Sometimes A Grain is Just A Grain

Sorry for the long lull in posts. I'm getting a little bored with the concept, but have yet to figure out what's next. If anyone has ideas, let me know!

But I had to post about tonight's meal, because it epitomizes the freakish nature of my best weird meals.

I had stuffed peppers for dinner, with a side of toasted ravioli and scotch.

Not weird, you say? The pepper was stuffed primarily with oatmeal...

I have been experimenting with fermentation for awhile now- first a sub-par cider, then a strange grape concoction. I approach it with the same disregard of rules I apply to cooking, so I'm comfortable producing sub-par things, as long as it's kind of educational.

In any case, this morning I started my first quasi-beer by boiling some grains in water- about 60% oatmeal, 40% red wheat. I made my quasi-wort, then wondered what to do with all the leftover grains. Needless to say, I don't have a cow (which is where brewers ditch the byproducts of beer-making), but the grains weren't overly mushy. I ate some for breakfast, a la cereal, but had a ton left over.

Around dinnertime, I realized I had a ton of veggies I needed to eat. Stuffed peppers sounded good, but I didn't want to have to cook quinoa, kasha, or rice. And then I remembered the oatmeal.

I was grossed out by the concept, but a little curious. And in the end, it was a great call. I added a little mozzarella, then baked them for close to an hour. The cheese made the grains taste sufficiently savory, to the degree it was very tasty. I couldn't have distinguished the grain primarily as oatmeal based on taste.

We'll see how the quasi-beer turns out in a few weeks...In the meantime, my Glenmorangie is pretty decent.

Stuffed Peppers at Home

First, a note. I have been super-busy the last week or so, but I wrote a guest post last week over at CardioFoodie about packing lunches (Jon says I sound like Martha Stewart, so I apologize in advance). I know CardioFoodie, aka Karissa, from our time living in Texas. She always has a lot of awesome advice about healthier eating and fitness, that I aspire to (and sometimes successfully do) integrate into my life. So go check her out.

In other news, Jon decided to go pesca-veggie last week. Completely out of the blue. I know it's healthy, I am no stranger to alternative proteins, and I love whole grains and veggies, but it's a little weird coming from him. Not because I don't think he can sustain it (apparently he was quasi-vegetarian for several years in college), but because I'm used to being the fiber-conscious, veggie-pushing nut around here. I might go a little crazy. We'll see.

In that context, tonight's dinner was roasted red peppers stuffed with quinoa, mushrooms, onion, cashews, cumin, and cinnamon, with a TJ's brand Dunkelweisen to drink.



Jon actually cooked dinner, despite being in the midst of finals. As you might have guessed, he is amazing. He was able to minimize the active cooking time by making the quinoa in our rice cooker (yet another reason why my rice cooker is the best thing ever).

It was SO tasty. The cashews made it very hearty and filling, and the red quinoa we used was super-healthy, with a great, slightly chewy texture. It allowed me to eat a ton of healthy crap, without the slightly hungry, nauseous feeling I usually get from eating a ton of veggies.

We found the recipe using Whole Foods Recipe App, which is- despite my skepticism of food apps and general dislike of following recipes- also awesome. They have a ton of great recipes targeted to our urban-foodie-freak demographic, indexed according to selectable categories like "vegetarian", "gluten-free", etc., as well as an ability to search by ingredient.

The Dunkelweissen was also pretty good. I couldn't remember which TJ's beer I liked best from the mixed 12-pack we got last month, so I bought some of their Vienna-style in addition to the Dunkel. I definitely prefer the heavier Dunkel, although all of their beers I've tried are decent.

Spinach and Tortellini at Home

For lunch, I had leftover tortellini, with a spinach salad and mint-water to drink.

Pretty boring and basic. I started making mint-water a few months ago in an effort to drink more water. It's working pretty well. I just use a few splashes of mint extract to give water a little flavor. It's even better with citrus slices.

In grocery news, it looks like produce is finally starting to pick up. I went shopping for veggies to make a quasi-ratatouille to go with tonight's salmon, and ended up with ridiculous amounts of fresh veggies because they were so cheap and tasty-looking.

I was going to write a big long post about poverty, obesity, crop subsidies, fresh produce, WIC, and my theories about all of the above. But I really don't have anything new to say. I'm sure everyone here knows all that. I just found it interesting that, at least at certain times of the year, it IS more economical to buy a boatload of produce than processed crap. I got two pounds of spinach, a large eggplant, a pound of organic carrots, three grapefruit, three zucchini, 3/4 pound of 'bella mushrooms, three tomatoes, a gallon of (scary) milk, and almost two pounds of steel-cut oats for under $20, including St. Louis' astronomical sales tax. I easily could have added some tofu, beans, and whole-grain pasta, and poof, two weeks' or so worth of meals.

Even more interestingly, my local grocery store is the typical semi-urban, WIC-heavy place where I usually see carts piled high with complete crap (sorry, I do judge) and morbidly obese children/teens/young adults. But today, I saw considerably less cart-piling, along with somewhat prominent signs highlighting the healthy produce. Maybe people are finally figuring food out.

Not So Lucky

For dinner, I had some TJ's tortellini with bolognese sauce, a glass of malbec, and some cookies. Really cost-effective and tasty dinner, that I've discussed recently.

No, I want to talk about the wine I had with dinner. Only because I've finally found a bad malbec. Not an okay one. Not an indifferent or neutral one. A BAD one.



Honestly, I didn't know bad malbec existed. Malbec is a gorgeous wine, mostly from Argentina- fragrant; full-bodied, but not overpowering. It goes with everything, and is cheap to boot. Malbecs are like the rainbows and bunny rabbits of the wine world- you just can't hate them, even if they're not perfect. But hate I do, despite the label's cheery duck.

