I'm Just Chopping Broccoli!

Remember that from Saturday Night Live? Well, husband and I in our attempt to eat more organic fruits and vegetables signed up for an organic produce delivery service called Farm Fresh to You. We have received 2 deliveries so far (we space them out for a delivery once every two weeks), and have been really pleased with the price, the quality and convenience. We like that the vegetables are all locally grown and within the proper growing season, that we are supporting local farmers, and that you can size and adjust the delivery to your own needs. And, if you hate certain veggies or fruits, you can ban them from your shipment. Lastly, the price for a small box (which is enough for two people) can turn out to be less than what we would have paid for the same thing at Whole Foods, or some other fancy store selling organic local produce (that is, of course, depending on what the box contains).

Our last shipment included three heads of broccoli. And lo and behold, shortly thereafter, Smitten Kitchen posted a recipe for fresh broccoli slaw. Turns out that she pregnant, too, and craves certain things. I crave texture in my food and CRUNCH. So I followed her recipe, except that instead of dried cranberries, I used dried cherries because that is what I had on hand. DEEEELICIOUS! I hate overly mayonnaise-y, heavy slaws, but this dressing is light, mostly because of the buttermilk, and creamy with the right amount of tang.



We paired with the most luxurious steak sandwiches ever, since the steak was a leftover porterhouse steak from Harris' steakhouse, and ate it all up. Perfecto!

Recovering

Dudes, I think I set a new corporate peon record for myself. 36 hours straight, no sleep, while 6 months pregnant. Fortunately, or maybe unfortunately, after the last ridiculous all nighter, I asked my doctor about effects on future baby. His response: "Well, baby will be fine, it is just you who will feel like shit." I know my dr. friends did this stuff all the time when they were pregnant, so can't really expect too much sympathy from a doctor, I guess!

I am looking forward to getting out of the office early today, a nice relaxing weekend of recovering and maybe even going to see a movie...suggestions?

Monkey Scribe

http://www.kinsellalaw.com/audio/VoiceMessage.wav

Don't listen with small children around. It's a old message that went viral, but you get the drift. These types in my profession still exist.

Damn you, NPR (Not really, we love you)

My husband and I are NPR addicts (88.5 FM KQED for Northern California). Our favorite programs are the ones we listen to while driving to and from work, and some programs on the weekends that we try to catch when possible. We love to listen to Morning Edition (including the California Report), Fresh Air, All Things Considered (why Michelle Norris pronounces her name MEEE- Shell Norris, we just don't know), Forum (Michael Krasny sure seems to take a lot of time off or vacations), Marketplace, Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me, A Prairie Home Companion, This American Life, Car Talk (I don't know anything about cars, but the Magliozzi brothers are hilarious and their heavy East Coast accents reminds me of home), and Selected Shorts. Whew! That's a long list of very good programs.

Anyway, that is all meant as an introduction to explain the subject line of this post. Yesterday, while driving home and listening to NPR, we heard an interview with Stacy Perman about her recently released book entitled "In-n-Out Burger: A Behind-the-Counter Look at the Fast-Food Chain That Breaks All the Rules." In the interview, she talked about the freshness and quality of the ingredients (In-n-Out has its own commissaries where the patties and buns are made, and no restaurant is more than 500 miles away from one, so that all ingredients can be delivered fresh daily), how awesomely In-n-Out treats its employees (pay is much-above minimum wage and store managers are sent on first class trips to Europe, the Carribbean for meeting goals), and all food is freshly made to order:

My mouth just started watering and I could not stop thinking about sinking my teeth into a burger. It is only just recently that I can tolerate red meat again, since pregnancy made me cringe at the sight of red meat for a long while. I made husband drive all the way to Daly City to go to In-n-Out where we proceeded to order cheeseburgers, animal style:

I am a recent In-n-Out convert. Being from the East Coast, I just couldn't understand the fascination with this fast food chain and all its esoteric orders which are NOT ON THE MENU. I felt like it was (is?) a conspiracy to keep East Coasters out of the loop and at bay. But, now, I want to say, I understand, West Coasters, I do.

So, I blame this detour all on NPR. My exponentially expanding waistline and ballooning weight do not thank you, NPR (uh, nevermind the pregnany part which could also explain part of the phenomenon).

By the way, neither I nor any of my family members are associated with In-n-Out or NPR. I just think these two things are pretty awesome. Right now, KQED is running a pledge drive, too. So, if you listen, consider donating something to a worthy arts cause. You can get an Eton Red Cross emergency radio for pledging, too.

We are waiting for ours in the mail, so that we can FINALLY start an emergency-preparedness kit, you know, the kind that all Bay Area residents are supposed to have in case of earthquakes. I guess having a baby is making us realize we can't live on the edge, anymore, haha.

Sunday Bread Baking

I am not sure what bit me in the ass recently and told me that I must bake bread from scratch, but this past week, I was itching to make fresh bread. And not the kind from a bread machine, either, but the old fashioned, knead-by-hand kind.

