1 more way to eat chicken...

The weather here is seriously playing with my emotions. Okay weather, is it summer now?! Or is this a trick to get me to fold up all my sweaters and put them away so you can turn around and rain on me again? Oh well, whatever the reason, the weather was delightfully sunny and hot today. Like a real summer! Only of course now I am use to the Bay Area weather and not the desert climate I was raised in, so the 75 degree heat felt like a sauna. All day I felt like a huge hippo and I couldn't seem to drink enough water. Which I guess is a good thing because all throughout this pregnancy I have struggled to get enough water and stay hydrated. I was never very good at the "8 glasses a day" rule and it was even tougher to drink enough for 2! But today I had no problems. But now the new problem is that I absolutely hate to eat when it is hot outside! Something about the heat makes all food except fruit and yogurt or ice cream sound heavy and unappetizing. So while I was finally drinking enough water, I was struggling to get myself to eat, and dinner was much later than normal. My appetite returned right around the time the sun was setting and it began to cool off. Unfortunately, when I made my menu plan and bought groceries it was raining, so my menu plan read: "stew, roasted chicken, etc." Not exactly hot weather food for a girl with no appetite. But I did manage to come up with something quite delicious!

The other day when Beau and I ran into a specialty European market, we had bought some fresh pasta. Sound expensive? Here is a trick: look for the "day old" pasta. They will have it someplace off to the side and it is just as good but literally 1/4 of the price! Which adds up to be about the amount for some dried cheap pasta at the store. Only this pasta happened to be handmade goat cheese and spinach raviolis. Yum! So I had a little but of the yummy pasta left that needed to be used and I also had some creamy garlic sauce that I had bought with it. Sometimes when you feel uncreative or if you are like me and can't afford millions of separate ingredients, the fresh pre-made pasta sauces are a God send at these little markets. Or of course, you can't go wrong with a simple pesto. I once advised my mom to use walnuts instead of the more expensive pine nuts in her classic pesto (you know the kind; with basil and garlic and such) and she said it turned out great! But in this case I had this creamy sauce. Not really feeling like cooking, I wanted to get a whole meal in one shabang. So I threw in a protein- chicken, (are you surprised?) and a veggie- asparagus. Asparagus is in season right now and I love it enough to eat everyday! The result was a loaded-with-goodness creamy sauce that was not too rich and creamy to be heavy and filling, served on top of fantastic little raviolis. It looked like something I would pay $20 for at a fancy Italian place, but it cost much less than that and took me about 30 minutes to make. Not too shabby! I served it with some olive bread that was cheap at Safeway and Beau and I were completely satisfied. I once read that it is very "un-European" to serve bread with pasta, which makes sense since it is a carb on top of carb, but after my very American upbringing and having been served bread at every Italian place I have ever been to, it is almost an unbreakable habit. And Beau used the bread to get every little bit of sauce on his plate.

So even though it is my personal opinion that this dinner was a little more suited for the gray and dreary weather we were getting used to, it was still very good and well worth trying! And so so easy to make, which is always a favorite of mine and of most women I know.

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Creamy Pasta with Chicken and Asparagus

ok, so this was all done in true "I don't feel like cooking" fashion, so I don't actually have a recipe. So from my memory, here it goes:

chop up 1 onion and 2 cloves of garlic. While you are at it chop up about 8 stalk of asparagus. If you don't know, you need to remove the woody end of the asparagus, it is not so yummy. You can do this by holding it at either end and bending it until it snaps. It will snap where it is suppose to. Then in a pan, saute the onion. After a minute add the garlic. (I wait to add the garlic because it burns easily.) Once soft, add the asparagus and saute until the asparagus us bright green and tender crisp. I like my vegetables to be not mushy, especially if I am adding it to pasta. Once the asparagus is cooked, add diced cooked chicken to the pan and saute just to heat the chicken through. I had cooked the chicken in the oven with salt and pepper just before preparing the rest of the meal. I only needed 1 chicken breast and it took maybe 15 minutes, but to be honest I didn't time it. Once the chicken is hot, add the sauce. I used about 1/4 cup of the creamy garlic sauce diluted with about 1 tsp of pasta water. It was the perfect amount for us but that all depends on taste. Season with salt and pepper and your sauce is done! Then add your pasta to some boiling salted water. When pasta is fresh, you know it is done when it begins to float to the surface. This should only take about 5 minutes. Use a slotted spoon to remove the raviolis and arrange them on the plate then spoon the chunky creamy sauce on top. If you have more money than me, top with some fresh Parmesan cheese or else just serve!

