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Carrot Tomato Soup: Tastiest and Simplest Ever

Sunday, August 22nd, 2010

One of my favorite inventions this summer has been this Carrot Tomato Soup.  I started with the most basic ingredients- carrots, tomato sauce, water and salt.  And then before I decided what to add next, I tasted it: perfect.  Stop there!

Simple, tasty and healthy, it’s the perfect summer soup.

Carrot Tomato Soup

1 pound carrots, scrubbed or peeled and then diced
8oz tomato sauce (1 small can)
8oz water (could substitute milk or cream for a creamier soup)
1 tsp sea salt
Black pepper to taste
Optional: olive oil to drizzle on top

1. Boil or steam carrots until tender.  Let cool.

2. In a food processor or blender, combine carrots with tomato sauce, and water.  Blend until smooth.

3. Season with salt and pepper.

3. Put in fridge if you’d like to serve a chilled soup, or reheat on stovetop for a warm soup.  May also serve room temperature, as is my custom.  You may choose to drizzle some olive oil on top of each portion before serving.

Posted in Recipes, Side Dishes, Vegetables | No Responses »
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Himalasalt Zen Salt Cube with Zester

Monday, February 15th, 2010

Salt gets a bad rap- especially in NYC now that Bloomberg announced his anti-salt campaign- but the truth is that not all salt is created equal.

Himalasalt is to white table salt as farm-fresh cream is to Crisco.

Follow me?  One is a natural earthly product, healthy in moderate quantities and capable of turning a ho-hum dish into something incredible.  The other is the highly processed factory step-child of the first, leaving little to none of the original intact.  Yet, somehow it’s become common to lump the two together under the banner of poor health and sinful hedonism.

Himalasalt is a pale pink finishing salt that was created 250 million years ago when the earth was still pristine.  In addition to many pre-crushed salts, Himalasalt also has two new products that are in larger slab- or cube- form:

  • Zen Cube, pictured above, comes with a cute “zester” so that cooks (and eaters) can freshly grate the pink salt cube onto food.  Mine has lasted a very long time and stores well.
  • Sushi Salt Slabs are large (think dessert plate-sized), square, 1+-inch thick slabs of pink salt for making and serving sushi.  I also used mine for serving other foods such as appetizers.

Himalasalt’s packaging is beautiful and they offer gift boxes too.  Thanks to Sue for having samples sent my way.

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Matcha Source Green Tea Powder

Sunday, January 24th, 2010

Most of us have had green tea, but how about green tea powder?

I had been noticing all sorts of recipes that called for the stuff, but couldn’t locate it at any grocery stores.  I even popped into some tea/spice shops in Chinatown to no avail.

Matcha Source to the rescue!  They sell a powdered green tea that is made of Japanese whole leaves, picked in the springtime and then ground into a fine dust.

I used a sample Wendy sent me to whip up some delicious hot green tea lattes.  The green tea flavor, as expected, is pronounced–but not overpowering, and not bitter at all.

The website has myriad other recipes using powdered green tea, too, ranging from butternut squash and flavored salt to ice cream and truffles.  And remember, anything made with green tea is healthy!

Posted in Ingredients | 1 Response »
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Kernel Season’s Popcorn and Popcorn Flavorings

Thursday, August 13th, 2009

For people looking for a filling and guilt-free snack, popcorn is a safe bet. At 24 calories per cup, you can have five cups of air-popped popcorn for under 130 calories.

Of course, if you put butter or caramel on top, those numbers go up quite a bit.

Kernel Season’s has an extensive line of Popcorn Seasoning Flavors.  A little goes a long way so they won’t throw your diet out of whack.  The flavors are:
White Cheddar
Butter
Nacho Cheddar
Parmesan and Garlic
Ranch
Sour Cream and Onion
Salt
Caramel
Kettle Corn
Jalapeno

I’m pretty simple with my popcorn so Salt and Parmesan and Garlic were my favorite flavors.
Kernel Season’s also has its own Popping Corn.  The kernels are about twice as big as regular popping corn kernels.  I couldn’t believe it!

