Winter warm-up

I went to the farmer's market this morning, and realized it was officially winter. Downsides: biking with cold feet and a runny nose, not being able to buy flowers. Positives: overstocking on discounted greens, appreciating hot coffee, and (!!!) sunchokes.

Now that I'm home, I'm thinking lunch will be the leftovers from Friday's dinner.  Finding stewing lamb on sale and looking delicious (with minimal fat, as well) I made lamb and root vegetable stew with tomato and red wine sauce.  Over polenta with some garlicky kale, it was perfect then... and expect it to be even better when reheated :)

For dinner tonight, I'm thinking something roasted, something blended, and perhaps something a little bit of both... with bacon, of course. Today's pork jowl bacon from EcoFriendly foods is one of my favorites. 

The best thing about travel is coming home...

...to an empty fridge.

While this may not be entirely true, there is something really great about having an empty (or almost empty) fridge when I get home. It helps me to get my life restarted here, assessing what I have, planning for what I'll need for the coming week.  In this case, I am doing extra cooking ahead of time, as I count on being out of the house from 8am to 10pm this week (and wanting to save some cash dollars).

When I arrived back home last night, there was some salvageable kale, along with the last, nearly-sprouted red potatoes.  Braised together in a wok with some garlic, onion, and bouillon plus a cube of pesto I saved from the summer, and topped with the crumbles of goat cheese from the corner of its Tupperware, it made a great and simple dinner to counteract airport food. (So good, in fact, I ate it all before taking a photo).

What I also had left over for today were a couple of eggs (nearly gone), some sage and butternut squash from my escapades a couple of weeks ago, and an acorn squash begging to be eaten. And of course, I couldn't help having brought back a hefty block of gruyere from Geneva, although the chanterelles had to stay. 

While I did go to the grocery store to pick up some juice, yogurts, and other things for lunch-packing, I was pretty proud to have made such a successful effort at re-starting my fridge. You can find the recipes for the winter squash risotto and bacon-gruyere quiche on the recipe page.

But I also think that the practice of cleaning the refrigerator out and cooking for myself again is a helpful way to segue back into my normal routine. Yoga, cooking, music and guitar, time alone - all these are things that I don't have when, or haven't yet adapted for, traveling.  So despite the shocking rapidity of intercontinental travel, the small gaps or lags (jet- and otherwise) really benefit from taking a bit of time to push a reset button and appreciate where I've been and, at the same time, where I've come back.

I think fall is also a time when I feel particularly home-y, and having missed it in the U.S. last year while overseas, I find that I am reacting with more enjoyment of the colors, the weather, the sweaters... and of course the produce!

No really. I can pickle that.

Back in July, after having bought a few jars of hot pickled dilly beans from my CSA... or maybe six... I tried to return the jars to Randy, my farmer friend. Only to find that, due to FDA regulations, neither he nor his neighbors who can could reuse the jars once sold. I carried them jangling back to my kitchen, and proceeded to reuse/recycle with abandon.

In the peak of the summer heat, I would brew herbal teas, put them in jars, and line the back of the fridge with them. They were cold, travel-friendly, and less expensive and less sugary than buying juices. A $4 box with 20 bags of peppermint tea goes a long way.

I also experimented with pickling, especially with the onslaught of cucumbers, both regular and mini-sized. And Persian.  I found that they would keep for several weeks, and the jars, once washed once or twice, would be ready for another batch. As I started to get comfortable with standard pickle fare, I also began to branch out.  Now that it's full-on fall, the Napa cabbage is in and I've made a Southeast Asian pickled cabbage - something like Cambodian kimchi. It can be easy to overdo it on the fish sauce, and it gets spicier the longer you store it, but the cabbage does marvels to kick up a regular stirfry or steamed rice dish.

Or, you can just eat it straight out of the jar.

Well, this is a little awkward....

I find myself coming back to this blog after a two-year hiatus.  In some senses, it's clear that I'm cooking differently, more exploratory (a regular paycheck helps), and with more reflection on what I am able to store in a fridge I share with two flatmates. But other things remain the same - I still love to roast things, I still tend vegetarian (although not entirely), and I still have to be careful not to buy far more than I can reasonably expect myself to eat.

Over those months, I've missed blogging about some great meals - a Thai-flavored pan-roasted whole branzino, lamb-and-bacon meatballs in red wine tomato sauce, sweet potato hummus - and some new discoveries -  Swiss chard and lacinato (Tuscan) kale, pomegranates, and the miracle combination of salt, sugar, vinegar, and ?????. Or for Portlandia lovers: "I can pickle that!"

                        

I've also realized that to be self-sustaining, I will have to use this blog to talk about more than my love of food. Which is not diminished, but rather put into context of a busy work life, a quiet home life, and a whole lot of yoga. To whomever is out there in the inter-ether, I thank you in advance for your patience (and more importantly, humor) as I post travel plans, dharma talk, soapbox rants, and of course, recipes.
Thus, without further ado....

Octobrrr

Yesterday was the first of October, and unofficially the first day of fall (so much for that 21st of September thing). Fifties, grey, drizzly... and me, utterly unprepared in brown strappy flats.

When I made it back home, having scooped up a good helping of apples and cabbage from the market, I decided to make a nice stew with what I had left over from the week before (that, and the enormous head of cabbage took up too much fridge space). I also craved protein after a long yoga class and lots of walking, so I wanted some black beans and quinoa.

The results:

Grown-up food

So it's that time of year again--time to worry about what we're doing next year. The summer stretches out long ahead of us... and I'll be (semi, hopefully) employed! Which really only means more time to spend on cooking on the weekends.

To start it off right, I spent this weekend working through the remnants of my freezer and pantry. Moving is a daunting enough task without wondering what you're going to do with 3 combined pounds of rice, lentils, couscous and pasta. Until I leave, I will consider the grocery a no-go zone except in the most dramatic of circumstances.

The first item to escape the tundra of the Frigidaire was a package of ahi tuna steaks. Feeling like those would constitute something very "grown up," I thawed one Friday in cool water for 3 hrs, and put the other in a honey-soy-ginger glaze to wait for Saturday. Here are the results:

Spicy ahi tacos with arugula

Asian-flavor ahi

In all honesty, couldn't think of a better way to clear out the fridge and pantry at the same time. Or, in combination with Whip It and a glass of vinho verde, a better way to spend weekend evenings.

Summertime, and the living's easy

OK, well not quite. I may be getting ahead of myself. But sunny blue skies and 65 degree temperatures mean that at least it's no longer soup weather! In celebration, I present the following: orange-cranberry couscous with spinach salad, roasted tomatoes, and carrot-cumin salad. Paired with--what else?? Bell's Oberon, the "sunshine nectar."


It's light, can be eaten cool or hot, and has lots of flavor. Hard to think of something that equally packs in the whole grains, vitamins, and moderate levels of alcohol :)