Veggie Stir Fry

My mom is currently on a low-gluten diet and I'm not eating a lot of meat, which eliminates two of my family's standby meals--pasta and meat+potatoes. We decided to make this delicious veggie stirfry instead.

A few stirfry tips:
- Cut the veggies small--you want them to cook quickly and evenly.
- Put in the hardest vegetables first (like broccoli or carrots) and save the softest veggies for last (like bean sprouts or bok choy). This way they will all be fully cooked.
- Use a really, really hot pan, and stir often. Adding veggies in stages will help keep the pan hot.
- Good seasonings include: ginger, garlic, soy (or tamari to keep it gluten free), sesame oil and sesame seeds. We also used garlic chives for added flavor and vegetable.
- If you want a sauce, add a lot of wilty vegetables (like bok choy) to get extra water and thicken it with cornstarch.

Our stirfry included: green beans, carrots, garlic chives, celery, bok choy, cabbage and bean sprouts.

This are garlic chives. We cut them into 1-2 inch pieces
and added them with the bean sprouts.

Let me know what you think by leaving a comment or emailing me at piquantprose [at] gmail [dot] com.

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Roasted Root Veggies

While D and I were picking up ingredients for our energy bars, we also thought we'd grab some veggies for dinner. I contemplated swiss chard, because I was craving it a little bit, but realized I didn't really know how to cook it or what else I'd need to cook it. D also seemed unenthusiastic.

Instead, we picked up a collection of root veggies and stems, and roasted them in the oven. We also added some chicken breast to make it a meal, although to keep it vegetarian, I'd just eat it with a liberal helping of parmesan cheese grated on top, and maybe some shitake mushrooms sauteed in butter. Yum!

The sweetness of the parsnips and the sweet potatoes works really well with the starchy potatoes. We watched an episode of House while dinner was cooking. This is pretty much the easiest dinner ever.. you don't even have to preheat the oven!!! It comes up to temperature while the food is cooking.

Ready for the oven.

Delicious and roasty.

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Roasted Root Veggies

Ingredients:
1 red potato
3 Yukon Gold potatoes
1 purple potato
1 "Japanese" sweet potato (or some other kind)
1 Garnet yam
3 carrots
3 parsnips
0.25c olive oil
1 large clove garlic
salt and pepper

Directions:
1. Cut all the ingredients into 0.5 inch cubes and place them on a baking tray. Mince garlic and add it to the mixture.
2. Pour olive oil over them, grind pepper on top, sprinkle with salt, and toss to mix.
3. Put the veggies in the oven and turn it to 475°F. Bake for about 35 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes. The veggies will be soft, fragrant and starting to brown when they're done.
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Eating in Austin, TX

Our team is in Austin, TX for our annual training trip. Of course, that means 2 practices a day and lots of hungry bellies, so of course lots of food has been consumed. Most of it has been the mediocre hotel food, but we've managed to try a few Austin favorites:

1. Torchy's Tacos

The menu was limited to only 5 items when we (yes, all 150 of us) visited this taco truck, so we couldn't try everything. On the menu: chicken fajitas, beef fajitas, some sort of shrimp taco, the 'trailer park' and a vegetarian option with avocado.

I tried the trailer park, the beef fajita and the veggie option. The beef fajita was just ok. The sauce was delightfully refreshing and just spicy enough, but the lettuce on it was flavorless, probably free of nutrients and otherwise pretty pointless. The beef was not too far behind the lettuce. It was thoroughly overcooked and just generally not very good.

The avocado taco was good, but pretty boring. I would have appreciated a little bit more pizazz on it--maybe some tomato chunks, or a radish/cabbage slaw for some crunch? Even whole beans instead of refried would have made for a more interesting mouth feel. All the flavors worked, but the textures weren't quite there.

how to pick a ripe _________

All my life, I was blessed with a grocery store that changed their produce selection based on what was in season, so the fruit in abundance was always the best fruit. This made it easy to figure out what variety to buy, and since most of it was fairly ripe, it was easy to pick a good piece of fruit, too.

When I moved to New Jersey, I realized how lucky I'd been. I also realized how odd people thought my thorough inspections of fruit and vegetables were. But two heads of broccoli can provide very different results, and if I'm going to be paying that much for a nectarine it better be a damn good nectarine.

So how do you pick? Well, first pick by season. You should probably stick with things that are in season in your hemisphere, because long commutes don't bode well for most things.

A food tour of Berkeley, CA

As a long-time Berkeley resident, and child of an absolute foodie, I'd say I know my way around the Berkeley food scene fairly well. If you ever find yourself visiting, here are the absolutely must see things:

1. The Berkeley Bowl:
I remember when the Berkeley Bowl was still in the old bowling alley, with crowded aisles and wooden crates of fruit and veggies. There are now two locations, although the original is better. Go here to see a HUGE selection of amazing seasonal produce (don't expect to find apricots in November), a great bulk food section, and a wide collection of anything related to Asian cooking. Make sure to check out the squishy shelf—fruits and veggies on the tail end of prime condition with huge discounts. In the original store, it's located by the bulk lettuce and berries.

2. Cheeseboard Pizza
Crisp, garlicky, sourdough crust; multiple, flavorful, melting cheeses; fresh, sweet, savory vegetables... what more could you ask for in a pizza? They serve up one flavor of vegetarian pizza Tuesday thru Saturday, so make sure to check their flavor of the day ahead of time. My favorite is the fresh corn pizza in the summer months. Also worthwhile is the olive focaccia from two doors down—the original Cheeseboard. (Also a great place to sample cheeses, if you're into that sort of thing.)

3. La Farine
Ok, so this one is actually in Oakland, but it's about a half block out of Berkeley, so I'll count it. A quick bus ride from UC Berkeley's campus, this bakery has been a staple in my life since a young age. I've already mentioned their incredible morning buns, gooey sticky sugary syrup wrapped in flaky, buttery pastry dough. More importantly, though, is their rustic baguette. At one point, my father had to ask their baking schedule because they sold out so quickly. I've tried a lot of baguettes, and this is the most delightfully flavorful of them all. Great plain, or spread with some good french butter (preferably from the Cheeseboard.)

Eating in Chicago

At the end of October, one of my classes took a trip to Chicago. I really only had about 2 days to explore, but I made sure to cram as much delicious into those two days as possible. Here are the three things you have to try in Chicago:

1. Chicago French Market
This is a great place to get fresh fruit to snack on, or vegetables for that matter. The Belgian fries were delicious (although the dipping sauces were, frankly, uninspiring). I had a delicious roast chicken sandwich from Chicago Organics, as well.