urban forage & bridal sweets

for the last month, i haven't really been cooking. i've been living off a funny combination of plain yogurt, peanut butter, pumpkin seeds, brown rice, flatbreads, honey, avocados, street-vendor fruits, and many supplements of scavenged, greasy and sugary leftovers from school & hospital functions.

but, a couple weekends back, i did have the pleasure of bussing it to the famous fairway in red hook with joanna and spent an evening preparing treats for caolan's bridal shower and an afternoon gulping them down.


chocolate covered strawberries, hand-dipped and delivered from providence by mary farrell


the neborsky family secret: sherbert punch with pineapple juice, champagne, gingerale and plenty of ice.


lemon tart

apricot macaroons

green lentils with red wine-glazed vegetables

the bride-to-be

amazing curry-yogurt salad dressing (yellow globs) among leftover quinoa, cukes, corn, and salad greens. will post recipe when back in Prov...

Curry Vinaigrette from Deborah Madison's Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone:

1 garlic clove minced or pounded in a mortar
salt
2 tbs yogurt, mayonnaise, or sour cream
2 tsp curry powder
1.5 tbs fresh lemon juice
5 tbs light olive or sunflower seed oil
2 tbs finely chopped cilantro.

Mix and let stand for 15 minutes.

You will want to quintuple this recipe. If you don't finish that much, I'll eat your leftovers.

Breakfast at Baba Yaga's

boiled grechka, fried yayichnitsa, half-sour ogurtsy

Dinner at Baba Yaga's

We got nettles from our neighborhood coop since they were one of the first fresh greens available for the spring. We had read rave reviews and wanted to try cooking them, but they were totally scary. They're all pointy and long-leafed and the stalks are covered with hairy spines whose burn I clearly remember from hiking trips when I was little. Maybe eating them is something like the thrill of eating fugu? Seriously, though, I had a bit of a psychosomatic tingle as I downed my first bite, but the rest went down easily. Sauteed in oil and garlic, they tasted kind of oystery and oceany. Hil thought they were too strong but I enjoyed the flavor. The next time we cooked them, though, we blanched them and then made them into a milder pesto with ricotta, pine nuts, garlic.

We ate them with my best miso soup ever: red and white miso with button mushrooms, sliced leeks, tofu, and bits of kombu.

kosher l'pesach tagine of squash, tomato, carrot, turnip, kale, and preserved lemon with mashed potatoes.

twin cuisine

Think fast!

Who made these lovely braised collards and quinoa-n-cashews?

If you guessed Eli Feiman and Hilary Kaplan, you'd be WRONG!

This was dinner I ate at Bryan and Lesley's in Cambridge back in April. So good! My own homecooking in someone else's home!

They also had these vegan cakes left over from Bryan's birthday.

Guys, come down to Providence and I'll feed you um.... more of the same!

macrobiotic

I can't decide if I should go vegan for a while this summer, do raw foods, or all protein. I'd like to have an amazing body for my trip to Brazil and am wondering what the best culinary approach should be. Definitely less food, though I've been good about not eating late at night and couldn't face too much restraint with food. This meal certainly felt eminently healthy: miso-covered oven-broiled eggplants, kale, steamed brown sushi rice.

Farrell Family Fiesta

Mary Farrell hit one of those milestone birthdays equidistant between 50 and 70 back in December, but celebrated in April. Caolan went ALL OUT with a tower of homemade and exquisitely decorated cupcakes, pomegranate vodka fizzy cocktails, champagne, flourless chocolate cake, a lemon cake from Pastiche, a cheese cake covered with three kinds of fruit, chocolate cookies, cheeses, olives, fig jam and crackers, plus lots of other things I certainly ate but do not recollect. Hurray for Mary Farrell! Thanks, Caolan!

savory savory

I braised short ribs and some tempeh in a fantastic mixture of chipotles, red wine, and coffee. Then I cooked some pozole with pepitas, curry, and lime and then served it with some steamed kabocha squash. totally eclectic meal, but oh-so-satisfyingly spicy.

Vegetable Feast; Wayland, MA

Post-chemotherapy #3, I was a little manic from the steroids and had a "pile" of vegetables to cook so I hosted some college friends: Hayden Gallary, Sarah Caldwell, and Sarah Seo (for those of you that were in TD and this is relevant :)

We had some great cheeses, breads and olives from a specialty cheese shop in Cambridge (courtesy of Hayden and Sarah C.) Dinner was Mediterranean chicken (marinated in yogurt and herbs) with pita bread, an eggplant-dill salad and many gluten-free desserts! I forgot to photograph the first dinner but sure enough my energy and guests extended to Friday night when I finished using the "pile of veggies" to make a spinach-avocado salad with citrus dressing and eggplant ragout (see below).

I had the pleasure of cooking in an amazing kitchen with great ingredients at the home of my family friends. I think people are a little overwhelmed by the energy I summon post-treatment, not sure where it comes from, but it was truly a relaxing retreat and great to get to see old friends.

this is some kind of black eyed pea concoction I ate with kasha

The Taco Truck: Angeleno to the Core?

Today's news! Check it out!

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/03/us/03taco.html?ex=1210392000&en=3ba1164790fa664b&ei=5070&emc=eta1

"Taco flouters"? Was that meant to be a bad pun on the flauta?

As for the final quote, "people say this is part of our culture. I don't recall any towns in Mexico having taco trucks"...Maybe not trucks, but this NPR story (Sept 07) features Oakland taco truck El Gordo and its owner Carlos Montero, who picked up his skills "when he was an apprentice at his father's taco cart in Mexico."
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=14509760

I think it was John Baeder who did some great paintings of taco trucks exhibited in LA a few years ago. Before taco trucks, he painted another American food institution, the diner.

Love,
Your Angelena bloggera