20 posts tagged “june”

For lunch last week, I gathered some pasta salad ideas, and then changed them completely.
I bought:

• 1 pound of pasta
• 2 cans of black beans
• 1 can of fire-roasted diced peppers & chiles
• 1 red pepper
• 1 lime
• 1 bunch of cilantro
• 1 ear corn

From my pantry: some shredded cheese (okay, that was in the freezer), some plain yogurt, salt & pepper. Ignore the bottle of vinegar in the picture; I didn't use it in the end.

I dirtied extra dishes for this picture, but I didn't care. If I were not Documenting for Posterity, I would just dump all the bits and pieces into one large bowl.

Wow, am I a good cook.

Cream scones, which were so amazing out of the oven I wanted to marry myself:

Recipe:
Cream Scones from Cook's Illustrated: The Quick Recipe

I doubled the recipe. Makes 8 good-sized scones for each batch, and of course they could be made smaller. Original recipe:

2 c unbleached all purpose flour
1 T baking powder
3 T sugar
1/2 tsp salt
5 T unsalted butter, chilled, cut into cubes
1/2 cup currants
1 cup heavy cream

My mods:

• omitted the currants.
• when I made the double batch, I used 5 T sugar total, so maybe 2 1/2 T for a single batch
• added zest & juice of one lemon
• added some recently-dried rosemary. maybe 1/8 or 1/4 tsp total - made for a very (maybe TOO) subtle effect
• for next time, I will not use heavy cream. maybe whole milk?

To make: sift together the dry ingredients (incl the rosemary & zest)
Cut in the butter - it will still be very dry
Pour on the cream and stir til just mixed
Put onto a floured surface, gather into a cohesive lump, knead for just a few seconds to get it all together, flatten out a bit, and cut into ~8 scones (or even more! they're quite big!)
Bake in a 425 oven for 12-15 minutes

Then I made a strawberry-basil topping to smear on the scones. I knew I wanted some sort of basil topping to go with strawberries, and some Google searching led me to this recipe:
http://chocolateandzucchini.com/archives/2006/06/strawberry_basil_pesto.php

Here are the original instructions:

Pesto Fraise Basilic

35 grams (1/3 cup) freshly grated Parmesan
35 grams (1/3 cup) whole blanched almonds, toasted
A small handful (about 1/3 cup) fresh basil leaves
5 small strawberries (or 3 large), hulled [be sure to use fragrant and full-flavored strawberries: if they're a bit bland, I'm quite sure they'll get lost in the battle]
2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil
Salt, freshly ground pepper

Makes about 1/2 cup (the recipe can be doubled).

Blend the Parmesan, almonds, and basil (I have a mini chopper, so I doubled the recipe, but did one batch at a time.)

 

Add strawberries and blend some more. Then add olive oil, salt & pepper to taste. I never got it perfectly smooth, but I liked it kinda chunky-looking. 

My mods:

• I made a double batch. After tasting, I then doubled the strawberries again - I wanted a big strawberry taste
  
• I added a splash of balsamic vinegar (2 tsp total, maybe - definitely to taste)
• I then stirred this into some mascarpone cheese - maybe half of a little 8-oz package

Finally, I made a strawberry topping: I sliced enough strawberries to fill a pint jar. Added 2 T sugar and 1 T balsamic vinegar, and let it stew in its juices.

Here's the yumminess ready to go:

And here's my breakfast this morning:

 Insert self-satisfied belly rub here! 

Hey blog-friends, long time. It's been a busy month since last we spoke. I spent a very fun weekend in New Orleans with my parents, sister, and younger brother, just hanging out before said younger brother ships out to Afghanistan for six months. He's going to miss Christmas, making 2009 the very first one where we're not all together, so that will be really weird. Of course we will get together upon his return, and will probably even press him into service in the kitchen! but it won't be quite the same.

In other news, it really feels like summer at the moment. It's a rare day in the Bay Area that sees me leaving home without a jacket, but I did it twice this week - woo! Also, I biked to work yesterday and finally found a really fully enjoyable, low-traffic commute. It adds a little bit of time to the ride, but round trip was 8.8 miles, so it was really a piddling little lovely ride.

Still knitting: I just did my first felting project! I used bulky, all-wool yarn, big needles, and then purposely shrunk the sucker. It's amazing.

Before:

I've been tracking my spending in pretty good detail for quite a while now - since last Sept or so. I started doing some math while on transit yesterday. I started on groceries, and looked at the last six months.

I got the answer to these questions:

• How much do I spend on groceries?
• What percentage is at an independent shop or farmer's market, vs how much is at a chain?
• Of the chain spending, how much is at Trader Joe's (which I consider not as bad as the big chains.. I haven't analyzed that further)?
• Of the independent shop spending, how much is at my neighborhood grocery store vs. the neighborhood green grocer vs the farmers' markets?

Then I started in on transit. For the last six months I calculated:

• How much do I spend on car payments?
• How much on insurance? (I'm lumping renter's insurance in here b/c it's the same bill and I'm lazy)
• How much on gas for my car?
• How much on gas for others' cars?
• How much on local transit?
• How much on travel transit (subway/cab/bus, not airport shuttle or other full-on travel expenses)?
  

