Fresh Cracked Pepper

In case you haven’t noticed, I haven’t been blogging much. My excuses include work, Ironman training, and my new favorite time-suck, Pinterest (which apparently is changing the way people blog).

Though I haven’t been cooking and baking up a storm like I did when I started this ‘lil site, we haven’t been lacking in the good food department. There are plenty of places to try speckled along our stretch of California beach (I smell bacon on my whole bike ride to work each morning, mingled with the smell of sea and campfire), and the hubby’s been cooking a lot more. The best part? He seems to genuinely enjoy it. I get frequent eggy breakfasts upon returning home from 6 a.m. Masters swims, and in the last month he’s been known to whip up osso bucco, or lamb tongue/beef heart stew on weeknights. Currently, he’s making his own bitters. NICE.

But there is one “recent” favorite I thought I’d share with you: a wee little appetizer we cooked for friends on New Year’s Eve … our foodiest yet, spent with our charcuterie and French technique master friend Chris (and his excellent sous chef, Rebecca.) We chose these Stuffed Prunes of Buen Appetito, which we discovered on The Splendid Table radio program and cooked for our parents a few Christmases ago. Here’s a little preview:

Soak prunes in a briny, wine-y marinade, stuff Dijon mustard and a macadamia nut inside, stuff with a prawn and wrap in a slabs of fatty bacon? You can’t really go wrong with that. (OK, I’ve been watching too much Bourdain.) But you must admit, they do look appetizing. And that is the job of an appetizer, non? Anyway, this was just the beginning of a night of memorable, yet classic, subdued flavors, which we sampled well past the turning of the calendar to 2012.

There’s the master chef at work…

After welcoming an iPhone 4S into my repertoire I haven’t been toting the fancy camera around much. But that’s no reason to stop blogging, and I’m going to try to be a bit more regular, even with just good old Instagram and Camera+ at my disposal. Here’s a peek into the other dishes that satiated us into a new year.

We started with duck confit with mixed greens and pomegranate,

accompanied by a fine selection of cheeses of course.

Then we transitioned into crab bisque with puff pastry lids,

and finished off the night (and 2011) with all-day-long poached pears (in red wine, anise, cinnamon, and cloves) with pistachio nuts and full-fat Greek yogurt:

Winnipeg’s chill was offset by the warm, luxurious flavors, and the meal was a great send-off as we headed back to San Diego the next day. More to come, but for now, the recipe for the prunes, below.

Continue reading ‘stuffed prunes of Buen Appetito’

Posted in appetizers
Tags: beef heart, dijon mustard

I used to read food blogs on a daily basis, and subscribe to (and yes, read) Cook’s Illustrated. I even made their chicken once. Baking and cooking used to play a much more central role in my life. I even started this wacky thing called a food blog.

All that was before getting a grown-up job (sort of ) and moving to California, where my secondary hobby, triathlon, staged an uprising and usurped Suzie Homemaker. These days, we do consume more meals out, but we also make far more simple meals that don’t require recipes. Because of that, and spending far more time in front of a computer screen than when I started out, freshcrackedpepper has quieted down significantly. But thanks to the recent encouragement of some fell0w fitness-minded friends (you know who you are), I’ve decided that I’m not ready to let it die just yet.

(And, for someone who used to be an obsessive journal-keeper, this blog also serves as an interesting record of my no-longer-journal-obsessed life. The other night Mark and I were trying to figure out when we’d become friends with a certain couple, and what did I do? I checked the blog. There they were! “…a tempting invitation from friends to come over and eat chocolate cake all afternoon kept me away.”)

Anyway, onto the food.

Now that I’m finished my main races of the year (Oceanside and Orangeman) and triathlon training has taken a backseat to yoga and TRX and a new run focus, we’ve started cooking more. There’s been lentil soup and butternut squash soup and pumpkin muffins and muesli (most made without consulting a recipe). I’m focused less on perfection, and more on the creative act of throwing things together. Just the other day I said to Mark, “we have to keep cooking like this when I’m training for Ironman in the spring!” One can dream.

And, thanks to Anthony Bourdain’s fun techniques episode of “No Reservations,” we’ve rediscovered roast chicken. My response to a good, simple roast chicken, is always “why don’t we make this more often?” Seriously. It makes the house smell like a holiday and makes me crave pumpkin pie or some other delicious dessert my mother makes that’s no longer part of my life.

