Thursday, February 25, 2010

Salsa Mexicano


Latin American salsa is used more like a condiment than as a chip dip like we North Americans use it as. The closer to the equator you go, the more salsa is respected and revered. You dance the salsa, eat salsa in the morning on eggs, and in the country I lived in, even catsup is called salsa. Put A-1 on a steak? Yeah, right. Pass the salsa. Down there, salsa rules and comes with a spoon. When you crave a fresh salsa for huevos rancheros or whatever tickles your fancy, grab your blender and get to work: (makes approx. 3 servings)
3 large beefsteak tomatoes or any variety
Half white onion
1 clove garlic
3 tbls fresh cilantro
Half a hot red pimiento (depending on how spicy you like it)
Juice of a 2 small limes
1 tbls salt
Optional flavors of salsa to add in:
3 apricots
Small can of peaches
Half cup fresh pineapple
Dried roasted tomatoes
Throw lime juice and smallest items first into your blender and pulsate on low until the ingredients are barely chopped to your liking adding larger ingredients as you go. Cover for an hour to let flavors melt together. Add one more splash of lime juice on top before eating. Turn up the salsa music!!



                 

Face It, Dora

This weekend would have been fantastic no matter what we did because the weather was so perfect. By Sunday it had reached 63--almost Caribbean-like compared to the recent snows. Friday, like most Fridays, I worked and missed four invitations of fun TGIF activities.  My husband and daughter went to one of them: a bonfire dinner featuring smoked pulled pork and all the Southern fixings you imagine go along with that. My husband said the food was yummy and no kids fell into the fire, which is always good. I was a bit disturbed I had to miss the fun, but I have to pay for my Madrid trip in three weeks so that keeps me focused. I also worked a five hour shift on Saturday, but was able to squeeze in some pre-Madrid shopping beforehand picking up a cute dress and new skinny jeans. Since I try to center this blog around food I will mention I had apple yogurt for breakfast, along with a handful of raw almonds and  a fig breakfast bar. The combo of proteins kept me full for many hours. Lunch was at work in the break room and consisted of a TJ’s sushi pack. It was terrible so I gave it away and ate an apple instead, which did NOT keep me full for many hours. After work my husband and I met up with our usual suspects (friends) and headed downtown to a local favorite watering hole. It’s a three-story historic brick building which features a café and fresh pastries by morning, organic goodies for lunch, and a full dinner menu and bar by night. Downstairs is called the “Busy Bee” and the third-floor terrace and bar is called “The Hive”, so all menu items and drinks are named with this theme. Two of my drinks were called the “Stinger” and “Queen Bee”. You get the point. The ten of us shared appetizers and meals such as fish tacos, mac n cheese, fried green tomatoes, fries, and calamari. Early the next morning I threw on my new jeans, a scarf, a SHORT-SLEEVED tee, big sunglasses and we headed back downtown to meet my parents for breakfast at a Cuban joint called Oakwood café. My parents apparently didn’t get the memo and never showed up so later we drove an hour away to their house. Mom made coffee and banana bread and we talked until we realized we should be outside enjoying the warm weather! So we all jumped in dad’s car and rode out in the country to the local roadside ice cream stand.  Closed until March. Well he just lost out on our business! Instead we drove over to the park and soaked up some sun by the lake as our daughter played on the equipment. As if the gods of ice cream had heard our prayers, an ice cream truck rolled through with its familiar out-of-tune song. First in line, she got a chocolate Dora the Explorer face with gumball eyes, which quickly got popped out and chewed. This is what spring is all about. Hungry yet again, we drove back into town and ate Mexican for a late lunch. I had pescado a la plancha, grilled fish over frijoles negros, avocado, and chunky salsa. Eating with family is always one of my favorite pastimes and this whole weekend was a memorable one. By the way, today is rainy and cold and by Wednesday they are predicting more snow. That’s what spring is all about.

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Breakfast

This was what I was in the mood for this morning: fried potatoes with onions, garlic powder, sea salt and rosemary.
 

