a monday

Cashmere keeping me company in my almost re-decorated office while re-designing my blog today.

We had a busy weekend full of house remolding, but we managed to escape and go to Apple Hill in Placerville, CA to buy some nice apples and organic produce at Willow Pond. Also stopped by a new Winery called  Grace Patriot Winery. The Winery is very young but had two stand outs. They did not have all vintages out for tasting, but the standouts are the:
2009 Pinot Gris
2006 Syrah
They were pushing a wine called 5pm that is a blend. Now, I like blends just fine and have no issues with Wine Makers blending but this was not the wine they should have been pushing this was a really not great wine. The Syrah and even there Cab was a much better wine for sure. They had a fun very Dry candy like Rose' as well that would be a great pool party wine in the summer time. So all in all a very fun weekend.

Now today I was TIRED. Poor Ben had to drive into the Bay for work so I just had to get breakfast and coffee together and push him out the door. The rest of the day I finished the two week process of re-designing and organizing this blog. I finally got it the way I wanted it so I hope you like it! Feed back would be great! Still not sure on the colors.

So today I went to whole foods and picked up some of there Mediterranean Crunch Salad that looked almost Mediterranean. I just did not feel like making anything for lunch even though when I got home I still had to doctor it up to really make it "Mediterranean". Then before I left I wondered down the raw food isle to see if there was anything interesting. The raw food isle reminds me of a very cold dank old almost deserted European village for some reason. It is isolated from any of the happy food areas and everything looks dead and muted. I know sounds horrible but it is the truth. I find new stuff all over the store so I figured I would take a shot and see what I could find.

The October 2011 issue of Fast Company is a must read if you like to read about business, tech and love Industrial design as much as Ben and I do!

I found these GF breakfast crackers by Mauk Family Farms. They are organic and GF also grain free basically a cracker made with just seeds and some GF buckwheat. Per serving they have 11.8 grams of protein, 17.5 grams of fat, 158 calories, 13.1 grams of fiber and 45 grams of carbs. This is something that you would eat for energy for sure and in the morning or in the afternoon for lunch. I just topped mine with almond butter and organic no sugar added strawberry jam. They have a few other savory flavors that would be great with a hummus or avocado spread along side a big salad for lunch. Not bad.  Now, for the salad I got at Whole Foods needed a lot of help for sure. So here is basically what is in the salad if you want to make it with my additions:

Shara's Doctored up Kale Mediterranean Salad 
(yeah, all the extras I added and I am most certainly calling it my own for sure)

a bunch of chopped kale (WF)
one to two cups(depending how much you like them) Garbanzo Beans (chickpeas)
one diced and peeled cucumber (WF)
one diced red bell pepper (WF)
half of a red onion chopped (WF)
two cloves of garlic chopped (Shara)
1/4 cup or more if you like of kalamata olives halved (Shara)
half one lemon zested and juiced (Shara)
some black pepper (Shara)
some kosher salt (Shara)
maybe some crumbled feta if you want
one good pour of olive oil (Shara)

Just combine and toss it all together. Holds up in the refrigerator well for a few days because the kale takes a while to wilt.

Hope everyone had a great weekend!!!








 

Summer Salad II

Ok I hit the Farmer's Market the other day!! Really hot that day. It was 90 degrees and not even 11am!!!

So here is another summer salad recipe that I throw together for Lunch when it is hot and I don't want to do a lot of cooking kinda like my last post but different too.

Servings: 2 full meal size servings or four to six sides

Corn- 2 cups corn any kind, I buy large bags of organic frozen corn from TJ
Peas- 1 cup of frozen peas- fresh are not worth the effort and never taste as good if you buy a good quality organic.
Radishes- 1/2 cup of chopped radishes
Tomatoes- 1 to 2 cups of cherry/grape tomatoes cut in half or whatever kind you got chopped
Zucchini- 3 medium zucchinis chopped
Lemon- zest of a lemon and the juice
Extra Virgin Olive Oil- 1 tbsp
Basil- 1 cup of fresh basil cut into ribbons
Avocado- two avocados sliced or cubed
Cheese- 1/2 cup of goat cheese or farmers, crumbled (or Daiya Vegan Cheese)
Salt- a couple of pinches
pepper- couple of turns of the pepper mill

 Toss it up all together except for avocado and cheese then top when you are ready to serve. If you make this a head of time just wait until you serve to toss with the lemon, oil, salt and pepper. The salt and lemon juice will make the zucchini sweat if you let it marinate in the refrigerator for periods of time and can make the salad quite watery.

Best Kitchen Gadget and a Great Summer Recipe

This gadget by West Bend is a little bit of heaven!!! Now my Vegan friends can just by pass this post all together, but for everyone else this is a must have in the kitchen!

My very, very best of friends Kevin and his lovely Mother bought this for me as a little Easter present this year. I celebrate Passover now, but I love gifts from the Easter Bunny regardless:)  Kevin was going on and on about how great this gadget was one night and poof it was on my door step a few weeks later. I love useful gifts!!! This is one of the best gifts I have ever received!

