by Sam Tackeff | Jun 11, 2013 | Blogging, Books, Photography, Restaurants
All of a sudden we had a flash of heatwave out east, and summer is officially here. This weekend was my college reunion, and I made my way out to Wellesley to participate in the best way I know possible: as Class Dinner Chair. Instead of formal catering, Saturday’s dinner was Redbones barbecue – plates of brisket, ribs, grilled vegetables and their creamy mac and cheese – and Sunday we had some very good sandwiches from the Linden Store. My dear friend Caroline flew out from Houston, and we had a grand time having ladies lunch, touring the arboretum, the greenhouses, and taking kayaks on lake Waban. I managed to escape Wellesley Books with only three new purchases in tow: ‘The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry‘, by Rachel Joyce, ‘Beautiful Ruins‘ by Jess Walter – both good summer reading. And for good measure, ‘Wreck this Journal‘ – a journal with some aggressive prompts. I have a Kindle which I use almost daily, but nothing beats a good paperback in the summertime.
A few weeks ago I signed up for Pathfinder, a five week journaling course led by Karen Walrond of Chookooloonks, a vibrant and delightful human being. I was having trouble writing – expressing myself freely and creatively, and this seemed like a good moment to seize the opportunity to learn something new. Last month, after a year of dreaming, I finally got a new lens for my camera, so I no longer am limited to macro food shots. Another great thing about this course is that it’s inspiring me to actually shoot. (Including all the photos in this post.)
I’ve been spending a lot of time outside lately. I have a half hour meandering walk to work in the morning, and back in the evening. I’ve taken to walking on the waterfront, which is always a little bit longer, but always cheers me up. Maybe it has to do with growing up on the ocean, but whenever I’m tired, anxious, or sad, walking next to all the blue and the boats will always put me in a good place. In addition to my walks, I’ve been running. I started with the Runner’s World Summer Running Streak – a mile every day from Memorial Day to July 4th – fully expecting to have given up by now, but I’m still going strong.
There has also been food! This week we also took out the grill for the season, and I ceremoniously cooked up some hot dogs, and Copper River Sockeye salmon for the occasion. We typically have our date night on Friday night at the Cottage in Wellesley. it first became a thing with the brownie sundae and the lamb burger with paprika aioli (seriously, it’s all about the paprika aioli), and then remained a thing as they are one of the most accommodating restaurants for both Gluten-free and food allergy folks in the area when I was super strict for my gym challenge. Nobody looked at me twice when I’d order the Chicken Cobb minus the blue cheese, and sub lamb burger for chicken. It was a miracle I tell you.
Last week we ventured further out to Somerville to try our luck at Posto. A change of venue! I ordered a cocktail, which, since I’ve become an accidental tee-totaler over the past few years, might be surprising (I can count the number of adult beverages I’ve had this year on my two hands) – I needed to make an exception for this glorious beverage: the Italia 75 (with Campari, Prosecco, and fresh grapefruit juice). It was well worth it.
For our meal, we shared a Caesar salad with white anchovies, which was perfectly dressed. Also, anyone who serves me white anchovies immediately wins a prize. The marinated little fish are vastly superior to their salty shriveled cousins most often topping a Caesar. And then we made a point to get the rosemary sea salt bread, which they bake to order in their large pizza oven.
For our meal, Devon got the rigatoni bolognese, and I got the mussels with fennel, pernod, and butter. The last time I actually ordered mussels in a restaurant was in Napa at The Girl and the Fig three years ago. Three years ago! I remember this well because they were delicious then, and I spent half the meal berating myself for not ordering (or cooking) mussels more often. And yes, I ended up doing that again during this meal. Not only were they absurdly good – a little smoky from the fire, plump and juicy and reminiscent of the sea – but I would bathe myself in the sauce if I was any less proper a lady. Lesson learned, I’ll have to get them again soon.
Over the next couple of days, I’ll be writing up my summer to do list. It’ll involve a good deal of books, barbecue, frolicking in the sunshine, and time at the sea. I’ll be in my kitchen – I’m meaning to try the Banana Ketchup from the new Adobo Road Cookbook. I’ve been curled up lately with Dinner, A Love Story and Canal House Cooks Everyday, Nigel Slater’s Kitchen Diaries II, and Yotam Ottolenghi’s Jerusalem, to name a few. I hope to travel to a few good restaurants – Farmstead in Providence is at the top of my list right now. I have some home improvements (a.k.a. more bookshelves) in mind, which will require a trip or two to IKEA. And strawberries. I’ll be eating plenty of those.
by Sam Tackeff | Jan 30, 2013 | Meat, Photography, Poultry, Quick and Easy
In the past few weeks, my writing practice has seen several false starts. I’ll get motivated to sit down and craft something delightful, and then I’ll stare blankly at my screen. My mind has been so overloaded this month that I’ve been having trouble tuning things out and focusing. This can be infuriating. I have, however, been enjoying the medium of photography, committing myself to share at least one photo a day, usually here on instagram, out of the dozens that I snap on my walks. This is my favorite shot this week– it’s a bit of trickery. I took the photo of trees reflecting on the water of the semi-frozen Charles River, and flipped it upside down. I love how the flecks of ice look like stars.
