Cuckoo for Couscous

I have another baking post in the works, but felt like maybe I should throw in some real food too.  Despite what it may look like on this blog, I do make and eat things that don't come from recipes where the first step is creaming the butter and sugar.

This meal was made up using various things I had on hand; I even made up the dressing, with great success if I may say so myself.  I started a pot of Israeli Couscous on the stove, carefully following the package instructions for light and fluffy results.

                           

I gathered the rest of the ingredients I wanted to use;

sliced the tomatoes, chopped up the spinach and crumbled the feta (see white block above) into a large bowl.

I mixed olive oil, apple cider vinegar, some brown sugar, lemon juice and thyme in a measuring cup and set it aside.  When the couscous was finished, I added it to the veggies and tossed everything with my homemade dressing.  The final result:

a delicious dinner and packed well for lunch the next day.  I like the larger size and chew of Israeli couscous compared to the tiny grains of regular couscous.  Heartier, easier to eat and quick to prepare, I am sure I will be using it in salads all summer long!

Paella

I'd been toying with the idea of making paella for a several weeks before it actually happened.  It began when I saw this no-starch version on Peas and Thank You.  But the idea of cooking and crumbling cauliflower into rice-sized bits was not particularly appealing.  Nor did I have any saffron on hand.  So paella went deep into the recesses of my scattered brain, until a trip to Marshall's.

In the food aisle at Marshall's (which I am usually a bit wary of) I found a small bottle of "gourmet" saffron.  I knew saffron would be expensive, and I knew that I wouldn't be able to tell the difference between exceptional and marginal saffron, so I decided to buy it.  According to the price tag, I only paid about half of the original retail price!  

I found a recipe for artichoke paella in a vegetarian cookbook I own (actually purchased from a previous trip to Marshall's, but rarely used) and found time one evening to make it (another rare occurrence these days.)

I sauteed zucchini, onions and garlic in the largest pot I own, then added the rice and stirred to coat.  I added the saffron and liquid and left to boil.  About half way through, I added tomatoes, artichokes, green beans and chickpeas.  The recipe said not to stir the paella, but rather shake the pan a few times during cooking.  Not as easy as it seems, so I did end up stirring the pot once or twice, and I don't think there were any negative effects on the end result.

In restaurants, there is often a note on the menu saying paella will take at least an hour to make.  But this one came together in a little over 30 minutes, no baking required.  I will gladly trade authenticity for speedy cooking time in my own kitchen.

The recipe said it would yield 4-6 servings, but I now that I have been eating this for days and days, I think 6-8 generous servings is more accurate.  Usually I have the opposite problem with the listed number of servings.  It is much more common that a meal intended to serve 4-6 people only feeds me twice!

Meals of March

Well, selected meals from the crazy month of March.  Note the two place settings!

Welcome to Charlottesville, VA, a medium sized town with enough restaurants to seat the entire population at once! Let's stay in and eat some chili...

with some gorgeous corn muffins on the side!

Keizo and I ate a lot of kale chips while he was here.  Wash kale, tear from stems, place on baking sheet, drizzle with 1 Tbsp olive oil, coarse salt and pepper.  Bake/broil for about 10 minutes, mixing once until saku saku (light and crispy).

Homemade pizza on no-rise whole wheat dough.  This stuff sticks to your ribs.

Banana/coconut/PB chip pancakes.  Difficult to flip over, unbelievably easy to eat.

Teriyaki fish, buttered rice, leftover pasta and spinach salad with yogurt-y dressing, broccoli, nectarine and Craisins.

Poorly photographed fried egg sandwich, one of several that were consumed.  One of the Saturdays I had to be at school, Keizo and my housemate drove out to Polyface Farm and returned with eggs and breakfast sausages.  The eggs did seem "firmer" than the ones from the grocery store, but were the same pale yellow color.  Taste also seemed about the same.

*****

Since he was in C-ville for goodness sakes, we did have to eat out occasionally.

The gelato sampler at Splendora's.  I will have to show immense restraint not to order this just for myself the next time I go there.  Clockwise from top: mint, coconut, mango, tiramisu, and hazelnut, with a scoop of Guiness in the middle (it was St. Patrick's Day after all!)

Blue Mountain Brewery's nine beer sampler, enjoyed on the patio at sunset after an afternoon of hiking.  It was as amazing as it sounds.  I hope to repeat several times this summer.

Historic Michie Tavern's endless Southern buffet!  The stewed tomatoes were my favorite part, although that isn't to say didn't also get seconds of the BBQ pork and buttery biscuits.  If you go, I highly recommend fasting both before and after.

