My New Kitchen

There is a reason why New Yorkers eat out and order in so frequently, their kitchens or lack there of. Residents in this city are rarely allotted more than a cubbyhole size space to work with. Pre-war buildings may be very beautiful, however the pre-war appliances they are likely to come with, not so much. The kitchen in my first apartment post college, a studio on the Upper East Side, is a good example of such.

Firstly, it was small, so small only one person at a time could step foot inside it. Secondly, the appliances were extremely old, so old that each and every one was broken to some extent. The electric burners would often shut off randomly, so as you can imagine, boiling water was an issue. The oven racks were tilted forward, something I learned when my first casserole dish filled with bubbling hot baked ziti went sliding off and straight onto the floor. The refrigerator made a consistent ticking noise and from time to time the freezer required chiseling as it would turn into a solid block of ice. One of the biggest selling points of the apartment, due to the extreme rarity of such, was the dishwasher. Sadly it only leaked water, broke dishes, and was used all of about three times before I gave up on it. Funny how the last line of my lease mentioned that if the dishwasher was broken, the landlord was not responsible for fixing it. There was also the unfortunate rodent problem, which after realizing the mice were gaining access to my apartment through my kitchen, I was terrified to use it. And that's just the kitchen but for the purpose of this blog, I will stop here. I am one hundred percent okay with blaming my mediocre cooking on my past kitchens, as it does not matter how much interest you have in something, if the proper learning environment is not provided, skills are very hard to come by. Though there were a few pathetic kitchens to follow this one, I am happy to say that the days of, well, terrible apartments are officially behind me.

Within my beautiful new apartment in Brooklyn exists the most gorgeous kitchen I have ever seen (in my price range of course). It is big, big enough for a full-size dining table, has new(er) appliances, lots of storage, and counter space. I am so fortunate as I feel this kitchen is the launching pad to my cooking success. In the past, kitchens that were cramped and dysfunctional created a stressful and simply miserable cooking environment. In my new kitchen, I can look forward to learning and creating in the ease of space intended for a fun and rewarding cooking experience.

Impromptu Paella(ish)

In an attempt to mix up the usual meal routine, I recently went looking through one of G's kid cookbooks in search of a new recipe. On this particular day, I came across a recipe called Chicken with Tomato Sauce and Rice. In recent months, introducing new foods has become a more difficult task so the recipe was quite perfect as it incorporated some of G’s favorite foods yet constructed them in a new and interesting manner. Unfortunately, I only had half the ingredients the recipe called for and therefore improvisation was required. Since I did not have chicken, the main ingredient, I went with sausage as a substitute. This actually worked in my favor as I’m convinced G only tried the meal after realizing it contained sausage. What I ended up with was a much less complicated and fussy yet delicious meal, essentially simplified paella. A saucy rice dish combined with onions, carrots, peas and sausage…an instant hit with G!


Natalie’s Paella(ish)

Sauté 1 small onion and 1 carrot, both chopped in some olive oil. Add approximately ½ cup tomato sauce, cover, and simmer for a bit until onions and carrots are tender. Add 1 cup cooked white rice to the mixture along with some frozen peas, stir and cook on low just long enough for the rice to absorb the tomato sauce. May need to add more depending on how saucing you like it. You can eat as is, adding more veggies if you like, or a protein such as chicken, sausage, or shrimp.

Filet of ...

In just this past year I have attended five weddings and as with most events, the food has been fundamental to the success of each party. In fact, the food is so important that it is a constant throughout the entire event, from the cocktail hour, to the sit down dinner, to dessert. Come to think of it, it would be a fantastic idea to serve little snacks during the ceremony as well. Food brings the entire event and the people attending together. There is no better way to bond with a complete stranger than over a delicious mini appetizer half falling off your teeny tiny napkin while at the same time balancing your cocktail in the other hand.

At each of these weddings, I have always found the main course entry options to contain at least one fish or vegetarian choice. Supplying a wide variety to a large group is key if the goal is to satisfy everyone. While I realize that offering a vegetarian meal is a fairly recent concept, I was under the impression that serving fish is a common practice. Apparently this is not always the case as I learned, the hard way, at a recent wedding I attended.

