stirrings

i have been too preoccupied with my new book that i am currently reading to blog lately, to say nothing of soccer and birthdays.  (my BABY brother is 30 today!  oh my goodness…sooo not possible!)  my sister called me and told me to hurry up and get this book she was in the middle of reading that was going to change her life, not yet, but soon.  and could i please just read it and…  and… and…  the funny thing about that conversation is that we have it a lot but usually it is the other way around.  i am desperately trying to get her (um, and maybe everyone i know) to read something.  and selfishly, it is usually because i just need someone else to talk about it with.  did you not just think it was so hysterical when he came in with that turkey?? i think that this is what the rest of my family is experiencing when they discuss (in depth i tell you!) why they think so-and-so got kicked off of american idol.  the philosophical discussions over our culture that pour out from these people over this television show are fascinating to me.  and yet, i am on the outside.  i can’t really add to the conversation.  which is fine.  but sometimes i have to demand that they all read a book about which i am currently having a conversation with just myself.  so i can feel less crazy.  or something.  (note to currently out of town family members: please, spare me the begging and just go ahead and get this book while you’re galavanting around warm sunny places without me.  and please read it before you come back so we can oust american idol at the next sunday lunch and talk about my book.)

so why am i not finishing my book right now instead of blogging?  well my husband stole it this morning.  he said he would bring it home at lunch, thus not taking away any of my reading time since i was going to be at bsf all morning anyway, sly, eh?  and really, right now i should be cooking for the group of saints that are coming over to my house for dinner (of course, i’m making this again because they haven’t tried it yet!  and that’s just the kind of love i have for these people!), but i can hardly cook for the stirring and stewing that i am doing right now over needing wanting my book back.  i could hardly pay attention at bsf because i was replaying stories from my book in my head, plotting how i could finish reading it and still serve dinner on time.  that, and well, i have to admit that i have been very preoccupied with this new girls’ tattoo on her foot and i really really really want to ask her about it, but since i am a big wimp, it will take me like three more weeks and bsf will be over by then.  i should take berit with me because she will ask anyone anything.  oh my goodness, i am not even kidding.  she asked these random strangers at the park what the deal is with the big cases of frisbees that frisbee golfers carry around.  craziness abounds, i tell you.  who knew that you needed more than one frisbee to play frisbee golf?  these guys made my food issues look like small potatoes.  anyway, this new gal in my group definitely has a story behind her tattoo and who doesn’t love a good story, so i plan to fish it out very soon.  after i finish my book.  so stay tuned.

feasting like you’re in the mediterranean

hummus from the barefoot contessa’s original cookbook

curried lentils from more with less

tabbouleh from the barefoot contessa’s parties

roasted cauliflower, carrots, chickpeas and couscous (perfect your lesson on foods that start with the letter “C”)

homemade chapatis from more with less (or pita chips if you want to splurge) to dip in the lentils and hummus

this is a meal i’ve been making a lot lately, from several different cookbooks combining lots of similar flavors and grains into one yummy lunch. i say lunch because the last few times i have made it taido and i have eaten it for several days for lunch because it does not happen to be the kids’ new favorite meal. they really snub my lentils which is just too-ooh bad for them because they are the main source of protein in this meal.

here are the recipes for this hodge podge:

hummus

2 cups canned chickpeas, drained, liquid reserved

1 teaspoon kosher salt

4 garlic cloves, minced*

1/3 cup tahini (sesame paste)

6 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice (2 large lemons)

2 tablespoons water or liquid from chickpeas

8 dashes Tabasco sauce*

In a food processor, pulse chickpeas, salt, garlic, tahini, lemon juice, water and Tabasco to a coarse puree.

*it occurs to me that i have made a few changes to this recipe along the way. i leave out the tabasco, double the garlic, ROAST the garlic in a tablespoon or so of olive oil which i also pour into the hummus. i also sometimes throw in some cumin or roasted peppers.

curried lentils

1 cup lentils

2 teaspoons curry powder

1 onion, thinly sliced

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 tablespoons olive oil

bring lentils to boil in a pot of salted water (about 4 cups), turn down and let simmer until tender, about 20 minutes

saute onion and garlic in skillet, add curry powder when onions are soft. drain lentils fold into onions, still cooking on low a few more minutes. salt to taste.

