Cooking Class, Green Juice and Baltimore Pics

Thank goodness I caught up on my rest Wednesday night. I never sleep 9.5 hours but I did last night so apparently I really needed it. I woke up feeling SO much better than yesterday. Woo hoo!

Dan had his usual oatmeal with wild blueberries this morning for breakfast.

After he left for work I did a couple of things and then headed out for a walk. I didn’t have much time today so I only did 3 miles but it was enough to get a little fresh air and ramp up my immune system. I took a few pictures for you while I was out.

Today I walked back through the side streets in the neighborhood that people don’t see unless they are local. The photos above are a few of the ones I took that I enjoyed. It is definitely spring time in Baltimore and I love that!

When I came home I made myself a blender full of green juice inspired by a soup Emily mentioned having at her mom’s house recently. Here is my rendition of that recipe but in a breakfast format:

Parsley and Veg juice
Serves 1 hungry vegan

Ingredients:

¼ cup raw cashews
1 cup fresh parsley
½ English cucumber, cut into rough chunks
1 lemon, zested and then peeled and seeded (using all of the flesh of the lemon and the zest)
1 tablespoon wheat germ
1 tablespoon chia seeds (could have just a well been freshly ground flaxseeds or hulled hempseeds)
1 clove raw garlic
water enough to process (somewhere between 1 1/2 - 2 cups)

Directions:

Toss everything into your high speed blender adding as much water as is necessary to process. Serve cold.

Nutritional information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 265.73
Calories From Fat (45%) - 119.64

Total Fat - 14.49g
Saturated Fat - 2.4g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 59.78mg
Potassium - 960.36mg
Total Carbohydrates - 36.13g
Fiber - 12.55g
Sugar - 4.46g
Protein - 11.46g

Comments:

I thought this juice was amazing but also understand that it isn’t for everyone. I used parsley because I had too much on hand not for any other reason but the flavor it added to this was great. I will be trying this soon with kale to let you know how that changes the flavor and texture. However I am also curious about the change in nutrition since I will share that as well.

Next it was time to run by Whole Foods for tempeh to drop off with Ian. Since he had agreed to make it for me but couldn’t get it from his food vendor I decided to help by dropping it off, before he forgot his promise. ;-) Can you tell how excited I am that he is going to try working with this for us?

After hanging out at the restaurant for a little while and chatting it was time to head to cooking class. Since I was very early I called my friend Sue to see if she wanted to do a little ethnic food shopping and thankfully she was available.

First we went to Lily’s Mexican Market where I bought a lot of stuff. I picked up cuitlacoche (corn fungus) that Rick Bayless is always talking about. I have never used it but what the heck, it is only food right? I picked up one for Ian too so he could play around with it. They also had interesting dried beans which I had never seen before as well as interesting spices.

Next we went to Nazar Market where I bought more things that were completely new to me. My friend Walid had brought me back an Egyptian cookbook a few years ago that had things listed liked “meat spices” which I had no idea what that meant. When I asked Walid he said it was sold that way which was no help to me. What did I find at this market in the Middle Eastern section but ... meat spices, fish spices and chicken spices? I had to buy them just to try out the combination. The meat spices contain: allspice, black pepper, cinnamon, mahlab, ginger, cloves and green spices.

Both of these stores were great and carried things that you never seen in traditional grocery stores like: grape molasses, Turkish eggplant and mushroom salad, cardamom tea, spicy fermented purple carrot juice (which was low sodium) and bulgur with sun-dried tomatoes. I love going into ethnic markets since they always have unusual ingredients.

Cooking class was also fun last night since this one was on homemade pasta. Being Italian I love to make homemade pasta even though I haven’t done it in the last year and a half since I stopped using flour at home for health reasons. I still love getting my hands into the pasta dough. All three recipes for pasta dough were vegan this evening, as were the sauces. Donna did finish the dishes with cheese or meat, except for ours of course which we appreciated immensely.

Here are the three dishes from last night:

The first dish was 100% whole wheat pappardelle with spring vegetables. In classic southern Italian tradition this was finished with bread crumb (in lieu of cheese) which is delicious. I recommend toasting the breadcrumbs for a nuttier flavor. In my less healthy past I would have added olive oil and garlic to the bread crumbs which is delicious if you use olive oil. This was Dan’s favorite since he likes the flavor of whole wheat now. Who is this man?

