this week on tumblr

I'm still trying to get into the swing of the new season. Of waking up early and running before work, of new volunteer commitments, exciting personal projects and longer days. Elaborate meals have been replaced with quick stand-bys and my crafting energy is being directed towards speedily finishing up an important project. I hope to share that with you next week. Until then, take a look at a few things that have recently caught my eye from tumblr.

by sleeping under street lights 

(via favoritemoment)

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From the Ikea blog? Maybe? (via myidealhome)

 Just a little balcony space, I could live with that.

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Experience Human Flight from Betty Wants In on Vimeo (via gizmodo)
This slow-mo video of people skydiving is completely mesmerizing. 
It will make you feel like you are floating away with them.

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by habitualmindcondensation via singingoverthebones

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I should not talk so much about myself if there were anybody else whom I knew as well.

Henry David Thoreau, Walden

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(via myidealhome)
This is my heaven.

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 (via Design*Sponge » around the world with bash, please: california party)
A California-inspired terrarium-making party! I think I will make a terrarium and host a virtual terrarium-making party this summer on the blog, and hopefully host a real-life one too.

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As always, you can see more of what inspires me and makes me smile over at my tumblr page. Have a great weekend.

PS- I re-organized the tabs at the top of the page a little bit and added a description for each one. I hope this helps you navigate the site better as you search through archives by topic. I'm also working on re-labelling posts so that the overall organization of this place makes more sense. Although I don't think these changes should disrupt most readers' experiences, kindly bear with me if they do :)

sunday soup garnish, homemade croutons

I did make soup this week, but it was such a hodgepodge that I can't remember exactly what I used or how much. There was red potato, plus some carrots, onion, garlic, thyme, oregano, sea salt, pepper, light cream and my secret soup ingredient: a spoonful of prepared tomato sauce. I sauteed the onion and garlic and then simmered them with the potato, carrot and spices in homemade veggie stock. I blended it up and added the cream and my not-so-secret-anymore ingredient. It was the perfect non-recipe to clean out the fridge and keep me warm during a very rainy week here in New York. What is even better, though, are these homemade croutons.

We left the bakery this weekend with lemon & pine nut scones, spinach & pecan pesto focaccia with chevre and a sourdough baguette baked the day before. And a bag of this crazy good Gatherer's Granola. We dug into everything pretty quickly and decided we would use the baguette for croutons, a perfect soup accompaniment or anytime snack.

Rosemary & Thyme Croutons
Ingredients

• one day-old baguette
• 4 tbsp butter
• 1-2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tsp thyme
• 1 tsp rosemary
• salt
• 2-3 tbsp shredded Parmesan cheese

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Slice your baguette into one-inch chunks and spread out on a baking sheet.
2. Melt the butter with the olive oil in a small saucepan over low heat. Add in the the thyme and rosemary and cook for about a minute to let the butter absorb the flavors. Turn off the heat and slowly drizzle the herb butter mixture over the chunks of bread, being sure each one gets some loving. Sprinkle with salt and the Parmesan cheese.
3. Bake for 15-20 minutes, flipping occasionally, until the croutons are golden on all sides. Eat them straight out of the oven, on soup, salads or use them for bruchetta or tiny crostini.

This is one of those things that I almost didn't post because you all probably make your own croutons all the time because DUH, it's so obvious and easy. Like homemade vegetable stock, which I only starting making with any consistency a year ago. But in case there are any others out there who, like me, are easily impressed by simple kitchen recipes, try making your own croutons. They are a thousand times better than what you can buy in the store and they are a superb way to use up some older bread.

chana masala

Indian food. It's just never quite as good as from the restaurant, is it? But we keep trying. I just borrowed a gigantic cookbook from my mom with Indian recipes, but the one I tried out last night actually came from Molly Wizenberg's A Homemade Life. She raves about her husband's recipe and it seemed straightforward enough, so I tried it out. I did adapt their recipe a bit and, as Molly notes, her directions are more of a general guideline anyway and her husband rarely makes it the same way twice.

Chana Masala
adapted from Molly Wizenberg's recipe, found here 
Ingredients

• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 2 tbsp butter, unsalted
• 1 medium onion, coarsely chopped
• 2 medium cloves of garlic, minced or pressed
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1/2 tsp ground coriander
• 1/4 tsp ground ginger
• 1 tsp garam masala, plus more for serving
• 1/2 tsp ground cardamom
• 1 tsp salt, or to taste
• water
• one 28-oz can chopped tomatoes
• 3 tbsp coarsely chopped cilantro leaves, plus more for serving
• pinch of red pepper flakes
• two 15-oz cans of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
• 1/3 tp 1/2 cup plain yogurt, not low fat or nonfat (or cream, see note below)
• cooked rice of your choice (one heaping cup of dry brown rice usually yields enough for four small servings)

