Monday, June 27, 2011

Uh, it's not done yet

Want a sneak preview of the new and much better Small Tomatoes? All you get is a logo:




In other news, my summer without sugar is starting to get interesting. For all reasons I'll leave out now, I'm really glad I tried to do this. Yeah, I skipped out on local Lavender ice cream yesterday. It was tragic. But other than that, it's really freaking interesting.

Can you imagine if you sat down at a restaurant and 70% of the items on the menu vanished as you scrutinized it?

Or if you sat down at a cafe, and 90% of the goodies on the shelf (even the supa-wierd VEGAN items) disappeared?

Or if you walked into a WAWA and it only contained coffee, cheese sticks, peanuts, and pre-hardboiled eggs? The entire state of New Jersey might riot.


Well, this is my life. Without table sugar. Or any of the other fake crap like asparatme or sucralose or malitol, and the list goes ON FOREVER.


More to come on the new SmallTomatoes site. Word.

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

YOU THOUGHT I WAS GONE...

While I'm busy being busy, and working on smalltomatoes.com, I decided to use this page as a place to repeat news found on the internet that I think is post-worthy. About food. Duh. In case your google reader or other news aggregator (read: facebook) didn't already tell you.

Check out the most popular article on New York Times right now: "Is Sugar Toxic?"


Also found this really interesting video on the process of making sugar... blew my mind! And I still often use granulated sugar because it makes or breaks the formation of a good cake or other baked good. I've dabbled in Agave nectar in honey, but haven't made the total switch... Check it out: How Sugar Cane is Processed

To be on the safe side, you should eat mineral and nutrient rich honey. Buy from a local honey farm to get the added benefits of immunotherapy. Basically, honey contains small amounts of the pollen spores that are floating around your region. When you eat honey made from local bees, your immune system will become accustomed to these pollen spores, which will decrease allergenic symptoms from your usual suspects. Word. Thanks bees.


Lastly, check it out, vegetarian spaghetti carbonara:

This creamy dish is sneakily healthy. Adding scrambled eggs, a little grated parmesean, a dab of guacamole, and 'pepitas' or pumpkin seeds packs a lot of protein AND flavor. holler.

Monday, April 11, 2011

Flooded Cran Apple Pie

Hey all.

So I've been mostly silent here for the past...uh month? I have a lot going on in my life right now. Mostly good things.

I also am working toward a new small tomatoes website. So to simplify my life, and not be AWOL on this blog, this is the last post for smalltomatoes.blogspot.com. It's been a good - well, mostly novice and shakey- run with blogger, but I'm ready to take this to the next level.

So, for my last post, at the request of a friend, I'll talk about the Flooded Cran/Apple Pie.

As usual, I claim that the tastiness of this pie comes from the integrity of the ingredients. I went to the Philly Fair Food stand in Reading Terminal one day, and saw some fresh cranberries. I'd never had a fresh cranberry before. When I went back, they only had frozen, but it's all the same for pies.

I discovered that I LOVE non-dried cranberries. While most pucker and spit, I enjoy the wild and tart flavor. I mean cmon, it's like a sourpatch kid, but hippy.

These crans are from the Pine Barrens in NJ... and I've actually stumbled upon the area on a strange and unusual summer trip to the Pine Barrens. It's the third-largest producer of cranberries in the country! And it was pretty crazy. This map shows the region. All the green squares are empty pools that that are filled with water and cranberries when the time is ripe.

The apples were from a PA farm. I used Fugi and something else... they were all bruised aka "for making pies". I made this first for a party, so to save time, I cheated and bought a whole wheat crust from Whole Foods.


Alright, this pie goes against my grain in one very particular way. I used the standard tricks of the trade to get food to taste good... I added salt and fat. I was baking for other people, and the pressure got to me.

Anyway, it was devoured in about 10 minutes, so I guess it works.

In the pie:
  • about 5 apples sliced medium thin
  • about 2 handfuls of FROZEN cranberries (you can use fresh, but don't thaw frozen)
  • 1 Tbs of flour
  • 1 cup of organic sugar
  • 1 1/2 tsp of cinnamon
Baking the pie:
  1. thaw the pre-made crusts so that they're pliable
  2. line the bottom with crust, fill with filling, duh.
  3. dot in some places with butter
  4. invert the other pie crust over top
  5. wet your fingers, rub the bottom outer crust so that it's slightly wet
  6. press the two crusts together
  7. Brush with milk, egg, or cooled-off melted butter
  8. Bake at 350 for 30 mins, then bake for 30 more mins with a crust shield on so the edges don't burn ( i use crumpled aluminum foil b/c I don't have one of those!
  9. Take out of the oven and let cool

I originally intended to top this with drizzled salted caramel. I messed up, but the effect was pretty cool.

