We made a cheesecake!

It is a rare thing when you sit down with another person and instantly know that you are both thinking the same thing at the same moment.  From the smile on our faces, the sparkle in our eyes, to our upraised shoulders, my husband and I were completely in sync when the astonished words finally tumbled out of our mouths at the same time: “We made a cheesecake!”

 

The last few years we have celebrated Valentine’s Day (usually a few days late) by cooking a meal that we have never made before.  This year we decided to experiment with Chicken Parmesan and make a simple cheesecake for dessert.   We considered making a fancy cheesecake like some of the ones served at the Cheesecake Factory, but decided we should start with a basic one before getting too fancy.  I found Our Best Cheesecake Recipe online and found the same recipe listed on other websites all using “best” and “favorite” in the title and hoped that this description would be true in our own concocting.

As I looked for recipes, I wasn’t sure whether I should go with one that called for sour cream or strictly stay with cream cheese.  There are so many different styles of basic cheesecake recipes that it was hard to pick.  (A future post may discuss the differences between New York Style, Manhattan Style, and any other styles I come across, but for now I will focus on the recipe I chose.)  I read somewhere that the sour cream adds a tartness that pairs well with the creaminess of the cream cheese.  For some reason this idea wasn’t appealing mentally; however, every time I thought about the tartness my salivary glands reacted and eventually changed my mind.  Who knew that the salivary gland would have this much power!?  It may be mind over matter, but salivary secretions over mind? Weird.

At any rate, I decided to use the sour cream.  I mixed the cream cheese batter, while the husband took on the graham cracker crust.  He did an excellent job crushing the graham crackers into a near dust and then mixing them with melted butter.  Together, we pushed the crumbs into a pie plate (I don’t own a spring form pan, so I improvised with the pie plate) and created the crust.  We then poured the drippy batter into the crust and baked it.  Because I didn’t have the right kind of pan, there was more batter than would fit into the crust so we poured it into 4 ramekins to make mini crust-less cheesecakes. After baking for an hour, cooling for another hour, the husband transferred them all to the refrigerator to cool overnight.

In the morning, I cheated and tasted one of the mini cheesecakes for quality control purposes (wink, wink).  What kind of wife would I be if I gave the husband food that tasted bad?  It was, of course, for purely selfless reasons that I had to taste the cheesecake. The cheesecake looked and even felt heavy, so I was suspicious that it would taste that way too.  It didn’t taste heavy though.  Instead, it tasted rich with creamy vanilla flavors and just enough tartness to make it interesting. My taste test locked in my decision to make a cherry pie sauce.

And so after we finished eating our not so impressive Chicken Parmesan, we delved into our cheesecake with much enthusiasm. We each tasted a creamy bite with warm cherry almond sauce, looked into each others’ eyes, and with much love and excitement somehow muttered “We made a cheesecake!” before quickly filling our spoons with a much bigger portion and eating it too.

Sugar and Yeast Detox, Phase 1 - Day Done

I almost lost my mind.  I couldn’t seem to remember things like I used to.  I had to reset passwords and reset them again because I couldn’t remember what I reset them to.  Just the other day I made myself lunch, packed it in a cute bag, and left it on the counter.  I didn’t realize it until I was at the gas station where I couldn’t figure out how to operate the new credit card taker thing (machine?)  So I went all the way home and got my lunch and drove to a different gas station where they also had a new machine, but forced myself to use it anyway.  Then I completely forgot how to get to work from this other gas station, so long story not so short – I was late to work.

I blame the sugar/yeast detox diet and its lack of blueberries or really its lack of flavonoids that are supposedly good for memory. (For more information and details about the benefits of blueberries, read  Your Mind on Blueberries.)¹ And more so the lack of carbs.  Carbs are often viewed negatively in dieting, but they do provide energy for the body which includes the brain.  So, it might seem like a stretch, but carbs help the brain to process thoughts maybe even help power memory.  (Interested in more? Read How your Body Turns Carbohydrates into Energy.)²   Is that why I’m losing my mind?  Is that why I can’t find the fitbit that I swear I put on the edge of the bathroom sink?  Is that why I’m so clumsy that I knocked everything off the bathroom sink and now have a huge fear that I may have flushed the fitbit down the toilet?  Is this why I get so dizzy that I have to stop to steady myself so that I don’t fall over?  Is this why I actually do fall over sometimes?  Am I just needing more carbohydrates?