For this particular wedding, the main course entry choices were not supplied with the invitation and instead, orders were taken once everyone was seated. The waitress for our table explained my options as lamb, chicken, or filet. Not even for a second did I question what they were filleting as my brain immediately denoted the first two options as land animals and therefore I proceeded to order the third. You can imagine my surprise when instead of a filet of fish, a huge hunk of meat was sitting on the plate served to me. I think what surprised me most was not that I had actually ordered filet but that at no point before receiving my meal had I realized my ordering blunder. I actually found the occurrence quite amusing and the other guests at the table enjoyed my mistake as they were all dished an extra helping of filet mignon. This was definitely a first for me however, part of being a vegetarian is anticipating that these things will happen and going with the flow once they do.

It's Just That Simple

If you ask my Mother and Father, they will say that becoming vegetarians collectively as a family when I was 7 years old was my brother’s idea. This should not surprise me, as my younger brother has always been quite the little dictator. But, if I have the details correct, a once 5 year old swayed my parents into becoming vegetarians…he really should have ran for President, what a shame.

Although there must be a bit more to this story than I am aware of, I can say for certain that growing up in the Ocean State guaranteed the continuation of our seafood consumption. This I am thankful for, as my childhood summers would not have been nearly as fun without the memories of eating clam cakes and chowder on the rocks at Galilee. Regardless of who is to “blame” for my vegetarianism, I am now the lone vege of the family, as one by one the others kicked the habit. Keeping this whole shenanigan up into my adulthood has been my choice, which leads many people to ask the question, why?

I guess now that I am in my mid twenties, people have realized it was not just a phase and are baffled that I have chosen to forgo meat permanently. Beyond basic inquisitiveness, the topic of eating meat has become ever more popular, stirring people’s curiosities even more. Many want to know my views on the subject however this is the cause of a great personal dilemma. Though I have many a good reason for choosing the route of an herbivore, most of the carnivores asking do not truly care to understand my position on the subject. Furthermore, I have zero interest in neither educating nor converting anyone. Bottom line, when it comes to food, people can be easily offended and there is no one less interested in offending a meat eater than I.

Throw away all of my motives for leaving meat off my plate and what I find is that being a vegetarian is simply my preference, no explanation needed, it just makes me happy.

Feathered Friends

Soon after I was hired as G’s nanny, her mother informed me that the only other woman interviewed for the job was also a vegetarian. Thank goodness I did not divulge too much information during my own interview, as both G’s parents felt it was strange when the woman expressed she would be uncomfortable cutting up a whole roasted chicken. I remember just laughing it off like, “oh yeah, what a crazy person, aren’t you glad you hired me”, while silently starting to panic. I can only imagine myself standing at the kitchen counter starring down at a dead headless chicken, cleaver in hand and cutting it up into little pieces. Where on earth, or on bird for that matter, would I even begin? I am pretty sure by now, nearly two years later, they have caught on and would not ask this of me however, if they ever do, hopefully for everyone’s sake, including the chicken's, I have access to Google somewhere very close by.

So if I’m not roasting up whole chickens, what exactly am I cooking? My most recent endeavor was Turkey Enchiladas. Although G is not a huge zucchini nor pepper fan, I thought I would give this one a try. I should have known the tortilla would be her favorite part of the dish, good thing I bought whole wheat! Just as a side note, I have to say that I am much more comfortable cooking poultry than any other type of meat. I guess it comes from familiarity as I for a short time during my high school and college years ate chicken and turkey. Although I found the Turkey Enchilada recipe in a children’s cookbook, it is just as appropriate for big kids. It would also be super easy to make these enchiladas vegetarian by replacing the turkey with more vegetables or beans and cheese.

Turkey Enchiladas

Adapted from:

First Meals
By Annabel Karmel

Sauce:
Heat olive oil and sauté 1 onion and 1 garlic clove for 5 min. Add tomato puree and 1 tsp fresh oregano, salt and pepper and simmer for 10 minutes.

Turkey Filling:
Heat olive oil and 1 garlic clove, 1 red onion, 1 red pepper, and 1 zucchini. Cook for 5 minutes before adding turkey. Cook through for 7-8 minutes and add salt and pepper. Stir in ¾ cup grated cheddar cheese until melted.

Divide filling into 8 flour tortillas, roll into a cigar shape, place in an ovenproof dish and cover with tomato sauce. Top with ¾ cup cheese and bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes. And voila…turkey enchiladas!