Hi everyone!

You’re looking at a girl who jumped on the Foodie Penpals bandwagon…and I love it. I totally see myself participating in this every single month! I’d read about the treats other bloggers I follow would receive and wanted in on the fun. So I did it too. And boy, am I ever happy!

The lovely Emily (a reader) sent me a fantastic package.

How cute is this sticker?!

I couldn’t believe all the great stuff she got me! She had emailed me prior to find out what I liked and didn’t like. But she did say one thing: “hope you like coffee!” But of course! She knew I was a vegetarian after visiting my blog and knew I liked healthier treats, but wasn’t afraid to indulge in some sweet treats ;) I told her I liked things made local. Being from Ann Arbor, REB and I strive to buy local from the farmers market, local grocery stores, locally-branded items, etc. So anything I could have that was Portland- or Oregon-related, I was all for it!

She didn’t disappoint.

In this delightful package was a bountiful array of delicious treats!

• Variety of Justin’s individual nut butters (maple almond butter, chocolate almond butter, honey peanut butter)
• Variety of individual Tazo-brand tea bags
• Portland COFFEE! – fresh beans to be exact (it’s the first thing I smelled even before opening the box!)

This hot sauce. Did I mention she also listened to me when I said “I love spicy things!”…? This habanero hot sauce is not only spicy and delicious but it’s also made in Oregon! Twofer!

Two bars (each 2 oz.) of Dagoba brand dark chocolate. The one there on top is lavender and blueberry: sweet and delicious. The one on the bottom is the one I REALLY like, though.

This bar was xocolatl flavored aka chocolate with hints of chilies! Again, she listened to me when I said loved indulging in sweet treats and this one was not only dark chocolate (my fav) but it had that great kick to it. I’ve been enjoying a tiny piece each day after I finish my lunch. Perfect (and healthy!) way to end a meal if you ask me!

I can’t even begin to thank Emily. She is not only one of the sweetest people I’ve had the pleasure to get to know (if only through email), but she listened, delivered and provided some excellent things for me to try! So thank you Emily! You are a true gem of gems! :)

And for those of you who are curious, I sent my FPP package to the lovely Alexis of Pumped Pumpkin. Go check out her blog to see the goods she got from yours truly ;) But really, read her blog. She’s a fitness enthusiast and has some fabulous, healthy recipes on her blog!

Want in on the fun? Head over to Lindsay’s blog The Lean Green Bean to sign up!
Here are the deets:

• On the 5th of every month, you will receive your penpal pairing via email. It will be your responsibility to contact your penpal and get their mailing address and any other information you might need like allergies or dietary restrictions. 
• You will have until the 15th of the month to put your box of goodies in the mail. On the last day of the month, you will post about the goodies you received from your penpal! 
• The boxes are to be filled with fun foodie things, local food items or even homemade treats! The spending limit is $15. The box must also include something written. This can be anything from a note explaining what’s in the box, to a fun recipe…use your imagination!
• You are responsible for figuring out the best way to ship your items depending on their size and how fragile they are. (Don’t forget about flat rate boxes!)
• Foodie Penpals is open to blog readers as well as bloggers. If you’re a reader and you get paired with a blogger, you are to write a short guest post for your penpal to post on their blog about what you received. If two readers are paired together, neither needs to worry about writing a post for that month.
• Foodie Penplas is open to US & Canadian residents.  Please note, Canadian Residents will be paired with other Canadians only. We’ve determined things might get too slow and backed up if we’re trying to send foods through customs across the border from US to Canada and vice versa. So, I’m going to keep two separate lists and match US w/ US and Canada w/ Canada!

It’s time for another installment of What I Ate Wednesday! I’m on week 4, which is kind of cool! It’s been nice tracking what I’ve been eating. If this is your first time stopping by and you’re confused about what What I Ate Wednesday means, head on over to Jen’s blog, Peas and Crayons, to learn what it’s all about! She’s having a theme for the month of February to remind us all to eat and love our veggies. Don’t let the picture of the macarons fool you, though. I did eat my veggies this past week, but I didn’t forget to indulge juuuust a little ;) Let’s get to it!

Wednesday night we made some Lemon Grilled Tofu with a Mediterranean Chopped Salad. I found the recipe online and then we modified it a touch for out tastes. It turned out fantastic! I will definitely be making this again – especially in the summer!

I had a few appointments to take care of on Thursday, so I worked a half day. I decided to have lunch at home before I took the bus downtown to the office. Usually when I’m home for lunch, I run across the street to Potbelly for a delicious Chickpea Veggie Salad or Mushroom Melt, but I just wasn’t in the mood for something even that heavy! I wanted to eat something light so I searched our kitchen and found some basil and tomatoes.

A very quick and light lunch! I became very fond of Kalamata olives within the past year and I’m glad I finally gave olives a chance! I used to think they tasted how feet might taste (…don’t ask…) but the saltiness of these particular olives is just delicious!

So that night, REB and I decided to use up the rest of our tofu block and made the General’s Tofu recipe that lives here on the blog.

The only difference this time around is that we made it a whole lot spicier and we also added some mushrooms for more protein. Instead of carbing up with brown rice, I just put all the tofu on a bed of steamed broccoli. Delicious! The fun continued with REB wanting to make a very sweet dessert.

We made the Vanilla Poached Pears that you probably saw on the blog last week. It was so ridiculously sweet, but in a good way, and the syrup lasted a few days! REB ended up buying more pears just to dip into the syrup – ha!

On Friday night, I had the real treat of learning how to make macarons from a French pastry chef here in town. She doesn’t own a storefront, but does sell her macarons and other yummy treats at the farmer’s market and also to a cafe here in town. She also offers amateur and professional classes for anyone interested. And I was interested! I had the best time! You can read more about the experience if you’re curious, but can we just take a second and look at how yummy these look?

