I'm Still a Southern Gal!

Perhaps I am missing Texas or perhaps I was inspired by tomato season...either way I thought it would be fun to experiment with a southern classic, fried green tomatoes! Who doesn't love 'em? I picked some up from Green City Market Wednesday morning. Leaning Shed Farm had an excellent selection from which I chose a variety called green apple. These tomatoes were firm enough to fry up which is what makes an excellent fried green tomato. To go along, we whipped up some tarragon aioli using fresh herbs from my garden. These make a great dinner served on top fresh arugula or other veggies for a complete southern, vegetarian meal! Enjoy!

Fried Green Tomatoes
2 large green tomatoes
1 cup cornmeal
1/4 cup all purpose flour
Paprika to taste
Garlic powder to taste
Salt and pepper to taste
1 egg
Vegetable oil for frying

Tarragon Aioli
2 egg yolks at room temperature
4 garlic cloves
I TBS fresh tarragon
1 lemon
1 cup olive oil
Salt to taste

For the tomatoes: beat the egg in a bowl and set aside. Combine all dry ingredients. Slice the tomatoes about a 1/2 inch thick. Dip slices into egg wash then fully coat them with the dry ingredients. Bring vegetable oil to a very high heat, ideally using a cast iron skillet for maximum browning. Fry the tomatoes about one minute each side.

For the aioli: In a food processor mince the tarragon and garlic. Then add the egg yolk. The mixture will come to a paste. Slowly add the olive oil while mixing. Add the squeeze of one lemon and add salt to taste. Refrigerate before serving.

Sunday Salsa!

Tomato and pepper season have overlapped! What else would you make other than some spicy salsa? I can eat it by the spoon full (just ask #thesweetest!)

 Saturday morning, I picked up my salsa ingredients from The Green City Market. There are a few different farms you can find there every weekend. Tomatoes, garlic and onions from Leaning Shed Farm, jalepeños from Nichols Farm and cilantro from Genisis Growers. If you live in Chicago and haven't payed Green City Market a visit, you are truly missing out!

After a quick roast of the jalapeños and a rough chop of the tomatoes and onions, the ingredients can be thrown into a food processor or blender for a quick and delicious salsa. Warning: do not put your contacts in after making salsa! I learned this the hard way. Enjoy! I know I will...on some tacos!

Sunday Salsa

About a dozen vine tomatoes or plum tomatoes
About 8 jalapeños
2 small red onions
1 head of garlic
1 bunch of cilantro
Salt

Roast jalapeños under broiler for about 20 minutes. Remove stems and most of the seeds (more seeds = more heat). Cut tomatoes in half and squeeze out excess juice and seeds. Roughly cut tomatoes into smaller pieces to fit into food processor. Do the same with the onions, cilantro and entire garlic head. Place all ingredients in food processor and blend until desired consistency. Add salt to taste. Refrigerate overnight for the best flavor, if you can wait that long!

Sunday Brunchday!

If you live in Chicago you are aware that Chicagoans love their brunch. Especially on Sunday morning. There are people waiting outside as far as the eye can see. #Thesweetest and I don't go out for brunch often, but when we do, we do it right.

Brunch can often be strange. A large meal at 11 o'clock or so, leaves one confused. Do I eat a late dinner? Just an early snack then hit the hay? Despite being thrown off your meal schedule, brunch can be a great way to relax and indulge a bit before the work week.

So you ask, what is my brunch of choice? Longman & Eagle, the hip hotel and restaurant located in Logan Square. They sold me before I ever walked in the place. The sign on the front door reads "Eat, sleep, whiskey" How could you possibly go wrong?

Garrett and I snagged a spot at the bar. The best place to sit if you ask me. You have plain view of the open kitchen and it's just a stone's throw away from the bartender.

Garrett and I started with their special blend of coffee "Darkman & Eagle" which was made in collaboration with Dark Matter Coffee, my absolute favorite coffee in the world. That already makes this place perfect and I haven't even gotten to the food!

I went with the PBR breakfast, sans PBR. I told you this place was hip. This included eggs any style, sausage or bacon and house potatoes. Of course I went scrambled with bacon although, L&E makes their sausage in house, maybe next time. What can I say? I'm a bacon girl. And don't even get me started on those potatoes... perfectly crispy on the outside and soft on the inside, sprinkled with chives.

