Eat, Drink, and Cure IBD!

First CSA box preview!!

The first “what to expect in your box” email arrived today!

We’re looking forward to:

lots of greens

radishes

eggs

honey puffed spelt or corn

onions

apple cider

YIPPEEEEEEE!

Any suggestions for soup recipes for the greens?

I’ve been eating Soup Nancy’s Spinach with Feta and Pine Nuts this week, which has been AMAZING.

Moving Night!

Well, folks, this is it. The last post for Community Cucina.

No, I’m not quitting blogging, but I am moving! All of this content PLUS all the content from my travel blog will now be available at my NEW blog: Don’t Forget to Eat!

While I’ve loved focusing on local eats here at Community Cucina, it’s time to broaden the blog and just go nuts (but not eat nuts).

What you’ll find at Don’t Forget to Eat:

Food! Recipes! Restaurant reviews!

Travel! Pittsburgh! The World!

Diseases! (Crohn’s! Anemia! Asthma!)

Health!

Juice recipes!

Fewer exclamation points!

So come on over and check it out! There are already a couple of new posts for you over there.

Resubscribe with the button in the upper right corner.

And bear with me over the next few weeks as I try on some new designs (feedback welcome!).

See you on the other side:

Don’t Forget to Eat!

Carrot-Vanilla Bread

So, the only downside to juicing has been cleaning the big pile of pulp out of the juicer and throwing it away. For the most part, I just don’t have a choice. Fibrous kale particles, strawberry seeds, and apple skins are a recipe for disaster.

But the other day I made plain ‘ol carrot juice (for the Carrot Risotto recipe in Dirt Candy – aaaaamazing). And carrots are pretty harmless. They’re one of the first cooked veggies I was able to eat on a regular basis. So, how to use the pulp?

The popular and healthy carrot salads were obviously out. As was the idea of throwing it atop a salad. It soon came clear that I should perhaps have just mixed it into the carrot risotto for ease of use and maximum health. Because after that, it’s pretty much muffins, quick breads, and carrot cake. And while I love those, most recipes for carrot muffins etc. are extremely sugar dense.

With all that in mind, I found myself stuck with throw out the pulp or make bread.

So, I set about writing a bread recipe. I wanted it to be low on sugar, but still taste moderately sweet.

The catch? Because of the raw carrots I couldn’t taste test the bread batter.

Kevin was home to taste test it, but his reactions are often the following:

• Yuck.
• It’s okay.
• Oooh, that’s really good! Yeah!
• Have you tasted this yet? (generally akin to yuck)

While I’ve learned the adjustments I usually need to get from “yuck” to “that’s really good,” I usually get to taste it to guess on the ingredients.

Which is why I was shocked when this turned out to be one of my favorite breads of all time!

I started out with no sugar for taste test number one.

Result:

Kevin: It’s okay.

Me: Does it need more sugar?

Kevin: Maybe.

Added two tablespoons of brown sugar.

Result:

Kevin: It’s better.

Me: But not great?

Kevin: Not really.

Back to the kitchen. Contemplated adding more brown sugar, but then I thought about the different spices and flavors that usually imply sweetness or are just a little sweet. And then it hit me: vanilla. It would be a subtle but welcome addition, I thought.

Result:

Kevin: It’s good.

Me: But not great?

Kevin: It’s bread.

Me: Fair enough.

Kevin doesn’t like bread or muffins very much.

I put it in the oven and figured it would be good enough. I was shocked when I fell in love with it. I don’t even put butter on it at this point. I’m just snaking slices every time I feel a little bit hungry.

Thank goodness Kevin doesn’t like bread very much.

Should you make this, your dog may be so impressed with your baking skills that he attempts to steal your batter-covered wooden spoon.

Carrot Pulp Muffins

2 cups flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. salt

1 egg

1/3 cup butter, melted and cooled

1 cup milk

1 tsp. vanilla

1/2 cup carrot pulp, tightly packed

Preheat oven to 375. Grease a loaf pan. Mix flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk together egg, butter, milk, and vanilla. Add wet ingredients  to flour mixture, mixing until just combined. Fold in carrot pulp. Bake for 40 – 5o minutes, until knife inserted in center comes out clean.

I didn’t tell you there’s broccoli in that

Well, I already managed to sneak the broccoli into Kevin’s juice.

Feeling good. Might make a second round of juice tonight.

Ate a small cup of 4-bean chili on Thursday – no Crohn’s symptoms. Progress!

Is it the juice? The Remicade? Time? My strict adherence to the low residue (mostly)? A combo?

Who knows.

But I do know that I ate broccoli this morning for the first time since a stir-fry last June that sent me to the couch with a hot pack and a medication for muscle spasms. Awesome.

Hidden Broccoli Juice

1 cup broccoli

2 large leaves of Swiss chard

2 oranges

1 lemon

Note: Broccoli pulp stinks. Discard immediately for your own well-being.

Juice for the heart

The juicer obsession continues.

