Pot Luck

It's my birthday on Thursday! Last week my coworkers threw me a "taco bar" pot luck (and grandma's jam was totally out of place in a totally awesome and typical KMO way). But the real star of the party was a vegetarian taco meat that my friend Catherine made.

Oh. My. God.

It is silky, creamy, spicy and everything you want next to a pile of steamy cheese and cripsy, salty chips. Of course on my plate, it was more the topping of a taco salad--with more avocado than lettuce, again, typical.

Anyway, everybody begged her for the recipe and I am proud to present Catherine's Taco Veggie "Meat" with black beans and cumin. Even the carnivores wolfed it down.

• 1 onion
• 2 cloves garlic
• Olive Oil
• Cumin, to taste (I would guess at least one tbs, but start with a little if you aren't sure)
• 1 package "Smart Ground" Taco/Burrito Meatless Veggie Protein Crumbles
• 1 can whole black beans
• Taco sauce or Cholula, to taste (at least 1/4 cup)
• 1/4 - 1/2 cup chopped cilantro
• Optional: 1 can of corn for color and sweetness

Chop onion and sautee with cumin in olive oil until slightly caramelized. Add garlic and sautee a few minutes before adding Smart Ground and beans (and corn). Allow to cook for 6-7, or longer if needed. Add sauce near the end of cooking. Garnish with chopped cilantro.

Here is a link to the Light Life website, if you are curious about the Smart Ground. The chili is delicious!

More birthdays...

Over the weekend we celebrated two more birthdays--the United States of America's and my little brother! Daniel turned sixteen the same day our country turned...like, three hundred and something? I can write and I can cook but apparently I can't count. I have a headache just trying to do that subtraction.

And we had another dinner party with Laura and Tony! Too much food, per usual, but it was all so gooood. I indulged in more of that delicious Amsterdam (I found out what it's called!) cheese, which I discovered was an aged gouda and not related to swiss or comte, like I'd thought.

Daniel ate an entire triangle of brie and probably half his body weight in ribs. I loved the sweet and spicy corn Laura made, and I have to say that my dad did a pretty great job on his ceviche. I also brought along a cold green bean salad.

Green Bean Salad with Walnuts and Cherry Tomatoes

• One or two pounds yellow and green beans, french or wax (I like to mix)
• One small red onion
• 1 basket cherry tomatoes (or more, if you prefer)
• For dressing: 1/2 tsp whole grain mustard, olive oil and red vinegar to taste, minced oregano and basil to taste, salt and pepper
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Mince onion and combine with dressing ingredients. Whisk until smooth. Clean and halve cherry tomatoes, and toss with dressing to coat. Set aside.

Clean, chop, and steam green beans. Add salt and pepper before cooking to get extra seasoning. I cheated and used the microwave. They turned out perfect.

The salad should be served warm or at room temperature. The important thing is to wait to add the dressing until just before serving, or the vinegar in the dressing will cause the beans to discolor. Add walnuts and enjoy!

Cesar Chavez Farmer's Market

This is one of my favorite places in Sacramento on a Wednesday afternoon. In high school, I would come here with my best friend during the summer. We'd go shopping at Downtown Plaza, then drift down K street, sipping iced coffee and craving something sweet.

Cesar Chavez Plaza is a park in the
middle of downtown Sacramento, on the corner of J and 10th streets. It is lively, crowded, and colorful; it's noisy and it smells like the muffins and loaves of bread sold by Grateful Bread and Sacramento Baking Co., hemorrhaging steam in the hot weather.

As you can see, there is a reason some people call Sacramento by another name: Sacra-tomato. (And by some people, I obviously mean people who are not from here, who are probably the same people not from New York who call it the "Big Apple," or who call San Francisco "Frisco.")

Yes, those zucchini squash and yams are actually bigger than the watermelons.

Today it was actually a pretty cool afternoon (about 95 degrees F, HA!) so I spent my lunch wandering around, trying to sneak pictures with my blackberry. I brought a lunch, of course, some squash and rice with BBQ sauce leftover from Sunday, but when I passed the Italian Ice truck, it was like I was back in high school with S. I almost wanted to buy some white peaches and stuff them into a Forever 21 bag--but of course I didn't have one, and my tastes have turned toward less sweet fruits.

So I settled for dairy-free chocolate Italian Ice. It was a good compromise.

I didn't get a good picture of them, but today they had a sick band playing. It had a different vibe from the group that's usually at my Carmichael market (they play a lot of Beatles, Simon and Garfunkel). These guys play guitar and trumpet a la Cake and they are so great. Also, their lead singer is a woman, which makes the lyrics pretty funny.

All in all, it was a good lunch. Just don't tell my mom I was there; she'll be mad I'm not bringing home any Satsuma plums.

How KMO ate five chicken thighs in one sitting

In my defense, they were itty-bitty organic, free-range chickens. And I hadn't had chicken for a month and a half, and it's probably one of my things. And my mom brined them and then made this amazing barbeque sauce for my dad and I to spread on the meat when we were grilling it...


It didn't matter that I also marinated and grilled eggplant and summer squash. Or that we half-steamed, seasoned, and then cooked corn over the chicken on the bun warmers of our barbeque.

It was goooooood. And I am not ashamed.

Mostly my body was craving protein. I really try to get it, in soy milk, beans, etc. but on a daily basis I don't do as well as I should for how active I am.

So there you have it: How KMO ate five chicken thighs in one sitting and lived to tell the tale.

**Recipe to follow for my mom's super-amazing BBQ sauce, adapted from some magazine we gotsomewhere. Like I said, more details later.