Аз обичам домати

In general, I'm not a huge fan of August. It's hot, it's sticky, congress is in recess. But one thing I absolutely love about this month is the plethora of tomatoes. The rest of the year it's hard to find decent ones that aren't mealy and tasteless. This year, in between the food co-op, the farmers markets and our own plant I have been overloaded with great tomatoes. Here a few of the things I've done with them.

Rosemary Flatbread with goat cheese

Bruchetta Salad with locally made mozzarella, fresh toasted bread crumbs,
and a balsamic reduction sauce.

White sauce pizza with arugula

Enjoy them while you can, soon enough it will be butternut squash season.

Photos

A couple weeks ago Liz finally had an entire weekend off so we went out of town and stayed at a Bed and Breakfast in Marshall, Mi (which is apparently antique shop capital of the world. Seriously, like half the stores in the town.) The reason for picking Marshall is our all time favorite brewery, Dark Horse. They have some of our favorite beers including five stouts, two porters, a black bier and some great IPA's.

Not only do they have great beer, but amazing pizza too.
As usual, we took home a growler.



















The following day we stopped in Spring Arbor to see off Seth before he left for Germany. We had some smoked salmon his dad made and devoured a few growlers in the sun.

This is Seth's "I can't wait to get out of Spring Arbor" face.





He also busted out a really great port circa 1927. It was rich and creamy and tasted like really luscious raisins. When it comes to dessert wines I think I prefer late harvest Sauvignon Blancs and Sauterns, but this made me want to have port a little more often.










Then his parents made us a great early dinner of grilled lamb kabobs, ratatouille, lentils, and brown rice. To me, lamb is so much tastier than beef. It was a great spread.




Back at home, the most interesting thing I've cooked recently was some creamed Shitake and Portabella mushrooms with asparagus over farfalle. It was really earthy and delicious. We also had a bottle of Michigan Merlot from Lone Oak. I had this once before and was pretty impressed, but this time around I found it a little more mediocre. It has a big, fruity nose and strong notes of dark cherry. Still decent, especially for grapes grown in southern Michigan, but still leaving a little to be desired, although it may have just been overpowering the creamy pasta. It did open up well after a while and was good to drink after dinner.


















I suppose that's all for now.
Goodbye kittens.

Хайде на уикенд!

Summer weekends in Ypsi have been so great, it makes my Mondays-Thursdays drag a bit, but we won't focus on those days.



Seth leaves for Germany for another year in less than a week, so he (and his parents new puppy Kirby) came out one last time. Not only was I able to beat him in chess for the first time ever, but we also made a great dinner. We ran to the farmers market and food co-op, stopped by the Shadow Art Fair at the Corner Brewery and then started cooking.


I put together a fresh mushroom and Gruyere tart. It was rich and creamy with peppers and thyme. Seth manned the brussel sprouts and garlic scapes. I had never had scapes before, and I have to say I was thoroughly impressed. Too bad they only come out for a few weeks a year.












Luckily I was able to come across a solid bottle of Bordeaux to go along with dinner. I was really surprised to find this for under $15. 2005 has a reputation for being the best recent year for Bordeaux and for good reason. This mostly Merlot blend from Chateau Bertinerie was a well balanced, medium bodied red that went very well with food. For a while I was getting into big, fruit forward reds from California that smacked you in the face with tannins, but more and more I am enjoying old world, particularly French wines that are more earthy, subtle, and meant to be drank with a meal. This one met the criteria nicely.










This past weekend was the Michigan Brewer's Guild Beerfest at Riverside Park, which is about a block and a half from our house and where I walk my dog every day. Myself, Dan, Allison, and Quillen were able to volunteer at it for a few hours in exchange for free admission and beer. Quite a good deal.

Here we are, gearing up to give 5,000 people their cups and drink tokens. (Yes, they gave us beer before and during our shift.)



There were about 50 breweries from around the state, and a record number of people came.


