Writings: Food stuffs

I have a very low threshold for suffering these days, my own personal suffering that is. I spend my energy trying to live as a hedonist, which is actually kind of a challenge coming out of three years of academic asceticism. I think the one area of my life where I have truly allowed a reckless abandon to my heart's desire is with food. Oh man that makes me sound so fat. In my defense, I have been working out most days (and should you be concerned that I'm exercising too hard, that's a mix of light jogging and Zumba), which makes me positively voracious, almost frighteningly so. The idea at first with the increased fitness was to lose weight, but now I do it more to break up the monotony of the day and to get my heart racing about something. And then I go home and make chicken with caper cream sauce or fry up some smoked applewood bacon because bacon makes everything taste better or sometimes I just take a big scoop of Trader Joe's crunchy cookie butter and eat it straight out of the jar - okay I do that last one everyday. I love the richness of butter, it's creamy undertones and overtones, how it infuses and enhances without stealing the culinary show. In my mind every dish is made better with garlic and onions crisped in oil. I like to eat vegetables roasted in garlic oil and tossed with Parmesan; I like to eat my meats simmered for a long time in wine, peppers, and roux. I always thought if I ate only the food I made , I would be healthier...but I think I'm going to have to rethink that concept now that I've discovered my liberal policies on the use of butter and oils in my cooking.

Potatoes tossed in garlic, oil, and Parmesan - baked until nice and
crispy on the outside, then generously salted. 

I used to go to Whole Foods to buy its broccoli crunch salad. I thought it was delicious: a creamy blend of raw broccoli, cashews, raisins, red onions tossed in a mayo dressing. But yesterday I finally decided to make it myself, and discovered I can make it so much better than the Whole Foods version with the following Allrecipes recipe.

Ingredients for Broccoli Salad
4 slices smoked applewood bacon
1 head fresh broccoli, cut into bite size pieces
1/4 cup red onion, chopped (forgot this)
1/2 cup raisins
3 tablespoons white wine vinegar
2 tablespoons white sugar
2/3 to 3/4 cup mayonnaise
1 cup sliced almonds

Notes: I only used 4 slices of bacon instead of 10 like the recipe called for. I fried them really crispy and crumbled them into the mayo dressing. I forgot to buy red onions and was so distraught about this that I was about to go out and buy some, but the dish ended up tasting pretty good without it so I didn't bother. The recipe called for a cup of mayo but I put in about 2/3 to 3/4 cups of light mayo and I felt like that was enough for a bunch of broccoli. I also cut up the broccoli stems and added them to the salad so as not to waste them. After mixing all the ingredients together, I let the flavors marinate together for a few hours. Really a creamy, yet refreshing salad. Also sliced almonds > cashews, and crispy bacon > soggy bacon, so take that Whole Foods! Would be great for company. Rating: 5 out of 5.

 Alyson's Broccoli Salad