My Adventures at the CIA

I recently got up close & personal with the CIA. No, not the hush-hush agency, but something even cooler: the Culinary Institute of America. I've been wanting to go visit CIA, take a class, for sometime now...but both the New York and California campuses were too far away. However, now that they've a San Antonio, Texas campus...a mere three and half hours drive away...yes, I finaggled the Cowboy to take me to San Antonio for our 10th anniversary. He really is a keeper because he put up with two-day's worth of CIA on our weekend.Of course, he ate well and that did help.

One of the first places I checked out was the new CIA Bakery Cafe. Oh the desserts were works of art. Don't take my word for it, check out the pics.

They also had rustic loaves of bread, coffee and teas from around the world, and an uber cool light fixture made of wooden spoons...

But the desserts wowed me and the Cowboy & I splurged...

The chocolate dome thing was called "Chocolate XS" and it was...but my favorite ended up being the light and luscious Mango Mousse Cake. Yum. A sweet first day of vacation.

The CIA Bakery Cafe hours are: Tuesday through Saturday, 7 a.m.–5 p.m. and 8 a.m.–5 p.m. on Sunday. The Café will be closed on Monday.

The next day, I participated in the Spain and the World Table cooking class that CIA was kind enough to let me cover. You can read about that adventure and find some Spanish recipes at this link. Enjoy!

All About Beans

So, I loved the San Angelo Standard-Times food section today. For one thing, they created a great package with my stories and pictures. Being a freelancer, I've no editorial input in the headlines, or page design...so I'm uber grateful when every element comes together in a nice package. And I was featured both on the front and the back. And I got color. WooHoo! Yes, pretty excited.

Funny thing about beans, I grew up eating chickpeas as they are pretty popular in Bengali cuisine. However, my Cowboy had never tried them before he met me. Now they are a staple food for him...especially as hummus.

In return, he introduced me to pinto beans. In West Texas, they use the colorful pintos in everything from refried beans to chilis (yes, even real Texans sometimes put some other protein in addition to meat in their chilis).

During our dating period, we explored other cuisines. We tried black beans in Southwestern and Latin dishes, fava beans in Middle Eastern restaurants, and baked beans in Boston, and creamy cannelinis in Italian concoctions. Ah, beany good eats!

Want to know what to do about the gassiness of beans?

Here's the link to my article.

Want a primer on how to cook with beans?

Here's another link. Enjoy!

Come read my interview w/CJ Lyons about working w/activist Erin Brockovich

Hi all,

Today is the release of ROCK BOTTOM, which my friend/mentor CJ Lyons co-authored with famed environmental activist Erin Brockovich. It's the story of a woman fighting mountain top removal mining that threatens her hometown. To celebrate, I interviewed CJ about ROCK BOTTOM.

Given that we are all writers, I thought you might be interested in learning about the co-authoring process and how the book came about. Given that we are all readers, I thought you might want to know more about ROCK BOTTOM, which is being released today.

So go check out the interview at Romance Magicians http://romancemagicians.blogspot.com/2011/03/interview-wcj-lyons-about-co-authoring.html

Celebrating 10 years of Marriage

Ten years ago on February 24th, the Cowboy and I tied the knot, became Mr. & Mrs.

To remember and celebrate, here's Susan Marr Spalding’s poem FATE, which was read at our wedding:

Two shall be born, the whole wide world apart,
And speak in different tongues and have no thought
Each of the other’s being, and have no heed;
And these, o’er unknown seas, to unknown lands
Shall cross, escaping wreck, defying death; And all unconsciously shape every act
And bend each wandering step to this one end—
That one day out of darkness they shall meet
And read life’s meaning in each other’s eyes.

A friend I've never met & arm-chair travels to exotic kitchens

I've a confession to make: I'm at heart a techno-phobe. My sister bullied and bribed me into trying Facebook, my hubby insisted having a cellphone (a charged and functioning one) was a safety issue, and, after surviving those experiences, I got brave and ventured onto Twitter.

At first I was completely lost. Thankgoodness I found Cheryl Tan and her #LetsLunch bunch, a group of food enthusiasts from all over the world, who come together to share recipes, stories, friendship and virtual lunch in cyberspace. They helped me not only settle into Twitterverse, but have fun doing it. They're also the reason this blog exists.