Blog > Essay Writing

Just a quick post that I am hoping will put me into writing mode so I can finish my paper that is due tomorrow.

One highlight of my Thanksgiving weekend was a trip to Trader Joe's, where I stocked up on "necessities" like whole wheat tortillas, low carb chocolate, gingerbread flavored coffee and ridiculously cheap, ripe avocados! Two of these ingredients found their way into my dinner last week. Guess which ones.

My mother graciously emailed me this recipe for "Mexican Lasagna." Tortillas take the place of noodles and regular tomato sauce is replaced by a bean/tomato/onion/olive/enchilada sauce extravaganza. The cheese part stays about the same.

Alternate layers of the ingredients listed above and sprinkle the top with tortilla chip crumbs and bake for 20 minutes at 350* F.

My mom's instructions said to serve with salsa on top, but I opted for some avocado instead, with a side of plum, which is another Trader Joe's find, but not quite as noteworthy as 4 ripe avocados for $2.99 and a $4 bottle of Chardonnay.

My new holiday placemats were also purchased Thanksgiving weekend, on Black Friday no less! I bought them and a Pyrex measuring cup for myself at Homegoods. Wild, I know. The trip to Trader Joe's was way worse for the wallet!

And writing this is probably bad for my grades. Back to work!

Drum Roll please!

You are now reading Two Betsu Bara's 100th post! [Cue marching band and confetti!] Yay!

I have been wanting to do a special post on a few occasions--like reaching 1,500 and 2,000 page views and now for this, nice round 100th post--but haven't gotten any further than thinking about it. Maybe at 3,000 page views I will get it together and do something spectacular (hint, hint, tell all your friends,) but for now all you get is a lovely fall themed meal.

Changing leaves are pretty exciting for a girl who grew up in a desert and I am really trying to embrace the season and all of its colorful, sweater-wearing, cider-sipping glory. The back to back to back string of rainy days the past 2+ weeks hasn't really been helping though, leaving me to celebrate in the kitchen much more than I am while trying to avoid puddles on the way to class.

Dedicated readers may remember this recipe, which I wrote about back in January. I did pretty much the same things this time around, but also added some carrots,

and two kinds of onion.

Both are sauteed in olive oil and smothered in chickpeas, canned tomatoes and spices. I stirred in spinach and Craisins at the end. What lovely fall colors :-)

No fall meal is complete without a fall beer.

The Blue Moon Harvest Pumpkin Ale is the second pumpkin beer I've tried this season, and it is not nearly as good as the Samuel Adams one by the same name, which was much spicier. I should have a pretty thorough ranking by the time winter rolls around; pumpkin season started about a week ago when Starbucks brought back the pumpkin spice latte and won't end until after the last pumpkin pie is served for the holidays.

I even have fall placemats now! Now I just need some fall footwear. The ballet flats and sandals aren't going to cut it much longer.

Doing my part

Yay, it's Saturday and I have done my part for the economy today. My morning started at the Downtown farmer's market, continued with a trip to return light bulbs to Lowe's and a trek to Target where I emerged with a cart full of things for my apartment. Now my wallet is recovering from my spendy ways on a new purse hook. Classy.

I recovered by eating a yummy sandwich made with some of my spoils.

Wheat bread with hummus, guacamole, leafy greens, fresh roma tomatoes from the farmer's market, and some Target string cheese with nashi (Asian pear, also from the farmer's market) and tortilla chips on the side.

Lunch got me through the assembly of two shelving units, listening to some NPR and a good 40 minutes of blog reading/writing. I suppose I should get back to work...there is a pile of dishes in the kitchen and two empty boxes in the middle of the living room floor waiting for me.

Ch-ch-changes

Summer is in full swing here, and probably almost everywhere else in the Northern Hemisphere. And while that may be good news for gardeners in cooler climates, it seems long days of scorching desert sun are a bit much for my tiny plot.

There are still some watermelons, but when I did some garden maintenance last week I ended up composting about 1/2 of them. Hopefully the remaining ones will stay firm and green now that the mushy, yellow ones are no longer around to influence them otherwise.

Rotten, wonky fruit salad. Bye-bye!

One scraggly cucumber vine left after I took out about 4 dead ones.

One zucchini left too. The plant in the front yielded most of the zucchinis earlier in the season and is still producing flowers. I fed everything after pruning back the dead stuff with the hopes I can coax a few more fruits out of them.

The tomatoes are thriving though. It seems to me that they have taken much longer to ripen this year than last, but with everything else pooping out on me right now, they're really nice to have.

