The Real Food Rehab Holiday Gift Guide: Sally Schneider

Sally Schneider brings new meaning to the words, keeping it real. On her website, 'the improvised life,' she calls our attention to the beauty, wonder and richness of our daily lives and helps us to see it with fresh eyes. Finding her site was such a revelation and I'm indebted to her for inspiring me in numerous ways. In her site's manifesto, Sally explains why improvising is the perfect operating system in today's world. "Improvising," she says, "is an antidote to I can't." I am beyond delighted to have Sally and her authentic style on Real Food Rehab...




WHO Sally Schneider is the creator and writer of ‘the improvised life’, a website about improvising -- inventing, being resourceful, making-it-up-as-you-go-along – as a daily practice. She has worked as a journalist, editor, syndicated columnist, radio commentator, teacher, stylist, small-space consultant and professional chef; she once wrangled 600 live snails for an Irving Penn photograph. Her very improvisational work has been the laboratory for her posts on ‘the improvised life’, her column Home Cooking on The Atlantic Food blog, and consulting and speaking about creativity and home design. Please check out her award-winning cookbooks The Improvisational Cookand A New Way to Cook.
















THE GIFT Everyone I know has SO much, and does not need another object, so I’ve devised an alt-holiday gift strategy. I give a card saying I’ve given a donation in my friends name to a charity; this year it will be Maira Kalman’s beautiful angel.













I often bundle the card with a little something: like this swell $4 tasting spoon from Branch, which is the ideal shape for cooking; long and thin and slightly odd.

























Or, I’ll give them some food gift I’ve made a big batch of, like some easy-to-make exotically flavored chocolates, or Alt-Malted Milk Balls, or some Dried Apricots in Cardamom Syrup. I make these in big batches to package as gifts (often with found/re-use jars, boxes, tins or gift-wrap) or to use for my own impromtu parties. (photos courtesy of Ellen Silverman)

WHERE DO YOU LIVE? New York City





WHAT INSPIRES YOU? New York City inspires me endlessly: all you have to do is walk out on the street to discover something interesting, an anonymous creation, like the tiny grafitti written on a rusted door that said “know hope”.

But what inspires me most, way beyond the city, is the idea of improvising, which is all about possibility: unexpected answers and solutions to be found in what we have right now.













GO-TO DISH WHEN COOKING FOR YOURSELF?

My go-to survivalist dish when I’m alone and working flat-out is a fried egg on something with some grated Parmigiano-Reggiano in between. That something can be just about anything: spaghetti, steamed asparagus, crushed boiled new potatoes…The soft-yolk egg mixes with the cheese to become a sauce. For breakfast, I throw a fried egg on some greens like watercress or arugula.

The Flavor Bible

Artists have been my personal heroes for as long as I can remember. I've always been moved by people who devote their lives to creating something unique; something that belongs to them but is also shared with the world for the sake of pleasure.

I consider great cooks to be artists. I'm not only speaking of professional chefs but of everyday folk, who passionately ply their craft in the privacy of their own homes and share it with family and friends. Eating in the home of a great cook, to me, is a thrill and a blessing. Not only do I get to eat great food but it's titillating to watch how other people prepare and serve their food. From their kitchen rituals, to how they chop and garnish - I learn so much in the process. Everyone has their own style and flair and it reminds me that there's more than one right way to do something.

Perhaps that's the problem: so much of our creativity gets shut down because we think that anything that veers from the norm isn't right. I am here to tell you that that is a load of crap. Once you learn the essentials of your craft - whatever it is - you are free to deviate and put your own stamp on it. It takes courage to stay your course - to trust your process and as any creative person will tell you, it's when you allow yourself to let go, to get messy and allow mistakes to happen, that's when things get juicy.

I am a creature of habit. I will do the same thing over and over even when I know it's not working for me, so I like having tools around that aid and abet my creativity and personal freedom.

In the kitchen, having a pantry of high quality ingredients and products that move me is key for allowing me to improvise and create amazing meals. The book The Flavor Bible, by Karen Page and Andrew Dornenburg, who's cover you see here, is another great tool.

The book is a reference guide to hundreds of ingredients; from apples to zucchini and every herb, spice, spirit and cuisine in between. Each item has its own description in terms of flavor profile, season, and the best techniques and tips for using it. It also has suggestions and knowledge from some of America's greatest chefs.

But that's hardly the best part.

This book is the kitchen improviser's bible because it lists all the matching flavor affinities for each ingredient! So say you have beets in your fridge and you're not sure what to do with them. Not only will the book give suggestions on cooking them, but it lists all the other flavors, ingredients, herbs and spices that go well with beets in alphabetical order: avocado, Crème Fraîche, mustard, pistachios, walnuts and yogurt to name a few. Then it also lists perfect flavor combinations, such as:

beets + citrus + goat cheese + olive oil + shallots
or
beets + olive oil + Parmesan cheese + balsamic vinegar
or
beets + honey + tarragon

Imagine this kind of information listed for every ingredient you can think of!

Just for kicks, here's another example:

Chicken

chicken + garlic + pancetta + sage + thyme
or
chicken + cream + grapefruit + pink peppercorns
or
chicken + coconut + galangal + shiitake mushrooms
or
chicken + basil + cinnamon

I don't know about you but I find this terribly exciting! These pairings make my mouth water. That's what makes this volume invaluable. Once you've used it for a while, you gain a more natural sense of what goes with what, which will lend itself in numerous creative and tasty ways in your cooking. Learning the essentials and then riffing on that in your own style is precisely what makes a great cook. I think one of the privileges of being human is that we get to develop our style, our character, to know who we are and what we stand for in the scheme of things. Cooking and eating is a beautiful, convivial and tasty way to develop that.

Here's the link if you care to check it out at Amazon:

The Flavor Bible: The Essential Guide to Culinary Creativity, Based on the Wisdom of America's Most Imaginative Chefs