How Interesting!

The rugby team is featured in FM's fifteen-most-interesting seniors!

http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2013/12/5/15-fifteen-most-interesting-the-womens-rugby-team/

Photo from the article. Liking the strategic height positioning.

Bogota in Bites

Highlights from July-August eating my way through Bogota.

FRIED.

Patacones, fried plantain "pizza".

Abasto - great crunchy restaurant in Usaquen.

Corn muffin with a sweet lulo-flavored jam.

Was very into this presentation.

Typical lunch!

This is a good representation of the healthfulness of food in Colombia.

All the food groups.

RECIPE: Simple Summer Cucumber Salad

Winter denial.

The inspiration for this, oddly enough, was an Asian cucumber salad my family eats often with sliced cucumbers, sesame oil, and rice vinegar. I wanted to go sweeter, and thought -- what's a more summer taste than mangoes? The avocados sort of just ended up there.

I was serving this with a salty, spicy chili, so I went for very few and fresh flavors. If this was more of a centerpiece of the meal, I would probably add salt, pepper, and potentially even dried red pepper flakes.

Summer Cucumber Salad
10 minutes, serves 4-6

2 large cucumbers

2 limes

1 avocado (ripe, but still fairly firm)

1 mango (ripe, but still firm)

a few springs of cilantro

1. Peel the cucumbers using a vegetable peeler.
2. If you are like me, clean up all the peels that missed the trash can.
3. Slice the cucumber in half length-wise, and use a small spoon to scrape out the seeds from both halves. Then slice the cucumber into small diced pieces and put in a large bowl.
4. Cut the avocado in half, remove the pit, and then cut into roughly 1/2-inch cubes and add to bowl. 
5. Peel the mango and slice into similarly sized pieces, adding to salad. I was going to add 2 mangoes, and then one ended up being far too gooey and ripe. Tragically, I just ate that one off the skin.
6. Chop the cilantro, removing extraneous stalk pieces, and add to bowl. 
7. Quarter one lime and squeeze juice into bowl. Toss gently with a large spoon or two to mix lime juice and cilantro evenly.
8. Thinly slice the second lime to use as a garnish. Serve immediately, while the ingredients are still cold from the refrigerator.

How the Cookie Crumbles

Want to put out there a cool poster I produced my sophomore year of college demonstrating a mathematical look at culinary history. Follow this link to see a bigger version.

Grilled Cheese: a photo exposition

Back in April, Steve was thankfully very persistent in asking for a "fancy grilled cheese" adventure. We had potentially the best thing I have ever eaten that included two slices of bread.

The secret to all this? Memorable, distinctive cheeses, a robust and fresh loaf of bread, and creativity! (Fresh herbs and a bit of cracked pepper doesn't hurt either.) I used multigrain bread from The Biscuit, a local Cambridge bakery. I was actually planning on using a honey whole-wheat before it sold-out, which I think would have been too soft to handle all the things we were loading on these sandwiches! Steve brought the cheese from Trader Joe's, and honestly I can't remember all the names, but the variety was great.

Many varieties of cheese, tomatoes, asparagus, sliced pears.
Just throw in whatever you think will taste good!

Sauteed portebello mushrooms and onions.

The pears were a big hit. I'd like to try apples in the future,
and maybe even sweet potato.

Sliced tomatoes and fresh basil.

Things I've been eating recently...

I've been lazy about this blog in the last month, so I figured I'd offer at least a picture of something I've cooked in recent history.

I added heirloom tomatoes and red onion to the honey mustard brussel sprouts I posted about in August. The tomatoes were great after being roasted.

At the end of last semester I made some really great avocado, egg, Parmesan sandwiches on a fresh Iggy's baguette from the nearby Follow the Honey store. This will definitely happen again. (Shown with a green bean and tomato salad.)

Finally, I seared a simple salmon fillet, which will be definitely happening again with a recipe!

RECIPE: Roasted Artichokes with Lemon and Garlic

Recipe from Pinch My Salt. I used lime the first time since it's all I had, and it was quite good -- but (one of the few times I have ever thought this) it's better with lemon!