For fellow foodies

I found this article analyzing food marketing & placement on menus very intriguing...

see if you agree!

image via NY Mag

La Mallorquina en mi cocina

Even though I think Crescent Rolls would be better jazzed up with more salty savory accoutrements (olive oil and garlic, thyme, rosemary perhaps?)...


I made Nutella 'Croissants' that looked like this yesterday.

And it took about 30 seconds to make, 10 minutes to bake. (Beat that, Rachael Ray.)

It was my roommate's first experience with Nutella (success).

And though I have to say, I longed for my favorite Napolitana de Chocolate from La Mallorquina in Madrid (my mom and I went 3 times in our less than 2 days there at the end of my study abroad) ...mine were a pretty bomb American substitute.

(Best 1 Euro spent in all Europe. Photo via here)

My roomie/"esposa" Sarah and me in front of La Mallorquina.

Our faces (and thighs?) were so round by the end of study abroad! hehe

Come over and be fed.

Yes, lobster rivals an outdoor movie screen

Guys, this is making it HARDER!!!

Anyone knows I love NYC/New England/DC/Boston.
But I am a SoCal wimp for good weather!
(Blame it on my parents!)

The following are ejemplos to explain further what I like to call 'my own great East/West Schism':

A new East Village NYC Lobster Roll shack (even bearing my nephew's name!) with proprietors from Cape Elizabeth, Maine- the original lobster roll place! (It's beautiful up there, ps...you eat your rolls overlooking their gooorgeous craggy shoreline.)

Bonus- they only use knuckle and claw- any lobster aficionado will tell you its the best part! (Missing good shellfish, and heck, ANY FRESH SEAFOOD, in the landlocked beef country that is Utah. Apparently I didn't overdose enough this summer...)

and

A Hollywood Hills home with disappearing edge pool AND outdoor screen. My only question is if you can watch movies in the pool...


More confusion, non-schism related:
I am still annoyingly congested and tired, despite pounding Sudafed's maximum suggested dosage for the past 5 days.
No cough, no fever and thus, no flu.
So that's good, right? Seeing as some silly boys in my complex have quarantined themselves in for the weekend with swine flu?
Yes?
Suggestions?

People dissection

"Great minds discuss ideas. Average minds discuss events. Small minds discuss people."
-Eleanor Roosevelt

Here are excerpts from the latter part of the above quoted:


5Ws: Kate (pictured) and me, dinner, last Friday night, at MAZZA 9th and 9th Sugarhood... because we needed to get out of the bubble.

(Nerd by day. People watcher by night. Don't let the glasses fool you...)

The quirky mix included:
a) wonder bread white family that looked totally out of place but their assured expressions said otherwise.

b) the innocent U-but-may-as-well-been-from-BYU couple with the 'rescuer' male and 'i'll gracefully giggle at your lame jokes for the rest of eternity if you save me from single-dom' blonde female counterpart.

c) the persian group going to town family-style.

d) the 4-top of quirky hipster denizens who were fabulously nonconformist but could have used 5 more minutes in the shower.

e) an attractive man species with a gal who, if we had looked at him for 2 seconds longer, would have straight up murdered us with her A-pocket Sevens.

ALSO
as we checked out the lesbian couples (all 2 of them) and wondered for the 2498435 time aloud how gay we ourselves looked (2 parts concerned, 7 parts comically) ... is when I grab Kate's knee (to properly tell a story) and the waitress walks by.

EXCELLENT.


And let's not forget 'lumber jack' waiter who we both made eye contact with for a good 4 seconds, then giggled, then looked up again only to realize he had turned around to look at us again.
Hysterical.

'Lumber Jack' was a dark scruffy pirate type ... think Josh Kelley meets Johnny Depp.


After some other Sugarhood shenanigans, we drove home and my jaw hurt from laughing so hard.


I need to get out more often.
xo

De-mystifying milk

My dad emailed me the following excerpt a while ago from a health for volleyball players Web site
(Remember how I'm the shortest one in my family and that my two younger sisters are 6'2" volleyball phenoms?).

Except in Europe, where the food standards are where they should be (sheesh), I can't remember when I last had a glass of milk.

I went vegan for a solid 2 weeks last year, and learned some cool things along the way. i.e. that the only tribe in Africa that drinks milk is the only tribe with cases of osteoporosis (which makes sense if you read further below).

But after reading rumors here and there, beginning from when I read Fast Food Nation in high school, about its non-nutritional value reversal, I was sold on the following.

(Basically, milk is freaky genetically modified cow udder puss. sick.)

