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Posts from the ‘Sauces’ Category

Apr 24

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Vegan Stocks – A farmer’s market

Bad Olivia.  Bad.  I totally missed my post yesterday and I had a great recipe to share but alas my job has been ramping up and sore throats have been passing around…so I’ll keep the subject of yesterday’s post in my pocket for another time.  Today I really wanted to get into a cornerstone recipe that really anyone should have, but that will be especially useful in building vegan recipes: a beefy vegetable stock.  This is a great recipe to have because it’s full of flavor without any meat products and even the most carnivorous fiend could find uses for this.  I fully attribute the beef-like flavor to my trick, and not so secret, ingredient which I’ll reveal below. But before the recipe a little detour and there might even be a trivia question along the way.

What is this secret beefy flavoring?

I was researching the idea of being a social vegan and discovered a new breed of eater: the flexivore.  It turns out that there are other omnivores like myself who have looked around and decided to continue to eat meat, but make a conscious effort to reduce their consumption overall out of objection to how the meat industry is currently run.  I suspect this aligns a great deal with the publishing of Michael Pollan’s “Omnivore’s Dilemma” which managed to really open my eyes to a variety of issues in the world of food—both exposing new problems and flushing out ones I was already familiar with.  I’ve read a lot on the topic of food (shocker!) but this is still one of my favorite books to hand off to friends because I think it manages to be both entertaining and compelling while being highly informative.  Plus it profiles my favorite farmer in the whole wide world.  No not McDonald – a libertarian hippie out of Virginia by the name of Joel Salatin.  (l)ibertarian hippies are the best and I’m probably just saying that because I am one *wink* Therefore I openly admit a little bit of a political bias to my love of this book.

But even with that in mind you can’t fight the facts.  My number one reason for eating vegan when I eat out is summed up in one, surprising word: Corn.  As it turns out that one word—corn—is synonymous with another word in our diets—Oil.  No not the kind you cook with.  The kind we drive and have land wars over.  Let me explain.  No there is too much.  Let me sum up.  **Name that movie for a prize!!** I know my readers have short attention spans so I’m not going to give you a detailed book report because really it would take pages so let me just explain my issue with meat and how it relates to corn and oil.

Why the scientist, nutritionist and health conscious me objects to the modern meat industry:

  • Stock base

    Agribusiness raises our meat on a diet of corn because corn is cheap and cows get nice and fat off it.  Fat means lots of saturated fats which taste good to the consumer and cheap corn feed for the cows means high profits.
  • Cows can’t digest corn properly.  It makes them sick.  So sick that we pump them full of antibiotics—not to cure the disease mind you because it’s not bacterial.  No we use the antibiotics to cure the symptoms of their gastrointestinal distress.  The antibiotics also make the cows bigger and fatter.  Win for agribusiness! 
  • But wait…doesn’t misuse of antibiotics mean resistant bugs?  You are a winner.  Yes it does.  And there’s more…see the antibiotics actually change the chemistry of a cow’s stomach.  A cow’s stomach is distinct from a human’s and should not normally incubate bacteria that can make us sick.  The antibiotics change that.  Now the cows harbor germs that can make us ill, and are breeding resistant version of them.  All this while they are kept in highly unsanitary conditions…like standing in 6 inches of cow poop all day instead of grazing.
  • Agriculture accounts for 60-70% of our antibiotics in this country and largely for these unwarranted applications.

But wait there’s more….why the economist, libertarian and peace loving hippie me object:

  • Corn is cheap to produce, the bulk of what we grow is inedible to humans as well as cows and gets sold at a loss to these big farms yet we grow more each year.  Why?
  • It all started with a post-world war 2 surplus of U.S. government owned ammonium nitrate for making bombs.  Ammonium also makes good fertilizer.  Since the government was out of the war business it went into the fertilizer making business instead.
  • Corn became King, or as Pollan puts it Queen (as in the Welfare Queen) since it was cheap to grow and could be converted to a number of things like high fructose corn sugar, ethanol and utilized as food for chickens and pigs who can digest it.  Excess fertilizer on the market meant cheap fertilizer and the advent of monoculture.  (Simplified definition: Monoculture refers to the practice of farming where fertilizer is used to replenish soil deprived of nutrients from over farming of a single crop)
  • Corn flooded the market because it was such a good seller…at first.  Then we had too much and prices went down.  Farmers started growing more to try to sell more to make up for previous year losses. 

  • Today the cost of producing corn is subsidized by 50%–that’s taxpayer money and translates to 6 billion a year.  And the cost keeps going down.  We’re investing in a loss year after year.  Why?  Because big agribusiness and Uncle Ronald McDonald depends on the stuff. 
  • ¼ of the goods you buy in a supermarket contain corn products.  A chicken nugget which is comprised of 38 ingredients is almost a third corn and no that doesn’t mean it’s good for you.  Sorry Dad.
  • Oh and by the way, the fertilizer to make that corn each year?  It requires oil.  That stuff we get from the middle east.  Conservative estimates show that 1 bushel of corn = ¼ gallon of oil.  How much corn do we produce in a year?  Well in 2007 we grew over 13 billion bushels.  The number has come down to closer to 12.5 in recent trends.  That’s still well over 3 billion gallons of oil in a year…to grow a crop we have too much of and lose money on.  And that doesn’t even account for the other hidden oil costs—like how much we need to run the plants that process that corn into things like corn syrup; the cost of the machines to farm it; the cost of healthcare as consumers eat excessive amounts of cheap sugars and get fat and sickly.
  • Don’t get me started on how this impacts our healthcare system.  I’m already at two pages.  But while the corn investment cost might not be much (6 billion is nothing compared to our military budget) if you consider the impact of cheap sugar/fat foods on health and our health care costs this becomes all the more shocking. 

And I’m still not getting into it all.  Now admittedly going vegan doesn’t really mean you stop supporting this overuse of oil for fertilizer since the other two gas guzzling crops are wheat and soy—a staple in most vegan diets.  It is however a start.  I also avoid soy as much as possible for other reasons I’ll explore on another day.  Tomorrow I’ll hopefully get into a little bit more of the environmental impact of factory farming, the meat industry and the corn connection but for now I’ll move onto this soup stock—something which is definitely worth investing a little thyme into.  Soup stock is essential not just for soups but as a way of adding a boost of flavor to an assortment of dishes.  It provides the backbone for a number of sauces and gravies.  A good stock is central to any kitchen pantry…or in my case a freezer.  You can make a huge batch of this stuff and then freeze it in various quantities. 

My favorite trick?  Ice cubes.  Pour this into an ice cube tray and then store into baggies once frozen.  This creates perfect 1-2 tbsp allotments that you can use in a pinch without having to thaw a huge batch or keep fresh stuff on hand all the time.  This is the only stock tip I’ve ever taken from Martha Stewart.  My ultimate vegan vegetable stock uses dried mushrooms–and don’t skimp on the porcini! No it doesn’t taste like mushroom soup thanks to the plethora of other vegetables but what the mushrooms do is impart an undeniable beef-y flavor quality which will leave your guests asking many questions.  Questions like “Who made this amazing soup/gravy?” and “You mean this is VEGAN?!” but never will you hear “where’s the beef?!”  Do not fear the fungi.  It’s your best friend in this recipe so even if you don’t normally like to eat mushrooms, try this out.  It might start to turn you….

