California Girl

I always want to call this Hella Good.

A productive day in the kitchen.

It never got about 30 degrees yesterday, so we decided to stay in. I wanted to get some studying done, but spent most of the day in the kitchen!

I started out by making Blueberry Oat bread. I didn’t have any buttermilk so I used equal parts whole milk and nonfat plain yogurt. This is a delicious breakfast bread, and very low fat. I used whole wheat flour too.

Then I made a loaf of whole wheat bread. My regular recipe uses white flour in addition to whole wheat, and I wanted a 100% whole wheat bread so I found this recipe on the King Arthur Flour website. I used milk and water instead of nonfat dry milk.

After the first rise, waiting for the second rise. In the background you can see a butternut squash and purple potatoes from Enterprise Farm. They have a farm stand on Saturday mornings, and sell their produce plus produce from other small farmers along the east coast. They even have local flour, which I will buy when I run out of what I have now.

Second rise done and ready for the oven. I didn’t get a photo of it after baking because we tore into it too fast.

I also made corn chowder for dinner. I should transcribe it because it’s a really good one, and very easy. It’s from Cook’s Country magazine.

Any recipe that starts out with frying bacon is bound to be good! You cook the onions and potatoes in the bacon fat, then top the finished soup with the bacon pieces. Or just eat the bacon pieces while you’re waiting for the soup to cook.

The soup was delicious with the bread. We had leftovers for dinner tonight. The recipe says it’s 4 servings, but James and I each had a huge bowl last night, and another huge bowl tonight and there is still a lot left.

Drive to Vermont and New Hampshire

James and I went to lunch at The Rendezvous in Turner’s Falls today. We decided to go for a drive afterward and ended up in New Hampshire! We decided to head west into Vermont before heading home.

Turners Falls is an old mill town on the Connecticut River.

The sun was setting as we headed north.

We drove through Brattleboro, which is a cute little town. It was cold and dark though, so we decided to go home and come back another day.

Back in Massachusetts!

New Years Eve

It’s snowing!

We’re heading out to a New Years Eve party later. I made Smitten Kitchen’s Hazelnut Brown Butter Cake and Cranberry Pear Walnut Cake but didn’t get any pictures!

Christmas Eve!

James and the kittens are ready for Christmas.

I made a chicken pot pie for Christmas Eve dinner. The recipe I used is from Cook’s Illustrated’s America’s Best Lost Recipes. This is one of my favorite cookbooks. It has unusual comfort-type food. I had some ready-made pie crusts leftover from Thanksgiving, and some chicken leg quarters I had bought when they were on sale so I decided to make a nice dinner for James.

Just Chicken Pie, adapted from America’s Best Lost Recipes

4 chicken leg quarters, roasted

1 stick unsalted butter

2 celery ribs, chopped fine

2 garlic cloves, minced

½ cup whole wheat flour

12 oz whole milk

2 cups chicken broth

3 scallions, chopped

2 pie crusts

1. Place one pie crust in pan, and refrigerate until ready.

2. Melt butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add celery and cook until soft, about 5 minutes. Add garlic, stir. Add flour and cook, stirring, until it begins to brown. Stir in milk and broth and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer until thickened, about 5 minutes. (At this point the original recipe tells you to strain the sauce and discard the vegetables, but I left them in.) Stir in chicken and scallions, and salt and pepper to taste. Let the filling cool until just warm, about 30 minutes. (I forgot to do this, and it was fine though the bottom of the crust got pretty soggy.) Heat oven to 400 degrees while you are waiting.

3. Spoon chicken mix into pie crust, then top with other crust. Trim if necessary then press top and bottom crusts together, and tuck the edges underneath the bottom crust. Make sure it is sealed tightly.

4. Cut 4 slits in the top of the dough. Bake at 400 until the crust is a deep golden brown, about 45-55 minutes.

This was so delicious! The only problem was the soggy crust on the bottom. The next time I make it I want to include more vegetables, like carrots and peas, because it was extremely rich. I’d like to try making it without a bottom crust too. I used Trader Joe’s ready-made crusts and they were excellent.

Prufrock and Hedgie

IMG_2994

Originally uploaded by apricotta

Prufrock likes to sit on Hedgie, the inflatable hedgehog from Ikea.

Oops.

I guess I messed up NoBloPoMo. Ah, well.

I have been super busy! I took the GRE on Saturday. Now I never have to worry about it again! That was taking up a lot of mental real-estate, and I feel much more relaxed now. I got a very, very good score on the Verbal section, which is the only part that matters for me, and a pretty bad but not god-awful score on the Quantitative section.

I’m also working on some mitts, or fingerless gloves. Wow! Knitting content! I usually don’t know fast enough to make knitting content worthwile.

I made it to match the hat I made with Ysolda Teague’s Gretel pattern. I’m about halfway through the second one. It’s very cozy!

Just another day

Poo! I almost forgot to post today. I skipped classes and holed up in the library to study for the GRE. I am nervous about it but I think it will be fine. I am doing great on the Verbal section, and that is the most important part for me, along with the Analytical. I know I’ll score low on the math section, but that doesn’t matter so much.
A huge bunch of black students joined up and marched around the quad today. They had signs and were cheering and singing. It was pretty cool. A lot of happy people today, except for Proposition 8 passing. I can’t believe that many people think it’s okay to amend the California constitution to keep couples from making a legal commitment to each other. I don’t know why we can’t separate civil marriages from religious marriages in this country. Maybe that would be seperate but equal, but I would rather have that than nothing.

I made a schedule for tomorrow so I get lots of studying and cleaning done. Just a minute for the internet, so hopefully I’ll remember to post!

Election Day!

Here are James and I leaving the polling place. It was at an elementary school a short walk from our apartment. I thought I would take some pictures and do a photo tour of my neighborhood.

This is one of the beautiful old houses in my neighborhood. My neighborhood is called Boulevard Park.

These are the railroad tracks that cross midtown between 19th and 20th streets.

After we voted we walked up 19th street to Starbucks for a free cup of coffee!

When we got to the counter the girl said “Are you here for your free voter coffee?”

Crossing the tracks again.

This is the grassy median that divides 21st Street. You can see the edge of the “Boulevard Park” sign.

A cat named Maury lives at this house.

Home again!

Election Day tomorrow!

I can’t wait to vote tomorrow. A few Propositions are no-brainers — no on 8 and 4! — but I’m still undecided on a few others. Time to get out the voter handbook.