Colissimo
by shoshanna
The Christmas package I sent Kevin from France arrived yesterday. It was one of the funniest things that's ever happened. Everything was intact, mostly. I got to watch Kev open his presents. It had apparently been sent to the states, returned to France, then sent back to the states, to our house. The French postal workers misread the address the first time because French people write numbers and letters differently than we do. I knew that, and should have been more careful. The crazy part is that I was able to navigate French bureaucracy effectively enough to actually get them to send it to the right place after all that. I was like, there is no way this is going to work, but I've got to at least be able to say I made some sort of effort. It took seven months, but the chocolates are still good, if a little banged up. I now have renewed faith in French bureaucracy. Maybe someday my grades will come.
Posted on June 30, 2006 | Comments (3)
Burgerlicious
by shoshanna
I ate a really good burger with Stephanie at Shanghai Tunnel for happy hour yesterday. It had a really greasy, crusty, grilled-tasting outside, and was thick and meaty, and had a hint of tangy sauciness. However, it did suffer from the unfortunately common dissolving bun syndrome, and I don't really like the Shanghai's fries - too skinny, or too dry, or too much skin, or something. I like big, steak-cut fries that are sizzling and fried on the outside and fluffy on the inside. But fries are a matter of personal preference. I also like the ones that are skinny like at Shanghai Tunnel but soggy and limp with oil. Yum.
Then we went to Voodoo Donut and got a puffy donut with white frosting and Oreo cookie pieces on top. It was really good. Then I went home and felt yucky and sick all night.
Posted on June 29, 2006 | Comments (0)
Nature's Bounty
by shoshanna
I have recently been enjoying the cornucopia of seasonal edible wonders endlessly championed by Portland's sustainable gourmet types, with the aid of my friend Sarah. She has a car and can bake. She drove Eloise (baby), Rachel (friend) and I to Sauvie Island to go U-picking. The raspberries were amazing. We ate so many. Eloise learned how to put berries in her mouth, then smoosh them on Sarah's shirt. The whole time we were making fun of this story in Edible Portland by this lady who obsesses about buying all of Oregon's summer berries at their respective peak and freezing them in a single layer on cookie sheets, in quantities that allowed her to make berry Christmas gifts for all of her friends and neighbors. Very HM and HQ (props to Sarah for this link-I am in love with this blog). And then, I totally went home and froze half of my haul in a single layer on a cookie sheet. And lo, when I excitedly told this to Rachel and Sarah, they were like, "So did we!"
This was the next day, at Sarah and Schuyler's BBQ, which was uhhh... an epicurean...a smorgasbord of epicurean wonders. (Edible Portland should totally hire me.) Schuyler made beet salad and tabouli with greens from their garden, accompanied by fresh snow peas from their garden. Then we grilled and stuff. Then we had Sarah's excellent homemade peanut butter cookies and brownies. It was a very Bettie Crocker moment. Then, and this is the best part, we hauled out some rocky road ice cream and made ice cream sandwiches with the peanut butter cookies! I think I had ice cream sandwiches on the brain because they were recently in both the Oregonian (chunky, drippy, homemade versions in Food Day, oregonlive.com) and, once again, Edible Portland (profile on the lady who owns Ruby Jewel Treats). And, oh yeah, we ate one at the bar after I crashed Stephanie's bug. Anyway, the ones we made were great. The peanut butter and the chocolate ice cream were a perfect combo. After Sarah ran out of cookies she started in on the brownies. She was like, "Wow, two brownies at once!" This one guy was so happy to be handed a homemade brownie ice cream sandwich that he hugged me. It was just like being in the entertaining section of Bon Appetit.
OK, time to go study for my Vampirism in Film class.
