Spicy Roasted Potato Salad

Did some more playing around with Latin themed food this past weekend for Memorial Day. We decided to make a potato salad for our BBQ with friends. I wanted to make something that had more zip to it, and not the traditional egg and mayonnaise based potato salad. I made a roasted potato salad with some tomatillo-cilantro dressing. The warm roasted potatoes, soaked up the spicy buttermilk based dressing. This is definitely something I'll make again.



Roasted Potato Salad with Tomatillo Dressing

8 cups of cubed / diced baby red (or other) potatoes
Olive oil
Sea salt
Fresh pepper

Liberally coat uniformly diced potatoes in olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Roast in a 450 degree oven for 30-40 minutes, until roasted and crunchy on the outside and tender on the inside. Allow to slightly cool. Meanwhile prepare the tomatillo dressing

Cilantro-Tomatillo Dressing

1 buttermilk ranch dressing packet
½ C buttermilk
½ C sour cream
3 large tomatillos
1/2 bunch cilantro
2 cloves garlic
1 poblano / anaheim pepper
1 lime juiced & zested
1 jalapeno seeded
Sea salt to taste
Fresh pepper to taste

Place all ingredients in a food processor and thoroughly combine. If dressing is too spicy, add some more sour cream. Start with ½ cup of the tomatillo dressing, and dress potato salad to your desired creaminess, add more as needed. This dressing recipe will make more than what you need for the potatoes. The remaining dressing can be used on green salad.

A New Take On PicNic Bean Salad

So this past Memorial Day weekend, we had a few parties we went to. A friend of mine from High School & Utah, shared some recipes with me. I decided to take them as base, and adjust them to my liking. I had fun coming up with this new Latin inspired bean salad for our picnic with friends.



Dan's Latin Inspired Bean Salad

1 can organic black beans drained
1 can organic garbanzo beans drained
1 can organic kidney beans drained
1 can organic white or shopeg corn
1 bunch of green onions, diced
1 small red onion, diced
1 pint cherry or grape tomatoes, halved
1/2 bunch cilantro, diced
1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
Zest from 1 lemon
1/3 cup olive oil
1 tsp cumin
salt & pepper to taste

Drain canned vegetables. Place in a large bowl with onions, cilantro and tomatoes. The tomatoes can be raw. I typically roast them off for an hour or so, once halved, as I like the concentrated & caramelized flavor of oven roasted tomatoes. Juice lemon. If not enough juice to make 1/3 cup, add red wine vinegar. Add olive oil, zest, salt, pepper and cumin and whisk to make a vinaigrette. Pour over vegetables and let marinate for an hour at room temperature. Serve at room temperature.

Poe: Haunted (Extended Mix Album)

I like good music. And I always like discovering new things. Poe is not necessarily new music, but new to me. The beauty of the free Pandora app on my iPhone, is that when I play bands I like it brings in more similar bands to like. No exception here, I've enjoyed just about every song on this CD / MP3 download. I highly recommend.

Remembering My Mom On Mother's Day

On this upcoming Mother's Day, I honor my mother, the vibrant & strong woman who brought me into this world along with seven other siblings. Who gave me life, and taught me to love it! Who, together with my Dad, taught me to stand on my own two feet and encouraged me every step of my way to pursue my passions. Mother's Day is always hard, but it's a good remembrance of all the happy memories I hold in my heart now that she is no longer living. I hope everyone loves their Mothers as much as I love and miss my Mom immensely...!



Me and My Mom at Grandpa & Grandma Craven's, Summer 1977. I'm just over 2 years old. Mom is expecting my younger sister Gretchen and is approaching age 37. Beautiful, healthy and vibrant. The way I will always remember her in my heart.

Miss Me – But Let Me Go
Author Unknown

When I come to the end of the road
And the sun has set for me
I want no rites in a gloom-filled room.
Why cry for a soul set free?

Miss me a little – but not too long
And not with your head bowed low.
Remember the love that we once shared,
Miss me – but let me go.

For this is a journey that we all must take
And each must go alone.
It's all a part of the Master's plan,
A step on the road to home.

