Life is getting juicy….

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So it’s been a while since I’ve had any significant free time to play with……and its AMAZING how much m ycreative “juices” are flowing.  It’s like calling upon faculties that have been dormant for the last month and reignighting a passion for life, cooking, and creativity.

In fact, my schedule is so bendy that I actually had time for one of Matt’s friends to stop by last night to do some juicing.  Yay, there is one other person on the planet here in Davis who is willing to listen to me ramble on about how awesome juicing is.  We contrived to make two juices: one for him and one for me.  I was tickled.

The concoctions:

Henry’s “better that Trader Joe’s carrot Juice:

7-8 organic carrots
3 lemons
1 mango (secret weapon)
1 fuji apple

Alternate juicing carrots with the other fruits.  He called it his carrot lemonade – a rightful title, as it has a lemony punch for certain.

Rebecca “Flower Power” surprise:

1 bunch of dandelion greens (hence the name)
1 lemon
1 fuji apple
1 beet
1 small bunch parsley

Fold th dandelion greens and push them through with chunks of apple or beet.  Do the same with the parsley.

The surprise comes in the bitter ‘kick’ at the end from those darn dandelions, but it’s just weet enough for you to actually want more 🙂 You’re liver will thank you for this one!

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Much Ado About Something

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For those who have ever wondered if the hype about Ashland, OR is true, I’m here to tell you that yes, in fact, it is! 

After a long stretch of cleaning, packing, scrubbing walls, and saying tearful good-byes in Salem, my mom and I packed the car, loaded the cat into her trusty carrier, and headed south of the border….

…with an overnight stop in Ashland for a little R&R.

Cleaning can make a girl hungry, so our first goal was to find some good eats, and boy did we.

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Pasta Piatti in Ashland is a MUST try for those who love really good Italian.  Off-white eaters listen up!  Pasta Piatti can make most of their dishes with Spelt Pasta and all their bread are homemade – YUM and YAY!!!

I scored with a seared Ahi tuna salad with white beans and fresh greens – a great, naturally low carb colorful dish and mom took the proverbial cake with one of their signature dishes: butternut squash raviolis with a butter/brown sugar/gorgonzola cheese sauce.  Was it a meal?  Was it dessert?  I’m still not sure but it WAS tasty…..and very much like the dishes we’d tried in our recent trip to the motherland Italia back in October.

Yes, certainly Ashland won our hearts from the get-go!

We tooled around town, walking, shopping and chatting and enjoying the ambience.  Ashland provides a mix of young travellers, vacationers, and artisans.  Its clean, hip, hippy, and quaint all at once, and there is no shortage of places to nosh.

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Still full from lunch, but wanting a treat to accompany me to the evening’s highlight (we saw Don Quixote  and it was spectacular), I meandered into the Enchanated Florist after being seduced by the words “CHOCOLATE BAR”.

I am now a huge fan of Alma chocolates, out of Portland.  Organic, creative and made with Agave nectar…….all things enchanting in my book!  PS: the Enchanted Florist website is complete with groovy, chocolate and flower enticing, music, like what you hear right here.

I will personally never  forget the evening of sitting under the stars in the Elizabethan theatre with mom at my side, watching the players, and savoring the unique flavors  of Alma chocolate (Dark chocolate lavendar and Sea salt + cocoa/chili/coconut).  Could a girl ask for more?  You bet I was sending thanks to the Universe that night for all the good fortune of my day and of my life!

A restful sleep gave use the energy to rise and shine, and get in a power walk before hitting the Saturday marketplace on our way out of town.  I love Saturday markets.  These are the heart of a community – artisans, growers, purveyors who all have a passion for keeping foods and goods the way we originally intended them to be: made with love.

On this day, we equated love with Tasty, as there was no shortage of tasty delights despite the rather small size of the market.  Each vendor smiled, chatted and shared his or her story about the food.  Mom bought ‘Cowboy Buns” from Cowboy bakery for my nephew and Strawberry syrup for dad and his Sunday pancake ritual.  Me, still full from the day before, simply feasted my eyes and took a few shots.

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In Short, I can now see what all the ‘ado’ is about Ashland!!

BTW: there is also a Market of Choice in Ashland, which makes a nice mid-way stop between Davis and Salem or anybody driving hte I-5 route.  It’s an oasis of healthy food amist a long stretch of nothing but fast food and gas stations.

lemon spelt muffins

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Refreshing.  Dairy, wheat and sugar (added)-free.  Easyyyyyyyyy….

