Wafflin'

I've been in California about two weeks now, (okay fine, a week and a half, but it does seem much longer...) and have had all sorts of culinary adventures, starting with cookie baking the Monday after I arrived and continuing with a trip to "The Meat House" with my Dad on Christmas eve. Yesterday I was fortunate enough to be taken around downtown LA by a friend and we stopped at one of her favorite restaurants in Hollywood, The Waffle. I'm a sucker for waffles, and tell anyone that will listen how I gained 20 pounds studying abroad in Belgium eating waffles. I know they're trending now, too, at least out here on the west coast, so I was eager to see what the hoopla was all about.

I ordered a waffle grilled cheese sandwhich (affectionately known as "a double wide" but really something like quadruple wide) and it was ridiculously amazing. It wasn't what I was expecting (it was much wider) but it was still delicious. It was a savory waffle (twist!) and had three kinds of cheese, a slice of tomato, and a hunk of avocado to boot. It was a bit complicated to eat but I hunkered down with knife and fork, and was able to eat only about half before I squirreled away the rest for a satisfying leftover lunch today. I would reccomend The Waffle if you're in the Hollywood area, but it was a bit pricy... Although tax in California's got nothing on tax in Chicago.

In other news, I'll be not eating out again for the entire month of January and hope to bring this blog back up to snuff (ah, New Year's Resolutions). Armed with some new recipes and cookbooks I'm thinking it's going to go off swimmingly but who knows, I may cave and grab Chipotle on a cold blustery Friday.

Meanwhile, here is a (slightly) disturbing webcomic that illustrates some of the struggle I feel when thinking about dinner... Ah, The Oatmeal. Good times.

Cheers for now :)

a

Amazing discoveries every day

So maybe it's the fact that I've been in meetings for longer than I care to divulge. Maybe babysitting early in the mornings is starting to take a toll on me. Maybe it's because it's Friday, and it's hot in this darn office and I have a headache brewing and a million things to do before I leave yet I'm updating this blog instead...

But ya'll are about to get ranted at.

CHECK THIS OUT: http://www.familydollar.com/pages/pop-tarts-trifle.aspx

First of all, ew. Trifles are supposed to be wonderfully delicate, the stuff that southern belles dream of as they while away an afternoon with some nice mint juleps or maybe an afternoon tea. They are elegant. They are placed in pretty glass containers. They are made by Martha Stewart and not with PopTarts!

Here is a nice example:Yum!

Yer doin' it right.

But seriously. Poptarts? High Fructose Corn Syrup? No! This is why we're fat, America. Don't stoop to this nastiness! Stand up for yourself and your heart! Make quality desserts for the people you love, if you really love them. You do not have to compromise your waistband, your wallet, or your values to do this! Sure, I've extolled the loveliness of Zebra Cakes in this blog before but this is something different. This is more serious. This is about access to good quality food for people who don't have a lot of money (I struggled to buy food when I was unemployed and I continue to struggle to buy food on my current budget).

When I go to grad school and try to figure out my place in this crazy, wonderful, messed-up world, one of the things I hope to ease is the inequality that our food systems present us with. There is no reason that in this country, in this day and age, that people should go hungry, or that the under-served populations in our cities and elsewhere are also the ones that have the highest rates of obesity and heart disease. It's not a coincidence, folks. It's all part of a bigger, grander design. And I am not going to stand here and watch 10-year-olds get diabetes and not try and stop the madness.

Okay, I feel better now.

Check back soon for updates from cookie potluck :) (Yes, I am aware of the irony).

Delinquent blogger award

Hello friends old and new :) Sorry I've been away from the blog lately, but I recently had my wisdom teeth out and have subsequently been eating a lot of yogurt... and more yogurt... and still more yogurt. Also pudding. The whole situation has made me rather cranky and childish, and poor J has had to deal with me not wanting to get out of bed, be reluctant to eat anything, feel nauseous, whine, be dizzy, and generally not eat very much... sometimes (if he's lucky) all in the same day!

I think I'm on the mend, though, and have been eating more solid foods recently, starting with... soup. Attempts at tacos on Friday bordered on disastrous. Maybe it was the tortilla chips. Tonight I'm going to try pizza. Mmmm. Cheesy goodness.

Being incapacitated in the eating department as of late has really been a challenge. I'm not eating a lot but what I am eating is crappy, and I thought I'd lose weight but I just binge on ice cream instead. I feel like a lot of people struggle with balancing what they want to look like and how they want to eat, so I won't waste a lot of time here laying it all out, but I'm tired of being sluggish and tired and feeling like a flabby. Especially since bike riding season is over (sadness!), it's going to be up to me to get myself back on track and my weight under control, or at least fit into my pants so I don't have to buy new ones (best reason I can think of to lose weight!).

