You guys, I am writing from Galveston, Texas from a trip that first began with me and Chase flying from Los Angeles to Kansas to see my sister-in-law graduate college (go K-State!). Side note: did you know that most colleges don’t know the final grades of students when they walk across the podium to get their degrees? Which means there’s a chance that in a month or so my sister-in-law could get a letter that says “haha, you didn’t really graduate, you still have to pay us more money to take some other classes. Bet all those family photos you took with your cap and gown feel really awkward right now.” I’m assuming that isn’t what the actual letter would say, unless the people working at universities have a better sense of humor than what I imagine. Or unless they’re hoping to get fired.

This pseudo-graduation was immediately followed by a 13 hour drive to Galveston with 7 people in the car so that we could all have a beach vacation and not waste money on gas by taking 2 cars. However, when we got here we found out that the beach outside our hotel isn’t so much a beach as it is a pile of rocks next to the ocean, which seemed like an awfully cruel joke for the property manager and/or God to play on us. But then we found out our hotel has it’s own lazy river so we got over it.

Note to self: next time just drive to nearest hotel with lazy river.

You’re probably wondering what this has to do with my recipe, and the answer is absolutely nothing. Except that the only thing I can tell you about this recipe is that it is insanely easy to make and tastes 100% better than I thought it would. (honestly – I really low expectations about how eggs and fresh fruit would taste together, and now this might be my new favorite breakfast) However after writing that one sentence my post felt a little short so I figured I would throw in a little something else since you took time out of your day to come read this. I’m sure you found the time well spent.

Blueberry Frittata with Vanilla Creme Fraiche

Blueberry Frittata

5 extra large eggs
1 teaspoon lemon zest
pinch salt
6 oz fresh blueberries, about 3/4 cup

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Grease a skillet that’s about 8 or 9 inches in diameter, and heat over medium-low heat.

In a bowl beat together the eggs and then whisk in the lemon zest and salt. Stir in the blueberries, and then pour into the hot skillet. Cook for about 1 minute, or until the bottom is set, then transfer to the oven.

Cook for about 7-10 minutes, or until the eggs are set and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Try not to overcook!

Remove from the oven. Slice and serve with vanilla creme fraiche.

Vanilla Creme Fraiche

4 oz of creme fraiche
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 teaspoons sugar

Mix together all ingredients and serve.

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A sneak peak of my next recipe, which tasted a lot better than I expected, so I’m pretty pumped to show it to you. A hint – there aren’t many other ingredients then what you see here.

You guys, I can’t stop cracking up over this photo Chase took in Seattle. I can only imagine how many tourists got lost before this sign was there to guide them.

I’ll admit that at the end of a long day of drinking for Cinco de Mayo I was totally being a little Debbie Downer about going out to see the super moon.

Me: “Guys, it’s THE MOON. The same one that’s been there SINCE FOREVER.”

Everyone else: “Yeah, but it’s bigger tonight, and it isn’t going to be that big for another 10 years. That makes it way cooler.”

And you know what? Everyone was totally right.

A Mother’s Day card for my mom. I honestly don’t even know if she’ll be able to read it, but I tried to pick one out that had lots of colors and textures in hopes she might be able to connect to it that way. I ache for the days when I would pick out cards with witty jokes instead.

Our suitcases are packed. AGAIN. We’re leaving bright and early for a whirlwind trip to Kansas to see my sister-in-law graduate college, followed by a long drive to Galveston, Texas for a much needed family vacation. I’ll try my best not to neglect my blog duties, see you back here soon. xoxo

I really wish this gumbo was prettier.

If this dish was a person, it’d be the kind you would describe to someone as having “a really great personality” when you tried to convince them to take him/her on a date. Seriously, I get it. You’re looking at some darkened vegetables swimming in a murky tomato broth and thinking “there’s no way I’m going to make this, I wish she’d posted a recipe for cookies instead.”‘

The thing is, I’m not a big fan of vegetable soups myself. Whenever I inquire at a restaurant about their soup of the day, I’ll normally jump on it if it’s something like “corn chowder” or “broccoli cheese,” but tell me it’s “vegetable stew” and I typically go with a sandwich instead. I’ll admit, I can be a bit judgmental.

