Category: eating

cooking, eating, food

Beautiful: I’m Blending Up a Recipe for Vegan “Ice Cream” in My Kitchen, Arrested Development-Style

Christa Avampato
My first humble and delicious bowl of banana custard
My first humble and delicious bowl of banana custard

I’m going to toot my own horn for a moment and say that lately my little cocina has been buzzing as if it were competing for a chance to be Good Housekeeping’s satellite test kitchen. I’m a bread-baking, pasta-shaping, vegetable-roasting, salad-tossing, body scrub-making, and now ice cream-blending machine.

My love of ice cream and Mister Softee is well documented on this blog: here, here, and here. Regular readers also know that I am making more of an effort to eat fewer animal products in my quest for a cleaner planet. Ice cream is one of my weaknesses. I’ve never met a cone I didn’t like. Lately, I’ve been a little horrified by the price of ice cream at the store so I’ve been depriving myself a bit.

A few months ago, I saw on Pinterest that people were whipping up homemade “ice cream” from frozen bananas. Even though this activity reared its head on Arrested Development years ago, I naturally assumed that the making of ice cream had fallen under a spell of “Hollywoodification” and that everyone was lying to me. How could bananas, with no other additives, be blended into soft serve ice cream? Rubbish.

This week, a carton of very generic ice cream at my local Whole Foods topped $6.00. Same thing at my other less-than-clean neighborhood grocery stores. I can afford a $6 carton of ice cream but it’s the principle. I think stores are gauging us due to the heat wave and I’m not about to succumb to that kind of pressure, no matter how much money I have in my wallet. That old Pinterest post popped into my head so I went over to my local fruit cart vendor on the corner near my apartment. 4 bananas for $1. I was skeptical but desperate for a frozen treat fix and determined to hang onto my dignity by avoiding the ice cream gauging grocery stores so I gave it a whirl, literally and figuratively.

I chopped up the bananas and put them in my freezer overnight. The next day, I fixed by Ninja blender on my kitchen counter, piled in the frozen bananas, and hit “blend” with a healthy dose of doubt. For the first minute, my simple concoction looked like nothing more than finely diced banana. I knew it. Bananas turned into custard is total BS and the very idea is used to make fools of ice cream junkies like me. There goes my dignity… and my $6 that I’ll be paying at Whole Foods for ice cream.

I persevered reminding myself of my bread baking misadventures turned crusty outside, heavenly chewiness inside. (The key is patience.) And I’ll be damned! Slowly, slowly, slowly those frozen bananas started to come together into a creamy swirl. I jumped up and down with excitement and let out a loud “whoop!” See how little it takes to make me happy?

Once it looked sufficiently blended, I brought my Ninja to a halt, popped off the blender top, and what to my wondering eyes did appear but delicious, creamy, vegan banana custard! I was overjoyed. Phineas even tried some and gave his “woof” of approval. I’m already planning add-ins for future batches. This is going to be one sweet summer – surely this skill is going to help me make friends in California, right? If you read about a girl and her adorable dachshund setting up an “ice cream” stand at the Santa Monica pier, you’ll know we found a reliable banana supplier in our new neighborhood.

books, eating, food, health

Beautiful: Mark Bittman, My Parents, and I Are Part-Time Vegans

Christa Avampato

“Hi Gang! Guess what? Oh, you’ll never guess in a million years so I’ll just tell you. We’re becoming vegans and tonight we launched the operation.” This from my mother who is 71 glorious years old and a passionate omnivore. Their chiropractor has recommended a vegan diet to improve overall health so they’re going for it. If Bill Clinton, fast food’s most loyal customer, can do it, so can we. Somewhere, Mark Bittman is smiling wide.

Ironically (or as my therapist, Brian, would say – synchronistically), when my mother’s email arrived I had just started reading Mark Bittman’s new book, VB6: Eat Vegan Before 6:00 to Lose Weight and Restore Your Health . . . for Good. Her email flew into my inbox about 6 hours after I read the intro to Mark’s book and I thought, “You know, I should send this book to my mom.” Oh, Universe…

I’ve failed at being a vegan, and for that matter being a vegetarian, for many years. That Mister Softee song starts playing on my block, and I’m done for. (Mister Softee and Access Hollywood Live – my guilty pleasures.) It’s been a sore point with me for some time and I had all but resigned myself to never being able to live up to my dietary potential. I know being a vegan is better for me and for the planet. And I love animals, very often more than I love people, so why couldn’t I just do it?!

And then Mark Bittman gave me permission to try on veganism on a part-time basis. Now this kind of deal is music to my ears. His plan is simple – give up highly processed food (okay, I can let go of Mister Softee in favor of real ice cream but do not ask me to give up Billy Bush!), eat more plants, and be a vegan until 6pm. Once 6pm rolls around, I’m free to eat whatever I want. There’s nothing magical about 6pm. There isn’t even anything magical about making dinner your non-vegan meal. He’s saying give yourself one meal to have whatever you want and then be a vegan the rest of the time. He even gave me permission to slip up and fall flat on my face off the vegan wagon once in a while. And then he told me that I can always just start again.

