Icelandic AM

It's been a rough few weeks.  Some days, Icelandic yogurt is what gets me through.

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No coffee for me, thanks!

I don't get why people think milk is gross.  I mean, I've heard a lot of "reasons."  I just don't get them.

This said, I tried not to be ostentatious while drinking my chocolate milk on the train platform Saturday morning.  It's not that I think I'm better than non-milk drinkers, but I cannot allow them to squelch my passion for the stuff.  I drink it openly, and in public, but sedately, I hope.

Ronnybrook Farm's dairy products are a true luxury.  Such a beverage should never offend.

No one came over for pudding, so I ate it all myself.

That's a lie. I haven't eaten it all yet. I still have 4 ramekins in the fridge. This recipe for butterscotch budino (Italian for "pudding") was too much work, and very worth it. Assembled, from bottom to top, one ends up with butterscotch pudding, caramel sauce, Maldon sea salt, and cream whipped with crème fraiche.




p.s. I only have 4 ramekins, so I put the rest of the pudding in tea cups.


recipe from Great Gatherings by the Macy's Culinary Council, via Ruth Reichl.

Snacks for Dinner

Milk, Greek yogurt with raw honey, Muenster cheese, Kalamata olives, golden delicious apple, spicy salami.

Still Life on Video

I am experimenting with using more video on this site. The fact that most food doesn't move shouldn't stop me, right?

Right?

Adventures in CSA: Week 14, Part I

This week, if you'll recall, I had a friend offer to pick up my CSA share while I was out of town. Naturally, I took him up on the offer. That's a far sight better than giving it all away! Mr. Paul procured:

1 bok choy
1 lettuce
3 beets
1.5 lb potatoes
1.5 lbs (mooshy, gooshy) tomatoes
1 lb shelling beans (CHALLENGE VEGETABLE!)
1 peach (bonus fruit)
1 plum (bonus fruit)

We're off to the races now, kids! This was a big batch and we haven't gotten through it yet. So, what did we eat so far?




1. CSA Pasta Sauce and Pasta. The tomatoes were super-ripe and turning to mush, so I felt we needed to use all of them immediately. A vat of pasta sauce seemed the perfect solution. I sauteed leftover CSA squash from week thirteen in olive oil with half a large onion, added 2 bulbs of CSA garlic that have been kicking around the kitchen for a while, smashed the tomatoes, and added basil, oregano, salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes.

I forgot to salt the pasta water, so I had to add a fair amount of salt to finish the dish, but otherwise it was perfectly simple and comforting.





2. Peachy Yogurt Breakfast. I posted earlier on my week of yogurty breakfasts. This one was a bowl of raw honey, bonus CSA peach, puffed brown rice, sesame seeds, dried cherries and cranberries (the final, frozen "crispy rice cakes" from July), plain yogurt, and flax seed.

I do believe Dan ate the bonus CSA plum, though I don't know if he yogurtized it in so fine a fashion.





3. Beet and Goat Cheese Salad. I baked the beets (2 golden, 1 red) in foil, then cooled and sliced them to add to a salad of CSA lettuce, clover sprouts, and goat cheese. Dan dressed it with oil and vinegar, and it was done. I love beets.





4. Bok Choy and Mushroom with Noodles. This was a week of fast suppers and light labor. We have had leftover cellophane noodles in the house for a month or two, and since preparing them is much quicker than cooking rice, we added the remaining noodles to a stir fry of bok choy (the leaves were a little bitter, but didn't harm the dish much), scallions, baby portobella mushrooms, and leftover soy-glazed almonds (from that magnificent green bean salad recipe I've raved about). With peanut and sesame oil, fish sauce and soy sauce, the whole thing cooked up nicely, though the noodles are a bit fiddly and tend to stick together -- perhaps I should be cutting them?


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I picked up a smaller lot of vegetables yesterday (for week 15), which is great, since I still have some lettuce, some peppers, all of the potatoes, and the beans (which I have shelled) from week 14. Watch this space for more on that.

Triumph over the rot.

I always feel incredibly accomplished when we manage to finish a family-sized yogurt tub before the yogurt in it gets moldy. It's not that I don't like yogurt; I get distracted and forget it's in the refrigerator.

Last week, there were several mornings of yogurt-themed breakfasts. The one pictured here was yogurt, granola, pomegranate seeds (harvested from the whole fruit by Dan), and flax seed. An accomplishment, to be sure!


p.s. I just hit 550 blog posts! I should celebrate by finishing off the yogurt that is currently in the fridge.

Cheesecake shots

Jeff brought leftover cheesecake to work on Friday. I'm not sure of the flavor -- almond, perhaps?

Whatever it was, it was good. I'm going to have to check out this Veniero's place myself.


p.s. These sandals (top photo) by White Mountain might be the most comfortable non-sneakers shoes I've ever owned.

Take Two.

I've described the failure I had when I went down the healthy-rice-krispies-treat route. I got tricked by a recipe and ended up with frozen beauties which did not travel well (even a few steps from the freezer).

On a hunch, however, I bought some full-fat Greek yogurt on my way to work one morning, dropped two of the marshmallow-free cripsies inside, and ate it all up for breakfast.

The Greek yogurt, crispy brown rice cereal, sesame seeds, honey, and dried fruit blended together in a charming way. I'm so glad these healthy "cupcakes" are not going to go to waste.

Nutella Milk: stovetop edition.