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O Organics White Tortilla Chips

Saturday, April 25th, 2009

I recently brought O Organics White Tortilla Chips to a party.  They were a HIT.  Gone in minutes.

Was it the fact they are over 95% organic?

Was it because they are lightly fried to a perfect crispness?

Was it thanks to their perfect level of saltiness?

Or was it simply a good ol’ case of the munchies?

We will never know.  But does it matter?

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Book Club: Clean Body

Friday, April 24th, 2009

Clean Body: The Humble Art of Zen-Cleaning Yourself by Michael Dejong is the perfect book for both the product-averse and the product-obsessed-whose-bathroom-cabinet-can-hold-no-more.

According to the book, 5 kitchen staples–in various combinations–can cleanse, moisturize, exfoliate all parts of our bodies:

1. Salt

2. White Vinegar

3. Lemon

4. Baking Soda

5. Olive Oil

I’m interested in trying some of his “recipes” for body scrubs and face masks.  I think I’ll stick with my usual shampoos, though!

I appreciate how Dejong keeps the book light and humorous– far from a militant, anti-consumerist rant, it makes me more willing to give his suggestions a whirl.

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The Impossibility of February, Maira Kalman

Sunday, February 1st, 2009

man dances on salt by maira kalman

“The Impossibility of February” by Maira Kalman from her blog on The New York Times online, And The Persuit of Happiness.

The Impossibility of February.  Read it.  I was fortunate enough to meet Maira Kalman in early 2008 at an intimate gathering to celebrate the publication of The Princples of Uncertainty.

I was transfixed by how her eclectic, almost frenzied, candidness about things sad, lonely, and unresolved allow her have an aura that is markedly peaceful, collected and content.

For each person to discover the craft that best channels one’s own raw, gritty core–be it painting or poetry, guitar or gardening, jogging or just sitting in silence–is the path to organic happiness.

The kind of happiness you don’t have to try for.

The type of happiness you don’t have to convince yourself of.

The manner of happiness you don’t put on a show about.

The sort of happiness that makes February, well, possible.

The man dances on salt.

Posted in Blogging/Websites/Technology | No Responses »
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Ikea Celeber Soy Sauce Pitcher

Friday, January 30th, 2009

CELEBER Soy Sauce Pitcher with Saucer from Ikea, $7.99.

I think it would be friends with Chicken Feet Salt and Pepper Shakers, don’t you?

Posted in Dinnerware | 2 Responses »
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Bagels Homemade: Sesame, onion and salt

Saturday, January 24th, 2009

I consider most Saturday mornings productive if I get up, perk some coffee and read a few sections of the New York Times all before noon.  Compared to many weekends during college, this is, after all, an improvement.

This morning, I forever raised the bar for Saturday Morning Productivity.  I made homemade bagels.  Yeast, water, sugar, salt, flour, kneading, resting, rising, shaping, boiling, and baking.  They’re perfect and delicious.

I followed this recipe by Aimee of Under the High Chair and, gasp, I followed the recipe exactly.  Double gasp, this included using white flour.  I did keep the raw cane sugar for the sugar.  And I did allow myself one creative flourish for a topping: dehydrated onions mixed with salt.  (Poppy seeds and salt on the rest.)

Here’s the biggest shock, though.  How does Aimee, a mother of two wee ones, manage to make homemade bagels?  And how find time did she videotape herself shaping the dough for the helpful video tutorials?  And how does she clean everything?

‘Cause I just glanced in my kitchen, and it looks like a flour mill and a poppy seed factory exploded simultaneously.

Good thing some productivity can be postponed until the late afternoon.

Posted in Breakfast, Recipes, Snacks | 12 Responses »
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Chicken Feet Salt & Pepper Shakers

Monday, December 22nd, 2008

Gobble, gobble… no wait, that’s turkeys.

Cockadoodle doo!  But isn’t that just roosters?

(…Google search turns up Burger King Ad….)

What do chickens say?  How ’bout some salt and pepper?

Sigh.  A holiday away from New York should do me good.

Perch! Design via Cog & Pearl, $48

Posted in Dinnerware, Gifts | 3 Responses »
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