Fall Harvest and Kitchen Obsessions

It's been forever since I posted, and I should be doing other things, so here I am! Currently in my oven, I am roasting vegetables for salsa. Red and green tomatoes (tomatillos would be good, but I've just got unripe tomatoes to use), red and green bell peppers, red and green jalapenos, onion, garlic. The soft veggies for about 30 min, the harder ones for about an hour, and then blend them up! I've blended the tomatoes, garlic, and a few bell peppers. At this point it could easily become italian with more garlic and some basil. I may hold on to some for just that purpose.

My little potted apartment garden hasn't been wildly successful, but I always have plenty of jalepenos. Last week I made my own crushed red pepper by dehydrating some in my oven at 200F and crunching them with a rolling pin. Delicious and oh so spicy.

I've been hashing over the purchase of a food processor/bread maker/mixer for a while. Kitchenaid? Bosch? Cuisinart? The basic model available now at Costco, or the customized, accessory laden perfect fit found online for twice the cost? One that fits my current needs, or one that might be better for the long term, that I should buy while I can? I have tentatively settled on a food processor with a dough hook for my current needs, though as I type it I'm questioning again. My salsa experiment worked fine in the blender, but for hummus (and mandoline-style slicing and julienning, and pesto, and. . ) it's not making the cut. But doughs? Egg whites? Batters? Cream? I need more! I know Bosch mixers have attachment options, but they seem small and possibly not as effective as a dedicated processor. (The answer, of course, is to get both, but, ooh, I'd be so spoiled!)

Arches

I just got back from Arches National Park. A small herd of us went down to enjoy the scenery and hike the Fiery Furnace. It was awesome! Ranger Joel, our geologist guide, was very dramatic and a tad cheesy as he took us through the Wonder of the Fins.

My favorite part of Saturday was floating in the muddy though refreshing Colorado River. It was HOT down there! And it felt great to take a dip. A few of us stayed an extra night, and this morning was the cream. It being Sunday, and raining, the park was almost deserted. Silent, cool desert, tourist-free and lovely. We did a loop from Sand Dune Arch through Broken Arch to Devil's Garden and then a gorgeous section back to the Sand Dune Trail. The rain made the green greener against the red rock and the bluey-purple sky.

Hazy Crazy Days

Lazily back to blogging, in the rainy summer months. I have recently:

Camped in the San Rafael Swell

Purchased one Dinosaur Quarry T-shirt, one pop-up tent, 2 pairs of Danskos, and a new serpentine belt for my car (luckily before the road trip began)

Finished an African drumming class through community ed

Started a sculling class on the Great Salt Lake.

Planted my container garden: Tomatoes, jalepenos, peas, radishes, and herbs

Read 4 of the books on my summer reading list

Hiked Frary Peak on Antelope Island

Gotten sunburned on Frary Peak on Antelope Island

Watched the US v UK World Cup match

Attended the Scottish festival

Baked a pie


Plans for the future include a hip hop class, bruschetta, more camping, and a water park if all goes well.

Ways to remember people

Moab was awesome. Hiking, off-roading, and rafting. Happy start to the summer.

Today I was cooking--I like to cook up a couple things at once--while listening to Debussy. Part of "Prelude to the Afternoon of the Faun" sounds a lot like the original theme to Star Trek.

The results of my cooking extravaganza were a pot of curry and an invented salad of veggies and garbanzo beans with tzatziki dressing. The thought occurred to me that I have collected a lot of recipes and been introduced to new foods by my roommates. I've previously thought about how different music sticks out in my memories of some of the houses I've lived in, so I thought I'd remember them here.

Andrea Pimentel made incredible alfredo, and listened to Moulin Rouge and Eric Clapton and Diana Krall.

