Leek Much?

Well it's been some time since I entered the blog world to type something other than a comment. To tell you the truth, it's really the lazy man's approach to be swinging words at people's musings.

What have I been doing as of late? Read below (or click on one of the links found on this page - still have not figured out how exactly this blog thing works) that most of my time is now spent on a "job". I found out a while ago that most employers simply refuse to pay if you do not do something productive for them every single day - which to me is the biggest rip off on the planet. Anything that comes in between my home time and cooking is labelled as nefarious, villanous or simply malicious.

In any event, the job is fun (I work in the music bizz yo!) and yes, closely with all those bimbos you see on television that just LOVE to shake their boot-thangs. (More dirt on that latah.)

But in the meantime, please find my long time favourite vegetable: "leeks" in the picture above. There is really no appeal to leeks in the grocery store. They always look muddy, saggy, a bit too long for your fancy looking grocery bags. Despite of all these facts, they do taste yummy and provide a good alternative to cooking onions! They are not as "Oh my god, get those f**** things away from my eyes" but do possess some of that zingy up-nasal flare. Cut them up finely, or in rings (like I did above) - they taste great and turn out to be reaal sweeet. (maybe not as sweet as the boot-thang you like watching on the tube but a good alternative.)

I decided to pair up my "leek" composite with red rice. Now, excuse my ignorance but I have not heard of red rice until my first visit to India (which was about 12 years ago). They are sold in most North American super-duper-large-everything-hormone-enhanced grocery stores. It's a very good alternative to white or brown rice + gives off mildly sweet undertones as it melts in your mouth.

The fake palm tree is commonly referred to as "Terragon" - yes, I did pay for that - it's not a weed I pulled out of the garden.
There, now go cook. Eat. Watch people's boot-thangs on the tube. Feel frustrated. Eat more.
Life is good.

Gimme Barley

Ok, I'm finally here. Adjusting to full-time work life has been occupying most of my time as of late; therefore, my focus was on coming home to melt into the couch and then dragging myself to bed as if it's an olympic event.

Speaking of olympics... Despite my aversion to television, I ended up staring at the "stupid box" more than usual last week. What better thing to watch than olympics of course! I'm not a giant winter sports fan, alas figureskating, skateboarding, skiing among a bunch of other things tickle my fancy in appropriate doses. Such drama this year with all the competitors wiping out, falling down and ending up with spinal injuries. Yikes!

Before going any further, here is a recipe which I call "Barley on the Go!" - This is a great meal for all you busy work people, parents who don't have time left to themselves because they're living for their kids and for those who just don't like cooking. Make this dish: a) it will last forever; b) it will fill you up; c) barley has amazing nutritional value

Ingredients:
- 1 medium onion, coursely chopped
- 2 carrots, diced
- 1 zucchini, diced
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 can peas
- 2 cups pot barley
- 5 cups water
- basil, mint, parmesan, salt, pepper

Directions:
Kill onions on medium heat until translucent. Add garlic, carrots and zucchini and continue to cook stirring occasionally. When the vegetables start to soften, add barley and water - bring to a boil. Then, cover your pot and reduce to low heat. Barley will absorb the water and come to a thick pasty consistency. Add your peas, basil, mint, parmesan and pepper (to taste) -- Voila!

If you've made it so far, now go check out the nutritional information of barley here.
It's truly amazing! Now go cook and enjoy... :)

Whine Wine Why-n

Whoa, thanks for all the comments. Yes, the new job started has been an ongoing event - apparently they don't pay unless you go there everday. Who makes up these rules?

It's been a very fast couple of days. I'm basically responsible for internal operations of a website company. Sounds interesting? It did to me, that's why I got the job. In the interview, they told me the training period would last anywhere from 1-3 months - the work is complicated and requires lots of attention, learning, re-learning for it to be done accurately. In other words, press a wrong key and you're fired! Talk about stressful... not yet.

The supervisor who is supposed to train me is leaving next week. Yay! Other than that there's only one other person who knows about the system and he's been working there for only 2 months. He doesn't know some of the key developmental tools that are required in the day-to-day transactions. Yay again! Now, the supervisor is being replaced... with someone who doesn't know the system at all.

