Moving On

I have moved on from blogger. I am getting more and more involved in the blog and design limitations of blogger are starting to get to me. I wanted a host that could grow with me and so have chosen TypePad for now. Here is the link http://etalvarez.typepad.com/blog/ Hope to see you all there! Oh and this one links straight to my facebook!

Arroz Con Pollo a La Carrera

Some days we just want dinner now and we want it to be easy. We don't want to worry about going to a restaurant or ordering anything. On days like that, we have Arroz con Pollo a La Carrera, which means quick chicken and rice. I make it quick by using Uncle Bens Instant Brown Rice which is far superior to any other instant rice I have tried. I have tried making it with Minute Rice and the results were horrible. Instant white rice is also just a bad idea in this recipe. Make sure you use a skillet with a lid or a pot with a lid, when I make this with long cooking rice I usually use my Le Creuset but for this recipe that is sort of over kill.


Ingredients:
4 to 5 Boneless Skinless Chicken Thighs
1 Tbs Olive oil
1 Small Yellow Onion - Diced
3 Large Cloves of Garlic - Minced
2 Packets of Sazon Goya*
1 cup Uncle Ben’s Instant Brown Rice
1 tsp Red Pepper Flake†
Salt to Taste

Heat pot/pan to high heat, add olive oil, chicken, peppers and salt. Sauté uncovered for 2 minutes or until the chicken is no longer raw on the outside. Lower the heat to medium high and place cover on pot/pan and let cook covered for about 5 minutes. Remove cover and stir. Use your spoon to shred and cut up the chicken into smaller pieces if you so desire. Add onion, Sazon Goya and Garlic. Stir and let cook until the onions are translucent.

Add the cup of rice and stir in. Then add 1 ¾ cups water, stir together, cover and reduce heat to low. Let cook covered for 10 minutes.

We like to serve it with a nice salad, some shredded cheese and hot sauce, maybe good sour cream if we use too much chili pepper to cool it a little if needed. This can serve two very hungry people or four not so hungry people.

*If you cannot find Sazon Goya you may substitute 2 parts cumin, 1 part garlic powder and 1 part onion powder and 1 part salt. It’s not exactly the same but it’s close.
† We often use a tablespoon maybe more depending how spicy we want it. You can also substitute fresh chilies or dried chili de arbol.

What the Chicken and onions looks like right before you add the rice.

Chimicurri Salmon Burger with Sweet Potato Chips

I must say I am not a huge fan of Salmon or Sweet Potatoes. But they are suposedly really good for you... so what to do. Well I figured why not make a burger and fries but "healthy". Here's what I came up with.



Burgers:
2 6oz frozen filets of Salmon
1 cup bread crumbs
1 egg
1/2 cup chopped flat leaf parsley (or to taste)
2 garlic cloves
1 tbsp olive oil
Zest of 1 lemon
Salt and pepper to taste



Chop up the salmon and mix with all the ingredients. Then form 4 patties. Set aside for 10 minutes or so. This will let them set and keep their shape when you cook them. Place a skillet over high heat and let it get white hot. Rub olive oil on one side of each burger and place, oil side down, in the skillet and cook for 45 seconds. Turn the heat to low and cook for another 2 minutes. Flip is over and cook until done.



Sweet Potatoes:
2 large sweet potatoes
4 tbs olive oil - or enough to coat the potatoes
4 tbsp chopped Italian flat leafed parsley
3 garlic cloves
Salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Place sheet pan in oven to preheat.

Peel and Slice sweet potatoes into1/4 inch rounds. Toss with all the ingredients. Put on preheated sheet pan in one even layer. Cook for about 15-20 minutes or until the potatoes are done.



Fennel and Watercress Salad

1 cup sliced fennel
1 cup water crest
1 lemon (the one you zested)
2tsp of Olive oil
Salt and Pepper to taste.

Toss together at the last minute.


Goat Cheese Spread
4 oz room temperature goat cheese
4oz crème fresce
2 red chilies
1 tsp olive oil

Mix together and set aside so the flavors will meld together.


Once all your components are complete place the goat cheese spread on the bottom half of a toasted ciabatta roll. Place the salmon burger on top of the cheese and the fennel salad on top of the burger. Serve with the sweet potato chips.


As I said before, I am not a huge fan of salmon, but these burgers might just make a convert of me. Oh and the sweet potatoes are incredible!! I think I need to fine tune this so don't be surprised if it's back up here on the blog in a few weeks.

