The Great Hazard Challenge

Alright, so I'm kinda in the swing of things again with balance of work and life. (Going to sleep at 9.30 pm lastnight was a very good decision. Kudos to me.) I was able to work all day, have Midgie play and feed time, cook dinner, and have a little me time whilst hubby runs to grab a bottle of prosecco. Did I mention what I made for dinner? Spring garlic and faux chicken sauteed in a little rice vinegar w sliced fennel and cucumbers in a dijon vinaigrette. It was delish.

Ok, so now that Hazard has her groove back it's time for a few challenges.

Challenge #1: Get yr lazy ass back into the gym. I've been so bad. Every day I make an excuse, however, TOMORROW I AM GOING. If I don't go tomorrow, I'm not allowed to have a glass of wine when I come home. I was doing so good, you don't even know...I was there 3 times a week! I was a cardio and pilates machine! My arms are the most perfect (without truly being perfect) that they've ever been and I am a whole lot less of a jiggle. I get dirty looks when I tell ppl I just had a kid THIS YEAR. So, back to the gym we go!

Challenge #2: Stop eating processed food. No, for serious. I know I talk a lot of paranoid schmack due to my readings, but....it's really so awful. So unless it naturally exists in nature, I aren't eating it. No more faux chicken. But seitan is okay. Seitan's gotta be okay. I hope seitan's okay. Okay, I'm not quite sure about it, but we'll say yes for now. Regardless, if it needs to be processed by an excess of chemicals or acids...my body will not compute it. And, I'm only eating corn if it's in kernels off a cob. No high fructose corn syrup, or dextrose, or fructose or glucose, or any other derivative! For your information, wine is okay because it's processed without chemicals. It's fine. Really. Shut up, I'm drinking it anyways.

I'm sure those challenges will be in full effect and mastered by the end of the month. So I'll need new challenges. I challenge to challenge myself monthly. I am open to suggestion. Handle that, would you? Thx.

Guilty

I must say, as much as I love my new job, I do hate that I'm away from Auden so much. Last Tuesday, I was away from him for 12 hours. That's the longest I've ever been away from him. It was heartbreaking. As much as my old job sucked, I at least got to hang out with the Midge.

I must commend my husband. He's Mr. Mom right now. He works all day AND takes care of Midgie, sometimes even having to go to DJ right afterwards. And he never complains. I've been up since 5:30 this morning, when I made his bottle, was at work by 7 am, and didn't come home till 5 pm. I took over Midgie duties as soon as I got home. Poor thing is teething...I see 2 more on the way. I have to cook dinner. I have to mop. I have to go pick up the laundry. But all I want to do is sit on the couch. Husband is still working.

I don't feel like being local and I'm completely unsustainable at this point. I want pizza. Ok, McDonald's, I understand why you exist.

I'm a bad, bad mommy. No, I'm not gonna give in. But I can daydream about it, ok? It's allowed. It's in the rules.

local? organic? sustainable? huh?

I've been reading too many books about food lately. And magazines. And blogs. I'm food obsessed, for sure. But the more I read, the more paranoid I get. I've mentioned my concern for the plight of the dairy farmer after reading It's a Long Road to a Tomato. Now I'm reading The Omnivore's Dilemma and I'm angry at corn. High fructose corn syrup is the secret devil and the government is conspiring to fatten us with surplus hybrid demon corn.

As much as possible, I want to eat as locally and organically as possible. Unfortunately, I don't have a limitless income, nor can I devote a full day just for food shopping, due to the fact that I already have a full time job, and am a full time mommy too. Also, I have a life.

Here's my attempt at local sustainability:

Yesterday, we had lattes from Crest Cafe, the new coffee joint near our house, which exclusively sells a Williamsburg coffee brand. I have to research and see if the coffee is farmed by 12 y/o Mexicans or if it's Fair Trade. Then, we went to Urban Rustic to buy Saratoga sparkling water for our trip to the McCarren Greenmarket. Saratoga is in the state...kinda local. At the Greenmarket, purchased spring garlic, leeks and gorgeous radishes. (Apparently, ramp season is over. GAH!) I noticed that Ronnybrook farms was there, and I felt guilty that my Fresh Direct delivery that morning included my Organic Valley milk that's from Wisconsin. Note to self: stop buying Fresh Direct milk and support the local dairy farmer, his distress made you sad, remember, fool? Then, I got really inspired and decided we should go to Marlow and Sons, cos I heard they have Rancho Gordo beans there and I'm out of damn flageolets. (Do I sound like a jackass yet? It seems as though I do, but I digress.) Marlow and Sons market is WAY smaller than I had previously anticipated, and while, they do have some really great finds there, and they do have RG beans...they were out of flageolet. Bastards. We bought some ciabatta, then it started raining and we headed home. As a snack, we ate a platter of radishes with some parsley garlic butter I had just made and the ciabatta. Effing awesome.

