Weekly Eats Eight (2/29 - 3/6)

Travel: Potato Bhajji Dosa at Curryblossom Cafe in Chapel Hill, NC

We took a tiny little trip to Chapel Hill with our friend last week and discovered some new spots that we will definitely be returning to! First stop was an appetizer, in liquid form, at the Lantern Restaurant - the perfect house sake martini with thinly mandolined cucumber in the midst of a well-lit red-lanterned bar. The atmosphere reminded me of a scene in Only God Forgives and from what I can tell, this restaurant left much more of a good impression. The restaurant's creator has also written a cookbook for those of you interested - Cooking in the Moment: A Year of Seasonal Recipes.

Next stop was Vimala's Curryblossom Cafe, tucked away in a sultry alley off the beloved Franklin Street. We walked into the "bar entrance", which consisted of some taps, bottles, and desserts, and one of my most coveted gluten-free beers caught my eyes high up on a shelf (thank god) - Omission IPA. I've never seen this beer in NC and was only lucky enough to receive one in a free prize bundle from them last summer, so I was certainly thrilled about this! Curryblossom has a note on their menu that everything is GF (minus samosas and breads like naan, of course) and that anything vegetarian can be made vegan. That being said, I had a ton of options, but I opted for this potato bhajji dosa that was basically the size of my forearm. I couldn't tell you the last time I had Indian food, mostly because I always prefer making it at home, but I thoroughly enjoyed this cozy dining experience. Plus this dosa was tops. I absolutely can't wait to return and try something new!

Travel: Vieux Carre at The Crunkleton in Chapel Hill, NC

Truth time: I have quite a few books. Something in the ballpark of 200+ if we include cookbooks. A fair amount of these also happen to be booze related - historical writings, recipe books, and all around guides to having/tending to a bar. This is my excuse for knowing about weird drinks that aren't on your common drink list. I'm still stuck on/in love with The Bar Book - an A-Z compendium of spirits, brief bits of their histories and how they're made, plus recipes sneaked in between. Plus I love anything in alphabetical order. So somewhere in the "B" section I stumbled upon Benedictine and snuggled next door was a recipe for the Vieux Carre. This herbal French liqueur was created by monks many moons ago, and creates a perfectly balanced cocktail when combined with rye, cognac, vermouth, and two types of bitters. Enough ranting - I was beyond thrilled to find this on the menu at the Crunkleton, which might be the coolest bar I've ever had the pleasure of being at. With over 500 spirits, the possibilities are endless, but I decided to go for my coveted Benedictine twice - the second in a Rye Monk cocktail featuring Green Chartreuse, Apple Brandy, as well as bitters. The atmosphere has the cozy feel of a library, the kind where you'd like to stay all night. We had such a great time there that I'm already plotting my return, and exactly what drinks I'll try next!

Dinner: Cauliflower Crust Pizza

So I sort of failed at cooking last week and ate out far more than I'd ever like to allow again. But after an unexpected nine hour work day, I still managed/forced myself to break out a cauliflower pizza with my leftover cauli. I've had this type of crust before, made by some friends, but have never actually tried it myself. It was so dead simple to make, much easier than a traditional GF yeasted dough, but I think next time I will make the crust much thinner. It was cooked all the way through, but still a tad mealy for my tastes. Then again, I'll never turn down homemade pizza like this. We topped ours with good store-bought pizza sauce with no crazy ingredients, peppers and mushrooms which were pre-cooked slightly before baking, and a ton of the best dried herbs. My favorite pizza herbs are basil, oregano, pinch of thyme, fennel seeds (this is key), Italian herbs, and crushed red pepper flakes. I honestly just might need to invest in Penzey's pizza seasoning, which seems to have a lot of fennel in it, so they know how to do it well.

Lunch: Chopped Tahini Salad

I've been craving this healthy salad since I saw it on this lovely blog, and it did not disappoint. You could change up the greens on this, or make it with all cabbage for a tangy slaw. I used half romaine and half red cabbage, but I think this would make a great kale salad if you massaged the dressing in. The crunch of the sweet peppers and red cabbage are a great addition, plus super healthy edamame and peanuts. Now onto this dressing...this dressing that tastes like peanut sauce but is most definitely not that, at all. Instead there's tahini paste, red curry paste, some tamari, rice vinegar, etc. that all make up this incredible power house salad. I might have to use this sauce again as a dipping sauce for spring rolls or to glaze tofu with. This will make a great lunch too - just pack the dressing separate - and I might add some cold quinoa too next time!

