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Saturday, May 11, 2013

Pea, Radish, Crostini

I have been playing with vegetarian meals. One of many pet peeves is substituting synthetic meats where traditionally a dead animal would be used, such as using a soy patty instead of ground-up cow for your meal. There is no need for that nasty business. For a long time, I heard about the evils of soy. I knew if I ever crossed the vegetarian threshold, I would not take up soy to fill the hole of rotting flesh. No, I would fill that hole with vibrant and fresh foods that are unique and creative, and bring me joy to make. I've tried to cook with tofu and it's like cooking a canvas. It does not bring a lot to the meal...but takes on the flavors around it. Consider me unimpressed. I am stoked to get my protein and texture needs elsewhere, thank you.




Growing up we paired a lot of things with bread such as foie gras, pate, saucisson, and prosciutto. I hear cool people make crostini, so I wanted to try my hand at it.




I don't eat peas accept to reheat the canned or frozen kind and serve it as a side dish. Sometimes I get really crazy and add shallots and butter to them. Once, Casey and I had mashed peas in Ireland. It wasn't something we ordered again.





But, I was really intrigued by the flavor profiles of this dish. I adore radishes. They are crisp and fresh and a nice contrast to the creamy mashed peas. Add in some pesto and I am sold. I got the recipe from here.



The recipe I found was a little more labor intensive that I intended. Instead of making my own pesto and combining it with the peas, I just bought store bought pesto, diluted with high quality EVOO and brushed it onto the crostini. I layered it with mashed peas. The mashed peas had olive oil and a little salt. After, I layer it with radishes and crush salt and pepper over it. The hubby and I were quite pleased.

Aguas Frescas - it's the new cool thing

I totally did not die in Maui. Really.


Look, we're married!



The Jan-Apr detox was a resounding success. I eventually got Kimberly Snyder's book and completely overhauled my diet and have seen positive results. Her book is super nerdy with information and a ton of resources, references, and citations. (Can you tell I am in college? Citations, wooo!) This is definitely a book worth checking out.




This totally looks like sherbert


Every morning starts with her green smoothie. Spinach, romaine lettuce, apple, pear, celery, and lemon juice. It's pretty flipping good. My skin is happy. My body is happy. I guess there is happiness all around. I have my (now) husband hooked on it too! More importantly I'm not crazy tired all day long! Seriously. This is the girl who had a pastry and a cappuccino every morning. Less coffee more energy, what?! No fooling.





Now that I am married, I guess I should keep up this being healthy business, right? To be successful at this I need to make it fun. Otherwise, please pass the vodka because that is waaay fun. Just kidding. Not really.

So frothy!



But seriously, I did a little research (aka Google) and found out about Aguas Frescas and thought, hey, that's like an alcoholic beverage without the alcohol. I can dig that. There are so many choices out there too. Lately my go to drink has been freshly squeezed grapefruit juice with club soda. So obsessed. But these drinks are a little more involved. The one I made today was watermelon and grapefruit with club soda. It's got a whole 'nother ingredient. Whoa.

Grapefruit on the left, watermelon on the right




It was pretty tasty if I do say so myself. The flavors blended well and created the perfect summer drink. (along with, like, 50 other perfect summer drinks, I'm sure).

I bought half of a watermelon which is dirt cheap! Put it through my blender and strained it. Please - you don't need a cheesecloth like the recipe says. Than you juice a bunch of grapefruit. Mix it together and add club soda.

On the awesome side of things - Casey brought me back a kithen aid from Illinois. Literally packed it in his baggage and brought it home. His wonderful grandmother gave it to me. So...I am crazy stoked to get-a-bakin' with this piece of heavy machinery.