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an easy feta, tomato and chickpea appetizer (or lunch!)

Published by fairfaxhill

Hello! I know it’s been a while since I’ve been here, but I’ve been super busy with visits, trips, birthdays, work, and what seems like all the medical checkups and appointments we didn’t have in two years all squeezed into the last month!

My sister came to visit and that is always a treat. We explored a few places in Marin and San Francisco. We went to a trade show and caught up on our lives. It was fun! Then, we celebrated Sarah’s birthday. She turned 18 this year, which is hard to believe. We went down to San Diego to look at the school she might be going to. It was hectic but good. I am in denial of all that’s coming our way when she actually moves away for college. (Deep breaths!)

As I said, all the activities this month haven’t left much time for cooking or knitting anything new — but last week, when I saw this recipe on Instagram, I really wanted to try it.

The recipe is by @smittenkitchen. Apparently, “the original” recipe by a Finnish blogger went viral on TikTok some time ago. I don’t think there is any way you can go wrong with these ingredients. If you don’t have chickpeas, white beans seem like a good alternative. If you don’t have fresh tomatoes, I bet canned will do just fine! This recipe is the type that allows you to experiment a little. I also recently saw something similar with feta, white beans, and eggs, which I’m dying to try. Yum!

I followed Smitten Kitchen’s recipe pretty much as it was written, except that I cut it in half because only Patrick and I like feta cheese. This turned into a quick appetizer before dinner and my lunch the next day. The changes I made were minor, like using chili flakes instead of fresh chilies and choosing lots of parsley and a little mint for the final garnish. And since we were making burgers for dinner, I also added some of the caramelized onions Patrick makes for our burgers right before digging in.

Notes: This amount was perfect for the two of us and would be plenty for a small group of people as an appetizer.

Go on, give it a try! I think you’ll like it.

Ingredients

  • 1 (4 oz.) block of feta cheese
  • 1/2 cup of extra virgin olive oil
  • 2-3 cups of grape/cherry tomatoes
  • 2 cloves minced garlic
  • 1 tablespoon chili flakes
  • 1 (15 oz.) can chickpeas
  • 1/4 cup chopped parsley
  • 1 Tablespoon chopped mint
  • Salt and caramelized onions (optional, to taste)
  • Plain pita bread, each circle sliced into 4 equal pieces

Method

Preheat your oven to 400ºF. Place the feta in an oven-safe dish and add the tomatoes around it. Add the olive oil and sprinkle chili flakes on top. Bake for 15 minutes. In the meantime, drain and rinse the chickpeas and prep the pita bread. When 15 minutes have passed, open the oven and add the chickpeas, change the oven setting to broil, and place the dish in the top rack of the oven so the feta and the tomatoes get a little more color (about 10 minutes). At the same time, place the cut pita triangles on another baking sheet on the lowest part of the oven. Serve right away.

spring in the air, bubble waffles + my new bedford pullover

Published by fairfaxhill

Spring is in the air, flowers are blooming, and birthday season is just beginning for our family. This week we celebrated Patrick’s birthday. A nice dinner at Marinitas, the local restaurant which we’ve decided sells the best margaritas in town, was the perfect place to celebrate mid-week. The celebrations continue for the other March babies this weekend, which should be fun.

Center Depot in San Anselmo: a nice treat after a morning walk

I’ve been eyeing the Center Depot in San Anselmo for months — I drive past it right when they open after I drop my son off at school in the mornings. It is located about a mile from downtown San Anselmo, and I keep imagining myself stopping by with Patrick or one of my friends after a brisk morning walk on the weekend. (We’d deserve it!) I find the little camper truck super charming. Plus, the fact that it’s located in a less commercial section of town makes it even cuter.

You can get bubble waffles, Italian sodas, a.k.a. “sparklers,” doughnuts, hot cocoa, and espresso drinks out of the little truck. Lucky me, I couldn’t believe the place wasn’t packed with students from the high school, which is just a few blocks away, when I got there. I was able to get a table to enjoy my mid-morning treats.

Have you tried bubble waffles? They are so fun to eat. If you were the kind of kid that loved popping bubble wrap, bubble waffles are for you. Eat them while they’re hot to get the best experience. It was a warm day when I stopped by, so I ordered a “Plain Jane” waffle and a sparkler called the “Maui Sunset,” a refreshing mix of guava and pineapple flavors. You should definitely stop by and try these waffles if you are in Marin!

Oh, and of course, the maker in me couldn’t resist the idea of trying to replicate bubble waffles at home someday. So, I’ve tracked down a bubble waffle recipe and the equipment I’d need if I ever do that. But I think I’m better off sticking to the brisk walks in the morning before indulging in these fine treats!

Bedford Pullover – Done!

It’s done! My new Bedford pullover is in my closet (nicely folded, by the way).
Never use a hanger to store your knitwear unless you do it this way, or you’ll end up with stretched-out sweaters!

The sweater was pretty easy to make, but I must admit there were some sections where I wasn’t sure if what I was doing was right.

