Did you hear about the race between the lettuce and the tomato?

The lettuce was a "head" and the tomato was trying to "ketchup"!

Well, that's the best vegetable joke I could come up with after scouring the internet for some clever way of introducing this blog entry. I signed up for this quasi-CSA program started by a former Peace Corps Volunteer here in Moldova who married a Moldovan and stayed here to work on their farm, Eco Valley. Every week I get a magic mystery bag full of fresh veggies.

As delightful as this sounds, it does create a unique set of challenges, as I don't want any of it to go to waste. Some things have a longer shelf life than others and some can be frozen to preserve them, although this is not the case with all. Lettuce happens to be one that doesn't freeze very well. And the first couple of bags from Eco Valley that I have received have had quite a bit of it.

So I have had to come up with some recipes to eat up all these greens...and even though I discovered a number of recipes that involved cooking the lettuce {the likes of casseroles & soups} the thought if it still kind of creeps me out. Here are a few that I actually did make.

Salad
Our latest salad kick involves greens, goat cheese, green apple, roasted pecans & an olive oil, garlic & honey-lemon dressing. We have our friend Hannah to thank for this magical combination.

Spring Rolls
From Eco Valley I used radishes, spring onions, lettuce & spinach. I supplemented with carrots & shrimp and would have loved to have added some fresh herbs such as basil, mint & cilantro {honestly, if felt like a crime to omit them} but alas, I did not have any on hand. I made a simple peanut dipping sauce to go with them.

Lettuce Wraps
I didn't have the ingredients to make this P.F. Chang's version, so I improvised and they turned out alright. It was my first time making the crunchy rice noodle thingies {I used this gal's blog for guidance} and I am proud to say I only burned a few.

Green Smoothie
Spinach, Green Apple, Pineapple, Mint. If I would have had a few other ingredients {yogurt? juice? berries?} on hand I probably would have added them in. And I would try to use my immersion blender instead of my food processor...or invest in a real blender some day since the consistency ended up being a little too chunky for my liking.

And the runner-up veggie jokes were...

Why do potatoes always argue?

Because they can never see eye to eye.

Why did the carrot get embarrassed?

Because it saw the chick "pea"!

Why shouldn't you tell secrets in a cornfield?

There are too many ears!

Some thoughts on Traveling…

My capacity for self-deception becomes evident to me every single time I travel.

First, I have this delusion that I’m some sort of “experienced” traveler, that I “pack light” or only take “the necessities” when I hit the road. But when it turns out you’re THAT lady at the airport, with a long line of impatient travelers behind you, madly scrambling about and shifting the contents of your suitcases all over the place to not go over the limit {who knew the giant tub of guacamole you bought at Costco would weigh so much and also be considered a liquid or gel by the TSA?} it really causes you to reflect on the nature of your packing skills, or lack there-of. I might add it is also thoroughly embarrassing when you can’t even lift your carry-on suitcase {sans-guacamole} up to the overhead compartment because the rock-like contents {cheese, books, assorted jars, unreasonable amounts of electronics, bark collars, what else of course?} prevent you from doing so. This, in turn, reinforces the fact that you are a weakling and also raises a few suspicious eyebrows as to what could possibly weigh so much when the strong man you have managed to recruit also experiences a certain level of difficulty lifting your ridiculous suitcase.

My friend Val “shattered my glass” about this a few years ago when she told me, in passing, that she always thought of me as the type of girl who “always carried around a bunch of bags.” Much to my chagrin, she was right. Even on short road trips where most people would probably bring 1 bag, two at most, I somehow manage to have to make multiple trips to the car with all my junk; there’s the “snack” bag and then a cooler "bag" for drinks or snacks that need refrigeration, my dog’s bag, my own bag, a camera bag, my purse, a hostess gift if we're going to someone's house…I could go on…you can see I am an absurd human being and fit the description perfectly of "a girl who carries around a bunch of bags."

