Eat Your Heart Out, Garfield

As I said in my last post, my lasagna is kinda famous. People love it so much, they want to have babies just so I'll make them one. Generally, I try to be modest, but one thing I'll own, completely and unwaveringly, is my ability to make a damn good lasagna. Take a look at the one I made this week (using the last of that beautiful marinara):

Is your mouth watering? It should be. This one is a bit healthier than my normal recipe. I used whole wheat noodles, mixed the ricotta with leftover tofu, and layered it with sliced zucchini.

The zucchini is from Jessica's garden. Remember Jessica? She's the apocalypse-proof urban homesteader, and she is growing mammoth zucchinis. She sent me home with a bag full, so the next few posts will involve zucchini in some form. Here's a shot of them, pre-lasagna:

Because this lasagna was so pretty, I have to show more pictures:

Let Me See Your Casserole

I'll just say this up front -- I'm not ashamed to be cheesy. When I came up with the title for this post, I was thinking of this early 90s classic. I'm not so good at booty dancing, but I am good at throwing together a bunch of ingredients in a Pyrex dish, topping them with cheese, and baking them for 30-45 minutes. Simply put, I love casseroles.*

So, despite the increasing June temperatures, it should come as no surprise that I made a casserole last Sunday. I made a variation on a spinach-rice caserole recipe that's in a Better Homes & Gardens vegetarian cookbook that my mom gave me. (It's probably as old as that rap video. I'm pretty sure it's the only vegetarian cookbook my mother has ever owned.)

Anyway, I used this kale from Karen's garden instead of spinach. Kale is definitely on its way out for the season, leaving these greens pretty bitter. Hence, the caserole was the best way to make them tasty.

The recipe also called for 8 oz. of tofu, and I used locally-made, non-GMO tofu from a little company called White Mountain. I know some people get weirded out by tofu, and I'm sure this picture will do it, with the bumps on the side. But trust me, if you're gonna go with tofu, this is the stuff to use:

I also used some of the marinara sauce, previously seen on the spaghetti squash. The final product was hot, cheesy, and delicious, the way a casserole should be. Unfortunately, it was hard to get a good plated shot of it, but you get the idea here:

*Over the years, I have had a number of roommates of South Asian decent, who have mothers who make amazing, non-casserole food.  When my roommate from grad school met another former roommate, she asked her about my casserole habit. It was pretty funny.

Love and Kindness from Start to Finish, part 2

Friday night's dinner offered more than salad. I started the evening making a huge batch of marinara sauce, according to my Italian grandma's recipe. This sauce is best in the summer when I can make it with fresh, seasonal tomatoes and herbs. This time, I didn't have enough tomatoes for an entire pot of sauce, so I used canned sauce. But the fresh basil and oregano from Karen's garden gave it a fragrant twist. Here's a shot of the herbs:

Unfortunately, big pots of sauce aren't very photogenic. But ask any good Italian, and s/he will tell you it's the most beautiful site in the world. Such is how I feel about this photo:

Rosalie had a spaghetti squash that we decided to bake and eat with the sauce. I'm not sure how long she had it... Those kinds of squashes have long shelf lives, right? Anyway, it tasted delicious with the red sauce paired excellently with the salad. Here is the final product:

Love and Kindness from Start to Finish, Part 1

If I were to choose someone who is kindness personified, it would be my friend Karen. Today, I went over to her house to get some much-discussed kale. There wasn't much kale left, as it is on its way out for the season. Karen ended up giving me cucumbers, lettuce, basil, and oregano, too. She lives only a few blocks away -- only about a 10 minute walk from house. When it started to drizzle, she insisted on driving me home. She might just be the nicest person I know.

With all this garden-grown goodness, I was inspired to make a full dinner, and my roommate Rosalie spontaneously joined in. While all three of my roommates are good friends, we don't often eat together. It was really nice to share food tonight, and Rosalie and I put together a lovely salad and spaghetti squash with marinara sauce.

For tonight's post, I'll focus on the salad. (I'll post on the spaghetti squash tomorrow.) Here's the lettuce, which was a tad bitter (greens get more bitter as they adjust to the summer heat), but it was still quite edible:

And here are the cucumbers. Aren't they cute? The yellow tomatoes are also local. They're from Johnson's Backyard Garden here in Austin. I bought them at Wheatsville.

Rosalie made the salad dressing out garlic, ginger, honey, and olive oil. It turned out sweet and tangy, which balanced out the bitter greens. The sweet, fresh flavors from the cucumbers and tomatoes complimented the dressing, and I topped the salad with sliced almonds to give it a nice crunch. It was one of the best salads I've ever made, plus it made some pretty pictures:

The New Adventures of Old Zucchini

If you are a Facebook friend or a Twitter follower of mine, you've most likely seen these pictures already (and you're probably the only people who read this blog, so excuse the cross-cross-posting). But I had such fun with the zucchini-squash fritters (recipe from Smitten Kitchen), I figured I should post the pictures here.

