Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Keeping the Trouble Out of Paradise

Breakfast: Inspired by "simply breakfast," I've taken to eating the first meal of the day on a tray and putting effort into its presentation (forgot to take a pic though). This morning said tray held a cup of cinnamon tea, a glass of water, a small bowl of All-Bran with milk and a sliced strawberry, and a plate of whole-wheat crackers with plum marmalade, which I don't believe is a natural antibiotic.

Midmorning snack: Banana, "handful" of almonds. (DJ taught me that a handful, the recommended serving size of almonds or any type of nut, is actually about a quarter of what would actually fit in my hand, and it is now what I try to stick to, cause no matter how good the fat is, you can still eat too much of it.)

Lunch: Two slices of leftover roast, salad of lettuce and shredded carrots in oil and vinegar, slice of what might be considered frittata? An eggy-casserole with zucchini/carrots/celery/corn baked in a loaf-pan until golden brown. Spoonful of dulce de leche to accompany small bowl of strawberries.

Dinner: My host fam is determined to celebrate Rosh Hashanah, even though they are Catholic and I refused to go to synagogue. We're having apples, honey, Challah, roast chicken and salad. Suzanna, the of-indigenous-origin housekeeper, said Happy New Year in Hebrew to me this afternoon and I almost fell over; apparently she worked for a Jewish family for 10 years.

This one's
for you, J-Man.

Blood Orange

Breakfast: coffee, toasted oatmeal wheat bread with apple butter and cheddar cheese, blood orange.

Lunch: Mushroom risotto cakes (OMG my new favorite iteration of risotto - I will be making it on the regular just so I can make this leftover delicacy), tomato salad, Gala apple.

Dinner: Macaroni and cheese (with Sriracha), courtesy of Adam's great aunt. One of these brownies. Miam miam.

People need to 1) C.H.I.L.L. and 2) post. It ain't gotta be long, but it's gotta be there.

PEACE
PAIX
PAZ

Monday, September 29, 2008

Chew on this



‘H’ermana, I do not wrestle with the content of your entries, why you trying to compromise mine? U dig into what you want2 but I prefure a broader, “FIGURATIVE” diet. Besides, a little porridge is good for the colon.

Is marmalade a natural antibiotic? Hmm, perhaps if it contains some of these… Now Latinophile, I don’t mind you not liking what I write, but calling consensus as to how I conceive, that’s some mal leche. How bout this, when u see my contributions, your welcome not to read ‘em. I certainly snooze past some of y’all details.You really always need your fork on the right side of the plate and the blog properly categorized to satisfy yerself.. ain’t that a little stale? Lets try an’ coexist here, marinate with one another even. There’s alotta possibility abound.

My apology if the tanking economy combined with global famine and two candidates set on war in either Iraq or Afghanistan feels unhinging. You don’t think Patagonia is gonna look a lot different if nations don’t take some serious steps toward revamping the energy industry? How will your sorbet taste then? We could end on this note or we could let the pieces we blog explore some, possibly spar, but at the end of the day who we are, what we eat, what we say and think is closely aligned. We can tolerantly communitize here, creating a micro example, chances increasingly arise fro a larger frame pot-lock/latch.

Lemesee, that frittata, O-my!: Beets, Kale, tomatios, po-tats, carrohts & dios knows what else. My roommate (pictured above with the spaghetti style hairdue) made it, mad props. I added a pear, some ice cream (comfort food, ya’ll so mean) choclate sauce, yogurht, rasberrie jam & cranwalnut bread (grazie furelise), sum queso, apple slices (by the way New Haven’s got ‘em in season) a choc-chip banana buckwheat pancake and maybe some other stuff.

Whatevs, it was f@#(in’ food. How fortunate are we to be eating it, I’m grateful. My apology for sounding aggravated.

Food=Energy=Action
Pretty phenomenal formula. I’ll play nice. Minions, really, ive nuttin but…

Food=Energ-Action. What is it like being a young girl in Africa? Good film short on that link, clickit. There are 25 Million who can be educated for twelve dollars a month and Congress can not agree over how to spend 700 Billion Dollars on mostly well fed college educated irresponsible Wall Street Executives. Let’s get it together people.

