Biscoff Sauce + WIAW

August 3, 2011 By Laura

What I Ate…

errrr... on Friday night of last week. Details, details… but I promise a real recipe from Wednesday at the end!

I’ve been meaning to write a post about this Underground Supper I went to last Friday. It is the best supper event I’ve attended to date! And you guys know I do these a lot.

Atlanta native Zach Meloy started Push Start Kitchen with his wife, Christina. They recently returned from a stint in Costa Rica where they ran a restaurant. This supper club is their way to generate some buzz ~~and money~~ in hopes of pushing a restaurant start here in Atlanta.

So my foodie-partner-in-crime (Corinne) and I trekked out to The Goat Farm.

The Goat Farm is a kitschy little hippie-like colony that – in addition to literally being a goat farm – hosts a variety of events (this night included a dance performance and a food truck), is home to a few loft owners, and has it’s own coffee shop/late night $2 beer stop. I had NO idea places like this existed in Atlanta ~~but I’m moving in~~.

We were to dine in a small room with 8 others among ancient ceiling pulley systems, discarded books, and cotton mill ruins.

Candles were lit, Dark and Stormy beverages flowed, and the night began to move.

Pictures were taken in front of an old pile of bricks by a local photographer. A train rolled by. We found a copy of The World According to Garp. I ran into a girl I went to high school with (what are the odds?!).

All while enjoying a lovely canape – a small masa biscuit topped with cream cheese and red pepper jam:

After the first round of drinks and the canapes were consumed, we took our seats at a rustic (read: IKEA) dining table for the first course.

First, the wine (served by Zach): a light rose, full of strawberries and refreshing on a muggy night.

I was of course busy ogling the already-plated food on the chef’s table next to my right…

First course: crispy Serrano ham, tomato confit, avocado, smoked chile cornbread, with molasses vinaigrette and basil.

Now. I don’t like cornbread (bad Southerner!), but this stuff was delicious. It was soft and smokey, not gritty and dry like the bread I often see. The Serrano was perfectly crisped and added the right level of salt to compliment the plump tomatoes.

I could have eaten this all night and been content. Alas, the meal must go on!

Second Course: Sous vide pork tenderloin, roasted plum mole, crispy grits, goat cheese, country ham powder, and greens.

You read me correctly – PLUM mole. Spiced chocolate plum sauce. I nearly begged Chef for a jar of the stuff.

For those of you who haven’t had meat prepared sous vide before, it is basically cooking meat at a low temperature in a plastic bag underwater. This allows you to cook even the thickest cuts of meat evenly at a perfectly controlled temperature, resulting in (arguably) the most juicy meat perfection (sorry if I just made all the vegetarians gag!).

Back to the mole. It was amazing with the pork not too sweet and a bit smokey. All of this was complemented by the slightly salty flash-fried grit cakes and creamy goat cheese. I gobbled up mine so fast Corinne asked if I wanted to finish hers.

The Finale: Rum scented “pan perdido,” condensed milk ice cream, pickled cherries, and galleta maria

I didn’t know what half of that meant until I googled at home later. My initial description was “deconstructed dessert French toast.”

It turns out I wasn’t too far off! Pan perdido is essentially bread pudding. Chef Zach pan-fried it so it was especially french toast-like (nom nom). Galleta marias are tea biscuit-like brown sugar cookies found throughout Latin America. They almost crumbled to the touch and their vanilla and cinnamon flavorings only added to my french toast fantasy. Served with homemade ice cream and pickled cherries… I can now die happy.

The way to my stomach’s heart is dessert. Someone must have let that cat out of the bag because we were presented with a sweet coconut candy rolled in almond meal:

The bird didn’t want any, so I ate it all myself. 🙂

As promised, I am posting something I actually made and ate this week ~~for a change~~.

The Biscoff spread Miss Smart gifted me with has been burning a hole in my pantry. This is an emergency situation, remedied only by having banana soft serve (which I think you all are familiar with) for breakfast.

Why soft serve? To go with my Biscoff Sauce, of course!

Biscoff spread tastes like a creamed version on the brown sugar cookies served on Delta flights… but better.

Why better? Let me break this down: Spread = Peanut Butter-like = Awesome.

In fact, it says right on the jar that it should be used any where you’d normally use PB or chocolate spread. Cookie spread!!! *swoon*

Can you call 2 ingredients a recipe? Maybe not… but it’s what I ate for breakfast on Wednesday (WIABW).

