I LOVE PB

I'm pretty sure it's no big secret that I'm a little obsessed with nut butters.  And, while I love me a good almond butter, I maintain that there is nothing like the original -- that being peanut butter.  And so it should not surprise you that the best restaurant meal I've had in a pretty long while came from this place.

My partners in peanutty crime:

I highly recommend going with a group of people because then you can share!  We got 3 different sandwiches, each of which comes with a baby bag of potato chips (to balance out the largely sweet sandwiches), and carrot sticks (so you feel healthy! (ha!)).

#1: The Elvis.  As I learned from their menu, Elvis liked PB and banana sandwiches.  Who doesn't?  Anyway, this was an ode to the King with chunky PB (our choice... we chose chunky for them all, as well as whole wheat), banana, and honey, GRILLED.  Awesome.  Optional bacon.  Next time...

#2: Cinnamon Raisin Swirl Sandwich: Cinna-raisin PB with vanilla cream cheese and green apple slices.  The one I was least excited about, and the one I liked the most.  I have no words.  The vanilla cream cheese was basically icing.  It all just worked.

#3: The monthly special!  Affectionately dubbed "The Freya" for its extreme likeness to all of my favorite foods.  Chunky PB, coconut, and granola.  

"Kristen, make sure it looks like we're friends."

I requested that it be unnamed The Freya because it was kind of disappointing.  PB&Co, if you're reading this, it was too dry.  Needed some raspberry jam, according to my advanced palate.

I came home from the store with a container of Dark Chocolate Dreams PB, and managed to eat half of it in a week.  I was disturbed and managed to slow down a bit.  It doesn't need to be refrigerated, but I have been keeping it cold so that it comes out in globs or chunks, rather than being spreadable.  My version of portion control.  Makes it harder to slather the stuff on every edible item in my kitchen.  But it does make it ideal for oatmeal!  And yes, you can buy it at many grocery stores.  But don't say I didn't warn you... you will never want to put your spoon down.

Holy Blogging Backup, Batman!

I am a bad blogger!  Again!  It's been weeks!  Sorry.  You see, I finally started working the hours of a normal person again, and I've been thrown into a state of shock.  (You mean, I need to wake up before 8?  And I can't take a 3 hour lunch break to go to the gym and cook an elaborate lunch?  And I need to put on clothes other than my stretchy black pants?  Oh, goodness.  For the sake of yoga pants, give me my old schedule back!)

In all honesty, I'm actually totally happy to be working more again.  My last project really only kept me busy about 4 hours a day, so I had lots of flexibility to mold my day as I wished.  Sometimes I was really productive, and sometimes I was decidedly not.  While I guess I miss having the option to be lazy, I am a happier person when I'm kept busy.  And I like this new project!  It has me working from home full time, so no more weekly travel, and it's a role that's a really good fit for me.

I guess that brings me to a couple of points about the blog overall.  I started this with the underlying theme that I (1) run and (2) travel far away for work.  Neither of which are really true anymore.  As for (1), I have a knee injury, and there's a pretty good chance I'm going to need surgery.  BUMMER and a half.  The half-marathon I thought I would be training for is this weekend, and I'm a little sad about it.  I have a love/hate relationship with running, where I hate actually doing it (unless it's a perfect day outside), but I love love love the way it makes me feel.  Sorry, elliptical, but you're pretty lame.  I'm nervous to get back into running, and I may just... not.  We'll see.  Maybe I'll learn to love biking?  Or I'll move to California and swim the days away!  OK, enough daydreaming about my glamorous life on the west coast.  As for (2), I'm working from "home," so I either literally am in my apartment, or I go to the office.  (The office where no one knows me.  I just go for the land line.)  No more airplanes for me!  Goodbye, LGA!  So long, DFW!  Auf wiedersehen, Hilton!  ANYWAY, I think my point is that this blog needs a new theme.  Any thoughts?  It can just be "food I feel like sharing" or it can be more idiosyncratic than that.  Just curious what my readers (readers?) think.