Especially u Dj, c’mon out and spin your records. I miss ya

Friday, September 26, 2008

How To Feed a Sinus Infection?

My host mother claims marmalade, of all things, is absolutely necessary. Something about the antibiotics and my liver.

Entonces, mi desayuno:

Whole wheat crackers with plum marmalade. Banana. Cinnamon tea.

At noon, I went to the ridiculously amazing apartment of my program director for a "reunion" about our experiences studying abroad so far. We were promised lunch. It was delicious but strange:

About 20 of us were given 20 minutes to stand around a too-small wooden table and eat fondue. There were four pots, two with oil, two with gruyere. The oil was for the meat: partially cooked steak, chicken, and tiny hotdogs and sausages, to be finished off in the pots and then dipped in a variety of condiments, including a spicy thin reddish sauce (finally, some actual HEAT in food in Argentina), ketchup, mustard, salsa golf (sort of like Russian dressing but I should find out what's actually in it) and what is that creamy yellowish sauce with the French name? Obviously that could describe many things but I feel like this one is very common. Not Hollandaise. Maybe Provencal? It was for the chicken, specifically.

The gruyere was for chunks of bread as well as an array of boiled/steamed vegetables--brussel sprouts, carrots, potatoes, cauliflower, broccoli--plus raw cherry tomatoes.

Dessert was fondue, too: strawberries, bananas, and ladyfingers in your choice of chocolate or dulce de leche.

Then, I met my best Buenos Aires friend Annie to take her for a badly needed post-hangover meal. She made the mistake of ordering "risotto" off the menu of the very standard neighborhood cafe. It was not risotto but rice, chock full of overcooked vegetables, chunks of shredded chicken, and--inexplicably--noodles, seasoned with some kind of bland packaged curry but yet still topped with parmesan...bizarro. She pushed it aside and ordered our favorite and least healthy B.A. snack: medialunas made into sandwiches of jamon y queso, toasted a little, panini-style. SO INCREDIBLY DELICIOUS and heart clogging. Meanwhile, I had the overpriced afternoon special: a cup of black tea, two medialunas (without jamon or queso), and a copita (basically a shooter) of fresh OJ. The orange juice here is really, really delicious--tart and sweet and just so much more flavorful than any I've had in the US--it really bursts. Is it because the oranges are different? No se.

Fatties that we are, after all this we headed to Freddo, one of the biggest and best helado chains in the city, for the Monday-Friday until 6 pm special--a small cone with two flavors for $6.50 (2 US dollars and some change). I had maracuya (passion fruit) and banana split (banana base with flakes of chocolate and ribbons of dulce de leche); Annie got banana split and dulce de leche con brownie.

Ricisimo, but I might have to skip dinner...I'll let you know.

Thursday, September 25, 2008

Face-Off













So my sister called last night lookin to roast a red pepper without a grill. Do you have a gas stove? Nope. You could wrap it in paper and light it on fire in your backyard. Too intense, could I bake it? Thats a baked pepper, you need to burn the skinn to get that sweet smell. Simultaneously we were asking 'Broil?'

So is there gonna be a debate tommorrow?

The public has a need to know.
I've been inside all day for two and half days (unless getting the mail counts) & need The Pin the Tail on the Elephant Party to go off so I can get my beer on.

Apparently, according to the United States of Mind, we Connecticuttonians are both highly neuratic and simultaneously open to new ideas.

So i hear McCain and Palin are really getting their hizz on... Let's ask another Connecticution, what do you think Dave?


In other food news...


By the way, sister reports back with an affirmative on the roasted red pepper broiler campaign. The Broiler will in fact properly burn pepper skin but I wish for the sake of politics this season, my beloved sibling, you would roast blue peppers.

Good luck Candidates!!!

