Friday, February 15, 2008 | by nathan

Cucina Viansa

Saturday, January 26, 2008 | by nathan

Yellow Strawberries

Thursday, January 24, 2008 | by nathan

Dreaming of Warmer Times

What would you do if it was suddenly summer?

I’d order this Cuisinart ice cream maker from Amazon. I’d make a blackberry cobbler or a peach pie, and I’d throw some shish kebabs and steaks on the grill. I’d mix up a pitcher of gin fizz and invite you over. We could toast our brand-new tax rebate checks.

Instead, it’s so cold outside today that on the way in to work this morning I was in a whole lot of pain. I like winter, but once January comes in with its mean, brutal brand of cold, with no cheery holiday soundtrack to make it seem festive, I’m over it. All I can do to keep warm is take scalding hot baths, and even though they’re the only thing that make me feel warm, they leave my skin dry and itchy.

The good news about winter is that it’s a wonderful time to cocoon, to transform, to make plans. Even as the ground is freezing the roots are in there, teeming with life, waiting to burst out again. I think that this evening, if I get out of work in time, I’m going to hit the gym.

In the meantime, think about what flavor ice cream you want.

Sunday, January 20, 2008 | by nathan

Cherry Tomatoes

I’m repotting the cherry tomatoes, cucumbers and dill this weekend. So if you want to adopt a plant, now’s the time.

Wednesday, January 16, 2008 | by nathan

Yellow Tail Shiraz-Grenache

Sunday, January 13, 2008 | by nathan

Food, German and Grown

Today was the kind of day you just live for. Brian and I got up early and played with Sam for awhile, then decided that we’d walk to Ingrid’s Kitchen for their Sunday brunch buffet. We’d never walked up there, but it was easy, and fun, and it was a beautiful day, complete with my favorite weather combination, cold and sunny.

Ingrid’s is hands-down one of the best places in the city. If you EVER, EVER, EVER want to go there, you may let me know, and I’ll ALWAYS go with you. Especially for brunch on Saturday or Sunday. And if you ever come to Oklahoma to visit me, all you Nokies, it will be on the List of Things We’ll Do, non-negotiable. This morning’s brunch consisted of eggs benedict, saurkraut with authentic German sausage, handmade biscuits and bread, casserole, and bread pudding for dessert. I mean - I ask you.

After brunch we walked home, winding through our neighborhood and the one adjacent, admiring the lovely little nook of Oklahoma City in which we live. When we got home I went to water the plants I’d started last week, and discovered SPROUTS! "HOLY GOD I MADE SOMETHING GROW!" I cried. Check it out:

See, I had ordered a bunch of seeds from Organica Seed Co., a wonderful little place I highly recommend. Last weekend we went to Lowe’s and I bought seed starter kits and a bunch of soil, and I put a bunch of seeds in my neat little pots, which, when the soil outside is ready, I can just drop into holes and watch it all go to town. I planted cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, Bolivian rainbow peppers, asparagus, yellow strawberries (I didn’t even know that was a thing!), plus some purple basil and some dill.

Anyway, I was sure it would all be for naught, but I faithfully watered it all and tried to keep it warm and happy.

And holy cow. We have sprouts. The tomatoes, cucumbers, basil and dill have started to come up. We’re still waiting on the peppers, strawberries and asparagus. BUT HOLY COW!

Here’s the deal: when it all gets going, I’ll have to start gently pulling up the tiny little plants and re-potting them so they don’t crowd each other out. If this all goes as well as it could, this whole experiment has the potential to get WAY out of hand, so I’m prepared to give some of these neat little plants away to loving growers. So, give it some thought - you don’t have to answer now. But consider the following: in March sometime, you may be required to come to my house, help me till up the plot in which all this wonderful food will grow, and as a reward, you’ll get to take home your VERY OWN PLANT! YAHOO!

I was digging up my plot today, thinking about how much I hated it when my dad enlisted my help in tilling his garden, and how much I wish I’d listened and watched more closely while he’d done it all, because HOLY CRAP, I have sprouts, and I need to call him to ask what the hell to do next. If I ever have kids - or if I ever babysit YOUR kids - they’re totally helping me with MY garden, and they’re totally going to hate it, too, but at the age of 27 they’ll look back and wish they’d paid closer attention.

Sunday, January 13, 2008 | by nathan

Oklahoma Blue-Ribbon Centennial-Plus-One Awesome-O Chili Recipe - With Pictures!

Winter is the time for warm things. My friend Tish wrote a wonderful post about tea not too long ago that was lovely and brilliant and made me pine for Ireland. So I won’t reiterate her words about tea; you can read them for yourself.

What I will do is take a page from one of my new favorite blogs, The Pioneer Woman Cooks, and show you how I make my wonderful, delicious, award-winning Oklahoma chili - without beans - by taking you through a slideshow of sorts. What I love most about this recipe is that you can make it with almost any kind of meat; usually I use beef. On this day, however, I decided I’d go a little healthier and use turkey. Also, as I’ll show you below, you can make it as spicy or mild as you like; I’ll put in what the recipe calls for versus what I actually use, because ’round these parts, we like to occasionally singe off all our taste buds, be it with chili or with some of America’s best Thai and Vietnamese food in the Asian District next door (according to the New York Times, actually).

Ah, but I digress. Today we’re all about [turkey] chili. Those of you from Oklahoma and Texas will know what a perfect social food it is, how wonderful you feel when a group of people is sitting around eating chili. I know I’m excited about it. Let’s get going.

You will need the following:

2-1/2 lb. ground turkey (or ground beef. It’s the same either way).

1 yellow onion. (Can you find the one in this picture?)

