Hungry Times Two

There's been a lull here at Hungry Times Two (staring at computer all day for work, or job-search), but a recent community garden visit inspired this post.  I always joke that I hate yard work/landscaping and love gardening because you can't eat mown grass and tomatoes are worth the effort. In essence, it's the debate between flower/ornamental gardening and fruit/vegetable gardening.  There's definitely one crop that achieves a beautiful, edible balance between these two camps: okra! We're growing a red okra (delicious when grilled) and this lovely flower's currently on one of four okra bushes (below). The okra shot was taken with a chain link fence in the foreground, which keeps out riff-raff (rabbits, squirrels, etc.) and is also supporting our prolific burpless cucumber plant (below). We've had a bumper crop of cukes and yellow squash, which we've discovered grows FAST in just a day or so!  Erin made sure to document "Attack of the ...

The last great chestnut trees of the Southern Appalachians died off by the 1950s, but they're coming back with the help of Dolly Parton .  Yes, that's right.  Our Lady of Seviersville just put out a song on the American Chestnut Foundation (ACF) website. And what's this got to do with food?  Roasted chestnuts are a human treat and they're a valuable food source for wildlife as well .  That, plus the fact that chestnuts were often referred to as "Redwoods of the East" for their massive size and rot-resistant lumber.  Here's hoping the ACF will pull off the restoration of this valuable tree, some of which I hope to see on future hikes in the Appalachians.

My sister Molly gave us these really cool reusable wrappers for Christmas, so I thought I'd share them here. Like most days when I've just come home from a 1.5 hour commute (20 min. walk, 1 hour commuter rail ride), I burst into the apartment ravenous for a snack. Lucky for me, we'd just been to the grocery store (we made a special trip to Trader Joe's, Pikesville, MD while on a Saturday day-trip to Baltimore), so I commenced with the cheese-and-crackers. Once I finished my snack, it was time to store the remaining block of cheddar cheese. Ziploc bag? Yeah, but it's wasteful. Tupperware? Yeah, but it leaves too much air around and let's the cheese dry out/get rubbery. Kids Konserve wrappers? YES, the perfect solution! Here's my four-step montage for preventing waste while keeping food fresh (and stylish). Thanks for the cool, reusable gifts Molly!

Just food for thought: Top keywords that bring the mad hits to our blog (and by "mad" I mean, eh. We have a few dedicated readers -- y'all are too cool): hungry times two food stereotypes mac&cheese black food stereotypes cream cheese thumbprint cookies hungry times two stainless steel hungrytimestwo.blogspot.com can't behave when hungry das ist mir wurst stereotype black food So, most make sense. The ones in bold green make me go hmmmm, just like C&C Music Factory. The overwhelming hits we get from this random post from way back in the day (2008) drives me bananas - my comments about black food and stereotypes , especially considering I usually write about setting apartments on fire and why I love Nutella . Deep stuff right there. And why fore art thou searching quite a lot for " can't behave when hungry "? I don't know if ever said that about Scott on this blog, but I know I tend to get a little irritable become an unple...

In addition to my latest read, Keith Richard's Life , (and yes, it's coherent), I'm also reading two food-related works. From SXC/Zsuzsanna Kilian The first is one I snagged via the incredibly helpful Interlibrary Loan at my library branch -- The Essential New York Times Cookbook by NYT food editor and writer Amanda Hesser . Hesser asked for reader feedback and sifted through all the published recipes -- from cocktails to sweet endings -- in the paper's annals and whittled it down to a hefty red doorstop of a compendium.

I seem to have a knack lately for finding random food-related news stories. Forget breast milk ice cream : how about waging a full-on fight with the one you live with over Girl Scout cookies ? Apparently someone really loves their Thin Mints. I swear, I could see this happening over the Caramel deLites (formerly known as the far-superior Samoas), but I fail to see what's so special about mint cookies that would lead a girl to get all stabby. Which begs the question: what foods would you defend with your best sharp kitchen utensil? For me, it might be my stash of emergency cookies (presently Gingersnaps) - that you certainly don't want to fool with, particularly when my hormones are raging. Enough said. Food stealers, beware. Step off from this Cookie Monster.

Erin would have gotten this for me at Wegman's a few weeks ago, but it goes against our whole "tacky Valentines" aversion. Still, what man wouldn't want chocolates in a tough-ass metal non-skid box?

