insta-picnic saturday day trip with the tiger.
so yesterday marked the one month anniversary of arriving here in beautiful, bodacious, bountiful berkeley, and, thanks a to rather brilliant last minute idea of ryan's, it found us on the most amazing day trip road trip around a little piece of totally new to us northern california. and if you are an early bird like me just trying to give a greener living a go, day trip road trip means PICNIC! the whole last minuteness of the plan left me in a position where ryan was picking up the car at 9a and i had from 830a when my 7a yoga class ended until we hit the road, which clearly we wanted to do as early as possible, to plan a menu, procure the ingredients and prepare it. it felt like a crazy gameshow. and i love crazy gameshows, so challenge accepted. let the games begin.
(*and when i say let the games begin, believe you me, i honestly saw myself standing in front of the basket-o-ingredients on "chopped", awaiting the secret ingredient reveal on "iron chef", and also crouching down to get a good spin in on the wheel in "the price is right". i know, that last fantasy has nothing to do with food, but as soon as i feel like i'm on a gameshow, i'm spinning that wheel, holding plinko chips, or thinking "no whammy no whammy and...STOP!" yesterday was a wheel day, come hell or high water i was gonna get myself $1 or land on a green spot).
(*and when i say let the games begin, believe you me, i honestly saw myself standing in front of the basket-o-ingredients on "chopped", awaiting the secret ingredient reveal on "iron chef", and also crouching down to get a good spin in on the wheel in "the price is right". i know, that last fantasy has nothing to do with food, but as soon as i feel like i'm on a gameshow, i'm spinning that wheel, holding plinko chips, or thinking "no whammy no whammy and...STOP!" yesterday was a wheel day, come hell or high water i was gonna get myself $1 or land on a green spot).
okay, the clock is officially ticking. i hit shattuck avenue after yoga and make a b-line for the berkeley bowl, which opens at 9a. there is a line formed of people patiently waiting, making small talk, getting to know one another. and when they do open the doors, the berkeley bowl employee says, "good morning. be good to each other." yeah, toto, we are definitely not in kansas (*brooklyn) anymore. i've got my shopping list in my head and a basket on my arm. i had decided to try a variation on a potato salad and shrimp for dinner. it seemed easy and pliable enough that i could do something new and tasty with the old potato salad standby and that the food would be cooler-friendly. plus, i had noticed the day before that there were these totally amazing little turnip and carrot-like potatoes from new zealand that come in red, yellow, and apricot called oka potatoes. they were so adorable and strange looking at the same time that i absolutely had to find an excuse to use them. what better excuse than potato salad? and they are so small, they will take no time at all to cook. that, my dear friends, is what the early bird calls a *win-win*. so i grab them, the rest of the stuff that i need, hit the checkout, and have earned an invitation to round 2.
round 2 is all about improvisation. i've got this rough notion in my head of what i want to make. i start getting my ingredients sorted and ready to go, my pots boiling, and my chopping on. the clock is ticking, the car is waiting, and i am cooking...and, then, relatively early on in my culinary endoeavors, i abandon my original thought for the salad dish, which would have been a mexican-flavored version of the classic indian potato and pea dish aloo matar. i thought that since it also has tomato in its base, masala being the gravy for that dish, it would be easy to switch from masala to salsa, a natural substitute to take it in a whole new direction. visions of ethnic fusion danced in my head. (so enticing! so dangerous! so sure to earn me bonus points from the judges if i can pull it off!) but, instead, as i start to season and put together the vegetables for the potato salad in one bowl and construct the salsa in another, i come to the realization that i was biting off more than i could chew and making this about a too hasty leap to glory and that, for the sake of the meal, it was better to keep the two separate. but equal. definitely equal. what kind of person do you think i am? so having failed to unite mexico and india, i improvise a smoked paprika based potato salad with green peas, sugar peas, okra and red bell pepper. i also marinate shrimp in garlic, sea salt, smoked paprika, cholula hot sauce and lime juice. and, of course, i make a large batch of my infamous salsa (see previous post). the bell dinged. chefs step away from the stoves. round 2 was over. but i didn't even need to wait for the judges to weigh in, i knew i had won. it looked good, it smelled good, it tasted good. i packed it all up into portable containers, then i packed those containers into the cooler. and voila! mission accomplished. homemade, locally-inspired, delicious and healthy picnic for two: DONE. i will take my imaginary prize and accolades, and i'll shoot my post-win wrap up confessional later, this bird has got a day trip to get started...
and i am pleased to report that it all survived a day in the cooler quite beautifully. and it all tasted fantastic when we finally enjoyed our picnic dinner at the end of the day.
round 2 is all about improvisation. i've got this rough notion in my head of what i want to make. i start getting my ingredients sorted and ready to go, my pots boiling, and my chopping on. the clock is ticking, the car is waiting, and i am cooking...and, then, relatively early on in my culinary endoeavors, i abandon my original thought for the salad dish, which would have been a mexican-flavored version of the classic indian potato and pea dish aloo matar. i thought that since it also has tomato in its base, masala being the gravy for that dish, it would be easy to switch from masala to salsa, a natural substitute to take it in a whole new direction. visions of ethnic fusion danced in my head. (so enticing! so dangerous! so sure to earn me bonus points from the judges if i can pull it off!) but, instead, as i start to season and put together the vegetables for the potato salad in one bowl and construct the salsa in another, i come to the realization that i was biting off more than i could chew and making this about a too hasty leap to glory and that, for the sake of the meal, it was better to keep the two separate. but equal. definitely equal. what kind of person do you think i am? so having failed to unite mexico and india, i improvise a smoked paprika based potato salad with green peas, sugar peas, okra and red bell pepper. i also marinate shrimp in garlic, sea salt, smoked paprika, cholula hot sauce and lime juice. and, of course, i make a large batch of my infamous salsa (see previous post). the bell dinged. chefs step away from the stoves. round 2 was over. but i didn't even need to wait for the judges to weigh in, i knew i had won. it looked good, it smelled good, it tasted good. i packed it all up into portable containers, then i packed those containers into the cooler. and voila! mission accomplished. homemade, locally-inspired, delicious and healthy picnic for two: DONE. i will take my imaginary prize and accolades, and i'll shoot my post-win wrap up confessional later, this bird has got a day trip to get started...
and i am pleased to report that it all survived a day in the cooler quite beautifully. and it all tasted fantastic when we finally enjoyed our picnic dinner at the end of the day.
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