The second dish was Tuscan hand rolled pici which I haven’t made in a few years. The beauty of this pasta is that you don’t need a pasta roller which makes it a cinch for everyone to prepare. I will make this and show you how but is very easy ... I think you will be surprised. This was served with mushrooms, sun-dried tomatoes and topped with walnuts.  It was also fabulous.

The final dish was my favorite it was the Sardinian malloreddus. It is made exactly like I prepare potato gnocchi only with a semolina and saffron pasta dough. Brilliant! I thought this was a blast to make and very quick since I have made so many gnocchi in my past. It was served with a tomato sauce with artichokes (doesn’t that sound familiar?). Gee, I wonder why that was my favorite. LOL

After class of course I had to chat and then drop Sue off and her house before trekking back to Baltimore. It was a long day but a great one as well.

Happy thoughts:

• This morning my walk through the neighborhood was absolutely gorgeous. Temperatures were a little cool but the scenery really could not be beat. Additionally I am still always surprised by how nice everyone is here. Every person I pass when I am out walking says good morning or hello. How lucky am I to have so many great neighbors?

• I am still swamped but also getting a lot accomplished and that is a very good thing. I LOVED the small ethnic markets Sue introduced me to on Wednesday. There is nothing I love more than buying unusual food and spices. ;-)

• Today I am grateful for Ian and his willingness to make things that are outside his comfort zone. He is so wonderful to us and I appreciate that he will be making us tempeh in the next couple of day. I hope you all can see why when we got out to eat most of the time we are stopping to see Ian. Seriously, both Dan and I feel like we are part of the family. Everyone (in the front of the house and in the kitchen) at the restaurant is very friendly and accommodating. We are very fortunate to have them in the neighborhood.

• Cooking class was a lot of fun. I had not realized how much I missed making pasta until class. Since I am Italian and have made pasta many times before I helped prepare pasta during class. I swear I think pasta making is my blood; it must be an Italian thing.

Signing out:

Thursday was another busy day but it was a good one again. I had a few errands this morning and ended up walking the restaurant. The weather today was glorious. Any day when I don’t need a coat is a good one in my book. Also I loved being outside so much of the day today. There is really nothing like a nice long walk up and down hills to get my blood flowing.

It is time for me to get myself into the kitchen and get something going for dinner. I wish I had some idea what I was going to cook, but since I rarely do it isn’t a big problem. Hopefully you are having a great week and are looking forward to the weekend. I have some good stuff planned which will be great.

Talk to you again tomorrow!  Happy Thursday guys!

Lunch at Jaleo and Cherry Blossom Festival

Tuesday morning I was in a fabulous mood and looking forward to spending the day with Dan. Since he rarely takes time off of work this was a special treat. Not to mention I loved the Cherry Blossom Festival in DC the last time we were there so I knew it would be a great opportunity to take photographs. We were both planning to stop at Jaleo for a bite to eat which is always great.

Breakfast for both of us was green smoothies. I am adding cooked quinoa to them these days for a little extra protein. The remaining ingredients are the same: frozen banana, raw kale, wheat germ, freshly ground flaxseed, cinnamon, powdered ginger, water (in mine) nut milk (in Dan’s). Dan’s smoothie also gets a tiny bit of stevia which I don’t use in mine.

Dan had to send a few emails for work and make a phone call which meant we were running late. I wasn’t too worried since the days are getting longer now I knew there would be plenty of sunlight for my photographs.

Here is a picture of cherry blossoms in Baltimore as we left town.

When we got to DC we drove around (very slowly) looking for parking for over 45 minutes. To say the area around the tidal basin was mobbed would be an understatement. Since I had not packed any snacks we decided to go to Jaleo for a late lunch and then return to the cherry blossoms later in the day when it would hopefully be less packed.

While Dan was taking care of getting one of those parking slips for the dash of the car I waited in the car. I looked up and who was on the corner? OMG right there in front of me was Jose Andres. I could not believe it. He was talking to someone and then they both got in a cab and drove away. I snapped a few pictures with my cell phone (one is above) to show Dan but none of them were fabulous. Darn it! Oh well, at least I saw him right?

