Eggs 'n Beans

For anyone who reads my blog with some regularity, you know that I am no stranger to beans. Love them. All kinds. I am somewhat of a bean snob, texture, taste, and look are very important. No mushy beans, thank you. Until Little came along, I'd swear by the dutch oven as the only way to cook beans. You can see why Little is confused to find my trusty Le Cruset on the shelf for the latest round of red beans and rice. However, I've found that the slow cooker makes a mean red bean. I've tested it twice now, just to be certain, that it produces the creamiest, most delicious beans ever -- maybe even better than my trusty red friend (gasp). Also, it takes about 10 minutes of prep time and I can forget about them for 4-5 hours without the worry of stirring to ensure that they don't scorch on the bottom. In a rush to get the beans going the first time, I left out the sausage for added convenience and found that the vegetarian version is pretty excellent. I've tried to restart my weekly regimen of making a large batch of beans of any variety so we can have delicious, healthy leftovers for various dishes. 

Our most recent creation with leftover beans, was an attempt to replicate the egg dish that I enjoyed so much at Hi-Life in Seattle. We made a couple of changes: replaced the flour tortilla with corn, added more scallions, and subbed my red beans for the spicy black beans. Without the added spice to the beans, I was able to liberally apply my favorite condiment, Cholula. The result was delicious and maybe even a touch better than the original. It was a perfect weekend dish, but I've actually made it part of my hearty second breakfast routine this week. Finding quick, yet gourmet-tasting, meals has been key to us actually eating regularly at home. 

It also means that I have time to devote to making food for Little. I realized the importance of this when I went to the grocery store last week to pick up a few jars of reserve food. I found that the prepared stuff is insanely expensive, full of preservatives, and well, kind of looks gross. As I held a jar of sweet potatoes that had a weird salmon pink color, and a jar of green beans that were sort of brown, I realized that I hadn't gotten so busy that I couldn't put a damn potato in the oven every once in a while. This week the little Sir is enjoying pureed chicken soup and rice, steamed broccoli, roasted red bell pepper sauce, and yogurt. He tolerates the broccoli, but gobbles it up when paired with the peppers. He's even had a taste of the pureed red beans and rice, which he initially downed, but now makes him gag. Not sure what's going on there, but no son of mine would ever reject red beans and rice.

Brasilliant's Slow Cooker Red Beans

1lb small red beans, picked through and rinsed

1 onion finely diced

1 bell pepper (red or green) finely diced

3 cloves garlic, minced

3 carrots, peeled and finely diced

3 celery ribs, finely diced

6c vegetable (or chicken) stock

6 oz. andouille sausage, diced (optional)

(here's where the recipe is a pretty inexact science)

1 T Penzey's Cajun spice

2 tsp thyme

3 healthy pinches of kosher salt (or more to taste)

Few shakes of onion powder

Few shakes of hot sauce (Cholula)

Add all of the ingredients into the slow cooker, set to high, put on the lid and forget about it for about 4 hours. You can stir occasionally if you want, but I usually leave the cooking part to J, which means that our beans are never stirred. After 4 hours, check for doneness. The beans should still be whole with skins in tact, but creamy and delicious inside. I usually find that this method cooks the perfect bean, but leaves the sauce a little soupy. I just uncover the beans, turn it to low and let it cook for another hour or so to let some of the liquid evaporate. 

If you were so inclined, adding some andouille sausage around the 3 hour mark would probably be pretty delicious. I think I'll try that next time around.

How is it Only Wednesday?

I'm starting to feel better, but my cold is still lingering. It's disrupted my sleep as well as Little's, so neither of us were at our best this morning. Actually, my son was being super annoying -- refusing to nap, eat, or do anything on his own and then squirmed and twisted when I tried cuddle. At one point I just sat him on the floor surrounded by all of his toys and let him have a good short cry. He finally got over it, crawled over to my leg and gnawed on my kneecap. I guess he was making amends. Then, the cycle started all over again. 

So, I decided that I needed to eat something more hearty than oatmeal for breakfast in order to deal with Crankster McGee. I hauled his highchair into the kitchen and gave him a spoon while he complained at the top of his lungs. Eventually, he realized that the spoon was really cool, especially when used to hit things. While Little was working out his frustration with a spoon, I made a giant pan of scrambled eggs for J and me, which provided the main protein for breakfast tacos (liberally sauced with sweet sweet Cholula). Black-eyed peas are a very non-traditional addition to tacos, but believe me, they tasted awesome. 

