Category Archives: Food

Eat food

Gardens and farmers’ markets are in full swing, and, oh, the fabulous food we eat!

Some recent combos:

Stir fry with basic homemade teriyaki sauce (used fresh ginger and garlic instead of powdered) with snow peas*, broccoli*, black beans**, and edamame.  Minimal cooking keeps the snow peas nice and crunchy!

Mixed green salad* (arugula, spinach, tatsoi, red leaf lettuce) with radish*, hard boiled egg**, green onions**, and sunflower seeds.

Curry with napa cabbage**, snow peas*, rutabaga*, and yellow squash*.

We used coconut milk and red curry paste (both NOT local!) for the curry.  The chef tossed some onion and garlic in there, too.

Strawberry salad

Mixed greens*, sliced strawberries**, goat cheese**, olive oil, and our special balsamic vinegar.  Simple and delicious — good balsamic is the key!

*From the garden.

** Locally grown/raised.

Oven extravaganza

I really hesitate to use the oven in the summer, but I live with a baked-good fiend.  To minimize the impact, I try to save up baking projects to avoid heating up the apartment for one tray of cookies.

As a concession for over a week of gross, unseasonably hot weather at the end of May/beginning of June, St. Louis granted us some slightly cooler temps on Sunday.  With quite the backlog of baking, the oven extravaganza swept through our apartment after lunch.  The menu featured zucchini bread, peach-cherry pie, granola, and butterscotch bars.  We used local peaches and zucchini (frozen from last summer).

Health notes: As usual, we baked with 100% whole wheat pastry flour (it is difficult for me to eat baked goods, even nice, homemade baked goods, made with white flour — they taste too sweet and lack the depth of flavor that the whole wheat provides, not to mention the nutritional benefits of whole grains).  We also somewhat reduced the sugar in most of the recipes.

Our oven extravaganza two weeks ago featured more varied cuisine: kale chips, roasted pumpkin seeds, chocolate chip cookies, sunflower seeds, beets, and granola.  I’ve been curious about those kale chips for quite awhile now — they were quite good, and a fun alternative if you’re inundated with kale from your garden or CSA share.

However, during Sunday’s baking, I noticed that most items took longer to bake than usual.  Our pans filled the oven, but not so much that it should have restricted airflow.  Maybe it was the semi-frequent opening and closing that came with having multiple items with different baking times and needs (e.g., the granola needed to be stirred every now and then)?  Did we really save any energy?

Next time, I will track exactly how long we have the oven on, and compare it to how long it would take to bake each item, one-at-a-time.  The fact that the oven only preheated once, compared to four times if we baked Sunday’s items in separate sessions, must translate to SOME savings.

Flighty Friday

As I write this, our brick oven apartment approaches 85° F. Not quite hot enough for my yoga session to technically be “hot yoga,” but we’re getting there.  It doesn’t feel too bad under the ceiling fan, but between the heat and the music from downstairs that I’m trying to block out, serious writing eludes me.

"Feels more like summer" rolls

Try your hand at homemade spring rolls for a cool summer meal.  Don’t forget the peanut dipping sauce!

Sunbrella

The hat alone just wasn’t cutting it.  Enter the sunbrella . . . just watch out for the creepers.

And so it begins

Free outdoor summer fun in St. Louis arrived last night with the first Wednesday night concert at the Botanical Garden.  One of the big perks of bike riding is attending events without having to worry too much about parking, traffic, etc.

Instead of rushing to get there early, we cooked a nice dinner (featuring local black beans and salsa so delicious that I could just eat it by the spoonful).  After a bit of digesting, we biked over to The Garden.

We arrived to find the bicycle racks full.  No worries, on to the Forbidden Light Posts.

Background: Until about a year ago, when The Garden finally installed decent bike parking, the bicycle rack was a classic fail: wheel bender style, not bolted to the ground, sitting in the middle of the parking lot with obvious signs that it had been hit by cars in the past.  Look my bike up there like a sitting duck?  No thanks.  Many other bikers obviously felt the same way; we preferred the safer and more secure alternative of locking our bikes to the light posts.  The Garden disapproved and sent their minions in golf carts to inform us about the “proper bike parking.”  Uh huh.  After several failed attempts to communicate like reasonable people and explain to security why their idea of bicycle parking was unacceptable (and several attempts to contact higher-ups at The Garden to discuss ideas for remedying the issue, which received no reply), we resorted to simply ignoring the security guards and going about the business of locking our bikes to the Forbidden Light Posts.

