empire state of mind

Disclaimer: this post is not really about food. Well, maybe. We'll see.

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Tomorrow I embark on a journey across the country, to an unknown land...New York, baby!! Jon's lovely sister Jessie is marrying her sweetheart Steve at a gorgeous golf course in Long Island. I am so honored to have been invited to share in this celebration with them. Jon's parents and siblings have been like my second family in the 4 1/2 years together. It will be a really special week, to be sure - great company, great location, and a great reason to celebrate!

Only one hurdle had to be confronted before I could really get excited: packing. That daunting task is the bane of my traveling existence! I am a notorious overpacker. Just ask Jon: weekends at his place in LA always call for a full duffel bag, a smaller bag, and a stuffed purse, full of those "just-in-case" items like an umbrella (despite a sunny forecast), extra pairs of underwear, another pair of shoes that doesn't really go with anything but just in case I break a pair, an extra shirt in case I spill something on myself...you get the idea. So this time around, I vowed to keep it simple. My weapons of choice for packing light: a strict list, and the bundle packing method. Originally introduced to me through the lovely ladies at academichic, I decided to give it a whirl for this trip.

My progress, in pictures:

Laying out clothes on my bed. I think I ended up with 5 shirts, 1 pair shorts, 1 skirt, 1 pair jeans, 2 cardigans, 3 dresses (wedding, rehearsal, casual), running stuff, and 4 pairs of shoes (couldn't help myself!).

I arranged my garments around my "core" of undies, my fabulous madebyhank clutch (looking at you, Joyce), and a pair of wedges.

Ta-dah! The final package, nestled in my carry-on with room for gym clothes, jewelry, wedding shoes, and my hairdryer.
I just need to put a few things in Jon's check-on, namely another pair of shoes, my sneakers, and my bigger liquids like sunscreen. But otherwise, I'm a carry-on kinda gal this week! Woo!

Now I'm free to dream about days by the pool, greasy slices of New York-style pizza, and of course, seeing Jessie as a beautiful bride :)

Here's hoping for safe travels, and many adventures (food and otherwise) in the Empire State!

blow-ups and blondies

These last few weeks have been busy! Graduations, people moving away for school, people coming back to school, work getting hectic, training for another half marathon in June...whew. It's a wonder I haven't thrown in the towel and quit cooking - I hardly have time these days! But despite crazy times, I can never be found far from my kitchen.

So what's been cookin', you might ask? In truth, nothing fancy. Some bread pudding and snickerdoodles to satisfy my sweet tooth. Tried out arugula for the first time...and the last. Cooked a delicious dinner with my dear friend Meg. Still obsessed with tilapia - for once, "cheap" and "flaky" are actually good things.

Which brings me to the "blow up" part of this post's title (which sort of sounds like an ad for a porn shop...but I digress). Last week I attempted to bake tilapia, which involved marinating the fish in lemon juice and herb seasoning, then placing it under the broiler for about 5 minutes or so. We don't own a broiling pan, so I grabbed a glass pie dish from the cupboards. BIG MISTAKE. Apparently, when glass is placed close to high heat (such as mere inches from the broiler), then removed from heat, it will shatter into a billion pieces. That was terrifying, but the fish was still good. Miraculously, none got ON the fish, just around my entire kitchen. My poor little tilapia sat in the middle of the round dish bottom, while I scooped curved pieces from the sides out of the stove and off the floor. So, word to the wise: broiler and glass do not mix.

And now for the more fun part of my post: blondies! Trying my hand at these gorgeous-looking bars seems only appropriate, as I am a blondie myself. Plus, some tum issues sidelined me from my training tonight, so it follows that I should bake myself into oblivion with these heavenly treats. Right?

These sweets are delightfully simple to make. Flour, sugar, eggs, butter. Mix, pour, bake. Enjoy. They appear to be a perfect blank canvas for whatever addition you wish: dried fruit, chocolate, butterscotch, bourbon. I opted for that last one. Couldn't resist being a little ambitious on my first go-around.

Sadly, they were not very attractive, so pictures were deemed unnecessary to post. BUT they turned out deliciously! The bourbon was a great add, I fear the blondies may have been a bit bland without it. What would your take on these blondies be?

