a new season

so, the awesome new job is still going well. the house is shaping up nicely, we have been able to slow down on the house projects a little, and just enjoy living in it for awhile.

i love shopping a the farmers market every weekend, apples and plums are in their prime right now. peaches and nectarines are on their way out, and pears are on the horizon. it's exciting when the season changes, and different kinds of food are appealing again. jak and i are starting to get back into a cooking groove. we love a good braise, and it is now officially braising season, which we are going to kick off tonight with a straight up chicken & veggie braise. very exciting.

in other news: i have been living without a television since we left philly. which had been fine... untill the weather started to turn... and all i really want to do is cozy up with some crochet & dvd's.

i have a netflix account, and i have had the final season of the wire in my queue for months, it was only just released recently and i have been waiting (impatiently) to watch it. the last few months i lived in philly i watched the first 4 seasons of the wire, pretty much back to back, and it is such a great show, really well written, and i was looking forward to savoring the final season on a nice big screen on a cozy couch. but i have been putting off buying a tv, for reasons not interesting enough to go into.

i had my netfix account on hold while we were moving, and truth be told i did reactivate it a month or so ago, and i have been watching weeds, entourage, californication, the riches & some pretty good movies on my lap top, but it is just not the same as being cozy on the couch, so i have recently really been seriously itching for a tv.

yesterday i did some research online and found the best deal and went and bought one. when i brought it home, and plugged it in, it didn't work. i was SO mad. i returned it and got a new one, this one worked, until i plugged it into the dvd player and the sound goes all static, and then disappears. SO f-r-e-a-k-i-n-g MAD. so, for last night's tv watching puposes, jak helped me hook it up to an amplifier & speakers and i got to watch the first couple episodes of the wire. which was only slightly negatively affected by the knowledge that i have to drag this damn tv back to the store again.

the wire is awesome, i can't wait to see the rest of it, and i will be sad when it is done. i am also looking forward to watching mad men, season 2 of dexter, and season 5 of the l word. the long dark winter is laid out in front of me.

i don't know why i haven't taken any pictures of the house. i don't know what is wrong with me? i will eventually.

life in the basement

we are living in the basement, and it feels really strange because, you know what? there's a whole house up there we're not using! it feels really funny to go up there and wander around the emptiness, and then come back down to the basement which is crammed full of stuff.

the basement
we moved the stove down and got rid of the mini stove that was down here. i went through all the kitchen boxes and attempted to assemble reasonable facsimile of our kitchen: dishes, glasses, serving stuff, tools, etc. the one thing that i can't find that is completely maddening is our salad spinner. it's making me really mad. it apparently made it's way into either an unmarked box, or a box that is not a kitchen box, and its a pretty big thing and there aren't that many big boxes. i should be able to locate it, and it's just making me SO mad. this may seem like a silly thing to be obsessing on, but we like our salad greens, spinach, chard, and the like around here, and a salad spinner makes quick easy work of the prep. i miss my salad spinner.

the house
i/we have sanded/patched/re sanded/patched/sanded again the walls and woodwork in the bedrooms. last night after i had pulled up all the plastic and shopvac-ed up all the dust and debris and started to tape up the windows i realized that we hadn't taken the window hardware off, so i/we need to go in there and sand/patch/sand that and then we will be ready to put fresh plastic down and start the first coat of primer. very exciting! my goal is to have both rooms painted by next weekend.

also, we have made our final decision about the flooring vendor and the electrician. we still need to decide on the plumber. everything hinges on getting the new water heater installed so we can take the chimney down and make the kitchen bigger. it's crazy making trying to keep track of ALL the details. it's overwhelming.