I'm pretty pumped to be joining the Chicago Park District starting in January. I have a hunch that once I start working out my cravings for sweet and fatty foods will diminish. At least I hope. I remember something similar happening when I joined track and field many moons ago. Healthier recipes coming your way in 2011! (ugh, 2011, when did that happen?!?)

Consistent Deliciousness

Been a little lacking on my Monday updates and for that I apologize, my lone reader or three :)

Last Friday (not this past one, but the one before), my roommate and I started receiving a CSA from Growing Power. For those of you who don't know, CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture, and is a way to connect folks to local farmers, as opposed to running out to Jewel where your mangos may come from Chile and most of the fruits and vegetables are "seasonless". I have thought about joining a CSA for some time but couldn't justify the cost and amount of food alone, so N and I are splitting the cost and getting a big bag of fruits and vegetables delivered every other week. We're due for our second shipment this upcoming Friday and so I sat down with her on Thusday and was like, "let's do this thing"... meaning plan out our meals for the next week or so to ensure maximum usage of our veggies. She laughed at me and thought it was all too domestic but it's actually worked out pretty great and we've gotten some amazing meals made over the past few days.

Our CSA included a huge head of cabbage that neither one of us wanted to touch with a ten foot pole. I suggested making cabbage rolls, which I had eaten at the amazing German restaurant up on Lincoln with M and her parents after first moving to Lincoln Square. We looked up a recipe on Smitten Kitchen and were not disappointed. With a whole head of cabbage, however, we definitely got more rolls than we bargained for. Guess who's having cabbage rolls for lunch a lot this week? This girl. Luckily the recipe did state that they freeze well, so when we're just about over it we'll probably stick the rest in the ice box.

Amazingly, we still had a few leaves of cabbage left that were too small to roll up. So last night we decided to take the cabbage, shred it, and make fish tacos. Again, this is not something I would readily advocate for. Despite my family's embrace of fish tacos since moving to California I have always been a bit wary. Yet... these were delicious! We actually made two kinds, fish tacos from this book (yeah Martha Stewart!), and black bean tacos from the ever lovely Smitten Kitchen. I also made the other Martha's guacamole :) and we had a very complete and satisfying meal. As N remarked, "It's nice to know that Smitten Kitchen is so consistently good." And I had to agree.

Meanwhile, for those keeping score, I've only mentioned one vegetable out of our entire two week CSA! We also received a bag of spinach, which M and I hardly made a dent in when we made a yummy spinach lasagne. The rest of that will be used in a quiche sometime this week, probably tonight. We also have a head of broccoli and a bag of green beans, used in a stir fry to come, as well as potatoes, mixed greens, mangos, (sadly from Chile, so we're a bit confused as to how they made their way into our bag) and apples. I'm sure there's more but I can't think of it all right now, but be assured that we have had many incredible, easy, homemade meals around these parts lately, which completely curbs the desire to eat out. For real. As the weather gets colder, I am excited to have more and more recipes under my belt so I can leave the house less and warm the kicthen more. Mmmm hibernation. Get excited.

Spontenaity

As I've mentioned several times before, I'm not the best at throwing stuff in a pan and calling it a day. Usually I try to follow some semblance of a recipe but it doesn't get me very far as I can't always seem to read a whole recipe before diving in and finding out I'm missing an ingredient when I'm covered in flour, butter, or what have you.

Last night, however, I had a definite plan in mind for the chicken that was left over from last, last Sunday's potluck (mmm, tasty). I had some zucchini and yellow squash I had picked up from Jewel and the chicken thighs. I also had a $1 can of tomatoes picked up from the Dominick's here on campus. Let me tell you that I do not miss shopping at this Dominick's! It is stressful and small and everyone and their brother's uncle comes to shop here, and they never, ever have more than three check out lanes open... seriously. One time the lady at the customer service desk told me that they're basically the 7/11 of Dominick's, in that they carry just enough of everything but not hardly enough of anything. I think they don't even really have any frozen vegetables. Not that that's a great tragedy or anything, but just sayin'.

So I went home, cut up the squash, cut up the chicken, used the chicken skin to grease the pan (no olive oil! of course) and cooked up the squash, dumped the tomatoes in (I should note that these were special canned tomatoes, garlic and oregano seasoned, yum!)

and threw in the shredded chicken. It was done in about 20 minutes. Maybe less. And it was fabulous. Could even be served with a tidge of pasta. It practically required no thought at all. My roommate ate it with some crumbled feta and lots of black pepper, and some crusty bread, aaaand she had two servings :) Probably because she had just come home from class and was starving, but I like to think it was my awesomeness.