Or is it because this diet is so labor intensive that all I do is think about planning menus and buying food? And because I’m doing so much cooking, I’m doing even more cleaning. This diet is a lot of work.  I’m exhausted, forgetful, unbalanced, and HUNGRY!  And yet The Husband seems to have skipped all of my maladies and is just hungry until fed.  Then he seems to have more energy than before the sugar detox.  So…I don’t want to say this diet isn’t worth it.  I think it that it is.  It definitely gives you an idea about how much sugar really is in all of the foods that we normally eat even when we think we are eating healthy. 

We did make some delicious discoveries on this journey of no sugar and no yeast including: 

Coconut Almond Balls a/k/a Fat Bombs

These fat bombs as we began to lovingly refer to them are delicious little morsels of almond butter, coconut flour, and unsweetened coconut flakes.  Mix all the ingredients in a ball and refrigerate for 30 minutes and voila dessert is served.  On the days when we didn’t think we were going to make it through, we ate a few of these and were able to press on.

Avocado Omelets

Eggs were also a lifesaver on this diet.  I think eggs have a bad reputation because they are so high in cholesterol, but they are an excellent source of protein and excellent

source of energy for the body.  We experimented with a number of different omelets and frittatas, but the Avocado Omelet was my favorite.  The eggs were made savory with onions and bell peppers and the avocado added a creamy coolness that paired nicely with salty olives.  I will continue to make this even after the phases of this diet are complete.

Asian Turkey Meatballs and Slaw

One night my mother-in-law brought us pork meatballs and slaw which she had discovered while she was doing a similar cleanse.  They were so delicious that I found a recipe I had saved long ago for Gluten Free Turkey Meatballs and altered it to fit our diet.  I also found a delicious recipe for Bok Choy and Cabbage Slaw. The meatballs in my recipe were a bit dry, but the slaw was delicious.  It had crisp cabbage and bok choy mixed with tahini and coconut aminos.  I’ve never cooked with bok choy, but I think will in the future.  It adds a freshness and somewhat of a peppery flavor that is unexpected in a vegetable.

Going Forward

I think that Phase 2 will be much easier to maintain. (If we decide to continue with Phase 2!)  We can add grains and fruit, so hopefully my memory and energy will return.  Watching the sugar intake will be difficult and I don’t think we will cut it out completely, but hopefully we will make better and healthier decisions.

References

Franz, M. (2011). Your brain on blueberries. Scientific American Mind, 21(6), 54-59.

How your body turns carbs into energy. (n.d.). Dummies. Retrieved from http://www.dummies.com/health/nutrition/how-your-body-turns-carbohydrates-into-energy/.

Sugar and Yeast Detox - Phase 1, Day 9

In my first post, I promised to blog everyday about this sugar yeast detox that the husband and I have inflicted on ourselves.  We are still doing it and that is why I haven’t had time to post much.  This diet is labor intensive.  I plan elaborate menus that include snacks and then create grocery lists from the menu, go shopping for the ingredients, and then concoct them into something that is hopefully edible.  OK – I admit that it isn’t all that different from my normal life and diet, but because this is such a low calorie low carb diet, I have to make sure that I buy enough so that we aren’t still hungry after eating.  And for me that is the hardest part; making sure that I eat enough calories.

I will not lie.  This diet has been difficult.  Friday was a tough day and all I wanted was comfort food – fried chicken and biscuits or maybe a nice glass of wine to finish off a weird week.  What’s worse is that is exactly what the husband wanted too.  But we persevered and unwound with dry salads from Dion’s that I doctored up with fresh lime juice and olive oil and salted sunflower seeds.  We devoured the evidence so there are no pictures.

While difficult to maintain, this diet has been fun too.  The husband has been boiling eggs for ourbreakfasts – the days when we don’t have a delicious mixture of plain Greek yogurt and unsweetened coconut.  He puts them in a pot of boiling water along with an egg timer that looks like a blue egg, but this egg sings tunes like Oh Susanna, Take Me Out to the Ballgame, and Hail! Hail! The Gangs All Here so that you can tell the doneness of the egg by song. Thank you to my beautiful mother for finding such a treasurer.  It has added a bit of entertainment to this diet!

Here are some dinner highlights:

Roasted Herb Salmon

We roasted salmon in the oven that was drizzled with olive oil and lemon juice and sprinkled with salt, pepper, and a few other spices that seemed good at the time. It was served with zucchini "pasta" and grape tomatoes.  It was very fresh and almost seemed too fancy to be diet food.

