023: Just a baked potato
On cooking through a rut
Everyone needs minimal-effort meals at the ready. A fact I’ve been increasingly aware of throughout 2023, as I’ve regrettably found myself in a bit of a rut. After the activity and energy and cooking traditions of the holidays, it’s somewhat inevitable that in the beginning of the new year it will take a bit to find our (my) footing. Winter malaise, plus a season of not exactly booming winter produce colludes to create a dearth of meal ideas. So yeah, I’m in a rut.
I touched on this in my January recap newsletter and was hopeful it would pass (still hopeful), but when dinner rolls around lately I feel pretty uninspired. Also, I’m a bit tired. Turns out doing the job of full time childcare is a lot of work and very draining. The most obvious thing I’ll say all day.
There are a few reasons for the rut, beyond childcare-inspired tiredness. The first being the fact of it being winter, and not farmer’s market season, offering up ideas in the form of whatever seasonal veg happens to be looking good. In the spring and summer months I buy what strikes me and then plan a meal around the ingredient in question. Often the farmer will make suggestions. I find I don’t get the same inspiration from grocery shopping. I love our local market, but I find myself buying the same produce week after week, and it’s not exactly sparking new ideas. The second reason is the ongoing task of making food for my 11-month-old. I’m not feeling great about it right now. It’s important to offer infants variety to avoid allowing them to get sick of their favorite foods. So I’ll make something new (lamb meatballs, for example), and sometimes he won’t be into it. And so I give him the same old standbys that I know he likes (mozzarella, hummus, blueberries, eggs, etc) until I’m able to get to the store to pick up some other new nutrient-rich ingredients to try. He’s still on formula, so it’s not the end of the world, but those days are numbered. I’m feeling the pressure to make sure all of his meals are nutrient-rich, and the awareness that it will soon all depend on what I feed him is pretty stressful. The anxiety of this is definitely affecting my motivation for food preparation in general. I also want to figure out a way for him to eat dinner with us as a family to better try to include him in those meals. These days, by the time Reed gets home, it’s usually his bedtime and there is no time for me to cook before his dinner. So I feed him, and then cook dinner for me and Reed after he goes to bed. Also, soups aren’t ideal infant food—tough to accept during soup season.
Side note: I’m so grateful that I happen to love cooking. I don’t know how people muster the energy to feed their kids otherwise. It’s so much work. It helps to enjoy it. Solidarity with all of the moms and dads out there who hate cooking!
Last night I found myself in this exact situation, and I was tired and kind of down about not wanting to cook, but somehow cut through that to notice two, kind of depressed, neglected-looking russet potatoes sitting in the pantry. I remembered my great love of baked potatoes growing up (and to this day), which was in regular rotation at home. I rarely make them now. I had the realization that there was something lacking in my cooking repertoire: simple food that I can cook with my eyes closed from ingredients we always have (bonus if they take forever to go bad, like potatoes).
Who doesn’t love a baked potato? Potatoes are actually really nutritious, despite being sort of looped in with unfairly maligned carbs. Furthermore, a baked potato, despite being very simple home cooking, can be made quite decadent. Load it up with lots of butter, sour cream, and of course salt and pepper, and you have a very satisfying dinner on the table (or ottoman, in our case). Chop up some herbs, like parsley or chives, if you like (I didn’t last night because that required a bit more energy than I had in reserves). I boiled some broccoli florets until tender, and dressed them with lots of butter, salt, pepper, and lemon juice, to serve alongside the potatoes. And that was dinner. The simplicity and minimal effort involved in pulling it together (no chopping whatsoever) made me feel a lot better—almost secure in my ability to cook even when I feel like I could collapse on the spot.
What are your favorite mindless weeknight meals? I need more ideas for when I inevitably find myself in this position next week (tonight? tomorrow?:) drop ‘em in the comments if you feel like it.
