Second Chances

So how is the new moon treating everyone? Personally I had a headache all day yesterday so I think the moon needs to try harder, or maybe I should give it another chance, or two, (or until the end of the month) to make it's astrological influence known. I'll let you know if anything significant occurs.

At least I'm still (kind of) trying not eat chocolate for dinner and got inspired by the recent Recipes for Health in The NY Times. If you like broccoli rabe, this recipe is for you. If not, too bad. (Kidding!) You could substitute spinach or another green of your choosing.



Pappardelle with Broccoli Rabe and Ricotta
(Adapted from Martha Rose Shulman)

1 pound broccoli rabe, stemmed and washed (do not dry)*
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
1/8 teaspoon dried red pepper flakes
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
3/4 pound pappardelle
3/4 cup fresh ricotta cheese
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan

1. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.

2. Meanwhile, heat the oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add the garlic and red pepper flakes and cook for about 30 seconds, just until fragrant. Add the freshly washed broccoli rabe and toss in the hot pan, just until the greens are lightly coated with oil. Cover and cook until the broccoli rabe is tender, about 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Remove from the heat.

3. Add the pappardelle to the pot of boiling water and cook until al dente, about 4 minutes if the pasta is dried. Drain the pasta, and in a large serving bowl, toss it with the broccoli rabe, ricotta, and Parmesan. Serves four(ish).

*Note: If you do use broccoli rabe, don't thoroughly drain it after you wash it. The excess water droplets will help it cook without drying out.

New Moon on Monday

Get ready. There's a new moon on Monday and if you're into astrology, that's pretty significant. New moons signify new beginnings and the fact that this new moon is in Pisces...well, I don't have any idea what that means. Regardless I plan to try harder to stop eating junk (this time I really mean it!) so I made some granola bars chock full of healthy things like flax seed and wheat germ. Full disclosure: It took all of my being to not add chocolate. (The new moon phase must already be working!) I'll also be listening to Duran Duran on repeat all day (the photo above is from a concert in Central Park a few summers ago) so if you walk past me at any point during the day and overhear the same song playing again and again, just keep going.

Shake up the picture the lizard mixture
With your dance on the eventide
You got me coming up with answers
All of which I deny
I said it again
Could I please rephrase it
Maybe I can catch a ride
I couldn't really put it much plainer
But I'll wait till you decide
Send me your warning siren
As if I could ever hide
Last time La Luna

I light my torch and wave it for the
New moon on Monday
And a firedance through the night
I stayed the cold day with a lonely satellite

What do these lyrics even mean???



Peanut Butter Granola Bars

1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1/3 cup honey
1/3 cup peanut butter
6 tablespoons unsalted butter
3 cups old fashioned rolled oats
2/3 cup sliced almonds
1/2 cup wheat germ
1/3 cup unsweetened flaked coconut
1/3 cup sunflower seeds
1/4 cup flax seeds
1/4 teaspoon salt

1. Preheat the oven to 325˚F. Combine the sugar, honey, butter, and peanut butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Stir until the sugar is dissolved and the butter is melted.

2. In a large bowl mix the oats, almonds, wheat germ, coconut, sunflower seeds, flax seeds, and salt.

3. Pour the peanut butter mixture over the oat mixture and stir to combine. Transfer to a 9 x 13-inch baking pan and press evenly.

4. Bake for 25 minutes. Cool for about 15 minutes before cutting into bars. Cool completely before removing the bars from the pan. Makes about 25 bars.

St. Lucia

Salad Days

This is what I'll be eating for the next several days (or weeks). While away on a work trip at an all-inclusive island location, food was definitely not the main event, or even the opening act. Initially I thought, "This is going to be a great accidental weight loss trip just in time for summer!" The portions were so small and so not desirable that I was destined for svelteness. (Plus I came up with a hard core boot camp regime in the 85 degree heat and humidity with a few co-workers, but that's another story.) Then I discovered having ice cream for lunch. Whoops! (With 10 days of meal challenges to deal with, you can always come up with an alternate eating plan.)

You can read about my original week of salads here and here and here and here and here. The salad pictured here is not unlike my favorite beet salad but without the beets and with an addition of avocado and dried sour cherries. (Yes, I was emptying my refrigerator of random ingredients once again.) Stay tuned for photos of my island experience...

Go Nuts!

This is what I'll be eating from a plastic baggy on the way to the airport in the wee hours of the morning. I know that I recently posted a granola recipe, but I still had the ingredients to make another batch, this time a little nuttier. I kept the wet to dry ratios the same and just added a wider variety of nuts and seeds that I had on hand. (I know, I know. Who really has all of this random crap on hand? If you saw my freezer you'd understand.)

If you compare my original granola photo to the one below, you can actually see how much more sugary that original batch was when I made it with the original amounts of 3/4 cup maple syrup and 1/2 cup brown sugar. The sugar crystals are clinging for dear life to the pieces of almond and oats. I prefer it less sweet (as I've written the recipe), but you can adjust it to your liking.

I may not be posting much (or at all) in the next week or so while I'm away, but I'll try to at least upload a photo here and there. Bon voyage! To me!



