Fabiola and Lavender

My mother lives somewhere I like to call heaven. Every time I visit Mexico I make sure to have some days to dedicate to her. A couple of hours outside of Mexico City, she found a perfect haven. Abundant sunny skies, greener here, visiting blue birds, hopping bunnies, daring squirrels and the most beautiful variety of flowers are thrown in together to create the beautiful place my mom calls home.

Growing on the back terrace, she has countless herbs and flowers. The way she cares for them reminds me of a fairy, she just naturally knows when they need water, sun, more soil, or just some comforting words. Surrounding the house on one side, there lives a fragrant row of lavender. It sways with the wind and feeds the bees daily, making itself very at home. It gives off that magnificent scent that brings back those memories. A grandmother’s vanity , the anticipated beginning of spring, or a piece of Provence you brought back in your suitcase a long time ago.

On my latest trip I was, as usual, prompt to cook something to share with friends.

Something sweet was a must.

Something fresh was obvious.

Something colorful for fun.

Something fragrant for the love of it.

Lemon Lavender Meringue Pie it is.

I used Alton Brown’s lemon meringue pie, obviously. But created the lavender meringue by easily grinding the sugar for the meringue with lavender, it was subtle and fragrant, perfect for the spring day we enjoyed with friends.

*cooking with lavender is extremely easy. Just pick some beautiful flowered lavender stems and pluck out the “seed looking” part of it. Not the petals or the stem, but whatever that part is called from it. Use them fresh or let them dry and Voila! Make scones, syrup, pancakes, ice cream, anything that could benefit from a fragrant and fresh taste. 

Ingredients
4 egg yolks (reserve whites for meringue)
1/3 cup cornstarch
1 1/2 cups water
1 1/3 cups sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup lemon juice
1 tablespoon finely grated lemon zest
1 (9-inch) pre-baked pie shell

About 2 Tablespoons fresh lavender or about 1/2 teaspoon dry lavender.                                                    3 Tablespoons sugar                                                                                                                             One pinch cream of tartar

Directions

Meringue- Take 3 tablespoons of sugar and the lavender and place them in a coffee grinder. Pulse several times until the lavender has been cut into small pieces and is mixed in the with sugar. Set aside. In a medium-sized bowl, beat together the egg whites and cream of tartar until they become foamy. Beat in the lavender sugar, one tablespoon at a time. Continue to beat the egg whites until they become shiny and stiff and hold peaks.

make some art with your meringue! Do not over beat though! 

Pie-

Adjust the oven rack to the middle position. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Whisk egg yolks in medium size mixing bowl and set aside.

In a medium saucepan, combine cornstarch, water, sugar, and salt. Whisk to combine. Turn heat on medium and, stirring frequently, bring mixture to a boil. Boil for 1 minute. Remove from heat and gradually, 1 whisk-full at a time, add hot mixture to egg yolks and stir until you have added at least half of the mixture.

Return egg mixture to saucepan, turn heat down to low and cook, stirring constantly, for 1 more minute. Remove from heat and gently stir in butter, lemon juice, and zest until well combined. Pour mixture into pie shell and top with meringue while filling is still hot. Make sure meringue completely covers filling and that it goes right up to the edge of the crust. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until meringue is golden. Remove from oven and cool on a wire rack. Make sure pie is cooled completely before slicing.

The pie turned out sweet, fresh, colorful and fragrant, and will always remind me of my mother. I have realized that the reason I believe she resides in a heavenly place is only because she is there. And I will always think of her as my personal heaven, waiting for me with open arms and just the right amount of lavender fragrance.

My mother enjoying the pie.

The House of The Spirits

        

           Spirits, ghosts, magic, and paranormal activities. In this world we are currently living in, full of long hours of work, dreaded homework, and inconvenient traffic, it seems unlikely any of them exist. But once you step into the world that Isabel Allende created, you believe anything she tells you; stunning girls with mermaid scales and green hair, simple toddlers with clairvoyant talents, antique houses that provide labyrinths for ghosts and lovers to dwell in, ancient cures for ant infestations or broken bones, and the most incredible power of all, true love.

           I instantly fell in love with the characters. Esteban Trueba, the main character, is very complex. A passionate young man with a head full of dreams; when his first love dies he becomes what I would define as an arrogant bastard. But his actions throughout the story make him so complex that it feels complete and realistic. It got to a point where I would know what his reaction would be to an event and actually rationalize with this stubborn, old fashioned man. He manages to bring realism to a story where the paranormal is vital.

The Trueba girls delighted in imagining unbelievable animals. 