But this gumbo breaks the mold. First of all, it has okra in it, and okra always makes things better. Always. Second of all, it is absolutely DELICIOUS. All that stuff about it having an amazing personality? In this case, it’s 100% true. You NEED to give it a chance; just take it out for dinner one time. I promise you’re going to fall in love.

Vegetarian Gumbo

Important note: This recipe has Worcestshire sauce, which is made with sardines. If you’re simply trying to increase your vegetable intake that shouldn’t be a problem, but if you’re making this for, or as, a strict vegetarian, just leave it out.

2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons butter
1 large yellow onion, chopped
3-4 ribs celery, chopped
1 red bell pepper, chopped
2-3 cups okra, chopped
Salt and Pepper
4 cloves garlic, chopped
2 teaspoons smoked paprika
1 bay leaf, fresh or dried
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 bottle pale beer
2 cups vegetable broth
2 cups water
3 – 6 teaspoons hot sauce
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 (15oz) can crushed tomatoes
4-5 cups chopped kale
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

Heat the oil and butter in a large pot over medium-high heat. Once the butter has melted add in the onion and saute for about 5 minutes, or until they become translucent. Add in the bell pepper, celery and okra and saute for another 5 minutes to soften everything. It’s fine if the onions start to brown. Season with salt and pepper and then add in the garlic last and saute for one minute.

Add in the bay leaf and flour and cook for one minute more. Stir in the beer and cook until the liquid has reduced by half. Now add the vegetable broth, water, hot sauce, Worcestershire sauce (if using it), nutmeg and crushed tomatoes. Stir in the green and bring everything up to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for at least 15 minutes, or until the greens are fully cooked.

Serve by itself, or you can ladle it over rice or cornbread.

This recipe can be made a day ahead and just heated up before serving. The longer the flavors have to mix together the better.

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Chase and I took off this past weekend on a trip to Seattle. We had no agenda, no overall purpose for being there. I want all of my vacations to be this way, where we just have the freedom to explore and wander. And I didn’t have to explain or justify why I don’t want to eat at chain restaurants on my vacation. I’m not always so fortunate.

The Bookstore Bar @ The Alexis Hotel: Cozy decor. AMAZING clam chowder. More whiskeys in once place than I have ever seen before. We loved this place.

Delancey & The Pantry – You might have heard of them from this girl or this girl. It is absolutely not fair that I have now eaten this pizza and can’t order it here in Los Angeles. It also isn’t fair that Brandon, the owner of Delancey, was teaching a class about making pizza at home and we weren’t able stay due to the fact that those classes sell out in nanoseconds.  I may or may not be planning a trip to kidnap Brandon and force him to tell me all his secrets.

Brunch at Revel. The only regret I have from the trip is that we weren’t able to taste everything on the menu. It’s entirely possible that I considered asking the people next to us at the bar if I could have one little bite of their dishes. If you’ve ever eaten there I’m sure you understand.

Molly Moon’s makes some of the BEST ice cream I’ve ever had. I tasted chocolate, Earl Grey and then finally settled on salted caramel.

Pike Place Market, where we found…everything.

Flowers.

Donuts.

Pasta.

Beecher’s, where you can actually watch them making their delicious cheeses. The mac & cheese and grilled cheeses are heaven, but the best deal there is the cheese curds. If we hadn’t been full to bursting at this point we would have just bought a big container of these to munch on.

Did you know there was such a thing as elephant garlic? Or that the individual cloves are larger than a head of ordinary garlic? I certainly didn’t.

We had to visit the original Starbucks of course, where they still have the original logo on all the merchandise. I wondered out loud why they changed it and Chase calmly pointed out that that the original logo has a naked woman with large breasts. As a non-male I honestly hadn’t even noticed but things made sense after that.

Trying to find Walrus & the Carpenter was like going on a scavenger hunt, since it is completely hidden from view behind a building and only marked by a teeny, tiny white sign. Once we got there though, it was worth it. We sampled every type of oyster they had and devoured a few more of their seafood plates. Pictured above are the grilled sardines.

