Tea time - reviews

I drink a good amount of tea. At least one cup a day. Sometimes up to 5 or so cups? I'm always looking for new and interesting flavor combinations. Here are a few I've been lovely lately:

Celestial Seasonings' Honey Vanilla Chai. I don't LOVE Chai tea by itself, but I love all things honey-vanilla. I especially love Celestial Seasonings' Honey Vanilla Chamomile, so I figured I'd take a chance on this one. It is smooth and delicious, and awakening. I like it in the morning... I like it with a good piece of bread....

Republic of Tea's Blackberry Sage black tea. I bought this one on a recommendation because I don't LOVE fruity teas. Though, I guess now I should amend that to: I don't like fruity herbal teas. This black tea is NICE. It's not too fruity. The sage makes it taste really clean and fresh. It's decaf, so I can drink it all day long. It's refreshing, and I think it would also be great iced!

Yogi's Egyptian Licorice and Mint. I wanted to try a licorice and mint tea, and I'm pretty sure it's a very British combination. I ordered some Pukka licorice & mint tea off Amazon, but it was SO expensive, and I think I like the Yogi version better. It's more minty, and the sweetness of the licorice doesn't hit me until the very end. If you don't like licorice, I think this is still worth a try, because the flavor is just sort of....sweet. This is more of a cold-weather tea, though, and thankfully, we are moving into the warm.

I've mostly been drinking my tea out of my new mug:

I'm obsessed. I saw this mug back in October, I think, and I wanted it. The problem is that I have too many mugs. Like t-shirts, they're just one of those things you collect accidentally and have a hard time getting rid of because of the emotion and memories attached to them.

Last week, we had to make a quick trip home to say goodbye to Aaron's grandmother. On the way out of Little Rock, we stopped at the airport Starbucks for my third Oprah Chai of the trip, and I noticed this mug. The very last one. I'm convinced. I bought it. I have it with me at work, where I do the majority of my tea drinking. It makes me happy. Once again, it's the little things....

I hope this post was interesting to someone...anyone. And I hope it inspires you to try new things! It's almost always worth it!

Anti-cancer smoothie

Several weeks ago, my dad officially found out that he has Lynch Syndrome. I'll give you a cookie (or a smoothie - heh) if you've ever heard of that before.

No one has heard of it, so, the quick explanation is that it's a gene that causes cancer. We already pretty much knew that cancer ran in our family, and it was actually one of my doctors who told me we should be tested for Lynch specifically. His diagnosis wasn't a surprise.

I'll get tested for Lynch soon, but there's a 50 percent chance that I have it. And even if I don't, living an "average" lifestyle in this world at this time is basically a cancer sentence anyway.

I'm not too worried about getting cancer, honestly. Especially if I do have Lynch Syndrome, I'll be screened for cancer so often that there's no way any problem could go unnoticed.

And this smoothie is one of my secret anti-cancer weapons. It has all kinds of good stuff that fights off the bad stuff, and this is how I like to start most of my mornings now.

Ingredients:
•1 scant cup frozen mangos
•1 scant cup frozen berries
•1 cup orange juice
•1/2 cup fresh strawberries
•1 cup spinach
•1 Tbsp ground flaxseed
•1 tsp gogi berries
•1 tsp chia seeds
•1/4 cup almond (or other) milk
•1/2 cup nonfat greek yogurt
•1/2 a banana and/or avocado

Aaron makes fun of the long list of ingredients that go into this thing. He jokes that I throw everything in the entire kitchen into it. That's not true. But sometimes I substitute kale for spinach and if we have other fruit, sometimes I'll throw that in there, but this is the holy grail....

I mix the frozen fruit with the orange juice first to create a nice base, and then I add in everything else & blend until the mixture is super smooth.

I don't want to go too much into nutrition, but I have done research, and I can tell you that in moderation, everything in this smoothie is good for you. It fills me up in the mornings and keeps me energized until lunch.