The flooded topping:
  • 1/2 stick of butter
  • 1 cup of sugar
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 1/4 cup of heavy cream
  • salt
  1. Combine sugar and water in a small saucepan
  2. Heat on medium heat until sugar dissolves
  3. Add butter in chunks, let them melt
  4. Continue stirring continuously as mixture begins to turn brown
  5. Let mixture darken, and reduce in volume as some water burns off about 10 minutes
  6. To stop the browning process, add a splash or two of heavy cream
  7. turn off heat immediately
  8. Let the mixture cool slightly, and then pour all over the top of the pie
  9. Top off with some sprinkles of coarse sea salt


It's sweet, it's fruity, tart, occasionally savory, buttery, and flakey. But as my partner put it, "it looks like you just flooded your pie." And that's how the story goes.



So long for now. I'll be back in a month, and it's going to be real legit (fingers crossed).

Thanks for reading smalltomatoes!

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Spent Grains Teaser

Good morning.

I've alluded to this project in previous posts... the spent grains project. I believe in this post.
The Grains.
Supporting Ingredients.

There's no formal recipe yet, but I will tell you this: it involves beer by-products (aka "spent" grains), water, YEAST, some salt and honey.

It's packed with protein and vitamins. It's so flavorful, you're not sure you're eating bread. It's satisfying, and contains no high fructose corn syrup.

Stay tuned for more to come from this evolving bread. It's my little side project (one of 100) to make use of things that are wasted, and to fill a gap where adequate nutrition is lacking.

Monday, March 14, 2011

We all get tripped up on PI day sometimes

Dear nerds of the world wide web.... HAPPY INTERNATIONAL PI DAY...YESTERDAY! I wrote this post yesterday, but blogger's server wasn't letting me publish, so here it is, a day after Pi day, and what follows is a frankenstien post about the saddest pizza ever made on Pi day.

From yesterday: "I'm sure there are about 100 million other websites that say the same thing, but I am joining them.

How many digits can you recite? I can only do 3.141592... which isn't very far, but I type the number "3.1415" on a regular basis, so I feel good about that."

Incidentally, myself and my brother and his friend all made a pizza. It is not round. We cannot calculate the arc length of our crust in radians, because I don't have a pizza stone. Aw. But ooo is it good. edit: terrible! ( Actually, I'm lying, I don't know yet, because it's in the oven and I'm planning ahead for a speedy post. I gotta catch PI day while it's hot.)
After it came out of the oven:
This was the worst freakin pizza ever. The saran wrap came loose during the rise, and the dough dried out, and it never rose. We were hungry and thought, "hey, flatbread pizza?"

NOPE, WE MADE A BRICK PIZZA. I JUST ATE A BRICK.

The toppings were awesome: fresh basil, fresh mozzaralla, half pancetta, cracked pepper, TJ's pizza sauce. Too bad the dough was like playdough. Yuck.

But we ate it damnit, because we made it. Now do you trust me? I'll try again soon.

What other food bloggers blog about their failures? No too many. It's kinda sickening actually, every post is like "ooo look how amazing and delish this is!" Give me a little credit for showing you that crafts in the kitchen aren't always a shining success.

Edit: The next day, I went to go reheat some mashed potatoes. I opened the door of the microwave, and -much to my chagrin- I found this little bowl of yeast:
I put it in the microwave during the activation of the yeast to keep it warm and prevent air from blowing over it. We all had a pretty long laugh when we realized that we never added the yeast to the dough... NO WONDER it didn't rise. haha

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Winter Harvest Part 2

Last but not least, the squash. Squash is one of those words where the longer you look at it, the funnier it is. SQUASH. umm, Winter squash is often labeled in the store as just 'winter squash', but 'butternut squash' or 'spaghetti squash' are other common varieties. They can be prepared many ways.

Here, I doused a halved spaghetti squash with olive oil, maple syrup, onion. I roasted in aluminum foil for about an hour, then raked out the insides with a fork.
Below is spaghetti squash topped with some almond butter, a sweet potato and roasted garlic, and some fried tempeh. Yeah, that weird vegetarian stuff that I still don't really know how to cook so I just make it hot.

