2011 – The Year in Review

Do you know what? I didn’t do any holiday baking. I did only the most minimal amount of homemade gift-making. I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I feel exhausted, burnt out, and old. Or at least I did before January and this new year started.

Of course, part of the reason could very well be that I have been getting up every night in the middle of the night to let that one out. And getting up early to feed him and walk him and all that good stuff that makes our pup quite possibly the best Christmas present ever.

It could also be that things are a bit messier in our house than I might ordinarily keep them, so it’s sort of cramping my style in the kitchen. But I’m working on that.

In any case, I’ve been wanting to write a year-in-review list style post since July, so I’ve been saving up some good stuff to share with you at the end of the year. Okay, yes, I know it’s now January, but I’m still getting started for 2012. It’s kind of like at the end of your senior year in high school when you vote for everyone’s senior superlatives, but then you don’t find out who got what until the next year when your yearbook is mailed to you so that they could include photos of graduation in the yearbook… I tell you, the suspense is agonizing. (I kid, but just in case it matters for posterity, Jessalyn was voted “most likely to succeed” and Alex claims he didn’t receive a superlative).

So, in no particular order, and purely for our own entertainment as we reflect on the past year, here we go!

Best Restaurant We Visited

The Beach House (in Koloa on Kaua’i, HI)

What? I forgot to write about our fabulous Hawai’i honeymoon? I have been remiss. The Beach House is situated right on the water with a magnificent wall of windows that open out into the sunset. We watched the twilight surfers while sipping local beers and raspberry lemon drops, snapped a few photos of the sun’s descent, and enjoyed a unique Hawaiian fish, opah, prepared in a miso broth with Asian vegetables. It was my favorite meal in Hawai’i, and my favorite restaurant we visited in 2011.

Top 5 Most Popular Posts

Join the cool kids and reminisce on these popular posts:

Dark Days: The Not-so-Local Salmon Meal

A Fancy for Fancy Meat

Lying Lasagna into Existence

Holy Jam Jars, Batman!

A (P)interesting Thing to Do with Pie Crust

Most Popular Search Terms that Landed Here

“it started with yum”

“garfield eating lasagna”

“vegetable cookies”

I am so proud.

A Handful of Unusual/Funny Search Terms (with our commentary)

“beef stew yum yum” – yum, yum, indeed!

“the worry cure”  – good food cures all worries; reading about good food can’t hurt, right?

“is cabbage appetizing” – is this a rhetorical question?

“what are fancy recipes called” – when you find the answer, let me know

“alex write” – Alex, dear, I think this is a simplistic but powerful request for you to have a voice in more posts.

“cuts on tongue and tender roof of mouth” – ouch! hopefully not from food I’ve suggested here!

“giggling pair fertilizes an” – an what? fertilizes a what? the mad lib-like suspense is killing me. but no, in case you were wondering, we are not currently trying to fertilize anything. except maybe the vegetable garden. and no, t hat’s not code for anything. and we may or may not giggle while doing even that.

Number of Posts Written

119

Not too shabby! But just like I do in a repeat AMRAP Crossfit workout,  I’m going to try to top that in 2012.

Blogs (culinary and otherwise) that saw a lot of my readership

Smitten Kitchen

Food in Jars

Young House Love

DreamGreen DIY

Bower Power Blog

I Believe I Can Fry

101 Cookbooks

5 Second Rule

Living the Frugal Life

Root Simple

Goals for 2012

eat more dark greens

figure out how to use slow cooker more often

this is the year that I will finally attempt to make my own croissants, pasta, and sausage

reformat blog to include “life” posts because I enjoy making things outside the kitchen, too

update the Kitchen Tour to include a video tour and more current photos – we have been redecorating, after all

read 12 books to include 4 classics (cookbooks and stuff for work doesn’t count; I was dismayed at how little I read in 2011 so am attempting to fix that for 2012, starting with Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle)

figure out how to better build in time for blogging

take better food photos – or remember to take them at all…

Coolest Culinary Experience

Photo Credit: Adam Barnes Fine Art Photography (c)2011
Cake by La Bella Torta

Besides eating the strawberry-lemonade with buttercream wedding cake at our wedding (and for several days after the honeymoon)? In early December I was invited to teach a bread-baking class to a small group of ladies who gathered in a host’s home to socialize and learn from little ol’ me! They were such an enthusiastic audience, even despite the fact that I had lost my voice and the average volume of my voice was slightly above a raspy whisper with occasional awkward cracks of prepubescent croaks. Each participant made a batch of dough to take home to practice making the breads we made together: basic loaf, pita, and na’an – using the technique I learned in Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois. We had a blast, and I would gladly welcome the opportunity to do it again.