Fricase De Cordero

 

It's not uncommon for Tom and I to look at eachother at night and ask "So what do you want to do about dinner?" More often than not the answer includes something spicy over rice. Inspired by our upcoming trip to Spain we decided to make a Spanish influenced dinner dish. However, Tom really wanted spicy Mexican food, so this was our compromise. I was going to use tomatoes but forgot to buy some so I made it without and it turned out real well. Here's the recipe with pictures and all!




Ingredients:

1 lb of Ground Lamb

1/2 Cup of diced Chorizo

9 Cremini Mushrooms

4 Cloves of Garlic

1/2 large onion

2 tbs Olive Oil

2 tsp cumin

1 tsp Smoked Paprika

5 Chili de Arbols (dried)

1 tbs Guajilla Peppers (flakes)

1 tbs Ancho Chilli Pepers (flakes)

2 glasses of wine (about half a bottle)

Salt to taste



Chop the chorizo and onion into small pieces. Slice the Cremini mushrooms and dice the garlic



Place a large skillet over low heat and let sit for a minute. Add the olive oil and chorizo. Let the chorizo render out for about a minute. The add the onions and sauté until they soften. Next add the Chilies and sauté for another 45seconds to a minute.



Raise the heat to medium high and add the mushrooms sautéing until they get a little brown. Then add the lamb but do not turn the heat up. This works better on a medium to medium high heat as the lamb stays more tender.



After a minute or two add the garlic, cumin, smoked paprika and stir. Saute this together for another few seconds or until you can really smell the spices. Add the wine and let it reduce until it’s at your desired consistency. Serve over rice (in this case brown rice) and enjoy!

 

Food obsession and Illness

As those of you who read my blog know I am slowly becoming more and more obsessed with what goes into my mouth and the mouth of my family. I figured I was alone amoungst my friends in this and that I was sort of going off the deep end here. However I just came accross the blog of my friend Erin who has a similar obsession. Her blog is exceptionally written and I have really enjoyed reading it.

Her comment on her medication in particular reminded me of why I don't like vitamins. Most of the sources are derived from petroleum and they are made in China. China, the country that made baby formula that killed babies and dog food that killed dogs. I am supposed to take vitamins made out of gas which is lethal if ingested made in a country with a history of making lethal food products?! I think my hesitance is not unfounded.

So what's the big deal? Why don't I just not take the vitamins? Well for three reasons: 1. Because Tom likes to take them and he likes to insist that I take them. 2. Because my Dr. told me to take vitamin D because I am supposedly very deficient. Not that it is a huge shock, seeing as I live in Seattle where there is no sun. 3. and this is the most important one, IT'S IN EVERYTHING!! From bread to granola to milk to cheese you name it it's in there. Every food that has any sort of process, including something as simple as artisinal bread, has vitamins in it. Even buying flour to make your bread at home is down right impossible as even in the grinding of the flour they manage to somehow "enrich" it.

But I digress, as I often do, when what I really wanted to call to attention was that I find it ironic that both Erin and Myself where so distrustful of some of the food/vitamins we ingest and where it came from. I wanted to draw attention to the fact that we both have food allergies/stomach problems. I often wonder how I survived before now? How did I eat fruit loops as a kid and not get sick? How did I ingest too much Diet Coke and not get sick until now. Are we possibly bringing this upon ourselves and these food allergies/stomach problems aren't really a problem we where born with but rather something we have gotten ourselves into with all this enriching and processing? I lean toward this answer as it's the only thing that makes sense.

So basically if food that has all these "great vitamins and nutrients" added are making me sick when I eat them, but food that doesn't have all these wonderful things in it don't make me sick then I don't think that I am unfounded in my sentiments.

So here is Erin's Awesome Blog! go check it out.

The end of the road for Diet Coke

Since I was a little girl I have drunk Diet Coke. I was given it as a fat child instead of juice because it was better for me. It had no calories and as such would help me lose weight. Back then we didn't know it made you fatter and messed with blood sugar levels in ways unseen in regular products. So I drank it happily. Sometime in the late 90s I started hearing how bad it was but I figured what the hell, it has no calories so what's the big deal. I don't care about the potential risk so long as I don't get fatter. But I did get fatter.



In college the pivot point came when a roommate of mine said, I bet you can't give up diet coke. I took the bet and come to find she was right. Shockingly so actually. My first attempt played out like this, I tried not drinking soda for a few days and had such an excruciating headache that I was confined to my bed for days. Finally I gave in and drank some. It literally felt like I had come to life again. Now I was scared. VERY scared. How could it be that a beverage held this much power over my ability to function? What did this mean?


