SOOooooup

Right now I'm working on some simple soup made with chicken stock I had in the freezer, carrots and cabbage. Not much to it but it sounded good and I didn't feel like going to the store for more ingredients. I've been keeping frozen chicken stock in cube form (freezing it in ice cube trays first) for when I need just a little. Good idea! I'm sure Martha Stewart or someone came up with that one first. Along with the soup I'm making some tuna melts with fancy Italian tuna packed in olive oil and raw milk cheddar. Plus I have some fermented pickles ready!

bone marrow dinner

This dinner is going to be so good I have to write about it right now!

-Roasted beets chopped and tossed with parsley, ricotta salata, toasted pine nuts, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper

-Roasted bone marrow on some toasted buttered baguette

is this yogurt?

I ordered some chicken hearts, livers, feet and smoked pig jowels from Abundant Life farm today. YUM!! Picking it up next Tuesday. Finally decided to take care of that milk that's supposed to have separated but never did. It was more like yogurt. It actually tastes pretty good so I strained it and put it in the fridge and I'll guess I'll be having yogurt for the next couple days.

Been eating out the last couple of days: Wong's King (best Chinese food in Portland!) on Monday, Beaulaland (local organic beef!) on Tuesday and Cassidy's (best late night happy hour!) on Wednesday, where I had chicken fried pork belly with polenta after the Blazer's game.

Tonight I made some coconut curry noodle soup with the last of a batch of pork stock I made last week. I just added some canned curry paste and coconut milk along with some vegetables. Good shit!

Higgins bar

Went with Mom to Higgins' bar last night for dinner and had some of their delicious pate terrine! Pretty reasonable prices considering how good their food is.

kombucha

Just bottled some kombucha that I started 11/5 with black tea. I think my system is working out pretty well - I bottle it a few days before it's done in airtight Grolsh bottles. Then it continues to do its thing and pressure builds up in the bottle. It goes from slightly too sweet to just right and the closed lid lets it get nice and bubbly. Only problem is when I wait too long to open them and the resulting pressure bomb explodes kombucha all over the apartment.

Checked on the raw milk that has been sitting on a shelf for two days in a lidded jar. I'm waiting for the whey to separate so I can use it to make beet kvas. Not much progress since yesterday. Maybe tomorrow it'll be ready, which will be weird because my mom is visiting and she going to think I'm crazy.

lamb chops for dinner!

Dinner was a scaled down-version of "rack of lamb with honey allioli" from a tapas recipe book I got for my birthday. Got a couple nice chops from Zupan's and roasted them with olive oil and rosemary. I was lazy and used some store-bought aioli that I had already and mixed honey into that. Cooked up some organic squash and roasted the seeds. May have broken the "wine in moderation" guideline. Weird ingredients in the aioli makes me wish I had made my own. Whatevs.