~ Namaste ~

Archive for the ‘cooking’ Category

Spring break has come to a rather uneventful close. No crazy parties to speak of (well, we did make an appearance at The Popin on Friday night – apparently it’s socially acceptable to wear a rat on your shoulder as if it were a parrot in public here. “Hey, isn’t that rat underage!?” Good times), just some much needed down time, lots of reading and writing, and some spring cleaning leaving me with a de-cluttered bedroom and a load of laundry smelling of Spring time.

Oooh and a visit to the olive man yesterday…his goodies (?) made an appearance in today’s lunch.

Lettuce, red bell pepper, and zucchini from my produce guy, and olives and dolmas from my olive guy. It’s so weird – I think I finally realized I live here this Spring break…I have an olive guy, a produce guy, a cheese guy. Yep, all mine.

I spent the afternoon wandering the streets, soaking in the glory of a light jacket and moderate temperatures. That’s another strange thing – changing seasons! Darn. Guess I’ll have to get a new wardrobe

I headed to the marais, the best place to be on Sundays in the city in my personal opinion, and celebrated Spring with a frozen yogurt and a new cotton dress, then headed to the Bastille area to pick up a couple spices for a little some somethin’ I had in mind for tonight’s dinner.

But not before seeing this.

Ohhhh, Paris. You just never know what you’re gonna get. Pack of crazy rollerbladers? Why not!?

After my three hour walk, I headed home to spend some time in the kitchen. I wish I could give you a recipe, but since I have no measuring tools here, we’ll think of it more as a method. Or perhaps, maybe a little inspiration to get in the kitchen and just do what smells right, so to speak…

I made a stew type thingy. Not sure what I’d call this really, but I usually like to make a bunch of veggies on Sundays since the weeks are so hectic and have them on hand. I used up my new produce (ya know, from my produce guy) and came up with this creation. It had:

- bacon

-onion

- garlic

- Italian seasoning

- mushrooms

- zucchini

- eggplant

- tomato paste

- 1 can cherry tomatoes (that I crushed later with a fork)

- 1 can cannellini beans

I started by sautéing the bacon, then added the onions once a little of the fat had melted. Once the onions were translucent, I added the garlic and Italian seasoning, sautéed for a minute, then added the mushrooms, zucchini, and eggplant.

Once all of that cooked down, I added the tomato paste, canned tomatoes, and cannellini beans. I always do the tomato paste like my Nana does – I let it cook with the veggies for a bit before adding the canned tomatoes so it can sweeten up and almost caramelize. The extra minute works wonders.

This was such a yummy dinner after a long day of walking and went perfectly with a piece of quinoa bread with fresh farmer’s market goat cheese…

Yum. I do love me some chevre. I especially loved the Spring/Summer-esque veggies. I’m already excited to get in the kitchen this Summer – my ideas have been flowing and I have tons of great ideas for when I have all of my kitchen tools at my disposal.

The rest of my evening has been spent reading and watching garbage on Netflix. Nothin’ like a little LA Ink on a Sunday night

I’ll leave you with a new favorite. I constantly find myself reading poetry – looking for it, reading it, talking about it, thinking about it. I just love it. 

This is what you should do:
Love the earth and sun and animals,
despise riches, give alms to everyone that asks,
stand up for the stupid and crazy,
devote your income and labor to others, hate tyrants,
argue not concerning God,
have patience and indulgence toward the people…
reexamine all you have been told in school or church or in any book,
dismiss what insults your very soul,
and your flesh shall become a great poem.

                                             – Walt Whitman

Random questions…

What’s your favorite TV show?

I’m not sure, but one day this week I just decided I wanted to watch LA Ink. I’m ashamed to admit that I’m really loving it. They are such artists!

Other than what I can see on Netflix, I have no idea what shows or movies are out right now. We have no TV here, but I kinda like it.

What’s your favorite poem? Favorite poet?

I love all things Rumi lately. Please share your favorites, as I’m always looking for new stuff!

I woke up this morning with the urge to get in the kitchen. The sun had just come up – my shining hours. I love the mornings and always feel the most creative and alive when the day is young. I knew I wanted to spend this morning making something yummy before time slipped away and I got all caught up in my day.

