The True Meaning Of Food

For the record...

2011-10-26T17:35:00.000-07:00

Everyone LOVED dinner tonight! Usually there's one person (usually L) who is not happy about at least one part of dinner. Tonight: no complaints AT ALL and plenty of asking for seconds! YES! (fist pumping). That was awesome.

So I don't forget it, it was super easy. We had potato soup (T helped to make it - she's made it by herself before, it's a really easy recipe), rolls, and a green salad. Last time I made potato soup it was a hit except for D - and this time he loved it!

If you want the recipe - it's nothing fancy, but I've tweaked it some - here it is. It makes quite a bit, we'll have enough for another meal at least. Easily halved.

Potato Soup (easily made dairy-free, too)
6-7 med. to large potatoes, washed, peeled,* and diced
3T dried onion flakes**
1T dried parsley
1T kosher salt
4T butter
1 can coconut milk
a few grinds black pepper
2 Qts (8cups) water

Bring water to a boil (I forgot to do this first, and just dumped everything in first - still worked), THEN add potatoes, onions, parsley, salt, and pepper. Cover and lower temp - cook until potatoes are done - about 45 min.

Mash potatoes with a hand masher. Stir in butter and coconut milk. Simmer 15 min. uncovered - don't boil. It will thicken up some as it cools. We add some grated cheese to the bowls, and some people like diced ham thrown in as well. It doesn't taste like coconut in these proportions, but when I've halved the recipe I must have used more than 1/2 a can, as it did some - but still yummy. The original recipe called for some evaporated milk.

* I peeled about 1/2 of them. You don't have to peel any of them, really.

** Onion flakes are not my fave to cook with, but it makes this recipe REALLY easy. You could use fresh onion, but I would saute it first probably?

funyun casserole!

2011-04-27T22:20:00.000-07:00

Kris is considering ending his 10 year streak as a vegetarian for this. We love that the can of vegetables is totally optional.

worthy of praise

2011-03-21T21:04:00.000-07:00

We had a dinner tonight that was fantastic, and worthy of praise. Just a few vegetables that came together to make something delicious. A salad: lettuce greens, toasted pecans with a pinch of brown sugar, onion and golden beets roasted to perfection (drizzled with balsamic, olive oil, and honey before cooking), avocado, goat cheese, a little brown rice, and olive oil and balsamic for a dressing. Oven sweet potato fries: sliced, tossed in olive oil and kosher salt. It was excellent! If only we had worked in bell peppers, sautéed greens, and cherries it would have been the perfect meal for Dad Jorgensen :).

While the Jorgensens were here we ate another dinner that is worthy of praise. I had been wanting to try a new fennel recipe and found this one. However, I wasn't home to make it, so Mom Jorgensen whipped it up even though she had to improvise on 1/3 of the ingredients. Thanks! We substituted spicy veggie sausages for the Italian sausage, left out the mushrooms (but did cauliflower on the side), used plain yogurt instead of cream, and used goat cheese instead of Parmesan. I guess that means she had to improvise on 1/2 the ingredients, oops! Sorry for not doing a better job prepping for that one Gayle. Anyway, it was excellent as it was. I think the regular recipe would be delicious too. The cauliflower was a great side dish.

What did you eat for dinner?

cake pops

2011-02-17T13:13:00.000-08:00

A friend of mine told me about the website foodgawker.com. This website has now become a problem for me b/c I love pictures of food. The first day I looked at it there was a link to a site about cake pops. I hadn't ever heard of them before, but apparently they were all over the internet in 2008. Sam saw the picture and fixated on the idea that we needed to make them and with Valentine's Day coming up we decided to go for it.

Most of the recipes I found sounded disgusting--a box of cake mix (baked), mashed up with canned frosting. Form that into balls and dip into some cheap, waxy chocolate. Yuck. However, Martha Stewart also had a recipe which is the one I opted for, although I cut out half of the sugar in the cake and didn't bother with two different colors to dip it in.

Sorry, I don't have any pictures of ours, but they looked a lot like the ones above. We tried doing chocolate cake with the cream cheese, buttercream frosting and dipping them in white chocolate, but Kris accidentally sabotaged our melting white chocolate. We ended up with chocolate centers dipped in melted dark chocolate and put sprinkles on the outside or stuck a conversation heart on. I was prepared to feel about them the way I feel about cupcakes--so-so. However, they were surprisingly good. I saved half the filling and froze it which I think will come in handy for Sam's 4th birthday.

Hope you had a nice Valentine's Day treat too!

Sunday Dinner

2011-01-10T19:40:00.000-08:00

So our church time just switched to 1-4. We've always hated afternoon church, but have to admit it's not so bad now that the kids are a little older. At any rate, we're trying to come up with a good plan for Sunday dinners. Ideally they aren't much work, and really they can't be since we're pretty much all starving by 5-ish. But we want GOOD food since there are several weeknights (between dance and basketball - MOST weeknights) that we aren't home right before dinner so we have to have easy meals then.

Yesterday our Sunday dinner was awesome. Aaron pulled some ribs out of the freezer (he'd bought them on sale a while back) poured half a bottle of Famous Dave's BBQ sauce on it (usually we make our own, but you know... time) and put it in the crockpot in the morning. I got out some Rhodes rolls before we left for church. When we came home we baked the rolls, broiled the ribs with a little more sauce, and thawed/warmed some leftover mash potatoes from the freezer. Oh, and washed some lettuce for a salad.
YUM.
So crock pot might be the way to go... and the Rhodes rolls worked really well time-wise.

And we got yummy leftovers for lunch today. No more mashed potatoes, though, and the roll is replaced by our crusty bread (but it was hot - yum).

Anyone have any awesome Sunday Dinner After Late Church suggestions?

Now who should I get this for for Christmas...

2010-10-25T17:43:00.001-07:00

A small part of the blurb on amazon:

" ...the self-proclaimed "King of the Kitchen Pimps" teaches readers how to become a "ghetto gourmet" with basics like scallops "rap'd" in bacon, shrimp cocktail (Cold Shrimpin'), spaghetti (Bro-Ghetti)..."

Awesome.

eating well

2010-06-08T21:33:00.000-07:00

Last night we decided to try out the Corvette Diner which was rumored to have housemade vegetarian bean burgers and delicious fries. Both rumors were true, but that place was crazy. It is a 50s themed ginormous restaurant complete with a live DJ (spinning oldies, taking requests), poodle skirt wearing hostesses, dancing servers, a disco ball, an arcade, an ice cream counter, and more. The dancing servers made Kris and I feel so uncomfortable, especially when we remembered Eva's stories of her worst job ever. The kids loved that part. The lights refracted off the disco ball were also super exciting for the kids. Lucy kept pointing to things, wide-eyed, saying, "Uh-bu-duh. Bah-bee." I don't know what that means but she was having a ball. Sam's favorite part was the ice cream sundae and the arcade. Anyway...

