little bites

So with the family craziness I haven’t felt like sitting down and writing a coherent blog, but I’ve still had the urge to take various pictures. Here are some common themes of my summer eating.

1. Lentils are awesome- they’re comforting and they make you saaaaaatisfied.

So I made a big batch:

I simmered 1 cup raw, which results in about 2 cups cooked, so 4 servings.

Serving number one was the hot, comforting, quickly-scarfed-down work lunch.

Lentils, brown rice, carrots for crunch and color, a spoonful of tapenade for flavah. Nuked all of those together, then added that bit of wrapped-up avocado you seen on reserve at the top.

A perfectly balanced combination.

Here’s a cold salad, in saturday’s lunch:

1.5 or so servings of lentils (for Ma and I), delicious homegrown green beans quickly blanched, chopped celery for crunch, and green onions and homemade ranch dressing for flavah.

Theme #2: My meals often evolve. Take this breakfast yogurt bowl.

Nonfat plain yogurt, then apples and cantaloupe, then shredded wheat, then chopped walnuts:

A thing of beauty, no? Look at the stratae:

However, the cantaloupe was no good! And the shredded wheat wasn’t soggy! And that’s how I love it!

So minus cantaloupe and plus milk and stirring/soggifying.

Hot mess but DELISH!

Theme #3: No matter how bad a mood I’m in, making a perfect omelet lifts it:

 

This morning’s gorge brunch :D Following serious agony over what I wanted to eat! Ultimately: omelet filled with cheddar and avocado (swoon!), grilled zucchini (heaven!), and warmed up pita (carbs!)

With yogurt n tea

 

Theme #4: In the summer, if I could pull it off, I would live on fruit.

Gorgeous fruit salad:

And my mom’s STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKE!

She does the “traditional family method”, aka the Bisquick shortcake recipe!

It is somewhat redeemed by using real whipped cream and tossing the sliced strawberries with currant jelly, mmm. I just WENT TO TOWN on some of this stuff.

Then I felt bad and did some much-overdue strength training with all my gung-ho energy from the sugar high. A great evening!

gazpach-oh!

Oh, gazpacho! How I love you! I tried to think of some clever title for the post, but gazpacho speaks for itself.

I had another great night with the ladies :D

I also made my first summer batch of gazpacho :D

My version of gazpacho is soooooooooooo easy and delicious. Really any gazpacho is so easy and delicious. It’s classic summer food. Here’s what I do.

Take a bell pepper- broil it.

Then skin it. Blanch your tomatoes, skin them. Chop everyone up. Get your plants together:

The pepper, tomatoes, english cuc if possible (less watery), garlic, green onion, and fresh oregano from the deck for flava.

Pantry stuffs:

Red wine vin (lots), olive oil (just a little), crushed red pepper flakes (to taste, quite delish), and old pita, ripped up. Use whatever breadstuffs you have. Or none. Totes nonessential.

Then I felt like I was missing something. Durr, salt. Here it is, with the veggies all layered all nice in the chopper.

Pulse the veggies til they resemble pico de gallo ish.

At this point I break out my secret ingredient that ties it all together:

Yeah that’s right. Incidentally, spicy V8 is great for black bean soup!

Here’s the final product, in my preferred gazpacho tupperware, which is actually an old hot and sour soup container we got with Chinese delivery!

Just look at the lovely colors and layers. It’s also delicious with red bell pepper, but if you do it, add parsley so you still get the great color

 

Now for my new faaaaaaaaavorite cooking medium, the grill!

Since Lydia was coming over (she’s a vegetarian), I got some of her favorite childhood vegetables:

As she called it, keeny! AWWWW!

Awesome grill marks, no?!

Not so vegetarian:

Once again, I used the leftover beef to make gorgeous grilled meatballs. This time I went for dill for the seasoning. I’ll update on this batch!

Here’s some of our gorgeous spread, laid out on the decksie:

And my burger, which is once again just beef, oregano, worcestershire sauce and salt and pepper. PERFECTION!

 

Gorgeous gorgeous grill marks!

Some may have spotted a mysterious orange something in the center of the shot. That would be GRILLED PEACHES!

Oh my goodness gracious, my new favorite thing in the land. Literally, cut a peach in half and stick it on a hot grill. That’s it.

Top with vanilla ice cream!

There’s also some meh homemade cantaloupe sorbet on the side. It was an experiment.

Anyway, this weekend has been an absolute gift. Good friends, good food. THE BEST.

sweet friends

I was going a little bonkers today- I always get freaked out and overextended feeling, especially when family stress is going on. I actually ended up taking the day off work, which was good, and then being able to spend last night and most of today at my dad’s, and also get my car inspected, get stuff done, etc.

I generally am irritated with people who profess a need for “me time”, as they’re generally those with too much time on their hands, but as I was sitting on my deck, alternately escaping from my sister’s crazy obnoxious ring tone and guilt tripping myself for missing work, my mom came out and reminded me that you need to focus on your health, physical and mental. I have to remember, too, that I am just not productive at work when I reach a certain point of exhaustion. And then I got a really nice email from my boss sending her sympathies about my grandfather. And my dad and aunts and grandma were very appreciative to have the help I was willing to give. Anyway, that’s all I can do!

