If you have read my blog, you know that I am a chopped fanatic. Just about every episode I learn something new and exciting about food. I also learn a spiritual lesson in the process. The last few weeks have been a challenge in our kitchen and in my own way, I feel as if I have been on the chemo-care version of Chopped. I have no been given a basket of mystery ingredients from which I have to create an appetizer, entrée, and desert. Rather, Zoë’s taste buds are on a temporary vacation. It started a few weeks ago when most things started tasting like cardboard, and then I discovered the amazing ability of salt to take things from cardboard to palatable. I though I had it all worked out and could figure out how to create things that would make her enjoy eating again and not want to send the food back to the kitchen because it tastes like cardboard.
Read moreNo more cardboard!
Well we are now week 4 in Zoë’s chemotherapy treatments and the two major symptoms she has experienced are fatigue and loss of taste. It seems like just about everything tastes like cardboard. Her go to breakfast, bagels, and cream cheese, tasted like cardboard. My vegetarian lasagna tasted like cardboard. The ginger ale that I made from scratch just tasted like bubbles. The few things that tasted good to her were ice cream and corn tortillas. Not the most nutritious of dishes. Nothing but the ice cream was sweet enough. Everything but the corn tortillas tasted like cardboard. The reality is that none of us wants to eat cardboard.
It has been frustrating trying to find things for her to eat that did not taste like cardboard. So how do you transform things from cardboard to tasty when you have no taste buds? Easy. Salt. You put salt on everything. Bagels and cream cheese – no problem.
Read moreBecoming a chemo caring kitchen
It was about a week ago today that my wife Zoë received her first chemotherapy treatment. While she has been amazingly blessed with the minimal side effects she has experienced, the most significant has been a decrease in appetite. What she once enjoyed with reckless abandon, she does not desire. Things she once would not consider, she is now requesting. A few months ago, I was learning to adjust our meals to be low carb, low fat, diabetic, and vegetarian friendly meals. Now I am learning what ingredients are best at preventing the spread of cancer in one’s body and identifying what foods can be most helpful in treating what side effects. It is a completely new way of cooking.
The biggest symptom she has had is loss of appetite.
Read moreKeeping the Zen
The last few months have been an unexpected adventure in our lives. The beginning of August, my wife was diagnosed with breast cancer. Since then our lives have been impacted in ways I could not even begin to imagine. Today, she had her first chemotherapy treatment. One of the things I have come to understand is the importance of preparing foods that will be nutritious for her regardless of how she is feeling in response to the chemotherapy. There may be days to come where she feels fine, days when she is tired, days when she is nauseous, and days when she does not feel like eating because of mouth sores.
Thinking about how to cook for her has definitely moved me outside of my comfort zone. After being with her for almost 10 years, I have mastered her taste buds and flavor profiles.
Read moreWe all have gifts to bring to the party!
So last week, I told you about how I have fallen in love with my basic vegetable broth. It really is all about what you do with it. The other day, I made this amazing asparagus soup, which I discovered in Deborah Madison’s, book Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone. One of the things I appreciated about this recipe was that it allowed me to use the entire stalk of asparagus. Given that asparagus is not one of your lesser expensive vegetable, being able to use the whole spear, but maintaining the integrity of each part at the same time was a blessing.
Like so many, I used to hate asparagus.
Read moreYour basic vegetable stock – nothing more, nothing less.
I was talking to my brother this afternoon about cancer and how it has affected his life, the lives of friends, and now my partner who was recently diagnosed with breast cancer. One of the things her diagnosis made me think more consciously about was the impact of the food we eat and what it does in our system. I am not a super health freak. I am what my doctor would say “morbidly obese.” I have more excuses about why I cannot or do not exercise then Hasbro has games and Carter has pills, possibly combined. With a hectic life, I have enjoyed the convenience of packaged and processed foods. However, the last couple of months have catapulted me to this place of rethinking what I cook for my partner and I. So for the last two months, I have been trying to be more mindful about what goes in my body and working at making everything from scratch.
Read moreFood -- A universal language
Recently, someone asked me what it is that I love about cooking. Anything that I do in the kitchen, whether it be cooking or baking is more then just what I produce. What I love about creating in the kitchen is that it connects me with people around the world. Although we may all do it in different ways, the one thing every culture in the world does is prepare food and eat it. Food and the preparation of it is something that enables us to come together as a global community and speak a common language. Even if one has never prepared a single dish or meal in their lives, they have eaten one.
