Saturday, August 13, 2011

i guess i was in hiding


Wow, it's hard to think about how long it's been since my last post.  Time that I've been gone has been spent moving and camping. My mom and I went to Stone Mountain State Park on a small camping trip. We got to the park on Friday night, set up camp, and tried to get the fire going. Well, maybe I should say that I threw up my hammock and set up the kitchen area while mom set up her tent solo. Oops, guess I just got excited! 


Tuesday, July 26, 2011

i never told you about maine...

The trip to Maine was fantastic! We went about a month and a week ago, and I kind of forgot to post about it. Oops. 

Anyway, my family always takes turns making dinner. On my night, I knew I wanted chicken, but had no idea what to pair it with. I found some cheese and cilantro that needed to be used before our vacation was over. 


Friday, July 22, 2011

changing location and horrible habit

Alas, it is time for my borrowed kitchen location to switch up. In the next few weeks I will be moving in with my friend, C. She lives super close to the farmer's market but further away from my workplace. Closer to the bus station, further away from P. I will not have a lease, which is GREAT because that means I can still borrow her kitchen. And between the two of us we can cook any type of food in the world, I bet. 

I do have a problem, though. Leaving P's house means that I will have to change my comfortable living situation. I like living here a lot. The past two months have meant a lot to me. There have been lots of memories. 

My dad came for my graduation. It was the first time I had seen him in two years, maybe three. It was great. He traveled for three days across the country to see me graduate. It ended up being a little ceremony with the four grads from the environmental studies program. Dad stayed here only for a few days, but helped me do something really awesome. He helped with the garden. 

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

so it's been a while

Since I've written. Backpacking research and tomatoes with cream cheese have taken over my computer time. Seriously, the combination of tomatoes, cream cheese, and garlic is one of the best combos ever. Ever. And going into the garden isn't necessarily something that makes me super happy.

Here are some pictures of the garden, though, all along with the craziness of it failing. Ah! Well, it's an experience.

Anyway, here are way too many pictures of the garden.



Monday, July 11, 2011

frittata for one

Eggs have always been one of my favorite foods. They also happen to be one of the foods that I am most particular about. When I was little, my mom used to love well-done eggs. In fact, I used to think that she liked them burnt because she liked them so well-done. It made sense, too. Mom liked her toast burnt and her hamburgers charred. At least that's what I thought when I was eight. 

One Mother's Day I scrambled some eggs for her, making sure to burn them really thoroughly. There was no liquid left at all, just crispy, brown cracked grossness. I had made Mom just what I thought she wanted! Or not. I found out later (much later) that she really didn't like burnt eggs, just all the way cooked eggs. Oops. 

When it comes to eggs I take after my mom. When I make omelets I have to flip the eggs to cook each side. Yes, it makes for a strange omelet that doesn't fold over very well. I have to get creative. Creative omelets can have raw cold veggies in the middle, veggies mixed into the eggs, or my favorite, thick gobs of cheddar holding the veggies, creating a cavity to warm them while the cheese melts. It oozes over the sides of the thoroughly browned eggs. Yum. 

Thursday, July 7, 2011

readers? we have a problem.

The Smart car is gone. Bye bye to it. I am now the proud owner of a nice, old Volvo that seriously needs some work done to it. Eh. Why should a new(ish) car have uncontrollable problems with it? Even if I had had it checked out by a mechanic or asked the right questions something is bound to go wrong. 

My mom came up a few days ago and played in the garden with me. P was out of town and Mom and I spent most of our time lounging on the stairs. It was wonderful! The tomatoes were looking great and the sunflowers had grown about three feet since I had last been out there. It was like a magical garden where anything could happen. I took some pictures of the garden a few days ago, meaning to post them sooner. I had really great intentions. Mieko absolutely loved the garden. And then I really looked at some of the cucumber plants. Not all of them looked strange, but some of them seemed to be wilting. I very diligently trimmed the wilted leaves off, hoping not to spread anything that might make them wilt. 


Monday, July 4, 2011

cooking for one pt. 1

While people ate barbecue and roasted their selections of meat in their backyards, I stayed home, watched movies, and did laundry. Even though though the only time I actually left the house was to take the trash out, I still managed to be fairly productive.

I fed the fish, ate two blackberry bars that I completely screwed the recipe up on, played briefly in the garden before it started storming, and made two amazing dishes.

One of them is so simple that it hardly counts as a recipe, but without a recipe, I would never had made it this way. I had one eggplant sitting around from last week's farmer's market. I know last week might not be  the best time to shop for tonight's dinner, but the eggplant was minimally squishy. Still firm where it counted.

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Duck Fat


Duck Fat
43 Middle St.
Portland, ME

One time my family went to San Francisco for Thanksgiving. My mom and her husband ran into a restaurant and grabbed a bird, came back to the car, and handed my sisters and me forks. Already suspicious of the crazy idea of eating Thanksgiving in the car, we were kind of confused when the turkey didn't taste like turkey.

Needless to say, the turkey was not turkey. It was an entire duck, neck and everything still intact. This was my first experience with duck and it scared me so much that I didn't go back.

I spent last summer raising ducks at a summer camp near Asheville. We had sixteen of them, cute and fuzzy, we got them when they were only a day or two old. They grew up quickly, loosing their down and growing beautiful water-resistant feathers. Similar to mallards, these ducks were heavier so they couldn't fly at all. We kept them in a coop next to the chickens and hens at night. When we let them out in the morning, they all went their separate ways, the roosters scaring the ducks away to the creek.

Sunday, June 26, 2011

tomato sauce

When I was little I used to eat apples like crazy. I had to eat the middle first, creating a ring of all the easy-to-eat parts. After that I would move to the outside round, a little harder to get at, but still relatively easy; only a few nasty parts. You know, only a few parts to make me realize that I was actually eating something that grew. After the second round, finally, I would eat the part that is around the bottom belly-button of the apple. I thought this was the grossest part. It was yucky.

