Thank you, Food and Wine, for your Yogurt Apricot Granola pie

For the past 6 months I've been taking an art class taught by the amazing Jen Burke in Berkeley. On the last class of the previous session, I made lemon bars with homemade butter, which I somewhat embarrassingly admitted to all of the working parents in the class ('cause really, who has time to make their own butter?!)

Anyhow, I wanted to provide a similarly sweet and lovely treat last night, and came across this recipe in my file for Yogurt Apricot Granola pie. While this sounded like something I would totally love, I wasn't quite sure how it would come out and be received by others. But if I do say so myself, it was REALLY delicious!

The yogurt filling was creamy and the texture of a souffle, without any of the hard work involved in making a souffle. And while apricot jam is definitely my favorite, you could really substitute any kind of preserves for the topping, depending on your personal preference.

Of course, I forgot to take pictures of it with my new fancy camera, but I did snap a shot with the iphone, so pardon the quality.

Enjoy!

YOGURT APRICOT GRANOLA PIE


INGREDIENTS
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup sliced almonds, crushed
1/4 cup rolled oats
Pinch of salt
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/4 cup canola oil
1 cup low-fat plain Greek yogurt
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1/4 cup sugar
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup warmed apricot preserves

DIRECTIONS
1. Preheat the oven to 350°. In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, almonds, oats and salt. In a large skillet, melt the butter in the oil. Add the granola mixture and cook over moderate heat, stirring constantly, until golden, 5 minutes; transfer to a 9-inch glass pie plate and let cool slightly.

2. Using a flat-bottomed glass, gently press the granola evenly over the bottom and side of the pie plate to form a 1/2-inch-thick crust. Freeze the crust for about 10 minutes, until completely cooled.

3. Meanwhile, in a bowl, whisk the yogurt with the eggs, sugar, lemon juice and vanilla; whisk until smooth. Pour the filling into the pie shell and bake for 25 minutes, until the filling is set but still slightly jiggly in the center. Let stand at room temperature for 5 minutes. Pour the warm apricot preserves on top of the yogurt and gently spread in an even layer. Refrigerate until chilled, at least 2 hours. Using a warm knife, cut the pie into wedges and serve.

"I'm never buying crackers again!"

That's what I said after making my own flatbread crackers last week. Well, they were delicious. But I did also buy crackers this weekend, so go figure. Anyhow, the best benefit was realizing how easy it was to make your own crackers! Here is how I did it.

I had my pasta maker out already, (stay tuned for pasta post), so I figured I'd take advantage of its rollers by making some flatbreads. I also had leftover semolina flour, which I combined with whole wheat flour for these simple flatbreads.

I followed these basic ratios of dry to wet ingredients....

1 cup semolina flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
2/3 cup warm water
1/2 tsp salt

...but was pleased to find how versatile the recipe was. I added some ground flaxseed and about 2 tbsp of raw sesame seeds to the batter and adjusted the liquid accordingly. The dough should be on the dry side, but all of the ingredients should be mixed together well.

I don't have a nifty stand mixer (next big kitchen purchase, when I'm not a soon-to-be-poor grad student!) so I kneaded the dough by hand for a few minutes until it seemed combined. Then I covered the bowl with a clean dish towel and let it sit for about 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, I preheated the over to 400 and put in the pizza stone. While the dough rested, I pulled together two different toppings: rosemary salt and cinnamon sugar.

For the rosemary salt, I used fresh rosemary, removing leaves from the stem and mixed them into a pile of kosher salt on the cutting board. I chopped the salt and rosemary together, and them mixed a little garlic powder and ground black pepper.

The cinnamon sugar was easy as pie - just mixed about 1/4 cup sugar with a few tablespoons of cinnamon.

Once the dough had rested, I divided the ball into about 8 pieces, and rolled them to desired thickness in my pasta roller (I went to level 4 on the roller). For the bigger pieces, I cut them into smaller strips, lay them out on the cutting board and sprayed them with my nifty olive oil sprayer. I then sprinkled with the toppings (did about 1/2 sweet and 1/2 savory).

I put the dough directly onto the pizza stone and cooked for about 5-10 minutes, keeping a close eye on them because they go from delightfully golden-brown to burned really quickly!

These crackers ended up being a really great snack! I ate the savory ones with pieces of delicious farmer's market white cheddar, and with some homemade hummus. The sweet ones were not at all overly sweet, so they were good either alone or with another farmer's market treat - lemon quark (which is essentially a fancy kind of cream cheese).

If you don't have a pasta roller or a pizza stone, don't be deterred! You can use a rolling pin (or even a wine bottle!) to roll out the dough and the crackers cook just fine on a cookie sheet. Happy baking!

The beauty of plain yogurt

About a year ago, I started making plain yogurt a staple in my fridge. I was thinking just now about breakfast and realized how many different ways I use plain yogurt, and what a versatile ingredient it is. So here is a quick post with some ideas on using plain yogurt:

- Yogurt Parfait: An obvious sounding one, but often people are turned off from plain yogurt because of its tangy taste. I remedy this with a drizzle of honey and a mixture of fruit. I really love the taste of citrus and yogurt, as well as pomegranate.

- Smoothies: My favorite smoothies include yogurt, banana, frozen spinach, flax seed, almond milk, vanilla and blueberries.

