Okay, truth be told, I spend a lot of time researching food. I love the topic and I really enjoy learning more about it. Magazines are always easy for me because they have offer lots of concise information and are portable. Some are surely better than others, as I am sure you already know. I find that some offer a lot of unbelievably difficult, unhealthy or trendy food recipes and very little information. The two magazines below remain on my coffee table and are flipped through often.
Clean Eating
This magazine offers a variety of delicious, straight forward, healthy and balanced recipes. It is packed full of useful information and helpful kitchen tips. It offers more than just tasty recipes, but discusses nutrition and health also.
For more info: www.cleaneatingmag.com
Consumer Reports: Food & Fitness
This is an excellent magazine that offers comparisons, ratings and discussion of a variety of healthy and not-so-healthy foods and specific brands. The focus is on food, but also makes space for nutrition and fitness. With a plethora of food facts in a clean and direct format, this mag is a must-have for all food lovers!
For more info: www.consumerreports.org
Oh, how I love Jamie Oliver and his fresh, wonderful recipes!
For more on Jamie Oliver please visit www.jamieoliver.com.
Indian Carrot Salad
1 1/4 pounds good-quality coarsely ground lamb
2 teaspoons garam masala
Sea salt
1 pound carrots (mixed colors if possible), peeled
1 tablespoon sesame seeds
A small bunch fresh cilantro, leaves picked
A small bunch fresh mint, leaves picked
For the dressing:
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
3 shallots or 1 small red onion, peeled
1 lemon, zested and juiced
1 heaped teaspoon freshly grated ginger
Extra-virgin olive oil
For serving:
Naan bread
Yogurt
Lemon halves
Heat a large frying pan and fry your ground lamb until all the fat comes out of it. Add the garam masala and a good pinch of salt and give it a stir. Keep frying until the meat is lovely and crispy. Shave the carrots into long thin strips with a peeler or a mandoline slicer and set them aside.
Heat a small frying pan over a moderate heat and toast the cumin seeds for 30 seconds - they will start to smell nutty and gorgeous. You’re not trying to cook the seeds here, you’re just waking their flavors up a bit. Put them into a pestle and mortar and grind them up. Put the pan back on the heat and toast the sesame seeds until golden. Transfer them to a plate.
Slice your peeled shallots or onion wafer thin. As with all salads that contain onion, you don’t want to be coming across great big chunks! If you don’t feel confident about your knife skills, use the coarse side of a box grater instead. This will almost mush your onions to a puree, but at least you won’t come across any big bits.
To make your dressing, put the lemon zest and juice into a bowl and add the shallots or onion, grated ginger, ground cumin and a pinch of salt. Whisk everything together with about 5 tablespoons of extra- virgin olive oil. Pour the dressing over the carrots, add the cilantro and mint leaves, and mix it all together using your fingers. It’s important that you have a little taste to check whether the dressing needs more lemon juice, oil or seasoning.
Divide the crispy lamb between 4 plates and put the dressed salad on top. Sprinkle with the toasted sesame seeds. Served with naan bread, some yogurt and lemon halves, this makes a great snack!
I love cooking with olive oil. Frankly, it almost exclusively the only oil I ever use. You aren’t supposed to fry with it or use it to cook things like pancakes. However, I always do and have had wonderfully tasty results! As of recently, much like the rest of you and especially our favorite frugal blogger Pam Bauserman, I have been looking for ways to cut costs. I have found that olive oil makes for the best skin moisturizer that I have ever used. I now have a small and affordable little bottle in all of my bathrooms. All it takes is a little bit spread on the skin and you have softness that lasts all day. I have put away my variety of expensive moisturizers and now strictly use olive oil. It is also great for removing make-up. You would think it would be greasy and wouldn’t absorb into the skin. However, it is exactly the opposite. Give olive oil a try as your daily moisturizer and enjoy soft skin while saving a buck!
Spending time in Central Oregon is not only beautiful, but delicious!
- Fish, Fish, Fish! They have such fresh and delicious fish. One of my favorites – razor clams flattened, breaded and served with a squeeze of lemon. Yum!
- Marion berries. Like a cross between a cranberry and a blueberry; aromatic, sweet and delicious. In Oregon you can find everything made with their beloved berry. My favorite is fresh caught Oregon salmon with a marion berry chutney.
- Oh the beer. There are so many good beers to choose from. I am a big fan of the Deschutes Brewery beers and food. A can’t miss when in Bend.
- Oregonians take there coffee seriously, with some of the best coffee you will find anywhere. Big and bold seem to be the flavors of choice.
- As a big fan of veggies, I find that many Oregon restaurants offer a large variety of veggie based entrees. Do a lot of the vegetables come from Cali? Probably. However, there are a lot of great restaurants in Central Oregon that are turning out some wonderfully innovative and healthy food.
Take time to make the drive to Central Oregon and not only enjoy the outdoors but the grub. I assure you, your taste buds will thank you!
