Mother's Day is right around the corner and, given that I have the best mother on the planet, and given that my mother hinted a few days ago that she'd like some chocolates on her special day and liked the sound of coconut and rum in those chocolates, I spent a few hours last night making these rum and coconut cream molded beauties.

The guts are made of white chocolate, cream, toasted coconut, butter, Malibu Rum and Myers's Original Dark Rum.  The shell is a blend of Valrhona Equitoriale 55% Cocoa and Valrhona Grand Cru Guanaja 70% Cocoa.  These are pretty damn good, if you're into booze and chocolate and coconut . . . and they'll be in the mail this afternoon.

Happy Mother's Day, Mom.  You rockz and I love you!

        

Have you had enough of warm and cozy winter soups?  I have!  But that doesn't mean on done with soups altogether.  It's time for chilled spring and summer soups.  Asparagus and green garlic are in season, so I brought them together in one great soup . . . then threw it in my refrigerator overnight.  I'm pretty honest when the food I make up turns out mediocre and I don't waste your time with those recipes, but this one's a keeper.  I like this one so much that I ate it for breakfast this morning.  (I don't know if I would have felt compelled to breakfast on this soup had I not plated it for this photo in the morning light . . . but I did and I did.)  Also, this could easily be modified to be a vegetarian soup with the substitution of vegetable stock for the chicken stock, which would also reduce the fat . . . as would the use of low-fat yogurt, obviously.  But even without these modifications, this is a pretty damn healthy, seasonal, refreshing soup.  The following recipe serves 4 as a starter or side or light meal.

• 1 lb. asparagus
• 1 small onion, roughly chopped
• 8 small stalks of green garlic, roughly chopped (this amount could be reduced if you're not a huge fan of garlic)
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 4 cups chicken stock or broth
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• salt and pepper
• 1/4 cup (low-fat or full strength) yogurt

1. Remove tips from asparagus and set aside.  Remove bottom woody portion of asparagus stocks and discard.  (I find that if you hold the asparagus in two hands, place both thumbs under the stalk near the bottom and push, the stalk will snap cleanly in the perfect spot between the portion of the stalk too woody to eat and the delicious, tender portion of the stalk.)  Cut the stalks into 1 inch pieces.
2. Heat olive oil in a dutch oven or other large pot over medium-high heat.
3. Sauté onions for about 5 minutes until they become translucent and begin to brown.
4. Add the asparagus and green garlic.  Sauté for about 5 more minutes.
5. Add the chicken stock, bring it to a boil, then reduce the heat to low and simmer for 30 minutes.
6. Meanwhile, steam or blanch the asparagus tips for about 4 minutes, dunk them in a bowl of ice-water to stop the cooking, then drain them and refrigerate wrapped in a damp paper towel in a plastic bag until ready to use.
7. After 30 minutes of simmering the soup, remove it from heat, transfer it to a large mixing bowl, allow it to cool for 10 minutes or so, and then puree it in a blender.  Be careful when playing with hot liquids—and always start your blender on its slowest speed, then gradually increase the speed.
8. Add lemon juice, then salt and pepper to taste.
9. Refrigerate the soup until thoroughly chilled, preferably over night, but a few hours would probably suffice.
10. When you're ready to serve, check seasoning one more time, then ladle the chilled soup into bowls—shallow enough so you'll be able to see the asparagus tips sticking out of the soup.  Stir yogurt vigorously, then drizzle it on top of the soup and run a toothpick through it to make a funky pattern.  Finally, carefully place several asparagus tips in the center of the bowl and serve.

 

        

Crêpes are great anytime food . . . sweet or savory . . . breakfast, lunch or dinner . . . the possibilities are limitless.  Yesterday I made the crêpes pictured above using a modified version of the recipe in Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking.  I substituted skim milk for the whole milk, in the spirit my recent recommitment to healthy living.  It's amazing how much more willing I am to eat healthy food when I've woken at 7AM and spent a couple of hours biking and running—rather than feeling I've earned a decadent meal, I instead feel like I don't want to squander the effort . . . so, generally speaking, the more I exercise, the healthier I eat.

I'd forgotten how much I love crêpes before making these, using smoked sustainably harvested Alaskan Sockeye salmon together with some goat cheese and dill from the farmers market.  In the coming weeks, I'm going to develop my own recipe for a sort-of low-fat high-fiber buckwheat flour crêpe batter.  I didn't have any buckwheat flour when I whipped these up, but I've since picked some up . . . so I might make crêpes for dinner some evening this week with a new, experimental batter.  I'll also be molding more chocolate this week, given that Mothers Day is coming up and I want to send my mom something special.  And I picked up some great food at the farmers market . . . and was given a bag of beautiful mixed herbs grown by some friends on their rooftop patio . . . so stay tuned for kitchen adventures all week.

