Just about everybody loves macaroni and cheese. Kids and adults. Vegetarians and meat lovers. Even gluten free folks and carb-loaders alike crave the instant comfort of the satisfying combination of cheese and pasta.
Though most people may enjoy the indulgence of a ooey-goey macaroni and cheese, not everyone seeks to become a modern day expert on the subject of marrying dairy and pasta. Few go out of their way to become fluent in the way of whey; cow, goat, and sheeps’ milk, and dried pasta.
Thanks to the journalistic skills and writing talent of Garrett McCord (VanillaGarlic.com) and Stephanie Stiavetti (TheCulinaryLife.com), the work of understanding the art and mechanics of making truly great macaroni and cheese dishes is served up for you to enjoy in their newest cookbook: Melt: The Art of Macaroni and Cheese.
Garrett and Stephanie are great food writers who elevate macaroni and cheese to a whole new level. They lavish their readers with entertaining stories and important insights on cheese and pasta. Melt, The Art of Macaroni and Cheese is a cookbook filled with well-crafted recipes that are a pleasure to cook with year-round.
Beautifully photographed and elegantly styled by the epically talented duo of Matt Armendariz, photographer, and food-stylist Adam Pearson, this book is as educational as it is visually stunning. Melt is a perfect holiday gift for the difficult to buy-for food lover: the book is filled with unexpected gems of information (like a comprehensive guide of artisanal cheeses and a primer on the fundamentals of pairing specialty cheeses with pasta), witty headnotes, and fascinating research. The book oozes with inspiring food photos and over 75 original recipes.
While some single-genre cookbooks might veer too far into the lane of kitch, Melt, The Art of Macaroni and Cheese navigates an enjoyable path for the home cook who seeks to create satisfying gourmet comfort food.
Organized in stylized chapters, Melt is an incredibly versatile cookbook that gives readers different ways to approach cheese and pasta: creamy stovetop macs, hearty casseroles, refreshing salads, and surprising sweets.
Wonderful, unexpected things can come into your life and change you in an instant. An intoxicating scent. A random act of kindness from a stranger. A new ingredient.
Lately, I feel as if I’ve had a front row seat to a show of lovely and surprising moments. Unpredicted things reveal themselves to me and demonstrate in delightful ways that life lived with an open heart and open eyes can turn out to be truly extraordinary.
One such incident of unexpected treasures came in the form of a bottle of Bella Vado avocado oil. The oil’s flavor is unmistakably derived from ripe avocados and has the ability to uplift the taste of a salad, an omelet, or even a handmade pesto. Ever since I started using it has changed the way I approach making lots of my every day meals. I never expected I’d find a flavor revolution in such a small bottle.
I discovered this unexpected treasure earlier this year at the first annual Big Traveling Potluck. I received two bottles — avocado oil and an avocado oil with jalapeno — in our event swag bag. I had never seen avocado oil before — it’s no wonder, Bella Vado is the first avocado oil maker in the US — so I had no idea what to expect.
I spend a lot of time around caffeinated beverages now, thanks to my new job working for a Los Angeles-based organic coffee company. I have plenty of choices at arms reach: a brew of the day, a latte, or a perfect shot of espresso. Hand-made coffee gives me more than enough energy to get me through a long day.
The other day I overheard the owner/coffee buyer discussing his daily ritual of buttered coffee. “One cup of the stuff,” the owner said, “and I’ve got enough energy for the morning, I don’t have to eat until lunch time.”
I couldn’t help but blurt out, “Butter Coffee?”
Buttered Coffee?
I can’t say that putting a pat of butter in my coffee sounds all that appealing. But when a coffee professional suggests buttered coffee as a great source of sustainable energy and a cognitive enhancing beverage, I couldn’t help but get interested.
I had to try butter coffee for myself.
Buttered coffee may not be something I’ve ever heard of before, but Tibetans have been adding yak butter to their coffee for centuries. Thanks to people like Dave Asprey, a health conscious evangelist and author of The Bulletproof Exec, the beverage has become popular with people looking to maximize their energetic potential.
And the recipe for buttered coffee couldn’t be any simpler. No need for gourmet shop ingredients and fancy techniques. All you need is a frother or a blender, coffee, and a high quality butter.
Taste Test: No Oil Slick. Just Frothy Goodness
Once the buttered melted a bit, I submerged my milk frother into the coffee. I was surprised at how quickly a thick foam formed at the top. The taste? With just one tablespoon of a butter, my coffee had a velvety and silky mouthfeel that wasn’t a bit oily. I found that adding a tablespoon of coconut oil and agave made my beverage even more delicious and decadent.
Use Great Ingredients
If you’re going to make a buttered coffee, I suggest using the salt free Kerrygold butter. I’m in love with the stuff. I’ve been this way ever since I was awarded with a year’s supply of Kerrygold’s butter and cheese. I got lucky when my name was pulled from a hat at this year’s Big Traveling Potluck raffle! I’ve been thoroughly enjoying the high quality and nutritious butter from happy, grass fed cows from Ireland.
Buttered Coffee
1 heaping tablespoon of Kerrygold Butter
2 cups of coffee
Optional: 1 tablespoon of agave
and/or 1 tablespoon of coconut oil*
Heat the container you are going to froth your coffee and butter in with hot boiling water. Dump the water.
Put the coffee and the butter into a hot mug or hot blender. Wait 10-15 seconds for the butter to butter melt. If adding sweetener, add it before blending the beverage. Froth the coffee (either with a hand held frother or a blender). Serve immediately.
*When you add the coconut oil and butter to your coffee, it’s called a Bulletproof Coffee
I have a dirty little secret: I have a thing for milky, sweet coffee drinks.
Look, I know the fondness for a spicy or sweet latte isn’t the worst sin a person could have, but it isn’t a transgression I want to indulge in all the time. Now that my job description includes working in with lovingly crafted artisanal coffees, my palate needs to be developed so I may experience the nuanced flavors, exciting aromas, and subtle textures of a well-made cup of coffee or espresso.
Coffee is like wine; the flavor of the beverage is the result of climate, growing technique, varietal, location, and how the fruit is harvested. The process of getting a bean ready for consumption requires such an incredibly long process and delicate labor, it seems wrong to cover up its natural flavors.
Ask any coffee expert and they’ll tell you that a truly great coffee — like a beautiful glass of wine — should be enjoyed in its most natural state. A mindful drinker can experience aromas, flavors, and mouthfeel that can only be encountered if the beverage is treated with respect.
Additives assault a coffee and rob it of its inherent and natural flavors. Overly hot milk, whipped cream, packages of refined sugar, spice dustings, sprinkles of cocoa, Splenda, or flavored syrups do nothing to heed the delicate nature of a coffee bean. All that extra stuff disses the fruit.
