Life is returning to normal around here. We signed the papers to rent the new house, so it’s really happening now. I can finally start thinking about how we want to arrange the furniture and how our lifestyle will change without winding myself up for nothing.

For the past two days I’ve been furiously cleaning and staging our apartment for showings. We were supposed to have one yesterday but it never materialized. I really want to get this place rented quickly so that we don’t have people continuously coming over to see it for the next month and a half. It’s a pain to have to keep the apartment spotless every day and crate the cats when someone comes to see it.

I’ve been enjoying some delicious food lately. Donut peaches are one of my favorite fruits but I can rarely ever find them. I had them for breakfast one morning with strawberry goat’s milk yogurt, which I’m now addicted to!

Last night’s dinner was fantastic too. Turkey and apple sausages with mashed sweet potatoes and kale sauteed in the sausage juices with caramelized onions.

I like to mix butter and almond milk into my sweet potatoes to make them creamy. You’d think the almond milk would be weird, but it picks up on the sweet flavor of the potatoes nicely.

The kale is easy too. I just sauteed half an onion along with the sausages and when they were caramelized I added the kale right on top and let it wilt down. A few drops of water pulls the brown bits off the bottom of the pan to coat the kale leaves.

I cook a lot when I’m frazzled, and I certainly have been with all the packing and cleaning I’ve been doing.

This past weekend we visited Jeff’s family and were gifted these gorgeous homegrown tomatoes from his grandfather. (Hey Papa!) Aren’t they beautiful?

I used some of them to make an outstanding vegetable soup that I’ll share with you tomorrow or the next day. Seriously, these tomatoes are so good that I’ve been convinced to start growing some of our own when we move. They are so sweet and the texture is much less watery, more firm and supple.

And here’s another frazzled cooking foray…

Those are apple butter oat bars, yum! I made these same bars just last week with sliced almonds rather than oats and strawberry jam rather than apple butter. I’ll definitely share the recipe because they are killer!

Can you tell I’m ready for fall to start? I’ve been making soups left and right and I’m definitely craving fall flavors like baked apple and pumpkin.

What do you do when you’re frazzled? Ever had a homegrown tomato?

August 24, 2011 Alayna Discussion 4 comments

Onigiri are the quintessential Japanese snack food. In essence, they’re little more than compressed rice, but with the addition of spices and other mix-ins they can become exciting in their endless permutations.

These are great to make with leftover rice from a meal to avoid waste, or you can do what I did and make a whole batch just for snacking.

First, you need rice. I made 2 cups of brown rice using a rice cooker. If you’re not using a rice cooker, I would suggest using this sushi rice recipe. Since this is brown rice instead of the white rice used in the recipe, soak the rice first for an hour and then cook it for an hour.

I put the rice in a wide baking dish to cool off while I applied a seasoning of salt, mirin, and rice vinegar. Then I added the seaweed on top.

I used a mixture of 4 things in this seaweed seasoning: dried arame, dulse, nori-kome furikake, and black sesame seeds.

Make sure to soak the arame until pliable, at least 15 minutes. Then just mix it all in evenly and get ready to mold the rice into tight little triangles!

Run your hands under the faucet to get them soaking wet. This will keep the rice from sticking to your hands. Scoop up a full handful of rice and compress it into a ball. Don’t give it your worst death grip, just press enough to keep it together.

Now the fun part. With the ball of rice in your left palm, cup it so that your fingers and palm make the flat sides or “faces” of the triangle while forming your right hand into a peak shape to make the top of the triangle.

Press all over in this position, then rotate and press again. Once more and you should have the signature triangle onigiri shape!

Now that you have all of your onigiri formed, you can choose to eat them as-is or toast them like I did. Lightly spray a non-stick pan with a flavorless oil such as canola and add the onigiri.

Flip them once they get to a golden brown, about five minutes on each side. Not too much longer than that or they’ll get a crust on them that’s hard as a rock.

That’s all there is to it. You can store these in the refrigerator for a very long time, just keep them covered to keep them from drying out. They make great additions to school lunch boxes and are a tasty vegetarian sushi alternative.

You can put any seasonings you want in these. If seaweed is not your thing, try flaked salmon or crumbled bits of hard boiled egg. Throw in leftover used tea leaves or eat them completely plain, dipped delicately in soy sauce.

Toasted seaweed and brown rice onigiri

A healthy snack of brown rice seasoned with seaweeds.

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cook Time: 35 minutes

Total Time: 55 minutes

Ingredients

• 2 cups brown rice
• 1 tsp. mirin
• 1 tsp. rice vinegar
• big pinch of salt
• 2 tbsp. black sesame seeds
• 1 tbsp. nori-kome furikake
• 1 tbsp. dried dulse flakes
• 1 handful crushed and soaked arame seaweed

Cooking Directions

1. Cook brown rice in rice cooker or on stovetop.
2. Mix together salt, rice vinegar, and mirin. Pour over hot rice and toss to coat.
3. Add in soaked arame, dulse, furikake, and black sesame. Toss to combine.
4. With soaking wet hands, pick up a handful of rice in your left hand. Form your right hand into a peak shape and press on top while pressing on the sides with your left hand. Rotate 2 times to form a triangle.
5. If desired, toast the onigiri in a lightly oiled pan until lightly browned on both sides.

Delicious and healthy!

August 17, 2011 Alayna Discussion, Recipes 16 comments

Good news everyone! (<—-Say that in Professor Farnsworth’s voice)

WE GOT THE HOUSE!

I broke down in tears this morning when I got the news and couldn’t wait to tell Jeff.

We needed this so badly. We’re really at the point in our lives now where we need our own space to be able to move forward with the things we want to do.

Here’s a list of things we can do now that we have our own house!:

• Blend a smoothie at 8am without waking up our elderly landlord
• Similarly, vacuum the house without bothering anyone with the noise
• Conversely, not be annoyed by other peoples noise from upstairs
• And I can let Liam scream his head off when Lucas won’t go play with him
• Homebrew beer in the unfinished basement!
• Jeff can set up an electronics workshop there too
• And I can set up an art studio
• We will have and actual laundry room so I have a place to fold clothes
• An office for me to work out of during the day
• Good natural lighting for blog photos
• Space for me to plant herbs and vegetables
• Walking distance to the gym I intend to join
• Walking distance to the center of Decatur
• And, walking distance to one of our favorite bars!
• And the real kicker, now we can start making real plans for when we’d like to expand our family. 😉

This has meant so much to us. I can’t wait to get started on the next phase of our lives together.

Good thing I’ve been hoarding boxes for months because we move in October 1st!

That’s not even half of the stash I’ve been collecting.

I’m gonna spend some of today packing because it will help me to feel like this is actually happening.

Wish us luck!

August 16, 2011 Alayna Discussion 13 comments