Cleanse Again!

Last Monday we started the Cleanse again - based on the book Clean. It's the same thing that we did last January. Constance is doing it again, too. The past few months e have been eating too much pizza, Chinese food, cheese & crackers, & chocolate chip cookies and washing it all down with wine and strawberry-lemonade. It has been mostly dinner and weekends that do us in.

Since January, Pete & I have still been drinking nutritious smoothies & fresh juice in the morning. And nearly every weekday we both have salads for lunch. So going back to the the Clean way of eating is not that difficult. We are avoiding sugar, gluten, eggs, processed foods, caffiene, alcohol, red meat, peanuts... I think I've had salmon at least 10 times in a row. And a truckload of quinoa. And a chicken.

I thought of something smart to do. I chopped up two giant bags of fruit & vegetables and put them in the fridge for our morning juice. I make juice when Pete gets up for work, before 6am, with one eye open so it's helpful to not have to use a sharp knife and peel a pineapple at this time. So much easier!

I also spend an evening preparing as many things as I can for our dinners. I get the stove going and make  large pots of quinoa and brown rice. Both of these things are quick to reheat and hold their texture & flavor remarkably well.

Quinoa with saffron, cinnamon sticks, cloves & garlic.

I think I Canned

Now that we have had over 80 hours of official summer weather, the produce is finally ripe and delicious. I have started with fruit and jams and want to try some different sauces and purees next.

Blueberries in lavendar-honey syrup. I marinated the blueberries in lavendar and added the honey to the boiling syrup. They are fragrant and delicately flavored.






 Bing cherries in brandy. I think these will be delicious on ice cream, crepes, waffles, a spoon. These were simple to make and I plan to do many more jars of them while we have an abundance of cherries at the market. I used a fairly high-quality brandy. They would be good with cognac I think, too.

 Simple dill pickles. I have never made pickles before so I just followed the recipe and used the Ball dill pickle mix. If they are good 6 weeks from now and there are still cucumbers in the store I'll make some more.

Peaches. Peeled and waiting to be spiced.

 Peaches in a vanilla bean-cinnamon-star anise syrup. I added a scraped vanilla bean to the syrup with the peaches. The cinnamon sticks & star anise were added to the hot jars after the fruit was packed.

 Raspberry-Basil-Balsamic Jam. A basic raspberry jam with chopped, fresh basil and some vinegar added. It is still sweet.

Strawberry-Jalapeno-Tequila Jam. The tequila adds a nice flavor without tasting or smelling of alcohol. I used Patron. The jalapenos add a nice heat at the end without making the jam "hot."

 Strawberry No-Sugar jam. I sweetened this with just a few teaspoons of stevia powder. It is still tart.

 Strawberry-Raspberry-Jalapeno jam. I only added about 1/3 c of jalapenos to this batch of jam. It has just a tiny amount of heat & pepper flavor.

 Blueberries marinating in sugar & lavendar.

Strawberries waiting to be jammed.

Eat Outside

the steak [again]

Penn Cove Mussels

These are local mussels. They are $2.99 lb and so it's best just to buy the giant bag. There were probably a pound of broken ones inside, but that's how it goes.
I like to give them a good wash, pull out the beards and then slowly steam them open. I experimented with these and put them in a giant roasting pan with a spicy tomato sauce and then just put them in the oven until they opened. It took a lot longer to cook them this way then it does with a strong, direct heat [like a grill, or a pan on the stove] - but I thought that they were delicious and worth the wait.

peach cobbler

I had all of these big, juicy peaches that were perfectly ripe.

I wanted to make a peach cobbler.

So I peeled them. And sliced them.

And I made the cobbler topping.

Actually I made a double recipe of the topping.

Because it's my favorite part.

That was a mistake.

It didn't bake all the way through.

And it was just raw biscuit dough on top.

ick.

So I baked it some more.

and some more

and some more

And then it still wasn't good enough.

damn!

Sandwiches!

