Yesterday, Rob and I hit up the seafood department at Big Y, looking for some fish suitable for grilling. We settled on halibut, which for the record is excellent topped with fresh fruit salsa.
That should have been it. But of course my eyes wandered to the shellfish on display. Among excellent-looking jumbo shrimp and lump lobster meat rested two Dungeness crabs, on sale for $5.99/lb.
I first had Dungeness on a 2004 trip to San Francisco, where it was everywhere, from street carts to fancy restaurants. The meat is sweet and tender. Suddenly, the halibut wasn’t enough – I needed that crab.
(Rob is the master of going to a store and getting exactly what he needs, no deviation. The look on his face was nothing short of “Are you serious?”)
But what to do with it? Thankfully, the crustacean was pre-cooked. The seafood clerk advised us to toss it into boiling water for a few minutes before eating. I decided we’d eat it like boiled lobster – crack open the body and legs and hunt feverishly for meat.
As an homage to Homer Simpson, we nicknamed the crab “Pinchy” before we gave it a very hot bath. It wasn’t until I took this picture that I realized Pinchy had a face. Oops.
But the crabmeat was delicious, especially when sprinkled with Old Bay seasoning and dipped into melted butter, then washed down with a 2007 Bonterra Chardonnay. California wine for our West Coast seafood. Yummy.
File this one under “random.” Yesterday, I went to get some grocery necessities for our dinner of handmade turkey burgers. I picked up a bag of garden-salsa flavored Sun Chips. The bag emitted a noise so surprisingly loud that I jumped. The HELL was that?
Then I remembered that Sun Chips recently announced a commitment to make their chip bags from compostable material. And then recalled a Facebook discussion between some eco-minded buddies, who couldn’t believe that anyone would have the gall to complain about the bag’s decibel level.
In full disclosure, I would not call myself an environmentalist. I try not to do anything really egregious, like use too many plastic water bottles, drive a Hummer or club seals. And I give Frito-Lay a lot of credit for coming up with this new packaging. Apparently there’s something in the makeup of the new material that causes the noise.
But there’s no getting around it: this thing is loud. Loud enough to drown out normal conversation or television noise, depending on how vigorously you open it and grab for chips. Forum posters describe the bag noise as “like a goddamn thunderstorm” or “a car crash.” Yes, hyperbole is funny. But they’re not that far off.
Will the volume of the bag affect sales? Who knows. Personally, I like Sun Chips enough to deal with it. But I wouldn’t bring a bag to a quiet office, or a library, or anywhere near sleeping babies…
My friend and colleague Marie, along with her boyfriend, Todd, follow elements of the ‘raw’ diet to stay healthy. Never heard of it? It’s a diet and lifestyle based on unprocessed, uncooked plant foods. Heavy on fruits and vegetables, it also incorporates nuts, seeds and grains. Food is never heated above 116 degrees, as raw foodists believe it diminishes the ‘life value’ of the food’s nutrition.
At first it sounds crazy restrictive and not too much fun. But as we learned more about it – and three other Courant colleagues underwent a 30-days raw experiment in the spring of 2008 – we found that you can get really creative with raw-approved ingredients like nuts, agave nectar and sea salt. See Marie and Todd’s raw apple pie demonstration on YouTube, for example.
Even healthier – and easier – is the green smoothie, which I’m enjoying for breakfast today as part of this week’s healthy eating kick. It’s a blend of leafy greens, frozen fruit and water (I used frozen spinach, papaya, mango, pineapple and a splash of OJ for more flavor.) It’s a fantastic way to get in several servings’ worth of fruits and veggies.
Trust me when I say it’s not nearly as scary as it sounds. I grew up on MicroMagic cheeseburgers and at nearly 29, I’m still working on learning to love veggies. If I can do it, so can you.
Here are some of Marie’s favorite green-smoothie recipes…
It’s that time of year, when everyone vows to fit back into their ‘skinny clothes’ after overindulging on rich holiday treats. It’s so inevitable that gym owners count on a spike in January membership signups to boost their numbers all year.
And then by February, it’s a distant memory…
If you ask me, I think the New Year’s resolution concept is a stupid gimmick. While there’s nothing wrong with self-improvement goals, who says you have to set them all in January and stick to them rigidly for 12 months? Seems like a recipe for failure and disappointment.
I’m probably the last person on Earth who should be doling out diet advice (actually, that honor might be reserved for the editors of This Is Why You’re Fat) but I’ve rounded up some links to healthy recipes on popular cooking websites. And if you find a dish as tasty as it is nutritious, please feel free to share with us!
Some of Fun With Carbs’ favorite healthy recipes: baked turkey meatballs blended with a red bell pepper/onion/garlic ‘puree,’ chicken stir-fry with vegetables and brown rice, grilled salmon with orange glaze, egg white omelets with spinach and feta, crockpot chicken soup with orzo, spinach salad with almonds and goat cheese crumbles. Mmm…maybe this ‘diet’ thing won’t be too terrible.
Fun with Carbs is going to be eating two Thanksgiving meals this week (I’ve got in-laws now) so posting will be light. Here’s a roundup of news-you-can-use as you prepare for your own Turkey Day:
What’s your favorite Thanksgiving meal? Turkey, stuffing, potatoes, pie? And does anyone love canned cranberry sauce as much as I do? It’s hideous, I know, but I love how it retains its cylindrical can shape.
Grocery shopping. I don't know if we've ever needed groceries more desperately in the years we've lived together. lolabout 29 minutes agofrom UberTwitter
Yesterday, Rob and I hit up the seafood department at Big Y, looking for some fish suitable for grilling. We settled on halibut, which for the record is excellent topped with fresh fruit salsa.
Leeanne Griffin is a freelance writer and food enthusiast.