Cooking is like therapy – I always get lost in stirring and mixing, feeling soothed by the smells and sounds of a tasty work in progress. I like to think of recipes more like methods, kind of like a math problem or a series of steps or ideas. This + that = delicious.

My roommate and I were just talking yesterday about this, actually. She loves to bake, and quite frankly… I can’t stand it. Perhaps it’s the mental scars of a day spent baking banana bread, only to spill the entire pan of batter on the floor and run fleeing to my room, sobbing uncontrollably. Perhaps this sob session wasn’t about the banana bread…

Anyway, I digress. She likes it because it’s so exact – there’s measurements and rules to follow that create a final product. But that’s exactly why I can’t stand it. I actually don’t have any measuring cups in my apartment here – and I’m finding it quite liberating. No measuring oats, or quinoa, or this or that.

I just like to throw stuff in and see what happens. It’s much more fun like that, yes?

So this morning, I donned my apron (okay, really I donned my polka dot pajamas, but apron sounded much more 1950’s-housewife-home-made-granola-esque), grabbed my red pan and wooden spoon and made another batch of stove top granola, only this time….better.

This time I toasted the almonds and walnuts with the oats making them nice and crunchy, used a little bit more butter (because, well, why not?), agave as a sweetener, and the magic ingredient – grey salt.

I picked up this very large bag of Gros sel Guérande at the agricultural fair this past weekend (look for a post soon!) for 2 euro and have been using it in everything since. It’s an all natural and unrefined salt from Guérande, France and is quite famous in the culinary world…or so I hear. I do know for certain that it tastes delicious and that it made all the difference in my stove-top granola this morning.

After getting lost in the scents of cinnamon and melting butter, I made some breakfast with my fresh batch of granola.

I mixed some plain yogurt with about 1 tablespoon of chia seeds, and topped it with the crispy granola that was sweet and salty to perfection, as well as a little dollop of somethin’ special…

Vanilla Chestnut Cream. So delicious. So dangerous, but so delicious. It’s all about balance…right?

Question: Baking or cooking…which do you prefer and why? Do you use measuring cups when you cook? Do you follow recipes or do you do your own thing?

I used to be clueless in the kitchen – like didn’t know how to put anything together. I started to experiment a bit and gave myself permission to get creative and try things when I cook. After a while of following recipes I had a general idea of what might taste good together and also drew from experiences dining out and trying new combinations in restaurants. Sometimes my creations are are flops, but sometimes, like this morning, it works.

Have a good day, my friends.

I mentioned yesterday that we started an intensive module class this week. Two weeks of  Global Communications everyday from 10:00am to 6:00pm with other visits in addition.

Like this morning, for example… We were going to a conference at Cephalon Pharmaceuticals European headquarters and had to leave the house at 8:30am to arrive on time. This is after being at Le Cordon Bleu last night until past 9:00pm, doing our reading and other homework for today, and trying to get a good night’s sleep before waking up bright and early this morning.

Needless to say it’s been a busy week so far. The visits are all great and class is really interesting, but I was so thankful to have my afternoon free today. I finally got home around 3:00pm this afternoon, and wanted nothing more than to just do something for fun.

I thought I might want to hop on my yoga mat for a little, but I was just too tired. I’m trying this new thing where I actually listen to my body when it’s too tired. You know, like not pushing it when it’s begging me to just chill. Interesting concept, yes? Sarcasm.

Anyway. Taking a cue from my tired bod, I headed to my favorite room in any house – the kitchen.

Lately I’ve been craving granola. I make it all the time back home, but without an oven I haven’t even tried.

Until today.

Stove Top Granola

Since I don’t have a single measuring cup in Paris, this is really more of a method rather than a recipe. It was really easy to make and took all of 15 minutes, so I think it will come in handy even if you do have an oven back home – it’s super quick, and you only dirty up one pan making clean up very easy. Most importantly, it’s delicious.

First, I toasted the oats (maybe about 1.5 to 2 cups) in a dry pan on the stove. And of course by stove, I mean hot plate.

I turned the heat up to medium-high and stirred the oats constantly until they browned.

Next up – Honey. And Butter.  Trust me. Butter makes everything better.

