Falling for wintery foods

(First of all, what?! Okay, that said...

...) I'm often disappointed with traditional beef stews, finding them too acidic or even tinny tasting, and not beefy enough to boot.

But there is one version that never fails, and that is Ree Drummond's Sunday Night Stew.

Her pictures are way more gorgeous, her sauce more deeply mahogany, probably because I use chicken stock where she uses beef.

My favorite part of this recipe is the turnips - different, but oh so good, a wonderful contrast texturally to the beef.

It also doesn't hurt that Ree serves the stew on top of mashed potatoes that have been whipped with a stick of butter and a carton of cream cheese.

I highly recommend that you allow your rule-following (at least when it comes to recipes) spouse to make the mashed potatoes so that he can use the full amount of fat and you don't have to see how much goes into it to make it so luscious and heavenly.

(And this is why we all willingly fork over our hard-earned paychecks to cafes and bakeries, so we don't have to see all the good bad stuff that goes into everything that tastes amazing.)

Bonus: Pro tip from my friend Kayla is to freeze spoonfuls of tomato paste (because you NEVER need a whole can and it ALWAYS goes to waste) on a sheet pan, par-freeze it, then transfer to a ziplock in the freezer so you always have little dollops of paste when needed. You're welcome.

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Another meal we tried this week was Winter Albondigas Soup:

And finally...

• Reading 168 Hours by Laura Vanderkam. It's surprisingly provocative for me personally, enough so that I might need to do a book report (aka another post) on this. As a teaser, know that I have woken up at 5 a.m. (!) for the last two days and gone walking! (I took advantage of Daylights Savings Time to make this shift.)
• Enjoyed this post on 7 Steps to Internet Sanity
• Appreciated this follow-up article from Stephie to my question about cookbook club.
• Love this quote by Cyril Connolly: "Better to write for yourself and have no public than write for the public and have no self."

Get ready for a bunch of randoms.

Lucky Peach Presents 101 Easy Asian Recipes is seriously the bomb. No deep frying, no sub-recipes (i.e., recipes whose ingredient lists are themselves things you need to prepare). Irreverent, bold, nerdy, lazy, pan-Asian. Basically everything I am. I was already sold, and then it came out and used the word "subparenthetically" in the middle of a parenthetical! What the what?! I need.

David and I both finished Scary Close and loved it. (Eunice, I'm sorry I'm so late to the e-book game. For the life of me I could not figure it out two years ago when you gave me a free copy!)

I have also been bawling my eyes out over Lost and Found, the episode on the Liturgists where Science Mike and Michael Gungor tell their stories of their losing their faith. (It's taken me a week and I'm still in part 1 because of all the crying breaks.) This was the first time I've heard the term "deconversion." I resonated with almost everything they are talking about, and it's so validating to have intelligent people articulate some very complex and nuanced and vulnerable things. I also chortled when they talked about Donald Miller and Rob Bell being "dangerous" authors to a Southern Baptist.

Speaking of Bell, listening to Velvet Elvis and enjoying it so far. (The audiobook is actually read by the author, who is, in this case, a great reader. But David listened to Scary Close and the reader - not Don Miller - was not a good match for the book. Alas.)

Annoyed by The Couple Next Door. Shame on me, but I skipped the middle section and read the end. I never do that kind of thing. Oh well.

Also enjoyed The Power of Habit and the perhaps controversial Love Warrior.

Absolutely slayed by my Enneathought a couple of days ago:

Today, explore the issue of boundaries. As a Six, are your boundaries too rigid? Can you trust people to get close to you? Can you share more of your feelings and ideas?

(Yes, Kayla, that was what inspired my notebook entry. ;p)

Invented this dish of steamed tilapia over silken tofu cubes with black bean sauce. We loved the layered textures. (It felt analogous to the Asian carb-on-carb-ness of potatoes and rice as well as reminiscent of Fuschia Dunlop's avocado over silken tofu appetizer.)

Had a super eggplant week with Persian-style eggplant dip and miso-crusted eggplant (both from Liana Krisoff's Vegetarian*), and then yu-xiang eggplant with grass-fed ground beef (amazing!). *Kind of trying to do a cook/book club with this. Slai, can you please give me more details on how you guys did yours?

Finally, gearing up for Thanksgiving season. What are some creative ways you guys are thinking of celebrating Thanksgiving this year?

Without overthinking

Well, after simply identifying the problem last week, I was able to bite the bullet and meal plan without overthinking. It was really nice to have a fridge full of stuff to cook, and it was super therapeutic - as it almost always is - to actually do the cooking, once I had decided what to make and had the ingredients to do so.

Roasting a pan of vegetables is always a good idea, especially when you have kabocha from your CSA.

A bag of dried garbanzo beans prepared in the crock pot was turned into four different things: hummus, radish greens pesto chickpea salad, pumpkin soup with harissa, and saag with chickpeas.

Speaking of the crock pot, it worked wonders for us this weekend, allowing us to eat well but not be too weighed down by time in the kitchen when we had lots of housework to do, like cutting down our maple tree (sad day, but now there's more of a view of the other trees...and the freeway)...

