Turkish Delight

I have Turkey on my mind, and it’s not even Thanksgiving (HAR HAR).  Last week I made a Mediterranean-inspired feast:

• lamb/beef stew with onion, garlic, potato, dried apricots, cumin, cinnamon, oregano, other spices
• garlic cilantro hummus
• eggplant “caviar” spread
• roasted kale and chard with just salt, olive oil, and a squeeze of lemon out of the oven
• chocolate cake with salted caramel (for a birthday girl)

I used up the leftover buttermilk from the cake to make some yummy pancakes this weekend, possibly one of my favorite foods.  I still have some of the eggplant left but I ran out of pita bread.  What’s a girl to do?  Make my own bread, of course!  “Navajo fry bread” is so simple to make, costs but a few cents for the ingredients, and tastes way better than pita bread, even if it isn’t exactly Mediterranean!  It’s always so rewarding making an entire meal from scratch.

Detox

Last Saturday pretty much went like this: catching the Cal game at the Australian over bar food and beer, banana pudding from Magnolia and a stop at 53rd+6th for chicken and rice before heading to Quality Meats for an aged rib steak dinner (with bone marrow and sides), then a happy ending at Happy Endings and another stop for chicken and rice.  The following days were not much better – brunch at Jane, and, yet again, another stop at chicken and rice (that makes 3).  My body is hating me right now so I’ve been on super detox and it feels so gooooood!

Coffee and Doughnuts

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To be economical, I’m trying to give up $4+ espresso drinks and drip my own coffee instead so I ventured to Chelsea to scout Ninth Street Espresso.  They only had blends and one Guatemalan available, so I decided to head over to Stumptown instead and walked away with a nice-smelling bag of “Mordecofe” from Ethiopia.  Two caps (Ninth St. had good flavor, Stumptown’s foam was richer) and a stop at Doughnut Plant later, I had quite the coffee buzzzzzzzzz and kind of defeated the purpose of trying to save money.  Oops!

I can see why the “blackout” cake doughnut is so popular especially since it’s filled with chocolate pudding, but it felt like more cake than doughnut.  The PBJ was ok but nothing special.  Even after eating these two halves, I still have a buzzzzz.  To quote Alice, “lalalalalalala I love coffee!”