Mind in the Butter

Food for taste, buds, and family

Breakfast

Palm Springs: the World’s Best Jetlag Cure

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Those lemons...

Those lemons…

palm springs

The Jet Lag Cure: soft scrambled eggs with cilantro, avocado and radish salad with the sweetest grapefruit/pomelo…at 4am.

It’s so icy, cold and miserable here in New York.  I’m doing anything to distract myself from my frostbitten misery so to help ease the pain of this arctic tundra, I’d like to drink heavily go back to two weeks ago when I was in the desert. After a long business trip to Europe, I met the family in Palm Springs for Sissy’s 30th birthday. Mom and Dad rented a big, beautiful house with a totally tricked out kitchen and BBQ. Keep in mind, the only thing I care about after these long, cooking-less business trips is making the most luscious, proper breakfast (because I wake up at 3am and have nothing to do. Thank you 9-hour jet lag!) and being in the kitchen as much as possible, so this was heaven.

The homeowners had a lemon and grapefruit (maybe a pomelo?) tree in the backyard that I was completely obsessed with…that’s basically the punch line of this whole story. Nothing else mattered really. Oh, except Sissy turning 30, our amazing adventure to Joshua Tree National Park, and Palm Canyon, and the fact that it rained in the desert. Those were pretty amazing too.  But the real highlight for me was putting all that citrus to use, serving up seriously decadent and zesty meals like an al fresco lunch of grilled leg of lamb and a lemony red bulgar salad, and for dinner, herb and lemon marinated Mahi Mahi with a simple salad drizzled with lemon vinaigrette and cocktails made with vodka and fresh squeezed lemonade. Let’s just say, my family does not have scurvy.

Thank you, Palm Springs and your bountiful citrus trees! You definitely proved to be the world’s best jet lag cure! Can we go back now?!

Check out some pics from the trip, but first, the cutest pic of Sissy and me! Can’t believe she’s so…OLD! Jk…love you Kippy.

Sissy and me

Can you even process the cuteness?

Palm Springs love

Together again after both being on business trips for most of January!

joshua tree near Palm Springs

The view from Joshua Tree National Park

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The great furry palms of Palm Canyon

 

Easy, Healthy Homemade Granola

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Homemade GranolaGranolaupcloseBathing suit season is now upon us and since most of my mental energy is spent lusting over Shake Shack Burgers, lobster rolls (Red Hook or Luke’s) and truffle pizzas I need to get really creative in veering my taste buds towards more healthful options this summer.  Luckily, I love salads and vegetables (almost) as much, so finding bikini-friendly lunch and dinner options is mostly manageable. However, it’s the healthy breakfast replacements that really trip me up. No joke, I could be a professional breakfast burrito or bacon-egg-and-cheese-on-a-croissant eater. This means things like yogurt parfaits, fresh fruits or granola don’t have a chance with me. But alas, I discovered a loophole in my brilliantly flawed food logic. It turns out I love granola if I make it myself! So here’s my  recipe for a super easy, healthy homemade granola. Not too sweet with plenty of nutty goodness, it (kind of) keeps me away from the good ol’ American breakfast.

homemade granola

Luscious granola collage

Homemade Granola

  • 2 cups  rolled oats
  • 1 cup walnuts/pecans
  • 1 cup sliced almonds
  • 1.5 cup shredded coconut
  • 1/2 cup salted pepitas
  • short dry 1/2 cup of maple syrup (as in, don’t fill it all the way to the top)
  • 1.5 T apple pie spice (or some combination of cinnamon, ginger, clove and/or allspice)
Directions:
Bake at 375  for 20 -25 mins. Stir after first 10 mins, then 10 mins after so it doesn’t burn. Let it cool then toss in dried cherries, ginger, apricots, cranberries or any type of your favorite dried fruit. Serve over low-fat yogurt or almond milk and you’ll be on your way to the best morning ever!

Put this in your pipe and smoke it! No, no, please just eat it with some cream cheese

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candy1candy2

So you’re probably wondering, Evey, what’d you do with that Coho you slaughtered in your last post? I’ll tell you what we did, we made smoked salmon of course…we’re Jews after all…! Our smoked salmon is insanely delicious, meaty, brine-y and flavorful, not those slimy, thin, hot pink lox you get at the deli.  

accoutrements

All the accompaniments are just as essential as the smoked salmon: cream cheese, capers, red onion, tomatoes and lemons.

Obviously I’ll never make this in my New York apartment, but I would like to have this recipe on file. It’s funny because as I’m typing, I’m looking in the guest book of our Tofino house (we keep a guest book/journal every year so we can remember everything, recipes included) and apparently Dad calls this recipe his “Lil’ Chief Smoked Salmon Deluxe,” so we’ll continue to call it that.

Lil’ Chief Smoked Salmon Deluxe

salmonsalmon2

The process is quite long (about 13 hours door to door NOT including actually catching the fish) but nice and easy if you have the time and a smoker.  We start with a super intense brine with the ingredients below. Mom and Dad will adjust the recipe depending on what’s in fridge but you get the idea.  We leave the fillets to brine for about 4 hours in the fridge, then leave it to air dry on the counter until it forms the pellicle – that glossy, salty seal on the top of the fish which apparently helps the smoke adhere to the fish more effectively. Then we smoke it in our smoker (looks like a mini-bar fridge) for 6-8 hours at different temperatures (below). I might not be able to smoke the fish back in New York but I sure can eat it back in New York! Going to have to have you all over for brunch soon…

For the Brine

  • 1 cup water
  • 2 cups soy sauce
  • 1/4 cup non-iodized salt
  • 1/3 cup brown sugar
  • 1 cup dry white wine
  • 1/4 cup lemon juice
  • crushed garlic (knowing my family, a whole bulb)
  • onion powder or chopped onions

Smoke for:

  1. 1-2 hours at 100-120F
  2. 2-4 hours at 140F
  3. 1-2 hours at 175F