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May 3, 2008
Presentation Isn't Everything, But It Isn't Nothing Either
"Are you all required to wear skirts?" asked, Anna, the blog name Anna, at the impromptu party we had after the last ratification vote on Wednesday. She was addressing little Lisa, but asking all of us organizers generally.
"Just me," said Danny California. That got a good laugh.
"I don't require them to wear skirts," I said, "But we do have to dress professionally."
That made sense to Anna. After all, it's our job to lead nurses in struggle to win a voice on their job. It isn't going to work if we look like children.
Presentation isn't everything, but it definitely isn't nothing either. It's important, how people look, how things look, how foods look. On an average weekday with MR (assuming I'm home, which these days I'm not all that often) I might make a big stew in a large pot and perhaps a side dish or ricotta and fruit parfait dessert, but nothing fancy. I like to come home and put on my yoga pants and a tank top or sweatshirt, depending on the weather. It's nice to get out of my grown up work clothes, and MR loves his voluminous vegetable dishes. But on weekends, when I have a little time (as opposed to the weekends lately when I've been running crazy because I'm still working most of the time in addition to getting all the housework done, or getting some of it done and complaining about the rest) it's fun to do a little more in the way of presentation.
For lunch this afternoon, I made MR some mushroom "pizzettes," with hollowed out white mushrooms stuffed with grape tomatoes, topped with basil, oregano, capers, and fat free mozarella. I placed them in a circle around the perimeter of a large glass round plate, and in the center I put a glass bowl filled with both yellow and green squash, mixed up with red wine vinegar, garlic and oregano. On the side I served a big bowl of cauliflower and broccoli with eggwhites (to bump up the protein) in lemon juice with garlic. Dessert was a megamuffin mixed into non-fat ricotta, with hazelnuts, and topped with flax oil. A teaspoon of olive oil topped the other two dishes. It was very pretty.
Tonight I am having even more fun with presentation. I sliced green zucchini and yellow squash into disks, and set them out on the beautiful white square plates that MR's parents gave us, in a chessboard-like pattern with four onen way and four across. Then I made little towers, alternating zucchini, squash, Laughing Cow light swiss cheese, nonfat ricotta, and fat free mozzarella. Then I toped the tiny towers with paprika and garlic. They really do look like an edible game board. Then on the side I'm serving a giant asparagus dish in lime with pepper, and a giant cauliflower dish with eggwhites in cider vinegar with chilis and hot sauce. Tons of volume, very pretty in our Christmas-present dishes. We may as well enjoy these moments we have together, to play with pretty veggies and pretty dishes!
Posted by april at May 3, 2008 7:42 PM
Comments
No pictures? It would be so great to take pictures of these culinary creations and then post them for free on flicker.com or some-such free place, with links provided in the blog, so readers could see the pretty 'presentations'.
Posted by: CRWilliam at May 8, 2008 9:48 PM