Bits and bobs

1. I keep riffing off of Food52's grain salad recipe and the results are always amazing. I have been using exclusively quinoa but subbing in spinach for arugula sometimes, and adding roasted carrots or kabocha or whatever instead of the dried raisins and cranberries.

2. I am pushing myself to try new restaurants so I don't turn into a stodgy old coot. Mixed results: Masten Lake was a joke (a great story if I see you in person) and Acme was really not my thing (I was served a twee little dish on a bed of hay).But Bien Cuit is a terrific bakery, and Sottocasa wasn't terrible.

3. I made crepes the other day for brunch and that was such a good idea. I should do that more often.

4. Also--after declaring publicly that 2012 would be the Year of the Potluck--I finally had my first potluck. And while I gave myself a terrible knife wound just as it was starting (blood! fun!), it was great, and I promise to do more.

5. There is still no good coffee to be found in my work neighborhood. BUT! There is really good ramen at Terakawa ramen around the corner. The regular porky terakawa is great, as is this very interesting black garlic one. h/t @ninaeats

Going great together

The combination of strawberry and rhubarb is so perfect, only nature could have invented it. Which is to say, by being ripe together at the exact same time, may be nature's way of saying "yo, you could eat these together."

For this reason, I decided making a dish with both radishes (pink lady variety) and peas was a very good idea, even if I couldn't picture how it might turn out. For good measure, decided to throw in spring garlic. Totally excellent combo--one greenmarket trip, one dish.

For the record, am still exploring what/who I go great together with.

Quinoa with spring garlic, radishes, and peas
(2 small servings)

3/4 cup quinoa
3 pieces spring garlic--white bulb up to light green--minced
1 small onion
3-4 tbsp olive oil
salt n pepa
1 cup white wine
1 cup water
2 cups shelled peas
1/2 bunch radishes, trimmed, sliced in half

1. Saute onion and spring garlic in 2 tbsp of olive oil over medium heat
2. pinch of salt with that as you soften until translucent
3. Add the quinoa (which you have already rinsed several times)
4. Add the wine, bring to a boil then simmer for a few minutes until wine evaporates
5. Add the water, bring to boil, then cover, lower heat to simmer
6. Let cook for 20 minutes or so
7. While that's happening, heat up the remaining olive oil in a pan
8. Also, bring some salted water up to a boil (this water is not in teh recipe above)
9. cook peas for 3 minutes
10. Brown radishes in heated oil, a minute or two on each side
11. When quinoa is cooked, and when peas and radishes are cooked, mix 'em all together

Layer of fat

"But I thought you were philosophically opposed to cleanses," Julie wrote to me, in an email yesterday. "It's true," I wrote back, "I am." WTF then? Why did I spend two days in agony, carb-less, sugar-less, caffeine-less, alcohol-less, meat-less and dairy-less?

Here's where it went awry:

1. I saw Gwyneth Paltrow on "The Marriage Ref," and suddenly after years of indifference, I swooned. Look at her amazing body! And that shiny blond hair! And the effortless, upper-crust charm! I went to her oft-mocked web site, GOOP, and decided I should do like Gwyneth and do a cleanse to rid myself of my winter layer of fat (n.b. on pork belly and short ribs, THIS IS THE BEST PART).

2. I had been traveling for work a fair amount and had a few too many airport meals, some of which consistent of double-wide packs of peanut M & Ms, one of the on-board snacks you can purchase on a Delta flight. I felt full of sugar and I hate how much I love sugar, how it rules me.

What I learned:

1. Everything I already knew. Exercise in extremes are a disaster.

2. Cleansing ain't for everyone.

3. Sometimes 5 ibuprofen are not enough.

4. Starting the day with a cool glass of lemon water is a delight! I will continue this.

5. Grandaisy Bakery's raisin walnut roll is AMAZING, and not just because I hadn't eaten carbs in 2.5 days. The crust is perfect, and I believe it has fresh ground peppercorns in it. Zing!

6. This kale salad is wonderful. I ate it two days running for lunch and I have no regrets! Inspired by a recipe on Eat Drink Better.

1 Cup uncooked quinoa
3 Stalks of kale
1 small Cucumber, peeled and diced
1/4 Cup pine nuts, toasted
1/2 avocado, diced
1 Tbsp sesame seeds
1 lemon's worth of lemon juice
1 Tbsp rice vinegar

Cook quinoa according to instructions on box or bag

Meanwhile, get rid of the thick stalk on the kale, and roughly chop the leaves

Toss them with the cucumber, the lemon juice and the vinegar

Then add cooled quinoa. Then sesame seeds and pine nuts. Mix to coat.

Then put diced avocado on top and sprinkle with sea salt