I’m in love with tasting all things fresh! The novelty still has not worn off, in fact, I think I’m becoming more obsessed and more interested in different combinations. Last night I threw in leftover fruit salad from a party and a lemon. Delicious. Fresh lemonade is coming this weekend. Also more blood orange juice. If you have not tasted the delight that is a blood orange, you must do it.

Just to prove to Kevin that I’m not more in love with the juicer and fresh fruits and veggies than I am with him, I made us a special dark pink (fuchsia?) juice as an early, healthy Valentine. It’s full of berries! And he couldn’t even taste the red chard I put in there! (By this time next year, I’ll be juicing broccoli without him noticing.)

For those of you with juicers, here’s the recipe:

Red Apple-Berry Juice for 2

4 small apples

4 leaves of red chard (thick stem removed)

8 – 12 strawberries

1 1/2 cups cranberries

It might be the lack of fresh stuff talking or that the juicer and I are still thoroughly in the honeymoon phase of our relationship, but this juice just tasted so indulgent and sinful. The emotional response was akin to eating a piece of really good dark chocolate.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Breaking in my Big Yellow Bowl

The sweetest gift I received for Christmas 2012 was a yellow Pyrex mixing bowl. My brother received one, too. They are both identical to the mixing bowl that we grew up baking cookies in with our mom. We call it The Big Yellow Bowl. It was a gift to her from her mother many years ago. Pyrex doesn’t even make these bowls anymore, so Dad had to track them down on eBay.

Over the years, many Hutton family traditions have changed, we’ve all moved around often, and I live a solid day’s drive from my family. But one thing has made it through every move and stayed the same: we always bake cookies in the Big Yellow Bowl. It’s the perfect size for a big batch of cookies, easy to clean, and special to all of us because it came from my grandmother. Every year, it becomes a little bit more special. And every time we bake it in, we’re more aware that it’s a special old piece and I’m always afraid to break it. But we’ll never stop baking in it.

So when we opened our bowls, simultaneously on Christmas morning, both joy and relief ran through us. There were now three Hutton family Big Yellow Bowls in existence. While it will still be sad if Mom’s breaks, we now have perfect cookie-making bowls of our own. And Ryan and I will no longer have to argue about who will inherit the Big Yellow Bowl. That’s one argument that could have gotten heated.

You see, I learned most of my lessons about baking with Mom and her Big Yellow Bowl. And most of those were learned baking chocolate chip cookies.

So, naturally, when I broke in my Big Yellow Bowl, I did it with chocolate chip cookies. Like most Americans, we bake the Nestle Toll House recipe developed by Ruth Wakefield in the 1930s. I’ve made these so many times, that I know by the first bite whether or not someone uses the Toll House recipe for their chocolate chip cookies. But making them in my new Big Yellow Bowl was the first time that I felt they turned out right in my grown-up, Mom-less kitchen.

All my baking lessons came back to me as I went:

1: Make sure to get all the lumps of butter out when you cream it with the sugar.

2: Level off your measuring cups for consistency.

3: Break your eggs in a separate bowl and check for shells.

4: Add dry ingredients gradually to the wet.

5: Sneak a few chocolate chips to snack on.

6: Never share your secret ingredient.

See, everyone thinks their Mom’s chocolate chip cookies are the best, and I’m exactly the same. It’s a combination of magic from the Big Yellow Bowl and her secret ingredient. We add it at the end, to taste. And that’s all I’m going to tell you.

7: Nine minutes is not a long time, but when there are cookies in the oven, it feels like a long time.

After I finished the cookies, I made a special spot for my Big Yellow Bowl in my kitchen cabinet. I can’t wait to see the cooking adventures that come with it. In my Mom’s, I invented some of my first cookie recipes, stirred up the batter for birthday cakes, and punched down bread dough. I never made brownies in it – I used a purple plastic mixing bowl for that, no idea why.

The Blueberry Blunder

Writing and juicing in: Pittsburgh, PA

Well, it happened.

You know how earlier today I mentioned not eating raw things would be harder with them in the house?

Apparently, it’s damn near impossible.

I was making the swiss chard-apple-berry juice that I mentioned in my previous post and I ate 2 blueberries. Just ate them.

Kevin came in and said, “Ooh, blueberries! Those look good.” And ate a handful.

I said, “Yeah, they do.” And ate a pair.

I barely even noticed. It was like I eat berries every day or something.

The low residue diet requires (as Mad-Eye Moody repeats throughout Harry Potter) constant vigilance.

But, as Kevin says, it was only two so no big deal. And I tend to agree. But if I call off work tomorrow for illness, I blame my lack of vigilance. Moody would have been displeased.

I’m mostly bummed I missed out on my first taste of whole berries in over six months. I swallowed them nearly whole!

On the up side, the juice was really delicious. A little bit sweet and quite tart.

Swiss chard, apple, blueberry juice

2 leaves of swiss chard (thick stem removed)

4 small apples

1 1/2 cups blueberries

And I liked how the colors separated in the measuring cup:

A Kale Tale

On Sunday, something amazing happened: I went to the grocery store, stood in the produce section, and had the freedom to pick out anything I wanted.