All that being said, I really do enjoy a hand-crafted, flavored latte. Forget mass produced syrups, artificially enhanced nondairy creamers, or flavored powders. If I’m going to attempt to make a flavor cocktail with my caffeinated beverages, I use high quality ingredients.
Salted Caramel Latte (Dulce de Leche con Sal)
What makes this decadent salted caramel latte so good is the balance of espresso with the sweetness of the caramelized milk and the highlight of Maldon sea salt. This isn’t the lowest calorie beverage, but it’s a cheat-day worthy treat!
2 Tablespoons of Dulce de Leche*
1 cup of whole milk.
1 shot of espresso
1 pinch of Maldon Sea Salt
Begin to heat the milk in a small sauce pan over medium heat. Add the dulce de leche. Stir often, making sure not to let the milk scald. The milk is ready when it begins to thicken and micro bubbles begin to appear on the side of the pan. Add half the pinch of maldon to the milk. Stir and remove from the heat.
Pull your espresso shot. Add your shot to a warm, appropriately-sized coffee cup. Add the milk. finish the drink off with the smallest 1/4 of a pinch of pulverized Maldon sea salt.
Serve immediately.
*Dulce De Leche is an ingredient you may buy from a store or make from scratch at home. For a 100 % from scratch recipe, I suggest Alton Brown’s 3-hour step by step guide. Or if you want to make dulce de leche from sweetened condensed milk, David Lebovitz has some suggestions.
Living the life of an entrepreneur is exciting and rewarding. Especially when it isn’t harrowing and daunting. Being a consultant, an artist, or a specialist for hire means you have to be uniquely talented, work hard, and be patient for the next right job to come in. Never having a set schedule is a benefit, but freelancing requires a strong belief in one’s self and trust that you’ll get through difficult stretches between jobs. In short, we gotta have a lot of faith.
Faith as a business model?
Yes, operating from an intuitive place isn’t a concept that works for everyone. It’s an idea that can make most people’s skin crawl, especially those who rely on market trends, data, and poll results. But for people like me who work from the gut, intuition as a business model is something that requires practice and a lot of vulnerability. For every gutsy move or courageous jump, there are plenty of uncertain moments that cause white-knuckle indecision and fear.
Being isolated and working in a way that’s opposite of how most mainstream business people operate can make for some truly uncomfortable moments. That’s where having like-minded friends comes in.
We need others who share the same business challenges and have a similar mindset to run big ideas by. When we’re feeling crazy, fearful, and generally uncertain of ourselves, it can really help to have like-minded people who know what you’re going through to share their insights, advice, and good will. When the going gets rough, it’s good to know there’s someone else out there who knows exactly what we’re going through.
One of my freelance cheerleaders is Vivien Kooper, an LA-based ghost writer who makes a living helping ordinary and extraordinary people tell their life stories in book form. My friend is funny, smart, and shares a common language for the big, esoteric ideas.
What I value most about Vivien’s friendship is how common her un-common language is to me. Her language of faith, fear, and a willingness to surrender over to a higher power is part of her daily language. “I’m just staying in faith that I’ll be taken care of,” Vivian said to me after a particularly lean couple of weeks. It was exactly what I needed to hear. “I just know that the right job is going to come in when it’s supposed to.” Faithful words like that comfort me and offer a sense of relief. She reminds me it’s okay to believe that one of my job requirements is to surrender to the unknown.
Don’t own a juicer and want to make healthy breakfast drinks? Great! All you need is a blender, good ingredients, and an imagination for flavor and texture. Here are a couple of my tips for making a great tasting smoothie:
Think about making the most of natural sweetness. I recommend you stock up on bananas and freeze the ripe ones. Grab a few bags of frozen berries and keep them in the freezer for any time smoothies. I love the organic mixed berries at Trader Joes.
Consider texture. Frozen bananas and frozen berries work great. Maybe you’d like to add soft tofu, Greek Yogurt (I’m a huge fan of Fage), a handful of nuts (cashews or almonds are the best), or even roasted sweet potato.
Add in some protein. Look for healthy ingredients like Kefir (I love lactose free Green Valley Organics) or unsweetened yogurt. See some of my suggestions up above.
Use a healthy liquid to tie it all together. I use coconut milk, almond milk, orange juice, and carrot juice to add flavor and/or sweetness.
Since doing a juice cleanse last week, I’ve been making a fair amount of smoothies and breakfast shakes to start my day. By skipping a big egg and toast breakfast, I’ve been able to stay away from caffeine, bread and pasta, meat, and processed sugars for over a week now. This clean way of eating has me feeling clean, healthy, and full of energy. Starting my day off right with a blended smoothie or a glass of carrot juice helps me get into my day with good clean energy.
Sometimes its fun to get adventurous in the kitchen and use already prepped ingredients for new recipes. This smoothie’s texture benefits from the sweetness and texture of sweet potato and the spiciness of fresh ginger. The best part is you don’t have to own an expensive juicer to make this smoothie. The ginger gives you the energy boost you’ll need (and may reduce your cholesterol!) and the sweet potato offers complex carbohydrates, potassium, fiber, beta-carotene, and vitamins C and B6.
Sweet Sunrise Smoothie
3/4 cup carrot juice
1/2 cup Kefir (your favorite flavor)
1/2 roasted sweet potato, without the skin
1 tablespoon unsalted cashew butter
1-2 inches of ginger, peeled and sliced (depending upon how spicy you want the drink)
6 ice cubes
Put slices of sweet potato and ginger into the blender with the carrot juice. Blend until not so chunky. Add the Kefir, cashew butter, and ice cubes, blend until smooth. If you want a thicker consistency, add more Kefir. For more liquidity, add more carrot juice. Enjoy.
I stopped eating meat at seventeen. The bloody grease on the flat-top grill of my summer job was the initial motivator for my abstinence. Then a documentary about the abuse of our planet and suffering of feed animals sealed the commitment. I didn’t cook or eat meat for fifteen years after teenage resolution.
More than a decade after I swore off meat, I was hired to be part of the opening team at steak house in Los Angeles. During training, I decided to taste meat again for the first time in fifteen years. I put a thimble-sized morsel of dry aged steak in my mouth and felt my body chemistry change almost instantaneously. The warm and juicy meat, the aroma of smoke and earthiness, the fully rounded flavors of the steak made me tingle. I felt my face flush. I felt alive. I began to feel I needed to look past my politics and chew.
It took me some time to figure out my carnivorous stance, but thanks to a greater understanding of my role in the food chain, how to balance my consumption and be responsible and informed, I am able to make educated and ethical decisions at the butcher’s counter.
Mindful Meat Eating
My diet isn’t focused on meats–I eat mostly vegetables and grains–but when I do purchase chicken, beef, lamb, or pork, I purchase the meat from trusted sources.