Garrett opted for a not-so-brunchy entree. He has recently become obsessed with Cuban sandwiches since watching the movie Chef. So naturally that is what he ordered. Complete with pork belly and
house made zuchinni pickles. Oh and beef fat fries. Don't forget the beef fat fries. Doesn't sound like a bad brunch option huh?

After we...and by we, I mean me... cleared our plates we headed over to the Logan Square Farmers Market to pick up some flowers. The perfect Sunday if you ask me! Hope you all had a great one too!

Pineapple Skirt Steak... For One!

After 13 continuous workdays and #thesweetest out of town, the best way I know how to spend my Saturday night is making a delicious dinner for myself. Being physically exhausted, I knew I needed to make something that was going to refuel my body to the max! Red meat always seems to do the trick when I'm feeling low on energy.

I happened to have some leftover pineapple juice in my refrigerator that I used to make Janet Sweet's skinny piña colada (you must give this a try!). Pineapple juice is an excellent way to marinate steak, especially cuts like skirt steak, that are more known for their flavor, not their tenderness. Also, very dancer budget friendly at $10/ lb. The acid in the pineapple breaks down the fibers in the meat, making it very tender with a touch of sweetness! Topped with sautéed onions and paired with roasted sweet potato and a simple heirloom tomato salad, you have well rounded meal to treat yourself on a Saturday night!

Here is my recipe for Pineapple Skirt Steak! Enjoy!

About 1/2 lb skirt steak
Pure Organic Pineapple Juice (enough to cover steak)
1 garlic bulb
1 jalapeño
1 Vidaila onion
Olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 350'. Roughly chop 1/3 Vidaila onion, jalepeño, and garlic. For extra spice leave the seeds in the jalapeño. Season skirt steak with olive oil, salt and pepper and place in a gallon zip-loc bag. Add your chopped vegetables and pineapple juice to the steak and let marinade for at least an hour. Overnight is best. When ready to cook, heat olive oil on high heat in a cast iron skillet. You want the pan very hot. Sear the steak about 30 seconds per side and then place in the oven for about 3 minutes (skirt steak is very thin and cooks very quickly). Remove steak from heat and let rest. While the steak is resting sautée the rest of your onion (cut into rings) in some of the remaining marinade. Use the same cast iron for maximum char on the onions (yum!). Serve with roasted sweet potatoes, simple salad and a side of avocado or whatever your heart desires!

Marinated Steak

Show Day Eats

Yesterday I had my first show of the season with River North. It was held at The Ruth Page Center for Dance and it was for the kids taking the River North Dance Chicago Summer Intensive. We only performed four pieces, so it was an easier show for the company, normally our shows are twice as long, lasting about two hours. Regardless, I have to prepare myself just the same on any show day. One of the questions I get asked the most is, "what do you eat on show days?" Well, it is your lucky day because I am going to tell you exactly how I fuel myself for a hard days work, and how I treat myself at the end of it all!

5:00 am- I am up for spin class and I get my day started with a piece of Ezekiel bread, toasted, with peanut butter and coffee, lots of coffee. Ezekiel bread is a sprouted whole grain bread, that is a complete source of protein, contains 18 amino acids, high in fiber and low in sugar. If you are going to eat bread, this is my healthy pick!

6:00 am- Because I have an easier show tonight, I go to spin class. I have to be careful about extra exercise on show days because I do not want to tire my legs out. On this day, I think it will be a good warm up.

8:00 am- More coffee. And a plain croissant, because it is Friday.

9:30 am- Ballet class. Some people may think ballet class is for little girls in tutus, but it is really not. A professional dancer's ballet class is very intense and you have to be very focused to learn difficult combinations and perform at your best.

11:00 am- On this particular day, because of the workshop going on, I get a break. Time to eat again! I have an apple and a peanut butter, chocolate Quest Bar. Some good carbs and protein to fuel my rehearsal.

12:30 am- Rehearsal time for the show tonight! We space through the pieces with lighting and we are ready to go!

2:15 pm- Physical therapy. Athletico,  the local PT company who works with many of the Chicago sports teams also works on us. Today I have them work on my left metatarsal which I injured last season. Injuries are something you have to stay on top of, otherwise they will keep returning. We don't want that!

