So, we had a big meeting for staffing a work event a week from Saturday and there weren't any chairs. So, I sat on the floor. I put my left hand out on the way down and my wrist cracked when I put some weight on it to sit. It's a little red and it hurts now, but not swollen, which makes me wonder if I did something to it when I sat. Which would really just be the icing on the cake. My left ankle is crap from repeated sprains/twisting, during the course of yoga classes a few years ago, my left hip started clicking and if my left hip flexor isn't warm, it'll click and I'll limp a little (happens once or twice a month) and my left shoulder is where I get my wretched knitting knots.

So, yeah. Falling apart at the seams over here. Boo.

In other news, I just had a turkey and cheese sandwich with the sharp cheddar from Farmstead Fresh cheese and it's really good. (My CSA places a bulk order for his subscribers and we don't have to pay shipping. It's nice) I would highly recommend it, except that I wonder if I'm slightly allergic to it. It makes my tongue and the roof of my mouth tingle a little, which conventional cheese doesn't. Googling about allergies and raw milk cheese just seems to say that it's better than you than conventional cheese, which isn't helping. Maybe it's just psychosomatic since stentoriansista had a similar response when she tried it. I don't remember it when I tried it last night...

So, stentoriansista comes home tomorrow night, so tonight is my last big night to get lots and lots of kitchen time in. And I'm gonna. My plan for the night includes doing the following:
-roast a chicken (good size bird, too - 6-7 pounds)
-roast potatoes (I have a drawer full of CSA potatoes that I'll quarter, toss in rosemary, salt and olive oil and roast underneath the bird)
-garbage soup in the crockpot for work lunches (ground bison, stock, leftover tomato soup & tomato sauce, kidney beans, cannellini beans, an onion, whatever else I have in the fridge that feels like going in)
-Peach honey popsicles
-Peach sorbet (I may not have enough peaches for both of these, in which case I'll try nectarine sorbet)
-pickled carrots (no really. I bought ground mustard and pickling spices the other day. I've just been too lazy to peel & slice carrots.) I also got a purple kohlrabi from Leigh on Wednesday, so I may do a pickled carrots and kohlrabi for the house, too. (Hopefully without incident)

I wanted to make stuffing for the chicken, but I can't justify buying stuffing mix, sausage, celery and prunes to make my mom's recipe when I've got a drawer full of vegetables I haven't eaten. Not to mention that serving potatoes and stuffing is a bit excessive on the starch. We've probably finally accumulated enough tomatillos to make a salsa verde (now that the purslane's gone, no verdolagas for me), so I may crock on a pork loin that next week.

I really want to go berry picking at some point and get a crapton of tomatoes, sweet onions, peaches and apples from Larriland Farm. They're quite a drive, but they've got a huge campus, great selection and decent prices. I've been toying with the idea of making lots of jams to can and give to people for giftmas (who doesn't love homemade onion jam, peach chutney or apple butter? No one, that's who). Of course, I'd probably have to buy my third immersion blender. (They keep dying. I miss them)

I also made this pasta salad the other day and I really liked how it came out. I added chicken, which made it a meal. If I had to do it again, I would have added finer salt, more of it, and mozzarella with the chicken, I think. Still, it's a good, healthy salad, even if it's a lot of chopping time. And orzo falls through the holes of my pasta strainer. In case you were wondering. Which you weren't.

I think that covers it. I'm going to be spending $42 on a 5 pound block of cheddar (and $8 for a 8oz bottle of raw agave, which I'm going to start subbing for sugar) from a local cheese group that my CSA guy works with. That's... that's a lot of cheese.

Have I mentioned how hard it is to find popsicle molds right now? Not because people are making popsicles because it's hot out in the heart of summer, oh no. Because around August 1st, all of the summer stuff goes away and the back to school displays come out. I spent $10 on getting 2 sets of 4 really crappy popsicle molds called cool cones or some shit. One of them broke falling out of the freezer last night when I was manuvering the ice cream maker bowl in. (I plan ahead, I do) Not that I'm bitter. I'd've gladly pay $10 for these instead except that BB&B didn't have them. (At least, when I asked the guy at the desk for popsicle molds, he showed me these freaking cool cones instead. NOT COOL, cones. NOT COOL)

Also, apparently we're going to run out of sugar. Which, you know what? Fine by me. I'm just having a bitter day, I guess.