To be fair, it's $3.97 malbec that came from Wal-Mart. And it's not any worse than TJ's Charles Shaw wine (aka "Two-Buck Chuck"), which many people actually like, and which costs about $4 here in Missouri. It's not sweet. But it is very poorly-balanced and smells heavily alcoholic (despite a 13%abv), with undertones of cherry soda. One-note. It's the kind of wine that makes me wish there were more stringent labeling requirements for wine flavorings and additives, because it tastes pretty fake.

In happier news, I managed to find a lone Girl Scout selling cookies today. It's like they were hiding from me all season- I would hear rumors about them, and they'd be gone by the time I made it to the local grocery store.



Success! I am mostly a Samoas girl, with a segue into Do-Si-Dos occasionally. I LOVED Juliets circa 1997, but the Turtley deliciousness was discontinued in favor of some bs "healthy" raisin cookies that tasted like cardboard and were promptly discontinued.Ouch, I just Googled, and there is a Facebook "Bring Back the Juliets" petition group...with only 22 members. Bring back the Juliets!

Brunch in Clayton

For brunch, I had a crepe-elette, with coffee to drink.



What on earth is a crepe-elette? Awesomeness.

I'd held off on visiting First Watch, they of the crepe-elettes, because their website looked too damned cheerful, and because their menu is very egg-heavy (I hate eggs).

In fact, I discovered today that their restaurant is too damned cheerful for me, regardless of my state of caffeination- bright colors, airy high ceilings, and cutesey food names. For example, the special I ordered this morning was actually the "Hamma-lama-ding-dong" or some such. Not kidding. And I actually made up the term "crepe-elette" because, although it reminds me of epaulets, it sounds much better than their trademarked term "crepeggs". First Watch reminds me of Le Peep, with better food and worse decor.

In any case, my crepe-elette was amazing- crepe, filled with scrambled eggs, mushrooms, diced ham, asparagus, and tomato, and covered with Hollandaise sauce. The crepe cut the egginess, the veggies were all super-fresh and properly cooked. Even the diced ham (which scares me, and I have never, ever, ever eaten before), although salty, was the perfect flavor to balance everything.

Their sides of breakfast potatoes and English muffin were good, although they lacked grape jelly (in favor of blackberry, of all things). The coffee was also good enough, but had a weird cinnamon undertone that was either a bad attempt at flavored coffee beans, or burnt beans.

My meal was delicious enough that I would brave the unfortunate decorating choices and cheesy menu names again.

In other news, I spent the rest of the morning making pie shells.



Dinner tonight is my aunt's amazing spinach quiche recipe. Hers uses extra cheese, fewer eggs, and drained frozen spinach so it turns out firm rather than watery. It also freezes well for lunches, and is healthy compared to traditional French quiche- no cream here. Usually, I just pour the quiche batter into prepared pie shells, but TJ's prepared pie shells were as ridiculously unhealthy as the pecan-and-cheese-based shell she sometimes uses, so I decided to go for the tasty homemade original.

I ended up with some extra crust material, but only have one pie plate, so made some savory mini-shells.



Usually I'm not a recipe poster, but it's really good.

Auntie Ann's Spinach Quiche

pie shell
2c. shredded cheese (mozzarella is best)
2tbs. flour
10 oz. frozen spinach, thawed, drained, and squeezed. Get all the water out!
1c. milk
2 beaten eggs
salt and pepper

Toss the cheese and flour, mix everything together well, pour into 9" pie crust, and bake for one hour at 350.

The Unhealthy Crust

1c. flour
1c. shredded sharp cheddar (I actually modified this and used mozz and parmesan)
3/4c pecans, chopped
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp paprika
1/3c vegetable oil

Mix everything, stir well, press firmly into 9" pie plate (either my pie plate is small, or this recipe is giant).

Bake at 350 for 12 minutes, cool completely before filling.

__________________________________________________________
Edit:
here's the finished quiche, along with a glass of my finished cider. The cider is not quite as awesome as I was led to believe, but it's not a bad start.

Tortellini at Home

For dinner, I had some pesto tortellini with bolognese sauce, chicken meatballs, and a glass of malbec to drink.



I was very skeptical of the tortellini, but it was pretty tasty in the end. Jon found it at TJ's, on the dry pasta aisle. I had never had a dry stuffed pasta before (the concept scares me), but they rehydrated really well. The texture was as good as fresh tortellini, and the pesto was refreshing and pungent. The meatballs were likewise good. Even more surprising, the sauce was also good. I have trouble remembering which pasta sauces I like at TJ's, and I haven't been impressed with very many of them (and I generally dislike bolognese), but theirs was well-balanced and fruity. Maybe the tiniest bit sweet, but it was still very good.

The malbec, 2009 La Finca, was likewise decent. It was young, and could have used more air (or aging), but not bad. It was a good pasta/pizza red.

In other news, my cider experiment is quickly going south....



I saw this blog post awhile ago, and finally got around to trying to ferment cider. It sounds so darn easy. And maybe it will turn around yet. Basically, all you need is yeast (champagne or beer; I used champagne because it was cheaper; bread yeast will work, too, but apparently makes your alcohol taste like boozy bread), juice, a stopper, and an airlock.

Less than $2 at the beer supply store, plus the juice, and I was in business. It's been sitting around for eight days now, so I decided it was time to sample. It sucks. It's definitely drier than it was before, and carbonated, so it's clearly fermenting. But it lacks dimension, and hasn't been bubbling vigorously. This is completely a learning experience for me, and I had low expectations anyway. Based on nothing more than a tiny bit of chemistry/biology knowledge and my proclivities for wild cooking experimentation, I added more yeast to the mixture this evening, based on the theory that maybe I didn't let the yeast bloom enough before adding it to the juice initially. We will see.