          The women in this book represent important virtues that women around the world can relate to and attempt to keep in our lives. Rosa is obviously beauty, Clara is love, Blanca is perseverance and Alba is bravery. Their stories will show you what happens when these vital virtues are faced by an angry world that seems dedicated to bring them down.

          The house of the spirits addresses some groundbreaking historical issues from Chile. Classism was an issue in those times, and the book addresses the many aspects it involved; the viewpoint from the rich and the poor, which ended in a revolution and dictatorship. I like this quote Clara, the mother, tells her daughter Blanca when donating goods to the poor.

“This is to assuage our conscience, darling" she would explain to Blanca. "But it doesn't help the poor. They don't need chartiy; they need justice.” 

          The movie made in 1993 with Meryl Streep, Winona Ryder, and Antonio Banderas, is a fait attempt to capture the magical beauty of this family, but it obviously falls short to the enchantment the book provided. The book managed to effortlessly transport me to every place and battle the valiant members of theTrueba family fought for their individual reasons,  justice, revenge, tradition, or love.

Adventures with Hobbits

"We are plain quiet folk and have no use for adventures.

 Nasty disturbing uncomfortable things! 

Make you late for dinner!"

- J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit, Ch. 1

I proudly am a Lord of the Rings fan. To what extent? No, I am not an expert in elvish , but I own the extended/special feature trilogy and watch it at least twice a year, I am in eternal love with Legolas and I think stale toast should be called lembas bread.

Once I knew the premiere of “The Hobbit” would be in 2012 I made sure I read the book before watching the movie. I was not able to do this with LOTR, and I must confess its magic really decreases if you already know Boromir will die. I prolonged reading this book until I left on a trip to Mexico that would approximately take 9 hours from house to house, because I believe that the only way to enjoy traveling by yourself is with a good book.      

The only knowledge I had of Bilbo’s story was that which Xbox showed me during a post-operation vacation I had to unfortunately take. My mom’s coworker was nice enough to lend me his Xbox with a couple of games and “The Hobbit” instantly won me over. I spent two weeks as Bilbo; gathering, jumping, running and fighting my way through middle earth. I am a slow player and never knew what happened after the enchanted forest with the spiders. I might ask for an Xbox for my birthday.

I fell in love with this little guy. 

I found “The Hobbit” to be written in a much more accessible language than LOTR, less descriptive and focused on the action of the story. The adventure Bilbo takes on is magnificent, funny, exciting, scary and touching. I enjoyed every page, song, character and meal Bilbo encountered. The story has all the magic needed to truly wish dragons, elves, goblins and maybe even giant spiders were part of our world.

The movie of “The Hobbit” was a very anticipated event; and I made my boyfriend come with me to the midnight premiere, even though we both knew he would fall asleep. Eleven dollar nap for him. I already knew that the book would be better; and that the dwarves I imagined reading where not the miniature sexy bearded models I saw (no complaints there). Unfortunately, The Hobbit feels as a second LOTR; another trilogy without enough backbone. The special effects are out of this world (get it? They are in Middle earth? Ha); the goblin king was especially depictive and nightmare worthy.

In conclusion, I do encourage you to read The Hobbit. I have already added it to the future night time reading library for my kids, because I know The Hobbit will show them what bravery and friendship are all about (and it will probably take them the same amount of time to read the book and watch the trilogy).

PS- For a further opinion on the movie please watch this sketch from SNL. I am particularly looking forward for movie 10. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3zHgHaoVko

Anything you can juice I can juice better.

My dad used to have a juicer, it was enormous and we probably used it for about three months and then went back to Jumex. I do remember me and my sisters were really amazed of how easily juices were made and delighted on our concoctions. It wasn’t until now, about 13 years later that I rediscovered the power of the juicer.

Why?

1) My laziness got to a point where my priorities were shaken. I wanted to do stuff but my body and brain would convince me day after day to take another little nap. My mother advised me to take more vitamins, so I figured I would, I would drink these vitamins through juice.

2) I am always trying to down as many fruits and vegetables as possible, and in a household where I am the only vegetable eater, it is hard to reach that 5 a day goal sometimes. With juices, you can easily double, if not triple, your intake. You will be amazed at how much good stuff goes in your body.

3) Sadly, I have come to acknowledge the fact that I will always be on a diet. I don’t always follow it, but I try to stick to eating less and eating better. Weight loss wasn’t my real goal, but would definitely be a big plus.

So, I decided to incorporate juicing into my life! I found my beautiful Jack LaLane power juicer online for 30 bucks (its owner swore to have lost 60 pounds thanks to it, and was now buying a ridiculously expensive one). 

