Adventures of a healthy-ish pseudo-foodie

This looks like pizza dough, but it's homemade mozzarella cheese. As a kid, I was obsessed with craft-making kits. As a grown-up, I have the same feeling about cheese-making kits. And so my darling husband got me these for my birthday. He did this because he is thoughtful and knows me well, and also because I sent him the Amazon links a few weeks ago. I should have worn a crown like the girl on the box. And so I spent a fair portion of my 33rd birthday concocting mozzarella and ricotta cheese in the kitchen. (I'll save the goat cheese kit for another day. There's only so much cheese we can eat around here.) I won't outline all of the instructions here, because they're long, and there are plenty of good guides on the internet.  But, I will summarize as follows: 1) Homemade cheese is delicious. 2) It's extremely satisfying to turn a gallon of milk into something as cool as mozzarella or ricotta cheese. 3) Ricotta cheese is ridiculously...

Cream cheese? No - something much better. This story starts last Christmas Eve, when my pseudo-step-brother-in-law Anthony brought some mysterious Lebanese "garlic sauce" to contribute to the fondue feast. It was the consistency of cream cheese but it had so much garlic that it kind of hurt to eat it, creating this pleasantly warm burn as it went down. I loved it. We devoured the stuff and garlic emanated from our pores for about 3 days afterwards.  A few days ago, I got a craving for this stuff. Since it came from a Lebanese deli in Portland, I was left googling recipes. I'd had a suspicion that the "sauce" was yogurt cheese, and sure enough, I found some recipes for Garlic Labneh (yogurt cheese) that fit the description.  There are many fancy variations on this recipe on the internet. I decided to start simple: mix lots of grated garlic and a little bit of salt into some yogurt, strain it overnight, and eat. It was so good that I don't see a...

And a few with seaweed salad, too. Sushi is one of my favorite vehicles for good ingredients. I try to stay open-minded when shopping for sushi fillings, so I can buy whatever looks best that day. I usually pick some kind of seafood, usually either avocado or mango, and usually green onion. Sometimes there's a special bonus to go on top, like kiwi or fish eggs. Recently, while scouring sushi fillings at Market of Choice, the guy at the fish counter convinced me to try the hot-smoked Steelhead. This was a revelation. It tasted a lot like your every delicious hot-smoked salmon, but it was less salty and had more salmon flavor. It's going to be hard to stay open-minded when shopping in the future; I'm going to be heartbroken if they're out of this stuff. This may look like a big charred tongue, but I assure you it's pure gold. I sliced this up with some green onions and avocado. I also got some Seaweed Salad from Fisherman's Market... it's the ...

Little pot of bubbling goodness seeks lentil patties, sweet potato fries, or pretty much anything else. I recently made  this recipe  from Crumb Blog for lentil patties with tomato jam. The lentil patties were pretty good, but the tomato jam was really something to write home about. It's one of those foods that makes you feel warm, even when it's cold. It has just the right balance of sweetness, acidity, and spice. The mustard seeds are a must (haha, must ard seeds). Their crunch, and the little burst of toasty peppery flavor that follows, are amazing in contrast to the rest of the flavors. The next time you're tempted to put ketchup on something, consider this instead.  I have a little bit of this gold left over in the freezer. I'm thinking I may thin it out with vegetable broth and use it as a sauce for a stir-fry. Stay tuned for the results. The only change I made to this recipe was upping the amount of mustard seeds. I think 1 tsp is the perfect a...

The perfect Sunday lunch. My friend Jill is a fabulous cook who throws fabulous dinner parties. One night, she served root vegetable soup, and it was the most fabulous of the many fabulous things I've eaten at her house. I demanded the recipe and it's become one of my favorites. I've made a few changes: First, I replaced heavy cream with milk, which I actually like better because the flavor of the vegetables really comes through. I replaced chicken stock with vegetable stock because I usually have it handy, and again, it really brings out the flavor of the vegetables. Next, I added cayenne pepper, because the spice in the midst of creamy soup makes it really interesting. And then I added goat cheese, because I have a tendency to add goat cheese to things. It was a good addition. If spinach/avocado pesto wasn't reason enough to get an immersion blender, consider this recipe your reason. If you used it only one time, to make this soup, it would be worth the inves...

Garlicky, creamy goodness. There was a time when pesto required the availability of fresh basil. When making it involved purchasing expensive pine nuts (or cheating with walnuts). When eating it involved the consumption of much olive oil. I dreamed a dream that pesto might be healthier, and cheaper, and maybe even creamy like the pesto at  Nib  without adding gobs of heavy cream. That dream came true when my friend Cassadie mentioned avocado pesto on  her brilliant blog . I decided to try this recipe from Perry's Plate , and I actually still follow it in its original form except that I add more garlic, because I add more garlic to almost everything. The avocado and yogurt make it creamy without being heavy. And it has a ton of spinach in it, so I don't even have to serve a vegetable with it. Although, in the summer, it's really delicious with sugar snap peas mixed in. All of the green in this recipe is spinach. I have tried it with a mixture of spinach and...

Hurry up and cook. I want to eat you. Recently on Pinterest, I've been seeing lots of variations on higher-protein pancakes that involve just egg and banana and maybe one or two other ingredients. I started playing around with these, and I think I've discovered my favorite take on this method. My added ingredient is buckwheat, which provides that texture and bite that are lacking in the egg and banana alone. It also keeps me full longer. I eat these with a dollop of plain yogurt for some contrasting cold creaminess, and maybe some kind of fruit topping (like deliciously tart strawberries that I canned in the summer). The Recipe: 1 banana, mashed 1 egg 1/4 c whole buckwheat Pinch sea salt Mix all of the ingredients together Cook on griddle just like any old pancake The Verdict: Overall grade: B+ Overall reason: Some zing would be nice, to offset the banana's sweetness. Orange zest? Time to prepare: 6 minutes Husband quote: Zzzzzzzzz...........