"Sendoff" Dinner

I decided I would start this new 'diet' yesterday (Monday), so on Sunday I pretty much ate like crap all day ;) For dinner I decided to make chicken wings and a potato cake.

First I defrosted the wings in their ziploc bag they were frozen in and whizzed up a marinade consisting of extra virgin olive oil, red wine vinegar, salt, lots of garlic, a little fresh parsley and cilantro and half a canned chipotle pepper (I love the spicy smoky taste it imparts). I tried adding a pinch of flaxseed meal to thicken it up a bit. Zapped it in the mini-chopper and dumped it into the bag and smushed it around. I took the marinating in a plastic bag thing from my mom. I've seen Alton Brown and others do it on the food network now, but I think my mom was first ;) Anyway, I let it marinate in the fridge for a few hours and roasted in the oven for about 35 min at 400ish (my oven temp is kooky) or until nicely brown.


But the real YUM thing was the potato cake. I'll give credit where it was due, my parents and I saw it on the Food Network a few years ago and tried it that night and I've loved it ever since. It's a bit of a pain making it for one but as you can see the point is to shred up Yukon Gold Potatoes (yes it MUST be Yukon gold, I've tried it with both russets and red-skinned potatoes and it's just not right), squeeze out the extra water, mix in a little salt and pepper and like you see in the pan, flatten it out to be a cake. cook on fairly low heat with a little butter and oil in a nonstick pan for about 10 min per side or until dark brown. I like to drain it on paper towel for a sec to remove some of the oil.




As you see in the final picture, it looks like the potatoes might be burnt. I assure you they're not. The goal is to take the cake out in that perfect minute window right before the potatoes burn. It's fantastic. SO crispy on the outside and so soft and luscious on the inside - it's the way potatoes were meant to be. Oh how I will miss these potatoes over the next few weeks. :(

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!

Chocolate Espresso Shortbreads

In my new addiction to Stumble, a great Firefox add-on that shows you sites that match you're interests, I've been brought to a lot of cooking sites. One in particular has some really amazing-looking stuff, and i signed up for the email list, so when I got this delivered to my inbox, i knew I was gonna break down and make it - and probably sooner rather than later ;)

So, of course, mine did not come out as pretty, but what I did was halve the recipe to control the fatty unhealthy goodness I was about to concoct (in other words, if I only made half as many shortbreads, I could only eat half as many shortbreads ;)), and I think it worked out pretty well. I don't have instant espresso so I used about a tablespoon and a half of regular pre-made mokka pot espresso. I didn't really taste the coffee in the finished product unfortunately, but I didn't want to add more than that in case it'd throw off the recipe with too much liquid.

Of course, I am too lazy to get all measuring and stuff, probably to the cookies' detriment. But oh well. They taste good and are very delicate and tender, they almost melt in your mouth because of the powdered sugar and very little mixing the recipe calls for. Baking is more fun now that i've figured out my oven runs a good 50 degrees too hot - no more burned cookie bottoms with raw middles, hooray!

It's California Cherry Season!

We're full-swing into the California cherry season. The first couple weeks, the cherries looked light and didn't taste too sweet, but now, they are deep red and just delicious. Picked up a little cup for $2 at the downtown LA Friday farmers market - these pictures are of those - and bought another little bag of them this past weekend at the LA Farmers Market. mmmmmmmmmmmmm yummyyyyy

As a note, I don't 'do' anything to fruit - I don't cook it or cut it or put anything on it or what. I wash it, and I eat it. And that's what I will do with these cherries :D