tabbouleh

1 cup bulgur wheat
1 ½ cups boiling water
¼ cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (2 lemons)
¼ cup good olive oil
3 ½ teaspoons kosher salt
1 cup minced scallions, white and green parts (1 bunch)
1 cup chopped fresh mint leaves (1 bunch)
1 cup chopped flat-leaf parsley (1 bunch)
1 hothouse cucumber, unpeeled, seeded, and medium-diced
2 cups cherry tomatoes, cut in half
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

place the bulgur in a large bowl, pour in the boiling water, and add the lemon juice, olive oil, and 1 ½ teaspoons salt. stir, then allow to stand at room temperature for about an hour.

add the scallions, mint, parsley, cucumber, tomatoes, 2 teaspoons salt, and the pepper; mix well. season to taste and serve, or cover and refrigerate. the flavor will improve if the tabbouleh sits for a few hours.

roasted cauliflower, carrots, chickpeas and couscous

ingredients

1 pound carrots, sliced 3/4 inch thick on the diagonal

1 head cauliflower (3 pounds), cored and cut into florets

1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin

3 tablespoons olive oil

Coarse salt and ground pepper

1 cup whole-wheat couscous

1 tablespoon lemon zest, plus 1/2 cup fresh lemon juice (from 3 lemons)

1 can (15 ounces) chickpeas, rinsed and drained

6 scallions, thinly sliced

5 ounces baby arugula

preheat oven to 450 degrees.

place carrots and cauliflower on a rimmed baking sheet; toss with cumin and 2 tablespoons oil.

season with salt and pepper.

spread half the vegetables on a second baking sheet.

roast until browned and tender, 25 to 30 minutes, rotating sheets and tossing halfway through.

in a medium saucepan, bring 1 1/4 cups salted water to a boil.

stir in couscous; cover and remove from heat.

let stand until tender, 5 minutes.

fluff with a fork; set aside to cool, uncovered.

make dressing: in a small bowl, whisk together lemon zest and juice and remaining tablespoon oil

season with salt and pepper.

in a large bowl, combine roasted vegetables with couscous, chickpeas, and scallions.

place arugula on a serving platter, and drizzle with 1 tablespoon dressing.

add remaining dressing to couscous mixture, and toss; serve over arugula.

homemade chapatis*

the chapati is a close cousin to the tortilla of mexico, the jewish matzo, arab pocket bread, american hoecakes and spoonbread . . . and yes . . . even pancakes, waffles, english muffins, and pizza! all these—and many more—are flat breads . . . perhaps the oldest and most basic breads in existence. nearly every culture has its own version of flat bread, which—in its simplest form—consists of nothing but flour and water formed into thin, round wafers. The discs are then quickly cooked on hot stones, coals, griddles . . . or even the tops of wood stoves!

while there has been-and will continue to be—many a fallen loaf of yeast bread in the annals of baking, chapatis seem virtually foolproof . . . even for confirmed kitchen klutzes! In five years of baking these indian delicacies I have never made a bad batch (though no two have ever turned out quite the same). and, since chapatis are so easy to make, you can whip up a week’s supply—or more—in just a couple of hours. (if any are left over after you’ve wolfed down half a batch or so, wrap them in airtight packages and store ‘em in the fridge or freezer. they keep just as well as ordinary bread, but take up much less space.)

combine 2 cups of whole wheat flour, 1/2 to 1 teaspoon of salt, and 2 to 3 tablespoons of clarified butter or cooking oil in a large bowl. mix thoroughly, then gradually add 1/2 to 1 cup of water (each batch varies) until the dough is smooth, elastic, and moist . . . but not sticky! then rub a small amount of oil on a breadboard—or other working surface—to prevent sticking, and knead the dough for at least 10 minutes (the more you knead, the lighter the chapatis).

although you can begin to form these tasty flat breads at once—if you wish—some cooks prefer to cover the dough and let it rest anywhere from five minutes to an hour. there’s no set rule here, though (there never is when you’re making chapatis), so experiment until you discover the procedure you prefer.

when you’re ready, divide your dough into roughly 12 egg-sized pieces. flatten each one with the heel of your hand, dust both sides lightly with flour, and roll the lumps into thin, round wafers about six inches across. (the thickness of a chapati has a lot to do with its flavor . . . the thinner each one is, the more nutlike and crackery it tastes. chapatis thicker than 1/4 inch are too dense and doughy for most palates.)

you can crank out chapatis at a pretty good clip once you get the hang of it . . . especially if one person rolls the dough while another cooks each disk as it comes off the assembly line. If you prefer to make a whole stack of the wafers before headin’ for the stove, however, be sure to dust each chapati with flour . . . or separate it from its neighbors with waxed paper. otherwise, you’re liable to end up with one big blob of congealed dough.

cook the chapatis at low to medium heat on a greaseless frying pan or griddle . . . about 30 seconds to a side—or until light brown splotches appear—for bread flexible enough to wrap around the filling of your choice. bake each disk longer if you want crisp, crackly wafers for tostadas or imitation tortilla chips.

