If people worried about their cars as much as spammers think men worry about their member, the subject headings in my spam folder would look like this:
1. my chauffeur and I recently started driving for the first time recently and he keeps slipping out of gear
2. let the big car fairy visit you"
3. Would you like your bumper to grow up to 3inches longer?
4. One little pill and you could drive all night long
4. buy f1r$t rate G44OL1NE
Thursday, August 30, 2007
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Tomate en Pan Crujiente for Tuesday
Today I tried a new addition to my lunch. (Are those audible gasps of shock I hear? no? Just the fan you say?) A sandwich version of pan con tomate. Actually, this is such a bastardized version that I don't think you can still call it that, but let's not get ahead of ourselves. I got the idea for this tomato sandwich from an article last week in the nyt gushing over ways to use the abundant (abundantly gushing? perhaps. oh dear) tomatoes now in season. Thank you Melissa Clark! One of the more simple (elegant?) recipes was for toasted bread rubbed with garlic, drizzled with olive oil, further rubbed with tomatoes, and perhaps a sprinkling of salt too. I like this as you get these bright and harmonious flavors and textures to come together quickly. With this simple idea in mind I made an "adaption" that would transport more easily to work.
Over the weekend, I went to a farmers market for some fresh nectarines. I also picked up some green/red heirloom tomatoes. These have the most amazing flavor. The main flavor is an intensified tomato but with the smallest hint of bitterness. Oddly, they taste vaguely salty, which is not a flavor I have ever found in homegrown tomatoes before.
For the sandwich I toasted some asiago/olive bread last night and let it cool till this morning The garlic, sadly, was omitted lest my co-workers grow angry (I already occasionally nasally assault them with cooked broccoli). One slab of toast was drizzled with olive oil while the other was covered with centimeter thick slices of the farmers market tomato (and a dash of black pepper). I let the liquids seep into the bread as I got ready. I then tightly wrapped the bread in plastic. When I ate it later it has a soft middle with a satisfyingly crunchy exterior and the great flavors of the bread, tomato, and oil. We could call it tomato in crunchy bread or tomate en pan crujiente which is fun to say. I will hope "google translate" has not led me astray. Any better name suggestions are welcome.
ps: Why does blogger hate me? It seems to take my nicely typed paragraphs and squish them all into one giant super paragraph. Why can't it accept that smaller paragraphs make for nice reading? Rawr.
Monday, August 27, 2007
Another Monday and More Ice
I awoke this morning to my roommie knocking on my door, which I tried to ignore (for a bit), and when she insisted still knocking I peeked out and found workmen had entered the apartment. They were here to tape up our windows. The managers of our apartment complex have decided to rip out the old pool and apply fiberglass, sand the fiberglass, and then re-coat the fiberglass with more fiberglass. Unfortunately, our little apartment is right over the pool. The pool re-surfers (workmen? pool-dudes?) began Thursday and Friday of last week and we were choking on the fumes both evenings we come home. It was lovely.
The managers agreed to have the windows sealed this morning, and hence the workmen in our apartment. Our windows were sealed by the sweaty workmen while I made a smoothie with coffee ice cubes, milk and banana. I love this recent addition to my breakfast as it has the consistency and flavor of an ice cream with the morning caffeine I need and some fruit!
The rest of the day was just a typical day, except for some very exciting news. Some friends who recently moved to Seattle sent out a pregnancy announcement and attached a sonogram of the fetus. In the email they mentioned that since they have been in Seattle they have been in some serious Mexican food withdrawal and are adjusting to the more prevalent rain. Unlike some sonogram images this one actually looked like a little baby. I am thrilled for them and know they will be excellent parents. I'm tempted to send the sonogram back with a photoshopped burrito in the fetus' hands. Then they would clearly see the family resemblance.
This evening I came home to find my room had the faint scent of the workmen from this morning. It was odd and gross to find a scent left over from 9 hours earlier. I wanted to make a mint and lime icee to cool off but with the mint on the balcony and our windows taped shut I had to improvise. I needed something else that would be cool and refreshing to blend with ice. In the fridge I found a bag of celery a friend brought over a few weeks back when I needed maybe three stalks for a recipe. His misunderstanding and abundance - he brought two large bags - ended up being greatly serendipitous. I'm not a fan of celery in general - I find it too stringy - although it is wonderful very cold with ranch dressing and hot buffalo wings. I thought "what the hell" since I would have probably thrown the celery out in a few weeks anyways. I usually feel too guilty to throw out perfectly good foods in my fridge even when I have no earthly idea how I plan to use them. Please don't ask me how they get there in the first place.
