Recipe Roundup

You guys, I have clearly been starving lately.  I've been thinking of food non-stop, dreaming about mushrooms and soups and desserts.  Inundating my Pinterest boards with things I want to make, recipes I can't wait to try.  I'm not usually the cooking type, but seriously, I can't wait to get in the kitchen and whip some of this stuff up.

Then devour.  Obviously.

Here are some of the highlights of my life at the moment:

• This beef stew recipe from Movita Beaucoup.  I mean, you make it in a slow cooker, which tells me two things right off the bat: 1) this is gonna be crazy simple and convenient, and 2) this is also gonna be crazy delicious given the amount of time it's given to cook (8-10 hours!).  Typically, my favorite beef stew recipe is a copycat of the Guinness beef stew I had at the Newgrange visitor's center cafeteria in Ireland.  I know "cafeteria" doesn't necessarily bring to mind "effing delicious," but believe me.  But I'm way more than willing to give this one a fighting chance.  First rainy day of fall.  All.  Over.  It.
• Speaking of rainy days.  This is also going to happen.  Maybe on the same night as the beef stew.  Just in case we run out or something.  No?  Meh.  I love the How Sweet It Is blog -- Jessica is friggin hilarious and all her recipes make me salivate.  So it's no surprise that, although I've been anti-mac and cheese for most of my life and am still highly, highly picky about the stuff (I know, who am I?), I'm obsessed with her white cheddar and arugula pesto mac and cheese.
• Nate and I made this from Donal Skehan one night last week, on one of our pescetarian days.  The mushroomy, garlicy, cruchy bruschetta went perfectly with the caprese (fresh tomatoes!  Woo!) and whole artichoke we had alongside it.  I was worried, like I usually am on non-meat days, that I wouldn't be full after I finished eating -- this is probably one of the biggest struggles for me...getting past my own mental blocks -- but the bruschetta is pretty much the size of two pizza slices so I was completely satisfied when I was done.  Definitely, definitely making this again.  Soon.
• I have three favorite restaurants in the world.  One is the Chinese place my family has been going to for years back in Hawaii, the other is the best Thai restaurant outside of Thailand and is located in Seattle.  And the last is the first Indian restaurant I ever ate at (also in Seattle) which has since moved locations and changed its name.  It was there that I discovered chicken tikka masala.  And the love affair began.  I'm dying to try this recipe from Can't Live Without, which may be a biiiiiit out of my very limited league, but just look at it.
• This deliciousness from Spoonful was dinner on Sunday.  Because we had almost everything on-hand and were looking for something vegetarian to eat that was both filling and quick.  It turned out to be so good that we'll be making it again before much longer -- especially with cold weather coming!  I have memories of eating udon at my village Hongwanji's Obon as a kid.  It came in styrofoam cups and was hastily eaten along with hot dogs and Okinawan donuts.  I love when foods carry stories with them.
• You've probably seen this recipe from Ambitious Kitchen floating around the internet lately.  These cookies look insane and I am making them as soon as I can.  Maybe right now.  I mean, these are nutella-stuffed brown butter and sea salt cookies, guys.  !!!  What?!  SOLD.

You're welcome.  Happy eating.

[Girl♥Health]: How "Food, Inc." Changed My Life

Last summer, Nate and I went on a road trip from Lexington, Kentucky up to Boston, Massachusetts.  While there were many amazing, beautiful stops along the way (Whitesburg, KY; The Blue Ridge Parkway; Shenandoah Valley; The Inn Boonsboro; Philly; NYC; the North End; etc.), the one that comes to mind today is the two days we spent in Cape Cod.  While there, we stayed at the Bluefish Bed & Breakfast (which I can't recommend enough) where, upon entering our room, we saw that the Innkeepers had kindly left a copy of Food, Inc. for us to watch if we were so inclined.

That was one of the things that made me fall in love with this place to begin with.  I mean, that's a pretty strong statement, right?  Having Food, Inc. be the only DVD in your room?  I adore this place.

