Finicky Fridays - Operation Eat it or Starve: the Battles Rage On

It's been two weeks since the official start of Operation Eat it or Starve here in the Philistines house, and  I am here to tell you that this is probably going to last longer than the US occupation of Afghanistan.
Yes, HRH is a stubborn little devil; every time I think that I've advanced the troops, she manages to institute a counter-attack that leaves me speechless.  If she were part of the French army during World War II, the Maginot line would probably have held.

I'm thankful to quite a few of my friends for posting photos on my Facebook page that I have valiantly tried to copy.  Creative plates have helped HRH be at least willing to consider some items and actually put other foodstuffs in her maw, so I'll be continuing that as much as possible.

In the past few weeks I have played with Ms. Food Face...

Yes; I braided angel hair.
Not as easy as you'd think.

...made flowers and trees...

For the record, the salad tree (top right) did NOT go over well.
AT ALL.

...and played around with breakfast.

Homemade granola with fruit in an ice cube tray (left) and
"apple" pancakes (actually squash - muahahahahahahaha!)

Some success I can brag about is that HRH is eating sprouted grain bread willingly and even enjoying it - when I made her some mini cheese sandwiches, she ate them in three parts: bread, cheese, bread (repeat).

Hard to tell, but those are a dog, a cat, and a fish;
she decided that this was an underwater scene and dubbed them
"cat fish" and "dog fish."
Whatever; she ate them.

Additionally, she's finally discovered that food is more fun to eat when it's placed on each of the five fingers first (we're working our way up to olives).  

The dragonfly was a string cheese body, cherry eyes, carrot antennae,
and strawberry wings.
The stem of the flower had cocoa peanut butter spread on the underside.

The variety still isn't what I want to see, but HRH has decided that she now likes kiwi.  She's also unknowingly eaten squash every day this week in leftover pancakes; once she polished off the batch that had chopped summer squash along with the apples, I made a batch using acorn squash (I used a recipe for pumpkin pancakes, and it turned out really nicely).

We're taking a holiday in San Diego this weekend, so we'll see what happens while we're gone.  I certainly don't want HRH to be eating nothing but chicken nuggets and French fries, although we may be limited while driving.  I packed lots of good snacks, including carrots, fruit leathers, and strawberries, so that we continue modeling good eating habits even when out.

Do you put olives on your fingers before you eat them?

Are you willing to hide healthy foods (like squash) in your kids' meals, or do you prefer to be completely up front with them?

Finicky Fridays - Commencing Operation Eat it or Starve

I've mentioned that HRH is a picky eater before (here and here).  If she were in charge of MyPlate, there would likely be an abundance of ice cream, Goldfish crackers, and grapes, but probably not any zucchini or tomatoes.
It's a constant battle in the kitchen.  On the one hand, I want to make sure that my family eats a variety of healthy (and yet delicious) foods.  On the other hand, I don't want my child to sit there, eating nothing.  She's a little too young to understand how fortunate she is to go to bed hungry only by choice - or else I'd be laying on the guilt thicker than Tammy Faye's makeup.
A few weeks ago, my friend Megan posted this picture to my Facebook page:

Of course, it made me chuckle a bit laugh out loud for ten minutes, but at the same time, it made me cringe.  At myself.
Buddy Hackett said, many years ago, "My mother's menu consisted of two choices: take it or leave it."
I definitely haven't been in that category as a parent.  I have been so focused on making sure HRH doesn't "go hungry" that I've been compromising and letting her eat her small window of "HRH-approved" foods.  While many of those foods are fruits, it's really not acceptable to allow her to set limitations.

So, I have officially launched Operation Eat it or Starve.

That doesn't mean that I'm plunking down a plateful of mystery hash (or, as my mom called certain menu items, "Spinach Blob" and "Noodle Blob" - no lie) and expecting her to eat it.  I want eating new foods to be a comfortable experience, so we're looking for a balance here.
Intrigued by the studies that show children prefer 6 to 7 different colors and interesting patterns on their plates, I have been trying to be creative and artistic in my efforts to offer her both "safe" and familiar foods coupled with new foods.
I say trying because I am not the most artistic person ever.  Defense Exhibit A: my drawing of Princess Aurora (as requested by HRH).

