I mean, I like you, I really do. But these last few weeks? And finals? What possesses teachers to include final projects in addition to le finals? Does this prove much? I seem only to be learning that sugar gives me a high like none other at midnight. Sugar is my weapon, my drug of choice.

I’ve also learned that this whole “prioritizing my schoolwork” business means that I COMPLETELY FORGET TO TAKE PICTURES OF WHAT I EAT! Ho no! Insert sad face here! You’ll just have to trust me when I say that I’ve been eating (oh, and cooking). And that Thanksgiving was no exception to this eating (oh, and cooking) feast. Because I really enjoy eating (oh, and cooking), you know? Nothing gives me greater pleasure than to eat (oh, and cook). So here I am, a Sunday afternoon, wholly unable to focus on my readings for school. So, I will post this last picture, the one I’ve been reserving since my last post, the picture that I hoped wouldn’t be the bottom of the barrel, but it so is. (a side note: as soon as school lets out for the semester–18 days–you can bet I’ll be taking pictures like a madwoman, and I’ll fill this malnurished blog up the the brim, to the tippity top, to the limit (c’mon, fhqwhgads) and all will be right in my world).

I’ve been having a most devilish time remembering what this is called, and I don’t know why. I’ve tried writing this post a few times, but I stomp away angerly because I know this isn’t a quiche, and I know I’m too lazy to stomp downstairs and open up the cookbook to see what it’s called, so I’ve given up about three times. Well, guess what! I’ve got my laptop in the TV room, and it’s way close to the kitchen. So, excuse me. I’ve got some searching to do–

–And I’ve found it. I dub thee a frittata, and a very delicious one at that. A fritatta filled with swiss chard (courtesy of my love, the Linden Hills Co-op), onions and other ingredients that my school-soaked brain can’t recall (I regret to inform you that this dish was cooked in August). I even put this under a broiler! It was during a wonderfully lax summer day! Oh, how I miss you! I’m up to my toes in falling snow and homework right now remincising.

Summer, come back!

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Oike. I’ve cooked so many things that haven’t been photographed. And on top of that, I’ve baked so much more than usual. Carrot muffins? Check. Gingerbread? Check. More cookies? Double check.

Yet, I have no pictures to proudly present to you. I console myself with sauteed tomatoes. Do you agree?

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DOESN’T mean that it was snowing three days ago. Right? Right, completely logical. Follows the rules of time and interactivity, sentence structure, semantics, syntax, all that. But today’s snow also does not rule out that it was STINKING HOT on Tuesday. Like, uncomfortable hot, but really, not as hot as Monday, because that was more along the lines of freaky hot…(if that was hard for you to follow, please be considerate and understand that the situation is much worse in my head)

Who wants to join us up here in Minnesota?

To add to the freaky, I cooked lettuce. This has never been attempted before (or at least not that I can remember) in my family. Warm lettuce is frowned upon here, and I’m not quite sure why. Because, and maybe I’m just up for eating anything I cook, this tasted really…pleasant. Although I have a hard time imagining that anything covered in cilantro, tomatoes and feta could taste awful.

Nope, it tasted good! I guess it’s just been a whole week of freak(ing amazing, on a political note).

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You’re drooling and you should work on that. Let’s not focus on the cupcakes (which were made from a mix) and let’s instead focus on the icing which consumed my time, was homemade and was ROOTBEER flavored. I think these cupcakes took my Dad on a quaint stroll down memory lane, so that was fun.

I’ve got homework to do, and you probably shouldn’t even be here, don’t you have homework too? Or a family to attend to? Ahhh? Quickly, here are the pictures and the frosting recipe:

Joy of Cooking Seven Minutes Frosting Recipe:

5 tablespoons water
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 1/3 cups sugar
2 large eggs whites at room temperature
1 tablespoon light corn syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla

Whisk first five ingredients together in a large, stainless-steel bowl. Set the bowl in a wide, deep skillet filled with about 1 inch of simmering water. Make sure the water level is at least as high as the depth of the egg whites in the bowl. Beat the whites on low speed until the mixture reaches 140 degrees F on an instant-read thermometer. Do not stop beating while the bowl is in the skillet, or the egg whites will be overcooked. If you cannot hold the thermometer stem in the egg whites while continuing to beat, remove the bowl from the skillet just to read the thermometer, then return the bowl to the skillet. Beat on high speed for exactly five minutes. Remove the bowl from the skillet and add vanilla, beating on high speed for two to three more minutes to cool. Do not do this on a humid day if you are prone to frustration/lashing out at loved ones.

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Oh Lordy me! Time goes by so quickly and Elle and I cooked this meal so long ago, back before nights were blustery and the prospect of staying in to do homework while staying warm was actually intriguing. But that was then and this is now.

A sidenote: I drank less than a cup of coffee today and got SO MUCH DONE. It may have been a placebo effect (i.e. I drank coffee? Oh sure, I can RULE THE WORLD!), but man alive did it work wonders.

Anywoo, here are the pictures, we made the noodles and we made the noodles good.

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What do you think of the new layout? I’m calling it cocoa with chili… which I’ll be making sometime soon. The header picture is of the chilies I grew over the summer, which now hang above my head drying. I had one string of red ones, the others were green, but now they’re turning red, too! This is something I hoped for, but being the novice I am, wasn’t sure if they were going to turn. Or dry, even. Beginner’s luck, I guess chilies probably wouldn’t mold unless their skin has been pierced, but that was a worry in mind.

