weekend widow

I got called a weekend widow yesterday, and this weekend it's even more true. ehs has been out of town for every Saturday except one starting September 20th (I did go for one of those weekends. He'll be gone again next weekend, and then we'll both be gone for two weekends. yikes!). He's enjoying what he's doing, but we've definitely put some things on hold because we know that the time just isn't there right now.

This time he's gone the whole weekend, he left right after work on Friday to fly to Boston for my brother's bachelor party, and he'll be back at the end of the day on Sunday. Yesterday I saw a friend during the day, then I went out with friends to one of my favorite bars in the city. It's a Scottish bar with great beer, amazing fish and chips, and a real pub feel. Also you can order half-pints, which is a wonderful concept. For an after-dinner drink, the waitress suggested port lemonade. I had never heard of this concept, and was not expecting it to contain ice cubes, but it was great and I would definitely get it again. Basically a version of sangria.

Today I'm having just a quiet me day. I'm intending to take myself to a movie this morning (box of popcorn and Javier Bardem, here I come!). Then my goal is to lose myself in some deep organization. We do a pretty good job of stuffing things in closets and closing the doors, but I've decided I want the closet back. We'll see who wins at the end of the day.

Tomorrow I'm going to a friend's house for what was described as "expirimental cooking." Apparently this will be the third attempt at making homemade pizza rolls. Plus some guitar hero, which I fully expect to be terrible at. It's nice to have your expectations low going in, that way it won't be a surprise.

5 years

Tonight we're going to Tsunami, the sushi restaurant where we had our first official date. We go every year to celebrate the day we actually met in person. Unlike our new anniversary (the first wedding date), I think that we hold onto this one for nostalgia rather than celebration. When we first went there, ehs didn't eat sushi. He knew I liked it, so he wanted to take me to a really good sushi restaurant, where he proceeded to order the chicken teriyaki. Now that he has learned to love sushi, we get to order things to share. And a sake flight. ^_^

I don't know that we have to keep this anniversary tradition, but I think that we would both miss it. Our new anniversary is a celebration of the commitment we've made to each other and how that relationship is growing. But our first anniversary reminds us that there was a time when we each felt our hearts racing just to see the other one. When everything was a surprise, when he would drive to the airport to pick me up, and when doing his laundry for him seemed like a gift instead of a given. Those moments still have their place in our relationship, but it's nice to have a specific event to remember and honor them. Plus there's sushi!

hippie comfort food

Last night I snacked on leftovers (braised celery, balsamic vinegar braised carrots, baba ganoush), but I finally decided I wanted something a little more substantial. I heated up leftover brown rice on the stove in a little olive oil, threw in our peppercorn dressing spice mix, some crushed red pepper flakes, and some nutritional yeast. Then I melted cheddar cheese over the whole thing. And I have to say, it was amazing. Very comforting, and simple.

fall at home

Montreal was great. The weather was amazing. It has basically rained all summer there, and the 10 days I was there were sunny and warm every day. We wore ourselves out with walking, but we also did a good job of sitting down and taking breaks to rest and recharge. We had some amazing food, most notably a Thai place that was entirely vegetarian and known for its fake meat dishes. We spent 4 hours at the Botanic Garden and managed to explore exactly three gardens in that time (plus lunch). We had a great time at the Biodome, it's just like I had remembered from being there as a kid. The last day we went to Old Montreal, toured the Notre-Dame Cathedral, ate lunch at a great Polish restaurant. I'm looking forward to visiting some of the same places next time we go (the Botanic Garden, the bagels, some of the shopping and food we found, the Mont-Royal park), but hopefully also doing some new things too: taking in a hockey or soccer game, visiting the little island in the river.

We went from sunny days in the 80s and even 90s to fall in Chicago. Today's high is 66 or 68, and rainy. It was a great last hurrah for the summer.

Montreal 1st Day

So, it only takes an hour and a half to fly from Chicago to Montreal, which is nothing at all. We got up at 4 this morning so I could make it to the airport (ehs drove me, since we still own the car). I landed around 11am here and grabbed a taxi. I was interested in taking public transit to the apartment, but it looked like it was going to take an hour and a half or two hours, with 30 minutes of walking, a bus, and two trains. Taxi it was.

