Slaws

Memorial Weekend seems like the perfect time to talk about how to easily keep veggies in your fridge all summer with the perfect veggie salads.  I suggest embracing slaw.  Now, many of us immediately think of cabbage, and depending on where we grew up our cabbage slaw was dressed with either a creamy or a vinegar based dressing, but I am using slaw to describe this kind of salad and in that description, we can open our mind to all sorts of vegetables and dressings.  And, we don't need nearly as much sugar as most traditional recipes list.

I will admit,  I had a point in time in which I was trying to make sure we were always getting enough vegetables, always reaching for vegetables in place of other foods to help us lose weight and become healthier.  At that time, the book Cooking Thin with Chef Kathleen, Kathleen Daelemans, opened my eyes to slaw.

If you are limited on time and that is your main excuse for not eating enough good food, then definitely, buy the prepackaged carrots, coleslaw, broccoli slaw, whatever you can find already shredded in the store. Then all you have to do is add any vinegar and seasoning you desire.  Another time saver is a mandolin.  Those are the handy kitchen appliances that help you to evenly slice your veggies.  But please, always pay attention to the location of your fingers to the blade!

But, if you have the time, or maybe you need some calm, consider looking at the chopping of vegetables as a zen experience.  I have a mandolin and realized this winter I never use it.  I like the feel of the knife.  I like taking the time to slice up my vegetables and I find it to be very calming. 

If you are laughing at me nervously right now, because there is no way you would find chopping vegetables calming when you could be doing something else - then pull that bagged veggie out of the fridge - ASAP!

I have three slaws to share, but use these as inspiration, realize that you can change the flavors by using different herbs and vinegars.  These are more guides than recipes.

• Always just adjust the amount of veggies based on what you have or desire.  For one person you may want a smaller bowl.  But slaws will last quite a few days and in addition to a dinner side, they make a great afternoon snack or lunch!  For lunch you could take any of these and put them in a pita pocket with tuna or sliced chicken breast or tofu, whatever your preference.
• Parsley, cilantro, and mint will all give you different flavors. 
• You can use sherry vinegar, red wine vinegar, apple cider vinegar, golden balsamic vinegar, or whatever you have in the pantry. 
• What other vegetables could you use?  The question is really what couldn't you use!?!  In addition to the below vegetables don't forget about celery, kohlrabi, fennel, cucumbers, napa cabbage, and peppers.

Spicy Carrot Slaw (Based on Kathleen Daelemans Quick and Spicy Carrot Slaw in the Cooking Thin cookbook linked above)
1/2 c. raisins or dried cranberries (optional)
2 T. red wine vinegar
1/4 c. fresh lemon or lime juice
1/4 t. paprika
1/4 t. cumin
1/8 t. cayenne (less or more, depending on your sensitivity to spice)
2 T. olive oil
4 c. grated carrots
About 1/2 c. chopped mint

Plump up raisins by covering them with boiling water and letting them sit while you put together the salad.

Put the carrots and mint in a bowl.  Whisk together the vinegar, lemon juice, oil, and seasonings, add to carrots along with the raisins and mix.  I preferred this after a couple hours, but the flavors were very fresh and it could be served immediately.

Beet and Apple Slaw (Based on Kathleen Daelemans Apple and Raw Beet Salad in the Cooking Thin cookbook linked above)

Yes, beets still taste like beets, but the Granny Smith apple in here along with the ginger pair perfectly to mellow the beets out.  Oh, and have I mentioned I love beets?

1 t. grated ginger
1 pound beets grated
1 granny smith apple grated
3 T. Golden Balsamic Vinegar
1/2 t. course salt
1/8 t. cracked black pepper
1 T. olive oil
1-2 T. chopped parsley or mint, depending on what is growing well in the garden (optional)

Mix together the ginger, beets, and apple.  In a small bowl, whisk together the vinegar, salt, pepper, and oil and add to the slaw.  Add herbs, if using, and mix together.  You can serve this immediately or keep refrigerated.  I really liked the flavors after they had mellowed for a couple hours.

Jicama Slaw (Adapted from Ellie Krieger's Southwestern Slaw from The Food You Crave.  This is a great cookbook by the way.)

1 jicama, peeled and julienned (you may want less than a whole jicama depending on it's size)
1/3 head red cabbage thinly sliced
1/3 head green cabbage thinly sliced
2 green onions thinly slice (white and green parts)
1/2 cup chopped cilantro leaves
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup lowfat buttermilk
1 T. lime juice
salt and pepper to taste

Toss together all vegetables and herbs.  Whisk together the dressing components and mix in.

