Monday, July 20, 2009
olive oil granola
The New York Times recently had a recipe for olive oil granola. Yum! I can't resist any recipe that is so easy to put together. You should try it too. The article describes is as "health-conscious crack," and this is completely accurate. It's sweet and salty and oily and crunchy, and has 600 calories per cup, per our calculations. I wouldn't exactly call it health-conscious, but whatever. I used cashews instead of pistachios, and left out the coconut chips.
mixed berry pie
On Saturday, I made a mixed berry pie. I usually make fruit into crisps or crumbles, which are amazingly easy to throw together and relatively light and healthy. But I wanted to make something more monumental with the raspberries and blackberries from our garden. We've been picking them for weeks, and mostly just eating them plain.
Mixed Berry Pie
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
for filling:
6 cups mixed blackberries, raspberries, and blueberries
1/4 c. sugar
2 T. cornstarch
dash cinnamon
Mix fruit with sugar, starch, and cinnamon, and let sit while you prepare the crust.
for crust:
1 1/2 c. whole wheat pastry flour
1 stick salted butter, cut into small pieces
1 T. sugar
ice water
In food processor, pulse flour, butter, and sugar until the butter is in pieces the size of peas. Add spoonfuls of ice water and pulse until the dough forms big clumps. Remove dough and put onto floured cutting board. Roll dough out with rolling pin, adding extra flour as needed to prevent sticking. Line a pie pan with dough. Mound filling into pie pan. You'll probably have enough dough left for a top crust; I made a lattice. Decoratively crimp the edges. If you want, you can brush the edges of the crust with milk or cream or soymilk, for attractive browning.
Bake pie for about half an hour; crust should be golden brown. Lower heat to 350, and bake 15 more minutes until filling is bubbling.
A few caveats about this pie. Mike and I both loved it, but I would probably make some changes if serving it to guests. The whole wheat crust is not exactly light as a feather -- it's a bit dense and substantial. I don't mind this. It reminds me of Little House on the Prairie. The kids and Pa carried pies in their lunch pails, so they couldn't have been too delicate and airy or they would have been smashed to crumbs. I have a strange fascination with the foods in Little House on the Prairie.
Caveat #2 is that the pie could be a lot sweeter. A similar recipe on the Martha Stewart Living website uses a cup of sugar, and that wouldn't be inappropriate. We liked it really well with less sugar, though.
Caveat #3: The pie was runny. Next time I will add more cornstarch.
We ate it with homemade frozen yogurt, which was just whole milk yogurt mixed with honey and vanilla, frozen in the ice cream maker. This also wasn't very sweet. In fact, the entire dessert was so unsugary that we deemed it appropriate to eat for breakfast.
Mixed Berry Pie
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
for filling:
6 cups mixed blackberries, raspberries, and blueberries
1/4 c. sugar
2 T. cornstarch
dash cinnamon
Mix fruit with sugar, starch, and cinnamon, and let sit while you prepare the crust.
for crust:
1 1/2 c. whole wheat pastry flour
1 stick salted butter, cut into small pieces
1 T. sugar
ice water
In food processor, pulse flour, butter, and sugar until the butter is in pieces the size of peas. Add spoonfuls of ice water and pulse until the dough forms big clumps. Remove dough and put onto floured cutting board. Roll dough out with rolling pin, adding extra flour as needed to prevent sticking. Line a pie pan with dough. Mound filling into pie pan. You'll probably have enough dough left for a top crust; I made a lattice. Decoratively crimp the edges. If you want, you can brush the edges of the crust with milk or cream or soymilk, for attractive browning.
Bake pie for about half an hour; crust should be golden brown. Lower heat to 350, and bake 15 more minutes until filling is bubbling.
A few caveats about this pie. Mike and I both loved it, but I would probably make some changes if serving it to guests. The whole wheat crust is not exactly light as a feather -- it's a bit dense and substantial. I don't mind this. It reminds me of Little House on the Prairie. The kids and Pa carried pies in their lunch pails, so they couldn't have been too delicate and airy or they would have been smashed to crumbs. I have a strange fascination with the foods in Little House on the Prairie.
Caveat #2 is that the pie could be a lot sweeter. A similar recipe on the Martha Stewart Living website uses a cup of sugar, and that wouldn't be inappropriate. We liked it really well with less sugar, though.
Caveat #3: The pie was runny. Next time I will add more cornstarch.
We ate it with homemade frozen yogurt, which was just whole milk yogurt mixed with honey and vanilla, frozen in the ice cream maker. This also wasn't very sweet. In fact, the entire dessert was so unsugary that we deemed it appropriate to eat for breakfast.
