18 May 2012 8 Comments
in Observations, Pork, Recipes Tags: Animal, cooking, food, Lazy Ox, pig, pig roast, Pork, pork shoulder, Spanish cuisine, Umamicatessen
Pork season is almost here!
What is pork season, you may reasonably ask?? Is it the time when the young wild piglets sprout up from the earth after a spring rain? Is it the brief window when the pig molts its old skin, and is tender and new beneath before the new skin hardens?
Henri, napping amidst the rosemary
No, no… nothing like that. It is the time when the weather grows warm, and I begin noticing the racks of baby back ribs in the grocery store. More
15 May 2012 7 Comments
in Observations Tags: America, atkins, Claim Jumper, dieting, Diets, food, Nathaniel Parker, pritikin, sushi
My wife has a revolutionary diet philosophy. She calls it, “Eat less, move more.”
Such a simple idea. But I think most Americans do not want to eat less. Or move more. After all, there is a lot of food to be eaten. And a lot of TV to be Tivoed.
Dinner at Claim Jumper, Reno, NV
I can never understand why eating until you’re stuffed is considered an American virtue. Perhaps it has its origins in surviving the Great Depression. Like, you better eat all you can while it’s in front of you, because one day it might not be. But when I eat until I’m stuffed, I don’t feel very good. I can feel my heart struggling in my chest to keep up with the digestive tract’s demands. After a meal, you should feel like taking a pleasant walk, not lying down. More
04 May 2012 9 Comments
in Observations Tags: bicentennial, cooking, food, mayonnaise, octopus, recipes, ribs, Skinny Girls, tongs
I vaguely remember the American Bicentennial. I was a young kid, there were lots of patriotic advertisements on TV and specially minted quarters with a drummer on the back.
I’m pleased to have you here, celebrating the Skinny Girls Bicentennial — our 200th post! (Probably not exactly the right term for a 200th post, but what the heck.) When I first launched Skinny Girls & Mayonnaise a year and a half ago, I got 30 or 40 visitors on a good day, and 8 on a bad day. Now I get 50 on my worst days, and 250 on a good day. I guess that’s growth. More
24 Apr 2012 17 Comments
in Markets & Stores, Observations, Recipes Tags: food, grits, Indian food, markets, palak paneer, paratha, recipe, red snapper, Santa Monica, Trader Joe's
Sometimes I feel like eating a cuisine I’m not particularly good at, or don’t have the cupboard resources to roll out on a dime. Chinese food is one example — if I ever want to feel inadequate as a cook, I’ll try to make a Chinese dinner. Same with Indian. I can could a reasonably good generic curry, but am lacking the encyclopedic pantry of spices and unusual ingredients to go much further. Fortunately, my cravings for either of these two cuisines is rare, and when need strikes I can usually survive on the occasional take out. I’m mostly satisfied with my repertoire, and will leave the meins and masalas to the experts. Or, I eat Trader Joe’s.
Palak paneer with Malabari paratha from TJ's
I get annoyed when I meet people from the East Coast who ask whether we have Trader Joe’s on the West Coast. More
17 Apr 2012 16 Comments
in Observations Tags: cooking, food, lunch, mayonnaise, nanny, Skinny Girls, Topanga, vegetarians
We have a new nanny. My wife and I say to each other, “Well, she’s better than nothing.” And we mean it — she is, actually, better than nothing.
B-grade nanny lunch
It’s hard to find a good nanny. Our previous nanny, Karina, was with us for seven years. She was the only nanny my two oldest children, Flynn and Willa, ever knew during their early years. Our third child Imogen has, at age 21 months, already had five. More
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