I do my very best to maintain the same political and ecological views of my vegetarian years by seeking out humanely raised, free-range animals fed on a healthy and appropriate diet by small producers. I shop local butchers (Lindy and Grundy are a pair of bad-ass female butchers in Los Angeles who foster close relationships with their local purveyors) and, whenever possible, I buy directly from the people who raise the animals and slaughter them. I want to know as much about what I’m eating and what impact that purchase has on my local economy and planet.
It may not be best to dwell in the past, but it doesn’t hurt to look back and appreciate all that’s happened. So rather than write a post featuring top recipes or big news stories of the year, I thought I’d take a little time to write something of a gratitude list for this blog in 2012. It has been an eventful time filled with great lessons, delicious recipes, and outstanding moments for me and my family. I hope you don’t mind me sharing them with you!
Perhaps the most valuable lesson of 2012 was to slow down and appreciate the little things. Despite the whirling speed of new tech toys and cool apps, I began to apply mindfulness techniques to my life, work, writing, and even social media. Slowing down may not have been instinctual when I started this year, but after twelve months of meditation and mindful action–I find that I have much more joy and gratitude for the little and big things that happen throughout my day.
I was nominated for Best Literary Food Writing in April by one of my most beloved food magazines, Saveur. I might not have won, but knowing that the incredible food writers and editors at Saveur had considered my writing worthy of recognition was award enough.
Other landmarks during the year that was rumored to be the end of the world included a very busy year in my work of opening restaurants. Some of my clients included Milo and Olive, Karen Hatfield’s Sycamore Kitchen, and the artisanal hot dog stand of Neal Fraser, Fritzi Dog. In addition, I celebrated five years of blogging and became the proud mama of a puppy.
I had the good fortune of enjoying some travel during my year. I visited San Francisco and saw my friend Michael Procopio for a great meal and later he suggested I visit the unique/edgy/performance art coffee shop called The Red Door. Experiencing a meal there was revelatory and completely mind blowing.
There were many great meals and restaurant moments in 2012. While I may not have spent half as much time I would have like to writing about the meals I enjoyed during my twelve months of 2012, I did manage to snap several hundred pictures of my repasts via Instagram.
Beyond my meals in restaurants, I found my way into my own kitchen and created a few recipes of my own. A few that I’m most proud of include my simple, and delicious recipes for a Sriracha Chicken, and Kale Salad that was inspired by one of my favorite new restaurants (and clients!), Sycamore Kitchen. My favorite recipe of the year–made so by its versatility and highly addictive flavor profile–is my savory cranberry compote I made last month. Even though Thanksgiving has come and gone, I’ve made the recipe a few more times since then. In my last batch I halved the amount of dried cranberries and added dried cherries.
I am grateful for so many things, including my family, friends, and all the great people I have had the good fortune of meeting during this year. Most of all, I appreciate and thank you for reading, writing such kind comments, and supporting my writing. I wish you all the best in 2013 and may all your dreams and goals be exceeded in the new year.
Love and peace to you and your family. Happy New Year!
Cranberry Compote on Greek Yogurt
Of the many uses of the compote (as a spread for sandwiches and a sweet/savory condiment for turkey and chicken), my favorite may be as a topping for yogurt and ice cream. I love how the sweetness of the cranberry sauce compliments the flavors of an unsweetened Greek Yogurt. I especially love putting it on top of Fage: it’s low in fat and super creamy!
1/4 cup of Cranberry Compote
1 cup of Fage (or plain) Greek Yogurt
Put the yogurt in a bowl and top with compote. Stir in to sweeten the creamy yogurt.
Suggestion: Add nuts or granola for an additional, crunchy texture. Enjoy!
I always thought of myself as a mature kid. Markers of my full grown abilities were imagination, a faculty for prolonged unsupervised play, and a talent for cooking. If I could cook–it seemed–I was old enough to take care of myself.
I learned the basics young. In nursery school my teachers showed me how to mix chopped cranberries, orange zest, and sugar in a bowl to make a simple cranberry sauce. By second grade I could put together a bowl of cereal without help, spread butter on toast, and decorate apples with cloves for Christmas ornaments. In third grade, I mastered cinnamon sugar toast and began learning how the numbers on the toaster could turn frozen food into something warm and satisfying. By the time I reached the fourth grade, I could make snacks for my brother and sister when we got home from school and oversee my siblings in their raucous play.
Being able to cook made me employable. I was a babysitter by age 10.
Maybe its because I was the first born. Perhaps, it was because I was self reliant. It may be the fact that I was an independent child capable of feeding herself and her siblings. I could re-heat chicken nuggets and fish sticks without anyone standing over me. I made pizzas out of pita bread, Ragu tomato sauces, and chunks of the random cheeses my mother bought at the grocery store. I was creative with my cooking. I found recipes in cookbooks and began dreaming of the meals I would cook.
Dreams become reality
The summer after I turned ten, my mother packed an extra big suitcase for a trip across the country. I held my breath as Mom filled the olive green suitcase with big sweaters, cotton pants, and prayer beads. She stuffed a canvas bag with my sister’s baby clothes and toys.
Working in the restaurant industry can be a wonderful thing, especially for someone who loves to cook. Some days can be more inspiring than others, but the love of food and a constant desire to create beautiful things in the kitchen is the twine that holds the front and back of house of the restaurant together every day. Coming to work has been especially exciting and fulfilling since I began working with the talented and Michelin star rated husband and wife culinary team, Karen and Quinn Hatfield.
My work assisting the pair open their newest restaurant, The Sycamore Kitchen–a bakery/café and bakery located in the Fairfax/Miracle Mile area of Los Angeles– gives me the opportunity to work with a team of highly skilled and passionate people who express themselves beautifully through the wholesome and flavorful food they make.
The flavors of the food at The Sycamore Kitchen are approachable, wholesome, and ever so sneaky because you find yourself needing to get more and more of the stuff. You just can’t help yourself. In fact, in just a few weeks the restaurant has been open, Sycamore Kitchen has garnered a dedicated following. Not only do customers drive across town for a Salted Caramel Bobka roll, or the Double BLT sandwich with braised pork belly, they return day after day for savory and sweet favorites with determined gusto.
Even though I’m at the restaurant more than full time, I find myself craving certain dishes frequently. It’s almost haunting, these flavors. The cookies and pastries are constantly on my mind and dishes like Sycamore Kitchen’s heirloom watermelon salad with aleppo pepper and lime make me pace my apartment until I can’t take it anymore and have to go to the store to buy all the ingredients so I can recreate the dish (to the best of my ability) at home.
Why? Because these sublime flavors aren’t something I can get out of my head so easily. Just take one nibble of this spicy, salty, sweet dish and you’ll see what I mean. Continue reading “Melon Salad with Chili and Lime”
This city has taught me a lot about food, but one of the most important food lessons came in the shape of a plastic bottle with a green cap and nozzle. Sriracha–a sauce created by a Chinese immigrant from Vietnam who relocated in Los Angeles–has flavors that are warm and spicy–like ketchup mixed with garlic and smoked jalapeno. It’s a magical sauce that can transform anything into something spicy good.