Friday, July 17, 2009
portland and seattle
I've been out of town, visiting Seattle and Portland. We only had one day in Seattle, so I don't think I've experienced it adequately. Downtown Seattle is seedy. The few neighborhoods I saw seem beautiful. Capitol Hill and Queen Anne, both near downtown, are pretty and expensive. We walked through a community garden in Capitol Hill that blew my mind, but Capitol Hill (I learn from Zillow) is the Lincoln Park of Seattle. I would have liked to see the neighborhoods, if any, where we could actually afford to live. We ate at Poppy, a restaurant in Capitol Hill that focuses on local foods. It was absolutely wonderful, and one of the best restaurant meals I've had. Part of the appeal is that you get a thali, a platter with 5-7 small dishes in tasting portions; they offer an ordinary thali with a couple meat dishes and also a vegetarian thali. The food was amazing, I loved trying a variety of dishes, and the vegetarian option wasn't just an afterthought as it is in many restaurants.
I didn't have any wine, just iced tea. It's sad, because I love wine, but I feel better if I drink no alcohol at all. Oh well. I wish I could have one drink and feel perfectly okay, but I can't. It only took me 15 years to accept this fact.
Beyond eating at Poppy, on our day in Seattle we went to Pike Place market and ate cherries and scones and coffee, walked around downtown, stopped at Whole Foods and got some lunch and other supplies, went to Washington Park Arboretum and did some walking and jogging, then went back to the hotel and got ready for dinner. We had time to drive through the Queen Anne neighborhood before Poppy. That's it. We should have bagged the Washington Park Arboretum, which was nice but a time-consuming jaunt. On the way out of town the next morning, we stopped at the Columbia City Bakery and got some cookies and scones and walnut levain to take to Richard and Angie's house. (The cookies and scones were eaten quickly, but the walnut levain didn't reach its potential until yesterday, when I made it into bruschetta with a garlicky herbed white bean topping. The walnuts were explosions of wonderfulness. Yes, I brought it home with me in my suitcase.)
Here's what I love about Portland:
1) The neighborhoods are pretty, with adorable wood-framed houses and beautiful gardens. My brother's neighborhood in NE Portland is like this, and he swears that it's a modest and ordinary neighborhood. I'm not as familiar with other neighborhoods, but this seems true. Amazingly, other neighborhoods are just as beautiful, or even more so.
2) Laughing Planet restaurant. I could eat here every day.
3) Close to mountains, hiking, natural beauty.
4) Not cold in the winter.
5) A thousand other things.
6) Angie and Richard and Sabine, who are happy to see me, and nice and kind and funny, and live full and worthwhile lives. Sabine, age 21 mos., is jolly and will laugh at any joke because she loves to laugh.
I didn't have any wine, just iced tea. It's sad, because I love wine, but I feel better if I drink no alcohol at all. Oh well. I wish I could have one drink and feel perfectly okay, but I can't. It only took me 15 years to accept this fact.
Beyond eating at Poppy, on our day in Seattle we went to Pike Place market and ate cherries and scones and coffee, walked around downtown, stopped at Whole Foods and got some lunch and other supplies, went to Washington Park Arboretum and did some walking and jogging, then went back to the hotel and got ready for dinner. We had time to drive through the Queen Anne neighborhood before Poppy. That's it. We should have bagged the Washington Park Arboretum, which was nice but a time-consuming jaunt. On the way out of town the next morning, we stopped at the Columbia City Bakery and got some cookies and scones and walnut levain to take to Richard and Angie's house. (The cookies and scones were eaten quickly, but the walnut levain didn't reach its potential until yesterday, when I made it into bruschetta with a garlicky herbed white bean topping. The walnuts were explosions of wonderfulness. Yes, I brought it home with me in my suitcase.)
Here's what I love about Portland:
1) The neighborhoods are pretty, with adorable wood-framed houses and beautiful gardens. My brother's neighborhood in NE Portland is like this, and he swears that it's a modest and ordinary neighborhood. I'm not as familiar with other neighborhoods, but this seems true. Amazingly, other neighborhoods are just as beautiful, or even more so.
2) Laughing Planet restaurant. I could eat here every day.
3) Close to mountains, hiking, natural beauty.
4) Not cold in the winter.
5) A thousand other things.
6) Angie and Richard and Sabine, who are happy to see me, and nice and kind and funny, and live full and worthwhile lives. Sabine, age 21 mos., is jolly and will laugh at any joke because she loves to laugh.
Monday, June 22, 2009
the new Whole Foods
There's a shiny new Whole Foods at North Avenue and Kingsbury. Because the old Whole Foods had so many problems (limited selection, rats, etc.) I was looking forward to the new one opening. Now I've been there a few times, and I find the shopping experience to be exceedingly unpleasant. I'm sure this is the exact opposite of what the store's designers were going for. Why do I hate this shiny, enormous Whole Foods packed with an unprecedented selection of upscale groceries?
