Momentous Weekend with Poached Eggs!

This has been quite a weekend.

To tell you about this weekend, I need to start with this week. I was in the Washington D.C. suburbs this weekend for work. The work was pretty routine for us, those cemeteries need mapping.  We did get to go into the city on the Metro one evening, which was nice because I got to see my dear friend Matt.

This car is covered with seed beads (on the inside too). It is on display in the Museum of the American Indian.

Hello D.C. (sorry this photo is so bad)!

After leaving the job, I started to notice my scratchy throat. By Thursday, I was fully sick. Fever. Sore throat. I blame the Metro. Dirty trains. My no-kid exposure, no public transit, hermit-like existence means my immune system is the straw house to this years cold viruses. By Friday, I felt a little better. On Saturday my fever was back. Where is the justice in this! Sunny warm weekend sickness is the worst kind of sickness.

I have spent most of my weekend on the couch. I have read three books and watched several hours of "How I Met Your Mother" on Netflix. Enough about my pathetic existence.

In a few hours of clarity, I went to the farmers market and made myself breakfast. This is momentous because I poached an egg! Amazing! Right?!

I have never been able to poach an egg before. I watched this video and then I did it. I just did it. It was so good. I should mention I have failed repeatedly to do this in the past.

This is not so much a recipe as a suggestion. It is also something that I am not the first person to come up with. Asparagus and eggs! Shocking combination.
 

Spring in food.

Spring has come to North Carolina. I got asparagus, green garlic, cucumber, strawberries, and pea greens. That's right, strawberries. 

Delicious food.

Poached Eggs with Asparagus on Toast

This is not a recipe, adjust portions according to desired serving amounts

Asparagus 

Eggs

Bread

Salt

Butter

Olive Oil

Parmesan Cheese

1. Clean and trim the asparagus. Lightly toss with olive oil and a pinch of salt. Broil asparagus for about 6 minutes, turning at about 3 minutes.

2. Meanwhile, toast bread, then butter the toast. If you are using unsalted butter, I suggest you add some salt as you are buttering the bread. 

3. Poach eggs. I am not going to give directions for this because other people have done a better job than I ever could. This is the tutorial that finally worked for me. 

4. Place the asparagus on the toast, then top with the eggs. Grate some parmesan on top of the eggs. This is a great breakfast or lunch (or dinner).

Delicious.

Max love the spring sun. He enjoys basking.

This is the post where I talk about what I am thankful for

I was driving home from work today mentally preparing for my long weekend and, as I was decompressing from a stressful day of work, I started realizing that I am really happy. I am not saying I do not have bad days.

I am human.

Unlike him, and I am pretty sure even he has bad days.

Generally, I have a lot to be thankful for. Every once and a while it is nice to think about these things. Also, everyone else on the internet is thankful for things right now and I am a trend follower. I hear it is a national holiday or something.

In no particular order:

1. My Parents. They raised me right. I am lucky to have grown up in a stable house with two parents who love each other (I am not saying alternate ways of growing up are not valid and perfectly wonderful, this is just my life). They taught me, by example, what it means to live a good life. I knew what would make a good husband by looking at my Dad. Everyday, they were there for me. My parents were my drivers, coaches, and cheerleaders. They pushed me to succeed and were there to catch me when I failed. My parents were happy when I got my first B in high school, because they thought it would help me relax and enjoy school a little bit more. What great parents, what great people.

2. My Wonderful Husband. I love him crazy tons. He is my best friend. I know everyone says this about their significant other and it is probably why we all chose them as our partners... I can tell him everything. My life is better when he smiles. When I am sad, he works tirelessly to make my happy. Derek is gone this year and it has been one of the hardest of my (admittedly very cushy) life.

3. Roommate. I met Josephine as the result of a Craigslist search and she has made my life immeasurably better. I cannot imagine a better person to share my house this year while Derek is off doing research. She makes me laugh everyday. Today she left me a slice of chocolate cake. What a girl. I do not think either of us were looking for a friend this past August, but I think I found one.

4. Friends. I am so lucky to have my friends. I do not have family in North Carolina, but my friends have become my family. Last night John, Julie and I went to a local restaurant, sat outside, and listened to live Bluegrass. It occurred to me that there is no place else I would have rather been. How many times can you say that everyday, every week even? It was an evening that will be frozen in my memory for its beauty and camaraderie. I am never ever lonely. Tonight my friend Lindsay and I had a wonderful couple of beers at a local bar. On Sunday, Jenny and I took a cheese making class (more on that later).

