simpletruths

Breakfast

 yum - I've been in a cooking mode lately (I even managed to procure some sourdough starter from a friend but more on that later). 

The green tea muffins from a couple weeks ago were amazing - the few I got to eat between Mr. Man and little Mr. 

 

(pre-baking. dim lighting and shadow due to night time cooking and bad kitchen lighting)

Tonight - homemade poptarts (I don't even want to talk about the amount of butter that's in the dough for these.).  I got the inspiration, and the recipe from smitten kitchen.

I made mini versions of the recipe (about 2.5"x3') half cinnamon raisin and half with nutella (mmmmm) Here's how they turned out.

 

yea.....they were pretty delicious

 

These were pretty delicious but since I don't have a food processor or a pastry cutter, the dough is a bit time consuming to prepare.  If I were going to make these as a fun treat I'd probably use pre-made dough.
 

 

next on the list -  chewy granola bars. Summer time is coming and they're such a great packable snack.

It was only 1 Tablespoon

and this is how green the muffins turned out.

Love it.

I just wanted to post another picture of my pretty matcha green tea muffins.
 

Matcha Green Tea muffins + recipe

I've finally done it!

Before I tell you what I've done I must first tell you how I got here.  For a couple of years Trader Joe's carried this yummy green tea muffin mix that I bought 2 and 3 boxes at a time.  It was delicious and they made the perfect snacks - a little something sweet but very uncomplicated. 

Then one day they were gone.  

Gone.

Gone.

From every Trader Joe's in the greater SF Bay Area (yes - I've been to most of them...I really like Trader Joe's).

My green tea muffin love affair morphed into a mission to  make my own green tea muffins.  I steeped tea bags in water 3, 4 and 5 at a time, I steeped them in milk;  I've cut open tea bags, crushed tea leaves.  Every time I ended up with boring, plain muffins.  They were never bad muffins - but very little  green tea flavor actually made it through.

Then, this past weekend I had an afternoon to myself (sans husband and child - woo hoo) and I went to the store.  But not just any store, Berkeley Bowl - West (which will need it's own post after I've more thoroughly vetted the 'new' establishment). For now just know that their bulk foods section is phenomenal.  So much so that I wished I had a need for spelt and tapioca flour just so I could open the bins.

(back to the muffins)

Off in a lonely corner was a large jar of bright green Matcha Green Tea powder - the one thing I'd been missing from all of my attempts at the elusive green tea muffin.  I left the store with about 1/4 cup of bright green powder.  If you look up how expensive Matcha is, you'll understand what I only committed myself to about $2 worth.

Then I came home and made these:

 

(This is also my attempt at using parchment paper as muffin cups - nothing exciting to report about that.  I'm pretty anti-muffin liner in general, they just get in the way.)

I'm still perfecting the recipe but here's the general idea:

• 1 2/3 cu flour (I did 1 cup all purpose and 2/3  whole wheat)
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 TBS Matcha (I'm going to use more next time - I love green tea)
• 1/3 cu sugar + a little bit of agave syrup  (I think I'm going to use brown sugar next time)
• 1 egg
• 1/3 cup melted butter
• 1 cup milk (I used soy)I'm going to add maybe 1/4 cup of walnuts next time

Preheat oven to 350

Mix flours, salt, baking powder, matcha, sugar in med bowl.

Mix egg, butter, milk, and agave in a smaller bowl and then add it to the dry ingredients.

Bake for 20 min. 

Enjoy!!

I'll be making these over the next few weeks with some variations until I've found my perfect muffin. I'm planning on adding a handful or so of walnuts; using brown sugar and/or honey (note - if you replace all of a dry sugar with a wet sugar like honey or agave then you should reduce the amount of milk you use). I'm also going to increase the proportion of whole wheat  to all-purpose flour. Some recipes I looked at used as much as 1 full cup of sugar which would have been way too sweet for me - but you do what works for you.

I'll let you know how they work out.

 

covet

 

fox run retro kitchen timer
 

I know right - how adorable is this kitchen timer?  And it's a fridge magnet so it won't get lost in the depths of the misc kitchen utencils drawer. 