Read moreNothing Says Lovin’ Like Somethin’ From The Oven
I remember growing up seeing the Pillsbury commercials with the little dough boy, Poppin’ Fresh, who would always say “Nothing says lovin’ like something from the oven. He was so cute, he made you want to go out and buy those products and have biscuits, turnovers, and pies straight from the oven. This for me was homemade. It was my idea of something from the oven, homemade baking. The next version of homemade I remember was my mom getting some frozen dough from the store and baking that in the oven. I remember loving that bread. It always tasted so much better then the store bought. I especially loved it when it first came out of the oven and you ate it warm with melted butter on it.
Those were the days. Several years ago, I learned how to make bread from scratch. I have not made it in a long time, as my schedule had not allowed it.
Read moreWho Knew It Was This Easy?
Have you ever bought something at the grocery store just about every week because for some reason you thought it had to be so difficult and impossible to make at home. This is how I felt about tortillas. I cannot tell you how many tortillas, corn and flour; I have bought or eaten in my life. I have had whole wheat ones, tomato basil, spinach, and white flour ones. I had bought corn ones at the grocery store until a friend turned me on to the corn ones at the local Mexican grocery store.
What do I love about tortillas? What is there not to love? You can stir fry them and throw them in with some eggs, cheese, peppers and other fresh herbs to make migas. You can use them as a wrap to make a breakfast burrito, a sandwich wrap, burritos filled with whatever and let us not forget the amazing quesadilla
Read moreStep away from the kitchen!
I recently got an email from someone asking me why I had not written about my spiritual cooking adventures this week. So to those of you who have been wondering why I have not written; there is a simple explanation. I have been sick for the last 10 days. I won’t go into detail, but suffice it to say that the only thing I was cooking in my kitchen was tea and toast. Those seemed to be the two things I could keep in my stomach. So while my heart would have liked to have been continuing on my zucchini adventures, my body was not willing. Zoë, much to her excitement I think, was left to eat anything she could order in, microwave, toast, or get through the local drive through. While being sick was not fun and taking a break from the kitchen was not what I had in store, my time resting reminded me of the importance of taking a Sabbath.
Read moreSlow Cooking
Deciding how to approach working my way through Deborah Madison’s book has been interesting. I could not quite figure out how best to do this or how to approach it. So I decided to start with the Z’s and work backwards in the alphabet. So after making this ziti recipe, which I liked and Zoë thought was ok, I began on the zucchini recipes, much to Zoë’s chagrin. She is not a zucchini girl. So you can imagine her surprise when after reminding me for a week that she does not like zucchini, she enjoyed this simple dish of slow cooked zucchini with fresh herbs, feta cheese and Dreamfield's pasta.
Unlike Zoë, zucchini has been one of those vegetables I have always enjoyed. I have eaten them raw, used them in bread and chili, prepared them breaded and fried, stir fried, and grilled.
Read moreSpiritual Pizza
Growing up I have these fond memories of my parents bringing us to Mario’s pizzeria. I could not tell you where it was anymore, I just remember it being one of those foods we all loved. It was not something we had very often. I remember the cheese, which seemed to stretch for miles, the aroma of the pizza parlor and time spent with family. Over the years, my memories of pizza have changed. With the advent of corporate pizza chains who delivered and frozen pizzas, it went from being one of those special treats that I savored to something you ordered when you didn’t feel like cooking or needed a quick comfort food. While I have been intrigued by some of the techniques like putting extra cheese in the crust, pizza has been losing it’s specialness for me. As I have been working to transform our diets and have us eating healthier, it has been one of those foods, which just never seemed to fit the 30 grams of carbs rule.
Read moreHow do you get to Carnegie Hall?
Back in the 70’s, two of my favorite singers, Meg Christian and Chris Williamson, had a line in one of their albums. They asked, “How do you get to Carnegie Hall?” The answer was, “practice, practice, practice.” When I first started my reflections here, it was because of a series of dreams I had about being The Next Food Network Star. In my dreams, I kept advancing to the next round until I ultimately won. Having the confidence to apply to the show would be my getting to Carnegie Hall. So how am I going to get to that place, the same answer, “practice, practice, practice.”
Watching the show the last few seasons, I have come to realize that one of my strengths would be that I have this clear point of view to my cooking.
Read moreMy First Dance with Deborah
Ok, so no I was not physically dancing with Deborah Madison. However, last night, I prepared the first of many meals to come based on her cookbook Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone. Some things were a raving success with my guests and I, while others will need to revisit the drawing board. So the menu for last night was this barbecued tempeh made with her Golden Mustard Barbecue Sauce, Kale with Cannelini Beans, and Quinoa and Fresh Corn with Scallions.
