It turned out lovely! Before our trip to Mexico, we made a Costco run and picked up a few beef roasts to stock the freezer with. Well, the one I cooked today turned out *far* better than the one I cooked before the rest were frozen. Weird, since I had been convinced it was a bad cut and didn't have very high expectations.

Tomorrow we're looking at a new place. This place is getting a bit old and we're needing a change of scenery. So tomorrow we've made an appointment to see a new house about 20 minutes away. I'm not getting my hopes up too high. The pictures I've seen of the outside are less than encouraging, but the price is right. So we'll see.

Oh, and of course tomorrow I'm updating my site at ElliNude.com. So don't miss that :)

I am! I've been bitten by the baking bug, now that the cold weather has arrived and I'm feeling snuggly and cozy. So we were watching the mini-series of River Cottage: Summer's Here that aired this past summer and darned if Hugh Fearnley-Wittingstall didn't feature home baked bread in every episode!

I searched online and found SourdoughHome.com which is a branch-off of the sourdough newsgroup (who knew there was such a thing?) And yesterday I started my starter. I chose to use Mike's method as opposed to the french chef techniques he describes. His seemed the most realistic for home use (and for an impatient Elli!)

This morning was my first 12 hour peek and there were no bubbles yet, so I gave the glob a good stir and popped the jar back on top of the fridge. Exciting!

But can't seem to stay focussed! Argh!

I went back to the gym today. It was my first time in about three weeks, and boy did it feel good! Monday is an easier class than Friday, so it wasn't too bad. I feel nicely stretched now. When I bend over to look in the fridge, my hamstrings whimper a little bit, but that's a good thing. They deserve to whimper!

We are very, very lucky to live where we do. We're surrounded by farms of all kinds, and blueberry farms in particular! So for $18 I picked up a 10lb box of picked-that-day blueberrieis and brought them home yesterday. Today I started the long, long task of freezing them. You see, my freezer is already pretty full and pretty tiny, so there's only room for a 9" round pie tin to lie flat. I hope I get them all frozen before they go off! :)

I'm going to pick up another box in a few days for fresh use and muffin and jam it up, I think! At $18, you can't go wrong. :) A pint of off-season California blueberries costs $4 at the store! Not that I would ever buy such a thing, mind you.

Ok, back to working on this week's update!

Oh, and CONGRATULATIONS to all my American friends with chillun's who are now grumbling their way back to school! Now you adults get your lives back! :) (I know, they're adorable, but you *do* like your time to yourself, don't you?)

I am!

It was another busy week for us. Last night was a lot of fun though, with a nice birthday at a friend's place to celebrate with good people. Today I'm chillin' and getting some work done. Tonight I think I'll watch a movie.

It's time to dig up another beet out of the garden! They're so lovely sliced and fried in butter and garlic! mmmmm!

Why did I make a Thai curry tonight? Because
a) I had no meat left in my fridge.
b) I wanted something easy that I could simmer until my man got home.
c) I felt like curry.
d) I remembered the Thai basil plants in the garden.

So I found a recipe that I adapted and it turned out even better than I had hoped! It was flavourful without being super spicy, and it tasted fresh and light and sweet with a bit of citrus flavour from the thai basil. My only problem was that the rice was overdone. Here's the recipe because I have to write it down somewhere before I forget:

1 block extra firm tofu
1 medium yellow onion, chopped
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 cup chopped fresh carrots
6-8 shelled prawns/shrimp 19-24 size
3 cloves minced garlic
1 can unsweetened coconut milk
2-3 tsp thai green curry paste
3 tsp yellow curry powder (Madras brand for me!)
1/8 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1/4 tsp coarse salt
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
4 sprigs chopped fresh thai basil
3 tbsp peanut oil

1. Rinse the tofu and pat/squeeze dry with paper towels. Slice into 1/2" pieces. Let it sit in a sieve to drain further while you chop the other goodies. You can leave it sit there to drain in the fridge for an hour or more, if you like. The drier, the better.
2. Heat deep skillet to medium heat and add peanut oil. When at temperature, add curry paste and curry powder. Stir until fragrant, 1-2 minutes.
3. Add garlic and tofu. Fry about 3 minutes a side, until lightly browned.
4. Add onion and salt. Saute until nearly transparent.
5. Add coconut milk. Add pepper, more salt if desired, red pepper, carrots. Bring to a boil, then lid and simmer for at least 15 minutes. Taste periodically. You can add more green curry paste if desired.
6. When carrots are soft enough for you, add the prawns. Cook for 2-3 minutes. Stir in fresh thai basil and cilantro.
7. Serve over rice!

See? Easy peasy! Now I have it written down!

The one modification I thought about but didn't try yet:
I was going to add one of the prawn heads to the simmer stage, as I didn't add any of the customary fish sauce. It was fishy enough with the prawn meat, but if you prefer more of a fishy flavour, I would suggest a prawn head or some actual fish sauce to your taste.

Well, tenderloin. As in singular loin.