There's nothing quite like a homegrown tomato!

The garden isn't the only thing experiencing some changes around here. In a few hours I will go pick up Keizo from the airport!! He's here for a mere two weeks, but we have a lot planned, including a trip to San Diego next week after I finish my last week at work. Then when he heads back to Japan, I have 10 days to clean/pack before driving east with Mom to start grad school at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. Full steam ahead!

Bagelicious

Sometimes I have breakfast for dinner. Other days, like today, I eat lunch for breakfast. You know you have probably done it too (cold pizza, anyone?)

Toasted sprouted wheat bagel with thin layer of cream cheese, spinach, avocado and tomatoes from the garden.

Tasty. Now I am thinking about having eggs for lunch. My meals are all mixed up today!

Tea Time

Unsurprisingly, my 5 days off last week went by in a blur. All of a sudden, it was Friday, and despite having diligently crossed things off on my to-do list all week, there really wasn't a whole lot to show for all my hard work. A bit frustrating to say the least.

Time to head into the kitchen and make something. At least there I can get some results!

I thought about baking something, but given the number of other things to get done and the outside temperature (in the triple digits!) turning on the oven was not going to happen.

Instead I made iced tea. Simple and quick, yet still more exciting than brewing a single cup of tea and adding an ice cube. I bought this tea at the end of winter, and despite the delicious sounding name, I don't care for it much hot.

The photo shows 3 tea bags for a 1 quart container, but after actually reading the instructions, which suggested brewing the tea double strength when intending to drink it cold, I added two more.

Seepage. I am sure there is a more appealing technical term for this, but I certainly don't know it.

By the time the tea had cooled on the counter from boiling to merely warm to the touch it was time for lunch! I heated up an Indian-style veggie patty in the microwave, sliced it and added it to a tortilla with spinach, bell pepper, cheese, mustard and ketchup for a delicious wrap.

The ketchup is Trader Joe's Organic, and it contains no high fructose corn syrup (HFCS). It was a sad day for me when I realized that HFCS is about the third ingredient on the list in Heinz, and I am glad that Trader Joe's measures up. I can be pretty particular about my ketchup.

Complete lunch with tea and a perfectly ripe, juicy mango on the side.

It was back to the tupperware over the weekend, for my 2nd to last shifts at the stationary store. Just two more weeks of work!!

To-may-toe, ta-mah-toe

Regardless of how you pronounce it, these are some nice lookin' ones! Not from the backyard sadly...those are all still green.

That knife in the background didn't stay idle for long!

These lovely slices became part of this week's make ahead lunch dish: Fiesta Black Bean Salad! (name totally made up by yours truly.)

While the black beans were draining in the sink, I layered the other ingredients in a large container; frozen corn, tomatoes, fresh basil, green onions and avocado. The recipe also called for fresh cilantro and jalapeno pepper, but I didn't have any on hand.

The dressing is lemon juice, olive oil and a bit of sugar, and salt & pepper to taste. After tossing it all together, I took a bite and then added some red pepper flakes to make up for the lack of jalapeno.

This can be eaten with chips as a chunky salsa or over a bed of greens, more like a taco salad. I also think it would probably be pretty good in a quesadilla. One salad, three ways!!

A Saturday Salad

With Memorial Day passed, it's starting to feel a lot like summer! Which means the reality of moving across the country to start graduate school in August is also starting to sink in, and wow, there is a ton to do to get ready.

But posting about my lunch is more fun than chipping away at the awful to-do list occupying a full sheet of 8.5" x 11" paper on my desk.

I woke up around 9, which was glorious in and of itself. But after breakfast, it was down to business, working on things for my photography class, creating aforementioned to-do list, clearing out a bit of e-mail, exercising and getting cleaned up for the day. After my shower, it was definitely time for lunch, but when I opened the fridge, there was a not a leftover to be found. I did see 1/4 can of garbanzo beans, feta cheese and black olives and went from there.

Thankfully, there was a bunch of spinach in the crisper drawer, which formed the base of my lunch. To those ingredients I added the last of a backyard cucumber, some tomato, avocado and 1 salad pepper.

I dressed it with some of the Blueberry Pomegranate Vinegarette, poured some raspberry lemonade, put some crunchy pretzel sticks in a cup on the side and sat down to eat.

These pretzel sticks are really satisfying to eat because they require a lot of chewing. They were a nice contrast to the soft veggies in the salad.

I guess it's time to get back to work now since it is somehow mid-afternoon already.