Next Monday is the Jewish High Holiday and festival of Passover, commemorating the Hebrews’ escape from enslavement in Egypt. Our book special this week is:
Passover Seder: Touch, Turn, Open and Learn!
“Clever paper engineering turns ‘The Passover Seder’ by Emily Sper into interactive educational fun,” writes Publisher’s Weekly.
“Kids can rotate a seder plate laden with bitter herb, charoset, etc., to match each item with its English and Hebrew names (transliteration provided); pull a tab to ’spill’ a drop of wine for each of the 10 plagues and look behind flaps to find the afikoman.
“The text outlines the steps of a seder and adds bonus facts. Bold yet polished graphics ensure a strong visual appeal.” (Shrinkwrapped, hardcover no dj, 20 pages.)
“[This is] a great book for beginners,” writes Kyra Anderson of This Mom blog on family and wellness. “We had our very first home Passover seder last night…it was a tremendous success!”
The North American Montessori Center also lists this book under “suggested reading” about Passover.
This book is on sale only through March 21st. Purchase it for $5 (list price $10):
I am barely hanging on to the shirt tails of the weekend. What I would do for one more day free of structure or schedule.
And while the gracious thing to do is let go, I find myself shamelessly bargaining with Father Time:
“If you grant me just one more day, I will use it to prepare my 2009 taxes, vacuum the house (even behind the doors), and finally get around to properly organizing my study.”
Meanwhile, I am secretly planning a sleep-in ’til 9 a.m., making coffee, crawling back into my new king-size bed and reading until noon, with Bear and Angel curled up at my feet. Ah, sweet Sundays.
But Father Time is onto me, and just snubs my appeals, then goes back to his business of ticking. The totally uncompromising dude, like Father Universe and Sister Fate, seems to know something I don’t, and insists upon doing things on his own snazzy watch.
So, with resignation, I program my alarm clock for 5:45 a.m. so that I may arrive showered, caffeinated and alert for my first class, Awakening Yoga, at the University of Alberta.
In all truth, it is a lovely way to start the day – often I am waking up right along with my students! – and by the time they hit the floor for a well-deserved savasana, the sun is starting to pour in through the gymnasium windows, bathing us all in warm late-winter light. This is one of the most auspicious times of the day, for me, to connect with inner stillness and tap the deep well of gratitude and peace. I enjoy the serene looks on the students’ faces, as they so often roll up their mats, smiling to themselves, and get on with the rest of their day.
It is true; yoga is like a sweet secret whispered within; a best friend, who always has a story or insight to enliven your senses, a built-in confider and confidante, a great and enduring companion whose simple presence in your life makes you a fuller person; someone who knows the real you, and reminds you when you forget, that you are all that you need to be, already.
That is why I “do” yoga – or rather, try to live my yoga, on and off the mat; some days better than others; because that secret smile is not only becoming – on everyone – but it illuminates, and communicates with a guiding light within that seems to grow brighter and, like a beacon, attract good people and things into my day, who radiate at friendly frequencies.
By 8:30 a.m. on Mondays, I have almost three hours under my belt, and several hours to myself before teaching my evening classes at Yoga Within. Sometimes I use the time to come up with a new rockin’ retro playlist for Fun Flow Yoga, or I do my own home practice and catch up on some errands.
Tomorrow, though, I will test a recipe that I am hoping to serve with brunch at the Spring Soul Yoga Retreat. My mom’s delicious and savoury breakfast strata has always been a hit with people, and she’s given me some of her time-tested tips for improving the recipe. As I write, I am making the bread “day-old” and anticipating sampling this yummy soul food for the rest of the week. Thanks, mom!
Well, time to hit the royal hay. Hmmm, maybe I will sleep sideways tonight in my new king-size bed!! So long, Sunday, and happy zees! No longer must I live with perpetual hotel-room bed envy – and that is a reason, in itself, to be pretty darn happy.