We still have some leftover, which is good because I have been wanting one for every day since taking the class – whoops!

So on Saturday REB and I braved the unplowed roads and bitter cold and went downtown. We got some lunch at one of our favorite, new vegetarian restaurants Jazzy Veggie. It’s owned by an Indian family and they sneak in little Indian spices and influences in a lot of their dishes – I love it!
I love living in Ann Arbor because they have at least three all-vegetarian restaurants. It’s awesome but it’s also so hard to choose want I want to eat when there are so many choices! Usually it’s easy to pick something out at any restaurant like the veggie burger, salad, or something with beans (that hopefully aren’t made with lard – ew). But when you go to a place that is all vegetarian or even vegan, my indecisive are taken to the next level.

To warm up, we each got a cup of soup. REB got the black bean which was really spicy and hearty and I got the corn and lentil soup that was sweet but also spicy. It was a nice combination!

For the main course, I ordered their Spicy Southwest wrap which had grilled chick’n and REB got the Grilled Chick’n Caesar wrap. Since we both wanted to try each other’s lunch, we just split the wraps so we could try each kind! Both were so good. Both wraps came with fried plantains, which I ate since REB is allergic to bananas and all banana-type flavors.

I like to think of Saturday as my indulging day. More so than the other days of the week. You might ask why. Well, after this most delicious lunch, I went over to Whole Foods and bought a few little treats so that I could make my own Cafe Garamond at home. Cafe Garamond is what we had in Paris at almost every restaurant. It was just a little dessert plate with three mini desserts and some espresso.

Okay, so my version had four little desserts, but it you can’t deny it wasn’t delicious ;)
So if THAT wasn’t enough indulgence, we met some friends for sushi at my favorite sushi place in town. I bought a Groupon to eat there and my friend AE offered to take my portrait for my photo web site. The snow and cold, however, prevented that from happening, but it didn’t stop me from still treating her and her hubby to a thank you dinner. We’ll still take the picture, but I guess it will have to wait until the warm comes!

One of the problems I used to have with sushi after I gave up eating meat, was that I wasn’t as fond of it anymore. When the only options at most sushi places is a cucumber roll or asparagus roll, you aren’t getting as much protein. And this was also a time when I didn’t care of mushrooms all the time. This place has a great roll called the tofu tempura roll. I got that and the sweet potato roll. I also got one piece of egg. It was so good!! We definitely had a feast between the four of us!

So there’s another highlight of a weeks worth of yummy food! Just you wait until next week. We have more culinary adventures up our sleeves this week and weekend!

For all you vegetarians out there, do you eat sushi?
What’s your favorite kind?

So this past week was another good one of eats! Some cooking adventures, some restaurant adventures and of course, the last football game of the season. Actually the latter is the saddest thing. REB and I are crazy football fanatics and it’s safe to say we’re upset that there’s no more football until August. So sad :( BUT! There is a draft and that will be good to watch.

Moving on!

On Thursday I had a craving for a different kind of salty snack and ended up making roasted chickpeas.

I had made roasted chickpeas before, but this time I made them with rosemary and sea salt. They turned out great! I actually think I needed to let them bake for more than 45 minutes so they’d be extra crunchy, but oh well. Now I know!

So then on Saturday I went to my bestie’s house in Royal Oak for a girls night out. It has been forever since I’ve seen this girl (or so it seems) and she and I went out for a night of dancing and drinking at Boogie Fever, a club that only plays 70s, 80s and 90s music. It’s like it was made for us! So anyway before we went out, she made the most amazing light dinner for us.

She made the quickest and tastiest potato soup ever. It wasn’t completely blended or pureed so it still had some texture and the flavor was so good! The fun continued with us getting good and tipsy on beers (for her) and rum and cokes (for me). I meant to get rum and diets and yeah…after the pre-gaming at her house, I kind of forgot about that rule. A big, big thank you to her hubby for being our DD!

The next morning, we were ready for some much needed sustenance. We had our heart set on going to Cafe Muse for some brunch, but without a reservation in a restaurant that holds maybe 25 people, the wait was 1 hour and 15 minutes! We weren’t about to wait that long, so we just walked a few doors down and went to Lily’s Seafood and Brewery for their Sunday brunch. What turned us to this place…?

BLOODY MARY BAR!! And it was only $3/glass!! It was freaking amazing. It was just what our tired butts needed. It’s that whole needing a beer or whatever the day after a night of drinking to feel better. It’s weird, I know, but it works! Trust me. My bloody Mary was a masterpiece complete with celery, bleu-cheese stuffed olive, hot sauce and some horseradish! Om nom nom.

Then to start our meals off, we got an appetizer of waffle nuggets. Oh yes, you heard me right. Waffle nuggets. They were filled with fruit, dusted with powder sugar and came with warm maple syrup!

So onto Superbowl Sunday! It was pizza and dip day. We totally indulged and bought a cheese pizza from Whole Foods and then topped it ourselves before baking it. We topped it with vegan pepperoni, sundried tomatoes and goat cheese and baked it off in the oven. It was SO good! The pepperoni was actually really, really good on it. It tastes kind of weird on its own, but when it crisped up on the pizza it tasted pretty good. I recommend it!

Another thing we made was this cashew-mushroom pâté you probably saw on the blog over the weekend. We got the recipe from the Vegetarian Times. We had some veggies and these awesome thin crackers with it. It was a little more fancy than normal football food, but it was full of protein and had a great nutty flavor from the peanut butter and cashews in it!

We also made Sarah’s spicy black bean and corn dip!! It turned out great! We made it a bit spicier with some chili flakes. I should have done what she did and used hot salsa, but they were out at the store :( Other spice fiends with the same thought on Superbowl Sunday I suppose.

