On my nightstand....

Well, let's see, it's been a while since I've updated what's on my nightstand!  Reading has been a little slow going this year, I've been catching up on many TV shows with our new subscription to amazon. Well, anyway, book club is underway again and as a result, I have updates on what I'm reading :P

Last month I reported that I finished The Son by Phillipp Meyer and you can find the review of this book here.

I also mentioned that I started Curry: A Tale of Cook and Conquerors by Lizzie Collingham.  I'm about half way through and put it down for a couple of reasons.  1) it's just not fair to read a book about food while you're detoxing and trying to cut out various foods (whine!) 2) book club started again (see below) and it seemed like the perfect excuse to set it down.  I still intend to finish it, but it will take longer than originally anticipated.

I recently started The Dinner by Herman Koch, (which I borrowed through my local library in MN, very exciting thing to finally figure out!)... which is completely depressing and such a downer of a book that I'm not at all motivated to read it.  My subscription ends on Jan 31 and I don't think I'll make it.  I'm only 20% of the way through, so I might pick it up later.... to be seen and maybe continued....

February's book club read is the latest book by Sue Monk Kidd, The Invention of Wings.  This is a very recent release, so I was excited to see it nominated and eventually chosen! This is a book set in the early to mid 1800's about a Southern bell and 'her' slave and the relationship that develops between the them.  I'm about 40% of the way through and it's a pretty easy read.  There are passages that are insightful and sometimes meaningful, but I'm often distracted by the Oprah highlighted portions that are included in the digital version of the book I purchased.  Oh well.  So far the book is keeping me interested and I'm always eager to pick it up in the evening or just before bed, but it's not an amazing read... yet.  To be continued... for sure!  

What are you reading?  Any new releases you're anticipating this year?

Sarah B's Jeweled Rice from My New Roots

Here's another detox friendly dish/side-dish that was a lot of fun to make and is beautiful to serve at any dinner party.  Allow some time to prep the ingredients before cooking the rice since it takes some time to get through them all.  This dish is well worth the effort as the aromas from herbs and spices pack in a good punch of flavor that only gets stronger as it ages (like a day or two, it didn't last much longer in our house after that...).

Ingredients:
2 cups of brown rice (rinsed and soaked overnight)
medium sized yellow onion (or 2 small yellow onions; Sarah B indicates shallots as well)
2 carrots
organic orange rind with as much as of the white pithe cut away
coconut oil
1/2 tablespoon of cumin seeds
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
4 bay leaves (dried)
1 cinnamon stick
1/2 cup of raisins (you could mix various fruits here, apricots, dates, raisins, be careful of sugar content if observing detox rules)
1 teaspoon of sea salt
1/2 cup packed mint leaves
1/2 cup packed chives
1 pomegranate seeded
1/2 cup almonds
1/2 cup pistachios
extra virgin olive oil for drizzling, if you like (I did not do this)
lemon wedges, for serving

Directions:

1. Soak brown rice over night.
2. Dice onion and grate the carrots.  
3. Peel or slice off the outer edge of the orange rind, removing as little white pithe as possible.  If peeling, use a sharp knife to remove the white pithe. Slice into matchstick-sized pieces and set aside. 
4. Heat a knob of coconut oil (yeah, as previously mentioned I dislike this phrase, maybe 2 teaspoons - 1 tablespoon, cut back as needed) on medium high heat.  Once warmed (melted), add cumin seeds and cook until fragrant (about 1 minute), then add turmeric, bay leaves, and cinnamon stick.  Stir to coat the spices with oil and fry until fragrant.  



All the spices and carrots, onions and orange peel cooking away, there's a lot of flavor packed in there!

5. Next, add diced onion, grated carrots, orange rind and raisins (or dried fruit).  Cook until the onion softens, about 5 minutes.  The coconut oil will be completely absorbed by the mixture here, that's ok, but turn down the heat a little so the ingredients don't burn. 
6. Drain the soaking rice and add 4 cups of water and salt.  Cover with a lid, bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer and cook until all the water has evaporated.  Once all the water has evaporated, turn off the burner, leave the lid on and allow the rice to steam to cook further if needed. 
7. While the rice is cooking, prepare the following: wash and chop the mint, remove the seeds from the pomegranate, and gently roast the nuts until golden. 



cooked brown rice with carrots, orange peel, onion and all spices

8. When the rice is finished cooking, transfer to your serving bowl (hopefully it's room temperature) or baking sheet (the baking sheet will allow it to cool faster, but it will create another dish to clean :D).  
9. After a few minutes, add the herbs and nuts and pomegranate seeds and fold to incorporate.  Season to taste.  
10. Serve rice with a drizzle of olive oil (if using) and lemon wedge.  

zoomed in finished dish

zoomed out finished dish - love the green pistachios and ruby red pomegrantes

Buon Appetito!