This morning sucks. Just one of those mornings where I'm too tired to function properly. Was going to have a lunch/work discussion with my boss today, but then she called out sick. So, that's probably for the good. Also, you can totally see my tattoo through this top, which I thought of on the bus going to the Pentagon, so sometimes there's nothing you can do.

In other news, I discovered ground cherries last night. They're delicious. I've been getting them in the CSA for years, but I always stuck them in the back of the fridge and forgot about them until it was too late and they were gross. They're kind of sweet and savory, like a fruiter cherry tomato. As a side note, my new plan for storing food from the CSA in open tupperware containers instead of in a plastic bag is going swimmingly. I use less waste and have an easier time remembering what exactly I have. Though the vegetable drawer is always a bit of a no man's land. I'd love to make a ground cherry jam, but I won't have nearly enough cherries. Wondering if it warrants buying some to make, but I have no idea where I could buy ground cherries!

In other news, the refrigerator pickled beets, carrots & kohlrabi all turned out well. I like the beets (pickled in cider vinegar) a lot better than the carrots/kohlrabi (pickled in white vinegar with dill and mustard). I think it's the dill & mustard in the brine that throws me off. I've got a huge bag of carrots and a Synergy bottle from some kombucha I tried at Java Green, which should do well for some long carrot sticks for work snacks. (As another side note, the kombucha was tastyish) I'll have to experiment a bit more and see what I like. Since pickled vegetables keep for months, this'll be a nice way to have veggies on hand without having to worry about mold. I may try to make actual pickles, too. I've been assured they taste nothing like store bought pickles (which I dislike). We'll see.

I pickled some beets the other day using Alton Brown's pickle juice recipe and put it in the fridge. Haven't had the chance to try it yet, but it looks tasty. And it was easy. And I had two bulbs of kohlrabi still in the fridge so I figured why not pickle that too? Well, I'll tell you why. Using the vegetable peeler to peel the second bulb of kohlrabi resulted in me slicing the hell out of my left index finger. I mean, it could have been worse, it could have been my right index finger, but bleeding all over my kitchen floor is not my favorite thing to do. Still, I sliced the kohlrabi and sliced and parboiled the carrots, made my pickling mixture, didn't bleed on any of it, dumped it into an empty salsa jar, lidded it and fridged it. Hopefully I'll be able to serve pickled kohlrabi, carrots and beets at my shindig on Sunday. (By the by, it's finrto substitute prepared mustard for mustard seed in most recipes, but it does not do well to sub mustard in pickle juice. It breaks up weirdly)

So, that done, I shoved the carrot and kohlrabi peels down the disposal, turned on the water and ran it. Then the sink started backing up. The garbage disposal itself is clear, so whatever clogged it (either kohlrabi peelings or the outer garlic skin layer I think I shoved down there) is below the disposal bit. Baking soda, vinegar and hot water only resulted in me using up a bottle of white vinegar (we somehow have 3 in the house, so not a big). Plunging the sink just shoves water out of some kind of drain outlet next to the tap. One of the various answer sites said to run the dishwasher, which has resulted in the sink being full of disgusting gray water. Next step is Drano, which I hate because it's nasty, bad for the environment and frequently ineffective, but also a lot cheaper than a plumber. (This also begs the question of - do I tell my aunt I clogged the disposal? She might pay for a plumber but this also confirms to her that I am irresponsible and clumsy)

In other news, I love how much my side by side freezer holds, but the fridge holds surprisingly little. Though we do need to clean it out.

Delightful time out at karaoke last night, quickly followed by this morning, where I had to go to the dentist. Again. Went to get a permanent crown from last month and told them about how bad it's been hurting (4 advil a day bad). So, he put the permanent on and whittled it down until it cleared well, then decided that it was so whittled it needed to be polished by the lab, so the temporary went on again and got about an inch shaved off of it. My tooth still really hurts (despite the Advil I took two hours ago!!), but I'm hoping it'll go away in a day or two.