I roughly chopped the celery and whirled it with some ice and a squeeze of lime. It was wonderful! What I had worried would be an over-powering green-ness was actually nicely cut with the tangy lime and mellowed into a sweet base. Further, and this was thrilling, while I had thought celery from a blender would be a stringy mess it actually was very similar to the consistency of the blended ice. The celery was a slightly-sweet but non-cold version of blended ice.
The rest of the evening was spent at my sister's place (since I still had to air out the male BO from my room) watching "Thank You For Smoking" and eating leftover panang curry. I was also simultaneously writing this here entry and trying to advise an old friend on how to practice flirting. His homework this week is to make eye contact once a day with someone he does not know. He must hold this eye contact for a fraction of a second longer than he is comfortable and then smile very slightly to break the contact. I'm not sure if he will get immediate results but I am hoping he begins to build some confidence.
And that was Monday. This post was not really building to any sort of structured recipe. I am just trying to write some more and to occasionally remember what it is I have been eating. So I will end it by slinking off to bed. Night!
The managers agreed to have the windows sealed this morning, and hence the workmen in our apartment. Our windows were sealed by the sweaty workmen while I made a smoothie with coffee ice cubes, milk and banana. I love this recent addition to my breakfast as it has the consistency and flavor of an ice cream with the morning caffeine I need and some fruit!
The rest of the day was just a typical day, except for some very exciting news. Some friends who recently moved to Seattle sent out a pregnancy announcement and attached a sonogram of the fetus. In the email they mentioned that since they have been in Seattle they have been in some serious Mexican food withdrawal and are adjusting to the more prevalent rain. Unlike some sonogram images this one actually looked like a little baby. I am thrilled for them and know they will be excellent parents. I'm tempted to send the sonogram back with a photoshopped burrito in the fetus' hands. Then they would clearly see the family resemblance.
This evening I came home to find my room had the faint scent of the workmen from this morning. It was odd and gross to find a scent left over from 9 hours earlier. I wanted to make a mint and lime icee to cool off but with the mint on the balcony and our windows taped shut I had to improvise. I needed something else that would be cool and refreshing to blend with ice. In the fridge I found a bag of celery a friend brought over a few weeks back when I needed maybe three stalks for a recipe. His misunderstanding and abundance - he brought two large bags - ended up being greatly serendipitous. I'm not a fan of celery in general - I find it too stringy - although it is wonderful very cold with ranch dressing and hot buffalo wings. I thought "what the hell" since I would have probably thrown the celery out in a few weeks anyways. I usually feel too guilty to throw out perfectly good foods in my fridge even when I have no earthly idea how I plan to use them. Please don't ask me how they get there in the first place.
I roughly chopped the celery and whirled it with some ice and a squeeze of lime. It was wonderful! What I had worried would be an over-powering green-ness was actually nicely cut with the tangy lime and mellowed into a sweet base. Further, and this was thrilling, while I had thought celery from a blender would be a stringy mess it actually was very similar to the consistency of the blended ice. The celery was a slightly-sweet but non-cold version of blended ice.
The rest of the evening was spent at my sister's place (since I still had to air out the male BO from my room) watching "Thank You For Smoking" and eating leftover panang curry. I was also simultaneously writing this here entry and trying to advise an old friend on how to practice flirting. His homework this week is to make eye contact once a day with someone he does not know. He must hold this eye contact for a fraction of a second longer than he is comfortable and then smile very slightly to break the contact. I'm not sure if he will get immediate results but I am hoping he begins to build some confidence.
And that was Monday. This post was not really building to any sort of structured recipe. I am just trying to write some more and to occasionally remember what it is I have been eating. So I will end it by slinking off to bed. Night!
Sunday, August 26, 2007
4 Times the Fun and Months of Chicken Soup
About two months ago my computer started to blue screen (one word or two?). I would start it up and it would bluescreen on me and then I would restart it again and it would be fine. It was slightly annoying but I just ignored it. This is not a rational thing to do, but I saw no immediate harm. Around this time, in the heat of the last weeks of June, I got a hankering for chicken soup with dill. The soup is a pretty basic chicken, celery, onion, potato, and carrot affair with bits of salt, pepper, and dill thrown in. I added cheery tomatoes at the very end.