Freak Three

 



We didn’t do too much socially this weekend because I was working and my husband was helping his best friend Cooper move into his first house. On top of that, we had a freak three-inch snow bomb drop on us out of nowhere. It was a wet snow, which made it stick to the woods in our backyard ever so prettily. My daughter and a friend sledded (slid?) literally all day long. While my husband and daughter helped out Coop with their gang of friends, I went over to Nicole’s to plan our trip to Madrid more. Her husband Hayes grilled chicken over charcoal and Nicole made her own BB-Q sauce, fries, and a salad. I brought over TJ’s Venetian Moon wine, vanilla ice cream, and praline encrusted pecans to top it with. Our plans are coming together nicely, but we still haven’t settled on a hotel. Today before work my mom came over for a while. I warmed up a bowl of lentils for her that I had made over the busy, snowy weekend. Then, since we were on the subject of good food, I decided to have a Trader Joe’s sampling moment with her using my most recent TJ’s purchases. First we started off with the Venetian Moon pinot grigio, which she liked just ok. Then we tried Zafrica’s pinotage. Wow! How interesting!! It sits on the taste buds like a spicy BB-Q sauce and leaves quite a “smoke-trail” down the throat like it absorbed the flavor of its fire-roasted barrel. It’s definitely not just a sipping wine. It would be great paired with a pulled pork sandwich or maybe hot-wings. Mom and I tried it with Mimolette Francaise (sharp French cheddar-like) cheese, aged six months. Yum! Of course you can’t have cheese without a good cracker, so I brought out the Wisecrackers roasted garlic and rosemary. Then onto dips: organic hummus and also artichoke parmesean cheese. As we were so deeply involved in our impromptu wine and cheese party, I was almost late for work. But I made it on time and had fun as always. And, surprise, surprise, I bought more food.

Friday, February 12, 2010

More Shows to Watch

So you would think by now all I do is sit around watching tv and eating. While not totally true, beware of casting stones. I do watch about 2 hours of cooking shows each day and devote much time to cooking healthy meals for my family of three. Call it my hobby. Anyway, here are a couple more of my favorite shows. Both "Made in Spain" and "Lidia's Italy" feature ethnic dishes cooked very simply so that even I can do it. They also mix cooking with travels to and from their native countries. Enjoy!

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Countdown

Leaving for Madrid in just 5 weeks from today!

  


Snowmageddon

Here is a recipe for all those up north with so much snow your roof is about to cave in: For about $12 you can feed a family of four from Trader Joe’s, where I work, and most of the ingredients you may have on hand anyway. Start by boiling a pot of salt water for pasta. Cube up two partially frozen swordfish steaks and dump it into a skillet of hot olive oil. (partially frozen helps you cut it way easier) Cook until white on the first side, then flip and season with course sea-salt. Take out of pan and set aside while fish is still pink in center. In the hot oil that now had a nice fish flavor to it, throw in chopped onion. While this is sautéing, pour into a bowl a large can of whole peeled plum tomatoes, organic if possible. This is the fun part: mash each tomato to chunky bits with your bare hands. This is a Sicilian dish so have fun, pour a glass of Cab and mash away. Add partially cooked fish and your homemade marinara sauce to the hot pan of onions and stir. Simmer sauce uncovered on medium low while you cook any kind of long pasta until al dente. Continue to simmer sauce an additional ten minutes or until fish is no longer pink. Serve over hot noodles with a crisp salad and “buen provecho!”