While I was home, I realized that I had purchased $150 of crap from FD (granted, this includes baby formula, baby cereal, baby food and diapers), $20 of assorted goods from Greenmarket and M&S, and I barely had enough to make dinner. So, off to Sunac I went to buy some non local peppers (there were none at the GM) and non local but organic bananas. I got inspired again, and decided we should visit the fish monger because Gerald has been craving oysters for like a year, and it's time he had some. So we bought some semi local oysters. At $8 for a dozen and $2 for shucking, Gerald almost peed his pants with joy.

So, what did I have for dinner? I roasted some non local peppers, mushrooms and garlic and cooked some frozen gnocchi that's probably from another planet and secretly has the government surplus demon corn somehow someway in it. It was super delicious, but my attempt to eat local/organic/sustainable got fucked along the way.

There's always next week. Sigh.

an tici pation

So, right now, I'm kinda feeling like that Sunday before the first day of school. You know what yr going to wear. You have yr new Trapper Keeper. You have assorted pens and pencils. A plethora of lined school paper. You vow that this year, yr gonna be organized, and it's going to be different and yr actually gonna do all yr homework and work ahead on yr papers that are due 3 months later and not procrastinate like you have every other time. There's that feeling that anything can happen. Are you still going to be a dork this year? Will so and so notice?

Okay. So maybe it's not exactly that. I'm just starting a new job. A new fabulous job. And I'm not quite sure what I'm going to wear, but I've got a good idea. I do know what make up I'll be wearing. (For Bex: the brown Chanel eyeliner, the MAC Patina, Mascara, foundation, powder, blush and that peach Clinique gloss you gave me...I know that's yr fave on me.) But, I do have that little butterfly in my stomach flittering...wondering if they'll like me...if they'll reaaaally like me. I am not going to have coffee because I'll get too hyper and frighten them all off.

In other news, I'm making TWO, count em TWO, different beans at the mo. I'm making a chili with my Rancho Gordo Scarlett Runner beans. They're simmering in half of a Spanish onion, about 37 cloves of garlic, a green pepper and some cumin and crushed red peppers. The Rancho Gordo Flageolet's are simmering in Spanish onion and garlic. I'm going to make a salad with some fennel, parsley, mixed greens, cukes and some feta for tonight. The chili is for tomorrow. I was smart this time and started soaking the beans last night, so hopefully this shit isn't going to take ten years. I'm also experimenting with the Flageolets and hoping that my onion and garlic mire poix is sufficient compared to the shallot, celery, carrot and garlic one I'd made before. Don't get me wrong, they tasted fantastic...but there was something not quite perfect. Someone commented about cooking beans in a pressure cooker in like 30 minutes. I'm effing jealous. I want one.

Here's the new kitchen wishlist:
-Le Creuset cookware
-a new stovetop espresso maker (Darling Husband killed the last one.)
-a whisk
-prep bowls
-a Peugeot pepper grinder in the piano finish (shut up, it's effing beautiful)
-a test tube spice set

Note to husband: almost all of these items are available at the Brooklyn Kitchen, as you might have noticed, because I LINKED THEM. You know, that place that's one block away from our house that I love? Just so you don't ever say, "I didn't know what to get you" ever again.

Anywho, wish me a good first day of work tomorrow. I hate being the new kid. (The one that's too old to be a kid anymore.)

Get yrself together...get yrself together..shake shake shake

Four days until the shit job is over.
Then reorganize house.
Clean the bajesus out of it.
Laundry.
Get behind the furniture.
PURGE!
Clean out the fridge.
Toss some old spices. (nyuk, nyuk, nyuk)
Backstock Auden's clothes sizes 0-9 months.
Outstock Auden's clothes 9 months +
Throw away boxes.
Recycle papers.

It will be so wonderful to no longer see work at home.
I will no longer be a slave to my work email.
(Shut up, I know I'm forever a slave to my gmail. And what? So are you.)

Refocus. Re-energize. Revive.

Happy 7 month Birthday, Auden Brown. xoxo, Mom

For Chipiti and Jeff

We walked in memory of my uncle Chipiti and Gerald's great friend Jeff. Last Sunday, Chipiti would have been 52.

There are no words.

What's yr glitch?

I've been reading all these blogs that have a purpose. Some sort of angle. Food blogs tend to have the best angles. Like Gourmet Project: some guy decided to cook every single recipe in the Gourmet cookbook (and he discovered other ppl doing the same). Or, Not Eating Out in New York: a fellow Brooklynite who now refuses to eat in restaurants in NYC. The Greenmarket Report is great (I got 3 bunches of ramps today! And focaccia from Bread Alone. MMMMM). Last Night's Dinner is an inspiration.

I, however, am sans angle.

I talk about food, and wine, and Auden, and music (did I mention we have My Bloody Valentine tix?? :D :D) and Brooklyn, and sometimes I pontificate on the meaning of life. But, I lack focus. I lack a solid direction. Do I need one? Can I skimp by as just some random chick who talks about random crap? No one necessarily reads this, and in a way, I'm just taking up space in the interwebbed world. Maybe the focus needs to begin within, and then it will filter down to ze blog. Ooo. Deep.