Food on Thursdays: a series

I spend a lot of time thinking about food, and the internet gives me so many opportunities to indulge in this little obsession of mine. I think about food at night before I go to bed, coming up with breakfast plans the night before (and you thought I was a procrastinator). I plan pretend menus in my head for pretend dinner parties that never actually happen, and I slowly make my way through each issue of Martha Stewart Living, going back and forth on which scone recipe I will try this time (this month it will be the apple oatmeal scones). When I open my reader every day, its often the food blogs I look for right away. What I love about food blogs is not just the recipes they taunt me with (and do I ever love those), but the way they talk about food. I feel like we're fast friends immediately when I read how I'm not the only one who spends actual minutes in her day contemplating the kind of bread I'm going to make next, or how I will fit kale into my next meal.

It's a good kind of problem, but a problem nonetheless. Because I could spend hours in a given day thinking about cooking. And the photos! How do people take such phenomenal photos of the food they make? Artists.

Sometimes all this thinking about food comes out of frustration. I live with two very picky eaters (I'm looking at you Matt and Alyce) and I'm often at a loss for ideas. I think eating together as a family is crucial for creating healthy food habits, and while I gave up thinking that we could eat a family diner every night of the week, I still do try for three or four dinners as a family. So I'm often online searching for ideas of what to cook that will appeal to Alyce's firm no-vegetable rule and Matt's preference to eat a steak at every meal.

What I'm trying to get is that one of the things that brings me the greatest joy is food and cooking, so I am going to begin introducing a regular series about food and the food blogs I love. Food on Thursdays is a place for me to share my food crushes of the week, let you know what's happening around here (and what we're eating). For today I will begin with a few links from the week. I hope you'll enjoy them as much as I do.


This photo reminds me why I need to buy fig preserves.

I, too, have a granola problem. But it really is the perfect breakfast food, paired with cold yogurt.

If you are interested in starting your own starter, start here.

Do you think Alyce will eat green pasta? Stranger things have happened. 

I will be making this chicken salad before the week is through.

She should start charging me for the number of recipes I've tried from Smitten Kitchen. (That chicken salad I just mentioned a few seconds ago? That, too.) Buttermilk roasted chicken? Yes, please.

I'm not much for hiding vegetables in food (I tried and was very disappointed by Jessica Seinfeld's book), but I think Alyce will be eating more beets in the future. No one turns down a chocolate cake with pink icing.


It's almost the weekend. May it be filled with food, eating, and more food.

P.S. I'm also a sucker for food memoirs of all kinds. Have you read this one? Hands down it is my favourite. I'm currently reading The 100-mile Diet, but I haven't found myself taken by it the way I am by others. I think I'm a tough sell when it comes to such a structured approach to eating (and no matter what anyone says, denying oneself coffee on account of the distance it travels, makes me uncomfortable). I'm only at the beginning, so maybe there's hope for it yet.