Reccomendation!

Yesterday I had SUCH a delicious brekkie that I had to come and share it with everybody. It was partly great because I got to go out for breakfast with my Mom and my sisters, and then it was secondly partly great because it was a place I'd never been before, and it was THIRDLY partly great because it was so GREAT. The host was cute and Australian (always a bonus), and we had LAVENDER lattes. I know. I just about fell off my seat too when I heard that. Stay tuned for my attempt at making lavender simple syrup, which I'm pretty sure was their secret.

So: if you're ever around Beatty street in downtown Vancouver, hit up the sweet, brick-fronted gem called Medina. It's between a cooking school called The Dirty Apron and the faithful Vancouver stand-by, Chambar. Those Chambar guys have got a good thing going. In addition to a block party thrown in the restaurant's honor earlier in the month (it was their 5 year anniversary!), they actually own Medina's and the cooking school. So don't knock em. They must know something.

Medina's is the sort of joint that I love because in addition to super cute decor and wait staff, they encourage healthful, huge helpings. Don't misunderstand- the dishes are portioned nicely; not at all intimidating. Those helpings that I mentioned come into play by their idea that one orders a main dish (most are egg-centric OH A CLEVER PUN), and once you've conquered that, you move on to a "dessert": a perfect little waffle, dusted with powdered sugar and served with your choice of sauce. You can get syrup if you're boring or a stout traditionalist. My Mom chose the raspberry caramel. There was also orange-coconut creme, and lavender milk chocolate. And about ten other amazing choices. Oh my god. I know. Aaaaah!

Me, I had the fricasse. I was feeling carnivorous. It came served in a cast iron skillet: bubbling at the bottom was a tousled layer of slow-cooked beef and caramelized onions. Cheddar puckered softly around chunks of apple and potato, adorned with fresh arugula and two perfect eggs, sunny side up.

Go now. Experience it and tell me what you think!

Me and the giant scone

Zucchini is rampant in Victoria these days, and cheap as a result. I'm pinching my twenties for a show on Friday so I can buy lots of drinks and get properly sauced and dance like a maniac with Coca. Earlier in the week, I stuffed a bunch of sausage and cheese and made a delicious boat out of said cheap zucchini. But then I had all these greeny guts lying around, and I didn't know what to do. So here's what happened:They sat in the fridge for a while.
I thought I'd make a loaf.
Andrea stole my idea.
She made a fish shaped loaf. How can I up a fish loaf?

I decided to make a free form loaf for rustic cred.

I became disappointed in the processing abilities of my magic bullet.

But I made a loaf! And it's charming in a wood cabin sort of a way. I again have the previous renters to thank for this creation. I should explain the four items they left behind:


Cucumber ranch dressing.
Three cheese ranch dressing.
Peppercorn ranch dressing.
Half a tub of margarine.
About a cup of plain yogurt.

I threw out the top two ranch dressings, because they sounded gross and didn't have much left. I did keep the peppercorn dressing though, and I don't care that it's weird. I used the margarine to grease my cookie sheet, and most importantly, I used the their leftover yogurt instead of my milk. This is what made the loaf free-stylin'.

Free-Form Zucchini Loaf

2 1/2 cups flour

1/2 cup brown sugar (more if you like a sweet loaf)

1 T baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp black cardamom

1/2 ground ginger

1/4 cup vegetable oil or melted butter (I used oil, it was all I had on hand)

1 egg

1 1/4 cups plain yogurt

1 cup grated zucchini
Combine the dry ingredients in a medium bowl.
Whisk together egg, yogurt, oil. Combine wet ingredients with dry. Fold in the zucchini. The batter will look like scone dough.
Grease a cookie sheet. Turn the dough onto the sheet, and spread out so that it is a consistent thickness amongst all the surface area: about 1 1/4 inch.
Bake at 375º for 45 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean.

This loaf is subtly sweet, with a bonfire spicy-ness. If our indian summer has to end, this loaf will be my consolation. Extra best ripped off in pieces, spread with honey, and enjoyed late at night with good friends and tea.

Dandy

This weekend has been FRAUGHT with emotion and stress! And when I get stressed I like to eat my feelings and exclaim! We moved my brother in to his new dorm! My family was here! So was Chris, my main-lover-man! We had so much TOGETHERNESS time without ever really having a chance to sit and breathe and be calm! And other stuff was messed up and undecided and left hanging, but it all paled in comparison to this:

I know, right? I feel so much better too. Even though the rest of this post still sounds frantic. I guess I'm still coming down.

I've learned (from my Mom) that when I am having myself a pity party, the best way to break the slump is to bake something colorful like that and then take a cleansing walk to buy beer.

Plum-Pear Crisp

I meant for this to be a straight plum crisp. But I didn't have enough plums. And then forgot to add sugar to the filling. But in the end I think the addition of the pear unwittingly balanced what could have been an overwhelmingly tart dessert. I am very smart, unwittingly.

