I LOVE SPRING
Wednesday, 7 May, 2008
I got dropped off at the market today, fortuitously!
Co-workers were going downtown to see Iron Man (I was jealous but too busy to attend) and they pointed out at 5:45 that if they drove me to the ferry, they wouldn’t have to pay for the 15 minutes of parking they would owe if they instead parked at 5:45.
So I was deposited at the market, which is always a good deal, even when the market is closed … which it turned out not to be! I was lured in by the buckets of tulips, and found that the tulip vendor was still open, and also found that the pre-assembled bouquets were $4 each, instead of the usual $10. Score two tulip bouquets for Lauren!
The next surprisingly-open place was my favorite veggie stand, Sosio’s, who had local asparagus and spring onions. Plus peaches, which smelled so good I couldn’t resist getting one ripe enough to eat tomorrow. (I have found it to be very valuable to tell the produce chooser when you will be eating your fruits; it helps her to pick good ripenesses, such that you have one good fruit for juicy eating tonight, and one for each of you for lunch tomorrow, and more for later this week … when left to my own devices, I get all the ripest ones and most start to go bad before I can eat them.)
Dinner, then, was grilled balsamic-and-olive-oil soaked spring onions and fresh asparagus, with steak from our pals at Skagit River Ranch. I am so happy about grilling season, but am freaking THRILLED about asparagus season, and the reminder that it is just the beginning of delicious food time.
Man, food is awesome.
(cross-posted to Dropstone Farms blog!)
Posted by Lauren at 10:05 pm |
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In the catalog under food; cookery
Red clothes + green shoes = anguish.
Monday, 31 March, 2008
Last night we had eventual-local-celebrity friends C. & T. over for dinner. They are vegetarian, and she is pregnant, so I appreciated the challenge of making something that did not include wine, sausage, bacon, bacon fat, or the frozen cubes of condensed beef/turkey/chicken stock that we make when we get bored and want to clean out the freezer. (These are great, though, to have around. They are awesome for dropping into soups or sauces or risottos, etc. Not quite demi-glace, but something quite similar, flavor-wise.)
I had been perusing Apartment Therapy: Kitchen, as I tend to do when it comes into my RSS reader, and this recipe for calzones caught my eye. For some reason I felt like a make-your-own-pizza-ish-thing party was very high school, but it also sounded fun — like very little else in high school, really — so I was decided.
We headed in to Seattle on Saturday, to the U-District Farmers’ Market, and picked up some sausage from Sea Breeze Farm on Vashon, who we love, and some mozzarella from a cheese vendor whose name I don’t know, and some fresh arugula from someone else, and some garlic from someone else. And some tulips, because I am so happy for spring. Yay.
(Sunday morning to mid-afternoon was spent working hard in the garden; we are both sore now. I dug up ~3 inches of the floor of the chicken coop, wiped down all surfaces with a 3:1 water/vinegar solution, laid down chicken wire, and re-inserted the old dirt. We’ll cover with straw and pine shavings when the chicks move in. Garth moved several square yards of compost from the delivered pile to the garden area, and spread it around, and also put up a deer fence. So we got to cross two big things off our list.)
Washed up after yardwork, I sautéed up some leeks and some mushrooms from our CSA. Toasted some pine nuts. Blanched some arugula, chopped some basil (early! from the CSA) tossed it in the food processor with pine nuts and some parmesan and garlic. Roasted some small-cut broccoli and some garlic cloves. Made some tomato sauce (from canned, not ours, unfortunately). Made some ricotta, using Meyer lemon juice, which didn’t curdle it like I expected; we theorized it was due to lower acidity in the juice (not sure if that’s true) so added a few glugs of white balsamic vinegar. Still resulted in deliciousness. All of the above worked well in calzoni (?), in various combinations.
The leftovers from the fun mix-and-match dinner became tonight’s frittata
, with leftover broccoli, sausage, ricotta, and pesto. I also used the whey from making the ricotta instead of milk in the egg mixture. Topped with some pesto and pine nuts, and served with some delicious local greens that G. found at the grocery store.