So there you go! Sometimes it does work, this "throwing stuff in a pot on a wing and prayer." Here's hoping to more happy experiments in the future.

No escape!

Reposted from Gizmodo:


Just something to think about...

I'm sure I'll have more thoughts on this as my food justice class wraps up next week.

Baking Up Gratitude

Last night was Pumpkin Potluck. Never mind that no pumpkins were actually carved, we all met and the food was good and the company was even better.

We ate:
Roast chicken
Sweet potato and apple casserole
Salad
Salad (my b on delegating veggies)
Bread
Pumpkin Whoopie Pies (omg)
Brandy-Spiced Cider/Mulled Wine

Despite the heat in the kitchen, the weather was lovely enough that we could open the door and let the delicious, rain-soaked air drift in and not catch pneumonia. Today it's about 70* out and I just don't even know what to do with myself because I feel like it's summer, part 3, and just seeing sun this late in October is fan-effing-tastic.

Side note, isn't the sun amazing? My friend Micah wrote this a while back:

"Sometimes I like to step back and think about how amazing some things are. Right now: the sun.

Think about it. It's a giant ball of burning gas that not only provides light to things directly in its path, but even the inside of buildings with solid walls and in the shadow of trees and cliffs and mountains. It warms whichever side of the earth is facing it so much during the day that the place is still livable at night when facing away. It somehow provides us with vitamin D. It is basically the way plants breathe. Storms on its surface can completely fuck us. It turns water into vapor. And the damn thing is so hot that, even from millions of miles away, it can burn our skin.

That's fucking amazing."

Okay, back to food.

Yesterday before potluck I also cooked up a batch of bolognese, because I could, completely without a recipe. We'll see how it tastes tonight. The trick in my family is to make a pot of it and then just let it sit in the fridge for one day to fully absorb all of the wonderfulness. This is extremely difficult in that the sauce usually cooks all day and the house smells fab and then we sit down to have dinner, eagerly anticipating and then... we have porkchops. Or nachos. Or... ramen soup.

As another aside, an image search for bolognese pulls up...
For realz?

I also made a pumpkin cheesecake for my lawyer friend. I hope it turns out well. It was so easy I actually hope to make another tonight for my own personal consumption. Hooray for Food and Wine magazine, as well as The Staudt family (my lovely babysitting charges) for providing me with an excellent springform pan.

And since this post is sufficiently long enough, I will return later this week with tales of cheesecake and whoopie pies. (You may know them elsewhere as moon pies.)

Happy eating,

a

An Un-Monday Post

I meant to post yesterday but it was a little more hectic than my average Monday. I got to work late after proceedings in the morning, and then there was some sort of summit/conference/mabob thing and that didn't get out until 3, and then I volunteered at 6, so really, no time to update you, my trusty friend. Seeing as no one reads and comments anyway, it wasn't a total wash.

Sunday night, M joined me for a dinner of pork chops. I've attempted to make pork chops before and they have always turned out pretty dry and uninspired. I was worried these would befall a similar fate. Thankfully, Dinner: A Love Story came through in the clutch again :) These pork chops were tender, juicy, and although I've never been a big fan of mustard, actually tasted delicious. I even substituted red wine vinegar for apple cider vinegar and cranberry juice for apple cider, but it still turned out pretty darn good. Substituting is still something that scares me because I'm not entirely confident my substitutions will contain that one ingredient that I think will be fine and then actually ruin the taste. Despite my fears, all was well.

On the side, we had steamed broccoli and mashed potatoes (too creamy because of too much milk, my Achilles' Heel, always) and a salad. All in all, very good meal, easy to make, and didn't take all night, which is always a perk. (As much as I love Julie/Julia, eating dinner at 10 pm does not appeal to me.) Thanks, Dinner: A Love Story! We love you!

Tonight's goal: take the remaining pork chop and make a nice stir fry with it and the remaining half of spaghetti squash... too ambitious? We shall see...

PS:
I know this blog is severely lacking in pictures but we're working on it... hopefully we'll get it all sorted out for next week's pumpkin potluck.

Monday again

I think the best I can hope for is updating once a week. Until I start cooking more regularly. Last week I made some good ones... a night of Spaghetti Squash, not that exciting but delicious poor man's garlic bread on the side.

