Something of an obsession...

First of all, I hope I am not annoying you all with the ever-changing look of this blog.  I am super picky when it comes to graphic design and always have a hard time settling on something final.  Plus, I am working within the limitations of Blogger and struggling :)  I kind of like this new layout though, hopefully you all do too!  Let me know.

Anyway, onward and upward!  Lately I have been reading all of the food blogs I can get my hands on (which is one reason I had the urge to remodel the blog).  There is a whole world of food blogging that I have recently been exposed to that I had NO idea existed.  I mean, there are competitions for Best Food Blog, and on top of that there several categories within this competition, such as Best Food Photography (love!), Best Original Recipes, Best Cocktail Blog, the list goes on and on.  Needless to say, when I discovered this new world I was stoked!  And motivated!

There is something about the beautiful pictures and creative recipes that has me hooked.  It is such a fun new hobby, and I have been using any excuse to cook all of the worthwhile recipes I come across.  Which is a LOT.  I have noticed, however, that I have started gravitating to one blog in particular:  Smitten Kitchen.  While I love a nice, sophisticated food blog, some of the recipes can be a bit too pretentious for my taste (pun intended), calling for all sorts of fancy (fancy=expensive) ingredients.  And sadly, I don't have half of the fancy utensils needed to mix, beat, knead, stone bake, etc.

I am pleased to discover that this gal at Smitten Kitchen feels the same way I do.  She realizes we can't all be Julia Child all the time - we need simplicity, we need shortcuts, but we also need great food.

So, this weekend I made a gluten free version of her Smashed Egg on Toast recipe (it was gluten free on accident because we had rice instead of toast).  Now I want to smash eggs on everything!  This recipe was a great weekend breakfast change-up.  We had all of the ingredients it called for, but would never have thought to put them together for breakfast.  This might become a go-to breakfast, it was that good, and that easy.

Hefty handful of spinach

1 small pat of butter

1tsp Dijon mustard

1tbsp Shallots, finely chopped (I substituted minced yellow onion)

3/4 cup Rice and/or toasted bread

1tbsp Heavy cream

Goat cheese (feta works too).  It would be wrong for me to tell you how much to use.

1 egg (I won't judge you if you make 2 or 3 or 4)

Salt & pepper to taste

Place rice or toast on plate, smear with dijon mustard.   In a pan, melt butter and saute shallots until translucent.  Add spinach and cook until wilted.  Add cream and stir until incorporated.  Pour this mixture over the rice/bread. 

Add water to a pot or saucepan, enough to cover the egg(s).  Boil, gently place egg in boiling water.  Watch the egg closely.  At about 6min (I go to 7min if I am cooking more than one egg) is when the egg should be soft-boiled.  To peel the egg, run under cold water and peel carefully.  Place egg on top of spinach, dust with salt, pepper and your favorite cheese and smash away!!

Simple Pleasures | Buttermilk Biscuits

It could have been the fact that we just finished the cleanse and were ravenously eyeing all solids foods, or it could have been that I haven't had biscuits in probably 10 years (and the ones I remember were always the in-a-can Pillsbury version), but damn, this recipe caught my eye and I had to make it!

I have always enjoyed a good drop biscuit, but growing up, we would always eat store bought biscuits with gravy for dinner.  Think bacon gravy and hamburger gravy (all my grandmother's recipes).  And while it was soo delicious, it was also so heavy, and that's probably why I haven't thought to make them since being "on-my-own."

But when I saw this recipe I suddenly thought of all the possibilities a biscuit provides - sweet & savory; breakfast & dinner;  sandwiches or solo - the list goes on.  I immediately wanted to make a cheesy, garlicky biscuit.  So, I did just that.  The next time we had friends over for dinner and I made a feta scallion biscuit.  And it was good :)  But I still didn't feel like I was doing the biscuit justice.  So, on Easter Sunday I made Denny and I brunch and made plain biscuits, to eat with butter and jam, and then gave a savory biscuit another go, this time it was rosemary basil and parmesan.  I also made some scrambled eggs with veggies.

The savory biscuits were still good, but when I tried a plain one, with butter and jam, I about died.  I had to stop myself from eating them all, and I can't say I did a good job.  By the time I "stopped" myself I had eaten 4 of them (!) and shoved my plate of eggs towards Denny for him to finish.  I finally felt satisfied :)  Try them, and I guarantee you will love them!