Blondies
Adapted from How to Cook Everything (posted on Smitten Kitchen)

8 tablespoons butter, melted [I used Smart Balance...perhaps I will try real butter next time]
1 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla or 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
Pinch salt
1 cup all-purpose flour

1. Butter an 8×8 pan
2. Mix melted butter with brown sugar – beat until smooth. Beat in egg and then vanilla.
3. Add salt, stir in flour. Mix in any additions (below).
4. Pour into prepared pan. Bake at 350°F 20-25 minutes, or until set in the middle. I always err on the side of caution with baking times — nobody ever complained about a gooey-middled cookie. Cool on rack before cutting them.

Further additions, use one or a combination of:

* 1/2 to 1 cup chopped nuts, toasting them first for even better flavor
* 1/2 to 1 cup chocolate chips
* 1/2 teaspoon mint extract in addition to or in place of the vanilla
* 1/2 cup mashed bananas
* 1/4 cup bourbon, scotch or other whiskey; increase the flour by one tablespoon
* 2 tablespoons of espresso powder with the vanilla
* Stir 1/2 cup dried fruit, especially dried cherries, into the prepared batter
* Top with a vanilla butter cream or chocolate peanut butter cream frosting

saturdaze

Ah, weekends. Apart from the errand-running and laundry-doing I have to do after the workweek, weekends are lazy times for me. I try not to make too many plans, so the day can take me wherever it feels. Today I slept in relatively late (9:30, don't judge) and made blueberry pancakes for me, myself, and I.


Then I had to go into work for a spell, nothing too troublesome, just end-of-the-month things to be dealt with. I spent a good chunk of my time there playing with my office manager's adorable 4-year-old son, who tickled my feet under the desk and insisted that crocodiles should always be drawn in black. I'm in love, and am already hatching a scheme to babysit soon.

After work I puttered around the house for a bit, taking care of a few things before heading up to Jon's place, hoping to pass a sunny afternoon reading by the pool. Alas, the weather turned against me and became sullen and cold, so I half-napped on his couch watching a House marathon on Bravo. Almost as exciting, I suppose. Since Jon had plans this evening, I decided to date myself: cook a nice meal, have a little wine (OK, perhaps a lot), clean my room...yes I understand cleaning isn't standard date fare, but having a tidy room makes me happier than watching a sappy romantic comedy.

So this is what I made: pan-fried tilapia with white wine and capers. Sounds fancy, cooks quickly, absolutely delicious when it's done. I loved the buttery taste of the flaky fish paired with the lemon-flavored sauce. I served the fish and sauce over a bit of brown rice and wilted spinach, and it was just fabulous (paired with a glass of sauvignon blanc, of course).



Pan-Fried Tilapia with White Wine and Capers
From WeightWatchers.com

1/4 cup white wine, dry
1/4 cup tomato(es), seeded and chopped
2 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
2 Tbsp capers, drained
1 medium garlic clove(s), minced
1/2 tsp dried basil (I used fresh basil here, since it's all I had, and it worked nicely.)
1 1/2 pound raw tilapia, four 6-oz pieces
1/2 tsp table salt
1/4 tsp black pepper, freshly ground
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 sprays cooking spray
1 Tbsp olive oil
2 Tbsp light butter
2 Tbsp parsley, chopped
1 medium lemon(s), cut in wedges (optional)

Combine first 6 ingredients, stirring well with a whisk; set aside. Sprinkle fillets with salt and pepper. Dredge fillets lightly in flour, and coat both sides of fillets with cooking spray. Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add fillets; cook 3 minutes. Reduce heat to medium; turn fillets, and cook 3 minutes or until fish flakes easily when tested with a fork. Remove from pan. Add wine mixture to pan; cook 30 seconds, stirring constantly. Remove from heat; stir in butter until melted. Spoon wine mixture over fillets; sprinkle with parsley. Serve with lemon wedges, if desired. Yield: 4 servings (serving size: 1 fillet and 2 tablespoons sauce).

just a taste

In the kitchen, I am usually very involved with my cooking. I'm the girl with her ladle in the soup and finger in the cookie dough, making sure things are tasting good every step of the way. If I get something really good going, I might end up sating my appetite before the meal is even ready! There is always a danger of this happening in baking. Take chocolate chip banana bread, for instance. First of all, I got an extra scoop of semi-sweet chocolate chips at Henry's for the sole purpose of munching while baking. 1/4 cup of those chips ended up in the batter, on top of the 1 (heaping) cup already folded in. Many finger-licks (and even spoon-dips...let's be honest here) later, I reluctantly folded the batter into the loaf pan. Lo and behold, a hearty nugget of chip-studded dough had evaded the sweep of my spatula, and remained, resolute, on the bottom of the bowl. So I ate it. What's a girl to do, other than put a pot on for peppermint tea to soothe the inevitable tummyache?