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Crepes For Coffee

Breakfast is my favorite meal hands down. It sets the mood for the whole day. So imagine my delight when I saw crepes featured on PBS’ “Mexico: One Plate at a Time”.  A crepe is basically a paper-thin pancake wrapped like a burrito around some kind of sweet filling of your choice. Well, it looked easy enough for me to make, and my own version is even easier. Here’s the skinny on skinny crepes: Put 2 cups of Trader Joe’s pancake mix in a blender. Melt 2 tbls of butter on medium in a small round non-stick skillet. Pour butter in the blender while leaving the pan still hot and greasy. Also add to the blender 2 eggs, 1 ½ cup milk, and a tbls of Madagascar vanilla. Depending on your filling, you could even add a pinch of TJ’s pumpkin spice blend in it. My blender has a setting for smoothies on it, so that’s what I pushed to make sure everything was well shaken and mixed. With me so far? Great, so here’s the fun part: pour enough batter in your hot skillet to cover the bottom. Whatever is in excess gets poured IMMEDIATELY back into the blender. This leaves the skillet just barely laced in batter, which allows the bottom side to cook within about 30 seconds. With a spatula, cut off any excess that stuck to the side. Feed to your dog or hovering child. Flip the crepe quickly when bubbles appear all over BY HAND.  Cook this side about twice as long. Lift out by hand onto plate, fold like a burrito, and remember these babies get cold within seconds. I guess you could cover them to help keep them warm until ready to serve, but that could risk actually steaming them. Crepes are meant to have crispy edges, not mushy ones. At this point, have your husband join in on the fun by starting the coffee. We have friends in Hawaii who started their own organic coffee farm, and that’s how I got started drinking it. To me it tastes better and you can get it cheap at TJ’s. On to the filling: this is where you can get really creative. Almost anything you have on hand that is sweet will work. Honey, whipped cream, berries, melted butter and powdered sugar, chocolate syrup, flavored syrups, whatever the heck you want! Put it all  on the table and let your family decide. Or put it on your bar and let your guests serve themselves buffet-style. I wish I had this recipe when I had friends over for brunch recently! Anyway, in my fridge I had two items I wanted to use up-- some plain Greek-style yogurt and half a jar of cranberry-apple jam. I mixed the two and used that for the “burrito” filling. WOW! I never ate this good even when I actually went to Mexico!

Last Weekend


Last weekend was very full for us, so let me fill you in on the details and the menus that coincide before I go back to bed. Pictures to follow. Friday was dinner for eight adults and five kids at Karen & Gabe’s home. Appetizers were  marinated chicken wings with a mango/pineapple chutney. Dinner was a choice of two stews: chicken with plantain and beef veggie over rice. Nicole brought her famous cornbread and I contributed the cranberry walnut tart for dessert which I highly recommend warmed with a dollop of vanilla ice cream or hand-whipped cream. Side note: heavy cream whips better when very cold and in a refrigerated cold bowl.  We ate until stuffed, drank a wine new to me (Murphy-Goode?), and sang to some Guns n Roses and other high-school tunes which Gabe blasted from his music intercom. Saturday evening was the true singing contest at the karaoke party hosted by Chris and Yvette. There were about twenty people in all belting out classics such as by Anita Baker and   Frank Sinatra. I must say, these people were hard-core singers and no one was out of tune in the least. Ok, if you have your own cd cleaning apparatus and drive to NY to buy your music from a wholesale warehouse, you are hard-core about karaoke. One guy seriously could have been the main act on a cruise ship and he knew all Rat-Pack songs by heart. He brought his own boom box hooked up to his laptop. Serious. Dinner was a roasted pork loin for the meat lovers or lentil stew over rice and salad with avacadoes for nerds like me. There were more side-dishes and such, but the lentils were so flavorful  that that’s all I remember. Yvette is Puerto Rican and her lentils taste totally different from how mine taste. I brought over a Charles Shaw Pinot and an appetizer of blue corn chips and hot & spicy cheese dip. Dessert was a choice of chocolate cake from Costco or  Chrissy’s homemade flan. Guess which one I chose. Yep. Three pieces. Chrissy tried to explain to me how to make a perfect caramel sauce with melted sugar, but my profuse chewing and swallowing the creamy dreaminess drowned out her voice. Sorry, Chrissy. I will just Google how to make caramel sauce if need be. Sunday was our day to hang out with the Reeser family whose two daughters I helped raise for like four years as their nanny while home-schooling my own daughter. We also lived with them on and off between moving to and from South America, so this family really is like our family. Dinner was by Bamboo Garden, an Asian fusion restaurant near their home. I am rarely impressed by restaurant food, and this was just another confirmation. Maybe it was because I ordered the wrong thing: a bowl of curry flavored noodles with shredded veggies in it. Too many noodles, veggies were almost non-existent. But the noodles were filling and the flavor was decent. Back at their house we prepared for game night by setting out the goods: Italian soda, Trader Joe’s five-layer bean dip with long-board tortilla chips, limitless beer, and lots of junk food not eaten by yours truly. Christina made us girls a wonderful chai latte with steamed milk and all. The liquid mix comes in a carton sold at Trader Joe’s in the coffee & tea section. I personally don’t buy it because of the sugar content, but it was a nice treat. The real treat of the evening though was inviting over their neighbor Barry who recently moved here from New Orleans. Needless to say he was thrilled when the Saints started to lead over the Colts. We were all dying laughing as he kept screaming in delight, throwing himself on the floor to break dance in ecstatic convulsions, and calling random friends and family down South. In all his excitement, he couldn’t remember his brother Ricky’s phone number and kept dialing strangers. “Ricky?! Is this Ricky?! WHO DAT ‘BOUT TO WIN THE SUPER BOWL!!?? WHO DAT!?? WHO DAT, BABY!!?…who is this??”.


