Hungry Times Two

I'm *thisclose* to 40 hours of freedom - yep, one whole week of vacation. Downright indulgent, right ? My Mother Dear invited me to tour Nova Scotia with her and we're setting out this Saturday on a plane to Halifax. Just picture it: Me, Mother Margaret, a subcompact rental car, a GPS that hopefully works, and the open Canadian roads.

So I'm being a little dramatic with today's post title, but uh, Scott and I are both ill this week. Between his strep throat and my sinusitis, we're a sniffling, hacking sorry sack of sickness. What kind of tasty treats have we had this week? Unless you count OJ and hot mint tea as cocktails, cough drops as appetizers, or  comfort foods like tomato soup and Mac & Cheese as five-star dinners, it's been pretty lame. However, no less than three local peeps have offered to bring us the ultimate comforting cure of chicken noodle soup. If it wasn't 102 degrees outside folks, we might have a deal. My plans for canning strawberry jam were dashed this week due to illness and I'm not even sure local berries are still available in this sweltering climate now. I did, however, snag a tasty cantaloupe. It's been a healthy, cool treat that's soothing to our aggravated throats. ********************** Boo to sickness. Want to know what didn't suck recen...

Warning: Valentine's Day-themed post. Continue at your own risk. Yes, it's that holiday tomorrow, the one with the flowers, the heart-shaped boxes of chocolate, the ugly-ass, age-inappropriate teddy bears, and the Hallmark cards professing undying, oh-so-special, forever love, love that cannot be denied, love that won't fade away, Big Love, sloppy wet love, etc. (OK, maybe the sloppy kind is for another occasion entirely.) Don't get me wrong, I luuuuuv love. I just don't really care for the commercialized kind. Scott and I had our first date the day after Valentine's Day nine (!!!) years ago, and we've always much rather celebrate our dating milestone than to observe February 14. (Sidebar: our second date was to see The Vagina Monologues . My husband rocks, and is totally comfortable with all iterations of the terms for female genitals.) We're spending tomorrow night in, with a dinner of cod fillets fresh from our Eastern Market visit today, veggi...

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.

Yesterday on my other blog, I posted my pondering on vegetables - even though it's cold as a witch's you-know-what, we can't forget our greens, can we? I had fun hearing from readers' favorite vegetables - and even the vegetables that are really fruits - the impostors ! My top five are: 1) Red bell peppers 2) Brussels sprouts 3) Big heirloom tomatoes when in season 4) Portobello mushrooms 5) Lettuces like arugula and mizuna /baby spinach What are yours? Do share!

This should really a postscript to my post from September 14, the day o' my good husband's 32 nd year of birth, but sometimes it's hard to post photos as events are occurring and then time flies by, and any who ..... Behold the cake I baked for that special day: Those pellet/poop-like things forming the numbers are Ocean Spray Craisins . How resourceful/ scatological am I?!? The recipe comes from my new- ish cookbook The Healthy Hedonist - the Naked Carrot Cake. It contains the oh-so-nutritious oat flour plus four cups of grated carrots ( Oy . That was a lot of tedious grating, let me tell you), and other stuff that makes cake so awesome - vanilla, brown sugar, eggs, spices of nutmeg, cinnamon , all spice, etc. Only I didn't want it to be so nekkid , cause frosting, when done well and not all grocery-store lard- ish , is marvelous, mmmkay ? SO, I doctored it up with The Joy of Cooking' s Cream Cheese Frosting , and substituted the lower-in-fat and hard-to-pron...

It's amazing what you can find on these crazy Interwebs. Exhibit A: Yep, Little Debbie tries and tries to wear me down with her promise of cheap, sweet thrills but somehow I've managed to stay away from a box of Oatmeal Cream Pies in my own home for over a week now.* Scott's responsible for this devil woman's merchandise taking up space in my pantry. He has a bit of a sweet tooth for foods that aren't really, well, food. Looking at the box of OCPs, here's the ingredients: Corn Syrup, Enriched Bleached Flour (Wheat Flour, Niacin, Reduced Iron, Thiamine Mononitrate [Vitamin B1] Riboflavin [Vitamin B2] (Folic Acid)Partially Hydrogenated Soybean and Cottonseed Oil with TBHQ to Preserve Flavor, Dextrose, Water, Oats, Sugar, Molasses, Raisins, contains 2% or less of each of the Following: Leavening (Baking Soda, Sodium Aluminum Phosphate, Ammonium Bicarbonate) Whey [Milk] Emulsifiers (Soy Lecithin, Mono and Diglycerides, Sorbitan Monostearate, Polysorbate 60)Salt, Cor...

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, ...