While the bread bakes, I'm preparing dough for tomorrow's blueberry mini tarts, a thank-you for the guy at work who's been helping me get my e-mail back up and running. He's the unsung IT hero of our office; always ready to help, and never complains about our endless whinging when the system is down or I can't get the scanner to work. I figure I owe him, and he likes fruit-centric desserts, so clearly tarts are the way to go. I just have to make sure I leave some for baking.

[Side note: I wish recipes would stop being so coy with "4 ounces" of butter - Do not be fooled! It is a WHOLE STICK!! This being my first time baking with real butter in ages and ages, I am especially pained.]

Photos to come EDIT Um, these didn't last long enough to photograph :( which is actually a good thing, because it means people ate them!

unintentional vegetarianism, and the beauty of an empty sink

Somehow, over the past month or so, I've become a vegetarian. It sort of snuck up on me. Perhaps it started after reading food lit à la Michael Pollan and "Fast Food Nation," which put a huge damper on my taste for meat, especially beef. Normally I buy frozen chicken en masse from Ralph's, defrost a breast or two for the evening's dinner and the next day's chicken salad or wrap. I also regularly incorporated ground beef and turkey in my pasta sauce, or as called for in various Weight Watchers dishes. Now that I've discovered the endless possibilities of beans, tofu (cheap! so very cheap at Trader Joe's!), and quinoa (my latest love affair...helping me recover from the lentil disaster), slick chunks of flesh don't really do it for me anymore. When I eat out, I'll order meat, usually seafood - and I never pass up an opportunity for a fresh and tasty In 'n Out burger. But cooking at home, as I so often do these days, is almost all veg.




Which brings me to what's currently cookin': Glazed Tofu Meatloaf. OK so it cheats a bit - maybe a lot - with the ground turkey, but I don't think poor tofu could properly "loaf" alone (I am willing to be proven wrong on this one...bring on the tofuloaf recipes!). But you've got a whole package of tofu in there, and half a bell pepper. Plus, I've got some Easy Brown Sugar-Glazed Carrots simmering on the side - a delightful new (veggie!) side-dish find. Considering I'm not officially a vegetarian, and that this turkey is my first grocery store meat purchase in over a month, I think I'll be OK.




The wonderful thing about both of these recipes is the minimal amount of dirty dishes they produce. The meatloaf can be accomplished with a bowl, a whisk, a saucepan and a baking dish; the carrots, just a saucepan and a spoon. As much as I love cooking, I absolutely hate doing dishes, so a small stack of dishes at the end of the night is a reason to celebrate, indeed. Perhaps a small glass of wine will do the trick...


Looks like a hot mess, but it's actually pretty tasty!

twenty-three

Birthdays are my favorite days. This year, it was tough deciding how to celebrate. I had a lot of suggestions: Vegas, Gaslamp quarter, Vegas, beach, oh and I think someone suggested Vegas. I was a little overwhelmed with my choices. Then I realized, my birthday is the one day where I can do exactly what I want, when I want - OK I'm sure I sound like a birthday diva, but it's true! And all I wanted this year was a big slice of not much. Luckily my birthday fell on a weekend, so being lazy seemed only appropriate. I slept in, went kite-flying with Jon, watched a couple of kick-ass movies while drinking my favorite beer, and went to bed relatively early.

When Sunday rolled around, I was ready for some action, but wanted to stay true to my me-centric plan. So naturally, I spent all day in the kitchen with Julia Child's cookbook, preparing boeuf bourguignon, garlic mashed potatoes, and soufflé à l'orange. What an adventure, and what a payoff!



Julia's Boeuf Bourguignon...


...Garlic Mashed Potatoes (hats off to Miss Betsy for the fabulous casserole!)...


...and Soufflé à L'Orange.

