Why cook?

(We're just going to ignore the fact that I haven't posted in a few months, and move on. :) )

So, I've been watching Food Network's "Worst Cooks in America," and I'm noticing something that sort of...bothers me. Many of the contestants are women - I think there are only two men left at this point - and several of them are wives and mothers. For those who don't know, the premise of the show is that two professional chefs take a group of people who are the worst cooks they could find (meaning, the worst cooks that auditioned for the show and fit the producer's vision of a reality-competition show contestant), and teach them how to cook. The two chefs have divided the cooks into teams, each chef leading a team, and in the end one cook from each team will be left. Those cooks will prepare a meal for a panel of restaurant critics, and the goal is to fool the critics into believing that the chefs made the food, not the cooks.

I really like the idea behind the show, and obviously the people on the show both acknowledge that they don't know how to cook and are willing and eager to learn. However, when the contestants do their little confessional type things, I'm noticing a theme when they discuss why they want to learn to cook. A lot of them will talk about how they feel like they're letting their families down or are a disappointment, or a bad wife or mother, because they can't cook. It makes me wonder - is being a good cook, or even just an able cook, a prerequisite for marriage and motherhood?

Now, I can feed myself. I can feed my husband, and he can feed me. We do best when we cook together, and I enjoy cooking for and with him. However, I don't know that I would feel like a failure if I couldn't or wouldn't cook. I guess I never really thought of it as something I'm "supposed" to do, because it's something we both enjoy doing. It almost feels like it hearkens back to the "Leave it to Beaver" era, where Mom has dinner on the table the second Dad and the kids come home from school, and woe becomes the woman who is unprepared for a dinner guest!

It bothers me. At the same time, I freely admit that I have my moments of June Cleaver Failure(tm), particularly with regards to housekeeping, so maybe I'm not one to talk. What about you? Do you think it's a woman's duty or responsibility to keep the family fed? Do you think any less of a mother who doesn't cook for her kids?

08/04/09 - Opa! Greek Cuisine

Oh, yeah, updates! We decided to meet down in Tacoma, partly because we hadn't met that far south before, and partly because it guaranteed an appearance by Deleva's husband, Aaron. In addition to those two, we also had Anna, and, of course, Eric and me. We drew, and, as it happened, Deleva and Eric both chose Opa! Greek Cuisine, and conveniently enough, it got drawn.






It was a fairly small place, and didn't seem very busy. Then again, it's a Tuesday night. We got some pita and skordalia to start, but I was a bit too busy fighting for the very last bits to get any pictures.

Onto the entrees!


Lamb gyros - I believe everyone but Aaron and I ended up with them, and by all accounts, they were quite tasty.


A shrimp pasta dish with a tomato sauce, that Aaron was quite happy with.

I decided to be a bit more diverse, and got two appetizers instead of an entree.

This was basically a tiropita (like a spanikopita without spinach) with honey and grapes. The honey helped cut down on the salt of the cheese - I enjoyed this a lot.


Basically, gyro balls with tzatziki. They were fabulous.

Finally, the group shot:


From left: Eric, me, Anna, Deleva, and Aaron

It was great to see Aaron, and we look forward to next month's meeting. We'll be meeting in Everett (next week already! Sheesh!), so we hope to see you there!

07/06/09 - Miyabi Sushi

Sorry about the delay in posting this - one of these days, I'll actually sit down and write the post-mortem after we get home. Anyway! As Eric and I had just gotten home from a friend's wedding in North Carolina, we decided to go back to the Southcenter as it's close to Eric's office. There were six of us this time - Deleva, Sean, Kyna, Anna, Eric, and me. Sean's choice was pulled (I think? It's been awhile, and the memory is not so good...), which was Miyabi Sushi.





The restaurant was having some sort of Hawaiian theme going on, which meant we saw things like this:


And very exciting drinks like this:


The big draw in this place was the bento box - nearly all of us got one (everyone but me, in fact). A couple of people got a bento with sushi, and the sushi came out before the rest of the food, in a boat!


The bowl in front had held miso soup, which was also part of the bento box deal.


Another boat of sushi (sashimi this time, I think?)

Realizing that the bento boxes would probably be way too much food for me, I got an order of spicy tuna rolls, and Eric got a side of cucumber rolls to go with his bento. They came out together:


For the record, I barely finished the tuna rolls - those suckers were HUGE! And tasty.

Finally, a couple of the bentos:





They all had a noodle salad of some sort, and I believe the rest was up to the customer. There were tempura vegetables, lots of fish, and some gyoza all made an appearance somewhere on our table. The majority was tasty, though I don't think anyone was impressed with the noodle salad.

And finally, the group shot:


Clockwise from bottom left: Anna, Deleva, Sean, Kyna, me, and Eric

I'm not sure where the next meeting will be - watch this space!

My husband, the king of the spaghetti sauce

So, my husband, Eric, has often boasted that he makes some wonderful food. In the 5-and-change years we've been together, we've cooked together quite often, but he's cooked for me only a few times. Tonight, he decided it was time to make some spaghetti for me.

He doesn't use ground beef for his meat sauce, but rather ground sausage. In this case, it was the Jimmy Dean all natural regular pork sausage, because it was available and cheap. He started by sauteéing garlic in olive oil, and then adding the sausage and browning that down. After it was brown, he added a large can of tomato sauce, a small can of tomato paste, oregano, thyme, white wine, lemon juice, and Italian dressing. I'll admit, that last one threw me for a loop - I don't really use Italian dressing in, well, anything, so it never occurred to me to add it to a pasta sauce. We cooked up some spaghetti to go with it, using a tip I heard on Food Network where we drained the pasta and added it to the sauce to cook for the last minute or so, and then served it up.

