I can’t seem to sleep, which is weird for me. I just thought I would write a quick note mentioning my ridiculous idea that (my tired brain thinks) now would be a perfectly acceptable time to bake the strawberry-rhubarb pie I have been planning.

If it wasn’t for my husband sleeping sweetly upstairs (and the knowledge that mid-night baking makes for crazy dreams as well as a kind of bakery-deprived morning insanity) I might be chopping strawberries and measuring sugar…and have had pie for breakast tomorrow…

Still, pie sometime this week is just as good (probably better).

Well, I think I’m off to try for some sleep. Here’s hoping you have delicioso dreams .

Good noche.

Long time no see. I’m totally embarassed to see the date of the last post being March. What happened to this blog anyway? Well, things got busy, my grandpa died, and I just haven’t been into writing. I can’t say that I’m totally into it again with the same fervor as before, but I can commit to posts more frequently than 3 months apart. I mean really.

In the world of food, my life has been a little crazy when I compare it against where I was 6 months ago. I’d been ignoring most cookbooks, and hadn’t made bread in forever. I still haven’t purchased any bread in the store this year (go go gadget 6 months) and was going without it instead. I haven’t been doing a whole lot of cooking, but I’ve still be photographing food I eat and make (mostly) and have been enjoying that a great deal.

In my family food life, my husband has been eating vegan for about 3 weeks. It’s crazy. He’s a spinach eating machine. Since this happened, I’ve been eating less meat, though I haven’t given it up, and I’ve been taking it easy on dairy. Not much in comparison, sure, but I don’t know if the veggie life is for me – at least not right now. I like butter too much. The upside has been the complete and total abundance of fruit in the house, which I love. In other news, my dog, has switched to a fancier dog food (Merrick) to give him less filler and more variety. Right now he’s eating “Grammy’s Pot Pie.” The extra couple of dollars makes the difference when I see him dancing for his food each time. It’s sort of a trip.

Today, I tried to make some hummus and totally failed. I took no pictures. It was a waste. The recipe was junk. This was first time this had happened in a long time. It called for 1/3 c water to 1 c garbanzos (in addition to tahini, lemon, and garlic) and seriously…we made garbanzo soup. It looked gross. The texture was just too gross to eat. We actually saved it and put it in the fridge to see if it would harden at all – and 6 hours later = no. Still gross.

My garden is still going strong, yet I have products exactly zilch in terms of vegetables. The basil is doing well. The war with the insects rages on. Who knew moths were so evil? I planted a sprouted onion yesterday (to go with all the sprouted garlic) and it looks pretty good. I have some flowers on the tomatoes and I’m hoping for at least one.

So, what happened, why am I back? Well, I cleaned off my desk (yay), got my flickr account back online (things got jankety for some reason), and I’d been missing it. I look forward to reconnecting a bit (yay for comments) and bringing the skinny on phx food back to the web.

Sidebar: Went to San Francisco – had the best Chinese food we’ve ever had. House of Nanking. Cash only, probably a line. It’s worth it. I have great photos of the noodles I still dream about but that will have to wait for another post

That’s it for now.

Hearts & Flowers,

R

Tonight I used some lemon pepper pasta from the market and was totally lamed out by it cooking/shattering into about a bazillion tiny pieces. This was accompanied by some wild blue shrimp sauteed with asparagus, garlic, butter, lemon, and white wine.

Dinner was ok. The flavors were decent but the mushy tiny pasta threw me off..along with there being random shells on the self-proclaimed de-shelled shrimp. Shame on me for not checking each one but really?

I took pictures and will post the mañana because right now I’m going to bed. Sleep tight and dream of delicious pies.

After a weekend trip to LA to see my lovely family, I feel like myself again, and…it…is…on.

I spent this last weekend eating street tacos and wood-fired pizza. I got to feel the icy cold ocean run over my fingers. I got to walk through markets, looking at fabulous  roiling broths and stacks of fresh vegetables. I got to feel the warm dryness of a Chinese herb store, the smell of ginseng and other roots in the air. With all of these sensory delights, how could I not be inspired! I have lots to tell you about so stay tuned !

So, here’s to daily posts once more and getting back into the swing of things.

Hearts and Flowers,

R

This is a hip joint. There are always a bunch of cool kids hanging out and eating delicious vegetarian eats. There’s a neat indie local, sustainable vibe going on that helps make the whole environment so slick.

First of all, always check the board for specials (it’s above the cash register so you can’t miss it). The specials are a great opportunity to get some neat food and some of my Green faves have been from there. Next, be aware that you have to wait in line to order, get a number, and food will be brought to your table. Beverages are self serve either via a cup or getting a specialty soda out of the cooler on your way to the register.

As for appetizers, I am a huge fan of the Artichoke Gratine and the Spicy Buffalo Wings – that’s right wings. Through the magic of science, technology, and hippie ingenuity, we have the pleasures of fake meats. And at Green they are the best. Period. I can’t remember if I’ve mentioned it to date, but I am allergic to chicken. Since I only found this out a couple of years ago, and at the time I was eating the sweet bird probably twice a day, I miss it. I particularly miss it when it’s drenched in Buffalo sauce.

Green, however, manages to make an excellent Buffalo Chicken meal, whether it be wings or the “G” Sandwich (Buffalo Chicken sandwich) (I prefer it with the veggie ranch over the veggie mayo as I think that mayo is gross). Simply delicious. I think that various Asian noodle dishes are good, though not always for me, but the Oricciette pasta is always a winner. If offered a side, go for the Thyme fries. They are super skinny (sacrilege) but delicious. When we went, we got the wings and I paired it with a Balsamic Picnic Salad (small, no figs). It’s a great meal for going out because it’s light and gives you lots of great energy.

