About Me

"Table for One" is a cooking blog. It's about my experiences in the kitchen as a single woman that likes to cook but who is less than fond of entertaining. It's intended to be a whole lot about how to feed yourself, although I am sure to come up with ideas for stuff you can easily make and take to the work potluck and the family reunion. You don't have to be relegated to bringing the chips or the paper plates just because you're a solo act. And even though I don't generally throw parties, I got ideas that shouldn't be too hard to pull off, so there may be the occasional entertaining post. Of course, you should bear in mind that I am definitely an "intraverted" personality on the Myers-Briggs scale, so you might wait a very long time for party food at my blog. No doubt, there will be various and sundry musings about all things food related. Rants, too, from time to time, I expect.

I like food, therefore I like to cook. There, I said it. I like food. I've worked long and hard to develop a relationship with food that is relatively healthy, and it hasn't always been that way. Lest anyone fear they are in for "The Brown Rice and Granola Chronicles," put your fears to rest. I do not have a macrobiotic palate. I believe that it is quite possible to make and eat healthy, nutritious food to be sure, but I also live in a world that includes on a somewhat regular basis chicken wings, beer, potato chips, dessert and Chinese buffets. Occasionally in overly indulgent quantities. All at the same time. I don't feel guilty about it either. I'm a realist that way.

I suppose I could be called a reluctant foodie. Reluctant because the term "foodie" carries overly unpleasant connotations in my mind having to do with people who are always on the lookout for the latest and greatest just because it is the latest and greatest, and not because it actually looks good, smells good or tastes good, or in any way nurtures their souls. Nevermind that I have just about every spice and herb known to man and somewhere in the vicinity of eight kinds of mustard lurking in my refrigerator. The latter I attribute to a hereditary predisposition acquired from my father, who is a sucker for any kind of sweet-hot or spicy mustard. I will happily own up to having a fascination with the world of condiments, although I have thus far managed to avoid wasabi mayonnaise, having yet to figure out what I'd do with it if I had it. I took a wine class a few years back, not because I expected to dazzle friends, family and business connections with my knowledge of fine wines, but mainly because I wanted to be able to pick up a bottle of wine in the under twenty dollar range (and, for the record, the ten to fifteen dollar range is preferable) at my local World Market or Trader Joe's that wasn't fit to make vinegar out of.

My tastes are whimsical at best. I'd like to shop every day just because my taste inclinations can change that frequently. Right now, I am crazy for fruits and vegetables, and probably have more than I know what to do with in my refrigerator at this exact moment. I've got the makings of Thai beef salad and Vietnamese chicken salad, watermelon, strawberries, asparagus, cole slaw mix and arugula. I am hoping my taste buds will cooperate with me long enough to dispose of most of this in the next week or so. Because next week, I could just as easily decide that tuna noodle casserole and Krispy Kreme donuts are good ideas. It happens like that with me.

I am not anti-convenience food. I am not anti-comfort food. I think the rotisserie chicken right there at the deli in my local grocery store is one of the greatest food inventions of modern history. I love the darn things because they're convenient and I can do about a million things with them. I like bagged spinach, lettuce and lettuce mixes in spite of recent e-coli incidents. I like meatloaf, mashed potatoes (my sister-in-law's are worth a two hour drive on any holiday you can name), mac and cheese, and fried chicken. I say walk on the wild side and have street food and fair food because you only go around once, and whatever doesn't kill you only makes your gut stronger. I do draw the line at innards and insects, though. You will never put enough chocolate on a fried grasshopper to make me forget that it is a fried GRASSHOPPER. I almost always have a couple of those little frozen entrees from Stouffer's, Healthy Choice, Michelina or Marie Callendar in my freezer for those days when I don't have something quick and portable at the ready for my lunch or when I'm running late or when I'm too tired. I like those 99% fat-free cream soups, and the Kroger versions are just fine for my needs. With the exception of diet sodas, Hellman's light mayo and light sour cream (and the afore-mentioned canned cream soups), I got no use for "light" or "diet" much of anything. A little less of the real deal is more satisfying in my book, and I have done with trying to convince myself that some dry little rice cakes or artificially sweetened chocolate are good things. Ick.

