And the livin' is easy. Now with more photos and cool backwards time travel!

Ok, I'll just admit that I haven't done the pantry post yet, but here is what I did do, starting this evening and going back in time:


Mediterranean burgers..photo by Kristin
Burgers filled w/ capers, anchovies, shallots. Topped with mozzarella cheese and served with cucumber, tomato, basil, spring onion salad.

Spring farmers market pasta...photo by Kristin
Sauteed escarole, spring onion, asparagus, fresh ricotta and fresh handmade pasta.(Most ingredients from the weekly farmers market a block away).
Followed by some gratuitous food photos:

Asparagus...photo by Kristin

Spring onions...photo by Kristin

And a little multi-tasking....
Enjoying a cantaloupe, blueberry, red grape fruit-scicle while waiting for an important email...

Fruitscicle..photo by Kristin

Prefaced by cantaloupe, yogurt soup with red grapes for breakfast...

Sunny morning soup...photo by Kristin

more words, less photos...

Peaches and apricots...photo by Kristin
...for this post. I am very behind on my posts and you can thank Mr. Sun for that. During the winter, I eat, drink, sleep--well that's what I do all winter. When the sun comes out, and I have a new bike, eating, drinking, sleeping mean something else. So, I hope you can follow and roll with this shift. It might mean fewer posts overall, but after i.m'ing(instant messaging) with my friend Asmara the other night(holler!) I now have some ideas for filler on those days when I don't have much else to say. Maybe sort of a series of posts about basics. Take for instance this weekend. On Thurs. night I roasted a chicken, and eggplant and blanched some green beans. Guess what we had for dinner the last three nights? That's not to make it sound boring. A simple thing done well is worth eating three nights in a row. After a day of biking, pulling a cold chicken out of the fridge and serving it with veggies, good bread, plenty of mayo mixed with dijon mustard(the magic) and a rose wine is not only easy, but amazing. So amazing that I should italicize and bold face:a.maz.ing. But maybe not really interesting fodder for more than one post. But...
...This is clearly a case when a little forethought goes a long way. When I roast a chicken, the options are almost endless. Chicken: salad, quesadillas, tortilla soup, Vietnamese sandwiches, pasta, pasta salads...to name a few. So, a basic recipe that goes a long, long way.
That may be the theme for this summer. Forethought. Taking one or two days to make a few things to have later in the week. So you don't have to worry about what's for dinner(or lunch). So you can minimize cooking in the hot weather and take advantage of the produce that is so plentiful this time of year. I've mentioned recently cooking a huge batch of beans and then freezing them. I've also taken to ordering an extra dozen eggs to hard boil and keep in the fridge. They've proven to be good in rounding out the hubby's lunch for work, which are most often leftovers, and are a great thing for me to grab to take to the studio.
Speaking of forethought, I need a day to collect my thoughts and do one or two posts about stocking a pantry and cooking meathods that are budget friendly and make for quick/good/healthy meals. These would be for Asmara and Mona, new readers to Chefetta.
Until then...

Learning Curve

Life is boring if you're not actively learning something, right? So is the theme for this post.
In the first example, it's not so much what I made to eat, but how I played with the photography. I made french toast with homemade apple syrup.
To digress a little, I had a baguette and some apples that were almost past their time and no maple syrup in the house. For the syrup, I dissolved about 1/4c. honey, 1/2 c. brown sugar, a bit of lemon zest, 1 star anise, 1/2 stick cinnamon, a pinch of salt, a grind of black pepper into about a cup of boiling water(in a pot, on the stove). Once the sweeteners were dissolved, I added two sliced and cored apples. They were pretty small, so use one big one instead if that's what you have. I simmered this until the apples were soft, maybe 10 minutes. Then I strained the apples out and let the syrup simmer until it reduced and was a little more concentrated. The consistency will not be like corn syrup, but more watery like some maple syrups. I used the syrup and the apples to top basic french toast.
The learning part came "post-production" or as part of the "photo-processing".