I researched thousands of recipes and came to the fact that f*** recipes, in juicing you just juice what you have and what you want. There are some very important rules though, like:

-Never try to juice a banana. (I probably would’ve tried just to see what would happen)

-Never add liquids to it. (I actually did this once, nothing happened but apparently its really bad)

-The smaller you cut your ingredients, the more juice you will get.

-Do not force your food through, you will get more juice if you just put the stopper and let gravity do its work.

-Put your squishy items first, then your hard ones.

-Do NOT juice garlic. (more about this later)

-Drink your juice fast! Its nutritional power will decrease by the seconds and it tends to settle and look pretty unattractive.

-The taste of the juice may be too much for you at first, so try adding water. This should also be applied to children and toddlers, whose stomachs may not be able to manage a powerful juice.

The first weeks with my juicer I bought pounds upon pounds of produce, I tried to juice everything I could and resulted with mostly good recipes, and some very bad. Garlic, its supposed to do wonders to your digestive system but it tastes like an Italian ogre’s piss once it is juiced.

I never went on a full on juice diet. I gave it a try one day and was ok with it, but I do love my solid food too much. I try and incorporate a juice a day, usually breakfast or after a workout, whenever I feel like washing dishes for a bit. This is the only negative thing I could find, the need to wash your juicer ASAP is a great one. If you don’t, it gets rusty, stained and you will be washing that thing for hours later.

I got very positive results, more energy, better skin, feeling thinner (I never weigh myself), and the best part was that I got my boyfriend to eat a lot better. He would refuse drinking them with veggies, saying they overpowered, but I make plenty of fruit concoctions that make his fruit intake a real one.

Here are some of my favorite juices:

Green Hulk- this is probably the greenest, healthiest juice. Celery is good for asthma, cucumber for PMS, kale for detox and ginger for digestive health. (I incorporate ginger to all my juices because I love its spicy flavor and it helps my stomach be a champ)

-about half a cucumber

-1 green apple (seeds and all, its ok!)

-4 kale leaves (destemmed)

-2 stalks celery

-half a lemon

-an inch of ginger  (or less if you cant handle spicy)

Basic- these ingredients are probably going to be found in your fridge and will make a pretty sweet juice that most will manage. Carrots help create a good tan and keep your eyes young.

-2 apples

-3 celery stalks

-3 carrots

- piece of ginger

Fruity fruit- this is one of the sweetest juices. It makes a beautifully colored juice. Grapes are anti oxidants, apricots keep a healthy skin, pineapples are great for your oral health and plums aid the digestive system.

-a dozen grapes

-3 apricots

-2 slices of pineapple

-1 plum

Another great juice benefit is the pulp that remains. Depending on your juicer, you will be left with either a moist or dry pulp; dry pulp is pretty much only good for compost, but moist pulp opens possibilities of cooking! Carrot pulp is perfect for carrot cake, cucumber for tzaziki and kale to mix in your salad.

So make room in your kitchen cabinets, or bust out the rusty juicer and juice yourself a healthier life.  Just remember to keep the garlic in your garlic bread. 

STSS movement. Save the Snails and Shoes Movement

You know what sucks more than walking home at night and stepping on a snail? Wearing flip flops and stepping on two.

A beautiful specimen.

My residence is a beautiful place. Vintage brick charm, secret chairs and table courtyard and fragrant star jasmine growing around our windows. This seclusion plus Washington humidity is just what snails want for their summer fun.

 The snail population was at such high rate this year that I had to take action: STSS. Save the Snails and your Shoes is the answer for this World Problem We are a very young movement dedicated to save the snails from their squishy death, but mostly really just save your shoes. 


STSS uses creativity and color as the key solution, this is accomplished in the way of one dollar neon nail polish. 














A generous two coating of the snail's shell is required for maximum color vibrancy.

Using different colors and patters would be a great way to achieve art on your walls. Literally.

Did we save the snails? I think so! I haven't stepped on one since. I really haven't seen them in a while either though.

Do we know if this is toxic? No comment.

Did we save the shoes? One hundred percent. No shoe mess reported by me or visitors in a month.

What is in store for STSS in the future? We are slowly spreading our philosophy, snail slow you might say.

How can I join? Contact me (Chairman of STSS) by e-mail! STSS would be delighted have your support.

STSS is currently looking for a Vice-President, Treasurer and donators of neon nail polish.

"Saving snail by snail, shoe by shoe, the neon way".

Whynot Wino?

