all the questions.

within 24 hours of each other, my mama and alex asked me about this blog, whether i am still working on it, thinking about it, what is happening over there already?

it's here. i'm here. i'm still thinking about food and policy and cooking all the time. and i want to write on it more but i can barely stay afloat with all my work (that thing that actually pays me).

i digress. smashedgoods is not over (and the handle is certainly active on twitter). i'm just not here in full force in the way i'd like. someday, i swear.

we were snowed in.

it means:

• lots of hot coffee
• eating all the leftovers
• clomping around in the snow with the pup
• listening to the magnetic fields pandora station
• fresh-baked bread (this one)
• canceled meetings (but still work)
• writing about food safety during a power outage (we didn't suffer, but others did)
• keeping your beer cold by putting it outside

easiest.

on loaf three of the easiest sandwich bread ever. we're big bread-eaters over here, so i'm trying to find ways to have more goodness for less dollars. and with not too much of a time commitment, which is actually the hardest part.

**the photo is loaf one. i am working on my "pinch."

because there is no one else.

“Share the eats, share the drinks, be of good cheer, and if we work together, maybe tomorrow we won’t die quite so quickly." --Pete Seeger

We lost a great one yesterday--folksinger, radical, Vagabond Puppeteer, maker of strawberry shortcake, boat-builder, holder of my heart.

how to separate eggs.

i'm more of a let-the-yolk-run-between-your-fingers kind of girl, but my mama sent me this video and it's pretty awesome.

also on the horizon.

pickled collard greens stems (made with this recipe). they've got to sit for 3 days, but i have high hopes for putting fewer things in the compost (in general) by pickling them.

throwback.

thinking back to the days of midori and amaretto sours (seriously, that was 15 years ago?), i decided to make my own sour mix. and drink it with some amaretto, which we apparently keep in the house.

i followed the recipe on a beautiful mess. the whole thing took 15 minutes and maybe $3. and it keeps for a few weeks, at least. it's not even 10am, so i'll be trying it out later.

we are grownups.

tell it, goddaughters.

all i want is you.

post first-trip-to-the-farmers'-market of the year.

saturday, january 18th: fried egg, raw kale salad with pine nuts, pecorino, and lime, the garlickiest potatoes, carrots, cucumber, and rye bread (from the awesome baker in the market whose brand i cannot remember). strong coffee.

and this guy (who let me drive his bus):

yes.

drew barrymore is also a big fan of the egg sandwich.

it was one of the first things she learned to cook. in addition to her cooking story, she explains how to make her version over at refinery 29. sounds pretty delicious to me.

(yes, that's a narwhal tip jar. oh, austin, how i love you.)

is two.

my little tank of a pup turned two on tuesday. her brother stole and ate her rawhide sushi (a christmas gift) and so we gave her his rawhide donut (which he also secretly stole and ate).

it's been cold all week. i've spent too much time in a car. now it's raining and i am (again) stuck inside working on dissertation proposal details, which are frustratingly complex. luckily, there's been lots of delicious coffee, consumption of the holiday beer, and a hot chocolate party(!) on the horizon.

on another note, i wrote a little thing about kale and my concern for its safety when consumed raw.

who's ready for spring already? this girl.

close-out.

the plan is to carve out more time for posts. for now, a glimpse into my winter travels: NC, VA, DC, WV, MD, PA, NY, OH, IN, and MI. lots of my favorite things.

1. my favorite dress on christmas--after a long-winded discussion on food stamps and food service wages with casey's uncle, fake lottery tickets, half a bottle of wine, eggplant parmesan, and candy canes.

2. a visit to bell's brewery in kalamazoo, michigan. we'd been to right proper brewery in DC and community brew works in buffalo and great lakes brewing in cleveland by this point. it was my first time in michigan--only 10 states left to visit!

 in order, that's a cherry stout, a black ale, trumpeter stout, a rye stout, a porter, a harvest ale, and a random guy in a beret.

3. my favorite lady and my favorite lady dog hanging out in south heaven (sic), michigan. what happens in south haven stays in south haven.

 4. but in holland, there's our brewing (slogan: men and women drink together) and new holland brewing (which also distills ryes and whiskys and other spirits). it's where we spent the afternoon of the last day of 2013. it was delicious. seriously. and so, so lovely.

 5. the long haul forward, complete with snow and concern from the lady dog (the gentledog in the backseat couldn't care less about the weather).

 6. the actual haul of beer home: 13 genessee cream ales (screamers), a corsendonk christmas ale (with santa covering), one howler (half-growler) of community beer works stout, one howler of our brewing dubbel, 2 bottles of great lakes (edmund fitzgerald porter and blackout stout), and 8 deschutes brewing black butte porters (my all-time, long-time favorite, brought to michigan from chicago by shira).

all the superlatives. 

7. The Comfort Food of the Moment Is Sandwiches.

thank you, nymagazine, for reminding us that sandwiches are amazing and "of the moment."i'm a huge fan of sandwiches. like my lady liz lemon said, "I believe that all anyone really wants in this life is to sit in peace and eat a sandwich."

indeed, LL.

the loneliest apple.

it was so long ago already that casey deposited some of his CSA's apples at my house. he hasn't even been here in at least a month. the last batch were a bit mealy, which i hate, and so they lived in the kitchen much longer than they should have.

there's been just one kicking around for a while and i've felt compelled to eat it, mostly because i hate to waste. but what to do with its mealy self? finally, i had a plan.

chopped into slices and covered in turbinado sugar and cinnamon, i let it bake it in the toaster oven for 25 minutes or so--and out came a delicious, dessert-like wonderment. oh yes. and then it was gone.

i was never going to throw out that stale bread.

casey would call it "poor man's french onion soup" for sure.

i'd been eying that piece of stale sourdough for at least 2 days. there was an open container of vegetable broth in the fridge. i chopped up about 1/3 of an onion and 3-4 of the teeniest cloves of garlic and tossed them into a pot with the broth and let it cook until my kitchen smelled wonderfully garlicky-oniony. that stale bread was chopped (it hurt to do it with my hands; it was so damn stale) and put into a a single-serving pyrex. the onion soup was poured over it.

of course i didn't have the right cheese. i sliced some sharp cheddar into thin pieces to make a layer and put them over the top, but then microplaned a pile of parmesan over it. baked it in the toaster until the top was brown.

totally, totally french onion soup.

consumed with some broccoli because, well, green things are good for you. and mighty tasty.

all of a sudden.

how to quickly make soup when it's suddenly cold:
1. saute in a pan: chopped carrots, swiss chard, onion, garlic, and one habenero pepper (which was probably too much, but it seemed dumb to leave just a little and so there's that).
2. cook vermicelli noodles in a bit of water with a vegan bouillon cube (which are better than the vegetarian ones).
3. mix together with a big tablespoon of peanut butter (for protein, and flavor).

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.