Potatoes!!!!!!!

About once a month, my husband and I will eat BBQ Chicken with a potato and broccoli.  Recipes for all will be coming.  This first post I wanted to share one of two ways I like to make the potatoes for this meal.  The first recipe is from The Pioneer Woman, Ree Drummond.  She calls them Crash Hot Potatoes.  They are easy and I LOVE them!

Crash Hot Potatoes

12 whole New Potatoes (or Other Small Round Potatoes)

3 Tablespoons Olive Oil

Kosher Salt To Taste

Black Pepper To Taste

Rosemary (or Other Herbs Of Choice) To Taste - optional

Cheese - optional (my favorite is Bleu Cheese)

Bring a pot of salted water to a boil. Add in as many potatoes as you wish to make and cook them until they are fork-tender.

On a sheet pan, generously drizzle olive oil. Place tender potatoes on the cookie sheet leaving plenty of room between each potato.

With a potato masher, gently press down each potato until it slightly mashes, rotate the potato masher 90 degrees and mash again. Brush the tops of each crushed potato generously with more olive oil.

Sprinkle potatoes with kosher salt, fresh ground black pepper and fresh chopped rosemary (or chives or thyme or whatever herb you have available.) and cheese.

Bake in a 450 degree oven for 20-25 minutes until golden brown.

Faux Pancakes

I have discovered a recipe for the most amazing pancakes in the world!!!!!!!!!  I'm so excited I am pretty certain that I have spent a good chunk of time each day for the past week thinking about how awesome these Pancakes are!  Why are they awesome, you ask?  Well, because of the ingredients, I say!  :)  It's not that these are the best tasting, fluffiest, prettiest pancakes in the world...it's because they have no white flour and no white sugar in them in addition to having no need for a sugary syrup on top of them, with a hefty chunk of butter.  Maybe you like all of that stuff, but when it comes to a daily breakfast, I'm looking for something as healthy as these pancakes are.  So to you, my beloved blog readers, I present:

Faux Pancakes

Ingredients:

1 Banana

2 Eggs

Optional ingredients:

1 Strawberry

1 tsp Vanilla

Cinnamon

Oats

Shredded Apple

Nuts

Frozen Berries

etc...use your imagination

Puree Bananas with Eggs in a blender.  Cook like a regular pancake.  Serve.  

Word of Caution:  It is very easy to turn this into an ugly mess of scrambled eggs as they are very delicate, especially when it comes to flipping them.  I found that the best cooking method is to cook them on the lowest possible setting and then cover them (same method I use for grilled cheese sandwiches).  

Now tell me that this does not blow your mind!

:) Enjoy

Julia Child Remixed | Keep On Cooking | PBS Digital Studios

I sure hope you love this Julia Child song as much as I did.  Good news is, I'm gonna keep on cooking!  Stay tuned, there will be many many new recipes showing up soon on here.  My husband and I have been planning out Monthly menus for the past three months.  Each menu item is something brand new.  Since our marriage is new and we both have different tastes, this is our way to learn together what both of us like.  As we enjoy each new recipe and find our favorites, we will be posting the recipe on here, with tweaks of our own!  Hope you will enjoy them.  For now, sit back, relax and prepare to be amazed by Julia Child:

Soda Pop! and Delicious Restaurants

I love finding new treats, sweets and things with variety. This post is about a few "finds" in the soda world along with a few restaurants at the end. The great thing about these Soda's: none of them have high fructose corn syrup and they all use fresh fruit ingredients.

This is Fresh Ginger Ale,it looks wonderful and I want it in my tummy! With the fresh ginger in it, you shake it a little before opening...no warnings about it exploding because of this process :) They also have a ginger ale with pomegranate and hibiscus added. Delicious!


Next us is a selection of Dry Soda from the Dry Soda Company. I love their unique varieties in flavor: Lavender, Lemon Grass, Blood Orange, Rhubarb, Juniper Berry, Vanilla Bean and Cucumber.






Then, there is Hot Lips Soda! They are a fresh fruit soda company and it makes my heart throb a bit dreaming about what they might taste like. Their flavors include: Apple, Black Raspberry, Blackberry, Boysenberry, Cranberry, Cherry, Pear, Raspberry and Strawberry. Someday, I think I'm just going to work for them so I can sneak berries into my mouth as I cook them up to make this sweet stuff! I'll have stained hot lips all the time from eating so many fresh berries every day :)


And, lucky for me, Hot Lips is sold in Utah...and not just anywhere, but right here in Bountiful!!!! It's a place called Moxi Bistro and they will be seeing my face very soon...they may even be making my upcoming birthday dinner so I can drink this berry juice till I'm plastered with it...not that that's possible, since it's pop...but I am looking forward to trying their Lamb-loin medallions with a cucumber-mint bombe and grilled yams with Panna Cotta for dessert.