Thanks so much for your readership. As I did this time last year, I’m going to be thinking about some new ideas for going into the coming year, particularly to help keep my interest in blogging and your engagement in reading high, while balancing all the things that life may throw this way. I’ll keep you posted, and see you some more in 2012!

Happy (belated) New Year from our family to yours!

Magical Tales of Carrots and Ginger

I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I saw a 5-pound bag of carrots at the grocery store for about $3 and I said wow what a great deal! And I brought home nearly 25 carrots. 

I guess I was thinking about our pup and that maybe he’d like some carrots for a healthy snack. Turns out he doesn’t really like carrots that much.

So now I have too many carrots. And what does one do with too many carrots? Why, you make things that use up carrots, of course.

We’ve had carrot salad, carrot soup, and carrot cake. It’s the latter two that I wanted to talk to you about today because their success depends on an ingredient that is decidedly not carrots.

Today’s magic ingredient is ironically not carrots, but…ginger! 

I think that ginger is typically associated with Asian types of foods. Or pickled with sushi. Right? But did you know it also pairs beautifully with carrots? (And for that matter, with other orange-fleshy things like butternut squash)

I know this because I continually tout myself as “so not a fan of butternut squash soup.” But if it has had some minced ginger added to it, then I can handle it. As I made the carrot soup the other day (sorry, no photos, but read the recipe here), I became a bit doubtful as it smelled very acridly sweet and earthy and borderline butternut squashy. What? Isn’t that how you describe the smell of carrots?

Fortunately for me, ginger helps to cut through that earthiness and allows the savory sweetness of the carrot to shine through. So if you follow that recipe (and I do recommend it – we ate it for days afterward), don’t skimp on the ginger. 

Minced ginger is the one ingredient on which I occasionally pull a cheater-cheater-pumpkin-eater because I love this: Ginger People’s minced ginger.

source: Ginger People’s website

I can keep it in the fridge and scoop out a spoonful whenever I need it, not having to worry about whether the dried out piece of ginger root I dug up from the depths of my fridge from who-knows-how-long ago is still potent.

In fact, I so loved the carrot-ginger soup, that I got a little crazy and adapted Smitten Kitchen’s maple cream cheese frosting for her carrot cake by adding some ground ginger right into the frosting. And can I humbly say, it was amazing? I brought some cupcakes to work and they were gone in less than 30 minutes. Even at the good-morning hour of 8am!

Maple-Ginger Cream Cheese Frosting (enhanced from, and for use with Smitten Kitchen’s carrot cake)

makes enough to generously frost 12 cupcakes

– 1 8-oz. package cream cheese, softened
– 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
– 1 cup powdered sugar
– 1/8 cup (or 2 tablespoons) good maple syrup
– 3/8 teaspoon ground ginger (or slightly more to taste)

Stir together cream cheese, butter, and sugar in mixer until incorporated and fluffy. Add maple syrup and ground ginger.

Now, this is not the kind of frosting that I’d want to just eat out of the bowl. Not that you couldn’t – indeed you could, but it just becomes even more out-of-this-world when sitting atop a gloriously moist carrot cake cupcake. Maybe topped with a paper-thin slice of candied ginger. Further, if you’re not a big maple syrup fan (I’m not either – until recently I preferred my pancakes with a slab of butter only, thank you), don’t be intimidated by the smidgey amount in this recipe. It won’t be overpowering, I promise.

Have you ever paired carrots and ginger in interesting ways? What other magical properties of ginger (or of carrots) have manifested themselves in your kitchen? Do tell.

