Edible Escapades

A view of my breakfast for you this morning. One of my predictions/hopes when I started planning to quit my day job and do art full-time was that I would have more time to do other things I love: like cooking. Well, this weekend that hope began to come true, as I embarked on one of my first edible escapades on Sunday afternoon. After ripping out half of the recipes in the October and November Gourmet magazines, I decided I would make some muesli and yogurt for my breakfast this week.

If you’re unfamiliar with muesli, it’s a type of breakfast cereal, kind of in the same vein as granola. I’ve made granola before, and the main difference I can see is that muesli is looser—no clumps from gooey honey mixtures. In fact, I thought it was easier to make than granola for that very reason.

I got my recipe from page 123 of the October 2009 Gourmet, called Kajsa Alger’s Muesli from Kajsa’s menu at her restaurant Street. The recipe doesn’t seem to be online, but here’s a quick version:

2 cups rolled oats and 1.5 cups puffed millet as the grains, 1 cup raw almonds chopped, 1 cup raw sunflower seeds and 1/4 cup flaxseeds as the seed component. You just mix all of the above together with 1 tsp kosher salt and 1 tsp cinnamon. Then you add 1/2 cup canola oil and 1/2 cup light brown sugar. Then you toast it for about 20 minutes, until golden brown (on two foil covered and lightly oiled cookie pans) at 350 degrees F. The recipe says to add 1 cup dried currants and 1 cup chopped pitted dates as the fruit after toasting, but you can see by the picture above that I deviated from that—I left the fruit out (I’ve had problems in the past with rock hard dried fruit in granola—I think the grains suck the moisture out of it), and I just added some raisins before eating.

Muesli is one of those things, like granola, where you can really put anything that you like in it. So I plan to experiment, but the above recipe is pretty yummy!

The other component of my breakfast is homemade yogurt. I went through a cheese-making phase a few years ago at which time I found Fankhauser’s Cheese Page. One of my first dairy-related escapades back then was homemade yogurt, which was quite fun and pretty easy. So, I’ve embarked on a little food science fun again as you’ll see from the four mason jars of yogurt above. The process is so simple—you take some milk and add a little yogurt to it (introducing the yogurt bacteria), and then the bacteria works away to make all of the milk into yogurt. The only challenge is getting the milk to the right temperature, but you will be well rewarded when you open your mason jars at the end and see that you have turned water into wine (or milk into yogurt). And imagine—a whole gallon of yogurt essentially for the price of a gallon of milk!

There’s also a great recipe on Fankhauser’s page for Labneh, a Lebanese soft cheese made from yogurt. It’s so simple—you just drain the liquid off the yogurt and voila, it’s cheese! So if you make all of that yogurt and then wonder, “what am I going to do with so much yogurt?” you can make a great soft cheese. Last time I made it, I mixed the labneh with some garlic and spices and made it into a great cheese spread.

Happy experimenting! More good eats to come, I promise!

The Oaxacan Adventure

Hello! I’m back from my wedding and honeymoon! Yay! I’m glad to be home and getting back into my art, but first a mini-recap . . .

Unfortunately, we were not as multi-taskingly gifted as we had hoped at the wedding, and did not take any good wedding-y shots, so I will have to wait until I get access to some photos to share a view of that with you. I will say—the wedding turned out exactly as we hoped! So much family, great friends, amazing food and laughs! It was quiet and small and really a great celebration of who we Mike and I are, and who we are together. It was a moment in my life where I felt beyond gratitude to my family—people came from everywhere and did so much to make the day happen—so much personal hand-made effort went into everything, from the flowers to the photos to the food.

We did take photos on our honeymoon, otherwise known as “The Oaxacan Adventure,” a two week trip to the Oaxaca (wah-ha-cah) state of Mexico. We spent one week in the city of Oaxaca, and one week on the coast in a town called Puerto Escondido. Here are some brief highlights. Try and guess what we spent the majority of our time doing . . .

me drinking from a giant goblet of fruit juice at Cafe Alex in Oaxaca.

Monte Alban, an ancient Zapotec city very near the city of Oaxaca

Ancient art at Monte Alban

At Playa Manzanillo in Puerto Escondido

Clouds over Playa Zicatela (a beach famous for surfing) in Puerto Escondido

As you might have guessed, lounging and eating bookended our sightseeing on this trip. Monte Alban was really extraordinary—it was amazing to imagine people walking around there 2,000 years ago. I have to say though, even more than soaking up culture, this trip was about relaxing, and relax we did. The coastal area we visited, Puerto Escondido, was actually quite humid this time of year (I’m talking pretty much instant sweating when you are outside), so we spent a lot of time chilling in the water and taking afternoon naps in our cool studio apartment that we rented. Having time to lounge and think about nothing without any schedule was just what we needed, sprinkled with good food and poking around of course.

I will be back tomorrow, and hopefully with art, as now I can really launch into doing art full-time!

Mushroom

A new addition to my natural patterns alphabet:

“Mushroom,” 5 x 5 inches, pen and ink, prints available in my shop

I do love mushrooms (the dinner kind, not the hallucinogenic kind)—they are scrumptious—in a risotto, on top of something grilled, or just by themselves (I’ve been known to love a good portobella sandwich!), but they’re also pretty odd and interesting to look at. Every once in a while, out on a hike or walk, I’ll see one and it will seem like a freak of nature.