So, now you'd like some actual subject matter?  Fair enough.  I give you: Foodie Events of the Past Two Months!  Since I used too many words up above, I'm going to make this part more like a picture book.
TOP CHEF: UPPER EAST SIDE, Season 2!  The theme:  Every cheftestant was assigned a Manhattan neighborhood to use as inspiration for a dish of their choosing.

Our esteemed judges begin the tastings.

 

Bonnie prepares her (award-winning) sandwich duos.  Neighborhood: TriBeCa.  Her inspiration: small plates, gourmet sandwiches, trendy flavor combinations and preparations.  The food: mini sandwiches.  #1 was Asian-inspired and contained pickled veggies, hard-boiled tea egg, homemade pesto sauce, and watercress.  #2 was Roman-themed and contained a homemade tomato spread, prosciutto, some sort of cheese, and now I'm hard-pressed to remember the other ingredients.  Help?  Both on Ciabatta.  Both amazing.

 

It's hard to see, but the plate toward the very front has Alex's Times Square-inspired frittata.  Neighborhood: Times Square.  Inspiration: bright, colorful.  Veggie and cheese frittatas baked in muffin tins!  The other plates toward the center are Katies.  Neighborhood: Union Square.  Inspiration: the Green Market.  All ingredients came straight from the farmers' market!  Fresh whole wheat pasta with roasted carrots and parsnips with farm fresh ricotta.

 

Here's a totally flattering picture of my dish.  Neighborhood: Washington Heights.  Inspiration: Dominican food.  Rice and beans!  I used plain old white rice, sofrito (my new favorite ingredient), black beans, tomato paste, peppers, onions, and not a whole lot else!  This was the recipe I used.  It got a little burned on the bottom, but was otherwise tasty!

 

Sadly, I did not get close-ups of everything.  Here's what I missed: 

Amanda -- Neighborhood: Upper West Side.  Inspiration: Jewish food!  Horseradish crusted salmon, string beans, and mini apple walnut wontons/turnovers.  She wins for most components attempted at once.

Diane -- Neighborhood: Chelsea.  Inspiration: Chelsea Piers.  A MARK BITTMAN scallop gumbo!  It was amazing.  As expected.  Diane and I are totally obsessed with Mr. Bittman, and I can attest to the fact that this was SO easy to make, as we cooked side by side.

Ariel -- Neighborhood: East Village.  Inspiration: crunchy hippie foods, variety, Asian fusion.  Turkey-stuffed tofu dumplings.  So creative!

After the tastings...

Winners were announced!  Bonnie won for staying most true to her neighborhood.  The judges felt that you could walk into any Tribeca restaurant and find her dish on the menu.  She won plastic pizza storage baggies!  How funny is that?

Katie used one to take home leftovers.  Not just for pizza!

Diane won for best overall.  When Bittman's on your side, all is well.  I wish I had gotten a pic of her gumbo, but perhaps we will make it again.  Her prize was a cute little piggy spatula.  I will get a pic of that guy later.

OK, going to breeze through the rest of this, but I will say this: MAX BRENNER.  YOU MUST GO.  I will admit that I have not been blown away by the food food, but get dessert.  It's amazing.  I took my little brother for the 2nd time, and we had fun.

He got hot chocolate with marshmallows in the adorable hug mug.

I got iced coffee, a la Alice in Wonderland.

And then... I couldn't resist...

OATMEAL!  It had chocolate chips and cinnamon and butterscotch sauce in a beaker and candied pecans.  It was out of this world.  And so defeated the purpose of oats.

I have one last adventure to recount, but I'm saving it for next time.  Just know that it involves what I think may be my favorite food ever. You know, that amazing condiment that I happen to think qualifies as its own food group...

PEANUT BUTTER!

Return of the Oats

I am singing that title in my head, like, "Return of the Mack," just so you know.

GOODBYE, PESACH!  HELLO, OATS!

