Yesterday, Robert and I did our first hike of the season.  We went up to Lake Serene at the base of Mt. Index.  It was a great hike, although the set of 25 (yes, I counted) steep switchbacks has left my muscles a bit sore today.  The lake was beautiful and we had a nice lunchtime spot to ourselves for about 15 minutes until other groups slowly began to trickle in.

For lunch, I made sandwiches – avocado, sprouts and a simple salmon salad of celery, onion, salmon, parsley and mayo all on nutty, whole wheat bread.  I used canned salmon and it kind of freaked me out because the salmon still had skin and bones in it.  I was able to remove some of the bones, especially the vertebrae, but most of the smaller ones just disintegrated when I touched them.  That’s fine, I can probably use the extra calcium.  I actually read online later that 95% of canned salmon has bones and that they are perfectly edible.  Interesting.  We also had goldfish crackers and apples.  I can’t remember the variety of apple that I bought but I think it was similar to Pink Lady/Cripp’s Pink.  They were very good – sweet and sour and crisp all at once. A little chipmunk came by and rummaged through our bag of food but, when I tried to pass a cracker it’s direction, it ran away.  That was the only wildlife we saw on this trip with the exception of a couple of trout that some campers had caught and were about to cook.  Mmmm…fresh trout.  That kind of puts my canned salmon lunch to shame.  On the way home, we stopped off at a little stand on the side of the road and bought some cherries.  Summer has arrived!

I’ve been on a mission recently to add more whole grains to my diet; several weeks ago I decided that I would try a new grain each week. I’d be like the Tony Bourdain of grains, trying anything and everything. OK, so trying a grain isn’t all that adventurous but I have always had this prejudice against grains (other than rice, of course, which I eat all the time.) Because whole grains are so healthy, I have always assumed they must have the taste and texture of rabbit food. I know I shouldn’t feel that way but, I do. So my mission would be to find a grain that gets me to overcome my prejudice and, if I’m very lucky, one that I might even consider eating nearly as often as rice.

A couple of weeks ago, I bought some organic quinoa from Trader Joe’s and made a salad of quinoa, black beans, corn and bell pepper in a lime-cilantro vinaigrette. Quinoa is an ancient grain from the Andes; it is very high in protein and amino acids. My salad was very good. The quinoa was surprisingly light (very un-rabbit food like), making it an ideal substitute for rice. The next week, I made tabbouleh using bulgur, a form of quick-cooking whole wheat. It wasn’t bad but the bulgur could have been a bit softer. I might try using it in a recipe where it is actually cooked rather than steeped as in the tabbouleh. I’ve seen recipes for bulgur pilafs or even chili with bulgur. Last night, Robert and I went to 22 Doors and I ordered the farro “risotto.” It was made with Bluebird Farm’s Farro, caramelized fennel, walnuts and golden raisins and was topped with pea vines and ricotta salata. Farro is a form of wheat and it is used a lot in Italian cooking. It was pretty tasty but they gave me a huge serving and, after a while, it began to feel very heavy and started to taste like, you guessed it, rabbit food. But, I actually think the grain itself was much better than that dish and I would really like to try using it in something at home. It was crunchy and very nutty in flavor and I could see it being good in a pilaf or salad. There are a couple of recipes for farro in Lynn Rosetto Caspar’s “The Italian Country Table” that I might need to check out. So, although none of these grains has completely blown me away, I do feel like I have found a couple of new foods that I would be willing to experiment more with and ultimately incorporate into my cooking. If any of you have recipes for whole grains that you love, please let me know.

I have always been pretty strict in my cooking about serving a protein, a starch and a vegetable (which nearly always has to be something green) with every meal. Unlike the typical American meat and potatoes and peas, my meals tend more towards curried chickpeas with rice and okra or seared halibut with pesto pasta and sautéed snap peas. Lately, I have been feeling a bit limited with my starches. Which am I going to serve tonight – potatoes, rice or pasta? It’s getting boring. This week, I tried something new from my Tom Douglas cookbook – cornbread pudding! This is one of his famous dishes. You take cubes of cornbread, caramelized onions, fresh herbs (I used sage and thyme), and grated dry jack cheese (or high-quality parmesan) and cover it with a basic egg and cream custard and bake until set. Yum! I made it in individual ramekins rather than one big pan as the recipe suggested. This is a great way to use up that second half pan of cornbread that I always have leftover. While this could technically take the place of both starch and protein, I served it as the starch alongside roasted salmon with grilled shiitake relish and stir-fried broccoli with lemon zest and pine nuts.