Spaghetti Squash "Pasta" and Meatballs

I've made something similar to this before, but I made a tomato sauce that seemed to take forever to make.  This sauce is much more simple - diced fresh tomatoes seasoned with oregano and warmed with a little bit of garlic.  We roasted a spaghetti squash that was carefully seasoned with salt, pepper, and Italian seasonings.  Then we made the meatballs out of ground beef, an egg, onion, and more garlic.  We boiled the meatballs out top of the stop and then put them in the oven to get a bit crispy.  They were a bit bland, but I would try them again and add more spices to the meat.  Overall it was a delicious fresh take on common spaghetti.

We have also altered some of our usual recipes like turkey burgers and chicken fajitas.  We serve the burgers without bread and fajitas are served in a bowl with beans and bell peppers.  Today is the half-way mark.  We are going to make it to phase 2!

Sugar and Yeast Detox - Phase 1, Day 1

A few weeks ago the husband told me that he would like cut back on his sugar intake.  At first I thought he was kidding!  I have done sugar-free, grain-free, dairy-free diets before and I honestly couldn’t eat enough.  I was hungry all the time.  So, when he said that I was completely shocked.  Of course, his idea of cutting back on sugar and I my idea of not eating any sugar, didn’t match.  It didn’t help that he had a birthday filled with delicious bar food and beer at a very nice bowling alley.  The cutting back sugar diet failed before it really had a chance to begin.

Enter the sugar and yeast detox diet!  Phase 1, Day 1 begins the day after Easter, so it would not interfere with any celebrations.  We have a menu for the week and the fridge is full of healthy non-sugary, non-yeasty foods.  We just have to eat enough of these foods so that we don’t lose too much weight.  Yes, we don’t want to lose weight.  What we do want is to be healthy and have energy.  And what better way to get there than a 21 day cleanse with no sugar (and that includes most fruit!), no yeast (and that includes all grains!) and no dairy except for yogurt.

To keep us honest, I’m going to chronicle our progress.  I will keep the uninteresting parts brief and elaborate more on the meals that require the most creativity and the encourage the most response for the now sugar (almost free)  husband.

Breakfast

Plain Greek Yogurt with unsweetened coconut – It wasn’t as boring as I thought it would be.  It was a bit of a sour way to start the day and the new diet, but it could have been worse.  Because the husband had to eat his at work, I packed it to go.  I put the coconut and some walnuts for snack.  He forgot that the coconut was supposed to go in the yogurt.  I’m not sure how, but he managed to eat it the dry desiccated coconut with a spoon.

Lunch

Salad with chicken and black olives with a lemon and olive oil dressing – It was not that different than our usual lunches, but the black olives were a treat.  I added more chicken in place of a pita bread and chips though.  The husband was surprised how filling it was!

Dinner

Herbed Salmon with Zucchini Pasta and Grape Tomatoes – The husband said, “The salmon was on point!”  And I agree!  It was seasoned with dried dill and thyme and a little bit of salt and pepper.  It was cooked just right where the edges were crispy and the center firm.  (I like to eat things that I know are cooked, so burnt is better than mushy in my opinion.)  The zucchini was spiralized into thin pasta like curlicues and sautéed in olive oil and water.  I added a clove of garlic for flavor and grape tomatoes for color.  The zucchini had a slight crunch giving a freshness that true pasta will never have.  I would definitely make this again.  Who doesn’t like to be on point?

Day 1 of Phase 1 was a success!  We had good food and we weren’t hungry.  We are on point so far!

The Key to My Lime Pie

I decided to make a Key Lime Pie for St. Patrick’s Day.  Why would I make this decision?  Limes are not even remotely Irish.  I can’t even rationalize it and I can rationalize just about anything!  The best that I can come up with is that limes are green and St. Patrick’s Day is all about green, right?  (You know, that and St. Patrick converting the Irish from a pagan tradition to Christianity, but really about wearing green and drinking green beer.) The fact that my Key West Lime Juice is going to expire at the end of the month was also a huge motivation.  The bottle cost almost $4 and I don’t want it to go to waste.

And that is how we came to have Key Lime Pie for St. Patrick’s Day.  I have never made a Key Lime Pie before and I did not put a lot of thought into this recipe.  I honestly followed the instructions on the lime juice bottle.  I mixed all of the ingredients up and poured them into a prepared graham cracker crust and baked for 15 minutes.  I let it cool and then put in the refrigerator overnight.  I didn’t even cheat and have a taste!  For such an easy preparation, I did not have high expectations for this pie.

And maybe because of that, I was extremely impressed with the end result.  The texture was perfect – it set up like it was from a bakery – solid, but creamy.  And the taste?  I’ve never had anything like it before.  I tried Key Lime Pie one other time when the husband and I visited Destin, FL.  I was not impressed with the expensive sliver of pie that was served to us to share.  It tasted like it was straight from a cheap frozen box from the grocery store.  (It should be noted that I am usually a big fan of those frozen box pies!  Just not when I pay the price of a box on a tiny piece of pie.) 

