More adventures, less food. OK, that's a lie...

I'm still alive people. I hope you all haven't abandoned me due to my shameless lack of attendance in my new blog world. I've had some weird mental block going on and my brain seriously turned to mush last week. I swear. I had to write a bio about myself for my new job, and stared at a blank page for about 3 days. I've just been in a funk lately. My apologies.

N. and I are also having a yard sale this weekend, so I've been drowning in boxes of junk wonderful treasures for the past week and a half. It's the first yard sale for both of us, so I'm not expecting anything to go smoothly. We have quite a bit of cool stuff (not to mention her mom and sister are both setting up tables in our yard as well) so hopefully we'll get a decent crowd and lots of money!

My other excuse for being MIA all week is that N. and I also stayed true to our promise and went walking around JP Pond almost everyday last week. We are both so out of shape that when we get home, all we do is eat dinner, watch an episode or two of True Blood (our new series.. RIP Lost) and pass out. I know none of these are valid excuses, but at least give me brownie points for trying.

MMmmm...brownies.

Speaking of brownies... why is it that eating healthy is so ridiculously expensive. I mean seriously! We completely overhauled our refrigerator and pantry, throwing out all the yummy sugary fatty goodness bad artery clogging diabetes causing stuff. We went to Market Basket armed with a grocery list chock full of veggies and fruits, lean protein and low sugar options. Granted we might have gone a little overboard..

 Disregard the ice cream in the lower left corner.
We came to our senses and put that back.

...but we had no idea the astronomical number that would be displayed on the checkout screen:

If we would have had a cart full of processed, fatty,sugary CRAP (like we usually do) our total would have been HALF that. Then people have the nerve to judge struggling families for eating junk food and allowing their children to eat things like McDonald's (of course, lack of exercise is also a contributing factor... but still!). I mean why wouldn't a struggling mom buy each of her kids an entire meal at Taco Bell for $4, if those same $4 can barely buy TWO avocados in the grocery store?! 

I am so growing avocados in my garden next season because $4 for two avocados is just insanity.

Well, now that we have an entire farm and grocery store in our kitchen, we have no excuse not to be cooking delicious meals every night. Of course, when I say "we" I totally mean "I," since N.'s contribution entails just eating. I've been satisfying our take-out cravings by attempting to recreate them at home. Last night we had Chicken Tikka Masala over curry rice and griddle bread...

And the night before that I made Thai Red Curry Salmon with Pineapple Mango Fried Rice. Amazing, I tell you. N. said it was better than our usual takeout place! Two more brownie points for me. MMmmm brownies. Sorry. I didn't follow a recipe with the salmon, but the recipe for the fried rice is below. It's by By Darlene Schmidt, on About.com.

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Cook Time: 8 minutes

Total Time: 38 minutes

Ingredients:

• SERVES 2-4
• 1 small can pineapple chunks, drained, OR 1 whole pineapple (see instructions below) <---I also added mango because I had a yummy Thai yellow mango sitting in my fridge :-)
• 3 cups cooked rice, preferably several days old (Tip: if fresh, leave for an hour or more in the refrigerator uncovered)
• 3-4 Tbsp. vegetable or faux chicken stock for stir-frying (or regular chicken stock if non-vegetarian)
• 2 shallots, thinly sliced
• 3 cloves garlic, finely chopped or pressed
• 1 red or green chili, thinly sliced (reduce or leave out if you prefer very mild fried rice)
• 1 egg (vegans can omit)*
• ½ cup frozen peas
• optional: 1 small carrot, grated (about 1/4 cup)
• ¼ cup raisins or currants
• ½ cup raw unsalted whole cashews     <--I left these out because I didn't want to die
• 3 spring onions finely sliced
• 1/3 cup fresh coriander
• STIR-FRY SAUCE:
• 2 Tbsp vegetarian fish sauce, OR 3 Tbsp. soy sauce (use regular fish sauce if non-vegetarian)
• 2 tsp. curry powder

Preparation:

For a non-vegetarian version of this recipe, see: How to Make Thai Heavenly Pineapple Fried Rice, step by step.

1. Mix 1 Tbsp. oil with the rice, using your fingers to separate any chunks into grains. Set aside.
2. In a cup, stir the soy sauce/fish sauce together with the curry powder.
3. Drizzle 1-2 Tbsp. oil in a wok/large frying pan over medium-high heat. Add shallots, garlic, and chili, stir-frying until fragrant (1 minute). Whenever the wok/pan becomes dry, add a little stock (1/2 to 1 Tbsp. at a time to keep the pan sizzling).
4. Crack egg (if using) into wok and stir quickly to cook (like making scrambled eggs).
5. Add the carrot (if using), peas, cashews. Stir-fry 1 minute in the same way, adding more stock if needed.
6. Now add the rice, pineapple chunks, and currents. Drizzle the fish/soy sauce mixed with curry powder over and gently stir-fry to combine over medium-high to high heat until the rice "dances" (begins to make popping sounds) - about 3 minutes.Tip: Avoid adding any more stock from here on, or your rice will turn out soggy. The wok/pan should be hot and dry.
8. To serve, scoop rice onto a serving platter (or in a carved-out pineapple, if serving at a party - see link at beginning of recipe). Top with spring onions and coriander, and ENJOY!

