I signed into Blogger today for the first time in what seems like forever. I clicked on 'Post' to see when the last time I had written anything was and realized I had started several and left them in draft and that I've been MIA since June!
I've had no creative energy this summer and every time I thought about writing it just felt like a chore. I think it's all the writing I've been having to do for school - it's really taking it out of me! I've been feeling totally overwhelmed with the whole moving/commuting/schoolwork business and I haven't gotten back into a good rhythm yet. I'm hoping now that Autumn is here that can start to change!
Can we talk about how amazing Autumn is for a minute? Right now it is gorgeous outside - bright blue skies, 74 degrees, but with a nice windy crisp in the air. I think we have at least another week before the rain starts to come and I'm trying to enjoy every minute of it. We actually set a record this summer in the Portland area for the driest July-September ever without any water issues due to the very rainy spring we had. You know what else makes Autumn fantastic? The crazy amounts of produce! I've already started getting back to some Autumn cooking with stuffed delicata squash, soups, and homemade bread.
Before I get too burnt out on trying to think of new and interesting things to write, I thought I'd share with you some of my new favorite foods of the past few months.
1) Greek Yogurt. This took me a long time to come to terms with - I haven't eaten anything but soy yogurt for years and regular yogurt kind of freaks me out. Now I use Greek yogurt in everything (well - everything that I can anyway). It makes an excellent substitute for mayo or sour cream (two other things I don't eat) and I've even used it to replace cream in a recipe or two.
2) Peaches. Ok, these are not a new food to me - but for some reason I've never been in love with peaches, they were also just pretty good. This year I seem to want peach everything. My favorite dessert by far has been roasted peaches with Greek yogurt (I'll share my recipe soon).
3) Oatmeal. Again - also not new, I've been eating oatmeal for breakfast nearly everyday for the past 6 or 7 years. How did it take me this long to realize that cooking it on the stove is like a thousand times better than in the microwave!? I don't know what my problem was, but now I want stove-top oatmeal just about every morning. In fact, it's not even morning and I kind of want some now.
4) Blue Cheese. I always thought I hated blue cheese - let's be honest, it is pretty freaky looking. But after slowly having it in dishes that I couldn't pick it out of I have decided that blue cheese is awesome. We stopped at Rogue Creamery on a recent road trip and sampled about a dozen different varieties. All were delicious, but their Smokey Blue is still my favorite (smoked over hazelnut shells and gives a very "meaty" taste to my vegetarian dishes).
5) Beets. Ok so I'm not eating beets at every meal yet - but since after my last list of new foods I was loving I commented that I still hated beets I thought it was worth mentioning that I have now had several beet dishes that have been quite excellent. First my friend Sara made this beet salad, and I was all "Ew, no - I don't like beets" except then I ate it and was like "What!? How is this beets? They don't taste like dirt at all!". Also the co-op in Corvallis makes this wrap with some shredded beets and other than the fact that it turns everything purple it is pretty great.
That's all for now - hopefully I'll be back again soon! I do have many recipes I'd love to share if I can find the time and energy to do so!