Olivia’s Beefed up Vegan Broth

An Olivia Original – Makes about 8 to 10 cups Read more

Mar 26

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Think Thin Tuesday: Better get the Parsley started

Welcome to the first part of my Virtual Seder!  I hope you learn, I hope you feast and more than anything I hope you are entertained.  I will do my best to be both reverent and irreverent over the course of these posts. Traditionally the story of Passover is told near the beginning of your Passover Seder.  First it is preceded by blessings and the drinking of a cup of wine.  After the wine everyone washes their hands and moves on to the first element of the Seder plate.  Now the Seder plate is a literal plate that has been set with 7 symbolic foods for the telling and remembering of Passover.  These foods are consumed in a specific order.  Tonight we feature the first – the Karpas.  This is the first food eaten of the night after the washing of hands.

The Karpas is a vegetable, usually something bitter like parsley, and it is dipped in salt water before consuming.  This is meant to symbolize the bitterness and tears of slavery for the Jews of Egypt.  This action, dipping of vegetables in salt water, is meant to prompt curiosity of the children and lead them to ask the question: Ma nishtana ha lyla ha zeh mikkol hallaylot?
Why is this night different from all other nights?

SO why do Jews celebrate Passover?  What prompted this holiday in the first place?  Well it’s a line from Exodus in the Old Testament that provides the basis for the entire ritual:  You shall tell your child on that day, saying, ‘It is because of what Adonai did for me when I came out of Egypt.’” (Exodus 13:8)

The Story of Passover – as overly-simplified and wryly told by Olivia.

Once again those people with the funny looking sideburns were the target for some genocidal lunatic.  They ran away, survived and now to remember the fact that we once again managed to avoid extinction spend by spending 8 days eating, drinking and praying.

Haha very funny Olivia.  So what is it…really?

Well the story that most people who are familiar with is the Biblical narrative of Moses.  Many many years ago the Jewish people were enslaved in Egypt.  Some crazy Pharoah decided that all male Hebrew babies should be put to death.  One mother managed to hide her child for a while and eventually, in a desperate attempt to save his life, set him adrift on the nile in a basket to avoid the soldiers that had come to kill him.  The child was discovered by the Pharoah’s daughter and raised as a member of the family.  Many years later the boy, who was named Moses, intervened when an Egyptian was beating a Hebrew slave.  Intervened as in he killed the slaver.  Whoops.  Papa Pharoah not so happy about that so Moses flees, winds up saving some more Jews, marries one and hey look you’re actually one of us.  Who knew? Oh Moses did okay cool.  Anyway.

Eventually after having what some might argue was a pyromania fueled schizophrenic talk with some shrubbery, Moses believes he has the command of G-d to return to Egypt and set his people free.  Moses commands the Pharaoh release the Hebrews and when he doesn’t, 10 plagues descend upon Egypt.  Water to blood, frogs and lice as afflictions of the land followed by flies, diseased livestock, disfiguring boils, hailstorms, locusts and days of darkness all followed as the Pharaoh refused again and again to free the Jews.  Finally the tenth plague was death of all the first born sons of Egypt.  Ah the story has come round from the beginning, clever narrative or a just G-d depending on your personal religious leanings.  The Hebrews marked their homes with the blood of the lamb so that death would know that Jewish people lived in this house and pass over their doors, sparing the Hebrew children.

And that is where the term Passover comes from.  Isn’t the Old Testament so much more fun than the New?  By fun I mean just the kind of radical and violent story we love to read.   It may be a bloody and horrific tale but it’s certainly a captivating one.  There’s a lot of “Blood of Lamb” references to Jesus but the original use of this term to denote the favor of God upon the innocent, his “children”, began with some other Jews in Egypt.  I say other because as Avenue Q loves to remind us “Hey guys, Jesus was Jewish….”

Moving on…seeing children die, including his own son, apparently gets to Pharaoh.  Finally he relents, frees the Jews only he changes his mind.  Actually the exact wording is that G-d hardens his heart…what a dick.  Apparently he set up the Pharoah to fail?  I never understood that bit.  Anyway for whatever reason he changes his mind and sends his soldiers against the fleeing Israelites.  There’s a whole chase scene involving water being parted in the Red Sea thanks to Moses and his big stick.  The Jews hustle through like there’s a sale at Loehmann’s on the other side.  Once safely across the parted ocean waters, the waves collapse back down drowning the pursuing Egyptians.  (Then there’s the whole Ten Comandments and getting lost in the desert thing but that’s a whole other story and holiday for another time.)

Endeth the story.  Onto the Karpas!

I’ve almost always seen Parsley used as the vegetable for the Karpas and it’s probably the only time (other than some out-of-date 90′s restaurant plate styling) that you ever see curly parsley on a table.  Thus I always think of Passover when I see curly parsley at the store.  Typically the Italian Flat-leaf variety beats out this cousin because it’s a little less bitter but with much more flavor due to a higher volume of oils in the leaves.  For my recipe today I used both varieties.  I wanted to really showcase the flavor of the parsley.  The result?  Broiled Tilapia with a parsley-vegetable pistou.  Tilapia is a fantastic fish to use when you want something with a mild flavor so I knew it would be just the thing to let my main star shine through.  It’s so easy to cook if you have a broiler on your oven.  If you need something simple and Kosher for the middle of the week, this is just the ticket.  The whole meal can come together in 30 minutes.  Plus this is a great Think Thin Tuesday post since Pistou is similar to Pesto but lower in fat and calories since it omits cheese and pine nuts.  Traditional pistou is just basil, oil and salt.  Mine has considerably less basil and a lot more vegetables to bulk it up.

Tilapia with Parsley Pistou

An Olivia Original Read more

Sep 21

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Fantasy Friday: Gamgee’s Potato Dumplin’s

It’s going to be a quiet blogging weekend for me as I descend upon southern california to celebrate the birthday of a dear friend of mine.  Kenny, also known as The Geeky Fanboy, will be hosting a party for a number of our guildie karass at his house.  We used to do these movie night get togethers very frequently but I’m afraid that hosting as many as 20 people in your home at a time takes its toll both emotionally (quite draining) and financially (as drunken people break your stairs, doors, tv stands….) and so we put these gatherings on hold for a little while.  I can hardly blame the poor guy and I don’t know that I’d have the ability to calmly have that many people roaming my house ever much less on a semi-regular basis. I’m glad that we’re doing another one though and entirely to celebrate the kind of “God-Father” Kenny is to our group.

I always imagine the gaggle of geeks that gather much like the dwarves who sing that poem from The Hobbit.   You know the one that goes:

Chip the glasses and crack the plates!
    Blunt the knives and bend the forks!
That’s what Bilbo Baggins hates-
  Smash the bottle and burn the corks!

Cut the cloth and tread on the fat!
  Pour the milk on the pantry floor!
Leave the bones on the bedroom mat!
  Splash the wine on every door!