Directions

1. Pour the olive oil into a big stockpot with the butter and melt over medium heat. Add the onion and, stirring occasionally, let it caramelize deeply. Molly warns to be patient, because "the more color, the more full-flavored the final dish will be." It's true. I think I cooked the onions for over a half hour, until they were dark and even charred in a few places. I wanted to take a picture to show you just how caramelized you should get them, but my battery had died.
2. Reduce heat to low and add in the garlic, cumin, coriander, ginger, garam masala, cardamom and salt and cook until "fragrant and toasty", about 30 seconds. Add 1/4 cup water and stir. Cook until the water has completely evaporated and then pour in the juice from the tomatoes, followed by the tomatoes themselves. At this point, you may realize that you only have a 14 oz can of chopped tomatoes, not the 28 oz can called for in the recipe. You thought the sauce was looking a bit thin. But then you might remember that you have a whole tomato sitting in the fridge so you decide to chop that one up and add it to the pot along with a few tablespoons of water.
3. Raise heat to medium and bring to a gentle boil, then reduce to a simmer and add cilantro and cayennne. Stir occasionally for about five minutes or until thickened. Add chickpeas, stir well and cook covered for another five minutes. Add 2 tbsp water and cook for 5 minutes, then another 2 tbsp water and cook until it is absorbed, a few minutes more. Molly says that "this process of adding and cooking off water helps to concentrate the sauce's flavor and makes the chickpeas more tender and toothsome." Taste and adjust seasoning as necessary.
4. Stir in the yogurt and serve over rice. Garnish with cilantro and a sprinkle of garam masala, if you'd like. Again, you may realize that you forgot to buy plain yogurt and that blueberry yogurt would likely mess up the flavor of the dish, so you can also just add in a splash (1/4 cup or so) of light cream. Yogurt would be more delicious, but you'll just make do with what you have.

This was one of our more successful homemade Indian food experiments. Our chana masala was still a distant cousin from the dish we order at our local Indian haunt, but it was very good. I'd like to know how the restaurants make there version so colorful and rich and delicious. Indian magic, I guess. We were going to make a little naan to go with this, but we both had just gotten back from running and were hungry. And I, having just completed my first ever set of mile repeats, was in no mood for extra culinary flourishes. The mile repeats, by the way, weren't as bad as I expected but still sucked. Even though I know it's only a mile at a time, my instinct to conserve energy makes it painful to push myself to run so much faster than my normal pace. So the only cure for this, clearly, was Chana Masala and a few spoonfuls of Ben & Jerry's.

PS- Have you gone over to From Scratch Club yet? You probably should. Lots of tasty treats over there plus they just made a fun announcement. Say hi over at my intro post :)

from scratch club

Guess what? I've got a little secret. You know those hip gals that through that hip party for the Hip Girls' Guide to Homemaking? Mmm hmm, well now I'm one of them!

I am now a proud member of the From Scratch Club and will be over there writing about cooking and baking and eating and how we can create communities where everyone gets to cook and bake and eat delicious, healthy food. It's going to be excellent. The posts there are outstanding and cover everything from community sharecropping (!) and food allergies to cheesemaking and tapping your own maple syrup. There are amazing recipes and thoughts on our food system and the best weekly round-ups of local and national food-related news, articles and happenings. Go.

From the FSC website:

From Scratch Club is a small group of women who are passionately connected to the food they and their families consume. We live in various cities within the Capital Region of Upstate NY. We meet once a month for a food-related adventure, event or potluck. The rest of the month we are here with stories, recipes, kitchen tips & tricks and food policy musings & news. Welcome

I'm the only representative of the non-mom food population over there, but I do like kissing babies on the forehead and chasing middle-schoolers around the yard with a squirt gun, so I think I'll fit right in.  

Go there and read my introduction post! Then read all of the other posts and get to know the other ladies. And add it to your Google Reader and like them on Facebook. And hey, I'll still be here for you the same as always, with fascinating introspectives on dishwashing and other such things. Don't you worry.

the dishes

Next time someone asks me what I do in my spare time, I'm going to say, "The dishes."

I'm not even feeding a house full of kids and the dishes still pile up so damn quickly. It's the major downside of our culinary experiments. Lots of times I don't mind doing them, because there is something calming about scrubbing the pots and pans clean. But after the third round of the day, COME ON. We are constantly dirtying and cleaning dishes and we are generally only feeding two mouths for crying out loud! Neither of us grew up with dishwashers and, to tell you the truth, I'm not sure I've ever loaded and run a dishwasher completely by myself. So what I'm saying is, I should be used to this but I'm just not.

Do you have a dishwasher? Do you use it? Can you imagine life without it? If YOU are the dishwasher, do you let them pile up and then clean 'em or do you attack them as they come? I can't stand the clutter of a full sink of dishes, so I tend to do a few here and there to keep it manageable. Space is precious in the kitchen :)

medical-grade puff pancakes

I didn't get an actual guest post, but I did get the doc to cook one of his famous puff pancakes for Sister and I this weekend. I really wished I had a video camera so we could have done a "Cooking With the Doc" session. I mean, you would have liked to see that, right? I could start a whole video series, featuring me and friends scrambling around the kitchen and messing up recipes. Might be fun.

