Herbs and a Birthday

So I know I've been bad about posting what I've been doing with all my herbs! Well, I did dry a shit ton of mint, and made iced tea last week. Delish!

To be honest, I've been a little intimidated, its still scary to throw herbs in something unless you know it'll be good. The thought of it being awful and therefore having wasted otherwise perfectly-edible food is horrific to me, but its pretty hard to mess things up with a few herbs! (The irony of course is when I'm feeling especially ballsy, I just throw in a ton of different herbs and hope for the best, and this is of course when its most likely to turn out badly!)

Tonight I made my go-to mushroom&cheese burger sandwich (I am always comfortable buying mushrooms because no matter how many I use, I can throw the rest into this burger-like masterpiece just before they go bad and save the day!) but I threw in some marjoram, which turned out well! And topped off with the last of the mixed greens from the CSA a few weeks ago.

And I have so many cucumbers from last weeks CSA, but luckily my Melissa's Everyday Cooking with Organic Produce by Cathy Thomas had the trick:

-peel, slice & remove seeds from the cucumbers (even though I hate peeling/de-seeding cucumbers because they're fantastic in all their wholesome glory!)
-heat up in a skillet with some olive oil for 3ish minutes
-add 1/4 cup water and a pinch of cumin, boil until water evaporates
-add 2 tbsp basil/tarragon/dill (and of course I picked all 3)


and voila! it really was good too! (And then an apricot, followed by several too many peanut butter cups from trader joe's, sigh.)

Enough about food, I forgot to share photos from Elizabeth's birthday this weekend! We did all sorts of things, mostly walking around, enjoying alcoholic milkshakes at PYT, followed by more walking around, some shopping, and dinner at my favorite Cantino Dos Segundos. We attempted to get ice cream at the leukemia fundraiser Saturday night at Penn's Landing, but it was sort of insane, and we didn't get to a prime viewing location in time for the fireworks, but we all had a very nice time, so many Swarthmorons at once!

Elizabeth had a birthday!
Kate flew to visit from Chicago!
I met the infamous Jack!
Even Toby and Julia were there!

Andrew showed up too, just in time to miss the photoshoot, but this blogpost documents his presence.


And for those of you at the edge of your seat, I *did* end up bringing my camera to Making Time, and I *did* have a good time. Maybe I'll even do something with the two rolls I shot, eventually...

Happy 234th, America!

Celebrating tonight at the annual Making Time Pool Party at the Bamboo Bar

Will I bring my camera to photograph the youth of America as sponsored by Urban Outfitters (during the daylight hours at least?) Or will I jump into a bathing suit and attempt to act as one of them? Only time will tell.

And as always on wasteful-massive-consumptive food-related-American-holidays-celebrating-something-we-barely-understand-but-pretend-to-make-sense-out-of-from-convincing-history-books, can at least try to consume less?
This lovely illustration is by Zoe Keller, illustration-turned-graphic-designer, currently acting as head-of-house at good old 1533.

100 Blog Posts!

Well guys, this is it! My 100th blog post (not counting the 52 and counting on my art blog!) So let's reflect, shall we? I've lived here for one year and one month. We've had some laughs and choked back some tears, but mostly there's been plants, and Hans... and some fantastic food!

I walk past this building all the time on my way to Basho and whatnot, and I just love it, mostly that some of the boarded up windows are painted as the sky.

On my way home from Basho today, stopped to smell the flowers, they smelled so good! Was photographing them when this little old lady with a Russian or Polish accent yelling from her top floor window told me that they are Passionflowers, and then proceeded to tell me that we're all going to die because there are no bees left, anywhere in the world, and its just a matter of time until we die. (Expressing that I totally agreed with her would have done no good, and I was trapped for a good 5 minutes!)

Walking to get the CSA, this is the intersection by my house. I've been really fond of the 5-7 oclock light lately.And I finally photographed Greensgrow's CSA!

These are their chickens! Hi chickens!Waiting patiently in line, I'm standing in the threshold, also where the fridge for the cheese and "proteins" are kept, I took the Muenster this week, and some eggs for myself!
So the left side is the CSA, the right is the farmstand. So, for those of you still confused about how CSAs work, we pay for our shares ahead of time which ensures the farmers and whatnot that their produce will be sold, which means that they can go ahead and grow all this organic deliciousness. The farmstand is there for whoever is not part of the CSA but still wants awesome goodies, and also they have things that the CSA doesn't, maybe things that aren't quite as in-season, so someone with a CSA share can still buy stuff from the farmstand side, obviously!
And they very clearly label what everything is, and how much of it you should take!
Oh, you can see the apricots in the first one, but because of all the weighing, the line was long this week, and I was able to take these photos without being horribly in the way!