Another imaginary characteristic I like to pretend I possess, is that I think {somehow} I will manage to use all of those hours on planes and connecting airports in some kind of a productive manner. Reading the plethora of books I managed to stuff into my luggage, writing letters, listening to sermons or podcasts, maybe even writing “blog” entries or ideas…I even consider sleep productive under the circumstances, but before I know it, I’ve generally spent the entire time watching a few kids movies, usually some sort of drama, a Bollywood film & a handful of documentaries or tv shows. For the record, “Wreck it Ralph” was my favorite of the kid’s movies I watched this time around, “English Vinglish” was actually pretty good as far as Bollywood films go, and “Siberia Teaches” was a very interesting documentary about urban snowboarding in Siberia {side note: while trying to find a link to this documentary I stumbled upon this amazing music video of Ethnic Siberian Music}.

I suppose one could argue that watching movies isn’t entirely non-productive. It keeps me up-to-date with some significant cultural elements of American Society {and Indian Society for that matter} and prevents me from being swallowed up by boredom, I guess.

For some reason I am also always thinking that I’ll get unprecedented amounts of reading done while I am traveling. I have never been on a trip where I actually wish I had another book and didn’t. And yet, I generally pack at least 2, sometimes 3. I try to rationalize this by claiming that the genre of the book will have some sort of effect on my desire to read; sometimes a girl just wants to read a novel, or sometimes a book about economics…you never know which Steph will show up on the plane. But I never finish more than one. Most of the time, I don’t even finish any.

When I studied abroad in Cuba, I was going to go on a little side-backpacking-trip through the southern mountainous region, including scaling their tallest peak, Pico Turquino. I had a small backpack, which needed to have supplies that would last me about a week. Some of that time was going to be spent on trains, buses and otherwise promising places to read a book {nevermind that I have a tendency to get a bit queasy}, so what did I pack? Super high-tech and light-weight camping equipment? Nope. A hard-cover copy of the Brothers Karamazov, by Dostoevsky. Have you seen that book?!? It’s HUGE! Did I even have a headlamp for reading in the wilderness where we were camping you ask? The answer is no. Did I read any of it? Not that I can remember. Did the Cubans think I was an idiot? Probably.

Catching a ride for the first 1000 meters...

Group shot with the bust of Jose Marti at the peak...

***I am happy to report that I finished one book on this last trip: “Ethnic America” by Thomas Sowell {I love that guy!} which I would highly recommend. He is brilliant and insightful and I only wish he hadn’t written the book in the 80’s because I feel like he kinda left me hanging…but nonetheless it was super interesting.

With the amount of traveling I have signed myself up for, I better start making some changes…or else you may hear about this in some unfortunate later blog post. 

Alex's Banana Bread | A Recipe

I still remember the first time I made this recipe...in it's original plain Banana Bread form. My roommate Katrina had given it to me, which she apparently got from some friend of hers named Alex, whose name is scribbled on the note where I have kept it all these years. I have a clear memory of making it at our apartment in college: I believe I tried to name our apartment "the nest" since my nickname was "the bird;" the name never stuck, but I like to think it did. It was in this apartment that I truly began to delve into the world of cooking and baking, well, that and Adam Woods' kitchen in Manayunk.

I will forever be indebted to him for instilling in me an enthusiasm for cooking, and more precisely, cooking for others. He used to cook us meals all the time, and I have vivid memories of going to the grocery store with him to pick up ingredients or swinging by the Italian Market in South Philly to find exotic spices. On one unfortunate outing, I had us running around to all the spice shops in town looking for a mysterious brazilian spice called "nails". Years later, when I learned portuguese better, I discovered that Brazilians {sneakily} use the same word for "nails" as they do for "cloves." Who would have known? I guess cloves do kind of look like little nails. Adam was always up to creating some new fusion of ethnic cuisines or sitting down discussing philosophical questions regarding food: if he had to pick one global cuisine he would have to eat for the rest of his life what would it be? He didn't think it could be Chinese because he didn't think he could survive without cheese. But it was the pleasure he took in preparing food for others that really struck me.

When my friend Thea's Mom was visiting us during my senior year, she told Thea that she thought I should become a cook. When Thea told me, I thought it was a little strange because her Mom didn't really know me that well and I wasn't even sure I had given her anything to eat, but she said she saw me baking up a storm in our kitchen {cornbread, en mass, in case you are curious} and could tell how much joy I got out of it.

