The reluctant travelers have returned from a two-night stay in Morro Bay, a casual beach town in San Luis Obispo County. We mainly go to smell the ocean and eat seafood. Mission accomplished.
Even though we had a lovely trip, it’s good to be home. Everyone has to find their own retirement rhythm, and my hat’s off to those who are taking this time to see the world, but I can’t imagine being gone for weeks at a time. We enjoy our cozy lifestyle and couldn’t wait to get back in the kitchen. Other than the golf course, I don’t want to go anywhere for a while.
Dale made pizza last night. I’m making bison curry in the Instant Pot tonight. I already made naan in the pizza oven and will just have to heat them up. So delicious! Dale has some beautiful jalapeño peppers from his small garden, so he’s going to make beer batter-fried jalapeños stuffed with cheddar cheese. We’ll have that as an appetizer.
To celebrate our return home, I ordered the pasta attachment for the KitchenAid mixer. I’ve been using a hand-crank pasta machine, and while it works fine, I want to be able to use both hands to guide the pasta.
It should arrive later today, and that means homemade pasta tomorrow! Our basil is looking gorgeous, so I believe it will be pesto.
I also have some homemade lobster stock thawing in the refrigerator. I’ll use that to make miso seafood chowder later this week … probably Tuesday. Monday’s a golf day, so I can start a no-knead loaf of bread in the evening when I get back from a hard day of sport and bake it the next morning. I prefer bread over oyster crackers.
Certainly, there are more important things in the world than what I’m eating, but for sanity’s sake, I am learning to disengage from politics and global trauma. For lack of a better term, I think of it as living gently. For now, anyway, I’m happy and grateful to enjoy the simple pleasures that define my retirement – golf, cooking, art, walking, swimming, reading and writing.
Your food life is amazing. That nasn looks to die for.
Naan I meant
We just finished eating, and it was spectacular. I’ve made it on the cooktop and in the pizza oven — both are great. I don’t roll it out at all. I just use my hands to pat it out a bit — too thin and it’s not good.
I’m salivating over your menu and looking wistfully at your pictures thinking maybe the next time I travel, I’ll just come to your house. No wonder you’re so content. 😉
We’ve often thought it would be fun to host a B&B or something like that, but we concluded it would zap all the joy right out of it.
By the way, I love the word content. I hadn’t thought to use it, but it’s a perfect description for how I feel.
I think that your concept of living gently is the only way to keep one’s sanity these days. We need to balance out the craziness going on in the world and in our country, by choosing to live in a way that establishes that there really is some normality in the world. So now I have a visual of the world balanced on a scale with some people living some version of normal lives who have sane constructs around them, with those who are living nightmares with totally insane constructs surrounding them. Which way is the world going to tip?
I am amazed at the fact that both you and your husband cook. Being the only cook in the family, it has lost its allure for me. I’ve been searching out new recipes to see if that will whet my appetite (sorry, couldn’t help it) to enjoy cooking again. I did buy two butternut squashes, one to make a butternut apple soup from my Garland’s Lodge book and one to make a version of a Harvest Salad with Miso-Maple Roasted Butternut Squash. There are several versions, all similar. I finally found some white miso paste and airils in the store (I did the releasing of the airils from a pomegranate once, that was enough.) Arugula is too bitter for me so I bought a kale and spinach mix for the greens. I’ll use wild rice if I have enough left, but I also have some farro I believe. I need to replenish my grains for winter. Wild rice has been notoriously hard to find in my neck of the woods lately.
Incidentally, there is an amazing recipe for Red Lentil Thai Chili on Isa Chandra Moskowitz’s Post Punk Kitchen website. I make it at least twice every winter. I’m not vegan but her vegan recipes are beyond good. She has a pumpkin cheesecake with a pecan topping that’s made with tofu and cashews that is fantastic. I used to make it for the potlucks at work and I always had requests for the recipe and shock when they discovered that it was made with tofu (the kind sold in a box on the shelf).
Okay, you’ve got me thinking about food again and about making some of my favorite recipes while looking for some new ones . Thanks Donna.