Eggs are a great source of protein, vitamin E and contrary to old research eggs are not bad for you. A study came out years ago stating that eggs are horrible especially the yolk. The study has been de-bunked because the people that where a part of the study where eating bacon with the eggs and did not take this into account. It was the bacon that made the cholesterol levels go threw the roof not the eggs.

I love eggs. The West Bend brand egg cooker is such a great invention. Boiling water to get hard boiled eggs uses a lot of wasted water and energy. With this gadget you just poke wholes on the top of the eggs with the provided egg poker that is on the bottom of the water measuring cup and then place them in the cooker. You then put the appropriate amount of water needed for the quantity of eggs you are cooking which is minimal and then put the top on and turn it on. Anywhere from five to thirteen minutes later depending on how many eggs you cook, you have perfectly cooked hard boiled eggs. You can cook one to seven eggs at a time. Also you can do soft boiled and poach one to four eggs at a time with a included tray. 

I usually hard boil and then put them in the refrigerator for Ben to snack on when he gets home from work. He loves it!

So with my handy dandy egg cooker I make really simple lunches with the beautiful eggs I pick up from the Farmer's Market. I found a recipe in Everyday Food from the July/August 2011 issue pictured below on page 118. Ben and I eat our biggest meal at lunch time and something small for dinner. So this salad would be great for dinner time as well.

 

The recipe is quite simple. I changed it a little for my taste. Makes four sides or two main courses.

You will need:
one pound of trimmed and cut in halves or thirds Green Beans
1/2 cup of Kalamata Olives cut into halves and pitted
1 cup of chopped tomatoes or halved cherry/grape tomatoes
1/2 tbsp of good quality Extra Virgin Olive Oil
two chopped garlic cloves
couple of pinches of sea salt or kosher
couple of good turns of the pepper mill
2 to 4 hard boiled eggs (depending it this is a side of a main course)sliced or roughly chopped
Juice and zest of a half of a lemon

Grab a large pot and fill with about 6 to 8 cups of water and turn stove to high heat just until water is steaming you do not have let it go to a rolling boil way too hat out to do that. Add your Green Beans and let them cook for about five minutes. Do not let them over cook. Drain them in a colander and run cold water over them. Add them to a large salad bowl. The add the rest of the ingredients and toss and serve. YUM!!!

 

Great Asian Coleslaw/Salad

So the heat is on and Soups are off the menu and Salads are taking there place for the Summer. So my grand pursuit for the season is to use my favorite ingredient LIMES in many dishes!!!!! So I was at one of my favorite restaurants that only uses locally grown produce. They have a Mexican Coleslaw on the menu that I have had before. Pretty good, but not my favorite. I read the ingredients and I thought this is a good recipe for summer but with some changes it could be a salad staple for me over the summer. So I went home and went through my cook book selection, nothing. So I go online. I found a lot of coleslaw recipes. They where all good but not what I was looking for. So I decided to come up with my own. I am a big fan of cabbage. Not many people are but being raised with coleslaw on the table every night you grow a custom to it. So I decided do a spin on Asian Coleslaw. Easy, very good for you and so good.





two cups of broccoli Slaw(only from Trader Joes)
two cups of chopped Cabbage
1/2 cup of chopped white sweet onion
1/2 cup of fresh cilantro chopped
1/4 cup lime juice
two Jalapenos chopped and seeded
one tablespoon of toasted sesame seeds
one to two tablespoons of pure sesame seed oil
two tablespoon of rice vinegar
two tablespoon of olive oil

Broccoli Slaw may not be available to you and to make it is pretty easy. Usually people just eat the Broccoli tops and throw away the stalks, but the stalks are totally usable. So cut off the tops and save for dinner time. Use a grater and grate the stalks for a slaw. Or you can use a peeler to peel the stalks to get more of a slaw look. Also add a carrot into the grating. The carrot adds some color and some sweetness. The Sesame seed oil and Toasted Sesame seeds can be found in any Asian market, Whole Foods and some Trader Joes in the Japanese foods section.

Prepping the Jalapeno Peppers can be tough. I take a sharp knife and cut off the tops and then in half lengthwise to the pepper. i take the tip and crap off the seeds. Then cut away the white areas. Put to the side with the knife, try not to touch with your hands. Save some seeds though to top the salad. Slice then chop the pepper. Remember to wash your hands well when done and not to touch your eyes if you can help it.

Combine all ingredients and give a taste. See if the flavors taste tangy, crunchy with a nice sesame flavor. If not then add more Sesame oil and lime or a pinch more of salt until you get there. I take some of the discarded seeds from the Jalapeno peppers and sprinkle on the salad to control the heat better.

This salad can be made in advance for parties and can holdup in the fridge for a week. I like to put this on a side of chicken salad, or grilled chicken or fish. If you make home made Sushi this would be great to serve as a starter salad or a side. A good friend of mine who I sent this to first to try in his own kitchen loves to put this on top of a good Turkey or Beef burger. This is pretty old school "East Coast" to put a slaw on a sandwich or a burger. It adds a whole dimension to a burger or a nice sandwich.

All the best,
Shara