lucky portland

Well call me a loon but this Winter Hell hasnt really been that terrible. That being said I'll proabbly jinx it and we'll have a March full of nothing but rain, wind, and cold. With all this frolick inducing weather around I have been running more frequently, crafting, and cooking. On one of my runs this week I smelt my first daphne of the year, and then saw some daffodils popping up! If you've never had the chance to smell daphne it's has very citrusy floral perfume that comes from tiny clusters of purple-white trumpet shaped flowers. They bloom only once a year, and when they do I just want to surround myslef with their heavenly scent.

I got my first CSA box yesterday from hood river organics, and its fantastical! I've seen most of the items before, but I have never been adventurous enough to use them in my cooking. In that thar box up above is a half dozen eggs, four beets, three leeks, two bags of saute greens, one bunch of radishes, one box of micro greens, one brown bag of portobellos, raw herbed cheese, once baguette, eight carrots, seven potatoes, three turnips, and six pears. Whew! Thats a whole lotta organic stuff!

I figured that I should make something for dinner using at least two of the above ingredients, but pysch! I ended up using five! Holy balls batman, what could I have made???

 

Soup of course! The weather hasn't been that great. I also wanted to make something that could use up a good portion of the box o' produce on my kitchen table. So I started how I always do, with a glass of wine and a wondering eye. This night I ended up flipping through my Polish cookbook and using this leek soup as a platform for my csa soup spectacular. Oh and speaking of batman, that's me in high school when midriff was kind ok, especially when I weighed half of what I do now!


Polish Soup
Serves 2-4
Cook Time 1 hr(or so, depends on how much your drinking)

4 cups veggie broth ( beef would be good too)
3 leeks
4 potatoes
3 carots
1 Tbs butta
1 cup h20
1/2 green cabbage
1/2 tsp dill
sliced smoked kielbasa(optional)

1) In a smaller saucepan place 1 cup water, butta, and sliced leeks. Bring to a soft boil and let simmer.

2) In a larger soup pot saute kielbasa and carrots with a bit o butta. After those two get a good brown on, add the cabbage+dill and saute for a few seconds, then add the broth. Bring this to a boil and add the peeled cut potatoes.

3) Add the leek mixture to the big soup pot. The liquid should have reduced to about a half cup, but it should be extremely fragrant and the leeks soft.



4) Let this stay at medium heat for about 30min to get everything all nice and soft. I really wanted the potatoes to break apart and make the soup a bit thicker but we got hungry so this soup was on the fast track.

5) Serve and add salt to taste!


We ate cheese and baguette with this soup, and even went back for seconds! I have a feeling that the yum level of this soup would be amped up with a dollap of sour cream. It would also make it that much more polish.


xxoo

Denial Fall

If life only had four phases then I would consider myself to be leaving my summer and slowly entering into my Fall. Seeing as how Fall is one of my favorite seasons that shouldn't be too bad, right? Wrong. I feel that I should have something to show more than a minimum wage job, a bachelor's degree, and a baby blog. At least I am keeping myself afloat and only hang out at coffee shops when I have a good outfit on!

As you can see I have yet to perfect the ideal self portrait in my apartment, but it's a process to I'm having fun with. To properly reflect my blues of late I have been wearing these ridiculously bright blue pants for seven days straight. Who knows how long this will continue, maybe my coworkers will have an intervention, or maybe James will throw them away when I'm sleeping.

I'm also denying the stupid coldness my only wearing a cardigan, take that mother gia! We all know who the real winner is in this situation....

Back on track, I have also been cooking way too much lately. Some things that have gone in my mouth have been:

Twice baked bacon & broccoli potatoes with white cheddar on top
Thai influenced coconut squash soup (omg I used my new truffle salt on this!!!)
Kale chips
Wedding style appetizers via ingredients+boredom at work
Tahitian Limeade
Zucchini Fritters(good idea em)
Rosemary Bread
Green breakfast smoothies
Split pea soup
Banana Hazelnut French Toast
Parmesan Waffle fries
Buckwheat noodles with smoked salmon
Three day marinated teriyaki beef
Sausage, bean, and kale soup

Boredom leads to cooking, but frugality does as well. Many of the ingredients I've been using have been from the trash bins at work, on sale from wholepaycheck, or bartered for at farmers markets. One of the best example of a cheap fine dining experience at home I have made was steak and veggies. This meal would have cost +50$ for two people at a restaurant, but at home it cost 20$, and that was even with a bottle of wine thrown in!

Want to see some pictures of my extrordinary cooking??

Zucchini Fritters with salvaged parmesan cheese

Banana Hazelnut French Toast(salvaged bread, hazelnuts, and bananas a customer left at work)

Pear, Spinch, and Wheat Germ Smoothie(All salvaged or donated by friends)

Green Split Pea Soup(with bought HotDogs)

At least there's one thing that I can do to please myself, besides the obvious, and that is to cook. Another thing I have gotten really good at is drinking way too much coffee. I always have a jar of cold brew in my fridge these days, and all I want to do on my day off is drink coffee, go for walks, and read/nap. As for bike riding, I need motivation! I no longer have a ride buddy a few blocks away, and my main squeeze's schedule and mine are completely opposite.

As for getting a job within my intended career field, I'm trying! Really, I am. It's all about networking and I'm not so good, but I'm making baby steps. Non-profit career fair next week, yes please!

And I'll leave you with what I'm currently doing.

Ginger Syrup

I have been trolling around the interwebs recently for the purpose of inspiring my lazy butt. More specifically I want to cook more. Even more specifically I want to cook more without having to go to the store first. Taking a quick assessment of the inards of my kitchen I discovered an over abundance of ginger and a half a bottle of Maker's Mark. Hrm.....

While this recipe only involves the first ingredient listed, it can most certainly be used with the latter.

Ginger Syrup
yields 2 cups
3 min prep 60 min cookin

1 huge piece of ginger
1 cup plain white sugar
2 cups water

1. Peel ginger(at least most of it) then either dice up or throw in food processor for about two seconds. You want small chunks, not puree.

   

2. Throw everything in a pot and bring to a boil. After it gets to that bubbling over the pot stage turn down the heat to a nice simmer and leave on for an hour. Smell and stir to make sure those chunks don't start to stick and burn on the bottom.


3. After about an hour the solution will be thicker and the smell of ginger will have filled up your apartment. The next step is to strain out the chunky bits of ginger and throw them in the compost. I'm not sure what else to use them for, there's probably something fantastical though. 

4. Now I don't get too fancy with my technique here. I use my good old goodwill colander and an old mason jar. After the messy relocation let the syrup cool down for a bit. This gives me some time to make a little label and clean up some of the mess.


I've been using this sticky stuff to sweeten my coffee, spice up my lemonade, and take the edge off of a whisky soda. It'll probably stay good for about a month, but I'm thinking it won't last that long!