Notice the rose red lips.

The good news is that cookie cutters are good for more that creating shapes out of cookie dough.  The even better news is that The Internet has great ideas that I can copy to my little heart's content.

In: creative, fun food platings at meals
Out: snacks - unless plates are (for the most part) cleaned

In: excitement about beets and squash
Out: badgering

Here are some snaps of what I've tried this week.  I can't take credit for any of the creativity, but I can take credit for the less than perfect adaptations of plating ideas that I found online.

Watermelon rain cloud, carrot lightning,
blueberry rain, apple umbrella (with cheese handle),
and brown rice path
(this looks way cooler with a red apple)

HRH ate the carrots, part of the apple, and the rice.  Maybe a few bites of the cheese, too.  She had been introduced to everything on this plate before, so everything should have been safe.

"Eating Nemo"
Brown rice sea floor, apple anemone, carrot seaweed,
watermelon mini-fish, peanut butter sandwich fish
with cheese stripes, and grape bubbles

The carrots and apples were all eaten, as were the cheese stripes and half the peanut butter fish.  The green grapes were getting a little soft and "yucky," so those were left after a close inspection.

Cheese sun over a rainbow of strawberries, raspberries,
carrots, mango, kiwi, blueberry, and blackberry,
nestled between banana clouds

I ended up eating most of this.  Except the cheese, which HRH consistently eats.  I even made a cocoa-peanut butter-agave spread that I thought she should use to dunk (or just eat with a spoon...), but I was, apparently, mistaken.  Good thing I like it.

Last night's dinner was our first big jump, as I began adding new/different/scary/unknown foods into the mix.

Squash and carrot sun overlooking a brown rice butterfly
(body - black beans, design - cheese and beets, antennae - carrots)
fluttering over a squash-grape-raspberry flower bed

Again, the cheese was eaten first, as were the carrots, raspberries, and red grapes (which seem to stay "crunchy" longer than the green ones).  Then this conversation happened:

HRH: I want milk, please.
Me: You can have some milk after you eat one piece of squash.
HRH: But I want it.
Me: You can have some milk.  But first I want you to eat one piece.
HRH: I don't like it.
Me: Remember Elmo teaches us to try foods two times before we decide if we like them or not.  Please try one piece.

At which juncture she selected the smallest piece of squash, inspected every centimeter for about five minutes, licked it, sniffed it, put it in her mouth, and gagged before spitting it out.
No milk was offered for that Oscar-worthy performance.

So far, my opponent has proved tenacious and stubborn.  Not that I expected a miracle (otherwise this post would be addressed to the Catholic Church about how I need to be sainted immediately), but I was hoping that the melodramatic gagging over the world's smallest piece of squash would be less... melodramatic.

Currently, I'm concocting a few ideas for the Ms. Food Face plate as well as how I can perhaps use chopsticks to trick convince HRH to even try some tofu.  But I'll also be happy if she eats the watermelon and Bing cherries that she requested last time we were at the grocery store.

Did your parents have creative or sneaky ways to get you to eat when you were little?
Or did they have any horrifying foodstuffs that served only to create food aversions?
What creative plating ideas have you seen or tried?

Thirsty Thursday - Taste of the Tropics

I've been on kind of a smoothie kick this week, thanks to my pre-race breakfast beverage on Saturday and my realization that I just just enough kale left to make a green smoothie and a subsequent bag of spinach from our CSA to get me through the remainder of the week.
For most of the week, I've been keeping my blender working on something similar to this smoothie recipe, although the measuring of things has, of course, gone completely out the window.
But last night, as I made Thai Fried Quinoa, I realized that I was going to have both leftover coconut milk AND leftover pineapple.  Well, clearly that was A Sign.

