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news
- -5/15: Angela Veronica Wong has written a super smart review of my book PRETTY TILT (as well as Marisa Crawford's awesome THE HAUNTED HOUSE) at Sink Review.-5/2: I have two new poems up in the latest issue of H_NGM_N!-4/27: I'm reading at an event to celebrate the launch of a new DC lit site! It's on 4/29 at U Hall in Washington DC. DC's CityPaper did a write up about it here.-4/1/13: To celebrate National Poetry Month, my friend Gina Abelkop (editor of Birds of Lace) and I are curating a poem-a-day project. Check out 30xLace for a different poem from a different poet each day of the month, plus a personal reading recommendation from that poet.-3/29/13: I have a new poem, "Unicorn," up at The Bakery.-3/15/13: Check out my poem "Twenty Asses" over on Big Lucks!-2/28/13: I wrote about Benjamin Percy and his pregnancy suit for the blog of Bitch magazine.-12/14/12: Amber Sparks chose my book PRETTY TILT as one of the best books of 2012 over at Big Other.-12/7/12: Joellyn Powers wrote the nicest review of my book ever over at Used Furniture Review.-11/7/12: I'm quoted on page 178 in the December issue of GLAMOUR MAGAZINE. Woohoo!-10/23/12: In promotion of an upcoming reading in Atlanta with VOUCHED Books, Laura Straub interviewed me!-10/3/12: I have a new poem called "Poison Arrows" up at Punchnel's!-10/1/12: There's a review of my book in the Fall issue of JMWW.-9/28/12: Kari Larsen said lots of nice things about my book at Anobium.-9/26/12: I have a new poem up on Everyday Genius!-9/25/12: My good friend Robert Alan Wendeborn interviewed the poet Dan Magers and I about our books. If you like Gchat, you might like the interview. Read it here on HTMLGiant.-9/22/12: I have a poem in the latest issue of the amazing and awesome food zine, The Runcible Spoon. In honor of "The Gross Issue," it's a poem about gross food!-8/15/12: Read an interview with me on Columbia Poetry Review's blog!-8/08/12: See me participate in a discussion about Shannon Eastin, the first female referee in the NFL, on the Huffington Post.-7/26/12: My poem "Just The Tip" was on The Hairpin! Read it here.-6/28/12: I am a new regular contributor to Blisstree, a body-positive women's health and wellness website! Check out my work here.-6/20/12: My book, Pretty Tilt, is reviewed in the July issue of Baltimore magazine!- 6/1/12: I have a poem out in the 2012 edition of Columbia Poetry Review.-5/1/12: Autumn of Autumn Makes and Does interviewed me for her Alphabet Soup podcast! Listen to us chat about food, poetry, and more here.-4/24/12: My book is out! Get it directly from the publisher or on Amazon.-3/5/12: My essay "Somewhere Your Father is Shaking His Head," which first appeared in Bluestem, has been chosen as an Editor's Choice for Best of the Net 2011.-2/18/12: You can preorder my first full-length collection of poems, PRETTY TILT, right here.-12/20/11: My poem "For Samantha in the Mirror" is in the winter 2012 issue of jmww.-11/30/11: My poem "Ocean City" was nominated for a Pushcart Prize from NAP magazine.
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about
- Carrie Murphy's first collection of poems, PRETTY TILT, was released by Keyhole Press in 2012. She received her BA from the University of Maryland and her MFA from New Mexico State University. Her chapbook, MEET THE LAVENDERS, appeared in 2011 from Birds of Lace. She works as a teacher, freelance writer, and doula.Carrie's poems have appeared in Columbia Poetry Review, JMWW, Everyday Genius, H_NGM_N, PANK, Punchnel's, and other journals and magazines. Her freelance work appears regularly in various outlets.
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full-length collection of poems
My first full-length collection of poems, PRETTY TILT, was published by Keyhole Press in Spring 2012. Order it directly from the publisher here or an Amazon here. Check out the book's Tumblr here.Carrie Murphy writes the ambiguous and ambivalent viscera beneath the surface of the pretty girl in her “tragic dresses,” quoting the canon of girlhood - Clueless and Tori Amos and Dirty Dancing and Disney and My Little Pony. "The tools I used/to write myself a girl." Her girls are gooshy and oozey and bleeding and bothered and wanting and horny as hell, like craven and craving Molly Blooms. Like if the Lisbon sisters grew up in the nineties and were not projections but desirous, desiring of the icky, beautiful boys, writing of crusted panties and the phenomenology of the blow job or wanting to fuck a 15-year-old Prince William at his mother’s funeral. “All we have in common is our colossal boredom.” These poems are hilarious, joyful, dirty, deeply felt, fucked, totally inappropriate, gorgeous.