The first night, I topped them with a lovely fried egg from Vital Farms. (When I can't get eggs from Ryan, I get Vital Farms eggs from Wheatsville Co-op.) A fried egg is the perfect topping -- the runny yolk soaked into the fritters. Words can't really describe it, honestly.

Two days later, I heated some up in the toaster oven -- they save and reheat much better than I expected. I topped them with some of Julie's tomatoes, Greek yogurt, and backyard basil.

The zucchini and squash came from my friends Jess and Jeremy. As I am now in the habit of describing my friends as sustainable food archetypes, the term urban homesteaders best applies to Jess and Jeremy. Their pioneering spirit means they'd also be good people to know during the apocalypse.

They plan to eventually run their own farm, but for now, they're managing a hefty backyard garden. Jess has taken to canning and pickling much of her garden produce, so I hope to feature some of her home-made pickles in later posts. In the mean time, I'm happy to put her fresh zucchini to use.

Omelets: How to Deal with the Aftermath

While I am trying to incorporate as much locally grown food into my diet, I'm also trying to eat up all my leftovers, something I've been bad at in the past. The problem with leftovers is that I get tired of eating the same thing over and over again, but there's one foolproof way to make them into something new and satisfying: omelets.

A good omelet starts with good eggs. Austin has a backyard chicken craze, and I know a lot of people raising chickens in town. One happens to be my next door neighbor Ryan. If Julie is a classy Renaissance woman, then Ryan is a mountain man on crack. He has raised pigs, ducks, and calves, slaughtered them, and roasted them -- all in his backyard. His backyard. I'm just happy to keep a basil plant alive, while this guy has pretty much maintained a farm. He also throws really great parties, and when the apocalypse happens, I hope I still live next door to him because he will not only help us survive but provide beer as well.

Anyway, he has a number of chickens roaming around our yards and has graciously shared some of the eggs. Take a look at 'em:

I know that second photo isn't very good but take a close look at that yolk. It is bright orange. If you examine a factory farm egg's yolk, it will be a pale yellow. It's the difference in nutrients. True free range chickens get a lot more nutrients than factory farm chickens, and it's the lovely yolks that make farm-fresh eggs taste so good.

Here's the final product:

 

I topped it with leftover tomato-caper sauce and shaved parmagiano. Inside is leftover avocado. I added green beans from the other night, making for a hearty lunch. 

Oh, the Joys of Cucumber Juice

My brave friend Anslee recently completed a 60-day juice fast. (Read about here.) Out of solidarity with her and masochistic curiosity, I joined her for a week back in March. I bought a juicer and experimented with different recipes. Now that I'm back to eating solid food as God intended, I still juice from time to time (that machine was expensive!), and it's a great way to use up fruits and veggies that are starting to get a little too ripe.

This morning, I made a cucumber, pear, and apple juice for breakfast, and it was delicious! The cucumbers came from Julie's garden. I'm going to say a little bit about Julie, a true Renaissance Woman. But first, take a look at these cucumbers:

The green one was about 18 inches long. The other was a white cucumber and about 3 inches long and about 2 inches wide.

Julie uses the French Intensive gardening method, which is as intense as the name suggests. Not only does she manage a garden, but she cooks most of her meals from scratch, is getting a PhD in economics, volunteers with local non-profits to trap stray cats for spaying and neutering, and voluntarily does the accounting for our church. Oh, and did I mention that she's about to give birth to her first child any day now?

I can only hope my meals live up to Julie's high standards, and I try very hard to make sure I use all the vegetables she gives me. I foolishly let these cucumbers sit in my fridge too long, so juicing seemed a good idea. I added an apple and two pears, plus some lime juice and bit of the backyard basil, to make this lovely concoction:

Clarifications

Before I write about today's culinary adventure, I thought I clarify a few things:

1. I'm not a good photographer.
I know everyone but me has an Instagram account, and that means people can make their photos look professional just by making them grainy. But let's face it - they're just kidding themselves. They're as bad as I am. The difference is that I don't have a smart phone. Instead, I'm borrowing a fancy camera from a friend (who actually is a professional), and I'm terrible at using it. But, hey, this is just a little experiment while I'm funemployed, so I don't really care if the photos are professional looking.

2. Why am I doing this exactly?
Because I really like cooking with garden-fresh vegetables. For the past four years, I've been experimenting with garden veggies that friends gave me. This year, I got lots of kale, and I used it in everything from quiche to baked ziti to cole slaw with tamari dressing. Then in April, I took a crappy photo of the breakfast tomatoes (made with kale) and put it on Facebook. People liked it, so I thought I'd keep making updates. I really enjoy cooking and talking about food, and if I can encourage people to eat locally and seasonally, all the better. 


3. Why didn't I create a new cooking blog?
In short, because I'm lazy. This little blog was a place for my snarky rants for a few years, then I abandoned it for grad school. I didn't want to bother with a new account, and everyone has a Tumblr, so I thought I'd be "old school" and go back to Blogspot. Google already knows everything about me anyway, so they might as well know what I'm eating, too.

