Now what?

Last night I did in fact succeed at getting fairly drunk (especially right after the test when my dad bought me 2 giant martinis and I spilled half the second one all over the guy sitting near us at the bar). And convinced my B-ton friends to come out for the celebrations, which made me feel very special since some of them actually had to work today. My family surprised me by showing up right after the test and taking me out for a super nice dinner. Really I have been whiny and crazy enough this summer that everyone I spend time with felt they had a stake in this, and you know they kind of did. Family members were really stressed out, etc. It was really sweet, and kind of nice that they appreciated the hugeness of the whole thing from my perspective. And my dad gave me a really thoughtful pep talk yesterday about how I'm handling my life in a good way. All in all, way more positive reinforcement than this girl's equipped for.

And now, well, it's noon on Friday, I'm home alone, listening to NPR podcasts with a few hours to kill before my glorious 80-minute massage that I scheduled for late this afternoon, and I don't really know what to do with myself. The responsible answer is, make a dent in the work (yeah work, blah) I have to do this weekend plus go to the gym. But I think more likely I'm just going to watch TV, get dressed, go pick up my new travel pack from the REI store, and just relax-o-rama. And try to figure out which shoes I might wear to my friends' wedding tomorrow (yay I love weddings!). You know, life is pretty good at this moment even though I am slightly bored and also slightly overwhelmed by the 10,000,000 errands to do in 2 weeks before I leave for my big trip. Wheee Australia!

All My Bags Are Packed, I'm Ready to Go...

I woke up this morning, on Bar Exam Day 1, at 5 am. And rolled out of bed at 5:15, threw on running clothes and ipod, and went off to the high school track. I had it all to myself this morning for a quickie 1.5-mile sunrise run. Who is this person? My high school and college selves would never believe this.

Now I'm all showered and breakfasted, and I've got my regulation 1-gallon ziploc bag containing many #2 pencils, earplugs, tissues, wallet, lip balm, sandwich and snacks (NOT to be eaten in test room at any time!). Nothing else allowed. And I'm about to head off to the World Trade Center in the beautiful seaport area of Boston to get started with the next phase of life, the attorney phase. Oy.

I was going to try to stay at a hotel this week, to spare my family the abuse and me the noise and inconvenience of my current living situation (no privacy, no quiet space, etc) but I'm kind of glad I didn't, since at this point I'm reasonably zen'd out about the thing and my parents are sort of doting, to the extent my parents ever are that way. They are nervous and excited.

Today, I've got under control. Tomorrow, well that's another story as I've still got a little bit of cramming to do for the Mass test. Eesh. But if I rock the test today (ha ha) it won't be that horrible if tomorrow's essays are all crap I don't know like civ pro and jurisdiction. (Those are the same topic! If I get 2 civpro/jurisdiction essays I will scream!)

That's all from here, I'm off.

July 23-24, 2009

Whoa there, 2 posts in a row. It's obviously been an uber-productive AM over here in the study bunker.

But since the last one didn't involve any actual foodstuffs, here's a summary of the last 18 hours.

I woke up yesterday afternoon hungry, cranky and confused from a nap on the couch with my face in a book and decided to abandon my original dinner plan involving something like quinoa and tofu, and go for the quick and comforty dinner of butternut squash soup (trader joe's), sugar snaps, and some toast with canola margarine. So quick and delicious. During finals a couple months ago I pretty much lived on toast for a while, and I really just don't get sick of it, especially with chewy and complex sprouted wheatberry bread. Nom nom nom.
I also had like 4 popsicles (it's a family addiction -- we used to have "ice cream time" every night around here and now my dad buys popsicles by the ton as a healthier replacement) and a handful of chocolate covered edamame. So good, that stuff, really it's a revelation.

This morning, I rolled out of bed around 8:45 and dug into some kashi go-lean almond honey flax (on sale at Target for super cheap!) with blackberries, plus some coffee. Not sure if my parents' coffee is getting better or my standards are going down, but probably it's the second one. Which is fine -- beggars can't be choosers, after all, and it is awfully nice of them to feed and shelter me all summer...
A little later, a protein shake. Since I'm such a weight-liftin' burly girly, I gots to get my protein. Or something. I'm trying to cut back on the soy (because Jillian Michaels and Briana Stockton have indoctrinated me into their little anti-soy vegan school of thought, to an extent) so I'm using oat milk these days, but I've still got oodles of soy protein powder so I haven't broken into my new stash of hemp protein powder yet. The oat milk is pretty terrific, but kind of expensivo. I've also got hemp milk to try after the oat milk is gone, so I'll post a full report on that when I get to it. It is in a tie-dye printed tetrapak, so obviously it's going to be good.
And the lunch du jour (or really, du week, but I don't know any actual French): wild arugula with a garden herb flavor Sunshine burger, topped with garlicky hummus and salsa. OMG. This is the best and most delicious lunch of all time. Inspired by several bloggers who have posted about a similar salad idea, I've been eating this really often in the last few weeks. Sunshine burgers are soy-free and vegan, and sooooo delicious. I bought a million of them last time I went to whole foods, and I think I've got just 3 left in the freezer now since I left a bunch in my friend's apartment when I stayed there a couple weeks ago.
That's today so far, and now I'm back to the studying. 2 hours of evidence, 90 mins or so at the gym, then stopping by to pay respects. Sigh. Then, home for constitutional law, criminal law & procedure, and a whole lotta practice questions. Woo, Friday!

Apartment!

To my huge relief, I now have a place to live starting September when I get back from the big Australia trip. It's a big-ish place, big kitchen, in my ideal price range, and less than 10 mins to the T. And a clawfoot tub! Basically, every single thing I wanted, so hopefully that all works out -- I generally have a lot of skepticism about perfect apartments, since I've had a couple and they both had major issues (crazy landlady, crazy landlady/roommate). This landlord seems not-crazy and also, he doesn't live in the building so even if he is some kind of nutter I won't have to deal with him monitoring my comings and goings. He owns several buildings around the city and lives in the suburbs so there's only so much time he could possibly devote to stalking me, and that is how I like it. Also amazing: I don't have to carry my heavy stuff (except the futon I lent a friend for the summer, which I'll have to somehow retrieve) because I've got movers! So I just have to call them up and get them to take my furniture & boxes out of storage and bring it all over to the new place. Very nice, since the new place is a 3rd floor walkup, not the most fun for moving into.