While I have you, a trio of recommendations:
Something to read / Alicia Kennedy’s essay series on Culinary Tourism for her newsletter. Alicia is a gifted and prolific food writer based in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and her newsletter is one of my faves. She just began this series, letting us all follow along on a class she’s teaching on the subject at Boston University (reading and writing assignments included—makes me miss college!). There have been two so far, and I can’t wait to continue reading each week. This deep, vital topic is relevant to anyone who loves food and travel, and cares to be mindful about neo-colonialism as it’s manifested by tourism, and the impact of culinary trends on local economies, everywhere from San Juan to Copenhagen to Athens. These essays also make me think more deeply about culinary tourism within home cooking, and the importance of being aware of the traditions inspiring what we’re cooking, and the origin of the ingredients we’re cooking with. I’m so grateful that recipe developers like Eric Kim, Sohla El-Waylly, and others are teaching me how to cook the food of their culinary heritage, but it’s important to educate myself about those traditions in the process. I think we’re guilty of cultural appropriation when we make a dish without doing that work. I love that Alicia’s essays are making me think about this more deeply. Oh and her first book, No Meat Required, is being published in August. Preorder here.
Something to watch / Extraordinary (Hulu) is a comedy series out of the UK set in an alternate reality where most people develop a super power on their 18th birthday, except the protagonist Jenny, who never got hers. I’ve only watched one episode, but it made both me and Reed laugh out loud repeatedly (it’s really funny!), and also I cried??? Like a genuine, emotional welling up that took me by complete surprise. Can’t wait to keep watching…when I’m not watching Poker Face.
Something culinary / Zero Acre Farms Cultured Oil is now my preferred answer to vegetable oil. It‘s a substitute you could actually eat a spoonful of and enjoy (I have!), or drizzle on a salad, in addition to frying chicken with. I use it when pan-frying anything, as it has the high smoke point of veg or canola oil, but is good for you. It’s made from fermented cultures as opposed to farmed vegetables, making it a sustainable option.
YES! This is precisely how I've been feeling this year. I don't have any experience feeding children, but here are a couple of strategies that have helped me. Maybe this is old, tired advice, but it has been easing my stress in the kitchen and increasing my enjoyment when I cook. 1) Remember that every meal doesn't need to be elaborate. Sometimes, it just needs to keep us nourished until the next meal. I enjoy cooking, so sometimes I put too much pressure on myself to make new or involved meals every night. I'm trying to pick a small number of meals (maybe just one) that I'm excited to make each week and keep the rest of our meals as healthy and low-maintenance as possible. 2) Prep veggies when I have the most energy. This task takes me the longest and is my biggest blocker to making fast, healthy meals. I wash everything, remove the tops of radishes and carrots, and make a batch of quick pickles with daikons or other veggies. This makes meal prep later in the week so much faster. I'm also more likely to reach for veggies when they are ready to use. 3) Sauces/Dippers: I have an arsenal of sauce/dipper recipes (salad dressings with different flavor profiles, hummus, etc.). Each week I make one or two (most will take less than 10 minutes to make) and I will rely on these for a quick meal. Even if you're buying the same vegetables over and over, you can keep life interesting with some new flavors.
When I'm having a low-energy day, I make rice bowls topped with leftover protein (if we have any), veggies I previously prepped, pickles, and sauce. While rice is cooking, I grate one or two carrots and slice the radishes, onions, or whatever veggies are washed and ready to be used. The same thing works for grain salads with hearty greens, like kale. I particularly like these salads because they benefit from some resting time, so I can make the salad when I have energy, giving grains (farro, wheat berries, etc.) time to soak up some of the vinaigrette. I have also been using these same prepped veggies for epic sandwiches, switching out the dressing for a dash of rice vinegar.
Here are a couple of the dressings/dips that I like to make regularly:
Alice Water's Garlic Vinaigrette: https://nymag.com/restaurants/recipes/inseason/65106/
J. Kenji López-Alt's Miso-Sesame Vinaigrette: https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1021463-miso-sesame-vinaigrette-thats-good-on-anything
Zahav's Hummus Tehina (can be made with canned chickpeas, but is slightly less creamy in texture) https://food52.com/recipes/42695-zahav-s-hummus-tehina
Co-signing the quesadilla for kids. Also smoothies, you could put anything with berries and he’ll probably drink it! Love making a big pot of beans or bean-leafy greens-fennel-lemon soup riff in the winter when in a rut. Also Alison Roman’s pantry pasta always hits.