Green tea cake with red bean filling

One does not expect to see this when one wanders through the break room. Yummy, though. The green tea cake was light and spongy. Not too sweet with a pronounced green tea taste. The red bean paste was sweet and textured just like in bean cakes (the bun kind, not the layered kind). The icing is whipped cream (not whipped cream icing, just whipped cream very lightly sweetened. The whole cake was topped with fruits....and parsley.

biking in

So I walked about half a block away from my apartment when I realized that I really wanted to bike in today.
Oh so nice - It's mostly downhill to work so it's lots of wind-in-my-hair time. Plus, on my way in, I found a park I've never seen before. I may try to get out and check it out today. Just got to figure out lunch plans first. I'm pretty much out and since I ate out at Ngon last night (it was a chowdown), I'm out of lunch-y things to bring to work. Must grocery shop soon.

A very full weekend

Want to hear about my weekend? Of course you do.

I had a great weekend. Went strawberry picking on Saturday (see photo), then went out to dinner with Rebecca (A Rebours for fresh oysters, chilled pea soup - delicious, and escargot) and a play (Taking Steps - farce).

Sunday, Sara and I went to the farmer's market (I found secret empanadas!! I overheard someone else ask and turns out they make them on the side for those in the know. OMG - tuna empanada was soooo good, flaky crust, spicy insides. And now I know the secret). Then I went kayaking with Tilly and Jackie (her boss) (I borrowed the kayak from a friend of Tilly's) after which we relaxed with a bottle of wine (I smooshed a strawberry in mine - pretty color). And if that wasn't enough - I ended up watching Children of Men with Ethan that night and eating hawaiian pizza and beer.

I was knocked out on Monday. Whew.

Heat brings good things

So the heat continues, almost wave-like. We're in the 90 to almost 90's every day. I baked cookies for my Dad for Father's day and I sweat my ....face off. Luckily the rain we had earlier, followed by this heat has brought the local fruit out in full force. For the last three days I've slipped down to the backyard (with accomplices) and nibbled at whatever fruit was ripe. Yesterday, in addition to the cherries, we snapped up some red currents and a tiny few raspberries.

I also found a fantastic french cafe in S SP. I had a chicken pear sandwich yesterday and I think I "accidentally" forgot to bring lunch today, just so I could go back there today.

Seeds and Ice Cream

Last night, Cari and I went to a seed art class. Can't say I learned anything, but I got to root around through some new seeds. I planned my design for this year and heard about a new competition (Ramsey Co has a fair, too and just introduced a crop art catagory). It's soon, so I'd have to hurry if I wanted to enter that one. Cari was fun to hang with and we really enjoyed picking seeds for her designs (she's choosing between two).

After the class, we went to Conny's Cones for some soft serve. Cari used to work at a place just like it in FL (It's just a little roadside stand). Warm night and fresh peach ice cream. Sounds like heaven to me.

I've extended the Pantry Game (do you know what you get if you leave the 'r' out of Pantry...a whole new kind of game). I still allow myself to buy eggs, milk and butter and I've opened the field a bit more to singular ingredient adds (that must be used up in the making of the dish).

This week the single ingredient is a whole watermelon. It is really hot here (almost 90 on most days) and even the nights are still warm. One of these hot nights, I'm looking forward to cracking open that watermelon and just sucking down all that cold sweet wet fruit.

I also managed to finish my Chicken Sink mess. I made this a while back with what my CSA identified as "soup meat." It was more like ground chicken, but a really odd texture. I used it to make Chicken Sink (as in everything but the kitchen sink, but I mispronounced kitchen when I named it). It dates from a previous round of the Pantry Game (last fall) and includes lentils, corn, spinach and any other dribs and drabs that had been hanging around. It looked disgusting and tasted like a blank palate. It was really tasty once you dressed it up (with curry or herbs or spices) but you had to get past the way it looked.

This was the last batch that I had frozen and I finally figured out the best way to eat it. Lots of cumin and chili powder, salsa and cheese on top, serve with corn tortillas. Tear corn tortillas in to pieces, load with a bite of chicken mess, eat. Yummy. Not sure I'll make this again, but good to know where it wanted to go.

First fruits

I got out into the Big Backyard today to play a round of mini golf. The strawberries have just ripened (there were only about 3 ripe ones on the very small plant). The cherry tree is overflowing, though, with luscious sour fruit. I snuck a strawberry (sooo sweet) and a cherry (sooo sour). The were both sunwarmed and they kind of melted in my mouth. It's like you are eating pure flavor. Ahhhhh....

1000 photos

I've really been enjoying the digital camera...especially the freedom to take photos that I want to share, but necessarily save.

But over time, a bunch of those saveable photos have crept in to my collection. And I've started to worry about the fact that I did not have a hard copy of any of those shots. yeah, yeah...backup...blah, blah...save to CDs. Nothing makes me feel better than holding the photo in my hand. Kodak had a sale and I took the plunge and had about 1000 photos printed. No extra zeros there, that's about one thousand photos. The best part of the deal is that I did not even have to pay for shipping. They sent them to the CVS one block from my house and I picked them up there (to the astonishment of the girl behind the counter).

So now I know what 1000 photos looks like all packed together. Looks tall.

Exploring

I spent part of this weekend exploring St. Paul. I found Conny's Cones (fresh soft serve) and, armed with a yummy strawberry milkshake, I headed off to Como Park. There was something going on at the zoo and conservatory (not to mention a bunch of weddings) so I skipped those and instead lazed around on the dock at the lake. So nice. Felt like being on a boat (I was on the floaty bit of the dock). They rent paddleboats there but I wasn't sure if one person could go forward or would only go in circles.

On Sunday - after the home mani/pedi - I walked Ripley (Ethan's dog). I had also picked Ripley up at her house and brought her to the warehouse for Friday Happy Hour. Soooo nice. Hung out with friends for several hours and watched the sky change as the sunset. Took a bunch of photos for no reason.

All in all, a very relaxed weekend.