Product Review: Sprouted Grains

Yo, so I'm moving again. Which means little time for creative food ventures. Also, my awesome Droid phone died. Which means I can't take any pictures of said ventures. Not having a phone is kind of like being on vacation, but instead of being somewhere awesome, I'm still sitting in a cubicle at work. I will say that I enjoy the complete lack of attachement and anxiety that comes with a phone. (Did I get a text message? Did I call that person back? Why didn't he call me last night? Why won't the post office supervisor pick up his phone?!?)

Until I get a new phone, I have to share a discovery I made.

So, I'm shopping for a quick meal item -pasta- in the whole hippy section of Giant, and I come across what might be the headiest of all heady pastas. Behold, Whole Sprouted Grain Pasta from "Food for Life". The ingredients are as follows: Organic Sprouted Whole Wheat, Millet, Barley, Lentils, Sobeans, and Spelt. They're ALL 'organic, sprouted, and whole'. What does that even mean? I was pretty clueless until I went to their website. I'm not even going to kindof try to paraphrase it, so here's a direct quote

Sprouting is the only way to release all the vital nutrients stored in whole grains. The sprouting process activates beneficial enzymes which cause the grains to sprout and become living and nutrient-rich. Stores of vitamins and minerals dramatically increase over the amount available in flour. Sprouting also converts the carbohydrates in grains into maltose, which is ordinarily done by the body during digestion, thereby predigesting nutrients for you. The enzymatic action enables the body to assimilate the vitamins and minerals more efficiently. Plus, the sprouting process naturally increases the protein content and decreases the calories and carbohydrates found in the original grain.

Hmm, predigestion? I haven't even formulated any opinions on this craziness yet.

Other things you should know about "Food for Life": they categorize their foods by bible versus which inspired each product. For example, the pasta has written on it "Ezekiel 4:9".

Upon desiring to eat this strange new food, I read that it cooks in 4 1/2 minutes (instead of 8-12), and grows to 100% it's original size once cooked. WHAT? Behold, GOD PASTA.

My review? Well, being a full blooded Italian, I'm a little picky with my pasta. It didn't quite have the 'al dente' effect, and was a bit more mushy than expected. But not in a 'this pasta has been overcooked and sitting in a hot tray in the lunch line for 2 hours' way. More like a 'I'm eating a crapload of whole grains and it's kinda chewy' way. Other than that, it had amazing flavor and was really filling. I ate one small serving of it with vegetable pasta sauce, but then went back for seconds eating it only with olive oil and parmesan cheese, which tasted SO good.

So, if you're looking to push the envelope on whole grains, I recommend Food for Life.

Whole Hippy Pancakes (with peach rosemary sauce)

I've come to the conclusion that at every age in your life, you need the occasional weekend hot stack. When you're a kid and you go to IHOP, a pile of chocolate chip mickey mouse pancakes cures any case of the Sunday morning blues (derived from lack of cartoons and hours in church.) When you're a teenager, you're hungry all the time so... enough said. When you're in college, a healthy dose of buttermilk can take the edge off a hangover (usually), and bring enough people to the table to piece together last nights' adventures. After that, well, they're just caloric monsters for your ailing metabolism, but they make you forget about work so whatever. And I'll bet if you're 80 and eating pancakes, it'll probably be at a restaurant with your lifetime partner. And going out to breakfast may very well be the event of your day.... so here's to pancakes!

I use to make pancakes all the time, but hadn't in a while. So without further rambling, I give you Whole Hippy Pancakes with Rosemary Peach Sauce. They were modified from the original king of dank pancakes, the Harvest Grain and Nut IHOP imitation cake. Otherwise known as 'the heaviest pancake ever'.

I took out the nuts, kept the grain (whole wheat flour and oats), added some peach sauce, fresh whipped cream, and pure maple syrup. Not particularly unusual suspects, I'll admit. Topped it with slices of fresh peach, and washed it down with creamy local chocolate milk. Soapbox sentence: I bought the peaches, heavy cream, and milk from a farm market down the street, and they were all locally made. The egg came from my hens. Without the usual rant, the bottom line is that everything had a lot of flavor, and I supported my neighbor.