I want to offer you two ridiculously easy methods of roasting a bird. Neither of them require a special pan. Neither of them require trussing (though you can if you want to). Neither of them require anything but a 3-4 pound roasting chicken (go organic for the best texture and flavor), some salt, pepper, and that spice simply made for chicken: thyme. Dried or fresh, no matter. The first is for those of you who own a Bundt pan and wondered what else you could possible do with it besides make ridiculously delicious cinnamon coffee cake. The second is for those of you who own a cast-iron pan, or other oven-safe skillet. Both are equally simple and yield a tender bird with temptingly crispy skin.

So wherever you are on the food preparation spectrum, from microwaving Trader Joe’s meals to becoming the next Thomas Keller, these two methods will restore your confidence. They did mine.

Courtesy of glutenfreegirl.com

Continue reading ‘simple roast chicken’

Posted in high protein, mains, meat, technique

You wouldn’t know it by hanging out around this blog, but there’s been a whole lotta great food in our lives lately. Since my tango with the Paleo diet came to an end (R.I.P.), I’ve returned to eating a healthy, well-balanced diet( with a new appreciation for tasty animals, and a better showing of the vegetable kingdom throughout my day). I must say, however, that I am enjoying eating the things I love again, and I still feel great.

Photo courtesy of www.kayaksoup.blogspot.com

One of the best things about being lucky enough to have the wide wide world of food available to me again is being able to try new recipes from colorful cookbooks like Rebar. (Of Smoky-Sweet Potato Soup fame.) When I found out we were indeed going to have dinner guests on Sunday night, I whipped out this book to look over while I drank my morning coffee. I’m not sure which was more fun: perusing all the great recipes I wanted to try, or sipping a delicious brew from Copenhagen’s Coffee Collective, a generous gift from a friend recently returned from Denmark. Given the glut of red peppers in my fridge, I settled on this recipe, which looked inspiring enough to serve to a transplanted German and Ohioan.

Photo by cookbookman17

I have to thank the good folks on the Internet for most of these photos, as it was too dark and the wine was already flowing too freely for me to want to drag out my SLR. These “rotis” are essentially spiced-up, crunchy wraps full of simple but bright flavors. They’re a great make-ahead meal, as both the hummus and the “mango mojo” sauce can be made ahead of time and stored in the fridge. First you make a black bean hummus with garlic, lime juice, toasted pumpkin seeds, spices, and chipotle purée. This hummus would be excellent served with chips or vegetables as its flavors are uniquely nutty for a hummus. I never thought of using pumpkin seeds before, and they lent a nice thickness to the spread.

Your second make-ahead sauce is the “mango mojo” which is basically just blended ripe mango (we used the smallish ones, can’t remember their proper name but they were perfect). You blend that up with cilantro, the juice of two limes, fresh garlic, and half a habanero pepper. I was pleasantly surprised at the heat in this sauce. It was definitely spicy, but had a warming, “manageable” spice instead of a pass-me-the-milk-NOW-dammit effect. We ended up spooning all the leftovers over our bites of roti.

Once your two sauces are done, you spread the hummus in a wrap, top it with sautéed red peppers and green cabbage, drizzle with mojo sauce and sprinkle with more toasted pumpkin seeds. You roll them all up, pop them in the oven on low while you nosh on salad and wine. They’ll come out 15-20 minutes later just warm enough for a late summer evening meal. This is definitely one for the rotation, and in the presence of more meat-eaters, I might be so inclined to throw some pulled pork or blackened chicken in for good measure.

Calypso Roti

makes 4 large or 6 medium rotis

BLACK BEAN HUMMUS

2 – 14-ounce cans black beans
1/2 cup toasted pumpkin seeds
2 cloves garlic
juice of 1 lime
2 tsp chipotle puree (puree made of canned chipotles in adobo sauce…the best!)
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 – 1 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp ground corainder
2 – 3 tbsps chopped cilantro
2 tbsp flax seed oil
1 bunch cilantro

MANGO MOJO

1 ripe mango (use two if they are very small)
2 cloves garlic
1/2 habanero (seeded and chopped…use gloves!)
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp cilantro, chopped

ROTIS

4 roti, chapati or whole wheat tortillas (I used 6 medium-sized tortillas)
2 sweet red peppers
1 tbsp cooking oil
2 cups shredded cabbage, tossed with some lime juice
4 tbsp toasted pumpkin seeds

1. Puree the ingredients for the hummus in a food processor or blender until smooth. Set aside. Puree the Mango Mojo ingredients using a hand blender or standard blender. Set aside.