TJ's Win

For lunch, I had some "multigrain pilaf" from TJ's, along with a huge mug of tea.



I don't like the vaccuum-packed Indian meals as much as Jon does. I'll eat them, but I get sick of them quickly, whereas he could eat them for months on end. Happily.

So I was skeptical about this, which is basically a grainier version of those. But I couldn't pass up the uber-healthy ingredient list: two kinds of millet, cracked wheat, and soybeans, with some tomato, onion, and spices. Huge amounts of fiber and protein.

Given the caveat that I love whole grains, it is AWESOME. I'd heard talk of TJ's Harvest Grain mix a few weeks back, but balked on buying it because it's actually not that healthy (Israeli couscous= white flour; orzo= white flour); this is much healthier, and much easier because it's already prepared. Win. It tastes just like a generic Indian vaccuum-pack meal (tomato+onion+turmeric+garlic), but with better texture and substance. It's slightly more expensive than the Harvest mix per serving, but that's okay- it's still under $3 for two generous, filling servings, and it's hassle-free. It would be a great vegetarian main course.



The tea was also nice. The dog and I walked to our favorite coffee shop in the rain to buy more beans, about 3mi round-trip 4.6 miles...I knew I was tired (with a nice little detour into Forest Park), so the tea helped me defrost.



Celestial Seasoning's Tension Tamer is perfect- spearmint, catnip, and eluthero, mostly. It really does help with stress, and I know a number of professionals who are addicted to it.

Restaurant Roundup

I was going to make a not-entirely-eating-related post about urban gardening. And then I noticed all the random restaurant photos I had floating around. So, here's some restaurant opinions, then the gardening...



Blueberry Hill. Good, cheap food. Great burgers. Chuck Berry plays there once a month. And the place is full of kitschy collections.



This is the lucha libre-themed Mexican bar we went to a few weeks ago. It could be the set of a Quentin Tarantino film. And their margaritas weren't bad, either.



I have no idea what it's called. I thought it was something like "Bar Mexico City", but it's not very Googleable. We just ended up there. Wander down Washington Avenue, and you'll find it.

Then there's the hookah bar:


Petra, on South Grand. Doesn't look like much, but it's the best. Very laid-back, with yummy appetizers and good prices on hookah. They also have BUBBLES! Smoke-filled bubbles are awesome and fun.

On to the gardening...


I used to think gardening was intimidating, but it's actually really easy. I haven't had a yard since I started a few years ago, so it's all about well-drained pots- the cheaper, the better- and some dirt.

This year, I found some cool windowbox-style planters that hang off the deck nicely and conserve space, along with strawberry rootlets, at Wal-Mart. I also bought some summer squash and chive seeds, to go with the bush bean and dwarf cucumber left over from last summer.



Today, I planted a few of everything in these little red cups left over from our Superbowl party. In a few weeks, I'll transfer whatever's thriving into my planters. Pretty low-stress.



The strawberry rootlet was weird. It was a random impulse purchase, and I was expecting lots of little roots. No, it was a giant clump of roots and shoots. So I planted it. Presumably it will turn out okay.

Mi Ranchito en St. Louis

For dinner, I had mole ranchero from Mi Ranchito, with some chips and salsa.

No me gusta. This was our second visit to the little ranch, and I recalled not liking it last time, but I couldn't remember why. Instead of ordering something else, I ordered the same thing I'd gotten last time. Oops. To be fair, I really can't resist mole, and the rest of their menu looked boring. Except for their taco plates, which DID look delicious, but I refuse to order on principle- almost $11 for three little tacos and no sides is not cool.

On the good side, their salsa is pretty nice- it has a bit of a garlic-onion glow that wakes me up without off-flavors or sourness. Also on the good side is that their website is somewhat in Spanish. I have a mostly worthless degree in Latin American Studies, so things like that make me happy...

But the mole? So sad. It's not the worst I've ever had (that would be grainy, oily mole sauce from the grocery store), and I think it's homemade, but it's too sweet, really thin, and not very complex. Oddly, it also has that cornstarch shine I associate with Chinese sauces, though does not taste of cornstarch (thank god).

Even worse, they have a bad habit of never asking about tortillas. I strongly prefer corn, and they always bring flour ones. I just forget to request corn, but it's a little annoying they never ask. As flour tortillas go, they weren't bad.

The big cooking project I've put off for far too long is making a mole from scratch. I have Rick Bayless' recipes for it, but the thirty or so different spices and chiles each kind call for have scared me a little. It looks about as involved as Indian from scratch (which I have done, and which is rightfully delicious). I'll hopefully have a lot of spare time in the next few weeks, so maybe I'll try making a mole and post about it. Maybe it will give me a new respect for homemade moles, crappy or not.

Tom Yum Laziness

For dinner, I had a "Trader Ming's Tasty Thai Meal" and a glass of nero d'avola.

My TJ's infatuation is beginning to fade- they just make it too easy to be lazy. At the same time, it's impossible to stop going there- when I go somewhere else, to buy "real" groceries (like, you know, produce), I invariably find something I want, grab it, look at the price, and *damn*. It's twenty cents cheaper at TJ's. I know my compulsion to not buy them, then go to TJ's directly afterward to save twenty cents each on three or four things is neurotic and insane, but I really can't help myself.

In any case, we went to TJ's today, and found ourselves stocking up on all the lazy prepared foods we shouldn't buy (and never used to buy), but somehow got lulled into buying because TJ's is so darn charming.

