Do not miss The New York Times' Minimalist column from July 2: Mark Bittman's 101 20-Minute Dishes for Inspired Picnics. Following the same "cook this, mix with this, call it that" formula of his popular 101 Simple Meals in 10 Minutes or Less list from last summer, it is chock full of yummy suggestions and is also peppered with little Bittman witticisms. To wit, idea #88: Cook peeled shrimp; little ones are best. Toss with pesto: lots. Put on small rolls. (In fact: cook anything; toss with pesto: lots. Put on small rolls.)

Like last summer's list, I think a lot of these "recipes" would also make great dinners on those nights when it's too hot to cook and even the usual suspects from the takeout-menu file sound like too much.

I believe this bottle was one brought over by a dinner guest recently. I wish I remember who it was so I could ask them where they got it (and request that they just bring flowers or something next time they come over).

I can't believe my surprise Earth Day baby turned two years old today.

April 22, 2006

April 22, 2008

Contrary to what you might think, I have not just been sitting here slacking on this blog's Recipe of the Week feature. I've been sitting here baking batch after batch of Mark Bittman's Crunchy Granola and slacking on this blog's Recipe of the Week feature!

I admit to being a somewhat new convert to the Cult of Bittman, but I have fallen hard for the man behind the New York Times' Minimalist column, and here's why: Mr. Bittman writes the best kind of recipe, one that's usually short on ingredients and simple in its preparation and perhaps because of its spare nature, wide open to variations, substitutions, and tweaking. Mr. Bittman is like the favorite high school teacher you never had (maybe that's why I started referring to him as Mr. Bittman), the one who taught you the fundamentals and then sat back in his chair with a mug of coffee in his hand and his feet on the desk to delight in all the new directions in which his students could take old ideas. If you've ever perused one of his How to Cook Everything books, you know what I mean. For each of the hundreds of recipes in the tomes, Bittman offers a handful of variations, with swapped-in ingredients that put an entirely new spin on each dish.

Haven't I loved you the way you need to be loved? Haven't I stuck up for you when people who don't live here can't understand why I would choose to stay put in a city notorious for its crime, mismanagement, and lack of "there"?

Even though I missed the no-parking start time at the curb in front of my own house by a whopping 3 minutes and your employee was so rude when I tried to explain to him, "No need to finish writing that ticket, sir, I live right here and was unloading but I am moving my car into the driveway right now," I begrudgingly agreed to pay this latest addition to my nightmare-inducing collection of parking tickets because I know you need the money. I read on the ticket that I could pay online. "Aw, look," I thought proudly, "How sweet of my little city to offer me such an easy and eco-responsible method of payment." So why, dear Oakland, are you charging me a $2 "convenience fee" to pay my ticket as such? Is it truly less "convenient" for your employees to deal with an online payment than to open an envelope, remove its contents, mark my bill as paid in your system, and endorse and deposit my check?

You want me to pay you to let me pay? Sigh. Oakland, sometimes you make it so hard to love you.

Sincerely,
Arin

P.S.: Please use the 1 gazillion dollars I have sent you for parking violations this year to work on improving your public schools for my kid. Thanks!