start spreading the schmear

brian and i are headed to new york city very soon. whoopee! we're going to celebrate his recent (cough) milestone birthday, and i would love some recommendations for places to eat. i enjoy some spontaneity as much as the next gal, but it's still good to have an idea of the best places in a given neighborhood. the best, most reasonably-prices places. you don't want to end up some gouged sucker tourist. and good bars that you can go to in jeans and converse. ideas? must dos? we're so going to the union square greenmarket. my heart's going pitter-pat just thinking of it.

Peppermint fresh!

last night, in honor of my Irish heritage, i made a simple potato soup and soda bread from mom's recipe. mom, you never said when to put the buttermilk in, but that's all right. it's a pretty forgiving dough. i had some tense moments over the carrot chunks in the potato soup, afraid they'd end up too mushy, since the onions i was cooking them with were nearly caramelized by the time i turned them off. nope. make your chunks big enough, and cook the potatoes separately, and you should still have a little snap left in your carrot. if that's the way you like it. after dinner, in an attempt to give the mice a hint that maybe they're not so welcome in our home, i spent a few hours cleaning and boiling some water with peppermint essential oils. apparently, mice hate peppermint. i never know how much credence to place in old wisdom like this - there must be some truth to it, but maybe more to people who want to believe it. doesn't hurt, i suppose. hint: never buy a spray bottle from the dollar store. ever. i knew better, but i couldn't find one at the grocery, so i stopped next door. and my $1 peppermint oil/water spray bottle broke that very night. yeah. you get what you pay for. anyway, the house smells minty fresh now. will this drive mice out into what's supposed to be 2 days of heavy rain? we'll see.

unwanted visitors to the kitchen

aah, spring. the crocuses are blooming, the trees are budding. people are strolling around, smiling, perhaps falling in love. birds and bees are doing their thing. magic is in the air. and, as has happened around this time another year, we have discovered mice in the house. this time, they seem to be coming from behind the stove. my cooking has been drastically cut back. specifically, to buying sandwiches from bloomingfoods. the PEST-A-CATOR 2000 seems to be doing its work, however. what, you ask, is the PEST-A-CATOR 2000? well, my friend, it is a "rodent repelling aid," with the dubious claim that within 2-4 weeks, one will likely see a reduction in mice, due to "patented pulse technology" designed to annoy them enough to go take up residence in your neighbor's house. yep, you plug it in, it flashes, and you go from there. PEST-A-CATOR 2000: ON THE SCENE! whooo, boy. i'm a squeamish city girl; the last time we had mice and brian went out of town, i ended up going to a hotel at 3am, i got myself so worked up. this time (with brian, of course, going out of town again), i have been fairly brave, if i do say so myself. any tips, other than cleaning like crazy and setting up those no-kill traps? we ain't killing no mice in here. i like to imagine that they'll make a nice lunch for one of the neighborhood owls i've been hearing lately. is there anything that mice hate? other than electric pulses in your wiring system? p.s. - i know there's an ad with sliced ham at the top right now. (sigh.) the foodbuzz people are being very accomodating in letting me just promote their website, and not any of their affiliate ads, since there's a lot of food out there i don't want this blog to promote. so, just consider that if you're going to buy a ham, make it from a local producer with happy hogs, all right?

the blogger's dilemma

hi to all those hoosiers (and friends of hoosiers) who clicked over from feedme/drinkme. nice to have you! so. the plan was to find a good stretch of time time to sit down and write a long, thoughtful post about going to see michael pollan speak at butler a few weeks ago (has it been so long?). well, life has forced me to abandon that plan. look for more frequent, if shorter, blog posts in your future. but on this topic:

(that's me in the middle, bookended by my two cute companions) 0hmygosh! we met michael pollan! he signed my copy of the omnivore's dilemma! it took me over 24 hours to decipher what he wrote: "Kelley - vote with your fork! Michael Pollan." okay, mp. i kind of already do, but i'll keep it up and try to make those slipups of convenience fewer and farther between.

he spoke about in defense of food, so not much of his prepared speech was new to me, but i got a lot from the q&a session. for example: skim milk or whole? long story short: it depends. skim milk has something added to it for texture that raises cholesterol. the fat in whole milk can carry more growth hormone. what, you get the milk with no hormone added? sorry, friend. we've been selecting for hundreds of years for cattle with lots of growth hormone. what an interesting guy. worth the drive to indianapolis, even with the nasty weather coming back. thanks mari and liz for driving, and liz for the picture!

i do still cook sometimes.