If you've been reading Snackreligious for a while, you know I've been on the search for a hot chocolate-like concoction I call Nutella Milk. I call it that because it should contain Nutella, the delicious hazelnut spread, and milk. They don't mix together well when the milk is cold, because the Nutella chills into clumps, and a neighborhood coffee shop had failed to make a satisfactory version with hazelnut syrup, so I've been back to the drawing board a few time.

Okay, so I can't pat myself on the back too much. Anyone could think of and do what I just tried. I simply guessed that the secret to a tasty Nutella milk that was fully blended would be in heating the milk and Nutella together. Anna came to this same conclusion in commenting on one of those earlier posts linked above. Heating them often makes two things come together, after all. So I tried doing just that.

Turns out I (and Anna, and everyone else who thought this might work) was right. Here's the trick (and it's so simplistic, it can't really be called a trick):

Big Mug Nutella Milk
1 1/4 c. milk
1 T. Nutella Hazelnut Spread (Naturally, you can use more or less Nutella to taste.)

Combine ingredients. Lick measuring tablespoon. Heat milk and Nutella mixture in a small pan on the stove over low heat. Stir or whisk occasionally. The Nutella should melt and be combined, though it might look a little grainy, after about 3 minutes. Remove from heat. For smoother texture, use immersion blender on low speed (and be careful not to splash yourself). Pour into a heat-proof mug.

See how easy that is?

I'm still working on how best to prepare this beverage by microwave. Do NOT put a mug of milk and Nutella in the microwave, set it to cook on high for 3 minutes, and then walk away. I learned this so that you don't have to.

Oh, and also -- I'm aware it's summer and you may not be drinking many hot beverages (though I have heard that hot tea is considered cooling in some cultures). So you want cold Nutella milk? Heat Nutella and milk using "my" stovetop method. Then chill your mug in the refrigerator at least 30 minutes. When it is cold, decant into a more appropriate glass, if that will make you feel cooler. Add ice, if you like that idea. Whatever you do, drink it!

Watch out, world.

I'm back on the nog.


(This is from Costco and pretty tasty, but organic eggnog is even better.)

Olivia Newton-Cream Cheese

The cream cheese tub at work today (Mondays and Thursdays are bagel days) was too cute. It's like I can have a little bit of the Eighties on my bagel. It's spreadable headbands and legwarmers and aerobics and Tab.

It's not just the design, either. The name kills me with adorable.

Go on, temp tee. Tempt me!


p.s. I have got to get Punky Brewster on DVD.

A week's worth of tasty

A new brand of yogurt called Rachel's (made in Broomfield, CO) caught my eye at Whole Foods. I bought 5 flavors for a total of $3 and commenced to the taste-testing each morning at work. Good news! I kept notes for you.

1. Marionberry Guava - First of all, I learned that a Marionberry is a type of blackberry. I learned that from the internet, not from the yogurt. This is pleasingly tart (a word I use a lot because it's a flavor I seek out) and fruity. The texture is smooth with just a hint of lumpiness. I could tell right away that this was not the yogurt of my youth. It's much more sophisticated and, well, delicious.

2. Pink Grapefruit Lychee is another nicely tart flavor, I detect layers of both types of fruit in there. It really tastes fresh and special.

3. Mango Pineapple Passion Fruit is my favorite of the five I picked out. A pineapple sweetness peeks through the richness of mango, while a banana back note adds a smooth and creamy depth.

4. Exotic Cherry Black Currant has a familiar "cherry vanilla" yogurt color but a much more intensely fruity flavor. The lids have started spitting a good deal of yogurt if I don't tear them off carefully, but that's a minor concern.

5. Pomegranate Açai, which was the first flavor on whose label I noticed the trademarked phrase "Wickedly Delicious," is an "Essence" flavor (as opposed to the other category of "Exotic" yogurts). This yogurt is extremely aromatic, which is apparently part of the "Essence" experience. Unfortunately, I think the company sacrificed something to get at this aromatherapy-in-yogurt concept. This was my least favorite flavor. For one thing, it was an unappealing old salmon pinky-brown. It also tasted the most artificial of the yogurts I tried, bringing to mind harshly fruity candy. ETA: However! This is Kevin's favorite flavor so far, he told me. So don't skip it on my account if you're into the tart and the scented and the yogurt.

Yogurt is a pretty straightforward snack, even with such unusual flavors. One of the few confusing things about these yogurts is that there are so many variations on the packaging. I do think they all said they were hormone-free with probiotics and omega-3 DHA "for the heart, brain and eyes," but otherwise there were too many names, categories, and trademarked slogans.

Some of the yogurts are marked "Exotic" (Marionberry Guava, for one). Others are "Vitality" (Pomegranate Açaí) or "Refresh" (Pink Grapefruit Lychee), but I gather those are "Exotic," too. I guess each flavor is either "Exotic" or "Essence," but beyond that some of the flavors have "catchy conceptual" names in addition to the names of the fruit flavors they capture.

There's a page on Rachel's website that explains the categories, but I think what they've come up with is a little more complex than necessary, especially as most people do not seek out the website of the yogurt they found at Whole Foods. They could have just had "Essence" and "Exotic" and left it at that. Or just name the flavors after the fruit represented inside!

One could argue that these yogurts are a bit overwrought, but that's a small quibble after what I feel was a delicious discovery. I'll certainly be seeking out more flavors.