Joy! (The Baker)

why does Luke look like he's doing a martial arts move?

Joy the Baker recently visited Seattle on a book tour, and I went to hear her speak and have my copy of her cookbook signed. I'll definitely write about her cookbook when I have a chance to review it, but for now- here's a picture of Luke and I at Luke's first book signing. 


Joy was sweet and lovely and cool and awkward, which is exactly how I'd describe her blog. She spoke for about 30 minutes about baking, blogging and her cat to an audience of around 100 women (and maybe 3 men?). Several local Seattle bloggers, including Ashley of Not Without Salt (I love her "dates with my husband series"- so romantic!) were there and baked goodies out of Joy's cookbook. 


The signing was held at Book Larder- a new cookbook store in Fremont. It's a gorgeous store and I'm looking forward to going back and perusing their book selection. They had a beautiful demonstration kitchen there, so I'll have to check out their class schedule, too!


This was a great food adventure- I'm hoping to go to a few more cookbook tours this year. (Pioneer Woman is coming next month, and I can only hope that Deb of Smitten Kitchen will be visiting Seattle, too!)

Final Veggie Count!

It took a bit over a month, but Luke has officially tasted/squished/spat up/flung/chewed-upon 29 vegetables! (Take that, France!) 

 sampling a roasted parsnip

Favorites include anything cruciferous: kale, broccoli, purple cabbage. 
Dislikes: well- it's hard to tell. My kid appears to be one of those strange babies who won't eat. If you've met him, you know how stubborn he can be. He is adamant that any food that enters his mouth is brought there under his own power. He won't eat purees, steamed chunks of food... nothing. But he'll happily sit in his chair and slurp on a chunk of broccoli for 15 minutes, so for now, we're going to have to be happy with that. Hopefully some day soon he'll catch on to that whole "swallowing" thing. 

post beet bath

Here's the final list!
1. carrot
2. sweet potato
3. avocado
4. kale
5. peas
6. acorn squash
7. celery
8. bell pepper
9. asparagus
10. cucumber
11. brussels sprout 
12. arugula
13. zucchini
14. purple cabbage
15. broccoli
16. artichoke heart
17. spinach
18. bok choy
19. mustard greens
20. green bean
21. chard
22. parsnip
23. sunchoke
24. onion
25. broccoli rabe
26. snow pea
27. beet
28. edamame
29. turnip

tooth brushing is a critical part of veggie sampling. 

too bad he doesn't know which end is which.

Food Adventure: Paseo

For some reason, Paseo, a Caribbean restaurant in Seattle, has come across my radar lately. The weird thing is, I used to live about a half mile from it (for 4 years!) and never once thought about eating there. Over the past few months, though, I kept hearing about it. It got mentioned on a couple food blogs that I follow, and several friends mentioned how delicious it is.

So, I added it to my Food Challenge 2012 Adventures list. Since we live about a half an hour away, we didn't make it there until just recently, when we had another exciting food adventure across the street. (I met Joy the Baker, Eeeeeee!!)

I know next to nothing about caribbean food, so I can't attest to Paseo's authenticity, but I can attest to the deliciousness of the grilled chicken breast sandwich!

The bread. Oh, wow. I don't know how to describe it. It was a large baguette, with the most amazing crust. Can anyone tell me how they made the bread? It was as if just the thinnest layer of the outer crust was deep-fried, but without being oily. The texture was crispy and crunchy but immediately giving way to a chewy yeasty fluffy middle. The baguette demanded something exciting to fill its insides- butter wouldn't do. The marinated chicken breast and accompaniments were perfect.

The marinade was sweet and smoky- I would have loved to dip the entire sandwich in a vat of the marinade with each bite. The sandwich was decorated with crisp romaine, pickled jalapenos and a generous smattering of cilantro. The cilantro was what did it- it perked up each bite! There was some sort of aioli smeared on the bread (oh, the bread!) which didn't lend anything to the flavor but definitely helped with the mouthfeel- the creamy-coolness was great and melded with the spice of the jalapenos well.

For $8.50, the size of the sandwich was just right. The restaurant is tiny- I think there was seating for about 12 people inside so Nathan, Luke and I walked outside into the rain. The ambience wasn't anything special, so I didn't feel we were missing out, but it would have been nice to sit and ponder my meal. In summers, there is a small patio with more seating, so it would be more comfortable then.

The only things keeping me from eating at Paseo more often are the distance and the sourcing of the meat. I'm pretty sure the meat isn't organic- most places in Seattle usually brag about which local farm their chicken or pork came from- and we try to avoid conventionally farmed animals whenever possible.

If I could find out where their bread came from- or convince Nathan to perfect the baguette- we could totally replicate this at home. Now, to find a caribbean marinade recipe...

"Trail of Crumbs" book review

Trail of Crumbs: Hunger, Love, and the Search for Home

Kim Sunee

2008

(Image credit: http://www.kimsunee.com/books.html)

I really, really wanted to like this memoir. It had been recommended by a few friends, and the description on the book jacket made it seem right up my alley- an adventurous young woman travels the world in search of love and a sense of place (she was born in Korea and adopted by an American family at age 3), cooking all the while. 

It took me a while to post this review, because the book was such a drag to get through. I hate to spend much time writing about a book that I didn't enjoy (because it's not like anyone reading this is going to go out and read it now) but it was on my list of books to read in 2012. So. I read it. 

