three years

Two celebration posts in a row!

I celebrated my three year anniversary with Steve on November 6th. You can see where it all began- I wrote about the food, just none of the making out (just kidding mom!)- in this post.

Since our anniversary celebrations have really stretched out over a several week period, I’ll chronicle them as best I can, with the understanding that I’ve been a super slacker on the photography hunt.

In roughly chronological order:

The North Carolina State Fair. Also known as the first time I ate these:

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Fried oreos. On the suggestion of the Midwesterner. I spent the rest of the fair laughing at feisty goats and flaunting my awesome new cowboy boots.

Saxapahaw. A town in North Carolina whose name is just so fun to pronounce. We saw some rockin’ live music and Steve got some rockin’ bratwursts.

Halloween. Here is a picture of Steve and I:

 
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Our friends’ costumes included:
- Bats! Wings made out of old umbrellas. In the manner of Martha Stewart
- A pinata and a blindfolded guy holding a stick (couples costume!)
- Harry Potter and Luna Lovegood (not a couples’ costume per se, but thematically close)
- A cat, with a monkey (mother/child costume)
- A hipster (a lazy costume)

And here is what we ate (not including candy, OBVI):

When Steve makes chili, he usually does chili and cheese in a 1:1 ratio.. It was delicious.

The anniversary date (November 6th) itself.

We saw this band!

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Also known as Metric! We listened to them a lot when we were falling in luuuurve. They played “our” song last, acoustic. I cried like a little sissy baby. Shut up no I didn’t.

Here is a nice meal I made and enjoyed with Steve. Lots of farm fresh bounty, via either the CSA or the market.

 

The chicken I’d gotten at the farmer’s market from a vendor who I’ll likely NOT patronize again- I really prefer that my chickens not have feathers still in them… eeeurgh. I’d roasted it, then peeled off the skin (fortunately removing said feathers in the process). Then I threw together a not at all formal barbecue sauce that included vinegar, mustard, mango chutney, ketchup, soy sauce… random stuff like that. Go figure, Steve said it was like The Best Thing I’d Ever Made (which he does say about once a week but is still nice).

Also roasted some nice CSA purple potatoes with just olive oil, salt and pepper, and the last of a jar of salsa; underneath the chicken for a little shmaltz.

  

And simple salad with vinaigrette. As I recall, I threw some chutney in there too. Farm fresh arugula is DELICIOUS but also like DOUBLE STRENGTH of the wimpy stuff from the store, so I like incorporating a little sweetness into my dressing for balance when working with such assertive greens.

 

When I started making this meal, I did not yet know that Steve was coming for dinner. That is why it is so small! Fortunately, he and I had started making each of our own independent dinners before remembering that we were in luuuuuurve and wanted to eat lots of meals together. So he brought fried rice. It made for a well-rounded, colorful plate.

  

I’d also made some use-up-the-yogurt-lingering-in-the-back-of-the-fridge muffins. I’d snacked on an embarrassing number of them in the afternoon, and I gladly let Steve dispatch the rest for dinner.

So the next few days more fun was had.

Chiefly, seeing this guy:

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GAHHHH sweet holy heaven this man is hilarious. You knew this. But being in the same room as him while he is being hilarious is a particularly fantastic experience.

Finally, a random breakfast Steve made me. Because of the many things I love about Steve, his breakfast making technique ranks high. A lack of fear of butter plays a prominent role in this technique.

Here we have gently scrambled eggs and spinach with some homemade parmesan-roasted chips. Excellent mixed all together, with a good coating of hot sauce. Which, incidentally, is how Steve eats many things.

 

Good times on the deck

Oh deck. How I adore you.

The realities of leaving home smacked me in the heart all of my last week at home. I tried to soak it all in- cuddling the crap out of my cat, staring off my deck, enjoying the witty rappeur I share with my mother. None of it felt real and yet I was either up at night, all jittery, unable to sleep (like when I began drafting this blog post) or catatonic (like in the Biochemistry class I was finishing). Anyway, I finally got the news that I’d gotten my paws on a JOB!!! (update soon) and I received the reassuring news that I was going to be able to move my bed to the INCREDIBLE KINDNESS OF FAMILY THANKS KATHY AND TOM WHO ARE READING THIS AND LENT STEPHEN YOUR BIG SUV TO MOVE MY BED THANKS THANKS.

So I dealt with my anxiety as best I could, like reminiscing about my beloved deck. The deck is a really great place to relax and lie in the shade.

I also love the deck for cooking burgers.

