Monday, August 24, 2009

food.

there's obviously a lot that can be said about food
(but it's likely that i won't be addressing many of those things).
mainly i just want to write about all of the delicious food that we cook and eat in this house.
i have to warn you that by the end of reading this post,
you will likely be hungry
and kicking yourself that you did not apply to be an intern at the abundant table farm project.
consider yourselves warned.

last monday at our house meeting, we decided that each intern would have a night every week where she cooked dinner for the house.
sarah cooked tuesday.
i cooked wednesday.
erynn thursday,
and katerina finished the week off on sunday.
oh, and boy did we cook.
we dined like international royalty.

on sarah's night,
she decided to use the ample amounts of peanut butter that we had in the house
to make an indonesian peanut curry sauce (known as "gado gado"),
which she mixed with brown rice, sesame seeds, green beans, carrots, and chunks of fresh apple.
...
i don't really have words to describe how good that meal was.
maybe "otherworldly" or "heavenly" or "divine" or something along those lines.

then for my night, i decided to rummage through the good ol' vegan cookbooks,
take a cue from my bolivian friends,
and tackle a cold quinoa salad with tomatoes, basil, scallions, and yellow bell pepper.
then i stumbled upon another recipe to use up some excess vegetables
that involved a citrus-ginger marinade, 
which i threw on some sauteed asparagus, green beans, and carrots.
i sliced a few apples to finish it off,
and i would like to think that all left the table with satisfied bellies and smiles on their faces.

on thursday, erynn prepared a meal that was as good as sarah's tuesday concoction,
which is high praise indeed!
she spent all afternoon in the kitchen,
and ended-up presenting us with ecuadorian cheese breads called "pan de yucca" (much like bolivian cuñapes),
as well as some delicious mexican-inspired lentils,
and a fresh arugula salad with beets and goat cheese.
uh, yum.
(am i right?)

oh, and you know, friday, saturday, and sunday afternoon were filled with cold cucumber dill soup, homemade hummus, left-overs(!), delicious yogurt/fruit/nut breakfast combinations, freshly-picked produce at farmers market, zucchini pupusas...
clearly, life was pretty rough.

but then came katerina to save the day!
she started preparing her minestrone sometime friday night (if i'm not mistaken),
and had finished a double batch by the time our potluck came around sunday evening.
and. this. minestrone.
it had spaghetti squash, zucchini, golden squash, onions, garlic, tomatoes, lima beans (that she shucked herself!)...
ah it was so good!
then some of our guests brought over chicken molé, elaborate fruit salad, tortellini salad with sun-dried tomatoes, and vegan cookies.
balance was once again restored.
and life was truly good.

if these descriptions don't make you want to visit our home and share a meal with us,
i worry for you.
but if they do sound intriguing to you (if not absolutely mouth-watering),
then please come over!
sarah's cooking again tonight, and she hasn't let me down once.
you still have time.
so stand up, run away from your computer screen, out to your car/bike/roller skates,
and make your way to our table as fast as you possibly can!
i can almost guarantee that it will be one of the best meals you've ever had.

9 comments:

  1. I want to come over. now.

    love, emily
    (sarah and kat´s friend)

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  2. Thank you for all your comments Emily. I am now going to refer to you as the comment fairy as you sprinkle all of our blogs with little lovely comments. Thank you.

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  3. Vengase, Emily! It would be lovely to have you here. We would fatten you right up (as if they're not already trying to do that in Bolivia, I'm sure!) haha

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  4. Eee! I like being a comment fairy.
    They are trying to fatten me up here, but I also had a parasite! So for awhile it was a lovely combination of eating ridiculous amounts of food and losing 20 pounds. It actually wasn't that lovely, I looked emaciated and none of my clothes fit. But, now I am deparasited and happily chunkifying.

    Sorry, that was such a gross story to put on a delicious food blog, but ah well.

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  5. emily! i lived in cochabamba! :) how are you enjoying (or perhaps not enjoying so much with parasites...) your time there?!

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  6. Casey. Your herbed lentil concoction was seriously one of my faves so far. I am finding your food as delicious as I am finding your musical tastes.

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  7. Casey! Sar told me she had a sisterfriend who lived there. I LOVE IT!!!! sooo much. This city is amazing. Did you go to the Plaza Colon?? And the Plaza Principal?? And the Cristo?? And there´s this cafe I really like.... OH and did you get the canela helado like every day because I TOTALLY am!!!!!!!

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  9. emily, i went to all of those places! i honestly don't know if i can count how many afternoons i spent in or quite near the plaza colón, specifically. and canela helado! i think that the only time i got that was when i attended a soccer game at the stadium, but it was soso delicious. my treats of choice were salteñas and sesame crackers and any sort of fruit i could get my hands on... i kind of went crazy for them. what cafés are you going to? my friend ryan used to work at el caracól, which has a delicious avocado sandwich for like 7 b's, the best mojito in town, and is really close to all the popular restaurants off of calle españa. oh! also, have you been to café fusion on calle españa? they have the BEST spinach raviolis i've ever had. i'd love to hear where you're spending your time! :)

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