After our sinful weekend splurge, I determined that this week I would drag out everything chillin ' in our crisper drawers and work on eating as fresh and healthy as possible. I also apparently decided to use a blender for virtually every meal, and with the aid of a new-to-me $2 cookbook I found at Diversity Thrift (fabulous gay-owned thrift store in Richmond), Cooking Light Annual Recipes 2003. Sunday eve I made Cocoa Fudge Cookies for Scott, so he won't have to go out and buy yucky dry boxed ones. These are somehow not that bad for you, so okay, I made them for me to occasionally enjoy as well. I subbed whole wheat flour for all purpose. Last night I made my usual Moosewood cottage cheese-blended-with-greens-and basil-and-garlic sauce on bow tie pasta, with steamed zucchini and cherry tomatoes. I chased it with a slice of seedless watermelon. Yums . I then got to work on blending some roasted red pepper gazpacho . The linked recipe is not the exact one I used, but similar....

Amongst foodies who love public radio, Lynne Rossetto Kasper of The Splendid Table is kind of a rock star. As a good friend noted, just her buttery voice coming across the airwaves can soothe you, and then she speaks of food - pasta, cheese, wine, herbs, veggies, baked goods - and even her words are manna from heaven. She also has a spiffy cookbook called How to Eat Supper that I find to be one of the best cookbooks I've read. Lynne loves flexibility in the food she prepares, which I like also. Out of fresh buttermilk? Make do with a cup of regular milk mixed with some lemon juice. No zucchini in the crisper? Try yellow squash instead. Kale gone missing? Use spinach. Last night I cooked dinner solo - and Lord knows I can eat some weird stuff when there's no husband around to protest, "But that's not a square meal." I had some wilting Swiss chard from the B-more market begging to be consumed, so I went straight to a LRK recipe that sounded just about perfect af...

As a lover of all the fruits of the sea, I have really wondered about this awful cluster of an oil spill's effect on the seafood down in Louisiana and Florida, NC even. So sayeth an FDA staffer: "Our goal both collectively, FDA and NOAA , is to make sure that fish that have become contaminated or might become contaminated are kept off of the market so that they don't get to the consumers, so consumers don't have to ask themselves, 'Is the fish I'm about to buy safe?" I really love shrimp, scallops and oysters, and though I hate seeing the photos of oil-soaked birds (and this comes from a straight-up bird loather), my heart really goes out to the sea. I've always felt a strong attachment to the ocean and I hate the idea of coastlines being ravaged and the environs and organisms in them being devastated and depleted. According to the Monterey Bay Aquarium - a top authority in seafood sustainability - "the spill will affect many popular commerc...

I have to give a shout-out to this amazing and oh-so-easy recipe that has saved my ass so many times when I've had basil, some pasta, and not much time or effort to devote to meal making. After time got away from me and I realized it was 7:30 and both of the Hungry Times Two peeps had grumbly tummies, I whipped up this green goodness that features tons of spinach and wonderful fresh basil leaves, garlic, and a creamy base that isn't fatty at all - it's cottage cheese made smooth by a whirl in the blender. I used a teensy bit of pine nuts instead of walnuts and didn't have broccoli - I served it with a salad instead. You can use this as a pasta topper, dip, sandwich spread, or just all around amazing condiment. Good lord, it's so good it feels sinful, but it's not. I know, another ridiculous Moosewood recipe from Erin but damn if they don't know what they are doing up there in Ithaca, N.Y. I'd love to visit sometime, though a friend and former newspap...

Confessional time: I often have issues with seasoning food. Especially with our friend the Salt Shaker. Somehow I always oversalt the grits and undersalt pots of rice. I should just break down and carefully measure every time, I know. We have a big stainless steel shaker we use like this one and I tend to shake it like a Polaroid Picture a couple times over each dish as needed without much precision. Precision should be a concern for the folks at Mahatma, where they seem to be unaware that they're contributing to a lot of high blood pressure, and swollen ankles and ring fingers. Their yellow rice mix is off the charts with the salt! We made a pot of it last night and I could only eat about three bites of my serving before shoving it away. I know many prepackaged foods are laden with sodium and, conversely, sugar. My sick days last week consisted of a meal or two of canned soup and for the first time I noticed Campbell's Tomato Soup is incredibly too sweet. Of course, my taste ...