3/2/10 I don’t think I’ve said yet WHERE Tabby wants to go to college. While not an Ivy Leage .. gonna cost us almost as much. The logical choice for someone who wants to be involved in the latest/greatest scientific research regarding marine mammals is, hands down, University of Hawaii. So … that’s where she needs to go! Somehow. Thus, the recipe contests begin!
I have found a great website: http://www.contestcook.com/recipecontests.htm which lists tons of opportunities for her to experiment and compete. Some require the entrant to be 18 and I am proud to represent her in those cases! There are a few I want to enter myself — particularly dealing with Asian cuisine (which I’ve had an opportunity to learn a bit about based on my work parking me there for long periods of time over the past few years!)
Anyway, there are EIGHT contests with recipes due within the next week: Two with Bisquick type prepared flour; a potato one; a tuna one; a pickle one, a chicken one; a slow cooker one; a cookbook contest where we can enter up to 7 recipes! Time to get the old noodles churning!
This week I decided that I would try to cook some interesting meals since I have some extra time. For Monday I chose to make Ox-Tail Soup. Really different and fun to cook, I think that the end result was too thick and rich to have served on It’s own as an entrée, Probably should have kept it as an appetizer.
Next up is my Alnwick Soup. A total disaster. I forgot to remove the fatty salty rind from the ham hock, and also forgot to discard the initial boil water and start fresh. The dish ended up thick and salty, almost inedible. We went out for mexican food instead.
This last dish was a success and by far the best of the week, Homemade Lemon/Basil Pasta. We went out and bought a pasta roller and made so much that we were eating for two days. This dish alone made the week’s effort worthwhile.
I’ll apologize in advance for crappy photos today. I was too excited to eat to bother lining up shots/lighting properly. You can deal.
Part 1: (Cheese)burgers
Season the meat with garlic powder, Spanish paprika, cayenne pepper, salt, pepper and mix in diced onion. Pan fry and melt on a slice of mozzarella.
Part 2: Roasted potato wedges
Cut red potatoes into wedges, place on baking sheet. Sprinkle with olive oil, paprika (or as my lil sister calls it, “lolrika”), cayenne pepper, salt and black pepper. Roast.
Part 3: Onion rings
Beat two eggs, add salt, pepper, paprika, (generous amounts of) cayenne pepper and garlic powder. Dip rings of onion into egg, then flour, back in the egg and in the flour again. Deep fry in canola oil.
Part 4: Dipping sauce
Whip yogurt in a bowl. Add dijon mustard, salt, pepper, garlic powder and Sriracha sauce! Delicious and tangy.
Put it all together
Saute onions and sliced mushrooms. Stack them on top of the cheeseburger with ketchup, mustard and whatever condiments you like. Top it off with an onion ring for extra crunch. Be prepared to eat in silence because you won’t have time to breathe between bites. Top it off with a peach Izze (my new favorite!).
28 oz. Imagine® Organic Low Sodium Free Range Chicken Broth
9 oz. Pasta of choice (you could use Dairy Free Pierogies)
4 0z. Tofutti® Better Than Cream Cheese Herbs and Chive flavor (you can also use 4 0z. of Smart Balance® buttery spread as an alternative)
1 10 3/4 oz. or 11oz. can condensed tomato or tomato bisque soup
Snipped Fresh Chives (optional)
Instructions:
Step 1: In a medium sauce pan bring broth to boiling. Add pasta; reduce heat. Simmer, uncovered, for 5 minutes.
Step 2: In a bowl, whisk 1/3 cup of the hot broth into the cream cheese spread until smooth. Return all to the saucepan along with tomato soup, heat through.
Step 3: Sprinkle with Chives before Serving
Yields 4 servings
This makes a great lunch, and it is quick and easy.
Cheap Pi Day Shepherd’s Pie w/ Strawberry Side Salad
Cooking a big meal like this for one person isn’t always worth it. If I get sick of eating the leftovers, they’ll languish in the fridge until they go bad, and that’s money, cooking, and cleaning up time wasted. But, this isn’t a huge recipe, and I’m a fan of casseroles, so I’m not worried about this one going to waste. Assume that anything canned is generic where possible. These are my own recipes, gleaned from practice and lots of searching other recipes online.
