This was something I just put together yesterday for lunch. Nothing planned in advance, unless you count that I started making the rice in my rice cooker since 10:30AM. I always get hungry and never consider making rice because whole grain rice takes about 1 hour to make, and by that time, I would be famished.

I have mentioned to you my love for adding cashews in stir-frys before… and the beauty for making it at home is that you can add as many cashews as you want!!!! Chinese restaurants are always skimping on the cashews even when they charge you extra for them every time.

The secret here… use whatever you have in your fridge… I would have added some bean sprouts, but I didn’t have any. Some spinach would have worked great too instead of the lettuce. I actually used lettuce because I was out of spinach. So work with what you have… the end product will still be delicious!!!

Easy Veggie and Cashew Stir Fry

½ onion – sliced

½ green bell pepper – sliced

6-7 white button mushrooms – quartered

1 small carrot – shredded or peeled into slices with a vegetable peeler

4 romaine lettuce leaves – sliced

½ cup roasted and salted cashews – but this measure is optional. You can add as much cashews as you want…

¼ cup soy sauce

¼ cup of water

1 tsp cornstarch

2 tbs agave nectar

Olive oil

Salt to taste

1. In a large skillet, drizzle some olive oil over medium heat. Add the onions and peppers. Season with a bit of salt to allow the moisture to drain out of them a bit. Sauté for a few minutes until they start to soften a bit.
2. Add the carrots and the mushrooms. Mix it all together and continue to cook over medium heat. Add the lettuce or spinach and toss to wilt into the mixture.
3. Add the cashews to soften a bit and mix together with the flavors of the veggies.
4. In a separate measuring cup measure the soy sauce, water and mix together with the cornstarch. Add the sauce to the pan and mix it all well.
5. Drizzle a few turns of the pan of agave nectar and mix it all together. Turn the stove off. The heat in the stove and the pan will thicken the sauce and coat every veggie and cashew.

Serve over brown rice.

This is a very satisfying lunch or dinner without feeling heavy at all.

Well… the frituras not a lot anymore because unfortunately as I have mentioned to you time and time again, most of the frituras in Puerto Rico are not typically vegetarian. Although they can be made vegetarian very, very easily.

The thing is that as Puerto Rican and typical as the Fiestas de San Sebastián are… what I enjoyed the most this year were…. Venezuelan Arepas filled with Melted Cheese. I did wash it down with a freshly squeezed orange juice to “puertoricanize” the experience a bit.

These arepas were made with corn flour and a touch of sweetness. Made on the griddle almost to order, this arepa was delicious and hit the spot perfectly.

That’s possibly the case with Kate too… Kate is American but now lives in Italy. She and I occasionally mingled in a website called Serious Eats. She had mentioned she had certain gastro issues I am particularly familiar with so I had written her screen name down so I could remember who she was.

Meet Kate - The work-week Vegetarian!!!!

For about a year now, we have become friends thanks to Facebook… we both belong to a group made up of Serious Eats enthusiasts. But on Facebook, we got rid of our screen names and have gotten to know each other on a more personal level. That’s when Kate and I started developing our friendship – over our love of food, our gastro connection and a genuine spark that brings people together regardless of how far apart they live.  Technology is a beautiful, beautiful thing indeed…

I was touched to learn from Kate that KarmaFree Cooking partly inspired her to become what she calls – a workweek vegetarian. She eats vegetarian meals Monday thru Friday and still eats some meals over the weekend made from animal proteins. She does not consider herself a vegetarian by any means, but she has experienced herself the positive effects of reducing her consumption of animal products in her daily diet.

I asked her to please share her story with you all… she graciously accepted.

I would like for you all to see that EVERYONE and ANYONE can benefit from making some positive changes in their diet towards a more natural and vegetarian lifestyle. Hope you enjoy Kate’s story as much as I have.

Grazie mille Kate!!!!

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Workweek Vegetarian

Kate Matney-Perini, Modena, Italia

You know… I can’t think of anything in the universe that makes less sense than being vegan. I understand that it’s a moral issue most of the time. Some people really, honestly think that cutting ALL animal-based products out of their lives makes them better human beings. Pfff.