cooking, eating, grocery shopping
we are starting to get the hang of cooking here (in our compromised circumstances), in fact we have been eating quite well. we bought a grill, and that has been a lifesaver. the local farmers markets are bountiful right now. on sunday i went to our west seattle market for the first time. i got some beautiful tomatoes, spinach, sorrel, baby turnips, hazelnuts, and cherries. then yesterday we both went to check out the one in columbia city, where we got some pickled asparagus, squash, fresh salmon, french radishes, spinach, strawberries, raspberries and some locally made quark. i thought it would be a hop and a skip from here to columbia city, but it's pretty far and probably not worth the travel time, on friday's there is one near my mom, so i might try to make it to that one once in awhile. so the food/cooking thing is sorting itself out. we were really missing that.

the weather
the weather has been spectacular. days upon days in a row of sunny clear warm weather. the locals would probably complain that it is too hot, but it hasn't even hit 80 degrees yet. it has been amazing, and i am so glad that we chose this time of year for our move.

plants and things
i bought and planted some herbs in containers for our deck. right now we have mint, hot and spicy oregano, lemon thyme, thyme and tarragon. i want to add some sage, italian parsley, parsley and cilantro. it's really hard not to lose my mind when i go to the plant store. everything lawn and garden is a next summer project, but we do have to do some maintenance.

in other news
last but not least: josh and i are uncle and auntie to one brand new eliana sophie davis who was born this afternoon, weighing in at 6 pounds and 11 ounces , and measuring 19 inches. mother and daughter are reported to be resting comfortably.

i really wanted to take some photos for this post, but there just aren't enough hours in the day.

places i am looking forward to trying after we move

josh expressed some concern about the restaurant situation in seattle. i will admit to not really knowing what it's like there these days. philly has a thriving restaurant culture, and some amazing food.

i think the seattle scene will be different than philly, but just as good in different ways.

tilth was rated one of the nyt top ten restaurants in the US.

french food isn't necessarily my favorite cuisine but le pichet certainly sounds delicious.

i like all of tom douglas's restaurants, so i am really looking forward to trying lola & serious pie.

steelhead diner, mona's, and cremant all look interesting

seattle classics, which i have never tried include: chez shea and il bistro

san sebastian style tapas at txori

we will have a whole new chinatown (oh, sorry.."international district") to explore & discover

and there will be bountiful noodle joints, thai food, and asian fare of every stripe

some of my old faves, that will be fun to try again:

the kingfish cafe (i "heart" fried green tomatoes)

marjorie & volterra (we ate at both of these places over various holidays with my brother & sister-in-law & they were both mighty fine)

a classic bbq joint: pig iron bbq

there is always la carta de oaxaca, which is exceptional!

even though the service was sometimes off, the food was always good at the boat street cafe

my favorite fancy veggie joint: carmelita

and let's not forget the sandwiches at paseo!!

it will be different, but i don't think we will go hungry

stuff to eat before we move

pizza at rizzo's
the best simple good yummy pizza.
we went there for dinner the other night, i suspect we will go there again once or twice, especially when it comes time to pack the kitchen.

pork sandwich at dinic's
the best most mouth watering pork sandwich ever.
we ate there for lunch yesterday and the pork was a little dry and it needed some salt, but it was still GOOD.

sushi at sagami
best sushi i have ever had anywheres.
1 visit down, 2 more to go.
2 visits down, 1 more to go.

dinner at d'mitri's
i have three words for you: i "heart" smelt.
we had dinner there last night after we had pork sandwiches for lunch. i still "heart" smelt.

a sweet crepe at the high point
i always have the ham & swiss when we go there for lunch, one of these day i want to try a sweet one.
the sweet crepe was not all i imagined it would be, the savory are the BEST.


dinner at shouk
best israeli tapas...maybe ONLY israeli tapas?
update: shouk was sold, so there's a new chef. word on the street is that it's not as good as it used to be. too bad!

cheeseburgers at good dog
supposedly the best cheeseburger in philly, i would like to taste test that.

tears over cheerios

the other day we went to bj's for what will probably be our last shopping trip there. it has been a very emotional time arond these parts, there is a lot to do and not a lot of time to do it in and no real road map to follow for how to do this thing.