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Rabelais

Rabelais: Thought for Food
86 Middle Street
Portland, ME


I was standing outside Rabelais looking in., not even realizing what I was looking at.  The books were all about food. After Mom pointed out what was really going on, I asked out loud, "What the hell are we doing out here?" and entered with kiddie enthusiasm.

Inside was a foodie's dream: books categorized by what kind of food they are about. From coffee to snacks to French cooking, this place has it all, including a selection of used books and collectors' items. 

Saturday, June 18, 2011

at jfk

Mom and I have traveled from RDU to JFK and damn, RDU is lacking. Not only was there no WIFI (except offered by the gracious ATT for a low price of $8/24 hours), but the flight was delayed for two hours.

We did happen to find some great airport food at Gordon Biersch, albeit unhealthy crap. Oh, it was wonderful. We had garlic french fries and a huge spinach salad with bacon and chicken. It also had some tomatoes that didn't taste too bad and yummy bits of red onion. Mom put it wonderfully when she said that it wasn't over flavored or under flavored.

my trip to maine

I am going to Kennebunkport for a few days, hopefully trying new food while I'm there. My boss has told me that I must try a Maine lobster, but due to an extreme aversion to seafood (meaning I won't even eat something that might have touched fish, and seaweed?) it's a no go. Eek. Gross. 

But coffee? I would love to go to Portland and try some coffee. And there is a coffeeshop in Wells (four miles south of Kennebunk) is super animal friendly. And I can't wait to get some chocolate and bread. And I've heard a lot about this locally brewed beer. They have beautiful bottles (sadly, that's all I know) and I've read that their beer is tasty, too. Oh yeah, it's barrel aged. 

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

flowers

One thing that some people probably forget is that food comes from flowers. It might not seem like it.  And the garden is so green. I WANT COLOR! 

Monday, June 13, 2011

a little off topic

You know, people amaze me. I love how people think. I've just finished reading 29 Gifts and am in the middle of reading Eat Pray Love, yes, a little late. I've always believed that human beings are capable of amazing things and that we should hold each other to a pretty high standard because, well, we're just that great. If we have the ability to be great, shouldn't we be? 

Cami Walker gave 29 gifts away in 29 days to help her get over the serious emotional drain of living with multiple sclerosis. It seems amazing to give 29 gifts just because. What she found out, though, is that  by viewing little things (like doing the dishes) as gifts, we start to redefine what it means to give. Little things count, too, damnit! We just have to consciously view them as giving. We have to make a, excuse me, neuro-statement and think about how we might effect someone else's life.

Wait...shouldn't we be doing that anyway? 

Sunday, June 12, 2011

what the hell?

After spending five hours inside, it is really nice to sit outside for a quick lunch. The problem is there aren't that many places to eat outside if you bring your own lunch to work. I have to decide between eating on the lonely landing deck outside the office or going to the park, a super easy decision. 

Parks are known to be filled with kids and laughing, especially when the park is connected to a development. 

I went to the park a few weeks ago. It was a Monday and I had my ENO hammock and my book ready for 45 minutes of super relaxation time before going into work. Off to the park! 

Gibson park is really cute. Who wouldn't want to go there? There is a lake and two fields, plus walking trails and shelters that are perfect for hanging a hammock. 


Monday, June 6, 2011

oh-my-garden and other cool things


So much can happen in a few days. I have no idea what happened. I have no idea what happened. There are squash! Baby green tomatoes! the nasturtium flowered! There are plenty of zinnias flowering. The sunflowers have buds. And -- oh my gosh -- the beans have begun to trellis themselves!

Don't believe me? Let me show you.

the best tomato sauce ever

We used to eat a lot of pasta when I was in high school. We would spend a few hours making the sauce and letting it sit on the stove, stirring it whenever we remember to or when we were in the kitchen. The sauce was thin and the onions in it reduced to nothing, like it was this homogenously awesome sauce. It was so good that everyone would sneak a spoonful of it when they were alone in the kitchen. It was definitely not as gross as I just made that sound. Hmm. 

Friday, June 3, 2011

Lovey's Market and Café

Lovey's Market and Café
1319 Military Cutoff 
Wilmington, NC


We were looking for breakfast. Simple breakfast. Eggs, an omelette would have been nice. Maybe potatoes. Definitely onions. Maybe a slice of tomato. 


Although a good veggie breakfast turned out not to be an option at 2 pm on Sunday while it is seriously 90 degrees outside, Lovey's Market was there with a huge hot bar/salad bar and a huge board of made-to-order items. 




Wednesday, June 1, 2011

that growing garden

I don't know how plants can grow so fast. It's kind of amazing. 


Only part of the huge garden. 
Sunflowers and beans are bigger than I ever thought they would get in just a few days. They have probably shot up a foot in one week!

Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Tidal Creek Co-op







Tidal Creek Co-op
5329 Oleander Dr. 
Wilmington, NC

There are some just really cute places. Really cute places, and this just happens to be one of them. Below a yoga studio, this place just screams awesome. 

There is a large selection of organic produce and a large hot bar with plenty of vegan options. Their specialty seems to be smoothies and juices, though, as the menu included about 10-15 different smoothies with different additions like spirulina and the option of almond milk. Wheatgrass shots were on the menu, too! 

Thursday, May 26, 2011

a 25-day old garden

The garden has been in the ground for about a month. We finally got the last plants in the ground last week and we fertilized for the first time five days ago. The plants shot up after we hit them with the fertilizer. All of the sudden the peppers have deep, deep green leaves and the tomatoes have their first little fruits! They're really cute. 


The little tomatoes
Super green leaves