During this past spring quarter I decided to deprive myself of my leisurely pace of life and go back to stressful college life to take one class: Wine Appreciation

I don’t know if anyone would actually consider school, classes in which 4-5 different wines were “appreciated” and homework consisted of trying wine. Now don’t get me wrong I didn’t pay tuition just to get drunk in class. My teacher is a professional enologist that has been in the wine business for over 30 years (her website, Winedirt.com offers tours and tastings classes), and she managed to introduce into my body more wine and knowledge than I thought possible.

Bethany Vineyards, WA

I am embarrassed to write that before this class it made perfect sense to me that red wine came from purple grapes and white from green ones. Well it’s a lot more interesting than that; what modifies the color of wine from lightest to darkest (white, rose and red) is the length of time that the tannins in the skins are left in the first product after  the grapes are crushed and de-stemmed. Tannins are what make red wine feel drier in your mouth; tea also contains tannins so think of how over steeped tea tastes like. Some people are into it and some are not.

A man not old, but mellow, like good wine, 
Stephen Phillips (1845-1915)
Ulysses, III. Ii

“Boozy expensive,” “juicy juice cheap,” and “this will be fine in lemonade” were my three wine categories in the past; henceforth, learning to taste and judge a wine was very intimidating at first. To grade a wine, one must consider: appearance, color, aroma and bouquet, volatile acidity, total acidity, sweetness, body, flavor, bitterness, astringency and overall quality. It was especially nerve wrecking for me to voice opinions on smell or taste; what if no one else smells this in here? But it really comes down to just going with your instincts. Most times someone else was smelling or tasting the same thing but couldn’t find the word; or maybe it’s just psychological and you are influencing their opinion. In the end there are no wrong answers, because everyone has a different palate and memory triggers different opinions. I recently read a book where one of the characters does an interesting exercise when he tries wine; he takes a sip or two, closes his eyes and tries to think of himself somewhere. A Pinot Noir might take you to a luscious, earthy forest; or a Riesling to a humid, mineraly cave.  For me, a Cabernet takes me to a sunny, salty beach. This is probably because of a vivid memory of a long day of swimming in the sea that ended with dinner and Cabernet shared to the young ones as a treat.

The history of wine is a very interesting and informative one. It really teaches you about the geographical, technological, political and overall, cultural situations of wine producing countries; amazing you with the extent that people go through to produce unique and delicious wines.  I didn’t know that vineyards in Germany are 70% slopes, and that it is usually elderly people picking the grapes BY HAND! Or that since Portugal has a majority of granite land, to be able to plant a vineyard one must blast it with dynamite first. The most impressive fact that stuck to my mind is the Phylloxera outburst in the 1860’s, when European winemakers exported American vines to their native land, and because of a pest in these roots ultimately destroyed Europe’s wine industry! Now I understand why Europeans hate Americans! They discovered that the pest doesn’t attack American root stocks, so to this date most vineyards in the world have truly American roots. How about that?

As a cook, one of the main reasons I took this course was to be able to pair my food with wine, and feel good about it. There are some basic rules, but once again your instincts are your best bet. When you know what the wine tastes and smells like it is easier to think of something that will go with it. Experimenting brought me these awesome pairings like: pot roast with French Syrah, cucumber salad with Italian Moscato, and waffles with Argentinean Chenin Blanc; unfortunately I got some not good at all: American Riesling with black bean soup. Either way, with cooking and drinking you always win because you get to eat and you get to drink, the order doesn’t really matter.

Wino Forever
Johnny Depp
(The tattoo once read 'Winona Forever'!)

Wine is a powerful thing. Wine has been around for more than 8,000 years ago. Winemakers dedicate their whole lives to it, investing all their money and time to grow the ingredients and precisely brew this magic potion.  Enologists recognize the force of wine and make it their personal mission to evaluate and share their statements to the world. There are millions of books, magazines and shows dedicated to find that special blend or vintage. All of this time and work justify themselves when a bottle of wine is shared. It creates an invisible bond throughout the evening that remains in our bodies and memories for years to come; it becomes a conversation in the future that starts with “Remember that night we drank that special wine…”

Guessing the grape won Rosie the bottle! 

Let us have wine and women, mirth and laughter,
Sermons and soda-water the day after.
Lord Byron
Don Juan

My favorite finds?

-Maryhill  Gewurztraminer  Columbia Valley  2008  $10 (lychees and honeysuckle with perfect acidity)

-Doctor L  Reisling  Mosel Region  2010  $12 (pear, apricot and orange with a creamy feel)

-Anthropology  Shiraz  Australia 2009  $14  (smoke and spice with jammy, cocoa tannins)

-Murphy-Goode  Merlot  California 2009  $12 (berries, currants and mint with a good body)

Brunch. A deal you cannot refuse.

