Traveling in Colorado and New Mexico

Ouray, Colorado is a beautiful place. It's an old mining town not too far from Durango and Ridgway but far enough away it's another world. The little town is surrounded entirely by mountains and is nicknamed, the Switzerland of America. We're spending a few days here and then on to Santa Fe for 3 days. We've enjoyed seeing the colors of the Aspen trees, an unreal gold when the sky is blue and the sun is shining. We drove up to Silverjack Lake today and were over 10,000 feet above sea level and the scenery was breathtaking. The wind blowing the leaves off the trees really looks like golden snow. After walking an hour in that altitude a nice relaxing soak in the hot springs fed hot tub was in order. Later we'll have dinner at the Outlaw Restaurant, the oldest restaurant in Ouray (since the 1920's), and celebrate our first date which was 10 years ago today. Normally we go back to the place we went on our first date, Uncle Julio's in Fort Worth, and we have chicken fajitas, just like we did on September 30, 2000.

I hope dinner tonight is better than the last two dinners. We've had some pretty bad food so far on this trip. We stopped at Sophia's in Albuquerque on the way here and although it was featured in Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives, it was not very good and kind of dirty. I had some pretty bland huevos rancheros. We were looking forward to dinner at Buen Tiempo in Ouray, a Mexican restaurant we've been to before and had good food. I had some really great chile chowder there last time we were here so I ordered it and the special grilled seafood dinner. The chile chowder was not cooked enough--crunchy vegetables and a raw taste. My seafood was inedible--the tuna was like rubber. Steve's refried beans were a big, dry lump on the plate. They didn't charge me for the seafood dinner, though. We even struck out at breakfast the next day at the Artisan Bakery on Main Street. They were making fresh bread and it looked great, but our order, a breakfast croissant for Steve and a bagel for me were nearly burnt to a crisp. Really. Our best meal was lunch at Katie's Place in Ridgway--homemade Italian wedding soup and fresh turkey panini and roast beef sandwich. Dinner last night at the Thai Paradise was anything but paradise. An overly ornate place with the door open letting in many, many flies. Food was low average and high priced, particularly having to share it with the flies. My favorite place in Ouray so far is Mouse's Chocolates and Coffee. They make all sorts of chocolates, including my favorite, the truffles. Steve's favorite is the "scrap" cookies. They take scraps from the candy making such as truffle pieces, toffee pieces, caramel, dried fruit and nuts and bake cookies filled with the scraps. You never know what scraps you'll get but they are all good. Today I decided to give the Artisan Bakery another chance by ordering a sandwich to take up to our excursion at Silverjack Lake. I figured a sandwich on their fresh bread would be good.

Our $7.00 sandwich, as we discovered later when we got our picnic lunch out, was made of little bitty scraps of turkey, and I mean scraps. Scraps of chocolates were Ok but not scraps of turkey. They fell out of the sandwich as we were trying to eat it. Seriously--what kind of rip off was that? We shook our heads and contemplated writing bad things on trip advisor and yelp. At least Steve had a scrap cookie to cheer him up and I had an organic orange which was really a grapefruit.

So, I have to hope that the food adventure is much better when we get to Santa Fe. I've always had great experiences there so I'm not too worried. I am signed up for a cooking class on chiles at the Santa Fe Cooking School Saturday morning. I know that will be interesting.

Report on dinner at The Outlaw, our last night in Ouray: John Wayne visited this restaurant during the filming of the movie True Grit so it's well known and popular. I had a NY steak and potato. I won't say alot, just that it was pretty tough and the food overall was like your average steak place. Sadly, it was our best dinner in Ouray.

Santa Fe here we come!

