fox liquor.

i wanted to hate this place. but it's delicious. that cocktail is called THE CHAMP.

*photo courtesy of alex. nails courtesy of yours truly.

this year.

new years in ithaca means moosewood is on the horizon.
OH YES.

(and christmas in buffalo brings niagara falls, beef on weck, and maybe a chicken wing, as they say.)

the oiliest holiday.

hanukkah means latkes and donuts. the holiday of fried greasiness. shira fried up her mama's latke recipes this morning: sweet potato and regular potato. yeah, she did.

it was that kind of sunday morning, when people just sorta stop by and join you for breakfast. and the kind when i don't do all the cooking. awesomepants.

fuck yeah, christmas.

so we threw a little christmas party with the above title. it might be a little vulgar for the birth of jesus, but my holiday spirit is high. it is. i even made an ornament this week. and holiday decorations. and cookies with candy canes in them. and i am traveling all the way to buffalo for what casey keeps referring to as "catholic christmas," which apparently does not include midnight mass but instead a buffalo bills game (against whatever team tim tebow is on). 

so, yes, a little party. with the fanciest cheeses. alex and i made a special trip to southern season to pick the most perfect ones: sheep, cow, and goat. and rosemary bread. and peach bitters. that place is really something.

 

casey actually hosted/bartended this fête: three kinds of bourbon, as well as gin and sparkling wine. and punch, of course.

 

i am working my way through damon boelte's catalog of punches--this is his ruben's cooler no. 2, a concoction of gin, elderflower liquor, fresh-squeezed lemon juice, cucumber, and soda water.  

always a smash.

ask and you shall receive.

a mention for gf cheez-its means that's what we are cooking at casa smash this morning.

remember, i've done this before.

one-two punch.

casey and i are throwing a christmas party. he is going to make old-fashioneds. i am picking out a punch recipe. so much good to come.

the drink-maker.

casey is making all the whisky drinks these days. we spent much of thanksgiving drinking a concoction of bulleit rye and dublin dr pepper, with a lime, in these incredible glasses at my parents' house. and last night, he made what i have dubbed "the gentle lumberjack:" bourbon, maple syrup, soda water, and lemon. a wintery cocktail for sure.

reee-col-aaah.

i am writing about food corps, food stamps, and farmers' markets. there is math and econometrics involved. additionally, there is the growing pain that is my sore throat; i have been eating ricolas like there is no tomorrow. needless to say, i will write more exciting things soon.

for now, a photo of the chalupas i forgot weeks ago.

meta.

in which i post a simpsons episode about bart, lisa, and marge as food bloggers.

i sort of hate the episode. but sort of love it, too.

yeah.

we made chalupas last night. fried up the tortillas at home and all. tasty photos to come.

wait. pizza?

can you believe congress declared pizza a vegetable? to begin, tomatoes are a fruit.

i might need to get working on school lunch policy. this is a disaster.

fridays = saddle shoes.

a gift certificate to the starbucks meant a little coffee date with casey on friday morning. also included were saddle shoes, stripey socks, and sparkly tights.

always and forever.

parks and recreation takes on the world food crisis in a model UN episode.

i love this show. SO much.

monday, monday.

i always eat at home on mondays, as my class is late and my office is musty.

stinky-awesome french cheese, pea shoots, tomatoes, and cucumbers on 9-seed wheat bread from ninth street bakery, tortilla chips, and chickpeas with olive oil, salt, and pepper. the cutest lunch.

multiple.

why yes, i am eating tacos multiple times per week.

sunday morning: corn tortillas with spinach, eggs, tomatoes, onions. and garlicky-salty roasted potatoes (on the side, because the tortillas can't hold so much).

lamentation.

reading glasses and hot tea. too many pieces of paper, things misunderstood. lots of tacos, 'cause they are easy. ready for the semester to end.

it's all like this.

but mostly everything i eat is a variation of this meal. on the weekends my sandwiches have eggs and i am able to cook potatoes and eat complicated salads. on a weekday, there would just be a carrot or two on the side. maybe some pretzels.

ciabatta with cheddar and a fried egg, roasted rosemary potatoes with olive oil and sea salt, and a salad of carrots, radishes, cucumbers, and basil. oh thank you, north carolina, for the diversity at your farmers' markets.

free-form.

things are happening. too fast. i am always behind and always working. and casey is attempting this whole gluten-free life, at my suggestion, no less. so eating is weird altogether.