Once I finished breakfast, I fed Little a second round of solids while roasting a few sweet potatoes and some red bell peppers for his afternoon snack. What was on the menu for Sir Cranky Pants' breakfast? Steamed carrots mixed with pear, a dollop of oatmeal, and some cottage cheese. I normally wouldn't doll up carrots, but they were a pretty mediocre bag and quite honestly tasted like dirt -- I try not to feed him things that I wouldn't eat myself. Luckily, pear cures most food imperfections and he gobbled it up. After breakfast we played for a while, but a tumble onto the floor sent him into a downward spiral. It was finally nap time for real and he slept for an hour. Finally!

Let's hope this day is just an anomaly and tomorrow we'll both wake up refreshed.

Hello Old Friend

Dear Nancy's, 

Crank up your production! After a six-month hiatus, we're back in the cottage cheese eating business. We may not go through three pounds a week like during my pregnancy, but Little is definitely a fan. Paired with carrots, pears, or just on it's own, cottage cheese was a hit.   

Love, 

Brasilliant & Little

Three Day Soup

Way back in October, I had it all figured out. Miles napped like a champ -- three hefty stretches a day -- and even though I was sleep deprived from getting up at night, the free time during the day made life feel just fine. I caught up on work, blogged, and even started cooking again. I was quite pleased with the fact that I might actually be able to put delicious hot meals on the table at night. I had this brilliant idea to highlight all that free time by starting a series of posts on my blog called Naptime Gourmet. Like I said, I had it all figured out. 

Then Miles turned three months old, went on a sleeping strike during the day, and demanded constant attention during his waking hours. Not only was there no time for prepping dinner, but I was lucky to sneak in lunch some days. Dinnertime in our household was pretty turbulent and haphazard. At Miles' four month checkup, I shuffled into the pediatrician's office looking like a zombie and begged her to tell me that things would get better. She very nicely told me that I looked like death and that four months wasn't too early to start sleep training. I cringed at the thought, but Jesse and I were frazzled and desperate. It took three nights of hell to get him in a routine. He now sleeps, well as they say, like a baby.

Miles will be five months old next week, takes three decent naps a day, and will go six to eight hours at night uninterrupted. What does that have to do with food you ask? Well, I am no longer sleep deprived (most days) and have it all figured out again (ha). Naptime Gourmet is officially resurrected. It won't be easy. In fact, I'm pretty sure I will have to seriously challenge myself to prepare something new each week.** However, I'm going to give it my best try because cooking is one of my simple pleasures; it makes me happier and us healthier.

For the debut Naptime Gourmet (resurrected) entry, I have chosen a simple, healthy, delicious three day bean soup. Why three days? For starters, it took me that long to finally get the energy to cobble together the ingredients. My lack of ambition was stupid, since it took about fifteen minutes to prepare. Then, after cooking all day with what seemed like no progress, I thought I might have to hover over the slow cooker for that long for the beans to finally cook. And finally, this morning I realized that there's so much of it we'll be eating on it for a while. I really don't mind though, because it is insanely tasty.

Brasilliant's Three Day Soup

2 c. black eyed peas (insert lame Fergie joke here)
1 c. red lentils (or any other bean really)
4-5 c. vegetable stock (I use Better than Bouillon)
1 14oz can diced tomatoes (or 2 fresh, peeled and diced)
1-2 shallots, minced
3 cloves garlic, minced
3 ribs celery, diced
3 carrots, diced
1 tsp. kosher salt
1/2 tsp. cumin
1/2 tsp. Penzey's Cajun Spice (I bet thyme would work well instead)


Place beans in slow cooker and cover with 2 inches of water. Cook on high for 2 hours, or until beans begin to soften. Add remaining ingredients, turn slow cooker on low and forget about it for 8-10 hours (or until beans are cooked through).The lentils don't really hold up to cooking for that long and serve more as a delicious thickener. Sprinkle with a bit of grated Parmesan and voila! Simple. Healthy. Tasty.

Side note: I wanted to render a little bacon for the recipe, but was feeling lazy and didn't want to go to the grocery store. I'm glad I didn't. I find that black eyed peas have a wonderfully smoky, almost meaty flavor on their own, so bacon or ham would have just been overkill. The point of this recipe is to let the beans speak for themselves. And because the soup cooks for such a long time, all of the flavors really meld together. One option to kick up the spice would be to mince a little jalapeno or throw in a touch of cayenne. But I think I'll just let Jesse liberally apply Tabasco at the table!


** Be warned, I am not above subbing in the occasional baby food recipe from time to time when Miles starts sampling more complex concoctions. I do, however, promise not to bore you with such delicacies as whipped sweet potatoes and breast milk.  