I tried multiple times to give it up, swearing that I would do it and while some of my other trials where more successful, they all left me drinking diet pop of some kind. The really odd revelation came when I started drinking caffeine free pop and found that it kept me from having a headache but coffee, with a much higher caffeine level, did not keep me from headaches. This lead me to believe that what I was so addicted to was not the caffeine and as such that was why the headaches never went away. I tried everything and anything and lived in both shame and enslavement. I had to have the Diet Coke every morning or I couldn't function.


The worse came when I was diagnosed with IBS and GERD. I had to try and give it up again and the doctors request and found that I was actually not able to digest my food properly without the Diet Coke. Here I was beyond scared. I had actually started to use this beverage to digest my food. Was that even possible? I had heard rumors of cola companies cleaning their trucks and engines with the stuff but thought it was just a joke. I now started to think that maybe they were right.


I tried as I always did and had much the same results. I was off the diet coke but was drinking just as much Fresca really any better? I didn't feel better and my doctor didn't like it any more. So she finally told me some people just can't change their habits and so I gave up and figured I would live a life dependant on that stupid beverage and suffer stomach pains forever.


So I placed my usual order of 10-2 liter bottles of Diet Coke at Amazon fresh and lo and behold I accidently ordered caffeine free. So I asked if I could exchange them and they said they would just credit me the money and I could order a new round. But they were out and so I would have to go to the store and get some. I was super busy that week and it turns out I ran out of Diet Coke before I could get more. The caffeine free stuff was there when I ran out and so I drank it. Oddly enough I felt a lot better after a day of drinking that instead of the caffeine stuff. My stomach was better and my IBS was a lot better. I thought ok well hey no more caffeine for this monkey. At least one habit was kicked and I felt so much better.


I was reveling in this great news when I ran out of the Caffeine free stuff. I did have another bottle of the regular stuff and so I drank it with dinner and planned to get more of the caffeine free stuff the next day. At around 12:00am I started to feel great pain in my stomach. So much so I thought it was my gallbladder and that I would need emergency surgery. I even made us go to the store and get a thermometer to make sure that I did not have a fever. I ended up taking an alka seltzer and 3 gas pills and after a night of, well quite honestly pain and flatulence, I woke up wanting a glass of water.


That one craving was my win. I have never in all my life craved water upon waking up. Sure I did when I was done at the gym or when I was out in the hot sun occasionally prefer water over Diet Coke. But never in the morning when I needed it to help settle my stomach. It has now been 3 days since the last diet sode and with the exception of an occasionally Zevia or sparkling water I have been drinking mostly water and frankly I have not craved the diet coke. I have thought about maybe having one with lunch and the thought of it makes my stomach hurt.


I didn't write anything about this until now because I worried I might just be a temporary stage, much like Dr. Jekyll was after the slaying of Mr. Carew and that in much the same way, I might wake up with an empty can in my hand. This doesn't seem to be the case though and I am finally free of the pain and the shame of the evilest drink in the world!


I am proud to say that I am now Diet Coke free!!

Cuban Sandwich + Redmond Family Pancake House FTW!

For those of you who know me, you know my obsession with Cuban sandwiches. It's not just a craving; it's an outright obsession. Ever since moving to the West coast some 12-13 years ago I have come to accept that the need will always be there in the back of my mind, nagging at me. The only thing that is worse than the craving is when I order something that is supposed to be a Cuban sandwich, and it's not! That really sucks. That last comment makes you wonder why the hell I ordered the damn thing in the first place...

This morning Tom and I decided we where gonna go to the Redmond Family Pancake House. Tom really likes their pancakes and I enjoy their food overall. I walk in and I see on the specials board that they have a Cuban sandwich. After looking the menu over I decide to order one. Now I don't know if it was that I am currently sick with a cold or that I was kind of in a weird mood cuz of work issues but I went ahead and ordered it knowing full well that the sandwich would likely not be what I wanted. Looking back I think it was probably the oddity of the situation. I mean really, in Redmond, at the FPH of all places, a Cuban sandwich? Therefore I set my expectations accordingly and expected a ham sandwich with a few pickles.

