Autumnal Musings

School life keeps me busy, and academics aside, it's been a fantastic time!  Two weekends ago we had our Fall Fest concert, this year featuring The Rubens from Wales and Grouplove from L.A.!  My housemates and I rocked out in the front row, pinned against barriers and moshing freshmen.  I was enamored by their lead singer Hannah who bounced and belted around stage in a skeleton morph suit!

Autumn in the Northeast is such a relief.  This past week was crisp and sunny, unusually warm but ablaze with the changing trees.  I started volunteering as an after school mentor with middle school students in a program called Club SLU, and their campus has a nice set of trails to run around.  I enjoy sitting outside the student center in the sun whenever there's a break between classes, and I squeezed in an hour of canoeing yesterday with Jenny on the Grasse River!

The CSA is treating us with the last of the basil, peppers, and tomatoes, and now we're receiving squash, bok choy, and beautiful green and purple tomatillos.  Those promptly turned into fiery salsa and frittatas.  And now it's apple season, which means pie!  I made two this past week, with a flaky, homemade crust.  I tend to prefer baking over my readings...

 

Family weekend at school just concluded.  It made to me happy to watching the amusing interactions between students and their parents, showing them around campus, eating at the dining halls, attending football games and concerts.. even the sole bar.  My parents are in sunny Florida, but Lia's and Elizabeth's joined us for the weekend, along Ally's sister who's visiting from North Carolina.  We had a big family dinner at the townhouse with chicken wing dip, bean dip, chips, vegetable lasagna, salad, garlic bread, Riesling, wine slushies and the like.  

And I'm off to volunteer and cook with Campus Kitchens, lead a copy-editing session for The Laurentian Magazine, then more homework.  Just another weekend until mid-semester break, but I would say that I'm in a good place right now.

Listening: the Patriots-Cincinnati football game that my housemates are watching in the living room.

La pureté de l’instant est faite de l’absence du temps.

Instant purity is made in the absence of time.  (from the novel l'Aventure ambigue by Senegalese author Cheikh Hamidou Kane) // Time is always something I'm complaining about, and seeming to lack, but I make the most of it.  After a week of unbearably capricious weather (I don't take to humidity well), the front has blown by and autumn is settling in the North Country.  I love being wrapped up in frumpy, thrifted sweaters and nursing mugs of spiced cider.  Having a half-meal plan and a CSA has been a dream because we have a rotation of fresh vegetables twice a week and I have eaten dinner at a campus dining facility less than I can count on my hands.  Between class work, my honors research and organizations, eating actually needs a scheduled block of time.  Nonetheless, cooking is high on my priority list because it's a chance to unwind, meditate, and savor the process.  The Kitchn just published a great article echoing these sentiments here.  

 My parents came up last weekend for the day!  We ran errands together, went out to lunch, did some shopping, and my dad fixed a broken tube on my bike.  Heh, I'll figure that out someday but in the meantime, thanks, Pops!

  

CSA pick-up week one on the left, week two on the right!  Edamame (still on the stalk), beets, purple and yellow and red peppers, cabbage, cauliflower, tatsoi, garlic, green and purple and yellow beans, basil, tomatoes, apples, carrots, cayenne peppers, celery, swiss chard.. and sunflowers!

Tuesday and Friday generally have vegetables to ensure that all shareholders receive the same variety.

 The inaugural CSA meal.

 Dinner crepes and roasted beets.

 

 Apples sauteed in honey whiskey with brown sugar and pecans for dessert crepes.

 

Dinner partying at friends' houses, and our own!

 This dinner was particularly classy in honor of Pico Iyer, who visited this past week for a Writer's Series event (more on that the next post).

 A frittata cooked for our CSA potluck this past weekend, using eggs from their farm! 

Not pictured:  many other delicious, satisfying meals.

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 The Ruckus Bus also had our first tournament the weekend of the 7th.  It's been a joy playing with my people again, so unstructured and rowdy.  Playing in China served me well though, because I gained a lot more experience and understanding on the field.  Now I'm able to help other players who are newer to the game, and I'm heading up the revival of our women's team, The Ruckus Bust!

 Reppin' the Ruckus with the Shanghai Huwa shorts with Courtney and Holly!  Courtney and I are roommates and we scored an awesome point together on her hammer and my bid during a torrential, sideways rainstorm-- it was a beautiful moment.

