Bear's Berries

Tiny Tims

The other day Christina oh-so-generously handed me a bag of tiny red tomatoes from her Gilmour Street Garden.

"Adam's get-well-soon present," she explained.

Well, Christina, he ate them with chopped fresh basil and a splash of balsamic. To Adam, this is the salad of gods.

Fresh Production

On Shawna's advice, Jeremiah and I made a lunch reservation for today at Fraser Cafe. I forgot my camera, so you don't get to see the local cheddar cheeseburger with house-smoked bacon that I ordered. Or the panko-breaded haddock that Jeremiah scarfed down (hey! I thought we were sharing!). Mine came with house chips; Jeremiah's was on a bed of warm fingerling potatoes, roasted baby fennel, and grilled cherry tomatoes. Everything was, as my dad would say, scrum-diddly-umptious.

The Fraser brothers claim they'll be focusing on seasonal ingredients, and by the looks of the peach cobbler on the table beside us, tis the season!

Also, the Fraser brother (which one is which?) who was at the grill is kind of a hottie.

Yeah, she is.

August 22, 2008

Shouts out to all the people (and pets) who helped me love the age of 27. I probably forgot about fifty people, but rest assured, you all make my life a lot cooler, just by hanging around.

Adam, Allen, Andrea, Anna, Aunt Susan, Cathy, Christina Paradiso, Christina Riley, Cindy, Corn Ear, Cousin David, Emilie, Flora, Gillian, Jamie, Janet, Jeremiah, Jitka, Jules, Kaka, M, Mary Lynn, Megan Soucie, Megan Dewar, Pappie, Pigasus, Sarah and Dave, Sarah Waterston, Stucy, Suni, Tony, Tim, Ty, Vanessa, and Wendy.

Much love and gratefulness.

Late Summer

Is it really? Already?

My birthday is tomorrow. When I was a kid, that meant I had just started a new school year. Now it means string beans, slow-roasted tomatoes, Kirby cucumbers, big bowls of blueberries, new potatoes, and the promise of crisp Cortland apples from New Brunswick.

Tonight, faced with the overflowing bounty of my last trip to the market, I made this simple salad for my recovering patient.
To DIY, simply stir together green and yellow beans (snapped to bite size and steamed just until al dente). Drizzle in a bit of walnut oil and a generous squeeze of lemon. Add a clove or two of minced garlic, fresh basil, and fresh hot pepper. Garnish farm-style with good old S&P.

Peanuckle

Adam's home, sitting up on the couch, and typing emails with his left hand.

Here's the recipe he croaked out when I asked him just how those spicy peanut noodles are made.

What To Put In:
3/4 cup peanut butter
1/3 cup water
3 tbsp tamari or soy sauce
Juice of one lime
1 tsp-1 tbsp dried chili flakes
3-4 cloves minced garlic
2 tbsp finely chopped ginger

What To Do:
Mix peanut butter, water, and tamari.
Add lime juice.
Then add remaining ingredients.
Taste at various stages and at the end. Adjust flavors as needed. You want a peanutty taste with a bit of a kick from the chili flakes, garlic, and ginger, plus some lime to cut the richness, and tamari to bring out the rest of the flavors. The water is mostly used to achieve the desired consistency, which is neither runny nor pastey.

How To Eat:
Toss cooked udon or other fat, tasty noodles with sauce.
Portion into bowls.
Top with julienned cucumbers.
Garnish with Kosher or coarse salt.

During

12:58 pm.

When the going gets tough, the tough feel sentimental. My lunch was an homage to my man. Last night, he made me a huge container of spicy peanut noodles, which, for me, is pure comfort food. I washed them down with a tall glass of sour yumberry juice, which Adam bought for me the last time he was in Washington.

Now, I wait.

Before

7:50 am. Getting ready to take Adam to Riverside Hospital.

Fizzy Raspberry Limeade

I love it when people tell me what they're eating/drinking! Here's a drink made by Christina's own hands. She says she just mixed Diet 7 Up, limeade, and fresh raspberries.

