Feeding myself

It's too often I forget to eat proper food when I'm not working--I find myself content with a bowl of cereal in the morning, a cup of coffee (or three) and then nothing until Kristina gets home and I'm forced to address the fact that I haven't eaten all day and should probably figure something out for dinner.

More often than not (when we're being good) we'll have a big salad--last night was Caesar. I chopped the heads of romaine, grated Parmesan liberally with the microplane, shook out half a bag of croutons and tossed with Caesar dressing. Last night we used "Mrs. Cubbisson's" Garlic and Butter croutons. We didn't have our favorite Caesar salad dressing--that one is made by the Silver Palate, and you can find it at Citarella (it's nearly perfect).

We don't bother with things like croutons and emulsified dressings when we're at home, just the two of us. Maybe it's the curse of having worked in big professional kitchens for two long, but when it comes to emulsifications, I find it hard to make less than a quart, and if there's one thing you don't want to keep in your refrigerator too long it's a dressing made with cheese, raw eggs and anchovies. As for the croutons, let's just say that croutons from a bag are delicious (guilty pleasure or not)--come on, I'll be the first to admit, unless you're Wiley Dufresne (and willing to spend more on home made croutons then it's worth) "special seasonings" are really hard to replicate). Same goes for BBQ potato chips, although I will say that I've come pretty close.


Stay tuned tomorrow for our other standby weeknight salad...