Shout Out to Jazione for Keeping This Thing Going Hard


breakfast: sesame seed bagel w/ cream cheese and small coffee from the vender on 44th and 6th. that's an everyday habit.

lunch: two pieces of pizza; one plain, one mozzarella. both while playing awkward 'ice-breaker' games at this month's legal assistant meeting...

dinner: veal parmesan on a sub.

and one small cappucino before missing the last showing of vicky christina barcelona.


------------------------------------------------

'you are going to end up one of those sad old men who poke around in rubbish bins.'

'i'm going to end up in a hole in the ground,' he says. 'and so are you. so are we all.'

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Two Words

Apple Butter.

Perfect fall breakfast: ouefs en cocotte (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzxGBl4fYSU) and whole wheat toast with apple butter.

No funny Faces

WTF is happening out there..? A rushed hail mary check to an incompetent administration with no strings, no accountability? We could be seriously Effffd. McCain & Obama are keeping quiet, nobodie’s got eggs worth crackin and meanwhile anyone whose got potential pull seems to haven’t a clue and is gonna hand off what is left of the US economic reputation to a tightlipped Paulson & Bernanke on a God I hope this works.

Where is Buffet? is that guy totally hands off? Whose makin out here!?

We need someone with a successful track record to kick some knowledge, be given power to hold people accountable and pass laws demanding greater transparency.

I can’t eat today…


A new Royal Family
a wild nobility
we are the family

I feel beneath the white
there is a redskin suffering
from centuries of taming

No method in our madness
just pride about our maner
“Antpeople are the warriors
Antmusic is the banner!"

and even when you're healthy
and your colour schemes delight
down below thos dandy clothes
you're just a shade too white
shade too white!
shade too white!

I feel beneath the white
there is a redskin suffering
from centuries of taming...


I hear ya Adam Ant(&Marco Pirroni)

Saturday, September 20, 2008

1 down Eight 2go



Weird...? Hmm, that’s odd because essentially I was going for mild amusing with a touch of current event. But now that you mention it, seeing something more in your food than enjoyable nourishment does sound a little anti-McCainian. I like the suggestion though; let’s drop the cultural relevance and go a little weird, cross the line maybe. I’m thinking Chevalier d’Eon here. Carrot, well, isn’t carrot already a possible euphemism for something else? How ‘bout tomatoes? They’re looking ripe.

I’m not trying to upset anybody here. Visually, these seemingly benign staples have connotations. Not only sexual but how the food is prepared, when and from where, by whom and even, what is it being called or how is it being labeled. The choices we make on what to purchase and how to prepare it are as important as the choices we make while getting dressed. Not thinking is still thinking albeit reactive. You are what-you-eat what-you-perceive what-you-do. Is that transvegetable holding its spoon up in victory? Shim taunting you with a middle green finger? Or is shem beckoning you to join in herim’s numero uno soupa? Can it be both?

By the way, that was some damn good soup there. Mostly courtesy of a lass I know who seems to always be pulling fruits and vegetables from her pockets, purses, backpacks, if not up from rolling around on the floor of her car. If I remember correctly (as it the evening was growing tall and disinfecting jars, in vats of boiling and somehow combustible water, exploding jets [in a strictly literal sense] across the stove, floor and counter top). The soup, being assembled among these conditions, went something along the lines of onions, garlic, salt, pepper, sweet potatoes, other potatoes, honey, vegetable broth, apples, raspberry jam (no kidding), kale, peppers, tomatoes, turmeric, beans and baba ganousch.

Appreciate the feedback, this one goes out to you DJ…

Thursday, September 18, 2008

ok this is getting a little too weird for me...

consider me on sabbatical

Stronger



In an effort to channel some spark back into the economy I’ve enlisted the help my friend Kanye West. Kanye, seen above wearing his fried egg and chedder cheese sunglasses, sporting a stylish hash brown goatee & zucchini lip-gloss (for the cameras) and MC's w/ sweet red pepper articulation. Today he is sniffing with a slice of cranberry walnut and he smells trouble. Kanye, sing it!