What's my favorite part of these types of salads?  The color!  Wow, I loved how these salads made the table and our plates pop with color.

The end of Paris... for now.

I have one more Paris idiosyncrasies blog to share with you. I’d like to share some last pictures with you throughout.

I loved the Doors of Paris. One never knew what was behind the doors; it could be the entrance to a building, a court yard, or even a parking garage. But with such large, colorful, decorated doors, who wouldn’t want to go home? Enjoy these door pictures throughout.

Garbage & Recycling: It is interesting being in these big cities and watching them deal with garbage and recycling. Unfortunately, I didn’t get a picture, but there are large green containers spread through the cities on sidewalks. Picture something almost as tall as I am and round with a small round opening big enough for bottles in one end. You’ll see little old ladies that are headed out to get their baguette and other groceries for the day empty their recycling bag into the container before heading off to get their groceries. What a wonderful habit!

The garbage cans around the city aren’t really cans. You can see them below. The holder is fixed in the concrete and bags are attached. Some have yellow bags and those are recycling. At first we thought, “won’t it blow away?” But apparently not, plus without a container, there is less to replace and put in a landfill at the end of the "garbage cans" life cycle.

Exact change: I will warn you now -- in Paris they prefer you have exact change … everywhere! Keep some coins with you it will make your life easier. At first, it may seem like it is just something to make your life difficult, but I think there is more to it. I noticed that in most restaurants and even the bread stores, the person waiting on you had to make change for you out of their apron. They have a lot of change since $1 and $2 euros are coins. So I did start to feel bad when I only had large bills. One would think with this penchant for correct change all of the atm’s would give smaller bills, instead of just $50’s!

Another money note, one thing they definitely do right, is how they handle credit cards. When you pay with a credit card at restaurants, etc, the waiter/waitress brings a small hand held machine right to your table. They don’t wander off with your precious credit card. In fact, it never leaves your sight!

Has it really been two weeks since I've returned?  I already miss the doors, but also

The Streets & Buildings

The Palaces

The History & Beauty

And, Of Course, The Food

I'll return someday, but it's only right to end this journey at the same place we ended our long days of wondering every night. the door to our little apartment… How lucky I was to spend this time with Kim in Paris, and to have this bright blue door to come home to every day! 

Spring Rhubarb and a Saturday Dinner

It's time to take a small break, at least one post, from my reflection on Paris. It's been quite the whirlwind around here as we put the house up for sale and look forward to a new great adventure, while at the same time embracing our time in Green River, traveling for fun, and keeping up with work and work travel demands. I've traveled for the past 6 weeks and have two more weeks of work travel to go, before getting a week at home. As I pack for this next trip, you can imagine how much I've enjoyed the past three days at home. I've been able to walk with my good friend, Kathy, and enjoy my kitchen. I do miss my kitchen when traveling.

Yesterday amidst, walking and working outside, I managed to spend quite a few hours putzing through a Saturday dinner for me and my husband. I have so many recipes in my to-do list, but the focus of this meal started with the amazing rhubarb growing in my back yard. Just check out that pretty patch above and this is after I took out two cups of stalks! Aren't those bright green leaves pretty?

As I was chopping the rhubarb, I popped (as always) a raw piece in my mouth. The flavor just pops in my mouth and while at first I get the overwhelming tart, afterward, I enjoy the rhubarb flavor and find myself looking forward even more to what I am baking.

I had lots of rhubarb options, pies, custard bars, compotes, but this recipe for a Rhubarb Custard Crumb Pie had grabbed me a couple days ago. This pie is from a new blog I've discovered, Apt. 2B Baking Co. In this blog, Yossy uses a lot of different grains, of which I'm a big fan, so I am fully enjoying this blog. In addition, I had a plethora of eggs and cream in the fridge to use up from ice cream experiments, so I had been leaning toward custard.

Don't be scared off by the rye dough or the measurements in ounces. I don’t have a great kitchen scale and yet my measurement of ounces came out fine.

Yossy says she adapted the rye pie dough from Kim Boyce's Good to the Grain cookbook. A cookbook, which I own and must use more! It tasted so earthy, but it did not have a strong rye taste. The dough went very well with the rhubarb. If you read the whole recipe through ahead of time, always a good idea, it would be easy to get scared off because of the time it takes to make the dough. Just do it! I will try the dough as listed, but did not have that time yesterday and just let it sit in the fridge about 45 minutes each time. The dough was still very tender. My only suggestion would be to use plenty of beans or pie weights when prebaking to keep the sides from falling down.