Regular readers, I’m sure you’re wondering: How is this possible? Didn’t you spend a full day laying on the couch after eating uncooked beets last month? Aren’t salads forbidden? And all those little seeds in strawberries are to be avoided at all costs, right? (Thanks for being such an inquisitive bunch!)

Well, yes.

But Sunday, I committed to exploring a loophole: juicing.

I finally purchased the juicer I’ve been eyeing since I first heard the words your test results are positive for Crohn’s Disease: the Breville Compact Fountain.

Post juicer purchase, I prodded Kevin into a run to the grocery store for lots of fresh stuff, and, of course, he agreed. Kevin and I raced home from the grocery store, bouncing with excitement. He was excited to play Halo with his friends and relax before work on Monday. I was drooling over kale. And apples. And oranges. And swiss chard. And…it’s a good thing Kevin was in a hurry to meet his friends otherwise I’d have overbought the produce in my joy.

Previously, kale had never been my favorite of greens. I’m a swiss chard girl all day long. But Sunday night, I was all about the kale. I was just so thrilled that there was a way to get something so healthy into my body. I’ve really missed my veggies.

Naturally, before putting the juicer together, I had to inspect all my purchases for freshness and dance around like a little girl dreaming of her wedding day:

(I’ll leave it to your imagination whether I’m marrying the kale or it’s my wedding bouquet and I’m marrying an actual human being. I love kale an awful lot.)

I was surprised by how little I could taste the kale in the juice and also the distinct flavor that it gave to the juice. I knew it was in there, but it didn’t taste like liquid salad. It was a little sweet and a little citrus-y, but most of all it just tasted fresh.

Kale-Apple-Citrus Juice

2 leaves of kale (tough stem removed)
4 small apples (stems removed)
1 small lemon (peeled)
1 large Navel orange (peeled and halved)

Juice according to instructions with your juicer. Mine recommends juicing greens in between items like apples to extract the most juice from the greens.

I was pretty tired after drinking the juice, but I also felt really good with no digestive side effects!

I also really liked the Breville Juicer. It was really easy to use and to clean. The instruction manual is very detailed and worth reading.

I’m already finding it tough to have the whole fruits and veggies in my house when I can’t just munch on them.

But juicing is an exciting and welcome workaround. Since Sunday I’ve also made blood orange juice. Tonight I’m thinking swiss chard, apple, berry.

Mmmm….berries.

Let’s Eat Out: SoHo Kitchen

Writing and eating in: Cleveland, OH

Our fourth and final stop on our impromptu Cleveland food tour was by far my favorite.

SoHo Kitchen is a cute meets modern, Southern food with a Midwest flair restaurant located near the famous West Side Market. We checked out their Sunday brunch. Oh, how I wish this place were in Pittsburgh.

First, the brunch cocktails: they’ve got the standard (and tasty) mimosa and a take on the Bloody Mary with bacon salt and pickled okra.  But they also serve their own concoctions with names like Pickle Backer and Gentleman’s Breakfast.

I opted for the Dixie Russian to get my morning coffee and my vacation day-drink on all in one tall glass: iced coffee, chicory-infused rye whiskey, Kahlua, and milk. It was one of the best mixed drinks I’ve tried in a good long while. Probably no mixed drink has impressed me this much since we discovered Jameson and cranberry juice with a twist of lime in Ireland, March 2011.

And it paired nicely with my choice for brunch: Cheddar Biscuits and Gravy. I love love love biscuits and sausage gravy. My mom makes a traditional white sausage gravy with milk and flour that I grew up on as a weekend breakfast treat and then it became what I would treat myself to for dinner sometimes in grad school. This was nothing like that, so I can safely praise it up, down, and sideways without offending the mamma. These are two completely different and completely lovable sausage gravies.

The Biscuits and Gravy at SoHo kitchen feature rosemary sausage and whiskey gravy. And then it’s topped with scrambled eggs. I’d never had sausage gravy with eggs before, but let me tell you, it’s a revelation. I might even try that combo out when I make Mom’s recipe. It was really filling and I took half of it home, which was great. And the leftovers held up really well – just popped the leftover biscuit and gravy into a moderate oven for a few minutes and whammo flashback to a wonderful Sunday morning.

Beth’s friend Scott got the steak and eggs. I didn’t taste it, but he seemed to really enjoy it. And he needed a substitution, which the kitchen was more than happy to do even though they were really busy, so that’s always a plus!

Kevin chose the “Yogurt and Granola,” which was the traditional healthy-hippie breakfast turned into a filling dessert lunch: banana panna cotta topped with fresh berries, nuts, and marshmallow crème. Kevin lingered over every bite and I think I now have to learn to make panna cotta. I snuck a bite of it and, wow, once I can eat fresh fruit and nuts again, I’ll be working on making that here in my kitchen.

Would I go back?

Not only would I go back, I demand to go back! I am a two-year-old stamping her foot on the ground with insistence. Beth, take note, brunch, yeah, it’s happening. I’d also allow checking out the lunch, supper, or chicken scratch menus.