I rented an apartment, since I'm here for 10 days. It's about a 10 or 15 minute walk to the place where my class is. I had lunch, then spent the next 3 1/2 hours walking. It turns out Ste. Laurent, the major botiquey shopping district is having a street sale, either this weekend or the whole week, I'm not sure. I wandered through there, managed to blow my intended shopping budget in the first store I went to. I had a blackberry popsicle though, which was exciting.

Then I found the Park Mont-Royal. It was full of people playing frisbee, soccer, and listening to drumming. From there I walked to the grocery store. By then I was so tired I didn't do the world's greatest job of grocery shopping. I got a lot of fruit, some veggies, proteins, and only a few carbs. If it still seems terrible tomorrow I can try again.

I have made good use so far of my one strong phrase in French: "I do not speak French." People have been very friendly, the weather's beautiful, and I'm already exhausted! I'm still excited about class starting tomorrow though!

Wall-E

Yesterday we took a trip up to Evanston. It only took about an hour to get there on the train. We first went to a great Indian restaurant called Mt. Everest, which had a buffet. Restaurants with a buffet are really the best way to eat Indian food, because you get to have a little bit of a lot of different things and all the different flavors work together so well. I had papadum, daal, palak paneer, cabbage and peas, veggie pakora. Also a salty lassi, and gulab jamin and rice pudding for dessert. Wonderful.

Then we went to see Wall-E, which was very good. It is a bit dark and sad for the future, but also had some hope in it for humanity's sense of responsibility toward the planet. It was also very funny, I especially enjoyed the robots in the sort of psych ward, and also the little cleaning robot "Mo."

I'm Back! And Ready to Eat...

What would you have to eat for your first day of real food after 10 days of not so much food? How about a bar sandwich: grilled cheese with pesto, tomato, roasted garlic, and fries. The fries came on the side, but I of course put them on the sandwich. I'd say that's pretty back to normal. And I feel no different (aside from having a lot more energy) than when I wasn't eating these things. Hooray!

The biggest difference was a sort of general drunken feeling, most likely being drunk on blood sugar. That's a nice change too.

With a Little Help From My Friends

Well, today's the last day of being an eating martyr, I finally get to share meals with my friends again starting tomorrow. I have noticed no change in my symptoms, either better or worse, which to me says that food is probably not the issue.

Here is the list of items I've been allowed to eat for the last 10 days: almond milk, edamame, quinoa, sweet potato, asparagus, cauliflower, string beans, spinach, tomatoes, zucchini, bananas, grapefruit, blueberries, oranges, pistachios, whey protein, cayenne, honey, sesame, maple, turmeric, cumin, and oregano. Also tuna, but I only had it two days.

What you'll notice from this list is the striking question: Where's the carbs? There's also a distinct lack of calories. Which is great and all, if you're trying to lose weight. That wasn't one of my goals with this little project, call it an unintended side effect.

I don't know how I would have gotten through this week without the insight and generousity of my friends. Mary sailed right by my "but, what about olive oil? cheese? vinegar?" conundrum, and emailed me a wonderful list of options. She instantly transformed my options by pointing out the possibilities of orange and grapefruit juice and zest to add an acid flavor to foods. She also had clever options like making pretend pasta out of julienned zucchini, making a tahini sauce for sweet potatoes, and a recipe for a delicious edamame salad.

As mentioned, ehs made me delicious popsicles using only items from the list (bananas, almond milk, and maple syrup) that have made every hot day (every day) more bearable.

And after seeing Cirque, Ian and Maria volunteered to come get take-out at our house so that I could eat in but we could still hang out.

I have learned that I love roasted cauliflower, that watered-down grapefruit juice is a little bit like lemonade, and that you can always make substitutions with what you have on hand (or are allowed to eat). I have finally put to rest my fears of having a food intolerance. Starting tomorrow it'll once again be everything in moderation. Maybe I'll get to stop dreaming about donuts...

First Birthday Present of the Year

Hooray!