On our last day we went to the aquarium and became so engrossed in watching the otters that at one point there was a distinct possibility we were going to miss our flight. No one had told me that otters were the most freakishly cute things. I want one. No, really.

Thanks for a wonderful trip, Seattle. Hope to see you again soon.

1) Thank you to everyone that left a comment or email offering your support and condolences. It means a lot. If it I didn’t respond, please take it as evidence of my debilitating internet awkwardness and not my lack of emotion over your words.

No really, thanks.

2) I’m in the Seattle airport, about to fly home. I haven’t had internet in 4 days because I refuse to pay $12.95 for internet on my computer when I own an Iphone, but that means I’ve pretty much been unable to work on a blog post since then. Once I tried writing something on my tiny phone screen, but when uploading a photo proved to be more complex than putting together an Ikea desk I almost threw it into a wall, which would have been more expensive ultimately than just paying $12.95 for internet, but a $5 beer was cheaper than all those options so it’s the one I went with.

I have things I want to share. Lots of photos from Seattle and a recipe that you should make before it gets too hot to even consider boiling big pots of food over a stove. I promise, it’s coming.

Until then, please check this out:

PS: I did not make this. Honestly, I can’t draw nearly this well, and I only wish I could be this funny. I found it here, and I can’t tell from the site who did create it but you should give them credit. Thanks.

PSS: Actually, I can’t even take credit for finding this on the internet. My hilariously funny friend did, and I would totally link him here, but he doesn’t have anything like a blog or Twitter even though he SHOULD, and if he’s reading this blog like ANY GOOD FRIEND would do he would take it as a subtle hint.

PSSS – If you made it all the way to end of this post you are really awesome and I can’t believe you thought I was interesting enough to read all the way down here. I wish I had more to offer…

Here’s a link for your troubles.

Happy Birthday, Mom. I love you.

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“How’s your Mom doing?”

These are the words that I dread to hear. Although I know that this is a question people ask out of concern and to show that they care, the truth is that there is no other subject I would least like to talk about. It’s sad and tragic, and talking doesn’t make anything better.

For the last few years my Mom has been suffering from a combination of Parkinson’s disease and multiple system atrophy. In essence, her brain has been very slowly shutting down. Against all denial, I’ve had to accept the truth – that the woman who I knew as my mother is gone. I can’t call her for advice, or support, or to tell her about something funny that happened that day. I have to contend with the fact that she will never know her future grandchildren, and they will never know her. There are so many future memories that I had planned in my head that are gone, before they even had a chance to happen.

Despite everything, I still consider myself “lucky”. My parents were smart enough to take out long-term care insurance years ago, and it has enabled my step-father, Henry, to have in-home nurses to care for my mother seven days a week without going into debt, allowing him a break and to maintain whatever amount of a normal life that he can. I am blessed with family and friends who support us in whatever way they are able, whether it be cooking dinner for Henry or cracking jokes to keep everyone smiling. I have an amazing husband who will always hold me when I need to cry and has never questioned the cost of a plane ticket when I need to go home. I have to constantly remind myself that things could be a lot worse, and on most days I feel like my life is normal, if not blessed. But of course, there are other days when all that seems to matter is that I want my Mom and she isn’t here. Grief is more of a roller-coaster than I would have previously thought.

I have been debating writing about this for a long time. Because although I like to feel that this is my place to come and share parts of my life, there are topics that have until now felt inappropriate to post on this site. See those advertisements off to the right? They bring in money, however humble the amount may be, and although I have no moral dilemma with exploiting my talents with cooking or sarcasm, I would never want to feel that I was exploiting my mother or the situation she is currently in. Until now I have made a purposeful decision to leave her off of Pink Basil.

That is, however, until I read this post. After reading it I felt better, knowing that I am not alone. And when I reflected on how it felt to read the words of stranger and know that we were somehow connected, I knew that I wasn’t  helping anything by not writing about what is such a continuous part of my thoughts every day.

