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So I realize that I’ve been very food-focused recently and haven’t posted much about fitness. That’s because there’s nothing to post. After running the half-marathon, my life turned into a whirlwind of wedding, moving, and starting school and my exercise has dwindled to zero. I suck, people! I don’t know what happened! Anyway, I’ll come up with some brilliant plan soon and tell you aaaaaall about it.
In the meantime, here’s another Wiggs Original that – if made – will change your life. I am so awesome sometimes it hurts.
I call it…
Pineapple Cucumber Agua Fresca.
People, I used to haaaaaaaaaaaaate Brussels sprouts. My mom always prepared them by boiling the crap out of them until they became off-white lumps of mush and smelled like bad morning breath mixed with dirt. I believe – and my mom can probably back me up – that I never once at a Brussels sprout while living under my parents’ roof. Read the rest of this entry »
I’m taking a leedle break from the wedding posts because…well, the wedding’s over, for me, so I sorta want to stretch it out. Luckily, I have lots to write about still because I used some of my fun new kitchen gadgets the other day and whipped up a delicious batch of sorbet for a lovely friend who was joining me for lunch.
This is a recipe that Molly, my summertime roommate, found and made a couple of months ago, so I already knew how incred it was. The good news is that it’s friggin easy to make, provided that you have an ice-cream maker (or, like me, the special bowl and attachment that go with your stand mixer).
Apologies for this gross picture. The light today sucks and I had to re-heat the plate from last night and my camera was dying so I couldn’t take eight hundred photos like I normally do. But never fear: this crap’s deliciosity is inversely proportional to its ugliness.
We have a book club here in Seattle that meets about every month or so. Since I’m only here for the summer, they let me pick June’s book, and I chose March by Geraldine Brooks. I won’t write a whole review here, but it was one of the most moving pieces of literature I’ve ever read. It’s set during the Civil War, so obviously I had to make some Civil War-themed food to chow on as we discussed our reading experiences.
As a gal in her mid-twenties I’m still learning a lot about being, you know, a grownup. For instance: you actually have to scrub the toilet. I guess I never realized that until I lived on my own. I mean, I’d seen a toilet brush, but I never really imagined that I’d have to use one. Another example: when you’re sick, you’re going to have to make your own damn chicken soup. It sucks, but even if you live with a roommate or soulmate, he or she is gonna have to go to work and you’ll have to peel your woozy ass off of the couch and put the Campbell’s in the microwave. Another adult lesson: if you dress your salad in the morning before you put it in your Tupperware for lunch, it will be inedible mush by the time noon rolls around.
I can’t really teach you how to clean the toilet on this blog, but I’ve got one simple rule for you for when it comes to making salad before you’re planning on serving and/or eating it: put the wet stuff on the bottom and keep the dressing in a separate container until you’re ready to use it.
I know, I know, it’s not rocket science and you probably already knew that, but I wanted to save you people the utter disappointment that I went through the first time I attempted to bring a salad to work with me. If I can save one person from having to ingest wilted lettuce, my work here will be complete.
***Side note: you have probably deduced this, but I’ve been crazily busy with wedding and book and work stuff, so that’s the reason for the dearth of posts recently. I have tons to write about, though, and I’m getting back on the blogging train this week. Thanks for still continuing to visit me here every day; if I were you I would have bailed and/or sent an angry letter by now.***
Your turn: What totally obvious grownup lessons have you learned recently?
I made this crap up for a barbeque a couple of weeks ago, and ever since then I’ve been fielding calls and emails from people asking for the recipe. So I guess I did a good job. Even my father – who despises potato salad – liked the recipe when I made it at my parents’ house on Friday evening. The key is that this potato salad doesn’t have any mayo or hard-boiled egg, two ingredients which, in my opinion, will ruin any food you add them to. Gag me.
