Well here I am guys, trying to get back in the swing of regular, full-time food blogging. I am pretty caught up with emails from all you lovely folks out there - thank you for all your well-wishes, they are much appreciated. I have been hanging out and catching up with my peeps on the forum - we have this month’s Royal Foodie Joust underway. The voting has started, and as always, it is our biggest competition yet. You have one more day to cast the vote for your favorite.
Some lucky winner will not only get their personalized apron, but also some Tupperware prizes from Ben at What’s Cooking,
who is not only sponsoring the Joust this month, but also hosting it in my stead. So big props to Ben. *woohoo*

Now on to the food, because that is why we are all here isn’t it? For the food? Well I am going to start at the end - the honeymoon and work my way back to the wedding food and the week before the wedding. I am still waiting on pictures from the wedding, so it kind of defeats the purpose to discuss lovely food without proper documentation. So alas, we start at the end of this adventure into marriage.

Read more…

Last week, my good buddy Dharm hosted the April edition of The Royal Foodie Joust. His post about itwas the funniest thing I have read in a long time, and I thought it would be fun to emulate his style of writing, but a little different genre. But after re-reading this post I just wrote, I should have just asked Dharm to write it for me! Anyway…

Can you see me waving the Queen’s wave to all of you?

“Hear Ye, Hear Ye! It is decreed that the The Queen of Leftovers is officially beginning her Royal Tour of the provinces. She will be stopping first in the Southern Coast provinces of San Augustino, where she will marry the beloved Lord Roberto, Duke of Technical Support. They will be attended by her retinue of their family and friends on the white sandy beaches where their joining will bring much food, libation, merriment and technical where withal to the land. After a few days of rest and enjoying the salty ocean breezes they will leave and head on to the Land of the Turquoise Waters, The Caribbean Island of Jamaica, for their Moon of Honey (or should we say, their Moon of Pina Colada)”.

Sadly it will not last a moon, just a quarter moon, but any moon is a good moon in my book!

I promise to bring back delicious tales of food and adventure!

As an appropriate farewell for now, I will share something with you that we do every Spring Solstice (which was a few weeks ago). We plant a little garden. This time due to the fact that we have very little outdoor space we planted a little herb garden. Spring is a time of renewal and birth. It is when the earth wakes up and life starts to rise up all around us. It is the perfect time to reflect on the things you want to be born out of your own life during the next year. So with a wedding coming up, it was especially focused this year. So with every seed we plant, we make a wish on it - like:
“this seed is for a beautiful wedding day”, “this seed is for a happy marriage”, “this seed is for many more wonderful meals”, “this seed is for lots of love and kisses”, “this seed is for continuing down the right path”, “this seed is for the health and happiness of our loved ones”, you get the picture. It is a great way to plant your seeds for the future both figuratively and in reality! If you wish it, is will be so.

Another declaration is that this month’s Royal Foodie Joust has begun. Michelle from Thursday Night Smackdown won this past challenge with her Coconut-Yellowtail Lollipops with a Trio of Spicy Lime Dipping Sauces. Her choice of ingredients for this month’s Joust are Mango, Brown Sugar and Cardamom. You can join in on the fun here! This month’s Joust, in the Queen’s absence, will be overseen by Ben the Brave from What’s Cooking? Ben will also be sponsoring the Joust this month by giving away prizes to the first, second and third place winners this month from his Tupperware business, in addition to the personalized apron for the first place winner! So go check out the forum to get more details!

Thank you Ben!

See you soon!

I {heart} Tamarind. For the longest time, I never even knew what it was. All I knew was there was a certain sauce at the Indian restaurant that I wanted to buy by the bottle so I could put it on every thing. Slightly sweet and tangy and full of an indescribable flavor. Makes my mouth water just thinking about it. Anyway, I just went about my life blissfully ignorant of what made up this sauce and how it was going to become an obsession years later.

