Garlic Scape Pasta

Fried bread crumbs.  This is an item that screams all that we are told is bad.  Too much processed wheat, gluten, fat, fried, and yeah - they are better with salt.

Well, some days you just gotta eat what tastes good.  Especially when you make it your self (mostly), and The Garlic Scapes are here.  And they won't be here for long.

Make something that will make you remember why you love them. And don't worry about the bad.  It will only happen once (or twice) and, and a seasonal indulgence is what living is all about.  Enjoy!  And then let it go - the seasons roll on.

Garlic Scape and Bread Crumb Pasta


(Step 0: Don't leave fresh bread on the counter while making the kittehs stay inside on a nice day.)


Ingredients:

6-10 garlic scapes

What are garlic scapes?
It is the stalk that grow up out of
hard neck garlic in the spring with a bud
on top that will eventually bloom in to
a flower that looks a bunch like a lily.
(well they are in the same family - alium - as lilies)
soft neck garlic is where we get the cloves.
They also come in not curly.

3 oz (fistfull) spaghetti/long noodles
sweet Italian sausage (or similar)
3 Tbs olive oil
2 handfuls bread crumbs (I used Panko)
salt & pepper
(red pepper flakes - optional)

(bread and nasturtium-shallot-garlic butter, optional)

Equipment:

large pot and lid
colander
sauté pan
stirring spatula
knife
cutting board
serving bowl
spaghetti spoon thingy


Prep:

Set the large pot with water over high heat and bring the noodle water to a boil.

While waiting for the water to boil -
Cut up the scapes - I like to do it on the bias.  Slice the buds on top in half or quarters (depending on how big they are).
Cook the sausages (pan fry or grill - or just pull pre-cooked ones from your freezer), and slice them.

Cook!

Cook the pasta noodles according to directions. (If they finish before you do the rest of the steps, drain the noodles, and add just enough oil to keep the noodles from sticking)

Heat a splash of oil some oil in a sauté pan over medium-high heat.  After 3 or so minutes (or a test bread crumb sizzles), add the bread crumbs and start to stir or toss vigorously.  When they look toasty, take them off the heat.  Then add salt and optional red pepper flakes to taste.  Dump them in a bowl, and set them aside.

Add another splash of oil, get the pan hot over medium-high heat, then add the garlic scapes and a pinch of salt.  Sizzle and stir them until the scapes soften and get a few brown edges.

Toss the cooked sausage slices at the end to heat them up, and maybe brown the edges a bit.

Stir together the noodles, the scapes and the bread crumbs.

Serve with amazing garlic bread, and sliced sausage.  Light, slightly acidy red wines goes great with this. (Chianti, Sangiovese, Montepulciano)

Eggs 'n' Herbs 'n' Lettuce

Hello sunshine!

Even if you are hiding behind a cloud, I know you are there.
Even if it is raining so hard the drops bounce and fall a second time, I know you are there, because it isn't dark.  And my cat is starting to do his passive-aggressive SUPER LOUD purr in my ear before the alarm goes off.
Which is his oh-so-gentle way of saying, "Hey lady! You, with the thumbs!  It is light outside, so why are you sleeping.  Change my water so I can splash it around and then come nap in your warm spot."

Anyway, it also means that the Farmers Markets are open and the herbs I repotted are keepin' up with the weeds, and the hens all over the Pacific NorthWe(s)t are cackling away over their new spring eggs.

Egg Salad time my friends!

Egg Salad Sandwich - the good kind

(for 1 sandwich - multiply as needed) 

Ingredients:

handful of herbs

(parsley, cilantro, basil, chives, oregano, maybe a little mint - whatever is available.)

2 eggs

lettuce

mayonnaise

1/2 tsp mustard

salt & pepper to taste

bread

Equipment:

pot with a lid

slotted spoon

kitchen towel

"cereal" sized bowl

fork

Prep:

Fill the pot about half full of water, enough to cover the eggs, plus a little.

Place the eggs in gently, and out on high heat.  

