FoodFash

Adventure Begins in the Kitchen

Polenta Pizza

by

What a Monday!  It’s week three at the new job and I couldn’t be happier.  I’ve been getting these bursts of adrenaline and excitement that I don’t remember feeling consistently since 2007 when I worked as a project engineer on this building.  Let me just tell ya, it’s exciting to be excited about {real} work again!

Sliced Polenta

And this excitement, rather than taking away from, is flowing directly into FoodFash.  I drove home with atypical energy for 6-ish o’clock and a huge grin {one of those ear to ear kind}.  I knew from the moment I walked in the front door that I was going to own the polenta pizza I had been dreaming about for days.

Grilled Polenta

I made my own sauce, acknowledging that I prefer my marinara over most.  And then I whipped out the new cast iron skillet that ordered through Gilt a few weeks back.  I stacked and baked and topped and ate.  I was satisfied, completely.

Polenta Pizza

Array

Spaghetti Squash & Turkey Meatballs

by

Spaghetti Squash with Turkey Meatballs

The past month has been filled with a ton of change/excitement/nerves/ emotion. And since it’s a very well known fact that any of these heightened things can be calmed by carbs, I’ve had a constant craving for gnocchi every minute I can recall for as long as I can recall minutes.  In a too-short span of time, I did the restaurant gnocchi thing, the pseudo-homemade gnocchi thing, the pizza thing, the pasta thing – I no-joke did every carby thing.  And now… my jeans are telling me to cool it.

Spaghetti Squash

Still craving comfort, I leaned on spaghetti squash and veggie-filled turkey meatballs.  I am, after all, about to take the biggest risk I’ve ever taken in all of my 30 great years.

Side note:  In the coming days, I will say goodbye to the only profession I’ve ever known (9 years!), Ariel will fly in from LA for Fun Fun Fun Fest, I will follow her back to LA for a week, and then… I will begin a new professional adventure.  More details to come!

Veggie Turkey Meatballs

Array

Chicken Spinach Lemon Soup

by

Chicken Spinach Lemon Soup 2

Noodle-less soup was a tough concept for me to grasp tonight.  Austin is rainy and rain totally calls for noodles.  But I’ve been trying to do this bootcamp, green smoothie, minimal dairy, minimal grain thing – so I got creative.  And by getting creative, I mean getting simple.  Super simple.

Shredded Chicken Breast

The shredded chicken and spinach gave this soup enough heartiness that your mind didn’t wander towards thoughts of noodles.  And adding egg to the chicken broth made this soup nice and creamy, giving the illusion that dairy was invited.  Dee-lish!

Chicken Spinach Lemon Soup

Array

Rainy Day Dough

by

Salted Caramel Cookies

There are times when the right words, even if you could find them, won’t do.  So you bake.  And you hope that the energy you put into mixing and rolling and sprinkling… That it translates into a better meaning than the words you once wished you could find.

Cookie Dough for Freezing

And then you remember a conversation.  The one that happened while two friends picked around chocolate chip cookie dough, discussing how chip-less dough would taste so much better.  So you pack a mason jar full of dream-seeming dough to stick in the freezer for a forthcoming day that will feel much like today.

Salted Caramel Cookie Dough

And then you turn the remaining chip-less dough into salted caramel cookies, hoping that {just for a moment} cookies and dream-seeming dough will distract that sad someone from the source.

Salted caramel cookies can be made by using your favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe, replacing chocolate chips with caramel nuggets, and sprinkling cooked cookies with coarse sea salt.  My favorite recipe can be found in “In the Sweet Kitchen“.