Dump the crocks in a boiling bowl;
  pound them up with a thumping pole;
And when your finished, if any are whole
  Send them down the hall to roll!

That’s what Bilbo Baggins hates!
So, carefully! carefully with the plates!

We get rather boisterous while poor Kenny Baggins is constantly trying to maintain order, keep the kitchen clean and seems to be endlessly supplying us with food and drink.  Poor little hobbitses!  I try to do my part to help but I’ve found that he’s a great deal like me.  When I have company over for dinner and they offer to wash the dishes I always insist that they just leave the plates in the sink. For many this is a social game akin to when a girl reaches for the check but really with the understanding that next the boy will insist upon paying and she will relent.  The guest will try to wash the dishes but the host will insist it’s okay and so on and so forth.  Well with Kenny, and myself as I am much like him in this respect,we really don’t want you to wash our dishes.  Why?  I know how anal this sounds but 9 times out of 10 you’re going to do it wrong.  They won’t be quite right or they’ll get put away in the wrong spot…it inspires anxiety in me even thinking of it.  I often feel useless not helping Kenny clean up more during these events (I’ll do a little like throw away trash and wipe up spills) but I totally understand where he is coming from.

My analogy for our group dynamic is particularly apt because Kenny is a huge fan of The Lord of the Rings.  In fact he does a spectacular cosplay as Frodo, though because of the poem I always kind of think of him as Bilbo.  I’ll never forget the first time I read those books.  I was in fourth grade, so about 9 years old, and when I was doing my best to read the entire fantasy section of our school library.  For some reason the librarian decided to deny me when I first attempted to rent out “The Hobbit” because she thought it was going to be too advanced for me.  My mother set that woman straight in about two seconds–I’d been reading at what passes for an 11th grade level.  The librarian was skeptical but I devoured that book and came back for the rest in short time.  I recall the librarian quizzing me about the book and after I answered each question, delivering an intellectual bitch slap in the process, she never made another squawk about my book selections.

I’m sad I missed the LOTR movie marathon weekend that Kenny hosted over a year ago.  The films were exceptional and to celebrate the group made lembas bread.  I haven’t attempted to make my own lembas bread recipe though that is on my list for a total LOTR themed dinner party someday.  Maybe if I get a whole theme going for dinner I can convince Kenny to do a movie marathon redux for the films.  A recipe I do have in my arsenal I love because it is inspired both by a memorable line from Samwise Gamgee.  There’s that scene where Gollum is eating the raw fish and Sam is bemoaning the lack of potatoes:

What’s taters, precious?

Po-ta-toes? Po-ta-toes!

Boil ‘em, mash ‘em, stick ‘em in a stew!

I wondered what Sam might have in mind and realized potato dumplings fit the bill perfectly.  First you boil, then you mash them and then form balls which can be served up in a hearty stew.  Sam is a gardener so I realized his dumplings would also be particularly flavorful with some nice herbs and spices to round them out. Since Kenny Baggins usually cooks up biscuits and gravy for breakfast when I and all my dwarven brethren visit, I decided to slather these delicious hobbit treats in a sawmill gravy rather than a stew.  Exactly the sort of Prancing Pony tavern food a Hobbit would expect to have for elevenses and a fun melding of fantasy and friend inspired food.

Gamgee’s Potato Dumplin’s with Gravy
an Olivia Original inspired by LOTR – makes 20-24 dumplings Read more

Sep 4

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Think Thin Tuesday – If veggies could kill….

I yelled at my stepdad last night.  I think he’s still mad at me about it.

It’s funny how death affects us.

I’m not the type to get hung up on celebrity deaths usually.  When Ray Bradbury died it really caught me but for the most part I think “that’s sad but I didn’t know them” and then move along.   Michael Clark Duncan died Monday from a heart attack…at the age of 54.  Clark was this hulking, athletic man.  His career was his body/health and he died from a heart attack.   It’s strange to see someone who seems so strong die so young.   Then I yelled at my stepfather for not eating his vegetables.  I got erratically angry about it actually.  Like I said, funny how death affects us.

See last night for dinner my mother made sliders for the family.   They are delicious but I usually abstain from eating more than half of one.  Why?  The rolls she serves them on are to die for…literally.  They are completely devoid of nutrition but extremely high in calories.  The sliders themselves get cooked in their own grease and have just tons of fat.  When you tack on cheese and sauces…well two of those suckers is easily 1000 calories of a meal alone.  That’s precisely how many my stepdad made for himself along with a couple of small smashed potatoes I had cooked up.  The potatoes were probably almost nothing compared to the sliders but still that meal was all starch and fat with a little bit of protein.  Not heart healthy and Dad needs to be watching his heart….seriously, doctor’s orders and all that.

I had steamed up a huge smorgasbord of vegetables to substantiate most of my meal for the evening.  It was an impressive display actually.  Bell peppers, yellow summer squash, green summer squash, gypsy peppers, mushrooms, green onion, and purple cauliflower (anthocyan-win!)  There was so much color on that plate and such variety of noms!  Color and variety are the best indicators that you are getting a spread of vitamins, minerals and anti-oxidants.  Plus I love steamed vegetables–you can get just the right level of cooked to crisp and retain far more of the good stuff than pan cooking or boiling.

While steaming these I decided to make a sauce.  I can eat pretty much any sort of vegetable completely plain, just a pinch of salt and pepper, and be happy.  My stepdad and brothers?  Not so much.  Okay that’s fine, I can get that.  Plain vegetables really are an acquired taste.  No one walks around craving broccoli; though your body will crave the minerals it needs from veggies.  There have been days when I genuinely desire some lettuce or mushrooms.   I’m straying from the point.  Okay so I made a lemony-mustard cream sauce that really wasn’t bad for you at all, with enough flavor that you only needed a drizzle and voila!  Edible Vegetables.  I had made the sauce as an afterthought and it took me almost no time to do, but I did in the hopes of making the experience of eating ”rabbit food” pleasant for the menfolk of the house.  I didn’t make it for myself because like I said, totally happy with just a pinch of salt and pepper.

My stepdad passed on the vegetables completely.  I asked why and he said he wasn’t that hungry…with two sliders on his plate.  I got irritated.  It’s wise not to over eat if you aren’t that hungry, but that doesn’t mean you get to cut out the healthy part of your dinner to make room for the bad stuff.  It means you reduce the size of the entire meal.  In this case that would simply mean replace one serving of fat and bread with the veggies.  Same amount of food but an entirely better for you plate with fewer calories from fat and way more nutrition.  The more I thought about it the angrier I got until I got up halfway through dinner and started to dump vegetables on his plate.

I know.  Wrong way to go about it.  You can’t force a mind but I was just so mad that he was snubbing my efforts to make the experience more pleasant.  I didn’t HAVE to make that damn sauce.   Not to mention the death of Michael Clark had only popped up on my news feed an hour before.  All I could think was “how?”  How could my Step-father not be trying to take better care of himself?  It’s not cute to be a grown man with genuine health concerns being picky about food.  EAT YOUR DAMN VEGETABLES.  Still I went about it the wrong way and then I got even angrier when he finally broke down, took a spoonful of greens—literally a single manly sized bite— and then TWO spoonfuls of sauce to pour over them.  I stormed off to my mother who was in her room and ranted for a good five minutes.  Also not the best choice in this situation but it was either that or burst into very non-grownup like, irrational tears.   When I came downstairs my Dad went up and that’s the last I’ve heard from him since the exchange.