This situation and my feelings on it are not something I can sum up in one blog post (I’m doubtful that I can truly put some of them into words at all). Nor am I going to allow them to take over this site. But writing about it can make anyone else feel less alone, or if I can use this place to sort through my own complicated feelings, then I hope it will be worth it.

Thanks, as alway, for reading. XOXO

There has been an interesting development in my home the last few weeks: Chase has become a fan of carrot juice. And not just any old fan, he’s become the “I can go through a 5-lb bag of carrots in a day” kind. The kind of fan that doesn’t even wash the juicer because it’s just going to get dirty again in a hour. Now, I have been trying to tell Chase that carrot juice is delicious for years, but he never agreed until he finally tried some that had ginger added. Apparently this was the missing link, because now we have bags of carrots in our fridge and I’m trying to find additional counter space that doesn’t exist so so we don’t have to keep moving the juicer back and forth from counter to cabinet.

Not to say that I’m not happy about this – I’d much prefer that we be going through bags of carrots than cases of Coke. However, with all that carrot juice comes lots of carrot pulp, and the part of me that was told about starving children as a child will always feel guilty for throwing away pounds of food just to make juice. This past weekend I came up with a solution – carrot muffins!

To go further and make sure I don’t waste any food, I froze the batter and can now bake muffins throughout the week as I need them, instead of baking everything all at once and hoping I eat them before mold starts to grow. I know that some people will try to tell me that you can bake the muffins and then freeze them and the muffins will taste good when you heat them up but I DON’T BELIEVE YOU! I have never eaten a de-frosted bread product that I thought tasted remotely as good as one that was right out of the oven.

Since it was the ginger that convinced Chase that carrot juice is in fact, delicious, I thought it was only appropriate that I put ginger in the muffins as well.

Carrots + Ginger = Delicious juice

Carrots + Ginger + Whole Wheat = Delicious muffins.

Truth.

Whole Wheat Ginger-Carrot Muffins

I used leftover carrot pulp from making carrot juice for these, which is much drier than if I had simply grated a carrot. Depending on what route you’re going, I would recommend adding in the milk slowly until it’s at the right consistency. You don’t want it runny like pancake or cake batter, but it shouldn’t be so dry you can’t stir it at all.

1 1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter, softened
2 beaten eggs
1/4 – 1/2 cup milk (dairy, soy, almond, whatevs)
1 1/2 cup grated carrot
1/2 cup nuts (optional)

In a medium to large bowl, mix together the flour, sugar, cinnamon, ginger, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In a separate small bowl, beat together the butter, eggs and 1/4 cup of the milk. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix together, adding more milk if necessary. You don’t want it runny like pancake or cake batter, but it shouldn’t be so dry you can’t stir it at all. Stir in the carrot and nuts.

To freeze the muffins: line a baking sheet with plastic wrap. Use two sheets if necessary to cover it – you don’t want to pull it tight or the batter won’t fill the muffin cups. Spoon the mix into the muffin cups and freeze for 1 hour. Lift the plastic wrap and frozen muffins out and place in a plastic bag. Freeze again immediately; use within a month.

To cook: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease however many muffin cups you’re going to be using. Place the frozen or fresh muffin mix into the pan and bake until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted. For fresh mix this will take about 20-25 mins, for frozen it will be 25-35 minutes.

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I logged on to my Google reader today and was like, “Oh that’s interesting, apparently I have a new blog post. I hope I haven’t started that awful sleep blogging again.” And when I clicked on it I saw this:

And I got really freaked out cause I thought maybe I started to write a new post and accidently hit “Publish” without realizing it. Which would have been really dumb of me but is totally within the relm of possibility – I often do dumb things WITHOUT EVEN TRYING.

When I checked the blog and saw that all was well I realized that someone is obviously trying to send me a message: that there is about to be a violent take-over and soon you will be spammed with random messages that link to weird products made in China and/or images of Disney porn.

If either of these things happens – just know that I tried to prevent it except I don’t really know any prevention methods and so all I actually did was hope really hard that the evil computer geniuses of the world realize that there are better/more lucrative blogs to take over than mine.

PS – in case you’re wondering why I subscribe to my own blog, it’s to monitor that the RSS feed is working properly. And to intercept secret messages from evil computer geniuses. Duh.

