Apple Tart

Colin made dinner on Monday, so I made an apple tart! I've been craving apple pie for the past few weeks, so I decided it was time to do something about that.

I was inspired by this recipe (their picture is much more beautiful!), but made an almond flour crust from Nourishing Traditions cookbook so Colin could eat it. The almond crust went really well with it.

For the crust:

1 cup almonds (I used mostly plain, but added a few salted), ground into flour

3/4 cup arrowroot or bulgur flour

3/8 cup butter or coconut oil

1/4 cup rapadura (I used sucanat)

1/4 tsp sea salt

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

For the topping:

5 to 6 apples (I used granny smith and didn't peel them, just cored and sliced thinly)
2 large eggs, beaten with a fork

1/2 cup unsweetened coconut milk

1/4 cup sucanat (the recipe called for sugar and honey, but I reduced it to this)

Zest of 1 lime finely grated

Preheat the oven to 375 F.
Mix crust ingredients together and press into buttered and floured pie pan.

In a small bowl, beat the eggs with the sugar, lime zest and coconut milk. Arrange the slices of apple on top of the crust and add the egg batter.Bake the tart for 30 minutes, or until the crust is light brown, and the flan is set. Leave to cool for 30 minutes before eating.

Game Night and Cupcakes

We thought about heading out to go camping over Labor Day weekend, but ended up staying home, going paddleboarding and then using the rest of our weekend to meet up with friends. We had a sort of impromptu game night on Sunday night and then had some friends who we hadn't seen in a while over for brunch on Monday, so it turned out to be a great weekend!

Have you ever played Moods? It's a great game.


And, since friends were coming over, I had an excuse to make these cupcakes, which were so yummy!

Real Food

I'm not sure when my interest in real foods began. I told Colin that it probably started with him, but he told me that I was interested in them before we got to know each other. Either way, he's a healthier eater than I am so he keeps me eating healthy.

On the blog of my sister's friend, I found these two books that I checked out from the library: Real Food by Nina Planck and Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon, who is the president of the Weston Price Foundation, whose website has a lot of information.

I have been blown away by these books. They recommend, in general, eating whole foods, including grass-fed beef, eggs from pastured chickens, dairy made with raw milk, real sea salt, and avoiding the new, processed foods like refined white flour, margarine, vegetable oils, corn syrup, etc. Everyone is afraid to eat real foods because they are high in cholesterol, but Planck goes to great lengths to show that research proves real foods don't cause heart attacks but industrial foods (and our lack of activity) do.

I have gone to the grocery store a few times since reading this book and have been sort of in a quandary about what to buy. In the stores closest to us, organic foods are rare. To get the foods Planck recommends, we have to drive further and of course spend more. But, I am at least educated more in the ways of real foods and know simple facts like wild salmon is so much better for you than farmed salmon (but herbivorous fish like tilapia, carp, and catfish are okay to farm).

Planck also says that it's more important to spend your dollars on quality meat since it's higher up the food chain than vegetables, so more toxins are stored in it. I am beginning to search for real meats and dairy.

Colin is also considering going on the GAPS diet for a while. I've read some rave reviews online about people feeling much better as a result, but also read that it's a challenge to stick to! Has anyone tried it?

Colin's Chinese

Colin invited a friend over for dinner last week, which meant he did the cooking. I'd be glad for him to invite friends over more often! (He also wore one of my underused aprons for the occasion and was asking for picture documentation.)

Maki Rolls and The Lord of the Rings

We've been watching The Lord of the Rings series (about half a movie a night) since the 4th of July. We finally finished on Thursday. It had been so long since I'd seen the movies or read the books that I had forgotten some of the scenes. About once a week, we treat ourselves to a movie with dinner in bed. We load up a tray with our dinner plates and put it on top of an ottoman on the bed to make a table and start the movie.

Thursday, we had our version of maki rolls, which involves either tuna or cooked crab salad, avocado strips, brown rice, stir fried tofu and cucumber and carrot strips as the filling for the seaweed (nori), and Korean side dishes. It made for a very full dinner tray and was yummy!

summer food

Colin and I ate fair food on Saturday and chicken bakes from Costco for Sunday lunch, so when Sunday dinner rolled around, we had to make something on the healthier side. I went for this version of baked sweet potatoes and a tomato, cucumber, and spinach salad as sides for marinated chicken. I highly recommend these sweet potatoes (and the salad, especially if you have homegrown cherry tomatoes on hand!)