The basket to the left is the trade-in basket, so if there's something you simply don't need or want, you take it, and then put in the basket, and hope that there's something in there that you want instead! Today no one wanted the mint, I bet because a lot of people grow mint on their own, or most people don't know what to do with it (quite a difference, I wonder which one is true) And although I do grow my own mint, I grow spearmint, and this is peppermint, but there will be much more of this I'm sure. I gave it to Erika and Jeremy, this week, they also grow spearmint!

And oh my god, Erika asked that I pick up some meat from their freezer (this year they're not including meat in the CSA but its available for purchase in the retail fridge/freezer section), and so we picked lamb cubes, and then Erika and Jeremy made a fantastic dinner (as usual) of lamb kabobs with peppers and hummus made while everything else cooked. I love CSA day!

Chrzan's Curve_One

So, while I was enjoying Puppet Uprisings on Saturday, Erika and Jeremy went to Harrisburg to launch the "spaceship" that Jeremy has been working on for a few months. When I first heard about it, I thought it was just a dream of his, an awesome idea that would never come to exist. But, alas, the documented proof, that I am really impressed by and wanted to share with you:

Many, many more photographs can be found at this website, but he's threatening to downsize his image library soon!

Yeah, I know some pretty cool people.

Boskke (It's French for "Jen, You're Crazy!"

Boskke.

Oh god.

Good; Antipodal Goatlegs

Goodness gracious, Puppet Uprisings last night was a lot of fun! It was two groups, Beth Nixon and The Cat Fish. The Cat Fish had an awesome rather post apocalyptic performance on a makeshift boat, but it was too dark to really photograph. And Beth's I was simply too captivated to do anything but watch, but luckily someone else was smarter than me (at a previous performance), and so this is the first third of her Antipodal Goatlegs, and if you're curious the folks assisting her are Morgan Andrews and Leslie Rogers, some other awesome puppeteers I know!



I mean, there weren't tons of puppets per say, but what a fun show!

Lots of fun people were there: Basho people, Berks Warehouse people, Baltimore people. Tons of fun. And it was outside with the fireflies and the mosquitoes which is a great way to spend a Saturday night.

Another pretty great thing, is really just Good. Andrew introduced me to Good a few weeks ago, and I really really like it. Its news but its all interesting, relevant, and all of the articles are really short and not at all overwhelming. Basically, its news for the instant gratification hip college age demographic, and I like it!

Through them I even learned about this new website that connects you to volunteer opportunities: Catchafire. I know I have had some serious difficulty trying to volunteer for different groups, that either it takes so long that by the time it comes through I'm already in a different state, or they never get back to you, or you end up not finding any organization that you feel comfortable working with (I mean really, imagine me sawing wood). So, for those of you seeking out some volunteer opportunities this summer, either to give back to the community, meet new people, or just do something productive with your endless summer days of free time, try Catchafire, and I'd love to hear how it goes!

Tropical Apartment!

The Air Conditioner has been in use, and Hans is thrilled! Honestly, I have to admit, its nice. But, I don't have it too cold in here either.

We have to keep it warm enough for the avocado!
Not to mention the palm tree!

If you can spot the new growths, good for you!

Really not too much to report, CSA day was yesterday, with lots of delicious stuff. I finally used the cucumbers from last week when I made the avocado&cucumber soup last night, and it is delicious! Arugula&parm cheese pasta for lunch for the next few days and kale and we each got one peach. And its blueberry season... there aren't enough blueberries in the whole world for me. So, I think I'll buy some from Trader Joes and enjoy them all week long! Summertime!

And just a few hours later, reading The Bell Jar, got distracted and decided to finally put the avocado in soil. And then got so mad at the Dill for growing into a monster that I cut his flowers off. Well, its ok, because apparently they lose a lot of flavor once they flower! So, I've found some recipes for dill flower butter and of course pickling recipes, but I'd have to buy butter or cucumbers. But they're so beautiful!



Good thing I have work tomorrow, meaning grocery shopping! Followed by Puppet Uprisings at Emerald Street Farm!