We actually had some leftover, which I used for dinner on Monday actually! So on Monday we made egg salad sandwiches. REB always buys the packaged hard boiled eggs so we took three of them (1 1/2 for each of us), 1 stalk of celery, half a small shallot (didn’t have any onion in the house – gasp!), two squirts of French’s yellow mustard and a splash of white wine vinegar. Then we sprinkled some salt, lots of black pepper and a pinch of paprika on them, scooped them onto a 90-calorie slimwich and it was ready! I also had a small handful of Baked Ruffles (I know, I know!) and more of the dip! I added a little more salsa to the dip for a more tomato-y flavor this time around.

Before I continue onto the dinner I had with my friend last night, I need to share with you my new obsession. I’ve had this tea for almost a month and only just now decided to take a picture with my phone to include in the WIAW’s! It’s Vanilla Comoro tea and it. is. AMAZING.

While I do have a cup of coffee when I get into work every morning, I don’t have more than that. Then I move onto tea if I absolutely need a hot drink without the calories. It’s naturally sweet, soothing and tastes so good! I bought it at a local market in town (a localized version of Whole Foods, called Plum Market) and it was kind of expensive, but it comes with 20 satchel tea bags in it and I just love the little tin.

Oh and also, go State. Kthx.

So last night, I had weekly dinner with my friend Kelly. You might remember me mentioning her when I talked about the dinner before the folk festival two weeks ago. Anyway, we were going to go to the cute little French bistro downtown, Cafe Felix, but they don’t really have any vegetarian items on their menu (but they do have some yummy martinis from what I remember!). So instead, we met up at Prickly Pear, the REALLY good Mexican place in town. I say “REALLY good” because it isn’t one of those Tex-Mex places that just nuke the entire plate under a heater or microwave and the vegetarian plate looks like a plate of beans, cheese and gross rice. Prickly pear uses fresh, unique ingredients and you can tell!

And I’m an idiot for not taking a picture right when the food arrived. It just smelled so good! I ended up getting the two enchilada plate which had one sweet potato and one black bean. I opted out of getting rice and just had a side of black beans. It was really good, but I only ate half and brought the rest home :) Lunch today! The enchiladas were so good though! Normally when REB and I go there we each get a half salad to start and then we split the portabella vegetarian fajita skillet. Good stuff. There is plenty for vegetarians there too, so we love it. I’m glad Kelly is a fan of this place too! It means we might be going there again in a weekly dinner to come!

Oh and just for good measure:

WRECKAGE!

OK, I’m done.
So there we go! A week of eats from our neck of the mitten state! I wonder what this week will hold…

What did you snack on during the big game?
P.S. Did you root for the Patriots or Giants?

So the highlights were basically from Thursday, Friday, Sunday and Monday. Please excuse the pictures. I took them all with my phone. I just didn’t feel like lugging my camera to all the places we were at this past week. I’ll try to do better in the future. Oh! If you want to participate in What I Ate Wednesday, head on over to Peas and Crayons blog and join in! :)

For dinner on Thursday night, REB and I met up with a friend from high school who also lives in Ann Arbor. The last time we had dinner with this fella was about 2 years ago! So it was long overdue. He had made reservations at a Thai place downtown called Marnee Thai, and we’ve been there before so I was pretty excited. REB and I were good. We each got soup and then split an entree so we wouldn’t over eat!

The soup I chose was the Tom yum hed, a super spicy soup with mushrooms, lemongrass and cilantro. It was incredibly good. They weren’t lying about spice. I don’t think I needed to order it medium, because it was soooo spicy, but I couldn’t stop eating it!

Then for the main dish REB and I split the Tofu pad meng mamuang (tofu with cashew nuts). We got it with the brown rice. It was sweet and nutty (of course) and also spicy since we asked for it a little spicier. We hadn’t gotten this before, so I’m glad we tried something new! There are more things to be tried there ;)

When we got home, I was craving some kind of dessert. Then I remembered that we had bought some Skinny Cow popsicles.

Mint truffle and white chocolate popsicles to be exact. At only 100 calories a piece, these were the perfect chocolate craving I needed to end the evening! I highly recommend almost anything Skinny Cow makes. They’re all low cal and help give you the fix you need.

Let’s move onto Friday.
Most every day for lunch at work, I eat soup. I buy the little cartons of Pacific Natural Foods soups, which have two servings in each carton, and eat that for lunch. So a cup of soup (one serving) every day for lunch. It’s low carb, full of protein and it fills me up! I usually pair it with string cheese, fruit or a half serving of whole grain goldfish crackers. However this past Thursday the soup I had was abysmal. I got a different brand thinking “Well it’s Minestrone! It can’t be bad!” I was ridiculously wrong. It was watery, thin and looked like tomato water with a few carrot bits. I ended up throwing it out.

Working in downtown Ann Arbor has a lot of perks. One of those perks happens to be working across the street from Jerusalem Garden. Hands down they have the best falafel in town. I got the small falafel plate with two sides. That includes two falafel pieces and two sampler sides of your choice. I chose the fattoush and hummus. It also came with one piece of pita, halved. What did it cost me? $5.05 – tax included! You really can’t beat that. It was filling without feeling like too much. Total win.

That night I met my friend Kelly for dinner before she and I went to the Ann Arbor Folk Festival. We saw a number of bands, but the main headliner was Ryan Adams! It was a great show. We’re already making plans to see some of the bands we saw that night, who will be back in Ann Arbor in a few weeks.

Anyway, I met her at a restaurant we both hadn’t been to before: Red Hawk Bar and Grille. We both had a pretty hard week at work so we decided to get some cocktails. We also ordered an appetizer of Halloumi cheese, which came with spiced walnuts, bread and some kind of cranberry chutney.

