Monthly Archives: August 2007

heading to the beach…

tonight I’m picking up ruthie and michelle at the train station and we’re driving south for 5 days at assateague for a vacation starring my friends and family. not as many friends as there usually are, which bums me out, but it will be incredible for different reasons, namely: daniel james will be there, and maybe I’ll teach him to body surf. maybe. if he’s ok with getting his head wet.

there’s another reason why I’m so much looking forward to this vacation, and that reason is WORK. now, I have a really horrible track record for getting out of work and onto a beach vacation, at least at this job. but this week was really crummy for another reason: I kind of got demoted. Oh, everything is just the same except for my role on the Very Big and Important Project that has been FILLING my days for the last year+. On that project, I’m demoted. Just a tiny bit, and I am supposedly very important to the project still, but. But! demoted. my ego hurts. I’m kind of ticked off. and I feel like I’m in the uncomfortable position of trying to convince everyone around me (especially upper management) that I am NOT a screw up, but that there may be some politics involved. Obviously I’m not going to get into the details here, but I feel uncomfortable in general. and ticked off. and hurt feelings. did I mention the hurt feelings?

So you can see why vacation looks so beautiful to me right now! and you can be assured I am NOT going to be leaving late for this trip.

all food, all the time.

I was talking to Ranger last night about how this blog is all food, all the time right now. Now, it may not be as glamarous as you think, but the last week has been focused on catching up on my CSA share. What, now you’re telling me vegetables AREN’T sexy?
Would it seem more glam if I tell you I’ve been cooking in heels, frilly aprons, red lipstick, and with a cocktail to hand? because if it does I’m telling you right now: that is TOTALLY the truth.

also, my other blog project has been taking up a lot of my time. y’all should take a look if you haven’t (and I bet you have), it’s pretty fabulous, if I say so myself. and I’m really excited to be A Writer for something that I feel so passionate about.

and just to keep some food cotent: you should REALLY try the amazing carrot soup I made last night. It’s incredible. I’m just sayin’.

CSA Wk 11

2007csawk11

two heads of lettuce (one red leaf and one oak leaf), swiss chard, cabbage, rainbow carrots (you can’t see the red one here), regular tomatoes and 1 heirloom tomato, cucumbers, jalepeno peppers, some cubanelle peppers, cilantro, eggplant, fingerling potatoes, green beans, patty pan squash, leeks, and ground cherries.

no fruit share this week. Thank goodness! I have hardly touched the nectarines from last week. they’re just perfectly ripe now.

tonight I plan on cooking a bunch of stuff, including potatoes, leeks, kohlrabi, tomatoes, eggplant, squash, corn fritters, and cubanelle peppers. phew!

status:

wk 1 oregano
wk 2 parsley
wk 4 kohlrabi
wk 5 onions, cilantro.
wk 6 some apples
wk 7 parsley
wk 8 cabbage, carrots, red onions, carrots, nectarines, zucchini.
wk 9 basil, carrots, white onions, purple kohlrabi, zucchini, cucumbers, eggplants, and plums.
wk 10 lettuce, yellow squash, cucumber, garlic, tomatoes, dill, dragon beans, green peppers, arugula, beets, apples and nectarines.
things I have had to toss: wk 5 spinach, wk 6 chard, wk 8 potatoes, wk 6 fava beans, wk 7 wax beans, wk 6 lettuce? where did it go? wk 7 lettuce, wk 10 english cucumber

food post

I’m happy to report that I feel a lot more comfortable with the quantity of vegetables in my refrigerator. I did a solid 3 hours of cooking last night, and things seem so much more under control!

I tackled the big bowl of white turnips and made two dishes:

a turnip casserole

turnipcasserole

turnips

the turnip casserole tasted better this morning with two fried eggs on top.

and a really incredible korean turnip salad:

turnipsalad

I also tackled the bags and bags of wax and green beans, and the raddichio. I roasted them up with the some of the garlic. This recipe was perfect, actually, because every thing it called for? I had almost exactly that quantity.

roastedbeans

this is just one of two pans of beans.

I think this will taste better with a chopped hard-boiled egg over it. The raddichio is still kind of bitter, and the egg will mellow it out a little.

while I was cooking I boiled the 5 ears of corn from last week in preparation for making spicy corn fritters later in the week.

and then I took a bunch of plums and made elsie’s cobbler:

cobbler

which came out really really pretty with the yellow and purple plums mixed! I used more fruit than I should have, but it still was pretty tasty.

CSA Wk 10

2007csawk101 bunch and 1 head of lettuce, 2 yellow squash, 1 regular and 1 english cucumber, 2 heads garlic, 1 heirloom tomato, 2 regular tomatoes, dill, dragon beans, 5 ears corn, 2 green peppers, bunch arugula, beets, apples and nectarines.

last night I used this recipe to make a plum “cake.” I think there is something wrong with the recipe, because it says to POUR the batter and I ended up patting it down like a giant slab of playdough. One of my friends had disasterous results with the cake, too. Mine came out pretty good, though it’s more of a plummy sweet bread than anything else.  I’ve eaten a lot of the plums but it’s hard to stay on top of 2 lbs of stone fruit a week. and these plums are good, but I don’t know a lot of plummy recipes to use them up with.
I still have a whole mess of beans to eat – green beans, 2 lbs of wax beans (though I thought there was more) and now dragon beans too. And I have to do something with the raddichio, though the stuff from wk 6 might be the worse for the wear.

