cookin up a storm

I am currently ensconced in my basement listening to the wind howl(ish) outside. Relieved to have the day off and not have to drive in this, relieved to have the excellent company of my cat and boyfriend, relieved to be wrapped in my sister’s Snuggie she foolishly did not bring to college. Still have power, for now. It’s going soon, inevitability.

Anyway, obviously it’s been awhile, so here’s a nice update on my life, in the form of haiku!

We begin with stress. Stress begets somewhat atypical and not particularly virtuous food choices. 

roasted tomatoes
boxed macaroni and cheese
surprisingly good

 

plus from the freezer
ravioli and dumplings
Can you tell I love carbs?

 

Woke up one morning
only a grilled cheese sandwich
would gladden my heart

 

I put a leftover okra-tomato mix inside with the cheese. The tomato was great. The okra was not, with cheese. Live and learn. Took it out.

 

I was pushing the calcium for the week before my bone marrow donation because they gave me blood thinners they warned me could lower my calcium. So. Yogurt!

  

Injections that stim-
ulate blood stem cell growing
make you feel like crap

I discussed this in my last post. Man, being nauseous all day suuuuuuuuuuuuuucks. I have a new sympathy for pregnant women, and a continued desire to never become one myself.

Oooh, plain oatmeal with sliced banana I gagged down for breakfast!

 

My mom made me soup for dinner, which was very kind of her since the only thing more disgusting to me at the time than eating food was cooking food.

Then I took phenergen, which really never did that much for my stomach (awesome.) but was also difficult in that for it to be most effectively absorbed I had to take it two hours after eating or one hour before. With the schedule of meds I was on, it meant I would have to take it and then have a midnight snack. I called Steve and was generally sort of weeping weakly at the thought of food, and he recommended buttered noodles. Thank God for buttered noodles.

 

But enough of the griping, eh?

I made the donation. While I wouldn’t call it fun (when you wear a tourniquet for a few hours, you start to feel as if someone is stabbing you over and over in the arm), it was an amazing thing to be told that my bone marrow had produced 335 million new stem cells (!!!) and that they were going on an airplane to Europe that night (!!!) to be given to the recipient the following day.

I will hopefully receive an update on her condition 30 or 60 days after the donation. I think about her often.

Anyway, I got well! Slowly, and a little weirdly (the day after my donation I was awake for maybe five hours total; and the day after that, my first day back at work, I had Wendy’s for both breakfast and lunch- a surprisingly delicious egg sandwich with a REAL egg! and a baked potato- and then went to a bar with Steve to watch the Nationals heartbreakingly lose and had tater tots for dinner) but eventually, I was okay.

Back in fightin’ form
Charm City birthday weekend
heavenly/pricy

Steve took me for a belated birthday weekend in Baltimore. We had an amazing time. No pictures!

Then my mom wanted to do something the week after to celebrate my birthday. I don’t think turning 24 is a big deal, but I agreed since she had a cake she’d won at a silent auction she had to claim. So we called it a “cake eating occasion'”, and it was actually really fun to hang with the fam.

And ohhhhhhhh the cake.

It was gorgeous (I had to freeze the rest due to lack of self-control, but kept a big ol’ slab in my fridge for a few more days). The remains of the beautiful writing and gold leaf dusting:

 

Awesomely dense cake
Then hazelnut mousse atop
Crunchy choco-shell

 

All that celebrating was fancy but expennnnnsive. So Steve and I took a vow not to eat out for a month. And lo and behold, I have had a BLAST actually COOKING again!

Afghani pumpkin
So rich! So sweet! You should try!
Recipe online 

God, SO delicious! Wonderfully sweet and tender pumpkin, perfectly seasoned; and the garlic-yogurt sauce on top perfectly balanced it out.

To accompany:

On a quest for naan
First recipe just okay
Set off smoke alarm

 

Kale chips ala Steve
Unphotogenic but great
Olive oil; soy sauce

Steve has also stepped it up- he made a wonderful improvised curried roasted sweet potato soup when I came over to his place.