One thing I learned on my birthday is that even when you plan on a perfect day, things can still go wrong. Not with my French cooking, thankfully, but take kite flying for instance. I borrowed a beautiful, fierce-looking kite from the equally beautiful and fierce Joyce. Mission Bay was ideal for kite-flying that day; not too crowded, and plenty windy. Hopes were high when Jon and I claimed a grassy stretch for what we imagined to be hours of languishing in the shade, watching the kite float lazily in the breeze. Jon grabbed the kite and strode down the lawn, while I went the other way, letting out the line. We waited til the wind picked up, Jon threw the kite up in the air, it shot straight up, the line was taught in my hand, I was laughing with the wind in my hair, it climbed and climbed...then did a few ginormous loop-de-loops and dove nose-first into the grass. We tried in vain to get it in the air, but got the same results every time. Highly disappointing. After checking and double-checking the kite, we concluded it just wasn't the right kind of kite for flying (perhaps it's more suited for fighting?). We were sad for a few minutes, but then Jon offered to take me to see "Clash of the Titans" and I felt better.

In short, I learned that you can't always get your way, and sometimes, you just gotta figure out a plan B. Good lesson to start off my twenty-third year, I think. Here's to another 23 years - hopefully more! - to put my newfound wisdom into practice.

food and fun with lindsey ♥

A few weeks ago, I had a very special weekend guest chez Blonde Gourmande: one of my very best friends Lindsey (aka La Gourmande Rouge!). Linds and I have been friends since middle school, and luckily for me, she loves food and cooking (and French!). So I knew we were in for some fun, both in the kitchen and out.

The first night she visited, we attempted pizza dough from scratch, subbing half the white flour in the original recipe for whole-wheat flour. We topped it with pesto and WW shredded cheese, and the results were extraordinary!
Lindsey made a great sous chef. All she needs is a fancy white hat!

The raw dough, waiting to be transformed into something delicious (and edible).

Cheese, please!

Before...

...and after. YUM. This pizza didn't last long!

The next morning, I suggested we try a recipe for cranberry and corn pancakes from Not Eating Out in New York. Lindsey seemed dubious, but eager to try. Despite how gorgeous these babies looked, I gotta say, corn in pancakes is not something I am apt to try again. But, at least we gave it a shot.

Gorgeous cranberries really popped against the yellow of the corn.

This stack of pancakes looks promising...but the texture/taste combo was a little too unusual for our liking.

A couple more highlights of Lindsey's visit:


Natural History Museum, Balboa Park

Picnic Lunch in Balboa Park


Cooking ratatouille, cassoulet, and and homemade bread for the boys. They didn't balk at the veggies, and even came back for seconds!





All in all, a very enjoyable, very tasty weekend. I only wish it could have been longer!

I have many more pictures from other cooking adventures, including my birthday weekend, but those will have to wait - it's dinner time :)

waste not, want not

Maybe it's just me, but I have always had guilt issues when it comes to wasting food. If you've ever eaten with me, you'll notice that at every meal, I either a) clean my plate, or b) take my leftovers to go. Seeing that last bit of my meal sitting there, I just get sort of panicky, like it'll just be thrown away, perfectly edible, a waste. Even if I don't particularly want to, I find myself finishing those last few bites, despite the protest of my already-full stomach. Sometimes it's social; if someone cooks me a meal, uneaten food seems an insult to the chef. Sometimes it's fiscal; if I pay $14 for a pizza, I am going to eat the whole darn pizza. Sometimes, I just don't know why. Perhaps the old "Starving children in Africa line" really got to me as a kid. Or maybe it stems from back when my mom would withhold desserts until we "cleared our plates." It was a devious but brilliant method devised to get us to eat our vegetables. The older and more obedient child was I, gulping down the last bites of soggy, steamed broccoli with hardly a fuss. My sister, however, stubborn as all get-out, would sit at the table for upwards of an hour, frowning at her plate, alternately yelling at my parents and fuming in silence while I happily (and flagrantly) slurped my ice cream. Even at a young age, I was a total sell-out for sweets.

It wasn't until much later that I learned the world does not come to an end if you throw in the towel before your plate is empty. This simple fact has saved me a considerable amount of guilt, and even lost me a little weight. Still, I hate throwing away food, and even more so now that I'm paying for my own groceries. So every few days, I peer into the depths of my refrigerator, chopping and stir-frying about-to-go-bad greens and veggies, making ginger-yogurt sauce with the last spoonfuls of Greek yogurt, wilting already-partially-wilted spinach or tossing it into scrambled eggs. Being kinda broke (I prefer the term "frugal") has made me pretty good at getting creative with whatever I have left.

