Everybody Loves a Squash!

I spent the past 2 work weeks in Dallas, which meant little to no cooking, despite a $60 shopping trip at Trader Joe's?  (I bought a lot of nuts... and nut butters... and frozen shrimp!  OK, done justifying.)  But I did have a very foodie night last Sunday.  Katie, Joanna, Amanda, and I went to the 92nd Street Y to see the one and only Max Brenner speak about his and, coincidentally, my favorite topic: CHOCOLATE.  There were obviously samples, including a cocoa dusted, chocolate- and hazelnut-covered pecan and a perfect cup of hot chocolate (read: liquid chocolate).  It was actually really inspiring to hear the path he took to get where he is today, and it sort of jump-started that creative inner spark that I sometimes forget I have.  And it totally made me want to be a part of the food industry.  Still refining that plan...  "Max" (his real name is Oded, and he is Israeli and awesome) wrote a very cool, abstract cookbook, but in the interest of not spending money and not getting fat, I didn't buy it.  But it seemed like a solid piece of art.

Lest you think my friends and I were slacking off, we had a potluck dinner before the lecture.  I made a butternut squash/quinoa fiber mess, based on this recipe from one of my favorite cooking blogs.  I followed her recipe, but served it over quinoa and added some fresh baby spinach to the mix, mostly for visual pleasure.  It was a little orangey-beige for me otherwise.  And maybe a little heavy on the tahini dressing.  I think I didn't use as much squash as I could have.  Overall I really liked this, especially the quick dressing, and I would try it again, but probably without the quinoa.  Just not necessary.

Then I got a little silly.  What can I say?  I love organic fruits, like this one that I live with.

Hmm, I look a little like a monkey.

I would also like to thank two dedicated readers for giving me photos and recipes of their food creations!  I'm sorry I'm so delayed in putting them up here, but Ilene sent me the following recipe for a butternut squash lasagna (at least I think that's the one she ended up making!) and Kristen made all kinds of pumpkin fun.  That one is TOTALLY something I am making as soon as I have more than 2 ramekins in my kitchen.

First, the fruits of Ilene's labor:

And now Kristen's other pumpkin creation, a custard!  Kristen, where is the recipe from?  I think blog rules are that I can't post it unless I cite the source.  And, I mean, I'm sure my blog is being policed carefully due to the high traffic rates.  (HA.)  I can post a picture, though.

YUM!  And it's dairy free!

Time to get back to work, which is wonderfully relaxing this week, due to the fact that apparently the corporate culture of our client is to, um, take off the entire week before Thanksgiving, regardless of whether or not you have an incredibly huge deadline coming up in 2 weeks.  Hey, I'm not complaining.  Going to take advantage of it and work on my year-end review.  Happy Thanksgiving week!

An Early Giving of Thanks

Just in case I don't post again before Thursday, I wanted to throw out a little holiday spirit into the blogosphere.  Thanksgiving has pretty much always been my favorite holiday of the (secular) year, initially because of my absurd pre-pubescent eating abilities, but as I've gotten older it's because I really appreciate the message of it.  Even if it's just taking a moment every year to ignore my "problems" and think about everything I do have.  Namely, this year I can't help but think about the recent death of someone I know from high school in a sort of family friend capacity.  Without going into details, it was a completely tragic, freak accident, and my mom summed it up well when she said that when something like that happens, nothing else matters.  And when it comes down to it, I may be unhappy in my job, in my dating life, in my current winter boot situation, etc., but I have my family, my friends, and my health, and, really, nothing else matters.  Most of you know that I don't really do sappy well, but I am very thankful to have you all in my life.

Ok, now that that's out there, back to food.

I think I'm going to have to do another lightning round of highlights from the last few weeks, starting with Colleen's wedding!  Yes, one of my peers got married.  I'm still not totally ok with this idea, but it was really fun to go to a friend's wedding.  I didn't take pictures of the food (Katie and I were trying really hard to make friends), but I did snag a picture of the cake!  It's beautiful and kind of matched her dress.

The bride... and my date!

