dirty good food done dirt cheap

dinner for driving lessons

2009-07-21T11:13:00.000-07:00

my new section is the barter section. Its a funny mentality there. A lot of people are looking for very material things. In the form for posting there is a dollar amount you can fill in: the model is I have goods that are worth this amount of money for trade (XBox ipod boat bike computer dvd player flatscreen tv). Then there are a lot of people out of work. Electricians, plumbers, auditors massage thereapists. Often people are looking for hilariously specific things. some one in Kelso today wants to trade a set of heavy duty tires for some heavy duty chain, big enough for towing. Some boy is offering his guitar for a women's ruby ring. I cherish posts like this:

The other day I tried to barter with some hippies who posted about needing clay for firing. I have a bag in my room that the girl who lived here before left behind. They were offering things like butterfly wings and crystal wraps, and logo design. I was hoping to get some chains to put the chicken feet on, but i think my last email to them was a little snarky and they never got back.
Upon return from the industrial cardboard warehouse that donated cardboard to my shadow puppet project, a reminder from Elizabeth that echoed with reminders from Kasey put me up to it. It was high time I learned how to drive. My ad ran:

cooking lessons for driving lessons

I am a generally capable 22 year old who never learned to drive. I'm pretty good at most things and I imagine that I will be a quick learner. I am also a great cook. I would be happy to trade cooking lessons for driving lessons, or just cook for you in exchange. I specialize in vegetarian food, but am capable of making anything you like.
I provide the groceries and the kitchen, you provide the car.
You should be a good driver, and feel comfortable teaching someone else.

We could meet over lunch or something to work things out further.

Thanks!

Almost immediately I got a response from the Angel of Portland. She could teach me stick. She worked during the day but was free most evenings.

Angel is about 5' 10, 200 lb, short brown hair, drives a beat up old pick up truck, has an ex-wife. Has worked construction/maintenance all her life, went to college across the street from my highschool. Probably in her mid to late thirties. Cilantro and ginger taste like soap to her (read more about this at http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=98695984 and ihatecilantro.com) She is not a vegetarian, although she seemed to like my food. I made ratatouille with heirloom tomatoes (shelled out for those at the supermarket and they were nothing like the tomatoes they grow at Mark and Judy's farm in Bucks county, where I worked for a bit one summer) and quinoa with sunflower seeds. She also requested the meal not be spicy, so i seasoned with garlic, butter, and fresh rosemary. I've recently been on a big butter kick. They have this local butter and cheese here called Tillamook. Farmer owned since 1909. Real cheap and good.

Angel was a great teacher. She kept it simple, but informed. She explained the actuation point on the clutch: two metal plates. When they are engaged, the transmission is connected to the engine. Push the clutch down, move the plate, disconnect the transmission from the engine so that you can shift without damaging the gears. "You know about gears?" she asked. I thought about Cara squatting on the floor fiddling a greased chain on her upturned exercise bike piece. I said something funny about our can opener. She was good at asking questions. We sat parked for a while. She held the keys and I sat in the driver's seat, practicing holding down the clutch and the brake, easing off the clutch and lightly applying pressure on the gas, shifting from neutral to first, first to second, second to third, and back down. "Ok so your pulling out of the parking space and speeding up, what do you do?" "Now your coming up to the stop sign at the end of the street..." When I was fifteen my mother got into two serious accidents and totaled two different minivans. One of the times she was listening to Italian tapes in preparation for a family vacation. She was at the light just down the street from my house. It turned red and she just kept driving. Scusi, che cosa... She had to go to driving school to get her license back. I was always to busy to learn to drive outside of school and it wasn't offered at private school. In reality I was terrified.