Which brings me to this recipe. Adapted from Cathy Erway's book The Art of Eating In, I took a stale, crumbly chocolate cake and turned it into delish, single-serving desserts. I consider it my sweet defeat of food-wasting guilt. Don't let another baked good go bad again!

"Recycled" Chocolate Cake Tart Shells with Kahlua Chocolate Pudding
original recipe from Cathy Erway
1-2 cups stale chocolate cake (I used half an 8-inch cake. Substitute any stale baked good)
2 Tb melted butter
2 Tb water
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 packet instant chocolate pudding mix
just under 1 cup milk
2 Tb Kahlua (or any other flavored liquour. Bailey's would be an excellent sub)

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. In a large bowl, crumble the cake with your fingers, breaking up any large chunks.
3. Add butter and water and mix well. Dough should be moist but not stick together in a ball.
4. Press mixture firmly against the sides of 4-6 ramekins (depending on how big yours are) to form a shell.
5. Bake shells for 15-18 minutes. Let cool completely.
6. Whisk together pudding mix and milk.
7. Add Kahlua and mix well.
8. Scoop pudding into tart shells and refrigerate for 30 minutes to an hour.

Makes 4-6 desserts. (This recipe made me 3 large tarts and 2 smaller ones.)

Optional: topped with whipped cream and/or strawberries. If your ramekins come with lids, take one to work or school with you!

catching up and falling in love...with kale

Good news! My camera is found. Smarty pants me hid it in the back seat pocket of my car, probably headed out somewhere, too lazy to take it inside and thinking I could outsmart robbers with my unlikely hiding spot. I do this a LOT, putting things in a "clever" place and completely forgetting its location within days, sometimes hours. I recently misplaced my iPod, which turned up a few days later on the top shelf of my closet. Can't explain that one. But luckily, my beloved electronics are safe in my possession once more.

Now, I get to post some pictures and catch up my life!

A brief look at February:


Jon's birthday was February 10th. 23 years young! I celebrated with Dodgers cupcakes, yellow cake w/ chocolate icing, his favorite. I had fun decorating them, but might have developed carpal tunnel piping those stitches and logos on.


Valentine's Day dinner! Filet mignon with red wine sauce bercy, steamed broccoli, homemade garlic bread, an excellent 2004 Merlot, and some good old-fashioned romance.


Mardi Gras. Jambalaya and bread pudding - sooo delicious. Satisfied the appetites of two strapping young gents, with leftovers to boot. Note to self, experiment with more Creole food. Yum!

Now, on to March. This month I tried a few new things, trying to spice things up since I was still "fasting" from eating out. For instance, I visited my first farmer's market. At first, the crowds, the smells and the sea of colorful EZ-Ups were overwhelming. Luckily I had a seasoned pro at my side, Sarah Dillon, and we navigated the vendors with ease. I picked up my first bunch of kale, inspired by intrepid blogger Cathy Erway, who seems to know her way around the leafy, deep green veggie. Here are my interpretations:


Kale, Broccoli and Tofu Noodle Stir-Fry (fun fact: the noodles are Hungry Girl approved!)

Sautéed Kale Marsala
In conclusion, I'm quite fond of kale. I used the Tuscan variety in both of these dishes, but I have since cooked with curly kale and found it equally enjoyable. Adding to kale's appeal is its considerable nutritional value and health benefits. 1 cup of kale has only 35 calories, but supplies over 1000% of your daily vitamin K needs, 100% of vitamin A, and 88% of vitamin C! Kale is a nutritional powerhouse, easy to prepare, and enjoyable to eat. I probably never would have tried it if I hadn't seen it on Not Eating Out in New York, so props to Ms. Erway for showing me the way!

On that note, I will end this post, with every intention of publishing my late-March adventures at a later time, including San Francisco with my family and Lindsey's visit to San Diego. Stay tuned for more from The Blonde Gourmande...

panic, ponderings and butternut squash

Part I: Panic

I can't find my camera. In my privileged little world, this is a class-A disaster. Not only does my memory card hold untransferred food pictures I've been meaning to post forever, it also has sweet pictures of Jonathan and I from Valentine's Day. Plus, with the onset of Huffington Post's Week of Eating In (and my own Lenten fast on eating out), I was hoping to whip up some fun and unusual things (unusual for me = yawn-inducing in even the lowliest of chefs...but I digress), and of course chronicle their makings and lookings. But losing my camera put a mondo damper on my mood. So, I made pesto chicken wraps and couscous salad (hey, I still gotta eat), but I'm saving my more savory creations for when I can track down my little silver friend. He was last seen at my mini Mardi Gras fête chez Jon and Karam. Apparently Jon did not sense the urgency in my texts and is tardy in responding. I am fighting the urge to drive up and look around myself - I will move on.

