Of Travel and Tortellini

Filed under Food, Recipes, Travel by on 27 April 2011 at 8:48 pm {2 comments}

When Foodbuzz and Barilla announced a contest where the grand prize was a trip to Italy, I knew I had to enter. Even if I don’t win, I’ll take any excuse to talk about my love of Italian food.

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While I adore Paris, for its culture and beauty, if my stomach is ever allowed to choose a destination it will always choose Italy. Jeremy and I dined at numerous places all over Italy in the summer of 2009, but my favorite places to eat were in Siena and The Cinque Terre. It was in Siena that I learned to love tomatoes. It was in Siena that I tasted wild boar. It was in Siena that I had pici. While in Siena, one of the best places I ate was Osteria Il Campaccio.

 

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An osteria is a small establishment that caters to regular customers and serves local food. These are the types of places I like to eat while traveling; the food is for the locals which means it’s consistently delicious and offers a genuine experience. At Osteria Il Campaccio, I had this meal – cheese ravioli with roasted tomatoes.

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It looks so simple, but it was so good. I’ve recreated this meal with a twist for the Foodbuzz and Barilla contest. Barilla makes their tortellini in Parma, Italy, which adds an air of authenticity to everything. Unfortunately, Barilla tortellini isn’t available at any of my local grocery stores, so I had to use store brand. I’d suggest enjoying a bottle of Montepulciano because it’s fun to say and drink.

Print
Roasted Tomatoes and Tortellini
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 

Serves: 2
 

Ingredients
  • Barilla spinach and ricotta tortellini ¾ of a bag
  • 2 cups cherry tomatoes
  • 2 cloves of garlic peeled
  • cup olive oil
  • Parmesan or Asiago cheese
  • Kosher salt & cracked black pepper

Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 350.
  2. Toss tomatoes and garlic in a tablespoon or two of olive oil and a ½ teaspoon of kosher salt, spread them on a baking pan.
  3. Roast tomatoes in the oven for about 15 minutes, tossing after 7 minutes. When the tomatoes have finished roasting, they should be heated and plump.
  4. While tomatoes are roasting, prepare the pasta.
  5. Chop the roasted garlic and sauté it in the remaining olive oil on medium heat. Before the garlic begins to brown, remove from heat and add the tomatoes and pasta.
  6. Serve with a garnish of chopped basil, cracked black pepper, and cheese

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For A Wicked Picky Eatah

Filed under Real Food by on 30 September 2010 at 10:06 pm {4 comments}

If you’ve read more than three food posts on this blog, you know I’m picky. Here in New England, I’m considered a “wicked picky eatah.”

One of the aspects I am most picky about is bread. If bread has seeds, I will literally gag. I just can’t handle it. Yes this makes me five, but I’m ok with that. Even though I don’t like seeds in my bread, it doesn’t mean I can’t eat bread that’s good for me. Enter Nature’s Pride 100% Whole Wheat Soft Bread, sure they are marketing it to families with little kids, but hey I am who I am. There’s nothing artificial in this bread, so even though there aren’t any seeds; I can still feel good about eating it.

Nature’s Pride is sponsoring people to come to the Foodbuzz Festival in San Francisco and utilize their bread in new and improved ways. While they will get tons of awesome submissions, they may not all be friendly for those of us with selective taste buds. It’s no secret how much I love to travel to new places, so I would be ecstatic if I won this contest. Here is my attempt:

Grown Up (or at least I can pretend) Grilled Cheese:

  • Garlic & Chive Cheddar – you know I always use Cabot
  • Bacon – Get it good and crispy
  • Butter – good salted butter, don’t skimp here
  • Basil Mayo  – for dipping; whirl fresh basil, pepper and mayonnaise in a food processor
  1. Cook bacon – it’s important for it to be flat, so get out that electric griddle
  2. Slice garlic & chive cheese and keep it on the thin side
  3. Butter bread
  4. Add cheese and bacon
  5. Cook on medium low until golden brown and crispy

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Enjoy your Grown Up Grilled Cheese with a side salad, basil mayo for dipping, and a grown up beverage; I went with a white wine from Chile.

*This is my official entry to be a  Nature’s Pride Bread Ambassador. I did not recieve this bread from Nature’s Pride.

Zambia – The Real Africa

Filed under Project Food Blog, Real Food, Recipes, Travel by on 25 September 2010 at 8:02 pm {40 comments}

Project Food Blogger Challenge #2 – Cook the typical cuisine from a country outside your comfort zone.

There are places in this world where a hippo can kill you quicker than a lion, where little boys bow on one knee when they shake your hand calling you ma’am, where bright, red chili peppers are dried on the ground, and people have so little it is amazing they can survive at all.  peppers at the farm

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In 2004, Jeremy and I went on a medical mission trip to Zambia – specifically northern Zambia.  Being half African-American, it was my chance to get to the motherland. When I stepped off the plane in Johannesburg, I felt like the land was vibrating to me, “welcome back.” Maybe that’s a little too Maya Angelou for you, but it is really how I felt.