Whether it was through our civil disobedience, or the contact attempts, The Garden finally got the memo.  Since the installation, I have enjoyed the new bicycle accommodations on many occasions, but last night, with the “lot” full, we resorted to old patterns.  (This is not a complaint in any way — I love indications that lots of people are bicycling.  A full bike rack sends a powerful message!)  No one gave us trouble, which was good, because what would they have suggested?

We suggest doubling the amount of bicycle parking.  While  the current amount is more than enough (at least right now), for business as usual at The Garden, the bicycle parking will continue to fill to overflowing during special events.  For a relatively small investment of money and space (especially compared to car parking), they could accommodate all of the bicycles we saw last night, no light posts needed!

If you go to KC MO

An equally appropriate title would read, “Go, go to KC MO,” because we enjoyed a wonderful extended weekend in Kansas City.  We dined at some known favorite restaurants and discovered some exciting new dining destinations.

We stayed in the County Club Plaza (or simply, The Plaza) area of Kansas City.  The upside?  Many restaurants and stores within walking distance.  The downside?  Most of those restaurants (and stores), were chain-type establishments (with the exception of Eden Alley).  Not very exciting for these foodies.

With the exceptions of Eden Alley and Füd, all of the restaurants I mention offer both vegetarian and meat options.

Oldies but goodies*

 We started our gustatory adventures at Eden Alley, a vegetarian and vegan restaurant that also uses many local ingredients.  My sister ordered a pineapple bruschetta that was the star of the meal (one of the daily specials, I believe).  I selected the egg salad on greens — it was only okay, definitely not the best egg salad ever.  From past visits, some of the menu stars include the sweet potato burrito and the spinach and mushroom loaf.

For dinner Thursday evening, we hit up Bluebird Bistro.  They focus on local ingredients, with food for vegetarians and carnivores alike.  They make everything from scratch, including ketchup.  Check out their eight for $8 menu served until 8pm, Monday through Friday.  Both the vegetarian shepherd’s pie and the baked egg dish from the $8 menu were fantastic!

We picked Bluebird Bistro knowing that we would return 24-hours later for my brother-in-law’s rehearsal dinner.  Twice in one weekend?  No problem.

*None of these restaurants are all that “old,” but we visited them on past trips.
 
New finds

Thanks to an insider tip (only illegal in stock trading, not restaurant selection), we discovered You Say Tomato, our Friday lunch destination.  Again, focus on high-quality, fresh, local, made-from-scratch foods.   Due to different eating schedules, our party of four managed to eat lunch here twice in one day.  By the time we returned for Sunday brunch, we were regulars.  If you pick one meal to eat here, go for the Sunday brunch (menu changes weekly).  Leek and mushroom galette — yum!
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We really liked the idea of walking to dinner on Saturday night, but after a bit of foot scouting, we remained nonplussed by the options in The Plaza.  (Eden Alley was closed for a private party.)  Instead, we followed a tip from our friends at You Say Tomato and headed over to The Westside Local.  Perfect choice!  Again, a strong commitment to local, made-from-scratch deliciousness!  I ate the first French fries I’ve had in quite awhile, dipped in homemade ketchup, of course 🙂
 
Saving for later

We saved a few places to explore on our next visit to KC MO: Füd (we think this is pronounced “food”), Room 39, Cafe Seed, and Chez Elle.
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The Westside Local, Füd, Bluebird Bistro, and Chez Elle create a cluster of fabulous food options at the intersection of Summit Street and 17th Street.  Our ideal return trip includes finding a bed and breakfast somewhere in this neighborhood (any recommendations?).  We plan to travel to Kansas City on Amtrak, bicycles in tow, so we can explore the culinary delights of Kansas City using our favorite form of transportation.