Shruti's food musings

Hi there! Welcome to my food blog. I've been thinking about starting a food blog for years now and now that I have free time to eat out and a wonderful kitchen to cook, I think it's time to start one! Here, I'm going to post recipes I make (from the internet or otherwise), my thoughts on them, recipes I am considering making, pretty pictures of food I eat, thoughts (some may call them reviews) on restaurants I eat at and an occasional tirade about the books I read. I apologize for the low quality of some photos, I take these on my iPhone.

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My dinner.. Really easy tomato sauce with spaghetti. Nothing is more comforting

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Christmas cookies! Here's the recipe: Christmas Cookies

I made these last weekend. They are soft and they stay well. We refrigerated them for an hour and half and then used cookie cutters. The dough is soft and needs a lot of flour for the cutting.

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That, is a list of all the cheeses available at the Cheeseboard in Berkeley. It's a cheese co-op. I've been there once and it's an overwhelmingly wonderful experience. One might not know what they want, but the staff there (who volunteer btw) are nice and helpful.

Yes, the picture is blurry but you get the point.

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Banh Mi, the vietnamese sandwich from the Nom Nom truck SF.

So many things to talk about in this one post:

- Food trucks: in the bay area, food trucks are actually a gourmet experience. I'm lucky enough to work in emeryville, where a bunch of food trucks stop by every now and then (decreasingly so at my stop though :(). I've tried liba falafel truck, the nomnom truck, docs of the bay and fiveten burgers and they have all been spectacularly delicious.

- This, is a vietnamese sandwich called the banh mi. It was vegetarian! This sandwich, was delicious. It was spicy (layer of jalapenos), juicy (some kind of mayo spread), chewy (nicely done tofu) and had a nice topping of flavorful veggies on top. I liked the sandwich so much, I wanted to save the other half for dinner but couldn't wait more than 30 mins to have the rest of it. 

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A little late, but our glorious 3-person thanksgiving dinner!

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Salted caramel, pumpkin, mango and quince from Masse's patisseries in Berkeley! They were all really great, crunchy on the outside, chewy on the inside. Definitely will go here again. Here's their yelp. We also had their cheesecake, it was AMAZING.

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I've made these cookies over 3 times and people have loved them every single time. They are really really good, and I don't know why. They are nice and plump, because of the high flour content and are really easy to make especially with my hand mixer. I mix the flour at the end with my hand and then finally the chocolate chips. Here's the recipe: Best Chocolate Chip Cookies

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I love love love thai food! At Rice Cuisine, in palo alto!

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Go here: http://www.yelp.com/biz/toast-wine-lounge-oakland

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I went back to Manpuku and got the same thing again! Veggie udon noodle stir fry! It was cheap, flavorful and DELICIOUS. Here's the link to my yelp review- Manpuku

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Quinoa with stir fry

Literally the easiest thing I have made in the longest time for how great it tasted. I used two packs of frozen vegetables from Trader Joes (pick your favorite- I got mine with bamboo shoots, edamame and water cress). I sauteed some onions and garlic, added the veggies, some soy sauce and a bit of black bean garlic sauce! Voila, tasty and healthy stir fry!

Oh I made the quinoa in veggie broth. Do it. It's delicious.

Another variation for this stir fry that I made recently was with tofu. Same deal with two packs of frozen veggies (went with safeway veggies instead) but  I skipped the onions and garlic. Instead, I marinated pieces of extra firm tofu in soy sauce for around 15 mins, then used a stainless steel pan to cook each side of the tofu pieces till they were brown on the outside, slightly chewy looking. I stir fried my veggies, added the tofu when the veggies were soft, a bit of sugar, some lemon juice and a little bit of the leftover soy sauce marinade and cooked for a little while. Absolutely delicious!

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Pumpkin bread

This recipe is to DIE FOR. If you make it in a bread loaf container, it takes longer (the full 50 mins) but if you make it in a shallow cake tin, it doesn't take as long. I added chocolate chips, which surprisingly didn't sink to the bottom! I tried not to overmix as much as possible because that can make the cake stiff. 

Here's the link- Pumpkin bread

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Discoveries!

I recently discovered brown rice pasta at Trader Joes! I highly recommend it. When it's not warm it's very tough and chunky, so not ideal for a salad but when you heat it up, its chewy and kind of just dissolves, like gnocci. Its gluten free as well and goes really well with tomato sauce. 

Another discovery is banana agave ice cream and Tara's Organic Ice cream in Berkeley. OMG. So good! It's vegan, gluten free and sugar free. (I know you're like, what's with all the gluten free food lately? I'm just experimenting!) I've had it 3 times this week, it is AMAZING. 

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This is bread. At Boudin Sourdough bakery in SF.

WOW

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Looking forward to making this as well 

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I am looking forward to trying this! Will edit when I make it :)

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Three types of cheese from the cheese board at Berkeley. Brie, Gouda and Sheeps cheese. I'm a big fan of brie in general. The gouda was pretty strong. I'd never had sheeps before, it was pretty yummy too.

The cheeseboard is a cheese co-op which is run completely by volunteers. Here's a link to their website: CheeseBoard

They also have a pizza place next door, that has pizza specials everyday. I want to go back there.