summer update #6: breakfast

wholesome breaky
Originally uploaded by deepfry.

after last night's extravagance, i was compelled to have a virtuous breakfast. frankly, it was only that i went running that i was able to eat anything at all -- when i woke up, i was still pretty stuffed from dinner.

at any rate, i put this little dish together. it definitely ranks up there as one of my all-time best quick and easy breakfast treats: plain yogurt, nectarines, fresh basil and (not pictured) chopped up roasted almonds. the nectarines were just hitting ripeness, so they were crispy and slightly tart. which went quite nicely with the sweetness of the basil. and the almonds added a pleasant crunch. not to mention the fact that the dish looks so pretty and summery!

i also had an iced coffee. with soymilk. and read the newspaper. what a wholesome sunday morning.

summer update #5: bbq

grilling
Originally uploaded by deepfry.

whew! caught up to last night! when i joined friends for a lovely bbq. we grilled a pile of veggies from the market, a few steaks, some shrimp with creole sauce and a slab of tuna. we also had couscous salad, arugula salad, green salad, gazpacho, beer and wine. and for dessert, a rasberry pie and a blueberry peach cobbler. we do know how to do it up, that's for sure.

maybe one day i'll host or attend a dinner at which we actually make enough food just for that evening, rather than enough food to feed a small army for a week. but we all just get so worked up about putting together various marinades and rubs. and then we start thinking about what would happen if we grilled beets. but also, we have to have corn because to do otherwise would be a sin.



and steak is a standard, but having shrimp skewers would be fun. and those squashes at the market just look so good. and last week, when sara grilled up those peppers, they were so tasty. plus, the rasberries in the garden are just perfect for pie. of course, it's always good to have multiple dessert options and peaches are looking mighty nice right now.

summer update #4: Lesli's birthday

about to be frosted
Originally uploaded by deepfry.

because i'm a good friend, i took it upon myself to make lesli her dream birthday cake: lots of frosting, lots of reese's peanut butter products. the end result was a bit obscene, but in the best possible way. the filling, a mixture of peanut butter frosting and smashed peanut butter cups, was, as you can see by the photo, almost as thick as the cake itself.

and because i'm so wildly creative at midnight, after i've been baking for a few hours, i was struck with the most genius cake-decorating idea. i poured out all the reese's pieces, separated them by color and put together a little bicycle design.



if you turn your head slightly to the right, you can see the bicycle, on a yellow road with an orange sky. i guess, uh, its supposed to take place at sunset or something. regardless of the post-apocalyptic sky, it was a damn good cake, if i may say so.

summer update #3: friday afternoon hooky

summer
Originally uploaded by deepfry.

although i would never leave work early on a beautiful friday afternoon in late summer when some friends are passing through town on their way out east, last week i left work early because it was a beautiful friday afternoon in late summer and some friends were passing through town on their way out east. shhh...don't tell!

at 3:30pm, i snuck out of the library, swimsuit and towel stashed deep in my bag. dan and mai-lin picked my up and we headed out to Fall Creek for some swimming and lounging. After a rigorous few hours of said swimming and lounging, we packed up and headed over to the reservoir, where we grilled up some steaks and corn. While waiting for everything to cook up, we snacked on Hideaway Bakery bread and raw cukes and watched motorboats zip around the lake. We paired our steak and corn with some delightfully refreshing Budweiser. A classy evening indeed. I'm not sure how I'll maintain such an elevated level of class without Mai-lin and Dan around for guidance. Sigh.

summer update #2: RAGBRAI

Mr. Pork Chop
Originally uploaded by deepfry.

i biked across Iowa with 15,000 of my nearest and dearest. in its 34th year, RAGBRAI (Register's Annual Greater Bike Ride Across Iowa) is kind of a combination of State Fair, beer garden and bike ride. it is definitely a ride, not a race. to put it mildly.

biking between 50 and 100 miles a day means you can eat with abandon. and wow, do those 15,000 take this to heart! even in the 95 degree humid midwestern heat. one particularly popular option is Mr. Pork Chop, who sets up somewhere along the road each day. and each day, whether he's 10 miles or 60 miles into the route, there's at least an hour wait. how someone can eat a hot grilled pork chop in the middle of a long bike ride in the 95 degree humid midwestern heat is beyond me. but i'm weak. i prefer smoothies.


i did particularly enjoy, though, spaghetti cooked with chicken at the end of my century ride. here's the master himself, preparing my delicious dinner. i probably could've eaten a heaping wok full of the stuff by the time i rolled into town.

summer update #1: portland food tour

i got the super special food lovers tour of portland last july on my way out of town, care of mike z. the highlight of the trip was absolutely the opportunity to sample the very dark dark chocolate in the temperer at Alma's. one spoonfull each (double dipping not allowed!). it was divine. i would've rather just stuck my entire head under the flowing dark chocolate, but that would've been unfriendly to the very nice owner of the chocolate shop.

also on the tour:

Steve's Cheese, tucked into the back of Square Deal Wine Company on NW Thurman. We were there the weekend of the Cheese Show, and a bunch of cheese affecionados (cheeseheads?) hit the cheese shop at the same time as us. We were all impressed. This photo captures but a teeny tiny portion of Steve's cheese offerings.


Dim Sum at Wong King's Seafood. Mike Z. and i got the chicken feet, since neither of us had ever tried them, but i believe they're pretty much like gefilte fish: you can't really appreciate 'em unless you've grown up eating them. but hey, points for trying, right?

dinner

dinner
Originally uploaded by deepfry.

i've had a slew of amazing meals since i last blogged. the Food Tour of Portland, sweet corn in Iowa, southern bbq and much much more. but only a dinner as special as tonight's is apparently worthy of a blog entry. i started with the best of intentions. a light salad of tomatoes and cucumbers from my CSA (community supported agriculture: a weekly box of produce from a local farm) hoping to follow it up with something, oh, mildly nutritious. but what happens? instead, i consume what i fear was an entire box of thin mints (my neighbor had put them into a jar, as pictured, so it's hard to know). eek!

i'm going on a run.