Classy new backdrop
Steve’s new couch from Ikea!
Neutral; good lighting

Also from Ikea: the table I helped build. We used it for… POTLUCK!

It had been a lonnnnnng time since we did the potluck ritual. Frankly, it got to be a bit much for awhile. But after a break of, oh, 16 months, it seemed fun and exciting again. And great to get everyone together.

The following is a haiku in three separated lines.

Fab cheese and crackers…
 

 

…Two STRONG types of sangria…

  

…Identical lentils!

Patricia and I both made lentils. Hers involved coconut milk. Mine was inspired by a shockingly tasty spice packet I got at a fab new little Indian store I discovered.

Silly theme this time
Steve is reading Atlas Shrugged
Railroad shaped pizza

I told people that Steve wanted to make railroad-shaped food items inspired by his recent reading. I said that this could be interpreted as a theme of architectural food; book-inspired food; or right wing food.

Some people had fun with the right-winger theme.

We watched this ridiculous video.

And so, we reach the past few days, hunkered down anticipating the looming hurricane. Cooking up a storm.

We have winning naan!
Whole milk yogurt is the key
So fun to watch puff!

This recipe is great and foolproof! You keep the pan dry (I used a cast iron skillet, per the recipe’s recommendation) and put in the bread til it poofs.

Flip it and admire the brown/black speckles.

Cook just til the other side is done, then remove and smear with butter (Steve thoroughly enjoyed this assignment)

SO GOOD! Actually tasted like legit naan! Albeit whole wheat, health fiend that I am (though thanks, Mom, for accidentally buying the whole milk yogurt. That’s what MADE it!)

 

Yummy pockets!

Here we are Sandy
Fortified with comfort food
Edgy but well fed

A lunch for Steve and I, made in a cozy and still (for now) electrified kitchen.

Split pea soup and flatbreads with a variety of toppings.

 

All contain cheese. Clockwise from the top left: mango chutney, tiny garden tomato, za’atar, and artichoke tapenade.

 

And now I have a hurricane outside and six library books to read. Life could certainly be worse.

makin’ some cells

Hello friends!

I have spent the past three days popping over to an out building of the hospital to get my injections! Injections of filgrastim, a drug that makes my clever body make lots ‘n lots ‘n lots of stem cells. Those stem cells then overcrowd my bone marrow and get pushed out into my blood. Where they will be waitin’ and circulatin’, for the very nice doctor types to extract on Wednesday. Where they will then be put on a plane to…? (they can’t tell me!) to a 33 year old woman with acute myelogenous leukemia. And, God willing, my cells will then find their way to her bone marrow and grow her a new immune system.

Actually having friends-of-friends who have benefited from these transplants, I truly do feel what an incredible honor it is to be matched with someone (your odds are only 1 in 540: thus the importance for registering! You can do so here!)

And I myself am benefiting from truly truly just taking care of myself. Being absurdly grateful for being in such good health that the benefits extend beyond my body to that of another’s.

So anyway yesterday was actually my birthday… not knowing how I’d be feeling with side effects of meds, I didn’t make formal birthday plans (though I’ve still been spoiled senseless by my loved ones and will continue to be). It was a lovely day (well,ugly in terms of weather… but lovely in terms of experiences) that involved pho (my iron’s low, per a CBC they did on my blood on Saturday, so I have medical permission to chow down on burgers and steak this week), wandering through museums (walking is supposed to improve the whole stem-cell-making process and as an added bonus it helps my near-constant lower back pain), and watching Best In Show. Real birthday celebrations will happen later on.

And in the meantime, I am enjoying all the love around me.

My boyfriend Steve is pretty great, and gave me one of my great loves, Great Harvest! Dakota bread I think is the best bread in all the land.