Mushroom Marsala

I’m so distracted lately. I’ve almost forgotten to eat, much less shop for groceries. Wanna know why?

His name is Nero and we adopted him this weekend. I’m so in love.

So to combat the past few days of take-out dinners (and the urge to forget eating when I’m so busy marveling at Nero’s every move), when I got home this evening I was determined to do a little scrounging to figure out what I could make for dinner. And then I discovered the secret ingredient hiding out in my fridge:

Can you see it? That pink circle is drawing your attention to a bottle of Marsala wine that I’ve been storing in the fridge for quite some time. It’s almost empty. I just had to finish it. But, you know, Marsala wine is not really a drinking wine. At least not that I’ve seen. It is excellent in cooking, though, and really does have a different taste than white wine. (We’ll take a real tour of my fridge soon, I promise).

So what I did was I chopped up a bunch of mushrooms and sauteed them in butter until they browned crisply at the edges and smelled heavenly. I added some slivers of onion, deglazed with a gigantic hiss of Marsala, and whisked in some fresh whole milk (because the cream I found buried in the depths of my fridge smelled rather sour. Ew.) until it was a bubbling pan of rib-sticking goodness. I added some butter with a Julia Child-esque flourish to make it extra silky and then tossed with some fusili pasta–the corkscrew kind that really soaks up creamy sauces (which, incidentally, is a fact I learned from Boston Market and their macaroni and cheese). And now, as the weather is cooling off, you can enjoy it too.

Mushrooms in Marsala Cream

Yum Factor: Alex – 7.5, Jessalyn – 9

– 2 big scoops of cremini mushrooms, cleaned and sliced
–  1/2 an onion, sliced
– 1/2 cup Marsala wine
– 1+ cup whole milk or cream
– 1/2 bay leaf
– 1/4+ teaspoon garlic powder
– a small spoonful of flour
– 3+ tablespoons butter

1. Saute the mushrooms in 1 tablespoon of butter over medium heat. Season with salt and pepper once they start to soften. (You may need to do this in batches, depending on how big your pan is. You don’t want the mushrooms to steam each other–only enough room to shrink and then brown). Set aside.

2. In same pan, saute the onions in 1 tablespoon of butter. As they soften,  sprinkle in the flour and stir to coat. Return the mushrooms to the pan. Pour in the Marsala wine to deglaze the pan, scraping off any browned bits from the bottom with a wooden spoon. Let the wine simmer down so that everything is coated in its sticky goodness. You want it so that most of the liquid has evaporated before going on to the next step.

3. Slowly stir in the milk or cream. Add the bay leaf and garlic powder. Allow to return to only the gentlest of boils–a rigorous simmer, if you will. Stir frequently to prevent the bottom from scorching. It will take about 10-15 minutes for the milk to reduce slightly and the flour to help it thicken up.

4. Just before serving (or dressing your pasta*, as we did this evening), melt in another tablespoon of butter for that extra silky texture. Re-season with salt and pepper as needed.

*Note: If you prefer a pasta that is flavorful but not appallingly creamy, use a full pound of fusili pasta with this recipe. If you prefer a creamier pasta, use about 1/2 box of fusili pasta with this recipe (or double the amount of sauce).

I made mine in a bit of a hurry and primarily out of the necessity of needing something to eat with the random stuff I apparently have in the fridge and pantry. But can’t you just imagine this topped with a nice thick grilled portobella mushroom? Or some grilled chicken? MmmMMmm.

Having never grown up with a dog, I had no idea how happy one could make me. Can’t wait to see what doggy treats I can whip up in the kitchen. Nero didn’t seem too interested in this dish. Not that I would have fed it to him anyway.

Do you have any dishes you like to whip up when your four-legged friends do something that captures your heart? Do tell.

The Kitchen Shelf Elf

Not yet having kids, we don’t yet have any need for an “elf on the shelf.” (I don’t think these were around when I was growing up, but I am intrigued by the things people have been pinning on pinterest this time of year). But the good news is, we now have a new shelf (two, actually) on which such an elf might poise himself to observe the pre-holiday goings-on.