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No gluten is no problem

Migas with chorizo

I recently found out my oldest daughter, Helen, should be on a gluten free diet due to some health concerns. My oldest son, Glenn, has also decided to try a gluten free diet to see if it will help his chronic skin problems. As a result I’ve been challenged to have the gluten free option for my son on a daily basis. Helen has also asked me for ideas to help her adapt but still eat tasty, healthy food.
Fortunately, I had experience recently in the gluten free world. I’ve been doing food demonstrations at the Azle Farmers Market all summer and I have tried to provide a gluten free alternative for everything I’ve demonstrated. I didn’t have to, but the founders of the market, Kristoffer and Lisa Rasmussen and their wonderful children all live gluten free. Another market member, Debbie Mears, is also gluten free. I didn’t want them to be left out so whenever I developed a recipe I adapted it for both regular and gluten free eaters. Personally, I don't have a problem with gluten and I have no plans to stop eating products containing it. In fact I purchased 3 loaves of bread at Artisan Baking Company in White Settlement a few days ago and enjoyed slices of Harvest bread with Justin's Organic peanut butter and honey I bought at Azle Farmers Market. The pumpkin bread was fantastic, not too sweet, and more bread than cake.
But, back to gluten free--I am now becoming somewhat skilled at developing menus
and I am happy to report that there have been no complaints. Being a Japanese-American has its advantages here. I grew up in a household where the rice cooker was always on the kitchen counter and used nearly every day. My Japanese mother ate rice for breakfast, not toast and butter.
I still have a rice habit. My kids will tell you they can always open up the freezer and find a bunch of zip loc bags with single servings of Japanese short grain rice. They heat up the rice in the microwave and eat it with everything. Lately I’ve been freezing packets of brown rice as well.
Japanese food is perfect for the gluten free diet. I’ve been making my son obento for his lunches featuring things like oyakodon (chicken , onions, egg on rice), nikudon (beef and vegetables on rice), Japanese fried chicken (uses cornstarch), and other traditional obento items.
In fact, all Asian foods are easy to adapt to the gluten free diet. Thai and Vietnamese food use rice noodles, Korean food uses potato starch noodles, and Chinese food is fine without any gluten products. Indian food is another favorite of mine, and while I do love naan it’s easy to eat hearty lentil and potato dishes and not miss the bread. In addition to Asian food I’m also a big fan of Southwestern food. Huevos rancheros, migas, chile rellenos, enchiladas, and tacos with lots of Hatch green chiles are perfect and can be made with all types of corn products.
I have a lot of recipes on my blog from the farmers market which are either gluten free or can be easily modified. For example, the grilled eggplant sandwich can be made with Udi’s gluten free bread instead of the ciabatta roll. The Japanese Grilled Beef calls for soy sauce but substitute wheat free tamari whenever you see soy sauce.
Here are the dates and recipes on the blog:
June 13: Japanese Grilled Beef with brown rice and vegetable sauté
July 5: Stir Fried Vegetables and Meat, Cucumber Kimchi, Cornmeal cakes, Oven dried tomatoes
July 30: Flash blackened Big Eye Tuna with Cajun spices, Wasabi glaze, rice and steamed vegetables
Aug 11: Eggplant sandwich, edamame hummus with yucca chips
Aug 15: Huevos rancheros
Aug 22: Pear Crisp, chicken yakitori
Aug 31: Roasted corn and green chile dishes, including green chile cheese cornbread

If you crave bread, please try the green chile cheese cornbread. It’s made with cornmeal, goat cheese and chiles and has so much flavor . The goat cheese makes it moist and tangy.
Some of my favorite products to have on hand include:
Wheat free Tamari
Rice vermicelli noodles
Rice flour, white and brown
Cornstarch, potato starch
Corn tortillas
Stone ground cornmeal
Brown rice
Corn
Yukon gold potatoes ( I make 5 minute potato salad by chopping the potatoes, heating in microwave for a couple minutes, cool, add vinegar, oil or mayo and herbs, salt & pepper.)
Sweet potatoes--all types including garnet, Japanese, and Okinawan

I also have lots of organic vegetables, fruit, and fish, shrimp and other proteins including tofu on hand.

For the Migas pictured above:

I used 6 corn tortillas, brushed lightly with vegetable oil and fried until crispy. I cut them into strips and set them aside.
1/2 T vegetable oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 onion, diced
1/2 bell pepper, red or green, diced
1/2 cup Hatch chiles, (roasted, peeled, seeded, and diced) or use Poblano
1-2 jalapenos, diced
1 tomato, diced
6 ounces chorizo, bulk breakfast sausage, or veggie sausage crumbles, cooked and drained
6 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup grated cheese, any type including Monterey Jack, cheddar, goat
2 scallions, thinly sliced
1/4 cup chopped cilantro

Heat pan and add vegetable oil. Saute garlic, onions and pepper until softened. Add tomato and cooked meat and heat through. Add beaten eggs and tortilla strips and cook until eggs are scrambled but still very moist. Sprinkle cheese. Serve with scallions and cilantro.