Another wintertime favorite: the kale.

Kale IS rubbery and squeaky when you eat it raw. And because I have this weird acquired taste for raw foods, sometimes I just chew on kale stalks like a freakin rabbit. But YOU don't have to go through such trauma. I know I've talked about preparing kale salads before in this post. But now I have a new variation! See, i get these REALLY bomb pickles from the market around the corner. They're not your average Dill pickle with the stork on the front. So much so that I put the leftover pickle juice on my sandwiches or whatever happens to be going in my mouth. It's so good! But then one day I realized a lot of what goes into pickling is vinegar... which is what I used to "wilt" the kale. Boom! Into the kale salad goes the pickle juice. It's baller. Try it. Seriously. Or come over and I'll make you one.

Anyway, kale doesn't have to be rubbed with vinegar to make it taste good. You can saute it, bake it, or make salty chips out of it!
This was a kale salad rubbed with pickle juice, topped with leftover pan seared salmon, local goat cheese, and salted pumpkin seeds. So, kale is a great wintertime leafy green that is 10 times more nutritious than romaine or iceberg, and it can be insanely tasty if made right... or you can always eat it like this guy:

Winter Harvest Part 1

Hello reader! This post got long, so I'm breaking it into two parts. Because let's be honest, no one spends more than 5 minutes on a webpage...unless it's facebook, of course.

So it's almost spring, but there are still days in Philly when I could wear my winter jacket. And although my agricultural knowledge is sparse, I'm pretty sure I'm not going to see a single local berry, cucumber, tomato, or peach anytime soon. The picture below is my illustration of winter time. Does it work for you?


Stereotypically, winter harvest is SUPER un-sexy. Let's see... would you like some roots yanked out of the ground or some tough leafy greens that make squeaky rubber sounds when you chew? Well, I'm telling you that this is just the stereotype, and not the truth! Winter foods can actually be quite exotic and enticing. Don't roll your eyes. I saw that.

Below is a "blue potato". Can you believe that it's purple on the inside?!

I used it in this big, chunky soup and it carried a wonderful flavor. This soup also featured some heady carrots. I do solemnly swear never to eat another baby carrot again. Seriously, they're always slimey, too hard, require some sort of ranch dressing... and you know what? They're not really baby carrots... they're just shaped like that by a machine. Screw that. Check out these colorful, tender, non-slimey carrots below:



Next up, the little sweet potato. So, I've done an informal survey, and I've found a strange pattern. Most girls are crazy about sweet potatoes, but most dudes just could care less about the tater. So, for all the chicks out there... here are some sweet potatoes roasted with olive oil, garlic, fennel and cumin. This is the easiest thing in the world to make: just slice the potatoes, sprinkle your spice of choice on top, wrap in aluminum foil, and bake at 350 in a toaster oven (if it fits) for about 45 mins. Sorry dudes, you're missing out.

There's a lot of reasons why eating local, seasonal food is really good for you and area in which you live. And I try to support that. (I DO sometimes cheat and get citrus fruits, because let's face it, PA is just never going to grow a grapefruit. But Texas and California will be exporting them all year round.)

Anyway, I recommend trying the seasonal produce, but make sure it's from a local farm. Buying a super-sized potato from the supermarket WILL taste like nothing (without oodles of butter/sour cream/etc.) But try a small, sexy potato from the farmers' market, and I think you'll be surprised.
Next time: the squash and kale.

Monday, February 28, 2011

The Great Apple Sauce Give-Away

(See bottom to win a free jar)


Howdy. I attempted to make apple jelly. So I bought a bunch of apples. About 12 apples. I ate half of them the following week, had to buy more apples the next weekend, and then started making jelly. I used York apples (on right) and Fuji apples (left). I bought them from the Fair Food Philly stand in Reading Terminal Market. (read: from a local farm)




I cut up the apples. I ate some of the cores. Bonus!


Then I grated the peel of an orange, and measured out a teaspoon of cinnamon and about 8 cloves. Then I put them on this shiny metal hexagon for your viewing pleasure.


Well, in order to make apple jelly, you have to make apple juice first. So I put the apples and spices all in a big pot with some water, and boiled the apples until they were soft and floating in juice. Then I turned off the heat, and ran an errand. But when I came back, something wasn't quite right.


