Baked Lingcod, Tomato Salad / Freedy Johnston

Heirloom Tomato Salad with Mozarella Fresca and Green Goddess

10 small-to-medium heirloom tomatoes, 3 medium sized balls mozzarella Fresca, handful of fresh basil torn up, 4T Green Goddess dressing drizzled on top, finishing salt flakes & fresh ground pepper

Goddess recipe: http://food52.com/recipes/23729-green-goddess-dressing

Baked Lingcod w Lemon Garlic Sauce

Recipe via Elise, but I used Sorghum flour instead of wheat. http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/baked_ling_cod_with_lemon_garlic_butter_sauce/

Lingcod from my seafood CSA Siren SeaSA http://sirenseasa.com

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Freedy Johnston

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=OVqBYkrlsmw

Two Salads - Daily Dinner

Fig Chèvre Basil Salad

10 figs, 1/4 log silver goat chèvre, 1/3c torn fresh basil, 1T olive oil, 1t balsamic, s&p 

Harissa

http://www.thekitchn.com/how-to-make-harissa-cooking-lessons-from-the-kitchn-190188

Cantaloupe Tomato Salad w Harissa

1-2 cantaloupe, 5 medium heirlooms, 1/3 giant cuke, 1-3c feta, handful fresh mint, s&p. Dressing = Harissa mixed with olive oil and honey. Source http://food52.com/recipes/12856-summer-melon-salad-with-harissa-feta-and-mint

My #memademay = #FreeFiFro

I don't have enough 91°-appropriate handmade-by-me clothing to do memademay, but I love the idea of broadening the make/craft focus away from the starting/doing and into the using. 

How else can I reach out my awareness and use the things I make? I do a lot of kitchen-oriented making, and I use the things I make regularly. Daily? Add that to the list, but it's not in the same spirit as wearing (because using is so much easier), so I'm challenging myself differently. 

Last time I counted (years ago), I had 22 WIPs. Yeah. I made a soft rule: no starting something new until I'd finished or frogged two WIPs. That went okay for awhile, but for at least the last year I haven't made a point to keep track. 

So, my May = repurpose/finish/frog aka "FreeFiFro". Since many of my projects are large (sweaters, blankets), it's an unrealistic goal to *finish* in one day. But you can only eat an elephant one bite at a time. So instead of stashing 10+ projects in the basement and rotating half-assed between 6+ "active" projects, I'm going to focus at least one hour of undivided attention on a project—the same project—every day until it's finished, freed, or frogged. Starting today, right now, on this alpaca hat I've been debating. Debate: over. Finish and write up pattern. Bite one: go. 

Garlic Soup / J Dilla

Garlic Soup

Shallots

Celery

Organic butter and/or EVOO

Sauté. 

Thinly slice 20-30 cloves of garlic and add to sauté 5 mins. Add some ginger and thyme and a hearty splash of ww vin. Saffron threads if you've got 'em, bay leaves, homemade stock* and sea salt. Simmer for how long it takes you to make Harissa and a simple salad. I made my salad with baby spinach, butter lettuce, red bells, avo, sprouts**, and a sprinkling of cooked lentils/quinoa. S,P, Balsamic, OO. 

Harissa

Roasted red bell, coriander-cumin-caraway (dry roasted), OO, onion, garlic cloves, red chiles, lemon juice, sea salt -- all blitzed.

Back to the soup: take out bay and immersion-blend a few pulses - maybe 1/3 of it. Bowl, plop in a spoonful of Harissa. The garlic mellows and this ends up being a pretty satisfying soup. Adapted from that by Yotam Ottolenghi.

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J Dilla - Donuts

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This meal was from Day 4; I'm now on day 7.

I'm enjoying this so much, the cooking part. There's so much hoopla about cleansing and things tasting like dirt. I haven't found that needs to be the case at all. But I do think back on cleanses I've read (and tried) that were obviously written by doctors/medical professionals rather than someone who cooks—checked all the boxes except palate. And in striving for 'variety', ended up using lots of ingredients only once, and lots of prep and cooking. A real drawback is that it's time consuming. (For me it's also A LOT of food). I go from super full to starving on a dime. Having stuff prepped or having go-to, brainless reach-for's has been vital. 

