I don’t always eat exciting things, but this past Saturday, I feel like we had a nice spread of good eats!

We started the morning off by heading up to Flint, MI to visit one of our really close friends, Amber. She was celebrating her birthday in true fashion: calling it the birthday freakend (celebrating from Thursday – Monday!). We couldn’t make it up for her actual birthday on Friday, so we went up early on Saturday to meet her and the rest of the gang at Flint Crepe Company in downtown Flint.

Now most people in Michigan know that Flint has really run down in the past years due to General Motors closing its plants and people losing their jobs. This place is a true gem and really brings the downtown back to life!

 The place is eclectic and has an industrial feel on the inside. They also feature posters and paintings of local things around town, cyclists, local artwork, etc. It’s awesome!

This is Crepe master Oakland. He was extremely friendly to all the customers, did custom orders and made sure everyone was happy. The entire staff was wonderful and friendly. The best part is that this place uses locally-grown ingredients and can make anything gluten-free or vegan. They also take the scraps of food leftover that people might otherwise throw away and they return it to the farmers for their compost piles.

The crepe company featured lots of savory and sweet crepes. I had my eye on one item I saw on the menu: Samosa crepe! It was like the place knew I was coming. The guy who took my order asked if I wanted it to be extra spicy. Duh! Of course.

This was a good choice in my opinion. It had a dollop of raita on top and came with three different chutneys. It wasn’t as spicy as I would have liked, but it can be hard to satisfy my spice level. It tasted like a soft masala dosa, it was so good! Accompanied by a non-fat vanilla latte, this meal was perfection and a great start to our Saturday.

On our way home, we stopped at a local cafe in downtown Ann Arbor that we found out sold macarons. We had been trying to find a bakery that sold them for a while (since returning from our honeymoon) and weren’t successful. We actually found a place in a nearby city, but we didn’t have time to drive all the way out there. So when I found out this cafe down the street from my work sold them, and the French lady who sells them at the Farmers Market every Saturday morning sold them to the cafe, we tried our luck and went there on our way home. We ended up buying some pumpkin macarons and also some white chocolate raspberry ones. They were also featuring heart-shaped eggnog flavored, but I’m not a big fan of eggnog, so we passed on those.

They were so light and fluffy and extremely flavorful! It was a good snack to have with an afternoon cup of tea. And as you can see from the photo, they were the star of my Project 52 weekly photo (along with Danbo of course). It sure beat trying to make these delicate cookies. The process seemed like a bit more than I wanted to handle for the weekend. One day I’m definitely going to try to make them – when I have time, which is apparently one of the two things you need in order to make these! Time and patience!

So then to continue our faux-Parisian lifestyle, we re-created the warm goat cheese salad we had in Paris. We’d made it once before, but decided to change a few things and try again. We blew it out of the park this time! It turned out even better and the re-vamped version of this recipe is officially the go-to. I’m pleased to see it has gotten some awesome reviews and general interest already!

So there we have it! My first ever What I Ate Wednesday! Hopefully I can keep up with this every week. I already track my food and calorie intake on my phone daily, but this sounds like a fun weekly thing to do to really showcase some good eats when they come along.

I’m actually looking forward to having some good eats this week and weekend too.

Are there any go-to recipes  you rely on? Share them below if I should try it too!

]]> http://notaleaf.com/2012/01/25/what-i-ate-wednesday/feed/ 4 http://notaleaf.com/2012/01/21/salade-chevre-chaud/ http://notaleaf.com/2012/01/21/salade-chevre-chaud/#comments Sat, 21 Jan 2012 22:55:23 +0000 Aparna B. http://notaleaf.com/?p=3264 Warm goat cheese salad. It was our favorite thing to eat at the Café Bosquet in Paris during our honeymoon. We’ve made this before, but we revisited it tonight and OH. EM. GEE. I won’t lie, it turned out even better. And tasted even better. So I thought it might be nice to re-post the recipe with the changes we made!

I think we nailed it this time. The minute I tasted it, it was like I was back in the 7th district, as cheesy as that might sound (no pun intended).

So we changed up the recipe and here’s what you will need:
•2 whole rounds of goal cheese, cut in half length wise (you’ll end up with 4 pieces)
•4 pieces of French loaf, cut into squares
•Spring salad mix
•5 tablespoons honey (total)
•Light drizzle olive oil
For the salad dressing:
•1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
•1 1/2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
•1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
•2 tablespoons freshly squeeze lemon juice
•S&P to taste
•3 tablespoons olive oil
– this will make a lot of dressing. You won’t use all of it, but it’s better to have more than not enough ;) –

Preheat your oven to 350°F.

