Maifest

Last weekend, we invited over some friends and celebrated the coming summer!  We went shopping at Morant's, the local German butcher and picked up some fresh Nürnberger bratwurst and weisswurst for the grill:

It looks like a lot of meat, but only 3 bratwurst were left!

And then we prepared a pitcher of Maibowle:  sparkling wine, white wine, fresh fruit and herbs.  Sort of the German answer to Sangria:



Earlier in the week, I prepared two ice creams:  a chocolate fudge pop-kinda ice cream and an herbed ice milk (made with herbs from the garden:  basil, lemon verbena, lemon balm, tarragon, mint, and thyme).  And I prepared a French potato salad (no German this time--Ginger is vegetarian).

That was pretty much the extent of our preparation--other than de-husking some corn and preparing green beans.  Otherwise, all we needed were our friends!

L-R:  Hellen, Derek, Ross, Amber, Gropius, and Ginger

While the adults enjoyed munchies with our pre-dinner Maibowle, Lulu and Stella (Ross and Amber's little girl) enjoyed playing "hotel" in our bedroom:

I can't believe how tolerant Dido was of the whole thing--she's sitting on my pillow

And then we settled down to the task of eating:

Grilled turnips, sausage, black bean salad, green beans, potato salad, and sauerkraut

I had hoped that we could enjoy the weather and sit outside on the patio, but it was unseasonably hot last weekend, so we ended up sitting indoors and admiring the sunshine from a safe distance....

Lemon Poppyseed Scones

Candied Lemon Peel

Gropius made candied lemon peel with a gi-normous lemon we bought at the local Co-op last weekend. I'm not kidding--that sucker weighed a POUND! Seriously!

So, he trimmed all the peel off of it, saved the insides for making cocktails, and candied the rest:

bubbling away in corn syrup and sugar-water

this was my contribution--rolling them in sugar and setting them out to dry

can't wait to make something delicious with these babies!!

Cherry-glazed Pork

Gropius made the most delicious cherry-glazed pork this past weekend and the results were too delicious not to share. It was from a Food&Wine issue earlier this winter. We picked up the "black pork" from the Food Co-op downtown. I think it's Kurobuta pork?? We cooked it in the pressure cooker with fabulous results:



While the pork was cooking, we also made a quick vegetable side dish from José Andrés that combined green beans, cauliflower, and fingerling potatoes seasoned with garlic and Spanish pimentón pepper in olive oil. Best of all, the potatoes, cauliflower, and green beans all cooked together in the same pot--I love it when a recipe creates a minimum of dirty dishes!



We combined it all together (with some braised onions and leeks) to enjoy with a nice red wine from a local wine producer:



Very delicious!

Nutrition(ist).

So, in my on-going efforts to get healthier this spring, I met with a nutritionist that works with my new primary care physician.  I catalogued my eating, sleeping, and exercise habits for the previous week and in combination with blood work and some rudimentary BMI testing (I say rudimentary b/c the water test is the gold standard), we came up with an approach to my diet that I plan to start implementing this evening.

My daily food plan includes:

4-5 servings Protein

1 serving Grain

1 serving Dairy

1-2 servings Legumes

4-6 servings Green Vegetables 

(minimum threshold--no limit on these)

1 serving Starchy Vegetables

4 servings Fats & Oils

1-2 servings Nuts and Seeds

2 servings Fruit

80oz Fluids, mostly water

And the green "leafy" vegetables that I can gorge on include:

artichoke

asparagus

bamboo shoots

bean sprouts

bell (or other) pepper

broccoli, broccoflower

brussels sprouts

cabbage (all varieties)

cauliflower

celery

cucumber

edible pod peas (sugar peas, snap peas)

eggplant

green beans

greens 

(bok choy, escarole, swiss chard, kale, spinach)

jicama

kohlrabi

leeks

lettuce/mixed greens

mushrooms (all varieties)

okra

onion

radish

salsa (no added sugar)

scallion

sea vegetables

snow peas

sprouts (all varieties)

spaghetti squash

summer squash

tomato

turnip

water chestnuts

There are some foods that even if I can eat my weight in them, it just ain't happenin'.  Eggplant is definitely one of those.  YUCK!

Interestingly, cheese is considered a protein (and two string cheeses is considered a serving--yay!), but yogurt can be either protein OR dairy.  Yogurt does need to be unsweetened and plain, regular or Greek style.  She hadn't heard of the icelandic yogurt I've been eating, but after I described it to her, she said it was a good one--provided I switch from vanilla to plain.  She also recommended chia seeds as an alternative to ground flaxseeds or wheat germ for yogurt toppings and said that honey or stevia on top was better than the sugars I couldn't control in the non-plain stuff.

I think the hardest thing for me will be limiting my grains and starchy vegetables:

bulgur

spelt

wheatberries

kamut

oat groats

barley

amaranth

millet

oats

rice

quinoa

pasta

tortillas

beets

carrots

parsnips

winter squash

potatoes

rutabaga

yams/sweet potatoes

Apparently, my weakness is sweets and alcohol--go figure!  So, I'm going to work on reducing the wine consumption to 2-3x per week and limiting the sweets which I had been using as a snack between meals (the 100 calorie packs of chocolate-covered pretzels, etc).  Damn.

ETA:  My "homework" is to find a 5K race in May that I can use as my goal for the exercise/fitness part of the weight loss.  So, if you know of any 5K races in Sacramento in early/mid May, let me know!

Rösti

We recently discovered a new rösti recipe that's baked in the oven (rather than fried on the stovetop) and it was delicious AND easy. Can't beat that with a stick, can you?

I'm especially happy that it worked out because I can't wait to experiment with different additions to the basic recipe--diced peppers, cheese, etc.

Best of all, it also allowed Lulu to help us with grating the parboiled potatoes and made her feel like she contributed toward dinner. I have an old tin, French grater that works by turning a handle on the top that spins the potato around on top of the grating surface. Perfect for little, helping hands!

Food Photos.

An old friend from grad school touched base with us last week and mentioned how much he enjoyed the food photos on the blog which made me realize that I hadn't posted many food photos lately. To be honest, with all that's gone on in the past week, we've been eating a LOT of pizza because it's easy, quick, and guaranteed to be tasty.

But, we have cooked other meals, too. We made a tasty dinner of Puerto Rican Pork and Beans with Orange-Scented Yellow Rice from Jacques Pepin's healthy cooking cook book. We were initially worried that the annatto seeds in the rice might be problematic, but the pressure cooker softened them right up and they were indistinguishable from the rice itself.





And tonight, we made root vegetable ribbons from one of my new favorite food websites, Food52. I chose turnips, rutabaga, parsnips, and carrots because they were available (unlike salsify!). Combined with paprika pork chops and asparagus, dinner was delicious!  Gropius kept remarking about how the maple syrup made them taste like apples.



This one's for you, Trent!