This recipe brings back many of those memories for me, of living in that apartment and of being surrounded by such lovely friends. It has morphed over the years: I added brown sugar to the top, added walnuts, took off walnuts, added chocolate, added chocolate AND walnuts, made as muffins, made as a loaf, the possibilities seemed endless. My favorite is its latest version: Banana Chocolate Cupcakes with Dulce de Leche Frosting. The recipe eventually made it's way into my "Cloud Cookbook" {so I can pull it up easily wherever I am in the world}, but retained the same name: Alex's Banana Bread. Who this mystery person is will probably remain a mystery, but their recipe has given delight to many-a-palette and even made it's way into someone's wedding.

Alex's Banana Bread

3/4 cup sugar
3 mashed bananas {the original recipe from Katrina says 3 mashed "nanners" which strikes me as completely fitting coming from her}
3/4 cup oil
2 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
a reasonable amount of chopped dark chocolate {4-5 ounces?}

8 ounces of butter, softened
2 ounces of Dulce de Leche
4-6 cups of confectioner's sugar
1/4 - 1/2 cup milk, room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
pinch-o-salt

Preheat oven to 325.

Mix the sugar, oil, & "nanners" in a medium bowl {I do it by hand and use a whisk}. Add the eggs, vanilla & salt and mix until just incorporated. Then add the flour and other little powdery things, and mix until just incorporated. Add the chopped chocolate and mix until...you guessed it, just incorporated.

Line a cupcake pan with liners and fill them about 2/3 full. Bake until they're done...yes, it is an ambiguous amount of time but such is life. I couldn't tell you how many minutes that is, because if you are making mini cupcakes it takes less time than regular size, if you have a crazy eastern european oven with indecipherable settings it might burn half of your cupcakes and leave the rest doughy, so you're better off just keeping an eye on them, watch their tops get golden, maybe poke and them about 10-12 minutes in and if your finger doesn't leave an indent and it kind of pops back out, they're done. Pull 'em out and let them cool.

For the frosting, beat the crap out of that softened butter, add the Dulce de Leche {make sure it is at room temp}, add the salt and vanilla, and slowly add the powdered sugar, alternating with the milk until you can get the frosting to a nice consistency, not too soft, not too firm. Pipe or spread on cooled cupcakes. You can drizzle melted chocolate and top them with banana chips if you feel inspired.

Culinary & Creative Projects: an Update

Blackberry + Basil + Goat Cheese | Hand Pies

A few months ago I posted about how I intended to occupy myself in my spare time here in Moldova, especially through the winter months. It turns out it mostly involved reading, pinning, learning how to be a better photographer, making food & volunteering at various non-profits.

Reading: not doing so well in this department. Don't think I've finished a book in a while although I started a handful. I'm about half way through Ethnic America by Thomas Sowell. I love that guy. If I don't finish it by the end of the week it'll make it's way onto my carry-on.

Pinning: doing this to an extent that makes me question my own sanity. Some people visit museums to see beautiful works of art...I go to Pinterest...it's pretty much the same thing, just a lazier version, right?

Learning how to be a better photographer: hmmm...it depends on how one defines "learning", because I have completed about a fourth of that online class but don't feel like much of it is sinking in. Does it count as "improving my photography skills" if I just download apps on my tablet that do most of the dirty work for me?

Culinary Projects: I have actually done quite a bit of this, although there are still plenty of things on my list I would like to try: Ice Cream/Frozen Yogurts, Marshmallows {Take II: this time using a candy thermometer which, turns out, is rather crucial}, savory crackers, canning, I would like to get better at making Pizza crust, I got a great pie recipe from Smitten Kitchen, but I would like to make my pies look prettier, expand my bread repertoire, and I still need to try making good puff pastry. **Also, I need to get better at documenting my culinary projects, but that involves making these things during precious daylight hours and having the cooperation of the weather to provide me lovely natural light, which turns out is pretty hard to come by here in the winter months. Who knew it would be so gloomy here?

Chocolate + Banana + Dulce de Leche Frosting

Volunteering: this has been a little more sporadic than I would like {although this will hopefully change soon}, but it does allows me the flexibility to do things like decide to hop on a plane to America mid-winter to help my friend with her new restaurant for a few weeks or help friends move to a new apartment across town.