At Tina's condo, punk in general, the Vandals, Bowling for Soup, Rob Thomas, Tina dabbling in Eminem, Amber and the Goo Goo Dolls, and one particular song by J Lo and LL Cool J. And the advent of Homestar Runner, though not musical, was significant in our apartment. Tina made fajitas and crepes, and Kristi raspberry balsamic chicken. This was also the place I lived when Cafe Rio opened in Provo.

At the Shanty, I remember ice cream cake and "I'm just a teenage dirtbag" playing on repeat.

And the glorious Random House. Lots of Ben Folds and Puccini, a little Modest Mouse. And, oh, the food. The whole ward over for brunch every other week. Sarah's triple chocolate cake. Amanda introduced me to the wonder of onions, how to make marinara from scratch, spanakopita, and fresh mozzarella. Kjerstin concocted curries, and showed me how the sweetness of a little pineapple or pear really fills out the perfect curry, and that fancy party food is totally worth it.

Skipping a few years of high roommate turnover and less delicious food, in the Beige Condo there was Erienne introducing me to lovely Japanese food.

With Marlena I discovered I wasn't a huge fan of Vietnamese food (sorry) and a big fan of delicious Marlena Chicken: In a crockpot, chicken, bell peppers, carrots, paprika, and a bay leaf. And the importance of a rice cooker.

From Tricia (lots of Country Music) I inherited Tricia Chicken, a mix of zucchini, tomatoes, and cream of celery soup, Bruschetta Chicken bake, gingerbread scones, and by way of Annie, white chili.

Through the years I've inherited recipes from people I babysat for, too, among other places, but the gals I've lived with have definitely changed my life, and cooking skills, for the better!

Good Things

Working until 3:30 am on a donor was bad. But organ donation in good!

Having a day off to rest after working all night

My African drumming community ed class. So fun to play with rhythm!

Finishing my history class. It was my marathon. But I read, wrote, and talked, and it gave me confidence about going to grad school if I want. I would rock the house! (But not next year)

Peruvian food at my professor's house on the last day of class

Finally finally finishing and posting pics on Picasa from my Middle East trip in the fall: http://picasaweb.google.com/lgolsen

Spending today scanning in my Grandpa Olsen's photos and documents from World War II. He was a Seabee, and there's a picture of a very suntanned Allan with his sailor's cap at a jaunty angle that always makes me want to sing "We got sunlight on the sand, we got moonlight on the sea. . ." from South Pacific

Scanning in photos while watching The Office season 2, which I've only seen parts of

Indian food every Wednesday at work. Truly. I believe mint chutney may be my favorite food of the year

We got a $200 amazon gift certificate from a vendor at work, so we split it up and got $18 each. And I got ramekins. The possibility of chocolate souffle in my future is good.

Imagining camping trips for this summer. Moab? Goblin Valley? Yes.

More good things to come, I'm sure.

Summer Reading List

Since the semester is almost over, I'm starting to collect titles for when I can read for fun again, and not because my professor tells me to. The list so far:

God: A Biography

On Zion's Mount: Mormons, Indians, and the American Landscape

Superfreakonomics

Turbulent Souls: A Catholic Son's Return to his Jewish Family
and/or
Choosing my Religion: A memoir of a family beyond belief(both by one of the authors of Superfreakonomics)

A History of White People (More normal than it sounds)

The Mysterious Benedict Society

I need some more fluff on this list. Maybe a Victoria Holt novel for the beach, at least.

Read any good books lately?

My Co-Workers are the Best Cooks in the World!

Not to rub it in, but I gotta tell you about the post-Easter potluck we had to day. We're all sort of foodies here, and the combination was inspirational.

First, because there always seems to be too much food, we spread assignments over both breakfast and lunch for a whole day of feasting. During our morning staff meeting, we ate strawberries, quiche, and lemon blueberry scones.

For lunch:

Garlic and olive oil drizzled crostini topped with chicken salad

Tortilla chips and southwestern dip: homemade fresh salsa with black beans, corn, cilantro, and a hint of pineapple

Spinach casserole with buttery Ritz cracker topping

Chicken Marbella, marinated with prunes, capers, and olives

Slow-cooked shredded beef sandwiches with provolone and horseradish

Oatmeal butterscotch cookies for dessert

Yes, it was a good day at work.




