A Classic: Spicy Arugula Pesto.

A Sunday night dinner in my kitchen after a very nice weekend.

Homemade Arugula Spicy Pesto, Capellini, Tomatoes, Salad.

I've always loved pesto.

Even when I was little, I preferred the green noodles.

When I first tasted arugula pesto though. oh wow. Life changing taste sensation.

This arugula is from the Noho farmer's market the previous Saturday morning, as are the chili peppers that I always include.

Pesto is not usually supposed to be spicy, but I LIKE things to be spicy, so there, & I find this actually works great with arugula.

For some reason, I find any arugula other than that which comes fresh from farmer's markets to be seriously lacking in taste. When you twist of the ends of the bundle, there needs to be this really fresh spicy nutty smell, or there's just no point, at least not for pesto.

My classic Spicy Arugula Pesto consists of:

fresh arugula, usually swiss cheese (again, uncommon for pesto but I like it), almonds, a clove of garlic, a chili pepper or two, a splash of sriracha hot sauce, extra virgin olive oil, & salt & pepper (very important, always noticeable when forgotten), then into the Cuisinart.

I usually make a ton, & eat it later in the week on sandwiches, or mixed with mayonnaise as a dipping sauce (excellent for fried green tomatoes, for example).

I like to serve my pesto & pesto with chopped fresh tomatoes.

I have no noodle preference, but on this night I went with capellini,

which are fun to draw.

Which is ALSO very important.

Fall Stew.

I invented this last night driving home from work on a quintessential rainy October New England night,
& then made it from scratch, & cooked it for company.

Not bad, I say.

Liz's 2009 Fall Stew:
skirt steak (chopped), purple carrots (local), cipollini onions (local), minty garlic (an awesome present from Beth from the Garlic Fest), butternut squash (tragically, frozen, I know I know), fresh thyme, & tomatoes, simmered in red wine, butter (of course), extra virgin olive oil, & chicken broth (should have been beef but chicken was all I had in the pantry).

served over a wild rice blend with spinach sauted in olive oil on the side, in a large bowl.
& Bread Euphoria Challah Bread & still more butter.

Yup, the serious cooking posts are located here now too.
Look for even more since now I don't have to worry about interrupting the alcoholism with actual eating.

Sometimes I Cannot Believe That This Is A Real Job.

'Cause mostly it seems like a cross between a mental hospital, summer camp, & a bad reality show.
(Most likely I Love Money. )

Yup, The Grocery Project is existing over here now.
The old posts will still be at the DnD blog, but they'll be here too, & everything new from this series will be posted here.
I think it makes more sense.
Sadly, as much as we'd like to, we're not actually drinking at the grocery store. But selling food for a living is more about the complications of eating & consuming food than anything I can think of.
& since I can't help but experience life through drawing, there you go.

Eating & Drawing. At my register.

So here you go. First post, new home.

I wear crazy outfits, I overhear a lot of crazy shit,
well much of it said directly to me unfortunately,
& I generally amuse people (especially Amy) with tales of my ridiculous life.

Yeah, I can actually amuse myself fine WITHOUT ringing up your groceries, you sad sad sad people.

Three portraits of FRUSTRATION: Hillary, Cait, Liz.

Columbus Day, 2009: It seemed somehow right that people were even more shitty than usual.
Thanks, America, you're really fucking awesome & you always have been.

& Sometimes this is all I've got at the end of the day.

As always, to be continued. Until I convince Amy to finally fire me already.
I mean, I'm clearly not getting much actual work done, right?
Please?

(Seriously, I would LOVE for anyone else trying to make a crap job like this into something interesting to also be posting here, so please contact me if you work in the service industry & enjoy making any sort of marks on paper).

Classic Liz (Revised).

I always do this, especially after a transitional summer, which this certainly was. Oh fuck, jesus christ, oh this summer.
oh oh oh oh
I did it here, after the ridiculous circus that was summer 2006.

So here goes,
My favorite memories of summer 2009.
(rewritten because I just accidentally deleted my original post while doing some major cross blog restructuring, so apologies if I forgot anything this time around).

