I was in Austin, Texas a couple of weekends ago and went to my favorite restaurant, Mr. Natural. If you are a vegetarian living in Austin, you probably know about Mr. Natural and how they have fantastic lunch specials with lots of yummy vegetarian food.
For those of you who haven't been to Mr. Natural or Austin, you should know that this is THE place for Mexican vegetarian food...even vegans! Since Mexican food is known for lots of cheese and meat, the idea of making it vegetarian might sound disrespectful, but I think everyone deserves to have some good Mexican food. When you really think about it, the staples of Mexican food make it very amenable to vegetarian versions.
Soon after arriving back in Miami I was kind of sad to realize that there isn't much Mexican food here, much less vegetarian Mexican food. Now that I think about it, there aren't many vegetarian options for any type of food from Latin America around here. Then I thought, I know how to cook, what am I talking about???
So, I'm embarking on attempt to make vegetarian and vegan versions of some of my family's and my own recipes as well as any other dishes from Latin America that are begging for a vegetarian version. I'm down for the challenge, so if you have any ideas for dishes to be converted, let me know and stay tuned for the results!
Showing posts with label miscellaneous. Show all posts
Showing posts with label miscellaneous. Show all posts
Friday, September 5, 2008
Sunday, May 18, 2008
Tastebook.com
I just found out about this awesome website, http://www.tastebook.com/
You can create your own personalized cookbook! You create a hard cover, spiral bound book with ten categories of recipes to add 25-100 recipes. The photos are beautiful and you can add your own. You can type in your own recipes or pull recipes from different websites like epicurious.com, simplyrecipes.com, Bon Appetit, and Gourmet.
Pretty cool, huh?
You can create your own personalized cookbook! You create a hard cover, spiral bound book with ten categories of recipes to add 25-100 recipes. The photos are beautiful and you can add your own. You can type in your own recipes or pull recipes from different websites like epicurious.com, simplyrecipes.com, Bon Appetit, and Gourmet.
Pretty cool, huh?
Sunday, May 4, 2008
Recipe Contest!
I decided to enter the Columbia Crest Flavors of Washington Recipe Contest. I have to use one or more of the ingredients listed in the rules and the recipe should be inspired by one of Columbia Crest's wines.
My short list of ingredients: asparagus, chanterelle mushrooms, halibut, peppers (hot and sweet), potatoes, poultry, sweet onions, tomatoes.
The two wines that most inspire me to cook are Cabernet Sauvignon and Sauvignon Blanc. I still have to choose which one will be the source of my recipe's inspiration. Maybe the Shiraz. I don't know yet.
The recipe will be judge according to these criteria:
1. How well the Washington State ingredient(s) used
2. How well the recipe pairs with the Columbia Crest Grand Estates wine that served as its inspiration
3. Overall taste
4. Originality
I think 1 and 3 will be easy, but 2 and 4 are going be the challenging criteria for me. We'll see.
The first place winner gets a trip to NYC for 4 days and a chance to meet Bobby Flay--how cool is that! Mr. M always asks what recipe I would throwdown with Bobby Flay and I never have a clue. If you've never seen Throwdown on the Food Network, you should really check it out.
Well, I'm looking forward to testing some new recipes and figuring out what I'm going to submit. One immediate inspiration was getting Tom Coliccio's book, Think Like a Chef. It took long enough to start thinking like a lawyer...how long will it take to start thinking like a chef?
My short list of ingredients: asparagus, chanterelle mushrooms, halibut, peppers (hot and sweet), potatoes, poultry, sweet onions, tomatoes.
The two wines that most inspire me to cook are Cabernet Sauvignon and Sauvignon Blanc. I still have to choose which one will be the source of my recipe's inspiration. Maybe the Shiraz. I don't know yet.
The recipe will be judge according to these criteria:
1. How well the Washington State ingredient(s) used
2. How well the recipe pairs with the Columbia Crest Grand Estates wine that served as its inspiration
3. Overall taste
4. Originality
I think 1 and 3 will be easy, but 2 and 4 are going be the challenging criteria for me. We'll see.