For the Pi Pie:
1lb 80% lean ground beef – $4.5 (on sale $4/lb.)
1 tiny Spanish onion, chopped- $.25
3 Small carrots, skins on and roughly diced – $.30
1/2 Can of generic sweet peas, drained – $.45
4 Medium Idaho potatoes, peeled & quartered – $1
1 Can condensed cheddar cheese soup, undiluted – $1.10
Milk and butter for the mashed potato topping – Pennies
Thyme or Italian Seasoning (optional) – Pennies
Salt & pepper to taste – Pennies
Fresh flat-leaf parsley and/or Paprika for garnish (optional) – Pennies
Total cost: Roughly $7.60 Serves: 4-6 generously ($2 – $1.26 per person)
I browned the beef and onions while the water for the potatoes was boiling. Once the meat was done I dumped it into the colander to drain, and put my carrots into the same pan, using whatever grease was left to cook them. Once they were cooked but still crunchy, and while the potatoes were boiling, I put the meat mix, spices, carrots, peas, and can of soup into a round casserole dish and stirred it all together. When the potatoes were fork-tender, I drained them and put them back into the pan I used to boil them in. I added a little butter and milk, the salt and pepper, and mashed until they were smooth. I also added a handful of fresh parsley that I had on hand. Once the potatoes were ready, I spooned them onto my mix in the casserole, dashed with paprika, and baked at 375 degrees for about 30 minutes. Came out gooey, cheesy, and very satisfying. Happy pi day!
For the Salad:
1 C Stemmed and quartered strawberries – $.75 (boxes on sale 2/$4)
1 TBS Ken’s Lite Balsamic vinaigrette – $.05
Fresh mint (optional) – Pennies
Total: $.80 Serves: 1 (can alter this very easily)
Tossed everything together to make one serving for myself. Mint was pretty cheap at the Mexican grocery (a big bunch for $1.50), and it works so well with the strawberries. The bunch is too big for me to go through by myself, but I can dry it on the patio to preserve it. Whenever I splurge on out of season produce, I tend to use only what I need to at the time, rather than mixing up a big batch and running the risk of getting sick of it. That means I can use the raw ingredients more easily another day.
Assuming everybody gets a side salad, this whole big meal costs about $2.80 each for four servings, or $2.06 for six.
I say, job well done for my first attempt! Mmmmmmm… pi…..
In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In another bowl, combine the egg, oil, yogurt and vanilla. Stir into dry ingredients just until moistened.
Fold in bananas and chocolate chips.
Fill greased or paper-lined muffin cups two-thirds full.
Bake at 350 degrees F for 22-25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
Cool for 5 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks.
Thirsty Thursday deserves some delicious food. Filipino Spaghetti. What does that mean? Well to me it meant banana sauce and hot dogs. And those are two fine things to wash down with some…juice. Yes. Juice. Cause I’m thirsty.
Here are the two ingredients for the pasta sauce:
Vodka sauce (normally from TJ’s but Classico was also delicious) + Jufran banana sauce
Maybe 5:1 Classico to Jufran. You can add more if you like that sweet taste. Or add some brown sugar. I didn’t.
Then I fried some sweet onion, green onion, and garlic in peanut oil in a pot
Once golden browned, add the ground turkey. Season with garlic salt, onion powder, garlic & parsley seasoning, chili pepper flakes, seasoned pepper.
Slice a couple of hotdogs (I used low fat Turkey dogs), fry them, and throw them into the pot. Next add the entire jar of vodka sauce (plus a bit of water), and Jufran banana sauce to taste. I used a 5:1 ratio. Making the spaghetti noodles is pretty standard. Water + oil + furious boil + spaghetti noodles + about 8 minutes. Drain, rinse with cold water, toss with olive oil.
“At least she’s eating better things than macaroni and cheese.”