This is similar to the advice that I got when I first really started to learn how to meditate. I had tried for a number of years, wouldn’t feel anything happening, and give up. Then, I read some advice from Sri Swami Satchidananda. “When you notice your mind wandering, just come back. It happens to everyone. You don’t have to give up. Just start again.” Now three years later, I’m still practicing meditation and teaching it to others without any kind of angst or sense of inadequacy. Failure is only permanent if we allow it to be.

And so, I started right then and there to be a part-time vegan, after beginning Mark’s book and reading my mom’s email. I didn’t need to plan to start. It wasn’t hard; I didn’t need to analyze it and make a pro / con / consequences / “oh crap, what am I going to do if this doesn’t work out” list. I just decided to begin. Want to join me?

adventure, eating, food, New York City

Leap: A Chance to Win Access to the Offers of Underground Eats

Christa Avampato
The Ultimate Foodie Fantasy Camp

I’ve enjoyed the last two contests that I’ve run on this blog in recent weeks – the first was for a free 12-week subscription to the digital version of the New York Times (congrats, Trish!) and the second was for a copy of the book Lessons from the Monk I Married by Katherine Jenkins, one of my writerly friends. Those were so much fun that I’ve been hunting around for a third way to share the wealth!

The site Underground Eats has just launched to a small, invite-only audience and I have an invite to give away. I’d like to give it to you! Underground Eats is “the go-to site for exclusive Alternative Dining Experiences.” At the moment, they are only in New York City but they are hoping to expand to other cities shortly so I’m not going to limit this contest to New York City-area residents only. I just want to be clear that at the moment the only experiences available for purchase on the site are in New York City. The experiences are truly exclusive, unique, and can only be purchased through the site.

So what exactly does ‘Alternative Dining Experience’ mean? Here’s a little sampling of what’s on offer at this very moment:

The Truck Stops Here: 5-Course Food Truck + Beer Dinner – $40
No need to keep checking Twitter and chasing food trucks all over the city. For one night only – all your favorite food trucks, under one roof.

Edible presents The Drive-In Dinner at Brooklyn Brewery, hosting the Morris Truck, Bongo Brothers Cuban Food Truck, Red Hook Lobster Pound, Feed Your Hole and Coolhaus for a sit-down, five-course dinner with beer pairings.

Each course comes from a different food truck and is paired with the perfect Brooklyn Brewery beer – even dessert.

A Dinner of Titanic Proportions: 100 Years in the Making – $300
Bon vivants, all aboard.

Culinary provocateurs Jonny Cigar of The Noble Rot, Hell’s Kitchen’s Rob McCue and Adam Banks of Bravo’s Chef Roblé & Co., cordially welcome you to an evening of culinary history and decadence.

Heed the call, First Class and VIP passengers: no expense will be spared in this indulgent tribute to the 100th anniversary of the Titanic’s last supper. You will dine amongst an intimate clique of black-tied guests, on a seven-course menu, based on the original, but updated and reinterpreted from carte du jour of April 14, 1912. The galley is keeping the menu top secret for now (but we’ll send you a sneak peak closer to the event).

Drinks will pour, hijinks and other under-wraps surprises are rumored to ensue…and the band will play on.

The Ultimate Foodie Fantasy Camp: The New York Culinary Experience – $1395
You buy their cookbooks, eat at their restaurants, watch their cooking shows.

Now, imagine a whole weekend cooking side-by-side with your favorite star chefs, such as David Bouley, Jean-Georges Vongerichten and Dan Kluger? Pinch yourself, now.

Hosted by The International Culinary Center and New York magazine, The New York Culinary Experience is foodie fantasy camp. Learn how to make pasta sauces with A Voce’s Missy Robbins, Tuscan-style seafood with Cesare Casella, and chocolate desserts with celebrity pâtissier Jacques Torres. All classes are completely interactive, and you’ll get to enjoy every dish you prepare.

You’ll even have the chance to get up close and personal with the likes of Jacques Pépin and Bill Telepan at daily Q&A sessions.

The Michelin star count alone will drive your friends mad with envy.

So how do you enter to win an invite to the site? Like this post, leave a comment, or contact me through Twitter or Facebook. I’ll leave this contest open all weekend and then announce the winner Monday morning. Happy eating and good luck!

books, cooking, eating, economy, personal finance

Leap: Inspired by Tamar Adler and Frugality

Christa Avampato
Image from scratchclub.com

On my way to Austin, I became entranced by the prose of An Everlasting Meal: Cooking with Economy and Grace by Tamar Adler. I knew I would. A few months ago I read an excerpt of her passion statement about food’s place and preparation in our lives and instantly I knew I’d devour it like a well-made meal.

As I prepare myself for this next chapter of my career – one of great risk, great faith, and God and Universe willing, great meaning, I have seriously begun to examine my finances and the necessary changes needed to make the leap. To be fair, I do not live a lavish lifestyle. My clothes are simple and always bought on sale. My home is small and simple. I cook much more often than I eat out. The New York Public Library furnishes most of the books I read. I do my own nails, hair, etc.

