Best cake ever….

We got peaches in this weeks share (I’ll do another post on its contents), and I got this amazing cake recipe from a friend in Germany (with some other hints that I included in this transcription). One of the best cakes I’ve ever made.

Ingredients:
* 150g Butter
* 150g sugar
* 3 eggs
* Peel of 1 lemon (I didn’t have this, and it was fine)
* 1 tsp vanilla essence
* Rum essence (to your taste, I just poured about a shots worth)
* 250g flour
* About 2 tsps baking powder
* ~1/2 cup milk, room temperature
* Peaches, peeled and halved (I cut into tiny pieces)

Preheat oven to 375°F.
Cream the butter, sugar, lemon peel, vanilla and rum essences together. Add in eggs one at a time (I forgot and added it at the same time as previous ingredients and it was still fine).

Whisk the flour and baking powder and fold into the butter mixture. Add half of the flour and the milk and gently incorporate. Then add the remaining flour mixture, mixing just until combined.
Pour the batter into a springform (24cm or 9.5” diameter is what we used). Spread out the peaches, cut side down, across the batter.

Bake for about 45 minutes. After the cake has cooled, spread some apricot or peach jam on top and dust with powdered sugar (I didn’t do any of this, but apparently the jam gives it a nice shine).

Let cool and enjoy!

Week 4

It’s been a month of awesome fresh, local food! This has affected the quantity of vegetables we eat and the type of food we make. We’ve been pretty open about trying new recipes, asking friends or just googling, and they’ve all turned out amazing! It has taken a lot of commitment to cook (almost) every night and try to use the fresh ingredients. Especially because we know we’re getting new ones on Saturday.

For the most part it’s worked out, although we cheated a little bit this week with the green beans. I’m not a huge fan of them, we cooked them on two different days (still leftover from week 3), and gave the week four one’s to one of our friends.

But, I’m getting ahead of myself…

Week 4 share:
* 4 ears of corn
* 2 zucchinis
* 2 yellow squash
* 2 beets
* radishes
* green beans




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Week 3, or I’m so behind…

Well, life got in the way of blogging these past few days… or over a week. Although, my last post was after fourth of July, and that was a super busy weekend. Between going to NYC to see Jade and Eric, having Eric come to visit on Saturday, Argentina’s loss, bbq and movie outside, wine tasting, and going to The Place… very nice long weekend. Then, more world cup during the week, which culminated in a less-than-exciting final game.

But I digress…

Week 3 share, aka: when we learn exactly how many different types of pod vegetables exist:

* Snap peas
* Shell peas
* Green beans
* Zucchini
* Yellow squash
* Spinach

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Week 2

I got a little behind with the blog posts. Between the World Cup–so sad that Argentina is out of it!– and summer arriving, I procrastinated a little.

Before I get to week 2 (with week 3 already here, I know I know)… here’s a few more yummy things we made with the week 1 goodies.

What to do with peas week 1:

Ingredients: soy, ginger, honey, corn and peas.

Finally, another delicious burger, with leftovers from the going away party turkey burgers (so delicious! with cheese inside it)




Ingredients: turkey burger, chimichurri (yes!!!), tomatoes and lettuce.

Now for WEEK 2 CSA share:

* Lettuce
* Zucchini
* Yellow Squash
* Radish
* Green onions
* Snap peas
* Shell peas

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Argentina’s gifts: chimichurri and soccer

I definitely have World Cup fever! Argentina’s doing awesome, in spite of our hilarious coach… and the US is still hanging on!

But back to what I should be blogging about: food. Cooking with fresh ingredients, especially things we’ve never bought raw, is a bit of a challenge. We’ve been doing pretty well, though.

Ingredients used: Garlic shoot, beets, beet leaves, lettuce and strawberries.

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5.5 miles

We have decided to embrace the “buy local” movement, just a tiny bit, and bought half a “share” of the Hindinger Farm Community Supported Agriculture (CSA). This farm is only 5.5 miles away from our apartment!

Basically, Ryan and I (and two of our friends–each share technically feeds a family of four) stop by the farm once a week and pick up a basket of fresh fruits and vegetables. These will obviously vary by the season/month, but have been picked fresh within a few days and are harvested using “Integrated Pest Management”. So, it’s not organic–it does use pesticides, but is more common sense and is better for the environment.

