Honest woman December 21, 2009

Word got out at work that I write a “food blog,” and now everyone wants the link.  My co-workers got into their heads that I have good ideas about cooking and eating, and rather than tell them the truth (“Actually, it’s more of a way for my out-of-town friends to keep in touch, and there’s a lot of my whining about losing my job…”), I’ll just start writing more about food again.

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Here’s what I made for breakfast for today.

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Raspberry cream cheese breakfast muffins

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I don’t normally get up early enough to bake breakfast before I have to run off somewhere, but thanks to the heaviest snowfall in DC on record, I wasn’t going anywhere.  The Captain, and his belly, were pretty pleased about that.

Repeat invitations November 30, 2009

The holidays are in full swing and aren’t you thoroughly excited?  I am.  In the spirit of all the fabulous parties to which you’ve been invited, here’s a fun little recipe that’ll get you asked back again and again.  Maybe your hosts will see you only for your cookies, but why look a gift horse in the mouth?  They want you there, so go.  And bring these.

Chocolate Peppermint Cookies

Leader’s recon November 25, 2009

As many of you know, the Captain is called “The Captain” because that was the rank he attained by the time he left the Army.  Even though he’s now been out more years than he was in (WOW), he still talks about his service and keeps in touch with his buddies.  He’s also taught me some lessons that are wonderfully helpful in civilian life.

One of those lessons is leader’s recon.  Leader’s recon is when you scout out your next location so you know what to expect.  Before I met the Captain I was certainly familiar with the concept (civilians call it a “dry run”), but never had I met anyone who valued it so highly and who practiced it so regularly as the Captain.  If we have to be somewhere unfamiliar, for example, he’ll drive there the night before.  If he wants to serve our guests a new recipe, he’ll test it out on me weeks in advance.  He truly makes a habit of getting things ready before they’re needed.  As for me, the only time I ever had done a dry run was when my mother drove me the night before to the high school where I was taking the SAT.  At the time, I thought the exercise overkill.  In retrospect…well, I did get into Brown.

This is all a very long way of saying that I’ve caught on to the idea of leader’s recon.  Which is good, because the spicy caramel popcorn that I wanted to serve my guests in a couple weeks did not turn out so great last night.

Spicy caramel popcorn

Back in the saddle again March 1, 2009

Blueberry coffee cake

Captain,

Yesterday I woke up with a troubled tummy that wouldn’t go away.  Normally I’d say it was something I ate, but it was a good eight hours after I’d eaten that my tummy started its, um, misbehavior.  Plus, I’ve mostly been eating in, and the thought that I gave myself food poisoning is just too embarrassing for words.  My sister Schmoopy thinks it was some errant produce.  I’ll go with that.

At any rate, I was flat on the couch for most of the day, and even though I was so weak I couldn’t stand (it was more of a pathetic-looking hunch), I was relieved not to 1) worry about my job hunt, 2) worry about my move, or 3) run that ten miles I said I should run.  I could just be sick, and it was a lovely break.

Today, thankfully, I am feeling much better.  The up side is that I am back to solid foods.  The down side is that I am back to items 1) -3) in the paragraph above.  No matter.  I’d much rather deal with my worries head on than ooze out my brain power in front of the TV.  And I’d much rather bring delight to the tummies of others, as I did with this blueberry coffee cake that I gave to my neighbors.  I think I had blueberries on the brain because our friends Suzy and Matt just had their baby, code name “Blueberry.”  Mazel tov.

Love,

The Snappy Dish

Yes I Can… February 26, 2009

…use up all the ingredients in my pantry.

Coconut oatmeal cookies

Captain,

I am a veritable machine.  Behold, another two dozen freshly baked cookies.  Or, as I like to call them, “Another two sticks of butter, 1 1/2 cups of flour, 1 cup of oats, and 1 1/2 cups of coconut GONE.”  With only two weeks to go I have to keep up my pace.