"Shopped" french toast with apple syrup...photo a collaborative effort by Kristin and T.
My dearest took the photos of this endeavor. Honestly, I wasn't even thinking of it for a post, but he was so excited(as he tends to be about dishes with apples) he deemed it "blog-worthy" and snapped a couple of frames. I decided these photos would be a good opportunity to experiment with a newly learned Photoshop skill. To anyone fluent in the program, it may seem beginner-ish. I have taught myself a bit here and there through experimentation and Google, but recently, I found a resource that will send me a new tip every week. Last week's was "depth of field". I just realized that I am not prepared to explain what this means. So, I'm not going to since this is about food and not photography. Just know that I learned something new! And with learning something new, there are lots of mistakes to be made. And to continue the cliche, that's how you learn right? I guess what I'm saying is the photo above was a first attempt at this something new.

Ok then, moving on to more learning...

Birthday basil...photo by Krisitn
For my birthday this week, I recieved a healthy sized basil plant. I know it needs to be repotted, but other than that, HELP! What kind of soil? What size pot? Can I keep it inside? (we have tons of sunlight in the kitchen) I'd like to keep it inside if I can since I recently found out a neighbor lets her dog out to pee in our communal garden. I'd also like to try to grow italian parsley, cilantro and maybe chives. I'd be open to more, bit I figured focusing on the ones I'd used the most would be a good starting place.

The floor is open people! Learn me some herb knowledge:)

Two for one

What's this? Two posts in one day? I thought I'd try and squeeze another one in, especially since I did end up making dinner tonight.

I came up with another rice cooker all-in-one. Well, this is almost an all-in-one. I used it to pair up with some shrimp(cooked separately) for a really quick, no fuss meal.

Playing restaurant with the presentation! Spicy rice and shrimp...photo by Kristin
I wanted to add things to the rice that would make it a little more than just seasoned. A can of fire roasted tomatoes and green chilies, onion, garlic and oregano made it just that. Tonight I used white rice instead of brown, but I think you could use either, adjusting the time, of course, for the brown rice. I found that I had to cook everything a little longer, which, in the case of my rice cooker, means I didn't add enough water. Also, the tomatoes/chilies I used were a brand I hadn't used before and were much spicier than I expected. I think it turned out to be a good side dish that could have many variations. First, you could switch up the protein (chicken, pork, fish, beans), go Spanish by using tomatoes without chilies and adding saffron, go, Italian by using tomatoes with basil or even leftover pasta sauce. This would also work on the stove top if you don't have a rice cooker.

Hi!

Just a short post today for the few that have been wondering where I've been. I haven't cooked much in a week and therefore don't have much to post. It's birthday season for me(including mine:)) --four or five of my friends all have birthdays this month and so I've been out and about celebrating with dinners and lunches and pinata's with more to come this weekend!

I didn't get around to posting this last week...

Summer(please come to Seattle) Salad...photo by Kristin
...a little salad for lunch before heading to the studio. Honeydew, English cucumbers, red onions, almonds, mint, parsley and feta dressed with olive oil and lemon juice. I ate almost a whole honeydew in one sitting with this one. It's so refreshing and I just kept picturing myself sitting outside somewhere warm since Seattle still is not. I'm bookmarking this in my brain for when it finally warms up here and I can grill some shrimp (or chicken) to top it off.

The light bulb over my head...

...can you see it? It went on today when I was trying to figure out what to make for lunch. More on that in a minute...
On Thayer St. in Providence, RI, there is a falafel place named East Side Pockets. We would eat there at least one or twice a week. In addition to scrumptious falafel, we often had a dish called jedra--lentils and onions cooked to perfection in olive oil served over rice with hummus, tahini, tatziki and sides of tabbouleh and pita bread. It was a huge serving, but you couldn't help but eat it all because it was that good.

The teeniest photo of East Side Pockets in Providence, RI...photo from Google Image
Fast forward to today and my craving for jedra on a chilly, stormy spring day. It occurred to me(light bulb!) that I may be able to make it all in on pot while getting a few other things accomplished. It worked and was almost as good as East Side Pocket's!

In my rice cooker I put about a cup of brown Basmati rice, 1/2 c. French green lentils, 1/2 choped onion, pinches of oregano, salt, pepper, cayenne and 2 tbls. olive oil. The rice cooker did all the work in 40 mins. I topped it off with a little yogurt, hummus and chopped parsley and mint. I was quite proud of the results and relieved to have only one pan to clean in the end.

In other news, my little freind is learning how to feed himself. He's doing a pretty good job so far. I managed to escape without any food smashed into my clothes.

A. feeding himself...photo by Krisitn