——–
In other news, I am searching for some good summer shoes. I know that I am searching for good summer shoes because I have been staring at, and evaluating, everyone else’s footwear. I see a lot of people on the ferry and the bus every day, and they are people with similar needs to mine, so I consider them a good source of shoe inspiration. Currently I wear red Dansko clogs, which I like because they are comfy, and easy, and I don’t have to think about them — I just put on the shoes as I am going out the door, and they go with whatever. And they are supportive of my poor broken feet, which I have not discussed here yet. But I cannot do the clogs and above-the-knee skirts look — some people can, but I cannot — so I needs something that fills the same niche of comfy, all-purpose, easy, good for broken feet, allows my orthotic inserts, but goes with my skirts: lighter colored, not clunky, little or no heel. I got these green cute sporty things that will go with one skirt that I love dearly, but with which I will not be comfortable wearing red, which is approx 33% of my wardrobe. I can augment the green shoes with some lighter-colored (pink? white? tan? … ?) simple sneakers, like Keds or similar, but will they support my broken feet? And how do I find them? And will they go with my favorite red skirt/shirt/other shirt/other other shirt/sweater/other sweater?
Wow, shoe angst is boring.
Posted by Lauren at 9:19 pm |
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In the catalog under food; pictures; cookery; farm
Farm chores are fun!
Sunday, 23 March, 2008
Today is the first day in a long time that I have been able to wake up, look around, and decide what I feel like doing. I have plenty of projects and chores and things that need to be done, of course, but I don’t have somewhere to be, and I don’t have a homework deadline. It’s extremely exciting.
So we did outside chores — we are spreading the 10 cubic yards of compost that was delivered last weekend, and I am going to start preparing the chicken coop, and we need to start putting up the deer fence (but it started raining really hard). And there are inside chores — the chickens’ bucket needed to be expanded, and grow lights needed put up, and there is laundry and dishes as usual. And there is knitting and video games to play.
And I am cooking! We are going to G’s mom’s for dinner — his stepdad’s daughter & her kids are in town from Hawaii — and I am bringing this citrus parmesan farro salad. I was going to make buttermilk biscuits and/or sweet potato biscuits from Mark Bittman, but they have enough bread already. Now I have to find something else do with ~6 large-ish sweet potatoes. Anyone?
Posted by Lauren at 10:10 am |
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In the catalog under food; cookery; farm
I don’t know any Basque songs, so pretend this is just a bunch of Xs and Ks.
Friday, 1 February, 2008
Home sick yesterday and today, boo. The dogs like to have someone around, though, and it’s nice to catch up on sleep, lack of which probably contributed to the cold in the first places. Thank dirt for honey and ginger and lemon in hot water. And thank the Basques for my new super-easy favorite sick (or cranky, or really just hungry in general) soup:
Basque Bread & Garlic soup
Thinly slice several cloves of garlic. One or two per person, or several if making it just for yourself and you like it that way.
Sauté said slices in olive oil until golden.
Add a stale (day-old or more, but not too old) baguette, cut into 1-1½ inch slices; toss or turn over to coat with delicious garlicky olive oil on both sides
Add broth to cover; season to taste with red pepper flakes, cayenne, salt, etc.
Bring to a boil
Drop in one egg per person and boil until egg is cooked. Serve immediately. I generally eat it straight out of the pot because I am lazy.
Adapted from The Basque Table by Teresa Barrenechea.
Spicy, garlicky, protein-y, salty, & hot. Perfect. Then, a nap.
Posted by Lauren at 11:55 am |
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In the catalog under food; mood/sick
Look for me in the sunbright sparrow
Monday, 11 December, 2006
Just rescued two lost doggies, a big ol’ blue-eyed husky and a small black fluffy lab-lookin’ mutt. They were wet and dirty and kind of shy, but they liked treats, and fortunately we have two leashes on hand. Their women were out looking for them on foot, and should be very grateful that one of the dogs had a local vet number on the rabies tag, and that the vet was open. And they should get regular tags with their names and phone numbers on them.
They were the third and fourth dogs we have successfully reunited with their folks in the past year, not counting the times Ruby has escaped and I have successfully reunited her with me. I am hoping I am storing universe paybacks for when I can’t hunt her down.
Now we are back inside and home and safe, with dogs and wine, and butternut squash and garlic roasting in the oven to be made into delicious soup.
We took the pups (ours, not the escapees) hiking this weekend to Rattlesnake Ridge. I highly recommend winter-time hiking, and that one in particular. Close to town, short-ish but gorgeous hike. Ruby went off-leash for the first time on a hike, and was mostly well-behaved. Oscar has been off-leash since the day he came home and is too old and jaded to run away anymore.