2 1/4 cups (280 grams) all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons to 1 1/2 tablespoons (10 to 20 grams) sugar (to taste, see note above)

1 tablespoon (15 grams) baking powder

3/4 teaspoon (5 grams) table salt

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

9 tablespoons (125 grams) chilled unsalted butter, cut into small chunks

3/4 cup (175 ml) buttermilk

Preheat oven to 400 °F and cover baking sheet with parchment paper. Whisk flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and baking soda in large, wide bowl. Using fingertips or a pastry blender (I used a regular blender), work butter into dry ingredients until the mixture resembles a coarse meal, Add buttermilk and stir until large, craggy clumps form. Reach hands into bowl and knead mixture briefly until it just holds together.  Drop onto a nonstick cookie sheet or roll out (to 1/2" - 3/4" thick) and use a round cookie cutter (or glass) to make "neater" biscuits.

(recipe at Smitten Kitchen)

Juice Cleanse

Yum!

Last week Denny, Jackie, and I decided to do a juice cleanse.  If you are like most people, you are wondering why we would EVER do this to ourselves!  Well, I can't speak for the whole group, but lately I have been feeling kinda... blah.  Headaches, fatigue, dizziness, grumpiness, and a figure that is becoming gradually more unflattering by the day.  Not to mention, I have this new intolerance to dairy - weird!  Milk is an absolute no-no for me these days, but somehow I do okay with yogurt and cheese - I'm not sure I understand it.

Over time, I have become a believer that you are what you eat - as in, what we put in our bodies has a direct correlation to the way we look and feel.  That being said, I also just LOVE food - pretty much all of it.  And I have a slight issue with self-control.  So, it was no mystery as to why I have been feeling this way - I have been eating poorly (a lot of take-out),  not exercising as much, and depending more and more on coffee to get me through the day.  (Not even in grad school did I drink coffee as regularly as I do now) I know that my body does not do well with coffee.  It actually makes me more tired and run-down.  But, dammit, I love the taste!

At any rate, I had been wanting (and now needing) to reset my body for a while, but looking at all the different cleanses out there will overwhelm just about anyone.  How do you know who to trust?  How do you know what you need?  Why is this so expensive?  I spoke with a friend who just finished the Blueprint Cleanse, and figured that if I knew someone who did it, and liked it then maybe that's the easiest way to go.

The cleanse is written by two nutritionists, Zoe Sakoutis and Erica Huss.  In an attempt to free your body of toxic build-up and give your digestive system a break, they developed the Blueprint Cleanse.  By ridding your diet of meat, dairy and all processed sugar (as well as juicing and blending your food), your body will be able to detoxify instead of trying to process all of the, well, processed foods your are constantly ingesting.

Below is a day by day account of what we were eating/drinking and how we fared physically, mentally and emotionally in the process.  In the end, did it work?  I think that is a big YES for all 3 of us.  Denny and myself want to do this on a semi-regular basis and even make some of the juices for breakfast to mix with our normal diet :)

Day 1 | Pre-Cleanse

the food: 

-2 bananas

-granola bar

-veggies tacos w/ guacamole

-asian cold noodles with spicy almond dressing (substituted almond butter with tahini)

the feeling: 

Feeling more hungry than usual and struggling a bit with blood sugar levels (probably because I stopped drinking coffee!)  But very satisfied by dinner.  The noodles were AMAZING and I would eat them on a regular basis.

Day 2 | Pre-Cleanse

the food:

-as much fruit as you want (all the same kind)

-cream of broccoli soup (made with cashews instead of dairy/cream)

-spicy edamame hummus w/ veggies.

-roasted fennel, beets, and sweet potato

the feeling: 

I had to keep reminding myself that I cannot snack whenever I want to.  Fortunately, this part of the diet does allow some homemade snacks, like hummus.  The hummus was so-so and I stuck to the carrots alone.

Day 3 | Pre-Cleanse

the food:

-watermelon

-we kept eating the hummus as a snack

-gazpacho soup (sooo good)

-grapefruit avocado salad with tarragon vinaigrette (this dressing was so good that I continue to make it)

the feeling: 

We all agree to feel lighter, and "good" overall today.  The hummus tasted so much better today, probably because of the increasingly lighter diet over the last 3 days.   I became pleasantly surprised by celery's ability to curb my hunger, when it never really has before.