And, of course, on the way to work, I ran into the blood drive guy on the elevator. Apparently my top shows a bit of my tattoo if it's pulled down, so he asked me about it and I had to explain it and mentioned that was why I couldn't give blood. Sigh.

Also, everyone needs to watch this video because it's freaking adorable. (Yes, it's the wedding entrance one)

I'm making refrigerator pickled beets (and maybe carrots) tonight before watching the end of the Torchwood miniseries, which I DO NOT WANT TO TALK ABOUT. I've got about 50 different things I want to make before next Sunday, not a lot of time to do it and, weirdly, not enough basil. Despite having about 5 plants around the house and the CSA of all basil all the time.

In the farm share this year, we've gotten cabbage. I got a head of cabbage last week and an even larger head of cabbage this week. It has perplexed both stentoriansista and I because neither of us really eat cabbage. So, I checked The Kitchn and decided that I'd make a braise. So, what I did was... sliced two baby onions and one large vidalia into rings at the bottom of the dutch oven. Added 3 small, tart, peeled and chopped green apples, one long chopped garlic scape. Washed, cored and sliced the green cabbage. Added 1/4 cup water and 1/8 cup honey to the dutch oven, light sprinkle red pepper flakes, salt, pepper. Oven was preheated to 375* for gooseberry cobbler, put in oven and turned down to 325*. Let cook for one hour, mixed with spicy bison sausage.

It's good, the cabbage still has a bit of crunch, and I think it'll reheat well, but the spicy sausage with the sweet cabbage don't work particularly well. Next time, I think I'll do a sweeter sausage. Also, dice the onion and cabbage, because the pieces are too big otherwise.

I'm going to try a potato, leek and cabbage soup with the giant cabbage head and two weeks worth of new potatoes from the farm share. I may end up carmelizing onions in the crock first, though. My aunt left me probably 4 pounds worth, plus we brought a couple vidalias over from the old place, plus I picked up a couple of sweets at the farmer's market.

They had rhubarb at the market too, so I am going to make rhubarb syrup. We bought a neat little cruet at the Container Store on Monday, so it'll seal nicely to keep in the fridge.

They also had kohlrabi at the farmer's market, so I bought a bunch. I've heard for yonks that it's delicious and the one thing in the CSA box that no one knows how to cook, so I'm looking forward to playing with that.

I just now have to find time to do it all. Yeah. That'll happen.

So, I'm a little annoyed. The Washington Post Express chose to quote this entry from Donna Says in their Blog Log today. I'm annoyed for several reasons.

1) This is the first thing I've ever seen them post about CSAs and it's not positive. Way to be discouraging. (Also, way to get the day wrong. If she posts on Wednesday that last night's pick up was a bust, her pickup was Tuesday) How about reporting on this trend in a positive light, rather than talking about Lisa Rinna's new book?

2) Inferring from this post and the fact that she had a Tuesday night DC pickup and got seedlings, I am assuming that Donna Says is a member of my CSA, Bull Run Farm. Which had more than just seedlings and herbs on Tuesday - they also had Chinese cabbage, pak choi, garlic scapes, fresh oregano, salad mix and the first of the year pickup totebag. I dunno, maybe they were all out of all of that when she went to pick up, but they had plenty when I was there at 6:30. Not liking something and choosing not to pick it up is different from not having a variety of things. I'm not a huge fan of the mustard greens that are offered, but if I hadn't picked up things I didn't like, I wouldn't have my love affair with beets, sweet potatoes, radishes and vegetables in general because I had no choice but to try it and discovered that my tastes have changed. I paid for these two beets/pak choi/eggplant, they're there, let's cook with it (and it's usually delicious) (though I still don't really like eggplant).

3) Continuing my assumption that Donna is a Bull Run Farm member, that means that she gets the newsletter from Leigh, our farmer. This week's newsletter pretty clearly states that due to the insane weather of the past 4 months, Leigh's had to plant and replant the seedlings, so veggies will be later than normal this year. Granted, Leigh's newsletters tend to be practically novellas, so I can see how she might have skipped over that, but she also gets an email the day before with the vegetables that are going to be available. My guess is that her 'what I'm expecting' post is based off of this page, which is a guideline, not a guarantee.