If that didn't make your mouth water, then head a little farther south to a place called Trio. If you plan on dying and going to heaven for your next meal, I'm sure this is where you will be eating. When I get hungry I crave their Trio Flatbread served with olive tapenade, white bean puree, and basil pesto. When I die, I plan on eating massive amounts of olive tapenade...because I'll be able to...won't it? I'm pretty sure that's how it will work. If you think just their appetizer alone sounds great, then imagine trying their Chopped Salad (includes blood orange, pistachios, currants, beets, mixed greens, cucumber, feta and a vinaigrette dressing), Chianti Braised Short Ribs (served with creamy polenta which I would be willing frost a cake with, its just that good, root vegetables, braising jus, and horseradish gremolata), and top it of with their Bittersweet Chocolate Pudding...that's what just finished me off and made me a lifetime lover of all things on their menu. Before my death, I will eat here daily for a month...I'm certain I'll be able to afford it by then too :) since I plan on living for a long time...I can start saving up now.

Last of all, I need to mention a hidden gem here: Thyme and Seasons located in North Salt Lake. I thought it was just a tiny little store that sold spices, but boy was I wrong. I didn't expect my short stop in to turn into an exciting adventure. I tried to hurry out with my friend while finding out as much as possible and it was just about closing time. Before I knew it, we were talking to the head chef who ended up locking us into the store to spend an hour sharing his passion for food with us. We sampled gluten free chocolate cupcakes (three ingredients only), sticky rice, and tales about his love of simple cooking. By simple, it means there are very few ingredients that have very rich flavors. His spaghetti sauce alone is heated for hours...I think he said 11? It sounds crazy, but divine and beautiful. He gave us a tour of the entire open kitchen, , his herb garden, his store, his restaurant and explained his cooking classes. Each Saturday he holds cooking classes at amazing rates. They are by reservation only and he's book out well in advance. But he has one rule, before you can even think about registering for a class, you must eat at his restaurant. The way he explained it, it only makes sense to see if the food he cooks is good before wanting to learn how to make his food. His menu changes each week according to what is in season. I definitely recommend checking it out!

Tuna Patties

Why, you say, would you want to make tuna patties? They sound gross, don't they. That's what I thought. So why did I make them? Go back to december. I went to a christmas party and was asked to bring a white elephant present. I love playing the white elephant game, I always get so excited, wondering what crazy item I will get from it in return for the crazy gift I brought. I don't remember what I brought, but I do remember that I returned home with a very large family size can of tuna. I realized if I opened it I would have to get a little more creative than making my standard tuna fish sandwich...cause that's a lot of sandwiches. So I gave the tuna patties a try and sort of fell in love. If you are willing to give them a try, I think you will enjoy them too :)

Tuna Patties
7 oz Tuna, drained
3 cups Bread Crumbs
2 Eggs
4 tsp Onion, chopped
1/2 tsp Salt
1/2 tsp Pepper
2 Tbsp Lemon Juice

Mix everything together. Form patties. Fry in 3 Tbsp olive oil. Brown on both sides for 4 minutes.

Baked Apple Custard

Inspiration often comes to me from and about some of the strangest things. Things that i'm inspired by are usually silly little things that either seem too unimportant by most people or too time consuming to be taken on by most people. Today I was inspired by my dear friend Diane Plaizier, she was telling me about the hustle and bustle of her life and her latest project: collecting egg shells with her daughter to plant seeds of grass in a month before easter, so they have pretty little budding egg shells to have for the easter baskets and decorations. Once she told me that, I spent the rest of the day thinking about how thats all I wanted to do the rest of that day. And, of course, I did it. Went to the store, got two huge cartons of eggs and started making this Baked Apple Custard as a way to use up my aging apples and my suddenly new need for egg consumption. Here's the recipe and a picture of the project:

Baked Apple Custard:

1 1/2 half cups unsweetened apple sauce

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup half and half

1/4 cup thawed frozen unsweetened apple juice concentrate

4 eggs, beaten

1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
Additional half and half (optional)

Preheat oven to 350. Blend all ingredients together except for the nutmeg. Pour into a pie pan. Place pie pan in a baking pan and fill with water till it's cover the bottom inch of the pie pan. Sprinkle the nutmeg on top. Bake 45 minutes or until knife inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool completely on wire rack. Chill. Serve with additional half and half if desired.

