Lately we've been . . .

1. Watching Oliver get adjusted to his new digs:

I admit, he looks really relaxed and content in these pictures.  He has moments where he feels like that, it seems.  However, he still spends much of the day hiding, and managed to get himself locked in the linen closet for most of the day yesterday!  We finally figured out where he was late afternoon, when we heard muffled meows coming from upstairs.  :)

2. Celebrating John's birthday with Pecan Pie:

And Nutloaf, buttermilk-chive mashed potatoes, roasted asparagus, and Quick Gravy:

3. Starting plants for our backyard urban farm:

We are ecstatic that we saved nearly enough TP rolls to make little pots!  (Egg cartons to the rescue!)  We spent a total of $4 on cheap baking sheets from the dollar store, and a few bucks at Target on some plastic pots for herbs.

4. Eating pizza:

(It's kind of a Sunday night "thing" at our house.)

5. And still getting organized:

Spice racks went up yesterday!  Wahoo!  Our kitchen is finally organized, which is a big deal for this cook.  Very few unpacking projects remain . . . .

What have you been up to?  Anyone else chomping at the bit to get gardening?

a first: homemade coffee syrup!

This was, quite possibly, the most amazing thing I could have had for dessert after lunch today:

Toddy coffee concentrate, unsweetened coconut milk beverage, and a couple tablespoons of Gingersnap Latte Syrup. Next time, I might live dangerously, and even double the spices! Seasonally-inspired and delicious. :)

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Oliver hasn't checked in in a while, has he?

Can anyone explain the reasoning behind the cat sitting on the phone? Because I just don't GET it. How can it be comfortable? It's not like it's warm or anything . . . weird, weird cat.

POP!

So, I was sitting around the apartment tonight, flipping through a magazine, when Oliver and I were startled by an extraordinarily loud POP . . . one of my bike tires blew out, just hangin' out in the apartment! Weird.

I had a giant, puffy kitty for a full five minutes following the explosion. He's still stalking the bike, howling, looking all confused. Poor guy.

Since the tube blew out, the tires are 15+ years old, I need a new rear light (the one I have is old, installed in a bad place, and not LED,) the chain fell off earlier this week, (although it slipped back on easily enough,) and I need a new computer, (I miss being able to see how fast I'm riding and how far I've gone,) I think it's time to take the bike in? :) Would you agree???? ;)

dinner party, packing party

I have been excited to throw impromptu "dinner and games" parties lately -- basically, I call all of my friends, see who is free that evening, cook something, and everybody hangs out, eats, and plays board games. My friends Tiffany and Christine came over last night, and we had a great time!

I made a triple-batch of chickpea pancakes, just to make sure there were enough to go around :)

We topped our pancakes with copious amounts of roasted asparagus, and plenty of herbed yogurt, too!

After dinner, we played a few games -- "Where's the Beef?" (an old game of Christine's from the 80s, which appropriately, the vegetarian (me!) won!), "Apples to Apples," and "UNO." I'm so glad my friends enjoy board games as much as I do!

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Today, my friend Dora kindly brought several boxes for me to church with her; I couldn't help but fill them up! It was a productive afternoon -- I sorted, purged, and cleaned the bathroom, my storage locker, and "junk tower" in my living room closet, took out a bunch of trash, added to the Goodwill pile, and packed 5 or 6 boxes, as well as all of my out-of-season clothing! Books are easy to pack, so I practically emptied the bookshelf; Oliver was confused:

"Uh, mom, where did all the books go? Not that I'm complaining or anything . . . it's much easier to reach and destroy my favorite toys, now." :)

Hope you had a good weekend!

evil, naughty, monster cat.

When I woke up yesterday morning, I felt like baking, and my last four cups of frozen sour cherries I ordered from a farm in Michigan last summer were calling my name . . . I didn't have quite enough cherries left to make a pie, and didn't feel like mixing the fruit with anything else -- really wanted those cherries to shine in all of their tart-sweet glory. Mmm. Anyhow, so I decided to make a simple cherry crumble -- all of the juicy, fruity goodness of a pie, with way fewer calories and less complication, too!

I had a very busy day yesterday, so I made sure to protect the crumble from the cat until it was completely cool, (my cake dome often comes in really handy for this purpose,) and then tightly wrapped the crumble in heavy-duty foil. When I got home last night, I wasn't very hungry, but I wanted to try a bite of my crumble -- and it was SO good! Yum yum yum! Cherry has to be my favorite fruit dessert of ALL TIME.

Surprisingly, when I was in the shower last night, I heard an extremely loud THUD in my apartment. I popped out of the shower, grabbed a towel, and guess what I saw in my kitchen?

