Time in the Kitchen
Salad Days circa 2014
This still life from 6 years ago reminds me of when I first moved to downtown San Diego and took the time to plate and photograph the meals I prepared for fun. At the time I was living temporarily in a condo staged for sale and found all these props, things that suited the space for sale but not items I would normally buy or use for my own decor.
Fast forward to today after a most recent move to Pasadena, where the plan was to decompress for a couple months after planning OH! San Diego, travel and decide on my future worklife in LA. With everyone sheltering at home for the month of April to stay safe and slow the spread of COVID-19 , that means a lot of home cooking.
Luckily for J., with whom I moved in, I surprised in a positive way with my kitchen skills. I imagine many of us are putting all those skills picked up from watching Food Network to good use!
For the past year while we took turns visiting each other on weekends, most of our meals have been in restaurants, LA and San Diego, and the most I ever “cooked” for J. was to plate charcuterie, and more recently, on New Year’s Eve prepare one of his favorites - Lemon Chicken.
The favorite Lemon Chicken!
As minimally as I lived in my previous one bedroom San Diego condo, it took me a week to pack and most of the moving boxes were marked for the kitchen! Fortunately, most of our kitchen items complement each other. Our bowls, pots and pans are of assorted sizes. Duplicate items are of different materials - plastic and stainless steel. Though J. doesn’t cook (yet), he has high quality cookware.
When I first arrived, I found that J. had thoughtfully stocked up on random pantry and freezer items. So our first meals felt like I was on the cooking show Chopped, though there was no rush to beat the clock. We have settled into having mainly comfort food - chili, soup, pasta, schnitzel.
Ordinarily, I don’t cook chicken breasts, but have since learned when cooked properly, it is good. I am partial to chicken thighs in cooking and have been given the ok to cook that in the future - thinking adobo would be great. :)
Pasta, of the Italian sort, has not been big in my repetoire but now Carbonara and Cacio e Pepe will be on the rotation. And I plan to play around with Asian dishes, too.
Stay healthy and be well all!