The EPA says:

Integrated Pest Management (IPM) is an effective and environmentally sensitive approach to pest management that relies on a combination of common-sense practices. (They) use current, comprehensive information on the life cycles of pests and their interaction with the environment. This … is used to manage pest damage by the most economical means, and with the least possible hazard to people, property, and the environment.

Anyway, so we’ve signed up, and I picked up our first share today!

CIMG2494

CIMG2494

Originally uploaded by Nomad83

A wonderful 2009!

We’ve had an amazing 2009, so I thought I’d share some pictures.

First of all, Ryan got into the Y@le S0M! He’s so excited to start next Fall. I’m just so proud of him. And of course because he’s part of the professional school, they already show them that they care about him… he got a nifty luggage tag with the S0M logo. Fancy! No pictures of this, however…

We did take some pictures on Xmas eve. We spent the holidays here at home, in CT. Which was wonderful, relaxing, but also kind of lonely. Most people were gone, so we made the most of it at home. After some lab work, I came home, looked in on our friends cat, then we went ice skating at the local rink. Going on Christmas eve is a plus, very very few people there. I took full advantage of front row seats in front of the fire place, and then an hour or so of skating! (Pictures to come soon, they’re on our phones).

Then we came home and cooked some dinner. Backstory: we went to NC for Thanksgiving again (so much fun, and we flew this time— no more 12 hours in the car with traffic!), which of course means watching the Food Network like ALL the time. No complaints here, since we haven’t had cable in almost 2 years, its fun to spend a week watching one of our favorite channel. Anyway, we saw Rachel Ray making a Thanksgiving mini-meal for two. Menu: Turkey cutlets–breaded, some side (zucchini and something else), and these apples with granola as an inside out pie, for dessert. So, I breaded up some turkey cutlets (that I didn’t even know existed before the show!), Ryan made up some cornbread and turkey stuffing and the apples. Everything came out lovely, and it was a fun way to spend Xmas eve. Then we watched a movie and just relaxed.

Christmas morning we were up really early and opened gifts! Ryan got Chumby One that he’s been wanting for ever! Ryan gave me the rest of my Hannukah presents that hadn’t arrived in time: a hot pink plastic cover for my MacBook, Hanson CDs (my old ones got stolen back in CA when they broke into my car) including two new ones!, and a slanket! The rest of the day was full of more movies and relaxing!!

Little Miss Birthday Recap!

This just in…Yesterday was Griselda’s birthday, and what an amazing day it was!  It started early, sine I was charged with baking duty, and had to leave enough time for a second round of baking just in case my first cake didn’t pan out…but the cake and the cookie brownie bars came out wonderful were a big hit at the party later one…but I’m getting agead of myself.

We also went to go see the Yale Rep production of Death of a Salesman.  While slow to start on this Saturday Matinee, a strong finish in Act II really moved the audience and finished strong.  When the show got out, it was already 5:20, not enough time to get home to finish the party preparations before our 6PM dinner reservations, so we dropped by Atticus, a small cafe book store, where we found ‘Little Miss Birthday’, a children’s book from a series of books Griselda grew up with…it was a must have…

Dinner at bespoke was excellent, of course.  Service great, food was great all around (G and I can attest for the hangar steak and the monkfish, personally).  Then it was back home for cake, brookies (Brownies+cookies), and ice cream…and a packed house!  I didn’t know 25 people could cram into our apartment!

Fun was had by all!  Thanks everyone who came to celebrate, and all the well wishes on behalf of G.  Pictures to come!

Spring makes all the worries go away

It’s 45C with a high of 55. That’s right, spring is here.

Ok so it promises to be 80 on the weekend. SPRING is HERE!!!

Thank goodness. Basically every morning I’m so excited to see some tulips, the trees blooming and not having to wear gloves. Yay! Then I head over to lab and realize that grad school is a pain. Get sad for lack of
Data. Sometimes I go TA and answer a billion questions about molecular biology. Then go home, to a yummy meal made by Ryan (last night it was freshly made pillsbury French bread with fresh mozzarella, tomato and avocado). My day picks up. Then I go analyze my non-data.

Repeat as necessary, and you realize that there are two things that cheer me up: Ryan and spring.

Then there’s the weekends. Softball (played by Ryan and I), tennis and ultimate frisbee. Throw in some yummy food (like the crack-addicting chicken from Lao Szechuan) and movies with friends– oh yeah and some lab work thrown in for good measure- and you got yourself a busy/fun two days.

So that’s what I’ve been up to, in a nutshell.