You might remember these cookies as the cookies I brought to the bar last July.  I think that was the last time I made them, and wouldn’t you know, today was the second day of the February bar.  Even though I am bummed not to have a job, I still feel grateful everyday I do not have to do that again.  Everyday.

And now that it’s rumored that yesterday’s essays included not only federal and California evidence, but federal and California civ pro as well (Lord. have. mercy.), I am thankful even more, if that’s even possible.

Still somewhat traumatized by the bar exam,

The Snappy Dish

Helps the medicine go down February 24, 2009

Fudgy brownies with pecans

Captain,

The clock is ticking and I couldn’t be happier.  In only two weeks I’ll be on a plane to Washington.

YIKES.  I need to pack this place up.

And I need to get through all the ingredients I have in the pantry.  The last couple weeks I’ve been baking quite often and giving my wares to friends and strangers, some who have been appreciative and some who-must-have-been-raised-in-a-barn-because-of-their-deplorable-manners.   But anyway.

So far my strategy has been to make dishes that use up lots of ingredients at once.  I’ve made a bunch of two-stick cookies (i.e., cookies using two sticks of butter), but yesterday I thought I’d take a gander at two-stick brownies.  They were terrific; not only did they take up two sticks of butter, they sucked up four eggs and two cups of sugar as well.  It was tremendous.[FN1]

As I poured the raw cane avalanche into my mixing bowl I suddenly remembered Mary Poppins and how a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down.  Moving out here only to get canned has been so terribly unpleasant; I’m not sure even those two cups of sugar would have done the trick.

But they helped.

Love,

The Snappy Dish

Twice baked, not fooled February 21, 2009

Captain,

Back when the Decider was president he had this funny bit where he mucked up the adage, “Fool me once…you can’t get fooled again.”

Two weeks removed from my lay-off, I’m starting to feel like a fool.  I’m also starting to feel significant anger as I think about all the things that might have gone differently had I not moved to California.  I might have hung back in Washington and witnessed the ethereal Mrs. O for myself. [FN1][FN2] Or I might have stayed in Boston with you, and you’d still be compiling “Songs You Can Erg To” for the crewbies.  Or…we might even have had a bulldog by now, wherever we were.  Things could’ve been different.

So far I’ve avoided such “woulda, coulda, shoulda” thinking because it’s usually not useful.  A whole bunch of other things could have happened had I declined the offer from Papa Law, and a whole bunch of them bad.  But lately I’ve been starting to feel fooled.  How could I have let this happen?  There were so many conflicting messages: they deferred my start date, but they invited me to their black-tie Christmas party at San Diego’s nicest hotel.  (Which hotel is suing another big firm for reneging on its own fancy to-do).  Maybe it was all the same message – rather than incur the costs of defending a breach of contract, the Partners just ate the cost of the party.  Either way, I wish I could have avoided it all.

The lesson in all this, I suppose, is always to be on the lookout for a new job?  That doesn’t seem to make sense.  But I don’t know how best to make sure I’m not fooled again.  Until I figure that out, I’ll be munching on these fantabulous cranberry-orange biscotti.  To paraphrase Woolf, lock up your law firms if you like; but there is no gate, no lock, no bolt that you can set upon my culinary joy.  (Okay, the original is much better.  But I incorporated Virginia Woolf into a frivolous blog about food and recessions.  For that I am officially awesome.)

Love,

The Snappy Dish

Cranberry-orange biscotti

Recessionista February 19, 2009

Dearest,

Thank you for a marvelous visit last weekend.  It was so good to see you, the Genius, and our good friends the Coxswains.  I’ve been back in San Diego a couple days now but I haven’t yet posted because I’ve been so busy looking for work.  It’s astounding, really, that I’m so much busier now than when I was employed.  Had I been this busy on the job, well, I probably wouldn’t be writing this and I certainly wouldn’t be coming home to you in a few weeks.  And the 827 other legal professionals who were laid off in last week’s massacre probably wouldn’t be reading this, either.  (Not that they are reading this, but now they have the time.)