Not the case with this thrown together pie in my kitchen!  It was delicious – sweet, yet slightly sour, but not the kind of sour that creates what my mother calls pucker power, where your cheeks are sucked in, your mouth completely dry.  No, this was the kind of sour that made you want another bite and then another just to make sure that the sour was actually sweet or was it the sweet that was actually sour? And then another bite, just to make sure.  Before I knew it, I had eaten an entire piece and I was never sure of the answer to sweet/sour combination!

It wasn’t until my piece of pie was gone that I realized how rich the pie really was.  Maybe that was why the restaurant pieces were cut so small.  Perhaps I will cut smaller pieces next time, but probably not.   Who knew that the key to a lime pie and a happy St. Patrick’s Day celebration was a $4 bottle of lime juice?!  What a delicious, rich treasure.

A Curryious Discovery

Some facts to know before reading further:

1. I have only had Indian food twice before.  The first time I tried it was at a fundraiser for my high school band.  It was hosted by our drummer’s parents who I believe were from India in the high school cafeteria.  I remember thinking the rice was very yellow for rice, but enjoyed the different flavor from the Rice a Roni that my family usually ate.   The second time I tried it was at a dinner for a foreign exchange student from India who was staying with my supervisor over the summer.  We went to a restaurant that he chose and I can’t remember what I ordered.  I do remember that it was in a cream sauce that I couldn’t eat because I was allergic to milk.
2. I’m from New Mexico and “spicy” does not mean the same thing to me as it does to people not from New Mexico.
3. That being said, I think Curry is a county and not anything having to do with food

Now that you know the facts about my experience with Indian food and my experience with spicy food, maybe you will understand why I didn’t think twice about dumping all of the curry spice from our latest Blue Apron recipe into the skillet.  I did ask the husband what he thought and he looked at me like I was crazy for asking, so I shrugged and dumped the spice packet in.   Oops.

The husband and I sat down to eat and admired our work and even managed to take a picture before diving in.  I took one little taste of the rice and sauce and knew that we were in trouble.  The husband started mixing the sauce and vegetables into the rice in his bowl and I tried not to shout “Noooooooo!!!!” Instead, I managed to suggest that he taste it before mixing it up.  I was hoping that the rice could balance the spice if not mixed together.  But I think I was too late in offering the suggestion and the damage had been done.

Thanks to the Oxford English Dictionary, I now know that curry is “a preparation of meat, fish, fruit, or vegetables, cooked with a quantity of bruised spices and turmeric, and used as a relish or flavouring, esp. for dishes composed of or served with rice. Hence, a curry = a dish or stew (of rice, meat, etc.) flavoured with this preparation (or with curry-powder).”  I actually already knew about the turmeric, what I didn’t know was that “bruised spices” could also include “fresh or dried hot chillies.” This information comes from Wikipedia and as you can see “chillies” is not spelled correctly (at least it isn’t spelled correctly in New Mexico,) so keep that in mind when judging the accuracy of the statement.

The first use of the word curry or carriil was in 1598 by W. Phillip J.H. Linshoten in Disc. Voy, E. & W. Indies, “Most of their fish is eaten with rice, which they seeth in broth which they put upon the rice, and is somewhat sowre..but it tasteth well, and is called Carriil.” This implies that the dish was sour and not spicy.  Was chile added to cover up the sour taste? 

Lizzie Collingham states in her book Curry: A Tale of Cooks and Conquerors that spices were not added to dishes to hide the rancid (what I was calling sour) flavor of meat, but rather to enhance the flavor of the dish.  Before 1500 India relied on pepper to spice their food.  In the later 1400’s, the price of pepper went up and in 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue not to discover a new land, but to find an inexpensive route around China to India to purchase spices for Spain. As we all know, he did not reach India, but instead reached the Bahamas, Cuba, and later South America.  He also found the Native American’s “aji” or chile which he mistook for India’s pepper.  He took this pepper plant back to Spain and it somehow came into the hands of the Portuguese who eventually did sail to India and sold the spice to the people of India.   Contrary to popular belief this chili pepper is not native to India; however, it quickly became a staple in Indian cooking.