Meringue Kisses

I've always been confused by the difference between granulated sugar, superfine sugar, ultrafine sugar and powdered sugar. I finally learned the difference. Ordinary table sugar is granulated. Powdered sugar, when pulverized collects moisture, so to prevent this, the manufacturers add about 3 percent of cornstarch, which can lead to problems in certain recipes. For example, a bad idea would be to sweeten your lemonaid with powdered sugar, because with the cornstarch, it would turn into gummy lumps (not including the fact that it would be super sweet). But, you could have used the superfine or ultrafine sugar - they are tinier crystals than granulated sugar and so it disolved quickly in cold drinks (sometimes it's even called bakers sugar) because it blends and melts faster than regular, granulated sugar. So, to clarify, superfine and ultrafine sugar is not a powdered sugar, just smaller granules of sugar. Got it? GOOD! Here is a great recipe using superfine sugar:

Meringue Kisses

3 large egg whites, at room temperature
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar12 tablespoons superfine sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

Preheat the oven to 250 degrees. line two baking sheets with parchment paper. In a small, deep bowl, beat the egg whites with the cream of tartar using a hand-held or electric mixer until they hold a shape. Gradually beat in 9 tablespoons of sugar and continue beating until the mixture is smooth and stiff peaks form when the beaters are lifted. Beat in the vanilla. Using a spatula, fold in the remaining 3 tablespoons sugar. Put 1/2 teaspoon of the meringue mixture under each of the four corners of the parchment paper to keep it from skidding. Drop teaspoonfuls of the meringue mixture onto the paper-covered cookie sheets. If you want to be fancy, put the meringue into a pastry bag fitted with a star tip and pipe out the kisses. Bake for 60 minutes. Turn off the oven and allow the meringues to remain in the cooling oven for 30 minutes. Remove from the oven, cool for 5 minutes, and store in airtight containers, where the meringues will stay crisp almost indefinitely.

Tyson's Dang Tasty Soup

This is a recipe shared by my brother-in-law Tyson! He spend two years living in Mexico and while there fell in love....with Cilantro! This is a very easy recipe, if you are the nervous type in the kitchen, it will help you to know that your years of mastering how to open a can will have paid off, leaving you confidently capable of making this soup. If you are looking for a cilantro style soup that provides a little more adventure than opening cans, I'd recommend giving this recipe a whirl...and then inviting me over to share a bowl so I can try it :).



Tyson's Dang Tasty Soup

2 Cans (13 oz each) chicken, not drained (or 2 whole chicken breasts, cooked and shredded
4 minced garlic cloves
1 to 2 Tbsp Olive Oil
2 (14.5 cans each) Chicken Broth
2 (14.5 Cans each) Diced Tomatoes (preferably with cilantro and lime)
1 Cup Salsa
1 Bunch chopped cilantro
2 Tbsp Cumin
1/2 an onion (optional)

In a large pot, saute the garlic and onions in olive oil until semi-clear. Add the remaining ingredients. Heat through. That's it! So simple.

Can garnish with lime juice, avocados, tortilla chips, shredded cheese, or better yet queso fresco!

Enjoy!

As a side note, this recipe was a bit of an experiment for me in the mysterious world of Yoders canned meats...I've heard from different sources they even have fried bacon that's been canned...I'm not sure how my tummy feels about that. But if you are looking for a preservative free line of canned meats, Yoders is who you should contact! My next experiment will be with this can of already cooked hamburger meat in my Borscht Soup (my valentines tradition)...I'm hoping it is as surprisingly great as the chicken I used in this soup.

Tangy Chicken

I'm not sure how Tangy Chicken became a popular recipe in my family, but it is a favorite. Diced chicken coated in flour and fried then covered in a delicious tangy sauce! If you are worried about the greasy chicken adding to your waistline, then simply brown the chicken and use agave nectar for the brown sugar if you're worried about the sugar. Substitute the 2 tsp butter with olive oil, which won't stick to your hips :). It's a great recipe that can be switched up a lot to accommodate your taste buds. Enjoy!