*i found this explanation/recipe online but when i make them i barely knead the dough and i have not let the dough “rest” at all, so there is a lot of flexibility with this recipe. i made them with a 5 yr old last week and i pretty much let her do everything but the cooking and they came out great.

where’s my snack?

soccer season is almost over. thank goodness. i rarely sign my children up for sports because the scheduling is a nightmare. and it seems like after the first few games, no one wants to go anymore, especially not me and then i am having to drag myself and my children to events to which we have committed and for which we have already paid. events which completely disrupt our evenings (and my cooking) and at which i am compelled to talk to lots of strangers. the whole organized sports bit for small children feels like it was created to undo me. to make me completely crazy.  but i know that’s ridiculous. there’s no conspiracy against me.  i chose to sign up not one, but two begging children for soccer this spring and i am choosing to make them finish.

so tonight, in addition to the inconvenience of actually having a soccer game, it was also mary polly’s turn to bring the snack to the game. of course, the snack is a problem for me at the soccer games. i have had to close my eyes while my kids stuff down lots of hydrogenated oils and drinks that are pure high fructose corn syrup, so when it is my turn, i have the problem of trying to bring something that isn’t evil while also not totally humiliating my children, who like the usual fare. for ben’s turn at snack we brought these homemade chocolate sandwich cookies with vanilla frosting that my sister makes in her bakery. we tied them up in little bags and passed them out with juice boxes. they were precious. and so of course, mary polly declared on the way home that night that she wanted to take the same snack when it was her turn.

well, today wasn’t as convenient an afternoon to make the rather complicated homemade chocolate sandwich cookies, but we eeked them out anyway. because they were practically promised.

i couldn’t go to her game so i put the snack in a basket with the juice boxes and headed out to my prior commitment. when i got home, the kids were all sprawled in the living room listening to a chapter from the sequel to the mysterious benedict society, so i hopped on the couch with them and asked about the game. and of course i wanted to know how the snack went over.

we-ell,

(can you HEAR the valley girl accent in my daughter’s voice??)

well, the juice boxes were pretty much hot because we didn’t bring a cooler so they would be cold.

which wasn’t too refreshing.

and, i didn’t see anyone eating their snacks because i guess they had to wait until after their dinner, so i don’t know if anyone liked them.

and the boys (ben and cole) didn’t get to have any because they were punching each other and getting in a big fight at the game. which is not too delightful.

so i guess you could say it went…not too well.

mary polly’s description, and ahem, general ungratefulness, accounted for the very weary and slumped over husband in the corner of the living room. it sounded like a rough night. dang. i’m sorry i missed it.

i love spring

my tulips are blooming.

the sun is shining.

and i made this for dinner a couple of nights ago from smitten kitchen.

i made myself sick eating too too much of it, but it was so incredibly, delectably yummy that i am planning to make it again very soon.

we are off to soccer games in the sunshine!

flame

the torch will be inhospitably received in san francisco today.

i would love to be there to see it.

when hope swells.

i would love to have been in paris monday.

i am embracing the crying out against injustice right now. cries that i fear will be a distant memory this summer when commercialism and greed win out.

adventures will abound

now that i have shelled out over $300 for four children’s passports, i am committed.

the chino house is taking to the road for the summer. in a little over 6 weeks we will be rolling out to spend our summer in beautiful british columbia, where we will make memories that will last a lifetime and where taido will (hopefully) write a thesis that will complete a degree he began 9 years ago. the jury is still out on where (and more specifically in what) we will be living for the summer. RV? tents? BMV?

one less item on the grocery list

someone asked me this week how to stay within a grocery budget while still shopping for real food. organic food. local food. food that doesn’t come from walmart supercenter.

