Naomi: Cooking for one and for friends



For years now, even before I wrote the recipes in what I think of as my "static blog," Fiftytworecipesfrommymother, at the request of my children, Sarah and Sam, Sarah had been urging me to keep a daily (more or less) record of my cookings--the meals I make for myself in my (surprisingly) solitary life as well as those I make for friends. For whatever reasons, I've never done it.


But, after months of wandering, I've finally begun. As I haven't quite mastered the art of cooking for one, and love throwing together grand meals at the last minute, I have been encouraging friends to call to check on what I might have on hand any evening for a quick meal. Instructions can be found in my entry for March 20th--What's in Naomi's Refrigerator.

This is primarily a record of the meals I prepare for myself and others, accompanied by "mug shots" of the food (when I remember to photograph before eating). Shot by my phone, with no styling, they may not capture their subjects at their best, but so be it.



Monday, May 28, 2012

May 28th. Oakland Biking. Wedding Brunch. Ikea.

The wedding celebration concluded with a Monday morning brunch for out-of-towners.
Now that I'm re-morphing  into a biker, I borrowed Rinat's bike and helmet and rode the 4.6 miles down Market Street to Scott's Seafood at Jack London Square for a fine spread of bagels, lox, roast vegetables and lots of conversation.
Biked back on Adeline, another broad Sunday-morning quiet street, empty for Memorial Day,  scarcely a car in sight.  Back at the house, in between serious bouts of folding and sorting line-dried laundry,  I managed to do still more  serious and delicious snacking with Raph---left over chicken with snow peas in coconut milk and a chick pea, tomato, feta and green olive salad.
And that wasn't the end of my  biking and eating.
A little ding on my phone alerted me to Sarah's update of New Jersey kitchen plans.  As Ikea was just a 16 minute bike ride away, I decided to continue my bicycle adventures and  check out Akurum cabinets and Nutid Refrigerators  I would not be buying a fridge--just looking--but I did hope to buy napkin rings for the Breines/Fried household.
My biking bravado was challenged by the ride to Ikea which involved  crossing over some intricate Freeway Overpasses--not exactly friendly bike territory.  We were now approaching the end of Memorial Day weekend so the roads were full of returning celebrants.  Needless to say, Ikea, whether in Carson, Oakland or Elizabeth New Jersey manages to be simultaneously familiar and over-whelming--so all was fine once I got there and was guided through the kitchen department (which was in the midst of a renovation, so not quite in its finest mode).
"We are a Swedish company," said Chan, explaining why salaried and hourly workers have the same name tags, no-one denoted as manager, leader, etc.  I nod appreciatively, a little social democracy in action.  They are three happy workers.  They are even happier when I tell them I could easily imagine (though I probably would not go to see) a movie based on their Ikea adventures.  And, once I assured them that I would  never humiliate them on Facebook, they let me document our visit.

Ilan, Raph, Tamar and Rinat all standing very straight
Alas, Ikea no longer carries napkin rings, so I biked back empty-handed.   Raph had just grilled the ribeye steaks I'd brought from Harris Ranch--which were even better than my parking lot sample and there was broccoli and ice cream as well!  No documentation of any of this, so  I'll take this opportunity to include this blurry, sun-splashed image of nieces and nephews, regular and grand taken two months ago.
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