ned ludd, i love you.

My birthday's on Monday, y'all! I'm gonna be 26 years old, how... moderately exciting? 26 isn't a very rad birthday, what can I say. Anyway- last year we had plans to visit our friend's restaurant, and we got SNOWED THE HELL IN FOR LIKE 2 WEEKS. Then we got the flu. Then we got a STOMACH VIRUS. We had to wait until freakin' January before we finally managed to go out. And when we did, it ROOOOLED. Since then, it has become our favorite fancy date spot, and by that I mean we've gone back like 2 other times, haha. (We don't go on very many fancy dates.)

We almost went someplace else because there's just SO MUCH TO EAT here in Portland, it's hard to want to do repeats at the same restaurant when you could be trying something new, but what it really boils down to is friendly faces and ridiculously awesome food. We did snacky plates and shared a bunch of stuff- the pickles were amazing (PICKLED APPLES? The pickled mushrooms were my favorite), the cheese plate was awesome, we got a MEATPIE, the chef sent us out a bratwurst on a bed of red cabbage that BLEW MY MIND, and I imbibed the Love & Squalor Riesling, mostly because it was delicious, but again mostly because I'm a huge dork. The best thing we had though, was roasted winter squash with date molasses and bits of thick-sliced bacon. THE BACON TASTED LIKE A CAMPFIRE. IT WAS AMAZING. And the squash was all caramelized around the edges, it was awesome. I wish I had a picture of the face my husband made when he took his first bite. For dessert we got a local chocolate sampler! I don't think I've ever been to a restaurant that has something like this on their dessert menu but I thought it was awesome, because I was STUFFED, and it was just small bites of really excellent chocolate. (Note to Jason & Ben if you're reading- the chocolates were awesome, but you need to get some Lillie Belle chocolates on that tasting menu! They have good shit.)

Uhhhhhh anyway. We had an awesome meal, went out for a movie, and now we're sitting on the couch like lazy old people because I have to work in the morning. A+ pretend birthday!

pea soup, slightly improved.

The other night I made a pretty boring pot of split pea soup. It didn't even have BACON in it. I just wanted something cheap and healthy for dinner, so vegetarian pea soup it was. It was... ok. I mean, it wasn't the best soup I've ever made, that's why I didn't bother posting a recipe.

I put the leftovers in the fridge, planning to eat them for dinner last night, but when dinner time rolled around I was like, "Ugh, dude- really? I'm NOT in the mood for pea soup, I don't know." But, laziness trumps appetite so I warmed some up on the stove anyway. Then, a stroke of not-quite-genius, but still pretty rad, I scooped in a couple of dollops of massamun curry paste that I had in my fridge.



Here you can see me cleverly hiding the date I wrote on it when I opened it- it's been in my fridge for awhile, but if you're curious, the brand is "Thai and True," it's made locally, and it's pretty tasty! I like the massamun the best. Normally I just put this into a can of coconut milk and pour over a stir fry for more like a thai style curry, but stirred into leftover pea soup, it tasted just like indian food!

Anyway. I uh... thought you all might be interested. Sorry, last night was my husband's company holiday party and I got drunk and made an ass out of myself doing karaoke, so I'm just gonna sit here in a cozy sweater and try to sleep things off, if you don't mind.

kale chips.

Dude. If it wouldn't take 8 billion years, I'd eat my weight in kale chips. I mean, you can't really go wrong with hot crunchy salt in any form, but this is my new midnight snack that I want to eat by the BUCKETFUL.

All you have to do is tear up some kale, drizzle it with a little bit of olive oil, sprinkle it with coarse kosher salt, and bake it for 10-20 minutes at 350º, keeping a close eye to make sure they don't burn. PRETTY IMPOSSIBLE TO FAIL AT.

Let's talk about coarse kosher salt for a minute, by the way- we were on a sea salt kick for awhile, but we ran out and I grabbed a box of coarse kosher to replace it, and it was like OH HI OLD FRIEND, HOLY CRAP YOU TASTE DELICIOUS. Screw sea salt, seriously. The best part about the coarse kosher is that you barely use any, but everything you put it on is magically transformed by the crunchy salty goodness. You can drop hella bucks on those silly fancy finishing salts at the gourmet groceries, but I just have a deep love in my heart for the old school stuff, what can I say? God, I love salt with texture.

thanksgiving leftovers.

In an effort to clear out my refrigerator, I dumped most of our remaining thanksgiving leftovers onto some homemade pizza dough last night. I didn't even have any mozzarella, so you're looking at a turkey cheddar pizza, and roasted peppers, broccoli, & cheddar, respectively. We used what we had, and what we had was some leftover turkey, and one of those big gnarly vegetable trays with mini sweet peppers, carrots, broccoli, etc. (And a big bucket o'ranch in the middle. I considered doing a white pizza with the ranch but remember, thanksgiving traumatized my gut, so I'm attempting to eat a little healthier.)