 

Great Harvest is the shizz, too, and when he told them it was my birthday, gave him a cookie to give me. There are no pictures of it because it disappeared into our bellies too fast.

Having bread is good for this faux-pregnant intermittent nausea thing I have. I can’t eat too much… but I can’t eat too rarely.. and vegetables are skeeving me out… and basically bread is what works.

Also dried fruit, and my oh-so-wise sister must have sensed this, since she sent me birthday love in the form of a really boss fruit and nut platter. I love fruit and nuts always, but particularly now. Also dried fruit=iron! Gosh, look how little of that is left.

 

Also, for iron, I totally demolished this banh mi for lunch today.

Back story: I went to the mall this morning in an effort to walk (slash stimulate cell growth/alleviate back pain) somewhere it wasn’t gray and cold and gross. And also to buy my friend a wedding present! But I went the apparently too-long four hours without eating (seriously?!) and got kinda queasy and also didn’t really feel like cooking anything for lunch but PRAISE BE! Was in the general vicinity of Banh Mi DC Sandwich.

And then I was like “Ok, iron, you should get the roast beef…” but was unenthused about it and then read further on and saw PATE! Aka LIVER, aka iron like whoa. I’ve been thinking about my grandmother throughout this whole process, but particularly when I ate liver. Lady loved her some liver and onions. And pate. She would approve.

This was delicious and I ate it all.

Finally, my mom loves me and has prepared for every possible scenario. She has taken Tuesday and Wednesday off work to tend to me. She emptied CVS of their heat wraps. I am rocking an incredibly sexy gauze and heat pack belt beneath my sweatpants. Just try to envision the sheer allure.She has bought me seltzer, crackers, and popsicles for possible puke-age.

And she joined me in watching/getting misty eyed over this clip. Mr. Rogers loves me (and you).

fun with figs

Home from work, with a break til a doctor’s appointment. AND MY CAT IS BEING SO CUTE AND I CANNOT STAND UP AND UPROOT HER FROM MY LAP. She’s just so purry and cuddly and sleepy and happy. Also warm.

So I will blog.

FIGS!

Fig preserves:

 

My aunt has a fig tree which produces figs which means, of course, it produces 10,000 figs, because that’s how fig trees roll. We spent maybe twenty minutes picking them (while gabbing, of course) and she counted that, plus the amount she’d already picked that morning and preserved, to be, oh, ten cups.

Pause for a moment to think about how expensive figs are at the store. Maddening, no?

Bounty!

We sat down to lunch, where I was reminded how much I love just throwing together a whole bunch of tasty nibbles…

… and taught that olives are infinitely more delicious when heated in olive oil. Who knew?

 

An absurdly delicious tasting plate.

I took a baguette (oh guess what I LOVE BAGUETTES and eating 100% whole grain is just not satisfying. I can do 50 and perhaps even 90 percent but baguettes I love you indescribably.)

On one half of the baguette piece, I put fresh sliced tomato and drizzled it with a wonderful homemade vinaigrette that involved tarragon-infused vinegar. On a quarter of it, I put sun dried tomato hummus. On the other quarter, garlic hummus and cucumber. On the side, smoked salmon and a wonderful grilled variation on ratatouille. It was the BEST.        

My aunt Jeanie is one of my favorite people to talk to ever. Her wisdom and humor make the hilarious dysfunction of my extended family seem amusing and interesting rather than depressing. We watch Top Chef together and gab about things to make with miso (my favorite miso soup- found in Recipe Inspiration- apparently had my uncle Tim “writhing in ecstasy” when she made it the next day)

I always get sent home with gifts.

Farm-fresh garlic!

And of course, a boatload of figs.

I brought some to my boyf and his roommate. Steve has only had fresh figs in my presence, and Daniel hadn’t at all. They hoovered them in under ten minutes.

But I saved some for me, for fab post-church brunches :)

In a bowl, with yogurt

Avec a toasted English muffin and leftover roasted potatoes. The English muffin was toasted with the most SPECTACULAR and OH SO EASY bean dip.

