by Sam Tackeff | Feb 22, 2014 | Art, Photography
We got sun today! It’s been a week of dreariness. Grey, sludgy, slushy – I’ve been under the weather, and trapped in the house. It’s the time of year that I get bored of the cold and grey, and hope that we get out of it soon. Spring, when I can play outside again. Spring, when things grow and bloom. Spring, when the ice cracks up on the lake, that whistling and howling and popping that requires you to be walking next to the water at precisely the right moment. Spring, when things feel like they are happening again. In the mean time, I’m patient. I’ve been reading. I’ve been dreaming about writing a cookbook, and a children’s novel, and learning how to paint botanicals. I acquired a bright new lamp, and a little yuca tree, and I’ve been drinking warm beverages.
There’s a lovely photographer I follow named Xanthe Berkeley, who has been working on a collaborative project with Andrea called the color/colour project, focusing on shooting a color at a time. In the cold and grey, I like to pick up my camera to combat the dreariness, so I thought I’d follow suit and capture some yellow this week.
I think we could all use a little less of this ^, and a little more of this..
Happy Weekend!
– Sam
by Sam Tackeff | Feb 2, 2014 | Meal Planning, Uncategorized
This week at the office was our Hackathon at RunKeeper – two days we take a few times a year to build crazy projects outside of our normal course of work. In an incredible HGTV worthy timeline, the non-technical team “Addition by Subtraction” took second place for building this (working) bar in the back room of the office. (You read that correctly: RumKeeper.)
Week of Saturday, February 1st
Saturday: Langoustine Curry with jasmine rice. I had some leftover khao soi broth from Thai North, which I decided to fashion into something quite different for night two. Spinach salads on the side for some greenery.
Sunday: Stuffed burgers, tater tots (yes), and broccoli. I just can’t do wings, and I wasn’t going to make queso or a guacamole bar or hundreds of deviled eggs this year. But I did want to make something that would feel like “Superbowl Food”, so stuffed burgers (with blue cheese and bacon) seemed like the right way to go.
Monday: Salad with paprika and allspice chicken, chopped vegetables, mango, avocado, mint, and basil. Lime dressing. This week on Jamie’s 15 minute meals, he had a similar recipe which he called “San Fran Chicken Quinoa Salad” – I liked the flavor combination, although not quite sure what makes it “San Fran”…
Tuesday: Pasta with cauliflower, saffron, parsley, and feta. (From Deborah Madison’s Vegetable Literacy). I’ve been reading through this cookbook and everything looks good. It’s been months since we had pasta in this house, and I try to avoid it most of the time, but this recipe seemed too good to pass up – I thought it’d be a nice treat for us.
Wednesday: Braised brussels sprouts and apple, pork bratwurst. I’ve been craving sauerkraut lately (it’s always good to eat fermented foods!), and this was originally going to have sauerkraut, but I couldn’t resist brussels sprouts, and I went to the wrong store for the kraut.
Thursday: Wing it. Actually, I realized as I was typing this up that I had simply forgotten to write something down on the list, and proceeded to do my shopping neglecting this meal entirely. I’ll likely forage the freezer, but it might end up being a Whole Foods salad bar night.
Friday: Out.
–– Sam
by Sam Tackeff | Feb 1, 2014 | Books in 2014
January, part two. It was a good month for reading – which is to say, very cold, and I didn’t want to do much other than sit on my couch curled up with a book.
#4. I will teach you to be rich by Ramit Sethi
Paperback, 266 pages
Published March 23rd 2009 by Workman
Borrowed from library
This past year, I’ve been working to tighten up my personal finances in a more meaningful way. A month ago I became a “real adult” and got myself a credit card that gives me 6% cash back on groceries. I got over my “I don’t want give money to the man”, and chose a card that would work for me, given my main spending category every month, and the fact that I’ll pay in full at the end of each billing period – specifically to continue building credit.