Scientists will tell you that if our ancestors WAAAY back in the day hadn’t started consuming flesh that our brains wouldn’t have grown to a large enough size for tool making and language. That doesn’t mean that eating meat every day is a good diet plan either.  As an American, I was raised to understand that a good meal included meat, carbs, a vegetable side, something sweet to follow, and a tall glass of milk for my bones.

Kate drinking her milk...

When I got to Italy 4 years ago, married my husband, and had access to healthcare I couldn’t afford back home in Oregon I found out that I was 22 and had high cholesterol. Me. 22 years old with high cholesterol. Are you SERIOUS!? This is BULL HONKEY. No one under the age of 50 should have high cholesterol, right? Wrong.

Turns out I was one of many American youngsters with high cholesterol, and in Europe it is one of the first things they test Americans for when they add tests to the list of blood exams. I felt pretty terrible about the fact that Americans are known for high cholesterol in Europe. What the heck was I supposed to do? Go on Lipitor or something? N-n-n-n-no… No. I wasn’t going to go on MEDICATION for high cholesterol. So I did the first thing any self-respecting American does when faced with a health issue: I jumped on the internet and updated my status on Facebook. Terrible, right?

Well, it didn’t really turn out to be that bad of an idea. I got lots of fake-pity-filled comments like ‘Oh, I’m so sorry!’ ‘I hope you feel better!’ ‘Stop eating so much butter!’. All that did was piss me off and make me want to show them my tub of generic low-calorie butter substitute that I was using because I thought it was better for me. But then I got a comment from my middle school health teacher that I’ve kept in contact with. This woman is amazing. When I was 12 and my sister told me that she was in love with a woman I went to my health teacher looking for guidance. When I was 16 and found out that my best friend was getting into drugs I went to her for advice. Now, here she is again in my life telling me ‘Have you ever thought about being a Vegetarian?’. I balked at the idea. I nearly felt offended. My immediate reaction was to run to the fridge, take out my pack of bacon, cradle it in my arms and tell it ‘Don’t worry, sweetheart! She didn’t mean it! Don’t panic!’. I dismissed the idea immediately.

I started taking fish oil, I started drinking skim milk, and I subscribed to a gym. I thought I was doing great until my 6 month check-up blood work told me that my cholesterol had GONE UP FROM 220 to 222. You know that little anime trick where they make the face of the character look weird and make a huge teardrop slowly descend next to their face with a timpani BOOOWWWW sound in the background to express the ‘OH GOD THIS IS STUPID AND EMBARRASSING’ emotion? That was totally me. Wake-up call anyone?

So I got to thinking… maybe I should start cutting down in the meat. That’s REALLY hard to do in the region of Italy that I live in. I live in Emilia-Romagna. It’s the Pork capital of the world.

Think of an Italian dish with pork in it and I GUARANTEE you it came from here. No questions asked. I got my beef addiction from living in hillbilly paradise Oregon, so the move from there to here just made me consume more pork to make up for the deficit in delicious bloody beefy goodness. Excuse my drool, sorry kids. So I started by going to my butcher to talk about options. I had horse meat available (since Italians are into that kind of thing and its VERY lean), but as the daughter of a breeder of Arabian horses and a champion in Hunter Pleasure and Dressage, I just could bring myself to eat horse. Turkey, Chicken, Rabbit, and Fish came up. Chicken and Turkey… Yeah OK, fine. Rabbit? That sounds interesting! So I started by adding in new lean proteins that I wasn’t used to eating before. Rabbit was one of them. Fish the other. Before, I couldn’t STAND fish. UGH. That fishy smell, that fishy taste, that fishy mouth-feel… Yuck, dude. Just… no. But then I learned about the difference between different types of fish and which ones had milder flavor and how to cook fish. I learned that if you buy fresh fish from someone who knows what it should be like you’re much more likely to like it when you eat it.