Officially adding it to my birthday wish list. 

 

Dinner

Lamb and chickpea Tagine w/ Couscous

 Surprisingly easy to make.  I found the recipe in a magazine. I'll add a link once I remember which magazine it was.

Suffice it to say that I had the best lunch leftovers in the office for a couple of days :)

While the little one naps...

mexican hot chocolate and lady fingers :)

 

Happy Valentine's Day

 

My attempts at heart shaped pancakes

hmmm

But they tasted GREAT! :)

Have a wonderful Valentine's Day! 
 

The holidays: a reflection in food.

fish marinating

fish sizzling

 

brussels rinsed and ready

 

brussels roasted with garlic and lemon pepper

 

oooh cranberries lemons and a zester - what could that become

 

like my smiley face spoon :)

 

mmmmmm fresh cranberry and lemon scones

 

out of focus (but still delicious) sweet potato gnocchi with sauteed sage, and wilted spinach

 

 

Although these marshmallows are hand made, those hands didn't include anyone in my house.  We did however take much pride and joy in roasting them over our gas burning stovetop. Sitting around a camp fire we were not, but that didn't dampen our enjoyment one bit. 

 

 

not pictured:

Christmas Turkey and Paella

Lavender Infused Honey 

 Anise Infused Vodka

Limoncello (with Ginger)

pecan praline candies

cranberry upside down cake

so much fun, so much food.

 

 

 

 

 

'tis the season

for making peppermint bark

Chocolate from Ghirardelli 

 

 

starting to melt over a pot of hot water

 

mmmm melty

 

Little guy helps mommy smash candy canes 

 

almost done

 

Delicious!

 

Apple recipes?

It's apple season at my dad's house. And, as is the case every year around this time, all visitors are encouraged to have an apple to munch on, no matter how short their stay.  If, for whatever reason, your apple ends up sitting on the kitchen counter, forgotten amidst the riveting conversation, don't fret.  My father will make sure that a couple end up in your purse, pocket or one of the extra shopping bags that always seem handy in these situations. 

This past weekend my dad was coming over to our house to, among other things, drop off a few apples (and I quote) "Not too many, maybe a dozen or so"

I believe the total was actually closer to 16 - keep in mind that our house was not without apples before he arrived.

So I've made an apple tart

 

Yes, the skin is still on the apples.  I don't do this when cooking for others but the skin doesn't bother anyone in this house so I don't bother with the extra step.

I've made apple bread

 

it ended up being a bit on the dry side, especially considering I put 2 1/2 chopped up apples in it.

We also had a bunch of pears sitting around, though it was in no way the fault of my father, so I also made red wine poached pears. Sorry no pictures of the pears, but I can tell you that they were delicious!

After all of that we still have about a dozen apples crowding out all of the other fruit in what used to be the fruit bowl, but has now become the fruit table; plus a couple of apples I have at my desk at work. And so I ask of you - send me your apple recipies.

You should know that I'm not going to make apple butter, no matter how brilliant and simple your recipe may be. I love apple butter, it's delicious, but this is not the year for me to decide to take up canning.  Additionally, I make a pretty rockstar apple pie (remember, I grew up with an apple tree in the backyard) so don't get any ideas about passing along some run-of-the-mill apple pie recipie.

With the ground rules set, let the recipie sharing begin; these are perishaible items we're talking about so let's not dilly dally.

I Like Orange

Each month my mom and I go to the Alameda Antiques Fair.  Sometimes we find something, sometimes we don't.  This past Sunday I got lucky and found these

 

I got the set, plus three cards of awesome buttons for $20.  yup, $20!

For those of you unfamiliar with the Alameda Antiques Fair, it is not a place to go looking for bargains of the flea market variety. For a while I was also looking for a kid-sized table for the little one.  I found what I thought was a perfect table.  1940's style diner-type table in miniature. Similar to this but much smaller and orange with 2 chairs):

 

well, it was going for $250 but "I would usually sell it for $350 but with the economy..." ummm ok and I'll keep walking. 

