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October 8, 2006
Baby Kiwis and Australian Olive Oil
This weekend's food shop yielded a most exciting treat. The Whole Foods had pints of baby kiwis, which are just like regular kiwis except they're tiny, bright green, not fuzzy, and extraordinarily sweet. The nice produce girl told me to try one, so I did, and immediately put a pint in my cart. Tonight I put the baby kiwis, whole, on top of a fourth cup of FFR (that's fat-free ricotta for those of you who don't live in my house) with a dollop of Walden Farms chocolate sauce, topped with half teaspoon of hazelnut oil and six hazelnuts for MR's dessert. He said they were quite exquisite. I've been eating a baby kiwi here and there all weekend as I wander in and out of the kitchen. They're a lovely sweet short healthy bite.
I also picked up some Australian olive oil at Trader Joe's to which I am utterly devoted. I'm generally not in love with olive oil... would always prefer to eat olives, like the taste of flax oil better, etc. But this olive oil is amazing. I sampled three kinds at Trader Joes last week and picked my favorite. Today I finally broke into the bottle and served it over fresh tomatoes with just a dash of fresh ground pepper at dinner.
The other big hit of the weekend has been leeks. Leeks are a great de-tox food, as you can find out in Why French Women Don't Get Fat. one of my favorite books by a woman who is the CEO of the world's biggest champagne house and recommends drinking champagne with lunch. A girl after my own heart indeed. She is a goddess, and suggests a diet start that involves a whole lot of leeks. Anyhow, this weekend at Whole Foods I bought a leek the size of a baseball bat -- it must be leek season because this thing truly is enormous. When I saw it I said, "That's not a vegetable, that's a weapon!" I don't think you could get on an airplane with this leek. It has yielded many a fine soup today, including my simplest soup of no salt veggie broth with a ton of leeks boiled in until flimsy, then a tablespoon of Lewis Labs brewers yeast and a teaspoon of flax oil. No Salt salt substitute to taste.
For MR's leek soup I added 120 g asparagus to the 200 g leeks, and 40 g shiitake mushrooms. I topped the dish off with a hearty helping of cubed cooked eggwhites, which stir beautifully into soups and stews for added protein. My Australian olive oil provided the fat, and the entire dish went over extremely well. I do love leeks. I could eat a leek every day, and I just might. One of the joys of being an adult is that if you want to eat leeks every day, you can.
Meanwhile, back in unpacking land, the closets are finished, the construction is mostly done, and MR spent part of the afternoon attempting to put together our new Ikea dining room table which actually requires a power drill for assembly, in spite of misleading advertising to the contrary. However, he put together the chairs, and tomorrow we're borrowing Luke and Christine's power drill to finish the job. I am amazed that he can tackle these tasks and succeed as neither of us are in the slightest bit mechanically inclined.
If we end up in a serious crisis, all four of MR's parents who really are house people (as in people who both have skill and interest in how a house goes together) are coming to visit so I guess we could ask them to assemble the table while I cook the dinner to put on it. But I'm hoping we can have the table already in place so they don't have to build for their supper. I do enjoy table presentation... the napkins, the candles, the dishes, the tablecloths. MR thinks I have way too many placemats, but I love to set a pretty table and playing with placemats is a whole lot cheaper than buying clothes so there!
Tomorrow is a holiday, and believe it or not I am actually taking the holiday! I have work on the house to do, then my hair stylist, Diana Routy, who is just amazing, is driving over to do my hair before the photo shoot. She's a goddess... she's been doing hair for eleven years (same as I've been organizing... we're the same age) and she's been my hairstylist for about seven years. Nobody can do my hair like Diana, and I'm hoping to get her a credit in a national magazine. It will be good for her portfolio, good for the salon, and good for me cause she makes me look pretty! And she'll get to meet MR, whose hair really is the color I spend a lot of money to make mine.
Okay, it's time for bed. Enough leek talk for now.
Posted by april at October 8, 2006 9:53 PM