I'm also not promoting this smoothie as a fix-all bandaid. You can't drink 16 ounces of this in the morning, have a bucket of fried chicken for lunch, a take-out pizza for dinner, never exercise and call it good.

I ride my bike to work almost every day. I exercise 5-6 days a week. And in my quest to be healthier in general, I've cut back on meat, alcohol, sodium & added sugar. ....and I still wouldn't say that I'm doing everything "right". My health and fitness is a work in progress. I try not to be too hard on myself. I allow indulgences. I'm happy! And I think that's the most important thing anyway!

New things, carb-filled things...

Phew. Busiest Saturday ever. I started early and baked some bagels...

Bagels are my JAM right now, as I explained in my last post, and these are the pièce de résistance. If you don't like asiago cheese bagels, I don't want to be your friend. They've been my favorite kind of bagels since... the moment my first asiago cheese bagel touched my lips.

I love the process of making bagels. It's one of the most fun things ever: you make dough, let it rise, form the bagels themselves (it's like playing with play dough!), poach them & then you get to "decorate" them with ingredients.

I want to make all of the different kinds of bagels! So far I've just made: garlic & herb, whole wheat & asiago. That leaves me about a million other variations to try out, and I can't wait.

My new goal in life is to open a bagel shop....unless I turn out to be a concert pianist.

This piano came to live with us today! Which makes it sound a lot easier than it actually was.... We had to drive to Albany; pick up a trailer, which Aaron's boss very generously let us borrow; pick up our friend and helper, Dean; drive back to Corvallis; load the piano into the trailer; drive to our house; load it out & into our house; drive the trailer & Dean back to Albany... Phew. The moving process went much easier than the three of us anticipated, but It's so worth it. I can see the piano now from where I'm sitting, and it just makes our house seem more lived-in and homier.

And, of course, I plan to play it...the little bit that I can.

Another new thing that came today was our Canon 7D, which we won on Ebay over two weeks ago! I'm glad it came in time for our trip next week, and I'm still figuring out all of the settings & getting better at shooting Canon....

Yes, this one is out of focus. Black dogs are hard to shoot in low light, but I thought this was too adorable not to share! These are where the pups sit when they're waiting for their meals. :)

And here's a shot of our pizza dinner...yup, sourdough pizza dough was also on the docket for today. So delicious! Such a happy day!

"The Three Sisters"

I am having a very nice Saturday morning. I baked carrot-apple-zucchini muffins (with cinnamon & orange zest - I highly recommend baking anything with this combination when it starts to feel like fall wherever you are) for us, and I have the first of two loaves of zucchini bread in the oven for our coworkers next week.

I have tea. I have candles burning. I really have no desire to leave my freshly-cleaned house, but I will in just a bit for a little run before I continue on with the rest of the day: shopping for bike fenders and attending our first OSU football game tonight!

As good as this morning is, though, I'm not sure it tops one a few months back when we stopped in Eugene on the way to go climbing and had brunch at Morning Glory Cafe downtown.

I had something they call The Three Sisters. The menu says: A mountain of herbed glory potatoes, broccoli, mushrooms, zucchini, tomatoes and onions. Topped with your choice of mozzarella cheese, nutritional yeast sauce, herbed tofu sour cream, or tantric mushroom gravy. Served with your choice of homemade bread. Half portion: $6.75 Add organic baked tofu, organic grilled tempeh slices, or soysage patties: $2.75

I've been dreaming about this and craving it ever since, so, since I had the list of ingredients in front of me, I decided to attempt it.