- Kate Zambreno, author of Green Girl and Heroines
In Carrie Murphy’s dazzling poem “Mirrorball,” there is the realized tautology that “To be luminous is to acquiesce, to acquiesce is to be luminous.” It would be tempting to classify the spinning surface delights of this book into the categories of the girlish, the sex kitten, the raunchy, or the princess, but then the rigorous self-awareness of these poems would be ignored. Unappeasable, disastrous carnal appetite loudly proclaims itself from behind a myriad of masks, but when the tender self finally “unbraids,” it blinds everyone who sees it. Pretty Tilt is a radiant debut.
--Richard Greenfield, author of A Carnage in the Lovetrees and Tracer
Pretty Tilt is an utterly engaging love letter to the incandescent moments that, when threaded together, represent girlhood--young women on the cusp of something just beyond themselves, reaching, fumbling, falling, in sometimes glorious, sometimes garish, but always beautifully rendered, unflinching ways.- Roxane Gay, author of AyitiCarrie Murphy’s Pretty Tilt aches my body like the Sweetarts she invokes in the first devastating poem of the book. Every girl inside its pages is full to bursting like an ulcer waiting to wreak its havoc, your stomach made a tender, loving carapace for them despite their reckless living. Each bong hit, backseat fuck and curious touch splits me open with a desire to reach inside the page and stroke each girl’s dirty, sweaty head. Pretty Tilt is full of a love, ferocity and skill of creation that will stun you like an accidental football to the face in gym class.- Gina Abelkop, author of Darling Beastlettes
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chapbook
- My chapbook of poems about a fictional 1960s girl group, MEET THE LAVENDERS, appeared in 2011 from Birds of Lace, a feminist press.
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Tweets
- hey @nicolebrett here's the almond butter pancake recipe i instagrammed yesterday! http://t.co/xcP2aa0MGN
- facebook chat, i have never ever used you even once. why the fuck do you keep turning on on my account?
- hockey is weird.
- disappointing frito pie
- i'm kind of alarmed that more than one person said that being fondled by a male partner was a stand-in for a breast self-exam.
- quick, west coast people: what's an easy off-the-beaten-path, not obvious weekend getaway? (not for me)
- i'm going to trivia tonight with a bunch of economics phd students. should be...something.
- summer >everything else
- there's just so many things to have opinions about here on the internet, huh?
- putting it out there that i am looking for work as a blogger/social media person. i have clips, etc. let me know if you know of anything!
- just got off the phone w/ @BrianBoitano, who was THE NICEST. our interview about his new cookbook will be on @blisstreedotcom next week!
- LOL @homesweetsarah i looked you up on linked in bc of our convo, and you must have seen, so now i friended you because LOL
- if any of y'all are horse people who want to move to VT: http://t.co/Vzlblwvidx
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Posts
- Apr 02, 13
Honestly, I feel like one thing the world can't get enough of is good breakfasts. Not to mention good breakfast ideas. I mean, right? Yeah, it's the most important meal of the day and all but also I often find it to be the most satifisfying in lots of ways. Like when I have a really awesome breakfast, it sets the tone for my whole day. Like when I sit down to do my work I'm better at it: I type faster, I think quicker. I even feel like a good breakfast has the power to make me be a little nicer and more patient. Even more organized! Weird and probably wisful thinking, but breakfast is powerful, y'all.
None of these ideas are earth-shatteringly creative or brilliant; I'm not saying I'm a breakfast guru or anything. But here's a bunch of the breakfasts that make me feel great. They're healthy and they might be a welcome addition to your butter-and-toast, bagel-and-cream-cheese, milk-and-cereal-routine. Some are vegan, some are gluten-free, and all are relatively easy.
Breakfasts In Bowls
1. Chia Seed Pudding: All you need is chia seeds, milk of your choice and then some stuff to top the pudding with. My favorite way to make it is with coconut milk and topped with sliced mangoes. Mix the seeds and milk, leave it in the fridge overnight, and done.
2. Overnight Oats: The possibilities for this are endless, really, as you can jazz up the overnight oats with yogurt, jam, nut butter, fruit, nuts, seeds...Here's one version (I never make mine in a jar though, because it's just too Pinterest-y).
