Thursdays Out to Lunch

It turns out that for the past two Thursdays, I have been treating myself out to lunch.  I am currently training for a half marathon (my second one!) and it requires me to get up early on Thursdays.  It's always hard to get up early but I love the feeling afterwards.  


Last Thursday, I tried Native Foods.  It's a cozy little vegan place at The Camp and reminded me of Berkeley.

The sesame kale bowl (brown rice, sauerkraut, kale, scallions) was filling and satisfying.  I was not crazy about the tempeh.  I ate half and saved the other half for breakfast on Friday.  

Just one Friday between me and my three day weekend!  

My Last GP Post (for a while), I Promise

My youngest sister said that this the best thing that came out of GP.  The ginger carrot dressing. This dressing is chunky and very suited for the Asian palate.  

1 carrot

1 shallot (if you don't have one handy, use a chunk of onion or a few sprigs on green onion)

1 nub of ginger peeled and chopped

2 T. rice vinegar

2 T. water

1 T. miso

1 T. sesame oil

1/4 cup grapeseed oil (or any oil without strong flavor like canola)

Stick it all in a blender.  I use my handy dandy hand mixer.

And voila, a yummy dressing! 

I Love Trader Joe's

I love kale.  I like it steamed and stirfried with brown rice or oven baked with olive oil and salt.  My mom used to (try to) make us drink kale juice.  Imagine vegetable juice with bits of kale floating in it.  Nasty.  But I get what she was trying to do.  It's not that kale is all that yummy but it's tasty and it's soooo good for you.  It's an empowering food.  And now, Trader Joe's has made my life easier.  Kale in a bag!  Washed and cut.  

I desperately need a camera!  This picture is dreadful.

Set your oven to 410.  Toss kale with olive oil and just a bit of salt.  It's a food for champions.

Second Chances

Okay, I had to give the GP cookies another go at it.  As you know, the first time around, I forgot the maple syrup.  This really bummed me out especially after I went all around town looking for barley flour (found it at whole foods).  This time around, I was determined to make the recipe work and not lose my cool.  I have this horrible temper (a friend of mine called it my dark side).  It doesn't come out too often but when it does, watch out.  Thank God John is even keeled.  Then this (and this was after I picked up the shattered maple syrup bottle):

I didn't understand it.  What was up with these cookies!  By the way, you are not really a cookie!  You have no butter or sugar.  Stop kidding yourself.  Anyway, I stayed calm and cleaned up the mess, borrowed a cup from my sister's down the street and proceeded.  I was proud of myself.  

These granola circles were actually good.  Really good with a cup of coffee in the morning.  This recipe makes a lot so be ready to pass them out to friends.

Lalo's Famous Cookies (from My Father's Daughter)

4 cups barley flour
3 cups raw whole almonds crushed in a food processor (pulverize them)
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup canola oil
1cup real Vermont maple syrup
Your favorite jam (plain strawberry worked great)

Preheat the oven to 350.
Combine all the ingredients (except the jam - but you knew that, right?) in a bowl and give it a good mixing.  Using a tablespoon, form into balls and space them out onto a cookie sheet.  Using a teaspoon, make indentations on each ball (don't use your finger, it doesn't work very well).  Fill each indent with a dollop of jam.  Bake for about 20 minutes.
Enjoy!

Quick and Dirty

A week in a life and I feel pretty lucky.

Mother's Day.  A day that starts out with breakfast burritos cannot go wrong.  We spent the day together and it was just perfect!

John's Breakfast Burrito

Now that the kids are old enough, we can actually hang out at a bookstore or a cafe.  We are lately really into Monopoly Deal.  

BBQ dinner.  We are planning to have at least one bbq night per week now that the weather is warming up.

My three favorite people in the world!


Alas, the workweek.  To treat myself, I went to East/Borough located at The Camp.  It's a clean, fresh vietnamese food served counter style.  

I had the pork and shrimp spring rolls.  My favorite thing about it was the rice paper skin.  It was sticky and chewy.  Just the way I like it!  I would suggest calling in your order.  The wait was rather long.  


My youngest sister treated her unnis to a night out in honor of Mother's Day.  There was lots of great food, laughing and the crashing waves of the Pacific Ocean as background music.  

Goofing around with Julie's glasses.  Having sisters is the best.  


Now on to the food...

Hope everyone has a fabulous weekend!

My Father's Daughter (Contd.)

The whole pancake thing threw me off.  Plus, I have a confession to make.  I tried another recipe only to realize after everything was in the oven, I had forgotten a key ingredient - one cup of maple syrup.  I threw a fit.  When I do something lame like that, I just can't stand myself.  Life is like that.  It is not always a big dinner party where everyone is laughing and the food is ready on time and the cook is relaxed, sipping wine and enjoying herself.  

Anyway, My Father's Daughter is a good read.  There are lots of intimate pictures and good stories.  GP's writing draws you in.  Her cookbook inspired me to cook...from other cookbooks.

I went back to Ina.  I can always count on her recipes to turn out.

Lemon Yogurt Loaf

My sister said she heard that GP's peanut butter cookie recipe was good.  So I went and tried Dorie Greenspan's.  

 

Peanut Butter Cookies (Dorie Greenspan)

2 1/2 all purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

pinch of freshly grated nutmeg

2 sticks of unsalted butter at room temperature

1 cup of peanut butter (use smooth or chunky Jif or Skippy, natural won't make a good cookie)

1 cup of brown sugar

3/4 sugar

2 eggs

Preheat oven to 350.

Whisk together flour, nutmeg, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in a bowl.

In a separate bowl, cream the butter and sugars until smooth.  Add peanut butter and mix until incorporated.  Add eggs one at a time.  Scrape down the bowl and add flour mixture.

Scoop dough into balls; drop balls into rolling sugar and coat.

Place on baking sheet about 2 inches apart and make criss-cross designs with the tines of a fork.  

Bake for about 15 minutes until the cookies are light golden brown.  Enjoy!

Recipe Fail (Sorta)

I really wanted to like the pancakes.  "My father was a master pancake maker."  He of the "father" in "my father's daughter."  The recipe calls for 6 eggs, 3 cups of buttermilk and 3 cups of flour and requires sitting overnight.  This recipe demands a level of commitment not found in most pancake recipes.  Heck, I wanted to love these pancakes.  I pictured having friends and neighbors over for breakfast - the recipe yields 3 dozen (!) pancakes, afterall.  A perfect vehicle for the highly sought after 3 Fs:  food, folks and fun.


By now, you know it's coming.  I kinda did give it away in the title.  The pancakes were not that great.  It was a lesser swedish pancake.  Dense but not chewy enough.  Mine looked nothing like the picture in the cookbook.  And not to brag but mine usually do look like the pictures in the cookbook.

Mine on the left; GP's on the right

John said that they reminded him of crepes and a lightbulb went off in my head.  I thinned out the batter and tada!  Buttermilk crepes!  Success!

My Go To Pancake Recipe


1 cup flour
2 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup buttermilk
1 egg
2 tablespoon butter


Mix dry ingredients.  Mix wet ingredients.  Mix dry ingredients to wet ingredients.  Don't over mix.  Overmixing makes for a tough pancake and you want them light and fluffy.