Kris bought me the cuisinart ice cream maker for mother's day (I think Mom and Dad Jorgie have it?). Love it. Last week I made chocolate coconut milk ice cream that included melted dark chocolate and cocoa powder (plus a pinch of granulated coffee to bring out the chocolate flavor, a little chocolate cake baking trick I learned). Pow! That's seriously how it tasted in my mouth. It was excellent. I have no idea what the proportions were but hopefully I can recreate it someday.

Awesome pizza

2010-05-23T19:02:00.000-07:00

On Kauai we ate at Brick Oven pizza (no connection with Brick Oven in Provo) based on a recommendation. It was awesome. This was cheese with fresh basil:

Still the best pizza

2010-05-23T18:49:00.000-07:00

We were thrilled to find that Boston's North End Pizza on Oahu is still around. The pizza is as good as we remembered.

The pizzas are still too big for the boxes:

Yum:

quick meals

2010-05-09T20:13:00.000-07:00

Usually when I make posts on this blog I post things that were exciting for me to make, and usually, but not always, that means it took a lot of time and/or effort. Lately I just don't have time so I am on a search for yummy meals with kid appeal that don't take a lot of effort (but aren't meals in a box).

This savory bread pudding is a favorite quick one I made recently--loved it (we got 3 of the 4 in our family to eat it, Sam wouldn't even get near it). I used rosemary instead of dill and a leek instead of a shallot b/c that's what I had. I went the mushroom route, not olive. I also used soy milk instead of regular. Other quick meals we love: Yaki soba is a big hit around here with my kids, I always throw in bok choy; burritos or tostadas with a little grated zucchini; rice cooked in coconut milk w/ nuts and veggies; paninis with roasted veggies; and pasta w/ bechamel sauce.

What are some quick meals you like?

bean burgers

2010-04-24T16:30:00.000-07:00

Just needing to share that Aaron made us delicious bean burgers for dinner. They were super tasty. We've tried them several times, with different recipes/spice combos but this time they were the best. And stayed together really well.
The recipe is from this book ("Veggie Burgers"):

And we loaded them up with avacodo, onion, tomato, greens, cheese, etc.

The big news is that this time the kids liked them! All of them ate it. Hooray!

le petit chef

2010-02-05T21:44:00.000-08:00

Sam is way more interested in helping in the kitchen lately. He used to only be interested if I were making cookie dough. Now he'll help me make just about anything as long as he can do some stirring, patting, mashing, and/or messing. Since the last time we made cookie dough, and had a long talk about raw eggs (our neighbor just had a really bad reaction to cookie dough) in dough and how we shouldn't eat it, he asks, "It has raw eggs in it?" every time we make any kind of dough.

This day we were making red lentil dahl which you hear him say faintly. The dahl is simple, just 1 c. red lentils (they're thinner than the green, if you've seen em'), a chopped onion, chopped tomato (the tomato does not need to be mashed, Sam just wanted to mash it, so why not?), 1.5 c. water, 1 can coconut milk, turmeric, ground coriander, cumin, a few curry leaves, 2 chopped carrots, salt to taste. Mix it all together and cook, uncovered, for about 30 minutes. Add extra water if necessary. It should be fairly soupy. After it's done put mustard seed and cumin seed in oil on heat until the seeds "pop." Chop up another onion (or you can do 1/2 in the dahl and 1/2 later if you don't love onions) finely and cook it with the mustard, cumin, and oil on a low temp until the onion is golden brown. Mix it in the dahl, simmer a few more minutes, and voila! The first time I put in regular coconut milk, the second time lite coconut milk. You can imagine which tasted better (just don't look at the fat content, that was my mistake).

I've never made my own naan before but the second time I made dahl Sam and I made naan and it made the dahl even more delicious. A really good meal became a delicious meal. It's pretty easy to make. I got my recipe from here but found that I needed almost another whole cup of flour in the dough to make it kneadable. I also didn't have a pizza stone to cook them as it recommends since ours broke, but a cookie sheet worked fine.

Curries

2010-02-04T07:36:00.000-08:00

We still are loving curries - Thai and Indian. Indian ones are our favorites to make.
Here's a couple we've been digging lately:

Actually, I can't remember what this one was called even - but we made it for the first time a couple of weeks ago and it's going on our favorites list! Super yummy, with chickpeas, potatoes, and sweet potatoes in it. Aaron found the recipe in this awesome pressure cooker book. He's loving his pressure cooker.

And Rajma - kidney bean curry. We've made this one a lot.

I like it with a little plain yogurt and plenty of cilantro.

Both of these photos were spur of the moment - after I'd already started eating - sorry, but I was so excited at the yumminess that I had to share!

Millions of peaches - peaches for free

2010-01-28T11:18:00.001-08:00

(remember that song?)

We've been eating the peaches that we grew and canned. They are delicious.

The first time we opened a can it made a very nice 'pop' sound - which is what you're supposed to hear when you've properly canned something. Aaron said, "That's a good sound!"

Because we're proud of ourselves.

Another good sound? The sound of the boys immediately devouring peaches and saying 'Mmmmmmmm'.

Definitely a good sound.

potato tacos!

2010-01-16T11:34:00.000-08:00

Mix together:
2 medium sized potatoes, peeled, boiled and mashed
*1/2 to 1 cup chile sauce (el pato is good, but I used my homemade kind)
*1/2 to 1 cup cotija cheese (it's a hard, salty, crumbly Mexican cheese, I found it at Food 4 Less)
cumin, salt, garlic powder, tiny bit of oregano
*These amounts have a wide range b/c I don't know what I put and b/c you could just do it to taste, as long as the potato mixture is a good consistency to spread on a tortilla--not runny, but not too stiff.

Make guacamole:
roasted jalapeno with seeds and pith (?) removed
a few grape tomatoes
lots of fresh lime juice
salt, pepper, paprika
4 avocados

Thinly chopped cabbage (or lettuce, if you prefer)

Soften corn tortillas with tiny bit of oil and heat in a pan. Or just heat if you have a non-stick pan.

Put fillings in tortillas as desired. Delicious!

tamales and pizza!

2010-01-04T15:52:00.000-08:00

We made tamales to celebrate the New Year. I think this is the most labor intensive food I've ever made because we made almost every part ourselves (the chile sauce, broths, fillings, masa). On New Year's Day we invited a few families over and feasted on the tamales as well as beans, rice, guacamole, crema, salsa, and dessert. We did roasted peppers and cheese, vegetable medley (?), and chicken (since we are the only non-meat eaters, and for me--I wanted to gain the experience).

