all new

Guys, I really really love North Carolina. Really, to be simultaneously more specific and vastly more melodramatic, I love my new life. I just finished up my workday by doing some child development training at a totally cool cafe, which I can walk to. I strolled home listening to crickets, and was pleasantly surprised when a stag ran across my path. I’d experienced the cool urban style cafe, with the free city of Carrboro Wifi (lovvve), then walked home under a tapestry of stars with nature all around me.

Outdoors, if slightly less scenic, is my cute little balcony. Since I left most of my garden at home, I tried to recreate the effect of my awesome deck with a basil plant. I enjoyed looking at it (and, er, my air-drying bikini top that apparently fell into my shot) with my leftovers from the wonderful Mediterranean deli.

Which I supplemented with a salad made of farmer’s market yellow tomatoes and the deck basil.

Despite my awkward and introverted tendencies, I’ve made friends here largely effortlessly, mostly because everyone here is so damn friendly!

Anecdote 1: I had a friend visiting from out of town (he and his preggo wife are thinking bout moving here). We took them to the farmer’s market. Whilst there, over the course of about ten minutes we ran into six people we knew. My friend goes, “Wait, I thought you’d only lived here for two weeks…” It is a small town in the best possible way.

Anecdote 2: Yesterday I was headed out to the grocery store (which is NEXT DOOR to my complex; so walkable!) and ended up chatting with my neighbor and her cute little boy, and then my other neighbor’s cute little boy showed up too and we ran around chasing their kids for an hour and never bought groceries and now we’re having a cookout on Saturday. There are countless adorable little places to eat. There are neighborhood cats who I visit regularly and pet intensely. Anecdote 3: Somebody I met at a party sold me a bike for $40.

The aforementioned farmer’s market is magnificent and ENORMOUS. I’m already buddies with one lady who sells amaaaaazing samosas and told me all about Krishna’s birthday, which was last week. FYI. The aforementioned farmers market is also where my boyfriend was kind enough to buy me THIS AWESOMENESS HOLY SHIZZ GUYS.

The company:

Awesome:

But let’s be real, am I even thinking about the local and wholesome street cred? FALSE. I am thinking about THIS IS THE BEST PEANUT BUTTER EVER EVER EVER.

Another great lunch: more tomato-basil salad, scads of watermelon (which had to do with me being DYING OF THIRST as I prepared this lunch) quickly pan sizzled tempeh, and tortilla with OH MY GOD THAT PEANUT BUTTER.

 

I’ve been trying to eat in, and successfully putting together proper healthy meals for myself for the first time in quite awhile, but don’t worry. I’ve still been spending too much money going out to eat and exploring my new area. Neal’s Deli, an awesome place:

Pimiento cheese for lunch? OH YES. Truth: I ate most of the celery (which is delicious with pimiento cheese) and carrots; and I DEMOLISHED those MAGNIFICENT pickled green tomatoes. And the homemade pretzel chips, well, I didn’t hate those. But, in my defense, I could only make a dent in the pimiento cheese, so I took it home, and accidentally left it in Steve’s fridge, and he ate it, and I was sad.

Another home meal, enjoyed on the coffee table while sitting on the fuuf.

I was going out of town imminently for work training (more on that in a future post!) so this was a “use up all the vegetables in the fridge’ stir fry. Corn, peppers, tomatoes, basil, yadda yadda.

Think I was also thirsty planning this one. More scads of watermelon and some yogurt ‘n cinnamon.

  

If you think that meal looks insubstantial, you are correct! So I ate a thousand roasted almonds afterwards. It’s all good.

I brought my chickpea flour with me in the move, so I could make socca. Everyone knows that socca, when made correctly, is really a delivery vehicle for olive oil and salt and pepper. Was delighted to bring my AWESOME bunny shaped, magnetic, utterly delightful salt and pepper grinders out of storage.

And fact: socca is even MORE delicious when topped with melty cheese and served with salsa. Like bar food and yet really quite respectably healthy.

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.

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.