It was…meh. The cheese looked like chicken and was grilled up and sliced like it, but it was most definitely cheese. It was a little on the rubbery side though and didn’t exactly spread on the bread that well. The cranberry chutney was NOT good. We were both pretty disappointed with that. But the bread, spiced walnuts and our drinks were deeelicious!

For dinner, my friend Kelly got their mac and cheese with crumbled sausage on top. It looked delicious, and I don’t even eat meat. I was happy that this place had a few vegetarian options so I opted to try something unique that I didn’t think I’d find any where else in the city.

I got their potato, feta and poblano taquitos. They were unique and really, really good. I was a little disappointed that they were fried. I should have guessed they would be but it wasn’t stated on their menu that they would be, so I guess I just thought they weren’t going to be fried. The rice was good but I didn’t eat the pinto beans since I’m not the biggest fan of those. The flavors of the taquitos weren’t bad though! There was a smokey taste to them from the peppers and spices they used and then salty from the feta.

The rest of the weekend was pretty chill. We met up with some of our friends (the friends whose son I just took photos of :)) for brunch on Sunday morning. We went up to a place near their home called Zoe’s House of Pancakes. This place is so good!! They have a lot of sweet and savory crepes, egg specialties and too many options for pancakes. REB got the red velvet pancakes, which were…OH..MY..GOD..oh so good!

I got the Baja Benedict, which was their spin on eggs Benedict. But they were vegetarian! It was a poached egg served on tomato, guacamole, lettuce and English muffin and hash browns. It’s weird. I really hate runny eggs. I always order my eggs scrambled or overhard, but I liked poached eggs. I’ll never order them over medium or over easy and do the whole sop-the-yolk-up-with-bread thing, but poached eggs? Fugettaboutit! I love it. I wish I knew how to make a poached egg, but the idea of having to swirl water and crack an egg scares me too much.

For lunch on Monday I went back to my soup routine as usual. I tried another new brand (I know, I know…) but it wasn’t bad! It was the FIG brand and I got the split pea and potato. The carton said it was lightly salted, but it wasn’t really. Luckily I keep Franks Red Hot in my desk so I was set with the salt and spice factor. What I really need to do is get another bottle of Sriracha and chili flakes in my desk too ;)

This time I paired it with the Frigo-brand light swirled cheese stick (cheddar and mozzarella) and then some yogurt! I need to get my Fage or Chobani because Yoplait really doesn’t compare in terms of flavor, fruit and protein. But you make do with what you got, right? Right. The great thing was my lunch was super low-cal and totally filled me up!

So anyway, there’s a week of eats from my neck of the woods!

So what about you?
Is there is a favorite way you take your eggs?
Are there favorite Thai dishes you absolutely can’t go without when you go out for Thai food?
What is your go-to lunch each day at work or home?

Now, please bear with me. This will be a longer post, but I assure you it will be worth it! Well, maybe it won’t to you, but it is to me – haha – and I hope you stick around to hear about our adventures of eating! :) We’ll start with Paris since that was our first stop. Then we’ll move onto Italy.

For those of you who don’t know where we went, we spent two glorious weeks in Europe: Paris, Venice and Rome to be exact. We had a hard time choosing where we would go. REB mentioned his interest in wanting to see Paris at least once in his life and even though I’ve been there before, I haven’t been there with him, so we picked Paris. I told him that I spent a night in Milan and fell in love with northern Italy (Lake Como, Milan, the Alps, etc.) so I would love to go back there, so we decided on Venice since I haven’t been there before. Then we picked Rome because…well, why not? Haha. So that was our trip!

So our first stop was Paris and we spent about 5 days there. That may not seem like a lot of time, but it actually worked out perfectly. We knew what we were going to do there ahead of time and we had enough time to do it all and also just sit around and relax.

We stayed in the 7th District on the Rue Cler and oh. my. god. I fell completely in love with that area. We were about a 15 minute walk to the Champs de Mar and the Eiffel Tower and we were staying on the cutest street filled with cafes, cheese and bread shops, markets every morning. It was just so lively! After we checked in and dropped our bags, we walked across the street to the Cafe Central. This cafe ended up being our local spot where we’d get Cafe Garamonds, cappuccinos, lunch, wine, etc. And it was ALWAYS open. Anyway, we were starving after our long flight – our flight that didn’t take note that we asked for vegetarian meals and we never got them :\ We just ate the snacks we bought (candy and chips basically) so we were starving. The one thing I needed right away? Breakfast, even though it was about 1 or 2 p.m. by the time we reached our hotel. Lucky for me, the French eat bread for breakfast and things like salads and eggs for lunch ;)

Omelet with tomatoes

It was cooked to perfection: fluffy, flavorful and filling!

Now something we both totally support about the French lifestyle is snacking throughout the day. And REB’s favorite snack was eating crepes of course! There were creperies every where and I was actually surprised to know the most common filling was Nutella. Either way, we had our fair share of crepes every day.

Hard to see, but the left three photos show the dude making the crepe. So good!

They were so delicious and the perfect snack to eat while walking around.  They were also ridiculously HOT. But I suppose that’s a good thing. The Nutella was just melted right in and got every where, but it was worth it. Simple, light and delicious. This was probably REB’s favorite snack while we walked around.

My favorite snack? Cafe Garamonds. It’s basically a plate with three little desserts (usually mini creme brulee, pudding, a mini cake, macaron or eclair) and then it also comes with a little cup of espresso. I absolutely loved it.

Cafe Garamond at Cafe Central <3

Cafe Garamond at a cafe on the Champs Elysees

Another sweet treat we grew to love were macarons! And there were shops for them all over! They’re becoming quite the trend here in America and I can totally understand why!

Our favorite flavors were: pistachio, lavender, espresso, lemon and sea salt caramel!