but i wanted to make this tart. and i don't always love mark bittman, as i think he seems to not-really-love vegetables. yes, i know he has a whole cookbook to vegetarian cooking, but i was always under the impression that he eating the veggies because he should, not because they are delicious. and it just puts me off. but, yes, i do follow him on twitter.

so i made the tart, which casey thought was some sort of dessert pizza, and i guess it is. you only need 2 apples, not 3-4. i added an extra tablespoon of sugar and some shakes of cinnamon to the crust mixture, as i was using the gf flour and it tends to get dusty, as april and i might say.

it's pretty delicious. and easy. i already had all of the ingredients at home, which is the key to cooking these days. and i made it while doing homework. and it's fall and cold and i want to eat hot things with apples.

oh, frito.

i introduced casey to frito pie. i mean, he had been missing this incredible texan delicacy. for those of you who don't know, it's a bowl of fritos with chili poured over it, and often cheese.  actually, traditionally, it's a bag of fritos opened, with the chili (beef, no beans) poured into the bag. but there were only big bags at the store. while casey and i can eat a lot, it seemed absolutely ridiculous to pour a whole pot of a chili into a huge bag. so we did not. we just ate tons of it.

huck, on the other hand, was less than interested.

trust me.

thursday. 
ciabatta with cheddar and fried egg, roasted rosemary potatoes, and a salad of carrots + radishes + basil.

it's amazing i am writing this post. i've got a crazy amount of schoolwork. luckily, i am watching the third season of parks and recreation and it actually makes me laugh out loud. that takes some serious dry humor.

crushing.

work. work. work.
everything is about panel data and farmers' markets and food stamps and the food history of houston. and more. i'll be back once i find my way out from under this pile of articles.

underneath.

don't worry. i am still here. just under a pile of journal articles and garden safety tasks and a million other things worthy of my new laser printer. posts to come.

lewis.

 

alex and i witnessed the magic of the lewis bag at the crunkleton on derby day.  it is a pouch made of sturdy fabric which is loaded up with ice, only to be smashed to make perfect mint julep ice (which is a lot like sno-cone ice). of course, once we saw it, we wanted it. and wanted to make it ourselves.

yes, she set up in front of her only-a-little-scary sewing machine and guided me through the process of sewing straight lines on rectangle fabric. needless to say, it was not so hard. 

but then what? THE JULEP. casey was back in action last weekend with the juleps and actually put the lewis bag to the test. i didn't have a mallet so he used a frying pan. adorbs. 

and delicious, as always.

in it.

this semester has already begun to eat me alive, to make me feel like what i am doing is both important and useless, to allow me to forget about writing here because there is just no time for anything. but i am still eating like a champ, obviously.

seen above: steamed broccoli, buttery + garlicky potatoes, black beans and onions with serrano pepper, topped with a fried egg.

we have also given up the CSA for the fall and have committed to weekly farmers' market shopping. we wanted more variety and not feel so tied to large bags of squash and watermelons. so far, so good. yesterday's $15 yielded tomatoes, japanese eggplant, arugula, cucumber, red potatoes, spicy peppers that look like bell peppers, and a cantaloupe. i am also now the proud owner of a purple pepper plant that i was promised would have spicy peppers AND would be hard to kill. we shall see.

a trillion bazillion.

a trillion years? a bazillion? i have not uploaded a breakfast in so damn long.

so, here we go with sunday brunch: cantaloupe slices, sauteed mushooms + okra +green beans, buttery yukon gold potato halves, an absolutely perfect fried egg, and half of an everything bagel. and coffee.

back to school means never going to a restaurant. not like i was regularly eating outside the apartment anyhow, but still.

not at all like in shag.

did you ever see shag? i have been thinking about this movie. the girls (with awesome southern names like carson and melaina) throw their mama's jam out of the car and skip fort sumter and go to myrtle beach. and dance and have sex (one with a guy named buzz) and drink beer.  well, they were a little crazy. but it was 1963. and a movie.

and a million years (well, 21 years) after i saw that movie in the theater, i can remember it all. and finally set foot in charleston. after months of rambling about it to casey, whose age at the time of shag's release i will not calculate. 