 
  

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
 





Monday, February 8, 2010

Falling Stars


Lately I have been having these transcendent moments of pure, free joy. One such moment happened on the way to something not always so joyous-- filing taxes. The office is about a 45 minute drive from my house on winding roads through hemlock and pine forest. It seemed I was the only driver in the world as I zoomed further and further out into remoteness. I passed cute bungalows with chimneys smoking and million-dollar homes on horse farms. I passed a jogger running to nowhere and a hiker with his son walking home. I came to a clearing with a golf course, a secret fishing hole, a decaying barn, and huge limestone crags that probably capped underground caves. I was blasting Mozart on the radio and thoroughly enjoying the ride, when all of a sudden it began to snow. Each flake was huge and wispy and fell diagonally from the sky like a million white stars. They landed in the dense woods joining the other patches of snow that were still clinging to the forest floor from last week’s big snow. The snow lasted all morning. One enormous  flake hit my windshield and I swear I could see each crystalline design right there in front of me. Just wanted to share that moment with you all.

Friday, February 5, 2010

GO COLTS!!!

Today is a freezing cold rainy day--another day to be thankful that I am alive and not in Haiti. A few weeks have passed now since the earthquake. I'm still trying to follow the progress there, as I have a handful of friends there and I have visited the island three times. One of my friends has had contact with us and said that our friends are being well cared for as far as the basic neccesities and not to worry. The spirit of those people is amazing. 
   Last night I worked the late shift at work and had to pre-cook dinner for my family in my absence. I just made a simple stir-fry with cubed tofu. I ran out of my Trader Joe's Soyaki sauce, so I used the gyoza sauce instead and it turned out fine. This blog should show you that Wolfgang Puck I am not. I'm just a regular mom, a wife, an employee, and a girl with a heckuva full life and I love it. Tonight we have a dinner party at Karen's house. I love going over there to see her cute daughter (one of my daughter's best freinds), her cute dachshund puppy named Toby (who is my chihuahua's best pup), her gorgeous home to get decorating ideas, and talking with her husband Gabe who is the master decorator and wine conneseur of the house. I ran out of time to cook anything to bring, so I just bought a TJ's cranberry and walnut tart. I'm sure they will cook us up some wonderful meal complete with the perfect wines and hot coffee, so I'll blog about it soon. Tomorrow morning is tax day. Woot. Gotta get that refund for my Madrid trip. Tomorrow night is the karaoke event and I need to warm up my vocal chords. Then Sunday is the super bowl party at the Reeser's home, which I intend to just eat and watch the commercials like always. My man is from Indpls, so I gotta shout-out "GO COLTS!!"

Thursday, February 4, 2010

Shout Outs

I just want to give a shout-out to my cousin Jessica 
 
 who I think is the hippest photographer out there. Check her gallery out and hire her for your next session at www.ballnchainphotography.com.
I also wanted to give credit to the inspiration for this blog: www.spainontheroadagain.com as well as www.gourmet.com/diaryofafoodie   which states:   
"With the breadth of international travel combined with a passion for food, Gourmet's Diary of a Foodie
delivers a unique cultural look at the world, food first. Each episode of this mouthwatering food, culture, and travel series dives into the diverse realm of the world's greatest cuisine, from New Zealand's purest honey to Italy's famous Parmigiano-Reggiano. Over the course of 20 half-hour episodes, this James Beard Award-winning series promises to unearth an all-new feast of fabulous food trends, exotic ingredients, and in-the-know food players."

