july 11, 2012 breakfast

breakfast was the last of the rutabaga & ham spanish tortilla, plus a brimming glass of cherry chia kombucha and a cup of green tea. i wasn't thinking, so i started to microwave the tortilla, forgetting i usually eat it cold. i am happy to report that it is also delicious served warm.

july 10, 2012 breakfast

another slice of spanish tortilla for breakfast, this time with wee chairs!

july 9, 2012 breakfast

monday morning breakfast is a slice of spanish tortilla, with ham, rutabaga, roasted red peppers, carmelized sweet onion and scallions. it seems i can't keep this out of the rotation for long.

june 21, 2012 dinner

my sis and i made a belated father's day dinner for my dad and stepmom tonight. (on actual father's day, ungrateful daughter number one was camping and ungrateful daughter number two was hiking.) i decided to go with tried-and-true well-tested favorites.

here is a wilted arugula salad, topped with bacon, chopped walnuts, and shallots cooked in the bacon grease, a little olive oil, and a drizzle of blood orange basalmic. drizzled a bit on the tablecloth too. oops. a small cat toy was on the table for some reason, and also made it into the shot.

i repeated the shrimp recipe i did a couple of nights ago (baked in a sauce of pureed olive oil, shallot, garlic and red pepper flakes, with a few splashes of chicken broth). i suppose it would have been nice to have mixed it with some veggies or put it atop a nice bed of something or other, but we had four dishes going at once in the kitchen, and were trying to time them. it kind of felt like we were on an episode of top chef.

the spanish tortilla with rutabaga i've done a couple of times now turned out great. on top are some chives and the purple blossoms of the chives, which lend it a nice peppery, floral flavor.

and this was sheer awesomeness. my sister made these raw, vegan, gluten-free, grain-free brownies, using only ground nuts (walnuts and pecans), raisins and dates. the frosting is coconut oil brought to liquid state, then whisked with cocoa powder. it's then chilled to give it that shellacked frosting crust. top that with some fresh peaches, raspberries and strawberries tossed in lemon juice, lemon zest and mint, and i have a new favorite dessert.

we then sat out on the deck and watched anna's hummingbirds at the feeder. a pretty perfect evening all around!

june 14, 2012 breakfast

time for the second half of that bottle of kombucha. happy thursday!

...and the last of the spanish tortilla. did you know rutabaga could be so succulent? neither did i.

june 13, 2012 breakfast

top of the morning to you! i haven't had kombucha in awhile, so i had a glass before breaky. tart and fizzy, just the way i remembered it. i went through a phase about ten years ago when i would drink this stuff daily!

and breakfast itself should be no surprise - it's a rerun! spanish tortilla with ham, rutabaga, roasted red pepper and vidalia onion. i pledge to do something different next week, although it hasn't gotten old yet..

kara kara tako girl would like a piece.

june 12, 2012 breakfast

another wednesday, another slice of spanish tortilla for breakfast. there has been a lot of ham lately, as we are trying to get through a big ol' hunk of it. we were happy to find a non-nitratey brand (applegate farms), but it came in just one (big) size, so we are working it into a lot of meals currently.

june 11, 2012 breakfast

the spanish tortilla was well-received last week, so i made another. the little green guy approves.

june 9, 2012 dinner

belated birthday dinner for my dad, eaten on his new deck. my sister tossed a salad of red leaf lettuce, spinach, red and yellow tomatoes, and pears with a homemade dressing of balsalmic, olive oil, shallot and spices.

we brought a tri-tip sirloin roast, with slivers of garlic under the surface, rubbed with paprika, salt and pepper, then stewed for seven hours in the slow cooker with sweet onions, rutabagas, carrots, green peppers, and beef broth. we served it atop a quick saute of turnips, courtesy of my sister. the meat was super fall-apart tender, and with the root vegetables, we were a couple spoons deep in comfort food on a cool june evening.

june 8, 2012 breakfast

should a garlic and jalapeno double-stuffed olive be the first thing you eat in the morning? how about 4 of them? plus a cold wedge of spanish tortilla? friday morning is all about tapas. because if i'm eating tapas, i can't possibly be at work. next time i just need some squid cooked in olive oil and paprika, and i could be in spain..

june 7, 2012 breakfast

thursday breakfast was a cold slice of leftover spanish tortilla. nothing like a little breakfast tapas.

june 6, 2012 breakfast

this is my take on the spanish tortilla - with the humble rutabaga standing in for the traditional tater. sounds odd, but it works in an insanely delicious way. i cooked this up last night, and had a wedge of this for breakfast, served cold.

making it was pretty darn easy too. first, i carmelized a whole vidalia onion, sliced in rounds.

then i added a jar of drained roasted bell peppers.

i set all that off to the side, and sauteed a couple of rutabagas, thinly sliced, in some olive oil.

after they were nice and soft and starting to brown a bit, i added back in the peppers and onions, plus some cubed ham and a few sliced green onions.

finally, i poured ten beaten eggs over the whole thing, added a pinch of salt and pepper, gave it a stir, and let it set. you are supposed to slide it onto a plate and flip it, but i just covered it, and it cooked through on its own. keep it on low heat, though, and run a rubber spatula around the edges from time to time. you don't want the bottom to burn before the rest of it is done..

totally adaptable too - you could do this with chorizo, baby shrimp, regular potatoes, drizzle with a nice garlicky aioli, the possibilities are endless!

june 5, 2012 lunch

lunch consists of leftover rogan josh atop an eye-rollingly-good rutabaga hash, homemade coleslaw, and the usual but yummy greek salad. good stuff.

june 4, 2012 dinner

happy-making rogan josh! it took some doing, but that there is braised lamb cubes (grass-fed),  generously salted and peppered, then started off at medium-high heat in ghee to sear the outsides (the trick is to wait for the meat to release from the pan on its own - when it's ready, it will let you know). i then added a paste of ginger, garlic, shredded coconut, and boiled, peeled almonds, a chopped onion, coconut milk, and a mix of many fun spices, including cumin, cloves, coriander, bay leaves, mace, cinnamon, aniseed, fennel, well, you name it, really. simmered for about an hour and a half in a dutch oven.

all this on top of rutabaga hash. perfection.