Quality vs. Quantity

There is something about The Dave Matthews Band mixed with sandalwood incense that just makes me feel good... maybe it's just me, I don't know. But anyway this blog is not intended to be about my music and scent preferences. For the last couple days I have been musing on the issue of quality vs. quantity. On average Americans spend significantly less on food than say the French or Italians. And we even make more money than the French or Italians! Why is it that the average American is willing to feed their family cheap food substitutes that are bad for your health in the name of convenience? Being that food is literally the fuel for your body, you would think that people would take a little more time to carefully plan healthful meals and provide their bodies with the best! And the thing is, it is not a hard thing to do and it can even be fun. When did cooking go from a necessary but joyful exploration of colors and flavors to a dreaded thing to be done as quickly and mindlessly as possible? And where are we spending all that other money that is not being spent on food? Can it really be so very important?

I have often found that I can easily spend my entire paycheck at specialty food stores and fruit stands. Nothing excites me more than coming home after discovering a new little grocery store and preparing a simple meal with my findings. Nothing can compare to the satisfaction you feel after taking some fresh pasta and some herbs and turning it into a healthy and beautiful lunch. Not only is it pretty to look at, but oh how tasty when it is fresh! I often refer to food magazines as my favorite "porn" and I get such a kick out of trying new flavors. Now tell me, why would you not want to spend a little more for something so delightful?

Beau and I were able to explore a really fun little market today when we were trying to think of things to do. It is called Market Hall and you can explore their website (www.markethallfoods.com) but the experience is not the same as being there in person. It is this fantastic store and when you first walk in there is a bakery and a coffee stand. Two of my favorite things so I was instantly drawn in. Then there are rows and rows of imported olive oils, salts, spices and they even carry my very favorite brand of chocolate! I was in heaven and we spent quite some time sampling cheeses and looking at jars of fancy mustard and spices. In the end we had to leave with a bar of my dark chocolate that I usually go all the way to San Fransisco to buy (it is that good!) and some fresh pasta with a little tub of creamy garlic sauce. And this is what started me thinking... I would love it if there were more little European markets like this one! But would the American public go for it? The market was certainly busy, but it was nestled in Berkeley after all which is known for being inhabited by foodies. The rest of America seems ot be less excited by expensive cheese, probably thinking it is just not worth it when you can go to Costco or the regular grocery store and buy whatever yellow cheese is on sale. And did you know that most yellow cheddar cheeses are yellow becuase they are dyed?! That just can't be good for you! Wake up America, we are eating crap!

And then the question was brought up again: quality vs. quantity? when it was time for Beau and I to go grocery shopping this afternoon. I had a basic list written down with some of the usual stuff- some meats, veggies, and a few staples like milk and cereal. So the question was, where to shop? Safeway is the obvious choice for being on a budget. And I don't usually mind shopping there, but most of our list was veggies this time and to be honest, I just can't see spending any money at all on Safeway produce! It is tasteless and even though it is cheap, why buy it if it doesn't taste good? So we decided we would go to a produce stand where the veggies are pretty cheap and get our staples at Safeway. Ok sounds good... but then we got to the meat counter and we were going to buy fish for dinner tonight. One look at the butcher counter and we were grimacing at each other. Go for the cheap stuff or spend a little more for something that looks a whole lot more fresh? We opted for fresh and ended up going to Whole Foods to buy some cod and organic milk. (I hate to be stingy but I refuse to put any dairy into my body that is not organic.) All in all the extra money for better quality adds up to be not so much more than if we had just bought everything at Safeway. I did not actually do the math, but I would say we spent maybe an extra $10.

