food diary #4

baked chicken with lemon juice, olive oil, and rosemary. with brown rice (cooked in chicken broth... ten times better than plain water) and steamed green beans. i got a huge sack of green beans, for like $5 from the farmer's market... so simple and so good! in retrospect though i would have liked to bake the chicken slightly more... i was worried that i would overcook the meat, but it would have looked a lot nicer if it was more brown. hm next time...

second attempt at quiche, except this time i went for a normal, fatty recipe. spinach, mushrooms, and onions with feta and cheddar cheese. pretty fucking heavenly, if i do say so myself.

yellow thai curry! who knew this was so easy to make? it's basically just coconut milk, vegetable broth, curry powder, and turmeric with your choice of veggies. now if only i could master pad thai as well! side note: please excuse the filthiness of our stove... my apartment is occupied by four college students hahah.

unfortunately my stay in this apartment ends this saturday, which ultimately means no more cooking for at least a little while. after these six weeks i can safely say that i now fully appreciate the act of cooking... food truly tastes better when you make it yourself. :)

summer living

haven't written anything substantial in awhile, mainly because there is nothing substantial to write about - i'm still in the best mood ever. most days i take leisurely walks to and from class (aside from the few occasions when i'm late), soaking up the full radiance and beauty of summertime. come back to my lovely apartment, prepare a meal or two, spend some time with my housemates, chill out to some music, read a bit. sometimes on the weekends i sleepover at my friends', where we chat and laugh about careless nothings into the wee hours of the morning. sundays i take the bus and do my grocery shopping. most simple lifestyle ever, but i adore everything about santa barbara.

food diary #3

you are most likely sick of seeing pictures of sandwiches, but they are a staple of my diet... this week it is tuna with olives and artichoke hearts. the day i tire of sandwiches is the day the world ends.

a continuation of my undying love for quiche. soy mozzarella cheese, soy milk, orange peppers, zucchinis, and yellow onions on a store-bought crust. my camera does not like to focus.

pizza bread, with tomatoes and more soy mozzarella piled on top. had my fair share of mishaps (five cups of flour instead of four resulted in the first dough going in the trash), but it came out quite tasty! thank you to my martha stewart roommate for teaching and helping me out. :)

food diary #2

this recipe is called "ten minute tasty asparagus and brown rice." admittedly, just mincing the garlic took me about ten minutes and i had some help from my roommate (i am a total pansy when it comes to sizzling hot oil), but this was still quite a departure, as it involves actual cooking. onions, chick peas, and asparagus on brown rice, with a mixture of tahini paste, olive oil, and lemon juice on top. really good, if i do say so myself.

the last recipe resulted in tons of leftover tahini, so i thought i would try this cookie recipe - all you have to do is mix tahini, honey, oats, and sunflower seeds together. easy enough. somehow it became a culinary catastrophe. in the honest words of a neighbor: "do you want me to throw them away for you?"

maybe i should just to stick to sandwiches. curried egg salad with pecans, granny smith apples, and onion on lettuce and whole wheat bread.

the highlight of my culinary career thus far. baked salmon with olive oil and lots of fresh dill, more asparagus from the farmer's market, and brown rice. this probably has more to do with luck than anything else, but everything was PERFECT. paper plate (my roommate's) because i am a poor college student with exactly one bowl and one set of utensils.

for breakfast i've graduated from cereal to oatmeal with honey, cinnamon, and raisins. also picked up some fresh strawberries and a pint of pomegranate and acai berri sorbet as a late night dessert. if you couldn't tell already, i am becoming quite the food addict...

snarky

i don't know what it means when one is genuinely amused by a college textbook/reader, but ninteenth-century art critics are funny:

"the academy contained the usual proportion of landscapes, and these landscapes contained the usual proportion of mild merit."

"a third is a head of a german professor, most grotesquely hideous in feature and physiognomy, looking a great deal, as to his complexion and eyeballs, as if he has just been cut down from an unpractical attempt to hang himself."

evidently, sugarcoating was not en vogue back then.

food diary #1

one of the most self-gratifying part of apartment living, personally anyways, is cooking! i am a little embarrassed to say that it took me nineteen years to finally get a chance to prepare my own food, but this really is new to me. thought i would document the things i make, over the duration of this summer session. here is the first of hopefully many more to come:

this morning i went to the camino real farmer's market in goleta, where i was met with rows and rows of delightfully colorful fruits and veggies. why eat over-processed junk when you can have organic? they are there every sunday; i fully intend on making this a weekly ritual.

i am getting really good at making sandwiches. hummus, tomatoes, vegan mozzarella cheese, broccoli sprouts (which i find to be slightly stronger than alfalfa, but they are quite tasty), and hass avocados on top of whole wheat bread.

actually this has been my dinner for nearly a week now... simple cobb salad: romaine lettuce, cherry tomatoes, more hass avocados, and grilled chicken breast. i cheated and bought the kind that comes pre-grilled and pre-sliced. have yet to venture into raw poultry and fish.

also bought a huge can of tahini, which is a type of middle eastern sesame paste, today. never tried that before, should be interesting...

happy july

last night a friend called to ask how i've been, when i suddenly realized that i am currently in a blissful state of happiness and contentment. just a general feeling of well-being, with a sense that everything is in order and exactly as they should be - for no apparent reason whatsoever. some might say that such is the essence of youth, that perhaps youth is the singular pinnacle of life. in another time i might have shared these doubts, but for now i remain optimistic in regards to both the present and the future. there is so much to be excited for; i don't know if life could be any sweeter.