2 cups spelt four
1 1/4 tsp baking powder
zest of 1 lemon
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon or allspice
1/2 cup applesauce
juice of one large lemon
1 cup of chopped apples OR 1 cup of juicing pulp (that is what I used)
2 eggs
1/2 cup rice milk
1/3 cup oil
1 tsp stevia (could use 2 tbsp of sugar instead)

In a med bowl, whisk flour, baking powder, salt, spice, and lemon zest.  Set aside.  In a large bowl, whisk oil and eggs.  Add stevia (or sugar), and whisk.  Add remaining ingredients.  Add the flour mix to the wet mix and stir until just blended.

Fill 12 muffin tins 3/4 full.  Bake at 375 for 17 minutes.  Enjoy!

On the abundance of socks…

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Yes, I did say socks….not sex (although that could be an interesting topic, for another time and another blog)

In my efforts to get ready for the “Big move” to Davis I’m naturally doing a little spring cleaning and today I had a bizarre ephiphony while cleaning out the sock drawer.

Here I was wrestling over which socks to take: all the white ones, or just some of hte white ones, do I need  the tights or will it be too warm in Davis for tights…… totally trivial matters.

Then I looked at the socks.  BOOM!  I realized that I was struggling over which socks to take to Davis from a pile of socks that I don’t even like.  I was grappling with the importance of gym socks that I actually can’t stand to wear or how they look.  For so many years my I have simply been collecting socks for the sake of collecting socks…..having excess simply for the sake of ….’having’.

Where else do I do this? Certainly in my food.  My pantry is stocked, man.  I have enough grain to feed a small African country  and yet I continuously go out and buy more, just for the sake of having more.

Bloggies, I’m going to let you in on a little secret of mine: I really struggle with feeling like I have enough of anything.  I always want more, even of things I don’ even want.  The sugar struggles I’ve experienced in my life are examples of this:  Eat sugar.  Get full.  Feel sick.  Eat more.  Think about stressful things.  Eat more.  Buy more to eat later….you get the idea.

My brother in law recently shared a little slogan that I absolutely love:
THERE IS A TIME TO SPLURGE
AND THERE IS A TIME TO PURGE

My problem is that I always want to splurge and then never want to purge.  Its hard for me even let go of stinky old gym socks that I can’t stand simply because its the act of letting go….”but what if I run out of socks, or suddenly socks go up in price and I can’t afford socks.”…silly little ego, always finding reasons to stay attached.

You will all be happy to know that all the clean socks I don’ t want ended up in the Goodwill pile, ready for a new home with somebody who needs them 🙂

sweet tooth fairy strikes again

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sweet tooth

Hey gang,

today I had  an interesting experience of myself and food at the grocery store.  Its been a while since I’ve dived into the realms of the ‘white’ foods, and I’m so greatful for that.  But, I’m forever reminded that the wolf is always at the door, and when I’m not conscious of my actions I’m easily lured inBut I’m forever reminded that the silly little sweet tooth fairy and all her misgivings are still alive and thriving (off of sugar, no doubt) in my little psyche.

So, let me give you a litte background on myself;  in the past one of my favorite foods was cake….well, actually frosting, but you have to eat it on the cake to be socially acceptable.  It got embarrassing – I was the girl that people always knew wanted the corner piece AND would take your extra frosting if you weren’t the frosting type (non-frosting eaters, I loved you guys….such fools for giving away the prized part of the cake…..).  I used to anticipate work birthdays and special functions because there was almost a guarantee of cake, and it was usually the really nasty kind from the Safeway bakery or something – just how I liked it!

It got so bad that one day when I was teaching Pilates a client and friend of mine actually brought me a plate of just frosting from her recent work bash….totally ebarrassing and a real sign that something is askew with my relationshp to cake.

Okay, back to today: so here I am at Fred Meyer, just knocking through my to do list and I see this perfect piece of white cake with pink sprinkles on it. …..and its on sale for $1……..and its staring RIGHT at me………and I will swear on a stack of Betty Crocker cookbooks that it actually whispered my name.

So I grabbed it…..and I ate most if it in the store.  Yes folks,  true confession!  I was actually sad that there weren’t more pieces for me to eat.  Okay more truth: I actually just ate the frosting and threw out most of the cake.