3. Quinoa as Oatmeal: Here's my recipe for this! I don't eat it often, but when I do, it's good.
4. Breakfast Kasha: I made one with apple, if you'll remember, but any fruit would be great.
Eggy Breakfasts
5. Eggs Baked In Tomatoes: Cute, easy and healthy. Here's a recipe.
6. Fried or Poached Egg on a Bed of Greens: Saute or steam greens of your choice and put an egg on it! Eat with toast on the side.
7. Oatmeal With A Fried Egg: This sounds kind of weird, I know, but try it with salsa and a few avocado slices.
8. Breakfast Tostada: Char or toast a tortilla and serve it with some sauteed greens, an egg cooked any style, and salsa.
9. Microwave Omelet: I know a lot of people are wary of using a microwave to cook rather than heat things up, but I ate this breakfast all the time in grad school. Recipe here at my old food blog.
10. Tortilla Egg In The Hole: When I was a kid, I called egg-in-the-hole "the egg thing." Cut a circle out of a tortilla, fry an egg inside and top with salsa.
Breakfasts with Breads
11. Avocado Toast: Toast some bread, mash up half an avocado, spread it on, sprinkle salt and pepper. Add sliced tomatoes or red pepper flakes if you're feeling crazy.
12. Nut Butter Toast With Banana: Spread your choice of nut butter on toast and top with sliced banana. Ta-da! So easy I can't even believe I typed it out.
13. Morning "Pizza:" Toast spread with ricotta (or farmer's cheese, my new obsession!) and topped with sliced tomatoes, salt, pepper and a little bit of olive oil.
Baked Breakfasts
14. Baked Oatmeal: Baked oatmeal is so good in winter. I usually make it the night before and eat it for a few days as breakfasts and snacks. I made a pumpkin apple one this fall!
15. Baked Quinoa: This is very similar to baked oatmeal. Here's a recipe that I really like.
Random Breakfasts
16. Breakfast Wrap: If you're a gluten eater, get yourself a whole-wheat tortilla, spread some nut butter, coconut butter or cream cheese on it and then put in some fruit, granola, nuts, seeds. Roll it up or eat it like a taco.
17. Smoothies: I mean, duh. SMOOTHIES FOR BREAKFAST. But sometimes I forget about them. Is that just me? My go-to is usually a handful of spinach, almond milk, a banana, and cinnamon. But lately I've been making them with yogurt or kefir, almond butter and sometimes oats and of course, all different fruits.
18. Tofu Scramble: I ate tofu scrambles a lot during my vegan challenge. It's a good way to get protein without eating eggs, obviously, and can be spruced up with different vegetables, hot sauce, and more.
What are your healthy breakfast ideas that other people probably already know about but that you'd like to share anyway? Please do so in the comments!
- Mar 19, 13
It should be evident by now that my preferred way to eat veggies (and sometimes fruit) is to roast them. So you're getting more of that with this recipe, which I came up with on the way home from the grocery store after I had bought the plums and the butternut squash (neither of which are really staples on my grocery list, despite the name of this blog).
Butternut squash season is on its way out and plum season hasn't even begun, but I still think this is a delicious recipe for spring. Butternut squash gets really sweet when it's roasted, but it's a totally different kind of sweetness than that of the plums; the squash's sweetness is heavy and deeper, and the plums' is light and juicy. I feel like a judge on Chopped or something saying this, but it was a really interesting interplay of flavors. And aren't the colors pretty, too?I really like to roast the hell out of my butternut squash, so I roasted mine for 20 minutes before I added the plums. You can play with the roasting time, but I think overall, you should roast the squash for a longer time than the plums. You can use regular salad greens for this, but I wanted to use up some of the sturdier greens I had in my fridge, so I used both kale and spinach.
Roasted Butternut Squash & Plum Saladtotal time: about 30 minutes
total hands on time: less than 10 minutes
serves 2
What you'll need:
2 1/2 cups of chopped butternut squash
3 plums, sliced
4-5 cups of sturdy raw greens (kale, chard, etc), divided
1-2 tbsps olive or coconut oil (I used coconut)
1/2 cup of cooked quinoa, farro, or kasha, divided
salt and garlic powder to taste
for dressing:
1 tsp balsamic vinegar
1 tsp honey or agave nectar
1 tbsp olive oil
pepper to taste
What you'll do:
1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Place chopped buttersquash into a pan, toss with oil and add salt and garlic powder to taste. Mix to coat. Put in the oven.
3. Meanwhile, put greens into a bowl and massage with a few teaspoons of olive oil, using your hands. Let sit until other veggies are finished cooking.
4. After 20 minutes of the squash roasting, add plums to pan and roast for another 10-12 or so minutes, stirring occasionally.