Thursday I made a recipe from Dinner, A Love Story, a site that M sent me, and I've fallen in love with it. The writing style is engaging and she just seems more like a real person than any of the other writers and her meals are much more realistic for impatient, hungry, resource starved me. The recipe I made was Lemony Chicken and Greenbeans (found here) which I did not make the morning before but rather that night, and it was good, if a bit too lemony, even though I only used one lemon instead of two... but it was still really good and so were the potatoes. I'm a sucker for potatoes and their multiple forms. Mmm.

Friday, my roommate took a page from Smitten Kitchen and made one of the most delicious and tantalizing lasagnas I have ever eaten. I know it's stupid but being the carnivore that I am, I have a hard time taking lasagna seriously if it doesn't have meat in it. This was so creamy and delicious, I didn't even care, and surprisingly, despite it's heft, I didn't want to bust out the fat pants after I had a slice. Paired with a salad and a nice vinaigrette, it was incredibly satisfying.

Tonight I'm venturing to DMK with a few friends from a past life to catch up and get my burger on. No matter how many food justice classes I take I'm still going to be enamored by (grass-fed) beef...

until we eat again,
a

Just another manic Monday

So this blog is really, really sad. I think we post about once a month. Obviously our contributions to the world of cooking and baking are not earth-shattering, BAM-inspiring, or food-network-type genius, but darnit, I'm going to update this blog more regularly. I like writing on the internet, even if nobody reads it, because I like food and I like writing, and that's all there is to it.

After a weekend of hardcore partying (truthfully, it was just a string of late nights due to poor movie time decisions and ...babysitting) I woke up quite late on Sunday morning/early afternoon. I walked for a while and toyed with the idea of going out to breakfast but eventually was won over by a place I walked by with a vegan friend of mine a few weeks ago, Chicago's Dog House. (Why we did not go in together should be self-explanatory via the menu.) Lured in by the tantalizing idea of bratwurst (I'm a sucker for meat! this is difficult because I'm taking a food justice class and it just makes me want to go all out vegetarian but to give up hamburgers and bacon and sausage just seems like too much for me right now), I ended up going for a Wild Boar Dog, with melted brie and raspberry sauce, topped with sauteed mushrooms. I went all out and ordered a side of "frips" which are basicaly just pieces of potato curled through an apple peeler corer slicer and fried up (sweet potato frips... mmm) and the side turned out to be an entire basket, which I also devoured in short order.

Since my phone is a piece and I don't carry my camera with me at all times, you'll just have to believe me that this was a phenomenal lunch and completely hit the spot at 2 pm on a Sunday when I should have been eating an omelette or something a little more appropriate. Whatever.

Later that evening I went to potluck at M's and we had delicious chili, cornbread, broccoli slaw, and brownies with Reese's in the middle. It was wonderful. I'm hoping to start eating at home more because it's just ridiculous how little I cook when it's just me, and then I wonder why I feel like crud all the time. Plus, despite what Hollywood tells you, kids, real grownups do NOT go out to eat 24/7.

Tonight I'm hoping to make half a spaghetti squash and maybe some garlic cheese bread or something. It's sunny and the sky is quite blue but it's also a bit colder than I would like, so to tuck in with that sounds like my idea of a nice evening. Ah, not having a television really is quite eye-opening sometimes. Amish country feels closer every day.


talk soon,
a

First Meals

I moved recently. Away from the train and the dirt and the scary downstairs neighbors. Into a quieter part of town, next to a house that has a baby swing hanging from the tree out front, and on a street that's having a block party in two weeks. So I've moved from a somewhat young, central, hip neighborhood to straight up suburbia. Not that there's anything wrong with that... so far. I just have a hard time believing that the neighborhood I currently reside in is actually part of Chicago at all.

The first meal I made in my new home was something I had attempted before, with success. White bean and tuna salad. Nothing fancy, but got me my core protein requirements :) After a week or so of eating take-out or restaurant food due to the total time-suck that is moving, this dish was perfect. I used cherry tomatoes from the garden, and a few leaves of basil as well. One can of white beans, one can of tuna, a generous sprinkling of garlic salt, pepper, and a splash of olive oil made it all come together nicely. The basil was so fragrant, the girl who lives on the third floor of the three flat was wandering through and poked her head in for a taste. To round it out (okay, I was starving, I'm not gonna lie here), I tossed it with a handful of penne pasta. Mmmmm. Other toss-ins can include red onion and whatever else is in your fridge.

I have also somewhat printed off a recipe from Smitten Kitchen for homemade tomato sauce (from scratch!) so the fruits of my labor will be posted as soon as I can find a few hours to squeeze in the simmering time. (3 hours?) Exciting stuff, folks!

