From the category archives:

Vegetables, Herbs & Spices

Mango Avocado Salad ~ “Food, Fast” Is Much Better Than “Fast Food”

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Swear on a stack of bibles, I’m not sucking up to sponsors from Camp Blogaway. We ended our Camp with a HUGE supply of goodies, some ripening quickly. Today, I whipped up lunch in five minutes, made a pretty picture, then sat on the porch swing and savored my fresh Mango Avocado Salad.

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Non-Cooks: Yes YOU Can Make Homemade Tamales

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Marty, my co-volunteer at the hospital, says he doesn’t cook. In an effort to fix that, his wife, Irma gave him a series of cooking classes taught by Fresh Food in a Flash blogger, Chef Patricia Rose. April’s class sounded like too much fun (a reasonable $40 price was the clincher to me), so Larry, [...]

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Asparagus and Cilantro Baked Omelet

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This is what I baked up with whatever I found in the fridge that morning. Kind of a Whatever Baked Omelet – no crust, so it wasn’t a quiche. Frittata? Whatever! It’s just eggs, milk, cheese, asparagus and cilantro.

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The Secret Ingredient Guacamole Recipe of Rancho La Puerta

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A decade ago, there was an office building on my route to work that had a giant banner: a cutie pie baby with green mush on his face and the proclamation, “Give Peas A Chance.” THAT is a fun foodie message. And now, it’s come full circle to my time at Rancho La Puerta when [...]

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Sautéed Chard with Garlic and Lemon ~ a Rancho La Puerta Cooking Class

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When the alarm went off at 5:30 AM on Day 2 of our Rancho La Puerta stay, I silently hoped the night’s rain was still falling. Our casita was soooo cozy. Nope, the sky was clear. Travel buddy, Cathi and I had 30 minutes to get to the meeting place for sunrise and a 4 [...]

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Potato Crusted Onion and Cilantro Quiche with a Cuban Touch–Bijol!

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It is 3:30 PM, Sunday afternoon. Neither lunchtime nor dinnertime. I’d spent the morning packing meals at Project Angel Food. Came home and took a 3 mile walk. Football on the TV. The house has a chill – all good reasons to turn on the oven. A Potato Crusted Onion and Cilantro Quiche idea “showed [...]

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Sautéed Spinach with Almond Cream and Arils ~ Christmas Colored!

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Rich, creamy, Christmas-y! This is one gorgeous platter of Sautéed Spinach with Almond Cream and Arils. According to its source, Chef Virginia, the recipe only has 167 calories a serving. I think THAT fact makes it even more gorgeous. Nom, nom, nom.

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Zucchini Cheese Tart

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What an appetizer! More like an appetite-spoiler… at THIS party (Gourmet Club), the plan is to cook and eat for HOURS. How would that be possible if we started off with this flaky, cheesy, mustardy, bubbly hot Zucchini Cheese Tart?

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Cherry Tomato Crockpot Soup

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When a friend hands you 100+ homegrown, very ripe cherry tomatoes, just say THANKS and grab the slow cooker. This Fresh Cherry Tomato Soup crockpot recipe is a great idea, if I do say so myself. Sure, I could have made a ton of salsa, or salads out the wazoo, but I worked for the [...]

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Fresh Beets and Farfalle

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This has been a Big Summer o’ Beets. Not complaining; here’s another beet-infused recipe. Honesty, if I tried harder I would find a whole wheat bowtie pasta, but this is DAMN GOOD. There, I said it – we attempt to eat whole wheat but luv the white stuff. Fresh Beets and Farfalle is a [...]

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Indian Spices on U.S. Store Shelves

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Hey, I can’t believe I forgot this post was in DRAFT mode! Larry and I rang in last New Year’s in India. What American food blogger travels all the way to India and doesn’t publish the ubiquitous “spices in sacks” shot? Well, here it is, above. And now, what to do about it…

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The Best Baked Corn Recipe I’ve Tried

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Interesting what a smidge of sugar does for a savory corn recipe. This was published last Christmas in Parade magazine. I appreciated the short list of staple ingredients. When someone refers to a recipe as “Best,” that doesn’t mean much anymore. But when Larry goes back for a second portion, whoa… yes, I’d say this really [...]

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Patti’s Mojo Spice Blend

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Last autumn, we took a cooking class at the South Bay School of Cooking. The instructor’s spinach-stuffed chicken breast recipe featured a secret ingredient: her Mojo – a homemade blend of kosher salt, lemon zest and dried Italian herbs. Which made me think of the jumble of herbs in our spice pantry. Once home, I [...]