During those formative first few months in LA, I spotted the rooster sauce on restaurant tables all over LA–from the Mexican taco stand, late night diners, Chinese restaurants, and an all night Thai place in Hollywood where a Thai man with thick black hair dressed up like Elvis and sang between courses.
I was hesitant to try the spicy red sauce. Before I became a citizen of a multi-cultural city, I had never been exposed to a food city where Mexican, Guatemalan, Thai, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, and Middle-Eastern dishes could be found within miles of my home. I was brought up on simple foods and avoided spice wherever possible. But once I took my first taste of Sriracha sauce I was hooked. I bought a bottle at a Thai market not far from my home and began experimenting with it. Sriracha perked up my scrambled eggs, made the cheap frozen pizzas a I survived on more palatable, and took my Thai cooking up a notch.
In the years since my discovery, I have figured out a way to work Sriracha into many of my mainstay recipes, including sauteed kale, chicken banh mi, caramel pork banh mi, and edamame dip. So when one of the food-loving employees at the restaurant I consult at, told me a story about the Sriracha marinaded fish she cooked the night before, I got inspired. Rather than make my usual roasted chicken for dinner, why not make Sriracha chicken instead? Rather than making things complicated, I kept this recipe really simple. Continue reading “Sriracha Chicken”
Some meals may feed hunger, while other dishes create an undeniable desire to fabricate a whole business around them. Particularly great breakfasts, satisfying lunches, cozy dinners, and impeccable desserts coax the entrepreneurial spirit out of us.
My husband and I know better than most, that the idea of opening a restaurant isn’t something to go all sparkly eyed over. We’ve worked in restaurants for decades and we know how much hard work, long hours, and tireless dedication goes into building a place for just nickles on the dollar. But sometimes, we can’t help but yearn for building something special after we’ve made a particularly successful meal. There are certain culinary experiences that make us think past all the risk and get us day dreaming about restaurant interiors, a rag-tag kitchen brigade, and a dining room crew dedicated to bringing our vision to life.
Sometimes, I’m truly amazed at what gets my husband and I fired up enough to open our own place. The cloth of a napkin. A handmade chandelier. A smile of a server/cashier/barista/busser who loves their job. A dark fruit compote. The flavor of an unexpected pickled vegetable. The juicy factor of a burger. There are certain meals we make at home that really get us yearning to seek out a lease in a small building somewhere.
We know we have come up with a restaurant dish when we have created the holy trinity of experience: great ingredients, delicious flavors, and comfort. A depleted larder and nearly empty refrigerator inspired this incredibly satisfying and healthy burger made with ground chicken. Grated carrots and onion gave the patty an extra layer of flavor that had my husband and I talking food costs and plating ideas*.
What dishes do you make that get you dreaming of opening up your own place?
Healthy Bird Burger Makes 3-4 patties, depending how big you make them.
1 lb ground chicken
1 carrot, grated
1/4 onion, grated
2 egg yolks
1 slice of bread (crusts off)
1 1/2 teaspoons of paprika
Milk (just enough to dampen the slice of bread)
salt and pepper
Options:
Your favorite melting cheese
Mixed greens or toasted bun
Wash hands well. Soak a piece of crust-less bread in just enough milk to make the bread gather up together. Squeeze the bread mixture of excess milk.
Put ground chicken in a bowl with the grated carrot, onion, egg yolks, wet bread mixture, paprika. Mix with a spoon or clean hands. Carefully form the wet, sticky mixture into flat patties.
Heat a skillet on high heat. Add enough grape seed oil to coat the bottom of the pan. Add the patties. Sprinkle with a pinch of salt and pepper. Let cook about 3 minutes on the first side do not flip. Cover the pan with a lid and cook for another 3 minutes. Flip the burger. Turn down the heat a bit and let cook 3-6 minutes on the other side, depending on how thick your burger patties are. If adding cheese, add thin slices of cheese to the top of the burger and cover the pan, to allow the cheese melt. Feel the burger for firmness. Take off the heat, let rest for a minute before serving.
Serve on a grilled bun or with a side salad (simply toss some greens with olive oil, rice wine vinegar and salt and pepper).
*How the bird burger is plated above is definitely not restaurant ready.
Life is like a Bundt cake pan. You can either focus on the big hole in the middle or appreciate the light, fluffy cake it holds.
That’s a bit of unexpected insight I recently found during a meditation I had this week. I was hoping for some insight on how I can ease up on being so hard on myself and this is what came to me. A dessert recipe. For life.
I have to admit, I laughed out loud when the vision of a Bundt pan filled with Angel Food cake came to mind. Divine inspiration, keenly directed towards its audience. I love food so much, it’s easy for the metaphor to hit the bullseye.
It’s up to me if I’m going to stay in the dark void or savor the sweetness of this beautiful life.
It’s so easy to get caught up in the little mistakes, the missteps, the fumbles, and awkward moments that can collect through the day. If I’m not careful, I can waste so much time on the negative, rather than focus on the positives of every day. Rather than see how I opened the door for a mother struggling with the stroller, I focus on how I hesitated too long before I put money in the barista’s tip jar. I can avoid a nice swim in the happiness of my work, to wallow in the problems. I’ll scrutinize every wrinkle on my face instead of marveling on the progress I’ve make with my health. Rather than feeling good about the time I dedicate to my well being and creativity, I’ll beat myself up for not filling the hours with hard, physical labor.
My inner critic sounds a lot like Joan Crawford in Mommy Dearest. And to be honest, I’m kinda sick of the bitch.
I’ve found that the best way for me to stay in the lightest parts of life, is for me to be in action. I need to be of service to others through my work, or to myself through prayer, mediation, fellowship, and exercise. I need to cook. I need to make people laugh. I need to take pretty pictures. I have to take my ideas of faith and put them into action.
Every day I have a choice of where I want to be. There will be negative spaces in life. But rather on focusing on the void, I will choose to enjoy the fluffy, sweet center of it all.
Just as it is in life, this cake didn’t necessarily turn out the way I thought it would. The organic flour and brown sugar gives this cake a unique texture that is a fair bit more dense than a traditional Angel Food cake. The addition of the fruit compote and whipped cream makes this cake super enjoyable.
[print_link] Brown Sugar Angel Food Cake Adapted from a recipe fromMartha Stewart Cookbook: Collected Recipes for Every Day
For the cake:
1 1/4 cups sifted cake flour (not self-rising)–if you use organic flour the cake will be dense
1 1/2 cups light brown sugar, sifted
14 egg whites (save the yolks to make ice cream!)
