use real butter

I first read about quinoa three years ago in a food article and I tucked it away in my head. It is a great Scrabble or Tiles word to use up that Q, and everyone around you who isn’t a food dork declares it isn’t a word. What do they know? Quasar is another good one, but that has nothing to do with food. I only sampled quinoa a few times in restaurants, but lately I’ve been trying to work more grains into my diet because I love them and it is really a lack of exposure that has kept me from experimenting in the kitchen more than anything else.

dried quinoa

Most recently I whipped up a batch of leftover soup - all of the frozen and fresh vegetables I could find tossed in with some chicken, in a half beef half chicken broth (ran out of one, had more of the other…). Fiona told me she pours a cup of quinoa into any old soup and it’s great. She was right. I loved it. Jeremy loved it. Loved it. Feeling more familiar with this tiny complete protein seed, I next thought of a sweet take on it.

fresh fruit - one of the many joys in my life

There was a terrific fruit and nut salad I used to order from Aladdin’s in Ithaca, New York. Loads of fresh fruit topped with yogurt, honey, and walnuts. Perfect for those low energy times - a true pick-me-up. It’s an easy recipe to reproduce, mutate, improve upon.

a few walnuts add extra texture

I figured I could set the entire fruit and nut salad on a small bed of cooked quinoa for a powerhouse meal. I had a bowl of this after a 2-hour cardio workout yesterday and it was incredibly satisfying. Now that I think of it, there are a lot of things that would have been satisfying after my workout, like a bowl of chili cheese fries, or sticky cinnamon buns, or some pad thai… But I’m talking about satisfying in the “I am feeling superior for not delivering all of the calories I just burned straight back to my ass” sense.

cooked quinoa

While cooking the quinoa, I noticed the smell of it was similar to the smell of cooking Chinese sweet red beans (aka azuki beans) or sweet green beans (they are similar to the red ones, except they are green and smaller). It’s a pleasant odor that is both nutty and tea-like. The quinoa is a breeze to cook and I am a huge fan of the flavor and texture. It works well with this salad.

a bowl of healthy goodness

Quinoa, Fruit, and Nut Salad

1 cup quinoa
2 cups water
dash salt
plain yogurt (I use non-fat)
honey
fruit, washed, peeled, diced
chopped walnuts

Rinse the quinoa for a minute or two under cold water. Bring the quinoa, 2 cups of water, and salt to a boil in a saucepan. Reduce to simmer and cover. Cook for about 20-25 minutes until tender. Spoon 1/2 cup of quinoa into a bowl. Top with fruit and plain yogurt (the amounts are up to you). Drizzle honey over the salad and top with chopped walnuts.

Here now, I don’t have a recipe for you in the typical step-by-step today. I have been cooking, just not documenting as lovingly as usual because it’s been hectic lately and a fraction of my daylight hours have been devoted to snow worship… Not to mention the ramp up of the ARP (ass reduction plan) leaves me pretty hungry and somewhat spent, so not a lot of patience for shooting intermediate steps. But my body is adjusting quickly and I’ll be back on it soon enough. My endorphins are flowing, my muscles are rock hard, and that waistline is shrinking. I shit you not, kids. Hyperactivity has its benefits.

After my run and bike the other day, I prepared a lunch of kale and fettuccine in homemade tomato and garlic sauce and it truly rocked my world. I don’t quite understand people who go on those ridiculous fad diets - eat carbs, don’t eat carbs, eat fat, don’t eat fat, eat meat, don’t eat meat. Moderation in all things, eh? And if you’d get ye lard butt of ye couch, perhaps it wouldn’t really matter if you had that Slice of Yum.

carbo loading?

Hmmm, what else… after I made the mac nut brittle, I gave it all away. I like to make sweets, sample them, and then get rid of them. Sort of a relative ass reduction plan (rARP) because you make all of the people around you fat so that you appear relatively slimmer. It’s a joke. A joke! I wanted to make peanut brittle - the buttery kind, not the glassy kind. HolyBasil mentioned that her mom used to make it. So on a lark I looked up a recipe last night and within the hour had a batch of this:

chunky brittle and stretchy brittle

The recipe said I could pull the brittle as it cooled, so I pulled some of it, but when you break that up it sends little delicate shards of buttery brittle all over the place. Makes a mess. My dog has been licking the floor around the table more than usual today. I like it because it’s closer to toffee than the other brittle and I’m just a sucker for that stuff. Oh, but skinning Spanish peanuts is not a fun activity for a Friday night.

