Give This a Chai

Tomorrow I will be hitting the open road with my boyfriend for four days of adventure. We are headed to San Francisco, but my main interest is camping in the Redwoods. I've wanted to do this for years, but each summer something always gets in the way, and I haven't been able to cross it off my bucket list yet.

But this is the year!

We have the trip planned, the days have been taken off work, and we'e just picked up camping gear from his parents. I am so excited! Growing up, I went camping all the time, and it is my favorite way to spend a vacation. I don't know what it is about spending all of your time outside, sleeping with nothing but a nylon flap separating you from the wild, and cooking over a fire that just makes me the happiest person in the world. But it does.

I've got 1 quart for the trip...and a glass to test it out

 I like to pack my own snacks and food when I camp, and I've been coming up with some of my favorites to throw today before we leave at the ass crack of dawn on tomorrow morning. I've been finding plenty of inspiration online, and am excited to try a recipe that I found on the blog The Year In Food. Her recipe for Cherry Cacao Ginger Granola Bites looks fantastic, and is just the sort of thing I'm jonesing to make for the trip. Homemade convenience food, but with a healthy spin. I have plenty of food planned, but what can I make to drink?

The flavors are beautiful

Chai is my drink of choice. It's incredibly soothing and comforting in the winter. The combination of spices are enough to make my heart do a happy dance, and want to chug the drink as fast as I can, but also savor it as slowly as possible. It is just as comforting, but refreshing and light during the summer when I drink it iced.


I love spices. They can uplift an ordinary dish to something exotic, extraordinary, and exciting. I've learned more about the magic of spices since I began culinary school, and have adopted the use of them as part of my signature style. I love experimenting with flavor combinations, different blooming techniques, and trying to capture the essence of different international cuisines who have a huge focus on the use of spices.

I've been making my own chai concentrate at home for about 3 or 4 years now, and each time I tweak the recipe a little, trying to balance the flavors perfectly. This is the way I made it today, and it's pretty perfect for me. All I have to do is pack a container of almond milk and I'll have plenty of chai for the trip to San Francisco.

This is really a simple recipe, and . Mix it with equal parts milk, or milk alternative, and you have a chai that is easily as good (if not better) than the one that you're paying $4 for at the coffee shop.

Chai Concentrate

Iced...with cinnamon on top

• 4 1/2 C water
• 2 Cinnamon sticks
• 1 3" piece of Ginger, peeled and chopped
• 7 whole Cardamom pods
• 2 whole Star Anise pods
• 10 whole Cloves
• 1 whole Vanilla Bean
• 1/4 tsp whole Black Pepper
• 1/2 tsp freshly ground Nutmeg
• 1 tsp Orange zest
• 10 bags Black Tea
• 1/2 C Brown Sugar
• 1 TBSP Honey
• 1 TBSP Vanilla

Prepare spices and tea, set aside.

Cut vanilla bean in half lengthwise.

Bring water to boil, remove from heat.

Add spices, tea bags, and vanilla bean, steep for 15 minutes.

Strain into large bowl, discard spices.

Add sugar, honey, and vanilla, stir until sugar dissolves.

Pour into one large jar, or smaller jars and store in the fridge. 

To enjoy: Mix with equal parts milk, almond milk, hemp milk, or whatever milk alternative you prefer. It can be enjoyed hot or cold, and is great to pack in the cooler for a road trip.

Gnocchi Dokey

Matt... Love that smile

We've hit a snag in our summer. Our last few weeks were far too sunny and hot to be real for Oregon, so it came as a relief when I woke up in the middle of the night to the sound of the rain pouring so loud it sounded like bags of rocks were falling on my house. I loved it. I adore the shitty, rainy weather that is so typical of Oregon, especially in the summer time to break up all the perfect days of sun. It's so refreshing and cozy. The two worst days were on my boyfriend and my days off together, so it gave us a perfect excuse to just snuggle up together, grab coffee from our favorite spot, and watch tons of Degrassi together. That's right ladies, my man LOVES Degrassi; what cool tricks does your boyfriend do?

The Okonomiyaki Tots- watch the bonito curl!

