NAMASTE MARKET
Hit this market up after hearing that my co-worker and yoga teacher both had positive things to say about it. I gaped at all the desserts at the bakery that the buffets never offer. The man at the counter was patient enough to explain to me which ones had wheat/all purpose flour and which had dairy as you would never guess it from how they looked. Uber bummed that a dessert I thought was safe and made of cheese (my restricted but not banned list) is actually usually made with a pancake like batter-as confirmed by a restaurant I went to last month too.
I settled on a golf-sized date-cashew-pistachio-spices balls (forgot to copy down the name-guess I have to go back-darn!) to enjoy while sis-star was here and a bag of Chana Dal (lentils with savory spices) snacks to tide me over on my CO trip. Chana Dal was my hero during the layovers and going to the airport without lunch on the way back.
I'm excited to try out the dosa mix and sambar soup mix. I love trying things from scratch, but some days you just need some help. I'll post if they end up being really great (or really awful!) Decided to try out chestnut flour as well-seems to be a mild taste. So many kinds of flours-made from beans and grains, gluten free jackpot! I added it to my protein pancakes and tastes ok. Not super nutritious as far as I can tell but does have 4% D.V for iron.
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| So very happy with the pickles and veggies-can never have fried stuff usually (aside from lentil flour pakoras) |
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| Chicken or Jackfruit Tacos-love the smoky flavor |
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| Trout salad (front) and beet hummus (back)-go for the beets unless you love celery |
BOULDER RECOMMENDATIONS
Since Yanny brought up stopping in Boulder for the Celestial Tea Factory --which is a cheap, interesting thing to do on the way to Estes Park from Denver-but check your GPS ours thought we were on some other road and actually we still had 30-40 more minutes of driving! I had to use android phone to get us there...but I digress. After the tea tastings we worked up an appetite for Shine. They have an all gluten-free menu, and not to worry carnivores-they do offer local meats in addition to vegetarian dishes. Amazing to not feel restricted at a restaurant-ordering normally taboo restaurant food: mac n' cheese, fried pickles (never seen that before) and veggies with blue cheese sauce and coconut shrimp. We had other items but those are normally safe. We sampled and split 7 happy hour dishes for $12.50 per person! Hard to find a dinner made with organic ingredients for that cheap! I wish we could have stayed for the live entertainment.
THE RECIPE-Hot Pepper-tomato Jam
The recipe this week is inspired from a bunch of tomatoes obtained from a work assignment (I picked them once we finished for the day. Nothing like getting your hand dirty after cramping up on the computer all day) so I decided to try out a recipe received on the CSA list from the blog "There's a Newf in my Soup" (very memorable!) called tomato jam. This is perfect because I still have a bunch of hot peppers from my CSA pick up three weeks ago. I had to half the recipe, but kept most spices at their original strength since I only cook for myself as the yield was originally 2 cups.
Really easy recipe stepwise, just give yourself an hour total for cutting, simmering and clean up. One pot, cutting board, knife, measuring spoons and one stirring spoon to clean up-oh YEAH!
1 pounds ripe tomatoes (cored and coarsely chopped)
3/4 cups sugar (try coconut sugar)
1 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon
1/4 tsp powdered ginger (or 1/2 tsp fresh grated ginger)
1 teaspoon ground cumin
¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 whole cloves
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 Serrano chile, stemmed, seeded and minced
¼ cup veggie stock (or Ruby Port, I didn't have any)
1. Put all ingredients in a medium sauce pan. Bring to boil and then simmer.
2. Let cook 45 minutes or until reduced to a thick jam consistency.
The suggestion and lovely picture of Newf shows the spread atop bread and mozzarella cheese. I'm trying out my own loaf of bread (yeast's expiration date is tomorrow, ack!) in the machine tonight. The bread looks lumpy and ugly...but it has the crispy crust and tender inside.
What's your favorite airplane snack?