When you are lonely and sick of heart
Go to the friends we know
And bury your sorrows in doing good deeds.
Miss Me – But Let me Go!



A candid shot of me and my Mom on mine & Holly's wedding Day, November 1999.

Happy Mother's Day Mom! We love and miss you terribly! Not a day goes by that I don't see something that reminds me of you, or think of a wonderful memory we shared. I spend more and more time in the kitchen as I get older, feeling closer to you, cooking all your recipes and sharing amazing food with my friends. Thank you for sharing all your amazing talents with your children.

Vancouver, BC Half Marathon

Running a half marathon was never anything I wanted to do. A year ago the most I would run was to catch a bus, and then I was out of breath and sweating. But Dan got a bug to do a half marathon, signed me up without asking (thankfully because he knew I'd say no) and so we started training!

Most half marathon training courses train you for 12 weeks, but that is assuming you are already comfortable running 3 miles...I of course was not. Dan and I had done some 5K's but I was horrible at them, I could run maybe a little bit but only if it were downhill. So, I started training just to become comfortable running 3 miles a month before the actual 12 week training began, I would run for a few seconds, then walk, run for a few seconds more then walk. I built up to being able to run 1 mile without stopping, then 2 miles without stopping. I never did 3 without stopping, and still cant...but I decided it didn't matter because I could run more then I walked.

The training began for the marathon in February we were running 3 miles 3x a week which was a lot for me on top of the once a week training we were doing with our trainer plus boot camp workouts. When runs became longer then 6 miles on Saturdays I had to choose to take out boot camp as it was just too much for my body to handle. I was consistantly running about a 12.5 min mile during my runs and feeling really good about myself. My goal was to complete the half marathon in 3 hours, run more then I walked and not die, that felt fairly doable to me.

One thing our trainer would do was have us do sprint intervals, basically running a lot faster then I usually would for 30 seconds, resting for 30 and repeat. I found that this was helping me feel my body's abilities and realizing I could actually run a little faster which was more comfortable for my shins, muscles and joints. I couldn't sustain it very long, but I could compensate by walking fairly fast. I felt like I could push myself a little more and make my new goal to finish in 2 hours and 40 min.

Of course there was still the mental block. I had run 9.5 miles and felt really good about that run, my last run was 10 miles which didn't go very well. My course had too many hills, it was kind of hot and I just wasn't able to go as fast as I wanted. To top it off I wasn't sure I could physically move my legs anymore to do 3.1 more miles. I was losing confidence.

Race weekend. We arrived in Vancouver and found out that the start line / expo was 1.5 miles away from our hotel which is where we needed to pick up our bibs and timing chips. I also realized that we were going to have to walk 1.5 miles before the race the next day then 1.5 miles back giving us a grand total of 16.1 miles for the day. That was overwhelming. In the end it really was no big deal, it was a good warm up before the race and a much needed wind down after the race.

The morning of the race Dan, Rebecca and I got up early drank a lot of water and gatorade, tried to eat a little and stretch. Here is TMI, I happily had a BM (I was worried I wouldn't until later) but unhappily had my monthly visit (that's all I'm going to say about that). After the walk to the start I desperately had to pee, the lines were SO long!!! I waited for 10 min and was afraid the race would start without me so left still having to go. The gun started I was totally nervous but ran my heart out to the first water station that had pit toilets. The line was long, but I didn't think it would take the 15 min. that it did, how long does it take people to pee???

I was so mad, it was like I was starting the race all over again after just 2 miles. But I tried to be confident to keep running and walking with all the energy I could muster. We got to the park around mile 7 and I felt really good, even knowing that we were about to climb from 0 to 200' in another mile. My legs started to hurt as we continued up but I got a serious surge of energy as the fastest marathoner approached from behind. He zoomed by me going so fast I was totally amazed! I stood a little taller and moved a little faster it was just what I needed right then. I finally made it to the top of the hill and thought this is it, I love downhill! I thought it would be so easy, it wasn't. My aches were more pronounced as I slammed down each foot, by the time I got to the bottom I felt awful. It was there that we met up with the marathoners again and I got another surge of energy, I stood a little taller...but didn't really move much faster.