Anyways, we watched tons of Degrassi together over our rainy weekend, went to Boxer Ramen, because we were both craving spicy, umami, perfect ramen. Boxer Ramen was the first place we ate together. We went with a bunch of our mutual friends before we were dating, but I liked him and he liked me. We didn't know it yet, but apparently it was obvious to everybody else because my best friend sent me a text the next day saying 'You have a crush on Matt.' I denied, but then agreed. I guess the two of us sitting across from eachother all afternoon and evening, totally engrossed in each other, laughing, giggling, and hardly paying attention to anybody else was a pretty obvious sign to everyone but us. But two weeks later, we were going on our first real date, so it didn't take long.

Sorry, back to ramen! It was great. It always is at Boxer Ramen. I bought a great book at Powell's a couple weeks ago, on the sale rack, called Takishi's Noodles. It is about authentic Japanese noodles, like ramen, udon, soba, and other great recipes. I've been dying to try my hand at making ramen, because Japanese cuisine is probably my favorite. I love the way they capture all of the five tastes and balance them in perfect harmony. They were using umami as a flavor far before the rest of the world knew what it was. Umami is basically 'intense savory'. That's the best American-ized definition of the word. To me, it is the flavor that makes many dishes complete. Some foods high in umami are Parmeasan cheese, soy sauce, cured ham...those may all sound like they are just salty, but salt is a different flavor. Other umami rich foods are green tea, tomatoes, and oysters. In Japanese, umami roughly translates to 'deliciousness', which seems just about right to me.

Gnocchi w/ carrot corn puree, mushrooms, baby scallops

I haven't made any noodles from the book yet, but I did try the gnocchi recipe in it. It was super simple, and the only ingredient for it that I didn't have on hand were the russet potatoes. I picked kale from my garden and lightly wilted it, made a carrot and corn puree, portabella mushrooms,and pan seared the most adorable baby scallops to go on top. It was fantastic! Gnocchi is awesome, they are little pillows of delicious starch, and are perfect for collecting sauce. The longest part is baking the potatoes, so I would start that a couple hours before you plan on eating. Also the rolling out and shaping takes a little while, but Matt and I had a blast doing it together. I rolled out just what I needed for dinner that night, and then he rolled out the rest while I did dishes afterwards. Another wonderful thing about gnocchi is that you can freeze them and use them later. Just make sure to roll them in olive oil first, and lay them on a tray with parchment paper, and saran wrap. I didn't boil mine before freezing, so I just have to pull them out of the freezer and boil them til they float, and then I can go ahead and cook them like normal. It's great to have such a delicious standby just waiting in the freezer for the day that I decide to bust it out.

Little pillows of delight

Potato Gnocchi

• 1# russet potatoes (about 2 large)
• 1 egg
• 1 egg yolk
• 1/3 C grated Parmesan
• 1/2 TBSP extra-virgin Olive Oil
• 2 tsp kosher salt
• 1 1/4 C all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting

Preheat oven to 425. Use a fork to poke holes in potatoes, but I also cut them in half so they baked quicker. Roast until very soft, it took about an hour and a half. Remove from the oven and let cool about 15 minutes. You still want them to be warm, because you scoop out the insides from the skin. Discard the skin.

Put through a ricer, or mash them with a hand masher until there are no lumps left. Stir in the egg, yolk, parmesan, olive oil, and salt.

Use your hands to slowly mix in the flour until well combined. It's messy, but fun! Divide into 4 pieces.

Rollin like a pro

Roll one piece on a lightly floured surface into a long, 1/2" thick rope. Gently pinch one end with your thumb and forefinger, and cut. It should look like a small pillow. Continue pinching and cutting, make them about 1" long, and place on a floured plate. Repeat with remaining 3 pieces. (I rolled out 1 piece to begin, and it was enough for us to both eat and have seconds.)

Prepare an ice bath (ice and cold water), and bring a large pot of water to boil. Add one fourth of the gnocchi to the boiling water, and slightly decrease the heat to a simmer. Simmer gnocchi until it floats to the top, then remove and put in the ice bath. Drain, and set aside. Repeat until all is cooked.

To eat: Melt a couple TBSP butter in a sautee pan over high heat, and add the gnocchi. Toss until the gnocchi is cooked through. At this point you can add vegetables, or other pre-cooked meats. 

