Brussel Sprouts and Blueberries

Short and sweet for this entry!
-Blueberries - we've always liked. The bigger, the better! They're great!
-Brussel sprouts: Actually, we really liked these! We're eating them again tonight, actually! Funny story, though:
As we researched how to make these, I read about how you "can't overcook them." Sam also read online about how you "can't overcook them." Interestingly, my take and his take on this phrase were different. Sam thought it meant "you cannot possibly overcook them; cook them as long as you want." I read it as, "one must not let them cook too long." I was right after more research. Apparently, if you overcook them, they will let out a sulfurous smell - ick! It is for this very reason that most people who don't like brussel sprouts don't like them - they smell gross. So, we are very careful not to overcook them for fear of the sulfurous smell to push us away!

Coming up next: Cabbage and Cherries!

Cauliflower and Blackberries

Well, it's been a long time since I've blogged about our foodie project, but that does NOT mean we haven't been continuing it. It's been hard to continue to write about each new food, but we've actually kept up with the project exactly on track. We've done things slightly out of order, which bugs me, but we're doing a good job keeping up. We still haven't tried apricots - not in season - but we haven't forgotten about them!

On our cauliflower week, we integrated this vegetable into a Hungry Girl mac 'n cheese recipe. I cut up bits of cauliflower and tossed it in with some whole wheat pasta and Laughing Cow cheese bits. It was actually very good; I even took left-overs to work for lunch the next day. During the same week, we also cut up fresh cauliflower with some other veggies and oven-cooked them. They're actually very good. I'd still not eat them raw - as you often see them served on veggie plates with broccoli I wouldn't eat raw either, but overall, I will add cauliflower to my list of "Likes!"

. . . and then there were blackberries. . . definite "dislike!" If you know me well, you know my mouth is extremely sensitive to any texture. My tongue is notorious for finding any little seed - known to try to hide in the crevices of my teeth or around my tongue. I HATE that. So, if you know blackberries, you know how many seeds are filled in each little bubble! While I didn't dislike the taste of the blackberry, I could NEVER see myself eating these again due to the frustration I felt finding seed after seed in my mouth.

Coming up next: brussel sprouts and blueberries!

Beets and Bananas

As Sam mentioned in the previous post, we skipped apricots. I'm still waiting to find a good "in-season" apricot and avoid the dried option. So, until then, we moved on to exploring beets and bananas. Bananas have been one of our favorite fruits for a long time. Instead of "cheating" on our goal by just accepting a food we already know we love and keep in the house regularly, we went with a more challenging option of another banana relative, the plantain - which interestingly is nothing like a banana. Plantains have a much thicker peel than bananas. You have to use a knife to cut the skin and a little bit of force to peel the skin off. The texture of the plantain is also more course than a banana. It's not as delicate or mushy as a banana. It's color is also slightly different than a banana.I had tried these years ago, in a junior high home-ec. class, and I remember thinking they were okay. So, we bought two plantains - both at different stages of ripeness. We opted to try the less ripe plantain first - the other is still on its way to blackening (the most ripe stage). I read up on how to cook a green/yellow plantain. There are so many ways to cook it - grilled, baked, fried, mashed, boiled, etc. We went with stir frying, and it turned out to be pretty tasty - surprisingly like a potato or a french fry. We'll let the other one ripen a bit more before cooking that one - probably going to try it mashed.

As for the beet, well, I did not like this at all! I did not like choosing one, looking at one, or trying one. They are ugly! The reminded me of some alien form of a bug. Sam says he thinks it looks more like a heart. Just look at the pictures below: eww! But, we tried it. And, it really wasn't horrible. Sam thought it tasted more like a cooked carrot. It just wasn't appetizing. I made several involuntary facial movements while tasting it. . . not pretty! I won't be making these or buying them again, but I'm glad we tried them. Mostly, I know that if something I'm served has beets in it, I won't be completely mortified or against eating it. I will, however, be glad that I didn't have to look at it as a whole or being cooked.

Next week, we're moving on to much tastier options, I'm hoping: broccoli/cauliflower & blackberries.

Asparagus & Avocado

We know...we skipped the apricot. That was because no apricots were available when we went shopping for it; apparently apricots are in season from late spring through the summer, so we'll try again in about a month or so.

