Roasted Tomato & Carrot Quinoa Salad (& A Nomination)

My blogger buddy, Abby from Seaweed & Sasafrass nominated me for the Food Stories Award (big thanks to Abby!)  

This means I get to tell you one thing about myself and then nominate 5 other bloggers whose stories I enjoy reading.

For the thing about myself: I love getting away with things. . . A tangent is required here, but first. . .

The five other bloggers I would like to nominate:

• Dana at High Class Trailer Trash
• Lauren from Climbing Grier Mountain
• Holly, Chelsea & Annie at Naturally Sweet Recipes
• Becca at Amuse Your Bouche
• Traci at Lotta Madness

These bloggers then get to nominate other bloggers and a panel of judges decides upon a winner.  

For the tangent: Let's delve into a little something called "Things I Used to Be Able to Get Away With But Cannot Get Away With Anymore":

1. Freehanding baked recipes. Now that I blog and everything, I have to hold myself accountable for every. freaking. teaspoon. Can't get away with it no more, no sir. 
2. Pounding 5 shots of liquor in a row, continuing to drink the whole night and waking up the next morning feeling hunky dorey. So does not happen any more.
3. "I'm a student." I done graduated...twice...I'm a student no more. I sigh as I write this.
4. Paying the Junior price at the movie theater...It was nice looking like I was 12 at the age of 13...14...15...16...but at the age of 25 (almost 26), I won't be getting away with that any time soon.
5. Leotards. Enough said.

Which brings me to "things I love to get away with." I'm not sure that is gramatically correct, but let's get going.  Things I Love to Get Away With:

1. Publishing crappy grammar and spelling on the world wide web. I'm amazed I am allowed to do this.
2. Using a road trip as an excuse to not shower for 4...err...5....days. (eew...you can say it, no worries)
3. Walking into the grocery store at 6:15am when it opens at 7, promptly realizing the store is not open but continuing to shop nonetheless.  Not my fault the door was unlocked, not my fault the cashier took pitty on me.
4. Using the "girl" card to have a stranger change my flat bike tire. I LOVE getting away with this.
5. Getting away with the above comment since I don't have many male readers who come to my site
6. Posting a recipe using someone else's recipe. I haven't done this yet, but I am about to get away with it, muhahaha!

Now for the food. I saw this recipe on Tasty Kitchen, where one of my favorite food bloggers, Gabby posted a lovely how-to. I love it, you love it, we love it.  I made some changes though only because I didn't have some of the ingredients.

Here are my changes:

For the Salad:

• Omitted the avocado, didn't have one or else I totally would have kept it in.
• I added three large carrots (peeled and julienned them and roasted them with the tomatoes. This leaves them al dente, which I like).
• Added one whole red onion, thinly sliced (roasted it along with the tomatoes and carrot).
• Omitted the chives
• Cooked the quinoa in 2-1/2 cups of water instead of 2.

For the Dressing:

• Eliminated the tahini paste from the dressing....I reaaaaaally wish I had added it for some smooth creaminess, but I liked the recipe without the tahini paste as well.
• Omitted the 3 tablespoons of warm water...the roasted veggies had enough liquid at the bottom, so I included all of this liquid when mixing the quinoa with the veggies and dressing.
• Substituted grapeseed oil for olive oil. No biggy

I also roasted the veggies for about 15 minutes instead of the recommended 25 to 30. If I were to make this again, I would have roasted the carrots and onion for the full 25 to 30 but still would have roasted the tomatoes for only 15.  

The salad turned out zesty, refreshing and light. PERFCT for a picnic, PERFECT as a side dish at your next bbq and a PERFECT alternative to pasta salad. I very much enjoyed it and would easily make it again and again and again. I served the salad warm, but I'm sure it would also be wonderful served cold. With beer. Or wine. Or lemonade if you aren't into alcohol.