Come dinnertime, it was lazy, scary prepared food, or spend more than an hour roasting sweet potatoes and defrosting frozen salmon. Scary food won. It was pretty scary: tom yum sauce with rice and those pickled mini-corn things. They were apparently going for Thai. Not awful, but overwhelmingly salty, and not nearly spicy or flavorful enough. The topmost layer, which I apparently didn't mix with the rice effectively, had very strong sour flavors, like Indian lime pickle. I was also getting strong undertones of cheesiness throughout the dish. With the carby rice, it could have been some strange midwestern take on mac n' cheese, a la Minnesota's hotdishes. Not a repeat TJ's purchase on my part, but maybe Jon will like it.

Carnitas at Home

For dinner, I had beans, rice, and carnitas. With another bad beer.



This was a lazy meal- the only thing I had to cook was rice. And I have a rice cooker, so that doesn't really even count. Don't worry, to make up for this laziness, I made cookies after dinner.

The black beans came from my freezer- I pre-cooked a ton last month to facilitate packing lunches. I hate boring sandwiches, but also hate salty/pricey/weirdly gelatinous canned beans.

I heated the beans, added some rice, a little salt, butter, and Marie Sharp's, and topped the whole thing with some carnitas from TJ's. TJ's seems to have discontinued their delicious garlicky carnitas. These came packed differently and were less tasty- really dry, not as flavorful. Why does TJ's have to discontinue everything tasty?

In other news, I discovered these today at TJ's.



Dried hibiscus flowers. I bought them to eat, but, upon further examination, discovered their true use- art!

They're not very tasty. Too dry. Kind of like a dry cranberry. BUT- they're gorgeous. Translucent, in really nice deep red shades. Some are very structured, like this one, while others resemble little octopi or grassy fronds. They brought back memories of my panicked freshman-year art class final, in which I had to come up with a still life and draw it. Being an inveterate procrastinator, I waited until the night before it was due, only to discover the only thing still-life-ey I had around were some extremely grim and dessicated calmyrna figs. Needless to say, I didn't do very well. But maybe if I'd had some of these, I would have.

Fuul at Home

For dinner, I had fava beans and a few slices of Ryvita, with a Bud Light to drink.



It should be noted I haven't grocery shopped in weeks, and was feeling too lazy to go tonight. Hence the obscure pantry foods.

The canned favas were another item we picked up at the ethnic market a few weeks ago. They're always really tasty, so we get them a lot. Just watch out for some of the flavors- they're obliquely named, so it's hard to know what it will taste like- unless you're an expert on Middle Eastern cuisine, which I am not. I like Palestinian-style, but once we bought Egyptian-style and they tasted (and smelled) like vomit. I could barely stand being in the house while they were being heated, much less eat them.

The flavors also seem to vary by brand. Tonight's wasn't even labeled with a "style", just "foule medames" (which I presume might mean it's Egyptian-style, because that's mostly their dish). It was way spicier than any other canned favas I've had, but the spiciness was great.

The Ryvita was also good. I love Ryvita, and was somewhat blind to the fact that everyone thinks they're gross (also didn't realize they're the British dieter's equivalent of rice cakes. Thanks, Wikipedia, for making me feel even more freakish about my snacking habits), until I broke them out at our Superbowl party and got a lot of confused glares. Yes, they're bland and dry, but they're really good for you and make a nice base for sweet or savory toppings (after which they're still dry, but at least tastier).

And the crappy beer? Also left over from the Superbowl party. A case of it has actually been living on our back porch since then, forgotten, but it's been so cold out the beer's fine- at least as fine as Bud Light can be.

Toast for Breakfast

For breakfast, I had rye toast with jam and coffee.



Yesterday, I made a loaf of sourdough rye from Beard on Bread. The starter had been fermenting merrily away all week in my kitchen, so although I wasn't really feeling like baking, I had to.

The texture turned out better than any bread I've made before, and the flavors were good, but it's not remotely sour. Maybe this all has something to do with my lackadaisical baking methods?

Jon doesn't think he can bake, nor do his parents. I am always enlisted to bake holiday cookies because they think they can't bake. Which is silly. I believe that if you can read, you can bake. Probably well. Now, if you tinker with the recipes before actually following them once all the way through, you'd be a bad baker like me...

I really can't help myself. I modified the Beard recipe by using white whole wheat flour instead of the all-purpose called for in addition to the rye flour. I also decided to add a little yeast to my starter on day 3, instead of adding yeast to the dough on baking day, along with a little honey to feed them. I hoped this would combat the boozy dough flavors I usually get by giving the yeast time to develop a little.

I don't know where I went wrong, flavor-wise. I've had incredibly sour rye bread before, so I know it's possible. And the texture was really nice- substantial, without being dry, with a great crunchy crust. But it's just not sour. I'll do a little research, and try it again.



But for breakfast, it was pretty tasty. I ate it with a little butter and some awesome Austrian rosehip jam we found at the ethnic market.



The coffee is Ethiopian Yirgacheffe from Northwest Coffee. I ran out of their house blend last week, and happened to pick this one. The Yirgacheffe is milder than their house blend, and I'm not quite used to it yet.

More Penne at Home

For dinner, I had penne, with a side of pita bread, and some hot chocolate for dessert.

I am bored with pasta sauce, and wanted to try the aji amarillo paste we bought at the extremely well-stocked ethnic market last week. Aji amarillo is a pepper used liberally in Peruvian cooking. It is SPICY. I mixed it with a little olive oil and some parmesan, then added some whole-wheat penne.



It tasted like a spicy, slightly fruity version of mac n' cheese. Kind of weird, but I'd eat it again.

The pita was also from the market. Our favorite kind of pita comes encrusted with za'atar, a Middle Eastern spice blend that usually involves sesame seeds, sumac, and oregano, along with sundry other assorted spices. This was the last of ours. I'm contemplating making some from scratch, as we have some packaged za'atar left over from a trip to Phoenecia in Houston, and several recipes for pita and naan. Speaking of making bread, I've had this lovely starter sitting on my kitchen counter since Monday, fermenting. Yum...