- Heidi Klum
Translation of fragment: "Mac and Cheese is food fit for dogs. And Gauls. Go Rome!"
Throughout my life my mother has been in school, in some capacity or another. When I was about three or four, she had to leave Dad and I for a few weeks to finish up something or other with one of her degrees (I misremember which. Which isn’t me being a bad daughter, it’s her having one in Asian Studies, one in American History, and now another in Classical Studies from Cambridge because she decided to learn Greek and Latin. Translation, my mother is exceptionally awesome). Time has blurred the details a bit but as I recall, this was an absolute highlight of my short life because Dad and I subsisted on mainly pizza.
I didn’t realize this during the Great Pizza Blitz, but it turned out that my Dad hated cooking. Really hated it. He encouraged my Mum to go to school, continue her education throughout her life, and work if she wanted, but by golly the one thing he wanted was dinner to be on the table, because left up to him, dinner would come grudgingly from a frozen package.
So, a few years down the road when she decided to teach for a semester or two at a local university, I thought the Pizza Affair would be reborn. I was sadly, terrifyingly mistaken.
This is NOT food.
Mac and Cheese. From a box. Every night. Some days even for lunch. Sometimes we varied it up with chunks of hotdog, but mostly not. Again, I’m sure both time and horror have worked their magic on me and the vile orange sludge was not as prolific as I remember, but it sure seemed like it at the time. When my mother’s teaching finished, I refused to eat another disgusting, processed bite, and I’ve never touched it since. Once when shopping J. picked up a box for himself on days when I’d be at school late or he needed a lunch, I had to swallow escaping bile.
However, watching Food Network the other day, I saw a recipe for ‘Grown Up Mac And Cheese’ and thought suddenly to myself, “That doesn’t look so bad.” It sounded pretentious enough that I could assure myself that it would be as un-Kraft-like as possible, but looked really easy to make. So, on Sunday I girded my loins and made Mac and Cheese for the first time in years.
And you know what? It was pretty darned tasty!
**I’ll still never make the packaged stuff again. My children will not be subjected to this powdered cheese monstrosity, except to survive the Zombie Apocalypse. And even then, I might choose death.
Before I found out I had celiac, I didn’t eat all that much rice. I mean, sure I enjoyed the occasional side of spanish rice or brown rice with steamed veggies, but rice took on a whole new interest for me once I couldn’t eat wheat, barley, rye or oats.
There are so many things you can make with rice and so many different varieties and styles to choose from — arborio, basmati, black, wild, long grain, short grain, and sticky to name a few.
Probably one of my favorite ways to eat it, though, is sweet and gooey as rice pudding. It’s so simple to make, and it’s the ultimate comfort food.
Plus it uses an egg — and lord knows I’m always looking for uses for eggs with all the ones the chickens give us!
I used a simple recipe, and in just about an hour had a steaming bowl of yum!
“Jambalaya, Tomato Concasse, Oyster Stew Base, Garlic Aioli, Cucumber Macadamia Nut Salsa, Pesto Aioli, Tomato Thyme Dressing, Pico De Gallo, and by the way…..I want you to make lunch for everyone today.”
No problem. Yesterday was my first day back at work after the accident. I rocked the hell out of that list and lunch. I’m still not back to 100% but I’ve made adjustments and I can still keep up with everyone which is great. I’m pretty happy with my adjustments I have made with holding my knife, my cuts are fantastic!
I don’t know how much I’ll be posting going forward but I’ll try to make all of this madness work on here somehow. Blog, school, work…..Full speed ahead!
Pan seared garlic/thyme/lemon chicken with white wine portobello cream sauce.
If all of the eight desserts listed below were sitting in front of you, which would you choose
(sorry, you can only pick one)!
Trust me….this is very accurate.
Pick your dessert, and then look to see what psychiatrists think about you.
REMEMBER – No Cheating. Make your choice before you check the meaning.
After taking this dessert personality test, send this e-mail on to others, but when
You do, be sure to put your choice of dessert in the subject box above.