Yes . . . the evil, naughty, monster kitty managed to knock the entire crumble off my kitchen counter, smashing my 9-inch square Pyrex to bits, staining my kitchen rug, and ruining all of my baking efforts!

Now, I'm not really all that upset about the baking dish, (I can always buy another,) and I can easily wash the rug. But the cherries? I can't replace the cherries! Sigh. I guess I'll have to wait until July, when I can buy another 10 pounds, and from now on, I'll have to put something grippy under ALL baking dishes, to keep them safe on my kitchen counter!

Damn cat. Damn, damn cat.

"toe-FOOD"

Have I ever told the story of "toe-FOOD?" Well, it's a short one, but funny.

The kids at my old job didn't quite hear me the first time I said, "tofu," and they heard it, "toe-FOOD." So, forever from that point, they'd ask me, "do you have toe-FOOD for lunch today?" :)

(The other mispronunciation that was hilarious was "shush-ee." You know, seaweed wrapped around rice and veggies?")

Anyhow, I must have been hungry for "toe-FOOD" this past week, because we ate a TON of it:

"Brooklyn Pad Thai," from Vegan with a Vengeance:


Tofu coconut curry, over brown rice:


Asian noodley soup, with tofu and too many veggies:


I did also manage to throw a little variety in there, mostly this past weekend . . .

PIZZA:


Beans and Rice:

Tucked safely away in the fridge for lunches this week. We never seem to get sick of beans and rice prepared in my super-secret way! (Super-secret? Nah. Pretty much everything you see in that picture, plus a jar of prepared salsa. Shhhhhhh! Don't tell!)

CAKE:

We had our annual "girls night in" last night, and we simplified this month by just doing dessert and tea. I made the "Vanilla-Yogurt Pound Cake," from Veganomicon, and topped the slices with vanilla ice cream (not pictured) and sliced strawberries tossed with a drizzle of agave. YUM!

Sigh. Must go find my kitchen under a mountain of dirty dishes! I leave you with a cat-in-a-box:

good guy

Due to Oliver's "craziness" lately, we've been trying to get him on more of a schedule for feeding, playing, etc. It seems to be working best feeding him at 7 AM and 7 PM -- he doesn't wake us up in the middle of the night begging for food any more, and between that and the medication, his over-grooming has gone down some.

Downside? I have to get up at 7 AM (well, more like sometime between 7:15 and 7:30, when I hear a pathetic meow,) to feed Oliver.

I've been pretty sleep-deprived lately; Dan had a true "good guy" moment this morning. Oliver let out one pathetic little yelp; Dan hopped out of bed without saying anything, fed him, and came back to bed. I got to go back to sleep! Yay! And I slept until almost 8:45. (This is a HUGE accomplishment for me! I usually can't sleep past 7:30.)

Thanks, hon!

Off to church in a little bit, and then I'm going out for brunch with a friend and for a long bike ride. Enjoy your Sunday!

just busy.

Hello there! Yeah, I haven't posted much, and I haven't cooked much. Dan's out of town this weekend, and I was SO busy this morning, I feel like I've already put in a full day! What was I up to?

1. I took Oliver to a veterinary dermatologist in Eden Prairie for a consultation at 8 AM. He's been working hard at licking all of the fur off his belly for about a year now, and recently he's moved on to his legs as well. $214 later, we have a prescription for "Clomicalm," since we believe Oliver's over-grooming is psychosomatic/stress related. (He's always been a very anxious meowza.) Wish me luck giving him a pill every day! I'm thinking hiding it in 1/4 tsp of ice cream might make things easier????? Maybe?????

(The Clomicalm wasn't that expensive -- the visit and tests were most of the cost. Thank goodness!)

2. After safely returning a pretty pissy kitty to the apartment, I went to the Farmer's Market, Kitchen Window, Penzey's, Bill's Imported Foods, Shuang Hur, and finally, the Wedge. We're $200 poorer in our grocery budget, but well-stocked with fun things like morels (!) and asparagus and inexpensive tofu and lemongrass and pistachios and dried peaches and dried strawberries.

I'm such a food nerd -- I can't believe it took 6 stops to get the shopping done. :)

Happy weekend!

today, I hate my cat.

What did I find on the kitchen counter when I got home from work tonight?

Half a pan of cinnamon rolls, with the plastic chewed off the top, and the frosting eaten off all but two of the rolls.

Naughty, naughty Oliver. He's hiding in the cabinet under the sink right now -- I think he knows he's in trouble!

boo, food, hipster kitty

First off, happy very belated Halloween! Hope you had a good one. Dan and I had a pretty low-key day -- we ran errands in the morning/afternoon, went to a play/puppet show thing in a park that a friend was playing music for, and had leftovers for dinner. :) We did finally carve our pumpkin, though, and had plenty of seeds to roast! Yum.

