Happy new year 2018, all!  Hope this year brings peace to all beings on earth.  Maybe it is just me, but things seemed a bit frenetic in 2017.   Well, hope we put all that behind us and live more mindfully in 2018.

As always, V and I sat down and wrote our new year goals and habits.  As far as food and health goes, the goal is to minimize sugar and processed foods, which is not very different from previous years.  Our goal this year is to be more mindful, and eat simple, healthy, and fresh meals for dinner every night before 8 pm.   I will try to post the pictures of our dinner as often as I can on Instagram and Facebook.

 

 

This year V and I did not travel far over the holidays but stayed local and visited our state capital, Sacramento.  Sacramento is given a step-sisterly treatment compared to San Francisco, but in reality, it’s an awesome laid back, small city to spend a few fun days.  There are good restaurants, great local theaters and dessert places that stay open till midnight!   What more could one want?

We thoroughly enjoyed it, and even though we have been there several times before, there were new places that we found, such as Preservation&Co in Midtown which sells preserved and fermented foods made on location.  My only complaint is that they changed the slogan of Sacramento from “City of Trees” to “America’s Farm to Fork Capital” last year, which seems very marketing-oriented to me, as opposed to the prior apt descriptor of the city.

 

 

Here are our top tips for visiting Sacramento:

• Go in spring.  Sacramento is also called the Camelia Capital for good reason.  February and March are great times to visit and walk around the Capitol building and midtown and enjoy the gorgeous camelias and magnolias.  Bonus, there are stunning Victorians scattered all around midtown.
• Walk everywhere.  Walk around the Capitol and take in the trees.  Walk from the Capitol to Old Sacramento and visit the Railroad Museum there.  From there, walk across the iconic Tower bridge and back and go on to the Crocker Art Museum.  In the evening, walk up and down J street in midtown to check out restaurants and other happening places.
• Catch a play in a local theater like B street theater, where I have enjoyed innumerable locally written plays.  V and I caught the last play in the old cozy location on B street.  In 2018 this Sacramento jewel is moving to a midtown location for more space.
• Grab lunch and dinner in midtown.  This is the hip restaurant area and there are a lot of cuisines to choose from.  Maybe grab brunch at Magpie Cafe where the Dalai Lama himself is said to have polished off a few yummy cookies!  If you like to stay at Airbnbs and cook your own meals, then go grocery shopping at the Sacramento Natural Foods Co-op which carries all the seasonal produce from the farm regions around Sacramento.
• Sacramento also has great coffee places to rest your feet in the midst of all the walking – Temple Coffee, Insight Coffee Roasters and of course, Chocolate Fish, which we absolutely love.  We first tasted Chocolate Fish a couple of years back at the very same Magpie Cafe (where the Dalai Lama enjoyed the cookies), but this time we went to the Chocolate Fish coffee shop in East Sacramento.  They will be opening one soon in midtown as well, I believe.

Enough about Sacramento.

Here in the Bay Area, V and I try to visit the local Sunnyvale Farmers Market on Saturdays to get our hands on fresh produce.  Right now, the market is full of root vegetables like radishes, turnips, beets and so on.   Did you know that turnips are also from the brassica family?

 

 

Recipe for Punjabi-style Turnip Curry

[Printable Recipe]

Inspired by several online youtube videos by Indian bloggers

Serves around 5 as a side dish with rotis or chapatis

Ingredients:

• 2 Tbsp canola oil (or other cooking oil)
• 2 tsp cumin seeds
• 4-5 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 green chilies, chopped fine (optional, skip if you don’t want heat)
• 1 medium onion, chopped fine
• 1 inch piece ginger, peeled and grated
• 1 tsp turmeric
• 1/2 tsp red chili powder (reduce if you don’t like too much heat)
• 2 tsp garam masala
• 1/2 can of tomatoes (I had some stewed tomatoes that I had frozen from our summer crop, but you can use store-bought can in the winter or 2 large fresh juicy tomatoes in the summer)
• Around 3 medium-sized turnips, washed, peeled and cut in to bite-sized pieces
• Around 4 medium-sized potatoes, washed, peeled and cut in to bite-sized pieces
• Salt to taste

Method:

• Heat the oil in a saucepan and when the oil is hot, add the cumin seeds and reduce heat to low
• When the cumin seeds start changing color, and becoming fragrant, add the minced garlic and green chilies
• After a minute or two, add the onions and saute until the onion is cooked (5-10 mins). Increase the heat to medium if needed
• Add the grated ginger, saute for a minute
• Then add the spices – turmeric, red chili powder, and garam masala and saute for a few minutes
• Finally add the tomatoes, stir and cook for around 5 minutes on medium to low heat until the tomatoes are well assimilated
• Now add the chopped potatoes and turnips, salt to taste and some water if needed, close with a lid and cook on low heat until the potatoes and turnips are soft, checking from time to time
• Serve hot with rotis, chapatis or naan

 

 

Here wishing every one of you good food, good cooking adventures, great travel and meals with friends and family in 2018!