HELL YEA!

My last recipe was published on the official Kamut site. Check it out!!!! http://www.kamut.com/en/recipe-detail.html?recipeId=240
I guess writing recipes on your blog sit really does help!

New goal: become more involved with the boulder food52 community, as I am one of their bloggers: only a q &a to date, but i am sure that I need to be more active on their community website. http://boulder.wholefoodsmarketcooking.com/blog/2776_qa_with_dana_villiers_front_end_team_member

So to post something new. I've been brainstorming watch out LONGMONT, CO I may just be moving something into the hood in the next year/ year and a half.

Since ultimately this is supposed to be about my cooking adventures let me post my favorite go to salad in the fall/winter time...

Oranges, Pomegranate Seeds, and quasi Pickled Beets. MMMMMMMMm

Alright to start:
2 Oranges
1 Pomegranate
3 Small beets, I usually do 2 golden and one red.
1 box baby spring mix.
Dressing:
Juice from 1/2 of one of the Oranges
Juice from 1 lemon
3 Tablespoons Olive Oil
1 Tablespoon Dijon or stone ground mustard
1 Tablespoon honey
1 Smashed clove of garlic
Salt and Pepper to Taste

1. Cut beets in half or however you prefer as long they are the same size and cut at least in half. Place into boiling water that just covers them. Add 5 tablespoons of vinegar and 3 tablespoons of sugar or honey. Boil for about 1/2 hour until cooked all the way through, then rinse with cold water until water rinses clear and beets are cool. Cut into small cubes that are just a little bit bigger then the pomegranate seeds.
2. Get the seeds out of the pomegranate. I usually cut the pomegranate into quarters then into a bowl of water I peel the skin off lightly rubbing the seeds and breaking the membrane to be able to get all the seeds out. (Water helps with getting all the seeds out without getting the spray of broken seeds all over your close and kitchen)
3. Peal and Cut Oranges into small pieces.
4. Assemble dressing by mixing all the ingredient together until the oil and juice is no longer separate.
5. Add lettuce to the beets, oranges, and pomegranates. Drizzle dressing to your liking on top, toss, and serve. I like to go light on the dressing because the juice from the oranges in the salad and sweetness from the pomegranates and beets is good enough to eat alone.

Stay on the Positive Side.

Meeting with some local amazing caters/personal chefs this week.

I want to learn about the tricks of the trade and cook.

Food is what drives me. Just cooking 7 days a week at home isn't hacking it anymore.

I have goals and dreams that in order to achieve I need to hustle.

I want to learn as much as I can about small businesses. Local businesses in the fabulous community of Boulder. I am so interested in this new hot spot opening up next week on Pearl St. Cured. I want in.

The thought of pastry school keeps crossing my mind. With my ultimate long term goals, really learning about pastry maybe the next step.

The next step, always so hard to take. To trust that the universe has something ready just for me. Staying positive in tough times, leaning on my friends and family and KNOWING that I am going to make it on my own.

I made an amazing salad for my Interview the other day, for a job that I did not get, bummer, but my creativity will prevail. And next week, back to working out and running. Maybe that's why I've been so down, no exercise makes a crabby Dana.

End of Summer Salad:

1 cup Kamut

1 Ripe Peach

1/4 cup sliced fresh Cherries (about 6)

1/4 cup Toasted chopped Pecans

3 Tablespoons Olive Oil

1 Tablespoon Honey

1 Tablespoon Dijon Mustard

1 Tablespoon Fresh Chopped Rosemary

Splash of Red Wine Vinegar

Salt and Pepper to taste

Soak Kamut overnight.

Cook Kamut with 2 cups water simmering until the Kamut wheat starts to split (you don't want it to be too chewy)

Mix dressing ingredients with warm Kamut.

Once Kamut is cooled add cherries, peaches, and pecans.

Can be served cold or room temperature.

Getting back into the Groove.

WOW! Summer is almost over, yet it feels like it just began. Our garden is finally taking off. Green beans, sweet peas, paddy pan, buttercup squash, lemon cucumbers and basil all started from seed finally looks like a garden. My strawberries are dying, but something tells me my 25-30 lb watermelon plant is strangling their roots. I ate a my first cherry tomato off one of my tomato plants, though not many more are growing. Hopefully it will be a successful venture. I want to learn and practice pickling and canning. How great it would be to open a jar of my tomatoes to make sauce instead of having to buy the tasteless winter tomatoes in the store. Pickeled lemon cucumbers sliced as a garnish for a bloody mary. Yummy. Spicy pickled green beans for salads... I can't wait to see what the garden produces!

My neighbors garden has been keeping us well fed. BEETS!, lettuce, kale, and chard. We are not going hungry in our household. It is so enjoyable to just boil and slice beets, drizzle with a little bit of olive oil, salt and pepper. They are like a cold yummy candy. I've been eating them like this or throwing them in a salad with strawberries, spinach, hazelnuts (thank you neighbor), fresh asiago, and an orange balsamic dressing. Grill a piece of chicken and you have got a killer meal!