Pretty neat, huh? Of course, I’m still working on the things I want to display and how to do so. The top shelf will definitely contain some of my more frequently-used cookbooks held up by an adorable white owl bookend that I found at TJMaxx. And the other shelves will contain things that are used somewhat often but are especially attractive to display–things I don’t want hiding in a cabinet. Like my yellow tea kettle, some mugs, and miscellaneous kitchen tools. And I’d like to eventually purchase, make, or assemble some art pieces to showcase in further personalizing the kitchen. It will continue to evolve, I’m sure.

Let’s take a quick trip down memory lane to see how this wall of the kitchen has evolved, shall we?

When we moved into the house, this wall contained a corner cabinet. While it was utilized for some storage, part of the cabinet was unusable because it extended so far back accessible from a skinny door. What I mean is the cabinet on the right hand side that is perpendicular to the double-door cabinet that’s facing you in the photo extended all the way to the wall behind the front facing cabinets, which meant if I wanted to store anything back there, I risked spraining my wrist trying to reach back there to locate it. Not super functional. (Oh, and remember that red wall color?)

Remember that in the original setup, there were two under-cabinet fluorescent lights? We decided they would look kind of funny sticking out from the edge of the cabinet and sort of floating in space against the wall, so we removed them. And then we were left with the problem of the wires. Alex and my dad safely secured the wiring into junction boxes. Small pieces of drywall were located to fill the hole and the spackle/sanding process began so that the wall could be painted its new blue color.

Well, after the wall got painted, we hemmed and hawed for quite some time about what exactly we wanted these shelves to look like. In fact, three and a half months passed before we reached a decision (oh, yeah, and we got married during that time too…) Some of the things we debated? Should they be an ‘L’-shape or just extend the full length of the longer wall? Should they be thick or thin? Traditional or modern? What type of brackets would hold them up against the wall? Should we use wood or something else? Will the studs be in the right place? Will they be able to hold enough weight? You get the idea.

We finally reached a decision, opting to buy two 2×12 wood boards from Lowe’s, cut to size, which we sanded, primed, and painted to match the white cabinets. (Yes, only the top cabinets are painted white right now. We’re getting to the bottom cabinets slowly but surely). We also found some wood brackets what were not plain jane folk-art types of brackets but also not super ornate. In fact, they kind of match the new cabinet hardware we picked out. But those too had to be sanded, primed, and painted.

And then, about 4 hours later by the magic of the kitchen shelf elf (AKA my clever husband), we had two beautiful open shelves in the kitchen! His tool box is not currently equipped with all the tools that one might ordinarily use to install some shelves. A level, yes, thankfully. But some other convenient tools, no. Still, he did a pretty ingenious job making do with what we do have to assemble these shelves securely. And they’re awesome! I love how I still get to use them for purposes of storage but it doesn’t seem to weigh down the kitchen quite so much as the cabinet did. It helps the kitchen to feel more open, which is more in line with the open floor plan of our first floor living area anyway. (See at the left edge of the above photo you can peer into the living “room” with the fireplace?)

What do you think? What do you store on your open shelves? Or if you don’t have any, what would you display if you did have open shelving as part of your kitchen space? Am I wrong to think that I don’t yet need the Elf on a Shelf to display on these shelves? Do tell. I can’t wait to show you what I come up with for these shelf displays as part of the final kitchen reveal.

Thanksgiving in Cupcake Form

I wouldn’t be much of a food blogger if I didn’t write about any Thanksgiving foods during this, the holiday that celebrates food! (and family and thankfulness and all that good stuff). While it’s not yet my turn to host the Thanksgiving meal (so I don’t have any preparation tips or stories or menus for you), and I haven’t quite accumulated enough recipes on here to give you many useful ideas for your own Thanksgiving feast (unlike Smitten Kitchen here), I thought I would share an interesting twist on a traditional side dish…er…dessert.

I found a recipe that I had flagged a while back for Sweet Potato Cake in The All New Ultimate Southern Living Cookbook that, designed as a layer cake, contained layers of a coconut cream filling and was frosted with a simple caramel frosting. Um, yum?! And so, I offered to make this for the dinner that Alex and I will be attending.