My next fantasy project: make cleanse food for folks (think Blue Apron style) and/or a book that has actually good tasting recipes and ones that take reality into account. Ex. - you don't have to spend thousands of $ buying tons of produce (3 x a week), but instead the recipes and meals are thoughtfully set up so they last a few meals and snacks with less constant work.

*Stock - I save the trimmings of my vegetables in a bag in the freezer. Need stock? Trimmings go into stockpot with water, simmer, voila. 

**Hooray home sprout grower, right? I was too lazy to do the jar method so bought one. Either way, so worth it!

Collard Wraps / TAL

Collard Wraps

6-7 large pristine collard leaves

Cooked quinoa and lentils*

Half a bundle asparagus

2 spring onions

2 carrots

1/2 large red bell pepper

1/2 sweet red chile

Olive oil spray

Balsamic vinegar

Tahini mustard sauce (recipe follows)

Avocado

Cut off the stem of your collards so that they're close to being round. Lightly steam them (2-3 mins max). I leave in the stalk, cause I tried it once cutting out the stalk and overlapping and it was a messy nightmare. Having done it both ways, for me this is superior. Set aside to drain and cool. 

Preheat oven to 400°. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and lightly spray with oil. Cut up your carrots, onions, and peppers into 2-3" sticks. Spread out on pan, lightly oil surface, easy salt, pepper, sprinkling of balsamic then into the oven for 20 minutes. While they're cooking, break off the bottom tough parts of asparagus stalks. Cut down to 2-3" pieces if necessary. When veg are done with round one, remove from oven, turn, add asparagus, and return to oven for 10/15/20 mins depending on size of your veg. You want them roasted to your liking. Remove and set aside. 

Cut a peeled avocado into 8-12 wedges. 

To assemble: it's like a burrito or more like a sushi hand roll! Spoon some quinoa/lentils, spoonful of sauce, arrange a bit of each type of veg + some avo and roll. I secured with toothpicks. I also left the top open for prettiness and also cause it was easier. 

Tahini Mustard sauce

Half a cup of tahini

Half a cup of water

2T clean (sugar free) mustard

2T lemon juice (or more to taste)

Crushed garlic clove 

Pinch o salt

Blitz it up in a mini food processor or that contraption that came with your immersion blender (if you're me). Makes a TON, so I'll be figuring out what to make with it over the next week I guess. 

*quinoa lentils - in my fuzzy logic rice cooker, I put in one cup washed and drained quinoa, one cup green french lentils, 1 piece kombu, 4 cups water. Set to cook for 'regular'. Made a giant batch. Again with the figuring out....

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What did I listen to?

This American Life. 

I'm on a podcast bender. Sorry records, I'll be back soon. 

Still with me? I will blab. 

Number one: what's with me being so descriptive with the cooking instructions? Who do I think I am, Julia Child? Get over yourself, me!

Number two: doing a lot of it. Hello, I'm on a cleanse!

Number three:

So this is what I made for dinner day three of our Standard Process Cleanse. My observations at this point were UGH! So much food! I felt like I was constantly making food or eating food or making shakes or drinking shakes or taking pills. And I felt crazy bloated but had surprisingly lost weight, because honestly, the bloating, jeez. Also felt a bit spaced out and for the first time had a kind of detox-y pseudo-headache weird brain feeling. Not bad, just like when you were a kid and wore a headband that was too tight. So due to the I'M TOO GODDAMNED FULL feeling, I went down to one shake a day. I make a triple batch in the morning. Pour one for Evan's breakfast, one for his lunch, and split the third in half for me: one for mid morning and one for mid afternoon. What a difference!

Kitcheree / Colin Hay

Evan and I started the Standard Process Cleanse yesterday. I was surprised by how little was out there when I searched looking for recipes and inspiration, so I'm taking notes—both for myself (so I can remember what I did, what worked, what didn't) and for anyone else who stumbles upon this.

Today is day 2; starting there as yesterday I felt like a big pile of garbage due to Game Night being the night before and why not start a cleanse with a bang, the bang being a shit ton of champagne the night before. 

