That's it. I'm spending all of my summers in Seattle.

If it means I get to eat:
-perfectly pan-grilled sockeye salmon
-candy-sweet cherry tomatoes
-hand-picked blackberries

Sorry, salmon went from farmer's market to fridge to pan to stomach so quickly that I didn't snap a photo. I have witnesses of its splendor.

Dining out, NW-style. installment 1.

In rare form, this series of posts will actually be about dining out. It's something I RARELY do in LA, mainly because I'm cheap and think I cook better than restaurants do. But it's vacation, I'm with my girls, and dammit, we're splurging.

First stop: Ashland, OR. Can we say CUTE town? Home of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and boutiques filled with greeting cards, kitchen trinkets, handmade jewelry, organic clothing.

On our stroll down the main boulevard, we came across The Enchanted Florist . They had this gorgeous batch of "drinking chocolate" just whirlpooling around in the window.
So, naturally, we had to go inside. m of mno ordered a 4 oz. of tasting of their drinking chocolate.

I may or may not have had a quick taste as well, but the consensus was: freakin' amazingly awesome. So awesome, in fact, that when we went to a bookstore down the street, we semi-joked to the bookkeeper that she could have the rest as we were tossing it (4 oz. of drinking chocolate is just way too rich). She wistfully looked at the cup of chocolate in the trash and really had wished we had told her what it was before tossing it so that she could have the rest. Emphasis: wistfully.

Then it was off to dinner at tease. It's supposed to be all about small plates, but these small plates were quite hefty servings. We had: 1) humbolt fog goat cheese with fig jam, 2) fennel tomato salad (with jalapeno honeyed foccacia), 3) duck confit, and 4) a lamb slider. It was more like two apps and two small entrees. We were stuffed. Oh, and m had a pinot gris (nice and light) and I had a tempranillo from Abacela, a winery we would visit the very next day!

Breakfast the next morning was light and healthy. NOT. (that was my quick ode to Borat) We ate right next to our hotel at highly acclaimed morning glory . Over our morning tea and coffee...

we chose the following menu items: a salmon/potato/dill/cream scramble (emphasis on the cream) with a side of white chedder polenta cakes...


and a bacon waffle. yes, bacon waffle. with the applewood smoked bacon built into the waffle. with walnut butter.



needless to say, breakfast was extremely tasty, but extremely heavy. if you choose to order these items, share amongst a football team and eat only fruit and veggies the rest of the day.

more to come. during next dissertation break. :)

photographic evidence to support previous post.

Today, we visited a beach house in Indian-OLA, and of course, they had an awesome veg garden. We picked tomatoes and green beans (and actually ate the green beans raw because they were so awesome). Oh, and we ate sugar snap peas as well, but we ate those so fast we didn't take photos. And the sweetest beets ever (in the most awesome beet salad ever. will post recipe later).


And of course, it's blackberry season up here in the great NW. Do these suckers grow elsewhere as well? Because really, they're everywhere. And you just pick them. When I heard "we should go blackberry picking", I was thinking we'd drive off to some nearby farm (you know, like cherry picking in LA). Nope. Blackberry picking means... pick the blackberries off the plants that grow everywhere. And again, these are the sweetest blackberries you'll ever taste.



And I had to take this photo, well, just because.

needs her own backyard and garden. now.

If there's one thing that I'm learning on my Pacific NW adventure, it's that everyone has superfresh, organic, locally-grown produce. Or at least everyone I'm encountering. This can be grown in your own backyard, purchased at the tiniest grocery store just down the street (and way cheaper than LA prices, I might add), bundled via your favorite CSA, or even delivered to your front doorstep every Tuesday morning.

Needless to say, I've been ODing on blueberries and heirloom tomatoes (perhaps the season is just a smidge later up here than in LA? if that's the case, let's migrate north according to harvesting season).

And no meal is complete without a sprinkling of fresh herbs. Yesterday, it was mint on everything. Green beans. Potatoes. You name it. Today, I thought I'd make hipcooks roasted pepper soup (part of their Healthy, Fresh, and Zingy class and quite possibly the best soup ever), and ek brought in a nice sampling of garden herbs for garnish. I'm not going to be able to name all of them, but it included basil, tarragon, chives, parsley, sage, rosemary...



And here's the leftover soup (yes, that's a quart container and yes, I made THAT much soup) garnished with a lovely sprig of sage.

Birthday dinner, fam style

My family made a lovely birthday dinner for me and we enjoyed it with some out-of-town relatives. Lots of awesome Chinese food that I rarely get to eat, so it was definitely a major treat.