Hooray for that one piece of awesome news amid the drudgery. I've been slogging along with studying, working out, sleeping off the past few weeks of inadequate sleep. And then got really bad news yesterday that a really young guy who used to bus tables at the restaurant where I worked in college had died. Ugh. Just, ugh. What a sweet kid, and a member of the amazing and wonderful family who own the place where I practically lived for 3 years and where I took refuge when things with my own family were less than awesome. So, that kind of threw things into perspective a bit, that maybe my weeks of whining and crying and generally feeling like the bar exam is the worst thing that could happen to a person, well maybe it is all a bit overdramatic. I'm taking a break from my self-centeredness today to go to the wake.

So, that's happening. And I'm going to also try to plow through my 3 remaining multi-state exam subjects and go lift weights and other unrealistically many things. Life is going to be so good in one week, aside from the awe-inspiring hangover I imagine I will have next Friday. Hurrah.

baked!

So, on the schedule today was approximately 11 hours of studying, of which I've so far done about 2.5. I also went to the gym (during which somehow several hours apparently disappeared, even though I only worked out for an hour and 20 mins), Trader Joe's, and Target, and I baked 2 dozen pretty good vegan blueberry muffins.

Behold:
Yum! I haven't baked vegan muffins in a zillion years, probably because I kind of gave up on vegan baking a long time ago when all the recipes I tried were so crappy. But ever since Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World and other such Isa Chandra Moskowitz masterpieces, my faith is renewed.

These muffins are fluffy, sweet-but-not-too-sweet, and extremely gooey because of the overload of blueberries in there. They could probably do with fewer, but come on. It's not such a bad thing to bite in and realize that the whole muffin is pretty much just fresh jam masquerading as baked goods.

They do need a little something, maybe a little cinnamon and nutmeg as they are spiceless. However, looking around the internets now it seems like a lot of muffin recipes are sans spice, so I guess it's not so uncommon.

Here is the recipe, for vegans, those who've run out of eggs & milk, or who want to treat your vegan friends:

Vegan Blueberry Muffins (adapted from EgglessCooking.com)
makes 24

Ingredients:

• 2 cups soymilk
• 1 Tbsp white vinegar (apple cider vinegar is great for this, but white is also fine)
• 4 cups white flour (could substitute whole wheat for 1-2 cups of this)
• 1 Tbsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• zest of one lemon
  

• 1.5 cups granulated sugar (I use Trader Joe's organic, as it's also vegan--even non vegans must agree, "non-vegan sugar" just sounds horrifying!)
• 2/3 cup canola oil
• juice of 1/2 a lemon
  

• 3 cups fresh blueberries (could reduce this if you want your muffins more muffiny)

1. Preheat oven to 350*. Line 2 muffin pans with paper liners or lightly grease them.
2. Mix vinegar into soymilk and set aside to let it thicken up.
   
3. In a medium bowl whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, and lemon zest to combine them and to get rid of any lumps in the flour (this is a substitute for sifting, so think "airy").
4. In a large bowl, whisk together the sugar, oil, milk&vinegar combo, and lemon juice until very well combined and a little frothy.
5. Dump the dry ingredients into the wet ones (can do this half at a time or all at once, doesn't matter much) and fold gently to combine. A rubber spatula is helpful here. When the dry stuff is all coated in the wet stuff but still lumpy, throw in the blueberries and fold so they're evenly distributed. If you see pockets of flour as you do this, gently break them up and incorporate them into the batter.
6. Divide the batter among the 24 muffin cups, filling them nearly to the top. Bake for about 20-24 mins, until a toothpick inserted into one of the middle muffins comes out dry.
   

There's my muffin, alongside my bar study books at the kitchen table. And that's the timer to tell me that I have 1 hour and 35 mins left of studying torts, before I move onto practice questions, then going over practice questions, then studying some Mass state stuff. Oy. Did I mention the 8.5ish hours I'm still meant to do today? I'm going to study a bit into the wee hours and then pick it back up tomorrow and keep on truckin'.

A few days ago I was pretty ready to just kill myself and get it over with, but I am in reasonably good spirits today and I'm really attributing it to (1) working out really really hard the last couple days and (2) a wee bit of sunlight. My hope is that this more positive outlook, Vitamin D infusion, and heightened blood flow to my brain will all help out in the not-failing-the-bar department, but we'll see. I just didn't expect to be this worried about it, but the stakes feel very high. However, even if I fail, and even if I then lose my job and become homeless because there's no other job I'm remotely qualified for that could help pay my crushing, crushing debt, well it would at least mean that I do not have to be a lawyer anymore. Because obviously what I really wanted all along is to be legally-educated and then go to culinary school or some such thing. What I mean to say is, I will keep on going and figure it all out if it comes to that.

AND I lifted weights today like a TOTAL BADASS. I squatted 95 pounds! I don't know if that is actually a lot, but it sure sounds like a lot to me and it is the most I've done. It just kind of took me a while psychologically to realize that this is something I am able to do without injuring or embarrassing myself -- I'm doing it in the Smith machine, so I don't have to feel like I'm going to drop a barbell on my neck and have to hope my little brother sees and comes to the rescue.

That's all from here. I'm home all day long now so I'm going to start doing more food photos, but it's going to be pretty boring the next week as I try to push through and pass this em-effing exam. And then I'm going to drink all of the martinis in the world!

PS Hi Angie if you're reading this! Your shout-out totally made my day!

Summer-summer-summer time!

Summer has come to Boston, at long last. It is HOT.

Which is why it's totally obvious that yesterday would be the day I decide to make risotto. Standing with my face over a steamy pan of gooey hot hot deliciousness in 90 degree weather is kind of cathartic, in a covered-in-sweat way.

So, what has happened in the last month? I actually ran that 7.5-mile race I mentioned in the last post! I know! Even as I was getting in the car at like 7:45 am on the morning after my grad party, I was like "really?" But yes. There was no real reason not to, since though I ate tons of delicious veggie sausage, chips and dip, etc. etc. and had a few beers, I crashed out at 9 pm so I woke up super rested at 6, with loads of time to get myself to Cambridge for the New Charles River Run. My goal was to average less than a 12 minute mile, since that's generally my long run time at this point in my training, and I totally succeeded, averaging an 11:36 pace and not walking at all, except when I sort of trotted through the water stands that were every 2-4 miles.