5. Combine dressing ingredients and stir or shake to emulsify. Set aside.
6. When the fruit and veggies are finished roasting, divide greens, fruit, veggies, and grain between two bowls or plates. Drizzle with dressing.
Notes: If using lettuce or other greens, there's no need to massage the greens with oil and let them sit.I didn't have any on hand, but this would be delicious topped with feta or goat cheese. I'm also not that great at making salad dressings, but if you had some orange juice (or even cranberry juice?!?!) on hand, I think that would be a delicious addition to this dressing.
- Mar 14, 13
As promised, here's a quick little post to show you some of the recipes I really loved during my February vegan challenge. All of the recipes get a very firm, very bright, very big Carrie stamp-of-approval, for whatever that's worth to you! (All photos except the lentil soup one are from my Instagram, by the way).
I saw this on Sarah's Instagram and knew I wanted to make it, just from the picture. The lentil soup recipe from Home Sweet Sarah isn't technically vegan, but I made it so by swapping beef broth for veggie broth. Easy and freaking good.
I made this Potato, Pepper and Pinto Hash three times. THREE TIMES. That's huge for me, as I almost never remake the same thing in a short span of time. Once I made it with black beans instead of pinto beans, and it was even better. The best thing is piling on the cilantro at the end. Yum.
A shit-ton of hummus went into my body during the month, as I wrote in my recap post, but I didn't expect to like other raw dips so much. I made this one twice and ate it with cucumbers sprinkled with sea salt and chile powder.
This happy yellow Thai corn soup was my far one of my favorite vegan dishes I made overall, and it was the very last meat-and-dairy-free dinner I cooked. This recipe originally comes from the Eat, Drink & Be Vegan cookbook, but I found a blog post that reprints it pretty much exactly. I added mushrooms to mine, as you can see above. (And again with the cilantro. I love it.)
I have to admit I was a little concerned about going vegan for February and missing out on all the Valentine's candy. This vegan, gluten-free almond blueberry tart is what I made for R and I as a Valentine's Day dessert (which we actually ate the morning after because he had class on the 14th). It was super easy and I was able to use the leftover blueberry juice to flavor my kombucha! - Mar 11, 13
I really loved doing this challenge. It seems like I just started it, in a way...I can't believe I'm done! I started on February 5th and finished on March 5th. Here are some scattered thoughts on my month of eating vegan (If you want to read something more linear, I wrote a similar post to this one on Blisstree).
So. How did I feel different? Well, the thing about having a lot of energy? Yes, that's true. I am a HUGE napper (like, I nap most days. Those of you who work in offices probably hate me, but one of the luxuries of working from home is that you can actually nap if you want to/need to. So I do. ANYWAY.) During this challenge, I napped considerably less than usual. I also felt more clear-minded overall, similar to the way that I did when I tried eating paleo. It was really awesome, one of the biggest benefits I can see for going vegan long-term.
I had high hopes that eliminating meat and dairy would help my digestive system, but alas, that was kind of no dice. Maybe it was the mass quantities of beans I ate, but the yuckiness going on in there was about the same as it has been, if not slightly worse. I wasn't necessarily trying to lose weight (although I am newly kind of on a fitness kick! Let's hope it keeps going!), but I did end up losing about 5 pounds overall. It wasn't at all dramatic or sudden and my weight went up and down over the course of the month. From watching all the documentaries of Netflix, I kind of thought that my belly would get flatter in just a few days, but that was decidedly not the case; maybe the body transformation is more intense if you're someone who's been eating a ton of meat and potatoes to begin with? I don't know. I did find that I ate less than I usually would have, but I also found that I was satiated with less food, I guess because of the higher amounts of fiber I was eating.
R and I did end up eating out a few times (Thai, vegan nachos, french fries and these amazing sambusas made with lentils and jalapeno) but otherwise, I cooked every single meal I ate. No soups from a can. No frozen meals. Nothing like that. This was both a cool aspect of the challenge and also an annoying one. Some days I just wanted to eat whatever, not be super particular and creative. There were a few nights I was too lazy to cook a real dinner or lunch and I'd just have a smoothie or chips and hummus (especially if R was at class). But most days, I felt really exhilarated by figuring out how to cook yet another tasty vegan meal. I relied a lot on the internet for recipes and made a pretty good vegan Pinterest board, if you're interested in looking at it.
