movin on in

Loving life in North Carolina! Too brain dead from training (which is ongoing… I’ll greatly appreciate Labor Day weekend!) to discuss a great deal, so this post is all about the eats.

Move in weekend my cousin Stephen was nice enough to help me relocate all of my stuff. Special thanks to his parents for lending out their mega SUV, which is the only reason I have a bed right now! Naturally, we had to reward him for his help (he moved some of Steve’s things that had been loitering in my garage as well) by taking him out for fun meals. We may have been rewarding ourselves, too!

Our first night in town (after an invigorating post-furniture-moving swim in MY NEW COMPLEX’S POOL WOO HOO!) was a restaurant onto which we simply stumbled, Milltown. Fun menu packed with local goodness. Lovely courtyard (there are soooooo many outdoor eating options in this temperate climate of ours!)

We split the local goat cheese appetizer; seriously, just READ THAT!

 

It looked SO COOL! Did not expect black sesame seeds. Not only did they look awesome, the seeds’ texture and nuttiness worked beautifully with the tangy creamy goat cheese. And that pear salsa was also pretty boss.

I opted for a special… they had me at poblano. Or heirloom tomato. Oh and crab. All of it. I wanted all of it.

It was ENORMOUS! I couldn’t even finish it, so Steve took one for the team and ate some of the succulent avocado-drenched crab. He’s a sport.

Meanwhile, I had to take a picture of my cousin Steven’s weird burger!

 

Our next stop was HOPPIN!

Mediterranean Deli has been recommended to me by basically everyone I have met in this area (and even people I’ve only sort-of-met, like various potential roommates I Skyped with over the spring). It did NOT disappoint.

It helps that when you walk in you are greeted by a magnificent toppings bar.

And a big heaping pile of za’atar, some of which I definitely absconded with for my pantry.

 

We amused ourselves with toppings (little pickled turnips, wonderful whipped feta dip, olives, and so on until our entrees arrived. I got their falafel, which was impeccable.

 

See it peeking out? Tender within, crispy on the outside. Falafel is awesome.

 

This cauliflower was roasted with sumac, and intrigued me so much I had to get a side of it. It was fabby!

Steve got the two side dishes plate (from their masssssssssive deli section). He opted for the chickpeas with spinach and the leek casserole. This plate is in my future, until I have tried every single deli selection.

woke up wanting…

… a tuna melt! So I had one at, oh, 9:30 in the morning. (Note that I didn’t wake up at 9:30… at least on that particular day. I tend to spend the morning pleasantly loitering, perhaps doing crossword puzzles in bed, until my appetite wakes up. This is an absolute luxury of funemployment- my temporary state til classes start up in January- and I am thoroughly taking advantage of it).

Anyway, the tuna melt was everything I dreamed of and more.

 

Joining the tuna melt on the plate (along with Sriracha-spiked ketchup) were a few leftover green tomatoes and sweet potatoes I’d made earlier.

At long last, my summer tomato adventure had ended (*sob*), finding me picking tomatoes in my boxers at 11 at night before the first frost came. They came in green, and I figured I’d take advantage of the assertive texture and mild flavor and make the all-so-famous fried green tomatoes.

While not actually wanting to deal with frying (or grease making me sleepy) at lunchtime.

I threw together a batter-ish of egg, paprika, cornmeal, etc. and dunked the sliced tomaters in it.

 

Then “fried” them in a skillet with cooking spray.

The day I actually cooked them, in the general bar-food spirit I was in, I was also jonesing for sweet potato fries, so I sliced sweet potatoes and tossed ‘em with olive oil and cajun seasoning (yes!) and baked ‘em til tender.

 

Served with another craveworthy item: yogurt with fresh pomegranate. HMart had a ridiculously good sale- a pomegranate for like a buck? And perfectly ripe and fresh and awesome.

 

Woke up another morning craving pizza. This time I managed to wait until lunchtime, and made a healthy yet shockingly good version.

Flatbread (I get it from Costco), whole wheat, revived from my freezer (I find they go bad fast so I keep them there) in the toaster oven. Baked til crispy on one side, then flipped and smeared with marinara. Sprinkled with GOAT CHEESE and red pepper flakes. Baked til the other side is crispy.

Half the fun of making homemade pizza is using a pizza cutter. Tip: Target sells them for like $2. Can we say stocking stuffer?!

Served with roasted broccoli and mushrooms.

Such a virtuous yet amazingly awesome meal.

And finally, as you may be able to tell, I crave cheese almost continuously. There was a (skinny) period of my life where I didn’t eat any cheese and I am SO glad that period of my life is over, because cheese brings a lot of enjoyment to my life and life is just too short not to eat something you love, even if it makes you skinny.

In addition, for my birthday, Steve gave me a Groupon to Red, White and Bleu, a cheese shop I’ve literally passed every Saturday on my way to the farmer’s market for years and years and never gone into! Shame shame shame.

I made up for it.

Beware: the following series of photos were taken on my iPod. They are not very good.