Friday, we went down to the corner for Korean BBQ with some friends (we live less than a block from this place and really enjoy walking to dinner!) then came back to our apartment for tea and this dessert, which I made with a mix of blueberries and raspberries. It's amazing and so simple, although it does involve turning on the oven, which is a downside in the summer. I've made it since then with bananas and blueberries to stretch my berries, and it's still good, although not quite as wonderful.


Then there's the tomato open sandwich I make whenever I get good tomatoes given to me (by a friend who grows them or from the farmers' market): whole wheat bread, a spread of mayo, and sliced tomatoes with salt and pepper. Ahh. Summer! Late in the season, we figured out a place that we could grow two tomato plants where they'd get enough sun in our shady little yard, so hopefully we'll have some late tomatoes in a few weeks.

I really want to make these cupcakes, but I have no excuse and no one to share them with. Maybe I can make them at my sister's when I go to Texas on Saturday!

Back in the Kitchen Again (or Colin's Birthday)

Apart from making some simple baked fish, I wasn't too interested in cooking among all the unpacking and recovering from jet lag. But, Colin's birthday came on Wednesday, and my desire to cook was revived. I started out by making biscuits, bacon gravy, and eggs for breakfast in bed.
Forgot to take a picture until after we were finished, though.

Then, I made this cake. It was delicious, but not nearly as beautiful as the picture with the recipe, so I decided not to try to take my own sad picture. Also made chicken parmigiana and spinach for dinner in with a Redbox. We stayed in since we were still in recovery mode from being gone for a month.


Made this lasagna and an improvised veggie one along the same lines for Colin's birthday get together yesterday. Also made these cream cheese and chives biscuits which were a hit. Some friends came over after church for lunch and games. (The guys went into the night playing Risk. When we saw that Risk had begun, the girls went to get cheap massages.)

Made these nuts too, and these pumpkin seeds. Made the apartment smell amazing!

I wanted to try this pumpkin bread, but didn't have sour cream, so I used my old recipe with icing for cupcakes. Can you tell that I have a current obsession with Lottie + Doof recipes? I'm also obsessed with the beautiful photography!



Colin also got a t-shirt quilt which he loves and a 'Where the Wild Things Are' inspired card.

This Morning's Links

My friend Suzanne's post about living apart from the people you love, about Christian community, and the presence of God in the flesh.

I've been seeing a lot of recipes for simple slow cooked beans lately, this one and this one being two of them. Don't have time for that before we leave for Asia, but perhaps it's something I can make while there since we'll be staying in some friends' apartment.

I want to watch these videos to learn how to knit.

How fun does this chalkboard globe look?

And, an article about preparing to conceive. Thanks to a recently pregnant friend, I'm thinking more about this, even though a certain member of my household still wants to wait.

6 months!

To mark our 6 month anniversary, I made this cake.
and this chicken and potato salad
and a new journal for us, inspired by #3 from this list.

I also got this movie, which is a thinker (what I like), but a for sure downer. Not really sure what I was thinking when I picked it. Colin said, "Yeah, maybe next time a romantic comedy or something?"

Two Blogs, a Celebration, and Disbelief

These two blogs are my new favorites: Dinner: A Love Story and Today's Letters.
Go check them out when you get a chance.

I sold my first headband to a perfect stranger on my handmade etsy site and celebrated last night with a dinner of lemon goat cheese chicken with sundried tomatoes and pasta, roasted carrots and asparagus, and ghetto sangria (chilled red wine, 7-up and a squeeze of lemon). We even had some after dinner tea and warm chocolate chip cookies since I had some dough left over in the freezer.

The weather here is perfect. (If only we could get a little rain to make it feel cozier!) I honestly can't believe it's staying between 60 and 70 degrees in the middle of July.

fondue!

I've had an easy week of not working much (doing most of the work I'm doing at home), so I had time to make homemade marshmallows and meringues for our last book club fondue party on Tuesday night.

We had three cheese fondue, shrimp and hot wings from The Boiling Crab, veggies, bread, and salad. Yum!

And then chocolate fondue with marshmallows, merigues, strawberries, bananas, pretzels, and two kinds of cookies. Oh so tasty.

division of labor

Since I started nanny-ing, Colin and I have been sort of taking turns on the cooking front. We should have figured out some sort of division of chores from the beginning, but it felt sort of artificial to me, and I was the one who didn't have a job, so I felt like I needed to contribute the most to laundry, cooking, and cleaning. But, because I'm stubborn and want to make sure things aren't unfair, I got grouchy a lot, feeling that Colin should contribute more. Then, even when I was okay with what I was doing, I would sometimes think ahead to the future and get upset about what might happen when I got a job and was still expected to do all the house stuff. Colin is really patient, though, and good about getting me to talk about why I'm being a grouch, even when I don't want to.