This is what the hen does when it's hot sometimes. Why it sits on the stone, I'll never understand. Anyway, it's an ingredient maker:

If you want to bring Whole Hippy Pancakes to your weekend breakfast table, here's how:

Order of Business #1: The Flapjacks

• 3/4 c. rolled oats
• 3/4 c wheat flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 c buttermilk
• 1 egg
• 1/4 c sugar (I used brown)

1. Grind oats in blender/processor until fine
2. Combine wet ingredients, mix well
   
3. Combine dry ingredients in different bowl
4. Combine wet and dry and stir
5. Use a healthy of dose of non-stick something to cover griddle or pan, because I omitted the oil from the recipe for a lighter cake.
6. Just in case you're a bad flapjack flipper: put the batter on the griddle, wait until the edges look firm and the middle isn't so wet looking, flip let sit for a minute or so, remove. Be careful to try and drain any oil that's browned, because it will burn subsequent pancakes.

OoB #2: Peach sauce

• two peaches
• rosemary
• honey

1. puree a peach and a half
2. add a girthy drizzle of honey
3. a heavy pinch of rosemary (if you can grind it, I think that would work better)
4. heat in a saucepan on medium low stirring occasionally
5. mixture should congeal a little bit
6. keep warm until pancakes are ready

OoB #3: Whip Your Own Cream

1. Pour a cup of heavy cream into an electric mixer
2. Whip on high until cream starts forming
3. Stop the mixer, sprinkle on a light layer of confectioners sugar
4. Continue whipping on high until cream gets stiff... you know, whipped.

Mix and match all your sides, or eat it plain, or drown it in maple syrup even if there's only a little bit left and everyone else still needs some.... it's fine, you can't help it sometimes.

P.S. Have you ever noticed how ridiculously small the 'handle' is on the maple syrup bottle? It's just silly.

Blueberries Are Okay.

I'm not one much for blueberries. I'm not one much for berries in general. Maybe it's the taste, maybe it's the texture, or the lack of juiciness. But really I think it's the fact that I have to eat 25 of them to get one serving of fruit. So what would ever make me want to bike to the orchard to pick these tiny fruits myself? The answer is Solebury Orchard's Apple Cider Ice. Imagine the most delicious apple cider you've ever tasted made into a slushie on a hot day. You'd be picking blueberries too.

So anyway, I have to admit that the fresh blueberries weren't all that bad, and they were exceptionally gorgeous. Again, the experience of seeing your fruit on a tree and then eating that fruit is about one-zillion times better than freezing your cutuckus off in the frozen food isle of a supermarket. I know I rant all the time about this, and eventually I will stop, but the more I visit supermarkets, the more I get really creeped out. You step into this giant refrigerator, and are greeted with perky flowers and a starbucks kiosk. Then you peruse isle after isle of food... from all over the world! The bright mounds of produce gleam like still life photos from the MOMA, and there's a looping thunderstorm in the leafy greens shelf.

I mean, I still buy the occasional avocado from Acme. But I came from work to find this fatty green treasure, whereas it came from CALIFORNIA. (And we grumble about the person who saunters in front of our car as we're hunting for parking spots!)

Anyway... blueberries, blueberries. Look how precious and perfect they are right off the branch!

Picking them was a pretty good time. Although I will say I felt strangely like a primate as I squatted and plucked ripe nerdles of fruit off a branch with my thumb and forefinger.

