divendres, de juliol 29, 2005

Movin' on Up

I haven't posted for a long time since I got busy with summer school and with the class I myself am taking. Also, we're getting ready to move into a bigger space so there's been lots of packing to do. Today I'm picking up the keys and starting to haul some boxes over. We are going out for a friend's birthday tonight so I won't have a lot of time but tomorrow and Sunday we'll move as much as we can, just Austin and I. The following weekend, we get the muscle (A's friends) to help us move the bigger stuff.

Good things about the new place: the huge kitchen, two car garage, vaulted ceilings, gas fireplace, guest room (at last), two huge storage rooms (for Gramma's xmas tree and other accumulated stuff), and the large office that will also end up holding all of our bookshelves. It will be wonderful to get all settled in, just in time for the start of fall semester.

dijous, de juliol 14, 2005

Happy Bastille Day!

Lots has been going on since I'm back to school (summer school, that is) so I've been a bit delinquent in my writing. But anyway, it's Bastille Day and that has me thinking about France.

Here is where I stayed as a college student, on my very first visit. It's the "Foyer des Etudiantes" right on Boulevard St. Michel and you can walk across the street into the Jardin de Luxembourg.



It had a lovely roof terrace from which you could see the Eiffel Tower and the city. It also had an elevator the size of a small fridge to reach said terrace. It was a really fun place to stay and has the absolute best Italian restaurant nearby, Della Stella, where I had my first pizza margherita (see earlier post).

Vive la France!

dimarts, de juliol 05, 2005

Making a Decent Cup

I finally picked some chamomile and made tea. It was a festive day and I figured it was a good time to try out the completely homemade tea. I picked the flowers, got about a heaping teaspoon, and poured about a cup of boiling water over them in my teapot and let them steep a long time.

As an aside, the Spanish word for chamomile is "manzanilla" which means "little apple." When drinking chamomile, I could detect a very faint appley flavor but when I picked the blossoms, I finally fully grasped the concept; they had a fragrance like slightly unripened green apples and it was really nice. The strong appley flavored mellowed in the tea, but at least I had some closure on the little apple deal, being a language nerd and all.

I had the tea which was a little weak but the color was nice. I think next time I will use more flowers. Apparently they grow back when you harvest them. Right now it's morning so I'm off for some Earl Grey which I definitely did not grow myself!

Steeping.

Smells good.

Ready to enjoy.

dilluns, de juliol 04, 2005

Pizza on the Grill

Pizza Margherita


We made a pizza margherita for dinner last night, complete with fresh basil from our own herb garden. We found that cooking it on the grill makes the crust extra-crisp (and doesn't overheat the apt on hot summer days).

I first had a true pizza margherita when I was on study abroad, in France at Della Stella's. Once I ordered a variation of it called "the cyclops" which was just a one egg right in the center, like the eye of the mythical beast. I later found out that this is a preferred pizza topping in Spain. My friend Luis, who lives in the U.S. now, often cracks an egg onto any frozen pizza he makes.

Btw, sorry if the color is a bit off; I think the hot pink mat it is sitting on wasn't the best background choice.

Something to think about on July 4th

"Men in authority will always think that criticism of their policies is dangerous. They will always equate their policies with patriotism, and find criticism subversive."

-Henry Steele Commager


"We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. When the loyal opposition dies, I think the soul of America dies with it."

-Edward R. Murrow

diumenge, de juliol 03, 2005

Tilapia en Papillote Recipe

Per Corgimom's request... here is the approximate way that we prepare our tilapia. I'm not the greatest with specific measurements and a lot of this recipe is just to taste so keep that in mind. I should also mention that we modified it from Alton Brown's recipe.

You will need: cous cous, artichoke hearts, tomatoes, tilapia filets, onion, lemon, butter, wine, parsley, oregano, salt.

To start, use parchment paper* and put a long piece of it on a cookie sheet (such that you have a space to work directly over the sheet and then a long enough piece of parchment left to eventually pull over the fish and close up the pouch). Take about 3/4 c. of cous cous and rinse it, then spread it thinly on the parchment, making sort of an oval shape. Chop up a jar of artichoke hearts and a few tomatoes (we used two romas) and then put these in a ring around the cous cous. Lay about four tilapia filets on the cous cous bed. Frozen fillets are fine and work great. Then sprinkle them with parsely, oregano, and salt. Crush about two cloves of garlic over the fillets then top them with sliced lemon and onion. Note: about a half a lemon is perfect; using more got too powerful. Also, we used about 1/2-3/4 of a red onion and that flavor really mellows out when it bakes. Dot the fillets with butter then pour over a healthy dose of white wine (we use pinot grigio). Pull the remaining part of the parchment up over the fish, roll the edges, and staple shut. Bake for 30 mins at 425 and carefully cut the pouch open when it is done.

*be sure to use parchment, not wax paper, and aluminum isn't the best with the acidity of the lemon and wine.

dissabte, de juliol 02, 2005

On va dîner

Tilapia en papillote


This is the tilapia in parchment. It looks prettier if you use plain cous cous but we had multi-color on hand so we just threw that in. It tastes so good and is impossible to screw up.

Kicking off the Weekend

My friend Sharon came to visit us last night and we had a good visit, making Tilapia en Papillote for dinner. Sharon and I hung out and talked then later went to Stella Blues, an awesome cajun/creole restaurant/bar to have a nice pint of cider (on tap).

Today, Austin and I are doing nothing and we're very excited about that. Not sure what we will do the rest of the weekend but we were gone last weekend and will be gone next weekend so we're enjoying some time at home just lounging.