Michigan State macarons ;) Go green!! <3

REB’s coworker actually stayed on Rue Cler when he visited Paris before and told us about this great little chocolate shop near our hotel. It’s the Jeff De Bruges chocolate shop. Founded by Phillipe Jambon, this brand of chocolate is ridiculously tasty. So we made sure to get a little cellophane bag filled with different kinds of chocolates.

Totally worth it!

Speaking of famous, there was another famous brand we made sure to go see. I record Barefoot Contessa regularly on the DVR because I love Ina Garten’s recipes and I love hearing about her adventures in Paris. She actually owns a little apartment in the 7th district off Ave. Rennes. One of the things she’s talked about in several of her French-related episodes, is the Poilâne boulangerie. It’s a pretty well known bakery in Paris known for their breads with the signature “P” on their loaves.

We found it!

Just beautiful

Let's eat!

We learned quickly that eating bread and/or pastries and drinking espresso is the typical breakfast for many French. Or eating baguettes on the go from a street cart. This is a tradition I can get on board with ;)

And yes, we ate the whole thing. We are not ashamed.

Beignets filled with chocolate!

Chocolate eclair filled with chocolate

and of course….

A cappuccino to wash it all down! (my preference over espresso lol)

I wrote a post a few days ago about the goat cheese salad we had in Paris and we tried recreating it at home. Well, now you can see the pictures of this amazing salad from Cafe Bosquet. We went there twice. We found the cafe since it was near our hotel and the first time we went, REB got the goat cheese salad while I got the provencal veggie dish. But I ended up grabbing more bites off REB’s dish than eating mine. There’s a reason why. This goat cheese salad, or salad chevre chaud, was one of the best things we ate in that entire city. And the way this cafe prepared it was just delicious!

Ok first you need to see the dishes we got the first time we went. So I had the Vegeables Provecal and in the back there is that gorgeous goat cheese salad that REB ordered.

So our last day in Paris, we went back to Cafe Bosquet for lunch and I ordered the goat cheese salad.

Yuuuuum

Here's a better look at it. Doesn't it look super tasty?! It was too. I still have dreams about this salad. I also know now what we need to do the next time we make it so it can be like this!

So while I enjoyed this salad, REB ordered a croque monsieur. Now, this dish is traditionally made with ham and cheese. However, our awesome server picked up on the fact we were vegetarians and instead of just omitting the ham and leaving it as a cheese sandwich, they put tomato in it. So cool!

Note to self: Order this next time!

As vegetarians, it’s actually pretty hard to eat in France. In a country known for its beef, hams and duck con fit, it was really hard to find something to eat on the menu aside from eggs, goat cheese salads or pasta. So we took it upon ourselves to see if we could find any vegetarian restaurants in the city.

We were able to find one that was vegetarian and also had a handful of dishes that were vegan, so we decided to check it out. It’s called Le Grenier de Notre Dame located in the Latin Quarter. It was a tiny restaurant on a side street off the main avenue.

We definitely took advantage of the outdoor seating

REB ordered this delicious chocolate pistachio milkshake. It seemed like an odd combination, but it was actually pretty refreshing and tasty!

Their menu was interesting. It actually had a lot of Asian and Indian flavors tied into a lot of the dishes. So for an appetizer, we ordered the spicy goat cheese, which came with vegetables and raita. It was a pretty good dish since it was served warm and the yogurt was nice and cool!

For our entree, REB and I split the casoulet. I’ll be honest. It was just OK. It was filled with lots of beans, tomatoes and other vegetables, but it wasn’t very flavorful. It could have used some kind of spice, herb or even just salt! But, it was filled with protein, and it was filling, so I guess that was good.

So there you have it! Our adventures in Parisian eating! It wasn’t super unique food or anything, but we had our share of foods we don’t normally eat. I hope you all enjoyed and maybe if you ever go to Paris, you’ll use these tips and/or restaurant recommendations and check them out for yourself!

And if not, then pull up a chair and have a glass of wine with us.

This wouldn’t be such a big deal, except, this time last year it snowed for the last time for the season. And it snowed a LOT.

I know it’s coming. I know it. We always get one more dump of snow and then winter is officially over (usually) the second week of April.

I’m not going to go over the logistics; I’m thoroughly enjoying this weather and hope to continue doing so for a few more days.

In lieu of the warm weather I made a most delicious pasta dish full of roasted vegetables. It just makes me think of Spring and warm weather!

You’ll see why I call it Rainbow Pasta if you keep reading.

Rainbow Pasta starring:

•1 pound Farfalle (bow tie) pasta (or any pasta of your choice)
•3 carrots, peeled
•1 red bell pepper (or 2..they roast up beautifully!)
•1 yellow bell pepper
•1 green bell pepper
•1/2 cup grape tomatoes
•1/2 red onion (or a whole one if it’s on the small size)
•1/2 teaspoon dried Italian seasonings (marjoram, thyme, oregano, basil, parsley)
•1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
•1 cup pasta water
*S&P to taste

Start by preheating your oven to 450ºF

Peel and cut the carrots into thin strips. Do the same with all the other vegetables.

See why I call it Rainbow Pasta?? So many pretty colors! Makes me antsy for Spring!
You could also use summer squash, zucchini, eggplant…whatever you like! I haven’t met a roasted vegetable I didn’t like.

Place all the vegetables onto a baking sheet in their own little piles.

Drizzle some olive oil all over the vegetables and season with salt and pepper. Toss them carefully and lightly, but try to maintain their little piles as best you can.

Put them into the oven and set the timer for 10 minutes.

While that’s happening, start boiling your water and cook your pasta. I used Farfalle pasta, or bow tie pasta. Really, you can use any kind of pasta you like. Penne would work great, or rigatoni. I just had bow tie in the house and it’s one of my favorite kinds of pasta, so that’s what I used.