Tangy Chicken
1 lb chicken, diced
1/2 cup flour
1 tsp salt
2 tsp butter
1/2 cup celery, chopped
1 cup water
2 Tbsp brown sugar
1/2 pepper, cut into chunks
1/2 cup onion, sliced
1 cup ketchup

Combine flour and salt, then role chicken in flour mixture. Fry chicken until brown on all sides.

Combine butter, celery, sugar, pepper, onion and ketchup together. Pour over chicken in skillet and let simmer for 30 minuted or until celery is soft and sauce thickened.

Goat Cheese Potato Salad

Dear Everybody,

Goat Cheese is very good!!!!

The END!!!!

This post is for only the following individuals:

• Those who like potato salad


• Those who like goat cheese

Those individuals who are not included in this list are kindly asked to, "Take off, eh!"

Now that I clearly have potato salad and goat cheese lovers reading, I'd like to just tell you that I died when I first ate this. I was at a bell ringing course on a saturday. Me and lots of others were ringing bells from 8:00 am till 5:00 pm and I thought I was going to topple over. Bells aren't heavy, but after ringing them for that long I could tell my body had sensed the extra weight. I was tired. I was crabby. I was dazing off into lala land. My body ached. I was having daydreams of laying down on the floor and taking a nap and in the dream nobody would even notice. And I was STARVING!!!

Some miraculous woman appeared with lunch for all of us and I picked her up and twirled her around, I was so happy and grateful for her. Okay, so I didn't pick her up and twirl her around the room, but I did appreciate the food. I dished up my plate and started chomping away, until I took a bite of heaven...whoever I was talking to got to watch me as I chewed my food, because I stopped focusing entirely on the conversation and just thought about the food in my mouth. As far as I knew it, nothing else existed except for trying to figure out what was in my mouth and what made it so good. I had never tasted anything like it before. I thought I was eating potato salad, but my mouth was telling me I was wrong. All I knew at that moment was that I had to 1) find out what it was and 2) make it every day for the rest of my life. I fulfilled number one. I'm just getting started on number 2. So for all you potato salad and goat cheese lovers, I give you the recipe, so you can experience this in your mouth! Please try it, you'll be so glad.

Goat Cheese Potato Salad

2 lbs (red) potatoes, scrubbed well and cut into 3/4-inch piece

Coarse salt

freshly ground pepper

2 Tbsp white-wine vinegar

1 tsp Dijon mustard

3 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil

3 oz crumbled goat cheese (1/2 cup)

1 celery stalk, finely chopped

1 small shallot or onion, finely chopped

2 Tbsp dill

1/4 cup plain yogurt (optional)

Boil potatoes in salted water till tender. Drain, reserving 1 Tbsp cooking liquid. Let cool 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, whisk together the vinegar, mustard, oil and reserved cooking liquid.Whisk until well blended.

Place potatoes in a large bowl. Drizzle with vinagrette. Stir in goat cheese, yogurt, celery, shallot, and dill. Season with salt and pepper.

While warm, put it in your mouth. Faint. Die. Come back to life. Eat more. Repeat.

Squash Stuffed Chicken Breasts

There were 8 acorn squash in a bowl on the table for the past month...it was like they were having a stare down with me every time I saw them, almost like they were trying to say, "Come on, just try and tackle us...you never can...cause you don't feel like it, ha ha....ha ha". They were right. So I told my roommate Shauna that she had to :) Besides, I was busy making tomato soup. So Shauna found this recipe and made it and it was great. As you can see, she took the easy route and chopped the chicken into the dish, but if you want to get all fancy, you can stuff it as the recipe instructs. Enjoy!


Ingredients
1 tablespoon butter
1/2 cup finely diced acorn squash
1 green bell pepper, diced (or red bell pepper, or a combo of both)
1 small onion, finely diced
1 stalk celery, chopped (optional)
salt and pepper to taste
4 skinless, boneless chicken breasts
2 ounces shredded Cheddar cheese
2 cups all-purpose flour for coating
Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease a 9x13 inch baking dish (or simplify the dish and disregard the whole putting this dish into the oven). In a medium skillet, melt butter or margarine. Add the squash, green bell pepper, onion and celery. Saute until slightly tender. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Remove from heat, add cheese and mix together. (Before moving onto the next step, if you are taking the simple route, you would have chopped the chicken and cooked it along with the veggies).

Slice chicken breasts on the side about 3/4 of the way through. Stuff mixture evenly into each slit chicken breast until full. Dredge each breast in flour to coat completely, and brown coated chicken in skillet.