On to food . . .

Lunch Sunday:

Buttery cabbage and onions over egg noodles, with sides of homemade applesauce, and rye bread and butter. Humble and tasty!

Dinner Sunday:

Fried rice! How is it possible that I've forgotten about this simple, quick, and delicious meal for so long! You'll be seeing more fried rice in my not-so-distant future, for certain.

Dinner Monday:

Despite the quesadilla looking like the star of this meal, that humble black bean soup in the background was delicious! (Well, so was the quesadilla, but the soup recipe was new.) I picked up Love Soup by Anna Thomas a few weeks ago, and this is the first chance I've had to cook from it. I made "Black Bean and Squash Soup," on page 140, and it was SO easy and SO delicious! (And doesn't really taste like squash, which is a good thing when squash is in season but you have an anti-squash partner.) I didn't really follow the directions in the recipe, just chucked everything except the salt in my Crock Pot (dried beans included!), turned it on, and went to work. Came home, added salt and veggie broth base, pureed with the stick blender, and voila! Yum. We've been eating this soup all week for work lunches, and I'm still not sick of it!

Last but not least, you know all the hipster cats wear their scarves inside during cold weather:

I don't make a point of torturing the cat very often, but this was worth it!

nature, meals

Sorry for the delay in posting, but it's been a busy week again! (Big surprise!) I enjoyed Liz's solution to my lack of time dilemma . . . she suggested we just move to St. Paul! :)

Anyhow, here are a few pictures from a day hike Dan and I took last Sunday at the MN Valley State Recreation Area:










A few meals from the past week . . .

Cheesy beans and rice with a side of greens:

"Mediterranean Baked Lima Beans" from Veganomicon, "Saffron Rice" from Vegetarian Suppers from Deborah Madison's Kitchen, and steamed artichokes:

It's nice when the words "I feel like a treat" are met with, "I'll go get ice cream!"

"Eggplant and Tomato Gratin" from Deborah Madison, again, with bread and butter:


And to conclude, an awesome picture of my little hobbit-kitty:

supper tonight!

Chili, that I put in the Crock Pot this morning, and corn muffins, which I baked last night!

Talk about an easy supper! All I had to do was slice up half an avocado for us to share.

Dan had banana ice cream for dessert:


And I had homemade butterscotch pudding:


Even Oliver got to have a little ice cream, too!

(Dan was kind enough to let him lick the bowl.)

yet more kitchen fun

You know you're commited to fresh, local produce when you set the alarm for 6:45 AM on a Saturday.

Courtney picked me up at 7:20 this morning, and we drove out to Bauer Berry Farm in Champlin to pick a few blueberries. When we arrived at the farm at 7:50, ten full minutes before they opened their gates to pickers, we were roughly the tenth car in line to get in! Over the next ten minutes, at least fifteen more cars piled up behind us.

Thankfully, we were ushered in to the farm promptly at 8:00, our empty containers were weighed, and we were given a row for picking.

Courtney had kind of a bum row, and ended up with about 2 1/2 pounds of blueberries. I came out slightly luckier, with 3 1/2 pounds. Nothing earth-shattering like the ten pounds of strawberries Dan and I picked earlier this summer, but enough to freeze a couple cookie sheets' worth for smoothies/muffins, a few to snack on fresh, and four cups for a single (large) jar of freezer jam.

I also picked up a jar of honey at the farm, since we were running low:

Now, I must confess, I don't care much for fresh blueberries. I love them in smoothies, ice cream, jam, muffins, etc., but I've never been one to get excited about eating a handfull. These hand-picked berries, however, were firmer, more tart, and generally tastier than any grocery store blueberry that's ever crossed my lips. Woo!

Here's the jam:

We'll have to conserve this conserve (ha!) for a special occasion.

I may need to change the title of my blog to "The Jam Lady." We'll see how the rest of the summer goes. :)

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Other treats made yesterday or today . . .

Granola:


Homemade Vanilla-Chai Ice Cream:


Grilled cheese and salad for lunch:


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My loot from the Farmer's Market . . .



Clockwise from lower left: green bell peppers, cucumbers, 3-year aged cheddar, a quart of salsa, a pint of maple syrup, romaine, parsley, onions, sweet potatoes, purple bell peppers, and grape tomatoes! Everything I picked up was local this week. Wahoo!

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Last, but certainly not least, a very silly picture of Oliver:

He thought that taking a nap on top of the fridge with his face in the napkin basket was a good idea. :)

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Off to stir the onions that are slowly caramelizing on my stove. I hear they freeze well? (What haven't I put in my freezer lately?)