The 2013 Food Lover's Cleanse Diary: Day 5
Sara Dickerman didn't just write the Food Lover's Cleanse--she's an active participant. Follow along with her every day as she reboots her diet. (No juice fasts allowed.)
First of all, I'm sorry about the repeat of goat cheese in breakfast and lunch yesterday--that was an oversight. For me the repeat was kind of moot because I couldn't eat breakfast until lunchtime, and so I combined both the omelette and the radicchio salad in one brunch. It was a busy morning, but as all mothers and nutritionists advise, you should try not to skip breakfast. I can testify that by noon I gobbled my food in a way that was more wolfish than mindful.
I wanted to get dinner out of the way early today, so I cut up the veggies for the chili just after lunch. All that veggie chopping had produced a bunch of waste: leek tops and woody parsnip cores. I was about to scrape them into the compost when my cheffy conscience took over: "Always be making stock," it counseled. So I put the trimmings in a pot, threw in a carrot, some garlic, a sprig of thyme, and some peppercorns. I covered the trimmings with water and brought to a boil, then let the whole mess simmer right next to the chili.
I've never tasted a commercial vegetable stock I like, and I also hate wasting food, so this couple of extra minutes of work seemed well worth it, especially on a lazyish Sunday. When I finally strained the results, I had a sweet, almost apple-y broth that will add lots of flavor to a soup or sauce in the future. I tossed it in the freezer, ready to pull out when my dining schedule is less prescribed.
When I was working in restaurants, the idea of keeping dressings around for more than a day or two would have been scandalous--especially one with shallots in it. It is true that a dressing can lose some vigor over time, and that you need to watch that onions and garlic in it don't take a turn for the rancid. That said, I find that a well-made dressing does fine over the course of the week in the fridge--it's good enough to make me eat salad more often. If you are more like my former self, feel free to mix salad dressings to order--you can simplify to lemon juice and nice olive oil, and you won't go wrong. Now I simply taste the premade dressing before I pour it on to make sure everything still tastes good. If it's a little lackluster, I can often boost the flavor with an extra squeeze of lemon and another pinch of salt.
I feel more ambivalent about bagged prewashed greens. There are times that they make life much more convenient, and there are some greens--most notably my beloved mache--that are easier to find in bags than loose. But with spinach and arugula in particular, I find that the taste of bunched, full-grown greens are much more vibrant than the bagged stuff. When I can, I make the effort to trim and wash them myself.
As the chili simmered and the stock steeped, I left them at home with my husband and went out for a little sustenance of the non-food variety--the Jeffry Mitchell show at the Henry Art Gallery. The show was utterly uplifting for me--and reminded me that life isn't always about food. Most of the time maybe, but not always.