for the last 5 years craig and i have participated in angelic organics, a community supported agriculture program located in caldonia, illinois. each year we sign up for a 20 week vegetable share, receiving a 3/4 bushel box of locally and organically grown vegetables every saturday throughout the summer and early fall. we share our box with another couple, and even splitting everything in half there is still always plenty of food. for the last three years we have also participated in an egg share, receiving a dozen beautiful golden free range, horemone free eggs along with our vegetables.

our share this year started on a weekend when both craig and our friends were out of town, leaving me with the entire box of vegetables to myself. i saw this as a challenge and decided to kick off a week or two of the raw diet, which i did last summer and really enjoyed. however, the week also coincided with me starting a new job with a caterer, and with that an unpredictable daily schedule.

i decided to stick to about 80% raw, incorporating one or two cooked elements every day. it is easy when i'm at home but difficult when i'm meeting up with friends and having to taste food i'm preparing at work. i think i'm at about 70% now, which isn't bad. at home i've made salads, spring rolls and raw marinara, but at work i've been eating whatever is available, and eating out with friends i've been tempted by too many dishes on menus to order simple salads. so when i can't be strict to raw dishes, i at least follow the following pairing guidelines for healthy digestion:

fruit - always eaten alone, at least 45 minutes before eating anything else.
vegetables - try to stick to raw veggies, or lightly steamed or stir fried. can be eaten in combination with any of the other groups (except fruit!)
meats - i'm eating just one dose of animal protein a day (if that), usually it's just an egg or two. meats can be eaten with vegetables, but not with any other group.
starches - trying to stay away from processed bleached white starches and sticking to whole grains. can be eaten with vegetables, but not with any other group.
dried fruits and nuts - can be eaten alone or with vegetables, but not with any other group. trying to stick to naturally dried fruits and raw nuts.
dairy - trying to stick to minimal dairy. goat cheese is the main cheese i'm eating, or ricotta. no milk or cream in my coffee - i'm using almond milk at home or rice or soy milk if i can get it at a coffee shop.

so that's it. it's pretty easy if you can be creative. i make a raw marinara by processing onion, garlic, tomato, carrot and fennel and can eat that over ribbons of raw zucchini or a whole wheat pasta, or as a base for a whole wheat pizza. i can eat a seared piece of fish or some scallops or shrimp over a bed of spinach with a carrot slaw on the side. a big salad with a poached egg on top and a little lemon juice, or a salad topped with almonds and sun dried tomatoes. vietnamese spring rolls - rice paper wrappers filled with tons of fresh herbs and veggies and a honey soy dipping sauce. yum. for breakfasts i'll use my juicer and make an awesome liquid breakfast with ginger and apple and lemon and some romaine lettuce. then fruit until lunchtime. then a raw lunch, a snack in the afternoon of nuts or raw granola or fruit, and dinner with a cooked element.

vinegar is one of my best friends - it tenderizes veggies while giving them a tart flavor. one of my favorite dishes, one that i've been eating at least once a day and most of the time twice a day, is what i call bruised greens. i've used kale, chard, totsoi, spinach, and the tops of beets, radishes, or turnips. take a few big handfuls of your greens, wash them, chop them and put them in a bowl. drizzle about a tablespoon of olive oil on top, and sprinkle with salt and pepper. squeeze half of a lemon over top and massage the greens with your hands until they wilt and tenderize. top with a poached egg, a piece of fish, or put it over brown rice or pasta. or simply eat it alone. it's that good.

i'm feeling energized and healthy, and i've lost a pound or two (although that wasn't my main goal in doing it this year.) mostly i'm doing this to challenge myself, to learn new recipes, to remind myself to follow guidelines and to get out of the carb loaded winter diet i've gotten used to. to kick start the summer by eating healthier and treating my body better, and to enjoy the veggies in our box every week. and really, massaging greens is kind of theraputic.

ok, so school is out for summer (straight A's!) - which for me is only a mere 3 weeks until classes begin again. during that time i plan to catch up with friends (hi, friends!), eat a little healthier (made easy by coinciding with the start of our angelic organics CSA share), and relax. and i have one week left of my full time job until i join the ranks of people with flexible schedules and time off in the middle of the day. although i really am going to have a hard time leaving the company i've been with for the past 4 years, i am really looking forward to the next few months' lighter schedules.

i'll also be taking more photos now - i've taken an unplanned hiatus for the past year or so, posting mostly iphone photos to flickr. after taking (and doing very well in, i might add) a food styling and photography class, i've reconnected with my love for my nikon, and i'll be keeping it with me more often now. i'll also be experimenting with more food photography if anyone wants to invite me over for dinner...