How Sweet (Potato) It Is

Last night J and I started our holiday detox routine with a simple dinner of salad with chicken, apples, and almonds with a side of roasted sweet potato. We also had a little bread and butter to round things out and to try out the sweet french butter dish that my parents gave us for Christmas. You smoosh the butter in the container (the dark ceramic dish in the foreground) and then turn it upside down in a bit of salted water (the other ceramic dish in the background near the bread). It keeps the butter fresh and cool while sitting out on the counter. After all of our holiday indulgences, I was a little worried that my taste buds had forgotten how to process vegetables, what with all the meat, sweets, and alcohol that I've consumed for the last month. Luckily, my dear friend salad tasted just as good as I remembered. 

Although delicious, we usually don't have plain roasted sweet potatoes, but last night I had other plans as well. Little's pediatrician said that we could start him on solids after his 4-month appointment because he was sitting up on his own in a high chair and had shown quite a bit of interest in our food and drink. I decided to wait a bit, partially because I wanted him to be a little older, but also I wanted to do some reading on what to introduce first. Eric & Lea gave me a sweet baby food book for Christmas and the more I read there (and other sources as well) the more I realized that rice cereal probably wouldn't be his first food -- although well tolerated, it's pretty bland and boring. Since breast fed babies are accustomed to sweet things, I decided on sweet potatoes, which are nutritious and tasty. He was pretty shocked after his first bite and had a few sour faces to go along with the experience, but he kept swallowing and opening his mouth for more. I think the jury is still out on whether he's a fan, but for a first try it wasn't bad at all. 

After we put the little dude down to bed, I baked some gingerbread (something I had planned to do over the holidays, but never go the chance) and we had a mini belated birthday celebration for me. What? Everyone knows that you have to wean yourself off the sweets during holiday detox to avoid withdrawal. My mom picked up a small King Cake from Ken's Artisan Bakery before they left since we never got around to making a birthday cake while my parents were in town. 

As you know, every year my birthday marks the first day of King Cake season in New Orleans, but this is unlike any that I've seen before. I'm pretty sure it's more of a traditional French King Cake rather than the yeasty bread-like cake that I'm used to, but it was delicious. I'd probably describe it as a giant croissant with a delicious sweet almond and vanilla treat in the middle. Well done Ken's, well done.

Tastes Like Fall

I picked up a pork tenderloin at the grocery store the other night because J and I were craving meat. I'm not sure why, but I suspect it has a lot to do with the cold rain that we've had for the past couple of days. Maybe it's some primal urge to put on bulk for the winter. So, anyway, I had this pork loin, some apples, and a craving for potatoes. I went to Epicurious to find an old favorite recipe and stumbled on something new: Roast Pork Tenderloin with Apples & Cider. The dish was amazingly simple and incredibly tasty. Paired with mashed potatoes with a little butter, cream, and smoked sharp cheddar, dinner tonight was top notch.

Side note: I also got to use my All Clad saute pan to its fullest by taking it from stove top to oven to table (well to serving dish). The only disadvantage of the whole oven to table part is when the chef forgets the hot oven's effect on the pan handle. Yes, I burned the ever-loving crap out of my right hand. Don't worry, no blisters, just throbbing hot fingers. I'm currently typing with my left index finger. What? I'm a dedicated blogger.

Thankfully, I had lots of help in the kitchen. J really stepped up to the plate in order to supervise Little doing his chores. (Actually, J is responsible for the stellar mashed potatoes.) Little was a trooper and chipped in by helpfully lubricating the counter top with his drool. Salivating while whisking is pretty hard work and not long after this photo he had a righteous meltdown followed by a 30-minute nap (the longest stretch he's managed lately much to our dismay). At least it allowed me to muddle my way through the rest of dinner prep handicapped by the lack of use of my dominant hand. Despite my injured state, the pork was fabulous. In fact, you could say it was so easy that one could make it with a hand tied behind their back (or dangling in crippling pain). Just a thought -- do you feel sorry for me yet?

As you can see, Little changed into his dress pj's for dinner (code for barfed all over his clean outfit) and chose to skip the pork for something much more delectable. Giraffe butt. Some say it's too gamey, but if Little could talk I'm sure he'd say that they're just weenies. Just look at that face. That's one satisfied baby. In my opinion though, I'd say that the squeaky, chewy giraffe meat doesn't hold a candle to the tender pork and apples.

Now that Little is finally down for the night, I'm off to Walgreens for some burn cream and maybe a little chocolate to soothe the pain.

Apple Season

J and I always look forward to this time of year. The weather starts to get cooler, but is still sunny and the grocery store fills up with all kinds of delicious local apples. We thought about attending an apple tasting at a local nursery. However, J got his flu shot on Friday and M didn't have a very restful night, leaving us worried that he might be catching a cold. I'm pretty sure M is just fine (and his gurgling, snorting, and coughing were just quirky newborn noises), but we both decided that it would be a great weekend to just hang out in our pj's. Fortunately, our lounging didn't interfere with enjoying one of the season's greatest treats. 

