Lemon (Almond) Cornmeal Cake

A Few Things I Loved About Traveling in Japan

1) The free “old man” pajamas provided by the hotels

The red kimono almost made it into my suitcase. Almost.

2) Springtime is like no other

The daffodils and crocuses popping up around Boston are cute, but they’re just not the same.

3) Excellent customer service

No matter if you pull into a gas station, buy an onigiri (rice ball) from a kiosk at the train station, or ask for directions for a hotel (at the competing brand’s concierge desk), the customer service is excellent. Sometimes I wish people would just say thank you in the States more often. It does make a difference.

4) Public transportation is on time.

Without fail, the trains pull up to the station a minute ahead of departure, allow people to hop into the cars, and leave, exactly on time.

5) There’s always time for tea. And with tea, there’s cake.

Like my jet lag, I have yet to shake the habit of daily tea and sweets.

Any downtime my mom and I had, we’d pop into a cafe – at the train station, in the hotel or down a random road from temple – and order a pot or two of green tea.  With tea came sweets (“Obviously,” my mom would say), and talk of what our plans would be for the remainder of the week.

The 13 hour flight home left me exhausted. But after I climbed the stairs up to the apartment, my stomach rumbled. And it wasn’t a meal I wanted.  It was tea and cake.

Lovely Lemon Cake

“Remember when you called me after your job interview and you said you were ‘so going to work there’ because it was next door to a Whole Foods and across the street from a Starbucks?”

“It was probably the best day ever.”

Roo stops washing the dishes, ”When was the last time you went to Starbucks?”  He looks over to see me hugging myself.  ”You’re doing that thing again.”

“What thing?”

“That thing where you hug yourself like those sad monkeys we saw on PBS.  You’re obviously upset.”

“Well, that’s the last time you’re watching Frontline with me. I am not a sad monkey.”

I am so a sad monkey.

Back when I was delusional and living beyond my means living in Cambridge, my apartment was across the street from a Starbucks.  I would go there so often (ie twice a day, everyday), they started making “my drink” as soon as they saw me walk in.

“Grande, skinny, two pump vanilla latte for Lys.”

Sometimes it got awkward when I wanted a different drink.  And by awkward, I mean awesome as they would just give me both drinks for the price of one.

It pays to be nice to the baristas.

“Why are you shaking?”

“I’m not shaking.Youcrazy.Oh!Side note. Igottwolattesforthepriceofone!”

“It’s 2 p.m.  You are shaking and talking like a college kid on ritalin during finals week.”

“Wha?”

“You should lay off the ten shots of espresso in the morning.”

Besides the obvious self-induced caffeine overdose, my love for Starbucks was a $40/week habit.

They’d always find a way to draw me in.

“Buy one beverage in the morning and get any drink for only $2 after 2 p.m.!”

“Starbucks Happy Hour (ie half off frappuccinos between 3 – 5 p.m.)”

And lemon cake.

Yes, lemon cake.

Tunisian Soup

The house is strangely quiet tonight.

Roo left an hour ago to meet up with a friend from college at a local bar.

It’s just me, the cats and the sound of rain.

While it would be tempting to have dinner with the tv blaring, staring vacantly at whatever program I happen to come across, I’d rather just sit.

And listen.

Taste.

And enjoy the quiet company that I have.

Baked Falafel

This is basically the second part to the Falafel Nachos post I wrote up yesterday.

Falafel is typically deep fried; a reason why I don’t eat it very often, despite a great restaurant serving it on a daily basis near my workplace.

However, when find myself at home craving the crunchy, creamy chickpea ball filled with bold spices, I bake it.

That’s not a typo, I do bake it.

It’s quick to make, as you throw all the ingredients in a food processor to be chopped and combined.  The mixture is then rolled into balls, placed on a greased cookie sheet, flattened and then baked in the oven.

Bright lemon, earthy cumin and aromatic cilantro, encapsulated by a soft, pleasant crunch, makes it a tasty snack or even better, a great component of your nachos for game day.

Falafel Nachos Made With Homemade Pita Chips

With NFL playoffs in full swing, I can’t help but think of nachos.

It’s practically tradition.  A six pack of Sam Adams out on the porch, friends sitting on couches and nachos being scooped up; most of the time to motion at the television with, when an offensive play goes astray.

But with NFL playoffs are also New Year’s resolutions.

Not being one to tempt you to fall off the wagon, I bring a side dish that’s not a compromise, but something better.

Seriously.

Yes, nachos are a “classic,” with cheese and tortilla chip nestled into one another, but these my friend, have different textures and incredibly bold flavors; a welcomed brightness to a dark-by-4 winter’s day.

