Friday, January 23, 2009

Odds and Ends

Uganda was wonderful, but we couldn't stay forever.It's good to be home, cold and stressful, but good. I missed Matt terribly, and missed my city and my kitchen and my life. Being on vacation, at the mercy of others for food and transport and all the small decisions of the day to day, can be exhausting. I've been too busy and broke since getting home to truly cook at the mad level I had reached before leaving, but I've been enjoying re-acquainting myself with little shared kingdom, cooking simple food, packing my lunch...My local food isn't quite so local, but isn't it beautiful?
What you can't see in the photo above is the joyful sight of Matt helpless with laughter listening to a radio comedian riff on Joe Biden and the mid-Atlantic states in general.
While it looked like this out, I've been making spicy soup, braised chicken with mushrooms, and other warm comfort foods. And of course, what would life be like without a few fun things.
Yogurt cake again...I could eat one every day. This one was a particular success, with local organic cranberries and Chilean chestnut marmalade that Miriam brought back this summer.
These I made on my second night back, inspired by Martha Stewart's cupcake focused February issue. It's the Bart's chocolate coffee cake, my standby, with swiss meringue buttercream. As the year begins in earnest, I really want to make sure that I take care of us through food this year, which means fun things and harder things, like reducing portions and being reasonable with meats. I've always preferred adding foods in (vegetables, whole grains) to taking things out (sugar, chocolate, fruit juice), but I want to be careful in a non-obsessive way, to live well and live long, so this year may see some changes.

1 comment:

Nicki said...

Welcome home Katya,
Was there any memorable food experiences in Uganda? I saw a photo of you cooking in Liana's kitchen. Was that eggplant you were cooking or some unfamiliar Afican starchy vegetable? Your Auntie Nicki