Running is still going on, and I love it more and more all the time. Casey, I feel you on the treadmill speed control thing, but since it stopped raining here every day I have been running around the old high school track, which is made of soft red rubbery stuff that is awesome for joints, and I am actually faster on the track. I probably don't run at a consistent pace, but I time each quarter-mile, so I can stay on track for my speed goals. The bad news, however, is that registration for my half marathon (Boston Oct 11) sold out on the first day and I was holding back hoping I'd convince my little brother to sign up too. So, I'm going to have to figure out a new race, which may be Philly Nov 22, or Manchester NH Oct 18, or Staten Island Oct 11, or maybe I'll just wait until the Disney Princess race in March, which I also better sign up for soon if I'm going to commit. It's just hard for me to pull the trigger, especially knowing that it's unlikely I'll convince anyone to go with me. C are you into half marathons? I will totally fly to Minnesota to run one.

Meanwhile, bar study and general avoidance of fun. I get up, I study a little, I go to the gym or track, I study a little more, I watch a lot of tv, I go to bed thinking that yet another day has gone by and I'm still not going to pass the bar! Ugh. While it is true that 92% of people passed the MA bar last year, that's not very reassuring when I'm averaging really low scores on my practice tests every day. A week and a half to go.

Ye olde work space. The other laptop is my sister's.

And then I'm going to AUSTRALIA!! Bar trip! I'm going by myself for 3 weeks, leaving straight from my friend's wedding in Oregon. Crazy! I am super stoked about kangaroos, koalas, snorkeling on the reef, and maybe even surfing.

But, back to the risotto. I bought some arborio rice maybe a month ago when I was craving paella, which I do not know how to make. But I do know, more or less, how to make risotto, so that's what it was. I still reallyreally want to make paella (this one) but that'll have to wait until after July 30 when I'm a free lady.

Other foodage:

Apple & Almond butter. Actually kind of not as good as apple & peanut butter, but I am really digging almond butter on toast.

Iced coffee! Still making that superb recipe from the previous post.

June 22, 2009

As I write this I'm watching Run, Fat Boy, Run, which is kind of reminiscent of my own running training. Slow, out of shape person, often in ineffective and/or ridiculous-looking workout clothing, tries earnestly. I don't have a pudgy old Indian landlord or a chain-smoking reedy gambling addict pushing me along, just my own need for personal validation and lack of recognition of the probable long-term impact this is all having on my joints.

Anyway, despite the comedy of errors, or whatever it all is, I'm supposed to be running in a race this weekend, a 7.5 miler in Cambridge, Mass. What I didn't think about when I signed up for the race was the fact that my homecoming/graduation party is on the day before the race. My dad has already bought a case of wine, a million bottles of beer, and enough cheese to kill me 10 times over. So, there is a significant likelihood that I am going to be unable to run due to post-cheese coma or hangover. Also there's the fact that I've hardly run at all in the past year. However, I've done two 5-milers on the treadmill in the past couple weeks, along with a few shorter runs, and I feel generally good. The t-mill is obviously not as high-impact as pavement, but for me psychologically, being able to bust out 5 miles on the thing means I've broken through a huge barrier. The variety of cable TV watching options at my new gym is probably to thank for that.

So, that's happening. I'm running a bit, and I love it despite the awfulness of treadmills. Must find outdoor routes, probably over on the rail trail a couple towns over so I don't get hit by cars while running. I just got back from a couple days in NYC that were basically an orgy of bagels and martinis, followed by a massive Father's Day brunch yesterday, so I'm trying to recalibrate myself here and eat a lot of veggies today.

In other big fun food news, I finally got around to trying this recipe for cold-brewed iced coffee that I've been meaning to make for ages and ages. I mentioned it to my mom yesterday and magically she pulled the necessary equipment out of a cabinet. I hadn't even thought to ask if she had a non-electric coffee maker stored away somewhere, since I'd never seen one, but she did, so I was able to throw it together immediately. I ran out to Trader Joe's and picked up some fresh-ground organic sumatra and mixed 1/2 cup of that with 4 cups of cold water in ye olde coffee pot. Stirred it around and put it in the fridge overnight to brew.

And this morning, this is what I ended up with, after straining the grounds out twice. It smelled fantastic, but tasted slightly weak to me at first. But as I had more of it, I decided it was not too weak. Plus, I have a bit left over so I can add that to the brewing water for tomorrow and it'll just get stronger and stronger. Too bad it's freaking freezing here and not iced coffee weather at all! I was wrapped up in a shawl at class today drinking this stuff from an insulated mug.
Before I ran off to class this morning I also had my now-usual breakfast of soy yogurt with Kashi Go-Lean Crunch. This isn't my favorite breakfast of all time--I really miss my banana-spinach smoothies, but I haven't bothered putting the olllld blender here to the test with that. Plus bananas go so fast in this house that I have only bothered trying to buy them once. We'll see what happens with all that, and maybe the veggie smoothie breakfast will return since it does make me feel more alert and vitamin'd-up all day.

And I packed up my morning snack: a scrumptious organic apple and pack of almonds. I've been listening to Jillian Michaels podcasts like it's my damn job (available here, under the Sunday column) and she is all about the organics, and she's got me mostly convinced. I think I'm probably going to end up buying her new book which is all about maximizing/controlling your metabolism by cutting out food and environmental chemicals that cause bad side efffects.
Packed lunch, too, which I usually chow on in the car on the way home. A hummus, tomato, parsley, and sprouts sandwich on Trader Joe's flourless sprouted wheatberry bread, and some organic baby carrots on the side. This bread is the best bread of all time. It isn't for everyone, I guess, since some friends I've recommended it to have really hated it, but I started buying it like 4 years ago and I honestly don't even like non-sprouted breads anymore except after I've toasted the hell out of them. They're too squishy and sugary.

Back to the compulsive listening to Jillian Michaels podcasts, though, she is a pretty awesome motivator. Really, I've been kind of struggling with stress management since I left NY, and listening to her makes me feel more grouunded. Truly, taking the bar exam is not going to be the worst thing that's ever happened to me, and the shitstorm of my law journal editorial board transition is going to be ok and is not all my fault. I'm going to work on being more present and not engaging in escapism (hello, binge drinking and all-day tv-watching). And dealing with this crap so that in a month and a half it will really ALL BE OVER OH MY GOD.

