The Pig and I

This is a really lovely, simple dish that I feel works well when coupled with long hours of study. Traditionally a street and breakfast food in Egypt, it is simple to prepare (albeit time consuming if starting from dried beans), nourishing and flavourful. I discovered the fava beans in my pantry yesterday, as I'd completely forgotten I had purchased them a few weeks back so I could have easy study food that didn't involve pizza delivery. Here's my version of them, which is slightly a-typical in that I mix my pickles directly in it before serving. Well, that, and I forgot to boil some eggs. Hope you enjoy! 1/2 pound dried fava beans lots of water pinch of salt salt and pepper to taste 1 tablespoon lemon juice 2 tablespoons fresh parsley (or 2 teaspoons dried) 2 tablespoons olive oil (bust out the good stuff for this) 2-3 tablespoons finely chopped pickles 2-3 tablespoons thinly sliced pickled cubanelle peppers 1 small clove of garlic, pressed (I mince it then pre...

I made this a while back too. Hence the still no pictures (one day, I'll get caught up and then y'all will have pictures again, given that I finally found my camera). This is one of the laziest meals I've ever made. It has very few ingredients and is one of those, "toss it together and be happy dinner is made without any effort from me" kind of meals. Ideal for work nights and such. Hope you enjoy! 1 can (or 2 cups cooked at home) black eyed peas 1/2 pound rigatoni, cooked to package directions 1 can stewed tomatoes 1/2 cup water 2 tablespoons lemon juice 1 1/2 cups shredded colby jack cheese Heat oven to 350F. Mix all the ingredients together, then bake, covered with foil, for 1 hour. Serves 2-4.

This is one of my most clearly defined, early food memories. I was about five or six years old, and we had gone to dinner at some fancy-type restaurant for a business dinner with my father's colleagues. I sat next to a man who, by my memory, was not that much larger than me. He was short, I remember, and quite round. He had dark hair and a sort of reddish complexion, and eyes I never saw. I don't remember his name, though I do remember talking to him quite a bit. I do remember, however, that he was blind, and that he was very willing to answer all my questions about being blind. Until it came time to start thinking about dinner, which he was very much interested in. He told me he was planning to order, for his first course, the escargots. I didn't know what they were, and so I asked. I remember how severely my nose wrinkled up when he told me they were snails, and moreover, that snails are quite delicious. I didn't believe him for a moment, and so I quizzed him at len...

We barely bought anything this week, which is good. Although the cheese is mostly gone... I've realised I still have some stuff in my freezer that I'd like to get through at some point, so I've been focusing again on food storage this week. This is good, although since, as you know, I'm mainly down to base staples, there's mostly me making a lot of stuff I've made before and Ross eating it all. It's nice to have a garbage disposal built into a husband. Sometimes, when we have a lot of leftovers I just line them up on the counter and ask him to make sure they've all been eaten before the day is concluded. Invariably, they ARE all eaten. It's impressive. But, I digress. On to the spending. Fiesta: $2.09 - milk $0.25 - onion $3.25 - orange juice total: $5.59 Not a bad week at all. I'm considering, to sporadically replace the Sunday Storage posts, doing Sunday Stories. I don't think I'll do this weekly, since my work load with sch...

This was a great week in the waste world. Nothing was wasted!

This was definitely a spendy week. I hadn't been to Phoenicia in a while, and as typically happens when I go after a long spell without, I bought a bunch of stuff that there was really no need for me to buy. Such as a little cheese extravaganza. I also didn't get the two spices I meant to while I was there, malbeb and mastic. I guess I'll get those another time. Phoenicia: $3.69 - Pickled cubeb peppers $2.00 - margoram $2.49 - fava beans $1.89 - dried apples $2.50 - dried mango $2.29 - semolina $2.69 - sundried tomatoes $2.75 - star anise $6.49 - labneh $4.20 - kasseri cheese (1/2 pound) $8.66 - bulgarian feta (1 3/4 pound) $1.21 - yali pears $2.19 - eggs subtotal: $43.05 Whole Foods: $1.72 - cardamom pods $4.99 - goat brei (this was awesome, btw) $3.64 - parrano subtotal: 10.35 HEB: $1.99 - beets w/ tops $0.98 - red bell peppers $0.83 - red onions $1.78 - mushrooms $4.98 - feta (yeah, I know; nearly 3 pounds of feta this week) $3.48 - spr...

This week was pretty good. There was a little bit of salad that went to waste, so not a perfect week. How'd y'all do on your food waste this week?

I made this ages ago, but I wasn't posting at that time. So I thought I'd give y'all the recipe today. Admittedly, this is kind of a strange recipe. Strange in that hubbard squashes are usually gigantic. I happened to find a small one though that was roughly the size of one of those pie pumpkins. If you can't find a small one, use a large one and scale up the filling, or simply stuff a different squash with the same filling quantities I've got listed here. This filling will be delicious irrespective of what type of squash it goes into. Hope you enjoy! 1 small hubbard squash (or other), approximately the size of a pie pumpkin 1/2 cup each: diced onion, diced celery 1 diced carrot 1 tablespoon olive oil salt to taste 3 cloves garlic, minced 1 can each: black beans, corn salt to taste 2-3 cups fresh baby spinach pinch freshly grated nutmeg 2 tablespoons lemon juice 1/4 cup basil flowers (or just use basil leaves) 1/4 cup pumpkin seeds (or roast the ...