After about 4 months of things that fly, things that hop, and things that swim (instead of things that graze and oink) I said to myself ‘Hey… That wasn’t so hard! Let’s try to only eat meat every other day. I bet I can do it!’. But that was an issue because I’m married. Why should that be an issue you ask? Well, my husband thinks that broccoli is the next WMD that the terrorists are going to use against the rest of the civilized world. He will eat salad, corn, spinach (miraculously), sometimes I’ll catch him eating bell peppers and onions… Potatoes are his favorite. Go figure.

Kate and her handsome husband, Alessandro

So when I started not putting meat on my plate at suppertime he started to give me a hard time. He’d tell me that my vegetables make the house smell bad when I cook them. My vegetables are going to turn my skin weird colors. The next time I decide to eat asparagus I have to go outside and pee in a bush because it makes the bathroom smell bad. Thanks a lot for the support, Honey. After a while, I found out that it was his way of joking around and being supportive.

I fixed a lot of meals that I could add meat to one portion and leave it out of the other portion… Things like pizza, frittatas, hash browns, pasta dishes, anything roasted in the oven could have a little packet of sausage or piece of meat in another container. This was working so I pressed on. I kept my health teacher’s idea in the back of my mind like a secret Barbie collection under a mattress in boot camp. You take out your Barbies and have a tea party only when you know everyone is asleep and no one is watching. I went like that for a year.

Pizza Margherita made by Kate

When I finally decided to stop eating meat and only eat fish at the beginning of 2011, I forgot about how we usually go to my in-law’s house on the weekends to eat their food and use their hot water and electricity (because we’re smart like that and we love my husband’s parents). I didn’t want to impose my eating habits on them. I also knew that I still liked to eat meat but I didn’t want to eat it all the time. They thought that I was just eating more vegetables and started giving me a salad with my pork roast. When I ate my salad and left most of my pork roast on the plate, my mother in law took it like I didn’t like her cooking. When I asked for chicken or fish on the weekends instead of pork or beef, she asked me what was wrong. People who eat chicken in Italy usually do it because they don’t feel well.

Kate making fresh tortellini with her grandma-in-law

Apart from high cholesterol, I’ve known for a long time that I’ve had severe gastrointestinal issues so she thought maybe I was feeling gastrointestinal-y. I explained that I was going to compromise with my lifestyle and be a workweek vegetarian to help keep my cholesterol in check, but I’d need to eat things that weren’t pork or beef on the weekends to get the protein that I need and still keep tabs on my cholesterol. She was very supportive. Now she always asks me ahead of time if something is OK for me to eat or if I’d like to have something different. I went in for a blood test this last December and found out that thanks to my diet change my cholesterol went down from 222 to 190! That’s within the healthy range! That means I’m on the right track!

With the new year I find myself INJECTED with new motivation. I started reading KarmaFree Cooking about 8 months ago and get new vegetarian recipes all the time, even ones that my husband can’t snub his nose at! With some gentle coaxing I’ve even managed to get him eating broccoli rabe, cabbage, and (dare I say it) GREEN BEANS.

My husband eats three vegetarian meals a week or more now. It is hard to believe, but so do my inlaws. We eat pizza every Sunday night and they order pizzas without meat like I do and find that they digest it easier and don’t feel the pizza hangover the next day like they used to. I give my mother in law vegetarian recipes all the time now.

Kiwi Yogurt Pastry

I’m also finding new ways to bake cakes and cookies without egg yolks or butter. I choose one or the other. Either there is butter or oil in the recipe, or egg yolks. Not both. I take my health seriously, now. I haven’t lost any weight (Pandas are cute because they are squishy and fluffy, right? I think 5’7’’ and 160lbs is squishy and fluffy enough to still be cute right?), but I have my cholesterol hog tied and squealin’ like a piggy! And with help from Karma Free Cooking it isn’t hard to think that maybe I’ll be a vegetarian one day and not just a workweek one.

But for now I’m spreading the word about fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains like Quinoa and Barley and Brown Rice, and how you don’t have to completely nix meat from your diet to experience the health benefits. I eat meat about twice a week now, maybe. I’ve gone 3 weeks without eating meat and was perfectly fine. Maybe it is time to re-evaluate what an American dinner plate should have on it.