Back! (sort of) With Rhubarb!

Oh jeez.

So I've been in crazypants suburbia for 2 1/2 weeks now, and I keep buying groceries (seriously, buying and buying and buying, at like 5 different stores) but mostly I haven't been cooking very much. I've been hanging out with the wee siblings, reuniting with friends, watching the Red Sox, attending my college reunion, working out at the so-much-better-than-stupid-Columbia gym, and oh yeah sort of studying for the bar exam. Oy.


Look, it's Maddy! She is one of my all-time heroes, and she gave a freaking amazing talk at S'Wellesley Reunion. Definitely the highlight (well, ok, basically the only part I went to).

ANYWAY, the point of all this is, I am trying, sort of, but I'm not going to make blog posts about how tasty Kashi frozen dinners are (they really are--why is Kashi so much better than everyone else at everything?).

This little bowl of deliciousness is a work in progress, but basically you can't go wrong with a pile of strawberries, rhubarb, sugar, and oats.

Strawberry & Rhubarb Crisp
Based loosely on the recipe for Double Crunch Bumbleberry Crisp, at http://www.rhubarbinfo.com/recipe-cobbler.html

• 1 1/2 to 2 lb fresh rhubarb, cleaned, trimmed, and cut into 1/2 inch pieces
• 1/2 lb fresh strawberries, coarsely chopped
• 2/3 cup granulated sugar
  
• 1 tsp arrowroot (could substitute cornstarch or tapioca for this)
  
• 1/4 cup canola margarine, softened
  
• 1/2 cup rolled oats
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1/3 cup (packed) light brown sugar

1. Toss the rhubarb and strawberries with the sugar in a large bowl and leave it alone for 30 mins to a couple of hours to work its magic.
2. Preheat the oven to 350*
3. Put the now-syrupy mix of rhubarb and strawberries into a 9x9 in baking dish, sprinkle arrowroot powder on and mix around. You could add the arrowroot before or after you put it in the dish, but I forgot to add it until it was into the baking dish and it wasn't a problem.
4. In a small bowl, mix together the margarine, oats, flour, and brown sugar with your hands or a wooden spoon until it's crumbly and relatively homogeneous. Then sprinkle it evenly over the fruit.
5. Bake for 45-60 mins, until the rhubarb is tender and the whole house smells like amazingness.

Lessons learned: rhubarb takes a super long time to cook. I sort of knew this, but for some reason I was still following a non-rhubarb recipe in part and only cooked it for 30 mins originally. Big mistake. The bowl of stuff I had at that time was amazing but some of the rhubarb wasn't done so I threw the rest back in the oven.

Also, more thickener! The 1 tiny teaspoon of arrowroot I put in was definitely not enough. I didn't want it to be too starchy, but I think syrupy-ness is an asset here so probably more like 1-2 tablespoons would be ok.

They still have good rhubarb at the supermarkets around here, so I think there's a pretty high probability that I'll make this again very soon so I can try to improve it.

I failed to make it to class this morning so now I'm trying to work out a plan to get to a night class in a couple hours, and I just devoured a (microwaved) sweet potato with black beans and Trader Joe's plain salsa.
And I still had some photos on my camera from the last time I made pizza . . . I brought my remaining packets of yeast home so I think there has got to be some pizza in my future. If I'm feeling extremely ambitious, I may do a few vegan pizzas for my graduation/homecoming party in a couple weeks. Now, off to hunt for a BarBri class and a parking place! I am really sick of having to ride in with my parents at the crack of dawn, so I think I may go check out several other locations this week and next week. It is an exciting life I lead, for reals.

Returning soon, and good news!

The blog I mentioned a couple weeks back when I was making garlicky tofu, which had previously been taken down off the internets, it lives! Here is the original garlicky tofu recipe: Tofu con Mojo de Ajo. I can't wait to make this again with the real guidance that I could only barely remember from 3 or 4 years ago when I read this recipe.

I've been at Chez Mom&Dad for something like 4 days now, and I've done shockingly well at eating healthfully, but haven't cooked anything interesting so far. Mainly I've been having a bit of what my mom cooks (whatever's vegetarian, which generally means a wee bit of a veggie and a wee bit of some pasta) plus some additional item like a Sunshine Burger or Trader Joe's Thai Dumplings. I've been reacquainting myself with the concept of microwaving, after many years without one. (Lesson learned: it's convenient but tends to ruin nearly everything.) And one of the memory cards to my camera seems to be busted, so my attempts at taking some photos have not worked out. But I'm thinking by this weekend I should actually be operational with a bit of cooking and some photos. Mainly I really want to make THIS. And pizza, and kale, and something interesting with beets. I have gone a little bit overboard with the grocery shopping since I've been here. It's the combination of needing to nest in my temporary home and the extreme joy of being able to go grocery shopping with a car. You can take the girl out of the suburbs, but well, you know the rest.

And now I'm up too late looking at recipes and about to crash out on the couch which is theoretically verboten (the parents don't like it when I sleep on the couch, but I'm sharing a room with my sister, which is wildly inappropriate at our age, and I am approaching my limit with that).

One last thing -- I haven't had a drink since Friday! That's practically a week! How about that. I half-expected to go through physical withdrawal from not drinking after the intense celebration and goodbye drinking over the last few weeks I was in NYC, but thankfully it seems I did not actually become chemically addicted to the large amount of beer and vodka I consumed during that time. I did dig my martini shaker out of a box tonight though, so the week of drying out may be coming to an end relatively soon. Summertime!

May 23, 2009: So Graduatey, and Totally Zonked

Well, as expected, the graduation was exciting, but very tiring, and now it's 2 days later and all I've managed to do was sleep, eat, watch a lot of movies, and (sort of) book my movers. And packed 1 and a half boxes. I'm moving in slow motion

I don't really have any photos from the past 2 days, mainly because (a) I do not want to even think about most of the horrible, celebratory stuff I've been shoveling into my face and feeding to my friends, and (b) I wasn't really with it enough to take any pictures. Too bad, as well, because actually dinner last night was terrific, courtesy of my roommates N and S, who threw together a delicious meal of strawberry-avocado salad (ooh), and an Asian spices rice pilaf with great big thick asparagus (ahh). And beautiful presentation as well, but you'll just have to take my word for it.