Behold!  I give you The Best Smoothie I Have Ever Had!

Totally simple, not totally creative - I blended the leftover coconut milk, pineapple (including the juice), and a banana together before inhaling its tropical deliciousness.
What I liked about this was that the sugars were countered by the fats in the coconut milk, although I did also have leftover scrambled tofu in a breakfast burrito (with some chipotle salsa, the only way to go in my book), so I had plenty of protein to go with that liquid lusciousness.  Together, they were a wonderful post-first-run-post-half-marathon breakfast
I'm kind of sad that I used all my leftover ingredients in that one smoothie, but at the same time, it really is so delicious that it should be a rare-ish treat.
I'll wait until this weekend.

(PS - I literally loved this so much that I had to add it to Tidy Mom's "I'm Lovin' It'" linky party.  It's just that good.)

To My Husband, With Love

I was so blown away by the outpouring of support for Jennifer Perillo after her husband, Mikey, died.  I was only one of literally thousands who made a peanut butter pie to honor their love and the love that so many others share.
The same day that people worldwide dug into a communal peanut butter pie, I decided to make a pie for Scott as well.  He isn't a huge sweets fan, so I wasn't sure that he'd enjoy the peanut butter pie.  But he does love fruit pies, so I picked up some strawberries and rhubarb to make one of his favorites.
The word favorite isn't exactly in Scott's vocabulary.  Any time I ask him what his favorite (fill in the blank) is, he just responds, "I don't like to have favorites."  HRH put him in a pickle the other day when she asked him, "What's your favorite color, Daddy?"  Thankfully, she decided it was blue for him, so the discomfort only lasted a moment (she also decided mine was red; it is, in fact, yellow).
A favorite color is one thing; a favorite meal is another.  I didn't even bother to ask him what his favorite pie was, but I did need some input on a meal.  Finally, after hemming and hawing and throwing around the "I don't have favorites," he did say that he'd always eat a good chicken fried steak.

Egg on My Face... Because I Was So Hungry!

I needed something hearty this morning.  Zooey and I got up for a 2-mile run (in this heat and humidity, I don't want to risk taking her any farther), which was followed by more physical activity for me in the form of taking down the crib and putting together a new bookshelf for HRH's room (sniff sniff - she's not a baby anymore!).
So I knew as much as I like them, pancakes would not do.  I needed Something Filling.
But what?

Baked Eggs in Ramekins

• 3 eggs
• 1 c half & half
• 1/2 c cheddar cheese, shredded
• 1/2 romano cheese, shredded
• a few handsful spinach, torn
• 3/4 - 1 c squash, chopped (I used patty pan)
• 1 rasher streaky bacon (only because it was in the fridge, and I didn't want it to become that science experiment)
• 1 green red onion, chopped 
• 1 shallot, chopped

Preheat oven to 350°.  Beat together the eggs, cheese, and half & half; set aside.  Swirl some olive oil into a pan and soften the onions and shallot; move to a bowl and keep warm.  Add a little more oil (if needed) and throw in the squash; saute until it begins to caramelize, and add the spinach until it begins to wilt.  Add squash, spinach, and onion/shallot mixture to egg mixture; stir to combine.  Pour into buttered ramekins and back 45 minutes or until a knife inserted comes out clean.

This was just a fantastic recovery meal; it had plenty of protein as well as fiber.  It could have been slightly healthier - I did have buttered white toast alongside it (my ultimate vice - white bread with butter).  But since it took a while to bake, it was more a brunch than just breakfast, so I think I'll be happy for a while.
As long as I get a snack here in a bit.

Decadent Phourth

Happy Independence Day!  I am sitting here on the couch, drinking an Arnold Palmer, flat exhausted from the long weekend.

It was worth it.

Saturday I made this cake:

Isn't it pretty?  I don't often make cakes anymore, and I most certainly don't have the time to decorate like I used to, but we had friends stop by on their way home from Tombstone, and since we rarely see them (they live in Lake Havasu City), I wanted to make sure that we had a nice afternoon.
Thus, after lunching at San Tan Brewing Company, I proudly served my little white cake.
Or...

