Beef Bourguignon, the perfect way to end a weekend

This weekend was an absolutely wonderful and blissful weekend. In food, running, life.  It was Valentine’s Day Weekend which has never meant a thing to me one way or another. Like most holidays, I don’t get swept up in the commercialism and hype. I do my own thing. This weekend was no different, but it is the first time in the history of my life that I have ever received flowers and chocolate on Valentine’s Day, and I have to admit it did make me feel all warm and fuzzy. And then I tasted the chocolates from Recchiuti Confections in the Ferry Building as my last bites for the weekend I am about to describe, which pretty much cemented it as one kick ass weekend.

Beautiful flowers from the Ferry Building Saturday Market

The weekend started with a fabulous Friday night of food. I decided to indulge in a non-gluten free friendly meal and it was decidedly worth the risk. In fact, other than a bit of asthma symptoms on Saturday, I was pretty non-reactive to it. We went to Little Star in the Mission and had a deep dish Classic, which has sausage, mushrooms, onions, bell pepper. I had been seriously craving pizza for a long long time (I haven’t had a slice since November at Delfina) and this definitely satisfied that craving.

This weekend seemed like it was created straight out of my imagination, it contained all of the things that combine to make me insanely happy and content. Saturday kicked off by getting up early and, for the first time in a while, instead of going on a long run, we headed down to the Saturday Farmer’s Market at the Ferry Building to pick up ingredients for our planned Sunday dinner as well as our other weekend meals. I wish I had had my camera. We met Brett and Larissa down there, sipped on some Blue Bottle and wandered around gathering more and more ingredients, as well as snacks with each lap around the market.

Our dinner plan for Valentine’s Day was simple. After watching Julie and Julia last week, we couldn’t help but think about Julia Child’s beef bourguignon and since I had never ever had beef bourguignon, it was an easy pick for a Sunday at home on a special occasion. We grabbed our beef from Prather Ranch Meat Company as well as a half chicken for Saturday. We picked up Batch 21 Cheese and Crescenza cheese from Cow Girl Creamery. We shared a box of potatoes from Roli Roti. I drank an outstanding smoothie from one of the purveyors, we snacked on dates and filled our bags with greens, tiny potatoes, beautiful King Oyster mushrooms, spring garlic, beautiful sprouts and pickled veggies from Happy Girl Kitchen. It was a blast. By 10am though, the market gets crazy busy and we were ready to go. Brett and Larissa headed off to Tomales Bay for the weekend and we headed back to my house with all the goodies. We changed, went for a nice long run on the Miwok 100k course from near Rock Springs to the turn around point of the course at the bottom of Randall trail and back. 24 miles worked up our appetites, we made a quick stop at Whole Foods post run for a few ingredients and ice and we headed back to dive head first into our farmer’s market goodies.

First there was salad to temporary satisfy the ravenous beasts we were quickly becoming. I tossed a beautiful mix of Greens with Sprouts and topped with avocado, sauerkraut and mild pickled peppers from Happy Girl. The huge ramen bowls were empty in less than five minutes. We put our half chicken into the oven and cooked it “brick chicken” style, using my cast iron grill press. While it cooked, ice baths were taken, beer/cider was opened, veggies were chopped. When the chicken was done, we made fajitas with handmade tortillas from Primavera (also from the farmer’s market), bell pepper, jalepenos, onion. We kept the seasoning light and the flavors clean, a bit of avocado, crescenza and lime were all that was needed. Absolutely delicious. The evening was finished off with Coconut Bliss and some gluten free graham crackers which I made on Friday.

We had decided that we wanted to be done running and heading home by 11:30am. We also had planned to run really really hard for a long way, so that meant we didn’t have to get up too early. In fact, we each managed to run 19 miles in just around 2:40 and that is on the climby-est part of the Miwok course. Very nice. We were back at the car and heading back into the City by 10:45, which was a vast difference than Saturday when we hadn’t even left for our run yet! Lunch was a redux of the previous days salad. And I am thinking that I may be making it for myself every day as long as the ingredients are still available to me. My favorite part was the crunch from the “Market mix”, which is a blend of sprouted beans. Wow good.

The beef bourguignon takes a while, so got to work on it pretty quickly. While easy, tasty meals are awesome, there is something really fun and validating about working on small little details and ingredients and spending hours and hours in the kitchen. Sunday afternoons in the kitchen are one of my more favorite thing. It’s fun just to create and then be able to eat the reward at the end.

