Broccoli Rabe

Thanks to everyone for their broccoli rabe/raab/rapini suggestions! I will try the simple saute with it next time, but I was worried a bit by its bitter smell so I chickened out. Here's what I came up with instead...



Pasta w/Sausage & Broccoli Rabe
Serves 2



5oz orecchiette (if you want to make your own, check this recipe out!)
1 bunch of broccoli rabe, tough ends removed, then cut into ~1" pieces
1/2lb sweet italian chicken sausage
2 cloves garlic, pressed
a few shakes of red pepper flakes
5 sundried tomato halves, revived in some boiling water and diced

Bring a large pot of water to boil. Salt, then add pasta. Towards the last few minutes of cooking, add the broccoli rabe. When pasta is al dente, drain pasta and rabe.

While water is coming to a boil and pasta cooking, saute sausage. Once starting to brown, add garlic, red pepper flakes and sundried tomatoes. (I wait to add the garlic until the end b/c it always cooks so fast, this way it doesn't burn) Cook a few minutes, then turn off the heat.

When sausage mix and pasta/broccoli rabe is done, combine and toss. Separate into serving dishes (or tupperware). I finished it off with a drizzle of lemon EVOO and some freshly grated parmesan.

My thoughts? Very yummy, and I didn't really notice the bitterness I smelled when it was raw. The broccoli rabe sure beefs up the size of this dish!! The sausage is completely optional, and you could also saute the broccoli rabe before tossing it with the cooked pasta.

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Apparently 'tis the season for giveaways! Hit up Oh She Glows for a chance to get shredded. Is that a word? Anywho, there's also some Barney Butter up for grabs at Lucky Taste Buds. Help a girl out and go visit her site and NOT enter the contest. just kidding :) And ever tried Erin Baker's breakfast cookies? If not, pop on over to One Frugal Foodie for a chance to win :) And Trek on over to Simply Fabulous for another giveaway. And health nut for a BPA-free water bottle. Phew! Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Edamame Ravioli

I love these ravioli, and they contain two of my favorite ingredients--edamame and goat cheese. Edamame is a rock star ingredient, as they are a great source of low-cal protein and fiber. Goat cheese isn't anything to sneer at, either!! As a softer cheese, it tends to be lower in fat than the harder cheeses like cheddar. These positives are just happy coincidences, the real winning thing about these ingredients is their taste :)


Edamame Ravioli
Adapted from Bon Appetit RSVP
Yield: ~25 ravioli (depending on the size)



1/2 lb frozen edamame
4oz goat cheese
2 oz nufatchel (1/3 less fat cream cheese)
wonton wrappers, or homemade pasta

Cook edamame in large pot of boiling, salted water until tender (~5min). Drain, then transfer to bowl of a food processor with cheeses and blend until smooth. Season filling to taste. This can be made a day or few ahead of time, keep refrigerated.

At this point I use the easy route of wonton wrappers, filling 4 at a time. Seal the edges with water and keep covered with a towel until ready to cook to prevent drying out. Cook 3-4 min in a large pot of boiling salted water, a few at a time to prevent sticking.

An alternative to cooking right away would be to place the filled ravioli on a single layer on a cookie sheet in a freezer until, umm, frozen. :) They can then be packaged into freezer bags for longer storage.

I often eat these on their own I enjoy them that much, but the recommended sauce was a browned butter mushroom sauce (which I will have to try when serving for guests!!). This time I made a Roasted Red Pepper & Tomato Sauce and served it with some sundried tomato chicken sausage. Which led me to think that sundried tomatoes would also be a good addition to the ravioli filling! I'm sure you could also play with the seasonings in the filling, too.



Roasted Red Pepper & Tomato Sauce


1 small onion, diced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 28oz can fire-roasted whole tomatoes
1 small jar of roasted red peppers (it was 3 peppers worth), roughtly chopped
basil, oregano, salt, red pepper flakes to taste (fresh or dried, whatever you have on hand)

Saute onion in EVOO until softened. Add garlic, tomatoes (with juices), peppers, and seasonings and let simmer for awhile (I just let it go while assembling and cooking the ravioli). If you have fresh herbs, add them towards the end of cooking instead. Cool slightly before blending with an immersion blender, blender, or food processor.

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Don't forget to head over to Chocolate-Covered Katie for her Jocolat giveaway. Abbie, at Food that Fit, is putting together an e-cookbook. Check out the details here if you'd like to submit some recipes!

Quinoa w/Gruyere & Veggies

Wow, seems like forever since my last post, it's been busy!! I got to dog-sit this weekend, and I had a blast :) It was fun to get them playing with opposite ends of a chew toy! Here are the pups, cause they're just too cute not to share...

Sampson

Dante, making himself comfortable!

Some other goings-on in blogworld: check out Lauren's post here to help support the Maryland Food Bank and don't go to Hangry Pant's giveaway for Zoe's Granola ;-) You can also check out this list of 10 healthy foods you may not be eating. I can't actually remember if I've tried broccoli rabe (strange...), but I did pick up some at the store a few days ago. I also don't eat many brazil nuts (although this may be leftover from childhood, when all i liked were peanuts!).

