A little wiener can love a lot

Came home from the gym to find Jewel cuddled up with her stuffed animal puppy. Too sweet!

Culture shock in my own country

Even though I was born and raised in the US, my 5+ years spent in Germany were enough to "European-ize" me. Sometimes I still have moments of "culture shock" in my own country. Yesterday I had two such moments.

The first moment was when I learned that in the US you apparently actually have to pay to recycle batteries and eco-friendly light bulbs. For years I couldn't find anywhere to take used batteries and I simply refuse to throw them in the trash. I don't care what anyone says about it being OK to throw away alkaline batteries - I won't do it. I'm thankful that battery recycling is even possible now, because for years I have been saving up my batteries hoping that I could one day find somewhere to recycle them. Thanks Batteries Plus for taking back old batteries - but it's not really cool to charge 99 cents per pound / $1 per light bulb for recycling. In Germany basically every grocery and drug store has a box at the front for recycling batteries - because it's the right thing to do - and it's free!

My second moment of culture shock came during the process of couch shopping. It was absolutely unbelievable to see how the (US) furniture industry has adapted to certain traits often scrutinized as "typical American". Individual seats on some couches could fit 3-4 of me. I felt like Alice in Wonderland - I often felt as though I had been shrunk down into a miniature me. Not only are many couches made for very large people, they also accommodate laziness with HUGE cup holders built into the couch. Seriously - a cup holder in a couch, it's not a car!! I personally think it's rather tacky. I might think it's OK if the couch were for a special movie theater room in the house, but I don't want that in my living room. I was going to say something about the electric recliners - but I actually kind of liked that (except I don't want wires running through the living room and I don't have floor sockets).

On a funny note, at one of the furniture stores I was helped by none other than Will Ferrell. Well not that Will Ferrell, but it was all I could do not to say something. I'm sure he appreciated that. As we were leaving there was a car with the license plate "MAKULAF" - I wonder if it was his...

Almond milk at Raleigh cafe

Back in the spring I posted about making almond milk lattes at home since no major coffee shops or even local cafes seem to carry almond milk. At least in downtown Raleigh this problem now has a solution: Cafe Benelux at City Market. Yesterday I met a friend for coffee, ordered an iced chai latte, prepared to drink it with regular milk if I had to, and just as I finished paying and looked up at the shelf I saw it: Silk almond milk. I immediately asked that my drink be made with it instead. Back in April I visited Cafe Benelux for the first time with my best twin friends visiting from Berlin. At that time I asked whether they would consider carrying almond milk, but they weren't sure. I guess I'm not the only person who asked. I'm so glad there is a local business offering more than the large chains - in so many ways. At least now I know where to go in downtown Raleigh for cafe beverages made with almond milk. Thanks Cafe Benelux!

Some more yummy summer salads!

Since it's been so hot, I've been making lots of yummy summer salads to keep cool. Some of the recipes are familiar, others made up, others borrowed from online sources.

Here's what I've been up to:

This picture features a medley four of my recent salads: tortellini salad, pesto roasted vegetable quinoa salad, green and bean potato salad and my tuna salad.

The tuna salad has appeared on here before - just click the link above. I found the recipe for a delicious, mayo-free green bean and potato salad on allrecipes.com and made it exactly according to the recipe.

The other two recipes are my own creations.




Tortellini Salad:

2 packages of tortellini - 4 cheese and spinach and 4 cheese
Olive oil
1 small head of broccoli - steam for 2 minutes until bright green
Chopped sun dried tomatoes
Sun dried tomato pesto
Red onion chopped
Grated carrots
Kalamata olives, pitted and chopped
Julienned red pepper
Chopped spring onions
Fresh mozzarella, diced into 1 cm cubes
Grated Parmesan
Freshly ground salt and pepper
Fresh baby spinach leaves

Cook tortellini according to package instructions. Drain and drizzle with a little bit of olive oil. Steam broccoli for 2 minutes until bright green. Add to tortellini in large bowl. Add the rest of the ingredients, mix well and serve over fresh baby spinach leaves (or fold in with the rest of the ingredients). Store in refrigerator and serve cool.

