because we eat a lot of them around here.

eggs are totally fine. you can have ONE PER DAY. no increased risk of heart disease.

i try to limit myself to three per week. mostly for the cholesterol, but they might be my main source of cholesterol anyhow. and so that's silly.

**for the record, the cabot greek yogurt is not awesome.

bravely made.

casey brought me a 12-pack of black butte porter from deschutes brewery. we took these photos to send michelle but i thought i was share them here. we attempted to include the pup but she was not interested in the paparazzi. 

that beer is still delicious. a favorite from more than 10 years ago and it holds up. i think the label is different but maybe i just don't remember. it's totally a treat. i am trying not to drink them too fast. 

(and it says "bravely made" inside the cap. BIG FAT LOVE for that goodness.)

pop to it.

love a popcorn snack. wish casey was here to make kettle corn. you know he's a master of kettle corn, right?

because.

sometimes a soft-boiled egg is amazing, too. (as seen here with quinoa, carrots, bell peppers, and garbanzos).

yes, i know it's cold outside.

and yes, i made ice cream this week. i saw this post about cinnamon dolce ice cream made with fresh ricotta and, seriously, i was in the cooperative handing over my credit card immediately.

it seems silly to post the recipe here, because, well, you've got the link. but i made a half recipe and it filled 3/4 of my ice cream maker. it's not as creamy as regular ice cream because of the ricotta (i think), so i can't say i am in love with its texture. but, the flavor is delicious and it was so simple to make.

now, to make something with the rest of that cream, maybe homemde sour cream?

egg in an egg.

casey sent me this video today:


wouldn't you just die?

same life.

i just found out that mark bittman and i practically live the same existence. 

ha ha ha.

he did write a nice piece on coke's new anti-obesity campaign. i did not.

she was there.

while i might be a vegetarian, i was never very aggressive about it--never a vegan, never really into animal rights, though i do care about them. this book was the first (and maybe only) vegetarian cookbook i received, presumably from tina.

and today, i am reminded that paul (can i call him just by his first name? i mean, he's a BEATLE.) is still a vegetarian. he penned this sweet article about his life as a vegetarian, with a commercial for linda's (his?) food company. i think it's adorable and wanted to share.

lastly, when courtney and i went to see paul mccartney play when we were the 9th grade, linda was there. which is awesome, no doubt about it.

poor man's chili.

ok, first of all, in the foreground of this photograph is another dose of that cauliflower. it's just that good.

also, no photographs of casey in a while, i know. that guy lives in DC now.

but, really, you are here for chili. we're both vegetarians, which works out pretty awesomely because we can do fun things like share dishes in restaurants and no one is upset that the chili has no beef. (no, i didn't date any vegetarians before him. not for real, at least. on that note, i don't even know very many vegetarians anymore, especially not men; they all (male + female) jumped ship around age 30 or so.)

casey kept calling it poor man's chili because we made it so fast. we didn't use dried beans or let it cook all day or anything. we'd been hiking in umstead park all afternoon and practically got locked in there and it was dark by the time we returned. but he had some canned beans from his two weeks of camping and cross-country travel and i had a can of tomatoes with green chilis. we cooked onions and garlic in a bit of olive oil and threw in the cans of black and kidney beans, as well as the tomatoes. i tossed in a TON of chili powder, as well as salt and pepper. we threw it on top of some brown rice and topped it all with mild cheddar, because it's what was in the fridge. done. easiest dinner ever. filling and delightful.

i am going to tell you something.

do you ever just do something one day and you are like, "why have i never done this before? it's the most delicious thing i have ever consumed." welcome to my last week.

i bought a cauliflower last week. i never do this because they are expensive (way more so than broccoli). it might be the cooperative, but i was in a trader joe's and they were still not cheap, but cheaper than i'd seen in a while. so i bought one. it should be noted that i love cauliflower (i'd probably eat it boiled and stinking up my apartment, but that's not usually necessary) but i love a lot of things i choose not to buy because of price. (there's an economics dissertation in there somewhere, but i don't study economics, at least not purposefully.)

but i digress. what did i do to the cauliflower? i know you want to know. 

i chopped a big chunk of cauliflower and drizzled (who says that?) olive oil over it, as well as sea salt and black pepper. and mixed it all up so the cauliflower was coated. and i had some pecorino in the fridge, so i chopped up some pieces. and tossed them in the pyrex as well. i put the whole thing in the toaster oven for 15? 20? minutes. i have no idea. but it was the best thing i've come up with in a while. there are no detailed photos, as i wanted to eat it steaming hot. i have no idea what else i ate for dinner with it; that's how delicious this dish is (yes, i am ending that sentence in a preposition. gimme a break.)

