Author: Laren
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CSA Cooking
Just a partial list of what I've been making with my CSA bounty lately:
- watermelon feta salad
- green salads with carrots and beets
- cod with zucchini and basil
- Punjabi eggplant, potatoes & chickpeas
- zucchini bread
- baba ganoush
- feta & pecorino salad
- fritattas
Who wants to come over for dinner?
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Transportation Aggravation
Overall, I have been truly enjoying my Citibike membership. It's perfect for a trip across town, especially if it's not too hot out — if it's really hot and you need to be somewhere where you need to look your best (like a first date or something), it's sometimes better to walk to avoid showing up looking like a huge sweatball. Which brings me to last night. With about 15 minutes to make it to the West Village and a cool evening breeze blowing, Citibike would seem to be an ideal transportation mode. It was — it got me to Perry and Bleecker in good time with barely a schvitz. This would've been great except for the tiny fact that the rack at that spot was completely full. I then biked over to Christopher and Hudson — full. At that point, I had to pull out my phone and find another kiosk — Bank and Hudson. I biked up to it, down the (stupidly uncomfortable) cobblestone street to find one free slot at the kiosk. Hooray! I was still in the safe 5-10 minute late range, and a tad schvitzier than I would like, but good to go. Until the bike wouldn't dock properly. The green light wouldn't go on, no matter what I tried. I was not about to keep biking farther from my destination at that point, so I called Citibike customer service. After a bit of time on hold, the rep took all of my information (key number, rack location, bike number) and she let me leave it where it was. I strode in to the restaurant about 15 – 20 minutes late, sweaty, and pissed off. At the very least, I had a good icebreaker story to start off the evening.
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Flashback Friday: Leave It
Welcome to 1983. This has been stuck in my head for the past 24 hours. Side note: when I owned this on 45, the B-side was the a cappella version. It was most likely my first exposure to a cappella. #foreshadowing
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Rant of the Day: Be a Moron All You Like, But Don’t Put Me in Danger
Yesterday, while biking along the 10th Street bike path between University and 2nd Avenue, I saw two people biking against traffic and one person blow through a red light as a pack of pedestrians started to cross in front of us. Earlier that day, crossing 5th Avenue as a pedestrian, I nearly got hit by a cyclist who didn't stop for his red light. After sunset, I saw a guy cycling the wrong way down a bike path, no helmet, no reflective gear or lights, with headphones in both ears. All of this stupidity and lack of concern for fellow New Yorkers is fairly typical, unfortunately. That said, I also saw some moron drive IN HIS CAR the wrong way down 5th Avenue — while I and other pedestrians yelled at him — in order to make a U-Turn. As we all yelled "wrong way!" all he had to say was "I know." Seriously?!? WHAT IS WRONG WITH PEOPLE!?!?
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Booze You Can Use: Have a Cocktail at the 8th St. Winecellar
Most of you probably already know about my love affair with the 8th Street Winecellar. I know — I'm somewhat biased as it's around the corner from my apartment — but even beyond the uber-convenient location, it's' a warm, comfortable place with attentive, friendly staff, and good food and drink. I'd recommend it to anyone. Winecellar is somewhat of a misnomer, as they offer much more than wine. They have a selection of bottled craft beers, an extensive spirits selection (ask to see their Brown Book — mostly whisk(e)ys), and are happy to make cocktails if asked. The one thing they haven't offered for the past six years is a cocktail list. Now that has changed. Ladies and gentlemen, I introduce to you: the 8th Street Winecellar original cocktail list. I've been a big fan of the Toasty Bunz for years — I can't wait to try the rest! -
Heat Wave
Not looking forward to this week’s heat wave here in NYC, but at least I have killer a/c and enough food I can cook without heating up the kitchen too much. Stay cool, everyone, and don’t forget to hydrate (especially my friends who are in NOLA for Tales this week – someone please go to Willie Mae’s & Cochon on my behalf!)
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Beach Brain
Sorry for the radio silence — @MoxieMutt and I spent a week on Fire Island and, although I got back on Friday, I think we're both still recovering. The big news is that my Citibike key was waiting in my mailbox when I got home — have already been riding around town quite a bit. In other news, I just spent a wad of money at Trader Joe's, so between that and my CSA produce, there's going to be quite a bit of cooking going on at Chez Laren (tonight it's BBQ pulled chicken and cole slaw, and will be doing this slow cooker chicken later this week). Finally, with a heavy heart and a great deal of beating myself up, I've decided to defer my entry to this year's NYC Triathlon. I'm simply not ready, and given the heat, I'd rather not put myself through it when I'm not feeling up to snuff. I've got a guaranteed entry for 2014, so training starts now. Maybe I can find a sprint triathlon in the next month or two to do instead. -
Pro Bono Pride
Proud of Debevoise's pro bono
showing on this year's American Lawyer A-List (based on 2012 hours) and for the #1 pro
bono score on the 10-year A-List (7.5 years of which were under my
watch). Thanks to all of my former colleagues for doing pro bono work on behalf of those who need it most. Read more about it here. -
Veggies!
I've re-joined the Washington Square CSA this year (along with @daisy17); each week for 20-22 weeks we pick up a batch of vegetables that have been brought down from Norwich Meadows Farm. We've prepaid for the season, and each week's haul is determined by what's ready at the farm. It's week #2 and so far we've gotten lettuce, bok choi, kale, chard, garlic, spring onions, garlic scapes, radishes, zucchini, fennel and kohlrabi. One of the challenges of the CSA is to cook enough to utilize all of the produce before the next week, and the other is figuring out what to do with unfamiliar veggies. Until this week, I had never prepared kohlrabi. Taking a cue from this recipe, I ended up making quinoa with diced kohlrabi, zucchini, mint and a curry vinaigrette. Last night I tossed it with some shredded kale, and although it could've used some feta cheese (which I didn't have), it was pretty good. I've also learned that it's a good idea to wash, trim, and even cook greens within a day of getting them — it makes it easier to toss a handful into eggs, pasta, salads, or whatever. My half of the CSA share averages out to approximately $7-8 per week for copious amounts of produce — not a bad deal, in my opinion.