I know it doesn't look pretty, but I thought it turned out pretty well! Here's what I used:

a good amount of yukon gold potatoes
1 head of broccoli
1 cup of mushrooms
2 cups of zucchini (because we have a lot of zucchini still)
3 small/medium tomatoes
1 small yellow onion
1 batch vegan mushroom gravy

I covered my yukon golds and broccoli with oil, salt and pepper and roasted them at 425 while I started on my mushroom gravy (I used this Whole Foods recipe, which did the job!). Once my gravy was nice and thick, I kept it warm on low while I caramalized my onions in butter and then threw in my zucchini, mushrooms and tomatoes in that order. When everything was done, I decided to just combine it in the big bowl you see in the photo. We still have a ton left, and it's kept nicely in the fridge. Craving satisfied.

By the way. This meal was completely vegan at Morning Glory, but since I'm not a vegan, I happily used some butter for frying purposes. :)

zucchini zucchini zucchini

I've been a bad blogger... But the truth is, not too much has been going on. I've been working, reading, exercising and mostly just keeping my head down, I suppose. We're planning a labor day trip to Washington for some bouldering (and eating out... maybe some hiking. MAYBE some Sound of Music watching ...if I'm lucky) -- we're leaving TOMORROW!

One interesting thing that has been going on is, well, zucchini. Our awesome next door neighbor was in Canada for awhile and told us to raid his garden while he was gone. We did, and this was our haul:

The eggplant was used up pretty quickly on some delicious pizza last week, leaving me with three GIANT zucchini. The largest one weighs 8.5 pounds and still hasn't been touched. The smallest one is gone, and we're well on our way to finishing up the second smaller one.

Everyone told me that when zucchini gets so big, it gets tough, but I haven't found that to be true of these guys. They're still pretty delicious. Here's what I've made so far.

•zucchini bread
My first time! I'm unimaginative with my quickbreads, and all I usually make is banana bread.

•zucchini pizzas
AKA: roasted zucchini topped with tomato sauce, cheese, Italian cheese blend and fresh tomatoes & basil from our garden

•zucchini potato soup
yup... Pretty self-explanatory

•zucchini & other veggie pasta
Probably my favorite thing with the zucchini so far. Was originally gonna be zucchini-mushroom with an alfredo-y sauce, but I just kept throwing veggies in: red pepper, tomato, onion ...and it turned out awesome topped with some goat cheese!

•roasted zucchini
A nice side dish for all of your fixins.

I imagine I'll make at least another loaf or two of zucchini bread ... zucchini fries ... planning some zucchini tostadas for when we're camping, but I'm running out of ideas! I'm also getting tired of zucchini in general, but it is perfectly good, delicious zucchini, so it seems like a shame not to use it up. I'm determined! One thing I'm considering is trying to recreate the most amazing vegan breakfast I had in Eugene awhile back...We'll see. Let me know if you have ideas. I'll see you next week. Hopefully with a lot of awesome photos!

New homemades

nutella cheesecake minus the chopped hazelnuts because I'm apparently insane (according to everyone else), and don't like nuts in my chocolate.

Crock pot chicken tikka masala with thighs and wings from our Afton Farms chicken. I'm kind of passed using a recipe for this now. Basically, I marinate the chicken in spices (garam masala, cayenne, etc) & yogurt overnight, & make a tomato-paste-based sauce with tons of spices (garam masala, turmeric, chili powder, etc.) and throw it all in the crock pot for 8 hours on low. Finish it off with some heavy cream, a couple of teaspoons of spices to freshen it up, cilantro & some rice! Bam. I make a ton. It keeps & reheats really well, for which I'm glad because I always want more than one serving of this!

Homemade salsa with tomatoes from our garden, 2 serrano peppers (roasted), 1 hot green chili (roasted), 1/4 of a jalapeno, seeded & chopped, 2 cloves of garlic, a hand full of red+yellow onion & cilantro. It's super spicy & super delicious! Our tomatoes are starting to go crazy. I'm excited to figure out what else to do with them - besides share them!

Friday Five + banana bread

Last night was productive. I finally managed to use up the two cups of rice I cooked on Tuesday when our leftovers from last week finally ran out.

We've had Mujadra, Burrito bowls, and last night: pineapple fried rice. (the Forks over Knives recipe).