HEY! On a completely different note, since my readers are such a fountain of good information- I recently picked up a huge jar of unrefined coconut oil, having been convinced by the hippie legions on the interwebs that it's like, super good for you and stuff. (Not going to lie, secretly I'm just hoping that if I eat coconut oil every day I'll just lose 10 pounds without even trying) PROBLEM: I DON'T REALLY LIKE COCONUTS. I mean, I just am not that into it, and the oil definitely tastes coconut-y. So far, all I've been doing with it is throw a chunk or two on top of my rice when I have stir fry, and I've had it on toast (it's spreadable at room temperature, if you're confused about why I might be putting OIL ON MY TOAST) with a pinch of salt, but otherwise- YUCK. The package suggests putting it into a smoothie and HOLY HELL, WAS THAT EVER A TERRIBLE IDEA. There were huge solid chunks of it throughout the smoothie and the texture was just appalling, to say the least. UGH UGH UGH.

So, if any of you are hippies who incorporate coconut oil into your diet, what do you do with it? The suggested "dosage" is like 4 tablespoons a day- how do you choke it down? Do you just eat everything with a hint of the tropics in it? Will I have to just force myself to like it, pretty much like I forced myself to like shit like brown rice and nuts and drinking water? (I USED TO HATE DRINKING WATER. I drank a coke for breakfast every single morning from age 8 to like age 20) Is it really a health tonic? Are you all svelte and crap from eating it all day? Information, plz. Thx.

guhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Dude.



Dude.





First of all, let's talk about my bullshit blood sugar. I don't technically follow a Glycemic Index diet, but I probably should. The longer I pay attention to what I'm putting into my body, the more I realize I just can't eat shit like white potatoes, white bread, refined sugar, etc., because it makes me feel like TOTAL CRAP. It's the day after thanksgiving and I'm walking around feeling all trembly and shitty like I'm getting over a bout of food poisoning, when in reality all I did was gorge myself on green bean casserole and potatoes all night. And pie.

So, that doesn't mean I'm going to turn into some persnickety high-maintenance eater who shows up at a diner asking for gluten and soy free pancakes, it just means that after last night's excess, I fully understand why I have been working so hard to be careful about what I eat.

WITH ALL THAT SAID, THESE MAPLE & BROWN SUGAR GLAZED SWEET POTATOES WERE THE BOMB.

I was at Trader Joe's the other day (HAW HAW) and they were giving out free samples of some prepacked version of this stuff, and I thought it was tasty, so I decided to try to make it myself. It was really easy, dude.

In a small saucepan on low heat, warm up a generous glug (about 1/4 of a cup?) of maple syrup, a whole stick of butter (melt it in the syrup, duh), a good sized handful of brown sugar, a really conservative pinch, really just a little dusting, of cinnamon, and a splash of balsamic vinegar. Toss over some cubed sweet potatoes and roast in a pre-heated 425ºf oven until fork-tender. (note: I didn't roast these potatoes in the dish shown above, although that is an oven-safe dish. I roasted them in shallow cake pans so they'd cook evenly. I just transferred them to the pretty container for serving.) Top with some toasted pecans if that's your bag (as you can see, it's mine) and serve on the side of a deliciously gluttonous meal that is guaranteed to make you feel like shit in the morning.

I MEAN SERIOUSLY YOU GUYS, I DIDN'T EVEN DRINK ANY ALCOHOL.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go whip up my recovery dinner- lightly steamed vegetables over brown rice with a poached egg and some lemon wedges. Leftovers be damned. (J/k I had a leftover turkey sandwich for lunch already, duh)

stir fry.

Dude, do you remember when I was all, "blah blah I'm going to write about all our standard meals and talk about our grocery list and blah blah" and then I think all I did was post about spanish rice and then I got distracted and did something else?



We eat stir fry like twice a week. It's funny, because everyone makes stir fry and everyone has their own little way of doing it. Sometimes it's nice to have someone else cook for you, but doesn't it seem like if you eat someone else's stir fry, it's just kind of wrong in a way? It's like doing laundry at someone else's house and realizing your clothes all smell different. Or, it's like when you're a kid and you go over to your friend's house and they have DIET COKE instead of REGULAR COKE. Or worse- PEPSI.



The ingredients to our stir fry that never deviate are: onion, garlic, carrot, celery, broccoli, zucchini, soy sauce, a tiny splash of fish sauce, served over long grain (basmati or jasmine) brown rice.

The ingredients that sneak their way in when we're feeling fancy are stuff like, asparagus, green beans, bell peppers (expensive!), maybe snow peas if I'm feeling CRAAAAZY. Mushrooms, sometimes. I've been on a huge mushroom kick. I blame Zach.

I used to throw in tofu every once in awhile, but some of us have problems *ahem* digesting it. Without protein, I get hungry almost immediately after eating, so I've started adding scrambled eggs. When we have cashews on hand, I dump some of those in too. I love it with cashews!

Tell me about your stir fry, please. It's like sneaking into someone's medicine cabinet. I'm snoopy.

Get Better.

I can't believe I've managed to forget posting about this here, but I've been taking some photographs for my friend Zach's blog. He's really interested in nutrition and superfoods that prevent cancer and stuff like that. You should read it!

http://nomoresickfriends.blogspot.com/