Robert had his wisdom teeth removed on Thursday so he needs to stick to soft foods for up to ten days. Me, being the type of person that I am, starting researching and planning foods that I could make for him a month ago. The biggest challenge was not sticking to soft foods but rather that he couldn’t have warm foods for the first few days. You quickly realize that the only soft foods that are good cold are dairy and fruit based – ice cream, smoothies, popsicles, yogurt, etc. That gets old pretty fast. We stocked up on storebought applesauce, yogurt and a few jars of baby food (pear and squash, not lasagne with meat sauce or any of the other horrifying flavors.)

I bought some frozen mixed berries, bananas, and plain yogurt to make smoothies. Yum! Smoothies are quick, delicious and healthy. I should make them all the time. I’ll put my smoothie recipe on elliemay.com soon. The other big issue for Robert was coffee! To solve this problem, I started brewing extra strong coffee and chilling it. Then, whenever Robert wants/needs coffee, he just adds milk and enjoys a homemade iced latte.

For dinners, I decided to experiment a little. Friday night, I made Cold Avocado Corn Soup with Cilantro Oil from epicurious.com. It was actually very good. I’m not a fan of cold soups and was afraid that this one would end up tasting like a bowl of thin guacamole. Not so. The roasted corn added sweetness, the avocado and sour cream made it nice and creamy, lime juice provided tang and one unseeded serrano chili made it spicy! I would make this again but probably serve it warm with corn chips for garnish.

Last night, Robert was able to have warm foods so I made congee – Chinese rice porridge. To make congee, you cook rice in lots of water for a long time until it basically breaks down and forms a porridge. Because this was for Robert and I wanted to make him feel better, I actually made it with chicken (sorry, vegetarians, but there really is no substitute for real chicken broth. People who say that foods are just as good without it are just kidding themselves. I’m still not going to start eating meat though.) I made a quick stock with chicken, scallions, ginger and garlic and then I added jasmine rice and cooked it for 1-1/2 hours. I minced the cooked chicken and added it back into the soup along with some soy sauce and then I topped the bowls off with a garnish of finely chopped scallions, grated ginger and sesame oil. This was very, very comforting and tasty.

This week, I will be making Potato-Watercress soup, Thai Pumpkin-Coconut soup, Indian Red Lentil soup, Polenta with Tomato Sauce and Grated Zucchini and finally, Dover Sole with Celery Root Puree. Not a bad sounding menu, don’t you think? Much better than Gerber’s Vegetable Ham at least.

Go Seahawks!

Robert has been asking me to make oatmeal cookies for weeks now so I went to Trader Joe’s today and bought some oats and dried cherries (I hate raisins) and then got to work. I used the oatmeal cookie recipe from How To Cook Everything by Mark Bittman. I added dried cherries and I had some toasted hazelnuts on hand so I threw some of those in too. I wasn’t sure if I really liked oatmeal cookies (probably because of the raisins) but these turned out great. They were much cakier and less sweet and definitely less greasy than most which is fine with me. They’re more like mini scones and should be great with coffee tomorrow morning (yes, that’s right, I’m having cookies for breakfast!) For added presentation, I topped each with a single dried cherry. Yum!

