Foggy Bottom Farmers Market

Last Wednesday was the first Foggy Bottom Farmers Market* since uh...December.

Praise be to God for sunflower and flax seed bread and spinach. And none of that baby spinach shit, I'm talking about hearty and toothsome spinach with flavor that doesn't wilt.
And huzzah for eggs with orange yolks that don't break, because Lord knows I be liking my eggs these days.
Amen I say, amen to parsnips and turnips and spicy bison beef jerky sold to me by a man with a goatee.

Wednesdays just got real good. Now I have just enough time to hit the farmers market and eat a quick dinner to the first 25 minutes of Gilmore Girls before class. Yeah, I like Wednesdays.

*For many months I was not sure if it was Farmers Market or Farmer's Market (note the apostrophe). Is it a gathering of multiple farmers or a market put on by farmers thus making it theirs? Well, it's both, so I took the matter to Google. While it corrected me when I typed in Farmer's Market and not Farmers Market, I was still skeptical. After more Googling, I read the first Farmers Market was intended to sell produce to non-farming folk (and was established in LA). So there you have it, Farmers Market. If you were already aware of this fact, then let this story be an example of the wonders of Google.  Once upon a time I wanted to live in a time without Google, then I stopped reading so much and found gchat. Hallelujah!

Modernist Cuisine

Modernist Cuisine is apparently going to revolutionize cooking because it's a 2,400 page tome explaining science-based and modern techniques in cooking. The photos look amazing and I'm sure it will be interesting, but it's not going to be released until March of 2011.

I visited the blog and found this video and probably watched it about 27 times in a row. As if I didn't already love popcorn enough.

Thanksgivings One and Two in Portrait

The First Thanksgiving
The only photo that really came out, unfortunately.
Somehow nine people and one seven-foot German fit around a small table. Because everyone's food was so delicious, I let them go see Harry Potter without me afterward. I didn't even ruin it or complain that I couldn't go because I was too tired.
I think this is growing up?


The Second Thanksgiving
I carried a 21 pound turkey slung over my back and spent the rest of the day basting until she turned golden.
It's honestly amazing how many people can fit into one tiny room and how a lot of good food and wine and music can turn a word like cramped into something more like cozy.



One day Victoria is going to make her fortune in mini pies.
No, seriously.


The father, the Son and the Holy Ghost.
And the Turkey.

After looking through all my photos from both nights (a total of 9-sorry, i'm awful at taking pictures without a lot of light and after I've had more than one glass of wine. But the people there were looking sharp and if I had taken more pictures of them, they would have at least looked like they were having fun) I noticed all were taken in portrait. This really bothered me because I definitely prefer looking at photos in landscape.

And a quick word to all those already celebrating Christmas.
Just stop, please. It's not that I don't love Christmas, but you're despecialing it. And well, I think Thanksgiving is pretty great.
I'm looking at you Georgetown.

Ten Things I Liked About Yesterday:

Ed got more hot chocolate for the office kitchen. Ghetto mochas forever.

My towel sits next to the heater in my bathroom. Warm towels after showers forever.

Seeing someone run after the bus and actually catch it.

The song Vesuvius off the new Sufjan album, especailly the end.

Wednesday's farmers market.

Buying walnuts with the shells at the market and finding the exact way to hit them with a hammer without completely shattering the nutmeat.

Apple and Walnut Tart. A tart is what you make when you want to make a pie but have no pie pan. Then you call it rustic.

Trees remembering to take the tart out of the oven before it burned without me calling him.

Having an uncomplicated and only mildly confusing conversation with the people at Penn Camera and then having almost no line at Trader Joe's.

Gemma Jones' character in You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger. Oh and Josh Brolin's pot belly, that too.

two damn hours

some things are worth the time you put into them.

these aren't.

they aren't even pretty.
i hope you enjoy them book club.

oh and FYI, the top right apple is a poorly executed drizzle technique and not a chocolate avalanche like the others.

the apple festival.

syria, va

i love fall, obviously. but there's also a lot of anxiety that comes in october. every so often i get panicky that i'm not giving autumn the attention it deserves. i explain this and offer it as an excuse as to why i have a lot of mini pumpkins.

this weekend we went to an apple festival in the blue ridge mountains.
we made apple sage chutney and apple pie as we played cornhole under what may or may not be a maple tree.
i think this weekend calmed some of my seasonal anxiety. now i just need to start watching scary movies. i love scary movies like i love fireballs. they can be tough to get through at points, and sometimes you need to press pause and remind yourself that you're sitting in your parents livingroom in the middle of the day and later you're going to be eating lasagna.
but there are such things as ghosts.

thanks to drew for photoshopping apples. i can't wait until santa brings me my own photoshop because i gave a dollar to the hobo with the bright blue eyes yesterday.

monet's potatoes

every once in a while after using my cutting board, i notice the juice from the vegetables or whatever i'm cutting has left really neat patterns. same thing when i bake in the oven.
sometimes i'm too lazy to take a picture, but last night i took a third and thought that was enough to make into a blog post.

purple and yukon potatoes.