*Note: Vegans may omit the egg without losing the flavor or nutrients of this great dish (cashews provide the main protein source). 

Let me just tell you, this is absolutely delicious and you need to try making it, if you're into that sort of thing that is. So far, the eating habit change is going well. We're working on making our portions smaller and not be such... hefers. The weekend came along though, and with it, brought Boston's First Annual Food Truck Festival. If you know anything about how N. and I feel about food trucks (and my dismay at the Boston laws practically forbidding them!) then you know we were in there like swim wear!

We weren't that bad though. I swear! We shared a Chicago Dog and munched on a few handfuls of caramel popcorn. Oh and a free sample of some yummy Jamaican chicken. It was actually kind of disappointing. The festival, not the chicken. Food trucks are a New York City staple and one of my favorite things about the city. Boston needs to get with the program! 

The festival was at the SOWA Open market, so we spent most of the time in there perusing the aisles. I found some great Nina Simone records in the vintage market.

We also bought some awesome art pieces and got some cheap-o, but super cute frames at Boomerang's  (check them out! Their proceeds  support the programs and services of the AIDS Action Committee of Massachusetts!) on centre Street in JP. 

I guess our disappointment at the food trucks got the better of us, because somehow we ended up at JP Licks and sinned. We sinned big time. JP Licks now has Belgian Waffles before 2pm, and of course it was 1PM and we were just in time!

Ha! Caught in the act!

**EDIT**  These faces have been changed to cows based on N.'s hissy fit about posting unflattering photos. That is all. You may resume reading.

Oh well. We were good for most of the week. Look, life is short. What if my number was up that day? I would have totally regretted not eating that waffle. And the brownie batter ice cream I topped it with was just as important. 

Namaste bitches!

-D.

No more pancakes? :- (

I'm supposed to be writing a bio about myself for my new teaching job, but obviously that's not what I'm doing. I'm having a mental block. I usually have no problem talking about myself so I don't know what my problem is. I'll try again later, right now I'm going to post, while I sip on this nice glass of Riesling.

So, in my last post I was ranting about my stupid wisdom teeth. I dragged myself to Tufts Dental School, preparing myself for a horrible ordeal, but they were actually pretty awesome. It was the best experience at a dentist I've ever had to be honest.  The student dentist assigned to me was super nice. He explained every little thing he was doing and made me laugh a few times. Even the supervising dentist was a sweetheart. My pleasant visit sure as heck didn't have a pleasant outcome though. Apparently, I have to have all 4 wisdom  teeth pulled out, two of which are partially impacted (which means they basically have to operate to remove them). Lucky me! The two top teeth are $100 per tooth and the bottom two (the impacted ones) are $348 per frikin' tooth! Get your calculators out ladies and gentlemen. Then they have to tack on anesthesia. The "student" dentist said I would be fine with IV sedation, which basically gets you all loopy (but still conscious) and you don't remember a thing.. so he claimed. I believed him. He told me that they wouldn't do it today. they would give me antibiotics for the infection, Advil for the pain, and an appointment to come back and have the 4 teeth pulled. I took my little printout to the front desk and the receptionist starts punching numbers, and then looks at me and says "Wait, you're not getting knocked out for this? Oh, honey, you need to be put out for this procedure." So, she tacks on another $214 for anesthesia.

The total comes to $1,164.

Yep, that's what I said.

And the worst part is, that they have no appointments until October 8th (since the operation is done by an actual surgical dentist, not a student... thank baby Jesus!). So I'm supposed to pray my tooth doesn't start hurting again before then, and that I wont get fired for taking a week off of work one month after I start.

Sigh.

In happier news, our garden is thriving! OK, thriving is a bit of an exaggeration, but it's doing really well for our first attempt at gardening.

we have cherry tomatoes!

jalapeños...

cauliflower (not sure if it's supposed to look like that.. it might be dead.)

ONE cute little eggplant..

and a crap load of kale. Note to self: no kale next year.

Well, with the month of August upon us, N. and I have stayed true to our vow to stop being such major hefers. We both got on the scale this weekend, and that sealed the deal. But of course, it wasn't August yet.. and it was the weekend. We decided to have our last brunch at Sorella's on Saturday morning. 

There's N., looking all consumed by the awareness that this will be the last time 

she eats here for a very long time.

Not even a $3.95 mimosa can make her smile.. so sad.

The mimosa really isn't that small. I just have unnaturally large Sasquatch hands.

And there it is... chocolate chip banana raspberry pancakes. Aren't they beautiful? 

How I will miss these pancakes...

No more bacon.. no more dreamy desserts dripping in chocolate.. no more Sorella's brunches. Well, at least until we get this "roundness" under control. I tell you, N. is lucky I'm a wannabe chef, because this diet could be so much worse for her. This is just an excuse for me to get even more adventurous in my culinary endeavors.

Yesterday N. agreed to go walking around JP pond. I tried to get her to do some light jogging, but she shot me a look of a thousand fiery suns and told me not to push it. So, I shut up and kept walking. Today we have an appointment with Billy Blanks in our living room for some Tae Bo! Yes, we're taking it back. The entire box set was $8 at a yard sale and just because he's not popular anymore doesn't mean we won't still break a sweat, so Tae Bo it is.

Namaste bitches!

-D.