Is it winter where you are, yet?  In Texas we keep getting little teases of Fall coolness, but temperatures today were in the high 80s leaving frosty mornings just a daydream.  (I’ve got cute gloves to wear, darnit!!)

In hopes of beckoning a nice cool day, I’m making this gorgeous sweet potato and chipotle soup from the Healthy Delicious blog.

It’s fast and simple, but best of all only requires what you’ve probably got in your pantry.  Make sure you’ve got a nice cinnamon stick and a can of chipotles in adobe sauce – and you’re groovy to go!  Nom.

Sometimes during exciting travel adventures, people fall in love with a mysterious local and share naughty nights and lurid adventures together until it’s time to go home.

I, however, connect with food (and booze) and bring my lurid voyaging affairs to the table in a most open manner.

My latest local foodie crush from my trip to Maui – poke.  Raw chunks of super fresh ahi tuna steak mixed with various sauces, seaweed, herbs and the occasional vegetable.  It’s like a raw fish salad, but so much better than that just sounded.

Per Esther’s suggestion, we picked our poke up by the half pound at a nearby Foodland grocery store.  Their poke case was full of maybe 15 different kinds to choose from – we tried traditional, avocado, Hawaiian, wasabi, garlic and I think a couple of other variations.  At about $7 – $8/lb, it was one of the cheapest (and most delicious) meals we had on the island.

Flickr photo thanks to puffsdaddy

I brought home a poke seasoning pack and am excited to try my hand at making my own (after a quick jaunt to a local sushi-supplier fish market), especially as it’s giving me some new ingredients to find in Houston – although completely replaceable:  Hawaiian pink sea salt (pretty easy), Hawaiian seaweed = ogo (hmm….) and a nice sweet Maui onion.

It’s simple, but like so many simple dishes can be tweaked and refined in a multitude of tasty ways.  Freshness is key here, as are large quantities because you won’t want to stop eating it once you have started.  Some recipes to get you salivating:

• Gorgeously depicted poke recipe from the userealbutter blog
• Sam Choy’s award winning poke recipe
• A slightly more complex poke recipe version from delish
• Less than traditional – a seared ahi poke with sriracha dipping sauce

There’s nothing spookier for your waistline than an empty fridge and a stack of take out menus (or a neighborhood full of taco trucks, as the case may be).

I’ve been guilty of some excessive eating out lately, in fact I type this as I wait for the fam to bring home sandwiches for a lazy Sunday lunch.  Because, you know, toasting stuff between two pieces of bread is REALLY taxing in the kitchen.  Ahem.

I hit up a Houston favorite to stock up on cheap-ish groceries this week – Super H Mart, a veritable techno music playing kimchi heaven.  My goal was to spend as little as possible on some  fresh ingredients we don’t use as often (* = what I’m most nervous about cooking this week):

• Bitter melon*
• Giant king oyster mushrooms
• Oyster mushrooms
• Chinese long beans
• Red sanchoy
• 2 cans of jackfruit in brine
• Leek
• Turnips
• Red cabbage
• Fresh udon noodles

Gradient Cake from Gabriel Rodriguez on Vimeo.

In my web marketing day job, I appreciate the mild panache a subtle gradient can add to a design projects.  They give things a little more depth and interest without a lot of flash.

The same could be said for this fab gradient cake, so artfully demo-ed by the lovely baker  Ashley Rodriguez (of Not Without Salt).  It’s a low-key but super way to give a little cake a big personality.  Plus, I’m a fondant lover and have yet to play with the stuff myself, this just might be my beginner’s ticket.

Props to DesignMom for the find and link, she’s amazing.  Photo from Not Without Salt’s blog.

I am hugely fascinated with this book What I Eat: Around the World in 80 Diets.

It’s a look at a typical day of food for 80 different people across the globe – from American soldier in Iraq (4000 calories) to a Spanish shepherd (3800 calories) to a dagger merchant in Yemen (5800 calories)  to Akbar the Iranian baker above (4900 calories).

The photos are gorgeous, but what’s most captivating is getting an intimate look at another human being’s daily rations.  It’s picking out what’s familiar and what’s exotic or unknown.  It’s putting yourself at their dinner table and wondering how you’d like your daily nosh if you were in their shoes.