Tomorrow will be my first-ever attempt at a sourdough-style bread. I love my sourdough super-sour, and no one seems to make it that way commercially anymore. Hence, my stinky kitchen enterprise.

But back to dinner. Why hot chocolate for dessert? I'm not even a hot chocolate person, really. But I found this blog entry yesterday, and was curious to see if it could replicate the amazing pudding-like hot chocolate we had in Eastern Europe a few years back. It's close. Tonight, I had to have more. The secret ingredient, brilliantly, is cornstarch. It's basically a watered-down pudding recipe, but it's delicious and way healthier than the "drinking chocolate" that's in vogue.

Lasagna at Home

For dinner, I had spinach lasagna, with a spinach salad and a glass of malbec.



The lasagna was from the frozen section at TJ's. They also make a grilled eggplant parm, which I like better; the lasagna noodles are limp and sad, and the filling is on the salty, grainy side. That said, they contain very few weird preservatives compared to most frozen food, and it's a passable dinner for when cooking seems like a pain.

The salad was eaten plain. I don't need dressing to like spinach, so I usually don't use any (Annie's Shiitake Vinaigrette being the occasional delicious exception...)

The best part about dinner? Using my creme brulee torch on the cheese! I didn't get the nicely browned bubbles I hoped for, but the slightly burned cheese did add the nutty flavors I wanted.

Pappardelle at Home

For dinner, I had lemon pepper pappardelle with arrabbiata sauce, a glass of malbec, and zoolbia for dessert.

The pappardelle and arrabbiata came from TJ's. Both were ok. I dislike pepper, but it added a nice burn, without being overwhelming. Sadly, the arrabbiata, which I actually like overwhelmingly spicy, was not.

The malbec was also, come to think of it, from TJ's. It was Funky Llama malbec, $3.99, and actually good for the price, unlike the myriad other cheap TJ's malbecs I've bought recently...It's still a little watery, but the flavors are substantial enough- dry cherry with a little violet and maybe licorice.

On to the best part of dinner- ZOOLBIA!



Zoolbia kind of mystify me. I know what's in them, I know how they're made, but I still don't understand. Imagine funnel cake, but not cakey- translucent, crispy on the outside, syrupy on the inside, and soaked in honey.



They're apparently made by frying flour-based dough, then soaking the cakes in a honey-rosewater glaze. But I don't understand how the texture happens. I appreciate interesting texture in food, so these are really exciting for me.

Peppers and Eggs at Home

For dinner, I had some red and yellow peppers, raw, and a Cadbury's orange creme egg. Okay, two creme eggs...



I had a late lunch of kasha and salmon, so I wasn't terribly hungry tonight. Moreover, our journey to the grocery store was not very successful. I've been craving lots of veggies lately, and Schnuck's had very few. I suppose it's in between seasons? I'm still craving roasted fall veggies like squash, beets, parsnips, and carrots, but their squash and cauliflower were really sad looking. The parsnips looked great, except for the creepy wax coating. I really don't like peeling my root veggies, so that was a dealbreaker. I didn't even see the beets. I ended up with some peppers, carrots, and onions.

Then I saw the Easter candy. I LIVE for Cadbury's creme eggs. The dilemma was choosing a flavor. So many good ones...

While perusing the Easter candy, Jon told me I should get some Peeps for the Washington Post's Peeptest (Peeptacular? Peep-o-rama?), but I know they no longer accept entries from outside the DC metro area, and I HATE Peeps. DC people, this is your reminder. Start Peeping. I will blog about it if you do...

Funky Pizza at Home

For dinner, I had homemade pizza and beer from TJ's.



The pizza started as an adventure, and ended as an adventurous mistake. I didn't feel like opening a can of pasta sauce, or using the sketchy ("craz-ee"?) HFCS-laced tomato sauce can leftover from a Chef Boyardee Pizza Kit. Instead, I attempted a sweet-savory sauce by mixing dijon mustard with boysenberry preserves. I topped it with pesto chicken sausage from TJ's and some Kraft sprinkle cheese (I know, I know, naughty food blogger). The whole thing looked a little sparse, so I poked around in the refrigerator. I try not to keep cheese in there, because I love it way too much- I could live happily forever on a diet of cave-aged Gruyere, dark chocolate, and red wine. As you may have guessed, I used the Kraft cheese because we had none. Except. There, in a back corner, I found a plastic tub of blue cheese left over from this Superbowl weekend dip. I dumped the rest on my pizza. MISTAKE.

I hate blue cheese. Jon hates blue cheese. Tangy blue cheese + tangy dijon= FAIL. It was kind of overwhelming. On the good side, the dijon/boysenberry mixture would've been really nice without it. And my beer, TJ's Vienna-style lager, was pretty decent as well- we bought their 12/$12.99 mystery pack, and were not disappointed.

Chipolte in the Loop

For dinner, I had a burrito from Chipotle. And a blueberry scone.

I had remained blissfully burrito-free since last January. To summarize that post, Freebirds is not great, the best burritos in the world are in Colorado (at Big City Burrito- their logo is the best, too), I really hate most burritos, and I really, really hate Chipotle.

Unfortunately, Jon loves Chipotle. He stealthily snuck a "maybe we should go to Chipolte" into our heated discussion about who leaves the mail in which inappropriate place in the house while we were on our way to Panera. I was too distracted to notice where we were (their parking lots look identical, and they're about a block apart) until we'd parked. I decided to give Chipotle another try, rather than walk to Panera or try something else. I'm open-minded like that.

Never again.

First, the employees were incredibly stoned. I'd like to think that was the problem, anyway. The first guy assumed I was having chicken, and was thisclose to dumping chicken all over my burrito, before I said anything. Is it because I'm a girl? It was weird. The second dude somehow managed to scoop my pico without trouble, but became bogged down in Jon's request for corn salsa.

