On Today's Menu. . .

In an effort to be more healthy overall, I have decided that I am going to attempt making my own bread because then I at least know the ingredients in the carbs I consume. Today I tackled (quite literally, story to follow) Honey Oat Bread and Blueberry Muffins.

Okay, I know muffins aren't hard to make. Go ahead and roll your eyes at that one and then tune back in because I didn't cheat and use a mix (sticking tongue out at the naysayers right now). Instead I made them from scratch using whole wheat flour and fresh blueberries. Oh, and this fantastic oil I found at the Queen Creek Olive Mill (http://queencreekolivemill.com/). It's a Vanilla Extra Virgin Olive Oil and it is fabulous for baking. The fresh blueberries and vanilla combination made the fact that the muffins were whole wheat less obvious. Definitely one of the easier things I have baked and now I cannot foresee myself going back to using a mix.

It's a shame the same could not be said for the Honey Oat Bread. The dough was perfect. It rose just as it should. It looked lovely. Unfortunately the loaf pans were the problem as they were not large enough once the dough rose even more while baking. The cookbook should have noted that the dough would double its size at least three times in the process from start to finish, but it tastes good even if it isn't all that pretty to look at. And if anything, it was good practice since I am still determined to master bread.

Now the story of the literal tackling and how I put my blood, sweat, and tears into my baking efforts today. The sweat part is obvious. Anyone living in a small apartment with an oven in the middle of a desert even in winter understands this one. The tears came in while checking my email between projects. There was a very touching forward in there about some awesome historical post-Holocaust love story blah blah blah (tears) that turned out to be fake (astonishment at the nerve of some people to make stuff like this up). The blood part comes in because by the time I got around to "punching the dough" I was quite frustrated about the fan I had tried to take apart to clean and the fact it made a mess in the process. I punched the dough rather hard back into the bowl it was rising in (one could classify it as possibly showing that dough who's boss) when lo and behold my thumb nicked the edge of the bowl on the way down and the skin of the knuckle split. Ew, I know. The good news is blood, like alcohol, cooks out of the food when you bake it. Totally kidding. I made it to the sink prior to ruining the bread. The ruining the appearance came later when I tried to remove the finished product from the loaf pans. Based on my experience today, I am considering adopting the phrase "loaf top" as opposed to "muffin top" when referencing the fold of skin hanging over the waistline of pants that are too tight on the wearer. Seems more appropriate.

Anyway, that sums of this week's culinary adventures. Hopefully my next round is met with less mishaps. Then again, this is me in the kitchen we're talking about. . .

Not Quite "Julie and Julia", But It Will Have to Suffice

I am not a huge fan of the "New Year's Resolution" per se because of the chain reaction of events it creates. Set resolution, party it up like a rock star, suffer for it New Year's Day, get back on the wagon in time to participate in the activities contributing to aforementioned resolution (i.e. exercising), stick to it for at least a week or two, lapse, beat self up mentally for said lapse, try again to be "good", decide it's too much effort anyway and there's always next year. . . In lieu of resolutions, I prefer goals or slogans or both. I recall my 2009 slogan fondly as being "#$%* that @$#%". Profane yes, but effective. It helped me speak my mind more and not let things bother me quite so much. This year, my slogan is "Calm the #$%* Down" as it pertains to my inability to relax. I apparently only prefer slogans with swear words, so evidently I am not as educated as I like to think I am considering my inability to use more creative words than #$%*.

At any rate, this year's slogan caused me to evaluate just what I could do in my life to in fact calm the #$%* down and I came up with the following: get back into a regular yoga practice, further develop a skill, write to the point of which I could actually classify myself as a "writer", figure out which areas of my life are leading to such a slogan being necessary and either change or eliminate it, etc. So you are now reading this as a direct result of needing to fulfill further developing a skill and writing to the point of being a legit writer. Which reminds me. . . I still need to catch up on my "New in Town" reviews before I hit my year mark in Arizona and can no longer classify myself as new (nor can I claim ignorance on directions at that point considering the city is fairly easy to maneuver). My skill I want to further develop is my cooking. I currently work for a culinary school and am surrounded by food and people inspired by food to the point that my competitive nature kicks in and I want to be classified as an equally good cook when compared to the students. I lack desire to compete with the chefs and don't really care about doing a side by side comparison of myself on the skill level. I just want to create food that tastes good. And then I want to write about my experience doing so. My goal is to try doing one new recipe per week. This allows me to feed my creativity so to speak on multiple levels, pun intended.