Slice a French loaf and cut the long pieces into squares. You’ll need to use the goat cheese to know how big the bread should be. We used a French loaf, but you could probably use sourdough or something similar. I think sourdough might be too…well…sour with the goat cheese and dressing.

So I bought these two big rounds of goat cheese. You could use a smaller round, what ever works. These were big, so we cut them each in half, length-wise. Be careful and try not to crack it. We didn’t succeed as you can see, but it still worked out.

Toast the bread. Ours was able to fit into the toaster, which definitely helped. Don’t let it get too dark though since it will continue to brown and toast in the oven when it bakes with the goat cheese.

Next make your dressing!

In a Pyrex measuring cup, combine the mustard, apple cider vinegar, red wine vinegar, salt and pepper. Then whisk in the olive oil and mix until it’s smooth. Dress your salad mix lightly, toss and set aside.

Drizzle each piece of toast with a little olive oil and use 1 tablespoon of honey total to drizzle between all the pieces of bread. Then place one piece of goat cheese on each slice of bread. Once you’ve done that, top each piece of goat cheese with 1 tablespoon of honey and spread it out.

Bake in the oven, on the bottom rack. This is important because on the top rack, it’ll get to hot and just fall apart. This way, the heat is still there, but it’s not direct. Place on the bottom rack, close the oven and bake for 5 minutes. After that, turn the broiler on, and leave the oven door slightly open (most oven doors can do this) and let it broil for 2-3 minutes. Keep an eye on it so it won’t burn and/or melt too much! What you’ll see is pure magic: the honey starts to harden and turn golden and the goat cheese firms up but still melts. The toast gets a bit darker too.

The whole thing is done when the goat cheese is golden on top. Place the piece of toast and cheese on your salad and serve! We had ours with a dry, chilled Sauvignon Blanc with hints of citrus. It tasted really good with the salad! I’m a bit “wine-pairing” person, but I could tell the wine made the dish a little sweet which was delicious.

Oh and for fun, this shows what we made versus what we had in Paris:

Not bad, huh? You can tell the French clearly used a cook’s blowtorch, but I think we did what we were trying to achieve. I keep telling REB we need to buy a place on the Rue Cler and just move there. I’m sure he thinks I’m being silly, but I’m being totally serious :)

So what about you?
Have you ever re-visited a recipe you’ve made in the past?
Did it turn out better or worse than the first time you made it?
What things did you learn?

While we were at Whole Foods earlier tonight, we went to the butcher counter to buy some steak tips for him. The butcher asked us what we were deciding on and if he could help, so we told him we wanted to treat our dog to something yummy for his birthday. Instead, he went into the back and came back with a huge soup bone that still had marrow in it! No doubt Gryff will love this!

But when I got home, I decided to bake him some organic dog cookies. I found this recipe from Dog Treat Kitchen and it was seriously an idiot-proof recipe.

Here’s what you need:
•2 cups whole wheat flour (or any kind of flour your dog is OK to have)
•1 cup rolled oats
•1/3 cup peanut butter (creamy or crunchy. We used organic, crunchy pb because Gryff likes the crunchy peanuts!)
•1 1/4 cup hot water

Start by preheating your oven to 350°F
Then mix your dry ingredients in a bowl. Then add in the peanut butter and hot water. You might need to add more flour if it gets sticky. Honestly though, the dough came together quite nicely and was super easy to work with.

Roll out the dough until it’s about 1/4 inch thick. You can use a tiny bit of flour on your counter or board before you roll out the dough. Then cut out shapes! We used the bone cookie cutter we got from Sam and Finn from the Corgi Exchange this year!

Place the cut-out cookies onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper and bake for 40 minutes or until hard. You really want to make sure these cook all the way through!

We only made one round of cut outs and then put the rest of the dough in the freezer. These cookies will keep fresh in an air tight container for a week, or you can freeze them for up to 6 months! I think he knew we were baking him some treats because he kept pacing around the living room wiggling his nose in the air.

I have never made any homemade treats for Gryff but these were relatively healthy and organic. He seemed to really enjoy them too. Happy birthday buddy! We love you!

Have you ever made homemade treats for your pet? Do you have a fool-proof recipe you rely on? Please share below if you do!

