cooking from scratch .. seasonal & local goodness

seared chicken thighs, sauteed swiss chard, ginger & honey glazed carrots. whole wheat rigatoni with prisco's housemade chicken sausage and swiss chard in a nutmeg-scented white wine sauce. homemade white whole wheat soft pretzels (adapted from an alton brown recipe). homemade white whole wheat pizzas - leave the olives off mine, please! foraged morels, & tonight's dinner: roasted red pepper & tomato soup, arugula salad with sliced pear, shaved parmesan, & lemon vinaigrette, & some sliced grass fed flank steak.

also need to post about our dinner at avec in chicago. mmm, so good.

i like turtles

the OG...

interview with Bill O'Reilly...

play him off keyboard cat version...

and if you don't know about play him off keyboard cat...then you have been mostly under a rock...play him off keyboard cat

CSA, week 1

Ended up with lots of good things our first week. Lots of greens the first week, radishes, turnips, the best sugar snap peas I've ever tasted, and some zucchini/squash.

Looking forward to later in the season... some of these greens are so fresh, but just don't last in the fridge. What are we going to do with them all?! I'm taking care of the huge head of cabbage tomorrow and making a hot & sour soup, and have some plans for the gigantic bundle of kale... hopefully we'll use everything up!

bummmmmmmmmeerrrrr

guess who got laid off today? i'll give you one guess.

you can read more about it here if you'd like.

i will survive, just like that song says. no worries.

where oh where is mom?!?!

we miss you mom!!!

help polyvinyl and help yourself to some of their music...

donate using kickstarter and get wonderful kick backs, such as copious amounts of cds...


or help polyvinyl release one of their classic albums that was never pressed to vinyl:


fun and creative ways to use the internet, WOOOO?

buki has a surprise for jess!

*Dusts off the blog*

Not quite dead, just uninspired recently.

We've been biking and eating good food and hesitantly welcoming summer.

The farmer's market has started up here, which is wonderful for getting the creative juices flowing. This weekend we scored some beautiful little organic strawberries, blueberries, baby greens, pencil thin asparagus, baby squash, and local onions & garlic. After the market we biked up the trail a bit and found a nice shaded area to have a picnic, hopefully the first of many for the summer!

I'm particularly excited for this summer because it is our first year taking part in a CSA, or Community Supported Agriculture. We've purchased a biweekly share with the farm, and are eager to get our first box of locally grown, minimally processed, organic produce. We're just now getting out of a take-out/junk food rut, so I am even more excited to have invested in a few months of ultra-nutritious feel-good food. The question I seem to have gotten the most is.. "well, isn't that expensive?" and I guess that the short answer in yes.

We paid $350 for a biweekly share that starts in late June/early July and will continue into November. Broken down over time, however, I would say that if we were buying equal amounts of certified-organic produce at the local grocery, we would probably be paying more. Also, here we have the added benefit of our food coming from 13.73 miles away (no really, I just did a Yahoo maps search!) rather than thousands of miles from California. That alone can make a person feel a little bit better about their consumption, I think, and a lot better about what they are putting into their body.

So yeah, short answer... is it expensive? Sure. Is it worth it? Absolutely.

buki attempts to drown unicorn

in which buki comes down with a nasty case of the awesomes...

happy easter bunnyicorn wow

i love you mom

polaroid saturday

i guess it's about that time of the year

polaroid saturday

trains, trains and trainamobiles...

this ones for you brayden.

buki new videos

buki talking about how awesome she is...

clearly she thinks very highly of herself...

and buki having an "emo" day...

in case you didn't know, "emo" is the fourth most dangerous word parents need to be concerned about.

buki is a very complicated feline.

brayden loves trains!

last week brayden visited uncle ryno and aunt gesso. we watched the train from the apartment, which he thoroughly enjoyed...

polaroid saturday

LUNNER!!!!

polaroid saturday

just another manic monday, i mean saturday.

polaroid saturday

polaroid saturday

polaroid saturday

black & white profanity.

polaroid saturday

above is a polaroid from ottumwa, ia. where i was born. where my dad is from. where my grandmother still lives. i grew up going to this park, playing on this tornado slide. fond memories.

i love you dad.

doctor brayden

prognosis:

cutest kid in the world!

anatomy of a meal!

pictured above: preparation for a modified version of homestyle bean curd from tigers & strawberries. slices of extra firm tofu, chinese black fungus, salted black beans, sichuan peppercorns, garlic, & scallions.

i'm contemplating starting a food blog so i can have a more appropriate & more streamlined outlet for my foodie ramblings and recipe posting. i've been playing around with wordpress & brainstorming some graphic/layout ideas - hopefully i can get the ball rolling before the semester is in full swing.


ps hi dawn!

happy inauguration eve!

i'm old enough to know that no presidency in the last 20+ years has brought about this amount of excitement and joy. i am awkwardly more hopeful and happy about this than i care to admit, knowing that politics are never a clean business, and there seems to be corruption everywhere. i am generally a skeptic, but tomorrow seems like an opportunity for so much. as i write all this, i am trying to temper all of my hopes and ideals, with a "let's see what happens" attitude, instead of speculating. needless to say i will be glued to the television tomorrow.

a busy day for budget bears...