Maybe for a collector that's a steal, but I'm looking for a kids table - to be used by a kid. I'm thinking crayons, finger paints and playdoh - this is why people shop at ikea.  I think I'll just go the route of my friend Alex with an inexpensive table and some cool vinyl covered paper; all for about $50.

$250.00 is just crazytalk

Back to my awesome orange canisters.  

They have been cleaned out and one is now...

 

the cookie jar. Complete with oatmeal banana chocolate chip cookies - delicious!

Basil

So we get a box of produce delivered every on Friday through Farm Fresh to You.  I love it - especially since there are weekends when we just don't have the time to do a full farmers market produce trip.  Now, what I usually do is take a look online and see what is going to be in the box for the upcoming week.  I didn't do that this week and subsequently ended up with a lot of basil. A LOT of basil.  Mr. Man bought a pack at Trader Joe's for some "sandwich extraordinaire" he was planning, and then a big bunch of purple basil arrived in our box.

All of this basil - and the sandwich only used about 3 leaves total. hmmm. I'm not sure what you do when you have more basil that you can use before it goes bad, but I now have frozen basil, dried basil, and pasta sauce galore - because we also had about 8 heirloom tomatoes waiting patiently to be used in something. :)

I've heard you can just toss the basil into a ziplock and freeze away but its more fun to freeze them sliced up and ready to go in ice cubes like this:

and then once they're frozen solid, pop them into a bag like this:

And even though I used the purple basil in the photo below, I really used the green in the actual sauce. I think green basil holds up better in pasta sauce flavor-wise...but our green basil was looking a little wilted and sad so it didn't get to be in the picture.

 

basil, mushrooms heirloom tomatoes, onion, sweet peppers and carrots  becomes sauce

 

Vegetables are yummy

So, I like spinach. I pretty much always have. 

I would have to give credit to both Popeye and my mom for my childhood spinach enjoyment.  My mom really did a good job of making most veggies a regular part of everyday food eating, as they should be; It wasn't until MUCH later in life that I found out that all lasagna wasn't made with spinach...I KNOW!   All-in-all, I like veggies -

except in the case of lima beans - there's just no redeeming value to the lima bean...icky.

Luckily, I'm a grownup now so I don't have to eat lima beans if I don't want to.

My little guy seems to have quite the sweet tooth so, in my attempts to foster his savory side I've been making these by the sheet full:

delicious looking right?

These are spinach, cheese, breadcrumbs, egg yolk, garlic powder and thyme.  I've made variations with broccoli and I have a few asparagus I might experiment with this weekend.  Most recently I've made some with spinach and ground chicken. They freeze wonderfully, they travel well, they satisfy my little guy's desire to feed himself, my desire to introduce new flavors to him...and our apparent mutual dislike for most things pureed.

broccoli

So right now these are my favorite 'baby food' but I'm not sure what the next step is. He loves freeze dried fruit - he occasionally has texture issues and doesn't want to touch anything mushy, but with a couple of packs of freeze dried bananas, blueberries or strawberries on hand we're good to go. He also like sweet potatoes, potatoes and eggplant (sometimes).  He liked grapes a couple of weeks ago but apparently he's on the 'outs' with grapes right now.

Meanwhile, this is what the Mr. and I ate for dinner. Yup, another pizza. We like to make pizza. It's easy, it's also the most delicious way to eat bunch of veggies sitting on some bread.

Weekend FOs in Pictures

A late birthday present:

 

Another birthday present:

 

packaged with a pretty blue flower:

A "just because" present for my sister:  

But it looks so nice in my ear. I might have to make another pair

AND Cherry Clafouti. I combined a couple different recipes but the inspiration came from my friend over at Ransacked Goods

Tiny breakfast

 

mango, egg yolk, oatmeal with cinnamon

Homemade yumminess

I ran into a friend of mine on my/our way to work this morning (we work in the same building). 

Now, when I say I ran into her, I really mean that I breezed past here in my commute - must get to Starbucks- stupor; I typically work from home on Fridays so I was a bit out of sorts. Anyway, Alex (the a mentioned friend), pulls out this adorable jar of goodness from what must be a magical purse and said that is was for me:

That's right, homemade lemon-ginger marmalade, for me.  On a day that I don't even usually come to work. Right before day-two of meetings. From someone who probably doesn't know that lemon and ginger are two of my favorite things.