Several years ago my cousin Michelle and I went on a field trip to Biscayne Bay near Homestead, Florida – the last city on the Florida mainland. She is a marine mammal researcher and we were going to the bay to get samples of plants that make up the diet of wild manatees. She had a friend in her lab, whose family was from Homestead and she told us we had to go to this huge fruit stand, called Robert is Here! famous for tropical milkshakes. I love milkshakes, hands down, so I was there. When we got to Robert is Here! we were overwhelmed. It was unlike any fruit stand I had ever been to. The sheer size of it was incredible. There was fresh fruit, jars of jellies and chutneys, sodas made up of tropical fruits, Florida souvenirs, huge gummy alligators, you name it. We finally found the area where they did the milkshakes and stood in line. On the board they had their daily offerings, regular things you would expect like pineapple, mango and papaya, and then some interesting ones like key lime, then there were those I was totally unfamiliar with: Fruits like Monstera Deliciosa, Mamey, Atemoya and Tamarind. I asked what tamarind tasted like (not knowing at the time that it was the star ingredient of my favorite sauce at the Indian restaurant) and the lady told me it was like sour gummy bears. It sounded weird, and I couldn’t wrap my head around what that would taste like in fruit form, so obviously, I ordered it. I can honestly say it was love at first sip. Something about the sweet and creamy vanilla frozen yogurt base, (or was it ice cream, I can’t quite recall) and the tang of the tamarind was so delicious. It was not at all sour gummies, it was just really great. So we went ahead and bought a bag of tamarinds and really enjoyed them our whole trip!
Once I knew the name of this delicious fruit, I saw it everywhere and finally put two and two together that it was the ingredient in that great sauce. I was hooked.

Recently we went to an Indian market and I picked up a jar of Tamarind-Date Chutney. I honestly wasn’t sure what I was going to do with it, but I got in the kitchen started playing and was inspired.

Read more…

I really believe in the concept of eating with the seasons. On the occasional times I have been able to do that with regularity(when I had a CSA membership, when I lived on the Navajo Reservation) I have felt great. Like I really had a concept of what the earth produces at certain times of the year - you know The Harvest. I also found that it made me much more creative, culinarily speaking. You have all these veggies of the same kind for weeks in a row – how can you make them interesting? After having these experiences of seasonal eating, I have always wanted to live near a farmer’s market so I could keep up the good work. When I lived in MA and when I travel back to The Northeast and I find myself in Boston, I always get jealous of the people living there that have access to one of the best farmers markets I have ever seen. They have meats, cheeses, breads, fresh fruits, veggies, nuts, grains, food stalls where you can eat, ad infinitum. It is a playground for anyone who loves food or anyone who is looking for quality product – local, organic, FRESH and inexpensive! Granted living in rural MA we had our farm stands which don’t get me wrong, are pretty great. But I just envied the variety these people in Boston enjoy. Then I start blogging and I read blogs like Figs Olives Wine and Once Upon a Feast and you hear Amanda and Ruth talk about the importance of eating local and fresh and you see these wonderful photographs of the Farmer’s Markets in their communities and I think to myself, why doesn’t every town have this? Every town used to have this.The market has always been, for centuries, the mainstay, the hub of a community, have we become that out of touch?

Well I guess the Foodie Fairies have shined their light on me, because now I get to live in a community that has a farmer’s market and a good one at that. This is good news because it is more fodder for my kitchen creations and my writing. I hope to be inspired, challenged and in love with this market. I will do my best to do right by it – get most of my produce there, meet the farmers and learn who they are, just get back in touch with the earth, even in this small way. I love simplicity - great ingredients that still taste like they are supposed to after they have been enhanced by a few other simple ingredients. If Leftovers are rooted in simplicity, the other side of the coin is this.

And did anyone see the SIZE of that Swiss Chard Leaf up there?

How about this LEMON? Yes it is the size of a an orange, 5 for $2. Unbeatable.

This leads me to Today’s Recipe: Swiss Chard and Potatoes

This recipe is near and dear to my heart – it is my adaptation of one of my Grandfather’s recipes and as those of you who keep up withthis blog of mine know, I love my grandfather. He had 3 things he made: Home made Italian Sausage (mild AND hot), Pepperoni Eggs and Swiss Chard with Potatoes. His version is very simple – thinly sliced potatoes, garlic and onions fried in olive oil, mixed with chard, salt and pepper. To mine I add the juice of one lemon and Parmesan cheese. I then put it in a casserole and bake it in the oven for 15 minutes at 350 F. Then I broil it for a few minutes to get the Parmesan crusty and browned. It is simple fair but my goodness is it good, especially when you use such quality ingredients!