Crisp, cumin pita chips with dollops of garlicky hummus, and crunchy, creamy cilantro infused falafel, drizzled with a bit tahini, broken through with bold flavors of spicy sriracha and bite of red onion.

It’s good.  It’s really good.

And when you scoop it up all together, it’s like magic.  Like Tom Brady magic.  Not that I’m biased or anything.

(Practically Unsweetened) Homemade Applesauce

There were some reasons why I didn’t want to write about my making applesauce.

One, I’m absolutely addicted to homemade applesauce.  I love it.

Which results in two, when it’s done and I need to remove ingredients like lemon peel and cinnamon stick, they find themselves in my mouth, sucking off what little remnants of sauce are on them.

And three, Roo never knew how much I love applesauce and caught me trying to get said lemon peel off the roof of my mouth and into the garbage.

I’m incredibly attractive.  What a winner.

But, there are a few recipes popping up soon in which apple sauce is an ingredient, so why not use homemade?  It’s tasty (as I’ve already established), easy to make (just toss into a pot and simmer), and makes your apartment smell like love.

Yeah, love smells like apples cooking in cinnamon and lemon.  What, doesn’t your’s?

Adapted from Simply Recipes

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Ingredients

3 pounds of peeled, cored and quartered apples (I used Macoun because that’s what I blindly grabbed at the market)

3 strips of lemon peel

1 lemon, juiced

1 cinnamon stick

One eighth cup of sugar (it’s two tablespoons, in case you don’t have a wee little one eighth measuring cup)

1 cup of water

One quarter teaspoon of salt

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Equipment

A large pot with lid

A sharp knife (and a vegetable peeler if you don’t feel comfortable peeling your apples with your knife)

A spatula

*Maybe a potato masher

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Throw all your ingredients into a pot and stir to combine.  Bring the ingredients to a boil, then lower the heat so bring it to a simmer.  Cover the pot and cook for about 20 – 30 minutes.

In my case, after some stirring around with a spatula at 20 minutes, the apples really broke down and gave me a mostly smooth sauce.

Remove the applesauce from heat.  Carefully (be sure it’s cooled down a bit), remove the lemon peel and cinnamon stick from the sauce and dispose.  Please refrain from putting them into your mouth as it leads to awkward conversation if you get caught.

Serve warm, or wait till it’s cooled and throw it in tupperware to chill for serving.

This also freezes great, so you can divide it into half cup portions (if you’re into things like list making and planning for things, like crazy me) and throw it in the freezer.

*You could use a potato masher and get all zealous on the stuff and break it down more (if your apples are stubborn and refuse to break apart).

A Different Kind of Smoothie

Tonight Roo and I did something daring.

Did we watch the new Harry Potter movie with risk of being spotted by Roo’s students?

Wash our clothes in the same laundromat that the neighborhood guy walks into, with plastic bags on his feet?

Try to groom Stinky when she least suspects it?

No to all of those.

What we did was drink our greens.

And it was delicious.

Before I completely lose you, (because it took some convincing for myself to do it), your smoothie will not, I repeat, NOT taste like a bag of lawn clippings. It’s honestly undetectable. All you need is a really good blender, a couple of ingredients (your berries don’t even have to be fresh, I love frozen fruit for sheer convenience) and a really good poker face when you hand it over to your partner. Or in my case, not look at Roo until I asked him how the smoothie was.

What’s the advantage of drinking your greens? In our case, it was mostly to use up the seemingly endless supply of greens stacked up in our fridge from our CSA. Also, cooking greens does cause it to lose some of its “superfood” quality, especially when you boil them (eg collard greens) and then drain that water away (all the nutrients have leached out into that water). By eating it raw, we get everything that mother nature intended.

If you don’t have spinach, feel free to try something else. This is your smoothie. If you have baby spinach, it’s actually the most commonly use “green” to use since it’s widely available and easiest to blend.  It also is even more mild tasting than (regular) spinach.

Please don’t judge our flooring, we’re renters.

Serves two generously

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Ingredients

Eight ice cubes (the blocky ones from a tray)

Two handfuls of frozen strawberries

Two handfuls of frozen raspberries

Two handfuls of frozen blueberries

Two bananas, broken up with your hands

Juice from two lemons (I don’t like super sweet smoothies)

Quarter to 1 cup of apple juice (we’re down to a quarter cup, really enjoying the not too sweet taste of the fruit, but it’s your smoothie, you can add more as you taste and blend)

Leaves from spinach (about a handful), washed and water shaken out (it doesn’t need to be bone dry)

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Equipment

A powerful blender

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Add ice cubes to the bottom of the blender. Then add the bananas, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries and then greens. Squeeze the juice of two lemons over the ingredients. Add the apple juice. Blend. The smoothie will be quite thick (we love drinking them with straws, oooooh, novelty!) but delicious.