Posts tagged as:

recipe

Cheese Blintzes

Thumbnail image for Cheese Blintzes

There’s a growing community of food bloggers here in LA. We’re getting to know each other by stepping away from our computers each month for face-time, networking and good eats together. And, recipe sharing! Last month, Erika of In Erika’s Kitchen hosted a brunch where Small Pleasures Catering blogger/caterer Giselle arrived with pretty pillows of [...]

Read Full Story

Claro’s Italian Meatballs

Thumbnail image for Claro’s Italian Meatballs

A TV show featuring Claro’s Italian Market resulted in Larry and me driving an hour to Arcadia just for the experience (not immediately, but we keep notes of stuff like this and Larry finally said, “can we pleeeeeze go to Claro’s???”) After consuming awesome subs and ogling at cheeses, meats, dry goods and hot foods, [...]

Read Full Story

Marcella’s Fudge

Thumbnail image for Marcella’s Fudge

This is a big plus to attending Thanksgiving on my side of the family: Marcella’s Fudge may be eaten before dinner. It is right there with the appetizers. Most of us thought Marcella was a relative from the Old Country (Wisconsin). My sister, Janie and I only just asked this year… turns out Marcella was [...]

Read Full Story

Ginger Scones

Thumbnail image for Ginger Scones

Hans Rockenwagner sold Ginger Scones at his bakeries in LA and Venice. And then he didn’t. Apparently they were deeeelicious; an LA Times food section reader wanted the recipe, and they published it. Larry’s recipe binder is jam-packed with pages like this – baked goods, ginger flavored, someone’s favorite. He had yet to make these, [...]

Read Full Story

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

Thumbnail image for How to Make Perfect, Best-Ever, Excellent Mashed Potatoes

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 [...]

Read Full Story

Thai Green Papaya Salad

Thumbnail image for Thai Green Papaya Salad

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 [...]

Read Full Story

How to Cook Thai Rice Sticks

Thumbnail image for How to Cook Thai Rice Sticks

This cooking class at Let’s Get Cookin’ in Westlake Village was great fun — presented by prolific cookbook author, Hugh Carpenter, we foodies were immersed in Thai recipes, always good eats. Hugh’s dry sense of humor kept us in stitches while we soaked up cooking techniques that are quite useful. Cooking rice sticks, for starters.

Read Full Story

Double-Ginger Chocolate Chunk Cookies from More Magazine

Thumbnail image for Double-Ginger Chocolate Chunk Cookies from More Magazine

More Magazine is me me me. Besides being written for Women Of A Certain Age, the magazine publishes decent recipes. Such as “Cookies for Grown-ups.” I’m a grown-up and so is Larry. We like grown-up flavors and this particular recipe in the November 2009 More Magazine was definitely US: Double Ginger. AND Chocolate. AND Chunk. [...]

Read Full Story

Andersen’s Pea Soup

Thumbnail image for Andersen’s Pea Soup

Pea Soup Andersen’s is a California classic for road trippers up beautiful Highway 101. Heading to our Santa Ynez wine country, setting for the movie, Sideways? Visiting the showstopper Hearst Castle? Blasting thru from LA to SFO? Pull off in Buellton for a bathroom break and incredibly luscious all-you-can-eat split pea soup. I love the [...]

Read Full Story

Chicken Pumpkin Lemongrass Soup

Thumbnail image for Chicken Pumpkin Lemongrass Soup

Things to cook with pumpkin were getting boring here, so I thought an Asian flavored soup would be different. I took this ‘n that from about five recipes and came up with a pot of flavorful, thick Chicken Pumpkin Lemongrass Soup. What gave it Asian oomph was fresh-cut lemongrass from our patio. And juice from [...]

Read Full Story

Paula Deen’s Warm Potato Salad (almost)

Thumbnail image for Paula Deen’s Warm Potato Salad (almost)

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). [...]

