Tuna Deliciousness

Need I say more?

Blueberry Crumble and Homemade Whole Wheat Bread

arlier this week a couple friends, boy and I all went to a farm outside of town to pick blueberries. This is one of those fun, cultural things I have wanted to do since we moved to the south. I think there are three typical views westerners have regarding the south: the poor white trashy part (which I have seen a lot of), the rich white trashy part (which turns out to be T-Town in a nutshell), and the cultural part full of history, romance, and charm. Sadly, that part of the South has been hard to come by in this college town full of privileged frat kids.

When we moved here I had dreamy eyed aspirations to find the romantic side of the south where we would eat good southern cuisine, drink sweet tea, go to a club and listen to that olde tyme blues. That kind of culture is thriving in places like NOLA, Memphis, and Atlanta. Tuscaloosa does not have a lot to offer in the ways of good ole southern culture, at least my vision of what I thought it would be. So I was so excited when we embarked on our own, tiny, cultural adventure.

I grew up sort of a city kid and all our dreams (boy and I) currently involve living in places with large, multicultural cities. But every once in a while, while driving through the country, I imagine how amazing it would be to live out there. Your closest neighbor would be half a mile away and you could go a whole day without hearing a train whistle, police siren, truck horn, or even a single car. Twenty minutes outside town, we arrived at the farm where you can pick your own blueberries for $6 a gallon. We were the only ones there. I guess not a lot of people go berry picking at 6pm on a Wednesday evening in the dead of August heat. We were a little late in the season and certainly did not get the pick of the litter. But at least 3/4 of what we picked was juicy and delicious. The whole time we were there I didn't see or hear a single car. An old hound dog wandered over from the neighbors to play with the farm's dog. It was lovely. Such a fun experience. Next summer we will definitely do this again, although probably go earlier in the season. So what did we do with all those blueberries? We made the most amazing, delicious, moan inducing blueberry crumble ever!!


Sadly, nothing remains of this masterpiece. We shared some with friends and consumed the rest as neither of us have much self control when it comes to amazing food.

As if you didn't think we were domestic enough, I made whole wheat bread from scratch. I have always wanted to bake my own bread and have only been able to master the lemon-poppyseed bread (which is amazing). I tried a couple years ago to make wheat bread at my parents house and ended up with two tiny loaves with the outer crust similar to a slab of granite and the inner meaty part the consistency of Alabama clay. It did not turn out well.

I have persevered this time with a dilectible, moist triumph of bakery! This loaf is perfect for Sunday morning toast, weekday PB & J's, and Tuna Melts!! Oh, the tuna melt...






*The amazing display cap above is by Jessica Hische, an amazing designer I came across in my perpetual search for awesome design and typography. The letter comes from her Daily Drop Cap project.

Happy 4th of July Y'all!!

Believe it or not, but the weather has been quite pleasant this last weekend. Of course, there is a nice thin glaze of perspiration on the skin, yet somehow its been tolerable. Late evening has brought with it gentle breezes which have cooled off the sweltering heat from the hard ground and made evening walks a pleasant refuge from the day to day.

This was not my first 4th of July away from home. In 2004 I went to Australia to pick up my brother from school and he made sure to welcome me with an impromptu 4th of July BBQ for us Yanks. But this is the first 4th of July living away from my family, friends, and the traditional festivities I normally attend with great excitement. So to celebrate in our own little way, Boy and I made sorbet from all the seasonal fruits that have popped up recently.

It was super easy and lots of fun. All it took was lots of strawberries, several peaches, a few scoops of blueberries, some stevia leaves, a pinch of salt, and a healthy dose of Vodka all tossed into our food processor and TADA...


Pretty much the most amazing summer-time-in-the-sweltering-melting-heat-of-Alabama after lunch, after work, after dinner, after hard day of reading and napping treat possible.

Survey says: Yumm...

