Month: November 2006

Drinking with Babies

This week, the NYT addresses something I’ve always been peculiarly interested in: how much drinkin’ is too much drinkin’ when you’re With Child? In the grand tradition of American Fear Mongering, we’ve been taught to think that if a pregnant lady has even a sip of wine she’s dooming her childto mental retardation, and maybe she should be locked up. We’re never good at drawing lines between moderation and abuse, and with that knowledge in mind, I’ve always thought that the French probably have the right idea–a few drinks (not hard liquor) a week is probably fine.

It seems some obstetricians (unofficially) agree. I appreciate Julia Moskin, the author, for being really upfront about the realities of being preggers, and still wanting to have a beer with your husband at the end of the day. And frankly, I think that if a lady is giving birth to anothing human being, she’s responsible enough to make her own decisions about her own body.

Spicy “Asian” Shrimp

As a person who doesn’t cook a lot of fish, I’ve been especially intimidated by the shrimps. Hence, in my few shrimp-cooking experiences, I always bought them not just peeled and deveined, but already cooked, so as to avoid the “what the hell do I do with this thing” question altogether. Whenever I saw the little guys at the fish counter, I couldn’t really tell if they’d been peeled and deveined, or just beheaded, or what, and I certainly didn’t know how to do all that stuff to them myself. Yeah, people told me it was easy, but…well, ewwww.

Well, tonight I had my first experience with shrimp I had to deconstruct myself.

Continue reading Spicy “Asian” Shrimp

I want a food blog!

Apparently, if everyone else jumped off a bridge I would totally do it, too.

I have recently become a bit crazy about all food- and cooking-related things. I always enjoyed cooking, but never really had a clue about technique or flavor combinations (yes, I once made spaghetti with beets, garbanzo beans, and feta). Well now I’m learning, and I’m ready to share with you the knowledge that I imbibe. Or something.

Of course, I don’t have a decent digital camera yet (I’ve been resolutely clinging to my 35 mm film), and it’s a Universally Awknowledged Truth that a food blog without pictures is scarcely a food blog at all. But hopefully that will be remedied soon, and then the whole tricky Taking Pictures of Food will be another thing I have to learn. (You’ll see that the early attempts are less than awesome.)

I hope my adventures are suitably amusing, and merely strive to be half as witty and creative as so many of the great food writers already out there in the world.