Made the kitcheree yesterday and the squash today, which I'll post separately. 

Kitcheree

1c red lentils

1c red quinoa

1 thumb sized chunk of fresh ginger

1 pinkie sized piece of fresh turmeric 

Olive oil

6c water

Salt

1T cumin sed

1t mustard seed

3 carrots

2 dried chile peppers (crushed),one seeded depending on your spice tolerance

Sort and rinse lentils and quinoa in a few changes of water. Drain and set aside. 

Peel and finely dice the ginger and turmeric. Heat oil in a Dutch oven until hot, add ginger and turmeric and sauté over medium high heat for a few minutes.

Add quinoa and lentils to pot with a pinch of salt. Stir to coat, then add water. Bring to boil, then cover and reduce heat and simmer for half an hour. 

While simmering, toast your cumin seed and mustard seed until the just start to pop. Cut your carrots into bite sized rounds. 

When 30 minutes have passed, uncover and stir. If it's watery, leave the lid off. Add spices and carrots and cook another 20 minutes. You want it mushy like oatmeal or risotto, not watery like  congee. 

The Standard Process cleanse (or purification, as they call it), is a supplemented one. Recommended and procured through health care professionals like acupuncturists (in my case) or chiropractors. It's a lot of supplements & 2-3 shakes per day. You eat unlimited vegetables, half that amount in fruit. You can have quinoa and lentils (obvs), as well as green beans and peas. Some seeds, coconut milk.... It's pretty generous, really. Basically no caffeine, sugar, booze, dairy, grains, eggs, nuts, or processed foods. You can have clean meat starting day 11. You're eating cleanly so as to not undo the work of the supplements you're taking, which are giving a scrubbing to your liver, kidneys, small, and large intestine. 

Last night we were treated to tickets to see Colin Hay at the Palace of Fine Arts. I was somewhat familiar with his music, but in the most basic way, so decided to use the day for a more comprehensive, dedicated listen. His songs are beautiful, sweet, singer-songwritery. Some of his lyrics are chuckle-inducing, and they all have an honesty in the lyricism that I find unique in their personal Everyman observationism. His voice is distinct and consistent, and there's a specificity in his style. I was expecting a sweet, quiet show. 

What a surprise. Dude is HILARIOUS. I would say almost half of the performance was story-telling, all of it highly funny and often quite touching. His wife joined him for part of the performance which added a different level of entertainment I couldn't possibly describe. So, yeah, go see that guy. 

An irritating thing: when people BLAH BLAH BLAH too much in their posts. Apologies. 

Meatloaf & Baked Potato / Rock On

Inspired by this article in the recent BA, I've had baked potatoes on the brain. Was going to roast a chicken so I could use the carcass to make stock, but a) I don't have room for more stock in my freezer, wtf is my problem and b) meatloaf sounded SO good. My go-to meatloaf uses beef and pork and sometimes veal, but I went wild and am using a new 'recipe'. More fast n loose than my usual. We'll see, it's baking now. I also want to make these cookies, but House of Cards is calling. 

Potatoes

Two giant russets, scrubbed. Pricked, rubbed with olive oil, generously sprinkled with fresh ground tellicherry black pepper and sea salt. Baked directly on middle rack at 400 for about an hour. 

Meatloaf

Halve a red onion. Pulse it to bits in a food processor. 

Toast 3 slices GF white bread.

In a bowl put:

1# ground turkey

1# 85% lean beef

1# 80% lean beef

Pulsed onion

2+ minced cloves garlic

2 t kosher salt

Lots of fresh ground pepper

1/4cup ketchup

Egg 

Pulse bread in the food processor until it's crumbly. Add 1 cup milk. Let it soak while you do an initial mix of bowl ingredients. Add milky bread to bowl. Knead until just mixed. 

Form into a loaf-like mass on a parchment-papered rimmed baking pan. 

400 degrees for about an hour and 15 minutes, depending on your oven. 

Rogue moves: no carrot, celery, bacon, sausage, parsley, Worcestershire ....

No pan!

Upside: way faster and easier.