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Brigid Bergin: It's The Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC. Welcome back, everybody. I'm Brigid Bergin from the WNYC and Gothamist newsroom. It is dinner time, and for whatever reason, you don't want to cook. Maybe you're exhausted from work. Maybe you're just uninspired by the contents of your fridge, or maybe like this past week, it was just too hot to turn on the oven. What do you reach for?
Earlier this month, an article in The Washington Post introduced or reintroduced the concept of fending for dinner. The point is to minimize the effort to make dinner and minimize the cleanup after. This all sounds great to me; I have a four-year-old. Beyond that there aren't many rules. Joining me now to discuss the concept of fending for dinner is Daniela Galarza, food writer and recipe developer at The Washington Post. She also writes the free newsletter, through The Washington Post, Eat Voraciously, and her article is entitled Fending for dinner is practical snacking for our times. Daniela, welcome to WNYC.
Daniela: It's so great to be here with you.
Brigid Bergin: Listeners, we'll open up the phones for you right away. We don't have a lot of time and we definitely want to hear from you. What do you make for dinner when you just can't muster the energy to cook? What are your go-to recipes when it's too hot to turn on the oven or even move around too much to prepare dinner? Tweet @BrianLehrer, give us a call at 212-433-WNYC. That's 212-433-9692.
Do you hit the Farmers' Market and just put together a salad with what you have, or are you like me and our first guest, Emily? Do we just eat what your toddlers left behind? Daniela, in the title for your article you use the term "fending for dinner," but in your research you found that there are so many different terms. What are some of your favorites and what does this concept of fending mean for you?
Daniela: Yes, it was really fun to realize that lots of people do this. They snack for dinner, they have a getcheroni. They engage in anarchy kitchen. They serve a jungle dinner. I heard from hundreds of readers after I wrote this story, which was actually inspired by the cartoonist Roz Chast's cartoon. From April 2021, in the earlier part of the pandemic, she wrote about how her and her husband fend for dinner. She too found that a lot of people do this. Every Man For Themselves is another one, and oogle moogle. One of our favorites is "ifits" as in "if it's in the refrigerator, it's fair game."
Brigid Bergin: [chuckles] We love Roz Chast here, so I am glad to hear that she was inspiring this, which will hopefully inspire our listeners to figure out what to do with what's in their fridge. You say that there are many cultures that place a really big importance on reducing food waste. Do you want to talk about how fending for dinner can be part of that solution too?
Daniela: Sure. I think it's part of our own culture too. I think everyone's culture is really trying to reduce food waste these days. I talk to a number of chefs. Chefs, in particular, they're running a restaurant or running a business, and they're looking for ways to keep their bottom line solid. The chef of Nami Nori in New York, Taka Sakaeda, he says that he's guided by the Japanese concept of mottainai, which is a feeling of regret when something is put to waste without deriving its value.
I think that that underlines for us the use of leftovers in spending or snacking. Often we're pulling out a takeout that we got the night before or maybe three nights before, and we're pairing it with maybe a fried egg or some roasted vegetables, and anything that you can cobble together for a full meal.
Brigid Bergin: I think your idea of cobbling together those leftovers into another meal is really resonating with a lot of-- certainly the folks on our team. I want to bring our callers into this. Debbie in Lanoka Harbor, New Jersey, can you tell us how you fend for yourself for dinner?
Debbie: Thank you for taking my call. Yes, I make a layered tortilla recipe that's very simple. It can be baked right on the grill. It's layers of tortilla layered with salsa, black beans, and cheddar cheese. Stack it up three or four stacks, bake it 10 minutes on the grill and you have it ready to go. Very good for the environment too because its protein is the bean. Thank you.
Brigid Bergin: Debbie, thank you so much. Listeners, we're wondering if anyone else grew up with fending for yourself for dinner or are doing it in your home now. Give us a call at 212-433-9692, 212-433-WNYC. Let's go to Sharon in Point Pleasant Beach. Sharon, what is your go-to on a hot day?
Sharon: Hi there. Thanks again for taking my call. Usually, a lot of people over summer make trips to the Farmers' Market and maybe have ideas in mind but don't bring them into fruition. Then they get stuck and they have vegetables in their fridge. I use zucchini, onion, tomato, sautéed together with a little bit of mint. It's a recipe from my husband's grandmother from Italy. Makes a great side dish as well as a full dish.