I had a great time. And it's surreal to me that something this awesome happens less than a quarter mile from where I live. Here's hoping that the coming weekends are just as fun.

Holidaze

Right now I'm coming down from a metaphorical high that lasted three solid days. Some friends came from out of town for the 4th of July and we had a kick ass time. For more on the weekend, check out the wife's new blog here.

On Saturday night, at about nine Seth and I decided that some cooking was in order. Liz's uncle had recently caught some fish for us on Lake Michigan, and so we made mahi mahi served on risotto with asparagus and topped with a burre blanc.




With it we drank a California Pinot Nior. It was bright and fruit forward with a big aroma of strawberries and raspberries. It was an interesting break for the Pinots I've been having, which have become more often then not, red Bourgogne. In general I find them more subtle and better to have with food.

Speaking of Bourgogne, back during memorial day weekend Seth brough over a great bottle and I made a balsamic roasted tofu-veggie stack complete with (bottom up) red bell pepper, eggplant, marinated tofu, baby bella mushrooms, zuchinni, and swiss chard.

This summer has been treating me very well. It's been incredible having so many friends near by, and ones from out of town that are willing to meet up. It's a huge contrast from last summer when Liz and I were alone in a town of people we could barely communicate with, and had to travel an average of six hours to see newly made friends. When I first came back home I was stunned at just how easy it was to maintain relationships here, and on some level I felt that ease made it less meaningful. But as time goes by I must say I get so much out of my friends here, even if I only have to walk two minutes to see them.

I have been meeting more and more people in Ypsilanti and I have to say, I am falling more in love with this town the longer I stay here. It's the only place I know of that has lots of cool stuff to do and is still affordable to live downtown in. For all the naysayers who think Michigan has nothing to offer, give Ypsi a try.

I've also come back from my reading hiatus and recently finished Under the Banner of Heaven and started Lolita yesterday. I think reading is like exercising. Your brain feels better when it's in shape, it just takes a bit of effort sometimes.

Tonight we are heading to Jackson for dinner with my family and Seth. Mom, Dad, and Aaron just got back from Germany, and Seth is about to go back. I think we are having creamed spinach salmon and probably some Riesling. I just hope I don't get too jealous when they are talking about Mallorca and Frieburg.

Cake

My coworker's birthday was a little while ago and I offered to make a cake. I figured it would be fairly easy. Obviously, I have never made a cake before.

I pulled out Juilia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking and decided on Gâteau à l'orange. Or orange sponge cake.

Eggs: Separated
Oranges: Juiced and Grated
Pan: Buttered and Flowered




For some reason I forgot we have and electric beater. It would have made this whole process a lot easier.

Not bad.
There are other things going on in my life besides cooking.

I've been riding my bike a lot, pretty much every day to work, which is about a 20 min ride each way. It's really refreshing at the end of work and I can definitely tell that I am getting more in shape because of it. Liz and I have rearranged our apartment and are working on some new home made craft/decorations. I'm feeling more and more settled in Ypsi. We have kicked around the idea of buying a house, but I don't know how serious we are about it. It would be a huge commitment for us, but if there was ever a time to do it, it's this year.

I'll be updating again soon, I have more food to write about.

A Standby

Liz got accepted into grad-school yesterday so we celebrated with one of her favorite meals and one of my most often used from Mark Bittman's "How to Cook Everything Vegetarian."

Pesto "Cheeseburger"

I actually serve this more like a steak than a cheeseburger topped with a balsamic tomato sauce. It's got walnuts, basil, fresh breadcrumbs, eggs, and parmesan making is a hearty and tasty dish. All that I added to the meal was some parmesean focaccia from the Depot Town Sourdough Bakery.

I've been on a real Rhone kick lately and I was pleased with this mostly Granache red from Chatau Pesquie. (And in a new decanter from Seth!)

