use real butter

Recipe: emily’s grilled flank steak

The first week of NaBloWriMo is done… just 24 more days to go. Wooo!

My house finally got some desperately needed attention today because I had to shoot a recipe and there was not a single cleared surface for me to set my food upon. I hadn’t shot anything in my kitchen for weeks. The tripod had to be disinfected because the last time I used it, I was standing in a field of elk poop (there were also fields of cow poop and deer poop and probably other poops I was gratefully unaware of). But the weirdest part for me was when I tightened the clamp on the quick-release plate of the D200. I’ve been shooting with the new camera for 3 weeks now. Switching back to the D200 (my dedicated kitchen camera), the once hefty body felt like a child’s play toy in my hands. Don’t take that as a slam to the D200, because I still love it to itty bitty bits – it is such a workhorse.

I think we’ve returned somewhat to normalcy here. We’re still busy, but at least we’re busy in one place instead of busy abroad or busy while a moving target. And I’m finally tackling my post processing properly instead of bouncing around looking for the obvious shots to share. Here are a couple from Tuesday of last week’s shoot.

outside of crested butte

looking back on a mere fraction of the largest aspen stand in the world

The recipe I shot today isn’t the one I’m sharing on this post. I can’t share it until next week – it’s the Daring Cooks challenge (and it was soooo good). Today’s recipe comes from my best friend in high school. I didn’t cook so much in high school – I prepped. I loved to use a knife for slicing, dicing, mincing, peeling. Emily, on the other hand, cooked. The first time we prepared dinner for her family, I was making the pasta sauce under her direction. She said, “Add some olive oil.” Like a typical noob, I poured about two drops of olive oil into the saucepan. Emily watched and before I could right the bottle, she pressured the spout of the bottle down with one finger and let about a half cup of olive oil dive into the sea of puréed tomatoes. Thus, Emily taught me that fat makes food taste Good.

slice up flank steak

flank steak, soy sauce, sesame oil, sugar, salt, pepper, garlic powder, tomato paste

**Jump for more butter**

By the skin of my teeth: NaBloWriMo day 6!

I had to tear myself away from a rip roaring tweetfest on Twitter just now because Jeremy innocently asked me, “Don’t you have to post before midnight?” Yes, yes I do. Yes, I am. Just that Twitter has slow moments and then around 10:30 pm, it kicks into high gear because Helen doesn’t sleep (we all have proof positive of this) and all of the west coasties like Alice, Ashley, and Chuck are wide awake because it’s only 9:30 pm there.

I really appreciate all of the feedback and discussion on my last post. I’ll lay out all of the details when the Eat on $30 challenge starts on Sunday. I think it’s important to keep in mind that food where one person lives does not cost the same where another person lives. Also that we don’t all live in the same climate to grow our own food or have similar access to good, affordable produce. It’s not about putting someone on foodstamps in your shoes, per se – rather trying to put yourself in their shoes. But let’s keep the discussion going! Awareness is the ultimate goal, so thank you.

My good friend returned from a month in Europe (mostly Paris) today and said she needed to see me. She said she had some “time-sensitive” stuff to give me. Yes, stuff is a technical term. Four of us met up for happy hour in Boulder on the patio of Brasserie 1010 where Marianne distributed wondrous, lovely presents.

no way no way no way!!!!!

les macarons, mon dieu

In addition to the lovely macs (cassis, orange blossom, mint, rose, bergamot, fig-date) she handed me three bags of Valrhona dark chocolate discs. Somehow the Chinese glutinous mung bean sesame balls and mung bean moon cakes I gave to Marianne and Beth seemed so… boring. But the two of them appeared psyched about the goodies. Actually, I’m betting that Beth was psyched about these:

gorgeous valrhona chocolates and caramels

so happy that marianne is back

Jeremy joined us later after he was done giving lecture and we chattered away (well, Jeremy not so much – he is a quiet one) in the brilliant autumn afternoon until the sun dropped behind the flatirons and it was time to go. We get one whole month with Marianne before she ships off for the ice (Antarctica) for 4 or 5 months.

Those macs were incredible. Yeah, you bet we ate them… TIME-SENSITIVE STUFF! The orange blossom was my *favorite* and the cassis was a close second. Jeremy was all about the bergamot (he’s an Earl Grey whore, what do you expect?) Even though I’m crazy for macs, they are nothing as wonderful as having Marianne home – even if only for a month. And I’m keeping the pretty pretty box. I’m going to keep it under my pillow.

NaBloWriMo day 5!

I just spent the past hour planning my food menu for next week and I haven’t even thought about our food menu for this week. But there is a good reason for that.

Oh wait, here’s another picture from the shoot. The big stands are pretty impressive, even with lots of leaves missing.

the reds in this area never fail

So back to the menu planning… Several months ago, I saw that Tami of Running with Tweezers had endeavored to feed herself for a week on $30. She’s doing it again next week and I’m joining her. Why? Because a lot of Americans live on $30 a week for their food… actually, quite a few live on less than that each week. Sobering to say the least. Besides, I think Tami is the bomb. I met her at BlogHer Food 09 in San Francisco and the woman is the real deal. She’s terrific.

tami enjoys some peking duck at dim sum

There is a difference between sympathy and empathy. I can sympathize with people who can barely afford to feed their families, but I can’t really empathize. I’m fortunate enough that I’ve never ever ever had to go hungry for financial reasons. In planning out my menu for next week, I can see that things I take for granted – buying soy sauce in bulk or buying ten pound bags of organic brown short grain rice – don’t work for people who don’t have the money up front. People who have money are in a position to save money. People who don’t have money… they get screwed. Estimating my costs and eliminating advantages like my half gallon of sesame oil means I have to buy a small bottle, which per unit volume of sesame oil is outrageously expensive.

The planning stage has already been eye-opening. I rather expected that paying for spices and other ingredients would cost more, but… I hadn’t counted on it being such a substantial fraction of the $60 budget for the week (we get $60 because I’m feeding Jeremy and myself – so that’s $30 per person). Sure, I could just buy several packets of ramen and mac and cheese and call it a success, but living on that junk long term isn’t a solution. What I’m attempting to do is prepare relatively balanced and healthy foods that taste good for under $60 for the week. My gimmes are basic things like salt, pepper, oil, and butter. Already, I’ve had to cut out some of our regular produce, but we’ll make it work. Follow along next week starting Sunday, October 11th. I’ll be blogging about it as will other bloggers joining Tami on this challenge. If you’d like to participate, give Tami a holler over at Running with Tweezers or reply to her on Twitter (@runwithtweezers). We’ll be tweeting with the hashtag #eaton30.