Quinoa with Mango and Curried Yogurt

If you haven't eaten or cooked with quinoa, I highly recommend it. It's a grain-like seed which is high in protein AND fiber. Superfood deluxe! I'd had it as a hot breakfast cereal before, but ate it as a savory dish for the first time in Peru. It's cooked like couscous, boiled and/or steamed, and has a slightly nutty flavor.

Check out this quinoa salad I made today for dinner (courtesy of Epicurious). I suggest reducing the amount of quinoa or increasing the dressing, cause 1.3 cups of dry quinoa really expands! It's a very forgiving recipe, and I bet it would be good with other herbs (basil/cilantro), nuts (almonds), fruit (pineapple), and even meat (shrimp/chicken). Four forks up!

Recipe: Quinoa with Mango and Curried Yogurt

7th Anniversary Dinner

For our 7th wedding anniversary, I dragged Jimi to the Natural Gardener for a class on raising backyard chickens. After an enlightening morning, we picked up some stuff for an all day cooking extravaganza. Our 1st course was Jamon Iberico (a $100/pound cured ham from Spain). Needless to say, we only got 1/8 of a pound.

After a few glasses of wine, Jimi felt the need to whip out some Jamiroquai and do a little dancing.

Our second course was fried calamari with aioli. This was the first time we'd cleaned fresh squid, but this website was very helpful. The calamari turned out kind of tough, even though we'd only fried it for 45 seconds (recipe called for 1 minute). Maybe the oil was too hot. Oh well, the aioli was yummy though!


Then Jimi steamed some live lobster from the chinese market down the road (much cheaper than Central Market).

This was the highlight of the night. My friend Hayley brought me some fresh figs from her tree, so I made a strudel out of them. It was an amazingly good recipe. The strudel had figs, pears and raspberry/cranberry juice concentrate. Then the whipped cream had pieces of homemade candied ginger & ginger syrup. TO. DIE. FOR!


Recipes courtesy of Epicurious:
Fried Calamari
Aioli
Pear & Fig Strudel with Ginger Cream

Denton, TX: Vortex of Weirdness

My hometown of Denton (pop. 110,000) is like a magnet for the strange and bizarre. It seems like every year there's a story that makes the headlines. A co-worker heard this on the radio yesterday, and I tracked down the article: Don't Hit Him Again! That's My Dad!

Denton is also the place to go if you want to do DNA testing on random severed feet. Or if you want to shoot your eyes out with a frog. Or plow over 16 graves with a minivan.

Mirabelle

I met some of the girls for dinner at Mirabelle last week. I had never been there, but I was a big fan of Castle Hill so I guess my expectations were pretty high. All of the dishes were good, but I was slightly disappointed that they weren't great. They sure look yummy in the pictures though!

Leslie and I shared crab cakes with basil oil. A little too much breading, but tasty. I still maintain that the crab cakes at Houston's (a special they have on occasion) are the best I've ever had.

Then I had the duck in a berry sauce with asparagus...

... and we all shared some desserts, including this Sacher torte with kirsh and cherry jam.

I'm a pretty happy camper after a few glasses of wine!

Fun with Ashtanga!

After a few years of standard gentle yoga, I've decided to try something a bit more energetic. I started an Ashtanga beginners series at Yoga Yoga, and boy is it... challenging. Check out what we're learning here.

Birth of a Cicada

Last night Jimi watched a cicada emerge from the ground, crawl up the pergola, shed the exoskeleton and unfurl its wings. The whole process took about an hour. Back in the day, my brother and I used to get a kick out of putting the dried cicada shells on our grandmother's back. The little claws stick to fabric really well. She used to get so pissed at us when she realized what we were doing! Ah, good times.

Ding Dong, the Tree is Dead!

In an amazing feat of tree cutting prowess, Jimi managed to hack down a 30 foot tree in the front yard... all by himself.



Well as it turns out, grubs weren't the only thing living in that wood. The entire base of the tree had rotted, and a family of 8 toads & countless cockroaches poured out. Our neighbor came running over to spray the bugs with brake cleaner (apparently causes instantaneous death, unlike Raid... who knew?). Jimi relocated the toad clan to the backyard, where we hope they will consume plenty of mosquitoes with our other toad friend.

July 4th Funk Fest

J., Lin & Craig hosted a July 4th Funk Fest with not one, but TWO bands! Check out the pics on our flickr site.


Jimi says, "I'm crazy for Independence Day!"

Greekfest

Look here for some pics of Sargo's Greekfest 2008, at Owan & Victoria's house. A great time was had by all. Thanks for the photos, Pam!

Jimi gettin' some love.

Beans & Beetles

Cat sent me a link to this edamame salad on the NY Times site. Surprisingly enough, I already had all of the ingredients at home except for the Pecorino. It's super easy, very tasty, and great for summer. The zest and the cheese are essential. Here are the ingredients (use quantities according to your taste):

Edamame, shelled
Zest & juice of 1 lemon
Olive oil
Mint, chopped
Shaved Pecorino
Salt & pepper

And on another note, look what Jimi found in the garden. CRAZY... BIG... BUG! We did a little research and found that it's a scarab beetle. Apparently there are a bunch of varieties in Texas, but this is the first time I've seen one.

Cactus flowers

The cacti in the rock garden have been blooming for a couple of months. Some open during the day & some at night.