While it seems only right to start with the pie, it's now time to go backwards.

I marinated one of my last remaining chickens from last fall’s trip to Utah Natural Meat in a mustard based marinade, using a wonderful hearty Balsamic Mustard given to me by my mother-in-law. I look forward to finding fun uses for the other Mustard versions she gave me that were created near her by a small business in Kentucky. I based this recipe on the Honey Mustard Glazed Chicken Thighs in the most recent Clean Eating magazine.   The recipe isn't online yet.

The dish is simple with roasted bell peppers and the marinated chicken topped at the end with chopped parsley and toasted almonds.

I did pull the rhubarb into the main meal, via the salad. I tossed rhubarb and sweet onions in a little sugar and roasted them. I tossed them in the salad with feta and roasted walnuts and a quick balsamic vinaigrette.

Don’t ever underestimate the calm joy of quiet time in the kitchen followed by a nice dinner with someone you love.

Paris Idiosyncronsies Part One

I must start out by saying anyone that is going to Paris should read David Lebovitz’s book “The Sweet Life in Paris”. Not just because we were lucky enough to meet David while in Paris, but because it really did help me to prepare for many French idiosyncrasies. Instead of being annoyed, I would, at least initially, smile and think “Oh yes, David warned us about this.


First, we'll study Les Toilettes.

A few things you should know when searching for a bathroom.

You cannot just use bathrooms in restaurants without purchasing something. You will at least need to have a coffee and then you may still need to pay.  Yes, pay!  We paid .50 euro cents at the mall and .20 euro cents at a cafe.  Have coins in your pockets.

Also, be prepared, in most places men and women use the same bathroom.  In the picture above you can see the Monsieurs and the Dames doors and the urinal was open opposite these doors with one sink in the open / urinal area.

They have Les toilettes on the street.  There aren't nearly enough and they never seem to be around when we need them, but they are interesting.  At first we avoided them, thinking they must be filthy, right?  I mean we have to watch where we walk because they don't pick up their dog poop and men seem to think it's also ok to pee with the dogs on the sidewalk...I just step over anything wet, so you'll excuse me for not having high hopes for the sidewalk toilettes.
 
 

 
 
But, finally we needed one bad enough and there wasn't a line so, we thought we'd try it and Kim pushed the button.  Here is Kim walking into the Toilette.
 

 
The key to the sidewalk toilettes is reading the directions. 
1. When the light is green you can push the button.  The door will open and when you enter the door closes behind you.
2. The light is yellow when it is occupied.
3. When done wash your hands and exit.  You can't flush it.
4. When you exit, the door closes and the whole thing goes through a wash cycle that flushes and sanitizes the whole bathroom.   A little scary- what do people do that they have to sanitize the whole toilet, floors, etc.? 
5. When it's done sanitizing, the light turns green and the next person can enter. 
 

 
You can imagine how long a line can get when the whole toilet has to sanitize after each person!  Well there's a little Paris bathroom lesson.

Paris Take Aways

After two weeks in Paris, what to bring back?  It was a hard decision, luckily for the budget I had one small suitcase, so space was limited.  I really decided not to bring too much back, and just ended up with some take aways from the many chocolatiers we visited.

My take aways fell into a couple of categories; ginger, nuts, and orange and they were all housed in chocolate.

I had bars with peanuts, almonds, and ginger inside the chocolate bar.  The short sticks above are ginger and the long sticks are orange.  I really enjoy the ginger, but you really have to love ginger, as they are solid candied ginger slices.

In addition to the chocolates, I couldn't resist buying a jar of salted caramel from Jean Charles Rochoux.  He reeled me in quickly by providing me a taste of the caramel.

What to do with a jar of supremely smooth salted caramel?  How about some Caramel Swirl Ice Cream? 

This ice cream was sublime.  I made a high quality vanilla ice cream using cream and vanilla beans  After the ice cream was done in the ice cream maker, I layered it with the caramel in the freezer container.  The caramel swirled in nicely.  It stayed soft and suspended throughout the ice cream.

Will the rest of the caramel make it into a recipe or will I just eat it by the spoonful out of the fridge?   I'm not committing to either decision yet!



Paris Final Full Day

Well, I get up tomorrow morning and return to Charles De Gaulle airport to fly out, via the metro/train system through which I arrived.  Today was a lovely last day in Paris.  Today we took 4 different metro lines and did lots of walking, crossing Paris to do final shopping.

We had normal every day views of streets, parks, monuments, and beautiful buildings.

