Every few months, I discover a collection of notes I’ve jotted down as possible subjects for this column. Not sufficiently interesting by themselves, these little ideas eventually exhibit an insistence to be heard and the only way I can get them to leave me alone is to grant them a few sentences of their own.
I’ve always loved to cook, but I’ve turned a bit lazy in the kitchen and have begun to find shortcuts and substitutes that work as I learn to cook for only myself. Too many handy things come in quantities that are impractical for one person. Bottled sauces turn rancid or lose flavor after too many weeks in the refrigerator. I found that ketchup and mayonnaise can serve as bases for seafood sauces with the addition of just a few ingredients. My simple tartar sauce is a combination of real mayonnaise and a little zesty Italian salad dressing. You can add a few capers or a squirt of anchovy paste if available, but it works for most seafood with just the two ingredients and also seasons up that packet of tuna for sandwiches or snacking with crackers. Years ago I learned to make a passable shrimp cocktail sauce by adding horseradish, lemon juice, Tabasco sauce and cilantro to ketchup. Since Tabasco sauce loses fire over time, cayenne pepper, which has a longer shelf-life, works just as well. The advantage of making your own is in being free to control the degree of heat or tartness.
For a little added tang on those grilled cheese sandwiches, try spreading the outside of the sandwiches with mayonnaise instead of butter. Don’t use that other white salad dressing – it has too much water and sugar in it. Real mayonnaise is mostly oil with a little egg, mustard, vinegar and salt, so it fries up just as nicely as butter and adds a lot of flavor. If you must have butter, put it on the inside of the sandwich.
Zesty Italian salad dressing will add a needed kick of tartness to those sliced tomatoes that don’t taste as bright as the old-fashioned ones we once raised ourselves. I always planted Rutgers tomatoes for their pleasing acidity which made them, not only tasty, but better for canning safely – less acidic tomatoes require the addition of a bit of vinegar to the jar to make them safe when canning.
I’m hoping that the change of seasons will bring a halt to the popularity of those faddish sweater dresses that seem to be so desirable lately. That fashion seems to emerge every fifty years or so and, in the past has been more stylish and flattering than current versions which resemble rejected designs for Star Trek uniforms. Women from quiz show contestants to news anchors have been wearing them, and at least ninety-five percent of women shouldn’t. Fortunately, I don’t get out and about much these days, so I haven’t been exposed to the sight of friends and acquaintances in sweater dresses; saving them the embarrassment and me the temptation of telling them they’d look better in almost anything else.
Recently I’ve seen more than one documentary exposing the threats of global warming to the coral reefs so few of us ever get to see in person. We know they are there – we see pictures of them, and we marvel at the variety and complexity of those underwater gardens. The more varieties of coral I see, the more I notice the similarity to shapes in my son’s collection of cactus plants. There is an almost eerie duplication of forms in the contradictory settings of sea and desert. It’s as if some designer with a quirky sense of humor deliberately planned the two contrasting worlds and their contradictory similarity. The coral reefs have a definite advantage in the range of colors, but the desert plants offer a real challenge with the exotic but transient blooms that so few people ever witness.
In early September, I noticed the crows arriving at their usual meeting place in the walnut trees along my driveway. This is where they assemble before taking off for undisclosed places every fall, and where they have their big reunion each spring. I’ve long admired crows; they are very intelligent, have a wonderful sense of humor and understand us humans much better than we understand them. Come to think of it, there may be a column about crows sometime in the future – stay tuned.