When I went grocery shopping for foods I'd eat after I stopped eating vegan, I ended up feeling kind of gulty. I'm writing this on the night of the last day of the challenge (although I'm posting it about five days later), so I can eat ANYTHING I WANT TOMORROW and honestly, I feel kind of weird about it. Like, I want cheese, YES I WANT CHEESE. But I don't really want to eat meat. I don't know. I feel weird! I don't know how exactly to describe other than there's a part of me that wants to stay vegan. Updated: I didn't eat anything non-vegan until 8 pm the day after my challenge ended. I've also continued to eat at least one vegan meal a day since then. Do I have vegan Stockholm syndrome?!?!
I don't think I will commit fully to a vegan diet, but I think I might try to commit to a few vegan days a week, or at least a few vegan meals a week. Or maybe I'll piggyback off of Mark Bittman's "vegan until dinner" thing. A vegan diet just feels so healthful, so good. It felt so much less limiting than I thought it would; on the contrary it felt like a new framework that forced me to get even more creative. It challenged me to cook in a different way, to see the parameters of my meals in a way I'm not used to. And after about a week or two, it actually became easy, at least to do at home or in another supportive environment. I might give veganism another go as a little detox, too, to eat a plant-based diet for a few days after a vacation or a period of laziness or something like that.
Check back in a few days for ANOTHER vegan post, this one all about the recipes I liked the most. Since I've already written about 600 words here, I thought another post was in order.
My Vegan Challenge By The Numbers
# of salads eaten: 1
amount of quinoa cooked: 0
# of soups made: 6
# of hummuses made: 3
cans of chickpeas consumed: 12
- Feb 28, 13
I haven't written too much about how my month-long vegan eating challenge is going, but I've really enjoyed it so far. Will I stay vegan? No. But that doesn't mean it hasn't been a worthwhile experiment. I have about six days left and I have lots more I want to say about it, but I'm planning on writing a longer post once the whole month is over. Right now, I need to share a recipe for one of the best things I've made while eating vegan. THIS IS SO GOOD, YOU GUYS.
I whipped this up for lunch last Sunday on a whim, wanting something different than the bean-heavy meals I'd been eating for the last few weeks. I usually like peanut sauce, but I'm not terribly good at making Asian food myself (or at least Asian food that I actually want to eat. There are so many tasteless Thai curries in my past, ew), so I was pleasantly surprised by how flavorful this was. It's also ridiculously easy to make and is endlessly customizable, too—I really want to try it with different vegetables and maybe even sub the peanut butter I used for cashew or almond butter.
I used carrots, shredded brussels sprouts, cabbage (duh) and green onions for this, but I think any combination of Asian-y vegetables would be good. Broccoli, peppers, bok choy, onions, mushrooms and more could all work in this recipe.Roasted Vegetables with Peanut Sauce
sauce recipe adapted from the Eat, Drink and Be Vegan cookbook
makes about 1 cup of sauce
total time: 30 minutes
total hands on time: less than 5 minutes
What you'll need:
5-6 cups total of vegetables (see above for the kinds I used)
a few glugs of the oil of your choice (I used a combination of sesame and coconut oil)
salt to taste
for the sauce:
1/2 cup peanut butter
3 tbsps Bragg's Liquid Aminos or soy sauce
1 tbsp sesame or vegetable oil
2 tbsps lime juice
1 or 2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tbsps honey, brown sugar, or agave nectar
2-4 tbsps water or unflavored non-dairy milk (to make it more liquidy)
pinch of salt
What you'll do:
1. Preheat oven to 400.
2. Toss veggies in oil (I used a combination of sesame oil and coconut oil), sprinkle with salt, and roast for 20-30 minutes in a large pan. After 10 or 15 minutes, stir to make sure they're cooking evenly. Mine were done at about 25 minutes.
3. Meanwhile,in a blender or food processor, combine all the ingredients for the sauce and blend until it reaches a consistency kind of like a thick alfredo sauce. It should be easily pourable, but not runny. Add as much additional liquid as you'd like.
4. Once the veggies are done, pour the sauce over them and enjoy!
The peanut sauce keeps for about a week in the fridge and has a lot of other uses: you can try it as a dip for fresh veggies, chicken satay, fried tofu, or spring rolls; as a sauce for a stir fry; or as a sauce for tofu, fish, or meat. I bet you could even blend it with some tofu or edamame and turn it into a thicker dip to serve with Asian crackers and snap peas. I'm sure I'll be making this recipe again soon, maybe with a chicken breast on the side. - Feb 24, 13
This is actually a breakfast I was eating before I started eating vegan, but it's something I've relied on a lot during my vegan eating challenge.Since it's still cold as balls around here (and I need some warming up when I get in from my dog's morning walk), I've been really into eating warm breakfasts. I love oatmeal and I also like quinoa as oatmeal, but I'm also always trying to expand my eating horizons. Enter kasha, often called buckwheat. I'd heard about it when I first went gluten-free, but I hadn't ever really tried to incorporate it into my diet, other than eating the Kashi cereal once in a while. It's super healthy, though—filling, full of fiber, and pretty close to being a complete protein. It has a very distinct, very earthy flavor. I like it, but kasha can be strong for the morning, much stronger than the flavors of oatmeal or quinoa. That's why I like to mix it with applesauce, it adds a bit of sweetness (plus another fruit serving!)
