Tropical Green Smoothie

Tropical Green Smoothie

Mangoes were on sale, so I figured it was a good time to change up my smoothie routine.

1 mango

1 banana

1 small green apple

1 kiwi fruit

1/2 of a pear

options:
1 orange (peel a remove most of the pith, pull apart into 3 or four chunks)
or juice of a large orange
or 1/2 cup water

Blend, blend, blend, on whatever speed your blender likes for making a smoothie. If the fruit is fresh, I squish and stir, using less liquid; if it's frozen, I add liquid to get the blender going. It should end up looking something like this: 

No doubt, this would already have been a delicious fruit smoothie. But, I'm doing a green smoothie thing right now, and this is more of a lovely orange color. Not to worry!

 

3-ish handfuls of leafy green stuff -- I do a mix of kale and spinach, and change up the ratio to suit my mood.

Blend some more. If I've been working with fresh fruit, I'll also blend in some ice cubes. If most of the fruit has been frozen, I don't usually need ice.

Now, drink up! I don't really do exact measurements, but I usually get enough for a big (32oz-ish) smoothie.

New juice excitement

I've been continuing to experiment with juices, and have just started to branch out with the greens. T. recommended that I try sneaking in a little spinach, to to try it -- she said I wouldn't even taste it. So, I put a little bit into a celery/carrot juice I've gotten fairly comfortable with. I could definitely taste it, but it wasn't bad. So, today, I took the full plunge and tried a modified version of this kale, spinach, and pear smoothie for breakfast. I forgot to take a picture, but it suffices to say that it was very green. Surprisingly enough, it was also very delicious.

Blend one big handful of spinach, a handful of kale, 1 cup of orange juice, and several ice cubes. Add 1 banana, 1 pear, and honey. Blend. Pour over ice.

It was a little sweeter than I'd drink regularly. Next time, I'll try a fresh orange, either less pear or no honey, and maybe 1/2 a lemon. And I'll remember to freeze the banana. I didn't feel hungry afterwards, but wasn't quite satisfied, either -- I'm not sure yet how much green juice or smoothie I'll have to drink for it to substitute effectively for a meal.

New Year, New Adventures

I don't think my allergies have adjusted to being home in New Orleans as quickly as my psyche has. Or maybe my sinuses are just not as good at repressing their responses as my psyche is. Whatever the case, I feel like coming home has been pretty easy, so far: there's obviously some angst -- new year doesn't really mean new personality -- but, for the most part, I feel like I'm kind of ok with being here. I'm definitely feeling good about being so close to family and friends I've lived far away from for quite some time. But, I'm not sure my respiratory system is feeling the love. I thought it was allergies (it probably was), then I felt like I was fighting something off (I probably was), and then there a random sore throat, which has sort of come and gone for several days. This is the stage at which I might go to a doctor, if not for the continued unemployment, and it's resulting lack of health insurance; instead, I took advantage of the fact that I'm unemployed by dosing up on cold meds and going back to sleep.

When I got up take a second crack at Tuesday, I decided that it was as good a day as any to embark on one of my new adventures for the year: juicing. Fruits and veggies, not steroids. I ran across a "detoxing" recipe that's supposed to be helpful when fighting a cold, so I started with that one:

4 carrots
4 celery stalks
one small cucumber
one small apple
1/2 lemon

The recipe also called for 1 beet, which is *obviously* not happening. I added a chunk of ginger, or at least I think I did -- I know that I peeled it, but I have no memory of putting it into the juicer, and thought I'd sat it on the counter. But, it's nowhere to be found, and the juice does have a little bit of a gingery sharpness to it, so I'm guessing it's in there.

I was skeptical about drinking vegetables, but it's surprisingly tasty. Though I suspect it would be tastier with a shot of vodka in it. I don't really care for Bloody Marys, but I always want to like them -- it's like they're almost delicious, but not quite. Now, I wonder if a Carrot-Ginger Mary would work...

