comfort food

my comfort food: eggs, toast, avocado
(not pictured: coffee)

fresh rosemary and some of its glory

last weekend my dear sister and i frolicked to the local farmer's market. i'd been once before, approximately one year ago, and i found the experience this time around much more exhilarating because a)this time i had a job, consequently money to buy local goodies, b)both my knowledge and appreciation of food have extensively increased.

but the point of my little farmer's market story, is that i bought some fresh rosemary. i've never used fresh rosemary before, so i had no idea where to start.

my first attempt with fresh rosemary goodness involved yams. well, technically one yam. regardless, yams are wonderful. i preset the oven to 425 F. i peeled the yam (singular), chopped it, and tossed it with olive oil, salt, pepper, and freshly chopped rosemary leaves. i read that the rosemary should be sprinkled onto the yams (or potatoes, should you prefer them) only when there's about 10 minutes of baking left, but i cheated a bit. i microwaved (gasp!) the yams before i oiled them up to speed the process (i was hungry), which meant i added the rosemary straight away. after this, i spread the yams on a baking sheet and slid them into the oven and somewhat kept an eye on them, turning them over every so often. ...all that to say that the yams turned out quite tasty, despite the few that burnt when i wasn't looking.


another fresh rosemary adventure involved wild bison steak.
i marinaded the steaks the day before with olive oil, salt, pepper, and of course, chopped fresh rosemary. we seared the steaks for a minute on each side, before placing them on a medium heated griddle. i placed a sprig of rosemary, soaked in oil, onto the griddle between the steaks, to 'infuse' the aroma a bit more. i don't know if it actually worked or not, but it sure smelled amazing. because the steaks were sandwiched between the two grill plates, we only left them on for 9 minutes. they turned out quite tender and flavorful, but if we do it again, they probably only need 7 minutes, as the steaks keep cooking once off the grill.

more fresh rosemary infused food adventures to come! my sister and i made an amazing rosemary-lemon white bean dip the other night, but alas, we didn't have the chance to get any pictures...

applecelerymint smoothie

i bought my house a beautiful book of smoothie recipes (&photography of said smoothies) for christmas (titled 'the perfect blend') and decided randomly this evening to make the 'apple & celery revitalizer.' but, with the excess of mint in my fridge, i decided to throw some of that in as well. i used coconut milk instead of regular milk for 2 reasons. one, the bottle of milk in my fridge is way past its prime. two, i wanted to share the smoothie with my sister, who can't have any dairy. the coconut milk was a great substitute though. it turned out pretty tasty, but i might add more lime next time as the drink slowly turned brownish as it sat there waiting for me to drink it up. brown smoothies just aren't that attractive. luckily my camera got to it before the natural browning process did.



here's what i did:
chopped up 1 apple (after i peeled & cored it)
chopped up 1 stalk of celery
chopped up a bunch of fresh mint leaves
blended it all up with a dash of salt, & an unknown amount of coconut milk
poured into pretty martini glass
garnished with mint sprig and strip of celery