so today i purchased a scooter to get me in between home, school and my two new jobs. it is a 2003 yamaha vino, a little 50cc scooter that i don't have to get a motorcycle license to ride. he's a brownish/greenish/grey (i have gendered him to be a boy) with beige accents and fabulous custom leather saddlebags. i am waiting on the title to get him registered, plated and stickered, and i have to get one of the side mirrors replaced, but i should be up and running in less than 2 weeks. i tootled around the neighborhood today and wondered the whole time why i didn't buy a scooter before now. riding is an instant pick me up, and i can't wait to start commuting between my various destinations on something other than the bus.

he has amazing pick up, and i've found it easy to adjust to the balance and control of the bike. it will be such a great way to commute between home, work #1, work #2 and school. more realiable, faster, and safer than the walking + bus riding i would be doing otherwise. and way more fun.

change is good. i've had to keep telling myself that every time i've had a mild panic attack while dwelling on all of the changes happening in my life right now. i've been sort of quiet about it all, but everything is in place and i feel comfortable telling everyone now.

i quit my job last week. i have been an office manager/travel arranger/accounting admin/general behind the scenes do it all lady for the past four years for a really great company full of really great people. i've watched the company double in size, move locations, have supported the staff and celebrated with them. i have seen coworkers come and go, get married, have babies, and have formed relationships that will last a lifetime. i am leaving behind friends, my own huge desk, daily snack time, a beer fridge, a steady salary, a company matching retirement account and being on my own health insurance policy for a future filled with unpredictable part time jobs. and i couldn't be happier.

since i've been in culinary school for the past 5 months i've learned a lot. a lot about food and cooking, the culinary industry and my own strengths and weaknesses and how they will eventually come together. i've also learned that going to school part time on top of working full time and also managing a personal and family life is really really hard. i've neglected some of my reading for class, have pushed away some of my friends, and have become stressed and easily irritated at work. i decided a few months ago to start thinking about working part time while i finish school, and things just happened to all fall into place in the last couple of weeks.

i have signed a 6 month contract with a caterer to help her get her business organized and poised to double in size next year. i'll be creating a recipe database, organize and take photos of her food, help with some marketing, employee training and occasional food prep. it is such a great opportunity to learn a catering business from the inside out, and i can't wait to start. i am also going to be working for a shared use kitchen, a inspected and certified commercial kitchen where entrepreneurial chefs can go to make food for sale (rather than illegally making it in their home kitchens). i also have a few other occasional opportunities that i am working on to fill the gaps. a few of these positions have the potential to turn into something more secure once i've graduated at the end of the year, but for now i have no idea where i'll be come january. but i'm convincing myself that the change is good and it will all be ok.

i'm really looking forward to learning from all of these opportunities, to learn more about myself and where i want to be. and to have a weekday or two off each week to study, relax, and cook. and see where this change will take me.

things have been really busy these last few weeks. between work and school i've had little time for much else. hopefully things will calm down soon.

in addition to class 3 nights a week after work i now have class on saturdays, which is going to be both exciting and challenging. i'm taking a food styling and photography class - a part of the industry that i am really excited about and am eager to learn more about and experience firsthand. this saturday i'll be shooting a still life (i'm leaning towards onions and garlic and fennel) and a glass of red wine. sounds awesome, yeah?

in other news, my brother has decided to move to chicago for law school this fall. i'm so excited to be able to have him nearby, to see him more than twice a year. as long as i can squeeze him into my crazy schedule.

things are going to fall into place soon, i can feel it.

i've decided that i'm not fit for the professional kitchen. i can't get comfortable with the stainless steal, high heat and impersonal banged up pots and pans. i just don't fit in. i am looking forward to seeing where i fit in outside of the commercial kitchen once i'm done with school. in the meantime i need to try harder to thrive and learn and cook well in a the kendall college kitchens.

i'm half way through my methods of cooking class, where we're learning to sear (not "boil") meats, poach fish, braise more meats, and sautee, among other things. we made pasta last week and now i'm on a kick - i can't stop thinking about rolling out dough and making crazy ravioli. last weekend we had some friends over for dinner and i finally followed through with my threat to duplicate Schwa restaurant's famous quail egg ravioli. the results were fantastic.

schwa on the left, me on the right (test ravioli with a chicken yolk, but you get the idea). not exactly identical, but still worth the effort. the secret is the truffle oil ricotta - a little ring of it keeps the yolk in place as you make the ravioli.

last night in class we braised. lamb, veal, beef. braising is one of my all time favorite cooking methods (is it totally nerdy that i have a favorite cooking method?) but the braising i do at home - rustic, loose, le creuset dutch oven - and the braising we do in class - exact, uniform, shitty bent pans - are worlds apart. it's hard to learn to do something differently when you already feel like you have it down.

i have a few big projects coming up, i have to come up with a business concept, name, logo and tagline for my foodservice business planning class and i'm having trouble with it. i know it's just an assignment and i can do absolutely anything, but i can't help attaching meaning to it, approaching it as if it were my final say in what i am going to do with this adventure. and that is still a big fat unknown.