I mashed it around in a strainer for a bit, watching little drops of juice fall into a pan. And as I mashed, it dawned on me that it looked a lot like apple sauce.



Donde esta 'apple juice'?


Hey, life is full of unexpected surprises. I wanted some jelly for my toast, but there was no going back at this point. I guess when life gives you apple sauce, can it!



So I did.


Free give-away: See that little tiny jar on the right? I want to share with you how awesome local, fresh produce can taste without any additives other than some spices. I am willing to send to one lucky person -free of any costs or commitments whatsoever- this oops baby jar of applesauce. It's safely preserved through the canning process, so it can be shipped with no worries about spoilage.

I'll send it to the person who can find the funniest Google search auto fill-in phrase that begins with common words like "and" "if" "how", etc. Submit your entry by posting the link to your search in the comments section below.


For example, I typed "if you want t" in the google search bar.... and one of google's suggestions was this Ready? Go!


Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Exotic Hot Chocolate

Every now and then, I get the notion that should like to 'cleanse' my system. In the interest of everyone's time, I'll just say that it's not as intense as it sounds, and usually just involves drinking lots of water and not eating any solid food for a day. But this time around, I thought - hey, I should ACTUALLY try to do this right, it might be refreshing. Well, that led to internet researching. The internet promoted this 'lemon tea diet'. Ooo, sounds nice. It was a cocktail of lemon juice, maple syrup, and cayanne pepper. Perfect! I'm a fan of all that! Then I read on... "drink only this tea, water, and maybe some peppermint tea. If you're new to fasting, a 5-8 day fast is recommended. The fast shouldn't be continued past 10 days." What? Gandhi? "If you feel faint, sit down IMMEDIATELY."

Anorexics feel faint sometimes too. I ride a bike to work. And that was the end of that idea.

I'm not saying I would never enjoy a good fast. In fact, I hope I do someday. But someday when I have less moving around and thinking to do. I went home that day, having enjoyed a few cups of fresh lemon water, and made hot chocolate from scratch.

Started by simmering some milk with a couple of chilli peppers in it



Used some dark chocolate and semi-sweet chocolate chips from Trader Joe's.


Grated the zest of a mandarine. Let the milk simmer for 7 minutes or so and then...


Took the utmost care to melt the chocolate on low heat, stirring constantly



Added the milk VERY gradually so that the chocolate would dissolve in the milk... as it would otherwise form a granular appearance. Also added the mandarine zest.


I enjoyed the swirly patterns of the added milk until it had a liquid consistency of which I approved.

I added the teeniest pinch of cayenne pepper, and served it in a white mug. I did not take a picture of the final product (bad food blogger!) so you'll just have to imagine what very thick, rich hot chocolate lookes like. It had a little kick from the zest and cayenne pepper, but also a full/roundness to it from the chili pepper that seemed to balance the intense sweetness of the chocolate.


Monday, January 31, 2011

The Best Apple I Ever Ate



Dear readers,



The other week, I had the best apple of my life. Up until this point, the apple I ate at 13,000 ft on Mt. Beirdstadt was the best. Now, it falls to second.

It was a bright, cold Saturday afternoon. I careened through the January slush to my favorite farmer's market, the one at Clark Park. The farmer's were still there, stamping their feet and warming their hands . Kudos, farmers. (Some of you may be thinking, 'uh, stupid, farmers - that's why we invented "the store" and "the HVAC system".' I suppose one could debate about the validity of creature comforts for awhile.) Anyway, I knew I didn't have much cash so I skipped straight for the apple table. Picked out three 'York' apples - my favorite of the season- and put them on the scale to pay. Shoved my hand in my pocket for some dollar bills. Nope, not in that pocket. In my bag? Nope. Wait, I could've sworn I put that $7 in my pocket. I left my wallet at home. Ugh, what? No money, really?

I looked up at the Amish woman behind the scale to apologize and express my disappointment. In her genial Pennsylvania Dutch accent, she says, "oh, go on an take 'em anyway." My eyebrows shot up. I protested meekly. She insisted, "It's only three apples, anyway."

I thanked her energetically and hurried off with my treasures. Three free apples! Three free delicious organic local apples.

Now picture this scenario: You're in the checkout lane of Acme, SuperFresh, Kroger, Whole Foods... you're fumbling for your money. You look desperate. "Can I please just take these apples? I was really hoping to buy these apples today, but I forgot my money. Please." Now picture the look on the cashier's face.