- Salad Dressing: I mix a little yogurt with some lemon juice, a splash of olive oil and a mixture of herbs for a creamier dressing.

- Yogurt cheese: Plain yogurt takes on a creamy, thicker texture when you drain some of the water out of it by setting it in a strainer over a bowl for a few hours. Once it has reached desired thickness, chop up some fresh herbs and use as a spread or a dip.

- Baking substitute: A lot of recipes call for buttermilk or whole milk, which I don't keep on hand. So I make my own concoction by mixing half yogurt and half milk together, which seems to work well!

I'm sure I'll think of other uses and will update the list at that point!

Cornmeal pancakes

I'm beginning to realize that the majority of recipes I have blogged about heavily feature carbohydrates. What can I say - I love bready foods! As such, my recipe seeking eyes are constantly in tune to new recipes that deliver carbs in a healthy fashion. I knew I'd hit the jackpot in Mark Bittman's January 14th blog post in The Minimalist called "For Whole-Grain Pancakes, Try a Little Tenderness" I saved all of the recipes in the collection and this morning, after waking up to grey skies and cool temps, I decided it was time to experiment with the Cornmeal Pancakes with Vanilla and Pinenuts.

Here is the recipe that Bittman suggests, with my notes in italics:

Cornmeal Pancakes With Vanilla and Pine Nuts

Time: 30 minutes

1 1/2 cups fine or medium cornmeal (I used fine organic cornmeal and it worked well)

1 teaspoon salt (The one complaint I had was that the cakes came out really salty - I'd cut the salt in half next time)

1/2 cup milk, or more as needed (I accomplished my butter-making adventure yesterday, which I will blog about later, so I used the leftover buttermilk in this recipe, and it worked great. I did end up using more than the recipe called for, because I wanted flatter cakes. In all, I probably used between 3/4 and 1 cup)

2 tablespoons vegetable or olive oil, plus more for frying (I choose to use extra virgin olive oil, figuring that it would give them somewhat bland sounding cakes an extra level of complexion)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract (I love vanilla so I dumped in more than a teaspoon - probably closer to 2 teaspoons)

1/2 cup pine nuts (I used about 1/4 a cup and it added the perfect amount of crunch)

Honey, for serving. (Because my honey is a crystalized mass now, I used maple syrup instead, which was of course delicious)

1. Heat the oven to 200 degrees. Combine the cornmeal, salt and 1 1/2 cups boiling water in a bowl and let it sit until the cornmeal absorbs the water and softens, 5 to 10 minutes.

2. Stir in the milk, a little at a time, until the batter is spreadable but still thick. Stir in 2 tablespoons oil, the vanilla and the pine nuts.

3. Put a large skillet or griddle over medium heat. When a few drops of water dance on its surface, add a thin film of oil and let it become hot. Spoon out the batter, making any size pancakes you like. Cook until bubbles form on the top and burst and the underside is golden brown, 3 to 5 minutes; turn and cook on the other side until golden. You may have to rotate the cakes to cook them evenly, depending on the heat source and pan. As they finish, transfer them to a plate in the oven while you cook the remaining batter. Serve with honey.

Overall, I'd say this was a yummy and really easy recipe. The flavor reminded me a little of arapas, and the cornmeal added a beautiful golden color and chewy texture. I'd definitely make these again and I think the recipe is stable enough to handle a variety of additions and alterations. I can imagine a savory one with herbs and cheese, and a sweeter one with blueberries and crushed almonds. If you end up making them, let me know how they come out!

Crunchy goodness

I recently went engagement ring shopping with a dear friend. Fine jewelry has never been her thing, and it was very amusing listening to her describe the many styles of diamonds we encountered. While she tried hard to remember technical terms like "pave" and "cushion cut", she ultimately resorted to referring to the diamonds as "sparklies", as in "I like this ring with all the sparklies around it".

As I looked over the following recipe, that story came to mind because when I think of this chopped salad, the best terms that come to mind are "crunchy goodness". I guess sometimes, the most simple explanations are just the most effective! (Because really when it comes down to it, aren't diamonds just sparklies?!)

Anyhow, I credit my old roommate Leah with turning me onto this delicious (and yes, crunchy) salad. The best part is that you can toss in whatever crunchy veggies you have on hand. And depending on the ingredients, it often tastes even better the next day! (The exception is when you use tomatoes, because they can get a little mushy. If you are planning to refrigerate, I suggest adding the tomatos right before serving.)

Chopped Salad

Any/all of the following:
1 cucumber, cut into 4ths lengthwise and then diced
½ cup grape or cherry tomatoes, cut in half
¼ cup olives (black or kalamata), chopped
¼ cup chopped red onion
1 red or yellow bell pepper, diced
Handful of crumbled feta cheese (optional)
1 tbsp Olive oil
1 tbsp red wine vinegar
Squeeze of lemon juice (optional)
Salt and pepper

Cut up vegetables and toss with feta, oil and vinegar and lemon, if using. Drizzle with olive oil and vinegar and let sit for 30 minutes. Can be made the night before, lasts for a few days. It is extra delicious with toasted pita bread. Sometimes I rip the bread into little pieces and toss with the salad, and sometimes I just enjoy it on the side.

