Meyer lemon creme brulee

I had two Meyer lemons about to go bad, so I juiced them. Then I got a craving for creme brulee, so I made these. It's my basic creme brulee recipe, with the juice of two Meyer lemons added along with the cream.

The flavor is subtle, but yummy.

Pepper and feta frittata

The other day, I found a produce stand near my apartment building. You know the places: three walls, a lot of fruit bins outside, selling fruit and produce that is most likely fresher and more local than the stuff in supermarkets, but at much cheaper prices. They had limes 5 for $1, all kinds of apples for $1 a pound, bunches of fresh parsley for 79 cents each. I bought some oranges, grapefruit, a butternut squash, and a bag of peppers.

They were a little bruised, but I didn't care. I got two red, two yellow, and two green bell peppers for $1. Total. When was the last time you got 6 peppers for $1?

So I made this pepper and feta frittata with them.

1/2 onion, diced
4-5 bell peppers, any color, diced
6-7 eggs
1/2 cup cream
1 cup crumbled feta
1/2 bunch parsley, chopped
Salt and pepper

Gently saute the onion and peppers in olive oil in a big cast-iron skillet until soft and browned. In a separate bowl, mix together the other ingredients. Pour into the skillet and mix well. Cook until the bottom is set but the top is still runny, 8-10 minutes. Finish in a 400-degree oven until the top is just set.

The Boulevardier

My new favorite drink.

If you want to get really classy, add the juice of half a blood orange to this.

2 oz bourbon or rye
1 oz Campari
1 oz sweet vermouth

Combine in a glass filled with ice and stir for at least 30 seconds. Strain into a cocktail glass and garnish with a lemon or orange twist.

Truffle popcorn

I bring this to you straight from the wine bar where I've been working. You know about bacon fat popcorn--that is, popcorn popped in bacon fat, it tastes wonderfully smoky and you don't even need more salt--and the other night I tried duck fat popcorn. (Verdict: bacon fat was better.)

Truffle popcorn is normally-popped popcorn, tossed with a drizzle of truffle oil (and another of regular olive oil, to round it out) and a dusting of truffle salt.

It smells amazing.

Prepping for a long stretch of working

I'm going to be working for the next ten days straight. That's great, I need the money, and what with my husband gone and all, it's not like I have anything else to do.

That does mean I'm going to be tired and not very much in the mood for cooking, so I swept through the kitchen yesterday and attempted to tie up some loose ends.

Bananas, gone brown: into the freezer, for a future batch of banana bread
Half of loaf of bread, going stale, and some milk, almost going bad: became french toast for breakfast
Bunch of cilantro: became lime cilantro rice
Bunch of sage and bunch of thyme: hung to dry
Bag of mushrooms: cooked
Bag of brussels sprouts: cooked

I thawed some sausages, so I can throw together a quick meal (sausage plus mushrooms plus rice plus sprouts) or a quick salad (greenery plus eggs and/or cheese).

I may make some brownies, too.

Lime cilantro rice

Yet another good use for a bunch of cilantro that's about to go bad. Just make a batch of rice (any rice, white, brown, jasmine, whatever), and when it's done, add in a chopped bunch of cilantro and the juice and zest of one lime. Salt to taste.

Furniture accumulation

Now that we're mostly unpacked and situated, we've begun the process of accumulating the bits of furniture we got rid of in New England. And because we're living in a one-bedroom apartment, we're almost done. Between craigslist and Goodwill, we've gotten:

2 black Ikea leather sofas, $260
1 black Ikea coffee table, $45
1 black Ikea TV stand, free
2 black DVD shelves, $35
1 metal wine rack, $150
1 black wood dresser, $350
1 Ikea Expedit bookcase, $80
2 barstools to use as nightstands, $30
1 black side table, $10
1 small stool to use as side table, $6
2 desks, $15 (total! from Goodwill)
Office chair and lamp, $129 (Staples)

For a grand total of a little over $1100. Not bad, huh? Not including the cost of renting a U-Haul cargo van, twice, for the sofas and the desks. (Another $130 there.) There is an amazing Goodwill just a few blocks from the apartment; I'm very excited about that.

The only things left to get are dining chairs, maybe another bookcase, and possibly a futon or day bed for the office, since the leather sofas aren't really long enough to sleep on. I'm considering going back to Goodwill and getting a chair at a time, for a collection of 7 or 8 all different ones, rather than holding out for a set that might sort of go with the one original chair I have left.

Also, we've gotten most of the pictures hung. So we're pretty close to being done.

One final thought: this process of buying used furniture, then getting rid of it all, then moving, then getting new furniture is, of course, a logistical hassle. But I realized it's also an opportunity to continually redecorate. The furniture we have now is very sleek and modern and dark, a far cry from the overstuffed mish-mash of things we had in New England, and the two-households-merged-into-one chaos of San Diego. We never have to worry about rearranging the furniture, or reupholstering, or redecorating; we can reinvent ourselves every time we move.