exhausting

exciting

terrifying

so i made it to the cheerios, mega boxes with 2 bags in them. i was trying to calculate how many boxes we might need for 8-12 weeks. we eat cheerios just about every morning for breakfast, and one bag lasts about a week so each box = 2 weeks....and it hit me like a brick: we. are. moving. SOON. i nearly started crying, in the cheerios aisle, at bj's.

people, we have 4 weeks to get our house ready to sell and show. f-o-u-r weeks. i think there will be more tears before this thing is over.

the morning after

we finally finished the kitchen last week, and we had a whopping porch sale yesterday!

the kitchen looks so great now, and it is a wonderful feeling to have it finished. josh ended up doing most of the painting (it's such a small room) my contribution was to dig through the muggy hot basement and edit all our junk for the big sale.

the sale was a big success. we moved a lot of junk and made a good chunk of change. i realized well after the fact that it was my intention to photo document the sale, and it just went by in such a blur that i totally forgot.

after the sale we cleaned up and went to go see a matinée of ratatouille, which was very cute and funny.

and then to dinner at ansill, which was AMAZING

• seared tuna on a bed of olives and anchovies
  with grilled fennel & croutons
  

• rabbit & pesto bruchetta

• steak tartar with a quail egg & buttery toast with purple mustard

• osso bucco "sandwich" (tender and delicious)

• bone marrow

• pork belly on a bed of white beans

for dessert we had 2 scoops of chocolate and one scoop of brown butter ice cream

i will post pictures of our freshly painted kitchen when i get around to taking some




i really need to take some pictures with the wide angle lens, these don't really give you any feel for what the freshly painted kitchen looks like as a whole, but i need a bright sunny day to use that lens, so these will have to do for now.

OMG

i have 2 words for you: lamb burgers

we were very innocently doing our shopping at the co-op, trying to plan ahead so that we would have stuff on hand for the week ahead. sometimes it is such a hassle to have to go shopping, it's nice when we have supplies and/or leftovers for a few days.

so, i spied with my little eye: a pound of ground lamb in the meat case. i guess i had probably seen ground lamb in the meat case before, but it had never occurred to me to buy it, what would i do with ground lamb? so we bought some. i thought i would try my hand at making some lamb burgers.

i googled lamb burgers when i got home and printed out a few recipes. the one that sounded the best (or the easiest) was this one. the only thing i did differently was, i added some fresh chopped oregano (because we have a freakin' bush of it in our yard), and i forgot to salt and pepper the burgers before they went on the grill.

the end result was some of the yummiest stuff i have ever put in my mouth! the olives and the feta IN the burger: genius.
one pound made 3 burgers, so there is one left over for jak and i to split for lunch tomorrow!

we will be definitely be making them again (and again and again) maybe next time they will be around long enough to snap a picture. these ones got hoovered up immediately (and were washed down with a little tequila and orange juice)

praise the bean

i am a friend of the haricot vert, we are such good friends, in fact, that they don't mind that i call them hairy coverts. when we lived a couple blocks from the whole foods they were easier to procure than they are now, now i usually have to settle for plain old green beans, which i have grown to love in lieu of their french cousin. what do i like best about them? i'm so glad that you asked.

firstly they are green
secondly they are crunchy
thirdly...who needs any more reasons than that?

so my little story about green beans goes a little something like this: the other night i made dinner (even though i got home late and didn't really feel like cooking). i threw some salmon under the broiler and i heated up some leftover mashed potatoes, and then there was a bag of green beans in the fridge.

the last thing i felt like doing was nipping off all their heads and tails in order to cook them, but i did it. after i trimmed them, i gave them a bath and threw them in the microwave. i am a pretty recent convert to the virtues of the microwave, there was a time (not that long ago) when i (irrationally perhaps) didn't even want to be in the same room when one was on (but that's a whole other blog post). but microwaves really are the cat's pajamas when it comes to some things, and one of those things is steaming green beans (and broccoli).