Cointreau Brownies

I disappointed on this recipe. Say what? I brought these brownies to a girl’s night with tapas and wine and amazing women. My girlies have grown accustomed to my oat flour/quinoa flour/honey/agave treats that they naturally assumed these brownies were good for them. Not. Even. Close.  It's made with unbleached all-purpose flour and cane sugar. Seldom occurance in my kitchen. This recipe was uncalled for. Completely unprecedented. Not baked upon request. Freehanded out of the will of a sugar crazed dual personality (did I tell you I’m a Gemini?) and cut into large boozed up squares.  I’ll try to never do it again. Ever. That was a lie. 

Orange Liqueur Brownies. Drunken Dark Chocolate Brownies. Moist Orangey Cakey Brownies. I don’t know what to call these dern things, but I can tell you this: I set out to make a fudgy brownie that was packed with so much chocolatey sweetness that one brownie ONE would kick my craving for something sweet. And I ended up with a cakey brownie that is packed with so much chocolatey sweetness that there’s just no way I could stop at one. No way.  They gave me a mighty fine sugar hangover the next day. What do you call a brownie that has just the right amount of orangey liqueur, sprinkles of ground chocolate on top, a fluffy texture that goes down so easy that it just makes sense to eat more? I don’t know, but here’s the recipe. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t….so that means you might as well “do” cause we’re all do-ers here.

Ingredients:

• 1 stick unsalted butter
• ¼  cup coconut milk (or an additional ½ stick of butter)
• ½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder (Ghirardeli)
• ½ cup sweet ground chocolate powder (Ghrardelli) + more for sprinkling on top
• 1/3 cup Cointreau
• 3 eggs
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups brown sugar
• 1 cup flour
• 1-1/2 teaspoons salt
• ½ teaspoon baking powder

To Bake:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Prepare a parchment lined or oiled baking dish (I used a square 8” x 8” casserole dish).

In a saucepan, combine butter, coconut milk and heat to medium low, stirring constantly. Once butter is melted, add the two types of chocolate powder, stir until all chunks of cocoa powder are dissolved and the substance is thick.  Remove from heat and add the Cointreau, stir and set aside.

In a mixing bowl or mixer, combine the eggs, vanilla extract and brown sugar. Mix just until creamed (lumps of brown sugar are dissolved). Add the butter/chocolate mixture from the saucepan to egg/brown sugar mixture. Mix just until combined.

In a separate bowl, combine all purpose flour, baking powder and salt. Whisk/stir to combine. 

Add the flour mixture to the “wet” mixture. Mix just until the flour is combined.

Bake 35 – 40 minutes until brownies test clean. Sprinkle extra ground chocolate on top. It tastes like an orange & chocolate glazed doughnut. Whodda thunk it?

Up the Coast & Out of the Car

Sometimes you’ve just got to live out of the car.  It’s refreshing….in a reminds-you-how-good-it-feels-to-be-clean sort of way.  Let’s backtrack.  A lot of things have occurred in a short period of time. First, Garrett graduated with his MBA last weekend and following graduation, we moved to Sonora, CA. Unpacked about 90% of our belongings quickly and somewhat haphazardly then promptly left for a 5-day road trip from Sonora to Canada.  We’re now home, car hasn’t even been unpacked and before I wipe away the evidence of car camping, I want to take a couple of moments to reflect. 

 

We started up the coast, driving through wine country. Stopped in Healdsburg, CA, then Fort Bragg, CA and continued up California on highway 101.

We drove up the coast of Oregon, then through Washington.

Oregon coast, highway 101N

Washington, highway 101N

Stopped in Port Angeles, WA for a cup of coffee before catching the ferry to Victoria, Canada. 

I had never driven my car onto a ferry, and if you haven’t either, you should.

Victoria is an absolutely gorgeous place! I was blown away and very impressed. 

We took advantage of having my car and headed north on Vancouver Island to gander at some of the provincial parks. 

Taking the advice of a gentleman at a visitor’s center, we went to a little food cart called Red Fish, Blue Fish on a pier (this food cart had an actual address, no joke).

Enormous salmon fish n chips. We got our "chips" with seafood poutine (on right) and red curry sauce (on left)

Huge portions and amazing quality fish came out of this little cart. I miss it. I miss the Red Fish, Blue Fish. 