It's easy! I added blanched carrots to mine, corn kernals, and kale. I had already seared my scallops, so I placed them on top of each plate. Enjoy, and get creative, there's a lot you can do with gnocchi.

Blueberry Yum Yum

Bushy

My blueberry bush is just out of control. I go outside daily to pick the ripe fruit, and I don't know what to do with it all. I picked almost a full quart today. That's 4 cups for those who don't speak kitchen fluently. I wasn't living in my house last year when the blueberries were ripe, so I didn't have this 'problem' on my hands. No, it's actually fantastic, I have so many ideas of what to do with my bounty of beautiful blue fruit. Until today, all I had done was go out to pick a handful each morning and put it on top of my yogurt and granola.

 Spring and summer in Oregon are perfect. I could never imagine a more ideal place to live, especially in the summer. The weather is perfect. It gets hot sometimes, but usually it is pretty spot on for what I like. Everything grows here. I grew up in North Idaho, and we have a good growing season, but it is nothing like the temperate zone that is western Oregon. Everything seems to grown here, and you don't even have to try. Covering my house in an almost unruly manner are grapes, nasturtiums, hops, and a couple other vines that I don't even know. Blackberry bushes are a nuisance to some. They are my favorite thing about living in Oregon.

During my first Oregon Summer, I was living on the coast outside Lincoln City in a tiny community called Gleneden Beach. I worked in a coffee shop about a half a mile from my house, and was able to walk to work and back every day, and enjoy the coastal life to the fullest. As I walked to the post office one day, I discovered an entire block that was pure blackberry bushes, and it was covered in luscious, dark purple berries. I was ecstatic, and rushed back to my house to grab as many tupperware containers as I had, my headphones, and a couple bong rips before I headed back to spend my evening picking berries. It was fantastic. I probably picked over a gallon on the first night alone, but still went back every day after work to fill up as many containers as I had lying around. After filling up, I would walk down to the beach and watch the sunset as I headed back home, feeling as content as I ever had, and excited about the possibilities that my blackberry hoarding would grant me.

It isn't quite that season yet, but the bush full of blueberries next to my front porch is almost as good. I've never had my own blueberry bush, so I've been going wild with blueberries for the past two weeks. I really wanted to make ice cream, but I don't have an ice cream machine at the house. The search was on for an easy no-churn ice cream recipe. I looked at several sites, and what popped up on almost every one was a simple combination of whipping cream and sweetened condensed milk(SCM). I've honestly never used SCM, something about it just seems cheap and gross to me, but I was hurting for some homemade ice cream and decided to give it a shot.

Beautiful berries

Making the ice cream was so simple, it honestly took about 5 minutes, besides the time I took to make a blueberry sauce to fold in. The recipe is so versatile, you could make any flavor from it, and it really did make a nice, creamy, perfectly textured ice cream. It gives a soft texture, and isn't icy or weird at all like I was afraid. A scoop of it looked like real ice cream. I'll probably mess around with a couple other flavors, but am now on the look out for a recipe that doesn't involve SCM, because I feel like making it right would
be healthier. Like I said though, super versatile, SUPER easy, and pretty damn tasty as well. You can add anything to it. Nuts, fruit, herbs, spices, caramel, chocolate, peanut butter, fuck man, you could even add bacon to it. I might do that...bacon pecan caramel ice cream? Mmmmmm......

Blueberry-Balsamic Lemon Super Easy No-Churn Ice Cream

Finally! I get to eat it!

• 1 Pint Heavy Whipping Cream
• 1 can (10 oz) Sweetened Condensed Milk
• 3 each Lemons, zested
• 1 pint blueberries
• 1 cup balsamic vinegar
• Splash of vanilla

Throw the blueberries and balsamic in a sauce pot and bring to a boil. Once boiling, turn down to a simmer and let it reduce, about 20 minutes, until a nice saucy consistency is reached. Don't let it reduce to far, because it will gelatinize and be too thick.

 

You want it to still be runny, because it gets folded into the cream. Cool at least to room temp, but I put mine in the fridge because I was in a hurry.