Peppers, etc. boiling to make the sauce

Spreading the masa, rolling the tamales

Party people! These are some of the kids who came--the dress-up box was a hit (Sam's in the background, sucking his thumb).

We did not eat pizza with our tamales, but I made pizza for New Year's Eve and I believe we've found our favorite dough recipe yet. It is super simple, delicious, easy to make, and versatile. Check it:
6.5 c. flour
3 c. water
1.5 T yeast
1.5 T course salt (like kosher, though we might start putting a little less salt than this).

Stir together dry ingredients, mix in water with a spoon. Let sit for 2 to 5 hours (top should be flat when risen, dough will be really sticky). On floured surface shape dough into pizza crust. You won't get a perfectly circular shape b/c you can't roll it out with a rolling pin. I didn't mind that at all.

What's great about this dough is it can also be used to make dutch oven breads (the artisan, no knead kind Eva posted about a while back), boules or baguettes, or whatever other bready thing you want. It can also be kept in the fridge for a week or so and it gets sour as the days pass. So we made the full amount of dough, made 3 pizzas, then a few days later made a boule. Highly recommend it.

Birthday Dinner

2009-10-16T11:15:00.000-07:00

a
Kirk made borsch for my birthday Sunday dinner. We ate it with black bread from Vogel's bakery in Salt Lake and a green salad. For dessert: an apple/cranberry crumble made from apples I picked off of our landlord's tree. (They said it was okay.)

You all know how to make borsch, right?

Char Sui Pork

2009-10-08T11:24:00.000-07:00

I had to post this for Mom:

Yesterday we had Char Sui pork for dinner - we've had it before, but not for a while. This time we put it all in the crock pot and the smell was AWESOME. Nearly drove us crazy. So yummy. Mom can attest to that.

When it was done, I reduced the liquid into a sauce, broiled the meat to let it caramelize a little, and Aaron stir-fried some veggies (onion, carrot, green pepper, and zucchini) with some of the sauce.

Whoa. That was good. The girl says we should put this out for Santa instead of cookies this year.

That good.

salad

2009-09-27T12:15:00.000-07:00

Three things I want to post about:

1) Is this blog dead? Do people want to keep it around?

2) I knew I wanted to make a post about salad but don't have any pictures, so I searched google images for salads and found this:

Yes, that is Richard Simmons. If you weren't hungry for salad you surely are now.

3) Usually I don't make salads with meals b/c we eat a lot of veggies in whatever our main dish or side dish is. We just started getting our CSA box which had lettuce and will for most of the year so I decided to throw out some ideas I've had or have seen. Salad can easily been a main dish, or the only dish, in our case. Some good combos:

arugula and other baby greens with kidney beans, whole wheat pasta (penne, or shells), tomatoes, green onion, balsamic vinaigrette, olive oil, Parmesan cheese salt and pepper.
taco salad: beans, cheese, avocado, tomato, chips, salsa, cilantro, lettuce, grilled peppers.
grilled veggies like zucchini, yellow squash, bell pepper, cherry tomatoes, onion, beets, any others, paired with goat cheese, spinach, and a light vinegar/olive oil dressing.
sliced, boiled potatoes (cooked in salt water), lettuce, tomato, croutons, avocado, onion, cucumber.
panzanela: french bread cut into cubes and toasted like croutons, cucumber, lemon zest, garlic, tomato, scant onion, balsamic vinaigrette, olive oil.
cabbage sliced thinly, grated carrot, toasted pine nuts, olive oil, salt, pepper.
walnuts tossed with olive oil, cayenne pepper, brown sugar, salt, cumin, and toasted; lettuce, pear slices, Parmesan or blue cheese, onion, and a tart dressing.

All paired with some yummy bread, or cheese toast, or whatever--I love it (salad, not the image).

wontons

2009-07-26T23:39:00.000-07:00

Not only have I been into baking cakes this summer, I've just been enjoying cooking in general. I get really excited, and sometimes carried away (our fridge is bursting with fresh produce and other items), in my culinary adventures. My favorite part is making things up or using recipes as mere suggestions. Recently I made some mushroom-filled wontons that turned out especially well.

Note: everything that went into the wonton wrappers was chopped finely. Sautee 1 or 2 shallots in sesame oil, then add 2-3 carrots. Cook until softish. Add 1 package of mushrooms, a one-inch piece of fresh ginger, and about 1/3 of a bunch of cilantro. Add soy sauce, garlic powder, and cumin to taste. Cook without lid, so that the moisture leaves, until the mushrooms are soft. Put1 or 1.5 teaspoons of filling each wrapper, fold in half and seal with water. Fold in corners.

Heat vegetable oil in skillet until a test wonton wrapper browns fairly quickly (med-high heat).

Fry wontons, drain on paper bag. We ate ours with boiled brown rice and edamame. The dipping sauce had sesame oil, rice vinegar, fresh garlic, soy sauce, red pepper flakes, and probably something else in it. Maybe lime juice? Sorry, I didn't write that part down.

I just recently learned how to make pad-thai and mango sticky rice. I also made a sourdough starter, for the first time, and have made a few loaves. While absolutely delicious, the loaves weren't sour at all. I'll have to work on that. Hope everyone is well! Jenn

Mom's Day Dinner

2009-05-10T17:39:00.000-07:00

Karl made some some great potato latkes. I did the only thing I am capable of doing (cutting up the vegetables). The menu included latkes, applesauce, tossed salad w/croutons and toasted sunflower seeds, watermelon, and some great lemon sodas imported from Italy.

Easter Dinner with 1/2 of the Jorgensen Siblings

2009-04-15T08:58:00.000-07:00

Kirk had the idea of a Mediterranean feast for Easter. It seemed like a fitting and delicious idea. I took these photos before everything was done cooking...when we brought it all out to the table, I wasn't thinking of photos anymore, just of eating all the delicious pitas, falafel, tzadziki sauce, veggies, and fruit.

It's been great hanging out with Kari and Karl so much this week.

chocolate chip cookies

2009-04-14T16:52:00.001-07:00

I have become a chocolate chip cookie snob. I don't know that I can even call myself a connoisseur, just a snob. I love them. They are probably one of my favorite desserts, which is saying a lot for a girl who loves dessert and prioritizes it above most other meals. Dinner probably takes priority, but that's the only one. And it should be followed by dessert. Or two desserts.