CHARLESTON, south carolina. i just knew i would like this place. it was like the time i read about portland (in like 1995) in the magazine on the airplane and i was like, OH MY GOD I HAVE TO LIVE THERE. and then spent many years trying to get to portland, which i loved absolutely.

and charleston was perfectly old. older than the civil war. old, old cemeteries messily arranged everywhere, but beautiful gardens draping through them. and a jewish cemetery dating to 1762. seriously. 

and fort sumter is right there. in the water. with confederate declarations and statues and history throughout the city in a way that is completely acceptable, with no "stars and bars" flying around. 

you just feel like you are in another country. just like that. 

and oh yes, the eating was good.

within minutes of arrival to our rented apartment from 1840, we were at hominy grill. yeah, it won a james beard some years ago. it was lovely and homey and full of tipsy arnold palmers and buttermilk pie and boiled peanuts snacks and i swear, i don't know what i ate for most of the weekend, but it was all amazing.

we spent our mornings with the dog (also on vacation, sleeping all day in luxury) caffeinating at hope and union. it was seriously incredible single-brewed coffee. each morning i chose coffee (all fair trade, of course) from a different country, based on the descriptions on the chalkboard. and a pastry. 

you can see the remnants of the nutella-banana turnover. there was an almond croissant the next day. and a very relaxed casey.

yes, we continued on to other meals soon after. but how would we get to them without delicious, delicious coffee?

we spent our saturday afternoon on a fancy drinking tour. starting in the husk bar, i had 2 different peach-bourbon cocktails. and after the chef brought in AN ENTIRE LEG OF PIG, proceeded to trim it, and then offer a bite, we could not refuse. it was frightfully exciting and decadent. and i knew it had to be something special when casey put a piece in his mouth.

soon after romantic stories of george washington, we went to mccrady's for another cocktail and deviled eggs, followed by the gin joint for 2 more drinks with homemade pretzels and fancy cheeses. and blissfully asleep before 11.

what else? fried-green tomatoes benedict. belgian fries. a huge pile of thai food, because you can't eat southern all the time. lots of strolls through the college of charleston and surprising parks. with streets of houses that are more than 250 years old. that is old old old for america.

and the tree.

about 10 miles outside of charleston, this tree: the angel oak. on someone's property. just growing like crazy. this photo barely does it any justice, but it is the best one i've got.

you have got to go there. next time, i swear i am staying for a week. and beaching and all. 

oh my holy hot damn.

 

it was only this morning that i remembered that i haven't posted in forever. i was in charleston looking at old things. and confederate things. and eating delicious things. and then thinking about school things and hurricane things.

posts en route.

a peck of pickled peppers.

ok, so it wasn't a whole peck. but i did pickle peppers on saturday, a variation on this recipe.

we aren't supposed to eat them for a week so it's just waiting waiting waiting. eating all the other pickled goodies in the fridge instead--okra, radishes, bread-n-butter pickles.

and then we talked about how much we cried in the movie.

a HUGE bag of green tomatoes this week in the CSA meant i had to fry them. i just had to do it.

alex is staying with me temporarily so we cooked up a meal centered around these fried goodies, which we batter-fried using cornmeal, flour, eggs, milk, cayenne, pepper, salt, and garlic. with a little lemon-yogurt dipping sauce. and some salad and roasted squash, because not every part of the meal can be fried.

the bean.

 

pounds of edamame in the CSA = lots of bean snacks.

greasy bean.

yes, this meal is from july 22nd. yes, that's a long time ago. yes, i love a meal like this one; it has all the components of awesomeness. yes, it is a perfectly fried egg on toast with cheese and lima beans in olive oil with parsley, sea salt, and crushed black pepper.

i love a "greasy bean," as casey calls them: a well-cooked bean with enough olive oil for it to taste somewhat olivey and earthy and doused with coarse salt and pepper (could be red or black, i don't care). seriously, it's the small things.

cobbled.

after i was sick (and unsure of what made me so), i felt i had to be cooking everything in the fridge to kill the pathogens. while not everything (or potentially, anything) in the refrigerator was "tainted," i made a peach cobbler, which was delicious.

there's no recipe. i can't remember how i did it.

the truth is out there.

i've been waiting for this to be true.  amy sapkota, thank you.

from food safety news:

Poultry farms that transition to organic and stop giving their birds antibiotics have significantly lower levels of drug-resistant bacteria, according to new research out of the University of Maryland's School of Public Health.

The authors of the study, published in Environmental Health Perspectives this week, say it's the first to demonstrate lower levels of drug-resistant bacteria on newly organic farms in the United States, adding credence to what environmental and public health advocates have been saying for years: antibiotic usage needs to be curtailed in American agriculture to combat growing antibiotic resistance.