Cheryl Tan

Somewhere along the way, I fell in love with their words, food and passions. They've become my go-to-sources on recipes and food advice. If one of them is having a bad day, I take the time to send an encouraging tweet. If one of them has something to celebrate, I add my tweet of congratulations to the pile. In other words, even though we've never met, I consider Cheryl & the #LetsLunch bunch my friends.

Cheryl's debut book, A Tiger in the Kitchen, came out earlier this month. The story is about her journey back to Singapore to reconnect with her family through a year of cooking and collecting recipes and stories.

Being a woman who straddles two cultures(born and brought up in Bangladesh and now making a home in West Texas),I had to read the book. And her publisher was kind enough to send me a copy. As I started reading, I traveled to the New York fashion scene, to a Singaporean funeral, to the kitchens of women half-way across the world. What a journey!

The San Angelo Standard-Times was kind enough to let me write a review.

To Cheryl: May there be more stories, more friends, and more feasting.

To learn more about Cheryl, check out her blog.

Celebrating the Year of the Rabbit with the Cowboy & Kids in West Texas

My #Letslunch pals picked Lucky Foods for February and I jumped into the project with 100 percent enthusiasm. I figured I’d use the opportunity to interview my friend Rose Ng, who owns a successful Chinese restaurant in our community, and get some insight on the Chinese New Year. Well, I did that and it turned into a cool The Family Table column.

But along the way, the Cowboy and both kids, got into it too. On Thursday, Feb 3, the first day in the year of the Rabbit our entire family wore red. I sent them out of the house with a wave and Gung hay fat choy!

That weekend, the kids and I decorated the chandelier.

After we were done, my son looked up and spied the Made in China and stickers. Eyes wide, he turned to me and announced, “They really are from China!”

For dinner, I adapted a recipe for Long Life Noodles shared by Rose. You can find the recipe at the end of the column (see above link).

First I got all the ingredients ready.

Yes, the kids questioned the Chineseness of the pasta, but it's whole wheat and better for them. However, next time I'm using red bell peppers for more color rather than yellow. I also doubled the soy sauce and oyster sauce amounts. And added Shrimp...because I love them, and they are a sign of happiness.

My 6-year-old suddenly decided she didn’t like noodles (though any other day that’s one of the top favorites). So I told them that the Chinese believed in leaving the noodles long as a wish for long life for all the people at the table. “You can’t cut the noodles, but instead you have to try and eat them long,” I added. Suddenly, both kids presented their plates to be filled.

Later, my son asked if the Chinese really believed that long noodles could lead to a long life. I gave him Rose’s explanation: the Chinese believe in symbols and signs. Having a visual representation of your hopes, make them that much closer to reality.

For dessert, we had oranges, which symbolize good health, wealth and good fortune.

After dinner we lit the candles and turned off the lights. The kids had a blast spotting animals in the shadows thrown against the ceiling. Both spotted rabbits, one spotted an alligator and another a cowboy on his horse among other things. The Cowboy and I enjoyed glasses of wine in front of the fire.

My lucky meal did bring good times to the table.

The Cowboy & I Cook for Valentine's

The Cowboy and I have a special tradition: we celebrate Valentine's by throwing a party at our local soup kitchen.

Love and food are basic human needs. So what better way to celebrate our love than working together on a project to bring love and food, served with joy and verve, to more than a hundred of our homeless and working poor.

The plus side is we avoid the stiff competion for reservations and long waits at crowded restaurants.

Yes, we do fall into a bone-tired heap at the end of it all...but it's usually in the hot tub with glasses of wine or bottles of beer and each other. A pretty happy ending, by all accounts.

And, best of all, our love grows stronger, deeper, having worked side by side at the soup kitchen and being surrounded by love all day.

You can read about all the great plans for the 2011 Peace Ambassadors' Valentine's Lunch (our sixth) in this article.

To see pictures and stories from last year, click the San Angelo Standard-Times' link.

If you're able to help out in any way, we'd love to have you join us!
Happy Valentine's Y'all!