Thank you Alex, for my little jar of delicious, lemony sunshine.

 

What's for dinner?

 

carmelized onion, wilted chard, and goat cheese on garlic flat bread

Quite possibly, the most amazing dinner, ever.

This dinner which was amazing for two reasons.  (1) The stars were aligned and we both got to sit down and eat it together, at the same time…while it was still hot! (2) It had the kind of flavor that makes you simultaneously speechless and  intent on finding a word that describes the wonderfulness of said pleasurable experience.

Here it is:

Oh, no, it’s not JUST a sandwich.  It’s a combination of the Portobello Sandwich…. From the Everyday Greens cookbook (http://www.greensrestaurant.com/bg-everyday.html), the goat cheese spread from G.Garvin’s book (http://www.chefgarvin.com/home.php?module=store&id=18) plus a little in kitchen creativity – and voila !!!

Specifics:

Sourdough bun sliced, brushed with olive oil and broiled until toasty; a spread made of Goat cheese mixed with pepper, garlic, shallot and parsley, and thinned out with a little olive oil; sliced red onion and avocado.

Two Portobello mushrooms brushed with olive oil, and seasoned with garlic, salt and pepper then baked for about 15min.  Sliced and tossed into a some balsamic I’d reduced while chopping apples for our breakfast tart. Turkey burger patty with Parmesan (from Trader Joe's)

And who needs French fries when you can slice up a sweet red bell pepper and toss them on the side.  

Lettuce from our farm fresh to you box

 

 

 

Deliciousness

 

Domestic Routines

    The beginning of the week is so full of possibilities.  Ambitious lists are made, procrastination is sworn off yet again. Laundry is done (usually on Sundays – Sorry Mrs. Collins) . Above all else, the week’s meals are more or less planned and grocery shopping is done – never on an empty stomach which only leads to disaster of the “why do we have 4 different kinds of frozen pizza in this bag?”  type.

O and I didn’t always plan out the menus for the week. Before we had the Little Bean we would pick one or two involved meals from our ever expanding shelf of cookbooks, to cook together – not caring if it wasn’t ready until 9 or 10 o’clock; the preparation was just as fun as the consumption. Now that we have our little guy to contend with, there are several things that have changed our approach to meal preparation

• Time – or lack there of.  With the current teething situation, Little Bean might wake up after only a couple of hours after he goes do sleep at 7:30, efficiency is key.

• Noise – the kitchen and bedroom share a wall so late night clanking of dishes and pots and pans is not welcome.

• Tag team – that’s how we cook now instead of together.  I’ll cut this while you run the bath water; you start the pasta while I put his PJs on; the timer is set for 15 minutes but stir it a few times so it doesn’t stick while I do story time…and so it goes, until baby is sleep and dinner is ready.

All of this because, baby or not, we still love to cook.  But we don't cook every night - hello leftovers - they make lunch the next day (and dinner) much easier.

So, what’s on this week’s menu?

Breakfast: Ginger pumpkin muffins (with crystallized ginger); hard boiled eggs

Dinners: sake sea bass w/ wilted greens and rice; curry sweet potato and butternut squash stew; Cannelloni beans w/ chicken andouille sausage and veggies

Other: marinated vegetable salad

In the spirit of full disclosure, I should say that I made two batches of muffin this week - one breakfast muffin with crystallized ginger pieces and raisins, and one dessert muffin with walnuts and simi-sweet chocolate chipsdelicious. I’ve also been toying with reducing the amount of sugar in the recipes of my baked goods.  You can barely tell the difference, and I don’t feel as bad having a muffin for breakfast when I know it’s not entirely sugar laden – I save that for things like cookies and brownies.

Last night was first time since the Little Bean arrived 6 months ago that my muffins haven’t been overcooked (yay me)

The hard boiled eggs are just for me, they're easy to take to work,  O doesn’t like hard boiled eggs so he’ll just have to do with muffins until I decide to make frittatas again.