It’s that season again where everyone’s having parties and every weekend is booked, like it is in the summer. This week there’s an eggnog party and maybe another one, and a cookie party, group-o-friends holiday fancy dinner, and the company holiday party. I want to go but G. doesn’t; I’m blackmailing him by offering to wear my Fluevogs. It might be working.
I hate Christmas but I like buying stuff for people.
(song: “I Will Be Home Then,” the Decemberists)
Posted by Lauren at 7:40 pm |
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In the catalog under life; dogs; food
So be easy and free
Saturday, 30 September, 2006
So I caved and bought 2 years of Flickr pro account. It was mostly because I couldn’t have more than three sets, and I am a taxonomist and I want to collocate things. How can I collocate if I only have three sets? I need unlimited sets! So now I have it. And I put lots of pictures of dogs and even more pictures of food and JESUS GOD THE TOMATOES.
Someday I will post something other than picture links. That day will probably be after the damn hell ass wedding, about which I am freaking the fuck out, and after the honeymoon, which I totally have under control, actually. For reals.
I do not post because I do not want to post about these lame-o things. In the meantime you can look at my pictures.
(Song: “Man You Don’t Meet Every Day,” the Pogues version)
Posted by Lauren at 9:42 pm |
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In the catalog under dogs; food; pictures; gardens
I was thinking about the easy courage
Friday, 28 April, 2006
Spring seems to have arrived in Seattle while we were in Reno last weekend, and it’s made me realize it’s almost a year since we moved into this house. It’s been sunny and warmish and gorgeous, with blooming tulips and lilacs and green growing things, and the light has been coming into the house at a particular angle and of a particular color, like it did when we first moved in about 11 months ago. It’s making me strangely nostalgic, yet motivated.
So I’m especially glad that it was slow at work this week and I got to leave early yesterday and take all of today off, staying home and doing yardwork. Dogs laid around in the sun and watched me crawl around in bushes and get stabbed by holly leaves. I weeded and trimmed and I installed fence and my new compost maker, and then I decided I didn’t like its location and now I have to move it.
It’s also especially good that it’s nice right now because G’s brother and sister-in-law as well as his dad and stepmom are here, so we have lovely weather for walking around beautiful Seattle and looking at colorful vegetables and sparkly water and also cute shoes and fancy clothes. We also have weather and, now, room in the backyard, since I pruned, for the inaugural barbecue of the year: halibut cheek tacos. Turns out halibut cheeks don’t grill so well, but I’ll still post it on Kitchenisms soon.
(Song: “Spring Street,” Dar Williams)
Posted by Lauren at 9:33 pm |
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In the catalog under mood/happy; food; gardens; weather
Half-crazy and mangy
Wednesday, 14 September, 2005
My first birthday present (well, aside from the awesome boots that came from Reno) arrived at the house yesterday: a subscription to Pioneer Organics! I’m So Excited. Vegetables! It will come every two weeks. This week the box had lettuce, kale (to be white bean and kale soup), delicious-looking carrots with the tops still on, pears (for Wisconsin blue cheese and pear something — pizza?), bananas, pluots, green beans, two pretty red onions, five ripe roma tomatoes, a big juicy mango, two ears of corn, some grapes, and a huge bunch of celery (which will become snacks and possibly also oyster stew). I’m so excited I’m wiggling. I’m also a huge dork. Vegetables!
(song: “Your Adorable Beast,” Bobby Bare Jr. I think I’m officially a groupie now that I’ve seen him four times? I’ve only had to pay for two of those times though … )
Posted by Lauren at 10:10 am |
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In the catalog under food
tongue can get sharp
Tuesday, 12 April, 2005
a list of mostly unrelated things.
yum.
(song: “don’t be afraid of your anger,” clem snide)
Posted by Lauren at 11:58 am |
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In the catalog under list; rock&roll; food; computers
to the extent that it’s absurd
Monday, 3 January, 2005
i had one thing on my agenda last week - one! - and i managed to avoid doing it all week. i made stitch markers with little beads; i made crêpes and ratatouille and salmon with green sauce and blueberry sorbet and cherry sorbet; i finished two books; i spent a whole day putting songs on my new fianc�, ipod (yes, i’m going to marry an ipod); i started a new game (silent hill 2) … but i did not, as i said i would, go to the gym.
and now school has started.
but the (only?) nice thing about the ischool cutting back on interesting day classes is that when one’s entire schedule for a term consists of an evening class, a distance class, and an independent study, one’s days are very free and one can (supposedly) motivate oneself to go to the gym.
one hopes.
(song: “clark gable,” the postal service ♥)