Through the last 3 miles I kept hearing my name, people kept saying "keep it up Holly, you can do it" It took me a minute to figure out that my name was on my race bib, once I did it was kind of cool realizing that these people were cheering me on which really helped me to keep going.

Once I saw the finish line I got really emotional. I couldn't believe all this hard work for 4 months was going to be over, this was the end, I had done it!! I ran as fast as I could, I didn't know my legs could move that far apart...but they did. The clock said 3 hours and 2 min. I was a little disappointed I hadn't reached even my very first goal. I was still proud of myself, and finally realized that had I not needed to go to the bathroom so bad my time would have been 2 hours and 47 min. that I could live with. It got even better when I found out my actual time was 2 hours and 59 min. making my adjusted time 2 hours and 44 min.

I'm so happy I did this, and was so happy I could do it with Dan and Rebecca. When Dan crossed the line we both got choked up again as we embraced and gave a victory kiss. I'm so proud of all of us and what we've accomplished in the last 4 months. It really is amazing.

A Goal Materializing: First Of Many

If you asked me a year ago if I ever would have thought about doing a long distance run, or a half marathon for that matter, I probably would have looked at you like you were some crazy person. I decided to take up running, and reluctancy, signed up for a my first ever 5K at the 2010 Komen For The Cure race in Seattle. It wasn't pretty. However, it established a baseline for me and ignited a "bug" in my constant striving for continual self improvement. Each 5K got easier, and I took up longer distance running. With all this lifestyle change, I knew I was ready to tackle my first half marathon. Was I nervous? Of course I was. But, I knew if I trained and stuck to a rigorous program, I'd be able to do it. Holly, and my sister Rebecca joined me in this quest as well. Did it go exactly as planned? No! It never does. But at the end of the day, I learned I can do this. And the quest of doing something that rigorous and crossing the finish line proudly, was a total rush. I've learned to listen to my body and know when to slow down. Before I would have just chugged through it and sustained injuries. That in and of itself, has been a valuable lesson to learn.



Holly, Rebecca and I getting ready bright and early to run our 13.1 miles / 21.1 kilometers up in Vancouver BC. Our first of many races I'm sure. At least for me.



The signage all over the city welcoming people from all over the world to compete.



Some branded gear. As a professional marketer, I totally get into the visual aesthetics of branding and co-branding. Often times cheesy, but still fascinating to me none-the-less.



The "Sea of Humanity," getting ready to run. The half marathon alone had 14,000 +/- people or so competing. Massive bottleneck in the beginning. But fun to see all the people ready to roll.



Holly and I shivering waiting to start.



Holly, Rebecca and I at the start. All a little tired before we even started.



Holly & Rebecca. "Sisters! Sisters! There were never such devoted Sisters!" I couldn't resist throwing out that classic Irving Berlin song lyric from White Christmas. Seriously though. Rebecca, Holly and I both reached new physical abilities training for this race, and got through our own road blocks in our heads. We broke through our ceilings of athletic doubt.



Team Craven at the finish line. We all did good times. Established baselines, and can continually improve and refine from here. I was surprised how emotional we all were, knowing that we could do this, and were able to support each other along the way in the process.



Cute Holly & I, post race for our photo shoot waiting for Rebecca. We hobbled around like Grannies. But in the end, it was totally worth it. The course through downtown Vancouver BC was beautiful. Particularly the long loop up through Stanley Park. Breathtaking!

We made a goal. We worked towards that goal. We navigated our paths through this goal, even when we all had setbacks & injuries and still persevered. We were tired. We were TOTALLY sore and beat! But in the end, we did this together and have established another outlet for physical long term well being. I look forward to my next half marathon in a few weeks here in Seattle in June. As well as one in October with Holly.