These last couple of months my credit card bills have been outsized with the long-overdue furnishing of my apartment, 2 upcoming trips to Florida, my vacation of a lifetime to India, and the next phase of my advanced yoga teacher training. This pile up of expenses got a bit scary, though they were planned, and my fine-tuned sense of frugality demanded an immediate halt and investigation.

Enter Tamar Adler and her celebration of eating well on a miniscule budget. Her experience and aptitude for stretching a small grocery budget actually made me excited to get started today rather than wait until I inevitably make the leap into the next phase of my career. Her book has left me feeling more resourceful than fearful, more capable than novice.

I may well be just this side of crazy to exit stage left from a stable job and salary in favor of carving out a new kind of living that unifies my earnings and values. Life is too short to imagine going forward any other way.

animals, eating, food, nature, work

Beginning: Be Here Like a Duck in the Ocean

Christa Avampato

“The little duck is at ease in the heaving Atlantic because it is in the Atlantic. Rest in the immediate as though it were infinity.” – Edward Espe Brown, Buddhist monk , chef, and star of the documentary How to Cook Your Life, reading from a poem written by his mother as she was preparing for the end of her life

The kitchen holds an abundance of wisdom and life lessons if we choose to show up in it day after day with an open mind and heart. As I have recommitted to cooking more and teaching myself to bake, I find myself growing more and more present in my own life, in and out of the kitchen. I have long thought of myself as a recovering multi-tasker, trying again and again to foster a life of consciousness and presence. Too often this is the moment we miss, and knowing the preciousness and fleeting nature of life, I don’t want to miss any more moments.

I also try to be conscious of when I am fighting life, when I am plotting, planning, and charting my actions toward a specific outcome with little regard for present circumstances. I don’t believe in the road of least resistance. Every road has its hardships, every path its detours, and every life its suffering. I have never actually felt the easy way break open as some people have. Everything I’ve ever done has taken effort so I am quite used to and comfortable with work that feels like work. I’ve grown to enjoy it so long as it’s work that feels worth my time.

As for the little duck in the ocean, he is not just bobbing along carefree. Beneath the surface of the ocean, his little duck feet and legs are churning. Rather than having his efforts fight the ocean, they are working in tandem to the rhythm. It still takes energy and effort and attention. He isn’t floating along; he’s paddling and taking his directional cue from the ocean. He’s present and realizes the awesomeness of the ocean’s power. He channels that power in his own work below the surface. He is there, in that moment, and nowhere else. I try to follow his example.

cooking, eating, family, food, friendship

Beginning: The Healing Story of Eating

Christa Avampato

The Reagan dinner table from the CBS hit show Blue Bloods. The dinner table scenes have been hailed as the best part of the show.
“People are at their best when they eat together.” ~ Matthew Sanford

I heard Matthew Sanford speak at the Yoga Journal Conference in New York this past weekend. I recently finished up his book Waking, about the car accident that left him paralyzed at age 13 and his yogic path that truly created his healing process. Matthew talks about how much he wanted to eat and how much he missed the act of eating in the early days of his physical recovery after the accident. His simple statement above really touched me so deeply – togetherness is the very best part of cooking, eating, and food in general.

In the past few months, I’ve started to cook more often. Every week, I take a few simple recipes, make my list, and take myself over to my local Whole Foods to gather the key ingredients. I’ve also had more people over to my tiny apartment to share a meal. My friends feel so grateful though they all always say, “You don’t need to go to any trouble for me.” It’s actually no trouble at all. It’s a joy for me to cook for them. In Matthew Sanford’s words, “It is a healing story.”

Food brings us together, and together, all healing is possible. Bon appetit! Mangia! Enjoy!

diet, eating, health, New York Times, wellness

My love for sweets is in my genes

Christa Avampato

I could eat sweets morning, noon, and night and never get sick of them. My sweet of choice: Entenmann’s chocolate-covered donuts. I could easily scarf down a box of those in one sitting. I don’t (or haven’t recently anyway) but it’s within my capabilities. I know this isn’t good for me. I’ve tried every trick imaginable to banish my sweet tooth. I am envious of people who claim, “I’m just not that interested in sweets.” Until I consider how absolutely delicious sweets are, and then I am grateful that I can get more for myself if others don’t like them.

My grandfather was a candy maker and I have always jokingly attributed my love of sweets to my genes. As it turns out, my penchant for sweets is not entirely within my control. There is now scientific proof that my little joke, like most, also holds some truth. In today’s Health section of the New York Times, there is mention of a research studies about a gene variant that allows people to process sugar more quickly than those without the gene variant. When studied in two groups of people, those with the gene variant always ate more sugar, though there was no difference in the amount of starch, fat, or protein that was eaten.

All these years, I’ve been beating up on myself a little for my seemingly endless craving for anything sweet. In actuality, I just happen to have exceptionally gifted genes when it comes to processing sugar. What luck!