I bet a guy could get hooked on this post-surgery. We'll see, won't we?

How We Do It

Come Friday, I will definitely be living vicariously through Kaka's amazing birthday, which she had yesterday, courtesy of her husband, Brian. Here's how she described it.

I had a great time yesterday... it feels like I've been on a bender, even though the whole thing only lasted about 24 hours. It started with a shot of Whiskey (yuck) at 12am, followed by bed, then a big Wild Oat cappuccino in the morning with a newspaper, then a picnic at 11. You should have seen the feast Brian prepared: homemade crepes with an assortment of fillings in little tubs, like grilled chicken, mushroom wine sauce, cheddar with onions and chives, Appledore, feta, cream cheese, onions, spinach, sliced apple, and olives. We had to lay down in the park for a while to recover. After, we went to the fair and then to the 5pm showing of Tropic Thunder. Then we came back and had a slice of the vanilla cake Brian had made.


Photos courtesy of the birthday girl.

What a Ham

The thing about sharing a household with another person is that you're subject to their neuroses and quirks. Like how some days you can barely get to our shower, as the bathroom floor is frequently littered with several days worth of yoga bottoms, pajamas, underwear, purses, hoodies, and umbrellas. What can I say? I'm messy.

One of Adam's 'things' is that many processed foods make him positively gag. Hot dogs, for one. Happen to be one of my favorite treats. Also on his 'hate' list is any meat or fish in a can. But he's away until Sunday, so I trucked out something I probably haven't had in fifteen years: canned ham.

Was it everything I imagined? Well, Suni came running when she heard the can open and got a whiff of its contents. This put me off the whole idea before I had even begun. But I soldiered on, breaking up the lump of ham and mixing it up with mayonnaise. Taking a taste, I was shocked at how salty it was. This, I did not remember. Again though, I gamely continued, slathering a piece of light rye with the mixture and topping it with lettuce leaves and another piece of bread.

I got through most of the sandwich before my lips started to pucker from the salt. And, with the remainder in the garbage, I've decided that there is absolutely no way I will have another. I guess I really am a red pepper hummus girl for good now.

Glory Days

If you're looking for this guy, he's broken, battered, and having shoulder surgery five days from now. But it takes more than that to keep him in bed! This weekend, Adam's coaching Firebird in sunny Calgary at the 2008 Canadian Ultimate Championships. The team has increased wins significantly and are hoping to do the same at this year's CUC tournament. Yesterday's results are 1 win, 2 losses. Cross your fingers!

The Best Things in Life

More news from Sarah and Jeremiah all the way from Croatia. I copied the text exactly, as it appears that Jeremiah was using a Croatian keyboard, and the results are both funny and beautiful.

From J:
I got zour updates and thez all sound reallz cool! We had breakfast (free) at our awesome hotel and there were 12 kinds of homemade honez. I had the one with truffle chunks in it with an apricot croissant. There was an omelet station where thez had a whole prosciutto leg thez were carving off of....

Talk to zou when we get home.

xoxoxo

From S:
Thank you! I am glad that you like the wee jade plant. It originated from a ginormous one that my grandmother has had for decades, and that I have been cloning for years.
We just participated in a redunculous breakfast buffet at the very, very comfortable hotel that Jeremiah found us. We had another crazy sleep in, one of many on this trip, in a king size bed. We are spoiled rotten, but life is good.
Love, S

The Best

I made you some cookies!

This is the kind of whispered announcement that makes me weak in the knees. Yesterday afternoon in the movie theatre, Karen passed me a crinkly paper bag filled with giant oatmeal cookies. Two of them were loaded with nuts and dried fruit. The others were garnished only with crystalline grains of coarse salt.

Sigh. Seriously soft, surprisingly light. And yet another moment when I got exactly what I needed: a lift from somebody sweet.