Whip the cream and SCM together until medium peaks form. 

Creamy and Dreamy

Fold in the lemon zest, vanilla, and blueberry sauce. I also used the juice from one lemon. It should look like there are ribbons of blueberry. 

Finally, spoon the ice cream into a metal loaf pan. Metal reacts to temperature better than glass or plastic, so it will cool down faster. I covered mine with parchment paper, wrapped it tightly in cling wrap, and froze it for at least 6 hours, but more time may be needed. 

Notice that I don't have sugar in the recipe? You don't need it! The SCM is definitely sweet enough, so there should be no need to add anything more. 

Viola! Magic, so-simple-you-could-do-it-with-your-eyes-closed, and delicious. I loved the tang of lemon zest, and the hint of balsamic was pretty exciting. I hope you enjoy this easy recipe, I know that I will now be making ice cream all summer!

Top 5 Favorite Garden Plants

I love growing my own foods as much as possible. There is a very rewarding feeling from start to finish when growing a garden. You start with preparing the earth and spot where you are going to plant, pick out your seeds or starts, plant, care, weed, fertilize, and harvest. Those who can plant with intention find the most satisfaction, and are able to get the most out of their plot. It's so easy to go to the nursery and see a ton of beautiful or fragrant plants and get the impulse to but them.

First group of starts just in the ground, End of April

Resist this urge, and plan ahead when you purchase plants for your garden. Think about your favorite foods, things that you will actually eat the most of. Versitility is also important, especially if you will have a large crop of a particular vegetable. Remember that unless you stagger your crop- not planting all of one variety at once and instead planting each week- you will have a huge amount of that particular fruit all at once. So planning ahead and picking plants that you can eat fresh, pickle, can, or otherwise preserve for later, will save you from either getting sick of something or wasting it because you can't use it all before it goes bad. I've been gardening since I was a kid. We always had a pretty decent garden growing up, with a variety of different fruits and vegetables, and my mom and grandma have always been good about preserving foods. I've made a list of my favorite things to plant. These are all great choices, and easy to grow. If you are a first time gardener, I would highly recommend starting out with these almost foolproof crops. All of these are super versatile also, and can be used in a variety of ways. I give you my top 5 Favorite Garden Plants!

#5 Carrots

If you have never had carrots fresh out of the ground you are missing out! There is absolutely no comparison between the sweet, flavorful, beautiful orange vegetable that comes fresh out of the dirt, and the sad, lackluster carrots that are found at the grocery store. When pulled fresh from the earth, there is still the slight smell and taste of dirt, but it is such a strangely pleasing essence.

Second raised bed. Almost half carrots!

Carrots do best when planted 2" apart in rows 12" apart. Give them plenty of sunlight and water, and they are almost guaranteed to produce for you. Fertilizing monthly also will give you not only bigger carrots, but also a sweeter flavor!

What to do with all these carrots? Obviously you have to make a carrot cake, because that is my favorite cake. Sautee them, grill them, put them in salad, puree them, make carrot ginger soup and freeze it for those cold winter months. I've never pickled carrots, but I'm sure they would be good. Try playing around with Rainbow Carrots, too. They add an awesome pop of color to any dish with whole carrots.

#4 Tomatoes

Tomatoes are funny to me, because I absolutely hated them until a year ago. I know! 22 years old and I still didn't know the wonderful sweetness that is a freshly picked tomato. That is because my first few tomato

I've got 5 tomato plants this year!

experiences were those gross ones from the store. Did you know that tomatoes are one of the vegetables that will not continue to ripen once picked off of the vine? And fresh tomatoes are such a delicate fruit that they cannot be shipped and packaged ripe, so the ones that you find in the store are actually green, unripened tomatoes that have been treated with ethylene gas to turn them red. It's such a betrayal! No wonder they always taste like gross tomato flavored water and have a nasty too-hard texture.

 I knew that I hated them, so I never bothered to eat any that we grew in the garden as a kid, so I spent 22 years of my life missing out on the awesomeness that is a perfectly ripe tomato. Until last year, I decided to pick one off one of our plants that my roommates had growing and OMG it was a revelation! I couldn't believe how sweet it was, almost like candy. I started eating so many tomatoes after that, and I'm glad that I do.