I let the butter and honey (maybe about 1tbspn each) melt together in the pan, then added cinnamon, salt, almonds and walnuts. I added the nuts whole, mostly because I don’t have a knife to chop them (gotta love my tiny Parisian kitchen). They would be great chopped too and you could use any nuts you have on hand, or whichever ones you like.

Stop lookin’ at me like I’m nuts. Get it? Granola humor! Enough jokes. Back to the granola…and I’m not referring to myself!

Ok this time, I’m really done.

Once that had all toasted for a bit (maybe 5 minutes), I added the toasted oats back in the pan and let them all mix together.

The oats soaked up the remaining butter and honey and the granola dried out really well making it very crunchy.

I decided to stir in some coconut flakes once it had cooled for a few minutes…

Mmm. I’ve missed my homemade granola, and felt so cozy and happy this afternoon, munching on fresh granola with fromage frais, soaking up my free afternoon, and basking in the glorious smell of cinnamon, honey and butter that lingered in the house after I made it.

You could really make this granola with anything you like in it – dried pineapple would have been great with the coconut in this recipe. Any dried fruit and any nut you like would work great.

Well, this nut is back to the books. Have a good Wednesday!

I was so excited to share my day with you yesterday. I had spent my morning wandering through Marché Saxe-Breteuil, one that is quickly becoming my favorite in Paris. Every time I go, I drool over the amazing produce and prepared foods, and especially this one stand in particular. They sell olives and other Mediterranean goodies that are so gorgeous they’d bring tears to your eyes. Okay, maybe it’s just me. But seriously, the olives are amazing and so are the other antipasto like goodies they sell.

After staring at the olives (who am I?) for several minutes, I finally struck up a conversation with the olive man (that’s what we’ll call him…the olive man). After talking to him for several minutes in my broken French, and being fed countless samples, I walked away with a few goodies to take home and several other treats the olive man gave me. He kept telling me I was beautiful (in a non creepy it’s okay to make eye contact kind of way) which is probably why I had such a great experience at the olive stand. I was so happy after I left and took tons of gorgeous pictures of the food he was selling.

I left olive heaven and headed to Montmartre to stroll the streets, eventually finding my way to the steps of Sacre Couer. It was sunny and alive – musicians had taken the streets and families and tourists were wandering the steep, windy roads. There was an adorable band set up wearing all pink and playing songs like Dancing Queen, among others. I took tons of pictures of the band, and tons of the streets near Sacre-Couer which are all so beautiful.

I was going to share my day with you – the tastes, smells and sounds of the city. I was so excited when I looked through the pictures on my camera while i was sitting on the metro…so excited, that I accidentally deleted them. All of them. Every. Single. One.

Oops.

Epic fail.

My heart was totally broken and my mature, adult self fought back the tears and moans that my immature self was feeling inside. It had been such a special morning – in fact, I think I may have fallen even more in love with Paris yesterday, if that’s at all possible. As much as I miss my family and friends and the other comforts of home, I tried to picture myself packing up and getting on a plane yesterday and tears came to my eyes. My heart literally hurt at the thought of ever leaving as I sat on the steps of Sacre-Coeur yesterday despite watching the tourists and listening to the street violinists terrible rendition of Ave Maria.

Now, I know I’m getting all gooshy on you. Je suis désolé.  But, I wanted to share yesterday with you, despite the lack of pictures. I took the accidental mishap of deleting my pictures as a sign that maybe yesterday’s sights weren’t meant to be shared. The memories will have to suffice for me, but I’m certain I won’t ever forget yesterday. Le sighhhhh.

Now that I’ve poured my heart out, let’s get onto the good stuff…

I ventured out to Marché Bastille this morning since my fridge was looking a little empty. I heard this market is fairly inexpensive so I was hoping to load up on some veggies for the next few days…

I also found the olive stand again! Although, the olive man wasn’t there. Same company, just a different person working today. Zut!

The market lived up to it’s reputation, as I filled up my entire bag with fresh produce and a few other treats for about 12 euro. I even got 4 avocados for 2 euro! Can you say guacamole!?

Yah, those are artichokes stuffed with creamy, herbed feta cheese. Now you know why my heart was breaking at the thought of ever leaving this place! These would stop your heart, they’re so good.