i was (even as the green beans were being nuked) not really looking forward to eating these beans, it wasn't until i took them out of the microwave that i remembered what one of my favorite yummy things EVER is: steamed green beans! how could i have forgotten this?

one of the ways i love them best is: room temp or cold, tossed with some good olive oil and a splash each of red wine vinegar and balsamic vinegar, a generous sprinkling of kosher salt and fresh ground peppr and a sprinkle of dried dill. dude. you must try this. so simple and so crunchy and green and yummy. if you don't have a microwave, you can steam them in the traditonal way...al dente not to soft & not TOO crunchy, just crunchy enough.

i realize that there really should be a beautiful picture of green beans lounging in olive oil and vinegar, and sprinkled with pepper and salt to accompany this post. i sincerely apologize that there isn't one.

cement castle

jak and i had a fun filled weekend with our visiting dignitary from the borough of brooklyn. we met up friday night and had a lovely bowling adventure at north bowl, which left us all with various aching body parts the next day.

on saturday we had a hearty breakfast of steel cut oats and made a plan to go and tour fonthill in doylestown pa. fonthill was quite the spectacular hunk of architecture, i say hunk, because the whole damn thing is made of concrete and amply decorated with handcrafted tiles, unfortunately we didn't have time to visit the affiliated mercer museum (all the more reason to make a return visit).

we had to get home because the short ribs that jak was going to braise in beer for dinner needed to cook for 3 hours. dinner turned out amazing & we washed it down with a bottle of wine and most of a bottle of dessert wine while having a passionate discussion about Art, talent and skill. post meal we snuggled up on the couch to watch the noodle western tampopo, which was ridiculous, and excellent, and so very 1985, and left us all desperately craving noodles, even with our full bellies.

happy new year

i really had a lovely holiday. it was a non stop go go go, eat eat eat kind of thing, and i polished it all off by getting head cold. but all in all it was a very nice time.

more link-o-rific details than you probably care to know (for posterity & my own reference):

incoming
3 hour delayed flight (which meant 5 hours of wandering the airport)
by the time we arrived & were between the sheets it was 5 am to our body clocks. what a way to start a family marathon. over to my mom's house in the morning where we started hooking up her new computer. my favorite coffee joint for mandatory caffeinated beverages and croissants. that afternoon we ran some errands on the ave: mj feet (where i bought some fabulous cozy tights), the u bookstore, and tru value. then we met all our aunts, uncles and cousins for a big chinese food feast. then we went shopping at whole foods for sunday/monday dinners & had a lovely dinner out with p and a at volterra.

xmas eve

more food shopping in the morning. drop josh of for computering. ferry kids and groceries home. back to mom's and then all of us over to the house to help prep for dinner. e,s,m,l & h join us for a delicious dinner of (tuna, cheese, and pate appetizer) salmon with creme fraiche & caviar yumminess, fingerling potatoes, salad, and chilly lime pie for dessert.


xmas day
presents in a big blur & then an eggy breakfast. charlotte's web with the young'uns. we were all of the same opinion (booooooo-ring). dinner of (appetizers: more cheese & pate with cornichons, and assorted olives) prime rib, braised fingerlings, brussel sprouts braised in heavy cream, and salad, with an apple pear crisp for dessert.

the day after
hung out with the kid's until they left for the cabin. thai food for lunch. went thrift store shopping (goodwill, value village & thriftco). i am so glad we went to the thriftco, because that is where i found a hardly used complete GOCCO set for $5.99!! if you don't know how amazing this is wander over to ebay and see how much these things are going for these days. i am always looking at them, but i can never justify the expense. after all that excitement we went over to lora's to visit and ordered some pagliacci's for dinner.