Tomatoes will get much larger than their little starts, so make sure to plant them at least 12" apart, and from the beginning, I would put a cage of some sort around them to help them from tipping over once they reach adolescence and get top-heavy.

Tomatoes are great fresh and on their own. But even better when put in a simple salad of basil, fresh mozzarella, and balsamic vinegar. Make pasta sauce, pizza sauce, tomato soup. Can them, pickle them, make more pasta sauce and can that. There is plenty that can be done with the humble tomato.

#3 Beets

Beets are another of those vegetables that I am ashamed to say I didn't like until I was in my 22nd year. Growing up, the only experience I had with beets were those terrible canned ones that are sooooo gross. I hated it when my mom would pull out a can of beets to go with our dinner because they were my absolute least favorite. It's funny how picky I was as a kid, because I now love every food. I tried thinking of a food that I hate the other day, and I couldn't pick any out! Going to culinary school has re-opened my eyes to many of the foods that I had written off until this point, and I am so glad. Beets are the shit! Goddamn are they fucking wonderful. Such a complex earthy, sweet, wholesome flavor. They are really versatile too. And absolutely beautiful. Beets come in such a variety of colors, they are one of the most lovely veggies in my opinion. They brighten up any dish, but make sure that if you are cooking both golden and red beets, make
sure to cook them seperately because the red beets will bleed their color like nothing else, and mute the golden brilliance of the yellow variety.

Beets should be planted 2" apart, in rows 12" apart. Plenty of sun and water are required.

Beets can be eaten in many ways. But when I started culinary school, I had never eaten fresh beets, so I didn't know about peeling them. I've seen other people make the same mistake of just going for their peeler
and peeling them raw. You can do this, and it is much faster than boiling them or roasting them for an hour or more, but it takes away from the natural beauty of the perfect beet. And beets are so hard that it is good to soften them up by cooking first, unless you plan on shredding them raw for a salad. Cover them in boiling water and let it rip for as long as it takes to let the skin come right off. You can also bake them, covered in foil. I prefer boiling.

This is the same garden as in the first picture,.
Just 2 months later.

Beets can be roasted, steamed, pureed, made into soup, or chocolate beet cake. They are fantastic pickled in some red wine vinegar! There are so many things to do with beets, and they always look absolutely beautiful.

#2 Sugar Snap Peas

Sugar Snap Peas are my #2 favorite just because I love picking them and eating them off the vine. They are so sweet and crunchy and perfect. And they just look beautiful climbing up a trellis or whatever you decide to climb them up. You can also use the peas in a variety of preparations , like sauteing, adding to pasta, pureeing, making soup, salads, and just snacking on!

Plant them close together, about 1" apart and give them something to climb. I like using a wooden trellis, because they can get too hot and burn if you give them a metal grate to climb.

#1 Squash- any kind

Oh God, do I love squash. I would have to say they are my favorite vegetable, because there are so many varieties that are all so different, and each one has so much potential for different things. And squash are one of the most fun plants to grow, because of how HUGE they get. The vines grow all over the place, and if the fruit can get gigantic. Growing up, everybody in town would always have a surplus of zucchini at the end of summer, and it was hilarious to see neighbors 'gift' zucchini to others who were also swimming in an ocean of the summer squash. And butternut squash is so great roasted, put in sauces, soups, breads anything! Then spaghetti squash with brown sugar and cinnamon and butter...I could go on and on, but the point is that squash are the best! We have 5 different varieties of squash in our garden this year, I can't wait.

Give them lots of room to grow. I like to give them a large corner of any garden bed so they can grow out of the box, instead of onto the other plants. Give them anywhere from 18"-6' of space because they will GROW!

I Like Cheese.

How is cheese so fucking good?

 It's old, sharp, mellow, stinky, flavorful, hard, soft, moldy, delicious. I could go on and on, and maybe I will. I have decided to learn more about the fantastic world of cheese, and visited a cheese shop that's near my house last week. It's called Cheese Bar, and their rotating selection of seasonal cheeses, meats, beer and wine have me hooked. The cheese board and hard cider that my boyfriend and I shared last week was revelatory.