Before I started the fried rice I got some banana bread in the oven. It's been randomly cloudy and ...angry-looking outside for the last couple of days, and there's nothing more comforting. I use my momma's recipe.

• 3/4 cup butter or margarine – softened to room temperature
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 3 cups mashed very ripe bananas
• 3/4 cup milk
• 5 cups of flour
• 6 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cup chopped pecan or walnuts – optional
• Pam

Spray loaf pans liberally with Pam.  Preheat oven to 350*.

Cream margarine and sugar together.  Add eggs and vanilla.  Mix well.  Stir in bananas and milk.

Mix dry ingredients together – and then stir into banana mixture.  Mix only until dry ingredients are mixed in.  Do not over mix or the banana bread will be “tough.”  Stir in nuts if desired.  Pour equal portions into pre-Pammed loaf pans.  Bake for about 1 hour at 350* until a toothpick stuck in the center comes out clean.

Anyway, here's some stuff I've been enjoying this week:

•English breakfast tea
•greek yogurt & berries
•meal planning, baking
•banana bread
•rewatching Laura Vitale videos...

There's a fat kid inside of me begging to get out...

Salad

Yesterday, I stumbled upon this New York Times article about how hip chopped salads are, which of course meant that I needed a salad – chopped or not – immediately.

I Pinterest’d (is that a thing?) chopped salads. Most of them have beans and things. I only put beans in my salad when I want to be extra healthy and get that extra protein. But yesterday, I just wanted THE perfect salad …because I didn’t have any ingredients at home and knew that a special grocery trip would have to be made to acquire them, so why not get exactly what I wanted?

(this is what I wanted. sorry not sorry about the the phone shot. too busy eating)

After a lot of thought, I reverted to what I am now calling the Callie Standard Ingredients. Seriously, throw these things on a pizza, in a pasta, salad, wherever, I will eat them (all). They are, in order of importance:

•canned artichoke hearts: CANNED. Not jarred/marinated. Unlike most Americans, my first exposure to the artichoke was NOT in a cream-heavy spinach/artichoke dip, and it was not the heart(s) alone. It was a whole, steamed artichoke that my grandmother made for me, which is still one of my favorite foods ever.

•mushrooms: any kind. I do not discriminate here. I generally head toward button white, but last night we ended up with some crimini.

•tomatoes: I’ll opt for sun-dried if I have them on hand or chop up whatever I have otherwise. I like roma & vine ripe just because they’re smaller and easier for me to work with. Last night I halved some of the best cherry tomatoes I’ve ever eaten.

•black olives: Another food I adopted early. I used to “sneak” these off the counter while my mom was chopping veggies up for tacos or homemade pizza. Pretty sure she saw me do it every single time, and let me. Because hey, it’s an olive. I think I was at least 10 before I figured out that olives came in green.

Red onions get an honorary mention here, as do onions in general. I’ve never been a fan of them until recently when I realized every recipe I ever make calls for them, and it’s kind of boring to leave them out because they do have a really good FLAVOR. I’m just not a fan of the slimy white guys hanging out in the middle of stuff. But, recently, I have been using them. Usually the yellow ones. I really, honestly like caramelized onions now! But, I was feeling brave about it, so I slipped a handful of chopped red onion into this salad. I know. I know.

Anyway. Last night’s salad ended up being all of the ingredients above atop a romaine bed with some crumbled gorgonzola cheese, garlic croutons and pepper. Dressing? Store-bought. I know, I could have tried harder, but I was hungry! And we got Annie’s , which is a brand I love. Aaron and I devoured it, and Aaron has probably only ever eaten salad as an entre a handful of times since I’ve known him. Luckily, there’s just enough left for lunch today. Along with most of the rest of the onion and a couple handful of cherry tomatoes, which I might just snack on during our move this weekend. Yup. Crazy days. See you guys soon!

