Transition Foods

This week, John and I had some meals that I think qualify as transition foods - bridging the gap between summer and fall. For some reason, I took very up-close shots of all of them.

The Eggplant and Mozzerella Orzo Bake from Smitten Kitchen probably does the best job.

It was pretty easy to put together, and extremely flavorful. I would definitely make this again soon. This is the first time John and I have ever made something with orzo in it - what took us so long? It seems like it works especially well in a baked dish like this one. I think I would add mushrooms to this next time around.



Then we made the Lentil Pitas from Kira's blog, Cook Pray Love.

The original recipe calls for you to shape the lentils into balls and fry them, not unlike a falafel. But we kind of ran out of patience and decided to just eat it like a Greek-flavored taco. John also upped the cumin and black pepper, since I think we ended up with a little more than the lentils it calls for. The second night, we cut the pita into strips and baked it, then brushed it with oil, and ate the whole thing more like nachos. Just like the recipe for ancho lentil tacos, this lentil preparation is a tasty way to fill a pita, and super easy. It'd be a great weeknight meal. 


Last and most summery, I made a caprese salad for myself one night when John wasn't home for dinner. I sliced up about four heirloom tomatoes (fairly small ones), along with half a ball of mozzerella, and a bunch of lemon basil and thyme from our plants. I also drizzled it with a little olive oil and balsamic. It was pretty flavorful! And a good way to say good bye to caprese for the summer.

 

Though our tomato plant still has about 7 tomatoes on it that are not quite ready to eat. I hope they ripen up before we get a real frost, since the nights have started to get pretty chilly. I think they may actually become ripe at the same time, in which case, I think a good tomato sauce is what's going to happen. 

And that's all the exciting news from our house this week! Next weekend, our dear friend Jess is getting married, so we're headed to Toronto to celebrate with her. Our second Canadian wedding! Can't wait! 

Summer Running Recap

 Running post! Those of you who don't care about running can check out now. See you next week.

This summer my primary running goal was to train effectively for the Fort 4 Fitness Half Marathon. It's in Fort Wayne on September 29. When I say "train effectively," I had a couple of particular things in mind:

• learn how to consume calories both before and during running. 

In the past I've had GI problems and heartburn from eating as little as a banana within 2 hours of running. But I knew that had to change in order to train for and run the Half. Thankfully, I've more than accomplished this goal. At first, I would just eat a few bites of banana before running. Then I started wearing my fuel belt, even on relatively shorter runs, to get used to drinking water with a small amount of the low-calorie (G2) Gatorade mixed in. For each weekly long run, I increased the amount of Gatorade, and now I can safely consume two 10-oz hip flasks of it during my long runs - no heartburn or fear of it coming back up. SUCCESS.

I've also tried putting half an electrolyte tablet (Nuun) in each hip flask, after the Gatorade runs out.

I'm a bit on the fence about this product. One the one hand, they are small and easy to carry in the storage pouch of my fuel belt. They're easy to use and I think they do help me feel better.
But damn, they taste like chalk. Chalk with a hint of lime. The low sugar content is good for my sensitive stomach, but I don't really enjoy the chalky taste.

As for pre-run eating, I can eat as much as a whole banana  + a "mini-thintini" with a scant spread of peanut butter on each half. The first time I did this, it not only stayed down easily, but I felt SO MUCH BETTER! Wow! Calories make a HUGE difference when running for 2.5 hours. I was shocked, but in hindsight, not eating enough in advance kind of explains why some of my long runs were such a struggle.

(This is a mini-thintini, in case you weren't sure.)

My second big goal: 

• learn how to run really far without having a mental or physical breakdown. 