Welcome back and series of recipes

Hi folks,

It's been ages since I've written, which is sad. I've decided to embrace my final few months of freedom by actually turning this blog into what it is supposed to be - a regularly updated repository of all my cooking and eating adventures, interspersed with snippets from my lovely life in Berkeley. As many of you know, I am making yet another cross country move this summer to pursue my MBA at the University of Michigan. While I've been promised that Ann Arbor has a happening local food movement, something tells me blogging won't be on the top of my insane to-do list while I am in school. So as I wrap up these last few months in the Bay Area, and actually have time to cook, I thought it would be lovely to share my experiments with you. I just told my roommate that before I leave, I want to do the following:

- Make my own butter
- Bake bread
- Make pasta from scratch

I'm sure I'll add lots of other things to the list, but that's my start - I think the butter effort will be easy to accomplish and I already bought the cream, so stay tuned for a recap of that in the next few days. Perhaps I'll also be motivated to bake the bread to put it

In the meantime, I wanted to kick off the re-blogging effort by sharing a few recipes that I developed for my friend Natalia. Like many, Natalia loves food but has not quite conquered the challenges of the kitchen. After a long discussion about ways to incorporate more fresh foods in her diet (I call it a discussion, she may refer to at as a lecture...:) I decided to type up some of my favorite easy recipes and make a little recipe book for her for Christmas.

I plan to post one recipe each day for the next few days (the other secret motivation for this is to help me get into the habit of blogging regularly!)

I thought it only appropriate to start with breakfast, and what's better for breakfast than delicious french toast?! Here you go....enjoy!

World’s easiest French toast

4 slices of bread (Any bread will do but my personal favorites are baguettes and challah bread)
1 large egg
1/3 cup of milk (nut milks work great too)
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
Butter, for pan

Scramble egg, milk and vanilla together in a large bowl. Dip bread into mixture and hold for a few seconds, until bread has absorbed the egg mixture. Heat a frying pan on medium and melt a little butter. Place bread in pan, cook until browned on one side (about 4-5 minutes), flip and brown on other side. Serve with real maple syrup and/or powdered sugar.

Welcome fall

In my opinion, there is no better way to welcome fall then with a fall-themed potluck dinner! Bonnie and I were lucky enough to have some wonderful friends join us in celebration on Thursday night, and we enjoyed a pot of delicious sweet potato soup, curried cauliflower, kale and mushrooms, homemade hummus, Berkeley Bowl olives and some delicious Barbera wine. The night was capped off with an appropriately fall-themed apple cake. The cake was so popular that I decided to share the simple and accessibly recipe here for everyone to enjoy.

Now we all know I'm not a big baker, but thanks to my dear friend Jen Greer, I posses the world's easiest apple cake recipe (although I still managed to mess it up somewhat the first time I made it by not cutting the apples small enough....of course!) Anyhow, I have now perfected the recipe (which, unsurprisingly really just requires following the directions) and I have to admit that the cake came out deliciously! It's super easy to make and although the batter looks really dry and chunky when you put it into the pan (it has the consistency more of cookie dough than batter), the cake is super moist because of all of the apples in it. The prep literally took about 10 minutes, I highly recommend trying it out if you like apples. And cake. And really, who doesn't?! It's even better with a little vanilla ice cream:)

Jen's Apple Cake

1 cup vegetable oil
1 1/2 cups sugar (I used a combo of brown and white, you can use either/both. I liked the earthiness the brown sugar imparts)
2 cups flour
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla (I dumped in a little more because I love vanilla)
3 cups cubed apples, peeled (should be about 1 centimeter squared)
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
cinnamon
nutmeg

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Combine all ingredients in a large mixing bowl until well mixed. Batter will be very lumpy, more of a dough texture. Spray baking pan (I used a bundt) with oil and then sprinkle the inside of the pan with flour. For extra credit, dust the inside of the pan with cinnamon sugar for a crunchy crust. Bake for 1 hour, or until set all the way through. Once cooled, invert onto a plate and sprinkle the top with powdered sugar for decoration.

Back in the kitchen

Hello friends! It has been a while since I've attended to my blog, and I have missed it greatly. As they say, life got in the way of life, but I'm entering into a new phase now of focusing on things that are truly important to me, and this is one of them. So prepare yourself for much more regular posts, photos, recipes and adventures in the Bay Area!

So, without further ado, I'd like to present my most recently improvised recipe...tofu burgers!

Last week, I decided it was time to do something with the half a block of tofu on the verge of going bad in the fridge. After scrolling through tofu recipes on epicurious, I decided I was in the mood for something hearty and nutty. I found one recipe for toasted almond tofu burgers, which I used as a loose guideline for my creation, which I will hereby name "Toasty Pecan Tofu Burgers." Here is how I went about creating them, which worked well for me. I encourage you to experiment with other ingredients though, I think this is a perfect recipe to make when you have a few random items in the pantry/fridge and you're trying to figure out a way to bring them all together.

Toasty Pecan Tofu Burgers

First, I sliced up the tofu into thin slices, patted it dry and wrapped it in paper towels. The goal here is to squeeze as much moisture out of the tofu as you can (FYI I was using extra firm). I placed the tofu between two plates and stuck a few cans of food on top for pressure and let it sit for 30-60 minutes. If the paper towels seem drenched, either squeeze them out and re-wrap or just use fresh ones.