On to ASPARAGUS!!! What a wonderful, entertaining little vegetable! Asparagus is purchased in bundles, usually priced by bundle rather than by weight. There are various widths of stalks available - kind of like the way Forest Gump describes rain - big ole' fat asparagus, tiny little stinging asparagus. I prefer the medium to small width stalks. The most fun part of preparing the asparagus is easily snapping the hard, white bottom part of the stalk off. You simply give it a little bend, and it just snaps off precisely where it's supposed to. It's really amazing.

We chose to blanch the asparagus. After snapping the stalk, we cut the stalk into 1.5/2-inch pieces, which then got quickly boiled (about 2 minutes), and then placed into ice water, which helps keep them crispy. After that, we simmered the asparagus in a pan on medium heat with extra virgin olive oil. Mmmmmmmmmm. Now that made a crisp, hot, refreshingly green side!
(I will note - asparagus does seem to increase *ahem* methane production in the human digestive system.)
Avocado...is actually a fruit. Who knew? I wasn't a big fan of the avocado...and in all honesty, I'm still not. The avocado is a seemingly versatile fruit, commonly known for its use in guacamole. We tried a bite plain...but I'll get to that in a minute. To "open up" the avocado, you simply slice it lengthwise all the way around, twist, and voila!...it opens up. It's really that simple - once you remove the oddly giant seed, it's ready for consumption, or transformation. I personally can't stand the texture, but Am seemed to enjoy it, especially after she mixed in some delicious salsa to add some texture and flavor to the fruit (I passed after my first bite). I don't know how often we'll be preparing avocado, if at all, but I recommend trying it.

Artichokes and Apples

Week 1 of our Veggie/Fruit Challenge: Artichokes/Apples

I'll start with the apple since that's much easier to explain. First of all, no research necessary, as we are pretty good apple-eaters. In fact, I eat an apple every day at lunch during the work week. Since we're already accustomed to eating Red Delicious, Golden Delicious, Granny Smith, Fuji, Gala, and Honey Crisp apples, we went with a new one neither of us has tried: Braeburn. You can see what they look like in this first picture. We ate it for dessert tonight, as it is sweet and tart at the same time, and we agree we'd both eat it again!

The artichokes are a different story - not surprising since neither of us had ever selected or prepared this vegetable. I actually had to spend quite a while researching what to look for when you buy an artichoke (heavy, firm, green, compact center leaves), how to prepare it, and how to eat it! I learned a lot... a difficult way to start our challenge, but probably a good introduction to what we've gotten ourselves into! Artichokes must be prepared a certain way: wash them and gently scrub the leaves, clip the leaf ends off with kitchen shears, cut off the bottom stem and the top of the vegetable, rub with a lemon to keep the ends from browning, boil in salted water for 25-30 minutes (increasing the time for larger artichokes), drain the artichoke upside down, let cool. I learned you can't eat the whole leaf, either. To eat the artichoke, you must gently pull each petal off, dip the base of the petal in whatever sauce you'd like (we used a lemon butter sauce), then slowly pull the petal through slightly clinched teeth to remove the soft flesh at the bottom of the petal. Then, you discard the remainder of the petal. Finally, you arrive at the heart of the choke. This part you can fully eat; it's also the part most people are familiar with and often cook with.

Sam and I were not thrilled about artichokes. We felt it was a lot of preparation for very little "meat" on each petal. The heart was "eh," and we can always buy canned artichoke hearts if we want to cook with them. However, Sam didn't care much for the heart's consistency/texture, so we probably won't cook with them. I'm glad we tried them, but I'm also glad we are done with them! :)

On another note, we did try another whole-grain tonight with our southwestern turkey meatloaf (a recipe from our friend, Gretchen; YUM!). We tried millet, a very bland whole grain that looks very similar to cous-cous. We added the tiniest bit of butter and salt (as you would in rice) to add some flavor. It was pretty good! Like the quinoa Sam wrote about last night, we ate this grain completely by itself, as opposed to pairing it with vegetables, a meat, or any other recipe. If you like rice, you would like both of these grains - and they're a lot better for you!

Quinoa what?...That was pretty darn good!

