Best Cooking Week Of The Year

12 years ago

The best eating week of the year is about to start!

Every summer we spend a week on the shore of Lake Tahoe, CA with some long-time friends. We talk, kayak, drink, play boules, knit (some of us), smoke cigars (some of us), hike, do fixit chores on their cabin, mind or don't mind the kids. And cook, and drink, and eat.

N____ is a French geneticist, and makes old-school French dishes from her treasured little pocket notebook, in which she's spent decades accumulating recipes from her mother and aunts in that loopy French cursive. Last year I begged her to let me photocopy it. Non. I forgive her, for her perfect tartes, worthy of any Parisian vitrine. T____ is a home-schooling Northern California earth-mother who always introduces me to humble, subtle foods that I've overlooked, or mentally classified with granola and brown rice. My polenta kick a while ago was thanks to her. W_____'s specialty is perfectly grilled meat. He always brings a cooler of beef. He brings the cigars, too. A_____, our hostess and resident piano teacher and outdoorswoman, is always anxious on her night to cook, and her meals turn out wonderfully. She made the best brisket I've ever had. N_____ (#2) is half East Coast blue blood, half French free-spirit, and cooks sort of like Alice Waters would, if Alice Waters were very mellow and a little bit stoned. She's nearly a dead ringer for Katharine Ross, too. With ten adults and nine kids, there's constantly cooking, serving, and cleaning to be done. I'm never so domestic as on this week, and I like it. Even doing the dishes.

Some years I've gone down with photocopied recipes and special ingredients, one year I hauled down two woks and jars of made-ahead sauces. This year feels more impromptu. We'll go to the farmers' market, see what's good, and just wing it. I'm not going to stick to my diet, but will lean more light and ''California'', and less ''big production''. Well, I may grab some spices from the kitchen so I can try a couple Indian dishes. And I have been thinking about bringing a pressure cooker . . .

So, if I'm wholly absent for a while, or conversely if I start posting desperate pleas for help, or pop up in WFD again - that's why. I'm quite excited.

Do you have a ''best cooking week'' each year? A recurring family reunion, holidays that never stop, foodie friends who get together each year?

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Comments (14)

sally2_gw
12 years ago
John, it sounds like you're going to Heaven! What a fun sounding group of friends you have, and a neat tradition.

I don't have anything like that. It's more like we have a day here or there that we go all out. I, unfortunately, don't have many friends that like to cook, but I do have a friend or two that likes to eat, but don't have much time to cook, so I enjoy feeding them from time to time. It's sheer pleasure to cook for people that enjoy food. I bet this week will be that and more for you. Be safe and have fun!

Sally
wizardnm
12 years ago
Have fun John! It sounds like a wonderful vacation. Treasuse making the memories. Take pictures!

Nancy
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Bumblebeez SC Zone 7
12 years ago
That sounds like a great vacation! I hope you have a wonderful time and maybe you can find out more on Why French Women Don't Get Fat.
rob333 (zone 7b)
12 years ago
I remember your last year's jaunt. You make me nostalgic for my childhood, with many trips like those. Enjoy your meals and company fully.
foodonastump
12 years ago
Sounds like an awesome time. Definitely jealous. I'd game for all except perhaps the knitting! Have fun.
annie1992
12 years ago
Oh wow, that sounds like a wonderful time, have fun and take pictures! I'll watch for you on WFD.

We never took vacation as a child, other than visiting Great-Grandmother in Canada. She had a little shack with a dirt floor and a wood stove, so there wasn't a lot of anything going on except my brother and I took turns splitting wood for her for winter and I always got poison ivy.

As an adult I didn't go much of anywhere either because we owned the bar and grille until I was in my 40s and started taking the girls places. Then I got divorced and couldn't afford to go anywhere, LOL.

Have a great time and ejoy your friends and your children. Too bad about that notebook, though, could you get her drunk and photocopy it? (grin)

Annie
lindac
12 years ago
Sounds like heaven to me!!!! The only thing that might make it better would be if it were on an ocean beach.
I don't know why...but I have no friends who are even slightly as passionate about adventurous cooking as I am....and living alone...I feel a huge lack of a "cooking week". Perhaps that's why I enjoy cooking church meals even though it's mostly same-old same-old.
The closest I come to a cook and eat-a-thon is when I go to my son's and we play together in the kitchen...or when he comes here.
Lucky you! Enjoy!!
Oh yes and take notes....
nancyjane_gardener
12 years ago
My big hurrah is the holidays (of course) and also pot lucks where I fancy up all sorts of home grown dishes.
We also have a cabin at the Russian River and have many family gatherings there. The grill is always the first choice, but I always cook the sides and breakfast. Nancy
loagiehoagie
12 years ago
I am seriously envious of someone like you who has so many friends and especially ones that are so eclectic and are serious 'foodies' in their own separate genre's. How cool is that!??? I hope you have a wonderful time and it sounds like the possibility of you not is pretty much non-existent! Have a great time John!