Finally, here is a story from Serious Eats, another website I adore. I wish I was clever like this author. Alas, a girl can dream...

sushi school

Alex and I opted to spend our usual Friday night date learning about food rather than dining out. We took a hand-on sushi workshop at The Chopping Block at Merchandise Mart. Wednesday night I received a call from a class coordinator saying no one signed up but the 2 of us, and do we want to reschedule or is that okay. Our response was pretty much, "Is that okay? No, that's AWESOME." So we spent 2.5 hours with private attention from the sushi instructor. We learned how to make the rice, made shrimp tempura, spicy tuna rolls, and California rolls. We rolled inside out rolls, right side in rolls, and nigiri. We made a TON of sushi, what with it being just the two of us, and got to take over the leftovers. The cat enjoyed the leftover nigiri.

We enjoyed a 15% discount in their store on any tools or ingredients used in the class, so we bought 2 sushi mats, a pack of yaki nori (seaweed), and a bottle of sriracha hot chili sauce to make spicy tuna.

All in all, it turned out to be a great date, and I can't wait to make sushi at home! Below is a link to sushi instructions, as well as some important tips I learned. Enjoy!



Sushi rice should be seasoned with the following mixtures: 1 cup rice vinegar, 2 tablespoons sugar, and 2 teaspoons sea salt. Gently heat the mixture in the microwave or saucepan.

One skill you'll want to get down is cutting the rolls. Make sure not to press the knife down and smoosh the roll (you don't want to get to this point and have all of your hard work ooze out of the sides!). Use a sharp knife and use a quick sawing motion instead of a flattening chop.

Check out this site for all the deets!

cooking vs. baking

Everyone seems to have his or her preference. I'm not much into baking myself. But I never really thought about why until my recent food preparation revelation.

Despite the fact that I'm writing in a "food blog," I've never really been fond of working in the kitchen in any capacity. I love to eat, but I never found getting to that part to be much fun. Lately, however, I've grown sick of the regular marinara sauce from a jar (I eat a LOT of pasta) and have been throwing together random sauces involving olive oil, veggies, butter, whatever I have. It's nothing fancy, but it's been much more enjoyable, and I'm learning what works and what doesn't. This is what made me realize why I don't bake: it requires sticking precisely to the recipe. Sure, you can sometimes substitute this for that, but it doesn't always work that way. And it's not just the ingredients that are important; the order of the preparation is important, too.

I learned this a few months back when I was baking oatmeal raisin cookies with students at Chicago Youth Centers. Instead of sticking to the recipe and mixing wet ingredients, then dry ingredients, and then mixing the two together, I had the kids mix the ingredients in whatever order was convenient. Needless to say, the cookies were less than desirable. Baking = chemistry.

Cooking, on the other hand, allows a little more freedom. I can skip what I want to in the recipe. Don't like mushrooms? Toss 'em. Prosciutto too expensive? Just throw in some deli ham (or any meat, for that matter). I don't have to go to the grocery store to get the specific ingredients; I can just use what's already in my fridge.

So tonight, I made rigatoni with an olive oil and butter sauce, tossed with red onions, garlic chicken sausage, Italian seasonings, garlic seasoning, salt, and pepper, sprinkled lightly with parmesan. Because that's what I had. And it was delish.

The best freaking sandwich of your life

Tonight when I got home from work the apartment was approximately 9000 degrees. Poor Tobias is so hot all the time he just lays around and stares at you with his big beautiful eyes, begging to be put in an ice bath or something equally pleasant. I turned on the a/c and a few fans and tried to think of what I could possibly make for dinner that wouldn't be too difficult or hot.

I had the whole train ride home to ruminate, and I had switched back and forth from pasta to sandwich back to pasta but walking in the door and the wave of heat that awaited me was all the convincing I needed to switch back to sandwich for good. I had been making garlic bread with mozzarella on it for the past few nights and I decided a grilled cheese would hit the spot.

I don't usually experiment in the kitchen because it turns out horribly and just not as good as I imagined but grilled cheese is pretty hard to mess up. I melted some butter and sprinkled in herbs and garlic salt and mixed it up really well. Then I cut up the fresh mozzarella (which is the best mozzarella I have ever had, by the way.... I got it from Whole Foods and it has taken every ounce of will power not to eat the entire tub in one sitting... it's so good it doesn't even need anything on it, not even olive oil! I just eat it with a fork. om nom nom) and some (prepared, I'm ashamed to admit) pesto. At the last minute I threw a spoonful of tomato sauce on the other slice of bread, which already was layered with mozzarella. I heated the pan and put the two halves of the sandwich over high heat. I turned it down to almost nothing and covered the pan, and everything got nice and melty and bubbly. Then I flipped one side on top of the other and voila! Deliciousness.