The chile that came from the Aztecs in Mexico that made its way into New Mexican cuisine is the same chili pepper that made its way into Indian cuisine.  While the green chile and the red chile are staples in New Mexico and are roasted and made into sauces for dishes like enchiladas, the chili peppers are dried and crushed into a powder and added to curry dishes.  New Mexico has a slogan of “Red or green?” to question a person’s chile preference.  Is there such a thing in India to refer to how one prefers curry? Wet or dry?  In a sauce or more like a rub?

The Blue Apron curry powder that we tried must have had dried red chile in it because  it

was deep rich color and it was so spicy that it tasted bitter and even burned my throat as it made its way to my stomach.  It was so spicy that I spent the meal picking out the eggplant and leeks from the sauce and uselessly blowing on them as if that would somehow balance out the spiciness.  Unfortunately, blowing on food only helps lower the temperature not the spiciness.  Neither the husband nor I could finish our curry dish.  Instead, we grabbed some cold pita bread out of the refrigerator and ate it to restore our taste buds back to normal.  The pita bread was our saving grace.  I hate to throw away food, but this dish could not be saved any further.

And the moral of the story is…..?  Sometimes facts aren’t really facts at all; they are opinions or maybe experiences that have developed our opinions that we take as facts.  They cloud our judgement so that we can’t see what is in front of us – like the directions on a recipe card that explicitly say to add as much spice as you like – a clear warning that this could be spicy. 

Some new facts to know:

1. Food cannot be judged by only two mere experiences
2.  “Spicy” just might mean the same thing to me as a New Mexican as it does to people not from New Mexico
3. Curry is still a county in New Mexico, but it is also an intricate, complex sauce that originated in India that became spicier with other influences.

I would like to test curry again in a controlled environment where I only add a little bit of curry powder to the sauce and where I have ready access to a glass of milk and lots and lots of pita bread.

References

Collingham, Lizzie (2006). Curry: A Tale of Cooks and Conquerors. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. 

"curry, n.2." OED Online. Oxford University Press, September 2016. Web. 11 September 2016.

Wikipedia contributors. "Curry." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 11 Sep. 2016. Web. 11 Sep. 2016.

My First Grilled Cheese Sandwich was made of Goat Cheese

Tonight was a night of firsts.  I’d like to say something more dramatic, something like tonight was the night that changed everything, tonight was the night it all began, but I really don’t have anything more than tonight was a night of firsts.

First, I had my very first grilled cheese sandwich.  Of course, I couldn’t have a normal grilled cheese sandwich made out of American cheese and white Wonder bread.  Oh no, I couldn’t be that normal – that would be boring.  Instead, my very first grilled cheese sandwich was a Grilled Goat Cheese and Plum Jam Sandwich with a side of Endive and Marinated Cucumber Salad courtesy of Blue Apron.

The second first of the night – we lost the shallot!  We had pulled all of the ingredients out of the refrigerator and placed them on the counter before we started cooking.  We looked and looked for the shallot.  I was looking for an onion looking kind of thing, but I had it in my head that a shallot looked more like green onions – probably because I never actually have a real shallot and instead substitute green onions in any recipe that calls for it.  So, naturally, I overlooked the small onion like bulb that sat on the cutting board.  The husband forgot that a shallot was an onion, so I’m not sure what he was looking for.    I even pulled out some green onions to use instead.  This is not the first time that I have felt dumb, but it was the first time that I so completely overlooked something that was literally right in front of me.  Anyway, the shallot was discovered, chopped, and used in the jam and in the salad.

This leads me to my third first of the night - and brace yourself for this – the husband made jam!  Not only did he make jam, but he seemed to enjoy making the jam.  He pitted a plum and then “roughly” (as was stated in the recipe’s instructions) chopped it into pieces.  I dumped all the ingredients into a sauce pan and he patiently watched it boil and then rigorously stirred it until it turned thick.  Then he prepared the sandwiches by spreading goat cheese on both sides of sourdough bread, spreading the jam on top of the cheese, and then placing the sandwiches in hot melted butter.  I must say that the smell of the bread toasting in the butter was absolutely amazing!

Also amazing?  The taste of that very toasted bread and its creamy contents! I was afraid that the goat cheese would have a bitter aftertaste, but the jam nicely balanced the bitter with a subtle sweetness and the crispy buttered bread finished it off with a slightly salty flavor.  

While we may not have had a dramatic evening and tonight was really not the night that changed everything, perhaps tonight was the night that something new began.  The husband and I are cooking meals together and I am hoping the husband enjoyed making jam enough to recreate this recipe in the future.  I’m glad that my very first grilled cheese sandwich wasn’t “normal,” but I think I would still like to try a “normal” grilled cheese sandwich – whatever “normal” means!