1) It has a huge bank of refrigerator cases. It is freezing cold if you are anywhere near them. Seriously, don't go in wearing a sundress unless you want to suffer.
2) It takes forever to get in the store. Naturally, there's no street parking, and the store is a fair walk from North Ave. There's a big, complicated parking garage with arrows pointing every which way, and the store has at least 5 entrances. Once you navigate the parking garage, you have to go down a long series of escalators, or wind through a labyrinth of seating area and down some stairs. There's an elevator, too. It reminds me of the big Harold Washington library downtown, which I never go to because it takes about twenty minutes to reach any books. You enter, go through a long hallway, go up an outer escalator, go through security, go up an inner escalator, etc.
3) It's crowded and poorly laid out. Rather than straight aisles running the length of the store, there are some short aisles and many islands that impede traffic. The entire south end of the store is about 8 different mini-restaurants, little islands surrounded by stools. When the store is crowded, which is always, you can barely work your way through this carnival. If the store was thinly populated, it might seem exciting and fun to explore the bath-salt island, the make-your-own-granola island, the gourmet olive island, etc. I might wander around, spending excessively. But when the store is crowded, it makes me want to flee. Besides, it's no fun to wander around because it's so freezing. Also, the "island of delights" layout makes it hard to find anything.
4) They discontinued the one staple that I loved: White Wave Extra Firm Tofu. This tofu is so firm that you can cook it without draining and pressing. It doesn't stick to my cast-iron skillet. I depended on it. Now, there's little besides Whole Foods brand tofu, which sucks. It sticks to my skillet every time.
As a customer who was eager to be pleased, I think they really missed the boat with this new store.
1) It has a huge bank of refrigerator cases. It is freezing cold if you are anywhere near them. Seriously, don't go in wearing a sundress unless you want to suffer.
2) It takes forever to get in the store. Naturally, there's no street parking, and the store is a fair walk from North Ave. There's a big, complicated parking garage with arrows pointing every which way, and the store has at least 5 entrances. Once you navigate the parking garage, you have to go down a long series of escalators, or wind through a labyrinth of seating area and down some stairs. There's an elevator, too. It reminds me of the big Harold Washington library downtown, which I never go to because it takes about twenty minutes to reach any books. You enter, go through a long hallway, go up an outer escalator, go through security, go up an inner escalator, etc.
3) It's crowded and poorly laid out. Rather than straight aisles running the length of the store, there are some short aisles and many islands that impede traffic. The entire south end of the store is about 8 different mini-restaurants, little islands surrounded by stools. When the store is crowded, which is always, you can barely work your way through this carnival. If the store was thinly populated, it might seem exciting and fun to explore the bath-salt island, the make-your-own-granola island, the gourmet olive island, etc. I might wander around, spending excessively. But when the store is crowded, it makes me want to flee. Besides, it's no fun to wander around because it's so freezing. Also, the "island of delights" layout makes it hard to find anything.
4) They discontinued the one staple that I loved: White Wave Extra Firm Tofu. This tofu is so firm that you can cook it without draining and pressing. It doesn't stick to my cast-iron skillet. I depended on it. Now, there's little besides Whole Foods brand tofu, which sucks. It sticks to my skillet every time.
As a customer who was eager to be pleased, I think they really missed the boat with this new store.
Cabbage and White Beans
Another favorite dish recently is a cabbage and white bean stew, along these lines. Often I leave out the potatoes and skip the stock--just using enough water to keep things moist. Once I added red beets and a fair amount of vinegar, for a borschlike soup. (Apple cider vinegar, white wine vinegar, or balsamic vinegar are all good choices.)
I never realized how delicious cabbage is until recently. I can see why it's a staple of so many cuisines. It's especially good roughly chopped, tossed in olive oil, seasoned with salt and pepper, and roasted in a hot oven until tender and crispy around the edges.
I never realized how delicious cabbage is until recently. I can see why it's a staple of so many cuisines. It's especially good roughly chopped, tossed in olive oil, seasoned with salt and pepper, and roasted in a hot oven until tender and crispy around the edges.
Otsu: best soba noodle dish ever
In the past few months, I've been making this soba noodle dish often. It's possibly my favorite recipe from Heidi Swanson's Super Natural Food. Fortunately the recipe is posted on Heidi's site for easy reference. I leave the olive oil out of the sauce and use more cucumber, but otherwise this recipe is perfect.
Annie Chun brand soba noodles are good. I had ordered six boxes from amazon, and was pleased with them. Having used them up, I now have some Roland brand soba noodles, which are thinner and don't seem to soak up the sauce as well. I've also gotten soba noodles from the big Korean grocery store at Belmont and Kimball. They are cheap there. I would go there more often but it's such an unpleasant walk. I hate walking under the freeway overpass through the pigeon shit, and Kimball is a depressing street.
