Lentil soup

Eastside Road, Healdsburg, January 9, 2009

SEE BELOW

Lentil soup

Eastside Road, Healdsburg, January 8, 2009

LIKE NEARLY EVERYONE we know, we generally don't eat the same meal two nights running. It occurs to me that was even the case in my childhood, during the Depression. We tended to eat the same meal in general each working day — six of them a week, I think, in those days, certainly during the War when my memories begin to lock in a lot more reliably. Macaroni and cheese on Friday, liver and onions on Tuesday, meat loaf somewhere, don't recall what the other staples were but I'm pretty sure they came around in regular rotation.

And even the Sunday dinner, while it varied from week to week, didn't range through much of a repertory. Chicken fried or roasted, roast pork, ham on Christmas and Easter Sunday: that was about it.

When we were first married we began collecting recipes. Not recipe books, particularly; recipes — clipped from magazines or, more rarely, the newspaper; friends' and relatives' recipes written out on file cards; various recipes from commercial sources, even. Among our favorites were those gathered in a series of pamphlets, each devoted to a different national cuisine: Hungarian, Italian, Greek, Scandinavian. Cosmopolitan by definition, they represented real connoisseurship, somehow. In a fit of deaccession we got rid of them several years back; I've regretted it ever since, and we've found some of them a second time, but I don't know where they are. Maybe Giovanna has them.

What I'm getting at is, we all expect dinner to be different every day. Yet here on Eastside Road we've been eating a mighty restricted repertory lately, and tonight's dinner was exactly the same as yesterday's, and you know what? I could eat it again tomorrow, except that I think there isn't any left.

Pomegranate juice. Cheap Pinot grigio for Lindsey, lucky woman.

Lentil soup

Eastside Road, Healdsburg, January 7, 2009

IT CAME FROM the October 2008 issue of Gourmet, and I think Lindsey was pretty faithful to the recipe: simmer lentils in diluted chicken broth with a bay leaf and a couple of cloves of garlic. Brown some sweet Italian sausage in olive oil, remove it, then cook in the same pot chopped onions, carrots, celery, and garlic; stir in a little tomato paste, add the sausage (crumbled) and lentils and cook until the lentils are tender.
Stir in half a pound of escarole, chopped, and cook another two or three minutes; season with wine vinegar, salt and pepper; serve.
Green salad, of course.

Pomegranate juice

Beans, chard, carrots

Eastside Road, Healdsburg, January 6, 2009

THAT'S WHAT IT WAS for dinner tonight: lima beans (see yesterday: but I forgot to mention garlic, scallions, and shallots), chopped chard with bits of bacon, carrots with bits of candied ginger. Not bad at all.

But the big news this week is, Bogman's back in town. I cover whole grains of wheat, oats, and barley with water, bring it to a boil, let it stand overnight; in the morning you've only to heat it thoroughly and it's cooked. Toss in some dried fruit if you like. I stir in some oat bran, too, after turning off the stove, cover it and let it stand while I fix the coffee.

White beans and onions

Eastside Road, Healdsburg, January 5, 2009

WHITE BEANS AND ONIONS for dinner tonight, a classic salad. Lindsey soaked dried white Lima beans overnight, then cooked them slowly, cooled the, and tossed them with minced sage, marjoram, and parsley, all growing near the doorstep. Olive oil and salt, of course. Green salad.

Pomegranate juice

Oh: the previous two days? Slowly working our way through the leftovers — amazing how long, and how well, that pork tenderloin held up!

Supper down the hill

Eastside Road, Healdsburg, January 2, 2009

FRIENDS FROM BACK EAST visited this afternoon; then we all went down the hill for a light supper with Thérèse and Eric. A nice fire blazing away in the fireplace, where Eric grilled slices of bread brushed with garlic and oil, and slices of polenta. We let Brie and ricotta melt down into the polenta, and had a sprinkling of walnuts, and Thérèse had cooked up a mess of greens. First-rate.

off my feed

Eastside Road, Healdsburg, January 1, 2009

OFF MY FEED these last few days, and will continue so a few more. It's an unfamiliar mode, as you might imagine if you've browsed this site over the last year. Fortunately, it's a temporary matter. Still, it's a hell of a way to start a new year.
Tonight we finished the pork loin we began on Christmas day. Such a convenient roast that is! Lean and efficient, it takes little space in the icebox. Lindsey slices it say a quarter-inch thick; today serving it with beans (good luck, I hope, for the new year) and a delicious pickled crabapple from the pantry. Green salad.

Pomegranate juice