Tomorrow it's fish!

Tomorrow is Annunciation, which means we Orthodox folk can eat fish. Mmmmm. I'm meeting my pal Andrew for a sushi dinner. It's a long way 'til April 27, and my dear husband has been a trouper about lenten eating. Probably this is because I have been cooking from the Moosewood Low-Fat Favorites cookbook. Cook from Moosewood, and you're pretty much cooking vegan, which is pretty much the whole dietary idea of lent, but it's darn-tasty vegan cooking and that makes all the difference. We don't feel as deprived. But the whole idea of lent is to deprive yourself of pleasures that connect you to the world, so you have less distracting you from focusing on your spiritual health. As I understand it, Catholics get to choose what they give up for lent. For Greeks, it's prescribed: no meat, no dairy, no olives nor olive oil, and no wine, for 40 days. Loads of Greeks do not fast. My aunt, for example, teases me about my adherence, saying that converts are the worst.

Right about now in the lenten timeline I start questioning the whole effort anyway: One thing I'm not so good at is formal praying; giving up pork chops and cream puffs is probably not going to make me a better supplicant. A healthier wanna-be is more like it. Also, most people who do follow the fast end up making indulgent meals anyway. For example: lobster is allowed. All shellfish varieties are allowed. I don't know about you, but where I come from, lobster, scallops and abalone are considered delicacies. And wine is disallowed, but if you interpret the dietary law most narrowly, and many fasters do, that's the only alcohol that's prohibited. So you can go out and have a steamed lobster preceded by a martini (twist, no olive), wash it down with strawberries dipped in melted chocolate, and tell yourself you're being penitential. This is the line of thinking (and practice) that makes me want to throw up my hands and order cheeseburgers to be delivered to the entire congregation post-liturgy. But I have digressed horribly. Tomorrow, it's fish. I may have a tuna sandwich at lunch, for good measure. I can't figure out a way to get fish into breakfast. There are no trout streams nearby, and freshly-caught trout is the only decent fish to eat first thing in the morning.

Baking bread. Mmmmmm.

I baked two loaves of bread last weekend using our Kitchen Aid mixer, and they came out pretty good. But because we received a spiffy Le Creuset 6.5-quart dutch oven as a wedding gift, I'm now able to try out the "Almost No-Knead Bread" recipe from the Jan-Feb 2008 issue of Cooks Illustrated. I'm so excited. I've been wanting to try the recipe since we first got the magazine in our mailbox.

Cooks Illustrated is one of my new husband's favorite things. When it arrives, he grabs it, goes to the couch, rips off the plastic covering, and looks at the back inside cover to see the photos of the featured recipes for that issue. Then he thumbs through the magazine, commenting on the bits that interest him and slotting recipes into the next week's menu plan. It's delightful to watch.

I'll post a review of the recipe when the bread comes out of the oven and is cool enough to cut. Meanwhile, Happy Friday.

Lent+hunger=creativity in the kitchen

It's lent, and for the Greek Orthodox who observe it, that means no meat, dairy, olive oil, or wine for 40 days. Our Easter is on April 27, so I have a way to go. Tonight THH (newly-created acronym for newly-created reference to my husband--he used to be The Hunky Scientist; now he's The Hunky Husband) is away at a Golden State Warriors game with one of his pals. So I was on my own for dinner. When I bach it, I often just head down the street for a slice of pizza. But the no-cheese lenten thing nixes that. So I foraged. I found a sweet potato, pierced it and put it in the oven at 375F. Forty minutes later, I thawed some spinach and squeezed it dry, then minced a large clove of garlic. I heated up some canola oil in a small skillet, added the garlic and sauteed it a little while, then added the spinach and sauteed it a little longer. I added some pepper and salt, then for a spicy kick I added a squirt of sriracha hot sauce. Once the sweet potato was baked and had a crispy skin, I pulled it out, cut it open and fluffed it up. Then I topped it with the spinach mixture. Oh boy was it good. And I have a healthy-eating halo over my head, too. Yes, I'm smug. I wonder if lenten-cooking smugness needs to be confessed before Easter communion.

Sweet life

Today I felt happier than I have in I don't know how long. I was buoyant, and couldn't stop smiling. Everyone I spoke with noticed, and most said that if two weeks away from regular life did that to me, they want a vacation right now. It's more than the two weeks away, though: it's also feeling so well-married, along with getting back my creative spark. It's just permeating everything I do. Right now, though, I'm sitting on my couch, bird on my shoulder and cat at my feet, nose buried in my laptop because I just made the frosting for a German's sweet chocolate cake. The three cake layers are cooling on their racks, and the frosting is also cooling, but it beckons from the saucepan. I adore that frosting, cake or no cake, and am liable to consume it by the spoonful if I'm left unminded. The hunky scientist has gone to the gym, so I'm vulnerable to the pecan-laden, coconut-caramel come-hithers issuing from the kitchen. I practically have to lash myself to a mast and stopper up my ears. Soon my husband will be home and we'll consider dinner. He'll take over the cake construction (it's for one of the guys who reports to him at work), and then I'll be free of the frosting temptation.

New energy!

I'm sorry to have left the last post up for so long. Wedding prep, then being married and honeymooning, took up all my time. But I'm back now, and full of the vigor that only two weeks of sloth and gluttony (along with other sins) can bring. A wonderful bit of awesomeness: my creative well has filled with sweet water again. No more drought. Whew! Another bonus: I didn't gain a pound while we were away, despite our having eaten gourmet dinners nearly each night. I found this out tonight at the gym, when I climbed up on the scale pre-workout. I stepped down and did a subdued happy dance--subdued because other gym-goers were walking past and blocking my groove. Heh. Anyway, I'm composing a wedding and reception recap, complete with photos, for my dear ones who couldn't attend. I'll post that over on the 1+1 site as soon as it's done.