Part II: Ponderings

I have been doing a lot of thinking lately. This is because I have been doing a lot of reading - reading about food. A month ago, I picked up Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma despite my sister's complaint that it was, and I quote, "soooo boring." (Berkeley provided copies to incoming freshman this year as some kind of pseudo-required reading.) Turns out she was right - Pollan is an intriguing writer, but I can only read so much about corn. The book has been collecting dust ever since, along with the corner of my mind that was curious about food in a way other than how much it costs and how it tastes and does it go well with peanut butter. That is, until recently.

My interest in exploring the more cerebral aspect of eating and food started as a seed planted by my friend and former roommate Sarah. A long-time vegetarian and green living advocate, I have great respect for Sarah's own respect for the environment and her concern over what she puts in her body. When I was making Kraft mac 'n' cheese from the box and throwing away my plastic bags, she was shopping organically (au revoir, Kraft - hellooo, Annie's!), planting trees on campus, and using words like "sustainable" and "eco-friendly". Over time, I changed in little ways, like re-using my bags and trying to support gasoline and other companies that are responsible when it comes to the environment, their employees, and the community. It wasn't until recently that I really started to apply that thinking to what I was eating.

Not gonna lie, for a post-college grad budget (heck, even in-college-my-parents-are-supporting-me budget), organic food is darn expensive. I've always been a tightwad when it comes to groceries, drooling over bulk items and scouring coupons.com for the best deals on toilet paper and toothpaste. There's also been some recent chatter that "organic" might not always be better, for you or the planet. "Well, that's that," I thought, wiping my hands of any responsibility to buy organic and hushing that nagging voice telling me that I could do better than that.

In September 2009, I joined Weight Watchers, intending to lose 15-20 pounds of excess me I'd stored up through college (see: Kraft mac 'n' cheese). In my first meeting, my upbeat leader Meredith recited in her charming New York accent how she joined Weight Watchers and lost over 40 pounds and was now a lifetime member, etc etc. I perked up a little; if she could lose 40 pounds, I could definitely lose 15. So I leaped into my program with abandon, overhauling my pantry, refrigerator, and my basic concepts of food and eating. I was no longer living to eat; I was eating to live. Food was the fuel my body needed to perform, whether I was getting through the day or getting through a half marathon. After a few months, I'd lost a respectable amount of weight, and I could tell the difference in how my body felt after eating a roasted chicken breast versus after eating, say, a cheeseburger. Reaching my goal weight and achieving lifetime membership was a huge accomplishment; I feel better than I have in years, my confidence is sky-high, and my choices at the grocery store are a thousand times better than they once were. Don't get me wrong, I still love food, especially the sweet and/or bready kinds (thanks Grandpa Wade and Dad respectively for those genes). I love cooking (an irony, I discovered - but that's for another entry), I love eating, I love the way my fridge looks full of options sure to please my taste buds and do good for my body.

At the risk of being repetitive, I recently came across Cathy Erway's blog NotEatingOutInNY.com. Cathy highlights the importance of eating at home in a culture that not only encourages, but sometimes necessitates eating out. I just started reading her book, The Art of Eating In - I REALLY REALLY RECOMMEND IT. Ahem. She also stresses eating local, seasonal ingredients. The ingredients in her recipes range from the familiar (spinach, ginger, prosciutto) to the bizarre (freekeh - pronounced FREE-ka, kale, kimchee), but they share one thing in common: almost all are purchased from local farms or markets that offer fresh local goods. Cathy's blog got me thinking more about what sustainable eating meant to me, why and how I should do it, and what other people have to say about it. For starters, I turned back to Mr. Michael Pollan, printing his article Unhappy Food at work. I have yet to read it through, but here's a blurb from the introduction:

Once, food was all you could eat, but today there are lots of other edible foodlike substances in the supermarket. These novel products of food science often come in packages festooned with health claims, which brings me to a related rule of thumb: if you’re concerned about your health, you should probably avoid food products that make health claims. Why? Because a health claim on a food product is a good indication that it’s not really food, and food is what you want to eat.