Full screen, speakers tothe windows, Volume Up People

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Quicki3



Anybody watchin what the economie’s doin? This is my Lehman Brother. His yellow cherry tomato peepin pupils are peerin from behind perilous sweet peed eyebrows. He’s watchin the Dow and though he’s smiling zucchini cheeks cant hide the cranberry walnut-shot eyes. He hasn’t slept in days and has grown a munster mustache below his avoado’d nose. His pepered lips cringe a smile as he wonders weather any of the upcoming candidates have a better idea than Bernanke of whats gonna happen next. His carrot chin is lax and he dreams of the chocolate days of yore.

On a brighter note, I cleaned my room today.

Seasonal Eating

One concept that really intrigues me is following the seasons. In lots of ways, we do it because we have to - we bundle up against the cold, stay inside, heat our homes, go to bed earlier. Eating heartier foods has always been one way that we build up reserves to see us through the winter. Canning the bounty of summer's fruit and vegetables is another. Nature guides us in ways that we may not even be conscious of, and lately, the idea of eating seasonally has seen a lot of press. While that means something different to those of you (DJ) in California than it does to those of us here in New England, it's an interesting concept across the board. Although our access is no longer limited to those foods we can grow ourselves or buy from our neighbors, and transportation has made out-of-season foods available anytime, anywhere - there is still an allure to partaking of the local harvest. Should we eat more locally and seasonally? As we round the corner into fall, what are the quintessential foods of the season?

Some of mine:

soup
roast chicken
mushroom risotto
banana bread
granola bars
potatoes
oatmeal
ginger cookies
apple everything

Monday, September 15, 2008

Victory Sunday


was yesterday. Crashed an old friend’s significant other’s mothuh’s company party and cleaned up. Placed 3rd in the egg toss, 4th in ping pong (damn that backward paddle holdn Feng!), 2nd in the 3 legged race, 3rd in the water balloon toss, reached the semi finals in 3 on 3 basketball and Won the canoe race. Granted I was usually in the 11 year old and up category, which may or may not of been the seemingly advantage one might suspect as my teammates weren’t always all the way through puberty.

Worth retelling is the canoe. Andrew, my approximately 12 year ol’ partner, and I easily took the 1st heat. & probably were fortunate not to be in the next heat as there were a couple steroid lookin marines who really wanted a trophy but overshot the turnaround bouy allowing a couple feisty college students to sneak in for the finale.

So game on, the fiesties an’ us. At the bullhorn we got off the shore and turned around quicker but while dodging an oncomer, did some bushwacking. Paddle Paddle Paddle I yelled at Andrew when he paused to push branches away. What was looking dismal may of worked to our advantage as I flashbacked back to my days on the Mediterranean and began a Venetian luge style gondola paddle off the rooty bottom to get our battle sled back slicing up lake.

Damn fiesties got a lead on us but were taking the turn around the lake middle buoy wide. Andrew and I dipped our heads and paddled like piranhas whilist I aimed our canoe straight fer their bow and Pow! We took ‘em hard and bounced them back pointing nor-verds &rebounded our metal hell wagon halfway back around. Andrew nearly fell out of the boat, my knees are all scraped up from lurching forward but I keep paddling.

Then the nervy feisties grab the side of our boat and start hand over handing up our side so I begin to try and rub them out by sandwiching them up against the shore. Andrew’s swinging his paddle while I’m paddling with one hand starboard and grabbing them port freezing our nose about a foot ahead of theirs. They start screaming leggo, so soon as they do; I send ‘em backward with a seeya suckahs with an admittedly cheap, though great, shove; to get our canoe back on the sluice. It was ciao ciao sianora adios from there, beating down on us though they were, A & I took the checkered flag with a crash when we hit drainpipe on the shore that sent us both kinder over bean. Fore I was not the only “adult” bending the rules.

