Amazing Food

Rafael and I are about to spend a long weekend at Martha's Vineyard, so prepare for lots of posts about that. haha! In the meantime here are some interesting veggies I saw at the farmer's market. These are all cucumbers! I think the little kind are called melon cukes. I didn't try them, have you? Here are some more cucumbers:That long stripy kind is called Armenian cukes! (I know that from the label.) I didn't try these either but they look like the burpless kind. Here are some beautiful tomatoes:Tomatoes are my favorite food. I love heirloom tomatoes but I don't know if they're my favorite. I do think they're the most beautiful.This farmer had a variety of heirlooms. My favorite heirloom tomatoes to eat are the yellow kind. I think they have the best flavor.I also tried the green kind with stripes in the upper left-hand corner of the picture above. They're called Zebra Tomatoes. They tasted a little more tangy than regular tomatoes to me. Here is what I brought home to eat on my new Envirosax bag!

It was a beautiful and delicious meal! Btw, I really like the Envirosax bag. I got it at Abode in Portsmouth, NH. I like to use it as a grocery bag because it's more comfortable to carry than the reusable kind the grocery stores sell. Here is something else amazing that was in the kitchen at work: Have you ever seen such a big box of rice krispie treats?! I was so surprised! Look at how many were inside: I went back 30 minutes later and they were all gone. I think I work in a hungry office. haha. Have a great weekend everyone!

Fried Plantains

I really love fried plantains. This was my second time making them. I haven't quite perfected them, but these were much better than my first try. I like fried plantains to be very soft and sweet so I let mine go black! It took a few weeks.
I think plantains are hard to peel, especially when they're not ripe like this one. Peeling them like bananas doesn't work. I cut a slit all the way down the side and took off the peel in portions.

Then I sliced it diagonally. And fried the pieces in some oil.

I was surprised that the plantain got softer as it cooked. I think fried plantains are best when they're crispy around the edges and really soft in the middle. I haven't mastered this yet, but these were still really delicious. Next time I think I'll make more than one.

Here is what I ate for dinner tonight. No plantains but still good!My salad had fresh lettuce (from the farmer's market!), cucumbers, carrots, cilantro, mint, light tofu (just as good as regular, I thought), hoisin sauce, and ground peanuts. I'm definitely making this again! I ground the peanuts with the immersion blender which was probably not a good idea.... but it was fun! ha!

Oops

The other day I made Mark Bittman's Mexican Chocolate Tofu Pudding. As you can see, I had a little mishap while I was putting it in the fridge....

HA! I'm not really sure how this happened. Anyway, I recommend the pudding, it's really delicious.... just don't add any tomatoes!

Red Quinoa

A few weeks ago I made red quinoa using the Red Rice recipes from my Frida's Fiestas book. I think the picture in the book is really cool. I still haven't tried the white rice recipe.
I started by making a puree of the tomato, onion, and garlic. This puree wasn't as weird as the poblano puree, but it was still a little odd. It smelled delicious.Next I sauteed the quinoa in a dry pot for a few minutes. Quinoa looks much different before and after it's cooked. I added the puree and cooked everything for a few minutes.
Next I added chicken broth, celery, and lime juice and let it cook for 20 minutes.

Here is the finished red quinoa:I forgot to take a picture of it on my plate. I think I was hungry. :) I really liked how the red quinoa came out but I think the recipe might be better with rice. Maybe I'll try that next time!

Green Quinoa

Quinoa is one of my favorite things to eat lately. I would make it every day, except Rafael might get tired of it. :) It's delicious and I love how it pops when you eat it. It's also very healthy. I made green quinoa last week using the green rice recipe from my Frida's Fiestas book. I started with puree-ing poblano peppers with some water. I DID NOT expect it to look like this: I drained the weird foamy stuff and it got a little more normal. Next I sauteed the quinoa with some onion and butter. The recipe says to soak the rice first but I don't have a strainer so I didn't. Next I added the pureed peppers (not pictured) and let it cook for a few minutes. Then I added chicken broth, lime juice, and cilantro:

Here is the finished green quinoa:I thought it was delicious and I want to make it again. I think I'm also going to try it with Frida's white and red rice recipes too. I want to think of more ideas of how to make quinoa. Maybe a sesame or miso version? I've even heard of breakfast quinoa with raisins and nuts, but I'm not so sure about that yet.

