I have some strong opinions about tofu. To be honest, I feel sorry for it. Somewhere along the lines in our food culture it got pegged as a health-nut, granola, only-vegans-eat-it kind of food.
If those are the reasons you eat it, that’s great and all, but I discovered tofu in a much different way and associate it with a very different style of eating.
I’m happy to say that Fake Food Free has transitioned to the Substack Newsletter called Every Corner of the World.
I hope to see you there.
If you want Mexican or Latin inspired cuisine, this area has you covered regarding ingredients. Asian and Indian ingredients can be a lot harder to come by.
BUT, a new Indian supermarket opened here a few weeks ago. It makes me smile just to remind myself of my new shopping option.
I recently grabbed a basket and filled it to the brim with every ingredient I’d been missing for the past 8 months or so. One thing I quickly came across were tapioca pearls, or sago or sagu. It’s one ingredient that crosses over into Brazilian cuisine. I first learned of sagu de vinho when we lived there. If you click on that link, it will take you to a very old post from 2009 that features my first time making it at home.
The first time I had sweet rice was when we traveled around Thailand in 2009. By sweet rice, I mean mango sticky rice. By had, I mean I ordered it at just about every location with it on the menu.
That stuff is the best of all dessert worlds in one — fresh mango, nutty, chewy rice and a heavy drizzle of rich sweetened condensed milk. It really broadened my vision of rice for dessert.
To be honest, I’ve never made it at home. That is mainly because I have yet to find a mango in the US that holds a candle to those that we ate in Southeast Asia and Brazil.
It came to mind, though, recently when I started talking with the organizers of the Fresno Food Expo.
I know. I didn’t realize there was a Fresno Food Expo until just this year.
I know, I know. I completely skipped over my four favorites for May.
That’s not the worst of it, though. I also missed this blog’s anniversary.
Again.
I haven’t remembered one year, in fact.
Mid-summer rolls around and I think — Oh, that’s right. I started this blog in May of 2008. I forget. Every time.
I’m back on track now, though. And so far this summer I have encountered some really great stuff. A coffee subscription service, a book I know you know about but that you should still read, a blog that inspires me and a lavender ranch.
In case, you are new around here, my monthly (or sort of monthly) Four Favorites is where I share my favorite finds in the form of a brand, a book, a blog and a (travel) break.
This shrimp dip layers flavors and textures to create a delicious and easy to make summer appetizer. It pairs well with the 2015 Cultivar Napa Valley Rose that I received from Cultivar Wine!
Shrimp is a summer food to me. I rarely have it in the kitchen until hot days begin to bring about thoughts of the beach and ocean.
My shrimp recipes are pretty standard — tossed with pasta, stirred into sweet corn risotto or wrapped into Asian-inspired spring rolls. When I found a bag of sustainably harvested small shrimp (often called salad shrimp) at the market last week, though, I was too excited to use it in one of my regular recipes.
I’d been having trouble finding shrimp from a good source so when that find lined up with my shrimp season, I needed to celebrate a little.
I’ve never been a huge fan of chilled soups, but lately they’ve had my full attention. A couple weeks ago I tried a new chilled cucumber soup, and this past week I was inspired to start working on this tomatillo soup.
I expect it probably has a lot to do with the heat, but I promised I wouldn’t spend all summer talking about that.
Let’s focus on the soup.
This berry salad combines blackberries and strawberries with fresh herbs from the garden. It’s my celebration of access to so much delicious local produce all summer long.
A couple of weeks into the month of May, it dawned on me that I have yet to live in a place where so many of summer’s fruits and vegetables are in season at the same time.
I realized it when I stopped by the farm stand to grab some berries and found myself staring at cherries, strawberries, boysenberries, blackberries and blueberries. All local, all harvested that morning just a few feet away.
This dark chocolate bark is studded with salted cashews, toasted coconut and dried currants. It makes a delicious dessert when paired with the Laphroaig 10 Year Islay Single Malt Scotch Whisky I recently received for review.
If my Dad could total up the number of pounds of cashews he has received as Father’s Day gifts over the years, I have little doubt it could fill the back of a pick-up truck. There has always been something essential about a can of his favorite nuts being a part of his gifts.
I suspect my tendency to give food as a gift is rooted in this family practice. But these days, while my family tends to stick with things like cashews, our gift giving has expanded into the drink category.
These candied ginger scones are made with almond and spelt flours. Fresh lemon zest brightens the flavor for summer and zucchini keeps each bite soft and tender.
I’m happy to say that Fake Food Free has transitioned to the Substack Newsletter called Every Corner of the World.
I hope to see you there.
I promise I won’t spend all summer talking about the heat. But I also won’t fool myself into thinking this is going to be easy. 100 degree temps June through about October is going to take some getting used to.
Even more so because I am not a summer person. Summer has always been my least favorite season of the year. I’m all about fall. I even love the cold temps of winter, although I’m glad that I now get to drive to the snow versus having it come to me.
Despite my cool weather preferences, the one thing summer has never done is kept me from baking. I still gladly fire up the oven. That’s what the air conditioner is for, right?
Remember way back when? To that time when I used to post updates of blooms and blossoms, tiny starts of vegetables and baskets of garden harvests? At that time, I often used random posts here as my gardening journal.
Then we moved, and I failed epically at apartment container gardening.
Looking back, I now consider those gardening experiences to be on both ends of the extreme – a full acre with a 15 by 20 foot garden and then an apartment balcony turned small backyard with nothing but a couple pots.
I do believe I’ve finally found my gardening balance.