Back in the olden days when I ate meat, chicken piccata was a dish I ordered if it was on a menu at a restaurant. I have an absolutely love of capers. Any recipe that is vegetarian with capers will always get my vote. Why didn’t I think we should try making this with tofu? This recipe is ridiculously easy to make, too!

Here’s what you need:
•1/2 block of firm tofu (see below for preparation)
•All-purpose flour, for dredging
•Olive oil (4 tablespoons total, more or less)
•3 medium shallots, minced
•2 tablespoons capers, drained
•1/2 cup white wine (we used a dry Pinot Grigio)
•1/2 cup vegetable broth (I was hoping for low sodium, but they were out)
•2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice (about 1 lemon)
•2 tablespoons butter
•1/2 teaspoon garlic, minced
•1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
•Salt to taste (I doubt you’ll need any – see below)
•1/2 cup fresh parsley, finely chopped

We had a lot of leftover sauce since we only made half the tofu, but that’s OK. You can reduce any portion of the recipe if you want. I didn’t want to skimp on flavors though ;)

Start by standing up the tofu block and then cutting in half, length-wise. Store the other half for a future recipe. Then cut that half into half.
Take two pieces of paper towel, put a piece of tofu between them, and press. You want to drain as much liquid out of the tofu as possible. Plus, this will help thin the tofu so it will crisp up better. Once you’ve done that, cut each tofu in half, diagonally so you’ll end up with four tofu triangles total.

Put a few tablespoons of all-purpose flour on a plate, dredge the tofu and shake off the excess.
Heat up 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a pan over high heat. Let the tofu cook for 3-4 minutes on each side. Once you’ve done this for all the pieces, transfer to a plate lined with paper towel. We actually put them on some aluminum foil and put them into the oven to keep warm at 300°F.

This image shows one half that we cut into two more pieces

In the same pan, add more oil (about another 1 to 2 tablespoons) and heat up the shallots, garlic and capers and sauté for 1 or 2 minutes stirring frequently. Then whisk in the lemon juice and wine and let it cook for 3 to 5 minutes.

Add the vegetable broth and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and let it simmer for 1 or 2 minutes. Whisk in the parsley, butter (you could use nonhydrogenated vegan margarine to make this vegan) and pepper. If we had low-sodium broth, I would say you might need to add 1/2 teaspoon or so of salt. However, since the capers and the broth are so salty, taste the sauce first and then use your judgment if you need more salt or not.

We served it up with some wild rice, poured the sauce over the tofu and nommed it up!

This was so delicious! Patting the tofu completely dry gave it a meatier texture. The capers were crisp and salty, and the wine and lemon together made for a wonderful fresh taste.

Now, I will say that I was a little conflicted about the amount of parsley. Ina Garten loves her parsley, but I think it’s kind of a garbage herb. For me, it’s used for garnish and sprinkling on a plate and not a main flavor of a dish. But even I can admit that when it warmed up, it did smell fresh. I probably would use less next time though.

Happy eating :)

So here’s how it works. I’m supposed to record a video of myself saying the following words:
aunt, route, wash, oil, theater, iron, salmon, caramel, fire, water, sure, data, ruin, crayon, toilet, new orleans, pecan, both, again, probably, spitting image, alabama, lawyer, coupon, mayonnaise, syrup, pajamas, caught

And then I’m supposed to answer the following questions:

• what is it called when you throw toilet paper on a house?
• what is the bug that curls into a ball when you touch it?
• what is the bubbly carbonated drink called?
• what do you call gym shoes?
• what do you say to address a group of people?
• what do you call the kind of spider that has an oval-shaped body and extremely long legs?
• what do you called the wheeled contraption in which you carry groceries at the supermarket?
• what do you call it when rain falls when the sun is shining?
• what is the thing you change the tv channel with?

I’ve lived all over the country – twice now in Michigan (I used to live in the U.P.). There was a time where I lived in Mississippi, but I wonder if I truly have a “Michigan accent” or not. You be the judge and let me know!

Additionally, I have this dialect survey REB showed me once and I’ve kept the link! It’s interesting to see how people say certain words or phrases from all over the country. You can check that out here.

Lastly, I’m chillaxing in bed, so excuse the backdrop and if I look like a hot mess. I also don’t know why the sound went from uber loud to uber soft…so I apologize in advance if it’s hard to hear!

Here we go!

So what do you think? Northern accent or not? I think I definitely have on! I hope you all give it a shot and then come back and share it! :)
A big thanks to Sarah for sharing hers!