Why am I telling this story, other than to entertain you with you pathetically overtaken I can be by a piece of silly cake……well, because it brought great insight to me.  I wasn’t worried about the ‘calories’ or that I’d just eaten enough hydrogenated oil to preserve my intestines for a year.

What really got me was my total lack of connection to what I was feeling around the whole day’s events.  The cake was just representing the fact that I’ve got too much going on and am not being mindful with my feelings our my boundaries.  It’s one thing to eat cake and enjoy it and appreciate it, and its another to have frosting on your fingers while you cruise the detergent aisle at Freddies…..

For me, when my food boundaries start to slide and i’m eating without awareness its because my life boundaries are slipping.  I’m doing TOO much and my brain has chose things like white frosting with pink sprinkles as the form that the ‘wake up call’ comes in….lucky me its a mighty tasty wake up call.

What I really needed to do was take care of some unfinished business that was ‘eating at me’ with my folks, so I promptly called mom and shared my thoughts…and imagine that – no more desire to dive head first into a tub of white frosting……..

Happy off-white (and mindful) eating!!

Take a “pizza” my heart….

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spelt pizza

I love pizza, I really do.  Not eating it as much as I love making pizza.  Why? you ask….because EVERYBODY seems to love a good pizza and they are all so happy to see you when you come with pizza.

Think about it.  Want to get your kids to help you clean out the garage?  Promise pizza at the end.  Want to have people over for movie night and need to serve a lot of people ?- get some pizza.  Want to make an interactive food experience for adults and kids? – host a ‘build your own pizza’ night.

But where does this obsession with pizza come from?  According to some online sources, the art of pizza dates back over 1,000 years.  The typical circular pizzas of today are traditionally known as Neapolitin pizzas from Italy.  They include a marinara sauce made from fresh, local tomoatoes and the mozzarella cheese from local buffalo (hence the term buffalo mozzarella).  See the excerpt below for “official” details about this type of pizza, according to Wikipedia:

Neapolitan pizza (pizza napoletana): Authentic Neapolitan pizzas are made with local ingredients like San Marzano tomatoes, which grow on the volcanic plains to the south of Mount Vesuvius, and Mozzarella di Bufala Campana, made with the milk from water buffalo raised in the marshlands of Campania and Lazio in a semi-wild state (this mozzarella is protected with its own European protected designation of origin).[1] According to the rules proposed by the Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana, the genuine Neapolitan pizza dough consists of Italian wheat flour (type 0 or 00, or a mixture of both), natural Neapolitan yeast or brewer’s yeast, salt and water. For proper results, strong flour with high protein content (as used for bread-making rather than cakes) must be used. The dough must be kneaded by hand or with a low-speed mixer. After the rising process, the dough must be formed by hand without the help of a rolling pin or other mechanical device, and may be no more than 3 mm (¹⁄₈ in) thick. The pizza must be baked for 60–90 seconds in a 485 °C (905 °F) stone oven with an oak-wood fire.[2] When cooked, it should be crispy, tender and fragrant. Neapolitan pizza has been given the status of a “guaranteed traditional specialty” in Italy. This allows only three official variants: pizza marinara, which is made with tomato, garlic, oregano and extra virgin olive oil (although most Neapolitan pizzerias also add basil to the marinara), pizza Margherita, made with tomato, sliced mozzarella, basil and extra-virgin olive oil, and pizza Margherita extra made with tomato, mozzarella from Campania in fillets, basil and extra virgin olive oil.

Mamma mia!  Who knew there was so much official doctrine around pizza.  All I know is that I like it, and I especially like it when I can make my “off white” versions and nobody is worse for the ware.  This particular pizza included a lovely fine spelt flour purchased in bulk at the Davis Coop.  I wish I could say that it was a cost-effective pizza, but at $3/lb for the flour, I was really glad we were going for thin crust.

Pizza got just a little more dear to my heart that night because of the  comradare and laughter share while preparing and serving it.  What started as just a whim of an idea in conversation turned into a night with Matt, three friends, a bottle of wine and some fabulous appetizers made my Matt’s friend H.  Apparently H. always uses raw salmon in his food treats, and pizza night was no exception.  He glazed stone ground wheat crackers with tartar sauce, spred thinly sliced salmon and cucumbers, and they were GONE FAST!!!

