Tonight’s dinner was simple and quick. I cooked up some sardines (I really do love the fish guys in Chinatown) in butter and served them alongside some veggies, roots, and miso-tahini dressing. Macrobiotic? For me it is! It’s really all about balance.

Maggie’s Simple Sardines

Ingredients (1 serving)

• 3 whole sardines
• 1 tablespoon butter

Directions

1. Prep the sardines – cut off the heads and gut them. I promise, this is really easy! Run a slit down the belly and just pull out the gross stuff. Rinse them in water and try to wipe off the loose scales. (Wow, I sound disgusting.)
2. Heat the butter in a pan over medium-high heat. Saute the sardines on each side for 2-3 minutes. You can put a cover over them and cook for another couple of minutes if you’re not sure they’re cooked through.
3. Eat! You don’t have to worry too much about the little bones – those ones are digestible. Just don’t eat the backbone and the bigger rib-like bones.

My veggies included kabocha, purple sweet potato, spinach, burdock, and daikon. The miso-tahini dressing on top is my new addiction.

Onto my day. So work – work is quite awesome. Some things happened last week that were odd at first, but I am really really enjoying my job. Wish I could say more!

My boss ordered lunch for us today from New York Burger Company and I got the “Tropical Grilled Chicken” salad. It was a garden salad topped with grilled chicken, perfectly ripe avocado, fresh mangoes, dried cranberries, and a few stray chickpeas. I used the yogurt-dill dressing and it was absolutely divine. I don’t think I could have asked for a more perfect salad… not to mention the sweet potato fries that rocked my socks.

Something else that rocks my socks…

Is my new project with my friend (and bridesmaid) Kate! Kate and I grew up together. We were both homeschooled (that’s how we met); I abandoned her for public school in the middle of sixth grade, but we remained close. We drifted apart in college and rekindled our friendship when I moved back to the city and discovered she was here. It gets even better – our fiances are good friends now too.

Eat the Damn Cake.

Go. Read. Give us feedback. We want YOU to help us make this awesome.

Happy almost Tuesday!

Last night I made a porgy for dinner. I also made a half of a salmon neck. Here is the porgy recipe… I would say it’s macrobiotic. Feel free to correct me if I’m wrong though. Maybe it has too many spices.

First, this is a porgy. I get mine in Chinatown.

Source.

Cumin-Tahini-Miso Grilled Porgy Recipe

Ingredients (1 serving)

• 1 medium porgy
• 1 tablespoon tahini
• 1/2 tablespoon miso
• 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

Directions

1. Make the marinade. Mix together the tahini, miso, vinegar, cumin, chili, and pepper. If it’s still very thick you can add a splash of water.
2. Prepare the porgy – cut off the fins, the tail, and cut out the gills. I usually have my fishmonger do this, but if he didn’t, it’s actually simple. Use scissors to cut off the fins and tail, and use a small knife to cut out the gills (they are red looking). Rinse the fish and pat it dry.
3. Cut 3 slits (all the way to the bone) on each side of the porgy and coat it (inside and out) with the marinade. Refrigerate for 30 minutes to 1 hour, turning it once in the middle so that both sides get to sit in the marinade.
4. Preheat your broiler. Broil on each side for ~8 minutes. When you put it on the pan and when you flip it make sure to brush on some more marinade. I try to use it all up.
5. Serve with a grain (white rice pictured here).

You could easily use my Tahini-Miso dressing recipe in this marinade!

I also served a salmon neck – recipe coming soon (so simple). I had most of the salmon and a little bit of the porgy; I wanted Bobby to have most of the porgy because I already knew it would be a great recipe. It was so tender and so perfect. If it weren’t for the bones, I think it would convert a non-fish person.

I forgot to mention that I first learned about porgies in my cooking class with Auntie Jo last week (still have to post about this…). The recipe we did that night was also grilled/broiled, but very different from this aside from the cumin. I honestly think mine is better

Onto my daily rambles…

This morning I went to a macrobiotic talk at Souen in Soho. I did not eat there afterwards because I was meeting up with friends for brunch (at The Mudspot on 9th Street and 2nd Ave – it was really good! The coffee was fantastic). I am so glad I went to this talk (speaker – John Kozinski). He told a new story of macrobiotics that I hadn’t really heard before. I had always focused so much on the macrobiotic diet specifically, but he expanded to talk about balance in life overall.

Some things I learned…

• The only foods you should really “eliminate” from your diet are the ones advertised on TV (from Michael Pollan’s book).
• Even meat is okay, if you balance it out. It should be naturally raised, organic, etc…
• Fish is great. So are beans. Try to have 1 cup of beans at lunch and dinner, or a serving of fish (fish 3-6 times a week). Some good fish are cod, scrod, sardines, small salmon, flounder, and red snapper. Ocean fish are better than lake fish, which tend to have PCBs.
• Most supplements are totally pointless.
• Eat seasonally. Eat natural foods. Eat whole foods.

Oh so many more… I’ll try to keep giving little tips I got from the session.

