Birthday Bests

When it's your birthday you should get all your favorites don't you think? I'm a big believer of this, which is why today I will dream about my favorites, enjoy as many of them as possible and try to make my birthday last all week.

Greek wine and flowers

Garden fresh tomatoes

Two scoops of ice cream on any dessert

Greek dips

And my favorite loves

How can you not love a birthday???

A Man, A Truck, A Taco

Down in our lovely little beach town there is one thing missing...anything that slightly resembles Mexican fare. Okay, well maybe there's some guacamole here and there but I want authentic. My partner-in-crime and I spent 2 years living around the block from a family-run Mexican joint with the best (and most authentic) Mexican I've had, and I miss it dearly.

And then I went to Austin and all bets were off. There's Mexican - it's authentic - and it's in food trucks. I think that sentence says it all. The fact that you can arrive late on a Thursday night, find all restaurants have stopped serving food and still be served fresh sea bass tacos on homemade corn tortillas is heaven. It's unpretentious, it's real and boy was it better than good.

At Pecos Tacos on West 6th Street you find an overly generous man who has created this little secret late night eatery. I tried one vegetarian with mushrooms and cheese and one sea bass. When we were told the fish was fresh I didn't exactly believe it, but boy was that the truth. And with only a couple of other added ingredients it was the perfect little late-night dinner.

Doesn't Jill look like a happy food-truck customer!

It's Birthday Time

Guess who's 1 year old today??? Food Beautiful!!!

It's been quite the year with lots of tasty treats, new food flavors and all of you to share it with. Below is a (not so good) picture of the birthday cake that started it all. I think chocolate and flowers are a great combo.

And now I throw out a request to all of you to help celebrate our first year - cupcakes, need I say more. I'm looking to throw away all the rules, change the game and create a different kind of cupcake. So throw out your ideas and I'll be testing some of the best in the next couple of weeks.

Oh and I'll probably need some taste testers for those of you who are local too! Keep those ideas coming and I'll let you know my progress along the way.

Happy 1 year Food Beautiful!

Bread & Cheese

Oh simplicity - sometimes I forget how wonderful you are and pass over you for something more extravagant. But don't worry I learn my lesson and come running back. Bread, cheese, veggies - that's it, that's all I need.

There's something so comforting, so relaxing and even quite indulgent about fresh grilled veggies, rustic bread and simple Parmesan cheese. There are nights when I want something that feels special yet doesn't involve a trip to the grocery store or much prep time. That's when I turn to panini - using up all the old veggies in the kitchen, taking scraps of cheese and putting that baguette to use.

A couple of tips to the perfect veggie panini

• Grill the veggies separately until they have a tender bite
• Use a mix of colors - hey, it just looks prettier!
• Toast the bread first to create extra crunch (no more soggy panini)
• I love adding something unexpected like sundried tomatoes, capers or a non-sandwich herb (sage, cilantro, etc.)
• Create your sandwich first, smush (yes technical term!) down with your hands and then either use a panini press, grill pan or a a skillet. The smushing helps the panini stay in tact. If using a grill pan or skillet place another skillet on top with a bag of flour and you'll get the same effect.
• Cut the panini in half so you can see all the flavors and colors melded together

Panini, glass of wine and your partner-in-crime nights are the best.

Cookie Monster

Did everyone enjoy my little hiatus? I do that so you crave more Food Beautiful and then when it happens there's smiles all around!

So let's talk cookies. I've been over this before and this won't be the last time, but I'm not a cookie lover. Sure I'll eat one (or many) but my heart isn't as attached as it could be. So if I blog about a cookie recipe that I dream about and would really enjoy making every weekend you know it's something special.

Miryam over at Eat Good 4 Life basically saved me from my own procrastination and provided me with cookie love. It was 2 hours before a party and I didn't have any butter softening at room temperature. (I'm a big fan of only making baked goods when I have real room temperature butter - trust me it makes a huge difference.) So I searched online and came across Miryam's healthified - and delicious - Ultimate Healthier Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies.

Let me start here and end here....they use olive oil instead of butter! Genius, simply genius. We all know how I love olive oil and the more I can incorporate it into any cooking - and baking - the happier I'll be. I made a couple of adjustments to her original recipe and the results were outstanding. The cookies are so moist, really chocolaty and you don't feel bad eating more than one! Whenever you bring "healthy" desserts to a party and they are the first item to be devoured you know it's success. 

Can you guess what we'll be having for Valentine's Day dessert???

Ultimate Healthier Oatmeal Chocolate Chip  Cookies - adpated from Eat Good 4 Life

Ingredients
Yields 30 medium-large cookies

1 1/4 cup organic can sugar
1 1/2 cup olive oil
2 eggs
2 cups rolled oats
1 1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 cup wheat germ
2 cups dark chocolate chips
1 teaspoon of cinnamon (optional)


Directions
Preheat oven to 350F. Spray cookie sheets with olive oil cooking spray.

In a bowl, with a wire whisk, mix first 4 ingredients. Add oatmeal, flour, baking powder, wheat germ and chocolate chips. Combine until all of the ingredients are mix thoroughly.

Drop tablespoons of cookie batter onto prepared cookies sheets. Flatten them out with the palm of your hand slightly and bake for 13-15 minutes.

Cool cookie on cookie sheet for 2-3 minutes and transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely.

A Little Italian Easy

It's a slow, cold, yucky Tuesday today. But don't worry, I've got a little piece of Italy comfort resting over on Sutch a Delight. Go ahead and check out my guest post and I think you'll find we can turn this blah little Tuesday into a whole plate of warmth.

What the...

Shucked! As we all know I have a love of oysters. Okay maybe it's more of an obsession, but that obsession is shared by others (thank goodness!) in the new documentary Shucked. This quick read follows Erin Byers Murray's year at Duxbury's Island Creek Oyster Farm. My favorites oysters of all time.

Erin quit her day job (and quite a great day job at that) and somehow convinced Skip Bennett and others that she'd be great for a year of work. Nope, not office work but real oyster farming work at Duxbury Harbor.

Now we all know that oysters are my favorite and Island Creeks are top of the list, but this read provides more than that. Sure you get great knowledge of oyster farming (for nerds like me), but there's also tasty recipes and a deep sense of appreciation for where our oysters come from. More than that it's about life changes, hard work and beautiful beaches. After reading, I think many people would be scared far from a job in oyster farming, but for me it somehow has proved that I need to live closer to that world - some day folks, some day!

Buy it here!

In the meantime, read away and gain a greater appreciation for your next shucked oyster...yum.