off to portland


packed up our goodies and picked up my mom for breakfast. after driving by several places that were closed we ended here. then on our way to the freeway we decided to hit the greenwood space travel supply co. where we bought a few items for the good cause and resumed our journey south. we arrived in PDX around 3 in the afternoon, checked into our hotel and went directly to powells where we bought a decent map and a guidebook. we had some deep fried fishy snacks and microbrews at jake's & poked around the pearl before heading back to the hotel where i started surfing for interesting real estate, restaurants, and other assorted information. we ended our day with a cocktail & a late night snack at the hotel bar: doug fir

1st day


we discovered stumptown and caffinated ourselves & then we wandered a bit in the hawthorne/belmont area. we drove around to look at some real estate in the sw, checked out the new seasons market (VERY nice grocery store, why don't we have anything like that here?) and from there we wound our way to the NE in search of autentica


which was closed for lunch. we ended up around the corner at la bonita, which was plenty yummy. we were now in the alberta/killingsworth neighborhood and did some shopping:


office - a GREAT little shop with lots of fun paper products. bolt - a beautiful little fabric shop, where jak bought me a yard of deep red wool felt out of the remnants basket. after that we headed back to out hotel 'hood & looked in at hippo hardware. for dinner we went to lovely hula hands & then went back to hawthorne for dessert at pix, back at the hotel we stayed up way too late watching "one hit wonders" on VH1

2nd day
stumptown again. more shopping around the pearl. obilation paper and press is heaven. cacao has an amazing selection of chocolates, we sampled some fluer de sel caramels and 2 different blends of drinking chocolate (which spoiled our appetites for lunch entirely).


canoe has a great selection of beautiful designer-ly things and lots of neat stuff for under $10. we had sushi for lunch (because we were all hopped up on coffee and too much chocolate, which rendered us unable to make any decisions or think straight, we ended up at a run of the mill unremarkable sushi place) after lunch we went to the japanese garden


by that time it was very grey and starting to drizzle...and it was cold. i have been to the garden in the early summer when it is SPECTACULAR, i have to say that in the winter there's just not much to see. that evening we drove to salem to meet lindsey & harley for burgers and beers at boon's treasury. back at the hotel and snug in bed my throat started feeling scratchy & my nose was feeling stuffy. this was a bad, bad, no good sign

last day
i woke up sick and feeling like crap. packed up and ate a nice big breakfast at doug fir.

checked out of the hotel. enjoyed one last latte @ stumptown. back to powell's for some airport reading. drove over to council crest for the view, we had wanted to make it over there for sunset, but it just didn't work out weather & timingwise. slurped big steamy bowls of thai soup for lunch. poked around a great little zine-centric bookstore called reading frenzy. not knowing quite what to do with ourselves for the remainder of the day we decided to go see a movie at the very cute cinema 21. i highly recommend anything and everything pedro almodovar does. we grabbed some burritos on our way to the airport and thus our northwest adventure was concluded

outgoing
we were on a red eye home (departing at 10:45pm). a red eye flight is usually pretty miserable under the best of circumstances, but being sick made it extra miserable. we didn't sleep at all & felt utterly zombified by the time we got home.

a complete set of pics over on flickr on my fancy new pro account (that i finally succumed to paying for)

bowling for tater tots

thursday night we went the the creative mega social. the main reason we went was not really to network, i was more interested in the bowling (!!!)

i made a special trip to the toy store earlier that day. so we could have something to donate to the toys for tots. i had a bit of a struggle trying to pick something out, fussing over which age group might be underrepresented, should i buy something for a girl? or a boy? or one for each? or should my choice be gender neutral? i was really thinking about it way too hard. the designer in me was attracted to classics like the slinky and gumby and these (particularly bop n' beep). eventually i settled on some play-doh, a play-doh toolkit that squeezes play-doh out in different shapes, and a set of extra colors (i taped the boxes together, i hope they don't get separated, which makes it kind of like 2 presents, because it's nice to have extra colors) the other thing i bought were some dinosaur feet. i was looking for a box of plain legos, but they only come in sets nowadays, it's hard to find just the plain legos.