1 1/2 teaspoons cream of tartar
2 teaspoons grated lemon zest
For a simple mixed berry compote:
1 package of trader Joe’s frozen mixed berries
8 tablespoons water
8 tablespoons vanilla Torani syrup
For the whipped cream:
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
quartered strawberries
Preheat your oven to 350 F. Mix the sifted cake flour with 3/4 cup of brown sugar. Sift the mixture twice. (If you are wondering how to sift flour you can go to www.kitchendaily.com/2010/09/07/how-to-sift-flour/ to watch a video on how this is done! I struggled with this and found a fair amount of sugar clumped in the sifter afterwards.)
Beat the egg whites in a large bowl with an electric mixer at medium speed until the liquid becomes foamy. Sift the cream of tartar into the mixture and increase the speed of the mixer to hight. Beat until the egg whites are thick and tripled in volume, about 4-6 minutes. Lightly sprinkle half of the remaining brown sugar into the egg whites. Mix until the sugar is fully incorporated. Repeat this step with the sugar. Continue beating until the egg whites become thick and glossy.
Fold the cake flour and sugar mixture in three additions. As you add the final bit of sugar and cake flour, also add the lemon zest.
Spoon the cake mixture into an unbuttered 10-inch angel food bundt pan (Martha suggests you use one with a removable bottom). Run a knife through the batter to break any air bubbles. Bake for 30-40 minutes, or until the cake is golden in color and is springy to the touch.
Invert the cake on a cooling rack and let cool completely for an hour. To remove the cake from the pan, run a knife around the sides and in the center tube.
Meanwhile, empty the bag of Trader Joe’s Organic Mixed berries into a sauce pan. Add the water and vanilla syrup. Cook over a high heat to melt the frozen berries. When it starts to boil, turn down the heat and let reduce until it comes to a desired consistency. I like to cook things down for about 8-10 minutes. Let cool.
When you’re ready to serve up the cake, whip the cream with vanilla until stiff.
Cut the cake in half horizontally and spread a layer of the whipped cream over the top of the bottom half. Arrange the quartered strawberries over the whipped cream. Add the top layer of the cake and then top generously with the remaining whipped cream.
Serve with a generous spoonful of berry mixture over the top of each serving.
Overseeing a brand new 20-seat breakfast/lunch/dinner restaurant in Santa Monica has been an all consuming task these past six months. Weeks stacked up against each other without a day off between. Days began long before the sun started on its path to work and ended long after it was done. My vision for service and my desire to create a seamless restaurant has been a great challenge. The work has gone beyond basic work. It has become a job of sacrifice.
It’s ironic to work in the food industry and be unable to eat. I’ve ignored the longing for warm meals and decadent repasts with friends and filled my basic needs with family meal scraps, slices of bread grabbed on the fly, or a late night bowl of yogurt topped with granola. There just hasn’t been enough time for such things, I’ve told myself up until today.
But now, I’m in my kitchen. White linen sunlight spills through the windows and onto the tiled counter tops.
I pull ingredients from the refrigerator. There isn’t much to be found on the metal shelving–some eggs, a bunch of radishes, a block of cheese, a stick of Plugra butter–but for the first time in a long time, I have time to cook. I have a handful of potential for a simple meal. I couldn’t be happier.
I submerge a cluster of red and white baby radishes and their rough greenery in a bowl filled with cool water. I imagine my hands and the rest of me floating in spring water, like the deep spring that fills my family’s granite-ridged quarry in Gloucester, Massachusetts. It’s good to be in immersed in water, I think, even if it is to wash radishes. The last grains of sandy brown earth that clings to the candy stripe radishes falls away.
It’s quiet in my little kitchen. Inside my head, though, there’s all sorts of noise. I hear the biting chatter of self-doubt and the still, strong voice of inner faith. The inner critic and the perpetual cheerleader join in too, as they all battle it out in my head. You see, a little over a week ago, I received some news. Though it came as a shock at first, it was the news I had been praying for.
Thanks to divine provenance, I was given the gift of freedom. I have the opportunity to go back to my vocation as a restaurant consultant and service coach.
Return to my vocation
Two radish dry on a paper towel. I’m hungry and can’t bear to wait another moment for something to eat. Why wouldn’t I satisfy my hunger now? Why wait?
I slice the very tip of the remaining radish off and dip the red bulb into a shallow bowl of Maldon sea salt. I don’t know if it’s the crunch of the tiny pyramids of sea salt or the burst of white pepper spice from the radish, but I can’t help but gasp a little. The flavors and textures overtake me. Each magnificent bite is a tiny inspiration.
Awestruck, I think that I might be able to fill reams of paper trying to describe the flavors. I take another bite, hoping to confirm the magnificent spiciness. How something so simple could be so incredibly beautiful? I measure that last bite to the present, making sure that the value of the flavors hasn’t depreciated.
What makes this savory experience so remarkable, I realize, isn’t just the two simple ingredients of freshly picked radish and hand-harvested sea salt. It is the final, key ingredient of spacious time that allows me to experience and appreciate the astonishing flavors.
Time is what I’ve been so hungry for.
Eating radishes dipped in salt reminds me to keep it simple. Don’t push so hard or make things too complicated. Why wouldn’t I want to savor every bitter, sweet, and spicy moment?
[print_link] Salted Radishes and Radish Salad
One bunch of Radishes (with greens on)
Maldon Sea Salt
Extra virgin olive oil 1-2 tablespoons (just enough to lightly coat the leaves)
Half a lemon
Salt and Pepper
Thoroughly wash the greens and roots of the radishes. Once clean and dry, remove the leaves. Discard any leaves that do not look fresh or green.
Eat one radish lightly dipped in Maldon sea salt. Have another. Enjoy the flavors!
Slice the remaining radishes into thin circles, about the thickness of card stock. Add to the greens in a small bowl. Sprinkle with small pinch of salt and pepper. Add a light drizzle of oil, just enough to lightly coat the leaves. Squeeze the half a lemon onto the leaves. Hand toss. Taste for seasoning and balance. Serve.
I may have started working in restaurants when I was 16 years old, but it wasn’t until much later that I began to learn culinary techniques I could use at home. I can’t blame my lack of development on anything more than circumstance. I started in a small town in Massachusetts where the best seafood was fried or boiled, every restaurant kitchen had a microwave, hamburgers were unpacked as frozen beef patties, and iceburg was the only lettuce we knew.
Graduating from country club catering and seafood shacks, I began working in restaurants where the people in the kitchen weren’t summer help, the stainless steel counters were clean, knives were sharp, and saute pans and gas ranges cooked every dish to order.
The greatest lessons I’ve learned from the men and women of Los Angeles’ best restaurants is to pay attention to the little things. Simple fundamentals—cooking techniques, tools, and ingredients–create memorable food and extraordinary dining experiences.
One recent discovery came from my restaurant’s former chef, Evan Funke. I was inquiring about the minestrone soup we were serving. The flavors of the broth were so round and full of flavor, I was having a hard time believing the soup was vegetarian.
