the book was not as sad as i'd imagined

"Even all these years later, in a life that is loaded with fancy supermarkets and disposable income, a Saltine is still delicious." --Ann Patchett, from "Dinner for One, Please James" in Alone in the Kitchen with an Eggplant: Confessions of Cooking for One and Dining Alone, by Jenni Ferrari-Adler

because that sentence sums up so much of how i feel about eating and groceries.

thursday's caraway

thursday, october 24: homemade wheat with tomatoes and melted caraway cheddar. white bean salad with greek seasoning and sea salt and garlic and loads of pepper. butter lettuce (SERIOUSLY TO DIE FOR).

mastering the art

of course, shira and i read the exact same article about making soviet pirozhi (pierogi), so when she showed up in the state of north carolina last weekend, we set aside some to hang out in the kitchen and make them. we also both failed to notice that soviet pierogis are baked, not boiled, so we were surprised with the end result.

the recipe comes from a new cookbook/memoir entitled "mastering the art of soviet cooking," which was appropriate due to our respective russian backgrounds. not that it made us any better at making the pirozhi.

 to mix it up a bit, and because i had an acorn squash kicking around, we made half with a cabbage-mushroom filling and half with a squash-farmer's cheese filling. we roasted the squash first and then just scooped it into a bowl, where it got mixed up with shredded cheese. otherwise, we followed the recipe pretty closely.

consumed with sour cream and applesauce, they were a delight--though not really the polish version we'd imagined. such is life.

let's go back

to october 7th.

migas (or at least a version of them) made with leftover tortilla chip crumbs, with some sort of cheddar sliced over the top. sliced tomatoes (from the roommate's boyfriend's CSA). steamed broccoli (gimme a break. i like it steamed--just not too steamed). a session black (cheap and delicious and in adorable bottles). tortilla chips (i love those $2 bags).

not bad for a monday night.

stop it, food world.

stop with the smoothies. there's no reason to take a perfectly good, [insert awesome texture adjective here] fruit or vegetable and smush it into a liquid. and don't tell me you are doing a cleanse. you know that doesn't make any sense.

crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch
chew chew chew chew chew

i wish i had been keeping count

of all the times i've had eggs with casey. the first time i can find his presence in this blog is here and it's totally egg-centric. but there must have been hundreds of times.

and so, this weekend, at casey's house: breakfast tacos with FLOUR tortillas (yes!), eggs (obviously), spinach, onions, and garlic. topped with cheddar and purple radishes. with roasted sweet potatoes. and coffee (because of course).

officially october.

it's decorative gourd season, motherfuckers.

no, seriously. my roommate loves a pumpkin. it's all harvest time all the time over here.

before the iphone

it used to be more fun to blog about food.

when i started this blog in 2007(!!), the internet was a different place. the iphone did not yet exist, nor did the androids. if you were doing anything sort of "smart" in your phone, it was on a blackberry (practically defunct) or a t-mobile something-or-other where the keyboard flipped around. twitter was brand-new and the founders of instagram had barely graduated from college.

more importantly, what i was doing was much more novel.

now, i am no idiot. i did not create the food blog platform, nor did i care to do so. but now every person and his dog photographs and filters and blogs and tumbls food. but, in 2007, it was not the phenomenon it is today. my friends didn't even really "get" the blog when i started it and now there are millions that are similar. i was never really one to post my restaurant meals beyond something amazeballs (mostly because it can be so obnoxious, but mostly because if i am in a restaurant, i want to enjoy myself and not "work") but today, restaurant food suffers from the paparazzi--not because it is so wonderful, but just because it exists.

so, i keep on keeping on. i like to contribute to the conservations built around food--around home and family, around cooking and baking, around policy and its implications, and, of course, around the awesomeness that is food.

it's just at my own (currently very slow) pace. i've got things to say. and i want this space to be fun.

child size.

i was reminded of this gem today.