Oat bran, to be exact.  I got so excited that I actually forgot that I have fresh fruit in the house and ended up putting some dried cherries on top, and a spoon of almond butter.  Until I remembered my favorite topping.

BITTMAN GRANOLA!  Yumyum.  Then halfway through I remembered the blackberries that I bought myself as a treat for keeping Passover, and I sprinkled some of those on too.  Then I went for a double whammy and added some chocolate PB from Peanut Butter & Co.  Has that been photographed yet?  I feel like maybe not.  I have a few food adventures to post, actually.  Coming up soon, for sure.  Anyway, my return to carbs was nothing short of heaven.

I'm not going to back to posting all my meals, but I thought this lunch was funny.  My first post-Passover lunch, packed to go back to the office:

Why is this funny?  Because it's entirely kosher for Passover.  Ummmm, what?  How?  WHY?  I asked myself all of these questions, and then answered them by bringing along a baggie of cereal for the yogurt, just out of principle. And a cookie that Allison baked over the weekend.  Despite being entertainingly kosher, this salad was actually great.  Spinach, roasted beets, carrots, and onions, walnuts, and a splash of balsamic.  Could have used some mustard mixed in too.

Moving backward in time now, in the final days of Passover, I reached a point of desperation/boredom.  So I got creative.  I know it's over and I said I wouldn't "dwell," but I was actually pleased with the outcome of creativity meeting hunger meeting Passover:

Ants on a log, of course!  And something I was reluctant to try...

Sweet potato with cottage cheese.  Ultimately, my suspicions were correct... that I'm not crazy about the idea of warm yogurt/cottage cheese/milk.  Flavor-wise it totally worked, like sour cream on a baked potato, I guess (I added raisins too, so that it would feel more like a dessert... or a kugel?), but unless it's being baked, I want my dairy cold.  I may take this back when someone reminds of something I really love, like a cappuccino or something.  But I will maintain that it's different.

One of my mom's go-to Passover meals is spaghetti squash with meatballs, so I opted for an easier version of that, since I'm just serving one and I got lazy on the protein front.

I found a baby spaghetti squash at in the Fairway organics section, literally the size of a mini Nerf football.  It was adorable.  So I nuked it for 4 minutes, scooped out the insides, mixed it with some frozen/thawed tomato sauce, and then melted some reduced fat mozzarella cheese on top in the microwave.  Sort of reminded me of something I would have made in college (mostly because the microwave was my main source of heat), but it was delicious, and that's all that matters.  How come gooey melty cheese is so ugly?

The foodie events, as promised, coming up next.

Countdown to Carbs

Note: wrote the below yesterday.  Passover is officially OVAH and I came back strong with a huge bowl of oat bran and granola this morning.  Will post that later!

Today I looked longingly at a box of Wheat Thins for maybe a minute and a half.  But I did not yield to their carby power!  Only a few more hours.  Not sure why I'm having so much trouble with Passover this year, but I certainly am.

I would like to take a moment to thank a Passover savior of this year.

Terra Chips are awesome in general, but especially so when potatoes are pretty much your only source of carbohydrates.  I think they make kosher for Passover potato chips, but let's not get into particulars here.  I'm not that strict.  Potatoes, oil, and salt are the only ingredients, so it's good in my book.  Although, I did see many Terra brand chips with active yeast in the ingredient list!  Leavened much?  So unnecessary.

After days and days of salads, I decided to switch it up by cooking my greens.  Do I know how to think outside the box, or what?  I had had a very snacky day (oh, working from home, why do you let me snack me so much?!), so I opted for a light dinner of two of my favorite foods.

OK, three if you count the Annie's BBQ sauce that I am more or less in love with.  I made baked sweet potato fries with EVOO, paprika, and an overly ambitious dash of cayenne, apparently.  Oops.  I also bought a nice stiry-fry greens mix that came from Satur Farms, which is a local greens farm out on Long Island.  I like Earthbound Farms a lot, and I think they're a responsible company, but I would rather get my food from NY than CA.  (Hmmm, after a little research, it seems like maybe they also have Florida farms.  Still better than Cali, I think!)