Chef Evan assured me that the minestrone was one hundred percent vegetarian. “The trick to the flavor,” he said, “is from sweating down onion and garlic, and adding Parmesan rinds to the stock.”
Soon after I decided to try out chef Evan’s trick. Rather than staying with a fully vegetarian stock I used left over vegetable scraps, a chicken carcass, and a tupperware filled with handful of leftover Parmesan ends. What resulted was the most flavorful, golden broth I have ever had the pleasure of making in my kitchen.
What kinds of tricks have you learned along the way that have made all the difference?
[print_link] Easy stock
I always make stock the day after I roast a chicken. Now that I’m adding Parmesan rinds to the base of the broth, things are really getting tasty. You don’t need to use chicken or any meat (for that matter) to make tasty stock. The key to making a flavorful stock super is to collect your vegetable scraps over a week’s time, keep them in the freezer in an airtight container, and add as many rinds of hard cheese as you have!
Place the chicken bones and vegetable stems in a pot. Fill the pot with cold water, just until the chicken and most of the vegetable scraps are covered. Do not fill the pot to the top with water. The less water you use, the more flavorful the stock. Turn to high heat. When the stock comes to a boil, immediately turn down to a simmer. Simmer for at least 45 minutes to an hour. Taste. Season with salt and pepper. Strain and pour into small containers. Let cool. Freeze what you can not use within 3 days.
*Chicken carcass and bones are optional! Remove for a fully vegetarian stock!
This may not make much sense to most people, but whenever you’re out to eat you can bet that the men and women taking care of you are probably pretty hungry themselves. Why? Because when you work in restaurants there’s really no time to eat*.
There are plenty of restaurants who make family meals. Just about everyone in the business gives their employees meal breaks. The fact remains that sometimes we restaurant folk get really, really, busy and we just can’t take the time to eat even a bite of food. The more I work in restaurants, the more I realize that staying away from the red-zone of hunger is all about self-maintenance. I have to be thoughtful about what I eat and make sure I’m careful to monitor myself, my mood, and if I’m nearing a “hangry” (hungry/angry) state.
Because when I go red-zone, no one’s gonna get great service.
Many restaurant professionals have go-to meals that get them through the 8-12 hour shifts. Bowls of pasta and meat-stuffed tacos are a favorite at family meal. I’ve seen co-workers eat fast food straight out of a bag so they don’t leave a drop of grease or ketchup on their uniform whites. A few survive on energy drinks and protein bars. Others skip pre-shift meal all together and binge at the local late night joint or food truck after work. And for the desperate–and believe me, I’ve been one of them–there’s always a slab of bread with a bit of butter and a large cup of coffee to make the hunger go away.
Since I started working at my new job at the bakery and pizzeria, though, bread has taken center stage in my diet. I’ve been making it through my 10-12 hour shifts by drinking lots of coffee and snacking on tons of bread, pizza, and pastries. Though eating a gluten-free chocolate chip, walnut, banana muffin for lunch may seem fun at the time, subsisting on bread and pizza is definitely not something that I want to get into the habit of. A girl has to look good and feel good, right?
So when it came time to give something up for Lent, I decided I to stop eating wheat and force myself into being more mindful about the food I’m putting in my body. Being smart about what I eat when I’m at work is definitely going to be a challenge.
My food requirements are pretty straight forward: my food has to be fast, easy, and doesn’t require refrigeration. I don’t have time to ask for someone to cook it, there are health code rules about bringing outside food into restaurants (so it’s not going in our refrigerators), and it can’t be so fancy it can’t be eaten in a few fast bites. The food also has to be light enough I don’t feel weighed down. I need balanced food that has plenty of good carbohydrates, sugars, and proteins that will give me sustained energy throughout my shift.
My first step? Snacks.
I’ve stocked up on my favorite dried fruit and nuts so I can make my own fruit and nut mix. Sweet dates, creamy cashews, peppy pepitas, and tart cranberries make for a perfect in-between-moments bite. With a bar of chocolate stashed in the office for emergency energy and a plastic baggy filled with fruit and nuts, I’ll have plenty to keep me going during the shift. The best part about my little grab-bag snacks? They’re easy to make, small enough to stash anywhere, and don’t require any refrigeration!
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Restaurant Energy Snack If you have a Trader Joe’s near you, their fruit and nut section will have everything you could need to make your own snack mix! Feel free to make your own mixture!
1 bag (18 oz) of pepitas
1 bag (18 oz) of cashews
1 bag (12 oz) of pitted dates
1 bag (8 oz) of dried cranberries
Mix in a large bowl. Put equal parts into small zip log bags. Leave on the counter top so you don’t forget to bring them to work!
What are your go-to meals and snacks for on-the-go eating??
*In the past 5 years I’ve seen a drastic improvement working conditions for restaurant workers and 10-30 minute breaks are enforced.
Have I told you I have a new job? I’m super excited about joining the team of Milo + Olive, a wonderful little pizzeria and bakery that’s just opened up in Santa Monica, as a General Manager. Getting to be part of a family of restaurants like Huckleberry, Rustic Canyon, and Sweet Rose Creamery is a dream come true. So I’ve put the freelance service coaching business on hold so I can help run a growing business that’s dedicated to beautiful, handmade food that’s served by people who really care.
Let me just tell you, I’m more than a little bit busy. Working at a brand new restaurant is like caring for an infant. It requires constant vigilance. The hours are long but the work is incredibly fulfilling. The challenges keep my heart, body, and mind constantly engaged and stretched to the limit. I survive on very little sleep and even less time for food. I power myself through the day with huge dose of excitement, a thick piece of toast slathered with almond butter and jelly, and tall cups of coffee.
Since I only have had one day off a week, the one thing I crave more than anything else is rest and a warm meal with my husband. We keep things simple. For breakfast we like to sauté kale in olive oil with a generous splash of fish sauce and top them with a couple of fried eggs. Or I’ll make soft-curd scrambled eggs with feta while he puts together a citrusy-yogurt vinaigrette for a butter lettuce salad. We brew a big pot of coffee, sit at our tucked-in-the-corner dining room table, and fortify ourselves with food and stories of our week.
Exhaustion dictates the menu at dinner time. Sometimes we go out for a comforting bowl of soup and noodles at our favorite Thai restaurant (Pa Ord) or other nights I muster up the power to roast a chicken and some vegetables. Those meals together refuel so much more than my belly. Since I’ve written here before about my favorite method of roasting a chicken (a la Zuni Café), I thought I would share with you my favorite new comfort food that doesn’t take much time or effort to make.
[print_link] Super Easy Roasted Kabocha
If you have a super loud timer, you can take a nap while this squash roasts. Just slice the thing in half, add some butter, and roast for a little more than a half hour. It’s just that simple.
1 Kabocha
4 tablespoons butter (I prefer Plugra)
3-4 sage leaves
Finishing salt
Preheat the oven to 350°.