I have not done much cooking out of Mastering the Art of French Cooking and unlike most recipes, this one we really tried to follow. There would be no reinventing of the wheel on this one, there is a reason that Julia Child’s compendium is in 40-somethingth edition and could become a best seller, again, 49 years after its release. I really liked working through each step, each little detail to create the final product. From individually cooking the bacon, browning the meal, cooking the vegetables before cooking them all together for 3 hours with lots of wine to sauteing the mushrooms in butter (don’t crowd the mushrooms!), it was a blast. It reminds me how complex it can be to make amazing simple food. And it was amazing. The beef bourguignon had so much depth of flavor, you felt like you were watching a perfectly executed symphony, but instead of listening, you were trying your best not to submerge your whole face in the still hot dutch oven. We paired the rich stew with a very simple playmate: boiled potatoes. And they played well together. Meat and potatoes to something like an exponent of 10. Meat and potatoes at their best. It was damn good and when followed by the chocolates mentioned above, pretty much capped off the kind of weekend you remember for a long time and enjoyed completely from end to end.

I know I am a strange person. That is not news to anyone who knows me.

Yesterday I was reminded again that the things I eat and the foods I crave are also not normal. I was doing an interview for DailyMile and we were discussing food and I mentioned craving salads and vegetables which produced a quizzical look. Later on that day, when I was talking to Scott my massage therapist at Psoas, he said “I never crave fruits and vegetables, just fatty food or sugar, etc”. Never? Really?!

I thought about it for a while since honest to goodness I don’t have sugar cravings, in fact I wouldn’t really say I have cravings at all. Usually on my long runs I start thinking about the food I will refuel with and get particularly fixated on something but it’s not a true craving and even if it were, well, I usually have earned it. On my 34.5 mile run this Sunday I got fixated on the idea of having roast chicken and salad for dinner and ultimately that is what we had. Rotisserie chicken from Limon and a big leaf salad. Really hit the spot.

After all the talk of food cravings or not, last night all I could think about was a big green salad. Not your restaurant style green salad which is usually just beautiful greens plus a delicious dressing. I am talking greens, green vegetables and even a herb-y dressing. Yes, I was craving it. I needed to tame that green monster.

And wow was it good. I actually ate WAY slower than I usually do so I could savor each and every bite. The only things that weren’t green in this salad were the baked tofu and the sauerkraut. I felt like a superhero after eating this salad. I felt invigorated and satisfied. It is definitely one that I will be making again and again. Salad may not be rocket science, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be profound on occasion.

Greener than Green Salad

Ingredients:

1 cup broccoli, lightly steamed (to make it less gas producing)

2 stalks of kale, cut into ribbons

4-6 cups of greens including arugula, spinach

2 tbsp fresh cilantro

1 green onion, chopped

1/2 cup sauerkraut

1 package baked tofu

1/2 avocado

1 cup rice vinegar

4 cloves garlic minced

2 tbsp toasted sesame oil

1 tsp fresh ginger

2-3 tbsp mixed fresh herbs

1/2 cup+ peanut oil

Directions:

Mix vinegar, garlic, herbs, sesame oil, ginger in a blender. With the motor running, add in peanut oil until dressing emulsifies.

In a large bowl, put the cut kale into the bowl and add 2 tbsps dressing. With clean bare hands, massage the kale for 30 seconds until the leaves slightly soften. Add in greens, spinach, arugula, cilantro, and green onions. Toss to coat with dressing adding more to taste. Top with steamed broccoli, avocado, tofu and sauerkraut. Enjoy. This salad is definitely a meal, split it into two and have it as a side.

Speaking of weird cravings, last week I was seriously jonesing for chickpeas. I mean really, I couldn’t get it out of my head. I decided for Wednesday dinner that I would call on my inner Greek and make some recipes from Vefa’s Kitchen which I had gotten over the weekend. I made Vegetable and Garbanzo Bean Casserole as well as Chicken Souvlaki. Both were delicious and I am super keen to try more recipes from the cookbook. It is a good one, a classic and a compendium of Greek Food (it’s been called the bible of traditional Greek Food). I won’t share the recipes, but I will share a few photos of the delicious final product!