Mmm. Food for thought, no? It's certainly relevant to me now that I'm eating in; it's not always easy to discern what is food and what is "food" in the supermarket. And I'm not just talking about the dubious origins of hot dogs. The frozen bulk bag of chicken breasts I'm fond of are treated with 15% broth, my cereal has 100% of my daily vitamins (awesome, but still...cereal??), and then of course there's I Can't Believe It's Not Butter (the name says it all). While I've been guilty in some ways (see: chicken and ICBINB) of sacrificing food-ness for convenience and low fat content, I really want to focus on buying foods that are whole, unprocessed, and preferrably local. Just took a peek at my butternut squash - it's from Mexico. Granted, Mexico isn't that far from me, but surely there are myriad farms in the San Diego area that produce imperfect, yes, but still edible butternut squash. It would be nice to know a little bit more about where my food comes from, and even better if I can support local agriculture.

So, here I am, immersing myself in food lore, hungry for fresh foods and more knowledge.

Speaking of hungry...

Part III: Butternut Squash

...I just roasted my first butternut squash. I peeled it, chopped it (no easy feat - it's quite firm), tossed with olive oil and roasted at 375 for about 40 minutes or so (my chunks were pretty large). The outsides are now softer, but some sides have a crispy, sweet caramelized coating that gives a satisfying crunch when you bite into it. I couldn't help popping several pieces in my mouth while I was adding them to my couscous salad for tomorrow. The flavor is mild, not as sweet as a sweet potato, but still pleasant and rich. Not sure what to do with the rest...maybe I'll keep them around as a snack, or blend them into soup. So many options! But as it's getting late, I'll tupperware it up and save these decision for tomorrow when I am well-rested and can be sure that my food processor is clean.

learned the hard way

I have come to the conclusion that it is impossible to maintain ladylike-ness while consuming a bean burrito...

...and therefore, work is not the proper environment to consume them.

Remember the Super Bowl bean dip I made? I mixed it with some brown rice, plopped it on a whole wheat tortilla, zapped in the microwave, topped with some chunky salsa and BOOM. Instant delicious bean burrito. Satisfies my carby cravings and solves the issue of "What the heck do I do with this bean dip??" However, I ran into a little problem trying to munch on my creation at work. Luckily, we keep paper towels and Lysol wipes on hand. Sorry, desk :\

good news, bad news

Cooking has become my outlet for grief. My grandpa passed away last week, and I have since made lemon ricotta pancakes, tomato basil frittata, a bean and cheese casserole, a huge batch of oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, and Super Bowl spicy bean dip. My kitchen has been a madhouse, but I've been keeping my shirts nice and clean thanks to the wonderful gift my sister sent me. Happy early, early birthday to me!I assure you, the jealousy you are experiencing is completely normal.

Thanks to delicious food in my belly and the support of my lovely friends, I'm feeling much better. The funeral is in two weeks - I am already preparing lots of yummy treats and comforting meals to get me though it.

new least favorite.

"I hate with a bitter hatred the names of lentils haricots -- those pretentious cheats of the appetite, those tabulated humbugs, those certified aridites calling themselves human food!"
George Robert Gissing, English novelist (1857-1903)

I couldn't agree more. Don't think I haven't tried lentils - I shudder at the name - for I have! What possessed me to buy them in bulk at Henry's, I'll never know, but I ended up with 2 cups of dry lentils in my possession that I cooked in different recipes over the last couple of months. I've had cold lentil salad, lentil soup, and most recently, rosemary-scented lentils and sausage. This was a promising undertaking; hot, sweet Italian sausage, rosemary leaves, onions, carrots, garlic, all mixed in with those strange, flat beans. Browning the sausage and simmering the vegetables in broth along with the lentils, the spicy, herb-y smell made my mouth water. But, when it came time for me to taste my finished product, I'm going to be completely honest with you.

It looked like poop.

I couldn't even eat more than one serving! It was mind over matter all the way. The savoriness (is that a word?) of the sausage was not enough to save the earthy mush from bringing a frown to my face with every bite. I had to dump out half of my lunch at work. The worst part is, I still have 2 tupperwares full of the stuff at home! I hate being wasteful - especially after the Turkey Enchilada Pie disaster - but I just can't bring myself to eat it.

So, lesson learned: I don't do lentils. Here's hoping the tuna & artichoke melts I made for lunch will make my lentil fiasco a distant, unpleasant memory.