Anyway, recently someone made us some chocolate chip cookies. I thought they were so bad I didn't even eat them--also not like me. I'm all about free food, especially if it's a cookie. I've had friends mail me cookies that I didn't finish because they just weren't up to par. With all this negative cookie karma I thought I should post my current favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe. You can find it here.

This is what they looked like when I made them (not a great picture, sorry). I promise they were excellent.

Why do I like them? Not because they're small. I actually didn't make them tiny like the recipe says to because the idea sounds ridiculous. I just made them smallish. I like them because they have a perfect butter, chocolate, nut balance. They aren't crispy but also not too gooey. I like that the chocolate is all chopped up. I'm very particular about my chocolate. I use Trader Joe's chocolate, but knowing not all have access to such things, most dark chocolate bars (for serious chocolate lovers) should work.

Kris doesn't like the chopped up chocolate, he likes chocolate chunks or chips better. To each his/her own. The only deviation I recommend from the recipe is the part about the nuts. I used almonds rather than walnuts (either would be good, I just love almonds even more than I love walnuts, and I really love walnuts) and I did cut them up by hand and I didn't cut them until they were super small. We found that if you cut them up super, super finely you can hardly tell they're there.

Besides this I love oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. I add oats to my Mom's recipe. For non-oat cookies I love Mom J's recipe, though I've also added a bit of oats to it. Alright, I'm done with my rant.

Lettuce Wraps

2009-03-16T11:50:00.000-07:00

This weekend I was in the mood for some lettuce wraps - so we tried out this recipe.

We used ground beef instead of turkey (mushrooms would work great, but I am not a fan of them). Let's see, what else did we do differently... we chopped the water chestnuts, onions and pepper VERY fine and mixed it all together. We omitted the radishes and carrots - carrots are a go for next time, though. It was very tasty.

Aaron thought it needed more chili sauce and sugar in the meat mixture, but I thought it was good, esp. as I mixed up a little dipping sauce of soy sauce, sugar, sesame oil, and hot chili sauce. I thought that made it perfectly spicy.

The kids weren't total fans, but L loves lettuce, and T suffered through it.

Jeni's Ice Cream

2009-02-16T15:26:00.000-08:00

Jeni's Splendid Ice Cream is one of my favorite places in Columbus. I hadn't been there in months, and Kirk took me last weekend. It's a local business who purchases most of their ingredients locally. They have some amazing flavors that aren't too sweet. (I got salted caramel with smoked almonds, aka gravel road, and black currant yogurt). They also have these amazing looking ice cream sandwiches...and everything from their logo to the layout of their shop is really nicely designed.

I will really miss this place when we leave Columbus. I judge all ice cream against Jeni's now....and not much of it measures up.

The Birthday Feast

2009-01-26T10:10:00.000-08:00

Sorry for those of you who missed out on Mom and Aaron's Indian birthday feast. It was delish. Lucky for you, I had my little camera in my purse.

Here's my plate:

Clockwise from the top: Naan (Aaron), jasmine rice (Mom) with potato tiki (yummy spicy, and coconut - me), yellow dal (me and mom), saag (spinach curry - Aaron). Oh, and limeade.

We were in a hurry, so Aaron made the Naan from our bread dough in the fridge - from the Artisan Bread book. It is partly wheat. It was really soft and yummy.

Not pictured: brownies (Mom) and homemade vanilla bean ice cream (Aaron).

YUM.

Now what have you all been eating? Seriously, let's get more posts up here!

Dal

2008-12-04T06:23:00.000-08:00

Aaron bought the book Six Spices recently:

It's all Indian food. Yum. He's only tried a couple of recipes, but they were really good, and the other day I was seriously craving some lentils. So I made the dal recipe that Aaron had tried: brown dal (except made with yellow lentils instead) and rice with cumin seed.

I love this stuff. It may look like yellow mush, but it's delicious.

And I'm learning that ghee makes everything taste better.

the last supper

2008-08-29T11:46:00.000-07:00

This is the last meal I'll be cooking in our Kerman home. Eggplants, tomatoes, and basil from our garden, plus carrots, garlic, green pepper, olive oil, and spices.

All the kitchen stuff is packed except a few essentials. It's sad to leave our friends here, and our still productive garden, but we're excited to be in La Jolla and for a new adventure.

The trip to Utah and elsewhere was fantastic, so thanks to all of you Jorgies for making it wonderful. Kris has been sick for the past 3 days so I've been packing on my own and with a little help from some wonderful ladies in the ward.

Sam has been having a rough time post-trip with all the traveling and now all the packing and big changes. Oh, and the fact that he's getting 2 molars and a very painful front, top tooth. Despite this he has figured out how to do the sign for milk, say cookie (cah-koo), and incorporate a few more dance moves into his repertoire.

Zucchini Quesadillas

2008-08-19T09:39:00.000-07:00

Guess what! I made something. Me. Not Aaron.

I saw this yummy recipe and made it since we have zucchini from our garden. I didn't have corn, so I put in some green pepper, and I added a can of black beans. I used a combo of jack and cheddar cheese.
The garlic makes it.

Delish.

On Homemade Ice Cream

2008-08-17T20:19:00.000-07:00

We have three ice cream makers. One (a small one that you stick in the freezer and then use a hand-crank) I got for Aaron on Father's Day when our oldest was a baby. Number two was one of those traditional ones that makes a lot - loud, with the wood exterior - remember? Three, we just got.

We've used it twice now, both times vanilla (once vanilla bean - which is amazing), both times for Mom and Dad. Both times the ice cream was eaten too quickly for (good) photos.

Something that's interesting that we've learned about making ice cream (from Alton Brown) is that you can substitute fruit preserves (not jam, preserves) for part of the sugar in equal amounts. The pectin is supposed to help the ice cream set up, too. So we take out about 2T of sugar and add 2T peach preserves. It adds just a really subtle flavor - not even a flavor, more like a layer of taste or something. It's definitely still vanilla.

But it's extra delicious. Especially when served with warm chocolate chip cookies (or, when forced, lesser white chocolate chip macadamia nut cookies from dough you were suckered into buying for a fundraiser from a neighbor kid).

pie for breakfast

2008-08-09T22:24:00.000-07:00

This was the best pie I've ever made (now that I have 3 years of pie making experience, thanks to Kris's love of it). I made it for a 4th of July party and came across the picture the other day. This was before the top crust was put on and it was cooked. Fresh, local blackberries and strawberries, sugar, butter, and flour. It was amazing--and that's from me, Jenn, and I am not much of a pie enthusiast. Of course it was served with vanilla ice cream. Oh, and the title is such because pie is probably Kris's favorite breakfast food.

milk bars

2008-07-22T10:39:00.000-07:00

Milk bars were subsidized cafeteriaswhich were developed during the Soviet Era, so that anyone could afford a big plate of hearty food. Lucky for me, these places are still around. I eat at one of these almost everyday, because they offer so much food for so little money. This potatoe pancake dish, served with cabbage, carrots and peppers, is a big hit with us grad students here in krakow.