Now if only I could kick my dessert habit…

Kate Matney-Perini

Age 25, Workweek Vegetarian

When I started to attend our Yoga Center, I learned, or developed an awareness, of how many side effects chemical medicines have. They “cure” one thing, but damage 10 others.

So for many years now I have subscribed to the idea of using natural remedies as much as possible to treat the cause of my illness or discomfort versus just tending to the symptom. Most traditional medicine today is more concerned about treating the symptom that reaching to the root of the problem.

Let’s take headaches for example… I bet many of you pop up a few Tylenols or Advils anytime you feel a headache coming in. I’m not talking about migraines or anything more severe. I am talking about common everyday headache, possibly at 4PM, after a tough meeting or during the traffic jam while you’re trying to reach home.

I have experienced that most of the headaches I experienced where mainly due to DEHYDRATION. The water I was taking with the Tylenol, not the pills themselves, were the solution to what I was having. Just drinking a few glasses of water whenever you might feel you’re coming on with a headache might save you from taking many, many pills over the course of your lifetime.

Try it… and if it works, just try to avoid the headache all together by drinking more water every day.

2011 was a year filled with blessings – lots of work, new clients and projects, travels, health… lots of exposure of KarmaFree Cooking in the media – in the US and in Puerto Rico… and more yet to come.  I am very thankful and grateful for that.

I always try to make small changes at the beginning of each year… but I have noticed I have not worked enough because this year’s resolutions are almost the same as last year’s!!!!

Exercise more

I was not able to exercise at the beginning of 2011 and that inertia has stayed with me for waaaaaaaaay too long. A combination of power walking, P90X and Hatha Yoga are a MUST this year.  I have resoluted to complete the Teodoro Moscoso’s World’s Best 10K in February and the Diva’s 1/2 marathon in november 2012.

Go to bed earlier to I can get up earlier

In order to keep the resolution above, I need to go to bed earlier so I can get up at 5AM. This way I know I can get up, do what I need to do, meditate, exercise and be ready having breakfast by 8AM. I know I can do it, I just need to let tivo do its job and teach myself to be less impatient to watch something the same night it airs.

Eat more fresh salads

I have been lazy and I know I can do more in this area… I am good at always ordering a salad when I eat at a restaurant, But I am not very consistent when I prepare meals at home. I sometimes cut up a tomato and a few “rajas” of avocado and call it a day. I need to be more creative with my salads…

What are your 2012 Resolutions?? Please share…

Martin Louzao, an Argentinian residing in Puerto Rico for a few years now, is the chef/owner of Cocina Abierta and he happens to be my neighbor too. I remember him arriving in his apartment with huge bags from Marshalls telling me all this new equipment was for the new restaurant he was opening soon, that I should visit him to try his food. If the food he makes tastes as good as the smells that came out of his apartment… this was going to be a delicious experience indeed.

It has taken me over a year to visit him because every time I had tried to eat there, the place was full. The concept… an open kitchen where all the guests can see the cooks at work. The menu, super dynamic… they work off what’s seasonal and fresh. They have a few favorites on the menu, but it changes constantly according to the chef’s whimsy and inspiration.

Last week I needed to have a working lunch meeting and decided I wanted to try if Cocina Abierta was available. They now have a lunch menu and some of the options caught my eye. This is what I had:

Arugula Salad with dates, goat cheese, parmesan flakes, almonds in a balsamic vinaigrette. Proscuitto not needed at all.

Feta and Spinach Ravioli with grated fresh tomato and Genovese pesto

I debated if I should have had the Pumpkin Risotto with parmesan cheese, onion marmalade and petit pois, which can be requested to be made with vegetable stock for vegetarians like me, but decided the ravioli seemed lighter fare for lunch.

The Arugula salad was one of the most delicious salads I’ve had in a long time. It’s extremely memorable and worthy of recommendations. I almost licked the plate clean. I divided one salad with my friend Angie, but the next time, I will order one just for myself. It’s that good… just as good as Bobby Flay’s Gala Apple salad and that’s a lot said right there.