A good weekend for eating...

blueberry pie | pizza: spinach, sun-dried tomato, ricotta | enchiladas

Mostly pizza

last week's pizza | roast chicken | garlic bread that went with a delicious veggie soup | giant pot of veggie chilli | this week's pizza

(not pictured: tomatoes stuffed with quinoa & corn)

Can you tell we eat a lot of pizza? Last week's was kind of a margherita deal with yellow onions ...because caramelized yellow onions are my jam right now. This week was a recreation of something that is apparently a very authentic Italian combination, but that I first had at my favorite pizza place back home: Feta, Potato and Rosemary. It was a pretty good recreation if I do say so myself. I have my dough recipe down, and I recently rewatched Laura form her pizza dough, which is why this week's pizza was especially round and well, just perfect looking if I do say so myself.

Wednesday noms

Aaron and I went out to dinner tonight for something we call Wednesdate. This isn't a weekly thing. Whatever day we go out, we just add "date" to the end of it instead of "day", and it makes it sound instantly more special. Today was special, though, because I had a huge surprise for him, which I might write about later....

For now, this is what we've been eating lately besides Yeasty Beasty, which I've dubbed the best pizza in the Willamette Valley. I'll fight anybody who disagrees...

malai kofta • burrito bowls • blueberry muffins

Friday Five (w/ bonus pizza pictures!)

•Indian food
•Ice cream
•"Good morning sunshine"
•Video editing (more of a love-hate)
•House hunting

For the past few Fridays, we've been having homemade pizza. That little tradition ends tonight, though, because tomorrow is Aaron's birthday, and tomorrow, we will journey to Smith Rock again. But, tonight, we will go out for a nice birthday dinner. In memoriam, here are some glamor shots of last week's pizza before it was devoured.

Yum.

Food I've cooked and eaten recently

guacamole | veggie fajitas & yellow mexican rice | baba ganoush salad with marinated tomatoes | shells & cheese | banana pancakes

It's been an uneventful, yet delicious couple of weeks, my friends.

Cinnamon Rolls

I've been excited to make cinnamon rolls since Laura Vitale made a video about how to do it.

I'm automatically nervous about cooking anything bready. Though, I think this fear stems from the first couple of times I made pizza dough, and followed a really poorly-written recipe.

This was also before I had my amazing, trusty stand mixer (thanks, mom).

Props to anyone who makes bread without one. I'm totally over kneading dough by hand.

Now, I've just about conquered pizza dough, so I figured it was time to move on to something a bit sweeter....

And last night was the night! I started making the dough as soon as I got home at 5:30, because I knew the whole process would take awhile (there are about 2.5-3 hours of inactive, rising time).

I made a very healthy dinner and got a few things done in between steps. It was bed time by the time these babies popped out of the oven, but you're kidding yourself if you think we didn't still try one. Okay, we may have tried more than one....that's how amazing they are!

I'm not sure when I'd suggest making them. I guess if you happened to wake up super early on Saturday morning, and didn't have much else to do. I'm not sure when I'll make them again. I can't even imagine how many calories there are in these guys. There's a ton of butter & sugar ....and smiles and rainbows...omfg.

They're great for an occasional treat for sure. I'd get on this one immediately if I were you. :)

Arkansas de Mayo

Cheesedip was the most Mexican thing I could come up with on Cinco de Mayo, but it's really more Arkansan. We actually invited it.

I had a hankering, but I didn't have my usual Velveeta & Rotel on hand. (Yes, this is how I usually make cheese dip at home, and yes, this is the only time I ever consume "cheese product". Sorry, not sorry)

So, I improvised with some "real" cheese. This is what I used:

2 Tablespoons of butter
4ish Tablespoons of flour
1/4ish cup milk
1 teaspoon cayenne
Lots (2 cups?) of cheese. I used Tillamook's medium cheddar
A Splash of your favorite salsa (I used Safeway brand's 'garlic lovers')

The process is simple: Over medium heat, melt the butter. Add flour & combine. Don't be scared when it clumps. Next, add milk & cayenne. Then cheese (let melt), then salsa, adjusting for taste. I used more than a splash, lets just say.

