Category Archives: good food that isn't sweet

thankful

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I wish I had more time to blog today, but it’s just not happening. I’ve gotten smart about how I’m actually going to get all these Fanny & Jane orders out the door before we leave town in less than three weeks. I learned from the Thanksgiving rush that if I don’t plan way ahead of time, organize myself in a major way AND ask for help from some volunteer Fanny & Jane elves (a.k.a. My darling friends who are generous and kind and are going to save my life this month.) it will never get done. So I’m planning to do those things this time around. Get organized, ask for help and use my time wisely.

I had a great therapy session yesterday where I talked about how stressful the Thanksgiving rush of sweet-selling was, and she kept saying to me, “It’s really hard,” over and over. She’s right. It’s not impossible, but certainly challenging.

Again! I’m not complaining! Just observing. This is hard work. And if I don’t, for example, wake up every day and exercise, exercising is not going to get done. And if I don’t sit down every day and have lunch, it’s not going to get eaten. And I’m going to have to cancel plans with friends when I don’t want to, and buy frozen meals to have for dinner when I don’t want to. Because that’s just the situation I’ve put myself in. I’m not sorry I’m in this situation at all. I’m learning a ton. And it’s an adjustment.

I apologize if I sound like a broken record.

I got up early again today, in the 8 o’clock hour – that’s two days in a row! – and I did an hour of yoga. And now, I’m going to finish up some computer work and get to baking. We have an event tonight, another one tomorrow, a bazillion orders to get out the door by the weekend (Thanks for your orders, all!! I love seeing them roll in…). We also have a holiday party to cater, and then one, maybe two, large corporate orders to get out the door next week. Yikes. And that’s just what I already know about. I’m sure things will come up that I don’t expect. So I’ll be in the kitchen this afternoon. And I’ll be in bed at a reasonable hour tonight. So that I’m ready to get up early tomorrow and do it all over again.

In the meantime, I’ll leave you with some choice photos from our Thanksgiving weekend. Because that’s all I got.

my birthday is tomorrow!!

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I turn 29 tomorrow. How exciting. I feel like a real adult.

I just tried to write a blog entry about my day yesterday – a trip to the grocery store, a new dinner making experience, and an awesome new gift from my honey! – but my computer effed everything up and I’m about to lose my cool.

So in the interest of maintaining my sanity, and so that I can go for a walk and get some baking done, instead of staring at this computer screen all afternoon, I’m going to post photos of yesterday and be done with it.

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I used this How To Cook Spaghetti Squash guide, and this brown sugar-glazed carrots recipe. Both dishes turned out pretty good – although I’m not sure I baked the squash for long enough. Still, a yummy, filling supper.

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Kev got home from his overnight business trip to Miami carrying this huge box!! I let myself pretend it was a puppy for a few minutes. Then I unwrapped the very next best thing: a new, fancy standing mixeraaaAAAAAAHHHH! YES. This is going to change my life.

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It’s a really nice one too. He did his research.

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I stayed up late making two red velvet cakes, which were much more enjoyable to make with my new mixer. And Kevin crashed into bed, exhausted from his whirlwind trip, and hoping to get some sleep in preparation for the TWENTY-FOUR HOURS OF IMPROV he’s about to do.

That’s right. He and his improv team, Tomahawk, are hosting a 24-hour improv festival that begins tonight and ends tomorrow at 8pm. I’m hoping to catch a show late tonight, and then maybe something tomorrow afternoon after they’ve all been awake for almost 36 hours and are probably going to be sub-humans. How could I miss out on that? As I said in an email to my good friend Keith, who is a member of Tomahawk, coming to see them in the last leg of this insanity will be Schadenfreude at its finest.

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I came to bed late last night, around 3am, which has become my usual bedtime recently. Who knows. Maybe it’s a phase, maybe I’m my grandmother’s granddaughter. But that’s where my body clock is resting right now. And who am I to argue.

When I tried to climb into bed, though, I discovered there was no room!