Place browned chicken breasts in the prepared baking dish, cover and bake in the preheated oven for about 30 minutes or until chicken is cooked through and juices run clear.

Homemade Tomato Soup

Fall always is a telling reminder of the bounties of the earth and how much the Lord provides for us. Often, the bounties of the harvest feel like a burden to me. When there is squash, zucchini and tomatoes consuming my kitchen, it makes me feel overwhelmed....it means I have to put thought and effort into my meals in order to use them all up. But instead of getting overwhelmed, this fall I am trying to focus on what a blessing it is to be provided by the Lord in so many ways and it truly is a blessing to have access to so much. I have friends in different parts of the world who truly depend on the Lord at times for their next meal, because there are times in their lives when they aren't quite sure where their next meal will come from, or if it will be there at all. There have been times in my life where I have wondered that as well for myself, but it's at those times when you see the hand of the Lord in your life the most, providing for your needs.

So instead of complaining to myself about the "burden" of figuring out what to do with so many tomatoes, I decided to be excited for an adventure in teaching myself how to make my own tomato soup...it's a great way to use up the tomatoes and it definitely taught me that if I thought canned tomato soup was good, then I was living a lie my whole life...cause MAN this stuff, homemade, is DELICIOUS!!!!

Ingredients
4 to 5 cups chopped fresh tomatoes
1 onion, sliced
4 whole cloves, peeled
2 cups chicken broth
4 tablespoons butter
4 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons white sugar, or to taste
Directions
In a large pot, over medium heat, combine the tomatoes, onion, garlic and chicken broth. Bring to a boil, and gently boil for about 20 minutes to blend all of the flavors. Remove from heat. Place the mixture into a blender and puree. Strain the pulp if you want a smooth and creamy soup, leave it if you like it how it is (I like to leave mine how it is, just like I like to leave the pulp in the orange juice).
In the now empty pot, melt the butter over medium heat. Stir in the flour to make a roux, cooking until the roux is a medium brown. Gradually whisk in a bit of the tomato mixture, so that no lumps form, then stir in the rest. Season with sugar and salt, and adjust to taste. Eat with buttered toast, grilled cheese, or just eat it by the spoonful...double it to make room for plenty of seconds!!!

Spaghetti Squash Casserole

Lately, I feel like squash is taking over the world! It's all over the place....in my kitchen. What the heck do you do with acorn squash beside the traditional butter and brown sugar thing? That isn't even good anyway! I'm still pondering over how to make something good and worthwile with acorn squash. Spaghetti squash is a pain as well, but a little easier to find some half decent recipes for. I chose to tackle that before the acorn squash. The recipe started out a little sketchy, and then...through the help of my friend Dan Jones, it was perfected into a casserole...that I wouldn't mind having again...in fact I really like it! AND it has BACON in it! What more could you ask for! I hope you enjoy it!

1 whole Spaghetti Squash
1 can Coconut Milk (regular Or Light)
1 Tablespoon Chopped Garlic
1 tsp Red Chili Paste
8 strips Cooked Bacon (or As Much To Taste) Cut Into Small Pieces
½ cup Shredded Fontina Cheese

1 cup halved cherry tomatoes

½ cup Shredded Cheddar Cheese

1/4 cup butter

1 cup bread crumbs

Heat oven to 375. With fork, poke holes all over in squash. Place in oven for 45 min or until cooked. Cut in half and let cool till able to touch. Scrape out seeds. Remove skin. Pull strands of "noodles" apart. Set aside (all of this may be done the night before).

Meanwhile, mix together coconut milk, garlic, fontina cheese, chili paste, cherry tomatoes and bacon. Add squash. Place into a casserole pan.

Melt butter and mix into bread crumbs. Add cheddar cheese. Sprinkle over squash mixture. Cover with foil. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes. Remove foil and bake for another 10 min or until bread crumbs are golden.

John's Pizza

Who is John? He's my friends dad, born and raised in Iraq. He lives in Utah now and I love how he cooks. I don't think he realizes how much I treasure eating his food. Sometimes he calles me a pest and wonders why I take pictures of everything he does in the kitchen. Sometimes he gets annoyed when I beg and plead for him to make me this pizza...but he still makes it anyway, nice guy like that. It makes me so happy. Here's the recipe:

John's Pizza

1 Small Onion, cut
1/2 tsp Cajun Seasoning
1/2 tsp Organic no-salt seasoning
1/2 tsp Mint
1 Red Bell Pepper, chopped
1/2 Package Mushrooms, chopped
1/2 Cup Olives, chopped (green or black, or both)
1 Dijorno Pepperoni Pizza

Heat oven to 420 degrees. Heat a large pan with olive oil on the stove top. Add cut onions. Add cajun seasoning, no-salt seasoning and mint. Add red bell pepper. Cook 3 minutes, stirring all the while. Add mushrooms. Turn off heat. Add olives.

