{"id":138,"date":"2009-01-01T21:21:12","date_gmt":"2009-01-01T10:21:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.girlprinter.com\/blog\/?p=138"},"modified":"2009-01-01T21:32:40","modified_gmt":"2009-01-01T10:32:40","slug":"feasting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.girlprinter.com\/blog\/2009\/01\/01\/feasting\/","title":{"rendered":"Feasting"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mceTemp\">\n<dl class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"width: 510px;\">\n<dt class=\"wp-caption-dt\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.girlprinter.com\/blog\/wp-content\/images\/feast1.jpg\" alt=\"feast\" width=\"500\" height=\"334\" \/><\/p>\n<\/dt>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n<p>Putting on my swimsuit for the first time this summer, I realised with a shock that I need to be writing about feasting rather than doing it. But the last few months have featured many great meals, at my table and others&#8217;, and I plan many more in 2009. I feel like I&#8217;ve got my kitchen mojo back. Did you read <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2007\/02\/14\/dining\/14beta.html?pagewanted=1&amp;sq=alpha%20beta%20cook&amp;st=cse&amp;scp=1\">this article<\/a> in the Times last year? I used to think my ex-husband and I had a happy division of labour (me: dessert, him: everything else) and for the most part, I was happy as a beta cook. But turns out, roasting a chicken is really, <em>really<\/em> easy. Who knew?\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>My father&#8217;s is one kitchen in which I&#8217;m still the beta. (Just so you know, I&#8217;m not unaware of the psychoanalytic implications of all this.) Come Christmas, I&#8217;m required to submit a proposal for a dessert for Christmas Day lunch: two out of three proposals over the past three years have been turned down without recourse to appeal. In their place, I&#8217;ve prepared assigned recipes including an infamous Bomb Alaska; this year was <a href=\"http:\/\/www.smh.com.au\/news\/good-living\/stocks-rising\/2006\/10\/23\/1161455653805.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap2\">Matt Moran&#8217;s raspberry tart<\/a>. It was so good I made another two days later using blackberries, which gave it a slightly sinister, Dr. Suess-ish appeal.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Other recent meals include a paella from the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.moro.co.uk\/moro\/cookbooks\/cookbook2.asp\">Moro cookbook<\/a>, a Thanksgiving spread and fish tagine at Em&#8217;s. The surprise hit at Thanksgiving was an Australian ring-in: the braised lentils from Jude Blereau&#8217;s book <a href=\"http:\/\/www.wholefoodcooking.com.au\/01-books01.html\">Coming Home to Eat<\/a>. I reluctantly returned this book to the library after multiple renewals and bought my own straight away. Sarah e-mailed Jude Blereau and discovered <a href=\"http:\/\/www.wholefoodcooking.com.au\/03-cookingclasses.html\">she&#8217;s teaching<\/a> sometime this year at the Essential Ingredient in Prahran. I&#8217;ve never taken a cooking class, but I might start.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>All this entertaining comes on top of my usual crafternoon fare. I had the idea of compiling a recipe book for crafting friends but the vanishing days and the plummeting dollar put paid to the idea of using <a href=\"http:\/\/www.blurb.com\/\">Blurb<\/a>. Next year, I hope.\u00c2\u00a0Instead, I shared in <a href=\"http:\/\/linesandshapesconnectus.com\/book_feast.html\">Lena and Maria&#8217;s feasts<\/a> vicariously, savouring their work in book form for the first time. I love it.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Next year, no, <em>this<\/em> year. Back to books for me. And photographs. I finally read the manual to my new-ish Nikon DX40: why have I been scared of this camera for so long? Someone told me many point &amp; shoot cameras now come with a pre-programmed setting specifically for food. It occurs to me just now that he may have been pulling my leg.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Happy 2009!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Putting on my swimsuit for the first time this summer, I realised with a shock that I need to be writing about feasting rather than doing it. But the last few months have featured many great meals, at my table and others&#8217;, and I plan many more in 2009. I feel like I&#8217;ve got my [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[9],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.girlprinter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.girlprinter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.girlprinter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.girlprinter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.girlprinter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=138"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.girlprinter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":144,"href":"https:\/\/www.girlprinter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138\/revisions\/144"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.girlprinter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.girlprinter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.girlprinter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}