We had the perfect final two hour lunch in the 12th arrondissement at this lovely corner restaurant.  It was beautiful inside, with molded ceilings and chandeliers.  I'd heard that the beef in France was really good, but have not had any red meat since arriving, so today I ordered a tenderloin, med rare, covered in browned shallots with green beans.  Oh my.  you could almost cut the meat with a fork and it melted in my mouth.  It was done perfectly and served with a hearty brown bread accompaniment.  Even the beans were perfect. We enjoyed a glass of wine at lunch for the first time since I've been here.  Everyone has wine for lunch, but I'm always afraid of needing an afternoon nap!  But just one did ok, especially since we, of course, followed it up with dessert and coffee.

The dessert was a lovely meringue with a vanilla cream and berries that we shared.  It was huge!  Just the perfect way to end a stay in Paris.

We shopped for chocolate and other goodies to take home.  We didn't shop at the following store, but I had to take a picture and show the Paris Apple store for those Apple maniacs out there, no sign just flags.

I have fully enjoyed learning about Paris and the French people.  While they do have great bread, we have places that we can get good bread in the US also.  But, we can't touch the French when it comes to desserts and sweets.  Their pastries and chocolates look as good as they taste and one can tell that centuries of practice have gone into them.

I'm packed, checked in and ready.  If all goes well, I leave Paris at 11:15 AM and arrive in Rock Springs, Wy at 9:00 PM.  Love gaining those eight hours back!

While I will be happy to be home, I am sad to leave.  This has been a great trip.  Kim has been wonderful to have me share her apartment and play with me these past two weeks.  Thanks Kim and have a great "rest of your trip"!

Paris Day Twelve

Wow, I have one more full day in Paris.  I'll be leaving on Wednesday, technically 15 days after landing in Paris.  I have to tell you the Paris posts will last for a little while longer, I have some French topics and idiosyncrasies that I haven't attacked in my daily "what's going on" posts for everyone to share. 

We set the alarm this morning.  I know - it shocked us also!  First thing, we headed to Angelina's for a french breakfast of croissants, rolls with butter (creamy, rich, salty butter) and fruit spreads, coffee for me and hot chocolate for Kim.  Then well fortified with white flour and sugar we headed to Notre-Dame hoping to beat the lines.

Too late! One hour and 10 minutes later, we were climbing the stairs to the towers of Notre-Dame.  My patience for lines has noticeably diminished over the years.  But then we got to climb 400 stairs so that woke us up again for the views.

Views of both gargoyles and the city!

We learned that the long gargoyles coming out of Notre-Dame are actually cleverly disguised water features, to drain rainwater.  You can see this in the next picture, there is an opening through their mouths.

We got to see "Emmanuel", the cathedral's largest bell.  The bell is only rung on catholic feast days, there are smaller bells that ring many times a day.  It was too big even for a picture!

The doors into the bell tower were small.

Now, one would think that if you paid for the tour and waited in line for the tour, you would see all of Notre-Dame.  No such luck, we only climbed into the towers and back down and then would have had to stand in this line, which we could see from above, to actually see the chapel, and there the patience ended. 

We did not see the chapel, so here is the last picture of Notre-Dame.

After Notre-Dame we wondered the Latin Quarter a bit more and visited the flower market again.  The only year around flower market.  The hydrangeas were just spectacular.  I could have stood there all day.  They seem to have a very wide growing ability here.  I see trees and flowers that were very common in North Carolina, along with what we can grow in Wyoming.  Plus, I've seen flowers that I found in Hawaii also. 

The other thing we did today was go on a boat tour of the Seine river.  It was an hour tour and was an enjoyable way to see the buildings along the bank and enjoy the day.

Today we had a low energy day and are having an enjoyable snack dinner and wine at home while blogging evening, with an early bedtime so we can have lots of energy for tomorrow.  Last chance for historic sites, chocolate stores, patisseries, gathering gifts for home, and eating my way through Paris!

Paris Day Eleven

Sunday, May 6, was a very interesting day to be in Paris.  The second and final round of the presidential elections concluded.    As many of you may know, the current President with the beautiful, model wife, Nicolas Sarkozy, was bumped out of office by the always on a diet, average guy Francois Hollande.  Hollande will be the first socialist president in France since 1988. 

In the morning, as we went about our planned day, we came across areas that were being prepared for something big.  Roads were being cut off, platforms constructed, etc.  Later in the day, we find out why all this activity was happening on a Sunday morning.  But first our day....

Kim and I headed out mid-morning toward the Bastille.  The yellow line metro took us there. 