Well ladies and gentlemen, it came out and it looked nothing like a Cuban sandwich. That was expected. The first bite however made my brain do a triple take. Kind of like when you pick up an empty suitcase you thought was full, that is the sort of triple take I am talking about. It tasted EXACTLY like a Cuban sandwich. It was the flavor of my childhood right there. The ham, the pickles, the pork and all layered between the crunchy, perfectly toasted, slices of bread. All the flavors where perfect. The pork, the one thing everyone messes up, was perfect. It was not dry or spice rubbed or any of that nonsense. It was actually well made pork. As far as the bread goes, they must have put like a stick of butter on that bread cuz I didn't miss the Cuban bread at all. You got all the crunch you are used to from the Cuban bread.. It was so damned good I didn't even eat my fries... I just ate the sandwich and that was it. After the fulfillment of a craving such as this, there is no need for anything else.

So there you have it, an authentic tasting Cuban sandwich at Redmond Family Pancake House. I think Hell might have just frozen over.

 

Grass Fed Beef for Lazy City Dweller

So I have been spending a lot of time looking for good beef products that are grass fed and pasture finished. I have searched a lot on this new interwebs and frankly I am highly disapointed. It turns out that unless you want to buy a 1/2 side, which for those of you who don't know it's a whole 1/4 cow, you are looking at almost no options. Frankly, I don't fancy the idea of freezing a quarter cow, even if it is butchered for me. I am not even sure my freezer can fit all that beef to be honest with you. As a sort of gage, a cow AFTER slaughter is 600lbs on average. So 150lbs of beef... it's like the costco trip from hell.

Now don't get me wrong, I like buyign in bulk, hell I like going to costco. Turns out they have good organic chicken and from the research I have done, it's pretty legit. That said, I could fathom going through 150lbs of chicken with a great deal more ease than 150lbs of cow.

So this means that for me the local options are pretty much bunk, at least for the times of the year when the Redmond farmers market is closed. I had to find another option and things weren't looking good.

Then one day I stumble into PCC and while looking for lamb find grass fed beef. Here comes that Jaded interior monologue "Ok, so what. Whole foods CLAIMS to have grass fed too, but they finish it on potatoes and corn" which to me is wrong on both a humane and a nutritional level.

Here's why; in the humane aspect they are still basically torturing the thing. The cow doesn't wanna be in a pen eating corn, no matter how organic, it's not meant for that. Let the cow eat grass and pasture feed till the end. Plus you already invested in keeping it on the land for the whole year before you finished it, why not just ride it out? I don't get it. It's lame.

As far as nutrition is concerned, you have pretty much destroyed the whole benefit of growing it on grass! The Omega 6s once again outweigh the Omega 3s in that unhealthy balance that we consier "heart attack worthy". It's actually been shown that grass fed beef can have more Omega 3s than Salmon... why the hell would you destroy that in the last 3 months of life, I just don't get it. Not to mention all the junk you have to feed it so it will not get sick off of that feed! AND frankly for me, it's outright deceptive! The consumer purchases this beef wanting to do right by themselves and the animal; in finishing the beef and then labeling it as grass fed you are lieing to the consumer. PERIOD.

Ok so back to the PCC beef. So I see this package of grass fed beef and think what the hell. I ask a few questions and decide, after they say it's pasture finished and "local" to give it a go. I buy the ground beef as here is where the real flavor of the fat is most easily seen and cook it up.

I will say it tasted like grass fed beef. For those of your that have never had it imagine a cow and a salmon have a very delicious baby and that's kind of as close as I can get. It just tastes a lot better and so I started doing some research. Turns out, it is grass fed and finished. How do I know, well their websites says so and after talking with the good people at the PCC, their main meat guy, and the folks at Eel River Farms I have been assured it is. Short of stopping by to check it out I must say I am convinced.

Here it is what their website says about it:

"Unlike conventional cattle and many organic cattle, our cattle remain on certified organic pastures their entire life, never being placed in feedlots for finishing, before they are harvested. By setting these high grass-fed standards, we can assure you that you the consumer are receiving the highest quality, healthiest grass-fed product available. Our cattle never leave the sub-irrigated clover and rye grass pastures they are accustomed to. Also, these pastures allow us to finish a high quality grass finished product that is a pleasure to eat and healthy all at the same time."

I got this from their website, here.

So, I have finally found and researched a beef product I would like to eat and serve to loved ones. I have also been told that it is the nearest large provider of meat. The smaller ones in the area that only sell by the whole cow are way to small to stock a PCC shelf.