I made some rather tastey sandwiches for our beach picnic yesterday. I like sandwiches as much as I like salads: just a little, and with very specific requirements. I do not like mayo or mustard or relish or most condiments. I do not like onions or sliced tomatoes. This is why I don't eat sandwiches. But when I can make them myself excactly the way I know that I will enjoy eating them, it's fun for me.

These are all on ciabatta bread, which I toasted using the fancy "bagel" setting on my toaster so it only toasts the inside. I like to smear a little cream cheese on while the bread is still warm. I bought some delicious meat from DD Meats [our local butcher]: pastrami, turkey pastrami, buffalo turkey, black pepper turkey, and garlic herb turkey. I also used Muenster cheese, champagne cheese, and mozzarella cheese in different combinations. To one sandwich I added some fresh Rainier cherry slices. I really like fruit with meat & cheese and this was a little jucier than apple slices and different from a cranberry jam.

D'oh!

Bread dough is a beautiful thing. I love it from start to finish. Just a few ingredients, found in some form all over the world: flour, water, salt - and voila. Add eggs. Add cream. Add butter. Add yeast or baking powder. Add sugar or cardamom or ginger or poppy seeds. Bake it, fry it, boil it.

I have been making bread for many, many years. I am still trying for the perfect white bread, the perfect whole wheat bread [I'm pretty close on this one], and now quinoa bread.

One of my most favorite childhood memories is also one of my first food memories. In Mrs. Bloom's 1st grade class [it was 1980], she gave us the most extraordinary project for the day. Throughout the day we passed around an old-fashioned, glass jar butter-churner and turned a metal crank that slowly turned cream & salt into butter. Someone's mommy was there mixing up a bowl of bread dough that poofed up magically before it was gently transported to the giant oven in the school cafeteria. That afternoon we walked single file down the hall to see the bread come out of the oven.  It was perfectly browned, delicately shaped and looked just like the illustrations of bread in my storybooks. Back in our classroom seats, we were each given a slice of fresh, warm bread, a little scoop of our well-earned butter, and a spoonfull of Mrs. Bloom's homemade strawberry jam - surprise! I can still taste it. I dream of it. I am so thankful for Mrs. Bloom.

Brocolette, Kalamata Olives, Red Bell Peppers

olive oil, S&P. Roasted.

Roasted Sweet Potatoes

olive oil, kosher salt, black pepper, cinnamon, red chili flakes

Quinoa Truffle Brownies

This recipe is in  my new quinoa book. They have a good chocolate flavor, but the quinoa flour has that uncooked, chewy texture. I made them again using little tartlet pans instead of a big square. They cooked evenly and had a cake texture but were a little dry. I will continue to experiment with this. A quinoa brownie would be a good thing.

The steak.

I made us some dinner.
It was good.

I bought 2 NY steaks from DD. Always a good choice.
I trimmed all of the fat and pressed them down gently into 1/2" strips.
Kalamata Olives + mushrooms + S&P into food processor until smoothish.
Kosher salt & pepper the steaks and spread the olives onto one side.
Roll the steaks up so there is a core of olive spread & tie around the sides with string.
Heat an iron skillet & lightly brown the outside of the steak by rolling it every minute.
Turn the steaks flat on the pat & put the pan in the oven at 400 for about 10 minutes.

Top with gorgonzola sauce.

I served these with roasted asparagus & red bell peppers.

quinoa flour

My KitchenAid grain mill is terrific! In just a few minutes I have fresh quinoa flour for a fraction of the price. I am keeping a cup or so on hand in a sealed container. Otherwise, it's pretty simple to grind as needed. I found a great cookbook: Quinoa 365 that is loaded with stunning recipes for this grain.

I made qunioa broccoli-cheese soup. It was very satisfying and cheesey. I also need some crunchy texture though, so I ate it with some crackers and it was marvelous. The quinoa is just added for nutrition. I can't say that I noticed its flavor at all.

Spinasse. Eat Here Now.

