Au revoir

The contents of my cupboards

Dear Friends and Readers,

In September of 2010, I started this blog as a creative outlet, a recipe book, and a diary to capture what I knew to be a very special time in my life.  It was the first time that I had ever lived by myself and - in about 300 square feet with no real kitchen - I was creatively tackling how to cook healthy meals for one with a toaster oven and a hot plate.  The experiment that was studio living led to adventures, creative challenges, some amazing meals, a few disastrous ones, and many fond memories.

As special as that time was, life goes on and the only real constant is change.  I no longer live in a studio apartment.  I now am cooking with a small, but full kitchen.  I am married (yes, the single girl is no longer single!) and am cooking for two.  And I have been diagnosed with food sensitivities that has led me onto a number of new culinary challenges exploring the gluten-free, dairy-free, egg-free life.

I am sorry that it has taken me so long to write this update, but I am onto new adventures and it didn't feel right to start the next one without writing a final chapter on this beautiful experiment.  With that, I leave with you a few images that I never posted, but are full of wonderful memories in the little kitchen that could.

Thank you so much for following me on this journey.  May you be blessed with good friends, good food, good conversation, a sense of curiosity and adventure.  And the next time you are in a challenging situation, remember - in the words of my grandmother - necessity is the mother of invention.  Now get creative, and get cooking!

With Much Love,

The Single Girl

The Mini-Fridge

Burning Down The House

Hot Plate Catfish Gumbo

Mmmm ... Breakfast

Toaster Oven Quiche

Toaster Oven Creme Brulee

Dinner Party: Tri-Tip Roast

There is nothing quite like a Sunday roast for entertaining guests and filling the house with delicious smells.

For the best flavor, I suggest letting the meat marinate overnight.






Ingredients:
2 lb tri-tip roast

1/2 cup olive oil
3/4 cup white wine
1 cup orange juice
rosemary
thyme
salt
pepper

(optional)
sliced carrots
yellow onion
celery

Directions:
Combine olive oil, wine, juice and seasonings. Pour over meat and marinate for 12 - 24 hours, rotating occasionally.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Slice carrots, onions and/or celery place in bottom of roasting pan. Remove roast from marinade and place on top of vegetables.

Cook meat at 425 for 15 minutes. Lower temperature of oven to 350 degrees continue cooking for an additional 20 - 30 minutes until meat reaches an internal temperature of 135 degrees Fahrenheit (for medium rare doneness).

Remove from oven and let sit for 5 - 10 minutes to seal in juices.

Best Served With: Roasties, Yorkshire Pudding, Green Beans, Salad, Red Wine

Millet with Black Beans and Vegetables

Ingredients:
1/4 cup of millet (or quinoa)
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
2 T minced fresh ginger
Kosher salt
1 c water

2 shiitake mushrooms, sliced
2-3 baby carrots, chopped
2 baby bok choy, sliced
1/2 shallot, sliced
2-3 T chopped red cabbage
Fresh ground black pepper
Garlic, minced (optional)

Splash rice vinegar
Olive oil

Supplies:
Cutting Board + Knife
Hot plate + Pot + Lid
Pan + Spatula

Directions:

In a small pot, combine millet with black beans, water, ginger and water.  Bring to boil, then reduce heat, and simmer covered until water is absorbed.  Remove from heat and let sit.

Note:  The bean-millet mix will last for two meals - one for now and one for later when you saute up a few more vegetables.  If serving a guest, double vegetable amounts.

Then place pan on hot plate and heat olive oil, adding in garlic (optional) and shallot for about 30 seconds when pan is hot.  Add carrots and red cabbage and cook for a few minutes to soften.  Then add mushrooms, continuing to stir.  Finally, add bok choy until leaves soften and just begin to wilt.  Remove vegetables from heat.

Place half of the grain-bean mix on plate.  Top with vegetables.  Sprinkle with rice vinegar.  Enjoy!

Candida Modification:  Ditch the vinegar.

Gram's Jam

For as long as I can remember, my grandmother seemed old - as I suppose grandparents do to their grandchildren. I only ever remember her with soft, permed while hair and a slower pace to life. The image of her playing solitaire at the dining table or sitting in the recliner watching Wheel of Fortune or Jeopardy or Matlock will forever be a part of my childhood.

My grandmother was a woman of another generation. Born in 1923 in Oklahoma, she was a child of the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl and, as a young woman, she lived through World War II. In the 50s, 60s and 70s, she raised five children on a farm and on a budget. And she was not just housewife and a mother, she was college-educated and had a career as a school teacher too.

When I was little, her house was only a few hundred yards down the dirt path and by the time I was eight, she came to live with my family. I always remember spending time with her after school. She may have been retired, but she never lost her desire to teach.

By the time I was two, she had put a needle and thread in my hands. By the time I was four, she was teaching me to read. By five or six, I was giving her a run for her money at card games like Skipbo and Uno. She'd help my sister and I with our homework and we'd help her with chores.

We all moved into a house on a small 3-acre lot in the country surrounded by farm fields and irrigation canals. We weren't farmers, by any means, but we always had a few livestock at any given time and occasionally we would plant a vegetable garden or harvest wild rhubarb or watercress.

In the back yard, we had an apricot tree that was planted long before we ever lived there. It stood tall shading the yard and always had more fruit than we could eat. In the summers, my grandmother would have my sister and I gather apricots before the birds could get to them and she would make homemade jam. We would eat it on toast or banana pancakes and share jars of it with the neighbors. Because of her, apricot has become my favorite. And today the jam - and mason jars - make me think of her.