Anyway, one morning last week as I left the apartment, I asked Colin to put the chicken in the crockpot and I came home to a fancy cooked chicken with lemon, vegetable chowder, and Colin's famous cottage cheese dill bread. He's great.

the best of the season

I'm at the conclusion of my first week back at substitute teaching, in Austin this semester instead of Dripping Springs. Today was an early release day in preparation for hurricane Ike, which we are not likely to feel much effect from in the way of weather here in Austin, but we are expected to receive quite a few evacuees here, so the schools let out early to help with the expected traffic.

The rest of the afternoon became a little solo celebration to cap off the week with a walk in the near 100 degree heat and then a nice spontaneous nap on the floor after sit-ups. I made some kimbap (California rolls) for dinner and then settled down into a comfy spot on the bed to finish up Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver. It's a book about living almost totally off of local, homegrown foods. The end of the book documents winter, eating primarily what they have put away at the end of summer. Inside, with the air on, I almost had the feeling that it was winter here too, but then Mimi came back to her bedroom and turns on the TV. I'm generally not in the mood to tolerate much TV noise, especially at the level that she broadcasts it, so I moved myself and my book to the front porch, where the weather was still very warm, even mid September, anticipating sunset. So I was brought back to the reality of Texas summer, the summer that won't give way to the season other people in the world know as fall.

I've cultivated a longing for fall more in the past few years of living in a place with four seasons. Reading Animal, Vegetable, Mineral has reminded me of how it's nice to live more in accordance with the seasons. I had very little appreciation for seasonal fruits and vegetables until I lived in a place on the other side of the world where I learned to shop according to what's most bountiful and colorful at the market.

Tonight on the front porch, the cicadas were buzzing loudly, reminding me of one or two of the middle school boys I've been teaching this week who have some sort of primal need to make noise just for the sake of seeing who will respond to it. The sky began to noticably glow almost suddenly and I felt encased in the end of summer bliss, deciding that is the best of what Texas has to offer at this point in the season and enjoying it is good.

subbing and kimbap

This week and last, I haven’t had many days of subbing, so when I saw a 10 day long job, I signed up for it, even though it’s at an elementary school and in special education, two things that aren’t what I usually do. It starts tomorrow. We’ll see!

I am mostly enjoying subbing. In the 8^th grade math classroom I recently had a few days in, I got practice factoring quadratics and listening to interesting things like an 8^th grade boy who was upset because it leaked out before school that he wanted to ask a certain girl out. He came in to class and said “Well, now I have to ask her out! There’s no way around it!” For all the attitude they can give a teacher, they are still so cute.

Two weeks ago, I finally got up my gumption and had a Korean dinner at my Grandmother’s house (where I’m staying in Austin). I even invited my first Korean tutors, even though I was a little apprehensive about cooking Korean food for Koreans. One of them came, and turned out to be the life of the party. I didn’t realize that most people don’t get a lot of interaction with non-Americans, so I was happy he and his wife were part of the experience.

Everybody seemed to like the food, especially the kimbap (like California rolls), but there was quite a bit of food left, so my Grandmother and I ate it as leftovers last week. I finally convinced her that Korean food isn’t all that great as leftovers and she didn’t have to eat it. I think her main motive was to get an organized refrigerator again. One great way to eat leftover kimbap, since it isn’t good old and cold, is to dip it in egg and put it in the frying pan. Yum!

Gingerbread House Party

Last weekend I went to a gingerbread house making party. I wanted to try my hand at rolling my own kimbap, so I did and took it, with kimchi in the middle. It was yummy. I had been craving some Korean food and this hit the spot. It mostly went over well. Everybody called it sushi (it's not, but most people don't have another word to call it) and most people tried it, but I did have some left to take back to my cousin who was glad to have it.

We had four groups competing to build the best gingerbread house (they were really graham crakers instead of gingerbread).

We were lucky to have a guy who built our house to California earthquake standards.

We also had a guy who put a firepit and bench in the backyard. He said he'd like to "take a lady out there."

Our main competition was this pueblo style house that they said was SANTA Fe style. We watched Shrek the Halls afterwards and had a fun time.

cooking complications and things to come

It looks like I'm gonna be moving out of my apartment soon because I'll be travelling for a few weeks in mid July and there is a family that's going to use my apartment while I'm gone. So, I had my last group of people over on Tuesday. I decided to make salad, thinking it would be pretty easy. I made pesto pasta salad from the spinach stems left over from a spinach salad that I made over the weekend and this bean and corn salad minus avocados and a few other things we can't get, then I cut up a bunch of stuff to put on lettuce.

