I Heart Carrots

At this time of year when I go to a grocery store I have a hard time resisting the beautiful, colorful bunches of heirloom carrots. They elevate any table's status and can turn a healthy weekday dinner into a fancy meal. I tried a new recipe this week from the February 2014 Food & Wine and it is definitely going into my regular rotation. The combination of flavors is perfection and went splendidly well with the cornmeal crusted tilapia we had planned. We also *just happened* to have a SIMI Sauvignon Blanc chilled in the fridge that rounded out our dinner nicely. We love this wine because its so easy to pair with food: super crisp and light due to 100% stainless steel fermentation but it also has depth from the small amounts of Viognier and Semillon in the blend.

Maple-Glazed Carrots
1 1/2 pounds trimmed baby carrots, preferably heirloom

2 cups chicken stock

Kosher salt

Freshly ground pepper

1/2 cup pure maple syrup

1 anchovy fillet, drained and chopped

2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes

2 tablespoons chopped dill

© Con Poulos from Food & Wine

In a deep skillet, combine the carrots and chicken stock and season with salt and pepper. Bring to a boil. Cover and cook over moderate heat until the stock is reduced to 2/3 cup, about 10 minutes. Add the maple syrup and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the sauce is sticky and the carrots are tender and well-coated, 7 to 8 minutes. Stir in the anchovy until dissolved. Remove the skillet from the heat and whisk in the butter one cube at a time. Stir in the dill and season with salt.

Santa Barbara Wine Getaway

We had a wonderful trip down the central coast wine region and a final day in Santa Barbara proper. We explored the Santa Maria Valley Foxen Trail, the Los Olivos Promenade, Solvang and the Santa Barbara Urban Wine Trail.  It was nice to experience a new valley since we spend so much time in Sonoma and Napa. The wine, the views and the food were all breathtaking. I brought back a few postcards for you:

Saarloos and Sons - cupcake and wine tasting

Andrew Murray - Amazing Syrah

A burrata burger with shaved meyer lemon from Sides Hardware and Shoes 

Goat cheese with almonds and leeks at Succulent Cafe, alongside a house made charcuterie plate (sadly, not pictured)

Bubbles were hard to come across but a visit to the excellent Wandering Dog wine bar led to a flight

Cruising in beautiful Santa Barbara

Oysters at The Hungry Cat - great raw bar and seafood small plates. Happy Birthday Joe!

Souvenirs!

Italian Layer Cake

This last weekend was one of my favorites of the year: Couchella!

We love watching live music and for 3 whole days we stream Coachella Music Festival and watch from the comfort of our couch. We saw lots of great bands and got excited for the actual festival we plan on going this year, San Francisco's Outside Lands.

On Sundays I do a lot of cooking to get ready for the week ahead, a wonderful habit that's stuck from my Whole30. This week I decided that I wanted to make a paleo lasagna, but for the sake of not calling everything "paleo" and not lying to you that this is like your grandmother's "lasagna," I've named it Italian Layer Cake. This was a wonderful sunday night supper, my term for meals that take a little longer to prepare and best reserved for weekend cooking.

Italian Layer Cake

14 oz can of  diced tomatoes
1 cup macadamia ricotta (recipe follows)
1/2 pound of ground beef
1 bunch of swiss chard, destemmed
1/2 onion, diced
3 gloves garlic, minced
coconut oil
1 cup chopped basil

First make a batch of Macadamia Ricotta from Nom Nom Paleo:

Photo by Henry Fong

Puree 2 cups of macadamias, 1 tsp salt, 1 Tbsp lemon juice and half a cup of water together in a food processor. Add water if needed to achieve desired consistency.

Saute the onion for about 5 minutes in medium heat. Add the garlic and stir for about 30 seconds. Add the ground beef and cook until heated through. Add the tomatoes and mix everything together. 

Mix the ricotta with the basil. 

Place 1/3 of the meat mixture on the bottom layer of a 9x9 pan. Add a few sheets of chard and layer the ricotta. Repeat two more times until you've used up everything. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 - 40 minutes.

Pair with a big and easy red for dinner perfection! I recommend the Alexander Valley Redemption Zinfandel or Coppola's Diamond Collection Red Blend.

Whole30 Wrap Up

I've lagged on writing this post because I don't actually feel like I've wrapped up anything. In fact, the whole30 went by so quickly that I think of it as more of a jumpstart. We've been keeping it paleo since with few changes. The main thing I wanted back was wine and some kind of bread for breakfast. I made my own paleo bread this week and it was really wonderful not to eat eggs for a change!

One of the greatest changes was an even more careful approach to our food sources. We rejoined our lapsed CSA from Eatwell Farm and also discovered the meat box from Avedano's, a local butcher committed to sustainable and responsibly sourced grass-fed meat:

Our first attack at the meat box consisted of grilling perfect steaks using their dry rub:

Alongside a reinvented Caesar Salad with farm lettuce and radishes, walnut/almond garlic "croutons" and Caveman Bistro's perfect (and eggless) Caesar dressing:

And this very welcome addition to the dinner table (if you are judging the merlot, please watch this excellent video made by the Gundlach Bundschu crew in its defense):