By mid-July the computer was bluescreening whenever I tried a complicated maneuver, such as opening extra files or looking at the monitor disapprovingly. This was more worrisome. I ran scan-disk and it seemed I had a lot of hard-drive problems. I suspect finding usable hard drive space was like a game of Minesweeper for my computer - one wrong move and it was all over. I also got in the habit of running my anit-virus software and ad-aware every other day or so. I was also enjoying the chicken soup for my daily lunch and making it every weekend. By this point I had replaced the potatoes with yams or sweet potatoes and added squash. When I was making my containers of soup to bring for lunch I always topped them off with some pre-cooked lentils (thanks Trader Joe's) or wine-cooked noodles.
With the arrival of the hottest days of August my computer decided it had had enough of these bluescreen shenanigans and refused to boot to windows. I had backed everything useful to a backup hard drive (useful toy, I suggest you get one) earlier so this was annoying but not oh-my-whatever-will-I-dooo wail inducing. I lived through August in my third-floor walkup without air conditioning by making mint & lime icees (mint+lime+ice+blender!) while enjoying hot chicken soup during the day in my over-conditioned windowless lab.
Usually I made the soup on Sunday night to prepare for the week ahead. I was often too tired by the end of cooking to divide it into containers for the week's lunches to come. So the large soup pot was then shoved onto the top shelf of the fridge which is shared with the roommate. This worked initially (June, part of July) as she was out of town and I had the apartment to myself. Once she was back I have occasionally found bottles of cranberry juice or milk shoved onto my lower shelf as I am taking up an inordinate amount of space on the top. Over time the condiments have migrated to the fridge door to the point where they jump out every time it is opened. It adds a nice bit of adventure, I think.
[As a side note: I also tried making Gazpacho for the first time. I followed Lobstersquad's basic version from her gorgeous blog but used asiago/olive bread as that was the only bread I had around and balsamic vinegar (likewise, only type around and please forgive me Ximena). Further, instead of adding a lot of water I blended it with ice. I have had gazpacho once before in a Spanish restaurant years ago and barely remembered it. For a tomato lover this is eye-poppingly good stuff. I finished off the whole batch in a few hours, purring contentedly. ]
After a few weeks of a computer-less existence at home, I took action. It sometimes takes me a while to get something done. I often go into web-surfing lazy mode once I get home. Without a computer I had Vanity Fair to distract me. But my subscription ended with the September issue and I haven't decided if I will renew. They are trying to charge me twice the rate of my original subscription. How rude. So instead of sending Conde Nast Publications $15, I decided to fix the computer and spent a good $130 (after taxes etc.) for a 160G hard drive. On the soup front I have found that with the addition of squash pieces, a little cinnamon is heavenly.
And yippie skippy the damn computer works again! And my old hard drive was a puny 40G! I am now wealthy with four times the space! I can open multiple programs once again!
With the new hard drive the hot spell of summer seems to have broken. It feels like fall, a few days short of September and I have lost interest in chicken soup for now. However, after having made it six or seven times I at least have a good idea of the order and timing I like for it. Yea new hard drive, yea changing weather, and yea new recipes to come!
Simple Chicken Soup:
1 Whole chicken, cut up or 6 chicken thighs*
2 large carrots peeled and cut into 3-inch pieces
2 onions peeled and quartered 3 tomatoes (or 16oz cherry tomatoes, yum)
1-2 stalks celery cleaned and cut into 3inch pieces
1-4 large sweet potato cut into thick slices
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1Tbsp dill pepper
* I found that I preferred a lot of sweet potato and not so much chicken. I ended up cooking 2 split breasts and taking a few pieces for my lunches.
1. Take a half teaspoon salt, and a bit of pepper and salt the chicken: Lay the pieces out on a plate and sprinkle salt over the chicken with a dash of pepper. The chicken should be very lightly covered.
2. Prepare veggies: While the chicken sits, scrub veggies clean, and chop. They should be largish hunks, perhaps half the size of a fist. Most will be tender once cooked so they do not need to be bite sized and too much chopping will mitigate the ease of the recipe.
3. Cook: In a large stalk pot place hard veggies of yams, carrots, and celery (add celery later if you plan to eat it, I find it unpleasant in this recipe so I usually discard). On top of veggies place chicken, add dill and cinnamon, and cover with water and bring to boil. Then reduce heat and simmer 15 min. Add onion, squash, and cinnamon and simmer another fifteen min. Finally, add tomatoes and cook another 5 min.