And the Man at the Back Said "Everyone Attack"

This morning we went down to Casa Grande and had breakfast at Big House Cafe with Scott's mom.  I was disappointed with my florentine omelette, but I think that's because I really wanted to order the corned beef hash but didn't as I felt I needed to behave, gastronomically speaking after a weekend already full of bacon.  The omelette was good, mind you; I just wish I hadn't seen (and sat, staring at) the specials board, on which the chalk words corned beef hash taunted me, in size 72 font.
Scott, on the other hand, was unencumbered by some inner voice telling him to order wisely, and he selected the Barnyard sandwich - a whopper of a meal between a large roll.  The sandwich included eggs, cheese, a breaded pork cutlet, ham, and bacon (I think that's it).  It was so repulsive it was almost pretty:

The side of potatoes (yes, it totally came with a side)
was also slathered in cheese.

Zzzzzzzzzz...

This past week has been insane, busy, and insanely busy, so nothing much exciting happened, other than the fact that I discovered more tomatoes on the plant, and I believe that the potato that HRH and I "planted" (it got yucky so I let her throw it in the ground) is actually growing.
I've fallen off the movement and eating well wagons, to so I need to get back up on both of those.  There's really no excuse - I have just been taking the "easy" way out in between work, potty training relapses, and jury duty.
Yep - jury duty.  I have been called to sit, so I'll be doing that for a bit.  I won't be talking about the goings-on (since that's, you know, not allowed), but I will have the opportunity to try some downtown restaurants, so hopefully I can report back on some tasty local joints.
And speaking of tasty local joints, if you are in the East Valley, you may want to give Crackers and Co. a try.  We met some friends who are in town for the weekend there for breakfast this morning, and we were quite impressed.  HRH inhaled 4 rashers of bacon and nearly an entire bowl of fruit; Scott had a chorizo-carnitas skillet, which he said was very tasty, and I had the California eggs benedict.  It was nice to find a local place and spend some time with good friends.
Short post tonight - I'm beat from my busy day and busy week.  Hopefully I'll be much more interesting next post!

Just Peachy!!!

I need to preface this entry by saying that the kerfuffle with Zooey on Monday isn't the reason I have been away from the blog for the week.  It was finals, and I was in a grading frenzy.  As for Devil Dog, who is currently snoozing at my feet, she turned three on Thursday and took her birthday in a barking stride.  Hopefully now that she is officially an adult coonhound, she will settle down, but I have a notion that trash bin diving will always be a hobby of hers.
But she is cute, isn't she?

Snoozing in the sun

Reason to Buy Local/Seasonal #2

This weekend has been great, and we're only halfway through!  Local businesses are to thank for my positive outlook.
Last night (Friday), we went and met some friends at a local sports bar/restaurant that they like.  It's just OK as far as food goes, IMHO, but it is right next door to Run AZ, where I have been hoping to go since London's Run for some new running shoes.
I was first turned on to Run AZ, which has two locations (one in Gilbert and the other in Ahwatukee), by a friend of mine when I was looking for new hiking shoes.  He suggested I go there, as they would find me shoes that worked with my feet and stride.  I know that some stores put people on a treadmill and all that business, but not at Run AZ.  When asked, the staff will tell you that the treadmill test only is helpful if you only run on a treadmill.  However, they can pretty much take a quick look at you in your stocking feet (I had to apologize for not shaving, as I had to roll up my pants past my calves) and then another of you walking, and they can find shoes that work for your arch, the amount you pronate, etc.
I tried on a pair of Saucony®, which is what I wore when I ran track in high school (so, so many years ago now), a pair of Asics®, and two pairs of Nike®.  While I liked the Saucony® shoes (the first pair I tried on), I loved one of the pairs of Nike®, which actually kind of surprised me.

Already put my Nike® iPod sensor thingy on it - ready to run!