 So we didn't win the tournament because an alumni team with semi-professional players outplayed us by a few points Sunday morning in the championship bracket, but we still won the party.  Equally important.

They're my favorite shitheads.

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 We went to Little Grasse Farm first thing Saturday morning to farm with other CSA shareholders as part of the labor we've exchanged.  Here's my house mate Elizabeth after we harvested some tomatoes!

 Shucking dry beans with freshly-pressed cider.

 Chickens roaming their coop.

Harvesting squash into piles so their skins dry out a bit and toughen. 

 There was a potluck after 

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My housemates are so busy and good at what they do, that the six of us haven't been consciously present together since the first few days of school!  This was prior to our first Ruckus Bus party of the year with the theme 'fancy homeless.'  Sam didn't end up wearing her hat for fear of looking "more like a hipster douchebag than a homeless person."  Haha!!  A family photo will hopefully come soon.

Listening: "Fox Say" by Ylvis  (SORRY: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jofNR_WkoCE)

Cooking Chronicles: Brown-Butter Fruit Cake

Summertime brings gorgeous fruit.  

I have difficulty justifying baking or cooking with fruit because now is the best time to eat it, raw and whole.  However, last summer I found this recipe on the blog Eat, Live, Run for a brown butter plum upside down cake-- and it has since changed my perception of baked fruit desserts.  The brown butter makes all the difference here because it adds a nutty, rich taste to the more sour fruit.

Supplies

Two mixing bowls / non-stick saute pan / cake mixer or electric beater / spatula / 9" round cake pan / oven @350 deg. F / a fancy apron (optional)

2 pounds of firm plums, or peaches!  This would be 5-7, depending on how you slice and how many layers of fruit you want.  As you can see, I used both and the effect was gorgeous and added varying tastes to the cake.  

1 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour

2 tsp baking powder, 1/4 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp vanilla

2 eggs, at room temperature

1/2 cup of milk

3/4 cup of granulated white sugar

1 stick of unsalted butter, at room temperature

    *(room temperature ingredients make for better cakes!)

1/2 stick (4 tbsp) of unsalted butter, at room temperature

3/4 cup of packed brown sugar

Directions

1. Cut peaches and plums into 1/4" slices.

2. Melt a 1/2 stick (4 tbsp) of butter into saute pan on low heat (very important, otherwise the butter will burn), stirring occasionally.  First it will separate and clarify, then foam, then gradually turn brown -- the darker the brown, the nuttier and more rich the taste.  This should take 5-10 minutes.

3.  Once the butter is browned, stir in the 3/4 cup of brown sugar and cook for another 3 minutes.

4. Pour into a round cake pan, then arrange the fruit slices in a layered, circular pattern.

5. In one bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon.

6. In another bowl, cream the remaining stick of butter and 3/4 cup of white sugar.

7.  Add eggs one by one, then vanilla.

8.   Fold  in dry ingredients, alternating with the milk, beating until fluffy.

9. Spread batter onto the fruit, then baking for 40-45 minutes until the cake is golden brown.

10.  Let the cake cool for a few minutes.  Run a knife around the edge of the cake, and if you want, flip it onto a serving platter and enjoy!  It's incredible with vanilla ice cream and a semi-dry white wine (heh).

There is nothing like homemade cake with seasonal fruit.  I've followed this recipe exactly, but I think next time I'm going to try to substitute oils and apple sauce, reduce and sugar a bit and hopefully make a cake that's less heart-stopping yet equally delicious.  If anyone happens to try themselves, please let me know how it goes.  Man, have I missed baking!

Listening: "Jump in the Line" by Henry Belafonte

Cooking Chronicles: Tomato Time

Reacquainting with friends is best when it involves food.

Kristen and I :)

Watermelon is my summer sustenance and in my opinion, the perfect snack anytime of day.  We made breakfast sandwiches with spinach, a fried egg, swiss cheese melted over tomatoes, and a smear of siracha sauce and salsa.  It's so nice to eat on the porch.

 

 And let's be honest: tomatoes only taste good this time of year.  In that spirit, I'm trying to consume them in as many ways as possible!  I adapted roasted stuff-tomatoes recipe from Heidi Swason's cookbook, Super Natural Everyday, which I purchased at the Ferry Building Marketplace in San Francisco (but can also be found on Amazon). 