Snacks: Salmon Sushi Rolls with Peanut Sauce

I think it's so funny how food cravings work for people. For me, sometimes I can be dead set on getting my hands on the new vegan Ben & Jerry's (still haven't seen it) or getting a basket of my favorite fries outside. Other times, I daydream fondly of something but am honestly too lazy to go get it or make it. Sunday, the man got a craving for sushi after he peeped the new sushi burrito trend that's going on right now. And there was no silence of this until we had the sashimi in the basket, alongside some toasted nori, avocado, and peanut sauce. I thought it was pretty cute to be honest. Luckily I still had a bag of sushi rice, so he whipped up some amazing rolls. He didn't use a recipe but it's essentially - cooked/cooled sushi rice, sashimi, avocado, cucumber, sriracha, black/white sesame seeds, some peanut sauce. Roll and cut! I was amazed that I could still roll sushi even though I've only made it once - and I think this was a sign that it certainly needs to happen more often.

Looking ahead: my budget will be fairly tight this week, so I'll be trying not to cook anything frivolous until I can afford to. I'm looking forward to simple meals based on things like pantry ingredients, such as rice and beans. I felt a little uninspired this past week, so I'm hoping that going back to basic things will reinvigorate me this week. I have some new cookbooks too that I hope to be cooking from very soon! I can't wait to write some more about my little food and booze travels. Thanks for reading :) 

Les Bouchées Quotidiennes

Hi everyone! So did I mention that I got another recipe testing position? Well I did and it's for one of my favorite bloggers: An Unrefined Vegan. This was my first recipe I made for her, and I can't say much, but it was a delicious, lemony creamy pasta with steamed broccoli! I also wanted to mention that I finally bought a vegetable steamer basket last week. Since taking my nutrition class, I realized how important it is to keep the vitamins and minerals intact in my vegetables so they don't diffuse into the water (which is how you can lose most of them). So I invested in a steamer to try to keep as many vitamins and minerals as I can! I highly recommend getting one if you can.

I spent a few hours at the farmer's market last weekend and had a great time. Mike was out of town so I prepared myself a fancy lady dinner: a big salad with organic romaine, farmer's market cherry tomatoes and a silken-tofu fresh basil dressing. I also roasted some potatoes with fresh rosemary, whole garlic cloves and olive oil (highly recommend trying this!). And of course, one of my favorite cocktails: elderflower lemonade and gin!

I am so happy that I've been keeping up with most of my summer goals this year! I'm lame and make a list every single April/May of things I want to try over the summer. One of them was to make sushi, which I FINALLY did last weekend! An employee at Sur La Table recommended this silicone sushi mat because it doesn't stick to the nori/rice, and she was right! Luckily my friend Sofia has made sushi before, so I let her roll some first. We used this spicy tempeh nori roll recipe from Veganomicon. This recipe is great for first time sushi makers because it's easy, has minimal ingredients, and oh my gosh it's tasty. It almost tastes better than some sushi I've had in Greensboro! We were very pleased with how these turned out!

Sofia and I had a fancy food party last weekend, which consisted of making sushi and my hands down no questions asked favorite zucchini fritters. I have made these once before and there is just no comparison to any I've ever had before. The ingredients are so simple, but the outcome is absolutely incredible. I don't know if it's because of the cast iron skillet or grating the zucchini through a food processor, but these are the tastiest little zucchini fritters in the world! To make them GF, just sub bob's red mill GF all-purpose flour. It's that easy!

I've obviously been on a fresh herb kick lately, so I decided to make these herbacious eggs with cilantro-lime brown rice. These eggs have cumin seeds, turmeric, fresh oregano, coriander, and fresh thyme. As you can imagine, the resulting flavor is craaazy good. I could have eaten four whole eggs this way by myself. The cilantro lime rice is the perfect background for these eggs, and I'm sure adding vegan sour cream/cashew cream on top would make it even tastier. If you're vegan, I'm positive that you could make a tofu scramble or omelette using the same herbs and get the same results!

Somehow I've never put chia seeds in smoothies, but now I think I always will. It makes the smoothie thick, almost fluffy, and delicious! This is a strawberry ginger smoothie, which is the perfect accessory to a good book!

This is another recipe testing dish: a white bean salad with a creamy Italian dressing! I seriously can't wait for this book to come out! Everything has been so delicious so far.

I had some leftover tempeh from our sushi rolls, so I made some tempeh "bacon" with it. I just cubed the tempeh into small pieces, chopped leftover onion and two cloves of garlic. I sauteed the onion and tempeh in oil, on medium until the tempeh was lightly browned. I then added some soy sauce, liquid smoke and apple cider vinegar until it was absorbed into the tempeh (just enough of each to make it taste like bacon and light on the liquid smoke). Then I added the garlic in the last few minutes of cooking. Served on some GF toast slathered with vegan mayo, it was the perfect breakfast and lunch with a side of Thai pickles!

I bought a beautiful bunch of rainbow chard at the market last weekend for only $2, so instead of using it for my favorite minestrone recipe, I decided to try something new. I made this bowl of quinoa, swiss chard, and roasted sweet potatoes with a tangy miso sauce. This recipe is super easy to make and is great for all seasons! I left out the chickpeas due to laziness and tested another recipe instead, which was lemon-garlic baked tofu. And obviously, everything was drizzled with sriracha!