Posts in Category ‘Soups and Starters’

Article

Freelance Gazpacho

pen and palate tomatoes market

illustration: tram nguyen

 

The “freelance writing lifestyle” has its ups and downs. It’s been about a year since I quit my full-time reporting job to do the whole freelance thing, and during that period I’ve learned a few things about myself. For one thing, I am disturbingly okay with my limited degree of human interaction. Being at home alone with my cat all day suits me basically fine! I also like being my own boss. No one is going to give me shit if I sleep in or take a 2-hour ice cream break or work from bed while wearing my soft clothes; and because there’s no one to ask me to write cheap-click blog posts in the interest of “generating content” or getting X number of page views, I have no real reason to do so. It’s basically forced me to hold myself to a higher standard, which means that, in the last year, I’ve done mostly work in which I’m actually interested. That alone feels like an enormous luxury.  Read more

Article

Moderately Healthy Lentil Sausage Soup

neighborly

illustration: tram nguyen

 

Lately I’ve had a lot of deadlines, which means I’ve been giving myself a lot of leeway in the “eating like a functional adult human” department. I have this tendency, when I’m stressed out by work, to let everything else – cooking, sleeping, making my hair look nice, fulfilling other basic obligations – go by the wayside. During these trying times you can usually find me in my bed with my laptop and my cat, wearing my kimono, and eating takeout pad thai.

Read more

Article

Hibernation Clam Chowder

New England Clam Chowder Pen and Palate

illustration: tram nguyen

 

A few weeks ago, while divvying up the grocery shopping, Rob and I accidentally doubled up on the bacon. I noticed this at the end of our excursion and tried to amend the mistake, but Rob balked, insisting that we were past the point in our shopping trip of putting things back (!!) and that we would merely have to live with our mistakes. To be fair, once I start second-guessing my grocery choices I am unstoppable in the “hold on let me just swap these six things super-quickly” department. In an effort to keep the peace, I snuck only one package back onto the shelves. So we ended up with four pounds of bacon.

Read more

Article

Spinach and Cheese Empanadas, Fit for a King

henryviii

illustration: tram nguyen

 

This recipe is dedicated to my little brother, who despite being as thin as a rail and blessed with the metabolism of a very fast hamster, was diagnosed with gout at the tender age of 22. The doctor remarked that he had never seen this particular affliction in one so young, and that it was usually the disease of unusually large, prosperous, middle-aged men, such as Henry VIII. You develop it by eating too much steak, organ meats, and other rich foods and the best way to treat it is a massive overhaul of one’s diet. Upon learning of this diagnosis, my brother went to Macy’s and bought himself a deep fryer for Christmas.  He had a gift card, he said.

Read more