We walked past the Bastille looking for an Algerian pastry store highly recommended in my reading.  Le Bague de Kenza was located in the 11th arrondissement and we found it easily.  The Patisserie was everything that was promised.

The description had me at honey, dates, figs, raisins, and nuts.  The owner spoke no french, but pointing and saying une "read the sign", s'il vous plait seemed to worked.  We walked out with the below box of yummies.

We broke all of these in 1/2 and shared them throughout the day.  We have one that didn't get finished until the next day though.  Starting in the top left corner I have no idea what they are called, but brief descriptions would include YUM for each one.  1) Coconut - this was cake like inside, but light and the coconut flavor was perfect.  2) Pistachio - This was a dense pistachio cake with crushed pistachios on top.  Pistachio is a common flavor in France.  3) Dates - This was a cake with dates inside. 4) Sesame - This was so good.  Everything is lightly sweetened, not over the top sweetened and this Sesame roll was obviously honey sweetened.  5) Nuts - This was a cookie like cone with crushed hazelnuts all around.  6) Almonds - This was a  very good tasting almond cookie that the owner suggested and he was right!  6) Baklava - and lastly in the middle was a small piece of dark honey baklava...mmmmmmm.

Next stop, marshmallows.  If you haven't figured it out yet, I'm going through my list of specialty stores and this was well worth it!  I'm not a big marshmallow person, really it's just all sugar, but I now know that I could get into homemade marshmallows!  Pain de Sucre is in the 3rd arrondissement.  After a short metro ride and a walk, the window told us we were onto something....

Those jars on the top shelf all have homemade marshmallows in them.  We bought a chocolate coconut, mint,and pistachio.  Wow, they melted in our mouths almost instantly and again, weren't too sweet.  I've found something new to try in my kitchen.

After these two stores we headed by foot South, or the direction we perceive as South, to the Latin Quarter.  Over the following hours we wondered.  An hour was spent in the old Shakespeare & Company bookstore.  This bookstore was started in 1951 by George Whitman as an English bookstore in Paris.  People like Sylvia Beach and the other great writers who commonly spent time in Paris, were participants in it's history.

We found the narrowest house in Paris, No. 22 Rue St. Severin.

We found the narrowest street in Paris, Rue du Chat qui Peche.  It's just 6 feet wide.  People would not get out of my way to take the picture!

We found the Sorbonne.  It's been interesting to learn about the Sorbonne, which was started in 1253 as a theology institution and was traditionally very conservative.  The College of France was actually established in 1530 by Francois I to counteract the intolerance of the Sorbonne!

That leads me back to the political activities of the day.  Our day was not over yet, but as we were walking toward the Sorbonne, we started noticing a lot of police and roads blocked off.  There was a large demonstration for one of the candidates down a street we were passing.  On the big screen, we could see the political demonstrations around town and in areas, we'd previously passed that day.

You can see the french flags waving and they were chanting.  The rest of that night we noticed flags on buildings and people that were either defeated or happy on the streets and in the metro.  There were many young people in the demonstrations for both candidates.  We found out at dinner that Hollande had won.  We were on the streets until 11:30 PM and cars were still driving down the streets honking their horns in celebration and police vans were headed in every which direction.

We finally settled into a much needed dinner and chose a comfortable looking pizzeria.  We ordered a small carafe of the house wine, which was perfect and two pizzas.  The wine was nice, there were about 3 total glasses in it for 10 euros.  A nice way to enjoy a glass of wine with a meal.  The pizzas were warm and comforting.

Dessert?  Oui, merci beaucoup!  I fully enjoyed the below Panna Cotta with sweet coffee sauce.  So many commented before I came that Paris was going to be expensive.  It's not really much more expensive, if any, than any big city.  Our bill for the wine, two pizzas, and two full desserts was 40 euros.

Now, we headed to the nearest metro station and the Eiffel Tour.  It was time to see the Eiffel Tour at night.  As we left the metro station, we walked about 3 blocks and all of a sudden we turned a corner and gasped out loud.  The tower was not only lit up, but sparkling.  It really took one's breath away.

We hung around the tower for awhile, even after it stopped sparkling, just to take it in.  Kim will spend her last week or so in an apartment just a couple blocks from the Eiffel Tour - lucky!

It was a metro ride and a longer walk home than planned, since the park was closed and we had to walk all the way around it, but we finally made it home and dropped exhausted into our beds.  They are serious about closing parks around here, they have gates at all entrances!

I would like to add a brief thank you for your willingness to flow as I move back and forth just a little between french and english words.  For example, in France, it is called the Tour Eiffel, they don't use tower as we would in the U.S.