Awesome bean dip

1 can white beans, drained
whole buncha fresh sage, ideally picked from one’s deck
olive oil and lemon, to taste
lotsa black pepper

GOD IT WAS SO GOOD.

And obligatory tea bucket. Delightful!

  

Then the potatoes weren’t doing it for me so I got out some absolutely scrumptious farmer’s market tomatoes and had those instead. With more bean dip! So good!

new attitude

My life has brought a lot of (awesome) changes in the past few months. More a new attitude more than anything else, but wow do a new set of (rosier colored) glasses change everything about your life.

Last weekend found me happily frying falafel. That was great.

 

A few weekends before that- sitting in on a master’s level communications course at the MPH/RD combined program at UNC (for those of you not as well-versed in nonsensical acronyms, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has a program that allows you to simultaneously earn a master’s in public health and complete the coursework and internships necessary to sit for the exam to become a registered dietitian. It’s BOSS.) I also ended up on a private tour of Duke Lemur Center (it’s a long, awesome story and was one of the best experiences of my life).

 

A few weekends before that- enjoying the beautiful sights of Berkeley Springs, West Virginia with my awesome boyfriend, who’s just been extra awesome lately. Our first day involved a great deal of torrential rain which was absolutely positively NO PROBLEM, because it allowed me to vegetate in the incredible claw-foot bathtub.

 

My end of summer days have also involved great times with families, a work situation that finally, finally, at moments, seems to be defusing, and other good things.

 

But really? Here’s what happened:

It all started with me feeling totally panicky at how I was looking and how much weight I was packing on due to being a big ball of stress. I think it was a pick-your-poison kind of thing- for me, when my head is a mess all of the symptoms will manifest themselves at my body. For other people, maybe they drink/yell/smoke/gamble/sleep/sleep around too much.

And fortunately, due to my own wherewithal (something for which I have given myself too little credit in the past), along with the help/love of the awesome people in my life, I dealt with it. And dealt with it meaning actually started looking at my emotions, and the patterns in my head, and my coping skills, and my support system, and all the stuff that actually matters (and uh, p.s., in a rational world where it’s supposed to be what’s on the inside that counts, how much you weight dooooooesnt matter!).

So I feel like a gazillion times better. Like, holy amazing, SO MUCH BETTER. So much kinder to myself, so much more pragmatic when dealing with other people who stress me out, so much less anxious in making decisions about the future, and so much more confident in my own intelligence/capability/compassion.

So hurray for that.

Also, my cells are kicking ass too- I will in fact be giving some of them to someone with leukemia. Next month! On October 6 (the day before my 24th birthday!) I’ll get my first injection of filgrastim, a drug that’ll make my body start making extra stem cells in my bone marrow and then, once my bones get too crowded, release them out into my veins. Five days of those injections, and on day five they’ll take out my blood, spin it through a centrifuge, and give it back to me sans stem cells (and a few platelets to keep them company on their journey to the recipient in EUROPE).

So many things about the process amaze me- the fact that I am one of the 1 in 540 that’s a match for an unrelated donor; the fact that that person is outside of the United States even though my totally mutt genes (7/16ths Greek, 1/16 Irish, 1/4 English, 1/4 South African) seem like something that only could’ve come together in the US. Thinking about my cells going into someone’s body, then (God willing- and it’s a scary and dangerous process and I pray for the recipient) going through their body and knowing to find their way to this woman’s bone marrow, then growing her a new immune system. If she and I have unrelated blood types, if my cells successfully transplant, her blood type will become my blood type. Crazy! So crazy!

I definitely have big plans for the not-too-distant future related to what my everyday life will look like. It could mean more blogging… or not.

