November Cooking Notes
Everything I Cooked
Welcome to Home Cooking Diary, a newsletter on my journey as a home cook—the successes and failures alike. Cooking log, photo diary, and recipe recommender. This is a recurring installment in which I recap my month of cooking and highlight noteworthy meals. Note: if you’re reading this as an email, you may want to read it in your browser, lest it cut off at the end.
The older I get the more I feel that one of life’s biggest, ongoing challenges is finding balance in daily life. Looking back on my younger years up through today, I realize that this has been an ongoing point of frustration. An angst over how best to spend my precious time on this earth, and perpetually feeling as if it’s being squandered (the drama!). The lifestyle I wanted to lead involved a lot of things at odds with one another: lively social life and meaningful friendships vs. a vibrant home life (both alone and with partner); successful career and money vs. desire for extravagant leisure time (museums, long days wiled away, another round at an expensive cocktail bar, long meandering walks, travel!).
With a child it’s of course even harder, but a lot less angst-ridden because you have bigger fish to fry. Being able to take a year-and-a half off to just be a parent felt luxurious. For the first time I didn’t have a paying job claiming any of my time. Despite doing full time childcare, I got to enjoy the feeling of my time being my own. My child is young enough that I’m calling the shots when it’s just the two of us—able to choose what to do when, and I think that’s what really enabled me to continue prioritizing cooking at home, exploring this interest and attempting to get a bit better at it, whilst juggling life with a baby. Now that I’m working again it’s a challenge to balance my work (both the bookstore and the toddler) and my cooking (and all of the other things I want to do, but for the purposes of this newsletter we’ll stick to cooking). I have newfound respect for everyone who somehow went back to work after 2 weeks/a month/3 months. How? Thinking about it makes me profoundly sad that my experience is so rare. The profound stress and discombobulation of returning to work at such a tender time (while often still in recovery)—the norm.
I think I got a bit closer to finding balance in November. My store is open Thursday through Sunday, so I’ve begun to think of Monday through Wednesday as my cooking days—the days that I can plan a bit better and even embark on some projects, the days that I can possibly use my sourdough starter to bake bread, or discard for muffins or cookies (though I didn’t do any of that last month). The days that the store is open I’m basically coming home and throwing a meal together on the fly, with whatever we have, and Reed is getting back into cooking. I’m hoping to work up to planning those meals a bit better too—we’ll get there when we get there! A wrench in the system (there’s always a wrench) is that mid-November also saw the end of our CSA—which was so sad.
This year’s CSA was the best one I’ve ever partook of and it meant that we had to do a lot less shopping, and meal-planning was pretty improvisational. Actually most of the time, planning was non-existant. I got to make use of ingredients that I may not have access to or buy otherwise, like celery root (for Saltie’s Ham Hock & Celery Root Soup), and unusual squash like Baby Red Hubbard (for Sohla’s steamed squash) and adorable mini Spaghetti squash (for Squash, Coconut, & Ginger Soup), and even shishito peppers—something I probably wouldn’t buy at the store and only order at restaurants—despite being insanely easy to make at home, and deliciously.
I am deep into Sohla El-Waylly’s Start Here, one of my most anticipated cookbooks of the year. I’m selling it at Golden Hour (of course), but my own copy was generously gifted to me by my pals at Knopf Cooks (thank you guys). It’s thick and gorgeous and positively overflowing with process photographs (yes please let’s bring the trend back). I’m learning a lot from it but also taking baby steps by starting with the braising chapter (Braised eggplant with Parm Vibes), and the steaming and poaching chapters. Her rice pilaf continues to be a go-to. The version with nori that I mentioned in last month’s notes still hits, but my current fave is Coconut and Pea Pilaf, with jasmine rice and scallions, ginger, and coconut oil. I’m finally learning how to properly steam and poach for the first time. I wasn’t doing it wrong, per se, but I was muddling through with slightly improper technique (not enough water in the pan, not enough seasoning, etc). My mind has also been opened to the many many ingredients that benefit from these preparations. I find this exciting (nerd alert!).