After 10 minutes, check on the vegetables and stir them around a bit. At this point, sprinkle the herbs on top and put them back into the oven for another 10-15 minutes.

This is what they look like when they come out of the oven. The vegetables are done when 1). you can smell them (and believe me, you can!), 2). they look a little wilted, which lets you know they’ve roasted beautifully. More importantly, the carrots are tender and soft.

Let them cool while the pasta finishes cooking. You can also get your grape tomatoes ready. The ones that were bigger, I cut in half. But for the most part you can leave them whole. When they’re in the pasta, they’ll burst in your mouth with amazing flavor – so delicious!

You can also grate your Parmesan cheese.

I buy the real stuff. I’ve said it before, but it’s true: using quality ingredients makes a world of difference. I’m also a food snob when I want to be ;-)

When the pasta is done, measure out 1 cup of the pasta water. The starchy water will help mix all the ingredients together and since we salted the pasta water when it came to a boil, it’ll intensify the flavor of the dish even more! Mmm! Mmm!

Drain your pasta and return it to the same pot (no use dirtying a new dish). Pour all your vegetables (carefully!) into the pot and stir.

Pour a little bit of the pasta water and stir a bit more. Add in the cheese, tomatoes and the rest of the pasta water, and give it one more good stir.

Grate some more cheese on top – honestly, you can’t have enough cheese – and enjoy!

It’s such an easy dish to prepare and it’s colorful, fresh and flavorful. I’m sure you’ll love it!

I woke up this morning feeling as if I’d swallowed a softball. Blech. My nose was pretty stuffy and my sinuses ached. I stayed home from work and did nothing all day.

Then it occurred to me: What is the one thing that could make me feel better? My mom’s Chai.

Well, my mom lives an hour away and I needed the Chai right then and there.

So I made some. And it was amazing. Chai is the traditional spice tea that people in India drink almost every day instead of having coffee. It’s delicious and so easy to make at home.

And now I’ll tell you how to make it at home, too.

My moms Chai is the cure for the common cold. I’m not kidding. It’s spicy so it clears up your sinuses, it’s hot so it soothes and it makes you sleepy so you’ll rest.

If I don’t fall asleep halfway through writing this entry, please applaud me.

Here’s what you’ll need for 1 serving of Chai (I’ll explain each ingredient after):
•Black Cloves
•Cardamom (in the pod)
•Cinnamon stick
•Black peppercorn
•2 tea bags

I use a British tea, often referred to as Darjaleeng, which is what you see above. It’s the most common type of tea used. You can use loose-leaf tea if you want, but tea bags are much easier (and easier to dispose).

There are probably like 5-8 whole black peppercorns in there. Now, this ingredient is totally optional. In fact, my mom told me she only uses peppercorns when she’s sick since the spice and heat from the pepper helps clear the sinuses. So obviously, I used some today.

5-6 pieces of cardamom, in the pod.

Cardamom is a staple ingredient in Chai. If you don’t have any of the other ingredients, this is the one you should have if you want to make Chai, or garam masala. It’s spicy, sweet and smokey. I love it! Now, a lot of people will wonder why you need the pods because if you open the pod, you get cardamom seeds that look black like what I used when I made garam masala. I use the pods because I like the flavor even from the skin so it’s not just the seeds that help create the distinct flavor of Chai.

Cinnamon stick. Powder won’t cut it. This adds another spicy-sweet flavor. A “mulling” spice, if you will.

You need a pinch of whole black cloves. This adds a SUPER intense smokey flavor that I just love.

Let’s make some Chai! Because I’m still surprised I’m awake…

You’ll need a mortar and pestle. If you don’t have one, they aren’t expensive to buy. You could grind everything up in a grinder, but I don’t think having a powder works quite as well.

I’ve mentioned before how much I love mine. It was a wonderful gift from my parents and a perfect use for making Chai.

Since I made Chai only for myself, this is 1 1/2 cups of water I put into a sauce pan to heat. Let the water get a little hot before you add in the tea.

So while that’s happening, you can make your Chai mixture.

Break up the cinnamon either with your hands or with the pestle (the “bat” used to crush things)

Place all the ingredients into the mortar and pestle and go to town to crush it all up!

This is what you end up with. I inhaled this mixture about a million times, and that alone made me feel a ton better. All the oils were released and it smelled so wonderful.

When the water is hot (not boiling), add in the tea bags and stir. Let it steep for 5-10 minutes.

It’ll turn a lovely mahogany color as it’s steeping. Soooo pretty!

Add in the Chai mix to the water and tea bags. Let it heat through another 5 minutes or so and stir well. As you do, you’ll really smell the Chai and your nose will grow impatient.

When it’s all done, pour the tea into a measuring cup. This will make for easy pouring into your cup.

Using a strainer, pour the tea into your cup.

The strainer will catch all the tea mixture, but leave the great intense flavor in your cup.

Traditionally, Chai is served with milk and sugar. It’s how I’ve always had it growing up, so having tea just straight black, tastes horrible to me.

You really only want enough milk to turn the Chai into a beautiful chestnut color. You’ll need to add quite a bit of sugar to help sweeten it. If you don’t, it’ll be REALLY strong. I mean, I guess you could leave it that way, but I like it sweet.

So there you go! It’s definitely not hard to make your own Chai and beats what ever they serve you at your local coffee shop because that’s almost always pre-made. That’s definitely not my BAG. Heh heh. Sorry, the puns are thanks to the cold. Although, my sniffles have reduced a ton thanks to this tea. I’m not kidding: cure for the common cold. Well, at least I like to think so.