Angel drove us to a parking lot, got out and handed me the keys. There were a few people walking around about 30 yards ahead. One time my mother had hit a pedestrian coming out of the parking lot of my high school. A girl who went to the college Angel had graduated from. She wasn't hurt, my mother had only just bumped her, inching up out of the driveway and looking the opposite way. She sent the girl so many packages of organic herbal muscle relaxant shower gel and banana bread that she was probably more likely to sue her for stalking than the accident. I turned the keys in the ignition. I started out giving it too much gas and the car lurched forward, as i eased off I started rolling off at about 20 mph. "Go around this tree." Angel instructed. It was contained by one of those triangular concrete curbed parking lot planters. I peered my head as to try and gage the distance between the tires and this geometric obstacle. I turned the wheel to the left, at first just a little and then a lot, as prompted by Angel. I made it around the first, then the second side, and then suddenly I was very close to the curb on the third side. I pushed in the clutch but not far enough and hit the brakes. The truck stalled. It was ok. We talked for a little while, and she anwered a few questions of mine before I mustered up the courage to continue. I pulled out and away from the curb, and return in the direction I had come from, rounded around another tree planter and decided that I had had quite enough driving for one day. On the way home Angel told me about riding a motorcycle. The other day an old lady in a Buik had run her right up on the sidewalk. As we pulled up to my house, we made plans for our next lesson. "I don't want you to forget, what you learned today". We are booked for friday. I think I might make fish...

big victories

2009-07-16T16:50:00.000-07:00

hurray for new vegetables!

2009-07-15T23:05:00.000-07:00

There are these great purple Mung beans growing in the garden that I have hereto been unaware of. Josh informed me just the other day that they were in abundance, and I ventured out back to find them today.
I harvested all that I found and was preparing too cook them with some spring onion (bounty from Josh's gig at the farmer's market) and fennel (another new spice i've been incorporating into my cooking because its rampant in our garden), when suddenly the tables turned. Andy, the neighbour whose house we were watching last week came by with some things we had left at his place. Earlier that day, we had dropped off some dishes of their's that had made their way into our kitchen, and a fresh baked loaf of molasses bread (I'll share some recipes when i've perfected it). He had a couple cups (notably the travel beer mug) and a few ingredients we'd left behind after making a carrot cake there: butter and shredded coconut.

I sauteed the beans (which unfortunately turned green when cooked, I should have taken a picture of them in the pan!) in butter with fennel, spring onion, and coconut. WOW.

polenta polenta

2009-07-15T22:53:00.001-07:00

Slice pre-made polenta (thanks neighbours!) into 1/4 inch slabs, arrange on oiled baking tray (olive oil). Sprinkle with ground pepper. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes. Crush fresh basil, slice up some avocado, and top the polenta with these when it come out of the oven. Over top all this, red pepper flakes, salt, and a little balsamic vinegar. Simple. Delicious.

parsley!

2009-07-15T22:02:00.000-07:00

The kitchen has been a little lonely of late: which is not to say that it's not how I like it-- cooking is one of the key ways I unwind and process my day. Its quality alone time that I look forward to and enjoy. However, as any daily gourmet experiences, it is easy to get stuck in flavor ruts. I use the same 5 spices in everything (as I'm sure is apparent from my recipes), and sometimes its good to get shaken out of it. Also when you make food every day its pretty damn exciting to have someone else make you something that hits the spot-- and teaches you something.

James and I collaborated on several dinners while the roadtrip crew was here, and one night he took over the sauce making. I was very reluctant to let this happen. I am a particularly good at making tomato sauce, and I'm a tyrant in the kitchen. Really. This was hard for me. But it was a good thing I shut my mouth and worked on a salad because I had something to learn:
Parsley. A good deal of it. Added to the sauce before the tomatoes, sauteed in with the olive oil and garlic. It would have never even crossed my mind to put parsley in tomato sauce. Or really anything for that matter. Parsley was totally off my radar, maybe something I would put in a clear soup stock if I saw it lying around. Well my friends, I put parsley in the next batch of tomato sauce I made and it was the best damn sauce I have ever made. Hands down. Serious.
Thank you James.

Here are a few key things that I have picked up along the way from other chefs:

Maria, Nacira's mother who graciously housed and fed us in Oaxaca for several weeks, taught me to throw onions and garlic in the blender with olive oil, and keep a jar of the puree in the fridge for general cooking use. This way the oil soaks up the flavor of the garlic and onion. Theres no need for long simmering on low. The garlic doesn't burn, and it's easy as hell. I make a bunch every week, and use it in everything.

Elizabeth's father, Bennet, a raw vegan food whiz taught me these two invaluable tricks:
1. peel ginger with a spoon
2. when measuring out something sticky for a recipe like honey or molasses, coat the measuring cup with a thin layer of oil before hand. No sticky mess and you get all of the said sticky ingredient into the food instead of all over the measuring cup.