This is the quick, easy way I've been eating kasha for breakfast in the mornings. The recipe says it takes 20 minutes, but if you cook up a pot of kasha and keep it in the fridge, you can have this breakfast ready in 3 minutes flat.
Apple Cinnamon Breakfast Kasha
serves 1
total time: 20 minutes
total hands on time: 3 minutes
What you'll need:
1 cup of dry buckwheat kasha
1/4-1/2 cup applesauce
1/2 cup milk of your choice (I used almond, but soy, coconut or even regular milk would be fine)
1 apple, diced
sprinkle of cinnamon
squirt of lemon juice
What you'll do:
1. Prepare the kasha according to these directions. Like with quinoa, you use a 2:1 ratio of kasha to water. You will likely have some leftover.
2. Once the kasha almost finished (about 20 minutes), chop the apple, squirt on some lemon juice, sprinke on some cinnamon, and microwave it on high for about 1 minute 45 seconds, or until just slightly cooked.
3.When the kasha is done, portion out the amount you want to eat (it will have cooked up in size quite a bit) and place it in a bowl. Stir in the applesauce until it is totally mixed in with the kasha. Add in a bit of the milk of your choice here, too.
4. Top with diced apples and enjoy.
When I make this, I usually make enough kasha for a few days' breakfasts and just microwave it with the applesauce and the milk. It's easy to modify this to include what you have on hand; today, I ate mine with blueberries and bananas. Dried fruit and granola would be good to add, too. - Feb 18, 13left: roasted cabbage; middle: shrimp with beans, tomatoes and cabbage; right: sauteed cabbage and kale with a fried egg on top and MORE roasted cabbage on the side
I haven't yet told you guys about my new fruit and veggie obsessions: cabbage and dates.The cabbage thing happened a few months ago. I had about half a cabbage left over from a veggie soup I'd made. It's not something I'd usually buy, as I always associated it with sauerkraut and coleslaw (both of which I deathly hate). But I do like it in soups, so I had some on hand. I tweeted a question out about what to do with it, and the lovely Holly of Holly Would If She Could recommended just slicing, chopping and then sauteing it in butter until browned. So I did, and I loved it. LOVED IT. I seriously had no idea cabbage could be so tasty, especially when prepared in such a simple way.
Then, my food blogging friend Marissa over at The Boot posted a recipe for roasted cabbage rounds. She's also new to cabbage and she raved about how delicious the roasted cabbage was, so of course I had to try it and of course, it was out-of-this-world good. Sweet and flavorful in a way I never imagined that crunchy tasteless cabbage could be. The last week of January, I think I ate cabbage like five times: roasted, sauteed, cooked with kale, over rice, with eggs (see above). I ate roasted cabbage again for dinner the other nigh....only roasted cabbage, nothing else. Basically, I'm obsessed.
My fellow Blisstree writer Elizabeth recently posted about dates and I was intrigued. I've had them before, of course, but usually chopped and mixed into quick breads or things like that. Since I'm always always always looking for new snacks, I bought a container of whole Medjool dates at my local health food store. And whoa. Who knew they were so good?!Dates are my new 3-pm-slump snack. I have a ridiculous sweet tooth and eating them definitely fills the same urge as eating a cookie or a candy bar, but they're so much healthier. And weirdly filling, too: just one or two of them as a snack makes me feel like I've eaten something significant, which usually doesn't happen with other fruits. I also like to eat a few of them when I eat peanut butter on crackers or a handful of almonds or something like that, too. Protein + sweet dates = perfection in snack form.
In summation: eat more dates. Cook more cabbage. You just might be as surprised as I was.
Do you have any suggestions of other ways I could cook and eat dates or cabbage? It seems like it would be weird to eat them together in a dish, but since I'm so besotted, I can't say I wouldn't try it...
