Lori, Author at Fake Food Free

Skillet Sweet Corn Salad with White Nectarine

June 22, 2017

Skillet Corn Salad with White Nectarines Recipe | Fake Food Free

There are two things I love about summer – sweet corn and white nectarines.

Normally, I wouldn’t think of putting the two together, but lately I’ve had this thing for mixing fruits into savory foods. I’m a huge fan of the of sweet and savory and combining fruits and veggies feels like a better habit to me than, say, eating too much salted caramel.

So blueberries sometimes find their way into chicken salad and cherries often appear in my bean salads.

Given this new habit I found myself wanting to try nectarines with my corn. My first thought was a corn fruit salsa, but then I decided to skip the chips and eat this as a summer side dish.

Iced Blackberry Latte

June 15, 2017

We got a new kitchen.

If you’ve been following me on social media, it’s been a huge spoiler alert, I know. I’ve been showing the process for the past seven weeks or so.

As of the first week of June, we were back to a fully functional kitchen (YAY!). But as these things go, there are some odds and ends that need to be finished up. So I’m not ready for an official reveal.

Soon.

And I’ll also share some about the process of outsourcing this type of thing. I’ve had a lot of people ask if we did the work ourselves and the answer is a satisfying no.

Dry-Rubbed Grilled Whole Chicken with Chili-Lager Barbecue Sauce

June 13, 2017

This juicy grilled whole chicken is brushed with a rich and tangy barbecue sauce made of dried chilies and beer. It’s the perfect recipe to ring in a season of grilling.

This post is sponsored by Petaluma Poultry – Home of ROCKY® and ROSIE® Chicken.

This probably sounds silly, but the first time I grilled a whole chicken, I considered it a huge culinary accomplishment. I say it sounds silly now because it is really not that difficult at all.

It looks fancy, sure. But it’s one of the most hands-off forms of grilling you can do. Once you rub down the bird with the herbs and seasonings of your choice, you simply place it on the grill and let it cook while all that flavor gets sealed inside.

Food Photography Workshop in Italy

June 9, 2017

If you work as a creative in any form, you know what I mean when I say that sometimes you need the artistic version of a swift kick in the pants.

Things grow stale. You lose inspiration, struggle to find new ideas, and become sluggish both mentally and physically.

You need something to ignite that spark again. Not the spark that says, “Let’s do this!” It’s more of that spark that says, “My goodness, look at the beauty there. You must capture it and then recreate it!”

I’m familiar with that physical motivation spark. It’s gotten me through almost a dozen half marathons. But that creative spark is new territory for me. I often feel it is much, much harder to ignite once it begins to fizzle.

So I went to Italy.

California Ripe Olive Grilled Flatbread with Basil Ricotta, Provolone, Lemon Greens, and Edible Flowers

June 6, 2017

Thank you to the California Olive Committee for sponsoring this post. Although I was compensated to write this post, all opinions are my own.

I drive by olive trees on a regular basis here in the South Central Valley.

I’m a little obsessed with them.

One, they are some of the prettiest trees out there, all willowy with draping branches and a color that can turn from deep green to steel blue depending on how the wind blows. Two, I am a heavy consumer of both extra virgin olive oil and ripe, or table, olives.

I was informed of a small fact soon after my identification of the olive tree, though. The olives that make these two products are not one in the same. Basically, there are oil olives and ripe olives. Their varieties, oil content, color, and culinary use is different.

I’ve learned quite a bit about oil olives over the past few years, but my knowledge of ripe olives was minimal. So, when I received an invitation from the California Olive Committee for a trip to St. Helena at the Culinary Institute of America (CIA) Greystone to fill my gap in knowledge, as you would expect, I quickly accepted. I soon hit the road for a lovely four hour drive from California’s Central Valley to the Napa Valley.

Grilled Cherry Salad with Garbanzo Beans, Cilantro, and Lime

May 12, 2017

I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve abruptly slammed on my brakes at the sight of fruit for sale since moving to California. Don’t worry, I’m careful. But at least one of every 10 drives involves a brake and swerve.

In this case, it was local cherries.

I’d lost track of the timing since last year, and I wasn’t quite sure what week to expect seeing trucks with them for sale parked at intersections. I was less than a mile from the house last week, when a truck came into view.

No. It couldn’t be. Is it that time already?

I was coming from behind the display so the truck was blocking my view. But just as I got close enough to see those round, glossy cherries piled high in cups lining a folding table – brake, swerve, park.

Hawaiian Products to Buy at Costco Kauai

May 2, 2017

If you’ve traveled to just about any island of Hawaii, you know what I’m talking about. The plane lands, you grab the rental car, and head straight to Costco.

You will randomly hear folks talk about it around California – we just stock up on food at Costco. Saving money by having your own snacks on hand or grilling at your condo’s shared picnic area is a common practice. I really didn’t realize how common until we were browsing the aisles of Costco Kauai and we saw at least 3 other families that were on our flight from San Jose. (We also all ended up at Kauai Beer Co. You can read about that great place in my recap of what to eat in Kauai.)

This type of post is a little out of character for Fake Food Free (I picked up some fresh fruit, too, don’t worry), but after finding some really great Hawaiian products and realizing that a lot of people search for info about Costco Kauai, I really wanted to share what we found. It didn’t get really exciting until we stumbled into the local products section towards the front of the store. That’s where I may have gone a little crazy. Crazy meaning we ended up bringing back some unopened packages due to overbuying.

The best part is that many of these things are great for hiking, which we did a lot of to stay active in Kauai. From jerky to macadamia nuts, we found so many great things to try.

What to Eat in Kauai

April 27, 2017

I heard it so many times before we left. Then even from locals when we arrived.

“Kauai really doesn’t have the best food,” they would say. It was quickly followed up with a listing of all the things that Kauai does have the best of – beaches, vegetation, hiking, wildlife.

It’s probably my fault. When you work in food, people know you travel for food. I think they were just looking out for me; trying to save me from disappointment.

Truth be told, though, I really didn’t think it was that bad. In fact, we managed to scope out some really good food. Enough that I felt like I should share a bit about what to eat in Kauai.

Pineapple Tart with Italian Meringue

April 24, 2017

Focusing on local foods all the time can stall your creativity. I’m speaking from personal experience here. Of course, when food is on, it is ON. I can sing the praises of fresh berries and cherries for weeks, celebrate citrus all winter, and focus my whole world around apples and pumpkins in the fall.

But even in California there is this short time of the food blahs. Or at least the food blogger and recipe developer blahs. For me, that time falls when I’ve squeezed every bit of creativity out of citrus for the season and I’m waiting for the strawberries and cherries to start. Right about now.

It’s this time when I’m glad I embrace global foods as much as I do local.

Crab Cakes Benedict with Buttermilk Herb Sauce

April 18, 2017

This twist on one of my favorite brunch meals pairs Crab Cakes Benedict with the crisp 2013 Oak Knoll Chardonnay sent to me this month from Cultivar Wine.

We were at least a year into our time living in the Bay Area before I discovered Crab Cakes Benedict. To be honest, I’d probably only started eating regular Eggs Benedict not long before that.

The crab cake version, though? Well, it blew the old standby away. In all honesty, I can’t say that I was a super huge fan of the original anyway. The Canadian bacon on the English muffin didn’t do much for me, nor did the sauce.

But Crab Cakes Benedict is a whole different story.