A few notes on this pattern:

  1. This is considered an “adventurous” beginner pattern, and I agree with the description. It is an easy 4-row repeat, and because there are no increases or decreases in the body, the knitting up to the sleeves is super easy.
  2. If you memorize the 4-row pattern repeat and know how to read your stitches, this will be a breeze. After knitting the sleeves, I realized I had completely forgotten how to tell which row of the pattern I was on, and it took me a whole afternoon and some unraveling to figure it out. Lesson learned? The importance of keeping knitting notes!
  3. Purling is not as fast as knitting when you are an English-style knitter like me. An idea for speeding up the sleeves: knit them on the reverse, so you don’t have to purl?
  4. Knitting the sleeves in the round with double-pointed needles, and even with the magic loop method, left a visible line in the places where I switched from one needle to the next. To avoid this, I learned to constantly shift the place where I started to knit with the next needle, but I could knit the sleeves flat next time and seam them, that might be easier.
  5. The pattern has so many pages it can be a bit overwhelming. Don’t look ahead too much. Just take it one step at a time.
  6. There is a part where you are asked to break the yarn and rejoin it, but they don’t tell you that you need to slip some stitches in order to do that — or I misread the instructions, perhaps? I found it a bit confusing.
  7. Make a note of this: You need stitch markers to make this sweater, and I recommend the locking type. I started the sleeves using my favorite Coco Knits markers, but because they don’t lock, one fell off and I lost my spot while working on the decreases and it was difficult to find my way back to the right spot.
  8. The pattern asks you to cast off using Elizabeth Zimmerman’s bind off technique, which is helpful for other projects since it’s meant to match a long tail cast on. For a tutorial on how to do this cast-off, I recommend watching the Brooklyn Tweed video. It’s super straightforward. The only tricky part about this bind off is that it’s sewn and you need to estimate the length of yarn you keep to complete it, which can be nerve wracking. Just do as they say and add a bit extra. That’s what I did.
  9. I knit this sweater using Berroco Ultra Alpaca yarn in the Peat Mix color, and I love the results. It is SUPER soft and has a beautiful drape.
  10. I would definitely make this again using the same yarn.

That’s all for this week. Enjoy the first week of spring!

week 9: comfort food + a lovely film

Published by fairfaxhill

White Borscht

I made soup this week, and it was just what I needed — a hug in liquid form.

I had never made borscht before; I thought it was a Polish dish, Russian perhaps; I didn’t know it was Ukrainian. The recipe was in Sam Sifton’s NYT Cooking newsletter last Wednesday. The second I saw it, I wanted to make it. I love potatoes.

The recipe is by Gabrielle Hamilton, another NY Times writer and author of Blood, Bones & Butter, which I now want to read. The soup was delicious, and I will make it again, I’m sure.

Get the recipe and try it yourself (potential paywall) here.

Belfast

This morning I watched the most beautiful movie. I’m sure most of you recognize the picture. It’s called Belfast — one of the best movies I’ve watched in a very long time. No wonder it has been nominated for several Academy Awards, including best picture! I think everyone should see it.

Enjoy your week!

week 8: focus on mental health

Published by fairfaxhill

Week eight of 2022 ended sadly. Another war and more people dying for no good reason. What does war solve?

To write about what I was making this week, or to tell you what delicious recipe you should try next, seems completely irrelevant. And honestly, I haven’t been inspired to do either since Thursday.

Actually, even before the events of the past few days, I have been noticing myself feeling kind of blah about everything. The pandemic has lasted too long; even after vaccinations and now with the new post-pandemic “normal” slowly setting in, everything has changed so much. I think I’m just exhausted, and it seems like there’s no end to bad news.

All this led me to an article by Adam Grant about languishing. He describes it as a mental state in which you aren’t quite depressed, but are not flourishing, either. He wrote it to describe a general lack of joy and direction many people were experiencing in 2021. But in 2022, I can relate.

In his article, Grant tells us that flow (a concept introduced by psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi through his research on “optimal experience”) may help us fight the feelings of languishing.

Grant summarizes flow as “…that elusive state of absorption in a meaningful challenge or a momentary bond, where your sense of time, place and self melts away.” The idea is that moments of flow will generate positive emotions and increase our resilience.

Collecting photos of flowers from around my neighborhood, Feb. 2022.

It might seem useless and trivial to focus on trying a new recipe or handmade project when so many people around us are suffering, but these are just the types of activities that can lead to a state of flow and help us cope with what we can’t control.

Taking up a hobby or meditation, focusing our attention as we take a photo, trying to solve a challenging puzzle, or tackling a new craft project are all activities that can help.

Of course, attaining flow will not help solve the political or economic problems of the world. But at least it might help us endure the chaos we are living in.

As I said, I haven’t felt like making much in the past week. Instead, I’ve been spending my evenings watching Bonusfamiljen, which could make sense. I found interesting what Grant says about ways he achieves flow, “A late-night Netflix binge sometimes does the trick too — it transports you into a story where you feel attached to the characters and concerned for their welfare.” Perhaps this has been my way of finding flow and coping, lately.

Flow, by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

There is not much I can do to stop a 17-mile-long convoy on its way to Kyiv this instant, just like there wasn’t much I could do to save all the people that died from Covid in the past two years. I also cannot feed all those suffering from hunger all over the world, or stop the next climate disaster. But letting the chaos of the world slowly suck me into a depression won’t solve anything, either.

There are small things I can do to help the world be a better place. I can invest in my mental health which will make me a more resilient person. I can be a good parent and teach my children to be kind to others. I can support humanitarian organizations I believe in. I can help promote cultural understanding and acceptance by learning about and sharing inspiring work by makers and artists from different parts of the world. I can teach others how to knit so they can practice a hobby that might help them with their own mindfulness and mental health. I can practice gratitude daily. And most important of all, I can do my best to model kindness, understanding, and love.

I wish you all well, and as my father-in-law always says when he bids farewell…

🕊️ Peace!

Some of what I’ve been reading this week:
A Prayer for Volodymyr Zelensky
How to Flourish in the Face of Adversity.
Coping With What You Can’t Control.
What Is Languishing?
Flow

Link: Ways to help Ukraine

Enjoy this colorful art by Ukrainian artist Maria Prymachenko. I hope it brightens your day.