But, alas, back to the pizza – for those wanting to make a good memory with a good off-white meal, I suggest you fall in love with pizza, and here’s how:

CRUST (modified from Dave’s Cave online recipes)

Ingredients

  • 1 3/4 cups warm water
  • 1 tablespoon sugar
  • 1 packet active dry yeast
  • 6 cups spelt flour
  • 1/4 cup olive oil
  • 1 tablespoon salt
  • 1 tablespoon freeze-dried Italian Herbs
Cooking Instructions
  1. Making the dough: Pour the warm water into the mixing bowl with the sugar and the yeast. When the yeast is active, mix in the first cup of flour. Mix in the olive oil, salt, herbs and spices. Add 4 1/2 cups of flour, 1/2 cup at at time, while continuing to mix the dough.
  2. Kneading the dough: Sprinkle the last half a cup of flour out onto your kneading surface, turn out the dough and knead for about 6 minutes. Let it rest while you clean and grease your bowl. Continue kneading your dough till it feels smooth and springy.
  3. Rising: Form the dough into a ball and place back in the greased bowl. Turn the dough so it is evenly coated with the oil. Cover it to keep it away from drafts. Let rise till it has doubled in size.
  4. Shaping: Turn your dough out on a floured board. Punch it down and break up the large bubbles. Cut it into 2 even pieces for thick crust or 3 pieces for thin crust. Roll the pieces out to the desired size and thickness. Take a fork and jab your dough (known as docking) about every inch so that the crust does not inflate like a big old pita while prebaking.
  5. Baking: bake at 400 for 10-12 minutes

TOPPINGS:

Sorry Italy, we are not big fans of the traditional marinara.  We top our pizzas with a shallot, leeks, and two cloves of garlic sauteed in EVOO for about 5 minutes.

Next, add a spread of goat cheese, mozzarella and any other cheese you like. 
Sprinle on some Boar’s Head pepperoni, or whatever else you like.
Finish it off with fresh basil and chopped heirloom tomoatoes that are added 1/2 way thru the cooking process.

matt and pizza

AAaaah…another satisfied customer…..

 

happy off white living!!!

Pimp my Buddha Bowl and add some Viogner

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Matt and I are hanging out in Davis after a long weekend of celebrating mother earth at Davis’ 40th annual Whole Earth Festival and Mother’s day festivities in Old Sac with the fam (PS: DO NOT have brunch at Fat City Cafe…boring and overpriced).

While both events were spectacular and full of bonus treats, like meeting Matt’s childhood friend A. and her family at the festival, we are pretty tuckered and broke here on Sunday night……. and hungry.

What to do when one is cash poor, tired, but feeling the call to feed??? That is where the Buddha bowl comes in.  You can visit “My Crazy Sexy Life” for more info on Buddha Bowls, but basically they are comprised of the following (all leftovers or what you have in the cupboard, of course):

  • A grain (usually gluten free like rice or quinoa)
  • A legume (garbanzo, black, kidneys, lentils….)
  • A green (raw or cooked)

After a quick rummage through Matt’s food drawer I scored a package of T. Joe’s whole grain rice mix, a can of organic black beans and some natural sea salt.  A gander at the fridge yielded fresh mixed greens from farmer’s market, green onions and some kickin’ heirloom tomatoes, also from farmer’s market.  So, what began as a scrounge for something quick actually turned into a great meal.  Paired up with a Maryhill winery Viogner from Washington (purchased at a recent yoga retreat),…….magnifique!!!!

So, if you weren’t paying attention to the recipe imbedded in the text, here it is plain and simple:
“PIMP MY BUDDHA BOWL” a la Rebecca and Matt (serves 3-4)

1 cup  dry whole grain rice mix of your choice, cooked and still warm
1 can of organic beans or 2 cups of cooked beans/lentils
10 oz of mixed field greens, washed
1 heirloom tomato, rinced and coarsely chopped
1 scallion per person, coarsely chopped
1 tbsp EVOO per person, to drizzle on bowl
sea salt and lemon juice, to taste

Toss the fresh veggies in a salad bowl and sprinkle with approx 1/2 cup of beans (or you could just put them on the side in the bowl).  Add about 1/2 cup of rice to the bowl while still warm.  Drizzle the whole bowl with EVOO and grind sea salt on top to your liking.  The zest of a fresh lemon rounds it off.

Simple, tasty, and required no special ingredients….just some  creativity!

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