Friday, June 19, 2009

Summer Salad #1

In my attempts to eat a little healthier and with summer finally hitting Northern California, I've been making a lot of salads. This one was a definite winner - easy, delicious and quite beautiful (plus, there's alliteration!).

Southwest Shrimp Salad with Cilantro-Lime Dressing
This salad barely needs a recipe, but here goes...

For the shrimp: Fresh or frozen would both work fine. Peel thawed shrimp and pat dry with towel. Season (I used Adobo, but simple S&P would work) and saute them with some chopped garlic for 2-3 minutes on each side. Set shrimp aside while you prepare salad ingredients.

For the salad: Basically you put together a green salad (I used romaine and butter lettuce from the garden) and top it with whatever veggies and "southwest" ingredients you have on hand. I used red peppers, avocado, red onions, carrots, cucumbers, black beans (canned), corn (frozen this time), cilantro, etc. Things I might add next time: jicama, cherry tomatoes, roasted corn, scallions...

For the dressing: In a small blender or food processor (this is where my Magic Bullet comes in handy!), combine juice of one lime, handful cilantro leaves, 1/2 tsp. salt, 1/4 tsp. cumin. Add 2-4 Tbs. vegetable oil to taste.

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Pizza, pizza and more pizza!

Well, I've started a "eating better" regiment (aka diet) to prepare for the upcoming Sisters Adventure where I'll be spending a week on the beach in Panama (exciting, huh?!?!), so stay tuned for some healthier recipes for the next few weeks. However, I have to report on the fabulous pizza party we had a few weekends ago with the crew on S. Lane. MO made a triple batch of FatBoy's pizza dough recipe and we made more pizzas than we could eat...
tomato, basil and mozzarella
sliced potato, mozarella, red onion and rosemary
spinach, artichoke hearts and feta
leftover shrimp, spinach, mozzarella

Friday, June 5, 2009

DIY Noodles

Last weekend MO and I made our (now) annual trip to the Maker Faire. The event is an amazing one-of-a-kind gathering of "DIY Makers, Progressive Techies, Old-Fashioned and Indie Crafters, Mad Scientists, Quirky Musicians and Myriad Innovators" (according to their website).

I could talk about Maker Faire for hours, but basically we love it because it's a great combination of computers/ electronics/ circuit-stuff (MO's world), handmade and recycled arts and crafts/sewing (my world), and local music/homegrown local food/all of the Bay Area's "colorful" people...

And yes, there is a food connection here: I was so excited to stumble upon this demonstration of traditional Chinese handmade noodle-making (see photos below). I'd seen it on TV before, but I was thrilled to see (in person) someone tossing and slapping dough into noodles - it's like magic! Unfortunately, we couldn't sample them, but I am sure they would've been delicious.