new things

1. teflon. i turned my nose up at teflon (i am using the word "teflon" to include all nonstick cooking surfaces), and rightly so. it's unattractive and so...amateur. meanwhile, i have to admit i have come to love cooking certain things with teflon. tofu, for example, should be cooked in teflon. without using tons of fat you can saute tofu so nicely. it gets nice and brown and you don't kill half the tofu by scraping it off the pan.

2. the library. why didn't i think of this sooner? who needs to *buy* books all the time in order to read them? i have taken out a book about pregnancy, two cook books and have two books of fiction on order. anything i like a lot i can certainly buy. cookbooks are good to try out before you buy them. some books you only need for a short time. others you want for a lifetime. i have re read very few of my fiction paperbacks - it would be great to dipose of them and stop collecting them. it's not like i don't find a shelf's worth of books each time i step outside in park slope.

3. soy sauce and water instead of stock. deglaze with about a sixth of a cup of soy sauce and the rest water (for a total of a cup) instead of chicken or veg stock. insert garlic and ginger into the liquid.

4. anger and hate as: optional. if someone annoys me i don't have to hate them or push them off of my social radar. i can be annoyed. hate is exhausting and so is anger. my personality without anger...sort of like the doughnut without the hole. it's not a doughnut anymore. i'm not a doughnut anymore. but. what am i?