Once we got to the restaurant Dan needed to make another work call which meant I needed to entertain myself for about 20 minutes. Thank goodness for my smart phone. I decided to text a few friends while I waited.

Here is the front of the menu which tells you the meaning of Jaleo. I am sure this has been on the menu for a long time but I just noticed it…probably because I was killing time. Cute huh?

I also took this picture from the table looking outside. We arrived between lunch and dinner and practically had the restaurant to ourselves.

Since Dan was gone so long I had plenty of time to decide what to order because Dan usually leaves that up to me. We started with the gazpacho and Moorish chickpea and spinach soup and both were delicious.

Here is how the olive oil that comes to the table for the bread with fresh crushed garlic and a sprig of rosemary. I used to do this at home but also added hot crushed peppers which I assume is more Southern Italian. Some days I miss olive oil and fresh bread more than others. This was one of those days.

When we finished our soup I looked up and saw Jose over Dan’s shoulder being interviewed by the New York Times at the bar. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. He had just left, and it was definitely him since the clothing was identical. Dan told the server we would love to meet him but didn’t want to interrupt. She said she would see what she could do. More on that to come later in this post.

Next we ordered the Brussels sprout with apple, apricot and grapes. Wow this was amazing. I would have never thought of this combination but it was terrific.

We also ordered one of our favorites the mushrooms in lemon and garlic which are always excellent.

The last dish of the day was another old favorite the cauliflower with dates, olives and smoked paprika. Another combination that I would have never thought of but again it was terrific.

Once I noticed Jose at the bar I kept glancing up to see what was going up. Customers seemed to have no problem interrupting him and getting their picture taken with him. Interrupting Jose felt so intrusive to me there was no way I could do that. The picture above is Jose after he graciously stopping his interview to have his picture taken with fans. The New York Times reporter took the photo for the couple. I wondered if this couple knew what was going on before they came to the table?  Jose was so calm about it this must happen to him all the time.

We ordered a couple pots of blood orange tea since Jose was still talking to the reporter. When we noticed a third man join the table we were both certain that we wouldn’t get to meet Jose but it was okay. I am not capable of interrupting his interview so I accepted that it wasn't meant to be. We finished our tea and were wrapping up when Jose headed for the front door. I was so disappointed and then he came around the corner with a big hola (Spanish for hello) and introduced himself, as though that was necessary. You could have knocked me over with a feather. I had convinced myself that we wouldn’t get to talk to him and there he was. Luckily Dan was able to speak since I could hardly get a few sentences out, LOL. Jose is very nice, a bit of an introvert and almost shy. I was quite surprised by all of this. But then again I seemed shy in that moment and that is hardly the case either. Jose has the best eyes; they just sparkle as though he is up to something. I have to say lunch was great but meeting Jose was out of this world.

For those of you that don’t know who Jose is let me explain. He is what I would call the superstar chef of DC. He has a number of restaurants in DC, and more in Las Vegas and LA. When he was on Iron Chef America he beat Bobby Flay. Jose has been interviewed by Anderson Cooper for 60 Minutes here is the video.  Additionally Jose also has a TV show on PBS "Made in Spain".  Everyone in the restaurant business knows Jose. I am most impressed by his charity work at DC Central Kitchen which I think is terrific. Oh yeah, in the 60 Minutes interview when he called fruits and vegetables sexy and said meat was overrated I couldn’t believe my ears. Yes, I am quite the fan in case you hadn’t noticed. Dan could not stop teasing me after Jose left. In the 20+ years Dan and I have been together he has never seen me speechless. Heck, I even talk in my sleep but somehow I couldn’t string two sentences together with Jose. *ahhhh* What an afternoon. ;-)

We went back to see the cherry blossoms but honestly they were never going to be able to stand up to meeting Jose which was so thrilling for me you have no idea.

Here are a couple of shots of the blossoms that I didn’t post earlier this week.

