Batter Licker

Back when I was a teeny bopper, I lived in a town so small that I actually looked forward to going to Fresno for a few weeks each summer to visit my aunt and uncle. You see, besides acting as the home of my fabulously fun aunt, Fresno had Ross, Marshalls, and Safeway, while Atascadero had only K-Mart and Food-For-Less.

While visiting, my aunt would take me on bargain-shopping sprees at Marshalls and put me to work at my uncle’s doctor’s office. And every day around 11:30 a.m., it was time to order lunch from the deli around the corner. I could have any sandwich I wanted. It was incredible. It was decadent … to a twelve year-old whose limited world experience told her that eating a sandwich not prepared at home but rather prepared professionally at a deli was just plain fancy.

But I always chose an egg salad sandwich. Something about that deli’s egg salad was truly transcendent compared to a ho-hum turkey sandwich, and I wasn’t yet adventurous enough to appreciate an Italian sandwich. So, being a loyal gal (and a big fan of mushy foods), I stuck with the reliable egg salad.

While I still enjoy a good egg salad, it hasn’t been the same for me since discovering how much mayonnaise goes into it. And frankly, after about two bites, the standard egg-mayo mash-up is rather bland for my ever-so-slightly more refined adult taste.
Continue reading healthy mexican-style egg salad

I can’t decide who I pity more: people with nut allergies or those with lactose intolerance. Ice cream or peanut butter? Cheese or salted cashews?

On the one hand, ice cream heals bad days. However, peanut butter on a spoon dipped in raspberry jam (repeat x 10 while studying for the bar exam, when it’s depressingly foggy during July, when it’s too hot to make anything during August, or just because it’s one of those days) is one of my favorite mid-afternoon snacks.

Thankfully, I fall into neither category, although my seasonal allergies more than make up for my lack of food allergies. (It’s not uncommon for close friends to joke that I’m allergic to the outdoors, but I love golfing, hiking, and walking. I might as well be a bee who’s allergic to pollen and honey.)

I stumbled upon the idea of making my own peanut butter when I ran out of the pre-made store-bought stuff. My strong need to instantly gratify my PB urge led me to stare at a bag of roasted, unsalted peanuts for a few minutes, hoping that my mind would churn them into a butter-like texture.

Not having any luck mastering that skill, I sulked back to the couch. A few minutes later, I returned to the kitchen, stared at peanuts, and sulked back to the couch again. Finally, the elevator dinged and a brilliant idea arrived: pour peanuts in food processor, add salty and sweet flavors, and blend the hell out of them.

The end result was a smidgen coarser than store-bought natural PB but even more delicious, thanks to the honey, and perfectly salted to my taste. In fact, it didn’t even need to be dipped in raspberry jam. But you know what? I did that a few times anyway. Sometimes I just can’t help being devilish.

Peanut Butter

You can buy pre-toasted peanuts or toast raw Spanish peanuts yourself in a 350F oven for 20 to 30 minutes. This recipe is fairly versatile when it comes to sweetness, so you can add more honey to make it more dessert-like or leave it out altogether. Also, I have a sneaking suspicion this would work equally well with almonds if you’d prefer to make almond butter.

1/2 c. peanuts, unsalted and roasted
2 Tbsp. honey
2 tsp. salt
1 Tbsp. olive oil or peanut oil

In a food processor, chop peanuts until very fine.

Add honey, salt and oil, and blend for 3 to 5 minutes (maybe less or more time, depending on your food processor; if your food processor is old and clunky like mine, you might want to give it a breather every minute and a half so it doesn’t overheat) until mixture sticks together in a ball and develops a texture similar to natural peanut butter (texture will be more coarse than Jif, Skippy, and other corn syrup-filled PB impostors). Taste, and if desired, add more salt or honey.

Scrape some PB out with a spoon, dip into raspberry jam, and enjoy PB&J on a spoon!

Store remaining PB in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 2 months.

After more than seven years together, I have discovered that Jay has one truly deep-seated flaw: he hates tomatoes. I, on the other hand, think that big, beautifully colorful, late summer tomatoes are just about the best food that all seasons of fruits and veggies have to offer.

Luckily for me and for our relationship, he took a trip to Boston earlier this summer, which finally gave me the opportunity to make this gorgeous full-sized French tomato and goat cheese tart.

Truth be told, I had been lusting after this particularly simple tart ever since David Lebovitz first shared the recipe back in May. But the tomatoes in San Francisco weren’t quite at their peak yet, and I soon found myself buried in outlines and practice exams covering the 17 subjects that are “fair game” on the California bar exam.

Nevertheless, once Jay took off for Boston, I splurged on some particularly red and fragrant tomatoes and knew it was tart time.

But first, I snacked. The tomatoes were too tempting.
Continue reading tomato and goat cheese tart

Whenever I go out to an Italian restaurant, I avoid pasta like the plague. And it’s not a no-carbs diet thing; it’s an I-shouldn’t-order-restaurant-food-that-I-can-make-at-home thing.

However, I sometimes permit an exception where the pasta is homemade and there is something intriguing or unique about the ingredients or sauce. Those are the only things that make me feel justified slightly better about paying $15 to $25 for a dish that would only cost $5 for me to make at home.

But now that I’ve learned how easy and cheap it is to make your own pasta, I’m not sure I can order pasta at a restaurant ever again.

Continue reading basil-flecked pasta

Healthy crunchy salty snacks: always an oxymoron, at least until these little protein-packed balls of crunch rolled onto my baking sheet and crisped up in my oven. Would you ever have thought that tossing a can of garbanzo beans onto a baking sheet would create an addictive Corn Nut-like snack? I wouldn’t have, so thank you Anna for enlightening me.

Oven-crisped chickpeas Words of encouragement received from family and friends were what kept me going during the last few weeks before the California bar exam. But those same words did not keep me awake while studying.

Crispy chickpeas, on the other hand, did their best to wake me up with a satisfying yet guilt-free crunch every time I was on the brink of nodding off. And on all three exam days, crispy chickpeas greeted me with a smile at the lunch break, promised to discuss anything but the content of the morning’s exam, and provided an energizing protein snack that kept me awake, focused, and full but food coma-free during the afternoon portion of the exam.

As you can probably tell, I’ve become a bit obsessed. But there’s no reason to be ashamed about this snack obsession.
Continue reading oven-crisped chickpeas