I eat, I read, I watch — dining solo #15
salmon mac and cheese, pickled cabbage, marinated mushrooms
I eat, I read, I watch — dining solo #15
Today’s post is the 15th of “I eat, I read, I watch,” my column highlighting one of my solo dinners and my reading or Netflix accompaniments. Please treat yourself well at mealtime too. Don’t just eat alone - dine solo! You’re worth it. And it’s not hard to do.
Missed the earlier instalments? See the list at the bottom of the post:
I eat: Salmon Mac & Cheese
I saw a large piece of what was billed as smoked salmon in the grocery store. I should have looked more carefully. It was NOT the lovely moist gravlax I was imagining. No. It was opposite - dry and lifeless, in need of a rescue. Tonight, I accomplished just that.
As I do most meals, I started with a little diced red onion in oil. I’m experimenting with grape-seed oil these days. I haven’t really concluded it’s any better or worse than any veg oil. A pretty benign flavour though. As the onion softened, I cut up an old half brie in the fridge. I was debating whether it would ultimately end up in the green bin but thought I’d give it another chance. And I got a pot going to boil macaroni and turned on the oven to 350.
With the onion soft, I added some half-and-half to the pot. Not a lot. Just eyeballed it to be enough to work with the brie. When I got the liquid up to a simmer, I added the pieces of brie and kept stirring to get it melting. By then, the macaroni water was boiling - I added a couple of handfuls and set the timer for 3 minutes.
As the brie began to melt, I pulled my piece of ‘smoked’ salmon from the fridge. Using a fork, I shredded a handful of it and added it to the just-thickening cheese sauce, stirring it around to be sure it was getting nicely distributed. Needs something green, I thought and reached for the bag of frozen peas. I tossed a cup or so in, again stirring to get it all nicely mixed.
I pulled my 6x9 glass baking dish from the upper cupboard. I don’t use it a lot, but it’s the perfect size for two meals - a holdover from my time when I was cooking for two. I drained the macaroni and put it into the pan. Then I topped it with the salmon and cheese sauce. With a healthy shake of parmesan on top, it went into the oven for about 20 minutes or until I noticed the lovely cheesy odour filling up my little house!
I plated it with a side of pick pickled red cabbage and onion and a few marinated mushrooms.
Prep Time: 45 minutes
Cost: $7 for salmon + $5 half a small brie - 2 meals
What’s good in winter for you? In the Comments below please!
I read: A Widow’s Guide to Dead Bastards
Sometimes you find a book with a title that just cries out to be read. For me, that’s this book. Not that Jack was a bastard - he wasn’t - but because no-one, not even a dead husband, is without fault. It’s just SO rare for anyone to feel they can be honest about someone who died.
Every widow should read this book. It’s funny ‘cause it’s true. It’s also sad ‘cause it’s true. I’ll just leave it at that.
Been grabbed by a title? Add it to the Comments below.
I watch: Apple Cider Vinegar
This is a must-watch Netflix limited series, and has delayed my cancellation of Netflix yet again. Soon, I keep telling myself.
Apple Cider Vinegar is a fictionalization of the story of a young Australian woman who cons 2.3 million people into using her wellness app because she falsely claims she has brain cancer and that the approach she offers in her app has put her into remission. Her frenemy is an actual cancer patient who administers coffee enemas to herself multiple times a day and complements that with a juice diet, all in the name of saving her arm, which has visible tumours on it. A third lead character is a breast cancer patient who gets sucked into the vortex, believing alternates will save her. It’s six hours of gripping television, made more so for me because of my experience.
When my husband, Jack, was being treated for lung cancer, everyone — family, friends and literally strangers on the train — weighed in. Suggestions ranged from recommendations to use cancer cures from other cultures; to methods to ameliorate symptoms that Jack did not experience; and to ways to boost aspects of regular health.
We knew each suggestion was made from a place of caring. And many were made once only and very gently at that. Others, however, were insistent and persistent. Imagine your mother saying “eat your broccoli” but being able to communicate this message multiple times each day through social media, text, email, telephone, and in person all while rallying others to relay the same message.
With each suggestion, we did some Internet research. If we found any medical basis to the suggestion at all, we raised it with the oncologists. For many of these so-called cures, doctors warned us they risked spreading the cancer faster or reducing the impact of chemo and radiation. Their message consistently was don’t mess with diet since often that results in a loss of body weight at a time when Jack needed all the caloric resources he could muster.
Upshot for us — health care is not religion: belief in it will not make it cure you. Apricot kernels, cannabis oil, and PH balancing do not cure cancer, as the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Centre tells us in an article debunking three “natural cures.” These are just three of the myriad paths down which well‑meaning people tried to lead us.
Apple Cider Vinegar is a horrifying tale of how people suspend disbelief in their futile search for miracles and the power social media has to fuel that.
If you’d like to read a related piece I wrote while Jack was undergoing treatment in 2016, click here.
Have you found anything worth sharing? In the Comments below please!
Missed the earlier instalments of this column? Click:
#1 (pork chop & green beans)
#2 (trout & veg)
#3 (shrimp pepper bisque)
#4 (rice & peas with coleslaw)
#5 (ramen)
#6 (burger & fries)
#7 (duck sausage & salad)
#8 (shrimp & veg with pasta)
#9 (Wigilia)
#10 (mushroom shepherds pie)
#11 (roasted veg and sausage)
#12 (leftovers)
#13 (garlic shrimp with rapini on egg noodles)
#14 (beef stew)
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