Duane
dedtired
12 years ago
That sounds like so much fun. Those are the very best kind of vacations. When I was a kid we spent a month at the beach in New Jersey every year. There were other families around that we knew and we would go to the beach with them, but not cook. My poor mom would cook for all five of us the same as if we were home, except the kitchen wasn't half as nice. As a red head, she burned easily in the sun and hated the sand.

Later my parents built a new house and installed a big pool. After that we always stayed home. It was nice to have a pool, but not nearly as fun as those family vacations to the beach.

We took our kids to the beach every year too. Not much cooking going on then! Now I travel by myself and never cook.

You are creating great memories for the kids.
John Liu
Original Author
12 years ago
Dinner last night with our friends in Berkeley.

I found a great, if scuzzy, Indian market and got spices to make

Chicken in a yoghurt and sour cream sauce, lots of cumin, coriander, onions, garlic, cream.

Beef browned, then braised with tomato, peaches, cumin, coriander, red pepper, onions, garlic, dark beer.

Got to Tahoe late tonight and dinner was Zacharys' deep dish pizza, wine, and blackberry cobbler on the beach.

Sorry for the blurry pics and brief description - I'm tired and headed for bed . . .
John Liu
Original Author
12 years ago
On the road home, after a great week.

On the food front, and especially on the drink front, our group seemed to be a bit ''lite'' this year. Not as Bacchannalian as in some prior years. That was okay, I actually stuck to my diet. How? More in a sec.

For dinners, there were a couple of curries, one evening of Zachary's deep dish pizza, and one night out at a Basque restaurant in Nevada. Grill night was some perfectly grilled kabobs (W____). There were various pastas, including a lemon linguine and a spaghetti carbonara (SWMBO). T_____ won the ''simplest tasty'' award with an entire salmon fillet poached in salt, pepper, onion and vermouth. We had chicken thighs stuffed and trussed, different variations: gorgonzola & walnut, brie & apple, roast veg & salami, jalapeno & jack cheese (one of the N____'s). There was chicken in a cream, corn, and capers sauce, and a boeuf bourguignon. We had a risotto, lots of salads and salsa, roast veg, gallons of Peet's coffee, quinoa salad, fried chicken skins, tiramisu, crumbles, ice cream, lots of peaches and plums, cheese, bread, etc.

And only 12 bottles of wine for the week, part of a fifth of scotch, two cigars, and some tequila. Weird - normally we go through a couple cases of wine at least. Like I said, everyone was watching their health, at least a little.

I guess that's part of getting older. As is long talks about raising teen girls (how do you decide which parties they may go to?) and the aging and passing of our parents. Much of each has been going on in our group this year (my parents are fine, thanks).

So, I know the mystery is, how do you stick to a diet on a vacation week centered around friends and food? Partly by cooking a lot, since the more I cook, the less I eat. Also partly by cheating with exercise. I didn't really stick to 1200 cal/day. Instead, if I did X cal of activity that day, I ate 1200 + X. Turns out that if one hikes 4 hours, or kayaks 3 hours, well, that is a significant ''X''.

Now, that's exercise I enjoy. Paddling on a glass lake at dawn, walking through a high mountain meadow filled with wildflowers - lots better than a treadmill in a smelly gym. Alas, I don't live in the High Sierra.
John Liu
Original Author
12 years ago
I don't have many photos, even fewer of food, and they are scattered across various iPhones and cameras, but I'll post a few as I come across them.

Here's some that may bring back memories of being a kid in summertime.
dcarch7 d c f l a s h 7 @ y a h o o . c o m
12 years ago
Here in the Northeast, I am so weary of bombarded by 24-hour non-stop coverage by all TV and media of people's flooded basements, and downed trees on parked cars. It is so refreshing to see your beautiful pictures of your vacation.

Love that picture of family and friends dinning on the beach at sunset. Just like in the movies.

Thanks for sharing.

dcarch

Best Cooking Week Of The Year

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