Anyway, I was not so inclined at first.  I'd somehow managed to avoid watching this movie since it first came out in an all-out effort to maintain my comfortable, enabling dietary habits.  I thought (correctly) that if I really knew what was going on behind my food, I'd have to make some serious and difficult changes.  Because animal rights is a sticking point for me.  Animal welfare is pretty non-negotiable.  So, if I didn't know, than I didn't need to change, right?

But then Nate wanted to read a book on our first night in Cape Cod.  And I had just finished my book.  And Food, Inc. was the only DVD in our room.  So I thought, what the hell?  I popped it in.

And spent the next hour and a half crying.

Since then, I've been in a continual state of turmoil.  We've changed our buying practices so that we now buy all pasture-raised, grass-fed/finished and organic beef or pork, free-range and organic chicken and eggs, and we buy less meat altogether (because the ethical stuff ain't cheap).  When we do buy, we try to stay local and make sure the animals were as humanely and naturally raised as we can get.

But that hasn't eased much of my guilt.  I still picture cows in CAFO's getting plowed over, or pigs getting squished before slaughter, or baby chicks...okay, I'm not even gonna talk about the baby chicks.  This is the shit I think about before biting into that burger, people.  It's sick.

However, I also know my current limitations.  I know what my willpower can and cannot do in a fell swoop.  I know my history and my cravings and the excuses I'll give myself.  I know I'm weak.  Food, in so many, many areas of my life, has always been my weakness.

So I'm starting small.

In addition to the more descent buying practices highlighted above, I've also decided to go lacto-ovo pescatarian (eats fish, dairy and eggs, but not meat) three days a week.

Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays = no meat.  

And this is me, one week in, saying it's going well.  Actually, it's really not as hard as I thought it was going to be.  In my head, I thought cutting meat out was going to signal the end of the world.  WHERE'S MY BEEF?!, I would scream as I starved, withered and eventually died.  Stupid.  It's so much easier.  We eat a lot of roasted veggies and pastas and egg salad sandwiches (because I can never stop eating egg salad sandwiches...though this has now got me thinking about the egg industry...).  Because our garden has been producing like it's preparing for the next famine, we have boatloads of tomatoes and basil that I can mix with some olive oil and balsamic vinegar, throw on some toast, and call it a day.  And the zucchini, oh, the zucchini.  We've started leaving some on our doorstep hoping passersby will abscond with them.

In terms of how this non-meat diet three days a week thing has been making me feel, I can't say I've noticed a huge difference.  I have noticed that I now crave meat at times when I don't think I used to actively crave it.  I'm hoping this is just my body adjusting.  And maybe I've noticed feeling a little...lighter.  Whether that's physically or morally is anyone's guess at this point.

But it looks like vegetarianism hasn't killed me.  Success!

Another big dietary change lately has been that I've begun keeping a food and exercise diary.  And while the exercise diary is sadly, sadly empty at this juncture (because my back is out YET AGAIN), it's been great seeing not only what I've been eating, but the emotions behind it.  If you'd like to begin keeping your own food journal (highly suggested), I'd suggest using this template from Nicole Antoinette.  She's fantastic.  It's fantastic.  Go forth and eat well.

So that's the update on the food front.  Less meat.  Better meat when it's on the menu.  Food and exercise journal.  Back is out.  Food, Inc. changed my life.

 
[Photo source: http://www.documentaryfreak.com/documentary/food-inc]

Once Upon a Rainy Weekend

Every couple of weekends, Nate and I (and, okay, mostly just me) will get an itch to leave the city.  Maybe it comes from growing up in the country, maybe it's just human nature, but I'll start feeling claustrophobic, closed in, a little on-edge around all the buildings and people and noise and crowds, and I'll know that it's time to get out.  These trips aren't usually a huge deal -- they can be a short drive to a trailhead, or a day trip to Yosemite -- but they go a long way towards restoring balance in my little world.