After the session I met up with my friend, her boyfriend, and Bobby. After brunch Bobby and I headed down to Chinatown again for some cheap veggies and fish. We came back, and now we have a friend over. My dinner was a very macrobiotic meal – steamed kabocha, broccoli, purple sweet potato, burdock, daikon, and lotus root. I put some miso-tahini dressing on top, and finished off the rest of my cornbread from yesterday.

For some reason I’m really feeling the macrobiotic thing. Especially after today, when John emphasized fitting it to your own needs and way of life.

I like rambling. But now I have to go do a bit of work. I’m trying to cut back on my hours, but there are some things that need to get done! Hope y’all had a good weekend.

It’s pretty obvious that I really love Souen – I have been there 3 times in the last week (brunch, dinner). Practicing a macrobiotic lifestyle can be difficult at times, but it pays off (I’m not macrobiotic but I strive to incorporate it in my daily life). I know I’ve linked to these things before, but here we go again (just cuz I think they are good resources for macrobiotics)…

• Becoming Whole, by Meg Wolff (book review)
• 2-week wrap-up
• 1-week thoughts
• Lessons learned

Here are some more tips for a DIY Macrobiotic Lifestyle…

Tip #1: Don’t stress. Chill out. Do the things that make you happy, not the things that make you sad/angry/depressed/anxious/etc… So many people forget that stress is probably the number one cause of disease. So don’t stress!

Tip #2: Don’t exercise too much. Incorporate movement into your daily routine, but don’t overdo it. I like to get my movement through walking – I aim for about 2 miles a day. Last week I walked to work every day (I think), so that was 2 miles a day. Then yesterday I didn’t really walk at all, and Today I ended up walking about 4 miles because Bobby and I went out to enjoy the lovely weather we’ve been having in New York. Central Park was beautiful today. Anyway, it all balances out.

Tip #3: Keep your meals simple. Souen has very balanced dishes – the Macro Plate, the Planet Platter (different names for the same dish at different locations) – that incorporate squash (kabocha), veggies (broccoli or kale, carrots, diakon, and hijiki seaweed), beans (pinto I think), and rice (brown). The dishes come with a great dressing (lots of healthy fats) – miso tahini. I cannot get enough! So I had to make something similar for myself.

This was my attempt at recreating last week’s brunch for lunch: kabocha, broccoli, and carrots, topped with a black sesame seed sauce. After this shot I packed it into a tupperware to eat at the office.

The sauce is so simple, and so good. I have been having it on everything this week.

Black Sesame Seed Paste/Sauce – Ingredients

• 3-4 tablespoons black sesame seed powder (probably just ground toasted black sesame seeds)
• 2 teaspoons agave nectar or other sweetener (maple syrup or brown rice syrup would also be good)
• splash of soy sauce (<1 teaspoon)
• water, as needed (for thinning)

Black Sesame Seed Paste/Sauce – Method

Mix the powder, sweetener, and soy sauce. Add water to thin, if needed. Add more powder to thicken, if needed. Adding more agave will make it creamier, which is how I like it.

Hope you enjoyed these macro tips… I’m off to watch more of the Oscars. Go Sandra Bullock! (I loved The Blind Side.)

Who are you rooting for?

While making this recipe I felt like I had transplanted myself to another era. This is a recipe of the 50’s (60’s? 40’s?). I could see my grandmother mixing these ingredients on a late fall afternoon, preparing a semi-homemade dinner for her family and waiting to hear about her husband’s and her children’s days.

I like to think that I’m going to be a good wife and mother some day. What this means exactly I’m not sure. I hope to cook good food, take care of Bobby (and eventually kid(s), God willing), have a nurturing home, and in general have a “normal” and healthy life. Being happy and healthy are probably my top priorities.

Coco asked today how you would rank the following: family, friendship, love, health, and career. My response was: love, family, health, friends, and then career. I consider love and family one and the same. As much as I enjoy working, I would probably be just as happy making a home (provided I could get over the guilt of not using my degrees) as I would working an exciting and demanding job. I would actually be happier as a homemaker, to be honest. What is your ranking?

One reason that I love cooking so much is that it brings up memories for me. Sometimes it brings up memories that are not even mine – I suppose I’d call them fantasies, or daydreams (like imagining my grandmother in the kitchen). So I’d like to share this inspiring recipe today, not because it’s particularly healthy or unique, but because it brought me a special happiness that I don’t always find in other parts of my life.

Maggie’s Cornbread Casserole

Ingredients

• 1 package of Jiffy cornbread mix
• 2 eggs
• 1 container of 2% Greek yogurt (mine was 7 oz. of Fage; I’m sure that any ~1-cup container of any yogurt would suffice)
• 1 can of yellow sweet corn (drained)
• 1 can of creamed corn

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 375F.
2. Mix all ingredients together in a baking dish. I used what I think is called a “loaf pan”. It’s about 9 inches by 4 inches and it’s maybe 3-4 inches high. It was almost full.
3. Bake for 40-60 minutes. A toothpick should come out clean. Baking times will vary depending on what pan you use and how your oven bakes.

Enjoy with a friend or loved one. Make a memory and savor the moment.

Does cooking evoke memories for you? What other activities are particularly meaningful for you?