May 26th, 2005
I'm sitting in bed reading a cookbook and missing Steve Doughton. (I seem to recall Martin Amis citing the reading of cookbooks in bed by wives as a reason to dissolve a marriage). So much of the pleasure of cooking is dependent on the enthusiasm of those who eat the food you have prepared. Steve is a very excited diner and I find myself cooking less, partly because of work, but also because he now lives on another coast. The work thing is very disappointing. You work in a restaurant and you never cook a meal. I cook for the dog, she is a selective diner and I’m still figuring out her preferences, but when I present her with a bowl that she devours it reminds me of feeding Steve. There is pride, delight, and a very fundamental pleasure in nourishing another creature. Christine laughed at me when I told her this, “hah, I used to cook for Guthrie too.” I haven’t been able to locate a piece of mutton (old sheep) in Manhattan. We fed this to our dogs and to ourselves in Ireland, it is good, inexpensive protein that can be rendered delicious with a pressure cooker. Where do all the old sheep go?
I can understand the reticence of others not to jump in, being as we are, none of us, even vaguely approximate facsimiles of of S. Doughton, but if I may speak for at least the smallest of pluralities--you may anytime, feed US, feed US.
Err...are you saying my love of your food is less conditional than that of your dog’s? I'll be in NYC in mid-July. If feeding me dinner and apple tart-tatin will help cure your blues I'll gladly oblige.
I'm cooking chili tonight, I recently got the recipe from Wendy, a childhood friend I hadn't seen for 25 years and who's chili I ate last fall on her Brother Tim's 40th birthday. She was kind enough to share her recipe with me despite my once snagging her soft, 8-year-old cheek with a 3-hook fishing lure.
I needed a good cry. I miss you too Rach.
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I'm sitting in bed reading a cookbook and missing Steve Doughton. (I seem to recall Martin Amis citing the reading of cookbooks in bed by wives as a reason to dissolve a marriage). So much of the pleasure of cooking is dependent on the enthusiasm of those who eat the food you have prepared. Steve is a very excited diner and I find myself cooking less, partly because of work, but also because he now lives on another coast. The work thing is very disappointing. You work in a restaurant and you never cook a meal. I cook for the dog, she is a selective diner and I’m still figuring out her preferences, but when I present her with a bowl that she devours it reminds me of feeding Steve. There is pride, delight, and a very fundamental pleasure in nourishing another creature. Christine laughed at me when I told her this, “hah, I used to cook for Guthrie too.” I haven’t been able to locate a piece of mutton (old sheep) in Manhattan. We fed this to our dogs and to ourselves in Ireland, it is good, inexpensive protein that can be rendered delicious with a pressure cooker. Where do all the old sheep go?
- rachael 5-27-2004 8:26 pm
I can understand the reticence of others not to jump in, being as we are, none of us, even vaguely approximate facsimiles of of S. Doughton, but if I may speak for at least the smallest of pluralities--you may anytime, feed US, feed US.
- jimlouis 5-27-2004 10:25 pm [add a comment]
Err...are you saying my love of your food is less conditional than that of your dog’s? I'll be in NYC in mid-July. If feeding me dinner and apple tart-tatin will help cure your blues I'll gladly oblige.
I'm cooking chili tonight, I recently got the recipe from Wendy, a childhood friend I hadn't seen for 25 years and who's chili I ate last fall on her Brother Tim's 40th birthday. She was kind enough to share her recipe with me despite my once snagging her soft, 8-year-old cheek with a 3-hook fishing lure.
I needed a good cry. I miss you too Rach.
- steve 5-28-2004 6:39 am [add a comment]
Is this the Steve Doughton originally from Portland OR? Have you forgotton your friends in California?
- anonymous (guest) 10-23-2005 7:57 am [add a comment] [edit]