Camp Food

2008-07-20T10:03:00.001-07:00

I just got back from Girls' Camp with my stake. We were up at the Heber Valley Camp, which is seriously amazing. The church is really doing an amazing thing making all these camps for Young Women. It was an awesome setup.

I'd heard such praise about the food the girls eat at camp. One of my neighbors is the camp cook, and has been for years and years. She has other callings, but insists on keeping this calling as well, which isn't easy. She is crazy-organized.

A huge part of why the food is good is because she can bake. She does use Dutch ovens for some stuff, but she uses these box ovens that she's made. On the ground is a piece of foil with a raised rack and hot coals surrounding the rack. Then she puts this foil-covered box over top and she can make anything.

When I first arrived at camp there were fresh from-scratch chocolate chip cookies to munch on. It was kinda funny, as people from other wards would walk by our campsite and be like 'How did you make those?' and people from the stake and from the campground were always hanging out watching Susan bake. As part of the girls' service project they made some box ovens to give to the couple-missionaries who live at the camp.

It's pretty cool because if you have an 'oven' you can make just about anything while you're camping. Really opens up your outdoor meal options.

That night she baked hams and parker house rolls (from scratch), made a yummy cheesy potato dutch oven dish (it had sprite in it!), (salad), and fried up donuts. Her spudnuts are a huge tradition at camp.

Pretty decent food when she cooked - but some of our meals were by the stake all together in the pavilion. My second night we had Hawaiian Haystacks by the stake. I tried to explain (just to those sitting by me) that that dish is not Hawaiian. It's such a 'Mormon' dish and I've never had it anywhere but Utah. People were shocked. It's standard Utah fare.

This particular batch of 'haystacks' was not so tasty.

Pierogies

2008-07-10T08:20:00.001-07:00

Today after class I ate lunch at this super cheap and eccentric hole-in-the-wall place. I had some pierogies which were very tasty.

calzones

2008-06-17T11:09:00.000-07:00

We made the pizzas Kirsten blogged about again but didn't use all the dough; we froze 1/3 of it. For Father's Day I got that out and made calzones. We've made them before but don't repeat it often because they're too involved with baby around. With frozen dough it was easy, and with this particular dough they were amazing. The best I've made.

I cut the dough into 4 pieces for 4 calzones--each one was enough for a meal, even though starting out I thought they looked small. The filling was yellow tomatoes, pattypan squash, basil, and oregano from our garden, plus onion, garlic, and mushrooms.

I sauteed that with salt, pepper, and thyme. The filling and little cubes of mozarella cheese went on the inside. The outside got a brush of olive oil and was placed on the pizza stone, cooked for about 15 minutes at 425, then a little grated parmesan cheese was added on top.

We topped it all off with tomato sauce (also made ahead and frozen, with fresh rosemary, garlic, basil, and oregano). They were amazing.

furthering the quest

2008-06-03T11:42:00.000-07:00

In Petaluma this weekend I found this book:

They're ripping us off! Or perhaps the book will help us enlarge our understanding of the true meaning of food. Except that, I didn't buy it. Oh well.

Also in Petaluma a restaurant that is working in opposition to the true meaning of food:

Dumbest restaurant name ever. And of course it was way, way fancy.

Lastly, we made the pizza Kirsten posted about--so good! Has anyone else noticed that the food most commonly blogged about on here is pizza?

Artisan Bread

2008-05-23T17:18:00.000-07:00

Aaron checked out this book* and here's his 3rd batch.

I want to wolf whistle at these loaves - they're just gorgeous, right?

The first was just as pretty, the second was a whole wheat recipe.

*Yes, Aaron does all the good cooking here ... pretty much, anyway. But he doesn't think to blog it now, does he?
Nope, that's where I'm a viking.

this week for dinner

2008-05-18T19:22:00.000-07:00

I have taken a new approach to cooking: I plan out a weekly menu (inspired by this blogger who I met once), buy groceries accordingly, and make meals. I love it. Yes, I'm slowly becoming my Mom. But...Now we eat foods we've never made before, I consult cookbooks and food blogs more, food rarely goes bad in the fridge, and it's never stressful because I have meals planned out. I can also prep various stages of the meal whenever I have a minute throughout the day since cooking in one, long stretch is practically impossible with baby. One of my latest was dinner crepes:

We put spinach, cheese, tomatoes, basil, and grilled onion in them. Avocado would have been good. Yummy. I made fish tacos for the first time yesterday, but have also been mixing in some old classics. One I took a picture of, but can't find, is cabbage salad. My Ukrainian friend whips this up now and then and I love it. It's just cabbage chopped fairly skinny (not chopped all up, just chopped long and thin off the head), grated or shredded carrot, pine nuts, olive oil, salt, and pepper. It is really tasty, refreshingly cool on hot days, very light and thus an excellent between meal snack, and probably not very fattening.

Ignore what it says just below, this was posted by Jenn N, not Kris J.

Pizza Perfection

2008-05-10T17:01:00.000-07:00

Dude.

We just ate the best pizza.

(Mind you I'm no food photographer - so just trust me that it tasted better than it looks here).

We are all full and happy and our house smells amazing.

Now you know we love pizza, and make it often, but Aaron checked out this book from the library called American Pie: My Search for the Perfect Pizza. Sounds awesome, right?

This guy traveled the world searching for the best pizza secrets. There are tons of different crust and sauce recipes. Tonight we tried one and holy cow.

It is as good as The Pie pizza.

I know, that's saying a lot, and we weren't expecting such spectacular results. But it's true.

And we've got leftovers for lunch. Yeah, buddy.

Next up we're going to try the grilled pizza recipe. We already like grilling pizza, so that'll be fun - and won't heat up the house in the summer.