Well, I'll be absent from the blogging world for the rest of the month...so don't miss me too much!

4 months at Post...

I had the mildly bewildering realization the other day that we have been at post for four months now...which is 1/6th of the way through our first post...which seems crazy.

Calendar by 1Canoe2, available {here}

In some ways, it definitely feels like we've been here a long while; I've been to Romania 3 times already, had visitors come from far away lands, picked up a stray dog and found it a good home, and already spent three major Holidays here {more if you count the fact that Moldovans sneakily celebrate two Christmases and two New Years Holidays, thanks to the Russian Orthodox Calendar, which we dutifully observed, happily}. But seriously, one sixth of the way through is not an insignificant amount of time, and there's so much we still want to do! I had never envisioned myself ending up in these parts of the world in the first place and since we live in uncertain times, who knows if I will ever be back. Therefore, I will share with you our current bucket list, assuming this is our one chance to visit these parts with relative ease:

• Romania. We need to go back to Bucharest for an actual visit, preferably when the weather is nice. We also want to go camping in the Transylvanian Mountains, visit Brasov and all sorts of cool castles, monasteries & churches {again, when the weather is nice}. We might also make it back to Iasi at some point since it is the closest place that shows movies in English. You can tell we've been here for a while when driving 2+ hours {5+ in wintry conditions} seems like a reasonable thing to do to watch a movie...in a movie theater...in English.  

• Ukraine. Odessa is only a few hours away, and we should definitely make it down there sometime in the spring. I'm a little nervous about the language though...they apparently only speak Russian and Ukrainian over there but it's supposed to be really nice.

Odessa Opera House

• Spain. The plan is to go to Catalonia in April. Spend some time in Barcelona, catch a few Barcelona games at Camp Nou {if we're lucky they might even make it to the Champion's League Semis}, visit all the awesome Gaudi creations, & eat some tasty food. Then, we want to head up the coast to Costa Brava, and then inland to go hiking in the Pyrenees. For a visual compilation of my daydreaming/trip planning click here. 

Spanish Pyrenees

Catalonia

• Italy. Meeting up with some friends there in September...I plan on eating more pasta and tomatoes than is probably reasonable. 

• Turkey. Michael Ball has crazy ideas of going down there in the summer for the Fifa Under-20 World Cup. Rumor has it they also have awesome food. And awesome architecture. 

Topkapi Palace, Istanbul

• Brazil. Yes, I am aware that Brazil is nowhere near Moldova, BUT, they will be hosting the World Cup in 2014 and I would hate to miss it. The following two are in Russia & Qatar and I am far less likely to go there in 5 and 9 years, respectively {or ever, for that matter}. Plus, my hunch is those places won't quite have the same atmosphere as, say, Rio de Janeiro. Plus I'd get to visit all my relatives. Plus it's going to be awesome, the land of futebol and the beautiful game. It's a Win-Win-Win situation.

Poster from the last time Brazil hosted the tournament...

• The Land of the Free: Texas America. I am actually heading to the US in a few weeks here. The trip was a little hastily put-together, but I am super excited about it. I am going to help my friend Anna @ the new restaurant she just opened up, Blackberry Market and also will be spending all sorts of time with all sorts of people I love. I will be eating unhealthy amounts of avocados and Mexican Food, Sushi, Indian Food, Thai Food, basically anything that is not pickled, doesn't belong in a stew or isn't a sausage. And I will be stocking up for our Consumables Shipment...which will contain lots of salsa among other assorted items. We will be back in the US at some other point before our tour is up, but the date is yet to be determined. 

• Moldova. There are still a number of places I would like to visit within the country, like Soroca and the country side, but again, nothing is really as fun to visit in the winter as it is in the summer, so we're holding off on those till warmer days are here. 

• Croatia & Albania. A good friend of mine mentioned going on an Eastern European Tour including those two countries...I don't know too much about them but I'm game if she ends up coming out here.