Read more…

Here is the final installment of our vacation to New England that Roberto and I took in October. Amazing how time flies!

One of our other stops during our New England trip was in Bennington Vermont, visiting our friends Nicki and Lisa (you will remember them from our Ft. Lauderdale trip although we all had slightly different hair at that point….). When in Bennington you must go to The Bennington Battle Monument. The monument was built in the 1880’s at the same location in 1777 during the war of independence, that the American colonists maintained a store of weapons and food, which the British knew was critical to capture in order to restock their own troops.

Besides the history the Bennington Monument is a great place to look out over Bennington and see the landscape which at this time of year which included many beautifully colored trees. You get to the top of the monument by going up in an elevator. It is cold up there so be sure to bring a jacket.

Another must see outdoor monuments of sorts is the great poet, Robert Frost’s grave at The Old Bennington Cemetary. It lies in a small cemetary that houses many old and ornate tombstones and also those that are fairly plain. The cemetary goes back to the American Revolution. In 1920 Roberto Frost came to Shaftsbury, VT (one town over from Bennington) to live. His wife died suddenly 13 years later and he went to their old farm in Derry NH to scatter her ashes per her wishes, but the place was run down. He kept her ashes until he bought 2 burial plots at the Old Bennington Cemetery behind the Old First Congregational Church.

We were a little chilly after our trip to the monument and cemetary, so we decided to look for some indoor activities. There is a local winery in Southern Vermont called The North River Winery. All of us (Me, Roberto, Nicki & Lisa) having been residents of Vermont at some point and had all been to this winery in the past and had vowed to never go back. But it is just a thing you do when you are in VT - it is like a weird kind of pride for the state thing - local wine. North River Winery makes all their wines from fruits grown in Vermont – apples, raspberries, blueberries, rhubarb, etc. Sounds good right?

Well not so much…all of us really liked the IDEA of these kinds of wine, but the taste leaves something to be desired. I think it would make nice salad dressing, but drinking wine? Um no. I wish it weren’t so. As I love the idea of using local ingredients to make everything! But if you are ever in the area, do take the tasting and make up your own mind. They do stay in business so someone is buying the wines!

Anyway, Bennington is a wonderful place for a fall getaway full of beautiful leaves, historic monuments and local products! Go Vermont!

There is just something about the food in New England that is just inspiring. Maybe it is all the fresh, local produce and the focus on organic raw ingredients that makes everything taste so refined. Maybe it is the crisp air that clears your palate and helps you to taste the flavors or perhaps it is just the ingenuity and creativity that foodies in New England bring to the plate. Whatever it is, I love it. Pretty much anywhere you go in New England you can find a good cup of coffee and delicious and healthy treat, or some inventive mixture of ingredients that makes it impossible for you not to try it. During our trip to Massachesetts and Vermont in October we really enjoyed the food New England has to offer.

Read more…

I just posted an article about our trip to Boston’s North End (Little Italy) on my Travelcloseup Blog! Check it out!

Everyone who reads my blogs knows that my passion for coffee is deep and strong.

I just love the complexity of different beans and blends. I love the originality of coffees from all different regions of the world. They are all so unique. Some are rich and smooth and chocolately; others taste of berries or citrus; some are earthy giving off flavors like tobacco, bitter, earthy and verdant. Coffee is like wine in a sense. There are rituals involved in the making of, the preparation of and the aging of. There are connoisseurs who spend years perfecting blends and roasting methods or traveling the world in search of the perfect bean. It is all so fascinating. Coffee may not grow in New England climates, but I believe the soul of coffee is in New England. People in New England know what to do with their coffee, to bring it to the next level. Everywhere you go in New England you can find excellent coffee. Even gas stations serve up Green Mountain Coffee and McDonalds has Newman’s Own Organic Coffee. But the real unique ways of preparing coffee are found in the local coffee shop in those picturesque towns in Vermont or Massachusetts. No matter how small the town is, you can always find a local coffee joint. There are Starbucks to be found of course, but people generally prefer their local coffee place. There is excellent competition between coffee houses which for the consumer means there is great coffee to be had around every corner.

That was one of my major goals of our recent trip to New England. I wanted to go back to all my favorite coffee joints and boy was it ever a treat!

Read more…