So here's something interesting. Outside of my tea (of which I am down to about 5 pounds), dried mushrooms and kelp (okay, there're a few pounds of beans in here too), every single food item in the house fits... IN THE PANTRY. Yes, in the pantry. Like a normal person. So, given that I don't really have much to say about the pantry anymore, as I'm not trying to find ways to use up the pantry storage of excess, I think we're discontinuing Sunday Storage. I feel a little sad about this. Mostly, I feel a little sad that these out of control amounts of food, well... aren't, anymore. However, whenever we live somewhere that's not housing two people in 652 square feet of space, I'll probably stockpile too much again. And then we can start the Sunday Storage posts again. I think that is all on this matter.

You all will be a bit surprised by this, but all that time I wasn't posting I was thinking about y'all enough to save my receipts. So this post is going to be a bit of a long one, since there're simply too many receipts for me to combine them (and they won't be in chronological order). I'm not even really sure how we did on spending, though I suppose we're about to find out. Kroger (12/14/11): $1.84 - 2 pounds spaghetti noodles $10.92 - 5 pound bone in ham $1.64 - flour $15.08 - 4 pound chuck roast (for chili) $0.99 - pepper $6.79 - sugar (I want to say this was a 20 pound bag) $5.93 - 9 cans canned tomatoes $4.00 - cheeses $4.69 - oatmeal $1.24 - tomatillos $0.26 - jalepenos $0.66 - poblanos $0.57 - anaheims $1.36 - wax peppers $0.80 - banana peppers $0.07 - habeneros $0.07 - serranos $1.99 - macadamia nuts $2.50 - butter $1.79 - soy sauce $1.15 - tomatoes, canned $2.17 - fresh tomatoes $3.83 - cherries $2.50 - salsa subtotal: $72.8...

This was a pretty good week in terms of waste. I'd made some corn gems and three of them didn't get eaten, but we simply fed them to Frank the Possum, who is our outside neighbour. He never seems to mind these occasional free meals from us, and we chuck whatever we're giving him to right outside his burrow so he just has to poke out his head to grab it.

I don't know why I wake up so early sometimes, but I do. And this time I woke up thinking about apples. But what to do with these apples? Crepes seemed like a pleasant way to enjoy them, and to start off our day (interestingly enough, Ross generally eats something for breakfast while I sometimes forget to eat until well into the afternoon). Crepes are so easy, even though it seems like they're not. You just blend some stuff, let it sit, then cook it. No special pans, no nothing. The syrup I already had made, since I enjoy it in my coffee and in my tea (mostly tea, but whatever). So here's a simple, easy breakfast (or dessert; it's an easy dessert too) that's good for enjoying but not bad on your morning routine or time usage. Hope you enjoy! Vanilla-Cardamom Syrup: 1/2 cup each: sugar (vanilla sugar optional), water 5 cardamom pods, smashed enough to open 1/4 vanilla bean, split and scraped Put all ingredients in a saucepan, and simmer for 10-20 minutes. Let...

This was a fun recipe. I honestly wasn't sure how I'd feel about this, given the massive amount of celery in it, but it turned out really well. I think I mostly look at celery as a peripheral ingredient (unless of course, I'm stuffing it with peanut butter or cream cheese), but celery is a pretty amazing vegetable to use as a main part of whatever's being made. Hope you enjoy! 1 head celery, sliced into 1" long pieces 2 pounds purple fingerling potatoes, cut into 1" long pieces 1/2 small onion, diced 4 tablespoons butter salt and pepper to taste 1/2 cup freshly chopped parsley 1 teaspoon sumac 2 tablespoons lemon juice Put the potatoes in salted water and bring to a boil. Boil until al dente, then drain. In a large skillet over medium heat, melt butter. When butter is melted and slightly browned, add all other ingredients and cook until slightly creamy and with celery cooked through (so it's soft but still crispy on the outside). Serves two.

Wow, so it's been a while hasn't it? I'm back. Again. :) Strangely enough, I've cooked very little food that y'all haven't seen before. But that's okay. Here's something new for you, and I'll try to do some other stuff soon as well. Oh, and here's a link for the pictures I've put up this far, for those of you who wanted to see wedding photos . I'll be putting up more photos as I get to them, as well. This recipe came out of my hatred for food waste. When I was putting together all the food for the wedding, I totally forgot to put the celery in with the lamb, which resulted in me having four huge heads of celery to use up. This risotto was one of them (also a potato hash). What I strangely enough did not use any of the celery for was a celery soup. Weird. Not sure why, but there it is. Of all the things that happened with that celery, this was my favourite and I've found that when there's a lot of celery languishing in the fridge...