Cold noodles. They have to be long because it's a birthday meal and they promote longevity or wealth or many male babies or something like that. Toss in some sliced cucumber, egg, bean sprouts, and a sesame sauce and some yummy green onion/garlic/ginger concoction.



Here's mamacita showing us how to plate it.



A traditional "appetizer" platter at a Chinese banquet. Tea eggs, beef tendon, baked tofu, you know, all the normal stuff you eat daily.



Tsong yo bing. Basically scallion pancakes, but these are way better than any you'll find anywhere. Could eat about a million and a half of these and get really fat.



I call these "Chinese Empanadas". They're meat-filled. I ate leftovers for lunch for about a week. yum.



Me and the kiddos with my Kings Hawaiian cake. you know, the three-layered kind. (yes, I am still not eating sugar. everyone else loved the cake. haha)

photo from last post

drool.

I heart podcasts.

I podcast KCRW's Good Food now. It's hard for me to keep up weekly, but I listen to, oh, four in a row when I'm spending Saturday cleaning the apt. One of the more recent ones I heard (which means it could've been from July or February...) had the greatest three words I have ever heard in the history of cooking: triple blanched garlic! Hopefully I'm not way behind on the times and this is something everyone is already doing, but what a fantastically fantastic idea! I hate mincing garlic and getting my fingers all garlicky sticky, I'm usually so impatient I burn it, and who wants to wait an hour to roast those suckers in the oven? All you gotta do is triple blanch it and the "harshness gets leeched out". Brilliant.

These lovely three words inspired a dinner, which I then replicated for a stay-at-home lunch. (God bless proposal writing). I triple blanched the garlic and just threw it under the broiler for good measure as my tomatoes got a nice char, but maybe that step was unnecessary. Then mashed it lovingly with a fork and added a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil. Loved it so much that I replicated it for a supper club meal. Photos to come.


Herbed chicken breast (at home I used italian seasonings mix, at Tyson's I used some of his roommate's Herb de provence which he brought home from Paris)-- seared on high high heat for 2 min per side, then finished off in a 325 oven for about 15 min, rested on the cutting board for another few min before slicing

And the piece de resistance: rustic roasted tomatoes and mashed garlic. It's so yummy you'll want to marry it. I sliced a variety of tomatoes (cherry, grape, heirloom, some from TJ's, some from fmrs' mkt, some from Kami's yard) and stuck them under the broiler for about 10 min. Drained excess liquid. Added the smashed garlic with extra virgin olive oil. Dash of salt and a chiffonade of basil for color.

Cool snack for a hot day.

Fruit Salad: ripe yellow peach, ripe banana, toss of blueberries.
served with TJ's lowfat cottage cheese in the large tub with green print.

Food on a busy schedule.

So busy.

So this week, I am catching up from work from last week, frantically writing conference proposals, doing professional development 35 miles away, having extended talks with the parents, and trying to go through the laundry that's needed to be folded for, oh, six weeks.

Needless to say, I've had to do a lot of eating on the go. And a lot of scrounging in the fridge.

New fun concoction for dinner tonight: tofu salad.

Extra firm tofu, chopped
frozen corn, thawed in a quick rinse of boiling water
arugula
micro greens
chili oil
furikake

Pretty tasty. Didn't take photos because I ate it too fast.

You can definitely take this city girl out of the city... for this!

During my week hiatus here at Tyson's parents house in Grand Junction, Colorado, I've gotten the opportunity to prepare food in a way that just trumps my bidaily Trader Joe's runs. There is this gorgeous vegetable garden here, with tons of lettuces, swiss chard, kohlrabi, carrots, kale, heirloom tomatoes, cilantro, oregano, basil, mint... quite the orgasm of healthy eating, if you ask me.

It's tough to get internet time here, but I had to do a quick blog post with photos, since it's just marvelous!

Here's me in the garden with my awesome straw fedora and breezy summer dress, harvesting lettuces for a big 4th of July dinner in Beaver Creek with Tyson's extended family.

(Quick city girl story: first time I did this, Tyson's mom told me to pick some lettuce, I asked how, she gave me some scissors and a bag, I stared at her blankly, then she grabbed a bunch and snipped at the base, and I asked "oh, so you just cut it off?")

Here are the veggies of my labor (get it?? ha!).

The harvested lettuce being thoroughly rinsed in a sink of cold water. Makes you appreciate that lovely triple-washed bagged stuff that only costs $1.99. Though there is a sense of accomplishment here (and the freshness of just-picked, of course).

And a final whirl in the salad spinner.