*(probably the BEST one) Tim randomly showing up in town & Tim & Rin & I making that incredible dinner out of the nothing in my fridge & taking that late night walk & laying in the street & me calling out of work the next morning & us three having breakfast at the Green Bean.
*DnDnD2k09, pretty much the whole freaking thing, especially all the laughing & silliness in the car, our first night in Asheville, singing the Magnetic Fields' "Washington DC" as we drove into guess where, the beautiful highway into New Orleans through the Gulf Coast, the shrimp boil at the R Bar in the Marigny, the Bourbon Mile, the second day driving through the mountains in Virginia & dying of beauty & Foamhenge & car sandwiches. & again, so much laughter & adventure.
*my moving day into 133, the whole thing, from the toasted coconut cream iced coffees to the sandwiches from State Street & Ballantines in my old back yard to the mussels & beer sampler trays at at the Noho Brewery & A Dead Hipster Or A Stove Boat.
*so very much excellent dancing, at the Basement, the 11's, & Bishop's, thanks to all Noho's awesome djs for all those great nights.
*of course all my very late night walks home from dancing, just me & my ipod & the sky & my cute dresses, even when it was raining, which it always was.
*the night in June I randomly met Mark at the 11's on the velvet couch & we had that great conversation.
*visiting with gramma in Brewster & margaritas & white wine & scallops at Clancy's then Job Lot & Marshall's & Curious by Britney Spears & fierce new sneakers.
*at the Spoke the night it was WAY to cold for August
*late night adventures involving rooftop views & 7-11 snacks & parks in the pouring rain.
*the night Karen & I saw rabbit rabbit at the Brass Cat & then drove to the Basement for Woolly Bully blasting Nas & arrived exactly at the door at 12:59.
*the last Amazing Love where I danced with Jono.
* all those DnD Thursdays at Hugo's & Sierra especially the going away party for the road trip where we actually had a big party of people out making art together in a bar.
*Cirque du Filet.
*the night Jed & I dragged the kitchen chairs onto the front lawn on King Street & the road trip was born & then we went on that late night adventure to amherst & the top of that hill & drove around listening to hip hop.
* the dinner party Karen & I had had 273 with the rose petals.
*fourth of july & chicken apple sausages & jalapeno chips at Melissa's party & then dancing at Danielle's & Lisette making my dress much much shorter with scissors & Jed & I falling asleep awkwardly on the floor.
* that day Jono randomly made me lunch & we sat on his porch all day & enjoyed the garden & the rare sunshine.
* that trip Melissa & I took to Cape Cod for swimming & laying in the sun & thriftstoring & good food.
*the times at work where Amy, Cait, Hillary, Thomas & Faye really made me laugh so hard I cried.
*rewatching Twin Peaks in my living room with my roommates.
*remembering how much I love cooking for my friends, & doing something about that.
* that day in early summer where Rin & I began planting the garden & drank the first iced tea of the season with lavender ice cubes
*Isaac's fabulous bacon party plus the night before when my bacon lasagna was born at Hugo's (where all good ideas are born).
*the first meal cooked at 133, dinner party with Melissa & Jed where Jed drew us unpacking my books in short skirts.
*the beginning of DnDnE dinners with Beth. (hopefully many more to come).
*learning how to draw & paint again. & remembering why I care to do so.
& I guess ending on my birthday, the first day of fall, beginning with a perfect night dancing at the Basement, a perfect day of smoked salmon bagels & thriftstoring with my lovely stylish friends, a delicious dinner party with people I love & an unexpected gift the next morning.

Rereading the old post from 2006 to link to it, I'm kind of amazed & awed at the similarities.
I look forward to fall 2009. I really do.
I really think it's gonna be alright.
Some things broke this summer, but some things were fixed, too.

The OKCupid Dating Chronicles, Jan. to Sept. 2009.

Grocery Comics Part Five.
What Happens When You Mix One Girl, One Seriously Broken Heart, A Laptop, A Lack of Money, Shit Ton Of Free Time & A Desire For Company & Adventure & Good Food & Drink.
(by request)(for another lovely elizabeth)(happy very almost birthday)

a truly beautiful awe-inspiring moment out of nowhere & one that wasn't so much of anything (vermont vs. greenfield)...

...a really stupid thing to do that turned out ok although not great, & a really sweet meeting of souls...

...incredibly delicious food but at what cost & the beginning of a series of carefully chosen adventures that were & weren't right...

...promises of tv & drinks & snacks get me to leave town for somerville on a whim & I am similarly enticed by offers of cornish game hens & bacony brussel sprouts the day after valentines day...

...a shared home town turns out to not mean that much but it was a nice evening & one of my worse decisions, but at least I got osaka sushi out of it & oh also survived...

...the best one & the most unmemorable...

...sometimes even poetry is boring & coincidence is just that...

& now, I think I'm done with this game.
But who won?

Some Recent Tuesdays.

Since for some bizarre Northampton reason no one ever shows up at the Basement Tuesday nights for dancing before midnight at least, here's some of what we get up to in the evening hours before that.

raspberry crumb cake & wine at melissa's 9.15.09.

the eve of my birthday, chris' apartment, 9.22.09.

& the moment just before it became my birthday, 9.22.09.

my return to hugo's after a one month absence, 10.06.09.

it was good to be back drawing people at the bar again.

'cause drawing people at the bar is still part of what I do.
don't worry, I've got a lot more of these.
& I realized last night I really should really draw george & dan djing,
so look for that soon.

A Perfect Rainy Fall Saturday, Part Two. (What We ATE).

The continuation, & obviously the most important part,
...What We Ate...
(dinner at paul&elizabeth's)(10.3.2009)(before Ben Folds)

my salad
(I somehow forgot to eat anything else all day, so this drawing is CRAZY)
(eating vs. drawing, when you're starving but the food is beautiful)

what I ordered & I don't know if it's just cause I haven't had food cooked for me in a really long time (I'm always the cook), but this tasted pretty fucking good.
it was one of the specials. it worked.

& todd's dinner & I have to say that the tofu & broccoli at paul & elizabeth's is always delicious.
& that I kept stealing bites the whole meal.

& the aftermath, random objects left on the table while we were talking after dinner = a knife, a glass of red wine, a candle, & an almost forgotten bowl of brown rice.

Sorry it's been either a restaurant review or an illustrated cookbook 'round here lately.
oh wait I'm not sorry.
Cooking is awesome & beautiful. & drawing makes it even better.