Today, what we call "milk" is truly a poison and a far cry from the nutritious food that it once was. Milk consumption is now being blamed for everything from cancer to diabetes.

There was a time when milk came from healthy, happy and well-fed cows...this is no longer the case.

Today, most of the milk we consume comes from what Sally Fallon, founder of the Real Milk Movement, calls "freaks of nature".

Through strange breeding practices, which produce cows that have unusually large pituitary glands, and through the use of FDA approved genetically engineered growth hormones for cows... these Freak cows produce 3 to 4 times the milk of a normal cow.

Fantastic, we now have cows that are so stressed by the amount of milk that they are producing that not only does the milk contain significantly lower nutrition, but also it is higher in puss! Yea,
I said puss.

Also, from the poor quality of grains these cows are fed (cows should be eating grass anyway), the milk that you are pouring on your cereal has been shown to cause liver problems, tumors, sterility, and mastitis in the cows that produce it..."Got Milk?"

Today, all processed milk is pasteurized for the sole purpose of increasing shelf life.

Pasteurization is a process by which milk is heated to such a high degree that it destroys all the bacteria in the milk. Milk is a living organism that contains live cultures (bacteria) that are essential to the immunity of the milk and to the milk drinker.

When milk is pasteurized, all the live-cultures and enzymes are destroyed, rendering the milk a dead-food.

Once this immune enhancing bacteria is destroyed, the milk is now susceptible to invasion by unhealthy bacteria.

All your life you have probably believed milk is good for you, helping you build strong bones and muscles. In it's pure form, milk can be good. But even then, that's nothing absolute.

Arnold Schwarzenegger was right on the money when he said, "Milk is for babies". No other living creature consumes milk after infancy, so why should we?

The fact is that milk does NOT help calcium absorption like many experts claim it does. In fact, milk hinders calcium absorption.

The lactose and pasteurization process that milk undergoes often makes calcium in milk not able to be absorbed by the human body.

Also, the cows that major milk products come from are often disease-ridden animals, pumped full of chemicals.

The legal limit for white cell allowance in milk is ridiculously high. So why care about white cell count?

If you ever have a pimple and squeeze it, and that beige colored puss sprays out, just think about the laws that allow milk to be anywhere up to 20% puss-content.

There are numerous studies that show milk contributes to heart disease and cancer.

Milk exhibits an "inflammatory" response, more commonly accepted as the key indicator for heart disease.

Milk hinders the digestive tract, slowing the efficiency of recovery from workouts.

So what should you do?

If you are going to drink milk, your best choice is to find an organic farmer that sells raw milk. If you can't get your hands on raw milk, make sure you're using certified organic milk from your super market.

ALSO, I LOVE this alternative food labeling where it is shown how far the food has traveled. Brilliant.

images from swiss miss

"Bargain foodie"

I was at Whole Paycheck Foods today...

Gorgonzola and walnut stuffed portobello mushroom caps...

Shrimp, spicy tuna, and salmon sushi (I made a landlocked sushi exception- sue me)...

Bars of dark chocolate with mint crisps...

And $15 on....

YOGURT.

Yes, I realize how ridiculous....

But it is GREEK yogurt- you know, the super high-quality thick and creamy but still nonfat kind.

I can't stomach the expense (pun intended) when it's not on sale. But today, it was.

The life of a bargain foodie.

Best waffle you'll ever have

After our study abroad, my roommate/friend/esposa Sarah and I went to Brussels for 36 hours en route to Berlin.

Most of the time was spent eating waffles (and chocolate). They are nothing like you've ever had before. They have this certain sweetness in their thick dough-y batter that will blow your mind.

But now, no Belgian trip is needed...

Because now there is an authentic Belgian waffle place in SLC.

They are the best either plain or with a dusting of powdered sugar.
Seriously, no chocolate needed.

There were two waffle places on my NYC street last summer - actually, one was a waffle truck that periodically sat on 14th street...Emily and I would call each other if we spotted it (Gossip Girl style ;) - it was that amazing.
The best was eating one on the steps of Union Square watching the night scene unfold.


Who says America isn't getting better by the day?!

Cute as a button

Oooh how I loove the Salt Lake City bakery Les Madeleines...

Why?  

The only bakery in SLC that makes authentic French macarons-- known in (dumbed down) English as "button cookies"...

In flavors of hazelnut, mango, strawberry, pistachio, green tea and even 'margarita'...

AND one of only 6 bakeries in the USA to make Kouing-aman... 

a sweet & salty, crunchy & gooey anomaly of a pastry that must be made with sea salt from its birthplace of Brittany, France.