ALSO, SEND=IT TO THE PERSON WHO SENT IT TO YOU.
DON’T FORGET TO CHANGE YOUR DESSERT CHOICE IN THE
SUBJECT BOX BEFORE YOU FORWARD IT.
Here are your
Choices:
1. Angel Food Cake
2. Brownies
3. Lemon
Meringue Pie
4. Vanilla Cake With Chocolate Icing
5. Strawberry Short Cake
6. Chocolate Cake With Chocolate Icing
7. Ice Cream
8. Carrot Cake
No, you can’t
Change your mind once you scroll down, so think carefully about
What your choice will be.
OK – Now that you’ve made your choice, this is what the researchers say about you…
SCROLL DOWN—No Cheating
1. ANGEL FOOD CAKE –
Sweet, loving, cuddly. You love all
Warm and fuzzy items. A little Nutty at times. Sometimes you Need an ice cream cone at the end of the Day. Others perceive you as being childlike and immature at Times.
2. BROWNIES –
You are adventurous, love new ideas, and are
a champion of underdogs and a slayer of dragons. When Tempers flare up you whip out your saber. You are always the Oddball with a unique sense of humor and direction. You Tend to be very loyal…
3. LEMON MERINGUE –
Smooth, sexy, & articulate with your hands, you are an excellent Caregiver and a good teacher.
But don’t try to walk and chew gum at the same time. A bit of a diva at times, you set your own style because you do your Own thing. You shine when it comes to helping others and Have many friends.
4. VANILLA CAKE WITH CHOCOLATE
ICING –
Fun-loving, sassy, humorous, not very grounded in life; very Indecisive and lacking motivation. Everyone enjoys being around you, but you are a practical joker… Others should be cautious in making you mad. However, you are a friend for life.
5. STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKE –
Romantic, warm, loving. You care about other people, can be counted On in a pinch and expect the same in return. Intuitively keen. You can
Be very emotional at times but a true person in every way. You like To do things for yourself and help others learn about themselves.
6. CHOCOLATE CAKE WITH
CHOCOLATE ICING–
Sexy; always ready to give and receive. Very Creative, adventurous, ambitious, and passionate. You can appear to Have a cold exterior but are warm on the inside. Not afraid to take Chances. Will not settle for anything average in life.. Love to laugh.
7. ICE CREAM –
You like sports, whether it be baseball, Football,basketball, or soccer. If you could, you would like To participate, but you enjoy watching sports. You don’t Like to give up the remote control. You tend to be Self-centered and high maintenance.
8. CARROT CAKE –
You are a very fun loving person, who Likes to laugh. You are fun to be with. People like to hang Out with you. You are a very warm hearted person and a Little quirky at times. You have many loyal friends.. You Were meant to lead and teach others.. A wonderful role Model.
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HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT FOOD CHOICES MAKING UP YOUR PERSONALITY?
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Thanks to Pam S. for this one!
I see some waiters’ eyes glaze over when they are given daily specials in pre-shift. Sometimes they simply parrot the words that have been told to them – “We have roasted ossobucco with chanterelle mashed potatoes with a balsamic/basil/cherry reduction”. Or “Tonight we have sous vide salmon with braised leeks and stir-fried root vegetables topped with candied walnuts” – you know, the Chef always wants to throw in some sort of word or phrase which describes the cooking process. More perceptive waiters use their knowledge of these various cooking techniques to help them either describe the dishes or actually sell them. In the event of a food contest, this can mean the difference between first and second place.
Have you ever thought about what these words mean, or are they just words to memorize?
I thought I’d go through some of the words and give a thumbnail sketch of each cooking type.
Grilled – this one most people know because of their family “barbeques”. Grilling is cooking over hot direct heat. It’s usually done on some sort of wire rack (grill) which adds “grill marks”. Grilling can be done while covered, but usually the heat comes from beneath and from the rack that the food sits on. Grilling is a relatively fast cooking process. It tends to sear the outside of whatever is on the rack and, if there’s a high sugar content in the food such as is the case with carrots, you’ll get some caramelization. It goes past searing though because the food continues to cook on the grill. Grilling is usually done only with firm items due to the tendency of delicate items to fall apart on the grill. Grilled items usually have to be turned and can stick to the grill surface, so the food needs to be able to hang together when turned or flipped.