But look, I baked more! What is happening to me? I’m thinking it may have to do with the ever-increasing cold, wind and wet that starts right about now. No I’m wrong. It started at least a month ago. What do YOU want to do when it’s like this? Curl up with a book (Which I’ve totally been doing as well, I highly recommend “The Kitchen Boy”), bake a batch of cookies to thoughtfully nibble on while staring wistfully out the window at the falling leaves twirling in the wind? And because I’m thoughtfully nibbling, these cookies are made without wheat! I say without wheat because I can’t help but feel awkward with the phrase “gluten-free”. It’s just so… it carries with it so many bad conotations. Bad tasting conotations. If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you may very well have noticed that the few premade products and mixes I’ve bought haven’t had good reviews from moi. No A+ for that pizza dough, that bread-y thing, that cereal which doesn’t even deserve to be in this sentence, etcetera.

But the difference with these cookies is that I BAKED THEM. From a cookbook, nonetheless! They were labor-intensive, yeah, but I think they were worth it. Any interest in the recipe? I’ll post it if so… but right now the cookbook is downstairs and I am so upstairs.

Chow, Lucia

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SUMMER REFLECTIONS, AN ODE TO SUMMER:

Dearest summer,
I didn’t like you,
you brought my mood to level bummer,
I’d rather eat poo.

Though I cooked and cleaned,
even took some pictures,
I truly felt no need,
to write long scriptures.

So to you season now gone,
tepid summer of ‘08,
I give you what you deserve,
a mere summary of all I ate.

BLACK BEAN FALAFELS WITH CHERRY TOMATO SALSA

ROASTED VEGETABLES OVER BROWN RICE AND SPINACH

BLACK BEAN AND SPINACH STIR-FRY OVER QUINOA

QUINOA WITH SAUTEED CHERRY TOMATOES AND CHICKPEAS

QUINOA STIR-FRY WITH GINGER, CARROTS AND GREEN BEANS

SAUTEED BROCCOLI AND ONIONS

TILAPIA WITH SPINACH BLUEBERRY SALAD OVER BROWN RICE

DRAGON BEAN SALAD IN MUSTARD VINAIGRETTE

QUINOA, EGGPLANT AND TOMATO WITH WALNUTS AND CURRY SPICES

CORN TORTILLA WITH TOMATO, PEAR, GREEK YOGURT AND CILANTRO

Chow, Lucia

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Just let it be known that I really enjoy cooking.

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It’s been awhile dudes. Sometime in mid-july I decided to remove the words “should” and “need to” from my vocabulary. Ergo, sentences such as “Man… I should update my blog…” or “There are all these pictures I need to write about…” Suddenly were illogical and did not register in my brain. So there’s a bit of background. The GREAT news is that I still like food. Well wait, that isn’t really true. I’m on these antibiotics that make me all queasy-like, so food hasn’t been that appealing but I know that isn’t ME, no no, it’s modern medicine messing with my gut. I know it isn’t permanent because I still get giddy when I look at all the pretty food pictures in Gourmet magazine. Super giddy. Giddy enough that I refrain from looking at “quail in brown sauce over bed of rice with root vegetables steeped in savory spices forever” (that wasn’t really there in Gourmet. By my god it should be).

These eggplant cubes were cooked about a month ago–NO WAIT–two months ago. Wow. Where does the time go?

All that’s left is tell you that you peel and cube the eggplant, toss in with a few broken eggs mixed with a indian-like medley of spices and then fry little globby messes of ‘em in really hot oil until brown.
I did that in a sentence.

Chow, Lucia

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A food junkie, that is. Or that’s what I’m sticking to. What is the fix? Beans. Beans fix everything, that magical fruit full of fiber, flavor and when poorly cooked, farts! That’s why I love them. (You know what else I love? My hair, which was given a good whacking at by a teeny ballerina-type hair student who, after finalizing the cut, exclaimed “Oh my god, your hair just looks so different from when you came in here!! Do you want some lip gloss??” with such enthusiasm that my “no, thanks” seemed like a “f**k you, bitch!!” when really, it was quite sincere and polite. Lip gloss makes not just my lips, but all of me look slimey, like I’m drooling excessive amounts and boy, do I think I look fly) But what gave me the energy to so completely deviate from the food-like nature of this blog and fill those parentheses to max capacity was the beans, oh boy the beans! The recipe for these falafels includes no flour, and thusly, a bajillion eggs. Leggo my eggo? Yeah, bitch. Leggo ALL OF THEM.

1. can garbanzo (chickpeas) beans
2. Half a bell pepper
3. Some pepper flakes or half a jalapeno
4. half a small onion
5. 2-3 eggs, depending on how much oviparous action you can handle
6. Cilantro, I love it, so I use a good 1/2 or full cup (usually, but I didn’t have any for this batch!)

Put all ingredients in food processor, and blend until more or less smooth, but by no means are chunks bad here. A little chunk in the trunk never hurt. Which is good, because now you’re going to fry these pups in olive oil until browned, about 3 minutes on each side. These falafels are really more like potato pancakes, no? Eat with tahini sauce, and like me, fail at creating a beautiful micro coleslaw out of yogurt, zucchini, bell pepper and carrot. Well, “coleslaw”. EEEEEEAATTT!

Chow, Lucia

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