What is Julie doing here? All I know is that John is laughing.

5. Job and Coworkers. I am so lucky to have a job that challenges me everyday. I am learning so much. There are things I easily do today that I did not know how to do last month. My confidence is also growing. I am so much more independent and self reliant than I was just a year ago. The people I work with make my job a daily joy. They make me laugh, cringe, and squeak in mock outrage. You name it (except it will be real outrage if you put balls on that truck, you know who you are).

6. Food and Farmers. I was making dinner tonight and it occurred to me that when I see my food I do not just see ingredients, I see farmers. This sounds so corny, but I can honestly tell you that only three ingredients in my dinner came from greater than 50 miles away (chile powder from New Mexico, salt from the ocean somewhere, and parmesan cheese from Italy). For the record, I had roasted potatoes with sautéed cauliflower, topped with homemade paneer (with local milk), and home cured bacon (local pork). I am so grateful for the people who get up everyday and milk the cows, graze the animals, and tend the fields. You are heroes to me. Your food nourishes me and makes cooking dinner something to look forward to everyday.

Who is that shopping? She looks good.

7. Kitten. He greets me at the door everyday when I get home from work. He is my little spoon at night time. He is my constant, my lovable fuzz.

He really sleeps like this.

8. Anyone Who is Reading This. Thanks for reading my random thoughts. Writing them is fun, having someone else to read them makes me feel really special. You are my friend (even if we have never met). 

9. The Universe, the World, my Backyard. I know this sounds awfully corny, but I am so thankful to live on our beautiful, perfectly flawed earth. I believe this is a pretty big miracle because of all of the millennium of evolution and all of the happy accidents that created the environment in which I am happy and thankful in right now.

Thanks! Happy Thanksgiving! I wish you all gluttony, good friends and family, and good day!

Anniversary Weekend Spectacular! Pizza!

Derek and I are celebrating our one year anniversary this weekend. Our actual wedding anniversary is on Sunday (July 10th). To celebrate this wonderful year, we are spending the whole weekend at home, eating and relaxing.

To kick off this celebration weekend we started with pizza and beer, Derek and Sarah style...

Blue Cheese, Shitake Mushroom and Pepper Pizza

It all starts with the dough... This can be done ahead of time. Please don't buy pizza dough, this is so easy. Buying dough is a giant waste of money.

The Dough

From My Bread by Jim Lahey

10 grams ( Active Dry Yeast

5 grams Table Salt

3 grams Sugar

500 grams Bread Flour

1 1/3 cup water (may need another tablespoon or so depending on the moisture content of dough)

1. Mix the dry ingredients (yeast, salt, sugar, and flour).

2. Heat the water in a microwave until it is warm to touch, but not hot (approximately 100 degrees).

3. Add water to dry ingredients and stir until all of the flour is incorporated into the dough (you may need more water at this point) using a spoon and your hands. The dough will be stiff and slightly sticky.

4. Cover and let sit in a warm place for about 2 hours, the dough should more than double in size.

5. On a clean, well floured surface turn out the dough and form it into a rough ball. Divide that ball in half using a knife or dough cutting thing. Gently form each half into a ball. Cover the balls of dough (spaced about 4 inches apart) with a non-linty towel and let them rest for 30 minutes.

6. At this point, you can either make pizza or store your dough. If you are storing the dough put a generous amount of olive oil (2-4 tablespoons) in a gallon size zip top bag and place the dough ball inside (1 ball per bag). Now it can be refrigerated for 1-2 days or frozen for a month. We usually use one dough ball and freeze the other for later. When you are ready to use the frozen or refrigerated dough allow it to come to room temperature before you make pizza.

The Pizza

1 pound Shitake Mushrooms (stems removed and sliced)

Sea Salt

1 tablespoon Unsalted Butter

1/4 cup plus 2-4 tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive Oil (with more for oiling the pan)

10 cloves of Garlic (chopped)

2 jalapeño (thinly sliced, seeds removed if you are wus)

2 tablespoons Cream Sherry

1/2 pound Blue Cheese (crumbled)

1/2 pound Mozzarella (sliced)

1/2 Onion (thinly sliced)

1. Mix about 1/4 cup of olive oil with 5 cloves and sliced jalapeño. Add a heavy pinch of salt and allow it to marinate for about 30 minutes. Longer is better...

2. Heat a large saute pan at medium low heat with 2-4 tablespoons of olive oil and 1 tablespoon butter. Add the sliced shitake mushrooms and another pinch of salt and saute until they are beginning to caramelize (5 to 10 minutes).