Katie and I actually had a pretty wild night at the hotel bar dance club with Colleen's friends and family after the wedding, so we were BEAT the next day.  But not nearly as hungover as expected!  We had a lovely buffet brunch at the hotel, where I snagged a box of Wheaties and a Special K (in addition to the omelette, waffle, and fruit that I devoured...) and then hit the road, in our awesome rented Toyota Matrix.  This car does not even deserve a spot in my weekly car review.  Thanks for nothin', Hertz.

I had to go to Dallas that coming week (see previous post... sorry, so out of order!), so I went to yoga Sunday night and then prepared myself for travel.  The week was kind of a blur, and then of course my flight home on Thursday was delayed, so I think I was still recovering from exhaustion that next Friday.  I thought it called for a little girls' night action.  Something social but not requiring energy.  Friends to the rescue!  Alex and Amanda came over, and we made...

Supercharge Me cookies!  I found these on Eat, Live, Run and was SO excited to try them, despite vegan-anything totally not being my bag,  They were SO easy to make, and even though we were nervous that the batter resembled a mess of oatmeal and flour more than a cookie, the oven worked its magic and they came out totally cookie-like.  A little dangerously so.

Thank goodness I had Amanda there to model them for me!  Seriously, you're looking at the next Vanna White.  P.S. We had already eaten like half of them at this point.  I brought out a bottle from my wine of the month collection for the occasion.  It was a Grenache, but I can't remember much else other than that.  I gave it a 7 out of 10 for being totally enjoyable but lacking a certain je ne sais quoi.  You know, like, some pizazz. And, yes, I am taking diligent notes on the wines from my membership.  It's been really fun to have wine delivered to my door.  I will miss it once I drink my way through what's left.

I have more food fun to share, but it's coming in a separate post so as not to overwhelm your hungry eyes.  You're welcome.

First Comes Gold, Then Comes...

PLATINUM!  Just a quickie announcement that I have achieved Platinum status on American Airlines.  THIS. IS. HUGE.  Real post to come soon, complete with actual food, since I know that's why you read this.

I Dream of Bertha

And now, a grand presentation!  I am proud to announce a new feature of my blog: the weekly car review.  I have sort of lost my focus of this being a travel-lifestyle blog, and this is one of the major aspects of life on the road.  Allow me to elaborate.

Part of being a consultant is the mandatory Monday/Thursday ritual:

Monday morning: What seat did you get?  How early do YOU have to get up?, because I have to get up at 4am.  What kind of car did you get?

Thursday afternoon: What time do you leave?  Did you get upgraded? Let's check seat guru and see if 13A is better than 16D. What's your Hilton Honors status now?

These are things that we tend to get kind of competitive about, actually.  We harbor resentment toward those with better airline/hotel status, and free upgrades are CRUCIAL.  You get like a billion consultant cool points for being lucky enough to get an upgrade.

Anyway, the rental car thing is really important to me.  I am my father's daughter in that I really do notice things about cars when I drive.  And, since I have a less than desirable social life out here, I find my rental car to be as exciting a topic as any.  I hope you'll agree.  Besides, what's the point of driving a different car every week if you don't remember what you liked and what you didn't?!

And so, without further ado, I give you...

The Buick LaCrosse!  Mine was white, but this is the model.  As those of you acquainted with Bertha know well, I love me a good Buick.  I am looking for Bertha pics but can't find any right now.  Will check with my brother.  Bertha, well, she's a beauty.  A 1992 Buick Century, gold as the rising sun.  She has been through a lot between me and Eric, and she may be on her last legs.  So, as an homage to Bertha dear, I have begun renting Buicks.  And I REALLY liked the LaCrosse.  It had its quirks, like an electric parking brake that I couldn't figure out how to turn off, a weird speedometer, as well as confusing windsheld wipers, but a sleek design, nice handling, and good stereo system.  My dad approved, which has gotta count for something.

Overall, a lovely driving experience, and not just "for a Buick."

The Lazy Blogger Blogs

[This post was written last Thursday, but I never got around to finishing it, so put on your time travel caps.  Speaking of which, did anyone see The Time Traveler's Wife?  I loved that book but didn't see the movie.]