The next day, my berry pickin partner and I made some pretty dank blueberry crepes. Although I completely misunderstood how a crepe-maker is supposed to be used, they still turned out pretty well. Check it out:

CREPE BATTER:

3/4 cup all purpose flour

1/2 tsp salt

1 egg and 1 egg yolk

2/3 cup milk mixed with 2/3 cup water

3 tbs unsalted butter melted and cooled

BLUEBERRY FILLING:

three or four handfuls of fresh blueberries

4 Tbs of water

2 Tbs of packed brown sugar

1 Tbs of honey

Hand squeezed juice of half a small lemon

• Put all the blueberry filling stuff into a small saucepan and bring to a boil
• Turn down the heat and stir a few times
• Let this simmer until the blueberries break apart and turn into mush
• Stir occasionally as this happens to ensure it doesn't burn
• Let the water burn off the mixture and heat until it thickens slightly
• Keep warm until ready

For the CREPES:

• Throw the flour, salt, eggs, milk/water mix, and butter into a mixer or food processor
• Blend until smooth (pretty awesomely simple huh. I think you could do this with a hnad mixer on high if you don't have either of the other gadgets.)

Putting it together. There are a few different ways I've actually cooked crepes. I have used just a pan, and I have used a crepe maker. A crepe maker is easier, of course.

PAN:

• Pan on medium heat
• Brush with butter
• Pour a thin layer of batter into pan. You might not be able to pour only from the middle, you will probably have to pour in a spiral to get a large, thin, layer
• Cook until the top gets shiny and bubbles harden
• Slide out of pan onto plate

CREPE MAKER (the right way):

• Pour batter into provided dish
• Heat griddle until light goes off
• Invert the griddle into crepe batter dish to 'dunk' the face of the griddle in the batter
• Hold for a second
• Flip over and cook till the light goes out
• Remove with a rubber spatula when the crepe appears shiny by inverting over a dish

Crepes are great just with a little powdered sugar, with fruit, and cheese but IMO are best with all three. I'm not going to lie, I got impatient to eat and didn't bother to sift my confectioners' sugar. So unrefined, I know. I melted a little chocolate and drizzled it ontop as well. Lastly I experimented with white cheddar cheese in the blueberry filling and I've got to admit it was my favorite combination.

Peach Granita

What is granita? It's an Italian dessert and it's wonderful and that pretty much sums it up. If you must know the details, it's like sorbet, except made with only very fresh ingredients and without any ice cream maker machine. (This is one thing that frustrates me about summer desert... you can only read ice cream and sorbet recipes if you're in the 'I own a really expensive ice cream machine' club. Which I'm not in, which is why I love granita.)

Being that it's early summer, there's an abundance of fresh fruit around. One thing I've come to really appreciate is seasonal eating. Supermarkets have made it seem like all varieties of fruit grow at all times in convenient locations. Like magic, there are strawberries in January, apples in April, and bananas all year round. It sickens me a little, actually. The problem with eating produce out of season is that you loose so much flavor and nutrition, and you probably pay out the waahoo for it. "Sure, I'll buy this styrofoam strawberry in December, because well, it's here!"

The other great thing about eating seasonally is that after going much of the winter without these exotic fruits, the spring and summertime harvest are that much more exciting. The first bite of a ripe peach is like ...... I don't know what. I could get dangerously cheese here, so I'll refrain.

So here it is, a seasonal dessert that I absolutely love. Peach granita. It's really simple, and beats Rita's waterice and bomb pops any day. (Remember bomb pops? Side note: every time I see an ice cream truck drive by, I WANT to want the ice cream truck but now just can't get past how creepy the whole deal is...)

All you need is:

• 2.5 cups chopped peaches (about 4-5 peaches) Please use regional peaches that are ripe, and are NOT the 'white peaches'
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 2 tsp lemon juice
• 1 cup water
• a pinch of salt
• 1/2 tsp vanilla (or more if you want a a heavier vanilla taste)

In this desert, your final product is a direct reflection of your ingredients. So use good ones!

• In a food processor or blender, process all the ingredients till the mixture is pretty smooth
• Pour into a clean glass dish. It should be fairly big and flat so your mixture will freeze quickly
• Rake the outside edges to the middle every 20-30 minutes until the whole thing is frozen and 'granulated'
• Serve immediately plain or with fresh whipped cream and honey
• If you want to save it, just cover it, and give it a chance to soften up a little before serving again

You can make this with many different fruits. I've made a pretty awesome mango granita, and I think I'll try peach blueberry granita soon.