I’d like to assure you that despite my lack of creative output, I’ve been eating well this month. Mostly. Of course there have been a few trips to Anna’s for Mexican, a couple of sushi orders, and my favorite yesterday: burgers and shakes at the Met Bar. But, I’ve spent a good amount of time at home making worthwhile meals. Here are a few of them.
One cold afternoon, I played around with Mark Bittman’s recipe for Crispy Pork Bits with Jerk Seasoning from How to Cook Everything, which slow cooks pork pieces in the oven seasoned with lots of allspice, nutmeg, coriander and lime, and makes the house smell celebratory. I tossed in a few handfuls of green beans in the last half hour of roasting.
And then there was this chicken dish, which I’ll call tomato braised curry chicken. It’s the ultimate cheater meal – I’ll season chicken thighs with curry powder and salt, and sear them for a few minutes in a little bit of coconut oil. When cooked through, I’ll pour over a jar of Rao’s marinara, bring to a boil, turn down to a simmer, cover, and let cook for about half an hour so that the chicken-y juices infuse the sauce. You can serve it over rice, or spaghetti squash, or eat it just plain in a bowl, like I do.
One night we had my childhood favorite, franks and beans, and big salads. I used to use Pearl hot dogs and the sickly sweet Campbell’s with the little pieces of salt pork like my grandfather liked, but these days I tend to use Applegate Organic hotdogs that I pick up at Trader Joes, and some sort of hippy brand of beans when I’m not making my own with Rancho Gordo’s.
There was this delightful winter lunch – a perfect steak from the butcher shop, which came in my Meat Club subscription, otherwise I’d likely never leave with something so fancy! I seasoned it with salt, pepper, and cumin, and served it with a little Moroccan carrot salad, with a cumin and preserved lemon vinaigrette, and a little handful of cured olives.
Another perfect lunch came in the form of a second childhood favorite: liver and peas. I cooked the (goat’s liver!) with a little bit of bacon, tossed in some frozen peas, and then doused it all with a good squeezing of lemon.
A quick dinner came together one night in the form of garlicky pork tenderloin, roasted green beans, and a dollop of guacamole. I like it when my meals have not one, but two shades of green. I usually parcook the green beans and then let them finish in the roasting pan with the pork.
Finally, one of my favorite meals, which we ate twice: roasted chicken thighs with potatoes, tomatoes, lemon and thyme. I love making variations on this, a fairly typically Turkish or Greek meal. I’ll season the chicken thighs with salt, pepper, and thyme, and then sear them skin side down in some melted butter. Then flip them over, and nestle them on top of a few par-cooked potatoes (in the microwave is just fine) and raw tomatoes cut into wedges. Into the oven for about an hour at 375, and the skin comes out crispy. You can also roast a few lemon wedges in there, and then squeeze out the juice onto your chicken.
And now for some wonderful news: when I returned home from a long walk this afternoon, I found a box from Le Creuset on my doorstep! My beloved 7.25 quart Dijon Dutch Oven, which had died of some fluke chipping, had been replaced! They even sent me the same color! Expect to see a good amount of braising and roasting in the coming weeks from my kitchen.
by Sam Tackeff | Sep 21, 2012 | Challenge, Photography
Today’s Happiness Booster: Evening Walks. I remember when I was a teenager spending the summer in France, we used to go for evening walks. Usually before dinner, or in between dinner and dessert, we’d head out as a group, sometimes just the kids, sometimes the whole lot of us, and stroll through the neighborhood. There was always a lot of smiling, laughing, waving to people eating in their gardens or doing the same as us.
This is a practice that I’ve been longing to make a habit of, but it hasn’t been until recently that I’ve been doing it. You get rewarded at that time of day, the blue hour*, when twilight hits and the sun has set and things all of a sudden become magical. (*Also, love this blue hour.)
I took these tonight, on my phone, as the light was fading on my evening walk.
Today was an odd sort of day, trying to fit a few different things into my schedule that I hadn’t planned for. I decided at the last minute to go to the gym because I’m committed twice a week, and although I usually go on Friday or Sunday, I wanted to give myself enough rest for my little road race this weekend.
I had half a cup of coffee, and headed to the gym on an empty stomach, because of my last minute judgement. Although having some food is better than none, if I don’t leave several hours between eating and my workout, it becomes uncomfortable and “an issue”. I’ll leave it at that.
Today’s workout was called “Tarpit“.
AMRAP 20 (As many rounds as possible in 20 minutes):
200m Run
16 Lunges
8 Push-ups
4 Pull-ups (Jumping pullups for me!)
If this looks painful, well, it was. I got in an honorable 5 rounds plus a run. (Three rock stars in my class got 9 + change. Crazy!) To reward ourselves, we did 8 sets of 20 seconds of situps + 10 seconds of rest in between. I did a less than honorable 52 situps. Eek!
