Steamed and roasted cauliflower

small tomato

1/2 avocado

a few pieces of sautéed chicken breast with cumin and paprika

1/2 cup brown rice pasta

salt

1/2 teaspoon oil

Pure flavors.

After 14 days of Detox I find that what I miss the most is…. extra virgin olive oil. (Even more than coffee.)

From roasting, sautéing and grilling, I switched to steaming and poaching. I actually found that steamed fish gets much tender and stays moist and delicate when steamed compared to the other cooking methods.

I look at recipes in my cookbooks and have to eliminate a lot of the ingredients which I am not allowed to use until the 21 days are over including vinegars and oils.

It is challenging to detox and I miss dough, and dairy, and oils. Not so much meat (although there’s no telling what I’d do if someone put a fragrant 4 oz. grass-fed steak under my noise).

And it’s a good thing that I love lemon! It really helps with flavor. I also use red onion, garlic, and herbs to add flavor. But a little bit of evoo is still missing to round it all.

So what did I make?

In this bowl, I had arugula, roasted yam, fresh mushrooms, roasted butternut squash, brown rice, cilantro.

In this bowl, I had tomato, cucumber, bell pepper, brown rice, lentils, red onion, garlic, lemon juice, avocado.

In that bowl I had brown rice, lentils (those 2 were mandatory for the first 10 days), parsley, red onion, lightly roasted almonds, red bell pepper, cauliflower, broccoli.

Broccoli and cauliflower are the most challenging vegetables, in my opinion, to make something exciting out of when not using oil, cheese, eggs, and such.

What are the most challenging vegetable for you?

Here I made soup out of the water from steamed beets, leftover broccoli and cauliflower + carrots, yam, sweet potato, onion, and garlic cooked is salter water.

I lost 5-7 pounds which is nice—it feels good; I feel lighter—and with no effort really. I was never hungry in the past 2 weeks.

However, the other issues are still there. The naturopathic physician says “12 days are not enough to resolve a long standing problem that has been suppressed”.

I need to keep my hope that the Detox will help.

One more week to go.

On Saturday we went to a concert. The venue served delicious Asian food, mainly Thai food, I think, and cocktails and… And I had tea.

We usually go to dinner before a concert/show/movie. You know, to extend the date night by an hour or two. Leave the house while the kids are awake, return when they are asleep, skip the nightly bedtime routine.

This time we watched a concert and had tea.

I never wanted to be the lady sitting in front of a glass of water and lettuce salad in a restaurant.

I wanted to be the woman who eats whatever she wants. I managed to pull it off so far.

Surprisingly, I found it relieving, even liberating, that I did not “have to” order food at 9 PM. I was happy with my tea, it was herbal and fragrant and didn’t need sugar.

Sure, I admit it, a glass of wine or a beer would have been nicer than tea. But not being “allowed” to eat the food or drink alcohol set me free to focus on what I felt, not hungry and not particularly needing alcohol or a sweet cocktail.

11 days of the hardest part of the Detox are now behind me. Now I can add fish, some beans, and chicken to the list of foods I’m allowed to eat.

10 more days to go.

I can do it.

I’m sitting here with a cup of tea, herbal, no sugar.

Normally, I’d be sitting here with a cup of coffee: 1 level teaspoon coffee, 1/2 teaspoon sugar, only 1/2 cup boiling water, 1/4 cup 2% organic milk. Coffee is a scientific formula to be followed very, very closely. It’s that important! Are you as crazy as I am about coffee?

I had no coffee in the past 8 days.

I love coffee.

But I’m on a Detox program.

21 days.

Have you ever tired a Detox?

I used to think it’s for plain weird people, health fanatics, or sports fanatics (no, not the kind that sits on the couch and watch it on TV while drinking beers and eating chips). But now I’m doing it.

I have some health issues. Some have been going on for 2 years, some for 1 year. I went to plenty doctors (like 4 different PCPs, 2 allergists, etc etc…) but no one had a clue what’s going on (of course not all doctors will admit it!). And they couldn’t offer something that helped besides antihistamines and steroid creams. (The doctors themselves told me that steroid creams are not so good to use. Hmm. A paradox.) Well, the antihistamines and steroid creams don’t solve anything anyway, they just make it quiet for a short while until they no longer have any effect while the problem still exists.

One thing led to another and I found myself meeting a nutritionist and a naturopathic physician.

I believe in the power of food to affect our physical, mental, and behavioral health since I studied Physiological Psychology about 20 years ago. I believe in the substance-psyche connection, and what is food if not the fuel we put into our bodies?

Is it a logical connection that if you put bad things in your body bad things come out like allergies, rashes, fat, headaches and migraines…?

Also, as a blogger, I’ve seen blogs and met bloggers that had health issues that with a change of diet started feeling better/problems gone. (Like Cannelle et Vanille, Tartelette, Gluten free girl and the Chef, Healthy Recipes and more). This only reinforced the notion that I should investigate further in that direction.

8 days of Detox.

