noshing

I really don't know where the term nosh came from but in my family it leads back to Germany. About sixteen years ago I took my daughter to Trier to stay with family. My sister in law is German American and the main meal is at lunch; with a sausage platter and cheeses often for dinner during the summer. I now know that as a charchuterie plate, with liverwurst, head cheese, lots of mortadella, salami, and kaiseri, jarlsburg, havarti, gouda, whatever is rolling around in the cold tray in the fridge. And cornichons, lots of stone ground mustard, and whatever else we can rustle up.
This turned into what we would call over the years, 'the nosh plate." In some homes, stir-fry is an euphanism for," I only have one of each of these vegetables and so this is a good way to use all these wilted things up for dinner. "

But a nosh plate conveys more to me.

It means: we have such a wonderful array of condiments, pickles, meats and cheeses we cannot possibly focus on one. We should plate them all up in pretty ways and with our fingers we can build our own plates and combinations. yum.

There is a reason I have in my fridge right now: three types of chicken leftovers, liverwurst,kalmata olives, peanut butter, endive, green olives, capers, celery, spinach, artichoke hearts, ricotta, cottage, string cheese, harissa sauce, and arugula.This array is the result of over 2 weeks of cooking, company, take out and fiddling. This doesn't even count what is in my pantry, last night I used up my chick peas, artichoke hearts, and fridge spinach in a olive oil side with spices. I figure if no one else likes my flavor combinations, at least I like my leftovers.

so: a nosh evening is in store. Bits of this and that, mustards, and spices. Pick and choose, mix and match flavors and it will be fun.

Let's see, should I invite someone over or nosh all to myself when I can be a little piglet?

Today I met two women for lunch, playing hookey from work. I had the charchuterie plate with mini radishes, three types of pate', smooth and buttery; country style with texture, and some with outright fat and gristle. My arteries are dying and will need to have massive infusions of citrus, arugula and veggies for 2 days.

But, as I write this there is a wierd parallel. I nosh on friends and on men. A bit here and there, some are to put it mildly, daily mustard, and some are stone ground to be served up in bed with champagne. A few plate up, and some I can nibble with my fingers, others need chilling, and some have a shelf life of eons. Some I really should have discarded long ago, but like some of my fridge contents keep long past their expiration date simply because I am used to cleaning around them on the shelf.
Corny metaphor but it is in how you do the small things, as well as the large.

My nosh plate of men or food is a mixture of frugality: generic cottage cheese, and expense: imported harissa. It is a mix of low cal: skim mozzarella and high end: cornichons. My men have been the same, daily bread and tempting in their comfyness, and some new ones on the horizon, tempting, somewhat moving in on my territory before I define the boundaries, and apparently expensive. I want to be the expensive condiment. Not as in money but as in worth, to draw them in, to nurture myself and also them so we both are toppings for each other. I am most definitely not low cal or low class. But I do want to have a chance to hang around and be tried out in differing combinations.

And I want someone to be on my nosh plate, comfy again, when I come home too tired to cook they, he is there in just the right combination of mix and match flavors. Noshing, as Groucho Marz said, 'You can eat crackers in my bed anytime,". And, I would add, kalmatas, and capers, and caviar, and cornichons, and lick the peanut butter off the endive.