Sometimes when I see people wasting their healthy bodies by eating crap, and I mean crap, I get insulted.  So many are born disfigured, disadvantaged or disabled and would be so much better to themselves if given the simple blessing of good health.   When I think about that, it seems almost disrespectful to let good bodies sour by fueling them with Taco Bell and sugary soft drinks.  In those moments when I’m feeling hypercritical, I see people do that all I can think is “you don’t deserve it.”  You don’t deserve to throw away this healthy body you take for granted when someone else would so lovingly care for it.  I would never advocate forcing anyone to do anything.  I’m not about to say we should force people to be healthy and I know that part of being a firm believer in free-choice and freedom is letting people waste their lives if they so choose.  It’s just harder to not be bothered by this sort of thing when you care about the person.  If a total stranger were sitting at my table and didn’t eat the vegetables I wouldn’t care about it nearly as much.  Then again I’m not hoping that total stranger will be around for my wedding someday (if I have one) or grandchildren or great grand-children….

And I know I’m probably not helping matters by writing about my bad behavior and this situation here on the internet for all to see.  I promise to try not to throw this sort of tantrum again.  At the very least I should have pulled out the Jewish guilt.  “But Daddy, why are you trying to kill yourself before I get married?  Who’s going to walk me down the aisle?” would have been more subtle and that’s still roughly equivalent to putting a bull in a china shop.  It’s just that…well Clark was eating healthy, active and only 4 years older.  4 years.  He was this actor who despite a huge, imposing stature just seemed to exude a jovial and kindness.  He was the kind of super-sized figure all kids see their fathers as.  It’s how we want to continue to see our fathers.

Fuck.   Now all my friends are probably going to be afraid to ever eat around me.  I promise I’m not like this all the time guys and I don’t begrudge the well-earned junk food binge.  Lord knows I have a pig out day once in a while.  It’s just that with some people, every day becomes a “cheat” day and then pretty soon you’re only just cheating the inevitable heart attack.  This past weekend we’d already been to a crab feed, I’d baked a cake and fresh English muffins…it was time to end the cheating and I’d tried so hard to make it pleasant to do so.  But here I am justifying my tantrum again.  *sigh*

Steamed Rainbow Veggies w/Lemon-Mustard Cream Dressing

An Olivia Original – Makes 4 servings of side veggies; 2 for a main meal Read more

Aug 24

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SciFriday: Leviathan Lasagna

“Humanity has colonized the solar system…Jim Holden is XO of an ice miner making runs from the rings of Saturn to the mining stations of the Belt. When he and his crew stumble upon a derelict ship, The Scopuli, they find themselves in possession of a secret they never wanted….Detective Miller is looking for a girl. One girl in a system of billions,. When the trail leads him to The Scopuli and rebel sympathizer Holden, he realizes that this girl may be the key to everything….Holden and Miller must thread the needle between the Earth government, the Outer Planet revolutionaries…and the odds are against them. But out in the Belt, the rules are different, and one small ship can change the fate of the universe.”

When I initially read the back cover of “Leviathan Wakes” I thought it sounded remarkably familiar to a number of stories I’d heard before. Frankly ever since Whedon wrote the greatest space western ever to grace television sets, any story set involving governments, rebels and the “one girl” on whom it all rests gives me flashbacks. I was wrong. This story is most definitely something new. Something compelling. Something that I think embraces all the best things scifi can bring to the table. Something worthy of winning this year’s Hugo Award.

Yup. While I enjoyed all the books, and I know I haven’t included Dances With Dragons, I just can’t make my review of this book work without acknowledging it as my personal choice as the read worthy of “Best Novel” from my Hugo Award Challenge. So now that the giant elephant has been ushered out of the room into the Zoo where it belongs, let’s discuss this epic space opera.

Firstly the book is “written” by author James S.A. Corey. I say written because it was actually co-authored by writers Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck. Their combined middle names make up the James and Corey of the pen name and the S.A. are the initials for Abraham’s daughter. For the sake of ease though I’m going to write this review referring to the duo as Corey.

The plot itself is driven by two separate storylines that merge about halfway through the book. We see that they are going to intertwine before it happens but the how is structured with fantastic buildup and mystery pulling them together. James Holden and his blended inner/belter crew are ice haulers, harvesting ice from space to use as a water source on the asteroid colonies. (Brilliant right? I love this idea. It’s legitimately something I never thought about. If you colonize space where there’s no water, how the hell do we get it?) One day on a routine run their ship picks up a distress call, related to the confusing but totally sucking-you-in first chapter that doesn’t get explained for ages, and while they aren’t exactly the sort of crew equipped to handle emergencies, they are the closest. The reward for this act of chivalry? Space fights, death and interstellar war. Meanwhile on belt, Detective Miller has just been handed an assignment to locate and essentially kidnap, a missing young heiress whose family wants her returned home to Earth. The police force Miller is a part of is well, let’s say less than scrupulous, but that’s how things are done on the Belt. Miller initially thinks this is just the story of a spoiled little rich girl only to discover that Juliette Mao is involved with a rather rough crowd…a political movement that wants independence from the inner planets. What in the world would compel an Earth girl to team up with a bunch of rebellious Belters?

There’s so much to this book, and it’s a staggering 600 page read, so I find myself unable to write this summary without essentially crafting a chapter or two of my own. Suffice to say that Holden and Miller wind up working together to solve the mystery of the missing girl, the derelict ship and to discover why the hell everyone is suddenly going to war with everyone else. It’s a mystery, a space opera, an action novel, multiple love stories, political intrigue and best of all a debate of philosophies. Holden is very much so in the camp of the heroic; he sees a world where the truth should champion and there’s a clear divide of right and wrong. Miller has been shaped by different circumstances in life and while he is driven by justice and all that crap, he is much more apt to use the ends to justify the means. The interplay between these two men as they attempt to reconcile their personal philosophies while working toward a shared goal makes for masterful storytelling all of its own even without all the pew pew laser action.

This story’s success lies in the fact that it managed to create a grand universe for us to play in without actually have to span the actual universe. Often times I think scifi stories attempt to create too large an empire span across the stars. Getting a rover to Mars was a huge deal for us in reality. There’s no reason a story where the furthest we’ve gone is colonizing the outer rings of our solar system can’t be fantastical in scope. In Corey’s universe mankind has managed to colonize the Moon, Mars and select locations along the asteroid belt rimming the rift between the inner and outer planets. This is enough to create a richly engrossing political system and cultural divide between the different peoples who inhabit these places. The Earthers, Moon Dwellers and Martians are all “inners” with their own conflicts between the planets/luna. No one really trusts the other and relations between Mars and Earth are tenuous at best.