I love your take on living gently. I do feel it’s the only way to stay sane these days.
It is great that we both cook. I would get burned out, too, if it were just me. We mix it up, which is great for days when one or the other isn’t into it.
Your food plans sound fabulous. I love winter squash in all its forms. Just yesterday I bought a kabocha squash but haven’t decided what to do with it yet. Last year I made a curry with pomegranite that was delicious. But I like it just roasted in the oven, too. I love red lentil soup and will definitely seek out that recipe.
I’m glad you have some food joy!!
You are talking my “foodie” language! I am making a big pot of soup today and we are trying a loaf of bread in the pizza oven. We have only made pizza in it, so we will see how it goes.
We enjoy traveling some in retirement, but it always feels good to come back home too. I feel like it adds texture to our lives and it makes me appreciate coming back home to cozy even more. (The basil plant definitely wants to transform into pesto!)
There’s not much better than a big pot of soup. I love the idea of doing bread in the pizza oven. Other than the naan, it had never occurred to me. I guess you’d have to keep the temperature down. You’ve got me thinking now!
I’m intrigued that you have a pizza oven… what brand? Do they work better (maybe faster/less energy?) than a conventional oven plus stone? I recently got an air fryer and there are some pizza recipes… but I’m a bit skeptical. A friend has a weekly “pizza night” which appeals because at least one dinner each week is set.
My husband and I talked about your post on our walk this morning. Although we like to travel (or, maybe more accurately, we like to be there, not travel to get there), it is losing some of its allure. Quicker trips (Morro Bay is a favorite), and less complicated planning might be in our future. We like nesting at home also.
We have the Roccbox. I’m told the Oonie is very good. These are both portable — not the built-in kind. But here’s the thing. For just the two of us, we actually prefer making it in the oven. One pizza and when it’s done, we can watch a movie. The pizza oven pizzas are smaller. One batch of dough makes three pizzas — so it’s sort of a social event. We also like to load our pizza up with toppings, and you really can’t do that with the pizza oven pizzas or they won’t “launch” from the peel into the oven.
It’s interesting how travel plans evolve. I can see where less complicated planning would be a welcome relief. The little road trips are nice.
Yummy recipes Chef Donna! It’s got all us gals rethinking cooking. I still haven’t baked bread…yet. That’s a gorgeous pot of basil. Please let me know how you keep it bug free. I’m challenged growing basil.
Dale is the gardener, and he says he has never had a problem with bugs on the basil. Go figure!
If you’re going to try bread, I recommend the Jim Lahey no-knead bread. It’s hard to mess it up! The recipe is everywhere.
After you mentioned the Jim Lahey no knead bread, I discovered I had saved it to my recipe box from NYT Cooking. Haha! Now I just have to make it.
Thanks to Dale for the basil tip. Have you made pesto with all of it?
I read this and thought “cooking sounds like Donna’s meditation”. How brilliant that something you need to do every day (although you have a great partner in kitchen crime in Dale) can provide such simple peace and joy. Photography is my version and sadly isn’t something I do daily (although it would get too much if I did due to the follow-up processing), so I do actually meditate.
I love that you go to smell the ocean – me too. I don’t care if it also smells fishy, I need that hit. And eating seafood at the seaside is simply the best.
It is nice that both of us cook. And as you said, we both find it quite meditative. I’m with you on the ocean smell. There’s nothing else like it.
Wishing you more time for photography!
Donna, I like your approach to retirement. I’m one of those people who loves my home, homemaking, seasonal tasks, etc. I spent a lot of years punching the clock & now I get to enjoy a slow morning, slow cooking, a to-do list that doesn’t have to be done in a day. It’s mindful & meditative. I’ve done some travelling (international & across country) & will again but right now I’m content to be in my own neck of the woods. I still maintain that there are many different places in the world but I’m not convinced that there are better ones.
Yes to all of the above! Dale and I were talking last night, and he said his goal was to keep his head down and just live his life. We toasted to that!