I gobbled the whole thing immediately, and it was wonderful. I felt like a human being for the first time all day, and the prep and cook took maybe 15 minutes. If you're feeling less crazy ravenous, and would like to be more healthy (always a good thing), you could skip the butter and use olive oil instead. Otherwise, this is a good meatless dish, and the possibilities are endless: a place near our old apartment had M and I going for their brie, turkey, and apple paninis. Mmmm.

Thursday is the farmer's market at Daley Plaza, so expect updates from that soon :) I'm feeling a little fruit and veggie deprived. Last night I made some frozen green beans and was a bit sad. I was going to try and save some of that delectable mozzarella for a tomato salad thinger but I'm pretty sure that last piece of cheese will meet it's match sooner than Thursday. We shall see... in the meantime, keep on munching.

Comfort Food

This past week my Grandma died. It wasn't too sudden but it still took me by surprise, like death usually does. One of the last things I bought for her was a box of Zebra Cakes because apparently she ate them like a fiend. My uncle had bought her a few boxes (yes, boxes, not individual cakes) a few months ago and apparently she polished them off in a matter of days. Anywho, Grandma ended up being on a restricted diet lately and being the good granddaughter that I am I decided to eat the Zebra Cakes myself. I don't like to make a habit of eating before bed but after a long day I would crawl into bed with a book, a crossword and a pack of those little dudes and munch a little before bed. Make no mistake--these are not a fine pastry or delicacy. In fact, they have a cloyingly sweet aftertaste of something not quite natural. But I ate them anyway, thinking of Grandma as I munched and laughing to myself, thinking of her munching away as well, perhaps while watching the Golden Girls.

It's been a pretty crappy week all in all but one thing that has remained constant is the food: the massive amounts of food that have been showing up at Grandma's house, my family's house, the luncheon after the funeral, etc. M mentioned in an earlier post how hard it is to cook for one and how much better the food tastes when you have people to share it with. Food and comfort seem to just go together, it's the most natural response I can think of when I want to show someone how much I care about them. Sure, it takes more time than is necessary to whip up a batch of cookies (measuring, baking, cleaning, the whole nine yards) but that's the point. It takes a long time and generally (if you're doing it right) you're thinking about the recipient most of the time. And even though I've been really sad lately, not eating is the last thing Grandma would have wanted, as evidenced by the bulldozed boxes of Zebra Cakes :)

Thanks to all for the food, prayers and love.

Holy Guacamole!

I made guacamole this evening. Despite the amount of lime and red chili pepper flakes I put in it, it didn't quite have the kick that I so love in the MADE RIGHT AT YOUR TABLE guac at Adobo Grill. Nevertheless, I'll provide my recipe below and include what I would do differently next time.

3 ripe avocados
In the future, for the amount of the other ingredients I used, and the fact that I only made this for myself, I could have used 2 avocados (since they were large)
1/2 red onion
I could have used more! This is something I would add to taste as they provide great flavor.
1 roma tomato
Ahem, make sure you mash up the avocados BEFORE adding the tomatoes...
The juice of 1/2 lime
Fresh grown cilantro to taste
Next time, MORE cilantro. I definitely needed more kick, it's just extremely difficult to chop little leaves into little pieces.
Salt to taste
Red chili pepper flakes to taste

Kitchen armor

Let's not forget to keep our clothes tidy while cooking. The more famous of the crafty Marthas suggests using printable fabric to make an apron featuring an image of your favorite heirloom recipe. This was my Mother's Day gift to my mom this year, as well as my first project on the new sewing machine. I used my grandmother's beef stew recipe. It was easy as pie (the apron that is, not the recipe)! Go here for the how-to.
(This photo is Martha S.'s version, not Martha R. Mine turned out off-center.)

Second Helpings: Two Restaurant Reviews

After not eating out for (almost) a month, I have unfortunately(?) been to quite a few restaurants since the beginning of May. Working at the bakery has me there for about 10 - 12 hours each day and when I get home I do not want to cook or even look at food unless I'm about to eat it, so I have been digging around to places I've seen on other blogs and on my bike rides around town.

