back in the saddle

Well, not half an hour after my last woebegone post about being jobless, I got a phone call. From a job. Ten minutes later I was interviewing, ten minutes later I was hired.

I will be working at a BAKERY. It is like the mother ship is calling me home!

I am setting this to publish at 8 am on Saturday. Round about that time I will be settling into work at Tiffany’s Bakery and chowing down on this awesome portable breakfast of overnight oats:

Contents:

1/2 c. oats
~1/4 cup plain yogurt (just stuck everything in the almost-finished container!)
1/4 cup milk
1 T. Ruth’s Chia Goodness, chocolate flavor
2 strawberries, one chopped up and mixed in to the oats, the other sliced on top for blog aesthetic purposes :D
2 T walnuts
blob of rhubarb compote (!!! more on this later)

And, go figure, my lunch blah’s have also been temporarily resolved because my loving mother hit up Costco and got me faux-Flatouts!

I made a lovely sandie with the wrap, homemade hummus, sauteed squash, and lettuce.

As usual, my beloved spicy orange hummus. The only thing I (inadvertently) did to mix it up this time was somehow leave a tablespoon INSIDE THE FOOD PROCESSOR while blending. Oi oi oi. Remarkably, tablespoon, food processor, and hummus all seem unscathed.

I do things like this and go “Wow. You have a college degree.” But actually I had professors who I think could have solved global warming while simultaneously being unable to pay a parking meter.

Anyway, I wrapped up my sandwich along with apple slices and almonds. I figure no need for an afternoon snack (I’ll be working at a bakery and my boss has already said I need to “learn the products”) and if I feel like spoiling myself I’ll treat myself to a latte at Beanetics, located conveniently a few doors down :D

Okay so back to my compote-d breakfast!

My mom came home from one of our MANY family farmer’s market sources (this one was the Ballston Friday night) with these beautiful pink and green stalks:

I have been watching Tamara experiment with rhubarb deliciousness all the livelong day and desperately wanted to try rhubarb-honey compote!

In general, I just want to profess my love for Tamara’s blog, The Amateur Nutritionist. She shares awesome recipes, gave an awesome recap of her trip to Japan that would make an incredible travel guide for anyone planning to go there. Mostly, though, she’s just really funny and has a really unique point of view (the secret life of a librarian!) and is just incredibly candid, witty, and funny with the myriad food issues out there. She makes me feel unalone!

Okay so done gushing. Compote. Needed a recipe. Since Tamara was measuring by cups of frozen rhubarb and what I had was one pound of fresh rhubarb, I consulted the net, notably this recipe, and then just winged it on my own. As usual.

1 lb. fresh rhubarb, cleaned and chopped into 1/2 inch dice (about 4 cups)

This was kind of embarassing- my grandma was a rhubarb pro and made this, wait for it, strawberry rhubarb tart with meringue topping and orange custard sauce that made me just want to… weep.

However, I myself am kind of a rhubarb virgin. And I was wondering whether the green meant that part of the stalk wasn’t ripe yet. So I tasted the raw rhubarb, both pink and green. And since they tasted exactly the same (er… bitter and pretty unappealing straight up) and since I really wanted me some compote, I proceeded with the recipe.

So get yourself a small saucepan and set heat to medium high. Add
1/2 cup water
2/3 cup honey (mine is local- I cannot believe my family puts up with me and buys local honey without asking- thank you loveys!)

Bring to a boil (I thought boiling honey was really cool looking, for whatever reason).

And reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, for 15 minutes.

Halfway point…

And dunzo…

At that point add
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

And let cool and refrigerate. And thoroughly enjoy!

Aaaaaaaaaaanyway so once I’m done with work I’m headed to a BBQ at my dad’s where I will meet some more South African cousins (yaaaaaay! My dad’s Dad was South African, left because he was not a fan of apartheid, worked as a doctor in Kenya where he met my grandma and my dad was born, and then came on over here and had grandchildren including me. So I have all this family in Africa, only a few of whom I’ve met, but who all have myriad awesome stories about what it’s like to live there and I cannot wait to grill them about the world cup!).

The lame thing about the BBQ is that for a cookout, at the PEAK OF SUMMER FRESHNESS, my dad has decided that the vegetables on the menu will be potato salad and Caesar salad kits. From Costco. And I’m sure some nice feedlot meat. I’d been planning on sneaking a personalized farmer’s market veggie kabob on the grill, but now I’ll be missing my beloved Saturday morning farmer’s market outing with the new job! So I’ll eat… dessert.