TASTY DELICIOUS

("Tasty Delicious" is a phrase we've been using at the store lately . . . it is redundant, but oftentimes, appropriate!)

Beans and Rice:

I never use a recipe, so my beans and rice is never exactly the same, but it always hits the spot.

I received this rhubarb pie as a thank-you gift from one of my coworkers for picking up a shift for him very last minute. (He and his partner are buying a house, and they had emergency last-minute paperwork to fill out!) See how pretty:

The only bad part about the pie was that, due to the warmer weather, I lost three pieces to "the fuzz." A major bummer. (I suppose it was a sign that I didn't need to eat an entire pie by myself?)

Tomato and Parmesan Strata:

This recipe was pretty good -- not stellar, but pretty good. If I made it again, I would probably use sandwich bread, per the recipe's suggestion, as opposed to the week-old homemade bread that I used . . . the strata was far too bready for my tastes. The other flavors were spot-on, however, so I'll just have to play with the texture.

Barbecued Seitan:

A recipe from VT that I altered slightly and served with coleslaw, local sweet corn, and juicy, red watermelon, to appease Dan, who has been hinting off and on how much he'd like some vegetarian barbecue and sweet corn. (He ate this exact meal two days in a row!)

And lastly, Millet-Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms:

Believe it or not, this is the first time that I've enjoyed eating millet! Combined with garlic, green onions, sun-dried tomatoes, and parmesan cheese, it made a delightfully rich, slightly crunchy yet slightly creamy, filling for one of my all-time favorite fungi. Kale on the side.

More to come in a couple of days . . . .

sushi (again)

I've discovered that sushi is a great way to use up produce remnants! Lately, I've kept sushi rice, nori, sushi vinegar, and wasabi on hand as staples, and have been enjoying homemade veggie sushi on a somewhat regular basis. Dinner the other night (pictured in leftover form at lunch the next day):

Sushi (using half a leftover red bell pepper and some broccoli stalk,) and miso soup (using about six leftover button mushrooms, a couple big handfulls of remaining spinach, half a package of leftover tofu, and half a leftover onion.)

If only there was a way to make sushi with brown rice . . . anybody have suggestions on this front?

busy in the kitchen

Maple-Cinnamon Granola (with flax and sesame seeds):


Udon noodles with stir-fried tofu, red peppers, pea pods, green cabbage, and broccoli, seasoned with tamari, toasted sesame oil, and rice vinegar, and garnished with sesame seeds:


No-knead bread:


Raspberry-ginger iced tea:


Black bean and walnut burger (from VT,) topped with avocado and salsa, and watermelon and coleslaw (with apples and raisins) on the side:


Dark chocolate chunk and walnut cookies (vegan, lower sugar, and whole grain, to boot!):


Pizza (homemade half wholegrain crust, a light layer of tomato sauce, mushrooms, spinach, red onion, garlic, roasted red peppers, kalamata olives, mozzarella, and feta):


Not pictured: a baked sweet potato topped with black beans, salsa, broccoli, and mozzarella cheese, and a simple pasta and salad dinner.

In non-food news, I'm very happy it is no longer 100 degrees in MN. I can't guarantee the more comfortable weather will last, but I'm enjoying it for the time being. :)

Segue . . .

THE GREAT SUSHI DISASTER OF 2007: Friday, Dan and I both had the day off, and since it was hotter 'n' heck and very sunny, we decided to head to the beach. We stopped at the Wedge on our way to pick up lunch. I picked out a salad, some crackers, and a Naked juice, and Dan grabbed some sushi from the prepared food section. We paid, packed everything in my drawstring bag, and drove off to the beach. When we parked, I opened the back door to get out our bags . . . and my drawstring bag toppled to the ground! Dan's sushi landed open and face-down in a puddle in the gutter. The look on his face . . . you'd have thought someone had murdered his puppy! In the end, we split my lunch, hung out for a shorter period of time, and ate when we got back to my house. Poor Dan's sushi! (And poor, disappointed Dan!)

And, job news:

I have two interviews for teaching jobs this week. Wish me luck!

STILLWATER!

