Friday, May 22, 2009

new movie

I am ubber excited about a new movie that is coming out in August. It is based off of two memoirs of food people, Julia Childs who revolutionize cooking and Julie Powell who wrote and blog and book about her challenge to cook all 524 recipes in Julia Childs book in a year.

Check out the trailer :)


Sunday, May 17, 2009

city and shore

Rich and Katie, a couple in our lifegroup moved to Buffalo last week, so before thy left we all headed to the city for one last hooray. Rich's grandma has an apartment in midtown with an amazing roof top garden. His Nana entertained us with wonderful stories and we had a hard time leaving the roof top. After Nana's apartment we grabbed dinner and then wondered around the city for a while.

Today Brett did his first duathlon. He had to run 2 miles, bike 10 miles, and then run 3 more miles. Yesterday at the last minute Mark, Brett's dad, decided to do it too. We dragged ourselves out of bed at 4 am so we could meet Mark and Jacki, get everything loaded, and leave by 5:00 to head to Long Branch at the shore. It was a nasty morning; cold and rainy. We were pretty miserable just watching so I am sure the boys had to be having a hard time. They both finished and I am so proud of them. Now it is time for a relaxing evening and early to bed.


rooftop view

the boys just hanging out

3 of the girls
bek, me, katie

the group


the boys before their run

brett coming back from the bike part

and he finished!

(once again NYC pictures borrowed from Sim and Katie)

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

the wonders of pumpkin

Our garden is all planted. It rained forever after we planted it and I was scared that the garden would get rained out. But other than an overwhelming about of weeds, things seem to progressing beautifully.

The evening following our garden planting the girls all went over to Bek's apartment and she made a fantastic parmesan risotto. She put roasted pumpkin, pine nuts, and spinach in it. In America, or at least everywhere that I have been, we tend to only eat pumpkin, and squashes in the fall. Bek has inspired me to work these gourds into my meals more often.

So here I present to you the fantastic risotto that Bek served us and I later recreated for my husband, and a fun little recipe I found for "Pumpkin Pie Squares".

Pumpkin, Spinach, and Pine Nut Risotto

Ingredients:
1 cup Arborio rice
2-3 cup vegetable or chicken stock
½ butternut pumpkin, cubed
1 onion, diced
1 glove garlic, chopped
1 piece ginger, chopped
1/2 c pine-nuts
1 bunch spinach, roughly chopped
1 cup parmesan cheese
Salt and pepper to taste

1. Place garlic and ginger in a saucepan with a little olive oil.
2. Add the cubed pumpkin, cooking until soft. Remove and set aside. (I actually cooked this in a separate pan so I could be cooking the rice at the same time)
3. Add onion and a little oil to a fry-pan and saute.
4. Add rice and fry for a further 2-3 minutes with a little butter.
5. Gradually add stock, stirring until absorbed but still moist before adding more stock.
6. While risotto is cooking place pine-nuts on a tray and bake at 350°F for about 5 minutes or until they turn a golden color.
8. When rice is cooked turn off heat and add all remaining ingredients including pumpkin, and parmesan.
9. Leave for 5 minutes before serving.


Pumpkin Pie Squares

yellow/orange squash of some kind - acorn, butternut, pumpkin (we used the other half of the butternut squash from above and ate as dessert)
honey
cinnamon
sugar

1. Cube the squash into bit size pieces.
2. Roll the cubes in honey and a dash of cinnamon until well coated. Spread as a single layer on a foil lined pan.
3. Bake at 350 for about 40 minutes - until really soft
4. sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar - serve warm


Rafael with the tiller

the boys working the dirt

Our pretty garden

(pictures stolen from Sim's facebook)