it’s a great question. one i have pondered before. one way is that i start with a pretty generous food budget in the first place. we budget about $800/month (yikes i know and we almost always go over!) on food and grocery type items, that includes eating out and toothpaste and toilet paper, but not easter basket candy or birthday presents.  right now these differences sometimes mean that i have to divide my items into different piles at the store, using different cards to buy the different piles.  annoying, i know.  budgeting is one of those detail oriented tasks that i sometimes drive myself crazy trying to perfect. every year i have a new system (this year’s system is 4 different cards) to meet the new year’s budget better than i did last year. i like to think i get a little better at this every year, but some years are just harder than others.  i suppose that just like everyone else, we go up and down with budgeting and financial matters, but one of the ways i am trying to bring the food cost (and waste) down at the chino house is to make some of the things i am used to buying in a package.

since reading through more with less, i am realizing that i probably shouldn’t ever buy a bag of tortilla or pita chips again. i could make them. i haven’t gotten that far yet but i have now twice made my own whole wheat tortillas for quesadillas and i am amazed at how very easy it is. it’s like making your own pizza dough, it seems daunting until you get used to making it part of the routine. pretty soon you have the recipe memorized and you just start throwing it together. yesterday afternoon i turned the music up and enjoyed every step of the process towards a meal i love so much. black bean and cheese quesadillas with lots of onions, garlic, salsa and guacamole. so so good.

now i have more than a little way to go on getting these perfectly round and uniform, but they taste great. i made double this recipe for our family which was just enough.

whole wheat flour tortillas

2 cups whole wheat flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking powder

4 tablespoons sunflower oil

2/3 cup water

combine flour, baking powder and salt. stir in the oil and water all at once, using a mixer or fork. toss quickly and gather dough into a soft mass. turn onto floured surface and knead just a few times. divide dough into 8 balls. dredge in flour. roll each dough out to about 7 inches in diameter. place tortilla in ungreased, hot cast iron skillet (on about medium high). cook 40 seconds on each side. (first side should be pale and sprinkled with brown spots before flipping.) repeat with all the balls of dough.

the view from my couch

every once in a while, as i read a book, i am compelled less by the actual story than i am by the sheer beauty of the words that seem to lilt across the page and create images in my mind as crystal clear as the flowers that are blooming today outside my living room windows, a view i have gazed at for days while getting over illness. i knew early on that it wasn’t going to be a story that i would necessarily love-i knew from the cover that eventually we were going to war, which is never my favorite. so i was very slow at getting through the first third of atonement by ian mcewan, but at some point this week, i became gripped by the writing more than the story. by the end, yes, i was turning page after page to discover whether the love worth waiting for would ever be fulfilled, but for most of the book i found myself reading just to see what beauties the next sentence of the book would uncover for me. for a lover of words and language, this book was a feast.

there were times that a description felt like it was appearing to me in my living room, a vision from my delirium perhap, or just amazing writing. i could taste the words. the writing about first love was so affecting it evoked in my heart visions and emotions of my own firsts. made me blush. took me back. it made me long to write about that first kiss on the playground and to pen a young heart half so well.

at the end, i could hardly wait to see the movie to see what on earth they would do with all those words. descriptions. adjectives. and it was exquisite. phrases from the book rang in my head as my eyes feasted on the fountain, the pond, the house and its rooms-cecilia’s messy to briony’s tidy-they were all just as the author described. details throughout the film rung true to the book. as always there were some changes. but overall it was a pleasing afterward to reading the book. worthy of its acclaim.

note: i was still enchanted by james mcavoy as the hopeful love of jane austen since having seen and loved becoming jane last week, which didn’t hurt his set up for me as the hero of atonement. however, since characters carry over from movie to movie for me, i still also kept seeing him as a fawn, which as robbie turner, didn’t work at all.

spring break

my car died from the long ride to colorado and is unhappily installed in the shop for who knows how long

my hands and feet are swollen and covered in hives (returning from altitude? allergies? arkansas blooms?)

and i cannot walk (yoga yesterday? long drive home? skiing hard in an out of shape, old body?)

obviously, this is not my thankful list. we are all exhausted. i am digging myself out from under the mounds and mounds of laundry, but when i look at these pictures, i remember how much fun we had, and it is all worth it! oh, the memories we will keep in our hearts from this week.  and as for simon, he didn’t miss us at all.  he had all kinds of fun with family back here in arkansas.