STATUS:
wk 1 oregano
wk 2 parsley
wk 3 white salad turnips
wk 4 kohlrabi, some garlic, white salad turnips
wk 5 onions, white turnips/radish, cilantro.
wk 6 raddichio, lettuce, fava beans, some apples
wk 7 wax beans, parsley, garlic, lettuce, cauliflower, beets
wk 8 raddichio, cabbage, carrots, small cukes, red onions, carrots, wax beans, nectarines and plums, zucchini.
wk 9 basil, carrots, white onions, purple kohlrabi, zucchini, cucumbers, eggplants, green beans, and plums.

things I had to toss: wk 5 spinach, wk 6 chard, wk 8 potatoes
things I may have to toss later: wk 6 lettuce, wk 6 raddichio, herbs from wks 1, 2, and 5. also fava beans?

CSA catch-up (not ketchup): wks 7-9

I have 3 weeks to catch up on:

Week 7:

2007csawk7peaches, plums, wax beans, parsley, yellow squash, peppers, garlic, cucumbers, chard, lettuce, cauliflower, beets.

I used the cauliflower from this week and the prior week with some of the garlic and created a delicious roasted cauliflower dish. it was So Good!

Week 8

2007csawk8

I almost didn’t get this one, b/c I was singing the national anthem and forgot to call ahead to have my share bagged. Luckily the clean-up crew bagged an extra share that day!

raddichio, cabbage, head of lettuce, carrots, yellow squash, small cukes, kale, dill, red onions, carrots, wax beans, nectarines and plums, zucchini, and potatoes.

also purchased 2 lbs of honey from local source. the beekeeper has some hives set up in the backyard of our pick-up family!
Week 9

2007csawk9

basil, carrots, oak leaf lettuce (so cool), white onions, purple kohlrabi, yellow squash, zucchini, cucumbers, eggplants, green beans, green cubanelle type peppers. peaches and plums.

Things I’ve made:

fried yellow squash

cottage cheese “pie” starring chard and kale (wks 6, 7, and 8 )

pot of yellow squash soup to use up all the squash, some suspicious zucchini, an onion, and dill

stir fry of cubanelle type peppers, onions, and patty pan squashes to serve over whole wheat pasta with parm cheese. surprisingly yum.

I’ve been eating the lettuce hot-salad style, with indian food or thai curries poured on top. it’s pretty good and an easy way to demolish 1/2 a head in a meal.

I’ll do a status in the next post.

July 2007 Books

59. J is for Judgment by Sue Grafton
60. K is for Killer by Sue Grafton
60 1/2. Meow, Baby by Jason (graphic novel)
61. L is for Lawless by Sue Grafton
62. M is for Malice by Sue Grafton
63. N is for Noose by Sue Grafton
64. O is for Outlaw by Sue Grafton
65. Rose in Bloom by Louisa May Alcott
66. The Oathbound by Mercedes Lackey
67. The Oathbreaker by Mercedes Lackey
68. P is for Peril by Sue Grafton
69. Female Chauvinist Pigs: Women and the Rise of Raunch Culture by Arial Levy
70. Q is for Quarry by Sue Grafton
71. My Husband Betty: Love, Sex, and Life with a Crossdresser by Helen Boyd

Nos 65 through 67 were re-reads. Comfort reading in times of lots of work, maybe? I enjoyed Female Chauvinist Pigs as it discussed one of my favorite topices, i.e., “buying into the patriarchy.”

so many things

I’ve been so busy with work this week. and when I’m not busy with work I’m busy with sleeping, or running, or reading books. I’ve been working crazy person hours wherein I get to work at 6 AM and stay through 5 generally. I work more that way, but also, I can then do things AFTER work and not feel like I’m getting behind.

tomorrow is the 5K at grafton lakes state park. I hear it’s all downhill in the beginning and all uphill in the end. EXCELLENT. I’d better get to bed so I can not die tomorrow!

busy bee.

I’ve been pretty busy lately what with the work and the work and the travel and the awesome camping weekend with michelle and aurora and jesse. and then there’s this other awesome project I’ve been working on which I am SO EXCITED ABOUT, in a way I don’t even know if I can explain. I’ve been so busy!

there are a few things I’d like to post about here:

  1. the couples camping weekend
  2. two weeks of csa veggies
  3. how I rocked the national anthem.

oh, I’ll just cover that last one right now. I rocked the national anthem. and I was so nervous afterwards! but there was no PA and no flag. I told everyone to close their eyes, imagine a flag, and if they’d like to keep their eyes closed I was totally on-board with that.

and there are a few things I’d like to do this weekend:

  • clean my apartment (NO REALLY IT’S THE PITS)
  • read a book
  • go for runs, in light of the upcoming 5K on 8/12 in grafton WITH HILLS
  • sew a skirt or something
  • go to see dragon boats
  • meet friends in the city on both friday and sat. nights.

sounds pretty great, non?