About the time I got my card, I picked up Sethi’s book. While the tone of the book may not be for everyone, and it’s geared towards the 20-35 crowd, the financial information covered hits all the basics. Except for the dated piece about savings accounts – sorry, you won’t see 4% returns anywhere these days – this book covers paying down debt, credit cards, saving strategies, retirement investments, automating cash flow, budgeting, etc. This book isn’t about getting rich quickly, but about learning the basics of financial literacy.
#5. The Enchanted April by Elizabeth Von Arnim
234 pages
First published 1923 by Doubleday, Page & Co.
Read on Kindle (link is to the *free* Kindle book)
I’ve been reading The Enchanted April for nearly a year now. Every week or so I’d pick it up and read just a few pages, hoping to savor it as much as possible – it was just the charming escapism that I needed. Four women, strangers to each other, escaping their daily lives to converge together in a villa in Italy – this is the original Eat Pray Love/Under the Tuscan Sun/etc. except I didn’t feel like screaming at any of the characters. A lovely, enchanting (sorry) read. Highly recommended!
#6. The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman
259 pages
Published June 18th 2013 by William Morrow
Listened to audiobook, read by author HarperAudio
Sometimes I seek out books that I know will be better read to me by the author, and this was one of them. Neil Gaiman, aside from being a wonderful writer, is a phenomenal storyteller. This wasn’t my favorite of his books, but listening to him read it made it special. Perfect walk commute book! (Plus, he’s married to Amanda Palmer, so that’s a thing I find interesting.)
by Sam Tackeff | Jan 26, 2014 | Meal Planning
Goodness, everyone is looking all sparkly and shiny at the Grammy’s tonight. I’m firmly planted on my couch, with a portable heater trying to warm up. Sherlock is being recorded because I want to watch it when I have time to properly squee at the screen. Yep, that’s a thing I do. I also talk at the television. I try to hold back in movie theaters, but sometimes I’ll start laughing at the wrong parts, and that’s pretty much just as bad in terms of theater going etiquette.
This afternoon I was on top of my meal planning game! I find that it makes for a better Monday when I’m not starving and I’m prepared for at least three days of quality eating. I prepped a few meals, made a batch of hard boiled eggs, planned out most of our lunches, chopped carrots, cucumbers, and bell peppers, and broke down a whole pineapple instead of wasting my money on the pre-cut stuff.
And then I made my breakfast of the week: the broccoli kielbasa frittata. If you look carefully, the picture above of my prep work isn’t the same as the finished frittata below. That’s because I’ve been making this dish once a week for the past month, and I haven’t shared it with you yet, and finally I’ve come to the conclusion that you probably should know about it. First, I preheat the oven to 400 before prepping the ingredients. I steam a bag of Trader Joe’s organic broccoli florets – it’s 12 ounces – and nestle them in a cast iron pan lined with tinfoil which I’ve oiled. [The first time I did it with tinfoil that I hadn’t oiled, and it stuck. The second time, tinfoil oiled, and it came out perfectly. Today, I forgot the tinfoil, oiled the cast iron, and now I have egg plastered to cast iron. Say it with me: oiled foil. Butter would probably work just dandy as well.] Then I cut up half of a Trader Joe’s smoked fresh turkey kielbasa – 6 ounces – into tiny cubes, and scatter them around the pan. I season the broccoli and kielbasa with a healthy sprinkling of salt and pepper. I prepare my egg mixture – anywhere between 4 and 8 eggs depending on how many I have on hand – with a few spoonfuls of water or milk, whisked with a fork. I season the eggs, pour them on the broccoli and kielbasa, and tap everything down with a spoon, making sure that egg has permeated between all of the cracks. I then pop it in the oven for about half an hour, until the frittata is set. I turn it out, cut it into four pieces, and let it cool, and then eat it for breakfast for four days. (This is flexible – you can really put any pre-steamed veg in here, or omit the sausage). As for the temperature – sometimes I cook it at 350F for 40-50 minutes if I’m cooking something else in the oven at the same time.