Constance and I did something that everybody who really enjoys food and restaurants and restaurants that make enjoyable food should do: we sat at the chef's table. And that table was at Spinasse.

SPINASSE


If you are in Seattle you must eat there. I think I counted 36 seats? Make a reservation.

The chef, Jason Stratton, was selected as one of Food & Wines Best New Chefs 2010. Rightly so.

I am still thinking about that meal. It was so sublime that it's hard to even talk about it. So I think I will talk about it in pieces, as I am able to articulate what a joy it was to share this [dare I say} experience of a lifetime with my LYLAS-Besty, CMB. And Chuck, can I call you Chuck?, chime in whenever.
No? okay.

So first I'll give you the list of things that were gently placed on the table for us to eat. I made this list on my phone, which self-corrected things in weird ways and my tiny typing deteriorated with each glass of wine... most of it makes sense. I will elaborate and make corrections at a later date.

Rabbit foie head crostini
Prescott with apple
Pork loin tuna mayo
Bread
Sparkling wine
Pig trotted w roast chestnuts mar. Beets
Cauliflower flan anchovy vain de cote
Ride wine
Gavi wine
Poached egg under glass on black truffles
Foie head w caremel onion blind orange
Old lady densmore red
Intermezzo: addiction w balsalmic & park.
Easiest eggs pasta with butter and sage and eggs
Buttwrnut sqyashravioli with amareei cookie & parmesan.
Tiny handmade pasta with pork shoulder & tongue in thin broth. The best chicken soup ever.
Barber wine twice
Taglietellie with true chickpeas
Salmongreens
Barberesco
Essentially cabbage roll wo veal breast & pork shoulder.
Barberesco
Chocolate & honey safety ice cream
Coffee

A very chocolate smoothie, Charlie Brown

I made this delicious smoothie for dinner-dessert two nights in a row. I would have made it again tonight, but I just ate my weight in a bad, drive-thru burrito. Regrets. I wish I could open that belly door and just take it out and have my smoothie instead. But it was rainy and I was hungry and we really needed to get out of the house for a while and there aren't many places to go when you don't really want to get everybody dressed to go inside a restaurant or store.

Charlie Brown Smoothie:

• 1 c. unsweetened rice milk [or almond milk] [or cow milk I suppose]
• 2 frozen bananas
• 1 tbl agave syrup
• a good shake/scoop of unsweetened cocoa powder [I used Dagoba - amazing/organic/delicious!]

Zoe asked if she could try the smoothie and I said "of course!" and she took a tiny sip and made a sour face and said "I think it's yucky, mom." It does have a very dark chocolate, unsweetened flavor. So if that is not your favorite thing, you will probably want to use a sweet milk, or sweetened cocoa powder, or add lots more agave.

Good Morning Lemon

In the oven right now is a loaf of Lemon Struesel Bread. Oh my gosh, it smells so good. Anything with struesel topping is irresistable. I bought a bunch of Meyer lemons and spent some quality time with them the other day. First I de-zestify them. Meyer lemons have a golden-orange-yellow zest, like a summer sunset. I like to put it in the convection oven and dehydrate it for storage. You can also put it in the freezer, or combine it with sugar and freeze it if you think you'll use it primarily for future baking. I use it quite a bit on meat & fish.

After the lemons have lost their yellow skins I juice them. I probably had a few dozen lemons - they are small. The problem with putting them into the juicer at this stage is that they still have the white pith on them and it's quite bitter, of course. When you put pith in your juicer it will be juiced. So I do it by hand with a pretty, yellow, citrus reamer. Did you know that pith is vascular? It stores & carries nutrients. So it's probably better to eat it for nutrition. But it tastes really bad, like chewing vitamins.

My bag o' lemons gave forth about 3 cups of lovely juice. I used some to make a very time-consuming lemon meringue pie and put the rest in the fridge. This morning it went into the sturesel bread. I am thinking of making the rest into lemonaid or maybe a few lemon drop martinis.
Meyer Lemons are sweeter and less acidic than regular lemons. They are in season in February/March and are always worth the time & money.