At family gatherings, the things I am asked to bring are strawberry jello dessert (it's my paternal grandma's recipe and I have to bring this to pretty much any family gathering. After my mom died, the first Christmas dinner without her at my brother's house, my brother asked me to bring this. Mark doesn't generally go in for any kind of sweet things, so I figured it must mean something to him if he specifically asked me to bring it, and I've made it ever since. It's actually a rather light, refreshing bit of sweet after a big holiday meal with all the trimmings if you can't face pumpkin pie and red velvet cake), salami rolls (store bought hard salami rolled around a filling of cream cheese, chopped green olives, chopped green onions, prepared horseradish and a dash of Texas Pete), Butterfinger cake (taken right out of "Taste of Home" magazine and a staple at family cookouts and graduation parties. You'd have thought I invented the wheel the first time I brought it, and everyone swears I make it better than they do somehow), and my friend Elaine's sweet potato casserole (Elaine was my college roomie and close friend. She died about ten years ago and she herself admitted that she was no great shakes in the kitchen, but this recipe was one of her standouts, and every time I make it, I think of her and am proud to share the dish and the recipe. My niece-in-law, Jamie, loves this dish and asks for it every Thanksgiving).

I love to collect recipes and I read cookbooks the way other people read the latest best sellers. I think I could make a new recipe from my recipe boxes everyday for the rest of my life and not get to them all at this point. Although, in truth, I rarely actually follow recipes. Recipes are just suggestions about what ingredients go together for me. I constantly improvise. I've got cookbooks for just about every ethnicity out there, and what I don't have, I check out from the library if I get a burr under my saddle to cook something say Norwegian or Burmese or Ethiopian. Betty Crocker, Better Homes & Gardens (the red checkerbook one that is an updated version of my mom's) and Reader's Digest "Creative Cooking" are standard "reference" books for me. I love my copies of "Please to the Table" (Russia and all the former Soviet republics), "The Splendid Table" (Italian, Emalia-Romangna), "Everyday Italian", "Madhur Jaffrey's Indian Cooking" and "A Wok for All Seasons". I love recipezaar.com because if you can't find a recipe for whatever it is you want to make, then it don't exist. I also subscribe to about.com's newsletters for Indian, Chinese and Korean cooking. Food Network is almost always on in the background when I am to home, too, even though I think I've seen just about every show they have. "The Next Food Network Star" is to me what "American Idol" is to the rest of the nation.

Things I can't live without in my kitchen are onions, garlic, chicken broth, rice, butter, olive oil, kosher salt and sherry vinegar. I love my Calphalon stir-fry pan, my microplane grater, my pepper mill, my big cast iron skillet and my big ol' chef's knife.

I can't quite wrap my head around cooking radishes, cucumbers (I know. I eat pickles and they are technically cooked cucumbers, but I am talking about the suggestions I've read from time to time that involve sauteeing the damn things in some oil or butter and serving them hot), and iceberg lettuce. Not sure why that last one gets me, as I happily and merrily eat bok choy and napa cabbage when I am in the mood for Chinese food! I have no use whatsoever for Minute Rice or instant tea. The average five year old in most underdeveloped nations of the world knows how to make REAL rice and REAL tea, so I'll confess to being a bit snotty on this point about these products. It's not that hard to do the real thing. I do not order iced tea north of the Mason-Dixon line most of the time because of the Yankee fascination with powdered Nestea. Ick again.

Well, I think that's enough of an introduction at this point. After all, it's a blog, and I can make lots and lots of posts whenever the mood strikes me. If you've read this far, thanks for your perseverance. Hope you find something that is at least entertaining, if not useful from time to time.