The Couch

I've mentioned before that my apartment lacks a couch. I didn't bring mine up from Charlottesville, and realizing how expensive they are, found myself in a little bit of a bind. As luck would have it, Wright's new roommate was bringing a couch to their apartment, so Wright very kindly offered me his.

The only problem with this plan was how to get it from Wright's apartment to mine. We live only about a 5-10 minute walk from each other, so it really seemed crazy to rent a truck. But the couch was too big for my brother's car, so...

We decided to carry it. It was really heavy. So we stopped every block or so and took a picture while resting on the couch.

Though I "helped", it was really these three strong boys that carried most of it. It was actually kind of fun (in retrospect!), because everyone walking by us had to say something. We got a lot of "I love New York!" and "We've all done that before!" and even some "Hey, can I ride on it?!" offers. They were turned down.

With two blocks to go, we were exhausted. Mike took a blackberry break and I longingly tried to guess how many more steps we had. Low point! But eventually.....

We made it! And now I have a couch, so if you want to come over and sit down, you can.

A Local Meal

So, remember this stuff? 

Well, this weekend we got to cooking, and turned it into this:

And then made this: 

And put it all together to have this for dinner. 

Plus, we picked up some peaches at the farmer's market on Saturday (also where we got the duck, cherries, and potatoes) and pulled together a peach cobbler. 

It turned out to be quite a spectacular meal! The two major highlights, for me, were the fava bean puree and the duck with cherry glaze.  The puree was inspired by a recipe in Richard Ruben's book, The Farmer's Market Cookbook.  After shelling, boiling, and de-skinning the fava beans (they may look large, but you don't get much!), we threw them in a food processor with olive oil, garlic, truffle oil, salt and pepper.  Spread on toast and topped with grated parmesan, they were utterly delectable.  It was probably a good thing the beans turned out to only be a fairly small amount, or I would have eaten hundreds of these things. 

Wright got the smoked duck at the farmer's market - he'd been eyeing it for weeks - and we topped it with a simple cherry sauce.  After pitting the cherries, we put them into a sauce pan with water, sugar, and orange zest, and let it simmer until the duck was ready.  The flavors came together perfectly, if I do say so myself. 

I won't lie, I'm not a huge fan of beets, so I thought our beet and goat cheese salad (with mint and a little vinaigrette) was unexciting.  The roasted fingerling potatoes were creamy and delicious, but the local carrots ended up lacking in flavor.  More butter, perhaps? The peach cobbler was adapted from Ina Garten's recipe for peach raspberry crisp, from her classic The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook.  There was nothing wrong with that dish, that's for sure!

Anyway, we were very proud of our local meal, based off of the veggies we got at this week's CSA.  I still have a pound of greens sitting in my fridge, so that will need to be attacked at another time... 

Herb Garden Heaven, part 2

I finally pulled my herb garden together this weekend. In Charlottesville, I had all of my herbs together in one window planter, but the mint (being a weed) totally took over, and every time one plant got sick I panicked that everything was going to die. That never happened, luckily, but still, I took precaution and am keeping the herbs in their separate containers this time around. Anyway, here are some pictures...

I ended up going with thyme, sage, oregano, rosemary, basil, chives, and mint. Sage, oregano, and chives are new for me - and I've already used the sage for a lovely brown butter and sage sauce to go with the pumpkin ravioli from the so-so Italian place around the corner.

Eat your vegetables!

This week, we finally got off the waiting list to join our local CSA (Community-Supported Agriculture). I've been dying to join one for the past two years, but not having a steady location throughout a season made it difficult. Since I didn't move into my apartment until July 1, I was worried that I'd lost out and would once again have to wait until next year. So when Mary from Norwich Farms emailed me with the opportunity to buy a share in this season's crop, I jumped on it gleefully. Check out the goods I picked up last night!!

We got carrots, onions, garlic, beets, fava beans, mixed baby greens and kale. The most valuable part of the CSA, I think, will be that it encourages experimentation with vegetables that you may not usually (or ever!) cook with. While I do enjoy a good beet and goat cheese salad at a restaurant, I've never actually cooked them in my house--and the same with fava beans! After laying everything out on my counter, I immediately started tearing into my cookbooks to mark recipes for some of these more interesting vegetables.

Don't worry, I won't inundate my blog posts with bizarre experimentations with vegetables, but I do think this is an exciting adventure that will lead to a healthier diet and more adventurous cooking.

For more information on CSAs or to find one near you, check out www.localharvest.org. And don't be deterred if your local CSA is full - you may be able to jump in late like we did!

Dinner Failure

On my way home from work last night, my stomach was grumbling as I thought about what to make for dinner. I'd been thinking about it all day - after (gulp) a croissant for breakfast and leftover ravioli for lunch, I was in the mood for something delicious and healthy. I had a fair amount of produce leftover from the weekend, so I was confident I could whip up something utterly delectable (and light on the carbs!).

I finally decided on a salad with toasted walnuts, sliced nectarine, prosciutto, and some crumbled cheese - all items I had in my refrigerator. I could barely contain my excitement at the prospect of making such a fresh dinner without having to go to the market.

Upon arriving home, however, I was greeted with failure upon failure. I found that my lettuce had wilted on the outside, so I only had the crunchier leaves from the inside of the head to use - not exactly ideal. I tossed them in a simple vinaigrette, but (ugh) failing to taste before tossing, I later realized I used way too much salt in making the dressing. The pit of my nectarine had gone soft (I didn't know this was possible!!) and had bruised most of the fruit. Half of my prosciutto had dried out, and at this point I completely forgot about the walnuts.

Dumping my "fresh" salad into the trash, I ended up eating cheese and crackers. Really healthy, right? I was downtrodden but couldn't help but laugh at myself. It really goes to show how important fresh, quality ingredients are when you are planning such a simple meal!

Failures in the kitchen happen a lot. I may write about all of these delicious meals that I make, but really, there are always a few mishaps in every meal, and sometimes so many mishaps that the whole thing ends up in the garbage. These mistakes, though, are how I'm learning to cook. Living on my own has helped me gain confidence in my cooking skills, because I'm no longer afraid to mess up. I've smiled my way through absolutely disgusting or utterly tasteless meals I've made before, and that's okay, because it turns out better the next time. The main thing is to not be afraid of the kitchen!

On a side note, Alone in the Kitchen with an Eggplant is a fantastic collection of essays about what you cook for yourself when no one is watching. I read it when I first got my own apartment last year, and after last night's meal of cheese and crackers, am definitely going to plan a re-read soon. It's funny and touching, and completely relate-able - I'd highly recommend it to anyone, whether you live alone or not.