Just had to show off my new engagement ring in this photo. There it is!

What to do with those little packets they give you when you get Pho takeout.

I'm somewhat of a pho purist. I don't like to taint my perfectly seasoned broth with more than the requisite thai basil, sprouts, and hearty dose of lime juice. You'll never see me grab for the squeezy bottles of hoisin and chili sauce. So, when I get pho takeout, those individual ketchup-sized packets of hoisin and chili sauces just get thrown into the "take-out junk drawer" alongside flimsy plastic knives that can cut through stuff as well as elementary school scissors.

As I've been really into the joys of Chinese cooking (and my new 12" omelette pan), I had an epiphany to saucing up a recent stir-fry experience: use the damn take-out sauces! That's right, I took one hoisin packet and one chili sauce packet (that they give you with Le Saigon pho takeout), snipped off the tops, and squeezed those suckers right into my stir-fry. A couple of quick pan flips et voila! Tastes just like kung pao! (click on photo for an up close and personal look)



"Take out drawer" Kung Pao
1 lb chicken breast tenders, chopped, lightly floured and doused in soy sauce
sliced red bell peppers
1/2 sliced onion
chopped snow peas
1 sliced red chili (for extra heat if needed... I felt like going extra spicy here)
roasted peanuts
1 packet each: hoisin sauce, chili sauce

It's stir-fry, so I did this all over high-high heat with some grapeseed oil. Chicken went in first to get a quick glaze, quickly followed by the peppers and onions. Snow peas need a bit less time to cook, so they went in about a minute later. Last 20 seconds of cooking, I threw in the peanuts and sauces, gave the whole thing a couple of quick pan flips, and moved to the serving dish (after snapping a quick photo). Serve over rice, of course.

Helloooooo June Gloom.

I really don't get why people are so confused at LA weather. We get some clouds and a sprinkling of rain in early June, and people are facebooking like there's no tomorrow. Where the hell is summer?, they ask. Well... summer in LA starts in July, runs through September, maybe 3 weeks in October, then hits a week in November, two weeks spanning January and February, part of April, and most of May. See? Perfectly not confusing.

Alas, good ol' June gloom hits like clockwork. Definitely need that sweater in the morning, especially if you're in classrooms in Santa Monica.

Here's my June gloom soup. Also known as my Get Well Soon soup.


chicken broth
dehydrated shiitake mushrooms
sliced ginger
shredded chicken breast
a dash of soy sauce, salt, and chili oil

Toss it all together in a sauce pan, bring to a boil, and simmer for 15 min.

On a breakfast kick, apparently.

I used to love going to Lazy Daisy for breakfast/brunch (two locations in West LA, one on Pico, one on Wilshire). Then I decided it was ridiculous to spend more than $3 on breakfast + coffee, especially in recession time. I did start to really miss their rosemary toast, though, which gave me the inspiration for this breakfast.



Over-medium fried egg, topped with a saute of onions, sundried tomatoes, chopped rosemary, and mushrooms. Salt and pepper to taste. Served atop some whole wheat toast.

Time to Experiment: Squash Blossoms

I saw these gorgeous squash blossoms at the farmer's market a few weeks ago. Tyson mentioned that he had liked them, so I brought a good half pound. I asked his sister for some recommendations on what to do (since the only recipes I really found online involved deep frying, which doesn't really fit my cooking style right now). She recommended stuffing them with cheese and rice, drizzling some oil over them, some salt and pepper, and then bake. Sounded easy enough...

The results were, well, just so-so. I think I cooked them well (baked in a 350 oven for about 20 min). I pulled the stamens out as directed, stuffed them, twisted the delicate leaves, drizzled extra virgin olive oil, sprinkled with salt and cracked pepper... And it looked pretty darn cool.



Where I went wrong was the stuffing... I was trying to be all healthy and crap, which is fine when I know what I'm doing, but here I was in uncharted (for me) territory trying to be all clever and waist-friendly. The stuffing mixture consisted of: pearl barley (because I was out of brown rice), lowfat cottage cheese (because I didn't want to go to the store to get ricotta), a small handful of leftover cheese blend (parmesan, asiago, provolone, and fontina), and some egg white. And salt and pepper of course.

Anyway, I thought I'd share this little failed experiment since that's what learning is all about. Moral of this story: sometimes you gotta put good tasting food in your food to make it taste good. This just didn't work for me. Next time I think I'd try basmati rice, manchego cheese, some ricotta, and a whole egg. Now doesn't THAT sound tasty?

Breakfast of Champions

I've blogged about the protein pancake before, but it's such a huge part of my life, I thought I'd revisit this awesome breakfast.