Do it yourself:
The crostini and chicken salad were both from Harmons grocery store

The scones, which I baked, can be found here: http://culinaryarts.about.com/od/bakingdesserts/r/lemonbluescones.htm

Here's a version of Chicken Marbella:
http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/chicken_marbella/

(Sorry for the long links. I'm having issues linking from a word. If anyone has Hyperlinking for Dummies tips, let me know)

Happy Easter!

Good weekend. I like all the food, friend, and family gatherings that happen with LDS General Conference. Ate Aebleskivers at friends house for Saturday morning conference breakfast.

Today I went to my grandparents' house for the afternoon session and dinner with them and my aunt and cousins. My Grandma is good at feeding people. A good way to celebrate holy days.

The Blind Date Project

A friend is doing an anthropology project on blind dating culture, and on racial preferences in dating. So she went on about 10 blind dates, and set up several of her friends (including me). I had a nice time with the guy--but I gotta tell you my favorite thing about it was that it reminded me of high school.

Going on a random creative date, just for the sake of having a date, not because you really liked the guy, was a classic high school tradition. Our activity added to this: because we had to wait a couple of hours for the other people to join us, we ended up at a toy store and bought one of those big styrofoam gliders.

We spent an hour or so at Sugarhouse park, flying our airplane and chatting. It was fun and mellow. Then, unfortunately, we met the other couple to go bowling at a very very loud place, which kinda killed conversation. Yeah, bowling and mini golf need to be retired as standby dates. Go fly an airplane at the park!



On another note, I saw a recommendable movie this week: "An Education." It was a Sundance movie, so it's a bit of a thinker and not the standard formula film. I'd like to have an English class to discuss it with :) Great filmmaking! Incredible acting, including people who only had a few lines, and an awesome, awesome soundtrack.

My friend who went with me didn't like it so much though--she said she lost a little trust in my movie choosing ability. But come on! Let's enjoy the unexpected, bittersweet movies along with chick flicks and action movies. "An Education" was great.

Adventures of Late

I've been enjoying the lovely almost-springtimeyness! It's delicious. Saturday, I went to my African dance class. I've been going, off and on, for almost five years. I love the live drummers, and the random assortment of people forming a community, and the crazy ways we move our bodies. They have a bunch of classes, for good prices. www.rdtutah.org.

In keeping with the theme, I guess, a friend and I went to Peery's Egyptian Theater in Ogden to see Ladysmith Black Mambazo that evening. They are the South African group who recorded with Paul Simon on his Graceland album. Really good.

Add a fun family get together, and the weekend was complete.

And, just for kicks, an ode to Spring, by Gerard Manley Hopkins, for you today.

Nothing is so beautiful as Spring —
When weeds, in wheels, shoot long and lovely and lush;
Thrush’s eggs look little low heavens, and thrush
Through the echoing timber does so rinse and wring
The ear, it strikes like lightnings to hear him sing;
The glassy peartree leaves and blooms, they brush
The descending blue; that blue is all in a rush
With richness; the racing lambs too have fair their fling.
What is all this juice and all this joy?
A strain of the earth’s sweet being in the beginning
In Eden garden. — Have, get, before it cloy,
Before it cloud, Christ, lord, and sour with sinning,
Innocent mind and Mayday in girl and boy,
Most, O maid’s child, thy choice and worthy the winning.

A Day

Yesterday was a lovely day. I got off work, I went shopping--$5 shirt sale at Downeast Outfitters. And I came home, and got my summer clothes box out of storage. I swapped my business-casual for capri pants and chacos (Spring! Almost here!) and made delicious chicken pot pie with puff pastry. MMMM. Cleaned my kitchen and fridge, with tv noise to entertain me: Henry Louis Gates' PBS special about ancestry and family history, and then Ugly Betty, you know, for balance.