JHN to Lusaka2 

Little did I know someone who is bi-racial sticks out 10 times more in Africa than in the U.S. Not only was this my first trip to Africa, it was also my first time off the continent of North America. I always wanted to travel and see the world. This trip provided me with a chance to see a big chunk of the spinning, blue ball in a way not many people have. I went on safari and saw waterfalls, lions, zebras, elephants, hippos, and monkeys.

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While getting back to the motherland and seeing a new continent was amazing, neither compares to what it was like to work with the people of Zambia and be able to give what little I could.

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We gave them basic medical, vision, and dental care and ran a daily VBS program all over Northern Zambia. Mostly, I did a lot of hand holding and vitamin giving, at which I was exceedingly good. They gave me a huge appreciation for where and how I get to live, and a realization that you can be both thankful and content in difficult situations. Even when all you hear on TV is war, death, and poverty, there are genuinely good people in the world.

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It is with great respect, passion, and nostalgia that I give you the cuisine of Zambia. The two main staples in Zambian cuisine are Nshima and meat stew, neither of which I have ever attempted to make. Finding authentic recipes proved difficult. I’ve looked at several sources and used the tastes from my memory to create these recipes. Here is my  attempt at Zambian cuisine.

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Chicken Stew

Ingredients:

4 chicken thighs
2 cups kale or spinach
1 medium tomato – chopped 
1/2 onion – chopped
2 inch piece of ginger  shredded
1 chili pepper – chopped
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1.5 tsp salt
Peanut flour (ground peanuts or peanut powder)
Water
Oil

Procedure:

1. Begin by sautéing the onion, ginger, and pepper
2. Add 3 cups of water and chicken to the pot
3. Boil until chicken is fully cooked
4. Add vegetables, baking soda, salt and peanut powder
5. Simmer allowing the soup to thicken

 

Nshima

Ingredients:
4 Cups Water
2 Cups plain corn meal

Procedure:

1. Add water to pot heat on high until luke warm
2 .One tablespoon at a time sprinkle ¾ cup of corn mean into pot, stir continuously with a wooden spoon
3 .Stir until mixture is thick and boiling
4 .Lower heat to medium, cover and simmer for 3 – 5 minutes
5. Add 1 ¼ cups of corn meal and stir briskly
6. Add more corn meal until you arrive at desired thickness – You want to be able to pick the nshima up with your hand to dip in your stew.
7. Remove from heat and allow nshima to sit for 2 – 3 minutes

Eating:
In Zambia many people use the nshima to eat their stew, so wash your hands and dig in. We enjoyed our Zambian feast with our fingers outside.

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Both the nshima and the stew tasted really close to what I remembered. One thing that was missing was the food being cooked over an open fire. I’m so thankful that I got to the second round. Making and eating this meal was a lot of fun. Thanks for your votes and congrats to everyone else who made it too.

 

 

Special thanks to
Dr. Tembo
World Hunger Country Facts

Rock the Vote

Filed under Project Food Blog by on 20 September 2010 at 4:43 pm {one comment}

If you have time, send a little love my way and vote for me in Project food blog.

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Here’s the link for my entry Challenge 1 – Ready, Set, Blog.

All you need to do is click the little heart. While you’re there you can for vote for 399 other bloggers, if you like.

Personally, I have a lot of voting to get done between the prep that needs to be done for my classes for the rest of the week.

Project Food Blog Challenge 1

Filed under Project Food Blog by on 16 September 2010 at 7:27 am {15 comments}

I wasn’t sure at first if I was ready to commit to Project Food Blog, but then I realized that only 400 bloggers will move to the next round. The likelihood of this being a time consumer is very slim. Because I am an English geek and love a good writing prompt, this challenge seemed perfect for me.

The Prompt: What defines you as a food blogger, and why should you be the next food blog star?

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As a food blogger, I think I am a bit of an anomaly.  You see, I am a terribly picky eater. If the texture is wrong or the taste is not to my preference I won’t eat it. I don’t like chocolate, milk, mushrooms, or steak. However over the last few years, I have learned to like some new things; one of the most treasured being red onions.

In addition to my selective taste buds, I think my background plays a big role in my food blogging. While I don’t know the reason, there aren’t too many food bloggers of color. My biracial and low socio-economic roots give me a different perspective than many other bloggers out there. For example, I only have one type of peanut butter and shock — it has sugar in it, but I love it. I’ll never leave you Jif Natural; don’t you worry.

FoodBlogProj My blog is simple and still fairly new. I don’t have 2000 readers or even 200, but I love this blog. Over the last year  it has been great learning new things about  health, fitness, and building a website, “meeting” new people, and experiencing all of the ways that food can be an adventure.

The truth is I’m no chef; I’m just a teacher who loves making things that make other people happy. I like making food that tastes really good and controlling all the ingredients. Being the next food blog star would present me with opportunities to continue in my food escapades.

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