Yesterday I was at the grocer and I found a nicely sized pork tenderloin for only $4. I don't know what they usually cost, as I've never bought one before, but that seems inexpensive enough to experiment with. So I took it home and threw it in a marinade I found on the interwebs. So far so good.

So today I realized I had forgotten to trim off the silverskin membrane. D'oh. I ended up hacking away at the meat before throwing it in the pan to sear. I turned up the oven to 400F and my cast iron pan to just over medium. Added pat of butter and dollop of olive oil. Seared the tenderloin for 2 minutes each side. It ended up having three sides, as it sat somewhat slouchy. Into the oven went everything!

Here's where I lost track a little bit. I knew the lovely loin should take about 40 minutes. I assumed my nugget potatoes would also take 40 minutes. But they took a bit longer. And I didn't use a timer for the meat, relying instead completely on my potato process. So by the time I rescued Mr. Loin from the oven, he was 190F in the centre. Biting my nails, I let him rest under some foil while I prepped the steamed veggies.

Amazingly enough, although it was well done, it was quite juicy. The marinade was a bit too salty for my taste, but that's easily fixed for next time. Overall I'd say the meal was definitely worth the $4! Easy peasy, says Elli!

Now *you* try!

Obviously the trout didn't come from my garden, but at least the herbs did! My neighbour gifted me with a fresh rainbow trout he caught yesterday, so I had to think up a quick way to do the lovely little fishie justice! Here's what I came up with:

Elli's Pan Fried Rainbow Trout
Heat butter and olive oil (half and half) in a cast iron skillet on medium-low.
From the garden: sage, rosemary, thyme, all chopped fine
Rinse cleaned and gutted fish in cold water, then pat dry with paper towel.
Dredge fish lightly with all purpose flour. Sprinkle on herbs, salt and pepper.
Sizzle fish in butter, about 5 minutes a side.
After both side are done, put a lid on the skillet and remove it from heat for 5 more minutes.

Zucchini and White Onion Sauce for trout:
In half butter, half olive oil sweat 3 tbsp fresh zucchini, diced and 2 tbsp white onion, diced. Once onions are translucent, stir in 1 tsp cilantro, chopped fine, a dash of lemon juice, and 3 tbsp plain balkan style yogurt. Add some coarse salt and a few cracks of fresh pepper if you prefer. Lid the pot and turn off the heat, but you can leave the pot on the element to keep warm. Stir again before serving. Drizzle liberally over fish.

I think I might add some garlic to the fish's saute pan next time. I usually reach for garlic first, but had run out, and I wanted to taste more of the fish than anything else. Now I wish I had taken a picture, but I ate him too quickly. :)

Ok, so it's not so bad. :) I was just scurring you! :)

I volunteered to be a hair model for a friend who took her hairdressing exam today. Little did I know that the exam required her to cut the model's hair to maximum of 12"! But she did it super cute and flirty, so I'm happy. I'll post a pic after. I was going to take a pic of it before, but I ended up having a snuggle on the couch because I had to get up at 6am for the exam, so Elli was tired and mussed up her hair.

After watching "Raw for 30" I've decided to try to incorporate more raw food into our diets. I'm not going to go fully raw, as I simply can't bring myself to stop cooking and I feel that what I do cook is pretty darned healthy. But it sure couldn't hurt to add some more dishes to my repertoire! With the recent heat wave Vancouver has been panting through, cold salads seemed like a great idea. Today was my second bean salad and do you know what? I used to pay $6 for a medium sized container (about two single servings) of bean salad at the deli counter. I can make a huge bowl full that lasts for three days at home for just $4. They usually go together with whatever I have around the kitchen within about five minutes, so I really can't complain.

Today's Cold Bean Salad:
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 can chick peas, rinsed and drained
1 green onion, chopped
1/2 orange pepper, diced
1 tbsp chopped fresh cilantro
1/2 cup diced cucumber
juice of 1 lime
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
dash of cayenne pepper
1/4 tsp coarse salt
fresh ground pepper to taste

Stir it all up and you're ready to munch away!

New pictures are going online tonight at ElliNude.com so stay tuned!

Oh, and I have a couple baby green tomatoes already! Yayz!

I attempted to do a few too many things today, but miraculously, most of them got accomplished! Unfortunately I started off badly by adding too much butter to my banana muffins, and some never firmed up (despite a second trip back to the oven) and their bottoms fell off as I was removing them from the tins. Sad, I know. So we ate those first, to cover up the mistake. To save face, you see. Broken muffins have fewer calories, don't you know!

My update is going up very soon. Stay tuned. It's sexy.

And very... facially. :)

Unfortunately, my subject line for this post is very true. I was trying to be cheeky, but I came off as an ass. Bad Elli! God, I hate that feeling of having offended people who I was intending to be laughing with, not at. :(

Trying to get the wind back into my sails to finish off my emails before I make fajitas for dinner tonight, or as I like to call them, "Fa-geye-taz." I put extra jalapeno in the salsa, so I hope it's still edible by the time we get to it. Maybe I should dig some back out. Hm...