He also sent us a blender. Not just any blender but a really nice food processor/blender with an attachment for slicing and grating. I can't tell you how much better my life is. SO MUCH BETTER.
Thanks Bennet!

Fruit and Glass

2009-07-08T15:00:00.000-07:00

Hello from Vermont!
An introduction: my parents and I have been working on our garden in North Bennington for 9 years now. Starting with a bare, plowed patch, it has grown in very nicely, requiring less and less work to start it up every year. The field it's in was once a cow field, so the soil is pretty rich, and we've tried to stay well rotated in our crops. We've had all kinds of vegetables and flowers but until recently, we had never ventured into fruits. Starting with raspberry bushes, we've now got a little bevvy of sweets come harvest time. Grapes, blueberries, pears, a crab apple tree out back, and soon peaches will be ready for harvest.

We've found out a couple of things: Blueberries love coffee grounds. The high acidity of the grounds encourage them to make tart fruit, and help them get bluer faster. So far we haven't had any this year, (they're just turning blue now) but we'll see if this holds true.

We grow two crops of raspberries, one mid summer and one early fall, cutting the dead canes all the way down to the ground at the end of every season to ensure they bounce back harder. The mid summer crop, though, seems to do better with a few canes left. this might be due to the way they root sometimes, dipping their arms into the ground and starting new root balls at the elbow, making what looks like bouncing ball sing-a-longs of fruit. Lilac trees do this too, but more on that another time. this years midsummer crop is just past flowering, and it looks like there'll be a lot of raspberries:
But with pears, I'm now falling in love, because I'm into bottling fruits on the tree, to make pear flavored liquor.

The fruit grows into the bottles, until it's too big to come out, and will stay preserved in there after for as long as you live, due to the preservative nature of alcohol. To see a pear in a bottle is to want one for yourself. in my opinion.

Anyway, to bottle fruit, you get bottle that has a small neck and wide body (like you always look for) and tie it to he tree, slipping it over nubile young stems and supporting it very generously.

Here's a nice video with a creepy old man who told me how to bottle pears.
The selection of the right pear is the most important part, and you'll do well to find a long stem to slip into the bottle, with a larger branch above it to support the weight of the glass. I used pantyhose along with waxed twine to support the bottles, which can hold a rounded shape better than string alone.
After some wrangling inside the tree, this what I came up with: two bottles suspended on what I think are the king pears of the stems.
It's importantly to keep the bottles angled in a such so as to keep the water out of them, otherwise the pears may rot.
Hopefully, by the end of the summer, I'll have a pear in a bottle, ready to put some poire or maybe brandy into. I'm so excited.

mishaps mistakes lessons

2009-06-21T19:25:00.000-07:00

Sometime during the day on Monday, June 15 the two black chickens dissapeared. Elizabeth and I came home from an afternoon at the beach where I collected many seagull feathers, to discover the break out. I noted that several days beforehand I had seen the two black chickens conspiring behind a piece of plywood, and witnessed an exchange of general snobbishness between them and the two brown chickens. Later that evening I had seen them nestled together on the top rung of their chicken palace, peeking in the window. It wasn't far from the top rung to the top of the fence, or so I surmised their escape had arisen. We went on a trip to the desert, as their really wasn't much to do about it. Secretly I was glad because I had sensed a general discontent among the chickens, paired with a fairly serious movement amongst the members of the household to pluck and eat them, of which I was not a supporter. However, the day we returned and discovered that the chickens had been ravaged by a wild animal, I was in full support of cutting their feet off so as to turn them into necklaces, or gypsy wares.

