These Days...

Hello there friends!

Life has been pretty demanding lately. As I mentioned not too long ago, we are moving across the country and the days are flying by. We leave Washington in less than a month to move to Maryland. Planning a move across the country is not easy business. We had to make a schedule with a moving company and we are currently sifting through belongings, packing, selling, donating, throwing, etc. Of course things might be a bit easier if we actually know where we’re going to live, but we don’t. Unfortunately, searching for a dwelling over the Internet is quite a challenge. Before we get our butts out of here, we also have an interview schedule for my Greencard. You know, to prove that we’re really married to each other and all that. *insert sarcasm*.  

DFJ and I are also scrambling to see as much of Washington and Oregon as we can. Oh my, how we love it here! Realizing how much we haven’t explored yet seems too depressing, so we’ve been ambitiously trying to go on trips that we really don’t have time to make, but what the hell!  There’s also our friends, our dear, dear, dear sweet friends. We vowed to not say no to any invites and hang out with friends no matter how busy we are. So far, we’re doing well! At the end of July, we will have our wedding reception, which will be hosted by Sally, my other mom. It is so nice of her to organize pretty much everything and all we need to do is help out a little bit with errands and such. I am looking forward to seeing friends at the party that I didn’t get the chance to visit with this summer.   

Amidst all these, we are both trying to just live normally and enjoy our free time. So our summer mornings are slow…leisurely breakfasts with lots of coffee. Then we waste our precious hours spying on friends via Facebook, reading the news, or Reddit. I’ve been doing very little job hunting after I went on a rampage at the end of May. A week and a half ago, I had a job interview over the phone, which I bombed big time. Don’t even try to make me feel better (you are too nice), I totally blew it… they didn’t even send me a courtesy email. As soon as I hung up the phone, tears of self-frustration came uncontrollably and as if that wasn’t enough, I started heaving due to nerves. Thinking about what a disaster that interview was still makes me cringe, so I will stop.

During moments of solitude, I have been soul searching. Not having a job feels oddly liberating in a reckless sort of way. It’s actually a good feeling until my senses take over and I start feeling scared. A job truly offers comfort, security, and stability. But on the bright side, not having one opens up so many possibilities. This might be the time for me to explore my other talents, which haven’t surfaced yet. YIKES!   

When summer started, I thought there would be so much time for me to do all the projects that I had in mind plus handle the moving without being too stressed. Wrong! Funny how time isn’t enough at all when you have so much of it. The structure that my job provided allowed me to use my free time wisely. I was efficiently running errands and getting shtuff done after work, then working out, then making dinner, and even blogging. Sadly, that’s not me these days.

Truth is, I’m avoiding reality right now. There are boxes all over the apartment: one is full, a few are half full, a few are empty, and the rest are still flat. In designated areas are bags of clothes to be donated and piles of books that I’m reluctantly letting go of. Important documents are scattered in some sort of mad system (for easy access). The pantry… I am thinking about how to empty it in the next three weeks, but knowing that we will be gone often to go on trips that we really don’t have time to go to, it’s quite difficult to do that. We need to make some pieces of furniture look desirable in order to sell them, which means, clearing our organized mess (ugh) so we can take pictures. My gym membership will end in a few days and I really should go there every day until it’s over, but I find too many excuses not to. Sharing recipes that I discover and the foods that I have made keeps making it’s way on my to-do list, but I never am able to cross it off. Oh yeah, and there’s the reality of that terrible phone interview ordeal and the whole I’m-not-sure-what-to-do-with-my-life situation. Didn’t I say I need to stop thinking about it?

I miss the days when everything in my to-do list has been crossed off and there’s nothing too stressful to deal with except for laundry and dishes. During those moments, I sat down, came up with recipes, cooked languidly, took notes, snapped some photos, and wrote about the food. Cooking hasn’t stopped though, it is the one luxurious activity that I continue to indulge myself in… minus the note-taking, photo snapping, and blogging. I cook because it helps me stay grounded and it feeds my husband and me. We all need to eat anyway, might as well eat well, right?

I have made an original roasted vegetable curry dish, a hearty sautéed kale and lentil dish, Ina Garten’s curried chicken salad, Molly Wizenberg’s delicious granola, Deborah Madison’s corn chowder, and Heidi Swanson’s surprising and amazing take on zucchini bread. DFJ’s also been cooking some chili, fajitas, and pasta when I need a break from the kitchen.

Aside from cooking, DFJ and I have been going on some adventures and spending quality time with friends and family. Over the past few weeks, we have been going on short day trips to hike around nearby towns. We have visited family and friends, with or without being invited to do so. Our bikes, which have gathered dust over the past few months were packed in my tiny car, and taken out for rides on some cool mountain and lakeside trails in Coeur d’ Alene, Idaho. We also packed food, gathered our gear, and camped by Mt. Rainier. It was kind of untimely, but we needed to escape and breathe easy for a few days. Mt. Rainier was the perfect cure! We explored the trails around our campground, hiked some trails, napped before dinner with sunlight coming through our tent, stayed up late eating hotdogs and s’mores, star gazed when the last of the embers died out, and fell asleep to the sounds of the rushing creek. It was blissful!    

