Lori, Author at Fake Food Free

Crispy Prosciutto Fig Salad with Lemon, Chive and Honey Dressing

September 12, 2017

Fig season isn’t over yet, is it? My fresh figs are long gone, but I’ve still been seeing them around online so hopefully I’m not too late.

I made this salad a few weeks ago and have been meaning to post it ever since. Travel picked up for me in September and as usual the blog was the first thing I could put on the back burner for a few days.

So here I sit with a tasty fig salad recipe to share and fig season is coming dangerously close to ending.

The inspiration for this came from my friend Tracey. She told me about a salad she makes with bacon and figs and it got me thinking about similar combinations.

Easy Asian Noodle Salad with Chili Toasted Peanuts

August 31, 2017

Once I became more familiar with Asian cuisines and flavors, noodle dishes of all kinds became an instant favorite. Not only because I like to eat them, but they are super simple to throw together.

Especially in summer when it’s so hot out that you can barely work up the energy to cook. And as much as I don’t want it to be hot anymore, it will continue here for a while. So I have to embrace it with more interesting no-or-minimal-cook meals.

This easy Asian noodle salad is one of those meals. Well, I say meal, but really, I think it makes a super fun appetizer, too. A twist on a salad that you can share with friends.

Arugula Sundried Tomato Tostadas

August 29, 2017

Arugula Sundried Tomato Tostada Recipe | FakeFoodFree.com

A lot of things stick with me from our time living in Brazil. Much of it is related to food.

As simple as it is, probably the most prominent of these is rucula e tomate seco. I think the first time we had it was on a pizza, then I found it as a sandwich.

Arugula and sundried tomatoes aren’t uncommon in the States, of course. I had just never had the two together, and it’s a rather brilliant combination. The peppery arugula and the sweet tomatoes go so well together.

It’s the sandwich that I think of most. Sandwiches were hard to get used to in Brazil. At that point, we were trained to want subs. Big sandwiches, loaded with ingredients.

And a sandwich always has a side, right? Chips, fries, at least a pickle. I can still remember one of my husband’s coworkers who frequented Brazil saying something similar to, how weird is it that you don’t get anything with sandwiches here?

I was glad we weren’t the only ones that had noticed.

These days, after being back in the U.S. for nearly 10 years, I’d trade my side without question if someone could make me my favorite rucula e tomate seco sandwich like I had at our small sandwich shop there.

Cinnamon Fig Breakfast Rolls with Cream Cheese Frosting

August 24, 2017

I feel like every time I get my hands on some figs, I want to stuff something with them. The fig and lavender cookies I made last year are a good example. There is just something that about that sweet, jammy interior that is so good when it’s warmed up and discovered inside something unexpected.

Well, it’s fresh fig season in California once again, and I was lucky enough to have several leftover from a photo shoot to afford me the opportunity to experiment with them.

Shrimp Stuffed Hatch Chiles

August 22, 2017

I had my very first Hatch chile last week.

Every year I see the social posts, watch all the roastings that take place around the Southwest, and keep my eye out for them with no luck in getting my hands on any.

But this year, a box arrived at my door and I opened it to find a big beautiful bag of these peppers. If you are unfamiliar, the peppers are grown in the valley around Hatch, New Mexico. Only peppers grown there are true Hatch chiles, and as was reported to me, they have an earthy, fresh flavor that sets them apart from other varieties. And they are in season as we speak, just a few weeks every year.

Refried Black Beans with Garlic and Lime

August 18, 2017

I almost bought a can of refried black beans the other day. I was doing that for a while a few years ago, when we were trying to stick to a slow carb eating plan. (If you are unfamiliar, it can be summed up as eating protein, veggies, and beans at just about every meal.) I’ve been trying to steer my food intake back in that direction since it was when I felt my fittest, but it’s been a slow process since we moved to the Central Valley and, you know, we were without a kitchen for a while this year.

Those cans were super convenient then, even though I knew they were loaded with sodium. But I stopped myself this time. I’m perfectly capable of making delicious beans, so I redirected myself over to the dried bean section and picked up a one pound bag of black beans.

Corn White Bean Arugula Salad

August 15, 2017

For a long time, heirloom tomatoes were my absolute favorite thing about summer. Lately, though they have fallen ever so slightly in their ranking to make it closer to a tie with something else.

Corn.

That probably seems a lot less exciting, but I think it’s because the older I’ve gotten, and the less I’ve had corn from our own garden growing up, the more I appreciate a really good ear.

I can still remember going to friend’s houses in the summer and my hosts joyfully proclaiming that we were having sweet corn for dinner. One bite into those chewy, tough kernels and it was all I could do not to set the ear down and leave it be for the rest of the meal.

That was not sweet corn. If you’ve ever had an ear at its peak ripeness, you know the difference. Good corn is crisp with kernels that literally explode with flavor in your mouth. There is nothing quite like it.

Fortunately, I haven’t had a difficult time finding good corn here. There is a farm nearby that grows corn in the summer and pumpkins in the fall and winter. I usually try to buy from them, but even the ears I pick up at the grocery store from time to time tend to be really great.

Lentils with Mustard Greens and Heirloom Tomatoes

August 13, 2017

I realize that it’s way too early for comfort food, but lately I’ve had the urge to get out my Instant Pot and start making beans and lentils again.

My favorite thing is a one bowl meal, and now that I actually use a pressure cooker, they’ve gotten easier.

I don’t post a lot of IP recipes on here because I know everyone doesn’t have one (and I could never be convinced to use a traditional pressure cooker), but this simple lunch turned out so good that I had to share.

Grilled Stuffed Baby Eggplant with Goat Cheese, Walnuts, and Prosciutto

August 9, 2017

I was digging through the long, purple Japanese eggplant at the farmers market on a recent Saturday morning. Suddenly I spotted a much smaller, baby eggplant. As I started to pull away the larger variety, I found more and began piling as many as I could into my hands the crook of my arm.

Seeing my determination, the vendor came over and pulled away the larger eggplants so I could find more. Clearly, he understood my mission.

Eggplant is one of those vegetables that I always have to research after I buy it to learn the exact name. These were Indian eggplant, which are often simply called baby eggplant. At about 2 inches long, it’s no surprise why they got the latter name.

At that point, I had no idea what I was going to do with them. That sums up most of my farmers market strategy – buy now, think later.

I’d seen these eggplants stuffed and baked before, but we had plans to fire up the grill that night so I took a different approach.

Roasted Grape and Rosemary Cocktail

August 6, 2017

I’ve always considered grapes to be a fall food. Maybe it’s their deep purple color, or that I was always used to concord grapes growing up. Those are a fall fruit, but table grapes are harvested in the summer here. As in right about now.

That’s one of the cool things that one gets to witness here in the Valley. Harvest of just about everything is an incredible operation to observe.

So I bought a few crisp, sweet red and purple grapes, which are really purple and almost black. Beautiful.

They are, of course, good fresh, but they are also excellent roasted. A half hour in the oven and they become even sweeter with caramelized notes. So if you can stand heating up the oven in the summer, roasted grapes are the way to go.

They go well in desserts, on pizzas, and in cocktails…