It was the neighbours who found them, one headless, the other just a carcass, in their pristine and oft-attended garden (the mint ice cream neighbours). Cara and I were just down the street doing some yard work when the sad news broke, and we were called upon to remove and transport the bodies. The next day Travis, Cara, and I had a brief funeral service in the back alley. There were flowers, a few words, and a pink broken piece of clothes hanger found while digging the grave was used as a marker.
That afternoon I made a spinach, ricotta and sundried tomato pizza with some pizza dough that Josh had brought home from his dishwashing gig. I pulled the sizzling pizza out of the oven and began to cut it into portions only to discover a dire mishap. I had mistaken the lid of an old cookie tin for a baking tray, and there was yellow (probably lead) paint stuck to the bottom of the entire pizza. Defeated, we sat in the frontyard eating what toppings we could scrounge. Then we got a burrito (Down the street at La Sirenita it's only 3.50 for the cactus burrito, and its big enough for 2 to share) and a big waffle cone. Zach would like you to know that La Sirenita means mermaid.

strawberry picking inevitably leads to pie

2009-06-14T22:28:00.001-07:00

Today a friend recommend (Dorsie's bestie), Olivia, took Elizabeth and I out to Sauvie Island, a little island in the middle of the Willamette River, which runs through Portland. We went to a little family farm where she used to do catering, called Kruger Farms, where you can pick your own strawberries for only 1.35 a pound. A pound of berries is a lot of berries. This is a great deal, and pretty damn fun no matter how old you are. We picked a whole flat of berries, 12 pints in all, of which Olivia took 4. Needless to say, something needed to be done with all these berries. Pie was the obvious answer.

I only ever use one crust when I make pie. It is the Basic Pie Dough from the Joy of Cooking (from memory)...

Crust is the secret of pie. It needs to be flaky and buttery and just right.

The secret of a good flaky crust is butter and hands. Put that mixer away. If you want to make a good crust you have to use your hands. I learned how to do this when I was a kid making scones with my Mom. Thanks Mom.

Cut up 2/3 cup cold butter into tiny cubes and toss into a bowl with 2 cups flour. Work in the butter with your hands until there are a bunch of pea sized butter balls throughout the flour. Then put about 5-6 tablespoons of ice cold water ( a little more or less depending on the temperature) and work in with your hands again. Once you get a dough ball going just pick up the other bits of loose flower with it. Like cleaning clay off the table...

Put your dough ball in a plastic bag in the freezer. Time for the innards.

I pulled the heads off all those little strawberries, chopped them up (pretty haphazardly, i'm actually not much of a meticulous sous-chef) and threw them in a bowl with two handfuls of flour, two GRACIOUS handfuls of brown sugar, a small squirt of lemon juice, and some chopped fresh mint from the garden.

A NOTE ON HARVESTING FRESH HERBS: For herbs like sage and mint, you will notice that they grow off a central stalk with pairs of leaves opposite each other. You don't want to pull off individual leaves (like you do when harvesting spinach/lettuce/chard/kale) but snip the whole top of the stalk , right above one of these axes.

The dough should be a good consistency after being in the freezer for about 20 minutes. Turn the oven to 425, and flour the counter. I never roll out the dough for the inner crust, I just push it in with my fingers, but you can if you want. Use a little more than half the dough for this, and roll out the rest for the top. I opted for a lattice top for this pie, but I am often a proponent of making shapes and other designs for the top of a pie. Prick the inner pie crust in the dish with a fork a few times. I'm not sure why you do this, but its important. This time I sprinkled a little brown sugar on it, a trick Elizabeth tried on her last pie. Put the crust, sans-filling in the oven for 10-15 minutes. It should just be starting to brown. Take it out, add the filling, top it how you will, turn down the heat to 375, and bake for 45 min. Its ready when the berries are bubbling and the top crust is browned. Take it out and let cool--the hot bubbly berries will cool into a delicious syrup.

HOW DOES YOUR GARDEN GROW?

2009-06-14T20:10:00.000-07:00

our little garden in the back! josh tying tomato plants (they need support)

these will grow into broccoli, but right now the greens are still good to eat... a little green tomato

sugar snap peas are great in salad or by themselves. they are an early summer crop

little eggplant! little jalapeno!