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The rest of the family had taken over.

Now if we could just add a dog to this bed.

supper club

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Last night was the first ever supper club – an informal dinner party that some of my Brooklyn friends (those of us who live in Park Slope/Prospect Heights/Prospect Lefferts Gardens) have decided to have once a month.

About a month ago, my good friend Clayton (who is also a member of Harvard Sailing Team) moved back to his old street in Prospect Heights, after living in far away Sunset Park for a few years. Since two of our other best friends live on the same block as he does, and since his boyfriend lives just a few blocks away, and since I live just on the other side of the park, we decided this was the perfect reason to start getting together to have a dinner party from time to time.

Each month a different apartment will host the party, and Kevin and I got to host the first one! During the party last night, we drew names out of a hat to see who would host the next month. So in November, our friend Tim will host the next Supper Club.

I’d say this new tradition is off to a fantastic start.

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Everyone made something to contribute to the feast last night, which was so fun and family-style. I, as the host, made the main course. Faryn and David were responsible for the appetizers, Clayton volunteered to make dessert (he’d just been apple picking and had to find something to do with 30 apples), and Sara brought ingredients to make one of her favorite drinks: butterbeer. (Yup, from Harry Potter!)

The appetizers were amazing. Faryn prepared a savory treat, a recipe borrowed from our friend Marina, complete with figs, prosciutto, goat cheese, argula, lemon juice and olive oil. These were incredible.

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David’s appetizer was sauteed asparagus with a little onion, garlic and seasoning. It was also incredibly good. And I didn’t even think I liked asparagus!

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We all devoured the appetizers in a matters of moments, laughing and chatting while we stood in the kitchen. I think we’d all been saving our hunger for this feast, so by the time everyone arrived at my apartment, we were all ravenous.

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Sara’s butter beer was the hit of the party. Everyone who’d never tried it before raved over it, and everyone who’d read Harry Potter said, “This is exactly what I thought it would taste like!”

It’s so easy to make: just a splash of butterscotch schnapps and then you fill up the rest of the glass with apple cider. So yummy.

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After enjoying some conversation and game-time in the living room, we finally sat down to the main course – veggie lasagna, chopped salad, and garlic bread.

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Everyone seemed to really enjoy the lasagna, which was healthy and filling. It’s a very simple recipe that I’ve used for dinner parties past. It uses carrots, zucchini and a lot of spinach. And of course, CHEESE!

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My plate:

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And I went back for another half piece of lasagna. Because I couldn’t resist.

After some more living room time – chatting, debating, drinking…

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…we finally cut into the real treat of the evening, the apple galette.

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Clayton made this delicious pastry treat entirely from scratch, based on Martha Stewart’s recipe for a plum galette.

It was so flaky and flavorful, I enjoyed every single bite – a la mode, of course.

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Supper club was a great time. And I’m looking forward to the next one. Nothing like getting together with a group of close friends and eating a huge, multi-course meal that we’ve all lovingly prepared together.

Happy Halloween, everyone!!

still learning to cook

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I spent much of my vacation week cooking, as you can imagine. In fact, I’ve made so much food that I have to stop cooking for a few days so we can catch up on the leftovers!

I made an easy stir fry – something I’d done before, but always with prepackaged stir fry veggies, not with veggies I selected and prepared all by my lonesome. This time, I just picked out a bunch of veggies I thought I’d want in the stir fry, sauteed them up with a little bit of garlic and olive oil, browned some small pieces of chicken in another pan, mixed it all together with about a tablespoon of stir fry sauce I had in the fridge, and served it all over instant brown rice.

The best things about this dish, besides the fact that it satisfied my Chinese take-out craving, were that we had two days of leftovers (it didn’t look like much food when I first cooked it, but those veggies filled me up fast!), I was able to use up a bunch of peppers and onions that were begging to eaten, and it got me to eat cauliflower and broccoli, two kinds of veggies I tend not to like.