Both Garrett and I admitted how ridiculous it is that we know so little about Canadian government and history, so we took a little tour of their parliament building. 

From there, we headed back to the mainland and in one day drove the I-5 back to Sonora, making it home in the wee hours of the morning.

The whole trip, we camped out of my car. Yes, no showering (unless you consider sticking my head under a spigot once showering), no bed, cooking using a camp stove.  Last summer, my good friend Sandi and I did this for two months all over the country. It can be a challenge at times but it’s character building. ;)  I understand this is not the preferred method of travel for a lot of people, but car (or tent) camping is a wonderful adventure and definitely reminds you that at the end of the day, you’re just an animal surviving on this beautiful earth of ours.  And there are SO MANY things to see!! 

And here I am: showered, rested, not unpacked and thrilled to share some photos. Sure, if you don’t think living out of a car for a week (or two months) is appealing, you can leave that here. But if there is one thing you can take away with you, it is this: 

Breakfast: egg scramble with sausage, sweet potato, bell pepper and mushroomBrewing a steamy cup of coffee every morning right on the beach...can it get any better?Oatmeal made in a jet boil with banana

Turkey burgers and asparagus. Oh hell yeah!

Not only can you survive without a kitchen, you can make some damn good food! And if that’s not fine by you, there’s always Red Fish, Blue Fish.

Enjoy life with the people you love!

How To Make Homemade Kombucha

I always thought it would be fun to be a home brewer. I have a friend who brews his own beer and my brother makes his own wine. How. Freaking. Cool. Fermenting is badass. No “ifs” “ands” or “buts” about it. Badass.  A few months ago it dawned on me that I was buying kombucha almost every day. This little reality check lit the inspiration flame and I decided we needed to make it at home. Ferment at home. Brew. Be a badass kombucha home brewer.  We began collecting the glass bottles kombucha comes in and determined we would use them to bottle our own. 

If you’re new to kombucha, here’s the skinny: kombucha is a natural probiotic drink which can aid in digestion, increase energy naturally, manage hunger and can create PH balance in your digestive tract. Similar to yeast or yogurt cultures, kombucha is made from a living organism called a SCOBY, which stands for Symbiotic Culture of Bacteria and Yeast.  It grows, multiplies and ferments which means it is very important to make sure the SCOBY stays clean and healthy.   

This is what a healthy SCOBY looks like after 3 batches of kombucha

Making homemade kombucha can be risky if you are not careful. If you are new to making kombucha, please seek multiple how-to sources before making a batch. It is very important to keep all instruments used in the process of making kombucha clean and to keep the SCOBY healthy. Use common sense and make kombucha at your own risk. If you see a single spot of mold (from what I hear mold on kombucha looks similar to bread mold), abandon ship – throw out your whole SCOBY and discard all kombucha liquid. Please read instructions very carefully before starting a batch of kombucha.  Kombucha is not for everyone.

When you first read the how-to, it may seem long and complicated. The first go-round definitely requires attention to detail, but once you get the hang of it, it’s quick and easy and saves you a TON of money since buying kombucha from the store can cost between $2.50 and $3.00 per bottle. 

Ingredients:

• 1 SCOBY (we bought ours online at  . . . )
• 1 Gallon spring water (we buy ours from the store in gallon jugs). Don’t use water from your faucet because it probably has cholorine and/or fluoride in it
• 10 black tea or green tea (no frills) tea bags
• 1 cup organic cane sugar
• 1 cup 100% juice of your choice (optional)

Other things you will need:

• Large pot for boiling water
• Large (1 gallon or more) glass jug/container
• Distilled white vinegar
• Long-handle spoon for stirring
• Stick-on or floating thermometer
• Cheesecloth
• Stretchy rubber band
• Some type of heating device (if your house does not stay above 70 degrees)
• Space blanket (again, only necessary if your house does not stay above 70 degrees)
• An efficient method of transferring the kombucha from the jug to bottles or the dispenser you will be using to drink the kombucha out of.
• Small fine metal strainer (we use a metal coffee strainer)
• 6 large bottles with caps for bottling the ‘bucha (we use GT’s Kombucha bottles to bottle our homemade kombucha)

