The perfect bite: date, blue cheese and truffle honey

I have been absent. I know. I apologize. It was necessary.

Breaking in the new kitchen: Buffalo Runner Bean Chili & Jalapeno Cheddar Cornbread (GF!)

You see I have been taking care of one of my goals, a necessary thing to go forward with my life: finding a place to call home. For the majority of this year I have bounced around, having with me only enough stuff (including my knife roll!!!) to cover the bare minimum. Everything else was stashed in storage. I have been all over the world this year, spent copious amounts of time in Seattle, San Francisco and Colorado. This whole time however, I have circled and circled the same central issue when trying to tackle other goals in my life: lack of roots, absence of home, no place to provide routine, consistency and roots. Over the summer and early fall, I really focused on deciding where I want to be and came to the answer I have known for a long time but was unwilling or able to accept: my heart is in San Francisco. The food, the trails, the people, the family, the vibe, the weather, everything is just me. It makes me happy. And so over these past couple of weeks, I have been in a fever pitch trying to get moved. My sister and I found a place in the City and we went in to go mode in order to get the place sorted before Christmas. I have been to Seattle and gotten all of my things out of storage, unpacked box after box and even managed to sneak in a few phenomenal meals cooked in my new kitchen, which is absolutely fabulous. And I have been good about snapping pictures with my Nikon camera, I have loads of shots of drool inducing food (included here, a sample).

GF Ginger Molasses Cookies and Peanut Butter Peanut Butter Chip Cookies

One of the things that has not been able to be a priority is a weekly (or three) post. I wish that was not the case, but on the list of dire necessity it does not rank highly, maybe at some point in the future when I am a famous writer, but not right now. I often wonder if I would even be missed in the massive blog-iverse. Probably not, but I’d still like to believe that my voice matters, to someone.

A Thanksgiving Salad

If you’ve had a chance to read my Delicious Journey, you’d know that I have a clear goal of making this blog into something. And I am more resolved than ever to do so. Starting with the new year. So awesome reader(s) enjoy your holidays and happy new year! May you have a safe, beautiful, delicious holiday! Cheers!

Thanksgiving dinner: Turkey Mole on handmade tortillas.

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.

I feel like my food blog writing has become less personal. I feel like since I started recording my “life” thoughts over on The Delicious Journey that my food blog has become, well, solely about food. And while that is fine, after all it is a food blog, I want to maintain my voice, my enthusiasm. My daily food experiences leave me squealing with delight, so I want that to be translated across into my writing. I have goals for this blog. I have dreams for my food writing and food life. I want to write cookbooks, I want publish articles on recipes, restaurants and food. I want to take amazing food photography and have my pictures splashed across the world (keeping the dreams small ha).  I want to open a gluten free bakery/cafe in San Francisco. I want to talk about the food, products and nutrition that are a part of my life. I want to be a nutrition expert and continue to bring my brand of gourmet nutrition to the world. I want to start a line of my own products, whether it is bars, gluten free treats, pantry items or kombucha! To make this happen, I have to make it happen. I wrote a post today on my The Delicious Journey blog which I am going to cross post below. Future of food, nah….this is the Future of (this) Foodie!

From The Delicious Journey:

I feel good. I feel accomplished. I feel strong and powerful. At least, I can tell myself and almost believe it. In all honesty, I have experienced a solid month of being blissed out, satisfied, centered and present, with only a few minor exceptions. It is like my little boat has been smooth sailing across a glassy calm ocean. It is nice.

But what keeps me motivated, what keeps me from always being lost in a daydream and just floating along is when the waters churn up and waves start crashing. In the movie Where the Wild Things Are, Max sails across the ocean in a little dingy boat. At times his little sail slices him along a crystal seam and other times the waves are six times higher the mast of the boat and it looks like his little boat and the wolf-costumed Max will be carried asunder. He always makes it through, we all do. But that scene, and the tempestuous seas that come up in our lives remind me of two things. The first thing that it reminds me is that there will always be storms, stress and waves that rise up and cast so far above our heads that we can’t see a possible future that doesn’t include lungs full of sea water and pulling kelp out of our hair. And two, that being so, we will still make it through and find peace again.