It was nice and earthy with big luscious tannins. The decent amount of Syrah added a nice jammy mouthfeel with notes of pepper, dark cherry, tobacco, and a bit of black liquorish. It was a good food wine, but stood on it's own quite well.

In other news, I've been setting up some shows now to get myself back into playing Liz and I are playing on both June 6th in Ypsi and June 19th in Jackson. I've also been playing with the band Fields of Industry who have been one of my favorites for a while now. I am really exited to be playing music again.

Until next time.

Last Night's Dinner

Ok, so since James said it wouldn't be pretentious to make this a food and wine blog, here we go.

Last night I made an herbed risotto with a balsamic roasted eggplant/tomato topping.


I am getting more into risotto. It's so creamy and makes a great base or side to so many things like vegetables, fish, or poultry. I know the traditional gourmet herb is saffron, but let's be honest, I can't afford it. Here I used parsley, garlic, thyme, and anise. I also used anise in the eggplant and tomato topping. I've found anise works really well with eggplant. They both have really strong flavors but seem to cut each other when cooked together. And I garnished it with some basil from our new basil plant. It was a great entree.

The Wine was a Vidal Blanc from Sand Hill Crane Vineyards which is in Michigan, only about a half hour away. I was originally looking for a Sauvignon Blanc, but I was happy to see that this Michigan vineyard decided to use a lesser known and more suitible grape to the region rather than bank on a name that people recognize. I results were decent. I was expecting it to resemble Sauvignon Blanc, but tasted and went down much more like a Chardonnay. Smooth and almost buttery, not the crisp feel I expected. Definite American oak, and floral notes with a bit of vanilla. Overall the creamyness went well with the risotto. It was a fine table wine, but nothing too exiting going on.

I'm going to try and do this about once a week. Let me know if it gets annoying.

The future is food.

With all the changes in my life over the past few weeks you would think I would have something to write about other than cooking.

but.

well.

I'd rather not talk about the other stuff right now.

Tonight I made probably the best pizza of my life. A lavender dough topped with fresh mozzarella, goat cheese, parmesan, tomatoes, garlic-stuff olives, chicken, arugala, and a tomato-pesto sauce. And a salad with arugala, spinach, honeycrisp apples, pecans, strawberries, avocado, and gorgonzola, with a honey-lime vinaigrette.

Good food and drink are about the only things keeping me sane in America. I love having access to this stuff, I just hate how much it costs. I'm probably either going to be working as a cook at whole foods, or serving at a really nice restaurant in Ann Arbor. Either way food is in my future. Hooray.

Will it blend?

I never wanted to be one of those teachers who slams textbooks on desks in front of kids and makes them copy dictations for entire classes, but here we are. I have run out of ways to get these kids to shut up for two seconds and care about the present perfect tense.

When I signed up for Peace Corps I didn't exactly envision myself in a room full of 11th grade boys at an auto mechanic school, listening to their mp3 players and yelling at each other while I was teaching. Hell, I didn't even envision teaching. And I'm not sure how to make them care, when quite frankly, I don't care.

It's not that I don't care about them, I just don't care wither or not they learn English. Honestly, these kids can have a fine, productive, and meaningful life in Bulgaria without it. Most of my students want to be bus drivers, mechanics, ect. which are not things you need English for, and in lots of ways knowing English hinders that "sustainable development" we heard so much about. When someone here can speak English, they usually do one of two things, they leave their town for a big city, or they leave their country all together. It's hard to feel like I'm not encouraging the brain drain. But then again, it's not like these kids are learning anything from me anyway.

But we got a blender.
It's making everything ok.

The other night, because I actually found lettuce, and the heirloom tomatoes are still in season. I made some golden sandwich bread and my own mayonnaise to go along with some creamy cauliflower soup.

Blender

Making Mayo

Soup and Sandwich

I forgot just how much I love sandwiches. This is going to be a regular occurrence from here on out.