Meanwhile, a few days ago I was thinking I'd whip up a few dozen cupcakes for my grad party Thursday afternoon. Of course I got through one batch and gave up, but they were pretty special:
Yes, that's blue cupcake batter. I ran out of red food coloring, and it occurred to me that I'm probably not packing up my tiny food coloring supplies to bring to a new place, so I may as well use whatever's left. So, Blue Velvet Cupcakes. And then the next day when I went to make frosting, and my whole family was running around like crazy people, I accidentally started making buttercream instead of cream cheese frosting, so that's what we had. They were a hit though, and everyone seemed amused, rather than disgusted, by the bright blueness of the cupcakes. They went pretty fast and the party itself was lovely. Most of my favorite folks, from law school, college, high school, and other eras, were able to make it, and a good time was had by all. I ate a lot of cheese. (Bad quasi-vegan!)

Yesterday, I brunched with the family before they left, and listened to them go on and on about how shockingly expensive everything is in New York. I just feel like a jerk when they say stuff like that, since I'd chosen the brunch place, obviously. It is not an expensive brunch place, but it is true: New York is expensive compared to just about anywhere else. I heard similar reports from friends with suburban parents.

Today I brunched with my mentee from the Law School Women's Association, who is a lovely and amazing lady, and this was sort of our big goodbye since she's got 2 more years of school here and I'm off to BOSTON (woot woot) next week. I wish I had a photo of this one, because it was pretty. "Olive Eggs" from Cafe Fresh on Amsterdam Ave at 121st Street. They were just 2 eggs cooked over hard in olive oil, then plopped onto a large and luscious brioche roll with a bit of cooked spinach on top, and home fries and a salad on the side. Definitely recommend it.

Meanwhile yesterday I had moved the pizza sauce from last time I made pizza from the freezer to the fridge, thinking at some point this weekend I'd do pizzas. So today was the day -- I made the dough this afternoon and whipped up some tofu ricotta (sans basil this time because I didn't feel like going to the store for it).

On the left there is fresh tomatoes and baby spinach, with a few white onion bits left from the other one. On the right is yellow peppers and white onions.


Nom nom nom nom. These pizzas are good. I had some concerns about them, mainly because I let the dough sit after the second kneading for about 3 hours instead of the 2 that I'd planned. Because I fell asleep, which also meant that I was kind of groggy and unenthusiastic when I went to stretch the dough and put on toppings and stuff. So it was all thick in some places and kept getting holes in other places, and I just couldn't seem to get it to work. But it did turn out kind of fine. Slap some toppings on, whatever.

I did do them one at a time this time, but I think the oven wasn't really hot enough when I put in the peppers and onions one, so that one did come out a bit doughy and I just couldn't deal with leaving it in any longer because the excess cornmeal was burning and smoking, setting off my fire alarm nonstop.

This is my set-up to make the fire alarm stop -- I generally just wave a towel at it (after opening all the windows and cranking my AC up to get more air moving around) but I just couldn't stand there the whole time, so I found my old fan in my roommate's room and employed an old trick.

Anyway, the tomato and spinach pizza turned out spectacular (this is what I always order if I'm getting a pie from a pizza shop) and the peppers and onions pizza is very tasty but probably needs a couple minutes in the toaster oven to reach its full potential.

And maybe there will be more posting this weekend/next week. I do have a lot of food (grains and stuff mostly) that needs to be cooked or thrown away so I should get to work on that. It's just hard to figure out how to put it all together, when everything is kind of unrelated. But I'm also hoping to bake some bread. Maybe I'll bake loads of bread and give it out as gifts, so I don't have to worry about these last 4 packets of yeast that are still sitting in my fridge. We'll see how ambitious I manage to be in between packing up my whole life to go into storage and tying up loose ends at school and journal. I can't believe this major era of my life is really ending!

Tonight's plans:Dirty vodka martini, Mad Men. If I could be smoking a cigarette and wearing a retro housewife get-up too you know I would be. This show, well, I keep giving it one more try and I guess I do like it, but I do sometime suspect that the point is just to give writers the chance to come up with snappy sexist and anti-Semitic one-liners. But the wardrobe and hair (and drinks) are pretty awe-inspiring.

Good Day!

Howdy howdy. Sooo busy this week! I am balancing cleaning my apartment with attempting to put together a plan for summer and fall, attending fun graduation events, finishing up some important work, spending time with friends, doing lots of fun new york stuff, catching the series premiere of Glee last night! (Who doesn't love Jane Lynch? She is so amazing. I hope the show is a lot about her.)

Today, I get my degree! And a certificate in international law, which is kind of less useful now that I'm pretty sure I don't want to do international law, but at least I've got that as a little feather in my cap since there are no real "majors" in law school. There was a graduation this morning for everyone who attends Columbia, which I skipped since my family's not here and it sounded kind of boring. My fam gets in tonight in time for dinner at my favorite greasy Chinese place.

ALSO today I found out that I have been offered a totally awesome job for fall in Boston, which is great but kind of confusing because I reallyreally want to go to San Francisco but I'm not sure I'll hear from SF jobs before tomorrow when I have to respond to this offer. OH HARD CHOICES WITH INADEQUATE INFORMATION. It makes me a little nuts, but at least I know for sure that I have at least one really good option available. I will have work!

And then I made black eyed pea and quinoa croquettes from Vegan with a Vengeance. Because I cooked the peas and the quinoa yesterday and couldn't really think of when I'd make them if I didn't do it this morning.
These are made just like veggie burgers, by mashing beans and grains together, adding some spices, and dredging them in breadcrumbs. Then they're baked for 40 mins, but they could also be fried and might be better that way because of the added richness and crunch from frying.

They were . . . meh. I didn't have the dried basil or the paprika that they called for, so I subbed in rosemary and a dash of cayenne along with the thyme, soy sauce, and olive oil. They were just kind of too spicy, in the sense of too many competing flavors. And the recipe calls for serving them with a sort of mushroom gravy, but I don't like mushrooms. I tried one dry to try to figure out what I'd want to dip them in, and settled on marinara sauce (Newman's own roasted tomato). This was a reasonably good combo, but I want to play around with this recipe and try to make it into something I actually really like. I just love croquettes and I love the idea of making them with beans instead of salmon or tuna.