But I digress. New year, new adventures. I've moved; I'm still looking for a job and trying to figure out a new direction; being unemployed sucks, except for the part where you can just go back to sleep if you wake up feeling sick; and my first attempt at juicing was successful enough that I'll keep doing it. 

And happy new year.

A little kitchen experiment

Or, more accurately, a bar experiment: vodka + Brita filter + persimmons. Before the holidays, I had a lot of persimmons on the counter, and not enough time to eat them all before leaving town. So, I threw them in the freezer, thinking I'd make persimmon bread with them -- I don't know how to make persimmon bread, or whether it'll work right if the persimmons have been frozen, but I figured I'd figure it out. There will still be persimmon bread, but I decided to try a different experiment first.

Some time ago, my friend A. told me that someone told him that running not-so-awesome vodka through the Brita filter helps it become more delicious. I'd been meaning to test that out, but hadn't gotten around to it yet. More recently, I read a couple of articles about infusing alcohol with various things (one was about strawberry vodka, the other about celery bitters). I'd been thinking of doing a cucumber or celery vodka, because I think that would make for some delicious cocktails, but I got inspired when I saw the persimmon sitting in the freezer. So, here's the experiment in progress:

Vodka + Brita filter + persimmons = ???

Hypothesis: Quadruple-filtered persimmon vodka will be delicious. I'll report my findings soon!

Do you know what it means...

United tried really hard to get my trip to New Orleans off to a bad start -- 2 hour flight delay, meaning I got in at about 2 in the morning. Somehow, this turned out not to be a problem. I watched a bad but enjoyable movie on the flight -- Beastly, which I'll give 2 1/2 stars. (It's not actually *good*, but it's enjoyable despite itself. Or maybe that's just because it's Beauty and the Beast, and I have a hard time not liking that story.) Also finished a cover letter (for a position which, unfortunately, no longer existed when I went to submit my application). And, best of all, was picked up from the airport by friends old and new, and taken straight to Cafe du Monde for beignets. Spent the next day hanging with friends and eating lots of tasty things. Brunch omelette involved alligator sausage, but I was more excited about the crawfish and crabs we had later -- fantastic! How good was this day? We were, at one point, literally sitting at the end of a rainbow. No, really!

See?!

Have been enjoying spending time with my best friend, M.. Have seen my brother and future sister-in-law mostly in the evenings -- they're busy with last-minute wedding prep, which I've been happy to eavesdrop on, and to lend an opinion when asked.

In other news:

It *really* hurt to do this --
I do not bruise easily.

This is the very sexy bruise I gave myself on my first morning here, climbing into the tub/shower at my brother's house. It's a beautiful, huge, claw-foot tub. A bigger step than I realized, and slippery. I'd have fallen in completely if the side of my knee hadn't broken my momentum...

Much more fun: here's a fabulous present, given to me by M.M., a friend of M.'s with whom I should totally hang out.

Awesome.

Speaking of people with whom I should hang out: here's M.'s 2-yr-old son, J., having fun wearing my shoes:

And this fantastic sign is at "The Joint," where we went for very tasty BBQ:

"This is not fast food

Our kind of flava takes time, y'heard?

So cool your jets l'il piggies. We move at the speed of real BBQ."

A real live Saturday!

Fun times today. Went to breakfast with A. and accidentally didn't come home until after dinner. Hadn't done that in way too long. We went to breakfast (yes - breakfast! before 11 o'clock!) and had tastiness at Wise Sons Jewish Deli, on Valencia (way out @ McCoppin, near 13th and Mission if you're taking the bus). Tasty stuff, nice people. They're squatting in someplace called Jackie's Cafe right now, but I hope they get their own place, because I would go there and try other tasty things. Then we went to a cafe and I made A. listen in great detail to what my class is now about. He was a very good sport about it. And then we went to the library. I checked out a book (for my class, of course), and A. returned some things that were about two years overdue.

The find was way lower than he was expecting, which was nice. One of the books was The Road, which we read together in our book club. In March of 2009.