2. Halve, seed and julienne the red peppers. Head the oil in a skillet, and saute the peppers for 5 minutes over medium-high heat. Heat the wraps in the microwave to soften. Spread hummus over wrap up to 2 inches from the edges. Line with grilled peppers, cabbage, Mango Mojo, and toasted pumpkin seeds. Roll, and place in a warm over (250-275) until ready to serve, or serve immediately.

Posted in vegetarian

I did it! I went paleo for a whole month. Yesterday marked the end of 30 whole days of cavewoman-style breakfasts, lunches and dinners sans grains and dairy, minus the three days I let myself cheat due to extenuating circumstances (like birthdays and races).

I can’t help but feel a little victorious. I’ve never tried any sort of “extreme” diet before, and always wondered if I had the willpower. Turns out I do. This single fact probably means more to me than the supposed benefits of the diet—the fact alone that I resisted chips and salsa, popcorn and Greek yogurt for a whole month shows me that when I put my mind to it, I can do anything.

OK, now we’re getting a little cheesy. Seriously though, overall, it was good mental training. Sometimes, food can get the best of me, consuming my thoughts and leading me to false paradises that I then regret visiting. Going paleo helped me narrow my diet down to the absolute bare necessities, the most nutrient-rich, unadulterated pure foods I could possible load up on. And you know what? After the first week’s mental fog passed (likely from the significant reduction in carbohydrates), I felt great. I slept well, had tons of energy, and rarely experienced that mid-afternoon energy slump.

But. Yes, there’s a but. After all is said and done, I simply missed the variety a truly balanced diet offers. Don’t get me wrong, when you come home from two hours of hill repeats at 7:45 in the morning and your husband has bacon and eggs ready for you, you don’t complain. But after days upon days of eggs, boiled, fried, steamed, poached and in omeletes, eggs get old. No matter how much you love them and no matter how good for you they are. I just wanted to sink my teeth into a soft, chewy, crusty piece of good old-fashioned TOAST.

So yesterday morning, that’s just what I did. After my hour Masters swimming workout, I bolted to the market near our house and grabbed a loaf of Bread & Cie’s Fig and Anise bread. Came home, popped two slices in the toaster, and slathered them with butter and honey. Delicious. I wasn’t satiated for as long as I was on my prior paleo breakfasts, but it was worth it.

Here are a few things I learned while trying the paleo diet that I’ll carry over into daily life:

1-Eat your veggies.

I always knew this in theory, but I wasn’t practicing it to the extent I should’ve been as an active person. Carrot and celery sticks don’t count. I have learned the joys of sauteed greens as a quick side or even breakfast. I will continue to eat plenty of easy, broiled yam fries before long weekend training sessions. Mark and I joined a local CSA (Community-Supported Agriculture) and somewhat ironically, our first pick-up was last night. (I can see a “Stuff White People Like” post emerging: “Picking up their organic veggies at Lululemon. Ugh. Oh wait. It already is one.) Our first box was impressive, as the spread in the first photo attests.

2-Protein, in moderation.

The paleo diet pushes the consumption of animal protein at every meal and snack, an approach I find not only unecessary, but also bad for the earth. Even when done 100% organic, it’s still just not necessary for us North Americans to hog all that meat-production energy for ourselves. (Yes, I used the word hog in a paragraph about meat. Hey, it’s a blog not a thesis.) I will continue to implore Mark to make the delicious roast beast on a regular basis (his second, rosemary-rubbed version, above, was even better!) and poached salmon has become a staple.

3-Food is worth it.

Meat costs money, yes. Fresh, organic veggies cost money. Big surprise. Paleo has taught me to really stop worrying so much about cost and invest my income in the food that keeps me alive and thriving.

4-Balance is best.

In the process, I’ve re-discovered Mark Sisson’s Daily Apple blog, and though it has some propaganda-esque tips that probably exist to build his publishing and supplement empire, contains some really good, moderate advice. Like this tidbit:

“We often say, “Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good.” And for good reason. The target of (paleo) is deep-seated: the long haul of a healthful life, not a brief stop off for cosmetic fixes. The necessary approach, then, is centered around sustainability. One hundred percent compliance with (paleo) principles is ideal, sure, but consider it the ultimate representation – a consummate form rather than typical daily function. The PB is rooted in life, not just research, after all. A practical baseline is this: if you align your life with the PB principles 80 percent of the time, consider yourself on course.”

I love that. Eighty percent I can do. Perhaps even 90. But I simply enjoy certain foods too much to warrant their elimination from my life.