Read Full Story

Plain, Simple, Versatile Cooked Shredded Chicken

Thumbnail image for Plain, Simple, Versatile Cooked Shredded Chicken

“This is a recipe?” you may ask. Well, no, but it’s a favorite technique of mine to tackle a few things simultaneously on a leisurely Sunday, my happy cooking day. Chicken parts were a very good price this week, frugal friends. Sunday morning, I threw two pounds of them into the crockpot with two bay [...]

Read Full Story

Vietnamese Nuoc Cham Dipping Sauce

Thumbnail image for Vietnamese Nuoc Cham Dipping Sauce

How making fresh pumpkin puree got me to prepare Vietnamese Nuoc Cham Sauce is like six degrees of separation from Kevin Bacon. A) Can’t find Libby’s canned pumpkin.  B) Buy fresh pumpkins, roast and puree. C) Cook some sweet things with the puree, burn out, a good supply still in the freezer. D) Decide to [...]

Read Full Story

Pumpkin Pie Rice Pudding

Thumbnail image for Pumpkin Pie Rice Pudding

Making fresh pumpkin puree the other day yielded 9 cups of potential. Larry and I like pumpkin pie, but we also like rice pudding, so I googled around for recipes and ended up combining a few to produce this one. I suppose I could have tried to crockpot it. But even with constant stirring, this [...]

Read Full Story

Canned Pumpkin Shortage? Simple Steps to Make Fresh Pumpkin Puree

Thumbnail image for Canned Pumpkin Shortage? Simple Steps to Make Fresh Pumpkin Puree

About a month ago, I noticed my local store had no small cans of pumpkin. A week later, still none. Then Larry showed me a newspaper article about the super scary national canned pumpkin shortage. Another week later, friend Marlene circulated an email about it but by then, I had three “sugar pumpkins” to make [...]

Read Full Story

Thyme and Goat Cheese Tart Topped with Mixed Tender Greens in Champagne Vinaigrette

Thumbnail image for Thyme and Goat Cheese Tart Topped with Mixed Tender Greens in Champagne Vinaigrette

This isn’t exactly how we eat around our home, putting salad on top of a cheese tart. Yet, as swank as this appeared, our “Thyme and Goat Cheese Tart Topped with Mixed Tender Greens in Champagne Vinaigrette” (whew, the name alone is a mouthful) was neither pretentious nor weird. This was the salad course during [...]

Read Full Story

Orange Ribbon Cheesecake

Thumbnail image for Orange Ribbon Cheesecake

Larry gets full credit for this beauty.  I’ve been out of town for several days conducting our fun women’s weekend, Camp GetAway.  One activity at our event is the traditional Magazine Swap (bring ‘em, take ‘em), which results in a gigantic pile of happiness at camp. Sunday AM, before my 75 gals awoke, I was [...]

Read Full Story

Chile Lime Shrimp

Thumbnail image for Chile Lime Shrimp

You can practically smell this through your monitor, can’t you? A recent cooking class, “Date Night In Wine Country” with thirsty, hungry foodies was on a Friday evening. Give us sumpin’ to eat, fast! Chef Diane Brown was prepared, and put classmate Stefanie on the job of whisking up this appetizer. And we all agreed, [...]

Read Full Story

Greek Watermelon Salad with Feta Cheese and Olives

Thumbnail image for Greek Watermelon Salad with Feta Cheese and Olives

The simplest salad of all presented at LA Greekfest’s cooking class: Watermelon Salad with Feta Cheese and Olives. Just those three ingredients, no dressing. Slices of watermelon, chilled Feta cheese in bite size pieces Black olives, Kalamata or others, pits removed, sliced Remove rind and seeds from melon.  Cut into triangular pieces.  Place on a [...]

Read Full Story

Zinfandel Soaked Cherry Clafoutis

Thumbnail image for Zinfandel Soaked Cherry Clafoutis

There was Larry, the winning bidder of a Food Lover’s Basket at a recent fundraising event for Project Angel Food.  I was eyeing something a little more WOW, like the beauty basket which included botox services; I was outbid. The experience turned out OK, the basket had a pile of autographed cookbooks, biscotti, and a [...]

Read Full Story