I admit, I probably ate way too much, but it was SO good. Eric probably doomed himself, though - he's proven that he can cook well, and now I'm going to make him do it more often. :)

06/02/09 - Georgetown Liquor Company

We ended up back down to our normal numbers this time, with four of us - Eric, Deleva, Sean, and me. We met up in Georgetown, and Sean's choice was pulled, leading us to Georgetown Liquor Company, a vegetarian pub.



I remembered to use the flash this time!


The menu - all the food is named after various sci-fi characters and such


DOOM!

It was a pretty tiny pub, with multitudes of geeky paraphernalia on the walls. The menu was fairly small, but seemed to have a pretty good variety. Eric was worried, because most vegetarian menus replace meat with mushrooms, and he's not a big fan, but there were many items that were fungus-free. But first, drinks!


The limeade (of DOOM!)


A vanilla martini

On to the food. Incidentally, it was pretty clear what kind of clientele this place normally gets, as we were each asked if we wanted "real cheese" for our food. Vegans in Seattle, I recommend this place highly!


My cheese and tomato enchiladas - very tasty


The salad and "forbidden black rice" that came with the enchiladas


Eric's massive pile of nachos, which were apparently well done and tasty.


Sean's sandwich and tomato soup. The sandwich had a vegetarian jus. In the front are the chips and salsa we had as an appetizer, with some of the best tortilla chips I've ever had.


Deleva's sandwich, also with tomato soup. Both sandwiches contained portabellos, I believe.

We skipped dessert this time, partly because they didn't really have much by way of dessert options and partly because we were stuffed. As usual, we used the self-timer option on the camera for the group shot:


Oops! Let's try that again:


From left: Me, Eric, Sean, and Deleva

As usual, we had a lot of fun, and are looking forward to the next time. Next time will be in Southcenter again, since Eric and I will be just coming back from a wedding.

The stats:
Attendees: 4
Food Type: Vegetarian Pub
Restaurant Located via: Yelp/prior knowledge

05/05/09 - 94 Stewart Restaurant

We had our biggest group for this outing - Katie, John, Rob, Sean, Candice, Joe, Deleva, Eric, and, well, me. We met at the Cinerama in downtown Seattle. We had an actual hat this time! Katie's choice was drawn, which meant we strolled down to 94 Stewart Restaurant.


(I apologize in advance for the pictures - I really need to remember to use the flash for these.)


The drinks menu, which was highly entertaining

The restaurant was close to the water, and looked pretty small when we got in. They managed to get all of us at one table, though, which was fun. There was butcher paper on the table, and crayons, and, well...



The menu was pretty small, but had a wide variety of items available. The restaurant was also taking part of the Urban Eats promotion, which meant that several of us took part and got an appetizer as well as an entree.

First, the appetizers:


Coconut tomato soup (this one was mine, and it was quite tasty - the coconut was in the form of coconut milk, which gave it a bit of a Thai flavor)


Pea salad with salami and garlic cream


Strawberry and asparagus salad (this one seemed to be a pretty big hit)


I believe a mushroom risotto?

And the entrees:

Fried avocado with a crab salad (Deleva seemed quite impressed with this)


Fondue with toast points (this one was mine, and was lovely and light)


Pork loin with bacon and a chili cream sauce with mashed potatoes (also seemed to be a pretty big hit)


Roasted chicken with vegetables


Hanger steak over mashed potatoes

There were some tarts and ice cream for dessert, which I was a bit too busy eating to get pictures of.

And, of course, the crew:


Back row: John, Katie, Candice, Rob, Joe Middle row: Sean, Deleva, me Front row: Eric
We had a great time, and several people were already asking when and where the next one will be. We will probably be staying in the Seattle area for the next couple of months, since there are so many restaurants to try.

The stats:
Attendees: 9
Food Type: New American
Restaurant Located via: The Stranger

04/07/09 - Talay Thai

(Sorry this update is so late - it's been a crazy couple of weeks.)

The participants in the most recent Seattle Dining outing were Rob, Sammy, Gahan, and, of course, Eric and me. We met outside the Borders at Alderwood Mall (which proved dangerous, as every good bookstore is), and then drew the restaurant out of the tripod case. One of these times, we'll have to actually use one of the hats we have around here. At any rate, my choice came up, and we ended up at Talay Thai.





The menu

As you can see above, the restaurant is pretty small, and in a strip mall next to a 7-11. Still, we were willing to give just about anything a shot - after all, part of the point of this group is to experiment and try new things. This was made even more clear when we discovered that Sammy doesn't like Thai food. It took some convincing, but we found a few things she was willing to try, such as:


Garlic chicken and veggies and


Ginger chicken (she rescued Eric from the evil mushrooms)

Among the other dishes:


Chicken satay with peanut sauce


Spring rolls with plum sauce (both of these were appetizers, and I forgot to get the camera out until we'd already eaten a fair amount)


I believe this was called the Talay Delight, but we referred to it as the Plate O'Meat


Fried rice with chicken (we went through a lot of chicken with this meal)


This was the pad thai with chicken, "as hot as you can make it", that ordered.

I also ordered a less-hot version of the pad thai, and Gahan had a chicken red curry that I somehow missed getting a picture of.

And, finally, the crew:

From left, in the back: Rob, Gahan, Sammy, and in the front, me and Eric.

Overall, the food was tasty, if not the best Thai food ever, and the company was fun and entertaining. Plus, we got to broaden some epicurean horizons, so all in all, I call it a success.

The stats:
Attendees: 5
Food Type: Thai
Restaurant Located via: Yelp