 How to make homemade kombucha:

1. Sanitize EVERYTHING you’re using to make kombucha. You can do this by running it through the dishwasher, handwashing in very hot water, or by coating it in distilled white vinegar.  We keep the jug we use for brewing sanitized by handwashing it and pouring about ½ a cup of white wine vinegar in it and sloshing it around.  
2. Boil water.  If you are making 1 gallon of kombucha, you do not need to boil the entire 1 gallon….just enough (1/2 gallon or so) to brew the tea. 
3. Once water has reached a boiling point, remove it from heat and add tea bags. 
4. Steep for 15 minutes
5. Remove tea bags
6. Add the cane sugar and stir well
7. Allow the tea to cool to roughly 75 to 80 degrees (or if you only boiled half a gallon of water, add the remaining half gallon of cool water so that the hot water cools faster).
8. Once the tea is in the 75 to 80 degree range, add the SCOBY (if this is your first time making kombucha and you bought your SCOBY online, simply remove it from its package and slip it in).
9. If you have a flat sticky thermometer, stick it on the outside of the jug.
10. Cover the jug with cheesecloth so that the kombucha can continually breathe. 
11. Secure the cheesecloth with a stretchy rubber band
12. Place jug in a dark place (closet) that stays relatively warm and is not disturbed by people and light.
13. Allow kombucha to brew for 5 to 8 days (the longer it brews, the stronger it is)
14. Continually check the temperature of the kombucha. It needs to stay in the 70 to 80 degree range for best results. If it falls below 70, it’s not a huge deal, it will just take longer for the kombucha to brew. If the kombucha reaches above 85-degree temperature, you’re running the risk of growing mold on your SCOBY.  If you see any mold (it will look like bread mold…green/white and fuzzy circles), discard the SCOBY and the whole batch of kombucha.
15. When your ‘bucha is ready, remove the cheesecloth.
16. You will notice your SCOBY is bigger – it will grow to the width of the container it’s in and a second SCOBY will form. SCOBYs will always continue to grow.  Once a SCOBY gets to be a couple of inches thick, you need to cut off slices in order to keep the SCOBY healthy. You can give these slices to your friends (who are super jealous that you’re making your own ‘bucha) to start their own batch.
17. OPTIONAL: Now you can get creative with your method of bottling the kombucha or you can simply leave it in the same jug you brewed it in and ladel it out when you want to drink some (either way, it will need to be refrigerated).  We use a soup ladel to ladel the kombucha from the jug into a water pitcher. We then add juice (organic pomegranate blueberry 100% juice is my favorite), stir and fill the bottles about an inch from the top.  Seal the bottles well.
18. Leave the SCOBY in the jug with enough kombucha to barely cover it (or if you want to clean the jug, remove the SCOBY and place it in another container while you sanitize the jug. The jug does not need to be sanitized between batches unless your SCOBY becomes unhealthy). Cover the container with cheesecloth.  The SCOBY is fine to sit like this until you make another batch – just make sure you check the SCOBY before starting another batch.
19. Now you have a choice to make.  If you would like, you can simply refrigerate your bottled kombucha now and be done with the process. 
20. Or, you can leave the bottles of komucha at room temperature in a dark place, which will initiate a secondary fermentation process.  During this process, the cultures eat the sugar you just added (fructose from the juice) and continue to ferment. This makes the kombucha a little stronger and a little fizzy (“effervescent” is what the industry calls it).  We allow our kombucha to go through the secondary fermentation every batch.  Allow the kombucha to stay out and ferment another 1 to 3 days. **See note below
21. Place kombucha in the refrigerator.  Enjoy your super badass homemade kombucha and revel in the fact that you get to consume healthy probiotics.

** A note about second fermentation: If you allow the kombucha to go through a second fermentation, more sediment (and likely a hunk of SCOBY) will grow.  I recommend straining the kombucha before drinking it, or else you will get a quarter-sized SCOBY in your mouth which definitely has a booger-like feel.  Straining the ‘bucha with a fine strainer will avoid the ‘bucha booger interaction. We use a metal coffee filter to strain our kombucha before drinking it.