It's been a while since J baked a pie, so he was eager to dust off his favorite crust recipe and try out the new apple peeler that I picked up at Kitchen Kaboodle. We've had one of these gadgets on our kitchen wishlist for a while, but given that our cooking spaces for the past seven years have been so small, it always seemed like a luxury item. Well, now that we're in a much larger space, it no longer seems like a luxury, but a necessity. J peeled and cored this whole bowl of apples in about 10 minutes. It was great. We used a combination of Braeburn and Granny Smith apples, so there was a nice mixture of sweet and tart. 

J only made enough dough for one crust, so we whipped up a crumble top for the apple pie. While M took his afternoon nap, we cleaned up a bit and did a few chores to the smell of baking apples and cinnamon. Nothing like a pie in the oven to motivate you to get things done! I kept telling myself that if I successfully rearranged the guest bedroom closet that I could maybe have an extra large piece of pie as an afternoon snack. You know, for all those extra calories I would burn re-shelving bedding and camping gear.   

Just look at those perfect apple layers. And the taste is phenomenal. I have to say this may be one of his best baked goods to date! As you can see, less than 24 hours later we've managed to kill half of the pie. We had a slice in the afternoon because neither of us could wait until after dinner to sample the goods. Then, we had a celebratory slice when we finally got M to sleep after nearly two hours of his cranktastic antics. J had a piece for breakfast, followed by his usual oatmeal later. And I'm about to dig in for my second breakfast. I'm thinking that apple pie will not be a regular item on our menu or we'll need a crane to get us out of the apartment come springtime.

More Purple Food

We had an abundance of these purple beans from our CSA sitting in the refrigerator. Tonight I needed a quick vegetable (other than salad) and decided to saute them with a little butter and garlic as a side for the main course. They were pretty cool looking, purple on the outside, and bright green on the inside. I couldn't wait to test them out. Much to our disappointment though, they didn't stay purple. As soon as they started to cook, they turned green and looked just like any other bean. Luckily they were tasty and we had no trouble finishing them all. 

The main course was much more exciting. Jesse and I purchased a slow cooker a couple of weeks ago knowing that life with a baby just wouldn't allow us to spend hours in the kitchen tending the oven and stove. When I was coming up short on inspiration for what to cook (other than pulled pork), my good friend Lauren suggested I purchase the Gourmet Slow Cooker. I was pleasantly surprised when not a single recipe called for canned soup! 

I decided to delve into the Mexican section and prepared chicken in peanut chili sauce for dinner, which really turns out to be more like a mole. The recipes do require more prep time than the usual slow cooker concoctions that I've seen, which involve dumping cans of stuff and cooking the crap out of it. However, I browned the onions and garlic, blended the sauce, and prepped the chicken in the 30 minutes remaining on Miles' nap time. It cooked for about 3 hours on high and the chicken was perfect. We served it over a quinoa pilaf and sprinkled it with a bit of queso fresco. Paired with our hypercolor beans, I was really happy that dinner exceeded my expectations. I can't wait to try out the next recipe on my list, pork stew with tomatillo sauce.

I made quite a mess with the blender and sauce, so Miles and Jesse offered to help with the cleanup. What can I say, I'm one lucky gal.

E & J Diner

One of my favorite meals to eat out is breakfast. In D.C., we frequented The Diner just around the corner from our apartment on Saturday mornings. Sometimes it was after a late night of drinking (where the reuben omelet helped soothe our hungover bellies) or just an early morning. Our rule was to get there before 9:30am to avoid the crowds of more sensible hungover people who slept off the previous night's debauchery. It was always fun to go around 8am when bleary-eyed parents would bounce infants and toddlers on their knees while scarfing down a stack of pancakes. We'd chat about the cuteness of the babies and the brilliance of choosing the diner for meals with little kids -- it was always so noisy that nobody cared when the little ones howled. 

Today, we were those bleary-eyed parents, but lacked any place like the Diner for an early morning meal. Last night wasn't particularly bad for sleep, but Miles was wide awake at 6:30am and ready to rock. I rolled out of bed, changed his position and popped in his pacifier, which bought us exactly twenty-two extra minutes of rest. Jesse groaned something to the effect of, "We've been in bed for 11 hours. I shouldn't be this tired." Mercifully, those twenty-two minutes were just enough for us to wake up and embrace the day (and our baby who was sounding more like a rabid Ewok). Jesse offered to walk over to Ken's Bakery to pick up a baguette for French toast, but then I remembered that we had bacon in the fridge. Hell yeah! Breakfast was on. 

