March 2010

MicrowaveWhen I was in Jr. High, I went to a Micro-wave cooking class with my mom- I am not kidding. It was sponsored by whatever company she had purchased our very first microwave from.  We attended for the sole purpose of gaining ourselves the necessary cooking cooking skills for our new favorite appliance. As you might guess, the class failed to teach us anything beyond how to press the new-fangled buttons on the futuristic-looking machine.

Everyone was buying microwaves at that time, but I have to agree with my Grandmother’s assessment of the microwave- she called it the most expensive bun-warmer that she has ever had.


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Even though the film Julie and Julia came out in 2009, I've only just now seen it. Written and directed by Nora Ephron, and based in part on the blog Julie Powell started in 2002 at Salon. I liked Julie and Juliavery much. Meryl Streep is fabulous, (as usual), so much so that now I have to double-check to make sure I'm looking at images and video of the real Julia. Stanley Tucci is wonderful as Child's spouse Paul Child. I wish there had been less of Julie the cooking-blogger (though she is well-played by Amy Adams) and more of Meryl Streep as Julia Child. As much as I admire Nora Ephron's work, I think a film about Julia Child would have been even better.

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one small luxury

is sometimes superior

for its quaint design

Even though we have gone to a culture of year-round produce, thanks largely to growers in South America, asparagus is one of the few seasonal hold-outs.  I have seen asparagus for sale out of season, but it always looks absolutely wretched, and costs a fortune.

These delicate spears say "springtime" better than anything else in the produce aisle.  The Michigan Asparagus Advisory Board calls asparagus "one of nature's most perfect foods," and while admittedly that may be a biased opinion on the part of the MAAB, I have to agree.  


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Well did you ever make colcannon,
made with lovely pickled cream
With the greens & scallions mingled
like a pitcher in a dream
Did you ever make a hole on top
to hold the meltin' flake
Of the creamy flavoured butter
that our mother's used to make

Even if you aren't Irish, Colcannonyou might know the song "Colcannon," popularized in the U.S by Mary Black. In the song, the joys of Colcannon, a dish made of mashed potatoes, cabbage (or kale), scallions, and butter (lots of butter!) are celebrated. Colcannon was a staple for rural Irish families, since it used ingredients that were local and readily available, and quite affordable. If you were lucky, you might have a bit of good Irish bacon to saute with the scallions and serve to season the dish.

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For my cooking adventure yesterday, I chose to prepare some pasta with salmon because I was tempted by the mouth-watering picture in the cookbook. Unfortunately, my memory of which items I actually had in stock in my kitchen was a little lacking, so I didn’t quite get the chance to make exactly what I had anticipated. (underlying meaning: it’s tough to make pasta with salmon when you don’t have any pasta in your cupboards).

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