looks like the state of our house means I'm done cooking for a little while. The great thing about these recipes is that when you make them, they come out looking almost exactly like the glossy pictures in the book. Except with less cilantro. I'm not a big cilantro fan, although I agree it has its place. That place is usually in the garbage (I kid, I kid! Sort of.). They are Kate-tested and Henry-approved. Seriously--he gave me a 7/10 for the pork chops (points off for it being a bit pink in the middle and for the lack of a starch in the meal) and an 8/10 for the salmon. That may not sound great, but the record is an 8.5 for my chicken cutlet with homemade mashed potatoes and asparagus. Trust me, it's high praise from him. I average around a 6.
It's turned into my "Moment of Zen." I put on my iPod, grab my recipe, and go to town. I go full out--mise en place and all. There's something satisfying about the laying out of ingredients, dosing each into its own mini-bowl or cup, the ordering, the combining, the dicing, the poking things with a spatula...maybe that's my OCD talking, but hey, it works. I just zone out and become one with the food (ha).
Despite the fact that I've had a pretty easy time getting into the habit of cooking again, I can't seem to get into the habit of taking pictures of my food. I set out my camera in the kitchen and remind myself repeatedly while cooking to take pictures, but by the time the food is ready I'm more concerned with getting it to the table hot than I am with aesthetics and documentation. So these are not my pictures. They're from the Cooking Channel website, but trust me when I say mine looked pretty much the same. Although not as well-lit. And I used boneless pork chops. And less cilantro. But let them encourage you to wander over to the site and browse some Nigella-y goodness. I don't even LIKE pork or cooked fish, but damn. These were good.
I'm really tempted to do some sort of "Julie and Julia"-style Nigella Lawson cooking project--trying to cook through the entirety of all her books in the next 3 years--but I won't. I may be masochistic, but I'm not suicidal. Plus "How to Be a Domestic Goddess" is all baking, and I don't think I could handle that much pastry without doing some serious damage to my hips.
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