Grapefruit Avocado Salad

Day 1  |  Cleanse

the juice:

-greens w/ apple

-pineapple mint

-spinach/blueberry/apple/lemon

-watermelon smoothie

-greens w/ apple

-cashew milk

Greens w/ Apple

the feeling: 

Thank goodness we are doing this over a weekend, when we are basically snowed in, because the juicing part of this cleanse is a LOT of work.  With 6 juices/day, we don't feel famished, but there is a longing for solid food!  Feeling a little low on energy, Jackie and I dipped into one of the 'cheater' foods - 1/4 of an avocado.  It tasted amazing :)  Overall, though, I have to say that we never felt famished because we are drinking juices 6x's/day!

My new best friend :)

Day 2  |  Cleanse

the juice:

-greens w/ apple

-pineapple mint

-greens w/ apple & ginger

-watermelon smoothie

-greens w/ apple

-cashew milk

Pineapple Mint Smoothie

the feeling: 

The craving for solid food is starting to go away and we are definitely feeling lighter and can notice the bloating in our bellies going down!  The pros are out-weighing the cons :)

Day 3  |  Cleanse

the juice:

-greens w/ apple

-pineapple mint

-spinach/blueberry/apple/lemon

-watermelon smoothie

-greens w/ apple

-cashew milk

the feeling: 

I went to work today and felt great.  I could function and think clearly and never felt like I was starving.  That is, until the catered work event we had later that night.  But as I gabbed with my co-workers, I was able to distract myself from all of the food that was around me.  I also told myself that I didn't NEED any of that food and that helped!  The hardest part about this day was finding time to make the juices for both Denny and myself while working 8a-5p.  The juices only last about 3 hours before they start to oxidize and turn brown, so making them ahead of time is nearly impossible.  Fortunately, I can come home from work during lunch, but most people can't.  So what then?  Bring your juicer to work???  This alone, the amount of time needed to prep and make your juices, is probably the main reason that many people don't cleanse!  Well, that and the cost :-/

We each spent about $100 for just the cleanse portion (3 days).  The pre-cleanse was about $27/person for 3 days.

The damage :(

5280 Restaurant Week

5280 Restaurant Week just came to an end.  Sigh.  Sad face. Rofc (rolling on the floor crying, duh).  But, seriously, I've always enjoyed this time of year.  Restaurant Week gives you something to look forward to during that time when all of the holidays have come and gone, and it is still too cold out to know what to do with yourself.

For those who aren't from Denver, or who are from Denver and have never heard of 5280 Week (shame on you!), it is a glorious time when the finest restaurants in the metro area introduce a menu with anywhere from 3 to 5 courses for only $52.80 per couple.  If you're like me, and aren't exposed to a regular diet of filet mignon and fine dining, this is awesome.  (5280 = the elevation of Denver = 5280ft/mi = Mile High City, etc etc etc.)

In recent years, this event has gained a lot of exposure and has become quite popular.  So much so, that some restaurants are booked 3 months in advance!  For instance, I have yet to be able to make a reservation for Elway's - John Elway's top notch steak house - yum!  Boulder and neighboring cities have also started to participate in 5280, and it has been expanded to be TWO weeks instead of one.  Lucky for me, Denny's birthday falls within this time span, providing a great opportunity for an awesome birthday dinner!

This year we tried two new restaurants, with the intention of only trying one - a restaurant called Duo that is right near our house.  We were invited to the other restaurant by friends, and it was great, more on that later.  As for Duo, we have heard rave reviews about this place and I had been dying to try it.  It is mentioned in all of the local magazines, and all of my friends who have eaten there have said it was great.  However, I have to say that I was a little disappointed by our experience.  Before I get into the reasons it wasn't "great", I have to say that none of the food was "bad," it just didn't compare to other fine dining experiences I have had.  Also, I apologize for the lack of pictures to accompany the descriptions that follow...I'm not much of a picture-taker in restaurants, unless the plating is really amazing.

It started with the smell of the restaurant as we walked in the door.  We were not greeted with the aroma of their hopefully great food, but rather the smell of a mildewing wet rag :(  And that, alone, could have been the reason for our lackluster experience.  The portions were very small, and the flavor was not shockingly good.

Dessert was my favorite part (this should not surprise you).  Denny got the chocolate hazelnut cake, I got the toffee pudding, and Jackie got the pear sorbet.  While the toffee pudding was to-die-for (! - I would go there again for that alone), I have been on a pear kick lately, and their pear sorbet was excellent.  All around, I would eat their dessert again.

