valentine's day with family and friends (buenos aires 2.2)

The best part about these photos isn't the food.. It's the fact that we're wearing summer clothes... in February! My cousin from California and her friends happened to be in Buenos Aires during my trip. It was awesome to meet up with them there, and to be surrounded by so much love on valentine's day.

a dancer's asado (buenos aires 2.1)

All the nights of dancing didn't do much for my figure in Buenos Aires... When it came to an asado, I didn't hold back.

This particular night, we enjoyed four different salads, roasted red bell peppers, steak ribs, another cut of meat that I forget the name of, and chicken. (and cheese and eggs and wine.. for everyone else)

salad 1. cherry tomatoes and pesto
salad 2. shredded carrots, hearts of palm, lemon, oil, and salt
salad 3. arugula, oil, and salt
salad 4. lettuce, onions, oil, lemon, and salt

Can't tell you what he did with the meat, but oh my god.. I wish I could.

shoot. it's been a while. my favorite juice.

So the last time I posted something new, I was getting ready to go back to Buenos Aires. Hope you weren't expecting me to keep up the blog while I was enjoying some summer weather in February :)

I've also been cooking a lot of my older recipes, so I don't have as much new material for the blog. But I have a file full of pictures, and I'm going to start chipping away at them... I just hope I can remember the recipes :)

Ready? Here we go.
I got a juicer, as a gift.. thank you (you know who you are).

The juicer is perfect for when I go out of town because I can juice all the produce left in my fridge and not let anything go to waste. I've been going out of town a lot.. so the little juicer has proved it's worth already.
When I'm not making random I'm-leaving-town juices, I like to make a version of Main Squeeze's "ginger tonic."

Celery
Apple
Lemon
Ginger
Carrot

I'm not going to put amounts, because I change it up depending on my mood. Don't be afraid. There's no wrong way. :)

Sometimes I add other things.. like kale, parsley, beets, oranges, or pineapple. Anything goes...

this is what's up

truffles.
equal parts:
-honey (or agave)
-almond/peanut butter
-cocoa powder

ok, a little extra cocoa powder.
put mix in fridge. then, after some time, roll.
in: coconut, hemp seeds, sesame seeds, walnuts, and cacao nibs

keep in fridge. devour.

restaurant review - urban solace. and my visit to san diego

1. I got the quinoa burger at Urban Solace in San Diego. No bun, cheese, or fries of course.. so I got sautéed mushrooms, half of an avocado, and a side of greens instead. That's how I usually replace everything on the menu. It's getting easier! Anyway, it was delicious, and I'd recommend that beautiful restaurant to anyone :)

2. What was I doing in San Diego? Visiting my cousin! And, I decided.. that I like it there.

3. For dinner later that night, we made:
- Roasted butternut squash: oven! 350. Cut squash into pieces, top generously with cinnamon and honey. 45 mintues.
-Monkfish: oven! 350. cubed. marinated in lemon juice and olive oil. sprinkled with red pepper and other spicy things. 20 minutes.
-Roasted veggies: oven! 350. Brussels sprouts, zucchini, mushrooms, and onion. Tossed in evoo, with salt, pepper, and herbs. 45 minutes.

4. Taking the Pacific Surfliner Amtrak back to LA. A beautiful, beautiful train ride.

'twas a sweet, rare day of leftovers

I was in LA for the holidays, and my siblings were in town too (this is rare). The three of us were at home (also rare) so I whipped up a little lunch. And we all ate the same thing (rare) together, in a row on the couch.

We had some leftover cedar smoked salmon on a bed of lettuce with leftover some brown rice and sautéed onions. :) Yum.

more pumpkin oatmeal cookies

I think I made 6 batches of these cookies in the two weeks over the holidays. Everyone loved them. They look different from the very first batch I made, because I didn't grind the oats into a fine powder in my coffee grinder. Instead I just chopped them up in a food processor.. and they turned out much better.

hello? am i still there? yep.