I also picked up a new running shirt - blue, to help me "celebrate" Colon Cancer Awareness Month (March).
While I would have gone to Run AZ anyway, I was even more pleased to have a coupon that had come with my "bag o' shwag" from London's Run, so I managed to make the trip for under $100 - pretty exciting.
Zooey and I went for an inaugural run with them this morning, and it was great except for the fact that my iPod died three songs in, and since I can't stand running without music, I made it a 3.5 miler instead of a 5.5 miler.  I'll be charging the PowPod tonight so we can take our last long run before Run for Ryan House next Saturday.
Not that I was sad to cut the run short.  Earlier this week, Wildflower Bread Company held a Facebook/Twitter haiku contest.  The winner received free pancakes.  Well, being an English teacher/total nerd who used to hold poetry slams in class, I had to enter.  Guess what - I WON!!!!!!!!
Here was my winning entry:

Sweet, fluffy mouthful

burgeoning maple or fruit;

total satisfaction

They're soooooo fluffay!

So, after we picked up our veggies this morning, we headed over to the Chandler Mall so I could hork down some lemon ricotta goodness, served with some warm blueberry compote (delicious combo with the maple syrup and lemony pancake).  Scott tried their new brisket beef sandwich, and HRH took down some more bacon and fruit, washing it all down with milk.
Both Run AZ and Wildflower Bread Company clearly appreciate their customers and their community, whether that is shown by finding the right shoe for each customer or giving away free meals in a fun way.  Not that national chains aren't appreciative of their clientele, I'm sure, although the way McDonald's® has handled what I like to call its oatmeal kerfuffle doesn't really show that it has interest in being HONEST to its customers, something that I also find important.  But these two local businesses, as well as many others, can best interact with and respond to its clientele in a way that McDonald's® only can by supposing that Wisconsonites might enjoy the McBrat.

Reason to buy local/seasonal #2 - they clearly value and respect their customers!

Hangar-ing Out

The weather in Arizona this weekend can only be described as dreary.  Not the Edgar Allen Poe despondent kind of dreary, but gray and damp dreary.  Of course, it's right when I wanted to kick the running training back in gear to prep for my next 10K (stay tuned) as well as Pat's Run.
Instead, I got up too early, especially after a night spent mostly awake with a sick toddler and two animals who are currently BOTH at the top of my "list" and didn't want to do anything but make and drink a boatload of coffee.
So when Scott suggested we go to breakfast after he walked the naughty coonhound (I caught her eating my dinner off the counter last night), I was game.
We went to the Hangar Cafe at the Chandler Municipal Airport, only a few minutes from the house.  I didn't even know that the little airport had a restaurant, but the prospect of HRH being entertained by the airplanes while we dined on greasy spoon fare was too good to turn down.

Heavenly hash

Holy smokes - it was PACKED!  Seriously, this place is out of the way, and there are no signs on the major roads advertising it, but there was a wait out the door by the time we got there.
Scott informed me that the Hangar Hash (corned beef) was good, and I have a weakness for it, so I didn't look further, while Scott had the chicken fried steak.  HRH, who was more interested in trying to go potty seven times than airplanes (and with the weather, there weren't really many airplanes to watch anyway), is still not much of an eater, so we ordered an à la carte breakfast for her - fruit salad and bacon.

Remains of the day

There is a reason this place was the proverbial sardine cliché.  The food was good food.  Nothing fancy, but good and filling.  The Hangar Hash came with an overgenerous portion of crispy has browns and eggs that were perfectly over medium as well as some pretty tasty sourdough.  Scott announced that the gravy on the steak was "really good," and it was difficult not to steal a bite.  I have already made it a mental goal to master sausage gravy, but that plate made me reaffirm that I need to do this soon.  Oh, and the diva - she ate ALL her bacon (save the portion that she choked on in her eagerness to jam an entire rasher in her mouth) and put a pretty big dent in the fruit salad, which was the size of her head.
Hopefully we can go again when the weather is once again Arizona perfect, although I kind of want to go back tomorrow.