From a source without reproach- Lebanese Butcher, a place I was sad to leave behind, which supplies halal, organic, local, and delicious meat.

In this case, herb-packed Lamburger!

With lettuce ‘n tomato ‘n dijon.

 

With burgers with a twist, one must have fries with a twist. Steamed sliced sweet potatoes, tossed ‘em with oil and cajun seasoning, plopped them on the grill. Fab.

Plus grilled asparagus. Clearly this meal occurred when asparagus was still in season.

The next meal we enjoyed on the deck showcased our wonderful oregano! It always winters over, and it always produces in comedically large quantities in the summer.

Used to season some chickennnnnn. Along with olive oil, lemon, s+p. Very Greek, very simple.

Gorgeous, no? Sadly, slightly overcooked. My fault. It is what it is. Steve still inhaled it.

Rounding out the meal, a fun little salad I semi got from How to Cook Everything Vegetarian: quick steamed cauliflower, capers, parsley, olive oil, vinegar, and bread crumbs toasted in olive oil atop. Mm.

  

It’s very funny for me looking at the teeny plants in this earlier phase in garden development since they’re so ALARMINGLY huge now.

 

Basically, if you’re dealing with a project that involves putting in a lot of work with questionable future payoff (childrearing comes to mind…) you should plant a garden. Everything just skyrockets.

Exhibit A: Mint.

 

Also in the produce department, we have beautiful basil (left) and sage (right). The basil is a heirloom variety and both my aunt (who gave me the seeds) and I have observed that it simply doesn’t grow as large as conventional varieties. Though its leaves are no less delicious.

The dill sprouted up valiantly but never seemed extraordinarily happy, truthfully. Too much sun?

Big pepper! I have two pepper plants and this one produced a pepper very early on in its growth and it just kept growing and growing and growing, then reddening and reddening.

   

It wasn’t 100% red when I picked it just because it had a teeny little soft spot developing, and I didn’t want it to spread!

    

I used this to make DEE-LICIOUS homemade salmon cakes. I added:
- Peppers and sweet onion, chopped very fine and briefly sauteed in olive oil
- 1 can of salmon
- whole wheat breadcrumbs
- homemade mayonnaise (yesssss)
- chives and basil from the deck (also yesssss)

Pan fried ‘em in a bit of oil and they were MONEY! Albeit unphotogenic, so you’ll just have to use your imagination.

As for the other pepper plant, it produced WEIRD PEPPERS! Not bad, but like I’d inadvertently created a hybrid: in size, they were neither tiny (like hot peppers) nor large (like bell peppers). Instead, they were medium smallish, and as they mimiced a halfway point between the two types of peppers in size, they also did in taste. Half spicy. Very exciting!

On the tomato front, most of my tomatoes were green when I skipped town. My mom sent an email that a less charitable person might describe as snarky telling me all the delicious things she’s been making with the tomatoes that I GREW. (No I jest, I just begged my family to water them as I pulled out of the driveway for the last time. I didn’t want all my work to be for naught!)

I think roma tomatoes are super bizarre looking on the vine!

   

They also grow like weeds! Though I did have a couple of the regular kind too.

Now, let’s talk squash. I had two squash plants: one was an heirloom zucchini variety that my aunt gave me the seed to grow. The other was a yellow squash plant that my thoughtful boyfriend got me when I was concerned that since I only had one squash plant it couldn’t have the squash plant sex necessary to make zucchini (yes, my knowledge of plant reproduction is extraordinary). Anyway, the yellow squash plant dutifully blossomed and produced two small yellow squash:

And promptly never did anything again.

Meanwhile, the zucchini blossom regularly produced beauuuuuuuuuutiful flowers.

 

Then off they’d plop, leaving a bare stem. Agh! My working hypothesis, supported by my buddy at the farmer’s market whom I’d brief with weekly updates, is that it’s a boy plant, and only produces boy blossoms (i.e. not the kind that produce squash. The USELESS kind!)

So, basically the only homegrown squash I ate this summer consisted of two small yellow squashies. I made a really good scramble though!

Farmer’s market eggs and spinach, regular old carrots, lotsa garlic and herbs, and the squashies.

Served atop a wrap, in brilliant sunlight.

 

the great outdoors

I took some pictures, intended for the blog, in late summer 2012. Then, due to the kind of job that frequently ended up with me doing infinite hours of work… on a Sunday… while on vacation… it was fall and the pictures no longer seemed topical.

Then, we had a spot of shockingly temperate weather in the late fall and I said, perfect! I can now post about these lovely warm-weather experiences. Surprise surprise, didn’t happen.

