I know... crazy. A post, finally, out of nowhere and it's not even about food, but just look at my new baby!
A recent discussion in the comments of Gourmet & Gourmand, on the high price of pine nuts, led me to thinking about what types of things I am willing to pay high prices for and what I am not. Having a modest but not entirely restrictive budget allows me the luxury to make decisions like the following:
* order take-out once or twice a week from some perfectly acceptable but non-inspiring neighborhood restaurant with entrees in the $6-10 region OR cook modest meals at home/eat leftovers every night and have one night out every month or so at a really good restaurant with wine, dessert et al. I am ashamed to say that, out of laziness, we usually choose the former when we really want to choose the the latter.
* buy the really good $6/lb pasta, local creamery milk, old-ish balsamico, imported San Marzano canned tomatoes here and there but stick with the cheap stuff the rest of the time OR get ingredients of middle of the road, good quality all the time but forego anything really special.
It requires planning, waiting and priorities, my food budget does. I'm not complaining. Not in the slightest way. However, as someone who values high quality ingredients above most else, it does lead me to some interesting inner dialogues on what's worth buying and when.
There are some things that I never skimp on. They are my every day indulgences and I know myself too well to go back to lesser things if I can help it. I will just grumble, gripe and moan about it and lose whatever enjoyment I might have gotten from the inferior product simply due to my own bad attitude about it. My list of must-have indulgences isn't long:
* Parmesan Reggiano. I have to have the good stuff. I have to. I can eat $3 pasta sauce from a jar, but it has to have excellent Parm shavings on top.
* Chocolate. I'm not going to say that I never eat a Snickers or a bag of M&M's (I totally do) but I must have excellent chocolate in the house at all times. French, Spanish, Austrian, Venezuelan, artisanal truffles or dark, dark bars with ridiculously high cocoa content... mmmm. For a mere $10 or so, I can have a small bit of the best chocolates in the world. Since it is so good, I nibble it in tiny amounts and make it last, but when it's gone, I flounder. Must have excellent chocolate!
* Meat. Kid Cayenne has her squeamy nature and I just like really nice meat. I buy the best quality we can afford, all the time. It works because we only eat meat in smallish quantities and with just two of us, that doesn't add up to a lot.
It makes me happy that gorgeous, good quality ingredients are a luxury that I can attain (in moderation), as opposed to most beautifully made items like clothing, cars and fab furniture. Eating good food makes me feel incredibly privileged and I never take it for granted.
What do you consistently splurge on? What are your every day indulgences?
I am still fighting this stupid, no good, rotten old rheumatoid arthritis, tooth and nail. I have to take a number of meds in the morning with food, but they also make me feel sick and nauseated and like the last thing I want is food, lately. This is not conducive to food blogging, I know. Sorry. I'd rather not blog at all than blog about being a sickly old whiner, but here I am, doing it anyway.
Latest meds make me not want my old breakfast standbys of eggs, croissants, toast with goat cheese and fruit. I'm still doing yogurt with fruit and nuts or honey but it's wearing thin and I'm just about over it too. Also, I am too tired to wait around on oatmeal or congee most days. I need something fast and not very sweet or rich. In other words, bland. I need super easy (heating is ok but cooking is exhausting) and yeah, kind of bland. No cereal, because milk has begun to taste a bit bitter. Lots of things have started to taste bad. Very annoying.
Need ideas. Help?
Well, I'm a bit late on the Happy New Year Ra Ra! and the resolution this and holiday that train, but I hoped if I got it in before the week was over it might still be considered timely. I realize that by now everyone is well and truly tired of the holiday season and wants to move on to Mardi Gras and spring and new things. I do too, but I've got these cabbage and blackeyed pea photos on my phone and they are really nice things to eat at any time of year so I'm going to share.
On New Year's Day, I always try to do the traditional good luck thing but this year I was bored of Hoppin' John and braised cabbage, so I went a different route. Inspired by the cold bean side salad (usually served alongside pork rillette and various other dishes) at Tartine, I ad libbed a little black eyed pea salad with a red wine vinegar dressing. For the cabbage, I went with a chilled salad as well, using a NY Times recipe from a few years back for savoy cabbage slaw with applesauce vinaigrette and mustard seeds. They were both wonderful. The bean salad is simple and delicious. The slaw is so much better than you might think (and also makes surprisingly good leftovers). I served them both with seared pork chops and it was a lovely meal. Recipes, below.
Christmas dinner came out beautifully this year. It was small, for just Kid Cayenne, myself and a friend. I roasted my first duck. I was terrified to do it, but it came out well and I'm over the trepidation hump so I think I can continue to hone the skill. Other dishes included roasted red and golden beets with arugula and goat cheese, a nice baked mac and cheese and roasted sweet and spicy pumpkin wedges. We had milk chocolate and salted caramel gelatos from La Divina for dessert. All in all, quite lovely.
Amongst my Christmas gifts this year were these jewels:
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