Sautéing is the cooking of food over a stovetop element in a skillet-like pan using a small amount of oil or other liquid. What Americans call a “sauté pan” is not what the French call a sauté pan, and heck, they invented the word, which literally means “to jump”. An apt description of the process if you’ve ever sautéed over high heat.
A traditional French sauté pan looks nothing like we are used to here in the States. It is a large pan with straight sides instead of a smaller pan with sloping sides. Here is the French version:
I have one that looks just like this in my own kitchen, although I don’t have the matching lid.
Here is what many Americans call a sauté pan:
In fact, this is what your friendly neighborhood sauté line cook will use to cook a lot of what comes off the sauté line. Any waiter is familiar with stacks of these pans sitting above the stove. They are useful because they have sloping sides and are light which allows for easy tossing of ingredients. It is more properly called a “fry pan” or a skillet, but pans of this shape have been called “sauté pans” by home cooks for years.
Sautéing is a quick cooking process as well. It’s done over medium high to high heat. You can sauté in a small amount of oil as you do when you use a wok, or you can actually “deep fry” in an inch of oil, although technically this would be “frying”. If you are cooking something like a breaded veal scalloppini, it’s considered “pan sautéed”, not fried because the cooking time is short. If you are frying chicken, well, I guess the term “fried chicken” gives it away.
Sautéing is often a prelude for other cooking techniques. For instance, if you are using a traditional French sauté pan to cook a whole chicken, you might sauté aromatic veggies in oil first, then brown the skin of the chicken over high heat, then add some stock, cover and finish cooking in the oven by pot roasting.
As I’ve already implied, we can lump stir-frying into the sauté category. It’s just a specialized version of sautéing.
Speaking of roasting, this is a word that we use all of the time. but what is it really? When you try to define it, one fumbles for words because it’s one of those concepts that “just is”.
Roasting implies oven cooking at high direct and indirect heat. Most roasting is done at 400° – 500°. Any lower and you usually think of it as “baking” (and we’ll discuss this as well). But the key to roasting is the presence of fat, whether integral to the item being roasted such as the fat under the skin of a chicken or the marbled fat in a veal chop or whether you have to add fat in the form of oil as you do when you roast vegetables. Roasting caramelizes and keeps food savory while building flavor. While you can certainly roast fish, especially firmer fish like monkfish and swordfish, it’s not a common way to cook fish. Sometimes you might technically roast fish after pan searing it, especially if it’s a thick filet, but you usually don’t hear the term “roasted fish”.
Speaking of pan searing, searing is simply the application of high heat with minimum or no oil. It’s very quick and doesn’t actually “cook” the item that is being seared. All it does is sear the outside, leaving the inside basically raw. for items like tuna or filet mignon, this is a way to cook ultra rare. sometimes, as in the previously mentioned case of roasted chicken, it’s a prelude to other, slower cooking methods. It’s done to provide color and to seal in juices, although Harold McGee and other “food scientists” question how much this really happens. You can sear on a grill or you can sear in a pan or a flattop.
In the next installment, we’ll cover terms like “baking”, broiling”, “basting” and “steaming”.
Why are we doing this?
As someone who serves food, you should be aware of the different cooking techniques and how and why they differ. This will give you additional insight into helping someone decide between different dishes and, who knows, some people might actually need an explanation of what “braised leeks” means. the more that you know off of the top of your head, the more confident you’ll be tableside. And just because you might work at Red Robin doesn’t mean that knowing this stuff is superfluous. Perhaps you might be ready to move to an “American bistro” type restaurant. sometimes, managers like to ask questions to determine how much a prospective waiter knows about food in general. I actually had one ask me if I knew the “mother sauces” once. As you move up the food chain, the more you will need to know about food and beverage.