Sometimes, just coming home from work and enjoying the day can be incredible.

Dia de Nacimiento

I've always been a little ambivalent about birthday celebrations. You know, the whole extra pressure of "Please come. And you really have to, because it's my birthday." It's just awkward, so that the enjoyment of the day is tinged with flavors of guilt and manipulation, to be dramatic about it.

Up to now, my favorite birthday was 3 friends making me chicken pot pie and bringing me yellow and orange tulips. People who love me, delicious food, and flowers. All I need. Small, low-pressure, minimal center-of-attention-ness.

This charming ideal of mine was thrown out the window this year in favor of an all-me, all-the time weekend, which has by now taken on a little smidge of the "okay, now can we pay attention to someone else please?" I have incredibly kind friends. Here's what we did:

Friday (the big day) at work, my co-worker brought this incredibly fancy fruit tart from Gourmandise to celebrate. This was only the beginning of the sugar rush.

That night we had dinner at Mazza, a delicious middle-eastern place. "We" would be a group of some of the awesome people I've gotten to know in Salt Lake: Spencer, Dan, Nate, Thomas, Tricia, Chris, Ben, Gretchen, Erik, Matt, Kandis. We had to wait a couple hours for a table, but had a lot of fun and I think people liked the new culinary adventure.

We headed back to the house, and a few more friends joined us--Melissa, Holly, Annie, Denise and her friend Tyler. Denise had made incredible tres leches cake, enjoyed by all. Much hilarity and a little bit of singing ensued. Also, a couple of us bought tickets to U2 in June which is going to be wicked awesome. Yay! This great party left me rather hyper, with a sleep-deprivation hangover to suffer through on Saturday.

My Me-Me-Me weekend continued with a scary snowy drive to Provo, where my sister Lisa treated me to a Spring Spa treatment at Acaydia beauty school. We got these mango back treatments, kind of like a facial for your back. Though my smooth skin is really only going to be appreciated by me, rest assured, my back has been exfoliated, massaged, hot-toweled, scrubbed, painted with various pampering substances, and hot-toweled some more. Being high-maintenance is kinda fun. But I'll keep my feet on the ground and probably not go for the Elase cellu-electro-dermabrasion.

Lisa and I went to a small Olsen family gathering for my Grandma Jean Olsen, who turned 84 on Saturday. She definitely deserves attention for her hard work, her good life, and 5 boys she raised with my late Grandpa. Good to see them all.
When you look at the amount of time I spent with my aging grandmother versus the amount of time people spent on me, I become a very bad person.

More snowy driving! Hurried dessert making! A little bit of time with my sixteen-year-old brother Andy, who was texting and playing computer games during most of it. Interspersed with his monosyllabic responses: "k. yeah. no." were the only two full sentences I believe he spoke. "How do you spell 'consistent'?" For a text message. And a little while later, "How do you spell 'doofus?'" I love teenagers.

At this point, I was pretty exhausted, but no stopping! More partying with a posse of girls I have known at least since high school and their significant others, supposedly to celebrate my friend Danny finally finishing the California Bar Exam. But sneakily, they morphed it into a birthday surprise for me. Very sweet and kind of them, and I hope they never do it again :) Definitely where the guilt started.

And today, after staying home and missing most of church hiding in the dark with a headache, I taught Relief Society, then went to Bountiful for yet another birthday dinner. After this week, I will be diabetic, I am sure. My grandma had invited me and my cousin Jamie, who also had a birthday this week, and her brother Kurtis and family for a delicious grandma pot roast dinner. We played a game called "What's yours like?" afterwards--very, very funny especially with my grandpa who overthinks everything. Good times.

Now I've just gotta fix the huge ding in my windshield, thanks to the big rock on the snow driving day, and of course listen to my new Glee soundtrack. (Why does it make me so happy? It just does!)