And now to go enjoy smelling my pizzeria house again.... mmmmmmm.

sun dried tomato and basil hummus

2008-05-02T18:00:00.000-07:00

kari made the delicious falafel, and i made the hummus: basil, and sun dried tomato. you probably all have your own recipes/brands you swear by, but if not, here's my recipe:

2 cups chickpeas (i cook dried ones in a crockpot with salt and water)
1 cup water
2 handfuls fresh basil leaves, or 1/2 cup sun dried tomatoes
1 tsp. salt
fresh ground pepper
3 Tbs. extra virgin olive oil
2 Tbs. tahini
5 cloves garlic, pressed

puree in a food processor. you may want to taste as you go and adjust seasonings/ingredients to your own taste.

bread

2008-04-21T12:08:00.000-07:00

Kris has been talking about making this bread recipe for forever but has yet to do it. My cousin beat him to it and it looks so amazing and sounds delicious. One of us should try it out, maybe Kris...

a "taste" of las vegas

2008-04-20T15:28:00.001-07:00

what a cheesy title for a post!

anyway, when i was out in las vegs we ate a lot of good food. of course there is in - n - out, and cafe rio. and i did eat those places, and loved it, as usual. but caroline and i decided to have an authentic las vegas night out. we chose mamacita's on east fremont street (not to be confused with west fremont street that's covered with an LED dome) for great mexican and cuban food.

and for dessert, frozen treats from luv-it custard. both places are small and independent, have been around for awhile, were full of locals, and are delicious.

just look at her impish delight!

Tradition

2008-04-06T16:12:00.000-07:00

For a number of years, the Jorgensen tradition has been to have cinnamon rolls the Sunday morning of General Conference weekend. Here's a picture of the ones we had this morning while watching Church conference. They were melt-in-your-mouth great! Thanks Gayle!

I love taking pictures of people eating.

2008-03-30T15:11:00.001-07:00

Here are a couple: (above) My mom and dad eating some delicious bagels. ( In my book, there's hardly anything better for breakfast than a bagel with a generous schmear of cream cheese.) (below) Francesco eating maybe the best pizza in New York or anywhere: Grimaldi's. It's under the Brooklyn Bridge, and we had to wait in line for an hour, but it was worth it. Fresh sliced mozzarella, basil, the perfect sauce, thin tasty crust. I admit, the pepperoni was much better than the plain cheese... So it's #1 status can be challenged.

On a weird side note: I thought Grimaldi's was a one of a kind hole in the wall type place... but then I was staying with Caroline last weekend, and saw an ad for Grimaldi's "the famous Brooklyn pizzeria" in Las Vegas! I wanted to eat there, and make some kind of record for having eaten at both locations within the same week, but alas, did not get the chance. In -n- Out was calling.

Pizza Pie

2008-03-26T21:37:00.000-07:00

We found out that our local pizzeria, Grandma's U-bake, sells large pizzas on Tuesdays and Wednesdays for five dollars even. Yesterday we picked one up and Sam loved it. Enough with the mush--give me some pizza! Welcome to the family Sam!

funeral food

2008-03-09T20:37:00.001-07:00

These nice ladies from my great grandmother's ward at church put on a dinner for the family after her funeral. This kind of really traditional Utah food isn't normally my thing, but after not eating all day, it tasted good...especially the funeral potatoes.

It really did have all the traditional, joked about Utah mormon foods: funeral potatoes full of cheese and sour cream, ham, iceberg lettuce salad with the little carrot strips and ranch dressing, jello fruit salad, dinner rolls...When we walked up to the table, my dad cracked a joke; "Where's the green jello with carrots?". My mom's cousin, Becky, was standing there and said, "Oh, you missed it. That was the first thing to go." And she was dead serious.

p.s. the carruths enjoyed the dinner, too. oh, i forgot to mention the chocolate chip cookies.

Saffron

2008-03-09T09:31:00.000-07:00

Last night Aaron made naan bread and we got out some saag (spinach curry) and saffron rice from the freezer (freezers rule).

Aaron said something to the effect of: Here we are, eating rice made with the most expensive spice in the world, and (2nd born)'s putting ketchup on it.

No accounting for taste, right?

Beef Pho (Vietnamese Beef Soup)

2008-03-02T17:17:00.000-08:00

This recipe is from The Essential Rice Cookbook, which was a gift from Kirk + Eva to Aaron a while back. It has some tasty recipes in it - here's one we've made several times (and tonight!):

13 oz. Rump steak
1/2 onion (chop into wedges)
1.5 tablespoon fish sauce
1 star anise (we've skipped these, as they are pricey and we didn't already have them - it's still delicious.)
1 cinnamon stick
pinch of ground white pepper
48 oz. beef stock
10 oz thin rice noodles
3 green onions, thinly sliced
1 small red chili, thinly sliced
lemon wedges
fresh cilantro

Put the onion, fish sauce, anise, cinnamon, pepper, stock + 2 cups water in a large saucepan. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat, cover and simmer for 20 minutes. Discard the onion, star anise and cinnamon stick.

Meanwhile (back at the ranch) in a separate pot, add the rice noodles to boiling water and turn off the heat. Cook until tender, then drain and rinse with cold water.

Slice the meat across the grain and sear or saute.

To serve, put some noodles, beef, lemon, cilantro, pepper, and green onions in a bowl. Pour hot broth over it.
(Can you see the steam?)

This stuff rocks - and Aaron made it for me when I had strep throat - it was the best.

The kids kinda like it. The noodles are entertaining, anyway. (The youngest) mostly stirred his...(2nd born) had his noodles + meat (+ ketchup!) sans broth, as all the beef broth (at Smith's anyway) has MSG in it. And we like to be extra careful with that guy. So, gotta find a new way to get broth without that nice little additive.

It would be tasty without the meat, too!

feel free to change it...

2008-02-25T22:13:00.000-08:00

if you hate what i did to the blog colors.

borscht

2008-02-22T16:05:00.000-08:00

The first time we ever had borscht (sp?) was at Kirk and Eva's place in SLC. Even though I'm not a fan of beets I really liked it, and the yummy bread we ate with it. Now that we live far from them we don't have the benefit of free borscht and have not attempted to make it on our own. However, lucky us, we have a Ukrainian friend (Lilia) who makes it. Hers is a little different from theirs, but also delicious.

Well little Sam is just beginning to discover the true meaning of food and today I introduced him to borscht made by Lilia. He loved it. I just gave him pieces of beet and beans which he devoured. Can I request a recipe post of borscht?

Pork Barbacoa - for the meatatarians

2008-02-07T18:54:00.000-08:00

So, we're officially Cafe Rio addicts. They never should have opened one so close to our house.

In an effort to avoid the place, we've tried making our own pork barbacoa - so here's the recipe I've altered - it's not exact, but it's yummy and getting closer to the original each time we make it:

2.5 lbs pork
1/3 cup water
1/2 - 1 cup salsa verde (we use the small mexican cans)
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp. minced garlic (1/4 powdered, probably)
1/2 tsp. salt
dash pepper

Throw everything in the crockpot for a few hours. When the pork is nice and tender, drain the liquid into a small saucepan. Add a little more brown sugar (1/4 cup? I added 1/3 last time and Aaron said it was too sweet) and a tablespoon of ketchup. Let the liquid reduce until it's thicker.
Meanwhile, shred the pork with two forks. When the sauce is thicker, pour over the meat and combine.