- Feb 06, 13
I've been sick for the last few days: not exactly the best way to start off eating vegan. All I wanted was some comforting chicken soup, but instead I googled around for vegan soups and found this recipe. I thought it looked like just the thing to clear up my clogged nostrils and WHOA was I right. The spice of the peppers, combined with the garlic and the ginger, totally got the job done (bonus: garlic and ginger can both help boost immunity).I modified the recipe to my own liking: I added more carrots, more broth, and more garlic as well as kale. I also cooked it on the stove rather than in the slow cooker. Even so, this is still THE soup to eat if you're a vegan and you enjoy spicy food and you have a cold. It's the spiciest soup I've ever eaten in my life, and I say that in a good way. If you want to make it and you don't like things quite so spicy, only use a few of the chile peppers, or omit them altogether.
Right now, I'm eating this ridiculously spicy soup again for lunch, except this time over rice. It's not quite as spicy as it was last night, but it's still got more than a bit of a kick to it. I really like this soup and I'll definitely make it again; I love how it's kind of equal parts Asian and equal parts Mexican.
Super Spicy Vegan Kale & Chickpea Soup
adapted from West Of Persia
serves 4-6
total time: 1 hourish
total hands on time: 15-20 min
What you'll need:
32-48 oz of vegetable broth
5-7 garlic cloves, peeled
1 can chiles in adobo sauce
1 small chunk of fresh ginger, peeled or chopped (1 or 2 tbsps)
1/2 an onion, cut into chunks
3-4 large carrots, peeled and sliced into coins
1-2 tbsps olive oil
1 can of chickpeas, drained
about 3 cups of fresh kale, torn into bite size pieces
cilantro to your taste (as a garnish)
What you'll do:
1. Put 32 oz of broth, plus the garlic, chiles (with sauce), onion, and ginger into a blend and blend until smooth.
2. Chop carrots. Then, in a large soup pot, heat olive oil on medium.
3. Saute the carrots in the olive oil for a few minutes, no more than 2 to 4.
4. Then, add the broth mixture and turn heat up to high. You may want to add a bit more veggie broth (I added about 12 more ounces) or even some water to distribute the spiciness a bit.
5. Add chickpeas and bring mixture to a boil.
6. Once it's boiling, turn down the heat and simmer for 20-25 minutes, or until carrots are tender.
7. Stir in kale and cook until kale is wilted.
8. Garnish with cilantro and serve.
If you're not vegan, feel free to use chicken broth or even add shredded chicken to the recipe. Prepare for your sinuses to be opened, regardless! - Feb 01, 13
So, I'm going vegan for February.
Orrrrrr for most of February. I'm waiting until after this Sunday's Super Bowl to actually start eating vegan because the Ravens are playing, which means I'll be in Baltimore around bad food. Which means it'll just be easier not to have to eat vegan amongst all the wings and pizza and nachos that come along with football watching. Because although I don't like football, I do like football junk food.
But back to veganism, starting Monday, February 4th and ending, I guess, March 4th. There are a few reasons why I want to try out a vegan diet. I've watched Forks Over Knives and Food Matters and Vegucated (holla, Netflix Instant) and I want to give a serious plant-based diet a try. Mark Bittman, one of my food heros, thinks it's a good idea and it just seems like the good evidence towards a vegan diet is mounting all the time. There are many, many reported health benefits and I have to admit I'm curious. Will I lose weight? Will I feel amazing? Will my digestive issues clear up? I want to know how my body will react.
I like meat, although I don't eat a lot (that's mainly because I don't like most of it, to be honest. Basically, I like chicken, turkey, bacon and burgers. That's it for me on the meat scale). I'm still curious to see how I'll do without it, especially as I order chicken dishes pretty frequently when eating out. Dairy, I eat like it's going out of style. Yogurt for breakfast, cheese on everything, chocolate after dinner every night, butter on my GF waffles and in baked goods and in sautes. But I think I rely too much on cheese as a flavorer (flavorizer? Or maybe it's just flavor?) in my cooking, so it will be good for me to learn to make a soup or a pasta dish that doesn't taste five times better with Parmesan on top.
I actually don't drink regular milk (I've transitioned into using mostly almond or coconut milk), so that won't be a problem. Baking without dairy and eggs hasn't been hard for me in the past, so I imagine chia seeds and applesauce will get some additional play this month. I should also mention that I am going to continue to eat honey during the month, just because I'm not going vegan for moral or ethical reasons. Some vegans do eat honey, anyway, although it's a source of controversy.