This has also gone about as well as it could have. I spent some time in physiotherapy (that's physical therapy to you Yankees) to help my right foot. It has some kind of tendonitis, and I've done a ton of exercises to help strengthen that entire side of my body, since it's not just a foot problem. Apparently I have a weak right hip and butt, but the exercises are helping a lot. I've also made some form adjustments that added a lot of mental frustration to the whole process. Just, you know, re-learn how to run. No big deal. It actually has made a big difference, but it's a lengthy process.
I was concerned with the mental challenge of running for that long, since I take breaks during my long runs, and it sometimes feels like it takes forever to get through them. I don't listen to music when I run (too afraid of being snuck up on), so it's just me providing myself with company and entertainment. Running several comparable distances to the Half, including now two 13 mile runs, has really helped. Next week is my last long run before the taper (!), and by then I will have run three 10 milers, three 12 milers, and two 13 milers (I like to call these the Tour of London runs, because I run all over the city). I feel like I know at least somewhat how I'll feel at the 12th mile. And I can only hope that I'll feel better in the race environment, especially since Kira (aka, Mama K) will be with me!
Since I've made it this far into the training cycle without (additional) injury or a lot of crying, I'm going to call this goal mostly achieved. I still have a few weeks to go!
After that, I have a couple of fall races at shorter distances on the agenda. Fall is the best for running.


A couple of other random things that came into my life this week:

Omg y'all, the masala hummus (store brand, no less) is so good. It would probably be very simple to make, if you have all the right spices on hand. I have high hopes for the spicy hummus.

Also, a delightful collection of seasonal gourds.

Happy Fall!

Avocado Zucchini Pasta and Blueberry Muffins

Ah, the end of the summer.

I know in the last post I went on about how summer was over, but this time I really mean it.

(Note: this is not our dog. This is a random beach dog.)

Summer is really ending. John and I went to Lake Huron for Labor Day, and everything. We decided to go to Ipperwash Beach, the site of a WWII army base that now features a dog friendly beach with free parking! Everywhere on Lake Huron takes about the same amount of time to get to, and the beach itself was lovely, so we will definitely return.

John and I completely forgot to bring our beach chairs or umbrella, so we sat in the shade beneath some beach vegetation until the sun moved too far to the west. It was still a relaxing and beautiful afternoon. I love Lake Huron. 

Tonight, John and I had what I'd like to call the Last Summer Dinner of the Year. We made two summery recipes that came up on my feed reader this week.
First: Julienned Zucchini Pasta with Avocado Sauce, from Oh She Glows.

(Also featured: random counter items, including the Centennial IPA from Founders that John and I shared while preparing dinner, in a new-to-us Apricot Brandy glass from Talize, part of a mixed group of glasses I bought for a grand total of $2.) 

Angela, who writes Oh She Glows, posted that she bought a julienne peeler. It's like a regular peeler, but with teeth. It easily juliennes things like squash, cucumbers, and carrots. You could use it for salad toppings, but, like Angela, I saw it and thought of veggie "pasta." A spiralizer would do the same thing, but the peeler is much cheaper ($7 for the peeler, vs. $25 for the spiralizer). I took her suggestion and made the easy avocado pasta sauce (avocado + basil + oil + garlic in the food processor) for this raw zucchini pasta, and it was a total success. We each ate an entire zucchini for dinner, along with half an avocado each. Lots of raw vegetables in this meal! 

 I think you could easily heat this very briefly in a pan and top it with basically any pasta sauce. It's perfect for the end of the summer when zucchini is still plentiful.

Since our pasta was really squash, we decided to have "pasta" with a side of carbs, in the form of these Blueberry Corn Muffins from Daily Garnish. These muffins only have a 1/4 cup of sugar and not much oil. Instead, they get moisture and sweetness from the blueberries and corn. I ate three and could have kept going, if it weren't for all that common sense I have.


Now that it's September and there are only a few hours of Labor left, I really am excited for fall! One more post about summer running, once I get around to writing it. After that, I'll start blogging about pumpkin scones, or the 100 sweet potatoes I plan on eating this month, or how cheap acorn squash is. You know, whatever's par for September.

Bloom

How can it be the last week of August? This summer has flown by. I guess that's what happens when you're done with coursework, and you just have to keep writing and researching during the summer.

Since I last wrote, John and I attended a wedding, and spent about 10 days in Bloomington. My parents moved there in the beginning of August, so we went down to help them get settled.

