PSU Farmers Market or I Love Summer

It's been a long time since I did a farmer's market post, not because I wasn't going but because I've been too lazy to assemble my produce together after getting home.  Usually I go to market and then go from there straight to lab and then a few hours later I come home.  By then I'm anxious to get things washed and refrigerated, etc.  Today though, I stopped off at home first for lunch before setting forth again.  As you can see, I've been going to town on tomatoes and berries because they're so incredible this summer.  I also bought some Queen Anne cherries, but forgot to include.  Unfortunately, I don't remember the individual cost but I know the total was somewhere around $28.

I decided to post a picture of one of my favorite things to eat in the summer.  Tomato and garlic bruschettas. With summer tomatoes being what they are, all they need is a bit of crushed garlic, olive oil and sea salt to make them shine.  Put atop toast and you have a lovely meal.

Miscellaneous This and That

I've been making my collages in Picasa but I'm starting to wonder if it might not be a little easier to just do it in Photoshop.  Trying to get my pictures to line up properly in Picasa was not completely easy, and even now I doubt they're perfectly aligned.  

Anyway, here are some pictures I took while I was in San Diego, although the picture of Tony was obviously taken at home.  Actually the kimchi/bulgogi wraps were of Portland origin also.  I was trying to find new and interesting ways to eat my leftovers and thought hand rolls might be pleasant.  And indeed they were.  My seaweed wraps were not properly sized to make hand rolls, but no one was looking and it tasted fine.  I highly recommend that you pre-toast the seaweed though, to prevent rubberiness.

The Bunny had one red tomato growing in her garden.  I meant to eat it at some point to see how it tasted but somehow never got around to it.  While I was there, my mom made me soup for lunch, using these special squid balls from Taiwan.  I couldn't take the rest of the frozen ones with me so they still reside in the Bunny's freezer, for my next visit.  The idea of squid balls probably sound gross to anyone not Asian, but I am a fan of all fish balls and meat balls.  And I like the minimalist nature of the soup as well.

Fish (Squid) Ball Soup

Put one bowlful of water in a small pot along with frozen fish (squid) balls.  Bring to a boil and let simmer for a while until the fish (squid) balls are completely heated through.  Add thinly sliced scallions (1 or 2 scallions) and season expertly with salt and pepper.  I also like to add a dash of hondashi.  Simmer for a couple of minutes more and serve.

Moka Pot Coffee

I used to make my morning coffees in a little French press; it was just big enough to make coffee for one person.  A few months ago however, I was careless and it broke into a million pieces.  Undaunted, I opened my cupboard, took out my moka pot and carried on.  That is until 2 weeks ago.  I've had my moka pot for a while and the insides were starting to look toxic so I decided to clean it out with vinegar solution.  All the instructions I read online said to simply run the vinegar solution through as if you were making a regular pot of coffee.  Simple enough.  Except when I make coffee, eventually I'll hear a little sputtering noise and also smell the coffee.  That's usually how I know it's done.  This was not the case with the vinegar and by the time I remembered anything about it, the handle had melted off.  It seemed incredible to me that I managed to live 5 years in Philly without breaking so much as a glass (although I did fling a 1/4 cup measure into the dark irretrievable recess between my oven and wall) and now less than 6 months in Portland I managed to wreck my two main coffee makers.

However, I'm back in business again.  Above is Tony inspecting the new moka pot.  Here is my typical morning routine:

Moka Pot Cafe Au Lait

Fill lower chamber with Brita filtered water (up to the line).  Place the funnel into the chamber.  Grind 2 tbs of whole coffee beans using finest grind setting.  Shake coffee grinds into the funnel.  Screw top chamber on and place on stove over very low heat (flames should remain under the pot).  Turn off when you hear sputtering sound.  Take out favorite mug and fill a little less than halfway with whole milk.  Heat in microwave for 30-40 seconds.  Using a little hand held foamer (left by your ex-boyfriend a million years ago), create a little foam in your cup.  Pour moka pot coffee into mug.  Enjoy!

Taking Care of Pets

The sun was out this weekend and since this is not something you can take for granted in winter Portland I made excuses to be outside to take full advantage.  My first task was to drop things off at the goodwill.  I had a whole foods paper bag occupying space in my living room for months now and I had been gradually adding things in or pulling things out.  Things finally reached some kind of equilibrium so yesterday was the perfect day to drop it off.  Goodwill was a lot of fun overall because things were sort of hapharzardly thrown on the shelves and it was amusing to poke through the different items and dream up possible uses for the stuff.  In the end, I only came away with a perfect little bowl ($2) for Tony's food.

