the arugula files

Apron Anxiety, Plus Herb Crusted Chicken (For Hungry, Important People)

At the beach a few weeks ago I finished, Apron Anxiety: My Messy Affairs In and Out of the Kitchen.  If you read the author's blog, then you know this "tell-all memoir" (<air quotes) describes Alyssa Shelasky and Good Stuff Eatery's Spike Mendelsohn's rocky relationship, with food tales tossed in (including a few tasty sounding recipes).

Yes, it's a bit trashy, and that's exactly why I liked it.   

Ms. Shelasky is a good writer. She has a voice and a style all her own. I'm fond of her Carrie-like gift for asking pop candy questions ("When did tweeting become the new chain smoking?")  and for zippy lines ( "Zagat is my Zoloft").  Apron Anxiety's pages kept me busy for a few hours, as I relaxed in my beach chair at the water's edge.  

Farm City: The Education of an Urban Farmer

 

I just finished Farm City: The Education of an Urban Farmer by Novella Carpenter.  Ms. Carpenter is an urban farmer in Oakland and Farm City chronicles her experience with animal husbandry on plot of land smaller than my yard.  Urban farming is all the rage these days and it's easy to dismiss the likes of Ms. Carpenter and her hipster following as a passing fad, except for the fact that everywhere—from containers on DC condo patios, to community plots, to the White House lawn—a garden is growing.  Granted, gardening is not farming, but considering the egg crisis and the number of articles I’ve read on people raising their own chickens, interest in raising animals, to be eaten, qualifies as trend. (Note: most of the laws in the Washington region, including DC, MD, and VA, either prohibit or make it difficult for people to raise chickens).

I was drowning and she pulled me out of the ocean.

Did you know that Julia Child didn't start cooking until she was 32 years old?  She later entered Le Cordon Bleu at age 37.  Ahem, that's about how old I am, minus one year (don't say it out loud).  This is what I love about Julia - she not only opened the door to the professional kitchen for many women, she personified possibility.  I'm 36 years old and I can still do anything. Why do I think that?  Julia Child.

There are many books inspired by Julia Child, but if you haven't read Julie and Julia yet, you have exactly 96 days before the movie version comes out.  I loved this book.  I'm assuming that if you read food blogs, you've heard of Julie and Julia, but just in case you only plugged into the world recently, it was written by Julie Powell who, bored by her dead end job, decides to cook and blog every recipe in Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking--all 524 recipes.  Her crazy blog, the Julie and Julia Project, gives her life the shot in the arm she needed: she finds purpose and writes a terrific book about her experiences cooking and blogging (which is now a movie).  A book about blogging recipes?  It sounds boring, but it was a wonderful story of someone who finds themself.

Towards the end of the book, Julie Powell sits down to write Julia Child, who had just died, a thank you.  She writes, "I have no claim over the woman at all, unless it's the claim one who has nearly drowned has over the person who pulled her out of the ocean."  That line made me sob when I was reading the book.  It's in the movie preview, and I sobbed after that too.  I'm not sure why Julia Child makes me cry.  I can only think that it's the same reason why I tear up when I watch commercials for the Olympics: they are both so damn inspirational.

Here's the movie trailer {hat tip to Amateur Gourmet}
Thanks to Flickr user Rakka for the fun photo.

Get Ready for Foodie Fight!

This week I'm a blogtestant on www.foodiefights.com.  What does that mean?  Foodie Fights is Iron Chef meets the internet meets the food blogerati.  Basically, people sign up, and six bloggers are selected to battle it out.  The blogtestants get two surprise ingredients that they must use in the preparation of one course.  The blog entries are submitted to www.foodiefight.com and the internets votes.  The entries are also rated by guest judges. 

I love this idea.  It wasn't mine though.  Nick and Dan from Macheesmo and The Food In My Beard (TFIMB) are its creators. 

Guess what the two ingredients are....

Rhubarb and coriander seeds--an amazing combination!

I'm not sure what I'll make.  The possibilities are endless.  

Check out my blogtestants; it's an excellent line up.

Crazy Monkey House

Brake for Bread

Aga Kitchen

Downsized!

Elaine - The Gourmet Girl

Vegan Until Six pm? A Look at Food Matters by Mark Bittman

I just finished Mark Bittman's new book, Food Matters.  It's quite good; though if you have read any of Michael Pollan's work or Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, not much of this book will surprise you.  We are eating ourselves into extinction, and our love for steak, short ribs, and baby lamb, is exacting intolerable effects on the environment. Our food policy sucks, and Americans are fat as a result. For the uninitiated, the first half of Food Matters includes horrifying statistics and thoughtful policy critiques.  Old news to most people who care about such things.  But, by providing recipes, tips, and quiet motivation along with a dollop of persuasion, Bittman does what Pollan failed to do in his book: operationalize the "more plants" mantra.  He also achieves a level of practicality that Kingsolver misses: we can't all move our family to a farm, grow asparagus, raise chickens, sell rainbow colored eggs, and spend a year writing about it (though I wish I could, especially the part where I get a fat advance for the book).  That's not to say that I didn't love AVM, I did.  But it was more theoretical than applicable.  

So does Food Matters have added value? 

Good Food Reads for Snow Days

My tiny kitchen

Tomorrow is a snow day.  Right?  I think we should all stay home and read.  Here are a few food articles and blog posts that sparked my interest.  

5 Food Blogs You Should Read! Seriously.

We all spend hours at smitten kitchen or reading through countless (and flawless) recipes from Elise.  I'm alway interested in what Pioneer Woman has on the stove and what her kids are up to.  And the photos at 101 Cookbooks and Food Blogga make me drool.  There are literally thousands of food blogs out there.  It's hard to read them all. I TRY.  Here are five food blogs you might not know about, but you should.  Seriously.

1. Pete Bakes - Check out Pete's recipe for challah bread.  People who are not professional bakers make challah bread? Wow. I'm going to try it this week.
2. Baker's Banter by King Arthur - Inspiration from the king of flour.
3. Eight Acres at Wheatland Vegetable Farm Blog - I love farmers who blog.  This one is new.
4. The Traveler's Lunch Box - Search for "saganaki."
5. The Bitten Word - These guys are making all the recipes you noted in your foodie mags, but still haven't got around to cooking.

A word about the photo: I didn't make it.  This delicious quiche was made by Quail Creek Farm.  I came across it at the Penn-Quarter Farmers Market.  I had already eaten lunch. Sigh.

The Secret Life of Lobsters

lobster claw, originally uploaded by Simon Goldenberg.

I recently finished The Secret Life of Lobsters by Trevor Corson. This book has lots of fun facts about my favorite crustacean. For example, male lobsters are big bullies who march around the ocean floor terrorizing their counterparts. If they were human, we might describe them as the type that are always “up in your face.” In fact, dominant male lobsters are so aggressive that when it comes time to mate the female lobster pees in his face to help sedate his violent tendencies. Then they have sex, the female discards her shell, and serves it to the male as a post-coital snack. Gross! In addition to describing the bawdy details of lobster sex, this book provides an interesting account of Maine’s struggle to manage the lobster industry (lobster men versus scientist), including the challenges in measuring and forecasting the ocean’s supply of lobsters. It sounds odd to describe this book as a page-turner, but I could not put it down.