Even so the “inners” are united only in how much they differ from the “belters” who live in the low-gravity belt. Time enough has passed that the physiology of Belters has altered them enough to create a new racial division. Belters are still human and the changes aren’t so much evolution driven as environment. Lower gravity living has caused those living out on the rim to develop longer, lithe bodies making an entire civilization of star Basketball players. It’s a subtle and logical enough effect that it doesn’t feel like Corey has short thrifted the entire concept of evolution as gradual change. Just one of the many ways science, while not hard textbook science, is incorporated into this fiction novel.

That’s what science fiction should be. It should be scientific concepts used in ways that are coherent and cohesive but shouldn’t turn into a college lecture on physics or worse become the idea that science=!magic. True the ships can travel at speeds but Corey accepts that the human body can’t handle the physical pressure that would come with high-g space travel and his characters require drugs to keep their bodies from passing out. There are speeds high enough that cause actual physical damage to their organs but when you are racing a *SPOILER* that’s hurtling to destroy *SPOILER* sometimes sacrifices have to be made….

God I just want to spoil SO MUCH because there is so much to talk about. Let’s just say the most off putting thing about this book to most readers thrilled me in a “gross but I like gross things related to microbiology” kind of way. There’s a sort of infection that turns people into sentient pre-primordial goo. If you are a biology person you’re gonna be fascinated and grossed out at the same time. It’s pretty frakking cool.

I feel I ought to point out that both of these authors have ties to George R.R. Martin and indeed this book has the same epic scope and feel that encapsulates “Game of Thrones” et al. Franck is Martin’s assistant and Abraham has both collaborated on other Martin works, as well as worked as the author who adapted GoT into the Graphic Novel that recently hit shelves. Thus it should come as no surprise to you that food is mentioned actually a great deal in the works. Boy did it make my life easier. Had there not been a particularly poignant scene, a last supper of sorts, which really described a lasagna in detail I probably would have had to draw inspiration for my recipe this week from the aforementioned goo.

I had a lot of fun developing this recipe from the book. When food is mentioned out on the belt, it’s often described as lacking a lot of flavor and joy compared to what can be found on the inner planets. See colony life is hard and raising livestock is not exactly practical. They have to farm water for goodness sake! As such the eating is mostly vegan. Mob wars have been started over cheese smuggling…a far riskier business than weapons trading. I don’t really do vegan and the idea of vegan lasagna terrified me yet there it was, written plain as day on the page before me. The cheese was specifically mentioned as being “almost like real cheese” and the mushrooms I added into my lasagna were specifically mentioned. I may have taken some liberties with the sauce itself. Tomato paste was another ingredient actually mentioned but whether or not they had canned tomatoes….well I wasn’t told they didn’t have them. You might be thinking “ew vegan lasagna” but actually this came out DELICIOUS. My mother, who is a total anti-vegan, was raving about how much she liked how creamy this lasagna was. I didn’t tell her the dark, meatless secret until after she had a second helping. If that’s not proof it’s tasty, I don’t know what is. I’m not saying it’s my favorite lasagna recipe in the world. I still think classic beef and ricotta with some sheep’s milk parmesan makes for the best lasagna around but this still managed to hit the spot.

If you want a recipe for your vegan friends / someone watching their saturated fat and calorie intake then this is a good alternative. It’s got 30-100 fewer calories than more traditional lasagnas and if you were to eliminate the fake beef, which I think didn’t add really much of anything except illusion for the eyeballs, and pump up the volume on the mushrooms you could reduce that even further. That’s my only criticism of the recipe. I think the “Go Lean” meat substitute just didn’t bring anything to flavor profile and would eliminate it completely if I weren’t trying to trick people into thinking it was real lasagna XD.

Leviathan Lasagna

an Olivia Original (Vegan!) Recipe Read more

Aug 22

4 Comments

This little piggy went to temple….

On this day in 1654 – Jacob Barsimson arrives in New Amsterdam. He is the first known Jewish immigrant to America.

I’m Jewish. I eat Pork. I observe Passover. I have blonde hair. I speak Yiddishisms. I never had a Bat Mitzvah. I’m Jew…ish.

Growing up I always knew why we celebrated Hanukkah and the smell of Matzo ball soup was not uncommon. For a long time I knew I was “Jewish” because my mother told me so but that was about it. We weren’t a particularly expressive family in regards to the Jewish culture and the religion aspect never entered the equation. Judaism is often mistaken as being a religion but that’s only a small part of the larger cultural grouping. I’ve known a number of Jews who don’t believe in “G-d” but do still embrace all of the culture. I think growing up my mother didn’t even really understand that there was a distinctive cultural definition of being Jewish–that atheism is easily a part of living life as a Jewish-American. As such I didn’t really get quite the connection to my culture but I knew deep in my bones and my tastebuds that I was a part of it.

This wasn’t really an issue until I hit middle school. I remember this being the first time that someone challenged my identification as a Jew. It was a Christian boy, one my mother was quick to label as anti-semitic and his nasty comments and my mother’s tenacity in the Principal’s office landed him in detention for a while. Looking back on it I find the whole situation a bit messier than it seemed at the time. This boy was friends with the popular Jewish girl in the school and as far as I know, he never harassed her for it, but she “looked” Jewish. The comments confused me at the time, because I wasn’t aware how out of place my blonde hair, blue eyes, flat nose and lack of religious background made me seem. I wasn’t being teased because I was Jewish. I was being teased because I wasn’t Jewish enough.

I’ll admit too that my connection to my culture didn’t really blossom until this time. I didn’t really understand or appreciate where my background came from until I was 12. That this should have been the time I had my official Bat Mitzvah is possibly related. It’s also around the time that I lost my strongest living tie to my culture when both my great-grandparents died. The Laurens (originally Levine but they changed the name to assimilate easier into America and avoid anti-Semitic prejudice) were a kindly couple and I will always remember the way their home smelled. The Mandelbrot, the Matzo balls, the Brisket…oh G-d the Brisket. I’ll also never for the life of me be able to eat gefilte fish. Sorry Nana. It’s no surprise that my strongest memories are of food and smells I guess, considering my love of food. I also remember that Nana was known for saying “If it’s clean, it’s Kosher” and so I always laughed off the idea of cutting pork or shellfish out of my diet. It wasn’t really a big deal to my religious family patrons, so I never considered myself a “bad Jew” for eating bacon.

I think though that the key element to my conscious self-identification as a Jew was reading Maus. That book both changed my understanding of my culture and pushed my love of graphic novels. Kind of funny too since the comic
industry was largely created and driven by Jewish artists and writers. Maus aligned with my first tastes of being picked on for being Jewish and so it terrified me in ways nothing else in this world has. It also added weight to my mom’s chides that “we should be lucky we aren’t living in a ghetto” whenever I complained about chores or not getting things I wanted. Oh Jewish Guilt. No one who ever doubts my “Jewishness” would continue to do so if they heard just a few lines of my mother’s expertise in this arena. (I love you Mom. I say this with love. Please don’t yell at me later….)