Simple, Humble Perfection at the Deschutes Brewery
How about starting the Lodi Gourmet Cooking Club?
For a small amount of time, with a few close friends, I was a member of a small cooking group. We would get together every couple of months and take turns hosting the club and choosing the focus. Unfortunately, life no longer allowed for me to be a part of that group. However, I think it would be fun, challenging, and very educational, to put one together here in Lodi. Anyone interested?
Share Your Season: Help End Childhood Hunger in America
In the year ahead, nearly 17 million children in America will face hunger. That’s nearly one in four children. This holiday season, you can help.
Whether you’re looking for a thoughtful holiday gift for friends and family, or a way to make a lasting difference in the lives of children in need, Share Our Strength offers great ways to Share Your Season and help end childhood hunger.
www.strength.org
I absolutely love fennel, it is so tasty. Roasted, sautéed or grilled; it is all good. If you haven’t had it before, give it a try. If you can find someone locally (not the side of the road please!) that grows it, please let me know!
Baked Fennel with Parmesan
2 fennel bulbs
1 tablespoon butter
3/4 cup half-and-half cream
3/4 cup creme fraiche
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Cut the base off of the fennel bulbs, and cut a cone shape into the base to remove the core. You can see the core because it is whiter than the surrounding green. This is optional, but helps the fennel cook faster. Slice the fennel vertically (upright) into 1/4 inch thick slices.
- Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the fennel, and fry for about 5 minutes. Stir in the half-and-half and creme fraiche until well blended. Transfer to a shallow baking dish. Sprinkle Parmesan cheese over the top.
- Bake for 30 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the top is golden brown and the fennel is tender enough to pierce with a fork.
Source: www.allrecipes.com
Some of my best recipe inventions are inspired from leftovers. Like everyone, I am working on wasting and spending less. With a fridge full of bits and pieces leftover from the Thanksgiving meal, I challenged myself to make a meal out of them last night without a run to the store. The recipe below came out fantastic! Even my picky meat and potato loving brother gobbled it down and sang its praises.
Sweet Potato Cakes with Fall Salad
1 Cup mashed sweet potatoes
1 Cup garbanzo beans
1 Cup corn
1 Egg
1/2 Cup AP flour
1 Teaspoon Dijon mustard
2 Tablespoons pomegranate vinegar, roughly
1 Teaspoon honey
Washed bag of salad greens, such as Spring Mix
Pomegranate seeds
1 Round of chevre style goat cheese
Cayenne pepper to taste
Salt and pepper to taste
Olive oil
Combine the first five ingredients with salt, pepper and cayenne to taste. Warm a skillet over medium-high heat with olive oil. When oil is warm, scoop mixture (about a rounded tablespoon) and fry in oil until golden brown on both sides, flattening gently on the second flip. Drain cakes on paper towels and sprinkle with a little salt. At the bottom of a salad bowl, combine Dijon mustard, honey, vinegar, olive oil and salt and pepper to taste. Toss greens in dressing and spread out on a plate. Top greens with three cakes. Top cakes with crumbled goat cheese and pomegranate seeds. Wow!
You can’t deny it, we have great food in Lodi. These are a few of my favorites.
- Alebrijes Mexican Bistro: Shrimp Cocktail and Seasonal Guacamole – oh so good.
- Shangri La Asian Bistro: Ma Po Tofu and the spicy noodle soup – wonderful on a cold night.
- Rosewood Bar & Grill: Fried Calamari with shrimp – perfectly prepared.
- Casa Mexicana: house-made flour tortillas, refried beans and albondigas soup – the perfect breakfast.
- Wild Dogz: strangely my favorite thing there isn’t a hot dog at all, but their black bean burger with cheese – spicy and satisfying, you won’t miss the meat a bit!
What are your favorite Lodi eats?
What is wonderful about Boulette’s Larder at the San Francisco Ferry building except for everything? Their delightful breakfasts and cookies of course! Not to mention the wonderful foods and kitchen stuffs they have for sale in the restaurant. I was just there on Monday and enjoyed what was probably the best breakfast that I have had in my life. I started out with three very small, perfect cookies: peanut butter, gingerbread and a jam thumbprint cookie. The cookies were absolutely wonderful; Plato would have put them up there with his chair. I have not had better. I then had and interesting combination of farm fresh scrambled eggs cooked with a lot of fresh butter, topped with farro, then a mound of good parmigiano reggiano, served with a side of micro greens in a light olive oil based dressing. The combination of flavors and textures were incredible. Not to mention, the meal fueled me well for the rest of the morning. I will definitely be back to visit soon to try the other wonderful things they offer. For more information visit bouletteslarder.com.
To try farro, a delicious and nutty grain, I have seen it sold at Fiori’s Butcher Shoppe, where one can find everything delicious and Italian. Give it a try, you will love it!