On Friday, I thought my head was going to pop off. I thought the waves were going to overwhelm me. When the storm hit, it hit me in every direction. I could barely ladle the bucketfuls of water out of my little boat fast enough. I gnashed my teeth and paced about, but I was driven and focused. I funneled all of my mental power on solving the problems and just solved them instead of just emoting about them. I was even able to see the storm in slow enough motion to be able to take the helping hands of others outside of the storm and let me be buoyed by their strength, their calm and yet, not them draw them in with me. The lithe little tethers the offered me were like the arms of a parent hoovering beneath a child trying the monkey bars for the first time. I was allowed to fall, fail, strike out and barrel towards the waiting ground but the last minute saving grace would be there if need be. And it is funny how that motivates a person like me to make sure each hand hold I make is firm, that my momentum is strong reaching out for the next bar. Knowing that the support is there and unwavering, I was inspired to not take that lightly or opt for it too easily. I feel I can aspire to much greater heights because I have that support behind me. I felt that I was able to keep a calmer heart and mind, because those around me were not drawn into the storm and I didn’t draw them in. It was so, well, adult. And just like that, I was (perhaps a bit battered and bruised, but no worse for the wear) smooth sailing again. I put my hands on my knees, take a feel gaspingly deep breathes and proceed onward.

Sometimes the storms like that just ambush us, sometimes where we want to ultimately go is directly on the other side of some stormy seas and we have to choose to barrel headfirst into the murky, choppy waters. I feel like I have done that in parts of my life. I have taken the reigns on my budget, I have empowered myself to choose and embrace a home (yes finally!!!), I feel good about accomplishing these goals. I have however, not dug deep enough, not far fear enough, not thrown myself head long into the storm of accomplishing my goals in regards to my food and food blogging. Maybe I am taken over by the fear, maybe I cannot see a clear enter (or exit strategy), maybe it just seems overwhelming, but I have not come far enough in accomplishing I want. The experience of this past Friday reminds me that no matter what comes up, I will get through it. I need to proceed on without fear. Go forward courageously and embrace my passion. I have been inspired by the likes of my friend Bryon Powell who gave up his career as a lawyer to march in the unknown and make a life for himself as a writer and iRunFar editor in chief. I feel like I keep waiting on the sidelines for the right time, the right entry, the right calming of the storm. It’s time though, to barrel headfirst into the oncoming winds with a (not too) reckless (but informed) abandon. Sometimes we have to accept that we are empowered to get the things we want or at least pursue them and sometime we have to accept that what we say we want, we really don’t want that much. I do. I want it. And so I must do it. It is time.

On my original posting on The Delicious Journey, I put a series of goals/tasks that I wanted to accomplish through the project of this accountability blog. I have ticked off a few, put a few into the works but the goals below are now my focus. I am now turning my sights on these, turning my ship directly towards the harder path, the choppier (maybe, maybe not!) water and proceeding forward.

• Blog
  • Weekly original recipe blog on my food website: Fast Foodie.
  • Weekly “cook the book”recipe blog on my food website: Fast Foodie.
  • Weekly restaurant review blog on my food website: Fast Foodie.
  • Weekly food/product reviews on my food website:  Fast Foodie.
  • Weekly running blog on my running blog: The (Ultra) Marathon Life.
  • Regularly write, track and blog my progress and journey here (on The Delicious Journey)
  • Blog authority:
    • Become “the source” for nutrition/gourmet for athletes. Develop my websites content, look and online presence.
• Write the cookbook(Gourmet foods for athletes, no that is not the title, because that would be a lame title).
  • Edit, re-write, develop recipes and write recipes to include in the book
  • Find a publisher or at least look at my options
• Get a nutrition certification.
  • Part of becoming a “source” for something is having the expertise. I want my blog to not only draw from my culinary education but from a nutritional one too (though arguably my culinary education from Bauman College was such a collision). I would love to take this program at Bauman College.
• Take continuing education classes in both food and writing.
• NEW Editions:
  • Open a gluten free/friendly cafe in San Francisco. There I said it. I dream it. I think it would be amazing. Difficult yes. Pull my fingernails out with pliers, sure. But bliss inducing, heck yeah.
  • Write a novel. I have a fun idea in mind for a young adult novel.
  • Start a line of my own products, whether it is bars, gluten free treats, pantry items or kombucha

I will not sink, for I know I can swim. I will not capsize, for whatever happens, I know I have weathered worse storms. I am in the pursuit of a beautiful deep blue sea with peaceful ripples across its surface while the sun peaks up from its new day horizon. I am on my way and along the way, when we pass by in our tiny little ships, give a nod and a smile. We are each out there on our own vast ocean, sailing towards our dreams and it takes nothing away from our own journey to be a small island of respite for someone else. Who knows, maybe you will be a calming tether in the midst of someone else’s storm. As Buddha said,”Thousands of candles can be lit from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared.” I am so excited to see where the seas shall carry me, aren’t you excited where it will take you?