]]> http://notaleaf.com/2010/03/05/how-to-make-chai/feed/ 8 http://notaleaf.com/2010/03/03/how-to-make-garam-masala/ http://notaleaf.com/2010/03/03/how-to-make-garam-masala/#comments Wed, 03 Mar 2010 05:03:54 +0000 Aparna B. http://notaleaf.com/?p=1583 Garam masala is the one spice mixture you need for Indian cooking. Store-bought doesn’t cut it for me. Call me high maintenance, but you can’t skimp on good flavor and spice!

I make a lot of curries and most every recipe,  if not all of them, requires 1 tablespoon (I like my curries spicy!) of this incredible spice. This is actually a combination of six different spices ground together into a fine powder.

Up until now, my mom made the masala for me because she makes huge batches and loves to share. But now I’m a grown up, so making it at home is super simple and now I’m going to let you in on the secret of how to make it!

Now, you could use the old fashioned method of making your own masala with a mortar and pestle. However, that isn’t ideal if you want to make big batches, like I did tonight.

This guide will show you how to make your own at home! It’s super easy and believe me, once you make it, you won’t ever buy store-bought again.

What you’ll need:
•2 tablespoons black cardamom seeds
•2 tablespoons whole peppercorns
•2 tablespoons cumin seeds
•2 tablespoons coriander seeds
•1 cinnamon stick
•2 whole dried red chilies

You also need a grinder. Like I said, you could use a mortar and pestle, but a coffee grinder would be a better choice. My mom actually has two: one for grinding coffee, and one for spices. Great investment.

Beautiful sight isn’t it? These are the spices you’ll need to make this masala. There are many variations to this recipe and I’m sure you can find them all online, but this is what my mom uses. So by default, this is what I use ;-) It’s all relative (ba-dum-bum pssh!)

Let’s talk about those spices in detail, shall we?

Coriander seeds are little tan seeds, which add a super strong, pungent taste to your masala.

Whole peppercorns don’t need any explanation. They’re spicy and necessary.

One whole cinnamon stick. This is going to add a spicy-sweet flavor to the masala. Don’t worry, you won’t use the whole thing (that would be WAY too overpowering), but this will add just a hint of sweet spice in the background. I guess kind of like nutmeg, but not as mild.

Whole dried red chilies. Yum! These will add such a kick. There is no such thing as “mild” garam masala, so don’t skimp. Add the heat.

Cumin seeds add a lovely smokey flavor to the masala. It’s not quite spicy, but it’s not bland either. I can’t explain it, except that it’s wonderful. Cumin seeds are used a lot on their own in other curries.

And finally we have black cardamom seeds. Cardamom is a very distinct spice used a lot in Indian cooking. Most people know cardamom as one of the main ingredients in Chai. That kind is the green pods, but these black seeds are used in garam masala. The more you know.

So those are the spices! They’re lovely and don’t fret. They aren’t as expensive as you might think. Most Indian grocery stores sell them in decent-sized bags for between $3-7. And believe me, they’ll last a long time, so it’s well worth your money.

To prepare the garam masala, you simply dry roast all these ingredients in a skillet over medium heat for 15 or so minutes.

Dry roasting is essential when making this. This will release all the oils in the spices and will create and incredible depth of flavor.

Every few minutes, lift the skillet off the heat and swirl it to stir the spices around. You want to dry roast the ingredients for up to 15 minutes, or until the air is aromatic. And believe me, you’ll know when it’s done.

Once it’s finished, turn off the stove and place the skillet on a cool burner. Let it cool completely (5-10 minutes) before you grind it.

Remove the cinnamon stick from the skillet and if you have a mortar and pestle, break it up and place only a few pieces back into the spice mixture. So basically what I did was roast the cinnamon to infuse the flavors into the skillet and then only using a little bit of it in the actual mixture so that it’s not overpowering. If you don’t have a mortar and pestle, just use a rolling pin or anything hard to help break up the stick. Save the rest of the cinnamon, too! You can use it in another dish or grate it over tea or cider.

Once the spices have cooled, you can take a little bit at a time and grind it down to a fine powder as shown above. Do this until the entire mixture is a fine powder.

The end result is this amazing little spice mountain of decadence. Store it into an jar or air tight container and it’ll keep for up to 6 weeks! You only need to use about 1/2 a tablespoon at a time when you add into your curries. Unless you’re me. Then you’ll be adding 1 tablespoon or more for that heat.

So that wasn’t too hard, right? The hardest part is finding all the spices, but once you get them, it’s smooth grinding from there.

So simple, so sinful.

I love potatoes. I really don’t think “love” is a strong enough word for how I feel about these starchy roots of heaven.

One of my coworkers and friends JLN told me how he made these mashed potatoes that were to die for, and then he 1-up’d himself and baked them.

That was enough for me to want to try this. I knew the basic recipe had to be easy. But what I really needed from him was the temperature to bake the dish. There are also a ton of recipes around the web about this dish, but I decided to take what I had and make it with those ingredients. Funny enough, the recipe he used, actually used the ingredients I had to use up! (I just said “use” a lot in that phrase..)

So yeah, if you have stuff in your fridge you need to use up, make this dish! It takes up to an hour from start to finish, but it’s well worth it.

Here’s what we used:
•5 russet potatoes, cut into 1-inch pieces. Leave the peels on! I love the potato skin
•5 oz. 1/3 less fat Neufchatel cheese (basically 1/3 less fat cream cheese. It’s what I had leftover from the cinnamon rolls)
•1/2 cup chopped chives (about 15 “strands” of chives I had leftover from baked potatoes we made a few days ago)
•1/4 cup light sour cream (this is optional. We didn’t end up using a lot of this)
•S&P to taste
•1 1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
•2 tablespoons margarine or butter

Boil the potatoes until their fork tender. Then drain them and transfer them back to your boiling pot (no need to dirty a new bowl)

Add in your cream cheese, sour cream and mash ‘em up! I don’t know why my masher decided to go MIA the one time I needed it, but fear not! Since the potatoes were so tender, we used a fork and it worked just as well. If you want yours super creamy, use a hand mixer if you have one. Would work beautifully for an extra creamy texture.

