Global Girl’s Blog is moving!

It’s official! Global girl’s blog is officially moving. This move is way overdue and has been in the works for quite some time. For those of you who follow this blog regularly, a couple of changes will be taking place:

1. The URL will be changing from https://globalgirlbkk.wordpress.com/ to http://theglobalpalate.com/

2. The title of the blog will now be The Global Palate instead of Global Girl’s Blog.

3. The look and style of the blog will also be changing.

What I want to stress is that although the URL, the title and the look of the blog have changed, the content will not change. I will still be blogging about the things I love, namely food and travel. Global Girl has been a fun experience and if you are a follower of my blog I want to say thank you!!! I hope that you will continue to follow and read the new blog, The Global Palate. This move should take place later today or tomorrow. Most of your email addresses have transferred to the new site but please check out the new site and make sure to click subscribe if you’d like to continue to follow my blog.

I hope you love the new look of the new website, The Global Palate!

Thanks for reading!

The best key lime pie in the entire world

Oh em gee. You guys. This dessert. Amazing.

My brother always tries to convince me that key lime pie is not worth ordering when we go to restaurants. He thinks it’s a waste of a dessert. He says key lime pie is boring and that there are so many better desserts out there. He feels the same way about tiramisu. And sometimes, he might be right. Key lime pie is on plenty of restaurant dessert menus and his feeling is, once you’ve tasted one key lime pie, you’ve tasted them all. Now I happen to love key lime pie but I do see his point. Or at least I SAW his point. And then I tried the key lime pie at Fogarty’s in Key West and I quickly realized, not all key lime pies are created equal.

Whole grain rotini with balsamic marinated chicken and asparagus

This recipe is super simple, fairly healthy, and does not require a lot of ingredients. It’s rare to find a pasta dish that is both healthy and comforting and although portion control is always important, I didn’t feel too guilty going back for seconds (read: thirds). That’s a winning pasta dish in my opinion.

Cruising to The Bahamas

A little over a week ago I embarked upon my first cruise! Admittedly I was a little nervous about it. Would I feel trapped? Would seeing only ocean with no signs of land freak me out? Would I get sea sick? And, perhaps the most important question of all, would the food on the ship be good? I’m happy to report: no, no, no & YES!!! This could be dangerous. I think I could easily become one of those people that lives on cruise ships, that is, if my financial situation didn’t hinder me. I’m not kidding when I tell you we met someone that was going on his 1,000 something cruise.

Seriously though, what a great time. I spent eight blissful days aboard The Grandeur of the Seas, part of Royal Caribbean’s vision class of ships, as it cruised through Florida and The Bahamas. What a fun way to travel! I’m lucky I happen to enjoy flying, but for those of you who don’t, cruising could be your new best friend! People aren’t lying when they say cruise ships are basically like floating cities. The possibilities are endless.

February Bookshelf

I’m a little late in posting about the books I read for February but I just got back from an 8 day cruise vacation! My first cruise ever! It was completely wonderful and I’ll be posting about it soon so stay tuned but that is the reason for my absence on the blog as of late.

Anyway, I am keeping up with my reading resolution for this year and the books I chose to read in February were good ones! I finished The Kingmaker’s Daughter, which I started in January and reviewed last month. I also started and finished D is for Deadbeat and The Kitchen House. I am currently reading Mindless Eating, which is not really a diet book as much as it is an “awareness” book. It’s been enlightening so far. I’ll review that one at the end of this month but here are my reviews for February:

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Black Bean Soup

I should really call this recipe bean soup instead of BLACK bean soup because, truth be told, I actually only had one can of black beans in my pantry when I decided to make this. I used a can of pinto beans as a substitute for the second can of black beans and it was just as good and it actually still looked like black bean soup. So, just pretend it’s truly black bean soup.

I made this soup for lunch one day when I was home sick from work. Nothing I had in my fridge sounded very good and I was craving soup. I always crave soup when I feel under the weather. So, I took stock of what I had in my pantry and came up with this delicious, flavorful, healthy soup. I used chicken broth but you could definitely use vegetable broth and make this vegan.

Blue cheese butter for steaks

For our wedding, which was two and a half years ago, one of our friends got us a gift certificate for some Omaha Steaks. We were cleaning and organizing the apartment the other day and stumbled upon it. Apparently we had never used it. I am notorious for doing this, by the way. I lose gift cards and gift certificates. I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I think part of the problem is I always want to save them for a special occasion and then I just forget about them. I should probably just use them right after I get them to avoid this problem. Anyway, we ordered the steaks.

Polenta rounds topped with creamy mushrooms

Polenta is one of my new favorite items to pick up at the grocery store. I usually buy the precooked polenta “logs”, cut them into 1/3 inch rounds and then sear them in a pan with a little olive oil. Once the polenta rounds are seared you can top them with almost anything. One of the reasons I love cooking with polenta is because it’s a blank canvas and works well with so many different flavors. It’s an easy way to be creative in the kitchen. I’ve made many variations, but this recipe is probably my favorite polenta recipe.

Matt has been sick with the flu and hasn’t had much of an appetite the past few days so last night I was cooking for one, myself. I’ve mentioned before that Matt prefers meals that include some type of meat. I, on the other hand, can take it or leave it and try to eat meat free a few times a week. Since he wasn’t really hungry last night and it had been an incredibly busy day, I wanted to make something quick yet satisfying for myself, preferrably meatless. Enter polenta and portabella mushrooms. I suppose most people might consider this to be a side dish but last night it hit the spot as a main course for me. The creamy mushroom topping was the perfect accompaniment to my seared polenta rounds.

Spicy Broccoli Stirfry

Broccoli is one of those vegetables I hated as a kid but somehow it’s turned into one of my favorites now that I’m older. I cook with it about once a week. My favorite way to cook broccoli is very simple. I usually just roast it with some olive oil, salt and pepper. It’s one of my staple vegetable side dishes because it always turns out really well and it’s so easy. But sometimes you have to switch it up and last night I was in the mood for something different.

I had some leftover brown rice and some soy and ginger marinated cod from Trader Joe’s so I decided to use some of those same flavors in my broccoli side dish. It turned out really yummy and was perfect served over the leftover rice, which soaked up all the stirfry sauce.

Make potato cakes with leftover mashed potatoes

I love mashed potatoes but I often make too much for just Matt and myself and then we wind up eating mashed potatoes for days. Not that there is anything wrong with leftover mashed potatoes but sometimes they can get a little boring. These potato cakes are the perfect way to spruce up those cold, leftover potatoes.

You guys, these are SO good. I form small patties with the leftover cold mashed potatoes, coat them in crispy breadcrumbs and salty parmesan cheese and then pan fry them until they turn a golden brown color and the coating gets crisp. These take comfort food to a whole new level. They are the perfect side dish for almost any meal. Last night I served these alongside a mediterranean stuffed chicken breast I picked up from Trader Joe’s on the way home from work and Ina Garten’s green beans gremolata.