I'm not sure how Tony feels about it yet, but I for one, am totally sold.  I also saw a little pet shop and decided to pop in on a whim to see if they had any fish things.  Over the last few weeks, the difference in size between Manuelo and Javier has grown even more marked and I wasn't sure how I could help Manuelo get a little bigger.  I ended up getting him a bottle of new food and something to condition his water, in case the Brita filtered water wasn't good enough.  And I've started setting him by the window sometimes so he can have a bit of sun.

And then I popped into Fred Meyers for the first time and was impressed by the vastness of the store.  I'm not sure it'll be my regular grocery store since it's a tad far, but it might be a nice excuse to go on a walk from time to time.  I picked up a bag of oranges and some strawberries.  Winter strawberries make me feel guilty but they smelled like the meadow and were on sale so I had to get a box.  I also got a bag of potting mix so I can start planting seeds when I return from Israel.  I'm a little concerned that the fruit flies might mess with my seedlings though so not quite sure what to do about that...

Cat Thinking Thoughts

When I saw Tony sitting there I knew it would make the most perfect picture. This picture didn't actually start off too perfect until I tweaked it a bit with picasa's picnik though.  I wonder what he was thinking when he looked out, if his eyes were closed and he was napping or if he was following a bird in the distance.  He seemed so calm that I think he must have just been contemplating the light and the time of day and maybe wondering what the world is like outside.

A Quiet Weekend

Whenever I'm away for more than a couple of days, Tony loses his mind and grows fat. I think he's a stress-eater. Anyway, he is usually delirious with delight when he sees me again, which means that I put up with several days of poor sleep, because a hysterical Tony likes to butt my face and paw my face and lie on my face to show he cares. To combat some of this, I've taken to stalking him a little bit during the day and prodding him awake when I see him sleeping, in the hopes this will encourage him to sleep through the night, the way I would like to. Yesterday I gazed around the apartment to do just this and spotted him comfortably napping in my dirty laundry. It was too cute; I gave him a couple of minutes of respite and then whipped out my camera to wake his ass up.

It's nice to finally be home for a spell after being away on so many trips. I did a lot of cooking and grocery shopping this weekend, mostly because I've missed it. It sounds weird to a lot of people when I tell them I have happy dreams about grocery shopping (wandering down the aisles, contemplating different brands, planning menus in my head...) but it is quite true. Despite my love for wandering aimlessly, when I do go to the store (Safeway these days), I do tend to be pretty disciplined. I have my list and only pick up little extras if my load doesn't look too heavy. Ok, whatever the load, I usually end up snagging one off-list item at least. Today for example, I saw a couple of lamb shoulder chops on sale and snatched them up for my freezer. And I bought an extra bottle of wine because I'm an alcoholic. One note: all wine in Oregon appears to be perpetually on sale. Why is that? And doesn't that just make it the regular price?

Yesterday I was all kinds of productive and did out-of-home types of things (lab, movie, grocery, coffeeshop) so today I was a vegetable at home. I don't think I changed out of my pjs until about 4pm. I DID however, make 47 more pork and leek dumplings and baked a loaf of bread (ok my bread machine did it, all I did was measure out ingredients. That counts!!) and then I made this delicious delicious dish. It's a chicken and chorizo rice dish and the recipe is from Ferret's Lydia. So easy and quite good. The recipe can be found at the database, I completely recommend squeezing a bit of lemon over it all, nom nom. A glass of white wine made everything go down quite easy...

Now I have some Chinese style soy sauce beef cooking away in the pressure cooker so I think I'll be pretty well stocked for the coming week. I notice I am better able to stay at work if I have something to eat at around 5 so I did a lot of cooking this weekend with this idea in mind. Should be good for productivity and general emotional well-being. Cooking is an act of love, even if it's just for me!

Hobbies Include Cat and Food

When I went to Uwajimaya with lab-friend a while back I made sure to acquire some seaweed wrap and frozen eel for future sushi-making. The future came last night and I had an easy and tasty dinner using recipe and methods from my previous post here. I wish there was a way for the wrapper to stay fresh and crispy instead of rapidly turning soggy and chewy, but I guess there's no avoiding this with homemade sushi. Next time I think I will add a smidge less salt to the rice bc the eel is already salty. I've already eaten a few pieces for breakfast this morning, oops.

And here is everyone's favorite cat, lounging on Martha Stewart's quilt.