But in the meantime, I am just enjoying life a lot more. I am not perfect, nor will I ever be. My life is not perfect, nor will it ever be (and I am struggling to figure out what are realistic expectations for a career, since unfortunately my current “dream job” hasn’t necessarily panned out the way I would’ve envisioned). But life is really, really good.

As was this falafel!

 

Made it for some friends/families we had over for a get together last weekend. Just cause I’d always wanted to make it (and cause we had a mix! It incorporated both powdered chickpeas AND fava beans. Just delish!).

Appetizers began with homemade tortilla chips (tortillas sprayed with cooking spray; sprinkled with garlic salt, paprika and cumin; and baked til crispy) and hummus (that I made too lemony, agh!)

 

Then awesome Steve arrived with amazing cheese from Cheesetique, basically my favorite place in the world; and wine to match from a shop in Adams Morgan. Appetizers WON.

For the main course, along with the falafel was lamb (which I overcooked grrr. I was so delighted to find out that the lamb from Lebanese Butcher is not only halal and organic, it is also LOCAL, from Warrenton, Virginia, probably less than thirty miles away. AND I OVERCOOKED IT AGH.). The pink things are pickled turnips, which are divine.

 

Made my favorite summer squash recipe- Indian spiced grilled baby squash from Cooking Light- which I couldn’t actually grill due to the tornado warnings outside but was nonetheless delightful made under the broiler.

Annnnd my mom made  a great couscous salad.

 

Dessert was farmer’s market ice cream (strawberry shortcake and blackberry Cabernet from Sinplicity Ice Cream- so great!) and my mom’s homemade peach cobbler.

All were wonderful, all went unphotographed, but I’d say this is a rather long enough post, eh?

guest post! from Maine

The following was written by my super cute boyfriend Steve, who went to beautiful Maine without me while I slaved at my overcrowded desk at work.

As Ileana would much prefer, I should skip the platitudes, clichés or repetitions that have been rendered meaningless through their frequent usage. But for this post, I open with just one:

“Absence sharpens love, presence strengthens it.”

Aboard this little skiff, lobster snares provide the fishermen of Corea, Maine with a bounty of $2-3/lobster

Not too long ago, I parted from Ileana for a trip with my Mom and Dad to the Northeast. The real Northeast, where lobsters are steamed by the wayside and sea catch still dominates port town economies; and where trees still converse in the heart of the mainland. It was on this journey to Acadia National Park, where Ileana’s absence became glaringly apparent. Not just in the sentimental, “I miss you like a cheeseburger misses bacon,” sense, but in a very tangible, very deliberate, “why in the heck is no one appreciating the culinary-genius of this food?” sort of way.

En route to Acadia my family and I passed farm stands, but just kept driving. We dined at really fun places like chowder joints and lobster pounds, but something ceremonious was being left out of our travels. I found myself staring at my food, and thinking, “why is nobody taking a picture of this?” Finally, at Jordan Pond, in Acadia National Park, I gave in and started snapping pictures of food. I figured at least I would have some food memories to show Ileana, because without her, food documentation has been a zero-zilch-nada in my life.

At Jordan Pond Popovers are served. It’s sort of like if a double-thick crescent roll were slammed into a muffin tin and then rebelled, unsuccessfully, from its confines.

Which brings me to the purpose of this post: when I first started dating Ileana, she apologized to me for making me wait a moment to take pictures of my food when we were dining out together. It was when she surprised me for my birthday by taking me to Grassroots Station, a place where the meat was as ethically raised as it was deliciously prepared. Anyhow, her careful documentation started as a curiosity for me, and burgeoned into one of my favorite things about her. See, Ileana’s an artist. Not just with her ability to create, but also with her ability to appreciate food. She unwraps layers of cuisine complexity, sheds light on the marvel of their design, and provides an experience of nuanced pleasure.

Of the many things that make Ileana who she is, her ebullience for food is something that makes her glorious. Ileana, thank you for this blog and for making food an experience. Your presence was missed in Acadia. In the case of our food, we had beauty without the beholder.