Sorry for the lack of posts, so prepare for a little flood here. Lately, I've been traveling, and cooking a lot of dishes that I've already posted. And, I don't feel the same pride after "creating" a "new" dish, that I used to. Now, it's just cooking. It's still fun and delicious, of course, but it's become... normal. Nothing to "blog" about.

So what, I take whatever is fresh and in season, and I use some olive oil or schmaltz, heat it up in my iron skillet, sauté the veggies with a little salt and whichever spices I feel like, and maybe I add a little homemade broth to steam them too. Big deal.

BIG DEAL? It's delicious. And when I look back, not even a whole two years ago, it's such a huge change in my life, that it deserves some recognition. I'm patting myself on the back, publicly. I know :) Thanks for reading my blog. Hope it's been as enjoyable for you to read as it has been for me to create.


Photo: Sautéed maitake mushroom, onion, and spinach.

pumpkin oatmeal cookies

I made Ali and Tom's (Whole Life Nutrition Kitchen's) pumpkin oatmeal cookies for a dinner party I had. Pretty sure I ate way more than my fair share.. They were amazingly soft, and spiced so deliciously :)

I followed their recipe exactly.. And I'm feeling lazy tonight, so I'll quote:

"Use canned pumpkin, baked pie pumpkins or other winter squash. You may need to add extra flour if your baked pumpkin is very moist. I used coconut oil in all four batches I made but I imagine that unsalted butter would work too ~ of course they wouldn't be vegan then! Make sure all of your ingredients are at room temp before mixing. Your coconut oil will be soft enough for this if your house is in the mid 60's (Fahrenheit). Do not melt your coconut oil or use another liquid oil."

Yield: 2 dozen cookies

1 cup softened virgin coconut oil (or unsalted butter)

1 cup pumpkin puree

1 1/2 cups coconut sugar, maple sugar, or brown sugar

1/4 cup ground flax seeds

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

3 cups oat flour

1 cup rolled oats

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 teaspoon sea salt

3 to 4 teaspoons cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

In a large bowl beat together, using an electric mixer, the coconut oil, pumpkin, sugar, flax seeds, and vanilla extract. Add the remaining ingredients and beat together again.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. While your oven is preheating let your cookie dough rest on the counter for 20 minutes. The oat flour will absorb some of the liquid during this time which helps the cookies hold their shape.

Drop by the spoonful onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes or until slightly golden around the edges. Remove cookies and place them onto a wire rack to cool. Cookies are best after they have cooled."
Source: www.NourishingMeals.com

rice and lentil soup: yummy meet frugal

Photo 1: Deborah Madison's Lentil Soup with cumin, cilantro, and chard. Just as I made it before.. straight from her cookbook. But this time, I used chard instead of kale. It was delicious.

Photo 2: I can make this soup last longer, I thought. (I'm going through an intense frugal period in life. Only spending money on traveling.. if I can help it. And at this rate - it looks as though I will travel until there is none left. Time is more difficult to get than money, I think.)
Anyway! I added chicken broth and rice to the soup.. and it was quite delicious. The taste kind of reminded me of stuffed grape leaves. Probably because of the lemon juice.

grilled veggies and swordfish

I've been in St Louis just about every weekend that I'm in Missouri.. for? Tango dancing, of course. But I don't drive 4 hours just to dance.. I also get to make yummy dinners with my friend Kelly :) Here was our meal a couple weeks ago. Marinated and grilled swordfish kabobs, grilled mushroom kabobs, and foil wrapped grilled asparagus.

I know I've posted about grilled swordfish before - but now you don't have to search for the old post.

1 swordfish steak per person, cut into cubes
Marinated in white wine with honey. We didn't measure out the marinade.. but as long as the cuts of fish are covered.. you should be fine. For a sweeter meal, add more honey... for less sweetness.. you know what to do.

Wipe (not wash) with a damp cloth, the mushrooms clean. Then toss in a bowl with olive oil, salt, pepper, and.. that's it. Put on kabobs and grill.