Then add in your chives and cheese. Chives add a lovely, mild onion flavor. You can totally take this out if you don’t want that. …But why would you NOT have sour cream and chives on a potato…? That’s just crazy talk.

Add some salt and pepper to taste.

Pour the entire pot of mashed potatoes into a lightly greased 9 x 13 glass baking dish (just spray with some cooking spray). Spread the mixture out evenly.

Take the 1-2 tablespoons of butter and break it up to spread evenly across the top of the potatoes.

Sprinkle some leftover cheese (or additional cheese in my case. ahem.) on top

Bake at 350ºF for 25-30 minutes or until the cheese is melted and the potatoes are golden brown.

Mmkay. I clearly don’t need to explain what’s going on in that picture. Did I mention how much I love potatoes?

Just little bites of heaven. Sigh. Love, love, love.

Unfortunately, using up those ingredients to make this dish only created more leftovers for me to get rid of… (–_–;  Ah well. All in the name of love.

Gooey, delicious, and guaranteed to be horrible for you, these cinnamon buns are amazing.

I can’t in any way take credit for this recipe. My future bro-in-law makes these buns and they are to DIE for. He uses the recipe off King Arthur Flour’s web site. And since that just so happens to be the flour we use, of course we had to try this recipe. He did offer some alterations and some tips for us that is different than the actual recipe, which I’ll talk allllll about here.

Warning: Butter WILL be your best friend in this recipe. So if you’re on a diet, I suggest turning away now. …But I hope you don’t, because it’s so delicious! Also, this recipe will make you lethargic. True story.

OK, so now that I’ve done my part and given you the warnings, we can go ahead and talk about how to make these rolls of heaven.

Cinnamonamaonamonamon buns starring:
The Dough:
•4 1/2 cups King Arthur All-Purpose Flour (or all-purpose flour if you don’t use this brand)
•1/2 cup of granulated sugar
•1 3/4 teaspoon salt
•1/3 cup unsalted butter, cut up
•2 large eggs, room temperature
•2 1/4 teaspoon instant yeast (we just used Red Star-brand active dry yeast)
•1 cup milk (lukewarm – just stick it into the microwave for 20-30 seconds. This is to help the yeast react properly)

The Filling:
•1 cup packed brown sugar (we used dark – more depth of flavor)
•1/3 cup unsalted butter, softened (just leave it out for 1-2 hours)
•3 tablespoons ground cinnamon

The Icing:
•3 oz. plain cream cheese (we used the 1/3 less fat neufchatel cheese, which isn’t as bad for you and has a lot more flavor)
•1 1/2 cup powdered (or confectioners) sugar
•1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
•1/4 cup unsalted butter, softened (that’s 1/2 a stick)

Start to make your dough by adding the milk, a little bit of the sugar (like 1/8 teaspoon) and the yeast to your mixer bowl. With the paddle attachment, start mixing the ingredients.

If you don’t have a stand mixer, you can use a hand mixer, or a wooden spoon.

Next, add the flour, rest of the sugar and the salt. Let the entire thing combine until it’s “cohesive” as the site would suggest. Then you can take it out and knead on a well oiled surface for 5-8 minutes. Or, you can attach the dough hook to your KitchenAid and knead it that way for 4-7 minutes on low-to-medium speed.

This is how the dough will look when it’s all nice and combined

Put the dough into a separate bowl, so you can clean out the metal mixer bowl and oil it. Then put the dough back into it and turn it around to oil it well. Next, turn on your oven to the lowest temperature (100 or 150ºF for maybe 1-2 minutes and then turn it off). Instead of just covering the dough with a towel or something, we put ours in the oven to rise. Just cover the bowl with plastic wrap and put it in the oven for 60 minutes so it can rise.

Go do your laundry, or play a video game or something for the hour while you wait for the dough to rise. It’ll go by quick, though!

When the dough is ready, oil a surface (or a few cutting boards in our case) and dump the dough ball onto it. Roll it out to 16 x 21 inches.

With your softened butter for the filling, spread it all over the dough. I know how horrible this looks, but believe me, you want it to look like this. It was a bit overwhelming, not going to lie. Now, I guess you could melt the butter first and then pour it onto the dough. Our butter was soft enough, so this worked just as well.

Then you want to sprinkle the entire thing with the cinnamon and sugar mixture. Get it all on there, too!

From the shortest end, start rolling the dough up into a tight log.

Cut the roll log into 12 pieces and place into a lightly greased 9 x 13 baking dish. It’s easiest to the cut the log into half, and then each half into six pieces.

Once you get all the pieces in your dish, you have to let them rise again. Cover the dish with plastic wrap, proof your oven again (set it to the lowest temperature for 1-2 minutes) and then turn the oven off, place the dish in there, and let them rise for 30 minutes.

It may not look like they’ve risen a ton, but they have.

Next, set your oven to 400ºF, and bake the rolls for 15 minutes. They won’t take long! So once the rolls are baking away, you can make your icing. You want to make the icing while they’re baking so that you can spread it on each bun as soon as they come out of the oven.

Mix the cream cheese (softened), butter (softened), powdered sugar and vanilla extract. You just use a fork and mix it well and you’ll end up with the most amazing cream cheese icing. Zomg. It took a lot not to eat the lovely forkful REB held up for me…

Moving on…

Spread the icing on the buns as soon as they come out of the oven. They’ll be all golden brown when they’re finished. The icing will instantly melt on top of each of the rolls. Must…contain…self.

If you notice one is missing, it’s because I snagged to take a photo of it. …or eat it. Ahem.

It’s OK to be jealous. Enjoy!