Wow. Where did the last 10 days go? I feel like I was just revealing in my Lithia Loop run and here I am now post-JFK 50 mile run (read all about it here). Before and after the race, I ate some amazing things. It’s funny sometimes to think about what an awesome foodie life I have. I live in a place where even simple meals, such as “Sunday supper”(which was really a week ago Saturday), of broccoli, rice, butternut squash and scallops are profound because of the fresh, local ingredients. I really feel like I could just spend my time only running, cooking, eating and writing it and I still wouldn’t be able to keep up. Case in point, the last 10-ish days! I knocked out 4 of the 7×7 100 Things to Eat and Drink Before You Die, which I have been using as inspiration and for uncovering all sorts of tasty foods in SF. It’s fun! I also had several stand out homecooked meals like “sunday supper” as well as spending 4 days on the east coast and eating nothing noteworthy! While in Maryland, I went to two Japanese restaurants for basic foods like steak and rice. I had to “eat safe” the days before the race. But I definitely made up for it afterwards!

Delfina Dinner Date

Gnocchi al Ragu- divine little pillows at Delfina

On Friday night, November 13 I took my sister out for a fun sister date. I got us VIP tickets to the Save the Waves Film Festival and we started off the evening with a reservation at Delfina to check the Pork Sugo with Pappardelle off our 100 list. I manged to get us a 5:30 reservation and we were among the first seated for the evening, however the place was packed within minutes. The waiter told us that the Pork Sugo went quickly, so we ordered it the moment we sat down, along with Pomegranate Bellinis. We got a Insalata di Campo with bitter greens, pancetta, walnuts, Parmigiano and balsamic vinaigrette, a half order of the gnocchi al ragu and (my favorite) Brussels Sprouts with pancetta soffritto and horseradish. We had a nice glass of red wine with dinner and everything was fantastic. Even though we had come for the Pork Sugo with Pappardelle, I actually like the gnocchi much better. The gnocchi were light, the sauce complex and the cheese the perfect note. The film fest was great and I even managed to be in bed before 11pm, so I could get enough sleep before my Saturday morning 7 am long run.

Insalata di Campo at Delfina

Saturday “Sunday” or something in between

Giant bowl of broccoli + giant bowl of cheese= yum!

Saturday the 14th was an awesome day all around. I got to get out for a great run with friends, see more friends running around doing the PCTR race in the Headlands and then spend the afternoon enjoying amazing and at times curious food. After the run we headed to Cafe Del Sol in Mill Valley for salads and wraps. The Baker and I were going to make “Sunday” supper together that night, so we headed to Rainbow for supplies and brainstorming. It is a fascinating and fun thing to collaborate with someone who has (more) food knowledge and tons of creative ideas. We came up with a very simple menu to highlight some of our cravings. Broccoli with cheese, rice with broccoli stems & carrots, roasted peri-peri butternut squash and scallops cooked in butter/evoo. And of course, wine. Even though it was a week out from a big race, wine is such a beautiful compliment to a meal when paired well.

But while shopping we both hit the wall and needed an afternoon snack. We were wandering around Rainbow co-op, our blood sugar plummeting and wandered past some prepared tofu sloppy joes that sounded amazing. We agreed that was a good start, I wandered off to see if I could find some gluten free buns to put it on, to no avail. But then I thought, as weird as it sounded, that the sloppy joes would do well on Primavera corn tortillas. I suggested it to the Baker and he said, ohhhh yeah. And then suggested we top it with Sauerkraut. Ohhhh yeah, I said. And how about avocado, we practically said in unison. And I thought that this weird food combination would only sound good to me. And it was sooo good. We devoured it before I had to go see an apartment. Then we got cooking in the Sausalito kitchen preparing our delicious dinner.

Throw it all together, why not! It works!

Melty cheese and broccoli

Onward to race week

Sunday breakfast was Udi’s gluten free bread toasted with Maranatha Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter spread and banana. Wow it was good. Like dessert for breakfast.

Amazing Grass shipment for being part of the Amazing Athlete program!