there's no more cauliflower. i kept making this over and over until the entire head was gone, even making it for casey with a mix of cauliflower and broccoli. yes, it's divine like that, too. he's been calling it "the infamous cauliflower." big love. for the boy and cauliflower.

the littlest bit.

we had rain and snow last thursday and friday. it was a long day of rain with a wet pup who only wanted to get into my bed, followed by an evening of snow. a whole inch and a half when we woke up, only for it to be gone by the afternoon.

but it required matzoh ball soup, and i was gifted a box of the mix earlier this year. i made a broth by boiling a vegetable bouillon, onions, garlic, and carrots in some water. i never buy broth because it seems too pricey for its contents. i know, i know, i should be making it myself, but that just requires foresight. someday.

those fromagiers.

SOOOOO creative, you guys.

all the things i love.

green beans. hard-boiled egg. tomato. carrot. and lentils. sea salt and pepper, a bit of olive oil. so incredibly good.

a sandwich-free lunch? almost unheard of over here.

i admit.

i just don't love lentils. i don't know why; i love most beans and legumes. they always seem so boring, like they don't have enough flavor or something. yet, i made a batch of them the other night (i have 2 jars of lentils, oddly). i eventually tossed them with sauteed mushrooms and onions and threw it all on corn tortillas with avocado (an imperfect one, i don't know what i was thinking buying it in january. damn cooperative.) and topped it all with shredded hoop cheese. and tomatillo salsa. not bad. not bad at all.

i ate 3 tacos. i am usually a 2-taco kind of girl. so there's that.

yes, those.

i am eating the beet greens. it suddenly seems so silly to throw them out (well, into the compost). and they wilt quicker than other greens and that's totally annoying. 

but i am eating them. mostly sauteed with olive oil and salt thus far. and, truthfully, they are delicious. a little like a love affair occurred between swiss chard and a beet. 

additionally, i am back on the fried egg sandwiches. i don't think i left them, but they haven't made so many appearances here in a while. this sandwich is seeded ciabatta (too seedy, actually, if that's a thing)  with melted mozzarella, the sauteed beet greens, and a fried egg (cooked in the oil/greasiness leftover from the greens, which is why there are leaves already stuck to the egg). 

trust me on this one. 

doggy-dog world.

shira thinks i am just one step away from making my own dog food over here. i promise that is not true, but i do have homemade dog biscuits in the oven as we speak (it's 8am). the recipe is from the barefoot contessa (obvs) and it is super easy. (i did substitute ground flax for wheat germ because that's what i had. and i didn't pu the egg wash on top because my pup would not care about their beauty.)

i was *this close* to buying dog biscuits the other day when i saw that for the ones i'd actually want to feed my dog, they contain the same ingredients (almost) as people cookies. and then i thought it was dumb to invest when i had all of the ingredients at home. and it took all of 15 minutes.

yes, i've made this recipe before for casey's pup (just out of love) but he's not really into peanut butter (insanity) but i am certain chloe will love them.

also in the cabin,

we melted a wash basin full of snow to use for dishwater. the stove-top was propane, so we were not really camping-cooking, but we also didn't have running water. we brought drinking water with us, and they gave us a bit of water to start, but our pump never really worked and, thus, we devised another way to do things.

oh you pretty things.

oh, to be young in new york and have $13,000 per year to spend on glorious food. i hear you, kids, i do. but i hope i never spoke with such pretention.

and new york, i do miss your offerings. a lot.

(the above photo is of a burger i ate at minetta tavern before i left The City. a must-do, i thought at the time.)

on the horizon.

homemade yogurt to come. maybe using this recipe.  

 i mean, i eat it every morning. why not make it myself?

of the year.

the first tacos. i can't believe it took A WHOLE WEEK into 2013 to make tacos. seriously, what is happening?

i've decided to be better about eating the greens on the things, instead of tossing them into the compost. so, i sauteed some beet greens and mushrooms in a bit of olive oil and sea salt. i scrambled the egg separately in the pan and then cooked it all together. as always, i heated the tortillas on the stove (like, actually on the stove, no pan). i threw some hoop cheese on first, then piled in the egg-greens-mushroom mixture, and topped with sriracha. those greens were not bad. not bad at all.

but truthfully, everything is good with olive oil and some salt.