in other totally unrelated news, two new babies came into my life this week - little tyler was born on sunday night to a good friend from college and yesterday, my stepsister made me an aunt again with little lizzie. i can't wait to meet them.

today craig and i celebrate our six year wedding anniversary. six years. it feels like it has been so much longer, yet the time has just flown by. six years ago today we used the words "forever and always" to promise our hearts to each other for eternity. and i wore a dress that was every so slightly too big with 4" heels and he had a soul patch on his chin. we were two 23 year olds who didn't know any better than that we loved each other and always would. we had no idea that it would only get better as time went on.

last year we celebrated five years with a trip to chile and had an amazing experience. five years is big. five years is a milestone. five years is worth celebrating. six - six years is just six years. but it's one more year than five, so i guess it's a big celebratory milestone plus one. the traditional six year wedding anniversary gifts are candy or iron and the modern gift is wood. so we're finally buying a proper wood bedframe. it seems appropriate.

there are millions of reasons i love my husband, but here are six that strike me as special at this moment:

1. he has never, ever, refused to eat something i have cooked. even the sticky massive tasteless rice noodle disaster of 2003. he is also an incredibly adventurous eater - sometimes more than me. (hoof tacos? craig tried them.)

2. he never fails to give me at least one compliment a day. he can tell when i want someone to tell me i look cute.

3. he always looks great. he's a very handsome man. and he lets me cut his hair the way i like it.

4. he let me help my mother move half way across the country to be closer to us. he hasn't complained once.

5. he keeps doing things that make me proud of him and excited for his (our) future.

6. everything is meaningful to him. even the little things. i love that.

my second quarter of culinary school started this week. i am taking three classes - foodservice business planning for ten weeks, and methods of cooking for 5 weeks, followed by intro to garde manger for the second 5 weeks of the quarter. so far we've cooked vegetables (why do the french boil everything?) and starches - rice, risotto, potatoes and pasta.

i had to be a smart ass and hand cut my pasta instead of using the cutter attachment for the pasta roller. i keep forgetting how easy pasta is to make - i'm definitely going to reincorporate it into my rotating dinner menu.

it feels great to be back in class- i really missed my classmates and the experiences we share in the kitchen. it also feels like time is slipping away too fast. i've already technically completed 1/4 of my studies - and although i have learned a lot, i'm not sure i've absorbed as much as i had wanted to. i'm also feeling overwhelmed, like i don't have enough time to myself anymore. i'm working on ways to deal with that, and hopefully i'll come up with a solution soon...

i'm getting the spring itch - i keep wearing clothes and shoes that probably aren't quite ready to

i don't know if i've mentioned this before, but my company has been amazingly supportive of my cooking school venture, and has given me a budget to cook for the office about twice a month. i've been cooking soups exclusively so far - chicken noodle, split pea, minestrone, tortilla, lentil, chicken and rice, cream of chicken, and today: matzoh ball. one of my jewish coworkers brought in her grandmother's incredibly vague matzoh ball recipe ("omi's matzoh balls") for us to decipher, and although i had never even tasted matzoh ball soup before, i think we figured out the quantities allright and made a damned tasty soup.

so here is the recipe - my interpretation of Omi's matzoh balls soup.
serves 15-20.

ingredients:
for the matzoh balls:
1 box matzoh, broken into smallish pieces
1 large onion, small dice
2 oz butter
6 eggs
1 tbsp garlic salt
2 tsp black pepper
2 tsp salt
2 tsp ground nutmeg
1 cup matzoh meal

for the soup:
1 pound of carrots, sliced
2 large onions, small dice
2 oz butter
8 quarts of chicken broth
1 small bunch parsley, finely chopped

• to start the matzoh balls: soak matzoh in warm water for about 5 minutes until soft. drain and squeeze out excess water.
• sautee onion in butter over medium heat until translucent. add drained matzoh and cook, stirring to break up the matzoh, for about 5 minutes. turn off heat and cover. let sit for 10 minutes or so to steam.
• spread matzoh and onion mixture on a baking sheet or platter to cool, stirring every few minutes.
• for the soup, while the matzoh mixture is cooling heat butter over medium heat and sautee onions and carrots until onion is translucent. add chicken broth and bring to a simmer.
  
• to finish the balls: combine eggs, garlic salt, pepper, salt and nutmeg. get yourself a bowl with some cold water to dip your hands in - this will prevent the matzoh ball mixture from sticking too much. when matzoh mixture is about room temperature, add eggs and use your fingers to combine. add matzoh meal.
• roll balls with the palms of your hands to about ping pong ball size, dipping your hands in the water occasionally to keep the sticky mixture from sticking to your hands. your mixture should make about 75 balls.
• add balls to simmering broth and simmer for just under 5 minutes. when they're done they will float to the top.
• serve 3-4 matzoh balls per person and sprinkle with a bit of finely chopped parsley.