Since I have been attending my neighborhood farmer’s market regularly, I am now officially “eating with the seasons.â€? This is great but it also means that I can’t always find my favorites. Yes, I know asparagus isn’t in season right now so I shouldn’t be eating it, but that was always one of my staples. To fill this void, I have been branching out and trying new things. Last week, I picked up 3 small eggplants even though I have never been too sure how I feel about eggplant. There was an Indian restaurant that my family used to go to, however, that had a great grilled eggplant dish so I decided I would be safe in mimicking that. I cut my eggplant into 3/4 –inch thick rounds, salted it and let it rest for 1 hour. Then I grilled the rounds on a very hot grill pan until charred and soft and topped them with yogurt, chopped mint, thinly sliced green chili, pistachios and a light sprinkling of coriander powder. It was absolutely delicious – the eggplant was buttery soft and smoky and contrasted perfectly with the exotic flavors of the garnish. The mint, which came from my mom’s garden, was very refreshing. And it was an attractive dish to boot! I will put a recipe up on elliemay.com as soon as I can get my act together.

Hello everyone. Robert and I went on the most incredible hike on Saturday – Tolmie Peak in Mt. Rainier National Park. It was an nice hike up to pretty Eunice Lake followed by a short (but steep) climb to the lookout at Tolmie Peak. The view was beyond words and we got there well before the zoo of people so that was nice. Here is a website with some photos: http://www.attrition.ws/13/hikedetail.cfm. For lunch, I made tuna salad wraps but instead of the typical mayo-rich tuna salad I used fresh cilantro, chopped jicama, scallions, romaine lettuce, avocado, and lime juice. Along with a can of Pringles, it was the perfect hiking lunch. The freshness of the cilantro and lime juice helped the canned tuna from being too smelly. For dinner, back in the city, we went to our local pub for beers and veggie pizza and sausage grinders. After that, we watched Big Night, a good food movie that made me crave more Italian food (although I’m sure that Primo would have been horrified by the sun-dried tomato and walnut pizza that I had for dinner!)

Well, maybe not. I saw thunderstorms in tomorrow’s weather forecast. But yesterday was very nice so I decided to kick off summer with a Mexican dinner. I made a delicious shrimp cocktail with jumbo shrimp, tomatoes, cilantro, green olives with pimentoes, garlic, serrano chilies and lime juice and zest. The recipe is from epicurious.com. We had made it once before for a family dinner and everyone just loved it. I love it and I don’t even like tomatoes or cilantro! I made a black bean, rice and corn salad flavored with cumin and oregano. Then, I made my famous “Mexican” green salad with romaine lettuce, avocado, orange wedges, jicama and pumpkin seeds (except that I only had sunflower seeds so I used those instead.) I also chopped up a pineapple and heated some homemade-style flour tortillas from Trader Joe’s to round things out. Oh, and I made margaritas much to Robert’s delight. It was quite a feast and certainly put me in the mood for summer.

Hello everyone! I’m getting complaints about not writing in my blog often enough so here is a new post. I tried a dish from epicurious.com the other day that was pretty yummy. It is called Ginger Catfish although it should have been called Ginger Ginger because it called for a full 2 cups of julienned ginger!! I halved the recipe for the two of us so I only needed a cup (that’s about 4 to 5 medium knobs of ginger for anyone who’s curious how much they need to buy.) I used tilapia instead of the catfish since I thought it would hold up better to stir-frying. You know what, as the other reviewers said on the website, the ginger really does mellow with cooking. I would definitely make it again. I haven’t really made anything else recently that stands out. With basketball playoffs happening, I’ve been in more of a “sandwiches and oven-fries for dinner” mood lately. I’ll say once again (and probably not really mean it), I promise to write in my blog more often. I swear this time. Go Sonics!

…the word alone is enough to make me drool. What could be better than freshly-steamed homemade tamales? Yum. Yesterday I spent all day making the scrumptious little food packets. For myself, I made an unfilled sweet potato tamale. The recipe comes from Sunset magazine, although I did make some changes. The dough is made up of baked sweet potato flesh, cinnamon, brown sugar, chipotle chilies and masa. They were very good but I wish they would have firmed up a bit more. I suppose I could have steamed them longer. For Robert, I made traditional shredded pork tamales. He loved them and was still talking about them today. It’s a good thing I made extra for the freezer. Robert contributed his homemade red chili sauce to the meal. This time he made the deluxe version with ground pine nuts. It ended up tasting like a cross between red chili and mole which was perfect for the tamales. I’ll be putting the sweet potato tamale recipe up on elliemay.com this month so be sure to look for it!