Thinking about what I have learned from the advice of Ann Burrell and others on the Worst Cooks in American and from Deborah Madison’s advice, I began with a clean working area and
Read moreSeasons and Seasonings
I remember when friends of mine were taking college courses on anatomy and physiology (A & P). They would talk about feeling overwhelmed by all the muscle groups, anatomical structures, etc. I am sure that learning all the seasonings and spices and variations of them does not compare in complexity to what they were learning, however, by the time I was done reading the section on seasonings in Deborah Madison’s book I felt overwhelmed. I knew there were different kinds of salts, peppers, vinegars, and oils, etc. However, reading about each of them, the variety of herbs and spices, nuts, and the variety of ways in which one could make breadcrumbs and croutons and tortilla chips was making my head spin. Each piece of information I read was important for me to know. I learned about all the chemicals that are in food that I had never stopped to think about before, like bottled lemon and lime juices. I learned that the way in which some foods say they are produced could be misrepresentative, such as shelled nuts, which say they are roasted, but are really fried.
Read moreSeasonings in the Kitchen and for the Soul
I was starting to read the next chapter in Deborah Madison’s book, Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone, when I found myself unable to move past the first page of her chapter The Foundations of Flavor. It was not that the rest of the chapter had nothing to offer, it did. However, it was a comment she made about herbs and spices that resonated with my spirit. She wrote “Even more then vegetables themselves, it’s these small intensely flavored ingredients and how they’re combined, that give a culture’s food it’s unique stamp” (p. 27). It is these small intensely flavored ingredients, these herbs and spices, which in combination with other ingredients can transport me to another place and time. I began to think about how lemon and oregano when used to marinate my tempeh, along with some garlic, olive oil, and soy sauce allow me to experience the flavors of Greek in my vegetarian Greek Tempeh Salad or in my Greek Tempeh Pita Wraps. I think about how it is the fresh dill when combined with some Greek yogurt and cucumbers creates an amazing Tzatiki. Or I can think about ancho chili powder, cumin, and coriander and how in combination with just about anything they enable you to experience the flavors of Mexico.
Read moreBecoming a Cook
I have been cooking since I was a little girl. One of my earliest food memories was when I was probably three or four, perhaps younger. My mother would sit me on the kitchen floor or at the table with a pot of water and a spoon and tell me to stir. Over time, ingredients slowly were added to my repertoire as my mother’s sous chef (that is not what she called me at the time). I always loved baking with my mother. I was not so crazy about cooking with her; I developed my interest in cooking as a survival technique as she was not the best cook. However, I loved baking with her. I remember how meticulous she was. She had her dry measuring cups and her wet measuring cups and there was always a knife present as she prepared to bake one of her amazing creations like her lemon ricotta bobka cake or her rugelach. I still make her lemon ricotta bobka cake today and it still fills the house with the same aroma I remember as a child.
Over the years, I have become increasingly comfortable in the kitchen.
Read moreTeikkai
It can be a bit of a challenge to curl up anywhere to read a 700 plus page book. Yet this is what I found myself doing today as I began reading Deborah Madison’s book Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone. As I looked at this book for a moment, I had this wave of feelings that went through me as I wondered, for a moment, what I had just committed to doing this year as I cook my way through her book, seeking to develop a deeper relationship with the plant offerings I eat, developing my culinary skills, seeking to modify them when needed to be diabetic friendly, and inspire me to create new dishes. At the same time, there was this wave of excitement. This cookbook about vegetarian cooking has been compared to Julia Child’s cookbook on French cooking. So until I am done cooking the over 1400 recipes in this book, it will be Sharon and Deborah, just like it was Julie and Julia. Then the journey began and like Bastian in The Never Ending Story, I opened the book and began reading the Introduction to my new culinary and spiritual adventure
Read moreUp!
I remember when I first started the Zenful Kitchen reading a piece by Warren Caterson aka Chef Warren who wrote about being criticized at times for not having pictures in his blogs. He had written one that had pictures which looked as if they were created on an etch a sketch. (Yes Warren, I did read that blog post.) It made me want to go out and buy an etch a sketch. I understand what he was saying though. I know we eat with our eyes, or so I have been told, although some of my friends don’t look long enough to take it in, they just eat.
Not always having access to a camera (probably should put that on my wish list); sometimes I do not put pictures of my food with my blogs. One of these days, I will invest in one of my own or have a professional photographer in my life who is here taking photos as I am preparing something.
Read moreThe Most Inexpensive Ticket Home.
This memorial day I was reminded of a very important lesson. Food has the power to bring people back home. There are some dishes you can eat and there is something about that dish that just brings you back home, or brings you back to the kitchen of someone important in your life. I know I have shared this before, but Zoë and her friend Billijo love my cabbage casserole. The two of them when they sit down to eat it make sounds that would make someone think they were doing something other then eating dinner. The last time I made this casserole for them, the two of them sat there making sounds and enjoying their casserole while I enjoyed my simple mixed green salad with feta cheese and Greek tempeh.
Read more