Les Madeleines has not only provided me with loads of epicurean delight, but also shown me that Utah may be a more sophisticated place than previously thought...

this is why food has the ability to affect my life so deeply. hehe.

Photo via Les Madeleines

Death by smoked salmon inhalation

Just kidding. Although, the fact that Costco does not give a single woman the right to choose a preferred quantity is a little overwhelming sometimes...

Needless to say, smoked salmon has been the star of many of my meals lately (hence, the title).

Breakfast: Scrambled egg-whites with smoked samon, goat cheese, sun dried tomatoes and a slice of prosciutto di parma. Plus blueberries and peppermint tea.

The aesthetics of food are just as important as the taste. Smoked salmon is so pretty, I think. How else can one get such a punch of orange on a plate?

Smoked salmon, goat cheese, cherry tomatoes, mesclun greens, olive tapenade. Probably my new favorite salad.

Maybe I should change the title to "Life by cancer-fighting omega 3's??"

Recalculating

My youngest sister Katherine has celiac disease, and she told me to go to this bakery last summer in NYC to send something gluten-free to her.
I, being a neglectful and otherwise self-consumed sister, never got around to it.

The other day, when I told her that said bakery had published a cookbook, she said (among other things),
"Will you promise me that we will go to NYC for an entire summer sometime in the future?? Whether we are 50?? or 27?? or in a few years??"

Cute.

Well, that got me thinking about a very plausible roadtrip this summer...that I know will be made possible only with Garmin.

Sweet little Garmin. Also known as "Garmie."

Why I would trust my life, your life and your cousin's dog's life with Garmin GPS:

A couple years ago I was driving my sisters and I back to our lake house from the Boston airport from dropping off a friend.
Even though we've been spending summers back east for 15+ years, I had never personally driven the route before.

There are 3 essential highway turn offs one must make, but even with the bazillion warning announcements and distance indicator counting down every last 0.1 mile, I somehow missed the last turnoff.

Feeling uncharacteristically hopeless, my face flushed red and my inner dad kicked in (he's a little paranoid-slash-uptight sometimes), and I started panicking a little.

With a tinge of sneer (all you with a GPS will know), Garmie announced, "RECALCULATING."

My younger sister AC, who is completely clueless with directions or any street smarts (love her, but it's true), feigned knowing what to do and eventually resorted to gazing out the window. Then Katherine piped up, "Well, just follow the recalculated route; we should be just fine."

So into the statuesque woods of New England we went, with Garmie at the helm.
We turned onto quaint little streets, into unassuming neighborhoods, two-lane 'highways' passing small lakes... and I kid you not...

a few miles of straight-up graveled DIRT ROAD.

I remember being on that ominous dark dirt road with headlights beaming, my sisters and I looking around at ourselves nervously.

In that moment, I simply made what would become a self-fulfilling prophecy: "If Garmin gets us home from this, I will never have reason to doubt it again!"

(That statement, I now realize, is riddled with spiritual entendres)

Because, to make a long story short, it did.

Bonus: we didn't lose but maybe 3 minutes of time!

To conclude, sometimes our lives get unexpectedly recalculated, rerouted to places unforeseen. But if we always have ourselves connected to something higher than ourselves (whether a GPS or God), as Katherine said, "we should be just fine."

It's a blueberry morning!

Oh, you don't wake up Sunday morning to freshly baked blueberry muffins (with a hint of lemon) too?!

My roommate is the best!

Blueberry muffins with streusel topping

• 1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 egg, beaten
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1/4 cup cooking oil
• 3/4 cup blueberries, fresh or frozen
  
• 1 teaspoon finely shredded lemon peel
  

• Streusel Topping: In a small bowl stir together 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour, 3 tablespoons packed brown sugar, and 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon. Cut in 2 tablespoons butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in 2 tablespoons chopped pecans or walnuts.

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Grease twelve 2-1/2-inch muffin cups or line with paper bake cups; set aside. In a medium bowl combine flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Make a well in center of flour mixture; set aside.

2. In another bowl combine egg, milk, and oil. Add egg mixture all at once to flour mixture. Stir just until moistened (batter should be lumpy). Fold in blueberries and lemon peel.

3. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups, filling each 2/3 full. Sprinkle Streusel Topping over muffin batter in cups. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes or until golden and a wooden toothpick inserted in centers comes out clean. Cool in muffin cups on a wire rack for 5 minutes. Remove from muffin cups; serve warm.

4. Makes 12 muffins

PS: Interesting look at school lunches around the world...

Provo Farmers Market

Sure, it's not the Greenmarket, but this is a pretty impressive line-up for this weekend!