PSS – when an evil genius sends you a message, take it seriously! Even if the evil genius is your own self, who used an outdated email to purchase her domain and therefore didn’t receive the expiration notices. Like I said – I do dumb things without EVEN TRYING

I went to the gym to take a spin class and ALL THE BIKES WERE ALREADY RESERVED. This was clearly going to de-rail my entire work-out program and now all of my hard work since January will have been for nothing and when I go to the beach in a few weeks and I will be doomed to have a muffin top because I missed ONE CLASS. Don’t even try to convince me otherwise.

I had a mildly irritating headache. For like THREE HOURS. It RUINED my afternoon NAP. I know, right? I mean, how can a person live like this?

Two of my friends went on a hike and forgot to invite me. And no, it obviously wasn’t an innocent mistake. They are CLEARLY conspiring against me and most-likely spent the whole time talking about me behind my back. Clearly.

We went to my first-ever Dodger game and it was cloudy, chilly and there were epically long lines to buy Dodger dogs, and when Chase finally got to the end of the really long line they were out of veggie dogs.  When I sat down in a bathroom stall a few minutes later and realized too late that there was no toilet paper I burst into tears. This obviously was not an overreaction by any means. Obviously. (luckily there were some unusually soft disposable seat covers at my disposal, or I might still be crying in that stall)

The day ended a bit better when Chase let me cry out some tears of frustration in the car without cracking one joke about the fact that I was acting like a baby, which was quite commendable of him under the circumstances. And then we bought In-N-Out for dinner, and the world was better again.

Let’s pretend for a second that the egg salad sandwich is the star of its own movie (please, go with me on this). It would enter the film as a sweet but rather plain girl who always takes a back seat to her much more exciting friends, like Tuna Melt and Reuben. Then she meets a mysterious stranger who whisks her away for the make-over of a lifetime. But instead of eye-brow waxes and mascara, our star is transformed into a sexy leading lady with lime juice, Granny Smith apples and curry powder. Step aside, Tuna Melt.

(I sort of think that the Tuna Melt deserves it’s own movie, but it would be more along the lines of all these tuna melt sandwiches wanting to be the same until they realize that being different is soooo much cooler and that they taste way better when you add things like hard boiled eggs or Gruyere cheese or arugula. But I’ll save that for another post)

(Actually,  I’m gonna try and stop now with the food-as-movie-star metaphors. I apologize for any confusion this may have caused)

I’m re-posting this recipe from my days back at A Cozy Kitchen.  I like the idea of re-posting because writing a food blog often results in cooking a lot of recipes that you never go back to again. Not that I’ve ever posted anything I didn’t think was truly worth your attention. Seriously – that would just be lame. Unless of course it was just so awful that I found it amusing and then I would need to have people share in the experience with me. But there are plenty of things I’ve made that no matter how tasty the finished product ended up being, I’ve never felt the urge to make it a 2nd time. Maybe the recipe was too complicated, maybe it requires ingredients I don’t normally have on hand, or maybe my tastes have changed just enough so that it no longer holds appeal for me anymore.

The point is: this sandwich is not one of those recipes. I LOVE it. More than I did the first time I ate it. If we were in a movie together we would sing this duet. Except, instead of being a man and another man in drag we would be a woman and another woman dressed in drag. Or food. Whichever is less weird.

Curry Egg Salad Sandwich

1/3 cup mayonnaise
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice (half of one lime)
1 1/2 teaspoons curry powder
1 ½ teaspoons whole grain or Dijon mustard
1/4 teaspoon salt
Pinch of cayenne
6 hard-boiled large eggs, chopped
1 cup diced Granny Smith apple (roughly 1 apple)
1/4 cup finely chopped red onion
8 slices wheat bread
Lettuce for garnish (optional)

Mix together the mayo, lime juice, curry powder, mustard, salt and cayenne. In a separate bowl, add together the chopped eggs, apple and onion. Pour the curry dressing over top and gently stir everything together. Serve on toasted wheat bread with lettuce, or just eat it with a fork as it is.

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