By 7:45, Miles was fed, changed, and happily cracked-out on breast milk in his swing. So, I whipped up a batch of biscuits. Instead of baking and gorging on all twelve, we sensibly froze half of the uncooked dough for another sleepy Saturday morning. Once the biscuits were cut and ready, Jesse got to work on cooking up the bacon and eggs. It was a proper diner breakfast with orange juice, coffee, and a bottle of Cholula that I liberally applied to my scrambled eggs. I forgot how much I love Cholula and vowed to never eat eggs without her again. 

Purple Pesto

We got a lovely (giant) bunch of purple basil at our CSA on Monday. It was so fragrant that it filled the entire car on the way home. Had it been green, there would have been no question as to its final destination -- a giant bowl of pesto. However, purple pesto? Ick right? I've never been a huge fan of purple food. I mean, I love red beets and will eat them on their own, but toss them with some cheese, which immediately turns pink, and barf. Not really all that stoked about it. I quickly got over my purple food phobia when J started blending the leaves in the kitchen. It smelled divine. 

It's hard to tell from the photo, but it definitely cast a dark tinge on the pasta (for the record the fusilli is not whole wheat). Tossed with a few fresh cherry tomatoes, we had a perfectly spectacular late summer meal, even though yesterday was technically the first day of fall. Despite our fully stocked freezer, thanks to my mom, it was nice to be able to put together a meal on our own and eat some of the fresh summer treats from our CSA. No doubt we'll be back to kale, collards, and late fall crops in no time. Also, pesto is great for new parents because it hardly takes any time and is so satisfying. As we sat down to eat dinner, Miles decided that he was no longer satisfied looking up at us from his swing. 


So, we took turns scarfing down our purple pesto while jiggling/ making googly eyes at our little man. Notice that Jesse is not sitting on a chair, but rather our exercise ball that has gotten quite the workout this week. Little sometimes is only happy when being bounced up and down. I like to think he's just urging me to get back into my pre-maternity pants -- at this rate I'll have a rock hard core in no time.

New Strategy

Clearly this baby is stubborn like his mother and does not react well to ultimatums. Poking at his rogue feet while repeating "get out, get out get, out or else" is not working. Tomorrow he will be officially a week past his due date and I am going to have to start practicing some tough love if he doesn't decide to get things moving. 

It's not like we haven't tried to be nice about it. We've whispered encouraging words, J's been singing little tunes, and I've been eating awesome foods to try and coax him out. What? Those two ice cream bars and pile of cookies were totally for the baby. Yesterday I satisfied a major craving for a hearty Italian meal by making a giant batch of spaghetti sauce (with beef of course). We paired it with sauteed summer squash from our CSA. It hit the food craving spot so hard that we replicated the entire meal again for dinner tonight. What's not to love? 

In an attempt to get out of the house so I wouldn't go mad, we grabbed bagels for lunch up on Lovejoy, then walked down to Powell's in the Pearl to check out some children's books, and then strolled back home again. I even did a short sprint when I saw this guy driving down 10th Avenue. I jumped off the bench where we were resting and started running after the sort of creepy minivan yelling at J to "run to see the guy with the monkey!" J did not move fast enough in my opinion, so I yelled louder "the guy with the monkey" while pointing furiously in the van's direction. Luckily, the creepy clown caught a stoplight and J was able to witness the dude who drives around Portland holding a puppet while lip syncing to the radio. It was a pretty awesome afternoon.

Cooked to Perfection

J made his best batch of stir-fried beef on Wednesday night. It was marinated and cooked to perfection. I know it seems like I eat an alarming amount of red meat these days, but don't worry, I mix it up with an even more alarming amount of beans. If I don't get a giant amount of protein for breakfast and dinner then my energy is zapped by a little dude who refuses to make his appearance in this world. As a result, I've upped my morning cottage cheese intake to half a container (up from 1/3), which clocks me in at about 3 1/2 pounds of cottage cheese a week. Since my hunger has me waking up at 5am every morning, I've had to incorporate a second breakfast of eggs and toast around 9am. After letting that settle, I'm ready for my two-hour 10am nap. If someone looked at a chart of my daily activity, they'd come to the conclusion that I probably live in an old folks home.

Anyway, back to dinner. Alongside the beef we had a fresh corn and tomato salad with red onion and parsley -- all ingredients from our CSA. We also enjoyed roasted fingerling potatoes (from the CSA). It felt so good to be in a cool kitchen again after that insanely hot weather. I have to say, I have no complaints about Portland's unseasonably cool weather lately. Some people feel robbed of summer, I feel pretty lucky to sleep almost through the night because of the crisp air coming in through the window. 

