Summer posting slowdown

Let me start by apologizing for not posting in a while. I finally let the summer heat drive me out of the kitchen and distraction keep me away from the replenishing my grocery supply. That combination means that I've been scrounging minimalistic meals from my ever-depleting pantry. I've had a bit of help. Just about a year ago the New York Times ran Mark Bittman's article: Summer Express: 101 Simple Meals Ready in 10 Minutes or Less. (He just did 101 Picnic Dishes as a follow-up. That's interesting reading, too.)

I had big plans last summer to work my way through the most interesting entries but I never quite got around to it. I managed a few this year with what I had on hand and as I've put together a shopping list with the ingredients that pop up regularly in the recipes so I might have better luck this year. However, there's not much about that worth posting about so we'll see how it goes.

I do have to keep cooking dishes to freeze in batches for work-lunches (which is why my repetoir is so full of stews, stir-fries and such) so maybe I'll find something worth sharing there. And I'm still working on ice cream. Still, you should probably expect a posting slowdown for a bit.

What's next

Posting is going to be light for a little while; I'm headed off to a couple of conferences for work soon so I've been more concerned with clearing out the refrigerator than with making anything clever. I'm a science librarian by trade so the conferences themselves are off-topic and my meals will mainly be scrounged from whatever 's being handed out for free with so there's not likely much of culinary interest to report. One exception is the American Physical Society dinner in the Seattle Space Needle restaurant. It looks like we're getting selections off their normal menu, which I've heard isn't all that great, but I am curious if the high quality of Jidori chicken makes a difference when it's covered in country gravy.

I do have a few days in Seattle after the SLA conference before I head to Pittsburgh for ASEE so I'm making a foodie vacation of it. Luckily many of Seattle's best restaurants are clustered downtown near the convention center and are quite affordable compared to Miami prices. I have reservations at Dahlia Lounge, Union and a FareStart dinner with a guest chef from Sook catering (which I can't find any reviews of so I'm hoping to find time for another Japanese meal at Shiro's which has a local specials menu including a geoduck yaki I want to try). I'm also doing a Savor Seattle tour of the Pike Place market and plan to head down to wait in line at Salumi for lunch one day.

I'm also going to go to some art museums and the Locus awards at the Science Fiction Museum but you're not interested in that stuff. I don't know if anybody's actually interested in my meals at Seattle restaurants either but other food bloggers post about their travels so I'll give it a try. I figure having to write it up will make me think harder about my meals anyway and probably enjoy them more fully as a result. And, hey, maybe a waiter will notice me taking notes, mistake me for a proper reviewer, and try to bribe me with a free dessert.