I just had a moment. After retrieving my leftover brown rice and veggie stir fry from the microwave, and tossing out the empty shells of edamame I just snacked on, something occurred to me as I grabbed my reusable bamboo silverware . I am eating so freakin' crunchy right now.

Yes, the term "sustainable"gets tossed around like a mo- fo these days, and it's enough sometimes to make even the most pro-green of us to want to strangle the everlovin ' mud out of the next Fair Trade- lovin ', recycling, patchouli-scented Prius driver we see. Now that I have that vitriol out of the way, I admit to my own hypocrisy - I love Christmas and all the trimmings, but I am super tired of the waste and the consumerist hype. And as much as I am weary of trying to be "green," I want to consume less and encourage others to do the same. For the past two years, Scott and I have shunned the malls and the online sites, tracking down "the perfect gift" for friends and family, and instead have made our own silly yet practical gifts from what we have on hand or have made by hand. Exhibit A: Christmas 2009 . I can't give away all of our secrets, but I can show you how we're packaging our gifts. Don't mock me now, but we collected...

Not to get terribly political or high-minded on this little blog of ours, but while we're planning our holiday gifting, it came to mind that 1) time's running out, and 2) we're both somewhat skeptical now of the consumerist nature of Christmastime. Each year Scott and I usually rally in early December to scour the Internets and Google Machines for silly holiday songs ( like this one ), buy them online, and burn a lot of CD's to gift for friends. We've done this since December 2006, but instead of making this our 5th annual Christmas Mix, we're opting to do something different. Inspired by the good guys over at The Bitten Word , I learned from them about Share Our Strength , a non-profit working to end childhood hunger in America. With the economy as it is, and reports like this one indicating one in seven Americans are on food stamps, it dawned on me that perhaps we can afford to direct our Christmas gifting funds in another direction. The money that would nor...

Food emergency - I am officially out of Tupperware, glass jars, and any other method to store foods safely and soundly! My fridge is a maze of random Thanksgiving this and that - search for the milk and you might topple over the turkey remnants. Hunting for cheese? You'll need to look past the takeout container of pizza, a hastily wrapped bowl of hummus, and a basketball-sized amount of stuffing that is - yes - stuffed into the largest container we own. What's wild is that I have never been a fan of leftovers. Call me a Freshness Freak, but I grew up in a house where weeks-old glazed carrots formed a furry vest in the fridge before they would be removed. My mother is no slob, but she had a certain disregard for freshness - and she still does, as my gift (as a joke, but not really) to her last Christmas was to organize both her pantry and her fridge. I like hot, fresh foods - there's just something dirty and a little gross about trying to reheat three-day old green beans or...

One little day until Thanksgiving! I should be working on well, work, but in my mind I'm going over the recipes I've culled, the lists I have made, the ingredients taking up space in the fridge and pantry, and wondering a little too obsessively if I have left anything out. It seems to be all there...canned pumpkin, whole cranberries, a big-ass turkey breast, a bundle of fresh sage, and so forth and so on. My game plan starts this evening - printing out all my recipes, baking the pie and the cornbread so I can make the stuffing tomorrow, and fixing the fresh cranberry sauce so that's one less thing to do tomorrow. I thought about chopping some veggies, but I think they may discolor a little if I do it too early. And the star of the show...the Gobbler. I need to do a little research on the recipe I selected and see if I need to rub it with seasonings the night before or marinate it or...yeah. I am kind of clueless about that big hunk of poultry in my fridge. Hopefully Google ...

Tell me this isn't the best video featuring fake flan-like pudding and silly folks from Japan that you've ever seen. P.S. Shoutout to my friend Beth , who turns 30 today - the Dirty Thirty has arrived!!!!

I love the vegetable zucchini - its green color, the firm flesh, the way it can easily be cut into strips, discs, shredded, etc. But, I get tired of eating it in stir fry, and my recent zucchini patties turned out mushy and gross, and deep fried zucchini just isn't the proper treatment for such a lovely vegetable - leave that mess to mozzarella or *this is So Southern of me* pickles. Thus, what does one do with zucchini when you have a crisper drawer full and wishes to fulfill? This. For Breakfast or Brunch. Or This . For dessert, or Lunch. (Alright, no Dr. Seuss am I.) If sweets aren't your thing, do this: use a veg peeler to carve the zucchini into strips. Make a sauce of a teaspoon of sesame oil, rice vinegar, a couple shakes of crushed red pepper, a little sprinkle of brown sugar, and a dash of lime juice. Crush some roasted peanuts and chop a little cilantro (or mint, or Thai basil), and sprinkle over the zucchini "noodles" and sauce it up. This is a crude appro...

