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By Emily, February 16, 2010 10:17 am

As I mentioned on Saturday, Brian and I are pretty low-key in the V-Day department.  Plus we’re on break from school this week, so our travel plans interfered with celebrating on the big day itself.  So, we “celebrated” our first Valentine’s Day as a married couple last week.

For my part, I offered to make Brian the meal or baked good of his choosing.
Brian told me he bought me something off of my Amazon wish list.

That’s the normal part.  Here comes the irony.

Brian’s request: Meatloaf, garlic mashed potatoes, carrots cooked in butter and dill and biscuits.

My book:

Confession #2: I’ve never actually read any of Michael Pollan’s books.  But I’ve read enough articles and watched enough interviews to know that I agree with him.  My plan is to spend the rest of my school break reading In Defense of Food.

So, did we “Eat food.  Not too much.  Mostly plants.”? (That’s Pollan’s basic guideline)  Well…we ate food…probably too much…not many plants…but it was really yummy and we enjoyed ourselves.

And I’m really excited about reading my book.

Don’t forget, you have until Thursday to enter my Frozen Smoothie and Blender Giveaway!

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By Emily, January 28, 2010 7:56 pm

My husband and I just had a discussion which ended with him sighing and rolling his eyes.

Before that, it went like this:

Me: Hmm…
Him: What?
Me: Dairy.  Factory farms.
Him: So?
Me: Why do I not eat meat?
Cue sigh and rolling of eyes.

If you’re still confused, you probably didn’t watch ABC’s Nightline on Tuesday.  Actually, I didn’t either, but some of the blogs I follow are all a-buzz about it.  There was a segment exposing the horrible conditions that cows endure on dairy farms.  You can watch the segment or read about it on Change.org or Huffington Post.

Another moral dilemma.  Caring about what I put into my body certainly is a lot of work.  I drastically cut my meat consumption last year primarily because of the dangers of eating meat (bacteria, chronic health conditions) but also because I don’t agree with the practices of the meat industry (cramped quarters, sick animals, antibiotics, crappy feed,  etc).  I’m not a vegetarian, and I always swore I could never be vegan because I love cheese and yogurt too much.  But if conditions on dairy farms aren’t any better than on meat farms, should I be consuming dairy either?

Now, before Brian gets all annoyed about my latest crusade, let’s be real.  The chances of me cutting out dairy are slim to none.  Nevertheless, its amazing what we don’t know (or choose to ignore) about where our food comes from.  Again, education is the only way we’re going to change the opinions of the general American populus and create real change in our food system.  Once we’re educated, we can make smarter choices about what we eat.  Check out the Eat Well Guide (linked from the HuffPo article) to find out where you can buy local, sustainable, organic food.  I know its a lot of work (trust me, I know), but think before you eat!

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By Emily, January 18, 2010 1:05 pm

Fabulously Broke did a post a few days ago featuring her Confessions of a Foodaholic, which she got from eemusings and Asian Pear, who got it from Not Quite Nigella.  (I love the internet!)

I thought it’d be fun to share my own.

I go through phases where I don’t eat any breakfast

I know that breakfast is the “most important meal of the day” and I believe it.  But when I get up at 5:15, I’m really not hungry.  Of course, by the time we’re headed out the door, I’m starving, but the thought of food when I first wake up just isn’t appealing.  At the moment, I’m trying to make sure I eat a bagel or something before I leave, but we’ll see if that lasts.

I am a tea addict

Even if I’m skipping breakfast, I never skip my tea.  I usually start the day with a cup of black tea, but as the day progresses I’ll consume a few more.  Brian and I have a whole drawer full of tea.  I don’t think the caffeine has much of an effect on me…I just love the taste.  And the warmth.

I deconstruct my sandwiches

Whenever I’m eating a sandwich, I stop eating it normally when there’s somewhere between a quarter and a couple bites left.  Then I take apart whatever’s left and eat just the filling, leaving the bread behind.  I don’t know why, it’s just one of those weird habits.

I get bored of food easily

One of the reasons I started cooking was to escape the boring lunches I’d been taking to school every day.  I like eating left overs, but I can only eat the same meal 2 or 3 times before I can’t eat it again for a month or so.  I don’t understand people who’ve eaten the same thing for breakfast or lunch for years.  I just can’t do it.

I really don’t like salad

I love vegetables.  I love healthy eating.  But I really don’t care for salad.  I can’t remember the last time Brian and I bought lettuce.  I’ll eat it if it’s served to me, or comes with a restaurant meal, but I never make it for myself.

