red october

October in Philadelphia is special for a lot of reasons.  We don't really have that whole beautiful leaves-changing-color thing they do out in the suburbs.  We do have one of the most delightfully gradual descents from warm to cold I've ever experienced - sometimes it is literally one degree colder each day.  One thing that we have had for the last few years is what we call Red October.  It's nothing we're hunting for, and unfortunately, it does lack Sean Connery's intensity, but only slightly.

I'm talking about post-season Phillies.

Oh, yeah, and all the crazy, loud, half-delusional drunks stumbling around center city and leading...themselves alone... in their ridiculous "Let's Go, Phillies" chants (because they might have just figured out that "let's go" and "phillies" both have two syllables).  There is nothing sadder than one dude with a backwards cap and a beer gut singing out "let's go, phillies" as though any minute now all the other drunks are going to join in.  They never do.

You might think nothing else (of any import, anyway) happens in October.  I would argue against that point of view, but let's focus on something I truly love about Philadelphia.

On Tuesday, we hosted a gathering at one of the stores for a local real estate agency to demonstrate and promote their new technological application with the assistance of our knowledgeable employees.  To show their appreciation, that same agency sent a basket of goodies over to the store today - sandwiches and cookies from a relatively new Italian restaurant in Rittenhouse Square - Serafina.  I keep meaning to make Mister take me there for dinner, but then I keep having trouble trying to explain why we should cross the city for pizza and pasta, especially living so close to the Italian Market.  These sandwiches might help me in that endeavor.

It was nice of them to send the goodies, but that isn't what I love about Philadelphia.  What I love about Philadelphia, as compared to my previous place of employment and colleagues out in the rural reaches of Montgomery County, is that when the food was unpacked, not only did the givers of the gift ensure there were non-animal options, but my colleagues didn't say "Oh, hey, a grilled veggie sandwich - that's different - I want to try that!"  No, they said, "Oh, Natalie, you don't eat meat, right?  Why don't you pick your sandwich first."

I realize this seems like common sense, but outside of Philadelphia (or whatever metropolis you choose), it is not.  It just represented another moment of happiness over my decision to leave one place and come to another.

What's a great partner to sandwiches?  Well, besides chocolate chip cookies?  Soup!  Or, notably, Harira from Sundays at Moosewood Restaurant.

Granted, several hours separated the sandwich from the soup (like, you know, the distance between lunch and dinner), but it was the best segue I could come up with.  It's Friday.  Anyway, I used to make this soup fairly frequently when I first started cooking.  I haven't made it in years, but I can honestly say, I don't remember it tasting the way it did tonight.

I think the main difference was the freshly squeezed lemon juice.  I'm pretty sure I never included that previously.  Also, I used what was left of the Garlic Broth and made up the missing liquid with V8 Spicy Hot.  I always sub garlic for onions, which got me to thinking if there was some conversion I could make:  this much garlic = this much onion.  I suppose I could just use onions when the recipe asks for them, but that would take all the fun out of guesswork.  I'm pretty sure this is the first time I used fresh tomatoes, which could have something to do with the bright acidity.

An hour or so after dinner, though, I realized why Mister doesn't like soup dinners.  I was hungry again. He might have something there, so unless a soup is really substantial, you'll probably see it retired to side dish status on future menus.

use it or lose it, endgame

Despite it being No-Cook-Wednesday, I couldn't bring myself to eat leftovers for dinner tonight. Truth be told, I really hate reheating pasta. I don't especially like it cold-right-outta-the-fridge, either. Leftover pasta is great for work-lunch because I don't have an insulated lunchbox or anything, so by the time I have my lunch, it's about room temperature - kind of like pasta salad. I can dig that.

Taking a cue from Urban Vegan, I decided to peak inside my fridge and see what needed to be used up tonight or thrown away tomorrow. It really just kind of came together as I went, but I was very pleased with the end result. Mister came home from work about halfway through the cooking process and said, "What are you making?" Pause. "I don't know?"

When I was younger, I was very happy to eat side dishes as a meal: rice, corn, carrots, those weird little Knorr just-add-water side dish packets. Now that I enjoy cooking actual meals, I struggle to add side dishes. I thought about all of this while I was cooking tonight, and it dawned on me that the little mishmash of almost-dead food I was throwing together in my skillet could accidentally be my first side dish recipe! I can feel my cookbook taking shape...
Something else to add to my favorites post: I love eating things with chopsticks. An entire section of my silverware caddy is devoted to chopsticks.