As for the baby, he's still basking in the 98.6º summer vacation that will hopefully soon come to an end. I went to my last centering group meeting yesterday and everything looks just fine, but I'm scheduled for fetal monitoring on Tuesday if I don't deliver before then. It's not a big deal, just checking in to track Baby G's movement and see how his amniotic fluid levels are doing. If he's tolerating life inside fairly well, I'll be allowed to stick it out until 42 weeks (August 30th). At that point we'll have to start making plans of nudging him along. Luckily, the midwife assured me that they almost never have to use Pitocin to induce labor, which puts my mind more at ease.

Meat & Potatoes Gal

As my pregnancy has progressed over the past month, I feel like I have regressed at the dinner table. I keep having flashbacks of my first trimester woes and have become a pretty particular eater. My stomach is squished, so I can't eat very much at one sitting, which means I'm constantly low on energy. This leads to a somewhat constant nauseous feeling (either from eating too much or eating too little). Not only am I particular, but my cravings and dislikes have become wildly erratic -- last week I loved hard boiled egg sandwiches with cucumbers, cheese, and mustard, but now they equal death. Ugh, thinking about it right now makes me sick.

A few things haven't changed though, including my love for all things dairy. I still eat pounds of cottage cheese a week and send J to Trader Joe's every other day to replenish our milk supply. Oh, and red meat = euphoria. If I allowed myself to survive alone in the kitchen, I'd gladly crack out on a cut of beef or sausage and little else for dinner. It's like my body knows that meals are going to be meager, so it might as well make the most of what will little food will fit. 

Luckily, I have J around as the voice of reason (coupled with the bounty from our CSA), so I do eat a fair share of vegetables. However, I think he felt bad about the last few meals that we cooked together because they left me less than satisfied. So, last night he encouraged me to design a menu that would make me blissfully happy. And this, folks, was my heavenly menu: marinated beef, potato salad, and as much watermelon as I could fit in my belly. I was pretty excited that the potato salad was made almost entirely from items from our CSA, including three kinds of potatoes, the spring onions, and eggs. I hear that watermelon is supposed to help with swelling. I can use all the assistance I can get in that department, since my feet look like little ham steaks at the end of the day. Oh pregnancy! You are such a joyous and venomous beast. Only two more weeks until my due date!

Bounty and the Belly

Last night we needed a quick weeknight meal before heading out to at Timbers game. Since we still had quite a bit of beef leftover from our salads a couple of nights ago and a boatload of baby bok choy from our CSA, J and I threw together a quick Asian noodle dish. It was a pretty basic, but tasty recipe from our Cooks Illustrated Best Recipes cookbook -- a basic sauce with soy, oyster sauce, garlic, and ginger. J was the wok master while I diced fresh spring onions, garlic, and scapes. We threw it all over a package of Chineese egg noodles and it was insanely fast and tasty.


I'm now nearing my 34th week, so the baby has taken over most of the space where my internal organs should reside. By Monday, Baby G will weigh about 4.75 pounds and will be nearly 18 inches long. As a result, this portion was way too huge and I couldn't finish all of my noodles. The Timbers game went into 30 minutes overtime (tied 1-1) and ended in defeat after missing two of their five penalty kicks. I had to ease my sorrows (and my aching belly) with a PGE park hotdog. It was awesome. All I have to say is that Seattle better watch out for next year when we're MLS. The timbers are going to kick butt!

Summer Bounty

J and I first arrived in Portland in 2008 at the tail end of summer. The weather was gorgeous and the farmers markets were exploding with fruits and veggies. As soon as we settled in, I immediately started looking into local community supported agriculture (CSA) programs and was surprised to find quite a few. After doing a bit more research, I decided to go with the 47th Avenue Farm because their summer share season was by far the longest -- May through September. Also, given that they're an urban farm here in Portland, our food literally only travels a few miles to reach our table. The farm grows at a couple of sites in Portland, with the biggest plot out on 117th Avenue and another in Lake Oswego, which is about 10 miles south of the city. All of the crops are grown sustainably using cover crops between vegetable rotations, certified organic fertilizers, beneficial insects, drip irrigation, and conservation tillage techniques.

One downside of getting your CSA share from a local urban farm is that there is limited space, which leads to a very long waiting list! When I got the exciting email in April to notify us that we'd made it to the top, it had been a little over a year since we first signed up. I gladly sent in my check for a half-share of vegetables and a full share of fresh eggs. Every week, we drive over to SE 47th Avenue and pick up our veggies along with a dozen eggs. The eggs are unlike any I've seen, with such golden yolks that when scrambled they look almost curried without having any spice at all. Until last week, our share consisted mostly of early spring veggies like garlic and onion scapes, leeks, spring onions, green garlic, and a small amount of mixed field greens.

This week, however, I feel like were just starting to get a taste of summer! We had a mixture of fresh lettuce, radishes, baby bok choy, the last of the scapes, spring onions, and fresh cilantro. In order to enjoy our nice fresh greens to the fullest, J and I made a simple salad and topped it with marinated beef and a perfectly ripe avocado from the grocery store. I love summer!