4) You bought a share of a farm. Farms output varies from year to year and is affected by things like weather, global warming, deer infestations, the eleventybillion thunderstorms that have rolled through in the past two weeks. And yet we expect shiny, pristine vegetables and an abundance of them, regardless of the rain, the years-long drought, the heat. The attitude to keep in mind with Leigh's CSA is that you get whatever's ready to be harvested that day. And that's pretty freaking awesome. The variety's not going to be as good as a farmer's market because a farmer's market can have multiple vendors.

I'm sorry Donna Says was disappointed in what she got this week. I certainly understand it and I'm not trying to invalidate her feelings or anything like that. For this CSA, June usually is a leaner month, with the bounty really picking up in July (also when the fruit share kicks in, if she bought that. NOM) and carrying through until September/October. We all have weeks where we're disappointed with our pickup and I'm still trying to figure out a way to eat the salad greens I get without buying a salad spinner. Despite the rant, I don't have a problem with her expressing her opinions on her blog. Hell, that's what blogs are for.

I'm just pissed off with the Express for quoting the blog post. I don't mind the political, pop culture, local flavor or the sports commentary, but it feels kind of like they're taking a potshot at something I love and that's what is annoying me so much. Can't we just go back to making fun of Marion Barry and quoting monkeyrotica's comments on DCist? (I'm debating writing them a letter about this, but I doubt it'll do much good)

Now, if you excuse me, I need to make some granola, douse myself in patchouli oil, wander around my office barefoot and hug a tree.

(still haven't figured out what kind of fruit trees are in front of work and if I can steal the plums? when they're ripe)

(I'm actually really excited about the seedlings I got from my CSA and purchased pots and potting soil. They're currently sitting on my bedroom windowsill and I'm really hoping I won't kill them this year)

So, last night, stentoriansista and I made a stir fry after the gym. It consisted of chinese cabbage, garlic scapes, pak choi (all from farm share), broccoli, snap peas (both farmers market), onion, chicken, noodles and some seasonings (sadly, all from the grocery store). It was tasty and I was starving, so I quickly dug into it.

Then, about 45 minute later, I had seconds.

Then, half an hour after that, I had a pint of strawberries with some ice cream.

Then an hour after that, I had a couple of spoonfuls of ice cream.

Then I went to bed hungry, despite practically eating my weight in food.

I wasn't dehydrated, trust me. I went through 2 water bottles worth of water last night (48 oz) and went through a 20 oz water bottle at the gym. I could have just been wanting to replace all the extra calories that I burned at the gym too or I could have been PMSing, I'm not sure.

But here's the thing. I wasn't that hungry this morning, but ate a good sized breakfast (peanut butter, graham crackers & cherries). When I sat down to lunch, I was hungry, but not starving.

I'm ravenous now and have been ever since I finished eating. It's the kind of hungry that I know isn't actually me wanting food, but it's annoying as all hell, because I want to just keep eating until I feel sick. Add to this that stentoriansista started feeling sick last night and I'm just wondering how this happened?

Twitter consensus is that I didn't get enough protein (pretty sure I did) or that it just awoke a hunger in me (how very romance novel!) (also, I don't think so).

Then there's the stentoriansista theory that I have a tapeworm.

Went down for a nap at 8 o'clock last night and ended up snoozing until 10am. At 10am, I was up but stentoriansista was not, so I decided to get up and go to the Dupont Circle farmer's market. Homigod, y'all, I forget how awesome that market it. Got 2 bunches of asparagus, 2 half-pints of gelatto (blood orange & champagne mango, OM NOM NOM), strawberries, a lovely sheep's milk cheese, a couple tomatoes, mushrooms (I love the mushroom stand!), spearmint and basil. Got home and made some mint tea, a variation on asparagus puree (chives, not onion, cottage cheese, not ricotta, lime juice, not lemon). It's incredibly tasty, but the chives and garlic drown out the taste of the asparagus. Made a delicious mushroom and wine sauce (sautee mushrooms in a little oil and salt, add half a cup white wine, garlic, a little rosemary and thyme and reduce, add a cup and a half chicken stock and reduce) to spoon over some chicken breasts and sopped up the sauce with some homemade bread. I've also been chopping up some peppers and freezing them for future stews or sauces.