Today after work I was sitting on the couch with ehs. I'm doing well with the eating thing, but I do feel tired a little more than usual. He said that he had an early birthday present for me. Of course, then I had to try to find it right away. I looked in the closet downstairs, all the kitchen cabinets, and the fridge. I thought I'd looked everywhere, but he said there was still a place. I couldn't imagine what could be a present in the freezer, especially since I'm not eating a whole lot right now (sad about no ice cream).

He got me popsicle forms!! When I was a kid my mom would make popsicles out of juice, and as an adult I find popsicles the best and fastest way to cool down when I'm overheated. I've wanted to get my own popsicle forms for a while now, but I haven't sat down and looked for them, and he bought them today.

Even better, he brought them home, washed them, and MADE ME POPSICLES! He made banana, almond milk, and maple syrup popsicles, all items that are on the list. He used Mark Bittman's recipe from The Minimalist (the video is pretty funny). What a wonderful birthday present, popsicles now and popsicles for the future.

And also, the popsicles he made are wonderful. I would make them again, even when I can eat more items!

How can you trust a veggie that looks like brains?

So I have put myself on a 10-day exclusion diet to look for food intolerances based on a blood test. Hence the cauliflower, since it's on the short list of things I can actually eat right now. I roasted it like Dan suggested (with sesame oil and salt). Then I found a recipe for "Manchurian Style Cauliflower" which calls for garlic, ketchup, and cayenne. I heated up half a can of tomatoes with some maple syrup and cayenne until it bubbled and started to caramelize, then tossed the cauliflower in. Not bad.

I really can't go to restaurants for this time, it's not a long list. But I am satisfying my curiosity as to whether or not food intolerance is creating my symptoms, and I'm learning a whole new level of creativity when it comes to cooking. Two days ago I made "chili" with sweet potatoes and edamame. It's an interesting challenge.

learning to use cauliflower

Does anyone have any great uses for cauliflower? In the interest of learning to appreciate more vegetables I bought some, but haven't yet felt overly inspired by it. I tend to avoid colorless veggies, so I'm not sure if I've ever cooked this one before.

Cart Test Run

Yesterday was a test run of what it's like to go grocery shopping without a car. We still have the car, but we are planning to sell it. We thought it might be a good idea to try shopping without a car, to see how it much trouble it might be, and if we need to plan for it differently.

I leave the house with one big new collapsible shopping cart we bought a couple of weeks ago, five cloth grocery bags, a soft-sided cooler with two freezy packs in it, a bottle of water, an umbrella, and my purse. Getting down the street is pretty easy, the cart doesn't stay locked closed, but it isn't a problem. The bus comes right away, getting on is easy. The bus drops me off in a great place, close to the store. Ok, I'm going great!

It then takes me five or maybe ten minutes to figure out how in the world I am going to drag this giant cart around the store and also a grocery cart. Do I just use my cart? Can I put my cart under theirs? (No) Is it dumb to have my cart inside of their cart? (Yes) Isn't there just a little clip on the front of their cart I can use? (No) I finally figure out that I can put my cart upside down in the handle of the regular cart. Problem solved. I have to walk a little funny in the store, but it works.

Grocery shopping happens. I do pretty well, mostly sticking to the list. Notable off-list exceptions being queso fresco which just seems too exciting not to try, apple juice which should have been on the list and just wasn't, and filling in the blank space labeled "fruits and veggies" on my list: red peppers, avocados, grapes, jalapenos, celery, carrots, apples, bananas, and onions.

I go through checkout. The cashier and bagger are super helpful after I explain the situation. Basically I need them to forget the basic concept of creating a bag, and create a cart instead. So they make heavy bags to go on the bottom, and lighter bags to go on the top. Everything cold fits perfectly in the cooler. It's brilliant. It's also really heavy. And now that it's heavy, my cart does not enjoy the concept of cornering.

I learn to pick up the back wheels of the cart and turn in order to corner. I make it to the bus stop, and the bus comes right away. And then the moment of truth: what if I can't lift my heavy cart onto the bus? The metal is too fragile for me to lift from the basket. The nice bus driver lowers the bus a little bit for me, and I just heave the thing up. We make it!