Speaking of broccoli... I made this Gruyere Quinoa w/Sauteed Mushrooms & Broccolini which was very yummy. The nuttiness of the gruyere and quinoa played together well with the pan-roasted veggies. I meant to throw in some extra protein (chicken, tuna, or tofu), but I got lazy. I actually just had to look up the difference between broccolini (a hybrid between broccoli and Chinese broccoli) and broccoli rabe (more related to a turnip than broccoli)! Learn something new every day :) We'll have to see what I do with that broccoli rabe... any suggestions??

sorry so fuzzy!!

Briefly in Seattle: Pike's Place Market, the Space Needle Restaurant, Boeing's Museum of Flight, Crumpets, Lobster Tail, and the Black Bottle

With one day in Seattle, I could only visit a few places. Luckily the hotel was close to Pike's Place Market, so a quick trip before the day began was easy to do. Mornings are a good time to walk through the Market before the crowds arrive, because it's easy to stop and take your time looking at what's for sale, which is a lot of the freshest most beautiful fish, shellfish, and salmon you're likely to see anywhere.

I love shellfish. When I lived in Seattle for the Twin Peaks and Citizen Baines' shoots, I was very happy. I'd fill up on fresh Kumomoto oysters, Dungeness crabs, and Penn Cove mussels. The oysters are delicious raw or in stews. The crabs are sold cooked or live. The mussels are easily steamed and eaten with a butter-garlic broth. While the vegetables in the Market come from many sources including California, the fish is local, coming no farther away than Alaska.

There are also fresh and dried flower stalls, bakeries, cheese shops, and a wonderful selection of small restaurants and coffee shops. A favorite place to stop is The Crumpet Shop (1503 1st Avenue between Pike & Pine, 206/682-1598) where the crumpets are freshly made and available with sweet (butter, honey, or preserves) or savory (tomatoes, pesto, cheese...) toppings. Come before 8:30am and the lattes are $1.50.

I walked over to the Market twice yesterday. Once by myself just as the stalls were opening. For breakfast I had a freshly steamed pork bao from Mee Sum Pastry (1526 Pike Place, 206/682-6780). The second time I brought part of our press junket group. Since Holly and Updesh are Brits and Parmesh is Indian, I wanted their expert opinion about the Crumpet Shop. I know I like them because of their top crust and chewy sweetness, but are they authentic? After several rounds of crumpets with butter, honey and butter, preserves, and cheddar cheese with sliced tomatoes, they agreed that they were authentic and delicious. We made a pact to come back today at 7:00am before we had to leave for Boeing Field to pick up our new 777-200LR.

We stopped for lunch at the Space Needle Restaurant, which is always fun. Although the view is picturesque, for anyone with motion-issues, slowly rotating as the city passes below can be challenging. We had a very nice lunch as our group got to know one another. With people coming from around the world (Alberquerque, New York, Mombai, Dubai, Doha, Los Angeles, and Seattle) we had a lot to talk about.

After lunch we visited Boeing's Museum of Flight (9404 East Marginal Way South, Seattle, WA 98108, 206/764-5700). Since we were about to tour the Boeing factory in Everett, it was great to get a brush up on aviation history. I still find it amazing that there are just 50 years between the Wright Brother's tentative efforts to achieve flight and the development of the Mach 3 SR-71 Blackbird.

One of our group, Betsy, used to live in Seattle and she suggested dinner at the Black Bottle (2600 1st Avenue at Vine, 206/441-1500) where we had wine and cocktails and shared a dozen gastro-pub dishes, including crispy butterflied seven spice shrimp, deep fried and battered Spanish fried olive, fried tofu with a sate sauce, sweet and tender cumin pork tenderloin with a frisee salad, fried sardines with spicy Indian slaw, braised and grilled artichoke hearts, coconut gelato with plantain fries, and a luridly rich, hot dark chocolate cake with a scoop of vanilla gelato hidden inside.

Given 24 hours in Seattle, this was a pretty great day.

Today we tour the Boeing plant and pick up Qatar Airways' second Boeing 777-200LR. Our plane will join its sister already in service. When Qatar begins its daily, nonstop service between Doha and Houston on March 30th, the 777-200LRs will make the trip in under 17 hours. Today's trip will be a bit shorter because we will fly a more northerly route.

For me this flight has several firsts: I've never flown longer than 8 hours, never been to the Middle East, and certainly have never ridden on a plane's maiden flight.

More to tell in the following posts. Tomorrow from Doha, Qatar.

Oh Nuts!

A huge thank you to from Tamara at Oh Nuts for sending me some fantastic goodies to sample!! I kept seeing Erin's dried kiwi and just had to try it (i had opened the package already...). Dried cantaloupe (on the right) was alos something that I don't know if I've ever seen in a store!

There was one piece of information that I looked for on the website, but didn't seem to find-- whether their dried fruits had added sugar. Turns out the cantaloupe does, and I have no idea about the kiwi. The first taste- the cantaloupe was way too sweet, almost cloyingly so. The kiwi however I did enjoy on its own, not too sweet or tart. And you don't have to peel them :) I eat enough fiber, don't need to eat fuzzyness!