Banana Soft Serve

Freeze a banana. Toss said banana in blender. Blend until smooth (can add milk if you need to thin it out a bit to blend).

Biscoff Sauce

1 T Biscoff spread
1/8 tsp coconut oil

Place both ingredients in a small bowl.

Microwave for ~10 seconds – just until melted (BE CAREFUL – it will burn). Stir together.

Try to top soft serve with sauce before you slurp it up

***

This jar doesn’t have a prayer of lasting through the weekend. It will be used for some epic oats.

What food product have you recently tried and loved?

Does anyone want to write a guest post for me next week? Pretty please?!

What I Ate (Last) Wednesday

July 27, 2011 By Laura

Happy WIAW!

In lieu of telling you what I ate this week, I’m going share my dinner from last Wednesday night. (You’ll understand when you see this deliciousness.)

My foodie friend, Corinne, and I attended another installment of the Summer Chef Series @ ONE Midtown Kitchen. (Remember the 1st one with Chef Hugh Acheson and the 2nd with Chef Bruce Logue?)

This was a special edition, as it was Corinne’s birthday! Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you…

This night we brought along friends to help celebrate. Including my hard-core friend Kathleen who miss my b-day due to breaking her writst via rollerblades. Hi Kathleen! 🙂

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Chef Ford Fry from JCT Kitchen was the guest tonight.

Sadly, he did not bring his guitar.

Ford is the chef facing the cameras with the guitar. Yes, this is local chef band - 5 Bone Rack.

The night began with a crisp Chenin Blanc. Actually, it began with a couple of glasses and bread basket since the kitchen was running behind. ~~We didn’t complain.~~

They print out the menus – one of my favorite parts of the night is the menu reveal.

My inner fat kid spends the day dreaming about what might be on the night’s menu.

Amuse:

Crispy Pork Trotter with fois gras and beatrice eggplant caponata

It was heavy for an amuse, but good. Trotter still creeps me out though.

1st Course:

Heirloom Tomato Ceviche with lemon verbena, white chocolate, & horseradish granita

Love, loved the ceviche. The granita wasn’t bad, but there was a lot of it and chef Drew has done that granita a lot lately.

2nd Course:

Maine Lobster with Carolina gold rice “risotto” and buttered pullman toast

…or if you are allergic to shellfish (or think the alternative sounds good), you were presented with a mushroom risotto.

Really, really good; however, my bad because it didn’t get as well with the Pinot Gris pairing. The lobster risotto was amazing (Corinne gave me a taste).

3rd Course:

Roast Black Bass with tiny tomatoes, tomato water, and herb salad

This was probably my favorite course of the night. The fish was perfectly cooked – meaty rather than fishy. The tomato water was a little much but that herb salad was fantastic with the fish.

The red wine pairing was surprising. It was a nice Merlot, but didn’t wow.

4th Course:

Housemade Heritage Pork Sausage with crisp belly, Benton’s bacon-wrapped fig, and brown butter jus

The pork belly was some of the best I’ve ever had. The texture was melt-in-your-mouth good. The bacon wrapped fig was also delicious. Perfectly crisped bacon!

The only thing keeping this from being my favorite was the sausage – it was so salty I couldn’t eat more than a small bite!

A South African wine paired with this was our favorite of the evening – it was a bigger, more complex red, my palate’s sweet-spot.

5th Course:

Warm 70% Chocolate with almond crisp, raspberry pate, and vanilla lime sorbet

Wellll… chef’s aren’t bakers. That warm 70% chocolate hardened before it made it out of the kitchen and the almond crisp was more rocky that crispy. I could have taken a bowl of that sorbet though!

The sherry pairing was too thick and rich for the dessert. On it’s own I really enjoyed it. It would have been a great one to serve between 4 and 5 courses ~~or in lieu of the dessert~~.

Overall, we left sated and happy. Most importantly, Corinne had a happy birthday!

***

Of course, I have another supper club-like even this Friday. It should be epic!

Are you sick of hearing about these things yet?

What’s the best thing you’ve eaten as of late?

Eggplant Shirataki + WIAW

July 20, 2011 By Laura

In honor of my crazy work week(s)…

I’m copying the growing wordless WIAW* trend. Does good food really need words? I think not.

*As usual (except for last week), Wednesday = Tuesday eats.

But first, a run. I don’t know why I stopped posting these breakdowns… I like to look back at them. Nevermind the fact that you have to suffer through them. 😉

Stats:

Distance – 4 miles
Time – 32:37 mins
Pace – 8:09 mins

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Breakfast

I did say it is almost worldess WIAW, right?