Let's start with a single pic from the wedding. Our friends got married in Port Stanley, and the bride's daughter baked these fun, beachy cupcakes. Each of those shells is actually a chocolate truffle.

The day after the wedding, we drove down to Bloomington, where I took about 5 random photos.
My parents' new house is in the southern part of town, with lots of green spaces and big, shady trees. That landscape has proven to be too appealing for the large deer population in the area. This buck belonged to a whole deer family we found munching on the neighbors' foliage, and licking their mailbox. They were seriously everywhere, and it was a little disconcerting to see how unafraid they are of people and cars.

As promised, John took me to FARM for brunch on my birthday. We've recently been making things out of one of the FARM cookbooks, so I was especially excited to try the restaurant.

Above: John enjoying his mocha, served in a Guinness glass. Below: my very spicy Bloody Mary. I love the little tomatoes they used as a garden! This was a great drink.

 

John had an omelette, and I chose baked eggs with the sausage omitted: eggs, potatoes, roasted tomatoes, and lots of parm on top. It was delicious, and I took half of it home. Before the entrees, we shared the Biscuit Basket - which was maybe my favorite part of the meal. The biscuits were HUGE, flaky, and came with apple butter that reminded me of taking trips to Little Nashville with Kelly.

So far my dad's favorite retirement activity seems to be finding new places to walk the dogs. We explored Olcott Park, as well as the near-by Jackson Creek Trail. It's kind of a perfect place to run.* Dad and I took the dogs over to the Hoosier National Forest and hiked around on the trails for a little while. Tobey has had an especially difficult time with the move - so much change in such a short time seems to have heightened his anxiety. But as you can see, all the walks in new, exciting places help wear him out.

I wasn't able to get a lot of pictures of all the time we spent with friends who still live in Bloomington. John and I visited Mark often, and went out to a couple of bars that have opened since I left town. Places like Atlas, the Root Cellar, and the Bishop seemed to have a slightly older crowd, and appeal more to graduate students. Back when I lived there, I spent a lot of time at the Vid, and at Bears, but I don't feel like we had anything quite like those newer bars, and it was fun to try them out.

And, of course, any late night bar adventure should conclude with a trip to our favorite 24-hour spot, Crescent Donut. John and I are still trying to figure out a way to work Crescent Donut into our post-wedding-reception plans, since it's the kind of place that's best to visit after you've already been to party. They tend to give away donuts at that time of night, and we always have the counter to ourselves.

So here's to the end of summer! Even though it went by quickly, I'm ready for the new semester to begin, and for fall to arrive. Today I had to restrain myself from buying a pumpkin scented candle. I have to wait until September for pumpkin-anything, since I want to savor the end of the summer before I start to savor fall. If I "start" fall at the end of august, then I'll have an even harder time waiting to "start" Christmas until after Halloween.

I hope your summer ended as well as ours did!





*I need to write a separate post about running, since I've been doing so much of it lately! Our first half marathon will be Sept. 29th, and I have some other fall races planned. 

FARMFood

When we went to Memphis in June, John's mom gave me a cookbook she'd recently bought. It's by Daniel Orr, the chef who owns FARM, a very popular, upscale restaurant in Bloomington that focuses on local ingredients. Though FARM is highly regarded, I somehow have yet to make it there. So I was excited when Julie offered the cookbook to me and John to take home.

 

So far we've made a few of the recipes, and I thought I would share some thoughts here. 

 Let's start with the bad: 

- The layout is strange. For instance: we wanted to make a veggie pizza. The recipe for the dough was on the same page as the toppings, so that works well. But the suggested sauce is a hummus recipe from the "Snacks" section - flip back about 10 pages. To make the hummus, you need a spice blend from the "Spice Blend" section - flip back another 20 or so pages. That much flipping to make a pizza is a little annoying, but I get it - he just wanted to print each recipe once. And he's adamant that you can sub anything you like for the recipes. 