I get really frustrated when I don’t plan an awesome menu for the week

Cooking and blogging are my hobbies.  People know this is what I do.  I’m really Type A and set really high standards for myself.  Between the internet, magazines and my cookbooks, I have tons of recipes.  So when I don’t have a lot of time during the week to plan a great menu or cook impressive meals, I get frustrated.  Sometimes I wish I had a job that didn’t require prep outside of the work day so I could spend more time in the kitchen.

I’m not sure I’ve ever had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich

I’ve always said that I don’t like PB&J, but I’m not sure I’ve ever actually had one.  Nevertheless, the idea grosses me out.

I would rather eat lunch/dinner food for breakfast and breakfast food later in the day

That’s just the way it is.  Give me a sandwich, pizza or pasta for breakfast and I’ll be happy.  Eggs and pancakes make great dinners.

I get annoyed when people at the supermarket have carts full of processed foods

Over the past year I’ve realized how easy it can be to make healthy, cheap food at home.  It makes me sad to see people with carts full of TV dinners, packaged snacks and soda.  I wonder if they know what they’re eating and how much better tasting and healthier food can be.

That said, what I think I should be eating and what I actually eat don’t always line up.

Nevertheless, I’ve still got processed food in my pantry.   How could I not?   I still eat meat, though I frequently debate with myself about whether I should go vegetarian.  I have to keep reminding myself that I’m doing better than I used to be (Soda is an extreme rarity in my life, we almost never eat fast food, I do cook at home every night of the week, many of our meals are vegetarian).

What are your food confessions?

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By Emily, December 31, 2009 1:39 pm

My husband thinks New Years Resolutions are silly.  He think if one wants to change something, they should just do it, instead of waiting for the new year to make a commitment.  There’s probably some validity to that, but I like making resolutions.

There are about a million things I’d like to change in the coming year, but I tried to keep it to a reasonable few.  Hopefully by posting them, I’ll be more motivated to actually keep them!

Specific Goals for 2010:

• Go to the gym at least twice a week

Brian and I are members at our local gym, but as winter has progressed and I’ve begun teaching full time (yay!) it’s been harder to get ourselves there.  Ideally, I’d like to get to the gym every other day, but I’m hoping that by setting a goal of two days a week, I can be successful.

• Drink more water

This probably could’ve been my New Years Resolution for the past 15 years.  I have never consumed as much water as one is supposed to.  I could probably go through an entire day without drinking much more than my morning cup of tea (actually, I’m sure I have).  In terms of specificity for this goal, I’d like to make sure I empty my water bottle at least once during work and consume a big glass of water in the afternoon.  Again, the ideal would be even more liquid than this, but I like to start small.

• Add new posts to Relishments at least twice a week.

My recipe pile keeps growing, and my cooking’s getting better, but sometimes it just doesn’t translate to the site.  Again, I’ll blame working for the drop in posts.  Hopefully I can make this site more of a priority and keep you “posted” on what’s happening in my kitchen.  Maybe I can even bring back Links of the Week (which would also help me stay on top of my reader!)

Not so specific goals:

1. Learn to bake really good bread  (recipe suggestions welcome!)
2. Learn to cook with tofu (recipe suggestions welcome!)
3. Learn to make more things that I usually buy (bread, crackers, yogurt, etc)
4. Maximize my freezer space
5. Create original recipes

Happy New Year! Wishing you and your families a great 2010!

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By Emily, December 25, 2009 11:48 am

It was just a year ago (December 23, 2008) that I started with blog with no direction.  A week later (December 29, 2009) I decided to make my blog about food.

What a year it’s been!  I’ve drastically changed my eating habits, learned to cook, greatly decreased my eating of processed food and eating out (which isn’t, by definition, bad, but I like to know what I’m eating).  I went from posting about Food Network shows, to not having cable, to posting recipes and reviews.  In September, I bought my own domain (!!)

Meanwhile, I got married, moved from Maine to Massachusetts, starting working at a new school, and learned to cook for my husband and spend a reasonable amount of money on food.

In honor of the new year, and my 1st blogoversary, this is my yearly “year in review” post that I always put on facebook:

1)Where did you begin 2009?
Hanging out at my parents with Brian. I don’t even remember if we made it until midnight.

2) What was your status by Valentine’ s Day?
Engaged and getting impatient.

3) Were you in school anytime this year?
Just about every day, except for the summer.

4) How did you earn your money ?
Various roles in education.

5) Would you relive 2009 over and over again?
I could relive my wedding day and honeymoon…but most of the rest was pretty uneventful. I could definitely pass on moving in the August heat.