After restocking my fridge, and using all of my will pepper not to finish off the other artichoke and save it for a special treat tomorrow, some friends and I took the metro to Place d’Italie  for the Chinese New Year parade that was taking place this weekend. There was one last weekend too, but this was the big shebang.

It was difficult to take pictures since I was standing behind a 6 foot tall man and my 5’2 self could barely see past his grey-haired head…so these were taken with the “hold the camera over your head and hope for the best” method. It was neat to be a part of the celebration – the streets were loud and crowded but the energy was exciting and everyone was celebrating and shouting bonne année every few minutes. Ooooh, Paris.

We made our way to Porte de Choisy to further our Chinese New Year festivities and spend some time in the “Chinatown-esque” part of town in the 13th arrondissement. We’ve dined in this area a few times and have always had delicious food for really cheap and have been wanting to check out the little specialty store that we’ve seen in passing a few times…

I ended up buying a poulet rôti – what will now be known as the most delicious roasted chicken I’ve ever had in my life. I tore into it as soon as I got home because I couldn’t wait to have it with the rest of my dinner which was…

This is quickly becoming a new favorite. I just sauté 1 sliced onion and 2 red bell peppers in olive oil over medium heat until the onions are sweet and the bell peppers are soft – about 45 minutes or so. It’s so delicious over quinoa, or with some broccoli – or after devouring a juicy roasted chicken leg. Just sayin’.

I’m currently bundled up in my little apartment, trying to get some homework and failing horribly at that. I figured out that I walked through the streets of Paris for a total of about 20 hours in the last three days. Needless to say my calves and buns are a teeny bit sore.  

Time to kick my feet up, read for a bit, and just be darn thankful for my weekend.

Happy Sunday

Leftovers.

Even just the word doesn’t sound too appealing, not to me at least. Nope, I’ve never been much of a leftovers kinda gal, but lately I’ve been inspired to jazz them up a bit and make something new.

Some leftovers are easy to use. Like this jar for example. It’s technically a leftover, recycled into my new favorite water cup.

And of course, there’s the leftover dinner that’s not nearly as exciting as it was in it’s original form, but alas, it must be eaten.

Take this morning’s breakfast for example. I had some leftover sautéed onion and red bell pepper from last night’s dinner (which looked much like dinner this night, and pretty much every other night for that matter…).

What to do, what to do….

I went the savory breakfast route and decided to make an egg scramble with my leftover veggies, and a handful of the heaping bag of spinach I got at the market earlier this week. I’ve had spinach for the last three days and have barely made a dent! Best .74 euro I ever spent

First I threw the leftover veggies into a pan with melted butter to heat them through…

..then the spinach.

Once it was cooked through,

I added two eggs.

Yo, breakfast. Why you lookin’ at me like that!? I realize now what it was trying to tell me…“You’re burning me!” Oops.

Then. Scramble.

And done! If you’re feeling extra classy, you can break up a Babybel cheese and place it in various spots around your scramble. You’d think with all the cheeses in France, I’d have something amazingly delicious in it like Camembert, or some type of gouda with cumin….need to get on that!

It’s no looker, but didn’t you listen to your mama growing up? Beauty is on the inside!

I enjoyed my breakfast with coffee, something I’m learning to love without my chemical laden, sugar filled coffee-mate. Just a little bit of lait entier, and crème léger, and sometimes a bit of honey if I’m in the mood.

And I certainly never eat chocolate with my breakfast…nope. Never. Not me.

Hey, who ate my chocolate and left an empty wrapper!? Chocolate fairy did it again. Remind me to have a chat with her…

Two questions for you today:

1. What’s your favorite way to use leftovers? Leftover cooked veggies, grans, chicken? Anything! How do you use them?

2. Breakfast: Sweet or Savory? Or just chocolate….? No? Just me?

It’s the beginning of week 7 here in Paris and I just can’t believe it. It’s a big week at school – midterms, papers, readings, museum visits. The works. I’m savoring all the little “me-moments” I can get!

Is that selfish? Well….good.