And since Mister wants to know what it is, I have tentatively dubbed it...
Pear & Carrot "Fried" Rice
here is a very rough recipe, to be refined at a later date:
Ingredients
1 ripe pear, diced
1 large carrot, diced
a couple handfuls of frozen edamame (for protein)
about 1 cup cold, cooked Jasmine rice
about 1/2 cup vegetable broth, plus a little extra to deglaze the skillet while sauteing
pinch of salt

heat a large skillet on medium-high heat, then add pears and let them sizzle a little. When they begin to release their juices, stir and add carrots. Allow to cook on medium for about 5 more minutes, stirring occasionally. If too much sticking occurs, add a Tbsp of broth. Once carrots and pears are crisp-tender, add edamame. After about a minute, when the edamame is slightly less than frozen, add the rice and broth and stir well. Lower heat to lowest setting and allow to simmer until broth has been absorbed by the rice and the rice is tender. Add chopsticks and enjoy!

By the way - the Phillies just won the NLCS and the world is ending outside my window. You might want to stay off the road.

one shop stop

So, this past weekend really interfered with my plans to buy the ingredients necessary to make a week of, what do you call them? Oh, right - dinners. Saturday was a total loss because I'll be honest - there was no part of me that wanted to trudge 5 blocks through the rain to Whole Foods, then 5 blocks back in heavier rain, only to put away the groceries and splash my way up to Superfresh and back with whatever I didn't get at WF.

My delightful evening with my sister went much later than either of us had planned (funny how that can happen when you don't see someone in half a year), so I was up late and was still sleep deprived from an energy-sapping week at work, so Sunday started much later than I had intended. Late enough, in fact, that I only had time to make the cupcakes before we ran late getting to my parents' house (good thing I already had, well, most of the ingredients). By the time we got home from there, we were way too many innings into a championship series featuring our Hometown Heroes, the Phightin' Phillies, for me to safely venture past the rows of bars to get groceries (any stories you've heard about Philadelphia sports fans becoming irrationally violent in their victory celebrations are absolutely true). So I cooked dinner with what remained of our food and figured I'd get groceries after work on Monday.

I keep forgetting how much I hate to do anything after work any day of the week. I also forgot (AKA was completely unaware since I don't actually follow any sports) that the Phillies were playing a home game. So I convinced Mister to run up to Superfresh with me so I could get stuff to make dinner - it was worth his while - he got some tasty breakfast treats. I probably should have just gotten everything on that side of my list while we were there, but I just couldn't convince myself to put out that kind of effort. Also, the less time we are in the store, the less time Mister has to wander off and find some other complete waste of calories to bring home with us. So I got the ingredients to make Peppered Pasta and knew I would have to deal with the same issues tonight.

Tonight's dinner was Pineapple-Tamari Braised Seitan, primarily because it required the least number of items to be plucked from bins and shelves at WF. Again, I thought I probably ought to get everything on my list and save myself the trouble of going out again tomorrow, when the phreaking Phillies play what could be the last game in the series if they win...but I didn't have any coins for the meter-kiosk thing, so I just ran in, grabbed a pepper, a bunch of asparagus, 2 boxes of seitan (they were on sale!), and a carton of hazelnut Silk creamer, else no coffee for me tomorrow morning. I tried that on Monday and it did not go well.

I didn't get a parking ticket, if you wondered.

There is a part of me that thinks it's charming to go to the store each evening to get "fresh" groceries to turn into a meal. There's a realistic part of me that knows that there are specific days stores receive shipments, so honestly, it'll either sit on their shelves or mine, but it's not like someone walked out back and picked the pepper right before I came in tonight. By the way, I was completely surprised and very happy to find healthy looking asparagus this late in fall. I didn't have time to see where it came from, but it must be nice there!

I made tonight's dinner before, so I won't go into much detail, but it occurred to me that my food photography skills have probably improved since I last made this dish, so I will share pictures. If you want the recipe, go here.
I just peeked back, and yes, these are much better (more appetizing) pictures than that first set.