Olives and super chili peppers, oh my!

Whoops...... I'm back!

Bought these puppies at Trader Joe's this morning. Can't be anything bad about them, right!?

I love that they have an Ode to Olives [pdf] on their site. 




As an aside, Flickr's new photo page really blows.

So also, I've been growing some plants on my balcony. Some have been more successful than others. A few months ago, my poor super chili (yes that's the name of the variety) fell off the balcony onto the ground below, but I was able to save it. I've been harvesting a few peppers off of it (they're REALLY spicy), but just in the last week, the thing decided to explode with flowers. If you look at the original version, you can see that there are literally a hundred soon-to-be peppers. I've been chopping them and freezing them so I have chili peppers ready whenever I want.

Olive Tapenade

I can't believe this is my first post about olive tapenade. It's one of my favorites that I almost always have in the fridge because it lasts for ages. Maybe mine is not a "real" tapenade because I don't use capers or anchovies, but it is delicious to me. Culinary hero Alton Brown said in his olive tv show that it is important for your tapenade to have different olives with different textures. No problem for me, as I usually have between 5-10 varieties in my fridge at any one time.

The basics, besides olives of course, are fresh lemon juice, dried red chili flakes, fresh parsley, and lots and lots of extra virgin olive oil. Sometimes, if I've tried a variety of olive as an experiment, and I don't like it, I'll use them in tapenade. That works quite well.

No olives out of cans here. In today's batch, I used what I had in the fridge, which consists of 7 olives from 4 countries, including: manzanillla from Spain, kalamata from Greece (which I don't think any tapenade should be made without), four from Italy (Gaeta from Lazio, Barenese from Puglia, Taggiasche from Liguria, Castelvetrano from Sicily), and Old Mission from California.

Oh yeah baby:

I love the way it comes out from the food processor. Before I got one, I used to do it in my little magic bullet, and while it worked and still tasted good, it kind of really pureed it into a paste. The food processor just chops it all, so you're left with little chunks of different kinds of olives. Perfect.

And, the best way to eat it. On a really good piece of toasted bread (this is an organic whole wheat miche from Trader Joe's, which comes as a huge half-loaf that I slice up and freeze to retain freshness. It rocks.). Not toooooooo many things in the world are better.

Update

Well, I haven't really made anything creative - I really haven't had time (though my dinner tonight might be photo-worthy). With the exception of this past Monday when I had a sandwich on a white roll and a milkshake (yes, very bad), I've been good. Bought some more healthy goodies like roasted soybeans to squash the craving for salty crunchy snacks (I don't really like the soybeans, so I don't eat that much hahahaha), Luna bars, which are made for women and apparently have a low glycemic index, some Organic Quinoa from TJ's, a "sprouted wheat berry flourless" bread at TJ's that's really not that bad, some Barilla Plus pasta (I hope it tastes good), etc.

As for the "diet," I am trying to understand the combining aspects. I got one of Montignac's newer editions from the library and will take it home when I see my parents. Yes, that's going to make things difficult - it will be white bread, potatoes, rice, Chinese food, dessert, and other such unhealthy stuff galore :( I'll try to do the best I can but it's going to make things difficult. So I figure I will use the week and a half to just let myself be spoiled and enjoy these things (some of which, like the Chinese fried rice and prime rib and stuff, I literally can't even get here so it's not like it will make me crave it forever), and then come back and really get in gear and do it right. One exciting thing is that this newer Montignac book has a really amazing-looking recipe for chocolate cake, the only ingredients are chocolate and eggs, so I can't wait to try this one!!!

Will keep you posted!

Berry Cherry Limeade

(did this about a week ago and forgot to publish it so I figured I'd just stick it in)

I defrosted a handful of TJ's Frozen Berries and cherries mix - it's got cherries, blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries. Pureed and strained the defrosted fruit and mixed with the juice of one lime in a glass, a squeeze of blue agave syrup (also from TJ's) and filled the glass with water and floated some more berries - oh yummyyyyyyyyy what a perfect refreshing summer afternoon drink!

Embarking on a new "Diet"

Let me preface with: I HATE diets. I hate diets because they mean deprivation. But what I am in favor of, especially more recently, is changing some of the things I eat in order to not only be a little healthier but just plain stop putting crap in my body. It's so scary how people just grab stuff that tastes good with no regard to the ingredient panel on the side. Forget the nutrition information, what about the ingredients? I maintain, if I can't pronounce it, why should I be eating it? Additionally, if it contains stuff I studied in high school chemistry, why should I be eating it?

It's like, someone asked me the other day why I refuse to eat yellow cheddar cheese.... and my response was, UH, BECAUSE MILK IS NOT ORANGE? How do they get it that color? They put food coloring in it LOL. Even if it's made from natural ingredients or vegetable extract or something, it's still completely unnecessary and purely cosmetic.

So with all this in mind, I purchased a used copy of Michel Montignac's "Eat Yourself Slim" - to make a long story short he focuses on good carbs and good fats and not calories or even really fat or portion control. Interesting idea, even if I am a bit skeptical since I almost eat that way anyway. But I thought, while I am working and making enough to afford this stuff, I might as well give it all a try, no? So I went to town in Fresh and Easy and Trader Joe's and bought all kinds of good stuff (not pictured, raw turbinado sugar):



Of course, I don't even know what I'm going to do with the flour. All that stuff in addition to the brown jasmine rice and Barilla's 51% whole grain spaghetti (which unlike other kinds actually tastes good, and as the whole point of this blog points out, I am picky ;)), drinking freshly-squeezed grapefruit juice, and a few other changes here and there, we will see what happens. If all a good attempt requires is a few little changes here and there, mainly to breakfast, how can I not try, right?!

