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Bookish Quotes
"She unbent her mind afterwards - over a book."
Alone in the Kitchen with an Eggplant
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Alone in the Kitchen with an Eggplant
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11 journalers for this copy...
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Journal Entry 3 by 
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Journal Entry 4 by
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I'll be mailing this to Azuki tomorrow. I just want to thank Oi-Reader for sharing this wonderful book. Many of the essays took me back to my own single, eating-alone days. For awhile, I didn't have a surplus of money, so I ate the same thing daily: an oatmeal breakfast (without milk), peanut butter and jelly sandwich for lunch, and a wonderful pasta dish for supper. Into the pasta went the bounty of my small garden (herbs and fresh vegetables), lemon pepper, and a drizzle of olive oil. I kept a vase of wildflowers on my table. During fishing season (both sport and commercial), I ate fish dinner after fish dinner. Fresh and $free$ and wonderful. Lobster for one is always fun because you can eat it with your hands atop a newspaper-covered table. No plates to wash. just scoop up the newspaper and toss the whole smelly mess. And then relax in a recliner with a good book. In your underwear. Ignore the phone and sip some beer. Ahhhh...the single days! (Not that I'd trade my family to go back, but I did appreciate the memories brought up by this fabulous book...thanks again for sharing, Oi-Reader.)
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Released 5 yrs ago (1/22/2008 UTC) at WILD RELEASE NOTES:
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Journal Entry 8 by
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Journal Entry 9 by
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Released 4 yrs ago (9/18/2008 UTC) at Redhill, Surrey United Kingdom CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:
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Journal Entry 14 by
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Journal Entry 15 by
Released 4 yrs ago (10/19/2008 UTC) at BOOKRING, -- By post or by hand/ in person -- USA CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:
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Journal Entry 19 by
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Journal Entry 20 by
I really enjoyed this book - and the previous journal entries as well! [Photo: a micro-meal-scape, of sorts. While I usually eat in my comfy-chair in front of the TV, I do sometimes eat at table, and in any case I often have flowers in the house - I keep hoping that they'll encourage me to tidy up, but even if they don't do that, they're cheerful. The gargoyle candlestick is there because I love gargoyles, and the artichokes are on the menu for tonight - when they're in season and reasonably inexpensive I often dine on two 'chokes per meal for days in a row...] I've never had a problem with eating alone, whether at home or dining out. I may sit at the bar or get a table, depending on time of day, how busy the place is, and how much of a hurry I'm in, but I always have a book with me, and while I may chat with neighbors at the bar if they seem to want to be sociable, I'll usually spend the meal enjoying the book and the food. I was intrigued by the variety of viewpoints expressed in this collection, from those who cherish alone-time for meals to those hate to eat alone (the most extreme of these being Laura Calder, who not only found eating alone depressing but has "a hard time believing anyone who tries to pass it off as anything else" - I hope she read the other essays in the book {wry grin}). While I try to feed myself healthy, well-balanced meals, I tend towards "mono-meals" - one dish (or even one ingredient) that becomes my entire meal. Ideally, over the course of several days, the broccoli dinners and the chicken-wings lunches and the big-pot-of-chili meals will combine to some kind of nutritional balance, but it can be tricky! And I do get into ruts (or grooves, to be less negative), wanting the same thing over and over for quite a while before I tire of it. The asparagus essay tickled me because I've been known to dine on a bunch of asparagus every night for a week when it's in season! (I prefer to roast mine; a little oil, a little sea salt - yum!) My less-healthy binges include onion-soup-mix-and-sour-cream dip and a bag of Ruffles potato chips - that's a comfort-food of a sort, though I know it's terrible for me. I was pleased to find some familiar names here; I had a copy of Jeremy Jackson's Desserts That Have Killed Better Men Than Me, so I was pleased to find how highly he valued black beans (a near mono-meal) and being an introvert. And of course I've read M. K. Fisher's work before; her comment here that "sharing food with other human beings is an intimate act that should not be indulged in lightly" resonated with me. Among the other essays I enjoyed most: Ben Karlin's "Legend of the Salsa Rosa," which motivated me to scurry off looking for suitable ingredients so I could try it myself. [When I saw in the biographies section that he's written for Stephen Colbert and for The Onion, I understood why he was so funny.] And Jonathan Ames' "Eggs Over Uneasy" was also very funny; his line about settling for regular supermarket eggs cracked me up (pardon the expression): "I wished I had organic eggs, but consoled myself with the thought that the antibiotics in the eggs might be good during flu season." Steve Almond's article also amused me, while whetting my appetite as well: "If you have not offered someone a Grill-Curried Shrimp Quesarito with Avocado Raita in an obnoxiously offhand manner, you are really only half alive." Much fun, and a few new recipes to try; many thanks! |
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Journal Entry 21 by
Released 4 yrs ago (4/3/2009 UTC) at Nashua, New Hampshire USA CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:
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