5-Go with your gut.

I know I just argued for balance, but now I’m going to argue for personal preference. Paleo changed my adviser Nell’s life and triathlon training. It works for her. It worked for me, too, but not in that same life-altering way. To me, taste, pleasure, and variety matter far more than some long-term nutritional benefits I’m not yet convinced of anyway. As a LAVA contributor writes on her blog, “by focusing on your own needs, it’s very simple to find enjoyment out of consuming a balanced diet where no food is off limit.” And while you won’t see me loading up on gummy bears anytime soon, I don’t want to live a life where I have to say no should I ever crave them.

All in all, going paleo for a month reaffirmed that while I love being healthy and fit, it’s more about putting life in my years than years in my life. I know I said this in a prior post, but it seems to be the theme of this whole exercise in pseudo-madness. VG’s doughnuts, here I come…

Posted in nutrition, Paleo Experiment
Tags: paleo, paleo diet, paleo experiment

It’s not that I dislike this whole Paleo thing, it’s just that after three weeks, it has started getting a little, well, old. Maybe this is  because I just spent six days living out of a car, hotel fridge, and whatever small-town American diners I could get my hands on. That would tire anyone out, rookie Paleo forager or not.

In my last post, I shared how I got by en route to Utah, but once those snacks were gone, I had to work a little harder. If I were to choose this as a way of life, I would have to be much better prepared. I’ve said that a lot, I know. Am I just lazy?!

I also think it would also be easier to do Paleo on the road if I’d been solo. I enjoy eating with my husband–it’s something we share–and it’s hard to enjoy a mini vacation when “doing breakfast” means sitting at a grocery store deli table eating cold cuts. Yeah, no. So here’s a little glimpse of the foods that helped me get by, with the help of Flickr’s Creative Commons for all but the Grind salad. I kinda forgot about the blog this weekend. It was a busy one!

Photo by inazakira

We arrived Thursday afternoon and hit up a Mexican place, were I managed to order a decent salad with chicken. Thankfully, there was a grocery store right across from our hotel for Thursday’s dinner: yay for rotisserie chicken eaten with your hands in your hotel room. Now that’s entertainment.

On Friday morning, I passed up fake eggs and greasy sausage patties care of Best Western, and we headed to a Grind cafe in Cedar City for breakfast and a few hours of work. Their spinach salad (above) came Paleo-fied with eggs and bacon. That evening we tried out the local BBQ joint Sonny Boy’s, channeling our Dinosaur BBQ love. It was good, but didn’t hold a candle to the Syracuse mainstay. I had brisket, ribs, a side salad, and their fried cauliflower. Not exactly what you see in the picture, but more or less.

Photo by VirtualErn

Saturday, race day, I cheated. Though I did manage to do Paleo for breakfast at a local diner. This we count as our Utah dining disaster #1: cold coffee and an omelette that took so long we were on our way out the door when it finally arrived. Just your basic ham and veggie omelette, nothing to write about here. But during the intensely difficult 100k/61m trail ride that took me the better part of the day, I just couldn’t stick to my Paleo plan. Gels? Yeah right. Give me chunky trail bars, gummy worms and pb&j. (Click here to read about my full experience at this awesome new race.) I cheated after the race and had a pulled pork sandwich, but after a few bites the bun didn’t really appeal to me and I just pulled all the meat out. That night, I indulged in two beers (paid for it at altitude with a nasty headache) and Thai food, of which two of the dishes were Paleo. Not bad, I say.

On Sunday morning we hit up a really cute local diner, the only place that was open. I had an avocado bacon tomato omelette that was quite delicious, and got it with sweet potato fries (Paleo!) instead of the toast and hash browns. It didn’t look exactly like this one (ie: no cheese), but you get the idea.

photo by Jinx McCombs

Then we were off to Hurricane, Utah, just 45 minutes away and our home base for exploring Zion National Park. We couldn’t check in until 3 and we arrived at noon, so we spend a couple hours in McDonald’s using they’re internet and drinking best-you’re-gonna-get coffee. It cracks me up that the three times I’ve been there in the last oh, five years, have been to use their Internet. “Lunch” was random Paleo snacks and fruit, and for dinner in Hurricane we hit a ghetto Chinese place. I had a greasy chicken and vegetable dish that looked kinda like this, sans the black beans and with more vegetables. We hit up the movie Horrible Bosses in the evening, and bought strawberries from the local grocery store for a mid-movie snack.