Sarah B's Garlic-Ginger Pumpkin Seed Sauce (Dressing) from My New Roots

Last week, I was making this simple meal as part of our detox journey and came across this sauce, that I just have to share with you all!  I wasn't planning to share on this blog anything from this meal and as a results the photos suck... but I do hope that it will not deter you from trying this awesome-sauce recipe! It's finger-lickin' good!

BTW - when my husband first tried this sauce (and he was very skeptical!), he thought it tasted like ranch dressing, ha!  Ridiculous! Luckily, he gave it a second chance and we both agreed in the end it was delicious, especially for how simple, fast, and healthy it is.  

Anyway, here's the recipe I followed: 

Ingredients: 

1 cup of pumpkin seeds (or 150 grams, I measured in cups)

3 cloves of garlic

'knob' of fresh ginger (I struggle with Sarah B's use of knob of whatever, aim for about 2 tablespoons of finely minced ginger for the first time and then adjust accordingly for the next time)

3 tablespoons of olive oil

1 tablespoon of apple cider vinegar

3 tablespoons lemon juice

3/4 cup of water

3/4 teaspoon fine grain sea salt (I used coarse, cause that's what I had!)

1/4 teaspoon cracked black pepper (who measures this stuff? just crack as much as you like to taste in your food processor/blender)

*Note, Sarah B calls for cayenne pepper to taste ad 1 tablespoon of maple syrup in addition to above listed ingredients.  I did not include these in my version.

Directions: 

1. If you desire a more toasty/rustic flavor, dry roast your pumpkin seeds in a dry skillet until they begin to pop.  Remove and set aside to cool (I did not do this, completely skippable step for a fast week night evening meal).
2. In a food processor, add the garlic and ginger and pulse until finely chopped.  
3. Add cooled or untasted pumpkin seeds and blend on high until sand textured (mine actually released a fine dust from the mixture).  
4. Add remaining ingredients, scraping down the sides periodically.  Add more water (start with 3/4 cup and add more as necessary) to obtain desired consistency. 

This recipe makes a lot of sauce that has remained in good quality in our fridge for a week.  Sarah B recommends 5 days.  I periodically add it to leftover quinoa if I need a quick snack.  

 

The Son by Philipp Meyer Review Book Review

The Son has been on my reading list for a while, it took a back seat while I was under a time crunch to finish  Brick Lane before our trip to London in November and The Orphan Master's Son for book club (which we just recently discussed... finally!).  I picked this one up just before the holidays and finished just after, with some concentrated time around New Year's to polish it off.  This happened to be the first book I finished in 2014 (perhaps the only at this point... ).

Synopsis: click here for Amazon's synopsis.

The Son is indeed a family saga spanning many generations.  I read this on my kindle and as a result, missed the schematic of the family tree in the beginning.  This left me to piece together the family tree in my own head, which turned out to be fun.  It took somewhere between 20 - 30% to piece it together.  There was only one relationship I misunderstood, which would have brought greater clarity had I known while I was reading, but I enjoyed rethinking through the course of events after learning the true relationship.

In the beginning, the story lines I thought I would be least interested in, turned out to be some of the more interesting ones in the end.  While it took almost 20% of the book to pick up, once it did, it kept going.  The chapters are structured such that they move backwards and forwards in time depending on the character of focus of the chapter.  At times this could be difficult to keep up with, especially in the beginning when I was a bit impatient and kept asking myself, well what the heck does Jeannie have to do with Eli, where do these darn characters connect. Once the connections were established it became more interesting to read character development one chapter at at time in this disjointed sort of manner.

Unfortunately I took too long to write this review and I'm having trouble recalling much more about this book.  While I enjoyed it and was able to finish it, it's not the great American novel its been touted as by other reviewers.  It's a good book and a good read if you're looking for something new, but not a must read.  I wouldn't bump anything off your reading list for this one.

Happy Reading!

Sarah B's Butternut Squash Lasagna from My New Roots

As of today, it's been a week and 2 days since we've been detoxing.  We're detoxing not by counting calories or cutting out all sugar, but by eating, whole foods, organic (as much as is humanly possible without breaking the bank!), and working on eliminating gluten, dairy and processed, preserved, and refined products (think: white sugar, stuff out of a can or jar with unknown ingredients, cooking beans and whole grains instead of using canned versions, etc.)... and the kicker... coffee.  We cheated on the coffee part a little bit and didn't give that up until week 2, but so far so good.  I've been able to fully replace coffee with this masala chai recipe!