Ever seen that movie "Almost Famous?" Well, "Stillwater" is the name of the fictional band in that movie, and I can't help but think of that movie every time someone mentions the town Stillwater, MN.

Speaking of Stillwater, Dan and I went there for the 4th of July -- one of the littler bands he plays in was supposed to play a house party there, but they ended up cancelling -- I guess the neighbors weren't too interested in outdoor rock 'n' roll. (Alas.) So, we just ended up bumming around downtown Stillwater -- poking in shops, dodging the crowds, (it's a VERY popular tourist destination, especially on holidays!), and grabbing some dinner.

We went into a kitchenwares store that I thought was very similar to the one at which I currently work . . . this store had lots and lots and lots and lots of stuff, (we're talking, overflowing gadget bins to the ceiling, probably fifty different styles of teapots, a whole back room of tabletop, etc.) but a very limited selection of cookware, and almost no cutlery. How can you cook without decent pots, pans, and knives??

We also browsed briefly in a local used bookstore -- they had a whole room of old maps, globes, and atlases, which were right up Dan's alley, and I, of course, beelined for the cookbooks. They had a whole shelf of vegetarian cookbooks -- wahoo! Didn't buy anything, but I certainly could have. :)

We had dinner at a local ice cream/grill type place -- very cheap, very tasty, and very quick. I had a grilled cheese and tomato, onion rings, and a root beer float. (And a stomachache later . . . I don't usually eat like that!) Mmmm . . . tasty. Can't remember the last time I've had a root beer float!

I didn't take too many pictures -- I was too busy having too much fun! It was a beautiful day, though:


The bridge over the river, to Wisconsin:

(We debated "just walking over to Wisconsin," but in the end, decided to wait until next time.) :)

I should have taken pictures of all of the boats out on the river, waiting for the fireworks to start, but there were so many people, I couldn't get a decent shot!

In the end, we grew tired of the crowds, and just tired in general, so we drove back to the city long before the fireworks started. (I did catch glimpses of a few displays from the freeway, however.) Hope everyone else had a happy Independence Day!

meals at a glance

Lunch yesterday:

Whole-wheat pasta with a roasted eggplant-tomato sauce, sauteed kale with garlic and a few chili flakes, and white beans cooked with garlic and herbs.

Part of breakfast this morning:

I also had tea, orange juice, and scrambled eggs. (And drizzled a little pure maple syrup on my waffles, of course. The two waffles that didn't end up in the freezer, that is!)

Part of lunch today:

A smoothie of nothing more than frozen blueberries and orange juice.

a first.

I have been a subscriber to Netflix for a number of years now. I find it an affordable, fuss-free way to rent movies. Having a couple of new movies on hand most of the time is great! I haven't watched commercial TV in a couple of years, and don't miss it one bit, thanks in part to Netflix.

Will you believe the email I got today?

They are LOWERING the cost of the plan I am signed up for.

Does ANYONE, EVER, lower the cost of anything?

This is truly remarkable.

I'm so puzzled, I almost want to ask why -- but, heck, I'm not complaining!

baking, bikes, and books

Food first, as always:

When I got home from work tonight, I was feeling especially hungry, although I managed to put down quite a bit of sushi (avocado rolls -- YUM) for dinner earlier, and some steamed edamame as well. I decided to bake some muffins, since I had been wanting quick breakfast/snack type bread goods for a few days now. I didn't feel like making blueberry muffins, so I decided to make cinnamon-peach muffins. I also didn't feel like chopping the frozen peaches, so I just shoved a couple slices into each muffin, Vicki-style. (Not too long ago, Vicki made a peach-cobbler style muffin, using this "shoving in" technique.)

The muffins are rather tasty, (I've eaten two already,) and look kind of cool. The only drawback was that the tips of some of the peach sections burned a little bit in the oven. I snipped the burned ends off with a scissors. High-tech operation in my kitchen, let me tell you!