Feeling a little frustrated that revising seems so demanding and difficult. It’s almost like rewriting every single line. It’s like being given a big lump of clay and asked to make a statue.
The hardest thing of revising isn’t simply about working on the words in the manuscript, but moment by moment critiquing yourself, wondering your ability, dissipating doubts yet accumulating an avalanche more. It’s adjusting not only the plot, the point of view, the styles, the words, the dialogues, but fine-tuning internally the big question – what the heck are you doing?
These two days I got updates from two long non-contacting friends. One is a missionary who’s to go to study MDiv in South Carolina. One is a young woman making her advance in NYC working as an assistant to the Vice President of a huge bank. I think I could not help comparing and wondering what I am doing. It gives me a shudder to recall we all used to be in the same fellowship. We chose different paths, all having our own aspirations — whether to glorify God or to climb the corporate ladder. When thinking of them, I feel a little bit scared of the path I vow to choose and feel I want to be anyone but me.
Truly revising one’s writing really isn’t about writing. It’s about something internal — wondering again and again the path of writing. It’s about adjusting and finding the right mindset internally. Being realistic. Being merciful. Being simply truthful. Being loyal to one’s heart.
I look at my manuscript and find it really like a lump of clay, but I should also give myself a pat on my shoulder as I at least have some clay to work with. Whether I discipline myself well enough or have the ability to revisit it and remould everything is another matter.
To free my mind from freaking myself out, I baked a round loaf of beetroot bread, made my first pasta with beetroot juice, and incubated some fresh yoghurt. On top of that, I showered with chocolate shower scrub and smelled a mixture of chocolate, beetroot and bread when I was in the kitchen.
My kitchen is extremely basic. I don’t have any pasta maker or even a rolling-pin. All I used was beetroot, flour, and a wine bottle, and pasta was relatively easy to make. Soon, I don’t have to buy pasta, like what I did with bread. One day if I live in the middle of nowhere, as long as I have flour and milk, I can still pretty much have things I love. Bagels in the middle of Amazon forest; fettucine in Greenland; yoghurt in Namibia.
Enough roaming around, get to put my hands on my dirty clay and work on it till it takes some kind of shape.
Drying my beet pasta Beetroot bread right from oven with cream cheese
Beetroot bread with cream cheese
P.S. Fresh home-made pasta has a chewiness that accompanies my salmon and broccoli toppings well. Eat well, and hopefully tonight, sleep well. More, tomorrow, work well.
Let me just start this post by saying how awesome you guys are! I really feel like we’re one big supportive family. It’s strange how you can really begin caring about people you’ve never even met before, but I really do care about each and every one of you and do my best to pick you guys up if you’re down – and you guys always manage to pick me up when I’m treading murky waters. This is like group therapy minus the huge bill! Plus it’s not limited to once/week thus is even more helpful! (They should have Blog Therapy – hehe) I felt much better after reading all of your guys’ comments and am happy to report that I didn’t even need to use my Ed-rella today because not once did I feel even the slightest urge to turn to him! In fact, my day went pretty great and ended in me scoring not only an outing to my favorite Kiki’s (courtesy of my sweet boyfriend) but two (yes – TWO) jars of PB & Co. (which I finally found!) So excited to try them!
So exciteddd!! I was jealous of all of you who’ve been enjoying these babies and wanted to get my hands on some asap!
Which oh which do I try first? Suggestions?
You should have seen the way my eyes lit up when I saw these on the shelf at a market on California St.! I must’ve looked insane to bystanders. Grabbing jar after jar, all excited.
What we did today: B and I trudged the entire city in search of PB & Co. Am I kidding? No. We walked a good number of miles, rode upwards of 12 buses and poked and prodded a good number of products lining grocery store shelves. Is this my idea of a perfect day? Yes.
On to them eats – a food blog just wouldn’t be a food blog without them!