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Food should be a “10”

It’s not easy to lose weight when you’re obsessed with food but I have found something that seems to be working for me. I came across a plan in which you eat healthy 5 days a week and then allow yourself to have 2 “treat meals”, one on the 6th day, and the other on the 7th day. It’s one meal, not a full day of bingeing , OK. The meal should be no more than 1,000-1,500 calories. Sounds pretty good, doesn’t it? The plan also recommends a lot of exercise, which I was already doing but getting nowhere. I guess my 45 minutes on the treadmill was just not enough to get things going so the advise to try intervals seems to be working. Now I do 20 minutes but combine high incline, fast jogging, and slower walking in 5 minutes sets, 4 times. I do this right when I get home from work and on the days when I go to the gym, after my hour, yes hour, of weight training with my personal trainer, Sandra Kidd. I work out with her 2 days a week and she is the best trainer ever. She is so worth anything it costs to keep seeing her. When I first went to her in mid June of this year I was hopeless. I had recently looked in the mirror and was alarmed when I saw my arm fat moving as I brushed my teeth. My arms were always well toned. What the heck? Now after only 3 months my arms are quite toned and display worthy in sleeveless clothes. The biggest surprise was what happened to my legs. All those hard lunges and lifts have resulted in some athletic legs I don’t recognize. But back to the weight, even with 3 days of weight lifting, and 4-5 days of treadmill walking my weight was not budging. So, what could it hurt to eat a little different and change the routine. The first thing I had to do was follow the five days of healthy eating to earn the treat meals. Like I said, I’m obsessed with food so I have to look forward to something and this is perfect. I can still cook some gourmet meals on the weekend and enjoy them.
But, this is the big but, I have to eat right for 5 straight days. So, basically I eat what I always intended to eat but never actually did. I won’t bore you with all the details but you know the usual stuff—whole grains, but only 2 servings a day, fruits, vegetables, lean protein, little bit of fat. Main thing is I don’t eat sugar, white flour, “mindless” snacks, desserts, mindless bits of food when I’m cooking, oh and the handfuls of cayenne cashews I love to buy at Central Market.
I was, as you can imagine, looking forward to having the “treat meal” on Saturday. I was craving fried catfish so we went to the Flying Fish. I think I’m going to write a restaurant review on it later, but in a few words here, some of it was good and some of it downright bad. I did enjoy the fish and a few French fries. I brought along cookies to eat for dessert to eat in the movies. These were not ordinary cookies but Gwin Grime’s from Artisan bakery. That was the best part of the meal, actually.
The next day I had the “treat meal” at lunch, a potluck at the Fort Worth Japanese Society. I brought mabo dofu (spicy tofu with beef), rice, and cheesecake with chocolate ganache. I tried several dishes , including mine, and a couple bites of dessert.
The result after a week is a loss of 2 pounds. Not bad at all, considering I was losing absolutely nothing before. Here’s my food related observation: Following the plan for 5 days is hard! I was used to having a Dole’s fruit bar at night and those Belgian Chocolate chips, and a serving of rice even if I had already had a couple other grain servings that day. Going to bed hungry is different.
Treat meals are great but I realized I don’t have to have the full 1,500 calories! That is more like a treat binge than a meal. I will not stuff myself next weekend. Wait—I am going to the State Fair, so I take that back. I will only stuff myself the day of the State Fair, but no other treat meal.
I also realize that if I’m going to have only two of these meals a week they better be good. I am not going to waste a treat meal on mediocre food. Hmmm, that eliminates most restaurants and potlucks. After yesterday’s “treat” lunch I felt kind of bad. I ate a bunch of different foods but none of them were particularly tasty and all of them seemed to be loaded with soy sauce. I felt sluggish and water-retention puffy for hours and hours and it was so not worth it.
We’ll see what happens next week. I have several food related events including a group dinner out with friends Friday night to a place I’ve never been, Saturday at the Azle Farmers Market to demonstrate cooking with sweet potatoes, and then the State Fair of Texas on Sunday if the weather is OK. But one thing is for sure, if the food is not a 10 I won’t bother to eat it.

