Bangs and the Brothers Bloom

.....are just what i needed to kick off the summer.

(and a reminder of how serious my crush on adrien brody is)

Occupying my brain....

salsa verde freestyle

i decided to make my own salsa verde instead of buying it from trader joes. i looked online at different recipes, but it seems there isn't really one general recipe. with jeff's help (he lived in mexico for a while and also went to college in san diego), i concocted this recipe:

*about 6 tomotillos (mine were freakishly large tomatillos, i recommend using around 12-15 small ones)
*about 3 poblano chiles (sometimes sold as pasilla peppers, although pasilla are longer, thinner, and spicier)
* one jalapeno pepper
*one anaheim chile
*one medium onion coarsley chopped
*3 to 4 cloves of garlic chopped
*one bunch of cilantro chopped
*about half a tablespoon of salt
*cumin
*about 3 lime

i began by boiling the tomatillos in water. jeff said salsa is often made in a molcajete so the skins are removed after being boiled. while the tomatillos boiled, i placed the pablano, anaheim, and jalapeno peppers in a pan and placed them under the broiler. Checking them often and turning them often until their outsides were blackened. i stopped boiling the tomatillos when they started to turn a darker yellow color.
i removed the tomatillos from the water with a slotted spoon, placed them on a plate to cool, and saved the water. after the peppers cooled i peeled off the skins, removed the stem, sliced them open and removed the seeds. i also removed bits of the skin off of the tomatillos.
i have a small food processer so i did two batches. in each batch i put half the amount of tomatillos, chiles, onion, garlic, and a handful of chopped cilantro in each. i squeezed about a lime and a half in each batch and salted to taste. i also put in about a teaspoon and a half of cumin in the entire batch. after everything went through the food processor i transferred it to a bowl and added enough of the tomatillo water until i got the consistency i wanted.

this was an interesting cooking adventure i have to say. there is so much confusion about the different chiles and different salsa verede recipes and i think it's due to translations and regions. i got a lot of info on chiles and other peppers here. the site also has a helpful scale of hotness of different peppers.
i also read that the salsa is better the next day (although we couldn't help it so we fried up some corn tortilla chips and ate some of it right away)



the end

ten people, places, and things that i love...

1) the best mocha you'll ever have
2) the best croissant you'll ever have
3) Dave Eggers
4) best place to find a vintage mustard yellow file cabinet
5) soaptopia
6) land's end and the camera obscura there
7) interview with a woman who has my potential dream job
8) things in slow motion
9) really gross inventions that people eat

and finally.......

10) interpretive dancing with friends- late at night- after much wine- and listening to Bartok

me want evening attire

An apple pie for two or three

i like to bake. not all the time, but i like it when i do. my favorite things to bake are bread and pies. i think i like the science and intuition that comes with making dough and crust.

soon i will buy tasty berries from the farmer's market to bake with. yummmmmmmmmm.

Baby I'm the Lucky One

Either I am incredibly lucky or I'm just incredibly lucky. I feel like I skipped a necessary step in working my way up any kind of ladder. A friend of a friend has hired me on to help with Rodarte's fall line knits and I can't help thinking constantly how freakin lucky I am.

wow wow wow

Good Morning

Sunday Afternoon...

A picture I took of my good friend and band mate in my front yard. Pretty much sums up what I'd like to do all summer long....