We prepared the asparagus in the same way - evoo, salt, pepper.. and wrapped them in a foil pouch.

The veggies need more time than the fish.. so in the meanwhile, set the table because grilling doesn't take too long!

restaurant review - bleu

I don't really have restaurant reviews for my town in Missouri. Guess I should start! Here are a couple photos from Bleu. I think some of their meat and produce is locally grown.. but the place isn't what I would call an organic-y restaurant. It's just a nice restaurant. There aren't many things I can order there.. but I succeeded with with side of sautéed brussel sprouts (san the bacon) and their signature fish tacos (san the grilled taco and the crème fraiche). Pan-seared cod, spicy Asian slaw, avocado puree, mango relish and honey chili sauce. Yum!!

massive purple cauliflower

Just look at the size of that thing! I ate purple cauliflower for a couple weeks...

Puréed into soup.

Sautéed in soup. (This soup is made of sautéed leeks, carrots, maitake mushrooms, cauliflower, and kale in a mixture of lovingly vegetable broth and chicken broth)

Simply sautéed with fresh maitake mushrooms and leeks, with a drizzle of truffle oil on top.

restaurant review - M cafe

I taste tested M Cafe on my last night in Hollywood, CA. (This was in early November.. I'll probably be back in LA before I finish catching up with old photos!) The food was.. good. Maybe I didn't choose the food they make - or maybe my taste buds are getting more and more demanding. They serve "Contemporary Macrobiotic Cuisine" so I was pretty much able to choose anything on the menu. None of the dishes contain any refined sugars, eggs, dairy, red meat or poultry. There were also many many gluten free choices.. my favorite being dessert. It's not often I get to order dessert at a restaurant (but this was more like a deli..) Anyway.. They sell Babycakes NYC's desserts there. It was my first time trying any of their sweets.. and unfortunately there is no photo of the smile on my face. It was big.

bs as inspired salad and my aunt's kitchen

Just days after returning from the southern hemisphere.. I was in a nostalgic mood, and concocted this salad with my aunt Allie. One thing I found interesting was, in Argentina, carrots were almost always eaten in the grated form, and usually in a salad. They were always very finely grated there.. and it makes me want to get a special blade for my food processor.

Here's what we threw together:
We had no hearts of palm, but we had artichoke hearts.. and quartered them
Grated carrots
Random salad mix from the fridge, which included celery and little broccoli trees
Sprouts of some kind
And an avocado that was too mushy to cut, so we each got a half to spoon ourselves.
Dressing: Olive oil, lemon juice, vinegar, and a pinch of salt

My aunt's kitchen is a fun place.. later that night I got to help as she made some salve for her organic and super healing skin care line, madre tierra. It's still in the works - as far as getting products on shelves in different shops - but if you're interested in ordering things from her, just contact her through the website :)

restaurant review - cru

Back in LA.. I visited Juicy Ladies in Woodland Hills and got a piece of truffle cake that lasted me 4 days. Ok 3 days. Ok.. 2 1/2 days. All girls exaggerate.

This amazing treat made by Cru contains: organic raw cocoa powder, organic raw agave nectar, organic raw coconut butter, organic raw almonds, organic spices, and Celtic sea salt.

Sorry it's not a full restaurant review - I didn't actually get to go to the restaurant. Maybe next time I'm in LA.. I'll try anyway. Not much left to say... Was it as good as it looks? Yup.

soup and tango

I made a version of this lentil beet soup in Argentina. If I can remember, I think I added an extra beet or two, I used different colored lentils.. leftover style, and I topped it with fresh basil instead of cilantro. Both are on the sweeter side of herbs.. and as long as the herbs are fresh - the soup works :)

La Glorieta, pictured second, is a place I loved to dance. In the middle of the park, open on all sides, beautiful weather.. ah.. I miss it.

picture book. san telmo and a picnic

San Telmo..

Antique shops galor
Vendors drinking mate and playing chess
Beautiful old buildings
More art painted on walls

A census day picnic :) Life isn't so bad when everything is closed.