If you have not read French Women Don't Get Fat, I really suggest that you do. I have read it numerous times along with her other books and I can often be found on her website looking for dinner ideas. It is not a "diet book" as the title implies, but really just a look at the differences between American and French culture and ways to enjoy food with a more "French" attitude. I love to read it and remind myself to slow down and really savor the art of not only eating, but living as well. I love reading about the ways French women think of food and their little "secrets" as to how they keep from getting fat while still enjoying all kinds of foods that some Americans have sworn off forever for fear of their figure. But have you noticed that while Americans are absolutely obsessed with certain foods, we are so terribly unbalanced? We swear off carbs, eat only frozen foods or even eat only cabbage soup all in the name of dieting, and we are still some of the fattest and most unhappy people in the world! We have some serious issues when it comes to food and I have my own personal theory that it is because we forgot how to cook and how to eat. As far as I am concerned, food effects everything from your sex life to your school grades and everything in between. And I am not just saying all this because I am a chef. Food is a huge part of my life and I get immense joy from it. Maybe I should have been French... So here is a challenge for you. Ditch the fast food and frozen dinners for a while and find a specialty store in your area. Spend a little more money on quality ingredients and make yourself something fabulous!

And while you are doing that, ponder this little quote I found in French Women Don't Get Fat:
"French women don't get fat because they have not allowed new attitudes and modern theories of how the body uses food to overrule centuries of experience."

The French don't let modern science get in the way of food... why do we? We deserve better than that. Modern science has its place, but they place should not be in your pantry or in your food. As far as quantity vs. quality... I'm going to stick with quality and I hope I can convince more people to do the same.

Croissants on College

I dropped Beau off this morning for his second interview with a company he has been trying to get a job with. Of course this job would be more than perfect, as it would secure him a position in Southern Cali and he would have a year contract, which is a blessing in this unsure economy. I think my butterflies may be just as bad, if not worse than his, but I put on a brave face and pretended I was not afraid at all. The thing is, he has a fantastic personality and I am not afraid at all that they won't like him, but you know how these things are; you get too cocky and assume you got the job and we all know what assuming does...

So on my way home I decided to spoil myself a little bit. There is this fantastic french bakery on College Street that serves the most delightful croissants you have ever tasted. If you are in the Bay Area, or ever plan on visiting, I suggest you shimmy on down and make a morning of it. You will not regret it! The bakery is called La Farine and it is a small building but you are not in danger of walking by and missing it, because the scent of fresh bread and pastries is absolutely intoxicating and will lead you right inside. It is a perfect place if you are alone and want to do a bit of sightseeing or shopping, and even better if you have a friend or lover. I would absolutely suggest the morning bun if you have a sweet tooth like me- nothing compares to it. And of course the croissants and chocolate croissants are amazing. This is not a treat to be eaten in the car or on the go, it so much more enjoyable to get some tea or coffee and sit in the one big table in the front of the store, or even better, on the bench outside with a strangers' dog sniffing at your feet for anything you might have dropped. In the days of spring when the air is so nice anyway and you can't help but smile at everyone that walks past you, it is so hard to pass up the little flower shop on your way back to your car or the bus stop. There is also an adorable little produce stand with excellent fruit and good prices right next to that, and if you can believe it, a butcher shop with a wide variety of fresh meats that sits right next to the wine store! You can shop for your entire dinner all withing a few feet. There is a big old ugly Safeway right across the street that sort of reminds you that you are not in a quaint little village or a small European town, but don't let that bring you down. This is one little spot you will not want to miss!

chicken soup for the lazy girl's soul

I am watching You've Got Mail while my body attempts to digest an entire half a tube of Toll House cookies I made and then foolishly ate all of. Beau is away at a graduation party and I am, yet again, stuck at home because it is very unbecoming for a young pregnant lady to stay up all night at graduation parties. Not only is it unbecoming, but I am quite sure it would be impossible because I am not very good at staying up late these days.

So while I am sitting here on the couch with my fuzzy little kitty, I keep imagining how wonderful it would be to have an actual bathtub and maybe some counter space! Imagine the possibilities! I really hate having no counter space, but I suppose it just challenges me to be more creative. And when I have counter space someday and a dishwasher, along with a sink that is is bigger than 1 foot by 1 foot, I will appreciate it all the more. I love walking around William Sonoma and pretending I have a bunch of money and I am there to buy anything I want and just fill my kitchen with tons of useless and expensive gadgets. Oh the American dream...

In other news! This is a blog about food and so I do have a little bit of food stuff that has nothing to do with my tiny kitchen. I have been cooking chicken for quite a few weeks now and for some reason I have not made chicken soup yet! Until the other day when Beau wanted soup for lunch on a particularly rainy and overcast day. It was so perfectly simple and I just had to share the recipe.