Serious Eats, a blog I follow, has a poll today concerning the restaurant trend of small plates - debating whether they are a cool, Tapas- esque thing, or a way lame attempt to cheat their patrons. I have to laugh because I'm always a little nervous when Scott and I dine somewhere that offers small plates in lieu of entree-size portions. With the opportunity to taste a variety of things, I love the concept. However, Scott is wary of anything "small" about a meal. The man requires certain amounts of food, and anything less is just a big damn shame. Recently we took two friends visiting from Nashville to a Greek/Middle Eastern place where we each selected two things to try. Between the four of us, I felt we all received enough food and the price was just fine. Scott didn't speak up to say if he was satisfied, and I didn't ask, but his raid of the pita basket to sop up the remaining sauces and bits on each plate indicated maybe not so much. Is it a total racket for ...

Our love for seafood has no bounds. It is, to use metaphors tragically, wider than any river, deeper than any ocean. It is for reel. ( Ok , terrible pun. I will stop now.) I knew Scott was the man for me when he ordered shrimp and grits on our first date at Asheville's Early Girl Eatery. Scott grew up on Low country seafood and my mom's side hails from the Wilmington, NC area, so our palates are well adjusted to all sorts of fruits of the sea. Appropriately enough, we served shrimp and grit cakes smothered in country ham tasso gravy and had boiled shrimp accompanied by a huge-ass shrimp trawler ice sculpture at our wedding in coastal South Carolina. (And yes, I must also mention yet again the awesome and legendary cheese castle that I didn't even ask my caterer for yet it totally rocked our friends and relatives' salivating faces off.) Behold - the kick-ass Cheese Castle (thanks to L. Adams for the pic) So we like it all - crabs, oysters, ...

Just found a new food project: Verrines . What could be wrong with lots of pretty layers of good food in attractive glassware? Especially a Greek Caprese Verrine. YUM.

I'm not having a very satisfactory week, or month, or maybe even year, it seems. Last night my husband and I had another "serious talk" about where we are, what we're doing, and how the whole shebang is going - this moving to Dc business, jobs, life, etc. He said something he's said time and time again - that he's feeling "like a square peg in a round hole." That he just doesn't fit here. After sitting down at my desk today, again searching for something, anything, to do here at this cold cubicle where the A/C runs overboard and the computer monitor glow gives me headaches -- I get what he means. Emails come in like fast breaking waves, meetings are held where the same things are repeated like a skipping record, and I got my first phone call of the month from someone actually outside of this building...here on the 29th of August. Oh venting on the Internet. It's so cathartic. Sooooo...all is not so well. I'm listless, feeling my mind and ...

Reading Julia Child's book on kitchen wisdom last night, I realized there's many a food I have zero experience with. Here's a list of items - ingredients, products, dishes, etc - I have never worked with, in no particular order: Creme fraiche Fennel Watercress English Peas (no foolin ') Star Anise Turnips /parsnips/ rutabaga (those root vegetables) Quince Figs Kim- chee Tempeh Veal Herbes de Provence A whole Chicken Ribs Lobster Beets Homemade Mayo Capers Poached eggs Sushi Lychee Fingerling potatoes Cocktail bitters Baked beans And related to this, I don't own or have never used: A cast iron skillet (on my "To Obtain" list) An ice cream machine, crank or electric (I don't own one, but I did crank ice cream once) A food processor (I have a chef's knife, a blender, and a Pampered Chef food chopper ) A flour sieve A pastry/piping bag Cheesecloth Pasta machine Mandolin Mortar and Pestle Kitchen scale I think I have some work to do!

Pardon the pause on posts here - Scott and I visited Colorado for a little spell this past weekend and we have a wealth of photos and good food/brews to blog about -- coming soon. After a trip, it's always interesting to come home to find there's not much in the fridge or pantry to eat. I executed a small grocery run and well, I didn't purchase much for lunch. Somehow I got the idea to boil some eggs to take along with salads for a protein kick. My eggs came out fine, but I was extremely self-conscious about the odor of said eggs. You know the egg smell. It's...special. Most people at my office bring or buy lunch and eat at their desks, which is something I resisted for the first couple months at work. After spending time hangin' on my own at the dining hall tables upstairs, I started feeling very "odd girl out" a la a bad movie scene set in a high school cafeteria. Like Ally Sheedy's character in Breakfast Club , only without the dandruff issues (and ...