Still this moment in middle school, where I was ostracized for not visually conforming to my culture, is only the first in a lifetime of being made to feel as though I live on the periphery of my own culture. The worst being my ex from my first serious relationship. He was relentless in picking on me because I didn’t look or act Jewish enough. So much so that at times the teasing felt cruel and I’m still convinced, though we’re friendly even to this day, that there was something of an accusation in it. Especially when it came to Christmas. I was a traitor, and I’m not kidding in this regard, I was a traitor to Judaism in his eyes because I partake in Christmas celebrations. My family, yes even my Jewish Matriarch, has always enjoyed Christmas. Maybe it was initially because they wanted to assimilate and blend…after all the last name change was designed to hide our Jewish background. Maybe it was because over time there was some “interbreeding” with non-Jews. Maybe it was because the lights on the trees are just so damn pretty or maybe it was because we just wanted an excuse to have even MORE presents every December. I don’t know why specifically, only that I don’t see anything wrong with it and it’s never even remotely factored to me as something that detracted from my cultural standing. Not the case with my ex who at one point told me he was afraid to have children with me for fear of them not having a strong enough Jewish identity. The unspoken end to that sentence of course was “like their hypothetical mother.” I was insulted. I was crushed. I have never in my life been so angry and hurt by someone trying to make me doubt who I am or where I come from. But again that’s why the word “ex” is listed before boyfriend isn’t it?

In college I joined the Jewish sorority and attended events at Hillel and the Jewish fraternity for years. Even so there was still an echoing chorus on a regular basis of “Wait, you’re Jewish?” and this was from Jews and non-Jews alike. I sang the songs at Shabbat didn’t I? I ate the bitter herbs at Hillel’s Seder the year I attended rather than holding my own didn’t I? I had my Star of David necklace, my Hamsa and my Mezuzah on the door frame to the apartment so many had entered. Yet still even my supposed cultural peers assumed that because of my looks and my more assimilated nature that I was just along for the ride with friends who were Jewish. I learned over time not to let that get to me, mostly thanks to the aforementioned ex-boyfriend who thickened my skin. I’ve just gotten used to it. Much like my geeky side and my “naughtysonice” sides…I just am not what I appear to be to most people.

As for why I don’t keep Kosher? I think that mostly just that I wasn’t raised to. I know a number of Jews who don’t keep Kosher and usually it’s just a matter of someone in the family along the way decided that the Kashrut was put in place to avoid bad food poisoning and in the age of modern technology we really don’t have to worry about Trichinella in our bacon. It’s also probably because for those who are non-religious the laws don’t have a sternly fatherly figure backing them up. It’s also because pork and shellfish are delicious. Irony of ironies…that same ex would give me such SHIT for eating “pork” and yet he’d more than happily consume bacon on non-high holy days. His excuse was that bacon isn’t actually called pork. I’m surprised the force with which I rolled my eyes didn’t shake the earth.  Whatever.  He would and will be missing out on delicious things in life like this recipe for a Pancetta wrapped pork loin with a plum chutney.  I do so love proliferation of alliteration in my recipe titles.  Seriously go make this for a delicious Saturday or Sunday dinner.  Your family will “Ooh” and “Aah” and “OH MY GOD OMNOMNOMNOMNOMNOM” it down.  It’s a beautiful dish that tastes absolutely divine.  I served mine with a simple gorgonzola pepper salad and some cream biscuits.  It was a sight to behold and my stomach was thankful for once that my eyes were so hungry….

Pancetta wrapped Pork Tenderloin w/Plum Chutney (recipe behind the cut) Read more

Aug 21

3 Comments

Think Thin Tuesday: My Top 5 Cheap & Healthy Convenience Foods

Someone was asking me the other day to write some top 5 lists and to share more about healthy things I do/eat.  I’ve noticed a real “get healthy” trend this summer amongst friends, coworkers, neighbors…I’m starting to think it’s people in general that are trying to get healthier.  This pleases me to no end.  It could just be that bathing suit season spurs folk into thinking about trimming the waistline but I’m hoping that there is a real push back happening in American culture.  Never has a nation been so well fed and yet so malnourished.   The diatribe on how we got here is boring and my soap box is away today so instead let’s just push ahead and figure out where to go from here.  No instead I’m gonna give you five awesome products AND a recipe for an easy condiment you can make with common ingredients to compliment some of your purchases.

Getting healthy is hard.  It requires a serious commitment of time, money or both.  Healthy food is far too expensive in cash and time.  A big part of the reason we have gotten so fat is the proliferation of junk convenience food.  With two parent households where both work who has time to think about preparing food, getting the right nutrients and maintaining the right caloric balance? Not everyone has time, or can make the time, to cook.  Some of you might just want things that you can buy, have on hand and eat pre-made.  Sometimes baking your own kale chips for snacking just isn’t practical.   Nothing wrong with that.  I have a number of packaged, delicious foods I love to buy but a number of them are far from cheap.  As a single girl in her 20’s I can afford to spend a little more on healthy items that I want in my diet but I know $4 bottles of fermented vegetable juice aren’t practical for families on budgets.  I do want to introduce some of these exotic items to you, my dear reader, but slowly so as not to shock your system.  Today I am only focusing on foods that I’m sure you can find at local grocery stores or Costco.  Being in California I’m a bit spoiled by a slight cultural bias toward healthy foods.  As such I recognize my Costco might stock some items unfamiliar to other regions.   So I’m even going to exclude what seem to be specialty or rarer items.

You’ll notice one thing other thing…there’s no meat mentioned here.  Why?  Basically it comes down to you can’t eat your cake and have it too.  Unfortunately at this time there is no way to purchase healthy meat, raised on grass and/or the *correct* grains, free of antibiotics that is also low in cost, pre-cooked and nationally available.  I have a ton of great meat sources…but this list is designed to be as accessible as possible.  I am not advocating a vegetarian lifestyle I just can’t bring myself to recommend any meat products that aren’t good for you, the environment and the animals themselves.  Don’t worry though.  If you enjoy this kind of information I’ll do a Top 5 Meat Eaters List of healthy products.  Maybe even a top 10 if I’m feeling particularly Carnivorous that day.

Top 5 “Healthful” prepared foods that won’t break the bank.

  1. Milton’s Multi-Grain Bread – I figured I should start with a household staple and for many families that’s sliced bread.  Nothing beats the convenience of a sandwich.  PB&J is a classic staple of the American grade school student.  Such a shame that the mechanism of delivery, classic white bread, has absolutely no value to your diet.  Instead try to amp up the nutrition with whole grain and nut breads.  It’s a good way to work in extra protein, fiber and heart healthy fats.  Milton’s isn’t the best multi grain seed bread on the market but I do believe it’s the most widely distributed and it has the bonus of tasting damn good.  You’ll get important minerals and feel far more satisfied if you use this for any sandwich.

***Honorable Mention: Alpine Valley organic multi grain with Omega-3 only distributed in UT, NV, CA, NM and TX this bread is my top choice from what I’ve seen offered at mega-marts.  It’s only about 70-80 calories a slice compared to Milton at 110 and it is dense, sweet and oh so delicious.  It will fill you up and leave you so satisfied you won’t believe it’s healthy.  The only problem being that it’s not distributed outside a few states and so it’s only an HM rather than my number 1 on the list.  I really hope this changes….

