Oh brother where art thou?

It´s been almost three years since I last wrote, I know! It just sort of happened. And every time I thought about writing a goodbye post, it felt sort of weird because I thought that no one would really mind and because I wasn´t too sure I wanted to pull the plug officially on this little project of mine.

And I was right, I just didn´t know in what way or form cooking was going to be in my life, but now I do! I´m starting a baking project soon (I need to figure out the last few details before it´s live and I can show you the website and everything).

I´m gonna bake different things to order. Namely brownies, cookies, muffins, and cakes, here in Buenos Aires, of course, I really don´t trust international delivery that much!

And I´m also going to be arrogant enough to teach small cooking and baking classes because, even though I´m not a professional cook or baker, I keep getting requests from friends and acquaintances to teach them how to cook, and I´ve done some informal cooking classes, and I´ve really enjoyed them, so I´m gonna go ahead and teach the things I know as best as I can. The idea is for people to find joy in cooking and get a bit more comfortable around the kitchen.

And, using my translation skills, I´m gonna teach a few Argentine food classes for tourists and non tourists who want to learn the classic dishes, in English and/or Spanish depending on the group.

Ok, now that the big news are out of the way, I want to catch you up a bit on my life during these past few years!

In a nutshell, I fell in love with a wonderful guy with the sexiest Colombian accent and the sweetest curls, lost 30 pounds, and traveled to NYC and Seattle again, to Colombia last summer and probably again in a few months… ok, maybe the big news weren´t over!

And one of the things I enjoy the most about the mornings with my love are long leisurely breakfasts with great conversations or just comfortable silences and a few mmmms when the food is particularly amazing.

As it was a few weeks ago when he had brought me some great homemade yogurt from the farmers market and I was trying to find ways to use it up. Along came a great recipe for buttermilk pancakes from Beth Hensperger that I did with yogurt and adapted a bit, and served with dulce de leche and a bit of cream cheese (Argentine cream cheese isn´t salty, it´s more like a cream). I still think about that breakfast and swoon, I don´t know if it is because of the pancakes or Jorge, maybe a combination of both!

Here comes the sun, do do do do

I´m having the worst case of writer´s block when it comes to writing about this trip, I don´t know why, maybe subconsciously I don´t want it to be over, so I let it be an unfinished business… but it really isn´t a good idea waiting this long to write because, with my memory, that´s not a luxury I can afford. Before long, I´ll be like Helene, who was that? (kidding!).

So Charleston was so damn beautiful there are going to have to invent a new word for it, it´s just calm, sunny, breezy, just what I needed to relax before going back to New York. And I had the best hostess ever, the lovely Helene of Tartelette, who made me feel as if her home was my own for those four days I was there. And I even got to “borrow” her dog Tippy to help me not miss Phoebe as much, and of course, he was delighted to surrender to my attention. I also had my very own history professor (Helene´s hubby) to show me around town and even do things that were totally beneath him, like fixing one of my necklaces, poor guy, I´m very high-maintenance haha

And to relax after all my hard work, we went to the dock down the street to relax with the neighbors as the sun descended, and eat some chips and salsa. And just to make matters even more idyllic, a little dolphin and its mom came out to play! (you can see their fins in the second picture below if you look closely).

So by now you are wondering to yourself if I was crazy because I was with Helene and didn´t do any cooking apparently, right? Well, you´d be wrong to judge me like that, we certainly did some cooking here and there, like homemade pizza, some pasta, a homemade crumble with loquats and different fruits, and of course, I had to make her teach me how to make a proper macaron, since I had never tasted one, let alone make it myself! And I´m proud to say they turned out quite well, so I´m going to try them again soon.

And I ate the best strawberries I´ve ever tasted on my last day there. We picked them up ourselves at the Boone Hall Plantation, and they were just amazing, ripe to the very core, and sweet as can be… I´m still dreaming about them now that we are starting winter here and it´ll be months until I try another strawberry.

I feel as if I´m leaving so much out, but this will have to do for now because if I keep reminiscing, I´d take the next plane and head back out there!

Clouds, weirdos, and sunshine

I had a funny thing going on with Seattle even before I set foot in the city. Everyone I met either online or in person seem to come from there, it was as if suddenly all the interesting people had decided to move there, notwithstanding the grayness, which I decided was not a big deal… that is, until I actually experienced it myself!

It turns out it wasn´t any sort of myth, trust me, in Seattle it rains, or drizzles, quite a bit, but that´s not the worst part, the bad part was the winter-like weather in the middle of spring, and all that gray. BUT I loved the city, I truly did, despite all I´ve just said, which means all those people who move there actually know what they are doing.