On to the bike:

Recently, I acquired a new bike. (My old one disappeared -- stolen or supposed abandoned, I don't know -- it had no seat and two flat tires, so I can't imagine the thief got all that far with it!) A church choir colleague of mine has been generous enough to lend me one of her two bikes. I now have a fabulous Bridgestone XO-5 on long-term loan. Wowza:

This bike is a hybrid, which means it's more stable than a traditional road bike, and I could put larger tires on it if I wanted to do mountain biking, but it is lighter and faster than a traditional mountain bike. (It weighs roughly 30 pounds, and I can easily carry it up and down two flights of stairs in my apartment building.) I'm one lucky girl, here! Biking to work (and home) is faster than taking the bus, which is awesome. Plus, I just really missed biking!

And last, two books:

I am in the middle of two books right now, both of which are nonfiction, which is unusual for me, both about history and politics, which is also unusual for me, but both (at least in part) about food, food production, and food distribution.

First, Guns Germs and Steel:

This book is essentially a short (440 page) history of the development of human society, from the big bang forward, with the focus on why certain societies/cultures have thrived/dominated the world, and others have struggled, some almost to elimination. The author argues that the most successful societies have been the ones that have had access to farming, guns, germs, and steel, while societies who remained hunter-gatherers and were less technologically-advanced have been the ones that have struggled. I am finding the chapters on the development of food production especially fascinating. I'll let you know if the later stuff holds my interest, but for now, this is a great book, and not nearly as thick and boring as it looks. It is rather well-written and engaging -- the author explains lots of theory, but also uses very clear, interesting examples to explain his point.

Last, Hope's Edge:

Now, I have not read Diet for a Small Planet, (I should,) but this book is essentially an updated, "part 2" type book. Frances Moore Lappe and her daughter, Anna, travelled the world in search of organizations that are fighting hunger by returning to local, organic, sustainable methods of farming. I have read so far about a school district in California that has implemented an on-school-grounds garden programs for all the schools in its district, a prisoner-rehabilitation garden that offers jobs to people just out of prison, in order to help them reconnect with the land and their communities, the MST in Brazil, which is organizing landless people in reclaiming and farming much of the land that is laying in waste by rich landowners, a community in Brazil that considers access to healthy food a basic human right, thus providing healthy, low-cost meals for anyone who wants them, the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, which provides "microcredit" (very small loans,) to women who pledge to uphold 16 principles, thus freeing them from dependence on moneylenders, allowing them to start small businesses which allow them to adequately feed their families, and slowly creating social change (i.e., equalizing men and women as citizens,) and I have just started the chapter on organizations in the US and India that are trying to fight corporate patenting of seeds and genetic information. I have to tell you, this book is absolutely fascinating -- I can't put it down. I am learning so much, and for the first time in a long time, I'm incredibly interested in politics. I knew I'd get there eventually, (Dan is an avid news junkie, and I think wishes sometimes I was too, so he could talk politics more in-depth with me,) and I'm starting to get hooked -- and fittingly, the avenue was through learning about food!

In the end, all of this baking and biking and books have made me feel lucky -- lucky that I have the resources for and access to healthy, mostly local, mostly organic food.

Read Hope's Edge, if you haven't already. (I promise to read Diet for a Small Planet, too!)

cooking, picnic-ing, and (more) hiking

It's hot here . . .

. . . but I discovered the trick to cooking though the heat while still not owning an air conditioner -- I only cook after 10 pm! This way, even if I have to turn on the oven and heat up the apartment, it's cooled off again by morning. Wahoo! Cooking during the summer is fun again! I made a couple of things last week:


Jerk Tofu (from the Post Punk Kitchen) with a side of baked sweet potato and garlic-roasted asparagus . . .


. . . and red lentil stew with saffron rice and cilantro yogurt cream. (The stew and cream were from an old issue of Cooking Light magazine, and I made up the rice.)

Also, I picked up a bunch of very delicious picnic-type foods, (hummus, wholegrain pita, orange cherry tomatoes, cucumber, olives, feta, stuffed grape leaves, and tabouli,) made some homemade lemonade (1 cup sugar, 1 cup freshly-squeezed lemon juice, and 6 cups of water,) and packed up a meal to go for Dan and I last Friday. (No pics of the food, sorry!) We drove down to Minnehaha Creek, set up picnic camp at the bottom of the falls, ate a bunch, and then walked off our lunch along the creek.