1. Take the larger tomatoes (assume one tomato per guest, they're hearty) and hollow them out, trying not to puncture the sides and separating the inner chunks into a smaller dish.  

2. Mix the tomato innards (ha!) with a 1/2 cup of black beans and 1/2 of a diced onion.

3. Her recipe calls for couscous, but I had just gone out and bought wheat berries.  I knew that would work as a crunchier but equally substantial substitute so I mixed it with the filling.  I forgot to stir in some yogurt that would have thickened the filling and bound it together, but it's not dire to the recipe.

4. The recipe also calls for harissa: a Middle Eastern chili paste.  Again, modifying what I found online, I made my own by mixing Sambal chili sauce with olive oil, caraway seeds, coriander, garlic, smoked paprika, sea salt, and a lots of cracked pepper.  This was folded into the filling.

5.  Fill the tomatoes with the stuffing, drizzling with more olive oil particularly so they don't stick to the bottom of the pan, then cook in the oven on 400 degrees (F) for 20-30 minutes.  The toppings should be a spicy crisp.

So the best part about this is that tomatoes can be stuffed with anything-- this is just the version that worked most conveniently for me!  My mom loves tomatoes filled with bread crumbs, seafood, and cheese.

 Rochester was still waking at 7 AM on Saturday.

 The Rochester Public Market, however, quickly came to life with shoppers hustling for about.  I loved going with my friend Megan, because up until recently her family was among the weekend produce vendors.  She recognized many farmers and knew who sold their own produce, as opposed to re-selling produce that was purchased in bulk.  She does the pro-circuit, too: sweeping the entire market then going back through to the stands with the best offers.  Though not as cheap as China, it's still wonderful to purchase a week's worth of New York state produce for $20.

 The market is also surrounded by coffee houses selling aromatic roasts and hearty breakfast burritos.   When I came home, it just made sense to cook up some ratatouille. 

The chosen ones (minus the onion)!

 Ratatouille is so seasonal, delicious, and simple that it makes me wonder why more people haven't tried it.  Or maybe you have in some version, and didn't realize your vegetable saute had a French counterpart!  Some recipes call for oven-roasted, but based off of experience it can all be created most efficiently in a single pan.  Here's what to do:

1. Set your stove onto medium heat and preheat the skillet (preferably cast or enamel iron) or stewing pan.

2. Starting with the onion, slice the vegetables; eggplant and zucchini into 1/4" inch thick, bell peppers into spears, tomatoes into hearty chunks.  Lightly salt all the vegetables.

3. Swirl a tablespoon (or two) of butter around the skillet and toss in the onions.  Let those cook about 10 minutes, or until they begin caramelizing.  If you have fresh garlic, toss that in as well.

4. Add the zucchini, eggplant, and peppers doused with a few tablespoons of olive oil.  Turn up the heat a bit and cook for 5 minutes, when the eggplant and zucchini begin to soften.

5. Toss in the tomato chunks, pushing the other vegetables around and on top so the tomatoes make contact with the pan.  They should start steaming and add more liquid to the skillet.

6. As the tomatoes break down, add in liberal amounts of cracked pepper and herbs: oregano, basil, thyme.  Place a lid on the skillet, turn the heat down to medium-low, and let the vegetables stew together for 15-20 minutes.  That's it!

I eating ratatouille over a potatoes, rice, or some sort of grain, then topped off with Parmesan or fresh mozzarella cheese.  Here I had it over potatoes with steamed green beans and Dijon mustard, soy-chili tofu (experimenting with marinades-- anyone know good combinations?), and toasted seven grain bread.  I still enjoying using chopsticks to eat.

 I try to follow my dinner indulgences with walks down the road, like to the town beach.  Nice as it looks, Honeoye Lake is currently un-swimmable (as advised by the state health department).

 And make no doubt, I'm still playing ultimate frisbee!  Heading up to Rochester this weekend for a hat tournament, which will be my first time playing with adults and league players outside of China.

Listening: "Beethoven's Secrets" by The Piano Guys

p.s. If the photo-quality strikes you as pretty nice, we have my new iPhone 5 to thank for that!  The 8-megapixel camera would have been real nice in China...