anyway, so back to the bowling (!!!) i got a STRIKE on my very first frame!!! the first 10 frames we played i scored 105 (josh scored 55). we decided to play another ten frames but we had to change lanes. the second round jak scored much better (75 i think) and i sucked. i blame it on the change of location, we were up against a wall on the right side.

the "complimentary food" was tater tots (yum, who doesn't love tater tots?) and something we affectionately called dog balls (basically corn dogs, but hot dogs cut into pieces and then battered and fried so they were big corn dog balls, or just dog balls) there was also some other fried thing and some pasta and some blt's, not exactly a healthy dinner. i had kind of been expecting the usual cheese, cured meats, olives and veggie platter kind of spread, but i scarfed down my tater tots and didn't complain.

the drink special was a "creative cosmo" whose primary ingredient was fruit punch (like Hi-C fruit punch) i ordered one (just to be festive). it was way too sweet for me, but plenty alcoholic.

so we donated some toys, bowled a few games, had a couple drinks, ate some junk food, said hello to the one person we knew, and went home.

i almost forgot:
on the way there we almost hit (going 50mph or so) this random person in dark clothing who stepped out of nowhere into the street right in front of the car, and not at a run or a jog but at an ambling shuffle. there was no streetlight overhead there and if i hadn't said anything jak may have not seen him at all.....and then we wouldn't have gotten to go bowling, or eat any tater tots, we would have spent the evening chatting with the police.

bird meat day

i think of washoe every thanksgiving, and today i will tell you the story of why washoe and i call it "bird meat day"

10 years ago (give or take) my friend lora and i drove to ellensburg to visit CHCI (The Chimpanzee and Human Communication Institute), which is where washoe and her posse of sign language speaking chimpanzees live. i have a handful of stories that i will never forget from this little adventure (one of them includes washoe telling me she liked my shoes) but this story is about bird meat day.

apparently the the humans that work at CHCI like to celebrate the holidays with the chimps. they get cake and gifts on their birthdays, candy on halloween, turkey on thanksgiving, more gifts on christmas and so on and so forth.

after they had done this for a year or two they realized that the chimps were learning the pattern and starting to anticipate the next holiday. one year after they got candy and everyone was dressed up in costumes washoe invented a sign which translated to "bird meat" and asked about "bird meat day", which she knew was the next celebration after candy and costumes.

i was completely tickled by the idea of bird meat day
and i have called it that ever since
i hope y'all have a wonderful bird meat day, stuff yourselves and enjoy!

breakfast

i was inspired by teeni's granola at the table in el paso. as soon as we got home i started doing research online, looking for good/easy granola recipes on all my favorite flogs. i compiled and reviewed, i assessed similarities and differences, and then i preheated the oven.

i wasn't sure what flavor i was looking for, my favorite granola at the co-op is mulberry-pistachio, but i don't know where to find dried mulberries, or shelled pistachios
and the objective was partly to bring the cost down, because packaged granola can be pricey
so after all my research i settled on this one.

the first go around i used what i had on hand, it turned out good, but i was a little too heavy on the sesame seeds, and not heavy enough on any one ingredient.

we ate it all week until it was gone, and each day i as i ate my breakfast i tried to imagine what adjustments i might want to make next time that would make it even yummier. by sunday i was ready to experiment.

i added a little more liquid, lowered the heat, cooked it for longer, and stirred it every 15 minutes.

i made it with: lots of dried figs, almonds, pecans, walnuts, coconut, sesame seeds, golden raisins, and a few dried cranberries. this second batch is far superior to the first.

if we eat it every day this lasts 7-10 days, once we start rotating it with our winter favorite: steel cut oats i can probably get away with making a batch once or twice a month.