So, given the craziness of the past month or so and the excitement of Friday night, Nate suggested that we go on a daytime date this past Saturday to Tomales Bay for a nice drive and some fresh oysters.  I said, "Where do I sign up?"  Unfortunately, the weather had other plans for us and, after waking up to the torrential downpour that ended up drenching these parts of Northern California the entire day, we decided to postpone the oysters for another day.  Instead, we pointed the car towards the coast and just drove.

In the end, plan B for our daytime date turned out to be just what we needed.  Because of the weather, there weren't too many people out and about in Point Reyes, so that's where we ended up.  As odd as it sounds, I love beaches in bad weather -- everything becomes so moody and tempestuous and a little romantic too.  Makes you want to curl up with some hot chocolate and spin stories, doesn't it?

We topped the day off with a late lunch at Sol Food, a Puerto Rican restaurant in San Rafael.  The food is really good -- Nate's a huge fan of the habichuelas rosadas (pink beans with Spanish olives) and I had the bistec encebollado (steak with sliced onions) -- but the restaurant itself can be super busy pretty much all of the time.  Still worth it though.

We hung around our neighborhood on Saturday night, caught up with some friends, had some pho, and I finished watching the second season of Downton Abbey at 1 a.m. (I've been using Downton Abbey to keep my mind from obsessing over The Hunger Games, and that would have worked out great if I didn't end up obsessing over Downton Abbey too).

On Sunday morning, as a nice way to end the weekend, we headed to East Ocean Restaurant in Alameda for some dim sum.  Being half Chinese, Nate's fairly picky about his dim sum, and this was the first time we were trying this restaurant.  It definitely did not disappoint.  Friendly staff, huge variety, and the desserts were especially yummy.

Unfortunately, I spent the rest of the day in pain bed dealing with some reoccurring back issues.  I'm seeing the chiropractor later this morning to get a massage, some x-rays and a chiropractic evaluation, so hopefully we can get to the bottom of what's going on because this is just not okay.

I hope you all had a great weekend too!

Piglets and Politics

Are farm tours a really California thing, or is it just me?  I feel -- and I may be 100% wrong here -- that it's a lot more common here in the West given the whole Alice Waters, farm-to-table, California cuisine thing we've got going here, especially in Northern California.  Thoughts?

In any case, the farm tour I took this weekend with Nate and a good friend of ours, Ferron (who has an awesome food blog, by the way!), was so much fun and super informative, and it really inspired me to keep thinking about and changing my food habits for the better -- something I'll keep in mind as I create my Girl♥Health February Action Plan.

For this particular tour, we headed an hour or so north to visit Tara Firma Farms in Petaluma, CA.  Tara Firma is a picturesque 300 acres, complete with fishing pond, farm store, CSA program, and really knowledgeable people to offer free tours each weekend every hour on the hour.  I got to scratch some pigs, hold a baby chick and see newborn piglets.  If you ever visit me, we'll go.  Promise.

What was maybe the best part of the whole tour was that it reaffirmed everything I've been learning about where our food comes from, big agriculture, and how large of a role the government plays in what we eat.  It's currently such a corrupt cycle -- huge subsidies for corporations that not only feed us crap that makes us obese and sick, but also destroys the livelihoods of small scale farms while causing so much environmental degradation that it boggles the mind.  We think the government will protect us from it all, but instead they're hiring the executives or board members or stakeholders from these corporations to become Supreme Court justices or high-level administrators in the EPA and FDA.  And so it continues.  It's way more interconnected than that, yes, but I think that's it in the most general sense.

I mean, we've all seen Food, Inc., right?  This farm tour brought it all home.

But aside from getting me slightly political, something I usually try not to do here, the farm tour was also just a great chance to get out of the city into the fresh air and sunshine, geek out on soil and grasses and what it means to be certified organic, and buy some delicious free-range, humanely raised food stuffs to fill our bellies this week.

Wish you could have all been there!

