He's got spunk: Stop shivering and start cooking - Berkeley Beacon

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He's got spunk: Stop shivering and start cooking - Berkeley Beacon

He's got spunk: Stop shivering and start cooking - Berkeley Beacon

Posted: 25 Feb 2021 12:00 AM PST

He%27s+got+spunk%3A+Stop+shivering+and+start+cooking

By Gary Sowder, Columnist
February 25, 2021

I'm from New York, which is not a very endearing way to start any sentence, but stay with me. When I moved up to Boston for college, I thought I was completely prepared for the harsh Massachusetts winters. Holy shit was I wrong. My apartment is always freezing, I have to wear my puffer coat in the laundry room, and the sidewalks are so cold they turn the rain to ice, making my walk to Trader Joe's unexpectedly dangerous. This weather has pushed us all back indoors, leaving us to shiver in front of our space heaters, and worst of all: I can't go on any dates!

I know, I know, "Kim, there's people that are dying," but I am not a scientist. In the past––Fall of last year––a COVID-safe date could consist of a peaceful walk-and-talk on the Esplanade, a socially distanced picnic, or a stroll to get some coffee. These were chances to meet people safely, get to know someone, build up that layer of trust before inviting someone into your bubble and, more importantly, into your apartment. None of this is possible when the mere temperature of the air literally makes me cry. Now, without the luxury of the outdoors, dates take planning, dates take trust, dates take a timestamped negative COVID-19 test before the planning even begins. And, after grilling your potential suitor about their safety habits, there's still the ever-important question: What should we do?

Dates nowadays have to take place in our apartments, we can't grab drinks, see movies, or go to museums, we're confined to our couches, our beds, and our tiny little kitchens with severely limited counter-space. Apartment-dates don't really pack much variety into them. Playing video games or watching a movie is just, in essence, sitting on the couch and looking at something, no matter how engaging that something is. And those kinds of low-effort activities typically result in the first-date-hookup––which I am very not opposed to, my column is named after cum––but when you're trying to get to know someone, you want a little more build up before you start getting naked. That is why, all you spunkers––yes you have a name now someone feel free to Yolanda me––I'm proposing that all of our first dates this winter are cooking dates.

Let me explain, the cooking date is obviously when you cook a meal together, but it's so much more than that. In January, I went on my first official date of 2021. It was at the onset of this deep-freeze we're currently enduring so, naturally, he came to my apartment. His name was Hunter, he is a college dropout, just my height, and a romantic so-hopeless that he only asked for a couple dick pics while we were texting. We decided to make a vegan curry, which we would prepare over my skinny little stove and a bottle of white wine. This is where the magic of the cooking date starts. You see, cooking can be like a dance. The mechanical movements which Hunter used to crush garlic cloves or the fluidity of him drizzling oil into a pan, these things have a rhythm to them, creativity, spontaneity. There's a kind of magic that comes when two people work together to accomplish something, it's the exact kind of magic many of us long for on a first date. In my hallway of a kitchen, which was smelling strongly of garam masala, turmeric, and freshly minced ginger, Hunter and I created a kind of emotional closeness. A comfortable closeness. That's the beauty of the cooking date, it pushes us together, not physically but emotionally. It's a special kind of intimacy.

This intimacy, while lovely, is just one aspect of the cooking date. The perfect first date recipe includes a lot of silence, the silence that can give way to those comfy moments. Cooking gives us something to talk over, or talk about. Waiting for supremely salted pasta water to boil gives room for conversation, an incorrect onion chopping technique can lead to playful bickering. And when there is a lull, when a joke doesn't land or an awkward comment hits too strangely, the opportunities to change the subject are endless. Just when our conversation started to flicker out Hunter rushed to my dutch oven, worried about the curry burning. In a pinch, simply asking "is it done yet?" can jumpstart any dull moment.

Now, not all of us are marvelous chefs––I myself have absolutely desecrated several Barefoot Contessa recipes––but what you make on this cooking date isn't really what's important. Okay it is kind of important. On this cooking date, boxed macaroni and cheese won't cut it. Although the food isn't of great consequence, it needs to be active, and a touch complicated. The best date recipes require four hands: someone to do the chopping and someone to make sure whatever's on the stove isn't burning. My editor––who is straight and a man, so his cooking skills are questionable––suggested a simple baked mac and cheese, which, in all honesty, I think is a perfect first date meal. 

Picture it: one of you is preparing the cheese sauce, carefully whisking the roux while the other aggressively shreds some cheddar. It's active, but repetitive enough to give way to some light chit-chat, the surface level getting to know you. As the water starts to boil things get more intense, more frantic. Cheese is melting, pasta is doing whatever pasta does in boiling water. Ideally, the cheese and the mac are ready at the same time, but they never are, which gives one of you the opportunity to meander into the other person's chef-duty. It's a chance to make that emotional intimacy you've been cultivating a bit more physical. And then, working together, the two of you can scrape the mac and the cheese into a Pyrex and, as the breadcrumbs brown, you two can talk over two glasses of wine. Breaking that surface-level just a little. 

Jesus. I started my sex column career talking about getting choked and now I'm romanticizing mac and cheese. I digress.  