So thank you to the universe at large, and thank you to each of the people who celebrated with me, and I will begin immediately planning nice things for your birthdays so we can even up the score. I have a lot to live up to after this.

Random Recipes

My favorite salad, created by dipping random things into Brianna's poppyseed salad dressing until I had the perfect mix:

Romaine lettuce
Avocados, cut in chunks
Oranges, peeled, sectioned, cut in chunks
String cheese, pulled into thick strings and cut in thirds (Really. String cheese is better than all other kinds of cheese for this)
Brianna's Poppyseed dressing

Delicious.


Pasta with butter and parmesan cheese is always a classic quick meal. Lately I've been enjoying a glammed-up version involving angel hair, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, chopped garlic (from a jar) and shredded parmesan. Mmmm.

Fun stuff on TV!

I've been enjoying all the lovely offerings of online television lately. Very few snowstorms equals not great snowshoeing outdoors, and a combination of procrastinating schoolwork as well as getting food poisoning, and then recovering, and then getting a cold, and then recovering, has led me to the wilds of Hulu.

I love 3o Rock! Psych is fun, Glee is awesome and a tad crude, The Office isn't as funny as it used to be, Community is is sorta funny, especially Troy and Abed. Wow, suddenly my life sounds very, very lame. Oh well. I can admit that I like TV, and it's not automatically an instrument of the Devil :)

But what I really want to tell you about is PBS.org. They have interesting programs, including Masterpiece Theater. There's a great new version of Emma available right now. So good! The Gwyneth Paltrow version is an Olsen family classic, but I definitely rank this one up there. They rotate availability, so get it while it's hot!

Middle Eastern Film Fest

I'm a big believer in being a tourist in my hometown, so I try to find unique events in the area. Since I went to Jordan and Israel in the fall, I thought I'd take in the Middle Eastern Film Festival hosted by the Utah Museum of Fine Arts. They show a film every couple weeks, and I've gone twice.

Wednesday I saw "Dunia--Kiss me not on the eyes," an Egyptian film. It's about a woman who is a literature graduate student and aspiring dancer, and the intersections of her life with her professor, who is blinded by attackers after speaking against the censorship of "A Thousand and One Nights", her husband, who after their marriage tries to curtail her activities, and her friends, who are trying to establish more freedom for themselves and their daughters despite the limitations placed on them not by men but by older generations of women. Definitely a message movie, but needed, and enjoyable.

A few weeks ago I saw "Lemon Tree," which was a little lighter and had some sweet and funny moments. A Palestinian widow is trying to protect her lemon orchard, right on the border of Israel and the West Bank, from being cut down after the Israeli defense minister moves in right across the way. It's her story of fighting back and re-entering life, and about the similarities of people on opposite sides of the conflict. I really enjoyed it and now I'd like to see "The Syrian Bride," with the same actress and director. The actress, Hiam Abbass, is also in "The Visitor" which came out last year in the US.

Future movies: On Monday, March 8, 2010 at 7pm, the U of U is screening "Waltz with Bashir," and animated documentary about individuals coming through the 1982 Lebanon War. It was nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar and other awards. This one is at the Fort Douglas Theater, 245 S. Fort Douglas Boulevard

The last film in the series is playing Wed. March 17 at 6pm in the UMFA auditorium. It's "Persepolis," the story of a girl growing up in Iran, based on a graphic novel. It was nominated for the Best Animated Feature Oscar but lost to Ratatouille. http://umfa.utah.edu/calendar

Girl Scout Cookie Day!

Today is the day I've waited for, when chocolate mint crispiness and toasted coconut caramel joy are delivered to my workplace in tiny, overpriced boxes. Special thanks to my sister Jenny for introducing me to Samoas during high school and converting me from my previous dislike of coconut to my current enjoyment of the stuff. She was was also the creative force behind another chocolate coconut treat that got us through the Samoa-free months of the year. The procedure is as follows:

1) Bake a 9x13 pan of brownies.