The best part is that this takes about 10 minutes to throw together, you can totally eff around with it and add whatever strikes your fancy (or whatever is left in your fridge from that random recipe you made last week), and it doesn’t require any special skills. Unless you count boiling water a skill, in which case your name is Wiggs and you have a blog called The Beholder.
If you’ve ever been to P.F. Chang’s, you’ve probably had a heart-attack-on-a-plate version of this. Basically, they bring you a bowl of what looks like corned beef (but it’s not), a pile of iceberg lettuce cups, and some sauce, and then they leave you to figure out what to do next.
But when you DO figure it out, you die a little with happiness. You spoon some of the filling into the lettuce cup, top off with the sauce, and then eat it like a little Asian taco. It sounds all hippie and weird, but trust me, the lettuce wrap is a cool, crunchy contrast to the warm, chewy filling.
***UPDATE*** Nice one, Wiggs. I forgot to tell you guys about how Mara at What’s For Dinner originally put this soup on her totally flippin’ sweet blog – that was when the seed of awesomeness was planted. So, yes. If you people take nothing else from this post, just bookmark What’s for Dinner and Cinnamon Quill and roll your eyes a time or two in my direction.
I was going to wait for another food post to tell you guys about this, but I couldn’t keep my trap shut. The lovely Jenn, mastermind behind Cinnamon Quill, made my Chicken, Avocado, and Lime soup. Except it’s vegetarian. And amazing. And wayyyy better than mine.
In case you were wondering how they compare, here’s the one I made. You can tell it’s not nearly as good.
Now, I know a bunch of you are veggies, so if you don’t make Jenn’s verision of the soup for dinner within the next three days, I may or may not lose all of my respect for you. And guess what?!?!? Her concoction ended up on TasteSpotting.com (warning: don’t visit that site unless you’re ready to have the biggest hunger pang you’ve ever felt).
So, not only do I feel famous, but I am also humbled by Jenn’s mastery of deliciosity. You must add her to your list of amazing blogs – she features gluten-free foods with an emphasis on vegetarian dishes. And she’s great. And I may or may not have a blog crush.
Kristina at Stonyfield Farm sent me a couple of coupons to try their yogurt – even though I’ve (miraculously) managed to keep my trap shut about how much yogurt I eat. It’s a lot. Let’s just put it this way: I may or may not smell like yogurt when I sweat. (I’M KIDDING, STOP BARFING ON YOUR KEYBOARD)
And I know that a lot of people say it’s bad to eat lowfat or “diet” foods, but when it comes to my yog, I eat so much of the stuff that I’d weigh 847 pounds if I didn’t buy the lower calorie kind. Normally I wouldn’t just post a review about a single food product that I didn’t make for myself, but a) that would be looking the gift-udder in the mouth, now wouldn’t it, b) this yogurt is so great that I think it deserves mention, and c) just like everything else I eat, I can’t resist doctoring it (I’m like a foul-mouthed Sandra Lee over here). The lowfat kind that I ate this morning was so rich and creamy and non-chemical-y tasting that I’m officially a convert. Suck it, Yoplait!
I eat all of my yogurt, no matter what flavor, with ten chopped-up almonds and half a cup of frozen blueberries in it. If you don’t agree that this sounds like a party in your mouth, then you need to get your head checked. The whole shebang (with Stonyfield Farm yogurt, anyway) adds up to 220 calories, which is perfect for a quick breakfast – especially if you’re not big into eating in the morning.
If one of you thinks you can come up with a better way of eating yogurt, I’d like to see you try. But I won’t believe it until I eat it.
…yeah, right. But anyway, I did want to share this delicious meal that I made. It seriously takes about 15 or 20 minutes to throw together and holy crumb, it is friggin awesome. I came across this post on The Kitchn and thought it looked so clean and wonderful – and I’m always looking for new pasta recipes. By the time I finished making the dish, however, I realized that I changed nearly every single ingreed. Oops.
Okay, so here’s what I did. Read the rest of this entry »