3. Add the cream sherry and cook off the liquid (5 minutes).

4. Sprinkle the half sheet pan with a generous drizzle of olive oil. Using your hands, spread the the room temperature dough out in the pan to evenly cover most of the pan.

5. Brush the infused oil on the stretched out dough make sure to spread out the garlic and peppers evenly. Spread the onion out evenly across the pizza.

6. Next, spread the cheese and the mushrooms across the dough.

7. Bake the pizza at 500 degrees for about 20 minutes, rotating the pizza half way through. Now slice and enjoy.

Then we feasted. We also made a tomato salad (remember all of those tomatoes?), poured a delicious Belgian farmhouse ale, and began feasting. Pizza with no tomatoes, and then we serve them on the side... strange people that we are...

This was pretty delicious. Yum, pizza and beer.

For some people it is tomato salad and pizza, for some cats it is kibble. Everyone is happy.

Freeze Dried Haddock: An Endorsement

We have a cat named Max. I try to refrain from talking about him too much on this blog, because my irrational love of this fuzzy mammal starts to make me sound like a crazy cat lady. Plus, this is supposed to be a food/archaeology blog. I will start this blog post by clarifying a few things. Yes, Max is incredibly spoiled. No, we only have one cat, he does not eat at the table with us. I promise he has no clothing and I try to avoid anthropomorphizing him.

Believe it or not this blog post is about food (sort of).

At a very, fancy, very ridiculous pet store in Chapel Hill, we discovered Max's favorite treat. This is something I need to tell other cat owners about as a public service. Firstly, I need to make a point of saying we do not make a habit of frequenting this ridiculous yuppie pet store. Max has plenty of toys and he eats a regular mainstream(ish) cat food. We first went in there when Max was a small kitten and I was feeling empowered by my ability to finally buy cat stuff (I wanted this kitten for a long while before I obtained him).

Wow, look at that kitten

Now we mostly just go there to get this product. It is called Simple Catch for Cats and it is a giant bag of dried haddock chunks.

As far as I can tell, these chunks of fish have not been processed much at all. Just caught off the Icelandic coast and dried. Then packed up for my fuzz to enjoy. Warning, they smell like fishy grossness and handling requires hand washing.

A piece of haddock, an incredibly hard picture to take. I am fending off the cat with one hand.

Before you judge me too harshly for feeding my cat wild caught Icelandic haddock, know this is a sometimes food for him and a bag lasts a very long time. When you read this illustrated reaction to the treat being offered you will understand why we do it.

Note: Max is normally a fairly aloof creature who deigns to allow us to occasionally worship him. Crazy abandon is reserved for haddock treats only.

Max getting haddock fillets:

1.) The bag rustles and no matter where Max is in the house he hears this and is able to tell the haddock is on the move. He does not react like this from the movement of any other plastic bag, including is other (less desirable) treats. Max immediately comes running meowing intensely.

2.) The bag opens and the intensity of meowing increases. Max immediately begins jumping and attempting to decrease his distance from the bag.

3.) A treat is removed and Max jumps to obtain the treat.

Note the look of intensity

4.) Rather than immediately eating the treat in an exposed position, Max takes the precious fish away to somewhere safe and munches happily.

Cat thought "I am so exposed up here, must retreat to lower ground"

So much safer down here... (from what, we may never know)

5.) Max returns to either the human or the bag (if the human has been so stupid as to leave the bag accessible) to attempt to obtain more. He has been known to attempt bag capture. Presumably he is trying to take the bag somewhere safe where he can work out the problem of opening it in peace.

See the cat in the right of this picture, he is waiting for me to let down my guard so he can carry off his prize.

6.) Human must hide the bag, preferably in an airtight container. Max is not very intelligent, but he is just smart enough to find it and feast.

This all sounds funny, and I assure you Derek and I find it really amusing, but to Max haddock is no game. It is a serious procurement of food and it is wonderful to watch.

That is why all cat owners must find out how to get this. If you live in the Chapel Hill area, Phydeaux, by the Whole Foods carries it. If you have a dog, I believe the product is also marketed to dogs. I cannot vouch for the canine reaction. I can say, I gave some of this stuff to a friend for his cat and Orange Peel was also smitten.

Oh by the way, in case anyone read this, then thinks this is the kind of blog where people might pay me to hawk products, it isn't. I am not entirely sure anyone reads my nonsense. But in case someone does this was not sponsored, I just love watching my fuzz go crazy and think every cat owner should have that chance.