Changes

Oh, hello. Yes, my site looks different again. My fancy pants custom CSS extension is expiring, and I have grand plans to move this little blog on over to its very own home, so I didn’t want to re-subscribe. I hope it’s not too jarring.

Living and Eating in Walla Walla

I had all these grand expectations that I was going to be cooking up a storm and blogging like a mad lady once I moved to Walla Walla. But I forgot one thing: I am also working a full-time job for the first time in two years (not that being a student and working 20 hours a week wasn’t time consuming, but it’s different). I am also settling into a new town and a new life, one in which, frankly, I don’t know anyone and have been going through the gamut of emotional reactions to starting anew. All of this to say, oops. Sorry! I promised, and I didn’t deliver.

This unexpected busy-ness is compounded by the fact that I’ve been having a bit of a disastrous time in the kitchen. Adjusting to the electric stove is proving trickier than I expected. And things have been turning out, if not bad tasting, decidedly un-photogenic. And uninteresting. And certainly not worth sharing. I have even (gasp!) wondered if I wanted to keep doing this blog, instead of just cooking for myself (and, yeah, for myself, because I don’t even have a dog to feed these days). No need for alarm, though. As Miss Crystal reminded me last weekend, when I visited her in Portland, I just have to ease up and give myself time to settle in and get used to this new life o’ mine. Then I’m sure I’ll be back in fine form, and concocting all kinds of things I can’t wait to share.

Logo assistance?

I have mentioned here before that I have a big ol’ shiny site re-design in the works. In pursuit of that project, I’m looking for a budding graphic designer who might be able to draw me up a nifty logo.

I don’t have much in the way of extra funds these days to hire an artist, BUT I can cook! So in exchange for your artistic services, I’m happy to invite you over for a home-cooked meal (if you live in the Walla Walla, WA area) or I will mail you a huge and tasty care package of your favorite kinds of treats.

If you think you might be willing to put your skills to work for the new and improved Kitchen Illiterate, and get some good eatings for your labor, please either leave a comment here or email me at lkrier@yahoo.com.

Michael Pollan at TED

I’ve talked about Michael Pollan here before. I consider his books some of the most life-changing books I’ve read, and sometimes I feel like I’m on a little personal mission to get everyone in the world to read them. This TED video is a great introduction to his ideas, and to the idea of truly sustainable farming. I grinned the whole time I watched it.

I hope that you’ll pass this video along. Share it with everyone you know! This one is definitely an idea worth spreading.

UPDATE: WordPress won’t let me embed the video from TED, for reasons I can’t quite fathom. You can watch it on the TED website for now. Hopefully I’ll figure out how to embed it when I have more time.

UPDATE AGAIN: The video is available through the YouTubes, which I can embed, so here you go:

National Carrot Day Song

Dinner’s not quite ready yet, but to tide you over, here’s a lovely little song about carrots. Hilarious.

One Local Summer

Just a short note today: I just read about the One Local Summer challenge, and I think this sounds great! One meal a week (at least) cooked with 100% local ingredients (ok, they do make exceptions for oil, spices, and salt and pepper). I think I’m ready to sign up. The Farmer’s Market should be starting back up here in Boston soon (at least, I hope so!), and I have been thinking for a long time about trying to find local sources for dairy and meat.

If anyone knows about local food production in the Boston area, please share!

No food, but some other stuff

Yikes, I have, once again, broken my once-a-week posting rule in the flurry and bustle of finals. I’ve been eating pasta and Boboli with leftovers and nothing impressive enough for the blog. (Well, there was that pork tenderloin Mr. X made last weekend, but I was too tired to take pictures and write about it.

Sadly, I’m not even sure when I’m going to be able to get back to you all with actual foodstuffs. The next two weeks are going to be mad busy: finishing the MySQL/PHP database project, doing a bunch of LC and Dewey classification, finishing up a presentation on our new OPAC for user instruction, and, you know, trying to figure out what the crap I’m going to do this summer. Actually, there are some good developments potentially maybe in the works, but all that stuff belongs on the other blog, and you guys don’t care about the library stuff. You care about the food, so I’ll get right to it.

The way a carne asada is meant to be

Carne Asada Burrito from Filiberto’s

Originally uploaded by kinzo808

Alright, it might not look that appealing to you, but when I saw this picture I was instantly filled with longing for home, and for carne asada burritos the way they’re meant to be eaten. Leave out that stinkin’ rice. Lettuce? Bah, that’s for rabbits. A truly delicious carne asada burrito has nothing but meat, guac, and salsa. And I am so, so homesick for delicious, San Diego-style Mexican food.

Bad blogger, bad, bad blogger

I don’t know where the rest of December went, or the first week of January, at that. I was in San Diego, blissfully enjoying 60 degree weather and brunches on the back patio, and somehow, in the midst of all the delicious holiday food and friends and family and, did I mention, 60 degree weather, I didn’t sit down to share any of it with you, my probably-no-longer-so-faithful readers. I mean, I even brought my digital camera apparatus with me and everything, but not once did I get around to uploading pictures and writing out a simple recipe. I have failed at this whole blogging thing, it seems.

But now it is a New Year and I’m re-invigorated and yes, I do have lots to share. There was a lot of baking around the holidays, of course, including some new favorites and some old favorites and a not that great chocolate chip cookie recipe, which, well, I guess I won’t share. And tonight…tonight I’m making pot roast. One of my not-a-New-Years-resolution things I’m going to try to do this year is re-committing to my previous posting regularity, and sharing something here at least once a week.

Come back later today and there will be food.  I promise.

The Atlantic, Some Lobsters, and Beer in a Can

I finally visited the Cape for the first time, after over four years of living in Massachusetts. I grew up on the Pacific and always considered myself an ocean lover, a beach goer, someone who had to live near large bodies of salt water. And yes, Boston is technically near a large body of salt water, but it sure doesn’t feel like it. I so rarely see the Atlantic, and when I do it’s usually in some half-assed way: I’m looking at a bay or harbor or some crap. This weekend was the first time I found myself looking at the unhampered, unimpeded Atlantic Ocean. And I got to tell ya something: It was a little disappointing.

Don’t get me wrong. I really enjoyed my weekend in Chatham. It was glorious to spend an entire day at the beach, to experience truly perfect summer weather (no humidity!), to actually get a suntan and wear a bathing suit. And best of all: I had my first real lobster experience. Lobster ravioli from Trader Joe’s just doesn’t count. No, this weekend we bought live lobsters and threw them into a vat of boiling water and then pulled their innards out of their shells to devour. Yes, yes we did. And I loved it.