When we’re not out playing in the sun, we’re panicking, packing, planning, and endlessly house hunting online. But there is also plenty of time spent reading, going to yoga classes, and watching Parenthood, Arrested Development, Take Me Home, and Warm Bodies.

Life is not bad… just busy. So today, I’m just checking in and whining a little bit. Tomorrow (which really means, a few days from tomorrow) I will share how our summer is going through pictures… lots of them. Now I need to go get some $#!+ done. I’ll remember to breathe while at it and enjoy the craziness!

P.S. Thank you for letting me unload… I feel much better now. J  

Kale and Jicama Stir-Fry

Two nights before our wedding, DFJ and I made dinner for his parents and our friends. We wanted to make some lemon chicken that is a favorite of DFJ’s family and a vegetable stir-fry, which is my cooking signature, and some rice to go with the whole meal. I didn’t really have a set plan for what vegetable dish I wanted to make. As far as I’m concerned, all vegetables, when thrown together in some olive oil, salt, and pepper over heat, pretty much turns out wonderful.

Since our wedding was pretty much a one-week affair at the charming, Lake Chelan, we didn’t want leftover produce to go to waste in our fridge at home. So, we took what we had in a cooler and brought it to the lake. The veggie dish that I made turned out so good that I knew I had to remake it at home and share it with you all. So, here it is almost three months later.

You will need the standard garlic and onion. To me, these two ingredients are the essential bases for any stir-fry. Throw in some mushrooms for some earthy flavoring, carrots for some nice crunch, and bell pepper slices for some sweet and juicy bites. In my first dish, I didn’t add any corn because it wasn’t in season. For this one, however, I couldn’t resist tossing in some kernels, they’re too sweet and pretty to be excluded. Of course, the main actors of the dish are the kale and jicama. What can I say? I LOVE KALE. I used Italian kale (otherwise known as dinosaur kale, Tuscan kale, Cavolo nero, Lacinato kale, etc.) for this one, but really you can use any kale variety. The regular variety can be slightly bitter and earthy, which I love and which I used the first time I made this recipe. Italian kale, however, is milder in flavor but is in no way less delicious. Either kind is good, promise! The other main star, jicama, is an ingredient that I have recently gotten to know and love. Jicama is like a tougher and less sweet version of an Asian pear. It tends to be starchy when raw, but it renders its true flavors when cooked.

This dish is simply seasoned with salt and pepper… fresh ingredients need nothing more than that. Although, a little splash of soy sauce and/or rice wine vinegar wouldn’t hurt either, if you do this, just cut back on the salt. This is a truly vibrant stir-fry that embodies the taste of summer, health, and goodness!     

  

Kale and Jicama Stir-Fry

3 tablespoons olive oil

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 medium onion (about 13 oz), diced

a couple of cremini mushrooms (5 oz), chopped

1 jicama (13 oz), chopped into ½ inch sticks

2 carrots (oz), chopped into half moons

corn kernels from 1 ear of corn

1 bunch Italian kale (13 oz), chopped into thin ribbons

1 large bell pepper (8.5 oz), sliced into 1 inch sticks

salt and freshly cracked black pepper to taste

Heat olive oil over medium heat in a large, deep skillet. When the oil is hot but not smoking, sauté the garlic for about a minute, until golden brown and fragrant. Add the onions and let cook for about 3 minutes, stirring often, until shiny and translucent. Toss in the mushrooms and cook for about 3 minutes, until soft and spongy. Add the jicama and carrots and cook for about 5 minutes, stirring often. Add ½ teaspoon salt and freshly cracked black pepper to flavor the first couple of ingredients.

Stir in the corn kernels and let cook for about 2 minutes until they become plump. Add the kale in two batches. Stir in the first batch with the other hot ingredients until they are slightly wilted, then season with ¼ teaspoon salt.  Add the rest of the kale and cook until they wilt. The total cooking time for all the kale should be about 4 minutes. Toss in the bell pepper sticks and cook for about 3 minutes, stirring often. Season with another ¼ teaspoon salt and some freshly cracked black pepper to taste.

Recommendations:

I recommend serving this warm over brown rice (or any rice you prefer). This dish serves well as a main entrée or a side. It also makes for a great fried rice leftover. Simply cook leftover cooked rice in garlic and olive oil, toss in the leftover stir-fry, scramble in an egg or two, splash with some soy sauce or rice wine vinegar, some frozen peas, and perhaps some minced chives or spring onions.      

ENJOY!