Thankful.

I am so lucky. I am surrounded by wonderful friends and family here in Pittsburgh.

My aunt and uncle helped me move my bed from Erie to Pittsburgh a couple of weeks ago. To thank them, I wanted to them over for dinner. I had so much fun planning a menu. Both of them are amazing cooks, so I wanted to do something delicious, but a simple enough menu for me to tackle on my own! I decided to make a simple salad, pot pies and ice cream topping for dessert.

The salad was inspired by this one. I simplified the recipe quite a bit, working with what I had on hand. The contrasting flavors of the beets, pear and blue cheese was amazing!

 

As soon as I found these pot pies on Smitten Kitchen, I knew that was what I wanted to try and make. I had never made pot pies before. I loved this variation of the stew inside, featuring white beans, swiss chard, and pancetta. The smokey pork gave such a great flavor and the crust was perfectly flaky. I doubled the recipe to have some for leftovers and it all turned out really well.

 

I really did use that much butter in the crust....  I was very nervous about the dough, it felt so dense when I was first mixed it all together. I let it sit for about 3 hours before I assembled the pot pies, and the crust was perfect! It did melt off of the Pyrex bowls, maybe because the stew was hot going in the bowl? I am not sure; the pot pie in the ramekin turned out the best!

So many beautiful colors in the stew. The flavors all together were amazing, very hearty and perfect for the chilly fall evening! I highly suggest this recipe. My first attempt at pot pie was a success!

Ta da! I will try and do a better job in the future of recording the process and recipe, but it was tough when I was cooking by myself! Thanks to my friend Kristen for snapping a couple of the shots in the beginning.

I couldn't have asked for a better evening. I appreciate how much laughter enters the room when Aunt Mary, Uncle Greg and Arielle are around. It was so wonderful to have them in my home and sharing a meal. I am so thankful to live so close to them! Feeling so much love, lately.

Food Day 2012

October 24 is Food Day! Food Day is "nationwide celebration and a movement for healthy, affordable, and sustainable food." Events are hosted all over the country to celebrate and educate people about food issues. Some events are simply to get people to get people together to have a healthy meal, some advocate for important work being done around sustainable foods and some show food focused movies.

Yesterday at Chatham, we had a menu featuring local foods in our cafeteria, hosted food trivia, and gave away raffle prizes. We had many organizations from around Pittsburgh come and table to educate students about the awesome work happening in the city. Some of the Food Studies students made a huge pot of Curry Kuri Squash Soup that featured all local veggies! The recipe was developed by an alumni of our program.This is a picture of Hal teaching the cooking class on how to make this delicious soup at a local market:

We showed a slideshow of pictures of students holding up a sign that said why they supported real food. It was really cool to see all of the different reasons students felt it was important to advocate for "real food". Real food was defined by the beholder. Drew supports Real Food because it tastes good!

We also showed a short film about sustainable agriculture.  Take a peek! Certainly this film doesn't tell the whole story, but it is so important that we keep learning and advocating for a more sustainable system. A food system that supports our farmers, our land and our bodies.

In the evening, we went to see Melinda Hemmelgarn speak at Carnegie Mellon University. She is most well known for her blog Food Sleuth. She also has a radio show on KOPN and you can listen online! She describes herself as an investigative nutritionist; I love this description! She has lots of interesting guests and talks about lots of important food topics.

Melinda told us about a friend of hers who traveled around the country taking pictures the inside of people's refrigerators. Take a look. Mark Menjivar's project is wildly fascinating. 

It was such a great day! Many thanks to all of the people behind the events making it happen!  Did anyone else do anything for Food Day 2012?

52 new recipes

I have good news! My friend Kristen has agreed to try out cooking 52 new recipes with me this year! She came over last week to make blueberry muffins and I made Wild Rice Casserole from Super Natural Everyday. Heidi Swanson has a couple great books and an amazing blog! I am excited to have a friend by my side as I tackle items on my list. 

I will be sure to document our adventures in cooking! I am going to try an focus on seasonal recipes and using ingredients I haven't tried before. We are going to try to cook together every week, wish us luck! :)

Farmer Olympics

I had the privilege of going to the Mother Earth News Fair with some of my classmates at the end of September. The fair was located at a beautiful mountain sky resort. At the fair, we tabled for our program at Chatham, went to lots of awesome workshops, ate delicious foods, and had two student teams participate in the Farmer Olympics hosted by Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture.

The Farmer Olympics were such a blast. It was a friendly competition between farmers and students doing a variety of  farm tasks. There were multiple activities that the teams participated in, including putting up and dismantling a fence, trellising tomatoes, putting together CSA boxes, picking up potatoes, shot-putting pumpkins, and hay bale stacking. Our teams did really well, represented Chatham well, and had a lot of fun. I got to be the photographer and had a great time watching everyone. I did my fair share of giggling at everyone.  It was an incredibly beautiful day! Here are a few pictures from the competition.

We had so much fun! 

25 Before 26

I celebrated my birthday all week long and it was glorious. I went out for drinks with a small group of good friends, went bowling, went to an art crawl, and had a birthday/housewarming party.

I am so thankful for the incredibly sweet cards, packages, treats, and messages I received on my birthday. Despite feeling very far away from many good friends and family, I felt insanely loved. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

I wrote a new goal list and am excited to start working towards accomplishing as many as possible in the next year.

25 things to do before I turn 26:
1. Skill share in the Howley House
2. Go to Canada
3. Ride the incline
4. Document a whole day with a disposable camera
5. Learn to cable knit
6. Explore my new city
7. Try 52 new recipes
8. Visit the Warhol Museum
9. Move everyday: dance, walk, stretch, run, bike
10. Develop Upbeet!
11. Carve pumpkins
12. Visit a U-Pick farm each growing season
13. Make time for creative endeavors
14. Host a holiday party
15. Take a cooking class
16. Go camping
17. Travel with new friends
18. Buy a nice camera
19. Write a letter to someone I admire
20. Explore the city via the trail system
21. Grow a garden
22. Learn to let go (and then let go!)
23. Organize, declutter, purge
24. Volunteer with a youth-serving organization
25. Be brave

Some goals are much more ambitious than others, but I am excited to be more adventurous. Being in a new city with new friends helps break me out of my comfort zone too. There are lots of things to see, do, and learn. I am going to do my best to embrace that!

I guess this is what 25 looks like!

Feeling so thankful.