Not So Lazy in the Kitchen

Food would be the one thing that would get me to revive this sucker.

My latest hobby is cooking with seasonal, locally grown fruits and veggies. I've had a few Facebook and Twitter updates featuring some mighty tasty dinners, and those have all garnered some interest. I figured I needed to do more than social media, but there's a thousand cooking blogs out there. I know I won't have the next Smitten Kitchen.

Bu for the few friends who are interested, I thought this might be the best place to give some updates. As soon as I have the library job of my dreams, this little experiment in eating locally will probably go the wayside of my many other blogging endeavors. In the mean time, here is a crappy phone photo of the dinner that started it all:

.

I call them "Breakfast Tomatoes," and these were almost entirely local to Central Texas, with kale and eggs from neighbors and goat feta from Pure Luck Dairy in Dripping Springs, Texas. The tomatoes most likely came from a hothouse in West Texas. Recipe courtesy of NPR's Kitchen Window.

Bananarchy and Chaos In the Blogospshere!

I occasionally write food feature stories for The Onion/Austin Decider website. I've had a lot of fun with it, met some inspiring Austinites, stirred up some controversy, and now I've helped get a local food cart get some national buzz. My recent story on Bananarchy has been re-blogged. Several times.

Videogum

Entertainment Weekly

Comedy Central

And I know. The chocolate banana in the photo looks like a penis. Enough already.

My Beef with Top Chef

I consider myself a practical foodie. I like accessible, affordable, and healthy food. I enjoy eating out and learning more about the palate. I'm an amateur home cook and a semi-professional local restaurant critic (professional only when The Onion decides to print my reviews, which isn't all that often).

So with this healthy obsession with good food, it's no surprise that I'm addicted to Bravo's Top Chef. The contestants on the show are high caliber, and the judges are the best of the best of the culinary world. I can only be in awe of the people on this show.

However, I have some issues with the show:

• The Judges: Sometimes, I think the judges are too critical. I guess if my palate was as refined and I was being paid oodles of money to criticize food on television, I'd probably be a downright bitch, too. But they don't seem to enjoy the food at all. It can't be that bad. Sometimes it looks disgusting, but really, it can't be as terrible as they say it is. I think they exaggerate for the camera.
  
  
• Padma: She does have some expertise, but for someone who has a BA in theater and no culinary training, I have a hard time trusting her as much as the other judges. She's my least favorite aspect of the show, but she's a supermodel, so she's not going anywhere. (Side note, Top Chef needs a Tim Gunn, a mentor who helps the contestants along but doesn't judge them.)
  
  
• The Challenges: They are put under immense pressure during these ridiculous challenges. That's why it's good television. But sometimes, I wish the judges would take the challenges into account. I mean, it's got to be nearly impossible to create Thanksgiving dinner using toaster ovens, microwaves, and one burner. Ridiculous. I don't think they should make the challenges easier, but the judges should keep the challenge and conditions in mind when they judge the food.
  
  
• This Week's Elimination: I'm most disappointed with the outcome as last night's show. Arianne was sent home because she made a poor lamb dish. But she was on a team that let her down. For those not watching the show, Arianne was on a team with two contestants who seem to have a romantic/sexual chemistry. I have a conspiracy theory that the producers encouraged the judges to oust Arianne because they want to develop the Hosea-Leah storyline. If so, it's bull shit and I thought Top Chef was a more highbrow competition reality show.

Needless to say, I'm bummed that Arianne is gone. But I'll keep watching for now.

More on the Food Issue

The New York Times has published a few op-eds on the future of agriculture and food in this country. (Read them here and here.)

I keep thinking that in the next 50 years, the United States must become more agrarian simply to survive. Sometimes I play out a scenario of an environmental and economic apocalypse that destroys life as we know. Not life itself. People will keep living, but we won't be living this way. It's more than gardening, recycling, changing our lightbulbs. It's systemic. And we've got to do more.

If you're interested, take a good look at the Food Democracy Now website and read some of Michael Pollan's books. I think we can actually make some changes through grassroots politics. But we've got to do something.

Food Democracy Now

Not everybody takes the time to read something like The Omnivore's Dilemma, but if you know anything about the sad state of agriculture in this country and want to see it change, you might be interested in this: http://www.fooddemocracynow.org

This petition aims to get influential reformers positions as Under Secretaries in the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The site explains it better than I can.

All I know is that the Obama administration has a unique opportunity here, and we should do what we can to encourage them to make some needed changes.

New Food Blogs

I've added a new blog: The Culinary Purveyors of Austin, sharing the good news of good food to the city of Austin. I've wanted to try my hand at writing as a food critic, and I'd like to write for local publication. I figured a blog was a good way to get some initial experience, though without the sexy intrigue of printed clips.

It is primarily focused on Austin-area restaurants and eateries - no chains or franchises outside the city. I'm keepin it weird and local. I also want contributors, so if you're an Austinite with good taste, let me know and I'll consider adding you. Non-Austinite friends, if you ever decide to visit me, feel free to use this as resource.

Let the eating begin!