A lovely weekend, we've had here. Friends, food, a teensie bit of fireworks, and to top it all off, a good read. In honor of the book, and my profession's honouring of it, I have started To Kill a Mocking Bird again. I loved this book the first time I read it and it feels only fitting to read it again now that I live in Alabama. I decided that I am going to read southern books for the rest of the summer. What better way to learn about the culture you live in, than through the stories people write about it.

Food, HandyMen, and New Projects...

After a long break, we are finally starting to feel settled in again and gearing up for the semester ahead. We went to one of our favorite bars to watch the Big Game. Despite years of irrational hatred of the sport, I would be lying if I claimed I didn't totally get into it. Football is a completely different animal down here, and you best be prepared. Roll Tide Roll!

After the excitement from the game, Dan and I went on a cooking-and-freezing-so-we-will-have-food-later-in-the-semester-when-we-have-no-time-to-cook spree. We made two different kinds of pasta sauce, one plain ole wonderful Tomato sauce and Turkey Meatball and Chipotle Adobo sauce. We also made up some of Dan's step-mom's wonderful Chili.

Here are the two sauces. Turkey Meatball is on the left. Traditional Tomato is on the right.

Meatballs! (Notice fabulous Food Processor in the back. Smaller on is in the mail ;p )
The freezer. (From left to right: Two large tubs of delicious chili, two varieties of pasta sauce, two loaves bread, Lentil Soup and Butternut Squash &Pear soup, and frozen chicken.)
Still so much room!

A small setback...

So the temps down here have been abnormally low. There were about two weeks of below freezing temps for the high. So whats the big deal? I'm from the mountains! Rough and rugged, skiing in below freezing temps all day, walking the three miles home from work in the cold like it ain't no thing... The principle difference between my down home ruggedness and this southern freeze is that at least in the mountains people believe in insulation. That word does not exist down here. Our house was averaging around 45 degrees for the high and believe me, that is hard to strip down to take a shower for. Sufficed to say, we came out pretty good despite some minor whining on my part ;) However, our poor washing machine didn't come out as lucky.

After about a week and a half at home the laundry was beginning to creep into bed with us. I took it upon myself to brave the freezing cold of our back porch and do the laundry. After discovering the hoses were completely frozen, I got the bright idea to just put a space heater in front of them and once they were all nice and melted my problem would be fixed. Half a day later, my back porch was flooding, I couldn't figure out where the water was leaking and I needed to go to class! So I scooped out the soaking wet clothes (as the machine wasn't draining either) wrung them out and in the dryer they went. Dan My Man saved the day. He stopped the leak, discovered which part was broke, defrosted the drainage pipe and ordered the part we needed. I still had to use our neighbor's washer for a day but yesterday he fixed my washer and now I can do all the laundry I want!!

And, as if that wasn't HandyMan enough for one day, he built us a bookshelf!!
Now, its a bit wobbly and needs some minor propping in various places :) But we finally have a place for our ever expanding library.

So between the washer getting fixed and getting a new bookshelf I went a little crazy and cleaned the whole house, just in time for MLK day to contemplate our civil rights and mentally prepare for the upcoming semester.

I have a whole set of goals I want to accomplish and I figure if I tell y'all all about them, then I can't back out of them.

1-No Procrastination - I have so much work to do this semester, if I slack off I'm dead.
2 - Stick to the work out! - Dan and I are embarking on new scary territory of marathon training. We don't have one in mind and if we do eventually do one it will most likely be the half marathon. But we are going to train for one which will keep us active when we don't want to, don't have time to, or are simply making excuses. This way we can get into a habit of it and it won't be an issue of feeling guilty for not working out.
3- Flossing three times a week - The dentist was mean to me when I saw him last :(
4- Keep something for me -No matter how busy i get this semester, I will make time for me to do something for myself. Read a book, a book I WANT to read for at least fifteen minutes everyday.
5- Stay positive - something I always struggle with.