Later, I'll make a strawberry rhubarb crisp. I love my happy cooking times.

So, I had yet another good cooking day today. I woke up this morning and put pumpkin curry soup in the crockpot before grabbing a quick breakfast (um... at 1pm. What?). Sat around for a while before running off to a quick Target run then hit the pool at the gym. Hadn't done that in a while. It was nice! It ended up being closer to an hour than the half hour I originally planned, but I had a good workout that left me a little drained for the rest of the day. Got home and put pork shoulder in to braise (subbed chili powder for paprika, but OMG SO GOOD!) and a beer and bacon bread in the bread machine (meh - it didn't notify me at the mix in point, so all the bacon ended up at the end the bread). So, we have tons of delicious food available for the week.

stentoriansista curled my hair. It looks wicked pretty.

Tomorrow is dinner with the aunt. Hopefully I'll wake up a bit. Hopefully our washer will get fixed and we can get started on the giant pile of laundry that's accumulated in the past week. Gotta clean up the kitchen too.

Dinner tonight was a slice of homemade bread (delightfully baked by stentoriansista), half a chickenbreast with jamaican jerk seasoning made in the foreman grill, with raw milk cheddar on top, an apple and a sweet potato. I'm going to have the same for lunch tomorrow. I am a super genius.

Now if only my head would stop being wonky.

Also, I just got a spam email entitled 'Hi, I'm spam.' Huh. How meta.

One of the weirdest things about being a grown up is discovering that you actually like vegetables. I am currently have torrid love affairs with beets (golden and the kind that turns your fingers purple) and sweet potatoes. Like, I went to get a salad today and seriously considered filling the whole to go container with beets and just eating that with my chicken fingers (don't worry, I added lettuce). But OMG BEETS. I LOVE THEM. THEY TOTALLY ARE NATURE'S CANDY. Also, it's amazing how much better veggies taste when they're fresh instead of canned. I went 'Oooh beets!' at yesterday's salad bar and was unpleasantly surprised to discover that they were not tasty because they were from a can. And I'm not going to talk about the canned vs. frozen green beans for green bean casserole debate.

I'm just saying, it's a nice change from having to choke down broccoli or eating dinner of meat and rice growing up. Also, reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle really makes me want to garden. I'm a crappy gardener, but it makes me want to try.

I made yogurt. In making yogurt, I decided that since I had a bigger crockpot, I should increase the recipe, so last night I poured a gallon of two percent milk into my crockpot. Added 1/4 cup dried milk and a packet of unflavored gelatin after a few hours, wrapped it in a towel, let sit overnight.

I have a gallon of yogurt. A gallon. Of yogurt. Unflavored yogurt, of course - I've been mixing it with canned peaches at work and have no problem with that. The yogurt will keep 7-10 days.

A gallon. Of yogurt. Well, at least I can find something to do with it.

This pumpkin cake was really good but would have been so much better if I had trusted the directions and broiled it for 3 minutes instead of five, scorching the top of the cake and all the pecans.

Still really tasty though. And I used fresh pumpkin that I roasted the other week too.

Dinner tonight was half a roasted chicken breast marinated in balsamic, garlic & soy sauce, roasted sweet potatoes with a really light honey and olive oil glaze, roasted garlic on a slice of my bread and salad greens from the farm share with some dressing. I put everything in the oven and played DDR until it was ready. Woot.

Friday was an insanely busy work day with a lot of cake, followed by Old Crow Medicine Show with stentoriansista, prettyprincessb and mareska. Having had very little contact with the band, I must say I had a good time! We went to The Red Derby (otherwise known as the awesomest bar ever) and had really tasty sweet potato fries while kind of watching some weird ass movie. I'm toying with going there to watch at least one of the presidential debates (I'm much less likely to cause property damage while watching them if it's someone else's property).