1 med Yam, 1/4 cup Edamame, 1/2 cup oats, 1/2 banana, 3 faux Crab sticks, mushrooms, cinnamon, salt. LOVE.
Yes, I have a very obsessive and addictive personality. This shows in all aspects of my life. Goes hand in hand with my black and white-ness. Hey – I even work at White House Black Market! So when I discover and new delicious combo, it sticks for a while until I hit burnout. That’s how I roll.
Snack 2: Unpictured apple + PB. (eaten on the bus as a homeless man was screaming obscenities in the seat facing us.) Very classy situation indeed.
Dinner: Kiki’s Tiger Roll + two Tamago Nigiri. (still on B’s phone since I forgot the camera.) Is it weird that I can’t eat without snapping a pic first now? hehe
And now it’s time for snackage number three and finally getting around to watching that movie “Kolya” that I still hadn’t watched! So happy to be home and relaxing under my covers after my marathon of a day! What did you do today?
I really enjoyed this movie even though I’m not much of a cook (though I do absolutely love eating) because it was able paint a portrait of two women from very different times but with significant similarities. The film was definitely full of charm and it was funny. Meryl Streep, a chameleon as usual, played Julia Child, a woman who was at first lost when it came to what she wanted to accomplish in life. However, she knew that she didn’t want to be just another housewife who lived to serve her husband. So, with the love and support from her husband (Stanley Tucci), Julia eventually decided to attend a cooking class and worked her way up to publish a book called “Mastering the Art of French Cooking.” Fast-forward to 2002, Amy Adams played Julie Powell, a woman who worked for the government in a cubicle who was mostly unhappy with her career. After observing how busy and accomplished her friends were, she decided to make a blog: in a span of one year, she was going to cook all of Julia’s recipes. I don’t consider this a spoiler so I’m going to say that she succeeded. She was eventually able to publish a book called “Julie & Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen” even though the journey was quite rocky due to her own self-doubt, sometimes unrealistic expectations, and rising tension between her and her very patient and supportive husband (Chris Messina). This movie made me smile from start to finish because of the two leads. Even though Adams and Streep did not interact at all, their commonalities were enough for me to be emotionally invested in the picture. I commend Nora Ephron, the director, because there was something very modern about the style of the movie yet it didn’t sacrifice its substance. I loved looking at the food and I could literally smell their delicious scent whenever they were on screen. The only major criticism I have was that its pace somewhat faltered in the middle. It lost some of its urgency, a feeling that dominated the first and the last thirty minutes. Nevertheless, I thought watching “Julie & Julia” was a very pleasant experience because it really highlighted the passion that Julie and Julia had not only for food but also accomplishing something that they could be proud of. Speaking of being proud of something, Julie reminded me of myself when I started blogging in the early 2000s. The rush she felt when she finally received her first comment on her blog made me feel very nostalgic so I couldn’t help but have this big smile on my face well beyond five minutes after the scene was over. I thought Ephron and Adams really captured, at least from my experience, how it was like to put something out there and have people read it. That theme of connection was nicely explored in this film and it made me feel warm and inspired (not to mention hungry).
Let me just start this post by saying how awesome you guys are! I really feel like we’re one big supportive family. It’s strange how you can really begin caring about people you’ve never even met before, but I really do care about each and every one of you and do my best to pick you guys up if you’re down – and you guys always manage to pick me up when I’m treading murky waters. This is like group therapy minus the huge bill! 
Plus it’s not limited to once/week thus is even more helpful! (They should have Blog Therapy – hehe) I felt much better after reading all of your guys’ comments and am happy to report that I didn’t even need to use my Ed-rella today because not once did I feel even the slightest urge to turn to him! In fact, my day went pretty great and ended in me scoring not only an outing to my favorite Kiki’s (courtesy of my sweet boyfriend) but two (yes – TWO) jars of PB & Co. (which I finally found!) So excited to try them!
So exciteddd!! I was jealous of all of you who’ve been enjoying these babies and wanted to get my hands on some asap!
In the glow of my lamp and with S&TC on!