School Scoop:

4 Classes

• History of the Book: Print Culture and Society
• Bookbinding II Hard Case Structures
  
• Printing II Typographic Printing
• Papermaking

12 Major Projects including : Hard bound books in quarter, half and full book cloth, flat back, rounded and backed case binding and clam shell boxes to fit, various kinds of hand made paper with ingredients such as denim, linen, banana stalk, kozo, flax, and abaca, and a twenty page letterpress printed book.

Sound busy enough?

Food is a big part of every one's life. If they claim that it isn't they are either lying, or not enjoying life to its fullest. One of the quickest and easiest ways to bring a little more joy into your life, is enriching it with food.

I love to cook. Dan loves to cook. Perfect match, right? There is the occasional spat over one or the other of us taking over the kitchen, so we have devised the perfect system to compromise our equal love for the preparing of the meals: one chops and get all the ingredients together while the other does all the actual sweatin' (and believe me, in our kitchen, you are sweatin') by the stove. This plan is impeccable for the dual chef household.

So just what exactly have we made over the last couple weeks here in Alabama? Well, I won't go into detail regarding every single dish, but I will discuss a this weeks highlights:

Sunday:
With a some help from Paula Deen (who, according to REAL southern women, is not one) we made some delicious Buttery Tilapia with Lemon and Green Onions, served over rice with a side of asparagus. One think I like about fish it I don't get that weird "Ugh, I'm touching raw meat and I'm grossed out by it" thing. Sure it smells a little sour, but I much prefer sour to bloody...

Meatless Monday Excursions:
In order to be a little more Eco-friendly, and at the behest of dear Best Friend Mandy, Dan and I have agreed to participate in the Meatless Monday Movement. Rather than trying to explain and justify it myself, you can check it out ans decide for yourself: http://www.meatlessmonday.com/
Last Thursday we went to the ubertiny Farmer's Market they have on campus and got ourselves some fresh tomatoes and eggplant. Can you guess what we made on Monday?
That's right, Baked Eggplant Parmigiana with homemade, from scratch pasta sauce. I have never peeled tomatoes without boiling them ahead of time first. In the boiling method, the skin bursts and splits so its really easy to just peel away. Fresh, uncooked tomatoes don't peel quite so easily. I just used a potato peeler and with a little patience and a steady hand it worked out fine. I have no idea if there is a better way to do it, but it seemed to work out. I egged up the eggplant (ha!) coated it in the cheese and flour, fried it for a minute or two then tossed it in the baking dish, smothered away and tada! A most amazing dish. I've never cooked with eggplant before and was wary as to how this was going to work out but it was amazing. The eggplant was just the perfect flavor and texture with the sauce and mozzarella. And as a garnish on the side, drumroll please, we had super sweet Fatty Arbuckle, my first celebrity tomato! I was so proud of him!
And for desert Dan made a wonderful little dish called Banana Halva. Its an Indian desert where you mash up some bananas, fry them up until the mush turns into an almost toffee like consistency then you stir in chopped walnuts and pistachios. We didn't have the pistachios so we used almonds instead and it was still amazing! Get just a little plain yogurt on the side and the sweet and sour go together so perfectly.

Tuesday I was in orientation and was given *blah* pizza. But...

Wednesday:
We went to our neighbor and fellow Creative Writing MFA Megan's for dinner. Anyone who doesn't like seafood should either stop reading so you don't feel left out or keep reading so you will learn to appreciate some of the most amazing food in the world. Megan made Crab Cole Slaw, Crab Linguine and Mussel Linguine! I have no idea what else she used to season them, but all three dishes were so delectable I went back for seconds on all three. The Mussel pasta even had the shells right in there and some of them you have to pick out the little guys inside. Such good food. Then, right when I thought I couldn't stuff myself anymore, she brought out a Semi-Sweet Chocolate Meringue with Whipped Cream, Raspberries and Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips. Heaven! Had it been sweet chocolate it would have been too much, but the semi-sweet was just enough to melt you away.

And for tonight... We're having left overs. Can only cram so much good food in a week... But we have grand plans, I assure you. I will try and get pictures for those of who who love to look at yummy food like I do.