Keep an eye on it while rinsing and chopping up the herbs.

Also give the lettuce a quick rinse and dry.

As soon as the eggs come to a full, rolling boil.  Turn off the heat and let them sit there for about 5 minutes.  If you end up letting them sit for half and hour, they will still be fine.

Cook:

Remove the eggs from the hot water with a slotted spoon.  Place them on the kitchen towel so they can dry and cool enough to handle.

Give them a few gentle knocks on the counter, and peel off the shell.

Tear the peeled eggs in half, and put them in the cereal bowl.  Start mashing them with a fork.  Add a spoonful of mayo, the mustard, and the herbs.  Mash until chunky, but well mixed.  If it looks too dry, add a little more mayonnaise.

Taste for seasoning.  Add salt and pepper until it tastes just right.

Spoon some on to some bread, toss a lettuce leaf on top, finish making the sandwich and enjoy.

Variations:

There's no rule that says you HAVE to make it a sandwich.  Crackers are good, as are sliced veg, tortillas or other flatbread.


Popping egg salad inside a hollowed out cherry tomato makes you look fancy!

My favorite lazy way to make hardboiled eggs is in my electric kettle.  Put in the eggs, hit the on switch, and get back to the eggs in a bit.

(Paleo and Gluten Free people - ignore the bread but still go make this)

(For my longest readers - yes, this is a revisit, but THIS time, I wrote down a recipe!)

Sorrel Gremolata

Sorrel.  

When poor Bilbo Baggins finds himself on the other side of the Misty Mountains in The Hobbit, pony-less and thus provision-less, one thing he grabs to eat along the trail is sorrel.

One of the first greens of spring, it brings a fresh burst of vitamin C, which in the raw state comes across as pucker sour.  No lemons you say? At the start of spring, get your sour here.

Ingredients:

sorrel - handful

garlic cloves - 1 or 2  

blanched almonds - small handful (optional)

Equipment:

cutting board & knife

or

small food processor

Prep:

Wash the sorrel and remove the stems.

Peel the garlic.

Cook:

Chop the garlic and sorrel (and optional almonds) into smithereens.  

Ta-Da!

Gremolata as sour as you'd ever like, and not a lemon in sight.

Use to top anything that needs a little kick.

I used it on these giant beans, but it is great on cooked carrots, baked potatoes, roasted squash, fish baked in butter, garlic, parsley, salt & pepper, or mixed into mayo on a sandwich.  The last Tbs goes into the base of a salad dressing perfectly.

Solar System Voyage between the Smithsonians

In 2006 T & I got to follow my husband for a visit to Maryland, and took a day to go see a few sights in DC.  At that point he was 3, and learning the planets in preschool.  As we walked past the Smithsonian Castle on the way to the Air & Space Museum we found the "Voyage."

T at the start of the Voyage in 2013

Why am I sharing this with you?  3 Reasons.

1. It is a REALLY cool thing to do while eating ice cream, or just taking a break from so much inside-y-ness, and a fun way to get from one Smithsonian to another.

2. It was so much fun looking at these photos side by side. (Loopily self indulgent)

3. I couldn't remember exactly where it ran between, and I couldn't find anything online that pinpointed it's location.  So I am doing that.

The Pluto (dwarf planet) end is here:

Right by the Mall side (Jefferson Ave.) entrance of the
Smithsonian Castle

The What?

The Original Smithsonian

The one across from the National Gallery

And the Sun end is at the West end of the National Air & Space Museum.  

So, here's 2006 vs. 2013 at Pluto:

At Neptune:

Uranus was much more successful this time.  In 2006 it was in the center of a construction zone. So this is the best picture we were able to get of it.

See there it is, WAY in the back.
Wait, let me zoom in on that a bit...

 See? Much better.  And 2013 of course.

On to Saturn:

And Jupiter.  For scale - this is a 1:1/10,000,000,000 scale model (1 ten billionth) making the walk about 600m (0.4 mi), and this means Jupiter is about the size of the end of T's nose.