As the tofu drained, I made prepped the other ingredients. I shredded up a large carrot and finely chopped an small onion and a few cloves of garlic. I sauteed these for about 8 minutes, until soft and set them aside to cool. I then toasted up a few pieces of old bread and about 1/3 cup of pecans until browned. After letting them cool, I pulsed each in the food processor, turning the bread into breadcrumbs and the chopping the nuts up finely.

With all the ingredients now ready, I gave the tofu a final squeeze and then crumbled in into a mixing bowl. I tossed in the breadcrumbs (about 1/2 a cup, for those who like to measure), the pecans and the carrot/onion mixture together with the tofu, and then mixed in a lightly beaten egg white (to hold the mixture together). I also tossed in a splash of soy sauce, some sesame seeds, garlic power, salt, pepper and a little ginger for flavoring. I mashed it all together with my hands and made little patties, about the size of my palm.

I heated up some olive oil in a large skillet, and dropped the patties in, cooking until brown and then flipping over. They stayed in one piece pretty well, but I was gentle with them, having totally botched previous attempts to make tofu burgers due to the crumbly texture of tofu.

When browned nicely on both sides, I removed from the heat and served them with a simple salad of romaine hearts, avocado, heirloom tomatoes and a homemade vinaigrette of balsamic, olive oil and course grain mustard. I have to admit - it was pretty and delicious! I failed to take a photo, but you can take my word for it.

If you try this recipe, let me know how it comes out. I think you put a lot of different ingredients into it to change up the flavor, but the key to the texture success seems to have been the egg white and the bread crumbs, so I recommend continuing to use those.

I am sure I will have more tofu adventures to share soon, as I bookmarked about 10 difference recipes on epicurious in my search for the perfect tofu burger. So stay tuned and get your soy on!:)

Baking and the art of discipline

I am not, by nature, a baker. Reading recipes and following them to a T is not my strong suit in cooking. I'm more of the creative, improvisational cook - a little bit of this, a little bit of that, and voila! Sadly, that approach really does not work in baking. Memorable experiences proving this fact include the time I added 2 tablespoons of salt instead of sugar to a pancake mixture (I was like 8 years old, but still). Or the more recent attempt to make lemon cupcakes "healthy" by using whole wheat flour instead of white flour. I think we can all agree that was not a good choice.

So, I was pleasantly surprised when a recent attempt at baking actually turned out to be incredibly delicious! Last winter, I came across a recipe in the NYTimes food section, by Melissa Clark who writes a column called "A Good Appetite." I love her recipes, as they are usually creative and delicious but not too difficult. And, there is something appealing about hearing the recipe author's story about how and why they came up with that recipe - it adds a layer to the experience that is missing in a lot of traditional cookbooks, I think. Anyhow, this one article, "Secrets of the Cake Stand", had a recipe for Blood Orange Olive Oil cake. It immediately sounded like something up my alley, so I cut it out and filed it away.

Flash forward to last weekend. I had been yearning to make this recipe for months, and had even tried a few times to source out some blood oranges, to no avail. So when they appeared at Berkeley Bowl, I knew that my time had finally come.

I think that the key to my successful Blood Orange loaf was in fact discipline. As “creative type”, I am used to not following directions, preferring to make things up as I go, embellish with my own flair, experiment and create. But via my previous failed baking experiences, I came to realize that in order to be a successful baker, I needed to discipline myself to follow directions, to stay committed to the task at hand, and realize that the end result will likely be more delicious even if I don’t add my own personalized feature to it. As I am writing this, I am wondering if my lack of discipline in baking is somewhat representative of my lifelong struggles with being independent, not liking to be told “What to do” and greatly enjoying the sensation of being right and doing things on my own. Perhaps I’m reading too far into this, but it’s been a theme I have been thinking a lot about recently, and somehow I feel warmed by the thought that my successful cake has something to do with a deeper level of personal progress!

Anyhow – enough introspection, back to the cake. It was every bit as delicious as I had imagined! As I mixed it together, I thought it looked really liquidy, but it ended up being perfectly moist and flavorful. The blood oranges definitely added some depth of color, but I think it would have been just as delicious with regular oranges (I’d go for a smaller juicier variety, as opposed to something like a navel orange). I’ll certainly be experimenting with the recipe using regular oranges, because it was too good to hold out until blood oranges are around again. One thing to note – I baked it in a pyrex loaf pan, and it took a bit longer than the recipe said – maybe an additional 10-15 minutes, I can’t exactly remember. I just checked it every 5 minutes or so after the first 50, and when the cake tested was clean I took it out. For serving, I made the blood orange honey compote that the author mentions, and it was extra delicious.

So – whether you are looking for an exercise in discipline, or just a delicious treat (or both!), I highly recommend trying this!

Musings from the West

Hello all!

I realized it has been almost 2 months since my last post - my, how time does fly! I am celebrating today because my internet connection was finally set up at home - thus making blogging about food, fun and life on the West Coast much easier. I have missed keeping track of my creations and also my delicious meals out (which I have had a number of since moving out to the San Francisco Bay Area in November). So this will be somewhat of an eclectic entry, part a catch-up entry, part reflection, and all enough to make my stomach growl audibly, as it is right now!