My first week's attempt was Mexican Sweet Potatoes and a Mexican Coconut Custard Tart. I have never cooked sweet potatoes nor have I ever made a tart, so this was an undertaking in and of itself. Luckily the international cookbook I was using includes easily accessible ingredients. I had already made a dinner/dessert combo from the French section back in December so I figured what I had chosen couldn't be all that hard in comparison. Not hard, but definitely time consuming.

The sweet potato dish made me skeptical at first. The recipe calls for sweet potatoes, brown sugar, fresh cilantro, chipotle peppers, and some other stuff. The potatoes get roasted in the oven, another technique I typically don't do. It smelled delicious while cooking so that helped ease my anxiety a bit. The reaction of my boyfriend when he tasted the dish though is what made it worth the effort. I am not going to even pretend to be humble here, the dish was fantastic. So, thank you, Williams-Sonoma, for making an international cookbook I can actually use. The recommendation for sour cream as an optional topping was right on par as well. I will definitely make that dish again, although I won't be able to write about it next time since I am supposed to be writing about the new recipes I try.

Next up was the coconut tart. The custard itself was delicious but what really made it outstanding was roasting the coconut in the oven for the topping. So yummy! My tart edge stuck to the sides though because I tried to remove it from the tart pan before it had fully cooled. Lesson learned. Also, the recipe recommended trying fresh papaya or pineapple with whipped topping on it. Tried the papaya. No bueno. Did not try the whipped topping as the tart is already plenty sweet enough without it. Would definitely also make this again.

The moral of the story: Mexican Night at Casa de Erica was a success. Now on to the next challenge. . .

New in Town: Oregano's

Okay, I'll admit I'm cheating a bit right now. I had actually tried Oregano's prior to moving here, but I love it so much I can't help but include it in my "New in Town" series. The atmosphere is fun, the food is delicious, and the iced tea is refreshing. My only complaint is there is never enough parking and always seems to be a wait if you try to go there on an evening, or at least that is how it is for the Scottsdale location. That being said, it is worth almost getting your car towed because you parked in the wrong spot and the 30 minute wait for a table. If you go, even in the blazes of hell heat, sit outside. Doing so definitely creates an "I live somewhere cool" ambience that cannot be replicated in the confines of indoors. The menu item I cannot recommend enough is the appetizer called "Uncle Ray's Stuffed Artichokes". It's absolutely unbeatable as far as pizzeria appetizers go. I also recommend sharing because the portion size is generous when it comes to the food. That being said, the leftover pizza still tastes good cold for breakfast the next morning, which is really the ultimate test of any pizza in my opinion.

New in Town: Salty Senorita

If you are looking for non authentic yet okay Mexican food and the most fabulous margarita selection ever, then I highly recommend trying out the Salty Senorita. They have more than one location, but I am a fan of the one in Scottsdale (of course) because of its outdoor seating area that allows you ample people watching opportunities. Plus, you can't go wrong with a place that offers over 50 different margaritas. After one of those, you won't care what the food is like although I must say I am a fan of the chips and salsa. They also have a happy hour so this place makes a good stop on the way home from a long work day.

New in Town: Flirt Salon in Tempe

As any gal knows, the task of finding a new salon can be daunting even without taking into account relocation. I loved my hair stylist in Boise. She became a good friend so when I moved here and it came time to have the hair done again I started to have separation anxiety topped with the normal switching stylists anxiety because what I had in mind was a little scary to let just anyone do. When I moved here, my hair was quite dark (like my soul) but thanks to all the time I was spending out in the lovely sunshine, since this is after all the valley of the sun, my hair was lightening in a non attractive way (brassy orangish highlights are so NOT in this season). I needed to find someone that could take me from the dark reddish brown back to a blonde that not only can withstand the sunlight but that also looks good on fair skin.

I did what every mildly computer savvy person does: I googled salons in the Scottsdale area. Not being overly impressed by the prices or reviews of the salons in my city (apparently my zip code would indicate that people can get by with charging more for the same service based on location alone), I broadened my search to the neighboring communities which is how I stumbled upon a gem of a place in Tempe known as Flirt Salon. I thought the name was charming, the online reviews were fantastic, and they have awesome deals for new clients. I was impressed that there were reviews specifically regarding the salon's ability to successfully execute extreme color changes since that was what I was looking to do. I contacted the salon via email in order to get a couple of questions answered and had a response from the owner, Yani, within 24 hours so I opted to book an appointment with her. I arrived for my appointment and was immediately impressed. Not only in the salon beautifully set up and tidy, but the friendly receptionist offered me something to drink and a brownie right away. Water and chocolate? Woohoo for Flirt Salon! Now let's see what they can do about my hair, right?