Slice the pumpkin open (horizontally across). Remove the seeds. Place on a sheet tray slice side up. Add a generous pat of Plugra butter (about 2 tablespoons per side) and few sage leaves. Roast in the oven for 30 minutes, or until soft.
Mushroom, Butternut Squash and Sweet Potato Quinoa
I’m not used to leaving town for my job. Unless you own numerous restaurants or work in a cross-country chain, most people in my business tend to stay in one locale for a long time. Restaurants may be a high turnover business, but most professionals tend to stay at one address for as long as they possibly can. So, it’s not every day in the life of this restaurant consultant where I pack my bags and head out of town for several weeks for a restaurant gig. And yet, here I am, packing my bags and organizing my life before I join the talented team of restaurant professionals who will soon open their vibe-dining establishment in Rancho Cucamonga.
I may not have as many posts between now and the end of this month. But I promise to cook up a bunch of great stories while I’m gone and be back in time for Thanksgiving. In the meantime, I leave you with this simple and homey side dish inspired by a photo in this month’s Food and Wine. This simple version of a Fall quinoa features butternut squash, sweet potatoes and trumpet mushrooms.
This salad is great as a side dish, a main course, and–if you’re looking to turn things up a notch–even breakfast if you fry up an egg and put it on top!
[print_link] Mushrooms, Squash and Sweet Potatoes Quinoa
One large butternut squash, peeled, halved, de-seeded, and quartered
2 tablespoons of Olive Oil
4 tablespoons butter
2 large shallots, 1 1/2 sliced across; the remaining half, minced
4 thyme sprigs
3 1/2 cups water
2 cups quinoa, rinsed
1 tablespoon of olive oil
1/2 pound oyster mushrooms, cut into 1-inch chunks
1 large sweet potato, roasted
1 tablespoon maple syrup
1/2 cup chopped parsley
Roasting the squash and sweet potato. Preheat the oven to 350. Either on the cooking sheet or in a bowl, drizzle the quartered butternut squash pieces with olive oil, toss. Arrange on a baking sheet. Place the sweet potato on the same sheet tray. Roast for about 20-30 minutes and then flip the squash and roast for another 20-30 minutes. The squash should be golden and tender (not mushy). The sweet potato should be soft in the center (test with a knife through the center of it).
In a medium saucepan, melt 2 tablespoons of butter. Add the minced shallot and cook over moderate heat until softened. Add the thyme and the water, season with salt and pepper, and then bring to a boil. Add the quinoa. Cover and cook over moderately low heat until the water cooks down and becomes completely incorporated, about 15 minutes.
In a large skillet melt two tablespoons of butter and a tablespoon of olive oil. Add the sliced scallion and mushrooms. Sauté until soft and browned, about 4-6 minutes. Add the maple syrup. Taste for seasoning. Add the quinoa, squash, sweet potato, and parsley. Serve immediately.
iPhone photo of Lemon-Garlic Chicken from Chef Michel Richard
When people ask me if I’m available for a dinner date or event, I often have to tell them this: I don’t know. Maybe? It’s not that I’m trying to hedge my bets or play hard to get, but the truth is I never really know. I’m building my business as the Service Coach and I don’t have a set schedule. Because when you’re a consultant, or are in the business of being of service to people, you really have to be available for your clients–new, current, or recurring–all the time.
So when Lucy Lean asked me to participate in a virtual dinner party to celebrate the release of her gorgeous, must have book MADE IN AMERICA a few weeks back, I knew I was going to be in the thick of working with one of my clients. So rather than bow out, I asked if I could be a virtual late arrival. And so I am.
I chose to cook this Lemon Garlic Roasted Chicken from chef Michel Richard for a handful of different reasons. 1) I wanted to check out a cooking technique for chicken (a modified low and slow method?) 2) It looked the easiest recipe for me to make under tight timing constraints and 3) I admire Chef Michel Richard.
The recipe is quite simple but it does require a bit more time than my usual Zuni chicken method. I liked the results and I can’t wait to cook more from Lucy’s gorgeous book.
Congratulations to Lucy Lean. And thank you so much for welcoming me, even though I’m more than fashionably late!
Lemon garlic chicken from Made in America
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Made in America Lemon-Garlic Roasted Chicken Give yourself 2 hours for prep and cooking and you’ll be happy with the moist and delicately flavored bird. Though Lucy doesn’t say to, I recommend using the lemon-infused onions and garlic cloves as a garnish for the chicken.
2 onions, sliced
20 cloves of garlic, unpeeled
one free-range chicken (about 4 lbs)
2 lemons cut in half, plus an additional 1/2 lemon
1 branch of fresh thyme
4 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons chopped, fresh flat-leaf parsley
S&P
Place a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 300°F.
Cover the bottom of a roasting pan with the onion slices and garlic cloves.
Rinse the chicken under cold water inside and out. Drain and thoroughly pat dry with paper towels. Lightly season the cavity with salt and pepper. Stuff with thyme and four of the lemon halves. Place the chicken in the roasting pan, season with salt and pepper, and sprinkle with olive oil.
Roast in the middle of the oven for 1 hour. After an hour, remove the chicken from the oven and increase the heat to 450°F. When this temperature is reached, return the chicken to the oven and roast until golden and crisp. [NOTE: This may take more than 30 minutes, depending on the size of your bird]. The chicken is cooked when a fork inserted into the thigh releases clear juices [or the internal temperature of the bird reaches 165°F.].
Remove the chicken from the oven and let it rest for 10 minutes. Remove the lemon halves from the cavity.
Slice up the chicken to serve. Squeeze the juice of the uncooked, remaining lemon over the chicken and sprinkle with chopped parsley.
Transfer the onion, garlic, and liquid from the roasting pan to a sauté pan and bring to a boil. Add half a cup of water to the pan, mix well, and return to a boil. Strain and serve the liquid as a gravy with the chicken.
One of Three money saving recipes that will help you stretch your dollar!
Nowadays, most people’s budgets don’t have much room for the extras, especially big luxury items. If you have things in your life that you want to save your pennies for–a new car, a big piece of furniture, a trip to a food blogging conference, or even fattening up your savings account–stretching your dollars in the kitchen is important. Since eating out seems like an impossible indulgence with your hard earned bucks, you need to get crafty with the way you approach your daily costs.
Being frugal doesn’t mean you have to stop enjoying yourself in the kitchen. As a matter of fact, I look at budgetary limitations as a formalized culinary challenge. I pretend I’m a participant on Iron Chef with the featured ingredient of NO MONEY! and see just how far I can stretch my menu with basic pantry items. I’ve found what works best for my budget menu planning is to keep two things in mind: 1) cook meals that can be eaten at any time of the day and 2) use simple pantry items as the base ingredients for dishes. When I cook a meal that can double as breakfast, lunch, or dinner, less time is spent in the kitchen and more time can be spent doing the things that need to get done.