Happy Hour at Home

It was so rainy and miserable on Tuesday that I decided to skip my trip to the library and head straight home after class and work. Yesterday was a much nicer day for walking, so on my way back from the office I decided to run a few errands. I picked up my text book and course reading packet on campus, headed to the library where three reserved books were waiting, and proceeded to walk home. I didn't really prepare for the weight of the books and about half a mile from home I felt winded, depleted of energy, and did one of the lamest-feeling things ever -- I called Jesse on my cell phone and asked him to jog down to help me carry my books the rest of the way to the apartment. He happily obliged and I made it home. Barely. I really should remember that I can't do as much as I used to, given that I'm toting around an extra 10 pounds in my belly and about 50% more blood that my heart has to somehow pump through my body. I later calculated my distance walked for the day and it worked out to be just over 4 miles. So maybe I'm not as lame as I thought.

Anyway, because of work and class assignments, I still haven't had the chance to crack open the French Farm House Cookbook. Therefore, I have had zero inspiration to make interesting dinners this week. We did manage to throw together a pretty tasty roasted vegetable pasta the other night, but it lacked the protein that my body craves and I was left unsatisfied. We were both feeling uninspired again at dinnertime tonight and were just on the verge of stepping out to one of our favorite happy hour spots. However, let's face it, happy hour isn't nearly as fun when half of the dinner party has to settle for a fizzy ginger ale instead of that frosty mug of beer that tastes so good with a steaming pile of nachos.

Since we live insanely close to Trader Joe's, we strolled over to get the ingredients for our own happy hour at home. The vegetarian nachos really hit the spot and I'm pretty sure an entire half can of beans will fill that black hole that is my stomach (I may only need to eat a second dinner instead of my usual third). Also, when you do happy hour at home you get as much fresh guacamole as you can stand. And believe me, that's a lot!

Weekend Fun

I mentioned earlier that our friend Ed was in town for a few days to do a couple of comedy shows. J was excited because he had a drinking buddy for the weekend and a very willing concert partner. I was excited, because Ed cooked us french toast and indulged with me in cupcakes and cookies after every meal. Thursday night, we went to see Ed's opening act for a friend, Wyatt Cenac, who was doing a stand-up show at Reed College. Any of you Daily Show fans might recognize Wyatt, who is a writer and a news correspondent.

After the show, we attempted to take them out for an evening in Portland, but ended up first at a bar that was closing up for the evening (at 10:30 on a Thursday night) and a gay bar in Old Town. Clearly, J and I are not as familiar with the downtown night scene as we are with our own neighborhood -- I certainly hope he doesn't hold this against Portland. Next time, we'll do a much better job of hitting the hot spots.

Since we stayed out until 2am, sleeping in was on the menu for Friday morning. Pine State Biscuits was also on the agenda, so we rolled on over to the east side and waited in line (in the rain) for a delicious breakfast/lunch. This is Ed's selection, a biscuit with fried chicken, egg, and cheese. I had a special menu item, which consisted of a biscuit, fried chicken, bacon, cheese, and apple butter. It was amazing. I had a hard time deciding between the special and the Reggie (bacon, fried chicken, cheese, and homemade sausage gravy). The sausage gravy smelled so good that I'm pretty sure we'll have to go back very soon so I can give it a try. After Pine State, J and Ed took a long walk around town while I passed out for a couple of hours in a food coma.

Even though Ed had been to Portland a couple of times before, he'd never really ventured outside of the city limits. So, he packed up his suitcase, threw it in the trunk of our car, and we headed out to Multnomah Falls for the afternoon before dropping him off at the airport on Saturday. It was a beautiful day in Portland, sunny, but still a little cool. The falls were spectacular and the moss was electric green because of all the rain that we got on Friday. I probably should have worn one more layer, but I always forget how it's usually 10 degrees colder than at home in the city. We didn't hike up to the top, because none of us were really dressed appropriately for the temperature. Also, we had delicious sandwiches waiting in the car (and I was starving)!

It felt great to have a guest in town again. It's one of the things that I truly miss about D.C. -- we always seemed to have visitors. I can't wait for the next couple of months when we'll get to have lots of friends and family visiting, which will make Portland really start to feel like home.

** Thanks, Ed, for taking a bunch of great photos this weekend!

Ice Cream! Get in My Belly!

