Foto Friday funnies! 21 March 2008 8:33 am
Posted by Tracy in : pictures, Morning Glory , 1 comment so farSo one of the perks of my job is getting to take home leftovers every now and then, but on Tuesday I won the leftovers lottery in a really big way, and was faced with an interesting challenge in bringing my spoils home. Here’s what I did:
Quick — I mean, Speedy — reminder! 20 March 2008 9:56 am
Posted by Tracy in : news , add a commentToday would have been Fred Rogers’ 80th birthday, so Won’t You Wear a Sweater? It’s not too late! I won’t risk my favorite at work (and I suppose wool isn’t strictly vegan anyway) but I’ll get all snuggly again when I get home, oh yes. (Also I’ll try to post something more food-related then, but this was important, dangit!)
On dinner parties. 19 March 2008 7:21 pm
Posted by Tracy in : work, politics, time versus money, school, responsibility, friends, identity, cooking , 2 commentsOh, lady. Stuff White People Like wins again with yesterday’s post on dinner parties, a subject I’ve written about on a few memorable occasions. The following little essaylet, first posted on Everything2.com on September 1, 2001, tells the story of one such occasion. (Writing it was another, and I suppose reposting it here is yet one more, in a very meta way.)
* * * * *
For years and years, my parents have belonged to a club that treated its members to gourmet dinner parties, sometimes in restaurants, but also for some time hosted at members’ homes and prepared in a prescribed potluck style by the guests, who were given recipes for dishes selected to fit the evening’s theme. In addition to these smaller seasonal events (four times a year; you figure it out) the club — ominously named The Establishment — used to meet in its entirety twice a year for an annual formal, black tie dinner in January and a much more informal outdoor picnic/barbecue in July. The venues for these latter two events were fixed for years, at the homes of the club members with the most extensive silverware, glassware, and flatware collection, and the largest back yard, respectively. But I digress.
As a result of my parents’ participation in those black-tie dinners, I learned quite a bit about the workings of the dinner party, first-hand, by working as part of its catering staff (with the help of a rotating roster of friends recruited to help) for five years in a row (the pay got better every time, especially when I returned to “the annual dinner” as a starving college student). However, I believe that it was as a result of this experience that I failed to earn a potentially valuable scholastic distinction during my senior year of high school. (more…)
Help! What’s your favorite Tracy breakfast recipe? 18 March 2008 8:10 am
Posted by Tracy in : breakfast, pictures, advice, meta, cooking , 1 comment so farHey readers! I want to participate in the Balanced Breakfast Challenge (original announcement here) but I’m having trouble picking just one post to submit, so I thought I’d ask y’all’s opinions. Should I go with:
Recent, i.e. Breakfast Chilaquiles? 
Pros: delicious, lots of pretty pictures, fun and easy, maybe just a little exotic for some people. Cons: not exactly a recipe so much as a series of pictures and some loose cooking guidelines, maybe just a little exotic for some people.
Classic/Popular, i.e. Tracy Granola? Pros: delicious, healthy, very obviously breakfast, easy (even something that can be an everyday meal). Cons: no pretty pictures (but I have a whole big photo-illustrated essay about my attempts to fix that), it’s not exactly my recipe (but I give all due credit to my beloved Moosewood Restaurant New Classics, so that’s okay).
Wacky but also popular, i.e. Miso Soup (quick breakfast edition). Pros: stands out, delicious, fun, easy. Cons: maybe too weird for some people, no pictures (but I could fix that).
Other possibilities include 
buckwheat crèpes (which have been craving ever since Michael Natkin mentioned them here on Herbivorous (that link may be broken) and as of last night I’m still working on a vegan version, but I digress), cottage cheese pancakes, or maybe Nepali breakfast, although I really don’t so much have a recipe for that last, even if there are great pictures.
Or I could make something up about these multigrain pancakes from Cook’s Illustrated… they were pretty darn delicious, even if they suffer from the “not my recipe” problem.
Readers, what do you think? I need to make up my mind before March 31.
Monkey Monday: in praise of sharing and other forms of awesomeness. 17 March 2008 5:24 pm
Posted by Tracy in : Morning Glory, work, garden, vegan, recipes, friends, books, vegetarian, cooking , add a commentI’ve said it before and will say it again: I’m not even vegetarian and I love the Post-Punk Kitchen. It’s not just because Isa’s Vegan with a Vengeance