2) Frost with a can of German chocolate (coconut pecan) frosting.

3) Hide it.


The final step may only be necessary if you live in a big family, but stashing them to eat later only adds to their deliciousness.

As a final note, here is one of my favorite coconut-themed recipes. I didn't think I liked rice pudding either, until I made this. I cook some any time I have milk I need to use up.

Coconut Rice Pudding

1/2 C rice
2 C milk
2 C coconut milk
1/3 C sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

Wash the rice in several changes of water and put in a pot. Add milk and coconut milk and slowly bring to a boil, stirring as needed to prevent burning. Lower the heat and simmer for 1 hour or until it has thickened to a pudding consistency. Add sugar and vanilla and cook 5 more minutes. Serve warm or cold, for dessert or breakfast, especially good served with mangoes.


Rinsing the rice washes off a starch layer they add in processing to keep it from getting too sticky. I use lite coconut milk because the regular stuff is like a layer of shortening with some milk on top. It's in all supermarkets I've seen, in the Asian aisle. The original recipe is on the back of the yellow package of Golden Star brand jasmine rice. I think it's best using jasmine rice, but it's still great with normal short or long grain rice.

Happy cooking.

The Woman Inside the Man

That's the title of a class listed in the Granite Peaks community education Spring 2010 catalog. Here's the course description:

"Every man has a Y, or feminine, chromosome. That Y chromosome is called balance. The real man confidently shows his feminine side. Our instructor shows you that this is a power and not a weakness. Focus is on men. Use real information to find the strength that is hidden inside you. Discover the secrets of this power and in the end, the freedom that comes with it."

Yay for men and women showing whatever side of their personalities they feel like! But to me, this description is A) Hilarious and B) More Hilarious, when the poor guy's "real information" is completely wrong. Ah, well. It added laughter to my day.

Here I sit, on a Sunday afternoon, waiting. I got called in to the lab to work up an organ donor, which involves two 4-6 hour chunks of actual work separated by sometimes interminable sitting around.

Most of all y'all imaginary people reading my blog know that I'm a medical labby by day, but you may not know that I moonlight as a potential grad student in world history. My non-matriculated stay at the University of Utah may turn into a new degree or career, or just entertain me for a bit. The difficult thing is that while learning is one of the most delightful things I know of, learning because someone is telling you to is less fun, and studying is worse.

Waiting for my eyes and attention is a 400 page tome on Madeira wine: its creation, shipment, consumption, and influence on American trade and taste. Yesterday, I read a good chunk while sitting on my lawn in warm sunshine and cool breezes, pretending it was spring. Lovely. I enjoy learning the small moments in history, the personal stories, the humor and perspective to be found. Less charming to me are the minutiae of, for example, the evolution of wine glasses and decanters. But I will be strong, fight onward, and skim the boring parts. Have a good day, y'all.

Film Festival Joy

For my inaugural post, I give you my report on the Banff Outdoor Film Festival world tour. Awesome! You should go next year! Short films on extreme rock climbing, rafting through Africa, and saving birdies in the Arctic. My two favorites were one about a British guy who rode a tandem bike from Alaska to Argentina, and all the people he picked up on the way to help him pedal, and one about another Brit who became one of only 6 women in history to row solo across the Atlantic. She had cameras on through the whole thing--broken oars, broken satellite phone, and all.

I have mixed feelings about the fact that since humans no longer have to fight for survival, we make up dangerous things to do and then learn from them. But it really was inspirational to see a person face physical exhaustion, frustration, and complete solitude on the wide, wide sea and continue to trust herself and use her emotional and physical resources to finish the course.

Plus, I won a drawing for a really cool wool and polar fleece Outdoor Research beanie. Swag on top of pondering the tenuous relationship of humans and nature? Yeah, baby.

Check it out:
http://unews.utah.edu/p/?r=021010-1
http://www.chestnutmtnproductions.com/banff/banffhome.htm
http://rozsavage.com/