And finally, last night I took the plunge (not really a plunge because it wasn't like I was at all hesitant or anything) and bought 5 packets of seeds from seeds of change. Even though I had sage and thyme seeds already, I left them at Bunny's house a year ago and she stored them improperly outdoors where they all got soggy, so I doubt they will be any good to me now. So I bought more sage and english thyme, some cilantro seeds that are supposed to be slow to bolt, genovese sweet basil and catnip (so I can make some toys for the little cat). I still have to buy some pots and planters and things to set up in my balcony, but I think I will have a lot of space to grow what I want to this year if I make full use of the balcony fence. After I come back from the conference next week I will take the plunge (this is used properly here because I'm feeling ick but also excited about this) and buy some red wrigglers for my compost bin. With any luck I'll have usable compost by the summer!

Patchy Cat

Right before I left for my first interview, Tony became extremely ill. He lived at the cat hospital for a day and was diagnosed with pancreatitis. Ferret very kindly cared for him for me while I was away and Tony made (I think) a full recovery. About a week after I returned however, I got a call from the vet saying that Tony's blood work results were back and showed that he did not in fact have pancreatitis. I was a bit stunned because he fit the symptoms to a T and then I was worried because they wanted to give him an ultrasound to check for cancer. The mother was visiting so I didn't get a chance to take the little cat in until this week. To give him the ultrasound they had had to shave off most of the fur around his tummy. The test came back more or less normal, but now, in addition to the patch they shaved on his side for a pain patch and the two empty patches on his forepaws for the IV and blood drawing, he now has no fur on his tum. I present the patchwork cat:

I don't believe Tony is much affected by the loss of fur. Given the sweltering temperatures we've been experiencing lately, he may even be thankful. In any case, he is still up to his usual activities. Such as this:

Tony's favorite napping or sitting spot is between me and the computer. I could be using my laptop on the couch and he will oust it and settle into my lap. I could be using my desktop and he will lie over my hands, over my arms or on the keyboard. Basically, there's nothing I can do about this and am completely resigned. In any case, look how cute he is, how can I say no?

Wings and Things

This wing recipe is probably the most treasured of any recipe in my possession. I first had these sometime in junior high or high school. Kara's mom would make them in batches and if I was especially lucky, she might send me home with a few. Each wing would be doled out carefully, and eaten with special care. For years and years, these wings were an obsession with me (frankly they still are), but Kerry would never divulge their secret. It wasn't until a few years ago that I unexpectedly earned the right to this recipe, when I helped Kara edit her essays for business school. Since then, I've made this many many times, sometimes for myself, sometimes for others, but always to great acclaim. They're Asian inspired, yet I've never eaten anything close to them anywhere else. Crunchy exterior, juicy interior, spicy, sweet and salty, they are the perfect balance of flavors. The recipe is deceptively simple, but still top secret so there will be no revelation here, but you can see what they look like and dream...

And because I can't gratify with a recipe, here is a picture of the little cat. If you look carefully, you can see his little shaved patches.

Here is my little cat after two different photoshop manipulations. I think the first picture is the soft and faded action and the second is the seventies action (both from pioneer woman). I'm still not sure how much I like the seventies one but I'm really into soft and faded. Mostly, I like the cat and have been blowing kisses into his tum all night long. I'm just glad he's getting better and I hope to still be companions for at least ten more years.

Mr Tony

This is the type of thing that happens if I leave any of my drawers open. I wish I didn't have to use flash because he was so adorable and the flash makes it look kind of harsh. In other news, it has been millions of degrees below zero here in Philadelphia and winds of maybe 1000 mph. I might be exaggerating a bit, but not by much! This is too much weather for me to handle. I'm ready to move back to milder climes.

Babysitting

I totally forgot I took these pictures until just now. Around May or June, Ferret went off to visit Mouse and I babysat for him. Every day before I left for work I hid the babies under the blanket because Ferret was anxious that Tony would eat them while I was gone. It was rather nice having them around and one day I took a bunch of these pictures. Happy memories...

Mr. Cat

How cute is little old man Tony. I spotted him a few months ago sitting in the corner, hanging out. Best cat!

Tony Living Large

A few days ago, Poodle and her main squeeze brought over a tall round table and its matching chair. They are to live with me for a couple of weeks while Poodle is homeless. As you can see from the picture, Tony has already welcomed them to my home. There is another picture I took of him lounging on the chair, but I haven't gotten around to uploading that yet. Mr. cat is the best.

Update: Here is that other picture of Tony.

Wonky-Eyed Tony

It's funny, once you start taking pictures of your pet it is impossible to stop. I've been leaving stray TJ bags enticingly on the floor in the hopes of catching Tony in one of them. We'll see...

Daytime Mr. Cat

Mr. Tony is the cutest cat in the whole world. Hands down.

Introducing Mr Tony the Cat

This post was way overdue.