The Sweatshop of Love Blog

The best thing about working from home?

Pasta Lunch

All I could think about all morning was a mushroom and broccoli pasta lunch. So I made it! And am eating it right now.

I don’t know if it was the amazing weather we had here in Chicago this weekend or if I was just a girl on a mission, but I rocked this weekend so hard.

Costa Rican Fiest

It all started when PT and I couldn’t stop talking about Irazu. For some reason our solution was not to just go to Irazu but to try to replicate Costa Rican food at home.

The problem is that we think the burritos we make are way better than any burrito out there. That is funny, I know, living in Logan Square where there is a dude on every corner making burritos from his family recipe.

(Note to self: Write up burrito recipe to post on blog.)

So we started with a regular burrito I always make and set out to make some Gallo Pinto and Cabbage Salad.

Gallo Pinto and Cabbage Salad

This recipe for the Cabbage Salad is dead on. It is exactly like Irazu’s amazing salad! We halved the recipe and we still had salad left over for Saturday. This recipe for the Gallo Pinto is close, and I think with a little tweaking we could get it. We made about a third of the recipe, it still made a ton. And there is a critical flavor missing from this recipe that Irazu’s rice has and I’m determined to figure it out.

Amazing!

We had to have fried plantains, too, naturally. My favorite part of this meal was plating it! I love when there are many aspects to a meal that you can chose from. I’ve got a dinner party in the works for Friday, so stay tuned for try #2.

Sunday Pizza

Mushroom, Artichoke Heart, Caramelized Onions

And our Sunday pizzas were amazing! Mine was fresh mushrooms from the Logan Square Farmers Market, artichoke hearts, and caramelized onions.

PT's Pizza, with Bacon

Bacon-licious

PT’s pizza was the same as mine, only with bacon.

I was productive on the knitting front, too! I knit the two (Eric) Man-Hats, wrote the pattern up for them and posted it on Ravelry. I knit two elephant bodies and finished knitting PT’s Christmas Present (pics later). I know I haven’t done a Christmas Present Update for PT in a long time because, while I was working on it, it was painfully boring. I didn’t want to subject myself to it, much less you.

The Black Tape!

OMG!

And I managed to leave the house! We went to see The Black Tape Saturday night. I’m going to be writing their press kit so we had to go get the live experience. I’m an old lady and didn’t even realize it was possible to start doing anything at 12:30am, but I made it somehow!

I think I earned a little time to relax, but I’ve got some elephants to finish and some seeming to do. (And probably a trip to the gym to make!)

After a surprisingly successful World Wide Knit in Public Day, (surprisingly successful meaning Lori, Gil, Martin and I ate an entire freezer bag of seriously delicious chocolate chip cookies that Lori made and brought for us) I needed a nutritious dinner.

Veggie Stir Fry Rice

PT and I used the left over rice from last night’s scallop dinner and stir fried up some carrots, broccoli, onions, and radishes for an amazing batch of veggie stir fry. We used some teriyaki stir fry sauce, a little soy sauce, and some ginger! This was sweet and crisp and exactly what I needed to combat all the sugar I ate earlier in the day.

We kept that healthy feeling going and (I’m a total liar. After dinner we met up with some dodgeball playing friends, then had some time to kill before rocking some Polish karaoke up on Division and Central Park. We went to El Cid on Kedzie and ate some nachos with cheese and guacamole and beans! Then we needed dessert so we walked across the street to McDonalds and got soft serve cones. The correct beginning of this paragraph is, ‘We were huge fatties, and to get back on track we’) Muffin Clubbed our way over to the Logan Square Farmers Market this morning before Sweater Club.

Bounty

We got some weird looking long radishes, a lot of mushrooms, and green garlic that I assumed was scallions before Vera corrected me. Green garlic is like a cross between a scallion and garlic, apparently, and can be used like a scallion. She totally talked me into it and I’m glad she did.

Chopped and Ready to Go!

We had omelets on the brain, so we chopped a few mushrooms, a radish, and the entire green garlic, stalk and all.

Best. Omelet. Ever.

See how pretty they turned out?! I’m so proud! You know I have a problem with the omelet flipping. We sprinkled some parmesan on the top and it was the perfect cheese. Served with potatoes? I savored every bite.

And now we have a shit ton of mushrooms, radishes, and green garlic! What to do with mushrooms? Can you give me a P-I-Z-Z-A! Hellz yeah! I’ve been craving pizza something fierce and what better excuse to bake one up than a fridge full of mushrooms?

I’ll let you know how it turns out.