Lisa's Culinary Atrocities

1st few days back to work and they were terrific!!  I really thought I’d be in the depressing lull of non-thinkability and sadness that stems from the lack of Daddyness I typically feel when we say goodbye, but I was sharp and energetic!  Strange. Lesson—wine does a body good *snicker*.  It really solidifies (not that I needed to solidify anything) that I love my job and the people I work with and I feel so absolutely fortunate…and while I already knew that, it was a great reminder.  Not that I wouldn’t want to eat, travel and write about food for a living…but…that is a nice dream to have until my superior decides to retire ☺

Came home this afternoon, made some pico-de-gallo and started in on the photo reviewing and blog writing.  I used green onions for my pico-de-gallo and was inspired to see how roasted green onion leaves (tops?) would turn out, as I hate throwing them away.  I tossed them with olive oil, sea salt and Spike seasoning*, baked at 350 degrees F for 10 min, and was welcomed with both crunchy ones and soft ones. The crunchy ones were deeelicious, and soft ones were great but just a little too chewy, so, I ate the crunchy ones and put the rest in the oven for another 2 minutes just to get the soft part a little bit softer.  Result: perfetto

I ate a few and decided I’d let them sit and see if they crunch up a little more rather than scarf them up all hot-n-stuff.  They did. Niceness.

Conclusion: I LIKE these very much, which gives me an idea:  I should try roasting leek leaves the next time I use leeks (which I use a LOT of)!  Also, I bet these green onions would be great chopped or broken up into a salad, or as a garnish or….lots of things!  Yay.  Success.  Not only a way to use what you might throw away, but a tasty and unusual treat.

Ok back to vacation recap…

Day 3: The 25th Anniversary of the Concorso Italiano at Laguna Seca Golf Ranch in Monterey, which honors what else but…Italian cars.  Each year they choose a specific kind of car to highlight the event and this year it was Fiat.   I will tell you, I loved it but I never thought I’d get tired of seeing red Ferrari’s:
That being said (and shown…a little) apparently I am not the only one:
One of my favorite cars there was the 1958 blue and white Autobianchi Bianchina, which was based on the Fiat 500, and was only made even more-so my favorite by the fact that my Father’s friend Michael owned one and ran it into the ground in high school…
My new discovery in perfect Lisa auto’s?  The Ferrari 250 (all of ‘em, <50’s & 60’s> honey) followed ever so closely by the 330….drooooool.  And I certainly wouldn’t turn down this 1968 Bizzarrini 5300 GT Strada.

NOW to foood!  (SooooRRrrrry)

We had lunch at Tarpy’s Roadhouse, in Monterey.  Wonderful.  If you ever get a chance, go!  Besides the delicious food and attentive service, a fun aspect to this place is that it is near an airport, so when a plane comes by it feels and sounds like the tops of the trees may be trimmed and showered upon you.  Not an irritating distraction, but rather quite amusing, as well as startling…you half expect to hear a crash a few moments later.

My Father had a soup I could not keep my spoon out of which was a soup-du-jour of Crab Bisque with added shrimp.  Num!  Actuallly…SOOper num.  (I should start a NUM rating system).  For lunch I had the Grilled Vegetable Sandwich which was filled with eggplant, onion, summer squash and goat cheese, next to a side salad topped with a light vinaigrette and edible flowers.  

While beautiful, it was not quite as good as my Dad’s soup, but was definitely better than most grilled sandwiches I’ve had.  He had grilled tiger shrimp on rice pilaf with citrus salsa and lemon beurre blanc, which he definitely enjoyed.  For some reason beyond my obsessive documentarian comprehension, I did not take a photo of his meal… 

We also shared a 1/2 bottle of a very dry Kim Crawford 2008 Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc which is described as:

• “Fragrant and complex, with a refreshing burst of lime, guava, grapefruit and grass flavours. Wet stone, passion fruit and oyster shell accents add interest, with bright acidity highlighting the vivid finish. Another outstanding Sauvignon from a perennial success. Drink now.” - Daniel Sogg - 91 points

A little too dry and steely for me..which is interesting as I love dry wine, but nonetheless it was very nice. 

Aaaah, another lovely day.

————

*Spike’s Seasoning Ingredients contains:
Salt and sea salt crystals, special high flavor yeast, hydrolyzed vegetable protein, mellow toasted onion, onion powder, orange powder, soy flour, celery leaf powder, celery root powder, garlic powder, dill, kelp, Indian curry, horseradish, ripe white pepper, orange and lemon peel, summer savory, mustard flower, sweet green and red peppers, parsley flakes, tarragon, rosehips, saffron, mushroom powder, parsley powder, spinach powder, tomato powder, sweet Hungarian paprika, celery powder, cayenne pepper, plus a delightful herbal bouquet of the best Greek oregano, French sweet basil, French marjoram, French rosemary, and Spanish thyme.

Multi-seed baguette from Trader Joe’s,  broiled with olive oil and:

top left: black mission fig, walnut and shropshire blue cheese (yellow stilton)

top right: fresh pico de gallo topped with micro greens

middle left: homemade basil/walnut/garlic pesto, made chunky, topped with tomato

middle right: chunky garlic hummus, chive, cucumber

bottom: basil leaf, roasted garlic, olive oil/Herbes de Provence marinated mozzarella

Seriously, happiness throughout every cell right now.  On my daily trip to Trader Joe’s a few days ago they were sampling their new Soy Chorizo. Whoa—so surprisingly good.  No stranger to vegan food, or tasty animals these days (sorry), this product is not to be missed.  While I prefer to be meatless most of the time (and especially since my husband is vegan) I am wary of vegan products because they are still processed.  This one, however, has only a handful of ingredients:

–>TVP (texturized soy protein), water, soy oil, distilled vinegar, salt, spices, red pepper and garlic.

SOLD!  So tonight I decided to make soft tacos with the Soyrizo (thanks Deano), homemade pico-de-gallo and micro-greens. Cheese added, I am sure would also be fantastic.

I made my taco’s mini, surprise.

For the Pico de Gallo chop separately and combine:

-4 plum tomatoes (I used about a cup or so of cherry tomatoes)

-5 green onions

-1/2 cup fresh cilantro

-3 peppers, seeded (I used one red, one orange, one yellow–adds a bit of a sweetness that contrasts the spicy soyrizo nicely)

-a good squeeze of lime juice.-fold together and let sit in the refrigerator for about an hour.

After a few glasses of wine, heat up your soyrizo (remove casing first…it’s the consistency of ground beef) and make some fan-tasty tacos!

*Pairs sensationally with Trader Joe’s 2009 Grower’s Reserve Zinfandel (thanks for the recommendation Deano—it was PERFECT.) Which, by the way, if you ever need ANY information about ANYTHING wine or food related, Deano Sandoval at Trader Joe’s NW is your guy. Not only is he a wonderful man and talented artist, but he will not disappoint your taste buds. Going to create a new tag, just for him!