The noodles from the Korean grocery are not as good as Annie Chun, and not pure buckwheat, unfortunately. I've yet to try pure buckwheat soba noodles--you can get them at Whole Foods--because they are at least twice as expensive as the wheat/buckwheat mixture.
Annie Chun brand soba noodles are good. I had ordered six boxes from amazon, and was pleased with them. Having used them up, I now have some Roland brand soba noodles, which are thinner and don't seem to soak up the sauce as well. I've also gotten soba noodles from the big Korean grocery store at Belmont and Kimball. They are cheap there. I would go there more often but it's such an unpleasant walk. I hate walking under the freeway overpass through the pigeon shit, and Kimball is a depressing street.
The noodles from the Korean grocery are not as good as Annie Chun, and not pure buckwheat, unfortunately. I've yet to try pure buckwheat soba noodles--you can get them at Whole Foods--because they are at least twice as expensive as the wheat/buckwheat mixture.
Breakfast Cookies
It's been a while since I posted. I've had other preoccupations, and doing a nice post with a photo and well-considered text is a fair amount of work. But I would like a record of what I've been cooking and an online place to store recipes for future reference, so I'm going to lower my standards.
Even Healthier Breakfast Cookies
June 14, June 17, 2009
First I made a batch of Ellie Krieger's breakfast cookies, following her recipe fairly closely. I made a double recipe, used 2 c. all-purpose flour and 1/2 c. whole wheat flour instead of her mixture of whole-wheat pastry flour and all-purpose flour, used applesauce instead of carrot baby food, and added chocolate chips. They turned out great. Commenters on Krieger's recipe page fault the cookies for being too healthy tasting, but I disagree. In fact Mike, who has been on a big health kick lately, thought they were not light and healthy enough, so I tried making them healthier yet. The result was tasty but not especially cookielike. Probably Ellie Krieger has already pushed the envelope on how healthy you can make a cookie without changing its essential nature. Mine reminded me more of flat muffins, or extremely healthy scones. Still, they are big and yummy and a reasonable 227 calories each. I got only 13 cookies from this batch, but they were pretty big.
1 c. whole-wheat flour
1 c. all-purpose flour
1/2 c. bran flakes
1 t. baking soda
2 t. cinnamon
1/2 t. salt
1/2 t. ground nutmeg, or a few good grates of fresh nutmeg
2 T. canola oil
2 T. butter
3/4 c. loosely packed brown sugar
1 t. vanilla extract
2 eggs
1 c. applesauce
1/2 c. walnuts
1 c. Raisin Bran cereal
1/2 c. raisins
1 c. rolled oats
Even Healthier Breakfast Cookies
June 14, June 17, 2009
First I made a batch of Ellie Krieger's breakfast cookies, following her recipe fairly closely. I made a double recipe, used 2 c. all-purpose flour and 1/2 c. whole wheat flour instead of her mixture of whole-wheat pastry flour and all-purpose flour, used applesauce instead of carrot baby food, and added chocolate chips. They turned out great. Commenters on Krieger's recipe page fault the cookies for being too healthy tasting, but I disagree. In fact Mike, who has been on a big health kick lately, thought they were not light and healthy enough, so I tried making them healthier yet. The result was tasty but not especially cookielike. Probably Ellie Krieger has already pushed the envelope on how healthy you can make a cookie without changing its essential nature. Mine reminded me more of flat muffins, or extremely healthy scones. Still, they are big and yummy and a reasonable 227 calories each. I got only 13 cookies from this batch, but they were pretty big.
1 c. whole-wheat flour
1 c. all-purpose flour
1/2 c. bran flakes
1 t. baking soda
2 t. cinnamon
1/2 t. salt
1/2 t. ground nutmeg, or a few good grates of fresh nutmeg
2 T. canola oil
2 T. butter
3/4 c. loosely packed brown sugar
1 t. vanilla extract
2 eggs
1 c. applesauce
1/2 c. walnuts
1 c. Raisin Bran cereal
1/2 c. raisins
1 c. rolled oats
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Whisk together flours, bran flakes, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt in a medium-sized bowl. Combine butter, oil and sugar and mix with electric mixer until sugars have dissolved and mixture is light in color. Add eggs, applesauce, and vanilla and beat an additional 30 seconds. Add flour mixture and beat an additional 30 seconds. Add oats, cereal, raisins, and walnuts and stir to combine. Dough will be slightly sticky and less cohesive than traditional cookie dough. Line a large cookie sheet with parchment paper. Using about 4 tablespoons of batter, form a ball and place on cookie sheet. Repeat with remaining batter. Flatten cookies with a piece of waxed paper until about 1/4-inch thick. Bake for 12-14 minutes, until cookies are fragrant and golden brown on the bottom. Let cookies cool slightly, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
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