My hope is to be back and updating this at least once a week. New recipes, pictures and ideas... Maybe a funny dog story or two... Check out food52.com a great community based website that I will also be updating with new recipes and hopefully answering some foodpickles. (Whole Foods will be joining with them once the cooking department is up and running... )

Until next time...

Easter. Done and Over

I know, I know, Easter is almost a week past and here I am blogging about it.

Food, my first love. Yes I am a skinny fat girl. give me a cake I'll eat the whole thing. Easter Sunday we had 9 people to serve. How to make it easy? Let me tell you; Egg strata, Creme Brulee French toast, Roasted fingerling breakfast potatoes, dill hollandaise, fruit salad, and tangerine mimosas....

Doesn't really sound easy? Lucky for me the egg strata something my mom always makes for her work brunches. Day old bread (I used challah that I dried out in the oven.) Veggies of choice and if you love meat add some it's not really my preference. I used spring veggies like asparagus, squash and mushrooms. I sauteed them up nice and golden, asparagus stayed crisp still because it is cooked longer in the oven. All you do is layer them in between the bread. I did mine just on top. Then you fill with egg mixture. Soak over night, top with cheese and bake for an hour.

Creme Brulee french toast you make a caramel sauce with butter and brown sugar layer thick slices of bread on top; i think challah is the most rich yummy option and then cover with beaten eggs, milk, and cinnamon until the next morning. Secret to success bake it all off in the morning. have everything prepped the night before.

The next morning i leisurely crawled out of bed, preheated the oven and cut up some fruit. Pineapple, strawberries and the best mango I've had in a long time. I used fingerling potatoes for the breakfast potatoes. To "kick them up a notch" as Emeril would say I added some gar am masala, onions, bell pepper, and of salt and pepper to taste. The main dishes went into the oven. The egg strata took a little more then an hour and the french toast takes just under.

The final touches strawberry sauce for the french toast and dill hollandaise for the strata. I was worried about the hollandaise, my immersion blender has been out of commission so I had to do it the old fashioned way; over a double boiler. It came out better then the immersion blender and everyone got to beat the eggs. Great way to get everyone involved. Ta-DA breakfast was served, and no one went home hungry!

Doing it Like Dana

Spring is in the air. Finally this short cold winter will be over... I just like the fact I can get home from work and walk the dogs.

I am at the point in my life where I need to step my game up. 26 years old and dying for a job that makes my brain work and use my creativity. I taught a healthy eating class two days a week this past month for 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders. What an experience. Every question asked was why do we have to do it healthy? Did you read anything about the Healthy Eating Class before you signed up? WHAT IS WRONG WITH HEALTHY? Broaden your horizons and learn how to eat food that is good for you. Have you ever heard the saying "you are what you eat." ?

I taught Cheesecake in my after school High School class. Ms. Vera had the all but 1 oven filled with oven spray. Five cheesecakes in 1 smoky oven led to disaster. Extra long cooking time and no time to set ended up in runny take home cheesecakes. But after you let them cool and firm up so yummy! (Made from scratch fruit topping masked the burnt oil taste that the oven left lingering on the top layer of these cakes)

Today I am experimenting with foods from the Bulk aisle. Lentils, dried fruits, nuts, Israeli cous-cous, fresh produce, and some dried herbs. I am also trying to come up with sugar, dairy and oil alternatives. The oil will be the hardest challenge and I may have to cave. Whatever is the best out of my 5 or 6 experiments will be what I demo on Sunday at Pearl St. Whole Foods; 3-6 pm. Just call me demo girl.

Off to the kitchen to start small chopping, nice cubing, maybe a julienne or two? Knife skills at my finest :)

Goals. Dreams. Aspirations.

Whew. Another holiday season is over and a new year has begun!!!! I baked cookies galore. I mailed cookies galore to people like grandpa, family gift exchange, and etc. They were chocolate peppermint cookies, my favorite gourmet chocolate thumbprint cookies AKA, Steve's Favorite Cookie, and molasses gingery cookies....

I am starting to teach 3 days a week. 2 days to 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders and one day to an after school high school program.

The 3rd,4th, and 5th graders is a healthy eating program. My menu is as follows; Day 1 Breakfast: Buckwheat Pancakes with maple syrup and fresh fruit and green smoothies to drink while making. Day 2: Vegetarian Sloppy Joe's with Whole Wheat Buns and Baked Sweet Potato Fries. Day 3: Kale Chips, Granola, and Hummus with Fresh Veggies.... Day 4 will be up to them!

I am so freaking excited teaching kids about healthier good food.... You've got to start somewhere. The thought of going back to school for a bachelors to be able to be a Home-EC teacher and possibly my own personal cooking school. Good food is what I love and saving the world is really what I want to do, so why not start with the young...

The Holidays are all about good food and company, appreciate what you have. The new year is to learn how to be better than you were in the last.

I want to cook more better for you food. Leave out so much processed stuff. I want to educate myself on Colorado and build a green house. Let the planning and educating begin. Big dreams start with a lot of work.