One Fish, Two Fish

I went swimming today for the first time in forever... and fortunately, I didn't drown.  Actually, the opposite happened, I hit my groove.  It took me a few laps of holding onto the edge and breathing for my life, but after that, I was able to do a few hundred meters continuously several times. 

Beyond exhausted

These last few weeks have been beyond exhausting (which explains my lack of blog updates), to say the least. 

Signs that you know you're way too tired:

• You put your underwear on inside out and don't realize it until 3 in the morning. 
  
• You leave the stove on twice in one night.  

No need to worry, though!  I am in a better place (and on a better rotation) now. 

Veggies galore

Chard, strawberries, sugar snap peas, carrots, leeks, bok choy.

I got my third CSA box this week and immediately washed everything. Everything. It took me about an hour, but totally worth it if it gets me to actually use all my veggies within a week (I'm still working on the shallots, agretti, etc from last week).

To get rid of some stuff, and to wean myself off of carbs (at least for a day), I made some baked salmon and stir fried veggies.

Started off with this:

(garlic and red chile flakes sauteed in oil until it smells yummy)

... and I end up with this:

Broccoli and bok choy stir fry.

Post-call bliss

Yesterday, I gave up the opportunity to sleep all day for a day at the beach. Can you blame me?

Weekly groceries

This week's CSA box brought a treasure trove of goodies:



Includes beets, shallots, carrots, bok choy, agretti, squash (for which I gave up my mint for), broccoli, and those wonderful dream-like strawberries.

Drink of the moment

It's nice to have a good drink at the end of the day.  Here's my favorite drink for the moment (mostly because I have all the ingredients handy).

1 shot vodka
2 ounces Pomegranate juice
Tonic water
Splash of lemon
Ice

Enjoy!

Goodies

Today was a long, hard day at work, so it was nice to be greeted by my brand spanking new CSA box! I'm sharing a CSA (community shared agriculture, courtesy of Two Small Farms) with my friend, C. Fortunately, since I was working til 9PM tonight, she picked up the CSA box and I picked up my share from her apartment.

She was so kind as to take a picture:


This is delightful gift, especially after my very bad day (gross understatement). I plan on using the turnips and parsley roots in a roasted root vegetable side dish. The celery in a fish head soup (with tomatoes and lemon). The dill in roasted salmon. The orach (purple spinach) sauteed. I already ate the baby carrots. The leeks, I'm not sure of. And the broccoli is easy - so many options!

That's it for tonight. Another long day tomorrow.

Cleaning up

Tiny grape hyacinth blossoms.

Since I was post call and not feeling in the mood to read, I decided to do some cleaning up of my balcony garden. It had grown a little out of control as of late because I have about 3 cubic feet of soil/compost/other, bird netting that was haphazardly put up (to protect my poppies, thyme, and basil from the hungry critters), and random debris everywhere. Now, it's a little more organized and makes me feel better that it's cleaner.

Since I haven't updated with pics of my garden as of late, here you go:


My overstuffed vegetable container with zucchini, crookneck, tomato, okra, and beans.


Updated herb garden. Mint now has its own pot. Added a basil plant, that I had to cut down because of an aphid invasion (which explains the homemade yellow sticky trap). The wine bottle is there as a self-watering mechanism. I'm experimenting, trying to figure out how to keep my plants alive when I go to Morocco for 2 weeks in June.


Of course, I cannot forget my first love - my dwarf meyer lemon tree. There are buds everywhere, but these are the first blossoms. So delightfully fragrant.

So happy

I went to the De Anza College Flea Market yesterday and the first thing that caught my eye was this:


At first, I tried to bargain, then walked away and walked around. After all, I had been at the flea market for a whole minute at that point. The whole time I was walking around, I kept on thinking of the cabinet. Then, I went back to look for it again and nearly went into a panic when I couldn't find it. Eventually, found the vendor and promptly bought it.

How I got it home, you may ask. Well, with some creatively tied rope (surgical skills come in handy in a real world situation!) and very slowly. Perhaps the slowest I have ever driven.

Now, I have a wonderful cabinet for a relative bargain. I had looked at IKEA in hopes of finding a cabinet with doors and the cheapest combo would cost me at least twice the price I paid. And not nearly as beautiful or one-of-a-kind.

Progress?

I just read that the Tonga Room, in the beautiful Fairmont Hotel (where I spotted my first Rolls Royce), is in danger of being shut down.  My one and only memory of the room is for Junior or Senior Prom (I forget which one), we ate dinner there.  It was beautiful.  And kitschy.  And the rainstorm.  And the band in the middle of a pool.  Who can forget? 

It will be interesting to see if this is something San Franciscans can save.

Road trip

On Friday, I took a half day road trip down to Monterey/Carmel and had a blast. We ate wonderful sandwiches at a place in Carmel. We took lots of funny photos. It was a beautiful, sun-shiny day. Who knew I could enjoy intern year so much?