My days are fairly regimented: two hours’ work out, three hours’ job hunt, one hour’s lunch, [FN1] three more hours’ job hunt, one and half hour’s moving logistics.  The rest of the evening is to myself.  I kept a similar schedule when I studied for the bar, and that turned out well.  The hours can seem monotonous, certainly, but so far I’ve found it helpful to remember two things:

1) No effort is ever wasted.  Maybe I’ll spend [way too  much time – I’m embarrassed to admit how much] applying to a job that’s been filled since I’ve seen it.  No problem.  I can use the ideas in that application for another opening down the line – and that saves effort.

2) Compartmentalization is key.  Those three hours before lunch are three hours for the Hunt and nothing else.  While I haven’t been so disciplined about that yet (sometimes I look at facebook), I cannot get distracted by the many other issues cluttering my time.  I discovered this secret while studying for the bar.  I simply could not learn everything, and certainly not all at once.  So I rocked those hours of Torts when I could and then I moved on. The same goes for the Hunt.  I rock out my dedicated hours and then I let my brain turn to mush before the DVR.  It works.

Oh, and I guess 3)  There is still room for pleasure at the table.  Even with a shrunken budget, I still can make fabulous meals.  Recession be damned.

Love,

The Snappy Dish

Chicken soup for the soul February 11, 2009

Captain,

I am a very lucky lady.  When word got out that I’d been laid off – before I’d sent out my resume – friends from all over were emailing to see how they could help.  (Psst, Friends Out There, please forward my resume to whomever you think would find my skills useful.  That is how you can help.)  So all these people were chipping in and getting in touch, and it made me feel blessed.  I am poor in employment but I am rich in friendship, and that has made all the difference.

And since a lawyer’s got to eat, even if she’s laid-off, here’s a tasty recipe I made the other night.  You’ll recognize it as a recipe we’ve made in the past; it’s billed as a rainy day recipe, and since it’s been raining in San Diego ever since I lost my job (really, I can’t make this stuff up), I thought it appropriate.  It calls for chicken “meatballs” instead of chunks of chicken, and it wasn’t until I tried making those meatballs that I realized why you are the meatball expert in the family.  My meatballs came out a little dumpy looking, but they tasted great nonetheless.  Bon appetit.

Love,
The Snappy Dish

Chicken Pastina Bake February 5, 2009

I haven’t broken out the dutch oven in a while, but it was pretty wicked cold today, so I wanted something warm and delicious. I made the the chicken pastina bake that we like so well. Here it is:

Cooking Time: 1 hour

Ingredients:

1 lb cherry tomatoes

2 tbsps olive oil

2 tsps salt

1 tsp black pepper

4 skinless chicken thighs, bone-in

1 onion (red or yellow, doesn’t matter) finely chopped

4 cloves garlic

2 cups (approx) chicken broth

2 cups penne

Optional: 2 cinnamon sticks, 1/2 cup orange juice

Instructions:

If you can chop an onion, you can make this. It’s so delicious and easy, it quickly became a favorite of the Snappy Dish and me.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. As the oven heats, toss together the salt, pepper, tomatoes, and olive oil in a dutch oven. When the oven is hot, insert the covered dutch oven and bake for 15 minutes.

While the tomatoes bake, chop the onion and garlic and gather the rest of your ingredients (if you haven’t already). After 15 minutes, remove the dutch oven and add the chicken. Salt and pepper to taste, then add the penne, onion and garlic. Add the cinnamon sticks and orange juice, then pour in enough chicken broth so that the pasta is just covered.

Re-cover the dutch oven and put it back in the oven for 40-45 minutes, then go catch up on your Tivo backlog.

After 45 minutes, remove the dutch oven, spoon a thigh and some pasta into a bowl, and enjoy. A side of crusty bread is good for mopping up.