Photo by FotosVanRobin

Monday, hiking day, I had cauliflower, carrots, and broccoli from the grocery store (with Craisins) in the hotel breakfast nook while Mark enjoyed some toast and Froot Loops. I think I got some weird looks on that one. I managed to subsist on nuts, and dried and fresh fruit for the duration of our 6 hour hike, but boy was I ravenous when we finally hit up Oscar’s Cafe in cute little Sprindale. I had their “Maui Burger” without a bun, which was a (slightly overcooked) beef patty topped with a slice of grilled pineapple. Our server didn’t charge me to replace the fries with a garden salad, which was nice. I snuck a few fries though, to dip in the delicious chipotle-aioli sauce.

Photo by Jennifer Chong

That night, I caved and we got frozen yogurt. Sometimes little things happen in life that only food can fix. Because of our broken air conditioning, we left Hurricane at 4 a.m. to beat the heat, and I enjoyed a mushoom and spinach egg-white omelette at Denny’s, served with turkey bacon and fruit. Not bad, Paleo peeps, not bad. We got home around 10:30, napped, and then it was back to work. Mark grilled up some fresh Ono and roasted some broccoli, mushrooms and red onion for dinner, rounding out a “work-cation” (my new term) that was, except for a few minor deviations, mostly Paleo.

So it’s true, you can do Paleo on the road. You just have to be prepared to spend a lot unless you’re prepared, and start developing a taste for packet tuna. It was a great trip of new endurance feats, and I’m sore and tired to tell the stories. Happy to be back in gorgeous San Diego where the market is only a stone’s throw away and our fridge is always stocked with good things.

Posted in Paleo Experiment
Tags: paleo, paleo diet, paleo experiment

We just arrived in Cedar City, Utah for the inaugural Fire Road Cycling mountain bike race. The rocks are red, the air warm, and our car’s air conditioner on the fritz. What can you do? Cars get old and wrinkly, too.

Road tripping gives me the munchies. As I threw stuff together last night—after getting beat by my swimming rookie husband in a sprint session at the pool—I wondered what on earth I would do for seven hours in car, on Paleo. Last time, driving down from the Big Sur Marathon, I gave in to just about every crappy convenience store craving. Well, within reason of course. I’ve never craved a Twinkie.

As my Paleo guru Nell says, “prep in advance and pack as much as possible.” I didn’t have a lot left in the fridge (I always go on a fridge-cleansing mission, even before short jaunts), so I cobbled together all the Paleo goodness I could find. Exhibit A: Polar Tuna packs (don’t buy this brand, it’s dry!), apples, salt-and-pepper pistachios, almonds, crispy seaweed, and … drumroll please … Bare Fruit Granny Smith Apple Chips. These, my friends, are a popcorn-tortillachip-ricecake-pretzel lover’s Paleo dream come true. (Not pictured: carrot and celery sticks and cantaloupe balls.)

Back to the apple chips. I discovered these at Costco (this blog is becoming a tribute to that crazy behemoth of a store), where an 11 ounce bag set us back only 5$. They are perfect. Ingredients? Organic apples. 58 calories a serving. Some crispy, some just a little chewy inside. How? Something called “bake drying.” Don’t ask me how they do it, but man, it’s delicious.

Considering my breakfast consisted of a lone smoothie at 4:45 a.m, I was a hungry at oh, 7:30. And 9:45. And 11:58. These little snacks, combined with Mark’s delicious press pot followed later by a tall Starbucks it’ll-pass Verona, kept me going all the way to Utah. We passed the hours chatting with our roadie, and listening her audiobook, David Cross’ Why I Drink. He doesn’t touch my heart like Sedaris, but it’s pretty funny stuff.

Oh, and the best part (besides the forthcoming beef jerky story) was … we saw a Manitoba license plate! It was on the back of a Bison transport semi truck, so not really that strange, but still. Here’s the snack collection, with a shot of our very own plates in the background.

And to leave you on a humorous note (or humourous, if you’re Canadian), behold a little exchange we managed to overhear in our apartment parking lot the other day.

Hipster teen #1: “Man-i-to-ba??”

Hipster teen #2: “I swear that’s not even a state, man.”

HT#1: “Oh, it’s in CANADA, look at the little leaf on top of the ‘i.’”

HT#2: “I get it. It says ‘Eh.’” (Our license plate just happens to be EEH 245. No connection to the Canadianism at all, boys.)

Posted in 1, Paleo Experiment
Tags: apple chips, bare fruit chips, bare fruit granny smith apple chips, paleo diet