Let’s see. “Me-moment” number one. Chocolate. Did you know that it’s a vegetable? And it’s also an acceptable breakfast food? Well, a girl can dream…

I seriously can’t get enough of this dark chocolate. Thank you Gillian Young….seriously. I love this stuff. I’ve been eating it with my coffee. In the mornings. With breakfast. Don’t judge.

“Me-moment” number two. One hour of glorious yoga. Glorious, grounding, booty-kickin’ yoga. It felt so good to spend some time on the mat, feelin’ the changes in my body. Not judging them, just feeling them. My hips and hamstrings are tighter they have been in a long time, but that’s okay…it’s proof that I’ve been wandering this glorious city on foot! But I’m glad I got on the mat and stretched it out a bit – not to mention I’ve gotta keep that handstand practice up so I can take pictures all over the city when the weather gets better

“Me-moment” number three was delicious. I haven’t made a real dinner at home for myself in what feels like forever so I spent some time in the kitchen this evening cookin’ up something healthy and delicious.

On the menu…quinoa. Love this stuff.

We are really fancy here. Like the cover to our pot? Like I said, fancy.

One of my latest favorite thing to cook is onions and peppers. Just slice ‘em up, and let them do their thang (yes, a technical term) in the pan with some EVOO until they are browned and delicious.

Ohh. And if you feel extra fancy, splash in some balsamic vinegar at the end and let it cook down a bit. It gets all sweet and syrupy and delicious. Mmm.

et Voila! Dinner is served!

Quinoa, steamed broccoli, peppers and onions and an over medium egg. Nothing special but it sure was good. Mmmm.

I’m finding it really easy to eat healthy in Paris. And you know what else? I love that everyone eats food the way it was supposed to be eaten. Low-fat things like yogurt and milk are scarcely available, but full fat dairy is clearly the most popular choice. Also, when you go to the charcuterie, you don’t see them advertising for lean chicken and low fat bison – nope, not here. Bring on the marbled cuts of steak! Oh, and on any given day you can wander to a marché and buy fresh, local produce.

I had a little moment of clarity when I thought about all of that today. I cooked my dinner tonight in lots of olive oil, and fried the egg in butter. I’ve been snacking on flavorful cheeses and some of the creamiest yogurt I’ve had in quite some time, and heating almonds and cashews like it’s going out of style. And I feel gooooooooooood. Healthy and wholesome. And gooooooood.

Yep. Such a simple thing, and something that causes lots of fear and anxiety for us Type-A perfectionist-perfect-eater-non-cheaters-yada-yada-yada. Trust me, I have my moments, especially living in a place where I’m surrounded by chocolate and pastries and butter. Lots of butter. But why would we go and try to mess up something as glorious as crème liquide  (ahem, which I may or may not have been putting in my coffee), by taking all the fat out!? Now THAT sounds crazy.

Well. Enough about me. Did you have any “me-moments” for yourself today? What’s something you do everyday that is just for you?

It’s bedtime for me, friends. I turn into a pumpkin after midnight  

Good night!

I’m taking a class this semester called An Appetite for Paris: Gender, Globalization, Travel, and Food. One of our assignments for the semester is to volunteer at the slow food café in the Bastille.

The cafe is home to the locals of the quartier, the meals are prepared by volunteers, and dinner is served at 20h.

This past Saturday I arrived at the cafe at 11:00am, donned my apron and wooden spoon, and spent the day working in the kitchen with my professor and several of my classmates. We made a repas Indien, all from scratch of course. This is a slow food cafe after all!

We started by making the ghee,

and chopped lots of veggies while the ghee did it’s thang on the stove. And yes, that is a technical term.

All the veggies were for various dishes we were making…

First up, the dal. The moong dal had been soaking already when we got there and proved to be quite the task when we started cooking. Ever tried making dal for 60 hungry Parisians? Neither had we! But, we made it work…

I had never actually made “authentic” dal before. It’s such a simple dish and it was really cool to watch the whole process. While the lentils boiled, we made the flavah. Yep, another technical term. Actually, I forget what this is actually called (anyone!?) but you fry the spices, onions and garlic in ghee and add it to the cooked dal. Oh. And it smells delicious. 

After you mix in the spices, you add fresh coriander and fresh lemon juice. And there you have it…dal for 60.