... and picking up a quarter cow from a nearby farm.

The best meal was a pot roast made in the church-lady-potluck tradition: cream of mushroom soup and a packet of onion soup mix. Don't worry, I didn't do this with our grass-fed cow from the farm. But still, this is seriously the best way to make a roast if you're going to do it in the crock pot the ultra lazy way without even searing it. And the leftovers made awesome sandwiches with mayo and red onion.

(I am now writing a post in my head about my love for sandwiches, which I have recently discovered in my adult life, but which white people have always known about. So to really talk about it might be the Asian analog of whitesplaining (thank you, Slai) the beauty of drinking hot water.)

And then on Sunday morning, because lunch after church is pretty much the most chaotic/hangry point of the week, I tried out my friend Valinda's suggestion and we did chicken tacos in the crockpot. I just added salt, taco seasoning, and about one cup of chicken broth. On high for ~3 hours (when you're at church) and it was perfect. Easy peasy and delish.

Also, per Christine's awesome post on welcoming fall, we lit candles for dinner to start our Sabbath, which we experimented doing from 5pm-5pm Sat-Sun this past weekend.

Now I've got to plan for this week ahead. Do you guys have any no-fail favorite crockpot meals?

Ooh, also, I've completely forgotten about linking this awesome article my friend Kayla sent me about a month ago on crappy dinner parties, and which we've been participating in ever since. It's been the best thing ever.

P.S. Some follow-ups to last week's randoms:

1) Wearing shoes from the time I wake up until after dinner definitely made me more productive, and on the days I did it, I hit my 10,000 steps goal without even trying.
2) All things pickled FTW. We finished the watermelon radish, peppers, and red onions so fast. So good for anything that needs a little extra somethin'. Or just straight out of the jar because vinegar is my love language.
3) In the middle of the Liturgists episode on Spiral Dynamics. So confused.
4) David and I watched the first ep of This is Us through NBC.com and loved it!

P.P.S. Since drafting this post, I read and made this in the crockpot tonight. It was amazing! And, in the words of one vegetarian who took some home for her daughters, "I think I eat meat now."

In a pickle

Help! I'm in a writing rut and a cooking rut.

Please let me know what you're cooking and eating these days or if you have any tips on menu planning. I've talked about this before (twice!), but nothing seems to be sticking. Like I said before, I like routine, until I get bored.

I do think we are going to get on a little pickle train though. We'd been getting lots of peppers from the CSA and when I know I can't use them fast enough I just slice them and throw them in a jar and pour cold vinegar over them. Done and done. Here are some watermelon radish, ready for a sandwich (e.g., banh mi) or right out of the jar.

Next up, picked red onions.

Other randoms:

• The Liturgists podcast. "We create art and experiences for the spiritually homeless and frustrated." Yes, please! (HT: Marla)
• Today I was listening to Ep 3 on The Bible and the guest speaker was talking about how Jews look at the Bible as a mystery or problem to be solved whereas Christians see it as a message to proclaim, hence the intolerance for theological ambiguity or tension. THIS EXPLAINED MY LIFE. (Another connection to Heisenberg, if you try to get too precise you lose the accuracy.)
• Trying to get back into routines, ala FlyLady. I'm trying out the shoes thing even though it goes against everything in me as an Asian American.
• Really enjoyed another book about the process of writing, Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg. "The life of an artist isn't easy. You're never free unless you're doing art."
• The idea of being "all kite and no string." I think all my life I have been "all string and no kite."
• I found this assertion interesting: that it's easier to be demanding/critical than to be satisfied, and thus that enthusiasm is a form of social courage.
• Been loving the awkwardness that is Doc Martin.
• I keep hearing about how This is Us is filling the Parenthood-shaped hole in people's hearts. Any tips on the best way to watch it? (HT: Eunice, who told me about this way before now.)
• Made my first batch of harissa this week. It needed to be more garlicky but other than that I loved it!

Dear future self,

Here are some tips for parties you are going to host in the future because you love to host parties but hate how sometimes doing stuff you love stresses you out:

1. You are creative, so be creative. You don't have to follow all the rules to have a great event, and who wants to go to a party where the rules are the same as always?

2. Make lists of whatever is on your mind and don't be afraid to re-write those lists as the formulation and envisionment of your plans change, or as the days go by and the items are crossed out and it's closer to game time and you need your list to look very different.

3. Don't be afraid to start just because you have no idea how the heck these lists need to look for you to "feel" organized. Ignore the voice that tells you, "You've planned so many parties and you still don't know how to frame your plan?!"

4. Delegate as much as you can, especially the stuff you don't like to do. There are people out there who would love to do decorations, or plan a game.

5. Even better, cut out the stupid stuff. It's okay to have a party without favors. And it's okay for there not to be a gift-opening time at a baby shower where everyone has to sit and watch the mom-to-be seem surprised while opening everything she already saw was purchased on her registry, and which she put on there in the first place. Plus, she will really like the way you allocated time for the guests to give her their gifts and sneak in some one-on-one time.