  1. Morningstar Veggie Burgers : since I can’t bring myself to recommend sub-par meat, I’m going to give you the next best thing.  Veggie burgers have come a long way over the years and these are actually really delicious.  I would eat them just because I enjoy the flavor but thank my healthy stars these are good for me too!  These veggie burgers can be bought in bulk and microwaved directly out of the frozen box if you need to.  Of course they taste better grilled but hey, sometimes you only have 2 minutes to spare right?  The original veggie burger is around 110 calories, with 10 grams of protein, high in fiber and low in fat.  The even better part?  Morningstar has a huge line of varieties and flavors.  They almost all range in the 100-200 calories mark, some going as high as 19 grams of protein and all at a fat reduction of 50-70% than your classic fast food burger.  Give it a try and I promise you’ll be surprised.
  1. Unsweetend Vanilla Almond Milk: Regular ol’ cows milk is delicious but again, if you are pinching pennies, odds are you can’t afford stuff from well fed cows and you really aren’t doing yourself any nutritional favors buying crap from factory farmed Holsteins.  Almond milk is a great substitution in your diet.  Why?  It’s got an equivalent amount of calcium and as a bonus it is high in range of additional vitamins and minerals…stuff you won’t get out of milk from a cow raised on anything other than healthy grasses.  It’s low in fat and what fats it does contain are heart healthy fats.  On top of all that 1 cup serving is only 35-45 calories (depending on the brand) compared to Skim Milk at 100 calories.  While this list is more focused on nutrition than weight loss I didn’t want to neglect that added bonus for those of us looking to reduce a little belly fat in addition to getting healthier.  The only downside?  Well almond milk is pretty pathetic in the protein department however that’s not an area where most american diets are lacking.  Personally I like to use it for the liquid base of an after-workout protein shake so I’m not really all that concerned.  Bottom line: if you are getting all your protein from cow’s milk, don’t switch to almond.  If like any blue-blooded american you eat protein at breakfast, second breakfast, lunch, dinner…you can make the switch to this otherwise healthier alternative with little fear.
  1. Bare Naked Baked Apple Chips – Mmmmmmm.  I’ve mentioned these before but I couldn’t resist bringing them to my list.  As a snack food these are the tops.  A serving is at least half the calories as any storebrand potato chip.  On the nutrient front?  Let’s see: empty carbohydrates from potatoes fried in fat versus fiber, vitamins, gluten free, fat free snackums.  Do I really even need to extol their virtues further?  Okay how about this.  Part of getting healthy means kicking bad habits that keep us unhealthy.  Potato chips are so dangerous in part because they are made to keep us eating.  The high levels of sodium and low fiber content mean you constantly crave more without feeling full.  These apple chips do the exact opposite.  While they contain some sugar they also have fiber and zero salt so you wind up feeling full.  While it’s easy to keep eating any snack item mindlessly, your body isn’t going to be driven by a feedback loop to continue craving these when you close the bag.  Bonus these come in a cinnamon apple flavor that really does taste like crunchy, healthy little apple pie bites but still no added sugars!
  1. Kashi Chewy Granola Bars – The penultimate convenience food are snack bars and yet they are so often unhealthy.  I get frustrated that almost anything I pick up is guaranteed to be either very high in calories or very low in nutrition.  Usually the 90 calorie bars are also really un-filling and you wind up needing to eat something else shortly thereafter which hardly makes for a successful snack.  The higher calorie bars are meant to be meal replacers but most people don’t treat them that way.  Look if you are a marathon runner or skipping lunch today, a Luna/Cliff/Whathaveyou bar is a great inclusion in your diet.  If you want something healthy to eat in between your usual three meals a day as a snack, at 210-320 calorie bar “nutrition bar” isn’t doing you any good.  Enter the Kashi chewy granola bar.  Depending on the flavor you get, the calorie content ranges from 120 to 140…far more in line with a snack food.  Kashi has a variety of products but I think the “chewy granola” bar line is the superior snack.  They are actually lower in calories than the “goleans” and higher in nutrition.  They’ve got fiber from whole grains, long term energy benefits from proteins and good fats in the nuts and just enough sugar to be delicious and add some energy but not enough to feel guilty about.  Best of all, I can eat these slowly and get some satisfaction out of it.  Most 90 calorie “snack brownies” are inhaled in two seconds and they taste so boring that it’s hardly worth it at all.  Costco sells the trail mix variety of these in bulk for me.  Bonus: If you eat one of these as a mid-morning or mid-afternoon snack, you’ll find that you’re less hungry when meal time rolls around.

If you decide to go out and buy yourself those veggie burgers but don’t know what to put on them, or want to liven up a sandwich on some of that newfangled seed bread I recommended, then look on a little further.  I’m not going to conclude this without a recipe!  Perish the thought.  Here’s a great condiment you can make using cheap ingredients, stuff you probably got as a housewarming gift and never used up, and that you can keep in the fridge for ages.

Spicy Oregano ChimiChurri Sauce

from Bon Apetit Magazine August 2012 Read more

Jun 8

Chim-Chimi-Churri Flank Steak

For a long time I had friends who would refer to me as Mary Poppins.    Obviously because I’m practically perfect in every way.  Er….yeah.

So what WAS the reason?  No I didn’t have some cheery british ‘tude or a seriously creepy talking umbrella; I definitely didn’t have any magic tricks that could make cleaning up a bedroom easier.  I did however always seem to have whatever you could need in a giant bag I’d carry on my shoulder.  I thought for a long time that the scene where Mary Poppins pulls out an entire apartment from her purse was fairly iconic.  According to Felicia Day’s Vlog on her new premium youtube channel, this is some sort of obscure reference.  On “Ode to Carrie Fisher” there is what they call a “failed Mary Poppins reference” that made me smile.  If you aren’t watching  Geek & Sundry  by the way you are missing out on some seriously nerdy fun.

Back to my original train of thought though, I always loved that scene with the carpetbag.  My top three memorable moments in that film were always: the bag, votes for women and the chimney sweep song.  Ever the girl scout I tend to travel with a purse loaded with the sorts of things you’d want desperately when needing them and a few things that no sane young woman would carry around with her.  I think one time I actually had a small bottle of tabasco and don’t ask me to remember why we needed it, but by crazy random happenstance, I had it.

My desk at work is remarkably the same way.  I share a space with a coworker who has the same need to be prepared as I do so we literally have almost anything could ever want.  The problem with this?  I’m starting to get a little wee bit claustrophobic.  It also can get a bit grating to suddenly be expected to have anything at the drop of a hat.  This isn’t just at work, I can be out with friends who will be shocked I don’t have sunblock that time or a printed bus schedule for that city.  **Bangs Head**

Far more smashed potatoes than you could ever need

That’s the problem with expectations, once they get built up you have to keep them up.  I guess I’d just rather be the person with the answers though than the person who can’t be relied on.  I just wish I were better at striking a balance between the two.  Maybe I should become a chimney sweep instead?  I’ve also been really good about posting every day this week so far and I’m feeling the pressure to not miss a day.  It’s going to have to happen.  I know it’s unavoidable.  Hopefully I don’t just publish drivel in an attempt to get a post up every day.  (Too late.)