The ravioli were pillowy and light. And the sauce was more like a dressing than a sauce per se. A little fresh tomato, very fruity olive oil and a dab of pesto atop each ravioli. The portion size was healthy, but I could have eaten a few more, certainly. Out of gluttony, of course.

The next time, I will try to order their Eggplant Ravioli with pine nuts. They were not available the day I visited… good, so I have something else to look forward to on my next visit.

Cocina Abierta is certainly not a vegetarian restaurant, but they make vegetarians feel welcome and understood. Thanks Martin for a wonderful lunch and hope to be able to visit sometime soon to taste some of your wonderful and delicious creations.

I have not ventured into making pastels this year… but the other day at the Yoga Center they were making batched of mini-pasteles for one of our recent Anniversary celebrations. So I decided to take some pics and help you a little bit if you want to try to make them yourself.

Make MASA and Filling

You create a filling with your favorite ingredients. The picture here includes textured soy protein, potatoes, mixed vegetables stewed in a tomato based sauce. You can use my recipe here for inspiration.

The Masa is mostly made with yautía, green banana. But you could add pumpkin to it or make them with ground up yuca. I tend to prefer yucca pastels a lot. They end up yellow that’s how you differentiate them.

Now we wrap the pasteles…

STEP ONE

Place a piece of butcher’s paper in frint of you. Place a piece of banana leaf (you could buy these in packages already at the store or a plaza del Mercado (farmer’s market)). you can’t use a banana leaf straight from the garden.  They need to be cooked off (amortiguadas) first.

STEP TWO

Spread a bit of canola/annatto oil to the leaf.

STEP THREE

Add a spoonful of the masa onto the banana leaf and spread a bit.

STEP FOUR

Add some of the filling on top of the masa.

STEP FIVE

Fold the butcher’s paper from the end that’s closer to you and bring it over to meet with the other side of the butcher’s paper that’s farthest away from you. This will make the masa fold onto itself and envelop the filling.

STEP SIX

Complete the wrapping of the butcher’s paper like a deli sandwich… unite the ends of the butcher paper and fold in ½” folds towards the pastel until it makes a somewhat tight package. Then, fold the side underneath the pastel and place aside.

STEP SEVEN

Sorry I was not able to take pictures of this step… but you need to tie with a kitchen twine. Use the same method as if you were tying a roast… Here I found a few videos from You Tube to help you learn how to tie your pasteles. You can do them individually or in “yuntas”, in twos. I like them individual because you can cook exactly how many you need, rather than in twos.

I apologize in advance for all the typos in the text in this video…  if you know Spanish, you will notice them.  It’s shameful…  but I like the way they present how to tie the pastel.  This one  is a single pastel… while the top one is in a “yunta” or duo…

Note to self… make a You Tube video making VEGETARIAN pasteles. Only people making meat-based pasteles have recorded themselves and we need to change that. Pasteles are just as delicious and just as traditional made with a vegetarian filling.

Hope you enjoy a very safe and joyful Xmas season… filled with everything that’s good and healthy to create a plentiful 2012 and beyond.

I like the idea of giving “consumables” as gifts… things you use and experience, rather than accumulate. Baking cookies, making jam, creating your own soap… concert tickets, dinner at a restaurant, an afternoon of cooking or even a night under the stars. I have made a conscious effort to get creative and give “experiences” as gifts for many years now. And food is certainly something we experience with all our senses.

I have given all these as gifts at one point or another recently. Here are a few of my best ideas…

Coquito – I already made 2 batches of this Puerto Rican version of eggnog this Xmas season and I think I am in to make some more tonight to give as gifts to my yoga friends. The spice in the tea I mix in has all the pep you need to not miss the alcohol at all. It’s the perfect thing to bring to a party and share with friends…

Cranberry Jam – This is so easy to make… and you can store it and give it away in pretty glass mason jars. I also recycle many of the glass bottles where the jams and butters I buy come from and re-purpose them when I make batches and batches of this. My gringo friends love this jam… I hope they post a Comment to confirm this fact.