Peanut Brittle
from the Nut Factory

2 cups sugar
1 cup light corn syrup
1 cup water
2 cups raw Spanish peanuts
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp butter
2 tsp baking soda

Heat and stir sugar, corn syrup and water in a heavy saucepan until sugar dissolves. Add salt. Cook over medium heat to and add peanuts at 250 degrees. Continue cooking to 290 degrees, stirring often. Remove from heat. Stir in butter and baking soda. Beat to a froth for a few seconds and pour onto well-buttered pan(s) or silpat, spreading with spatula. If desired, cool slightly and pull with forks (or fingers) to stretch thin. Break up when cold. Makes 1-1/2 pounds of peanut brittle.

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Of course, that brittle was a most welcome sight this evening after skiing a whole day at Vail. Vail is delicious. If ski resorts were desserts, Vail would be my crème brûlée.

So who got some of that mac nut brittle? One of them is Liz, my bud. She and I are tracking one another’s ARP - Liz in Oregon and me in Colorado. She is also a tele skier and you know what that means… she’s a Rock Star. In addition to a few other confections, I sent her a scarf I knit from truly gorgeous Manos del Uruguay. Like a superhero, I have many hidden powers. I just don’t have telekinesis - yet.

the colorway is called flame, for someone who burns up the slopes

A real post soon, I swear it. Unless we go to Breckenridge tomorrow :)

My first introduction to meatloaf was at the cafeteria in elementary school. It was brown, or rather gray and smothered in an equally nasty looking gravy. Honestly, it didn’t taste bad. It didn’t taste good either. We didn’t dig on meatloaf at my house. Not that we didn’t like it, we just didn’t know what the hell it was or how to make it. Ah, the joys of growing up Chinese in the American South. Meatloaf always maintained cafeteria status for me because that’s the only place I ever saw it. Eventually I learned what was in meatloaf when I got to college. Probably one of the best things I came away with from one ex-beau was the use of chili sauce and red currant jelly instead of ketchup for the sauce. Now, I like to use ground turkey instead of beef as a healthier take on meatloaf. I prefer turkey thigh meat if it’s available because it’s not as dry as breast meat.

pouring worcestershire sauce into the mix

I do get excited about having meatloaf for dinner because it’s a great wintertime meal and Jeremy loves it too. It’s even something he makes from time to time. You must understand that I’d only let him prepare a meal if he’s mastered it to my approval - otherwise… get outta my kitchen and lemme cook. I melt the red currant jelly in a sauce pan and then stir in the chili sauce. Yeah, I know - it smacks of white trash recipes, right? You find a combo like that for meatballs and all sorts of random Heinz product recipes. Well, I admit that my ex was from Kansas and his family ate strictly Midwestern - if that’s even a style of food…*snort*

mix a little sauce into the filling

I’m not sure why it’s even called chili sauce because it has nothing to do with chili or chiles as far as I can tell, but it’s handy and tomato-based. Oh stop looking so taken aback, I grew up in southern Virginia. I know my way around white trash food.

stuff it in a loaf pan and pour some sauce on top

There are so many variations on meatloaf. Admittedly, it’s not something I’ve explored much because this quick and dirty recipe has served me well thus far.

i especially love meatloaf with mashies

Turkey Meatloaf

1 lb. ground turkey (I used thigh meat)
1/2 - 1 cup bread crumbs
1 egg
1/2 onion, minced
2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tbsp garlic powder
salt and pepper to taste
4 oz red currant jelly
1 jar Heinz chili sauce (or any chili sauce that has nothing to do with real chiles)

Preheat oven to 350F. Heat red currant jelly in a small saucepan over medium heat until melted. Add the chili sauce and stir until combined. Mix ground turkey, bread crumbs, egg, onion, Worcestershire sauce, garlic powder, salt, and pepper in a large bowl. Pour about 4 oz of the sauce into the turkey and mix well. Pack the mixture into a loaf pan and pour a cup of the sauce over the top. Bake for an hour. Serve with remaining sauce.