And, since I probably won't have much to report for a couple of days since I'll be busy graduating, here's an old photo I just found on my computer: Pierre, the peep with a beret, courtesy of Jacques Torres. And that's my little brother there in the background on the left cultivating his internet addiction on my netbook.

May 18, 2009

Wow, 2 posts in one day, and on the shortest day of my life since I slept until practically dusk. . . It totally doesn't have anything to do with my friend C mentioning to me last night that she reads this old thing. Hmm.

Anyway, I made the most of my very short day by immediately breaking my vow to not drink (2 weak whiskey & diet cokes during Gossip Girl) and watching some excellent young adult programming.

Oh, Gossip Girl. Oh, Blair and Chuck. And then, worse, Bella and Edward! Yes, I finally watched Twilight. And oh. The abstinence. I will say, kids, that while it is true that abstinence is the only true form of birth control (and prevention of becoming a vampire) it is fairly unsatisfying to watch. I felt like a teenage boy or something, the way I just reallyreally wanted them to finally at least touch each other. Man. I am an old person and a perv.

During the movie I had some popcorn (on the stove, of course, since I don't have a microwave) with the usual topping of salt, curry powder, and ground cumin.
And then, at 11:45, I decided that I was going to have to either go to sleep immediately or make some dinner. Obviously I went for Option #2. Can you tell I'm down to a very small assortment of stuff in the fridge here? This was actually the last of the spinach and tomatoes, so now I really do have to go to the store tomorrow. This is just some whole wheat rotini which I boiled until al dente, drained, and then put back on the stove with: a little olive oil, 1/2 tsp minced garlic, a medium tomato, giant handful of baby spinach, crushed red pepper, and a bit of salt and pepper. When the spinach was pretty much cooked, I threw in a bit of fresh oregano and voila! Pasta aglio e olio! (That means garlic & oil, for the pasta-uninitiated.)

Now I'm going to attempt to go to sleep and get up at a reasonable hour tomorrow, since I've got a phone interview at 10, a gazillion things to do, and much cleaning and laundry to finish. Blech. I still want a vacation, but I guess I've taken it the last few days by drinking and sleeping so much. Plans for tomorrow: wake up early-ish, do some damn work, interview, free lunch at school, do some more work, then Vegetarian dim sum house for dinner! Not sure what that means for the black-eyed peas I've started soaking in anticipation of making the VWAV croquettes, but I guess they can wait until Wednesday. Can't believe my family arrives for graduation in just 2 days! Life is about to change A LOT over the next year and a half as I move to my parents' house for 2 months, then try to find something awesome to do in Aug & Sept, then start a job somewhere, and do the real lawyer thing. Crazy.

Week of Fun: It Begins

Uggghhh. Today I slept until 3:30 pm. The only other time I can remember that happening was after the most raucous and rowdy New Years Eve of my life when I went to bed around 9 am. But the past 2 days of drinking, rabble rousing, etc, have really taken it out of me.

I do have a couple of photos that document intermittent moments of the past few days, which is kind of like my memory of the past few days...
Saturday I got up and made TWO (2!) smoothies, one frozen mocha and one spinach-banana. Pretty crazy! On the week of fun docket for this day: Brooklyn Brewery, in Williamsburg BK, followed by a pub crawl in the East Village/Lower East Side with my high school friend S and his girlfriend and grad school friends. The Brooklyn Brewery offers "tours" at 2, 3, and 4 pm on Saturdays. K and I were shooting for the 3 pm tour, but as usual we were running really late and didn't even make it to the subway until 3, so we caught (barely) the 4:00 one.
On the way we stopped at Absolute Bagels (the best bagels!). I got an everything bagel with veggie tofutti. When I first tried this I thought I was breaking out of my old habit, but I think I just formed a new habit.
Anyway, the thing about the brewery tour is that it's not really a tour, so much as an explanation of who started the brewery and how. It all happens in one room where there are a bunch of tanks of beer in the brewing process. Still, I like to see where my beverages come from, so I thought it was worthwhile. And you get 6 beer chips for $20, so K and I each tried the summer ale, the weisse beer, and the pilsner. We both liked the pilsner the best, but the summer also had kind of an interesting, but very bitter, taste.

Then it was off to Alphabet City, to meet up with S (the boy -- I need new nicknames for people on here since the initials are starting to overlap) and co. I had 2 1/2 amazing lychee martinis at Rue B (by this point I'd had enough drinks that I wasn't remembering to take any photos and pretty much forgot I even had my camera). Most of the other folks had the "strawberry patch" which was vodka lemonade with muddled strawberries. It was happy hour so they were all 2 for $10 (a steal in NYC). Really tasty.

After that, we had felafel sandwiches, which were certainly not the best felafel sandwiches ever, but for $3 on that day, they were the best idea ever. Then more drinking (wine, vodka sodas, a bit of a friend's very strong margarita), garlic knots at the pizza place, and my friends introduced me to a friend of theirs that they wanted to set me up with. With less than 2 weeks to go in NYC, I'm not really looking, but this chick was very cool so maybe we'll at least be friends.

Sunday -- prom day! My roommates were busy little ants running all over upper manhattan to get things into place for their anti-prom prom party. S (the girl) reserved a space in her building where she and her boyfriend N able to set up a full bar, plus tons of homemade tasty snacks. There was pool, a trivia game that my team TOTALLY DOMINATED and beer pong. And I made cupcakes!
This is a cupcake I had when I woke up today. These ones are the cookies & creme from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World, and this time I made them with almond extract for the first time. I really am not a huge fan of the almond extract. In some recipes (e.g. red velvet) it seems to make sense and add some depth, but with these chocolate ones, I'd rather stick with the less nuanced flavors and let the chocolate and vanilla shine through. I also made the margarita cupcakes from the same book, which I have to admit I kind of don't like anymore. They're just too sweet and too limey for me.

See, many cupcakes remain -- if you are one of my NYC friends reading this, that means you should come over tonight or tomorrow and scoop some up so that I don't have to eat cupcakes for every meal the next few days.
So, that brings me to this afternoon, when I got up at embarrassingly late o'clock and made myself the hangover breakfast/dinner of champions. Scrambled tofu, toast, and a peach-mango coconut water.