Corn, we're buying a lot of corn over the summer. Take the corn, boil it, cut it off the cob, chop it up with some fresh tomatoes and fresh basil. Chop up a veggie burger that we buy, that could be sitting in our freezer, that you can microwave or sauté with it. Try to keep things out of the oven. Also using up those vegetables that we tend to buy at the Farmers' Market and then wonder what are we going to do with it later on.
Brigid Bergin: Sharon, those are great suggestions. I personally cannot get enough corn, basil, and blueberries this time of year. I pretty much could make all my meals, incorporate those three ingredients, and I would be a very happy person.
Sharon: Blueberries are great on the stove too.
Brigid Bergin: Yes.
Sharon: You can actually mash them up in a little pot with a little bit of sugar, a little bit of vanilla and lemon juice and you've got a great jam for later.
Brigid Bergin: More great suggestions. Sharon, thank you so much for calling. We have a listener who tweeted that fending for dinner in the heat means it's time for gazpacho, and gives the recipe of blending six tomatoes, one green pepper, one cucumber, salt, olive oil, vinegar, and there you go. Vinegar to taste. Another great suggestion.
Daniela, this obviously isn't a new concept. You mentioned already a Woman's Day magazine article from 1976 in which the author writes "Since Friday night has always been a raggedy time for our family, with me tired from a week's juggling of teaching and homemaking, I decided to label the night on the menu calendar EMFH, which means Every Man For Himself." People have been scavenging for food since the dawn of time, but in your reporting, did you notice any upticks in that kind of dinner right around the time of women's lib here in the United States?
Daniela: Certainly. It was a time when women decided to think outside of the kitchen and push their family to think about the chores themselves. The Woman's Day magazine article was written by my editor Ann Maloney's mother, who noted that when she first introduced the concept on Friday night her children and her husband were startled. They felt a little abandoned and they awed at the prospect of getting it together themselves, but eventually they figured it out.
After I wrote the piece I heard from a lot of parents of young children who were saying that as soon as the kids were old enough, they felt safe in the kitchen, that that was one of the first tasks; was learning how to make their own food. I think that that's a really great way of empowering children and showing them that not only is cooking a chore, but it can be fun and nourishing.
Brigid Bergin: Those are great. We have a bunch more callers. Let's go to Tim in Brooklyn. Tim?
Tim: Hi. I have two things for summer in particular. One is soba, the Japanese buckwheat noodles. Cooks quickly and can be cooled down. You put some ice in it after draining or cold water, and you can serve it with various vegetables or meat, and makes an excellent, cool, summer, quick-cooking dish. The other one is I love smoked herring, kippered herring, and I found a brand that's moderately low in sodium. They can be salt bombs, but RügenFisch, a German brand, is moderate in sodium.
I put the can in the fridge before I open it so it's cool in the summer. I add hot sauce, at least a couple of kinds of hot sauce, some curry, turmeric, black pepper, and eat it with rye crackers, and it's like a Scandinavian breakfast for champions. [laughs]
Brigid Bergin: [chuckles] Tim, that sounds great.
Tim: Smoked fish and rye crackers.
Brigid Bergin: Well, we're going to try to get one more caller in here. Ariana, in Yonkers, New York. Ariana, what is your go-to?
Ariana: Hi. Yes. Can you hear me?
Brigid Bergin: Yes, we can.
Ariana: Oh, great. Hi. Long time, first time. My go-to for my family is tostadas in the summer. We're from Mexico and tostadas were always the thing as I grew up. There are so many ways that you can add layers that are creative and different. I sometimes put interesting things on there like [unintelligible 00:10:26] nuts or hummus and layer it with leftover chicken or any meat that's at home, or you could do beans and lettuce and tomatoes. It's one of my favorite things to do. Arugula is also a great one.
Brigid Bergin: That sounds great, Ariana. Thank you so much for calling. We had one more call caller who we're not going to get time for, but it's Kathy in Staten Island who made the always safe recommendation of cold cereal. It's a good go-to.
I'm going have to leave it there. My guest has been Daniela Galarza, food writer and recipe developer at The Washington Post, and the author of its free newsletter Eat Voraciously. Daniela, thank you so much for coming on.
Daniela: Thanks so much for having me. I really appreciate it. It was fun.
Brigid Bergin: [chuckles] I'm Brigid Bergin, and this is The Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC. Thanks so much for listening.
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