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Champinones Rellenos ~ Guest Post by Julieta of Lindaraxa’s Garden

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FROM JULIETA: I am delighted that Patti has asked me to share this easy tapas recipe for Stuffed Mushrooms, or Champinones Rellenos, with her readers. My name is Julieta and I blog about my cooking and recipes at Lindaraxa’s Garden.

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Mom’s Scalloped Potatoes & Her Thing About Butter

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Let’s see if I paid attention to how my mom, Gloria, made her scalloped potatoes. She was always peeling potatoes; there were seven of us. And she had no recipe box if I remember, just a mental arsenal of foods we would consume without debate. There were no extra items for any fussy eater. Either [...]

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Scallops, Bok Choy and Mushrooms Over Barley for UCLA’s Dr. S

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Friday afternoons, I’m an Info Desk Volunteer at the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center. Not only do I work alongside Volunteer Marty who is interesting, smart and has good stories, ours is the “witching hour” — the pace transitions from slow week to wild weekend. Everybody needs something, including lots of docs. When Dr. Preethi [...]

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Roasted Sea Bass with Ratatouille

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Ratatouille. This is something I’ve avoided all my life due to the dreaded ingredient – eggplant! I never ate that veggie in my youth. Larry’s mom cooked hers to smithereens, so it is yuck to him, too. We never order anything eggplant in restaurants. Only thing aubergine in our lives is Larry’s extensive wardrobe of [...]

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Mushroom, Basil and Goat Cheese Lasagna Roll-Ups

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There’s this thing out there called Wordless Wednesday. I think food bloggers tire of writing posts, but have some nice food photos to share, so they use Wednesday to get caught up. I like the idea. So, consider this an Almost Wordless Wednesday post. I created this Mushroom, Basil and Goat Cheese Lasagna Roll-Ups for [...]

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Farfalle with Mushroom and Prosciutto Ragu

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The backstory for this recipe is, admittedly, lame. I basically tore a recipe from a newspaper. Despite my home economics degree and decades-long food career, I don’t create many original recipes. My collection is pretty much everyone else’s work that I have tweaked to suit our tastes. What I’m good at is feeding Larry, someone who likes what [...]

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Corn & Cheddar Chowder

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It may be summer weather where you are, but it’s still June Gloom here in Los Angeles. Soup is fine. This one of corn and potatoes, seasoned with Mexican spices and topped with cheese is only 233 calories and 3 grams of fat per serving, according to Martha. I tore the recipe out of a [...]

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How to Bake A Restaurant-Perfect Potato – Guest Post with Dr. Potato

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This guest post is via my longtime foodservice friend, Dr. Potato (AKA Don Odiorne). Don spent 40 years in corporate foodservice marketing and operations, owned his own restaurant and three pizza franchises. He supervises a web site and foodservice at the Idaho Potato Commission. Hey Don… How do you make a baked potato at home [...]

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Guest Post by Rachael at La Fuji Mama: Warm Beet Salad

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From Rachael: Hello friends of Patti! When Patti asked if I would be willing to help keep you all entertained while she was away, how could I say no? I’ve found that I’m a total sucker when it comes to beets. It’s especially bad when the beets are looking good at my local farmer’s market. [...]

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Fee, Fie, Fiddlehead Ferns

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Los Angeles has a long list of farmers markets, but the better ones aren’t the closest to us in Westwood. Our two (one in the village, the other on the VA property) are small, with common offerings. Probably why fiddlehead ferns have eluded me. *sigh* I had never tasted them.

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Saturday Salad with Creamy Avocado Dressing

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Friday, we start “refrigerator management,” our ritual to unearth mismatched or unplanned-for things in the fridge and figure out meals to use them up. We don’t waste food, including leftovers. I grocery shop once a week, that’s it.

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Seared Sea Scallops in Saffron Burre Blanc with Sautéed Spinach

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Christmas present to Larry: a cooking class at Sur La Table. He picked “Date Night Paris in April” with Chef Martin Gilligan at LA Farmer’s Market location. I’ll post more recipes soon – watch for them – but to begin, here is one of the easiest: Seared Sea Scallops in Saffron Burre Blanc on Sautéed [...]

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Squash Soup with Cranberry Dollop

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The Gourmet Club tries to meet four times a year. That’s four couples, each responsible for a theme, a date at their home and wrangling the calendars of the rest of us. We’ve had some luscious eats: Cuban, Italian, Thai, Japanese, Mexican, Men’s Meal (Hawaiian is upcoming) in the three-plus years this has been going [...]

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Guest Post by Elise at Hungry Hungry Hippie: Spaghetti Squash Mexicana

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From Patti: Elise of Hungry Hungry Hippie is my ‘lil cousin. She’s vegan, a voracious food blogger, and a cardiac RN in NYC. On top of that, she and Kyle are getting married next summer. My rule in life? Always ask such “Type A’s” for favors like guest posts while I go on a stress-free [...]