First of all, the most important part of chicken soup is the broth it is cooked in. Otherwise it is just water with a few chunks of chicken and some veggies floating in it. To make a good broth, all you need is the scraps from a roasted chicken dinner. The day that I roasted a chicken, I removed all of the meat that I could from the whole chicken carcass and placed it in a crockpot. Then I used some scraps from veggies that I had chopped, like the skins and ends of onions, carrot ends and celery ends and placed those in as well. I covered it with filtered water, put on the lid and let it cook on high (but keep in mind I have a very old crockpot and even the high setting is not very high) overnight and into the middle of the next morning. There is no specific time line, just let it go for quite a while. Then you strain the broth into a mason jar using some cheesecloth and vuah-la! I was taught to skim the fat off of my broth, but have found from a kitchen I volunteer in, that in fact a hefty layer of fat, once solid after being in the fridge, can make an excellent preservative for the broth. Not just that but as they say, the flavor really is in the fat! So I leave all of the fat from the broth and it ends up floating to the surface and being about two fingers length. The broth can stay in the fridge for quite some time and can be used in all sorts of things.

Once you have such a wonderful and flavorful broth, chicken soup easily follows. All you have to do is chunk up (cut into bite size chunks) some leftover chicken breast, chop onion, celery and carrot and set it all aside. In a stockpot saute the veggies until soft and flavorful. Sprinkle with a little salt to help release the flavor. If some brown bits get stuck to the bottom of your pan as it does on my non-stick pan, this is a good thing! Add some stock to "de-glaze" the pan and you will get all that yummy stuff up and into your soup. These are called Kitchen Treasures. ;) I actually had a teacher once who loved these little bits so much that she named her personal chef business after them. But that is besides the point... after your pan is successfully de-glazed, add the rest of your broth. Then add the chicken bits, bring the soup to a boil then bring it down to a simmer. Let it simmer for a while to heat the chicken through and meld the flavors. And you are done! Season with salt and pepper and I promise you will not regret taking the time to make soup. Not that it even really took any time at all.

So there you have it! A fantastic way to use leftover chicken. Served with some homemade rustic baguette bread that Beau and I bought from this adorable little bread shop, it is the perfect lunch on a cold day. I hope you get the chance to try it. :) Oh and by the way, if you are wondering about measurements for the soup, I really just eyeball the whole thing. So just go with it and have fun!

Za Za Nasty

If you are looking for a lovely little Italian restaurant with good pizza and that adorable little "wood burning oven" atmosphere do not go to Zza's. A small building with red brick walls on the outside and hideous green decor on the inside, I have actually been dying to try out this seemingly hole in the wall Italian place. Usually "hole in the wall" conjures images of so-so decorating and hard to find parking but excellent food. Not so with this place. This was indeed just a hole in a wall that I should have ignored.

We wouldn't have even ever ventured into this place except that sometimes, God forgive me, pregnancy makes me tired. And on such days, cooking seems entirely impossible. It was one of those days and I was absolutely going nuts over the idea of sushi. I wanted sushi SO bad, but at the last minute decided to go get a pizza with Beau to save some money. The thing was, we could hardly afford to go out at all and in the back of my mind I was feeling very guilty for not cooking. But we drove around the corner and ventured into the small place called Zza's.

What I instantly noticed was the lights were so dim you could hardly see anything at all. After a quick scan at the menu I noticed how pricey it was and hoped at least the portions would be sufficient enough to make it worth while. Unfortunately, the $3 drinks were teeny tiny, the free bread that is so popular to serve at Italian places tasted burnt on top and the pizza that we ordered was lukewarm and was the size of one of those frozen pizzas you buy at the grocery store for 99 cents. Those frozen pizzas taste better than what we ate. I was sorely disappointing and feeling even worse for making us go out in the first place. Not only had I failed to create yummy food at home but I also spent our money on what I was sure was not going to be enough to keep poor Beau satisfied. And now we had $20 less for our groceries! Ugh... So if you are in Oakland and you want good food, do stay far away from Zza's. With all of the amazing places to eat, I am surprised they are even open for business. They should be ashamed.

I give it 1 star for the very smiley service and the crayons that Beau had such a good time doodling with all over the paper tablecloth.

Super Mom

Just as the fridge was getting eerily barren and I was actually beginning to worry, I decided to put aside my pride and beg for a little money from my mom...