I got my usual burrito order- black beans, no rice, pico de gallo, and protein (carnitas or barbacoa- tonight, carnitas). With the first bite, my legion of reasons for hating Chipotle came back- the salt overload; the flaccid, moist carnitas; the lack of whole-wheat wrap option. There's also the weird stink, sort of like a wet, oniony dog, that always seems to plague their burritos.

Guess who has oniony wet dog breath? It's awesome.

The last bit of weirdness was the black pepper. My burrito tasted overwhelmingly of it. Jon concurred, although we couldn't figure out where it was coming from. Our best guess is that Stoner 1 and Stoner 2 accidentally added an extra half-cup or so of black pepper to the chafing dish of beans.

I had a blueberry scone at home to complete the meal. It was flavorful, with nice, crispy edges, and good texture. It was much better than the burrito. The sad part? It was a scone I bought yesterday morning, promptly forgot about, and just found this afternoon at the bottom of a bag full of crap.

Bosnian in Bevo Mill

For dinner, I had goulash, chicken livers with polenta, Slovenian beer, a bite of cheesecake, and a cappuccino.

Sorry for bad photo quality, but it was dark. I don't usually even like taking photos of my food in public, but, well, there was something else I wanted to photograph for the blog so it was ok. More on that in a minute...


We went to Laganini, my favorite local Bosnian restaurant. St. Louis is the home of 30,000+ Bosnian refugees, so there is a great neighborhood here called Bevo Mills, that is full of Bosnian deliciousness. Laganini supposedly also has some of the best pizza in our (pizza parlor-saturated) town, but the rest of their menu is so interesting I haven't managed to try any of it yet. When I do, their intriguing-sounding tuna fish pizza is first on my list.

In any case, their goulash is simple but tasty. The chicken livers were kind of ill-conceived on my part- as I get older, things I used to eat without thinking about I now think about, and get grossed out by. I'll still try anything, but certain odd meat products are less and less appetizing. Maybe I could've managed it without the goulash, but it was just too rich and I gave up. The polenta, which I generally don't like, was really nice, with a little more texture than I'm used to and some underlying complex flavors (perhaps onion and schmaltz?). The beer was Lasko, which actually has a caron (thank you, Wikipedia) over the "s", and is thus pronounced "lahshko", was pretty good. A friend described it as Heineken with more hops, which is apt. I had a bite of someone else's cheesecake, which was delicious (and homemade). The cappuccino was nice, too, but could've used a little more foam.

Beyond the really good food, the good prices, the pretty decor, the great (and yes, dudes in my group, very pretty) waitress, there is the best thing of all. Something worth taking photos of.



Singing! On Saturday nights, the owner and a friend break out a guitar, a keyboard, and various computer synthesizer thingies and go to town. It is awesome. We had a great time drinking our coffee and listening to Balkan synth-folk.

Bread from Beard for Breakfast

For breakfast, I had some homemade bread with butter and boysenberry preserves, and some coffee.



I ran out of white whole wheat flour a few days ago, so I'm trying to get rid of all the weird, adventurous flours I have on hand before I buy more. Specifically, I have graham flour and dark rye flour on hand. I decided to tackle the graham flour first, with Beard on Bread's graham bread recipe.

Graham flour, interestingly, is just normal whole-wheat flour milled differently. Instead of being milled whole, the wheat is separated into endosperm, bran, and germ, and milled to different degrees of fineness before being re-mixed. Stupidly, I somehow expected it to taste like graham crackers. It did not. But it turned out reasonably well.




My only complaint is the overwhelming smell of fermentation my bread always has. Sort of boozy. I've heard it's from too much yeast, or too much time rising? Next time, I want to try the overnight refrigerator rise that bread bakers advocate for more developed, nuanced flavors.

Regardless, I added some butter (not Cabot's, needless to say), and boysenberry preserves from TJ's, and it became delicious.

The coffee is TJ's pinon blend. I still don't like it, but it's almost gone. I can't wait, so I can buy some beans from Northwest Coffee instead.

Garlic Soup at Home

For dinner, I had homemade garlic soup, with a roasted acorn squash half.



I had leftover garlic, olive oil, and anchovy pasta for lunch, so I figured my breath was already shot for the day (Jon confirmed this. Rapidly.) Then, while we were grocery shopping, I remembered reading this and this awhile back, and decided to give the concept a try. Did I actually bother to call up the recipe on my new iPhone while at the grocery store? No. I laugh in the face of recipes.

So, of course I come home and realize I don't have the baguette I need. Nor sherry, sadly. I actually like fino sherry and usually do have it on hand.

Forget recipes, I decided to read a few different ones for context and then improvise. I ended up cooking perhaps ten cloves in olive oil, then adding chicken broth (half from a leftover box, half homemade!), and simmering it for awhile.




I decided it needed body, so, with much trepidation, I tried a technique I've never tried before- adding an egg to the hot soup. Embarrassing blogger confession, but eggs make me really nervous. My mayonnaise always sucks. Custards are even worse. And poaching? I can do it, but I usually don't want to eat the result.

The technique is to add the hot liquid to the egg in very small increments while stirring furiously. To my surprise, it actually worked, and I got a nicely emulsified soup without any egg chunks.

The result was very Japanese to me, and not at all garlicky. The flavors were incredibly subtle, with a silky, chickeny creaminess that makes it seem like dairy was involved, without any heaviness. I did not cook the garlic long enough to render it mushy, so the cloves remained whole in the soup. They had been thoroughly cooked, so added only a very mild, mellow flavor. I added some leftover arugula to the soup, and a bit of lemon juice and salt to balance it all.