With some snow in the forecast, I was inspired to make some cupcakes for work that could bring us to somplace warmer. I give you, Tropicakes :)

can you see the chunks of kiwi and cantaloupe?? :)

Tropicakes
adapted from this recipe
Yield: 12 cupcakes


heaping cup of chopped dried cantaloupe and kiwi
2c all-purpose flour (or half AP and half whole wheat)
1/4c granulated sugar
1 1/2t baking powder
1/2t baking soda
1t salt
2/3c light coconut milk
4T butter, melted (I used smart balance 50/50)
1/4c egg substitute and 2 egg whites, lightly beaten
zest of 1 lime
2T honey
2t pure vanilla extract


Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line a muffin tin with paper/foil liners (or use nonstick spray).

Combine dry ingredients (flour thru salt) in medium bowl.

Lightly beat egg whites and egg substitute in a large bowl. Add coconut milk and butter, whisk well. Add zest, honey, and vanilla and whisk until combined. Add flour mixture and stir until just combined. Fold in dried fruit. Divide batter evenly into 12 cups.

Bake for 16-20 minutes (mine were done at 16min), or until the tops are golden and a cake tester inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean. Transfer the pan to a rack to cool for 5 minutes before removing each muffin and placing on a wire rack to cool.

I brought these into work unfrosted, and brought along some frosting to add. (Thus no picture of the final product) Next time I think I'd just sprinkly coconut on top of the muffins before baking, as in the original recipe, as they were sweet enough :) Or maybe cream cheese frosting...

Travel Expands the Mind

Up until last year I didn't travel very much. The trips I took were to favorite places: LA to Sundance/Park City to be with my wife or LA to NY/NJ to see friends and family. I enjoyed these trips and looked forward to them. Getting away from LA made me hungry for adventures in other cities.

Last year I began to write for Peter Greenberg's terrific travel site. Peter and his editor-in-chief, Sarika Chawla, have been nice enough to send me on trips far and wide to write pieces as varied as a story about being a judge at a rib cookout in Sparks, Nevada and another about the wonderfully luxurious Sofitel Hotels in Los Angeles, New York, London, and Paris.

I am grateful for the opportunity to get outside of my regular routine. I discovered how much travel is good for the soul.

Which brings me to today. When I was going to travel to London and Paris I asked for suggestions. I wanted to know about favorite places, restaurants, locales that were meaningful to you. Over the next four weeks I am luckily going to take a series of trips for Peter and I'd love suggestions. Some are close at hand, others are very far a field. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Seattle, Washington. Doha, Qatar. Houston, Texas. Sonoma/Glenn Ellen, California. How often in a life-time does any one have the opportunity to visit such disparate places?

Years ago I worked on two TV shows (David Lynch's Twin Peaks 2 hour pilot and the pilot for a John Wells show, Citizen Baines) that were filmed in Seattle and the surrounding areas. I enjoyed the experiences very much. For this trip, I'm looking forward to revisiting some of my favorite places: Pike's Place Market and Torrefazione Italia, a coffee shop that makes the best cappucinio I have ever had.

I'm looking forward to these trips and I would benefit from your suggestions.

How to Cook Everything Vegetarian

I've been meaning to write about this book for awhile now, but I guess better late than never! Bittman's cookbook is a great resource, I have found myself going to if multiple times to learn about a new ingredient, cooking technique, or preparation ideas. An introduction into vegetarian basics, equipment and techniques is followed by pages and pages of recipes. This book is not for the light-hearted, weighing in 996 pages! It reminds me of an encyclopedia, as you can find information about new ingredients, information about various ways to cook said ingredient, and then variations on the theme. You can actually find the book on Google Book Search if you want to preview it.

Awhile back I made some Eggplant Gnocchi , a nice variation on the traditional pasta. Now that I have a potato ricer, I bet these would turn out even beter!!

Eggplant Gnocchi

Since then I've also tried Braised Tofu & Peas in Curried Coconut Milk, which I served over a mix of brown and wild rice. I was a little worried about this one, but I really enjoyed it!!

Braised Tofu & Peas in Curried Coconut Milk

After purchasing some miso for that hummus-turned-soup, I also prepared some Miso Smashed Potatoes & Edamame, which was delightful. I've been meaning to throw some edamame in there, and I'm glad I finally did!

Miso Smashed Potatoes & Edamame

It seems strange to call it a cookbook, as it's really so much more, but I think its a perfect addition to everyone's library! Let me know if you have any other specific questions :)


A few things before I leave...
--Check out Sabrina's recap of a Boston Blogger Meetup! Thanks to Tina for organizing!! I think everyone else has posted a recap too, so click away :)
--Don't forget to head on over to Healthy Tipping point for a RoadID giveaway--it could save your life!
--I made some notes on the Snowball recipe, as I tried out some substitutions to make them a bit healthier for Meghann's Bake Sale and they were still ever so yummy! Lisa wrote to tell me, "They are AWESOME!!!! As soon as I received the box, I had to dig in! Perfect consistency, great flavor...oh so addicting!!! They are very popular here!"