Saturday, we went out to take advantage of the Old Navy friends sale - y'all, clothes shopping is so painful right now, I can't even describe. I did get a work shirt, sports bra and sleepy shorts for cheap, but ooh, it hurt. Then off to work to work a gala. Had some slight wardrobe malfunctions with my swanky dress and I hadn't brought a wrap, which... OMG NEVER AGAIN. It was so cold inside I spent the entire time shivering. I must say, this swanky party wasn't nearly as much fun as previous swanky parties at my last job, but on the other hand, this wasn't the kind of event where I could hang out and booze it up with the rest of the staff afterwards. Came home, watched Volver, which has been with us from Netflix since probably February and went to bed way too late.

Slept in Sunday, rode Ernest the bike over to City Bikes to get them to fix the joints they loosened when they tuned up the bike (took 5 minutes, was pleasantly surprised), then biked with Girlio over to Meridian Hill Park where we lay out on a blanket and read in the sunlight for a few hours (and got eaten alive by the bugs, BTW). It was seriously wonderful just to lay there in the sun, hear the drum circle and enjoy my book. Biked down to Gallery Place, got a salad from Chopp't (OMG, the new Harvest Cobb is AWESOME - spinach, chicken, apples, beets, walnuts and goat cheese! I could not love that more) and saw one of the strangest movies I have ever seen. Debated sneaking into The Women, but it was late, so we headed home. Spent half an hour trying to remember how to fold up my bike but finally got that put away. I love my bike, Ernest. He's good people. The seat is a little wobbly and my patootie is sore today, but I think I'm going to start taking him to work soon. Before it gets too cold, anyway.

So, a good weekend, except that I didn't get any cooking done. stentoriansista made applesauce on Saturday (OMG, SO GOOD) and my immersion blender died trying to blend it (I've been leaving it in the sink and I think some water must have shorted out the motor). It was $5 at Goodwill and lasted me a good 4 months, so I can let it go fairly easily. But I definitely need another. And not covet, the way I've been coveting a breadmaker and a 4 cup cuisinart. If I don't get another one, there may be blood. I may actually stop by Target on the way home from work to see if they have a cheap one. But I think I'll make regular bread and apple bread tonight and prep a stew to crock while I'm at work tomorrow. I really want to make a black bean, sweet potato and chicken soup. I also really want to carmelize some onions in the crock pot. And make more apple sauce. The 6 quart crockpot full of apple sauce still left us with 1/2 a bag of apples from the apple picking over Labor Day. I figure one more batch will get rid of 'em and I'll grab some 1 cup tupperwares and freeze them to sub in for oil in recipes.

So, really, I want to make 5 dishes tonight. And clean. And go to the gym. And watch Heroes. Also, we desperately need to do laundry. Can I get another day off?

There's something very odd about the fact that part of the reason I'm having such a good day is that I'm going to go home & cook after work. I'm looking forward to it - to trying my hand at low-fat ice cream (why do all the recipes call for the evaporated milk & unflavored gelatin I spurned at goingdriftless' food giveaway?!), making a loaf of bread that cooks all the way through, setting up a crockpot dinner to come home to tomorrow night... the idea of doing it makes me really, really happy.

Guess I'm just a big ole nerd.

(If you were wondering, Samurai Fail > Food Fail)

So, I picked up my farmshare today and saw that there was lemon balm - so I picked up a double handful (even though I didn't request it, ssh, don't tell). I got home and prepared a delicious dinner of a slice of homemade bread with tomatoes, cream cheese and turkey, a slice with brie and turkey and an ear of corn. Then I got to work. I made a lemon balm pesto and put it in the fridge for later use. This was about two hours ago. The top has since oxidized. Then I decided to try to make a lemon balm & chamomile iced tea. I used way too much water - most recipes say 4 cups of water for 1 cup of lemon balm leaves... I put in 10 cups and then threw in all of the stalks w/ flowers, then boiled it probably 5 minutes longer than I should have. The result is a brown mess that tastes like hay. I put a bunch of honey in to sweeten it up and now it just tastes vaguely like brown water. I'm probably going to throw it out.

And I'm now officially too tired to do anything else. I may just curl up in bed with a book until Girlio gets home.