Fresh from the farm: tomorrow is the last chance to buy asparagus for the year! Plus Ralph Steele is bringing assorted breeds of baby chicks for your backyard coop! goat cheese and yogurt, all natural Utah lamb, fennel, oregano, bok choy, carrots, rhubarb, spring onions, parsley, arugula, salad mix, swiss chard, eggs, mint, grass fed beef, duck/goose/chicken eggs, honey, spinach, watercress, garlic chives, and beet greens.

Shop: Dresses and skirts, hand made buckets and brooms, hand bound books, jewelry, soaps, lotions.

To eat: Chimney Sweets, Flour Girls and Dough Boys, Papa's Tapas, Big Jake's Donuts, Alex's Belgium Waffles, Navajo Tacos, Asian Market, Italian meatballs, pies, and more

To plant: sego lily bulbs for xeriscaping, native wildflower seeds, thornless blackberries, jerusalem artichokes, lemon cucumbers, jalapeno peppers, raspberry and strawberry starts, ground covers, lambs tongue, aloe vera, herbs, basil, heirloom tomatoes, and more.

Music: The Utah Ramblers


Saturday
9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Pioneer Park
(100 South, 500 West)

www.provosfarmersmarket.com

Remember - shopping local is not only fresh and delicious, but a great way to reduce your carbon footprint.

See you there!

Just a straw, please

Okay, everyone has been writing about the 10 things make them terribly happy...

but too many of mine ended up being food, so I turned them all into food...with accompanying stories.

1. Strawberry rhubarb pie.
My favorite dessert, ever. The only people I know who love it as much as me have an AARP discount.
When I was little, I used to have this in lieu of birthday cake.
Last summer, I had a strawberry rhubarb cupcake from this adorable place called Batch in Greenwich Village and Chantelle called me a grandma. I've never been more proud of a nickname.

Here's me, swooning over said cupcake, sitting on the steps of that old courthouse at 6th Ave and 10th Street, NYC.

2. soy decaf mocha lattes
I switched to soy because I have never liked regular milk, and as I've grown older and read more about it, I get scared of all the literature on all the hormones they pump into conventional milk.

3. French pastry: especially almond croissants & berry tarts
Kinda self explanatory.

4. Cherry tomatoes

5. Stinky cheese
Roquefort, camembert, chevre...I love it all. But usually, rule of thumb is, "The stinkier, the better." The first time I ever went to Paris, I remember ordering a camembert sandwich at a boulangerie. Little did I realize until I bit into that sandwich that it also had slices of butter on it as well. BEST Sandwich EVER.

6. mangoes

7. fresh berries

8. Shellfish: Oysters on the half shell, Soft-shell crab sushi, Lobster
All best when eaten on the East Coast. Lobster is of course best when eaten in the company of family, during the summer, on the patio, with only butter.
And there is this amazing sushi place in Park Slope on 7th Ave where anyone iffy on raw fish could be made into a believer...I forget the name.

Baked lobster with cousin Jennie at Anthony's, Boston. February 2009.
Not as good as the old fashioned 'steamed' with melted butter to dip...
Lobster newbies: claw is the best part.

9. Jamon Serrano/Prosciutto di Parma
I read this great little article on an EasyJet flight about the history of my favorite raw cured meat.
Spaniards like their carne.


10. A really good vinaigrette

I take after my mom on this. Preferably with lots of herbs and dijon. My favorite still remains the vinaigrette at the French restaurant I worked at when I was 16. Because it was made in 10-gallon increments, I can't replicate it exactly. Although I remember it had a lot of dijon mustard and whole sprigs of thyme. Yum.
When I'm with my mom and we've had a really good one on a salad, and waiters ask their routine "Anything else?" query, often we privately joke how we cannot muster our manners but dream of responding,
"Just a straw, please!"

The "foodie" language

I might have suspected it from the stalks of rhubarb lying around.
Or the cooking wine in the fridge.
Or all the pots and pans on the stove, perched for action.


But for some reason, these clues completely evaded me as I left my new apartment the other afternoon.


Then, when I returned later, I was cutting into some delicious triple-creme cheese and peeling off sheets of prosciutto di parma to put in my bean salad...it was late and I had just returned home, having not eaten much all day...and I, not thinking very straight and trying to break the awkward silence with my new roommate, declared my love for cheese.

She laughed, then agreed with me...then she asked me detailed questions about all my food that was lying around, which prompted me to frankly ask her,

"Wait, wait, wait a second...



are you.....



a foodie?"



Her eyes widened, as if I had opened the pearly gates of epicurean wisdom.

"You know what that means?!"

