Inspired Cooking

Inspiration strikes often, and it's been a bit since I've been able to capture it for the blog. The long version of what has been happening in my life will follow the recipe. For now, I want to focus on the food.

I like to do things my way. As many of my friends and loved ones tell me: I'm bossy and tend to follow the beat of my own drummer, at times throwing caution to the wind. This is especially true in my home kitchen. 

This is Grapefruit and Roasted Beet Quinoa Salad:

Rudis Gluten Free Bread

So, I've been meaning to post this for quite some time. I kept meaning to take pictures of the meal I created, but alas, that didn't happen. I blame the bread for being too yummy and soft. I also blame myself for being ravenous and greedy. The recipe is delicious reguardless, and so its this chewy, hearty bread.

Let me set the stage: I had just come home from a fun filled weekend, a bachellorette party in Lake Tahoe, filled with snowboarding and OK maybe one or two too many cocktails.

The gods of sandwiches smiled upon me (otherwise known as Rudis Gluten Free) and those gods had sent me the most adorable, and exciting package - a box with bread and other goodies. So cute!

Fresh, chewy, delicious bread. Hooray! Look how adorable it was!

It made me feel like it was my birthday, or something equally exciting.

The best way to test out a new bread, for me, is to use it in a savory and a sweet application. For the sweet application, check out my sister's blog to see the French Toast she created. To cover the savory option, I made a take on one of my favorite childhood classics: the tuna sandwich.

Now, I wasn't about to waste this delicious bread on some typical mayo and relish mixture. Although that can hit the spot, this bread called for more hearty flavors than that to truly enjoy the multigrain heartiness.

This is my Meditteranian Tuna Salad Sandwich on Rudis Gluten-Free Multigrain Bread. Yum.

The Lazy Girl's Stirfry

Oh man, sometimes there's nothing like a lazy meal made at home. I'm almost ashamed to post this, because it is so lazy, but why not? We've all been there. Right?


The Lazy Girl's Stirfy:

The Holidays - Merry or Scary?

Happy Holidays to you. We all hear about how stressful the holidays are and how it is nearly impossible to stick to any regimented diet plan during this time of year.


Frankly, I think that's a cop out. I enjoy good food ALL year round. There's no need for me to hoard food in my belly as if I'm going into a long hibernation.


Yes, I am more likely to bake during this time of year. But, honestly, I can avoid the butter drenched, likely to be too decadent for me not to get ill morsels of heaven by remembering how awful I will feel when I'm done with them.


This holiday my gift to myself is to wake up feeling like a normal person the morning after a holiday meal is served.


So, you must be wondering what the heck is on our menu and what the heck I will be consuming this year. Luckily, our family's Christmas Eve tradition is to have dinner at my Mama's house and we serve the same thing (more or less) yearly.


We'll be serving:
Freshly Cooked and Cracked Dungeons Crab
Prime Rib Roast
Sweet Potato Casserole
Roasted Veggies
Rolls
Pomegranate Salad
English Trifle
Fudge
Mexican Wedding Cookies
Apple Tart
Pear Tart


Of this, I will be pleasurably consuming any of the following safe items:

Freshly Cooked and Cracked Dugeness Crab

Prime Rib Roast 

Sweet Potato Casserole

Roasted Veggies

Pomegranate Salad

Pear Tart

Why won't I whine and cry about the things I can't eat? Because look at what I CAN eat. Recipes will soon follow.

Happy Holidays and chin up! Focus on what you can control. 

Pumpkin Dream Turns to Nightmare

Does anyone else watch food network? Have you seen that show “The Best Thing I Ever Ate”? If I were on that show I know exactly what I would talk about.
In 2006, my sister and I took our first journey that was just the two of us. We went to New York City, and then took the train up to Boston. New York is awesome, but I am more of a Boston girl. As absurd as this sounds, I had better Italian food in The North End than I had in parts of Italy. Is that sacrilege? 


The North End is a glutinous (oh, delicious pasta!) heaven of goodness. Needless to say, it only lives in my dreams. I am haunted with memories of my first cannoli, my second cannoli, and (ALRIGHT ALREADY) maybe even my third cannoli. I had some of the best pizza of my life there as well.

Hungry yet?

Those were all well and good, but they pale in comparison to THE infamous meal my sister and I had. We waited in a line that went down the block and around the corner. For an hour and a half minimum. We could smell tomatoes, garlic, sage, onions, and some mysterious goodness. The gumbiling of our stomachs created a symphony with the others in line. Thankfully, the proprietors took pity upon us. Wait staff offered water and passed freshly baked bread with marinara sauce. We became friends with the people who would be sitting half a foot away from us in one of the twelve other seats in the restaurant.

It felt as if we were in on some secret ritual. Did we need to learn a secret handshake?
The place? Giacomo's in Boston.

The meal? Calamari friti (fried calamari) and pumpkin tortellini.

If this doesn't sound exciting to you, you CLEARLY have not been to Giacomo's. I’m going to gloss over the calamari this time, but know it was spicy and perfect. That pumpkin tortellini – the crown jewel of that meal - that is the stuff dreams are made of. I'm salavating thinking about it.

I've been trying to get the recipe right and just can't. I guess I don't have that Italian magic pulsing through my veins.

I used fresh pumpkin, canned pumpkin, etc. I had one note worthy awful nightmare of making this - I added too much wine (that was more floral than I thought it would be in the sauce) and YUCK! Sometimes in life things are just better when they're made at a restaurant.

Instead of deleting this post completely, I've decided to post it anyway. This is my closest approximation/adaptation of the pumpkin tortellini that haunts my dreams. 


Bonus: This is a bit more figure friendly than the recipe that is on the Food network website. Besides, they don’t give you the details on the filling for the tortellini anyway. Sneaky.

This is “Pumpkin and Sage Pasta”

Adventures in Portland

This past weekend I had a six year reunion with a friend of mine from high school. We were bad about keeping in touch, but it was not intentional. We both just did our own thing. Now that we only live two hours away from each other, it was time to catch up.

Not only is she a great human being, she's a foodie and nature lover just like me. It was fun rediscovering why we were friends in the first place. She is, after all, the person who got me addicted to sushi. I am forever indebted to her. She was also my first visitor when we started college a million years ago. 

She and her lovely boyfriend gave me a tour of Portland, which I have never done as an adult. I have a ton of family in and around Portland, but when I've visited the focus has been on family. Not on food and cocktails. What a treat that city is.