Also note: Prune plums are only available for a few weeks in September, so make this every night to capitalize on the season.

Filling

2 lbs prune plums, pitted and quartered

2 ripe pear, cored and chopped

Topping

1 cup oats

1 cup flour

1/2 cup butter, diced (ugh I forgot to buy butter, so i had to use some margarine left over by the last tenants...sketchy? Maybe. Worth it? Yes.)

1/2 cup sugar

1/3 cup chopped walnuts

• For the filling: mix together the plums and pear in a cute, buttered baking dish.
• For the topping: mix everything together. Cut in butter until it is pea sized. I take two knives and sort of do the "chicken shred" to accomplish this: you know, pull them in opposite directions.
• Bake at 375ºF for 45 minutes, or until the top is golden and toasty, and the plum juices gurgle at the sides.

What's extra nice about this is that it's not too sweet: it's soothing, but also kind of tingly. Like a sexy back rub, you know? It's lovely as dessert, but even better for BREAKFAST MMM.

I hope it turns around your day like it did mine.

It's morning time

My little brother used to yell that– IT'S MORNING TIME– from his crib when he was a baby. So the running morning joke of our family is to yell that ludicrously early and wake everyone up. But now I'm moved out for the school year, and nothing is around to wake meup. But I'm still awake a lot. A gradual insomniac, I guess. Staying up a little later, but waking up the the PING of my irritating 7:30AM internal alarm. Oh SIGH. So last night, anticipating being hte first one awake as usual, I prepared...

A DELICIOUS BREAKFAST! Yes! Huzzah! I LOVE special breakfasts! Especially for no good reason.

Now that I look at that photo, it just sort of looks like a bunch of peaches in a ramekin. Which is what it is. Essentially. Tsuki brought a ton of delicious Kelowna fruit with her when she moved in, but unfortunately, the peaches were so robust and ripe they've started to go a bit downhill a bit too fast. D couldn't let such delicious life end uneaten.

Ginger and Cardamom Spiced Peaches

3-4 super ripe peaches

1/4 tsp black cardamom

1/2 tsp ginger

1 heaping Tbsp brown sugar


Toss all of the above in a baking dish (or cute ramekins). I let mine sit covered in the fridge overnight so in the morning I could just harvest heat from the oven while they baked (and slurp up the juices that the extra time yields).
Bake at 350ºF for 35 minutes or so. They should look soft and huggly, and smell amazing.

Andrea made oatmeal to go with our peaches, but they'd be equally delicious with some yogurt (OR ICE CREAM YUM ICE CREAM BEFORE TEN AM IS THE ONLY WAY).

Time for something new (again)

The other day, I was taking a stroll through Chapters looking to pick up a book about rustic fruit desserts aptly titled Rustic Fruit Desserts. Browsing along the bottom shelf, I was taken aback by a woman who looked like Chyna the wrestler, except blond, pumping her fist from the front cover. BITCHIN' KITCHEN the titled blazed in a hailstorm of pink fire! LADIES RAWK THE KITCHEN AND LET THE BOYS CLEAN UP THE MESS.

You can see why I thought it necessary to change my blog title.

Oh, come on now, I'm not that superficial. I had been feeling for a while that "Bitch'n Kitchen" wasn't really reflective of my style of cooking. I certainly don't expect the boys to clean up after me, although I wouldn't ever say no. I also don't like how...hmm. What's the word. Brash I think. Yes, I come off as quite BRASH from the start, and I am brash, don't get me wrong, but not until you really get to know me do I start with the offensive jokes and scary pulled faces.

Scrounge is going to be a blog about surviving well. I am a student, and not a student of a lucrative business like MATH or ETHNO ECOLOGY or, I don't know, BRAIN SCIENCE. I'm a creative writing major with an interest in almost everything else. So this blog is my promise to myself that I will live well on no money for presumably at least the next ten years of my life, and probably beyond (although, Bon Appetit, if you are reading this, hello! I am very professional and efficient, and more importantly lots of fun).

We'll start tonight. I've mostly finished unpacking my things. Yesterday was a flurry of moving starting at 4:30AM and carrying on such activities as unpacking, arranging, fretting, and choosing until close to midnight. I'd eaten 14 cookies over the course of the day, and a nice bowl of french lentil soup (thanks Dad!), but that was about it. Until Tsuki and her nourishing lovely parents showed up and offered me some greek salad, made almost entirely with ingredients straight from their garden! Plus the creamiest, most luscious hummus on this earth. Tsuk is very earthy and minerally, and eating her beautiful food was like a combination energy cocktail and tonic. It's lovely how fresh vegetables taste after a few days without eating one. Anyways, the ramble of this is that last night we ate from tupperware and at 9pm, and then we ate chips and hummus on each pass through the kitchen. Tonight we hvae a proper, cooked meal, and I know just what to make. Green beans were on sale at Fairway the other day, and considering i don't like green beans, I thought this would be a wonderful opportunity to give them a make over and make them yum yums.