What was up this weekend?
Friday evening, to the Ale House with coworkers for coworker’s last Friday on the job, before he leaves the lucrative journalism business for stupid law school. Then to Taste of India, my fave, for chana paneer with Emma & Q & Tay & Jo. Then home.
Saturday, guitar playin’, run in the heat and humidity (not smart), trip to the co-op, pasta-makin’, then hang sesh with pal Jaimie at the Map Room (home to several East End brews, which are always good).
Sunday, trip to the parents’ to mow the lawn and play with little kids.
What’s this week hold in store? A trip to meet Emma in the woods and camp for a night. Then a wedding on the weekend (not mine).
Maybe in the meantime I’ll cook something and tell you about it?
So, here’s a recipe for a meal I’ve been making on the regular lately. It’s quick and easy and tastes good and is good for you. It is essentially perfect. Actually, it would be a little healthier if you made it with brown rice, but then it would no longer be quick, so that’s up to you.
Tofu and Green Beans
Ingredients:
1 cup white rice (like I said, you can use brown, but then it won’t be quick, as that stuff takes like UGH FOREVER to cook)
1 block of tofu, preferable frozen and thawed, but that’s not necessary if you haven’t thought that far ahead.
Some green beans — whatever amount you have. A big handful.
1 or 2 cloves garlic
Soy sauce
Black pepper
Red pepper flakes
Instructions:
1. Take the tofu out of its package and wrap it in some paper towels and clean towels. Put something heavy on top and let it press out for a little while — at least ten minutes, I’d say. I use my free weights for this, as I never really use them for what they’re supposed to be used for:
2. Start the rice a-cookin’. *
3. In a medium sized pot with a steaming tray, steam your (cut and cleaned) green beans for just a few minutes — we basically just want to blanche them, not kill them, as we’re going to cook them some more later):
4. Chop the tofu into chunks — I dice them to about 1 inch cubes. Mince or press the garlic:
5. Heat a few tablespoons of olive oil in a large skillet on medium to medium-high. Throw in the tofu cubes, then add the minced garlic, a few splashes (maybe a tablespoon or two?) of soy sauce, some black pepper and some red pepper flakes:
6. Keep the heat relatively high and flip the tofu cubes after a few minutes so that you can brown both ends. After you’ve flipped them once, you’re free to add the blanched green beans. After a few more minutes, you can stir it all around and add some more soy sauce to meld flavors all together.
7. Serve the tofu and green beans over the rice, and feel free to add a little more soy sauce to garnish, and some Sriracha or whatever. Maybe even a little cilantro, though I didn’t think of that at the time I made it the other night:
* (My method, in case you were wondering: 1 cup of rice + 2 cups of water, then add a couple tablespoons of olive oil. Bring to a boil uncovered, then put the lid on partway until the rice boils down to where there’s no more water over it, and it starts to form little craters and peaks. Give a good stir, then cover completely and don’t disturb until it’s cooked, maybe like ten more minutes or something for this amount? I read this method online somewhere and it tends to work magic. )
Yesterday I went with the father and the sister and the nephew to the Pirates game, in which we whooped the Tigers (whose pitching was deplorable). We were late due to traffic, and missed the pre-game, which included a lot of STANLEY CUP ACTION with like half of the team present. The Cup then hovered around the field, causing shrieks wherever it went.
Today was the parade. I took some pics you can check out here. Here’s a sample:
So far, this has been the definition of taking it out on the river and partying all summer.
I got excited this evening because I went out to empty the trash and realized OH MAN MY RADISHES ARE BUSTING OUT OF THE GROUND AND MY GREEN ONIONS ARE READY TO EAT AND MY KALE AND LETTUCE ARE NOT FAR BEHIND! So I took some pictures.
Onions.
Broccoli, one of the couple that still look decent.
Kale!
The corn is as high as a chihuahua’s eye.
A few bean plants I put in kinda late.
Radishes in the ground.
Radishes in the bowl!
Let us oh let us oh let us eat lettuce.