No coffee, no sugar, no bread, no oil, no alcohol, no meat, no potatoes…

Yes more fruits, yes more veggies, yes to nuts, yes to lentils and to an exciting new opportunity to heal and get strong.

I’ve been feeling better, lighter.

I realized yesterday that I am also more calm! Wow.

As a bonus, I lost a few pounds! Wow.

I’m hopeful that the bothering issues will be gone by the end of the Detox—that we’ll have to see but the signs so far are encouraging

Half of the tea finished—I admit, it’s not that exciting to drink tea with no sugar.

Now it’s time to shake, shake, shake… Time to make my daily shake with fresh fruits and some greens. It’s yummy.

And then, it’s a sunny day, I’ll go out for a 20-30 minutes walk-run combo.

And then, I’ll start exploring what my lunch and dinner new daily creations are going to be today.

More to come…

I feel elated. I made this concert happen!

It was so much fun to be present at sound check time—a producer’s prize.

Never in my life had I thought that one day *I* will produce a concert!

But opportunity knocked and I took a chance.

And it was AWESOME. These two—Aya Korem and Adam ben Amitai—are extremely talented.

And super-nice people.

Here’s one of Aya’s songs—one of my favorites:

And here’s one of Adam’s songs—A very popular one (It has been watched over 268,000 times on YouTube):

And here are some matzo balls for you, if you celebrate Passover.

Forgive me for re-using an old recipe, however the photo is fairly brand new… We don’t wait for Passover to make it. My son is crazy about this soup and keeps asking for it every few weeks.

The “secret” recipe is here.

And here’s the dessert I’m going to make for the holiday dinner.

(Again, sorry for “recycling” this old thing) It became a tradition to make a Pavlova for Passover. Here’s the recipe.

Happy Passover and Easter to you all!

N

I’ve been noticing French “things” in my vicinity lately. Pretty, tasty, tempting, and so alluringly French.

It started with the little café at the market followed by Gauguin’s exhibition at the museum.

Then at home, on the couch, on a Friday night, a cute movie with Juliette Binoche (French actress) and Steve Carell. Ah, Juliette, Juliette, you are one of a kind.

I love Steve Carell too. He is not French.

Then, I discovered financiers. I’ve said enough about them.

An urge to bring back to life my rusty French (Which I have studied for 5 years but that was 15 years) emerged and I bought a kit for home study. The 5 CDs kit.

And then, La Tartine Gourmande’s cookbook came out with all that beautiful French-inspired food and heavenly, most gorgeous flatware from Paris in every photo, u-la-la.

And just about now you must be losing patience ‘cause you want to know who won the cookbook, right?

But first, for those who are going to be disappointed, I give you this love song by the wild Iggy Pop. He sings it with his American accent. It’s mesmerizing and it give me goosebumps (Although goose bumps are funnier, don’t you think?)

The winner was chosen by a random kid who was asked to pick a random number from 1 to 33, and the winner is……………… Annie.

Annie, look for an email from me.

Thank you everyone. I’ll try to arrange more giveaway for you in the future. I loved to hear what you’re all eatin’ for dinner

If you read my La Tartine Gourmande cookbook review you know how much I love this book. Well, guess what?

(Are you guessing?)

I asked the publisher, Roost Books if they would send me a copy to give to one lucky reader and they said yes! And they will ship it worldwide. And that reader can be YOU!

If you want the book—and believe me, you want it—all you have to do is write a comment that says “I want it, I really do”, or “Pick me! Pick meeeee!”, or you can tell me what you had for dinner.

If you happen to see this announcement on my Facebook, Twitter, or in an email, you have to go to the blog post to put in your comment so go to this link >>> La Tartine Gourmande cookbook giveaway, yay!

That is all.

A random “winner”—although you are all winners to me –will be announced on………… Tuesday, March 6th, 2012, in the evening.

************* 3/6/21012: comments now closed. ************

“How many cookbooks do you have anyway?” my boy asked me the other day, followed by, “And how many (food) magazines?”

I never counted, but there are 2 full bookcases. “Don’t worry”, I told him. “Son, one day all this will be yours and your sister’s. 50-50”

I bought my first cookbook at 10. The second one when I was a 20-something student. As you can see, it started as a rickle but over the years turned into a flood of books, an uncontrollable urge to grab a pretty cookbook and take it home with me. It especially worsened in the past decade.

I’ll be honest. I don’t love all my cookbooks equally. Some did not make it past the first date. Some were abandoned after I gave them a second chance. Some are waiting patiently to be used. Some books are the kind a person is supposed to have, like the big fat Bon Appetit Desserts cookbook. (It weighs 6.4 pounds!) I baked 2 cakes out of it and they were just, eh, not that exciting. So what am I supposed to do? Tell me, should I give/donate/toss it away? Do you want it?

But some cookbook I really love and get attached to (like these for example—a partial list…). I will keep them forever.

Recently, to control my cookbook-buying habits, I’ve decided to only buy cookbooks written by people I know or have met, and to those that are particularly, irresistibly gorgeous. And so today, dear people, let me introduce to you my newest cookbook—it’s that irresistibly gorgeous!!!