Homemade Easter Eggs

One thing for certain. Holly and I are deeply rooted in family traditions, particularly during the holidays. Easter is no exception to the myriad of traditions we like to carry on from generation to generation. One of Holly's favorite Easter treats has always been a peanut butter egg. She has many stories from her youth of inhaling these left and right. Combining her love of store bought Reese's Peanut Butter Eggs, with my passion of making most everything from scratch, we decided to start a new tradition of making homemade peanut butter eggs in tempered chocolate. Growing up, my family always made candy at Christmas time. Lots of flavored fondants were hand formed, hand dipped and beautifully packaged. I've carried on that tradition with Holly for our family. Additionally at Easter my Mom and her mother use to make divinity and marshmallow eggs to dip in tempered chocolate and share with the family. Since it's way to humid to make divinity in Seattle, trust me I've tried several times, we started our tradition of peanut butter fondant eggs and peppermint fondant eggs to share with friends and family for Easter.



Some good 60% dark chocolate has been melting overnight, and is ready for tempering. Right alongside that, is a batch of peanut butter fondant and a batch of peppermint fondant to roll out and shape.



Me pausing for a photo-op to take a pic of our production line in our kitchen. Hand cut, rolled out, then shaped. Holly putting some finishing touches on the "egg" shapes of our rolled out fondant.



Letting the fondant eggs dry and get a slight crust. I've learned from practice that they dip easier this way. And the tempered chocolate adheres and doesn't flow off.



All the finished eggs hand dipped, allowed to dry, and packaged up in foils. Glossy carrot orange foil for the peanut butter fondant eggs, and a pretty aqua foil for the peppermint eggs. Good Easter colors! Homemade eggs, and a continued Craven tradition have been adjusted slightly for Holly and I to carry on in our household, and with our daughter someday. Time to share these with our friends and neighbors.

Smokey Spicy Hummus

Nothing beats good from scratch hummus. I've been whirling up a batch each week for work, to enjoy with raw vegetables. It's been fun playing around with different flavors. Here is one of my recipes with smoked paprika and cayenne that tastes good with the traditional lemon and cumin. Super easy and a cinch in your food processor.

Dan's Smoked Paprika Hummus

1 15oz Can Garbanzo Beans
1 15oz Can Cannellini Beans
¼ C Tahini Paste
3 Cloves Garlic
1 Lg Lemon, Zested & Juiced
1 TBS Ground Cumin
½ Tsp Cayenne Pepper
1 Tsp Smoked Paprika
Salt & Pepper to Taste
½ to ¾ Cup Olive Oil

Rinse beans. Place in food processor with all remaining ingredients. Mix to combine and check seasonings. Pulse again and add enough olive oil to desired consistency. Serve with veggies or grilled flat bread wedges.

Is it spring yet?

According to the calendar it's spring, but it doesn't really feel like the weatherman is on board. In spite of the cold the flowers have been making an appearance all around our neighborhood. I've seen a lot of daffodils blooming, pansy's being planted and trees full of blossoms.

Dan noticed that the cherry trees on the University of Washington campus were in bloom so we thought we'd go on a picnic with friends. Unfortunately it was way too cold to eat outside, so we ended up just going for a walk. Apparently everyone else in Seattle had the same idea! We saw at least 2 wedding parties and hundreds of people posing in front of and in the trees.





We tried to get our friends son to interact with "nature", but he wasn't really into it. Here is Dan setting a good example for Miles.




It may have been cold and overcast, but you could still see the fluffy flowers and smell their sweet scent, plus it just felt good to be outside. The sights and smells of this time of year always feels like a fresh new start, I love spring.

Drunken Potato Salad

When I cook, I like to cook healthy. I made a massive commitment to myself to eat healthy, be healthy, exercise a lot, and be happy. Watching myself change has been a invigorating and addicting thing to do. I cook with organic ingredients in everything. conventional ingredients are the exception to the rule. Recently, I made this lightened up potato salad for a side with pulled pork, and my home canned sugar-free BBQ sauce. Most potato salads are mayonnaise based. This is olive oil and wine based, and much lighter than traditional potato salads.