Scrambled Tofu (based, vaguely, on the recipes in Vegan with a Vengeance and How it all Vegan)
Serves one very hungry gal after a very long sleep, or maybe 2 regular people. Easy to double it and serve 3-4.

• 1-2 tsp olive oil
  
• 1/2 of a small onion, finely chopped
  
• 1/2 lb firm tofu, drained and squeezed lightly to expel water
• giant handful of fresh spinach
• medium tomato, coarsely chopped
  
• 1/2 tsp ground turmeric
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1/4 tsp ground thyme or oregano
• juice of 1/4 of a lemon
  
• pinch of salt, maybe 1/4 tsp
• dash of freshly ground pepper, to taste

1. In a large frying pan, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Toss a small piece or two of onion in there, and when the oil starts to bubble around the onion, put the rest of the onion in and stir with a wooden spoon.
2. When the onion is cooked through and has turned translucent, crumble the tofu into the pan. Mix it around, and then add the spinach, tomato, lemon juice, and spices. (Note: you can use really any vegetable combo in this recipe. Bell peppers, zucchini, frozen corn kernels, mushrooms, whatever's in the fridge. Hardier veggies like these should go in at the same time as the onions.)
   
3. Mix the spices in well (the turmeric will turn the whole thing very yellow) and let it cook, stirring occasionally, for about 10 mins, until the liquids have evaporated and the spinach is totally cooked down. Serve with toast, as filling for a breakfast burrito, or by itself. Yum!
   

Along with the super electrolyte power of the coconut water, this did bring me back to life, more or less. Tonight's plans involve: drinking copious amounts of water, doing laundry, and probably watching Twilight, which I've got from Netflix. And maybe dealing with all the urgent emails I've been not answering while I drink my troubles away the past week.
I'll leave you with this: the awe-inspiring vagina art that was at the anti-prom party venue. Look closely: the clit is made of sequins! Hilarity. N moved it out of the main space because he said it was "ruining all the photos." Ha!

May 14-15, 2009

Being done with finals (yay!) but having uncertainty and tough choices in all other aspects of life right now (boo) have led to a lot of drinking and a lot of eating out, and few photos.

I finished my final Wednesday at 6 and proceeded immediately to drinking champagne, then when that was gone K and I went off in search of middle eastern food. That was a bust so we ended up at a sweet little Thai place with fancy drinks that I didn't manage to try but I'll definitely make it back. The lychee margaritas looked pretty wild but I just had wine because I didn't want to get too crazy after already putting away half a bottle of champagne. We followed all that up with a few drinks at a bar, joined by S, and then another couple of drinks at home and chips and salsa. These ladies are the best thing about NYC by far, and it's going to be a sad day soon when we go our separate ways in a couple weeks, but it's reasonably likely I will be in one of their cities (DC or San Fran) this fall, we shall see.

Here's a photo of me in my graduation cap (which I've been wearing pretty much all the time since I finished) and doing some ill-advised texting. From K's phone -- sneaky! She was there too but had had enough beer that she also thought it was a fine idea.

Hangover breakfast, Thursday around noon. I actually wasn't too bad off, which is a testament to my incredibly high law school-related alcohol tolerance.

A little while later I had some more of that polenta & pesto. Yeesh, there is a lot of this. It made 6 servings, and since no one else had any, I've been eating it every damn day forever. Still delicious! I did this one up in the wee George Foreman, which is why it's a little mangled and has grill marks.

And here, finally, is the last of it, plus the last of the giant asparagus from a few days back too. I fried up the polenta in a little bit of super-hot olive oil, and did make it a little more crispy than the first time. The asparagus is drizzled with a little olive oil, salt & fresh ground pepper, and tossed under the broiler for about 7 mins.

That's all the photos from yesterday, though this toast kind of resembles the toast I had post early dinner and pre Grey's Anatomy season finale. Beer and a Gibson were also consumed (out of olives for my martini, which was pretty sad, but the onions are also kind of good).

Anyway, this was breakfast this morning, some sprouted bread toast with canola margarine, plus coffee and plenty of water. I had a job inteview yesterday and one and a half today -- important to stay hydrated for all that talking.

I am kind of losing most brain functions as a result of the finals, the job interviews, etc etc. I have only a foggy recollection of what else I ate today and I definitely didn't take photos.

THEN I made garlicky tofu, based on my really vague memory of a recipe from a now-defunct food blog. It was a sad, sad day when poco-coco went down, because there were a ton of recipes on there that sounded amazing, including this one.

I think next time I do this, I'll fry the tofu first, then put in the garlic and onions, so the tofu has more texture. Plus it really needed cilantro, but the fresh oregano I had in the fridge did the job of bringing some necessary green-ness to the dish pretty well. This recipe could easily be doubled.


Garlicky tofu (1-2 servings)
Ingredients:

• 1/2 lb firm tofu, lightly pressed to expel water
• 2-3 teaspoons olive oil
  
• 1/2 of a medium onion, or more to taste, sliced in 1/4 inch half-moons
• 3 cloves of garlic, sliced thinly or minced (depending on whether you like to eat big hunks of garlic, or pick out the garlic from your dish, or eat wee bits of garlic -- I went for the eating big hunks of garlic, since if it's Friday and I'm not kissing anyone you better believe I'm chowing on some garlic)
• 1/2 cup vegetable broth
• 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper, or more or less to taste (The amount I added really didn't make it spicy at all, just gave a little bit of flavor.)
  
• 1 medium tomato, roughly chopped
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh oregano or 2-3 tablespoons of chopped cilantro
• fresh ground pepper, to taste
  

1. Cut the tofu into rectangles or triangles about 1 inch thick. Heat the olive oil in a large frying pan on medium to med-high heat, until a drop of water flicked into the oil sizzles or the oil starts to smoke. Put the tofu in and fry for a few minutes on each side, until it is to your desired crispy brown-ness. If you want it REALLY crispy, that takes up to 10 mins per side. I like mine just medium, so it's pretty good after 5 mins or less per side.
2. When the second side is nearly done, by your standards, turn the heat down to medium-low and push the tofu to the sides of the skillet. You may need to add a little more oil, another teaspoon or so, at this stage if the tofu has sucked up the oil you started with. When the pan stops sizzling so loudly and has cooled off a little, add the onions and garlic to the middle of the pan and let them sautee until they turn translucent, maybe 5 mins.
3. Then, add the veggie broth and tomatoes and crank up the heat to boil off some of the water in the broth.
   