'Why don't we do this all the time?'

Well now we do. We bought some cheese to bring home, and made our own cheese and fruit board. I threw together a quick blueberry balsamic compote (with blueberries I had picked from my garden that day) to spread on the fresh Grand Central baguette that we toasted into crostini, used the plums, cherries, and apples that we had intended to use in a salad as our fruit element, and drank a very nice bottle of wine that my sous chef gave to me in exchange for cat sitting for her while she was on vacation the week before. Sitting in bed eating fantastic cheese, drinking very expensive wine, and watching Game of Thrones turned into our favorite 'dinner' that we had made together- and both of us are cooks for a living, so this is saying a lot.

So this is why the French eat like this. You are really able to taste the flavors of what you're eating, and appreciate all that goes into the food. The smoked paprika tomme that we bought was so fantastic. Smoky, bright, sharp, and with the blueberry compote, it was the perfect balance of sweet, salty, and smoky. And something about eating this way with somebody you love makes you feel even closer to them. Matt and I both love food, and have a deep appreciation for it, and being able to share this and know that the person you are sharing the experience with feels just as strongly about it is something special. Anybody can eat food, but not everybody can appreciate it.

 This morning we decided to make french toast for breakfast. I love it when we collaborate on our cooking, because we both have our own style, but always manage to fuse them together into something fantastic. Matt made the Challah herbed french toast, using mint from my garden. I had intended to make an orange marmalade, but when we went to the store and I saw the plump, bright little kumquats nestled in a bowl along with the orange display, I had to get some. So I ended up making a kumquat-orange marmalade with

mint, and an orange zest and chai spiced whipped cream to top of our fantastic mountain of french toast. OMFG was it good. The kumquat marmalade was so tart and tasty, yet sweet. With the slightly sweetened whipped cream to balance the minty freshness of the french toast itself, we had a miracle in our mouths.

We decided that tonight would be another Cheese Board night, and we went with an Elderflower infused Tomme from France, and a Truffle Stack Brie from Washington. We grabbed some smoked copa, plums, and a baguette, and decided that my leftover kumquat marmalade would be perfect with it. It was another fantastic meal. Simple, light, yet wholly satisfying.

Who wants to make Kumquat Orange Marmalade?

The marmalade was so simple to make, and such a versatile little sauce, and I've got a rough recipe here. Kumquats are awesome, because the desirable flavor is actually in the peel! So what looks like a huge pain in the ass to peel is actually not necessary. They are pretty sour and tart, so I did put in an orange to sweeten it a bit. I wanted to use honey as my sweetener, but Matt had just thrown out the honey because it was infested with ants! So sugar it was, but you could use any sweetener that you prefer, or have lying around. I just fooled around, threw in what I thought it needed as I tasted, and that's what you should do too! Always cook with your intuition, it usually won't lead you astray.

Kumquat-Orange Marmalade

1/2# Kumquats

1 large Navel Orange

3 TBSP Sugar (I wanted to use honey, but didn't have any)

Water (I probably used 1/2 cup, and also threw in some of the Hard Cider I was drinking)

Wash your kumquats. Slice off the ends, then cut them in half to expose the seeds, and take them out with the tip of a paring knife. Also cut out the membrane. 

Cut the halved kumquats into smaller pieces (I quartered mine, but you can also slice them) and put in a sauce pot. At this point, I zested the navel orange into the pot, then cut the peel off, and segmented the orange. (This is when you cut the wedges of meat out in between the membrane of the orange) I would recommend segementing over the pot, as a lot of juice will be caught. 

Add just enough liquid to cover the kumquats, and your sweetener, and bring to a boil. Make sure to watch, because it may boil over as the liquid is evaporating. Boil for 5 minutes, then lower to a simmer for about 10-15 minutes. If the marmalade gets too dry, add a little more liquid. Taste as you go, to make sure it tastes the way you want. Want it more tart? Squeeze in a little lemon juice. More sweet? Add more sweetener. I added some apple cider, and it gave it a nice tart acidity, and brought out the floral notes in the kumquats. The marmalade will thicken up once it cools, so do make sure that it has a little liquid to give before you pull it off the heat. That's it!