Taco Night

Okay, this is an awful picture-Tony was so hungry he was rushing me-but I had to include it anyway because my fish dishes are my favorites. Since we didn't really get to celebrate Valentine's Day on Saturday (stuck working), Tony and I made some badass fish tacos. Mostly Tony made them, but I was sous chef. First we made a chipotle mayonnaise out of 1/2 a beaten egg, adobe sauce and peppers, salt, lime juice and olive oil. We mixed that in with shredded cabbage, red onion and green onion and put it in the fridge to get all delicious. Then Tony taught me how to make a tempura batter (flour and club soda, which makes the air bubbles!) and we fried mahi mahi. Then we layered the slaw, fish and fresh avocado on a tortilla and squeezed some more lime on it. Voila! Delicious!This silicon frying screen is a must by the way.

Cold Day, Warm Oven

Sunday was my first day off in quite some time. So, how did I spend my day? In the kitchen. It wasn't one of those beautiful 50-60 degree days we've been having, so I didn't feel guilty hanging around the oven. I'm pretty proud of these loaves even if they are malformed and still dusty from the flour. My next bread undertaking will be a whole wheat flax seed. Possibly next Sunday. After baking my bread I cooked up some curried peanut soup. It was creamy, coconutty, spicy and our dinner guests loved it. I would have posted a picture, but we ate it all.

Katy (one of the aforementioned dinner guests) turned me on to a really neat cookbook she got at an imports store in Omaha (they sell it on amazon.com and at 10,000 villages too) called Simply in Season It is organized into the four seasons (and a fifth chapter called "all seasons") and encourages local, seasonal eating. In addition to a bounty of vegetarian recipes, there are many meat recipes too.

A sampling of winter recipes included: Golden Carrot Bake, Vegetable Vindaloo, Marrakesh Lamb Stew, Stuffed Beets, Maple Parsnip Soup (which I plan on trying next week) and many others. It is written by a group of Mennonites in British Columbia and does wax spiritual at times, but I don't have a problem with that--eating good food is a kind of spiritual connection. Anyhow, I've been enjoying this cookbook and plan on buying a few of the others should the recipes stack up in the kitchen.

Bummed Out of the Pool

So, the YMCA has a major water leak in the pool and has to close it Feb.8 through the 20th. That is a very long time to not be swimming. They tell me I can go to the Cooper Y or the Northeast, but 1. I don't have a car and 2. I have no idea how busy those pools are and wouldn't know when was a good time to go. So, basically, I think my landlord should put in an "endless pool" for me and Tony. We're good tenants, and he already broke down and got us washer/dryer...so what's one more thing? Last week I was freaking out (unneccessarily I guess) about my placement tests. I did fine...great in English (didn't miss any) and so-so in math (placed higher than I thought-don't have to take "math for dummies"). Now I'm just waiting for my SCC letter to get in the mail with the go-ahead to register...and my w-2 from the Zoobar so I can get my taxes done/FAFSA done. So many hoops to jump through...makes you wonder. Classes start in April, here's hoping the Government will give me some money.

Sunday I am going to bake a lot of bread and hopefully make some curried peanut soup. Looking to be a nice day off.

The Square Root of Friday

I'm having small anxiety attacks today about the tests I'm going to take tomorrow. I know they're just placement tests, but that doesn't mean I don't want to do well... and I don't want to test into the lowest levels of math and spanish. I guess we'll just see. I'm reviewing today and going in tomorrow morning, wish me luck. (I just wanted to air my anxieties and hopefully let them go)

Equisetum Arvense, or how Horsetail Saved the Garden

For the last few weeks I've been in an "Organic Gardening" class at SCC and it's proving to be the highlight of my weeks. Taught by one of the owners of a local organic farm--a few miles Northwest of Lincoln, certified organic and biodynamic) who knows pretty much everything about organic. Among many interesting things I'm picking up (cover crops and composting have been our main topics thus far, pest control next week) I learned about compost teas and the very cool, horsetail.

Because of the high silica content of the plant (easily harvested from almost any roadside ditch) horsetail can be made into a tea, fermented (which makes it even more potent) and sprayed directly onto plant's leaves to help prevent fungal diseases.

I'm becoming so fascinated by all of the natural chemistry of soil, and how by working towards a balance we can make the most fertile soil imaginable.

More class gleanings to come...my brain is still processing all this new information.

Multitasking in the Kitchen

When I find myself with a day off anymore I just spend the afternoon in the kitchen concocting things. This has become what relaxes me. Funny because it used to be, when I thought of the kitchen I felt stressed and overwhelmed. It helps to have a huge kitchen.

Last Saturday I found myself working on 4 different projects at the same time: 1. adding flour, sugar and milk to an amish bread starter (which I totally messed up by not sealing the bag completely that night after letting air out, and the next morning found it all over the counter and floor) 2. starting some peanut butter cookies 3. breakfast for Tony and I (made up of butternut squash/onion/shallot/garlic cooked in olive oil with parsley, sage, rosemary-no thyme and mozzerella scrambled eggs...turned out lovely and finally, 4. "Asian Rice and Lentils" a recipe from mom's old backpacking cookbooks ("Simple Foods for the Pack") a recipe I make weekly. I used to make it stovetop until I experimented one day with throwing it all in my rice cooker which happened to work perfectly. I know the recipe by heart and have even tweaked it a little by adding a golden delicious apple and sunflower seeds.

Asian Rice and Lentils

1/2 c. rice

1/2 c. lentils

2 T. butter

2 1/2 c. water

1 yellow onion, chopped

1 golden delicious apple, chopped (if you want)

1/2 tsp. each of: cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, cayenne, salt

1 bay leaf

2 whole cloves

(Forgive me, I've forgotten how to do this stovetop, and I feel like everyone should have a rice cooker anyway...) Plop the butter in the rice cooker on warm and let it melt, add all ingredients except for water, stir around and let them absorb some butter for a few minutes, then add your water, close the lid and push "cook." Boom. Delicious, high protein lunch or dinner. Tony really likes it with cheddar cheese grated on top. I like it any way and everyday.

Doggy Motel

In the last month, Tony and I have been host (for about a week each dog) to a golden retriever (Kirby), a 100 lb labrador (Jaffy) and this week it's my friend Matel's sharpay-pug-rat terrier (Edith). Everyone is going on trips but us. It's always funny to see how Vladimir (Tony's boxer-lab above) reacts to different dogs being around for extended periods of time. With Kirby, he wouldnt' stop trying to hump him. With Jaffy, Vlad was the object of hump and now with Edith they don't try to hump each other so much, but they wrestle for hours on end. When we go to bed, we make them sleep in the kennel together otherwise one will cry allll night and if they're not kenneled they wrestle allll night. To add to the challenges of double-dog-duty, I have enough trouble walking Vlad alone so I have to walk them separately which is kind of tedious (Tony's got a cold or something so he's little help). It's going to be a crazy week.