6) Are you registered to vote?
Yup.

7) Do you still have the same job as you did in 2008?
nope.

8) Describe your birthday?
Brian took me to Harney and Sons Tea. It was delicious. And then we went outlet shopping.

9) What’ s one thing you thought you’d never do but did in 2009?
Be a long term substitute teacher in disciplines I thought I’d never teach, purchase my own internet domain, become a Massachusetts resident :)

10) What has been your favorite moment?
Getting married, changing my name , starting a new life, making some really awesome food

11) What music will you remember 2009 by?
“Then” by Brad Paisley.

12) Favorite Night out?
my pre-wedding girls night, game nights

13) Would you say you’ve changed since the beginning of this year?
Definitely, but hopefully for the better.

14) Do you think 2010 will be better or worse ?
2009 was a good year, but I always hope it’ll get better.  I’m very excited to see what 2010 will bring for Relishments!

Merry Christmas and happy new year, everyone!

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By Emily, November 26, 2009 7:22 pm

Just a quick post to wish all of you a happy Thanksgiving.

I hope you enjoyed as fun a day of family, food and laughter as I did.  Brian and I are spending the holiday weekend with my parents and it’s so nice to be on vacation.  Hopefully frequent posting will resume next week (work’s been keeping me really busy).

Thanks for reading! Enjoy your leftovers!

Emily

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By Emily, October 22, 2009 3:01 pm

As I’ve mentioned before, I love fall.  The weather, the food, the holidays.   And though growing up my family never ate pumpkin (or any other squash), I really like pumpkin.  The availability of Starbuck’s Pumpkin Spice Lattes gets me really excited.  When Brian and I were visiting my parents for Columbus Day we bought a bag of Pumpkin Pie flavored popcorn from Coastal Maine Popcorn Company (it was really good!!!)) In short, I really like pumpkin.

Of course, this is all despite the fact that, until a week ago, I had never cooked with it.

That changed because about a month ago, I saw a post on $5 Dinners about a shortage of canned pumpkin puree, due to last year’s bad weather.  The article had a whole bunch of comments from people who were having a hard time finding canned pumpkin in their local stores.  Naturally, I became concerned and began looking for canned pumpkin every time I was in a store.

A couple weeks ago, I was thrilled to see that Walmart had canned pumpkin! Not wanting to miss out, I bought six cans.  Since then, it seems the shortage is over (that was quick!).  Nevertheless, I have six cans of pumpkin puree.  Luckily, many other food blogs are posting great pumpkin recipes.  We’ve been eating pumpkin-y foods all week in our apartment and I’m not sure it’s going to let up anytime soon, especially since pumpkin now seems so easy to come by!  This is the first of several entries which will focus on my experiments with recipes that star pumpkin puree.

The first recipient of my bounty of pumpkin was Pioneer Woman’s Moist Pumpkin Spice Muffins.  I figured, how could I go wrong with a Pioneer Woman recipe?

I was right, you can’t go wrong.  The muffins were really awesome.  Definitely moist.  I didn’t make the frosting because I’m lazy and cheap and not a big frosting person, but I’m sure it’s yummy too.  Oh, and I didn’t add the raisins.  One piece of advice: when she says “generously grease” the muffin tins, she means it.  I skipped it since I was using paper liners, but my muffins did stick to the liners a bit.  If you’re annoyed by the fact that the recipe calls for just over a cup for pumpkin, leaving you with about a 1/3 of a can, don’t worry.  Cook it up in a skillet with some nuts and brown sugar until warm and serve it as a side.  It’s pretty amazing.  Anyway, this muffin recipe is one of my new favorites and if you’re as into pumpkin as I am, you should check it out.

Come to think of it, I may need to make another batch of muffins for next week’s breakfast…

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By Emily, October 12, 2009 11:59 am

Holy cow, last week was ridiculous!

In good news, two Fridays ago I finally got called in to substitute teach.  Finally.  It felt really good to be back in a school and teaching again.  Then I proceeded to work every day last week.  Which is awesome, because I like teaching, and working, and having an income.  Plus hopefully it’ll help me get a full time teaching gig at some point.

Unfortunately, it totally blew away my routine (which I was just getting comfortable with, of course).   Add to that the fact that Brian was writing his first paper for grad school, I didn’t have much time to think about blogging or reading blog posts, nevermind actually doing so.

Somehow, I actually did some cooking last week:

I made Cat Cora’s Barbecued Beans from a recipe featured on YumSugar which I served with burgers.  The mixture of beans (garbanzo, pinto and kidney) was really nice, but the beans were way too sweet for me.  Perhaps a different type of barbecue sauce would yield better results, but I think I’ll skip this recipe in the future.