It’s the weekend, so you get to wake up later than usual and the Northwest clouds are magically blown away to reveal a sun you were assuming didn’t exist in this heartbreak town.

“Let’s do something special today!” says EVERYONE. Why don’t you cross the bridge to Portland and finally try that restaurant you’ve been hearing about everywhere for brunch. GREAT IDEA. 

To be fashionable nowadays we must 'brunch'. Mr. Guy Beringer, in Hunter's Weekly.

 Brunch is usually served in the late morning replacing both BReakfast and lUNCH, so you get to skip that bowl of bran cereal with tea and get enough calories for two meals. Brioche French toast with maple bacon? Smoked Salmon Eggs Benedict? Fried Chicken and Waffles with Caramel Butter? Uh yeah, Ill sacrifice my digestive regularity for that. AND you get to drink numerous mimosas sans the guilt. It’s a sweet day ahead.

4 HOURS LATER…

You are overstuffed and sleepy with all the carbs needed for a week.

You are left with no money. (Each piece of bacon was how much?)

You realize its already six o clock and you can say goodbye to any plans of exercising or even moving for the rest of the day.

You are angry as hell. But you couldn’t take it out on the restaurant employees, because hey it’s not their fault.

You can’t believe you fell for this crap.

WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED?

You recognized the restaurant thanks to the crowd of people standing outside. You get your name down on the list and they say it will be about an hour. Well we are already in Portland, an hour is not that much. You walked around hungrily for a while, spending even more money on all the adorable shops downtown. An hour has gone; the hostess says you are next on the list. Your tummy is growling. Names get called, a two top, a five top, a ten top; excuse me Ms. Hostess I thought we were next. “You are, they have been waiting three hours though”. Oh that’s fine, cause you have only been waiting two and a half, your head is feeling a little light. If you could think straight, you would leave. Finally you get seated and this gets even worse; you get the communal table. Do I look like a friendly person? Do you really think I want to have strangers sit across from me and stare at my food and me, trying to eat it? Talking to your party requires shouting and after hearing your neighbor’s conversation you will be glad Betty finally had a divorce. You choose anything on the menu, JUST BRING ME FOOD. Oh yes the food is delicious; sweet and salty, crispy and tender and fresh from the pan. But, you are done in about ten minutes. And now you can’t wait to leave.

I have been studying Portlanders for a while now, and though they’re a highly evolved compassionate kind, I have yet to find the reason for this brunch ritual to be considered satisfactory. Is it really worth it to spend most of your time on your very precious days off waiting for waffles? A more pleasant meal can be enjoyed for dinner around the same price in a lot less time.

Surprisingly, I found out that Bobby Flay and I share this brunch-hatred, although the reasons are different. This is what he stated in The New York Times:

[Chefs] hate cooking it and they hate thinking about it. Saturday night tends to be the busiest of the week, and they've probably gone out to have a few drinks afterward. Suddenly it's Sunday morning and you have to come in and cook eggs.

Oh Bobby, I love that angry face of yours.

For future mornings that require a “special” menu, I will resort to Alton Brown and his delicious granola. You can find his original recipe online, but I make a different variety every month by altering some ingredients. It takes two hours to make and you can stay in the comfort of your home.

Almond, Cherry and Ginger Granola

-3 cups rolled quick oats.

-1 cup slivered raw almonds.

-1/4 cup whole flaxseeds.

-1/4 cup + 2 T brown sugar.

-1/4 cup vegetable oil.

Raw almonds. Crystallized Ginger, Dried Cherries.

-1/4 cup maple syrup.

-1 T salt

-1/2 cup chopped dried cherries.

-1/4 cup homemade chopped crystallized ginger.Which you can actually make! Another episode folks. 

1) Pre heat oven to 250 degrees F. Mix oats, almonds, flaxseed and sugar in big bowl.

2) In smaller bowl or measuring cup, mix oil, syrup and salt.

3) Toss both mixes together and spread over two baking sheets evenly.  

4) Bake for about an hour and fifty minutes stirring every fifteen minutes for even color.

5) When golden brown, let cool on rack and mix in dried cherries and ginger.

6) Will keep in sealed container for over three months, but I bet it won’t last that long.

Infinite possibilities of eating your granola; add more fresh fruit, yogurt, almond milk, over ice cream, inside a waffle or a pancake, or in a baggie for munching while you are waiting in line to go BRUNCHING. 

With Greek yogurt and fresh pear.