4. Skim fat and taste to correct seasoning. Remove celery if you want. Serve and enjoy!
By mid-July the computer was bluescreening whenever I tried a complicated maneuver, such as opening extra files or looking at the monitor disapprovingly. This was more worrisome. I ran scan-disk and it seemed I had a lot of hard-drive problems. I suspect finding usable hard drive space was like a game of Minesweeper for my computer - one wrong move and it was all over. I also got in the habit of running my anit-virus software and ad-aware every other day or so. I was also enjoying the chicken soup for my daily lunch and making it every weekend. By this point I had replaced the potatoes with yams or sweet potatoes and added squash. When I was making my containers of soup to bring for lunch I always topped them off with some pre-cooked lentils (thanks Trader Joe's) or wine-cooked noodles.
With the arrival of the hottest days of August my computer decided it had had enough of these bluescreen shenanigans and refused to boot to windows. I had backed everything useful to a backup hard drive (useful toy, I suggest you get one) earlier so this was annoying but not oh-my-whatever-will-I-dooo wail inducing. I lived through August in my third-floor walkup without air conditioning by making mint & lime icees (mint+lime+ice+blender!) while enjoying hot chicken soup during the day in my over-conditioned windowless lab.
Usually I made the soup on Sunday night to prepare for the week ahead. I was often too tired by the end of cooking to divide it into containers for the week's lunches to come. So the large soup pot was then shoved onto the top shelf of the fridge which is shared with the roommate. This worked initially (June, part of July) as she was out of town and I had the apartment to myself. Once she was back I have occasionally found bottles of cranberry juice or milk shoved onto my lower shelf as I am taking up an inordinate amount of space on the top. Over time the condiments have migrated to the fridge door to the point where they jump out every time it is opened. It adds a nice bit of adventure, I think.
[As a side note: I also tried making Gazpacho for the first time. I followed Lobstersquad's basic version from her gorgeous blog but used asiago/olive bread as that was the only bread I had around and balsamic vinegar (likewise, only type around and please forgive me Ximena). Further, instead of adding a lot of water I blended it with ice. I have had gazpacho once before in a Spanish restaurant years ago and barely remembered it. For a tomato lover this is eye-poppingly good stuff. I finished off the whole batch in a few hours, purring contentedly. ]
After a few weeks of a computer-less existence at home, I took action. It sometimes takes me a while to get something done. I often go into web-surfing lazy mode once I get home. Without a computer I had Vanity Fair to distract me. But my subscription ended with the September issue and I haven't decided if I will renew. They are trying to charge me twice the rate of my original subscription. How rude. So instead of sending Conde Nast Publications $15, I decided to fix the computer and spent a good $130 (after taxes etc.) for a 160G hard drive. On the soup front I have found that with the addition of squash pieces, a little cinnamon is heavenly.
And yippie skippy the damn computer works again! And my old hard drive was a puny 40G! I am now wealthy with four times the space! I can open multiple programs once again!
With the new hard drive the hot spell of summer seems to have broken. It feels like fall, a few days short of September and I have lost interest in chicken soup for now. However, after having made it six or seven times I at least have a good idea of the order and timing I like for it. Yea new hard drive, yea changing weather, and yea new recipes to come!
Simple Chicken Soup:
1 Whole chicken, cut up or 6 chicken thighs*
2 large carrots peeled and cut into 3-inch pieces
2 onions peeled and quartered 3 tomatoes (or 16oz cherry tomatoes, yum)
1-2 stalks celery cleaned and cut into 3inch pieces
1-4 large sweet potato cut into thick slices
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1Tbsp dill pepper
* I found that I preferred a lot of sweet potato and not so much chicken. I ended up cooking 2 split breasts and taking a few pieces for my lunches.
1. Take a half teaspoon salt, and a bit of pepper and salt the chicken: Lay the pieces out on a plate and sprinkle salt over the chicken with a dash of pepper. The chicken should be very lightly covered.
2. Prepare veggies: While the chicken sits, scrub veggies clean, and chop. They should be largish hunks, perhaps half the size of a fist. Most will be tender once cooked so they do not need to be bite sized and too much chopping will mitigate the ease of the recipe.
3. Cook: In a large stalk pot place hard veggies of yams, carrots, and celery (add celery later if you plan to eat it, I find it unpleasant in this recipe so I usually discard). On top of veggies place chicken, add dill and cinnamon, and cover with water and bring to boil. Then reduce heat and simmer 15 min. Add onion, squash, and cinnamon and simmer another fifteen min. Finally, add tomatoes and cook another 5 min.
4. Skim fat and taste to correct seasoning. Remove celery if you want. Serve and enjoy!
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