Then, I saw this recipe on Smitten Kitchen's blog (which, incidentally, is a gorgeous website that chronicles a Manhanttanite cooking fabulous recipes in a small NYC kitchen), and I could not get it out of my mind. I recalled eating black bread when I lived in St. Petersburg, Russia during my junior year abroad. I haven't really enjoyed/been able to find the same type of bread again, so, I ventured forth to make the 17(!) ingredient-incorporating black bread. Here's all the ingredients gathered. I don't have those small clear glass bowls that make ingredients look so organized and pretty on cooking tv shows, so I made do with our sushi-soy sauce dipping bowls and random other bowls. They worked pretty well, actually:

Note the small mortar and pestle in the picture for grinding seeds. I recall getting this as a wedding present from a certain someone who reads this blog with a comment about how this person thought it would be funny to get me things I would never use, but insisted on registering for. Haha - the last laugh is on you, because I use this thing all the time for spice grinding. I also use the Microplane grater that was in the gift - you would have to shoot me to part me with it. But, I confess, the flour sifter, not so much...I just use a small sieve.

The black bread calls for ingredients like chocolate, shallots, molasses, rye flour, fennel seeds, caraway seeds, espresso, etc. It wasn't easy tracking down all the ingredients, and it involved going to Whole Foods (aka Whole Paycheck) and wandering up and down aisles.

I mixed together the dry ingredients, prepared the wet ingredients, including the yeast, and then combined to make the starter mix:


The mix looks sort of unappetizing and gross, but had this wonderful rich smell wafting forth of yeasty, dark goodness...

Then, came the mixing together of the wet and the dry ingredients. Ok, here, as another aside: I may have registered for a mortar and pestle, but I never registered for a Kitchen Aid stand mixer. You know, the kind that ubiquitously shows up on every bride's registry. I figured, hey, we are going to be living in a small condo in San Francisco, with a small kitchen, so why get even more gadgets that only take up valuable counter/cabinet space? I mean I have a hand mixer, and I have my own two hands to beat stuff with whisks and wooden spoons, right? Well, this recipe will go down in the books as having humbled my cavalier attitude about stand mixers. I will have reconsider getting a Kitchen Aid mixer with a dough hook. The hands/arms in the picture are those of husband. I had to call in the big guns when the dough got harder and harder to mix in the bowl and it was time to turn out the dough on the counter to knead:

Ok, finally, I left the dough to rise in a greased bowl. Then, after a couple of hours, I came back to this - a nice, round ball of dough, roughly doubled in volume:

Then, husband and I each shaped a round loaf, left them to rest again, and then finally placed them in the pre-heated 350 degree oven:

About 45 minutes later, out popped these gorgeous, scrumptious-smelling loaves:

After we let the bread cool a little bit, we came back to make ourselves some delicious snacks. I wanted the traditional Russian-style buterbroad (sounds like boo-ter-bro-oad) open face sandwiches. First, you slather on butter, as any good Russian knows (and which Smitten Kitchen notes in her blog, as well), then layer on the goodies. We choose some Blue Moon cheese, hard salami and sliced cucumber. Very Russian. And as another option, we used some organic fig spread from Greece that we picked up at Whole Foods (so delicious, go get some for yourself right now, yes, now, don't make excuses).

Then, we ate it all up! The bread is spot-on, folks. Delicious, dense (but just the right kind of dense, not dense like sitting-in-a-lump-in-tummy dense), flavorful with the caraway and fennel and shallots coming through, and with a wonderful crust. So YUM. In the end, the bread baking was a success, but the process was long. This is not an everyday kind of bread, but I will definitely be making this again.

Bonus Kitty Pic! Elvis, in a a pensive moment.

Lily Clochette

Another item finished. I am on a roll!

This is Sock Pixie's Clochette pattern. Her hat is much nicer, and shaped perfectly. I have to say that the hat was fussy to make, since you have to knit each individual petal separately, then join them together, then knit leaves and sew them onto the hat. But, the finished product is so sweetly innocent looking, that I am glad I made it. I just don't think I will be making this agaiin for anyone else!

San Francisco Food Bank

Yesterday, as part of a volunteer program, husband and I and a group of people from my office went to volunteer at the San Francisco Food Bank. The Food Bank runs a really great program in which large quantities of food are shipped to local community organizations (including schools), and in which local people can also come in once a week to shop for and pick up food for home preparation. This lets people who wouldn't normally have access to fresh fruits and vegetables get these products and cook healthful meals at home.

Walking in, the place looks like a huge warehouse/Costco:

We were given the task of sorting apples that a grower from the Central Valley in California donated. With the help of other volunteers, we sorted over 16,000 pounds of apples that are being shipped out today! Here is a picture of me putting on some gloves (note, the large pregnant belly - for the record, bending over large crates with a 26 week pregnant belly not so easy...):

Ummm, some of the apples weren't so nice...hence, the sorting.

It was a worthwhile experience and husband and I will definitely be going back again to volunteer!