See the white dot in the center of
the black oval plaque?
That's scale Jupiter.  So most of the
planets are pin-dot size or smaller.

A quick stop at the Asteroid Belt:

And on to the Rocky Planets -
Mars:

Mars is SO cool these days

Home Sweet Home:

Venus - the green house disaster.  Yah know, people say that Venus is DOOMED to be this hot gas enshrouded rock forever.  But doesn't that make it the perfect test platform for de-greenhouseing?  Close by, already a mess, and big enough to (obviously) hang on to an atmosphere, however noxious to us feeble humans.

Mercury - the moon's twin.  Trivia: Mercury is further away from the sun than we are from Mercury. 

And the Sun!  I'll leave you with another Air & Space museum stat:

If you lined up all the planets size by side (you can even count Pluto if you want), 4 sets would line up across the sun, leaving enough room for an extra Saturn, 4 Earths and 1 Mercury.

And so I will end with 2 other pieces of silliness.

1.  Quick conversation re: DC scenery

Me: So when we get home, what are you tell dad you saw?

T: Busses.  Lots of busses.

2. Kids these days.

No... That's not a touch screen.
(National Air & Space Museum 2013)

Food Spoils from Costa Rica

Costa Rican Breakfast

I am the first to admit of a certain amount of food ignorance when it comes to our neighbors to the south.  I know of the meats on swords from Argentina, the Tex-Mex variant of Mexican food (beans, rice, tortillas and chips, pico de gallo & cheddar cheese everywhere), tostones (best use of green plantains), molé (chocolate for dinner?) and queso fresco and horchata.   But when it comes to local specialties and deep knowledge.  I can say the words on the menu, but I mostly don't know what I'm talking about.

I was lucky enough to get to go to Costa Rica for 5 days.  It wasn't the trip I would have chosen, but notice me not refusing.  Hey... it's 45˚F at home and 92˚F there.  Bathing suit, ponytail holder, sunglasses, sandals and a dress.

And sunscreen.  I'll be using Nordic 70.  Thanks.  Otherwise I'll look like a monkey's butt, and feel like one of those burned fields I passed.

Anyway, we had a tour guide on our drive from the airport to the resort where we were staying.  After he introduced us to "Pura Vida," gave us a run down on the local landscape, that fact that littering with bottles is a fire hazard in CR (the magnifying glass effect - dang!), coati descriptions (raccoon + monkey) and some monkey sounds, he asked us if we had any questions.

"Tell me about the food."

So he did.  The big points:
1. Not so much fans of the spicy.  A small consumption of chiles.  I never found ANYthing that was "too hot."
2. Corn is not the grain of choice - rice wins.
3. The starch of choice is plantain, green or ripe.
4. The national liquor is Cacique Guaro, fermented sugar cane - but it isn't rum.  (my favorite way is in a Caipirinha)
5. Eat more fruit, and if you don't feel like eating it, drink it.  ¡Agua Fresca!
6. Chicken, Pork, Beef or Seafood - with rice & beans, or beans & rice.  And plantains.  And a soft white cheese.
7. Picadillo - A mixture of diced vegetables and meats.   Eaten as a relish and with rice. Try lots of different sorts.  Most are good.  Some are great.  Always herbs, often tomatoes, sometimes vinegar.

So as far as I can tell, if there is a Global Meal, that the whole world can sit down over, it is going to be Chicken Rice.

I sorted out the "everyday" diet of the "average" Costa Rican (I'm using quotes based on my own acceptance that some MAJOR streamlining had taken place for my gringo oídos.)  But is was still plenty of new information, and I found most of what he told me about.  Interestingly much of the best was at breakfast.  But that may have had more to do with the fact that breakfast was a buffet.

And the dishes worth pursuing turned out to be:

Platános Maduros en Tortillas con Natilla
"Plantain Tortillas with Sour Cream"
-note the sour cream is more like Mexican "crema" than American sour cream, has a cheesier flavor, and kept at air temp for longer.  Air temp can be closer to 85˚F.

