Food

Yesterday I had off from work so I took a LONG trip to the grocery store and have been spending a lot of time cooking since then.  Also, the rainy season has just started in Seattle and when I was riding home on my bike from the grocery store with all of my groceries on the back of bike it was POURING super hard.  I was soaked by the time I made it to my house.  And I loved every minute of it.  I felt so Seattle.  :)

Ok, so the first thing I made was some juice because I have really been craving some fresh fruits and veggies since it has been a while since I've been to the grocery store.  I made some carrot apple juice with ginger.  So good and so good for you:

In the mornings I have recently been having homemade oatmeal mixed with fresh raspberries.  I actually didn't buy the raspberries but I think one my roommates bought them and forgot she bought them.  So they were starting to mold in the fridge.  When something starts to mold, I take that as fair game to eat it so that it doesn't go to waste.  And they were excellent for mashing in the oatmeal because they were super ripe.  It is so good though.  It just tastes like raspberry oatmeal:

So today before work I made some Whole Beet Borscht.  It's whole beet because it's used both the beet and the beet greens.  It has so much stuff in it, beets, carrots, potatoes, celery, tomatoes, beet greens, cabbage, onion, garlic, salt, and pepper.  The recipe said to shred most of the ingredients, but I don't really like to use machines if I don't have to, so I julienned most of the vegetables by hand, plus then the soup is a little chunkier:

Then you just throw all of the ingredients in the pot and let it simmer for a while.  And it smells up the whole house with amazing-ness.  Beets are so good.  One of my favorite vegetables for real.  Borscht:

Then after work tonight I made some vegan zucchini bread (with the zucchini from the garden I froze).  There was one slight problem though, I forgot to defrost the zucchini.  Since I get home from work around 7:15 and by the time I eat dinner and stuff, I didn't have time to let it defrost, plus I'm just super impatient.  So I tried defrosting in the sink with hot water real quick.  But then it got all soggy and I was not happy with that.  So I decided to just shred it in the food processor frozen.  Instead of being shredded it was more like shaved ice, but zucchini.  I guess I thought this was better than the mushy stuff.  So I proceeded to make a LOT of noise with the food processor and continue to shave my zucchini.  I mixed up the dough.  It tasted really good, but it was cold, really cold.  Whatever, I just threw it in the oven.  The 350 degree temperature would warm it up pretty quickly.  I checked on it often because I was worried.  Baking is kind of like you need to do your thing and then just let it go.  There is nothing you can really do in the middle to fix any mistakes.  It was ready in the amount of time that the recipe said.  I grabbed a dish towel (since we don't currently have any pot holders) and went to reach for the bread pan.  But I kind of missed and burnt my thumb.  It still really hurts.  But it did not puss up because I did put ice on it.  Anyways, after it cooled off and everything, I tried it and it tastes good.  It is a little bit moist though.  I think because when the zucchini melted there was extra water/liquid in the dough.  But it is not too bad and I think it still is pretty good.  No need for eggs or milk in amazing desserts.  (Sorry, no picture)

I really enjoy going to the grocery store because then I get to come home and cook/bake all of these wonderful things which means I get to eat them all.  I enjoy cooking and I enjoy eating what I cook.  I like knowing where my food came from and that it is not processed but that I cooked and cut everything.  Fresh, whole foods just taste so much better.