As you may have gleaned from my Thanksgiving piece, I unexpectedly had a lot of fun with it. Unexpected because I had low expectations for myself but then ended up going all-out. Classic me. Despite not thinking much ahead, it all came together really well—I found a great rhythm while preparing on my own the day before. And the following day, while still struggling with the timing and sheer magnitude of the task, it all came out pretty great.
Other standouts included mainstay, Tomato Confit, which I ate all week long on toasts and saltines and with eggs and pasta; many a pot of beans; Molly’s Bolognese from More Is More (yet agai
n); and my favorite Marcella Hazan recipe, Chicken Fricasee with braised red cabbage. The thing with that recipe is that my favorite preparation was from the time that I did it “wrong,” so I’m tempted to make it again and again my way until I come up with my ideal preparation. Watch out for a future newsletter on that one.
Thanks, as ever, for reading. Don’t miss some recs (for once!) at the bottom.
Everything I cooked in November
11/1/23 - Gyeran bap with leftover scrambled eggs, good olive oil, and Fly by Jing Mala Spice Mix; Ham, Cabbage, and Celery Root soup (Saltie: A Cookbook)
11/5/23 - Shells with Buttermilk and Peas (Molly Baz, More Is More)
11/6/23 - Tomato Confit with shallots, chiles de arbol, and thyme/marjoram/oregano (Alison Roman’s Save the Tomatoes recipe); Bolognese (Molly Baz, More Is More)
11/13/23 - Frozen edamame w/ sea salt; Roasted Winter Squash & Ginger Coconut Soup; Tomato confit with saltines; Pot of Rancho Gordo beans, simmered with chiles de arbol, browned shallot, lemon, and garlic
11/14/23 - Zucchini frittata; squash soup with sesame oil drizzled over it; Braised eggplant with Parm Vibes (Sohla El-Waylly, Start Here)
11/15/23 - Zucchini scrambled eggs; Fluffy Steamed red hubbard Squash (Sohla El-Waylly, Start Here); the last of the beans topped with steamed squash, and dressed with good olive oil and sea salt; Coconut and Pea Rice Pilaf (Sohla El-Waylly, Start Here)
11/20/23 - Zucchini Frittata; Pot of Cranberry beans
11/22/23 - Thanksgiving Prep (Alison Roman): Turkey stock; Cranberries; Turkey gravy; Rancho Gordo popcorn with nutritional yeast (Molly Baz)
11/23/23 - Thanksgiving (Alison Roman): Turkey Legs & Thighs roasted in olive oil w/ herbs and alliums; Roasted Squash; Roasted Turkey wings; Stuffing; Radicchio, apple, and walnut salad
11/25/23 - Turkey Soup w/ chickpeas and farro
11/27/23 - Chicken Fricassee with red cabbage (Marcella Hazan, Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking)
11/29/23 - Pot of Royal Corona Beans
While I have you…some recommendations
Something to read / Molly by Blake Butler is a memoir of grief following the suicide of his wife, writer Molly Brodak. I read the opening chapter in one sitting with a pounding heart and clenched jaw. It’s a painful but riveting read, and pushes the boundaries of intimacy between author and reader, and of personal revelation.
Something to rediscover / I’ve found a new appreciation for Christmas ornaments, old and new this year and suddenly excited to acquire new ones. It probably has to do with all of the thinking Reed and I are doing about the holidays and how we want to celebrate them and introduce them to Tycho.
Somewhere to shop / Home Goods - yes you read that right. Tycho and I recently embarked on a long road trip just the two of us, in my electric car, which meant multiple stops along the way to charge, and one charging station happened to be in the parking lot of a Home Goods location. And let’s just say I found some gems. Le Creuset…fantastic imported pantry items…a fun raffia tray for tea…and more. And I only spent $50 bucks!
Something to watch / Past Lives (dir. Celine Song) doesn’t need my recommendation. I’m probably the last person to see it, but it met all of my high expectations. Greta Lee and Teo Yoo were perfect. Teo really walked away with the movie for me. His performance was so spare and left so much to the imagination. Obviously I wept!
Angie, I just love reading your blog. You convey the excitement of new cooking experiences so well!
As usual, your writing is delightful and so informative Angie. You are rocking mothering, cooking and entrepreneurship!