Chairs

We moved into a new apartment about two and a half months ago, but it's happened gradually since my roommates and I were all away for a period of time after we took over the place. We didn't come with a lot of furniture since my roommates moved from Norway and I've always lived with other people who have furniture up until this point.

We spent hours pouring over craigslist for cheap, but nice furniture. By the end of February, we had pretty much everything we needed to make the place livable and homey. Except dining room chairs.

I had been in touch with a guy about some chairs for a while, but the pickup kept getting postponed. Last weekend, my friend Chris crashed at our place since he had a gig in the city, so Saturday night we had our first sitdown dinner at our new dining table. One of us sat on a chair with no seat, one on an office chair, one on a footrest, and the fourth on a coffee table. It was slightly awkward, but the food was great, a collaborative effort! (We made a chicken, garlic, and cabbage dish with sweet and sour sauce. It was yummy. I can't remember the exact recipe, though, we just sort of threw it together...)

Sunday night found us running through the streets of Harlem, each with at least one chair slung over our shoulder. (No, we hadn't stolen them and were tryng to make a clean getaway, we were racing to catch a bus back downtown after buying them) The bus driver wasn't happy about us taking chairs onto the bus, but allowed it.

So on Monday, when we had some friends over for some AMAZING spaghetti (my friend Alex dished up some homemade tomato sauce loaded with garlic and basil, we had fresh pasta, and I made meatballs from scratch), we were all able to sit on chairs around our dining table like normal human beings.

Sometimes I kind of miss sitting on the coffee table, though.

*****
Italian Meatballs

(from the book "Italiensk" the norwegian version of a book called "Italian Kitchen" by Jane Price)

1 lbs ground beef (or 500 g)
1-2 small onions
1-2 garlic boats, pressed or chopped
A few handfulls fresh bread crumbs (40-60 g)
A bunch of black olives, chopped (40-60 g)
1-2 ts dried oregano
1-2 Ts fresh parsley, chopped
salt and pepper

Mix everything in a bowl with your hands. Roll into little balls. Warm up some oil in a frying pan, then fry on all sides. You can either cook them through or just brown them a little and then add them to the sauce to simmer.