by Sam Tackeff | Jan 22, 2014 | chicken
Tonight I made myself a really great dinner. It was a relief actually. The past few weeks I’ve been a little out of my element. We’ve had houseguests, and gone out to eat more times than prudent in January. I’ve missed one of my weekly cook-ups, and neglected my meal planning. It’s also been really cold in my kitchen. That’s sort of how it goes around here – sometimes I’m floundering around at the last minute putting something together, and other times things just click.
The salad above is the result of some last minute cravings at Trader Joe’s. I’ve been eating cleanly for all of January, which means I deny myself the pleasure of samples at Trader Joe’s – other than the coffee of course. On the plus side, this means that I don’t go home with mushroom mochi potstickers instead of a balanced meal.
So this salad. It’s one of my versions of a dinner salad with general Asian flavors. I do a riff on this on a regular basis – sometimes its Indian carrot salad with lamb, sometimes it takes on a more Vietnamese twist, maybe chicken with a cucumber salad and Nước chấm. This salad is made for versatility: meat, chopped veg, fresh herbs, and a punchy dressing. At TJ’s, I picked up broccoli slaw, a cucumber, mint and basil. In the case I found myself a pack of boneless skinless chicken thighs. I do love skin, but they don’t sell bone-in with skin chicken thighs at our outpost, and while I’d make a whole chicken, I really only like dark meat – it just tastes better. When I got home, I dried off the chicken (fully drying the skin allows for tasty Maillard reaction – browning! science! – to happen), and seasoned with salt, pepper, and garlic powder. Into the oiled cast iron, for six minutes on the first side. While the chicken cooked, I made my dressing: a few tablespoons of almond butter, the juice of a lime, a dash of vinegar, about a half tablespoon of Red Boat fish sauce, and some olive oil. I flipped the chicken, cooked for about four more minutes, and then let it rest off the heat while I prepped all of my salad ingredients. I chopped half of an English cucumber and added it to the bowl, then a few cups of broccoli slaw per person, and chopped mint and basil. I tossed with the dressing, tidied up, and then chopped up my chicken and added it to the bowl.
It was devoured while I watched some trashy tv. My 600-lb. life, followed by the first five minutes of Sex sent me to the ER. I had to turn it off. I wish I was making this stuff up.
by Sam Tackeff | Jan 13, 2014 | Books, Books in 2014
If we’re going to discuss life resolutions, as one is wont to do around this time of year, I’d say that one of my top resolutions in life right now is simply to laugh more. Deep belly laughter is shockingly restorative, and as adults, we do much too little of it.
The first three books I read this year were written by people who are funny for a living. Now, I should say that reading memoirs by people who are funny for a living is not the same as reading/watching/listening to their comedic work. These books were all funny, certainly, but they were also moving, thought provoking, and introspective. In some sections they were painful, dark, and sad. In each, the most fascinating parts were the stories from childhood, anecdotes about family, first jobs, awkward relationships, and weird career trajectories. Two of them featured bedwetting as a prominent plot point (Rob, Sarah). One, puberty quite early (Tina), another, quite late (Sarah). All three featured excessive body hair. The low points, I think, for all three books, were the bits about present day or recent history, specifically revolving around their current shows, or how they got the book deal, or what may be up next – these sections all felt like weird filler, without the passage of time necessary for true introspection.
Each had moments that I’ll continue to think about for quite some time – Rob Delaney’s honest discourse about both his depression and alcoholism, Tina Fey’s thoughts about management style, with examples of both her own, and Lorne Michaels’, and Sarah Silverman, on the absurdity of sexism in censorship.
I quite enjoyed all three.
#1. Rob Delaney: Mother. Wife. Sister. Human. Warrior. Falcon. Yardstick. Turban. Cabbage. by Rob Delaney
Hardcover, 208 pages
Published November 5th 2013 by Spiegel & Grau
Listened to audiobook – Random House Audio
#2. Bossypants by Tina Fey
Paperback, 275 pages
First published January 3rd, 2012 by Back Bay Books
Read paperback, as well as listened on audio read by author
#3. The Bedwetter: Stories of Courage, Redemption, and Pee by Sarah Silverman
Hardcover, 256 pages
Published April 20th 2010 by HarperCollins
Listened to audiobook, read by author
by Sam Tackeff | Jan 10, 2014 | Books
There are stacks of books at my bedside, hundreds on my to-read list. Books invade the living room and every empty surface in this house. And yet somehow last year I read less books in total than any year in my adult life. So I sat down last week and wrote a list of books I’d like to fall into in the next few months to make sure that I consume an adequate amount of literary prose this year. Some are on my shelves, and have been gathering dust for years, others I’ll take out of the library, some will be downloaded onto the phone to take with me on the go. I have a few on the list that I’ll be listening to as audiobooks – perfect for my thirty minute walk commutes.
Certainly the genres aren’t covered here, but I tried to go as broadly as I could stand. A few I’ve read chapters of here and there, others I’ve skimmed, but most are new to me – now excuse me, I must go off and read.
Classic: The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
Philosophy: Zen & The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig
Current Fiction: The Circle by Dave Eggers, The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert
Food Memoir: Home Cooking: A Writer in the Kitchen by Laurie Colwin, Blue Plate Special: An Autobiography of my Appetites by Kate Christensen
Crime: Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
Children’s Fiction: Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynn Jones
Humor: Bossypants by Tina Fey
History: Devil in the White City by Erik Larson
Audiobook: Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman
Of course I don’t count cookbooks – they get read from cover to cover, but get their own category. Currently I’m deep in Vegetable Literacy by Deborah Madison, and Modernist Cuisine at Home.
Addendum, other book lists of note: for the past several years I’ve been ticking my way through the BBC Big Read List – I reckon it’ll take me the next five years or so to get through. I’m also enthused about the No Obligation Reading List over at the Knicknackery – if you are looking for some heavy hitting fiction that will keep you through the winter, and a few great non-fiction options, that’s the place to look.