The falls:


Alternate view of the falls (looking down from the top):


Minnehaha Creek:


Views along the creek:








I'm planning sushi for dinner tomorrow night, (which you've seen a million times before, so I won't bore you with additional photos,) and have no idea what I'll come up with these next couple of days, so stay tuned! (And stay cool!)

pants on fire.

I'm back. I'm a big, fat liar.

One of my coworkers, Stephen, (who has been kind enough to put up with me pulling shot, after shot, after shot, after shot of espresso from every machine we sell until I get them all just right,) has been hassling (no, harassing is probably more accurate a term) me about my blog-break ever since . . . well, when did I post last? Damn you, Stephen, you wore down my defenses! I am back. I guess a one-month break from posting is better than no break at all.

I've cooked some, had popcorn and/or cereal for dinner some, and eaten out a little. Dan took me to an all-vegetarian Indian restaurant for my birthday, which was delicious, and otherwise, I've been sticking with a lot of old standbys -- sloppy lentils, sushi, brownies, Thai coconut soup with lemongrass, falafel, tabouli, fried rice, and rhubarb apple crisp. I have tried two new recipes since I blogged last: African Pineapple-Peanut Stew (tasty, but to quote my store manager, Mike, "that looks like vomit,") and Double-Corn Pancakes with Tex-Mex Tomato and Black Bean Salsa (much more appetizing looking, but not all that show-stopping, in the end.)

Not planning on blogging, I haven't taken any food photos! I will share some pictures of Dan's and my mini-vacay to Duluth this past weekend, however. Here you have it:


Duluth is so freakin' cool, because it's this cute, little harbor town full of awesome coffee shops, an Electric Fetus (the BEST CD stores in MN,) a co-op, and all sorts of other awesome things we hippie/hipsters enjoy. Plus, there's water, beach, and lighthouses, which are kind of neat to see.


More of the beach.


Lake Superior is chilly-cold, but we went wading anyway.


Oh yeah -- we really went because Dan's band had a show (they were some of the post-run entertainment for Grandma's Marathon!) See Dan play drums. (Those really tall cymbals are NOT Dan's, but he was sure fascinated by them.) Most of Saturday was actually eaten up with band stuff, but I had fun selling CDs and t-shirts with the other "significant others," and Dan and I also scored free dinner and a free hotel room out of the deal.

Sunday morning, we awoke to ginormous, whomping thunderstorms . . . and we had planned on going hiking. We waited out the rain CD shopping and reading the newspaper, and once the rain let up, we drove up the North Shore, with every intention of hiking at Gooseberry Falls. The further north we went, the worse the weather got, (but I have to tell you, riding in the car along the North Shore during a rainstorm while listening to Sigour Ros is pretty awesome,) so we decided to stop in Two Harbors for lunch. After lunch, we took the scenic route back south, and stopped at some random historical marker along the way. Little did we know . . . we could sneak out on to the rocks along the lakeshore!


Minnesota is so pretty.




Self-portraits are tricky. (P.S. It was really, really windy.)

We then headed back south, and stopped at Jay Cooke State Park on our way back to the city. AMAZING HIKING! You enter the park at the top of giant cliffs along the Saint Louis river, walk across the river along a big suspension bridge, and then slowly make your way down to the river bed along the opposite side. Not to restate the obvious, but Minnesota is so pretty!






Skippin' stones. I learned valuable technique from a master stone-skipper, having never successfully skipped a stone in my life. I'm not yet a pro, but I did manage a couple of short, two-skippers.







After we finished hiking, we drove back to town, picked up a pizza for dinner, (Luce's pizza bianca with garlic, spinach, mushroom, and tomato,) and watched a rockumentary about the Flaming Lips. Fabulous end to a fabulous weekend.

Breakey-break . . .

Newsflash:

I am blog-neglectful.

