This weekend was by far one of the best weekends I’ve had in Pittsburgh in a very long time. It didn’t hurt that it was my 24th birthday but I think it is safe to say that a great time was had by all. My wonderful friends took me out to Girasole for Italian food on Friday and then out to some bars on Saturday night where we all proceeded to have a fabulous time having some drinks and meeting new people.
Thanks everyone for a great weekend!
I also continued challenging myself personally to try new things this weekend as I have been for the last two months. I fairly regularly practice vinyasa yoga (flow yoga) at my local gym but have been very curious about trying bikram yoga (hot yoga). There are two different studios in Pittsburgh and I decided to go to one on Saturday to try it out. Supposedly the hour and a half long class burns around 700 calories – definitely needed with my many indulgences for my birthday! I have to say it was a very interesting experience – I am not sure quite how else to describe it. The poses were very different from flow yoga with a bit more focus on breathing exercises (that actually challenged the abs a good bit) and were separated by lying rests. It was HARD. The room is heated to 105 degrees and therefore within five minutes everyone is literally dripping sweat. The majority of women just wore shorts and a bra and the men were all shirtless. Kind of intimidating at first but it is also one of the biggest motivators as you can tell the people who were regulars as they had the most incredible muscles and flexibility. Envy was inevitable! All in all, I enjoyed the class and my muscles were fatigued the rest of the day. I’ve convinced some friends to return with me on Tuesday night - I can’t wait to see their reactions!
Afterwards I walked to the farmer’s market in the Strip District to see what produce was available and got an acorn squash, bok choy, golden beets, and kale! I love being able to buy veggies directly from the farmers.
My farmer's market bounty!
I then went home and made myself a delicious lunch of a sweet potato, kale and vegenaise and then some Kashi crackers on the side – YUM!
Tonight I decided to dig into my produce and make a roasted beet, kale and goat cheese salad. So many great nutrients and the colors are gorgeous in this salad. I hope you enjoy it!
Roasted Beet, Kale and Goat Cheese Salad
1 bunch of beets – the tops cut off
1 bunch of kale – ribs removed and chopped
4 ounces goat cheese
Garlic
1/4 cup silvered toasted almonds
olive oil
salt and pepper
Heat the oven to 450 degrees. Rinse the beats to remove any dirt. Place a large square of tin foil on a baking sheet and place the whole beets on it. Drizzle with olive oil and generous salt and pepper. Roast for 60 minutes or until a fork pierces the beets easily. Set aside to cool.
In the meantime, sautee the kale and garlic in olive oil. Once the beets have cooled, use a paper towel to wipe off their skins. Chop the beets and place them in a large bowl. Add the cooked kale, goat cheese and almonds. Season with salt and pepper. Enjoy!!
I think I am becoming a hippie unintentionally. The strangers who amuse me, the food that intrigues me and the books I find myself reading are all pointing in the direction that I am indeed becoming a food hippie (don’t faint, Dad). This past weekend I made one of my rare trips to Whole Foods. I had not been since this whole vegan thing started so I was excited about what new options for meals I might find. The primary reason that I went was because of Vegenaise (mayonnaise made without eggs). The way that vegans write and talk about this stuff you would think it was made of gold. Many bloggers confess to eating it with a spoon. Naturally, I was curious what the hype was about.
Think this would fly at work?
After talking myself away from the $4 kiwis (ok, an exaggeration but their produce is steep) I headed to the condiment aisle. I couldn’t find the proselytized Vegenaise. A long-bearded employee stopped to ask if I needed help and when I mentioned my quest, you would have thought that I had granted him a trip back in time to Woodstock. His eyes lit up and he was practically skipping to the refrigerated section of Whole Foods all the while telling me how last night he was making a quinoa and bean wrap and there was some Vegenaise left on the spoon and he just couldn’t help but eat it straight. I kid you not. The next two minutes I received a hearty explanation about the variations of Vegenaise. For me, $6 for the grape seed oil version was just too extravagant so I went with the original flavor.
Nectar of the Vegan Gods?
Post picking up a few other “necessities,” I forced myself back to the parking lot. For those of you who do not have a Whole Foods nearby, it is worth mentioning that every time I visit one, the parking lot is the most vicious place I have ever been. There are hand gestures, beeping, cutting off of others and near death experiences walking every single time. You would think that with consumption of all the healthy, organic food people would have much more pleasant dispositions! Driving home, I began to think what I could do with my Vegenaise. Traditionally, I had only used mayo in egg or chicken salad or smeared on a turkey sandwich. Obviously, all those options are no longer available. I had heard about using extra firm tofu to make egg salad (I can hear the groaning from my audience through my computer screen as I type this.) I am pretty impressed with the results, I must say. It tastes and looks eerily the same just the texture is a little different since there aren’t true yolks involved.