Posted on June 27, 2006 | Comments (1)
Summer Fun and Crisps
by shoshanna
When Stephanie and I were at Beulahland the other day, they had this thing that looked like a blueberry pie but with crumb topping in the place of the top crust. It was bizarre - if you're going to go to the trouble of making crust, you might as well go all the way and make a real pie. Crumb topping is for people like me who can't be bothered with rolling out pie crust and just make fruit crisps instead. I love these because you can whip them up in five minutes, they taste as good as a pie, and they are virtually impossible to screw up. I usually use granny smith apples, but today I actually tried something new (alert the press) and used a mix of random fruits I had laying around: red apples, apricots, frozen blueberries, raisins. It was the bomb. I even did it vegan-style with earth balance "buttery sticks." Here is the basic recipe. Quantities aren't really important, you just use however much fruit it takes to fill whatever pan you have, and you can reduce the sugar and butter and it's still yummy. I really want to try this with fresh blueberries or blackberries, since it's summer and all.
Summer also means drinking outside in the afternoon - there's nothing finer. That's why we were at Beulahland looking at the weird pie thing, we were there ordering rum and pineapple juice to drink outside in the sun. Rum and pineapple juice is my new favorite summer cocktail, it's like a stripped-down cheapo pina colada. Then later we were at the Nightlight after I crashed her car* drinking sweet, complicated, coffee-flavored drinks, again outside in the sun, and when Stephanie was inside peeing the ice cream truck drove by, and I flagged him down and got a strawberry shortcake bar and a neopolitan ice cream sandwich. Stephanie then came outside and was like, "Shoshanna! I knew it!" This is why I love summer vacation, and also why I am glad it will only last a week.
*Really, it was more like a tap than a crash. And it wasn't that I was drunk, it was because I don't know how to drive. Working on that.
Posted on June 22, 2006 | Comments (2)
Berrylicious
by shoshanna
Hey, Edible Portland #2 is out, with a huge money shot of strawberries on the cover, a story on Oregon berries and a bunch of stuff on making summer cocktails with fresh ingredients. Plus some interesting looking profiles. Can't wait to read it! They have it free at Portland natural food stores, farmers markets, stuff like that.
Now that it is FINALLY getting sort of nice out, I am obsessed with sandals. I came perilously close to buying a pair of Chacos, but they didn't fit my feet, which is a good thing and a bad thing. I am fixated on those trendy strappy Grecian sandals they have everywhere, but have yet to find the perfect pair (that isn't $250). I might end up spending the summer in flip flops and bike shoes. Not the worst thing that could happen.
Posted on June 20, 2006 | Comments (0)
K.I.S.S.
by shoshanna
I've been reading all these magazines and websites and cook books that tell you how to cook healthily, how to make things that incorporate various vegetables and chopping styles, that have ingredients I have to make special trips for. But my mom tells me that what's good is to learn to cook really simple things really well. I believe this too, that putting more work and thought into something doesn't always make it better. So I stopped reading recipes and started thinking about the shortest distance to protein-vegetable-starch. Fish, rice and asparagus. Chicken, mac & cheese and peas. Yum. There are these people who are really into clean, modern interiors or energy efficiency or reducing clutter, getting rid of distractions, simplifying their lives, all this stuff. And then they are obsessed with complicated cooking. It's not bad—everybody's got to have a hobby, and conscientious cooking is a pretty good one—but I figure if I cook stuff that doesn't take all my time and energy, then I get to have room for another hobby.
All that was just so I could tell you about the amazing corn bread I just made. I mean it's unreal. It was from the Betty Crocker cookbook, generally the only cookbook I actually use. She may be a fictional entity, but Betty Crocker is pretty much cooking's Le Corbusier, devoted to making things simple, modern, functional, democratic, aesthetically pleasing. OK, so this cornbread. I think it was the grain I used: whole corn meal, with the corn germ still in, and half white, half whole wheat flour. It was the simplest thing, but it had this enormous taste. It was really different from the stuff from the box. I couldn't believe how good it was. It took about five minutes to put together. And I never would have even discovered it if there hadn't been bugs in the cornmeal mix box when I opened it.
Top Five Things To Eat 6/8/06
1. Cornbread
2. Rotisserie chicken from the grocery store
3. Black bean and pepper jack cheese burritos
4. Butterscotch brownies
5. Asparagus
Posted on June 8, 2006 | Comments (2)