Eating in Savannah

Raf and I had a little trouble choosing where to eat in Savannah, but we ended up eating really good food! We had delicious homemade ice cream at Leopold's:I had strawberry shortcake and Raf had strawberry:We had dinner at The Crab Shack on Tybee Island. It was the closest we got to southern food, I think. We ate delicious crab and a "Low Country Boil" which was sausage, potatoes, corn, and shrimp.It was pretty Disney World-ish but still really cool and fun. They have live baby alligators (which you can see in previous posts) and a deck on the water.We had a delicious lunch at Clary's, where the man with the flies on strings and the vile of poison ate every day in Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. It was really nice to eat outside. Especially with a sweetie d-dog nearby!Raf and french toast and I had cheese blintzes. Everything was super good and fun and relaxed!
You can see a photo of Raf and me eating there in this post!

Food Break

I thought I'd take a break from Savannah posts to show you what I've been cooking and eating lately. I made this a few weeks ago: It's green beans and rice noodles with soy ginger sauce and fried tofu with Hoisin sauce. We ordered this delicious Thai food earlier this week:We ate yellow curry, friend rice, Pad Thai, and of course, Thai iced tea! It lasted about 3 meals. A few days ago I made this, which is similar to the meal above:It's rice noodles and tofu (not fried) with Hoisin sauce and garlic baby spinach. I love baby spinach these days! Here's what I made tonight for a special at-home meal:Roasted chicken and whole wheat orzo with cherry tomatoes and homemade pesto. I also made roasted Brussels sprouts but they didn't look very pretty so I left them out of the photo. They didn't taste that pretty either... I think I did something wrong. I liked how the rest of the meal came out!

Immersion Blender

I love my immersion blender! It's great for making things like smoothies, milkshakes, and soup! I'm sure there are other good uses too, I just haven't thought of them yet! Last Sunday it was snowy and boring (again) so I decided to make shakes with the orange sherbert I had from the spooky brunch (I know... kind of old ew). I didn't really add the vodka, but I thought it might be good for a nighttime drink sometime. I don't know why I bother with organic milk when I'm just going to eat cool whip but, oh well. Anyway, the drinks came out beautifully:

Then Raf and I started drinking them. For the first minute or two they were pretty good but then we realized.... we didn't like them that much! haha. So they mostly went down the drain. :( It was still really fun to use the blender and I've used it to make really good drinks before with frozen berries or real ice cream.

P.S. The plant in the picture still has cool whip on it. oops

Dim Sum Desserts

I really love custard desserts at dim sum. I'm a custard fan in general, and these are so good! Rafael and I had a lovely dim sum lunch with Mr. Cruz today. We had two custard desserts:
The first was warm buns filled with thick custard. They are amazing. I can't stop thinking about them. I might have to go back soon!We also had custard tarts like these. They are an old favorite. They have a flaky crust and smooth custard filling. I'm always happy when I eat them.

I really can't decide which dessert is my favorite! Maybe the custard buns.... I think I have to do more taste tests. :)

Mr. Cruz loved dim sum and is going to ask a friend which is the best place to go at the NYC Chinatown. I can't wait to try it! He is working on remembering the name, "dim.... sum!" Cute! :)

P.S. Sorry I haven't been posting much lately. I really want to post more so hopefully I will!

Zaftigs

Rafael and I had dinner at Zaftigs in Coolidge Corner Friday night. It was super fun and good! They have pictures of this lovely lady everywhere. :)
They serve bagel chips with herb cheese before the meal. I love it. Raf and I ate Zaftigs combos which are noodle kugel (my favorite), a potato knish, a cheese blintz, and a potato pancake. It was really delicious! I've had a few other things on the menu too like matzo ball soup and everything is so good. I love eating there.

I love how it's decorated too. It's totally relaxed and fun (but hard to get into for brunch)!Afterwards I felt a little Zaftig! :)

Muqueca

Muqueca is a Brazilian restaurant in Inman Square. It's one of my favorite places to eat. The food is amazing. Rafael and I ate there on a weeknight a few weeks ago. Unfortunately it was dark so I didn't get a great photo of the outside.

The inside is warm and cozy. It was a weeknight so it wasn't busy, but on weekends it's hard to get a table.We had fried yucca. We loved it. I also had a beautiful blueberry and papaya smoothie called "Passion Blue."For dinner we had fish Moqueca. It's a simple stew made with tomatoes, onions, cilantro, and fish. It's light and full of flavor. It's one of my favorite things to eat.We also had fried plantains that were delicious. Raf and I never miss an opportunity to eat fried plantains. :)They people who work there are very sweet. They gave me this cute magnet which I was very happy about because I have a magnet collection:

The next day I did a lot of indoor gardening. :)