 

        

I had the pleasure of spending a few hours earlier today playing in the 7th Street Garden, which, by the way, rockz!  The first few hours of my time in the garden today were spent participating in a workshop on permaculture, given by the wonderful Wilson family . . . some folks traveling around the country in their PermiBus teaching communities about permaculture and general self-sufficient sustainable living skills . . . and blogging about it here.  I then spent some time gardening and taking these photos.  I couldn't imagine a better way to spend a Saturday.  I hope you're all enjoying the weekend.  Cheers.

        

Here's another farmers market meal to send you off into the weekend.  (By the way, rumor has it that local strawberries will be at DC's farmers markets this weekend!)  Tonight's dinner was a panko breaded pork cutlet from Cibola Farms, with a bit of goat cheese and lemon on a bed of steamed asparagus and roasted mushroom medley.  The lemon, pepper, breadcrumbs, olive oil and salt weren't locally produced, but the rest was.  Oh yeah, you can also catch a glimpse of some Whole Foods whole wheat wheat berry bread in the background.

I need to keep this post short.  Normally I post in the morning, but I've been summoned by Uncle Sam to potentially be a juror on a grand jury . . . and must report to DC's federal courthouse at 8:30AM.  If I'm selected, I'll have to report 2 days per week for 18 months . . . yes . . . you read that right . . . 18 months.  YIKES.  At any rate, I'm off to bed.  Happy Friday and enjoy the weekend, folks.  Get out there to your local farmers markets and see what's coming into season!

        

Well, I hope when I mentioned earlier this week that I was back to a healthy living routine that you didn't think I was done with candy making.  I was at a ballgame with friends Tuesday night, one of whom had a bag of Dark Chocolate Raisinets . . . with all sorts of health claims on the package . . . blah, blah, antioxidants, blah, blah . . . and I thought to myself, "Why haven't I made chocolate covered raisins?  Or chocolate covered other healthy things?"  I had no answer for myself.  So I decided that chocolate covered healthy things are the perfect candy for my new back to fitness campaign.  It's candy that's good for me, right?  These particular raisins are super healthy because they cost a lot and came from Whole Foods and are organic.  They're covered with a cocktail of tempered scraps of Michel Cluizel 72% cocoa and Valrhona 70% cocoa—leftover from other chocolatiering projects.  I didn't look at any recipe or instructions before making these last night . . . but I'm wondering if any of you might have some ideas for a not-incredibly-labor intensive way to produce individual chocolate covered raisins, as opposed to these chocolate covered raisin clusters.  I just dumped a half-pound bag of raisins into a pound of tempered chocolate, then spooned them out and spread them out on a wire mesh splatter screen, which allowed the excess chocolate to drain off.  They don't look very pretty, but they taste great.  I bet the Raisinets company uses a hi-tech, expensive chocolate enrobing machine that keeps the raisins separate from one another.  Any ideas?  I'm off to work with a bag of healthy candy for my co-workers.

        

After a long winter in hibernation, healthy Food Rockz Man has awoken.  You'll spot me at the gym more frequently and running along the C&O Canal on the weekends . . . and you'll spot more consciously-healthy food options here—more whole grains, less animal fat, etc.

Dinner Sunday night was a fennel seed and thyme encrusted Cibola Farms pork chop that I pan-seared and then finished in the oven with about 8 minutes of roasting at 450°F and then served on a bed of 7 whole grain pilaf.  I don't have time this morning . . . and I'm not in the mood . . . to write this up in my usual bulleted ingredients and numbered cooking steps.  So I'll give it to you in narrative form.  Feel free to post comments for more details if you want them.

Alongside the pork chop are some roasted whole baby golden beets and chopped apples, which I roasted in separate pieces of tin foil for about 30 minutes at 450°F.  I cored and peeled the apples before roasting and removed the skin from the beets after roasting.  I topped the beets and apples with an apple cider vinegar reduction sauce that I made with 1 cup of apple cider vinegar, a cinnamon stick, a bay leaf and two tablespoons of corn syrup, which I reduced to about two tablespoons (enough to serve two . . . a little goes a long way).

Also alongside the pork chop are the beet greens, sautéed in olive oil with two stalks of green garlic . . . the white bottoms of the young garlic sautéed first for 3 or 4 minutes, with the green garlic tops and the beet greens then added for another 3 or 4 minutes of sautéing.

