Purple Potatoes

It amazes me how we have grown to crave instant gratification and convenience, so much that things that used to be simple everyday things, now seem extreme or even old fashioned. I found beautiful rich purple potatoes at the farmer's market on Saturday and decided to add a little color variation to my diet. When I showed up to work with my leftovers, you would have thought I was eating a live cockroach by the way people looked at my food and jumped away. Yes, yes....gawk at what nature has provided and continue to eat that frozen lean cuisine loaded with God only knows what, wrapped in plastic, and 'cooked' in its styrofoam package by a microwave. I'm sure your body definitely appreciates Sodium Phosphate, Potassium Chloride, Tapioca Dextrin and Thiamin Hydrochloride as opposed to my ewww-y purple potatoes and steamed brussel sprouts. Seriously, is there real food anywhere in that frozen package of yours?EASY Garlic and Rosemary Smashed Purple Potatoes
*6 medium sized potatoes
* 4 T butter, melted
* 6 garlic cloves
* EVOO
*1-2 T fresh rosemary, chopped
* salt and pepper to taste

Boil potatoes for 15 minutes.
Saute garlic in olive oil for 1-2 minutes. Add to butter, along with chopped rosemary.
When potatoes are done, drain, smash, and pour butter mixture on top.

Mac n' Manchego

* 2 cups Tinkyada Elbow Pasta (1/2 bag)
* olive oil
* 1/2 small yellow onion, diced
* 2 garlic cloves, minced/grated
* 2 ounces butter
* 1/4 cup rice flour (or more, as needed)
* 2 cups milk
* 1 1/2 cups Manchego, grated
* 1/2 cup GF bread crumbs ( I toasta piece of GF bread and crumble it)
* salt and pepper
Cook pasta according to directions on bag and set aside.
Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
Heat olive oil on medium and cook onions until soft, about 5 minutes. Add garlic for an additional minute. Add butter and rice flour, whisking to create a ball, this is your roux. Remove from pan. Pour 2 cups of milk into the pan and add 1-2 tablespoons of roux at a time, whisking to prevent milk from burning and to help dissolve the roux. Continue adding the roux, 1-2 tablespoons at a time until the milk has thickened, about 5 minutes. Add 1 cup of Manchego to the milk mixture, to create cheese sauce. Add salt and pepper, if needed.
Toss in pasta and stir so that all the pasta is coated. Pour pasta into a greased baking pan and top with 1/2 cup of bread crumbs and remaining 1/2 cup of manchego. Bake for 15-20 minutes.

Enjoy your mac n' cheese for grown ups :)

A lazy man's pizza

Its been a busy week...
I am home alone...
I don't want to go to the grocery store....
....so its time to improvise.

Wed night was pasta night and there is a little bit of pasta sauce and mozzarella cheese left over. Last night was Quesadilla night and there is left over sauteed veggies, onions, peppers, and a tomato. In a tight economy with a waste not, want not mentality, tonight's meal is the lazy man's pizza with a side of sauteed veggies:
*GF bread, toasted Optional toppings:
*2 slices of tomato * sauteed onions/peppers
* pasta sauce * sliced olives
* mozzarella cheese * garlic salt, rosemary, crushed red pepper
Add the ingredients in the order that it is listed and pop in the toaster oven for about 5-10 mins on 350 degrees. Plop on the couch and relax!

Gluten Free Eating in California

While traveling up and down the West coast from Bis Sur to Sonoma, I was extremely happy to come across two great gluten free finds. The first being Whole Foods. While I have always appreciated Whole Foods for their specialty items, I was very pleased to find a deli in their Monterey, CA location that had not only vegeterian subs, but gluten free bread on which to serve them :)
The 2nd gold mine was one I found online prior to coming out here and has been a major point on excitement for the trip, Mariposa Bakery, in Oakland, CA. This is an exclusively gluten free bakery. I splurged on pizza($12.50) and mocha truffle brownies($2.75) for lunch and got a chocolate chip bagel($1.95) and a lemon poppyseed muffin($2.50) for the following morning. Everything was DELICIOUS!! The prices were about par with 'normal' bakeries and the even if they hadn't been, the joy of being able to buy GF baked goods as delicious as these would be well worth the extra money. These goodies are also available in certain retail stores across the country or can be shipped out of their bakery. Check out their website for more details-->ClIcK HeRe