Sriracha

Sriracha is a wonderful documentary about Sriracha hot sauce.  I love a good documentary and I heartily recommend this one.  I watched it on Amazon but it's around.

This is the trailer for the documentary.

Sushi feast

John made a sushi feast last night.  He wore his new apron.  I think that is why the sushi was so good.  I am not even that big a fan of sushi so it must have been the apron.

Treats from Uwajimaya

Today John drove us to Uwajimaya in Beaverton.  It's a great Asian supermarket but not within walking distance so we don't go that often.  John is making Sushi tonight.

We stocked up on pantry items (bottled sauces, Asian candy, curry paste) as well as some great fresh produce (lime leaves, Thai basil, two kinds of cabbage and green beans).

This post is dedicated to Ted, who says we buy the Heinz of Asian brands.

Glass Gem Corn

This is real corn.  Here is the story on this variety.

NPR story

Google images has lots of cool pics of this corn.  The seeds are really amazing, too.

Source

John's pretty food

Walk to a great food cart on a beautiful day

It was a beautiful day today so we went for a nice long walk.  First we went for lunch at the best food cart in Portland.  It was our first time there and it was incredibly good.  John had the Inzemino and I had the Tagliatelle.  Mmmmmm.  We will be back.

Burrasca Website

Other sights around the food cart pod.

This is an old double decker bus that provides seating

Inside the top level of the bus

This building next to the food cart pod has a purposely crooked porch.  It looks so cool.

Then we walked through the neighborhood enjoying the spring sun, the scent of daphne and the houses along the way.

We had coffee on our porch when we got home.

Big Business Tomato

Kumato tomatoes are available year round and they are good, believe it or not.  I am not crazy about their business model, but the tomatoes are great, good enough to eat with just salt and pepper.  They are available locally at Zupans and I read on the web that Trader Joe's also carries them.

http://www.yumsugar.com/What-Kumato-Brown-Tomatoes-13490363

If you are looking for a good bagel...

If you are looking for a good chewy bagel since the demise of Kettleman's, try Bridgetown Bagels in the Rose City Food Cart pod.

An all red dinner

 For dinner we had salmon cakes, sliced red peppers with vinaigrette, and baked sweet potatoes...served on a red plate, of course.  This is my plate.

I really like my little point and shoot camera but it doesn't take the best photos at night.

No nonsense but pretty cast iron

Thai chicken soup

Last night I made Thai chicken soup.  It is so good and so easy (when you have a supply of homemade delicious chicken broth in the freezer).

The chicken broth is flavored with ginger, lime leaves, and lemon grass.  It has rice noodles, heirloom carrots (they really are that color), a dollop of chili sauce and some cilantro.

Rutabega Hash with Froached Eggs

Diane Morgan has a great recipe for Rutabega Hash.  We had it tonight with froached eggs.  It was so very good.

To froach eggs, saute at medium heat until the white begins to turn white.  Add about half a cup of boiling water and cover tightly until yolk skins over (happens pretty fast).

Tangy Spicy Green Beans

One of my very favorite dishes is tangy spicy green beans.  It's a Chinese dish.  The original recipe calls for deep frying the green beans in the wok.  Recently we started roasting the green beans in the oven instead of deep frying them.  Makes the dish taste even better and is easier to do as well... a win, win.

green beans drying on towels after washing

Putting a little olive oil on the green beans before roasting

Ready to eat... yum!

New ideas for breakfast

We are expanding/changing our idea of what breakfast foods to eat.  Right now we are exploring Asian noodle/broth dishes... like pho and mini wontons in chicken broth.  Today John made a breakfast sort of soup using our homemade chicken broth, Annie Chun mini wontons, bean sprouts, with some cilantro, green onion, and chili paste for garnish.  It was pretty easy and quick and very good.  We ate it before I thought to get a photo.  Sorry.  Next time.

We really like the Annie Chun mini wontons.  John also pan fries them (to brown them), steams them with a little broth and makes a dipping sauce (soy, white wine, red wine vinegar, grated ginger, cilantro, green onion, sesame oil and hot sauce).  It's one of my favorite meals.  Annie Chun products are available in all the grocery stores we shop in.

What to eat

In the past few months I've been working on improving our diet.  Our mainstream American diet and the foods that we can buy at the supermarket make it difficult to eat wisely.   Our food production is about quantity, not quality.  Our food makes us fat and unhealthy.  In my household, we are moving to a more plant based diet.  It's good for us, good for the animals, good for the planet. 

My reading plus several documentaries have made me painfully aware of how bad America's food industry is for us.  Personally, I am most horrified by how the animals are treated.  I am not against eating meat.  I am against abusing animals.  And the meat you can buy in the supermarket comes from truly abused animals. 

Chickens get their beaks trimmed off and are bred to have so much breast meat that their legs can't hold them up.  They are kept in horrible conditions.  Pigs are abused.  Cows are abused.  Everything is abused by big business.   The animals.  The land.  And us. 

Dairy is also an issue for me.. my middle name is better-with-butter....  I think dairy food isn't very good for me but I do love the taste.  I've also faced the fact that dairy cows are pretty mistreated.  Their calves are taken away when they are 2 days old.  The calves mostly become veal, a terrible life for them.  The dairy cows are fed a bad diet that makes them produce more milk but is very hard on them.  Like us, they are made fat and miserable.  

So, what to do?  I plan to cut back on dairy and am working on getting my dairy products and meat more directly from farms that treat their animals humanely. 

I am looking for Step 5 animal products. Whole Foods has a great explanation of the Steps.

And, guess what?  They taste better, too.  Our current American diet is based on making food cheap and convenient.  I think we are paying a terrible price in quality. 

  

If you want to learn more, check out these documentaries, which are available on Netflix instant play.

Forks Over Knives

Vegucated

Hungry for Change

Food Fight

Food Inc is good, too, but not on instant play.

May we all eat better in the New Year.   

Afternoon tea

We've taken to eating a mid afternoon meal of vegetables.. it makes our evening meal smaller and easier.  Here we have roasted broccoli and a nice salad.   Mmmm, good.

Chinese Donuts

I love sesame balls which I call chinese donuts.  My kind neighbor drove to the Jade Teahouse and got me three... I ate one immediately and then took the photo.

My broken wrist is keeping me from so many activities.  One of the things I've been keeping myself busy with is researching how I can improve my diet.  I think my diet is already pretty good but it has room for improvement.

It's  a good thing that Jade Teahouse is not close to me because I like their sesame balls way too much.  These babies are definitely not on anybody's healthy foods list, so I feel a little guilty.  I am sure their glycemic load is very high and that they are high in calories and low in nutrition.

They are a special treat for me.  Thank you, Jack.

Feeling like home...

This side of the kitchen had its ceiling painted and new marmoleum.  That's all.  We like it so much better.  It just feels nice.  You might think I turned the lights on for the photo (like realtors do) but that is not the case.  John turns every possible light on when he is working.

We spent yesterday putting things to rights in the kitchen and all the rooms the kitchen project has affected.  I guess we were both uncomfortable with the chaos and that gave us the nesting urge at the same time.  Nice.

John is working on the cabinet installation, getting everything ready for the plumber.  There will be a kickspace hot water radiator under the island.  I am pitting ten pounds of pie cherries to freeze for cobbler.  And it's hot in Portland today.  High 90's.  It's the first over 90 day we've had in a year.  I don't like the heat.

Ahh.  Home.