Next we decided to make a run to the Mediterranean Bakery for a few supplies. Unlike the name implies they are more grocery store than a bakery in my opinion. They do have fresh made flat bread but we went for the unusual spices, dried beans and whole grains. I went in for a few things and came out with over a $100 of stuff. *bats eyes* I lose control when shopping for food apparently.  ;-)

Next we headed back to Baltimore for dinner. We missed seeing Ian but it was late so we expected him to be gone for the day.

I had to tell Emily about meeting Jose and she was very entertained that I couldn’t speak. I am sure anyone that knows me is still laughing at me being speechless since it never, ever happens.

For dinner we ordered a whole wheat pizza with potatoes, zucchini, fennel, onion, tomato, olives and golden raisins. If you are wondering how we can up with this combination that answer is simple. We often ask the kitchen to use vegetable sides to top pizza. By doing that we get the best of both worlds, Ian’s creativity and we don’t bother the kitchen much. This vegetable combination was something he was serving under a fish dish that evening.

We also ordered Tuscan carrots…..

broccoli and garlic ….

and green and hibiscus tea.

It was a very long day but a great one. I can’t imagine what could have made this day any better.

Happy thoughts:

• The highlight of this day had to meeting Jose Andres. It has been days now since we talked to him and I am still over the moon about it. It would be hard to imagine what would have made this a better day.

• Of course the Cherry Blossoms were gorgeous and I got some fantastic pictures of them. It was great to finally make it back to the festival since we talk about it every year and never go. Shame on us. *wags finger*

• I picked up some terrific stuff at the Mediterranean Bakery which I will tell you more about later. This post was entirely too long to go into details today. For those of you that are local to the DC metro area I highly recommend this store they have things that are tough to find elsewhere. In fact this is where I always buy my mastica which I use in Middle Eastern food.

• I am even starting to enjoy Facebook which is a riot since I drug my feet so long on this. Expect more on this soon.

• It was a fabulous day for both of us today. There is no one that I would have rather shared the day with than my hubby.

Signing out:

It turns out I took over 300 pictures on Tuesday and it took me many hours to go through them all. I need to learn to take fewer pictures I think. LOL

Here are the pictures Dan and I took of each other in DC. Sorry for the sunglasses we tried removing them but then we were squinting. In the end the pictures with the glasses were better.

The next post will be of cooking class this week. I am probably going to omit or seriously abbreviate Thursday and Friday so that I can get caught up on my posts. I hope you all have a great start to you weekend. Talk to you again tomorrow.

Funniest Bumper Sticker I Have Seen and Eating Out

I hated being a bummer on my blog yesterday I was not feeling the love if you know what I mean. Sometimes it is difficult to have a blog when you aren’t feeling particularly chipper.

Saturday I got up much earlier than Dan and my knee was still hurting. *ugh* My answer was to take a long hot soak and read for a while since the heat yesterday helped my knee. The heat seemed to help a little but the ibuprofen was much more helpful as much as I dislike taking pills I was popping them early in the morning. But this story ends much better than it started.

Breakfast today was Dan’s favorite green smoothie which contained: kale, frozen bananas, walnuts, wheat germ, freshly ground flaxseeds, cinnamon, powdered ginger, stevia and water. He really does love his green smoothie and it still shocks me that he does. LOL

I had my new favorite grapefruit and kale juice that I detailed here. If you like grapefruit juice this tastes basically the same only with a heck of a lot more nutrition. I can see me having a lot of these as long as grapefruit is in season. I know this doesn’t look like much of a breakfast but I had 4 glasses like the one pictured. ;-)

After breakfast we decided that this weekend we were going to take a break from my parents. Dan didn’t want me to spend a lot of time rushing around or standing in the kitchen cooking since my knee was bothering me. Instead we decided to have a nice leisurely weekend with a few errands that weren’t essential but are more fun. Of course some of these errands were food related because we all know I get such pleasure out of anything that involves food. I realize most people don’t enjoy food shopping but I love it.

Before we headed out to run errands I made us both a huge salad. This one contained: baby spinach, cold leftover multi-whole grain from yesterdays dinner, salsa, artichokes, tomato, yellow pepper, avocado and white chia seeds. Nothing fancy just healthy food but it still tasted great, IMO.