So basically, everything we have had here is good, if not great, if not phenomenal. The only thing we haven’t liked is the pizza. Soy cheese is an acquired taste that we just don’t have, but you might, so proceed as desired. The meat is fantastic here, but the cheeses are not my bag – I just love real cheese too much.

While I didn’t that day, I usually end the meal with a Tsoynami. They’re huge, wicked excellent soy blizzards. I have had everything from birthday cake to tiramisu to strawberry shortcake. Get one.

Plus, how can you not love a restaurant that does this. Love it. Even Muad’ Dib would approve.

Green to the Right

Green Up Above

Numbero 21 esta aqui

Let me give it to you straight: this place is AWESOME. Open 5a – 10p and a full 24 hours (with the drive thru) you can get your donut on anytime you feel like it. Already a win.

Then, the donuts themselves taste crazy fresh, and are very light and airy. Translation = they don’t make you feel like you ate a brick of sugar. They almost make me think of chinese fried bread I used to eat in my youth. The selection of donuts is lovely and they have some fritters and cinnamon swirls for those that aren’t into sprinkles or chocolate glazed. I loved that they had some fun new flavors like strawberry glazed and coconut in a variety of styles.

The prices were great, and we were about to get a whole dozen and donut holes for the office without taking out a small loan. Everyone at work loved them and I think that there was a consensus that this is the new shop in town.

Really, the donuts are fantastic and they seem to be a small local chain (2 locations) which is much more desirable to me than a megacorp (and the equivalent of a +5 bonus on their check). Most important, though, everything is delicious and I can’t wait to go back. Mmmmm…Donuts!

Ext. Donut Shop. Morning.

Rosa likes Bosa

Donut Box Detail

Donut Shop. Int. Morning.

The Case

Dining Area

Their Donuts

Mmm..mini bits of fried dough!

10/12: Donuts for the office

Brendan's Boston Creme

Rosa's Chocolate Glazed Raised!

Candy Detail

When we came into work today, we received lovely Valentines from my good friend Sarah. Her and her daughter had made super cute valentine cookies for us. I chose this one, which was a kind of two-in-one cookie with the star inside of the heart – and it had candy! The candy filling was chewy and sweet, it almost reminded me of Jolly Ranchers but I couldn’t be sure. The cookie was delicious and a fab valentines treat. I’ll definitely have to get the recipe from her as I think these would be a blast to make. Wishing everyone else hearts and flowers, too! <3!

The meal began with them bringing us a sort of cracker thing (which the internets inform me is called Papadum) with some delicious sauces. I was particularly keen on the green one as it was full of mint, which I love. Next came some Vegetable Pakora appetizers that were fried vegetable kind-of dumpling balls. They came with a sort of sweet (almost) barbeque-like sauce that I enjoyed a great deal.

For my entree I decided on the Lamb Korma (against the protestations of my Vegetarian husband) and thought it was delicious. I’ll be honest and say that I think this meal sort of made me come around on Indian food. I think as long as I can order something that sounds good (as opposed to dealing with a buffet or specials only situation) I’ll like it more. The garlic naan was good, though I could have easily gone for more . I will point out that each entree comes with a rice, which is nice as that is not always the case at Indian restaurants.

Finally, I will point out that service was a little bit sloppy. My chai took a really long time to get, and my friend got the wrong dish (chicken tikka, not chicken tikka masala). They were, however, not bent about us having a coupon and very accommodating otherwise, including offering to fix the dish they got wrong and apologies about the late beverages, so bigons.

All in all I would definitely return and was happy with our meal. Try it and see what you think.

The Menu

Yummy Crackers with Dips

Ben making a difficult decision

Veggie Fried Goodness

Le Chai

So, the class began with learning about what fat is, and some of the terminology about meat. She also talked about rendering your own fat to make your own lard. As class started, she emptied a jar of chopped pork fat into a pan with a little water and set it over a small burner to render during the course of the class. Even though it kind of made me nervous at first, it began to smell pretty delicious. Plus, she began to talk about why one might want to use their own lard and what partially-hydrogenated oils really are, etc. I had thought that this class might be more about making jerky, but I was beginning to understand that rendering your own fats can have a stronger effect in terms of sustainability and the intake of real foods versus chemicals.

Then the teacher told us about nitrates and nitrites and the myth of nitrate-free bacon and ham. She said that chemically, there is just no way to cure the meat like that without nitrates. The rub, as one might say, is that they use either celery powder or celery juice to cure it. Celery, it turns out, has the highest concentration of nitrates in ground harvested/root vegetables. These veggies make up 70-90% of our human intake of nitrates. Crazy! The nitrates in the store are a chemical version of what is naturally in the celery. Still nitrates though, which was really eye opening to me.

After that we learned about making jerky, bacon, and ham. I can’t wait to try the recipes. This stuff sounds wicked awesome, not to mention delicious, and I am super excited to try to do it. As class ended, the fat had rendered, and the teacher strained it, removing small crispy bits and errant bits of meat (this keeps the fat from tasting like bacon, and being more flavor neutral – though the type of fat used has something to do with that as well). She salted the hardened fat bits and let us taste them. They were crunchy and tasted a bit like bacon, and a bit like crackers…sort of a crunchy meat treat, much like chicharrones, though it’s been so long since I’ve had them I can’t be sure.

While I’m not quite ready to forgo all vegetable oil and switch to a lard-heavy lifestyle and/or cooking regimen, I feel like we learned some great skills and became a bit more educated on where food comes from – a topic I am super interested in learning about.

Either way, the class was excellent and I’m really looking forward to our next class with the Permaculture Guild.

Liquid Fat - Your Lard, Liquified

It's Crunchy and Tasted a Bit Like Bacon

Ooh, Fat Bits!

References FTW!