We cracked open an obscenely large bottle of champagne and alternated between mimosas and coffee for most of the morning. Then the doc showed us how to make puff pancakes, which don't really taste like pancakes at all, but more of a sweet, egg-y thing that doesn't even require maple syrup. And yes, most pancakes require maple syrup. I should tell you that this kid loves pancakes. Just loves them. In fact, let's hear it straight from the source:

Fake Guest Post

"Oh hello there. I'm a doctor and I live in Portland and I love pancakes. I also love coffee, IPAs, slasher flicks and Toni Morrison. But most of all, I love me some pancakes. I'm grateful that Christine made me write this guest post, because it is opening up a whole new world for me and I now have a greater appreciating for blogging and the super cool people who do it. I hope you enjoy this puff pancake recipe as much as we did."

Medical-Grade Puff Pancake
Ingredients

•  6 eggs
• 1 cup flour
• 1 cup milk (whole is better but we used skim)
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 stick of butter (we used about 3/4 of a stick)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. In a large bowl combine the eggs, flour, milk and sugar.
2. In a cast iron pot with high edges (I just used my regular ol' non-cast iron dutch oven) melt the butter over low heat and swirl to coat the bottom. 
3. Pour the combined ingredients over the melted butter and cook for about 20-25 minutes until set. It's ok if the pancake is still a little jiggly. It will be really puffy and glorious when it first comes out of the oven but then it will deflate, so enjoy it while you can. Scrape it out of the pan and slide it onto a plate. Slice and serve with mimosas and coffee.

I'm not sure I agree with calling these things pancakes, but it I do agree that it was a tasty breakfast treat and also really easy to make. I'm told that the recipe can be nicely halved for a smaller portion. It was the perfect complement to a weekend of great weather, Tulip Fest, Mother's Day (hey Mom!) and straight-up relaxing.

one little egg's journey

In New York, pre-trip.

In case you were wondering, yes you can send a plastic Easter egg through the mail with no packaging. It's true. I did it. Apparently you can send lots of weird things through the mail. You know, as long as they're safe. Like this cute little plastic egg.

In Oregon, after its wild ride through the USPS.

I used up some old 37-centers and a few postcard stamps too. This egg was filled mostly with jelly beans, plus a flash drive full of music, and weighed a little less than 4 oz so it needed $1.88 worth of postage according to the USPS website section on packages. And to those of you thinking that it was really risky to send a flash drive inside of an egg, because WHAT IF THE EXPERIMENT DIDN'T WORK AND YOU LOST THE FLASH DRIVE?!, I say to you that no one ever became supercool by not taking lame, harmless and perfectly legal risks. 

The very creative Amberlee of Giverslog posted a tutorial for this shenanigan on her blog, which I found though Marta Writes, and it was obvious to me that this was the perfect little package to send across the country. So I stuffed the egg full of treats, wrote out a miniature address label, taped it up and covered it with stamps. When I dropped it in the blue mailbox outside my office I giggled out loud. Imagine how ridiculous it must have been for all of the mailmen and mailwomen that handled this little Easter package. And then to picture it rolling around in my penpal's mailbox is just too much. 

Speaking of my penpal, he's home from Portland for the first time in almost a year! I was trying to plan out some fun things to do, but so far I've only come up with margaritas. We'll probably head outside to Tulip Fest if the weather's nice, considering the festival is right across the street from my place. I am going to keep pestering him to write a guest post about a crazy pancake recipe he seems to always be making, but I can't make any promises.

getting back outside

I am really digging spring right now, even with all of the rain we've been getting and the muggy days. Everything is blossoming, the park across from our apartment is green and lush and my energy is slowing returning. Over the past few weeks I've actually been able to rouse myself early enough to run before work and each time I've been glad that I did. Traffic is lighter, the breeze is crisp and it gives each day a sense of possibility and accomplishment. I always head into the winter months promising myself that I'll not only keep up my running mileage, but that I'll do most of it outside in badass winter gear no matter what the weather is because I am fierce. But then I remember how terrible it is to run outside when it's 5 degrees and blustery and dark. And then after awhile, I remember how boring the treadmill gets and how crowded the gym is after work. And how much nicer it is just to stay inside and bake and read. Springtime means getting outside again, sucking in that fresh air and exploring your town on foot. Springtime also means that it's the start of gin & tonic season, am I right?

I'm hoping to take advantage of spring's weather and do some muddy hikes, maybe a camping trip or two, and a little home redecorating before it gets too hot to do much of anything up in our third floor perch. I'd also like to ramp up our sprouting efforts, in lieu of a garden, and make some homemade cheese.

(Photo of some pretty flowers from my Nan & Grampy.)