Seasonal eye candy.

Posted on April 10, 2012

Everywhere I turn these days Boston offers signs of spring and warmer days to come. Blossoming white trees. Bulbous red tulips. Cheerful yellow daffodils. Crazy short-wearing undergrads. It’s not that warm yet.

Even inside the walls of the supermarket spring seems to have sprung. My farmers’ market is not scheduled to begin until June. Cue tears and sniffles of a spoiled California girl. But at least the market offers a cornucopia of spring colors that makes me all warm and fuzzy inside. It’s usually around this time of year when I wish I could healthfully transform my fruit and vegetable intake into a 100% fruit-filled diet. Mmm. Seriously counting down the days ’til that farmer’s market.

This past weekend Easter provided me with the perfect excuse to buy an excessive amount of beautiful fruit to offer my Easter dinner companions. I decided to spend an hour slicing and turned this bowl of deliciousness into a fruit salad that highlighted everything good about what was included. The harmony of sweetness and tang from the plums. The perfect amount of crunch from the apple pears. The whimsical seeds and tropical notes of the kiwis.

Once everything was sliced, including my thumb (ouch), I added the fruit to a mixture of equal parts honey, brown sugar, and lime juice. Sounds amazing, right? Thankfully, it was. The sugar from the honey, and, well, from the brown sugar itself, and the acid from the lime juice married perfectly.

Wherever you are, I hope that signs of spring are offering you a sense of hope and a feeling of rejuvenation for this new season.

A luscious reminder of home.

Posted on April 6, 2012

Behold the wonder that is the Hass avocado. This little gem of a food is one of my favorite reminders of home. Green. Velvety. Delicious. Hass avocados aren’t actually native to California, which is hard to imagine, or remember, since about 95% of our domestic avocado production comes from California. And 60% of that 95% comes from within San Diego county. (Fun food fact!) This is just one more reminder that we Californians are downright spoiled.

My love for the avocado is as deep and wide as the list of its uses. Avocados go with everything. Avocados improve everything. Sushi. Tacos. Eggs. Ice cream. If you’re from California, chances are you’re nodding your head vigorously right now. I know. We love these things.

So, during this long long week of mine this little avocado provided just the right amount of warmth and comfort and reminder of home. You see, last night I had an overwhelming paper due. The paper itself wasn’t all that long. Only 10-12 pages required, said my professor. But it was overwhelming. It was the first of its kind that I’ve written–a literature review–which meant that much of my time and energy was spent simply trying to figure out exactly what I was supposed to be doing and writing. I use the word “simply” very loosely here. I continue to find my greatest challenge in grad school to be organizing my thoughts and my time. Getting my head wrapped around what I need to be working on and when. It can be exhausting. I’m thankful for the comic relief of New Girl.

While I’m happy to report that the paper was completed and may have actually turned out okay, I’m quite sure that all of my writing brilliance was left on the pages I handed over to my professor last night. The words are coming to me pretty slowly this morning, folks. So I’m going to keep this short and sweet. Just like my meals have been this week, thanks to the need to Just. Keep. Writing.

Yesterday’s bit of culinary respite occurred at lunchtime, when the lovely avocado pictured above found its way onto this here salad. I confess, I easily tire of salads. And since they’re often the easiest way for me to get a pile of vegetables onto my plate I’m constantly trying to figure out new ways to make salads interesting to my taste buds. This salad journey led to the discovery of what I like to call “salsa salad.”

The magic ingredient is found in this adorable little bowl. (I am such a sucker for kitchen accoutrements. And words like accoutrements.) I combine nearly equal amounts of fresh salsa and Greek yogurt, with a very healthy dash of garlic salt. And by healthy I mean abundant. Obviously. In all its yummy tangy-ness this “dressing” has proven to be a winner in my book of salads that I actually crave. So grab whatever veggies are in your fridge, throw them gracefully over a pile of lettuce along with some protein-filled beans of your choosing, and pour on the dressing. Food doesn’t always have to be complicated.