Dan's Drunken Potato Salad

5 Pounds Red Potatoes, cooked, partially cooled and rough chopped
1/2 C White Wine
1/2 to 3/4 C Extra Virgin Olive Oil
2 Bulbs Garlic, roasted and cooled
1 Large Lemon, zested and juiced
3 T Fresh Rosemary, chopped
3 T Fresh Dill, chopped
Salt to taste
Pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. slice bulbs of garlic in half and liberally coat with olive oil, salt and pepper. Wrap in foil and roast in oven for 60-70 minutes, until soft and caramelized. Remove and allow to cool.

Boil potatoes until fork tender, remove from water and allow to cool enough to be able to handle. When cool enough to handle, rough chop and place in a bowl. Meanwhile prepare dressing by extracting (squishing) out all the caramelized garlic pulp. Add that to the wine, olive oil, lemon juice, lemon zest, fresh herbs and salt and pepper. Mix until thoroughly combined. Pour dressing over warm potatoes and allow them to absorb and soak up the wine/oil mixture and fresh herbs. Serve at room temperate. Can be made a day in advance, but bring to room temp for several hours before serving.

Nostalgic Casserole Comfort Food

When I try new recipes, I always follow the recipe exactly once before I make any adjustments or changes to it. I really like the down to earth comfort recipes from "The Pioneer Woman" blog. Holly came across this recipe last Friday, and we decided to try it for dinner. The casserole was reminiscent of meals I had growing up prepared by my Mother, so that was a nice bit of nostalgia mixed into my time in the kitchen on Sunday. Having made this once, I will definitely be making some adjustments. The base flavor was great, but I feel like it needs much more spice or herbs. Instead of using just tomato sauce, next time I'll use my bottled marinara. And besides just chopped green onion in the sour cream / cottage cheese mixture, I'll use some fresh herbs and probably caramelize some sweet onion or shallot.



Sour Cream Noodle Bake
Recipe Courtesy: The Pioneer Woman

Ingredients

1-¼ pound Ground Chuck
1 can 15-ounces Tomato Sauce
½ teaspoons Salt
Freshly Ground Black Pepper
8 ounces, weight Egg Noodles
½ cups Sour Cream
1-¼ cup Small Curd Cottage Cheese
½ cups Sliced Green Onions (less To Taste)
1 cup Grated Sharp Cheddar Cheese

Preparation Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Brown ground chuck in a large skillet. Drain fat, then add tomato sauce. 1/2 teaspoon salt and plenty of freshly ground black pepper. Stir, then simmer while you prepare the other ingredients. Cook egg noodles until al dente. Drain and set aside.

In a medium bowl, combine sour cream and cottage cheese. Add plenty of freshly ground black pepper. Add to noodles and stir. Add green onions and stir. To assemble, add half of the noodles to a baking dish. Top with half the meat mixture, then sprinkle on half the grated cheddar. Repeat with noodles, meat, then a final layer of cheese. Bake for 20 minutes, or until all cheese is melted. Serve with crusty French bread.



Instead of regular egg noodles, I used whole wheat egg noodles for extra protein. It was a nice comfort meal on Sunday. I served this up with a nice tossed green salad, and some left over toasted soda bread we made on St. Patrick's Day.

Sky-High Savory Biscuits

One thing Holly and I enjoy together, among many things, is good from scratch food. We also have a lot of talented friends as well, who enjoy cooking as much as we do. This past weekend at my birthday party, was no exception. So many people brought over some really good culinary creations. Our friend Julie made these and some orange infused honey butter to accompany. She made half a batch following this recipe, and made half a batch with some chopped fresh herbs in them. Yum!

Julie's Sky-High Biscuits

2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup whole-wheat flour
4 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
3/4 cup cold butter
1 egg, beaten
1 cup milk

Sift dry ingredients together; cut in butter. Stir in egg and milk; knead to combine. Roll out and cut. Bake at 450F for 12-15 minutes. Makes 20.

Bacony-Chocolate Yumminess...!