We started at the library because as you all know I am pretty much always reading. Pictured above is the stack I brought home today. How I find time to read all this stuff is beyond me but somehow I manage to make it happen.

As I left the library I saw this fabulous bumper sticker and could not stop laughing. After we took the books to the car I went back to take a photograph and the driver was in the car. I walked up to the driver’s window to ask where they got the bumper sticker and was shocked to see a mid 50 to 60 year old man with short hair in a sweater and khakis driving the car. He was very pleasant and told me where he bought it. You could have knocked me over with a feather. This interaction absolutely made my day. Isn’t it funny how some things are just nothing like you expected? I was certain the car belonged to someone in their 20’s and I wasn’t even close. ;-)

Next we stopped at Baltimore Coffee and Tea to pick up provisions. The coffee smelled so it was calling my name. However I only bought 4 bags of different teas (herbal and green) took those to the register and headed out. There really is nothing like the smell of freshly brewed coffee though. If we had been in there much longer I might have broken down and purchased a cup of coffee.

Next we went to the Asian market across town (HMart). Driving the parking lot is practically taking your life into your hands. The store isn’t much better as you get run into often. *shakes head* However it is worth it since I find things that I can’t get anywhere else. I picked up some great stuff like always.

Organic multi whole grains which I love. This is the same stuff I used in our salad today.

Organic mixed beans which I also like a lot.

I even found some organic buckwheat noodles with green tea and my favorite dried black fungus mushrooms which I love but Dan isn’t as thrilled with.

Doesn’t Dan look like he is ready to get out of the store? I had to take his picture to capture that look on his face.   See why I say it is no fun to live with me and my cell phone camera?  LOL

We decided it was best to have Ian make dinner tonight since I wasn’t home to prep anything.

The guys (Ian and Will) came up with a few things for us tonight like they always do. We are getting too accustomed to showing up and eating whatever they decide to send out for us. What would we do if we actually had to select something from the menu? LOL

We started the evening with our usual pot of tea. This time it was green tea mixed with hibiscus, pear and strawberry.

The first plate that came out was a Middle Eastern flavored chickpeas with arugula, whole wheat croutons and crispy flatbread (for texture). This was very filling and tasty. The cumin gave it a heady aroma that I adore.

Here is a picture of Dan playing with his phone during dinner. Who says kids are the only ones that fool around with technology during dinner? LOL

Dan had requested pizza tonight which is what we had next. This is an appetizer pizza with wilted spinach, apple, almond, raisin and olives. I loved the sweet and salty combination it was a very nice pizza.

The next dish was a super thin crispy pizza with red onion marmalade, roasted red peppers, olives and garlic. Since I love crispy bread this was perfect. It was so thin it was almost a cracker which I thought was fabulous.

We got full before we could get to plate number four. :-(

Ian was in rare from tonight. He was lamenting that we aren’t eating cheese since he had homemade ravioli today. He really is too cute sometimes. You would think he would be used to us eating this way by now but I think he always hopes we are going to go back to our evil ways. I don’t see that every happening but I guess he can dream.

It was a good day and a very nice dinner.

Happy thoughts:

Wow, where to I start today? I have so many things to be happy for that I am just going to hit the highlights:

• I have not had an ibuprofen in over 10 hours and my knee is almost 100%. If I weren’t worrying about reinjuring it I would be doing the happy dance. I am very lucky that my knee was nothing serious.

• It was great to spend time with Dan even it was running errands. We always have a good time no matter what we are doing. The bumper sticker had me giggling most of the day.

• I picked up some great stuff at the library today that I can’t wait to read. There are some many books and so little time. However that is a great problem to have in my opinion.

• Our trip to the Asian market was very productive. I will share more the fun things that I found when I use. I love going to ethnic markets since they always have things that you don’t see at your regular grocery store.

• Dinner out was wonderful as usual. I never get tired of seeing everyone, getting hugs, spending time in the kitchen and talking. We are so fortunate to have somewhere that we can go where they cater to us for some unknown reason. ;-)

Signing out:

Time for me to start winding down for the evening. We may head to northern Virginia tomorrow for more ethnic food shopping if we get moving early enough. I hope all of you are having a wonderful weekend. Talk to you again soon.