On the menu this week in Jen Learns To Cook Simple Meals Most People Figured Out How To Make Well Before Their Late Twenties:

Smoky Chipotle and Black Bean Chilaquiles, a recipe from Rachael Ray’s Big Orange Book. I think they’re basically glorified vegetarian quesadillas. Yes! Latin American food! My very favorite to the extent that I was probably born in Mexico and my mom neglected to tell me.

soup, sweets and sara

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My very good friend Sara came over yesterday. She’s also self-employed at the moment, having recently left her life as a full-time nanny to spend more time pursuing her acting career. Sara and I are both in the sketch comedy group, Harvard Sailing Team. She lives pretty close to my apartment, so we decided to meet up for some lunch.

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As I continue to learn to cook, I decided to make chicken soup from scratch – for the first time ever! – and it was very good.

I basically just browned some chicken with olive oil in a big pot, adding a bit of garlic salt. Then I added about 12 cups of water and 8 or 9 chicken boullion cubes, and brought it to a boil. I coarsely chopped up a bunch of veggies: a large onion, three small potatoes, a bunch of peeled carrots, about two cups of butternut squash (pre-cut by Trader Joe’s), four or five stalks of celery and half a leek. I added the veggies to the boiling stock and kept it boiling for about 20 minutes, until the veggies were fork-tender.

I served it with some whole wheat hamburger buns that we needed to use up, which I toasted, buttered and garlic’d. Sara, Kevin and I all really enjoyed the soup. It was warm and hearty.

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While I made the simple soup, Sara put together some pumpkin chocolate chip brownies I was planning to bake. She did a great job and they turned out very tasty.

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Although, we both agreed that they could use more pumpkin. This particular recipe only called for a half cup. I found the recipe here, but if you like pumpkin in your sweets, I would look for a recipe that uses at least a cup of the stuff.

While the brownies were baking, I popped into the oven alongside them a single tray of carrot coconut cupcakes. I had frozen batter leftover from the Susan Woo event that Fanny & Jane sponsored last month and I knew I had to use it up pretty soon. I wasn’t sure how they’d taste, but they were delicious and yummy, as though I’d just  made the batter! Score.

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After we finished up lunch, and spent some time chatting on my front stoop over coffee, two of our other best friends, Billy and Adam (who are also self-employed, make up a comedy rap duo called Snakes, AND are members of Harvard Sailing Team), showed up to join the quickly growing party. Then Sara’s boyfriend George stopped by after his work day was over (he does have a “normal” job) and we all spent a nice evening laughing, talking, playing games, eating pizza and drinking beer. And finally, around 9pm, we headed into Manhattan to see Kevin perform in an improv show, and THEN (phew!) we went to see a “secret” Comedy Central showcase. It was a fun, long, late night and I don’t think I went to sleep until close to 4am. Yikes.

All in all, yesterday was another wonderful post-desk-job / pre-self-job vacation day. At one point, Billy and Adam were making fun of me for drinking beer on a Thursday afternoon, when on this day last month I was up to my eyeballs in data entry, and I said to them, “Wait, it’s Thursday?” and we had a big ol’ laugh about it all. This change of pace is really nice right now. I’m sure you’ve gathered that I’m enjoying it. I think I’ve said so about three dozen times.

Many of my friends are self-employed at the moment and it’s awesome. It’s inspiring and exciting to see people choosing to make money in ways that make them happy, rather than in ways that are more approved-of by society. It might be a situation that is unique to this particular time in our lives, or to living in this particular city, or to not having many financial obligations besides paying our rent and feeding ourselves, but whatever the circumstances, it’s pretty great so far.

I’m excited to see what next week will bring!

wednesday

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I’m quite content, y’all. I can actually feel my internal pace slowing down. And it feels really good. I’ve needed this.

After a great night last night hanging out with some of my very best friends, watching The Biggest Loser (we have a new Biggest Loser Club) and eating a big meal that we all prepared together, I woke up this morning with no real plans for the whole entire day. That wasn’t the case on Monday and Tuesday, when I had most of the day free, but still had an obligation in the afternoon.