Nicotiana monsters, not yet sending up buds.
Violas jumpin’ up all over the place.
Some plants on the porch:
More nicotianas — these are ready to bloom and smell great.
A couple basil plants. One will soon go to my momz.
Tomato plant courtesy the mom, along with spearmint courtesy the sister.
Scabiosa courtesy the Pammer.
The most impressive thing on the porch: home-started tomato flanked by two home-started cilantro plants, doing great.
I’ve been feeling kind of off-and-on crappy for a few days, which assisted in my having a Not So Great weekend. Lots of sitting around, feeling dumb and not doing anything. It was kinda like this:
Friday night: Was on a major caffeine crash, plus my stomach felt kinda gross, so I spent a good while trying to decide which of the tasks that needed attended to I would actually attend to. Ended up going to Target/Giant Eagle, where I kept being annoyed by people, and where I accidentally bought rotten asparagus. Ugh. Stopped at Half Price books on the way home to help myself to feel better; was amused to find an LP called Oral Roberts in Hawaii. Bought Rushdie’s East/West, which I’m almost done with, and a book of poetry that I’m not sure I care for, and a book that combines Sudoku puzzles and Peanuts cartoons, which have nothing to do with each other, but are two things I like. It’s like it was packaged just for me.
Saturday: Went to the Co-op for some stuff, went to sister’s house for a combined grad party for my nephew (yes, I have a nephew who graduated high school) and birthday party for my other nephew and niece. Then went to Mssr. Horbal’s for the game, where I served Miroslav Seitan BBQ sandwiches. Left after two periods because it was such a horrific game, and I wanted to get to bed at a decent hour because of what I was doing the next morning:
Sunday: Got up early to run the Greenfield Glide 5K. I really hadn’t gotten a chance to rest up over the weekend, and it was kind of warm, so I blame those two factors for my not meeting my last year’s time for the race. I did 26:15. Not complaining.
Then I took several naps, made a nice dinner, and read for a couple hours before going to bed at 9pm and sleeping for ten hours, a necessity.
Coming up this week: GUINS MUST AND WILL WIN TWO GAMES TO WIN THE CUP. And I’ll probably do other things, I dunno what.
Really this is a garden update from this past weekend, but I’m just getting it posted now. Seeing as how it’s rained a few times this week, everything’s probably five times bigger now. Also, I have some front porch plants I forgot to picture; I’ll get to that soon. Commence:
My lettuce. It’s getting somewhere.
Onions. Ready to harvest for green onion purposes. Good thing, because Booker T is in town soon.
Broccoli. These aren’t looking as well as I’d hope; someone’s been biting them.
Kale is looking good. This is Lacinato kale, if you’re keeping score at home.
This is the second succession planting of kale. It’s almost catching up.
Corn. This stuff grows quickly.
A couple cuke sprouts in a planter on the front porch.
Viola: “Johnny Jump-Up.” Did their thing, almost to my surprise. They make arriving at my house a little more pleasant.
I’ll tell you about what’s up in my life sometime soon. I’ve been too busy to really update you in the past week, sorry. In the meantime, something I’ve been meaning to alert you all to: the most refreshing beverage on earth. I fix this after pretty much every run. If I don’t have the ingredients when I get back from a jog, I’m cranky.
Icy Orange Coconut Water
You’ll need:
Coconut water
Frozen orange juice concentrate
5-6 cubes of ice
A cocktail shaker
A frosted glass, preferably in the freezer for at least an hour
The process:
Put the ice cubes in the cocktail shaker. Add about one teaspoon of the frozen OJ concentrate.
Then add about 10 oz, give or take an ounce or two, of the coconut water (the single serving containers are 11.2 oz, so that works if that’s what you’ve got). Close the shaker, shake 12-15 times. Get the frosted glass out of the freezer at the last possible second. Take the little rubber stopper thing off the shaker and strain the drink into the glass. ENJOY, and become obsessed. If the glass is cold enough, and you’ve shaken the drink long enough with enough ice, some of the drink will actually start to form ice crystals.