I could not be more thrilled... I've spent a lovely weekend with stentoriansista. We went to Larriland Farms on Saturday and bought probably $75 worth of fruit - raspberries, white raspberries, blackberries, probably 20 pounds of apples and peaches. We've got a raspberry crisp about to be made, blackberry wine sorbet churning and we're going to make apple bread and attempt either apple sauce or canning apple butter.

We were there for about an hour and a half at around 3 in the afternoon and when we got home, we were so wiped that we really couldn't move. The heat took it out of us, so we had a casual dinner, ate half the raspberries, watched TV and set up curried squash & apple soup in the crockpot.

Yesterday, I emerged from bed around noonish, cooked the chicken for the soup, pureed the soup and enjoyed a tasty lunch before doing a brief venture to the gym, Target and the wine store for prosecco (for the berries!). Then it was off to wiredwitch's birthday party, a Buffy the Musical sing along. While there wasn't a whole lot of singing along, there was a whole lot of verita, cheesecake, good food, good people, good times. Had to bug out a little early, unfortunately. I'd heard a lot about verita and after having had it, I must say... it was all true. Also, awesome.

Today we got up early so we could hit up G Street before stentoriansista had to work. Got a pair of work flats at Payless and stopped by Target for their wine cubes - got a sauvignon blanc for cooking/I feel like a glass of wine and a cab/sauv combo for the sorbet/I feel like a glass of red wine. Got home, took a nap, and then hit the pool for the first time in two years. And, y'all, I am wiped. I got a plan from SwimPlan, got there and then couldn't do a 25 meter lap of freestyle. So I threw it out the window, played with the kickboard and the pulley, and then felt better about it and did the remainder of the swimplan as written. So, my 30-45 minute workout took me a little over an hour. Got home, ate some food, got a couple of loaves of bread started and made the sorbet. And now I am sitting here. Very, very happy. We're going to have an awesome dinner of farm share food, fresh bread with the prosecco and berries and raspberry/basil crisp for dessert.

Blackberry Sorbet w/ Wine
(makes 4 cups)
2 1/2 cups pureed blackberries (about 4 cups pre-pureed - if you've got extra, freeze it to make blackberry ice cream)
1 cup water
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup red wine
lemon juice to taste

In small sauce pan, combine sugar and water. Heat until sugar is completely dissolved and then put in refrigerator to cool. (Most sorbet recipes want more sugar - closer to 2/3 - 1 cup, but I always find that to be too much sugar. Your tastes may vary) When mixture is cooled, combine it with wine and blackberries. Mix well. Add lemon juice to taste. Mix well. Taste and do a 'omg that's delicious' dance. Make in ice cream maker according to instructions. Rejoice again.

So, I picked up the farm share, got home, pulled what I thought was a pork chop and put it in the microwave to thawed. I started a ghetto version of my mom's quick marinade (balsamic vinegar, soy sauce, garlic, olive oil & herbs and I threw in a dessicated lime that's been hanging around), found the pork chops I'd ask stentoriansista to leave out for me, realized what I had thawed was a chicken thigh, cooked it, one of the ears of corn and some leftover pasta for dinner. It was awesome. Threw the beets from the farm and decided to take the handful of hot peppers I have and make my version of Potbelly's hot peppers & carrots using this recipe.

You know, I can't even say I wasn't warned. I thought about putting on gloves before and during the proceedings. There are actually latex gloves sitting on a shelf 10 feet from the kitchen. And yet, I chopped and deseeded probably 15 mini peppers with my bare hands. My thumbs, middle and ring fingers BURN. I've tried soaking them in ice cream, yogurt (non-fat, dammit!) and olive oil and it only lasts until they rinse off. I'm most definitely not touching my eyes, but I burned my mouth accidentally. Lotion does nothing. If I touch my thumb to my mouth, it's spicy. I should have realized the problem when I started coughing while chopping the peppers.

Not sure how the peppers will turn out. There weren't enough peppers to fill the mason jar I used and it kept boiling and splattering as I poured it in.

Oh well. Live & learn, eh?