Add the sauteed ingredients to the top of the pizza. Place in oven and bake for 25 minutes.

Slice, eat, faint...wake up...eat more, faint...wake up, eat more...repeat as necessary.

Peppermint Ice-Cream

I know it's not summer anymore and you don't have the sweltering heat to drive you to eat ice-cream and it's not christmas yet, so you probably aren't craving any peppermint sweets, but you know what...who says you can't have peppermint ice-cream in the fall. I say you can, so I'm posting the recipe here!
1 Can Sweetened Condensed Milk

2 Cups Whipping Cream

1/4 Cup Peppermint Candy, Crushed

Pink Food Coloring

Mix all ingredients together. Freeze, stir after 1 hour, freeze again until desired consistency. Enjoy!

Salty Seattle

Here is the next blog I wanted to feature that has taken my breath away and given me an idea I'm dying to try. This lady (don't mind her picture) ;) cooks food in a way that I could never have imagined. She combines science with her cooking and makes some of the most amazing things - I need to go buy some Sodium Alginate and Calcium Chloride now and it's all her fault :). Here is the info on her blog and who she is:

Salty Seattle: Blog address is http://www.saltyseattle.com/ and here is how she describes herself:

"Linda is a recovering Stiletto Ninja- she hung up the nunchucks in favor of her current role as resident Foodie Fashionista (but she gets to keep the Louboutins). She likes to make cheese (especially burrata), cure bacon, distill salt from the nearby ocean, and churn all manner of gelato from scratch, at home, with wine, in stilettos. She’s obsessed with cooking things sous vide, loves eggs- especially duck and quail- and hand rolls and cuts various types of pasta from gnocchi to tajarin to agnolotti at least thrice a week."

She seriously sounds like an incredibly fun lady and I would love to spend a week in her kitchen, or in Italy for that matter. In fact, my friends and I actually had plans to go to Italy for a week to take cooking classes during the day and tour in the afternoons, but our contact stopped communicating with us, and the plans sort of fizzled...but I still ache to do it :).

Golubka

When I need to entertain my mind a little from boredom, I like to read about food and cooking/baking. Last night I read through quite a few pages of a cookbook I have solely about chocolate, it's one of my favorite cookbooks. Outside of cookbooks, I daily am reading my favorite cooking blogs. I posted a few of my favorite on here before, but I found two this past week that BLOW MY MIND! They are so incredibly unique and make me think outside the box as far as food and cooking goes. I haven't been able to stop thinking about these new ways of cooking. I'll post about them both in separate posts, so here's the first one:

GOLUBKA: it means dove in Russian. The blog address is http://g0lubka.blogspot.com/ Here is how they introduced themselves:

"We here are Russian and very fond of doves. Writing this blog are Paloma's mom (me) and older (much older, 18 years older) sister, M. I will write about food, cooking, and motherhood, and the sister will write about clothing, art, and design. What I've found is that humans mostly crave food from their childhood. Memory plays tricks on us, it often puts a thick coat of sugar on that time when we were little careless hooligans. Everything tasted better back then, right? So I am hoping that in the future, instead of craving for, say, a piece of buttered toast when thinking back to her childhood, Paloma will long for something fresh - maybe papaya, or raw chocolate, or salad. Ultimately, not knowing the feeling of hunger for cooked food will allow her to stay healthier. So far, Paloma is a champion eater, she loves to eat raw and green. Now, her nanny is another story. She is a simple woman of Soviet upbringing, who thinks that one cannot survive without bread. She finds us, together with our ways of eating, absolutely nuts. "Baby can't live on grass alone," she often says, and tries to sneak some cow's milk into Paloma's bottle. But we love her very much. Meanwhile, Paloma has perfect weight, off the charts height, shiny hair, a happy attitude, and endless (sometimes I wish it would end, believe me) energy, so we do not think she is suffering too much :) "

While I am not a vegetarian, fruititarian, vegan or against cooking food, I do find it so interesting to learn from people who are. I like to find food in many forms, made many different ways. The way these ladys prepare their food simply amazes me. I can't even imagine the time, thought, effort and planning they must go through in order to have the diet the do. Yet they do it and they excell at it. I'm so excited to try some of their recipes, especially their white chocolate easter eggs!!!!!!

