Category: eats

recipes and dinner club news and general eats from Casa de Blundell

Gorge yourself in 2007


From the February 2007 issue of Texas Monthly.

Eating Myself Alive

Jim Atkinson cures what ails us.

I’M A BIG BELIEVER in New Year’s resolutions. Nine years ago I decided to quit smoking, and while it took me a few months, in March of 1998 I stamped out my last butt. At the same time, I resolved not to gain any weight after giving up nicotine—a more difficult challenge—and began exercising at least an hour a day. Nearly a decade later, I weigh the same thing. This year? I’m attacking my diet. And I’m not just referring to cutting out the fries. Healthy eating is proactive: It means consuming more of those foods whose properties prevent such life shorteners as heart disease and cancer. With the help of Lona Sandon, an assistant professor of clinical dietetics at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, I’ve settled on ten things I’m going to gorge on in 2007. Try my plan yourself—and see how many years you can add to your life by eating more.

Here are Jim’s top 10 things to gourge on. Read more in this month’s issue.

1. Go upstream: salmon.
2. A tomato a day keeps the Big C away.
3. Synergy, baby: garlic.
4. Brown power, part I: whole-grain pasta.
5. Brown power, part II: whole-grain bread.
6. The new mayo: avocado.
7. Say yes to red meat.
8. Pintos with that?
9. Fig out.
10. Room for dessert? Cave to cantaloupe.

So, you may say, resolutions are good and well. But are there any caveats to this healthy feeding frenzy? Well, yes—two. The first is that I’ll still allow myself a cheeseburger or soft tacos once a week. It’s not that the human body can’t handle any cholesterol or fat; it just can’t take too much of it. The second is that, even if I falter at incorporating one or two of my ten foods here, I’m intent on, uh, staying the course. Because proactive eating is not just a year-long project—it’s a lifelong one.

Baked Eggs in Canadian Bacon Cups

I started the South Beach Diet yesterday, so I’ve got a number of new recipes I’m trying out. This one looks great. I’ll let you know how it goes and let you in on some of the other recipes as well. I’m really looking forward to trying out a new stuffed mushroom recipe tonight.

Baked Eggs in Canadian Bacon Cups
Provided by: The South Beach Diet Online
(For Phase 1 of South Beach Diet)
Original recipe yield: 2 servings.
——————————
INGREDIENTS:
4 large eggs
4 slices Canadian bacon
1/3 green bell pepper
1/3 red bell pepper
1/3 shallot, minced
1 tablespoon canola oil
1 1/3 tablespoons minced fresh herbs such as tarragon, chives, parsley or combination thereof
salt and pepper
——————————
DIRECTIONS:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Remove tops, core, ribs, and seeds from bell peppers. Cut them into quarters and flatten to facilitate cutting into small dice. Heat oil over medium-high heat and saute shallots to soften before adding in peppers. Cook, stirring often, until slightly softened but colors are still bright. Remove from heat and season to taste with salt and pepper.
Lightly grease 4 cups of a muffin tin and insert one slice of Canadian bacon into each cup. Divide bell pepper mixture among the 4 cups and carefully crack one egg into each bacon cup on top of the peppers. Bake in center rack of oven for about 15-20 minutes, or until whites are set but yolks are still slightly runny (bake longer or shorter according to taste.) Season eggs to taste and carefully remove by gently scooping out bacon cups with spoons and rubber spatulas. Serve garnished with fresh herbs.

Finding the perfect produce

Just thought I’d share the quick draft of the feature I wrote to go along with the pictures below:

Finding the perfect produce
Jonathan Blundell
Staff writer
Ask any vender or buyer at the Downtown Waxahachie Farmer’s Market on how to pick the perfect produce and you’re sure to get any number of answers.
Nancy Edwards, who traveled to the Saturday morning market from southern Ellis County, said her decisions are based primarily on feel.
“I feel all my fruits and vegetables to find the best one,” Edwards said. “The only thing I’ve ever found to shake is a honeydew melon. A produce man told me that once. He said you should shake it and if you hear the seeds rattle, you’ve found a good melon.”
“There’s probably five different ways people will say you should use to pick out the perfect cantaloupe or other produce,” Richard Davis, a vender from Venus said.
Davis has been selling his home grown produce at the weekly market for the past two years.
He started selling his produce from his home and at a similar market in Mansfield three years ago.
“My garden has grown from three-quarters of an acre, to one acre, to two acres,” Davis said. “And I plan on adding more and expanding it sometime in the future.”
Davis brings his bell peppers, banana peppers, greens, onions, cucumbers and other produce from his home and has a second vender selling at other farmer markets in the area.
Davis also buys some of his produce from other local farmers.
“Growing fruits and vegetables is just in my blood,” Davis said. “I just love growing stuff. We’ve had enough produce that we’ve even sold some of our produce to wholesalers in Dallas as well.”
For Tommy Jones of Waxahachie, the Farmers’ Market has been something he and his wife have enjoyed doing for fun.
The couple owns 22 acres on Youngblood, a well as a small garden in Palmer.
By noon on Saturday, the couple had already sold nearly two truckloads of fruits and vegetables.
“We’re plum of plums,” Jones said as he took inventory of the few baskets of fruits and vegetables remaining.
Jones and his wife Shirley have been growing their own produce for a number of years and started selling their goods at the Farmers’ Market three years ago.
“It’s just something fun to do,” Jones said. “We grow so much that our family can’t eat it all and this is a great place to sell the leftovers.”
Jones brings zucchini, squash, peaches, greens, plums and more to keep a variety of fresh goods available for buyers.
And as for that perfect peach, Jones said it’s all about the smell.
“I look for a certain smell when I’m picking a perfect peach,” Jones said. “It’s got to have that perfect smell and no blemishes.”
The Downtown Waxahachie Farmers’ Market is open to the public every Saturday, now through October 29 on the downtown square.
Venders begin arriving at 7 a.m. for check-in and the sale is open from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., rain or shine.
More information and a venders’ application is available on the city’s website at www.waxahachie.com.

Spanish zucchini

This recipe came from a Rachel Ray show with an added twist of my own – Spanish Zucchini

It’s a great side, or if you’re like me and cooking alone it can be a great meal in and of itself.

  • 2 zucchini (sliced)
  • 1 cup of pecans
  • 3 cups of Pico de Gallo
  • 1 tab vegetable/cooking oil

Just as a note, my measurements are never really exact, I usually eyeball everything and add to taste or to work with the recipe.

Crunch the pecans and layer them in the bottom of a skillet. Let the pecans heat up and toast slightly. You can also cook them on a sheet in the oven at 450 for 5 or 10 minutes.

Slice the zucchini and add to the skillet. Add 1 tablespoon of cooking oil, olive oil or vegetable oil.

Add Pico de Gallo. I use the pre-packaged Pico de Gallo from HEB – my local supermarket, but you can make it up fresh if you’d like, with your favorite recipe. HEB has several different options, including a mango Pico de Gallo and variations of spiciness.

Let everything cook until the zucchini is tender.

Plate up and serve. For a complete meal, plate on a bed of rice and/or add a chicken breast on the side.

Tuna/Crab Salad

Everybody sing:
“After midnight – we’re gonna let it all hang out…”
Or not. I was catching up on my blogs and Scoble sent me to Wikipedia in one of his entries and I spent a couple hours there just reading random entries. It’s like when I was younger and I used to go to my grandparents and just sit and read the encyclopedia cause there was nothing else to do.
Bad habits fade slowly. But needless to say, Jamie Cullum still rocks and I think I’m starting his DVD over for the third time now. It’s just on ALL REPEAT. Wonderful.
Oh and BTW, I made an awesome tuna/crab salad tonight for my lunch tomorrow.
Yes, I am impressed. No recipe in front of me – of course that’s where most of my favorite dishes come from anyways.
Lets see if I can remember the recipe.
1 Cup of Pecans
1 Apple (sliced with core and stem removed – naturally)
1/2 Can of White Crap Meet *EDIT* 1/2 Can of White Crab Meat *EDIT*
1 Can of Tuna
2 Boiled Egg Whites
1/4 Cup of Fat Free Ranch Dressing
Put all of the above in your local food processor, slice, dice and chomp and there you go.
I estimate the whole bit has around 250-300 calories.
Not too shabby. Sounds like a good lunch.
My doctor told me today I need to lose 48 pounds over the next two years. That’s only two pounds a month, but I’m gonna shoot for 48 pounds in a year. We’ll see how that goes. Four pounds a month can’t be too bad – except that the only time I’ve ever been successful at weight loss is when I was sick and not actually trying.
But then again – I’ve never really tried.
Here’s to a September 2006 211 weight class.
And with that – I’m off like…. well nevermind.