Except when I went to start gathering my ingredients, I discovered that I do not own three 9-inch round cake pans. So I was trying to figure out whether I should just skip the frosting (you can, by the way, if you want something that could be served as a sort of sweet bread with your meal), or whether there was some other way I could incorporate all these interesting flavors.

And then I discovered a borrowed piece of bakeware gadgetry that I originally swore I would never own: a cupcake corer. That’s right, it’s like a mini plunger that sucks out a piece of your cupcake so that you can fill it with something gooey and delicious, ho-ho or twinkie-style. (Robin, if you’re reading this, let me know how I can get it back to you!) Here was the answer to my woefully incomplete baking pan collection!

What we have here, folks, are sweet potato cupcakes with coconut cream filling and caramel frosting. (I topped them with some sugar and spice pecans that I made earlier this week. Helps to make it really seem like a Thanksgiving cupcake, doesn’t it?) Unusual and delightful. I like dishes that twist the Thanksgiving classics in interesting ways. This just may be one of them.

Sweet Potato Cupcakes (adapted in form only from The All New Ultimate Southern Living Cookbook)

For the cupcakes:
– 1 medium-large sweet potato, roasted and cooled (need about 1.5 cups of mash)
– 6 eggs, separated
–  1 cup butter, softened
– 3 cups sugar
– 3 cups all-purpose flour
– 1 tablespoon baking powder
–  1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
– 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
– 1/4 teaspoon salt
– (1) 8-oz. container sour cream
– 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1.  Beat the egg whites until they hold stiff peaks. Set aside.

2. Cream the butter and sugars together until smooth. Add the egg yolks, one at a time.

3. Combine the sweet potato mash and sour cream, then add to the butter/sugar mixture, beating until well blended.

4. Combine the dry ingredients, then add to the butter/sugar mixture in two additions. It’ll be pretty thick. Add the vanilla.

5. Carefully fold in the egg whites, a third at a time. You should notice the batter starting to lighten, slightly.

6. Scoop into prepared cupcake pan and bake at 350F about 25-30 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Let cool in pan at least 10 minutes before removing to cooling rack. Once cooled, plunge out the centers using a cupcake corer (or carefully cut out a small circle in the center of each cupcake top).

For the coconut cream filling:
– 1/4 cup sugar
– 2 tablespoons cornstarch
– pinch of salt
– 1 cup milk
– 1 egg, lightly beaten
– 1/2 cup sweetened flaked coconut
– 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

7. While the cupcakes are baking, go ahead and make the coconut filling. Combine sugar, cornstarch, and salt in saucepan over medium heat. Add the  milk, stirring constantly, until it has thickened – it’ll look like it’s on its way to pudding.

8. Carefully whisk in about 1/4 of the milk mixture into the beaten egg to bring it up to temperature. Then add back to the remainder of the milk mixture  and continue cooking over medium-low heat about 3-5 minutes more.

9. Remove from heat and stir in coconut and vanilla. Chill in fridge at least an hour (or overnight) with plastic wrap directly on the surface to prevent a skin from forming.

10. When ready, fill the cupcake holes with the coconut cream, then store in fridge until ready to frost.

Note that I attempted to use my new piping tips, but it wasn’t really necessary. The texture of the cream is runny enough that you could just spoon it into the cupcakes.

For the caramel frosting:
– 6 tablespoons butter
– 3/4 cup brown sugar
– 3 tablespoons milk
– 1.5 cups powdered sugar, sifted to remove lumps
– 3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

11. Combine butter and sugar in saucepan over medium heat. Once melted stir in milk quickly and bring to a boil.

12. Reduce heat slightly and add powdered sugar and vanilla. Stir over heat until smooth, about 3-5 minutes.

13. When frosting the cupcakes, note that the caramel will stiffen fairly quickly once removed from the heat. I wanted mine a little thick because I didn’t want it to run all down the sides of the cupcake wrappers, but I didn’t want it to be quite as thick as caramel candy. So use your judgment based on whatever you may be fixing and how you like your caramel. Be sure to at least frost enough to cover up the coconut filling hole.