Now just a short, uncomfortable bus ride where the laws of physics involving inertia are demonstrated for me many times. I get off the bus, and immediately hit a bump in the sidewalk that stops me short. The people walking behind me are not impressed. But I maneuver that and some more corners, and make it home.

I don't know if I'd call it an unqualified success, but it's definitely doable. A woman who got in the elevator with me seemed impressed with my cart skills. She sold her car last week, highly recommends it, and is thinking about copying my grocery shopping style. Slightly undermining all this cheeryness, we each wished the other good luck as I got of the elevator.

Game Night Group

So, every two weeks 8 or 10 of us get together for dinner and a board game. We've been doing this for almost a year now, with only a few missed dates. We are now challenging ourselves with preparing thematic dinners, based on choices we all put into a hat (technically, a coffee cup at Clarke's diner at 12am, but it works). You heard ehs talk about us hosting "The Other One in the Couple." The next time, Ian created "Formalish Appetizers," which was wonderful. We ate fried plantains, bruschetta, celery sticks, marinated and broiled tofu, I think there was more. Also ice cream.

This Thursday Maria is hosting and her theme is "South Pacific." Particularly appropriate given the Tony's, but I think she's looking at it geographically rather than theatrically. I know I'm excited, we're expecting "pineapple, peanuts, pineapple, tofu or pineapple." All my favorites.

Coming up in the next months are Mary and Dan with "Childhood," which should be interesting, and Matt with "Brinner" as in "Breakfast for Dinner."

I don't think we'll do themes every time, but I do expect we will do them again. Really the best part is getting to see good friends on a regular basis, so you don't feel like you have to catch up all over again every time you see someone. And the food's always great, whatever it is.

What's For Dinner?

I recently realized that I seem to spend less time preparing and cooking dinner than many of my friends, even though I often have more time to do it than they do. I've been trying to figure out why that is, and I think I have a couple different ideas.

1. My mom. My brother always wanted Mom to play with him after school, and then he would suddenly get hungry and want dinner right away. Mom had to figure out things that could get on the table very quickly, so this is a familiar concept for me.

2. I clean dishes as I go. Sometimes this means preparing a big sink of hot soapy water, sometimes it means washing while something is cooking. Usually at the end of dinner most of the prep dishes are already cleaned.

3. I choose recipes that I am fairly confident I can finish in the time allotted. Sometimes I miss, but I often don't start dinner until I get the call that ehs is on the way home.

4. I sometimes use canned or packaged vegetables and proteins, especially tofu, seitan, tempeh, quorn, beans, and in the winter, tomatoes. I also use frozen pre-made raviolis, and my food processor. Sometimes I will prep the next night's dinner when ehs is washing the dishes after dinner, marinading tofu, making hummus, etc.

5. I keep a lot of staples in the house that can become a lot of different meals, including fast grains like jasmine rice, pre-made polenta rolls, quinoa, couscous, and pastas. I also keep fast proteins like almonds, walnuts and yogurt in case those seem more appropriate to the meal.

I still have leftovers for lunch the next day, we've been eating leftovers all weekend actually. And we're still eating balanced meals, with grains, proteins, and lots of veggies. We get a variety of grains and proteins, and have some basic veggies that tend to be in many things, but we rotate those too as much as possible.

I get a lot of my recipes from Peter Berley's Fresh Food Fast, Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything Vegetarian, and Real Simple. Real Simple is especially great at paring a meal down to its basic components for the sake of time, but still having things that taste good. I find their "Fake It, Don't Make It" section particularly amusing, although I don't often make the recipes shown. Last month I was impressed by the concept of rolling chocolate chips into store-bought crescent roll dough before baking to make chocolate croissants. This month it was making "Ice Cream Cake" by layering and freezing ice cream sandwiches with homemade whipped cream.

Everyone knows I love food, especially real food. We do read a lot of labels, and try as much as possible to make sure that the things we bring in the house are real food without extra weirdness. But you can follow the eat real food rule without sacrificing too much time. You just have to sacrifice being an overachiever on a weeknight. ^_^