I love fall cooking. Growing the babe means that I'm paying attention to my diet, trying to eat more whole grains, nuts, and green things. Have you tried honeycrisp apples this season? With some firm cheese and a cup of tea they're my favorite snack. Except, of course, for the quick breads. I'm taking inspiration from Deb at Smitten Kitchen and Jess at Sweet Amandine--in the last few weeks I've made banana bread, zucchini bread, a free-form apple tart, and now I have an apple cake in the oven. The kitchen is warm and the house smells delicious.

I'm reading a compilation of Elizabeth David's food writing, South Wind Through the Kitchen, something I picked up off the remainders section at my favorite bookseller. I've heard of her, but never read her, before now. Lovely! Charming! I can't wait for this baby to come, partly because I can't wait to see his sweet face, but mostly so that I can try some of these recipes with a glass of wine! I'm having a bit of grief, too, that grown-up kind that you get after you've made decisions that you're happy with, but sad because it means other paths are closed to you. I want to go to Provence! But until then, I'm happy to let Elizabeth David take me there.

This is the season I want to learn about pastries! I bought Tartine Bakery's cookbook recently, and I can't wait to try the croissants and brioche! Maybe I'll even learn to photograph them.

It's fall again

So much has changed. The spring was hard on me. I needed to get away, so I packed up my lovely flat on Alamo Square and went to Europe and Asia. I learned so much about food in Italy! It is so restorative to travel there, there is so much room to live your life: get up in the morning, have a cappuccino and cornetto standing at the bar at the neighborhood cafe, wander around the city eating gelato and snapping photos until lunchtime. Sit down, smoke a cigarette, dine alone on pasta or pizza and a carafe of wine. Wander into a cheese shop. Taste cheese. Duck into a cafe for an espresso and to use the loo. A museum. More gelato. More wine. Aperitivo. A late dinner. Enjoyment rather than entertainment.

My honey met me on a tropical island. We learned to scuba together, ate sexy soft sweet fruit, made some friends, and made a baby.

Now we're back, cozy in our new (to us) little house. I'm being a house wife for the moment, cooking fall food, and growing this babe. It's a boy.

I would like to write more, but mostly about food and baby. Learn to take pictures. My belly is getting big. I'm looking forward to a very cozy winter.

Getting deeper.

God is over all things, under all things;
outside all; within but not enclosed;
without but not excluded; above but not
raised up; below but not depressed; wholly above,
presiding; wholly beneath, sustaining;
wholly without, embracing; wholly within,
filling.

Hildebert, Archbishop of Tours, c.1125

Well, hello fall.

Life is changing!

I fell in love, became a dog person, and switched to day shift. Not in that order.

Summer in SF was such a bummer. Cool, foggy and breezy most of the time. But autumn is always spectacular! I can't wait to start cooking fall-inspired food again.

We've had some good meals out lately: Nopa and Bar Jules spring to mind.

I'm learning how to be a lover again. I'm learning there's nothing to be afraid of, really, anyway.

I miss my friend who died. But I'm feeling closer to God. I'll turn 28 soon. Maybe this is my Saturn returning.

All this is pretty exciting.

Quick before work pasta dinner

We get one of those CSA boxes from Farm Fresh to You and since we're getting another in the morning it's time to cook up the last of the veggies in the fridge.

I cook like this a lot.


Kale and Sweet Potato Pasta

Put a large pot of water on to boil.
Meanwhile, chop onion, garlic, sweet potato, and kale and toss into a pan with olive oil to soften.
Chop some sausage (or cooked bacon, or left over chicken, but really pork just goes so well with the sweet potato and salty pecorino romano) and add to pan.

When boiling, add pasta to the water and cook until al dente. Reserve some pasta water.

Drain the pasta, pour back into the pot with the veggies and sausage.
Add grated hard Italian cheese like parmesan or pecorino, black pepper, red pepper flakes, and a drizzle of pasta water.
Stir gently to combine.

Serve with extra cheese or a drizzle of olive oil.


That's about right.

Heart heart heart, Obama. Heart heart heart.

This RN loves you.

This morning I'm thinking of my coworker, Sasha. She's worked at my hospital for a long time--20, 30 years? First as a CNA, then an LPN, and then as an RN. She paid her taxes and took care of her health and raised a couple of kids.

Recently, she had a stroke. A big one. We don't know how much ability she will regain with time and rehab, but she won't be able to work again. And her benefits are through work. Her kids don't make enough money to support her, and she's not retirement age. She may or may not qualify for public assistance, and even if she did, then what?

Call me crazy, but I don't think something so arbitrary and personally devastating as a stroke should also cause financial ruin and lifelong struggle for an entire family. I hope Sasha slept a little easier last night.


And while we're on the subject:

Funny, that.

The other night I missed a fabulous show at the Fillmore because I had to be at work instead. A friend updated his facebook that he's "superstylin with Groove Armada..." Yeah, showoff. So I replied, "I am sooo jealous, I really wanted to go, but instead I'm at work saving lives or something."

That night, I had a patient who had been admitted to the hospital a few days prior with abdominal pain, had had the painful thingy repaired, and transferred to us from ICU to finish recuperating. She was doing fine, until she started hollering about how much pain she was in--unusual for her. (She's one of the few patients I've ever seen who uses the 1-10 pain scale appropriately.) I was assessing her pain when she said, "It's the same kind of pain that made me come here!" Her physician happened to be sitting at the nurses station doing some charting, so I said to him, "Did you hear what she just said? She says she's having the same pain as before."

So we run a bunch of stat tests which show that the patient is bleeding internally and thank god we all took her complaints of pain seriously, because if we hadn't she would be dead now.


That morning, as I was in bed falling asleep, I thought to myself how strange it must be to have a condition that, if it recurs, you know you will probably die. Then I had the strangest nurse anxiety dream I've ever had: I had a pulmonary embolism at work, and I was trying and trying to get to the ER for treatment, but you know how bad dreams are, and no matter what I did or who I talked to, I couldn't get to the ER, and meanwhile my chest pain and shortness of breath are getting worse, and I'm thinking, "If I don't get help for this soon I will probably die!" So then I was at work again, and I called up this doctor I'm friendly with and said, "It's Birdy, listen, I need a personal favor! I think I'm having a PE..." and I described my symptoms. He said. "You need to be intubated! Stay where you are, I'll be there in two minutes." At that point, luckily, I realized it was a dream and woke up. Whew.