Adventure Begins in the Kitchen
This is just a doodad of a post. One about how I am highly obsessed with my juicer lately. Today’s juice was one small, seedless watermelon and six kiwi, peeled and tossed into spinning blades. It was refreshing. It was sweet and slightly tart. It was the perfect post-workout chug!
Recipe yielded 4 servings.
It’s been a while, guys, since I’ve been this excited about anything a recipe. The kind of excited where my heart gets poundy, my bangs get sweaty, and I’m consumed with this energy that makes it almost impossible to eat the food I’m so excited about. Ok, so maybe the sweaty bangs have everything to do with grilling and an extended Austin summer. But the rest, the rest of this hoopla was totally about the dinner.
After buying some bison burger patties from Trader Joe’s, I entered this massive Google/Pinterest thing – a rarely craved burger shouldn’t be ordinary, after all. I found the appropriately titled Women’s Health Mag post “Best Burger Toppings” and was immediately drawn to the grilled guacamole. “Why isn’t this being done all over the place?”, I thought.
Not knowing how to use a grill aside, everything about grilling guac was easy. Chop, skewer, grill, chop again, stir. I didn’t use any of the rations or timing in the recipe. And with the addition of some extra lime juice, I felt the salt and hot sauce unnecessary.
It was love at first tart, smoky bite. I put a dollop on the bison burger, had a holy-crap-I-made-this moment, pulled out my 100mm macro and tripod (told you I was excited!), and shot this burger in a way that it deserved.
On the second Saturday of ACL, I headed to the new Trader Joe’s with hopes that it would be a ghost town. It ended up being the opposite of that, but thankfully I scored the last shopping cart as I headed into the madness. I was reminded of the phrase “You’re not in traffic, you are traffic” as I excused my way about.
I scooped up lots of pre-cut veggies with no recipe in mind. Sliced brussels sprouts from the prepared foods section and sliced leeks from the frozen foods section – I had no intention of using them together. And then I woke up the next morning wanting to experiment with baked eggs and I couldn’t think of a more perfect veggie combo.
I used Food 52’s “How to Make Any Baked Eggs” as my guide and got to sautéing the leeks and brussels sprouts with a bit of garlic in coconut oil. I layered an oven-safe dish with the veggies, topped with two eggs, and baked in a 400 degree oven for the suggested 12 minutes. At 12 minutes, my eggs were still super raw, so I baked them longer, keeping a not-close-enough eye on the whites.
At 20 minutes, I failed to find the perfect balance of done whites/runny yolks. But runny whites completely gross me out, so I was fine with the over-doneness of the yolks. Had the yolks been perfectly runny and the whites been perfectly cooked, the leek/brussels sprout/baked egg combo would have been A++. Now onto perfecting the whole baked egg thing!
A weekend full of ACL music, best friends, duck faces, beers, more beers, sitting in the grass, and cold fronts led to lots and lots of sniffles. And lots and lots of sniffles led to making this soup, one of the best soups I’ve ever made, again.
I stopped at Whole Foods on my way home from work today, thankful for their bulk department. For a mere 40 cents, I eliminated any sort of which-spices-am-I-out-of guess work (it’s cumin by the way, I’m out of cumin). And then I got home and mindlessly dumped everything into the crock pot.
I ladled myself a bowlful and was quickly reminded how much I adore brothy soups with lime and cilantro. My roommate dug it too, “This soup is good, Kristin. Like really, really good.”.