"quinoa" news and stories

• Everyone is eating quinoa these days.
• Napa wine has changed in the past 30 years.
• When I make a sandwich these days, I find myself using focaccia more and more.
• Are you familiar with Montreal smoked meat?
• This chocolatier moved from New York City to Amesbury and found a new career.
• Restaurant reviews: Machu Picchu Charcoal Chicken & Grill, Webster Hall, Benatti, and Chau Chow.
• This week's recipes: Thai Dressing, Grilled Lamb Steaks with Farro, Olives, and Almonds, and Ice Cream Pie.

There are certain dishes for which I always have the ingredients in my kitchen. Scrambled eggs (eggs and butter). My sister's Quinoa, Bean-wa, Green-wa (a mash up of quinoa, garbanzo beans, Trader Joe's Curry Simmer Sauce and frozen spinach). Lentil soup (dried split mung beans, carrots, celery and onion). My friend Cindy always keeps around Ramen Noodles and frozen peas for the nights when she can't deal with being creative. Another friend is never without the makings for fluffer nutter sandwiches.

These are the items I can make quickly, with my eyes nearly closed (chopping veggies without at least one eye open is a very bad idea). I know that they will taste good and stop me from being hungry, which is often all I ask from my food.

Okay Slashfoodies, confession time! What are meals you make time and again, and always keep the makings for around in your fridge and pantry?

Despite my status as the child of natural food loving hippies, I don't think I ate quinoa until about four years ago. I had a friend who was working on eliminating wheat and rice from her diet and so was looking for alternatives. Someone suggested she check out quinoa and so she started experimenting with it, creating some seriously delicious dishes in the process. I particularly remember some stuffed acorn squash that were ridiculously delicious.

Across the country, at about the same time, my sister started eating it regularly. One of her favorite ways to use it was as a base for quick meals, like her signature Bean-wa, Green-wa, Quinoa. That would be a can of beans (garbanzos mostly), some cooked greens (spinach, kale, chard, collards, whatever she had around), some sauce (typically Trader Joe's masala simmer sauce, but anything meant for pasta works well) and a couple of cups of cooked quinoa. Stir together, heat and eat.

photo by Marisa McClellan

Alright Slashfoodies, we have a challenge for you. As posted on our sister site The Cancer Blog, one of our favorite food bloggers, Béa at La Tartine Gourmande, the creator of many exquisite dishes we have featured here before, has prepared this perfectly-pink dish of Quinoa Beet Verrine (as shown above) to help raise awareness for Breast Cancer. We'd like to continue what she has started and see what our readers can come up with. There are no rules, other than it should be an original creation and contain the color pink. As I said before, it can be dinner or dessert, anything from pink cream cheese on a bagel to an entire fuchsia dinner is fine - use your imagination. Drink submissions are fine, too.

Please send us the link to your blog/website once you have posted the picture, and we will spotlight the entries in a future post. Is there a prize? Yes - knowing that you are helping to raise awareness for Breast Cancer, is that not enough? Tell you what, we will let you judge, and then we will do a spotlight/interview with the creator of our favorite submission.

(Thanks again, Béa!)

Source

• Recipes made with homemade chicken broth, including Chicken Soup with Chinese Dumplings.
• Everything you need to know about quinoa and other grains, from cookbook author Lorna Sass.
• A simple table makes the food look good.
• Boston is baked bean territory.
• A new book, The Diet Detective's Countdown, lists the calories of 7500 foods, including Double-Stuff Oreos, the rice dish at PF Changs, and even Breathsavers!
• San Pellegrino bottles have gotten thinner.
• What's the ButterWizard? It's an "electric temperature controlled portable butter dish."
• More recipes this week: Spiced Apple Muffins, Farro Risotto, and Far Breton (Flan with Dried Plums).