Tag: Food

Yeasty Warmth

~ meh ~ 1 Comment

That post title goes out to Alix.

As much as I enjoyed the trip to California, it is always nice to come home. Unfortunately, that also meant 18 degree weather and short, dark days.

Yup, that’s pretty much all anybody wants to do.

Paul spent the break snowboarding up in the Canadian wilderness with his friend Ollie (like really, in the middle of nowhere) where he and his brother hunt their own meat and build their own shelter and stuff like that.  He brought this book back with him:

Big eye roll.  We live in a neighborhood, not in the wilderness or on a farm in the country (despite what our Christmas card suggests…that picture was taken in our backyard.)   We don’t own a large plot of farming land or cattle.  We are not survivalists.  This book does not apply to us.

But after a day of being home of doing absolutely nothing productive, I decided to crawl out from under my comforter on the couch and see what was in the book anyway.

Last week I helped (watched) Chrissy make some bomb bread in her apartment in SF.  Inspired, I found a bread recipe (there are many) in the book and decided to give it a try.

Boom.  Different recipe than Chrissy’s, totally different type of bread, but still good.  Plus baking it warms the house up and makes it smell yeastily delicious, which is especially wonderful on dark wintery days.

And that book?  I was wrong.  It’s awesome.  It has everything–cooking, gardening, raising animals, making clothes, making preserves (Paul is stoked about that), how to skin a rabbit, home repairs, herbal remedies, diarrhea relief for your dog (seriously)…watch out.

Canning Update

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Paul ate some of his salsa on his eggs on Sunday.  And he’s still alive.

He did say that it didn’t taste right, he thinks he used the wrong kind of vinegar.  Rice vinegar next time.

Kentucky Goes Global

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An email from Margaret, who is currently working over in London for a few months (lucky):

So my friend Susie is doing what I”m doing work-wise, but in Osaka, and for a year.  She goes to visit a friend in the burbs outside Osaka and writes me this – (and see attached pic)
“then today we went to this hilarious (but good) place called U.K. diner.  i figured it was british food but instead it was a university of kentucky themed restaurant!  UK gear all over the place and a motorcycle inside and american food!”  
i mean that’s amazing.  i have no idea what the link between japan and U Kentucky is, but it’s strong.  Meg – I wonder if they televised the NCAA game there and all wore jorts???!!!
Attached picture below:
Yes, those are NASCAR cars, trucks (I just learned there is a NASCAR truck series), and big rigs lining the walls and a Camaro chair in the forefront.  The allure of Kentucky culture knows no bounds.

Thanks

~ meh ~ 3 Comments

Then, of course, there are the things that just plain make you glad to be alive. Aside from the smell of garlic simmering in olive oil, what and whom am I thankful for?

Things I have been particularly thankful for this weekend include:

  • Living near the in-laws, who provide us with weekly food and dog-sitting and a particularly amazing Thanksgiving dinner (thank you, Bernie and Marsha)
  • The sun (I think I got burned on my run this morning…in late November.  Yesssssss)
  • Breaking Bad, for getting me through my 2 hour ride on the trainer Thanksgiving morning
  • Paul, for running out to CVS when, 30 minutes into the above-mentioned ride on the trainer, I experienced a minor meltdown because I realized that a.) the batteries on our Wii controller had died, b.) there is no other way to move onto the next episode without a Wii controller, c.) we were out of AA batteries, and d.) we don’t have cable
  • The group that swims at the early morning practice, for really attempting to race backwards freestyle at 6am just because I told them to…even though I am pretty sure they knew it was solely for my own entertainment
  • And, of course, for all the people in my life, near and far. Wish I could see you all every day.

Happy Thanksgiving weekend.

Side-note (but not totally off topic), great article by Mark Bittman in last week’s NYT that, in the midst of all the bad news about food today, finds the good (and a shout out to Alix who is one of those that has started a small farm in the past 5 years. Woot.)

YES YOU CAN!

~ meh ~ 1 Comment

And…we did.  Another exciting Friday night at our house.

I came home from work a few weeks ago to veggies, jars, and vinegar on the counter, samurai movies on TV…

…and Paul having a great time.

When he was in Costa Rica this past July the mother of the house where he was staying made this special chili (I’m blanking on the name…basically some sort of pickled onions and peppers) to put on their gallo pinto.  Paul was obsessed.   So, of course, it was the first thing he tried to can.

A little history: Paul had attempted to make kimchi when we lived in San Francisco, and it was one of the more disgusting experiments I’ve ever had the opportunity to witness.  So I was/am skeptical.

ANYWAY!  How does it work?

First, get a magazine or book like above (I found that at Meijer) devoted to the art of canning and preserves.  You will also need a big pot:

Some mason jars (which you can reuse):

Metal screw bands (which you can also reuse) and lids (which need to be new):

A jar funnel:

And a special pair of tongs to pick up the jars (note: all of this stuff, except for the lids, came in a canning kit I found at the local hardware store.)

