Berry Almond Muffins

I just made up this recipe yesterday, and they turned out quite well. (They are all gone now) However, they didn't puff up as much as I would have liked, but were very healthy and tasty. I might try adding more leavening next time.

1 cup almond milk
1/2 cup milk
1 cup oats
4 tablespoons buckwheat honey
4 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup almond meal
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup flax seeds
1/2 cup frozen blueberries, thawed
1/2 cup frozen raspberries, thawed

bake at 350 C for 45 mins.

the wonder of cheese

"Cheese is one of the great achievements of humankind."
-Harold McGee

science + history + food = interesting reading

I just started reading an awesome book: On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen by Harold McGee. It is amazing. I'm still on the first section, which talks about milk and dairy products, but it is fascinating. It discusses the scientific principles underlying cooking techniques, such as the formation of ice crystals in ice cream, or the interactions of fat, water, and protein molecules in the formation of butter. And it goes into this detail on pretty much every food there is...it's over 800 pages long. I can't wait to read the whole thing. yeah...I think I am earning my blog title.

A fresh start

So after several months of neglect, I have decided to give this blog a new look, and a new theme. I never really liked my old blog title, so I'm trying this one out for size. I will probably mostly post healthy, tasty recipes I've discovered or invented, or other thoughts/info on food and science.
Here is my first recipe. I make this quite frequently and it is delicious, and very healthy. It's good with avocado or sour cream.

Sweet Potato and Black Bean Chili

2 tsp extra virgin olive oil
1 small onion, chopped
1 sweet potato
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 tbs chili powder (chili seasoning from a packet works well too)
2 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp chipotle
1/8 tsp salt
1 1/3 cups water
1 can black beans, rinsed
1 c canned tomatoes (I use roasted tomatoes with chilies)
2 tsp lime juice
2 tbs chopped cilantro (optional)

1) Heat oil in large sauce pan over medium-high heat. Add onion and potato and cook until onion is softened, about 4 mins.
2) Add garlic, chili powder, cumin, chipotle, and salt
3) Add water, bring to a simmer, cover and cook until potato is tender, 10-12 mins
4) Add beans, tomatoes, and lime juice
5) simmer 4 mins
6) remove from heat, add cilantro
7) top with sliced avocado or sour cream.
8) Enjoy!

note: I do not recommend adding cilantro to the whole pot, but to individual portions. The chili itself keeps well, but the cilantro gets a bit wilted and slimy after refrigeration.

A new year

It's been a while since my last post. Thanksgiving and Christmas were a bit hectic, but enjoyable. Now, it's back to the daily grind. At work, hopefully in about two weeks I will be finished with the annoying microhomology-mediated end joining project I've been slogging away at for about six months. For my first weekend back in LA I went to a concert at the Natural History Museum. Apparently, bands in LA like to play in museums. It's an interesting experience watching a band perform surrounded by taxidermied animals in their little dioramas.

Another year older...

Perhaps the fact that I worked through the weekend before my birthday is evidence that I am truly a grown-up. The past week has been probably the roughest at work, as I spent the weekend fixing errors, and discovering that this job is more difficult than I initially realized. But, I did in fact fix things, and I think I will continue to slowly get the hang of things. However, I am very glad to have the week off. I'm not sure if it will exactly be a restful vacation, as I will be meeting about 30 of Isaac's relatives the day after tomorrow. My family is relatively small, and borderline anti-social. The largest thanksgiving dinner I've ever been to in my life was only 10 people, including me. So this will be a new experience for me.
It has been a pretty good, low key birthday. We went out to dinner to a Japanese restaurant, and went to barnes & noble afterwards. I had almost forgotten how much I love books. Although, I suppose I am currently reading three books. I've been reading A Canticle for Leibowitz for a while, but have found it difficult to get into. It has more than one plot line, and after the first plot line ended, it kind of lost my interest. But, Isaac says it's very good, and I have yet to read a book he liked that I didn't, so I will get through it eventually. I also started reading "The Secret History of the War on Cancer" almost a year ago. It is well written and captivating, but infuriating and quite long. I have a signed copy, as I actually saw Devra Davis give a presentation about her book at CMU. I found it quite inspiring, and ever since the topic of environmental health has become a bit of a hobby, and may become a career someday.

Odysseys in eating

In most large cities there may be a Chinatown or a little Italy, but in LA there is a little everything. Little Ethiopia, Korea town, Little Armenia, etc. Over the past few months living here in LA I have had a number of interesting eating experiences. This has included Ethiopian, Mongolian BBQ, Korean, which is completely different from Korean BBQ, fondue, trendy hamburgers (quite possibly the best ever), Japanese, sketchy yet tasty Chinese beef rolls, chicken and waffles soul food, Polish, Middle Eastern fusion (belly dancers included), and possibly more (I'm not sure that I remember everything).

The latest excursion included Japanese noodles followed by Pinkberry. I got hot soba (buckwheat) noodles with spinach, fishcake, and fried rice balls in Tokyo style broth. I really liked the flavor of the slightly sweet and savory broth and soba noodles with spinach, but the fishcake and rice balls were rather odd. The fishcake was a thin half moon sliver that almost looked like a radish slice, as it was pink on the edge and white in the middle. It didn't even really taste like fish. The rice balls were light and fluffy on the outside, but seemed to contain rice toothpaste on the inside. However, the noodle-broth-spinach combo more than made up for the strange fishcake and rice balls. Afterwards, we all realized we could still eat more, and there was a Pinkberry in between the Japanese restaurant and our parking garage. Frozen yogurt is very LA. There are numerous frozen yogurt joints all around the greater LA area, and Pinkberry is perhaps the most popular at the moment. It is a very simple yet brilliant business model. One main flavor, although I believe they've recently added two others, and fresh fruit toppings in addition to standard ice cream toppings. I had the original flavor with raspberries, mango, and chocolate chips. It was unlike any flavor I'd ever had before. It was a slightly sour lemony flavor with undertones of strawberry and other flavors I couldn't quite detect. It was quite tasty.