Life of Wry

Melting the anchovies is a new one on me. But it was a recipe that seemed worth trying.

It came from a New York Times article on recipes that draw from your current pantry… basically a response to the fact all of us are in stay at home mode — strict orders from, in this case, the California Governor — and we may not be grocery shopping as frequently as usual, and may be running short on ideas for what to cook, given we’re having to rely on relics from our pantries for ingredients.

This one called for tuna, capers and anchovies. (And the truth is, I had to go to the store to buy capers and anchovies… since I’d recently tossed 3 small jars of ancient capers and we had sardines but no anchovies in our panty.)

Here’re the ingredients, all prepped and ready to go:

And the recipe…

Jim’s and my rating is on a 4-star scale… I gave it a 3.5, Jim gave it a 3.  I didn’t take a pic of the finished dish, but it was angel hair and with the garnish, was very presentable. Served it with some steamed zuc… just to get some veggies.

I’ve been threatening Jim for, oh, about 21 years, that I was ready to get back to sharing a bit of the cooking. I used to cook a lot — Jim cooked a bit, as well, but I did the lion’s share — then, when Peter was born, Jim stepped in and pretty much took over all of the cooking. I was grateful! And he became a very good cook! He’s a natural because he has no fear of winging it and has a remarkable sense of taste. Like having an ear for music, he has a keen sense of flavors, can usually identify what’s in a dish, what it’s short on, what it needs for balance… he’s just really good that way. And never follows recipes (unless he’s baking or making something like batter for pancakes or waffles). He’s definitely produced some bombs, but for the most part, his dishes are really, really tasty.

 
I am a recipe person….which was one of my barriers to reassuming cooking duties. I felt like I had to organize all of my recipes first before I could re-launch into regular meal prep. And of course this was a project that sat dormant for a couple of decades… as big projects do, right? (RIGHT!?)

I subscribed to the NYT cooking thing (what is it called??) and have been doing the modern equivalent of clipping recipes for about six months, and am amassing quite a collection… so little by little have been venturing back into the kitchen.. much to Jim’s shock, I am quite sure.

Part of it is shame, too. I can’t, with good conscience, not do something with all of this free time (coronavirus free time). I mean, I have literally hours and hours of free time right now — in EVERY day. I’m blogging, I’m getting a lot of exercise, I’m committing a lot of hours to 2020 election stuff (I sure hope we have an election in November), I’m reading way too much news (but I guess that’s okay since we’re living in the most weirdly newsworthy time in history)…and I still have loads of time left over. So I may as well cook, right?

I’m also running out of things to blog about since my days have become repeats of one another… walks, spring flowers, anger and despair at the current state of our politics, coronavirus states of affair and the resulting shut down of society and life as we know it … what else is there?

Thus… a cooking post. Hopefully there will be more!