5 posts tagged “2006”
I satisfied the demands of The Mayfly Project and even posted my summary there. But, I'll spare you all the linking, and post it here as well:
bored/restless. new bigger library, less money/staff, much woe. screw
that! new job, new city, much excitement. made new friends, kept the
old.
I wanted something aside from rice to bring for my lunches this week, so I kept flipping through the same cookbook, and found this recipe:
Broccoli with garlic
2 or 3 large heads of broccoli
3 T olive oil
3 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
salt & pepper
serves 4 (see note 1)
- Clean the broccoli and cook in a saucepan of boiling salted water for 5 minutes. Drain and immediately plunge in cold water.
- Dry the broccoli and chop into small pieces
- Heat the oil in a large saute pan and add the chopped garlic. Saute until colored but not browned. Add the broccoli and saute until all the ingredients are heated thoroughly.
- Add salt & pepper to taste and serve.
Vegetable Paella
4 cups vegetable stock
1-2 pinches saffron (see note 1)
3 T olive oil
1 small onion, diced
1-2 cloves garlic, minced
2 carrots, diced
1 small green bell pepper, diced
2 cups short-grain white rice (see note 2)
salt & pepper to taste (see note 3)
1 T sherry
1 lb fresh peas (see note 4)
- Preheat oven to 475 (see note 5)
- warm the stock in a sauce pan and add the saffron
- heat the oil in a Dutch oven or paella pan (see note 6). Add the onion and saute 2-3 minutes. Add the garlic, carrots, and green pepper; saute another 3-4 minutes, until vegetables begin to soften.
- Add the rice, stirring well to coate the grains in the oil and vegetables
- Season with salt & pepper and then add teh sherry, warmed stock, and fresh peas
- Bring the liquid almost to a boil, then cover, and place in the oven for about 30 minutes until all the stock has been absorbed by the rice.
note 1, re: the saffron: all I had were threads of saffron, so I put some in a bowl and mashed them with the back of a spoon until they were in small bits
note 2, re short-grain white rice: all I have is long grain brown rice. So I used it, but I think next time I'll do something different. Paella is supposed to be akin to risotto but NOT stirred, and I worried that the rice would need more liquid & time to cook properly. I was right - I checked it after 20 minutes and there was some liquid, but not a lot, and the rice was still crunchy, so I added 8 oz more water. Ten minutes later, no liquid, still a bit crunchy, so I added 8 oz more water and cooked for 10 more minujtes. Next time I'll either start with more liquid in the first place, or I'll try to partially cook the rice before adding it to the pot. Or I'll use the right ingredients. hahahahaha yeah sure I will.
note 3, re: salt & pepper to taste: this direction always bugs me, especially in this case - how am I supposed to season to taste when it's vegetables, stock, and raw rice?
note 4, re: 1 lb fresh peas. I do not like them, Sam I Am. Especially not by the pound-ful. So I faked it and bought frozen green beans (10 oz) and also frozen soy beans (and used some of the bag, hopefully about 6 ounces-worth). I was a little worried but when I read the Joy of Cooking on Paella, they don't use peas at all, and do actually use green beans and broad (lima?) beans, so I felt a bit better. I wanted to use pea pods or snow peas, but nary a package was in sight at the grocery store.
note 5, re: preheat oven to 475. It is really dumb that my fridge is next to the stove; that sucker was kicking off some serious heat. I suppose a better-quality stove might hold onto it a bit better.
note 6, re: Dutch oven or paella pan - I guess this is supposed to be made in a broad-bottomed, heavy pan. I don't have one. I have my one really good-quality soup pot, and no more storage space anyway, so I used the soup pot. It worked well enough, I think.
Okay finally, pictures for those of you who made it to the end of the post:
Do I drink some of that freshly-made coffee that smells so good?...
...or do I skip coffee in favor of a nap, curled on my bed, positioned to catch the sunshine that will fall over me like a blanket?
I stayed home sick on Friday. I'm not dying, but my energy has been lower and lower, and I feel really tired by mid-afternoon. Sitting around in squishy clothes helped a lot, as did plowing through a massive book. Yesterday I was feeling better, and it was a spectacularly lovely day - blue skies, sunshine, mid-60s - so after a quiet morning I went into the city and walked around the Castro enjoying some great people-watching. Spent time in a bookstore reading up on potential trips. Ate gelato (pumpkin, of course, and also biscotti flavor). Met up with E and her friends and went to see the monthly serving of Get Mortified ("...a comic excavation of teen angst artifacts (journals, poems, letters,
lyrics, home movies, schoolwork) as shared by their original authors...
in front of total strangers.") Went out afterward with them, got home, and promptly stayed up til 2 am reading my old journal from high school/college. I think there is some meat for Get Mortified but I don't know that I have the distance to share it. I wish I could find the journal I distinctly remember starting in a fit of enthusiasm after reading Harriet the Spy
So since I was up too late, any good that I did on Friday and Saturday morning has been negated. So I'm going to take the rest of the day easy - I picked out some recipes, got the ingredients, and now can cook, listen to music, and yes, drink coffee. I bet I will still find it in myself to lie down in the sunshine later, even if I don't actually sleep.
So then - to the coffee pot.
"Madame Fortune Teller.... will I get lots of treats in the coming year???"
"My goodness! I see LOTS of great treats for you in the next year!"