Urban Foraging

2009-06-10T12:43:00.000-07:00

dumpster donuts

Kate Ten Eyck passed along an article in the New York Times on urban foraging, inspired by the story of Asiyah Wadud, who started a neighborhood fruit share in Oakland, California. The article has links to two awesome urban foraging/neighborhood sharing websites: neighborhoodfruit.com where you can look up public fruit trees or nearby sharing neighbors by zip code, or sign up to share fruit from a tree in your yard, or register a public tree in your neighborhood. Veggietrader.com is an online market to trade, buy, or sell things grown in backyard gardens. We've been vamping up our own garden by picking up seedlings down the street at the co-op, and free seeds from the seed library, which is part of the Northeast Portland Tool Library. You can rent any number of decent tools from hammers to powerwashers, even a table saw, for FREE! All you have to do is prove that you live in the area, and sign up. It's open from 9 to 2 every Saturday and tools are due back the following Saturday. The seed library was started in March this year, and is going strong, all on neighborhood donations. Later in the summer there will be a workshop on seed saving (look for updates on the Tool Library website) so that people can collect seeds and give back to the library.

All this blogging has made me hungry. Time for a pasta snack:

a handful of fresh sage from the garden, chopped
2 cloves garlic minced
1/2 stick of Earth Balance
1 crushed arbol pepper

Cook all these guys together on med low in a large saucepan while you wait for the water to boil. Throw a little salt in the water. It makes it boil at a slightly lower temperature, which is better for pasta cooking. It also makes the pasta that much more delicious. When the two pots are simmering away, clean and chop up some

garden greens ( broccoli leaf, chard, spinach)

When the water is boiling throw in whatever pasta it is you scrounge up ( I was lucky enough to find some fancy spaghetti in the cupboard, which will certainly be a treat compared to the hamburger helper pasta we'll be eating soon enough.) and a little bit of oil. This keeps the pasta from sticking together.

Turn up the heat on the sage garlic butter mixture, (if at this point Elizabeth walks in and suggests adding the leftover spinach tofu calzone filling she made the day before, say yes) and add the greens.

Determine whether or not the pasta is ready by tasting it. Most dried pasta takes about 10 minutes to cook, fresh takes 2-3 (5- 7 for filled pasta). When it is the texture you prefer, strain and rinse with a little cold water. This stops the pasta from cooking and maintains that texture. You'll bring it back to delightfully warm when you add the sauce. Add the sauce. Call the hungry.

and it's vegan!

2009-06-08T14:11:00.000-07:00

Elizabeth made a rhubarb pie!

wood organized! tacos!

2009-06-08T13:10:00.000-07:00

Cara and I tackled the woodpile under the gazebo porch out back. We pulled it all out, organized it by size and type, pulled a bunch of scary rusty nails out, built some shelves, and stacked it up nice. This deserved tacos:

1 can of Amy's refried beans (found in cupboard)
1 can of black beans (purchased Mexican market)
1 can of corn (found)
garden greens ( broccoli greens, spinach, chard)
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 whole arbol peppers
ground guajillo pepper
cumin
salt

Throw the refried beans, drained can of corn, 1/2 drained can of beans, garlic and spices into a deep saucepan, stir together, and bring to a boil. Keep it boiling (you can turn it to medium high but keep it bubblin good) keep stirring and scraping the bottom and sides of the pan. Add the greens when the mixture is stew-like in consistency. While this mixture thickens, start chopping up the toppings:

garden lettuce ( romaine, buttercrunch)
shallots
pickled jalapenos and carrots

crumble some queso fresco
pull apart (like string cheese) some Oaxacan cheese

When the beans are thick enough that you can pick up a little with the spoon and turn it upside down and it won't fall off, its ready.

Heat up tortillas in the oven at 375 for a minute. Flip them in the middle.

Assemble as you will.

Red Pepper, Tomato, and Spinach Lentil Soup and Garden Greens With Fried Polenta

2009-06-07T20:42:00.000-07:00

4 cups of lentil/rice/pea mix (found in cupboard)
2 cartons roasted red pepper and tomato soup ( found in cupboard)
1/2 large yellow onion
3 cloves garlic
1/4 cup Earth Balance Buttery Sticks (butter substitute)
ground guajiillo chili powder (to taste)
salt (to taste)
black pepper (to taste)
1 plastic shopping bag of garden greens ( broccoli greens, red and yellow chard, spinach)