For my birthday I took a much needed "comp" day at stayed home and cooked up a bunch of savory and sweet treats to share with my friends. For one of the desserts, I made these Cooks Illustrated devils food cupcakes. I then made a batch of my salted caramel butter cream frosting. That recipe is also on our blog under a separate "Recipes-Desserts" post, and topped them all off with some crispy bacon. They were pretty tasty if I do say so myself...



Cook's Illustrated Devils Food Cupcakes

4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped fine
1/3 cup (1 ounce) Dutch-processed cocoa
¾ cup hot coffee
¾ cup (4 1/8 ounces) bread flour
¾ cup (5 1/4 ounces) granulated sugar
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons vegetable oil
½ cup sour cream
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons white vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees. Line standard-size muffin pan (cups have ½-cup capacity) with baking-cup liners. Place chocolate and cocoa in medium bowl. Pour hot coffee over mixture and whisk until smooth. Set in refrigerator to cool completely, about 20 minutes. Whisk flour, sugar, salt, and baking soda together in medium bowl; set aside.

2. Whisk oil, eggs, vinegar, sour cream and vanilla into cooled chocolate-cocoa mixture until smooth. Add flour mixture and whisk until smooth.

3. Divide batter evenly among muffin pan cups. Bake until cupcakes are set and just firm to touch, 17 to 19 minutes. Cool cupcakes in muffin pan on wire rack until cool enough to handle, about 10 minutes. Carefully lift each cupcake from muffin pan and set on wire rack. Cool to room temperature before frosting, about 1 hour.

B-Day Bash!

Last week was Dan's birthday which we celebrated over 3 days. On his actual birthday morning while Dan was getting ready I put up this great little banner I found to surprise him when he came downstairs. They are letter pressed circles with a fun ribbon linking them all together. I picked this up because it reminded me of birthday's growing up in my family, we always had a "Happy Birthday" banner hanging on the window and balloons swirling from the ceiling fan.




That night we stuck to our regular routine with working out at the gym since we planned to celebrate on the weekend instead. Friday night we had friends over for an appetizer party. Dan took the day off work and cooked up a storm. He made hand pies from a Williamsburg recipe which are virginia ham, ground sirloin and traditional spices in a pie dough. They are super yummy!



He also made mediterranean shrimp salad, stuffed in endive on a tray with other chopped veggies and pastry cups filled with a moroccan couscous salad.




The best part of all the food though were the cupcakes, Dan made devil's food with salted caramel frosting topped with bacon and banana-walnut cupcakes with maple cream cheese, butter cream frosting topped with walnuts. YUMMERS!




I wanted to color coordinate the drinks and straws, with flowers etc. Orange being Dan's favorite color was the obvious choice.



Dan got lots of fun cards from family and friends.



All our friends brought appetizers to share, which were equally as yummy. We have amazingly thoughtful and talented friends.

Saturday Dan and I went out to Bick's Broadview Grill for dinner and to see a movie, Unknown. It was a great flick and a fun evening. Our big birthday celebration for this year though is going to be seeing Mary Poppins in May which is why we didn't do gifts this year.

It was a fun way to celebrate the birth of my amazing sweet husband.
Love you babe!

Yvonne's Rosemary Cashews

This past weekend we had a lot of birthday celebrations for my "Big-36!" I took a comp day on Friday and stayed home and cooked up a slew of appetizers and desserts to share with a bunch of friends Friday evening. In addition to what I made, our friends also brought over some appetizers to share. Yvonne's Rosemary Cashews were super tasty! She gave us some of the leftovers, and we ended up smuggling these into the movies (via Holly's purse) on Saturday night! :) I plan to make these to have on hand to sprinkle over salads and such. Excellent flavor combination.

Rosemary Cashews

1 lb roasted cashews (I used 50% salt already-roasted Trader Joe's brand)
2 TB minced fresh rosemary
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
2 tsp light brown sugar
1 TB kosher salt
1 TB unsalted butter, melted

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spread cashews out on sheet pan and toast in oven until warm, about 5 minutes. In large bowl, combine rosemary, cayenne, sugar, salt and butter. Thoroughly toss the warm cashews with the spiced butter. Bake about 5 more minutes. Serve warm.