A week in pictures

Hurricane Isaac brought a lot of green to St. Louis

Gertie expresses her desire for attention

Yum.

Walks in the park and beautiful old cars

 

The first cyclocross race of the year, the Wild Trak Bikes Superprestige, was last Sunday and we couldn't have had better weather. Previous rain kept the course tacky while the day's sunshine kept mud to a minimum. They even brought out the BMX rollers to keep things interesting:

With bright green handlebar tape and yellow shoes, what could possibly go wrong?

 Looking forward to cooler weather and more cyclocross throughout the fall!

(And lots of napping puppies)

Sweet Potato Corn Soup (with Chorizo and Cilantro Yogurt)

I should probably be more inventive with food to keep putting it on a blog. But as my mother can attest, I abnormally remember food. So posting about food is sort of a mini-journal so I remember what we do. So I will continue to post fairly non-exciting recipes as a way to remember my life. If nothing else, maybe I show there are more ways you can put together kale and/or sweet potatoes than you (and I) ever thought? Here goes...

Cast of characters:
-4 sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into pieces.
-1 yellow onion, diced
-4 cups water
-1 T "Better than Bouillon" (or a cube of bouillon, or vegetable stock if you are fancier/less broke/have more time)
-1 cup frozen corn
-2 tsp. chili powder
-Black pepper and seasoned salt, to taste

This could not be more simple (especially with my immersion blender). Sautee the onion in a stockpot. Add sweet potato, water & bouillon/vegetable stock. Boil until potatoes are tender, add corn. Blend to desired texture, then season to taste.


Although I always find sweet potato soup fairly exciting, what made this meal slightly more exciting was the addition of chorizo and a little yogurt with cilantro and garlic. I can't keep fresh cilantro because it always goes bad so fast, so I cheat with TJ's frozen variety in tiny little cubes.

Most exciting about this meal is that we have entered (albeit probably temporarily) weather where it is not ridiculous to make soup!

Hope your weekend is lovely.

A Truly Lovely Weekend

This weekend has been so lovely. Dinner at one of our favorite places, a movie, walking with the dog...just so lovely.

The only thing I have made worth mentioning is Yogurt Cake from here:

-2 eggs
-1 cup sugar
-1 cup plain yogurt 
-1/3 cup oil
-1 tsp vanilla
-1 T rum (calls for light, we only had dark) 

-2 cups flour
-1/2 tsp baking soda
-1.5 tsp baking powder

Sift together dry ingredients. Add dry to mixed wet ingredients. Bake at 350 for about 30 minutes. We ate it with some raspberries/lemon juice/sugar and vanilla ice cream. A moist (just for you P ;) ) and delicious simple cake.

 Other random weekend moments...

We had some great cookie time with Mr. C: 

 And got caught in the rain not once but twice (not the brightest bulbs...):

And can't forget a random Gertie shot or two:

And finally, a photo from the bike race this weekend:

A Lazy Week

I haven't done any posting, and I have failed to do much cooking either. Certainly no cooking worth a recipe. But we've had a couple good things:

-Orange ginger almond cake from here courtesy of Amy F. from way back. Best gluten free cake I have had!

-Baked sweet potatoes with lentils

-And tonight, polenta with brussel sprouts and wilted spinach: 

And a few bonus photos:

-Squash from our garden! 

 -Reading with Mr. C - farm animals are the coolest.

And tomorrow class starts again - my first day of my last year of school. Yahoo!

Avocado Bruschetta

Everything is better with avocado. Well, not everything I suppose, but lots of things. So this isn't rocket science - in fact, it probably doesn't even merit a recipe. But we had a get together and it was great. So here goes:

Cast of characters:
-basil, chopped
-2 tomatoes (1 yellow, 1 red), diced
-1 avocado, diced
-olive oil, balsamic (white and normal), salt and pepper

Mix it all together, and serve it on toast or whatever you have. I mixed te avocado with a bit of lemon juice before adding it, and the avocado stayed green for quite a while. Yum!

Two Years

Two years ago today I walked down this aisle...

to marry this dude....

and I felt like this.....

I am the luckiest. I am so grateful to share my life with this guy who gets me and shares my biggest dreams. Here's to many more years of happiness and many great adventures! 

Tofu Steak (don't knock it 'till you try it)

                         

I'll be honest (am I ever not?): The very concept of tofu steaks has sort of weirded me out. But Robin and I watched a Barbecue U a while back that had several vegetarian dishes on the grill, one of them being tofu steaks. The host marinated the tofu, put skewers of ginger throughout, and grilled thick slabs of tofu. 

We didn't have ginger, so we marinated it in Soyaki, a teriyaki marinade from Trader Joes. We learned about it from my parents, and if you haven't tried it you should.

So again, this doesn't really count as much of a recipe. We marinated in Soyaki, dried ginger, and shallots for about an hour. Then we (Robin) grilled the steaks for 8-10 minutes on each side. When they were flipped, we poured more marinade over them.  With some potatoes cooked in a foil packet on the grill, it was delectable. We ate it with more soyaki and some Sweet Chili Sauce. I am sold. It was so good. We ate big tofu steaks (half a package each) but at $1.79 for a package, I thought we could splurge ;).

 

So try some tofu steaks! Let me know how they turn out. I couldn't believe how good it was!