Pre-Preparation
Open a container of fresh extra firm tofu.
Rinse tofu blocks under cold water.
Place tofu onto a dry clean kitchen towel and roll it up… this will allow all the excess fluid to drain. If you want an even better egg salad, do this the night before and put it into the refrigerator after wrapping.
Ingredients Yolk Mixture – note this makes enough for several batches so adjust accordingly
dry ingredients-
2 tablespoons turmeric
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
2 tablespoons celery seeds
1 tablespoon dried chives (optional)
Egg Mixture
1 container fresh extra firm tofu (drained on a terry kitchen towel for at least 2 hours… best wrapped up in towels overnight in the refrigerator… Costco sells double packages and has the best prices)
1 tablespoon of the completed Yolk Mixture
1/2 cup Vegenaise (add more if you like it lighter and creamier)
1/2 cup celery diced
Bunch of chives chopped
Preparation Yolk Preparation
In a heavy bottom skillet, measure out all the spices… turmeric, red pepper flakes, celery seeds and pepper.
Over a low flame, toast the contents until warmed and set aside… this is an important step to bring out the flavors of these ingredients. Remove the skillet from the burner and add the cider vinegar, honey, Dijon mustard to the toasted spices in the skillet. Whisk the contents until smooth. Pour mixture into a glass jar and set aside.
Tofu Preparation
In the bowl, crumble the drained tofu with your fingers. It will look like boiled egg whites in a real egg salad.
Add 1 tablespoon of the yolk mixture and stir until everything is a golden yellow color.
Add the Vegenaise, onion, celery and scallions…
Stir until all becomes a beautiful yolk yellow color.
Wow! It feels great to be sitting down to write again. It has been an interesting last five months with ups and downs, life realizations and introspective thinking. Initially, I decided to take a hiatus from the Lone Foodie simply because my grocery bills were out of control cooking lavish and rich meals for myself several times a week. Then, of course, once a habit is broken it is hard to find the time to sit back down and write again regardless of how much pleasure and satisfaction it used to bring. The Lone Foodie is such a great outlet for my day-to-day frustrations that I am disappointed that I let it get away from me for so long.
Over the last five months, my life has been a whirlwind and not always a good one. From numerous dating disasters to dissatisfaction with both Pittsburgh and my job it was hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel some days. I found myself coming home to any empty apartment most nights to crawl immediately into bed with a bottle of wine and the remote. If I ate, it was usually horrid for me and came in the freezer section. Simply put, I was not in a good place. One evening I decided to browse through pictures from college and in shock I realized that I barely recognized myself. I honestly broke down to realize that back then I looked happy – until this point I hadn’t realized that I was truly unhappy.
Something in me broke through at that moment and I decided it was time to stop feeling sorry for myself and start making changes. I had just read the book Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer and found the amazing blog Oh She Glows by Angela Liddon and decided to try going vegan for one month as a sort of detox to my mind and body. For that month I constantly ate kale, quinoa, beans and rice. I learned how to make a tahini sauce and learned that vegan cream cheese is actually fabulous. More importantly, I had ENERGY. Coffee held no interest for me nor did any soda. The cleaner I ate, the better I felt. Soon, I found myself willingly going to the gym or to the park on the weekends and after work to run, cycle or do yoga. I had come out of the fog. It’s been two months since I had the wake-up call to stop hiding from my life. I still have zero desire to eat meat although I do occasionally allow myself dairy – cheese is too good to live without!
Right now I am still trying to define how I got to that darker place. I do know part of it was that I wasn’t living my values, I was just going with the flow and letting other people make decisions for me. This week I read a post on a hilarious blog and she made one of her life rules to be “Sorry, I’m not sorry.” Whether that’s – ‘Sorry, I’m not sorry I don’t like sports and don’t want to waste my afternoon watching them’ or ‘Sorry I’m not sorry that I am vegan-ish and it creeps you out’ or ‘Sorry I’m not sorry I want to spend my Saturday evening with a good book and a cup of tea.’ My number one resolution starting now is to start making my own decisions regardless of how others might perceive or judge them. I made the unpopular decision to eschew animal products and I feel the best I have in years. What other unpopular decisions have I avoided that could have brought me as ample joy?
So with that, I am coming back to the Lone Foodie and posting recipes and events from my normal life. Lavish recipes that take hours to prepare will be gone and my recipes are going to be “vegan-ish.” Sorry, I’m not sorry . I came across a recipe this morning for chocolate Hazelnut Biscotti and decided that it would be the perfect fall afternoon baking project. They are absolutely delicious – crispy on the outside and slightly chewy on the inside. The hazelnuts are totally to die for – look in the Whole Foods bulk section to find raw ones. These biscotti are going to be perfect with my hot tea and good book (Animal, Vegetable, Miracle) on this Saturday evening.
