Thursday, February 28, 2008

Battle for the Microwave

In an attempt to save some cash, I have started bringing my lunch with me a few days a week. Cassidy and I eat lunch together after class every Tuesday and Thursday in Club Ed, a grab-and-go lunch station run by USF's cafeteria company. Luckily, this cafeteria spot has a microwave, as well as plenty of free silverware, condiments, etc. should I ever need them.

Today I brought a frozen spinach lasagna from Trader Joe's (which was awesome by the way), and thus I needed the microwave. So I tore the plastic film off the top of the lasagna, read the instructions (15 minutes? no way!), popped the lasagna in the microwave, and set the timer for 10 minutes.

Given that most food usually takes much less time to heat, I was feeling kind of bad for monopolizing the microwave. But nobody else seemed to need it, and damnit, I need to eat too, so I tried to subdue my inner guilt. 7 minutes left to warm lasagna!

A girl sitting toward the back of the room got up and made her way toward the microwave. It looked like she had some sort of lean cuisine, which takes very little time to microwave, so I considered letting her pop in her food. After all, I was only hoping that my lasagna would be done in 10 minutes, it might take as long as 15. What is proper public microwave etiquette if your food isn't done and somebody is waiting? 5 minutes left on the microwave.

As my brain was churning the girl from the back of the room reached the microwave, and must have clearly seen that there was food already being cooked within. But, for whatever reason, she opened the door of the microwave. I thought she would put her food in with mine, which would have been cool. I'm down with sharing my microwave. 4 minutes left.

She took my lasagna out of the microwave. She set it on top of the microwave. She put in her own food in, and started it cooking. At that point I was not so accepting of this communal microwave business. Still, I figured that if she took my food out then she must have had a good reason. She must have been in a hurry to eat. She must have had a class that starts soon. There must have been some reason she took my food out and replaced it with her own! The microwave dinged. Her food was done.

Only it wasn't done! She hurried over and stirred her food, then put it back in for another 3 minutes. I was no longer thinking she had any excuse, I was just wondering how the hell to politely bring to this girl's attention that THERE WAS ALREADY FOOD IN THAT MICROWAVE! The microwave dinged again. There was no movement from the microwave thief. I stood up, marched over, pulled her food out, threw it on top of the microwave, and stuffed my own back in again. I set the timer and withdrew my invitingly warm lasagna a mere 4 minutes later.

I swear it was another 10 minutes before microwave thief emerged from the back of the room to claim her lean cuisine, which by then was lukewarm and seasoned with despicableness.

posted by Sara at 3:01 PM 5 Comments

Wednesday, February 06, 2008

Organic Christmas in February!

I had two New Year's resolutions this year: eat more vegetables, and go to the gym on a more regular basis. I am slowly starting to find more fun classes to take at the gym, so the only war left to wage was on the vegetable front. Unfortunately, my grocery store of choice (Trader Joe's) is not so great in the produce department. The produce goes bad in less than a week, some of it has been trucked in from Mexico, and they don't always have all the organic options I want. Thus, last week I did some research and signed up for an organic vegetable delivery service called Westside Organics.

I was excited even before my first box arrived. I squealed with joy this past Friday when the contents of my bi-weekly box were posted to the website. I clicked in amazement as I changed some items in my box and added a few fruit items to my all-vegetable smorgasbord. And this afternoon, on the day of my first delivery, my jaw dropped in disbelief as, after practically running home from class, my box was nowhere to be found on my porch.

Luckily, it hadn't been stolen by my envious neighbors. Upon opening the door, I found that Faye, my wonderful roommate, had moved it inside for me earlier that day. Whew! I dragged my prize into the kitchen, and immediately tore open the lid. There were so many vegetables! I was so excited! I wondered how the hell Zeph and I would consume all of this food in 2 weeks!

Vegetable Delivery!

Of course, I then pulled everything out of the box to snap pictures of it all (for you blog-readers), and then I stuffed it all into my fridge. Well, all of it except the potatoes and the onions. Did you know you shouldn't keep potatoes and onions in the fridge? Something about the humidity makes them spoil faster. So those babies got placed in the cupboard.

Vegetable Delivery!

My review so far? This place rocks! The produce all looks really good, especially for being grown without pesticides. They also delivered some grocery items for me, including a carton of eggs from a farm in Santa Cruz, and everything perishable was packed with ice packs to keep it fresh on the porch (unnecessary in SF, but it was still a nice gesture). Right now my only problem is that I don't seem to have enough room to store everything! However, that is easily fixed by getting a smaller delivery every week rather than the huge one I am currently getting every-other-week.

Alright, alright, you want to talk price, and I understand that. We paid $80 for all the items that came in our box (the base price for the all-veggie box is $50, and I added some extra items). But! Before you fall over, here's what that money got us:
    1 small avocado, 1 bunch of green chard, 1 meyer lemon, 2lbs roma tomatoes, 0.5lb of loose leaf spinach, 1 hunk of celery, 1 bunch of basil, 1lb tangelos, 2 apples, 2lb yukon potatoes, 4 onions, 1 head of red cabbage, 1lb baby bok choy, 1 head of lettuce, 4lb red potatoes, 1 bunch of carrots, 1 bunch of broccoli, 1lb of leeks, 1 bunch of green onions, 1 bunch of radishes, and one bunch of kale.

See? That's a lot of food! Actually, it's more than I wanted since I thought I had removed 2lbs of the red potatoes when I added the 2lbs of yukon potatoes, but I digress...

Of course, I had to make something delicious with this fresh produce for dinner. What's a girl to do with 1 avocado, a bunch of basil, and 2lbs of tomatoes? Make a tomato salad!

Tomato Salad

It was delicious, considering that tomatoes aren't in season. Just cut up some tomatoes and avocado, add finely chopped basil, drizzle with olive oil, and add salt and pepper to taste. Yum!

posted by Sara at 8:29 PM 1 Comments