Well, I'll be damned. I didn't freeze my toes off this morning when I rolled out the door in my Chaco sandals. In fact, the weather outside was downright delightful - sunny, low-humidity, and just about perfect. Know what that means? Smoothie time! Scott's the real smoothie lover in this relationship. During the warmer months when we grocery shop, he'll go for frozen berries, a huge container of Stoneyfield French Vanilla yogurt, and a bundle of bananas faster than you can say "Blend It." We're holding right now: all the essentials are in the fridge. We just need to drag out the blender from its cramped spot in our itsy-bitsy kitchen, scrounge up some counter space, and whip up a frosty and fruity treat. My personal fave: strawberry - banana - blueberry- yogurt - orange juice (sometimes mango nectar if I'm feeling frisky). Ooohweeee! I wish I had one now. Oh my, I just typed Ooohweeee. You know I've got it bad when I use expressions like that. Happ...

Back in early January I declared that Scott and I would take on a vegetarian New Year’s resolution for 2010 . “Meat free and lovin ’ it!,” I exclaimed. Well, it didn ’t quite go the way I anticipated, so for the sake of full disclosure, I thought it’s time to set the record straight. Here’s the deal: for about three weeks in January, it worked. I did my research, planned veg-friendly meals, made sure I got my protein (but not too much – you can actually overload) and generally tried to eat more fruits and veggies. Scott apparently committed some random acts of hamburger eating on his own time, but for me it was great – I didn ’t feel I was missing out on anything and I really did think my energy level rose sans beef, chicken and pork (though I could have just been on a rising cloud of self-righteousness). Then the bottom dropped out – our living situation became a little nuts and we hit the road to apartment hunt during DC’s Snowpacalypse situation. Not the smartest move. Even thought...

A certain male who posts to this blog unfortunately had dental surgery Tuesday due to an infected abscess and forthcoming root canal. With stitches and swelling, it's not pretty, as Scott does look like he's hoarding nuts for the winter in his right cheek, poor thing. As a result, grocery shopping on Tuesday eve was a challenge, especially when trying to navigate a Kroger store besieged by Southerners freaking out over the so-called "snowstorm" coming today. (Alas, no freakin' snow. Figures.) The bread and milk supplies were, of course, depleted, but so were the mushrooms and salad greens. Who knew us Dixie types considered the healthy stuff to be essential snow day fare? In my rush, I neglected to bring my list of "soft foods" that the dentist's assistant recommended, so I had think on my feet as I wheeled around the uber-crowded Kroger. I came up with a couple ideas, which were: - Scrambled eggs and grits. Breakfast for dinner - one of the ultimate...

This just sounds amazing right now. Especially since my daily dose of Dayquil just isn't cutting it. Oh, Ms. Rossetto Kasper, how I love you so. Seriously. You're the best. Not since this recipe , introduced to me by a good friend who also knows her way around a butternut squash, have I loved the idea of vegetables gussied up and drool-worthy. *If you know your Sondheim, you know from whence this post title cometh. Yep, showing my inner musical theatre dorkitude.

Scott and I decided while we were in New Mexico for New Years (of which photos and witty travel commentary are coming, I promise!) to... Go vegetarian in 2010! Or, at the very least, "pescetarian," as we do love our shrimp. Among the reasons: the obvious environmental impacts, health, wealth (or lack thereof), and a desire for a challenge in our cooking and eating this year. Any vegheads out there with tips and/or fair warnings, bring it! We're armed with no less than three Moosewood Restaurant cookbooks, a great curry cookbook with lots of veggie recipes given to us at Christmas, and a desire to do something good for ourselves and maybe even the environment while we're at it. Pass the eggplant and the felafel, will ya?

Exhibit A: the Twizzlers Pull-n-Peel cherry liquorice candy I scarfed. Even after I abandoned the unopened package in our work break room, hoping someone would snag it so I wouldn't be temped to consume an unsightly amount of Red 40. Cause the only ways red food coloring is acceptable are 1) Easter egg dyeing and 2) Red Velvet Cake. Twizzlers are produced in Hershey, Pa ., where my mom and her two sisters visited during their annual fall "sister trip" this year. Many Hershey products were purchased for this holiday season, including the Hershey Hershettes (their version of M&Ms) and other ungodly food products. Sorry, Mom, but if the words "diet" and "my ass" are going to be affiliated, I can't have those Hershey delights. Yes, I know I loved the Twizzlers in eighth grade, circa 1993, but can we put that behind us now? The point of all this is: why is this the season when, no matter how hard I try, I wind up stuffing my face full of things I do...

Found this while enjoying that thing we call cable television at my YMCA. The Adams don't have it, just like we don't have a flat screen, iPod, or a phone texting plan. We're just out here in Nashville, chillin' like it's 1979. This guy tries to eat eight breakfast tacos at a Tex-Mex place in Austin. He loses. The premise of the show is to eat as much as possible. Great example for the rest of America. Had I known you wanted to film someone stuffing their face 24/7, I'd invite you over to our house. The proof: Man v. Food - Juan In A Million from TravelChannelTV on Vimeo .