The delicious Chocolate Breakfast Pudding. So. Good.

Lunch

Salad topped with carrots, celery, Purple Haze goat cheese, a Lightlife Chick’n Cutlet. A bit chewy, but it wasn’t bad!

Snack

Cottage cheese tastes really, really good with peanut butter. Someone call Intervention.

Not pictured: celery and hummus, Think Thin bar, and random handfuls of cereal.

Dinner

Big. Win.

Mom recently told me about Shirataki Noodles – apparently it is just tofu pressed into noodles. It’s gluten-free, vegan, low-cal, and – most importantly – a QUICK-FIX.

The only downside is the smell when you first remove them from the package, but that does go away once you rinse them (thoroughly) and pop them in the microwave for a minute.

To go with my noodles, I roasted some eggplant, red onion, and garlic in a quick vinaigrette. Then tossed it all with an heirloom tomato (because I didn’t get enough at the tomato festival) and more Purple Haze goat cheese.

Perfect light dinner for a summer day!!!

…followed by a little something I like to call…

Dessert

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Roasted Eggplant with Tofu Noodles

1 medium eggplant, sliced
1/2 red onion, sliced
5 cloves garlic
1T EVOO
1T marsala wine
1/2 tsp white wine vinegar
1 tsp herbes de provence
1 tsp red pepper flakes (reduce to 1/2 if you are sensitive to spicy foods)
1 package Shirataki noodles (or 2 servings of pasta)
S+P, to taste
Optional toppings: fresh tomato, cheese (I used goat)

Preheat oven to 425.

Cut eggplants into 1/2 inch slices. Generously salt the slices, allowing them to sit for 15-20 mins. Wiping away the beads of water that form (this process removes excess moisture – which makes ggplant “slimey” – and bitterness).

Meanwhile, whisk together the oil, marsala, vineger, herbs, and pepper flakes.

Cut the eggplant slices into 1/2 inch cubes and toss in a large bowl with the garlic, red onion, and vinaigrette. Spread eggplant onto foil-lined baking sheet and roast for ~3o minutes, tossing once halfway through.

Prepare noodles as instructed on package.

Divide among two plates, adding extra toppings as desired (I loved how the goat cheese melted and clung to mine!).

Makes 2 servings (or 4 sides).

***

I’ve taken to working from Starbucks lately. They have a the bar where I can stand and a constant supply of caffine… perfection.

Do you find you get more work done from a “third-party” location?

What’s the best thing you’ve eaten today?

Overpronation, Procrastination, and WIAW

July 14, 2011 By Laura

Active.com is a great resource for runners.

I enjoy their weekly emails with tips on issues such as: how to fuel your body, preventing various injuries, and working out in sweltering heat.

Today’s email included an interesting article on overpronation.

Overpronation is when one’s ankles roll inward too much.

It is widely believed that this can lead to over-use type pain or injury (shin splints, joint pain). Many people (myself included) get specially fitted for running shoes and/on inserts in hopes to correcting the “problem.”

Today’s article from Active asserts that corrections for over pronation should not always be made. They say:

“…doing so can and often does result in one symptom going away and another, usually a more complicated one, developing elsewhere.”

Here’s what really resonated with me:

Often over pronation is the symptom of another problem. Most common is a lack of normal ankle range of motion. If the foot/ankle isn’t bending properly, the knee is restricted and can’t “travel forward enough for the body to move its center of mass over the foot.”

The result? Overpronation. That pronation causes the knee to drift to the midline, which means the hip turns excessively inward. Snowball.

Correction through shoes and inserts either a) doesn’t work or b) makes the underlying cause worse because the overpronation “is a needed compensation for a lack of mobility elsewhere in the body. Taking this compensatory element away without first addressing and correcting the true underlying cause will inevitably force compensation (frequently accompanied by pain) in another part of the body.”

Source: http://bestrunningshoereport.com/

So what should you do?

See if you over pronate with a squat test. Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart and attempt a squat. Are your knees bent 90 degrees or less? Are your heels still on the ground? Are your feet still forward (not turning outward)?

No? If you can’t do the squat correctly, the article says your foot pronation is likely “due to inflexibility of your ankles and that is what should be corrected.”

Bottom line: Before you go out and buy special shoes or inserts, see a professional to have a complete evaluation (pelvis, hip, knee, ankle and foot) done by a professional.

On to my actual Wednesday eats in honor of WIAW.

1 day later than usual due to procrastination/over-sleepiness rather than the pursuit of true Wednesday eats.