Of course she was more than willing to help in any small way she could and I was reminded that it is always foolish to feel afraid to ask my mother for something. She has a way of being so real about everything that she does, and I know she won't give me something if she does not have it and on the other hand, if she does have it then she will make sure I have what I need (within reason). I went out and bought groceries while Beau was taking his very last final exam at Cal University. Just before I had dropped him off we were having a conversation about our very limited account balance and what would be the best way to spend the money. He had been working really hard lately and was already exhausted even though he hadn't taken the test yet, and said he wanted a big plate of spaghetti for dinner. Beau is a very big man and when he eats he can really put food away! So in my semi-panic of thinking about our finances, I began to lecture him about eating too much when we are trying so hard to save money... well naturally as soon as he stepped out of the car and I was kicking myself all the way to the grocery store thinking, "what an awful thing to say!!!" So I made sure that when he got home from school, the last day he will ever be there, we were able to celebrate with big plates of spaghetti. And I was also able to purchase enough food for another week with only $35 out of the money my mom loaned me. I have become an absolute pro at grocery shopping for deals!

After our spaghetti dinner and Beau had left for a graduation party at the frat house, I stayed comfortably on the couch and enjoyed my alone time. I couldn't help by go back to the long phone conversation I had with my mom earlier that day when she had loaned me money and then we chatted about this and that, and I wondered why I was so lucky to have a mom that I get along with so well. See, I know everyone has to love their moms on some level, but not only do I love my mom, I actually like her! She is an amazing woman and a real inspiration to me. So I pondered on this thought and on the little growing girl inside of me and wondered if she will like me the same. What is it about my mom that makes her so fun to be around and a good mom at the same time? I came up with a few things that I think make her who she is...

My mom takes care of her family, and especially her husband. Everyone comes before she does, but you never get this sense that she feels oppressed or angry about her family-orientated lifestyle (no feminism in my house!). It seems to make her happier than anything to just be there for her family! And her kids do not come before her relationship to her man. Her and my dad having such a strong bond and being happy together showed me what love really is and gave me a solid foundation growing up. And while she was putting us first and taking care of us, she never pushed or pulled us in any particular direction. She gave us the tools, the map and the advice and let us forge our own path in whatever way we saw fit. My mom was always there to listen to my stories, help me through problems and let me vent frustrations, and I never felt that she was disappointed in me or wanted me to lead a different life. She let me have my life and she had her life... and isn't that really the way it is suppose to be?

And this leads me to the other thing that makes my mom awesome. She listened!!! Not just to me, but anyone she encounters. You never get the feeling that my mom is just waiting for her turn to speak or that she is going to try to push her opinion on you. Even if her opinion is different from yours, she always listens fully to what you are saying. Sometimes she will offer tid-bits of advice or tell you that she disagrees, but she won't push it on you like some people I have met in my life... most people really! And often times in my young life, I have found her side of the argument so compelling she didn't need to push it on me anyway; I just knew it was right. Never was there loud arguments, screaming fits or all out wars in my house because we didn't need them. You know that if you need to speak to someone then you will be heard. Everything felt fair that way.

There is so much more that makes my mom the amazing person that she is, like how she makes dinner every night even when she really doesn't feel like it, or her unwavering support and trust in me when I decided to drop out of college and lead a completely different life far away from home... but her love for her role as "wife and mother" and the way she will always listen are two things that I think I can easily adopt into my own life so that hopefully, I too can be a role model to my babies.

If you are reading this, I love you mom!!! Thank you for being a mom first and a best friend second and for always having my back no matter what. :) And just thank you for being you!

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a cheap and easy way to make Beau's favorite spaghetti!

ingredients:
package of spaghetti
jarred sauce (we are being cheap remember!)
ground beef
pasta seasoning blend by Trader Joe's

In a pot, boil water with salt for the noodles.

In a saute pan, brown the ground beef with the pasta seasoning. Once browned completely, drain the oil by dumping the meat onto a plate lined with paper towels, then put the meat back in the pan. Add the sauce and simmer until heated through and you are sure the meat is all the way cooked.

Grab a handful of spaghetti noodles and dump in the water. Cook until it is done. Toss it all together and serve! See how easy that was? Then when you have a little more money you can add chopped fresh basil and some Parmesan cheese... but for now, he will never know the difference. :)

Looking for a healthier option if you don't feel like spaghetti yourself? Sometimes the red sauce is just too much for me right before bed! Try switching to whole wheat noodles and see if you man even notices. Then toss his noodles with the red sauce, and add blanched veggies, olive oil and some herbs to your version.