Hunger has been my downfall over the past couple of weeks. It has prevented me from staying in bed past 6am, even on the weekends, which I find to be highly annoying. I've thought about keeping snacks near the bed to coax my body into just one more hour of shut eye, but I'd have to invest in a mini fridge for our bedroom, because all I seem to want these days is dairy. My first breakfast usually consists of deliriously eating 1/2 - 3/4 cup of plain cottage cheese and a pint glass of milk and ice flavored with 3-4 oz. of coffee. And it can't just be any cottage cheese, it has to be Nancy's, which is tangy and thick and delicious. Put another way, all other cottage cheese is to mild cheddar as Nancy's is to Tillamook's Vintage White Extra Sharp. I am a total cottage cheese snob now and nothing is more soothing to my stomach than a Klondike ice cream sandwich, which are far superior to all other ice cream sandwiches.

Even with my increased appetite, the mental food roadblocks from the dark days of morning sickness have still made me uneasy about certain foods, like bananas and chicken. This week I have really tried to incorporate more items into my menu, especially bananas. I've been craving fruit all week after eating a slice of cantaloupe with lunch and thinking it was the best thing I'd ever tasted. That left me feeling invincible and immediately jumped to bananas Tuesday morning. I think that was a little ambitious, given the flashback from the dark period when I would greet the day with my face planted firmly on the toilet seat. This morning (as suggested by Jesse) I decided to take baby steps and try small bites instead. It worked and was totally delicious!

Believe it or not, there is cereal under all of that fruit, but it's just an excuse to consume excessive amounts of milk in one sitting. Blueberries are my latest kick, as in oh-my-lord-if-I-do-not-have-blueberries-right-now-I-will-die. However, since the fresh ones are still $6 a pint, I've had to settle with frozen. I could really care less though, because I can pile them high and they make my cereal (which is always my second breakfast and before bed snack) icy and delicious. In the last two days I've nearly gone through a whole bag. I think the blueberries have just about eclipsed my love for Klondike ice cream sandwiches, but not quite.

Apple Cakey Goodness

Unlike many of my good intentions the past few weeks (like blogging), I actually followed through with the apple cake. After a dinner of delicious red beans and rice, Jesse peeled and chopped the apples while I prepped the batter. It's a straightforward cake and seems to be pretty forgiving -- I've not made a bad one yet! Jesse's mom passed along the recipe a couple of years ago, but I'm not exactly sure which cookbook it came from. It lives in my recipe binder with a note at the top, "AWESOME!"

The ingredients are pretty basic, flour, sugar, butter, vanilla, cinnamon, and cream cheese. I think the cream cheese is what makes it extra delicious and dense. Oh, and of course the apples. The recipe calls for two, but I usually throw in an extra one, because I like my apple cake appley. The only problem? It bakes for an entire hour and fills the apartment with a delicious cake smell. It took all of our strength not to dig in 5 seconds after it came out of the oven. We waited 5 minutes instead and indulged in piping hot slices. Yum!

Jesse will be in San Francisco this week and weekend, so I'll have the cake all to myself! Don't worry though, I'm pretty sure he ate his fair share over breakfast this morning and will pack a cake snack for the quick plane ride down to California.

*Tap Tap Tap* Anybody out There?

Let me introduce myself. I am Brasilliant. I started a blog a while back to document my day-to-day life. Toward the end of 2009 my efforts were, well, lackluster. I promise to do better in 2010. Holy crap! It's 2010!

So, what's been going on since the calendar rolled over? Well, I turned 30. It wasn't as scary or traumatizing as I thought. Like previous years (for various reasons this time around), I've officially postponed any birthday celebrations for a month. Maybe around Feb. 6th I'll freak out, but I doubt it -- I have bigger fish to fry and honestly, unemployment sucks a lot more than starting another decade in life. Besides, 30 is the new 20 right?

After a two-week break from school, I started up classes again last week. I'm taking two courses this quarter toward a graduate certificate in sustainability. I have to say, it's going to be quite a bit of work, but I really am enjoying the readings and discussions so far. I plan on taking two more this spring and one in early summer, which will leave me only one more course to go this fall. I'm trying to ride out the unemployment wave as best I can, which will probably mean applying for a student loan to help with tuition payments in the spring and summer. No biggie, especially compared to the exorbitant tuition fees we paid at GW!

I've been trying to get back into cooking. It took a little while to get the kitchen unpacked and learn my way around our new ginormous space. I made my first batch of red beans of the new year and I think they're going to be awesome. I used two links of Cheesy Bavarian sausage this time instead of just one. Also on the cooking agenda? Apple cake. I've been loving anything with apples lately, so round two of delicious, dense, cinnamon-y apple cake will happen this evening!

As for this afternoon, Jesse is going running with our friend Brian out in his neck of the woods. I'm going to tag along at their place to hang out with my favorite little dude, Elliot. Actually, I might not get to see much of Elliot, since it will be right around his nap time, but it'll give me a good reason to get some reading done for class tomorrow. It's really nice to have a fixed schedule again with deadlines!