Fresh Food Delights

You all know my love for farmer's markets, so it's no surprise that I have sought out a few in my time here already. I work about 3 blocks from the Ferry Building (a foodie mecca on the SF bay, outfit with dozens of gourmet restaurants and food shops that you can afford only if you promise them your first born child...) As you can imagine, walking through the Ferry Building is a certain kind of heaven for me (especially as a break in the middle of a busy day), but the best part is that on Tuesdays, Thursday and Saturday's they have a beautiful farmer's market outside.

It's interesting to me how much of an institution farmer's markets have become, especially in San Francisco. When I first started going to farmer's markets (the small summer market in Norwood MA and the fantastic fall market in Poughkeepsie on the Vassar campus), the markets felt more like a hidden gem than a way of life. Here, the market almost takes on the form of open air markets in Europe - they happen with such regularity and offer so much (right now the persimmons are in season and in abundance!) that you can easily plan your whole week's shopping around the market (or shop a few times a week for the freshest ingredients.) I love that shift in lifestyle, and also the fact that it's December and I am still shopping at fully stocked and luscious markets that seem interminable, in a great way. I also had the pleasure of visiting the Berkeley farmer's market last Saturday (which was a beautiful fall day). In the spirit of the season I invested in a number of root vegetables, with the intention of roasting them. I still have to make the time for that - maybe today! At any rate, I am loving the idea of making farmer's markets even more a part of my year round life and shopping here in Berkeley/SF.


Gourmet Delights

Eating out has been a central part of my experience here so far. I've felt this pull between wanting to shop for local food and cook it in my new beautiful kitchen, and also indulge in all of the amazing restaurants around here. So far it's been a pretty good compromise of the two, although perhaps weighted a little towards eating out, as you'll see in my long list of experiences below!

I have not had a bad meal yet in California. I've been discussing with my friends whether that is in fact even possible - with the wealth of amazing restaurants in this area, how could one survive if they served subpar food? It boggles my mind. In the interest of time, I'll list out many the places I've eaten out since I have been here (I have been wanting to keep track, so here goes- I left off a few that were either take out, or slightly less memorable, although by no means not delicious)

• Chaya (Asian Fusion restaurant/bar on the bay in downtown SF - went there on my 2nd day of work for a happy hour with my coworkers - beautiful scenery, pretty good sushi roll)
• Salt House (Amazing gourmet restaurant with a southern flair - took a client there on my second week of work, and had a delicious meal that included perfectly cook halibut, and an amazing Canadian delight called Poutin - basically french fries with cheese and gravy - soooo good!)
• Jupiter (fun pizza and salad place in downtown Berkeley - good pizza, great beer selection (microbrewery) and fun atmosphere - lots of outdoor tables, just make sure you find one with a heat lamp! Best enjoyed with a group of good friends)
• Cheeseboard Collective (a Berkeley institution, this place's reputation certainly preceded it, as it was recommended to me by virtually everyone I know who knows Berkeley dining. Each day, they have one pizza and one salad - it's all vegetarian and all made with fresh, local ingredients. Seriously delicious and crave-able)
• The Slanted Door (One of the few sit down restaurants in the Ferry Building, this Vietnamese place definitely has one of the best views in the city - and amazing food of course. It's a huge restaurant with floor to ceiling windows overlooking the Bay Bridge. We got tofu, mushrooms, jumbo prawns, the works - the most memorably was the lemon cake for dessert and the elderflower spritzer I had with dinner)
  
• Gregoire (Gourmet French take out restaurant in North Berkeley, founded on the premise that gourmet French food should be affordable and enjoyable on a regular basis. Known for their potato puffs above all else (which are little crispy bites of heaven), and the menu changes monthly to reflect seasonable dishes and foods. Bonnie and I love Gregoire and it will definitely be a regular indulgence. Mmmmm - getting hungry just thinking about the potato puffs!)
• Poleng (Asian fusion restaurant in the NOPA/Western Addition neighborhood of SF. Went for dinner last Saturday night - everything was delicious but the most memorable was their tea selection. They have amazing tea blends, and they give you a little box with samples of each so you can smell them all before choosing. It was like doing a tea paring with our food!)
• Delica (One of the Ferry Building standards, this is a Japanese take out place that has all kinds of interesting salads - I got a bento box with rice, tofu and two really interesting salads - one had lotus root and something called "mountain potato" and the other had black shiny seaweed and edamame. Both were delicious)

Wow - I could actually go on and on with this list, but in the interest of time and the fact that writing about all of these meals has made my stomach growl audibly, I think I will leave my reviews to a later date. To summarize, it must be quite obvious that I am thrilled about the food life out here- it has all been delicious. But most importantly (and I think thankfully, given that I have only been here a month), I feel like each meal I listed above and the others that I didn't even have time to write about were shared with wonderful, interesting and dear people, from all stages of my life, and that is what has really made them memorable. (I have been blessed with a few visitors from home, wonderful existing friends who live here, and some new ones that I can't believe I've only known for a month- or less!)

I think one of the things that makes San Francisco such a special place is that not only is the food delicious but that the people who live here are grateful for it, and are also so excited to share it together. I've been talking to a lot of people - friends and new acquaintances alike, about what makes San Francisco and the Bay Area such a unique place to live. The conclusion that I have come to so far is that most people who live here have in some way chosen to be here for a common reason - everyone is looking for a place where people are welcoming, open minded and eager to be themselves and let others thrive as well. That ethos penetrates everything in the city and makes it a place that is so easy to fall in love with and feel like home in. As you can probably tell - I'm thrilled to be here.