I speak her language. She speaks mine.
Finally, someone in my life with whom I can shoot the breeze about reductions and coulis and compotes!

Then she offered me some vanilla bean rice pudding with poached rhubarb made from scratch, straight from the pages of Food & Wine.
um...
A) rhubarb is my favorite thing in possibly the entire world (to follow up in a later post), and
B) I'm mostly Danish and rice pudding is Denmark's specialty.

Heaven!

Not to mention, WHO in their 20s actually cooks from food magazines. Personally, my "cooking for one is a hassle" excuse reduces me to a laziness of salivating over the pictures. In short, what I eat could be seen as eclectic antipastis of whatever I'm craving du jour...usually from Costco staples (pesto, parmesan cheese, kalamata olives) filled in with the more perishable (mesclun greens, chicken, fruit etc).
i.e. a little marinated artichoke + a little cheese + a little fruit = dinner

Well, the next day, she 'whipped up a little risotto' (read: fresh asparagus and mint boiled to flavor a stock to stir into the risotto with fennel. Did I mention we're in college? Don't worry, I found the recipe)....
and contemplated aloud driving to Salt Lake to try macaroons at a new bakery.

We will be starting cooking nights soon. I'm jazzed.
If you're in town, please come over!

Photo: Food and Wine

So yes, my roomie is a foodie, and I couldn't be more excited.

Attack of the landlocked sushi

Never again will I eat sushi in a state or country that does not border water.

(With exception of maybe Las Vegas)

Photo: Serious Eats

My friend Mike invites me to sushi at his favorite place in Salt Lake, but I just cannot muster it. He has tapered off with the invites, with knowledge of my 'landlocked sushi' fear...

To elaborate:

A) Happy Sumo.
Only been twice, because on the last time I got food poisoning...from the looks of it (I know...TMI), it was the seaweed salad. Or the San Francisco Roll?

B) Costco 2-day old assorted California rolls (yes, I know its not 'real' sushi).
Ate the remains of what I bought on Saturday for lunch yesterday...then I went on a run later with Rindz...had to stop at a gas station because my stomach hurt so much...it was not pleasant.
Then, upon my return home, the minor chills that ensued and stomach ache that persisted prompted a Google search of "swine flu symptoms"...

(BIG HINT: Read THIS and you won't be scared of it anymore!)

Nevertheless... sorry Utah, but I've decided from here on out that when I'm in landlocked places (including you), I'm sticking to above-land animals.
Comprende?

Oooh, hoy es Cinco de Mayo!
Vamos a celebrar.... the knowledge (from that above link) that you are now empowered to take on the Swine Flu, should it waft your way...

Ojala que tengas un buen dia!

Breakfast at Starbies

So yesterday I was missing New York (as per usual), so I decided to channel my inner Audrey Hepburn and get my favorite latte (soy, decaf, extra foam, no whip) from Starbucks and a chocolate croissant from Eliane French Bakery.

Yes, I drove to two locations for the above items... I'm a foodie, remember?!

My recession-friendly refried bean kick

I'm a SoCal native, which makes my soul food Mexican food,
just like gumbo to a New Orlean native or barbeque to a Texan.

Thus, I've been on a refried bean kick lately.



It's the strangest thing. I must be my tribute to the recession gods.

Lindsey thinks it's hilarious, but as a SoCal native, she understands completely, and when I told my sister about what I've been eating lately she told me it sounded "really goood"
(yeah, her dining hall food options include quinoa, edamame and fresh peaches in the dead of winter- I retorted that she was ridiculous).

Regardless, I've lately been feeling disgustingly indulgent dining out after I get on NY Times and read all the depressing (pun intended) stories...

which gets me to thinking about my grandpa who grew up in small town Utah during the Depression and has stories about rationing eggs...

so I figure this is my recession-era food story I'll tell my own grandchildren one day.
i.e. "Back in the Obama years when we drove these things called 'cars' to get around and people read newspapers..."

So here's what I do: I'll buy a pack of 16 Rosarita refried bean cans for about $10 at Costco...

also, while you're at Costco, pick up a thing of Parmigiano Reggiano and marinated sun-dried tomatoes (shh, I know that doesn't exactly sound recession-like, but buying in bulk is!)

All I do is I open a can, put in some cheese (highly recommend parmesan, but cheddar works too) and sundried tomato, nuke it in the micro for a few minutes and voila, a meal.

(It just occurred to me- not only is this easy on the wallet but it's also a fusion of Mexican meets Italian. Economic crises have never been so sophisticated.)

So needless to say, it's filling, healthy, delicious...and your stomach's economic best friend.