I'm teaching it in my class, which I have not been obssessed with thinking about AT ALL.


After breakfast, sometime spent looking for the books (which were, strangely enough, on a shelf), a trip to the library, and quick look at the Union Square Borders, to see if they'd started acting like they were going out of business yet (they haven't, and are still blasting 20% off like it's a real discount), we went to Diptyque and sniffed a whole lot of fragrances and candles. I found one that I might need to get myself. And then we went to Grub and ate some more food.

I had a chicken pot pie (it was more like a super tasty stew with a puff pastry in it) and A. had the hanger steak. We agreed that, while his steak was good, my pot pie was superior. Despite the fact that I burned my mouth so badly at one point (on some cauliflower) that I actually had to spit it out. *Oh my god, how embarrassing!* I'll go back to Grub as well, though. They have a lamb porterhouse and a mac and cheese bar and other things that I obviously need to put in my face. After waiting an appropriate amount of time for them to cool, of course.

Some snaps from the last couple of weeks

File under: fashion police. There's too much going on in both of these - I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

The Bacon Tour, cont.

After a tasty, tasty meal and a good night's sleep, T. and I had a full day on Friday. First up, Voodoo Doughnuts (where "The Magic is in the Hole"). I had a bacon maple bar and a buttermilk bar (both very tasty). They also perform weddings, but I just had coffee with my doughnuts. I was amused by the doughnut mobile.




After the doughnuts, we took a quick trip out to see the Columbia River Gorge and some waterfalls. Nature really is pretty.

After the nature, T. went off to work for a couple of hours and I wandered around downtown Portland, mostly Pioneer Square. I'd planned to sample the legendary food carts, but was still surprisingly full form the doughnuts. I did take advantage of one, the Spella Cafe, where the sorbetta del giorno was banana strawberry. I was skeptical (I often dislike banana flavored things), but the sample was delicious, so I had a scoop before making my way over to Mecca Powell's City of Books. I wandered happily through the nine rooms (68,000 sq. ft., according to their website), content to look around, as shopping was not in the budget (though I did place a research fund financed order on powells.com before the trip). I did come home with a souvenir, though: a book clip/stand that I'd seen years ago on one of my advisor's books and admired. He said he'd gotten it from Powell's. At the time, I looked for it online and didn't find it. I'd forgotten all about it until I wandered past a display in one of the aisles. It's a small thing, but great for my upcoming time of productivity, in which I will need books open to important pages while I type brilliant thoughts! Here it is now, holding open my copy of American Gods, which I'll get back to reading tomorrow.

From doughnuts to nature to books to...karaoke!

Total Eclipse of the Heart

T. belts one out

After the karaoke, we had dinner at Deschutes, one of Portland's many brew pubs. I had an elk burger (tasty) and T. and I shared a beer sample tray, which gave us a chance to try 6 beers for the price of one.
Loved - Sinfully Delicious DSA (a Belgian strong dark ale, sort of Chimay-like)
Really Liked - Miss Spelt Hefeweizen and Obsidian Stout
Liked - Fat Cap Cream Ale
Was unimpressed by -  Twilight APA
Did not like - Blackweiss (a dark wheat ale)

Many of T's friends came, and it was a fun night. After dinner, we headed to one of T's friends' new apartment (a swank downtown pad w/a nice view) for desserts and more conversation. It was a late night, lots of fun, a good taste of Portland!

After a busy Friday, T. got up early to do some last-minute moving errands, and then we headed to brunch at Screen Door. The line for the first seating was down the block, so it was good that we went early. I had a brisket hash, which was tasty, but too greasy (and came cold). And we shared an order of the praline bacon, which was really good. I thought I'd taken a picture of it, but must have been too busy eating to photo-document! If I find myself in Portland again, I'd go back to Screen Door and try the golden yeasted waffle (T. had one and it looked delicious) or the chicken and waffles, which just about everyone was ordering. Although I think it will be hard for any chicken and waffles to live up to the standard M. and I set when we made our own!