Franks N Dawgs, despite its corny name and perhaps cornier catch phrase (Five Star Dining on a Bun) was quite surprisingly delicious. I first read about them on Elizabites and noticed one day riding to work that it's much closer than I imagined. I went one night after work with J, and we were pretty much the only people in there. I discovered later that they close at 730 and it was at this point 7 pm. The man behind the counter was extremely friendly and could not stop talking about how amazing the hot dogs were. I got a hot dog of the month, made by a celebrity chef I don't know, but it was incredible. It had a fried egg on top and maple mayo on the side. Yes, that's right people, maple. mayo. I had to use a fork and knife to eat it and it was so totally worth it. J had the Andoiulle N'Awlins Dawg and I didn't even get a taste because it was apparently too delicious to share. Bonus points: we got free fries because I asked nicely :) Double bonus points: the bread they use for buns is the best I have ever eaten (and I work at a bakery).

Up next: Old Town Social. This place has always been on my list of hip new places to check out, and after reading about it in pretty much every magazine and newspaper around, I figured it was way out of my price range and probably pretentious. So I would walk by, sigh to myself, and head to other culinary delights like Boston Market or Dunkin' Donuts. Or Marcello's, which isn't really that bad, after all. But I was finally able to go a few weeks ago and it was delicious. I ordered a pork belly sandwich because I was feeling adventurous, and oh em geezilla was it amazing. Pork belly is just like a gigantic slab of bacon and even more tender and scrumptious than I could even imagine. I know a lot of people have a problem eating meat, but I have yet to have those qualms. Also, I'm pretty sure Old Town Social is hip enough to use locally raised, humanely treated meat. They are part charcuterie, after all.

Stay hungry, my friends :) We'll see you soon.

Dinner for One*

I hate cooking for myself. It feels like such a chore. I spend so much time preparing and chopping and stirring and cooking, and then I inhale the entire meal in about three minutes in front of the TV. Then it's time to return to the kitchen to a sink full of pots and pans and dishes and spoons and forks (how a meal for one can produce seven dirty forks, I will never figure out), not to mention the pasta sauce splattered across the cabinets and crusted onto the stovetop. The rest of my night turns into OCD dishwashing and scrubbing away at cooked-on leftovers and turning my hands into toxic prunes. I suppose this is what frozen dinners and the like are for, but eating neon orange macaroni or flakey mashed potatoes from the microwave is even more depressing than spending $20 and one hour preparing a single meal for one.

The problem here is not a hatred for cooking, and it most definitely is not a hatred of food. In fact, I love both cooking and food, but there's one missing ingredient: people. I feel a need to center all of my human interactions around food. I love going to dinner, hosting potlucks, attending family dinners, and cooking with my boyfriend. I love cooking for a meal, a meal that lasts an hour or two and involves conversation, laughter, and stories. Oh, I love the stories. No matter how many times I’ve heard them, I love hearing old family stories (especially those involving me).

I was on a family vacation this spring with my parents and aunts and uncles and my boyfriend. During our last dinner before the end of the trip, we had a huge meal that took what seemed like hours to prepare, but it wasn't a chore. We shared the responsibilities and cooked while telling and listening to stories. I barely remember what we even ate. I know someone made steak, and I think there were some veggies and pasta. I do know there was white wine. There was definitely wine. It was Aunt Ellen's job to pour the wine (this helps get the stories rolling). It was during this preparation that I heard all kinds of stories, like the time Uncle Bill had too much to drink and my cousin and I painted his toenails red and he thought his feet were bleeding when he woke up. Or how when my parents met at the newspaper, another employee was in love with my mom and stalked her at the gym. Or Aunt Ellen's stories of being a hospice nurse and the crazy things that old people say to her. It's hard to replicate the hilarity or nostalgia of any of these stories, but I think we all understand what I mean here. These are the meals that I truly enjoy preparing, because the emphasis isn't on making something half-way nutritious just to keep my tummy from rumbling all night; it's about togetherness, a communal effort to create a delicious and savory meal that accompanies friends, family, and conversation.

*I'm taking a [free!] 5-week writing workshop (actually called a wordshop) at Open Books. At our first meeting last Tuesday, the prompt was "Write about your most memorable meal." After surveying all the delicious, exotic, expensive, etc. meals in my head, I came to the realization that people, not taste, make my meals most memorable, and that is how this post came along.

I did it! (Kinda)

Despite every intention to blog regularly while I was not eating out, I had a hard time blogging about what was happening mostly because I was (too lazy) too busy being awesome to really comment on it. Okay, so we all know that's not true. I did manage to eat okay while not going out and I saved a TON of money, though, so that's good! I discovered a few things about myself along the way as well. First of all, my food routines are pretty established. I have a hard time thinking outside of the box when it comes to making new meals. I yell at J a lot for eating these narsty processed bagel dogs he buys from Dominick's but when I make food for myself it is usually a variation on chicken or pasta. And damn can I pack away the pasta...

