A New Year’s Day

Hanging over

On New Year’s Day I woke up feeling more than a little hungover. In addition to New Year’s Eve being one of the many holidays on which Americans, myself included, tend to over-imbibe. December 31st is also my husband’s and my wedding anniversary. We got married on the fifth anniversary of our first date and last month we celebrated our second wedding anniversary. And celebrate we did. We dined, we drank and we danced. Well I danced, and darling Marshall watched over me from his station leaning against support beam in a warehouse just off the dance floor. The combination of champagne, vodka, redbull and three hours of sweaty dancing left me feeling less than energized when I woke up at one in the afternoon on January 1st. Marshall and I spent most of what was left of the day lolling around in bed, but come nightfall, Marshall decided to take action. He was going to make something new in the kitchen. For the New Year’s Resolution.

Oh yeah, that.

There’s a great natural food store not to far from our house, so Marshall took off on his bike to get ingredients. Upon returning home, he asked if I would mind staying completely out of the kitchen until he was done. I told him I was more than happy to lay in bed and watch yet another movie on my laptop. “But seriously,” he warned. “Stay out.” So stay out I did. And a movie and a half later he said he said it was almost done. At this point my curiosity was definitely peaked. You see, Marshall is incredibly deliberate and slow-moving about many things, but especially about food related things. He is known among our family and friends, very lovingly, as “the slowest eater in the world.” As for cooking? Well, water comes to a boil at 2/3 the normal speed when Marshall is standing over the stove. I was expecting dinner to take a while, but it had been over three hours! And it was almost done? What was going on in there?

Ramekin, ramekin

And then, right as the second movie was ending I got the call to come to dinner. Set before me, covering an adorable white ramekin, was a beautiful golden crust that held unknown treasure. For years I have admired and exclaimed over what an incredible looking vessel the ramekin is. I have fondled many sizes and colors- though I have always really loved the clean classic white version best. But I’d never bought one. Because you can’t make hippie stir fry in them. Not only did Marshall get two ramekins, he explained, he bought four so we could make yummy stuff in ramekins for guests! For this New Years Resolution! That we’re going to do! That he had started making good on! And I was so excited to see the ramekins in my home, and the beautiful food in front of me that just a little tiny bit of enthusiasm for finding new things to cook, perhaps even every week, started to come over me.

All around the beautiful ramekins topped with the beautiful golden crusts were shaved, crisped brussel sprouts that Marshall recreated from our dinner the night before at Ned Ludd, a meal that we will probably talk about until we are old and gray. Everything that gets cooked at Ned Ludd gets cooked in a wood burning stove. Everything. But I digress.

Expectations be damned

Let me tell you what I expected. And I’m sorry sweetie, but I must tell the truth. I expected to pick up my fork, and poke through that beautiful crust into a doughy, tough mass and uncover a dry rice, tempeh and broccoli mixture that tasted like soy sauce and nutritional yeast. You know, hippie stir fry, but in a ramekin. But instead my fork found a flaky, crumbly buttery crust and a most succulent, tofu, pea, and carrot pie, expertly seasoned with sage and thyme and just the right amount of salt, all held together by a thick brothy-juicy sauce. And oh-so-very, very delicious.

I spent the meal alternately singing the praises of Marshall’s mad-cooking skills, and exclaiming about how cute the ramekins were. All between bites, of course. Marshall told me about the pie-crust making anxiety he experienced, and how much fun he had making the rest of the meal while he listened to podcasts. So this is the kind of thing we can do when we set ourselves to making a new meal. We can eat like this! In our home! And maybe it can even be fun! Count me in. Game on.

Vegan Tofu and Vegetable Pot Pie adapted by Emily Ho of thekitchn.com

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