I always love it when fellow bloggers share their “favorites” lists. It feels like Christmas.

Here’s mine.

Best Food Writing

I read this post quite some time ago and then again in June when I visited one of the best bookstores on the planet. I picked up a book called “Best Food Writing 2013” and there it was: The Terrible Tragedy of the Healthy Eater. I laughed ’til I cried.

Again.

So here you go, three favorites in one: the best book store on the planet, Best Food Writing 2013  … and the post:

The Terrible Tragedy of the Healthy Eater
by Erica Strauss

I know you. We have a lot in common. You have been doing some reading and now you are pretty sure everything in the grocery store and your kitchen cupboards is going to kill you.

Before Your Healthy Eating Internet Education:

“I eat pretty healthy. Check it out: whole grain crackers, veggie patties, prawns, broccoli. I am actually pretty into clean eating.”

After Your Healthy Eating Internet Education:

“Those crackers – gluten, baby. Gluten is toxic to your intestinal health, I read it on a forum. They should call those crackers Leaky Gut Crisps, that would be more accurate. That veggie burger in the freezer? GMO soy. Basically that’s a Monsanto patty. Did you know soybean oil is an insecticide? And those prawns are fish farmed in Vietnamese sewage pools. I didn’t know about the sewage fish farming when I bought them, though, really I didn’t!

The broccoli, though..that’s ok. I can eat that. Eating that doesn’t make me a terrible person, unless….oh, shit! That broccoli isn’t organic. That means it’s covered with endocrine disrupting pesticides that will make my son sprout breasts. As if adolescence isn’t awkward enough.

And who pre-cut this broccoli like that? I bet it was some poor Mexican person not making a living wage and being treated as a cog in an industrial broccoli cutting warehouse. So I’m basically supporting slavery if I eat this pre-cut broccoli. Oh my God, it’s in a plastic bag too. Which means I am personally responsible for the death of countless endangered seabirds right now.”

I hate myself.

Well, shit. . . read more

Dinner on the Deck! Dinner on the Deck!

My garden flourished this summer. Nothing makes me happier than a garden meal served on the deck. Here’s the one I enjoyed most:

Salade Nicoise

the vegetables:
cucumbers
cherry tomatoes
green beans
radishes
olives
red potatoes
hard boiled eggs
Greek olives

the dressing:
1 clove garlic
Kosher salt or sea salt to taste
⅓ cup olive oil
4 tbsp. fresh lemon juice
1 tbsp. Dijon mustard
1 shallot, minced
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Mince garlic on a cutting board and sprinkle heavily with salt; using a knife, scrape garlic and salt together to form a smooth paste. (I used a mortar and pestle.) Transfer paste to a bowl and whisk in oil, juice, mustard, shallot, and salt and pepper. Set aside until you’re ready to swirl it generously over the vegetables. Bon appetit.

My favorite film this summer. I know, surprise, surprise.

My Favorite New Local Restaurant. . .

America Eats Tavern
Ritz Carlton, McLean, VA

They serve the best chocolate cake ever! And for you coffee lovers, Counter Culture coffee.

Best Breakfast

When I’m not enjoying my Chocolate for Breakfast Smoothie or this amazing raw chocolate milkshake miracle, I enjoy fresh fruit and raw nuts and seeds. This fruit is topped with a melange of lemon, sugar, and mint. Just a sprinkle or two will do.

ingredients:
organic lemon
coconut palm sugar or raw cane sugar
fresh mint
strawberries
melon

Zest an organic lemon and place it in a small bowl with some raw organic cane sugar. Rub the sugar and lemon zest with your fingertips to release the natural oils in the lemon peel. Juice the lemon and splash it on the strawberries and melon. Spoon the fruits onto a platter and sprinkle with the lemon sugar and mint leaves. Enjoy.

And because autumn is just around the corner and in honor of my upcoming sojourn in France, if you can get your hands on some fresh sorrel, I made this soup a couple weeks ago and it was AMAZING.

My new favorite soup: French Sorrel Soup de ma Grand-mere

 

Okay friends, enjoy the remaining days of summer. If anything here inspires you to share, click on the buttons below and be sure to check back in September. I’ll be sharing a photo essay as I eat my way through France. Rest assured, there will be chocolate.

Bon appetit!