We also made a poulet curry, which is the brilliant brain child of my professor. It was actually kind of ironic to be cooking curry since lately we had just been discussing authenticity of certain foods in class earlier this week. Curry powder doesn’t even exist in “authentic” Indian cooking. Curry means vegetables and curry powder is a spin on the blend of spices (masalas) that goes into vegetable dishes in Indian cooking. It’s a sort of “Westernized” ingredient but is widely associated with traditional Indian cooking.

All that to say, this curry was curry powder-less. It did however have tamarind, sweet potato, chicken, onion and fresh coriander to name a few ingredients. (I’m working on getting recipes!)

We also made raita, one of my very favorites…

The highlight of the meal, however, was dessert (isn’t it always!?). We made halva, a really simple dessert of toasted semolina/sooji cooked with cardamom, cloves, cinnamon and cashews that have been fried in ghee. Then you stir in more more ghee on top of that. How could it not be good!?

Food coma.

It felt so great to spend the day in the kitchen, all 9 hours of it. I got quite a few stares on the way home from the café, and my hands still smell like garlic and onions after 24 hours, two showers, and countless hand washings.

But this was my kind of fun. Does that make sense? I learned about cooking a new cuisine, and spent the day talking and learning from those I shared the experience with. I’m a foodie by nature, so these little moments spent in the kitchen are special to me. Silly? Yes. But it’s amazing how food can bring people together.

The regulars filled up the cafe after we finished preparing the meal, open to whatever the volunteers had prepared, as I left with new friends, a new outlook, and a big steaming bowl of dal and curry.

Life is…yummy.

Sigh.

My parents sent a package off to me last week that was supposed to get here Monday, and it finally came today. Any mail I receive goes straight to my school and I was keeping my fingers crossed all through class that it would be there by the time I got out. It was my lucky day!

Seriously, this little box of goodies came at the perfect time. As I’ve already mentioned, this past week was really hard for me. I was struggling a bit with adjusting and missing home a bit and although I was feeling better this morning, I’m feeling great after my little box-o-love came in the mail today.

Amongst the goodies – rain boots that fit (mine were to tall for me – the joys of being short!) , a different camera lens to try (turns out it’s a lens problem because now the camera works!), agave nectar, gluten free crackers (!), and coffee (!!) to name a few.

I knew there was going to be coffee in my box so I stopped at the store on my way home and bought some lait entier. My morning cup-o-joe and I were like peas in a pod back home. It’s been about four weeks since we’ve really spent some time together…and our reunion was fabulous. Seriously, you wouldn’t think that a cup of coffee would make such a difference, but my mood skyrocketed after this little cup of Caribbean Delight. I felt like I was standing in my kitchen at home just getting my day started…

Oh, and you know I dug right into the gluten free crackers.

Crackers – with a side of French history. Nothin’ like a little love from home.

I always love Wednesdays because I have the afternoons completely free. I decided to faire une promenade today to make sure the camera was working for sure. Shooting with a 50mm lens is interesting, but the good news is that the camera works and the lens is temporary.

Woo!

On my walk I picked up some ingredients to make soup for dinner. My roommate made something similar the other night that was delicious so I followed suit.

Basically I just jazzed up some pre-made soup (it was Pumpkin!) with some sautéed carrots, chicken, potatoes, and broccoli. My roommates and I have made this a few times over the past couple weeks actually. It’s hearty, warm and comforting on these cold nights! Plus it’s healthy with all of the fresh veggies and a little protein action from the chicken. Mmm.

Oh, and did I mention that we finally had temperatures in the upper 40’s and even low 50’s today!? What a good day. Hope yours was just as good too!

Sunrise

You can
die for it —
an idea,
or the world. People

have done so,
brilliantly,
letting
their small bodies be bound

to the stake,
creating
an unforgettable
fury of light. But

this morning,
climbing the familiar hills
in the familiar
fabric of dawn, I thought

of China,
and India
and Europe, and I thought
how the sun

blazes
for everyone just
so joyfully
as it rises

under the lashes
of my own eyes, and I thought
I am so many!
What is my name?

What is the name
of the deep breath I would take
over and over
for all of us? Call it

whatever you want, it is
happiness, it is another one
of the ways to enter
fire.

- Mary Oliver