So there you have it. 
 
 













Top Photos of the Week

Here are some photos I took this week. They are somehow related to this blog. If not, look away.

 
  
  

 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  
  



Deer Friend


This morning I had the left-over quiche for breakfast as I hurried off to work. Although tasty, it wasn’t what my stomach really wanted so early in the morning. This is what I usually have for a quick breakfast: mix four parts plain European-style yogurt, one part canned organic pumpkin puree, and agave to sweeten. Just a side note so I don’t have to type it each time: I buy all my food organic when possible. My reasons for this are health, taste, environmental, and simply to support local farmers. To support your own garden Google info on buying organic seeds from Fedco. Lunch was steamed veggies over brown rice, which I had to choke down on my 15 minute break. Boy was work busy today! Then when my shift was over I had to fight rush-hour traffic over to my friend Karen’s house to pick up my daughter. She got to play with her two best friends today and mommy got to sell (and lift) 100 cases of Charles Shaw. When I finally arrived home there was a deer in my yard. It looked just like Bambi in his teenage years. My daughter and I didn’t get too excited. Deer in our yard is as common as cats in alleys. But then it started to come closer. ..and closer... and closer! Within a minute or so I was petting Bambi on the nose! I know it sounds like I am making this up, but I am not. Bambi then walked over and said hello to my daughter. The whole world seemed to stop and even my neighbors stopped their cars or came out of their house to see this rare occurrence. It’s truly something I’ll remember for a very long time to come. Yes, I may have rabies, but at least I can still cook and blog… for now. Tonight was a simple meal because no one was too hungry. We had roasted cauliflower and pan-fried cod. Easy to make: chop a head of fresh cauliflower into bite-size bits and put into a shallow baking dish. Squeeze a whole lemon on top, then drizzle with Sicilian olive oil and sea salt. Stir it up until each piece is coated. Bake 45 minutes on 350. Throw your pieces of rinsed cod (or whatever fish you like to fry) into a gallon size zip-lock bag filled with bread crumbs, Trader Joe’s 21 Season Salute, and some sea salt. Dance like you have ants in your pants until the fish is well coated. Have your fry pan hot and ready with like maybe 1/3 c. of canola oil. (I never measure anything) Cook for about 4 minutes on each side. Done!

Sir Walter Wally

Really!?!? The whole nation is counting on some beaver/slash/weasel to inform us as to the upcoming warming trend?! Well, our local groundhog Sir Walter Wally is not the boss of me. Tomorrow will be 42 degrees. I just may wear a bathing suit cover-up with flip-flops. So what. On to dinner: I have been craving quiche. As in dreaming of it. Yesterday I begin to prepare it and then realized I didn’t have all the ingredients. I could have punched a stranger and gone to jail. So today, since I wasn’t in jail, I picked up the goods I needed to finish the job. I have some left over roasted potatoes and  a salad to serve it with and “Red Truck” wine. My recipe for the vegetarian quiche includes broccoli, red bell pepper, onions, and a mozzarella and cheddar blend. I always sautee my veggies before pouring it into the shell, but I assume you can also put it in raw and the liquid will bake it. Buen provecho!!

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

LOST in the Rain


Two things: it’s raining and tonight is the premier of season 6 of “LOST”. Neither have anything to do with the other, but I’m just setting the scene. So it’s cloudy, cold, and raining on top of the slushy mess left over from this weekend’s big “I-40” storm. Are you picturing this? Ok, now imagine that tonight we will be watching “LOST” with a big group of  friends and I’m supposed to bring a snack. Do you see how my life intertwines with food almost every waking moment? I love it. So what to bring? Well, the show doesn’t start until 8pm so a huge pot of vegetarian chili just seems  inappropriate. I also don’t have the desire to go out to Trader Joe’s in this icky weather and drum up some wildly fantastic recipe. So what can I make from ingredients I have on hand and fit’s the occasion? Popcorn. Holla! I don‘t believe in infusing my recipes with radiation, so I do not own a microwave.  I cook up my own kettle corn in a huge pot (lid on) with a few table spoons of vegetable oil and about 1/3 c. fresh kernels I buy by the pound from Whole Foods. Season with sea salt or not. This Saturday we are going to a karaoke party. Holla! This will be a gathering of about 25 people in our friend’s neighborhood clubhouse. Lots of food. Lots of wine. Lots of off-tuneness. Looking very forward to it. Recipe for that event? Not sure yet, but as I have been a vegetarian for a whole two months now it’s sure to be something with veggies in, near, or around it. Maybe even hovering above. Ok, my other friend Nicole (Nicole #1) called me just now to see if I want to meet up with her daughter at the library. Sweet. Ciao!