Bam. Cheese dip. I was pretty proud of it. It squelched my craving at least.

Let me know if you make it & like it. :)

Veggie Penne & Cheese

I needed something healthy, yet comforting during "the sickness" I experienced last week, and this recipe was the answer!

Adapted from some place on Pinterest, you need:

2 Tbsp. olive oil
1 cup broccoli
1 small red pepper
(whatever other veggies you feel like)
2 cups whole wheat pasta cooked according to its directions
1 1/2 cups milk
2 cups of your favorite cheddar
1/2 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes
1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper
Salt and pepper, to taste

First cook your pasta. While that's goin', roast your veggies in the olive oil with salt+pepper. When your pasta's done, drain it & return it to the pot. Combine it with the veggies when they're roasted to your idea of perfection (for me this takes 20-30 minutes w/ the oven at about 420). Add your milk & cheese & spices and stir until your sauce is thick & delicious.

You can throw some bread crumbs & parm on top & bake this again until the top is all crispy/crunchy as well, but I did not have patience.

Happy weekend! I'm now off to the Farmer's Market to get some delicious ingredients for more yummy recipes.

Thai Coconut Curry

Happy Easter! Last week, I was sequestered in a windowless room 'learning' things I already knew about Drupal. We built a practice site together during the training that was food themed, and since I had nothing much else to think about, I stole one of the recipes, which my trainer person stole from allrecipes.com, she said.

I'm blogging this mostly so I don't forget how I made it because it was amazing.

I adapted the list of ingredients in the recipe, made the rest of it up, and it turned out delicious. I used:

1 cup cooked brown basmatti rice
1 Tablespoon unsalted butter
1/4 cup whole unsalted cashews
salt & pepper & cayenne to taste
1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
1.5 Tablespoons curry powder
1 yellow onion, chopped
1 teaspoon grated ginger
1 large garlic clove, minced
1 cup (or so) coconut milk
1/2 cup frozen peas
1 red pepper
1 green pepper
1/2 cup pineapple chunks
1/8 cup flour
chopped cilantro to taste

Phew. So....

First, cook your rice the way your package tells you too, and when that's almost done, get started on the curry.

Melt your butter. Throw in your chopped onion. Let it get a little translucent, or brown if you're me and you're not paying great attention.

Throw in your spices & garlic & ginger. Next, peas & peppers.

Once the fruits & veggies are all nicely coated with butter & spices & deliciousness, add your coconut milk. Bring to a boil & then let simmer until it thickens. Mine didn't thicken, and I got impatient, which is why I added the flour.

Once everything thickened up, I added my pineapple & cashews. I wanted those to heat up, but not actually get too cooked down, so once that happened, I removed the pot from the heat & served it, topped with some cilantro.

I used what I had on hand. I think this would be great with white rice as well. I also would have added bamboo shoots & lime if I'd had them. I'm sure you could come up with some other great combos.

I'll also be increasing the spice level next time. I don't know why I'm always so conservative...

Let me know if you try & enjoy this recipe! I'm glad at least something good came out of three long, long days of Drupal training. Sheesh!

Cauliflower Pizza Crust

First cauliflower pizza crust. Came out too wet. Next time I'll only use one egg, one head of cauliflower (riced) & one cup of shredded mozzarella.

Tea & Scones

Sunday tea & chocolate chip scones.

(recipe ala Laura Vitale)

Broccoli + "Cream" Sauce + Potatoes

This is probably the grossest-looking food I've ever photographed. It tastes delicious, though!

It is:
•two, baked, gold potatoes
•two heads of broccoli
•sauce made from yellow onion, red pepper, cashews & nutritional yeast.

Again, from Forks Over Knives, and again, delicious.