Another reason why I want to try out a vegan diet is because although I eat pretty healthfully now, I'm kind of in an eating rut. I rely on the same kinds of foods and the same kinds of recipes to get me through the week--tea and yogurt or toast for breakfast, leftovers for lunch, pasta or quinoa or chicken tacos for dinner. I'm hoping that changing the parameters of what I can eat will make me look at food and eating in a different way. And obviously, it will be a fun cooking challenge, too! I'm always inspired by the vegan food blogs I read and I'm excited to make some good vegan recipes.
I might try this website's 30 Day Vegan Challenge, where you get all kinds of emailed tips and recipes. It seems kinda gimmicky and I'm pretty sure I could get by without it but hey, it's only $20. I have this awesome cookbook, too, which I'm excited about utilizing.
But I need more recipes and more resources! Do you have any good recipes? Any tips? Suggestions for an initial grocery list? Ideas on what I can eat for breakfast every morning without eggs or dairy? If so, let me know in the comments or email me at plumsintheiceboxblog@gmail.com.
I'll of course be blogging along with the challenge, so look for an update (and hopefully some recipe posts!) very soon.
- Jan 27, 13
As you may have noticed, posting here on Plums in the Icebox has dropped off quite a bit in recent months. Once upon a time, I'd hoped this blog would grow larger, gaining readers and sponsors. I was going to perfect my food photography, I was going to post a few times a week on an editorial schedule, I was going to "grow my readership" and " brand the blog" and all those kind of internet marketing-y kinds of phrases those of us in the blog world hear about so often.
But things have changed. My increased freelance, teaching, and doula work load has made it hard to post here as much as I'd like. When I'm writing all day for my job, the last thing I want to do is write more, even if it is about cooking and food. I still love cooking and eating healthfully as much as ever, but my interest in taking impeccably staged photos of my recipes and endlessly promoting Plums in the Icebox around the foodie blogosphere has seriously waned. I still love the blog, but it's become something I feel guilty about not working harder on, rather than something I do out for fun, as another creative outlet.
But I'm not going to stop blogging. I do, however, think I am going to end the "literary slant" aspect of this blog. When I started Plums in the Icebox, I felt like I needed a niche, something to distinguish me from the legions of other food bloggers clogging the internet. Being vaguely literary was what I came up with, and although it's been fun to do the Eats and Reads roundups and the Writers Eat series, I've decided not to continue them. After all, there are WAY better food bloggers that have that "literary slant," like Eat This Poem and Paper and Salt. And although I'm still a poet participating in the literary community, you'll have to follow me on Twitter or Tumblr to find out what I think about people who claim "poetry is dead" and all the other ridiculous and awesome stuff that goes on in the online literary world.
From here on out, this blog is going to be your basic food blog. It'll slant towards "healthy" and nutritious food as it always has, but I'm not going to worry as much as posting regularly (not like I have been that much lately, anyway. but you know what I mean). I'm busy and that's ok. I cook dinner most nights in the week but I don't have to photograph it and blog it to feel like it really happened. I don't have to write "Plums post" on my weekly to do list each week, because this blog should be for fun. It always has been, but I think taking away some of the behind the scenes "business of blogging" stuff that's been distracting me will make it even more so.
Look for recipes, as always, but also look for more one-off posts about foods I've been eating frequently, websites and blogs I'm reading, random eating and food-related things I find interesting. I'll probably post a lot more Instagram photos, because I snap pictures of my meals A LOT. I might just post quick links to recipes I've made or recipes that I find interesting. I might do some cookbook reviews, or I might not. I might blog five times a week or I might blog once or twice a month. Whatever it ends up being, I hope it will be fun for me to make and write, and fun for you to read.
I also want to take this opportunity to say thank you for reading Plums in the Icebox! In the year and a half I've been blogging here, I continue to be overjoyed and amazed that there are people who regularly read this blog, people who actually cook my recipes. If you are one of them, thanks so, so, so much and I hope you'll stick around.
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other writing
- I am a regular contributor to Blisstree, where I write about health, wellness, food, green living and women's issues.
My work has also appeared on:I have a food blog, Plums In The Icebox, and I've also developed recipes for Community Grains.I am available for writing, blogging, and social media work, as well as recipe development. If you're interested in hiring me for any of the above, please contact me at carolineammurphy @ gmail dot com.
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contact
- I am available for writing, blogging, and social media work, as well as recipe development. Check out some of my work on my Pinterest portfolio. If you'd like me to write something for your publication or website (or just want to exchange emails!), email me at carolineammurphy at gmail dot com.If you would like to contact me in relation to my work with Blisstree, you can email me at carrie@blisstree.com.If you have a food blog-related communication, email me at plumsintheiceboxblog at gmail dot com.