The rest of the past week has been a whirlwind of amazing food. Monday we made a giant meat salad. What that means is we made a huge salad and then topped it with pretty rare marinated flank steak (my iron has been low). I wasn’t feeling very well on Tuesday and so my dinner at L’ardoise with my friends Marshall and Suzanne consisted of only a simple iceberg wedge and a very small squash soup. Pretty simple for my upset stomach. Midweek I received my shipment of Amazing Grass products. I have just been accepted into their Amazing Athlete program. I am super stoked to have them sponsoring me because I love their products. I make a Green SuperFood drink every morning and usually have an Amazing Meal smoothie after most morning runs! And their bars are absolutely delicious!

Once I flew off to the East Coast the food fun was curtailed for a bit in the pursuit of running greatness. I try to eat bland foods before a race and stuck to mostly salads for lunch and basic Japanese foods for dinner including steak, rice and seaweed salad for dinner. I guess the combination worked! After the race we went to Bulls & Bears in downtown Hagerstown and I had a nice plate of fries and a spicy chicken breast salad. Not awesome, but I knew that I had a special post race treat waiting for me when I returned!

On Sunday I flew back to San Francisco and I was treated to a nice cup of Four Barrel Coffee. I had been up since midnight west coast time, since I flew out of DC at 7am. About 1pm in the afternoon I realized I hadn’t eaten since 2am and should probably eat something considering I had ran 50 miles the day before and not exactly chowed down (I ate the meal at Bulls and Bears and that was pretty much it!). I was eagerly anticipating my “real” post-50 mile dinner which was Pizzeria Delfina, followed byt Bi-Rite Ice Cream (both of which had items on the 7×7 List). I had thought about pizza for the last 10 miles of my race since I had decided before the race I would eat some “real” not gluten free pizza post race. It was well worth it.

At Delfina, we procured a small table in the corner and had a round of sparkling wine. We then tucked into the Erbette Chard w/ garum and pinenuts in lieu of our desired appetizer which was not on the menu currently which was spicy cauliflower. We decided on two pizzas (Delfina is only thin crust): Pizza Margherita (the pizza on the 7×7 list) and then a Broccoli Rabe pie with pepperoni added. Both were great. We got a side of sauce, which was terrifically garlicy. I had had a hard time deciding if I wanted to go to Little Star pizza and get a Brass Monkey, deep dish pie or if I wanted thin crust. I generally prefer thin crispy crust but like the amount of sauce a thick crust can hold. The solution (genius!) I figured out was to go to Delfina for thin crust and get a side of sauce. Not exactly original (or genius) since it is listed on the menu as an option. Oh well, I will give myself credit for at least figuring out what I wanted! After dinner we went across the street to tick another on the list which was the salted caramel ice cream at Bi-Rite. It was sweet, more sweet than I usually like but after such a savory meal, it was just right. I also got a small scoop of the cinnamon snicker-doodle ice cream. The whole evening was absolute dining bliss.

A perfect monday lunch

The Sentinel for Corn beef sandwich

Monday I spent in the city before my massage appointment at 1:30pm. I nearly was able to get another 7×7 item at Dynamo Donuts but they were closed on Mondays. I was perfectly okay with this since I had a nice cup of coffee from Philz, a gluten free flax carrot muffin and a smoothie in my belly. I saved the 7×7-ing for lunch!

Around mid-day, I decided I would go to Outerlands for soup and toast, but after driving all the way out there found my plan thwarted as they are closed on Mondays. And Trouble Coffee was closed too for construction. Curses! I hightailed it all the way back to SOMA and headed to The Sentinel where I had toyed with going at the same time I decided to go to Outerlands. The Sentinel’s Corn Beef Sandwich with Gruyere is on the 7×7 list and after one bite I knew why. The meat was hugely flavorful, the condiments understated and the bread very light. It was 2.5 seconds to my stomach, while sitting in my parked car. I followed it with a cup of Sight Glass coffee which Dave at Outerlands had recommended, as he was using the beans at Outerlands, but we didn’t try any. It was great and the stamp on the cup was even better.

Viola Swamp is WATCHING YOU (SightGlass Coffee)

I am looking forward to a delicious meal tonight (7×7 again!) at Ducca, going after the aranicini. And then before I know it, Turkey Day! The Baker and I are having Turkey Mole. We are working on it currently. I just finished making a batch of gluten free peanut butter chip brownies. The kitchen smells spicy (the massive amounts of roast chilis) and fragrant (all the herbs in the turkey stock). I am super stoked! Happy eating everyone!