These apples weren't good just because they were free. They were good because I figure that woman has something to do with the picking of the apples, and she has much more authority to decide if giving away some free apples is okay. Compare her to the cashier who just knows the prices of food.. the cashier who works for the supermarket because they need a job... the supermarket that employes many many people who know relatively nothing about what they are selling.. the supermarket that orders produce through a computer system... some corporate point person has a relationship with the farmer no doubt, but it's probably only on paper. The link between the cashier and the apple is about as long the railway between Pennsylvania and California. While both the Amish farmers and the Supermarkets need to make a profit to stay alive, at least the farmer sells with some credibility.

All this aside, it was a gentle reminder that paying for the real cost of food (paying more for local and organic things) has its perks. Like getting free apples on Saturday morning.

Thursday, January 27, 2011

Rothikan Pancakes

Buttermilk pancakes with an egg in the middle and fresh mint orange refresher





The night before, I swore we would all go to The Morning Glory diner down the street from my apartment. I rallied the crowd, telling them it would be a bomb diggity breakfast after a longish night. Well, the next morning I woke up with a desire to cook and save some $ bills.



The idea for breakfast was organically conceived, I swear. No pigs in blankets, and no eggs in baskets. In my defense, I didn't even know that was a 'thing' when I first made the egg in pancake deal. I don't even have a name for it. I should... like... "sun in a cloud" cakes. No. In my receipie book they are "Rothikan Pancakes", which is an utterly fantastic name that was born only after serious consideration on a lazy Sunday afternoon.



Buttermilk pancakes can be fluffy and light if you do it right. The secret? Do you want to know the see-cer-ret? Make the batter a little while before you serve (like 20 minutes). Leave the batter to rest in the fridge while you do other stuff. It will puff for you like an angel. My guess is that the gluten in the flour has a chance to relax so that when you put the batter on a hot griddle/pan the carbon dioxide bubbles from the Baking Powder have a more pronounced effect on the pancake. However, only do this if there's Baking POWDER in the batter. Baking soda's ability to leven a substance declines very soon after mixing (in other words, bake right away). However, baking powder has a double rise effect that will activate when heat is applied. I'm sure Alton Brown has a more detailed explanation... delivered in perfect diction and at hyperspeed.




While the batter was sitting, I peeled the first blood orange of my life. It was a little creepy... those tiny cellular sacs filled with blood-red juice. I think I yelped. 2 1/2 of those into the blender with about 11 big ice cubes and a handful of fresh mint. I hate to honk my own horn but it was pretty refreshing.



Pancakes:

  • 2 cups flour
  • 3 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 3 Tbs sugar
  • 2 large eggs
  • 3 cups buttermilk
  • extra eggs for the "sun"
  1. Combine all the dry ingredients (flour, BP, sugar, salt)
  2. Combine eggs and buttermilk in mixer
  3. Add dry to wet ingredients gradually and stir slowly
  4. Heat griddle or pan on medium high heat
If you want to put the "sun in the cloud" follow the following:
  1. Pour about a half cup of batter onto a warm griddle or pan (coat with something fatty like non-stick spray or butter
  2. flip
  3. Immediately use a spoon to cut out a small hole from the cake
  4. Turn the heat to medium, crack the egg in the hole
  5. Let it sit for a few moments, turn the heat down to medium-low
  6. Cook for a couple of minutes on this side till the bottom of the egg cooks
  7. Using two spatulas (one underneath the cake and one on top of the egg), flip the cake trying to keep the egg in place while flipping. Gather your wits, and do it quickly. I should have taken a picture of this for demonstration purposes.
  8. Let it cook on this side for a few more minutes. Keep the heat low so you don't burn the cake while you're waiting for the egg to cook. Tip: I think it's way better if you keep the yoke runny.



  9. Here's one last hint: if you're making lots of cakes, you might need to rinse the pan down inbetween say your 4th and 5th cakes. The pan usually gets too hot over time, oil burns and smokes, leftover pancake jiblets get burned, etc, etc. This makes the new cakes burn without fail, booooo. So if you 'wash' the pan occasionally, it solves this problem.



Sun in the cloud pancakes with iced mint blood orange juice on the side. That's a damned mouthful. Literally. Rothikan Cakes anyone?