Note: I have been taking all my pictures with a google phone, which used to take surprisingly good pictures for a phone. Now with the updated software, the camera function has regressed, and my pictures look way worse. One of those instances where change does not always mean progress. This is a rant for another time.

Grumpy Granola

It's 8:25am and I'm disgruntled. My nose is stuffed, my legs are achy, my head kinda hurts, I'm thirsty, and the rooster woke me up at 7am... along with the dumpster trucks that roar back and forth to the nearby quarry. Ugh.

It sounds like a hangover. But the sad part is that it's not.

The crisp morning air wasn't enough to snuff out my melodramatic woes. So I'm making granola. As I sit the air is filling with a sweet almond scent of golden goodness. ugh.

I'm hoping that this batch will come out particularly well. Mostly, because I want to write about it. And I'm mostly writing about it because I'm sitting here, the unhappy clam that I am, waiting to turn the granola every 10 minutes.

So this is what you need:

• 3 cups rolled oats
• a glob of molasses (~1.5 tbs)
• small palmful of brown sugar
• a capful of canola oil
• 2 tbs of some sort of nut butter (I used sunnutbutter- made from sunflower seeds)
• a sizable mound of honey (~1/3 cup)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tsp almond extract
• a pinch or two of salt

Okay then, you have all your goods:

• mix together molasses and brown sugar with a fork until well combined
• add oil, nut butter, honey, extracts, and salt
• combine well
• examine your black substance and realize it resembles a mini BP oil spill, reflect on thisfor a moment, thank god you're not a sea turtle or sperm whale, and move on
• Mix well into rolled oats. This will take a few minutes of stirring and chopping with some sort of big spoon. You'll think it's too dry, but it's not... just keep mixing until everything is well coated.
• Spread out onto a big cookie sheet and bake at 350 for 25 minutes
• Every 10 minutes, take the sheet out to rake the edges in to the middle, and redistribute the granola around the tray.
• Voila! You have vanilla almond granola. Stir in any dried fruit you'd like. I stirred in black currents. Cherries or golden raisins would work really well too.

At 25 minutes I taste-tested and it had an amazing flavor. But I wanted it a teensy bit more crunchy. I put it back in the oven. This was a bad idea. I ended up baking mine for 31 minutes (instead of 25 like you should), and now it's too toasted. Adding to my grumpiness.... ugh.

Moving to the Country, gonna eat alotta peaches....

So, it's been a long long time since I've posted. But I have lots of excuses. Engineering projects, moving out of one apartment and all that headache, backpacking on an Assateague Island (otherwise known as the land-before-time-island-with-wild-ponies), moving into a farmhouse and all that awesomeness, cultivating a blooming acting career (ha), and starting a totally strange experience otherwise known as the internship.

Those are pretty good excuses, no?

I don't think so. Sounds like the typical humdrum of adult life where everyone's too busy for whatever; when really you're only too busy for the things you don't want to do. Maybe it's something you want to do, but darnit, you just can't afford the time. So here's the question: why do moments pass faster as we age? Is it because we do more of the same things more often (so the days move quicker because there's less to distinguish one day from another), or is it because we have actually just been alive longer? (Think: an 8 year old spending a day at the zoo: 5 hour of zoo trip out of 70080 hours of life VS a 30 year old spending a day at the zoo: 5 hour zoo trip compared to 262800 hours of life.
8 year old zoo trip = .007% of life
30 year old zoo trip = .0019% of life

So.... zoo trip as a 30 year old goes 'faster'. Relativity anyone? Although to be honest, .0019% of a 30 year old life seems like an oddly big percentage of his/her life to me. Did I calculate this right? I guess every moment is not insignificant, for sure.

Anyway, is this a food blog or is this a food blog?
To make up for not posting anything about food for a long long time, here's a quick photo journey of some of my food related experiences in the meantime.



Making pasta for a leaving Philly dinner party.