All being said, I am willing to try Duo again, on another day - just because I keep thinking of that damn toffee pudding and how if they could unleash that potential in all of their other dishes, it would be great.  Perhaps we can go for brunch, which I have heard is great.  I really think they were having a bad day, and perhaps their 5280 menu doesn't reflect their best work.

Edge was the second restaurant that we tried, by invitation from our friends :)  I'm so glad we got to try this place.  It is the steakhouse that is in the Four Seasons hotel.  First off, the waiter had a gift for describing their dishes in such a way that you would order a piece of dog poop if he were to explain it to you.  At first I found his excitement to be a little over the top, but by the time he was done talking about a dish, we all found ourselves wanting to order it, even if it wasn't on our radar at all.  All of our food was great, and their cocktails were amazing.  Being infatuated with pears lately, I got a pear martini and it was awesome.  I left this place feeling so satisfied by the flavors, and probably OVER satisfied by the portion sizes, but nothing to complain about there!

Well, until next 5280!  Hopefully I can be on top of my game enough to get a reservation at Elways!  Wish me luck!

How to | Omelettes

My dad taught me a lot of things, and among them was how to cook eggs.  Every weekend we spent with him, he would cook us breakfast:  "dipping eggs" (which were eggs over easy with bagels and cream cheese that we could dip into the runny yolks).  I remember watching him make perfect eggs every weekend and wondering how he did it.  Part of my wonder and amazement came from the fact that he didn't bother with a spatula but rather flipped the eggs with one swift motion of the pan (I guess that's what years in the restaurant business will do for you!).  So, when he taught me how to make eggs, he taught me this way.  You can imagine the mess that followed.  He let me break as many eggs as I needed to get it right (however, none went to waste as he didn't mind eating all of the ones that I ruined!).

Avocado, Tomato & Goat Cheese Omelette

For a while after that, I was intimidated by eggs because out of all the eggs we cooked that day, I think I only flipped one successfully.  Therefore, I stuck to what I knew - scrambled eggs.  Every now and then I would try an egg over easy, this time with a spatula, and still be unsuccessful.  Omelettes were the same story.  I would make an absolute mess and/or end up with an undercooked runny "scramble" of random ingredients.

But, alas, after a lot of practice and a lot of poorly cooked eggs, I am finally comfortable cooking eggs, any style (I have even started poaching them).  I still stick to a spatula because I realize that, these days, in order to perfect that pan flip it will be ME cleaning up the mess and not my parents.  No thank you!

Once I got the method down, I realized that omelettes in particular are not that hard to make, if you have the right stuff.  Here is a quick how-to:

What you will need:

A small non-stick pan

Oil or non-stick spray (be generous, this won't work if the eggs are allowed to stick to the pan)

Eggs - 3 is usually a good number  (for a healthier omelette, I use 2 egg whites and one whole egg)

Cheese!

Misc meat and/or veggies that suit your fancy.  (For this, I used avocado, tomato and goat cheese)

Simple Steps:

Whisk the eggs.

Add enough oil to coat a small pan.

At medium high heat, add the eggs and don't touch them until the bottom layer has been allowed to cook a bit, then gently pull all of the sides away from the edge with a spatula, allowing the remainder of the runny eggs to coat the pan.  You may need to do this 2-3 times.

When the top is only a little runny, yet stable, you can flip.

Using a small pan, and not allowing the egg to stick, makes this do-able.  Get the spatula as far under the eggs as you can, and flip er' over.  If you want to try the pan flip, be my guest, but I hope you have a clean up crew :)

Quickly add cheese and any other fillers you want to one side of the omelette.  The egg is pretty much done at this point, so you won't be cooking your ingredients beyond letting the cheese melt a bit.  Any veggies, meat, etc. should already be cooked before adding to the omelette.

With your spatula, fold the egg in half over the ingredients.

You can give it a second to heat up before plating, but not too long or you will burn the eggs.

Viola!  You have yourself an omelette!  My favorite omelette has to be chili and cheese, what's yours?

Sandwich 202

Afternoon!

My renewed interest in food blogging has come about because I suddenly became aware of how much time I have been spending in the kitchen.  No complaining here, I love it.  But what I have also realized is that you don't have to go overboard to have a breakfast | lunch | dinner that is tasty, and that you can be proud of.