Thanks to the great people at Foodbuzz.com, I’ve been given the opportunity to share with you a handful of easy recipes in this month’s Foodbuzz 24×24. My goal: help you save money so you can afford to do the things you want to do–like attend this year’s Food Buzz Conference in San Francisco. What’s even better, these three recipes make perfect road trip or airplane snacks so you can save your dollars at the airport when you’re flying (to San Francisco).
Homemade granola
Oats
Oats are a perfect inexpensive pantry item that can double as a main ingredient for several meals during the day. Oatmeal for breakfast, granola for a midday snack, or even as the crumble for a dessert fruit crisp.
This granola recipe is an equally tasty but less expensive version of a previous granola I posted on this site several months ago. This is my favorite version of this recipe because it costs less and leaves me room to spend money elsewhere. I eat this granola dry, as a snack, and sprinkle a handful over Athena’s Greek Yogurt for a decadent breakfast, lunch or dinner. Oh, and the granola is great over ice cream, too!
Chef’s tip: Use the left over oats to make oatmeal for breakfast the rest of the week.
1 cup whole cane sugar (I used Trader Joe’s organic evaporated cane sugar)
3 oz organic maple syrup
3 oz organic agave syrup
4 cups rolled oats
1 ½ cups coconut, unsweetened
1 cup dried apricots, chopped
1/2 cup dried cranberries (or other dried fruit)
Optional: generous pinch of salt
Preheat your oven to 350º. Adjust the top rack to the middle of the oven. Whisk sugar, syrups, and a pinch of salt in a small saucepan over medium heat until almost smooth. In a large bowl pour syrup over the oats and coconut*. Stir gently with a wood spoon until it is completely mixed throughout. Pour mixture onto a sheet tray covered with parchment paper. Bake in the oven for twenty minutes, or until almost golden. Remove from oven. Let cool. Add dried fruit after you break up the granola into loose bits and large pieces. Enjoy immediately or store for later use.
Can be stored in an air-tight container for several weeks.
*if you don’t want your granola to be too sweet use less of the sugar/syrup mixture.
Potato and Egg Frittata aka Spanish Tortilla
Eggs
I don’t know if you’ll agree with me on this, but having breakfast for dinner is just downright fun. So when I asked Adam C. Pearson, my rock star food stylist friend, what kind of egg dish he would recommend I make for this budget post, he suggested I make a Spanish Tortilla. Turns out this dish–which took some explaining for me to understand that a Spanish Tortilla is basically an egg and potato frittata that’s served room temperature and sliced like a pie–is a perfect any time meal. This simple dish is a perfect thing to slice up, drop into a zip-lock bag and take to the office (or to the airport).
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Potato and Egg Frittata aka Spanish Tortilla
Contrary to the sound of it, a Spanish Tortilla doesn’t actually have any tortillas in it whatsoever–just eggs, potato and any other tasty ingredients you care to add.
6 medium potatoes, diced
1 large onions, thinly sliced
*1/4 cup diced ham (or 2 slices of thickly cut bacon, diced)
1/4 cup milk
8 eggs
Salt and Pepper to taste
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
Directions
In a large bowl, mix the potatoes and onions with a pinch of salt. Heat 2 tablespoons of butter in a large non-stick frying pan. Fry the potatoes and onions on low heat. Cover with a lid for 5-10 minutes to let them soften. Turn up the heat for another 5 minutes, or until golden brown. Remove from the stove.
Meanwhile, break the eggs into a medium bowl. Add a pinch of salt and milk. Whisk until frothy. Add the potatoes and onion mixture to the eggs and mix well. Using a clean frying pan, heat the oil on a high heat. Pour in the egg mixture, move it around in the pan to help the eggs to rise. Fry until the bottom begins to brown. Being careful not to burn yourself, place a large plate over the top of the sauté pan so that you can flip the frittata. Slide the uncooked side back into the pan to cook the entire tortilla for another minute or two. Turn off the heat and let set in the pan for a few minutes. Serve sliced with green salad.
Chef’s tip: The extra 2 eggs can be used with a previous scheduled meal. Add a fried egg to a pizza, a hamburger, or a bowl of fried rice and suddenly you’re eating a luxury meal. Drop an egg into a bowl of simple chicken stock and you’re eating like an Italian Grandma.
*This dish is simply wonderful without the pork, but it certainly gives this dish plenty of great flavor. If you can’t find an affordable ham steak at your butcher’s counter, you can substitute the ham with diced bacon, which can be cut to order into two thick slices (so you don’t have to buy an entire package of sliced bacon) and kept at a reasonable cost.
Butter Lettuce and Turkey Sausage Pasta
Pasta
Pasta is one of the main bargain meal staples in most homes. No matter what you’re upbringing, you probably have a pretty good idea how inexpensive pasta can be when creating a satisfying meal. You don’t need to resort to jarred sauces or powdered cheese to create an inexpensive pasta dish, though. As a matter of fact, some of the most delicious pasta dishes can be made with just three ingredients.
This pasta dish’s unique ingredients makes for an exceptional meal that won’t taste like a re-hashed meal or yesterday’s leftovers.
Chef’s Tip: This dish is great warm or served cold. Transform any leftover lettuce you have on hand into a salad.
[print_link] Pasta with Leeks and Turkey Sausage
Modified from a recipe from Martha Stewart
1 box of pasta (shells or twists work best)
1 lb of turkey sausage
3-4 leeks, white and light-green parts only, halved lengthwise, cut into 1/4-inch slices, rinsed well, and drained
1/4 cup dry white wine
2 tablespoons butter
1 head of butter (bibb) lettuce, washed and torn into pieces.
Course salt and Pepper to taste
Grated Parmesan, for serving
*Reserve one cup of pasta water
Directions
Bring to a boil a large pot of salted water for pasta.
Meanwhile, in a large skillet, cook turkey sausage over medium-high heat. Break up the meat with a wooden spoon until browned, about 5 minutes. Add leeks to the skillet and cook until softened, 5 minutes. Add wine and cook, stirring frequently, until mostly evaporated, 2 minutes. Stir in butter and season to taste with salt and pepper.
When pasta water is at a rolling boil, cook pasta according to package instructions. Reserve 1 cup pasta water. Drain pasta and return to pot. Add the sausage and leek mixture. Toss gently to combine. Add the torn lettuce (use no more than 3-4 cups of torn lettuce) to the pasta with enough pasta water to create a “light sauce” that coats the pasta. Toss. Serve with Parmesan on the side.
I hope you’ve found some inspiration and useful advice that can help you use a handful of basic pantry items to stretch your budget, please your palate, and make you feel like you’re not skimping.
Just about everybody loves macaroni and cheese. Kids and adults. Vegetarians and meat lovers. Even gluten free folks and carb-loaders alike crave the instant comfort of the satisfying combination of cheese and pasta.