So tonight I caught up with some friends, and it was wonderful!

My bestie Lydia came over first, and we mulled options for dinner. Then in a flash of genius, she remembered a “teeny tiny authentic Chinese place that’s really cheap!”

Is there ANYTHING better?

Sure enough, there it was, in a strip mall hidden behind my vet’s office!

However, the somewhat humdrum exterior belied the adorable inside:

The people who were inside seemed to be mostly Chinese! Yess! I am ridiculous about that.

The menu was of the circle what you want variety. You order a bunch of small plates and share:

We went for the veg, since Lyddie is a vegetarian. No worries, as I am a plant lover!

Lookit this gorgeous display.

Beginning on the top left and going clockwise, that’s tofu skin with edamame and mustard greens; delicious and spicy cucumber salad; a salad of tofu (doesn’t it look like mushrooms?), peanuts, and cilantro (the magic ingredient that pulled it all together!); and congee (which I’ve always wanted to try! It is grits, for all intents and purposes, and DELICIOUS!)

A few minutes later came our veggie dumplings in their adorable bowl:

 

A delicious, varied, filling meal for 2, and the total bill was $12!

Ridic!

Then we went to the awesome market next door:

We admired their dizzying selection of prefilled buns for steaming, and their rather eclectic packaged products:

Crab spawn paste, anyone?

It’s food. It’s high class. What else do you need to know?

Lydia ended up having to run to the ATM to pay for dinner, which was fortuitous since on the way she spotted this:

Oh frozen yogurt trend. Check out the crazy awesome inside!

And  the most hilarious bathroom door sign ever:

We think they spent a LOT on decor, since the froyo was, as at all these places, stupidly overpriced. But delicious! I got strawberry:

Yum yum yum! Then we met up with our other friend Lauren, where we caught up on our summers, listened to music, I gave them my clothes, since while I’m pleased to have lost some weight it makes all my clothes fit wrong and we are friends who are fond of the clothing swap.

I feel infinitely better than I have in days. Thank God for friends!

slight break

No blogs for a few.

My dad's dad actually died very unexpectedly on Sunday. VERY unexpectedly. My 85 year old grandfather was doing his usual lap swimming (!) Go him.

So yeah, in the lelelurvesplants blog chronology, I found out between the pancakes brunch and the chicken dinner.

Between seeing family (where I want to be) and work (where I definitely don't), I'm quite low on the free time for cooking. And definitely not a ton of time or interest in blogging. And really, eating, although there's something about grieving- I ate some pie rather INTENSELY this evening.

So I'll be back in a lil while, but I wanted to post this because I feel an obsessive need to keep the blog updated for my reader(s?).

Hah, and somewhat funny and food related- my dad has tried to grow tomatoes for many many years, and he's definitely had some good ones, but has also had his various trials and tribulations with deer/insects/weather/etc. So this year, he was all set to finally show his dad his BUMPER CROP of BEAUTIFUL TOMATOES. Like, the plants are overflowing, they are things of beauty. And tonight he said "Aw, now I can't :("
So I told him when we pick them we can do a tomato toast to my grandpa. RIP Jasper.

a stroll through the neighborhood in Crete

There are lots of delicious food places in Greece, not necessarily restaurants.

Let’s start with PRODUCE!

These outdoor fruit and veg displays are ubiquitous in Greece. Since this was Crete, those oranges were likely grown literally down the street. Everything is FRESH and BEAUTIFUL. There is definitely a shorter distance and amount of time spent between vine and store in Greece, and it’s really reflected in the produce.

We hit up the morning market in Rhethymno, which was a chaotic, crowded, fascinating display of, alternately, touristy junk and BEAUTIFUL fresh farm fruits and vegetables:

Now let’s talk COFFEE!

Illy was EVERYWHERE. I fancifully feel connected to it because of my name (although no one- NO ONE- is allowed to call me Illy. It’s Lele or Ileana!)

If you’re looking for a more exotic beverage, you could try this:

Hahaha, love that it’s only in English. Oh, what they must think of us.

Finally, when you see the word “Zacharopastia”, which in Greece looks ridiculous because P is R and so on, you know you are about to have something TASTY!

Zacharo= sugar! (and is, incidentally, the origin of my mom’s family name, Zacharias).

Here was our  neighborhood pastry shop in Crete:

The street you had to cross was BUSY! You felt like you had earned your dessert!

Here are some of the wares you might encounter in a Greek pastry shop…

Flavor upon flavor of ice cream! It was especially big in Crete- it’s an island full of beaches!

I was stoked about this because I could translate: P=R, upside down V=L. Therefore, that= karamela, aka CARAMEL! Victory!

Here’s what we picked up for my sister when she was feeling sick:

 

Nothing like a deep fried diple to perk you up!