May 16, 2007

When you've got no material, talk about food!!

No new home projects happening around here (yet) so I thought I'd switch gears a little bit.
Heidi Swanson over at 101 cookbooks posted this recipe for Delicious Big Bowl-Quinoa back in February that had an ingredient I had never heard of in my entire 33 years on the planet. Quinoa.
The simple cooking method and ingredients had me so interested, not to mention Heidi's description of the type of days that led her to make this particular dish...something about turbulence and a rainy Sunday.
I couldn't stop thinking about the combination of some of my favorite stuff. Potatoes, onion, garlic, asparagus!! Finding that one ingredient, that quinoa, was something of a scavenger hunt. No-one in the 3 supermarkets I frequent knew what the hell I was even asking for.
me: "It's called quinoa. (keen-wa)"
supermarket dude: "Is it a vegetable"?
me: "No, I think it's a grain...or a seed. Something little like cous-cous"
supermarket dude: "Couscous is in aisle 3."
me: "It's not really the same...oh well maybe it will jump out at me'

I had at least 2 other supermarket dudes at 2 other stores tell me they had no clue, so I assumed they must not carry it.
Today I found it in the teeny-tiny health food section at the store that never usually has any kind of specialty item. I was so ecstatic! It is the perfect rainy raw dingy and grey day for some low-down good comfort food.
I made mine different than Heidi, but seriously you could put pretty much anything with this, and it will be awesomely delish. I did kale instead of asparagus, added mushrooms and for the nuts, toasted up some slivered almonds.
Really, really exquisitely good and so warm and filling. I should make some for supermarket dudes 1, 2, and 3 so they know what it is! By the way, it was is aisle 7.
Check out the rest of Heidi's blog for more incredible food-topia type entries. She is the bomb!




2 comments:

Erin D. said...

Hi Lea! :O)
That sounds pretty good, I might have to try it! I will check that site too!

Wow, why does your food look so good like a restaurant? Mine never looks like that, LOL! :O)

Pretty picture of the food!

Major Bedhead said...

Do you have a Whole Foods or Trader Joe's near you? They would both have quinoa. My grocery store here carries it, but I live in the crunchy valley. :D