I have a goal in life. Well, not just one goal but a small goal regarding cooking and recipe creation. I want to make something that impresses the Baker. Sure I can impress my mom, maybe my sister and perhaps a gaggle of friends on occasion, but it is a much harder thing to impress someone who is routinely surrounded by the best food you can get your hands on. Like is one thing, impress is another. I am sure he has liked at least some of the things I have cooked, but been impressed by, blown away by, running home to recreate over and over again? Not quite yet. Someday I will accomplish that. Until then, I am just going to work at it and create dishes and hopefully come up with enough good ones that I can make a cookbook out of them. Ha, right. Dreams are what they are…

On Friday, I was hankering for some lentils. Lentils are something I have not spent any time cooking, but definitely enjoy. When I bought a few bags of lentils at the co-op I was sort of wondering what the heck I was thinking. All I knew was that I wanted Lentils, Bacon and Sweet Potato. The combo sounded delicious. I poured over a bunch of recipes for ideas and technique, but found nothing exactly like what I was looking for. There are plenty of Lentil Bacon Salads, but I wanted something warm and warming.

While this recipe may not have taken down my small goal, it was pretty delicious.

Lentils with Bacon and Sweet Potato

Ingredients:

1.5 cups french lentils
1 large sweet potato, diced
water
1 onion , halved
1 carrot, halved
7 pieces bacon, cut into thin strips
½ tbsp. olive oil
½ cup red onion, diced
½ cup carrot, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
salt
4 tbsp. whole grain mustard
1 ½ tbsp. red wine vinegar

Directions:

Place lentils, halved carrot and onion and sweet potato in a medium pot and cover with 2 inches of water. Bring to a boil, reduce and simmer until the lentils are cooked. Turn off heat, add a dash of salt. Remove carrot and onion.

Meanwhile in a large skillet before turning on the heat, place the bacon and the olive oil in the pan. Raise heat and cook bacon. Add diced carrots and onions and cook for 3-5 minutes, until slightly tender. Add a dash of salt and the garlic.

Drain lentils and add to skillet, tossing to coat (gently). Turn off heat. Add mustard and red wine vinegar. Adjust seasoning.

I know I promised. Promised to be a good bloggie and post lots of fantastic recipes to have you zooming around the roads and trails and in life. And smacking your lips and rubbing your belly saying, yummmm that was good. But well, I was busy. Busy sitting on that beach in sunny, warm, beautiful Hawaii. I was there for HURT pacing duties for nearly two weeks and it was fantastic. We enjoyed some seriously good eats. Before the race, we cooked a bunch and discovered an absolutely awesome new staple. I can take, well, 0.0% credit for the dish as the Baker made it and I merely prepared it a few times. Coconut Rice. After eating it once with a beautiful piece of fresh fish (one of the many varieties I have never heard or seen before), I couldn’t think of anything I wanted more in the world.

Coconut Rice ingredients:

1 cup white rice

2 Hawaiian medium sweet potatoes or 1 large (regular sweet potatoes will do, I guess…if we must)

2 carrots

2-3 jalepenos

1 medium onion

1 can organic thai coconut milk + 1 can water

Coconut Rice directions:

Cut veggies up to bite size pieces. Your choice, not too small though. In a large pot with a lid, bring the coconut milk+ water and vegetables to a boil. Add rice and stir. Reduce heat and simmer until rice is cooked and veggies are tender. If you want to get really wild and crazy, do it in a cast iron skillet and after it boils, bake it in the oven until the rice is cooked. You will get good crispy bits on the bottom this way. And we all know the crispy bits are the best.

We enjoyed this meal a lot. It was that good. Hawaiian food is notoriously un-Devon friendly (i.e. gluten, eggs, etc) and not really know for it’s healthiness. Before the race, we made the above meal because it was good for ultrarunners stomachs and for its awesome nutritional profile. But after the race…… well that is a different story!