I AM HUNGRY.  I am waiting for my co-worker Tim to finally be ready for lunch, and I am not good at this whole "patience while hungry" thing.  At first he was legitimately working, and now he's just watching ridiculous (albeit funny) videos of people throwing their laptops against walls, as he laughs maniacally.  Worthy purpose, no doubt, but I am really super hungry.

In other news, last night I got to see my DAD!  In Dallas!  It was GREAT.  He too was in Dallas for work this week, coincidentally, so we had dinner.  I picked him up at his hotel, since he didn't rent a car, and we went out to a Tex-Mex restaurant that one of the local crew members recommended to him.  It was just fair, in my humble Tex-Mex opinion, but maybe in part due to the fact that it was a totally odd dining experience.  The waiter just approached us, said, "Hello," and then stared at us until I awkwardly said, "Um, we're not ready yet?"  Then he carded my dad.  Like, seriously wanted to see his ID.  Now, my dad has aged well, but really?  We think he was new.  Or crazy.  Not sure.  Umberto redeemed himself by making us a pretty nice guacamole and dutifully refilling the delicious hot chips.  For dinner my dad and I shared the chicken mole and tequila shrimp, which was all good, but nothing too special.  And salty like whoa!  I prefer Mi Cocina.  Next time, Dad!  After dinner we went to the dollar store and to Target in search of silly glasses for my dad's video crew for some goofy prank or something.  It apparently went over very well!  So, restaurant critique aside, it was really nice to see my daddy-o out in Dallas and show him just how confusing it is to drive out here!  Thanks for the company :)

Ok, other tidbits from the week: Tuesday Whole Foods run.

BRUSSELS SPROUTS!!! I LOVE that these things are trendy.  It is SO strange and wonderful.  I asked for half of a container, but she pretty much filled it up, so I sighed, shrugged my shoulders, and decided I was just going to have to eat half a pound of brussels sprouts and deal with the, er, repercussions.  Le sigh.  I left two in the container so as not to feel like I actually ate all of them.

Honey pepper salmon, halfway through:

Some of my little treats for the week included a baby packet of almond butter and expensive chocolate (holla expense account!):

Really liked the chocolate, but, as a connoisseur, will admit that I didn't LOVE it.  I think it was too sweet for me for dark chocolate.  I prefer upwards of the 70% range.  But I love trying new foods on someone else's tab.  Sweet :)

Back in Action

I'll just be honest here.  I am not very good at managing stress.  I happen to enjoy something about the thrill of stress, and I work incredibly well under it.  In fact, I've probably produced some of my best work during the all-nighter time crunch.  However, I do not do well when this type of work is demanded of me two nights in a row, let alone two weeks in a row.  What I'm really getting at is that I have been incredibly stressed at work, and I really allowed it to billow out to most other areas of my life.  My plan for the next couple of weeks is to slow down, make game plans, and allow myself to enjoy life outside of work.  Which will involve not working after work.  Sometimes I have to set fake deadlines for myself in order to get things done quickly, and I think that might need to happen this week.  I just can't mentally afford to have dreams about test script numbers, which, mind you, is how I spent my nights this weekend.

This will also involve COOKING.  Both for my health and for my personal enjoyment.  Last week I was in Dallas, so cooking wasn't an option, but I'm relieved to back in control this week, working from home.

I promised some of my recipes from 2 weeks ago (eeek, that's not good), so here we go.

1. Polenta with broccoli rabe and shrimp

This is hardly a "recipe," but I cooked some garlic, onions, and red pepper in EVOO, and sauteed the broccoli rabe in EVOO in a separate pot until it wilted down.  The I added the greens and the shrimpies (frozen, pre-cooked) into the pan with the onions/peppers until the shrimp were cooked through.  At the end I added some red pepper flakes and a drizzle of honey.  Broccoli rabe can be tricky, because it's so bulky until it wilts down a little.  Sometimes it helps to add a little water to kind of faux-boil it and speed up the cooking process.  As a side-note, I think broccoli rabe is AWESOME.  It's bitter, meaty, and texturally all over the place.  Try it.