Yani took the time to talk to me about what I wanted to do and to feel the texture of my hair. She gave a price quote up front so there were no surprises at the cash register. The new client special I chose was the free haircut with color (duh), but there were others to choose from as well. I let her know up front that I was nervous because while I have done extreme change like this before, but I have had my color totally messed up before as well. Despite my skittishness, Yani was fabulous. Not to mention that her salon features a product line that does not trash your hair in the color lifting process. Anyone who has done what I am talking about here knows that your hair has a tendency to feel like straw when it has been bleached. Not in this case. My hair felt softer than it had prior to the color processing. I was amazed because Yani is not only a miracle worker, but she is also a color genius. I walked out of the salon feeling like a rock star. I also walked out of there with a bag of product samples and a discount for my next appointment just for booking the appointment in advance.

After my next appointment, I knew I wanted to write about this place. I wanted my hair lighter than before and more blonde, less red (my hair will pick up red tones like it's going out of style). Once again, Yani worked her magic and managed to achieve a color I could enjoy without the hair feeling dried out. Our chemical experiment had turned into gloriousness on my strands. As a result, I would recommend this salon to anyone in the area looking for a stylist who has great attention to detail, patience for "difficult" hair (such as mine since it is fine but there's a lot of it to contend with), and who is truly passionate about what she does. The pricing is reasonable for the level of service as well. Flirt Salon can be found online at http://www.flirthairsalon.com/.

New in Town: The Paisley Violin

I knew when I saw the name of this place in a Phoenix guidebook that I needed to go here, if anything because it sounded cool.  The Paisley Violin is located in an up-and-coming artsy district of what I think is considered part of downtown Phoenix.  The cafe/bar features primarily Mediterranean food and live music.  The Friday I happened to venture down there was the First Friday Art Walk night so it was a little crazy since there are art studios behind the Paisley and there was music both indoors and out.  When I got there, I was going to just give up since there were no available tables, but I opted to take a look at the studios and see what some of the locals put out for art.  Glad I did because there is some interesting stuff to be seen in the local market.  I want to go back down to that area now I know where it is because the road this place sits on is action packed with studios and I only went through the ones behind the cafe.

When I finally was able to find a table inside, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that the featured musician is someone I was familiar with from an impromptu open mic performance while he passed through Boise.  The musician that night was Sharif from LA and he is fabulous.  He went well with my coffee and appetizer.  He is also easy on the eyes for you ladies in town who want to catch his performance next time he is here (he passes through every couple months).  The atmosphere at the Paisley Violin is very chillaxed and of course, they have local artwork hanging on the walls.  This place was very reminiscent of Seattle for me.  Because it was so crazy busy, the service was a bit slow, but the waiter was so nice (recurring theme in the Valley of the Sun) that I didn't mind.  This was the perfect place for someone to go on their own, enjoy music, and catch up on a book.  I am sure it is also the perfect place to take someone else, but beggar's can't be choosers sometimes.  

At any rate, highly recommending The Paisley Violin on a Friday for live music and interesting conversation.  Will definitely be going here again (especially when Sharif is playing).

New in Town: Tea Infusion in Tempe

Tea Infusion in Tempe is the sort of place that rocks my little tea drinking world to its very core.  Nestled in Tempe Marketplace among shops and an outdoor seating area complete with a fountain is a doorway to tea drinker's heaven.  The tea menu is beyond extensive with excellent variety within the different categories of black, green, white, red, and herbal.  You can personalize any tea with ice, boba, milk, or sweetener.  I did try the boba because the online reviews raved about it, but this former Seattlite will pass on what they consider boba tea here.  Sidenote: surely there is a place here that knows what "real" novelty bubble tea is supposed to be like and if there is I vow to find it.  The baked goods are tasty as is the red curry chicken soup.  

So far, I have been to this place three times in the span of 2 weeks.  I have tried the vanilla creme, strawberry, and something I don't recall (probably because of my buyer's remorse at the boba).  The cool thing about Tea Infusion is if you find a tea you really like, you can also purchase it in bulk and take a bag of it home with you.  They offer free wi-fi, chilled out employees with good recommendations of what to try, and plenty of people watching opportunities.  I am in love with this place even with the odd location.  This is definitely a place I will be frequenting so long as I live here.