thank goodness for the bread machine. i've made a lot of dense, doughy bread in my time, but the bread machine saves me from myself. the crumbly, crunchy, thick crust of bread that's actually baked in the machine tends to turn me off, but that dough function is a lifesaver. all i had to do for this lovely round of vienna bread was put the ingredients in, turn it on, and be around when the cycle was over to shape into a round (not rocket science, friends), and let it rise. now, if i could only let it rise a *little* longer. patience is a virtue i like to think i have, but not when it comes to dough. worse, i like to cut into a freshly-baked loaf right out of the oven when i ought to know better. tomorrow, a few of us are driving up to see michael pollan at speak at butler. my inner food dork is squealing! expect a report later this (very busy) week.

food for a good cause

to be honest, i probably would have skipped right by the food works by middle way house table at the winter market if these cheese crackers hadn't been so dang cute. i mean, they weren't exactly on the list. but who could resist something so fetching, and for such a great cause? since i got my first local salad greens in months, i knew right where they would go.

you might be able to make out some avocado slices down there, from my san diego trip. i had been afraid that i wouldn't be able to use them up.

that fear was turned out to be unfounded.

if you're in bloomington, and you need an event catered, don't forget about food works. we can't have sustainability when people are worrying about their very safety and survival.

happy valentine's day.

let me take a moment to thank my sweet baby, my legally-bound partner, and bestest friend for being so awesome. and, specifically, for putting up with my culinary experiments. and for not complaining when i throw together beans and rice again while running around getting ready for roller derby practice. and for being flexible about eating vegetarian at home. did i mention the awesomeness? and for washing the dishes. and making the coffee. man, am i glad the coffee is made every morning. even on weekends, he gets up and makes it. oh, and he also makes me drinks and brings me beers when i ask. i appreciate that. and takes out the trash. that's my guy!

sunnier climes

yes, it's 22 degrees outside, and it's supposed to snow, but i still have clementines.

yes, it was a successful trip to san diego. oooh, these little clementines are sweet like candy. and too few left.

i had to go through my pint of strawberries quickly, but it wasn't much of a chore.

i was extremely wary of these, but one sniff took me over the edge. they were a little harder than your perfect june strawberry, but still worth every bite.

now i have avocadoes that are close to ripening, and a few meyer lemons. anyone have any bright ideas about meyer lemons? i don't think i've ever had one before.

thanks, coronado farmer's market! afterward, i had just enough time to walk to the other side of the island.

not a bad business trip.

california cuisine

i'm headed to san diego next week for work, but if the "business center" at the hotel isn't too busy, i should be able to check in with you and let you know how i'm eating down there. i'm ready for some citrus! and avocadoes! and mexican food! and 60-degree weather! etc.! until then, i'm off to chocolate fest to work the bleeding heartland rollergirls booth for a little while. come by and get a kiss from a rollergirl!

quick links

notmartha points us to homemade samoas. yes, please! the new york times has a great short article on the issues surrounding meat production and consumption in america. the long and short of it - eat less, and if you do, eat pastured, please. just got an e-mail saying that a bill in indiana was just withdrawn that would have made it illegal to label milk as hormone-free. just in case you forgot - the people making the most money from food aren't interested your well-being. that's why we give a little of our money to local folks. give them a little more power. speaking of which! bloomingtonians, don't forget about the winter market on saturday. and go early! harvest lodge (the tamale people) are supposed to have soup, but you know it's going to go fast.

barbecue baked tofu

sometimes, it seems like dinner is a lot more trouble than it's worth. tonight was not one of those nights - everything came together very easily, fast, and to rave reviews. i even drizzled a little extra sauce around brian's plate (not pictured) to be fancy. oh yeah. i don't bake tofu very often. next time i'll wait until i have something else in the oven at the same time to save energy (i'm thinking about roasted cauliflower...mmm), but this was a bit of a last-minute change to the game plan. so was adding barbecue sauce (on sale) to the baking liquid. yum. the thicker consistency worked really well. my time-saving trick? instead of cooking the broccoli separately and serving on top of the tofu and potatoes, just add your chopped broc to the cooking potatoes about 5 minutes before they're done cooking. mash all together. voila. no muss, no fuss. no mashed potato guilt. it's a wonderful thing.

happy birthday to me.

cupcakes from BLU Boy

(the birthday girl didn't have time to bake due to roller derby practice. she was okay with this.)