There were fantastic burgers at Kua Aina on the North Shore. I was with 3 post-HURT runners and I don’t think there was even a crumb left on the table. They had amazing looking burgers and even though I didn’t get a burger, my grilled chicken salad really rocked. I just loved that they put an entire half of avocado on the burgers.

There was also a second trip to Matsumoto Shave Ice on the North Shore. We went on my first full day on the island and got Hawaiian Style shave ice with adzuki beans. So delicious. And we got shrimp and rice from a truck.

After the race we also tried out Morio’s Sushi in Wakiki. This sushi place is a natural food grocery by day and a flying under the radar out of this world sushi restaurant by night. It may not be much to look (ok, it is downright ragged looking building) at but the man, Morio himself, was throwing down some amazing food for us. We went 2 times and both times the stuff that was coming over the counter from Morio was amazing and even adventurous (including whole sardines and a natto hand roll). The fish was pretty much straight out of the ocean and every bite was incredible. He was giving hitting us with supreme sushi, brilliant tofu, crab legs! Seriously. It was an experience. Thanks to Gary for the recommendation! Morio’s is BYOB and we brought beer, but we could tell we had made it on to his good side when he was giving us shots (ok the bottle) of Shochu. On our second trip, we made sure we brought a case of Morio’s beer of choice, which we quickly discovered that all the regulars did. We spent 3-4 hours there each time, chatting, drinking, eating amazing food, digesting, then diving in to more great food. And the price, you just can’t beat it.

A final worth mentioning meal was at Helena’s Hawaiian Food. I feel that I am always in for a authentic experience when a local waiting for a table next to you ask, “how did you guys find out about this place, we don’t get many tourists here?” And it was true, the building was no where near anything touristy and not much to look at. But the food was out of this world. We had Kalua Pig, Laulau, Poi (which I didn’t much like), Opihi (on the recommendation of the aforementioned local), Short ribs Pipikaula Style and my personal favorite, Haupia- a delicious coconut milk dessert.

Hmmmmmm, well there you go. A brief recap. Tons of fun in the sun, delicious eats and well, now I have worked up quite the appetite so I am going to throw down some grub!

After really digging in and getting writing again on my “non-running/non-food” blog and letting my writing and personality shine through on that blog, I realize that I have continually, but slow and surely removed a lot of my voice from this blog. That is of course the last thing I want to do. Part of what makes a food blog appealing is the personality behind it. Recipes are great, but in the end, we are flooded with good recipes at every turn. And heck, what am I trying to accomplish here anyways? I want to bring you amazing recipes that are applicable to your life and health and palate. Whether you are a runner, a foodie or a health nut, I want this to be your place.

Come to my table

Over time, I would like to completely overhaul the site and turn it into something bigger and better. I love to write, I love to cook, I love to share (evidently). And so, I am going to be trying out some things. Heck it’s my blog right? As professional and streamlined as I want it to be, is that what it is really all about. Hello, I am not food and wine magazine, though I would never balk at an opportunity to be (a part of them). That said, I need to proceed ever forward into the food writing expanse? Abyss? World? and see where my voice takes me. No use in trying to be someone I am not. I think my food speaks for itself (it says, “I am good, yum, eat me”) and I should also not be afraid of doing that for myself.

One of the things I am going to start doing is doing a weekly wrap up of all the fun things that crossed my plate that don’t fit anywhere else. Sometimes I make a fantastic something or other that doesn’t quite warrant free standing post, or I complete another of the 7X7 100 things to eat before you die in San Francisco (and want to comment!)- I am 15 in and they have for the most part been phenomenal.

So without further adieu….

This week on my plate and in my belly

Over the last weekend, I headed up to Ashland for Lithia Loop Marathon, the Trail Marathon National Championship. I think the trip was 1/2 going for the race and 1/2 going for the food at Morning Glory Restaurant. Both the Baker (crew extraordinaire for the weekend) and I had had numerous people recommend it to us and so it was my incentive for running the race as fast as possible and making it to the restaurant for breakfast. It was worth it, the food was great. There was housemade marionberry syrup, gingerbread waffles and a tandoori tofu scramble involved. And it was good.