Actually now I really want to go home and watch Mary Poppins….  That movie doesn’t get enough love from the Disney lineup.  Aside from the random love for infinite bags of holding, my favorite song was always Chim Chim Cheree.  It was so mysterious and creepy in that way only children’s movies can be, especially when Bert exhibited his crazy side and would sing little foreshadowing codas to himself. 

Chimichurri is a traditional Argentinian condiment and actually there isn’t much I know about it aside from the fact that it is delicious.  Essentially  it is a marinade blend of herbs parsley and oregano, garlic, olive oil, vinegar and chili flakes.  From there it can be modified with anything your taste buds desire.   See even my knowledge bank isn’t infinite :-( I promise to return with some food anthropologist level whoopass in the coming days.

Steaks with Olive Chimichurri

That is what practically perfect in every way medium-rare steak looks like.

 

From Bon Appétit February 2009

  • 3 tablespoons fruity olive oil, divided (I have an amazing olive oil made from kalamatas I used)
  • 4 garlic cloves; 2 thinly sliced, 2 pressed
  • 1/4 teaspoon dried crushed red pepper
  • 1 bay leaf, preferably fresh, broken in half
  • 1/3 cup finely chopped shallots
  • 1/4 cup finely chopped fresh Italian parsley
  • 2 tablespoons finely chopped pitted Kalamata olives
  • 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
  • 1 to 2 tablespoons water
  • 2 14-to 16-ounce 2-inch-thick grass-fed New York strip steaks
  • 2 teaspoons paprika
  • 1 teaspoon coarse kosher salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Heat 2 tablespoons oil in heavy medium skillet over medium heat. Add sliced garlic, red pepper, and bay leaf. Stir until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add shallots and sauté until just translucent, about 2 minutes. Remove from heat; stir in parsley, olives, and vinegar. Add 1 tablespoon water. Add more water by teaspoonfuls to thin as needed. Season chimichurri with salt and pepper. DO AHEAD: Can be made 2 hours ahead.

Let stand at room temperature.

Rub steaks with 1 tablespoon oil and pressed garlic. Sprinkle both sides of each steak with 1/2 teaspoon paprika, 1/4 teaspoon coarse salt, cayenne, and generous amount of black pepper. Let stand at room temperature 30 minutes or up to 2 hours.
Preheat oven to 400°F. Brush heavy very large oven-proof skillet (preferably cast-iron) with oil. Heat over high heat until almost smoking. Add steaks. Cook until browned, about 5 minutes. Turn steaks and transfer skillet to oven. Roast until instant-read thermometer inserted horizontally into steaks registers 110°F to 115°F for rare, about 10 minutes.

Let steaks rest 5 minutes. Thinly slice crosswise. Spoon chimichurri over.

Mar 13

A Nutso Breastful Morning

AKA My Monday Morning Madness – sorry for the weird halo on these photos but this is a comfort dinner that I was eager to bite into…photography kind of took a back seat.  Pictured with a feta, pear and kale salad and some faux-tatoes.

I spent the past weekend down in socal again. I can’t believe how much of my time has been spent in LA the last year. This pat weekend was another epic movie marathon but it was also some time for me to do some filming. By which I mean acting. By which I mean speaking actual lines; something I haven’t done since high school but more on that later. Instead this is the story of yesterday morning following my trip away.

See Friday night on my way down I got a request at work for a meeting Monday morning at 7:30 AM. This is pretty early for my company and most of my team doesn’t come in until after 8 but I am always in the door around 6:50AM. No problem I say, I will handle it. The whole weekend I suffered nightmares, many of which involved my missing this meeting and wouldn’t you know it, Monday morning everything that could go wrong did.

I wasn’t coming in from the Sacramento region on my reliable company bus, I was coming up from Redwood City. A whole new world of transit hell. I planned to take an early CalTrain that would get me into the office at 6:15AM. I wanted to catch that train because the only alternatives would get me in at 7:00 or 7:15 leaving very little wiggle room for my 7:30AM meeting. Of course I missed that train by about 30 seconds because I was stuck on the wrong side of the platform after fighting with the ticket machine for 5 minutes.

Okay fine, I’ll catch the 7:00 train and still be safe. I’ll even take a cab from the train depot to the building I’m in. BAM! Train gets cancelled five minutes before it’s supposed to arrive and the one after it is running late by almost 20 minutes. No way to get to the office before 7:45 using public transit. Time to hail a cab. Yup I took a cab from Redwood City to South San Francisco and it was not a cheap ride but I had given my word I would be at work for this meeting.

When I say I’m going to do something, I do it. At least that’s been my modus operandi in my professional life since starting up in the pharma world several months ago. I’m trying to extend this mentality to all aspects of my life. I know that some of my friends have been left by the wayside and I’m going to try to juggle them back into the ring. It is important to me that I keep up on these types of things, that I don’t go back on my word because the sense of accomplishment it gives me is vital. I am a purpose driven person.

It wasn’t always this way, I used to be crippled by severe anxiety and depression. Some days it would be so bad that I would suddenly feel afraid, terrified but for no actual reason, and II would not be able to get out of bed. One time I was on my way to class and just about to enter the door when the feeling was so overwhelming I couldn’t bring myself to open the lecture hall door. I turned around and ran all the way to my apartment with a sick feeling of dread that had completely taken me over. The cycle always increased and spiraled more when I was unable to fulfill obligations or meet goals. I know that accomplishing things, whether it’s getting to a meeting on time, making it to a shoot or actually meeting my friends when I say I will, fights back those darker feelings.

So yes I took a cab. Then I got to the building with 7 minutes to spare, threw my bags from the weekend in the first floor storage room (no time to get to my office) and then I ran between buildings in south campus to get everything I needed to prepare for this meeting. Yes literal running, heels be damned. And you know what? I made it. I did it all and got it done. It was chaotic, heart pounding but knowing that I can be reliable and make things happen? That’ s the greatest kind of reward I could get because I know that when nothing else goes right in the world, I can count on myself to find a way.

Chicken Scallopine with Hazelnut Cream Sauce Read more

Sep 6

I taught I taw a Pudding Tat!

Well actually it’s a Bread Pudding, the “Best Bread Pudding” ala Paula Deen.  I’ve moved home for the next week or so while I wait to move into my new sublet because…I GOT A JOB!  Wheeeeeee.  Oh wait I told you that already didn’t I?

Sorry it’s hard to contain my Glee, even a week or two later.  Anyway while I’m home I’m still going to be using either original experimentation recipes OR things from the interwebs.  In this case I’m using a slightly modified Paula Deen recipe.  I modify hers usually because 9 times out of 10 the woman just uses too much sugar for my taste.  I cut the amount in half, and because I love orange flavours* I used an orange liqueur instead of brandy.   Additionally I recommend you serve this dish WARM. Why?  Well for one it is especially delicious on a cool evening if it’s warm.  More importantly it will be less sweet if it’s warm because the sugars are in a different chemical configuration that is less sweet to your tongue above a certain temperature.  Cool huh?   That’s why say Hot Chocolate tastes great hot, but when it cools off gets too sweet.  It’s why cold coffee drinks will taste sweeter than the hot equivalent.  Read more

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