Well...this whole "heretofore unknown food" thing can be quite delicious! Tonight, Amber and I had a great meal...kind of like dipping your foot in the pool and discovering that it's the perfect temperature. The most surprising dish was a wonderful whole-grain called "Quinoa" (kwi-no-uh). Quinoa comes from the Andean region of South America, and must be shipped with a whole lot of awesome packed in with it. It's similar to rice, if you can imagine a grain of rice cut into about 5 little balls, with the consistency of a half-boiled noodle. The texture was amazing: a seemingly light food with a very satisfying feeling out of every bite. Also, once we let the Quinoa cool down while we finished the rest of dinner, it really developed a unique, almost nutty flavor, even if only a hint of it. Am & I both agreed that Quinoa holds many possibilities - we look forward to adding it to many meals, both as a side and a main ingredient.

The rest of the meal was also delicious. Amber made Tuscan Pot Pie, with grass-fed beef and cannellini beans. The grass-fed beef was, well, beef (which is to say, it was scrumptious). The cannellini beans were interesting and flavorful. I must say, they're not the most sightly of beans, but they absorbed the pasta sauce quite nicely. Am topped off the meal with some fresh sauteed veggies (broccoli, sugar snap peas, sprouts, zucchini, and mushrooms). MMMMMMMM.

It was a great meal...not too risky of a way to start our new and improved palate, but certainly rewarding both with flavor and satisfaction. I can't wait to see what mother nature has in store for us next...

What Happened to Our Chocolate Chip Cookies?

As a supplement to my previously-started blog (http://www.journeytotheknot.blogspot.com/), Sam and I wanted to start another blog specifically designed to document our way through a new goal we have for ourselves: to buy, prepare, and taste every vegetable and fruit sold at our local fresh food markets. Yes, we are inspired by the recent movie Julie & Julia where the young Julie cooks her way through Julia Child's famous cookbook and blogs about her experiences with the recipes. However, this blog and, more importantly, this goal are triggered more by the desire to be better eaters - healthier eaters. We recently bought the book entitled Food Rules by Michael Pollan and had some epiphanies even before reading the book. Our main goal is to get back to basics - back to our roots. Basically, we want to remember why humans eat (to survive!) by eating more plants, more whole grains...more intelligently.

When we started dating, as many couples do, we indulged in the fun, cuddly nights together without a care for calories, fat, carbs, or any other "no-no" foods. Our favorite treat became baking chocolate chip cookies (including a few sneak tastes of the dough) while hanging out on the couch snuggled up together. YUM! But, those days are over (well, not the snuggling) - as our bodies no longer have the metabolisms that they once did (even if that was already lower than we wanted in the first place!). So, we have a new mission: ditch the crap our ancestors would not have been able to enjoy and eat foods that are created by nature and not by test-tubes, big machines, or engineered chemicals.

In order to fulfill this goal, we have a unique challenge for ourselves - one we have decided to blog about in order to help force ourselves to be true to the plan! So, without further delay, starting this week, we will learn how to select, store, prepare, and taste every vegetable and fruit we can get our hands on. So far, this is our list, which can also be broken down into other subcatetories (like kale under leafy greens and hubbard under winter squash). . . I know we will add to it as time goes on:

Artichokes
Asparagus
Beets
Bell Peppers
Broccoli, Cauliflower
Brussels Sprouts
Cabbage
Carrots
Chile Peppers
Corn
Cucumbers
Eggplant
Fennel
Fresh Beans
Garlic
Leafy Greens
Leeks
Mushrooms
Okra
Onions, Shallots
Parsnips
Peas
Potatoes
Pumpkins
Radishes
Rhubarb
Summer Squash
Sweet Potatoes, Yams
Turnips
Winter Squash


Apples
Apricots
Avocados
Bananas
Blackberries
Blueberries
Cherries
Coconuts
Cherries
Cranberries
Dates
Figs
Gooseberries
Grapefruit
Grapes
Lemons
Mangoes
Melons
Nectarines
Oranges
Papayas
Peaches
Pears
Persimmons
Pineapples
Plums
Pomegranates
Raspberries
Strawberries
Tomatillos
Tomatoes

Some of these (many of them) we already eat regularly, so this challenge may have its very easy weeks, and then again, it will have its very difficult weeks (as my stomach does not tolerate onions well at all!). But, a challenge is a challenge - so starting this week, we're trying artichokes and apples (not together of course, unless we get some really weird recipes). Here's to hoping this challenge makes us better, healthier eaters and not asking ourselves, "What happened to our chocolate chip cookies?"