8 ounces of beer. I’m using Moosehead, because it’s a personal favorite.

1 teaspoon brown sugar

1 teaspoon black pepper

1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons red wine vinegar

2 teaspoons hot sauce (I’m using Cholula, and I always use more than this because I like it HOT.)

2 teaspoons ground cumin

2 teaspoons lemon juice

1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

1/4 teaspoon ground red pepper (may vary depending on how hot you like to get)

4 tablespoons chili powder

4 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce

37 ounces tomato sauce

Got all that? Like Pioneer Woman, I like to get all my stuff together before I get started, then slowly put things away as I’ve used them. Keeps a kitchen nice and clean and orderly, and keeps me from duplicating ingredients, which, with my absentmindedness, is a constant problem. Okay, here we go:

Get a good, serrated knife. I got a new set for Christmas, and I just have to show it off:

Take your serrated knife, and dice up your onion:

If you have a problem with crying whilst you cut onions, you should STOP ANTHROPOMORPHIZING YOUR VEGETABLES!! If that doesn’t work, it helps me to chew on a piece of bread. Okay, that’s cut up.

Now throw it in a large stock pot and let it start cooking. The smell will immediately make your kitchen a fragrant, wonderful place, and people will yell from the living room, "Smells good!"

Now add your ground turkey…

and your 8 ounces of beer. I poured 4 ounces out of this 12-oz. bottle, because I WAS PLANNING TO DRINK THE REST. Now, leave all that in there until the meat is browned.

It’ll look a little bit something like this. Unless you’re using ground beef; then it’ll be browner.

Now add your 37 oz. of tomato sauce. That’s two and a half of these cans here, give or take. With chili it’s not real important to be so accurate.

Then add your pepper…

…and your salt, and all the rest of your ingredients. I didn’t do individual pictures of each one, because that would get a little tedious now, wouldn’t it? At any rate, it’s especially important, with your ground red pepper and the hot sauce, to taste the chili after adding it, because if it’s not spicy enough, you’ll want to add more.  I ALWAYS add more. For this particular recipe I used about 3-1/2 teaspoons of Cholula and twice the recommended amount of ground red pepper. People will love you at this point, because like many good things, chili is often a democracy, and you’ll want to get the Voice of the People in on tasting it here so you’ll be careful not to get it too hot. If there’s one lone voice in the wilderness (or in front of the game) calling for "More Fire! More Fire!" you can just plunk the bottle of Cholula in front of him and let him go to town on his own bowl.

Also? Major props to the Flynns for my awesome two-in-one pepper and salt grinder. That was a Christmas gift last year.

At any rate, your finished product - poured over a bed of crunchy Frito’s and garnished with some shredded cheese - will look a little something like this. Delicious, warm, spicy, and best of all - EASY! People will be begging for your recipe, which is easily doubled or tripled, by the way. It keeps for over a week in the fridge and reheats beautifully.

Sunday, November 4, 2007 | by nathan

“Sorry, What?”

Last night I made a pie. Today, this happened: 

"I’m going to have a piece of pie."

"I want a piece of pie! Will you get me a piece of pie?"

"Sure. Do you want me to heat your pie?"

"No, I want to eat it."

"Heat your pie. Do you want me to heat your pie?"

"What’s the point of you getting me a piece of pie if you’re going to eat it?"

[turns and goes back into the kitchen, flabbergasted with his smartass of a husband]

Wednesday, October 17, 2007 | by nathan

Fried.Chicken.Must.Have.

I desperately want to go to Eischen’s for some fried chicken this weekend. Who’s in? Beer, chicken, pickles, sawdust on the floor.

Bring change for the jukebox. I’m thinking Saturday, after the game.

Incidentally, I get more hits to this website for people looking for Eischen’s fried chicken than for ANYTHING ELSE. I think that’s pretty awesome, especially when someone in Pakistan is looking for it.

Wednesday, October 10, 2007 | by nathan

My head’s not all in one place, but here’s this:

This week is teh suck. I’m working 71 hours, and all day Friday and Saturday; literally - all day. From 8 a.m. until midnight both days, and then from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Sunday. Even that wouldn’t be so bad except that next week is going to be about another 50 or more hours, and then, hopefully, at the end of it, Brian and I can lock ourselves in our house and not leave again for quite some time. The upside is that, because I’m STILL on contract, I’m billing the CRAP out of my employers, and my next two paychecks are going to be teh awesome.

Brian got home last night. He had texted to say his flight would be about 20 minutes later than we’d expected, so to pass the time I stopped and got stuff for dinner, then at my local polling place to vote Yes! on Maps for Kids. On our way back home from the airport we stopped so Brian could vote. I’m happy to report that I was the 174th person in my precinct to vote AT ALL.

Anyway, I made us a dinner of tuna steaks and acorn squash that was deeply satisfying, and we cuddled on the couch and talked and watched The Simpsons, then lampooned our way through the Republican Debate. We tried to put together all our new Halloween decorations, but had some problems with them not lighting up; it’ getting fixed tonight.

It was kind of a perfect homecoming, especially because of how much harder it was this time to have him gone. Last night was the first time since we left for Dallas that either one of us has slept in our bed.

Two internet things before I go:

1) I’m going to do National Novel Writing Month, more popularly known as NaNoWriMo, next month. I need to get motivated on this novel, and I’m hoping that my ridiculous stubbornness, mixed with a (un)healthy curiosity (can I write a novel in a month? We’ll see!) will be the motivation I need. I’ve pretty much got the whole plot outlined and all my ideas are clear, I just can’t, for whatever reason, get them on the page. Here’s hoping November changes that.

2) My friend Tish just started a new blog. It’s awesome; you should totally go check it out.