I did. I hunted those strawberries down. They never stood a chance. Those strawberries sat there, hanging off their plants, and said:
“There is nothing cool about what you’re doing right now, bro.”
And I said:
“Oh yeah? Well, my only reponse to a talking strawberry would have to be this: *chomp*”
I ate the talking strawberry. So sue me.
I will always remember you, Talking Strawberry, and how you made my mouth smile.
About 3 weeks ago, I went strawberry picking with AU and his mom. I love pick-your-own. I think it makes the produce taste better because the experience is personal. I also have fond memories of going peach, apple, and pumpkin picking when I was quite young. I don’t think my mom ever wanted to take us small fruit picking, mostly because we would have trampled the hell out of the plants.
Sunday shoppers, for your convenience we’ve tweaked our Sunday hours a bit for the summer. Whereas we opened at 11 and closed at 5, we now open at noon and close at 7. That’s an extra hour for you to sleep, and lord knows on Sunday, we all need it. We’re running this schedule through the summer and we’ll re-eval after, but for now we look forward to seeing you 12-to-7.
I’ve been swamped. About a week ago I had nothing to do except Green Aisle blog and my own blog. But this past Monday (right after the rapture, mind you), I started a second job at Plenty (sandwich making, Twitter, and Facebook) and picked up a bunch more hours at Green Aisle. I haven’t written here in a while and I haven’t written in my own blog in 9 days (it’s killing me not so slowly). The “Esther Cooks” series has become woefully neglected and my experiments with popsicles are still waiting to be done, despite the gallons of juice in my fridge.
This is literally what my fridge looks like. As opposed to figuratively.
Seriously. I haven’t even had time to go food shopping.
So, I’m going to sit down right now and tell you what I had for dinner the other night that I cooked. And by cooked I mean I just kinda put it all together.
By now you probably know that we’ve started carrying gluten-free breads from Amaranth Bakery. I was at a food photography meeting the other night and got a couple questions about the bakery and the breads, so I’m gonna give a couple answers.
Where is it? Amaranth is a local bakery located in Lancaster. Their products are carried by a range of vendors, from farmer’s markets to Whole Foods, but I strongly encourage you to get them at Green Aisle. That’s a completely unbiased opinion. No pressure.
What flours do they use? Amaranth uses a gluten-free blend, made up of brown rice flour, millet flour, amaranth flour, tapioca starch, coconut flour, and arrowroot.
What does Green Aisle carry? We have hot dog buns (4 pack), flatbreads (4 pack), rosemary-sea salt dinner rolls (6 pack), a four seed loaf, and a cinnamon raisin loaf.
Four Seed Loaf
What else does Amaranth make? They make several other flavors of dinner rolls, as well as sandwich rolls. They have other breads like a maple oat loaf and cheddar herb bread, as well as cookies, cupcakes, brownies, and muffins. Amaranth can also make a birthday cake for that special gluten-free person in your life.
Cheddar Herb Bread
So stop on by, gluten-free friends! We’ve got something for everybody here.
I’ve got a half an hour until the rapture begins, so I better get this done quick.
Dinner is hard. I think it would have to be several courses, probably of dishes that I turn into minis. Most are recipes for dishes my mom makes.
Dinner – First: Salad, baby. You may or may not have noticed that I don’t have a lot of veggies listed. I’m picky about salads. I have to actually like them. So these are the two I want:
Dark greens with blueberries, pecans, feta, and balsamic vinaigrette
A little different, but you get the idea.
Dark greens with strawberries, chevre, walnuts, and balsamic vinaigrette
It’s time for part two, (here’s part one) which covers lunch, snack 3, and snack 4. It’s a little shorter and simpler. My only regret is I’m not better at describing food….
Lunch – The sandwich I made for myself the other day, with one small change. Rather than a kalamata olive roll, a plain ciabatta roll so no flavors are washed out. It has two slices of fresh mozzarella, a teaspoon or two of Severino classic pesto, two thin slices of tomato with the mushy bits pulled out, and some greens. And not watery iceberg lettuce. A dark green lettuce or mesclun mix.
As you may (or may not) know, the rapture is this coming Saturday, May 21st. While I’m 100% certain that I won’t be raptured (I’m an excellent person – I call my Jewish grandmother once a week, I drink rarely and only until I’m giggly, I think about working out, and I’ve cut back a little on my overindulging), I’ve been thinking about what I would want my last meal to be. I love so many things, but I’ve thought about this a lot, and I think I’ve figured out the key:
The key is to spend an entire day eating small portions of the things you love. That way, you don’t get overstuffed and you have a little of everything. It’s strategic. Moderation may not sound like a wonderful part of the last meal, but spending the whole day eating whatever you liked, from wherever in the world you liked? With no regards to cost, travel, or carbon footprint (because you’re about to be raptured anyway)? Come on. That’s irresistible.
I admit, I contemplated this as a last meal. Wayne Thiebaud's "Cakes"
Plus, the rapture has the balls to happen on my 4-year anniversary. What better way to celebrate than eat and drink and then, oh, I dunno, be judged by a higher power?
I had my first cooking lesson last Monday. I’m a little late, so forgive me.
It was remarkably easy. Probably because my boyfriend wanted me to try something completely foolproof. Luckily, it’s a meal we’ve had many times before and is 100% unsophisticatedly delicious.
While I need to go work on some research for my personal blog, I needed to get this off my chest.
I can’t cook.
No really, it’s true.
I am not a good cook. But I’m an excellent baker.
My problem is mostly with the uncertainty of it. That’s probably why people like it. When you cook, you can improvise. Recipes aren’t necessary. You can come up with a totally unique concoction and then never be able to replicate it but that’s ok because it was so freakin good but what if you want it again omg I’m panicking just thinking about it. Plus, cooking times vary so much. One day a chicken breast could take 20 minutes to cook and another day it’s 25. That’s a whole 5 minutes difference. It’s too much stress. HOW DO YOU KNOW WHAT’S RIGHT!?!?!?
This is literally what I look like when I have to cook. Literally.
Once I cooked a Bubba burger for half an hour because I wanted to be sure it was cooked.
It was.
This is why I love baking. It’s an art, like cooking, but there’s more structure. When a recipe says 2 cups of flour, it means 2 cups of flour. None of this wishy washy “a pinch of salt” business. I like knowing what the item should look like at the end so I have an indication of whether or not I messed it up. And baking has clear rules. Like wet into dry. It’s organized.
I’m Type-A.
Since most of the recipes I can give you right now will be baking, I thought I’d incorporate some cooking into my entries by attempting to learn. How to cook, that is. I’m thinking once a week I’ll make a dish.
Sure, I’ll probably look for recipes first and adhere to them strictly, but it’ll help me learn.
Sure, I’ll feel bad for my boyfriend, who will have to eat my home cooking once a week, but he has a stomach of steel.
It’ll work out. Somehow. Starting next week you get to read about my failures in the kitchen.
Real quick, my boyfriend may be able to cook, but he can’t bake. Once he tried to make cookies but only had 2 cups of flour rather than the 2 1/2 required. He said to himself “it’s fine, it’s almost enough” and made the cookies anyway.
He ended up with a cookie tray of butter.
These are what my boyfriend's cookies would have looked like. If he'd managed to get this far in the baking process.