I also made this Potato Crusted Sausage, Leek and Spinach Quiche.  The texture was a little different than what I’m used to with quiche, but it was good.  I’m a huge fan of the potato crust and used the extra shredded potatoes to make potato pancakes which were pretty delicious.  I’d probably make this quiche again, though I’m not sure I’m as big a fan of leeks as I thought I was.  Regular onions would probably work just as well.

In the chaos of last week, I also managed to give myself a pretty nice burn (though it’s all but healed now) and make a big mess of my kitchen in my attempt to make Tomato Fennel Soup.  Today’s cooking tip: If you’re pureeing hot soup in a blender, only blend a little of the soup at a time.  We’ll just leave it at that. But the soup was really good.  Highly recommended.

I expect to be subbing regularly from here on in, but now that Brian and I know that we’re adjusting our routines and I expect to begin posting somewhat frequently again.  Especially since I really need to get my eating back on track–I realized yesterday that I’ve had French fries 4 times in the past week!  That’s a lot for me.  Crazy schedule and traveling to and from Maine for the weekend certainly played a big part in that.  Here’s to doing better this week!

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By Emily, August 29, 2009 7:13 am

I spent too much of yesterday agonizing over a barbecue.  It was my church’s women’s fellowship barbecue and, being new to the area and all, I really wanted to go.  Attendees were supposed to bring their own meat to grill and something to share.  First issue: I thought it was pretty silly to go to the store to buy meat and, more than likely, a roll, for a single person.  I don’t have hamburgers (or turkey burgers, or veggie burgers, or hot dogs) in my freezer waiting for occasions like this.  Nor do I want to.  So I agonized over whether to go to the store so I would have something for the grill.  Second issue: Then I debated over what to get-should I get meat? Veggie burgers? Vegetables to grill?  When possible, I don’t like to introduce myself as “Emily the not-quite-but-almost-vegetarian”.  If the conversation gets there then fine, but it’s not the point of my existence.  So, really the whole debate was about what first impression I wanted to make.

In the end, I brought nothing but Mediterranean Salad (and I am getting to the part with the recipe).  I hoped that no one would notice that I hadn’t brought anything for the grill.  Know what?  No one did.  There were so many pasta salads and bean salads and fruit salads and Mexican dips that no one noticed that my full plate didn’t have anything from the grill or any meat.  I had a really good time spending the evening conversing about things other than my eating habits.

What to bring to share was much easier for me to figure out.  I knew right away what I wanted to make.  Last year, before I was really into cooking, I saw Giada De Laurentiis make this Mediterranean Salad on Everyday Italian.  It was a big hit at last night’s get together.

The dish contains Israeli/Mediterranean couscous, which I’ve found at food co-ops and Whole Foods  It’s a small pasta, different from “normal” couscous.  The recipe says any small pasta will work, but I’ve been so happy with the couscous that I’ve never tried it.  Add in some broth,* garlic, lemon juice and zest, fresh mint, fresh basil and dried cranberries and it’s a delicious side salad (or meal, if I have my way).  Check it out.

*Switch out the chicken broth for vegetable broth and this dish is vegetarian.

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By Emily, August 22, 2009 4:53 pm

First, a reminder.  The 6th season of Bravo’s Top Chef has begun! I realize I’m a little late in mentioning it, but I just got to watch the premiere today.  Las Vegas looks like it’s gonna be a good season.  I’m not going to do recaps or reviews this season, but I highly recommend these blogs if you want commentary:

Creative Loafing: “Hearts and Balls: ‘Top Chef’ Las Vegas Episode One”

Serious Eats: “‘Top Chef,’ Season 6: The Premiere

Endless Simmer: Top Chef Exit Interview: Episode 1

Secondly, good news and a promise.

I am painfully aware that this blog has been lately lacking the one thing it’s really supposed to be about.  Cooking.  I know I’ve had a million excuses (end of school, getting married, getting settled, moving…) for why that has been the case.  Lame.  This is supposed to be a blog primarily about my learning to cook healthy and meat free.

Starting this week (aka tomorrow) I am going to start trying out new recipes.  A lot of my cooking lately has been things I know are safe because I’ve already shared them on the blog.  This week’s menu includes several recipes I’ve never tried before.  I will share the results here.  Hopefully that’ll make both reading and writing more interesting.  Plus dinner around here’s getting dull.

My promise to you:

At least 2 new vegetarian recipes a week.  More if I can manage it.

You can hold me to that.