Me, about five
Ah, yes, the next (and probably last) ‘exciting’ installment.
Thanks go to Susan – this one was quite fun.
What were you cooking five years ago?
For the first time I was cooking with children in my life. That was challenging. I was teetering on the brink of vegetarianism, having always, always, preferred vegetables to flesh and spent a lot of time reading books by nutritionists (notably Jane Clarke and Annemarie Colbin). Five years ago feels like two minutes ago, so it was, I suppose, very similar food to what you see among these pages.
What were you cooking 10 years ago?
Ten years ago I was poring over clippings of Nigel Slater from English Marie Claire magazine. The casual, produce-driven images that accompanied his seductive words were a huge influence on me and remain so, to this day. Cooking? I did a mean pizza, the sauce heady with red wine and oregano, lifted from those very clippings; a blow-your-socks-off-it’s-too-damn-hot-woman green curry (hey, I was a heavy smoker back then and needed strong flavours to taste anything) and huge cauldrons of Moroccan-spiced lamb shanks for gatherings.
Five snacks you enjoy:
- Vegemite and tahini on brown rice cakes
- Crisp apples, when in season
- Dried cherries and unsulphured dried apricots
- Tamari roasted pumpkin seeds (pepitas), sunflower seeds and pine nuts
- Vegan cookies…this one and another I’m yet to share…
Five recipes you know by heart:
- My version of dahl. Perhaps I should write it up?
- Pasta with fennel, currants, saffron, pine nuts and fried wholemeal breadcrumbs
- A really lovely, citrussy, quinoa and millet pilaf
- My grandmother’s Mock Nougat Slice
- Wine glazed lentils
Five culinary luxuries you would indulge in if you were a millionaire:
- A 12 month macrobiotic cooking class in Japan
- My own kitchen (as opposed to the rented one I have become very attached to)
- Antique copper pans – I love old metal
- A large, perfectly planned kitchen garden and all the time in the world to tend it
- An Aga
Five foods you love to cook:
- Braised fennel is the most beautiful thing to eat
- Potatoes, Indian style
- Vegetables I’ve no experience with
- Legumes in their many, many incarnations
- Pilafs - ditto
Five things you cannot/will not eat:
- Chicken – I have never been able to see the point of chicken. Well, a roasted chook I get. But flabby, tasteless chicken breasts?
- Licorice
- Things with preservatives – weird numbers and names that cannot be pronounced. Good wine being, obviously, the hypocritical exception
- Those well-known cola drinks – especially the ‘diet’ varieties
- Anything genetically modified
Five favourite culinary toys:
- My (sorry, ‘our’) Japanese Knife
- Mortar and pestle
- Toaster…hmm…clutching at straws here…but I do love it
- Cookbook holder – it’s so bloody useful (thanks, Noel)
- Wooden fish-shaped vegetable scrubber
Play along if you like.
27 comments:
Truly our food history is another biography. Thanks for sharing yourself from 5 (cute) to the present(gorgeous!), but no licorice???
Okay, first: Poppy is adorable.
I loved your lists! We seem to share some of the same culinary journey (former heavy smoker, wine the exception to all the rest of it. . .)! I'm inclined to pass on the vegemite, but actually have never tasted it, so who knows? Thanks for sharing about yourself.
fascinating list - yes, I love crisp apples and my cookbook holder too and I too would love an aga but like callipygia - I had to read no liquorice twice - I think it is an aquired taste - eating lots of chocolate bullets helps to acquire it but I now love it - but not as a flavouring.
"A really lovely, citrussy, quinoa and millet pilaf" - I would love to see that.
You smoked?!
I don't know whether to laugh or cry.
Perhaps I'd better just go lie down.
I am shocked.
And inexplicably encouraged.
Pasta with fennel, currants, saffron, pine nuts and fried wholemeal breadcrumbs sounds DIVINE!!! Have you posted that recipe yet?
I agree with you about licorice, although once every so often, I do try it again just to see if I've changed my mind.
Oh dear,
I came to comment, and say i'd tagged you for a meme... but i see you're probably all memed out.
it's here, anyway:
http://krissyscookingblog.blogspot.com/2008/03/food-porn-meme.html
i love indian potatoes too : )
It is always a pleasure getting know friends a little better.
My, but I didn't even remember passing this meme on to anyone until I see it linked here. Head like a sieve these days -- at least it's a kitchen tool!
Lucy, I can feel the jolly behind this post. I'm glad you enjoyed writing it up. I know I sure enjoyed reading it, dear girl. Amazing how you got Little Miss Pops to hold for a photo.
Lucy, it all sounds just like you, no surprises really (I do hope you are not smoking anymore!) Looking forward to the new cookie recipe!