Not only am I posting sporadically at best, I have been HORRIBLE about getting out there in the blogosphere, reading other blogs, and leaving comments. So, I've decided to give myself a summertime break from blogging. It's sunny here in beautiful Minnesota, sometimes warm (earlier this week it was VERY warm, while today it's breezy and in the 60s -- my favorite weather EVER!), and despite continuing to work 1 and 1/2 jobs, I would like to be spending my free time these days out in the sunshine, rather than indoors in front of the computer. I want to go for walks, eat my weight in ice cream, go camping, go canoeing, go hiking, go to outdoor concerts and plays, go biking, and other wonderful things you can only do during the summer here. :) (Well, I suppose you can do many of those things during the winter, too -- it's just lots less fun, is all!)

So, know that I will still be lurking around your blogs and hopefully will pop in with a comment here and there, but will be one VERY quiet food snob this summer. I plan to return to the blogosphere this fall, refreshed and ready to cook!

I hope you all have wonderful summers, and I'll "see" you in the fall!

bring on the produce!

I have a horrible confession to make . . . I somehow managed to make it through all of last week with NO fresh fruit in my house, and only some lonely carrots and celery for fresh veggie options. "Blech" seems to go without saying.

I went grocery shopping today after church, and decided to pick up a bunch of veggies, fruits, greens, simple proteins, and some pita and sandwich bread, and now have an easy week of salads, sandwiches, fruit, yogurt, and other simple foods ahead of me. The weather is warming up, my allergies are making me really tired and I don't feel much like cooking these days, and I don't want to continue to rely on purchasing my lunch in the cafeteria at work.

After about an hour of slicing and dicing, I had salad veggies and a couple of fruits prepped up and ready for eating:

LEFT (top to bottom): zucchini, fennel, cucumber, radishes
MIDDLE (top to bottom, despite the opague containers: mushrooms, shredded carrot, cherry tomatoes
RIGHT (top to bottom): strawberries, fresh pineapple

I also picked up a few portobello mushroom caps, cleaned and marinated them, and baked them off at 425 until juicy and delicious. Portobello mushroom and provolone sandwich on wholegrain bread:


Segue . . .

Oh, to be a cat:

flop-tastic.

I tried out a new recipe tonight . . . and suffice to say, it's a total flop. I made "Toasted Millet with Parmesan" from the May 2007 issue of Cooking Light magazine. Now, I did make a couple of changes -- not having a lemon on hand for lemon juice, I used white wine vinegar, and not having fresh thyme on hand, I substituted dried fines herbes during a different stage of the recipe. The recipe description likened it to grits or polenta, both of which I love, so I thought, "yum! I have a bunch of millet to use up anyhow!" Picture:



The finished millet itself didn't taste like much of anything, and has a texture similar to mashed potatoes. Very strange indeed, covered in pasta sauce (my favorite way to eat polenta.) I guess I could try it again another time, as an alternative to mashed potatoes . . . but until then, I have a bunch of it leftover that I will have to figure out how to use somehow. Ugh. Wish me luck with that one.

In other news, I was very excited by everyone's comments on my last post regarding their Earth Day resolutions, and I'll post on them soon! The 2007 Living Green Expo is next weekend, (I'm planning on going,) and will include info from the fair as well as a collective Earth Day resolutions post next week.

That's all, folks. Off to pack up some pasty millet for lunch tomorrow . . . eck.

Happy (Belated) Earth Day!

To begin, a quote from Helen Keller:

"I am only one, but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something. I will not refuse to do the something I can do."

Last Earth Day, I made three resolutions involving making my life a little more green; I thought I'd update you as to how I was doing on last year's resolutions, and make three more for this year!

Last year, I resolved to . . .

~ air-dry, as opposed to machine-dry, most of my laundry. I was not terribly successful at this resolution, as I have a very teensie apartment and grew tired of dodging partially dry laundry all of the time. So, this is a resolution for another year -- a year when I have more outdoor space available to me. For now, I will continue to machine dry most of the time, and air-dry occasionally. Alas.

~ sign up for WindSource, a program offered by my energy company that allows participants to pay a little extra each month towards research and development of clean, wind-based energy. I did this right away, and still continue to contribute each month -- it's only increased my power bill by about a dollar a month!