Optional: Top with a sugared pecan (more on those here). The original recipe calls for a handful of chopped, toasted pecans in the batter, but I was afraid this would make my delicate cupcakes awkward and more muffin-like, so I skipped them.

I must admit that as of this writing, I haven’t tried the whole thing. I’ve eaten the cake itself (yum, and thanks to the egg whites, nice and light), and I’ve tasted the coconut filling (nice and sweet), but I haven’t yet taken a bite of the entire cupcake chef-d’oeuvre. I will update you after we eat them on Thursday (though I can’t imagine that it wouldn’t work).

What desserts will you enjoy this Thanksgiving? Do you prefer the traditional pies a la mode or something more contemporary like pumpkin cheesecake? Do these sweet potato cupcakes look like something you might like like to try? Do tell. And have a safe and blessed Thanksgiving!

Sweet Potato and Chorizo Soup

Continuing on with my soup project with this post: pimp your Thanksgiving dinner, Part 2. 

(Read part 1 here).

I promised myself I would remember to re-post this recipe in time for Thanksgiving this year, so here it is. (Read the original post here).

If you’re a die-hard sweet potato eater at Thanksgiving dinner, or if you’re the Thanksgiving cook and your guests expect sweet potatoes, but you are getting tired of those little browned marshmallows on the top, this recipe would make an excellent, feisty alternative.

Sweet Potato and Chorizo Soup (adapted from Jamie Oliver’s Jamie’s Food Revolution)

1. Get 1.75 quarts of chicken or vegetable broth boiling away in a saucepot on the stove.

– 2 carrots, peeled and roughly chopped
– 2 celery stalks, roughly chopped
– 2 medium onions, roughly chopped
– 3 cloves garlic, chopped
– 1 3/4 pound sweet potatoes, smaller dice (I’m not very good estimating weight, but I took this to mean 2 medium-large yams)
– 3 chorizo sausages, sliced (I use Neiman Ranch pre-cooked, which are excellent and usually not too spicy)
– small handful of flat-leaf parsley, chopped
2. Add all chopped ingredients to a large pot with some olive oil. Salt and pepper. Add 1 heaping teaspoon curry powder*.

*Note: I didn’t have curry powder on hand. But, as you may know, curry powder sold in the store is actually a blend of spices (kind of like chili powder). So I decided to improvise with the dry spices I did have on hand and ended up mixing together something like this: 1/2 teaspoon of each – cumin, ground mustard, crushed red pepper flakes; 1/4 teaspoon of each – ground ginger, cinnamon, paprika. I then used a heaping teaspoon of this mixture in place of “curry powder.” Use what you have.

Saute on medium high heat with the lid of the pot tilted off for about 10 minutes. Onions will be just starting to color.

4. Add the bubbling broth and bring the whole mixture up to a boil. Then reduce the heat, cover, and simmer for about 10 minutes. You’ll end up with something like this:

You’ll notice that it still looks pretty liquidy. So at this point you can pull out your handy dandy immersion blender and go to town. (If you don’t have an immersion blender, carefully transfer the soup a little at a time to a stand blender and blend in batches until it’s smooth).

The sweet potatoes and the sausages will dissolve into liquid form, thickening the whole soup to a beautiful harvest orange color.

I really wish you could taste this. My mouth is watering just writing to you about it. And I usually don’t have any salivary reaction to things like watching food on TV.

I opted for a simple garnish of finely diced poblanos, crisped bacon, and chopped parsley. I found this useful for highlighting some of the flavors in the soup and to add a bit of texture to the now-velvety soup. 

Don’t let the orange color fool you! If, like me, you are not the biggest fan of butternut squash soup or even pumpkin soup, don’t just shrug this soup off. I promise it is only slightly sweet; the sweet potato flavor definitely comes through and blends so interestingly, nay, deliciously with the spicy chorizo. 