My favorite kitchen gadget is my salad spinner. Cannot do soggy salad! And, out of this whole meme, Poppy is the best!!!
You, smoking and eating meat? I can hardly imagine. Will be waiting in excited anticipation for that dhal recipe.
"A 12 month macrobiotic cooking class in Japan" - I'm not very sure what macrobiotics are. Enlighten me.
And Poppy? Sigh.
Lucy;
It's always fun to learn more about your favorite bloggers. I'm glad you played along :)
I enjoyed reading your list, Lucy. :)
the photo of potato and panch phoran is so delicate, warm and beautiful
Callipgygia, licorice-hating is a hangover from my childhood. I love fennel, I love pernod, but licorice? Still can't face it...
Ricki, she's a funny little face my Poppy. No vegemite? It is a peculiarly Aust/NZ thing, all black, umami and salt, but I LOVE the stuff.
Johanna, wouldn't a Aga be great? I can just see us on that Scottish Isle cooking away...he he! A lovely thought. Licorice? Hate the stuff - from the texture to the colour and everything in between. I even hate black jelly beans...it's inexplicable.
Right, Suganya, so you shall!
Shula, I smoked at least a pack a day of 12mg Kent cigarettes and loved every minute of it. I was 29 and 3/4 when one day, lugging groceries up the stairs, I could not breathe. It was horrible. Naturally I freaked out completely and stopped that night and, amazingly, it worked. I do miss it at times though...
Mari, I am very happy that you're a not a licorice fan either...dreaded black stuff! Was beginning to think I was alone...I haven't posted it, but I will at some stage, and soon.
Kazari, that's hilarious! I will check it out though. 'Aloo' anything gets my juices flowing!
Thanks Cynthia!
Susan, she's not usually so calm - well spotted. But if I shove a lens in her face, for some reason, she does try to stay still for a second or two. You know there's one thing that meme's do and that's to provide you with a different sort of excercise. I say it's the last (probably) 'cos I don't know that there's that much more to interest anyone...he he.
No more smoking Deb, but I did smoke a lot...You know I don't have a salad spinner and have wondered how useful one would be - as it's your favourite tool, I'll look into getting one. We do eat a lot of salad around here.
Rosa, I will post the dahl recipe. I hardly remember the smoking-me, but the meat-eating version of myself I do remember...sometimes, just sometimes, I miss it just a little.
Wendy, Macrobiotics is a philosophical way of approaching food and eating, as well as a healing one. It doesn't always work for Westerner's, but at it's core it's all about wholegrains, fresh fish and vegetables prepared simply but beautifully. Basically it's about respecting ingredients and your body. No dairy, nothing refined or processed - and many people become fanatical, mad converts to that way of thinking. Me? I'd just love to learn how to cook respectfully and calmly, it would be an adjunct to my own food philosophies. I'd love to learn from a 'master'!
She's a funny little schmoo that dog...:-)
Thanks Lisa - don't know how much more I have to give though!!
Thanks Maninas - it's amazingly easy to talk about oneself...panch phorah is probably my favourite spice mixture of all time. Thank you!
Poppy is a cutie!
I didn't know you were/are a Jane Clarke fan. I love her books - they make healthy eating sound such a doddle and somehow so much more enticing than the unhealthy alternative
Just so you know, I've played along!
http://www.mevrouwcupcake.com/blog/2008/3/12/mevrouw-cupcake-goes-meme.html
Most interesting, I knew I liked you.
Interesting read indeed. :) Love to know about you, Lucy.
That was a fun post Lucy!
I am going to try your Gran's Mock Nougat, I think Graham will love it! And...Poppy is just so adorable!
Jane Clarke really is a superstar for me, Sophie, precisely for your reasoning. I make her oatcakes from Bodyfoods For Busy People often and love her calm, sensible voice. Pops is a funny little face, isn't she?
Mari, that's great - loved yur take on the meme!
Right back at you Laurie!
Thanks Anh - I hope you're not too busy...you are sorely missed by all!
Oh, Holler, do - it's unthinkably easy (which is why I love it) and it always works. Play as freely as you like with the additions/subtractions. Hope you both love it.
Maybe this is silly, but I'm just loving getting to glimpse your life through your blog and reading all about your passion for food...I'm so glad you did this meme! Lovely and wonderful as always.
I want an Aga!
I came very close once...but all I ended up with is an Aga cookbook. Not much good without the Aga...but I can dream.
Rachel, thanks, love. It's odd, this blogging thing, in that we feel we know one another without really knowing much at all. Guess that's why revealing bits and pieces now and again garners such responses!
Katie, you are a funny girl! The book but not the Aga - you're a woman after my own heart. At least you'll know how to use it should you ever be blessed with owning one - how good would it be?!!
You had me at "vegemite"...
vegemite and tahini? as in mixed together?
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