The mix contained bok choy, swiss chard, rapini, kale, kohlrabi, and I think some mustard greens. I just put a little canola oil in a big pot, covered to let the greens wilt down a little, then removed the cover and tossed 'em around a little.  Served with lemon juice, salt, pepper, and pine nuts.  I was CRAVING greens and that totally did the trick.

I regret to inform you that I am looking at a bunch of other great meals on my camera and wondering how I managed to forget the USB cord.  (I came to the "mobile employees" office today for the first time in months.)  I will either get to it later, or just let it slide.  We'll see how delicious I still think they are later.

Sticking with the theme of favorites, I have a new sorbet!  It was on sale at Whole Foods, so I splurged, but take a look at this!

That COLOR!  It's like mostly raspberries and has 3g fiber per serving.  YAY for at least kind of nutritious dessert!  The top is a screw-on, which means I might be rinsing this out and using it for storage of things I buy in bulk, lentils or something.  Reduce, reuse, recycle!  Nerd alert.  Also, in case I wasn't seeming nerdy enough yet, I taught myself how to write a macro in Word yesterday using internet instructions!  AND it made my day.  Onward to bread!

Passover Continues

No?  Not over yet?  Hm.  OK, fine, I'm still truckin'.

I've been enjoying some aspects of the holiday, like the way it almost forces you to eat whole foods, but I've been kind of low energy because I can't eat any whole grains!  I was running around all of Saturday on a scavenger hunt (yup, a scavenger hunt), and I was BEAT by the end of it.  I realized that I had pretty much only eaten protein and fruit all day, which really doesn't cut it for me.  I actually had a coke (!) at dinner because I felt like I needed sugar in my system STAT.  It helped.  And it came in an adorable glass bottle.

Anyway, Passover food.  I keep mentally referring to my breakfasts as Fiesta Bowls because they've been so bright and colorful, but I realize that might be the name of a Taco Bell offering or something.

This fiesta is black cherry yogurt, strawberries, 1/2 banana, and a hearty dose of Trader Joe's new trail mix.  OMG best trail mix ever!  Almonds, cashews, pistachios, dried cherries, and dark chocolate chips.  It's like they read my mind!  Delish.

And then we have LEFTOVERS!  I decided to eat my mom's leftovers for lunch so that I could take a pretty picture for you.  Not that brisket ever really finds a flattering lighting situation, but this is world's better than a flash and gives my mama's food its due justice!

And that right there might be the reason I am no longer a vegetarian.  I'm not kidding.  Brisket really factored in there.  FYI my mom still puts marshmallows in the sweet potatoes for me and my brother.  It's just not the same without it!  I actually should get that recipe.  There's some OJ and a touch of butter mashed in, but I'm not sure what else.

Once the leftovers had been gobbled up, I came to the sad realization that I would have to prepare my own meals again.  Wah.  I did a sort of repeat of a previous lunch one day, but I upped the ante from the last time.

Spinach, avocado, orange bell pepper, salmon salad, walnuts (awesome choice), and a balsamic/grain mustard dressing.

Then I made CHAROSET!  This is one of two Passover foods I crave year-round -- the other being matzoh ball soup, of course.  ALWAYS good.  Anyway, charoset is super healthy, super easy, and really, something you should make, holidays or not.

Traditional Charoset
This is definitely adapted from some classic Jewish holiday cookbook my mom has, but I couldn't tell you what it's called.  Will work on it.


Ingredients:
3 large apples, any variety, peeled, cored, and quartered (personally, I think peeling is optional)
1 cup walnuts
1/3 cup sweet red wine
2-3 tsp honey
1 tsp cinnamon

Method:
1. Add apples and walnuts to food processor and pulse until coarsely chopped.
2. Add remaining ingredients and pulse until desired consistency.

So, er, voila!  Pretty simple.  As you can see, I like mine pretty chunky, but some people process the stuff until it's more like a paste or a dip.  Just taste as you go.