I’ve wanted to learn about foraging for mushrooms, but I’m afraid it may be a little too life or death for me—one bad mushroom, and . . . but I would jump on the chance to go with an expert!

On a side note, for those of you who love hand drawn type, check out this post over at The Daily Etsian. Hannah so kindly mentioned me in her write-up, leading me to her beautiful blog! Thanks Hannah!

pb & h

A little more love for you today, dedicated to my fiance Mike, whose love of peanut butter is rivaled only by his love for me (of course):

5 x 7 inches, pen and ink, prints available in my shop

An Inspirational Recipe:

1) toast one slice of your favorite multi-grain bread
2) spread generously with a top notch crunchy peanut butter
3) drizzle the slice with honey
4) ooh and ahh as the warming honey runs all over the place
5) take a bite
6) fall in love
7) repeat

Apples and walnuts

~And today, a culinary interlude, as food is the stuff of life~

Another great thing about Fall: it’s apple season (at least for most of us in the northern hemisphere). And what goes better with apples than walnuts, which are also coming into season? I highly recommend taking a trip to your local farmer’s market (or a farm) where you can find out that apples don’t naturally shine like bowling balls!

[a little linoleum block print I did a while ago, with apples on my mind]

Color comes just after flavor for me when I’m choosing apples; I particularly like the multicolored speckled/streaked varieties with varying shades of red, pink and green. I have recently begun to love Jonagolds, and am also a fan of Pink Ladies—how can you go wrong—the names are fun too!

I am baking up some bread to appreciate the tastetastic duo of apples and walnuts, and supply myself with an inspiring mid-morning weekday snack. I don’t want to share my recipe until I know it’s a winner, and it’s still cooling, but you can find a variety of apple walnut bread recipes at cooks.com.

Another really easy and amazing way to use these two ingredients is in a green salad. Just add diced apples and chopped walnuts to your favorite mixture of greens, top it with a vinaigrette or an extra virgin olive oil and lemon juice dressing, and you have a very dynamic salad. If you want to make it even more upscale, add some crumbled blue cheese for that amazing sweet, salty, tangy, crunchy effect.

While you’re at it, forget the greens and just put the apples, walnuts and blue cheese (or gorgonzola) out with some good crackers, and you have a great snack or appetizer. Drizzle the apples with a little lemon juice to keep them from going brown and add a little zing. You won’t be sorry.

This is the stuff of expensive restaurant menus, but there really is no reason not to do it at home. It’s inspiring, healthy, and affordable when these ingredients are in season.

Three cheers for nature’s bounty!

A Day in Italy

As I think I’ve said before, I am half Italian. It is strange to say that I am only half because Italian-Americanism has been the main cultural influence in my life. Me and my family lived in northern Italy for my 6th grade year, after my parents sold their restaurant in Connecticut and decided to make a long-time dream come true, and actually live in Italy. Since that year, Italy has been at times an all-consuming interest/obsession, and always a very important part of my life, especially when it comes to food.

Penne all’ Arrabbiata (Penne with spicy tomato sauce) and calamari at a trattoria in Peschici, Italy

I grew up eating Italian food. My dad is a cook, and in general Italian and Italian-American cooking has been my home food. When I started dating my boyfriend Mike, almost five years ago, one of the first things we bonded over was cooking and eating. Our first date (although we didn’t know for sure it was a “date” until we started spending all of our time together, shortly after it) consisted of going to the farmer’s market and making homemade pasta. It is no surprise then, that our first big vacation together involved going to Italy where one of our main interests was eating.

Mike and me in Peschici, Italy, Summer 2004

A feast we cooked while in Peschici

Since we dream constantly of our next trip, but are not able to afford it right now, Mike suggested we live a day like we would in Italy. Some of the main things on the agenda would be going to the Farmer’s Market, walking a lot, doing some sort of swimming (since we vacationed on the Italian coast), walking around downtown while eating ice cream, and of course, cooking a large mid-day meal, with a long nap afterwards. Who could pass up the chance to eat themselves silly? I quickly agreed, and we pulled off this little shenanigan yesterday.

Our menu consisted of:

Appetizer: salame and Pecorino Romano cheese with bread

First Course: spaghetti with zucchini, garbanzo beans, chili flakes, olive oil and garlic

Second Course: chicken cutlet (chicken breast pounded thin and breaded) and tomato salad with mozzarella

Of course this was all accompanied by a large amount of Ciabatta (a type of Italian bread) and red wine– we picked a not so Italian bottle of Pinot Noir. You may be wondering, “What about dessert?” The truth is, my Italian family has never eaten much traditional dessert– we usually throw down a bowl of fruit after a meal. So, Mike and I opted for some watermelon from our garden to round out this meal.

After eating ourselves to our heart’s content, we lay around the house in a good food fog. I neglected to document the rest of the day with my camera, but suffice it to say, it was a nice exercise of life in the slow lane. I dozed at the pool for a large portion of the afternoon, and we definitely found time for the evening passeggiata (the Italian tradition of walking around the town center in the evening to digest your food, to see and be seen), of course, while eating ice cream.

Here’s go good food and slow days!