What were we talking about here, food? Yo, has anybody been to Holiday Hill? It’s just up the road, toward Bethany & I can only say: it really is the epitome of summer, in a day. o_ & did I mention not to mention paint a pumpkin, mini golf or homerun derby? Yup, they got it. & clowns. As fore eats, this boy hit the potato salad, carrot sticks, New Angland clam chowdah, several corn on the cobs, many clams on a half shell, several liters of soda and approximately 3 ice cream Sundays, (move ovah Phelps). Trailed that with some can-openers into the pool and some dance floor shimmy shimmy yo’s during a feverish electric slide plus a new one. Anyone herd of the chicken noodle soup?


My only regret was that I didn’t get to go on a pony ride.

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Tea

Let's talk about tea. Let's talk about how I have been quietly, tentatively steeping leaves instead of beans every morning and taking a very particular kind comfort in cupping my hands around a big steaming mug of herby chamomile tea as bedtime nears. Then perhaps we can talk about the 80 bags of tea I received for my birthday. I'm in heaven!

At first it began as a convenience; making coffee is a somewhat involved process that can require significant cleanup. I don't have a compost and I feel wasteful throwing away the coffee grounds, nor do I have a dishwasher ... and you can guess where that leads. So I started drinking tea because I had it in the cupboard and it seemed easier, and I love a hot beverage in the morning and at least it has some caffeine, and the fragrance of Earl Grey is cozier than a nap on a rainy afternoon. Now I'm drinking tea morning and night! Another influential factor is the absence of a good coffee shop in the area. Before moving here, if I didn't make coffee at home there was always the eminently worthy Willoughby's, conveniently located on my walk to work. Oh how I miss Willoughby's, and the walk to work. There is a frustrating place in my neighborhood that should be decent but every time I go there, I am reminded why I choose to abstain - their coffee tastes like water. The ambiance is decidedly lacking as well, but that's for another day.

So, as often as not, lately I wake up with a mug of milky Earl Grey or Irish Breakfast instead of coffee - a trend that I imagine will dwindle, because I really am a coffee girl at heart - at least I think - and it will be hard to break out of 28 years of coffee indoctrination. But not before I use up those 80 bags of tea! On a related note, this shift may have something to do with the confused nature of my diet as a result of the change in seasons. It's been getting cool at night, and today it rained for much of the day. Summer is winding to a close. Iced coffee is no longer a viable option, and I thrill at the thought of fall and roast chicken and soup laced with melty Gruyere and applesauce simmering on my stove. I'm going to make homemade granola bars for hikes and walks. I'll let you know how that goes... if anyone has any good recipes, pass them along!

Sunday, September 7, 2008

To Cook or Not To Cook


Though I'm definitely a Luddite in these matters because I'm sure there's some subtly involved here that I'm losing but a straight raw food diet? Really! To me that wreaks of segregation. Now I do have my prejudices (if it ever walked, spit, pissed or defecated, I probably won't eat it); though once it crosses the kitchen counter top I'm much more an equal opportunist. McDonalds, geniuses that they are, totally had it right. A delicate blend of hot & cold, cooked & cooled, roasted and raw. Who remembers what I'm alluding to? The Mc. D(Click here) I cant believe they dropped that Jam. With those special styrophome double containers! You could leave em on your dash board, roll outta there and hit corners and your meal'd stay put. Mixed temperature meals, punches my ticket & Jason Alexander agrees.

So here's what I'm talking about: My roommate's dahl (def hot) & def benefiting from some brags liquid aminos. Rice & steamed kale (still hot). A couple slices of Jazione choco-chip the bomb zuccini bread spread with butter, baba-ganush (a story in itself... made of abandoned/found eggplant in E-wood park no less), Nuts (wals&almond) coolin & in their natural state. Hurricane Hannah, I'd say we hit the nail on the head. P.S. Watch for Whalley floating manhole covers, underside of cars are getting whacked. Once again my lovlies, J to the zee.

Thursday, September 4, 2008

Inspired by Republican National Convention




Dem elephants were pissed last night. War paint is on. & all the wrath, faith posturing and fear mongering was spoken through gleaming smiles. Even ODB was scared.

