7 things about the Lady of Shallots

1. I can't stand beets or yams, but I love squash.

2. I rarely use measuring spoons or cups.

3. I think many people overuse garlic because they lack the skill to spice more subtly.

4. I cannot make marinara sauce or pie crust.

5. My favorite cookbook author is Robin Robertson.

6. Any birthday cake for me MUST be a white cake with vanilla buttercream. Chocolate will NOT do.

7. I never get take-out Chinese food. I learned to make my own, after having worked at three different stores that were next door to Chinese restaurants. I won't say anything more than that.

Almost *too* easy cornbread

Ingredients:
1 package corn bread mix*
1 egg
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/3 cup milk
1 11 oz can sweet corn**
1 tablespoon ground rosemary***
2 tablespoons chopped scallions

Preheat oven to 400ºF. Mix the stuff together and pour into a small baking dish (I use my Pyrex 8.5x6.5" dish from this set, but an 8x8 would work too) and bake for approximately 25 minutes or until top is lightly browned. Allow the bread to cool for about 10 minutes before serving. This is a very tender, moist bread, so it would't work well for muffins.

Serve plain or with butter. Goes GREAT with barbecue sauce, especially Gardenburger Riblets.


* I used the Betty Crocker one. Jiffy's is not vegetarian. These mixes are about 75 cents apiece, so they're super easy and cheap.

** I used the "super sweet" from Green Giant. Very, very tasty!

*** If you have dried whole rosemary, you can grind it in a mortar and pestle. If you have fresh stuff, chop it until it is fairly fine. Whole rosemary is pointy and painful.

This is the cute little mortar and pestle I have; it is small and easy to use:

How I do what I do

Much of my cookery is "spoonful of this, pinch of that" sort of stuff. I find that, with a few very simple ingredients, I can make a number of different meals taste really good. Some of the essentials:
- a jar of minced ginger (cheap at the Asian or Indian grocery)
- a jar of minced or crushed garlic
- Tamari soy sauce
- lemon juice
- lime juice
- orange juice
- sea salt (the gray stuff at the co-op is fabulous)
- thyme (dry or fresh; dry's easier, but they make a paste in a tube now, of all things!)
- olive oil

Seriously, a combination of most of the above, with your choice of one of the citrus juices, makes a very basic but very tasty "sauce" for cooking vegetables. Some favorite combinations:

- Zucchini and mushrooms, with chopped tomatoes thrown in at the very end (and sometimes a can of chick peas). The tomatoes can be fresh or canned--canned ones are best if you can't get garden-fresh ones. The tastless, grainy, painfully acidic things that pass for modern tomatoes in grocery stores are NOT worth your time. Cherry or grape tomatoes, however, are the exception. You toss them in at the end of cooking so that they don't get too mushy; you want them hot, slightly seared, with the skin wrinkling just slightly.

- green beans (or other fresh beans, including the yellow wax beans and dragon beans), chopped into 2-inch segments, with sliced almonds

- snow peas, broccoli, carrots, and cashews.

We generally serve the vegetables over rice; our preference is basmati rice, but jasmine rice is also wonderfully aromatic and delicious. I love it when the basmati fragrance fills our home. It's doubly good when I've put a pinch of cardamom powder in the rice cooker.