Monkey Monday: things I’m looking forward to 10 November 2008 7:35 am
Posted by Tracy in : baking,books,dessert,garden,geekery,good news,history,milk,monkeys,school,seasonality , trackbackIt’s wonderful, having stuff to look forward to. Which might be why I so love food — there’s always another meal in my not-too-distant future, another chance to pursue my goal of always eating the most awesome option at any given opportunity. Cooking’s great for anticipatory goodness, too — the smells, the feelings, sneaking the occasional taste — and the knowledge that I’m making it happen is an added bonus. Gardening has similar joys — albeit with more surprises, since things will happen in a garden whether I make them or not, but that’s part of the fun. As I wrote in my extended review of Michael Pollan’s Second Nature,
What I love most about gardening (besides the delicious food, anyway) is the hope. Seeds always seem to put up sprouts the day after I’ve started to think they were eaten by birds, or worms, or that maybe they were just plain dead and I should have known better than to plant them to begin with. Every time I prune my rose bushes, I think maybe this time I’ve killed them, and instead they reward me with an abundance of flowers that still feels inexplicable (which just might have something to do with why I don’t prune as often or as ruthlessly as I should). Every time I eat something that grew in my garden with little help from me beyond my own hands, tools, and attitude, I think, “This is as real as magic gets.”
And on that note, I am happy to report that I’ve found my first garden in New York City! I’m going to be working for and with the Food Studies department’s Grow, Cook, Eat, Learn program, which is to say gardening for and with some of my fellow students and faculty as we teach NYC first grade classes about food and gardening. I’m alternately excited and terrified: on the one hand, on Thursday we planted: beets and kale, carrots and garlic… but on the other hand, oh-em-gee six-year-olds. Ter-ROR, I tell you what. BUT. I got to use some of the seeds I brought from Oregon because I did not have the heart to leave them behind, and that makes me ever so happy. Here’s hoping last week’s unseasonably warm weather did them good, and that the cold frames give them shelter the rest of the time.
Other stuff I’m looking forward to:
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Bread pudding, in about an hour (never mind that we should have dinner before then and I’m still not exactly sure what it will be). We even have homemade ice cream to put on top. Yum.
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Helen Rennie’s Celery-Apple salad. I will need a red onion, and then I will be UNSTOPPABLE! Yum.
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The Politics of Food at Columbia next week. Geeking out about food in my city, including urban food production like the little garden I already love? Don’t mind if I do! And on a similarly geeky note…
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Anne Mendelson’s talk, “The Raw Milk Wars”, for the Culinary Historians of New York and the National Arts Club, on December 9. (Note to self: you could hardly have asked for a better excuse to finally pick up Milk, and motivation to read it. Added bonus: opportunity to get an autograph on your copy of Stand Facing the Stove. You win. Love, Tracy.) Once again, I’m glad to be subscribed to the Association for the Study of Food and Society email list, even if I can’t keep up with all the postings there.
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On the more immediate TracyFood blogging front, I’m looking forward to posting some recipes (and about time, too). There will be chakchouka, and salsa verde, and coconut-banana buttermilk pancakes — and I’ve even managed to take pictures for all of them. Likewise, now that we’ve finally got internet at the Moon Monkey Bar and Grille, I can continue working diligently and fastidiously on those Nepal pictures, because seriously, I’ve now had them downloaded from the camera for more than a year.
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All right, if we’re going to have dinner before the bread pudding comes out of the oven, I gotta get a move on.
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cj
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http://www.allchiara.com Chiara