Now's the best part - serve on tortillas with beans, rice, homemade guacamole, whatever you want. It's good, I swear.

potatoes eva

2008-02-07T16:52:00.000-08:00

i had a request for this recipe, so here it is.

no, i did not make it up. and no, i did not name it. but i do really like it - even if i can only eat it about twice a year.

1. pour frozen hash browns (the kind with onions and peppers mixed in) into a casserole dish. pour a little at a time so that you can add plenty of salt and pepper as you go.

2. pour cream into dish until potatoes are covered.

3. cook at 350 until done. (could be an hour or two)

*if you thaw the potatoes, it won't take so long to cook.
* it's named after me because i accidentally bought the hashbrowns with onions and peppers, but everyone ended up liking it... so granny renamed it after me.

The People's Cookbook

2008-02-03T20:52:00.000-08:00

While searching for the true meaning of food, Jenn and I had the idea to compile recipes for a cookbook that features typical peasant and pauper food from different parts of the world--what the People eat! Like black beans, corn tortillas, and chiles from Guatemala. I think the People understand better the true meaning of food than anyone else. The book can be divided by season and will feature foods that are popular during each season, like tomatoes in the summer and turnips in the winter. It will require a a lot of research and travel so if you want to help, let's get cracking!
I also have a suggestion to improve the blog. I think that the song from Oliver (the musical) should play while someone is visiting the blog. It approaches the true meaning.
Food, Glorious food
Hot sausage and mustard!

salad schmallad

2008-02-01T16:55:00.001-08:00

i love salads. i had salad overkill for a while and couldn't stand the thought of eating another one, but now they are back in my good graces.

this one had romaine lettuce, shredded carrots and romano cheese, black olives, sun dried tomatoes (so much better than "fresh" tomatoes this time of year), and homemade vinaigrette dressing. kirk prefers to just drizzle it with some extra virgin olive oil.

p.s. i love that box the clementines came in! don't think i'll have the heart to throw it out.

the Kupcake Kraze

2008-01-24T15:54:00.001-08:00

So I am the latest supporter of the national trend of eating cupcakes. Why are these mini cakes such a hot commodity? Why are there bakeries specifically dedicated to cupcakes rising up in cities all over the country? (Sorry for the very bad puns.) Maybe because they are delicious. Like the above specimen from our neighborhood cupcake bakery that just opened. It was coconut.

And unlike other food trends (like wraps, which are always disappointing) i think this one may stick. They ARE trendy, but they're classy and simple and satisfying.

rot n' cheese

2008-01-14T17:58:00.000-08:00

Today I (Jenn) made homemade macaroni and cheese, except we didn't have any macaroni noodles, we had rotini. Kris dubbed it rot n' cheese.

It was really good and easy. You just melt butter, stir in flour, then mix in milk and let it boil. Then goes in grated cheeses and I added veggies. Mix in the noodles, sprinkle bread crumbs on top, bake in the oven, and that's it! Delicious.

The Brown Bag Deli

2007-12-20T22:22:00.001-08:00

This is one of our neighborhood delis. (I love that we live in a neighborhood where I can say that.) I had a half grilled cheese sandwich that had cheddar and havarti cheeses AND Granny Smith apple slices. My salad had cranberries and gorgonzola cheese and grilled chicken and a balsamic vinaigrette. All in all - it was delicious.

Now Kirk, on the other hand, didn't like it that much. His "Russian vegetable" soup was only mediocre, and he says the portions were too small. It's true that his little cup of soup was small compared with my half salad...and didn't look that great. Not that he would have liked what I ordered either. He hates when fruit is included in savory dishes. He says he'd rather eat garlic ice cream than pineapple on a pizza. Okay...

-eva

Hot Food for a Cold Night

2007-12-18T20:08:00.001-08:00

Well, I've been cold a lot lately.

I think that this is due to 2 things:

1. I'm not used to the mid-west's bone-chilling weather.
2.During the past few winters I was spoiled with free and plentiful heating.

So here I am, dressed in a sweatshirt, scarf, and fake Russian chopka , eating curried lentil soup. It was the perfect dish for a blustery night.

No real recipe, but here are the ingredients:

lentils, water, tomato bouillon, onion, garlic, carrots, celery, fresh ground pepper, curry powder straight from africa (thanks ashleigh!), and coconut milk. saute the veggies, add the cooked lentils, water and everything else, puree half of it, and voila!

- eva

fresh mozzarella

2007-12-12T11:49:00.000-08:00

The other night, Eva and I decided to make some quesadillas for dinner. I made mine with some freshly grated Romano and I made Eva's with fresh mozzarella. Big mistake! The mozzarella was so liquidy that it soaked the entire quesadilla. Eva picked it up and it just sagged, the whole thing was soaked with liquid. Ewww..
I forgot to photograph the weird quesadilla, but you can imagine.
P.S. Last night we had hot dogs for dinner?!
kirk

The True Meaning Of The First Thanksgiving

2007-12-05T19:45:00.000-08:00

Awhile back, on Thanksgiving Day, we made a lot of good food. We seriously cooked all day long while listening to old punk (and miscellaneous--shout out to Huey Lewis' "Power Of Love") records, and generally had a good time. Here is a picture of what our table of food looked like:

Next is a close-up of our loot. We had lots of starchy stuff like stuffing, garlic mashed potatoes, sweet potato (savory) pancakes, and rolls, along with cranberry sauce and green beans. Am I forgetting something? Anyway, we invited a couple of friends over to share with us but even still, we were eating those mashed potatoes weeks later.

And then there were pies. I made the second pie of my entire life--pumpkin. Eva made a crumbly apple pie and a chocolate pecan pie. All three turned out nicely, but I think the chocolate pecan pie was the Michael Jordan of the bunch.

And that is the story of the first Thanksgiving.

-By KARI!

Cookies Were Just Okay

2007-12-05T19:35:00.000-08:00

So, when our folks were in town, Dad had a real hankering for some cookies in the small window of time that took place after our previously-mentioned dinner and before he and Mom had to leave for the Indianapolis airport. I am usually up for cookies because they are awesome!

These are the cookies that my dad and I made. As you can see, they look sort of anemic and flat. I have no real idea how or why this happened, so I will place blame on the dubious recipe. They tasted fine, but not awesome! I should have had Dad make his signature Ranger cookies, but I don't think we had any corn flakes or grape juice or whatever he puts in those things.

-By KARI!