FARM bloomington

we finally made it to the newest addition to the local eating scene, FARM bloomington, with some friends on saturday night. and we weren't the only ones, i'll tell you. that place was snapping and popping! according to a dining companion who was facing the room (and not the divider, like me), plenty of prominent bloomington people were in attendance. looks like this town was ready for the FARM. good thing. it's occupying huge space in what must be a high-rent location, and therefore a gamble even for the food industry.

this place isn't lacking in concept. there's a little market and cafe in front, a compartmentalized dining room, a bar area, and i guess eventually a downstairs area. and an alley window for service is supposed to be available sometime soon. all these zones, if you will, seem to have different menus. the dining room itself has a front area, a curtained table for larger groups, a table made of limestone that's separated from everything else...and right next to the bathrooms...and a glassed-in back area that's supposed to be more quiet? potentially romantic? so there's a lot going on.

okay, so. the food. in the dining room, there was one vegetarian plate offered. the server offered it vegan, which was a nice touch. let's hear it for the vegans! i'm not exactly sure what everything was that i ate, but it included black rice, purple yam with toasted coconut, some kind of greens, tofu, haricots, roasted cherry tomatoes, a wheat berry dish, and...something else with little beans. and some other roasted vegetables.

the black rice was described as "sticky," but it didn't seem too sticky to me. just kind of there. the purple yam mash was a pleasant surprise, since i'm not much of one for yams. toasted coconut really set it off. the wheat berry salad was very tasty. the cherry tomatoes weren't presented very well, what with the skin sliding off, but the other roasted vegetables were very good. the rice and beans at the bottom of the plate didn't leave much of an impression. green beans? not my favorite, but that's no one's fault but mine. the server had said that there would be cellophane noodles, but i guess they needed those for something else? the tofu was...just a square of tofu with sesame seeds and a negligible sauce. too little to taste. the only descriptor i could come up with at the time was "grainy." between the four of us, we shared three desserts, so i got most of this pie to myself while brian enjoyed half a piece of chocolate cake. the pie had a thick, biscuity crust, which wasn't what i expected, but wasn't bad, either. do people out there eat whipped cream with apple pie ala mode? if you do, friend, good on you, but it seems a *little* over the top. like buttering the bun on your bacon burger. my meal matched my impression of the restaurant; a lot going on at once, and a little confusing. i hate to say it, but without a soup or salad, i went home a little hungry. there were a lot of items on that plate, but not much of anything. the cherry tomatoes should give you a sense of scale. lesson learned; get a starter. i wish there had been a vegetarian option that didn't seem like a concession. i didn't feel that a lot of thought and care went into my meal; it was more like everything in the kitchen that wasn't meat was carefully portioned onto a plate. in a town like bloomington, that just doesn't cut it. vegetarians and vegans aren't second-class gastronomes. my vegetarian friend highly recommended ordering from the tapas menu - the pizzas are supposed to be great. maybe next time we have a little cash injection or some celebrating to do, we'll drop in on the bar and see what's happening over there. and i can't wait for the alley window to open. i won't base my only opinion on a restaurant based on one meal on a busy saturday night just after opening, but it seems like there's some fine tuning to do over there. your impressions?

argh!

why is everything in the fridge suddenly freezing the last few days? in sympathy with what's happening outside? i keep turning it down a little at a time, and the eggs were frozen this morning. frozen eggs. NOT suitable for separating. any wisdom out there? EDIT: as of 1/23, the problem seems to have resolved itself. huh.

budgetary caution

after some neccessary fiscal belt-cinching (due to new circumstances directly related to a certain someone's student loans), our grocery budget has been reduced by $10 a week. this reasonable reduction shouldn't, in theory, be tough, right? wow. i guess one adjusts very quickly to being able to spend more, and slowly to being able to spend less, because i'm struggling with our new budgetary constraints. having been so used to the finer things and all. ha ha. since i'm not willing to stop eating as much local and organic food as possible, including lots of fresh produce (not so local this time of year), it looks like i'll just have to spend more time planning shopping and meal plans. let it not be said that i complained about having a bloomingfoods a block away from work, but, let's face it. it's easy to fall back on the convenience and literally pay the price. that's a price we can't afford. and, while we're at it, am i the only one who seems to run out of expensive staples (olive oil, laundry soap, etc.,) all at once? and when money seems to be tight anyway? but, yes. you can eat local and organic on a budget. even with a healthy and active social life outside your kitchen. i'm convinced of it.

my little pretties

thanks to my parents, who bought me these stoneware ramekins (merry christmas to me!), i'm all set to make my long-awaited small food fantasties come true. tonight? baked eggs. with piecrust. because i was just winging it, friends. just winging it. and i discovered recently, with my matching christmas present (and stocking stuffer - yeah, i made out this year), that piecrust is really simple to make. and i love it. inordinately. ugly, homemade, whole wheat piecrust.