And of course, to eat the food.

More soon.....

My love of produce...

Readers! I apologize for going MIA for a few weeks. I have exciting news - I am moving to the foodie mecca of the country - the Bay Area! I am so thrilled to be getting out there and have a life adventure - I hope to live in North Berkeley near the Gourmet Ghetto - so there will be endless blog fodder. Anyhow - my life has been turned upside down by the impending move (I arrive in sunny CA on November 8) and my cooking plans between now and then include coming up with the most creative ways to eat all of the food I have in the pantry and freezer without resorting to dinners of frozen berries, fake chicken nuggets and mayo (which might not be too far away at this rate....!)

Anyhow - that is my excuse for being a bad blogger over the past few weeks. But I am back and here to share that news and more - I just got word that my love of produce has resulted in some online exposure! A photo I took at the Portland, OR Farmer's Market in June 2009 has been published in an online guide to Portland, called the Schmap Portland Guide. It's a photo of lettuce and berries, and it can be viewed when you put the cursor over the "Northwest" area link.

Having this picture discovered on Flickr and published in this guide is very cool - and it's an ironically timed event, as I have been thinking recently about how much I love fresh produce. I know, it's kind of a weird thing to be obsessed about. But for some reason, it just makes me really happy to be surrounded by plants - fruits, veggies - even house plants (btw I am starting to have separation anxiety about leaving my house plants behind in Boston...) But I had this realization the other day, when I was at the new Whole Foods at Legacy Place in Dedham, MA. I was running errands for my parents and decided to stop into Whole Foods - I had heard the new store (which opened very recently) was beautiful - I could spend hours in Whole Foods as it is, and the appeal of a brand new store, coupled with the fact that I just left the very overwhelming and aesthetically unbecoming Costco down the street, was too much to resist. Oh, and the fact that it was snowing/sleeting/raining in the middle of October also added to my desire to escape reality and retreat into foodie paradise, aka Whole Foods.

I was browsing around the produce section, and went to pick out some rainbow swiss chard (on sale for $2/bunch - yay!) As I was grabbing a bunch, a young woman and her boyfriend/husband were standing there trying to figure out the difference in the various colors of swiss chard (they had white, red and yellow varieties for sale). She saw me pick out a bunch and asked if I could offer any insight onto the differences between the varieties. I gave her my two cents - explained a little about the vegetable and said that I like the red the best because I think it's a little more tender than the white, and it makes a really pretty color when you cook it with the stems. It was a brief and simple conversation and she thanked me and said it looked like I knew what I was talking about - but I walked away with a grin on my face - again, I know it's cheesy, but there is something that is so heart warming about connecting with other people over food that is fresh, beautiful and nutritious. There are seemingly endless varieties of fruits and vegetables out there and industrial agriculture and commercial grocery stores only provide access to such a small amount of it - even at a place like Whole Foods. I guess it made me happy to know that even though I think there is a long way to go to make our food system sustainable and to provide wide access to diverse crops, that maybe it's ok to start with one bunch of swiss chard at a time.

As I walked out of Whole Foods, I saw on the ground someone's shopping list. It had two columns - one said "Farm" and the other said "WF". I smiled again - I just can't imagine how big my food grin will be once I get to Berkeley!

Off to eat lunch - whole wheat pasta, fresh pesto, and red swiss chard. Yum....

Matzo Brei

For any of you who have read Ruth Reichl's books, you know that one of her favorite comfort foods is matzo brei - a food that she describes with such warmth in her books that even though I have never had it, I regularly crave it. I keep meaning to try her recipe for it, but I haven't remembered to pick up matzo (the fact that we are as far from Passover as you can get doesn't help my case either!)

Well, this morning I woke up against my will at 5am again - a funny little trick my body has been playing on my the past two weeks. As I lay there in bed, willing myself to fall back asleep even for an hour, I decided (in my partially awake mind) that I wanted matzo brei for breakfast. I had to have it. Why, I don't know. But I did.

Now, despite where you may think this is going, I did not take advantage of the 24 hour Shaw's to get matzo. When I finally got up around 7, I decided to find her recipe on epicurious.com and just make it with what I had - water crackers!

I had no idea what it would come out like - I ended up following some of the comments on her recipe and amending it to fit the ingredients I had on hand.

Here is how I did it - I have to say, I was very skeptical at how it would taste when it was done, because it looked kind of dry. I packaged it up and brought it into the office (I always eat my breakfast at work), and I was pleasantly surprised at how yummy it was! So in case you ever wake up at 5am and decide you want matzo brei - know that you're not alone, and here's a recipe you can follow (I presume it would really work with any kind of mild flavored cracker....perhaps not a really crumbly/buttery kind, but any dry one)

Hack Matzo Brei, minus the Matzo:

8 water crackers (we had sesame flavor ones, and they were yummy)
2 eggs
splash of milk (enough to moisten the crackers)
small handful (approx. 2 tablespoons) of finely chopped onion
chives or other herbs, for flavor
butter (be as courageous as you want here - I used a little more than was enough to coat the pan, but as you can see on her recipe, Ruth calls for like 1/2 a stick!!)
Salt and Pepper, to taste

Break up the crackers into small pieces, and place them in a bowl with the milk. Let them sit for about 3-4 minutes, until moist but not too soggy. Pour out most of the milk (you can keep a little in to make the mixture fluffier if you'd like.