Since starting this detox, the My New Roots blog has surprisingly become my new friend!  I was always slightly scared by Sarah B's recipes, they were a bit 'hippie' and awfully healthy sounding ... I always figured I wouldn't like the taste of any of her vegan friendly foods.  Much to my surprise (and pleasantly so), since starting this detox I have found a lot of week night friendly and tasty meals that are not only great for this detox, but will be great for general week night meals well after this detox is over.  Take a peak and don't be too scared... ease your way into the more 'hippie' ingredients if you're not into that stuff yet and you'll find Sarah B's blog quite useful!

Since this detox is 3 weeks long and we're doing it with friends (whose idea it was in the first place :D) who live nearby, I wanted to have a Saturday evening that was detox friendly, but still encouraged the spirit of sitting down together and having a meal.  Browsing through this blog I found Sarah B's recipe for Butternut Squash Lasagna (no, it does not use pasta noodles, tomato sauce, or an alfredo sauce) that I thought would be perfect for a Saturday night.

Ingredients:

For the butternut squash sauce:
2 butternut squash (about 2 kilos in total)
3-4 cloves of garlic
1 tablespoon of olive oil
1 teaspoon of lemon juice
sea salt to taste

For the Celeriac 'Noodles':
600 g celeriac (yes, I weighed it out)
vegetable broth

Bean 'Bechamel'
2 cups of white beans (I used cannellini)
nutmeg grated to taste
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon lemon juice
pince of salt
1/4 cup of water (recipe indicates you could use up to 1/2 cup)

spinach

Directions:

Prepare each the Butternut Squash Sauce, Celeriac Noodles and Bean Bechamel separately.
Layer the lasagna starting with the celeriac noodles, followed by a thick layer of butternut squash sauce, followed by a thick layer of spinach, followed by a topping of the bean béchamel (this will be a little difficult to spread, drizzle it over the spinach), and repeat.  Have the last layer consist of the celeriac noodles and butternut squash sauce with a sprinkling of freshly ground black pepper.

Butternut Squash Sauce Directions:
1. Cut the squash in half and place on baking sheet.
2. Warm some coconut oil in the oven and bring to liquid form.  Once liquid, brush over the squash and sprinkle with sea salt.
3. Cook in the oven at 400F (200C) until soft, about 40 minutes.
4. Remove from oven and let cool.
5. Scoop out the the flesh and add to food processor or mixing bowl with remaining ingredients.  Process or mash (I used a potato masher) until a mixed thoroughly.  Season to taste.

Celeriac Noodles Directions:
1. Peel the celeriac root with a peeler.  Trim off the bottom roots.
2. Cut the noodles into think sheets, about 1cm thick. You can either keep the natural shape of the vegetable or shape it so that it makes square/rectangular sheets.
3. Braise sheets in vegetable broth for 3-5 minutes.  Cook until al dente, not mushy. Drain and set aside for use (save that vegetable broth for something else, you've just enhanced the flavor!)

Bean Bechamel Directions:
1.  Drain and rinse the beans (if canned, if cooking from dry beans cook to taste)
2. Put all ingredients and 1/8 cup of water in the food processor and blend.  Add more water up to 1/4 cup until desired consistency is reached.  It should be creamy, smooth and spreadable.

Once assembled, bake at 350F until all vegetables are warmed through and cooked to desired consistency.  All it to cool slightly and serve.

Here are some photos to share from our experience.

The full pan of 'lasagna'

My portion of dinner, it sort of fell apart, but it was yummy!

Anybody else out there on a diet after the holidays?  How's it going?  Are you trying anything you think you'll be able to maintain long term?

Happy Eating! 

On my nightstand

I hope everyone had a lovely holiday season and rang in the new year joyously.  Do you have any resolutions?  Mine are pretty standard, eat healthy, loose some weight, but I haven't acted on any of it yet with the exception of emailing to sign up for a yoga course in town.... I'm hopeful I can maintain it.  I'm not sure if I would call it a resolution, but I plan to continue blogging book reviews and keeping up with the literary world, it's been a great 6 months or so and I'm loving it!

So, what's on my nightstand for the next couple of weeks?

Well, happy news to report... I've finished my first book of the year, The Son by Philipp Meyer!  Woot!  It doesn't really count, because I started it last year, but it's the first in 2014!  I do intend to write a review, so stay tuned for that one.

Next book, as previously reported will be Curry: A Tale of Cooks and Conquerors by Lizzie Collignham, can't wait to get into that one!

I didn't pick up anything for our Egypt trip, so I won't be digging into this topic specifically unless, by chance, something interesting comes my way.  After Curry, I'm pretty much open, nothing next in line specifically, but the reading list is long.  There are a lot of 2013 books I'm waiting to go to paperback before I'll pick them up.  One trip we are hoping to take this spring is to Naples, any recommended reading on this region in Italy that you recommend?

Happy Reading in 2014!