Gettin' Siggi With It

I have been wanting to try Siggi's skyr for a good while now.  I know that there is a huge buzz about plain Greek yogurt being one of those "top twenty" or "top thirty" healthy foods that one absolutely must have in the house, but after having seen an episode of Bizarre Foods on the Travel Channel on which Andrew Zimmern watches/helps an Icelandic family make skyr, I have been intrigued.
Skyr is a Icelandic yogurt, but it's not anything like your regular supermarket brands.  It is THICK, more like a custard than a yogurt.  In fact, according to the label and website, one container of Siggi's requires three times the amount of milk found in those supermarket yogurt containers.  Wow!
Thus, this little container is packed with protein  that will help keep a person full long after the Dannon® has worn off.
But that's not all.  Some other reasons that Siggi's is way different than other yogurts:

• The milk comes from grass-fed cows.
• There is nothing artificial in it.
• The flavored varieties are sweetened with agave nectar, not sugar or (worse) HFCS
• There are nearly no ingredients - in the plain, three (I'm lumping the five cultures together) - others, up to six.  No multi-syllabic, unpronounceable chemicals.

I loved this - especially the use
of the word dreadful!

All right, but how does it taste?
I bought two containers, as I feel like anything worth tasting needs to be tried twice.  Sprouts had three flavors and the plain.  As much as I felt like I ought to buy the plain (the traditional Icelandic skyr), I was a little nervous and opted instead for the blueberry and the pomegranate and passion fruit instead.
I tried the blueberry last night.  I wasn't sold.  I hate to say it, but the taste reminded me a little too closely of being spit up on by HRH when she was still nursing (especially that one Mothers' Day when we had to take her to Urgent Care to make it stop).  It didn't smell like that in the container - quite the contrary, it smelled like... clean milk.  I can't say that I wasn't disappointed - I was kind of hoping for a gustatory epiphany or something - but I knew I had to give it another try.

THICK!!!!!

Breakfast is, of course, perfect for yogurt consumption, so I didn't wait long to try the pomegranate and passion fruit.  Perhaps it was the different flavoring or perhaps just a different batch, but this time, I got it.  There was a mere hint of passion fruit - not even enough to color it, really - that complemented the thick, custard-like skyr.

Now, let's take a moment and compare Siggi's to the Dannon® company's Activia®.  I'm taking these ingredient lists straight from the ingredient labels.

Ingredients for Siggi's Pomegranate & Passion Fruit Skyr:

• Pasteurized Skim Milk
• Agave Nectar
• Passion Fruit
• Pomegranate
• Live Active Cultures*
• Vegetable Rennet

*Live Cultures: B. Lactis, L. Acidophilus, L. Delbrueckii Subsp. Bulgaricus, L. Delbrueckii Subsp. Lactis, S. Thermophilus

Ingredients for Dannon® Vanilla Activia®

• Cultured Grade A Reduced Fat Milk*
• Fructose Syrup
• Sugar
• (contains less than 1% of the following)
• Fructose
• Whey Protein Concentrate
• Corn Starch
• Modified Corn Starch
• Kosher Geletin
• Natural Vanilla Flavor
• Carmine ("for color")
• Sodium Citrate
• Malic Acid

*Live cultures: L. Bulgaricus, S. Thermophilus, Bifidobacterium

Notice that sugar is listed as an ingredient three times.
Why is there regular AND modified corn starch?  Is the natural vanilla flavor from vanilla (just because it's natural doesn't mean that it's from vanilla; the determination "natural" just means it comes from natural sources, not chemically created ones)?  Why do you need to color it?
This really brings me back to what Michael Pollan wrote in In Defense of Food - the fewer the ingredients, the better.  I know what all of the ingredients in Siggi's are.  I can't even get a clear Wikipedia entry for sodium citrate.
What I find even funnier (not funny haha, but funny ironic...) is that there is no proof that the third culture in Activia® helps a person's digestive system any more than cultures found in other yogurts.
If we look further onto the nutrition label, we'll see that Siggi's has 16 grams of protein in that little cup (that's 35% of a woman's RDA); the Activia® has 5 grams.  The Dannon® has 17 grams of sugars while the Siggi's has 11 grams.  I could go on, but I think the point is made.
The Siggi's wasn't inexpensive, but then, nothing that is high quality ever is.  I think I'll stick with my plain yogurts that I sweeten and flavor on my own for the everyday, but when I want to treat myself, I'll make sure to save a little room in the shopping bag for some Siggi's.