? looks like strawberries and raw chicken.

butternut squash chip food stamps.

oh, the photos are too dark?

deal with it. i took them on my iphone and uploaded them on a computer from 1998.

eatsing.

though i would love to leave everyone with the impression that i cook fabulously delicious meals every night in all my free time (i actually do have a lot of free time, i just make a point of wasting it), the fact is i had 1/3 a bag of frozen edamame and an oversized mug of hot chocolate for dinner.

eating out is expensive, yes. that much is obvious. sometimes i think about the money i've spent in restaurants recently and realize i could have bought a round-trip ticket to london.
but you know what can be even more expensive? cooking. on my walk home from trader joe's i calculated how much i spent to make soup, and it was more than i would ever pay for soup. i guess you can justify it because you're paying for 3 things. 1. the food 2. a sense of accomplishment 3. publicity: it's totally fine if you want to tell people i'm a good cook. it's not like you'd be lying, unless you were talking about anything other than pasta.

i've found teaching yourself to live on a budget is really hard, if not impossible. the way i've handled it so far is to cook and eat out every once and a while, and survive on <3 style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">fennel, anise, thai basil, terragon: they all have a licorice flavor, used in a lot of fish and egg dishes.
cumin, coriander, chili powder, turmeric: some people like to use them in a lot of middle eastern and indian dishes. i like to use them never.
nutmeg, ground cloves, ginger, cinnamon: the spices of baking and autumn
marjoram, thyme, sage, rosemary: chicken and beef spices.

another thing i've been trying to do is try and look at the farmer's market as a treat and NOT a regular grocery store. maybe one day when i become a stay-at-home owner and my dog godric is making the big bucks, i can buy all the grass-fed bison cutlets and apple butter i want. but for now the occasional produce splurge is all i can afford.
so look out acorn squash, because tomorrow marks the first foggy bottom market of october.

besting me

broccoli rabe: terrorists vegetable of choice.
-my roommate

why is this vegetable suddenly appearing everywhere? last week i decided to try a recipe and see what this broccoli rabe, this rapini, is all about.
well this vegetable is all about sadness, if you must know. sadness, terror and dissapointment. i literally spit it out and admitted that broccoli rabe got the best of me that night.

how did the phrase "got the best of me" come about?
did broccoli rabe look at me and say: not impressed
well screw you broccoli rabe, you hipster broccoli, you bitter green stalk of vitamins A, K and C.

i can't decide if i want to start a lifelong campaign against the lesser of the broccolis, or turn around and get the best of it.

mario's

probably one of the best subs around. ask my dad, he's been driving out to arlington since 1971 to eat here. oh the bribes this man has offered his children to pick up a 12 inch sausage and cheese for him. i don't think i've ever seen him more disappointed in me as when i once brought back a 6 inch.

i got a full size philly steak and cheese that i'm guessing will last me 2-3 days considering it's 12 inches of steak, cheese and every topping imaginable. i'm only sorry i didn't get to see fudgie the whale cake.


the floor is probably one of my favorite things about the place.


i'd HIGHLY recommend it (especially late night as i truly believe the quality of the food and people that go there improves). i'm sure megan and alli would back me up as i can remember a few night-before recaps that have ended in a confession of ordering an entire hawaiian pizza.
aint nothing to be ashamed of.

made orzo stuffed zucchini and listened to the black keys all evening.

recipes here.

i fucking love produce

sorry mom dad kathryn and kitty, sorry plum and grandpa, sorry all little cousins and aunts and uncles that are probably not reading this, but my love of produce cannot be censored.

easily my favorite thing to do this summer has been going to various farmers markets. i can't tell you how excited i am to eat that watermelon. there's also heirloom tomatoes and purple and blue potatoes from abingdon.

and though i will miss you summer produce, i cannot WAIT for butternut squash, pumpkin, grapes (wine) and apples. lots and lots of apples.