The first place winner gets a trip to NYC for 4 days and a chance to meet Bobby Flay--how cool is that! Mr. M always asks what recipe I would throwdown with Bobby Flay and I never have a clue. If you've never seen Throwdown on the Food Network, you should really check it out.
Well, I'm looking forward to testing some new recipes and figuring out what I'm going to submit. One immediate inspiration was getting Tom Coliccio's book, Think Like a Chef. It took long enough to start thinking like a lawyer...how long will it take to start thinking like a chef?
Monday, April 21, 2008
Naan Pizza
Tonight's dinner consisted of naan pizza, green salad with sliced almonds and vinaigrette, and angel food cake with California Strawberry Champagne and fresh strawberries. Yum!
The first day back to work after a vacation is tough and I spent most of the day writing a post-hearing brief. No fun. So, I decided I deserved a delicious and easy to make dinner to help me get back into the swing of things.
Naan pizza. I admit, I got the idea from Nigella Express, but it now has my own twist to make it spicy. I used garlic naan, slathered a mushroom bruschetta topping, then added a layer of garlic and herb pasta sauce, added some cubes of fontina cheese, some slices of the rotisserie chicken from last night, and finished it with a generous sprinkling of red pepper flakes. Since the pizza really only requires some heating, I stuck in the oven for about 10 minutes. The salad was simple--a mix of leaves, halved sweet grape tomatoes, sliced almonds, and a balsamic vinaigrette. The pizza and salad took a whopping 20 minutes to make!
The angel food cake looked fancy, but was extremely easy and quick. I stopped by Norman Brothers for the naan and the angel food cake was fresh and they just happened to have California Strawberry Champagne (a strawberry sauce). I felt inspired to prepare a dessert. I sliced up some strawberries and arranged them around a slice of the angel food cake and then drizzled the strawberry champagne over it. Easy, eye-catching, and oh so satisfying.
In addition to dinner, I considered baking some ginger pear muffins for my firm's celebration of Administrative Professionals Day tomorrow, but I decided to be lazy and bought some orange cranberry scones. The muffins would require some effort in the packaging and presentation, which is way too much to do at this point. All the women in the office are on a diet anyway (although Pizza Hut was ordered for lunch). Instead of food, I opted for herbal teas in really neat looking tin cans, lavender aromatherapy foaming salts, and lavender satchets. At least the office will smell good tomorrow.
The first day back to work after a vacation is tough and I spent most of the day writing a post-hearing brief. No fun. So, I decided I deserved a delicious and easy to make dinner to help me get back into the swing of things.
Naan pizza. I admit, I got the idea from Nigella Express, but it now has my own twist to make it spicy. I used garlic naan, slathered a mushroom bruschetta topping, then added a layer of garlic and herb pasta sauce, added some cubes of fontina cheese, some slices of the rotisserie chicken from last night, and finished it with a generous sprinkling of red pepper flakes. Since the pizza really only requires some heating, I stuck in the oven for about 10 minutes. The salad was simple--a mix of leaves, halved sweet grape tomatoes, sliced almonds, and a balsamic vinaigrette. The pizza and salad took a whopping 20 minutes to make!
The angel food cake looked fancy, but was extremely easy and quick. I stopped by Norman Brothers for the naan and the angel food cake was fresh and they just happened to have California Strawberry Champagne (a strawberry sauce). I felt inspired to prepare a dessert. I sliced up some strawberries and arranged them around a slice of the angel food cake and then drizzled the strawberry champagne over it. Easy, eye-catching, and oh so satisfying.
In addition to dinner, I considered baking some ginger pear muffins for my firm's celebration of Administrative Professionals Day tomorrow, but I decided to be lazy and bought some orange cranberry scones. The muffins would require some effort in the packaging and presentation, which is way too much to do at this point. All the women in the office are on a diet anyway (although Pizza Hut was ordered for lunch). Instead of food, I opted for herbal teas in really neat looking tin cans, lavender aromatherapy foaming salts, and lavender satchets. At least the office will smell good tomorrow.
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