Broccoli, Mushrooms, Sausage, Cheese

These are 4 things that are always in my fridge. This is a great way to get "people" to eat vegetables. And it takes a few minutes to prepare. Easy Sqeezey.
Put some olive oil on a baking pan. Throw down some quartered mushrooms, broccoli, and sliced sausage. I use Evergood Hot Links. You guessed it, they are at Costco. Pete has written a haiku describing his love for them.
Add some kosher salt, black pepper... oregano/thyme/sage/garlic... whatever sounds good. Toss it up with your hands and then add some shredded cheese. I like something melty - swiss, provolone, cheddar. Put it in the oven, 350, until it is hot... about 20 minutes. done! If you have a lot of mushrooms, and a juicy sausage, this will get "wet" if you let it cool too long before eating it.

crab cheese puffs rangoon wontons

Nobody knows where it originated, wikipedia has some guesses. Apparently there is not cream cheese, or really any cheese, in Asia so this is obviously not a "real" Chinese food. But I think we all know that. It doesn't change how delicious they are.
I made my own wonton wrappers. It's really easy if: 1) you have made pasta before and, 2) you have a pasta [flat sheet] roller/machine or 3) John Cena stops by to assist with the rolling pin.

I Love Crab Cheese Puffs Rangoon Wontons, Fool!

The wonton wrappers are just dough. The same dough that humans have been mashing together for a zillion years: flour, water, salt. I put it through my pasta roller until setting #5 which is pretty thin, and cut it into squares. tah-dah! You can do this! It's fun!

I made the filling with cream cheese, salt, white pepper, and canned crab. Not imitation crab. I suspect that I am allergic to imitation crab as I get very ill when I eat it. Why do we eat ANYTHING that is named "imitation"? Would you order an "imitation" bowl of spaghetti to eat? Just saying.
Sometimes I add ginger and green onion. I think the filling is better when it's cooked slightly and cooled. For years I have owned a potsticker-maker-folder-thingy. I probably bought it at an Asian kitchen-what-is-that-used-for? store. Pete has asked me at least eleventy-four times "what is that" when he sees Zoe playing with it.  It's just a plastic thing that you put your potsticker/wonton wrapper on and put the filling in the middle and then you fold it in half [it's hinged] and it crimps the edges in a very pretty way.
I used this for my wontons. They were beautiful. However.... they were too big & puffy to handle deep frying and they exploded and lost their filling if I didn't remove them before they seemed done. Sad! So next time I am sticking with the triangles or the pointy versions. Or maybe my wontons were a shade too thin. Those that survived the deep frying were quite tasty.



canola oil - deadly or not so deadly?

I was baking and talking to Constance about ingredients and the question "what is canola oil made out of?" came up. A lot of vegan recipes use it, and allergen-free recipes like it because it is not made from soy. Incidentally, vegetable shortening is mainly soy, unless you can find a very expensive non-soy shortening somewhere. So I looked up Canola Oil in my nutrition book and was so surprised by the information. I guess that almost everybody asks "what's a canola?" at some point in the kitchen.

What's weird is this: my nutrition book and lots of online sources say that canola oil was developed by a Canadian company that pressed rapeseeds and named it "can" for Canada, "ol" for oil, and added the "a" for flair. If you read the stuff online, you will see information about how rapeseed is one of the most toxic, deadliest things you can grow and "even insects won't eat it."
However, if you read the Canola Oil FAQ website, you will learn that "Canola oil is the healthiest of all commonly used cooking oils" and this:
"Canola oil comes from pressed canola seed. The seed is harvested from pods that are formed after those beautiful yellow flowers you’ve probably seen in the summer fade away. North American farmers have been growing canola seed for over 30 years. "

very suspicious. and, "over 30 years!" Wow! Were people alive back then?

So if you know the truth about canola, please let me know.