Mashed Potatoes - Alternatives

Mashed potatoes are lovely and satisfying. But having them on a daily basis would get a little old. So if you are a mashed potato die hard, but would like to switch things up a little, here are some interesting alternatives I found out about today:

Sweet Potato: Try adding mashed bananas, coconut milk or orange juice.

Cauliflower: Roast in an oven or steam, mash and add greek yogurt or sour cream.

Turnips: These have a more robust flavor than potatoes. Peel, wash, and quarter them. Boil 35-45 min. Drain water. For 7 large turnips, add 1 cup of milk with 2 Tbsp of Butter. Blend and add salt and pepper...actually sounds kinda yummy for a turnip!

Bok Choy and Potato Dill Soup

One of my friends at church is madly in love with my roommate. The poor boy is MADLY in love with her. She is a good friend and talks to him when she sees him...thats all. But it's enough reason, I guess, for him to be absolutely impressed and madly in love with her. If I see him, on the other hand, I'll say hi and find out how he is doing...this is usually how our conversation goes:

Me: Hey buddy, nice to see you!

Him: Hi...where's your roommate?

Me: She's at home. How are you?

Him: I haven't seen her for a while...is she liking her job?

Me: She likes her job! What have you been up to?

Him: Tell her she should join Bountiful Baskets

Me: Uhhh....okay....

Him: I told her about it once. Have you noticed if she's joined yet?

Me: I'm not sure, I'll have to find out...

Him: Well tell her I said hi!

Me: Okay....I'll be sure to do that!

Well...we had this conversation last november....it was also repeated every sunday until about february. I did ask my roommated what he meant by Bountiful Baskets...I thought it was some weird way for poor people to get some cheap, wilted vegetables. Then my best friend posted a picture on her blog and on facebook of the goods she got from Bountiful Baskets and it helped me realized it was nothing I had thought it was. Instead, it was a food co-op done in Washington State, Arizona, Idaho and Utah...not something named after the town Bountiful that I live in. You pay on mondays and go on saturday mornings to your nearest location and pick up your produce...an ample supply of fruits and vegetables that is big enough to last me for two weeks...and the best part is that it is only $15.00!!!! That makes me so happy I could tinkle! ha ha

Here is what I got last week:
Actually, the first time I got my "basket" I was grinning ear to ear and wanted to cry a little...you should all know by now how food is such a big contributor to my happiness...I couldn't help but want to cry. I price-checked everything I got at the store I usually buy my produce from and found out that if I had bought all this at the store I would have spend $45.00! Please grab your neighbors hand and hold a moment of silence right now for such a beautiful thing! Then sing kum-by-a! Okay, back to how any of this relates to Bok Choy and Potato Dill Soup. You'll notice that I got an ample supply of baby bok choy...it filled up two entire bread bags full...what does one do with so much bok choy! I like stir fry, but not enough to eat it till all this is gone.
Then I remembered a soup that a friend of mine made in Ecuador while I lived there and insisted that I tasted it for her. It was a silky, creamy potato soup with some type of leafy thing in it. I was 20 years old at the time and had never seen green leaves in soup before...I had no idea at the time I was missing out on things like Zupa Toscana and a variety of other things that make my taste buds sing. But as I tried that soup I clearly remember thinking, aching, wishing...needing some Dill in her soup.

I haven't owned dry dill for years. Not because I don't like dill, on the contrary, I really like it! It's just that every year I say in my mind that I'm going to grow it in the garden, and every year, just like the year before, it dies...I've slapped my hand for it and finally just went to the store and bought some. I had some milk, potatoes and bok choy that were aching to have some dill as their companion. So here is what was created:

Bok Choy and Potato Dill Soup

2 Tbsp olive oil (my kitchen is never empty of this...if it is, I'll start to cry)

4 to 5 bunches of baby bok choy (or one regular sized bok choy), chopped

6 small red potatoes, diced

4 cups milk, plus 1/4 cup

2 Tbsp dill weed

4 Tbsp butter

4 Tbsp flour

3 cloves garlic

1 tsp celery salt

salt and pepper

1 chicken boullion cube (knorr brand...it will improve your life)