EDIT: The melts were fabulous! Definitely keeping them in the permanent recipe collection of awesomeness.

home life

The homebody lifestyle seemed really appealing this weekend, so I started my eating in project a little early. On Thursday, I made Weight Watchers' Turkey Enchilada Pie with plans to freeze leftovers for the rest of the week. Unfortunately, my poor, sensitive little taste buds couldn't handle the meager 4 ounces of jalapeno peppers. The spiciness overpowered the rest of the dish. Even a generous dollop of sour cream couldn't help! So either I will try to pawn it off on my roommate (Jon found it too spicy as well) or it will go in the garbage. Sad waste of food, but now I know better. Next time, no jalapenos!

I also made buttermilk biscuits from scratch. It's a nice feeling putting all the ingredients together, sticking it in the oven and having it come out recognizable. I mean, these look like biscuits, right?

They were good, too. I accidentally made one more than the recipe called for, and the biscuits were a little flat, but still yummy, and I'm not the only one who thought so. Unlike my disastrous low-fat brownies (can't find the recipe online and wouldn't want to share it with you anyway!), Jon actually found these edible and delicious. Yay, me!

This morning, I made lemon ricotta pancakes. I was supposed to make them with my friend Megan, but circumstances being what they are with my family, I had to postpone. So I practiced today after being a good girl and going to the gym. They were DIVINE.

Colorful mixing bowls makes breakfast even more fun.

Any recipe requiring melting butter on a hot pan is A-OK with me.

Ta-daaah!

These didn't last long. And the best part: I couldn't possibly eat them all, so I get to freeze the rest for later. This will be a tasty week.

unprepared

It's always too soon.

Project Dine In

Hello, my little neglected corner of the blogosphere. I'm revisiting you to make an announcement: I, Jennifer Driver, will not be dining out for the entire month of February. This includes restaurants, coffee shops, fast food, and (sob) El Zarape. Inspired by Cathy at Not Eating Out in New York, my goal is to save money (approx. $100) and eat more healthfully by cooking my own meals. It will be tough; as I was discussing last night with my friend Sarah, most social gatherings take place over dinner or coffee. For some reason, we gravitate toward making food the center of our get-togethers, whether we are catching up with friends or celebrating a birthday. But dining out is expensive and not as intimate as preparing and eating a meal together, or taking a walk or visiting a museum. One of my goals in this project is to redefine the way my friends and I spend time together.

To make sure I don't go crazy cooking alone in my tiny apartment kitchen, I am enlisting my friends and boyfriend to support my cause. Sarah and I already have plans to cook dinner together, and Jon has offered to pay for ingredients if I will whip him up something meaty and fabulous from Julia Child's famous cookbook. I also have plans for a grand kitchen-stocking shopping spree this weekend; I've been drooling over SUPER cheap casseroles at Amazon, mini muffin tins at Target, and loaf pans & a grill pan at IKEA. Hopefully I will remember to take pictures, even though my food doesn't always come out pretty and my standard point-and-shoot camera wasn't made for taking blog-worthy pictures. I just love when blogs have pictures, it looks more interesting.

I'm kicking off my journey February 1st, after a "last supper" at the Waterfront Grill in Nat'l City with Joyce this Friday. Wish me luck!

hello, 2010.

I can feel the change coming. What a wonderful feeling!

I quit my 2 jobs.
I'm starting a new one next week that will help me take the load off my parents, and hopefully won't drive me completely crazy in the process.
I'm still applying to schools while I wait to hear back from sac state...thanks to budget cuts, they have to wait til their department gets its allocations before sending out letters. Really, an e-mail wouldn't hurt, but I guess they prefer to do things the old-fashioned (and expensive) way.
I ran 12 MILES today! In three weeks, I will run my first half-marathon ever!
WW has been a huge success - it's getting easier to eat healthy and take care of myself. At this point I don't care how much weight I've lost, I'm just thankful for the lifestyle change and confident that I won't go back to my old habits.

Alas, change isn't always good...

Jon leaves for med school in 8 months. Not much to say about that.
This year, my brother turns 16 and my sister turns TWENTY. I am not liking this at all.
My grandpa has brain cancer. Luckily, it's treatable, but still. It's brain cancer and I'm terrified. What a lovely way to start the new year, yeah?

Still I'm staying positive - "Keep Calm and Carry On" is my new motto.