The next step will be ridding my apartment of the crap I already have, mostly snack foods and white breads............... and potatoes....... i don't think i can give up potatoes :( I'm gonna go out with a bang tonight (post on that forthcoming), and start it all up tomorrow. We'll see what happens! If nothing else it'll give me interesting material to blog about I suppose :) Wish me luck!

Spaghetti with Garlic, Olive Oil, Red Pepper Flakes, and Olives

This is one of my traditional "go to" dinners when i'm sick of other stuff or in a rush or craving pasta or just too lazy to do something else. While the spaghetti's boiling (I eat about 3oz dried for myself for a filling dinner and don't always use spaghetti but any really good Italian dried pasta), I put some really good olive oil in a nonstick pan big enough to toss the pasta in, roughly chop a couple garlic cloves (I like it garlicky), and sort of warm up the garlic for a minute or two on low heat - I don't want to burn it or kill the garlic flavor.

Toss in some red pepper flakes and the pasta and chop up a few kinds of olives (in this case a mix from the TJ's Greek Olive Medley), toss a bunch of grated cheese on, and boom, hot fresh semi-healthy dinner in about 15 min. Yum. This time I had some fresh parsley around so I added a bit.

Pizza again

Made a pepperoni pizza the other night. I used the Fresh & Easy dough instead of TJ's and I think I prefer it a bit better. Not sure why or even how to explain it but it seems to be a little more pliable or softer or something. Maybe less gluten developed? Anyway, used up half of the precious TJ's Italian Starter Sauce that I have remaining and my preferred whole milk mozzarella that I sliced as thin as I could. To try to avoid disaster, instead of trying to get the raw pizza right on the stone, I made it on the back of a cookie sheet, put the cookie sheet in the oven for a minute, which helped the crust start to cook, and then slid it onto the cookie sheet for the remaining time.

Meanwhile, I toasted the pepperoni on a separate pan and dabbed off most of the grease from it, cut the slices in half and put them on the pizza halfway through cooking. I prefer to do it this way because it seriously cuts down on the grease the pepperoni leaves on the pizza and also it prevents the pepperoni from burning. Of course, I overcooked the pizza by maybe 30 seconds, so as you see in the pic the crust around the edges is a bit charred, but it was fine and nicely brown underneath.

All in all a very tasty personal-sized pizza and that's all that matters :) I use about 3 ounces of dough stretched as thin as possible, about 4 spoons full of sauce and about 3 ounces of cheese, sliced really thin and placed evenly over the sauce. It's just right for a filling but not excessive dinner and cooks up in about 7 minutes at the oven's hottest temp. Still on the quest for a perfect pizza but I feel like I'm getting closer. Next thing I'm gonna try is making my own sauce with canned San Marzano tomatoes.

Welcome!

I've been talking a lot about food lately. I've also been getting more into photography. So I thought, why not chronicle my quest for food perfection with a little blog? When I make something interesting or find something interesting in the markets, I can photograph it here using the techniques I'm studying and share it (it will improve when I get a new camera, so til then bear with me!).

I know, you're probably wondering, who the heck is she and why should I care, there are a million food blogs out there? I think what makes me different is that I'm a picky foodie. No, REALLY picky. I hate cooked vegetables, I hate most sauces, I hate things mixed together, I hate all seafood - yes all seafood, I hate fruit and chocolate/dessert mixed and the list just goes on and on and on. I don't even like wine.

So you are asking, what DOES she like? I like meat, yeah I do, especially beef (prime rib would be my ultimate dinner of choice). I also like random things like olives (I'm obsessed, I admit it), chocolate (only dark!), I love most fruits and vegetables (but only raw!), I like spicy things, pasta, I loooooove pizza, and pickles, and cheese and most kinds of salty chip-like foods, and the list goes on!

So to get it started, here are a few things i've made recently. the way I'll do it is if I use a recipe, I'll link to or post the recipe in case people are interested in trying it :) Have fun and please comment!

Margherita Pizza (Ingredients: Trader Joe's pizza dough, Trader Joe's Italian Tomato Starter Sauce (which they seem to be out of now, so substitute the marinara sauce in the green can), and WHOLE MILK mozzarella - sliced THIN. And that's it. the secret is a super thin crust, super hot oven, not too much sauce and cheese, and a pizza stone.


Tried these Nutella Cookies from a Giada De Laurentiis recipe I had seen a while back. I changed it up a bit by making them bigger than her recipe called for (I did 1.5 ounces each) and I didn't use any of the sugar. Also instead of a Kiss in the middle I used a Dove Dark Chocolate square. I also cooked them a bit less (about 10 min, and then just 1 min after I put the candy in). This combined with the larger cookie size resulted in a really lovely soft cookie that stayed soft for days. yyyyyuuuuuum.


Bucatini all'amatriciana (ingredients: Bucatini (available at TJ's now as 'bucati'), good tomato sauce, some bacon with fat removed, a little onion, garlic, and lots of grated cheese).

Had this dish in Rome in the Jewish Ghetto overlooking the Teatro Marcellus, what a memory. A traditional Roman dish, my recreation comes close. I don't like onion much, so I leave it out for the most part. Next time I make it I'm going to try some Pancetta cubes I bought in TJ's. Mine's not perfect, of course, but it's also not bad :P



So anyway, this is the kind of thing I'll keep posting. I hope you enjoy! And if not, it's at least a way for me to chronicle my discoveries and creations for myself ;)