Heat the oil on medium heat and add garlic. Saute till you can smell the aroma of the garlic. Add the bok choy and potatoes, turn heat down. In a large pot, add the potato and bok choy. Pour in milk (except for the 1/4 cup), add boullion, celery salt, salt and pepper and dill. Heat and boil till potatoes are soft. In a separate small saucepan, melt butter. Add flour and let heat and allow the flour to brown slightly. Add to this mix with a whisk the 1/4 cup of milk. If mixture is too thick, add more milk...you are trying to get ready to add to the soup without getting lumpy when incorporating it. Make sure it is a soft and silky liquid before adding it in. Add to large pot with the remaining ingredients. Let simmer 10 min to allow all the flavors dance around, get to know each other and have a party. Serve warm...unless for some reason you like cold soup. Enjoy!

If you are interested in being a part of the Bountiful Baskets or know someone who may be, click here!

Pork Tenderloin with Honey and Peaches

I hopped on my bike monday afternoon to leave work and head to the library. I've been meaning to read a book called No Impact Man by Colin Bevan. I watched the documentary and fell for it...I connected with the message and have already been living my life in a lot of the ways that were mentioned in the movie, but wanted to dig deeper and really see how Colin did things. He is a man who wanted to make no impact to the earth or environment for a year. It might sound boring and another "going green" thing, but I am totally and completely interested in it. Needless to say, I was very excited to find out my library had a copy of the book. I peddled my little heart out to get there, thinking it would be gone by the time I arrived...I just like to assume it's a raging hit with everyone. I put it in my backpack and pedaled home, with just as much speed...(believe me, it wasn't very fast...I'm a wimp on the bike). I got home, planning on ignoring dinner all together. I would simply read the entire night away. BUT....that didn't happen. Yes, I did read for several hours, but I went to go grab a glass of water and caught a waft of the peaches I'd gotten from the food co-op and they were getting old fast. The book disappeared right then and there....all from the smell of peaches. I can't help it. I don't know what my problem is, but the second I realize something needs to be used, my brain automatically starts rolling...playing connect the dots with all the other ingredients I have in the kitchen...mixing them together in my mind until I've figured out the perfect dish! Sometimes I make the dish up....other times I resort to Google. Google lead me to this recipe and before I knew what I got myself into, I was eating Pork Tenderloins with Honey and Peaches along with Cornbread on the side. Here are the recipes:

Pork Tenderloins with Honey and Peaches (from http://www.cooks.com/)

4 med. sized peaches
1 tbsp. Dijon mustard
1 tbsp. salad oil
1/2 tsp. salt
Honey
4 pork loin, blade, rib, or sirloin chops, each 1 inch thick
Parsley sprigs for garnish

About 45 minutes before serving: Peel, pit, and chop 2 peaches. Peel, halve, and pit remaining 2 peaches; set aside.

In 1 quart saucepan over medium high heat, heat chopped peaches, mustard, salad oil, salt, and 2 tablespoons honey to boiling, stirring occasionally. Reduce heat to low; cover and simmer 5 minutes. Remove cover and cook 5 minutes longer, stirring occasionally.

Preheat broiler if manufacturer directs. Arrange pork chops and peach halves, cut side down, on rack in broiling pan. Spoon half of cooked peach mixture over pork chops; brush peach halves with some honey.

Place pan in broiler at closest position to source of heat; broil 10 minutes. Turn pork chops and peach halves; spoon remaining peach mixture over pork chops and brush cut sides of peaches with honey. Broil 8 minutes longer or until chops are fork tender.

With pancake turner, remove broiled peaches to cutting board. Cut peach halves into fans; starting close to stem end, cut each peach half lengthwise into 7 or 8 thin slices. Spread slices to form open fan, being careful to keep peach halves intact.

Arrange pork chops and peach fans on platter; garnish with parsley sprigs. Makes 4 main dish servings.

Cornbread
¼ cups Plus 2 Tablespoons Shortening
1 cup Yellow Corn Meal
½ cups All-purpose Flour
1 teaspoon Salt
1 cup Buttermilk
½ cups Milk
1 whole Egg
1 Tablespoon Baking Powder
½ teaspoons Baking Soda

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Heat shortening in an iron skillet, muffin pan, or other baking pan. Combine corn meal, flour, and salt in a mixing bowl. In a separate bowl, combine buttermilk, milk, and egg. Add baking powder and baking soda. Stir. Add ¼ cup melted shortening, stirring constantly. Pour into hot pan, smoothing surface with spatula. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until golden brown on top.