Let’s review the cheeses I opted for. Steve didn’t go to the cheese store with me and didn’t answer his phone when I called for a cheese consult so he just had to SUCK IT UP if he didn’t like it. Fortunately, the person at the store was not only very friendly and nice, she also gave great cheese tips.

On the left is Hook’s black truffle cheddar (so deep! So decadent!). At the top is the Beemster, an intensely scented and crumbly textured very aged gouda. To the right is smokey bleu (this bleu cheese was smoked over hazelnut shells. Sounds amazing, right? Really, it just tasted like bleu cheese. I like bleu cheese, so this was not a bad thing). A recommendation from the person at the counter was the St. Marcellin, which was EXCELLENT! Like a brie on steroids. It came in its own dear tiny tureen and we put it in the oven and it got all melty… mm mm mm. SO GREAT! All of them were strong-flavored cheeses, but that’s how I like ‘em.

 

Meanwhile, Steve made pasta, I made- and burned- kale chips, and the microwave made edamame.

Steve opened up a nice Malbec- his and my fave- and I got out my other fun purchase, which was these cookies specifically designed for wine tasting. There was a sort of savory cheddar herb cookie, a chocolate-peanut butter-espresso cookie (which I never would’ve thought of with wine but was great!)- and a traditional shortbread. I was excited to buy them and support a local business. Truthfully they were a bit dry.

  

Cheese cheese cheese cheese cheese!

Feast.

why I love electricity

This begins a series of blog posts that I planned and took pictures for a billion years ago but didn’t get it together to publish til now. Enjoy!

The most ambitious “cooking” one can make when the power is out and it is 100 degrees out:

So living in Northern Virginia we were part of the exceedingly exciting derecho that knocked out billions of peoples’ power. Well millions. Okay maybe hundreds of thousands. Still.

While the storm was actually happening, I was enjoying a tasty post-Magic Mike beer with a friend. Heh. The power flickered a bit, and the bartender generously announced that if any women were feeling afraid, he’d be happy to give them a comforting cuddle. Heh. Anyway, then we left and the power was out in the garage in which we’d both parked. Eesh number one. I walked her to her car, she drove me to mine. Safety! Then I pulled out of the garage and quickly realized how insane the storm had been when there was no electricity around me for my entire drive home. Let me tell you, it is a frightening experience. Driving down one four-lane turnpike, I gave thanks for my highbeams as they helped me avoid the tree branches/limbs/trunks blocking much of the entire right lane. I tried multiple routes into my neighborhood, all unsuccessfully blocked by fallen trees. At this point on the verge of hysteria, I reached my sister and learned she and my mother were, yknow, alive, and got a tip on how to get in my neighborhood.

Getting home and looking up at the beautiful and mysterious owl atop the power line, seemingly guarding our driveway, I was reminded what’s important and what isn’t.

Anyway, following an unsatisfying night of sleep, I brewed some sun tea! Not iced tea. Warm tea. A little weird but very flavorful.

But really we were WIMPS and almost immediately (say, 40 hours in) bailed and went to my aunt and uncle’s, who have a generator.

They cooled us and fed us, sheesh. Lucky us. This was SO GOOD. Salad (we contributed farmer’s market tomatoes) and seafood pasta (made with Trader Joe’s seafood mix, which is SO GOOD and I should REMEMBER TO BUY, as well as some extra shrimp). Plus Trader Joe’s garlic naan, mmm.

This wine tastes like grapefruit and is fantastic.

The rest of the time at my aunt and uncle’s consisted of walking on the beautiful GW trail along the Potomac (I saw a great blue heron catch a fish!) and reading THE BEST BOOK I’VE READ THIS YEAR-

Attention loyal blog readers, YOU MUST READ Neversink, a completely enchanting and beautifully written (for what is ostensibly a children’s book, no less) mythological tale about PUFFINS! Get it. You want to. It’s also by a really good friend of ours :)

Continuing with the luxurious life at the generator-owners’ home, lunch was preceded by a delicious cheese plate:

And I used farmer’s market green beans and eggs we’d rescued from our fridge to make a rather spectacular salade nicoise.

   

So duh-licious!

the sweet escape

How to entirely remove oneself from a week of crazy finals, crazy work, crazy everything…

Step 1: Climb Aboard.

Actually, climb below deck, to a magical nook with built-in bookshelf, skylight, and cute boy.

Ahhhhh.

Admire the “bar”. Admire everything, really, all these absurdly tiny and fun little nooks where you find little tiny things. It’s like a dollhouse. Of cleverness.

So my fantastic aunt and uncle have a fantastic sailboat. My aunt’s name is Jeanie. My uncle’s name is Tim. The boat’s name is Terrier II.

I had an Anatomy final. I had a Nutrition final. I had a chemistry final. I had an absuuuuurdly bizarre ostensibly not-an-interview interview, and then an official interview that turned out to not be a real interview (do you get it? Good, explain it to me). This all happened in two days.

I felt, like I’ve felt for most of the past few months, unfortunately, a time at which I’ll hopefully look back at as a very unhealthy period of my life (no horrific substance abuse or anything, just deplorably poor time, stress, and nutrition management), just… lousy. Freaked out. Tense. High strung.