I'm not the only one waking up from my winder hibernation . . . local farms are, too.  In this meal, the beets and beet greens, apples, pork, green garlic and thyme were all grown/raised locally.  Every week there are a few new items at the farmers market . . . and the selection will soon explode.  I can't wait!

        

I spent the latter half of last week in Austin, TX on a business trip and, thanks to recommendations from several of you, I put on about five pounds while I was there.  Austin food rockz!  Austin provides two distinctive food options nearly absent from DC . . . BBQ and Tex-Mex . . . so that's what I focused on.  The only thing lacking on my visit was more time to eat.  I received so many recommendations from all ya all and from people I met in Austin that I was only able to try a fraction of them.  I need to get back to Austin sometime soon.

I didn't photograph everything I ate.  In fact, I didn't take very many photos.  I was too busy enjoying the food.



In the Tex-Mex category, I thoroughly enjoyed the huevos rancheros at the always-open Magnolia Cafe (notice the "Sorry We're Open" sign), as well as the chipotle chicken enchiladas at Las Manitas and carnitas tacos at Güero's Taco Bar.  Sorry, I didn't take any photos of the Tex-Mex food; but I did take some photos of the barbecue.



On Thursday evening, I had dinner at The Ironworks BBQ . . . I ordered and devoured the sampler plate . . . beef brisket, a beef rib and sausage.





And on Friday night I walked about 2 miles to get to Ruby's BBQ . . . recommended by one of my cab drivers as the best BBQ in Austin . . . and I later learned that Tony Bourdain and his cameras paid a visit to Ruby's when he was in Austin last Fall.



Something I didn't manage to stuff into my gut at The Ironworks was pork ribs . . . so that's what I had at Ruby's . . . finger-lickin' good!  The mac-n-cheese was disappointingly dried out, but everything else was great.



So, who wants to take an eating trip to Austin with me?????????????????????????????

        

I've been in Austin for a few days on a business trip, so I haven't been very attentive to my blog in the latter part of this week . . . but I'm eating great food here and Austin and will likely write a bit about it next week.  

I wanted to send you all off into the weekend with a photo of last Sunday night's dinner: tomato and rosemary braised Cibola Farms American buffalo short ribs on a bed of polenta.  It was good, but it wasn't great . . . and you deserve great . . . so I'll spare you the recipe here.  I used a stove-top braising method (I usually braise in the oven) and the buffalo ribs didn't turn out all that tender.  Everything else about the dish was delicious.  And I'm not sure if the lack of tenderness of the buffalo was because the buffalo was soooo lean by comparison to the pork short ribs I'm used to . . . or if my stove-top braising needs some work.  I'll play with this recipe again sometime and let you know how it goes.

Enjoy the weekend, friends!

        

From Brett--thanks for the tag!

Rules:
1. Link to the person that tagged you and post the rules on your blog.
2. Share seven random and/or weird things about yourself.
3. Tag five people at the end of your post and include links to their blog.  (I changed this rule . . . it used to be seven, but it's late and I'm really tired . . . so now it's five.  Feel free, of course, to change it back to seven.)
4. Let each person know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

So, without further adieu, seven weird/random things about me:

1.  I'm serially obsessive with my hobbies, my obsessions typically last 3 to 6 years each, and my current obsession is food blogging/photography.

2.  Past obsessions have included distance running, surfing and rock climbing.

3.  I make my living writing and editing the writing of others, using Microsoft Word . . . and I have to work with "codes revealed" and I silently freak out in my head when I see extra spaces . . . even when they're at the end of a line and can only be seen with codes revealed and would never be noticed in a printed document.  (Can you spell C-R-A-Z-Y?)

4.  I don't think I like durian, but I haven't had it in years and am thinking I might need to try it again soon.

5.  Until about 4 or 5 years ago, the only wine I drank was red . . . but my brother cured me of my wine-ism and now I live in harmony with wines of all colors.

6.  My office always looks like a tornado hit it, but my home is very tidy.

7.  I have a self-imposed fashion rule that I never wear a tie without a sport or suit coat . . . a "levels of formality of dress" sort-of rule . . . going from a suit and tie to casual dress, the tie must be the first item to go.  I don't know why.  I see guys all the time . . . especially in . . . like . . . J. Crew catalogs . . . but also on the streets of DC . . . wearing ties and no jacket at all.  I can't do it.  I won't do it!

Here's who I'm tagging:

Culinary Couture

Blonder Than You

I'm not a girl, not yet a wino

Julie's Blog

And I better throw in a cool guy's blog . . . or y'all are gonna think I have a thing for sassy blogger ladies.  Actually, I do have a thing for sassy ladies.  But here's an awesome guy's blog anyway . . . .

No Special Effects

You're it!