I am one lucky girl, having just returned from an amazing trip, including Iceland.

While there aren’t a lot of traditional Icelandic foods that particularly appealed to me. Hello, fermented shark. I absolutely fell in love with this bread, rugbraud. It was served along side the traditional fish stew, plokkfiskur. Rugbraud is a dark rye bread, very dense and slightly sweet. I was thrilled when we found it in the grocery store and enjoyed it at our hostel. Then, I saw it at the airport and brought it home to share with my family. When that was gone, I looked up how to make it. I just couldn’t get enough. 😊

But, I’m so glad I looked up rugbraud recipes because I learned about the history and how it is traditionally made. Buried in the ground and slowly steamed next to a geothermal hot spring. How cool is that?! Or hot? 😉

Often, I don’t have a lot of luck with baking so I was somewhat skeptical how it would turn out. Added that I was substituting molasses for the golden syrup could be disastrous.

I followed this super simple recipe.

www.saveur.com – Rugbraud Bread

I initially used 1/3 cup of molasses in place of the full cup of golden syrup, but it wasn’t enough moisture. So I added in another 1/3 cup molasses and a splash of milk. This did the trick and it mixed up well! It baked in 7 1/2 hours; low and slow!

It looked just right and tasted just right!

One of the joys of traveling is experiencing different cuisines and being able to incorporate it back home in my Oregon kitchen. Where to next?

When there’s so many flavors bursting in your mouth, I finally made something that my husband can’t comment his typical, “it’s just missing something.” Mission accomplished!

I was given garden fresh okra and I was a little stumped on how to cook them, along with the everyday struggle of what to make for dinner, hence this sandwich was born.

I had to ‘OK Google’ what to do with the okra, also known as lady fingers because, well, they look like fingers ha! This is the recipe I used to make the okra.

www.blog.fatfreevegan.com – Okra

Roasting the okra, then sautéing it with onions– seasoned with garlic, ginger, cumin, tumeric, gram masala and salt was terrific. The okra didn’t get the stereotypical slime, but cutting them length wise made it hard to eat on a sandwich because of their stringiness. Live and learn.

I had previously thinly sliced tempeh into a pool of Frank’s Red Hot Sauce and vacuum sealed it for the freezer.

I followed this recipe (from an unknown source) for the tempeh marinade.

This made dinner come together in a snap. I baked the tempeh at 425° for 20 minutes, flipping halfway through. Cooking tempeh until it’s almost burnt is the secret to life!

Using ghee to toast the sandwiches, layered with the tempeh, okra mix and these crushed jalapeño chips

was an explosion of tastes! Or as my daughter said, “there’s a lot going on in my mouth.”

I call that a win! 😁

One of my must-do’s on vacation is to do a supermarket sweep bringing back local food favorites to recreate each areas unique cuisine at home. No place I’ve been has more iconic foods and flavors than New Orleans.

This Oregon born girl was excited to try to meld the two worlds together; adding in more vegetables, but with Cajun flair.

My first attempt was Creole seasoned roasted kale. Going to the grocery store, Rouse’s, with locals was great because they showed us the must haves, with this seasoning being at the top of their list.

Preheat the oven to 425 °

Line a baking sheet with foil (I just do this for easier clean up)

Pile high with kale

Drizzle olive oil over (I only had coconut, so that’s what I used this time) and sprinkle the Creole seasning to taste

Roast 15 minutes, mix and roast another 5 minutes

Serve with hot sauce, if desired.

Oregon meet Louisiana 😋

Incorporating the holy trinity was my next food adventure. The holy trinity in Cajun cooking is using celery, onion and bell pepper into savory dishes. No attention is paid to even knife cuts, or if they should be diced or minced or julienned; you just chop them up. I kinda like the no rules. This threesome is so prevalent that often large batches are made so they’re ready to go for the next recipe. Talking to a waiter while we were there also reminded us that the chopping must be done by hand, no food processors. In fact, he gave us a great quote of NOLA wisdom, “taking the easy street, takes the heart out of it.”

In my quest for more vegetables and our garden’s consistent over abundance of zucchini, I sautéed them with zoodles.

• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 bell pepper, chopped
• 2 celery stalks, chopped
• 2 medium zucchinis
• Coconut oil
• Creole seasoning
• Voodoo flavored Zapps chips

Sautee holy trinity in coconut oil over medium heat until nearly softened

While that’s cooking, spiralize zucchini

Add zucchini to pan and cook until just soft

Add Creole seasoning to taste and sprinkle crushed up voodoo chips on top!

Sounds crazy, but super good!

Stay tuned for more Louisiana inspired dishes, but with a vegetarian Oregon flair 😊

I know I’m not the only one. You see all the pictures online of beautifully styled food in equally as lovely backdrops or locations. And you just think there’s no way you could recreate this or ever measure up.

So, in an attempt to be more transparent, thanks to my recent attendance at the International Food Bloggers Conference. And full disclosure, I was too distracted by the excitement outside the conference walls to even be in full attendance. I want to see more, not less honesty on social media.

So, here it goes. This is truly what my kitchen looked like my first night cooking upon my return home. Not only are all the foods out, ingredients spilled and not an inch left of counter space; you can even see that we’re in the middle of a kitchen remodel. And by ‘in the middle’ I mean that it’s only been three years since we’ve had cupboard doors or baseboards or trim work done.

Yes, I am a hot mess. And I’m pretty sure I’m not alone 😊