2. Curried salmon salad

I started buying canned salmon in addition to tuna, for some variety.  Canned salmon sometimes comes with the bones and skin, which I personally find revolting.  I know... there's great calcium in the bones, blah blah blah.  It's gross.  No go.  Trader Joe's has a canned salmon that's bone-free, skin-free, and fat free, which I guess means you're also not getting the omega-3s goodness, but same idea as tuna, I guess.  (Wait a second... how DO they do that? Tuna and salmon are both fatty fishes... I'm confused.)  And now, to just really throw a wrench into things, big bad BPA is back.  You may remember BPA from its infamous takeover of the Nalgene industry, and the subsequent sky-rocketing of the Sigg bottle.  But BPA got fed up with water bottles, and is now dedicated to ruining beans, soup, and tuna for innocent people everywhere.  Bummer.

OK, regardless, I mashed up the salmon with a little mayo, curry powder, black beans, onions, (ginger?), and red pepper and served it over fresh arugula with chopped tomatoes.  The black beans were a great addition.  A very filling lunch.

3. Mark Bittman's sweet potato salad

I made some tweaks, based on what I had handy, but I kept the flavors the same.  I had to use lemon juice instead of lime, and I didn't have a jalapeno, so I just used some red pepper flakes.  It was missing something but I couldn't put my finger on what, exactly.  Maybe it really needed lime and not lemon.  Fine, it wasn't even lemon... it was that lemon juice that comes in a little lemon-like bottle.  I'm ashamed.  Don't tell Mark.  I ended up taking a large portion of the salad with me to the airport last week before my flight to Dallas.  And, somehow, I was so tired that I slept for most of the flight and didn't even eat it until I got to the hotel.  It held up very well, and wasn't even smelly, as I thought black beans might get.  Definitely trying this one again.  It reminded me of a chili I sometimes make, which, speaking of, should go on my fall recipe to-do list.

4. Berry Berry Oatmeal

Um, would it really be my blog if I didn't have some oats lurking around?  Certainly not.  This batch of oatmeal was particularly colorful due to the addition of frozen fruit!  Microwaved frozen fruit, to be exact.  When you zap 'em, there's always a little juice puddle in the bowl, and I usually just scoop out the fruit and dump the juice, but I was feeling like it might be fun to have purple oats.  It was.  Topped with a few salted peanuts.  Lately I've been feeling like, while effective in theory, adding peanut butter to my oatmeal doesn't actually hold me over any longer than plain old oats with some fruit or raisins.  I've been just adding a few nuts now and I think it works just as well for my protein-psychology.  It gives some nice texture variation without the same amount of calories as a tablespoon of nut butter.  I just figure if I'm gonna be hungry at 11am either way, then why bother?  That said, it does taste like heaven, so I'm going to try to keep the PB/AB thing to just workout days.

5. Dessert Oats

Sometimes it is necessary to have dessert for breakfast.  Last Saturday (er, 2 Saturdays ago...) was one of those days.  I ran the Nike+ Human Race 10K in the morning in Brooklyn (aka the other side of the earth when you need to be there at 8am), and was so dehydrated and exhausted afterward that all I wanted was a big ole bowl of mushy sweet fillingness.  I made an oatmeal/oatbran combo cooked stovetop with paper-thin banana slices and cinnamon.  Then topped with raspberries and... chocolate chips.  Completely necessary.  And incredible.  Breakfast, dessert, whatever you want to call it... I will be doing this again.

Now if you're really paying attention to my food philosophy, you are asking a very important question right now.  WHAT, you are asking, are fresh raspberries doing on your oats at the end of October?!?!  I can guarantee you that (good) raspberries cannot be bought locally at this time of year, so the answer is: they were given to me, and since "not wasting" trumps "eating locally," I ate them.  And I enjoyed them (shhh).  But raspberries will not be making any more appearances in my oats until it's warm again.  Promise.  Bananas, on the other hand, will be making constant appearances in and out of my oats.  That's something I'm just not willing to give up.  Maybe I'll build a greenhouse.  Right, in all my spare time.

My goodness, there is even MORE to share, including 2 cooking classes, some more Dallas travel, and my discovery of kale, but I have to leave you wanting more, no?