Eat Your Vegetables!

I cook vegetables all the time for my clients. Lovely, fresh, colorful and tasty vegetables prepared in a myriad of ways.

But my family? Oh my poor, poor family. They get served a few tiny french beans I scraped from the bottom drawer of the fridge, a bag of frozen peas, or gasp.......french fries. That's a veggie right? Oh how I love french fries.

I was ashamed of myself.

I was going to be a good mother dammit, so I raided the fridge for every possible veggie and made a tart. I'm a pretty lazy person when it comes to cooking for myself so I knew this would be an incredibly fast and delicious dinner.

First things first. Your tart crust is paramount. Awful crust, awful tart.

Here is an easy and delicious recipe for crust. Make a couple of batches and throw them in the freezer. You never when Aunt Edna from Pasadena might show up and demand some sort of pie.

I was shocked to find so many tart friendly veggies lurking in my fridge...

Zucchini

Onions

Eggplant

Tomatoes

Spinach

Lemon thyme

I grilled the zucchini, onions and eggplant for an extra smoky flavor then sauteed the tomatoes, spinach and a lonely shallot who kept glaring at me all week in a bit of olive oil.

To assemble: Roll out your dough, lift and press into your tart pan of choice. Then dock it. No, you're not going to reduce its pay. Just prick the crust all over with a fork. Place into in a pre heated 400 degree oven until light brown in color, about 15 minutes. Turn down oven temperature to 375 degrees and let the crust cool for a few minutes. Then add cheese. That's my favorite part. I sprinkled goat cheese on the tart bottom, layered on the veggies and topped it with mozzarella. Any cheese would suffice though. Throw it back into the oven for about 10 minutes, or until cheese is nice and bubbly.

For a lazy person I think I did alright...

Okay, I've Got Nothing...

Between planning my Thanksgiving extravaganza, working, drinking my box of wine, I realize I've been slow to post anything here.

Wait. Did you just read that? I said box of what? BOX OF WINE. Uh huh. I did. I bought a box of wine. Okay, wine Gods strike me dead. Right now. I admit I was a bit curious. The packaging. It was all the packaging. Totally sucked me in. Clean and pretty.

Inside the cardboard box sits a bladder like bag, full of chardonnay from grapes grown in the Napa Valley. St. Helena to be exact (my favorite place to visit and go wine tasting) How was it you ask? Not bad, and not out of this world either. It's a perfectly okay Chardonnay. And a cube which holds two bottles with run you about $11 at Target. Yes, you read that correctly. Target.

So, will I plop this box of wine on my Thanksgiving table next to my delicious maple and thyme glazed turkey, focaccia stuffing with pears and pancetta and truffled mashed potatoes? Heck no. But it's not that bad. I think it's fine to stash in the fridge for an occasional glass of wine with that Thai take out food or leftovers from last night.

But I'll be drinking champagne on Thanksgiving.

Orange!

Do I look orange yet? Well if I don't now I have a feeling I will be soon. I'm hooked on carrot juice. Every morning I mix it with a bit of freshly squeezed orange juice and it makes me feel fantastic. Like I could run down the block and back. Yes, it's that amazing. I'm not quite sure if it's in my head or has something to do with all of the vitamins and antioxidants packed into such an odd looking specimen.

So I'm waiting. For my orange glow.

I found some rather large and wonderfully strange looking heirloom carrots at the farmer's market the other day. They're called Chantenay and were originally grown in France. I bought a few and made carrot zucchini cinnamon muffins. My kids even ate them. See, told you I'm on a carrot kick.

My other favorite concoction of late is an orange carrot smoothie. I don't measure, but can tell you to just wing it with blender drinks. Anything goes. I usually add 1 or 2 frozen bananas, a few ice cubes, non fat vanilla yogurt, almond milk, orange juice and carrot juice. Play around with it and see what tastes good to you.

Give it a try, you just might have enough energy to run down the block and back...

To Market To Market

For some reason I love this photo. Taken in Paris at one of the billions of markets I toured with a friend.

Guy with cigarette. Wonder what he was buying? Hanging bunny perhaps....

Apple Pie. My Way

Last weekend I spent much of my time driving around Northern California in search of apples to pick. I would have much preferred to sit myself in front of a giant cheesecake with a huge bottle of wine and catch up on No Reservations with my pal Anthony Bourdain. But I have kids and I sort of need to pay attention to them.

I was on a mission to pick apples, so we headed South to Watsonville and manged to get there the very last day of apple picking season. We snagged some pippins, golden delicious and another variety that I don't know the name of. I am now the proud owner of 700 pounds of apples.

I knew what I needed to do. Bake an apple pie. Or twenty. My grandmother was the queen of the apple pie. Never the most perfect looking pies, but that's the way I like them. They were super delicious every time.

But I have some rules about my apple pies...

• The crust should be made with butter and rolled out as thinly as possible.

• Apples should also be thin, thin, thin. I like a filling that resembles a chunky applesauce.

• I like cinnamon. I really do. But don't get it anywhere near my apple pie. The only addition to my apples are lemon juice, flour and sugar. That's it.

• Apple pie should not be eaten warm. If I catch you trying to steal a slice, I'll gat mad and call you names.

• I never understood eating a chunk of cheddar cheese with the slice of pie thing. My family used to do this. Can anyone explain the origin of this?

• Ice cream with my pie? No thank you. I'll have some on my warm apple crisp though...

Am I an apple pie snob? Perhaps. But it's my pie.