ETA: Lemon juice worked really well to cool the burning and baking soda worked even better. My hands stopped feeling like shit mid-Daily Show, though I appear to have actually blistered a finger. Oh, baking soda, is there anything you can't do?

(via froglady)

1) Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.
3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating.
4) Optional extra: Post a comment at www.verygoodtaste.co.uk linking to your results.

( Cut for your viewing pleasure... )

Yeah, it's another one of those "here's my pantry, tell me what to cook" entries. So?

I have:
2 yellow squashes (one intended for curried apple-squash chicken soup... which I just might make)
6 apples
2 plums
handful rasberries
cheddar cheese
1 heel of bread
cucumber
zuccini
bok choi (needs to be cooked soon)
many, many onions
2 servings salad greens
1 bag dried black beans
2 cans kidney beans
6 giant cans of diced tomatoes
more pasta than you know what to do with
brown rice
couscous
most spices
milk
frozen chicken breasts
frozen whole chicken
frozen okra
frozen ground beef
frozen heat 'n' serve chicken strips
lemon juice
walnuts
balsamic, red wine, apple cider & plain vinegar

I think the short answer is to chop up all the bok choi and make a quick stirfry with the heat 'n' serve chicken & some pasta. I'm trying to think of what to make that a) does not involve me going out and buying more food, b) can be crocked and c) can be turned into work lunches.

I'm also going to be making garlic scape pesto during the next couple of days. Whee!

I don't understand... I went to go make myself some delicious crockpot chicken soup that I've been craving... Before I started to chop the veggies, I went to the freezer to defrost my chicken breasts and... and... they weren't there.

Ladies and gentlemen, my freezer is out of meat. (Well, except the two turkey burgers I have frozen in there. And the bacon. And the 2 cup tub of cooked chicken for pasta) I... I never thought this day would come. I seriously think the last time I bought meat it was 2007.

In a similar vein of spending money I don't have, I'm starting to think I need a new computer. I only use mine for internet, photos & iPod and it's not working very well right now for internet or iPod - though the iPod itself may be the problem considering how frequently I drop it. Add to this the fact that it was bought in 2003, doesn't hold a battery charge and overheats a lot, this may not be a bad idea. (or maybe I should just buy a new battery - this may actually fix a lot of issues) A new computer is expensive, but not unheard of - an equivalent of the laptop I got from SecondJob would put me back $500-$800, depending on where I got it and it's a good machine... though it would be running Vista ::shudder:: There's a rule that any computer I own must suck and have issues with startup/shutdown, so, yeah. (Seriously, the last three I've owned)

Last farmshare pickup last night. I got some sage, which I'm going to dry and then... um... do something with. I got the last of the basil to use... somehow, and I'm up to 25 apples that I will use to make... the world's largest pie? I'll figure it out. Since Girlyfriend is out of the country and the Aunt has a social life, I'm probably going to spend Saturday night cooking, so I'll figure out what to do then.

Power of being bitchy - I got my Comcast bill last night, with late charges and last month's bill unpaid. Some sleuthing discovered that they cashed my check two days after preparing the statement. The check I mailed 12 days prior to that. So, I called comcast and bitched and they waived the late fee. I tried to get them to switch my midmonth-midmonth billing cycle, but they couldn't. I do need to talk to them about my crappy cable reception... but I didn't. Oh well.

I'm tired. Yoga this afternoon, work event tonight, Pagan Night Out tomorrow, work Saturday. You know. How you do.

Do I know you in real life? Are you going to the Maryland Renn Faire? Willing you be willing to buy me tea from the herb people?

See, I bought a small packet of the pink lemonade tea from them the last time I was there, thinking it'd be nice to faze out the crystal light I drink constantly in favor of a sugar free, yummy alternative. And I lurve it. The back also had a recipe for pink lemonade tea sorbet. And I made it last night. And I just tried some. And I LUUUUUUUUUURVE it.

So, I don't think I can go until next August without more of this. And while I'm pretty sure they're on the web, I'm positive it's only their hotsauces. The kind person who picks me up 3-5 packets (a $10 investment) will get reimbursed, my undying affection and quite probably a quart of said pink lemonade tea sorbet.