http://parsnipsaplenty.com supporting your love of vegetables since 2008. Early 2008. Tue, 06 Jan 2009 18:54:10 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en When I first started cooking with any intention, I wasted a tremendous amount of money. One day, years ago, I was home from college for the summer and a few friends came to visit for the weekend, and we decided to make a curry for dinner. The recipe ... http://parsnipsaplenty.com/2008/12/27/spaghetti-squash-with-sarsparilla-and-sage/ When I arrived here in Portland at the end of the summer, the long-time transplants warned me about winter.  Not so much the weather, but the reaction to it. "This city shuts down under an inch of snow," warned native midwesterners, suppressing groans. I understood - both the fact of the matter, ... http://parsnipsaplenty.com/2008/12/19/snow-day-stir-fried-greens/ This weekend, my goals have been: 1. Above all, do as little as possible. 2.  Spend many happy minutes looking at Mt St Helens and Mt Adams from my window, as it's often too cloudy to see them. 3.  Listen to NPR in live form, not podcast. 4.  Make the rutabaga bisque whose recipe ... http://parsnipsaplenty.com/2008/12/07/smoked-paprika-and-rutabaga-bisque/ A few months ago, I mentioned my love for Crescent Dragonwagon, a self-professed "closet vegetarian" for years who finally outed herself in her wonderful cookbooks.  She's done a lot to influence the way I think about food, and has much to do with my refusal to see vegetarianism as a ... http://parsnipsaplenty.com/2008/11/10/cranberry-orange-cornbread-with-five-spice-glaze/ Today is a monumental day in the Lauren Mitchell History of October: it's the second day in a row that I have off from work.  My days have been going thus: wake up. Go to work. Come home. Don't go out for fear that I'll get back too late to ... http://parsnipsaplenty.com/2008/11/01/sweet-potato-and-corn-chowder/ I'm writing up a post on sweet potato-corn chowder, but I couldn't let this sandwich go unheralded.  So here's a short intermission: If I ate this every day until I died, I'd be happy.  Red or white onions are fine.  I used a toasted English muffin, but I've yet to ... http://parsnipsaplenty.com/2008/11/01/the-best-avocado-sandwich-ever/ One of the first Bulgarian language sessions we ever had was on food.  We learned how to say, "I like honey" and "I don't like honey."  We learned the words for butter (краве масло), milk (прясно мляко), tomatoes (домати), apples (ябълки).  Before long, we were reading menus with aplomb and ... http://parsnipsaplenty.com/2008/10/06/roasted-eggplant-pepper-salad-%d0%ba%d1%8c%d0%be%d0%bf%d0%be%d0%be%d0%bb%d1%83/ Well, it's been quite a rowdy couple of weeks!  For some reason, I didn't expect to be that stressed out during the week that I both started a new career and moved into my apartment in a new town.  Total blood pressure rocket!  Who knew? So I cook now for a ... http://parsnipsaplenty.com/2008/09/28/end-of-summer-bean-salad/ There's a scene in Kissing Jessica Stein when the two main characters are discussing the phenomenon known as Sexy Ugly.  Famous men falling into this category include: Mick Jagger, Steve Buscemi, Harvey Keitel, and Alan Rickman. (I'm adding Alton Brown to the list as well.)  Upon doing some more ... http://parsnipsaplenty.com/2008/09/15/mango-meringue-pie/ Hello dear Parsnippians!  I bet you thought I disappeared, didn't you?  Ha!  Fooled you.  I am indeed still up and at 'em - only now I'm in Portland, OR.   Not Bulgaria, not Asheville, not in the stressville that was my life the week before I hauled it cross country to ... http://parsnipsaplenty.com/2008/09/08/blueberry-muffins-with-extra-lovins/