About Me


 

  


 


First of all I’m typing this as well as trying to watch a Ken Burns film so that should give you a hint as to what kind of girl I am. I love history. Most couples perhaps spend their tenth anniversary on a cruise around the Bahamas or some other beach that makes me yawn. My husband and I were touring around Checkpoint Charlie in Berlin with our German friends. We conversed about our itinerary over spaghetti dinner in the flat we rented near the Sony Center.  In Amsterdam my first stop was the Anne Frank house, not the Red Light district. I also love food as much as travel and history. Well, probably more. In each country or city I have visited, I can remember a specific meal I enjoyed there: Indonesian platters in Utrecht. Apple pie with clotted cream at Sally Lunn’s in Bath. Ceviche in Sosua. Clam chowder in a sour dough bowl in Monterey. A donner in Hamburg. And hopefully I can add paella and tapas in Madrid soon. I love to eat, cook, and dream about food. No, I'm not fat. I collectively have worked at either a grocery store or restaurant for about 6 years just to surround myself with food. My husband has worked at a restaurant supply warehouse for most of our marriage which keeps me outfitted with the latest kitchen goodies. I am blessed with a kid who can name almost any vegetable in two or three languages and eats them like most kids eat candy. Most people are on here blogging about Brangelina or their favorite TV show. I’m blogging my favorite recipes and the stories that encircle them. I’m half Italian. I can’t help this. Red wine flows through me in place of blood, an artichoke heart pumps it. If it’s from a franchise I won’t eat it. If that makes me a stuck-up foodie, guilty. I could go on and on about how I love good food, but that’s what the blog is for, so I’ll save my gushing. This is not “Julia and Julia”.  I write this blog for me and anyone who happens to stumble upon it or purposely is drawn to it by similar interests. I’m not online looking for followers, people to post comments, “friends”, or tweeters. You, the individual reading this, realizes I am out shopping the farmer’s markets,  borrowing cookbooks from neighbors, planting or harvesting something fresh in my garden, having wine and cheese parties with dear friends, reading up on how to build a chicken coop, or watching Rick Steves on PBS for hints on my next excursion. I’m not here online to hang out. My snack for watching Ken Burn’s: Trader Joe’s all-natural peanut butter pretzels and a glass of cold water.

Good Enough For a Rat



So how did the ratatouille turn out, you may ask? AMAZING. I first fell in love with this recipe when we lived on the equator. This is also where I adopted my new philosophies on food. Shopping daily in the market and speaking with the farmers who also happened to be my neighbors, I decided to always eat fresh. Fresh to me means eating food that had a life--recently. Living there, it also meant drinking milk from the cow I called by first name, eating eggs that needed to be washed since they still had actual bird poop on the shell, eating fish with its original head still attached, boiling  tea from bushes on trails I hiked, and sometimes, unfortunately, water so fresh it still had things in it that also continued to live inside my tummy. That’s a bit too fresh but you get the point. What was I talking about, anyway? Oh yeah, the ratatouille. So one day in the market I decided to get all the ingredients to make it. At the time it was one of my little  girl’s favorite movies, so I thought it would be nice to make a project out of it. We lived in a world where everything was foreign- from the language to even the altitude- and I wanted to make my daughter feel comforted by something familiar to her. I soon learned it was this foreign world that comforted her most. She had already conquered the strangeness of it and truly made it her home. After making many new friends and taking some cooking lessons to learn the recipes of the land, finally so did I. The secret to a great pot of rat: roast the peppers under the broiler until the skin scorches, use only fresh herbs, and simmer for at least 40 minutes. I served this along with brown rice cooked in veggie broth and a glass of “Well Read”.  


 

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