Finally cooler again!

Today's post ... pasta stew, the park, chai, and zucchini hopefully on the way!

How do you like the new blog design? I think the raindrops are refreshing.

Speaking of rain ...  everybody says "Seattle is nice, but I don't like that much rain", but in the month since we've been here it's only rained maybe 3 or 4 days. Of course it's the summer and more rain will come in the winter, but the rain doesn't stop you from going out the way that excruciating heat or miserable blizzards does.
Fun Fact: In terms of amount of rain, Seattle actually gets much less than Atlanta or New York City ... we just have more light drizzle days out of the year. I would gladly take one day a week of sunshine here than every day of sunshine in the desert, because the days that are sunny here are 100x more beautiful (at least, I think so). I've also realized that I actually go outside and DO stuff (hiking, walking around downtown, picnic in the park) those days that it's sunny here. The clouds push me to actually live life and do things now rather than later, because you don't know if tomorrow will offer the same warmth and light. When it drizzles, though, it's absolutely beautiful.

Anyhowwww, now that it's colder I'm happy to cook hot foods again (I was eating cold somen and soba in the afternoons 'cos it was so hot last week). Last night I made a "different" kind of pasta "sauce" ... I guess it's more of a stew to put over the fresh pasta we bought (fresh pasta, the kind you have to refrigerate, has a totally different texture than dried pasta). There's a ton of garlic (like at least 5 big cloves), carrots, diced tomatoes, onions, broccoli stems, freshly cracked pepper, and a dash of white wine:

I've started to love cooking with broccoli stems  - the part that everybody throws away. They have just as much nutrition and even more fiber than the crowns of the broccoli and make a tasty addition to any soup

Also added some freshly grated parmigiano reggiano cheese (left) and oregano from the balcony garden into the pasta "stew"

Instead of buying vegetable stock at the store, save all those parts of vegetables that you peel off or cut off (the tops of carrots, broccoli stems, outer layers and the "roots" of onions, etc) and throwing them in the freezer. When you have collected enough, throw all those vegetable parts into a pot with some dried herbs (or anything you like) into boiling water and salt to make your own vegetable stock. I've done this multiple times before to make a basic broth for soup, and its wonderful - I can control how salty the stock is. Just keep tasting and adjusting .. it's easy

Last week we went to the park a couple times since it was hot - once to dip our feet in the fountain and relax, and another time to throw a frisbee and try out this bubble bear that Ian found at a boutique toy store. It's made by a German company called Pustefix, and supposedly, these are the best bubbles you can buy. It's a bear and you can take off his hat:

Then, if you squeeze his stomach, the bubble wand pops up already dipped in the bubble mix ... no messy spills or losing the bubble wand and trying to fish it back out of the bottle. 

There was also some free music from local acoustic bands in the park as well. It was nice to lay in the grass and listen to some live music

Last night I was bored, so I also decided to make some homemade chai tea with fresh spices. I love chai, and the chai served at the Indian/Nepalese/Tibetan restaurant next door to our apartment is by far the best I've had. But I've also had chai around town at many different coffee shops and I'm always disappointed. Their chai is too sweet and too watery - chai should have lots of spices and bold flavor, and in my humble opinion, not too sweet. Here's how to make about 2 liters of chai ...

Step 1: grind spices roughly (I didn't really grind them in the mortar and pestle by hand since they were already roughly ground, just put it in there for show haha). If good, dry chai mix isn't available, roughly smash some whole spices up yourself - don't go for the liquid chai at the store, it's never tasty. Everybody has their own mix of spices, but I like some combination of cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, fennel seed, ginger, pepper, and nutmeg

Roughly ground spices closeup ... less than 1/4 cup

Step 2: Bring 2 liters of water to a boil, add spices, and stir a little bit. Turn stove off and let brew for 15 mins

Step 3: Add assam black tea, same amount as spices (less than 1/4 cup)

Brew tea with stove off for 15 mins (after 15 mins it should be much darker like above)

Serve with milk if you want, and a little honey. Here I added some homemade soy milk that I brewed at home from dried soybeans in the Soyabella machine. Enjoy!

Finally, garden update ... one afternoon on the way home from the park, I noticed there was a ladybug on Ian's shirt while we were in the elevator. I decided to let it free into the garden since it could be useful (ladybugs are beneficial insects meaning they will eat those little bugs that munch on your vegetable plant leaves). I don't think he found much to eat since my garden has been relatively free of bugs so far, but here he is:

And finally, what a beautiful surprise this morning ... the yellow zucchini plant decided to open up one of its flowers:

 It's 4pm right now and the zucchini blossom is already closing. After doing some research, I found that zucchini plants have two sets of flowers ... male and female. The male flowers (above) appear first, but since I don't have any female flowers yet, I can't pollinate the female flowers with the pollen from this male flower to get zucchini ... I guess I could pick the blossom and fry it or use it to cook with - they're supposed to be delicious. I'll have to wait until the plant is bigger with female flowers before I can get some zucchini!

 I forgot to mention that I was accepted into the Puget Sound Symphony Orchestra :-) yay! I wasn't terribly concerned, but it's still an audition and you never know. I'm looking forward to playing in an orchestra again ... that full sound and the teamwork involved to piece all the little details together is something that I stopped being involved in when I began college and something that I miss a lot. It'll be nice to be around people who also wanted to play music outside of their work lives. Season begins in September - I wish it started now!

Finally, since I've gotten some requests, I'll be doing a post on home bread making in the cast iron pot, and a little discussion on cast iron pots vs. nonstick teflon and all that soon. Maybe my next post?

Time to do more homework for summer school class #2 ...