Rosemary Almonds – These are salty/sweet and oh so delicious!!! Lots of brown sugar and butter goes into making them. They keep for awhile and are super easy to make. They’re inspired by the Union Square Market nuts… you could also use Tarragon if you’re into the licorice flavors.

Carob Granola – using Carob instead of chocolate chips, this makes a great vegetarian snack to nibble on while going on a “parranda”.

Brown Rice Krispies Treats – These are made with brown rice puffed cereal and almond butter to make them vegetarian. Marshmallows are not very veggie-friendly…

Cherry Carob Cookies – I love making these cookies for the holidays… They started as a Martha Stewart recipe I adapted to avoid the egg and the chocolate. With a few substitutions they’re now vegetarian and as delicious as I remembered them originally.

Carrot Cupcakes – these are soooooo easy to make. And to me carrot cake goes well year round. I have made these for sell and they’re always a great hit. A few carrot cupcakes in a glassine bag will always be a welcome gift.

Hazelnut Praline – This is like making your own candy. It’s delicious as a nibble or snack… and provide the best crunch to any poached fruit dessert. You could make this with any nut, I also enjoy almonds a lot in this application.

I am not a spa lover, but I can appreciate the health benefits that visiting a spa can provide – relaxation, detoxification, improved circulation, curative properties, among others.

Located in College Point, Queens, Spa Castle is the largest, cleanliest, most organized spa I have ever been to. I have visited several spas in the Miami area but none compare to the sheer size and amenities of Spa Castle. It has various levels, each dedicated to specific purposes. You are not allowed to use any cameras in the spa, so these pictures are courtesy of Spa Castle’s website.

The main level is divided – one area for men and a separate area for women. Here is where you’ll find hot whirpool baths, all at various temperatures and activity levels so you can ease into the relaxation mode little by little. You’ll find hot baths and cold baths… designed for you to go from one to the other to regulate your body’s temperature. There are pools with shots of water to massage every inch of your body. The big caveat… this level can only be used if you’re completely nude. No bathing suits or any other type of clothing is allowed. A bit shocking for someone who was not mentally prepared for that… but after you see a lot more than what you thought you would see ever in your lifetime, you kinda forget about it and concentrate on the spa experience.

The next level is co-ed and that’s where all the saunas are located… you are given a very colorful t-shirt and short ensemble where we all look the same, ready to take in the relaxing heat of all the saunas available. I’ve never been much of a sauna person… I come from the tropics and I do not like to feel all sweaty and suffocated. In other spas, you’re wearing a bathing suit and to cool off from the sauna heat you dump buckets of water over you. Then, like that all drenched, you go into the next sauna. I tend to feel all suffocated in the chest… Well, not here. Because you’re dry, people get to enjoy the sauna heat by laying on the saunas floor allowing the sauna heat to go up and you tend to feel much more comfortable than in those other saunas I’ve been before. And you still need to cool off after exiting these saunas, but you do it in a igloo room 32°F which feels amazingly comfortable after being in a hot sauna.

There are seven sauna rooms for you to enjoy:

An LED Sauna room that uses color therapy to enhance your mood and spirit.

A Gold Sauna designed to comfort sore limbs, perfect after you get a foot/leg massage. I was totally sore afterwards… and it looks divine on the inside, doesn’t it???

The Salt Sauna is lined with pink-colored rock salts directly brought from the Himalayas. It’s supposed to regulate blood pressure and water in your body. It also promotes regular blood sugar levels…

There’s a Far Infrared Sauna and a Far Infrared Chaise Lounge area where you can lay underneath these infrared lamps to strengthen your immune system.

The Jade Sauna contains calcium and magnesium and super gorgeous to be inside.

The Loess Soil Sauna is the hottest of them all.

And lastly is the Iceland igloo room, designed to cool you off in between the hot saunas and maintain proper body temperature. Also, going from hot to cold strengthens your skin pores and improves circulation.

