Food, Animals, and Navy Seals.

When I started this blog, my goal was to post something each week.  It has been six weeks since my last post so shame on me.

In any event, it has been an eventful month or two which included a trip to San Diego and New York, a wedding in Connecticut, a handful of visitors to Minneapolis, and an incredibly busy job. 

I will start with our trip to San Diego which had the two key characteristics of a Ben and Betsy trip: food and animals. 

Our friend, Geoff, told us to check out Sushi Ota.  We knew that the place was going to be great from the moment we arrived.  The restaurant is in a crappy little strip mall but was packed at 1030 on a Wednesday night.  He was right, it was delicious and had amazing tamago.

Earlier in the week, a crazy lady told Ben about place called Carnita's Snack Shack in North Park. We are open to any restaurant suggestion, especially one that comes from a crazy person and has the words "carnitas" and "snack" in the title. Let me put it this way, if you keep kosher or are trying to lose weight, this place is not for you. Ben had a sandwich that would clog even the healthiest person's arteries: pork schnitzel, bacon, and pulled pork. I opted for the lighter option: carnitas tacos with guacamole.

Later that day, we headed to the zoo.  I think that even if you were to remove all of the amazing animals, the San Diego zoo would still be beautiful. I guess that palm trees and 70 degrees all year will do that. Did I mention that there are pandas?  Or as I like to call them, giant stuffed animals who eat bamboo all day long.

On Saturday, we headed to the Little Italy Farmer's Market where Ben was able to don his favorite Michigan shirt and eat live sea urchin as it attempted to walk off the plate.  

I like camping as much as the next person...if it involves sleeping in a nice, spider-less bed instead of a tent. Hiking is another story, though, and Torrey Pines has now become one of my favorite places to hike (Hanging Lake in CO is still at the top of my list).  

After the beautiful hike, we headed to Oscars Mexican Seafood in La Jolla for amazing shrimp tacos.

White Chili

Hands down, one of my favorite things to eat is soup.  Just as chocolate chip cookies are the best dessert, I believe that a good chicken noodle or matzoh ball soup is one of the best things to eat. 

Unfortunately, the following is not a recipe for matzoh ball soup (so much easier to go to Cecil's or Crossroads) but rather a white chili that I started making earlier this year. I guess that this is technically a chili but it is much lighter than the title connotes. It is very easy to make and also really easy to modify to your liking: amount of heat, vegetarian, etc.

White Chili with Jalapeños, Spinach, and Optional Chicken Sausage
adapted from Lunds and Byerly's

In a large pot, heat oil for one minute then add onion, garlic, red pepper, and jalapeños.  Sauté over medium heat until vegetables are softened and onion is golden, ~ten minutes. Add beans, tomatoes, tomatillos or salsa, paprika, cumin, and oregano. 

Increase heat to bring mixture to a boil, then reduce to simmer about ten minutes.

Warm chicken sausage for each serving.

Just before serving, stir spinach into chili until wilted. Add salt to taste. Stir chicken sausage into each bowl.

1 tbsp olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 large red bell pepper, chopped
2 large jalapeños, chopped (with or without seeds)
2 15-ounce cans white beans, with juices (I love using one can of chickpeas)
1 15-ounce can diced tomatoes
1 cup canned chopped tomatillos or mild green salsa
1 tsp paprika
2 tsp cumin
1 tsp oregano
2 ounces spicy chicken sausage per person, precooked and chopped (optional)
4 cups fresh spinach
salt

This Happened.

Who has heard of the Brooklyn bakery, Baked? I made a variation of their Cowboy Cookie last week and drool over their cookbook nearly every day (have you seen the photos?).

One of the owners was in Minneapolis a few days ago to visit Nordicware and marvel over their bundt pans. As I love his cookbook, I nicely asked if I could give Matt a box of my cookies. The following day I woke up to a wonderful email from him and an amazing facebook post featuring my cookies. 

It is not possible for me to put in words how wonderful this made me feel. 

Check out their facebook page, stop by their shop, buy one of their cookbooks, and bake everything in it.