if you are a granola fan: test, experiment, enjoy!

we "heart" sushi

we found a new sushi joint, a little closer to home than our usual spot
we went there for lunch last week
and since we ordered some meat from the butcher shop next door
(for to be making of the traditional annual day after thanksgiving thanksgiving day borscht)
we will be going there again today to pick up bony beefy parts
and for eating some more yummy fish

chocolate

i get the vosges catalog in the mail every few months, because i ordered some bars and some truffles for jak a while ago, and they were all delicious, but there is something missing when you buy truffles online. maybe its the visual pleasure of looking in the display case, or the sweet smell of a chocolate shop, or the instant gratification of buying it and tasting it, or the freshness. perhaps it's the ability to chose the very exactly ones you want, and the ability to exclude all milk chocolate intruders.

but bars are easier, somehow the expectation level is less, and sometimes those expectations are exceeded. the bars i got were black pearl and naga, i can not say enough about the luscious mix of sweet curry, coconut, and chocolate, and i didn't mind at all that it was "deep milk" and not dark chocolate, dark chocolate would have been too intense.

the wasasbi, black sesame, ginger was wonderful too, but it was much more subtle, the kind you want to melt in your mouth slowly and savor every once in awhile. not the kind you want to eat all at once and then bathe in a big vat of, like the naga.

i am curious about the red fire bar, and the oaxaca* and anything with chocolate AND salt sounds mouth watering. i can't really say that there's anything in their catalog that i don't want to try.

they have exotic ice creams too. when i was in indonesia i was addicted to black rice pudding. the key mystery ingredient in black rice pudding is pandan leaf, which i won't even try to describe, but if you live anywhere near a vosges haut-chocolat go try some and tell me all about it.

what i have been really curious about (because i have read several bloggers and floggers (food blogers) posts about it) is: fleur de sel caramels. does that alone, just the words, not sound amazing? i guess i am a friend of the salt, and a friend of the caramel, and the two together is just too intriguing. apparently recchiuti confections in san francisco does it right, and $20 is not that much to satisfy this barely contained curiosity, but i have yet to come up with a reasonable enough excuse to go through with an actual purchase. i was thinking that maybe they might make a nice gift, for the upcoming holidays.... i could order two boxes so we can try them out and then make the second one a gift (to someone who likes to share) maybe i might order some of these too while i'm at it (and give them to someone else who likes to share)

*update
i stumbled upon a whole selection of vosges bars when i was at DiBruno's the other day. i splurged and bought a oaxaca bar. it is SPICY, it has a wonderful chile taste and a nice warm afterburn, not an everyday flavor, but a very special taste sensation.

crafting and eating

i haven't been posting much about food lately
and i haven't posted about crafting at all
i think the part that inhibits me the most
is the taking of the images that i think need to go with these posts
when i am cooking/eating
the last thing i'm thinking about is taking pictures
i am well into the digestive stage before it occurs to me
that i might should have taken a picture of that for blogging purposes
we've even made a spot for the old digital in the kitchen
so there is a camera at the ready
and the pictures still don't get taken

last night i made some amazing cabbage
do you think that cabbage & amazing don't belong in the same sentence?
i have always liked cabbage, especially the mini variety
i've made coleslaw, and used shredded cabbage in my tacos
but i had never cooked a whole cabbage before

heat oven to 325, cut cabbage (2 lb.) into 8 wedges
make a single layer in the bottom of a 9" x 13" casserole
chop up an onion thickly
chop 1 large carrot into 1/4" rounds
sprinkle onion & carrot over the cabbage wedges
pour 1/4 cup of chicken stock
(homemade if you have it, can or box if you don't)
salt, pepper, and a pinch of red pepper flakes

cover tightly with aluminum foil
put in the oven for 2 hours
after the first hour, take it out and flip over the cabbage wedges
if it's getting dry add a little water or stock
put back in for the 2nd hour
after 2 hours turn the heat up to 400 and let it brown for 10-15 minutes