My challenge is, should my brain chooses to accept, to learn everything by next week as opposed to 3 months later. A challenge indeed. My head is about to explode...

Signing off to wine myself now, hope everyone is doing ok!

Boot Camp

I'm starting work tomorrow - full time! Yes, I am very excited and I've had a lovely time taking a break from life for the past year. It's been lots of fun renovating, playing in the garden, painting, going to the beach and staying up as late as one can do on weekdays. Merciless pleasure pimping at home with wreckless cooking and wining with neighbours. Sigh, the joys of life.

I have spent this on my "favourite things". Hooked up with friends, had lots of wine, food and laughter. Right now, I am getting ready to organize my wardrobe, study up before the big day and go to bed at a reasonable hour to wake up in the darling cold that Canada is experiencing at the moment.

This week will probably zip by very quickly, with moments of horror and terror scheduled in at work. Change is good! I'm definitely looking forward to the piece of paper that shows a payable lumpsum to my name (most of which will be spent on food and clothing....)

I'm wishing all of you a good week and will post to give the scoop on the job thing. Have chores to do now! (what a concept!)

Desperate Housewives

This is too funny! I recently saw this name decoder at Christina's (Mausi) website. Although I usually do not get into these "here put this on your blog" type of things (they are totally amusing to look at on other people's sites tho) I thought I would give it a try. The result was phenomenal... Meet your totally needy, open and inviting blog writer:



Oh boy, talk about a bad reputation... The picture goes very well with the "yearning" part too.
Well, it's now 10:30pm. I suppose there's a long night of drinking and affection-seeking ahead of me. Hmm....

Retard

Retard as in the french word for "sorry suckers, we know you paid good money for this plane ticket but we're going to make you sit here for another few hours. honestly, we don't care if you're hungry or travelling with kids, but we messed up the schedule and you should deal with it" -- otherwise known as "delayed" is what I have been in posting a new comment. Good to be here.

Some exciting news in Big City... The dinner party was a success. I don't think the entertainees were expecting so much food; it caught their stomachs off guard. It might be a good idea to tone down the variety for the next time but I hate cooking a 3-course meal. When I cook a lot, at least the leftovers end up seeing us through for the next couple days. (On that note, I still had to make some barley soup and rice on Sunday.)

Exciting news... Mister's new nephew came home on Sunday! Yay, poor kid must be going through ample shock and disturbance at the moment but I'm sure he'll be comforted with all the love he gets from everyone. So far he's far too small, loud for his size and clueless.

I have pictures, somewhere, in my digital camera. The food pics along with recipes will come as soon as there is a remote possibility of sorting out my life. (Not enough sunshine these days, makes me very "retard"-ed)

:) Enjoy!

Dinner Planner

For the past year or so I have gone through a phase of "dropping" friends. This doesn't sound too nice nor provides any endorsement for my reliability as a friend. But first of all, I have to correct myself by mentioning that individuals who have been dropped are more acquintances. Yes, we hung out at one point but they never put any effort in building a relationship based on trust, support and sharing. The type of people I wish to have around me should enrich my life as I enrich theirs. While I never would burn bridges or release an official statement declaring I dropped them (lol, can you imagine?), it is in everyone's best interest to move on.

So, I did. And I've been making totally cool and groovy friends as of late. Two of them will be coming over for dinner tomorrow. As they are vegetarians (Sal you've got some good recipes coming your way) I planned an authentic Mediterranean-style menu to expose them to something a little bit different. Here's the menu:

a) Mixed Green Salad with Pickled Beets
b) Artichoke Salad
c) Bulgour Paste with Fresh Veggies
d) Layered and Slow cooked baby eggplants
e) Popovers ( There's nothing Mediterranean about this! But I love them and haven't had them in six months... I'm the chef, who cares apart from the fact that I will destroyed my own menu)
f) Dessert: I hate making desserts. Although I am capable of creating maniacally labour-intensive works of weirdness... I hate sweet things. Savoury is my thing, so baking is just a chore.)

I'm wondering whether this is enough now... Maybe one more simple savoury item would complete the menu. We'll see!