I'll also say that this book is not for beginners. The ingredients can get slightly difficult to find (unless you have Bulk Barn, of course), and they can also be a bit complicated. While we loved the pizza we made, it took a LONG TIME to make, in order to let the dough rise, to make the hummus, to let the dough rise again, to grill the veggies, etc. It's kind involved for pizza. But it was damn tasty.

Speaking of exotic ingredients: one other complaint, and then I'll stop being a Negative Nancy: the chef suggests subbing anything you'd like for any of the recipes, and I believe in the intro he stresses that these recipes should be accessible. Ok, so far so good. But the very first recipe in the book is for Cattail Pollen Muffins. Oh yes, just stroll down to the local pond and pull the pollen out of some cattails! 

It doesn't exactly sound hard, but it's a little specific. And what do you sub for cattail pollen? Honey? Nothing? I have no idea. In fairness, if you do live within reach of pond (and I'd venture that almost everyone in Bloomington does), then this would very simple to make. But I found it a bit off-putting.

The good: 

Generally, I feel like it's an amazing book. The photos are beautiful, it's well written, and there are tons of options for veg people and omnivores alike. We've made some fabulous food with this book, and I'm looking forward to trying more of the recipes.

Let's look at some examples.

Here's the hummas recipe we used for the pizza.

This hummus has a TON of ingredients before you even make the spice blend, but we suffered through. It was fun to make hummus with white beans, instead of chick peas, and it's extremely flavorful. Making the spice blend took some time, and truly, we didn't do it right because we don't have a spice grinder (or coffee grinder that's designated for spices). John and I agree that it's not our favorite hummus to eat by itself, like we normally eat it. But it's a good base for the pizza. It also made me want to try making a simpler hummus with white beans, garlic, and rosemary.

Here's the pizza itself: hummas, grilled eggplant, grilled zucchini and red peppers, tomato, and kalamata olives.

The dough recipe was excellent and made enough for two nights of this fabulous pizza. It would go perfectly with a spicy red wine, like a Shiraz. I'd say the crust was the tastiest part, and that's how I like my pizza to be. You can get away with a lot if you have a good crust.

Next, we made a much simpler recipe: the BLT. For this, we used tempeh bacon, nicknamed faux-bacon,  "facon," "fakin,' etc. We bought special heirloom tomatoes for this sandwich, since tomatoes are sort of the main event, and then took a bunch of pictures of them, because we're weird.

I love heirloom tomatoes. They're so funky looking, and so flavorful.

Here's the sandwich in its finished form:
grainy bread, tomato, avocado, herbed mayo (we chopped some basil and garlic for the mayo), tempeh bacon (amazing!), basil leaves, lettuce, and goat cheese. This is a life changing sandwich.

Seriously, I would eat this all the time if possible. Tempeh bacon is one of the better faux-meats I've had, and I can't wait to make this again. Heaven!

All in all, we like the FARMFood book, and we'll keep using it. I'm interested in trying some of the brunch recipes, since FARM is known for an outstanding brunch.

Summer Foods, 2012

Since this used to pass for a poor man's excuse for a food blog, I thought I'd post a few recipes that we've enjoyed this summer.

First up: Caprese Salad. 

We didn't use a recipe for these, so I'll talk you through what happened.
I thinly sliced two large tomatoes, and a big ball of mozzarella. We actually had 4 tomatoes total, and I wanted to make the mozz go a little further. So I mixed up a couple big hunks of goat cheese with the juice of half a lemon, and the leaves from about 3 sprigs of our lemon basil plant. Lemon basil is amazing! It has a sweet, lemony taste and aroma, and it went perfectly with these. After that was mixed up, I spread it on every-other tomato, so the stack alternates: tomato, basil, mozzarella, tomato with goat cheese spread, larger regular basil leaf, and then I started the process again. The mozzarella ball was definitely enough for each of these stacks, and the goat cheese added a little flavor. We each ate two, and we also made some herbed dropped biscuits.


Next: Chocolate Chia Pudding with Peanut Butter Crunch Balls.