See recipe

Tyson and I are going to hike up to Parker Mesa every weekend before Colorado. He's doing this so he's in somewhat decent shape to keep up with his 62 year old father on whichever 14er they wish to conquer this summer. I'm doing this so I can look like a skinny bitch this summer. You know, one of those girls who are fit and in shape but eat to their heart's desire? Yeah, them. I want to look like that. haha.

Our usual Sunday morning routine is roll out of bed and hit the Farmer's Market for for brunch. But this past Sunday, we woke up early, had some protein pancakes, schooled that hike, THEN made our way to the Farmer's Market. Early morning exertion like that just makes you crave healthier food. AND I actually took a photo of our breakfast. woohoo.

I haven't lost my ability to type.

I'm still here.
In fact, cooking up a storm.
I have photos on my camera.
They just haven't made it to the MacBook yet.
I promise to post at least 3x this week.
Please don't abandon me.
:)

Trio of Chinese Dishes

After a lovely outing with Mom to Ranch 99 Market (Chinese supermarket extraordinaire), I decided to cook a lot of Chinese food. Tyson and I ate a spread for lunch, and the rest went into tupperware for later.

All dishes cooked stir-fry style: high heat, a dollop or two of grapeseed oil, and a big ol' saute pan to prevent overcrowding and steaming of ingredients. I didn't even use a spatula... just the good ol' pan flip. I know, I'm pro.



Chicken and Potato
Sliced red potatoes (par-boiled) tossed with soy sauce-soaked chicken strips, onion crescents, and sliced carrots. Finish with a dash of soy sauce.

Cashew Chicken
Same soy sauce-soaked chicken strips as above, sliced red bell peppers, chopped sugar snap peas, raw cashews, and some Black Bean Garlic Sauce. (cashews were on the soft side... any tips on how to crisp those up w/o deep frying?)

One of the only vegetarian Chinese dishes I know
Tofu sheets, pickled mustard greens, soybeans, and shitake mushrooms (reconstituted dried). Finish with a dash of soy sauce.

Brown rice
I read this prep method in a cooking magazine, and it worked really well! I couldn't really remember the exact measurements, and my oven only sets to 400, so I altered it a bit.

Measure out 1 1/2 cups brown rice in a pyrex. Add 2 1/3 cups of boiling water and a drizzle of oil. Cover tightly with foil and bake in the oven for ~50 min. (this way, you get cooked brown rice without the scorching at the bottom)

Post-chavasana fuel.

Just got home from a nice lil' power yoga session at Bodies in Motion. It's late, I'm all namaste'd out, so I'm keeping it light and healthy. Plus, I didn't do justice to the daily recommended vegetable intake, so I'm making up for that by going overboard now.

Let me introduce you to... the best salad in the whole freakin' world.


Organic Arugula (of the Trader Joe's just snip open the bag variety)
Red Bell Pepper
Persian Cucumber
String Cheese (I would've LOVED some manchego here, but I only had string in the fridge)
Reduced Sodium Turkey Breast
Grapes

Slice stuff that needs to be sliced (which is everything except the arugula) and hand toss with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil, a squeezie squeeze of lemon, and a light dusting of salt.

Then, stuff mouth and chew loudly since no one is watching and you can.

Summery Balcony Dinner

It was a gorgeous Southern California evening last night, so I thought we'd enjoy the peaceful breeze and warm weather with a healthy meal on the balcony. Photos are on the dark side because it was a late dinner, and the only lighting I have out on the balcony are from 1) other buildings, 2) two tiny candles, and 3) the new digital billboard on Sepulveda.

Here's Tyson drinking his Carrot Ginger Soup appetizer out of a shot glass.

Here's me proudly displaying our main course: chicken breast, oven-roasted veggies, and red quinoa.

Here's Tyson bringing out our old school Chinese restaurant-style dessert: sliced navel oranges.


I heart summer.

PS. Fun notes for food geeks: white squash (which is really pale green) is a lovely summertime ingredient and red quinoa has twice as much fiber as regular quinoa (and more of a bite to it)

Mid-morning fuel

1/4 cantaloupe
1/2 cup TJ's Lowfat Cottage Cheese



Working from home days are great because you can satisfy your mid-morning hunger by running to the fridge and grabbing a healthy snack. This is one of my warm-day favorites. It holds me over between my protein pancake + black coffee at 8am and whatever lunch I decide to throw together around 1.

BTW- Loving the new desk chair! The old one that you can see in the photo (grey back, black criss cross) is up for grabs if anyone wants it.