Before heading home, I stretched for a good 15 minutes, and swung by the Needham library to flip through a cookbook of mine that is stuck in a box. They have this fantastic statue outside that I just love.
When I got home, I set about making a simple soup of leftovers that turned out better than expected. Butternut squash, roast beef, a few handfuls of baby spinach, and the last bit of homemade beef stock I made last week. I seasoned it simply with salt and pepper and a little bit of Turkish urfa biber (a deep oily red pepper flake).
Later in the afternoon, snack was an entire half pint of raspberries, and some iced tea with coconut milk. I had a heck of a time trying to photograph the milky tea, the camera just didn’t want to do it. It was good, I promise.
In the early evening I headed off to M.F. Dulock again in Somerville to pick up some pasture raised and freshly butchered meat for the next few days. Having a great source of high quality, humanely raised meat is so important to me – leaving my meat c.s.a. in the Bay was really hard, and I just can’t say enough about having access to this stuff. I picked up some beef shanks, beef stir fry meat, fresh pork sausages, lamb shoulder chops and goat! Variety is the spice of life!
After my evening walk, I set about making dinner. First I gathered vegetables to make my salad. 
I chopped up the tomato and cucumber, and tossed them in a bowl with a little bit of salt and thyme, and let them sit while I prepped everything else. This allows the juices to puddle at the bottom, and all you really need is a little bit of vinegar and a spoonful of olive oil to finish it off.
The goat meat I had picked up at the butcher had already been seasoned – salt, pepper, garlic, onions and parsley – pretty much exactly what I do to my ground meat to make Turkish köfte – convenient!
I formed the meat into little balls, and fried it in some tasty lard in my cast iron. Goat is a very lean meat, so a little bit of extra fat was welcome here.
I was surprised at how much they really crisped up in the pan. I made Devon a salad with a little bit of Caesar dressing, sliced up an avocado to share, and made up our plates. This is his, mine had just cucumber and tomato salad without leafy greens for no good reason other than the fact that I had put away the greens before making my own plate and forgot.
And wait! Dessert! Before my walk, I managed to cut up a melon and put it in the fridge. I ate several cupfuls mindlessly while watching “Breaking Amish”. And to think I had seriously contemplated giving up fall TV…
by Sam Tackeff | Sep 19, 2012 | Photography
Today’s Happiness Booster: Photography Practice. This afternoon I was talking to my good friend Sondy about my desire to improve my photography. I have this phenomenal camera that I don’t know how to use, and find myself frustrated when photos turn out better on my phone than they do on the Nikon. I know that there are a few things that I really need to do – read my manual, take a class, but most importantly, spend more time shooting. So she sent me on assignment to Fresh Pond, in Cambridge. It’s one of my absolute favorite places in the city.
Here are a few of my shots from the evening.
I have to do more of that.
As for today, I started out with a very small cup of coffee. And a few spoonfuls of unsweetened Sunbutter. I don’t think I like it very much, it’s a little bit bitter, but I’ll see how it works for cooking.
After my snack, I headed out on my run. This was my last planned run before my race on Sunday! I walked the mile down to the Charles to do this loop – it’s a nice 5k, but not my favorite in the neighborhood, because the paths aren’t as kept as other parts of the river, and you really need to watch out for tripping hazards.
After my run, I hit up Starbucks for some iced tea. I took a picture of myself sweaty, with tea, but decided I’d spare you for this blog.
I was starving by the time I returned, so I put together this big plate – leftover roast beef, roasted eggplant with parsley, a chopped orange bell pepper and a dollop of homemade mayo to dip. My lunches tend to be simple, but I try for lots of colors and textures. This was so good!
In the early evening, I went to Fresh Pond to take photos at sunset, and ate my snack – an apple and a handful of almonds.
I came back to start dinner. My plan was to roast a spaghetti squash, and serve it with a quick meat sauce – the pork I had cooked a few days ago with Italian seasoning, and some Rao’s Marinara.
And then I realized that the spaghetti squash that I was so excited about… was a butternut squash. This almost caused a meltdown, but I was determined to be positive about the mix-up. So I renamed it “butternut squash “faux-cchi”, topped with meat sauce”. And you know what? It was surprisingly good! I cooked the squash in the microwave for 10 minutes (gasp!), put together the meat and sauce and simmered it, and cooked Devon a little pot of farfalle. I then spooned out the squash in gnocchi size, and ladled on my sauce. Here was my dinner.
by Sam Tackeff | Feb 11, 2012 | Coffee, Photography
Morning bed. I’m guessing I’m not the only one who ends up with five blankets on when the weather is cold and snowflakes are coming down. The sky looks like this:
The antidote: Zabar’s coffee.
Shot with my new Nikon D700. (My dream camera!)