I was back from Ashland by Saturday night and dinner was cobbled together out of the pantry (soup) and a stray sweet potato and onion, quick roasted. It was simple belly satisfying goodness. Sunday was a leisurely day for the most part. I hung out at my house until my sister was ready to run in the early afternoon and then we headed out to run my favorite loop in the North Bay on the Mt. Tam watershed. Yes, 15 miles the day after a marathon. We ran with joy and exuberance. It felt really good and made us super hungry. I hadn’t eaten lunch so by the time we got done, I was ready for my main motivation for that loop: going to Woodland Market in Ross for a “Devon Special” which is a Green Goddess sandwich but done on a spinach tortilla instead, replacing the cream cheese with hummus and occasionally (like Sunday) adding Turkey. It was good. My sister and I sat outside and shivered while downing our wraps and triple fisting beverages. It was late afternoon, so neither of us really were keen for another meal. Instead we decided to tuck into some treats and a trashy romantic comedy. There was wine and popcorn, followed by dessert (ha!) of one of my most clever discoveries/ combination to date: Maranatha Dark Chocolate Peanut Spread and Coconut Bliss Vanilla Island Ice Cream. And a persimmon on the side.

I really like Coconut Bliss’s Chocolate Peanut Butter ice cream, but it is a bit sweet for me and I prefer chocolate as a small taste instead of the base. That is the genius of this combination. I love vanilla ice cream and I want the dark chocolate peanut in their too.

Monday found me quite the excitable girl. I had been keen to make a fun buckwheat soba noodle dish on Sunday, but as I mentioned my day unfolded in a way that left little time for cooking. But Monday I was determined!

My sister and I headed into the city for a full day of painful apartment hunting, stopping off for lunch at Blue Barn for our favorite personalized salads. It was delicious and a nice counter point to the previous evening decadence. Next door to Blue Barn is Miette. Miette’s ginger snaps are #49 on the 100 Things to Eat and Drink in SF before you Die, so I figured, well, we are hear, might as well check one off the list. I went in, grabbed a $7.00 container of cookies and we dug in. Yummmmm. Crisp and gingery.

The cookies went splendid with our coffee. They were the type of good that satisfied each of us with just one slim cookie each. I still open the package repeatedly just to smell them. The fragrance reminds me of a fall day and provokes thoughts of Christmas time, snuggling by the fire of my childhood home.

By the time we were done, we were both famished and so we returned to the house where I began whipping up some Otsu with sweet potato and spinach (both were my addition to this great recipe from 101 Cookbooks). I used 100% Buckwheat noodles which sucked. They ended up clumping together in one sloppy ball. So much for presentation.

I also made Beef Short Ribs from Sage of the Coast in LA. It was a very satisfying meal indeed as my post-marathon appetite was truly rearing its ugly head. I felt like I was going to gnaw my arm off for most of the day.

After discussing possible dessert ideas for Thanksgiving on Wednesday, I decided to go home and test kitchen some of the Babycakes Ginger Snaps to see if I could make an “acceptable”, ok down right tasty treats for T-Day.

The Babycakes version is not only gluten free, vegan, etc etc etc it is actually pretty healthy. It has coconut oil in it which is delicious and a “good fat” and adds some kick arse flavor too. These cookies turned out super flavorful, but I definitely need to make them smaller so that they can crisp up more. They needed more snap.

I am excited to hand them over for review to the critics and see what tweeks I need to make. But for now, I think the fact that I ate 5 after my bibimbap dinner (sans rice), shows that they were not in fact bad in any way. That or I was just really hungry. Probably both.

The rest of the week, well, it should be fun! I am trying two new restaurants today and tomorrow, then cooking on Saturday, so I really can’t complain. I will try and keep my camera close and my food even closer.