Frosty mug of goodness!
Commentary:
Coconut water is an amazing, astounding substance. A serving has more potassium than a banana. It’s filled with electrolytes, making it a natural sports beverage — Gatorade without the added sugar. It’s sweet, but not too sweet, and the sugar is natural. Adding the OJ concentrate makes it slightly sweeter; this drink kind of tastes like a subtle Creamsicle. When it’s forming ice crystals — oooooweeeee I can’t imagine anything I’d rather have going into my tummy. Sometimes when my body’s recuperating from a good run and this stuff is sliding down my throat, I think that maybe I could live on a diet of nothing but this drink.
Coconut water can be found at the Co-op or Giant Eagle, or probably Whole Foods and maybe Trader Joe’s. They only have single servings (Vita Coco) at GE; they have a couple brands and different sizes at the Co-op. I get the cheaper liter container (O.N.E. brand). I’ve never noticed a real difference between brands. An 11.2-oz container is $1.69 or $1.89 most places; the liter I get is $4.69 at the Co-op and is about 3 servings. I’ll probably special order a case soon because I go through it so fast. Guiltless pleasure. Well, okay, the cost makes me feel a little guilty.
If you don’t have a cocktail shaker, go out and freakin’ buy one. Even if you don’t drink cocktails. I basically only use mine for this drink, and it’s totally worth it. It gets the coconut water to near freezing without diluting it as you drink.
And speaking of cocktails, I’m betting this would be a killer, if expensive, base for a cocktail. Next time I have vodka or something handy I’ll try it and get back to you.
Here are a few things that I’ve told folks about or posted on Facebook about recently that I wanted to point out in a more permanent way, since they are totally sweet.
1. Someone at Crooked Timber pointed this out — this guy scanned a whole bunch of images from an early ’70s biology textbook that is totally psychedelic in nature. Some of the illustrations are really quite beautiful. And weird. I really like the artist’s rendition of a pandemic, which is quite timely. I made it my desktop background at work.
2. I really love the song “Love Is Strange” by Mickey & Sylvia. I have never seen Dirty Dancing, so it has nothing to do with that. Shut up. Anyway, I could embed this video, but that would defeat part of the purpose: Youtube of “Love Is Strange,” replete with bizarre imagery of hot rods and scary clowns, and an argument in the comments section about Falun Gong, Chinese Communists and the good old U. S. and A.
3. I really wish The Duchess were still alive so I could track her down and interview/profile her. She’s one of the great Pittsburgh natives whose name never comes up in the discussion of local rock history.
That’s that, enjoy! Soon I’ll go on and on about coconut water, and probably complain about how stressful my week was. It’s over now, though. Go Pens!
Quickly, the good and the bad:
Most of this week, thus far, is bad. Car troubles last night; I believe I’ve lost yet another alternator (this happened in my Honda a few years back). I’m developing automotive post-traumatic stress disorder. I probably won’t be able to drive without having a panic attack soon. Whereas last time this happened, my entire car shut down and wouldn’t budge on 28 by the 31st St. Bridge, this time I saw it coming, and as I rode the Tri-Boro Expressway into Turtle Creek on the way back from PT last night, I saw the panel lights start to dim and I felt my heart drop into my stomach, then I saw that the speedometer and tach were reading zero despite the fact that I was rolling along at 45 or so. Pulled over into a parking lot and abandoned ship. Thank goodness I have loving parents who pull me out of crap like this.
Also bad: general sense of nervousness over all this, severely lightened pocketbook that’s on its way, the fact that my bus this morning ALSO broke down, the fact that I spilled my Honest Tea all over my desk today, etc.
The good: GUINS WON last night, and looked dominant for a good bit of the game. Also, I discovered that I’m now the number one result if you Google the phrase “seitan reubens” (though I need to develop some sort of Miroslav Seitan dish asap, methinks) and also I’m near the top if you search “black bean potato salad.” Food Network, here I am, come and get me.