6. Even though you dislike excess, plan one or two special touches that you are really excited about, like that blueberry lemon mint infused water. It's so beautiful!

7. If you're hosting at an off-site location, count on having to schlep all your stuff. There are tools that make your job (or the way you like to do your job) easier, and yes, it's annoying to have to bring them with you. But do it anyway. Empty out laundry baskets in advance for this cause. You'll be glad when you can use your stainless steel mini tongs for serving and your tent cards for labeling the dishes.

8. Do, do, do. As much as you love/hate the planning and the analyzing part, you also have to actually do stuff. Break things up into really small bite-sized pieces. Don't be embarrassed about writing down those baby steps on your aforementioned lists. You're a mom, and sometimes to get anything done you have to do it one teensy tiny bite at a time. Do as many of those baby steps as you can in advance. (But don't mix cut strawberries with sliced lemons for your other infused water ahead of time; the strawberries will bleed and you will be sad.)

9. Before/during the party, empower people to jump in and help; they don't need to ask questions of you. Give people enough information about the big pictures and let them know that they can do whatever they see needs to get done in order to have the event run smoothly. They can refill drinks when they see them getting low, refill serving platters, or clear plates. They don't need your permission. (And don't forget to send these people home with all the leftovers, so they can eat on them for a week.)

10, Finally, bring these napkins, but not to the baby shower, duh.

True uncertainties

In Ian Morgan Cron's deeply moving memoir about growing up as a child of an alcoholic, he relates a story about wrestling with his wife about letting their children jump off a 40-foot ledge into a spring-water filled quarry in Dorset, Vermont. When his wife finally realizes the nature of his anxiety, she tells him, "Ian, they're not falling; they're jumping." I completely identified with his sense of his life having felt like "spiritual and emotional free fall" - and to realize that taking a leap is a completely different thing from falling.

***

If I could adopt this super adorable quote as my life motto, I think I will have achieved success: "When something goes wrong in your life, just yell, 'Plot Twist!' and move on."

***

For my senior thesis in Asian American Literature, I managed to combine my degrees in Chemical Biology with English by claiming the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle as a lens for understanding translation of language and culture in literature.

I purported that in translation you can achieve accuracy or precision, but not both at the same time. You could literally translate a phrase from say, Chinese, to English, which might be a translation of precision (where you map one word in one language to its counterpart in the other language), but it may not be a translation of accuracy, whereby the meaning and intent is captured as well.

Being able to have either precision or accuracy (but not at the same time) might also be a useful framework for accessing truth in general. Henri Nouwen said it best in his book Reaching Out when he talks about grasping at "true uncertainties" rather than at false certainties.

For someone who loves categories and definitions so much, I struggle with the true ambiguities that are necessary when perceiving Truth.

***

The Enneagram (though I hated it at first) really enlightened me to my constant tug-of-war with paradoxes. Being a 6, I vacillate between needing support (societally, spiritually, personally, communally, etc.) and wanting to come at life on my own, out of my own courage and even vulnerability.

And with that, let's now end this post with a cartoon that pretty much sums up my life.

Of excess, of gratuity

Gah! I'm falling off the blogging bandwagon. It is SO hard to keep up when I'm not doing it every day. Anyway, I'm here to bring you a cookie recipe from another professed non-baker. That always makes me pay attention.

When it comes to design, I like things either super neutral or the complete opposite: super colorful, all in one piece. I guess you could say both styles match with everything. Same goes with food. I usually like recipes that have few ingredients, where each speaks for itself. I'm not a huge fan of excess, of gratuity. But because I love paradox, I love these cookies, which have what might seem like a lot of mix-ins. Lots of ingredients, lots of things talking at once. And I love it. I hope you will, too.

Gaia Cookies
from Shauna Niequist's Bread and Wine

I made these with mostly dates for the dried fruit portion and loved it. I tried so hard to follow the recipe as-is the first time (so hard for a cook-not-baker), but next time I would increase both the chocolate and the nuts by maybe a 1/4 to 1/2 each. The amount of butter/sugar/flour in the recipe can handle it, I believe.

2 sticks butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
2 eggs
2 T vanilla (I don't know if this is a typo, but I made it as is and it was not a problem)
1 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 cup oats
1 t baking powder
1 t baking soda
1 t salt
1 cup shredded coconut
1 cup walnuts, chopped
1 cup chocolate chips
1 cup chopped dates, raisins, dried cherries, or cranberries, or any combination

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream together butter and brown sugar. Add eggs and vanilla and mix well.

Mix together dry ingredients through salt, then add to creamed butter/sugar mixture. Stir in the mix-ins.

Briefly chill dough before rolling into balls (or roll the balls and chill the cookie sheet, if you have room in your fridge). Bake for 15 to 17 minutes, until golden. I like to go on the longer side so it can be crispy despite already being chewy from the ingredients (especially if you use dates, as I did).