Oh, Crêpe!

Sigh.... we're out of bacon again, so this morning, the hubby made crêpes, filled with Swiss cheese, mushrooms, broccoli, and eggs.  They were super nom-worthy.  We tend to have sweet fillings more than savory, but A) I think I ate all the jam and B) the broccoli needed to be used more than the Nutella.

Our CSA delivered more mizuna this week, so I adapted a chicken and mizuna stir fry recipe that I found on the Whole Foods website (I don't shop there for various reasons, but I'll happily steal their recipes).  

I used what we had on hand - a yellow onion instead of scallions, more soy sauce instead of rice wine, etc.  It was pretty tasty and definitely tinker-worthy (definitely should have put in the chile paste, but forgot, and I think this would be good with any protein - pork, beef, tofu, even shrimp).  I thought the new tablecloth and placements (that the cat is currently trying to cover with fur) were cause for celebration, so I pulled out the chopsticks instead of slumming it, as per usual, with the forks.

Finally, I used our acorn squash and a few honeycrips from the supermarket (um, so, I did NOT know that in Arizona, when one grows apples, the harvest time is actually NOT the fall but the summer, so sadly, there are no apple orchards to peruse through right now.... total bummer to this pacific northwest girl) to make an acorn squash apple soup.  I had to do this tonight because HRH has decided that she is big enough now to eat a whole apple rather than the slices we offer her in her high chair, so when she saw the apples, I knew I had to act quickly before they were all gone.  

We're not having this until tomorrow, but I already stole a taste, and I was delighted with it, especially as one of the spices used was curry, and I tend to classify that right up there with basil.  I feel like by eating this soup, I'm growing in my gastronomic comfort zone.

Now, the recipe says that it's even better the next day, which is common in soups, so I can't wait for tomorrow's dinner already!

Weekend at Bergie's (PUN WIN!!!!)

This was a weekend that might have been right for gluttonous moments, but I had to be strong and hold myself in check.  So far, so good, but we still haven't had dinner, so the weekend is not over yet.

On Saturday morning, I headed to Bergie's and picked up a great mix of veggies from our CSA, which included mizuna, a Japanese variety of mustard greens, as well as arugula, potatoes, an onion, garlic, okra, green black-eyed pease, some tiny little eggplants, and yet more basil.  Then, I was off to meet a friend for brunch at Wildflower Bread Company.  I love love LOVE this place, so I was so excited to go.  

One great aspect of Wildflower is that it has a company policy of giving back; each night, any un-purchased bread and bakery items to shelters throughout the state of Arizona.  It is also partnered with Share Our Strength, an organization devoted to ending childhood hunger (you may have heard about the Great American Bake Sale, one of this organization's many projects).  

This month, Wildflower featured Cupcakes for the Cure.  For each of these cupcakes sold, $1.00 is donated to the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation.  

Purchasing one of these cupcakes was actually two-fold for me.  First of all, I got to enjoy a delicious cupcake (and oh, was it delicious - I was going to take a picture of it, but I dug right in, so all you get in the pic below is what was left when the rest of our meal came - not much), but I also was better able to make a menu selection.  See, breakfast on weekends is my favorite meal - there are so many delicious options.  The tough thing is the question I've posted in the poll to the right - savory or sweet????  I know some people have their favorites, and there are a select few places that I always get the same thing for breakfast whenever I go.  But at most places it's more like the world's most difficult question.  I tend to have buyer's remorse; if I get the French toast at Chompies, I end up wishing I'd gotten the corned beef hash.  If I get the chorizo skillet at Brunchie's, I end up regretting the fact that I did not order their cinnamon French toast.