Mmmmmmatzoh.  (Blargh.)  It's also pretty awesome by the spoonful.  Don't feel like you need a food vehicle to get this to your mouth.

I have a few more Passover treats and meals to share, so maybe I'll even get to a 2nd post tonight.  I mean, it ends tomorrow, and I wouldn't want to dwell once it has passed... :)

Happy bread day tomorrow!

A Week Without Fiber

Fine, maybe I'm being melodramatic with this post title, but Passover started on Monday night, and I'm already feeling that major lack of fiber in my life.  For those of you unfamiliar with the holiday, let me just say that matzoh is not known for its digestive benefits.  It's more like eating glue in cracker form.  Actually, I kind of enjoy the taste, especially egg matzoh and, well, chocolate-covered matzoh, but I've already got a hankering for oatmeal and BREAD.  I mean, toast is probably my favorite food.

As many of you know, this blog started with a challenge.  I think it would be fair to say that keeping Kosher for Passover is a food challenge in and of itself, so I am returning to my roots to bring you a week(ish) of daily posts about my Passover meals.  I hope that this can be some inspiration to those of you keeping Kosher, and a glimpse into the holiday for the rest!

I spent a couple of days at my parents' house for the start of the holiday and our "seder" (I use the term loosely), so I was well-fed and have leftovers that will make an appearance in a later post.  Score!

My biggest problem during Passover is usually breakfast.  That and protein.  Beans and all other legumes are out, which means protein has to come from nuts, dairy, eggs, fish, and meat.  You've probably noticed I love me some legumes (peanuts, lentils, and chickpeas, oh my!), and they tend to be the basis of my diet.  So I've had to adapt, mostly by way of yogurt, fish, and mooching brisket from my mama!

On day 1 I had lemon yogurt with banana, strawberries, blueberries, and blackberries at home.  I missed having some crunch, but the variety of flavors helped.  I've had some variation of that breakfast for the past 2 days also, just with plain yogurt.  Yesterday I added trail mix, and today I added flax seed, which I contemplated for a while, deciding finally that it's probably kosher.  I went against my seasonal shopping rules and bought strawberries because they were on sale and I thought I deserved it.

Whilst at home, I also employed my brother to make macaroons with me.  These were a cinch, and so delicious!  I literally just used the first recipe I found online for almond macaroons, but it was a success.  I mean, the recipe is from Gourmet, after all.

Almond Macaroons

from Gourmet magazine

Ingredients:

1 cup blanched whole almonds (I used slivered, since I was grinding them up anyway)

2/3 cup sugar (I used somewhere between 1/2 cup and 2/3)

1 large egg white

1/4 tsp almond extract (we didn't have that, so we used vanilla)

confectioners sugar for dusting

16 whole almonds (to press into the tops... I tried a couple with the slivered almonds but gave up)

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. and lightly butter a baking sheet.

2. In a food processor pulse 1 cup almonds with granulated sugar until ground fine. Add egg white, almond extract, and a pinch salt and pulse until combined. Roll mixture into 16 balls, about 1 inch in diameter, and arrange about 2 inches apart on baking sheet. Slightly flatten balls and dust lightly with confectioners' sugar. Gently press 1 almond into each cookie

3. Bake macaroons in middle of oven 10 minutes, or until pale golden (more like 15 mins). Transfer macaroons to a rack and cool completely. Macaroons keep 4 days in an airtight container at room temperature.

All right, so I'm good with breakfast and dessert.  Now on to lunch!

Canned salmon!  I was really glad I thought of this one.  It's such a fast protein.  I mashed it up with some canola oil mayo, dijon mustard, horseradish, diced carrots, celery, red onion, and green bell pepper.  Over spinach, with mushrooms, avocado, and a homemade vinaigrette of olive oil, balsamic, and more mustard.

When I was home, my mom and I made chicken salad with mayo, celery, walnuts, and dried cranberries (if you're looking for more ideas!).  Will blog some leftovers later!