4. Now's the time to either make a drink, clean up a little, or tend to your side dish. When the broth has reduced to about 1/2 to 1/3 of its original volume, then it's done. Toss in your fresh herbs, stir it around, and serve along with a whole grain and/or a simple steamed or roasted vegetable.
   

Here's my dinner -- along with the tofu I made some quinoa (red and white mixed) and while that was cooking I dumped in about a cup of frozen spinach and some cumin.

This was a pretty humble dinner but it really worked out and I didnt' have to buy anything even though I'm starting to run out of a lot of stuff.

And I've got another portion for tomorrow, which will potentially be the most garlicky thing I have ever consumed after it's been sitting in garlicky broth covered in garlic for a day.

The BEST thing to serve this with (and really one of the best things to serve anything with) is cilantro-jalapeno rice from a Gourmet magazine I bought in the summer of 2006, which I cannot find right now and I'm going to assume it's around here somewhere so I don't have to freak out about that because it's the best EVER.

Week of fun is kind of boring so far. I am supposed to be going out dancing tonight, but my friends are already drunk and I am still in my pajamas. Today I went from pajamas to gym clothes to pajamas and there's a reasonable chance that'll be it, but I may make it out to see a movie or something if dancing doesn't happen. Tomorrow's supposed to be the Brooklyn Brewery tour but I have a sneaking suspicion that people are going to bail on that too, so we'll see. Maybe I'll go tour the brewery by myself!

May 12, 2009

Ugh, this week! It is just one disaster after another, but tomorrow evening I will be DONE with law school, and all that will remain is figuring out my job situation (a whole long story for another day), finishing up all my law journal editing duties, and getting myself moved out of here. In 2 weeks and 3 days, I'll be leaving this apartment that's been home for almost 3 years. Yeesh!

This morning I took my third of four exams. Which required an all-nighter fueled by the evil but amazing greasy Chinese food that I love, from Empire. This place has been one of the staples of my law school experience. I am getting so sappy about dumb stuff like that now that I'm leaving!
So, the damage: scallion pancake, cold sesame noodles, and veggie mooshu with brown rice and tons of plum sauce. So good, so bad, let us never speak of this again!

That is the thing about this kind of food. There is a kind of guilt and psychosis about it. It always accompanies other poor choices, which makes it feel like a really poor choice.







Shockingly, I woke up this morning after a tiny catnap and was reasonably with it, and kept studying until my 10 am exam, which was not nearly as disastrous as expected.

Before I ran out the door to print out my notes and get to the exam, I made some toast with canola margarine and a blended mocha. I am totally addicted to these mochas. Just my style, not too sweet. I use unsweetened chocolate soy milk which makes it chocolatey but not sugary.




During the test I noshed on a cut-up pink lady and a vanilla soy yogurt, then ran to the deli across the street and got one of their fantastic veggie burgers to eat in the park with 2 friends from class. Along with champagne in insulated coffee mugs. So classy! But it did keep the champagne chilly even in the sun and we didn't get ticketed for drinking in public, so all worked out. I didn't have my camera, which is unfortunate because there was the cutest little Canada goose family with 2 goslings walking around by our picnic table. Totally adorable.

When I got back home, I found out I was supposed to take another (self-scheduled) exam by today at the latest. For serious, I am not this irresponsible -- my roommate and I looked at the emails that the registrar said had the info about the deadline, and saw nothing. So, I got permission to take it tomorrow, a day earlier than I'd planned. Oh, sigh. I am really struggling to finish.

Tried to take a nap but I wasn't tired so I threw some soup on the stove and cracked open a beer. I bought this veggie soup mix (lentils, yellow and green peas, tiny alphabet pasta) sometime in the past 8 months when I was feeling sick and it lasts forever because a little goes a long way.







In a little saucepan I sauteed maybe 1/3 cup of finely chopped red onion and half of a very large green pepper also chopped pretty fine. When they were smelling amazing and the onions were just about cooked through (5 mins or so) I added 1/4 cup of the veggie soup mix and 1 cup of water. I had planned to do 1/2 cup of mix and 2 cups of water, as I usually do, but I guess I forgot. My brain was really fried. But it turned out to be just the right amount, anyway.

I also added about 1/2 tsp of minced garlic, 1/4 tsp of crushed red pepper and 1/2 tsp of dried thyme. Brought it almost to a boil then simmered, partly covered, for about an hour.




When I came back to it, the lentils and stuff had absorbed most of the water, so I thinned it out with some veggie broth I had open in the fridge, maybe 1/4 of a cup or so. Heated that through and it was done. Delish. Just put it in a bowl, top with a little fresh ground black pepper and a swig of balsamic vinegar. Adding vinegar at the end is my favorite flourish with this kind of soup. It adds sweetness and depth to a very mild and comfort-y soup.






After that I watched a couple more episodes of Noah's Arc (Wilson Cruz has arrived! And he is amazing!) and finally fell asleep. When I woke up at 9, my roommate and his girlfriend had just gone to bed. Let me tell you how incredibly cool and adventurous we are around here.

I was feeling snacky and kind of wanted to go out and get pizza or something, but since my fridge overfloweth and I didn't want to change out of PJs, instead I heated up some of those polenta leftovers on the George Forman grill.





I put some zucchini slices under the broiler too, but they took so long I had eaten the polenta by the time they came out. The zucchini was good, caramely on the top and soft all the way through, but nothing to write home about.

Lots of food today, but at least most of it was not crazy finals stress eating food. And now I'm not sure whether I should be goiing back to bed or trying to study for the exam I''m totally unprepared for tomorrow. I'm pretty pissed off that I have to do it a day earlier than I wanted to, but also excited to be finished a day earlier!

I am definitely going to have to cook something magical on Thursday in honor of being totally done. I'm planning at some point this month in getting in on this celebration of my favorite food blog, so maybe that will happen Thurs when the ladies come over for the Grey's season finale. I think tomorrow I'll probably be having either leftovers or something quick from the grocery or take-out since my exam is from 10 am to 6 pm. Almost done with law school!