Stuck in a Green Rut

From annebelle — Blog by Anne Zimmerman

April 23, 2009

I knew I was in trouble when I asked M. what he wanted for dinner the next night and he said this:
“Whatever. I just assumed we’d have vegetables over farro... You know, your usual.”

Ouch.

But it got me thinking. Had I fallen into a vegetarian, roasted vegetables served over whole grains rut? Truthfully, I was kind of aware of it. All of my clipped recipes looked sort of the same: heavy on the veggies, often with thai flavors or in some sort of curry sauce, served over rice or another grain. I was trying to keep us healthy and eating lots of greens, but maybe I had gone a tad too far?

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The Wisdom of Vintage Cookbooks

From annebelle — Blog by Anne Zimmerman

April 22, 2009

A few weeks ago, a friend loaned me a vintage cook book. “You might like to look at this,” she said. “It’s old, but fun.”

The large, flat book was published in 1968 and was the first in the Time-Life Book series, “Foods of the World.” The Cooking of Provincial France was a celebration and history of the cuisine of France, complete with recipes. The book was written by M.F.K. Fisher; gastronomes Michael Field and Julia Child served as consultants.

I sat down with a glass of rosé one evening to flip through the book. I wasn’t really expecting much. I knew that M.F.K. Fisher, a lover of all things French and a near expert on French food and culture, had written the book in her well-known and poetic style. But once the book was in the editing stage, the manuscript was heavily criticized. Julia Child thought that France had been overly romanticized in the text and that Fisher’s view of French families and cooking was simply inaccurate. Child believed the recipes reflected French haute cooking and not the family style meals created by real French women at home. She was a friend of M.F.K. Fisher but this didn’t stop her from making dozens and dozens of edits to the manuscript.

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Grapefruit at My Grandparent’s House

From annebelle — Blog by Anne Zimmerman

April 20, 2009

When I was a little girl my grandparents lived in Texas. Because of the distance between Texas and Utah, we didn’t get to see them very often. When we did visit them I was always very aware, searching with all my senses for clues to the kind of people they were. Every day, it seemed, they ate a half a grapefruit for breakfast. I assume they favored Texas Ruby Reds, but I don’t know. What I do remember is that the grapefruits were large, bigger than a baseball, pink, and fragrant.

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Asparagus for One

From annebelle — Blog by Anne Zimmerman

April 16, 2009

I am not a person that thinks twice about spoiling myself. I don’t spoil to excess, but I firmly believe that after a long day one deserves a nice glass of wine. And after a long week, a Saturday morning spent at a fashionable café with a delicate pastry and beautiful cappuccino is definitely in order.
But I tend to be a bit more parsimonious with my grocery buying habits. Each week I buy just enough of what I need – no more, no less. I hate throwing food away. Since I live alone I have only my stomach to rely on and if I make too much, I end the week by tossing slimy bags of produce, hard bread, and peaked leftovers into the garbage bin. I vigorously try to avoid this waste, both for economic and philosophical reasons.

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