My grandmother passed away two weeks ago and last week would have been her 88th birthday. So in celebration of her life and her birthday, I rolled up my sleeves and pulled out the Ball mason jars and cooked some homemade jam. Cooking jam may seem "old fashioned" - like my grandma - in a world where you can easily pop down to the grocery store and stare at shelves of any flavor imaginable. But what I've found is that cooking jam is something that I love. It slows things down in this busy world - savoring the moments and the flavors of life and really moving to a life that is more connected with the seasons, the earth and with others. Thank you, Grandma, for teaching me that. Happy Birthday and may you rest in peace.

Cooking in Style

What's better than etsy + shopping for kitchen accessories? Answer: Not much.

Just purchased: Oven mitt from CuveeKitchenApparel! No more burnt fingers and homemade chic.

Is it here yet? Is it here yet?

Freezer Power!

Cooking for one has it challenges, like breaking down recipes into portions for one. How do you split an egg in fourths? What am I supposed to do with the other half of this a can of diced tomatoes? How do I go through a whole loaf of bread before it goes stale or gets moldy? What am I going to do with the rest of this tofu block?

On top of all of that, some recipes aren't worth the time to cook just one portion - Shepherd's pie? Lasagna? Single Serving Homemade Soup? Forget about it. And unless I want to eat on a whole quiche morning, noon and night, that recipe is out the question.

But enter - Freezer Power. One of the challenges of living in a studio apartment was being freezer-less. No grab-and-nuke meals. No easy Trader Joe's dinners. No frozen vegetables. Not even ice.

But like many things, when you do without, you learn work-arounds. You get used to it. So although I've been in my new place for two months, I've just now rediscovered the power of my freezer. With the food-saving, air-chilling power of an ice box, you can cook in quantity and save it for later - making it easier to cook recipes meant for a larger guest list or keep your fridge stocked of ready-to-go meals when you are tired, lazy, down to the last of your groceries and out of a coherent pantry to make a meal, or simply on the run.

This week alone, I've cooked quinoa burger patties and taco casserole putting my spare servings in the freezer. Healthy, homemade breakfast in a hurry? No problem - grab some frozen homemade waffles or breakfast burritos. Rushing out the door to work and need lunch? How about some of those enchiladas from last week? Cooking a recipe that serves 4? Why would I pause?

Ahhh ... the difference a freezer makes.

The Butcher, The Baker, The Bulk Bin Taker ... Grocery Shopping for One

Figuring out portions for one can be difficult.   Recipes are often written for 2- or 4- or even 6-servings or greater.  Sometimes, a little math can easily adjust the recipe down to a single serving; but sometimes - as with baking - it is not quite that simple.  And shopping for one is often no easier.

Besides frozen TV dinners, many grocery items don't come packaged for one.  Think about a loaf of bread, a head of cauliflower, a can of beans, or a carton of eggs.  Many of these go bad before a single person can consume the whole package.  So cooking - and grocery shopping - for one takes a few tweaks.  Here's a few simple tips that I have found to get by:

• Make friends with the butcher.  Prior to the Single Life, I rarely bought meat or seafood directly from the Butcher counter in the grocery store, opting instead for the pre-packaged protein from the Meat Department.  But the pre-packaged meats are usually portioned for two adults or a family.  When one buys from the Butcher counter, you can specify exactly how much you want. I can pick up 1 chicken breast, or 1 filet of fish, or 1/4-lb of ground beef.  It felt a little silly at first - asking the butcher for such a small portion - but believe me, in the end, this has saved me so much money and food waste.  Similarly, I do the same with dry food items ...
  
• Buy in bulk.  Ok, so maybe not "buy in bulk," but shop in the bulk section.  When I need 3/4 cup of arborio rice for a risotto recipe, I go straight to the bulk section.  Or when I need 1 cup of flour, why should I buy a 5-lb bag that is going to eat up my cupboard space for the next year? I can get exactly the amount I need when I shop in bulk.
  
• Buy less produce, but more often.  I have found that in my mini-fridge produce just doesn't keep for very long.  It wilts;  it gets soft; and it quickly loses its appeal.  Instead, I have found that visiting the grocery store every 2-3 days to pick up a smaller amount of fresh produce is a much better way of keeping appealing looking fruit and veg in my kitchen.
  
• Reverse engineer your recipes.  Also, when I am disciplined, I select a recipe first and then go to the store to get the fresh ingredients.  This works much better than trying to work the equation the other way around.
  
• Learn the Single Serving Substitutes.  Some produce just works better in the single kitchen than others.  I have learned to substitute most tomatoes with cherry tomatoes, which last longer and don't leave me hanging with a half-cut tomato in my fridge.  I will often substitute a shallot for an onion.  And I frequently buy loose spinach instead of a whole head of lettuce.
  
• Share with friends.  Just because you are single doesn't mean that you can't ever make cookies!  When I find myself craving a recipe that is just too hard to cut down, such as scones or a batch of cookies, I bake the whole batch and share it with friends (or neighbors!).
  
• And remember, sometimes, it's worth it to pay someone else to cook it.  Some recipes with rarely-used or hard-to-find-in-single-serving ingredients are just not worth making at home.  I have found that purchasing curry paste to make Thai curry at home isn't worth it.  Or buying a watermelon to make a watermelon-heirloom-tomato salad isn't worth it.  So when I'm craving it, I just dine out.