Catch Up

So Amy lent me this FABULOUS book on food photography that is so interesting, it made me rethink angles and light, and Ive been taking pictures like mad. So here are a few shots of what Ive been making lately:

Leftover Egg White (I had a couple leftover from a meringue I was making) and Veggie Scramble

Tomates!

Warm Palettes aka Carrots and Peppers

Carrots from above pic, marinated and grilled chicken on rice medley and tomato red pepper bruschetta

RED PEPPER MONSTER!

Stir Fry collection

Mish Mash of everything I had leftover in my fridge became a sort of minestrone soup without the tomato base

Sauteeing mushrooms like a BOSS

Rememeber that brushcetta from beforeÉ The next morning I pulverized it, mixed it with a bit of oilévinegar and made this AWESOME dressing

Powdered Strawberries

Blood Orange



Food is so beautiful. We just have to take a moment to recognize it and capture it.

HOLY HUMMUS

Ladies.

I just made my own hummus, from scratch, from DRIED CHICKPEAS THAT I SOAKED OVERNIGHT AND BOILED FOR 2 HOURS

AND IT'S AMAZING!!!!!!

I was at the grocery store, saw hummus in a plastic box, and thought, "fuck that. my people have made hummus since forever. Surely, I can make my own hummus. And it will be better."

-chickpeas
-lots of fresh garlic cloves
-1 small meyer lemon, juiced and rind grated (or lemon or lime)
-fresh basil
-olive oil
-salt
-pepper
-some water to thin to your desired consistency

-blend in a food processor / blender

and BE AMAZED

I didn't even have tahini on hand, and it was still AWESOME. just AWESOME.

Simple Vegan Lunch

because I really am trying...that day eating meat patties at Amy's was just weakness ;)

-Grilled tofu marinated overnight in marinade of : juice of 1 lime, paprika, tamari, olive oil, 2 crushed garlic cloves

-sauteed grated sweet potato and sweet onion, raw grated carrot, raw baby kale, topped with 3 tbsp of dragon sauce (you can make your own! It's basically just nutritional yeast, oil, garlic, onion, etc)

YUM!

Tomorrow's breakfast...

Donuts!! Based on this recipe, but yeasted and fermented overnight, with kefir instead of buttermilk, and no xantham gum of course. Oh my goodness!! Real donuts!! I may bake them just because I don't think I have a suitable frying oil. Planning to make a coconut cream & carob frosting to glaze them with. Yes, it's normal that you are very excited for us! I'll report back tomorrow!

noms lately

tapioca breadsticks with proscuitto, cheese and herbs, which I talked about here

ketchup! on egg cups! rejoice!

for supper this evening we had a wild, ridiculous salad - three kinds of letuce, carrots, radishes, dill garlic pickles, leftover roast pork, fresh curd cheese, green apple, quinoa, and two kinds of dressing (the leftover KS ranch dressing, which we're loving lately, plus some garlic-OO-balsamic-herb thing from the fridge). it was SOOOOOOOO GOOD. I am just as excited to eat it for my lunch tomorrow.

Tony made us a GF almond flour and orange cake. Yummy! It was not very sweet. It left me wanting a chocolate sauce, or perhaps a cream cheese frosting... mmm. Oranges are super on sale at Super C this week.

links to our cooking lately

Cast Iron Skillet Grain and Gluten Free Pizza It was good! It was actually better on a greased cookie sheet than in a cast iron pan, though maybe it would be fine if the pan was greased - he doesn't call for any oil, weirdly! It also made really excellent breadsticks!

GF Carob Brownies Yum! We used tapioca flour, and for add-ins we did 1/2 c each pecans and fresh cranberries, plus one dark Lindt bar, broken into shards, IT WAS SO GOOD. I did another batch with teff flour and I think tapioca was better.

DIY rice (or other grain) milks Very excited to try! I have two beloved vegans in my life so making grain milk is a skill worth mastering.

Gluten-Free Brown Bag Cookies - yay! Brown Bag Cookie Molds are a discontinued line of wonderful molds, of which I have a couple, and I am very excited to try a GF version. I bought a vintage sheep one for Easter, which came today, we'll make some tomorrow!

When Sam was in town she kindly brought me to the Bulk Barn, which was my first trip since GF. It was very exciting. I bought tapioca flour (normally you can buy it in tiny packets, so bulk is great), teff flour, sorghum flour, carob powder, and carob chips (chocolate is of course GF but it has caffeine, so we bought carob to feel better about giving the baby treats)... it was an exciting few days, until I realized they were horribly contaminated. Augh! I'd been warned in various GF articles that this often happens at bulk stores. I plan to complain to the Bulk Barn when I have a few moments; they advertise the flours as being gluten-free! Lies! I had several days where I was exhausted all day within hours of waking up, my eczema flared up horribly, and I was in pain in the powder room. Gee whiz. Since I used tapioca, sorghum, carob and teff flour all within a couple days of each other before realizing it must be the BB purchases rather than PMS, I don't know which are contaminated, or if it's all of them, or what. I nibbled on a few unsulphered apricots this evening, so we'll see if those are okay - I'm hoping they and the carob chips and pure baking chocolate are alright, and that it's just the flours, at worst. Booo!

leek geekdom for breakfast a la Jacques Pepin

oh my!

I found this stunning leek at the local market. I took it home with me.

And, of course, I had to share it with the world.

I've recently been obsessed with honing my omelet technique, thanks to monsieur Jacques Pepin. Last week, one of my students chose this video of Jacques Pepin demonstrating techniques on how to make a country omelet and a classic French omelet as part of his weekly Youtube transcription to practice sentence stress:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57afEWn-QDg

Probably not the example of choice to demonstrate Standard North American English sentence stress (lol), but Jacques Pepin is AWESOME, because for years I'd wondered how omelets were made, and could never make one properly myself. They would come out dry, crispy, in tatters, like overly-cooked failed scrambled eggs. How do restaurants make them come out so juicy and lovely? What is the secret? I would wonder wistfully as I poured condiments on my cardboardy eggs to make them edible.

If you've ever felt the same way, WATCH the video. Even if you think you know everything about omelets, watch it anyway, just because Jacques Pepin is super adorable.

Merci monsieur Pepin!!!