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The fat chef

This is depressing me. I love to cook, eat at restaurants, watch food tv, read cookbooks, and think about eating and I have a problem. If I see something on a tv show that look delicious I immediately want to make it even if it's not something I would normally include in my diet--buttermilk pie, for example. Or a magazine article in Bon Appetit with a photo of "crack pie", a oatmeal cookie crust cream and butter pie--all sugar, fat, and calories, makes me whip one up to bring to a friend at work who is recovering from surgery. Of course, the next day I make one for a family birthday party and eat a big piece. It's called crack pie because one bite and you can't stop eating it, and trust me it's true. Even fried dishes tempt me, although I would not be inclined to order deep fried food (except at the State Fair of Texas maybe). I saw Anne Burrell making fish and chips once and immediately wanted to make them. I didn't, but I wrote "fish and chips" on my things to make when I'm splurging list. Trouble is, I seem to always be splurging on something and the "healthy" eating I plan to do never lasts long enough. I set out to lose about 30 pounds back in June on my 50 something birthday and even started going to a personal trainer, the lovely Sandra Kidd, who at 53 looks 33, and is very intense about what she does. I meet with her twice and week and she works me hard. My legs and arms look very toned, better than in a very long time in fact. But, my waistline and weight are the same, pretty much. Seems that I will have to really work at this or nothing will happen. Time to get serious with healthy eating or I will not be able to fit into my khaki uniform in October when I go away for a week long conference. Sabotage is always around the corner for me. There's the birthday dinner on September 11, after I spend the day before judging ribs and brisket at a BBQ contest.
I'll be making seafood risotto for dinner and tiramisu cheesecake. Hmm, try to resist that.
Then there's the plan to go to the state fair on September 26. Last time I went I had a Fletcher's corn dog when I got there and one right before I left, not to mention all the things I tried in between. The weekend before I leave for the khaki uniform event is the Fredericksburg Wine and Food Festival. My husband is planning lunch at the Alamo Springs Cafe, home of giant, greasy burgers which also happen to be delicious. This is making me more hopeless the more I write. Did I mention that I am having a bahn mi sandwich for dinner tonight?
I spent several hours today going through my piles of cooking notes, favorite recipes I've created, clippings, and such to find my absolute favorites. I filed away all the fried, dessert, and rich sauced recipes for some time when my waistline doesn't matter--maybe age 80?
In the meantime I will only make these healthy dishes and create only things I really should be eating. What's the point of being a great cook when my cooking is depressing me?

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Azle Farmers Market: Roasted corn and green chile dishes

50 pounds of roasted Hatch chiles in the freezer and not a lot of local produce during this hot spell so I decided to showcase the chiles once again. This time I picked up some corn at Central Market, from Texas at least. I roasted the corn by keeping the outer husks intact and removing the silk and inner husks, then cooking them on my gas grill until some kernals were charred, a total of 10 minutes. I used this roasted corn in two dishes, one a corn and green chile salad and the other, a cornbread. I adapted the cornbread recipe from one I had seen on Food Network on Guy Fieri's show by the "outlaw chef", owner of Fred's Texas Cafe. I wasn't sure if it would be good but it fantastic even cold. I used Lamb's stone ground corn meal. Lamb's grist mill is in Converse, Texas, a small family business. I cut out the bacon fat from Fred's recipe and also cut down the amount of goat cheese. Goat cheese is not cheap, you know. You must make this cornbread!

Green Chile Cheese Cornbread

2 ears corn, grilled and kernel removed
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 1/4 yellow cornmeal
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup sour cream
1 cup chopped roasted Hatch green chiles
1/8 cup whole milk
1/2 cup chopped onion
8 ounces goat cheese

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Add 2 T oil to a 10 inch case iron skillet and put it in the oven to heat up. Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl. In another bowl add the eggs, sour cream, corn, chiles, milk, remaining oil and the onions. Mix dry ingredients and wet ingredients together. Remove the skillet from the oven and add half the batter to the skillet. Crumble goat cheese over the batter, then add the other half. Bake until golden brown, approximately 35-40 minutes.

The following dish has so many great flavors you will say, "wow" when you taste it.

Grilled Corn and Green Chile Salad

8 ears corn, roasted and kernels removed
1-2 T vegetable oil
salt & freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup creme fraiche or sour cream
2 limes, juiced, 1 zested
1 clove garlic, minced
1 shallot, minced
1 T ancho chile powder
1/2 cup Hatch green chile, chopped
1/4 cup chopped cilantro leaves
1/4 cup grated Cotija cheese
Optional: add 1 cup black beans or pinto beans (rinsed and drained, if canned)
Garnish with chopped avocados

Heat some vegetable oil in a skillet and add corn and remaining ingredients. Cook until heated through. Garnish with avocado. Great either warm or cold.


The last dish is Green Chile Cheese Grits, like the ones you get at Reata. I've made this for dinner guests and they rave about it. It's full of fat so don't make it often and have a small portion!

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

1 T butter
1/2 cup roasted Hatch green chiles, chopped
3-4 roasted garlic cloves
3/4 cup cilantro leaves
2 jalapeno peppers, minced
3 eggs beaten
1/2 cup butter
1 cup grated sharp cheddar cheese
1 cup grated Monterey Jack cheese
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste.

Make 1 1/2 cups stone ground grits according to package directions. Place chiles, garlic, cilantro and peppers in a food processor and combine until fairly smooth. Add all ingredients to the cooked grits and make in greased casserole dish (use the 1 T butter to grease the pan) for 45 minutes.