(larger than lifesize)

oh, my new ramekins! so pretty and blue. lesson learned, though: allow for carryover cooking when baking eggs in ramekins. the yolks were just perfect - oozing and lovely without being runny - when they got to the table, and a few minutes later, they were just short of hard.

p.s. like the new look?

that sure won't help biodiversity

the fda finds that food from cloned animals is a-okay to sell and eat. all the more reason to support local farmers who raise heirloom or rare breeds.

i tried to like it.

there's just something about the texture of certain wintry vegetables that i can barely stomach - sweet potatoes, cooked carrots, most squash - but i'm trying. see the above? gnocchi with roasted carrots and turnips. the carrots and turnips were delicious in theory, all sweet and caramelized, and i ate a lot of them. i did!

...but i couldn't finish the job.

these carrots and parsnips were originally intended for a soup i like from fresh from the vegetarian slow cooker. if it's pureed, it's not a problem.

any irresistably tasty root vegetable soup recipes out there?

p.s. - yes, those are pre-packaged gnocchi. i ought to make my own and freeze them, but i'm still getting used to this roller-derby-4-or-5-nights-a-week thing. a girl's gotta eat. and feed her husband. often at different times.

what's cooking?

we're not doing so well over here on the local food front - it's january, after all, and we're between farmer's markets until the last weekend of the month. at that point, i'll be lining up for kale. delicious kale! until that point, my stores of local provisions have dwindled to:

1. several heads of garlic
2. 2 blue potatoes
3. bay leaves, oregano, and basil

...and between my ambivalence toward root vegetables and everyone moping around grumbling about diets, i haven't felt completely inspired lately. it's 60 degrees outside, too (!), so comfort food seems a little much. luckily for us here in bloomington, we have another Dine Local Night coming up, january 16th.*

what have YOU been making lately that you love?

my dear husband bought me the veganomicon for christmas, and though many of the recipes call for ingredients we don't normally have around the house, i'll have some fun stuff to try out this week. when we're not eating fake chicken patties and tater tots.

oh, come on. they're organic tater tots! and they were on sale! don't look at me like that. no one here ever claimed to be a saint.

*details!

head to one of the below restaurants on thursday, january 17th, and ask for the local special. 5% of proceeds will go to the Local Growers Guild.

Bloomingfoods

Bloomington Bagel Company

FARM Bloomington (oooh, we're so going there for the opening/my birthday)

Laughing Planet

Limestone Grille

New Day Meadery (a little googling tells me they'll be at the winter market at harmony school, too.)

Nick's English Hut (still holding out for my mellencamp sighting!)

Oliver Winery

One World Enterprises (i.e., lennie's. pizza express? that would be awesome.)

Restaurant Tallent

Sahara Mart

Trulli Flatbread

Upland Brewing

happy new year!

whew! we got back at about 2am from a week-plus vacation in portland. what a great time. my first meal when we touched down was a stack of huckleberry pancakes from genie's - you can't get that in the midwest. here, you also don't get the hordes of hipsters lining up for the bloody marys, but i never had a problem with those.

brian's sister megan bakes at crema, a delicious (and popular) coffee shop and bakery, and we found ourselves popping in for a bite and a coffee in the morning. i only get a cappuccino when we come home for visits due to extreme foam snootiness borne in my barista experience.

manchego and mushroom biscuit. SO GOOD.

i love vacation schedule - wake up whenever, get coffee, sit and read the paper, then go about your business. it seems so civilized. we also made a short trip down to eugene, where we tried some micro brews from the new ninkasi brewery. i can heartily recommend their ipa. the next morning, we took a little walk down memory lane by heading for cafe siena, by the university of oregon campus. mexican and american breakfast food. ah, the memories. brian and i both got the "scramble #2," with eggs, rice, mushrooms, spinach, cheese...yum. but that's a LOT of food.

before leaving town, we trekked down to marche provisions, a new endeavour from the marche empire. i have a little history with said empire, having worked at the marche cafe when i first moved to eugene. we nabbed a macaroon at the cafe (oooh, the macaroons. why didn't i buy ten? i don't even like macaroons except for these), then went downstairs to check out "provisions." wow. i'm impressed. prepared soups and ice cream made in-house, imported tasty treats, a salad bar, all kinds of salt by the ounce, a cheese and charcuterie counter - i could have cried. everything looked so fantastic. (sigh.)

we loved seeing our friends and family so much, and wished we could have seen everyone just a little more. next time! hey, why don't you come visit, anyways?

happy new year to everyone out there! i resolve to try a lot of new things this year, so stay tuned.