Chocolate Hazelnut Biscotti
1/3 cup Almond or Soy Milk
2 tbs ground flaxseed
3/4 cup and 2 tbs sugar
1/2 cup canola oil
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp almond extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 tbs cornstarch
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup raw hazelnuts, roughly chopped
Preheat oven to 350F. Lightly grease a cookie sheet.
Mix together the almond milk and flax-seed. Add in the sugar, oil, and extracts and stir until combine. Sift in the flour, cocoa powder, cornstarch, baking powder and salt. Stir until dough begins to form then add in the hazelnuts. Knead briefly to form a stiff dough.
On the baking sheet form the dough into a rectangle approximately 12 inches long and 3-4 inches wide. Bake for 28 minutes until lightly puffed and the top is slightly crackled. Let cool for 30 minutes. With a very sharp knife cut the dough into 1/2 inch wide strips. Turn the oven up to 375F and return the sliced biscotti to the oven for 12-15 minutes until desired crispness is achieved. Remove from the oven and let cool – be careful with handling as they are delicate. Store in an airtight container. Enjoy!
Barbeque is a touchy subject. All over the nation the word connotes very different meanings all depending on what geographic location a person is in. While living in Boston, barbeque simply meant getting some charcoal hot and throwing whatever kind of meat we had around onto the grill all while enjoying some beers, sunshine and good company. Our friends from Texas are all about the beef – ribs and especially brisket are art forms in and of themselves. Growing up in North Carolina, barbeque is a much more loaded word meaning something other than just an outdoor grilling party. I am from the coast of North Carolina where pulled pork is the king of barbeque. And this isn’t any pulled pork, and certainly not that sticky sweet, tomato based sauced kind. Eastern Carolina barbeque is all about the spicy vinegar sauce. In the best case scenario it all starts on a slow roasting pit, where a whole hog is cooked all day. Pig-pickin’s, a graphic term I suppose, were highly anticipated get-togethers where a huge pit was brought in and then once the pig was ready people would go and “pick” off the meat they wanted. I haven’t had the privilege of attending one of these in years so I usually get my fix from restaurants around Wilmington when visiting. Served on a hamburger bun, topped with creamy cool cole slaw and paired with a side of deep-fried hushpuppies and an icy sweet tea is one of my all-time favorite meals. Now that I no longer live in NC, it is usually the first meal I request when I land in Wilmington.
Something about summer coming upon Pittsburgh has given me a great sense of homesickness. I’ve been racking my mind about how to get through the next few weeks until I travel home for July 4th. Barbeque is the only thing that comes to mind. Tragically, I don’t have access to a pig roasting pit and I can’t in good conscience heat up a vat of hot frying oil for hushpuppies. I had to settle for a crock pot and cast iron skillet, but it did the trick! I was happy as a clam sitting with a huge plate of spicy, vinegary pork and crispy, savory cornbread on Tuesday night.
Eastern Carolina Pulled Pork and Skillet Cornbread
Pulled Pork and Skillet Cornbread
Pulled Pork
Pork shoulder
Salt and pepper
Water
Onion, cut into large chunks
1 cup apple cider vinegar
¼ cup Sriracha or Texas Pet hot sauce
1 tbs hot pepper flakes (more to taste)
¼ tsp salt
¼ tsp pepper
2 tbs white sugar
Place the pork shoulder in a large Crockpot. Season the pork liberally with salt and pepper. Place the onion around the pork and fill the crock with ½ inch of water. Cover and cook on low for 10-12 hours. Remove from the Crockpot and shred the meat with two forks, removing some of the fat along the way.
While the meat is cooling, mix up the remaining ingredients. Pour over the shredded meat, mixing thoroughly. This can be left in a warm pan until ready to be served. I recommend letting it marinade for at least 10 minutes before serving.
Southern Cornbread
1-3/4 cups medium-grind stone-ground yellow cornmeal
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
2 tbs. granulated sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
3/4 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup sour cream
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
3 tbs. unsalted butter, cut into a few pieces
Position a rack in the center of the oven and put a 9- to 10-inch cast-iron skillet or a 9-inch heavy-duty square or round metal baking pan (not nonstick) on the rack. Heat the oven to 425°F.
In a small saucepan, bring 1/2 cup water to a boil over high heat. In a large bowl, combine 1/2 cup of the cornmeal and the boiling water. Stir to blend—the mixture should become a thick mush.
In a medium bowl, whisk the remaining 1-1/4 cups cornmeal with the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and baking soda to blend.
Add the buttermilk, sour cream, and eggs to the cornmeal mush and whisk to blend.