In Which My Airport-Induced Food Magazine Addiction Pays Off

I’ve found myself in airports a lot, recently. And you may not yet know this about me, but finding myself in airports has become a cue for me to buy food magazines like there’s no tomorrow. This is not so bad a thing because, not being a print subscriber, the only time I do immerse myself into the world of food magazines, really, is when I’m in an airport. Plus, while I hold off hunger as long as possible before resorting to the world’s most flavorless sandwiches (available exclusively at an airport near you!), I pretend that I am absorbing nutrients and satisfying my stomach by merely eyeing the carefully constructed dish of pastry or roast or fresh salad that made the centerfold of this month’s Bon Appetit, Food & Wine, Whole Living, Real Simple, or other foodie publication.

So it’s not like I have an addiction.

Right?

But if you are a food magazine subscriber, or if you pay special attention to the Food section at your local newsstand or grocery check-out line, you may have noticed that a theme is running through many a glossy page these days: being perfectly prepped, getting dinner on the table fast, planning ahead for fast weeknight dinners, making the most of leftovers, multiple meals from the same recipe. Notice a pattern?

It seems that people want tips on planning ahead. I think this is a good thing because it means that there is a growing interest in preparing meals at home. We are discovering that it’s cost-effective, it’s delicious, it’s comforting, and most of all, it can be done!

This, however, is not a post about planning ahead. (Though I myself have also been working on getting our meals more organized, particularly now that I have a handsome husband to dutifully serve).

This is a confessional post. And no, my why-do-food-magazines-look-so-much-more-appealing-when-I’m-in-an-airport confession doesn’t count.

Today I discovered a magical pairing in the fruit and vegetable world. It’s colorful. It’s sweet. It’s just the right amount of chewy. It’s a vegetable and a fruit that when each are consumed separately you have something pretty good going on. But when consumed together you have the closest you’ll likely ever get to an outright jewel-toned candy in the world of whole foods.

I’m talking about beets and oranges.

I’ve gone absolutely bonkers for this flavor combination. I originally made this Avocado, Beet, and Orange Salad (which I found in Whole Living – one of my airport acquisitions) in hopes that Alex would come to love beets when they make an appearance on their own (i.e., not in a chocolate cake). Alas, the guy only ate half of one slice of beet before transferring the rest to my plate when I wasn’t looking–his magenta-tinted fingertips tipped me off. That’s right, I ended up eating an entire beet by myself with my dinner this evening.

And despite the other delicious ingredients that comprised this salad– the addictive pan-fried croutons I made with some slices of pain au levain that I picked up at the store, and the smooth and creamy and always pleasing avocado (both of which I, of course, wanted to consume in copious amounts until next month’s issue of Whole Living hits the shelves), I welcomed Alex’s donation of rejected beets without once brandishing my fork menacingly in his direction. I could not wait to cut up those beets and pair them with a bite of an orange slice!

It tastes like biting into a rainbow. Jewel-tones exploded in a light show of sweetness against my tongue. If Starburst candies were somehow natural and good for you, this is what they would taste like. I pictured myself eating beets and oranges together with a creamy, slightly salty cheese or in yogurt for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I savored every last bite, even as the orange slices began to look more like blood oranges or oranges with li hing mui powder sprinkled on them, thanks to the beet juices lingering on my plate.

Growing up, if my mom served some really delicious fruit for dessert with our dinner, whoever got to the fruit bowl first would feign a disgusted face and say “oh, you all won’t like this” hoping to con the other family members into avoiding the fruit so as to enjoy the actually-really-delicious fruits for him- or herself. So, don’t tell Alex, but I’m glad he didn’t like this preparation of beets. I won’t be lying if I make this again and tell him he won’t like it. I will eat every bite with a childlike twinkle in my eye, and I will inevitably daydream about this salad the next time I am stuck in an airport.

So, come on, what flavor combinations have you discovered recently (or always enjoyed)? Do certain magazines seem 1000% more appealing in an airport to you too? When do you purchase food magazines, and what do you do with them? Do tell.

P.S. As I mentioned above, this recipe can be found here. I promise I made it as is and didn’t tinker with the ingredients. Well, okay, I was out of balsamic vinegar so I substituted half homemade blueberry vinegar and half white wine vinegar. I also didn’t use sunflower seeds. Make it and enjoy. You will feel refreshed and happy.