Add the two eggs to the same bowl, and scramble them together with the matzo. Add the onions and chives/herbs and a dash of salt and pepper.

Meanwhile, heat the butter in a skillet on the stove until melted and hot.

Pour the mixture into the pan and cook - I think that it would be best to make it like an omelet - cook for 2 minutes or so then flip, cook the other side and try to keep the inside moist.

When it's nicely browned on both sides, remove from the pan and serve!!

Enjoy.....

Can food cure a dreary day?

I know I am not alone in the feeling. You're tired. You're bored. You feel restless. We've all been there. So you reach for a cookie. Or a chocolate. Or anything that makes you happy to eat, in hopes that it will make you feel better.

So, does it?

I'm posing the question partially in earnest, because I am curious about other people's experiences with food cravings. (Feel free to comment!) However, my personal theory is that it doesn't really make anything better in the long run (surprise surprise), although there is certainly something satiating and satisfying about eating it in the moment.

Take today, for example. After waking up at 5:30, and unable to fall back asleep, I decided to start the day early. I think between my pre-dawn wake up and a general feeling of "blah", I was in the mood to eat sweets today. Fortunately for me, my coworker was kind enough to bring in some leftover cookies from her Yom Kippur breakfast. Surely those make a fabulous 10am snack, I thought as I went for one. And then two. And they were delicious. Usually I limit myself to one main "sweet" per day - my ability for self control comes only from the fact that I don't have a huge sweet tooth in the first place. But today was different. After my morning cookie indulgence (chocolate chip AND oatmeal raisin - I'm wild and crazy!) I decided that I needed an afternoon snack. So I ate not one, not two, but like 8 ginger snaps. And they were stale (although I kind of like them that way). My rational - I wanted to finish the bag. And I was bored. Not my best example of good judgment.

Fast forward until now (I wrote the previous part a few hours ago). Well, my eating habits haven't gotten better but my mood has! I just stopped at Dave's Fresh Pasta for eggs on my way home (stay tuned for upcoming posts on the fabulousness that is Dave's...) , and after a mildly humorous interaction with my regular sales guy there during which I tried to pay for $2.50 eggs with a credit card, only to be told that there is a $5 limit, and then scrounged together leftover coins from my wallet to pay him at least $2 (he said he'd call it even at $2!), I was approached by another sales person with a chocolate croissant in her hand, who proceeded to ask if I wanted it for free! Did I ever! Why ruin a great day of unhealthy eating by having something nutritional for dinner! Bring on the chocolate croissant!! So, I just ate it. For dinner. Sure, I'll be hungry in about an hour and will probably eat the three sad leftover frozen shrimp dumplings from Trader Joe's that have been waiting patiently in my freezer for a night just like this. But for now, I have decided that instead of feeling badly about eating badly in the moment, I am going to embrace it. Even if I know that I'll be starving and cranky when the sugar high wears off.

Maybe that's the key to enjoying a little nutritional deviance in the moment - I shouldn't ruin the glory of indulging on too many sweets/fried foods/fill in the blank unhealthy eating by feeling guilty for eating it, but rather savor it and know that there is always time to get back on the bandwagon of health eating sometime....you know... later! And you though this was a blog about healthy vegetarian eating....

(Stay tuned for the post update during which I inevitably lament the decision to eat 10 cookies and a chocolate croissant in one day....fortunately I have got a whole batch of kale soup to cure that feeling! )

Why someone should invent smell-o-vision

I woke up this morning to rain. I knew it was coming, and secretly I was kind of looking forward to a rainy Sunday. Yesterday was the most glorious fall day. My friend Amal and I took advantage of the beautiful weather and went out to farm country - we visited the Harvest Fest at Gaining Ground in Concord, and were pleasantly surprised to be greeted with a delicious lunch buffet full of farm fresh foods. We continued our day of outdoor autumn appreciation by visiting Carver Hill Orchards, in Stow, where we ended up picking apples and laying in the field, soaking in the smells and beauty of it all.

So with that start to my weekend, I was kind of glad to have an excuse to stay home and relax around the apartment (although I have million things I should be doing!) So in honor of the rain, I stayed in bed this morning after waking up and finished reading Ruth Reichel's Tender at the Bone, the first of her memoirs about her young life as a budding chef and food critic. Her writing makes me salivate - she uses the most lush and colorful language to describe food and it is amazing how well she brings to life the dishes she discusses. I finished the book this morning - I'm going to do my best to hold out on reading her next book, so I can savor the deliciousness of her writing for a little while longer...

Needless to say, I was inspired and in the mood for cooking by the time I got up! I started the day with a fried egg on toast spread with basil pesto, and I tried out a new experiment - I made my own chai tea! It was delicious and very easy - I used this recipe, and even though I put in only half the called for sugar (and used soy milk), it was still a little sweet for my taste. But I will definitely make it again - I might even make more this afternoon!

Breakfast though was not enough to satiate my desire to cook (note to all - while my day may sound super productive to some, really it was a full on attempt at procrastination against some important things that I still have to do - just like writing this blog post is a form of procrastination!) Next up - apple sauce. I cut up a bunch of the apples I had picked yesterday (Romes, Macouns and Macs) and stuck them in a big pot with a cinnamon stick and some cloves. I cooked it for at least an hour, and the house filled up with the delicious, cozy, enveloping smell of apples and spice.