I've been using a recipe from Hell Yeah It's Vegan for the basic chocolate pudding recipe. It's just chia seeds, cocoa powder, almond milk, sweetener, and vanilla. It's ready in 30 minutes, though it's also good if you let it set a bit longer. We had this for dessert after sushi night, and I love to serve it in these Japanese rice bowls my mom gave me. When I was a kid, she always used the bowls to serve pudding or jello, and it's really a great size bowl for each portion.
After I had the hang of this version, I did a google search for a peanut butter-chocolate version, and I found one here. Then I had the idea to add the peanut butter crunch balls that recently appeared on Oh She Glows, and they are a perfect topping. They're super easy to make, and I just stored the extra ones in the freezer (though they didn't last long!). Chia pudding is my new favorite way to combine omega 3s and 6s with dessert (see a description of chia seeds' nutritional info here).



Next: Gnocchi with Zucchini, Sweet Corn, and Goat Cheese.

The Kitchn's Facebook page shared this last week, and we immediately decided to make it. Everything in it is summery, starchy goodness. Since the goat cheese doesn't come in until the end, it melts and coats everything a light, flavorful sauce. Here's a fun fact: I don't like parsley. Ever. This is only a real (white girl) problem when a recipe calls for it, but we usually sub some other herb. After those caprese salads, we had a lot of basil on hand, so I just julienned it and added it to this, for some more herby flavor. This meal was really easy and will probably show up again on our weekly menu.





This week we decided to make the BBQ Chickpea Burgers, also from Oh She Glows. 

They are only slightly complicated to make, and they are SO GOOD. The carrots and spices give every burger a ton of flavor, and the pumpkin and sunflower seeds add a good texture. We used cilantro instead of parsley, and I used the same bbq sauce from the recipe as a condiment. The recipe for fries in that same post is also a pretty good one, though we had to stop ourselves from finishing what would have been a 1/2 lb. of potatoes...each. The burger recipe made 8 burgers, so we had a lot of leftovers - something John and I both love.



We also recently made: Summer Sweet Corn Tacos, from Vegan Pandamonium.

These are super easy and tasty tacos. We cooked the sweet corn, but it actually calls for raw corn, which would take even less time. Throw the corn in a bowl with a can of beans, some spices, and a chopped tomato, and you're basically done. We made a slightly larger batch of the corn/bean mixture, and had this for a couple nights in a row. It's a great weeknight, summery meal. 

And finally, I improved a simple dessert when I had an INTENSE OMG CRAVING FOR CHOCOLATE RIGHT FREAKING NOW! the other night.
As a joke, someone at our engagement party gave John a box of graham crackers (I should say, a neighborhood inside joke from way before my time), but he doesn't like them anymore. So I've been slowly eating the whole box, spreading each one with peanut butter. Then it occurred to me that I could make a very simple chocolate sauce and pour that on top - because how could that be bad, right? I make this very simple chocolate sauce from time to time and put it on frozen strawberries: about 2 tbs chocolate chips and a couple splashes of almond milk. You melt it with the heat on very low, stirring constantly. If it's too thin, add more chocolate, or turn the heat off and let it sit for a minute or two, and it will thicken up. I spooned that chocolate onto these little graham-pb sandwiches, and then put the whole plate in the freezer for about 30 minutes while John and I watched more of Avatar - the Last Airbender (no spoilers, please! I love that show!). That hardened them up and made the whole thing taste more like an ice cream sandwich - I'd highly recommend them!

Sushi Making Party!

One of the things I miss most, now that I'm a vegetarian, is sushi. Some places offer creative, delicious vegetarian options, but they aren't as common. Recently, I started to think I could probably make my own sushi. When I say "homemade sushi," I mostly mean maki rolls, since they are fairly straight forward: just some rice, sheets of nori, and veggie fillins'. How hard could it be? What could possibly go wrong? 

(I refer you to the robot ccokie monsters, and the terrifying snowman cookies, but two examples of how I've demonstrated just how hard it can be.)