Full of brunch (and a wee bit sleepy from the night before), we packed up and headed out of town. On the way out, I stole a piece of a plant form T.'s yard - the leaves intrigued me (and made me think of Gremlins, Stripe in particular - weird, I know). I'm hoping it'll grow roots, and maybe, eventually, some of those strange, stripey leaves.

I managed to forget the one thing I was supposed to remember - an adapter to play my iPod in the car - but we made do with my computer. It was a pretty short drive, 4 hours, to Ashland. The unnaturally sunny weather I'd brought with me to Portland did not follow us, and we got rained on us as we arrived for our show at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. We'd chosen a production of Pride and Prejudice. There were good things about the show (Elizabeth, Wickham, Mrs. Bennett, some of the staging choices), but Darcy was not one of them. It's hard for P&P to succeed if Darcy's not up to snuff; this one played Darcy with a smirk that became giddiness (and weird arm things that T. found very distracting), when he should obviously be a scowl that becomes dignified joy, both bubbling over and restrained. Mr. Collins was also too much, out of keeping with the production around him. I didn't care for Lydia's delivery, but liked Messrs. Bennett and Bingley fine.

A wonderful excuse, then, to rewatch the two versions I own.

After breakfast (at which I had a piece of bacon, just to make The Bacon Tour official), today was all driving, and we arrived back in SF in the afternoon.

A great trip overall - it was great to spend time just hanging out with T.! I also enjoyed my brief introduction to the Pacific Northwest, and a reminder that I really should find ways to see more live theater. And take more road trips, because how else can I see things like this:

 

Mt. Shasta

Nature for the win.

Portland trip, day 1

I've been looking forward to my trip to Portland for a while now. T, one of many good friends that I just don't see often enough, has been living in Portland (partially) and teaching there, and this is the first chance I've had to go and see her. She's driving south for the summer, so we thought it would be fun if I flew up, hung out in Portland for a couple of days, and then accompanied her on the drive down. In addition to the road trip excitement, we'll be stopping at Ashland to take in a show. Good times!

This morning got off to an iffy start: I woke up migrainey, so was dragging a little when I needed to be up and alert to get ready, have some breakfast, and get down to the bus stop. I managed the getting ready, had to skip a more substantial breakfast in favor of a banana and an Odwalla bar, and missed the bus I meant to be on. On the upside, the migraine was mostly tamed by the time I headed out, so that's a plus. And I made it to the airport in plenty of time, had a small snack and some coffee.

The plane to Portland was a tiny thing, so my carefully packed carry-on (I was good and packed just a carry-on bag) had to be gate-checked, which was really no problem. Was excited to meet up w/T. at the airport (she was also flying in from elsewhere today), and we went from there to her office (which has a real door and everything!) to a cute little cafe, where we had a small snack to tide us over until dinner. Dinner was a 6 course extravaganza at Beast, which included tasty things like this:

 

1) Foie-gras bon-bon, sauternes gelee; chicken liver mousse & pickled shallot; (A BEET (blech!!) and a carrot, pickled); steak tartare & quail egg toast; pork shoulder rillettes w/seville marmalade; (a gherkin and some tasty mustard); rabbit, rabbit liver, prune & peppercorn pate

2) NY steak, carrot & baby fennel gratin, spring herb salsa verde and veal demi-glace

3) lemon buttermilk souffle, sliced local strawberries, poached rhubarb coulis 

YUM! 

Now I'm back at T's, up later than I should be. A full day planned for tomorrow - Voodoo Doughnuts, Columbia Gorge, a visit to some of Portland's famed food carts, Powell's City of Books, karaoke happy hour at Voicebox (private karaoke rooms), dinner and beer at Deschutes Brewery Portland Pub. Saturday, we'll be up early for brunch at Screen Door, where I will try something called "praline bacon." Let that sink in. Praline bacon. Not sure what to expect, but I love pralines, and I love bacon, so...

Now, sleepy time. Updates, and maybe more pictures to follow. I might even take pictures of something besides food  :)