Gallo Pinto
"Spotted Rooster"
Breakfast of Everyone.  Rice sauteed with overnight cooked beans, onion, sweet pepper and cilantro.

eat this with

Salsa Lizano
(known as "lizard sauce" to some of the more suspicious).
A greenish sauce of concentrated vegetable mystery with a definite sour savory flavor.  Sort of the Worcestershire Sauce of Costa Rica, but with a sour, mild chile kick and good on everything but ice cream.

Plátanos Maduros Fritos con Queso
"Fried Sweet Plantains with Cheese"

Sweet plantains are fried, split down the center, so they look a bit like a canoe, and filled with shredded cheese.  This is a mild white cheese, and the assembly is baked until the cheese melts into mozzarella like gooey-ness.


I also found a recipe for the same thing baked where the plantains are brushed with oil and baked instead of deep fried.  That makes more sense to me since you have to bake the darn things anyway.  And cleaning up after deep frying... bleh!

And the easiest one.  The food (well, drink) that has me smacking my forehead in sheer DUH!

Aqua Fresca

"Fresh Water" literally.  But really a refreshing drink for all seasons.

We go al multi-fruit smoothie in this country.  There's a need to add a little of this and a little of that.  How about, just whirring up some fruit that's almost too ripe to eat, add just a little water, maybe a little lemon or lime juice, and enjoying?

A few recipes are coming...

So You Know That Book I Keep Talking About?

That's my book!

It is beginning to have a physical existence.  This book actually has pictures that have been taken (well LOTS of pictures.  That's what I did last summer.  Cook food while pictures got taken.)  But now the text and photos have been laid out on pages.  And I have some!

OK, they will be bound into a book.
But actual pages!

But I have a Facebook Page for it.  And will soon have a website for it (guess what I'm doing this weekend...)

There will be a few recipes - a link to find local Farmer Markets and CSA in your area, and of course - a way to buy my book.  (Duh!)

And even if you are never ever gonna cook - check out these amazing photos!  I wish I knew how my amazing photographer Vee Sawyer created such beautiful art out of MY food, that I made.
I'm still somewhat stunned.

(Phew!  Now just 700 more hours of editing...)

New Flavor Day - Za'atar

... or zahtar.  That's the problem with transliteration.  No one can agree on the spelling.

What is it?

For our purposes* - it is a spice mixture popular particularly in Middle Eastern countries - especially the ones facing the Mediterranean.  It's also a name for a shrub - and attaches itself to other things, but here I'm talking about the spice - and specifically RED za'atar - the kind with sumac berries!†


Partly due to laziness and other partly due to  buzy-ness, I just hadn't gotten my hands on any.  I've been hearing about sumac - it's mysterious citrusy sourness, and the tongue tingling taste that is the herb mix za'atar for years.  Well finally it is MINE!

And it was about time.
Often eaten as a condiment to flatbread - I opened up my fridge, did a little taste testing and went savory sweet.


Fastest Way to Enjoy Za'atar

Toast a tortilla (my fridge had corn) or other flatbread,
Add butter - and get it melty.
Sprinkle on a little salt, a little sugar, and lots of za'atar.
It will disappear.




* Just a little looking around shows me that the word "za'atar" is a little like the word "curry."  It means many things to many people, is location specific, and has muddy boundaries.  There is one version that will be known "world wide," and that will change over time.  But in the meantime, this version is pretty awesome.  It's now available all over the place online, and in almost anyplace that sells loose spices (like the bulk section of my favorite grocery store), and I'm guessing soon to be found in the spice aisle in bottles.  And easy to find in your local middle eastern grocery.  If one of those is easy to find.

† If you are anything like me, you may have been told of "poison sumac," a plant that gives you the same type of rash as poison ivy/oak.  This is an entirely different genus of plant - and completely unrelated.  All the same I was suspicious there a bit of this "sumac" stuff.  Silly me.