In her Good Food Book, Jane Brody files this soup under the section “Recipes I Have Known and Loved.” If I had a section like that on this blog, this soup would most definitely live in it. But it would be something more like “Recipes I Love Because My Mom Cooked Them.”
OK, false. That is a horrible name for a blog category. But you get the idea… this is a meal I love because my mom used to cook it for us.
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Good morning! Not only am I posting another salad today, but it also has “sweet” in the title… just like Monday’s. I didn’t plan it that way, but sometimes you just need a week full of salads, you know? Especially after a weekend in Vegas.
Can I write about the weekend on a Wednesday? I didn’t have time to do it for Monday’s post, so let’s just go with it, even though it’s hump day.
I was in Vegas this past weekend on my company’s annual trip. Vegas is not really my scene, especially given the 7-hour bus ride each way, but I had a really fantastic time! There was a lot of food, a lot of wine, and a lot of fun bonding time with co-workers. And the weather was also gorgeous, which was a perfect break from the cool temps I’m still not ready for here in northern Utah. But I have to say that the highlight of the weekend was this celebrity sighting:
Just Kody and Janelle out for date night on the strip! If you’ve ever watched Sister Wives, you’ll understand why I was so excited about this. Also, as a side note, I originally posed on Kody’s other side, but he asked me not to stand next to him for the picture. What?! This must be some sort of agreement he has with his wives… bizarre.
Another weekend highlight was actually the batch of Bloody Marys that a co-worker made to enjoy on the bus ride down. I had one (toward the end of the bus ride – not when we left at 6 am!) and I have to say it might be the best Bloody Mary I’ve ever had. I got the recipe from him and, although I’m a very inexpert mixologist, I’m determined to bring it to a blog near you sometime soon!
Anyway, I came back from the weekend with a very full tummy and a very sore throat, and am still digging myself out of the depths of my sleep deprivation. Vegas will do that to a girl! I’m excited to get back to my normal eating, sleeping, and (lack of) drinking routines. This salad, followed by nine hours of sleep, is very much needed!
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Don’t you love the crossover seasons? When you can drive with your seat heater on and the windows down, wear boots with no jacket, and stuff winter squash with figs. It’s the best of both worlds!
I didn’t really discover figs until this year. Previously, despite my childhood love of Fig Newtons, I thought that fresh figs had 1) a scary texture and 2) a scary price. I liked them only when caramelized to a juicy perfection on top of a pizza at the aptly named Figs, my favorite pizza place in Boston. Then, naturally, I discovered that the blogosphere goes crazy over figs just at the same time that Whole Foods had a giant gorgeous display of them… on sale. Whole Foods 1, Erica 0. More like Whole Foods 20,000, Erica 0 when you calculate the amount I’ve probably spent there this year. In any case, I bought them, was introduced to the glory of fresh figs, and have never looked back.
A few of the ways I’ve been loving figs are:
– Just taking bites out of them! Usually right when I get home from the grocery store :)
– On my oatmeal with cinnamon and honey
– On pizza (although mine will never be as good as Figs’…)
– And finally, sauteed with onions and celery, mixed with quinoa and fresh sage, and stuffed into these adorable little squash bowls.
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Today I come to you with a very important question: How do you eat your leftover pizza?
This is one of those conversations we’ve had about a million times in the lunchroom at work. The reason is that one co-worker, a New Yorker and self-proclaimed pizza snob, refuses to microwave his leftover pizza. He claims it makes the crust soggy and ruins the pizza. Another former co-worker was dead-set against eating cold any food that was supposed to be eaten hot, and found it completely unacceptable not to microwave leftovers. And soooo this same topic was hashed out and re-hashed whenever anyone brought pizza for lunch.
Me, I’m not against microwaving pizza. If I’m at home, I’ll use the toaster oven instead to crisp up the crust, but at work (or at home now that our toaster doesn’t seem to have survived the move) I’ll stick it in the microwave. I’d usually rather do that than eat cold food – eating a cold lunch in our over-air-conditioned office makes me sad. But I discovered that what I really like to do (and this goes for all leftovers, not just pizza) is to take one bite cold and then heat up the rest. I’m not sure why… maybe I’m just impatient? Or I like to take the opportunity to see what the dish tastes like cold, which I obviously didn’t have the night before when it was fresh? It’s a mystery, and it might be quirky, but that’s just what I like to do.
People have strong feelings about their pizza, clearly. I’m not too picky, other than my preferred reheating method – it all sounds good to me, and that’s probably the reason that I love the idea of this vegan Thai pizza. With neither tomatoes nor cheese, this is clearly not your typical New York- or Italian-style pizza. Instead, it’s made with a peanut butter sauce and veggies that roast to a crunchy perfection as it cooks. It’s actually kind of like the pizza version of my favorite noodle dish! I think it’s clear that we can add a peanut sauce to anything and I’m in love.
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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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