Put it in a cool glass and sip!

"The Ush" ~ Breakfast Scramble

Do you ever wonder what percentage of your daily action is out of avoidance?  Avoidance behavior, as I like to call it?  It’s exactly as it sounds – doing one thing to avoid doing something else.  I am all about avoidance behavior. Here are some of my typicals:

1. Baking to avoid cleaning (floor still needs to be vacuumed, but here’s a cookie, woohoo!)
2. Cleaning to avoid going to the gym
3. Going to the gym to avoid the project I’m working on  {See how it can be cyclical? This is why avoidance behavior sometimes works out in your favor in spite of your dire attempts to procrastinate}
4. Taking a day trip to avoid washing the car (I kid you not, this is how a lot of my traveling happens)
5. Calling my ENTIRE contacts list in order to avoid calling AT&T
6. Getting a masters degree in order to avoid getting a job (this is a fact)
7. Cooking to avoid….lots of things

Justifying the actual behavior is an extra bonus step that I partake in frequently.  For instance: provided the result turns out decent and has a fair amount of nutrition, I can’t see how cooking could be a bad avoidance behavior…unless you have an entire house to move, in which case you should probably move it.

Which brings me to my next point – we’re moving!  We are headed to Sonora, CA which is in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada.  It’s a beautiful, warm, green, warm, warm, warm place and I’m very excited about the move.  We are close to Yosemite which means great hiking and everlasting opportunity for nature photography (maybe I should get my food photography down first, eh?) You’ll probably see some waterfalls in my posts…grilled chicken and vegetables and…Ohh...a waterfall…seriously, it’s bound to happen. 

Let’s get to the point. Garrett and I make some variation of basically the same thing every morning. It includes eggs, one meat (bacon, smoked turkey, chorizo, sausage, etc.), always sweet potato, always either kale or chard, always mushrooms, sometimes green onion, sometimes additional veggies (such as squash, bell peppers, etc).  Sometimes it appears in omelet form. Sometimes frittata form. Most of the time, it takes the form of a scramble.  We call it “the usual” but naming it “the ush” for this post just sounds so urban and posh.  For two people who love food so much, why not more variety? Because we LOVE it!  And I bet you will too.

Ingredients:

• 6 eggs
• 6 ounces Diestel Turkey Breakfast Sausage (ground)
• 2 teaspoons olive oil
• ¼ cup liquid (such as water, chicken broth, vegetable broth)
• ½ sweet potato, peel on, chopped into ¼” inch squares
• 3 baby portabella mushrooms, coarsely chopped
• 2 stalks green onion, chopped
• 2-3 stalks rainbow chard, stems removed and chopped, leaves chopped
• Toppings of your choice: cheese, guacamole, salsa, plain Greek yogurt

Serves two very hungry people

To Make:

In a medium-sized skillet, heat about two teaspoons of olive oil on medium heat. Add the chopped sweet potato and sauté 3 or 4 minutes before adding a little liquid and covering. In about 2 minutes, check to see if the liquid has burned off. If it has, add a little more and cover again. Repeat this several times until the sweet potato is soften, but still al dente. Add the chopped chard stems. Sauté another 2 minutes. 

Add the mushrooms and saute 3 minutes; and add additional liquid if necessary. Move the veggies to one side of the skillet with a wooden spoon and add the ground breakfast sausage. Brown the meat and using the wooden spoon break it apart. Continue sautéing until the sausage is cooked all the way through.

Immediately add the green onion and chard leaves. Allow to steam for about 30 seconds before pouring the scrambled egg mixture evenly over the meat and veggies.

This is where the technique comes in. Avoid the temptation to stir. Simply allow the skillet to sit 2 to three minutes. Then, using a wooden spoon or spatula, begin flipping sections of egg and veggies (similar to how you would fold whipped egg whites into a cake batter, just gently fold the scramble onto itself). Once all sections have been flipped over, everything to sit and cook another 2 or 3 minutes. Repeat the flipping.  Continue doing this until the egg is no longer cooking to the skillet. 

Serve with your favorite toppings!