Will Admit, Palin is the most attractive candidate to since Edwards (its all in the haircut) to potentially step into the big house; if you exclude presidential daughters (Oh, we'll miss you Bush Twins). Can't wait for Chelsea to run for office. Palin though is stepping up, finding her cadence and is gonna keep this race more interesting than if Warjoy went with his earlier choices. She can sell a story. Ve shall see...

oh & almost fergot. Down to business: Cran Walnut bread (Edgewood Farmer's Market shout out), Cheddah, guacomoli, cherry toms, mini-cutecumber, yellow tom, peas, string beans & a sweet red bell pepper

<3 Jazzy-oh

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

the late post & a farmer's market pick-up


Edgewood Park, park of parks; especially Sundays when I do my farmer's market stroll. But flash back to last night, just finished the first class of all gangstah illustrators (sweethearts), tearing I-95 to a beautiful sunset listenin to Another side's Chimes of Freedom , upon which Kiki gave a call, Omlettes? Mick's in town. Oui, oui! If anyone gets a chance, risotto & omlettes are the Fence's signiture meals. Side salad dude, get us some dressing, I've got the vine (Merci Orange Street Annie, hooked it up with some balsamic vinagarette), And Vine we did, Capital D double grape knackered. Poor Guang Ho Minn, besides porch & cigarette antics Kiki crashed mouth agape, on the couch, blasting the retirement mix, (all apologies for late naight texts).

so the latest countenance: raw carrot, raw pepper, raw pea, raw tom, raw zuke, raw cheese and raw fried egg.... any liklienesses, purely accidental.

As fer the other day's links (see defunct comment box below), f blogger blogspot. No worries, technical deficiancies aside, got it all figured out. Barefoot, loose and kickin the raw food philosophy, click here.

Monday, September 1, 2008

Comida Casera en Argentina

desayuno: cornflakes with chopped strawberries and milk out of a plastic bag (it all comes that way). i developed an intense craving for cereal right when i got here and it hasn't seemed to leave me....

almuerzo: salad of bibb lettuce, tomato, shaved carrots dressed in olive oil, balsamic, salt and pepper. small toasts (formerly a baguette) with aji goat cheese.

cena: my host mother had a dinner party. i wasn't invited but i got the same eats. arugula topped with crispy pancetta and sesame seeds, dressed in olive oil and balsamic. arroz blanco, pollo con champignones. un postre: sort of like strawberry shortcake but instead of a scone, the strawberries and whipped cream were sandwiched between thin rounds of a yellow sponge-cake like pastry, all topped with a warm strawberry/raspberry liquor reduction. the sponge cake-like stuff comes in large sheets and apparently a popular summer meal involves making rolls out of it, with fillings such as cheese, tomato, lettuce, ham, for a salty-sweet effect. i am looking forward to trying this.

late night snack (i have class til midnight!): ham and cheese sandwich. (i cannot stop eating ham and cheese, in any form: cold sandwiches, hot sandwiches (tostados), empanadas. i haven't given in to jamon y queso-flavored snacks yet, but they're probably next. this is bad. i have started running to counteract; we'll see how that goes.) orange. another cup of digestive tea.

also: i ate at a raw-food restaurant last weekend and had a surprisingly good experience. i will post about it later, or maybe the next time i go back--one of my friends here is into raw-food as her mom is a raw-foodist. has anyone else ever tried it?

not a self-potrait


bonjour encore mon beau...
When yer fridge is empty as mine you do whatya can do

du nord au sud: la hair= "Liberty" Fries, (made in America bitches!)
Oui, je m' apelle set off the fire alarm cookin those guys.
La eyes son zucchini et cherry tomatoes,
the earings are slices from an overripe banana,
the nose is a cabinet standby, the Masa cracker(Merci Edge-Of-tho-Woods).
Flaring nostrils are roomate-made, tasteless humus; which by the works great for adhering various pieces of food to other food & the plate to generate a little lift and create the menacing 3 dimensional effect.
E final, la faux chix patti (also EOW) found alone, floating in the ice box. E la chompahs et chedder.

Until next time... Fin