Recipe: Heretical Pasta alla Carbonara 10 December 2008 9:36 am
Posted by Tracy in : cheese,cooking,eggs,pasta,recipes,vegetarian , 1 comment so farWhen I originally posted this recipe to Everything2.com, it provoked at least one recipe response, outraged in tone, denouncing the blasphemers (all caps) and “vegestine” who dare to create a meatless version of this dish. Seriously. What? I mean, whatever. Today what stands out to me about the post in question is that I wrote my entry almost five years ago. Dang. Back then, I was inspired by hunger and the linguine carbonara recipe in Quick From Scratch Pasta by Food & Wine Books. Today, I share a slightly updated version of that recipe, still meatless and fabulous. (more…)
Monkey Monday: no surprises here. 24 November 2008 12:28 pm
Posted by Tracy in : books,cooking,eggs,monkeys,random,recipes , 2 commentsSo I saw the following instructions online in a few places this morning:
Grab the book nearest you. Right now.
Turn to page 56.
Find the fifth sentence.
Post that sentence along with these instructions.
Don’t dig for your favorite book, the coolest, the most intellectual. Use the CLOSEST.
…and it had been awhile since I’d played along with an Internet chain letter, and so here’s what I got. (more…)
Recipe: Chakchouka 11 November 2008 8:42 pm
Posted by Tracy in : cooking,eggs,recipes,restaurants,school,vegan,vegetarian , 1 comment so farI submitted this recipe as an assignment for my food writing class almost two months ago, with the intention of modifying it into a TracyFood post for World Egg Day, which was about a month ago. Oops. But on with the food:
I first learned about this North African dish of eggs poached in a savory vegetable stew from a menu at my favorite restaurant in the world — the LocoMotive of Eugene, Oregon. Owners Lee and Eitan Zucker changed their offerings weekly, to reflect what produce was in season, and when I picked up almost four pounds of sweet peppers for $6 at the Union Square Greenmarket one Monday in September, this dish was entirely appropriate. Lee and Eitan spelled it “shakshuka” — which is probably why it took a year or two for me to make the connection between their menu and a recipe in one of my favorite cookbooks, Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home.
My recipe is based on Moosewood’s, and my fond memories of The LocoMotive. It makes a light lunch or dinner for two, but you could serve it over couscous for a more substantial meal, or add side dishes to serve up to four. If you like things spicy, feel free to replace the spices with 1 1/2 teaspoons of ras el hanout (a North African blend of chilis, cumin, coriander, and caraway). Alternatively, just increase the cayenne, or replace it with a minced fresh hot pepper. For a vegan variation like the one Lee and Eitan offered, replace the eggs with one 12 or 16-ounce package of firm silken tofu, diced into 1/2 inch cubes. (more…)
Foto Friday: back to Nepal 12 September 2008 8:43 am
Posted by Tracy in : breakfast,eggs,nepal,people,pictures,potatoes,restaurants,tea,travel , add a commentI know, you thought I’d forgotten all about the Nepal picture project, and to be honest, for a while there, I thought I’d forgotten all about it, too. But New York’s American Museum of Natural History is food for Tracy nostalgia, and last week Peter and I had a visit from an out-of-town friend who provided me with all the excuse I needed to revisit the dinosaurs of my childhood. Hot diggety have those ever been updated! (Bear with me; I’ll bring this ramble back around to Nepal soon.) Not so very updated but still impressive were all the dioramas, which, as Abi (the aforementioned out-of-town friend) pointed out, are sort of a dying art form but which look very different once you think about all the work someone has to do to create and maintain them. I’d never thought about it that way before, but it made me consider those darkened halls of stuffed and mounted animals in a whole new (if dim) light. The displays of world peoples, however, were still just weird — even weirder now that I’ve seen more of the parts of the world that they purport to represent.
Which brings me to the Hall of Asian Peoples, where I could not find a single reference to Nepal. Lots about India, China, and even Tibet, to the point where I wondered when the displays had been created, and whether Nepal was on some kind of anthropological blacklist then. Next time I go back I’ll try to take notes on the exhibits and try to figure out where they fit on the Tibet vs. China timeline as I know it — they certainly seemed to represent a culture which I’ve learned think of as extremely endangered and better preserved on the Nepali side of the Himalayas. But I digress. The whole “no Nepal in the Hall of Asian Peoples” phenomenon was so weird that it made me want to get back to my long-neglected picture-posting project. So here I go. (more…)
Foto Friday: excuses, excuses, and another specials menu. 13 June 2008 11:25 pm
Posted by Tracy in : breakfast,cooking,eating,eggs,eugene,family,food safety,garden,meta,Morning Glory,news,not even vegetarian,pictures,restaurants,seasonality,work , add a commentHey everybody! I’m not dead in a ditch! Here’s some quick hints about what I’ve been up to instead of posting here:
In next week’s posts, I’ll actually write captions for all those and (more…)