This week’s meals are made up mostly of the bits and bobs that needed to be finished up in my fridge. Last week I made a large pot of chicken stock that I hadn’t used up, so two soups are on the menu.
Week of Sunday the 26th
Sunday: Tomato soup and spinach salad. By tomato soup, I mean a half a jar of Rao’s, simmered with my home made chicken stock. I cooked a little bit of orzo and added that to the pot. Salad had a quick balsamic vinaigrette.
Monday: Pork tenderloin, with roasted cumin carrots, greens, guacamole and salad. I’ve been sitting on this pork tenderloin for a few days, and finally decided to cook it. I chopped the carrots into wedges, and tossed them with cumin, chile powder and salt, and roasted them for 40 minutes before adding the pork and roasting it until done.
Tuesday: Chicken tortilla soup (minus the tortilla). I simmered a pot of Rancho Gordo black beans with a shallot, then added the chicken stock, cumin, salt, and some leftover salsa. Everything cooked for about 40 minutes, and I added some rotisserie chicken that I’d saved in the freezer from the last time I got those two-fer chickens at Whole foods. Okay, it’s buy one, get one half off, but two-fer sounds more exciting than BOGO. I hate that acronym.
Wednesday: Girl food. Devon will have already eaten by the time I get home from the gym, so it’ll likely be a massive heap of garlicky greens topped with some tomato sauce and whatever protein source I have lying around.
Thursday: Burgers over salad. Lots of herby freshness – mint, parsley, whatever else is left in the fridge, and some crumbled pancetta bits that I made a few days ago.
Friday: Out.
–– Sam
by Sam Tackeff | Jan 22, 2014 | chicken
Tonight I made myself a really great dinner. It was a relief actually. The past few weeks I’ve been a little out of my element. We’ve had houseguests, and gone out to eat more times than prudent in January. I’ve missed one of my weekly cook-ups, and neglected my meal planning. It’s also been really cold in my kitchen. That’s sort of how it goes around here – sometimes I’m floundering around at the last minute putting something together, and other times things just click.
The salad above is the result of some last minute cravings at Trader Joe’s. I’ve been eating cleanly for all of January, which means I deny myself the pleasure of samples at Trader Joe’s – other than the coffee of course. On the plus side, this means that I don’t go home with mushroom mochi potstickers instead of a balanced meal.
So this salad. It’s one of my versions of a dinner salad with general Asian flavors. I do a riff on this on a regular basis – sometimes its Indian carrot salad with lamb, sometimes it takes on a more Vietnamese twist, maybe chicken with a cucumber salad and Nước chấm. This salad is made for versatility: meat, chopped veg, fresh herbs, and a punchy dressing. At TJ’s, I picked up broccoli slaw, a cucumber, mint and basil. In the case I found myself a pack of boneless skinless chicken thighs. I do love skin, but they don’t sell bone-in with skin chicken thighs at our outpost, and while I’d make a whole chicken, I really only like dark meat – it just tastes better. When I got home, I dried off the chicken (fully drying the skin allows for tasty Maillard reaction – browning! science! – to happen), and seasoned with salt, pepper, and garlic powder. Into the oiled cast iron, for six minutes on the first side. While the chicken cooked, I made my dressing: a few tablespoons of almond butter, the juice of a lime, a dash of vinegar, about a half tablespoon of Red Boat fish sauce, and some olive oil. I flipped the chicken, cooked for about four more minutes, and then let it rest off the heat while I prepped all of my salad ingredients. I chopped half of an English cucumber and added it to the bowl, then a few cups of broccoli slaw per person, and chopped mint and basil. I tossed with the dressing, tidied up, and then chopped up my chicken and added it to the bowl.
It was devoured while I watched some trashy tv. My 600-lb. life, followed by the first five minutes of Sex sent me to the ER. I had to turn it off. I wish I was making this stuff up.