The preparation ended up being far from uncomplicated because all sorts of things went wrong. Last weekend, my oven broke right before I had some people over. Thankfully the heating element on top still works so I could heat up what I needed to serve, but I couldn't make the bread mix I brought from Korea. I took it to my friend and she made the bread. The night before the salad dinner, I was getting some stuff ready and then realized I didn't have any water. They are doing construction outside on the street, so I guess they had to turn the water off. That's only happened a few times in my apartment, but in some of my friends' houses the water goes off regularly. Luckily, it came back on early the next morning, but then as I was boiling the beans, my gas ran out. My apartment isn't hooked up to central gas (in some apartments it's not an option), so I have a big gas tank in one of my cabinets. I've had it for almost two years and it finally ran out. Of course on a day when I needed it for that night's dinner. I didn't know how to order more, so I went next door to my neighbors' house and the mom helped me out. That was good. I needed to see her anyhow. Despite all the complications, the salad dinner was yummy.

I gave my conversation speaking final today and then finished all the averages. Yay! Now I just have to give the written culture final on Tuesday and grade it. I'm looking forward to being finished with classes, welcoming the summer volunteers late next week, showing them around and getting them settled teaching, and then taking a trip with a friend to somewhere in South China mid July.

24

plus me is 25. That's how many students (from my beginner English class) I fed in my little apartment last night. I made spaghetti and meatballs - partly because that was one of the things we talked about in the food unit (they had no idea what it was) and partly because it's not too hard to make.

Having a large number (more than 4) over to my apartment requires a little thought. I have an oven (most people don't here) but it's only big enough to hold very small things (like the length of a loaf pan and not quite twice the width of one) so baking things for large numbers of people isn't really an option unless it's a side or a dessert. I was even having issues yesterday with spaghetti, though, because I needed the one big pot I have to keep the sauce cooking in while I cooked the noodles. I ended up putting the sauce into two smaller pans and rotating them on one burner while I boiled the noodles in stages in the big pot on the other burner (and then put them in a covered bowl until we served them). We also had salad, baguette bread (which they sell here -I was so glad I didn't have to bake the bread!), the students brought loads of fruit and drinks, and everybody got a small piece of hot milk sponge cake for dessert. The girls who helped me serve were putting the salad and dressing on top of the spaghetti at first, but I suggested to put it on the side and people could mix it if they wanted :). We were a little crowded for seating (around two low folding tables on the floor), but we had a good time. They especially loved looking at my pictures after dinner.

I thought the hills were beautiful last weekend, but yesterday they were even more so. We're getting a little rain almost every day, too, so it's getting greener and greener around here!

rain and cake

It's raining outside and it sounds so wonderful, like a mix of cymbals played softly with those brushy type things and tapping a dry bamboo stick. I thought it might be hail, but I can't see any bouncing and I can't put my hand out the window because the screens don't come off easily. Hot milk sponge cake is in the oven for guests coming tomorrow. The sweet cake smell mixing with the smell of fresh rain probably wouldn't sell well as a candle scent, but it sure is nice.

I'm excited about the idea of going to bed with an extra blanket and opening the window so I can listen to the rain as I go to sleep.

Here's the recipe, for Jenni:

Hot Milk Sponge Cake
(From the More-with-Less Cookbook, a great cookbook for people who don't live in a place where you can run to the store for a box of gelatin or a package of cream cheese. This cookbook uses simple ingredients that can be found in most places. It was first introduced to me in Romania by the Richardsons.)

Preheat oven to 325 (F) or 165 (C).
Beat 2 eggs
Add 1 cup sugar and 1 tsp. vanilla
Combine separately (or if you're lazy like me, in the same bowl)
1 cup flour, 1 tsp. baking powder, 1/4 tsp. salt and fold into egg mixture.
Bring to boil in small saucepan:
1/2 cup milk and 1 tsp. margarine.
Add slowly to batter, stirring gently.
Pour into greased and floured 7x12 or 9x9 inch pan.
Bake 30-35 minutes.

The cookbook recommends this topping, and I do too:
Coconut Topping (use only half of this recipe for the cake above)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup margarine
1/4 cup cream or milk
1/2 cup chopped nuts
1 cup coconut

Combine and spread on cake when partially cool. Broil 2-4 minutes until brown.