It was really interesting. But I left the information elsewhere. Stay tuned!

Whee!! There's a new baby in my life. Welcome baby Kaelyn, and thanks for cooking fully, rather than coming early like certain older siblings. I can't wait to see her in the dress I made for her, and gave to her parents last month:

Oh, heck, I just can't wait to meet her! She'll seem so tiny compared to the other (older) babies around.

Aside from new-baby, not much to report. I'm feeling tired, and am now blaming it on the dirty air we have (fires in the region) rather than on, I don't know, going to bed too late. For the last few weeks.

I started watching Battlestar Galactica with Kristin - we're on season 3 now, but it's been ages and ages since we finished 2.5, so I'm finding that I don't remember too much about it. I should've re-borrowed all the seasons from my sister.

Money spending is going well: I'm about to close in on the second month in a row of spending sharply less than I had been. Which is great, but it also means I'm putting off buying my two December plane tickets (Portland & RI) until July, which means I'm pre-hosing that month. Ah well.

I made my best lunch ever for lunch group yesterday, both recipes courtesy Mark Bittman: SPICY chilled mango soup
and radish salad (which I used as a topping on salad greens, along with some garlic-rosemary white beans). We've been doing lunch group for over a year, and I've kept a list of everything I've brought in. Cool stuff on there!

Finally, I'm over 500 miles for the year so far. Which is only half-way to my biking goal of 1000 miles by August 24. eek.

Why am I only now discovering Teddy Thompson??!?!?! So great. Get thee to wherever & give him a listen, stat! 

Oh yes, I really do want to brag about this. I am a total whiz at something! (yes, I know they don't match. mates for each are next up)

I guess a baseball game was rained out recently, and the visiting players decided to have some fun. Check out this post, which tells the story and links to the video. Good stuff!

Here's the list version of my travels. Oh, and I'm happy to report that I just did the math and the entire week cost me $750, practically on the nose.

Day 1: travel to NYC - wow, is a direct flight the awesomest thing ever? Yes, I think it is.

Day 2: walk NYC - I focused on the East Village/Soho/Greenwich Village area. I visited three parks: Tompkins, Union, and Washington Squares. I bought a cd from a jazz quartet playing in Washington Sq. I ate at a Ukrainian restaurant, visited a yarn store, two book shops, and a high-end chocolate store. I walked and walked and walked and walked.

Day 3: NYC -> Boston - I took the (cheap, a bit smelly, but timely, and did I mention cheap?) Chinatown Bus to Boston. When I arrived in Boston, I didn't have my wallet! I thought I must have left it in my suitcase in NYC (I'd left stuff behind so I could travel light), but Jennifer later realized for me that I DID have the wallet at some point, since the bus stopped for snacks en route to Boston. Doh! I was unbelievably fortunate - the driver had found the wallet  and left it for me at the main desk. It was missing the NYC bus pass and the $20 I'd had in it, but I was so relieved that was fine by me. The non-heart attack portion of the day involved meeting another old friend for lunch at a favorite spot from the old days, walking through the Boston Common, down Newbury Street, through the first large public library in this country, and up to the Top of the Hub for a yummy yummy drink. Dinner at a  tapas restaurant and home.

Day 4: Reunion. It was great! Shockingly, the women looked pretty much exactly the same; the guys looked a bit puffier but were otherwise unchanged. Those who had kids had *good* kids, and we got to revisit our old dorms (even breaking into one of them, via a conveniently unlocked window). Good times.

Day 5: More time in my old stomping grounds in the Boston area, especially my three favorite places in Inman Square. Then to RI to see my parents & older brother, all of which was lovely. Their neighborhood is so full of trees in the early summer!

Day 6: morning in RI, then train to NYC and finally I got to see my NYC hostess (I was crashing in her apartment alone, as she was out of town on the first part of my trip). We walked through Central Park and had an amazing burger for dinner.

Day 7: Another day of walk walk walk walk walk in NYC. This time we hit a cool museum shop, another famous library, got some for-real New York pizza (made in a coal-fired brick oven!), and then walked over the Brooklyn Bridge (that's a cool link). Finally we walked down to Wall Street and picked up my friend's brother's tickets to see the Yankees/Blue Jays game. It was great to visit Yankee Stadium, but so weird to be surrounded by Yankee fans (I'm a Red Sox fan because my family is... I really don't care much at all).

Day 8: one last walk through a rainy Central Park, and my flight home. Sadly, not a direct flight, but it went without a hitch.

Pics will be up later... I'll put some highlights here! Man, I can't believe the trip is over. It was great and I am TIRED but happy it all went so well.

I ordered an ipod nano today, and also a case for it. Total damage is just south of $175, I think, because I got the 4-gig nano refurb for a whopping $129! ($140 after tax).

I was dithering about it, but what turned the tide was the fact that This American Life has a free podcast! I wish I'd known that, I'd have been stockpiling them. Fortunately E. has a bunch so I can get them from her.

I was holding off on the nano until my credit card was paid off, which it is (not counting hotel deposit money for August trip). Then I was holding off on the nano because I wasn't sure I'd use it. Then I was holding off to see if a new shiny one was going to be released any time soon.

but.... finally, I did it. now we'll see if I DO use it!