But that thought alone should indicate what geographic dinner table I seat myself at everyday.  Many (and truly, there are many) of these photographed folks simply eat what’s available – what they grow, raise, forage or trade for.   What their parents and parents’ parents and parents’ parents’ parents ate before them.

It’s not about what ethnic restaurant is having half price Thai curry night, it’s about eating something good to fuel themselves for another grueling day ahead.

I’ve been frustrated with my weight retention (a couple of years of stress and terrible eating will do that to a gal who has had a baby… 5 years ago now, cough) because I really eat quite well.  No meat, little dairy, lots of fresh produce and whole grains. Funky weird hippie teas, fresh juice.

The problem is that, unlike the Ecuadorian mountain farmer or camel herder, I sit at a desk pretty much all day, with atrocious posture I might add, sipping coffee and (only lately) forcing myself to get out of the building for 45 minutes or so to keep my eyeballs from imploding.

I don’t move, I don’t soak in the sun, I don’t splash in the water – being so sedentary should be criminal, but such is the nature of my home country and work environment.  And also, I’m addicted to Tex-Mex and am now realizing that tortilla chips are probably going to be the death of me one day.  So there’s that too.

Projects like this get me thinking – not just on all the places I want to visit so that I too can break bread with awesome looking people and eat pomegranates from the front yard, but on our perceived quality of life and dining.

And now, the obligatory meal breakdown of my day today – because after staring at everyone else’s indulgences, I feel that it’s only right:

Breakfast:

• 2 cups of coffee, black (10 calories)
• Special K cereal (200 calories) with almond milk (80 calories)

Lunch:

• Chipotle veggie bowl = 700 calories (the sour cream + cheese I had on it today added 220 calories, boo — but the 150 calories that guacamole brings is always worth it :) )
• 2 glasses of water

Dinner:

• Vegan seitan pot roast with roasted veggies (300 calories)
• Salad with red leaf lettuce, yellow tomatoes, apple balsamic vinegar, olive oil and sprouts (160 calories – dang EVO)
• Frozen banana ice cream with candy shell chocolate syrup (250 calories)

1700 calories.  Whew.  Totally waking up early for hoop dancing tomorrow :)

A fan of all thing zombie, I was tickled to pick up a new Zombieland fact.

Instead of munching on real Hostess Twinkies (as his character was addicted and endlessly searching for), Woody Harrelson was enjoying truckloads of veganized Twinkies instead.

If you want to sample the actual recipe used, check out Jennifer’s Shmooed Food vegan Twinkie recipe to get your snackie on – hippie movie star style.

Or you can get totally lazy and order these vegan Hostess-esque treats from Etsy.  Nom.

A most magical photographic diagram by Allen Hemberger.  This baby so belongs on my wall.

You know, just so I don’t forget…

Another week behind us brings another slew of cool posts to catch up on.  Quickly now – to the foodie blogosphere!:

• 30+ easy ways to make Ramen better
• How to make simple fruit vodkas (OMG – the photo above is from that great post too)
• Fine Cooking teaches you how to make really great french fries
• Mystery kitchen odors and how to fix them (it happens)
• Foodista’s post on Top 10 Cool Junk Food Facts (full infographic from TodayIFoundOut below)

Look at that meal above.  Jealous much?  Is your mouth salivating at the very thought of its thermostabilized goodness?

This NASA blog post on feeding the STS-135 crew is pretty awesome.  I’m bummed to just now be reading it as NASA was encouraging folks on Earth to cook and eat along with their July 14th ‘All-American Meal’ time.

You can click here to cook from the actual recipes (errr… actually called ‘formulations’ when you’re cooking for space-y folk) for NASA’s All American Meal served to STS-135 astronauts.

I would say that I hope to cook along next time, but alas.  This Houston gal is among the millions currently residing in the ‘uber-bummed’ mental territory around the dissipation of the NASA space program.  Guess I can still nibble on the baked beans, southwest corn and other BBQ items in solidarity.

This week’s TasteSpotting treat:
Vegan frangipanne with strawberries and raspberries

For pretty much my entire life, my birthday ‘cake’ of choice has been a fruit tart – preferably with a think layer of chocolate directly on top of the crust, homemade custard and super fresh, vibrant fruit.

With my love for almonds, this tart might be making a move towards overtaking that birthday tradition.  Beautiful, fresh and drool inducing.  Check out her great blog post here.