On the menu:

Antipast: Cannonelli bean dip

Prosciutto with melon

Ciabatta bread

Main: Fettucini al profumero al tartufo (Fettucini with mushrooms, asparagus, and truffle oil -thanks to a friend)

Dessert: Grapefruit with Honey Zabaglione (fresh honey whipped cream of sorts)

My favorite new thing to make (seemingly always after 10pm):

Avocado, mango, crab, and spicy mayo roll. (We couldn't find sushi grade fish at the hour. Otherwise, my newest favorite is the tuna, avocado, mango, crushed cashew, spicy mayo roll.)

When moving was too much, and I was really hungry, nothing could fix my yearning for that sweet, salty, spicy, creamy, smooth, crunchy, juicy, fried, and fresh dish like the infamous "Chaat House". Oh man is it an experience. I HIGHLY recommend a trip here.

The guys behind the counter are nicer than nice. You never quite know what you're ordering even though you had a full 3 minute conversation with the chef about it, and you never quite remember what you ordered in the past - just that it was good. Sounds like a trip huh? If you're bored, tired, hungry, looking for adventure... get to 42nd and Baltimore.

Why pay 5 bucks for a tiny box of granola, only to go through it in a few days when you can make pounds of customized granola for way cheaper? Well, for one thing, you're too busy. Except wait, it only takes 30 minutes! Too long? Doesn't beat out the 2 minutes it takes to shake a cereal box or microwave an oatmeal packet, you argue. Well, all I have to say is this: it tastes better if you made it yourself... and if it has no high fructose corn syup or BHTs for freshness, or coloring.... all things you have to pay more for to NOT have. It's ironic how we pay more for food that has less THINGS in it.

Ok, I'm done ranting... I really just loving homemade granola, I can't help it. It's like baking cookies, except you eat this in the morning, and it's pretty healthy.

My latest variation is: 3 cups rolled oats, 1/3 cup flaxseed tossed with a few spoonfuls of Sunnutbutter (the best nut spread ever IMO, thanks Julia!), a thick, crisscrossing, trail of local honey, a small palmful of brown sugar, shakes of cinnamon, a pinch of sea salt. Bake to toast for 50 minutes taking it out to rake the edges of granola to the center and tossing the oats around every so often (aka 15 mins). Then toss with chopped candied ginger, and sprinkle with black currants (like mini raisins). I usually buy a large box of regular bran or wheat flakes or rice chex to mix with the granola.... a bowl of straight granola is too calorie dense for a sit down 9-5 job. But it's great for backpacking!

Ah, and the finale: Strawberry Jam.

It's berry season, and PA happens to be pretty close to "God's Country" otherwise known as New Jersey. It's the state of juxtapositions: farms and industrial plants share municipalities, Ocean Spray keeps its cranberry fields in the state park, and you have to go right to go left if you're driving pretty much anywhere that has lights and two lanes.

Well, the point of the story is that it has farms. Strawberry farms in fact. Picking strawberries

with your own two hands is a lot more gratifying than I thought. Plus, there's just no

comparison between small farm strawberries and Driscoll's styrofoam excuse for strawberries. I took them home, ate/shared one flat of them, and made strawberry preserves with the other flat. My final product was a little stiff from an unavoidable incorrect ratio of fruit to fruit pectin. (I ate too many strawberries before leaving me with a little bit too much fruit pectin.) But it's sweet, and delicious, and fresh, and I'll probably do it again. I'll go into detail the next time.

Well, today is officially Colorado's bike to work day, and I think I'm going to celebrate it unofficially here in PA... so I've gotta ride!