EAT!
it's good hot or at room temp, and amazing as leftovers

and as for crafty....
a have been weaving, playing with felt, making necklaces,
doing some embroidery/cross stitch
and trying to teach myself how to crochet
in order to make things like this
but i guess i am thinking of them all as future gifts
so i don't exactly want to advertise these projects just yet

tea time

the cooler weather makes me think about tea. when the evenings get chilly i usually like to curl up with a cup of something warm and steamy. but, i need to steer clear of all things caffeinated at that hour, and sometimes i get bored with the herbal options: fruity, chamomile, & minty. last winter i was enjoying some blend whose name i don't remember from yogi which was slightly medicinal and i like
sweet and spicy.



the main thing that sent me online looking for more options was a graphic novel i read last year where the author talks about having caramel tea for breakfast, and that idea peaked the interest of my taste buds. i had never had caramel tea, had never heard of caramel tea. but the idea sounded wonderful, something hot and sweet and creamy. i wanted to try some.

so i set about looking in every single grocery store i went to, and then online where i discovered adagio tea they have a comprehensive list of every kind of tea and they have very affordable priced sample sizes ($2), if you aren't sure what you're buying, or you just want to taste a bunch of different things.

the delivery was quick, and i got a friendly email confirming that it had been delivered. the tea samples (2 oz.) that i ordered came in adorable little tins with very elegant labels that tell you the ideal water temperature and steep time. these sweet little tins were filled to the brim with the varieties that i ordered (caramel, white monkey, white peony, blood orange, and the rooibos caramel because it's herbal) the only one i have sampled so far is the rooibos caramel. it has a nice caramel flavor but i think i am not a rooibos fan, it has a kind of odd aftertaste.

but i am a HUGE fan of adagio teas. they automatically set you up with their "frequent cups reward program" where you earn one point for each dollar that you spend, and when you earn 100 you get a $10 gift certificate. if you like tea, head on over there and try some!

spicy

ohmigod
i got really excited at penzeys spices today. they just opened one up the street from us & i had never heard of them before.

it was very exciting, they have one of every kind of spicy herby thing there. they even had szechuan peppercorns, and an assortment of beautiful soft fresh looking dried chilies
i bought some guajillos and some anchos, even though we have quite a few dried chiles in stock already here at chez roquefort (it might be time for some turkey chili AND some fish stew) they have 6, count 'em SIX different kinds of cinnamon, including "extra fancy vietnamese cinnamon".

all kinds of amazing things to smell. it was intoxicating.

their web site isn't much to look at, but trust me, if you ever get the opportunity
go in and do some sniffing.

one pounder

prediction: a knife and some salt is in it's near future

love apples

august was a tomato fest that is bleeding into september. we have been enjoying the various heirlooms, yellow and jersey tomatoes. i have been buying them in abundance. unfortunately they seem to get eaten before i get around to taking photos of them. they look so luscious in a big pile, and the heirlooms are amorphous, blobby and organically photo worthy.

i made some golden gazpacho soup, several avocado and tomato sandwiches, one day we made the most amazing BLT's, and we have enjoyed a few versions of a fish/tomato/olives recipe that is summer in your mouth. but the best way to eat a really good tomato is just sliced with some salt.

we bought a mess of tomatoes the other day, and i decided i want to make something out of them that we could freeze and then enjoy at some later date, when fresh summer tomatoes are but a distant memory.

so i oven roasted about 6 of them at 325 degrees for 2 and a half hours. the house was filled with that sweet roasty tomato smell. when they were done i peeled the skins off, blended them with the immersion blender, and poured the saucy sweet tomatoes into freezer bags. the plan (because there always needs to be a plan) is to wait until the first day we have to wear our winter coats, and on that day we will make some sweet savory sassy-fying roasted tomato soup. (probably accompanied by some toasted cheese)