One of the best ideas I’ve had recently involves putting booze in your breakfast.
Champagne, to be exact.
A Wednesday morning breakfast? Most likely not. But just put these in your back pocket for Sunday, yes? I’ve had them in my back pocket for quite a while. I think I posted about them on Instagram weeks ago. Well finally it’s pancake time – thank goodness.
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I usually reserve words like “insane,” “unreal,” and “magical” for creations like chocolate pecan butter, ice cream with bourbon in it, chocolate peanut butter cookies, etc. But today I’m about to use those words to describe a cauliflower dish… oh yes I am.
I recently made the discovery that cauliflower can be used in place of meat in all your old favorite Asian dishes. I tried it out first with the cauliflower coconut masala, and it was a magical. Also, though I came up with the idea independently, I totally wasn’t the first person to do so. That’s what happens when you have a unique idea in the year 2014… you Google it and realize that 2.1 million other people had the same idea, starting about 1000 years ago. Sigh.
Then I realized that, sure, cauliflower might be a typical component of Indian dishes, but it also works in practically everything else, too. Up until now I had considered tofu as the most logical vegetarian substitute. And I don’t always love the texture of tofu, so I pushed most of the chicken- and beef-based Asian recipes I knew to the back of my mind.
But cauliflower opens everything back up again, and with a new and improved texture. Can I get an amen from my fellow veggie texture lovers?
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Something very exciting happened in my parents’ town recently: they got a Whole Foods!
The old Johnnie’s Foodmaster near the house I grew up in closed, and the blinking Foodmaster sign was replaced with the big green Whole Foods lettering. This is somewhat sad, as Johnnie’s was a staple in my town and in my life: one of my best high school friends worked there for years while we were in high school and college (and can probably still tell you the code for just about every type of produce), and a band from my high school had a song called “Foomaster,” inspired by the grocery store sign whose D always seemed to be dark.Yep, I have some nostalgia for the old Johnnie’s. But Whole Foods is still a major upgrade.
I visited for the first time in August, after my flights home from our family vacation got messed up and I knew I’d have to go into work the next day in Salt Lake with no food. While wandering around checking out the bulk bins (my favorite section) and comparing the offerings to my Whole Foods at home (the Salt Lake one near me is bigger), I picked out this salad for my lunch the next day. It looked delicious – check out those colors! – and I figured it would be a good way of starting off a little detox after some serious vacation eating.
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Just take a look at this pretty little concoction I have for you today.
The more I think about ice cream, the more I remember the flavors I enjoyed as a kid. And this is just such a flavor: Swiss orange sherbet.
Edy’s Swiss Orange Sherbet was one of my childhood favorites, and was in constant supply at my aunt and uncle’s (hi Aunt Liz!). Did you ever try it? (The brand is Edy’s on the East Coast, and Dryer’s on the West Coast.) When it popped into my head a few weeks ago, I knew I had to recreate it for you. I was surprised to learn, when I started researching it, that Nastle has retired the flavor! So sad – it’s so easy to assume that everything from your childhood will stay the same forever.
In any case, I’m sorry if you missed out on the storebought version. It really was quite good. But I guess that’s just another reason that we should all start making it at home.
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Hello Friday! I am so glad to see you.
The first week of daylight savings time has been a little rough. Everyone at work is cranky – myself included! – and I think we all need a few days of sleeping in to remind ourselves that springtime is good, and lighter evenings are worth a few weeks of dark wake-ups in March.
Spring is definitely in the air – you can tell because my morning bowl of oatmeal has been replaced with something cold! A sure sign that things are warming up.
I’m really digging the quinoa-for-breakfast thing. It’s a nice little change from oatmeal, while still getting to use all the fun toppings. I was pretty excited when I saw Ashley’s post a few weeks ago with blood orange quinoa parfaits. I didn’t know quinoa parfaits were a “thing” and I had to try them immediately! Did I mention that besides oatmeal, parfaits are my favorite breakfast?
Anyway, it turns out that quinoa parfaits are indeed a “thing,” and I couldn’t be happier. I just mix up my quinoa with some plain Greek yogurt, agave, and cinnamon, and top with a chopped orange and more cinnamon. Some toasted pecans would be great here too!
If you’d like, you don’t have to mix the quinoa and yogurt together – you could layer the quinoa/agave/cinnamon mixture and yogurt separately. Just another fun little variation!
I topped my parfait with a sumo orange. Have you seen these?
They are basically giant tangerines – sweet and easy to peel. They are so funny-looking, and so delicious – I can’t get enough! I am pretty much an unofficial sumo orange ambassador at this point, making everyone at work try them and now posting about them here. You know how some products tend to do that to you? Actually, my bagger at Whole Foods started it – she gave me one for free a few weeks ago when I was buying some other oranges, insisting that I try it. She said they tasted like candy, and she wasn’t wrong! Of course, the whole free sample thing worked out beautifully for Whole Foods, because I returned and bought about $10 of them the next week, and the week after. They are not cheap. But if you get a kick out of funny-looking produce and sweet oranges, you have to try them!
Such a light but satisfying breakfast. I’m looking forward to enjoying this parfait as spring and summer arrive, and despite my current orange obsession, can’t wait to top it with berries in the warmer weather.