Cunetto's on the Hill

For dinner, I had pasta in a garlic, olive oil, and anchovy sauce, with a small salad.

Cunetto was actually the first Italian restaurant we tried in St. Louis, back in August. None of us liked it, although I had less strong feelings about their food than Jon and his parents, who uniformly hated it. Now that I've eaten there again, I agree with them.

The salad at least was okay. Their house Italian was tasty, and the lettuce was crisp. There was no Provel that I noticed. The croutons were boring and the meat (dried ham? NO idea) was not very flavorful, but the whole thing was not bad. It helped that I'd had nothing to eat all day but a banana and a granola bar.

The first problem is that my menu item's pasta is described (in two languages, no less) as "macaroni/maccheroni". Macaroni, in English, is generally thought of as shortish, tubular pasta. See: macaroni and cheese. What does it mean in Italian, you ask? I speak close to zero real Italian, but, unfortunately for Cunetto, I speak enough Spanish to comprehend written Italian.To summarize: "Il maccherone è tipicamente un tipo di pasta corta.". And yes, there are regional terminology shifts within Italy, but why on earth would you confuse people on purpose? Because what I received looked an awful lot like spaghetti. I know this was not a random fluke, because it's what I ordered in August, and the same thing happened (at which point, I assumed it was a fluke). Can you imagine being on, say, a blind date, or a job interview, and choosing the macaroni so as to be less messy?

The second problem was the salt. Oh god, the salt. At first I thought they'd done a poor job of soaking their anchovies, but Jon's carbonara was just as bad.

The third problem depends, I guess, on your perspective. Their portion sizes could kill a large mammal (if the sodium doesn't). One serving of pasta is 1/2 cup, about the size of a scoop of ice cream. Their entree is easily four cups. Maybe more. Also, they serve it in an oblong server that can barely hold it all, which no doubt leads to more blind date/job interview fun. At under $10 for that many servings, their menu items are a great deal, but it's so much, it just ends up being grotesque and excessive.

I could complain more, but why bother? It's a St. Louis institution, and family run, and cute. I want to like them. They're packed on the weekends, and in no danger of going anywhere. Good for them. But will we be going there again? NO.

PIzza at Home

For dinner, I had homemade pizza with some arugula and a glass of red wine.



On a whim, I decided to try TJ's white (as opposed to their whole wheat) pre-made pizza dough. I'd tried their whole wheat dough before, with unimpressive results, so my expectations weren't high. In my mind, the mere act of making pizza is an apathetic way to clean out the fridge, so my expectations are never terribly high.

I had a disastrous time finding toppings (turns out my fridge wasn't as full of leftovers as I thought), and an even worse time wrangling the dough onto the pizza stone and topping it (as you may recall, I do not own a pizza peel).

And yet, it turned out reasonably well. The crust was perfect- crisp on the outside, chewy and fluffy on the inside. I was very impressed, and wonder if I hated their whole wheat crust because I followed their cooking instructions rather than my gut pizza stone instincts. Next time, I'll try their whole wheat crust, but bake it at a higher temperature and see if it yields better results.

Ooh, pretty crust...



I topped it with a garlic/olive oil sauce, smoked chicken sausage from TJ's, and some baby Swiss left over from a fondue experiment a few weeks back. I wish I'd had another, more assertive cheese to blend with the Swiss. I was trying to get rid of the chicken sausage, because it tastes like hot dogs. Gourmet or not, kosher or not, I do not and have never, ever liked hot dogs. The sausage is slightly better than a hot dog, and tasted fine on the pizza, but it will not be a repeat TJ's purchase.



The wine was Albero tempranillo from TJ's. It's inexpensive(under $6), and made with organic grapes. It's also weird. My best guess is that it's too young to drink. I like tannins, but it's downright bitter, after two hours of breathing.

In other news, I made some muffins this evening. Chocolate chip mini-muffins, with white whole wheat flour. They turned out nicely, except that it is impossible to thoroughly grease my mini-muffin tin without significant effort. And I am lazy. Hence, decapitated mini-muffins.



Also, I am still grossed out about the crappy butter I have.



Yuck. This is the butter with "natural flavors" added that make it smell and taste like movie popcorn butter. Even Jon noticed the weird smell, and he has notoriously bad smelling acuity. It's not terribly noticeable in baked goods, but I'm still irate with Cabot's.

Kasha at Home

For lunch, I had a big bowl of kasha and a glass of soy milk. I LOVE kasha.

Kasha, not to be confused with Kashi the cereal company (although apparently "kashi" is also the plural of "kasha" when the word is being used in its more generic Eastern European meaning of groats or porridge), is toasted buckwheat.

Kasha comes in different granulations- whole, medium, and fine. My favorite is medium, which seems (anecdotally, over years of kasha consumption) to be the most popular to carry at grocery stores. Unless that grocery store is my local Whole Foods (ie, the same place that doesn't carry bulk semolina). Thanks to them and their weird stock choices, I have whole kasha on hand.

After prior trial and error with the whole granulation, I've found the best way to prepare it is to follow the microwave prep instructions from the medium granulation box. Following the non-microwave instructions from either box, or following the whole granulation's microwave instructions both yield mushy, gluey kasha.

The secret is an EGG. The basic procedure is to mix a raw, whole egg with the dry kasha kernels and microwave it. It turns into a hockey-puck-like blob, which you then break into the tiniest chunks you can with a fork. I usually break down and use my hands, steam burns be damned. Then you add hot water, cover, and microwave until the water is absorbed. The egg protein appears to keep the individual kernels from smushing (with apologies to Ronnie) together and getting gluey, which makes the texture interesting rather than icky.