Info-poetic-mercial-blog-gone-bad

Let me paint a picture for you: It's 8:00 on a Thursday afternoon, and the day couldn't be more perfect... for Philadelphia. It's not too hot, not too cold, and the traffic had just about subsided. It was a dusk for biking. Down the long stretch of deserted Washington, across the bricks of Broad street, I gently bumped along at a clip that's only possible on the main through-ways of the city. In case you didn't know, the front man from Sigur Ros just came out with a solo album. More spunky than the usual pastel soundscapes of his band, Jonsi's Icelandic slightly hip tunes of rejuvenation propelled me through the spring evening. Hitting a deeper cadence as I hit Front street, I sailed past the patchwork riverfront of old ports and new condominiums. The sparked sky and distinct smell of water somehow coexisted with the doppler drone of cars on the Columbus freeway. Jonsi's incoherent verbiage and ascending tempo seemed to dictate the spin of my wheels. I planned to go north into unknown territory today, but veered at the last second at Penn Treaty Park, succumbing to its river vista and soft grass, a rare thing in the city. As the faded, reverberating tones of Icelandic hymns lapped at my ears, I pedaled silently into a scene that surely could've been from any era. Old people discussed drivel with fervor in thick foreign tongues, young mothers with leftover belly-fat wandered around their children in a placid trance, kids jumped and shouted in tiny voices over a phantom shark sighting, couples walked and lay on blankets in the grass that was just starting to sprout summer gnats, small planes noiselessly crossed behind the Ben Frank bridge to someplace else, and the soft buzz of a boat faded in the distance. The sky was soft and light, and the river mirrored its hue. Turning west to weave my way back through dense urbanity, I noticed that the fading light on the city buildings gave them the color of the tiniest seashells that you find just where the ocean laps the shore.

Ok, with that kind of intro, I should be telling you that I came home and made a giant fruit cake. It's not true. I drizzled honey on a tart grapefruit, but didn't take any pictures. HOWEVER, I did feel relaxed enough to take the time out to blog about my new food creation.

And it is: Hummus Egg Salad!
The idea was born out of necessity and curiosity, as usual. I had a dozen hard-boiled eggs. (They make great hiking snacks.) I had a tub of hummus. I had no utensil. I wanted to eat both. In goes the egg for the scoop, and ta da! hummus egg salad was born. Taking the taste of this idea home with me, I tried a last attempt at hummus. Fortunately, it worked this time.

LONG STORY SHORT: you make -or buy- hummus (any kind you like). Then you slice and dice a couple of hardboiled eggs, and you mix together. Garnish with some fresh basil or cilantro and you're golden.



Here's the more detailed breakdown:

For the Hummus (if you don't buy it):

• Can of garbanzo beans
• 2 tbs olive oil (I skipped on the tahini because it hurts my stomach)
• 1 tbs lime juice
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 2 pinches sea salt
• 4ish sprigs of fresh cilantro

Puree or finely dice the garlic. Mix with the oil, lime juice, and sea salt. Puree or vigorously mix them together till a bit frothy. Add garbanzo beans and blend. A food processor works best of course.

For the egg:

Don't laugh, hard-boiling eggs can be a tricky and much debated subject. Do your own internet research if you wish, but I've found this way to be low-maintenance and delicious.

• Put however many eggs into a big pot
• Add cold water to cover the eggs
• Bring to a gentle boil, and let boil for 1-2 minutes
• Turn off the heat, cover the pot, and let stand for 12 minutes
• After the time is up, run cold water through the pot
• Stick the whole pot in the fridge, or dry them off and put back in their carton and then into the fridge... you're just trying to ensure they're not going to cook anymore

That's it. You should get easy to peel eggs that aren't cracked, and don't have greenish yolks.

After that, you can follow the directions in orange up above. I warmed a corn tortilla on the gas stove and piled the egg salad on top. Not pictured: a sprinkle of shredded white cheddar cheese.

It's that simple! The egg and hummus combination tastes great, and you can avoid eating the strange substance that is mayonnaise and/or miracle whip! And it's healthy! And... I sound like an infomercial.

Just don't eat any more eggs for the day and it'll be part of a complete lunch. (1.5 egg yolks is about your daily cholesterol intake... however, this study says that the body doesn't absorb all the cholesterol in the egg anyway. Also, the yolk houses all the nutrients of the egg. So make your own decisions... everything in moderation, including moderation, yada yada yada.)

Alright, the info-poetic-mercial-blog-gone-bad is over. Thanks for reading!