Pesto Roasted Veggie Quinoa Salad

Red and Regular Quinoa - For a larger salad use 2 cups of quinoa (1 c. red/1 c. regular), for a smaller salad, use only 1 cup of quinoa.
Squash, zucchini, cherry tomatoes (heirloom blend), mushrooms, red onion, carrots, garlic, yellow/orange/red bell pepper
Green pesto
Olive oil
Parsley
Kalamata olives, pitted and chopped
Juice of 1 lime

Cook quinoa according to package instructions. Add all chopped veggies to a large bowl. Add a couple splashes of olive oil, stir in a generous amount of green pesto and broil on high for about 15 minutes. Add broiled veggies to the cooked quinoa. Add chopped parsley and olives and the juice of one lime. Store in refrigerator and serve cool.

This last salad is a Moroccan eggplant salad, which turned out to be incredibly delicious. I had so much eggplant in my produce box a couple of weeks ago that I simply had to find something to do with it. Most of the ingredients in this salad are local: squash from my parents' garden, local eggplant, local zucchini local heirloom cherry tomatoes, local red peppers (all from the Produce Box). I altered the recipe a bit to include a few more veggies and substituted sesame seeds for pine nuts since I didn't have any on hand. Original recipe courtesy of myrecipes.com, but I made my own adjustments.

1) Make marinade:

Marinade:
3/4 c. olive oil and red wine vinegar (total - half of each)
1 tablespoon of fresh ginger
1/2 tablespoon of minced garlic (fresh, pressed)
3/4 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground coriander
1/2 tsp. paprika
1/2 tsp. sugar
1/4 tsp. ground cumin (I might have used a tad more)
1/4 tsp. ground pepper (I ground it fresh, so not sure how much I used)
Dash of cayenne pepper or freshly ground red chili flakes (I used ground red chili flakes)

Mix all together.

Ingredients for the eggplant salad:

2 large bell peppers (I used red and purple, but you can use red, orange and/or yellow as well) rinsed, seeded and chopped into chunks
1 zucchini and 1 squash, chopped into chunks
1 large eggplant, chopped into chunks (I used several eggplant varieties, Japanese, white and regular)
1/2 large sweet onion, chopped into chunks
1/2 purple onion, chopped into chunks

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Later: 1/2 c. toasted pine nuts (or substitute with a few dashes of sesame seeds if you don't have pine nuts)
1/4 c. chopped fresh mint leaves

Mix all the veggies together in a bowl and add the marinade. Coat veggies, spread onto baking sheet and broil on high for about 15 minutes.

When the veggies come out of the oven, allow to cool for a bit, then put back in the bowl. Add pine nuts and fresh mint leaves. Add a bit of red wine vinegar and freshly ground salad and pepper to taste, if desired (I didn't and it was fine). Store in refrigerator and serve cool. Can also be served warm if preferred.

This week's Produce Box, 21 July 2011

This week's produce box was packed full of local goodness - peaches, tomatoes, corn, peppers, cabbage and 2 kinds of melons (sprite and Korean). For an extra $10 I got 4 extra quarts of peaches and have already shared some with my parents and plan to make some peach salsa and other goodies with the rest.

This week's Produce Box, 14 July 2011

Sorry for skipping a couple of weeks - I actually did skip on getting a box 2 weeks ago and last week I just got a fruit box. This week's box was filled with all kinds of goodies and I already have lots of ideas of what to do with them. I have a picnic date Saturday night so I'm thinking I can put a lot of these items to good use! Potential menu items: corn salad, eggplant and bell pepper salad, a veggie pasta salad, peach (blueberry) pie... So many choices!

This week's produce box, 23 June 2011

I ordered the organic box for this week which contained broccoli, leeks, green beans, 5 ears of corn, a honeydew melon and blueberries. Things have been so busy lately that I haven't had time to cook as much as I like. To help me clear out my fridge a bit, I invited my family over last night for dinner. On the menu: broccoli salad, cabbage salad, ratatouille with brown rice, corn on the cob and a blueberry, peach and cherry cobbler. To be hones, the cobbler would have been better as a crisp as the gluten-free version ended up being rather gooey and not terribly flavorful. It was edible though. I think I'll stick to crisps from now on. Everything else turned out quite nicely and I now have some leftovers and more space in my tiny Euro fridge.