As delicious as apple sauce is, I recognize that it will not tide me through the week of meals ahead. So that brings me to cooking adventure number three for the day - soup! A perfect day to simmer a pot of hearty soup. The only problem - I have virtually no food at home, and am avoiding going grocery shopping on a rainy Sunday (when pretty much every other person in Somerville and Cambridge is bound to be at the grocery store).

So, here is what I came up with - it's currently simmering on the stove, tempting me with it's delicious basil smell, but because I haven't eaten it yet I can't fully vouch for it's flavor. I'll have to update this post later, but for now, my recipe:

Green Kale Soup (great for a rainy day)








1 large bunch of curly kale (you could really use any kind)
1 medium onion
4 cloves garlic
1 leek
1 can of cannellini beans
1 cup barley
1/2 cup of basil pesto
olive oil
splash of white wine
8 cups water
salt, pepper and garlic powder to taste

I first sauteed the onion, leek and garlic in the oil, and after about 10 minutes, I added a few splashes of white white (partially for flavor, partially because I want to use up the wine before it goes bad!)

After the onions were soft and slightly browned, I added the kale, which I had washed, ripped up and removed the stems from. Next, add the water. I used enough to cover the kale (I had a lot of kale - really the inspiration for this soup was the need to use up my kale!) Then I rinsed the barley and the beans and added both. Finally, I dropped in the pesto (I had made a huge batch of pesto back in August and froze it in muffin tins - so I added 2 muffins worth of pesto)

I've been simmering the soup for about 45 minutes now and the veggies are all cooked but the flavors need to meld a little more. Oh, I also tried something different that I had read about ages ago - I have been saving the rind of a nice parm cheese for a while because I heard it was good to add to soups to give a little intensity to the flavor. So I tossed a chunk of rind in there - we'll see what happens!

Ok - the smell of the dish is definitely calling me into the kitchen - must go and stir the pot (maybe once my green soup is done I'll finally buckle down and do my other work - wish me luck!)

UPDATE: The soup came out great! The only thing I would do differently would be to add a little less barley - it was a little barley heavy, and the grain soaked up more of the liquid that I had anticipated. But other than that, delicious!!

The harvest awaits....

After a few days of humid, sticky late summer weather, I woke up this morning with the distinct sense that fall was truly in the air. The sun was shining brilliantly, and dappled the sidewalk as it shone through the brightly colored leaves. I had a spring in my step on the way to work - which is unusual on a Friday, when my only spring is the one that means I am one step closer to the weekend! I think the spring in my step was just enough to push me over the edge on the whole blog thing. Then the topic of blogs came up in a work meeting, and I decided - now's the time. What am I waiting for?! Blog world - here I come!!

Least you think this blog will be a random string of self-aggrandizing musings on life, think again. Well actually, it may fit that bill at some points, but the intention is broader - I view this as a more structured forum for me to share my creative outlet with the world. For those of you who know me, (and frankly, if you are reading my first blog posting and you don't know me - well, then I'm flattered! And it's nice to meet you, stranger), you know that I love to cook. Specifically (and among other things), I love to cook vegetables. In fact, I really love everything to do with vegetables. I love planting them, growing them, harvesting them, eating them - the works! I have always been into cooking and eating, but in the past 8 months or so, I turned a corner, and have been adopting what I think of as a more holistic approach to food and eating. I have become passionate about where my food comes from, and that has ushered in what I loving refer to as my "farm era". This summer I have indulged myself in one of the most glorious of summer traditions - relying on farmers markets and local farms for my food.

So that brings me to this blog. For the past few months, I have been toying with publishing a blog. I had a seed of an idea (haha no pun intended!) but was afraid of the commitment that it takes to upkeep a blog. But today, with that fall nip in the air and that sunshine on my face, and with a the memories of my delicious dinner from last night still tickling my taste buds, I decided to throw caution to the wind and start the blog I've been wanting to start.

Now, because I am someone who needs a little discipline in life, I have decided to lay out my strategy for this blog here:

• The broad topic of the blog is about food and all that relates to it - recipes, photos, farms, plants, animals, restaurants and more.
• Specifically, I plan to focus the theme of the blog on my attempts, as a fish-eating vegetarian who lives in Somerville, Massachusetts, to eat locally, healthily and holistically year round (warning: there may very well be venting about how hard it is to find local food in Massachusetts in January - but I will just have to deal!)
• I am trying to approach this with realistic expectations about the time commitment I can make to keeping up a blog. Right now, I hope to post at least once a week - ideally I'd like to be inspired more often, but we'll see how the process goes.

Finally, about the name (I need to wrap this first entry up because I want to head home and, well, eat!) I think the name "Bloom Mangia" represents what I am doing here - talking not just about food and eating, but also about where food comes from, and what food means to me and to others in the world. I love the visualization of something blooming - not just growing, but bursting into the world in bloom. And mangia, because I love the energy and color that the word elicits, and most importantly, my mom (even though she's not the Italian one!) would often say "mangia, mangia!" when we sat down for dinner.

So thank you - the 4 of you out there who are reading this:) I hope to be providing culinary inspiration, as well as a little humor, in the coming months as I share my foodie (btw, I hate that word!) musings with the blogosphere.

Enjoy!