John and I consulted a couple of sources before setting out to make the maki rolls. First, we used a book that came in a set of things his mom gave him a couple years ago, for making sushi at home: Simply Sushi, by Steven Pallett. This book came in super handy, and we used it to make the sushi rice - by far the most time consuming and impressive part of the meal. How can rice taste so good? It's amazing, and well worth the time. Pallett also gives a guide to all the products you need to make sushi, and where to find them. I used his book to make our shopping list.

Going to buy the ingredients was a whole other part of our sushi-cultural experience. We went to United Supermarket, aka, the happiest place on earth, our favorite Asian supermarket. Here's the thing: I've never bought sushi rice before. And they have probably 20 kinds of rice, with very little English in their labels. So when we went to find it, I was the confused white girl in the rice aisle, saying things like, "This is short grain white rice. But it's from Thailand? Should it say sushi on it?"
Yes, it should. We also took a while to find the nori sheets, since kombu (a different kind of seaweed product) was sold in a separate aisle. Yaki-nori sheets were the ones we needed, and we happily stumbled upon them.
John and I also watched the sushi episode of Good Eats, where Alton Brown gave step-by-step directions that matched Palletts perfectly (side note: you can find the whole episode, "Wake Up Little Sushi," on youtube). After that we relied solely on the book, since all the directions were so consistent.

Ok. On to the sushi!
We asked Matthew to come over for dinner, since we hadn't seen each other in a while, and because he seems to have finely honed culinary instincts. He had also been to a make-your-maki party before.

First, we layed a half sheet of nori on a rolling screen (which came with the book). John covered it in what turned out to be 100% too much rice.

He drew a line down the center with a tube of wasabi, also purchased at United Market.

He stuffed it with avocado, mango, and a (fried) sweet potato. I didn't fry the taters, so much as cook them in oil in a skillet, to save time. John rolled it, per instructions, tucking the fillings in with his fingers as he went.

In the end, it looked like a little sushi-burrito hybrid, with the filling bursting out. We quickly learned that less is more, if you want the roll to close. The picture below is of his first roll after we cut it. So instead of plating that one, we just ate it in pieces off the cutting board, and went on to the next attempt. And it turns out that falling-apart-sushi tastes just like regular, beautiful sushi!

John went about a second attempt, while Matthew tried for an inside-out roll, where the rice is on the outside. He figured this would allow for more fillings.
First, he covered a half sheet of nori with rice, as before, and sprinkled it with sesame seeds.

Then he flipped it over. Note: for inside out rolls, we put a sheet of plastic wrap on the rolling screen, and it worked perfectly.
With the nori-side up, he layered on mango and avocado.

Then he rolled it up, and it looked great! This one completely hung together, so we cut it and put it on a serving tray to eat when we had a couple of other successful rolls.

Naturally, I forgot to take pictures of everything once we started eating (the gin and tonics may have had something to do with that...and they might be the reason why so many of these pictures are a tad blurry). But I did snap a picture of the last roll I made: also just avocado and mango.

It was my most successful one.

Here's another shot of a moderately successful roll on the serving tray.

 

The biggest lesson we learned was to keep it simple. John and I tried to think of a bunch of fun veggie fillings, and we had too many. While the mango, avocado, sweet potato, and shiitakes were gone by the end of the evening, we didn't even touch the carrots or cucumber (but we ate them separately the next day). But keeping the shiittakes were the one thing about this dinner that we did absolutely right: I just gave them a quick sautee in some soy sauce with a little sugar, and they were so good. We got a big package of them at the market, and I would completely do that again. Shiitakes are very easy to over cook, so they probably only spent 2 minutes in the pan, max. The texture was perfect, and they went well with all the other ingredients. 

 

I think that's Matthew's sushi face.

All in all, we were so happy with this meal! It turns out, sushi is hard to make, especially hard if you want it to look nice. But everything tasted fantastic. The three of us agreed that making it gave us a whole new respect for chefs in sushi bars who just crank out beautiful rolls all evening, in minutes. That's some real skill.

Now that we know how to make it and what to expect, I think we would definitely make this again. But we'll probably wait until we have an occasion to have a couple people over, since it's definitely a fun group activity.