FYF Fest, Saugus Swap Meet, Echo Park, and Labor Day

This Labor Day weekend, because we are now on the West Coast, and unable to attend moe.down, we decided to do tons of other fun things instead. Also, because it was three days of fun, I have three recipes!

Saturday was FYFFest, also known as Fuck Yeah Fest. It was only $34 and I saw many bands I thoroughly enjoy, including, but not limited to: Local Natives, Dead Man's Bones, !!!, Man Man, Panda Bear, and Abe Vigoda. I had no idea Dead Man's Bones was actually Ryan Gosling's band. It was a pretty wonderful experience being feet away from such a beautiful man.

The price of food at the festival was absolutely disgusting. It was $7 for a pizza the size of a small personal pan pizza you get at Pizza Hut's drive-thru. Water was worse. $4 for a bottle that would normally be $.99.

Sunday, Aaron, Rick, and Heather went to the Saugus Swap Meet. It reminded me of the outdoor parts of Quakertown Farmers Market, only times two, and it cost $1.50 to enter. I found 6 awesome records, all for $10. The purchase included Jefferson Airplane, Allman Brothers, The B52s, The Strokes, Steppenwolf live, and Bob Dylan.

Echo Park was equally cool. Zoe and I drove down and had the chance to meet a few of our fellow CalArtsians and eat a couple pasta salads. I made a Cucumber Pasta Salad (the recipe is below) and Tracy made a wonderful Quinoa Salad, which I will write about when I attempt to duplicate it sometime.

Labor Day we headed to Scott and Sheryl's house for a nice swim and relaxation. Afterward, I made a wonderful dinner out of my Just 4 Things book.

Cucumber Pasta Salad

Serves: 8

Food and Pantry
1 lb capellini
2 medium sized cucumbers
1/2 small white onion
4 tablespoons poppy seeds
1 cup extra virgin olive oil

Cook
1. Boil water with a pinch of salt. While water is boiling, dice cucumber and onion into thumbnail sized pieces. Break capellini into thirds.

2. When water is boiling, add pasta. Pasta should only take 3-4 minutes. Drain pasta, drizzle a little of the olive oil into the pot the pasta was cooking in. Add the pasta back into the pot. Add the mixed vegetables into the salad and mix. Add the olive oil and mix. Add more for a wetter salad if desired.



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(The mashed potatoes are my recipe, the sausage is Just 4 Things, modified by me)

Bacon Wrapped Sausage w/ Garlic Mashed Potatoes

Serves 4

Food and Pantry
4 maple baked pork sausage (six inches)
24 prunes, ready to eat and without pits
8 strips of bacon
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard

5 small potatoes
1/2 cup chives
1 garlic bulb
8 tablespoons butter
2 cups milk
olive oil to drizzle

Prep
1. Cut top and bottom off garlic. Place on aluminum foil and drizzle with olive oil. Wrap aluminum foil around, covering all the garlic.

2. Chop chives.

Cook
1. Get water boiling for potatoes. Set oven to broil high. While water is boiling, dice potatoes into chunks. Place foil wrapped garlic in. (This will go for about an hour.)

2. When water is boiling throw potatoes in. Cut a slit down the center of the sausage, three quarters of the way down. Spread 1/2 a tablespoon of the Dijon mustard into each sausage. Place four prunes in each sausage. Wrap two pieces of bacon around each sausage. Place on a pan wrapped in aluminum foil. (These will go for about 15-20 minutes. Turn them at 10 minutes.)

3. Check the potatoes. When the potatoes are done, drain and place back in the pot. Mash. Mash butter in. Mash milk in. If desired, place more milk or butter in (to taste.) Mash chives in. Keep on low heat.

4. Check the sausage at 15 minutes. (Mine was done then.) Pull the sausage and cover with aluminum foil. After an hour, pull the garlic. Mash the garlic into the potatoes. Pull aluminum foil off the sausage. Serve it all and enjoy!

Sprouts: Why I Love Food

Ever since watching Food, Inc. I have been considering shopping at Whole Foods, but haven't because of price. I did shop at Whole Foods pretty much exclusively when I lived in Boulder, CO and I know that they do have sales. Turns out I didn't need to weigh my options because a lovely little place, Sprouts Farmers Market, opened just a couple miles away from my house.

The prices were out of this world. I totally understand that part of the reason these sales are amazing is because it's a brand new opening, but they were so low, I bought over a weeks worth of groceries for under $50. Some of the prices were:

1 lb of Pasta = $1
2lb of Pears = $1
1 extra large box of cereal = $1
5 lb bag of potatoes = $1
Large bottle of olive oil = $6.99

Check out more information about Sprouts here.

A couple of days ago, Aaron and I bought some avocados, but they weren't ripe. We stuck them in a paper bag, and two of them are ready and ripe and ready to go. An avocado is ready when you squeeze it and it's slightly soft. Enjoy this delicious, easy recipe that Aaron and I found in a book called Just 4 Things

Chilled Avocado Soup

Food & Pantry
4 cups chicken or vegetable stock
1 cup whipping cream (1 small carton)
2 avocados
2 tablespoons chives/green onions
salt and pepper
Tabasco sauce (if preferred)

Prep
1. Mash two avocados in a mixing bowl.
2. Dice chives/green onions.

Cook
1. Bring stock to a boil. Turn down to medium high heat. Add cream and stir.
2. Whisk in small amounts of liquid into avocado mash until all is added. Add salt and pepper
3. Cool for 2 or 3 hours. Add chives/green onions and Tabasco sauce.