There is a mezzanine level with massage rooms, treatment rooms and even rooms to sleep. The top level is an outside pool court with whirpools, Jacuzzis and more. You need to bring your bathing suit for this level and if you don’t have one, they rent one for you. I did not get a chance to visit this area but I would have loved to been inside those pools when it was 50°F outside. Nice!!!

Spa Castle also has a great juice bar and a lunch buffet. I only had juices there because I do not get hungry while I am in the saunas and pools. But afterwards… that’s a completely different thing!!!! 

And if my experience is not enough for you, Spa Castle has been featured in The New York Times, The Village Voice and on ABC too.

If you’re in the NYC area or will be visiting the NYC area I highly recommend you visit Spa Castle. It was a wonderful experience that I would definitely like to replicate in the near future…

But during my recent trip to NYC, 90% of what I bought was food items!!!! When I took everything out of my suitcase, I felt as if what I had done in NYC was grocery shopping. Here is a sampler of what I purchased:

Le Pain Quotidien – Brunette Praline Butter and 4 Red Fruits Preserves

I love eating these when I visit Le Pain Quotidien restaurants. And they’re organic too!!!

Union Square Street Market – Raw Milk Goat Cheese

We bought this cheese from Ardith Mae. She sells all things GOAT MILK – goat’s milk, goat’s milk yogurt, raw milk cheeses and pasteurized milk cheeses too. She has a great website and I totally love the pictures of her happy goats. They’re super duper cute…

Sorry, no pictures available for this raw milk cheese… we were so hungry that my mom opened up the wrapper one night and we snacked and snacked away. My bad that I forgot about all of YOU during our hunger attack. We bought a Colby style cheese that was truly delicious. We enjoyed it with spelt bread, organic butter and slices of avocado in an open-faced sandwich. Divine!!!!

Union Square Street Market – Raw Whipped Honey

I learned on this trip that honey is generally cooked before bottling… never imagined that. I always thought bottled honey came straight from the bee hive. According to Andrew, the raw honey guy over at Union Square Market, raw honey has more nutrients and beneficial qualities because it has not been tampered with. He has been featured in a variety of media, including the Martha Stewart Show. I bought the whipped version because it seemed like it would last me longer than the regular liquid kind… we’ll see about that!!!

Union Square Street Market – Beth’s Farm Kitchen Jellies

I have looooved their Garlic and Rosemary Jelly for years now. And this time around I also bought their Sour Cherry Preserves. I wanted to try one of their sugar-free spreads, but they have an expiration date and I can’t be rushed into eating anything…

Yummy Earth – Pomegranate Pucker Candy

This is my favorite flavor of lollipops from Yummy Earth… and to know I do not have to “weed” out all the other flavors I don’t enjoy as much is a real treat…

Whole Foods – Maple Almond Butter and Honey Almond Butter

I still have not tried these, but I loved the sampling packaging. They are also available in jars, but I wanted to try them first before committing to a whole jar. Besides, I knew I was going to purchase the Le Pain Quotidien Praline Butter already… so I was careful not to overload on the same type of product.

Whole Foods – Fig and Almond Cake

This was something my friend Rudy requested… or more that he mentioned he likes and I tried to please him with a little treat from NYC. We are now waiting for the right piece of manchego cheese to enjoy this with… YUM!!!

Grand Central Market – Sun-dried tomatoes

I have bought sulfite-free sun-dried tomatoes elsewhere, but as you can see from the label, these sun-dried tomatoes do not contain any sulfites either and stay softer than any of the other sulfite-free tomatoes I have bought in the past. They do offer other goods there and they list sulfites in the ingredient list, such as dried apricots or dried pineapples. So I trust them when they only list tomatoes and salt as their ingredients.

May Wah Vegetarian Market – Chicken Nuggets and Spare Ribs

I do not make these much at all… but they are great when you want a quick snack. And I will try to share Tania’s recipe for rice with vegetarian spare ribs. It’s a tad greasy, but that’s what makes it so similar to traditional cooking. I had it the other day and it was “finger-licking good”.