Fancy Feast

2007-11-19T22:21:00.000-08:00

I'm not talking about the cat food. ( Although , do you remember those commercials where the fluffy white cat was fed in a crystal goblet? ridiculous.) I'm talking about a traditional wedding dinner. If i am sitting by funny people ( like I was on Saturday), then a fancy wedding feast is one of the most entertaining events I can think of. Good food, laughs, everyone looks their best, endearing or embarrassing toasts... On the other hand, I've been to some torturous events where i am forced to sit with people I don't know, and who have nothing to say. (Or maybe it's me who has nothing to say?)

This dinner was a success...complete with funny stories of my brother's run - ins with the police in our small town, tear-jerker toasts, and a gorgeous view out of 10th floor windows of the city and the mountains beyond.

squash soup for Kirk, Kari and Eva's souls (or whoever else wants some)

2007-11-11T18:31:00.001-08:00

I love the fall. And I love cooking fall-ish food such as sweet potato oven fries, butternut squash soup, and some garlicky greens.

easy squash soup recipe:

1. Chop an onion and saute in olive oil in a large pot or wok with salt and pepper on medium low heat.
2. After onion is soft, add 2 peeled, seeded, and chopped butternut squashes.
3. Add enough water to cover, a couple of vegetable bouillon cubes, and boil until it all becomes very soft.
4. Puree in batches in a food processor (or blender).
5. Return to pot and add salt and pepper and curry powder to taste.

A little cream can be added if you like. I usually forget to get any, which is probably better for my health. I'll often add a potato to the mix, and I've made this with zucchini or pumpkin or even peas and carrots as the base.

Bruschetta

2007-11-05T20:29:00.001-08:00

It was our turn to have Mom and Dad Jorgensen over for Sunday dinner! Bruschetta, green salad, roasted pepper soup, and lentil soup made the menu. Looks like they were pretty happy with it. Too bad we didn't get photos at the Ethiopian restaurant the night before. Picture 5 adults eating with their hands out of one big plate... and loving it.

Shrimp Fried Rice

2007-10-28T15:07:00.002-07:00

I just found out that fried rice is not only popular all over Asia and North America, but also in the west African countries of Ghana and Togo where it is a common street food. We used spinach instead of the usual eggs, and I highly recommend it. (Eggs make Kirk feel sick to his stomach.)

Kirk and I (Eva) made this dish while Kari was out of town. Kari is vegetarian, and Kirk is lactose intolerant, so most of our food ends up being vegan or close to it. But sometimes, Kirk and I will make something with meat or fish, and sometimes Kari and I will eat some fresh mozzarella or tzatziki sauce or something. My main dietary restriction is that I loathe strawberry flavored things ( esp. strawberry milk), but this doesn't seem to come up that often.
Oh, and I also hate wasting calories and appetite on bad food in general. White Castle, I'm sorry.

SAMOSAS

2007-10-25T14:42:00.000-07:00

Greetings. It is I, Kari. Although I happen to be one of the "Bad Luck Jorgensens" (shout-out to Kris and Karl), I was lucky enough to receive this recipe for samosas from Crystal, Food Genius, PhD, along with a chutney recipe of her own creation.

We split up the duties like this: Kirk was in charge of the dough, I was in charge of the insides, and Eva was in charge of making the chutney in addition to the side dish that we fondly call Vegetable Thing (pictured above), which is a good thing that has many leeks and squashes and tomatoes in it.

Then, all together we assembled and fried the samosas. Everything tasted excellent, although we did have some cosmetic issues (the dough got kind of dry and was then difficult to work with, resulting in flat rather than pyramidal-shaped dumplings).

We also thought we were being so funny by talking in really bad British accents (Oliver style) saying things like, "Can I have some more, sir?" Get it? "Can I have sa mo, sa?"

Mexican Pizzas

2007-10-24T06:39:00.001-07:00

There really isn't much good mexican food here. I know a lot of people love it, but I'm not sold on that huge chain Chipotle. I want it to be like Cafe Rio, and it's not. I'd even love it if we could just find a place like Beto's ( that's how desperate I am), but no such luck. So we've been making our own uneducated verisons of mexican food. This is a fried tortilla topped with beans and cheese and broccoli (weird, i know, but good!), melted under the broiler and then pulled out and topped with fresh tomatoes and homemade guacamole. Uno mas?

Birthday Cake for Eva

2007-10-16T18:43:00.001-07:00

Happy Birthday Eva! Kari made this really good cake for Eva's b-day. It was a pumpkin spice cake with sauteed apples and nutmeg cream. It was eaten with pumpkin spice ice cream! (or whipped topping for me).
I ate so much cake that i felt sick! It was that good.

Do you know what a buckeye is?

2007-10-14T19:40:00.001-07:00

We finally figured it out. This guy is THE buckeye. He makes great donuts.

Chocolate cake, apple spice, pumpkin spice, chocolate cream filled, and crumb.

None of these people were actually eating the delicious donuts. I have no idea why.

We got them for the drive to Cleveland to see the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. (Which was great and totally worth it to see the Clash and the Beach Boys exhibits.)

Kari has a friend who once stayed in Buckeye Donuts for 24 hours straight and now they give him free donuts whenever he goes there.

Lost in the Supermarket

2007-10-10T20:34:00.000-07:00

I don't usually buy candy and snacky things when I go to the grocery store...but when I make the trip out to the asian supermarket, i can't help myself! They are so tasty, and it doesn't hurt that their packaging is so much nicer than most of our american junk food wrappers.

By the way, did you know that dark chocolate pocky sticks are supposed to be for men only? (That's what it says on the box). Kirk only wishes I would follow that rule.

Dirt made my lunch

2007-10-07T18:41:00.000-07:00

This is a pretty standard lunch for me. Bread: A good wholewheat/grainy bread from the local deli. Peanut butter: Organic, not too sweet. Sugary peanut butter is not so great. Jam: Rasberry jam. This is never enough food for me, but for some reason this is all i ever bring. There is a cafe on the first floor of my building, so sometimes i'll grab a bag of chips or something.

time is on our side

2007-09-30T18:12:00.001-07:00

Kirk loves talking about phonology and language contact, Kari knows all about pedagogical methods, and I (Eva) am engrossed by picas, typology, and the weight of paper. But we can all admit to a delicious fascination with food, and so this blog is born.

We just moved to a new place, and what better way to explore a new town and pass the time that was once filled with friends and family than by finding/making/eating food?

PIZZA

2007-09-30T17:13:00.001-07:00

Dough on pizza stone, brushed with olive oil. Sauce from tomato paste plus fresh herbs and garlic. Toppings: Fresh Romano and Mozzarella, onions, garlic and fresh tomatoes added after it cooked. Face says it all! Pizza!