When the two of you are done, you firstly can eat—which is always a delight—and you also have the opportunity to get to know one another over a meal you cooked together. It's an intimacy you created equally and a connection you're starting to form. With one meal, you've laid a solid foundation for a second date.

This story was published in The Berkeley Beacon Magazine's February 26, 2021 issue. 

The top 5 cooking mistakes and how to avoid them - KOIN.com

Posted: 26 Feb 2021 08:12 AM PST

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) -- An Oregon couple is aiming to help with one of the biggest challenges for parents -- bath time.

So, they started a subscription box business called Bubbles and Joy. The goal of Bubbles and Joy is to make bath time something your kiddos actually look forward to. Co-founders Tyler and Emily Neese joined AM Extra to talk about the boxes.

What to Cook This Weekend - The New York Times

Posted: 26 Feb 2021 07:30 AM PST

Good morning. Purim ends this evening. The holiday celebrates the saving of the Jewish people from Haman, a high official in the Persian court who sought their extinction in the fifth century B.C., but whose plans were foiled by the queen, Esther. It's a time of feasting and happiness, and for the holiday's signature stuffed cookie, hamantaschen — in English, "Haman's pockets." (In Hebrew, they're oznei Haman, "Haman's ears.")

Try one with a poppy-seed filling. Or a version with chocolate chips. Caramelized onion and poppy seed hamantaschen (above)? Yes, please, I'd like that very much.

It's also the second Friday of Lent, the Christian period of reflection and sacrifice that precedes Easter. For those who abstain from eating meat on Lenten Fridays, indeed for anyone looking for a delicious dinner, here's a fine plate of cod cakes.

(It's also the birthday of the British cooking personality Fanny Cradock, born in 1909. Here, she is in 1956, making French onion soup at the Royal Albert Hall with her husband Johnnie. Those were wild times.)

I'd like to make these pork chops with lemon-caper sauce for dinner this weekend. And I'd like to make this Southern caramel cake for dessert.

I'd also like to make focaccia in the style of Caroline Fidanza, and use it for lunchtime sandwiches. I'd like to get a jump on next week by cooking some dishes that taste better on the second or third day. And I'd really like to see if I can pull off the beautiful deliciousness of these Bavarian-style soft pretzels.

Is this a weekend for chili? Or for kimbap? With cara caras at my market at least, it's time for a citrus salad with prosecco. And it'd be very nice to serve a buttermilk-brined roast chicken as well.

There are many thousands more recipes to cook this weekend waiting for you on NYT Cooking. Go browse among them and see what you think. If you have a subscription to the site, you can save the ones you want to cook and rate the ones you've made. You can leave notes on them, too, if you have any that you'd like to keep for yourself or share. (Subscriptions are what make this whole adventure possible. If you don't have one yet, I hope you will consider subscribing today.)

And we are here to help, should something go awry in your kitchen or on our site and apps. Just write us at cookingcare@nytimes.com. Someone will get back to you. (You can also send me a dart or an apple: foodeditor@nytimes.com. I read every letter sent.)

Now, it's nothing to do with short ribs or vanilla beans steeped in bourbon, but here's Dwight Garner on Viet Thanh Nguyen's novel "The Committed," a sequel to his Pulitzer Prize-winning "The Sympathizer," from 2015. I'm in.

You should also take a look at Alana Dao's reflective essay in The Bitter Southerner, on Houston hip-hop and its connection to Timmy Chan's, her grandparents' restaurant.

"Nadiya Bakes," on Netflix, is an emotional support animal disguised as a cooking show, from a favorite winner of "The Great British Baking Show."

Finally, here's some music from Loshh to play us off, "Faji." Listen to that and I'll see you on Sunday.

How to Get Out of a Cooking Rut - Food & Wine

Posted: 26 Feb 2021 08:33 AM PST

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Cooking with the culinary mind behind Garibaldi Portside Bistro - KOIN.com

Posted: 26 Feb 2021 09:58 AM PST

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — It's time for Foodie Friday!

This week, we're taking you to an all-new location for an up-close and personal look at some delicious food. Emily went out to Roby's Furniture and Appliance in Tillamook.

There, she cooked a hearty breakfast with the culinary mind behind Garibaldi Portside Bistro!

Breakfast Skillet Recipe:

This entire dish is cooked in one skillet. All ingredients are added to taste or dependent upon individual preferences.

Ingredients:

  • Ground Breakfast Sausage
  • Baby Red Potatoes
  • Onion
  • Green Chilis
  • Minced Garlic
  • Egg/Eggs
  • Salt and Pepper
  • Shredded Cheese
  • Fresh Tomato
  • Fresh Avocado
  • Sour Cream
  • Top with Bacon Bits if desired
  1. In a skillet, throw in sausage, break it up and cook for approximately one minute
  2. Add red potato for hash browns, cook for another 8 to 10 minutes over medium heat
  3. Add garlic and green chilis
  4. Crack one to two eggs directly into skillet
  5. Salt and Pepper to Taste
  6. Place cheese over ingredients
  7. Put lid on over low heat for approximately five minutes
  8. Remove from heat, plate and serve
  9. Optional: Dress with fresh tomato, avocado and sour cream


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