Just by looking at the cover you can see how pretty it is, but don’t judge a book by the cover! It’s even prettier inside. I was so excited about it that I even got my blogging friend from Holland, Simone, to buy a copy and cook something “together” with me.

And the recipes… The recipes… I believe this is the first cookbook that I have cooked multiple recipes from, one right after the other, and I just keep going because I loved them all.

I love the colors, the photography, the styling—they are so vivid and beautiful. The food, French-inspired—especially the portion size, I must add a here—includes an excellent variety of vegetarian and gluten-free recipes. The food is light on the stomach, as are the photos on the eye. There is a nicely sized chapter for desserts too—always a good thing.

I am truly inspired. Also because the author started as a blogger and look how far she got!

Now I’ll tell you what I made, and then there’s a recipe.

I baked these tartlets:

and I baked brown butter pistachio and poppy seeds financiers and chocolate and hazelnuts financiers (The recipe for those are on her blog, click here)

and I stirred celeriac, white sweet potato, and apple soup (I found a similar recipe here) as well as the carrot and red lentil soup

and I roasted the lemon and honey-flavored chicken

My conclusion: I think this cookbook is a keeper. Here’s a link to Amazon to buy it.

I better get a second copy so the kids won’t have to fight over this one copy when it’s time to inherit my cookbooks collection. Don’t think they will share or take turns without a fight. Hmm.

Now let’s see which recipe/s Simone tried out and what she thinks of the cookbook.

***

Coriander-flavored carrot and zucchini tartlets

Makes six 4 1/2-inch tartlets

For the dough I used my No-roll quiche crust. This time with 13 tablespoons of butter and 6 small tartlets pans instead of an 11-inch tart pan.

For the filling, I used Beatrice’s recipe

Excerpted from LA TARTINE GOURMANDE by Béatrice Peltre, (c) 2012.  Published by arrangement with Roost Books, an imprint of Shambhala Publications, Inc., Boston. www.RoostBooks.com (Instructions written in my own words).

3 large eggs, lightly beaten
2 tablespoons chopped cilantro
5 tablespoons crème fraiche or heavy cream
Sea salt and pepper

In a bowl, beat all those together. Set aside.

***

3 tablespoons olive oil, divided
2 thyme twigs
1 1/2 teaspoons ground coriander, divided
2 packed cups finely grated carrots
Sea salt and pepper
1 small yellow or green zucchini, finely grated
4 oz. (120 gram) manchego cheese, thinly sliced >> I used 6 thin slices
3 oz. (90 gram) soft fresh goat cheese, crumbled >> I used Brouson

Preheat the oven to 400 F degrees.

In a medium frying pan, heat 2 tablespoons oil over medium heat. Add the thyme and 1 teaspoon coriander, cook 1 minute. Add the carrots, some salt and pepper and cook 2-3 minutes until carrots are soft. Transfer to a bowl to cool, discard the thyme.

In the same pan, heat 1 tablespoon oil and 1/2 teaspoon coriander, cook 1 minutes. Add the zucchini, season with salt and pepper, cook 1-2 minutes until it softens. Remove to a bowl and let cool.

Divide the egg batter: Mix 3/4 with the carrots and 1/4 with the zucchini.

On the bottom of each tartlet pan (with the dough laid in it, of course!) place 1 slice of manchego cheese. Then, spoon the carrots around the edges, leaving room in the middle for the zucchini. Repeat with all 6 tartlet pans adding the zucchini after you’re done with the carrots. Top each tartlet with goat cheese crumbles.

Place the tartlets in a large baking sheet and bake for 25-30 minutes, until the top is golden. Remove from the oven and let cool 5 minutes before serving.

Allow me to tell you about a new love in my life. They are called financiers.

From Wikipedia,

“A financier is a small French cake… The financier is a light, moist teacake, similar to sponge cake, and usually contains almond flour… The basis of the cake itself is beurre noisette (brown butter), egg whites… Financiers are often baked in shaped molds. The name “financier” is said to derive from the traditional rectangular mold, which resembles a bar of gold. Another theory says that the cake became popular in the financial district of Paris surrounding La Bourse du Commerce (the former name of the Paris stock exchange).”

Interesting.

I first found them in this gorgeous blog. After I tried a second recipe for financiers, I got hooked. Forever, I’m afraid. Why?

In short, I think it’s the combination of easiness + greatness + airiness.

There’s the technical side: No need to use a mixer, just mix by hand. It takes 10-15 minutes to prepare and 20 minutes later you have cake that makes the house smell great all the way into the garage.

There’s the portion size: It’s just perfect. Not too small, not too big which means no guilt feelings about eating cake on an ordinary weekday. Trust me.

There’s the taste, of course, and texture factors: almonds or any other nuts are the main ingredient.

To those who prefer recipes for mix-by-hand cakes, this is the perfect recipe for you!

Grab the recipe for these chocolate and hazelnuts financiers here. The only thing I changed in the recipe was to use whole wheat flour (you can use all-purpose flour too) because I don’t have amaranth flour. Yet.

Beware though, you might fall in Love.