Albania

Croatia

"Mica," the Little One

I first saw her as I was leaving Church one Sunday; she was waiting outside the chapel, hopeful that someone inside would give her something to eat {I suspect the children had already given her some cookie crumbs so her chances were pretty good}. For some reason, she decided she liked me a lot and started following me around as we waited for some friends to come out. She had these horrible crumpled legs, and the worst doggie-dandruff I had ever seen, but she was so, so sweet. It was difficult to part with her, but we left her there because we assumed that her owner lived in the house nearby. But I couldn’t get her gentle little face off my mind the whole week so the next Sunday, I was determined to find out if she, in fact, had an owner and if said owner was properly taking care of her.

After Church, she was there again, and we were able to con our Pastor into talking to a woman who appeared to be the owner in Russian {that’s all she spoke} who turned out was not, but informed us that her name was Jasmin, and that she did have an owner whom we’d likely be able to convince to part with her.  Ownership here, it seems, is a bit of a loose concept that sadly applies to more than just dogs. That being said, that guy wasn’t around and I was told to try coming back a different day.

Our snowy street...

As with Ronald, I can’t say reason had anything to do with my decision to pick up a  little puppy from the cold, wintry streets of Chisinau. We did have a friend who mentioned she was sort of hoping to get a dog at some point, although she wasn’t sure she was ready for one. After happening to notice that the forecast for the week would be down in the single digits and banking on the fact that our friend would take her in, I got in my car the next day and drove straight to where we’d last seen her. I found a guard whom I tried to speak to {in a funny mess of words I like to pretend were intelligible Romanian}, asking if I could take the puppy home. After disappearing into another room and having a  conversation I could overhear but not understand, he said she was mine for the taking. I went out there and found her shivering, wet & cold. To say she was relieved is a bit of an understatement: she greatly welcomed snuggling in my lap, in a warm, dry car as we drove home.

In my lap on our way home...

I arrived home with her, much to Ronald’s chagrin, who was indignant {of course} at my betrayal which I had just brought in our home in my arms. She immediately got a warm bath and got wrapped up in one of Ronald’s towels {shhhh, don’t tell him!}, then ate some of his food, drank out of his water bowl, and even got to sit in our recliner {which he secretly sits in when we’re not looking because he knows he’s not supposed to}.  

In the tub...

All clean!

Sitting pretty in Ronald's Recliner...

We re-named her Mica, Romanian for “little one,” that night, with our friends who came over to see her. It seemed fitting for such a sweet little girl.

While in much better shape than when I originally found her, she still had some issues; a bloated belly, crazy dandruff, and what we discovered is a condition known as “knuckling over”, so I took her to the vet the next day. Aside from the aforementioned issues, he was under the impression she was in pretty good health. The knuckling over often happens in large breeds of dogs or in dogs that are undernourished, but this vet was under the impression that in addition to lacking some key nutrients, since Mica was of mixed parents, she ended up having the front legs of one breed and the back legs of another which could be an added cause for the knuckling over. I hadn’t thought of that {or even knew it to be possible} but when I took a closer look, her front legs were quite different than the back ones and they were probably growing all disproportionately.

He gave me some vitamins to strengthen her little muscles and bones, a de-worming pill and told me the dandruff issue should go away with the improved nutrition but that I could continue to give her baths with doggie shampoo to help. Over the next few days she improved tremendously, was very playful and spent the majority of her time trying to get Ronald to play with her. He's never seemed like more of a grumpy old man than when around her, but I think he forgets that he used to be that way too. When I first got him our family dog White Sox was still around, although pretty old by dog standards (17 years!) and she needed all the help she could get to stand up and walk around. Ronald rudely ignored this by eating all of her beds and knocking her over with his "cone of shame". 

He may be justified in not being pumped about Mica since she decided that the best place to go to the bathroom was Ronald’s favorite bed…so we’re working on that.

Not amused.

Little presents for Ronald, love, Mica.

He has comes to terms with her though...

She follows him around and mimics him sometimes...

After staying with us for a few days, our friend decided to take her home for a test run at doggie-parenting to see if she could handle taking care of her and work full-time. Mica had a good time over there...

Sleeping in Hannah's arms...

Snuggling...

She’ll make her final decision once she returns from her Christmas vacation, so in the meantime, Mica is back with us!