Dinner

Here's one straight from the man himself. I like it so much I made it twice this week.


Note to people in Bulgaria (or anyone else really):
I can't find lavender, but I've used parsley, dried thyme and dried rosemary. All have worked really well. And I just used a cheese grater for the shredding.

For The Tames

To James and Theresa: Congrats.
In your honor I am blogging about a meal that I loved, that is vegetarian, and contains only things that James can find in his stupid little village.

Now get ready to forget everything you thought you knew about Stuffed Cabbage.

• First, saute some onion and garlic in oil in a pot. Once it's cooked a bit add 1 parts lentils & rice and 2 parts stock, broth, or water, let cook.

• Meanwhile, Core a cabbage and tear off a bunch leaves and steam them. Once they get flexible take them out.

• When the lentils and rice are cooked lay portions on the cabbage like so.

• Then wrap them up and put back in the steamer

• Steam another 10 mins or so, and eat.

Let me know how it turns out, this one might be a good submission to the cookbook. I also made a lemony lentil salad the other day that turned out all right. Last night, Seth was talking about ratatouille, and the eggplants downstairs look really good today. Now if only I could find a decent Bordeaux. Oh well, maybe in two years.

Горе, На Там!

Yesterday Liz and I had to go into Sofia for a pre-school-year meeting with the Education staff. So we got up early, I made omelets, and we headed out.

Note about Omelets.

Omelets are way underrated. This was a zucchini and kashkaval omelet that only took about as long as the toast. I've started making them for lunches too. They really are perfect when you want something delicious, filling, and really quick. Also, in America most places use at least three eggs which I think is complete overkill. Two eggs is more than enough to cover any number of toppings.

So we catch the bus into Sofia, catch the tram to the other side of town and had our meeting. It was a bit boring, but we got some really good info and gradebooks/schedules that will come in really handy. All though this meeting quelled some of my fears about teaching, it also intensified others. Apparently it's really common for the first month or so of school to not know what hours you are teaching until the day of. The first day for teachers is this Monday but no one from my school has called me or let me know I should come in. I have no idea what grades I'm teaching, what books we are using, or even how many classes, and apparently I won't know these things for some time.

After the meeting a few friends met us near the historic end of Sofia and we took a mini tour. We saw the oldest Mosque in Europe, a giant cathedral, the main government buildings and monuments and had a drink at this ridiculously expensive cafe. (My fault guys, I will never trust the NYT about Bulgaria again.)

After that Liz and I went back to our bus station only to find out that there is a problem with the 7:00 bus and we would have to wait an extra hour for the next one. This leaves plenty of time to make up for the expensive cafe by drinking really cheap rakia at the bus station. By the time we got home, exhaustion took hold. But we felt pretty accomplished. До После. Чaу.

Food

Once we finished training there hasn't really been a lot going on. Because it's summer and we don't really have a ton of friends here yet, usually the most exiting thing I do during a day is cook. So I've decided to start blogging a bit about that.



The other night a couple of friends came over for dinner and so I made some fresh pasta with a garlic & olive oil sauce with walnuts & basil, along with some french bread. The baguettes turned out to be some of the best I have been able to make in our tiny oven that only reaches 250F. I also think I'm getting better at making pasta, this batch wasn't too sticky or too floury. The sauce was good and simple and the walnuts added a heartiness that vegetarian meals can often lack. I was overall pretty happy with the outcome.

Last night we had some people over and I made pasta again, but this time with an uncooked tomato & basil sauce, bread, carrot salad with a orange & cumin dressing, and cauliflower with buerre noisette.

Volunteers here put together a cookbook for Bulgaria and I think I will be adding a few recipes to the next edition. Right now there are a lot of recipes in there that are full of things you can't find here, in any season, and some of the stuff just doesn't make any sense. One recipe is called spicy mexican hummus without tahini. I don't know how that qualifies as hummus and not Spicy Bean Dip.