In which we see why Marna will never be any sort of a food blogger

[marnanightingale]

Because my recipes would all look like this:

Take three beef ribs which were marinated for last Sunday's dinner and not cooked, which have since been in the fridge covered in beer and chipotle marinade.

Ascertain that they look, feel, and smell healthy and right, reflect that beer and chipotle are both preservatives, and decide to cook them.

Look outside and realise that it really isn't quite bbq weather, plus iclysdale, this household's designated Person Who Deals With Gas BBQs, is ill.

Preheat oven to 400 F. Notice that there are hickory chips in foil on the floor of the oven from last week's experiment, in which the chips were too wet and did not smoke. Sprinkle them with water and leave them in there.

Haul out roasting pan and load ribs onto it. Place on bottom rack.

Reset smoke alarm. Add a bit more water to hickory chips. Open kitchen window. Reset oven to 350 F.

Cook for 90 minutes, more or less. (ETA: less. More like 60 and they were a bit overdone. 45, perhaps, would have been perfect.)

They smell great, actually. But I feel as if I could see oursin's expression from here.

ETA2: They were excellent, actually. Lovely subtle spicing and very tender. I am well pleased and am bringing the marinade to a boil so I can safely freeze it for re-use.

Comments

[audrawilliams.livejournal.com]

Awesome. Let's have a cable cooking show!

[commodorified.livejournal.com]

Marna And Audra Are Lazy and Well Fed?

[audrawilliams.livejournal.com]

EVERYONE would watch that show!!

[nolivingman.livejournal.com]

See, your recipes are the work of somebody who knows what she is doing in the kitchen (with minor problems like the smoke), and your food probably turns out delicious. Mine are attempts to overcome lack of skill with precise measurements and instructions. They lack that flair.

[commodorified.livejournal.com]

*blushes* You are sweet.

"Flair" is really about familiarity; I'm a self-taught cook, having begun to learn through sheer necessity when my Mom went back to work. So I've been cooking for... omg, 25 years, really, and usually with no recipe.

Recipes are fine things, but if you're relying on them mostly because you feel nervous and constrained in the kitchen I recommend looking for a copy of Tassajara Cooking, which is really a very relaxed and useful sort of how-to, good for loosening up the nervous cook, and also MFK Fisher's The Art Of Eating.

Neither of them contains a lot of recipes; they're much more about finding your feet with cooking and eating food, and while MFK in particular can seem a bit intimidating at first, what I have mostly gotten from her writing is a willingness to relax and trust my own senses -- and my own SENSE -- about food. And the Tassajara book is full of excellent instructions for how to do things that most cookbooks assume you know, like chopping vegetables, as well as good discussion of how we nourish ourselves and others and how that fits into our lives.

The Food Repair Handbook is also a fabulous book, and very soothing to have around. I need to get a copy, actually; mine is long gone.

[tygerr.livejournal.com]

My local Half-Price Books recently had a whole pile of Tassajara books, and I recalled that once upon a time you'd mentioned that one of them was hard to find and you didn't have it. Sadly, I don't recall if it was Tassajara Cooking or The Tassajara Bread Book that you lacked.

Give me a memory jogger, and I'll check to see which if the one in the store is the one you need.

[nolivingman.livejournal.com]

Oh those all sound v. useful. I shall add them to my book wishlist. Yay!

[oursin.livejournal.com]

That sounds great, actually! And my culinary writeups tend to omit the panic, something catching fire or simply 'realise halfway through prep stage that I do not have some essential ingredient and have to improvise with something else'.

[commodorified.livejournal.com]

I love your write-ups. I aspire to be smooth like that, but at the same time I always feel that if "reset fire alarm" is part of the method, I am Just Not There yet.

[girlpearl]

You know what my favorite thing about you is, Marna?

Yeah, I can never pick just one, either.



You cook like I cook, and I would totally watch that show.

[commodorified.livejournal.com]

*glomps you*

I can never just pick one thing about you either. I just love you. And you should totally come for supper sometime. :)