Extra Nutty Sour Cherry Olive Oil Granola

3 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
1/2 cup raw chopped walnuts
1/2 cup raw cashew pieces
1/2 cup sliced almonds
1/2 cup raw pumpkin seeds, hulled
1/2 cup raw sesame seeds
1 cup unsweetened shredded or flaked coconut
2/3 cup pure maple syrup
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup dried cherries
Yogurt, for serving (optional)
Fresh berries, for serving (optional)

1. Preheat the oven to 300˚F. In a large bowl combine the oats, pistachios, pumpkin seeds, almonds, coconut, maple syrup, olive oil, brown sugar, and salt. Spread the mixture on a rimmed baking sheet in an even layer and bake for 45 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes, until golden brown.

2. Transfer the granola to a large bowl and add the dried fruit, if using, tossing to combine. Serve with yogurt and fruit, if desired. Makes about 9 cups.

A Side with a Side of Bacon

I've been meaning to make this recipe for many years...probably since the Atkin's craze when I was low-carbing it each and every meal. As successful as that eating plan can be for weight loss, I would always get dizzy whenever I did a super intense workout at the gym. Low to moderate intensity? OK. High anaerobic intensity? Not so much. Was it because I was waifishly model thin or just because I didn't have enough fuel in my system? I think we all know the answer to that without referring to any photos.

Flipping through my stacks of torn out magazine pages and scribbled down notes, I came across the baked ricotta recipe that would have made Dr. Atkins proud. I finally made it. Although the original recipe calls for the zest of an entire lemon, I've left it out here because it made me feel like I should had added sugar and just made a cheesecake instead. (Not so good for Atkin's unless it was made with Splenda...and without a crust. No thanks.) This baked ricotta would make a great side dish or a light dinner when accompanied by an arugula (or mixed green) salad..and a side of bacon. Right, Dr. Atkins?



Baked Ricotta

16 ounces ricotta cheese (about 2 cups)
1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
2 large egg whites, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon fresh oregano
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Olive oil (for the pan)
Roasted Tomatoes
Mixed greens, for serving

1. Heat the oven to 350˚F. In a large mixing bowl, combine the ricotta, Parmesan, egg whites, oregano, salt, and pepper. Lightly oil an 8-inch springform baking pan. Pour in the ricotta mixture and smooth the surface.

2. Bake until the ricotta is dry on top but not browned, about 30 minutes. Allow to cool slightly, and release from the pan. Cut into wedges, and serve warm with roasted tomatoes (see recipe below) and a mixed green salad if desired.



Roasted Tomatoes

8 ounces cherry tomatoes, halved
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 tablespoon olive oil

1. Heat the oven to 350˚F. Line a baking sheet with foil. Place the tomatoes on the foil, cut side up.

2. Sprinkle the tomatoes with salt and oil, and bake 30 minutes. Remove from heat and allow to come to room temperature before serving.

Pasta Imperfection

How was your weekend? Did you spend it trying to make homemade pasta with your new stand mixer attachment? And did that finished homemade pasta resemble something a 4 year old might have made out of Play-Doh? No. Way. Me too! Well, me and my buddy Chad, whose fancy pasta attachment we were breaking in.

It seemed like such a good idea. Let’s make homemade pasta! It’ll be awesome! It’s like magic! You just turn on the machine and drop in the dough and...Ta-dah! You’ve got fresh pasta. I brought along my copy of Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking by Marcella Hazan because it includes a rather in depth discussion about how to make your own pasta (by hand).

The dough is simple: 2 large eggs, 1 cup of flour. Great. Perfect. Easy. We decided to make the dough in the stand mixer because, well, isn't it there to make things easier? You start by mixing the eggs and flour with the paddle and then switch to the dough hook. It worked pretty well...until we tried to crank out some bucatini. All of the strands stuck together as they were coming out of the pasta attachment. We regrouped and switched to the rigatoni plate figuring that the pasta shape would be more manageable. Well...yes and no. Our rigatoni lacked a certain...cylindrical quality. No worries! We’ll just make another batch of dough.

We repeated the dough making process but this time the dough turned out SUPER sticky. WTF?!? We used the same ingredients and measurements! We added additional flour which helped, but it was still sticky. We attempted to make the pasta anyway, but it was just too wet.

Finally (are you still with me??) I decided to go old school and made a third batch of dough on the counter by pouring the flour directly onto the surface, creating a well in the center of the flour, cracking the eggs into the well, and then slowly incorporating the flour into the eggs as I quickly stirred with a fork. My well leaked, but I ultimately made a really nice ball of pasta dough. After kneading it for about 8 minutes, it was the texture of a baby’s skin. (That’s a good thing! It's what Marcella said it should resemble.)

We tried to make another batch of rigatoni and, although we managed to eek out a few more pieces of “pasta,” they were still pretty sad looking. We ate them anyway. (We had also made a Bolognese that was simmering away so that we'd have something to top off our pasta making efforts.) The rigatoni weren’t...bad. But they weren’t good either.

Not to be defeated, we’ve decided that we will try again. "They" say that kitchen temperature, humidity, sifted vs. unsifted flour, and the size of eggs can all make a crucial difference in the quality of pasta dough that you make. I'm thinking that it must have been the altitude. We were on the 24th floor after all...


1. Looking like actual rigatoni!


2. Our actual rigatoni!


3. Cooked store bought fusilli (background) with our homemade gnocchitoni. Rigagnocchi?