how we operate
cold food for hot weather, and good solo dinners
I know we’re well into Cancer season now, but bear with me: Jeff’s side of the family is full of Geminis. And because there are almost half a dozen birthdays all smashed into the same three weeks, and it’s difficult to align the schedules of several different households, we often end up celebrating them much later. His mom is insistent that everyone should get their own dinner (even though most of us would be happy to pick a day to celebrate once and be done with it). I think last year we were having a dinner for Jeff’s birthday, which is in May, in something like mid-September.
Anyway, last Sunday we got together for his mom’s birthday (which is in early June), and since the previous birthday dinners had exhausted most of the local options for a sit-down dinner for nine people— two of whom are very picky children— I’d suggested we order something and eat at their apartment instead. We ordered pizza from Farina a Legna, a place I definitely miss being walking distance from. (The kids got Domino’s.) We also had pie from Lynn Valley Bakery, which is the next best thing to a homemade one. I haven’t managed to make a strawberry rhubarb pie this summer, so I was very happy to have a slice of theirs.
My good news this week is that I had my assessment at the MS clinic, and it was very encouraging! The bad news is that the MS clinic is at UBC, which is a pretty long journey from where we live. But at least after the appointment we got to treat ourselves to ice cream at Rain or Shine— I got roasted strawberry, and Jeff got vegan chocolate peanut butter crunch. Both of us were very satisfied with our choices. Anyway, that appointment and traveling there and back ate up most of the day today, so please excuse me if this newsletter is more brief than usual. With that plus work, the two other medical appointments I had this week, and the 30°C weather, my friends, I am beat.
One thing about summer that makes me a bit sad is my oral allergy to stone fruits, meaning I can’t eat them raw. Every year I’m like ‘maybe it’s not so bad!’ and then I eat a single cherry or a slice of a peach and I’m like ‘damn actually this sucks’. So a two-pound bag of cherries arrived in my produce box, and then sat in the fridge while I tried to think of something to do with them that wasn’t jam or pie. I know I can count on Deb Perelman to have a dessert for every possible seasonal fruit or occasion or craving, and I was not disappointed! I settled on this cherry cornmeal upside-down cake. Reading through the delightful prelude to the recipe, I decided she was correct on another count: I ordered a cherry pitter, even though it’ll get used 2-5 times per year, max, but it is a $13 purchase that will save me from very predictable amounts of prep-related anger on the occasions I would use one but don’t have one to us.
On the day I’d decided to make this, I mentioned in a chat that I was making a cake with cherries, and someone naturally assumed I meant black forest cake, which as you may know, is one of my all-time faves. And then I couldn’t stop thinking about it. But I wasn’t going to go out for more ingredients, so I decided to just give this cake a little black forest vibe by subbing out ¼ cup of the flour with cocoa powder instead. I felt it could have used a bit more than the three cups listed, but I also may have cooked them in the sugar a little longer than I was supposed to, so do with that as you will. Anyway, this cake was dark and delicious and had a wonderful texture from the brown sugar topping and the cornmeal, and still evoked some of the black forest cake mood I was looking for, so it was a victory. Making it used three different bowls, the whisk and paddle for the stand mixer, as well as a 10” cast iron pan, but I didn’t mind— for some reason doing the dishes while something is baking in the oven feels almost meditative, whereas doing the dishes after eating dinner feels downright defeating.
As aforementioned, it’s been hot as hell this week, so I’ve been doing my damndest not to have to cook. I bought some cucumbers specifically to make this salad recipe— also a Smitten Kitchen jam. I’m normally not the biggest fan of cold tofu, but it just looked so good. And I didn’t make it exactly, because I only had the Sunrise brand of fried tofu I usually buy, not the silken type. But that is a traditional-style tofu so it’s still fairly soft beneath its marinated exterior, and I really liked the texture here. I made extra peanut sauce, because that never lasts long in my fridge. I made something similar to this takeout-style noodle, which I love when I need something really fast and don’t have a lot of ingredients. I also had a little bit of leftover white rice that wasn’t enough to really make something of on its own, so I made crispy rice to add even more crunch to this. It was so satisfying and delicious— one of the few times I did not become too weary of eating salad to continue.
To make crispy rice: start with day-old refrigerated rice, like you would for fried rice. Mix with soy sauce, sesame oil, and optionally some chili oil or crisp, enough so that the rice grains are all well-coated, but not so much that there’s extra liquid when you’re done mixing. Spread the rice out onto a parchment-lined baking sheet and bake at 400°F for 20-40 minutes, tossing every 10 minutes or so, until all the rice is crisp and nicely browned. The time will depend on how much rice you’re doing— I was only doing a small amount, so I could fit it on the small tray for my toaster oven and do it that way and it was done pretty quick, but for a full baking sheet, it’ll take longer for the grains at the centre to start to crisp up.
Jeff’s been doing some evenings lately at work, so I’ve been making more dinners for one (partially because we’re out of Costco spring rolls which means at least one of my preferred solo meals is unavailable to me right now). I made an okonomiyaki-style pancake with potato, carrot, and cabbage, and topped it with ketchup & kewpie mayo, pickled onion, roasted seaweed, and some garlic chips I’d made when I found a head of garlic in the jar on the counter that was sprouting badly. Garlic chips are great because they’re garlic that crunches, and you’ve got garlic-infused oil you can use for other things when you’re done making them.
Grilling doesn’t count as cooking, because it’s outside, right? Therefore I could get excited about fresh corn when I went to get groceries the other day (it was $1.49 per, which means we aren’t quite in peak season yet). A few busy days later I got around to grilling them, and made some black bean tacos with the corn, salsa verde, lime slaw, and feta. For tacos, I usually like to mush beans up with some cumin, chili powder, coriander, and salt, adding a little lime juice and water or broth to soften them up a bit, and sometimes a few dashes of hot sauce. The slaw is just cabbage I slice on the mandoline and add lime juice, salt, olive oil, and some green onion slices to. It will be nicely wilted and marinated if you make it first while you get all the other taco stuff ready.
One more dinner-for-one that I love is the humble tuna melt. In the past I’ve made this by just making tuna salad as usual, then putting the whole thing in the toaster oven to melt the cheese on top and toast the bread a bit, but I made one last week by toasting the bread with cheese on top in a pan with butter as suggested in this recipe. Then you put the tuna on afterwards, and add salt-and-vinegar chips before you close it all up. I made the tuna salad to my own preferences, so I can’t speak to that, but I highly recommend everything else. If you don’t eat fish, I am sure this would also work with chickpea tuna salad, which I enjoy a lot in its own right. Celery sticks were a nice side for this salty meal.
Thanks for reading— if you enjoyed this newsletter, please share it with someone new! I like providing this to you for free, but it does still involve time and effort, so donations I can use towards cookbooks or future treats are much appreciated. Finally, and as always: the horrors persist, but so do we.