Corn Tortilla Sandwiches

For instance, I run home everyday to make lunch and let the pups out.  That leaves me about 20min to make something quick and eat it!  To top it off, we don't have a microwave, so I have had to say so-long to the Lean Cuisines and other frozen 3-minute "meals".  Strangely, I am really proud of not having a microwave, and kind of want to see how long we can go without breaking down and buying one.  It makes me feel like some sort of progressive, "getting back to my roots" Boulderite hippie.  But, in reality, we are just waiting to make one huge trip to Bed Bath & Beyond, for a microwave and many other things, because we struck gold and got a 20% off everything coupon, not just one item.  I know you are all jealous, and you can't have my coupon.

But being microwave-less has allowed me to become pretty crafty in the small amount of time I have.  My go-to is usually a turkey sandwich of some kind, but one day I ran out of bread.  After sulking about the fact that I might have to eat turkey and lettuce on a plate with yellow mustard drizzled over it, I found a sad looking package of corn tortillas and figured I would give those a try.  I'm glad I did, I ended up really liking it.  The tortillas are so light compared to bread and that left me feeling good after lunch.  Plus at 80 calories for two tortillas, I made them both and felt like I had 2 sandwiches for lunch :)

What's in it?

I'm not here to tell you how to make your sandwiches, so put whatever you want in it.  But I will tell you that in order for this to work, you need to heat up the tortillas somehow.  I don't mean to brag, but we don't have a microwave, so I heated them up in a pan for a couple of minutes.  I put yellow mustard, garlic-pepper turkey, mixed baby greens, sprouts, and avocado in mine - but any number of ingredients would work well.  Delish!

Getting up to speed...

It has been almost a year to the day since my last post, and I can't say I'm proud of that.  A lot has happened since last February, but that is no excuse for my absence!  I hope you will pick up with me where I left off...

We'll start with the updates.  In the last year, we have been very busy:

We travelled a lot.

I was in California twice, once for my step-brother's wedding, and once en route to Cabo San Lucas, which was amazing!  One of my oldest and best friends kicked major butt at her job and made the President's Club for her company (yeah!).  One of the perks of being her best friend was that she asked me to come along, and I was honored.

Heaven....I mean, Cabo.

Later that summer, Denny and I went to Michigan to visit his family.  It was my first time meeting them and they were great.  We also had some amazing Chinese food, unlike anything I had ever tasted before.

Sand Dunes at Lake Michigan

We played a lot.

The warm months were filled with lots of hiking, lots of camping, lots of riding bikes, lots of concerts, and lots of fun.  Summer is my favorite time of year and I enjoy it to the fullest when it comes around.  Now that don't live in Southern California, I can't waste a warm Colorado minute.

Summer hiking.

Beer Olympics

We kicked ass. 

Denny and I ran the Ragnar Relay in September.  Ragnar hosts relays all over the country and the one we participated in was a 200(ish) mile, 2 day RUNNING relay from Breckenridge to Vail to Aspen.  So, picture running in beautiful locations, at altitudes of up to 10,000ft, during all hours of the night and day (and then trying your hardest to party at the end but you are so exhausted that your party efforts can be described as anything but).  In all honesty, our team did very well for a bunch of first-timers (except for veteran Amy who coordinated EVERYTHING).  It was an unforgettable experience.  On another note, ask us if we'll do it again and you will get a very hesitant "Ummmmmm....??"  Make no mistake, we do not go walking around pretending that it was easy as pie!

The finish line!!!

We added to the family. 

After Ragnar, Denny locked eyes on a German Shephard pup and couldn't say no :)  He was thinking of getting a Golden Retriever around Christmas time, but fate intervened.  This boy is growing fast and is so very smart.  Although I have to admit that at the time I was not prepared to welcome a puppy, it has been fun seeing Winston grow up, and I have to admit I am attached.

Winston at 3 months.  He doesn't look like that anymore...

We moved.

  New dog, new house, why not?  We moved into a very cool neighborhood in Denver surrounded by some to-die-for restaurants (look forward to posts about those!).  We have already tried most of them, but our favorite indulgence is Little Man ice cream which is literally (and dangerously) right around the corner from our front door.  Salted.Orea.Ice.Cream.  That's all I have to say (besides "gym").  Needless to say, we need visitors, stat!

Little Man Ice Cream!

Nowadays, if you were to ask me what I'm up to I would probably say I'm STILL learning to snowboard (after 9 years which makes me sad), but mainly cooking and looking up recipes.  There is something about looking at food blogs, finding new recipes and spending time in the kitchen that is not only enjoyable, but almost therapeutic for me.  So, I want to latch onto that.  Look forward to more from Tasty.