Recycle Your Brown Bag and Use a Lunch Box

I have been bringing my lunch to work for as long as I can remember, but I have never owned a real lunch box. I would reuse plastic bags, Ikea containers, mason jars, as well as wrap treats in foil or plastic wrap. Besides having such a mismatch array of container options, worrying about whether something was going to leak in my purse, and the guilt of throwing away foil and plastic into the trash, I decided I desperately needed a lunch box. Recently, I got a Vivo Bento Box for my birthday.

So far I am feeling pretty good about myself every time I carry it around, although I feel a bit like a kid. The lunch box is comprised of 3 levels made of melamine (both microwave and dishwasher safe). The top container is smaller and is divided into compartments, which is perfect for snacks and condiments. This lunch box is great for salads. I love to put the greens on the bottom level and the toppings in the smaller compartments and maybe some bread in the middle; that way nothing gets soggy.
Click here to get one for yourself. Happy Earth Day!

Lemony Angel Food Cake

When I received my May 2009 Martha Stewart Living magazine not only was I thrilled to find recipes for asparagus and pickled beets, but as I flipped to the final page I found a lovely photo of lemony angel food cake.

I love angel food cake with a passion. In fact, I don't really care for any cake but angel food. There are plenty of reasons why angel food cake is so wonderful:

Ramps!

Goodies from the Green Market on 4/11/09: Maple Candy, Fingerling Potatoes, Ramps, and Apple Donuts.

I went to the Green Market in Union Square last weekend and came across ramps. I had eyed them last year, but wasn't for sure what to do with them. This year I decided I wasn't going to miss my chance. I did a little research to figure out what exactly ramps are. There are couple of posts on The Kitchen blog, as well as recipes on Epicurious and Martha Stewart. Yet nothing sums up what a ramp is as well as The New Food Lover's Companion by Sharon Tyler Herbst and Ron Herbst. This book is a thick dictionary describing cooking terms and foods. According to page 560:

"This wild onion grows from Canada to the Carolinas and resembles a scallion with broad leaves. Also known as a wild leek, ramp has an assertive, garlicky-onion flavor. It can be found - usually only in specialty produce markets - from March to July. Choose those that are firm with bright-colored greenery. Wrap tightly in a plastic bag and refrigerate for up to a week. Trim the root ends just before using. Though the flavor of a ramp is slightly stronger than the leek, scallion, or onion, it can be used - raw or cooked - in many dishes as a substitute for any of those three."

You can do a lot with ramps if you start thinking about them as an onion, scallion, or leek. You can roast them with potatoes, sprinkle them in miso soup, scatter them in a frittata or toss them in pasta like I did last night.

Here are some recipe suggestions:

Roasted chicken, Ramps, and Potatoes
Scrambled Eggs with Ramps, Morels, and Asparagus
Spaghetti with Ramps

Baggu Bags

Most people know by now that bringing your own bag to the grocery store is a good thing. After living in New York for the past year and half, I feel guilty if I forget to bring my own bag. Between my roommates and I, we have plastic bags filled with plastic bags. It gets pretty sickening. That is why these Baggu bags are so convenient. Watch the Cool Hunting video to find out more about them. The colors of the bags and the designer Emily are just too cute. Click here to visit the Baggu Bag website to order a couple for yourself.

Almonds Interrupted

While I was at Fairway on Sunday I saw bin filled with what looked like fuzzy tree buds. What I thought were buds were actually young almonds harvested before their shells had hardened and their nuts had fully developed.

I didn't know for sure what they would tastes like or how I would prepare them, but they were $3.48 a pound so I grab a couple (58 cents worth) and brought them home. After doing a bit of research by googling and looking through Aliza Green's Starting with Ingredients, I found out that young or green almonds are eaten traditionally in the Middle East, the Mediterranean, and European countries such as Russia and Ukraine. After reading a lot of blogs on green almonds according to the comments most Americans seemed to hate their taste. It seems to be acquired.

So I decided to give it a try. The almond was crunchy like a dense sugar snap pea and had a tart, tangy yet grassy taste. I actually liked it. My friend on the other hand bit into the almond and in disgust immediately trashed it. I decided to slice a few in half and sprinkle with kosher salt. I found them to be pretty good. Green almond centers vary in consistency depending on how young they are. The younger almonds have a liquid to jelly-like consistency and as they age the centers solidify and become soft white nuts. The center has a light, sweet flavor and the green exterior is what gives it their tangy, grassy and somewhat bitter flavoring. Some chefs just use the center of the green almond as garnishes in salads.

I suggest you just try them if you see them around (they will only be around for about a month), I found the almonds to be refreshing and a good way to start the spring. Click here for a chili-salted green almond recipe from New York Magazine.

Crackle-Dyed Eggs

For Easter this year I decided to do a more non-traditional dyed egg. I still used the Paas Egg Dye kit, but instead of dyeing the eggs in their perfect non-cracked form, I gently cracked the eggs before dyeing them. I also left out the vinegar (which gives the eggs a more vibrant color) so that I wouldn't end up slightly pickling the egg.

With your cool hard boiled eggs, gently tap the egg to crack the shell and then roll on a towel to create small cracks throughout the egg. Be careful not to crack the shell too much so that your entire interior of the egg doesn't become colored.
Place your eggs into the colored water and put in the refrigerator over night. Since there is no vinegar, it will take longer for the color to adhere.
The next morning, peel your eggs to unveil your masterpieces. I also dyed some eggs traditionally in case I was disappointed in these crackled eggs. Here are my results:
Note: Because the shell is already cracked, these eggs will probably perish quicker than normal dyed eggs.

The Perfect Hard Boiled Egg

Making hard boiled eggs are easy, but do you know how to make them perfectly? For years I thought there wasn't really a science to making them. I didn't realize that the gray ring around the yolk meant I had over cooked them. In The Elements of Cooking Michael Ruhlman gives specific steps on how to create the perfect egg, whether it be fried, poached, scrambled, etc. Since Easter is tomorrow and egg dyeing is a traditional way to celebrate, I thought I would focus on hard boiled eggs.

First, place eggs into a pot (size of pot depends on the amount of eggs) and fill with cold water about 2 inches above the eggs.
Bring eggs to a boil with the lid off. Once eggs are to a boil, remove from heat and place lid on. Let set for 10 minutes.
After 1o minutes, rinse eggs in cold water to stop the cooking process. Rinse or soak in cold water until the eggs are cool.
When you crack your eggs, the yolk should be a soft yellow with no gray rings.

Note: I used large eggs. The size of eggs you use will affect the amount of time your eggs need to set before you rinse them with cold water. The smaller the eggs - the shorter the set time, the larger the eggs - the longer the set time. Experiment to find the right time.