hurricane ike.

so, my parents are dealing with a hurricane. they've lost electricity and phone lines and are probably pretty happy they boarded the windows. in terms of food, my mother promises me that they have, in no particular order: peanut butter, pasta, bread, cake, bottled water, and flank steak. i kept telling my mother to buy canned beans, but i don't think they really eat beans anyhow.they have a propane grill, as do many texans, so that they can cook even without the electricity. i've been thinking a lot about what food i would get to prepare for an emergency.

here's what i would want:
chips (potato and corn), canned beans (black and garbanzo), salsa, green apples, beer (obviously), peanut butter and jelly and bread, carrots, pickles, bottled water. i would probably get cans of other things, like tomatoes, vegetarian chili, maybe even potatoes. i would heat water on the grill (if i were in houston and had one) and use my french press to continue to make coffee. maybe some cheese, like cheddar, that i could eat for a few days at least.

as far as i am concerned, chips are the most important item. i am sure i could live on chips alone.

why?

among the other reasons why i can't stand sarah palin, there is this one. really? she's even messing with what we eat?

hey, hermano.

blake makes great mexican food, which is awesome because new york does not do the same. as far as we are concerned, the best things to eat in the morning are breakfast tacos. blake's are a bit like burritos, overfilled and hard to close, but certainly tasty.

the most incredible thing is that a person can make breakfast tacos with just about any random vegetable you have in the fridge, as long as you have some eggs and something spicy. and hopefully cheese, but you could survive without it. you would just be sad.

a short recipe: put some oil or butter in the skillet. cook your onions and other harder veggies first. add spinach and tomatoes. pour in your already-whisked eggs, and cook to scrambley goodness. heat your tortilla (could be in the microwave. boo! or over the range, turning if over and over a flame until hot and not hard). put some salsa and shredded cheese on the tortilla and scoop the egg mixture over it. voila! it's the best.

as we ate our way through the refrigerator, one of our last attempts at cooking while packing was breatfast tacos: spinach, eggs, onion, maybe some tomato. it's hard to remember at this point, but we set the timer on the camera to record the moment for posterity. (we had packed the plates, so we are eating over the sink here.) the pictures aren't pretty, but i know blake is probably crying in austin about no longer being the star of the blog, so this is really for him.

one more, for the kids in the back.

this is the end of the boston adventure: blackberries.

we went on a boat to the harbor islands. we chose spectacle island and georges island, though there are quite a few a person can visit.


georges island isn't that exciting. it's mainly a fort that you can walk in and around, but not much greenery really. we really wanted to go spectacle island. it's called that because it is supposed to resembles spectacles. heh. barely.
what is weird and gross about spectacle island is that it was a landfill. yes, kids, we hiked on a landfill. and what's even more insane, we ate food from there. an island once known for gambling and garbage has blackberries growing all over it.

this was the main reason lindsey wanted to visit, even though she was weirded out by the idea.

but she was an incredible explorer, walking and looking through the thorny brambles for the berries. she was successful. i ate a few but i felt like we were stealing from the insects or birds or whatever animal might typically eat them. lindsey did not have the same worries.

fruit sushi.

in addition, lindsey was dying to go eat fruit sushi. she had written me emails telling me how incredible she thought it would be, and so when i went to visit, we drove to brookline and went to some organic sushi place called genki ya. it was almost 10pm and we were the only ones there, but that's besides the point. (lindsey plans to go every day, i think, so that it remains open.)

what do i mean by fruit sushi?
well, there were so many bizarre and lovely options: with mango, sweet potato, banana, plums, honey. our roll had cream cheese, cucumber, carrot, sweet potato, and banana. other things, too, maybe.

it was delicious. and organic. and inexpensive.

toad in the hole.

i did not grow up eating eggs like this one. i went to boston for labor day weekend. (i drove a prius, by the way. it was incredible. someone should buy me one.) lindsey bought all sorts of fancy foods to feed me for breakfast: good coffee, goat cheese brie, ciabatta rolls.

and eggs. probably cage-free, no horomone. but, that's not the point at this moment.

she made a dish called "toad in the hole." i'd seen her do it before, when we were roommates, but, well, she was always eating dinner foods at breakfast, so i ignored much of her morning ritual. i like breakfast at breakfast. and any other time.

she cuts a hole in the bread, and then toasts it in the skillet a bit. then, she cracks the egg into the hole, and fries it there. in the hole. the toad in the hole. ha.

it was super. lindsey said there were other names, but i want to call it "bee in the bonnet."

gosh.

i think about writing often, and then i come home and my computer hates the internet, hates i-tunes, hates opening files. so, i am behind. there will be a new computer soon, and an external hard drive, which i actually think is the root of the problem. too many files in the computer. and it's not even close to full! anyways.

here's a short list of things i plan to discuss:
1. fruit sushi.
2. toad in the hole.
3. frozen pineapple drinks.
4. my new kitchen.
5. corn (but i guess that's a given).
6. my brother (also, predictable).
7. blackberries on the landfill.
8. breakfast tacos.
9. food from the bodega.
10. popsicles.
11. lasagna.
12. frito pie.

it seems like a long list. the end of the summer, with the moving and all, was not so good for this blog. i have a backlog (backblog? ha. bob loblaw. ) of photographs and ideas. i just need to get started, and i need my computer to promise not to overheat in the process.

please come back soon.