When the oven and pan are fully heated (after about 20 minutes), add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix with a wooden spoon until just blended. Do not overmix.
Remove the hot pan from the oven and add the butter pieces, tilting the pan to swirl the butter around until it’s melted and the pan is well coated. (The butter may brown; that’s fine.) Immediately pour the melted butter over the mixed batter and stir to combine—a half-dozen strokes with a wooden spoon should be plenty. Scrape into the hot pan.
Bake until the cornbread pulls away from the sides of the pan and is golden on top, 18 to 20 minutes. Immediately turn the bread out onto a rack. Cool for 5 minutes. Serve hot.
Food is a vehicle by which strong memories can present themselves to us. Everyone has food memories: a casserole made by Mom in one’s childhood, a Cherry Popsicle in the summer from the ice-cream truck, the meal served at your wedding. Each time you have these foods in the future you are magically transported back to that time in the past. I have so many food memories! A lot of them stem from my dad as well – he is so passionate about his either famous or secret recipes that it is hard not to think of these whenever I try a different version of the food. Every Saturday or Sunday growing up my dad would make his “famous” pancakes and taught me and my brother to slather them in butter then sprinkle sugar over them. To this day, on the rare occasion that I order pancakes I raise eyebrows from all my friends with my unorthodox condiments. My dad also makes turkey soup the day after Thanksgiving with the leftovers and the carcass of the bird. It is pretty damn good soup that is comforting and smile-inducing. I know that many of his food passions stem from his mother’s cooking. It is so interesting how traditions are passed down.
Rhubarb is a food that brings me a very happy memory. When I lived in Montana as a child we had the best next-door neighbors out of any of the many (many) houses that we lived in. On the left hand side was Jon and Toni and on the right hand side was Harry and Donna. Both were the warmest couples who were always thinking of me and my brother. Harry and Donna were an older couple whose kids had grown and moved away to start their own families. They had an adorable dog, Freckles, that would bound over to play with Ryan and I. In their yard there were feeders for all types of wildlife (well, maybe not bears or mountain lions) and one of them would be sure to call over to our house if any animal came into their yard so my brother and I could peer from our kitchen window and see it. Aside from wild animals, Harry and Donna’s yard was home to a great many plants. One of which was rhubarb. Come summer time Donna would always bring over a big paper bag full of the green and red stalks to my mom. I don’t think that I ever had rhubarb before those years that we lived in Kalispell. My mom would take these huge stalks resembling celery and craft pies and crumbles, sometimes throwing some strawberries into the mix as well.
Stalks of rhubarb
Since moving back east I haven’t seen rhubarb on many menus or in the grocery store which is a shame as their counterpart, strawberries, are plentiful. This past weekend I went to the Farmer’s at the Firehouse market in the Strip District in Pittsburgh. While browsing the rows of herbs, cheeses and bread I spotted green and red stalks of something very familiar….RHUBARB! Obviously, I bought it immediately and headed to the store to pick up strawberries. On Sunday, my friend Liz came over with our good friend, Pinot Grigio, and helped me craft a huge strawberry and rhubarb pie. It was phenomenal and a pretty good tribute to Donna and Harry and my time in Montana.
Strawberry and Rhubarb Pie
If you come across some rhubarb in your part of the world, I highly recommend making the most of it. I made my own crust here but I won’t tell anyone if you buy some from the Mr. Pillsbury J.
Strawberry and Rhubarb Pie
Crust: Pate Brisee 3 cups trimmed rhubarb (1 1/2 pounds untrimmed), cut in 1/2-inch thick slices
3 cups hulled and halved strawberries
1/4 cup golden brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup quick-cooking tapioca
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon butter
Directions:
Prepare your pie: Roll out 2 dough disks to 12-inch round; transfer one right into a 9-inch pie pan and trim any excess overhang (leave 1/2-inch overhang), leave the second one out as it will top the pie once filled.
Pie before baking
Preheat oven to 400°F. Combine first seven ingredients (along with the optional orange zest) in a large bowl and gently toss to combine. Spoon filling into bottom crust. Scatter little pats of butter on top of the filling and place the second disk of dough on top of the pie. Fold edges under and crimp as desired. Brush with egg mixture and cut a few slits in the top of the pie to allow steam to escape.
Bake 20 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 350 F and bake pie until the top is golden and the fruit filling starts to bubble, about another 25 minutes. Transfer pie to rack and cool completely.
. I came across a recipe this morning for chocolate Hazelnut Biscotti and decided that it would be the perfect fall afternoon baking project. They are absolutely delicious – crispy on the outside and slightly chewy on the inside. The hazelnuts are totally to die for – look in the Whole Foods bulk section to find raw ones. These biscotti are going to be perfect with my hot tea and good book (Animal, Vegetable, Miracle) on this Saturday evening. 
