Usually, my consumption of food is accompanied by joy, happiness and peace. If I’ve ever deviated from that state of peace, I’ve used food, both the preparation and the eating, to bring me back to my equilibrium. There’s something spiritual and almost trance like about cooking for me that transports me to my happy place where there are no problems. Food really helped me get through the last couple of weeks. (As did my mom and friends and boyfriend but we all know you’re here for the food)
The last few weeks were weird and I was feeling a lot of emotions. Starting June 20th, I’ve been busier than I’ve ever been at work in at least 3 years but in a freshly challenging way I haven’t experienced where there were a bazillion things to do but nothing was easy and everything required maximum brain power. Between us, it was fascinating and I did enjoy being challenged in that way. I was doing so much math and being a total nerd and I missed that side of me. However, I wasn’t sleeping much at all really and when I did, I was having vivid dreams about work.
It was also period week so you know how it be..
The triple whammy was that my mom was in town for this entire period of time so I knew while I was working that she was at home and I couldn’t spend any time with her. All of this happening at once was a lot. I don’t want to say it was too much but it was certainly more than I needed. Here is how I coped with it all.
June 21 – 25
Copious Amounts of Chai
I was working from home / helping my parents move this week and that also coincided with work beginning to blow up so I was being pulled in many directions and also felt like I wasn’t doing a great job at any of the things. The saving grace was the delivery of hot chai by either my mom or my brother every day at 11 am and at 3pm. It was hot and strong enough and chai time, whether I was working through it or not (though almost always the former) brought me so much peace.
June 25
Tomatoes
I love tomato season. Our flight from the previous day was delayed and i was struggling through a special type of jet lag that you can have when you’re in the same time zone throughout but you keep getting delayed or are subject to extremely temperamental air traffic control centers and weathers making it hard to ever know what time it is or where you are. We finally got home to New York 18 hours after we were supposed to and i was hungry for breakfast. There wasn’t a lot in my fridge but I did have grape tomatoes that looked fre$h, fresh basil from my window sill garden and eggs. Throw it all together in a pan and voila. I was a happy camper. Side note – that basil has been an addition to almost everything I’ve been cooking because it is yummy and growing in abundance.
June 25
Infused Coconut Milk
This was the same day as the tomatoes but it was too genius an invention to not share with the world. My mom and I wanted to be healthy and have some soup for dinner. I decided to make a Thai inspired coconut, ginger and cauliflower soup I had made ages ago. The stroke of genius this time was infusing my coconut milk with 2 cloves of crushed garlic, an inch of peeled and grated ginger, a ton of basil (!!) and 2 slit green chilies. In hindsight that was two two many green chilies because i was simultaneously roasting cauliflower in olive oil, salt, pepper and chili powder. While the cauliflower roasted, the coconut milk infusion was infusing at a low temperature on the stove and not being allowed to boil. After the cauliflower was roasted enough (~30 minutes), i let everything cool and blended it all together. Creating something new gave me such joy.
June 26 – 30
Takeout
This week was especially bad – work wise. For lunch every day, my mom packed me a fresh lunch that got me through the day and I had food from somewhere near the office every evening to get me through the night. The big hits include various salads from Chopt, the French fries from Mighty Quinn’s, the Mac and cheese from Dig Inn and a burrito tartine from Tartinery. Everything you can find everywhere but really sustained me
July 3
Toast & Pretty Food
July 3 was a sneaky work day / holiday leading up to July 4th. It was busy with work but certainly not at the level of the week prior so I could certainly relax a little and also take some to cook. The most memorable things I made were less cooking and more presentation. I love bread and we’ve already established that I love tomatoes and basil so it was pretty easy to put them all together. Toasting my bread in olive oil is my new obsession so I toasted some whole wheat bread and topped it with squished avocado and sliced tomato, salt, pepper and basil. YUM (and pretty). Looking at it made me so happy and then eating it was the “cherry” on top.
Peach Upside Down Cake
The one thing my mom asked me to do was bake for her so I used this slow ish day to bake a peach upside down cake with the fresh in season peaches. I used a Jake Cohen recipe because that man can upside down cake-ify any fruit and its delightful. The cake both looked and tasted incredible. I nibbled on pieces every single day the following week when i came home at 1 am and needed a little sweetness to go to bed not sad. (That’s a sadder sentence than I intend it to be. Don’t worry, I’m fine now)
July 9
Mom Cooks the Best Food
I don’t know I would have made it through the week without my mom around and she made it especially special every weekend when I had the time to eat a meal with her and actually take the time to relish it. She made one of my top hits one afternoon – Pongal and Payasam. There’s something about South Indian food cooked by my mom that hits the spot. It’s exactly as you remember it and never disappoints. It’s also a great nap inducer so i took a glorious nap right after.
Now that I’m through to the other side and have some free time, I’ve been cooking deliciousness every week and it honestly feels like everything is right in the world again. I made a sandwich last night with bread toasted in olive oil and tomatoes. I made a zucchini tagliatelle that was inspired by something I read in Stanley Tucci’s Taste (now that I also have time to read!). I’m grateful my time is my own again but I am also grateful I have something so accessible and simple to bring me back to my happy place. It’s not always sufficient and it’s a whole lot easier when my mom is here to prepare it all but it works.
To close out, here are some other things I ate:
Vish Eats Delish 