Well hey again everybody! It's been awhile!
I've missed this! Writing about food and life, and making food so I can write about it, and then looping back so that writing and food became this jumbly wonderful colliding event. But I needed to take a break for various reasons that I'll go into a little bit before surging forward into all the new possibilities.
Back when I started this blog, I was using it as a form of creative therapy. I was pretty depressed when I first started it up and feeling really creatively stunted. At the time, the growing food blog culture was all new and exciting to me and provided a lot of needed comfort. So many pictures of food that made my tummy grumble! Ideas about food preservation and preparation I'd never imagined! It all wrapped me in a warm, cuddly blanket of things I loved and took me out of the troubling issues in the world and my life. When I started writing a blog of my own, it wasn't my ambition to become a part of the foodie scene, but it did feel like I was basing my blog template on that burgeoning food-blogger world.
When I stepped back from writing the blog, I did so in part because I was noticing some troubling trends in the food blog scene that I began to feel pretty heavy about. Most of the faces and voices cropping up on my networks were white and wealthy, and I became increasingly uncomfortable with the "lifestyles" I was seeing represented and that I myself felt entitled to represent. I wanted to step back and focus on other creative goals as well, while trying to use this incredible resource (THE INTERNET) to circulate outside of my own networks, start looking at radical food politics and criticism, and find new voices.
Then I started reading some really great blogs like this one and talking to more people about food practices and histories. I joined a group here in Montréal called Roots & Recipes and started working with elder communities on food traditions (a podcast is in development!). I've continued cooking and thinking about food (all the time) and I feel ready and happy to start updating this blog again. Since I stopped writing in the blog, I've still come back to use recipes I loved, to read about moments I archived here, etc. I want to use this blog to further archive the things that are important to me, which is STILL food, but also including all those resources and blogs I've discovered that are STILL underrepresented and are so important, that speak from perspectives and experiences I can never represent or understand, and that highlight all the change that still needs to come.
My own white, cis-, hetero- privileges still trouble me, especially when I put my voice out in the world, and often I resent my own desire to create things. I don't have an answer to that resentment and I probably never will (because #whitesupremacy) but maybe it's the way to get on track in terms of acknowledging the deep divides in culture that are never acknowledged.
My own white, cis-, hetero- privileges still trouble me, especially when I put my voice out in the world, and often I resent my own desire to create things. I don't have an answer to that resentment and I probably never will (because #whitesupremacy) but maybe it's the way to get on track in terms of acknowledging the deep divides in culture that are never acknowledged.
Oh ya, and this happened:
Braised Chicken with Dates
3 1/2 pound chicken cut up (breasts, thighs, drumsticks)
1 TBS flour
1 TBS olive oil
2 pounds shallots (about 10 large)
3 cinnamon sticks
1 1/2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp turmeric
Pinch cayenne pepper
3 cups low salt chicken broth
5 TBS fresh lemon juice, divided
12 dates pitted and halved
1/2 cup sliced, toasted almonds
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
Sprinkle chicken with salt, pepper and flour. Heat olive oil in heavy pot and add half of chicken pieces to pot, cooking until browned on both sides, about 15 minutes.
Transfer chicken to platter and repeat with remaining chicken. Pour off all but 2 TBS of fat from pot and discard (there may not be much fat in pot) Add shallots to pot and sauté until golden about 6 minutes. Add cinnamon sticks, ginger, cumin, turmeric and cayenne. Stir 1 minute. Increase heat to high and add broth and 3 TBS lemon juice. Bring to boil. Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer 20 minutes.
Place chicken pieces atop shallots in pot. Bring to boil and reduce heat to low, cover and simmer until chicken is cooked...about 30 minutes. Transfer chicken and shallots to platter and tent with foil. Boil juices in pot until slightly thickened. Stir in dates and remaining 2 TBS lemon juice. Simmer about 2-5 minutes. Pour sauce and dates over chicken. Sprinkle with almonds and cilantro and enjoy!