Then I went and looked at the other grocery stores. No such luck. I felt a bit upset. I mean, really PCC does have a sort of hippie/hipster following and in my opinion they usually skirt the line between grocery store and health food store. So in my jaded internal voice I say "well of course PCC has it, but I can't even buy a diet coke there, what "normal" person would shop there. How is this really any better for us as a nation. I mean, PCC is catering to people who already eat well and look after themselves. Yeah it's great that they have this product and yes I do buy it there and am greatful for it. But in the end as far as our general population, PCC is the logical place.

So imagine my delight while during my guiltiest of food pleasures, ordering from AmazonFresh, I encounter Rocky Mountain Grass Fed Beef. Again the Jaded voice "yeah sure grass fed for 14 days before it's stuffed full of corn, at the very least they are finishing it on corn and potatoes". So I again research. I would like to point out that I am sure every butcher in seattle and it's outlieing areas hates me by now. Not to mention the providers, but I digress. I research this beef and I order some. Holly Cow (no pun intended) this is once again, the real deal. I can't believe it. On AmazonFresh, where they sell paper towels cheaper than costco, where they sell the average grocery items like Diet Coke and Lays Potato chips and all other manner of god forsaken supposedly terrible for you food, I have found this!! Unbelievable. I can get grass fed beef DELIVERED TO MY DOOR!!

This leaves me with a few final thoughts, all of which are positive. (surprising for me I know)

- I can buy grass fed, good for me beef at a local store which, as luck would have it, is within walking distance to my house. (in Ed Hill that's rare as I think we have the lowest possible walking score)

- I can also have gras fed beef DELIVERED TO MY DOOR!!

- There are grocery stores that carry this stuff. I am thinking, this has to mean that I am not the only person looking for it. More people are being educated on the importance of this type of meat and are demanding it, hence the placement in PCC and AmazonFresh

- Here is the one that is most exciting. This type of humane, well raised, natural (in the real sense not the marketed over hyped bullshit sense) is being raised in a large enough quantity to be put on grocery shelves!

As negative and jaded as I have become regarding this country's food habits, laws, etc. I am feeling kind of, dare I say it, good about this. I don't have to be some sort of wild hippy who wants to buy a half a cow or an eccentric foodie (which I admit I am) to get my hands on this. I just have to walk into my local co-op or surf into AmazonFresh and say I would like a pound of ground beef, grass fed please. And there, on the shelf, both virtual and real, all shrink wrapped (the american standard you know) it will be. Same with many other cuts and even sausages.

Now I am on to find good pork... local and natural (again real natural, not marketing crap natural) although with this particular meat I might be more lucky as I can easily imagine putting away at least half, if not a whole pig. This might be worth the extra freezer in the garage...

Veggies and Sausage with Quinoa

Tom and I are always trying to get more vegetables in our diet. Don't get me wrong, we eat a lot of veggies but for some reason it always ends up having tons of cheese and oil. Kind of defeats the purpose in my opinion. I will admit though that I am really lazy. I don't always want to chop and wash and clean a million fresh veggies, nor do I want to head out to the store every day for the freshest produce or have it rot on me cuz we didn't eat it.

This recipe is a direct result of this desired "healthier eating" and my laziness. It  uses only two fresh tomatoes, the only vegetable Tom and I almost always have on hand. Everything else is frozen! Here's how it plays out.

Main
1 package (8) Spicy Italian Sausages (the pre cooked kind.)
1.5 cup boxed tomatoes (or canned chopped same thing)
1 bag of frozen green beans (we buy the young ones that are multi colored cuz they taste far better than the
                                              regular ones)
2 tbs balsamic vinegar (do not waste the good stuff here, cheap is perfect)
1 tsp olive oil, salt and pepper

Topping
2 roma tomatoes

Starch
1.5 cups uncooked quinoa that I make in the rice cooker cuz I am again, lazy!



Here's what it looked like on the stove. Check out that steam!

This is what the tomatoes looked like. I like to sprinkle them with salt and half the olive oil cuz it pulls out the juices and makes the flavor and texture better, so I think.

I put the quinoa in the rice cooker, it cooks just like white rice. I then cooked all the main together until it was, well, done. Then I tossed it all together with the quinoa and added the raw tomatoes. We think the quinoa makes it healthier than if we had used rice. I have read it's a complete protein. Don't know if I believe it or not but in the end it tastes great and I don't feel guilty eating it. Win-Win.

The finished dish, YUMMM!