Soak the lentil mixture overnight. Or at least for a few hours. The less soaking time, the more cooking time. If you don't have a lot of foresight on a bean/lentil meal you can boil them in water like pasta for up to 40 minutes, before adding them to the rest of the soup. I am a proponent of "let it all soak in" for this kind of soup so I like to let it cook with everything else on medium low for a while until everything is soft. I always start with some amount of liquid that fills the pot with the lentils and then add more throughout the process. I should be honest. I never measure anything. Cooking for me is very much like mixing paint. It is intuitive. I make about as much as I need, and I often use similar combinations based on what ingredients are available. Often times a dish evolves as I go through the cupboards and find something I had forgotten about, or add a bit too much of one flavor and need to balance it with another. Really these recipes are translations of a much more complex and specific process. If you want to cook like me your going to have to do a few things first. Get a beer. If you don't have a beer your not doing it right. Learn to improvise and take risks. Try food as its cooking. If you don't know what it tastes like you shouldn't give it to someone else. And you won't know how much of any of the ingredients to put in or even which ones.
So you put your lentils (soaked overnight or pre-boiled) into the pot with the found red pepper tomato soup base, and set it on high with a lid, while you mince the garlic and onion. Melt the butter in a small saucepan (medium low) and add the onion and garlic. Cook that on low, stirring occasionally as you wait for the soup to boil. When its boiling reduce the heat to a simmer (med low) add the butter garlic onion mixture and a preliminary amount of the spices, stir well, and start working on the salad.

1 bag of garden greens ( spinach, romaine, buttercrunch, mustard, kale)
1 roll of precooked polenta (found in fridge, thanks Elizabeth!)
1/8 of a bag of sunflower seeds (cabinet)
2 tomatos
4 small onions found in front garden

dressing
garlic
balsamic vinegar
olive oil
more brown sugar than you'd think
lemon juice
salt
pepper
horseradish (from the garden, minced)
guajillo pepper
CUMIN (magic ingredient)

I cannot describe to you how i made this dressing. I had to make a lot of it to get it right. It was perfect. As for the salad: Chop the polenta into bite size sections and fry it in enough oil to cover it, you want to get it golden brown all around. Throw some of those whole arbol peppers in the oil and some salt. Toast the sunflower seeds by throwing them in a cast iron pan and forgetting about them while you stir the soup and chop the tomatoes and lettuce. Its ok if they get a bit burned. It rounds out the flavor quite nicely. Toss the sunflower seeds and tomatoes in the lettuce with the dressing. Then add the polenta, toss again. Garnish with the onions.

When the peas and lentils are soft, add the spinach stir in and turn off the heat, return the lid, the greens will be cooked in a matter of minutes. Taste the soup. Edit. Serve with a dollop of Mexican sour cream.

*After dinner treat: The neighbours poke their head over the fence while we were out back and Josh gave them some greens for the garden. In return they sent over some homemade mint ice cream. I fried up some plaintains in a cast iron pan with salt and brown sugar-coat both sides and fry until the sugar caramelizes. The combination was DIVINE.

new kitchen new city

2009-06-07T18:43:00.000-07:00

After months of being busy and having almost no time to cook I'm thrilled to have a brand new kitchen (spacier than the 267 Court joint), 6 hungry mouths, and a whole lot of time on my hands. I'm not paying rent the few transitional weeks that I'm living on the couch, so I don't need a job, just to make myself useful around the house. Elizabeth, Cara and I are staying with Josh and Zach at their Portland house/gallery/studio, The Appendix, for the summer, and Travis is also here until the 19th . Were trying to live cheaply, which means eating creatively. There is a great garden out back which is just getting started and should be a primary source of food pretty soon. There are also four chickens, which lay eggs on a regular to sporadic basis (Zach reported that the last egg he ate had no yolk in it, which the internet informed me is also known as a wind egg, which you can read more about here). Josh recently came into a number of random pantry items which range from useful to horrific and everything between, so we're off to a good start. After making one spicy cabbage stirfy tofu dish I note several missing spices and bike off on a grocery mission. Elizabeth directs me towards a Mexican convenience store that she knows has sponges and cheap fruit.

I am delighted to find every kind of pepper I ever dreamed of (I grabbed some whole arbol peppers and ground guajillo) and cumin and a host of other spices each between 69 and 99 cents for about 3 times as much as you get in one of those spice jars. They also have Queso Fresca and Oaxacan cheese, pickled jalapeno's and cactus, and of course lots of tortillas, all of which I pick up. I grab a chili lollipop for the ride home.