I also simultaneously challenged myself to eat on 30, which is something I learned from Bell'Alimento who I just love love love to read (see http://www.bellalimento.com/2009/10/11/eat-on-30-project/ for more details) and I did do well on this side of things also! I went to Whole Foods one Sunday with only $25 and got lots of meat and some kick-butt asparagus, which I ate for about 4 days.

On the negative (?) side, I only went grocery shopping twice the whole month during the challenge. This is why although I managed to make it almost the entire month without eating out (I slipped up maybe twice), I didn't eat nearly as much as I did when I did eat out. I started working more regular (longer) hours at the bakery (another reason I didn't need to buy as much food because I am constantly surrounded by bread) and just lost my appetite for about two weeks straight.

I also (I know, it never stops, and probably no one is even reading at this point but! I will continue) started being super conscious about serving sizes and I realized that one serving of pasta is 2/3 of a cup. That makes my one box of Prince rigatoni last for 10 meals instead of 3, and at $1 a box, it's hard to spend over $30 a week on groceries. Like M mentioned, she's looking to start eating more responsibly, and I discovered the things I most worry about eating, especially after watching Food Inc, is meat, and I can buy it for myself at Whole Foods and not break the bank, and that is exciting.

SO

If you've made it this far, you get a cookie, if you skipped everything, here's a summary:

*I went almost a whole month without eating out (Give or take two or three meals)
*I ate a lot less
--due to increase in bakery hours
--due to self-imposed budgetary restraints
--due to watching my serving sizes like woah
*I had a hard time breaking out of my rut of the usual stuff I prepare, because despite the fact that I read a ton of recipe books and blogs, I sometimes just don't have the energy to be creative in the kitchen or even blog (shocker).

Regardless, I am glad I did this challenge, it definitely made me eat with a conscience (thanks Cathy! :) ) and even though I ate less and didn't grow much in the way of new recipes and experimenting, I am hoping that with summer farmer's markets, I'll be able to improvise a little more. My other wish is to one day wake up after falling asleep reading a cookbook and have all the information in my head like osmosis and diffusion or something. Never mind that it didn't work when I tried to stick my pre-calc books under my pillow in high school...

Ps.
Props to M for being featured on Whole Living! Our first shot at the big times!!!

Whole Living blog

I recently (well, yesterday) started blogging here: http://community.wholeliving.com/profile/MarthaRenken

I'm slowly being converted by the organic-eating, green-living, eco-friendly, triathlon-running, detoxifying yogics. I used to pride myself in my love of greasy foods of all kinds, but recently I'm realizing how shitty they make me feel and how blemish-y my face is. Maybe I should give in to the fad. Another motivation is my longing to be domestic (I recently purchased a sewing machine). I think once I get into a routine, I'll start cooking, exercising, sewing. The hard part is the beginning. I did take a small step today, however. I blogged about wanting to learn what food is important to buy organic, and one of the Whole Living editors commented on my post with an article on buying organic on a budget. I printed it out and plan to post it on the fridge.

I received an e-mail today saying that my Whole Living profile is being "featured." I really have no idea what that means besides that my photo is included among about 100 other profiles on their featured page. It's probably random but I like to think it's because they're recognizing me as a blogging star (after one day of blogging).

We're baaaack

Hello!

Since we last wrote, many things have happened to our intrepid bloggers M and A. We have happily settled in to the Marsh, and entered into a brand spanking new decade, among other things.

Since September, I personally have been doing the following:
~searching for work
~getting discouraged
~giving up
~volunteering at a food bank
~not volunteering
~applying for jobs again
~nannying for not enough pay
~working for a bakery for no pay
~working for a bakery for real pay
~and now, finally applying for more jobs again.

In the meantime, I've been able to read, a LOT a lot, books on everything I like, books about food security and social justice, books about India and Pakistan, books about e-mail, cookbooks about eating local, books about cheese making, memoirs of foodies, whatever I can get my hands on.

Recently I finished a book by the lady who writes "Not Eating out in New York" (see www.noteatingoutinny.com for more details) and, like Julie Powell, I thought: "I can write a blog, I have thoughts!" and have decided to challenge myself to not eating out for a whole month.

Maybe I'll save money. Maybe I'll lose weight. Maybe I'll cave and run to Chipotle in the middle of the night. M is doubtful:

A: i'm starting a cooking experiment
you're welcome to join in if you like
i'm going to try to not eat out for a whole month
starting april 1
M: just like how you gave up sweets for february?

With that rousing dose of support, I begin my quest. April 1. As we've said before (famous last words!), stay tuned...