Famers Markets and Activism

Happy Monday everyone!  I hope you all had a great weekend.  Here in Kahea-land, the weekend went by quickly but nicely.  Friday and Saturday night was for hanging out with Nate and watching movies at home, and on Saturday (as I mentioned here) we went for a pretty easy hike at Sunol Regional Wilderness Reserve.  The park has a cool section called Little Yosemite, where a waterfall and river cut through a ravine and you can walk along it on a really flat road/trail.

On Sunday, we went to our local farmers market to pick up some stuff we've been running low on (namely greens and oranges).  Last weeks meals consisted of a lot of kale stuff -- I made both a kale soup and a crispy kale and pancetta risotto -- and, although we're getting a little closer to the point where we want something else, since kale's in season that's what we're eating.  Do you eat seasonally and regionally?  Alongside really reducing our meat intake, that's something we've been working to do lately.  It's not easy, especially since as a society we're so used to the non-seasons we see in grocery stores, but with the help of a regional/seasonal produce chart, and shopping for some of our stuff at farmers markets, we're acclimating.

Last night, I also volunteered to help out with an event hosted by the Save the Peaks Coalition, a forum which tries to give a voice to citizens who are committed to saving the San Francisco Peaks in Arizona -- which are sacred to a number of tribes -- from being spiritually desecrated and environmentally destroyed, all in the name of recreation (in this case, the U.S. Forest Service is looking to use reclaimed water -- that's right, sewage -- to create snow on the mountain range for skiing, snowboarding, etc., never mind how much of a health hazard this will be if it actually goes through).  Today, the 9th Circuit will be hearing this case and deciding if the environmental risks outweigh the economic benefits, if you can even call them benefits, of this project.  The court won't even consider the fact that this mountain is incredibly holy to Indigenous peoples in the area and destroying it would be tantamount to spiritual genocide.

If you'd like more information on this, you can visit (and support) the Save the Peaks Coalition, or read up on the issue here and here.

Some pictures from the weekend:

Photo by International Indian Treaty Council

Dine' youth come together to save the San Francisco Peaks.  Photo credited to http://instagr.am/p/fqUMe/.

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Friends and Tacos

Last night, Danny, a close friend of mine and Nate's, took over a local cafe and cooked the most delicious tacos ever.  He knows I'm a sucker for his carnitas (Fried pork?  Yes, please.), and so we ordered a handful of those tacos, as well as his vegetarian tacos (mmmm, potatoes, peppers, onions...).  And then we ordered some tostadas with chicken and some chips and salsa just because they're that good.  :)  There was no stopping us.

There's a general consensus among our friends that Danny needs to open his own restaurant, so we're all so glad that he's taking this step to start building a following in our city.  These sort of "pop-ups" that are getting hugely popular right now are great for that sort of "feeling it out" stage, and our community is such a foodie one that it's just such a great opportunity to eat amazing food and meet amazing up-and-coming chefs.

Plus, it's a chance to support Danny and hang out with friends.  Always a good thing.  Especially when there's sangria involved.  And there is...lot's of it.

So if you're in the Berkeley, CA area on an upcoming Thursday evening (5:30-8:30pm), come and eat some damn good tacos at Guerilla Cafe!  And say hi!

When the Weather Gets Gloomy...

...There are a few things I love doing.  Breaking out the scarves is one of them, and cozying up indoors is another.  I daydream of Seattle in the fall, and I like thinking of warm meals made of root vegetables and roasts.

Today was definitely one of those gloomy days here in my neck of Northern California.  It drizzled, it was foggy, the temperature dropped enough for me to wear a rich colored scarf, and hot chocolate was definitely on the menu.  So after an unexpected and extremely welcome wake-up call from a close friend hoping to grab some breakfast together, I ventured out into the slightly misty morning for some grub at Crepevine (Mazatlan omelette = YUM!), then came home to find Nate and another friend eating brunch and ready to head to Bittersweet for something warm to drink.

Note to reader: if I could live at Bittersweet, with all of it's colorful worn wood furniture and delicious chocolate drinks, I totally would.  I mean, wouldn't you?

I love the classic hot chocolate and double chocolate cookie.  Mmmmm!

How was your weekend?