2:30 pm- Another break! I meet #thesweetest in the park. At this point I have not really had a "lunch." That is because on show days, when I wont be eating dinner until late, I like to break up my lunch into two parts so I do not feel too full and I do not get too hungry. Today I have another apple and Fage Greek Yogurt. I know, another apple, but there are worse things than having two apples in one day.

5:30 pm- Showtime!

7:00 pm- I am finally done for the day! Me and #thesweetest head across the street to Italian restaurant, Nico Osteria, one of Paul Kahan's many restaurants in the city. Others include Big Star, The Publican and Publican Quality Meats. All equally delicious! After about a 15 hour day at the office, a show and a grueling week I think it is time to treat myself. The dinner we had did not disappoint. When most people think Italian they think heavy cheese laden dishes. Not at Nico! We had the freshest of the land and sea! Oh and some pasta of course!

 (Front) Beef Tongue with, sepia, Persian cucumber and sea urchin aioli (Back) Octopus with favetta, grapefruit and preserved lemon

 Softshell Crab alla Romana with Bibb lettuce, salsa verde and agro mosto

Goat Cheese Caramelle with English peas, morels, hazelnuts and saba

Raspberry Jam...For My Gramma!

This summer I took up a new hobby...canning! People have been canning, pickling, and preserving food for a very long time. When my boyfriend (#thesweetest) gave me Paul Virant's cookbook, Preservation Kitchen, I decided I was going to can as many things as I could this summer. This way I will have flavorful produce all winter long. (All miserable, Chicago winter, long)

Among my pickled ramps, asparagus and giardinera, my favorite thing I have canned is jam! After grape, blueberry and rhubarb, I decided it was time for my favorite, raspberry! I'm a sucker for toast and jam just like my Gramma Yvonne was! In fact one of my last memories of her was back in Texas as she sat at our kitchen counter drinking her tea and eating toast with jam. It was raspberry, one of her favorites.

Gramma Yvonne in front of The Indian Ocean

While making jam today, I wished more than anything I could send her a jar. Receiving a jar of fresh jam may be the best gift you could give because it is made with love and fresh ingredients! I used Mick Klug raspberries from Green City Market. Here is an easy recipe for my raspberry jam!

Mick Klug Raspberries

 Raspberry Jam for Gramma Yvonne

4 cups raspberries
4 cups sugar
1 lemon
4 half pint mason jars

Bring raspberries, sugar and juice of one lemon to boil. After mixture reaches a boil, reduce to simmer. Simmer until mixture coats the back of a spoon. (About 20 minutes)

While the raspberry mixture is simmering, process your jars. Bring empty mason jars to a boil in a tall pot. When the jam is ready and the jars have come to a boil, fill the jars with the jam leaving about a 1/2 in space at the top of the jar. Put the lids on the jars just tight enough so they stay on, you don't want the lids too snug. Put the jars in back in the boiling water. Make sure the water covers the tops of the jars. Boil for about ten minutes. Remove the jars and let cool. Soon you will hear the snap of the lids. This means the jars are sealed! Let them rest for a day, then enjoy!

Back to Work: What's for Lunch?

Being a dancer, I often get asked, "what do you eat for lunch?" It is a common misconception that dancers don't eat but the reality is, we have to eat! Without fuel I could not get through my day, which usually consists of yoga or spin class at 6 a.m. followed by a 9:30 a.m. ballet class that leads into about 5 hours of rehearsal. As you can see I have a very physically exhausting schedule. By eating small snacks throughout the day and getting good rest I am able to execute my best work.

I though it would be fun to show you all what I eat for lunch each week. In order to save money and time, I usually make one large grain and vegetable salad accompanied by fruit. For my first week back to work I made a quinoa tabbouleh with chickpeas. It is filling and light so it gives me the energy I need without weighing me down. Enjoy!

Using a mason jar makes is easy to measure portions

Quinoa Tabbouleh
(Makes enough for about 5 days worth of lunch. About 1 1/2 cups)

1 1/2 cups quinoa dry
1 can chickpeas (drained)
1 cup parsley chopped
1 pint cherry tomatoes sliced in half
3 Persian cucumbers diced
Olive oil (enough to lightly coat salad)
Juice of one lemon
1 clove garlic chopped
salt and pepper to taste

Prepare quinoa and then add  the rest of the ingredients. Chill overnight for the best flavor!