But today, nothin.

I slept in a bit, just a bit, and when I woke up, Kevin took a break from his work and decided to make us a big breakfast. He’s a master of the breakfasts in this house. He made scrambled eggs with cheese, red pepper and onion and it was delicious.

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After some computer time while I finished my coffee, I took a long, invigorating jog/walk through Prospect Park, stopped off at the bank, and then continued on gawking at the incredible fall colors and exploring new paths in the park that I hadn’t visited before. Prospect Park is absolutely stunning right now, so I’m going to go for a bike ride tomorrow to snap a few shots to share with everyone.

So that was awesome. Obviously.

And the whole time my mind raced with ideas for what I’m going to start doing with myself come Monday, how I’m going to loosely organize my time and what I’ll work on. A priority, I’ve identified, besides the work I do, will be self care. Time each and every day for myself. A workout, a therapy session, time alone to read and relax, or time to watch TV and veg out – things that make me feel happy and pampered. I deserve that. We all do. I work too hard in my life not to take those hours for myself each and every day. (So do you, by the way.)

When I came home from my run, I found this:

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And this:

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And this! Which came in the mail from my mom! Awwww…

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Thanks, Mom!! (She also sent us a little cash! We’re gonna go out for a drink with it sometime soon.)

In the afternoon, I laid around on the couch for a while, then made Kevin and I some lunch – just leftovers – and eventually I went to the grocery store, meal plan in hand. It was a fun, relaxing stress-free trip. It wasn’t rush hour, I had my plan all figured out, and I wasn’t in a hurry. Imagine that.

This was a great day.

I don’t plan to continue writing about this journey just by telling you what I do each day. I realized that that has been the theme of my last few entries. But the truth is that the details of what I’m doing right now and how I’m spending my time are fascinating to me so far. I almost can’t believe it. Except that I’m living it, so I know it’s real.

I’m really happy. I’m in heaven. I recognize that this feeling might end, or change, or shift. I recognize that this too will become old someday. I also know that things will soon be busier for me, as I start to add more things onto my list. But no matter how things shift in the immediate or distant future, all that matters to me today is how happy I am today.

Honestly, as mundane and regular as the last few days have been, they’ve almost have been reason enough to quit my job. The sense of freedom, relaxation, and respect for myself that I have found in this short time is very refreshing.

I’m excited about next week. I’m eager to structure things a bit more. But in the meantime, I’m still enforcing this week’s vacation as much as possible until Monday. It’s important for me to really take this time for myself. Beyond that, Kevin and I have been having excited conversations about my options, what I intend to do and how best to execute it come Monday. He’s such a great support.

I went to see a friend’s show in the city tonight, and Kevin had rehearsal, and now we’re home each enjoying a beer.

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Tomorrow is more fulfilling simple stuff: lunch with my good friend Sara, a workout, a photography bike ride, and then! A late night comedy show – a “secret” Comedy Central showcase. We’re on The List. Fun!

artichoke

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There’s a relatively new pizza stand in New York that the locals have been raving about for the last little while. I finally happened upon it yesterday, as I continued to walk around parts of daytime Manhattan that I haven’t gotten to spend time in lately.

It’s called Artichoke. And I gasped when I saw it. I’d been hoping to try their wares, but it’s kinda far east, I’m rarely over there, and whenever I’ve driven by it in a cab at night, the line as been long. But lo and behold, there was no line. And I was in need of some lunch. Perfect.

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Yup. Amazing pizza. Without a doubt. I had to sit down and have a few bites right away, even though I perched precariously on a wooden bench right outside their tiny shop in order to do so.

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They had other options besides the margherita style slice I chose – like artichoke, spinach and artichoke, and crab. Sounds interesting, right? I opted for the plain and I wasn’t disappointed in the slightest. The crust on this delicious pizza was slightly burnt, which I LOVE. The sauce was thick, rich and flavorful, and the cheese and spices were perfect. I want more. Now.

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