Most experts agree that overusing antibiotics in both human medicine and animal agriculture is contributing to the problem -- more than 100,000 people in the U.S. die from bacterial infections, 70 percent of which are resistant to antibiotics. Recent U.S. Food and Drug Administration data indicate approximately 80 percent of all antibiotics sold in the U.S. are given to food animals.  

 i knew it. thank you to those who study the hard sciences that can make this information a reality. 

an addendum: here's a link to the study if you want to read the whole thing. 

slurpee.

yeah, i did. all i wanted for our road trip to the beach was a slurpee. coke + cherry, just like my hermanito.

casey made the stop just for me. and i got a bag of chex mix, too. road trip food all the way.

to return.

casey and i are at the beach for a couple of days. he's conferencing and there's work happening on my side but there's some beach + pool happening, too. i just returned from the very hot outside (feels like 103F) to work on the gardens document. and watch TELEVISION while i do it. (seriously, i don't know how y'all watch tv. i think i am losing brain cells. this can't be good for anyone.)

rock rockin' it.

ok. so i know it's been slow going here at smashedgoods. too much work and then the foodborne illness and then catching up on all the work just makes for too little blogging. by the time the work slows, i'll have to go back to class. UGH.

but i am eating real foods again.
wednesday's lunch: black-eyed peas with parsley + olive oil + sea salt + pepper, sourdough toast with leftover shakshuka sauce + grilled eggplant + parmesan, and pickled dill okra.

yes. yes.

the dunnies.

 

my two dunnies now live in the best spot on the shelf--in front of the food books. adorableness. 

grossness.

i've been really sick. like ironic foodborne illness sick. don't worry; i'm on the mend and eating solid foods that are mostly white and bland. shira brought bagels back from new york so that's been incredibly helpful in my recovery. and i've got good-looking photographs of food to post.

on another note, i really suck at poaching eggs. and farrell explains how to do it perfectly. and i read the whole section about it in the joy of cooking. and it's still a total fail. i'll get there. farrell will have to walk me through it again. he just doesn't know it yet.

the worst.

i burned my left hand so terribly this morning that i am beyond behind in my work (don't worry; i am fine, i swear). and casey had to help me cook. seriously, the project that ate my summer just gobbled it all up.

melting.

it's hot as hell. i've been making LOADS of sun tea. pictured is darjeeling in the small jar and black apricot in the french press.

hell yeah.

the best salsa. straight from texas. in a six pack. it's most exciting thing to happen here in a while.

grilling + chiling

i bought a grill. it's charcoal, not propane. yes, yes, i realize that blake and hank hill are cringing as i write this post. but i don't have space (or money!) for propane. 

it's small. portable. there's some "natural" charcoal. shira is really taking this on as a personal challenge. (on that note, i think that because someone always wants to take charge of the grill is the reason i barely know how to use it.)

anyhow, we grilled it up last night: corn (finally in the CSA!), potatoes, squash, heirloom watermelon. yes, watermelon.

with some beans + rice. and a belgian beer. sounds like summer to me.

going way back.

june 30th. tacos with shira. plus beer tasting.
flour tortillas  + black-eyed peas + avocado + mushrooms + onions + salsa

i am incredibly behind in this blogging. and have tons of work to do. i'll catch up in august or something.

chubby chubby.

casey bought a groupon for chubby's tacos, which meant we could have twice the amount of tacos for half the price. we had both heard lovely things about chubby's so it just seemed right. there was quite a bit to choose from, so i just started ordering all the vegetarian goodies until i thought we'd had enough.

3 kinds of tacos (including a chile relleno taco), a spinach gordita platter with rice and black beans, a couple of mexican beers. we were so full of greasy goodness that we had to take a little walk around the neighborhood before we could get back in the car. 

overall, it was pretty delicious, but nothing to write home about, though casey says i write home about everything (e.g., this blog, the postcards, and the like). i wanted spicier overall, though i must say that the salsas were awesome. and there were like 8 from which to choose. insanity.

we've got another groupon so more treats are to be had. 

**that incredible face he's making is because he's hungry and all i want to do is photograph the food. adorable, huh?

doctor, doctor.

working at the morning times in raleigh last week = dr. brown's cream soda. LOVE.

but i would've taken whichever one they had. they make me think of houston + the bagel shop.