Of course, my situation was quite special because I was staying with my dear friend Jenny and her family, so I actually got to see a bit of real life there and not just touristy stuff, which is just how I like it. Plus, I had talked to Traca of Seattle Tall Poppy online before going, and she kindly organized all sorts of fun activities for me, including breakfast with Peabody and a food lovers dinner at Kris Dew´s house with Lara of Cook and Eat, Molly of Orangette, Mohini of Mango Power Girl, food journalist Rebekah Denn, pastry chef Dana Cree, and food lovers Dan and Phil. Needless to say, we did a potluck dinner so we had quite a spread, not to mention the view, but truly, the best thing was the company, including Kris´s adorable cat, Rocky.

But the one thing that sucks with meetings where you meet that many people is the feeling of not being able to talk deeply with anyone at all, especially since, believe it or not, I can get quite shy in such situations. But, anyways, Jenny and I brought a tasty, yet dead simple dish, to the meeting: Martha Stewart´s chana masala, but more on that at the end of the post.

I have to say that one of the things I loved the most about Seattle is its wonderfully crazy irreverent attitude, as can be evidenced by people you meet walking down the street, or in bizarre monuments like a troll eating a car in Fremont, or a tiny replica of the statue of liberty, among many, and I mean many, other things.

Like smart “political” toys:

Or fake macarons made of soap:

So, trying to sum up all of my experiences in Seattle after being back in Buenos Aires for over a month now, I think it´d come down to people and nature, because the place is truly gorgeous and has the peculiar advantage of remaining close to nature while being a big city, and I´ve always enjoyed hanging out with weirdos like myself, and Seattle gives me plenty to choose from.

Which means that I have no idea when I´ll be back, but I´ll be back, so save a few days of sun for me, will ya?

Chana masala (from Martha Stewart´s site)

Serves 4

1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
2 small onions, finely diced (1 1/2 cups)
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 cans of chickpeas (about 4 cups)
1 1/2 cups crushed canned tomatoes
1 teaspoon garam masala
1 teaspoon coarse salt
1/4 cup freshly chopped cilantro

1. Heat oil in a large skillet over high heat. Add cumin seeds, and cook until they begin to pop, about 30 seconds. Add onions, and cook until they begin to brown. Add garlic, and cook 1 minute more.

2. Add tomatoes, chickpeas, jalapeno, garam masala, and salt. Reduce heat to low, and simmer 10 minutes. Stir in cilantro, and serve.

Pip… in a new city (NYC)

It´s so bizarre, but in a good way, to be in a place you recognize and feel at home in without having ever been there before. That´s how New York felt for me from the very start. When I got there the first night, I just walked around the hotel and felt utterly blissful.

That being said, the crazy shopping and walking schedule I imposed on myself did get me a tad tired, but when you have just 4 and a half days in NYC overall, you suck it up and keep walking.

Plus half of the walking was also self-imposed because I was convinced I was going to end up utterly lost if I dared to take the subway, even though I´m used to taking the subway here in Buenos Aires… though then again, it doesn´t have as many lines, and I am literally the sort of person who always takes the wrong turn, it´s the sort of dilemma whenever I have to choose which way to go, and I tell myself to go against my instincts because they are always wrong, but then I just can´t bring myself to go against my gut, which turns out to be wrong, yet again.

So anyways, crappy sense of direction and an unknown subway grid are a bad combination, but I really shouldn´t have been afraid for that long because when I did get tired of walking on my last day in NYC and took the subway, to my utter shock, I didn´t get lost!

Among the many pleasures the city had in store for me was meeting the lovely Deb of Smitten Kitchen for lunch at Tabla restaurant. I´m quite new to Indian food so I´m by no means an expert, but that was a remarkable meal, especially the thin cornmeal-crust pizza with spinach and soft goat cheese (trying not to drool over the keyboard here). I have no pictures of that for you, but I do recommend you stop by next time you go to NY.

Also food-related was my kid-in-a-toy-store moment at the Chelsea Market. Thank heavens it was the very last day of my trip, otherwise my poor budget would have had a hard time recovering from that excursion. There I got the mini pans I showed you in the previous post plus some other toys I have yet to show you, a cute Moroccan rug for my apartment, and lunch (meaning a simple but delicious ham-butter-homemade bread sandwich from Amy´s bread), and a very chocolatey cookie I took with me to Central Park to enjoy in a bench soaking it all in.

I don´t have pictures of my other food-related adventures there, and I only got to do about 20% in that area of what I had originally thought I´d do, but there´s really only so much I can eat in a few days, and as I kept telling myself while I was there, this was my first trip to NYC, but it certainly won´t be my last, so I´m just glad I got to immerse myself in that whirlwind of a city for a few days. And I´m also glad I was ballsy enough to do it all by myself, which got a bit hard at times, but mostly it was interesting in terms of meeting new people and discovering new strengths in myself.

And if you want to check out the full NYC set on Flickr, click here

Next up, Seattle!