in an attempt to tighten our belts just a little bit more, we've declared 2009 the year of the budget bear! we've done the appropriate budgeting, figured out what gets allotted to where, and are having fun doing it!

one of the most helpful money saving-tips i've read has been to comparison shop... for everything, not just major purchases. because so much of my cooking deviates from the typical SAD, i've found shopping at "ethnic" markets to be a major cash saver! asian markets have great prices on quality produce and, of course, tons of interesting ingredients to experiment with. a perk of living in aurora has also been mexican markets where i can find perfectly ripe avocados for much less than the local supermarket.

buying in bulk has also proven a valuable technique... shopping the bulk bins at whole foods for flours, grains, nuts & legumes costs next to nothing. also, forget stale supermarket spices! look for an indian market for lots of spices or check out a retailer like penzeys where you can forgo fancy packaging for high quality, potent herbs and spices!

now... i admit that i probably get much more joy out of grocery shopping than the average person. while i certainly don't think everyone has to turn into a total foodie, i think having fun with food can definitely open up some new doors. i spend my days pouring over recipes, writing my own, & experimenting with different foods... but i also have taken the time to understand what i'm feeding my body & why. this has probably proven the most valuable money-saving lesson of all - taking care of my body and treating it right has kept me away from the doctor, off medications, & feeling great.

after we finished some epic food shopping we grabbed our coupon book and headed over to pita paradise for some delicious mediterranean food!






oh, & one last tip! reusable grocery bags, good for the earth & your wallet... here we are modeling some amazing handmade totes our deadformat buddy mel made us!

polaroid saturday

polaroid saturday

2009 the re-cap

So much has happened these last few weeks, we thought it appropriate to begin the year with a re-cap of all things panda-y and holiday-ish. First off jess and I both got new tattoos at our favorite tattoo shop. Jess went to our place to get a tattoo with her father. Jess got a piece of cherry pie(her father’s favorite) with a dad banner. And jess’ dad got a touch up on an old rose tattoo he had, with jess’ name above it. And a week later I got an amazing panda tattoo, below are pics of jess’ and I’s tats:






We were very fortunate to have great holidays this year. We had a good time with jess’ folks while they visited over thanksgiving. And we had a great time running around on xmas day seeing everyone(even if i did have to work part of that day). we had a great new years eve eating thai food with sean and irene. Jess’ and I present exchange couldn’t have been better, with both of us getting fun and surprising presents that we both adored, below is a composite:

ryno got:
dinosaur jr : whatever's cool with me 7"
modest mouse : good news for people who like..
mountain goats : sweden
nirvana : in utero(clear yellow)
sea and cake : oui
smashing pumpkins : machina | the machines of god
sonic youth : goo lp(first pressing)
pedro the lion : whole ep 10"
sonic youth stocking cap!!!!

gesso got:
himalayan sea salt
saves the day - through being cool
braid - rainsnowmatch 7" original pressing
kung-fu panda dvd
beetlejuice dvd
and lots of cute oven mitts... and a cupcake apron!!!!
money with which she bought an ipod touch which she is adoring so much right now

here's some pictures of us crazy cats:


not to mention dad/bonnie/santa got us tons of fun things from ten thousand villages, and other thoughtful fun things. And jess’ parents got us pjs. And of course our families/santa gave us money for records and or culinary fun things.

Another amazing recent development that I mentioned in my last blog, was that we got our new coffee table. I urge anyone to take the time when they visit us to check out this lovely piece of artisanal carpentry mastery. Here are some pictures, but no justice will be served unless you see this in person:





yesterday we went to Chicago. We met up with ben and his lady friend jenny and had a wonderful time. we met up with them at the chicago diner, and enjoyed brunch. we then went to reckless records (of course), rag stock, urban outfitters, and a few other stores. we finished the night at mac's, where all four of us enjoyed their fish and chips. and we all loved it! next time though, we are going to smoke daddy! we had a great time with ben and jenny, it was a shame the night ended so soon, but we look forward to seeing them this summer, and whenever they visit these parts!

so after all of that bloggery, we are so thankful we have each other and family and friends to share our lives with. we are so thankful and happy that 2009 is starting off so well. this year for us, will bring tight budgets, a fun summer train ride to california, a possible 2010 wedding date, and our kitties will be turning two!

happy 2009!

well jess and i are relaxing after a simple yet fun new years eve. we went out to eat with irene and sean at one of our favorite thai restaurants last night, which was a blast. and we rang in the new year with records and kitties and champagne corks flying.

sean presented us with a new coffee table that he made us. we commissioned sean to make this table quite a while ago, but now that we have it, it was well worth the wait. it is perfectly designed to sit two lap tops side by side. and it has a drawer that can house both of our lap tops. needless to say we couldn't be happier. the cats have also been enjoying a new piece of furniture to crawl all over.

jess and i had a great christmas. we drove all over the place delivering home made cookies to family members which was fun. jess and i exchanged presents, and we both are happier than panda bears stranded on a bamboo island. jess got me countless records that i wanted and i got her numerous things she desired.

so it's been a crazy week and a half. i've been working tons, and am looking forward to having the next few days off. tomorrow we are going to chicago to meet up with ben and his g/f. much fun will be had.