an all-time fave.

yelena and i began making spring rolls in college. yes, we know you call them summer rolls in new york and other northern cities, but in vietnamese shops in houston, they are spring rolls. after ordering them 1000 times, we soon learned that, with a quick trip to an asian market (there are tons in houston, many not far from where we lived at the time), we could whip them up ourselves.

they live on as one of my favorite things to make. maybe because i like a food that houses itself (can we say burrito?), but also because it's easy and cathartic to put it all together, and it's fast and not terribly unhealthy. 

this time i stuffed them with carrot, cucumber, tofu (not fried), steamed kale, and vermicelli. 

i couldn't help but get the "three ladies brand" of rice papers last week. i mean, it's beautiful packaging for rice papers. and then i ate probably 6(!!) of them with a spicy peanut sauce (peanut butter, tamari, sriracha, garlic powder, sugar, and hot water).

so damn good. every single time.

baked.

i was totally in the mood for a baked potato the other night, but could not justify turning on my oven for an hour for lousy potato. and the toaster oven is sometimes a little inconsistent on its temperatures, so i was uncertain on that as well.

so, i sliced the potato into four large pieces and covered them in salt and butter (and added butter again later) and baked them in the toaster for about 25 minutes. flavor and butteriness and the taste of childhood. and so fast.

egged.

so, bon appetit says today, "when in doubt, put an egg on it." oh, shut it. i've been saying that FOR YEARS. and have plans for a fried egg-topper in my future restaurant.

who are they kidding? are they reading this blog? or, more importantly, this zine?

already.

 the photographs are a million times better, right?

this morning's breakfast: leftover beans (cooked with butter, olive oil, thyme, onion, and garlic) tossed with kale sauteed with onion and carrot in olive oil, topped with a hard-boiled egg.

freewheelin' hard boilin'

totally into hard-boiled eggs around here. casey and i even made them to take on the road, which initially sounded ridiculous but ended up as delicious.

the martin jay.

as mentioned, casey and i spent the end of 2012 in a cabin in the adirondacks. without electricity. i had long thought that a cocktail made with porter and bourbon would be delicious and this was seemingly the time for experimentation. 

start with a small glass (likely, a rocks glass) with one ice cube. we used a chunk of icicle, but you might not have access to such whimsy. 

add about an ounce and a half of bourbon or whisky. we used buffalo trace, but since it's a mixed drink, you could probably use blue state or even jack, if you must.

fill the glass 2/3 of the way with  porter. we used port city porter (from DC) but any delicious porter will do. nothing too sweet. none of those vanilla ones.

add a splash of ginger ale--preferably a spicy one. we had reed's ginger ale with us in the cabin but blenheim would rock as well. 

stir with your camping knife. do it while wearing flannel. it's really quite delicious. we've named it the martin jay, after the owner of our cabin and the town nearest to it.

p.s. sorry the lighting in the photos is weird. we only had fire and candlelight and that teeny light you can see above and the photographs just did not do what i wanted.

p.p.s. this year, i am hoping to stop taking so many photos with my phone and go back to the camera. those photos are just no good when you look at them on any screen bigger than the phone. and the filters make it all worse.

cabin fever.

an update to come on our new year's cabin vacation in the adirondacks. pictured above are some of the many whisky and ginger ales (with icicles as ice!) we consumed.

but also, the year closed out with:

• christmas eve dinner with casey's entire family in a restaurant only to be followed by christmas day festivities with even more family and then christmas part 3.  what? 
• a trip to the genesee brewery for genny cream ales and other beer snacks. (and many more beers.)
• bowling (poorly) and greasy fries. 
• a surprising amount of italian food.
• loads of coffee (some from pods). 
• vegetarian chili from casey's mama.
• cheez-its and potato chips and trail mix and hard-boiled eggs and a million random things on the road.

i don't know what i ate for the last two weeks. i'll get on that cabin update. 

close-out.

i was traveling (and not so much cooking) for the final weeks of 2012. that meant i needed to make sure the fridge was empty when i left for new york (no, not THAT new york. western new york. the one by canada and niagara falls.). the above meal was one of the last ones i concocted before i left. pasta with a sauce that included cream cheese, sour cream, garlic, and tomato paste. i know that sounds crazy, but it was delicious tossed with green beans (a current fave) and crushed red pepper and probably some other spices i can't remember any longer.

let's say i was BEYOND SUCCESSFUL in emptying the fridge. ask casey and alex. it was impressive.