Do We Still Care About Food?
That's the question we're pondering as we conclude the eighth year of The Bitten Word and look toward the ninth. When we reflected on year seven, we shared that we've questioned when we might end The Bitten Word. That question remains on our minds as we think about the year ahead. So pardon us while we do a bit of navel gazing and reflect on where we are both in our relationship with food but also with this blog.
We don't ask this question -- do we still care about food? -- facetiously. Of course as humans who must eat, we do. But we also recognize that we care about food these days in ways far different than we did eight years ago, when we were fumbling our way through the kitchen and trying to figure out how to put a decent meal on the table. And really, the way we're thinking about food manifests in what we choose to eat and cook, and then share with you here on the blog. So here are some things on our minds about our relationship with food.
We're finding that the raison d'etre of this blog -- to put our food magazines to use -- no longer holds the same sway for us that it once did. We've spent 8 years hanging on every word of the country's best food magazines. That has been an incredible education, and has taught us to be far more confident and creative cooks, but it also isn't as inspiring as it once was. It's not the fault of the magazines. We actually think the quality of today's food magazines is just as high (if not higher) than 8 years ago. Rather, we feel less inspired. We are, frankly, a little bored with the concept that has made this blog so successful. We often find ourselves reading magazines and struggling to come up with a list of recipes we want to cook. Those that we're most drawn to are incredibly similar to other dishes we've made; others look amazing but are things that we don't really need to be eating (more on that below). We still find inspiration -- it's just that we have to look harder for it.
Part of that is the food that we want to cook these days. A friend who reviewed our favorite dishes of 2015 said, "Wow, you guys really cut out the carbs this year." That is, in fact, true. When we're cooking at home, we're largely cooking high protein, low carb, and vegetable heavy meals. As we creep toward [gasp!] middle age, we're more and more conscious of our overall health. Hard truths in this realm: We are vain. We see a personal trainer. We want to pretend we still have the metabolism of 25 year olds. We are thinner now than we've been in years. And we're happy about that. Sure, we still bake occasionally and when we travel or go out to restaurants we (wildly, madly) indulge, but we have much more of a focus on moderation than ever before.
And then there's The Bitten Word itself. We still love the creative act of writing. And we love trying new recipes. And it's fun to put together a compelling photo to go with a story. But we find that our time do so is increasingly limited. We both have careers that keep us very busy, and we're each traveling quite a bit for our day jobs. There are a thousand things we would like to do with this site if we had more time. We have loads of ideas. And not executing on those ideas feels like a bit of a failure, even though (as we constantly have to remind ourselves) this is a hobby.
And then there's you, dear reader. Getting to know you, hearing from you, smiling at your comments, and seeing photos of what you're cooking have been the biggest, most unexpected surprise of the past eight years. We love hearing from you, and we're not quite ready to give that up yet. So stick around, okay?
So where does this leave us? Well, first, we're not going anywhere. We're going to continue to feel our way through this. But we are searching for something -- a tweak on this blog's concept? A new direction altogether? Inspiration? A sign?
We share this with you because we ant you to be a part of the future of The Bitten Word.
So what shall we do together in Year 9?
Sign Up Today: The Holiday Cookie Challenge!
Last year, we banded together with readers to make every cookie featured in the December 2014 food magazines. There were triumphs. There were disasters. There were many, many cookies.
We wanted to repeat the Holiday Cookie Challenge again this year, just as we had done it in 2014, but the entire endeavor is an incredible amount of work and our time is limited this December.
Instead, we're offering readers a last-minute opportunity to participate in....(drumroll)....The 2015 Holiday Cookie Challenge (Abridged).
The challenging part is that this is truly a last-minute opportunity (apologies to those for whom the timing does not work out). Sign-ups start today. Cookies will be assigned on Friday, and you'll have to do your baking this coming weekend.
If you're following us on Instagram, you likely saw a few weeks ago that we were in Montreal. (We also mentioned it in this post on Glazed Sweet Potatoes with Maple Gastrique.) On the heels of Fakesgiving and Halloween, we took a trip North as a surprise (at least until the 11th hour when the airline ruined it, but alas) for Zach's birthday.
Montreal had long been on our list of weekend destinations -- neither of us had been there, and Zach had yet to set foot in Canada. We packed a lot into three nights. Here are some lessons we learned along the way.
1. Joe Beef is reason enough to visit Montreal.
Joe Beef -- the storied bistro in the city's Little Burgundy neighborhood -- is, all by itself, worth the trip to Montreal. We had a spectacular meal there, due in no small part to the phenomenal staff. We arrived for our 9:45 p.m. reservation to discover that we had accidentally booked our table for the following week. The staff was so nice about it, sending us to the bar for snacks and drinks and then getting us seated in no time. We were the ones who goofed up, yet they treated us like VIPs.
The food at Joe Beef is the stuff dreams are made of.
We started with a dish of shaved ham and cheese with mustard that was served not on bread, but on a piece of oven-roasted squash (pictured above). The combination of the savory ham on the sweet squash made us question why we haven't been eating it this way all along.
For entrees, we had two gorgeous dishes. The first was a lobster spaghetti that was incredibly rich but also worth the indulgence.
One Fakesgiving, 24 guest, 20 dishes and 20 recipe reports later, it's a wrap on this year's Thanksgiving coverage!
We're going to leave you with well wishes, a bit of advice, and some photos from our Fakesgiving party, like the one above of us laying out the food just before time to eat.
First, the well wishes: We're thankful for many things this holiday. One of those things is readers like you who choose to spend some time with us, obsessing about what to cook next and dreaming about deliciousness. Your comments and encouragement mean a lot to us. So thank you. We are grateful.
Here's our very best, last-minute advice for Thanksgiving: Take a deep breath and enjoy the moment. Yes, there are onions to dice and pies to brûlée and turkeys to spatchcock. Some of the dishes you make will be epic; others may not be so great. But who cares? It's Thanksgiving. Laugh it off. Don't apologize for your food. Take the compliments guests give you. Be proud of what you put on the table.
As for us, we're planning to spend Thanksgiving day ordering in Chinese food and watching the original Star Wars trilogy on DVD. No joke.
Please send us your Thanksgiving reports and tag us in your Instagram photos! We can't wait to see what you make.