The kasha was pretty good. I prefer medium granulation over whole because whole kasha kernels have a slightly dusty taste that overpowers the nutty, toasty flavors. The cooking technique minimizes the dustiness, but my light toss with a little butter and salt didn't completely eliminate it. It might be interesting to try using whole kasha in a grain salad, dressed liberally with vinaigrette, to remedy the problem.

The soy milk is from, of all places, Costco. We have a membership solely because they have the best prices anywhere on eyeglasses, and otherwise shop there maybe twice a year. We happened in a few weeks ago, and discovered they were selling 32oz. containers of organic soy milk in packs of 12 for under $12. It was too good to pass up, but it means I'll be drinking a lot of soy milk.

PS- no picture on this one, because kasha looks pretty boring and gross. I am a kasha evangelist, and y'all are probably more likely to try it if I don't put up an unappetizing photo...

Soup at Home

For dinner, I had some homemade potato-leek soup, with bread and a glass of red wine.

I wasn't actually going to blog about food today again, but I found this photo in my inbox, from Jon. I can take the hint. Did I mention HE made it? Maybe if I blog about it, Jon will cook cool things more often. I can hope.



It is pretty soup. And it was pretty delicious. Jon followed a modified Julia Child recipe for potage parmentier, chosen for its simplicity (we found several that required fifteen ingredients, which is ridiculous). This one contained only four real ingredients, although he modified it by using chicken stock instead of water. It took less than an hour of mostly unattended cooking, and turned out really well. It was very creamy, even though Jon used butter in lieu of heavy cream, and managed to be very filling. It's reasonably healthy, but doesn't taste "healthy". After my breakfast, and some crazy tallow-fried chicken for lunch, I was grateful for something light but substantial.

The wine was good, considering it was less than $4. It was a strange/slightly sketchy bottle we picked up at my favorite Italian market. It's bottled under the "Lost Vineyards" label as a Portuguese table wine. It definitely wasn't as robust and rich as my beloved Portuguese reds, but it was an inoffensive dry red. I'm tiring of TJ's international selection, so it's nice to find cheap, good wine that's new, even if it's not amazing.

Federhofer's Bakery in St. Louis

For breakfast, I had caramel stollen with soymilk.

St. Louis is a city of neighborhoods and municipalities, many of which haven't seen any changes since the 60s or 70s. At ALL. There seems to be a huge belt of neighborhoods like this on the south side of St. Louis, running out to the suburbs in a south-west swath- Marlborough, Sappington, Crestwood, and Affton. It's very confusing and time-warpey the first time it happens- you're just driving along, and suddenly everything is old. Bowling alleys, vacuum repair shops, hairdressers. And little family bakeries.



We happened to drive by Federhofer's Bakery in Affton yesterday on our way somewhere else, and it looked so intriguing we had to loop back around to check it out. I haven't been in a dedicated bakery in years, so I was dumbfounded with the array of treats on offer. We ended up with a caramel stollen and some doughy crescent-shaped pastries filled with a chocolate-like substance (maybe a thin layer of chocolate pastry cream?).



The stollen is pretty good, if a bit sweet. There is coconut in the caramel glaze, which I find a little distracting, flavor-wise, but it adds a nice crunch. The almond filling is subtle, and the bread does its best to balance all the sweetness. Federhofer's prices were also great. It's quite a trek back there, but it's worth the drive for an occasional treat. I'm curious to try their fabulous-looking fresh breads next.

Lion's Choice in St. Louis

For lunch, I had a cheddar roast beef sandwich, fries, and a root beer.

I've been wanting to check out Lion's Choice since we moved to town months ago. It's a local chain, started in the late 1960s, with kitschy signs and intriguing menu items.

It wasn't bad. I'm not much for fast food, and rarely order a "meal" somewhere because I hate most fast food fries and don't really drink soft drinks (Chick-Fil-A's fries and lemonade being the exception).

In any case, I ordered their #8, which is a roast beef sandwich with "cheddar". To my glee, "cheddar"= nacho cheese sauce; unfortunately, it obscured the flavors. I wish I'd ordered it plain to actually taste the beef (which, impressively, is sliced to order and cooked to a default medium rare). There was also a slightly absurd amount of salt sprinkled on the beef, so some bites were wildly salty and others merely over-salty. Underneath all the crap, the beef itself seemed to taste good.

The fries were okay. They were in the vein of McDonald's fries, which I do not like, but, it being a roast beef restaurant, there was glorious creamed horseradish sauce everywhere, which makes everything delicious. Especially fries.

To drink, I had a Barq's Root Beer. I usually just get iced tea when I eat fast food, but every once in awhile I figure it's good to throw up my hands and embrace the HFCS monster. It was likewise okay. I've seen sassafras drink mix at Schnuck's that I'm curious to try, and I like root beer as those things go, but I just can't handle drinking this much sugar at once, even after my prophylactic filling-the-cup-95%-full-of-ice trick.

Cookie Wedge for Breakfast

For breakfast, I had a chocolate chip cookie wedge and some coffee.

The wedge is the last slice from the giant cookie I made last week.



Hi giant cookie. I made giant cookie because this recipe's dough spread a ridiculous amount while I was baking it last time, and I ended up with a blobby sheet of cookie amoebas. I figured same result, less work.

Sort of. I purposely made them more dense because I was going for a cookie cake sort of texture. It worked well, but the density obscured some of the more delicate butter/brown sugar flavors I liked.

The coffee is curious. I want to say horrendous, but I'm trying to stay open-minded until I try it a few more times. It's New Mexico Pinon Coffee from TJ's. Maybe I'm making it way too strong? If anything, it reminds me of Starbuck's (grammatical digression: if the coffee chain is named after Melville's character "Starbuck", the chain should be "Starbuck's Coffee", not "Starbucks Coffee", no? Am I missing something?) cold-brewed iced coffee- very strong, with blunt, bitter flavors.