~ think more about and research possibly selling/getting rid of my car and being carless for a while. This has, in my opinion, been my area of hugest success -- although I hung onto my ancient, fuel inefficient, Chevy Blazer until the early fall, when it finally died, I donated it, and haven't looked back. I now walk and take the bus/light rail most of the time, (I occasionally carpool with friends,) and have not once missed having a car. I've saved a huge amount of money, and prevented a huge amount of pollution this past year!

So, all in all, last year's Earth Day resolutions felt successful, for me. When I thought about what little changes I could make this year, I came up with the following:

1. REDUCE PAPER/JUNK MAIL: Research and sign up for online bill-pay. About half of my monthly bills are paid electronically, but I still receive a few paper bills each month, and then have to turn around and write out a few checks each month (more paper! And more gas for the post office, delivering those bills and payments.) I only have three more to switch over, so that should be a piece of cake. :) I also plan on contacting several companies who religiously mail me catalogs that I do not look at and asking them to remove me from their mailing lists.

2. SAVE ELECTRICITY: Buy and install compact fluorescent bulbs in every light fixture in my home. I have them in a few . . . but those bulbs are so darn expensive, I've been dragging my feet on replacing all of them. Slowly, over the course of the year, I hope to replace them all! I also need to purchase an air conditioner again this spring, (I got rid of my old, inefficient air conditioner last spring, and suffered greatly last summer,) and hope to buy a small, efficient, EnergyStar appliance. Anyone have window units that they really like/recommend?

3. GREEN TRANSPORT: Since I no longer have a car and walk or bus almost everywhere, I transport myself in a pretty green manner already, but I'd like to pull my bike back out, tune it up, and hop on this summer -- it can't hurt to have a third green transport option!

Let me know (leave me a comment or shoot me an email,) if you decide to make one, or several, Earth Day Resolutions this year, and I'll make a post linking all of our blogs, so people can check out what we are all doing to be a little bit greener!

Happy Belated Earth Day!

Greek-Style Antipasti Pasta Salad

I boiled 2 cups of whole-wheat spirals and tossed them with quartered artichoke hearts, kalamata olives, crumbled feta, sliced cucumber, sliced roasted red pepper, halved cherry tomatoes, and chickpeas. Dressed the whole thing with a simple vinaigrette of red wine vinegar (although lemon juice would have been better,) garlic, dried oregano, salt, pepper, and extra-virgin olive oil.

So happy.

a few food photos

Why are kiwi so darn cute?


Lasagna in progress. Since I usually show photos of completed cooking projects, I thought I'd mix-it-up a bit this time and show you some prep work. Noodles boiling on the left, two pans ready for layering on the bottom, cheese and a spinach-artichoke-ricotta filling up top, with (gasp!) jarred marinara on the side.


Can't. Get. Enough. Sushi.
(Sliced mango and boiled edamame on the side. Yummers.)

And thus, my weekend officially begins. Bring on two whole days of rest and relaxation!!! (And some "quality time" with the boyfriend!) Wahoo!

no wonder!

So, I did some math today, and figured out why I'm feeling so darn frazzled. Since Sunday, I have already worked 50 hours this week . . . after working tomorrow and tomorrow night, that will top off my week at 62.5 hours for the week.

Next month, I'm cutting back, needless to say.

In unrelated news, I have mixed feelings about the Quorn. I guess some people have had allergic reactions to it, (read the comments on my last post if you are concerned,) and although it tasted very good, my tummy did not like it very much. Possibly too much fiber, possibly too much processing, who knows. (I do not have mold allergies.) I will try Boca crumbles if I make this faux-meat loaf again in the future! Right now, I'm kind of stuck with a lot of it . . . unless Dan really likes it, it may "hit the bin." Hopefully, I can pawn it off on someone!

Off to make sushi for dinner -- hooray for nights off! I'm looking forward to some sushi, some time reading my book, and a nice, long telephone chat with Dan the Man. (I'm also looking forward to having him back in town this weekend, albeit very briefly, before three and a half more weeks of him on the road.)

Happy Almost Weekend, everybody!