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Westwood Village Farmers Market and How to Sauté Mushrooms

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One recent Wednesday, I wanted to walk to our Westwood Village Farmers Market but had forgotten the hours. Google, google, google… where the heck is their website? All I found were press releases from last summer’s reopening after a lengthy absence due to construction, and plenty about our OTHER Farmers Market at the Westwood VA [...]

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How to Make Perfect, Best-Ever, Excellent Mashed Potatoes

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What you’re looking at are riced russet potatoes (not actually rice). It’s a step before whuupin’ em with butter and milk to make mmmm mashed potatoes. While volunteering this week at Project Angel Food, we prepped 250 lbs. of potatoes for Chef Adrian. Then, they were cooked in a humongous brazier, mashed in a monstrous [...]

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Thai Green Papaya Salad

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Well, I now know what to make when our four-couple Gourmet Club has a Thai themed dinner – this delicate Thai Green Papaya Salad. The dressing is Thai-YUM, I wanted to lick the bowl. It’s a combo of textures, too – crunchy almonds to crisp cucumbers to soft papaya to airy fried rice sticks. But [...]

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Paula Deen’s Warm Potato Salad (almost)

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What would YOU bring to a potluck of food bloggers? Thanks to blogger In Erika’s Kitchen for pulling this growing group together! I hoped offering a side dish would give me wiggle room to ponder… salad? Veggie? Rice? Pasta? There would be husbands and kids. And of course, really good cooks (those dang food bloggers). [...]

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Greek Potato Salad from LA Greekfest

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Some cooks need an actual recipe to feel comfortable, so this was the PERFECT demo to help break free from those shackles. LA Greekfest instructors Akrevoe Emmanouilides and Pitsa Captain were “a little of this, a little of that” cooks, and the audience ate it up. By the end of the salad session, we all [...]

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Garbanzo, Onion and Tomato Salad from LA Greekfest

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OPA! For years, I’ve wanted to attend Greekfest at LA’s stunning St. Sophia’s Greek Orthodox Cathedral. I’m a native Angelino, yet had only been inside once before for the wedding of our favorite Greek, Helen. Larry’s been there often; his high school, Loyola, is next door. No waiting for the right year, I attended yesterday, [...]

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Fresh Basil Soft Pretzels

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Jen, our way-cool yoga instructor at Camp GetAway for Mothers & Others had an explosion of gorgeous basil growing in her victory garden. She was asking me about making pesto — just as I was thinking of making pretzels. The ideas collided. The March 2004 issue of Gourmet had a Kitchen Notebook story on how [...]

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Emperor’s Farmers Market Salad

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Entitled “Cucumber, Carrot and Tomato Salad,” the recipe served 130. That’s a good sized “cooking for a crowd” recipe, but considered small at Project Angel Food. This was my cooking task last week with fellow volunteer, Sarah. Since it had great blogging/household dining potential, I wrote the full size recipe on a box sticker to [...]

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Tri-Color Bleu Cheese Potato Salad

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Picture a Sunday picnic at a countryside winery with good friends who like to cook and eat. Homemade gourmet, local wine and a tinge of sun-kissed cheeks on a glorious Southern California afternoon really makes you believe that “life is good.” Larry and I enjoy Gourmet Clubs, which amounts to three or four couples agreeing [...]

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Asparagus and Parmesan Risotto

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“Anyone can make risotto, it’s impossible to screw up,” friend and former client, Carey, said. We worked together when she was with Waterford Wedgwood. And we worked together before that when she was with Kahlua. My little foodie boutique firm did PR for those brands plus a bunch of others. Carey told me she makes [...]

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Fresh Onion Soup for One

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Not French Onion, FRESH onion. This recipe turned out about a thousand times better than I anticipated, and also rendered a masterful little recipe that serves one. Picture this… you are at the beach house, a solo traveler. By Yourself. ONE person. Who wants to be alone. And who hopefully wants to cook because I [...]

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Fresh Basil Quiche with Tomatoes and Mushrooms

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It worked, he ate it. TWO portions. I know that Larry is a Real Man, and now I know he will Eat Quiche. Maybe it was the All Butter Pie Shell that put it over the top because nuttin’ tastes bedda dan budduh. We humans really are easily swayed. The stigma quiche picked up via [...]

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Chilled Gazpacho

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Somebody tell me: why does any vacation now result in me coming home with a “muffin top” (aka pot belly)? I’m technically a lean-ish person, but lately, yikes. Even places with not great food, I channel Miss Piggy. Thus, when we get back home to our “grind of choice” (as my friend, Cathi calls it), [...]

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