OK, so back to Wildflower.... in getting the cupcake, I was able to sit squarely in the savory corner - the feta and roasted vegetable frittata.  I do NOT regret this decision.  I had already begun to inhale it when I remembered to snap a pic before all that was left was a fork and some tomato remnants. 

The cupcakes had cute little pink breast cancer "ribbon" sprinkles.  You can't see them here because I had eaten them all at this point.

 The vegetables were perfectly cooked, and the salty feta combined with the dash of parsley made for a meal needing absolutely no seasoning.  All I had to do was pile it on that crispy buttered bread.
And the bread.... ohhhhhhh, the bread.  They make it fresh each day, and you can taste it (and if you want, you can buy a loaf or seven, which I highly recommend).
There were a few potatoes left at the end - I had to stop myself from eating them all after I got full, which I feel was on the herculean side of tasks for the day.

This little guy had his eye on our plates the whole time.  There is a sign requesting that patrons not feed the birds, but they are total opportunists; the SECOND a couple left, it was like the Hitchcock movie over at their table.

That afternoon, before we went to Chuck E. Cheese's for a toddler birthday party, Scott made some sandwiches using the aforementioned mizuna, Boca burger patties, and a spread of miso and mayonnaise.  While the spread, put on rather too thickly, was a little salty, the mizuna had a wonderful, refreshing flavor.  This would be great on a BLT, I think, but alas, we have no tomatoes to test that theory this week.


Today, after some of Scott's freshly made waffles, we were fortunate enough to meet a friend who lives in Houston for coffee.  We went to Bergie's (where we get those tasty veggies each week), and what a great day it was to sit outside (it had actually been in the 60s when Zooey and I took our morning run)!

This was, many many years ago, a place of residence that has since been turned into Bergie's with a GREAT patio area.

 As I've noted before, Bergie's has some amazing biscotti, so when Scott went inside to order our drinks, I made sure to request "a few biscotti, too."  He brought back and almond one and a lemon one.  I still think the lemon-lavender one I had a few weeks ago is my favorite, but these were tasty nibbles, too.

Lemon on the top - almond on the bottom

Biscotti is something that I don't always like - too many places make it so hard that it's like gnawing on a piece of dog rawhide.  I want to enjoy my food; I don't want to have to work at it once it's arrived in front of me.  
Not so with this biscotti.  The twice-baked nature of the cookie does mean that it's not soft and chewy like, say, a Chips Ahoy cookie (blech).  But these biscotti have a lovely give when you bite into them or break off a piece with your finger.  Once in the mouth, they have just the hint of a crunch and crumble easily on the tongue.  No matter the variety I have tried, all of the biscotti at Bergie's are flavor-filled in each bite, so there is no bite that is less satisfying than another (unless it's the last one, as you realize there are no more bites after that one... so sad).
Alas, our coffee talk was over all too soon!


Tonight, we are planning on having okra with onions sauteed with onion and an Indian spice mix (cumin, tumeric, cumin, coriander, cumin, etc...) and some of those eggplants stuffed with a wild-rice quinoa mixture that is leftover from the stuffed baked apples I made the other night.  They were good, but the rice mixture tasted like it was missing something; I can't tell what (Scott suggested bacon, but since it was a veggie recipe, that was a no-go), so perhaps tonight with the firmer eggplant as the "bowl," there may be a more satisfying response.  Or maybe I'll just put in more salt.


Tomorrow is a holiday for Scott, so we are both going to be home.  I am actually working, but I hope to try to get a bread recipe in in between taps on the computer.  I've never made bread without the machine before, but I found a recipe that (I really hope) appears to be nearly fool-proof.  I'm dreaming of taking it out of the oven, tearing it open, and slathering it with butter and jam, so hopefully this is a dream that will come true!