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Matt's Big Breakfast is my inspiration

When I was in Phoenix I visited Matt's Big Breakfast, a little family owned restaurant a few blocks from the heart of downtown. It wasn't easy to find and looked like a tiny little square nothing building with a little sign you could barely see. I was in Phoenix for business and was out on a walk in the 110 degree heat looking for this place but since it was closed and nothing was going on in that part of town I nearly missed it. I decided to go there sometime during the week.
I saw a Food Network Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives where Guy had visited Matt's and raved over the food. I couldn't remember what he ate and I didn't look at the reviews before I went.
I walked over there on a Wednesday morning about 7:30 and walked right in. I later found out people typically wait an hour or more for a table. The place seats about 40 people max, including the counter, and is very cozy. The menu said it all, "Food tastes better when prepared simply and with better ingredients, high quality, cage-free eggs, local organic produce when possible, etc." The menu was fairly simple--about 7 items but everything made from scratch.
I had the special that day, grilled pork tenderloin with poached eggs and hollandaise on a bakery English muffin. (Matt's is across the street from the public market where he gets local bakery breads) It was served with his special home fries, yukon gold potatoes fried with rosemary and carmelized onions. Everything about this breakfast was outstanding and despite my plan to eat only half of it I ate the entire thing! No lunch that day and a light dinner followed.
Everything he makes is just right. He makes the pancake batter in small batches, hand mixed, from scratch and cooks the waffles to order. He gets his pork from a place that doesn't "supply" restaurants so he pays retail for it and it's really good. He uses real maple syrup, heated, and local preserves for the toast, which by the way, is local bread he slices thick. He changes up the bread all the time as well--sour dough, multigrain, walnut/raisin)
Anyway, as I sat there I was inspired by his simply place, the delicious food, and the idea that if I could have my own restaurant this is what I would do. (well, not exactly, but the small, freshly made idea)
I found it remarkable that people come from miles around and wait for up to a couple hours on weekends to eat this breakfast because this is the way I cook at home! As good as it was there was nothing unique about his food. I think people have never eaten really good food and don't know how to make it. I'm always perfecting pancakes, waffles, omelets and buying really good breads, local preserves, organic pepper bacon, etc. so my family eats like a Matt's Big Breakfast patron every weekend. One day I may open my own place with really good breakfast and lunch, adding my own Asian, Southwestern, Tex-Mex creations. Something to think about.......

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Azle Farmers Market cooking demonstration: Yakitori (grilled chicken) and grilled rice

Have you ever heard of grilled rice? I had it in an Izikaya (Japanese gastro pub) on my trip to Japan this spring and fell in love with it. Basically it's a rice ball or triangle of really good Japanese short grain rice that's been grilled and then brushed with a sweet and salty soy marinade. You could also add a little miso paste. The outside gets crispy and the inside is chewy. This goes really well with yakitori, which was really the focus of my cooking demonstration.
I love the smell of yakitori outside in the summertime. It reminds me of the time I lived in Japan when we'd go to the Obon festival in the summer when street vendors were grilling the skewers on their long narrow charcoal grills--narrow so the wooden part of the skewer hangs off the edge so it doesn't burn. Over the years I've experimented until I finally have THE recipe for wonderful yakitori.
Part of this recipe come from Hiroko Shimbo, The Japanese Kitchen, where she suggests charring some chicken wings and cooking them in the marinade. In Japan the skewers are cooked first and then dipped into the hot marinade several times. The marinade takes on a very rich chicken flavor. In my recipe I've used the idea of adding chicken to the marinade but without cooking it first.

Yakitori Tare (sauce)

1/2-3/4 cup Sake (Japanese rice wine)
1 cup Mirin
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/3 cups soy sauce (or wheat free tamari) I used reduced-sodium tamari
1 scallion, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, crushed
2 slices fresh ginger
lemon zest (1/2 tsp)
8 chicken wings (or to save time, 1 cup chicken stock)

Bring everything to a boil and then simmer for 30 minutes. Remove chicken and strain sauce.
Save chicken for another use.

Yakitori

2 lbs chicken thigh meat cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1 bunch scallions, cut into small pieces, same size as chicken
bamboo skews, soaked several hours in water

Thread alternating pieces of chicken and scallions. Cook over medium high heat on a charcoal (preferable for good flavor) or gas grill. After chicken cooks for a few minutes start basting with the sauce by dipping the skewer into the tare (sauce). Don't overcook!

You will never enjoy eating the typical "chicken teriyaki" once you've had this.

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