Friday night, finally done with all of it, I stayed up til two am just wired in my living room, unable to turn my brain off, watching a marathon of My Drunk Kitchen (which, for the record, was awesome. I’m not complaining that much).

And we headed up to Maryland and met up with the fam and drove up to a sweet little marina near Annapolis and we LEFT CIVILIZATION!

Steve celebrated with this homemade Chipwich second breakfast:

(I ate like five of those damn ooey gooey amazing chocolate chip cookies).

Once we were due for proper nourishment, I brought out some homemade white bean and Swiss chard soup. Vair nice. Lamb stock is a convenient thing to keep in one’s freezer. It elevates anything.

 

Jeanie got out Triscuits to serve with it. Excellent!

 

For the next few hours… seriously, I have no idea what I did.

Talked? Sure. Looked at scenery? Sure. Not really sure what else. An issue of Vanity Fair was involved. Lots of Diet Coke (it’s vacation, damn it).

Steve, newly a sailor boy, swabbed the entire deck. Seriously.

The point is, I kind of did nothing. It is great.

And then it was appetizer and cocktail hour!

More triscuits, soprasetta, and GLORIOUS GLORIOUS CHEESE. God this cheese was amazing.

This. Buy this:

 

And I enjoyed my first DARK AND STORMY! Holy cow.

A Dark and Stormy contains dark rum, ginger beer (not ginger ale or it won’t be delicious), and lime.

Seriously, Steve and I may make these for every gathering we ever host again. It is the most perfect cocktail. Plus, as I pointed out, the lime is good for sailors since it prevents scurvy. And ginger prevents seasickness! And rum makes me laugh.

Jeanie made a yummmmmy chicken dish with capers and red peppers.

 

And then pasta (which turns out to be kind of a pain to cook in a galley that has, yknow, teeny baby burners and very little counter space and a wee dear little sink for the colander and so on. My aunt is great).

The pasta contained frizzled proscuitto (yum!) and lots of wonderful fresh asparagus (yum!)

Stirred (carefully, on a gently rocking boat)

And dinner was a fun and crowded and chatty affair.

And then you light the dear little lamps.

  

And retire to the dear little cabin which has dear, dear reading lights.

And then I proceeded to have my best night of sleep in yearrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrs. Years! Rocked by the waves into dreamland.

Steve not so much but he did get to pee off the side of a boat, which is basically every man’s dream.

I woke up warm and cozy, drenched in good sleep, sun coming in the skylight. Coastal weather report blasting on the radio (I mean Tim is ship’s captain, so that is his prerogative).

And then Jeanie brought me coffee in bed! Dude, my dad’s mother was the QUEEN of bringing hot cups of tea/hot chocolate/coffee (depending on the individual and their age) in bed. It is the BEST tradition. I am bringing it back for my future houseguests. And Jeanie does it for her (boat)guests because she is the BEST.

And we sort of meandered back to port and got off the boat and went back and…

I JUST DIDN’T WANT TO GO BACK TO THE REAL WORLD WAHHHHH.

So Steve and I took off on one of our epic walks (cause yknow, after a day consisting of sitting down and eating, one does actually crave activity). Ten miles or so.

A nice midpoint was Del Ray.

First visit to The Dairy Godmother.

Steve just did the damn thing with a sundae. I got a strawberry rhubarb sorbet which should have been awesome except the rhubarb got lost :(

And then more walking.

And then an impulsive Groupon Now because in fact, in fact, the day I woke up in a cabin was also the day I woke up having been the girlfriend of my cute Steve boy for a year and a half OFFISH. Isn’t that nice?

A mini celebration. At a CUTE little Lebanese place that I wouldn’t’ve known about without Groupon. Layalina

Pretty, if slightly ridiculously ornamental, inside.

Warm, if not homemade bread.

 

Dizzying choices of mezze. Was very very very very pleased with what we selected.

This was like a quesadilla of delight: pita grilled filled with the most wonderful beef filling. Almost sweet; could it’ve been pomegranate molasses?! And pickled turnip, mm.

 

And the veggie sampler. AGH SO GOOD!

Starting at your 2:00, that’s pickled cabbage, some falafel (let Steve dominate that one), hummus, baba ghanoush (howwwwww do the Arabs do it so amazingly?! I have yet to make good baba ghanoush myself), fattoush salad, and last but certainly not least the most amaaaaaaazing green broad beans stewed with tomato.

I know it seems like we just ate all weekend (and, uh, basically did), but this was a nice, vaguely light and healthful sort of thing.

And it concluded with Greek/Turkish/Lebanese coffee (which are all the same thing; and the name of which depends on the ethnicity of the person who is describing it).

Well, the coffee is the same but this place added CARDAMOM! Yes yes YES! Served in that delightful long-handled serving vessel (we Greeks call it a briki).

 

And in the wee dear espresso cup. I made Steve drink it and Mr. Coffee hater loved it (even I as a very small child would have sips of my mom’s Greek coffee. It’s also quite sweet, traditionally :D)

And though they didn’t have decaf, I grinned and drank the real stuff, and still got into sleep feeling a squajillion times better for my little escape from the world.