Posted by Sarah
I may be a city gal born and bred but I’ve spent my fair share of time in the country and along the way I developed a bit of a fondness for animals of the livestock variety. At times it has bordered on obsessive and at various stages of my childhood I begged for a cow, a pig, goats, sheep, a llama and a number of other creatures. I think the only farm animal I didn’t want was a chicken- a hatred resulting from a traumatic encounter with a bird named Betsy- which is fine since they’re not technically considered livestock. Completely unrelated to my agricultural dreams, I happened to fall in love with everyone’s favorite ginormous land mammal: the American Bison, also known as buffalo. I’m not quite sure where this love comes from but while other little girls decorated their trapper keepers with dolphin stickers I perused the library for bison facts. At an embarrassing late date I realized that bison are in fact considered livestock, a discovery that lead to the most unreasonable request I have made of my family to date: I wanted my very own buffalo. As one might expect my family refused to fulfill this request. And then they laughed at me.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Sarah
Beets are great. I’m talking about the vegi here not the cartoon band (not that I don’t love the band or anything else related to Doug for that matter). They’re good for you and tasty and easy to prepare. Plus they’re awfully pretty. For some reason I can’t explain I haven’t cooked beets at home for several years but last night I was feeling inspired and, having bought the last bunch that the Giant offered, I roasted myself some beets. It’s remarkably easy; all you do is wash some beats, drizzle them with oil and wrap them in a layer or two of aluminum foil. Pop ‘em in a 425° oven for 45 minutes to an hour or until tender, remove and let cool. When they’re cool, just peel the beets (this is an easy but messy task and should be done over the sink) and either slice them or cut them into wedges. Now what does one do with such goodness? I’m glad so you asked! Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Meg
Some folks give Hump Day a bad rap. Personally, it’s one of my favorites. By the time Wednesday is over, you’re closer to the weekend than not. The Anacostia Farmer’s Market is open. But most importantly, the Washington Post and New York Times dining and food sections come out. Between the two: the most fun I can have with $1.35. I have the option to read them online, but I won’t. It’s a totally ritualistic thing for me to go down to Trover on the Hill and buy my papers. Like St. Exupery says, “Il faut des rites.”
In other news, I made salt and pepper salmon, tomato and mozerella salad, and Boyfriend Mashed Potatos last night. Cassie (of pizza fame) sent me a pasta sauce recipe this morning:
“All you do is slice up one fennel bulb and one shallot. Saute those in olive oil for a few minutes then add a pinch of sugar, 1.25 cups of tomato sauce and 1t. oregano. Simmer on low heat for 10-12 minutes and then toss with 8 oz. penne and serve with crumbled bleu cheese on top. It was fantastic and fantastically simple.” I think I’ll try it next week!
Today, I’m considering going to the Bed, Bath and Beyond after work for a citrus juicer thing on a stick. You know, those wooden ones? But, I could just as easily go home and make curry. We’ll see.
Posted by Sarah
For those of you who don’t know (and you should all know) last Saturday marked both Cinco de Mayo and the Kentucky Derby. As a girl who grew up far from the world of horse racing and is about as white as a girl can be, I’m not really into the holidays themselves (is the Derby a holiday?) but I am quite fond of the consumables associated with them. Cinco de Mayo of course means Mexican food and margaritas and Derby day can’t be celebrated without mint juleps and a healthy dose of southern fried fare. As this last sentence summed up a large part of the category “Sarah’s favorite foods,” I was presented with a bit of a dilemma: do I opt for enchiladas and margaritas or juleps and grits? Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Meg
In cooking, as in life, necessity is indeed the mother of invention. I have two oddly prohibitive factors at work in my kitchen right now:
1. My fridge can’t seem to hold a temperature for more than 24 hours. My food is either near frozen or spoiling instantly.
2. Last Saturday, I was boiling some yucca to take to a friend’s place for pre-dinner starchy goodness (pictures to come). I removed the pot from the burner, drained the yucca, and was bagging it, when I accidentally set the plastic bag down on the not quite cool burner, meaning that I now have a thin coating on my left front that I’m not sure how to remedy.
Last night I found myself wanting some kind of Mexican pico salad type thing and pan-fried tuna with lime. In a perfect world, I would have included spinach (but I don’t buy greens anymore because they spoil on me) and rice (but I didn’t want to use the other front burner). I was worried I was going to end up mixing a gross hodge podge of leftovers, taking a bite, and waiting for breakfast the next day. Instead, my creation look a bit like this, and it was delicious:
1/2 tomato
1/2 red onion, thinly sliced
garlic (I think maybe 1/2 clove? Leftover from… something)
cilantro
juice of 1 lime
black beans
chick peas
white shoe peg corn
probably 3 big spoonfuls of plain yogurt
Texas Pete, 5-10 shakes of the bottle
Mix all that up, lay your tuna grilled in lime and cilantro on top, give it a couple shakes of cumin, and enjoy. I certainly did. Took me about 10 minutes total.
Posted by Meg
This morning, The Washington Post published a list of DC markets. I think my goal for the season is to try them all. Reviews to come…
Last night’s dinner: portobello burgers with bacon and swiss and the Boyfriend Mashed Potatos. Why Boyfriend? My guy has decided that I make the best mash in the world, so he wins the namesake. They’re nothing special really, some potatos, some milk, some Smart Balance (I’m not really a butter girl), and finely minced garlic. Every now and then I throw in parsely… but those are Girlfriend Mashed Potatos, aren’t they?