I think part of the problem for me was that the majority of recipes that Kim interjects into each chapter were based in French cooking. And (no offense to Julia Child), French cooking just doesn't intrigue me. It's stuffy, inaccessible, heavy-sounding, and relies too much on animals and animal parts that I don't want to eat. 

Kim writes of what must have been a confusing, dramatic time in her life with very little passion. She's supposedly madly in love with a famous French business man (who, to be frank, seems to be a complete ass from the beginning of the book), and claims to find solace in cooking. Why did I feel like her writing was so passion-less? I wanted to drool over her words, feel inspired to cook new French dishes, admire her emotional strength. Instead, I struggled to stay awake through each long chapter. (And to be honest, I made it about 4/5 of the way through the book, mostly through a sense of obligation, and then it was due at the library so I returned it before finishing it.)

There were, however, two food items that I was inspired by in "Trail of Crumbs". At one point, Kim travels to North Africa and eats a dish with harissa, a hot sauce common in the region. I've read about it before and I'd like to try it. I live in an area with a lot of African immigrants, so I think I'll be able to find a can of it to try. The other dish is one that I'll cook some time in the next few weeks- an Orange Couscous Salad. 

(Inspired by "Trail of Crumbs")

2 c. cooked couscous

1/4 c. olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

2 oranges- one juiced, one zested and chopped

handful chopped parsley

handful chopped mint

chopped cucumber

1/2 c raisins

Adventures with Sunchokes

Have you ever heard of a sunchoke? They're the same thing as a Jerusalem artichoke. I hadn't heard of either until recently, and they've been on my list of things to try for my 2012 Food Challenge. They aren't from Jerusalem, nor are they related to artichokes. Sunchokes are in the sunflower family and are native to North America.

Fascinatingly enough, in my research (on good ol' Wikipedia) I discovered that the sunchoke gained notoriety in the 1980's when they became part of an agricultural pyramid scheme. Apparently farmers in the midwest were coerced into believing that sunchokes were the next big thing in the tuber world, and many started planting and selling the seeds to those lower on the pyramid. This didn't work out well- obviously- since sunchokes haven't really replaced potatoes or yams on the American table.

 I acquired a few fresh sunchokes yesterday from Full Circle Farms, and did some googling to figure out what to do with them. Most recipes compared them to potatoes, and since I had two giant leeks and an armful of russet potatoes, I decided to incorporate them into a potato leek soup.

I peeled and sliced the sunchokes and added them to chicken broth along with sauteed leeks and chunks of potato. After simmering for about 30 minutes, I blended everything with an immersion blender. I also added a bag of frozen spinach to make the soup pretty and green (and healthier, I suppose). I finished the soup with a couple cups of whole milk, a dollop of sour cream and some heavy dashes of cayenne pepper.

Before I pureed the sunchoke in with the potatoes, I sampled a piece. It was beigy-grey and had a texture and flavor similar to artichoke hearts. It was a notable flavor in the soup, too... somewhat nutty and mostly similar to artichoke heart, but without the fun tang. I'm glad I tried it, but I don't think I'll be going out of my way to buy sunchokes in the future. It wasn't overly impressive. That said, I'd like to try it again- perhaps cooked by a professional chef in a different way. 

Have you tried sunchoke? How was it served? 

Crepes

I've never been to France. I hear their crepes are incredible. However, I have been to Germany. I don't think crepes are the first thing that comes to mind when one thinks of Germany (foods ending in -schnitzel and -wurst DO, however), but I did have some amazing crepes in Germany. 


Every day in Bonn (where we were working at a UNFCCC climate change conference) after a long day of taking notes, Nathan and I took the superbly efficient train from the conference center to downtown to find a place for dinner. At the train station, just as we exited with the crowd, there was a small, nondescript crepe stand. The first few days, I barely noticed it, but towards the end of the first week I thought about the crepe stand all day long. (I was hungry and I tend to have long food fantasies.) 

One night, as we got off the train, I dragged Nathan through the crowd of German students and business women and drunk men and pointed to the picture of a crepe crammed with Nutella, bananas, and whipped cream. It was so, so good. I think I ate two that afternoon and had one nearly every day until we left Bonn. 


Since Nutella isn't an easy-to-find ingredient, those crepes have slipped off my radar until recently, when I read "The Sharper Your Knife, The Less You Cry", by Kathleen Flinn. I really enjoyed the book, though most of the recipes were more meat-oriented. I lingered over the crepe recipe and last night decided to make it as part of my 2012 Food Challenge. 

Crepe batter:
¾ cup flour
Pinch of salt
2 tbsp sugar
1 cup milk
1-2 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs
3 tbsp melted butter melted

Filling for the crepe:
Thinly sliced bananas
Nutella 

1. Whisk together the dry ingredients in a bowl.
2. Mix together the milk and the vanilla.
3. Add a third of the milk mixture and the eggs to the dry ingredients, slowly incorporating in the flour.
4. Whisk in the remaining milk and melted butter.
5. Allow it to rest for 30 minutes.
6. Heat a non-stick pan on a low-medium heat and brush it with a little butter. 
7. Pour about ¼ cup of the batter onto the heated pan, and tilt the pan to coat it evenly.
8. The crepe is ready to flip once the edges are slightly browned. Stack them up.

Add nutella and sliced bananas and fold the crepes in quarters, or roll up. They were delicious as is, but we sent them over the top by adding a couple scoops of vanilla ice cream.