SALTY OATS COOKIES (Recipe adapted from Teaism in DC)

1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup rice flour (white or brown) *very important - gives the cookies their chewy texture
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, chilled
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups rolled oats
1/2 cup large raisins *I often omit these
Kosher or other coarse salt, for sprinkling

Preheat oven to 375F, and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper if you have it.
In a medium bowl, whisk together rice flour and all purpose flour. Set aside.
In a large bowl, cream butter with sugars, baking powder, baking soda and cinnamon.
Add in eggs, one at a time, followed by vanilla extract.
With the mixer on low speed, beat in flour mixture. Stir in oats and raisins.
Drop dough, measuring with overflowing 1/4 cup dry measure, on to prepared baking sheet. Sprinkle cookies with salt, giving each cookie a light, but even, coating.
Bake for 12-14 minutes, until the edges are golden brown.
Let sit for a minute or two, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before storing.
Makes 12 huge cookies or 20 more reasonably sized ones.

For the 'loaded' version, designed by the smooth-talking, chestnut-haired Karen Foster, add a handful each of dried fruit, coarsely crushed nuts, seeds, and chocolate chips. "Don't be timid," the chef reminded me, "the more, the better!"

Bug on a Rug

Go This Way and That

Lassis are not only one of my favorite drinks, I actually count them as small meals. Traditionally made with yogurt, water, salt, and spices, fruit lassis are much the same, but with fruit added instead of salt. The best are mango lassis, made with the small yellow mangoes from Mexico, but in late summer, the local cling stone fruit and fresh berries are too bright and beautiful to pass up.

All I do is put half a cup of fruit, 1/2 cup of plain yogurt or kefir, and 1 cup water into a blender and grind it up. But adjust the ratio depending on how watery your fruit is or how creamy you want your lassi. And remember, if you use fatty yogurt, you'll get the most decadent flavour.

Delicious Combinations: blackberry-strawberry; blueberry-purple plum; mango-melon; mango-nectarine; cherry-almond (fresh cherries with a touch of almond extract).

Sometimes I also throw in an extra little something just to shake the flavor up a bit. My favorites are coconut milk; young coconut water; ground coriander; ground cumin; cinnamon; nutmeg; buckwheat honey; a touch of maple syrup; ground flax seeds.

Four-way

Apparently, cool ladies from around the continent found that banana muffin recipe inspiring. Here's evidence.

Stay tuned for another baking recipe by my newest fabulous food friend.

Far Flung

Sarah and Jeremiah finally got in touch from the medieval city of Dubrovnik where they are breathing in the salty smell of the bright blue Adriatic sea.

Here's an excerpt from Sarah's colorful update (edited slightly for length).

Our first while was wonderfully filled with Dave and Lidija's wedding. The highlight was definitely the false bride ceremony that took place before the wedding. Almost 50 of us walked through the village to Lidija's house with Dave, led by a traditional band. The band included a bass, which somehow comfortably became a marching instrument. Once we arrived, the best man helped Dave bargain for Lidija's hand. Finally (after a couple of rounds of plum brandy) they sent out a 'woman' dressed in white. Yet, Dave and the best man would have none of this 'bride,' with her decidedly masculine appearance and deep voice. Lidija finally came out, with all of her neighbours and family looking on. And we proceeded to eat and drink more, with the band playing away. The day went on from there. They were married in the city hall, in the old part of Varazdin, after which we sat sipping coffees amongst the cobbled streets and ancient buildings. At the reception, not only did Jeremiah get his 'roast animal on a spit' at 2:30 in the morning, but the lamb and goat were roasted over charcoal (the gold standard, for those who don't know).

Elsewhere

Normally, I like this blog to be all about ME, but Lucy sent me a link to the sweetest blog, Pimp That Snack, where folks (who clearly have a LOT of time on their hands) submit pictures and commentary detailing their oversized recreations of popular snack foods.

My favorite is the creepy Sour Patch Kid. It looks so juicy and yet, so...red. Adam said it looks like "one of those blind, giant salamanders they find in China!"