And now it is April, and at last warm enough again (with my qualification for being “warm enough” being, of course, the ability to grill outdoors with comfort). So at long last I seem to be ready to publish the pictures (though of course I’m only three short paragraphs into this post as I type this, so you never know, you may be reading this in 2016).

Regardless of the time of year, I love the W&OD Trail. It is particularly atmospheric on the days it threatens to storm.

When the sky began to look decidedly ominous (albeit beautiful)…

… Steve and I decided we could be warmed and sheltered in one of our favorite spots, The Pure Pasty. If you live within, say, 200 miles of Northern Virginia I’d recommend coming just for a pasty.

1. The crust is a buttery, subtly tangy, flaky, chewy taste of heaven.
2. The fillings range from perfect executions of traditional fillings to delightful experiments, including a seasonal vegetarian one that in the past has included roasted autumn vegetable delight, Indian lentils and potatoes, and spinach and feta for summer.
3. They get local, sustainable, humane meat.
4. You can get all kinds of fun British treats like bourbon biscuits (<3<3<3) and digestives.
5. Yes it’s a lot of calories but there is a beautiful and long trail a mere block and a half away to burn ‘em off!
6. Or if you want to let your inner fat kid run free (recommended), there’s a great cupcake bakery next door and a Great Harvest a few doors down.

This time we opted to split one (meaning I wasn’t hungry but Steve is Steve so he got one and then I had to take some bites cause read the above please).

And, as has happened MULTIPLE times near closing, they offered to send us home with pasties that hadn’t sold. For free. Like four. (Note that the way to differentiate the pasties is the little shape they carve on top of the crust).

Then it looked REALLY ominous. So we went to the coffee shop next door. And, knowing us, probably also stopped in the pizza place a few doors down from that (can you tell there’s a lot of good food on Church Street?!) so Steve could get another “snack”

 

Remember when I grew tomatoes? Tending and then harvesting them was one of the most rewarding, fulfilling, emotionally soothing experiences of my life.

Now that grilling season has returned, here are two things you have to do:

1. Make Martha Stewart’s grilled chicken with lemon and oregano. Butterflied whole, marinated with lemon-herb awesomeness. So amazing.

 

2. Grill peaches and serve them with cream (we had leftover cream from somethingorother and GOD cream is good).

 

Now we’ve moved up chronologically to last fall, when I made the yummiest salad.

 

It really had the whole shebang of flavors: dark, bitter farmer’s market salad greens; buttery roasted cauliflower; protein-rich hardboiled egg; sweet and crunchy chopped apples.

Best of all was the dressing: Greek yogurt, lemon juice, and mango chutney. I HIGHLY recommend this combination.

 

And now we have reached the present day, where my family hosted our first cookout of 2013!

We knew we wanted some nice grilled fish for the party, so I picked up some beautiful steelhead trout (very similar to salmon; I would’ve gotten wild salmon but Costco didn’t have it and while steelhead is farmed sustainably, not so much for salmon, per the Monterey Bay seafood guide).

For a vegetable side dish, what was fresh and beautiful and the farmer’s market- leeks- served as inspiration.

My mom found another Martha Stewart recipe, for grilled leeks. I’ll be straight with you: cleaning leeks is a huge pain, and since the recipe recommended two leeks per person (which is completely unnecessary if you buy big leeks, as ours were) it took a good long while.

Then I blanched them til just tender..

And grilled ‘em til charred and gorgeous. I had to kind of splay out their innards so they’d get charcoal-licious all the way through.

 

The steelhead soaked in this tangy lime marinade for about an hour and then I grilled it whole.

Grilling fish is tricky. Keeping on the skin as long as possible is helpful for holding it together, but at some point you have to take it off to get both sides that nice grilled flavor.

 

It all worked out. The fish was really yummy.

And I channeled my grandmother in multiple ways with dessert; first, as my mother reminded me, my grandmother always served fish with lemon dessert.

And, this dessert was really her signature. My family goes crazy for it; we were scared it had died with her, but my aunt found the recipe and I’ve made it a few times. It’s extraordinary how tasting this dessert makes all of us feel like she’s with us.

And that recipe is… Gingersnap and Lemon Ice Cream Sandwiches.

A few things to note:

1. The gingersnaps are chewy. They’re also buttery and homemade. But I want to just emphasize, these are not dried-out store gingersnaps. They are CHEWY.

 

2. The lemon ice cream is just that- ice cream. Not sorbet. Creamy, lemony ICE CREAM.

Enough said.