Wash the jars and the lids, fill the big pot with water and bring it to a boil.

Fill the jars with whatever it is you’re canning (in this case, chopped carrots, onions, a few types of peppers, and vinegar…jams are a lot more complicated than just slicing and pouring), screw on the lids nice and tight and use the tongs to place the cans into the big pot of boiling water.

And let the jars sterilize:

After about 5-10 minutes (depending on the size of the jar), take them out of the pot and let them cool off for a few hours.  This is where all the excitement happens: you can hear the jars suctioning shut as they cool.  Paaar-tay.

After that, they’re done!

…and, in this case, ready to sit for a while while they ferment.   Ta da!  Some sort of chili to put on beans.

Update to follow on how it tastes.

Best discovery this year

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I have to thank Mindy Kaling for reuniting me with an old friend.

My diet in SF consisted of 4 basic staples:

  • Pho (ideally from Sai’s, but I wasn’t too picky)
  • Some kind of noodle from King of Thai Noodlehouse 2
  • Burritos (and an occasional taco) from La Taq
  • Vietnamese sandwiches (or Banh Mi)

While I have found (some sort of) placeholder for pho, Thai, and burritos here in Kentucky, I haven’t had a Vietnamese sandwich in over a year and a half.  Until this weekend.

Following these simple instructions (namely what to pickle the carrots in) I was taken back to my post-swim Saturday mornings in the city.  The basics:

  • Sliced carrots–throw them in a tupperware for a few hours wiht some rice vinegar, half teaspoon of sugar, and a dash of salt (the last time we made them we only pickled them for like an hour…the longer the better, but an hour or two works fine).  You can also throw some onions in there too if you’d like.
  • Sliced cucumber (no pickling necessary)
  • Chopped cilantro (if you like cilantro…which I do…I personally feel as though this is a crucial ingredient to the sammie, but again, this is YOUR banh mi, so you do what you want)
  • Thinly sliced fresh jalapenos
  • Mayo
  • Sriracha
  • A loaf of soft baguette
  • Fresh rotisserie chicken (just pull the meat off and tear it into pieces.)

It may not be Saigon Sandwich or Les Croissants, but it’s not too far off.  And it could not be easier.  Ingredients are simple, they last for a while and make great leftovers, and it takes about 3 minutes to prepare.  And the whole part about heating up the chicken and letting it sit in aluminum foil is absolutely true. Oh my god so good.

So now I am back on the Banh Mi train.   Like every day.

For more on how to find, make, and love the Banh Mi, go here.

Weekend Shots

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We were supposed to head to Baltimore this beautiful fall weekend to see my sister and Joe and go for a mudrun, but med school tightened its death grip and we stayed here.  And did uneventful things.  Hence the boring post.

{molly and joe post-mud run in baltimore, sans us. sad face.}

{tomatoes in the backyard… still hanging in there}

{heeeere, batter batter}

{pumpkin loaf, a seasonal favorite…the office wolfed it down.  recipe here}{cruisin the hood with spikeman}

Blobtoberfest

~ meh ~ 6 Comments

The really upsetting part about the above picture is that a person I had met a few times who coincidentally works with one of my friends saw this picture on my friend’s phone at work and was like, “Oh wait, I know that girl, she works at the triathlon shop, right?”

October = sloth.  Time off from training combined with approaching holidays and travel over the past few weeks has resulted in…tighter pants and a real knack for convincing myself that I’d really be better off staying on the couch with my pumpkin beer “recovering” (from what, I don’t know) than getting up and going for a run.

Enter: Operation New Leaf.

A number of my friends (namely triathletes) are taking major steps to improve their diet and nutrition as the new season approaches.  So I decided that in the spirit of turning things around and making healthier choices next season I am going to start early and do the same…sort of.

Here is our office:

OK, that’s a blueprint of the Dunder Mifflin office, but it’s not SO far off.   We even have a Michael, Stanley, and Phyllis that work here.

Our office has these:

Everywhere.  All year long.  Not just for Halloween.  (And this is a small bowl…but I didn’t want people thinking I was a weirdo taking pictures of the office candy.)

Here is me:

I love sugar.    Here is how our office is set up:

The orange line denotes the path from the front door to my desk, the green line is the bathroom to my desk, and the pink dashed line is my alternative route.  The angry tornadoes are, obviously, baskets of processed sugar.  This is the challenge I face every day-after-sedentary-day. And pretty much every day I lose.

So my major, revolutionary, dietary life change?  I’m not going gluten free…or sugar free…or even candy free…just NO MORE CRAP AT WORK.  Today was my first day.  I made it.

Baby steps to the elevator.